Jessica DiRuzza - Understanding the Psychedelic Experience with Astrology

In this episode, Kyle interviews Jessica DiRuzza, Psychotherapist, Astrologer and Teacher. In the show they talk about how astrology can be used as a tool and framework for navigating and understanding psychedelic experiences.

3 Key Points:

1. Astrology can be used as an integrative tool for psychedelic and other exceptional experiences.
2. The planets are emitting some type of force that are letting us behave a certain way. Astrology is the one thing we have agreed upon across millennia and era.

3. A Saturn Return transit can be a difficult but transformative time in one's life. This transit happens around age 28-31. During this time, we face crises in our life as we take on greater responsibility. It can feel like death and a rebirth. It can correlate to Grof's Perinatal Birth Matrix II (“No Exit” and "Cosmic Engulfment"). 

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Navigating Psychedelics

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Show Notes

About Jessica

• She is a Psychotherapist
• She teaches and practices Astrology
• She uses Astrology to help put meaning and understanding to what happens in visionary states
• She received her bachelors at CIIS and studied and taught with Stan Grof and Richard Tarnes in the Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness Program
• Since the 70’s, Stan Grof was following his transits and all the transits of his clients
  • Richard Tarnas and Stan Grof studied astrology as a diagnostic tool for those who would do psychedelics
  • They studied transit astrology
  • By looking at these transits, what they found were archetypal similarities
  • “Our solar system is an extension of our ecosystem here on earth.” - Jessica\
• “For millennia, the one thing that human beings have agreed upon across cultures and eras, are the meaning of the planets” - Jessica
• Astrology is the original science

Free Will vs. Determinism

• The planets are emitting some type of force that are letting us behave a certain way
• They are reflective, what is happening in the sky is indicative of what's happening here
• Astrology is like a clock, a clock does not make it be a certain time, it just helps us tell the time

Interest in Astrology

• Psychedelics brought Jessica to Astrology
• Jessica went to her first Burning Man at 20 years old
  • She received an astrology reading there and said it broke her open
• She went to CA to see the reader that gave her the initial reading
  • She did a high dose LSD session
  • She re-lived her birth experience, and gave birth to her new self
• The person who gave her the reading was teaching with Stan Grof and Richard Tarnas at CIIS
• She dropped out of college and moved to attend CIIS
  • She was in a Uranus conjunct Ascendant transit
• Through these experiences she uprooted her entire life

Astrology Lingo

• Sun represents our sense of self, our identity in the world, egoic consciousness
• Moon represents our relational matrix, our early childhood experiences, our emotions and experiences, and a deep sense of belonging
• Rising represents who we are from moment to moment, how we initially meet existence
• Zodiac means belt of life
• Each aspect carries a different quality
  • Conjunct means new moon, representing a new beginning
  • A full moon represents when the sun is opposite than the moon, a blossoming or fruition. 
• Astrology is a language, the language of the stars
  • There are so many ways to speak this language, and so many schools of thought
  • What really matters is the cosmology that goes behind the description
• “Both astrology and psychedelics are a tools for self reflection, that hopefully we are using to become more kind and more caring” - Jessica
• “Astrology provides a world view or a cosmology to hold what happens in those visionary states, it's a grounding place to integrate and make meaning of what's happening” - Jessica

Saturn Return

• Saturn return happens from age 28-31
• During our Saturn Return, we face crises in our life and take on greater responsibility
• It can feel like a death, but also like a birth
  • “The greater the death, the greater the rebirth” - Jessica
• The 4 bpms correspond to the four outer planets
• It's not just in entheogenic spaces that this is applicable
• “Working with the resistance consciously, actually helps us move into what the divine or the universe wants us to step into our life, karmically, what we are here to do” - Jessica

Astrology and Psychedelics

• Kyle asks about using astrology to pick a time of when to do psychedelics
  • Jessica responds saying that if you have a strong calling to do so for healing and balance, and you have all the components for proper integration, then it's a good time
  • Then, astrology can be used to help find themes and help dissect the experience
• Your Saturn transits contain a difference component in each person
  • The sense of responsibility grows in you
  • “My deepest calling in this life is to bring Astrology and Psychology together in one unified field” - Jessica

Final Thoughts

• Jessica is so proud of the honest integrity that people are bringing to this work
• She send best wishes in the great reckoning, and the great becoming

Links

Website

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About Jessica

Jessica is a licensed psychotherapist, astrologer, and teacher. Her life is guided by a passion for engaging with people, understanding relationships, and staying connected to the larger world around us. This passion and curiosity led her into the healing profession as a counselor in 2007. For over a decade she has worked collaboratively with individuals, couples, and groups on their transformative journeys. Helping people on their path of exploration and healing is the privilege of a lifetime. Jessica received her Master’s in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She completed her undergraduate degree at California Institute of Integral Studies, where she studied and taught archetypal astrology and transpersonal psychology. Her greatest joy is working in sacred and revolutionary ways with people in psychotherapy, teaching, and astrological consultations. She also shares her work through podcasts and writing on her site.

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