Explore every episode of the podcast On the Soul's Terms

Venus in the sky is currently at her highest glory (elongation (distance from the sun)). That's the moment that, like Inanna, she hears the call from the Great Above to the Great Below and decides to descend. She moves through the seven gates, each gate demanding that she remove one of her signals of power in the upper realms. 

Melanie Reinhart joins me to talk about her own observations of this myth. It has particularly come alive for her since she started tracking the resonance of her inner world with the movements of Venus through its five-pointed star pattern since 1983.

We discuss Melanie's connection to folklorist, Diane Wolkstein. Diane was a storyteller who held court in Central Park, NY, in an official capacity as resident storyteller for many years. Following her curiosity about ancient tales, Diane tracked down Samuel Noah Kramer, a leading Sumerologist in his field whose job it was to translate cuneiform texts. 

Together they wrote the book Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth (see link below). Kramer translated Cuneiform into English, Wolkstein translated English into Story. From their tireless and persistent work togehter the ancient myth made its way into the modern world. 

It's more than just a story of descent. It's a story of ecstacy, longing, commitment, obligation, love, loss, rage and redemption... amongst other things. 

In this Special Edition episode, aligned with the Times, Melanie shares with us a generous offering of her life experience, client observations and participation in the coming to life of this epic tale into the modern era. 

Timeless wisdom for a world in thirst of soul. 

Podcast Image: Ancient Akkadian cylinder seal depicting the goddess Inanna resting her foot on the back of a lion while Ninshubur stands in front of her paying obeisance, c. 2350–2150 BCE

Resources

• Sylvia Brinton Perera — Descent to the Goddess (1981)
• Diane Wolkstein & Samuel Noah Kramer — Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth (1983)
• Diane Wolkstein — The First Love Stories: From Isis and Osiris to Tristan and Iseult
• Samuel Noah Kramer — Sumerologist / translations of the Inanna cuneiform texts 
• Ariel Guttman — Venus Star Point / Venus cycle 
• Dane Rudhyar — birth as the moment of separation / cutting of the cord 
• Alice Bailey — Venus as esoteric ruler of Gemini 
• Irving Finkel — British Museum / Sumerian material and the Queen's Lyre 
• Rumi — poem concerning love and removing the obstacles to love 
• Adonis / Aphrodite — later mythic development of the dying-and-returning lover and lamentation tradition 
• Rogerian therapy / Carl Rogers — mirroring/reflective listening, in relation to the Kurgarra 
• Queen's Lyre of Ur — Sumerian lyre, British Museum / Baghdad Museum restoration story

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system, closest to the sun, taking a magical 88 days for a year. It travels fast but spins slowly – a day being 1.5 times as long as a year – with a quirky, egg-shaped orbit.

Small with a big character. That kind of sums up mythical Hermes (Mercury) who, on the first day of his life, invents music, fire and ritual, steals Apollo's cattle and snuggles back into his blanket like nothing happened. 

To get in touch with this endlessly paradoxical being we begin with his Orphic Hymn: an invocation of the god. Only, of course, there isn't one hymn but two. Already he has found a way to 'twin' himself. The first hymn gives us a sense of his role as messenger – his 'day job' – the second as psychopomp: guide of souls who assists us through the many deaths of our lives. 

That's the thing about Hermes/Mercury. We meet him at the threshold. Even astrologically he is the third in a set of three. He revises where we've been and sets us up for where we're going next. 

Of course, being an episode about words themselves, there had to be some poetry involved. Dylan Thomas takes us in with On the Words in Poetry – essentially a love song dedicated to the magic of words themselves. And then, to close us out, a poem called, if this isn't too on the nose, Magic Words. 

References

• Homeric Hymn to Hermes — Theoi Classical Texts Library 
• Orphic Hymns — Apostolos N. Athanassakis & Benjamin M. Wolkow, The Orphic Hymns — Johns Hopkins University Press
• The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart — Robert Bly, James Hillman & Michael Meade — Open Library
• Dylan Thomas — “On the Words in Poetry” — from The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart
• “Magic Words” — from The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart
• Tim Minchin — “Prejudice” — YouTube
• Tim Minchin — “If You Open Your Mind Too Much Your Brain Will Fall Out” — Tim Minchin
• Sigmund Freud / “Freudian slip” — APA Dictionary of Psychology 
• Arnold Mindell — “Discovering the World in the Individual: The World Channel in Psychotherapy” — Process Work 
• Hermes — Theoi Greek Mythology — Hermes 
• Hermes, the herma, fire, lyre and psychopomp — Theoi: Hermes

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Today I’m joined by mentor, guide and friend of the podcast, Brian Clark. 

It’s time to enter the world of Hermes, guide of souls, the one we meet on the road who can lead us away from home and lead us back when the time is right. 

We begin our discussion by talking about mythological Hermes, tracing his origins back to Mycenaean culture where he was known as the ‘herma’ – a pile of rocks that we still have in our language today as the ‘milestone’. 

Brian and I discuss moments in our lives, of which there are far more than we could possibly mention, of when we had a plan and Hermes had an alternative. Once off the track of what we thought might happen we are in the hands of Hermes or Mercury and on the pathless path where the mystery, unmistakably, is unfolding at our feet. 

From here we go into the more technical realm of Mercury the planet. The numbers that are associated with his relationship to the sun, including Pi – that endless rambling number that seems random but follows an invisible order. And we suggest some ways to work with Mercury and its cycles in order to follow its intrinsic patterns, tend to the mind and thread together ideas so that they might become fruitful projects over time. 

I decided to leave the conversation unedited. The moments of wrestling with an idea, or getting things wrong, or taking the apparently wrong path, seem an important part of the contemplation of Hermes Mercurius. Without that tension, that wrestling match, that confusion, those strange crossroads, we’re unlikely to receive that little bag of gold that Hermes holds in his hand, the one that isn’t holding the Caduceus. 

Resources Mentioned

Books & Texts

• Lewis Hyde — Trickster Makes This World
• Homer — The Iliad
• Homer — The Odyssey
• Homeric Hymn to Hermes

Authors & Thinkers

• David Abram
• Dane Rudhyar

Mythological References

• Hermes / Mercury
• Perseus and Medusa
• Kairos
• Prometheus and Epimetheus
• Metis
• Mnemosyne
• Snow White / Sleeping Beauty

Astrology & Astronomy

• Mercury's Promethean and Epimethean phases
• Mercury's retrograde cycles
• Mercury's inferior and superior conjunctions
• Mercury's greatest elongation
• The ~116-day Mercury cycle
• The relationship between Mercury's cycles, 22/7, and π

Astrosynthesis

• Brian Clark & Glennys Lawton — Astrosynthesis

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Spyros Siamos is an energy healer, esoteric author, and former mathematics teacher based in Messinia, Greece. He lives on a coastal olive grove situated near an ancient Temple of Apollo, where he conducts one-on-one healing sessions and hosts sound therapy, meditation, and spiritual workshops.

A father of two and author of three books on esotericism, Spyros has explored various healing modalities and trained in Peruvian Shamanism for over ten years. He recently established Esothen Messinia—a dedicated space created to host accessible, low-budget creative and spiritual holidays, as well as affordable retreats in Greece.

English is not Spyros' first language. Many of the concepts we touch on in this episode are ones that he wishes he could wax poetic on in his mother tongue. Never the less, this apparent limitation gives us, the listener, the opportunity to, like Apollo, allow ourselves to be engaged in the struggle of birthing the light.

We begin with Spyros' childhood. His father taught primary and encouraged his interest in the ancient myths of his culture that were taught in early education. Spyros experienced myth as a way of tapping into the threads of history. 

Once in high school, myth was no longer taught. He replaced mythology with philosophy as that's what was considered to be the sensible thing to learn. To put away childish things. 

Then, through his exploration of the interior landscapes with a Peruvian Shaman, in the depth of his own consciousness, the mythic figures he'd learned about in early education returned as guides. First Athena, Aphrodite, Dionysus and others. And after a few years, Apollo. 

It was this first hand experience with the gods that I wanted to connect to On the Soul's Terms. Apollo (or the astrological Sun) not just as a concept that we can form opinions on and argue on the costs and benefits of such a god, but as an emergent, embodied, felt sense experience that is personified in Ancient Greek culture as the deity of light, harmony, balance and a clarifying light at the centre of it all. 

Later in the episode we touch on how and where Apollo has shown up in Spyros' healing work. Including the first time, when he was in the position of healer for a young man who had gone into a coma following a motorcycle accident. Here the god helped him to stay in a state of observation whilst the pain, suffering and emotion swirled all around him.

We talk about the cultivation of the mind necessary to be in right relationship with such potent energy fields. And the risk, that Spyros himself has suffered personally, of having one's system blown open when that light is unmediated. 

Which draws us to the field of the Muses or the Angels or the Daimones. Whatever one might call that layers of consciousness that is neither this nor that, both... and. And how they can help us to create from a steady hearth rather than from bright sparks that leave us singed in the end. 

Spyros will be hosting a retreat for men in Greece in October. I'll be personally attending. For more information on that click here. 

The episode artwork is from the West Pediment in the museum in Olympia. We discuss the scene in the episode – The Centaurs vs the Lapiths. Apollo stands in the centre of a chaotic battle between consciousness and instinct. Victory, in this sense, is not a case of overpowering the instinct, but of locating the light whilst being open to it all.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Firstly I suppose I should say... *Spoiler Alert*

Although let's face it, the story is over 3,000 years old. By now you should probably have heard of it. 

Secondly, there is a Post Script here to listen out for. An 'after the credits' scene if you will. Definitely stay tuned for that part. It ties the episode together. 

The episode itself has been brewing for the last month, since the release of Nolan's The Odyssey in cinemas worldwide. 

Of course, everyone with even a pinky toe in the world of Greek Mythology has commented on it by now. And in that sense, I'm certainly late to the party. 

Still, it didn't feel right to miss the opportunity altogether. So here is my contribution.

After watching the movie I went back to read the Iliad followed by the Odyssey. About 30 hours of reading. I wanted to become steeped in that mythic landscape. To imagine myself in an ancient hall, lit by torches and the hearth, being transported into another world by the rhythmic tones of the bard.

It was that trance state I wanted to enter, as best as one can when actually just reading lines on a page translated into English that don't actually retain that rhythm and flow. And juxtapose that trance with the modern version of staring at a screen.

Both of these forms take you to another world. The bard exercises your ability to generate images inside of your mind. The movie screen generates the images for you. 

All this to say, I wanted to speak from my personal experience of Odysseus, as our most polymorphic of literary characters, and how it connects to the great quest of our lives: becoming who we actually are. 

