Welcome to your weekly Cycles of Time highlights, everyone, and welcome to autumn and Libra season! This is your weekly forecast for Sept 23-29, 2024, with my special guest Rebecca Baker, a breathwork facilitator, reiki master, and ceremony and ritual holder of the sacred pause.
Yesterday was the Autumnal Equinox here in the Northern Hemisphere, and Spring Equinox in the Southern. The equinox is a fleeting time of equal day and equal night, beginning our transition into the darker months of the year. Known as Mabon in the Celtic wheel of the year, it is a time of harvesting the goodness that has accumulated within our internal gardens, taking stock of where we’re at as we’ve completed the first half of the Zodiac, which began in March with the Spring Equinox and the start of Aries season.
I began this podcast 6 months ago on the Spring Equinox, so this feels like an important milestone note in this beautiful journey with you all! Thank you so much for listening, reading, commenting, and supporting this work of slowing down and attuning to the seasons each week. Your presence is so appreciated, and I couldn’t be here without you!
Let’s briefly jump into this week in the wheel of the year, and then enjoy a lovely conversation with Rebecca:
This week’s highlights:
Yesterday- Sunday, Sept 22: September Equinox,
aka Mabon in the Pagan Wheel of the Year
Libra season begins!
Human Design/I’Ching:
Mon-Thurs: Gate 46, the Gate of Determination, or Determination of the Self (Virgo-Libra Cusp gate)
Fri-Sun: Gate 18, the Gate of Correction (First full gate of Libra season- more on this next week)
This week’s themes:
Autumnal beginnings
Pausing to dream in the liminal space
Determination to live with delight
Learnings from a perspective of eternal childhood
Our Place in the Wheel of the Year
Medicine Wheel Direction: WEST (Water, Adulthood)
Wuxing Cycle Element: Metal
Pagan Season: Mabon
Zodiac Season: Libra begins (September 22-October 22)
Moon Phase: Waning Moon (next week is the new moon solar eclipse in Libra)
I Ching Hexagram/Human Design: Gate 46 (Mon-Thurs), Gate 18 (Fri-Sun)
46 = Earth over Wind (Sheng: “Rising Up”) or The Gate of DETERMINATION (or DETERMINATION OF THE SELF)
18 = Mountain over Wind (Ku: “Corruption/Decay”) or the Gate of CORRECTION
Equinox Blessings!
How did you ring in the Equinox? Do you have any special celebrations or rituals for this meaningful point in time?
I celebrated this year by participating in my neighborhood’s annual art studio tour in Santa Fe, converting my home into an art gallery for 2 days and showing my paintings and mixed media collages. This year I hung work alongside my partner Jackson’s incredible timescape photography, and my brother and sister in law’s gorgeous woodwork home goods and furniture! It was a lovely way to literally take stock of the work we’ve all created throughout this year so far, and to get to chat about it and share in artistic inspiration with our neighbors and beyond. Over the weekend the winds blew in a much chillier weather pattern, and everyone who came through for the tour were commenting on how it truly suddenly feels like fall, wishing each other a happy equinox.
This weekend I also got the opportunity to chat with my inspiring friend and mentor Rebecca Baker, my guest on the show today. Rebecca’s birthday was yesterday, September 22- the Fall Equinox, Mabon, the cusp of Virgo and Libra seasons, so we got to get deep talking about the profound beauty of her favorite birthday month of September, how the season shows up in her hometown of Devon in the UK, the importance of taking time to pause and be present, and the profound value of liminal spaces.
In the Human Design and Gene Key systems, Rebecca was born when the sun was transiting through Gate 46, the Gate of Determination. This is the gate that is being activated by the sun’s transit right now (from last Friday through this Friday) so we’ll dive into this seasonal shift along with this gate. This transitional gate from Virgo to Libra also happens to be the gate of my Moon and my Mercury in my birth chart, so it’s personally super meaningful to my life, affecting how I communicate and how I feel! No wonder I’ve always felt a resonance with Rebecca, since I first met her as a mentor at my breathwork facilitator training with Integrative Breath.
Rebecca is a ceremony facilitator, reiki master, and licensed breathwork practitioner based in East Devon, in the UK. A lover of creating immersive spaces, through many years of working in the creative arts; she is also a lifelong student of indigenous culture and shamanism. Rebecca combines a deep commitment to personal development with continuous professional development and years of experience holding compassionate, trauma informed space. I met her as my mentor at my facilitator traning with Integrative Breathwork, whose founders now lead Integrative Breathwork in the US and Seven Directions Breathwork in the UK (I highly recommend them both if you are curious about deepening your relationship with yourself through the breath, and learning how to offer it to others!)
Rebecca hosts a monthly circle gathering called the Sacred Pause- I really loved the description she has for the deep need for this space:
“There is a space in between all the doingness of modern life, in which we can listen to our deepest truths, hear the whispers of the world as the seasons’ turn and dream into being the life that we were born to live.
In all ancient cultures there are pauses built in to the turning of the year. Time to reflect, to celebrate, to release the old and to bless the new.
The Sacred Pause is a monthly space to do just that. To notice where we are at in the moment. To ask ourselves ‘how am I?’ to reflect on what is nourishing us, inspiring us or holding us back. To celebrate and to release. To listen, and to share. In community with one another and in connection with glorious nature”
With that beautiful synopsis of this important work, let’s jump right into the interview!
In Conversation with breath coach Rebecca Baker: on Mabon, the Sacred Pause & her sun Gate of Determination
Listen to the podcast interview above (or on Spotify, or anywhere you find podcasts), or read the transcript below!
It's so lovely to have you here on cycles of time, Rebecca. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here. This is Rebecca Baker here with me today. We met when she was a mentor of mine in my breath work facilitator training with integrative breath. And I just, from the moment I met you, I felt a deep resonance, Rebecca, of just, you know, a deep calm and a deep kind of similar presence, and just felt so much support from you during the time that we had together with you as my mentor. And so I'm so grateful that you're willing to talk to me here about your birthday and about this season of your birthday. We're here for this intro to Libra season episode, and, and Rebecca's birthday is on Sunday or yesterday from the time that we'll release this episode. And that's, yeah, September 22.
