Episode 216: Reframing Astrology for Personal Transformation with Julien Elizabeth
Returning to the show is my friend Julien Elizabeth. Julien is an astrologer, yoga teacher, and facilitator of transformation for sensitive individuals who seek to develop their worth, knowing, and voice so that they can lead their life with confidence, consistency, and authenticity.
Julien first joined me in Episode 144: Uncovering the Path towards Your Best Life through Astrology.
I’ve been working with Julien to break through the creative blocks that I’ve struggled with. (as shared in Episodes 214 and 215).
In this episode you’ll hear us discuss:
How our views of and relationships with Astrology have evolved
Julien’s approach to Astrology and Transformation
What is the Mid-Heaven?
How she uses Astrology as a tool to support wellness, personal growth, and transformation, including how she’s helped me!
Listen to the Episode:
Mentioned in the Episode:
Episode 144: Uncovering the Path towards Your Best Life through Astrology with Julien Elizabeth
Episode 215: Finding My Voice: Vulnerability in Communications
FREE WORKBOOK: Your Human Design, Discovered
Connect with Julien Elizabeth:
Julien’s website
Connect with Julien on Instagram
Monthly Workshops and classes (In-person in LA or virtual)
Connect with Naomi:
Share the Episode:
“I don’t aim to be predictive. I don’t aim to be somebody who says this is going to happen to you. My approach really is these are energies and themes at play, and depending on your intention or the direction that you want to take things, this is how you could plan for that or this is where you might spend time in the creative process.”
Read the Transcript:
Naomi Nakamura: Hello there, and welcome back to The Live FAB Life Podcast. I'm your host, Naomi Nakamura, and joining me today is my friend, my mentor, and returning guest, Julien Elizabeth. Julien first joined me in Episode 144, where we had a conversation on uncovering the path towards your best life through astrology.
Julien is an astrologer. She's a yoga teacher and a facilitator of transformation for sensitive individuals here to develop their worth, knowing, and voice so that they can lead their lives with confidence, consistency, and authenticity. Julien is primarily based in Venice Beach in Los Angeles, and I was recently there for a visit and we got to meet in person. So I can now call her a real life friend.
She leads classes and programs and trainings and retreats, both virtually and in person around the world. And you can connect with her online. I will have her website, julienelizabeth.com and her Instagram linked to on the show notes, along with additional information on how you can connect with her.
In this episode, so I have to tell you, we actually started out with a list of questions. Whenever I have a guest on the show, I always send a list of either questions or topics I would like for us to cover. And just before we started recording, we kind of just threw it out. So this was just a very organic conversation that we had. And I have been working with Julien for the past couple of months on some of my own personal development, specifically around creativity and creative blocks that I've been having, which I recently shared in some recent episodes. I'll also link to those in the show notes, because I can't recall the exact numbers off the top of my head right now.
But we get into how she used astrology as well as some other tools to help me work through that. And so we talk about how we view astrology, how it helps us with our personal development in terms of self-guidance, self-leadership, and self-accountability. I love her vibe so much. I learned so much from her and we even touched just a little bit on how to use astrology with our curiosity. And I'm just going to leave it at that. But you will want to stay to the end to hear a little bit about that. So with that, let's just get to the show.
Hello, my friend, and welcome back to the show. Julien Elizabeth: Hi, Naomi. I'm so excited to get to talk to you.
Naomi Nakamura: Well, you first joined me back in Episode 144, so it's always fun to have guests back and we've been working together recently.
Julien Elizabeth: Yeah, we have. We've been really diving into your astrology, which has been such a cool way to get to know you better and support you on your journey and your growth.
Naomi Nakamura: It's not a direction I thought, like I even had a vision of me taking this year, and so I really want to get into that today in our conversation. But before we do, those who have not listened to your first episode yet, can you just introduce who you are and what you do?
Julien Elizabeth: Absolutely. My name is Julien Elizabeth. I'm an astrologer. I'm also a yoga teacher and facilitator of transformation for people all over the world. Astrology is one of the main frameworks that I use to really support people, to gain greater clarity of who they are, what their purpose is and where they are in their life so that they can find more freedom and confidence to be leaders of their lives.
Naomi Nakamura: And that's really what I'm going to get into today because ... And we talked a little bit about this when you're on the first time, but I remember as a child growing up, every day my mom would open the newspaper and read her astrology. And so I started doing that too, having really no context about any of it up until quite recently actually.