I consider that to be what the sun is symbolic of in astrology. Not as seperate from the moon, but as an extension of it. To be oneself and fully related. That would be the 'soli-lunar' task of becoming. 

So this episode, which is a BONUS episode within the planets series, is a chance to enter Odysseus' world. His naming ritual that coincides with his wounding. His movement out of the cave and into the light past the threshold guardian. The owning of his name, his lineage, his place and his fame. And his return home to reclaim his throne. A throne that is threatened by many false selves that we know as 'the suitors'.

I'd love to hear what stirs for you in the story. Particularly the places that your mind and soul keep returning to. That (t)horn in the side that draws you back to it again and again. As wounds that have bestowed upon us the endless gifts of our mortal lives. 

YouTube and Patreon seem to be the best place to leave comments these days. See you there. 

Cover Art is Ulysses deriding Polyphemus - Homer's Odyssey. Joseph Mallord William Turner. 1829. Oil on canvas.

The translations I returned to (The Iliad and The Odyssey) were both by Emily Wilson.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Doing an episode on the sun, our central fiery point that takes up 99.86% of the mass of our solar system and gives the system itself a name, turned out to be quite the task. 

Enormous, if you will. 

I've always found that the Sun in astrology felt a little... flat. Two dimensional. It was though we were looking at the image with that singular eye that the sun conjures to our minds. The image of the all-seeing-eye of the Cyclopes that, in reality, has no depth perception. 

So, this episode is an effort to add a second eye (I?) to the sun. To see it as a series of 'both... and' propositions. The still centre of it all AND the cacophony of sound and light that springs forth from it. The first breath of creative fire AND every subsequent humble endeavour. And as Apollo, the archer seeing from afar AND the one enamoured with life on earth, particularly the floral world whom he chases but can never obtain. 

It's an episode effectively in two parts. 

Part One is to get a sense of the sun in Astrology. We sit in the temple (con-templ-ate), we stare at the glyph, we check in with the consensus of the astrological world. Then we feel the sun on our skin, allowing it to penetrate and worm our cells. We even get a sense of the scientific mythos, this ball of self-generating life, so hot at the core, cooler (relatively) at the surface, but then mysteriously blazing again as the 'corona': the sun's own royal crown. 

Part Two we get mythic and follow Apollo's many stories, allowing him to morph into the many shapes that our Zodiac itself allows. One moment plucking a lyre and giving us lyricism, the next pulling back the bow and reigning down arrows on his enemies. 

The journey takes many twists and turns, but returns us to a central image. Veiling and revelation. Being seen and unseen. Just like his birth place, Delos ("Visible"), at the centre of the Cyklades ("circle"): a humble floating rock from which all golden things are born. 

The image is Apollo of the Belvedere at the Vatican Museum. 

I am indebted to Carl Kerenyi and his book The Gods of the Greeks. 

Also to Apollodrus' Library.

And to the extensive work of Brian Clark on astrosynthesis.com.au.

(It's a fun co-incidence that this episode is released on 'Lion's Gate' 8.8.2026)

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

The Moon pulls the tides of the ocean, but the question that won’t let us go is simpler and stranger: what is it pulling in us? Melanie Reinhart joins me for a wide, grounded, moonlit ramble through lunar consciousness, astrology, and the body. We start with the moon as a constant companion for earthlings, a reliable rhythm of waxing and waning that can steady us when life feels politically, personally, and collectively turbulent.

From there, we drop into somatic territory. We talk craniosacral therapy and the experience of “tides” in the system, from surface noise to the deeper mid tide and the long tide where time feels different. That becomes a living metaphor for the lunar path: not a heroic push to achieve, but a deepening that restores life force. We also bring in the Orphic Hymn to the Moon as an invocation practice and explore why reverence matters, not as an antique idea but as a way to relate to powers we still live inside.

We get practical about moon phases too: the dark of the moon as a window for retreat, the full moon as an emotional amplifier, and how lunar timing can support better choices in work, conflict, learning, and creativity. We move into dreams as night-world digestion, why forcing interpretations can block the nourishment, and how light pollution mirrors a cultural forgetting of darkness, sleep, and imagination. If you care about the lunar cycle, dreamwork, depth psychology, the Jungian unconscious, or the roots of astrology in the night sky, this conversation is for you.

*the above blurb was auto-generated by Buzzsprout's AI.

Cover Artwork is The Fairy of the moon by Hermann Kaulbach (b&w) circa 1891 with a background extension from Canva.

The Orphic Hymns including the one in this episode dedicated to the moon, and the invocation with Musaeus. It's the Thomas Taylor translation from 1792. Melanie's personal favourite.

Find out more about Melanie and her work here. She has many great books including, famously, Chiron and the Healing Journey.

Melanie reads from:

Dane Rudhyar, The Lunation Cycle: A Key to the Understanding of Personality, from the section “The Pattern of the Lunation Cycle.”

Rudolf Steiner, “In Pure Rays of Light”
The verse appears in Esoteric Instructions (GA 264), with related commentary in an esoteric lesson of 5 December 1907 (GA 266/I).

We discuss:

Iain McGilchrist's book: The Master and his Emissary and associate right brain activity with the moon and left brain with Mercury.

Jung, obviously, comes up a lot. I paraphrase this quotation from him.

We also talk about the Tides in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. If you'd like to know more about that the work of Franklyn Sills (may he rest in peace) is a good starting point.

Clearing up the confusion of the 'far side' vs the 'dark side' of the moon we go to NASA...

But always appreciative to Pink Floyd for creating such confusion but also such a cracking album.

Melanie also mentions the Dark Sky Movement. Such important work. Have a look at darksky.org.

We also acknowledge that "mentor" is not etymologically related to Mene or taurus. What we're engaging in during that section is a nice bit of folk etymology.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

The Planets Series begins with our closest and most intimate neighbour: the moon. 

The moon represents the dreaming mind, our instinctive life and our guidance system to the emotional waves of our turbulent lives. 

Each of these elements of the moon is explored in this episode with the help of three mythic figures:

• Selene as a personification of the moon riding her white cow through the sky, visiting her lover Endymion (one who finds himself within) in his cave as he dreams the eternal dream.
• Artemis as the wild, instinctual life that stays true to her nature and close to her essence. 
• and Hekate, the triple goddess, who has her home in the underworld. It's Hekate who arrives in our most desperate times of need to accompany us in the realm of grief and loss. 

The second half of the podcast begins with the image of Grimm's Hansel staring longingly back at his home as he's taken into the woods by his step-mother to be abandoned. He drops white stones on the ground that are then lit up by the moonlight to guide him back home. 

From there we visit Mnemosyne's cellular memory, the thread-weavers and the way Ithaka pulls at Odysseus.

The Gorgons, including Medusa, will help us relate to the moments we feel unrelatable. There are many links between Medusa, the ocean and the moon. Including the Orphics calling the moon's face the Gorgoneion.

And finally Rilke with some soul-soothing words in his poem 'You Come and Go'.

Cover Art: Endymion : Effet de lune, ou Le Sommeil d’Endymion (The Sleep of Endymion), Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, 1791.

I leant heavily on Gods of the Greeks, Carl Kerenyi, 1951

Very thankful to Brian Clark, Melanie Reinhart, Travis Elliot and Milena Kadziela for their help in the creation of this podcast.

For my German audience... The poem at the end from Rilke:

Du kommst und gehst

Du kommst und gehst. Die Türen fallen
 viel sanfter zu, fast ohne Wehn.
 Du bist der Leiseste von allen,
 die durch die leisen Häuser gehn.

Man kann sich so an dich gewöhnen,
 daß man nicht aus dem Buche schaut,
 wenn seine Bilder sich verschönen,
 von deinem Schatten überblaut;
 weil dich die Dinge immer tönen
 nur einmal leis und einmal laut.

Oft wenn ich dich in Sinnen sehe,
 verteilt sich deine Allgestalt;
 du gehst wie lauter lichte Rehe,
 und ich bin dunkel und bin Wald.

Du bist ein Rad, an dem ich stehe:
 von deinen vielen dunklen Achsen
 wird immer wieder eine schwer
 und dreht sich näher zu mir her,
 und meine willigen Werke wachsen
 von Wiederkehr zu Wiederkehr.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

I disappeared for a few months, went a bit underground, and even partially relocated my life to Greece so I could be a little closer to the gods I keep talking about. Now I’m ready to return with something simple, specific, and surprisingly alive: a new astrology podcast series on the planets, approached as characters of the psyche rather than abstract symbols on a page.

If the houses are the places where the saga of a life unfolds, the planets are the ones living it. I’ve been thinking of them less like an internal family system and more like an internal solar system, each planet representing a different part of the self with its own aims, needs, and ways of moving. We’ll take an imaginal voyage through the horoscope, stopping at one planet or luminary at a time, experimenting with what it feels like to become the Moon with its craters and shadow, the Sun with its heat and power, and Mercury with its fast, message-carrying urgency.

Myth will be one of our main guides. Because the planets share names with Greco-Roman figures, their stories give us a rich way to watch archetypes behave: who allies with whom, what gets opposed, and how a planet’s gifts can become traps when they run the inner world unchecked. The order of the series follows the Sun’s movement through the zodiac, exploring the ruler of the sign we’re in, beginning next week with the Moon as ruler of Cancer, then the Sun for Leo, then Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, plus a bonus planet and a special guest.

As usual, I’ll be joined by guests to explore each planetary archetype. We start with my dear friend, colleague, and mentor Melanie Reinhart for the lunar conversation. If you’d like to go deeper, paid Patreon members can join a monthly reflective Zoom call to ask questions about personal placements and continue the threads we leave open. Subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find this mythic astrology journey.

* My words here underwent a clean up from Buzzsprout's AI.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

The series on the houses wouldn't have felt complete without one last fairytale. 

In this, the 40th and last episode of the series, we explore the German tale of Dornröschen, which loosely translates to 'the little rose inside the thorns'. 

It begins with a talking frog who crawls out of the water to deliver a prophecy to the bathing queen. And it takes us into those places in ourselves that feel dormant. We feel that these parts have such great potential in our lives, but they remain fast asleep. 

Until...

Well, that's the thing. The story takes us into the element of timing, of transits, of progressions, of gestation and of waiting until that which slumbers is ready to arouse. 

I'm joined in a very synchronous way by Milena Kadziela, a fellow astrologer and psychotherapist. She sends a transmission from London, in the middle of the night, on the Libra Full Moon. The moon was at 12°, which is the 13th degree.

Milena, a listener to the show, felt that the one element that was missing in the series was that of the intercepted house. It happens that she uses this very story, Briar Rose, to speak to those hard to access parts of the chart. 

And so, she joined us for a late cameo in the episode to drop her night wisdom on us all. 

If you'd like to find out more about Milena's work you can find her here. 

