Astrologer Rebecca Gordon Forecasts 2021
Since the onset of the pandemic, there have been certain industries seeing substantial gains. We know them as: grocery stores, fitness equipment companies, telemedicine, and yes—astrology.
I personally became interested in astrology in 2011, when I was a senior in college. I remember logging on to tarot.com every morning of second semester to read the guy who broke my heart’s horoscopes in tandem to mine. Friends thought I was off my rocker, but I was just so fascinated by how much I related to my sun sign: Gemini and how my rising and moon sign also fit together to validate my strengths and weaknesses.
Thanks to millenials over the past few years, astrology has solidified into mainstream culture with meme accounts, big tech backed apps like CoStar and Sanctuary, and articles on sun signs on almost every online magazine, but celestial analysis has been around for 2400 years. To gain more perspective on how I can further use astrology to my benefit, I reached out to renowned New York City astrologer and founder of her 16-year running Astrology School, Rebecca Gordon. In addition to taking me through a deep dive of my birth chart, she also demoed her Astrology for Entrepreneurs course with me by unpacking The Dandy’s birth chart. Yep, you read that right—even businesses have a time, place and date they came to fruition and Rebecca has helped guide hundreds of entrepreneurs through decoding their planetary birth maps.
As the resident astrologer for Harper’s Bazaar and collaborator with brands like Chanel, Christian Louboutin, and the Four Seasons, Rebecca is truly one of the best astrologers in the business. Her true passion lies in teaching astrology and helping people find their life callings through virtual, live and pre-recorded Astrology courses and workshops for the novice, professional and occasional Astrologer.
Rebecca just launched her Luminary League, which you can learn more about in our interview. We spoke about the common misconceptions of astrologers, what it’s like being an astrologer in a relationship, what she predicted would happen in 2020, and what she sees happening for us globally this year. Hint: it’s a whole lot of newness.
And here’s the link to download your Free Lunar Guide to sync your days with the Moon Signs for success!
You have such an interesting job. What led you to become an astrologer and educator?
Since I was really young I was interested in astronomy and had an obsession with the vastness of it all. My father is an anthropologist, so I spent most of my early life traveling to places like South America and Africa watching the skies in different countries. Then, a neighbor of mine, who later became my stepmother, was an astrologer and I studied weekly with her through high school. Astrology is all I did through high school and college; I was always going around asking friends to let me read their charts. I was around 24 years old when I realized that astrology would be my full-time career. Mentors such as Susan Miller were big influences. Since I could not find myself a group of peers to study with, I started the process of creating a school and I’m still running the school now, which is a full curriculum and globally online.
I find it interesting that from just talking to you briefly, you don’t exude that kind of new age, incensey, Free People energy like many other astrologers and psychics I’ve come across. You’re incredibly succinct and polished. Do you feel that astrologers on a cultural level are perhaps misunderstood? Or that you’re just a rare breed?
There IS a new breed. The internet and social media has really democratized astrology. I used to be more misunderstood 20 years ago when people would ask me to read their palm after I said I was an astrologer. Now, the general public knows about Mercury Rx and their sun, moon and rising signs. When I began in the 90’s, astrology was definitely not cool and at that point I really felt the need to rebrand it. Now, it’s taken on a whole new life of its own and grown exponentially.
Since there is so much misinformation out there, I’ve felt even more of a desire to grow my school and to teach quality astrology with integrity, while also making it accessible.
How would you describe what astrology is and why the placement of the planets has so much dictation over someone's personality?
Astrology is really the language of energy and the poetry of life. It is the correlation between planetary movements and the happenings on earth. Most people know about their sun sign and of course, the sun is one part of the whole chart. The chart is a snapshot of the sky at the exact moment you're born, and there will never be a time in the whole history of the universe that there will be a chart again anything like yours. So there's such a uniqueness to each moment in time.
I look at it like the sky is this sort of ongoing musical piece or symphony. The planets are always moving and when someone is born, it’s as if a song gets paused in a certain refrain. This then becomes one’s birth chart, kind of like someone’s unique soundtrack. And the thing about that is, it's a moment when many concurrent cycles are happening.
So a lot of what we look at in astrology is how your personal planets interact with your generational planets, which is how you relate to your society. The interactions between these two buckets of planets and the conversations they're having tell a unique story of the soul. I look at all of the points in the chart, sometimes even fixed stars, and how they interact.
What I’m doing in a lot of my work is helping people to reacquaint with their own ecosystem so that they can live a life that is most resonant with who they really are. Many people will get physically sick or will feel mentally not at ease if they’re not living a life that's in harmony with who they are. My favorite moments in a session is when people start to remember who they are and what they truly love. People have been thrown wayward because of societal rules and parenting that makes people comply, because there's not a sense of individuation that's instilled. Astrology reminds you of who you are; it's like a coming home.
