In this solo mini episode of Fate Forty and Beyond, Gen explores how tarot can be used as a powerful tool for self-reflection and decision-making. Rather than treating tarot as fortune-telling, Gen explains how symbolic imagery can help uncover thoughts, emotions, fears, and truths that may already exist beneath the surface.

Drawing from her own experience as a tarot reader and spiritual practitioner, she discusses the psychology behind tarot, Carl Jung's concept of active imagination, and why so many of life's biggest decisions become more complex in midlife. You'll also learn a simple tarot spread you can use when you're feeling stuck and how to approach readings in a way that supports clarity rather than dependency.

• [00:00] Welcome to Fate Forty and Beyond
• [01:00] Introducing The Cosmic Brief astrology app
• [02:15] Why tarot is often misunderstood
• [04:20] The history and symbolism behind tarot
• [06:40] Carl Jung, active imagination, and meaning-making
• [09:15] Why major decisions feel so difficult
• [12:10] Midlife decisions carry different emotional weight
• [14:00] How to use tarot as a decision-making tool
• [16:15] A simple three-card spread for clarity
• [19:00] Why your first reaction to a card matters
• [22:10] Confirmation versus prediction in tarot readings
• [24:30] The limitations and misconceptions of tarot
• [28:15] Creating a personal practice of self-reflection
• [31:00] Beginner tips for starting with tarot
• [32:15] Final thoughts and closing message

• Tarot works best as a reflection tool, not a prediction tool.
• Difficult decisions often involve conflicting values rather than a lack of clarity.
• Your reaction to a tarot card can be more revealing than the card's textbook meaning.
• Most readings confirm what you already know but haven't admitted to yourself.
• Tarot cannot replace research, therapy, medical advice, or personal responsibility.
• The goal isn't finding the "right" answer—it's creating space for honest self-reflection.

If you love warm, real midlife conversations with humor and heart, you'll feel right at home here.
Follow the show & connect with Gen:
Gen's Website: http://www.soulfulexistence.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulfulxistence
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soulfulxistence
Podcast homepage: http://www.fatefortyandbeyond.com
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatefortyandbeyond
Podcast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fatefortyandbeyond

I Wasn't Buried...I Was Planted

What happens when life knocks you down — not once, but twice, twenty years apart? In this episode, Gen sits down with Irene Vaksberg, a Soviet-born immigrant, hairdresser, mother, grandmother, and soul inspirer whose story will stop you in your tracks.

At 23, Irene was pulled from a crushed car by the Jaws of Life — and had a full near-death experience where she met God, watched her life like a movie, and was sent back with an assignment. Then at 43, a second car accident shattered everything she'd built and forced her to finally answer that original call. She walked through years of chronic pain, depression, financial loss, and isolation — and came out the other side with her soul dancing.

Gen and Irene discover just how much they share: car accidents, chronic pain recoveries, the word surrender as a turning point, sobriety, and the strange grace of losing everything only to find something better. The episode weaves in live tarot and oracle card pulls and closes with Irene's message to her 20-year-old self: "You're a rock star. Keep shining. You're going to survive all of it — and it's going to become your superpower."

Episode Timestamps:

• [00:00] Welcome & Introduction to Irene Vaksberg
• [00:51] Irene's Background: Soviet Immigrant, Hairdresser, Grandmother
• [02:27] Tarot Pull: Seven of Pentacles & Knight of Swords
• [04:55] Irene's First Car Accident at 23 & Her Near-Death Experience
• [06:20] The Assignment: Sent Back to Teach, Guide & Share
• [08:44] The Second Car Accident at 43 — 20 Years Later
• [10:39] Rock Bottom: Praying to Leave & the Miracle She Almost Said No To
• [12:54] Getting What You Need, Not What You Expected
• [15:47] The Word That Changed Everything: Surrender
• [17:15] Gen Opens Up About Recovery & AA
• [19:42] Women, Voice & Why We Were Ever Quiet
• [23:49] "Your Accent Is Your Golden Card"
• [29:50] Gen's Car Accident & Her Own Healing Journey
• [34:30] "I Wasn't Buried — I Was Planted"
• [39:49] Letting Go of What No Longer Serves You
• [43:20] Stop Stressing, Start Blessing
• [47:36] Healing Through Food & the Yuka App
• [51:09] Goddess Oracle: Mary Magdalene — Unconditional Love
• [53:00] Wild Offering: Solitude — The Right People Arrive
• [54:10] What Would You Tell Your 20-Year-Old Self?