You can read the story itself here.

The image for the podcast is again from Artist and Patron, Lucy Dodd. Her work is also featured on episode 124 with Melanie Reinhart. 

With an overlaid princess from a 1981 edition of La Belle Au Bois Dormant & Autres Contes Merveilleux (Sleeping Beauty & Other Wonderful Tales), published by Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri and Hachette.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

My guest for this episode is... well... me!

Astrologer Brian Clark interviews me, Chris Skidmore, in this episode as we look back on the journey that was the 12 Houses of Astrology. In no particular order, we move back through the images that captured our attention from the fairy tales, and revisit our 13 guests that helped us along the way. 

Thank you to all of you who have come along with me in the sacred role of 'audience'... it's your listening that makes this possible. 

Special shout out here to all of my wonderful guests. Find our more about their work by clicking their links:

Brian Clark: www.astrosynthesis.com.au

Cameron Allen: www.cadreamplanet.com

Collette Davis: www.collettedavis.com

Melanie Reinhart: melaniereinhart.com

Vive Oldham: www.viveandco.com

Libby Rose Waite: libbyrosewaite.com

Kira Sutherland: www.astrologyofhealth.com

Ryan Nielsen: www.yourveryownlife.com

Travis Elliott: travisjelliott.com

Amanda Simon: amandasimon.co.uk

Thomas Moore: www.thomasmooresoul.com

Michael Meade: www.mosaicvoices.org

Jason Holley: jasonholley.net

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Melanie Reinhart joins me once more to speak into and from the 12th house of the wheel of houses. The episode itself is a wonderful example of how that which we talk about can sometimes be 'conjured up' by our speech. This is something that Gregory Bateson called a 'metalogue' - a word introduced to me by Melanie many moons ago. 

Our metalogue was a disruption from the gods of technology who seemed to think that some of what we shared was best kept in silence. And so we were kicked off the call at a particularly poignant moment in this one. 

None-the-less, the essence of the house was thoroughly explored. And we share with you whatever the deities allow us to reveal. 

This completes our 'series within a series' on the water houses - those elusive and hard to grasp places of reality. I'm forever grateful to Melanie for her generosity of spirit in sharing her depth of wisdom with us on the podcast. 

The image for the podcast cover is from Patron of the show, Lucy Dodd. It's a piece she calls "Sun Moon and Mermaid" made with, in her words, 'Iron oxide and Copper ink, blue spirulina, cochineal and some other stuff.' 

She completed it just as our Iron John episodes were released. 

REFERENCES

Authors & Thinkers

• Gregory Bateson
  → Concept of metalogue
  → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Bateson
  
  
• Carl Jung
  → Concept of the numinous
  → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numinous
  
  
• Dane Rudhyar
  → The Astrological Houses: The Spectrum of Individual Experience (also published as New Mansions for New Men)
  
  
• David Abram
  → Cultural perception / reality frameworks
  → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Abram
  
  
• C. A. Meier
  → Ancient Incubation and Modern Psychotherapy (republished as Healing Dream and Ritual)
  
  
• Brian Clark
  → Rewilding the psyche (concept referenced)

Mythological Sources & Figures

• Hyginus
  → Fabulae (mythographical fragments)
  
  
• Dionysus
  → Greek god of ecstasy, twice-born myth
  → https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Dionysos.html
  
  
• Asclepius
  → Greek god of healing and incubation temples
  → https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Asklepios.html
  
  
• Ariadne
  → Associated with Dionysus, labyrinth, and Corona Borealis
  
  
• River Lethe & Mnemosyne
  → Rivers of forgetfulness and memory in the underworld
  
  
• Chiron & Chariklo
  → Centaur healer and his consort (associated with weaving/spinning)
  
  

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

The 12th and final house of astrology is often given a bad wrap. It's considered the house of hidden enemies and of our own undoing. It rules over places we'd rather not be such as prisons, hospitals and asylums.

And yet, deep in this oceanic place in our charts we may meet the gods themselves. Figures from the collective unconscious who shape shift and morph, reveal and conceal themselves into and out of our minds. 

It's a place that has associations with Neptune, Jupiter and Pisces; the deepest places of the ocean where our surface world probes can't reach. A place where Saturn, brooding and moody as he is, is in his Joy. Yes, that's right, Saturn has a joyful place. 

In order to enter this house we need to leave our conscious tools at the door. We need to journey away from the known world on a wonderful sea journey with fantastic companions. 

Hercules' 12th labour, Ariadne abandoned on Naxos and Hephaestus, the wounded goldsmith whose workshop is in a cave under the sea, will help us get a better feel for this place. Help us take a good look around and see what it is that we might be missing about this much maligned house, and what secret treasures it might be already, right now, shaping and re-shaping in the forge. 

Podcast Cover: "Mercury Confiding the Infant Bacchus to the Nymphs of Nysa" by François Boucher.

Carl Jung – Modern Man in Search of a Soul

James Hillman – The Myth of Analysis

Arnold Mindell – Process-Oriented Psychology

Mircea Eliade – The Forge and the Crucible

Walt Whitman – Song of Myself, from Leaves of Grass

Roberto Calasso – The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony

The Delphic Maxims (including “Know Thyself”)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphic_maxims

• Heracles and Cerberus • The Labours of Heracles
•  Theseus and the Minotaur
•  Ariadne and Dionysus on Naxos
•  Hephaestus and the forge beneath the sea
•  The Golden Net of Ares and Aphrodite
•  Cronus and the Golden Age

• The Twelfth House • Neptune and the Oceanic Realm
•  Saturn’s Joy in the Twelfth House
•  The Water Houses: 4th, 8th and 12th
•  The Ascendant as Threshold (the “door-slab” of the chart)

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Part Two of our wanderings with Iron John/Hans. The episode begins with the moss bed made for the boy in the forest. Ryan shares soulful reflections on moss itself; known as a 'boundary layer' that draws moisture not from the ground up but from the air down. Moss forms little cups to gather water from the electricity in the air, which must be one of the most Aquarian/11th House symbols I've ever heard. 

We re-enter the story where we left off in part one; the boy is learning to listen in to his inner most knowing. In speaking for the scent of the wild flowers he shows us that his time asleep on the moss transformed his sense of reality. He is becoming ready to work with the gold/wound split in his consciousness.

In the second half of the story we encounter much Chironic imagery. A three-legged 'hobblety jig' horse speaks to our current moment as Chiron moves through the last phase of Aries and Saturn/Neptune through the first. What does this story tell us about Aries energy, wounded kings, lost wildness and the world's deep thirst?

It's a longer episode than most, but once you listen in you'll see why. To get the most nourishment from this story we needed to move more with Kairos time than Kronos. The result, however, is a very nourishing alchemical brew. 

So grateful to Ryan's wife, Holly Parson Nielsen, for the artwork for the episode. It conjures the movement of the story so well from the well to the moss to the gold. Thank you Holly. 

If you'd like to know more about Ryan's work, or perhaps book a session with him to explore his approach to astrology, mythology and the dreaming body, go to yourveryownmyth.com.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Ryan Nielsen joins the podcast again (see episode 104 for our circuitous meanderings on Allerleirauh) to explore the Grimm tale of Iron John (or Iron Hans) whilst reflecting about the cusp between the known and unknown worlds (the 11th and 12th house cusp). 

Iron John is a story that was made famous by the poet Robert Bly in the 1990s. It became the central story that he worked with in his book by the same name. Robert uses the story to illustrate the many trials and tribulations in the process of becoming a man in the modern world. 

Ryan and I pick the story up not from the hands of Bly but from the creative commons of the story itself. We let the images lead us. The story comes alive in a new way in this conversation as we riff and bounce and feel and atune to it with the backdrop of the 11th and 12th house to guide us. 

If you'd like to connect with Ryan he has just launched his new website: yourveryownmyth.com.

Join us on Patreon to discuss the episode! You can join in for free or pledge some appreciation. 

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Astrologer Jason Holley joins me again on the podcast today to delve into the 11th house - the house of groups, the polis, mass media, theatre, the audience, 'the people'.

It’s a rich and far-reaching conversation that, we both felt, got right to the heart of this complex and often misunderstood house that takes us into the entangled world of collective consciousness. 

Along the way we speak on:

• diurnal motion as the lived logic of house meanings
• the 11th as context maker for 10th house vocation
• Jupiter’s joy, morale, and shared vision
• theater, polis, and mass media as 11th house arenas
• fifth–eleventh polarity of eros and audience
• Athena’s birth as vision turning into action
• Medusa’s image as power carried into public life
• hopes and dreams versus cynicism and dissociation
• worldwork, conflict, and group process as remedies
• all our relations beyond humans in the group field

Cover Artwork: James Gurney - Clashing Rocks

Further reading

• Homer — The Iliad (Zeus, “the plan of Zeus”, collective order and fate)
• Homer — The Odyssey (Athena as Mentor; Telemachus and guidance/destiny)
• Ovid — Metamorphoses (mythic transformation as a living psychological process)
• Roberto Calasso — The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony (brilliant modern retelling/interpretation of Greek myth)
• Arnold Mindell — Sitting in the Fire (worldwork, group fields, conflict as an intelligence)
• Jacob L. Moreno — Who Shall Survive? (psychodrama and group dynamics foundations)

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

What happens when personal destiny meets the wider world of friends, teams, and the public square? We dive into the Eleventh House as the arena where your hard‑won calling turns into collective contribution, guided by Aquarius’s twin rulers—Saturn, who sets the frame, and Uranus, who refreshes it. Along the way, we unpack how projection travels from siblings to partners to society, why the traits you disown often show up as “the group,” and how to retrieve that gold without losing yourself.

We lean on myth and psychology to make it practical. Jupiter, in joy here, models leadership that holds tension without collapsing into control or chaos. Athena shows how to carry real achievement into service with clarity. Hermes, the psychopomp, translates Twelfth‑House visions into language the public can actually use. And the dance of Apollo and Dionysus reveals why cultures need both order and creative disruption to stay alive. From festivals that loosen roles to structures that protect dissent, the message is simple: give the trickster a seat and the rules a spine.

You’ll also hear how Hercules and the Argonauts illustrate an Eleventh‑House upgrade to leadership—when the central hero steps aside, the system wakes up and many gifts emerge. We explore participation mystique in both its light and shadow: the ecstasy of healthy belonging versus the danger of melting into the mass. Expect grounded cues for spotting the difference and for building teams that are resilient, creative, and humane. If you’re ready to turn personal genius into public good—without burning out or blending in—this conversation will meet you where you are and stretch you where you’re going.

If this sparked something, subscribe, leave a quick review, and share it with a friend who leads or longs to belong. Your support helps more thoughtful listeners find the show.

