CC Ep #2

[00:00:00] Ursula K. LeGuin: We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable.

[00:00:05] John F. Kennedy: The vast stretches of the unknown, the unanswered, and the unfinished.

[00:00:11] Ursula K. LeGuin: Resistance and change often begin in the art of words.

[00:00:18] John F. Kennedy: Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

[00:00:23] Ursula K. LeGuin: The voices who can see alternatives to how we live now. The realists of a larger reality.

[00:00:33] Sam Young: Welcome to The Cosmic Co Op.

Intro

[00:00:44] Sam Young: Hey y'all. We made it to episode two. What do you know? I'm doing tasks left and right. It's I don't even have ADHD. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm actually a beacon of creativity and productivity, and I cannot wait for this to last forever and ever, without ever stopping.

[00:01:02] This week, I cannot wait to bring you the conversation I had with my longtime internet friend, astro colleague Libra rising baddie, Neha. She is one of the smartest people I know. She's extremely dedicated to her crafts, of which she has many, and she does them all flawlessly. And I can't wait to share... oh, my gosh, the nourishing conversation that we had. It was [00:01:30] also quite fun. We got a little sassy with it, cause that's what we do.

[00:01:36] And I love talking to Neha about anything at all, because she is such a disruptor, but she embodies the spirit of the disruptor in such a girly pop way, and this conversation just felt like an anti-capitalist slumber party, if I'm being honest. So you're going to love it.

[00:01:55] But before we move on to that, let's get to the Astro mission log for this [00:02:00] episode, because you guys, Mercury retrograde is upon us again, and it's in Sagittarius this time, and it's just chaos. So let's talk about it.

Astro Mission Log

[00:02:15] Sam Young: Okay. Like I said, Mercury retrograde is here yet again, and Mercury retrograde actually happens three times a year, so it's okay if every single time is not complete chaos for you. I don't actually think it's [00:02:30] supposed to be that way, but let's talk about this one.

[00:02:35] This Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius, which is underway as of the time that I'm recording this, which is November 27th at 10:16 PM Pacific time, here in Portland, Oregon, for you Astro nerds who want to look this up. But basically...

[00:02:53] Mercury retrograde's here. The reason that it's more chaotic in Sagittarius is because Mercury is in detriment [00:03:00] in Sagittarius. Not the coziest spot. The chaos gets turned up to 11. On top of that, the ruler of Sagittarius, who is Jupiter, is also currently in Gemini, which makes it a lot harder for them to operate in their normal ways.

[00:03:14] We've got that mess going on. On top of that, while Mercury does their little backwards dance, will be squaring Saturn in Pisces, which is... if you don't know, a planet squaring Saturn at all just sucks for that [00:03:30] planet, and sorry to this man, but it sucks to have to square Saturn. But, we've all got to do it. The moon does it all the time. She seems to be doing fine.

[00:03:37] We've got this Mercury retrograde going on into December, and it will also include a retrograde Mercury cazimi in Sagittarius, which is just... you don't need to be an expert in astrology or under even understand all of these terms to understand that there's multiple elements of chaos being added onto this fire when it comes to Mercury retrograde in [00:04:00] Sagittarius.

[00:04:00] The theme of disinformation has already been very, prevalent throughout, I would say pretty much the entirety of Neptune in Pisces, since 2011. But this honestly, just really feels going out with a bang, and the disinformation is really getting turned up to a fever pitch. So I think it's important, right now, to not try to stir the pot, which is not my favorite thing to say, because I actually love stirring the pot, so much. [00:04:30] It's one of my favorite things to do.

[00:04:32] And Neha and I talk about this in our conversation as well, but Thanksgiving is this week. And it's very, tempting and I'm sure a lot of explosive arguments, conversations will be had across many tables this Thursday.

[00:04:45] But I think it's important to remember that when you are faced with somebody who is willingly ignorant, it's not your job necessarily to fix them, but it doesn't also have to be your job to [00:05:00] abandon them and leave them to be somebody else's problem. This is where nuance comes in. And nuance is really tough.

[00:05:06] You don't need to be around people who are abusive to you, just because it's the holidays. You don't need to intentionally put yourself in situations where you know that you could be harmed, emotionally or even physically, just to prove a point. You know what I'm saying?

[00:05:21] I hope you can take the spirit of what I'm saying and take the nuance of that, and focus on which arguments are worth having. Picking your [00:05:30] battles is very, important here.

[00:05:32] We haven't even talked about the other element of chaos here, which is that Mars will be stationing retrograde in Leo at the beginning of December, and eventually moving backwards into Cancer, but we've got Mars stationing retrograde, Mercury is retrograde. There's a lot of fighting words in the air. And as much as I love fighting words, I think there's something to be said for discernment, especially right now. Especially when we are moving into-- [00:06:00] in the Northern hemisphere-- the darker months of the year, where we're going to need to preserve our energy.

[00:06:04] And also maybe, if you want to be morbid about it, moving into just darker times in general, and needing to really figure out what's worth our energy and what we can do within our spheres of influence that will be worthwhile.

[00:06:19] Take that with all the love in the world, and enjoy this conversation between me and Neha.

Neha's Biz Journey

[00:06:26] Sam Young: You are such a multifaceted person. [00:06:30] Much like me, you do so many things and you do them all so well. What's your general business? Like, how did you get here today, and...

[00:06:39] Neha Jha: Yeah.

[00:06:40] Sam Young: what do you got going on?

[00:06:40] Neha Jha: How did I get here today? So just to TLDR, if this is your first time meeting me on the interwebs, I like to say: astrology is your story, human design is your strategy, energy is the work, and I am your meditation teacher, Neha.

[00:06:56] I started my business in 2018. I [00:07:00] actually first started offering astrology readings, though, March 2nd of 2017. I was 20 years old, and basically, I started my business because I had a mentor at that time who I'm no longer in connection with. At that time, I thought they were just so cool and they were like, "Oh my God, you're so smart." And then I also met other people and other mentors, other people encouraging me, and then I would also just have friends and coworkers just be like, "Stop reading our charts [00:07:30] and go start a business." and I didn't really know anything about business to be honest, like I never thought that's what I would do. So it was not really a very... let's just say it was a very counterintuitive process. However, at the same time, it was very intuitive when I was listening to myself. So I did that. You can still find my very, very old Kim Kardashian chart reading on YouTube, from 2017.

[00:07:53] And my style of doing astrology has really changed, but I started practicing astrology because basically a Nepali [00:08:00] shaman, or like a Jhākri, stayed with our family. He was doing other divination. He didn't actually do astrology like that, but he said little things and like... our culture, like Hindu culture in general, has astrology infused into it. I'm from Nepal. And so it just sparked my interest, and then I basically Googled more things and I found a moon sign calculator, and I learned that I was a Scorpio moon.

[00:08:22] I had known I was a Leo my entire life, and the math was mathing there. Like I always knew I was a Leo. Like... theater kid, just very bubbly and like, [00:08:30] sunshine energy. And then I found out I was a Scorpio moon, and it just validated my darkness. And let me just tell you, the internet in 2009 about astrology is not what it is today. It was like, "You are dark. You are vindictive. You are awful. You are the dark side of the moon," but there was something about that that actually resonated. In the sense that, I just feel like I'm a very high contrast person. This is a very long winded ass answer, but all this to [00:09:00] say, I just saw myself in a whole new way.

[00:09:03] And basically, I started secretly studying astrology for a few years for a while, like from like 2009 until, like 2015. Pretty much, if I told people, I was like, "You can't tell anyone." Like I kept it super low key, very Scorpio moon ass shit.

[00:09:19] But the cool thing is, my sister was born a year or two after I got into astrology, and I literally saw her chart before I met her as the baby, because she was born at night. So [00:09:30] I was just like watching George Lopez or something random on TV, late at night. And my dad calls me and tells me that she was born and her birth time, and I immediately pull up her chart.

[00:09:38] And I don't know how much I knew astrology, but I knew enough to just look at the circular chart and be like, "Oh, that's my bestie right there." She's like my favorite little case study, because I've truly seen her bloom into herself over the years. So that's where my love of astrology came from, and honestly, the business part came a lot later.

[00:09:58] The business part was like, [00:10:00] "Oh, this is more for survival." This is like, I truly can't do anything else. I started my business. I was under my mentor, but then that mentorship got really weird in terms of... I don't know, she was just unreliable, to say the least.

[00:10:13] I just was in college at the time, and I was just looking around, and I was like... these bitches don't care about learning. This is like corporate training ground. Everyone here wants the cookie cutter lifestyle. No one's connected to themselves. No one is [00:10:30] thinking for themselves, like it's all just stupid. And then I was like, "Why don't I just start my own business?" So I did. And funnily enough, that happened to be on an eclipse on my Midheaven.

[00:10:44] Sam Young: Oh, wow.

[00:10:44] Neha Jha: And the moon was beneficially enclosed. And when I saw that when I was learning electional astrology, I was like, damn, fate really popped off at that one, because I couldn't have even elected a better chart. And it's also a Leo rising.

[00:10:57] Sam Young: Oh, that's so beautiful.[00:11:00]

[00:11:00] Neha Jha: I know. So that's when I started a business. I was 21. At the same time, I was also in school, I'd just started working at the Apple store, so I was booked and busy for a few years after that. Started just offering astrology readings. I found Human Design, which I know can be controversial, saucy, oh my God, I can unpack that another time. It's not for this episode. I found that, but to be honest, I came into it so innocently, and I still use it because it literally tracks. I'm like, unless I'm lying to thousands of [00:11:30] people that I've never spoken to, there has to be something to this.

[00:11:33] Sam Young: Yeah.

[00:11:34] Neha Jha: Anyway, so that's how I got there, and it's been a really slow evolution. In 2020, I got certified in life coaching, hypnotherapy, EFT tapping, Reiki. Basically, when North Node was in Gemini-- that's also when I found traditional astrology-- I was like, "Let me learn everything!" In our ninth house.

[00:11:57] So I was just basically on a learning kick [00:12:00] at the onset of the pandemic, like 2020, 2021 time, and then I basically had a mentor breakup. Like a lot of the coaching people that I was connected to, and specifically people that I thought were my friends and I thought that were really important to me... It was a lot of facade. So that broke a lot of what I thought and navigated business from.