If you love warm, real midlife conversations with humor and heart, you'll feel right at home here.

Follow the show & connect with Gen: Gen's Website: http://www.soulfulexistence.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulfulxistence TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soulfulxistence Podcast homepage: http://www.fatefortyandbeyond.com Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatefortyandbeyond Podcast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fatefortyandbeyond

The Identity Hangover | Ep. 24 When Who You Were No Longer Fits — And Who You're Becoming Hasn't Arrived Yet

Have you ever looked in the mirror and felt like a stranger was staring back? In this mini episode, Gen dives into the "identity hangover" — that disorienting in-between space that so many women hit in midlife, when the roles that defined them no longer fit, but the next version of themselves hasn't arrived yet.

Gen reframes this not as a crisis to fix, but as a sacred spiritual transition. Drawing on concepts like the Dark Night of the Soul, liminal space, soul contracts, and the Tower card in tarot, she makes the case that this unraveling isn't a sign something went wrong — it's a sign you're awake enough to ask the questions most people never ask. She also shares her own story of navigating an empty nest and a breakup at the same time, and what rediscovering herself actually looked like.

She closes with powerful journal prompts to help you stop performing and start listening — to the quieter, truer version of yourself that's been waiting underneath all those roles.

TIMESTAMPS

• [00:18] Welcome & Gen Introduces Herself and Her Work
• [01:45] Introducing The Cosmic Brief App
• [02:45] The Question That Started It All: "Who Are You?"
• [04:00] What Is an Identity Hangover?
• [05:30] The Spiritual Meaning Behind the Unraveling
• [07:00] Ego Identity vs. Soul Identity
• [08:45] Outgrowing Your Skin — Roles We Chose vs. Roles Assigned
• [10:30] The Grief of Losing an Identity
• [12:00] Midlife as a Calling, Not a Crisis
• [13:30] What "Coming Home to Yourself" Feels Like
• [15:30] Gen's Personal Story: Empty Nest & Rediscovery
• [17:30] Dating Yourself & Listening to Your Intuition
• [19:00] Spiritual Tools to Support the Process
• [20:15] The Butterfly in the Chrysalis: A Reframe
• [21:30] Journal Prompts for the In-Between
• [23:00] Closing Words & How to Work with Gen

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• The Cosmic Brief App — Gen's astrology app (link below)
• Soulful Existence — One-on-one tarot, mediumship & past life regression
• The Tower Card — Tarot symbol of transformation through disruption
• Dark Night of the Soul — Spiritual framework for identity dissolution
• Soul Contracts — The idea that our souls plan lessons before incarnating
• Book a reading with Gen — Link in show notes

If you love warm, real midlife conversations with humor and heart, you'll feel right at home here.

Follow the show & connect with Gen:

Gen's Website: http://www.soulfulexistence.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulfulxistence TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soulfulxistence
The Cosmic Brief: www.thecosmicbrief.app

Podcast homepage: http://www.fatefortyandbeyond.com Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatefortyandbeyond Podcast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fatefortyandbeyond

What happens when two women who found each other in an online woo community finally sit down to talk — really talk? Pure magic. In this episode of Fate Forty and Beyond, Gen sits down with writer Michelle Angone for one of the most honest, wide-ranging conversations you'll hear all year.

From coming out of the broom closet in your 30s to tracking the Mother Goddess all the way back through history (spoiler: Michelle ended up at aliens), this episode covers what it feels like to finally stop pretending you don't believe what you believe — and what happens when you give yourself permission to just go there.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Introductions

01:07 Meet Michelle Angone

02:14 Mystic South memories

04:58 Live tarot reading begins

07:55 Grief and becoming the elder generation

09:27 Aging and authenticity

10:46 Cacao ceremony and showing up

11:40 Gen's spiritual origin story

13:26 Michelle's origin story

15:01 Leaving religion and reclaiming power

20:00 Tarot traditions compared

25:00 Mediumship and the afterlife

30:58 Defending Your Life and Journey of Souls

32:13 Soul chains and choosing our parents

33:50 Soul contracts and divorce

35:08 Gnosticism and Mary Magdalene

38:22 Tracing the Mother Goddess… to aliens

40:26 Conspiracy theories and open minds

43:12 The Sedona Jeep tour

45:12 Atlantis and ancient civilizations

53:00 Women's meetups and community ideas

56:39 Mental health and creative projects

58:08 The Cosmic Brief app

1:03:41 Stop making yourself small

1:10:13 Can a past life be a future life?

