The first astrology reading I ever got was with Naimonu James. We did a trade after we met one another at Queer Astrology Conference in 2018. I was gushing when I met them because I had been impressed by the artistry to which they did their horoscopes for months before. If you don’t know their work, I think they were one of the first to create poetry from time simply through the horoscope form.

Naimonu is a Virgo. The session I had with them was a reminder of the materiality of life. They kept reminding me of the wisdom that comes from my body and they kept making us take deep breaths to focus the session. I am a fire and water dominant person who only has one earth placement. I was flabbergasted because the body is the last thing that I think about. The session with Naimonu reminded me that astrology is not always about ideas and talking—the client session is an embodied experience even when it’s done over a video call.

And then, it would be a few years before I got another astrology reading. The next time I did it, I did it with Giselle Castano. Giselle was starting to do these really cool community workshops about each sign during the season of the sign and still does them. They’re usually based in Seattle but was in Brooklyn for a moment that summer. I went to see them at the apartment they were staying at, where they had also cooked a ton of food because they were running a catering business at the time.

We talked, conversationally, about my chart and my life. Giselle told me that I was too busy, which my Aries Sun and sixth house Moon could not believe. They challenged me to move slower and with more audacity. I still think about some of the things that Giselle said to this day. They sent me home with two bags full of food that I ate over the course of the next week.

I got a third reading during the first wave of the pandemic earlier this year in April of 2020. I did all of these readings in April because April is the date of my solar return. This year, I did a reading with Sam Reynolds. I had met Sam after seeing him talk at NORWAC. Sam is a seasoned astrologer. He’s one of the people who I respect the most in the astrological community.

I was going through my Saturn return when I got the reading. I was unable to go to China and I had planned on going that year before the pandemic hit because I was worried that my grandpa would die. I got a bunch of tarot readings that year too and Death kept coming up. My grandpa eventually did die on the next Gemini New Moon. We had the same birthday and the same solar return. Our solar return Moon was in Scorpio. Mine was in the twelfth house and his was in the eighth house. We shared the same Saturn too and he went through his third Saturn return when I went through my first.

Sam told me that I was going through a fifth house profection year and that I should expect pleasure. I had not dated for five years and nor was I planning to. I objected to Sam telling me to create pleasure and told him that I didn’t want this. Sam frowned at me and told me it didn’t matter—I was going into a fifth house profection year. I ended up beginning to fall in love not just romantically but platonically a few months later. This Christmas, I have more people to shop for than I ever did before.

The last reading I got was with Oscar Moises Diaz just yesterday. This is the first reading that I got that wasn’t for my birthday. I’ve known Oscar for a while now, first through an ex, and currently from both being ARMY. I booked a fixed stars parans reading from Moises.

What was really startling was the moment when Oscar pulled up my grandpa’s parans after hearing that he and I shared not only the same solar return day but also Saturn and Jupiter. It turns out, my grandpa and I share the same three stars for heliacal rising, setting, and paran to the meridian. I have fomalhaut rising, denebola setting, and antares to the meridian. My grandpa has antares rising, fomalhaut setting, and denebola to the meridian.

I’ve gotten a lot of wisdom from astrology readings over the years. Wisdom, I’ve found, often comes from the astrologer rather than the chart. Sometimes, it comes neither from the astrologer nor from me but from sheer coincidence. It almost never comes from some tight technical procedure.

I’ve gone into astrology readings looking for celebration, for validation, for advice, for curiosity—for fun. I’ve gone into astrology readings looking for conversation.

Astrology readings are a way of doing astrology that is very different from horoscope writing or teaching or speaking. Astrology readings are about being with people. When you book an astrology reading, you’re booking a session of marveling at the existence that is you for a period of an hour or 90 minutes. The way that you do this marveling is different from astrologer to astrologer. Marveling at the existence and survival of you is often fun, often difficult, and often intimate.

Every astrologer I’ve gotten a reading from has taught me something. I believe in getting readings if you get them. If there is such a thing as an astrological community, I believe that readings are one of the places where we create that community. Astrology is a practice of listening to one another in grief, in celebration, and in love.