[00:12:23] I think that's something we'll talk about today, which is why I bring it up. Like the way that... basically, I know a lot [00:12:30] about doing business from what I see, and I was like, I don't want to do that. And I've seen a lot of like astrologers of older generations or life coaches or whatever they might be-- this is very much "my out of sect malefic is in my ninth." Teachers rise and teachers fall, and that's the nature of a cadent house: when a teacher has taught their lesson, they fall away. That's cadent energy, baby.

[00:12:52] Also having my out of sect malefic there, it's no wonder that I experienced a lot of trauma in college, and a lot of times I realized you can't put people on a pedestal [00:13:00] because people ain't shit. And it's not even like a "People ain't shit, and I want to demean or degrade them as a person," but rather like, their behavior doesn't always match up with their words. And I'm like... honestly, we're recording this, what, November 11th, 2024?

[00:13:13] Sam Young: Mhm.

[00:13:14] Neha Jha: 47 is now apparently going to be in office. Nasty. And oh man, that was so traumatizing, my mind went blank. LOL. I have to remember that man. But we're at this time period where honestly, if you move funny, if you move [00:13:30] out of your values or like... actions speak louder than words. And if I can't see your values through your actions, I don't want you in my inner circle and that's honestly where I'm at. And I think this also ties into money and all these other things. Yeah.

Political & Astrological Trends in 2020

[00:13:48] Sam Young: Yeah. No, absolutely. You, just in explaining your story, had so many pieces of wisdom, which I love. I love what you said, too, about the ninth house being a cadent place and [00:14:00] teachers fall away. For me, not putting teachers and people on pedestals is... Yeah, for me, it's people ain't shit, but it's in the sense of we all ain't shit. In a spiritual way. So it doesn't make sense to...

[00:14:16] Neha Jha: We're all the shit and we're also, we all ain't shit. both/and, yes.

[00:14:21] Sam Young: Yeah. So it doesn't make sense to to treat another person that way. I've had similar experiences with my mentors when I was [00:14:30] in the MLM that I was in for five years, where even to this day, I'm like, I deeply love and respect those people, but I was positioning them in my life in a way that ultimately was not helpful for me, even though I thought it was helpful. And I learned a lot about discernment, about who's actually qualified to be my mentor and what that means.

[00:14:54] Yes, life experience qualifies you. Yes, paper knowledge, what I call degrees and [00:15:00] certifications and stuff, those can also be forms of qualification. But I learned that you cannot like... you cannot force a relationship. The relationship is the most important part, and you can't force a mentor-mentee relationship. And that's essentially what that whole business was predicated on.

[00:15:17] Neha Jha: Right.

[00:15:18] Sam Young: Yeah, I learned a lot. And when was it? You said North Node in Gemini. That was like...

[00:15:23] Neha Jha: North Node in Gemini, I don't remember when it first moved, but I know we had our first eclipse like, June [00:15:30] 2020. We had five eclipses in 2020, because there's usually two lunations per eclipse cycle, but because of where the nodes were positioned at that time, three lunations happened all within basically 18 degrees of the nodes, and damn, we had three eclipses. And if we remember that time period, this is essentially a few months into COVID.

[00:15:49] Sam Young: Yeah. The Nodes switched to Gemini and Sagittarius in May, 2020.

[00:15:54] Neha Jha: Yep, the math is mathing. That was also when we had quote, unquote "America's [00:16:00] racial reckoning," which I think we're now in the backlash of. It was a bunch of trauma responses trying to help other trauma responses, and that didn't turn out really well. And those were valid trauma responses, let me be clear, and at the same time... That's where a lot of my, I guess, activism and how I show up for social causes political causes that are important really transformed, because I'm like, a lot of people are saying one thing, however, they can't sustain that in [00:16:30] action. Even if they're doing their best, even if they have the best intentions in the whole wide world.

[00:16:35] And a lot of people don't have the best intentions in the whole wide world. So seeing that I think was a really breakthrough point. For me, my number one philosophy is like, we have to treat each other like whole human beings, because we are, and we can't do anything if we can't do that.

[00:16:50] Sam Young: Right.

[00:16:50] Neha Jha: In 2018, I don't know, I guess I foresaw the future, maybe. I did actually see that Pluto-Saturn-Jupiter, all the fucking [00:17:00] nodes conjunction in January 2020, and I have a bunch of tweets about it from 2018 and 2019 where I'm like, "Just know your bubble's gonna burst January 2020. Just know shit's gonna get real in January 2020." I don't think I had the astrology skill yet to tell you what exactly that would be, but I was like, some governmental weirdness is gonna happen for sure.

[00:17:20] But because of that-- and I studied public health for a while in college-- my business's motto from the jump was "public health starts with the individual." For me, I was [00:17:30] speaking less public health like epidemiology and all these things. I was thinking more like generational trauma and fourth house shit. And if we want to create spiritual, emotional, mental wellbeing, mental health is one of-- psychology, econ and public health were the things I studied. And if we want a healthy public, it starts with-- I can't force anyone else to heal. I can only show up and walk my walk.

[00:17:56] I don't actually agree with a lot of behavior psychology anymore. [00:18:00] However, in behavioral psychology, a principle that I think is just a general human universal truth is that kids and generally people learn more from role modeling, if someone's modeling a behavior versus just saying it. It's like the parent who's like, "Kids, stop using your phone," while the parent is like scrolling on Facebook or IG Reels or whatever.

[00:18:20] Sam Young: It's 100 percent true.

[00:18:22] Neha Jha: Yeah. Because the parent is engaging in that behavior, why wouldn't the kid? Of course.

[00:18:28] Sam Young: And this is why I [00:18:30] don't try to stop my son from having any screen time, because I'm on my fucking screens all the time, so I know what I'm modeling. So then it becomes, if I want him to do something, I have to change my behavior first.

[00:18:45] Neha Jha: Mmhmm.

[00:18:46] Sam Young: Which is so infuriating as a parent sometimes.

[00:18:49] Neha Jha: Annoying.

[00:18:49] Sam Young: Because, yeah, words, lecturing, doesn't matter. Nobody cares.

[00:18:53] Neha Jha: Nope.

[00:18:54] Sam Young: They don't care.

2024 Election Reactions

[00:18:55] Neha Jha: That's why those Thanksgiving conversations don't work, Brenda.

[00:18:58] Sam Young: Oh my god. Yeah. Oh [00:19:00] my god. You probably saw me going off about this last night.

[00:19:02] Neha Jha: Yeah, I did.

[00:19:02] Sam Young: I just get so fed up because every four years, there's an election at the beginning of November, and then people who aren't happy about it are like, "I can't wait to ruin Thanksgiving," and I think if that's what's accessible to you, if that's the only thing that's accessible to you, and you have a life that allows you to alienate your family members in such a way, great, fine, go ahead.

[00:19:29] But for the [00:19:30] majority of people, that's just not how-- if you want to affect genuine change in people's minds and in their hearts, that is not the way.

[00:19:39] Neha Jha: Mmhmm.

[00:19:40] Sam Young: There's so much nuance to be held there, and at the end of the day, I'm always going to tell people: do what's accessible to you, do what's safe for you, to enact the change you want to see in the world, whatever that is. But this whole idea of just, "I can't wait to just sit at Thanksgiving dinner and tell my grandma she's a racist," it [00:20:00] feels good. Yeah, it feels great! I was back there in 2020, that was me. So I hold a lot of compassion for people who are in that space still, but I just think it's like "Me, an intellectual, judging people for doing something I only recently learned to stop doing."

[00:20:17] Neha Jha: Mmmhmm.

[00:20:18] Sam Young: What was weird to me in this last week with all the election bullshit and everything was like, I remember how I felt eight years ago because I was living in Portland, like I am [00:20:30] now. My life was a lot different, but I was working in a breakfast spot in a really predominantly upper class, white neighborhood.

[00:20:39] And I remember that morning after the election, the first time this man was elected, and there was all these women like holding each other and crying, in the cafe. And at the time I was just like, yeah, we're feeling our feelings. And I still think that's a great thing to do, to hold space for each other and feel your feelings.

[00:20:56] But now, eight years later, the thing that [00:21:00] I noticed that I didn't have back then was like, back then I just felt angry. Which is totally valid. I'm still angry. That hasn't gone away. Anger... great. At least you're feeling a feeling. That's where I'm at now.

[00:21:12] Neha Jha: Welcome to the party, Anger.

[00:21:14] Sam Young: Yeah, at least you're feeling anything, okay? And if anger is where you have to start feeling your feelings, great. Do that. But now, and like in the last week, I was really struck by... I felt this like, huge softening inside of [00:21:30] myself, which I literally was not expecting and don't even honestly know how to describe.

[00:21:35] But I felt such a softening inside myself, because I just felt, for the first time, like the anger was still there, but because I've been feeling it and I've been processing it for eight fucking years now, it was like, it was still there in the background, but the predominant feeling was sadness and so much love too, because I'm like... I just realized, so many people are misled, and the people who are [00:22:00] quote unquote "voting the wrong way" or making the wrong-- the individuals, the normal people, I'm talking about the people who just go to their jobs every day and then they vote. I'm not talking about the people in power. I'm talking about average, regular voters out there.

[00:22:11] I just felt so... I was overcome by just so much softness inside of my body, which I was so not expecting. And I was just like, "Oh, my God, so many people genuinely think that they are doing the right thing." And that makes me sad. They think that they're doing the right thing, and then people who... I don't want to say on my side, but people who agree [00:22:30] with my political values are going to those people saying, "You're bad. You're evil. This is your fault. Why is he in office again? This is because of you." But everybody in this situation thinks that they're doing the right thing.

[00:22:42] I don't know, something about that just made me feel so soft inside and just genuinely sad too. I just felt a genuine sadness instead of just anger. I was like, "God, I'm just so sad that so many people have been misled to believe that this is the right thing and they genuinely. think they're doing [00:23:00] something good for themselves and for their country." And that just makes me fucking sad. Less than being angry, like, "How dare you vote for this person?" I'm like, you've been misled, and it just makes me sad.

