The Designed Life

This month we're invited to explore the intersection of leadership, community, and responsibility.

With Mercury still retrograde in Leo and Saturn in Aries influencing the Full Moon in Aquarius, the first half of the month invites you to examine your long-term plans, structural power dynamics, and your role as a leader, particularly within community contexts.

This Full Moon wants to ask you: How do we balance personal authority with collective responsibility?

The New Moon in Virgo continues this theme by offering a potent time to reflect on how you communicate, express your ideas, and lead with integrity.

Virgo’s earthy practicality supports grounding these ideas into real, tangible practices — but with Uranus squaring the lunation, you’re also invited to be bold and visionary, shake up stale narratives, and ditch perfectionism in favor of purpose-driven presence.

Key Dates:

• 08.09 Full Moon in Aquarius
• 08.23 New Moon in Virgo

Welcome Leo Season!

Officially beginning July 22nd, this month includes a Mercury RX, along with several planet ingresses (sign changes) – many of which activate the Saturn–Neptune conjunction in Aries.

What does this all mean?

We’re going be reviewing a lot of the ways in which we do things, the ways in which we show up and demonstrate leadership, how we express ourselves and find harmony in our relationships, and what we want to uphold in our ever evolving identities.

And, if that doesn’t sound like enough fun, there’s also going to be even more erosion of systems and structures that used to make sense, but are in the process of being released for new things to be built.

Mentioned:

• Astrology readings with me
• Constellations with Jess Ellen Astrology

Key dates:

• 07.22 Sun enters Leo
• 07.23 Sun sextiles Uranus
• 07.24 New Moon - Leo 2° trine Saturn RX & Neptune RX and opposing Pluto
• 07.31 Mercury RX conjunct the Sun in Leo & Venus enters Cancer (through aug 25)
• 08.01 Venus squares Saturn RX & Neptune RX
• 08.06 Mars enters Libra (through sept 22)
• 08.08 Mars trine Uranus
• 08.09 - 08.10 Full Moon - Aquarius 16° & Mars opposes Saturn RX & Neptune RX trine Pluto
• 08.11 Mercury stations direct 4° Leo opposing Pluto and trine Saturn rx and Neptune rx
• 08.12 Venus conjunct Jupiter in Cancer 14º
• 08.14 & 8.18 Mercury sextile Mars
• 08.22 Sun enters Virgo

Today I'm joined by fellow designer, creative, artist, and curiosity-follower Kristina Bleiler of Gem Creative Co. Kristina has been such an inspiration – since the moment I started following her I knew she brought a special playfulness, depth, and inquiry to the creative work she does.

In our conversation we talk about the power of community - online and in person, her experience of growing up in the church, and how moving away from that foundation, and into a life emboldened by her own curiosity, guided her to be an entrepreneur and leader with integrity and openness.

Kristina was such a joy to chat with, and I hope you get as many gold nuggets out of this episode as I did!

You can find Kristina via:

Website

Instagram

Substack

Threads

This week's episode is inspired, not just by the day this episode drops (July 4th) but also the conversations I've been having lately in my communities and with myself.

Questions like:

• What makes you feel free?
• How are you restricting your own freedom?
• What inner division, insecurity, doubt, or violence are you waging against yourself that is keeping your from your own liberation?

In this episode I explore the ways in which we can not only find freedom within ourselves, but also how we can use our freedoms and privileges to support others in being able to access their own.

Freedom is not something that is given to us – we have to protect it.

Mentioned:

On Being w. Krista Tippet: Hope Portal w. Ocean Vuong

Connect with me on:

PINTEREST
THREADS
CONSTELLATIONS
WEBSITE

In this midyear episode the lunations ask us to assess our long-term visions, and definitions of embodied leadership.

The polarity of Cancer and Capricorn is highlighted during the Capricorn Full Moon, and we're invited to examine how practical ambition and inner nourishment must work together. It's also a great moment to reflect on what you’ve built so far this year, what you’re still devoted to, and how your body can serve as a compass for what truly matters.

The Leo New Moon forms a tense opposition with Pluto in Aquarius, triggering deep questions about power, leadership, and identity. Reflect on themes from early November, January, and April to determine the emotional echoes or power dynamics that might be resurfacing around this time.

Key Dates:

• 07.10 Full Moon in Capricorn
• 07.24 New Moon in Leo

Welcome to the very first installment of the Solar Series!

This new series within the podcast is a compliment to the Lunar Series. Rather than just speaking to just one planetary/luminary movement in the sky as I do in the Lunar Series, you can find a full exploration of all the major planetary transits within the next solar season in every Solar Series episode.

