The topic of authenticity has been on my mind for some time now (and of course, it's been a running theme in my life, activated strongly in the last decade, with Aquarius as my rising sign and Jupiter-Uranus conjunct in Scorpio in my 9th house of quest for meaning and truth) and how unwilling most people are to embrace their authentic selves. Yep, cutting right to the chase on this subject! We contort ourselves in all manner of ways to fit in, to be liked, to belong when really, that contortion should be directed towards expressing our unique authenticity. And isn't it ironic that it should even be a contortion? Or something we fear to show? Our authentic selves should be able to express themselves fluidly. Sadly we live in a world that has been shaped by tremendous conditioning and external values of what success, happiness, soul-fulfilling life goals and paths should look like. And I was a pretty good student of that for a lot of my life. Until I wasn't. I will even say that the non-sky aligned system of Tropical kept me conditioned as I believed for a long time that the Sun was in Capricorn when I was born, the traditionalist/non rule-breaker/systems follower, so of course it made sense that I always toed the line. For any Capricorn Suns that are taking offence at these labels, I generalise 😉

Then in 2014, the progressed Sun moved into Aquarius and over the slow course of many years, I feel that my inherent Uranian energy started to wake up quite strongly. I started questioning things (something I had never really done previously believe it or not) and my first deep dive into green beauty opened my eyes to the industry corruption within mainstream cosmetics and massive amounts of toxins and poisons that are ever-present in all manner of skincare/cosmetic products. The bigger the name, the worse the offender. I am quite the party pooper when it comes to this subject now and I absolutely will not apply anything to my skin that contains the usual suspects (polysorbate, pentylene glycol, fragrance - probably the worst offender since fragrance is proprietary and contains a huge number of harmful chemicals, propanediol etc etc, the list goes on) - just think of any huge brand name product and it would go straight into the bin. People who know me know not to gift me skincare of any kind as I'm just too aware of the crap that goes into these things. From skincare to bigger pharmaceutical products that go into our bloodstream, I started questioning so many things. And that questioning would serve me in the years 2020-2022. I made decisions that ultimately made life incredibly challenging but I was true and authentic to what I believed in and stood for - no matter the amount of bribes and threats from authorities. Not knowing whether I would see my family again. Nothing could budge me from my conviction and the more time that passed, the stronger that conviction got.

That authentic resolve (and you know when your resolve is authentic because you just can't be swayed - it is your truth and essentially the hill you will die on) would be strengthened again, this time carrying my second child and absolutely envisioning a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) home birth and listening to my strong intuition yet again about what I would allow into my body while pregnant. When I got pregnant with my third it went one step further with navigating it completely without any doctor visits and freebirthing my son in the sanctity of my home with just my husband and 2 older children present. It has been one of the most liberating, empowering and healing experiences of my life. Again, absolutely nothing could have broken my resolve to see this trajectory through and I made sure to remove energies that would want to intervene with my decision and what I knew to be my authentic path. When you know you are following your truth, you stop outsourcing a lot of things. It's about strengthening your inner authority and self-validation - something that can only be done for yourself by yourself.

The price though of having these incredibly authentic experiences that I chose for myself very intentionally (and continue to choose) is that of being misunderstood, judged and alienated. My small inner circle of friends is strong so there was never any judgement on their part and they were always supportive (and authenticity attracts authenticity - they too live this frequency), but in the wider world people have opinions. And fears. A lot of them. Which they love to project onto others who actually dare walk the talk. Even to this day, I find myself watering down my own incredibly empowering and powerful experiences in order to make others feel comfortable and less triggered…and frankly, I am not interested in that anymore. Hello, Uranus Opposition in my 3rd house of communication! It's also crazy to me how people who have empowering stories to share often are on the receiving end of silence, ridicule or gaslighting. Or being thought of as cuckoo because we have, seemingly, gone off the beaten track. Which we have because staying on it was just not possible. When really our own inner conviction, authority and intuition are too loud to ignore. To continue to choose our authenticity over everything else is therefore a tremendous act of bravery and courage. For those of you who walk it, I see you. I want to hear your stories. Because it shows what is possible for everyone else who chooses to live their truth and authentic path. But not many dare do it. Which is why transits involving the outer planets (Uranus, Neptune & Pluto as well as Chiron) can be experienced as quite challenging - it brings you face to face with your own choices and whether they are in the frequency of truth and authenticity. These planets demand it.

I chose the moniker The Authentic Astrologer for 2 reasons: first because I follow the actual visible sky (of course I would based on everything else I've shared and as a result I continue to witness a type of silence/judgement because many simply don't want to hear that they are following something that isn't even referencing the sky which they believed did - I get it, it's not fun when illusions are shattered) and secondly as a reminder to myself to keep walking my authentic path and talking my authentic truth. I've moved beyond being dogmatic about The Truth - there are many truths and I'm not here to convince you of mine. What I am here to do is remind you of yours. Are you walking it? Are you following your intuition which is your truth compass? Or do you find yourself falling prey to other people's voices and energies? Other people's truths? Or worse, society's truth? Which was formed long before you even got a say about it. When we feel triggered by others' authenticity a mirror is being held up for you to look at yours. It's uncomfortable, very uncomfortable and yet you're being shown where the greatest potential and transformation lie. The choice is to keep looking...or to look away. I am by no means immune to this myself. But I know it shows me personally where I am not showing up for me and instead of dimming the light of authenticity of the other person, I go inwards. I ask myself why do I feel triggered? Is this person holding up a mirror for me to look at where I am going astray?

Authenticity is the highest frequency, higher than love or joy. It also comes with a high price because it involves sharing the true you with the risk of being misunderstood, judged and alienated - the latter being a real perceived threat of survival and abandonment. But a life led by others' opinions and expectations is not a life lived in truth. Your authenticity will magnetize just as much as it will repel...and while we live in a society that glorifies substances that mask or hide our authenticity, I guess we need more reminders to be authentic. This is one of them.