There may be no clearer gateway drug to magic in 2026 than astrology. You don't need psychic abilities, or a spirit court, or a wider mystical philosophy to dabble in astrology. Just a birthday. I've always been a proponent of practical magic – the kind that helps you get stuff – not as an end goal, but as a necessary step, for many, in re-enchanting their minds. Astrology can do something similar, though, with merely a natal chart reading. What do the planets have to do with who I am? It doesn't really matter why astrology can tell you about yourself; the power is in simply acknowledging the mystery.

And for many, this is what astrology is for. It's a tool for self-reflection and self-care. It reinforces the ideas we have about ourselves and can help us better navigate the world around us. To many, it is more psychological than magical. More personal than universal.

I've always found astrology interesting, but it wasn't until I first encountered Hellenic and electional astrology that I really got hooked. Rather than consulting astrology to understand why I'm so stubborn, or why my partner and I have different tidying habits, Hellenic astrology revealed a vast, and hitherto invisible, procession of fate and fortune. A mirror of world events playing out in the heavens that could not only tell me when I might go through a career change or have children in the next decade, but also when a war might break out, or a political leader fall, or a revolution erupt in a given country. On a personal level, Hellenic and electional astrology has been a valuable tool to plan rituals, and reference for omens, but on a macro level I've engaged with it almost like prestige TV.

The height of this macro engagement for me comes every January, when my favorite astrologers put out their forecasts for the year to come. Living now squarely in "interesting times," in a world of ever increasing chaos and novelty, these forecasts have become something of a cathartic schadenfreude, if I'm being honest. With all the discord and despair and conflict playing out before us on the world stage, it can be mildly comforting to, if nothing else, feel like you have some idea what might be coming next, if for no other reason than to rubberneck from the comfort of a moment in time where it's all still merely unfolding. I find astrology used to these ends to be fascinating, and useful, and important. If our engagement with astrology ends there, though, at the level of forecasting the inevitable, it can also be paralyzing and disempowering. If, at the most basic level, astrology is something about our personality, then at this elevated level, it can often feel like astrology is something that happens to us.

Teagan West has a different approach. Not only drawing on the revival of ancient techniques, but also imbuing her practice with animism and alchemy. What happens to astrology when we view the planets as ancestors? What if astrology isn't something that happens to us, and is instead a hermetic unfolding, an act of co-creative evolution coming just as much from us as from the stars? Teagan's year-ahead forecasts are my personal favorite. Spirit-led, embodied, and in conversation with fate. In our chat, we explore Teagan's background, and her unique philosophy and approach to magic, and ceremony, and the stars. Also, in our bonus conversation on Patreon, I present Teagan with a few key planetary movements in the coming year and get her take on how the magically inclined might engage with them.

SHOW NOTES:

Teagan's Substack: The Altar of Stars

Teagan's Services: The Altar Healing

Teagan's Podcast: The Altar of Stars Podcast