Julija Simas: Can We Still Trust Astrology Online?

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I mean, in regard to what’s going on out there, you know, an eclipse is, you know, every eclipse is going to be doing something to you and people get scared.

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And this young girl talking about the new moon and alarming people like this is the biggest thing that will ever happen to you. [clears throat]

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The this kind of alarmingness of of just getting attention. [music] It’s almost like everything like this is the biggest month ever. And it’s an AI image of

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Jupiter and and Venus like kind of overlapping each other. There’s a Venus [music] and Jupiter conjunction tonight.

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Mhm. I’m going where the public out there obviously because there’s 20,000 likes on something like

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that. They think it’s real and it doesn’t start. And then you see you see things that you know it’s like be certified as an astrologer in 4 weeks.

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Do not believe that anybody.

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[music]

Welcome and Julija’s Astrological Beginnings
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Welcome back to another Backstage Astrology episode. My name is Mayra Medina and today I’m thrilled to have Julija Simas with us today. Julija, how

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are you? And thank you so much for being here.

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Well, thanks for having me, Mayra. And lovely to meet you and congratulations on your podcast um show you [laughter] call it.

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Julija is the founder of the CIA, which is the cosmic intelligence agency. It’s been around for quite a while. But

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first, Julija, please tell the people who don’t know you, who are you and what type of astrology do you do?

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All right. Well, I’m I’m in Melbourne, Australia. Um, I started studying astrology in 1999.

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Um and after my background, well with the with the course that I I did, um I

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got interested in astrology. Oh, probably as a young girl and having tarot cards and all that kind of stuff.

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But um it was only in my mid30s that I decided I really needed to study it formally. um because there was a lot of

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you know reading I had done and much about alchemy and magic and you know the way that it’s um you know a a way of

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looking at things or the esoteric world you know what’s hidden behind things and I was so intrigued and what I realized

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was that all the people that I was reading about or [clears throat] the books that I was reading about or the famous alchemists or magicians or what

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have you all knew astrology really Well, and I [clears throat] thought, okay, this is the this is the key that binds

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all of this together is astrology. And you know, in the past, I was always very interested in hermetic um understanding

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of, you know, the universe. And so, astrology was kind of the next step that I needed to really sort of knuckle down

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and study. And um so I did I did this 5-year diploma course and it was pretty much um astrology,

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mythology, and psychology. So that was kind of my background to to to the studies. And then after I I finished the

Why Julija Created the Cosmic Intelligence Agency
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studies, um you know, like the community that I knew here in Melbourne, all the organizations that were here were just

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like very insular, you know, they were very much, you know, they had their meetings once a month and you know, this kind of stuff.

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And I just thought, “Oh gosh, astrology like you know, it’s like as you learn it properly, [laughter] you’re just always

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going like it’s amazing. You’re finding out about yourself. You’re finding out about your your family. You’re finding out about what’s happening out there in the world.

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And you think, how come the public is still only really recognizing sun sign astrology?” And this kind of really drove me crazy.

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I’ve got nothing against sun sign astrology. It’s really um you know again a a a way of of introducing people to

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look further and deeper and of course we probably all started somehow learning that we were a Pisces or a Taurus or whatever you know but to me that wasn’t

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enough and I thought astrology needs to be represented in a much more significant way and in in the real way

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that it is you know like again it’s you aren’t just your sun sign you’re Venus and whole synthesis of your chart. Um so

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you know that’s that’s how you know with with some of the astrologers I knew in Melbourne we we met in groups to study

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further like you know we studied astro-mapping horary um electional astrology like we had all

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these different groups and um and during that time you know I kind of came up and told you know some of them in one group

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going I got this great idea we need to start the cosmic intelligence agency

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[laughter]

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and start sort of, you know, um, reporting on on the world, you know, as a consciousness, you know, outing astrology to a lot more people.

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So that’s what we did and we started our first web page, I think, in the at the end of 2006. So again, 20 years ago

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um, and it’s developed and we started with reporting on the solstices as intention missions, right? like you know

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Pluto and Uranus are doing this or you know big writeups. It was all just writeups at that time. No real video work.

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Um and putting an intention behind it and sort of growing it that way. And then it eventually grew and social media

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grew and you know we amassed a huge following on Facebook. Um it still stands at 1.2 million people. that people.

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So, [laughter] um, and yeah, continue to to, you know, put out as much as we kind of can in a

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sense. Um, there’s a lot more around astrology wise or in that frame. Um, than there was 20 years ago. That’s for sure.

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Yeah, for sure. It has changed.

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[laughter]

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So, the consciousness expanded.

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Astrology is everywhere. And we say the mission worked. So, beautiful. Yeah. And so obviously it

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expanded um beyond Melbourne because now I see a lot of like familiar faces also in the cosmic intelligence agency

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website and I see what what is the core um mission you would say um today uh uh

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for the cosmic intelligence agency because things have changed. It is it is still to invite people to look further

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deeper and understand astrology as a you know moving living um you know part of our lives

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like it’s it’s not sort of stuck back in time. It’s something to acknowledge always every day. It’s constantly

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changing as we know. Um we look back at at the past we are here at the present understanding it and we can look in the future. So, you know, again, it’s an

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amazing tool to connect the past, present, and future that I’ve always said. Um, so we just uh our mission is

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to actually help people understand what to look, how to read, if they want to go look further. I mean, one of our, you

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know, when we started sort of fa posting on Facebook, it was kind of like, you know, Pluto squares Uranus [laughter]

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um and, you know, writing up something about it. And of course, now that’s everywhere. People were doing new moons and full moons but not the daily sort of

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update you know of whatever is happening but again that is now saturated. So again mission worked. [laughter]

The CIA Membership and Educational Mission
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Beautiful. Yeah. And also um how does it work today? Can I just go there and take some classes or you have a membership or are there are there we have a membership? Yeah.

