Parts & Charts: The IFS and Astrology Podcast

Chelsea Owens and KP Kaszubowski
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Relationships
  • Updated Weekly

Where we explore how inner parts and planetary archetypes speak to one another. partsandcharts.substack.com

  1. 5h ago

    45: Women Who Voice Note (Soul Friends Only) with Danielle Mainas of Cacio e Pepe Tarot and Natalie Silva of Godseye

    Be sure to subscribe here on Substack and follow — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Parts & Charts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. ABOUT OUR GUESTS Danielle Mainas is a co-creator of Cacio e Pepe Tarot, a deck that reimagines the 78 cards through food, ritual, and the everyday magic of the table. Made with her creative sisters Megan Morris and Lindsey Newton, the deck has been carried by SFMOMA and featured in Eater and Air Mail. A Gemini sun with a Taurus moon and Leo rising, Danielle lives where curiosity meets comfort: one part endlessly asking questions, one part slow-simmered pleasure, and one part pulling up a chair for everyone. She believes a good meal and a good reading do the same thing. They bring us back to ourselves and to each other. She lives in Sebastopol, California, where the kitchen is her favorite altar. www.cacioepepetarot.comInstagram: Danielle Mainas Natalie Rose Silva In a time of deep grief, Natalie began weaving godseyes. She was a new mother and newly motherless, and as her entire world shifted, she was consumed with the undeniable urge to create, create, create. Each godseye was a portal back to Natalie’s childhood, a reminder of the bright, golden light that she’s carried with her since she was a little girl. Her inner light became her lantern in the darkness, illuminating her own way when no one else could do it for her. As she grew, Natalie became immensely skilled at shining that light onto those around her. She was — and is — a beacon of fierce, abundant love. Natalie’s hands twisted and turned the colorful threads, soaked with channeled oils and scents that imbued each strand with deeper meaning. Her scent inspiration came from the smoky, resinous notes of incense and smudges that came home with her from ceremony, lingering on her clothes and in her hair. These smells were portals, too — an elixir of wild botanicals, whispered prayers, and rock-n-roll devotion. Another godseye was complete. The portal had taken shape and the vision was clear: Godseye was a prayer to alchemize her pain into staggering beauty. https://godseyeoils.com/ https://www.instagram.com/godseyeoils/ Some ideas aren’t ready to happen yet. They just need somewhere to go. For Danielle Mainas and Natalie Rose Silva, that place is a spreadsheet called What We’re Dreaming. Danielle keeps it. Natalie says something brilliant, which is all of the time, and someone says yes, and it goes on the spreadsheet. Big Pants for Tall Queens. Prayer Pops. A moon clock that tells you when to prune, with a goose honking at the full moon. Nothing on the spreadsheet has to happen. It happens when it wants to. Their tarot deck started there. “We don’t know when. We don’t need to know how. We don’t care about how much it costs. It’s just let it flow and let it be open.”— Natalie This week, Danielle (creator of Cacio e Pepe Tarot, where your birth card might be a steak and your Venus might be a Vegas buffet) and Natalie (perfumer and potion-maker behind Godseye) join us to talk about the radical yes of sisterhood. That’s the kind of friendship where permission to cancel makes the yes more reliable, where a sister’s success reads as inspiration rather than threat, and where a 45-minute voice memo is a love letter. “The no’s make the yeses so much more safe.”— Natalie We hear how they met at the Witches Confluence in San Francisco, Danielle sweating behind her booth in what she calls the supermodel alley of witches. For weeks afterward she believed Natalie, Erica, and Emmet were biological sisters, triplets actually, despite a twelve-year age gap. Natalie talks about Sister School, the program she and her spirit sister Erica are building after more than twenty years of ceremony together. It’s a space for healing the sister wound, unlearning female competition, and becoming safe with one another again. “It’s so safe for me to see my sister doing something so incredible. And rather than turn on myself, I can just be like, I would like to have that with you right now.”— Natalie Chelsea names what’s at stake: as we get older and wiser, it’s soul friends only, and the coven matters more than ever. “I think I wrote in my morning pages this morning: soul friends only. SFO.”— Chelsea Then KP asks the question underneath the whole episode: If you were planted in a brand new city and knew no one but the barista, how would you call in your people? The answers include scent as a filtration system, weird backyard preschools, forest yoga, dream work at the CSA pickup, and a blindfolded scavenger hunt with no map, a magic vest, and a headlamp. “Be vulnerable and clap for people when they’re vulnerable. It is unbelievable that someone gets up and does anything vulnerable.”— Danielle KP shares the TikTok that brought twenty-two strangers to a Madison park, seated in a wheel of the year by birthday. She also tells about the Gertrude Stein tattoo that sparked a cafe conversation and went nowhere, and why that didn’t hurt the way it once would have. “I have my coven. You could have been part of it, but it’s okay that you aren’t.”— KP Chelsea and KP also tell their own origin story: a monthly Zoom tarot book club, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom one chapter at a time, and the two quietest people in the group trusting they’d get there. “I always find who I need to find. Or everyone finds me who needs to find me.”— Chelsea “I really did not understand how fabulous you are until I met you in person.”— KP, to Chelsea There’s astrology too. Leo and Aquarius risings sit in each other’s seventh houses, which is why Danielle and Natalie are wives. Natalie translates KP’s chart into scent: cypress and frankincense for Capricorn, jasmine and sandalwood for Libra, myrrh for a Cancer Moon. We close with a live card pull that reads like it was written for this exact podcast. “Get the tattoo. Claim the people you love. Be the love letter.”— Danielle Find your teacher. Clap for everyone. Soul friends only. Key Takeaways The spreadsheet works as a sacred holding space. Ideas don’t need a how, a when, or a budget to be honored, and they tell you when it’s time. A yes is only as trustworthy as the no’s around it. Healing the sister wound means turning the reflex of comparison into inspiration. To find your people in a new place, do the slightly weird thing that’s true to you, find a teacher, risk rejection, and be vulnerable first. Teacher, friend, sister: one relationship can hold many forms, and the in-between spaces are tender. Voice memo etiquette is a practice in releasing codependency. No one is on the hook, and no one is in trouble. Cards Pulled (Cacio e Pepe Tarot) Natalie: Stew (Queen of Cups), self-assuredness born from a slow burn of tendernessChelsea: Dream Sandwich (Page of Pentacles), why are you here? You know, already, always have.Danielle: Potluck (Three of Cups), in your community you trustKP: Honey (The Hermit), a slowing that borders on solitude, where the alchemical upgrades come in Resources & Mentions Cacio e Pepe Tarot by Danielle Mainas https://www.cacioepepetarot.com/ Godseye by Natalie Rose Silva www.godseyeoils.com Sister School with Natalie and Erica: introductory weekend November 13–14, six-month program beginning 2027 Witches Confluence, San Francisco Rachel Pollack, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom Mary K. Greer’s tarot birth card work Forest Yoga About This Podcast Parts & Charts is co-hosted by astrologer KP Kaszubowski and licensed therapist Chelsea Owens, exploring the intersection of astrology and Internal Family Systems. For those applying to grad programs in counseling: * Chelsea Owens pulled together a deeeeeep dive into all the practical elements of this decision, for the price of a cute cafe lunch ($25) — follow this link: https://chelseawow.gumroad.com/l/bfbiau Chelsea’s Oracle deck, Outer Realms for Inner Archives : a collage deck shaped by exactly this work, made the way she makes images of her own parts. Pre-orders coming; this email sign-up form gets you deck news only, no spam. → subscribe here Meet your Moon. If the Moon is the tender spot for everyone, this is the guided audio course for meeting yours as an inner figure — KP’s active-imagination approach, on your own time. ($42) → https://kpkaszu.gumroad.com/l/meetyourmoon Work with Chelsea. If you’re in California and you’ve been looking for a therapist who will actually go there with you — the deep stuff, the weird stuff, the stuff you’ve never quite found the words for — Chelsea Owens is your person. Licensed therapist, Leo moon, first house everything, art supplies on every surface. She brings clinical rigor and genuine delight to the work in equal measure, which turns out to be exactly what the hard stuff needs. 👉 www.chelseaowenstherapy.com Work with KP. Astrology readings (written, voice note, or live; in person if you’re in Wisconsin), Astro Parts sessions. Book Doula — a monthly retainer for people serious about making the book real. → Book Doula Waitlist: forms.gle/3LwpmAinnBN2Q4aY8 Schedule a 1:1 session → https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=22372975 Thanks for reading Parts & Charts! This post is public so feel free to share it. 🌟 Credits Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski — performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah Luther. Collage cover art by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

