Dena DeCastro is a professional astrologer, writer, and teacher. She offers individual astrology readings and mentors those who wish to take their astrological knowledge to the next level.
In this interview, Dena teaches us what our north and south nodes can tell us about our karmic lessons and our life purpose.
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74 - Astrology & Past-Lives: Karmic Patterns in the Birth Chart with Dena DeCastro
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TRANSCRIPT
Dena:
So, when I was young in the '70s, my parents were both kind of hippie, you know, Bohemian, interested in all of that stuff. My dad actually read tarot cards, not for a living, but just as a hobby. My mom had a close friend who was an astrologer and they would sit at the dining room table and look at charts and dish on men and I was just fascinated, always.
I would browse the books in the bookshelf. I was kind of an early reader, so I would just kind of nerd out on all the astrology books that my parents had. And so I just immediately, you know, I came from somewhere. I have a feeling I came from a past-life, probably. But this innate interest in astrology and the planets and even space and stars, was something that was just there when I was very little. I would say, starting at about 5.
So I went on, throughout my teenage years, read a lot of the usual books. You know, Linda Goodman's 'Sun Signs' was one of them. That was like my bible when I was in junior high and I grew to be able to read charts, more about late high school age, college age, and I would practice on my friends and family.
It just grew and it was always with me.
Interesting side note, during that time when I was about 8 or 9, my mom became a born-again Christian, so she eschewed all of that. You know, tarot, astrology, all of that was out. And it was looked at as, you know, she said it's the dark arts. I don't think she used that word. That's more of a Harry Potter term actually. The Dark Arts.
It was forbidden in our house and so I had to do it surreptitiously for awhile. But then she eventually switched back and became more open to, I would say, early New Age ideas or occult ideas. So there was a few years in there where it was like, on the sly, I had to do my astrology stuff.
And then when I got into my late 20s, I had a friend of mine that suggested, 'You COULD do this for a living!'
Could I? Could I really?
So I put out my shingle and started charging for readings when I was right at my Saturn return, which is 28, 29 years old. And have been doing that ever since!
Slade:
Wow.
So I have to ask you, you started way before we had computer software to do this stuff.
Dena:
Yeah.
Slade:
So at what point in your career did the technology come in and play a part? Or does it, at all?
Dena:
It did. Like, in the '90s, there were ways that you could order charts on, via the internet or mail order. That was kind of the way you did it. It's kind of funny.
I learned to cast charts by hand in the late '90s finally. I had always had charts given to me so that was how I did it in the early days, like in my teenage years. Like, somebody already had a chart and I'd look at it.
Slade:
Oh, okay!
Alright. So you're much more about the interpretation than the castings, even at that early age.
Dena:
Yes, right.
Slade:
Okay! I can relate to that. That would be true for me as well. I NEVER learned to cast a chart by hand, just for the record.
Dena:
It takes so long. It really is an onerous process. I know how to do it. If you had me do it today, gosh it's been maybe 18 years since I've actually cast a chart by hand. So it would be a tricky but it's good I think for astrologers to at least learn how to do. At least once. To get a sense of viscerally what's going on.
Because the thing with technology now is that it detaches us from what the actual mechanics are of the solar system and the planets in relation to the earth. And for some reason, when you learn to cast a chart, you get more of a sense of, okay, the ascendant, for example, the rising sign, is the rising sign. Because that's what's actually rising on the Eastern horizon. So there's an example of that. That it's rooted to the physical world.
With software, we can forget that sometimes and it just becomes a piece of paper in front of us. It's like, that's the glyph of Venus, but oh, there's a Venus in the sky as well. So that's a difference.
But I think for time and for efficiency, you can't beat technology, for sure.
Slade:
No, definitely not.
And I'm mostly just interested in, like if somebody can give me a list of what their planets are in and what houses everything's in, that's enough for me to work on.
Dena:
Yeah!
Slade:
I will say though, that I love the natal chart graphic - the cool geometric thing, and I think everybody's a little bit in love with that, right? There's a mystique about it.