[00:23:13] It was something I really didn't expect. I'm used to anger. Like I'm used to the irritation, the constant irritation every time I have to think about politics in this country, but I was not ready for that. I was not ready for the sadness and the softness. And it wasn't like a pity, either. It was just like a, [00:23:30] "I'm so sorry this is happening. I'm so sorry that you've been successfully misled to believe this is the right thing to do."

[00:23:37] Neha Jha: Right.

[00:23:39] Sam Young: Yeah. I don't know. I've just kind of been really sitting with that, and so maybe that's also why I've been more annoyed than usual about people being like, "I can't wait to go home and yell my family members this Thanksgiving." I'm like, but this is just so sad. Everybody thinks they're doing the right thing.

[00:23:52] Neha Jha: Really sad. Yeah, I feel so many feelings at once. I relate to the softness, and [00:24:00] there's been so many conversations about literacy rates in response to the election results, which I think can get really weird really fast. So I like to be really mindful, because neither of my grandmothers were entirely literate, but they were not stupid.

[00:24:16] So just 'cause people did not have systemic access to education, or familial circumstances, health circumstances, like there's so many ways that humans human that we cannot possibly-- I cannot have that [00:24:30] much nuance in one sentence. Anyways.

[00:24:33] So I want to make that clear: people who are struggling or struggle with literacy, or have a lower literacy rate compared to their age or developmentally where they ought to be-- I don't want to say should-- where they ought to be, they're not necessarily stupid. And at the same time, we have to be honest, it's not a coincidence that... I think Massachusetts is the most educated state in America, and [00:25:00] they primarily voted blue. And I'm not even saying Kamala is our savior, please do not get me fucked up, okay, no, okay. Please, let's be honest.

[00:25:08] And at the same time, the DNC doesn't have a backbone, anyways. That's why the Republican Party's message hits, because they have a really simple message. It's consistent. You can get on board or you can get off board. You have a very clear reaction, versus Kamala gets really mixed reactions, and it's not even [00:25:30] just Kamala.

[00:25:31] Kamala also has the layer of misogynoir that other DNC candidates historically have not had, so I just wanna also name that, and then I also think, Obama being our first Black president awoken such a racist underbelly of the country that's slowly been indoctrinating more and more people. It's a contagious thing.

[00:25:51] Sam Young: Yup.

Gun-Loving Gays In The South

[00:25:51] Neha Jha: Because-- and this is why I really want to move from this place that we're all whole humans, is because I grew up in Texas. I [00:26:00] grew up in Houston, Texas. I also lived in Austin briefly. So I grew up around all sorts of people that you cannot stereotype. Let's just say that. Black Republicans who go to church and have Black Jesus's at their home and are very pro-Black.

[00:26:14] Sam Young: You can always tell when somebody has never actually been to the South or interacted with real

[00:26:19] Neha Jha: No.

[00:26:20] Sam Young: people in the South,

[00:26:20] because they think it's all cowboys who love guns and Jesus. And I'm like, sometimes it's drag queens who love guns and Jesus.

[00:26:28] Neha Jha: Literally.

[00:26:29] Sam Young: You've really [00:26:30] got to hold a lot.

[00:26:30] Neha Jha: Oh my god! So I looked up the Libertarian candidate who was on the presidential candidate and his name is Chase. I forget his last name, but he is from Georgia and I read probably the best sentence I might have read ever on Wikipedia, which is, "The Gazette reported him to be a pro gun, pro police reform" --he's against Cop City-- "pro choice candidate, Libertarian, who is armed and gay." That last part took me out.

[00:26:59] Sam Young: Armed [00:27:00] and gay!

[00:27:00] Neha Jha: I was like, yes, because this is the South, okay? This is the American South, okay? And that made me cackle. I'm like, you will find people who, if you're trying to caricaturize people-- because that's who I grew up around. You won't reconcile those identities using, I don't know, whatever the fuck online discourse is these days.

[00:27:21] So, growing up around people who are very real people, who have a mish-mash of belief systems, depending on their life experience, their [00:27:30] family circumstance, their XYZ, XYZ, the media they consume, the echo chambers that they are in, where they've traveled to or where they've not traveled to. Can they travel? Do they have access to travel? All of these factors, right?

[00:27:43] These are all whole people, and I'm not saying you even have to be nice to them. I think I Tweeted or I posted something on Threads like, you know, "Critique people's behavior, not their personhood," and some people... I actually had one really constructive convo where we broke it down a little bit, but someone was essentially trying to accuse me of [00:28:00] placating the empire, playing nice to violent people, and I was like... I gave the example: if I have a trans friend, because I have many trans friends, and say one of them and I end things on bad terms, am I gonna stop using their pronouns? Am I gonna be transphobic all of a sudden because one trans person pissed me off? No, because they're a whole person.

[00:28:23] Sam Young: Right.

[00:28:23] Neha Jha: I don't know, I'm just like ranting at this point.

Questioning Behaviors, Not Personhood

[00:28:27] Sam Young: I've started to move that way too, and [00:28:30] in terms of what you said about critiquing behavior instead of personhood, because yeah, people are truly so vast, and it's always around these election years, too, that I start to notice the polarization obviously get a lot stronger and there's a lot of reasons for that; people clinging to their sense of control. But truly, even the whole thing about oh, a "red state" and a "blue state," there's no such thing as a red state or a blue state. There's no such thing as a red county or a blue county.

[00:28:59] Neha Jha: Mmhmm.

[00:28:59] Sam Young: [00:29:00] Yeah, the majority, because that's how democracy is supposedly set up, but like... people are so much more vast and complex than that, and it's... that's the thing that also makes me angry around election years. It's like another thing that people want to have a data point to reduce people to, like how you're voting on things now. And yeah, again, I think people can be really easily misled.

[00:29:22] What you were saying about literacy made so much sense to me, because I was reading about, in California, there was that proposition that did not [00:29:30] pass that was going to effectively end slavery in California. Everybody was so mad. They're like "All of these however many millions of Californians voted to keep slavery. California is not that blue. It's not that safe." I'm like, okay, putting that aside, I read, I went and read the actual proposition, and I'm a literate person, right? I read, I write, I went to college. And I had to read that proposition three times to truly understand what exactly it was saying. And not because it was, like, [00:30:00] worded unclearly, but I think people genuinely, when literacy is not a strong point, the double negatives confuse people.

[00:30:06] If a proposition says, "voting for this would prevent something or end something, or it would make it so that X, Y, Z would not happen," if you're just, yeah, not the most literate person, or you've been failed many times by the system is the more appropriate thing to say, then that shit can honestly just be confusing.

[00:30:25] Neha Jha: So confusing.

[00:30:26] Sam Young: People overlook the fact that even these propositions are worded [00:30:30] sometimes really unclearly, even for an educated person such as myself, I had to really read it and make sure, "Okay, so to end the slavery, I would want to vote... and I had to like, really make sure.

[00:30:41] So that's not to excuse the fact that there's probably many people who still feel that slavery is a good thing, but it's just one of those things where it's like...

[00:30:48] Neha Jha: It's a really skewed data set, because there's so many things going on behind the voting booth that you don't get from exit polls, that you don't get from " yes, no, [00:31:00] maybe," there's not even a maybe so. It's just yes or no.

[00:31:02] . Like when I saw someone say that Massachusetts is the most educated state and they voted blue, also, this is another moment that would probably break people's stereotypes in their mind: Black women are the most educated demographic, statistically, in this freaking country.

[00:31:20] Sam Young: Mhm.

[00:31:20] Neha Jha: And they were the biggest voters against Trump. Let's say that. I want to say that piece about breaking stereotypes, and I think the conclusion of [00:31:30] all this is like, their go-to tactic is still "divide and conquer". So if we are moving from a place of wholeness-- and again, this does not mean taking any bullshit. Like, first of all you, Sam, are a person who does not take bullshit. I am a person who, in my adulthood, is learning not to take bullshit, so don't get me fucked up.

[00:31:47] And at the same time, "divide and conquer" is a classic technique for a reason, of systems of power that either want to enforce their power or maintain their [00:32:00] power or create violence with their power. Because if they can divide and conquer, they will get other people to do their bidding for them. Like the people who are like, "I'm going to call ICE." Do y'all hear yourselves? Let's zoom out. Let's hear ourselves for a second.

[00:32:16] Sam Young: Yeah, seriously. And this is so appropriate because I realized that Venus just crossed the ascendant where I am and entered Capricorn. I feel like this is really appropriate for Venus in Capricorn too, because I was thinking about what you were saying. Divide and conquer is such a simple [00:32:30] tactic, right?

[00:32:30] And it also pisses me off how easily people fall for it, even the psychological hoops that they'll jump through when somebody says "Hey, maybe don't do that." Then they're like, "Oh, so you're, defending Nazis now? So, you voted for Trump?" And it's like, hey, whoa.

[00:32:43] I'm not saying that you need to maintain or defend power structures. I'm not saying that we're all going to hold hands and Kumbaya and do a bunch of performative shit. I'm saying that what's going to be more useful if we all want to survive anything is to [00:33:00] look at people as whole people, as whole universes. And you can disagree with their behaviors.

[00:33:06] People always want to take this to an extreme point, because nuance is just... when Jupiter went to Gemini, I was like, nuance is either going to be really easy or really difficult, and I'm learning that it's really difficult.

[00:33:16] Like just the other day, somebody was like, "Oh, you're a Trump voter," cause I said something along the lines of "Hey, maybe you shouldn't take out your election rage on your working class neighbors who probably voted Trump,"

[00:33:27] Neha Jha: Oh my god. LOL.

[00:33:28] Sam Young: And they were like, "Oh, so you [00:33:30] voted for Trump." That's... no. That's not what I said. But I am saying that like, your working class neighbor, who's just trying to fucking survive and voted Trump because they genuinely thought that was the right thing to do, that's not your enemy. It's just an easy person to be mad at right now, and that feels really good.

[00:33:48] The thing I've just been saying to people is like, your anger is good and you should feel that, but also, don't let it become misplaced. Don't let it become misdirected, is what I'm seeing, and [00:34:00] that's like the divide and conquer thing you're talking about. Our anger is wholly misdirected.

[00:34:04] Neha Jha: Yes. Yes.

People Aren't A Monolith

[00:34:05] Sam Young: Yeah. What you were saying, too, Black women are the most educated demographic in this country. I owe a lot of my early adulthood, early radicalization to Black, queer women from the South.