  2. Sep 21

    44: What Is Difficult Is the Offering — Parenting, Ego Death, and Tending the Psychic Hearth with Sarah Fontaine

    “What is difficult is the offering.” —Astrologer Sarah Fontaine joins KP and Chelsea for a conversation that was supposed to be about the air element and became, instead, about conception, ego death, tormentors, and what it takes to let a life change you. Quick note: parts of the video and audio are not fully operational but the episode as a whole is here, in tact Be sure to subscribe here on Substack and follow — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Parts & Charts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Sarah Fontaine is an astrologer working from the shores of the Pacific in San Francisco. She learned astrology as a teenager in 1990s Louisiana, where and when it was decidedly not in fashion, and has made it her work for the past nine years — a through-line she describes as a way of contacting the fabric of the universe, even though she doesn’t claim to understand why. Her readings open with a short guided meditation, move through the key themes of the birth chart and the current transits of the outer planets, and leave room for any question at all. There is no future prediction and, as she puts it on her site, no doom — the goal is the opposite of doom. She also reads for parents, caregivers, and couples, looking at the dynamics between charts rather than transits. Her spiritual ground is humility: each person is the singular expert on their own life. You don’t have to believe in astrology to get something from it; it’s a language, not a protocol. Her working life has included farming, teaching, raft guiding, abolition and prison-justice legal aid, office managing, long Buddhist retreats, and always the writing. She uses the Placidus house system. Her newsletter is called Psychic Hearth — hearth = heart + earth. www.existingtogether.com | sf@existingtogether.com A note before the episode KP opens with a confession: the recording fell apart. Chunks of audio are gone, most of the video is gone, and the seams are marked with what she’s calling a bounce — a few bars of the theme. Her theory is that the devices got overexcited. She also uses the occasion to say something to everyone who’s been asking how to start a podcast: she and Chelsea didn’t know what they were doing either, the setup is still unsophisticated, and the only thing that has kept it going for a year and a half is that it stayed fun. Book the guests you actually want to talk to. Please make a podcast. And please be patient with the blown out audio — this might not be the episode to listen to on full blast with AirPods in Episode Summary The plan was the air element. Sarah had written a series of blog posts on elemental practice that KP found illuminating, and the three of them had emailed about it. Then, before the recording started, they began talking about spirit babies — and that’s where the hour went. What follows is a conversation about the family as a system: how a chart can open spaciousness between people who live in the same house, and how quickly it can close possibility down if you let it decide who your child is. Sarah’s discipline is to not think she knows anything about her children because she has seen their charts. At its best, she says, astrology supports the celebration of how different everyone in a house actually is. Chelsea offers the IFS-adjacent framing of tormentors — the people, often our children, who torment and mentor simultaneously, showing us precisely where we still have work. Sarah hears it as another way of saying the thing she keeps returning to: what is difficult is the offering. She traces it back through conception, pregnancy, and postpartum — a stretch she describes without euphemism as the underworld, six weeks of nausea that never lifted, an able-bodied person suddenly needing help every day, ego death a thousand times over. She is not nostalgic about it. She is grateful for it, which is a different thing. From there: the cultural expectation that you emerge from all of this looking unchanged, and why KP has come to hear “bounce back” as a theft. The absence of ritual around the two-week wait. The paradox that accepting your own limits makes you a better parent, not a worse one, because your kid gets to see a person rather than a neutral surface. Chelsea asks the question she’s asking from the other side of the decision — how do you grieve the independence? — and Sarah answers it honestly, including the part where the fear came true, and then she lived through it, and then it was fine. The astrology sharpens in the back half. Sarah’s Aquarius Moon and Capricorn rising, and the rigidity underneath Aquarius’s apparent openness: the conviction that a feeling only counts if it can be justified intellectually. KP’s read on Aquarian refusal as a positive act rather than a reflex. Sarah’s most exact aspect, Saturn square Venus — the kind of placement an older style of astrology would have handed someone as a sentence, and which she experiences instead as the site of the most pain and the most richness, but only if she engages it as that. It closes on culture-making. Sarah is tired of the washing machine of critique — she names the pull of it, and that it’s an Instagram thing, and that she doesn’t want to stop there. Her ambitions have gotten smaller and more focused: the house, the four people in it, the crucible. She’s lighting candles with her kids before the school year because she doesn’t want to wait for the culture to catch up and hand her a form. And the humblest practices — drink some water, make yourself food, put your legs up the wall — turn out to be how you court the mystery. Key Takeaways * “What is difficult is the offering.” Sarah’s central frame, and the spine of the episode. Not that life should be hard, but that difficulty is built in, and the hard places are the ones that show you the next step. The caveat is essential: it only works if you engage it as that. Otherwise it’s just suffering you’re trying to get through, followed by avoiding the next one. * A chart can open a house or close it. Sarah’s practice with her own family is to hold placements as spaciousness — a tree is a tree, Aries is Aries — rather than as knowledge about who someone is. Used well, it makes room for how radically different four people in one house actually are. * Tormentors. Chelsea’s term for the people who torment and mentor at once. Children qualify most reliably, because they expose the exact places we haven’t finished learning. * “What is mine to do” changes every year. Sarah’s codependence practice — from twelve-step work — is a daily recalibration. Newborn care is total surrender; what’s needed at three is different from four is different from seven. Overstepping, her own default, robs everyone in the family of joy and of the feeling of capacity. * The bounce-back script is a missed teaching. The cultural ideal of coming through conception, pregnancy, and birth looking unchanged treats an ego death as an interruption. KP names the rage about it; Sarah names wanting to metabolize the rage rather than live in it. * There is no ceremony for the two-week wait. One of the most vulnerable, life-reorganizing stretches a person goes through, and we spend it alone on our phones. Sarah is building in-person work — food, humming, transits, a container — for exactly these states. Not a retreat you leave your life for; a form for householders. * Independence was a brief delusion. Sarah’s account of needing help every day, having been obliviously able-bodied her whole life, and coming out the other side unconvinced that independence is a real category. What exists is the ability to navigate the world in certain ways and mistake that for self-sufficiency. * Children are fifth house, and so is everything else you make. Sarah on being a conduit rather than an author: she was pregnant, and then there was a baby, and she didn’t do anything. She reads it as a teaching about the creative process generally — which reframes the fear of losing making-time into something more interesting. * Hard aspects as invitation, not verdict. Saturn square Venus is Sarah’s most exact aspect and would have been delivered as doom in an older idiom. Her experience: a lot of pain in relationships of all kinds, and also the richest material she has. The aspect keeps returning her to the subject until she learns it. * Uncomfortable placements get resourceful. KP’s framing of the Aquarius Moon — a planet in an uncomfortable condition often has to find more resources, and over time that becomes the strength. * Aquarian rigidity hides inside Aquarian openness. Sarah on the fixed edge of it: a conviction about how a thing should be, and a feeling that’s only permitted if it can be intellectually justified. Her kids keep breaking the conceptual boxes, including the ones about how to parent and where to go to school. * Rebellion is still the thing it rebels against. Sarah’s current question: the fighting reproduces a certain kind of suffering, and the critique is compelling and easy to stay inside. So what’s the thing that isn’t either pole? Mostly, right now, it’s making the culture directly — candles, a ceremony before school, the humility of not waiting. * Courting the mystery is unglamorous. Chelsea brings back advice from a channeling workshop; Sarah lands it on the most ordinary practices she gives people in readings. Drink some water. Make yourself food. Legs up the wall. The rituals say I’m here for it. Key Quotes “What is difficult is the offering. Everything else is too, but that one is the way towards more freedom.” — Sarah Fontaine “It’s so important in this dance to not think I know anything about them because I look at their chart.” — Sarah Fontaine, on her children “Your chi