Dena:
Yeah, certainly! The glyphs, the symbols, they're very beautiful. They're just aesthetically pleasing and it looks like something from the Renaissance, or it just has that kind of ancient feel and evokes that. So I do think there's the appeal of it.
And I can, like you, if I just know somebody's birthday and they don't even have a time, I can look in ephemeris and say, 'Here's where all your planets were.' Maybe excepting the moon because it moves very fast but everything else I can pretty much know, that's where it was. Even with that I can get so much information.
But having the visual of the chart works better for me. Just being able to see it laid out.
Slade:
That is so cool.
I was very fascinated by that as a child. I had an aunt in the '70s who was friends with Jean Dickson.
Dena:
Oh wow!
Slade:
Do you remember her?
Dena:
Yeah, I do!
Slade:
She had - It's so funny when you were talking about your childhood experience of kind of going through the books in your parents' library. I used to go through HER books when I would visit. She lived in Florida. And when we would go down to visit, she had this library of '70s new age, feminist everything. And some of her books were astrology books that were autographed by Jean Dickson. And I always thought that was the most glamourous thing in the whole world, right?
Dena:
Very glamourous, for sure.
She's probably one of THE most famous astrologers, at least from that era. She's a name that everybody knows.
Slade:
Right.
And Linda Goodman's books. I remember those as well.
So one of the things I'm really excited to talk to you about is kind of your niche of astrology, which is the connection between astrology and past lives. And also how the nodes play into that, and karmic patterns in the chart.
I just would love to open up the floor and hear you talk about these relationships.
Dena:
You know, I'll start by saying, when I started practicing astrology, which was the late 1998, 1999, I really was doing the typical descriptive astrology. For example, your sun is in Aries. You are fiery, spontaneous, brash and bold. You know, something like that.
That started to feel a little limiting to me.
So I was searching... A few years into doing it, around 2002, 2001, 2002, I started to search for what more can I learn? I just felt this impulse that I needed to find a different approach, or another layer to my system. And so I went to an astrology conference here in the Northwest called NORWAC. It's the Northwest Astrology Conference.
Steven Forrest was speaking there and he and Jeffrey Wolf Green are two astrologers that really founded this school of thought within astrology called Evolutionary Astrology. It's called 'evolutionary' because it is based on the premise that our souls do reincarnate and they move from lifetime to lifetime, learning lessons and evolving. The intention is evolution.
And with that, the nodes, the south node represents the past life or karmic patterns, and north node represents what we are here to learn to become or to embrace. And the whole point of it is evolution. The whole point of it is growth and change. And it made so much more sense to me than the idea that we're just static. That we're born with this chart and that's just who we are for the rest of our lives.
And the other main component, or the foundational belief in this type of astrology is the idea of free will. And that we make choices in our lifetimes that impact where we're going, the lessons we have to learn, and how we respond to those lessons with our free will really determines how we move along our path. How we move toward our Soul Purpose.
So this all resonated with me.
I had always believed in reincarnation. It's one of those beliefs that you can't really explain. It was a knowing. I just felt a knowing about it.
I will say that, it's not that there isn't proof for reincarnation. There's a lot of good case studies out there and proof for reincarnation. But it is one of those things that people take on faith, and some people have a strong reaction one way or the other to that idea.
But reincarnation is very much inherent in this niche of astrology that I practice. It's a foundational piece of it.
That all being said, I went to study with Steven Forrest at his apprenticeship program. I did that for a few years and embraced this path within astrology, because it really resonated with what I already had felt and believed for most of my life.
What it is that I think this kind of astrology offers that's a little different to some branches is the south node karmic patterns can point out: Here are the things in a past life that you experienced, and also that vexed you, or that upset you, or that's left unresolved at the time you left that life. And then when you came into this life as a soul, you carry some of that baggage with you. We call that 'karma', and that's a memory. An emotional memory of what went on. But we don't consciously remember that.
So in this life, our work is to learn to release those old patterns and not to get stuck in repeating those karmic situations. But we're inclined to want to do so because we tend, as humans, to want to repeat what we've done before and what's comfortable. Even if it's painful. It can feel comfortable because it's familiar.