So thank you again so much for being here.
Rebecca Baker00:17:12 - 00:17:29
It's really beautiful to be here. Since you've begun the podcast, it's really spoken to me as well. I love to talk about cycles of time, and it's really special to be here to talk just days before my birthday and in the same month. You're a September birthday as well, Alice.
That's right. Yeah. My birthday was September 8 in the gate of confusion in Virgo season. And so, yeah, it was fun to do a deep dive into my own kind of chemistry of the season. And this time of year is one of my favorite times of year, for sure. And I love to talk about it as well. So looking forward to diving in. We'll talk about it from a lot of these different perspectives, from just the feeling of the season, the elemental qualities of the season, the pagan and Celtic wheel of the year, which I know you do some work with, as well as astrology, human design, gene keys, all of that.
So, yeah, I figured. It's just really nice to see how people relate to this season when they were born from different languaging and anything that you have to bring up during our conversation. From your background, I know that you have background in being a Reiki master as well as a student of shamanism and a lot of different things, ceremony, facilitation and breathwork, of course. So I'd love to hear from you what it is that you do and what you're focusing on now, just as far as your work in the world.
Rebecca Baker00:18:47 - 00:19:34
Yeah, thank you, Alison. So, yeah, right now, I mean, it's so interesting and I. You speak a lot about cycles and circles and spirals and that's very much how I feel, very connected to that patterning in my life. So currently, a big part of my work is breath work, conscious connected breathwork specifically, which is breathing with no pauses at the top or the bottom. So we'll find our first circle there. And I now teach and train students of conscious connected breath work with seven directions. Breath work and underpinning. My work always is a love of ceremony and space holding and circle.
Rebecca Baker00:19:34 - 00:21:11
And I find myself at a point where I'm really reflecting on how I have wound up working with seven directions and as a breath work facilitator when my background is in creative arts, performing arts education, but particularly my creative practice and my connection to circle has been there throughout my life. So working in circle, working creatively, recognizing the magic of being in circle, a priority of collaboration. And my study of ritual and ceremony has really been ever since I think started from when I was. Was, you know, when I went to church when I was a kid. But now I hold circle and ceremony, particularly at the celtic fire ceremonies during the celtic wheel of the year. And I also, a really strong part of my work at the moment is around pausing and slowing down. And again, really inspired by my connection to nature and my connection to the cycles of the year, my feeling is that slowing down and integrating pauses into our life is the medicine of our times. When we stop and slow down and can really see and feel a connection to nature and realize that we are part of it.
Rebecca Baker00:21:13 - 00:21:34
We view the planet differently, we view ourselves differently, and we view our relationship as custodians of the earth and co creators with one another in we feel it instead of just learn about it. So creating pauses through ceremony and through connection to the breath is what lights me up.
Wow, you said that so eloquently. I love that idea of being, you know, connected to the earth as being one with it, in the sense that I've heard that, you know, in order to be an environmentalist for a long time, people kind of thought we have to take care of something other than ourselves and take care of the earth. And sometimes that can feel hard to do if it feels like it is other. But when you bring it close to your heart and say, I am the earth, it makes it a lot easier to tend to the entirety of the ecosystem with your body being an integral part of it. So, yeah, you just said that so beautifully. I love this notion of the sacred pause. And I've been receiving your invitations and invites emails about this monthly circle gathering of the sacred pause. And that phrasing is so beautiful.
And I definitely feel that in your presence since the time we worked together with the breathwork, in just that sense of slowing down and connecting with just the most basic, elemental parts of ourselves. So I would love to hear a little bit more about the sacred pause and how you came to that naming and what that workshop looks like that you host.
Rebecca Baker00:22:56 - 00:23:33
Yeah. Thank you. So, I mean, the sacred pause was a phrase that I came across through a psychotherapeutic practitioner called Tara bracken. And she. It's a buddhist concept and a taoist concept. Originally, the notion of stopping pausing, but with a heightened sense of awareness in that space. So I talk about is it's the difference between putting the brakes on and pausing and noticing you've paused. So Tara Brack brought it into conversation within the psychotherapeutic community as a.
Rebecca Baker00:23:33 - 00:24:27
As a tool of mindfulness, really, of giving the nervous system breaks within the day rather than feeling that we're either doing, doing, doing, and then lengthy pauses, holidays, breaks, but they're actually bringing in the notion of not just pausing, but then the honour that you bring into that pause. And it really speaks to me, I think, because I've always had a real connection to the liminal space and the dream. And that really comes in, I think, with this birthday in equinox. You know, it is a liminal space. It's a space between. It is a space of balance, but it's like a moment, like it is itself a moment, right? It's a moment between seasons. We have this equality of light and dark in this moment. So I wonder if there really is something in, you know, me arriving in that moment.
Rebecca Baker00:24:27 - 00:24:53
I was born at. At 435 in the afternoon as well. So dusk. So, like, right. Kind of, you know, as we move into dusk in this moment. So that sense of liminal space is really important to me, and it's important to me as a. As a place of dreaming and of creativity. And so in the sacred pauses that I create, there's spaciousness.
Rebecca Baker00:24:53 - 00:25:45
And I think, you know, I, I do call them. So sometimes I hold a whole day of retreat. The monthly pauses that I'm holding in the community platform at the moment, the seven directions community platform are just 30 minutes conscious pausing. So connecting with the breath, bringing in some contemplation about the week. And we listen to a piece of music. So I was talking this morning about listening when I was younger, and I would get an album on cassette, and that would be me for, like, a couple of hours. The cassettes in, listen to a whole album and lose yourself in that space, in that space that's been created for you by the band or the artist. And I think we have less and less of those immersive spaces now that we have the capacity to multitask all the time.
Rebecca Baker00:25:45 - 00:26:18
So very often if I'm listening to music, it will be on the go. And I think we, we are a multitasking people at the moment. And so in the pauses that I create. And this is an interesting pitch as well, when you're presenting this and as an author is come and do nothing in a world which is like, what am I going to get? What am I going to achieve?