* the above was autogenerated by Buzzsprout's AI.

The podcast art is oil painted on canvas by Leonid Ilyukhin - Apollo and Dionysus.

I mentioned a book by Arnold Mindell called Sitting in the Fire (but I mistakenly called it Standing in the Fire. Also an option but not the correct name of the book). This book is well worth looking into if you'd like to find out more about how Process Oriented Psychotherapy works with groups. Truly visionary stuff for our times. 

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Michael Meade rejoins the podcast to discuss all things 11th house; the house of collective consciousness, groups, teams and the Polis: society at large. The 11th is where the great mystery occurs in the interaction between the individual cell and the whole organism. 

Michael's words act as a steadying force in unsettling times. He brings us back to a sense of cohesion and collaboration, reminding us of our internal spark of life that he calls the Genius. In his vision, that he draws from ancient wells, he sees a world of individuals waking up to the truth within their souls and participating in the creation of a new world as the current paradigms collapse. The more this happens the more gold within the cracks of the world are revealed.

In these times of upheaval and uncertainty, Michael gives us a soothing balm whilst encouraging us to step forward and participate in the great theatre of life. 

Within this episodes theatre we meet the following characters:

• Phaëthon
  The figure who takes power without inner maturity; the danger of inflated authority disconnected from soul.
• Christ
  The one nailed to the crossroads of collective tension; sacrifice, revelation, and the danger of myth hardening into dogma.
• Dionysus
  The twice-born god; Eros, ecstasy, dismemberment, and the return of soul energy that culture tries to repress.
• Tiresias — the blind seer; inner sight over literal vision; prophetic knowing that comes through loss, transition, and a life lived between worlds.
• Hermes
  The trickster and messenger; boundary-crosser, mediator between worlds, carrier of transition.
• Vishnu
  The cosmic dreamer; the world inhaled and exhaled through cycles of dissolution and renewal.
• The Trickster
  Disruptor of rigid systems; brings medicine through paradox, humour, and mischief.
• The Genius
  The indwelling spirit unique to each person; purpose as something listened to rather than achieved.
• The Outsider
  The one on the margins; carrier of renewal and new imagination when the centre collapses.
• The Bodhisattva
  The figure who returns to the broken world rather than escaping it; compassion in times of collapse.

Visit Michael Meade's website here where you can find links to his podcast, books and offerings.

Cover Art: The Fall of the Rebel Angels - an oil-on-panel painting created in 1562 by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Calling doesn’t arrive as a neat job title. It asks for consent. In this deep, playful, and piercing conversation with Thomas Moore—author of Care of the Soul—we explore how the Midheaven (tenth house) points not to status but to a life that can bear its own meaning in public. Thomas shares how fifty years of quiet preparation—monastic study, Latin and Greek, music, Jung—suddenly opened into visibility, and how he learned to stand on big stages without losing the cave within.

We trace practical pathways from symbol to life. Ficino’s Renaissance astrology and the idea of stellar rays become a usable art: choosing textures, colors, plants, and music that genuinely nourish temperament. Beauty shows up as medicine, a missing ingredient in clinical spaces shaped solely by science. From there we wade into the myths that guide us—Rapunzel’s root hunger, Pegasus striking the spring of the Muses—and ask what it means to descend to our roots so we can rise well. Depth versus height, “higher” education versus lower, richer knowing; Thomas prods us to find what truly feeds the soul.

The heart-work is also gritty. Parents and culture can shrink a life. Angels—those messenger moments—ask for an answer. Sometimes you jump in the river, sometimes you wrestle toward a yes, but either way the next step is usually the truest one. We talk late blooming, saving depression rather than erasing it, Saturn’s gifts, and why aiming higher than your current story of yourself is an act of care. If you’re feeling adrift, this is a map and a nudge: let your roots inform your reach, let the muses tune your work, and meet your calling as it unfolds.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—then tell us: what’s the next step your calling is asking you to take?

*The above blurb was auto-generated by Buzzsprout's AI

Thomas Moore's website where you can find his books, teachings and more. 

Episode Artwork: The Alchemist c. 1558 - Philip Galle after Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

A tower without roots looks impressive until the wind picks up. We follow Rapunzel and The Six Swans to uncover how a real calling demands both height and depth: the Midheaven’s shine, the IC’s ground, and the sixth house’s quiet craft. Using vivid fairy-tale images, we explore the earth-house triad—second, sixth, and tenth—and what happens when desire for “more” outruns our sense of enough. From stolen rampion and severed hair to a desert reunion healed by tears, Rapunzel shows the cost of ambition cut off from home and body. The Six Swans answers with a different power: six years of wordless work, sewing starwort shirts under accusation, modeling the discipline and devotion that transform ideals into form.

I share how scarcity in the second house morphs into compulsion, why the IC’s hearth practices restore vision when the public gaze distorts, and how the sixth house rescues the tenth from burnout by dignifying humble routines. We talk Thomas Moore’s insight on moving both up and down—growing and deepening—so authority stays human. Expect practical reflections: crafting a resource plan that feels like “enough,” creating rituals that anchor memory and grief, and building systems for deep work that keep you steady when attention splinters. The ending isn’t neat by design—one brother keeps a wing—because meaningful work is always incomplete and that’s the point.

If you’ve felt visible yet unmoored, driven yet depleted, these stories offer a map: braid your golden ladder back to living soil, let tears restore sight, and keep stitching the star into the everyday. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s rethinking their path, and leave a review to help others find the show.

* the above blurb was auto generated by Buzzsprout's AI

Thomas Moore: A Life at Work

Episode Artwork is here and here. 

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

What if your calling isn’t one narrow lane but an oak with many strong branches? We open the year by climbing from the ninth house of vision to the tenth house of visibility, where ideals must learn to walk, speak, and serve a real-world “whole.” The Midheaven becomes our threshold: a place to meet power, define vocation, and decide how to be seen without cutting off the roots that feed us.

We ground the theory with living images. An ancient oak oracle in Dodona shows why vocation can have many limbs that still belong to one tree. The seagoat reveals a body-wisdom path from the IC to the MC, and we guide a simple spine practice to carry soul upward without burning it out. Then myth raises the stakes: Zeus, fed on goat’s milk, dons the pelt and faces Cronus across a decade-long crucible. Jupiter’s expansion and Saturn’s restraint become two necessary “horns” you must use to gain purchase on your mountain.

Drawing on Dane Rudhyar, we reframe the “world” as the largest whole you can genuinely participate in with competence—your village, your nation, or humanity. Achievement, he says, is becoming chief, but a head is useless without the body that sustains it. We explore how to right-size ambition, avoid the twin traps of self-inflation and self-shrinking, and translate ninth-house understanding into tenth-house mastery. Along the way, we highlight Thomas Moore’s many-layered path as proof that one seed can unfold through multiple forms without losing coherence.

If you’ve ever felt pressured to choose a single label, this conversation is a relief and a challenge. The tenth house isn’t just career; it’s your second gestation in public, where authority, authorship, and authenticity share a root. Find the whole you can serve, claim the power you can responsibly marshal, and let your branches grow from the same living trunk. If this resonates, subscribe, share with a friend who’s rethinking purpose, and leave a review to help more seekers find the show.

* The above blurb was generated by Buzzsprout's AI.

This book by Dane Rudhyar is referenced in the episode. 

The TV show from my childhood - Monkey - is also in here. 

Podcast art is here.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

A winter wish, a juniper tree, and a song that won’t be silenced. We read and unpack The Juniper Tree through the lens of myth and astrology, following a stark arc from dismemberment to remembrance, from underworld descent to the ninth house return of voice. The tale’s violent turn isn’t spectacle—it’s symbolic. A sister gathers bones and lays them at the roots; a bird rises from fire, sings what happened, and earns a golden chain, red shoes, and a millstone. Each gift answers a wound: the chain restores the severed link, the shoes return movement and joy, and the stone delivers the kind of Saturnian justice that ends what cannot be integrated.

Along the way we explore why juniper is a liminal, funerary, protective tree and why solstice is the perfect time for a story about death and the slow return of light. We trace resonances with Snow White, the Raven, Medusa, Osiris and Isis, and even the Christian ritual of remembrance that turns body and blood into bread and wine. The ninth house shines through as the realm where hard-won wisdom gets sung aloud, where fair exchange dignifies art, and where truth becomes beautiful enough for others to bear. This is not a call to bypass grief; it’s a ritual map for metabolizing it.

If you’ve ever felt your voice frozen in the underworld, this story offers a path: gather the bones, honor the roots, set a boundary around your song, and let the wings come back. As the year turns, join us for a solstice myth that holds both the darkest night and the first hint of dawn. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves deep stories, and leave a review to help others find the show.

*the above blurb was generated by Buzzsprout's AI

Podcast Artwork: Warwick Goble - Out of the fire flew a beautiful bird.

The Juniper Tree from the Grimm Collection.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

A sun at rest can see farther. That’s the mood we step into as we explore the Ninth House with artist-astrologer Amanda Simon—an airy, unhurried place where conviction meets humility, myth meets method, and meaning proves itself alive. We trace how the Ninth becomes the sun’s joy, not as a grind toward achievement but as a space to linger, radiate, and speak from what you truly know. The conversation moves between lunar nearness and solar reach, pairing the Third House’s intimate tending with the Ninth House’s bold broadcast so ideas stay touchable and true.

We look at conviction’s double edge—how it opens futures when rooted in experience, and how it burns when it ossifies into dogma. From Speaker’s Corner to Orpheus in the underworld, we track the classic arc of ordeal, boon, and return, and name the cultural wound of skipping the return in favor of productivity. Hestia’s inviolate flame threads through, a reminder that the inner light doesn’t go out; it can be faint, but never extinguished. That insight pairs with the first–fifth–ninth triad—“I am, I want, I know”—as a living check-and-balance against ego, hedonism, and rigid belief.

To make all this usable, Amanda introduces techne: the practices that invite reciprocity with the more-than-human world. Writing, sculpture, breathwork, pilgrimage, ritual—these repeated gestures create a reliable bridge for insight, a ladder you can climb without claiming to own the heavens. We close with Michelangelo’s almost-touching hands, honoring the gap between human and divine as the Ninth House’s sacred tension: reach without grasp, radiate without rush, know without certainty. If you’ve been craving a wiser tempo and a more generous voice, this is your invitation to dwell well, then share what you’ve seen.

If this conversation lit a spark, follow, rate, and review the show, or share it with someone who needs a slower sun today.

*Above blurb auto-generated by Buzzsprout's AI companion.