So the north node points to, well what's the medicine for that? What can we do?
That's where free will comes in. What can we do in THIS life to pull ourselves out of those old stuck patterns of the past? And the north node offers the medicine, the way, for us to move away from staying stuck and stagnant.
So remember that the key point is growth. The key point is evolution. All of us, if we're born, we have karma. If we're born, we're also a living thing that needs to grow and evolve. If we stop doing that, if we stagnate on a soul level, we feel unfulfilled and bored and unhappy.
So when clients come to me, what they're often looking for is, I'm kind of stuck. Or I'm in a place in my life where I'm trying to make a transition and I feel like I'm scared and I can't. What's blocking me? Or they're just, they have that general malaise. I just don't have the joy for life. I'm feeling like I'm not on my path but I can't really figure out what to do to get on it, or to get back to it.
And so the nodes are very powerful to look at that and say, Okay, well here's what's in your way. Here's the karmic patterns of the past. Here is where you can get stuck very easily, repeating these patterns. And then here, the north node is what you're here to learn and to embrace. And the more you move TO that, even if it's scary, even if it feels challenging, which it will, the more you move toward that, the more you make choices in that direction, the more fulfillment and peace and joy for life you can gain back.
So that's the overview with how I see it.
Slade:
So if I tell you what my north node is, can you tell me... Since I'm the one that's here talking to you, we'll use my chart as an example.
Dena:
Absolutely!
Slade:
I have a north node in Pisces. What can you tell me about that?
Dena:
Yes!
Well I can speak to that because so do I!
Slade:
Oh, interesting!
Dena:
So let me just say about that too. The nodes go to a new sign about every year and a half. So you can know that if you're born within a close time frame to someone, that you very likely have the same nodes. They're are like these mini generations. 1.5 years of the same. And that pattern repeats every 18, 19 years. They will come back around to the same nodes.
So yeah. So we have the same ones. I think we're both born in '69, right?
Slade:
Yes! July 23rd.
Dena:
Oh, gosh! Same month! Ohmygoodness.
Slade:
Wow.
Dena:
I'm July 8th.
Slade:
Okay.
Dena:
So I can speak to this pretty well.
But just because we have the same nodes doesn't mean like I know everything about this, because I'm working with the same struggles, right?
Slade:
Okay.
Dena:
So if you have the north node in Pisces, that means you have the south node in Virgo. The nodes are always opposite signs to each other, always at 180 degrees. So once you know one, you can figure out the other.
Let's start with the past-life karmic pattern for you.
South node in Virgo is really attached in past lives to doing things perfectly because you may have had a job or a position which required you to have a certain level of perfection in what you did. For example, being a doctor. If you make a mistake being a doctor, something really disastrous could happen, right? Or even being an artist or a crafts person where you have to get all the details just right or else it's just a big mess. People aren't going to like it, right?
There's this high level perfectionism that was instilled in you in a past life.
The tendency with south node in Virgo is to beat yourself up for every mistake. That's the karmic baggage that comes in to this life with you is self-flagellation, tending to beat yourself up for every mistake, having higher standards for yourself than anyone else in your life.
Resonating much?
Slade:
Yes.
Dena:
And Mercury is the planetary ruler here. So Mercury rules Virgo and Mercury is a planet of mind. So your intellectual abilities in this past life were over the top. Like you probably had great powers of analysis and the ability to understand what's wrong in every situation and know how to fix it, right?
And so you bring that into this life.
In a way there are some gifts there too. It's not that the south node is entirely negative. We bring in past life gifts. Like, okay, you come in with those intellectual skills. You come in with that ability to do things almost perfectly. You come in with that ability to analyze and fix situations.
But if you stay there, if you stay there in this life, if you keep doing that and really go into that south node territory, you will feel anxiety and you will feel unfulfilled and you will feel like I'm never getting into where I want to be, because I can't be perfect, right?
Slade:
Mmm...
Dena:
None of us can be.