  3. Sep 7

    43: Your Planets Aren't Broken - Astrology Meets IFS with Jo O'Neill

    "Planets in cadent houses can be the most talented in the world and good at what they do, but it's like they're several blocks away down an alleyway, by the dumpster." —Astrologer Jo O'Neill (Jo Maker of Ways) joins KP and Chelsea to ask what astrology's "afflicted" placements and IFS's exiled parts actually have in common. Be sure to subscribe here on Substack and follow — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Parts & Charts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Jo O'Neill (she/they) is an astrologer, writer, and 12th house specialist who believes the Story in your chart is always the perfect Story for you to read. Through her signature combination of Hellenistic technique and storytelling, Waymaking, Jo’s goal is to highlight the nuance and multiplicity inside every person’s chart and reenchant their world in the process. www.jomakerofways.com | ig: Jo O'Neill Episode Summary An experimental three-way conversation: KP and Chelsea bring in astrologer Jo O’Neill (Jo Maker of Ways) to explore whether the astrological concepts of essential dignity (specifically planets in detriment and fall) have anything to say to IFS’s concept of the exile. Jo walks through detriment/fall as “unconventional” rather than deficient resourcing, then the three trace parallels through angularity (visibility/volume in the chart), house rulership, and the idea of approaching a placement, like a part, with curiosity instead of assumption. The conversation moves through Jo’s narrative and oracular “way-making” method of speaking to planets as characters, Saturn’s recurring role as an over-functioning protector archetype, and how a person’s relationship to placements like Saturn can shift with time and age. Chelsea grounds the exchange throughout with the clinical IFS frame, defining exiles and protectors, and naming how convincingly a protective belief can pass as truth until the system feels safe enough to test it. KP closes by naming the throughline of the show so far: astrological literacy makes IFS work more specific, and IFS work makes astrological placements legible as lived experience rather than data points. Key Takeaways * Detriment and fall ≠ “bad.” Jo reframes these essential-dignity conditions as a planet being unconventionally resourced rather than poorly resourced, like being far from home and having to improvise with unfamiliar tools, which often produces creative skill sets a well-resourced planet wouldn’t need to develop. * Fall is generally the more difficult condition of the two, functionally, the inverse not just of being “at home” (domicile) but of being an honored guest (exaltation). Jo notes this varies by planet: Mercury tends to adapt easily even in detriment/fall; Mars tends to struggle more (e.g., anger that’s hard to access or that turns inward). * Angularity is about volume and visibility, not power. Planets in angular houses (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th) are easily seen/heard regardless of resourcing; planets in cadent or “dark” houses (12th, 8th, 6th, 3rd, 9th) can be just as capable but structurally harder to notice, which Jo connects directly to the IFS concept of the exile. * House rulership may matter more than placement. A planet ruling a “dark” house (especially the 12th) often takes on an editorial/gatekeeping role, deciding what gets shown to the world, which can map onto protector dynamics. * Saturn recurs as a protector archetype across the conversation; frequently the planet making unilateral decisions to guard other, more tender placements, often with an edge of harshness that softens once its underlying protective reasoning is understood. * The methodological point, stated plainly by KP near the end: data and technique only go so far. The value is in application (meditation, narrative work, active imagination, painting, dancing) actually meeting a placement rather than assigning meaning to it in advance. * Time changes the relationship. Jo pushes back on language like “evolved” or “unevolved” placements, but affirms that lived experience, especially through repeated Saturn transits/returns, visibly changes how someone relates to a difficult placement. * Jo’s “way-making” method: narrative/oracular work that meets planets as characters in an imaginal story (rather than applying meaning from outside), including asking a planet directly what its job is and what it would do with unstructured time. Key Quotes “It’s less that they’re ill-resourced or poorly resourced, and more that they’re unconventionally resourced.” — Jo O’Neill, on planets in detriment/fall “The most exily of all, I think... you are the — people don’t like you here. They don’t want you here.” — Jo O’Neill, on planets in fall “Angular houses... it’s like those planets are in the village square up on a platform with a microphone. Planets in cadent houses... they can be the most talented in the world and good at what they do, but it’s like they’re several blocks away down an alleyway, by the dumpster.” — Jo O’Neill, on angularity as visibility “We shouldn’t be assuming we know people that we don’t know and what they need until we talk to them. I treat the planets the same way.” — Jo O’Neill “At a point, the data is not gonna do anything for you... until you apply it.” — KP Kaszubowski “Our parts are pretty much — consciously or unconsciously — doing such a good job at what they’re doing, which is protecting us.” — Chelsea Owens Resources & Links * Jo O’Neill / Jo Maker of Ways — Instagram: @jomakerofways www.jomakerofways.com * Jo’s Substack Waymaking Chronicles — monthly live mini chart readings for paid subscribers * Upcoming: a Venus retrograde “way-making” cohort through Jo’s Substack About This Podcast Parts & Charts is co-hosted by astrologer KP Kaszubowski and licensed therapist Chelsea Owens, exploring the intersection of astrology and Internal Family Systems. For those applying to grad programs in counseling: * Chelsea Owens pulled together a deeeeeep dive into all the practical elements of this decision, for the price of a cute cafe lunch ($25) — follow this link: https://chelseawow.gumroad.com/l/bfbiau Chelsea’s Oracle deck, Outer Realms for Inner Archives : a collage deck shaped by exactly this work, made the way she makes images of her own parts. Pre-orders coming; this email sign-up form gets you deck news only, no spam. → subscribe here Meet your Moon. If the Moon is the tender spot for everyone, this is the guided audio course for meeting yours as an inner figure — KP’s active-imagination approach, on your own time. ($42) → https://kpkaszu.gumroad.com/l/meetyourmoon Work with Chelsea. If you’re in California and you’ve been looking for a therapist who will actually go there with you — the deep stuff, the weird stuff, the stuff you’ve never quite found the words for — Chelsea Owens is your person. Licensed therapist, Leo moon, first house everything, art supplies on every surface. She brings clinical rigor and genuine delight to the work in equal measure, which turns out to be exactly what the hard stuff needs. 👉 www.chelseaowenstherapy.com Work with KP. Astrology readings (written, voice note, or live; in person if you’re in Wisconsin), Astro Parts sessions. Book Doula — a monthly retainer for people serious about making the book real. → Book Doula Waitlist: forms.gle/3LwpmAinnBN2Q4aY8 Schedule a 1:1 session → https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=22372975 Thanks for reading Parts & Charts! This post is public so feel free to share it. 🌟 Credits Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski — performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah Luther. Collage cover art by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