Right? What certification will I have in the total?
Rebecca Baker00:26:23 - 00:27:23
Exactly. It's this kind of playful suggestion of, you know, what happens in your body when you consider the idea that you might have achieved nothing at all at the end of this day. So it's a curious one to describe, and I think that I definitely can find myself talking about the benefits of pausing in how it impacts productivity, because there's studies about this, right. You know, a four day week means you're more productive, or if you rest more, then you can do more. And I know that that's something that I can quote that and speak to that as well, but it always has a kind of ricochet response in me of going, do we need that as justification to sit and watch a bee gathering nectar or the clouds pass by? Ultimately, it's joy, pleasure and joy. That's it.
Oh, I love that.
Rebecca Baker00:27:26 - 00:27:35
That's what we're here for, and we don't give that enough value. That is it. That feeling of joy and pleasure.
That's right. Yeah, I know. Getting into the business world and having to create offerings, I've heard that the only things people pay for are something related to money, to health or to relationships. And I think that that's true, perhaps, but thinking about it, you know, something like this as a relationship with yourself as very much worth investing your time into and not having to have a justification for that, I think you're totally right that there could be a million studies on why this would help you in your achievement and your goals. But, yeah, I mean, I remember when I became a mother, I was the most excited about having those early years of childhood to kind of just lay down at the level of the grass and look at the dew drops collecting, you know, on the tips of the grass and see the flies buzzing around and just being at that slowed down pace. And it was almost like becoming a mother gave me the excuse to be able to do that for a window of time where that was okay. But now that my daughter off to kindergarten and I go back to the races, you know, and so that's so interesting.
Rebecca Baker00:28:46 - 00:29:37
Yeah, I really resonate with that. I think it was a. I think that was a time for me as well, that I started to. I think it's so interesting when you. When your baby first arrives as well, it is a shift right into that for once. The thing that you're doing, which is being with your baby, feeding your baby, getting your baby to sleep, that's the thing you're supposed to be doing, and you're doing it. And although I'm sure I'm looking back on it, my daughter's eight now, so I'm sure I have this very rose colored view at that period of time now, but because I'm sure there was loads of this doubt and am I doing it enough and am I doing it right? But you are doing the thing you're doing. It is immersive, and I think you have to come down onto that to their level.
Rebecca Baker00:29:37 - 00:29:58
And time does bend because of the sleepless nights and you're in that liminal space. And I do think that. I think that, for me, that change of pace that happened was something that I didn't and don't want to let go of.
Absolutely. Yeah. It's like, it's so easy to just think of it as a short window where that's allowed. But I do think that learning from that experience and bringing it into the rest of my life feels like the most beautiful gift, that period of sleeplessness. And, you know, all of the hard work that it is to raise a little being, you know, to be able to have a gift of seeing the slowness for what it is and just being in the rhythms of life that you can't distract from because it's so important to be there. Yeah, definitely. I'm curious, when you pause at this time of year right now, where you are, you're in East Devon, is that right? In the UK?
Rebecca Baker00:30:45 - 00:30:45
Yeah.
Okay. And I know you live near a beautiful coastline, and I'm curious, when you. When you pause at this moment in time there, what is it that you're experiencing in the world around you and in the changes of the seasons in that part of the world?
Rebecca Baker00:31:04 - 00:31:26
Yeah. So that's such a gorgeous invitation of a question, Alison, because I noticed that as soon as we get to September, I just love this month so much. And it's an inquiry without answer of, is that it's my birthday month or is it because it just is the best month of the year.
I feel you.
Rebecca Baker00:31:30 - 00:31:56
Yeah. But my. And I was reflecting on that today because as I've got older, you know, when I was younger, it was like, it's gonna get to have a birthday party. And, you know, my sort of celebrations in that way are much, much less as I get older. But September still has. I still just love it so much. So I'm reining myself in here, Alison, because my mind's going, what?
I love how excited. I do feel it. I love it, too. The colors, the taste of the air, everything.
Rebecca Baker00:32:03 - 00:32:41
Yeah, exactly. So that's gorgeous. And I love to hear, as well, how different it is where you are in New Mexico from where I am. So what I. So we've had. And we always get it, I think, around my birthday is this final dose of sunshine, and it feels. And everyone's smiling again because we just got back to the kind of beginning of September, summer's over, and then we get sunshine. And in my experience, it's all like, I reckon I could count on one hand, definitely the rainy birthdays that I've had over the last 20 is like, it's almost always sunny.
Rebecca Baker00:32:41 - 00:33:25
And the September sunshine has this treat because it feels like it shouldn't be warm and sunny, but it is. So everyone's even more smiley about it. It feels like it. Like a cheeky extra treat so that you've got, you know, but the sunlight is different to the August sunlight because the sun is lower in the sky, the smell. And I love that, you know, because, as you say, I do live right now. I can see the sea from my front garden. Even a matter of weeks ago in August, when we'd get some summer rain, you'd get that dry, dusty smell. And now the smell of the air has just got that crispness, particularly in the mornings, to it, like a freshness about it.
Rebecca Baker00:33:26 - 00:33:58
The house martins and the swallows have got an extra urgency about them. They're really. So they arrive in May, where I live, and they'll be heading off back to Africa before too long. So there's. They're kind of blitting about, and there's kind of. There's a fewer of them and they have a greater energy about them. I'm so blessed where I live because the moonrise is pretty much at like 12:00 if you like. If I'm looking out on the ocean, it's actually just not quite.
Rebecca Baker00:33:58 - 00:34:25
What are we on that it's about 11:00. So the October full moon will be dead on. But it is just stunning. And of course, you know, the air temperature isn't too cold yet. And with, you know, in that spirit of equality, the difference between the air temperature and the sea temperature is not. Is not a lot. So it's a perfect time of year for swimming in the sea. Yeah.
Rebecca Baker00:34:25 - 00:34:29
So I had a beautiful swimming swim in the moonlight ocean on Monday.
Oh, for the harvest moon, full moon.