So the fear with south node in Virgo and north node in Pisces is letting go of control. This is where we're starting to move toward Pisces because Pisces, north node in Pisces says, Well the medicine is to move toward the Pisces territory. So letting go of control. Allowing yourself to make mistakes and have compassion for those mistakes. And trusting in something beyond yourself. Having faith that there are powers greater than we that are taking care of things. And that we don't have to take care of it all. We don't have to micromanage every aspect of our lives.
So speaking as a co-person with this set-up, I can say, this has guided me immensely in my life knowing this. Because, and for you, you can speak to this as well. I'd love to hear what you have to say about it. But just knowing that I'm here to develop compassion for myself and that I'm here learning to let more things go.
I've been listening to your podcast, right? I've heard you speak about allowing yourself to make B+s, instead of...
Slade:
Yes!
Dena:
Like, Perfect! You're right on track!
That's what I'm talking about.
Slade:
Yeaaaaah.
Dena:
It's a need for self-acceptance in a radical way. Like, not just 'Oh, I accept myself.' We can all say that from a head place. But the PRACTICE, the spiritual practice of self-compassion, self-acceptance and actually being able to spot when you are holding yourself up to that too-high standard, and then saying, Ok, I've gotta let that go. I've just gotta let that go.
Slade:
I have to give you some feedback around this because of course, my mentoring clients know how much I stress how important it is to get feedback from outside your own head about your readings. And so I just want everyone also listening to know how incredibly accurate that is for me, just from that one little thing I told you - my north node in Pisces. You were able to really nail a lot of the issues that I have.
Perfectionism in particular with writing is a constant... like you said, it's both a gift and a curse. I have much higher standards for myself than I do for other people. The thing that was so liberating about blogging 13 years ago or whenever it was when I first started doing it was, it relaxed the expectation for writing.
Dena:
Yes.
Slade:
So much. It made it so accessible and it made the feedback immediate. And it allowed me to really grow as a writer, because instead of going off and, like you said, beating myself up and questioning myself and being alone in my own head bubble, you know, tearing myself to pieces and having this wizardly war with my own ego. And, you know, it's a hard creative process to live inside that.
And so, one of the things that's so interesting about why I feel like Shift Your Spirits is so successful, out of all the other kinds of projects that I've written, is because it had such a low expectation going in. And that's not to say that I don't put myself into it. I just have a real relaxed attitude about it, that I don't about some other kinds of writing. I was like, 'Oh, it's a blog.'
Dena:
Yeah.
Slade:
And it's so funny because that blogging allowed me to build an audience, to write for people, to have a lot of iterations. So, eh, this week's kinda sucked. Next week's might be amazing. And you start to notice these patterns as a perfectionist. The things that people respond to the most are not necessarily the things that you put the most effort into or the ones that are your favourites.
Sometimes, for example, the Money Shift is the best-selling piece of writing that I've ever put out into the world and I did it in three days. And it was just merely a 'oh, I just need to put this message out'. I'm repeating myself here in my readings. Let's just put it in a little tutorial.
Dena:
Right.
Slade:
And there's something about that lack of having high expectations that is extremely freeing and, you know, I stress this for other writers as well: Put out a lot of work. Blogs and social media allow us to really develop our voice and to test what people are responding to.
At some point, when you have an audience, the biggest liberation of all is having you guys to talk to. And to write for.
Dena:
Right..
Slade:
I'm just feeding you guys your toast and scrambled eggs every day.
Dena:
Yeah!
Slade:
There's something that feels liberating also as a perfectionist to be able to step back and to serve people.
Dena:
Yes.
Slade:
Which I think maybe getting to some of that Pisces energy that you're talking about. Not only turning it over to a higher power, but also realizing I am participating not just from my ego but I'm participating on behalf of these thousands of people who want me to do it.
And so, it's a sense of duty and a sense of something bigger than me that I am both pulling from and also displaying to.
Dena:
Yeah.
Slade:
It's really cool.
Interestingly, my mom has the same north node and I do run across people here and there that share that and, interesting synchronicity there, it would be you of all people!
Dena:
I know!
Slade:
That is an example of the kind of thing that people would get if they contact you for a session, right?
Dena:
That's true.