Cover Art: Creation of Adam, Michelangelo (1475–1564), circa 1511

If you would like to journey with Amanda here are some new 2026 offerings

Group processes to cultivate astrological sensitivity 

Primal Astrology the art of Cosmological listening with Claire Loussouarn (hybrid) starting Feb 2026  

Chiron and other centaurs who hear timeless whispers with Amanda Simon - an online 8 month experiential journey to grow felt relationship with centuaric consciousness as Chiron moves from Aries to Taurus - starting Feb 2026 

Temple tending - tender temples with Milena Kadziela - practice group working with the cycle of the year to support cultivating intimacy with the living sky through growing a basis of being & poetic basis of being through somatic and creative practice . 

In person and on line starting March 2026 please email beckonedbythestars@gmail.com for interest and to arrange a call to explore further 

Fire Signs experiential elements course through Hermes Hestia centre

For 1 : 1 consults and longer journeys please visit amandasimon.co.uk or email beckonedbythestars@gmail.com

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

The night breaks and a mountain appears. We step out of the eighth house and into the ninth, following a mythic trail across four Greek peaks—Helicon, Delphi on Parnassus, Olympus, and Pelion—to understand how vision is born, tested, codified, and taught. This is a journey from trauma to Pegasus, from memory to the Muses, from riddled answers to living oracles, from the banquet of certainty to the humility of service, and finally to Chiron’s cave where purpose is shaped into skill.

We start with Helicon, where Perseus’ severing of Medusa gives rise to Pegasus and the Hippocrene, the spring that nourishes the nine Muses. History, music, comedy, tragedy, dance, love poetry, hymns, astronomy, and epic become living conduits for meaning. Hesiod’s insight that the Muses can speak convincing falsehoods as well as truth becomes our caution against dogma; ninth house wisdom is movement, not marble. At Delphi, we find the Omphalos, the eagle-eye view, and the Pythia’s forked speech. Apollo’s light and Dionysus’ winter rule alternate, teaching us to hold both clarity and mystery. Prophecy arrives obliquely and unfolds over time, working on the imaginal mind that can carry insight back into life.

On Olympus, the ninth house expands into ethics, law, and systems—the “we think” that shapes culture. Zeus’ knowledge is not solitary; it’s conjoined with Metis, the oceanic intelligence that tempers sky-high judgment. We explore the lure and limits of certainty and remember Ganymede’s role as cupbearer: service as a path to perspective. Finally, we reach Pelion, where Chiron mentors heroes and healers—Jason, Achilles, Asclepius—grounding lofty aims in hands-on craft, medicine, and embodied practice. The fire-house arc aligns identity, joy, and purpose so that the tenth house can build the road our aim has set.

Along the way, Ocyrrhoe’s tale warns against revealing everything too soon; mystery gives meaning its depth. If Helicon inspires, Delphi questions, Olympus orders, and Pelion mentors, which mountain is yours? Press play to find an eagle-eye view that still honors the serpent’s wisdom, and carry that vision into the work you offer the world. If this exploration sparked something, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review to help others find their way to the summit.

*The above was auto-generated by Buzzsprout's AI

Cover Art: Simon Vouet (1590-1649) The Muses Urania and Calliope, 1634 ca.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

The most alive wisdom often waits at the edge where things end. We step onto the threshold between astrology’s eighth and ninth houses with Dr. Travis Elliott, a naturopath who traded protocols for presence and found his way into Asclepian dream healing, plant medicines, and the kind of listening that lets the body speak. This conversation travels from Santa Fe’s Living Astrologies conference to the old temples where snakes curled at our feet, and into the myths where Asclepius learns from Chiron, Coronis vanishes into smoke, and Medusa’s two vials test how far we’ll go to outwit death.

We talk about what happens when healthcare stops treating people like problems and starts treating symptoms as messages. Travis shares how an image can surface in the room—a felt priority that guides the next step—and how clients reclaim agency when they learn to sit with what hurts. Along the way, we unpack the eighth house as a place of composting and grief, the ninth house as the clear sky of meaning, and Ophiuchus as the healer who stands between them. We look at diurnal motion versus zodiacal motion, Telesphorus as the small herald of completion, and the moment when pushing against death breaks the order that keeps life and underworld in balance.

Underneath the astrology is a simple invitation: stay with the darkness until it’s done with you, then rise with meaning that is yours. If you’ve been craving a more soulful healthcare—one that respects intuition, the feminine, and the earth’s timing—this is a map back to that remembering. Listen, share it with a friend who needs permission to slow down, and if it resonates, subscribe and leave a review so more people can find the work. 

*The above blurb was produced by Buzzsprout's AI.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

A weary wish turns a princess into a raven and launches a map of descent: a forest thick with symbols, an old woman’s tempting cup, a heap of alchemical tan, and a precise appointment at 2 PM when the sun’s power wanes. We follow that map step by step, using a Grimm story to illuminate the eighth house as lived experience—where unprocessed memory, shame, appetite, and inheritance ask for contact rather than conquest.

I walk you through the seeker’s predictable failures and the deeper lesson they reveal: the unconscious will not be bullied by willpower. Then the tale widens—endless bread and wine, a name-inscribed ring, and a letter that points toward the Golden Castle of Stromburg. Giants appear as the embodiment of hunger. Instead of slaying them, we feed them, win their help, and unearth an ancient map that remembers what modern maps forgot. That’s the eighth house in practice: respect timing, befriend the beast, and let old knowledge guide the next mile.

At the base of a glass mountain we wait—a year of vigil—until trickster tools arrive: a staff that opens doors, a mantle of invisibility, and a horse made for impossible slopes. With a touch of Hermes, we ascend. The ring sings in the chalice; the raven-princess and seeker reunite; inner masculine and feminine align. Along the way we thread white, red, and black through the story’s veins, and connect ravens, crows, Odin’s messengers, Apollo and Coronis, Perseus and Pegasus, and the alchemy of the negrito.

If you’re navigating Scorpio season or moving through your own eighth house work, this journey offers a practical myth: how to enter, endure, and exit the underworld with something worth bringing back. If the story sparks insight, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a quick review to help others find the show. Which symbol from the tale is speaking to you?

*The above blurb was autogenerated by Buzzsprout's AI

References mentioned:
Grimm’s The Raven, Snow White, Odin’s ravens Huginn & Muninn, the Morrígan, Apollo–Coronis–Ischys & Asclepius, Medusa–Perseus–Pegasus, Psyche & Eros, Cerberus, Jung’s collective unconscious, hieros gamos, and the 8th house in astrology.

Links to explore:
The Raven (Grimm)

Huginn & Muninn

The Morrígan

 Asclepius (Apollo & Coronis)

Medusa / Perseus / Pegasus:

Psyche & Eros

Collective unconscious (Jung):

8th house overview

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

What happens when you stop analyzing the eighth house and start walking into it? We invite you into a guided descent—part myth, part meditation—through sex, death, shared resources, and the hidden currents that shape intimacy and power. Recorded close to midnight, this journey leans on feeling more than theory, letting the night world rewrite how we meet fear, trust, and desire.

We unpack the anxiety around “empty houses” by showing why no house is truly empty and how the cusp and its ruler speak volumes. From there, we cross the threshold with stories: Persephone pulled below, Inanna choosing the descent, Hercules learning that force fails underground, and Orpheus softening the gates with song. Each myth becomes a method for real life—how to let go, how to be guided, how to bring music to heavy doors. Along the way we visit the Necromanteion, an ancient temple of the dead, and reflect on ancestor contact as a form of practical divination.

This house is where intimacy strips our persona, where shared finances and entanglements test honesty, and where the body’s quiet signals tell the truth before our minds can. We explore Reich and Freud on eros and death to ask whether life force is fighting an enemy or simply frees itself when we stop blocking it. Paradoxically, by facing mortality we recover appetite—a warm, steady desire to be here now. And when we come back up, the ninth house opens with clearer meaning because we earned our perspective below.

If you’re ready to feel into the eighth—beyond clichés and fear—press play, bring a journal, and let a slower rhythm lead. If the journey moved you, subscribe, leave a five-star review, and share this episode with someone who’s navigating their own underworld. Your support helps keep the show ad-free and the work alive.

*This episode blurb was created by Buzzsprout's AI

Episode artwork is from Arnold Böcklin - Die Toteninsel III (Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin).

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Ever felt the ground give way beneath your life and, somehow, found renewal waiting in the dark? We go there with astrologer Melanie Reinhart as we explore the Eighth House—where loss, endings, and the mysteries of descent turn into a deeper kind of aliveness.

We begin with a radical reframing of “death” as the series of mini-deaths that define a lifetime: the mask that falls away, the role that ends, the image we can no longer carry. Melanie brings in Asclepian dream rites to show how healing arrives when we stop managing and start listening. Dreams don’t just offer messages; sometimes the dream is the medicine. From Persephone and Inanna to Hermes the psychopomp, myth becomes a living map for honoring thresholds, accepting uncertainty, and noticing the signs that mark true initiation.

Intimacy takes center stage as a gateway into the Eighth House. Not all sex is eighth-house, and not all eighth-house intimacy is sexual—what matters is transformation through real energetic exchange. We contrast this with polite arrangements that function but never descend. Along the way, we tackle death denial through the story of Sisyphus: chain up death and you lose meaning. Accept the descent and something winged rises—Pegasus from Medusa’s body—foreshadowing the Ninth House’s authentic meaning-making that cannot be faked or fast-tracked.

This is a guide for moving from the illusion of separateness toward the radiance of love. It’s practical, too: don’t dig aggressively for shadows; let the underworld emerge. Create sacred space, honor fatigue, keep a journal, and treat dreams as sacred visitors. If you’re navigating grief, midlife, or a season of deep change, this conversation offers language, myth, and gentle practices to help you walk on the soul’s terms.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s in transition, and leave a review to help others find these conversations. What threshold are you standing at today?

* Blurb generated by Buzzsprout's AI

Cover artwork: John William Waterhouse - The Danaides

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

A winter window, three drops of blood on snow, and a mirror that refuses to flatter—this is where our journey into the Seventh House begins. We take Snow White out of the nursery and into the soul, reading the fairy tale as a precise map of relationship, projection, and the parts of ourselves we meet in the other. If the First House says I am, the Seventh answers you are, and the tension between them powers the entire story.

We follow the thread of red, white, and black through alchemy’s negredo, albedo, and rubedo, then trace how a single name—“Snow White”—exiles desire and descent to the edges of the chart. The queen’s mirror speaks truth and sparks envy; the huntsman escorts us to the threshold; Artemis steadies our instincts as we run into the wild. In a spotless cottage, seven miners—echoes of the seven traditional planets and Saturn’s seven-year cycle—teach the slow craft of integration: daily work, small rooms, and long nights that turn darkness into gold.