And so when I mentioned the work that we're doing together, people who aren't as familiar with astrology or still have that mindset of pulling open the magazine and reading what it has to say, they still very much looked at it as, "Ooh, what is my fortune telling me? And it has come to mean so much more to me." And so I really want to get into that, but I guess to set the groundwork, so how we came to work together.
I have been feeling very stifled in my creativity and I have been taking a course by another guest of the show, Nadia Gabrielle, and she teaches service design, so how service business owners should design their offerings. And I had taken it last year and I'm going through it again because I'm looking to create next level offerings. And again, having that creative block.
But it's interesting going through the same content. Again, I'm kind of seeing it with the new view and I don't know why this didn't resonate the first time, but she really in terms of business focuses in on the Midheaven and Mercury, which is Midheaven is your career in work and Mercury is how you communicate. And it really struck me this time because I've been feeling this block, and what is it that I do next in my offerings. And then also as we've discussed, I was feeling stifled in my communications.
And so I started looking through my chart and whatnot, and I thought, I need more guidance on this and reached out to you because I've had my solar return readings with you. And there are so many things that have come up in our work together that I thought this is really powerful stuff to share.
So maybe we can start with, well, first of all, talk about how your approach to astrology and how you do use it for transformation as opposed to, like my mom would read it every day and look at it as something like, "Am I going to win the lottery today?"
Julien Elizabeth: I hope so. I love that you bring up magazine newspaper astrology because that is by design. Many of us do or came to astrology through horoscopes. And horoscopes really came into favor at the advent of magazines and newspapers. As they grew in reach, there was a space to fill. And astrology, which was in ancient times, a long time ago, was very much paired with astronomy. It was a studying of the movement of the stars and the planets.
Before the advent of telescopes, it was just what could be seen through the visible eye. And over time through, this is a longer conversation in history, but through the coming and the rise of church states, the studies of astrology and astronomy were separated and very much pushed in different directions, one being accepted as science and one being a pseudoscience and mystical science. And it then kind of went underground for a while through The Dark Ages.
And as we saw magazines and newspapers rise up and there was that space to fill, horoscope astrology became relevant and fun and interesting. And it really tells just a small story because many of us were familiar with our sun sign. So that's what sign or constellation, the sun was moving through from our perspective on Earth at the time that we were born. So that's about a 28-day period.
So as we're recording this, it's towards the end of Pisces season. So if you're born at the end of February or the first half of March, you're a Pisces sun. And so many people, they know their sun sign and that's because of magazines and newspapers. And like I said, it's just one small part because we also want to consider beyond that 28-day window. Perhaps, where was the moon when you were born? That would be about a two-and-a-half-day period. Where was Mercury? That might be anywhere from 15 days to 25 days, your Mercury placement. Where was Venus? Where was Mars? So we're looking at everything all connected and maybe most importantly, what constellation was rising on the Eastern horizon when you were born. That would be your ascendant or your rising sign. And that's really only a two-and-a-half minute window of time where you would be that rising sign at that degree.
And so my approach to astrology is really holistic and many astrologers take this approach. It's, in my humble opinion, the approach to take is to look at everything, to look at our relation as new Naomi on Earth at that moment that you were born, the first few breaths that you took on Earth. Where were you in relation to the horizon, to the rising constellation, to the sun? Where were you in relation to the moon, to Venus? Where was Venus in relation to Mars or Mercury or Uranus?
And so when we start to take that broader approach and see all of these relationships at play, we can see that we are complex being and that we're influenced by complex energies and they're really signaling different opportunities that we may have in our experience. Different challenges we may face, different ways that we may habitually approach those challenges as well as tons of opportunities to grow and evolve with this blueprint or this map.
Naomi Nakamura: That was so beautifully put. And what you described was exactly my experience in reading magazines and newspapers. And it wasn't actually until I had my first solar return reading with you two years ago that I even knew what my moon or my rising was. I didn't even know what those things were. Here I am in my 40s, every month reading through my horoscope and then not even knowing all of this other part.
And now that I have a little bit more perspective, I'm in no way an expert at all in astrology, even though a portion of human design is based on astrology. It was like this whole new world was open to me and it made a lot of sense on some of the apps I had downloaded where they had all this other stuff and I'm like, I don't even know what this means.
So it really opened my eyes into looking at astrology through another lens and realizing that, well, there is a lot here that I can learn about myself just in terms of, like you said, the energy that's going on through different parts of my natal chart. And what really I think was profound for me was after that first year of having a solar return with you, you give some themes for each season, every season, or all of that.