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Yeah. Yeah. We started a membership um again you know it comes a time like 10 years ago now. I think it was 2016 that we started the membership.

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Um, and that is pretty much inviting, you know, speakers to to talk on different topics. Um, so if you’ve got a

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membership, you you sign up for a year or we’ve had members that have been with us for 10 years, which is great.

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[laughter]

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Wow.

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Um, and um, you get access to all the recordings that have ever been done. So,

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our library is huge now. So there’s a lot of material there and then we have about you know 18 to 20 new ones every

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every year. So every 3 weeks or so we have a webinar. Sometimes you know the dates change a bit.

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So we’re always looking for interesting content um or something we can learn from as well like you know there’s a lot

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of things that will be let’s say repeated and other you know someone learns about it and then they do it you know. So, we’re always looking for

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someone that’s got perhaps a new take on things, a fresh understanding, you know, showing and acknowledging their understanding of

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astrology and being able to kind of report back, let’s say. [laughter] So, no, it’s amazing. I love the idea of the

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of the agents, right? Like, and and you have a lot of them here and you have very different um backgrounds also and

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branches from astrology when you see what every agent brings. So congratulations for that and I really hope it keeps growing. But Julija, you

The Reality of Managing an Astrology Platform
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know, when you created the CIA and today I’m assuming there were some challenges while you know creating this amazing

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project. What was the hardest part of being the you know the captain captain of [laughter] Yeah. Yeah.

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Well, okay. One of the things is is managing the agents like you know back in the past it was like every agent have

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to have a mission and participate and produce content somehow right so you know that that is still you know what an

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agent needs to do but we’ve lost a lot of agents because a lot [laughter] there were many that kind of bought badges or bought their name uh and then we never

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heard from them again so we’ve had to sort of you know like it’s almost like we don’t know what agent, you know, 26 is doing. We’ve never heard from them

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again. So, it it’s it’s a very strange thing. So, you know, missing in action.

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So, we kind of stopped making agents um unless someone approaches us to say, “I’ve got a really great idea.” So, an

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agent needs to be proactive, right? Um uh so that’s why we started a membership really to kind of you know like again

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how do you deal with thousands of agents and also how do you you know uh keep up the quality kind of control you know in the sense of those that represent us.

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And so we have had agents over the past that have, you know, we’ve heard about the things that they’ve done and this kind of, you

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know, just stuff about them that very disturbing.

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And so therefore, you know, bringing it closer, knowing more about the people that are actually, you know, representing us, right? Because, you

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know, again, there’s it’s it’s not that um some things, you know, again, they’re representing us in our name. So we had to be really careful.

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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

The Birth Chart of the CIA
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Oh wow. So when you created the agency, did you look at the chart like you know before or after you created it?

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Well, again when I when I bought the name, this is the the chart I used for when like the name was in my head for

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maybe a year and a half before I actually purchased the web name. And the web name it was like on my mind and I

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didn’t really know enough about election astrology back then. So the date of it was 23rd of August 2005.

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And so I just went and noted the time and pro, you know, I don’t even know if I looked at the I probably looked at the chart. Yeah, I looked at the chart um

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and then went, “Oh, wow.” But I didn’t elect the time, right? It was just an intuitive, you know, I have to do it

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now. So So we were born with a zero Virgo sun, which is cool. Yeah.

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Yeah. and a moon on the north node in Aries. Um, a Capricorn rising.

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Um, yeah, and and it’s been very, let’s say, it’s really kind of produced results in a sense. We’ve seen it in

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action, you know, along the way. So and so any you know kind of new agent that that sort of comes into the throw so to

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speak you know we’ll connect the dots is like have you you know get to know the you know the CIA chart and how are they connected and most of them are very much

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connected yeah oh wow that’s that’s interesting [laughter] amazing okay okay that’s great but Julija um well in your own

Julija’s Astrological Approach
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journey coming back now to your own story what was the let’s say branch of astrology that you know you were

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passionate about because today there are so many branches and which yeah I mean again like I started off with the psych psychological and

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mythological kind of context of archetypes and that kind of thing.

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Um but again you know once you’ve sort of studied in one particular vein you go and explore all the other veins. So, I

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don’t actually have an umbrella that I actually sit under because I’d like to call myself maybe a cosmic astrologer or

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something like that because um again I very much appreciate the past and learn so much about you know from from the ancients

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um but I haven’t got that mindset. I am very much in you know thinking about where we are now the consciousness of

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understanding astrology in this day and age. Mhm.

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is different than it was 2,000 years ago. And um so I very much kind of, you

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know, live by that that sort of idea. Um so I don’t I don’t have like a again

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because it’s a cosmic intelligence agency, you know, it’s a cosmic banner.

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So you know, let’s keep it sort of cosmic and up to date pretty much.