And yes, you can get such an amazing amount of information just from knowing the nodes. Just like you said at the beginning, we were talking about knowing sun moon rising sign, we were talking earlier about that. That is a foundational piece - sun moon and rising sign. You can get so much information just from those three pieces.
And then same with the nodes. If I know just THAT, I tell that to people and they're like, 'Ohmygod, you just spelled out my whole life.'
Slade:
Yes!
Dena:
So it's such a powerful tool.
It's not a substitute for getting a full reading. And I want to say that because, looking at the chart wholistically will always give you the most depth of analysis and the most understanding. But having this piece as guidance is huge.
So something I ... yeah, go ahead.
Slade:
I was just gonna say, I know that probably a lot of people listening DO know a lot about their chart. They have had their chart done and stuff. So one of the reasons why I really like what you you just did for me for example is, you went in and focused on and embellished a very specific area.
So it actually refreshes my excitement in my chart and knowing that, 'Ohhh! There's all these little things that I can still deep dive into, that maybe I feel a little blasé about my chart. Now I'm like, 'Ooo wow!' It does kind of rekindle an interest to have something that is connected to Purpose.
Because, like yourself, that is a question that a lot of my clients come with as well.
Dena:
Yes! And I think you feel excited because it's empowering. This kind of information is empowering.
That's one thing I aim to do with the kind of readings that I do is to empower people with the tools to make good decisions for themselves and to take the reigns of their own life and to make their free will choices.
That's what this information provides you with.
It's like, 'Okay, I know I can move toward Pisces. I know sometimes it's going to be hard. Sometimes I'm going to resist it and want to stay stuck in the Virgo territory. The shadow Virgo. But I can choose differently.
Slade:
How does that manifest for you personally? Like, where does this Pisces/Virgo duality kind of play out in your world, and how do you combat that, or, you know, heal that?
Dena:
Well the first thing that comes to mind is writing, for sure. I'm a writer. I've done a blog for a lot of years. Astrology, I wrote some astrology articles for the Mountain Astrologer. I also began writing fiction. I've taken a few stabs at it and "failed" attempts of novels over the last dozen, 15 years.
Recently, I finally finished a first draft of a novel. And what I had to do during the process of that, and to get through it and to actually get it done and put it into, actually get it to the place where I could pitch it at a writers' conference recently, which I did, was to constantly be talking to that Virgo part of myself by embodying the Pisces. And say, 'I hear you, inner critic. I hear that this isn't perfect. I hear that it sucks. All those voices.'
I had to label that south node Virgo voice. Similar to how people use the inner critic, right? That 'Okay, you're the inner critic. I hear you. Go sit in the corner because I'm going to keep writing this book.' Every day.
It was... I have to tell you, it was a bit of a fight. A lot of parts of it were very intense and very challenging. But I brought in the Pisces consciously and said, 'Okay, it's all good. You're doing great. No matter what you do, at least you're doing it. And what matters is that you like it.'
And what matters is that YOU have fun with it. And that's a very Piscean kind of like, 'Hey, no big deal. Go with the flow.' It's THAT attitude.
Slade:
Mmm... I call this... It's so funny because I call that angel and devil the Flow Drafting Voice and the Editor.
Dena:
Yeah!
Slade:
And the Flow Drafting Voice is the same channel that my intuition rides alongside and so, when you are in a first-draft mode, you don't need to be, you don't need the Editor. It's like, You come back later. On a re-write. You come back when we start to take it apart and do re-writes and edits and polishing and all that. You've got plenty of work to do so sit down and shut up. Right now we're just flowing.
We're just being a hippie chick here.
Dena:
Exactly.
Slade:
That's kind of how I see that Pisces flow voice as being this kind of bare-foot, flowers in her hair, creative type of energy, you know?
Dena:
Yeah!
Slade:
Gosh, we have a lot in common!
Wow.
Dena:
Yeah. Well it's probably because we're born in the same month.
Slade:
That is so interesting! You know what? I don't meet a lot of people born... like, I rarely meet July Leos at all. Because there's just not a lot of us. There's just that one little week. And then I don't meet a lot of people born the same year. I've heard that we are one of the smallest populations that's alive right now. Yeah. The Gen-X population is REALLY small compared to the Boomers and then the ones that came after.