And after that first year from my first reading with you, I went back and I went through every season and I was like, these things all happened, but it didn't happen in the way that I expected. And so, I had another reading with you this past December for my birthday. And again, you went through themes, not like this is going to happen to you. These are just like, this is themes of what you can expect based upon the charts.
And I have it written down and every time we have a new season come around, I take a look at it to see like, okay, this is maybe something to just keep in mind as I go through my day to day. But then I look back at the last past season and I'm like, again, that actually happened, but totally not in the way that I expected.
Julien Elizabeth: Wow, what a testimony. I hope we can win the lottery by the end of the year.
Naomi Nakamura: Well, we can only hope. We can only hope.
Julien Elizabeth: Well, I think that's incredible because just to carry over your initial question, which is part of my approach is that I don't aim to be predictive. And I don't aim to be somebody who says this is going to happen to you. But my approach really is these are energies and themes at play. And depending on your intention or the direction that you want to take things, this is how you could plan for that or this is where you might spend time in the creative process. And this might be where you spend time in the PR, putting-it-out-there process. And if I remember, I think one of the overarching themes from your solar return for this year was around creativity and your voice, which is-
Naomi Nakamura: Yeah, I don't even think I got that when you went through it because there's like so much to go through.
Julien Elizabeth: I'll have to re-look but my memory from it, or one specific piece that sticks out to me is around really activating your voice in a way that-
Naomi Nakamura: I remember you talked a lot about activism and then also a lot about community, which again, I'm like, waiting to see how that unfolds.
Julien Elizabeth: Yeah. And I think what's so cool about your share is that our expectations are not the point in a way, right? Because from the moment that you might hear something in your ears and you filter it through your expectations, we're only looking in one small frame and yet there's an infinite number of ways that something can play out in the energy.
So even our concept of community or activism, that can change. Our current expectations or understanding of that can be up for evolution.
Naomi Nakamura: And I would say that is one great takeaway that I've had, is that I really try and look at things really earnestly, trying to be detached from my expectation of outcome and just things are going to happen the way things are going to happen. So I kind of want to get into what we had been working on, or we are working on together and with me really feeling creatively stifled, creatively blocked, and a lot of that centered in my voice and how I communicate.
And it's not so much what I communicate because I feel like I have a pretty clear vision of that. And we talked about this and what tone do I communicate? And so can you talk to why we look to Mercury and what are some of your thoughts there?
Julien Elizabeth: Absolutely. And you also mentioned the Midheaven, which I will add to our understanding of these two, Mercury and the Midheaven being important when looking at, say, career or voice or communication. And there's so much more, there's so many other areas-
Naomi Nakamura: I know. There's so many things that have come out in our sessions that I'm like, this is going to places that I never even expected.
Julien Elizabeth: Yeah. And again, it speaks to how complex we are and how many layers there are, because what is communication? Often we think of communication as the message we're putting out. It's the speaking. But communication as a model or a framework is what information you're receiving. It's the listener, it's the speaker, it's the mode of transport between the two and it's all the noise that surrounds it.
All the ways that we can get distracted, maybe we're in our head or the TV is on, or we're in a bad mood. And we don't hear the message or we don't deliver it in a way that we had hoped because we're distracted. And so communication is very nuanced and there's a lot of things to tease out from even just that concept.
But Mercury is one of the first places that we may look when we're thinking about voice communication or messaging. When we think about Mercury in mythology, Mercury was the messenger and was the kind of the character that could travel anywhere very quickly and was able to kind of go into the heavenly realm and can commune with all of the gods there. And was also the only one able to go into the underworld and commune with all of the gods there and could help to translate that divinity into the Earth plane.
And so we can think of Mercury as giving us insight into the way that we may hear a message, the way that it may be delivered, how we communicate. And I think of Mercury as a transactional communication. And by that, I mean, it's the kind of communication we're engaged in a way right now. There's I speak and then you speak, and there's a formality to it in a way.
If we were to think about a transaction as in like, I give you this and you give me that, Mercury works in that way. So we certainly look to Mercury when we're thinking about communication. And we also look to where Mercury lives in our astrology. And so Mercury lives in the third house of astrology. And so we would look to this area of one's chart to understand maybe where their voice is, where they most best could activate their voice.
So for example, my third house is ruled by Leo. And so I'm dramatic with my speaking. I use my hands. I smile. I'm very animated. That's very Leo, versus somebody who maybe is an Aquarian in their third house. They may be a little bit more aloof or high level in their speaking. They may be able to share messages in such a way that it reaches a large audience, and they do that in a way that's very accessible. And so we can start to understand communication style when we look to the third house.