Learning to Translate Astrology
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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when you discover astrology and you started studying um as a student, what was the biggest

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challenge for you personally? Yeah, I think it was translating the language to other people like what you’ve learned

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like I’d come home and go to my husband, oh you’re Uranus and Moon now I really understand it, you know, and he go, what are you talking about? What’s what’s

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that mean? So, you know, you had to get good at, you know, explaining the archetypes and um, you know, that kind

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of thing. So, I remember that being a challenge. So, yeah, translating what you’ve learned to those that don’t know

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what you’re talking about. Um, and then also, you know, kind of, let’s say, stopping the mind chatter because you’re just always thinking about it, right?

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Like, you become so obsessed about it.

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So you have to I think everyone that gets into astrology will go through a period like that where you know oh

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something fell you know where’s the moon or you know like [laughter] you know looking at every every every sort of part and nuance of it and that

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can drive you crazy um and then you know it eventually sort of settles down you you or you know I’ve got three children

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so you know always looking at you know what’s happening for them you had to sort of you know kind of hold back from it a bit. I think I think that was that was quite a challenge as well. Yeah.

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Oh wow.

Visibility, Free Labor and Boundaries
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That’s interesting. Um so when you were um on this path of studying astrology, I’m assuming there is a point where you

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started sharing either with the with the members of astrologers at Melbourne and then the CIA. So how do you manage that growth you know when you are exposed?

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How do you manage that transition? Well, um it’s about being a bit blunt actually to be honest. [laughter]

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Um because oh, you know, in the earlier days, we’d be so sort of enthusiastic and answering everyone’s questions and

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again giving out a lot of free a lot of free stuff, which is fine. I think all astrologers need to do that to show who

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you are, what you know, all that kind of thing. And again, that’s why we started the membership because it was like as much as you give out, they still want

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more. they just still want more from you and then sort of say oh you know like want free readings or just whatever it is you know or you know write you

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messages um you know asking all this personal stuff that you’re supposed to what just look at at the time and and answer or look up their chart so just

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learning to say no sorry I don’t do you know private sort of chats about your astrology chart here’s my here’s my

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details you know if you want if you want a proper reading so you’ve got to you’ve kind of you’ve got to make those barriers for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

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Yeah. I’m glad you brought that up because it you know some Austral mentioned that in the podcast that it’s very important to have a framework and

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to have some boundaries and you know maybe understand that are you doing it as a hobby or is it going to turn into a

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business and then set some boundaries because one thing is to go to a coffee shop with your best friend and read her chart and another thing is you know when

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your cousins and your entire family starts asking for readings and and it takes time and energy right So it can be overwhelming.

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Yeah. No, absolutely. Yeah, you’ve got to, you know, of course sometimes you do and there’s I think we’ve all got room to sort of do the extra, you know, but

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we we can’t do it all the time, you know. We can’t do it all the time. So, um, yeah. Yeah, I’ve gotten better at that. Um, as well as again managing, you

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know, not taking everyone in as whoever wants to be an agent because again, don’t know them. We always wanted to set

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up more of a system of, you know, like questionnaire or initiation kind of [laughter] thing, but we never did.

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Um, you know, all those fun things that, you know, you could do in this kind of context of of being an agent. And look, we still might do it, but again, I’m I’m

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20 years older than I was, you know, when I kind of first thought of this concept. Um so um again the concept

Making It Cool to Be an Astrologer
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being that what what the CIA has done has opened and again we weren’t seeing

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this when we first started was um you know that astrology just should be out there more

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because I was still meeting people or women that were you know secretly doing astrology or hiding it from their

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husbands or you know my family can’t know and just a whole lot of things like that that were, you know, all around and

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I’m sure it’s still around in certain ways. Um, and it was like what why why

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should astrology be represented just by cute rams and you know like Uranus jokes

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and you know there’s so much more to it as we all know and um that’s what we wanted. We wanted to make it like you

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know it’s cool to be an [laughter] astrologer. It’s cool to do astrology and you know make it a little bit of fun with that kind of agent a agent

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connotation but of course agent means that you’re actively working at it like so I call every astrologer an agent

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really in the end we’re all agents of this astrological consciousness right um so in a sense there’s a lot of free

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about it like a free agent a lot of people say I’m a free agent that’s fine because we’re all we are all working as

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a collective ive on, you know, opening up astrology and it and its magic and its, you know, um its depth um in so many ways, you know, to a lot of people.

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Yeah.

Finding an Astrological Community
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Wow. I’m actually a little bit curious because I’m originally from Mexico, so you know, Australia is a little bit far away, but like how is is astrology

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popular? Was it popular back then in Australia? Like how is how do Australians feel about astrology? Well, again, um you know, when I was looking

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to find it, um you could, you know, you could bookshops had, you know, astrology books or whatever, but no, there wasn’t

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a lot around. And you know, finding the school that I went to that was like real life classes and stuff. Um I mean, they

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actually operated for 30 years, I think it was, and then went on online. Um and

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um but no beside but there’s an a federation of Australian astrologers. So that was always the the the place that

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we’d go to for conferences and meet um you know meet international speakers like Demetra George and uh you know

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Rick Levine and Ray Merriman you know like load loads and loads over the years and um you know when I started sort of going

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to them I just went this is my world. I know this is my world. [laughter] I found my tribe.

