Material Girl, Mystical World: The Now-Age Guide for Chic Seekers and Modern Mystics. Ruby Warrington

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      Another word on the concepts of “healing” and “wounds” here, too, since these are words you’ll find me using a lot. Rather than be repelled by the idea that this suggests there’s something “wrong” with you—how about leaning in to the concept that there’s actually something very, VERY right with you, that needs “healing,” meaning bringing into wholeness in order for you to be fully empowered.

      As for the people you may encounter who prefer to dismiss all things numinous as “woo-woo” bullshit or a bunch of silly girls getting squeamish over their Ouija boards? (a), screw the patriarchal system that decided anything to do with divination and intuition has little bearing in the “real world.” And (b), when not so long ago I was interviewed for British Vogue about the subject of astrology entering the mainstream, my response to a variation on the above objections went something along the lines of: “The world is divided into scientists and mystics—those who mainly ask ‘how’ and those who mainly ask ‘why.’ Left- and right-brain thinkers. I stand firmly in the latter camp (thanks in part to my Cancer Moon—lol), because, for me, without this kind of existential self-inquiry, life is meaningless.”

      Not that we don’t need our fully-functioning right-brain faculties to navigate the daily task of being human, of course. But with no other word for “God” in my five-year-old lexicon, I can also see now that even as a child astrology spoke to a deeply human need in me—a need to know my place in the cosmos, in order to feel connected to my highest Self, to my fellow beings, and to the planet we happen to call “home.”

      Because you know, one of the best things about deciding to simply embrace the numinous, to marvel at the magic of the Universe, and then do the internal work it tends to ask of you, is that you get to align yourself with the beating pulse of our Mother Earth. And if there’s anything we all know it’s that we need to do everything in our power right NOW to foster a more harmonious coexistence with the natural world.

      It also seems to me that it’s only once we get truly happy in our selves, get healed, that we are in a position to stop with all the navel-gazing and reach out to help the people around us, too. As we all know, when the airplane is going down, it’s essential to put our own oxygen mask on first.

      So, before I send you on your own numinous journey, I ask you to consider this: if YOU are the greatest “numinous” there is, then accepting this mission could be the fastest route to unraveling your unique unknowables, tuning in to your own inner Voice, and excavating your happiest, truest, most empowered, and empowering self as a result. The sort of self who believes that maybe, just perhaps, you too have a unique and essential role to play in the future thriving of our species and our planet. Even if, for you, saving the world looks a little less Mother Teresa (since there can be only one of her) and a little more like simply being the best sister, daughter, lover, friend, and community activist you can be. BIG change has to happen one human at a time, after all.

      I wrote this book to share the tools and ideologies, not to mention introduce the mystics and the teachers, I’ve found to be most inspiring in this not-so-humble pursuit, so you can use it as a road map of sorts. Some chapters have a more prescriptive, “how to” feel; others are more philosophical in tone. I encourage you to take copious notes, applying my experiences and observations to the transformations you’re experiencing, or would like to experience, in your own life. Not to mention breaks between chapters to go out, have fun, and inspire others by walking the talk—for it is in the day-to-day, real-life experience of these practices that you’ll make the greatest leaps on the path to a more high-vibe life.

      Not that I claim to be any kind of a guru myself. Just a Material Girl in a Mystical World, who happens to think that if The Numinous was the new normal we might find ourselves inching a little closer to, you know, world peace. I

PART I

1.

       ASTROLOGY AS BASIC LIFE SKILL

      One of the best things about being a journalist is the deeply random conversations I get to have with complete and utter strangers, many of whom also happen to be semifamous. Like the time I interviewed “plus size” supermodel (ridiculous, she’s like a U.S. size four) Crystal Renn. It was supposed to be a basic Q&A for London’s Stylist magazine, but the first thing Crystal wanted to know when we sat down were my Sun, Moon, and Rising signs. It turns out we were both astrology mad. Soul sister! I thought to myself, as the first thing I usually do when I get asked to interview someone is look up their chart.

      Of all the wonders of the Internet, the fact that you can google most celebrities’ birth details will never cease to be a constant source of entertainment for me. And by the way? For the student of astrology, this is also a great way to hone your skills. After all, once you’ve got their birth chart in your hands, the lives, loves, failures, and successes of the A-list are all out there just waiting to be analyzed.

      For the uninitiated, your birth chart is essentially a map of the sky, showing the exact position of the planets on the wheel of the astrological zodiac at the moment you were born—that is, the moment your soul chose to incarnate this time around. Each placement of each planet is a window into a different aspect of a person’s personality.

      Back to Crystal, who loved astrology because as a model she found herself interacting with new people all day, every day. At every casting, every photo shoot, and every catwalk event, she would be faced with a whole new team—and what better way to break the ice, not to mention work out who the hell you are working with, than a little astrological inquiry? Knowing somebody’s Sun sign (their intrinsic personality), Rising sign (how they come across), and Moon sign (deep-seated emotional needs and how they react to stuff) helped her find her place within the group, work out how to read different individuals, and, on a more advanced level, how best to communicate her own wants and needs. When the people in question (photographer, makeup artist, stylist) were responsible for how she was going to look in the resulting images, not to mention potentially recommend her for the next job, you can see how she’d found this to be a highly valuable life skill.

      Sun Sign = Your Intrinsic Personality

      Rising Sign = How You Come Across

      Moon Sign = Emotional Needs and Responses

      And in my book (this book, ha), it’s not only supermodels who can benefit from getting a grip on the basics of astrology. Yes, it’s fun to read a daily, weekly, or month-ahead horoscope for your own Sun sign, but it’s when you learn some of the other key aspects of your chart and then apply this insight to your relationships with your Self and others that things get really interesting.

      Astrology tends to get a bad rap from people who assume it’s about trying to “predict” future events—and because it’s based on something as seemingly random as the position of celestial bodies circling the Sun millions of light-years away. In answer to this, (a) I’d like to remind us all for a moment how profoundly our lives are affected by the seasons—not to mention the impact the daily weather forecast has on our mood. And if we can see the influence of the Moon in the ebb and flow of the tides, is it really such a stretch to believe that the other planets in our solar system might also affect life here on Earth? That the “cosmic weather” might also play some kind of role in our lives?

      Meanwhile, (b) my take on astrology СКАЧАТЬ