Thing Finding Thursday with Ophira Edut
A couple of months ago, I treated myself to an astrological reading with Ophira Edut, one half of the powerhouse combo: The Astro Twins. I had been receiving their weekly newsletter for quite a while (it’s one of the few things I read the moment it pops into my inbox) and have known that working with them has been a not-so-secret weapon in my friend Danielle’s wickedly packed arsenal.
So, it was my time. Oh. My. Word. I was blown away. Now, let me be clear…I don’t exactly have a super solid in with, you know, stars. Any of them. I knew that I was a Libra, but that was about it (really). Now I know that I’m a Libra, Gemini moon, Sagittarius rising. I know about my nodes, my houses. (Boy, do I know about my nodes ‘n houses).
The intensity of the 90 minutes is hard to describe…it’s like I was struck by a lightning bolt of recognition about where I’ve been, where I’m going, why oh why that place is so painful and WHAT OH WHAT that hunger is really all about. Me. But mapped out.
I honestly reflect on that session daily. In fact, several times daily. I've moved products and projects around...my office too. I've refined strategies, made hires and decisions (good ones) based on that hour and a half. I've made peace with aspects of my personal life and started fires in dead spaces.
So when Ophira told me about the new course that she and Tali, her sister, had created called “Become Your Own Astrologer” I knew it was time to introduce her to you crazy cats.
In this video, we talk about Ophi's path, the tele-class, and how astrology may be a boffo tool for you, the Thing-Finding crowd.
{Three things I want you to know: 1) I AM an affiliate for this course, absolutely. 2)Early bird pricing ends Sept 15th. 3) Not sure if Mercury was being his saucy self and being in retrograde and all (I’ll have to ask Ophi) but for reasons known only to my Call Recorder and the stars, I was cut out of this video. Alas.}
Interview with Ophira Edut for Thing Finding Thursday
Tweetworthy Ophira-isms (for your sharing pleasure)
Astrology is like an instruction manual to understanding yourself. (TWEET IT)
When something isn’t easy it carves out a new dimension of your soul. (TWEET IT)
When u know that s.t. may not be easy, u can adjust your expect'ns. (TWEET IT)
Astrology is a tool to give u peace + help u AND people u love make great choices. (TWEET IT)
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AND...
On the topic of things I'd love for you to know, Jennifer Louden + Michele Christensen, two gorgeous beings of heart and light and mad, mad wisdom are offering TeachNow (aff link). 'Cause, Love? You may be a seeker, but you're also a Teacher. They want you to Teach from where you are. They want you to Teach from here. They want you to Teach the lessons that you've learned and are learning. And so do I. Info call is on September 19th.
ANNNND...
Tara Sophia Mohr's Playing Big is just about to open (aff link). This is a heart-opening, game-growing, calling-forth kind of experience that invites you to go deep, held with love and care. Precisely how Tara rolls.
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Transcript of edited interview (for your reading pleasure)
Tanya: So you know what we’re here to talk about today. We’re here to talk about your thing.
Ophira: Yes, my thing which is astrology, but it’s actually empowering people through the lens of astrology.
Tanya: Yeah. How did you find it?
Ophira: Well, my college boyfriend actually did a chart for me as a gift about 20 years ago. I didn’t even really know what it was, but it was this map based on the time, date, and place I was born that showed where all the planets were when I was born.
It was like this instruction manual to understanding myself, it turned out. It made so much sense that I was like, “Okay, there must be something to this.” I started doing them for people and learning how to do them myself.
Tanya: I love that, an instruction manual for understanding yourself which is so clearly where the empowerment piece comes in. Say more about that, please.
Ophira: There are a lot of different types of astrology. Some is more of the doomsday type that’s like scary predictions that you don’t want to know. I don’t like that type of astrology.
Tanya: Not so much.
Ophira: No, but when it’s done right it’s like all the planets were in a specific place at the moment you were born and they each represent a different energy. Some represent the challenges you’ll have, some represent how you are in love, what you were in a past life and what your destiny is, how you communicate, where you’re lucky and where things come easily.
It’s like putting together the puzzle of yourself and having this guide. Of course, there’s free will in there and you get to color in between these lines however you want, but I found it to be very validating and very empowering and enlightening to understand, “Okay, I have four planets in Scorpio, but I’m a Sagittarius so I have this intense Scorpio way about me as well as a fun, happy go lucky side.”
You understand all the sometimes contradictory parts of your personality and there’s some freedom from that.
Tanya: I love that, and that was my experience, too. We had a reading a couple of months back that still just sits right here because it was like you said. There’s a way in which you have this ability – you know what the lines are, but you get to color within.
You mentioned ease and one of the many, many, many parts of our conversation that I keep coming back to is where things are super easy, I’m always all about, “How can this be easier? Let there be ease. Invite in the ease.” It was fascinating for me to hear from you why certain things were just really easy for me. I found that very fascinating and where the places of challenge are truly areas of growth and what I’m here to do.