Rebecca Baker00:34:36 - 00:34:51
So it's just bracing enough in the ocean to feel exhilarating, but it's not. I mean, it never gets, you know, the sea never gets warm here, but it's definitely. You can stay in for 20 minutes or half an hour or so comfortably. Beautiful.
Yeah.
Rebecca Baker00:34:53 - 00:35:52
Yeah. And I think the other thing that I notice with connection to the nate, to nature at this time, so the trees are only just starting to turn at this point. But something that I really wanted to, to bring in that is that it's a kind of evolution of my relationship with the. The festivals of the wheel of the year is allowing nature to let you know what you're celebrating or what your mood is. Because I love the wheel of the year as a framework, and I love the pauses that it brings in these different points of the year. But as I. As I get older and my practices develop, I notice that I don't want to be told how to celebrate that moment. That actually sometimes I certainly know that I've got to in bulk, and sometimes even Beltane, and it's still chucking it down with rain, and, you know, it just isn't flower.
Rebecca Baker00:35:52 - 00:35:54
We're not at flower crowns yet.
Totally.
Rebecca Baker00:35:55 - 00:36:42
And I think that the pausing is about that. Listening in, you know, what do we want to celebrate? And I think my connection to this, to autumn Equinox and Marbon, is I love the opportunity to to harvest what's happened in the year so far and to celebrate that. So for me, there's not. We're just considering what to keep and let go of. It's not that kind of putting to bed that October brings and samhain brings, but it's this. There is that opportunity to celebrate and contemplate. It's almost got a kind of sepia nostalgia to it, rather than the sadness or the letting go that happens a bit later, right?
Absolutely. Yeah. I know that in taoist thought, the equinox is a time where yin and yang are equally balanced. And so across the globe, there's a lot of symbolism of balance and harmony. But those words can become so kind of cliche and meaningless when you just hear them again and again. Libra is balance. It's the scales. And equinox is about balance.
But I think you're right, just really paying attention to the local environment and the current moment. And there is that similarity of Mabon being the second of the two harvest festivals in that wheel of the year, with lamas being the first. But this is that wrapping up of the harvest and knowing that all of the fruits and vegetables and grains are already starting to be packed away, but there's still some nuts and berries to be harvested, perhaps, or, you know, just kind of. Yeah, there's a call to pay attention.
Rebecca Baker00:37:39 - 00:38:35
To the stock taking, I think. Right. I think for me as well, with the birthday, I think a lot of people have that feeling around their birthday, but I think particularly at that time, there's a kind of inner stock taking. Where am I at? How is it? What have I got? What's still to what, you know, what are my desires? What have we got? What do we want to carry forward? And I love that you bring in the yin and yang, and I'd love to hear more about that relationship with the I ching and the other philosophies as well, because I think one of the things that we can forget with equinox and the balance, and I'd love to hear more about the Libran perspective on this as well, is because we can think of balance as everything being all okay. Right. And we talk about this in breath work in our nervous system practice, don't we? It isn't balance. Isn't everything just being all okay? It's about an equal balance of light and dark and light in dark.
Right.
Rebecca Baker00:38:36 - 00:38:49
It's really, and I think that's so important to recognize that balance is an embracing of both of those. Not balance being this kind of flat line of everything being okay.
Right? It's not. I mean, it's like you said earlier, it's not a hard stop. It's not like we've reached the plateau and here we are imbalance. It's almost this. It's momentary, and it requires not effort, necessarily, but it does require attention and noticing more than almost any other time of year. I think that I like to think of this image of a ball, that there's somebody walking on top of this kind of constantly moving globe. And in order for them not to fall off of it, off of the top, they have to keep walking. You have to take one step in front of the other in order for that wheel to keep turning.
And I think I've seen an animation of it. I don't know if I'm explaining it quite properly, but it's this idea of just a man walking, and you must keep moving. And so there is this moment of time where we have equal night and equal day, and it is this moment to pay attention to that. But it doesn't mean that we're stopped. I think it actually means that we're maybe paying more attention to everything that's happening from the both sides of light and dark. Yeah. And when it comes to the Virgo libre cusp here, because my birthday in early September is Virgo season. And then you're right on the beginning of Libra season.
And I think that being in this space, the human design gate in each hexagram that your birthday is in, is a cusp gate where it has the end of Virgo season and the beginning of Libra season within that energy. And so I think that's interesting to think about. Yeah. This time in between the liminal space that you spoke about, that is about kind of the discernment and discrimination of virgo and kind of picking apart the wheat from the chaff and the rotten from the rice and those kind of archetypes, and then moving into the distribution of that and kind of putting those, you know, all of the gatherings of the harvest onto the scales and saying, okay, this is for the community, this is for the larger whole. It's so lovely, but it is that place between the self and the other. Thank you so much for taking the time, the light in the dark. A lot of opposites are being considered at this time of year. So I'm curious how you have resonated with your sun sign, your astrological sun sign throughout your life, or what that significance is for you.
Rebecca Baker00:41:19 - 00:41:42
It's interesting because I have always, growing up, although my birthday is right on the cusp. And sometimes, depending on what you read, it's mostly Virgo. Occasionally it's Libra. But I have an older sister whose birthday is 4 October, so she's totally Libra. So just in that way that we do in families go, well, you're that. So I'll be Virgo, right.
Okay.
Rebecca Baker00:41:43 - 00:42:16
Identified with Virgo. But more recently, when I've looked at my astrology charts and people have showed me I have. Everything's in, like. There's, like, hardly anything in Virgo. And actually there's a much greater resonance with. With Libra, honestly. I think that. So that's thrown me, you know, because I've always had, like, the birthday cards that have got the Virgo imagery and I have, you know, I have identified as neurodiverse.
Rebecca Baker00:42:16 - 00:42:28
You know, my version of perfectionism is like, I guess I have high standards for myself. Looking around, from what I can see, Alison beyond the zoom screen doesn't look like a Virgo's house.
That's what my mom always told me. She's like, I thought you were supposed to be neat and tidy. I'm like, sorry, I didn't get that treat.