  4. Aug 31

    42: Enneagram Meets IFS - Joan Ryan on Parts, Patterns, and Where They Overlap

    Be sure to subscribe here on Substack and follow — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Parts & Charts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. What if the thing you call your personality is really just where your attention learned to hold first? Joan Ryan joins us to take the Enneagram apart — past the quiz, past the stereotype — and put it back together as something closer to a map of the unconscious. About Our Guest Joan Rosenberg Ryan, JD Joan Rosenberg Ryan, JD — Enneagram Master Teacher and IFS trained Practitioner, directly mentored and trained by Helen Palmer in Narrative Enneagram, Palmer/Daniels certified Enneagram Teacher since 1996, IFS trained practitioner (2011), published in the book that brought 30 leading IFS experts together: IFS Integrations, (PESI 2025) served as a Narrative Enneagram Expert for Dan Siegel in the first public workshop for “Patterns of Developmental Pathways” (Siegel et al) at Hollyhock 2024, and is a trauma-informed facilitator. Known for her compassionate clarity, emotional depth and ability to help people meet the parts of themselves they’ve long protected or exiled both inside and outside the Enneagram map. Joan carries the narratives of thousands of Enneagram interviews with her and shares them with her students. https://innershiftexperience.com/ https://www.joanrryan.com/ Episode Summary Joan Ryan joins Chelsea and KP for a deep dive into the narrative Enneagram — the nine-type system she’s taught for over three decades, first alongside Helen Palmer and David Daniels, and more recently in a synthesis with Internal Family Systems (IFS) developed with Tammy Sollenberger. Joan is clear from the outset that the Enneagram isn’t a behavioral checklist or an online quiz result: it’s a map of where a person’s attention habitually goes, organized into three triads — agency/autonomy (body types 8, 9, 1), bonding/connection (heart types 2, 3, 4), and certainty (head types 5, 6, 7). The conversation moves through how type patterns form early (Joan and her colleague Dan Siegel’s interpersonal neurobiology work point toward origins well before conscious memory), why self-typing from a test is unreliable, and how IFS protectors can actively obscure a person’s true type until they’re gently invited to relax. Joan and Chelsea also discuss connected points (formerly “integration/disintegration” lines), wings, and why stress and security don’t map neatly onto negative and positive behavior the way pop psychology suggests. The episode closes with a walkthrough of all nine types’ core focus of attention, and an invitation into Joan’s in-person Inner Shift Experience retreat. Key Takeaways * The Enneagram is not behavioral. Two people of the same type can look completely different on the outside; what’s shared is where attention goes first, not how it’s expressed. * Type quizzes capture a snapshot, not a structure. Self-report tests reflect the day you took them — mood, socialization, self-observation skill — not necessarily your core pattern. * Protectors can hide your actual type. Just as in IFS more broadly, a person’s real pattern may be obscured by protective parts, especially if identifying with a type feels threatening (e.g., resembling a difficult parent). * The three triads each have a core motivation: agency/autonomy (8, 9, 1), bonding/connection (2, 3, 4), and certainty (5, 6, 7) — with the middle number of each triad (3, 6, 9) representing the most “core” expression of that triad’s theme. * Avoidance doesn’t disappear — it gets subtler. Growth isn’t about eliminating a type’s core avoidance; it’s about developing enough awareness and tools that it stops running the show. * Connected points (not just wings) matter. Each type has a stronger, more deeply embedded connection to one other type, distinct from the more surface-level “wing” types on either side. * Type is theorized as very early — possibly prenatal — patterning, per Joan’s collaboration with Dan Siegel’s interpersonal neurobiology research, not something created later by specific traumatic events. * Typing is diagnostic support, not a verdict. Joan is emphatic that the goal is never to tell someone who they are, but to give them more accurate material to self-inquire with. Key Quotes Joan, describing what drew her to the Enneagram: “It’s a map that describes nine different patterns through which people look at or experience the world.” On the danger of typing from a test: Joan explains that a self-report test only captures a snapshot shaped by variables like self-observation skill and what’s going on in someone’s life that day — and that people can get “locked” into believing a result that short-circuits their ability to actually grow from the material. On the enduring nature of core patterns: Joan’s view is that an avoidance pattern never fully disappears — what changes with growth is a person’s capacity to recognize it and work with it before it overwhelms them. Resources & Links * Joan Ryan’s retreat: Inner Shift Experience — in-person Enneagram + IFS + embodiment retreats, co-led with Leslie Hirschberger and Lisa Everts. Next retreat: February, Cincinnati (application-based; not intended as an introductory/beginner offering). * Joan Ryan’s personal site: joanrryan.com * Published work: Joan’s Enneagram/IFS synthesis (developed with Tammy Sollenberger) appears as a chapter in All Together Us (ed. Jenna Riemersma, 2023) and its 2025 update, IFS Integrations * Referenced research: Dan Siegel’s interpersonal neurobiology work on the neurobiological basis of Enneagram-adjacent motivational groupings About This Podcast Parts & Charts is co-hosted by astrologer KP Kaszubowski and licensed therapist Chelsea Owens, exploring the intersection of astrology and Internal Family Systems. For those applying to grad programs in counseling: * Chelsea Owens pulled together a deeeeeep dive into all the practical elements of this decision, for the price of a cute cafe lunch ($25) — follow this link: https://chelseawow.gumroad.com/l/bfbiau Chelsea’s Oracle deck, Outer Realms for Inner Archives : a collage deck shaped by exactly this work, made the way she makes images of her own parts. Pre-orders coming; this email sign-up form gets you deck news only, nothing else. → subscribe here Meet your Moon. If the Moon is the tender spot for everyone, this is the guided audio course for meeting yours as an inner figure — KP’s active-imagination approach, on your own time. ($42) → https://kpkaszu.gumroad.com/l/meetyourmoon Work with Chelsea. If you’re in California and you’ve been looking for a therapist who will actually go there with you — the deep stuff, the weird stuff, the stuff you’ve never quite found the words for — Chelsea Owens is your person. Licensed therapist, Leo moon, first house everything, art supplies on every surface. She brings clinical rigor and genuine delight to the work in equal measure, which turns out to be exactly what the hard stuff needs. 👉 www.chelseaowenstherapy.com Work with KP. Astrology readings (written, voice note, or live; in person if you’re in Wisconsin), Astro Parts sessions. Book Doula — a monthly retainer for people serious about making the book real, three clients at a time, waitlist when full. → Book Doula Waitlist: forms.gle/3LwpmAinnBN2Q4aY8 Schedule a 1:1 session → https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=22372975 Thanks for reading Parts & Charts! This post is public so feel free to share it. 🌟 Credits Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski — performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah Luther. Collage cover art by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