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Yeah. Yeah. I found my tribe. Um yeah and then yeah again meeting people uh I

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think the first thing I went to overseas was in Bali um to Rick Tarnas’ first um

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retreat on cosmos and psyche so just after he launched the book. Um so that was incredible. So that sort of opened

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up knowing more people from overseas and actually that’s where the CIA sort of idea blossomed a bit further. um you

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know we had an agent in Kuwait and you know again there’s so many of shifts and changes over the over the years because

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people again you know they come and go they do their you know they do their sort of participate for a while but you know their life changes or their

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interests change or you know again um a a close colleague that I worked with a lot we made a few movies together and

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stuff and he just lost Yeah. Hi.

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I’m [laughter] not really. And he’s a psychiatrist. So there was also something about him not um in his

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profession not being able to be known as an astrologer. So there was a few things. So again many different reasons.

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Um but again so I just say now I work with a smaller group. We have the membership. Um, and again, I call them

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all agents because they’re contributing um, you know, financially, which helps us keep going and um, and just work with

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a smaller group to actually, you know, do whatever we’re doing, right? Because there’s been a lot of promises, people promising they’ll do stuff, all kinds of

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things. Of course it might. [laughter] No, you see that’s why I’m asking all these questions because you know

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sometimes people well we don’t see what’s going on in the background to actually bring all this content and all this information. You know there’s a lot

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of work and most of it not most of it but people they see a video they think oh yeah it’s just for free but there’s a

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lot of work behind every class and every video anyway.

AI, Misinformation and Four-Week Certification
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Yes. Exactly. [laughter] Julija, how have you experienced because I mean you’re talking about 2006 the

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internet was not I mean it was just starting like the social media kind of thing.

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Yes, it was just starting and then you know Neptune Pisces 2012 and then it it started building up. How

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did you adapt you know the project to to this new world? Like what was the the hardest part of that process?

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I mean, in regard to what’s going on out there, let’s say with AI, and now we’ve got paring of astrology just being, you

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know, taken straight from AI and just blurted out or respoken or, you know, videos done.

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Um, and then you see you see things that, you know, it’s like be certified as an astrologer in four weeks. I just saw one the other day.

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Oh, wow.

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Do not believe that anybody. Um, as we know, we all study and if we take on the the the journey to to really embrace and

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fully immerse ourselves in astrology, it never stops. And you cannot be certified in 4 weeks. You have to read a lot of

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books. you have to it’s not see so people are learning by sound grabbs now and learning from you know videos like

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you know maybe like this or whatever but um which is fine but there’s no sort of structure to what they’re learning so they’re learning these bits and pieces

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of things that are muddling them all up I mean I was watching something on Instagram the other day this young girl

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I don’t know 20 years old um talking about the new moon coming in Aries and alarming people like this is the biggest

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thing that will ever happen to you. Who is she talking to? Everybody.

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Um, and there’s like, you know, 13,000 likes or what have you. And so the this

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kind of alarmingness of of just getting attention, you know, just saying like it’s almost like everything, you know,

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this is the biggest month ever. Every month is the biggest month ever.

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[laughter] But, you know, it sort of it it does drive you crazy. there’s not enough background to know what what why and what they’re saying that for, right?

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Um, and again, you need to you need to do the years to know like you need to do at least a few good years of study to to

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know a really good basis and then you can sort of jump off in in confidence, let’s say, to to do more, you know. Um,

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you need to do a lot of readings and charts. We all learn a lot from from consulting with people and learning

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from them and how we see, you know, transits, you know, affecting their lives or presenting themselves in their

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lives and that sort of thing. So, um, yeah, it’s it’s not as easy as you think. That’s what I would say. Yeah, it

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it is a it’s a serious study. It’s a serious. It’s like studying psychology or becoming a doctor or whatever you

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want, you know, whatever you kind of class you want to put it into.

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Yeah. Um I think you mentioned in in another interview I was listening that it is a language in the end.

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So you got to learn how to speak the language and you got to learn the language. [clears throat] Yeah.

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And look, I mean, that’s Yeah, you bring up a good point because I remember um

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Oh, I remember people again when we sort of started writing things on Facebook or whatever or over the years, you know, um we don’t understand what you’re saying.

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[laughter]

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And I’m going, well, this is the whole mission because we want them to learn to understand what we’re saying. Astrology

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is a language and if you want to understand it, you need to know the language. Um, so we just kept at it. Do you know what I mean? Yes. With a bit of

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explanation, but again, you’ve got to know the archetypes really well and then you know how to put them together or,

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you know, in in harmony or in some kind of, you know, aspect or what have you.

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So, yeah, learn the language. Learn the language well. And it’s not as um there are parts that are I mean as we

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know every sign is so deep. There’s not just one [laughter] paragraph that’s going to you know say everything about

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Taurus or the eighth house or you know and again in what sort of context. So there is so much depth to every aspect

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of astrology like again that rabbit hole you know that never sort of you can still learn so much about your Venus

[28:06]

even 20 years later on. Oh Venus oh you know she’s telling me something else cuz you’re 20 years older, right? So there’s

[28:15]

there’s there’s all that that that just keeps let’s say unfolding or deepening as well in our lives,

[28:22]

you know. Yeah. Yeah. And it doesn’t stop. [laughter] It doesn’t stop. What would you say um

The Deeper Gift of Astrology
[28:29]

Julija is the biggest gift astrology has given you?

[28:35]

I think to to live and be in a kind of more magical um sense of living,

[28:42]

right? that um that we you know just things that we we are surrounded by this

[28:49]

sacred sort of zodiac that has that is you know has kind of come from so much.

[28:56]

It’s it’s the archaeology that surrounds us right in the sky but it’s here right in front of us all the time. It just depends how much we want to look at it.