Rebecca Baker00:42:41 - 00:43:07
So I think actually it's been. My relationship with the gene keys has been a real opening out and a real expanding into my awareness of my, in a way that feels very real and very much more perhaps, relevant to me having, as I say, grown up with the kind of ideas that I'm a Virgo and not quite feeling that when actually I may have been more Libra all along.
Interesting. Do you know, I haven't read your chart, your astrology chart, but do you know what other planets you have in Libra or if there's some other placements there, though?
Rebecca Baker00:43:18 - 00:43:29
Yeah, yeah, that's it. It's like, what did someone said? Like, you're barely ever ago according to my charts. So, yeah, I'm not sure what's where.
Okay. Yeah, yeah. I have my moon in Libra. And so I feel a resonance with Libra as well in the sense that the moon is about kind of your embodied experiences and your emotional experiences, kind of subterranean subconscious experiences in life. Whereas the sun sign would be maybe a conscious kind of way that you shine outward, perhaps, perhaps to the larger world. And so I've also felt that more aligned with my moon in some ways in Libra, as far as how I feel inside. But maybe from the outside, I appear more Virgo to some. And, you know, it's such a complex, I think, sun sign astrology of just the horoscopes in the newspaper definitely has done a disservice to people not feeling resonance with the stereotypes of that sign, necessarily.
But I do agree that when you get into, you know, you add in the other planets and where they are at the time of your birth, and also add in the kind of micro seasons of the gene keys or human design or the I ching. It's kind of how I like to frame them, because they're just a little bit more specific of a reading from a very specific slice of the wheel of the year, rather than an entire one 12th of the year. It's like 160 fourth. And you can kind of get a little bit more detail into that. So that's interesting to hear that you resonate with that system. And I'm curious to know what you know about it or what it is that resonates with you about your gene keys and this.
Rebecca Baker00:45:05 - 00:46:25
Yeah, I think the. As a system, I just find it a beautiful structure. And I think that I. And as you can imagine, you know, because it's founded on contemplation, because the idea is that as we move through the gates, what is offered in every gene key is a journey and is a contemplation and is infinite in that we never move from one location to the other, but we move between, you know, in every gene key, there's spaciousness. I think, with the. I think what the gene. My learning about the gene keys has brought me is a real sense of peace. Having gone through life, feeling, living lots of adventures, and having lots of different career paths, which, as I spoke about at the beginning, I can now see how they are all absolutely this.
Rebecca Baker00:46:25 - 00:47:16
Both the same path with lots of different roles. Discovering that in my gene keys, I'm here for the adventure, here for the ride that, you know, my core truth is that life is beautiful. It's just a delight. Liked to be here, like, at a real soul level. I just feel like what? This experience is insane and intense and just such a gift, you know, and I'm blown away by it. And so I think some of the phrases. So, like, one of the phrases in. And again, the neurodiversity means, I always say this number and go, is it 4246-4646 thanks.
It's hard to keep track of the numbers. I'm not a numbers person either. I always get thrown out. But, yeah, 46.
Rebecca Baker00:47:23 - 00:47:51
46. Is that one of the phrases at the end of that description is that you have that quality, eternal child. And I think that has been a real, like, oh, okay. So I'm not missing anything by, you know, I've completely stopped doing that. Should grow up, should take this more seriously, should invest in this. Oh, no, I'm giving up on this project again because something else has come along. You know, that's how I roll. I'm here for a good time.
Rebecca Baker00:47:51 - 00:48:14
I'm here for the adventure. I'm one of life's enthusiasts. I love to be lit up and enthused about a project. It doesn't take a lot for me to be really enthusiastic. I'm definitely that. My daughter and I trying to leave the house or go anywhere is ridiculous because she's as distractible as I am. It's like there's a flower, there's a squirrel, there's a tree.
Yes.
Rebecca Baker00:48:17 - 00:48:51
So I think the gene keys, and then the depth of that description, and as I, you know, I've got it. It's coming through in my answer a little bit, as it is with the 46th gene key. It's. It's the moving from seriousness through to delight and ecstasy. And so, yeah, where I slip up is where I take everything too seriously and I get too strategic. And for years, I've been grasping to be more serious, more strategic. Come on, grow up. Be the, you know, you've lost the way again.
Rebecca Baker00:48:51 - 00:49:58
But, in fact, that the effort of being more serious and more grown up was me losing my way. You know, the more that we can relinquish that, the more flow there is and the more delight there is and the more fulfillment there is. And crucially, I think the more of service I can be, you know, me and my most delighted and enthusiastic and passionate, that is what I bring, you know? And I think that's. I'm still. You can probably see in my body language, and that's still something that feels a little awkward for me, of, like, can I just be like, is that okay? Surely I need to be a little bit serious. But again, I think that comes back to, like, the values of the culture that we grew up in, that we're raised in. And I think that's why you've heard me describe, I'm sure, you know, pausing is a power move. You know, it's radical act.
Rebecca Baker00:49:58 - 00:50:58
You know, when we, as, as mothers, decided to parent our kids in that way, that was a radical act to do that, to choose not to, you know, to choose not to be sucked into, you know, having to be pulled back into a pace of life that didn't feel right for us or for our kids, it's. It's, um, it's it's big moves. And that I say that with real awareness of the privilege that I have to be able to say that, like, and it's insane amount of privilege that I have to, you know, and I do have an awareness, and I also. I think this is the other thing that I am coming to terms with, and I'm grateful for my growing awareness of, is that I. This delight as my puss cat. You might want to hear me out. Yeah, that's my distraction.
Oh, these might good things to be distracted by. Trees, squirrels, kitty cats. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah. Yeah.
Rebecca Baker00:51:05 - 00:51:36
It's the, you know, that sense of joy and delight that is. That's my. That's my DNA, that's my gene keys. So as much as I do feel like, you know, I'm growing, where I'm glad that my growing connection to that way means that I feel more like, let's bring that into the world. I can't convince everyone of that. That isn't. I don't. We've all got our different paths, and thank goodness someone's taking it seriously.
Yes. Right?
Yeah, right. We can't all be all. Be filled with delight all the time. But you can and you should. Yes. Yes. Oh, my gosh. I have tingles running down my spine hearing you speak about that, because I see the joy coming through you.