1:11:03 Wrap-up and goodbyes

MENTIONED

Journey of Souls by Michael Newton: https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Souls-Studies-Between-Lives/dp/1567184855

Defending Your Life (1991 film): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101698/

The Magdalene Manuscripts ; https://www.amazon.com/Magdalen-Manuscript-Alchemies-Horus-Magic/dp/193103205X

Mystic South 2025: https://mystic-south.com

Pagans In Recovery: https://www.pagansinrecovery.org/

CONNECT WITH MICHELLE ANGONE Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michelle.angone

Email: [email protected]

CONNECT WITH GEN Soulful Existence: www.soulfulexistence.com The Cosmic Brief App: www.thecosmicbrief.app Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulfulxistence Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Gen-Rodriguez/672143258/

✨ If this episode made you feel seen, leave a review and share it with one friend who's been quietly witchy this whole time.

Gen opens up about a personal struggle — a project that brought her to tears — and uses it to explore why showing up for ourselves consistently is one of the most spiritual, scientific, and emotionally profound things we can do in midlife.

She weaves together neuroscience, psychology, and wisdom from spiritual traditions worldwide to reframe consistency not as a productivity hack, but as a devotional act — a form of self-love that rebuilds trust from the inside out. She addresses why so many women in midlife struggle to follow through (hint: it's not laziness — it's conditioning, hormonal shifts, and a brain in active transition) and offers compassionate, practical tools for starting smaller and staying longer.

The breakthrough isn't the practice. The faithfulness before the breakthrough is.

📚 RESOURCES Books: Composing a Further Life (Bateson) · Good Habits, Bad Habits (Wood) · Tiny Habits (Fogg) · An Altar in the World (Brown Taylor)

Researchers: Carl Jung · Dr. Lisa Mosconi · Donald Hebb · Kristin Neff · Roy Baumeister · John Bowlby · Adam Grant · Albert Bandura · Brené Brown

Institutions: University College London · American Psychological Association · Harvard Medical School & National Institute on Aging

Also referenced: Rumi

🔗 FIND US 🌐 www.fatefortyandbeyond.com ✨ Soulful Existence (readings & sessions): www.soulfulexistence.com 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/fatefortyandbeyond 🎵 TikTok: tiktok.com/@fatefortyandbeyond

In this warm and wide-ranging conversation, Gen sits down with Caren Paskel, self-evolution coach, author, and yoga teacher who transformed profound loss into a blueprint for radical reinvention. After losing her husband to brain cancer, her yoga studios during the pandemic, and eventually her home in Detroit, Caren didn't just rebuild — she completely reimagined what her life could look like. Now 48 and living in Colorado, she's the author of two books: The Power of Self-Belief and Midlife Crisis to Midlife Creation: The Five Steps to Recreate Your Life and Reclaim Your Power.

What unfolds is less an interview and more a conversation between two women who clearly speak the same language. They cover the tarot reading Gen pulls for Caren, the connection between nervous system regulation and abundance, and why staying open to multiple possibilities — in dating, housing, career, and life — is actually a spiritual practice.

It's the kind of conversation that makes you feel like you've been sitting at the table with them the whole time.
[00:00] Welcome & Caren's intro

[01:20] Losing her husband & writing The Power of Self-Belief

[02:50] Midlife Crisis to Midlife Creation — the five steps [04:00] Midlife awakening vs. midlife crisis

[05:00] Nervous system regulation & yoga

[05:50] Gen's wellness journey

[08:10] Tarot reading begins

[14:30] Midlife Olympic Dating — the viral post

[16:25] Influencing vs. inspiring

[18:15] Sacred pauses & social media breaks

[20:25] Staying open to multiple possibilities

[25:10] Grief, gratitude & not getting stuck

[29:10] What called Caren to Colorado

[34:05] When the universe forced the move

[42:10] Space is where the magic happens

[46:25] The Empress & the Hierophant

[53:15] Toxic positivity vs. genuine optimism

[59:25] Money as renewable energy

[1:05:30] Inspirational income

[1:19:20] Advice to your 20-year-old self

RESOURCES & LINKS

• Caren Paskel — Self-evolution coach, author, and yoga teacher
• The Power of Self-Belief by Caren Paskel
• Midlife Crisis to Midlife Creation: The Five Steps to Recreate Your Life and Reclaim Your Power by Caren Paskel (workbook)
• Caren on TikTok: @Caren.Paskel
• Caren on Instagram: @CarenPaskel
• Caren's website: CarenPaskel.com
• Brené Brown — referenced in discussion of shame and storytelling
• The Universal Laws (also covered in Gen's mini episode)
• Afformations (vs. affirmations) — referenced as a mindset tool
  If you love warm, real midlife conversations with humor and heart, you'll feel right at home here.