[00:34:19] I was dating someone who was friends with a lot of those people, and then they took me in as this like, little white girl. And they weren't like, sitting me down and teaching me things, they weren't like lecturing me. It was just through [00:34:30] being who they were.

[00:34:31] Neha Jha: Exactly.

[00:34:32] Sam Young: It changed a lot of who I am, and how I view the world and things like that. And the radicalization process probably would have taken me a bit longer, I think, to reach that point if I hadn't had interactions with these-- yeah, they had college degrees, just the gayest women ever, and they were so fucking smart and yeah.

[00:34:55] The thing, too, is that people, like you were saying about being in Texas, [00:35:00] like, when you do happen to live in a bubble, a liberal bubble, it's very easy to see other places like that as a monolith. I keep trying to point out to people that shit is intentional!

[00:35:11] Neha Jha: Yeah.

[00:35:12] Sam Young: So much of this is by design. For us up here, in the Pacific Northwest, all these fucking idiots, these white men in tech who are like, "We're going to secede with Canada and we're going to call it Cascadia." You like, could not handle walking down the street in [00:35:30] Dallas. It would just make your brain explode, I feel.

[00:35:32] And Dallas is also a liberal center in Texas, but it's the need to caricaturize and turn other groups into a monolith, or regions of the country, or this state voted this way. You guys are falling for it, and it pisses me off.

[00:35:46] Neha Jha: Yeah.

[00:35:48] Sam Young: I love you, but you're falling for it.

[00:35:51] Neha Jha: Yep. And the reason that you were able to learn so much by being around Black, queer, femme women just being [00:36:00] themselves and living their lives, is because again, that goes back to what we were saying: people learn more from modeling than they do from being lectured at.

[00:36:07] And what I learned, 'cause basically, I've been in Houston since I was like, end of kindergarten, and I never went to a predominantly white school the entire time I was in Houston. Then I went to the University of Rochester in upstate New York, which is, quote unquote, New York, liberal, like whoa.

[00:36:27] And when I tell you, [00:36:30] people did not know how to act, people were acting out of pocket, like they had never been around South Asian people. It's not a coincidence that me and my close friends that I still have from those times are all people of color, and if they're not people of color, they're Jewish. Which is another identity that experiences marginalization.

[00:36:55] Sam Young: And othering.

[00:36:55] Neha Jha: And othering, exactly. I remember [00:37:00] me, my friend Tyler, and my friend Aya had a post on Instagram that was like, "The best people to cross the Mason-Dixon line with." LOL.

Nodes in Aries/Libra: How Do We Relate?

[00:37:08] Neha Jha: Honestly, stepping out of your little bubble, whatever it might be, and just interacting with people, and practicing relational skills, because you won't get better at relational skills until you practice.

[00:37:23] Sam Young: That's really what I keep coming back to, and it feels like the winding down of having the nodes in Aries and Libra, [00:37:30] especially the fact that it's the South Node in Libra, and yeah, we are really getting to the bottom of what it means to relate to another human being and...

[00:37:40] Neha Jha: Yes.

[00:37:41] Sam Young: Also, at the same time with the North Node in Aries, we're getting to these extremes of othering, too. Finding any excuse to put somebody in an "other" bracket to make you feel better than, or just safer or more in control or whatever it is.

[00:37:58] Neha Jha: Mmhmm.

[00:37:59] Sam Young: Yeah. [00:38:00] And it's really hard. On the note of relating, too, I've been focusing more of my energy... I still like to be on social media. I love to stir the pot. Like I figure, if I've got this following, I might as well do something with it. But like, social media is not the place for nuance or good faith interactions, really, most of the time. Like, they do happen, but I've been trying to put more of my energy into places, different places, where the conversations can be held more in good faith and the nuance is there.

[00:38:29] That's [00:38:30] something that I've been telling people more lately, too: if you're going to process your feelings about this election or anything, do that. That's very important, but don't do it with the whole internet. Don't process your raw, fresh, evolving emotions with the entire world. Those people don't know you. They're not going to hold you in good faith. They don't know your nuances. They don't know your history. You need to do this with people who can hold your entire personhood, and to keep that in the conversation, and that's just not going to happen on social media.

[00:38:58] It's important to feel our feelings, [00:39:00] but you need to feel your feelings in the appropriate containers, or else it just results in more division and more of that constantly othering people.

[00:39:08] Neha Jha: Yes.

[00:39:09] Sam Young: It's tough to draw that line, because we're in the age of no nuance right now, is what it feels like. Nobody wants nuance, but that's also always where I'm going to be, because that's just like who I am.

[00:39:19] I'm a Libra rising, you're a Libra rising. You have Gemini placements that are prominent. I have my South Node in Gemini, and so I also feel like [00:39:30] a lot of what's been bringing up with Jupiter moving through Gemini for me is a lot of stripping away of where I want my work and my energy to be proliferated. Where-- who do I actually want to see my work and interact and engage with it?

[00:39:46] Because I used to think that it was like, for the whole world and for everybody, and everybody should learn about anti-capitalism, it's great. And it's like, actually, not everybody is ready for that conversation.

[00:39:55] Neha Jha: Mm-mmm.

Coming Out As Anti-Capitalist

[00:39:57] Sam Young: And where I have found [00:40:00] myself in my business, or at least with this platform and where I've been so far, as in like, "I am that," it feels like that bridge between the people who are certain that the way the world is right now is not correct, right? And they are certain that something needs to change and that capitalism is probably a part of it, and they're willing, people who are willing to look into that and to bridge that gap between the questioning. I call it like, I help people "come out" as anti-capitalist, which is really funny, but it's because I feel strongly that if you [00:40:30] just take enough time to sit down and really examine all of these power structures, it will always lead you back to the same conclusion, which is capitalism, and not just capitalism, but the Venn diagram of all these intersecting-- colonialism and racism and how all these things, white supremacy, they support and feed into each other.

[00:40:49] if you just take any amount of time to think deeply or research for more than 10 minutes, you will hit this wall. That's why I'm here. I'm here for the people who have [00:41:00] hit that wall, where they're like, "Okay, I know that there's something going on here."

[00:41:05] Neha Jha: Yes.

[00:41:06] Sam Young: Something that's not right. What are your general feelings about anti-capitalism? Is that something that you would say that you actually identify as or agree with, as anti-capitalist?

[00:41:15] Neha Jha: I would say so. I would definitely say I'm anti-capitalist. I actually studied econ, so I studied what capitalism is, as a teenager. And at that time, what I thought was the solution was like, I guess what people would now say "conscious [00:41:30] capitalism". I don't know if I would have used that language, but the idea of, we can do good things with capitalism. Yes.

[00:41:38] And I'm also not a communist. Let me say that also. I don't know what I am. Like, maybe I'm a secret third thing, okay? I don't know. I really am like, we can't think of more things? We can't evolve political theory more? Let's be honest. Like, why are we arguing over these two philosophies as if they're the only ones anyways?

[00:41:59] But like [00:42:00] capitalism at its core-- one of my friends from a somatic teacher training we did, Dahlia, she asked me, she's like, "Y'all, do you think there's a such thing as conscious capitalism?" I think something like that. And our other person in our little small group, Katie, was like, "What a good thought experiment," but I'm like, "I've thought about this for a decade. No, there's not."

[00:42:19] Sam Young: "I've been doing thought experiment for years."

[00:42:22] Neha Jha: Yes. I was like, "I've been waiting for this moment." Mani-gen waiting to respond ass was like, "Oh," and [00:42:30] basically, I just broke down like 10 years of thought in I don't know, 20 minutes, and both of them were like, "Damn, we should have recorded that."

[00:42:35] But if I were to remember what I said, it's... what was his name? Adam Smith? Adam Smith is the father of capitalism, right?

[00:42:42] Sam Young: Pretty much.

[00:42:43] Neha Jha: Okay, I get his name and John Adams confused sometimes. Anyways, Adam Smith. So if I were to break down one of the things that I learned in my econ classes to reason: why is just capitalism not it?

[00:42:57] Because the theory is: [00:43:00] whatever I do best-- I'm going to make this the most micro example ever. So say I am really good at blending astrology and Human Design. And Sam, you're really good at talking about astrology and money. Awesome. And I'm like, my friend is really good at making art. Okay. Awesome.

[00:43:16] So these are all things that we like to do and we would like to make a living doing, capitalism says we must maximize the output and we must do as much of that one thing as possible to maximize [00:43:30] those outputs. But that is just not how life works. That is just not how nature works. That is just like, when you plant the same crop in the same soil year after year, you will not be yielding the same results.

[00:43:42] If I do astrology non-stop and I intertwine astrology with my livelihood, with my survival, with me making sure I'm getting fed, and I have a home, and my loved ones are taken care of, all those things, astrology's not gonna feel the same way it did at the beginning of this. Why do people... like, why is there this [00:44:00] stereotype of corporate, you walk in after college, bright eyed and bushy tailed, and 20 years later, you're jaded as fuck, and you're just there for your fucking 401k and your stock shit, and whatever, right?

[00:44:10] That's why that happens. You go from thinking you like something to hating it. Like, how many times, my friends in college say, "I'm gonna go into finance and I'm gonna make a difference," and I think about one of my friends, she quit that shit and does her own thing now. She got value from it. She [00:44:30] made money from it. And at the same time, it's not what people thought it was in college.

[00:44:35] And so just like how, if you're a parent, you might love being a parent, but if you are only a parent all the time and you have no room for anything else because it's not quote unquote "efficient" or making productivity within the system, then it's pointless? That math is not mapping and that's not sustainable.

[00:44:54] And that is why even people who wouldn't call themselves anti-capitalists are perusing the [00:45:00] late stage capitalism Subreddit, and being like, "Maybe some points are being made." A lot of people are feeling like the system's not working for them now. What the MAGA party is effectively communicating is they're saying, "The system is not working, and you're struggling right now because we need to bring it back to how the system used to be,"

[00:45:19] Sam Young: Yep.

[00:45:21] Neha Jha: "and we need to suppress people more and oppress people and subjugate them and it's their fault." Like, when has that ever worked for humanity? [00:45:30] Let's be serious. Not this shit.