And also that. Yeah. The fact that that might feel new to be able to allow yourself to get to that place of, like, maybe that is it. Maybe that is the point. And, yeah, no wonder I've felt so resonant with you since the very beginning. Because, again, I have my mercury and my moon, my conscious mercury and moon in this same gate. And so that's kind of my communication and my embodied sensation of this life where I, too, have been kind of accused of thinking too much, being too serious, trying to get everything lined up throughout my life. And I think it was an accurate accusation by the people who told me that I'm taking things a little too seriously.
And as I get older, realizing that by being in my joy and in my delight and not having to hold that back or meet others on a level of kind of wherever that frequency is, but maintaining the color and the vibrancy and the joy that is found in these small things like squirrels. And it's funny you say squirrels, because when I was in college, we don't have too many squirrels in New Mexico, a lot more chipmunks. But I went to school in the south, in Louisiana, and there were a lot of squirrels on my college campus. And I would just sit outside and watch them doing their squirrel thing. And all my. My friends that were there, who had a lot more experience with squirrels were just like, that's a squirrel. What is wrong with you? And I was just like, let's go. Join me for a squirrel watching adventure.
So I very much resonate with your delight in these things, and I'm so glad that you have that your daughter is also one that wants to go along for the ride and on these adventures with you. And, yeah, it's just.
It's beautiful.
I mean, yes. Seriousness, to delight, to ecstasy as the gene key path, it feels like one thing I remember reading in the gene keys was that I think they said seriousness is one of the worst illnesses, or I think it said illnesses, but in all of humanity, because it's this holding on to control and this desire to need to make sure that everything is fixed, and that's kind of a losing battle. And so the more you stay in that and don't allow for the delight to come through in these moments of pause, the more you're holding back from the world and from your true connection with the larger world. And so, yeah, and, you know, as.
Rebecca Baker00:54:26 - 00:55:41
You saying that, Alison, as well, I was feeling that sort of. That. That sense of seriousness. And the, you know, what I want to say, I think, is that the sense of seriousness has something a little bit like the words nice or normal, that it's not. That there isn't a place for having a sense of what needs changing and for having a sense when there is appropriate outrage and grief around what is unfolding for humanity at this point, as we're in this phase of deconstruction and renewal and all that is so worthy of effort. But I think that it is that sense of seriousness that is, it doesn't feel like there's no rebellion in seriousness. You know, there's not an action in that. And we need, you know, when, you know, God knows, we need those rebellious acts, and there's.
Rebecca Baker00:55:41 - 00:56:06
And we need the fire of revolution and of creativity and of new ways and of a sense of injustice. But serious doesn't meet that. Seriousness is like a kind of flat line, isn't it? I think that's what it feels. That's what the word feels like. It's like it stops you dead. You know, it's. It's. And this is really strong feeling in my body.
Rebecca Baker00:56:06 - 00:56:57
It's looking down. It's like studying so the minutiae so much that you actually can't make, you know, the great gestures that we need or the great changes that we need to need to do that, there has to be a more elevated view. And I think that is where delight comes in and where pausing comes in. Because if we stop, we don't have to wait long for something like a squirrel to come past, like, or a flower or a bee or a cloud or a person with a smile or a memory in our head that can bring us delight if we have the luxury for that. And again, I know. I noticed my privilege in that, and I know that external factors and.
The.
Rebecca Baker00:57:00 - 00:57:12
Impact that external factors have on people's nervous systems means that that isn't always available to everybody, but it is. It's a wish for humanity.
Certainly. Absolutely, absolutely. And to hold that as the North Star and to provide an example of that, I do. I appreciate you discussing your privilege and the luxuries that, you know, oftentimes. Yeah. Just being. I think being comfortable in your body and feeling safe in your own body is a huge privilege in this world that we live in. And it takes work for all of us.
I know that through breath work and through a lot of the trauma informed practices that you have done and have put a lot of serious time and effort into, it unfolds that safety that allows for delight. And it's not just given to you. It's something that does require its own type of work on an embodied level rather than necessarily that serious, looking down, you know, analyzing all the details, kind of level of seriousness, you know.
Rebecca Baker00:58:09 - 00:58:33
Yeah, and I love that you brought that in, Alison, as well as the sense of, you know, that that delight is available within, you know, my list of the externals. But absolutely that the breath work and conscious, connected breath work in particular, is possible that through that work, we can really genuinely collect with the delight within, and that's golden.
I agree. I definitely agree. I mean, I think people from all walks of life can tap into that internal reservoir and untangle a lot of the things that have happened throughout the course of the external experiences and circumstances. In the gene keys, they do focus on this gate being an embodied gate, or this gene key being a very embodied gene key. And like you said, the eternal childhood gene key. And one thing that I remember reading in it is that it kind of focuses on the experiences from zero to seven years, where we learn how in that time, we are very much in our bodies. There's a certain natural harmony to children like we were talking about earlier. And it's kind of the time in life when we recognize if we feel safe in our bodies or if we feel less than safe in our bodies.
And I know in the breath work training that we did together, we worked with the presence process, this book by Michael Brown that also talks about that first seven years and these seven year kind of chunks of life, but that being a really impactful time. There's a quote that I wanted to read that really struck me about kind of the work that you do as far as embodiment. And it says that what many people don't realize is that the body must feel safe, not the mind. Almost all human health problems can be traced back to the primary period of imprinting, when our bodies relax into their natural internal harmony, and says that a lot of ongoing health issues can be traced back to a point in our first seven years where our bodies stopped feeling safe. And sometimes, you know, the jinkies can get very like statements, this is the truth. And sometimes I have to be questioning it a little bit, but I do, being the mother of a five year old and in that critical period, I see how much more the body is the wisdom keeper in those early years. And so just relating that to what it is that you're doing in your work of pausing and kind of returning to that state of childhood.
Rebecca Baker01:00:42 - 01:00:43
Yeah.
And it's just such an important and serious, serious task in this world. So.