We are greatly outnumbered.
Dena:
Yes. Yes. I would agree. I feel that.
And I know something about that little mini-tribe of 1969 people that... There was quite a lot going on with the planets that summer. They were all lining up. You know where that little traffic jam of planets is in your chart, I'm sure. And it's right on the south node.
So I'll speak to that real briefly here and say that in your chart, in an individual's chart, I'm just speaking generally, those nodes can be interacting with any combination of planets. It could be that the south node is conjunct, meaning it's right on other planets in your chart, Jupiter, Pluto, what have you. And so that will also add layers to the interpretation that I would do in an individual reading, to look at what is aspecting the nodes, what planets are conjunct, or square, mostly in hard aspects to the nodes is what I tend to look at.
So that gives information to the story here.
And I do draw a past life story. You know, I tell a story. Now it's not a literal past life reading and that's something that I want to make clear. I don't actually see if you were Benjamin Franklin in a past life.
Slade:
Right.
Dena:
That's not what this is. It is more about general themes.
But I do weave it into a story because story telling is what I like to do. And it's a mode that works for people to try to understand something. So I'll say, I'll give that caveat to somebody and, okay, I'm going to tell you a story and it's not a literal story but it encapsulates an emotional truth or an emotional dynamic of what happened to you in a past life.
That's how I approach reading that and then bringing in the other planets, that is to say, to inform the south node.
Slade:
Okay. So for someone maybe like myself, who does work with astrology a little bit, you have a mentorship program where you work with people taking astrology to the next level. Is that something that you do with more professional-type mindset?
Tell me about the mentorship program.
Dena:
Yes!
My mentorship program is to work one-on-one with those who want to learn more about astrolgoy. It could be even a beginner that really just wants to use it for their own edification, for their own purposes.
Most of the clients that I work with are either astrologers or somebody about, on the verge to become a professional astrologer, and they're just a little hesitant about taking that leap, you know? They don't feel quite like they have all the... There are some missing pieces in what they know, or there's some insecurity there.
And then there are also counsellors, therapists, psychologists. People who want to use this as part of their profession. And I've had a couple of those clients. And that's been really rewarding for me to work with those people.
So I teach the basics but that's not what I really teach in the mentorship program. I'm more focused on, 'Let's go in to what do you feel are your missing pieces?' 'Where do you feel there are gaps in your knowledge?' And let's go into those.
And then I also speak to things like, how to become a professional astrologer. What's the business end of it? What do I know from my experience about how to do this in a way that's going to be successful and in a way that is ethical. So we talk about the things that will help them to make it a business, if that's what they wish to do with it.
Slade:
I'm really excited about this because in my professional intuitive mentoring, I touch on astrology just in a very brief way. And like I said, I do tend to work with what I call, sort of, elemental astrology, which is the sacred elements, earth, air, fire, water, and I kind of speak symbolically to those dynamics.
The people are often asking me about going deeper into the astrology component itself, and I always say to them, 'You know what? It needs it's own course.'
I can't just kind of shoehorn that into a chapter or something. It's not gonna happen.
Dena:
Right.
Slade:
So I'm really excited to hear about what you do in that mentorship program, because it sounds like a lot of people listening right now are gonna be excited about it. I know you make ME want to be an astrologer now. I'm like, I could do this!
Dena:
You could do it!
You probably have a lot more experience than you give yourself credit for. If you've been doing it since you were a kid, I'm sure it's probably really in your bones.
Slade:
Well I have a hard not using it. I have a hard time not speaking... I mean, in my family, if you're dating someone, you just say things like, 'Well he has a moon in cancer.' And you go, 'Ahh!'
It's like, five pages of information just went running through their head.
Dena:
Totally, yeah.
Slade:
So we do have a tendency to use it, almost like a Jungian kind of psychoanalytical vocabulary, if you wanna be kind of high brow about it, which I do think that one of the attractions to me with astrology is it allows me to use that archetypal language that you also find in the tarot and that kind of thing.
Dena:
Yes.