The Great Defrosting

[00:45:33] Neha Jha: This was a horrible week to know history, because I was like, damn, I can't even pretend this is not anything. But it was actually a good week to know history. I'm grateful for my education, and at the same time, how we fight that is not by... like, we cannot solve the system within the system. Audrey Lorde, like "you cannot dismantle the master's house with the master's tools." I might be butchering the quote. Hopefully I'm not, but general gist, we have to go into our imagination.

[00:45:58] This is where I think Ari Felix's [00:46:00] work, like The Dream Mami's work, is really helpful. Like, world building, and then something I learned in my coaching certification is, we can support our subconscious mind by being "towards motivated" versus "away motivated," which Ari teaches about without having directly said that. Cause it's like, what are we moving towards?

[00:46:16] What are your values? What is the world you want to see? And like, how can we bring that into our real life, into our bodies, into our minds as much as possible? Versus, you gave the example of you at Thanksgiving all those years [00:46:30] ago. Yeah, it felt good to argue, but was that really moving you towards your values in the world you wanna see and dismantling these systems? Did it really do the thing? Or was it really nice and cathartic for 30 minutes?

[00:46:43] Sam Young: It felt good for a minute. No, I'm so glad you brought up Ari because literally, I was thinking about them this week when I told you I was feeling like, this really unexpected softness in reaction to the election results. And I was thinking about them and how they've been talking about, for the last couple years, teaching about [00:47:00] The Great Defrosting, and I was like, "Oh my God, it's me. Like it's happening to me. Like, I am defrosting," because yeah, it's just been so easy to be against. And this is even a discussion that I have like inside my course, 'cause I teach about anti-capitalism and astrology and the overlap of it.

[00:47:19] And we've even had discussions in there about calling it anti-capitalism, because it's positioned as something that is against. The oppositional politics-- I think that's actually what it's [00:47:30] called-- being anti anything; to me, it's very Saturnian. So it just makes sense to me to position myself as against something and also like you said, being a manifesting generator, I'm always responding to the shit that capitalism is doing, but there's only so far that you can go with that.

[00:47:48] I think that's where people are at now. We're all at this place where we know that this doesn't work. We're anti-capitalist, but we don't know what we're pro. We don't know what to call ourselves. Even like said, I'm not a communist. If I'm [00:48:00] getting a knee-jerk response from somebody, it's always that. It's like, "you're a socialist" or "you're a communist," and I'm like, well...

[00:48:04] Neha Jha: What, first of all, define that shit. What are youcalling me?

[00:48:07] Sam Young: Tell me what those mean.

[00:48:09] Neha Jha: I don't know what you're saying. Tell me what youmean.

Capitalist Realism & The "End of History"

[00:48:11] Sam Young: I don't actually-- I didn't say that, 'cause I don't actually know. I don't think there is one perfect solution and I don't think whatever the solutions are, like... Some of the most effective solutions that we're ever going to see probably don't exist yet. But it's because we're in the in between. That's the era that we collectively have to live through. [00:48:30] And that sucks. And it's annoying. But here we are.

[00:48:33] So the thing that I've been trying to tell people, too, is the fact that you can't imagine what's past capitalism, that in itself is also by design. That is by design of capitalism. And there's a guy named Mark Fisher, who wrote a lot. He was a music writer, but then he, towards the end of his life and his career, started writing really intensely, more about capitalism, and he coined this-- I think he coined it, [00:49:00] I don't want to say for sure, but I'm pretty sure he coined the phrase called "capitalist realism," and it's the name of one of his books, too.

[00:49:06] But basically, the concept of capitalist realism is that it's easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism. It's so devastating.

[00:49:19] Neha Jha: Like the rapture.

[00:49:20] Sam Young: Yeah, and you were talking about the rapture, like... it's by design to make you feel like there is no other alternative, like there's nothing past [00:49:30] this and this is it. That was what happened back in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell, people were calling this, philosophers were calling this the "end of history," and they didn't mean the end of the world. They meant the end of history in terms of, humanity has now reached its peak optimization and here's where we're going to stay. Capitalism has beat out communism. That was like the symbolism of the Berlin Wall, right? It was like, communism has fallen. [00:50:00] Communism is over. Capitalism has proven itself as the best system because it's beat out all the others, right?

[00:50:07] Because it beat out everybody else, it must be the best system. It's the one that's best for humanity. Here we are. "History," as we know it, is over because then, human progress is no longer going to be about fighting over how to run our world. We've got our system. Now we can just start running it. That was the whole concept, and that was really what people believed. And that's also why [00:50:30] communism is always positioned as this foil to capitalism, as in, this is the only alternative, and look: it lost. Capitalism beat it out. So therefore, why should we look for anything else? This is the perfect system. This is the most optimal system for humanity. And we know that's not true, because it's destroying our planet. So it clearly cannot be the best system for humanity.

[00:50:56] Neha Jha: It's the best system, but people can't even get paid $20 [00:51:00] an hour. Best system in the world.

[00:51:02] Sam Young: And I'm always like, best for who, though? Because, yeah, it is the best for some people, for a very select few, but, that's not all of humanity.

[00:51:10] Neha Jha: Best system and genocide's happening. Crazy.

[00:51:14] Sam Young: Best. There's no-- there's clearly no better way we could do this.

[00:51:18] Neha Jha: No.

[00:51:19] Sam Young: Yeah, so I feel that softening and like that-- to use Ari's words, the great defrosting for me was really that of being like, we need [00:51:30] to... obviously, to embrace nuance and stop being so black and white about, "it's either capitalism or communism." No, and recognize that you were fed that belief.

[00:51:39] But the point I was getting at with the great defrosting and this softening and like you said, how we need to be learning relational skills in this time, is really because capitalism and this idea of maximizing, the optimization of everything. I said this in my course this week, and I was like, damn, I fucking [00:52:00] said that, but I was like, the end result of self-optimization, a fully self-optimized system, the end result of that is isolation. Because the idea is that you would never need another human. That's the end of the road for that. If you take that to its conclusion, that's what it is. The end result is isolation. I don't need anybody else, basically.

[00:52:20] And we know that's not conducive to anyone's health, so we need to be learning these relational skills because the more that [00:52:30] you are connected in a web of support, community, whatever it is, the less you feel the need to optimize yourself. You're not going to feel that pressure to constantly be maximizing, if the threat of survival is not looming over your head, because you've actually got some tangible support in your life.

Community Support Makes Money Irrelevant

[00:52:51] Sam Young: My godmother has her master's degree in anthropology, and I remember when [00:53:00] she did her master's thesis, she used her own mom's group as a case study for her thesis because they all had young children at the time, and her thesis was basically just about the more community structure, the more people that are in your life, the more actual community support that is in your life, the less relevant money becomes.

[00:53:20] Which makes perfect sense to me. So I'm like, yeah, money is just a representation of resources, but if you have the resources, you don't need the money. That was a long time ago that she did [00:53:30] that thesis, and it's just sat with me for a long time, and I've witnessed it in her life, all the ways that they've been able to structure their life with or without money, due to the presence of an actual, structured support system.

[00:53:44] I think for a lot of people, it sounds really difficult and nebulous, "go out and find your people, build your community," what does that mean? Most of us have never even learned community building skills, right? But what's accessible to just start is yeah, just start learning how to relate to other people. The community will [00:54:00] follow, but you have to learn how to relate and how to process your emotions in a way that isn't... you don't have to process them in isolation, but you need to learn how to handle your emotions and feel them in a way that's not damaging or resulting in more isolation, because none of us are going to survive if we can't do that for each other.

[00:54:17] Neha Jha: I think people forget that money is a symbol of resources. It's not the actual resource. If you had no food and you had a million dollars, good luck bitch. I don't know what to tell you.

[00:54:29] Sam Young: Right.

[00:54:30] Neha Jha: Yeah.

[00:54:31] Sam Young: And there's times when I've been like, super broke or there's no money in my account, but I'm like, there's no money in my account because I've paid the bills that will keep me housed, and then also I have food in my kitchen, and I wake up every day and I'm loved. I go to sleep every night in a warm bed next to the person I love, and that is, in itself, a small miracle.

[00:54:54] I was talking about this with my first guest in the first episode, Stella Gold, and they were talking about this too, [00:55:00] about different types, different feelings of wealth and different versions of wealth, and how it's not a bad thing to necessarily want wealth in your life, but also that you can-- even as an anti-capitalist, you can desire wealth, but it's also about changing your ideas of what wealth means and how wealth is represented.

[00:55:18] Cause yeah, truly at the end of the day, I feel like if I'm going to bed and my kid is safe at home, my husband's safe at home, I'm safe at home. That's the richest you can be. To me, like the [00:55:30] richest you can be. Everybody you love is safe and in their beds at the end of every day. That's the whole goal, of every single day, is to get everybody safe in their beds at the end of it.

Secure Attachment Is The New Generational Wealth

[00:55:40] Neha Jha: No, literally. And there's this phrase I'll see going viral sometimes where it's like, "secure attachment is a new generational wealth," or like "having a loving family growing up is the new generational wealth," and it's like, no but actually, because... I grew up with insecure attachment, if we're going to use the lens of [00:56:00] attachment theory.

[00:56:01] Sam Young: You're using it appropriately because you're describing the relationship between you and your parents. So, how it should be used.

[00:56:07] Neha Jha: Right. So I grew up having an insecure attachment. I did have my physical needs met pretty much my entire childhood. We did not have a lot of money. But we had always food, we had a safe home, we had all those things. Cool, but I was emotionally neglected, and so that happened, right?

[00:56:23] And I was not even neglected. It's not always their fault. People take the attachment theory like, "It's your parents fault." [00:56:30] Honestly, it was very circumstantial.

[00:56:31] Sam Young: It's all so circumstantial. Like I tell people that too, I'm like, I was emotionally neglected, but my mom had me at 16 and was raising me by herself. So she's not going to be that mature as a parent.

[00:56:43] Neha Jha: Surprise. Surprise that that led to an outcome of emotional neglect. That's crazy. But all of a sudden, these losers know what they're talking about when it's called "daddy issues". But anyway. I'm like, y'all are so dumb. Anyways.