Ophira: Absolutely. Even when something isn’t designed to be easy because it carves out a new dimension of your soul and your personality by how you face those challenges – it builds character, I guess you could say. When you know that something may not be easy, you can adjust your expectations and then you’re not always swimming upstream. You can be like, “Alright, this is going to take me five years to learn instead of five seconds. If I apply myself,” blah, blah, blah.
Or, “Maybe this isn’t even something I need to be spending my energy on in this lifetime. Maybe I’ll put my best energies elsewhere.” It’s very freeing to understand your chart, as well as understanding other people’s.
I find that probably the people who read or work with both of us aren’t only interested in themselves, but they’re really interested in the people around them having a great life. While I was sold on doing my own chart, what really made me fall in love with astrology was how easily I was able to help my friends and loved ones - if they were hung up on a guy or unsure about a job opportunity or what to do next or how to figure out a child.
I just got into a random conversation with a woman at a café today. She asked me what I was doing. I was working on my book and she started opening up about her difficult Gemini daughter and she’s an Aquarius. I was able to give her some peace just in a five minute conversation. She was like, “I want to cry,” and she started by saying she didn’t believe in astrology, really. It’s this tool to give you peace in your heart and help you make choices and help the people you love make great choices in their own best interests.
Tanya: I love that. I have that conversation, too. It usually starts out with a, “I don’t believe all that self development shit you’re talking about."
It’s usually like, “Well, here’s why this is going on in your life.” I love that. It gives them some peace, and again there’s that quality of empowerment.
I know a little bit about your back story. This isn’t where you started. It started with that chart, you were in university. What was going on for you as you decided to zig when maybe you were thinking you probably should have zagged? What was that process like for you when you decided this is it?
Ophira: I went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan and I studied graphic design. I worked as a web designer and a graphic and print designer for a long time, as well as published my own magazine. All very Sagittarian things as it turns out, I learned in hindsight.
I even worked at Ms. Magazine and with women’s empowerment issues, and I still do work on that sort of stuff now – humanitarian things. I found that astrology was the best and fastest way to empower people. It’s really important that we obviously know about the politics and sociology and all the things that are going on in the –isms and all of that.
When you start to talk about those issues, people don’t always want to talk about it. Politics and religion are not always favorite party topics, and I’m the daughter of a very political father and a rabbi mother, so we have two of the taboos in one household. With astrology, it’s a way of giving people advice or even addressing things that they don’t necessarily want to talk about normally in a way that they can still dismiss it as bullshit, so they’re open to it because they might hear something useful but they can still be, “Oh, I don’t believe it.”
Tanya: Awesome, great stuff. I wanted to ask you because I know you have a really exciting teleclass coming up. That sounds very cool. Five weeks. Say more, say more.
Ophira: Five weeks – every Monday in October for an hour and a half we are going to be teaching people how to read their own birth charts, my twin sister and I. We write as The AstroTwins and we’ll be giving that course. It’s called “Become Your Own Astrologer: How to Use Your Chart to Create a Life You Love”.
We’re going to go week by week in looking at what’s your life destiny, how are you wired, compatibility, and we’re going to spend a couple of weeks in all of your relationships. What’s the best career path – really answering those questions that keep you up at night, but not just answering them for you, but teaching you in a very practical, simple way.
No math, no pencils and papers or anything like that. In a simple way you can keep forever how to interpret your and other people’s astrological charts to really understand what’s happening there.
Tanya: Again, I’m just holding that vision of, “Here it is, and you get to color it in however you’d like. Here are the lines that have been drawn by forces beyond you.”
Ophira: Why not have another tool from the toolbox that can come in handy for the rest of your life?
Tanya: Absolutely. Love it, love it, love it. Just hearing your story about how you have this underlying, deep desire for empowerment for others, and then you have this delivery mechanism that totally rocks and you’re so incredibly brilliant at it. I can say that absolutely, it’s just one of the most powerful hours and a half of my life. I’ve been married and had a kid and all that stuff, so it was really an awesome hour and a half.
People who are watching this are in the process of looking for their thing or things and I always invite people to say what is one thing that you would love for people to know who are in the process of looking for their thing? What’s something that you can leave with them?
Ophira: I think that if you’re in a process, you don’t want to get stuck in analysis paralysis. There’s a time to be in the process and a time when you’re spinning your wheels in the mud. You have to know the difference.
I think gaining tools like astrology if that’s the one that speaks to you or coaching helps you get unstuck and make clear choices with peace around those choices and really moving forward. The more you know yourself too, the more you have something to go back to when things get a little confusing.
Tanya: Holla!
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Go find Ophira at her site and on Twitter. Sign up for the AstroTwins newsletter (it comes on Sunday and you really want it to help plan your week...honestly)
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