For this first installment, we're diving into Cancer season. These next 4 weeks will be dominated by the feeling, nurturing, safety-seeking energy of Cancer, with a few key moments from Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus that will strongly impact your energetic flow.

Tune in to learn more about what to expect and how to navigate the pivotal energy ahead!

Key dates:

• 06.20 Summer Solstice/ Sun enters Cancer
• 06.24 Sun conjunct Jupiter
• 06.25 New Moon - Cancer 4°
• 06.26 Mercury enters Leo through 09.02

• 06.29 Mercury opposition Pluto
• 07.04 Venus conjunct Uranus
• 07.04 Venus enters Gemini through 07.31

• 07.07 Uranus enters Gemini through 11.08

• 07.10 Full Moon - Capricorn 18°
• 07.13 Saturn RX through 11.28
• 07.18 Mercury RX through 08.11
• 07.22 Sun enters Leo

I loved this recording with Kristine from @wellwithkristine!! As a somatic coach and all around wonderful human, Kristine and I get into the nuances of the world of somatics – how her origins in the corporate world drove her directly into burnout and from that place of complete physical disassociation she found herself redirected into the magic of somatic therapy.

In this episode we chat what it’s like to not live from the neck up, the power of healing in community, the magic of being Cancer suns (and having the same birthday I might add!), Kristine’s ambitions for making somatic therapy more accessible, and the bravery required for the business.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I enjoyed chatting with Kristine!

You can find Kristine at her following channels:

Instagram

Website

“Your growth isn’t linear” - is a phrase we’ve heard a million times, right? But what does it actually look like in a real experience? In this week’s episode I share a through line of cyclical growth via my own experience with yoga – of finding the practice, becoming a student, becoming a teacher, opening and running my own studio, closing that studio during the pandemic, up to today where I find myself having returned to being a student.

I discuss what propelled each iteration, and also how even though it may look like I’ve lost what I grew, and maybe I’ve stepped backwards to where I’ve started, I’m still several layers progressed from where I began.

This personal share is an invitation for you to get curious about your own spiral of growth, where you are on that path, where you’ve come from, and where you’re journeying towards.

Mentioned in this episode:

Identity Evolution workbook

Define your history to know where you’re going practice

This is the turning point of the year friends!!! After so many retrogrades, major planetary sign changes, eclipses, and general cosmic chaos – this is the point where the skies finally gift us some reprieve. This month is packed with abundant, generous, expansion, freedom-inducing Jupiter energy, and I'm so excited about all of it for all of us.

The Full Moon in Sagittarius on June 11th is a peak moment of growth, stretching, and joy. You can ask yourself:

• What is my deeper “why”?

• Where have I been called to expand my perspective or release outdated beliefs?

  What wisdom am I gaining from my body?

  
  

  Then the best New Moon of the year, in Cancer, marks a key date for setting THE intentions that we want to see nurtured, fortified, and fed. You can ask yourself:

  • What do I want to start again in terms of my emotional body?
  • What parts of my inner home need refreshing or nurturing?
  • What do I really want—what lights me up from the inside?

  
  

  I also go into reflection questions for each rising sign because this is SUCH a good New Moon, and I desperately want you to work with it.

  Wishing you all the most abundant June!

  
  

  Mentioned:

  Ep 012 Creating Home

  Moon Sign Substack

  
  

  Time stamps:

6:17 Sagittarius Full Moon

18:43 Cancer New Moon

My new friend, Rachel Levine, and I sit down for a rich conversation that is essentially all about how to listen, follow, and live devoted to your intuition. Rachel is a new connection, but she's quickly becoming a friend because her kindness, sincerity, and pure heart are palpable in all of our interactions.

In this episode we discuss the magic of being a dog mom, the energetic difference between routine and ritual, how living with intention and ritual can and is accessible for everybody, the myriad of ways to invite yourself back into your experiences, and Rachel’s journey to discovering that a big part of her destiny is to be a community builder.

You can connect with Rachel via:

• Her Instagram
• Her substack
• Her event on May 31st!
• Her website
• Her podcast
• Her apothecary

Also mentioned in this episode - the incredible Xanthe Appleyard of Oh Sierra

Timestamps:

8:13 The importance of being a dog mom

13:41 The energetic difference between routine and ritual

22:12 How ritual and coming back to yourself is accessible for everyone

29:49 Inviting all modalities we know and love into our work

37:19 The journey back to community and building it intentionally

47:58 Our self-made obstacles

52:36 Our obstacles are gateways

59:13 It's easier to make friends as an adult than they say