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“You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here.”
— Alan Watts
So… what is Astrosomatics?
Let’s break it down:
Astro is from the Greek “astron”, meaning ‘the stars’: reminding us to expand our visioning and our remembering outward, beyond our day-to day, toward energies that connect us all as inhabitants of this beautiful planet.
Soma is greek for ‘living body’: reminding us to center our experience within the wisdom of our sovereign bodies.
Somatics is a term coined by in 1976 by philosopher Thomas Hanna. He defined somatics as "...the field of study dealing with somatic phenomena, i.e., the human being as experienced by himself (or herself) from the inside." Somatics emphasizes mind/body connection through awareness of the body as it is experienced from our own internal perception of ourselves.
Although this idea of somatics was defined using specific movement techniques, I expand the practices of somatic work to other practices involving our personal awareness of our living bodies, including breathwork, vocalization/singing, movement, and expressive arts.
Why Astrosomatics?
At its essence, Astrosomatics is about belonging.
It’s about belonging to ourselves through learning and re-membering ways of connecting with our bodies, our emotions, and our intuition.
It’s also about belonging to our larger universe through learning and re-membering to connect to the cycles of the planets, stars, and celestial bodies. This includes the cycles of the sun, moon, and other planets that influence us, as well as the cycles of the seasons of local environments here on planet Earth.
Astrosomatics connects us to our bodies, to the earth, and to cycles and energies larger than us, from the universe beyond.
Let’s make it personal:
My interest in the stars above started at a young age, staring at the constellations and moon phases and meteor showers in my backyard in Santa Fe.
I use astrology to understand myself, other people, our similarities, differences, and fluctuations of seasons in our lives. It is a symbolic language, a weather report, a tool, a quantum experience.
Funnily enough, my passions for embodiment and somatic awareness came much later. I started my young adulthood pursuing academia (anthropology and international development), moved along to the (heady and abstract) art world, and spent the past decade in the world of tech entrepreneurship and startup life. While all of these interests were fascinating parts of my journey so far in life, I found myself over the years becoming more and more disconnected from my body, and thus, my emotions, my intuition, and thus my authenticity. Astrology was a side-hobby that reminded me of the importance of self inquiry and self care, but I always pushed it aside with a disclaimer of “I don’t realllly believe in that…”
It wasn’t until I got pregnant and gave birth to my daughter in 2018 that I truly deepened my passion for- and practice of- breath, movement, voice, and somatic awareness.
Combining the two- As above, So below- has allowed me to feel more present, connected, and inspired than I ever have. I am so grateful to be able to be a sponge and soak up what the collective is sending my way as the fields of both astrology and somatics emerge in this metamodern era, expand, and connect. I hope to impart some of this wisdom to you here, through musings, writings, and audio/video practices.
My teachers, guides & influences:
I have had the incredible honor of learning from the following teachers in the disciplines of astrology, somatics, breathwork, voice, and beyond:
Astrology:
Sam Reynolds: Unlock Astrology: Traditional & Modern Intensive
Diana Rose Harper: Celeste Natura- Herbalism and Traditional Astrology
Sabrina Monarch: Evolutionary Astrology Intensive
Christina Cardill: Radiant Astrology, The Astrology of Midlife Evolution
Andrea Dupuis: Sacred Astrology, Rising Woman Astrology
Kelsey Rosetort: Human Design for Astrologers
Renee Sills: Embodied Astrology (amazing platform with incredible guest speakers)
Indira Allegra: Beyond Domination
Jojopahmaria Nsoroma, David Nicol, and Caroline Bergeron: Chiron Course
Other astrologers who have influenced me greatly:
Demetra George, Jessica Lanyado, Ari Felix, Alice Sparkly Kat, ET Shipley, Pallas Augustine, Chani Nicholas, Renee Sills, Stephen Forrest, Richard Tarnas, Stephen Arroyo, Jeff Henshaw, Virginia Rosenberg, Rob Brezny and many more.
Somatic Practice:
Nervous System, Polyvagal Theory & Psychology:
Embodied Conflict Resolution Certificate (Kai Cheng Thom) The Embodiment Lab
Nervous System School (Jessica Maguire): Vagus Nerve Program
Kimberly Ann Johnson: Activate Your Inner Jaguar Somatics Course
Psychology Coursework (Santa Fe Community College)- Abnormal Psychology and Developmental Psychology
Somatic Experiencing Basic Training (Peter Levine)
The Embodiment Institute (Prentis Hemphill)- The Practice Space, Embodiment Fundamentals, Embodiment Origins
Breathwork:
Integrative Breath (Dr. Rae Riedel & Steph Magenta): Trauma Informed Breathwork Facilitator Training - 7 months (in progress)
Sword & Lotus Breathwork (Tai Hubbert): Foundations of Facilitation Certification - 18 hours
YogaBody (Lucas Rockwood of Yoga Teacher’s College), Breathing Coach Certification - 15 hours
Our Breath Collective (Cass Ghiorse and Sam Whiting): Breath is Movement
Our Breath Collective (Reis Paluso and Luke Weinstein): Breathwork Retreat, Topanga, CA
Sister Sister Breathwork (Treska Stein): Breathe Into Ease Group Intensive
Movement (Yoga, Martial Arts, Dance):
Yin Warriorship Series (Jaye Morolla)
Yoga of Heart (Mark Whitwell): Breath & Yoga, Esalen, Big Sur, California
Intuitive Body (Stefana Serafina), Dance and Embodied Empowerment series
Suzannah Friedman Yoga: Chakra Sangha Sessions
Human Garage Fascial Movement
Voice:
Vocal Resonance Method (Larisa Gosla): Vocal Facilitator Certification (4 months, in progress)
Marisa Michaelson Vocal Studio: Voice & the Nervous System Course
Voice Alchemy (Sophie Cooper): Vocal and Embodiment Training
Philosophy/Post-Activism/Emergent World Building:
We Will Dance With Mountains Into the Cracks (Bayo Akomolafe) - Slow study course in partnership with For the Wild
Co-create to Liberate: Using the Arts to Raise Antiracist Kids- 7 week course by Radici Studios (Jennifer Bloomer)
Design Science Studio, coheart 2: 9 month creative mastermind with 144 artists
Spiritual Ecology Workshop, Emergence Magazine (Amrita Bhrohi)
Archaeoastronomy Course, Politecnico di Milano (Giulio Magli, Prof. of Mathematics)
Other thinkers/be-ers who have influenced me greatly:
Joanna Macy, Sophie Strand, Daniel Pinchbeck, Cryptonaturalist, David Abrams, Dra. Rosales Meza, Scout Reina Wiley, Teo Montoya, Daje James, Heather Richardson, Amber McZeal, and so many more…
Thank you all for every profound teaching and snippet of insight that you’ve passed along to me!
Let’s make this a thing:
Subscribe to join the community of people looking to tap into the deep wisdom of the cycles and our bodies.
I’ll be collaborating with some wonderful teachers and friends to host classes, gatherings, and retreats over the course of 2023 and beyond, and I’d love to see you there! Thanks for reading along <3
xxo
Alison
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