[29:05]

Um so I think it’s just taught me to be much more uh conscious and aware of just

[29:12]

daily and yearly and monthly sort of attitude to to living and the people around us. It does make us a better

[29:20]

person to study ourselves through astrology. Um you know um and again

[29:27]

consciously consciously keep let’s say learning about ourselves you know um

[29:35]

definitely you know again you know whatever you know you can’t again one thing that got me years ago when I first was looking at

[29:42]

things was or knew that I was a Pisces it’s like I’m not always cute and lovely

[29:49]

and you know kind of dreamy [laughter] you know like It’s like, yeah, well, that’s might be nice, but you know,

[29:56]

that’s not really me, you know. So, things that again, you’re being told who you are, right?

[30:03]

Oh, but I’m a part I mean, you just have to look on social media and whatever, you know, like, okay, some of it’s really fun and what

[30:11]

have you. Um, but you you’ve got to go and discover it for yourself and a lot more deeply. Yeah.

[30:17]

Like, experience it. And also also if you’re learning you’re also test the information you’re receiving because I

[30:24]

mean I can say oh yeah you know um I don’t know rising and they’re slow and they are stubborn and it’s like well not

[30:33]

not yeah but not all the [laughter] time you know so not all the time. Yeah that’s exactly right. Yeah.

[30:40]

So yeah, the words are important.

The Transits Shaping a New Era
[30:43]

Yeah. Talking about the upcoming transits, you know, in these very interesting times we’re living. Is there

[30:49]

any transit that excites you or gets you anxious maybe? Which transits are you looking forward to?

[30:57]

Let me think. Well, I just had um Well, it’s funny. Transits come and go and then you kind of realize, oh, they were just on my Jupiter. All right.

[31:07]

[laughter]

[31:08]

um like longer transits. Chiron and Aries have been on my Jupiter forever and have just started moving off. But um

[31:16]

wow. Uh and and that was a time of just kind of reflecting on how to proceed into this kind of new era of

[31:25]

you know Uranus going into Gemini astrology and AI you know which kind of [clears throat] parts of it will you

[31:32]

kind of partake in let’s say um and you know I think I think Uranus in Gemini like we already know what that

[31:41]

is and the Pluto in Aquarius again I mean it’s that warfare there in the sky is just so like in your [laughter] face,

[31:49]

isn’t it? Pluto Pluto in Aquarius. Um, and then this, you know, amazing sex

[31:56]

tile that’s forming. But I think the most sort of uplifting because these are, you know, slow moving and have been hovering in these places for a while is Jupiter going into Leo.

[32:08]

That would be interesting, isn’t it? No, because I think this Jupiter in Cancer is like I mean this is the funny thing is like

[32:15]

Jupiter in Cancer is supposed to be in its you know its exaltation or exaltation. Yeah. Um and you can

[32:23]

understand why you know all that kind of thing but really it’s been such a difficult time with Jupiter in cancer

[32:30]

for so many you know on homeland front and all that sort of thing and we’re kind of trying to keep it together in our own sort of little homes here and

[32:39]

stuff. So I think Jupiter in Leo is probably the thing that is exciting the rest of it. So, Julija, what kind of

What Makes Someone a Real Astrologer?
[32:46]

astrologers do you feel the world needs right now?

[32:52]

Um, real ones [laughter] more. Well, I know there’s a lot of real

[33:01]

ones, but again, um, astrologers that are qualified.

[33:06]

Yeah. because there’s a lot of um there’s a lot of astrologers that you know that aren’t again certified in four

[33:14]

weeks and you know again they’re talking about it that’s all fine but you don’t know what they’re doing to others you know I mean over the years we’ve seen

[33:21]

you know the Facebook group chats that you know you just can’t partake in there’s there’s a there’s an astro

[33:28]

mapping one now you know a big one 50,000 people in there that people are posting maps without any chart reference

[33:36]

at all. You know, going my Venus is going through Sri Lanka. Should I move to Sri Lanka?

[33:42]

Oh, I mean, it’s just so simplified. It’s the horror of thinking that you know these people think that you know this

[33:50]

one sort of aspect in their chart not even looking at the aspects it’s just Venus goes through Sri Lanka for

[33:57]

example should I move you know um it’s it’s you know and asking all these

[34:04]

questions but then do not do anything to go and find out more to get proper readings. Um, like again, if anyone’s

[34:13]

listening and you’re you’re doing some of that yourself and if you know, again, can’t blame you because there’s so much out there and you’re intrigued or

[34:20]

whatever, seek a good astrologer and, you know, even if you don’t take a course, get a reading and ask those questions, right?

[34:30]

and and know what it’s all about because um otherwise you’re going to be, you know, you’ll be told to go there when that’s not a good idea

[34:39]

or the timing or the background to to whatever it is that’s going on in your life, the reasons for moving, the reason

[34:45]

to want to locate relocate or what have you. It’s not as simple as go and follow your Venus and you’re going to find love and everything that you’ve ever wanted

[34:54]

on that line, you know? And but that’s what’s being told out there and that is really alarming. Yeah.

[35:02]

Yeah. I’ve heard about those things.

[35:03]

Other astrologers have brought it up. I think it was there is Don from Singapore. He said, “Well, it is a problem because you know we see this on

[35:11]

social media and then the real astrologers need to kind of like clean up the mess in order for people to still believe in us or in the in the art of

[35:19]

the astrology, something like that.” And I was like, “Well, yeah.