Temptations arrive as teachings. Laces steal breath when beauty constricts. A comb slips poison through tangled thoughts. And the apple—half white, half red—reveals the cost of splitting innocence from eros. The glass coffin becomes an alchemical vessel where owl, raven, and dove keep vigil, holding intellect, underworld wisdom, and rebirth in balance. Awakening doesn’t come with a kiss but with a stumble that dislodges what choked the voice—proof that real change often arrives through life’s imperfect bumps rather than perfect moments.

We close with the coniunctio, the inner marriage that makes love generative again, and the queen’s fiery exit once her necessary trials are complete. Along the way, we connect these symbols to Libra’s scales, boundary-setting, and the lived experience of Seventh House planets: how to read the mirror without losing yourself, how to honor desire without abandoning discernment, and how to mine your own darkness for gold. If you’re ready to see relationship as a sacred laboratory rather than a battlefield, press play and step to the window with us.

Enjoyed the journey? Follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find their mirror too.

*this podcast blurb was generated by Buzzsprout's AI

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Step through the door marked “Descendant” and into the seventh house, where the self meets the other and the mirror talks back. We dive into the psychology of partnership, the craft of vows, and the often-misunderstood terrain where love and conflict live side by side. I unpack why the descendant tends to fall into the unconscious, how projection turns lovers into open enemies, and what it takes to retrieve the disowned parts of ourselves without losing our center. Along the way, we lean on process-oriented therapy—primary identity, edge figures, and the art of crossing the edge in small, safe doses—to rebuild agency in how we relate.

Myth deepens the map. With Venus and Saturn shaping Libra’s field, the seventh house blends connection with commitment and reminds the ego (the Sun in fall here) that true partnership requires tempering. Hera, guardian of marriage, stands for vows, structure, and integrity, while her painful bond with Zeus shows what happens when promise meets perpetual transgression. To balance that image, we look to Hades and Persephone as an unexpected model of secure attachment: a commitment spacious enough to allow difference, cycles, and sovereignty. That tension—freedom within form—becomes a practical guide for healthier boundaries, clearer requests, and more resilient repair.

You’ll leave with tools for “projection hygiene,” fresh ways to read your chart from the descendant, and a simple practice for recruiting your Midheaven as a meta-communicator that can hold both “I am” and “I am not.” If you’ve ever wondered why certain partners, rivals, or patterns keep appearing, this exploration offers a compassionate, grounded path to see them—and yourself—more clearly. Listen now, share this episode with a friend who loves astrology and myth, and if the journey resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what does your descendant want you to reclaim?

*this episode blurb was created by Buzzsprout's AI

References mentioned in this episode:

• Fritz Perls – Gestalt Prayer
• Howard Sasportas – The Twelve Houses
• Rabbi Hillel
• Carl Jung – Mysterium Coniunctionis
• Arnold (Arnie) Mindell – Process-Oriented Psychotherapy / Process Work
• Brian Clark
• Jason Holley
• Rumpelstiltskin
• Snow White
• Hera
• Zeus
• Cronus (Saturn)
• Rhea
• Amalthea
• Metis
• Persephone
• Hades
• Ariadne
• Dionysus
• Pan
• Echo
• Hermes

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

What happens when we venture beyond the horizon of self and encounter the world? In this profound continuation of our houses journey, Brian Clark and I explore the second half of the astrological wheel - where we meet the other, confront our shadows, and discover our place in the cosmic order.

Recorded during a solar eclipse at the equinox (coinciding with Brian's 76th birthday), our conversation takes on a synchronistic quality that exemplifies how astrology works through us rather than merely being studied by us. Following the thread of Ariadne from Greek mythology, we explore how she reveals family secrets, follows the heroic impulse, and ultimately finds her way to the center after being abandoned - mirroring our own soul journey.

The seventh house brings us to the horizon where we encounter "the other" - that quality in relationships that reveals parts of ourselves we've yet to recognize. As Brian notes, "We marry our own shadow." Moving into the eighth, we face "loving in the face of loss" and discover how betrayal becomes a pathway to consciousness. The ninth house offers rebirth into spirit and wonder, while the tenth shapes our character through vocation and contribution. We then explore the communal eleventh house before concluding with the twelfth - a sanctuary for our exiled parts that need integration.

Throughout our dialogue, we return to Ariadne staring at the sea as Theseus abandons her, then turning toward the center of Naxos where Dionysus awaits. This powerful image captures how our greatest disappointments often lead us to our truest path - when we give back to the sea what was never truly ours and find ourselves essential parts of something greater.

How might your relationship struggles be mirrors revealing aspects of yourself? What ancestral patterns are you carrying in your intimate connections? Where do you find genuine rebirth after painful losses? Join us for this expansive exploration of how we become ourselves through our encounter with the world.

* The blurb above was generated by Buzzprout's AI

To find out more about Brian's work go to astrosynthesis.com.au.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

What can a centuries-old fairy tale teach us about our astrological journey? In this illuminating conversation, jazz musician and professor Ryan Nielsen explores the Grimm Brothers' tale "Allerleira" (Thousand Furs) as a profound map of psychological development through the first six astrological houses.

Ryan shares his personal path from a rigid religious upbringing to discovering the healing language of depth psychology and astrology. Drawing on Marian Woodman's work, we unpack how fairy tales can guide us through healing what Woodman calls "patriarchal consciousness" – defined not as gender but as any culture devoted to power and perfection at the expense of authenticity.

The story follows a princess who flees her father's kingdom disguised in animal furs, finding refuge in a castle kitchen where she works with ashes and soup-making – beautifully illustrating the sixth house themes of humble service, repetition, and alchemical transformation. Through three magical dresses (golden as the sun, silver as the moon, bright as stars), we witness the integration of solar and lunar consciousness necessary for wholeness.

This episode illuminates why regression isn't failure but often necessary healing, how cycles matter more than linear progress, and why the "woodshed" work (as jazz musicians call practice) prepares us for authentic relating. As Jung reminds us, "Real consciousness has to be based upon life experienced. Just talking about things is not enough."

Whether you're curious about astrology, psychological development, or simply love fairy tales, this conversation offers rich insights into the soul's journey toward authenticity and belonging – and how sometimes, we must don a mantle of a thousand furs before we can reveal our true cosmic nature.

* Writeup generated by Buzzsprout AI

Cover Art: Illustration from p. 281 of The Green Fairy Book (1902) by Andrew Lang

Ryan's New Website is yourveryownlife.com

References

Authors / Thinkers

• Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score
  
  
• Gabor Maté – When the Body Says No / The Myth of Normal
  
  
• Peter Levine – Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma
  
  
• Donald Kalsched – The Inner World of Trauma
  
  
• Marion Dunlea – BodyDreaming in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma
  
  
• Marion Woodman – Leaving My Father’s House / The Pregnant Virgin 
  
  
• Liz Greene – archetypal/psychological astrology 
  
  
• James Hillman – archetypal psychology
  
  
• Brian Clark – astrologer, mythologist, soulful astrology Astrosynthesis
  
  
• Melanie Reinhart – Chiron and the Healing Journey 
  
  
• Anne Baring – The Myth of the Goddess / writings on lunar consciousness

Myths / Fairy Tales

• Allerleirauh (Aller Lira) – Grimm Brothers tale (“Thousandfurs” or “All-Kinds-of-Fur”)
  
  
• Handless Maiden – Grimm Brothers
  
  
• Cinderella (Aschenputtel) – Grimm Brothers
  
  
• The Frog King – Grimm Brothers
  
  
• The Three Feathers – Grimm Brothers
  
  
• Ariadne’s Thread (Greek myth, labyrinth and Minotaur)
  
  
• Dionysus & Folis (Centaur’s jar of wine) – myth of Hercules and the centaurs 

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Dive deep into the astrological sixth house with medical astrologer Kira Sutherland as she unpacks the fascinating connection between health, routine, and mythology. This episode reveals how this often-overlooked house serves as the critical integration point between our personal journey and our relationships with others.

The conversation weaves through mythology, with Artemis emerging as the powerful sixth house archetype – self-contained, knowledgeable, and deeply connected to healing wisdom. Kira explains why Mars finds its joy here, illuminating how our health requires the same disciplined effort as Hercules' twelve labors. You'll discover the profound relationship between the sixth house (acute illness and preventative health) and its opposition, the twelfth house (chronic conditions and necessary rest).

Perhaps most fascinating is the sixth house's rulership of the small intestine – the organ that literally decides what becomes part of us and what doesn't. This perfect metaphor extends through modern discoveries about the gut-brain axis, confirming ancient astrological wisdom about body-mind connection. The discussion also explores how pets fall under sixth house domain, creating routine and requiring service while teaching us about care cycles.

Whether you're an astrology enthusiast, health-conscious seeker, or mythology lover, this episode offers rich insights into the daily rhythms that sustain well-being. Kira's expertise in both natural medicine and astrology creates a holistic perspective that will transform how you understand your own health practices. Listen now to discover how the sixth house might be influencing your life, and learn practical wisdom for working with these energies more consciously.

* The above episode description was generated by Buzzsprout AI

Discover more about Kira Sutherland at astrologyofhealth.com.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

What happens when we fly too close to the sun? The sixth house of the zodiac teaches us this crucial lesson as we transition from the boundless creativity of the fifth house into a realm where we must learn our limits.

Through the cautionary tales of Icarus and Phaethon—young men who attempted great feats without proper training—we discover why developing skills and respecting boundaries matters. These mythological figures crashed spectacularly because they lacked sixth house wisdom: the discipline to transform raw talent into practical mastery.

Artemis, goddess of the hunt, emerges as our guide through this terrain. Unlike her reckless counterpart Orion who sought to destroy all wilderness, Artemis embodies perfect sixth house energy—skilled with her bow, attuned to natural rhythms, and knowing exactly how much to take from nature without disturbing its balance. Her hunting dogs represent those animal helpers that appear throughout fairy tales, offering instinctual wisdom when we surrender our heroic striving.

Historically, Hellenistic astrologers called this the house of "bad fortune," seeing it as a blind spot to our personality. But modern understanding reveals its gifts: Mars finds its joy here not to bring suffering but to provide the necessary discipline for developing skills through persistent effort. The sixth house isn't glamorous—it's about chopping wood and carrying water—yet these humble routines can become sacred rituals when approached with devotion.

Health also falls under sixth house dominion, with Hygieia (goddess of preventative medicine) and Chiron (whose name means "hands") teaching us that well-being comes through daily maintenance and practical knowledge. When sixth house energy becomes imbalanced through perfectionism or joyless drudgery, we might need to revisit fifth house qualities of play and spontaneity.

As we complete our journey through the sixth house, we prepare for the Descendant—the threshold to the seventh house where we meet others. Having established our individual boundaries and skills, we're ready to engage in relationship with integrity rather than losing ourselves in others.