  Follow the show & connect with Gen: Gen's Website: http://www.soulfulexistence.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulfulxistence TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soulfulxistence Podcast homepage: http://www.fatefortyandbeyond.com Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatefortyandbeyond Podcast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fatefortyandbeyond

In this mini episode, Gen responds to a listener question that stopped her in her tracks. Their question: how do you know what's grief psychosis and what's real? Gen's answer is warm, grounding, and deeply personal.

Gen walks listeners through six of the most common signs that someone is opening up to mediumship, including clairaudience, knowing when someone has passed before being told, visitation dreams, heightened sensitivity to energy, synchronicities and signs, and a sudden pull toward all things metaphysical. She draws on her own lived experiences throughout.

But this episode isn't just about recognizing the signs. It's also about the doubt that almost always comes with them. She reminds listeners that you don't have to become a practicing medium to honor what's happening within you. You just have to be willing to stop explaining it away long enough to actually experience it.

• [00:18] Welcome and Listener Question That Inspired This Episode
• [02:45] What Mediumship Actually Is (Stripping Away the Hollywood Version)
• [05:10] Why Grief Opens the Door to Spirit Communication
• [07:00] Sign 1: Clairaudience — Hearing a Voice That Isn't Yours
• [10:20] Sign 2: Knowing When Someone Has Passed Before Being Told
• [13:45] Gen's Story: Waking Up the Moment Her Former Mother-in-Law Passed
• [16:30] Sign 3: Visitation Dreams and What Makes Them Different
• [19:50] Gen's Cousin and the Visitation That Left Her Feeling Settled
• [22:30] Sign 4: Heightened Sensitivity to Energy and Environment
• [25:00] Sign 5: Synchronicities, Signs, and Spirit's Language
• [27:15] Gen's Story: Smelling Spaghetti in an Empty House
• [30:00] Sign 6: A Sudden Pull Toward the Metaphysical
• [32:00] The Doubt Question — Is This Grief or Is This Real?
• [36:45] How Doubt Closes Down What's Opening Up
• [39:00] Closing Message to the Listener and Invitation to Go Deeper
  
  RESOURCES & LINKS
  • Journey of Souls by Dr. Michael Newton
  • Many Lives, Many Masters by Dr. Brian Weiss (referenced in context of Gen's broader spiritual framework)
  • Soulful Existence — Gen's private session practice: soulfulexistence.com
• The four clairs in mediumship: clairaudience, clairvoyance, claircognizance, clairsentience
  

  If you love warm, real midlife conversations with humor and heart, you'll feel right at home here.

  Follow the show & connect with Gen: Gen's Website: http://www.soulfulexistence.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulfulxistence TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soulfulxistence Podcast homepage: http://www.fatefortyandbeyond.com Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatefortyandbeyond Podcast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fatefortyandbeyond

In Episode 19 of Fate, Forty, and Beyond, Gen welcomes Lisa Eva Zack — mother of five, women's advocate, and founder of a new nonprofit — for a conversation that moves from tarot cards to theology to tiny homes and back again. Lisa shares how a breaking point at work and the end of her second marriage became a catalyst for total reinvention, leading her toward a deeper trust in intuition and a mission to build real community for women who have nowhere to land.

Lisa opens up about leaving a job that was crushing her, navigating solo parenthood of five, and her dream of creating a sanctuary for mothers in transition.

Gen and Lisa also get into spiritual deconstruction after Catholic upbringings, self-love as the oxygen mask you put on first, and the grief that quietly arrives when life doesn't look the way you planned.

Timestamps:

• [00:18] Welcome & Introduction to the Show
• [01:00] Meet Lisa Eva Zack: Advocacy, Motherhood & Evolution
• [04:19] The Tarot Reading Begins
• [06:32] Lisa's Story: When Your Reality Breaks Open
• [09:35] Catholic Upbringings and Spiritual Deconstruction
• [17:26] The Gen X Productivity Trap and Learning to Be Still
• [18:36] The Breaking Point: Quitting, Leaping, and Trusting the Fall
• [29:19] Lisa's Vision: A Sanctuary for Single Mothers
• [31:05] Spiral Dynamics and The World Card — Going Back for Others
• [41:37] Self-Love First: The Oxygen Mask Reframe
• [50:40] The Grief of a Life That Didn't Go as Planned
• [1:04:10] Goddess Oracle: Vesta
• [1:08:06] Wild Offering: Loneliness
• [1:09:07] Closing Reflections

• Lisa Eva Zack — (women's advocacy organization, in development)
• Bhante Sujatha — Loving Kindness Monk, https://bhantesujatha.org/
• Spiral Dynamics — framework for stages of human psychological development https://spiraldynamics.org/
• Goddess Guidance Oracle Deck - https://amzn.to/3O2gzxv
• Wild Offering Oracle Deck — https://amzn.to/4tHNYMS

If you love warm, real midlife conversations with humor and heart, you'll feel right at home here.