[35:22]

Well, that’s right. It’s giving us a bad name, right?” again. I mean, but in a way, astrologyy’s always had that sort

[35:29]

of connotation of somewhere there’s a bad name. Like you’re just a charlatan.

[35:33]

You’re just trying to make money from, you know, just making up stuff, right?

[35:38]

you know, um, and again, so we just got to keep more solid, I think, through this AI sort of opening to to just, you

[35:47]

know, be be stronger and and have have um communities and places like websites

[35:55]

or courses that people will come to to learn, you know, to keep the good name and to, you know, have a good name. I mean, that’s that’s our mission now is

[36:03]

for the CIA. It has got a good reputation, good astrologers, and we just got to keep that sort of as strong as we can now, you know.

[36:12]

Yeah. Maybe also without trying to keep up with all the young ones. [laughter] No, I think also reminding people that

[36:21]

visibility doesn’t equal um how can I put that quality.

[36:26]

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Because now with social media and numbers and followers and all this kind of thing,

[36:33]

you can be, you know, it just can get blurry. Let’s just put it that way.

Consultation Skills, Ethics and Mentorship
[36:38]

But absolutely. Also, I think there is like a little bit of of I don’t think if I don’t know if it’s a gap, but certainly I think people that

[36:46]

want to become astrologers maybe don’t realize that there is also the path of of professional development

[36:54]

when it comes to like how to console people because I mean you are actually in not in charge but you are it’s an

[37:01]

emotional thing you know the reading it involves emotional things and stuff.

[37:06]

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and I think people from what I’ve seen they just think oh I just got certified I can just go do readings and then when you start doing

[37:15]

the readings and you encounter that you know you need more training you need to be careful with how you say the information and all these kind of things

[37:23]

and I think it’s important to also you know enroll in one of those um professional development courses before you actually

[37:31]

Yeah. Yeah. or consultation skills and and things like that. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, there’s not enough of that.

[37:36]

Definitely. Um because as an astrologer, you know, if you haven’t met the person before, you know, people’s lives are

[37:44]

pretty, you know, some of them are pretty kind of hard to to listen to, right? [laughter]

[37:50]

For one thing. Um and then as a guide to take them through through really

[37:56]

difficult sort of places in life. Um, you know, again, knowing your limits of what you can do as an astrologer as well

[38:04]

to refer people that are maybe more troubled or what have you. Um, and yeah, I mean that’s that’s that takes

[38:13]

practice. That’s experience. That is, you know, um, you’re not going to get that just, you know, [snorts] by

[38:20]

yourself, you know. I don’t know. You need you need the help. Like again, if you’re doing a course and you’re doing a a good astrological course over years,

[38:29]

you have your mentor, which is your teacher that you can ask questions to.

[38:33]

So really, if you are, you know, for anyone listening, if you are that kind of person that’s learning, find a mentor,

[38:41]

find someone that you can really, you know, ask those questions to. Um, if you’re not going to do a, you know,

[38:49]

certified proper course, um, but if you want to be a good astrologer or a real astrologer, then do

[38:56]

it. Do it. You know, invest in it. We all did, didn’t we? Like, and it’s the best thing we ever did. Um, and really

[39:03]

back then, um, well, um, maybe not the same for you, but Mayra, when I started, it wasn’t a career idea. It wasn’t a

[39:13]

thing thinking I I would be an astrologer like you know I was just interested right I really just was interested but I wasn’t really thinking

[39:21]

I’m going to be an astrologer like I am now maybe I would do some consultations or what have you. Um but you know that

[39:30]

gives you a really good footing and then you can do you know you have more confidence and skill um and respect for what you do out there. For sure.

When Astrology Became Mainstream
[39:40]

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah actually yeah I wanted to also ask you um when you started you know because I

[39:48]

am assuming it started as a hobby and then slowly maybe you got readings and things start started getting serious um

[39:55]

well as part of our yeah course we had to do consultation skills and do readings right yes so then I did work in

[40:03]

a shop for a bit and then you slowly get clients um but I knew that also I mean again when I

[40:11]

started the CIA. It was just really a consciousness exercise for astrology. It wasn’t really thinking that this is going to be my

[40:19]

career or whatever, you know. Um it was just like let’s do it. This sounds like fun. Like astrology needs, you know, a

[40:27]

bit more help getting out there, I think. So anyway, and the timing was just right. So yeah, with social media

[40:34]

arriving um at the same time and and that kind of thing. And then I really remember in the Pluto Uranus square

[40:42]

years um that you know our big sort of following really started noticing

[40:50]

as we were talking about Pluto Uranus and all its different sort of squares that were happening what was happening in the world. It’s like this is when

[40:58]

people started really noticing well what they’re talking about is actually happening and now there’s more of it like now we are you know co the whole

[41:07]

stellium that everyone was talking about in Capricorn and then what happened it’s like people notice that now that’s why astrology’s

[41:15]

grown right because it’s like it’s not just what they’re saying you know it’s not just the personal stuff it’s actually happening in the world and we

[41:23]

can see that and now world War three. Oh my god. Like how amazing, you know? I mean, we’re not amazed anymore because

[41:31]

we just go, this is where you get confident in seeing what’s happening.