[00:56:58] Okay, but like, I grew up. What was that? But then like, with my sister, she had me. She had a sister that was 14 years older than her, who was in therapy, who was studying psychology and all these other things, and who could see my toddler sister as a whole human. Crazy how that works. She was the most well behaved with me, and I also respected her autonomy. Crazy! Anyways. Must be a coincidence. Anyways.

[00:57:25] But because of that, I was there for her a [00:57:30] lot. And I've been a constant, secure figure to her, and now she's a teenager, and I'll just see her go through things that like... my dad, will say something in a kind of rough tone, and for me, as a child self, that would have shut me down. I would have gotten upset, and she's just like, "Oh, whatever, Papa just be like that sometimes". And I'm just like, is this secure attachment?

[00:57:54] And I'm giving a very micro example, witnessing the difference between how she was [00:58:00] raised and how I was raised, the reason secure attachment is relevant, and why it is quote unquote "generational wealth," is because people who have grown up with this sense of security, this emotional and physical sense of security, that people care about them, that people love them, that even if they make a mistake, that doesn't mean it's the end of the world. These people are more likely, if some fuck shit happens as a grown up, they're gonna say, "I won't stand for this," or "this is not right," or "I need to do something [00:58:30] differently,"

[00:58:31] Sam Young: Or just, "I'm out."

[00:58:32] Neha Jha: or "I'm out." There's no one way secure attachment looks like. In fact, sometimes secure attachment behaviors look the same as insecure attachment behaviors. It's not about the behavior always. It's about, where's that behavior coming from and what outcome and result is that leading to? How is that landing relationally, et cetera.

[00:58:50] But yeah, that is the real generational wealth, because the real riches, what 90%, maybe 99% of people want at the end of the day is to [00:59:00] have safety, have love and care, have food, have shelter, have temperature regulation, whether hot or cold, whatever it might be, and be comfortable and do work that's meaningful in some way.

[00:59:14] I feel like that is what most human beings want. And even like, people fucking argue about gender all day. It's like, you realize, even if you believe there are only two genders, that men and women have a lot more in common than they have different. It's all the [00:59:30] same parts remixed differently. And also there are not two genders, intersex people exist.

[00:59:35] Sam Young: There's no male brain and female brain. That's not a thing.

[00:59:40] Neha Jha: Not a thing. There's no male hormone, female hormone. Turns out we all have testosterone, actually. Crazy.

[00:59:47] Sam Young: Tell me about it. I'm like, the hairs on my chin let me know I got some fucking testosterone going on. After I had this kid, the hormones are making themselves known.

[00:59:56] Neha Jha: I still got Mars in my chart. Please do not get me fucked up. I had [01:00:00] my Mars conjunct my ruler of the ascendant.

[01:00:02] Sam Young: Yep. I like that you brought up secure attachment because I struggle a lot with that, just in terms of attachment theory in the way that people usually are using them to talk about like their adult relationships, but what I find very effective Is also to use-- at first I didn't like this. I had to come around to it. At first I didn't like it, but now I do, when people use attachment theory to talk about money. I'm like, this actually does make perfect sense. At first it was "no," and then I had to [01:00:30] like, think critically for a minute. And I was like, it does make sense, because if attachment theory is about how you, as a child, and your parent and how you achieved safety around them, whatever that looks like.

[01:00:42] Also, who teaches you, who gives you your fundamental beliefs about money? Your parents. Like, your living situation, your environment as a kid, all of these things also shape the way you feel about money.

Financial Shame As A Tool of Capitalism

[01:00:55] Sam Young: It's so funny, cause when I used to do financial astrology readings for people, we would talk [01:01:00] about money, but then so much of it would end up being about their families and their childhood anyway. Or they'd come in wanting to talk about like, the next year of their business and suddenly they're like, "Okay, so when I was seven, my dad had to file for bankruptcy and it affected me in these ways."

[01:01:14] Yeah, that is actually the important shit to be talking about, and I think all of this ties together, like with money and the financial shame that people feel and how, in capitalism, that shame is really a tool. It's a [01:01:30] tool of control is what I've come to realize about it, to make you feel ashamed of your finances. Because there's a difference between guilt, shame, and embarrassment, right?

[01:01:40] All of those are different things. And I think a lot of people understand feeling embarrassed about their finances and a lot of people understand feeling guilty about the way they make purchasing decisions, just all the pressure that we have to never do any harm under capitalism. And then there's the shame and it's really hard for people to look at that [01:02:00] because of the way shame works, right? Shame is: it's your fault and you just need to fix it.

[01:02:06] Neha Jha: Yeah. I'm just bad. And that's it.

[01:02:08] Sam Young: Yeah. And it's on you. You have to change this about yourself and then your money situation will get better. That shame is just so strong, and it's why I do everything I do, because I'm like, if you can just for a second, put aside the idea that like, it's all on you, and this is all your fault, and that if you can set aside the concept that you're [01:02:30] lazy if you're not always trying to optimize yourself, just put those aside for just a second, and then really look at what's going on and what's working against you

[01:02:40] Neha Jha: Yeah.

[01:02:41] Sam Young: I've been accused of like, telling people to have a victim mindset or to not take accountability and I'm like, there's time for accountability and there's time for responsibility. Most people are trying to operate outside of their sphere of influence when it comes to capitalism. Most people believe that their little individual $5 purchases are really going to make a huge [01:03:00] difference. I think you should still do that, if it feels good for you and it's accessible for you, but also understand that there's things working against you that are so much bigger.

[01:03:10] And that's not to make you feel doom or feel helpless, but just to make you understand: the shame you feel, the guilt you feel about not doing the right things, or not making the right purchasing decisions, or not being good enough with your money, right? All of those things are just keeping you distracted, over here, feeling bad about yourself, and not looking at the ways [01:03:30] that the outer system is affecting you.

[01:03:32] Your sphere of influence is very real. Individual responsibility is still very much there and real. But I think most people's sphere of influence is actually much smaller than they're imagining it to be, and that contributes to the shame.

[01:03:44] Neha Jha: I agree. Like money... so attachment theory is about how, as a child, did you get your needs met? My therapist would say I've earned secure attachment, even though I grew up with avoidant and anxious. A mix. If you have trauma, you're gonna have a mix. It's [01:04:00] always a spectrum.

[01:04:01] Sam Young: Yeah.

[01:04:01] Neha Jha: Attachment theory is not black and white. Please. I can't stand it when people talk like that. So it's about you as a child, getting your needs met or not met, and how you navigated that. That is what your attachment style talks about. And then also then your adult experiences layer on top of that, whatever, right? And then how you get your needs met might change and adapt, depending on... first, the core is that childhood experience, and then all the other experiences come on top of that.

[01:04:27] Money, now, as an adult, [01:04:30] is also how you get your needs met. Money was also relevant as a child, but usually... again, this is a very America-centric thing I'm about to say. Most children are not working, in terms of under teenage age, in America. Maybe I babysat and stuff, and that is sure a maybe privilege in some lens. Acknowledge that there are children working in lots of places, even in America, and you're experiencing money more indirectly as a child, [01:05:00] generally speaking. As an adult, it is a much more direct thing.

[01:05:04] You are directly responsible. So that is where attachment theory and finances overlap, because it's about getting your needs met. And honestly, so many people, if you're new to attachment theory or if it gets really intellectual and heady really fast, here's what I actually recommend: what are your needs? What are your needs and desires right now? You don't need to figure out all the academic psychology of it all. Literally [01:05:30] be like, what are my needs and what am I not getting met?

[01:05:34] You know, you were talking about the anti-capitalist and like the use of the word "anti" earlier, sometimes we need to know what we're against or what we don't have or what we don't like to create space to work towards solutions and answers and the things on the other side, right?

[01:05:52] That's why I still like the phrase anti-capitalist, and malefics exist in our solar system, okay? We get to say [01:06:00] no to things. We get to be anti things. And that's okay. People, I think, try to use things as a "gotcha" sometimes. Not everyone, I think words do matter, but, this whole gotcha culture of "Ooh, I found a weird loophole." Again, you're not engaging with people as humans. And so we're not actually having a real conversation.

Values As A Coping Mechanism

[01:06:19] Neha Jha: With The Great Defrosting, as Ari Felix coined, and your experience of the softening post-election or as the election results came in, and for me, I had all the feelings. I welcomed [01:06:30] all the fucking-- I was crying. I was yelling. I was calm.

[01:06:35] And when I was experiencing the calmness, though, I was like, is this dissociation? And I was like, oh, it's not dissociation. I'm actually calm because I actually know my values, and there are things I'm secure in. So even if you have insecure attachment of some way, whether you're anxious, avoidant, a mix of both, you're going to have secure come through in some way. Cause again, it's all a spectrum. So it all exists within you.

[01:06:59] [01:07:00] Security and calmness is also a thing. It's not always dissociation. And the reason I had that security is because I'm secure in my values. And again, I'm human, I'm imperfect, because compassion is one of my values. If I fuck up, like I got myself. And that, I think, is actually security.

[01:07:18] And that's what I think with money, like the way I approach money in my business has really transformed because it's like, what are my actual needs? Oh, do I have my bills paid? Yeah? Okay, cool. Then I don't have [01:07:30] to fucking freak out right now.

[01:07:31] Sam Young: Yeah, on the calmness, too, what you're saying is yeah, you're aligned with your values. And also I think because you know the value of the work that you do, and you know that you have a vehicle through which to like, enact your values.

[01:07:46] So it's less daunting than being like, "Oh, my God, what do I do? How do I mobilize?" You're like, I have a vehicle. I have something that can affect change in the world automatically.

[01:07:57] On the needs-first thinking, I love that [01:08:00] you brought that in on a personal, a more nocturnal scale, because I've been thinking a lot about needs-first thinking on a grand, diurnal scale. Like you were saying, what are my needs? And I'm always thinking, what are the collective's needs, right? Or like in any given situation, what is the need and is it being met?

[01:08:18] I don't want to try to take credit or anything. I'm pretty sure that this type of thinking has been established in a lot of leftist spaces already. So I'm just arriving at the conclusion on my own, but it's [01:08:30] already existed. And I think what's missing a lot, too, is that: just being like, it's actually just about meeting needs, and right now we have had this constant problem, this constant, underlying problem where not everyone has the ability to meet their needs.