So in terms of using predictive astrology, what did you see happening in the sky in 2020? Was there any way to see that there was major turbulence ahead?
Yes, so this is something I have been looking at for years. It's extremely rare to see so many planets gather in one sign. In 2020, Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter all gathered in the sign of Capricorn and we see that whenever planets gather in a sign, something big is happening on Earth. The last time the planets gathered in a sign like this was in Aquarius in the 90s when the Internet began. But this was even bigger. This specific grouping of planets had not happened in thousands of years in this way. So we knew it was going to be very hard and heavy. Some astrologers were predicting a plague, but what I saw was martial law. I saw patterns of fascism and I was like, ‘are we going to become this fascist country?’ I did not know how these things were happening, but I saw this extreme level of rule and sublimation. And at that point, I didn't know it would be because of a lockdown, because of the coronavirus.
Wow. So what classes would you recommend to someone who wants to use their own chart to decode the best times to take action in their lives? What tools do you give students to figure things out for themselves?
I have a full curriculum of classes and the beginners class is wonderful if you want a starter. In that class, you learn how to read your own birth chart and the charts of anyone you want--friends, family, etc. That class is where a lot of people decide if they want to become an astrologer or if they just want to use it in their life in tandem with whatever else they do. It also gives you the tools to work with the planetary cycles, which is key. And that's a practice I do every day. The more you work with the cycles, the more you're naturally attuned to them and can work with your intuition leading the way. Also, Astrology for Entrepreneurs is one of our most popular courses.
How can we apply The Dandy’s birth chart--birthdate April 21, 2020-- to navigate The Dandy’s future and show other entrepreneurs how they can too?
The first thing I notice about the chart of The Dandy is that it has a Taurus sun, Cancer rising and Aries moon. So let's first talk about Sun Conjunct Uranus in the 11th house. The Dandy is here to stay. It's an earthy, solid Taurus sign, but it's conjunct Uranus, meaning you're here to push the limits and challenge others to think in different ways to create new perceptual awareness. Based on Sun Conjunct Uranus, Uranus is the planet that spins the opposite of all the others. So, it's saying “we're going to do this a different way.” It’s the rebel.
It's in the 11th House, which is the house of the collective community. So the Sun Uranus is here to help other people and really help the community and be a resource. It's really a strong business chart. It looks like you actually might have asked an astrologer, but you didn't. We also see that it's a Cancer rising, which is a nurturing sign. There's a sense of warmth and heart. We’re seeing a connection to women and supporting other people. You have a healthy ecosystem of fire, earth, air and water, and that's actually really good for a business. That's what I encourage when coaching entrepreneurs on choosing a business chart, too.
So an entrepreneur could use this and then look at their chart for the month ahead and decide when is best to make certain decisions?
I use this in my own life and I consult companies using astrology to predict the best times for a company to do various endeavors. For example, what we would do is we can look at your chart and see where the Jupiter Saturn conjunction is at the moment. I'm going to pull up a transit wheel and you're going to see Jupiter just under the 9th house of your chart. It will be there for about a year, and that tells me that your strongest most auspicious influences are going to be in the 9th house, which is the realm of publishing, broadcasting, and media. This is a year to cast a wide net and spread your message. What better transit for a magazine than Jupiter in the 9th house. That happens every 12 years. So it's one of your best years to really impregnate consciousness with your ideas. Then in May of 2022, Jupiter enters your 10th house, which is the realm of career, fame, honor, success, so it’s quite a good year. There is something really beautiful about this business with Neptune and Pisces at the top. It has a visionary aspect.
But I can also see times when a business should lie low and rest. You don't always have to be on and launching and doing things. But even on the monthly cycles, the chart can show wonderful times for launches. And I use all of this in my own business.
As far as relationships, Jupiter and Pluto are in your seventh house of partnership, this shows that partnerships and other people play a big part in this business. I think you're doing all of these wonderful interviews with people, too.
Yeah. Can't do it alone. This is all great news and so cool to see. To switch gears, what's once insecurity that you've had to overcome in your life?
I never thought I was ready. And thankfully, I've had wonderful mentors who literally pushed me off the cliff. I love to mentor people as well, and when it's time, to help push them off the cliff, because I really know the wound of not ever feeling ready.
That feeling plagued me for a lot of years and I think it slowed me down until life started to happen very quickly, and then I was like ‘Wow, I don't have time to get ready in the way that I would want to.’ I just have to show up. And there was one time in 2005 when I was asked to speak at this gallery in Chelsea for an astrological event. The press was there, and I had written so many notes for the talk, because I was over-prepared. I remember despite having these notes, I looked out at the audience and completely froze. Pure silence. And this was such a breakthrough point for me. I decided at that moment, I would just focus on one person.
And I spoke directly to her. That's how I realized that this job is about helping people, it’s not about me showing up. I am simply the channel for these people to receive astrology and guidance.