[41:37]

Although it might not have happened before, you will go, “Oh, Aries stellium. Well, what do you think?” You know, what what is this? What what is

[41:45]

going to go? Um, so this is how it’s important to really kind of know what you’re kind of looking at. But again, I think there’s a lot of

[41:53]

paring and mimicking and just, you know, things rehashed and just, you know, sort of again, that’s inevitable too with so

[42:02]

much sort of overlapping and and all that kind of stuff as well. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Discernment in the Age of Viral Misinformation
[42:07]

Definitely. It’s interesting. No, because I think the only thing we have left as social media users is discernment, [laughter] you know.

[42:17]

It’s up to you. You want to believe that what you read or not? Because I mean you cannot just believe everything that’s out there, you know. [laughter] So it’s our responsibility.

[42:27]

Believe everything that’s out there. I mean the other thing Mayra is and this is another thing that’s driving me crazy but it’s astronomy. Now as a CIA we

[42:36]

we’ve always very much reported on the real sky as well like you know Venus in the evening or this or that or the you know eclipses you know looking at

[42:45]

things in the real sky. Mars is retrograde. It’s bright and high or whatever it is. Um, so you know, look at it out there as well.

[42:52]

Now on there’s a lot of things that circulate now. Like the other day I saw, oh my goodness, there’s a Venus and Jupiter conjunction tonight.

[43:04]

Mhm.

[43:04]

I’m go where? Like Venus and Jupiter are nowhere near each other to start with.

[43:10]

This was just the other day or the other week.

[43:12]

What? Ah, and it’s an AI image of Jupiter and and Venus like kind of overlapping each other to start with and there’s thousands of people liking it.

[43:23]

Oh, can’t wait. Oh, beautiful.

[43:26]

[laughter]

[43:29]

And and anyway, I think it was called Space X or something. I’m again there’s there’s so many of them. And then I’ve written to, you know, written on their

[43:38]

thread, you know, this is BS like nobody, you know, you’ve got all these people listening, you know. So, I’ve always been that kind of person just going, I can’t stand this. And then I

[43:46]

get this automatic message going, no, it wasn’t automatic. It was like, this is what you believe

[43:54]

like as the truth. [laughter] Oh, wow.

[43:58]

So, it’s just AI generated and they’re talking now about the astronomy in the sky telling us all this stuff that is

[44:05]

not even happening in the sky. So gosh, we have we still have to keep up the work to say, you know, like or wherever

[44:13]

you see these things to actually say something because the public out there obviously because there’s 20,000 likes

[44:21]

on something like that, they think it’s real. Exactly. It’s mindboggling. Yeah. Yeah. To question everything today.

[44:30]

Everything. [laughter] Well, again, you find the people you can trust. I mean, one of the things we’ve had some beautiful messages over the

[44:37]

years. I remember one of the first ones was it was a beautiful message. I think it was a young guy. I can’t remember. I maybe looked him up. I can’t. Anyway, um

[44:46]

but he said, “I’m really thank the CIA for, you know, constantly sort of, you know, telling us or showing us things or

[44:54]

reporting on something. I’ve learned to trust you and this is the best, you So it felt really good because people trust what we say

[45:03]

or you know whatever it might be enlightening or it might be encouraging or just you know telling about how things are. Um

[45:11]

you know again a lot of astrology can be so alarming like this girl saying the other day between you know the new moon

[45:18]

Chiron and and Ays you know that your life is going to change completely. This is the most important thing in your life. Um yeah. Anyway, [laughter] see I know we got to go.

[45:29]

It might be for somebody. It might be for somebody or things like you know an eclipse is you know every eclipse is going to be doing something to you and

[45:38]

people get scared and you know again this is where an astrologer will know which eclipses are the most significant for you or which Mercury retrogrades

[45:47]

will be the most significant for you or whatever you know or what Venus star point to follow. So anyway, so again,

[45:55]

it’s it’s like re refinding the mission now is just to keep solid, you know, good astrology, you know, kind of out

[46:04]

there or or being a place where people can go to to trust [laughter] to trust basically.

[46:12]

That’s right.

Learning to Trust Astrology
[46:13]

No, it’s amazing that you’re bringing all these things up because um yeah, you’re very brave. [clears throat] Anyway, I wanted to close this um with

[46:22]

this question. If future astrologers were to learn from your journey, what is the one thing you would want them to

[46:30]

understand about my journey? H uh

[46:39]

well, I think I’ I’d say that again, you need to learn astrology well and then you can trust it.

[46:47]

Mhm.

[46:48]

Right. And then you can trust it and you know you don’t you learn not to be scared of it like you know again when you’re first learning it you go oh

[46:55]

Pluto’s coming to my ascendant you know that kind of happened early in my astrological studies and okay my

[47:04]

grandfather died you know big sort of shift in the family but you know you learn to trust that you you know it’s

[47:13]

nothing scary okay so there’s an eclipse on your descendant does it mean, you know, your husband’s going to die. No,

[47:20]

you know, like, um, it can, but, you know, most likely it won’t. So, it’s the way that, um, we learn to trust what

[47:28]

it’s telling us. And it doesn’t have to be it has to come from from your own experience. So let astrology into your

[47:36]

life without uh like as as very much as part of you not as something outside of

[47:43]

you that you know it it is it is it is showing the way and trust it. That’s I mean I’ve learned to trust it. Yeah

Julija’s Current Research and Teaching
[47:51]

that’s [laughter] Julija tell us what are you up to today?

[47:55]

Do you have you are you giving consultations? Are you teaching? Are you going to do retreats?