[01:08:45] For me, I'm like, I'm just still trying to get there, just to the fact where people have their needs met or if they don't, then it's fairly simple. It's not a life or death situation. It's not like, excruciating labor to get [01:09:00] those needs met. It should be fairly simple to get your needs met.

Listener Submission

[01:09:03] Sam Young: I forgot to mention this submission specifically, but I've been thinking about it because it's been on my screen this whole time, and I realized I should say it out loud, but one of the submissions that I've got for this podcast, which I have people send in, they're 100 percent anonymous. Some of them are questions. Some of them are just like, confessions or things people need to get off their chest, which I'm totally here for, and we've been talking about all this stuff with family and how the root causes [01:09:30] of money attachment happens. This person said, "I was a truant and a runaway at 13. I'm over 50 now and I have no savings. It doesn't take much to derail an entire life. Just do it as a kid and watch the magic happen." And when I read that, my heart broke a little bit, and so I'm sending so much love and a big, warm hug to whoever this is, cause I feel that so deeply and it's devastatingly true. Like, it does not take much to [01:10:00] derail, especially financially, especially when you're living in capitalism.

[01:10:04] Poverty is self-perpetuating in this system. Like you are actively punished for being poor through things that make you more poor. It sucks that that's the foundation that we all live within, but also, to be dealing with trauma like this, obviously being a runaway at 13 is really difficult. And I related to this because of the snowball effects of poverty and the uphill battle that it is to escape it are... yeah, they can take up an entire lifetime.

[01:10:28] And that [01:10:30] shame that can come with it. Cause I feel that, I feel like being over 50, I have no savings. That's a point of shame, right? Cause that's something that we're told, is you should have savings. If the word "should" is popping up, that shame is right around the corner.

[01:10:44] It's, "you should have X amount of dollars saved up by the time you're X age," or "you should be able to retire. You should have a 401k." Like you said, everything's circumstantial, like the markers of success for this person, right? It's hey, [01:11:00] you survived.

[01:11:00] First of all, you survived. You're 50 years old, right? And yeah, maybe money's not great and there's a lot of shame involved with that, but the markers of success are different for people who grow up with trauma, or like you said, grow up with like insecure attachment, or emotional neglect. And I think that's where a lot of the financial shame that I talked to people about comes from.

[01:11:19] Cause I talked to a lot of neurodivergent folks, a lot of people who have had trauma in their lives, and so much of the shame is about feeling that you're having a late start or that your definitions of success aren't [01:11:30] the capitalist definitions of success. And the needs-first thinking, I feel, is a really good soothing balm over that, because we are fed this idea in America that everyone's a pre-millionaire. Like you could just become a millionaire. You just have to like, find the right thing.

[01:11:48] Neha Jha: You're not making 20k a year. You're pre-rich.

[01:11:52] Sam Young: Yeah, you're just pre-rich.

[01:11:53] Neha Jha: You're in your come-up era.

[01:11:55] Sam Young: Yeah, and so when that myth does not come true for you, and then you [01:12:00] think it's your fault. And it's not your fault. It's that your markers of success and your markers of things that you can feel good about aren't the things that capitalism has taught you to feel good about. And that's actually a good thing, but it's just that you have to really get through all those layers of shame first. And that's the hard part.

[01:12:17] Neha Jha: That was a really heartbreaking submission. So much love to this person. When I studied public health, I learned about the social determinants of health, which essentially are like... if you scroll through TikTok, you would think the outcomes of health are based on calories [01:12:30] in and calories out and 30 grams of protein, and...

[01:12:34] Sam Young: "Are you moving your body?"

[01:12:36] Neha Jha: Right, and guess what? Even if you're not moving your body, you're worthy. You're a worthy human being. You're actually, doesn't make you less worthy all of a sudden. Plot twist. Who would have-- gagged. Gagged a lot of people, actually.

[01:12:50] Sam Young: It really did.

[01:12:51] Neha Jha: And same with finances. Just because you didn't get your needs met and just because you went through all that you went through, that didn't change your [01:13:00] worthiness at any point.

[01:13:01] Sometimes that can seem so whatever. Sometimes when I am in a more resistant place, something like that sentiment seems so whatever. Like...

[01:13:10] Sam Young: Right. It's annoying.

[01:13:10] Neha Jha: Okay, like it doesn't matter that... it didn't matter that I didn't deserve to be treated that way. I still got treated that way.

[01:13:17] Sam Young: It still happened.

[01:13:19] Neha Jha: That is also true. That is really valid. And also the systemic poverty, I brought up the social determinants of health because it's like all of these societal, systemic factors have a [01:13:30] way bigger outcome than, is this one individual getting enough fiber?

[01:13:35] Sam Young: Literally, like you can take all your supplements and you can sleep with your phone away from your head so that you don't get radiation. And then the fucking chemical plant down the street can make a mistake, a whoopsie, and then your air is full of cancer. And now you're going to die at 50 years old. Even though you individually did everything right, those are so much bigger than individual decisions.

[01:13:57] Neha Jha: Exactly. And I see finances the same way. I don't know if someone has a theory, the social determinants of financial health or something, but that's what I really want to tell this person who made the submission: yeah, the system failed you, you didn't fail you. We grew up working class and got to middle class, but then my dad got laid off, so complicated family history, but nothing as extreme as what this person has experienced. And even then, the system failed me so many times. I think about, I worked so hard to build my savings up and then I got one tax [01:14:30] bill and I needed to change the tires on my car and I wiped almost my entire savings.

[01:14:35] Sam Young: There goes your savings.

[01:14:36] Neha Jha: Yeah, and I'm a 20 something year old person. So I can't imagine it feeling like that. Cause I think of what time does, like what Saturn does is it makes things more rigid. You know the way neural paths work, like you can have neuroplasticity at any age, but unless you work on it, it becomes more and more rigid over time.

[01:14:55] I don't have any, advice per se, rather just, a lot of compassion and understanding. Also if you look at this through the attachment lens, if you grew up with a lot of money trauma, you're likely going to be-- what I want to say is, I don't know if SuperMamaNova or SuperNovaMama is on Twitter, if she's the original coiner of this phrase. I associate this phrase with her. I see her say this repeatedly, which is, "Misbehavior is unmet needs."

[01:15:26] And she is a conscious parenting expert and speaks about that, so that's the lens of that. But when we accidentally spend too much money on a shopping spree or we have this money saved, but we're hoarding it and we can't, we have this huge amount of rigidity around the money that we do have, or, you feel ashamed of asking for help around money, or you avoid looking up anything about money because you feel so much shame around it.

[01:15:55] All of those behaviors, that from the lens of attachment theory is like anxious behavior, [01:16:00] anxious attachment, the result of that with getting your needs met, that is self-soothing behavior also. Like that is you doing the best you can to take care of yourself.

[01:16:10] And Reagan's the reason we have this weird welfare queen, single mom stereotype, and this whole idea of "poor people shouldn't have nice things." I'm sorry, that is just a human thing to want nice things, to want beautiful things, to have things to take care of yourself and your loved ones.

[01:16:29] Sam Young: I feel like if you're poor and you, I don't know, you happen upon $500 to buy like a Nintendo Switch or something, and that brings a little bit more joy into your life, like...

[01:16:40] Neha Jha: That is worth it.

[01:16:41] Sam Young: Yeah.

[01:16:42] Neha Jha: Exactly. I don't have a perfect words. I think you summed it up. What I was trying to say is just be kind to yourself for the behaviors that capitalism will tell you are wrong, that you shouldn't have done. Like "Oh, that was a bad financial move. That was a bad thing." You were probably trying to get some sort of need or want [01:17:00] met, or maybe you needed a way to cope with your shitty ass job, and so coming home to play your Switch was like the best part of your day. Whatever those things are, like, I just have a lot of compassion and I'm just really sorry that the system failed you.

[01:17:14] And I hope just that little bit of psychology and public health perspective can just-- if you're listening to this and you're not this person, but you can relate, just be one percent kinder to yourself today and maybe one percent kinder tomorrow. That is actually anti-capitalist. It's [01:17:30] not in this like, bullshit, "oh, joy is revolutionary," to excuse like, I don't know...

[01:17:35] Sam Young: It's not trying to bypass.

[01:17:36] Neha Jha: No, no bypassing.

[01:17:38] Sam Young: It's not bypassing in any way.

[01:17:39] Neha Jha: But you are a part of the liberation that you are fighting for, so you deserve that too. And it's not even about deserving, like you are a part of this liberation movement. And so we need to move like that, right?

[01:17:50] Like it's not just about treating other people like whole humans, it's not treating yourself and myself like a whole human. And that's still something I struggle with. I was engaging in some negative self-talk last [01:18:00] night and I just had to let myself be there, to be honest, because that's just where I was at.

[01:18:05] Sam Young: And it's true, like the being compassionate to yourself doesn't weaken you, it actually does make you a stronger person so that you can do the things you need to do just to get your needs met. That's also really what I hope for everybody.

Viewing Yourself As A Whole Human

[01:18:18] Sam Young: And it's true, viewing yourself as a whole human is made difficult by capitalism, right? We are even taught to view ourselves as just machines to be optimized or just like, a [01:18:30] project to be mastered or whatever. There's times for self improvement and there's times for growth. And then there's also times for just fucking vibing out and existing and like living your life, healing. Healing through doing nothing.

[01:18:42] Neha Jha: Mmhmm.

[01:18:42] Sam Young: You have to allow space for all of that. So yeah, I really love that too. Like you have to look at yourself as a whole human, too. That compassion really is anti-capitalist, because capitalism does not view you as a whole human, certainly not.

[01:18:54] Neha Jha: It views you as a commodity, output producer, a productivity producer, [01:19:00] or a customer. Those are your roles. You don't get to be a full human with all of your experiences and nuances and your family shit, and your cool interests and the facts that you know. Capitalism, does that create room for that? This is your individual responsibility. Like you get to create room for you.

[01:19:21] Sam Young: Yeah. That's actually something that's within your sphere of influence that can like, make a lasting, positive impact.

[01:19:27] Neha Jha: Yeah.

[01:19:27] Sam Young: That's something that you can do [01:19:30] today that doesn't cost anything and will actually move the world forward, even though it doesn't feel like that immediately, it is.