Now we may also look if we're thinking about enlightened communication. So right now, we're kind of talking philosophically. We're talking in a way that is less transactional and maybe a little bit more theoretical or high level while we would perhaps look at Uranus to understand some of that communication. The way that we are communicating through a virtual setting, through an internet connection, also very Uranian.
And so there's a different way of understanding communication when we're having this Zoom kind of communication that we're all having now. We're using technology as our main mode of messaging. When we are talking about philosophy and publishing, so if we're talking about communication in the space of writing and putting a message out there, we might look to the ninth house or Sagittarius. We might look to Jupiter in how we amplify or broadcast that message.
Naomi Nakamura: So we have my chart open.
Julien Elizabeth: Yeah. So it starts to take on a lot of different layers and levels. And you mentioned the solar return reading. And so that's a different reading than the natal chart reading. And so as you can even hear just from the small spiel that astrology can start to get really complex. And there's a lot of different charts and ways that we can look at it to form a more authentic or more of a picture that can help to serve your needs or support where you're at in your life at any given moment so that you have more of a perspective to make the choices that you need to make with.
Naomi Nakamura: And that was my experience because like I said, I knew what my message was. I was just having a hard time articulating it in the tone that I wanted to. And there's a lot of fears there. There is a lot of apprehension there, and hearing you convey what's in my chart and what's there and the position of Mercury in my chart was really validating, self-validating in that my instincts were correct in the way I should go about doing it. And it really helped me to work through some of the fears or what I'm still working through some of the fears that I had that might be holding myself back. And that is how it's really transformational, at least, that's how it's been for me.
Julien Elizabeth: I love that. Me too. I think there are ways that we can see astrology as offering us opportunities for liberation and also see ways that we may be impinged or a little pinched by the astrology. So if we're facing a challenge with sharing a message because fears arise, well, we can look a little bit deeper and understand, "Ah, well, what is that actually holding me back from, or what is that protecting me from?" And so when we can start to suss it out and untangle it a little bit to see the underlying insecurities that might be there, and how can we love up on those through our personal practice and our personal work so that the insecurities aren't holding back the voice that needs to be shared.
Naomi Nakamura: Yeah. And from a business perspective, it really gave me a lot of insight into what is the best way to go about doing things. Like I said, I'm taking this program that really teaches service design. But when you have your own business, all options are on the table. And you can do what a lot of people do, and what's very popular with the times.
But if it doesn't speak to you and you're doing it because it's the way that it's done, it doesn't really serve you. And I think at the end of the day, it won't serve the people you're trying to work with. And so for me, again, my experience, because I can only speak from my stories and telling my stories, is it really shed insight into what is the best way that I can craft and structure what I offer in a way that best supports who I am and not just my client's needs, but also in a way that I can structure it to meet my own needs as well.
Julien Elizabeth: Yeah. I agree with my own work. And I think you and I both being projectors, perhaps. We're tuning into a feeling at a certain, a most intangible or unexplainable place that allows us to know what is perhaps right, or how we can best share in a way that brings us those invitations or invites our community in.
And I think that personally, the more we can really lean into our authenticity, we are of course, going to be sharing our work in authentic ways. And I think we are also giving other people permission to lean into their authenticity, which for me is a big part of my why. It's a part of what continuously moves me towards uncovering what is most true and authentic to me. And my evolution is so that I can support other people, just even if only in my presence to say yes to their authenticity too.
Naomi Nakamura: And it really lends to ... I heard somebody say this word a couple weeks ago and I've really been leaning into it. It really lends into us being able to step into a place of self-leadership.
Julien Elizabeth: I love that.
Naomi Nakamura: Which I think is, it's everything. It's being able to trust yourself, being able to love yourself because ... And when you do that, you're able to lead yourself.
Julien Elizabeth: Yeah. And sometimes, I think about my inner world as being a whole wonderful community of voices and characters. And there are certainly some that I adore more than others, and some fall into favor and some fall out of favor. But if I think about it, as I'm a leader within this community of myself and I'm the whole of them, then to lead myself is so important. To really step into self-leadership and self-honoring and self-responsibility is really keeping the whole crew safe within.
Naomi Nakamura: It's very empowering.