What limits have you learned to respect in your own life? How might transforming daily routines into devotional practice change your relationship with the mundane? Join us next week when Kira Sutherland returns to discuss the sixth house approach to health and wellness.

*The above write up was generated by Buzzsprout's AI

Resources & Mentions

• Sisyphus & Camus – The Myth of Sisyphus:
• Astro.com – add asteroid Hygieia: astro.com
• Clarissa Pinkola Estés – Mother Night

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

What if Persephone's abduction wasn't just a tragedy, but the beginning of her empowerment? 

Storyteller and dream witch Libby Rose Waite weaves a spellbinding retelling of the Persephone myth that challenges everything we thought we knew about this ancient tale. Rather than focusing solely on Demeter's grief, we witness Persephone's transformation from a silenced princess to the powerful Queen of the Underworld.

The story begins with Persephone trapped between her mother's suffocating love and Olympian expectations, unable to express her creative gifts. When Apollo plays his lyre, she's told not to share her music. When the Muses recite poetry, she's instructed to keep her verses hidden. This painful fifth house experience—being told your creativity isn't worthy—resonates deeply with our modern struggles.

As we descend with Persephone into Hades' realm, something unexpected unfolds. Rather than remaining a victim, she begins to transform the underworld itself—decorating with flowers from Asphodel's fields, arranging stones from Sisyphus's boulder, creating beauty in darkness. In this hidden place, unseen by the judging eyes of Olympus, Persephone discovers her authentic voice and power.

This revelatory episode explores the astrological tension between the fifth house (creative expression) and eleventh house (societal expectations), illuminating how our most profound self-discovery often happens in the places we least expect. Libby and Chris share personal stories of ritual, grief, and honoring the underworld journey, reminding us that sometimes we must descend to truly find ourselves.

As we witness Persephone finally taking her throne beside Hades, we understand that her annual cycle of descent and return isn't just about seasons—it's about embracing all aspects of ourselves, blanketing even our darkest journeys with love, and finding sovereignty in unlikely realms.

*this write up was generated by Buzzsprout's AI

To find out more about Libby's work go here. 

Artwork is from John William Waterhouse - Persephone.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

What happens in our bodies and nervous systems when we engage in spontaneous creativity? How might reclaiming our relationship with pleasure transform our capacity to navigate life's challenges? These questions form the heart of my conversation with Vive Oldham, somatic educator and facilitator of the "Pleasure as a Revolutionary Act" summit.

Vive shares the transformative moment when, burned out from city life, she sat drawing with her young children and discovered something remarkable – after just an hour of creative play, she felt both deeply rested and enlivened. This sparked a nightly art practice that consistently shifted her state regardless of how exhausted she felt beforehand. "My whole physiology would change," she recalls, "and I was like, what is going on?"

This led her to explore the fascinating distinction between exhaustion and lethargy – sometimes what we interpret as needing rest is actually a disconnection that requires engagement through a different channel. Creative expression often provides exactly the pathway needed to move from lethargy back into aliveness and presence.

We dive deep into how modern culture has commodified pleasure, relegating it to "non-necessary" indulgence rather than recognising it as fundamental to human thriving. "Pleasure is always there in the field," Vive notes, but we've been conditioned to disconnect from it and then seek it externally through consumption.

Perhaps most profound was our exploration of pleasure beyond positive emotions. True pleasure, in its deepest sense, is about connection and fully experiencing the range of human feeling – there can be a profound pleasure even in grief when it opens our hearts. This expanded understanding challenges our cultural tendency to avoid discomfort and suggests that developing greater capacity to feel allows us to be more fully present with life's complexities.

Join us for this rich conversation about the Fifth House of astrology, the dance between structure and spontaneity, and how theatrical expression allows us to embody different archetypal energies. Learn how simple creative practices might help you rediscover what brings you to life.

Want to explore more about pleasure as a revolutionary act? Register for Vive's upcoming global summit at viveandco.com where diverse voices will explore the many textures of pleasure beyond indulgence.

*The episode write up above was generated by Buzzsprout's AI.

Cover Art is from Vive: Summer.

People/works mentioned in this epsiode:

Michael Meade
Marion Woodman
Marion Dunlea (Bodydreaming)
Kimberly Ann Johnson (Call of the Wild)
Bill Plotkin (Wild Mind)
Brian & Glenys Clark  (Astro Synthesis)
Chameli Gad 

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Emerging from the ancestral depths of the Fourth House, we enter the vibrant, sun-drenched Fifth—a radiant palace where creativity, pleasure, and passion dance freely. This episode invites you into a profound exploration of the Fifth House not merely as astrological territory, but as the sacred space where your most essential self yearns to play.

We uncover the distinction between bios (the linear story of life) and zoe (the indestructible life force) that Carl Kerényi elaborates in his work on Dionysus. This eternal flame resonates at the core of the Fifth House—where your capacity for joy and creation remains undimmed despite life's challenges. Like the sun that rises reliably each morning, this inner light represents the persistent heart of your being.

Venus finds her joy here, reveling in pleasure without purpose. The Fifth House invites you to create not for acclaim or outcome, but for the pure delight of creation itself. Through exploring myths like Tristan and Isolde's intoxicating romance and Dionysus's wild revelry, we discover how this house beckons us back to the mystery of our sensuous, animal bodies and the timelessness that flows when we're lost in play.

What blocks your access to Fifth House treasures? Perhaps family scripts taught that pleasure is selfish, or heartbreak hardened protective layers around your capacity for joy. Through understanding myths like Narcissus, we glimpse how true self-knowledge becomes the path toward authentic expression.

Join us for this illuminating journey into your creative core—where your inner child awaits rediscovery, where romance first sparked your heart, and where the process of becoming truly, uniquely yourself begins. Your Fifth House holds the key to reconnecting with that inextinguishable divine spark within—ready to warm not just yourself, but everyone around you.

Artwork: La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Frank Dicksee, 1901

Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, Carl Kerenyi

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

The mysterious threshold between the fourth and fifth houses marks one of life's most profound transitions—the journey from our family roots to authentic self-expression. As we cross from Cancer's lunar realm into Leo's solar domain, we face the challenge of leaving familiar patterns behind to discover our unique creative voice.

Through the Algonquin fairy tale of "The Rough-Faced Girl," we discover a powerful metaphor for this astrological passage. Unlike her more familiar Grimm Brothers counterpart, this indigenous Cinderella figure encounters Strong Wind—a warrior with the power of invisibility who can only be perceived by those who speak truth. His invisible nature symbolises the fourth house's hidden ancestral patterns that shape us from below conscious awareness.

Scarred and disfigured by jealous sisters, the Rough-Faced Girl embodies the wounding that can occur in our family systems. Her patient endurance represents the unglamorous but essential inner work of the fourth house—tending the hearth, sweeping ashes, and maintaining dignity despite having her beauty and worth denied. Yet unlike others who attempt to win Strong Wind through deception, she alone speaks honestly, admitting she cannot see him until suddenly—she does.

This moment of truthfulness becomes her liberation. Her perception that Strong Wind pulls his sled with the rainbow and uses the Milky Way as his bowstring connects her to cosmic forces beyond ordinary sight. This symbolizes the fifth house awakening—when we align with our authentic nature and discover the life force that flows through creative self-expression.

The story illuminates how all the houses build upon each other: her disfigured face (first house persona), her tattered rags (second house resources), her sibling relationships (third house), her family wounds (fourth house), and finally her transformation through truth-speaking (fifth house). Through her journey, we glimpse how healing becomes possible when we honor both our roots and our unique creative spirit.

What ancestral patterns are keeping you invisible to yourself? What truth must you speak to cross your own threshold into authentic self-expression? Join me next time as we explore the playful, pleasure-filled realm of the fifth house.

I found this fairytale in a compilation of Cinderella stories from around the world: Cinderella: the Ultimate Collection

The story of the Rough-Faced Girl was explored in the 90s by Rafe Martin and David Shannon. Their book is here. 

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Venture beneath the surface as we explore astrology's most mysterious territory - the fourth house. This is where we cross the threshold of the Imum Coeli (IC), descending to "the bottom of the sky" to discover our deepest foundations.

The fourth house holds the key to understanding your emotional inheritance - not just your physical home or family structure, but the psychic atmosphere you absorbed during your formative years. Like Odysseus longing to return home after years of wandering, we all carry this yearning for belonging deep within our souls.

What masks did you wear in your family of origin? How do you automatically revert to childhood patterns when returning home? The fourth house reveals these personas and adaptation strategies, along with the ancestral legacies that shape your sense of identity and security.

Drawing on rich mythological symbolism, we explore the Minotaur's labyrinth as a metaphor for family secrets and unspoken dynamics. Just as Theseus needed Ariadne's thread to navigate those twisted passages, we need consciousness to face what's been hidden in our family systems. By confronting these shadows with reverence rather than shame, we liberate tremendous energy previously used for repression.

This house represents your roots, without which your tenth house achievements (your reach) cannot be sustained. By establishing a strong foundation through soul-making work in the fourth house, you prepare for the creative self-expression and individuation of the fifth house.

Whether you're a seasoned astrologer or just beginning to explore your chart, this episode offers profound insights into your inner landscape and belonging. Subscribe now to continue our journey through the astrological houses, and consider supporting the show with a five-star review or by becoming a patron at patreon.com/onthesoulsterms.

Artwork is by John Williams Waterhouse "Psyche Opening the Golden Box"

Books Mentioned:

The Twelve Houses by Howard Sasportas

The Inner Planets and The Luminaries by Liz Greene and Howard Sasportas

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Dive beneath the surface of your astrological chart with renowned astrologer Melanie Reinhart as we explore the mysterious fourth house - what she beautifully describes as "a place of gentle mysteries."

The fourth house sits at the very bottom of our chart, marked by the Imum Coeli (IC) - "the bottom of the sky" - or what Melanie playfully calls the "I don't see" or "I can't see." This midnight point of our chart plunges down into our ancestry, our time in the womb, and perhaps back to our very conception. Unlike the visible achievements of our tenth house, this territory operates in darkness and silence - yet holds some of our deepest healing potential.

We discuss Dane Rudhyar's fascinating description of this house as "to establish" - a place where experiences bind together, creating the energy matrix of our original home and root system. Through the fairy tale of the Three Feathers, we explore how fourth house work often requires descending through a trapdoor into our foundations, where what appears initially as a toad may transform into a princess when approached with simplicity and acceptance.

Melanie offers profound insights about how we might project expectations onto our family of origin through the fourth house, and how reclaiming these projections could be key to feeling truly "at home" within ourselves. She shares a touching personal story of creating a small talisman bag during extensive travels that became her portable "home," illustrating how fourth house energy can be internalized rather than constantly sought in the external world.