[01:19:36] I don't know who said it first, but, it's been said that the wars, quote, unquote, of the future won't be fought on battlefields, they'll be fought in our minds and our hearts, and I really feel like that's what's going on with anti-capitalism right now. More people's minds are coming around to it, but I think also, especially since COVID in the last 4 years, their hearts are really starting to get invested in finding something [01:20:00] else, because the pain is just so great, and the grief is just so strong. And we watched how capitalism was prioritized during COVID when people were literally dying. And it's just like...

[01:20:09] Neha Jha: Right. Instead of having mask discourse-- okay, if some people don't like masks, why can't we talk about air filters in public spaces? Why can't we? There are so many-- and instead, people just want to debate over these little things.

[01:20:23] Honestly, I don't argue with people online, unless I think it's funny, which is very [01:20:30] rare. And it's because I don't waste my breath. I'd rather talk to people who are in my sphere of influence than fucking Billy Bob Joe on the internet, who could be a bot, potentially, is not worth my breath.

[01:20:41] Sam Young: And they're not coming to you to engage in good faith and open their minds and learn new things, so.

[01:20:47] Neha Jha: Yeah.

[01:20:48] Sam Young: Those are rather the people that I would like to talk to.

[01:20:51] Neha Jha: Same.

[01:20:52] Sam Young: Like we both said, so much love and compassion to this person, and also, to anybody listening. This is a really good conversation [01:21:00] and I thank you for being willing to do it, but I think my main takeaways are... one, that your sphere of influence is smaller than you think, but within that influence, have more power than you think.

[01:21:09] Neha Jha: Right.

[01:21:10] Sam Young: And also, if money is a constant thorn in your life-- obviously there's capitalism, that's always there-- but if money is something that you're constantly dealing with in your life, and it feels like a recurring pattern, something you can't get out of, it may be worth looking into your childhood. It may be worth doing some of that inner child, early life work, to figure [01:21:30] out where these stories came from.

Reflections on Worry & Hunger via Taurus I & Scorpio I

[01:21:32] Neha Jha: Yeah. I have one thought, one last added thought. I wrote this down before we started recording, but I was thinking about the exaltation of the moon being in the first decan of Taurus, and so that means also the fall of the moon is in the first decan of Scorpio.

[01:21:48] So if you're new to Astro, basically the highest point and the lowest point of the moon, okay? And the moon is connected to a concept called fortune, which is essentially fate, your [01:22:00] circumstances, the physical things in your life, essentially all the things you can't control. It's like your physical survival and life. That's the moon.

[01:22:09] And the moon exalts in the first decan dec Taurus, and one of the themes of this decan is worry. It's actually associated with the tarot card Five of Pentacles, which is I guess you could say, a poverty theme up in the card, a lack, scarcity, coldness,

[01:22:28] Sam Young: Othering, yeah.

[01:22:29] Neha Jha: [01:22:30] Othering. And when I was thinking-- I've been contemplating decans a lot, and for this one, I was like, what the heck? That's an interesting combination. But I think about how a baby communicates their needs, they cry. There is a sense of worry, of I don't have food, I'm worried, I don't have food, or I need hugs, I need cuddles, I'm gonna cry, or I need something, I need, I'm uncomfortable in my diaper. That worry sparks the action that's required [01:23:00] to get your needs met. That expression of pure life. Life does not come out like rainbows and sunshine. Giving birth is not chill in any way.

[01:23:09] Sam Young: Babies are born hungry. I don't know if many people understand this. When a baby comes out, they're fucking hungry.

[01:23:15] Neha Jha: Wow, I did not know that. That makes sense.

[01:23:18] Sam Young: You have to feed them very soon or they just die.

[01:23:22] Neha Jha: Oh gosh, wow, that's wild.

[01:23:24] Sam Young: Yeah.

[01:23:25] Neha Jha: That actually reminds me of the second half of this, which is the fall of the moon, which is the [01:23:30] first decan of Scorpio, and the biggest theme of the first decan of Scorpio is hunger. And, it's a double Mars ruled decan, essentially at the lowest point. I think about Mars in its nocturnal domicile... think about being in a battlefield at night. You can't see shit.

[01:23:47] Sam Young: Not just swinging swords around.

[01:23:50] Neha Jha: Yeah, no, literally, you have to be stealthy, you have to be strategic. That is Scorpio energy, and the first decan in particular is very hardcore, I would say it's probably [01:24:00] the lowest point in the entire Zodiac, in terms of felt sense. Literally low to the ground, like snakes and bugs, and stuff like that, grass. That hunger and that worry, like there's this opposition here in the exaltation and the fall of the moon, and Scorpio I is about fighting for your survival, and Taurus I is about worrying so you get into actions to take care of those worries, to quell those worries. Cause like even if you're not worried, if you're taking care of someone, it's likely that they [01:24:30] have worries that you will have to like combat as they navigate through life. So I don't know, that felt relevant, astrologically.

[01:24:38] Sam Young: Yeah, absolutely. Especially because the sun just passed through that first decan of Scorpio very recently. It was tough.

[01:24:43] Neha Jha: Mmhmm.

[01:24:45] Sam Young: That's a beautiful point to end on, just in terms of feeling like, at the bottom, and I think many people probably feel that way right now. The good news-- this is the Capricorn in me, I'm like, "The good news about being at the bottom is you get to climb to the top."

[01:24:55] Neha Jha: Yes. My Scorpio I concurs.

[01:24:59] Sam Young: [01:25:00] That means that you have something to do with yourself and your time.

[01:25:03] Neha Jha: Yeah.

How To Work With Neha

[01:25:04] Sam Young: This was really awesome. Thank you for being so willing to share and offer your wisdom to folks.

[01:25:10] Neha Jha: You're welcome. Thank you having me.

[01:25:13] Sam Young: Let the people know what you're doing, how they can work with you.

[01:25:15] Neha Jha: So if you want a fun free quiz, I have a quiz called Playlist Prophecy. If you go to my Instagram or Threads, the link should be there, or my website. So Playlist Prophecy is like a free, fun quiz. You can go get a divination answer through music. Actually, as we were wrapping [01:25:30] up, I was thinking about the song "Hard Times" by Paramore. So that is the Playlist Prophecy for this episode.

[01:25:34] Sam Young: I like that. I'll put that in the notes.

[01:25:36] Neha Jha: Yes. I also have a six-week one-on-one program. Basically, if you want an astrologer, a meditation teacher, an energy worker, healer, in your back pocket, think about just having six weeks of dedicated time to reconnect to your values and walk your walk. This is astrology support; I'm talking about electional astrology, meaning like, you need an auspicious time [01:26:00] to do a thing? Let's get her done. Basically throughout the six weeks, I am there as your person, on your team, and it's meant to be a zap into alignment. And you can continue working, I do long term work, or that could be just it, a nice six weeks, short and sweet.

[01:26:15] Get back into alignment and do your thing, because we need people in their purpose more than ever, and I don't say that in a weird, new agey way. I just mean like, we all contribute to the liberation by being ourselves, and so that's what that program is for: the people who are ready for that.

[01:26:29] And then [01:26:30] I have a rotation of one-on-one sessions and a podcast. So podcast for my free listeners, it's called Thinking About Life, and I just yap about random shit on there. And then one-on-one sessions, right now I have Playlist Prophecy sessions, sometimes I'll have astrology sessions, Human Design, healing, hypnotherapy. I really do a lot, so it's hard to always sum up things that I do, but just check my socials and my website and all the places and you will see the ways to work with me that are most current.

[01:26:56] Sam Young: I heartily support all of that. Neha is like a spiritual Swiss army [01:27:00] knife.

[01:27:00] Neha Jha: I receive that.

[01:27:02] Sam Young: Yeah, you can trust her.

[01:27:03] Neha Jha: Wow. I like that. I feel like I need to write that down.

[01:27:07] Sam Young: Yeah. So yeah, awesome. Thanks for doing this.

[01:27:11]

Outro

[01:27:15] Sam Young: Spiritual Swiss army knife indeed. Wasn't that fantastic? I told you Neha is one of the smartest wisest, coolest people I know. And honestly, what a blessing to be able to talk about these topics together. So thank you, Neha, for your [01:27:30] time.

[01:27:30] I also wanted to take a moment here. I wanted to advertise some things to you.

[01:27:34] I have finally decided to launch budgeting sessions for sex workers. These are pay what you can, so no obligation to pay anything at all. This is just a service that I've been wanting to give back to the sex worker community. I was a sex worker for over seven years, and the one thing that I always regret from my time in that is that I wasn't able to make that money go further, and I never took the steps to give [01:28:00] myself a longterm safety net. So I want to help other sex workers avoid that same fate, if I can.

[01:28:05] I spent five years in an MLM, and in that time, probably drew up hundreds of budgets and spending plans and saving plans for people in my downline. I'm not a CPA. I'm not a financial advisor. I cannot give you legal advice, but if you're a sex worker and you want some help with budgeting your funds, or even just looking at your numbers and [01:28:30] getting the scope of what's coming in, what's going out and maybe where you can make some adjustments. It doesn't have to be a big deal. And like I said, it's pay what you can.

[01:28:39] So I'm booking those for January now. And I'm also booking, in January, financial astrology readings again! I haven't done these in over a year now, so I'm very excited to be bringing those back. And if you are hearing this before December 2nd, the year-ahead reports, you can either do a sit-down, hour-long session with [01:29:00] me where we talk about your 2025 financially, astrologically, or you can get it in written form, which takes about four weeks for me to turn those around. If you are hearing this before December 2nd, they're still 30% off, and you can also get an introductory reading with me over your chart that just goes over the basics of the financial areas of your chart and some pointers for dealing with the emotional side of your relationship to money.

[01:29:28] Very excited to be working with people one-on-one again. Like I said, it's been over a year and I've missed it so much. Really excited to start meeting with y'all in January.

[01:29:38] Lots of cool stuff coming down the pipeline here. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. If you haven't already, please share, subscribe, rate this podcast five stars.

[01:29:52] And you're a star, to me. Just so you know that. If you've made it this far and you're still listening, you are a star. And you have a special place in my heart. Okay.

[01:30:03] I will talk to you on the full moon.