My first exposure to Shamanic Astrology was the most powerful engagement with astrology I’d ever experienced. From my first reading, which was a mini-reading and not even the whole enchilada, I knew I had been graced with Divine communion. Quickly I became very clear, focused, and driven regarding my life intent as never before. Since then, Shamanic Astrology has enhanced my life beyond measure, and I would like to recognize in particular its guidance with and support of Sacred Marriage work, which perhaps I would not have undertaken were it not for Shamanic Astrology’s compelling connection of Venus, Mars and the Descendant to it. This internal work yielded my grandest vision yet for my time here on Earth, as well as the strength and love needed to manifest it. Moreover, the Shamanic Astrology paradigm and community held me through my most challenging period in recent memory, providing a foundation and model from which I am able to commune with Spirit, express my true self and serve at unprecedented levels.
— Kathryn Morgan
Shamanic Astrology has become a core paradigm in my life, and its insights continue to move me toward greater wholeness, clarity, and sense of purpose. My first encounter with Shamanic Astrology was in the 1990s, when a friend introduced me to Daniel Giamario’s ideas. I was intrigued, but my real immersion began when my partner got a couples reading with Daniel in 2003. His insights about my Taurus lineage and Virgo present-life intent were amazingly precise and powerful. I understood my life story in much greater depth.
I learned about my the impact of Pluto transits that were going on in my chart at the time, and how my natal chart contained a powerful Pluto signature (Mars conjunct Sun—Mars in the Underworld—carries a Pluto signature, plus natal Pluto is square my natal Moon). I experienced a transformative “AH-HA” moment (and many more such moments in the months to follow) as I integrated this information with my then-current experience of being compelled by a seemingly irresistible force to pursue a relationship with a man some had called a “silver-tongued devil”—an Underworld metaphor without a doubt! I also saw how my Taurus lineage—the Courtesan—played into this setup perfectly. After the transit passed (being a Pluto transit, it seemed it would never end), I resumed life as a single woman focused on clarifying my sacred work (Virgo ascendant).
I attended Daniel’s Fishlake Valley Night Sky camp in September 2006, and had an equally transformative experience. I witnessed the night sky in all its glory, away from the light pollution of the city. Daniel pointed out the prominent constellations and star groups, and explained astronomical concepts with a clarity and immediacy that surpassed any classroom or textbook approach. I felt in my body, kinesthetically, the magnificence and beauty of the celestial dance. It turned out that I was in the middle of a powerful life passage: my Venus return.
At Fish Lake, we woke before dawn to witness the heliacal rising of Venus conjunct the Sun and Moon—Venus’ eighth heliacal rising of the cycle, before her “descent into the Underworld.” What perfect timing! In the months that followed, I descended into the Underworld of my own being and began a year of releasing old patterns, plumbing the depths of my psyche to connect with my soul’s desire, to learn which expression of the feminine was to be my intent for this unfolding phase of my life. This descent into the personal psyche remains an aspect of my sacred work.
In July of 2007 I accompanied Daniel with a small group to the ancient stone circles of Callanish and other sacred sites in Scotland and Ireland. Based on my experiences, I understood that these places were actually carefully designed to facilitate conscious participation in the union of sun and earth in the great cosmic cycle of birth, death and rebirth: to consciously celebrate the transmigration of spirit into matter and back again. I believe the ancestors, the gods and the celestial bodies were experienced as one and the same in the aboriginal awareness, and that all the great world myths reflect this correspondence.
On this amazing journey to my ancestral homeland, I experienced what it must have been like to live in harmony with the seasons: the cycles of sun and moon, fecund soil, generative rain, fiery sun, shining air; to deeply feel the earth and sky as alive, sentient beings; to know the celestial bodies as literal gods; and to celebrate life and death as cycles in the Great Turning of the wheel of life. Truly, as above, so below; as within, so without.
— Cathie Leavitt , Grass Valley California