Follow the show & connect with Gen: Gen's Website: http://www.soulfulexistence.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulfulxistence TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soulfulxistence Podcast homepage: http://www.fatefortyandbeyond.com Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatefortyandbeyond Podcast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fatefortyandbeyond

This contains affiliate links with may result in a small commission from sales.

What if the reason manifesting hasn't fully clicked for you is that you've only been working with one law out of twelve?

In this mini episode, Gen breaks down all 12 Universal Laws — rooted in Hermetic philosophy dating back to ancient Egypt — and brings each one into the context of midlife. This is ancient knowledge made practical for women who are deep in the work of reinvention.

From the Law of Divine Oneness (the loneliness you feel is an illusion) to the Law of Rhythm (your slower seasons are not failures, they're preparation) to the Law of Gender (your softness is not a weakness), Gen walks through all twelve with warmth, honesty, and zero spiritual fluff.

This is the episode for anyone who tried The Secret, made the vision board, and still felt like something was missing.

In this episode:

• Where the 12 Universal Laws come from and why they matter
• What the Law of Attraction alone can't do — and what the other 11 fill in
• How each law applies to women navigating midlife specifically
• Why the Law of Rhythm is basically permission to rest
• The Law of Gender, divine masculine/feminine energy, and why so many of us are exhausted
• How to start working with the laws without using them to beat yourself up

Ready to go deeper? Gen offers one-on-one tarot readings, mediumship sessions, and past life regression at soulfulexistence.com.

If you love warm, real midlife conversations with humor and heart, you'll feel right at home here.

Follow the show & connect with Gen: Gen's Website: http://www.soulfulexistence.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulfulxistence TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soulfulxistence Podcast homepage: http://www.fatefortyandbeyond.com Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatefortyandbeyond Podcast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fatefortyandbeyond

Sometimes midlife doesn’t look anything like what we thought it would.

In this episode, Gen sits down with Denean for a deeply honest conversation about grief, recovery, rebuilding after loss, and what it means to keep going when life has completely changed shape.

What starts as a tarot reading unfolds into a real conversation about widowhood, addiction recovery, abusive relationships, friendship loss, emotional sobriety, and trying to figure out who you are now.

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt like life knocked the wind out of them and still had to keep moving.

It’s raw, grounded, funny in the right places, and full of the kind of honesty that makes you feel a little less alone.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Welcome + intro
01:39 – Meet Deneen
03:02 – How Gen and Deneen first connected
04:47 – Tarot reading begins
05:02 – Moving, overwhelm, and family transitions
08:10 – Hope, blind spots, and wanting life to finally settle
10:06 – Work burnout and emotional exhaustion
12:15 – The Tower card and life falling apart
13:49 – Who do you become after survival?
14:13 – What grief changed
18:12 – Friendship loss after grief and divorce
23:09 – Giving people more grace
24:51 – Why being called “strong” can feel complicated
27:45 – Addiction, coping, and self-sabotage
29:32 – Leaving abuse and turning the pain inward
31:35 – When chaos starts to feel normal
33:53 – Emotional sobriety and learning not to react
36:24 – Progress over perfection
39:53 – The people who soften us
40:00 – Soul contracts, life lessons, and spiritual growth
43:36 – Safe love and being fully seen
46:19 – Relationships, independence, and what works in midlife
49:06 – New beginnings and emotional healing
50:50 – Confidence, self-trust, and stability
52:19 – Work uncertainty and finding your footing
55:22 – Important doors are opening
56:51 – Emotions want to be felt
57:53 – What Deneen would tell her younger self
59:13 – Becoming who you are because of what you survived
1:00:37 – Closing thoughts

If you love warm, real midlife conversations with humor and heart, you’ll feel right at home here.

Follow the show & connect with Gen:
Gen's Website: www.soulfulexistence.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulfulxistence
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soulfulxistence
Podcast homepage: www.fatefortyandbeyond.com
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatefortyandbeyond
Podcast TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fatefortyandbeyond