Evolutionary Astrology With Rob Stewart
As a kid, I was always curious about astrology. I loved reading my horoscope and finding the resonant messages that seemed to give me a peek into a cosmic story of my life, or at least new insight into how I might approach my day… and my relationships. I’m not sure how much stock I put in astrology to give me the keys to myself, but it’s something I went back to over and over – it was fun, dang it!
When I stepped into the woo-woo and allowed myself to break away from a strictly dogmatic view of the world, astrology was one of the first areas I allowed myself to wonder about (after I got myself a couple of pretty crystals).
I signed up for a class on how to read your birth chart at the metaphysical shop near my house – hoping that I could learn how some of this stuff works and have a greater sense of agency over my life.
On the day of the class, the room was full of students, more than 20, and my dear friend, Katie (who had generously agreed to go on this little adventure with me) and I sat on a corner, taking it all in, from the people in the class, to our personal birth charts printed in color in front of us, to Rob himself.
Rob Stewart, evolutionary astrologer sold me on astrology the day of that first class, and it wasn’t because of the way he taught us to see our strengths and opportunities to grow in this life based on our birth charts (though that was illuminating), it was because of his kindness. Rob has a way of making you feel safe, of honoring your experience, of allowing you to lift self-blame from your own shoulders because none of it’s your fault; the patterns you feel trapped by may be many lifetimes long but you will heal – that’s what this lifetime is all about.
Rob Stewart’s company is called Inner Center Astrology. Check it out here!
I found Rob’s particular gift was illustrated when he was addressing a disgruntled student. She had discovered she had the wrong birth chart in front of her, and she was miffed about it. I watched Rob to see how he would handle it – whether he might lose his warm, dream-like demeanor. He didn’t. He held space for her frustration and printed it again. But when the owner of the shop came back from the printer with the new chart, it was still the incorrect date and now she was very upset, looking around for solidarity from the other students in the class as if to say, “can you believe this?!” In my mind, I was thinking what I might be doing in Rob’s position – I might start to panic, to get short with her, to start trying to save face a bit, but he didn’t do any of these things. With a seemingly endless font of compassion, he got her the right chart, and he kept us all watching him, rapt, because he had clearly figured something out – he had figured out how to love people even when they were trying to rally the troops against you.
It's people like Rob who have kept me in the woo-woo, learning and connecting, and bearing my soul in the name of growth and healing. If it’s possible to set our ego aside and put love and compassion first, I want to learn how to do it.
After the class series with Rob, I did a 2-hour birth chart reading with him, curious about my own cosmic story for sure, but also just wanting to learn from him how to be good to people. Part of the magick of his reading was his intuition, his knowing what to say to best spur me along. You could spend a whole lifetime deciphering a birth chart (in the end that’s kind of the point – we live the contents of the chart day to day), so in a reading, it matters what the astrologer chooses to focus on. Rob shared many bits of insight, but I’ll include one of the most empowering parts here. Rob sends his clients a recording of the session, and this is transcribed from the recording of my session:
“You have Neptune in Capricorn in the second House ruled by Saturn on the cusp of the second, but in the first. It does suggest that money and income is a challenge area, but one of great spiritual work and spiritual self-discipline and things like that. So money and income is one of your great works in life and it’s a spiritual pathway, a spiritual practice for you. And by a challenge area, I don’t mean to say that it’s a challenge, it’s more like a place where hard work is welcome and it’s part of the place where you’re being asked to grow and have self-discipline and self-dignity, self-respect, and put in the hard work to really be recognized and be like, ‘Wow, hi little Susie, you’re interested in starting your own business? You gotta talk to Emily because she knows what that’s like. Cuz she’s done the thing.’
So, yes, it requires self-discipline and work and things like that, but it’s worthwhile, and you’ll be the one that little Susie talks to – ‘You can earn your own way and let me show you how to do it.’ But there’s also a spiritual dynamic with Neptune there, and so again, we talked about this being a spiritual journey for you in life, and regarding the co-creation, meditative reconnecting with that trust and empowerment, that Source is on your side, that your guardian angels are there, and income and self-reliance are a part of that process as well. One concept to maybe even think on, which has been a cool one and helpful one at times in my life, was this idea that we’re all like ‘I want money,’ and of course, money is energy, and one of the approaches I work with clients in hypnosis about money is […] what are some of the reasons that money wants you?
Working with money in this spiritual way – writing a list of 10 things why money wants you and some of the things that I think of are, money wants you because money wants to go where you want to put it. Where I put money is far different than where others put money, where I invest it and the services. You’re a distributor of energy and money wants you to distribute it in those ways because those are very important elements of life. So yeah, money as a spiritual practice is important”
For someone starting a new business, this insight and the way it was compassionately delivered, was highly motivating.
I’m not certain that all astrologers have the gift of choosing the most impactful parts of your chart in the moment and of delivering the information in a way that feels empowering and safe the way Rob does, but the takeaway here is healing is so very possible from this modality. To me astrology has become a great way to examine my soul journey in this life without feeling stuck or burdened by the pain, shame, guilt, fear, or blame I’ve been carrying around – these things may just be remnants of past lives, and I can choose to release them as I learn who I am and what I’m here to do now. It’s not my fault that I don’t have it all sorted out – I get to try to figure my way forward a little more every day.
Rob very kindly allowed me to interview him for my podcast, “A Taste of Your Own Medicine,” and you can watch it here to learn more about his approach and the medicine he provides. I also highly recommend taking a class with Rob or having a reading done with him. Just to be in his energy will allow you to approach the world with more love and hope.