Slade:
So I do play with that language a lot.
I was considering no longer asking for birth data when I do my intuitive readings, because sometimes so many people don't know it, and they get stressed that somehow it's going to impact their reading. And I kind of backed away from that.
But this kind of makes me want to leave it in a little bit.
Dena:
Oh yeah!
Slade:
Yeah. Because it's... you're making me really aware of how much I do love astrology and have always been interested in the nodes, because I have to tell you just really quickly, my mom... Sometimes I get a chart done for my birthday.
And I think when I was about 15 years old, my mom had discovered this woman named Barbara Alexander, if she's still out there. And she was really excited to take me to Barbara, because Barbara was also a clinical psychotherapist. She had degrees and had a practice as a psychotherapist. When you would go to her office, it was very academic and official. It looked like what you would imagine a psychologist office would look like. She recorded the session, which was something I hadn't had happen before.
She talked to me about the north node in Pisces and was the first person to put that in mind, that the north node was about, kind of, Purpose. And she also told me that my writing career would take off in my mid-to-late 30s, which was absolutely true.
Dena:
That's on! Yeah.
Slade:
I don't know if that's the same for you as well, if it worked out to be that same time period.
Anyway, I'm curious to know, what do you hope to contribute to the greater conversation about astrology? What would you kind of like your legacy to be around this subject?
Dena:
I guess one of the big things I like to bust out there about misconceptions of astrology is that it's not fortune-telling. It's not future prediction, and some people do use it that way.
What I want to contribute is the idea that astrology is a powerful tool for self-development, for self-understanding, and then also to give you the ability to choose what you do in your life, because you become more conscious of yourself and your patterns through this kind of awareness of the charts. Through evolutionary astrology.
I'm not saying that evolutionary is the only path. There are so many different kinds of astrology and so many different branches. You'll know if you just go on the internet.
What I really want to impart is a more empowered free will focused way of using astrology and that's what I hope to contribute.
Slade:
You have a free e-book people can download called Your Karmic Past and Your Life Purpose. Tell us about that.
Dena:
Yes. So if you go to my website, up in the upper right hand corner you'll see a little box that says exactly that. If you subscribe, you get a free gift: Your Karmic Past and Your Life Purpose. Within that, there is a table where you can look up your birth date and you'll be able to find your nodes sign. Just by looking up your birthday. So it really breaks it down very easily.
I give some introductory information about the nodes, what they mean, what is karma... I go more deeply into that topic. And then for each sign of the north node south node combination, I lay out what is the karmic pattern, what are the big fears that block you, what is your growing edge, meaning what are you here to learn.
And then I also give some affirmations. So for example, for Pisces north node, the affirmations are, I accept myself exactly as I am. That one sounds a little Stuart Smalley. But that's okay. And I trust that I am taken care of within the greater order of things. Another one is, I go with the flow of life.
So that's an example of affirmations that can help that particular node combination. North node Pisces, south node Virgo.
And then I, at the end of that document, you'll find frequently asked questions about the nodes. What about past lives? Does it mean... Can you see if I'm Benjamin Franklin in a past life? That kind of information.
And then finally, in that document, there are resources for further reading, if you want to read about really good books about reincarnation and evolutionary astrology listed there.
So yeah! You can find that at my website.
Slade:
Oh gosh. That's a great resources.
Tell us where we can go to find you online.
Dena:
So I'm at www.denadecastro.com/ and I'm also on Facebook now. I just started back there after nine years away. And actually, Slade, you are part of the reason that I came back to Facebook.
Slade:
Yay!
Dena:
I really wanted to be part of your group. There are a couple of other groups too that I've just really wanted to participate in and I want to start a couple of groups there. So my Facebook is Dena DeCastro Astrology and you can find me that way too.
Slade:
Excellent. We'll put all those links in the show notes for everyone.
And for those who joined the Shift Your Spirits community, they will be able to go online and ask you questions, and we'll have a post featuring this interview so you can interact and everyone can tag you and talk to you more about this subject.
Dena, I am so excited to meet you. This was such a great conversation. Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Dena:
Thank you, Slade, for having me. It was great.