  5. Aug 25

    41: Blending & Unblending - An IFS Primer for Everyday Life

    Be sure to subscribe here on Substack and follow — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Parts & Charts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. An episode where KP Kaszubowski talks with IFS and art therapist Chelsea Owens about blending and unblending - and we do an activity around the “You”-Turn concept. Aaaaaand we joked about KP looking for part time work in the Madison area. While this is kind of true, she’s more open to clients who are elders or experts in their fields that want to grow their social media engagement. If that’s you — especially if you are a therapist, coach, writer, or artist — message her at kp@havecakecreative.com This episode is a primer, not a crossover — astrology gets a nod but stays in the background. Chelsea walks through two foundational Internal Family Systems concepts: blending, when a part takes over the system so fully it’s effectively doing the talking, and unblending, the process of getting enough space from a part to relate to it rather than be it. KP shares a personal account of an early unblending experience — encountering a very young, long-held part connected to their sister and grandmother — and the felt difference between feeling a part’s emotion directly versus sensing it with some distance. Chelsea then leads KP through a live U-turn exercise: a guided visualization for noticing which part shows up in a difficult relational dynamic and exploring what more choice might feel like in that moment. The conversation closes with a discussion of direct access (when a practitioner works with a blended part on a client’s behalf) and the practice of letting a part choose its own name, rather than assigning one to it. Key Takeaways * Blending is the norm, not the exception. Most people are blended with some part most of the time — parts have jobs to do, so of course they’re active. Blending becomes worth noticing when one part takes over the system, especially in charged or emotionally activated moments. * Unblending creates relational distance, not emotional distance. KP describes the shift from feeling a part’s sadness as their own to sensing it while remaining themselves — present with the part’s experience without being fully inside it. * The U-turn redirects attention inward. Rather than focusing on what someone else is doing, the U-turn asks: which part of me is responding right now, and how do I want to respond? Chelsea notes this is something within a person’s control even when another person’s behavior isn’t. * The guided exercise itself: picture a difficult relationship, place both people in a room, then “take the roof off” to observe from above — watching the interaction, noticing what you want to say, and imagining how the other person might respond. KP’s takeaway: the exercise didn’t produce a single “right” response, it produced more options. * Direct access is a practitioner tool, not a self-practice. When a client’s part is too blended for the client to access much Self-energy in the moment, the practitioner may work with the part directly — offering their own steadier presence until the part can start to trust the client’s own capacity to be with it. * Let a part name itself. Rather than assigning a label, ask the part what it wants to be called (or whether it wants a name at all) — naming from an agenda is itself worth noticing as a possible sign of another part at work. Key Quotes “We’re all pretty much blended with a part... in most of our daily lives.” — Chelsea “When a part is really blended... it’s kind of taking over.” — Chelsea “I had more options.” — KP, on the You-turn exercise “How do I want to respond? ...what parts are involved with that?” — Chelsea, on the You-turn “The therapist accesses the client’s part that’s blended directly, so they have a dialogue.” — Chelsea, on direct access About This Podcast Parts & Charts is co-hosted by astrologer KP Kaszubowski and licensed therapist Chelsea Owens, exploring the intersection of astrology and Internal Family Systems. For those applying to grad programs in counseling: * Chelsea Owens pulled together a deeeeeep dive into all the practical elements of this decision, for the price of a cute cafe lunch ($25) — follow this link: https://chelseawow.gumroad.com/l/bfbiau Chelsea’s Oracle deck, Outer Realms for Inner Archives : a collage deck shaped by exactly this work, made the way she makes images of her own parts. Pre-orders coming; this email sign-up form gets you deck news only, nothing else. → subscribe here Meet your Moon. If the Moon is the tender spot for everyone, this is the guided audio course for meeting yours as an inner figure — KP’s active-imagination approach, on your own time. ($42) → https://kpkaszu.gumroad.com/l/meetyourmoon Work with Chelsea. If you’re in California and you’ve been looking for a therapist who will actually go there with you — the deep stuff, the weird stuff, the stuff you’ve never quite found the words for — Chelsea Owens is your person. Licensed therapist, Leo moon, first house everything, art supplies on every surface. She brings clinical rigor and genuine delight to the work in equal measure, which turns out to be exactly what the hard stuff needs. 👉 www.chelseaowenstherapy.com Work with KP. Astrology readings (written, voice note, or live; in person if you’re in Wisconsin),astrology readings “mommy and me”, Astro Parts sessions. Book Doula — a monthly retainer for people serious about making the book real, three clients at a time, waitlist when full. → Book Doula Waitlist: forms.gle/3LwpmAinnBN2Q4aY8 Schedule a 1:1 session → https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=22372975 Thanks for reading Parts & Charts! This post is public so feel free to share it. 🌟 Credits Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski — performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah Luther. Collage cover art by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