Rebecca Baker01:00:49 - 01:01:46
Yeah, yeah, that's beautiful. When you were speaking, it reminded me of a. There's a quote, or whether it's quote that's become phrase, become saying, but the truth that the mind listens to the body, the body doesn't listen to the mind. So the positive mental attitude, the positive thinking, the imprinting, the arguing, the rationalising will only ever get us so far. If the nervous system, if the body is feeling unsafe or the body is feeling out of balance, if we can bring a sense of safety into the body, the mind will listen. It happens that way around. And when that was described to me in that simple phrase, I thought, ah, that is. That is, that is it, isn't it? And that is the work that we're doing with conscious, connected breath work, but functional breath work.
Rebecca Baker01:01:46 - 01:02:37
Any kind of presencing that we're doing of the body through the breath or through movement practice, we're letting the body have that, we're re empowering the body and letting the body lead. And that felt so potent, I relate it back to when I'm getting in cold water. There's no amount or the difference in the experience of the. Like my, come on, just get calm on, you know, you'll feel better afterwards. To just being able to breathe slow and low through the nose, feeling my ribs expand through the sides and back, and just walking into the ocean, my body feels safe. So the mental chatter just dissolves. It works that way around. And that was a really.
Rebecca Baker01:02:38 - 01:02:50
Yeah. Beautiful realization for me. And it really came to me when you were speaking about that importance of that embodied sense of safety is everything.
Yeah, I love that with the cold water. I mean, I think that's such a beautiful example of how many times doing anything scary or hard that we try to psych ourselves up by telling us a mindset shift. And not to say that that doesn't work for some, and that's not important as well, but beginning, if you don't tie that to something happening in the body, it needs to have that connection between mind and body. And that strikes me as really interesting. Between the Virgo and Libra, I think Virgo and are known to be quite mental and analytical, and Librans are known to be kind of more embodied in this certain gracefulness to the Libra archetype and grace, to me, just feels like someone who is in their body, who feels what it feels like to be embodied. It's interesting to be on that cusp and to put these together as far as it's not one or the other, but that it does often start with the body as this place of this alignment. And one thing that when I was doing some research on this gate in the I Ching, it is known as earth over wind, I believe. Let me just make sure that that's right before I go on.
But it's a, you know, each of the I Ching hexagrams has two trigrams that are elemental, and that's kind of what makes up the initial. That's what makes up all of the interpretations for the gene keys in human design are these initial, elemental kind of combinations within the I Ching. And so earth over wind is kind of like. It's called rising up is another name for it. And to me, that evokes kind of. Yeah, that rising feeling in your body, up to your mind. And the original character for rising up and for this hexagram in the I Ching was a ladle that scholars have researched to symbolize the Big Dipper or some major, this constellation, and they've tied it. There's a couple of great Yi Ching scholars who have tied gate 46 to the great bear, to the big dipper.
And I was reading something about how there was a sacrifice performed to honor the great bear up on the top of a mountain during the equinox time in ancient China, and it was about giving honor to the great emperor, who was kind of riding the chariot of the great bear. And I don't know that much about chinese cosmology, and so definitely not an expert there. But as I read it, what came to mind is that the Big Dipper has the two stars. If you trace the two stars of the Big Dipper, they're pointing to the North Star. And so the way to find the North Star in the sky is to find the big dipper and then look at the two stars that make up the end of the ladle and those point a line and point straight to the north star. And so in thinking about the ancient history of the meaning of this gene key and this hexagram, I was just really struck by that kind of balance there and that alignment between body and mind and that sacrifice almost, that we bring forth as we are striving to bring a that type of balance between our bodies and minds pointing to our north star. So a lot in there. I was reading a lot and kind of going on this deep dive and was just like, wow, no, this all kind of ties together in this beautiful way.
So I just wanted to share that story.
Rebecca Baker01:06:42 - 01:07:20
Thank you so much for sharing that. I really love that and that sense of. Yeah, and the balance showing us the way towards the north star. And, you know, Alison, as well, I love is, again, it speaks to me of the liminal space, you know, that you, as you're reading this, and that's where those links come through from, isn't it? There's a dreamy quality of it where I could hear, as you were describing that, your own kind of imaginal journey into that and what you see and what you feel and what comes up as you're reading that. And then that's how all of this weaves together. It's gorgeous, right?
It is this beginning of the season where the veil is getting thinner and we are more, I think the, I think of once we get into October and Samhain and that time of year, it's definitely a very liminal space time of tapping into the ancestors and the power of the past and the future and the present and all of the different types of time and space. But I do think we're kind of at the beginning of that now, and I start to feel that come through. And, yeah, for me, you know, doing this podcast has been such an interesting opportunity to take kind of, you know, these very didactic kind of, you know, descriptions within the gene keys, which are and within human design, which is how I kind of entered this information, where it's a bit more prescriptive. It's kind of like you are the gate of determination and it means this, and there's a lot of philosophy within that as well. But tracing it back to how does that word determination relate to alignment? How does the word determination, gate 46 relate to delight? And kind of putting these pieces together and just playing with those words because they don't always seem like they are in any way related. Right. But then kind of putting them side by side, it's like, oh, yeah, totally. Okay.
By being a in finding your delight, you, that makes you determined to rise up, you know, all of these things. So.
Rebecca Baker01:08:54 - 01:09:06
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have to say, if I looked slightly distracted, your puss cat has been, like, embodying your words behind you.
Oh, so funny.
Rebecca Baker01:09:08 - 01:09:23
It looked like the wind was catching it as you were talking about the gate of wind, and then as rising up, it rose up underneath the table, but has then almost been knocking your pot plant over. So if I've been looking a bit distracted, I was just wondering how it's going to play out.
I know that we're coming up on time here, so I thought it was a timepiece, but no, that's Luna. Luna the kitty cat, of course, who loves to eat plants and.
Rebecca Baker01:09:33 - 01:09:40
Yeah, she's a beauty. Yeah, that was distracted. I was just thinking, how's that going? It's a big pot plant, but it's intact.
Thank you for noticing. That would have been a fun, fun, delightful crash.
Rebecca Baker01:09:48 - 01:09:55
You haven't got the look of a big bear about her as well as you're talking about arcimal. That's so funny.