Julien Elizabeth: It's really empowering, yeah. And I think that's part of the quest of uncovering, of developing and evolving in who we are. And with that comes a lot of compassion and forgiveness for the ways that we maybe chose differently or abandoned in certain ways. We can come back home to ourselves and we check in.
Naomi Nakamura: And when you talk about compassion and forgiveness, a lot of it is for ourselves to.
Julien Elizabeth: Totally. I mean, I only think about me. [inaudible 00:23:08] of course, there's forgiveness outside in the world and compassion. But it isn't a blueprint within, then it's harder to be authentic throughout in an outer existence. And I think astrology has been again a framework that's really helped me to come back to compassion for myself and to support other people in that.
And something that we've talked about in our sessions and is not something I don't hear frequently is how validating this experience can be in helping someone see that they are making the right choices for them or their intuition is right. Or perhaps, they're in perfect timing that what they don't know is okay because it will come. And what they do know in the present moment is exactly perfect for what they need.
Naomi Nakamura: I'm right now scrolling quickly through my Apple notes because I don't think I ever told you this. But either at the end of last year or the beginning of this year, you sent out an email because I am on your email list. And you talked about five words that you set for yourself I think like a decade ago that you sought to embody. And I wrote it down because I thought it was so beautiful and I have, this is really embarrassing, but I have referred back to it a lot.
But I think I was trying to consolidate my notes and I copied it somewhere. I don't remember where it is but it was like compassion and service and forgiveness. Tell me what the five words were.
Julien Elizabeth: I can look through my email and I wish that I could say right now.
Naomi Nakamura: This is what happens when I try to organize myself.
Julien Elizabeth: Let's see. I just typed five words into my email. Let's see if I can find it.
Naomi Nakamura: It was either like your end of the year wrap-up or like New Year is coming. And I literally have it saved in my Apple notes. And I'm just trying to like, man, what is it? Which note that I saved that in? Oh, compassion, service, forgiveness, grace, and hope. I actually have it as a pin note. That's why I shouldn't have scrolled. It was at the top.
Julien Elizabeth: Aww, that's amazing.
Naomi Nakamura: And so through these lens of these words, because I really think like, wow, if we can just try to embody these themes every day, what a wonderful experience we can have. And so when I look to what is on my chart this week, I'm trying to look at it through these themes.
Julien Elizabeth: I love that. That's so beautiful. And I think that's such a wonderful exercise to come to, looking at life through these lenses. To me, these words ... Can you repeat them again?
Naomi Nakamura: Compassion, service, forgiveness, grace, and hope.
Julien Elizabeth: Yeah. They're so embedded in me and my ethos. They're such strong values within me and they really are what I hope to tether myself to. And I think that when I do tether myself to these values, the choices I make are different. And the choices I make for myself are different. The way that I listen to myself is so different. If I'm listening through the lens of service, there's way less judgment in my own self-listening. And when I'm more available for myself, I'm more available for others, right?
And I think so much of life right now calls on us to really move towards compassion. And it's harder and harder in a lot of ways. It's not always easy to maintain compassion when faced with ... I mean, I live in Los Angeles. When faced with the 405 Freeway-
Naomi Nakamura: I was going to say when faced with traffic and getting cut off like ...
Julien Elizabeth: Yeah. And we're continuously under what feels like more and more and more pressure with less and less time. And we're facing some really real things as a species, as a global community, not just as humans but as all beings everywhere. So if we can come back to our values whether they'd be these listed values or something else that feels more authentic to you, that I think there's hope. And there I am back at hope.
Naomi Nakamura: So, getting back to the context of why it came to work together. Some of the things you said to me, I'm pulling up my notes, is that my Mercury is in Sagittarius. And that is what freedom of thought and storytelling and seeing the big picture, which those weren't news to me. That's kind of what I have always felt. But at the same time, I had been thinking of it as working against me because I see big picture and sometimes ...
I was actually in a group a couple years ago with two other coaches and we literally named ourselves dumb it down because we all spoke like big picture. And whenever we speak to people, we could literally see eyes glazing over and we're like, "We need to bring this down and simplify it for others." And so how do you do that, and I think that's where I was really getting caught up in the ... I know my message. I don't know how to get it across.
And so, illuminating the storytelling has really hit home. But then you also, and this is what I wrote down, that as a messenger of universal truths, it's really about storytelling and being a journeyer and being a preacher. And I had said that one of my fears was that I didn't want to come across as preachy. And you're like, "Oh, but you're actually a preachy. You're a preacher," which was validating, illuminating, but also there needed to be some acceptance there and maybe some reframing of how I was perceiving things.