We are all ultimately a lot more ready than we think. It's not just about how many books you've read or classes you've taken, there is an innate wisdom in each person, and I really try to help people acquaint with the inner wisdom.
So then in terms of relationships, I know it is said that certain sun signs mesh better with others, but have you seen relationships ever work out with opposing signs?
Oh, all the time. Those are some of the best relationships. In fact, one of the most notable studies was done by Carl Jung about marriage partners, and most marriage partners either have opposing sun or moon signs. I tend to look at charts as an ecosystem, so if your ecosystem looks like rivers running through the mountains, how is that going to interact with an ecosystem that is this just pure desert?
Also in some relationships there's the feeling of magnetism which can't be denied and things like that which show up in conjunctions to the nodes. For example, relationships can be very overpowering if a planet like Pluto is involved and relationships can be extremely helpful if Jupiter is involved. They can be very long-term and serious if Saturn's involved. So, there is so much nuance in all planetary configurations, but I think knowing this helps some people deal with rejection, because they can see that a person has a different ecosystem than they do and so they don’t have to take it personally. I also love to work through charts with client couples.
Have you ever been in a relationship where from the get-go, you’re wanting to know the person's birthday and birthplace, and they get weirded out? Or not really, because they know it's your job?
When I was in high school and college, I would do everybody's chart when I met them. And now I actually want to know less. I like to watch the art of reality play itself out now. I will probably look later down the road and especially if there's any red flags, maybe I'll have a look. But I think it's really important to not micromanage your reality with astrology. That's not why astrology is here. We also need to really live our lives, and this is one of the tenets in our school. You know, you don't need to see someone naked when you first meet them. It's a little TMI. We don't need to know that much initially. And of course, when you just start studying, everybody wants to know everything about everybody and I get that. But it's healthier to meet people and naturally explore the dynamics.
My partner and I are both astrologers and we did not want to look at each other's charts for a while because we wanted to just see how our relationship would play out. And then we found out that we had some of the most amazing astrological aspects, but it was nice to have it play out naturally. It would have felt contrived to think we're supposed to be a certain way and it would put too much pressure on it.
So it’s better down the line for like problem solving and seeing strengths and weaknesses.
Exactly. It really helps contextualize any challenges because you see that there's larger forces at work. One of the greatest things that the public can receive from astrology is that it helps people realize at certain junctures of their life, that they are not crazy. Sometimes people feel like they are overtaken by an emotion or some situation and they have heightened anxiety or depression. A lot of people come to astrology at points like this. Astrology shows the patterns at work in their life and contextualizes it in terms of something like a Pluto transit. Or someone could be feeling extremely lethargic or depressed and we can see Neptune is on their sun.
Seeing that level of recognition can help the client embrace the transit and explore the deeper meaning of why it’s happening. When someone understands why, it’s easier to open up. Beyond context, it also gives a timeline. The timeline is key, because you see when it’s going to be over and that gives it a beginning, middle and end. A lot of people feel relief in that awareness.
It’s definitely therapeutic and can be used to confirm so many feelings people are having. On an ending note, I know you’ve just launched your new Luminary League. What is it?
I've been working on this Luminary League for quite a while now, because there's many things I've shared over the last 20 years of teaching astrology, but there's also been a lot that I have kept to myself. Lately I've been questioning myself: why have I kept these things so gated?
The Luminary League is a monthly membership and community where we’re going to work with the astrological aspects of each month. I will teach some of the ritual practices that help you embody astrology that have really transformed my life. This is also based on the current changes on our planet right now and where I see the changes and innovation happening in the next five years.
As a society, we’ve been indoctrinated in many ways and people feel like they're in a cattle herd shuffled around. The skies show that we’re coming into a period of innovation and new beginnings more than any other year that I've seen.
People are not necessarily in that growth mindset yet, either. Many people are saying they just want life to go back to “normal” after the pandemic, like let's just go back to the old and that's not really where we’re at. So, I really want to talk about the larger trend that's happening and how we can all actually channel the energies of these planets and be at the helm of this revolution and the change that's happening on our globe.
It’s interesting because yesterday I was thinking like it sort of feels like we're in this waiting pattern for things to become “normal” again. But it's like, what is that even going to look like? It’s never going to be what it was, you know?
Yeah, exactly. So we have to be really changing our paradigm into becoming creators rather than consumers more than anything. And not only creators, but innovators and thinkers that live courageously. We have to be willing to take risks more than ever right now. We need time to explore ideas and to share ideas--so the Luminary League is also going to be sort of like this petri dish. A place where people can experiment and collaborate, build relationship, create new realities, and have a support system that will galvanize the world that we want to live in versus going back. We need to actually establish new systems and new ways of doing many things and in order to do that community and accountability are key. I love to mentor and this will give me a chance to mentor many people at once. I'm very excited about it!