  6. Aug 17

    40: "Nobody Is Coming to Save Us" - Pluto, Presence, Somatic Parts Work with Astrologer and Filmmaker Paton Ashbrook

    Be sure to subscribe here on Substack and follow — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. A conversation with actor, somatic teacher, and astrologer Paton Ashbrook on Pluto, generational cycles, and why the mistake is the art. Parts & Charts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. In This Episode KP and Chelsea are joined by actor, yoga teacher, and astrologer Paton Ashbrook (Juilliard-trained, Shameless alum, Gabor Maté-trained in compassionate inquiry) for a sprawling conversation that starts with her own astrology origin story — reading her chart at eight years old — and moves through somatics, acting as shadow practice, and a long, generative dig into Pluto in Scorpio as the signature of a generation. Paton talks about training bodies to feel safe enough to be seen, why perfectionism has no place in art, and what it means to let a monster be a baby again. A note before you listen: In the episode, Paton calls the Founding Fathers / Sons of Liberty "the last hero generation" in Strauss–Howe generational theory. She's since clarified — the Founders were a hero generation, same as her millennial parallel, but not the most recent one before millennials. That's actually the G.I. Generation (born roughly 1901–1927), many of whom carried Pluto in Gemini, activated during World War II when transiting Uranus was also in Gemini. We're leaving the on-air moment as it happened and flagging the correction here for anyone following the generational-astrology thread closely. About Paton Ashbrook: “I’m a filmmaker, somatic teaching artist & facilitator, and baby astrologer spreading my cosmic wings! I see the stars in everything: in processing trauma and healing generational cycles, in art as shadow work that transforms the Self and culture, and across our tumultuous political landscapes. My Patreon “StarBodied” combines all of these into a single community where I offer educational content, somatic and artistic practices, readings, classes, and workshops that help you embody the stars.” Patreon: Paton Ashbrook TikTok: @hollywoodinbk Instagram: @patonashbrook “Harvest” short film: harvestfilmproject.com Key Takeaways The chart doesn’t need to work to be useful. Paton’s stance on astrology: it doesn’t matter whether it’s “real” in a falsifiable sense — what matters is whether it helps you understand yourself and others better. The symbols are a discovery tool, not a verdict. Squares and oppositions build agency, not doom. Harsh aspects (the Saturnian opposition, the Martian square) get read as threats, but Paton reframes them as the pressure that moves a person to actually build, choose, and act. A chart with no hard aspects isn’t cursed — it’s just less activated. Benefics have a shadow too. Jupiter isn’t uncomplicated good luck — in Paton’s own chart (Jupiter in Gemini, 5th house, opposing Saturn) it shows up as too many creative directions at once, burnout from wanting to do everything. Ease can become its own kind of confusion. The averse houses (2, 6, 8, 12) run in the background. In ancient technique, these houses don’t see the ascendant and receive less of the chart’s life-force. Paton’s own cadent, “backstage” placements — Moon, Venus, Neptune, Mercury/Mars — map onto a life that’s often working out of view before it becomes visible. Acting is a rehearsal room for parts. Paton’s throughline: playing a villain, a griever, a monster requires locating empathy for material you’d otherwise reject in yourself. Somatic training (breath, movement, “warming up”) isn’t really about the voice or body — it’s about convincing the nervous system it’s safe enough to let more of you show up. The baby-monster exercise. From Paton’s training with Kai Cheng Tom: take whatever “monster” lives in you — a harpy, a screaming thing — and ask what it needed as an infant. What would quiet a baby harpy? The exercise moves shadow material out of judgment and into care. Pluto in Scorpio as a generational signature. Paton reads millennials’ Pluto-in-Scorpio placement (and its position in the 12th house of the U.S. Sibley chart) as a story about hidden labor, absorbed loss, and now — with transiting Pluto in Aquarius squaring it — a forced reckoning. Her read: the discomfort isn’t a sign something’s going wrong, it’s Pluto doing its actual job of excavation. No one is coming to save us. The Uranus-in-Gemini return (last seen at the American Revolution and the Civil War) is framed as a portal, not a prophecy — available, but only realized through the Martian/Saturnian follow-through of actually walking through it. Perfection isn’t the goal, integration is. Paton’s Virgo South Node history with perfectionism gets reframed through her Pisces North Node: leaning into mess, dropping over-preparation, trusting that flaws aren’t a departure from the art — they’re the art. [Share] Key Quotes “Whatever’s in the shadow that you keep there will end up running your life.” — Paton, on the core ethos of her work “The mistake’s actually a part of the art.” — Paton, on a lesson from her mother “That part of you loves you so much that it doesn’t want you to lose the chance. It will go to extreme measures to wake you up.” — Paton, quoting A.H. Almas “Not everybody’s meant for everybody else, so it’s all good.” — Paton, on friendship and Saturn in the 11th house “Acting classes for everybody... that is empathy, and that is what’s gonna save the world.” — Paton Resources & References Mentioned * Paton Ashbrook’s astrology + somatics work: [Patreon link — TBD, launching soon] * The Embody Lab — mind-body certification program; training with Kai Cheng Tom on somatic/shadow work * Gabor Maté’s Compassionate Inquiry training * Kepler College — astrology coursework * A.H. Almas — quote on conflict and the self, referenced in-episode * U.S. Sibley chart — referenced throughout the generational-Pluto discussion About This Podcast Parts & Charts is co-hosted by astrologer KP Kaszubowski and licensed therapist Chelsea Owens, exploring the intersection of astrology and Internal Family Systems. For those applying to grad programs in counseling: * Chelsea Owens pulled together a deeeeeep dive into all the practical elements of this decision, for the price of a cute cafe lunch ($25) — follow this link: https://chelseawow.gumroad.com/l/bfbiau Chelsea’s Oracle deck, Outer Realms for Inner Archives : a collage deck shaped by exactly this work, made the way she makes images of her own parts. Pre-orders coming; this email sign-up form gets you deck news only, nothing else. → subscribe here Meet your Moon. If the Moon is the tender spot for everyone, this is the guided audio course for meeting yours as an inner figure — KP’s active-imagination approach, on your own time. ($42) → https://kpkaszu.gumroad.com/l/meetyourmoon Work with Chelsea. If you’re in California and you’ve been looking for a therapist who will actually go there with you — the deep stuff, the weird stuff, the stuff you’ve never quite found the words for — Chelsea Owens is your person. Licensed therapist, Leo moon, first house everything, art supplies on every surface. She brings clinical rigor and genuine delight to the work in equal measure, which turns out to be exactly what the hard stuff needs. 👉 www.chelseaowenstherapy.com Work with KP. Astrology readings (written, voice note, or live; in person if you’re in Wisconsin),astrology readings “mommy and me”, Astro Parts sessions. Book Doula — a monthly retainer for people serious about making the book real, three clients at a time, waitlist when full. → Book Doula Waitlist: forms.gle/3LwpmAinnBN2Q4aY8 Schedule a 1:1 session → https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=22372975 Thanks for reading Parts & Charts! This post is public so feel free to share it. 🌟 Credits Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski — performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah Luther. Collage cover art by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