Julien Elizabeth: Yeah. I think that's so well said. It's really in the reframe too, because sometimes words that are Sagittarian like preacher or a minister or a truth teller, they can be really confronting and they get filtered through our own cultural perceptions or our own perceptions what that means culturally. And we get the power to redefine it as well. And so when I think about a Mercury, a Sagittarian Mercury, I see somebody who can really have the ability to deliver universal truth in a way that might not necessarily be preachy at all even if it is amplified to a wide audience in the sense of a kind of preaching.
But preachy and preaching could be understood differently sometimes. And I think some people can feel so afflicted by their astrology, like it's a curse. And I certainly had that before. I really dove into the study. I have planets in Virgo, and Virgo is one of those signs that if there any Virgos listening, you maybe have had that cringe. Virgo, it can be so analytical and so mental and I certainly have felt afflicted by certain aspects of my astrology.
And then that's still my gift, to get to work with that feeling of affliction and start to redefine it and find freedom in it.
Naomi Nakamura: That's so awesome. I know I recently did, actually this morning, I reported with another Projector, a Q&A episode on like Q&A Projectors. And one of the questions that came in was, it wasn't even a question. It was basically like how do I live with my Projector aura because it sucks? And I'm like, "I actually really like the fact that I'm a Projector.
So, maybe there is a quite misunderstanding of what the aura is. And then maybe there's like some reframe that we can help with here.
Julien Elizabeth: Wow. What a gift that you got that question.
Naomi Nakamura: I know.
Julien Elizabeth: I mean, I when I first read about being a Projector, I was like, so I have to wait for an invitation? And I'm a go-getter. How do I do that? And when I really started to sit back and see how things have worked for me in the past and where I already had known about my zone of genius or my magic zone, it was absolutely through being a Projector. It was through finding my light and amplifying it, and magnetizing the opportunities to me. But I can relate that when we sometimes look through our current lens of things, especially when we're struggling and when we do feel afflicted, we're looking for a reason to explain why we're stuck. We're not necessarily looking for the reason to explain how we can get free.
Naomi Nakamura: So speaking of getting free, one of the practices you prescribed for me was Morning Pages. Can we talk about that? I've shared in an episode that will have aired by the time this one comes that I had started Morning Pages. I had been introduced to it several years ago and, well, I shared with you what my hang-up was with it that, again, big picture thinking, I get overwhelmed in my thoughts. And I start a blank page and I just literally don't know what to write.
But you really helped me with that and provided me with some prompts. And we talked about it. That third page just turns out to be magical.
Julien Elizabeth: I love that third page of Morning Pages. That's where the magic flows.
Naomi Nakamura: You kind of just have to, well, for those who haven't listened to that episode yet, Morning Pages is where you open up a blank page and you free write whatever thought. And the intention is to let creative juices flow. And sometimes, you just really have to get through that first two pages of just a lot of randomness and a lot of nothing. And then before you know it, at least before I knew it, the words on the pages that were coming out from me almost didn't have anything to do with the prompt of where we started but is exactly what needed to come out for me, if that makes sense.
Julien Elizabeth: Totally. It's like there's your access and how I see it as it's an access point to your soul and to that subconscious mind that holds so much wisdom. And as you were kind of describing it, the visual that I got in my head was almost like when you're cleaning the floor. I live by the beach, so I tend to get some sand onto my kitchen floor. And so the first step is you have to sweep the sand, or maybe you have to dust the floor first. You have to get everything there. You have to sweep it up. Then you can mop. Then you get the sparkly floor.
And so really thinking of Morning Pages as that first page is dusting. It's just getting the like, "Oh, I don't know what to write. And did I get the cream for this? Did I pick up all the ingredients?" You're like just trying to get the dust off the top and then you're going to sweep a little bit. You're going to get a little bit deeper. And then by the time you get to that third page, I find for me when I get there that's when it's sparkling. It's like, "Oh, wow, here's my wisdom."
Naomi Nakamura: Yeah. I've literally been like, by the time I get to the fourth or fifth page, I'm like, "Where did that even come from?"
Julien Elizabeth: You're going deep.
Naomi Nakamura: But I will say one takeaway is that my handwriting is terrible. It has gotten terrible over the years of being digitized.
Julien Elizabeth: I know. It depends on the pen for me. If I have a good pen, it's like my handwriting comes out different.