Perhaps most powerfully, we explore the fourth house as our "sacred ground," connecting this to the sacrum - the triangle bone at the base of our spine that anchors our physical stability. Just as the sacrum grounds our body, the fourth house grounds our sense of self and belonging in the world.

Whether you're new to astrology or a seasoned chart explorer, this conversation will transform how you understand the deepest foundations of your chart and your life. Experience the fourth house as a source of profound medicine for your soul's journey.

Melanie's Website 

Artwork: The Rescue by John William Waterhouse.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Have you ever noticed how children learn through their bodies—running, jumping, playing—long before they absorb abstract concepts? This natural embodied learning reveals the true essence of the third house in astrology, traditionally associated with siblings and education but holding far deeper mysteries.

Join astrologer and herbalist Cameron Allen as he unveils the lunar wisdom of this often-misunderstood astrological house. Unlike the broadcasting energy of the ninth house that transmits knowledge from on high, the third house is where wisdom becomes incarnated, where philosophy transforms into embodied experience. Here, in the darkness near the bottom of the chart where the Moon finds its joy, we discover how our earliest and most authentic learning happens.

Cameron explores how the third house represents the dance of night consciousness—that polytheistic realm where multiple identities within us can emerge and express themselves. When daylight's monotheistic ordering principle fades, we access the morphic, dreaming wisdom that connects us to prophecy, divination, and direct knowing. This explains why profound insights often arrive in dreams or during those mysterious hours after midnight.

The conversation ventures into fascinating territory: the connection between Chiron (whose name means "hand") and third house bodily communication; how ancestral lineages speak through third house energies; and why modern screen-based "communities" fail to provide the true relational field this house represents. Cameron shares personal experiences of accessing different identities through night-time ritual practice, revealing how stepping into third house consciousness allows hidden aspects of ourselves to emerge.

Looking to deepen your astrological practice? Try stepping outside when the Sun is traveling through your third house at night and notice what emerges in that lunar environment. Your body might remember wisdom your mind has forgotten.
 
Join us in Santa Fe this October for Living Astrologies, where this conversation continues in person. Although the conference is full, you can get on the waitlist and see what might happen.

Artwork is Sandro Botticelli, Mary With the Child and Singing Angels (detail), 1477

To learn more about Cameron and his work go here.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

In this episode of On the Soul’s Terms, recorded under the olive trees of Epidavros, I’m joined by Collette Davis for a slow, winding exploration of Hansel and Gretel through the lens of the 3rd house.

We sit with the archetypal threads of this beloved fairy tale—breadcrumb trails, dark forests, devouring mothers, and sibling bonds—and reflect on how they echo through the astrological terrain of early learning, memory, intuition, and the rational mind. The 3rd house becomes a space not just of communication, but of somatic knowing, lunar memory, and the stories we carry from childhood.

Tender and layered, this episode meanders like a path through the woods—sometimes lit by the moon, sometimes lost in shadow. Join us for a mythic descent recorded live in the land of Asclepius, just days before entering the dreaming chambers.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

We leave behind the sensual landscape of the Second House and wander into the neighbourhoods of the Third — the realm of language, mimicry, siblings, and the looping rhythms of early life. In this episode, we explore how our voice is shaped by what we echo, the childhood accents we absorb, and the environments that teach us how to move, speak, and remember.

From the myth of Echo to the sibling stories of Hermes and Apollo, Castor and Pollux, and even Cinderella, we reflect on how our earliest dynamics continue to ripple through our adult relationships. We touch on memory, mood, writing, gossip, vehicles, and the lunar rhythms of daily life — all woven together in the Third House’s tapestry.

As always, astrology is our map, but myth, story, and experience fill in the terrain. Plus, a brief invitation to “untrain your parrot” — and begin listening for the deeper voice beneath the chatter.

Speaking of... 

Untrain Your Parrot is a book by Elizabeth Hamilton

The Sibling Constellation by Brian Clark is also discussed.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

In this episode of On the Soul’s Terms, we descend into the second house through the haunting and luminous fairy tale of The Handless Maiden. This story, from the Brothers Grimm and echoed in myths like Sedna’s from the Arctic, brings us into the realm of value, worth, the body, and the living vs. the dead.

We explore what it means to be exchanged for gold, to lose one’s hands — the instruments of touch, feeling, and connection — and what it takes to grow them back. Through three acts, this tale guides us into the darker forests of the psyche, through numbered pears and silver hands, all the way to a forest hut where "Here All Dwell Free" is written above the door.

Along the way, I reflect on themes of self-worth, distorted transactions, the tension between the second and eighth houses, and the Saturnian seven-year phases of healing and integration.

Also included is the Russian variation, where instinct and love regrow the maiden’s hands, and a dive into the Sedna myth — offering a vision of deep healing below the surface.

A rich journey through myth and astrology, and an invitation to check in on what you truly value — and what you may have unconsciously traded away.

💫 If you enjoy the show, consider leaving a review or sharing it with someone who’d love this story too.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

In this episode, I sit down with astrologer, herbalist, and movement practitioner Cameron Allen. We first crossed paths earlier this year at the FAA conference on the Gold Coast, and it felt like one of those instant recognitions—someone you haven’t met, but already know.

This conversation is the first of two. It’s more of a landing—an invitation to meet Cameron and listen in on the threads he’s weaving together. We touch on embodiment, herbal medicine, medical astrology, Unani Tibb, and the ways in which ancient healing traditions from the so-called West have been fragmented or forgotten. We also speak about temperament theory, dream healing, the inner physician, and the marriage between logic and intuition.

Second house themes run in the background throughout: value, body, practice, and how we care for ourselves and others. The next episode will move more consciously into the third house terrain. But for now, this is a beginning—open-ended, relational, and full of possibility.

Find out more about Cameron and his work at: cadreamplanet.com

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

In this second chapter of our journey through the houses, we leave behind the bright burst of first breath and enter the quiet, grounding terrain of the Second House — the house of value, money, body, worth, and what it means to truly belong here.

We reflect on what happens after Rumpelstiltskin tears himself into the earth — a fitting image for the descent from the daimonic into the material. From here, we explore the deep resourcing available in the 2–4am hours, the hiddenness of self-worth, and the tension between longing and ingenuity.

We turn to myth and story: Psyche’s journey to the underworld, King Midas and his golden touch, Hermes and the sacred cattle, and the Fisherman’s insatiable wife. Along the way, we question what is enough, what is truly ours, and how far we’ve wandered from the Temple of Hera — where the first coins were once minted as offerings to the Great Mother.

This episode invites a soulful reckoning with our possessions, our body, and our relationship to the material world. What have we been given? What do we give back? And what might it mean to remember the sacred nature of value itself?

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

In this episode of On the Soul’s Terms, I’m joined once again by mentor, astrologer, and long-time friend Brian Clark for a slow, reflective journey through the first six houses of the astrological chart.

Rather than treating the houses as categories to memorise, we approach them as inner dwellings—places of memory, emotion, ancestral inheritance, and lived experience. From the Fool’s first step in the 1st house, through embodiment in the 2nd, early relationships in the 3rd, the deep dreaming of the 4th, the creative risks of the 5th, and the quiet rituals of the 6th—this is a conversation about how we come to inhabit our lives.

Along the way, we touch on dreams of home, shame in the body, sibling constellations, Hillman’s vision of soul in place, and the beauty that arrests us into presence.

This is the first of a two-part series. Brian will return in September for the second half of the wheel, where we’ll explore the 7th through 12th houses.

As always, this episode is best taken slowly. Let it move like a conversation over a long afternoon.

—

Resources & References:

• Brian Clark’s book Sibling Constellations
• Sign up for the Mythic Threads newsletter
• Explore your own chart

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

In this sidecar episode, we enter the strange and potent dream of Rumpelstiltskin, one of the darker Grimm tales — a story of impossible expectations, survival bargains, and the long road to reclaiming one’s name.

Told in three acts, this tale speaks directly to themes of the First House: identity projected too early, the mask we learn to wear, the persona that helps us survive but at a cost. We explore the alchemical pressure to turn straw into gold, the demonic helper who extracts a price, and the mercurial magic of naming what was once hidden.

As the tale unfolds, we meet the shadow side of the daimon, dance around the fire with the trickster, and reflect on how the voice of Mercury — the messenger, the devil, the guide — helps us reclaim our sovereignty.

A story for anyone who's ever felt the weight of someone else’s expectations, or bargained with a part of themselves just to get through.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

In this opening episode of the new series, we take our first breath—together—into the mystery of the houses.

We begin at the threshold: the Ascendant, the eastern horizon, the moment of arrival. Before the name, before the role, before even the voice—there is presence. The First House is where the self enters the world, where the daimon is born alongside you, and where the mask you’ve crafted begins to take shape.

We explore the house not as a concept but as a temple: a soul-place with doors, rooms, and echoes. Along the way, we travel with Hermes, Artemis, Chiron, and Dionysus through their birth stories, reflecting on the archetypal imprint left by our own. What were we rewarded for? What mask did we learn to wear? And what name—spoken or unspoken—have we carried since?

This is the house of beginnings, of first impressions, and of the great “I am.” But like all things in astrology, it casts a shadow: the seventh house whispers “You are” or even “You are not.”

This episode invites you to remember the feel of that first doorway. To re-enter the house of your rising sign. And to meet again—perhaps for the first time—the part of you that’s always been becoming.

🔑 Questions to reflect on:
 – What is your rising sign, and how do you feel about it?
 – What mask have you worn, and is it still serving you?
 – What name did you inherit—and what name lives inside your bones?

🌿 Stay tuned next week for our fairy tale sidecar episode on Rumpelstiltskin, and the week after, a deep mytho-astrological conversation on the houses with the brilliant Brian Clark.

🌀 Ready to wander the wheel. Let’s begin.

[🔗 Link to astro.com birth chart calculator
 

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Happy Equinox! As the Zodiac resets, we step into the rebirth energy of Aries, marking a new astrological year. Two years ago, we journeyed through the myths of the constellations—now, it’s time for a new adventure.

In this episode, I introduce our next 12-month exploration: the houses of astrology. If the planets are the characters and the signs describe how they express themselves, the houses reveal where the action takes place—the sacred spaces of our soul’s journey.

Together, we’ll move through the twelve houses, uncovering their mythic dimensions, the gods who reside within them, and what they reveal about our lives.

So, grab your map—our journey begins soon with the 1st House and the mighty Ascendant.

✨ Want to follow along with your own chart? Find your houses by entering your birth details here: Astro.com Birth Chart Calculator

Tune in, subscribe, and join me for the ride.

Join the Newsletter!

Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
Please consider becoming a Patron to support the show!
Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.