    40: "Nobody Is Coming to Save Us" - Pluto, Presence, Somatic Parts Work with Astrologer and Filmmaker Paton Ashbrook

  7. Aug 10

    39: How Do You Know It's a Part?

    Be sure to subscribe here on Substack and follow — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. A summer check-in episode: revisiting the basics of parts work, astrology as a doorway into the psyche, and the difference between a part talking and a psychic download. In This Episode KP and Chelsea catch up on a rainy Midwest “summer” (guest-starring Otto the dog), then dig into a genuine refresher episode — going back to the fundamentals of parts for anyone new to the model, and for longtime listeners who want a deeper pass. Topics range from a forthcoming astrotherapy summit, to a slow read of Stephen Arroyo, to how psychic perception and parts work can get tangled for intuitive people, to KP’s ongoing practice of meeting the planets in her chart as inner figures. Parts & Charts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Key Takeaways * The Virgo phase of learning gets skipped. Drawing on Stephen Arroyo, KP points out that Western education (and most astrology training) rushes from “building blocks” (Gemini) straight to “expert” (Sagittarius), skipping the long apprenticeship phase (Virgo) — the unglamorous stretch of practicing on real people before you’re any good. Arroyo argues astrology especially needs more of this middle phase, since it isn’t taught with the same rigor as empirical sciences. * A fall astrotherapy summit is in the works. KP and Chelsea are planning a free, accessible virtual gathering for people working at the intersection of astrology and therapy — modeled less on funnel-driven summits and more on a shared, decentralized structure where each presenter brings their own angle. * Parts, explained simply: Chelsea’s go-to entry point for beginners is polarization — noticing two opposing feelings about the same decision or situation. If you’ve ever felt torn, you’ve already met two parts. This isn’t pathology; it’s normal internal multiplicity. * Parts want to be heard — and that’s harder than it sounds. When one part dominates the airtime (out of fear something bad will happen if another part speaks), that suppressed part tends to get louder, not quieter. Chelsea’s family-therapy analogy: it’s like a parent answering for a child in session — the guide has to gently ask that part to “give us some space” so the quieter one can be heard directly. * Psychic perception and parts perception can blur for intuitive people. Chelsea raises a sharp question: for people who already work with clairs (psychic senses), is a vivid image a part communicating, or an unrelated psychic download? Her practical fix — just ask the part directly what it’s showing you and why. * Everyone perceives parts differently, and there’s no “correct” channel. KP experiences parts primarily as visual, character-based figures (often animals — a glamorous snake, warring dragons) plus somatic sensing of a part’s state. Chelsea experiences parts as human figures, shapes, or cloaked presences, and notes that people can also perceive parts auditorily, energetically, or as a felt sense outside the body. Neither is more “real” than the other. * Even trained guides need a guide. Chelsea, despite her training, says she still can’t lead herself through internal work — holding the analytical/tracking role and staying fully present with a part at the same time asks too much of one system. This normalizes needing outside support regardless of expertise level. * Astrology as a parts practice. KP has been “meeting” the planets in her own chart as individual inner figures (Moon, Sun, Venus, Vesta) with striking results — including a session with a judge-like “go-between” part that helped her make a major life decision (her move). Saturn, her chart ruler, is next — and she’s a little afraid of what she’ll learn. Key Quotes “We are multiples. We contain multitudes. And it’s not pathology.” — Chelsea, on what parts are “Parts just want to be heard... and it sounds really simple, but it can be really, really hard in practice.” — Chelsea “I don’t think it matters how experienced I am — even though I know it all, it doesn’t matter, because I still need somebody else to guide me.” — Chelsea, on why even trained therapists need a guide for their own work “It’s not overwhelming, it’s just — there’s so much movement, and you’re noticing a lot.” — KP, describing what it’s like to be guided through a session Fact-Check Note KP references “two gates” from Greek myth distinguishing true messages from ordinary dreams, describing them (uncertainly) as pearl and milk. The actual reference is likely the Gates of Horn and Ivory from Homer’s Odyssey (and later Virgil’s Aeneid) — true dreams pass through the gate of horn, false or misleading ones through the gate of ivory. Though KP stands by her pearl and milk gates ;) Resources & References Mentioned * Book: Astrology, Psychology, and the Four Elements: An Energy Approach to Astrology and Its Use in the Counseling Arts by Stephen Arroyo * Film reference: Inside Out (and Inside Out 2) — Chelsea’s go-to for explaining IFS-style internal multiplicity to beginners or younger listeners * KP’s newsletter: Astro-Archetypes — weekly newsletter connecting current astrological transits to an archetype, paired with quotes and images, published as a short centering message for the week * KP’s Book Doula practice — ongoing companionship for people working inside long book projects; reach out to inquire about fit * Chelsea’s newsletter — monthly updates on her Oracle deck and channeled messages For those applying to grad programs in counseling: * Chelsea Owens pulled together a deeeeeep dive into all the practical elements of this decision, for the price of a cute cafe lunch ($25) — follow this link: https://chelseawow.gumroad.com/l/bfbiau Chelsea’s Oracle deck, Outer Realms for Inner Archives : a collage deck shaped by exactly this work, made the way she makes images of her own parts. Pre-orders coming; this email sign-up form gets you deck news only, nothing else. → subscribe here Meet your Moon. If the Moon is the tender spot for everyone, this is the guided audio course for meeting yours as an inner figure — KP’s active-imagination approach, on your own time. ($42) → https://kpkaszu.gumroad.com/l/meetyourmoon About This Podcast Parts & Charts is co-hosted by astrologer KP Kaszubowski and licensed therapist Chelsea Owens, exploring the intersection of astrology and Internal Family Systems. Work with Chelsea. If you’re in California and you’ve been looking for a therapist who will actually go there with you — the deep stuff, the weird stuff, the stuff you’ve never quite found the words for — Chelsea Owens is your person. Licensed therapist, Leo moon, first house everything, art supplies on every surface. She brings clinical rigor and genuine delight to the work in equal measure, which turns out to be exactly what the hard stuff needs. * 👉 www.chelseaowenstherapy.com Work with KP. Astrology readings (written, voice note, or live; in person if you’re in Wisconsin),astrology readings “mommy and me”, Astro Parts sessions. Book Doula — a monthly retainer for people serious about making the book real, three clients at a time, waitlist when full. * → Book Doula Waitlist: forms.gle/3LwpmAinnBN2Q4aY8 Schedule a 1:1 session → https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=22372975 Thanks for reading Parts & Charts! This post is public so feel free to share it. 🌟 Credits Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski — performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah Luther. Collage cover art by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Jul 31