Naomi Nakamura: Well, I'm going to ask just because I know this question is going to come about. Can you talk a little bit more about the Midheaven? And I get a lot of questions with, as a Projector, what should I be doing for work? As a Generator, what should I be doing for work? And I don't do anything predictive with Human Design as well, but I know people are going to ask that question. So, what can you eliminate for us on the Midheaven?
Julien Elizabeth: The Midheaven has a beautiful name to it.
Naomi Nakamura: It does.
Julien Elizabeth: Essentially what the Midheaven literally is, if we were to draw it into the stars, is it's the most northern part of your chart. So if you were a baby looking up at the sky and you looked up at what that most northern part of the constellation bodies were based on where you were located, you would measure that point as your Midheaven.
Naomi Nakamura: Midway to heaven?
Julien Elizabeth: Midway to heaven, yeah. So it's a bit of a North Star point. It's not the only point I would look at when I was looking to eliminate purpose or career or where somebody's talents may lie, but it's one of the first places that I would look and it's constellation. It's what sign it's in, what point, what degree it's at, what it's related to in terms of other planets and other points in the chart can all give insight into a spectrum of directions somebody could take.
So again, I'm not one to say you should be a doctor, or you should be a whatever, but it can give insight into, it's actually really important for certain people to work in community or to have high levels of communication and interaction in the work that they do. Certainly, some constellations and points can illuminate that somebody would be a really good psychologist or really good at being in service in that way. Somebody could be great at journalism or being responsible for transmitting messages.
And so personally, my Midheaven is in my ninth house of philosophy, but it's connected to the constellation Pisces. And so here I am, sharing astrology which is very Piscean in a philosophical way. I like to encourage people to think deeper, to find their truth. It lines up and this certainly would never have been the profession I would've chosen for myself as a 20-year-old graduating college, wouldn't have predicted this. But it works for me in my life right now. It makes sense. It's really where I'm lit up and inspired and can be of great service.
And so that Midheaven can really give insight, I think, into qualities as well as timing. If somebody is going through a little bit of lack of motivation when it comes to their job, or they're feeling like they're really deeply wanting change. They don't know what that change is. They don't know maybe what makes them feel this way because previous to now, they loved the work they did. You can start to understand some of the changes in someone's chart and how that Midheaven maybe impacted.
Naomi Nakamura: Well, I also want to add that when you talked about people having different qualities that are illuminated by different parts of their chart, I think it also gives people permission. So, if you have this talent of speaking this to community or whatever, maybe those things that deep down you always had a desire to at least try but maybe for whatever reason never felt that you had the permission, or you were afraid to whatever, it really lends again to self-leadership about this is actually in your chart. This might be a gift, or this is a gift that you have, give it a try.
Julien Elizabeth: Absolutely. And I think, I've worked with a few people who have a desire to really shine and to share who they are with the world whether that'd be through maybe being an influencer or moving into acting or something like that. And yet they felt like that's maybe selfish of them or vain of them. And yet, their chart really indicates that the message that they share about themselves as an individual can be impactful, could really help people.
And so sometimes when our frame of reference is to self-identify, I want to share my message and my way of being with the world, we can sometimes feel like a little vain about that or it's not so encouraged.
Naomi Nakamura: And that all comes from outside influences or how we have been conditioned to view things or to think things like, why would we think that's vain? What led us to have this belief about that?
Julien Elizabeth: Exactly. And there, we get to go a little bit deeper, right? We get to look at some of the lens that we're looking at things. And even to kind of shift that example in another direction, someone may be able to understand through looking at their chart that owning their voice or expanding their voice could be important for them. And they don't need to change their job completely, but maybe they have the opportunity now to look for experiences where they can develop that part of themselves.
Maybe it is through more presentations in their work environment or getting more comfortable hearing their speaking voice. There are different ways we can start to pull these traits into the life that we're currently living versus thinking, "Oh no, I've gone in the wrong direction. I have to change everything."
Naomi Nakamura: Gosh, there's just so much there we could talk about, I mean.
Julien Elizabeth: I know.
Naomi Nakamura: In our sessions, we've talked about timing and how I feel this need for deep rest right now, which really goes hand in hand with some of the things in my health that's going on right now. We've talked about placement of where different planets and whatnot relate to each other. We really could go in a lot of places, but I don't want to take up too much more of your time. So is there anything else you like to add before we close?
Julien Elizabeth: I just want to encourage curiosity of our whole life experience. And astrology to me has been such an incredible tool for curiosity, asking deeper questions. I'm innately a very curious person. Most people that spend a little bit of time with me realize I ask a lot of open-ended question sometimes.