Oh, my gosh. Well, yes, I think that's a really good segue to be distracted by the adorable plants and cat fiasco that was about to happen. And I'd love. Yeah. Do you have any, any final, final words or anything to share about this season or anything we've talked about?
Rebecca Baker01:10:19 - 01:12:37
I've really loved, and I love this about your podcast, Alison, is that is the way that you overlay the different systems. And I think just as we were speaking to then, I just want to, you know, again say, you know, I love what you're doing, the way that you look at the different systems and then allow this kind of lovely dreaminess to bring in the connection and notice how they overlay and the depth then of the connection that we can feel to these times of year through that. And I think in terms of this particular feast day that we're coming up to with autumn Equinox. You said this podcast will be going on autumn Equinox. My feeling is that the moment is to take stock and to look at the year so far, but really to look at your previous chapter or your previous cycle. So I know that for me and my astrology at the moment, coming towards the end of a ten year cycle, so there's the invitation to really take stock and to think about, like, what stories do we want to tell about what's gone before and what, what stories do we want to take with us and to be discerning, like with sorting the wheat from the chaff about the stories that we want to leave behind and the stories that we want to take with us and the stories that we want to share in celebration and in grief. Because those stories that we tell both in our personal lives and from our own personal histories, but also the stories that inform what we want to create going ahead, are crucial. So my invitation would be to just, like, listen well and reflect well, and let your celebrations be as full of joy and abundance as they are of honouring what you want to let go of and to tell the stories of all that we've learned so that we can continue rising up as we move forward into the rest of the year.
What a gorgeous invitation. Thank you for that. I will take that to heart. And you. Yeah, the beautiful. It's been such a delight to talk to you and I would love to know how our listeners can work with you or find you to see what your offerings are in the future. I highly recommend everything that Rebecca is doing in this world and bringing to the table. So, yeah, let us know how we can find you.
Rebecca Baker01:13:06 - 01:13:15
So the easiest place to find me is on Instagram. So my Instagram, I'm on Instagram is Rebecca Baker, 88 88.
Beautiful.
Rebecca Baker01:13:17 - 01:13:24
So that's the easiest way to get in touch with me. And then you can find other contact details and other events and online offerings from there.
Beautiful.
Rebecca Baker01:13:25 - 01:13:25
Ellen.
I'll put that in the show notes as well. And I just wish you the happiest birthday solar return. And do you have any big plans for your birthday or any big resolutions or anything for the year ahead?
Rebecca Baker01:13:37 - 01:14:33
I'm actually, when I left teaching in 2019, it was with the intention of becoming a civil celebrant. And then I started that training, and then the breath work training came. Well, there was a little lockdown in the middle of that, and then the breath work training happened. And life has taken other directions, but in a beautiful circle. The couple that I was going to be marrying when I started that training. Training are only just marrying tomorrow, and I will be conducting their ceremony for them. So I'll be out on Dartmoor tomorrow holding their hand fasting ceremony, which I'm just so it's just this beautiful coming round of something that I am just so excited to do. They're beautiful couple to be working with, and their ceremony that we've created is just full of ritual and symbolism and connection to the equinox.
Rebecca Baker01:14:33 - 01:14:40
So that's what I'm most excited about. And then I'll be with family on my actual birthday, which will be really beautiful as well.
Beautiful. What sounds lovely. I'm so happy that that circle is coming to a beautiful closure and you get to do that. Oh, my gosh. Wow. Well, have a lovely, amazing weekend. And yes, please reach out to Rebecca if you are interested in the sacred pause, and I definitely look forward to talking to you again soon.
Rebecca Baker01:15:04 - 01:15:06
Thank you so much, Alison. It's been gorgeous talking.
Yes, thank you.
And thank you all for listening to that conversation and hopefully taking a moment now to pause and to reflect, to celebrate and to release the old and bless the new. I wish you a very beautiful Libra season ahead. If you sign up for this weekly update on through email at astrosomatics dot substack.com, then there is a little bit of additional information there this week, the six human design and Jean Key's Gates of Libra season. And I didn't want to bring those into the spoken episode because we have a lot of other beautiful content here today. But I'll be posting that on my instagram at Cycles of Time podcast and at Astro Dot Somatics, as well as on the substack at Astrosomatics dot Substack.com, where you can sign up for free and receive written transcripts of this podcast along with the audio itself and some additional content and images each week. So I recommend that you do that if you're getting value from listening to this podcast. It shows a lot of support to build that substack network, and it's just kind of a fun way to communicate there, too. They have some notes and kind of their own mini social network that's nowhere near as overwhelming or annoying as some others.
So if you're on Substack, find me there. Astro somatics dot substack.com.
The 6 Human Design Gates of Libra Season
The 6 Human Design Gates of Virgo Season give some insights into the more nuanced nature of the Virgin. They are as follows:
Gate 46 (Virgo/Libra cusp)
Human Design: The Gate of Determination
I’Ching: Earth over Wind, or “Rising Up”
Gene Keys: Gift of Delight
Gate 18
Human Design: The Gate of Correction
I’Ching: Mountain over Wind, or “Corruption/Decay”
Gene Keys: Gift of Integrity
Gate 48
Human Design: The Gate of Depth
I’Ching: Water over Wind, or “The Well”
Gene Keys: Gift of Resourcefulness
Gate 57
Human Design: The Gate of Intuition
I’Ching: Wind over Wind, or “Spreading”
Gene Keys: Gift of Intuition
Gate 32
Human Design: The Gate of Continuity
I’Ching: Thunder over Wind, or “Permanence”
Gene Keys: Gift of Preservation
Gate 50 (Libra/Scorpio cusp)
Human Design: The Gate of Values
I’Ching: Fire over Wind, or “The Cauldron”
Gene Keys: Gift of Equilibrium
I’ll be posting this on Instagram as well this week, in visual form, so stay tuned for that!
Have a gorgeous week ahead, lovelies. Thanks for subscribing, sharing, commenting, and being here for this beautiful journey!
<3
Alison
Taking a Sacred Pause: An equinox birthday conversation with Rebecca Baker