[48:00]

I don’t do that many consultations. Um so um but I do because it keeps you it

[48:07]

keeps you very sort of in tune um because of the variations of people that you know you get and their their their

[48:15]

stories and you learn so much about them. So um my my latest obsession has

[48:22]

been um astro-mapping and especially geodetic maps. Oh, so I the the geodetic map is the the fixed map that starts at zero Greenwich.

[48:33]

So it’s like a a fixed zodiac on the world. And um again, I’ve been following that for quite a few years now. And it’s

[48:42]

also become a bit of a craze now as well, which it never was before. Um and so I’m developing a course on that and

[48:51]

that’s all on the website. And then uh what’s the other one which then will probably develop into a whole astro-mapping course which will go into ACG

[48:59]

and cyclocartography which is using transits with maps and so yeah it’s almost like I don’t do any consultations

[49:08]

without that now um cuz I’m yeah the more you do it the more you learn and I haven’t learned it really from anyone

[49:15]

else it’s from my own um kind of research and experience some of it yes but you know there’s a few books but again there’s a lot that

[49:23]

that isn’t there um and then um for Kepler College uh um a workshop on

[49:33]

the Venus phases so um you know Venus has a 19month cycle and just like the moon we all are born

[49:41]

at a particular phase of Venus that’s really great so I’m going to leave the information the cosmic

[49:48]

intelligence agency and everything Julija has been mentioning Throughout the interview, there will be a link and you will find like a summary and all the

[49:56]

information about where she’s going to be teaching and obviously the CIA website as well which I recommend and you’re going to have a good time here

[50:04]

looking just looking at the website and learning about all these agents and the classes. Julija, is there anything else

Astrology as a Living Pattern
[50:11]

you want to tell the people about you or you know upcoming projects or advice for this crazy year 2026? Well, we probably

[50:20]

touched on some of it. Um, but maybe like my maybe my philosophy of astrology or what’s behind it. Um, again, you have

[50:30]

to you have to kind of think about astrology enough in your own context to get your own kind of version and

[50:37]

understanding of it. Like yes, we will read books and we will relate to them and we’ll go, okay, I get that. But in the end, you have to have your own very

[50:46]

solid understanding of what you’re doing. Mhm.

[50:50]

Why you’re doing it, what you know what it means to you and why does it work, right? And why it works. I think that’s

[50:58]

a you know that thing we don’t know why astrology works. But you know that will be the thing that you’ll be asked a lot of the time. You know what is behind it?

[51:06]

What does what makes astrology work? I think it’s consciousness that is behind the whole thing. let’s say um and I see

[51:14]

astrology or the workings of astrology or within us like um you know the living fractal like we were born into a cycle

[51:23]

of time that cycle is forever ongoing right or you know a particular version of that cycle. So we’re all born into

[51:32]

some amazing pattern and this is why we’re all so unique because as we know you know with different places that

[51:39]

we’re born different um you know family environment all that comes into an astrology chart as well. So we are our

[51:47]

own unique pattern um that is forever creating a new pattern or [clears throat] not so like that’s why

[51:55]

it’s a fractal because it’s never quite new or never it’s always got the original you know sort of template in it

[52:03]

but it is always alive. So if you don’t like that your Mercury is retrograde or [laughter] you know whatever

[52:11]

learn to love it you know it’s there for a for a reason. you know, where you hear people say, “Oh, damn, my Mercury’s retrograde or whatever it is.” I mean,

[52:19]

it could be anything or Saturn squares my Venus or what have you. I’ve got the worst, you know, configuration.

[52:26]

Um, every configuration is incredibly evolutionary in your process, right? For

[52:33]

what you have, you know, kind of come here for to move through it and to use it, you know, in the best way you can,

[52:41]

you know, into the future. So, you know, I don’t think there’s anything anything else that we know that can combine those three things

[52:48]

so wonderfully. You know, the past, the present, and the future.

[52:53]

Perfect. [laughter] No, that’s a beautiful message. you know to live your your own astrology because also you know you can get over well at

[53:01]

least personally I was learning books courses but the most important thing was to actually leave it like you know like

[53:08]

to to test it to see to to see how I feel with this information and not only the rational like okay I’m going to

[53:16]

divor all these books you know and I and I will know everything that that doesn’t work it doesn’t work like that

[53:23]

[laughter]

[53:25]

[gasps]

[53:25]

I actually stopped reading astrology books a while ago. Well, I do now and then if I particular topic I would really want to study. Um because again

[53:35]

it’s kind of overload. It’s like I don’t need to read another book on that topic.

[53:39]

Um again you know gain the confidence in yourself. Um I I think astrology has got

[53:46]

a lot of room for independence. Um and you know your kind of your own work and and in a it’s a creative energy. I mean,

[53:55]

it really is. It’s it asks us to be the kind of the best version of ourselves that we can be, right, from being very

[54:03]

conscious of what we’re shown. So, we got to be careful in the end how we take it on.

[54:08]

Yeah. [laughter] Beautiful.

Closing
[54:11]

Julija, thank you so much for sharing a little bit of your experiences, your story. I I really wanted [music] to to

[54:19]

highlight the the CIA because I think it’s a wonderful project. So, thank you for telling us more about it and thank you for your amazing energy

[54:27]

and you know your contributions to astrology. See you all. Thank you.

[54:34]

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[54:40]

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[54:50]

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[54:59]

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