Naomi Nakamura: Well, that's what makes you so good at what you do.
Julien Elizabeth: Absolutely. Sometimes even my clients are like, "I know you're going to ask me an open-ended question, but could you just give me an opinion?" And most times, I'll give an opinion followed up by an open-ended question. But I think curiosity inherently is liberating, liberate us from judgment if we can stay curious about what may I know. But also once you feel like you know something, at least in my experience, it often means that there's a lot more that I don't know.
Naomi Nakamura: And that's really what I wanted to convey in our conversation. Like I said, I shared how I was introduced to astrology, but I also grew up in a very religious household where, again, my Mom is the one that would read her horoscope every day. But there are a lot of people who see it as like people and like devil incarnate.
And I really don't think that it is. I think we need to be open-minded to understand that there's a lot of things that we don't know. And there's a lot of, again, opportunities for curiosity and opportunities to illuminate parts of ourselves that we just haven't had the container to explore before. And this just presents another way to do so.
And clearly for me, it is really transformational. And at this stage in my life of what I'm going through right now is another framework and another tool that I can use again for self-affirmation, for healing and to step into more of a self-leadership role.
Julien Elizabeth: I love that. And I love the connection to how the unknown can be really scary. And there's many historical reasons to push away explanation of the unknown. And I think that we ultimately get to choose how we relate to the unknown and to the mystery.
Naomi Nakamura: Yeah. And I think when you push away from the unknown, you really limit yourself into what's possible.
Julien Elizabeth: Absolutely. Yeah.
Naomi Nakamura: And I guess that's my one line coming through from a Human Design.
Julien Elizabeth: Well, I think it's incredible how you really used so many tools and modalities to help on your journey as have I. **And I think many people who listen are doing that, and it's beautiful to hear how some of this work and some of these perspective shifts have really brought you into deeper leadership within yourself.
Naomi Nakamura: And again, I didn't come looking for it. It came and found me.
Julien Elizabeth: There it is.
Naomi Nakamura: Well, thank you so much for coming on again. Where can people connect with you?
Julien Elizabeth: I would love to connect with anybody who resonated with our conversation. You can find me at julienelizabeth.com and that's my handle for all the social media, so on Instagram and Facebook. You can find my email through that as well and I offer individual readings.
And the work that Naomi and I have been connecting on is first the solar return reading, which is a beautiful way to understand the astrology of the year ahead from your birthdate on.
Naomi Nakamura: It's also just a nice little birthday gift to yourself.
Julien Elizabeth: Absolutely. It's one of my favorite ways to celebrate somebody's birth, is to look at it ahead with them. And then I do offer shorter-term coaching program. So that looks like a series of sessions where we are focused around one specific goal that you could just use some more support and perspective on. And then I have a longer-term coaching program that runs over three months. And that really is a much deeper container that allows us to use astrology as well as many of the other tools that I use in order to support somebody moving through transformation in their life and finding that self-leadership, self-trust, and self-accountability and authenticity.
Naomi Nakamura: And you offer workshops as well. We actually got to meet in person. So now we can say we're real life friends just a couple weeks ago. But I was so bummed. I was supposed to come to your workshop, and then things happened and I wasn't able to. But you offer workshops as well.
Julien Elizabeth: I do. I'm a busy woman in all of the ways. So I have monthly workshops in person here in Los Angeles as well as virtually, and those are connected to the new moon. So we have a full moon coming up and then a new moon. So once a month, I gather in community and I share practices and tools that can support you. And then I also run quite a bit of virtual workshops. I have a new yoga nidra teacher training coming up, which you can read about through my Instagram or my website and a few upcoming retreats as we start to kind of venture out in new ways. I am looking for beautiful places to gather in nature and really study the stars together.
Naomi Nakamura: So I will link to all those things in the show notes. Thank you so much for coming on.
Julien Elizabeth: Thank you, Naomi, for having me and for sharing this good work.
Naomi Nakamura is a Health x Human Design coach who’s creating a healthier society through aligned energy.
She blends a bespoke mix of Functional Nutrition and Human Design to help others shift into alignment to leverage and correctly manage their energy to support their body, mind, and spirit.
She believes that when we embrace our authenticity and lean into our bio-individuality, we naturally live a life of freedom, empowerment, and optimal health.
Naomi resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can often be found exploring the area with her puppy girl, Coco Pop!
Connect with Naomi on: Instagram
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