Ancient personal mapping for self-discovery, -acceptance and -expression:

Astrology.

If this sounds woo-woo, that's okay. You'll either discover yourself or you won't, and there are a million very personal, subjective ways to do it.

I don't mean magazine horoscopes, which might be helpful but are too broad — I mean chart readings and in-depth analysis. There's an awful lot there, and it's very specific to you.

Some options I've found to be very permission-giving on my path to radical self-acceptance are:

- Western astrology chart reading
- Vedic astrology chart reading
- Human Design - free report (jovianarchive.org) and chart reading
- Somatic body reading and trigger release therapy
- The Pattern (free app)
- Gene Keys
- Enneagram
- Myers-Briggs

If you're exploring who you are, those are some of the tools I recommend.

*

Like everyone else, I tend toward self-rejection and harsh self-criticism. There are aspects of myself I'd previously determined to be faulty.

To see these aspects "written in the stars" and in my body — along with a lot of therapy and shadow work — helps me forgive myself, and accept who I am and how I want to be.

To be told these are part of a "design", which can be mapped out and described in inarguably accurate personal detail, is permission-giving, and comforting.

*

Comfort and permission are crucial supports for self-discovery and shadow work IMO. This is scary and uncharted inner territory, and having a map feels good. (Just make sure you keep checking the map for accuracy.)

For me, these tools provide a sense that the universe — ancient cultures, ancient history, ancestors — are offering me validation. That which we crave, and can really only give ourselves.

It's as though the universe sees me, and accepts me as I am, and has some helpful suggestions for moving forward in a way that best serves me and my life. This helps me give all of that to myself as well.

What a gift.

❤️
- S