    38: Wedding Season - Marriage, Timing, and Knowing Your Self First

    Parts & Charts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Be sure to subscribe here on Substack and follow — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Chelsea’s back from her birthday trip. Topic: weddings — the decision, the timing, and the chart. Should I marry this person? (the parts-work lens) * People rarely ask a therapist when — they ask whether, and don’t want the answer handed to them * The real work: finding which parts are actually in the room — pleasing family? old wound activated? or a genuine present-tense issue? * Goal: make the decision from Self, not from an activated part * Getting unburdened parts to relax → more spaciousness → clarity shows up on its own “If whatever needs to be healed gets healed, you’ll have more clarity about your answer.” — Chelsea “That’s probably a part, right? That’s putting that pressure on you.” — Chelsea, on the “gun to your head” feeling around big decisions Age, maturity, and the myth of “the right time” * KP married just past her Saturn return (28–29); husband a few months shy of his own * Chelsea: a part of her wants to warn people off marrying young — time alone is its own necessary experience, not a stage to rush past * Where they land: knowing yourself matters more than knowing your partner — solid self-knowledge is what makes any risk (financial, emotional) survivable “It is a financial agreement... your fate is bound to their parts and their addictions and their wounds and their joys.” — KP “If I know myself... I can handle any of that. I can handle the financial pitfall, I can handle cheating, I can handle whatever.” — Chelsea The seventh house / eighth house (marriage & “known enemies”) * 7th house = marriage/partnership; 8th house = combined resources, debt, intimacy/exposure * 7th house also nicknamed the house of known enemies — your spouse is often your most intimately known adversary, because of how close you let them in * How to read it: what’s placed there, what it aspects, where its ruling planet sits elsewhere in the chart * Live examples: Chelsea’s Aquarius 7th (explains her resistance to tradition), KP’s Leo vs. Chelsea’s Pisces 8th house (fierce boundaries vs. unconditional acceptance) * KP’s own 7th house (moon, Chiron, Jupiter) → dated moon/Jupiter-ruled people, twin bond read through Chiron; met her husband (career-house moon) at a film festival Sign-by-sign: what your 7th house might want from the wedding itself * Aquarius — far from home, small, genuinely themed * Leo — two distinct identities honored, not blended into ambiguity * Libra — beautiful, polished, chic * KP’s own wedding: 4-hour Sunday brunch, donut wall, 18-minute ceremony, over-the-page-limit vows (to audible gasps) Electional astrology 101 — choosing the date Caveat: any date is a good date if you love the person. For the deliberate: * Retrogrades — if a ruling planet is retrograde, consider waiting * Venus retrograde — ~40-day window, every 8 years; associated with doubt/dissatisfaction around connection (KP’s own marriage chart has this — doesn’t read it as a verdict) * Void-of-course moon — nothing begun here tends to persist; check a void-of-course calendar, shift the ceremony by an hour if needed * House placement of sun/moon/Venus — 7th house supports the marriage; 5th house (children) if that’s a shared goal * The moment of vows sets the marriage’s own rising sign / birth chart — KP reads her own: Sagittarius rising, sun in 11th (friendship/community), moon in 1st (shared identity), Saturn in 2nd (real, ongoing delay in material success — she’d shift the time, not the day, if doing it over) * 7-year mark = the marriage’s first Saturn square — a common reckoning point, tension or not * Ethics aside: neither host feels the same certainty applying this to timing a child’s birth as to a wedding date Housekeeping * KP is still taking retainer clients for book doula work; reach out if there’s a book you’ve been talking about finishing out loud for years. * Parts & Charts may be doing something in the LA area in mid-October — details to come, but if you’re in SoCal around the 10th, reach out. For those applying to grad programs in counseling: * Chelsea Owens pulled together a deeeeeep dive into all the practical elements of this decision, for the price of a cute cafe lunch ($25) — follow this link: https://chelseawow.gumroad.com/l/bfbiau Chelsea’s Oracle deck, Outer Realms for Inner Archives : a collage deck shaped by exactly this work, made the way she makes images of her own parts. Pre-orders coming; this email sign-up form gets you deck news only, nothing else. → subscribe here Meet your Moon. If the Moon is the tender spot for everyone, this is the guided audio course for meeting yours as an inner figure — KP’s active-imagination approach, on your own time. ($42) → https://kpkaszu.gumroad.com/l/meetyourmoon Work with Chelsea. If you’re in California and you’ve been looking for a therapist who will actually go there with you — the deep stuff, the weird stuff, the stuff you’ve never quite found the words for — Chelsea Owens is your person. Licensed therapist, Leo moon, first house everything, art supplies on every surface. She brings clinical rigor and genuine delight to the work in equal measure, which turns out to be exactly what the hard stuff needs. * 👉 www.chelseaowenstherapy.com Work with KP. Astrology readings (written, voice note, or live; in person if you’re in Wisconsin),astrology readings “mommy and me”, Astro Parts sessions. Book Doula — a monthly retainer for people serious about making the book real, three clients at a time, waitlist when full. * → Book Doula Waitlist: forms.gle/3LwpmAinnBN2Q4aY8 Schedule a 1:1 session → https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=22372975 Thanks for reading Parts & Charts! This post is public so feel free to share it. 🌟 Credits Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski — performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah Luther. Collage cover art by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

See All (47)

About

Where we explore how inner parts and planetary archetypes speak to one another. partsandcharts.substack.com

Information

You Might Also Like