Once you’ve listened, let us know in the comments below — what is your takeaway from this conversation? What steps will you take to look inward and find your authentic self?
In this episode of The Natural Healing Podcast, we converse with Cameron Allen about evolutionary astrology, the relationship between plants and the planets, and the importance of awareness as a catalyst for personal and collective change.
Cameron Allen is an astrologer, herbalist, Reiki practitioner, health consultant, budding yoga practitioner, and spontaneous poet based in Los Angeles, California. His journey first began in college, when he played football and became interested in the mind and the body. He studied health and sports science, then psychology, and started to learn about alchemy and the planets through Carl Jung and psychology texts.
While working at a facility for emotionally troubled youth, Cameron looked for emotional support, seeking to remove heaviness from his life and find spiritual connection. He soon found his first mentor, who led him through a cacao ceremony. Shortly after, he was fired from his job at the facility and hired at a spiritual supply store, which introduced him to tea, crystals, oils, candles, and root work. At his new job, he read books and became curious about astrology, following his intuition to explore what interested him.
Through a class on the correspondence between plants and planets, Cameron learned about the school of evolutionary herbalism and gained a framework for understanding how plants correspond to organ systems and emotional states. He consumed spagyric tinctures for a period of a year, learning about the patterns of creation and destruction in nature and integrating this knowledge into the body.
During the pandemic, he became a full-time astrologer, translating and conveying his knowledge to others. Throughout his journey, Cameron followed and manifested what he was meant to be doing because he listened to it: the universe communicates to us, and it’s important to listen. Otherwise, if we choose to ignore it, the message gets quieter. Part of his personal ritual includes listening: After work, Cameron would make tea, turn off the lights, and sit in the bathroom with noise-canceling headphones. Creating this environment of quiet allowed him to listen to the plants.
Astrology & the Journey toward Authenticity
Astrology is the science and art of understanding how celestial bodies are connected to terrestrial events. The planets influence the mind and body, and various organ systems correspond to planetary forces.
The planets are the energetics, and astrological signs indicate locations in the body. For example, if Mars is in Cancer, this may indicate heat in the stomach: Mars is hot, and Cancer rules the stomach. Understanding astrology not only helps locate an illness or disease, but creates a customized way of understanding your holistic self, including your cultural context.
Bringing awareness to your current state and repressed emotions can catalyze the process of healing. Cameron’s approach comes from a place of validation and education. He emphasizes the importance of feeling your feelings before a health issue can be fully explored or understood. When you feel your feelings, you become more settled, allowing for a deeper understanding of the self.
It is natural for people to be authentic until this authenticity is repressed or suppressed. You don’t stop being authentic, you simply stop expressing it. Cameron works to help people find and validate their essence so that they can continue to express their authentic selves. This begins with the process of looking at life as trial and error, as well as embracing the present moment.
The beauty of astrology is that it reminds you to return to the essence of who you are. It validates your authentic self and allows you to become and embrace that self. For example, for those who are Aries, it may be authentic to follow what’s true and instinctual. Understanding yourself can bring inner peace, and once you’re at peace, you can move in a direction that your soul wants you to go in.
We are all formed through nature and nurture, and the astrological chart explores nature, bringing you back to who you are at your core. Finding your purpose will come naturally if you live authentically and understand what is true to you, rather than listen to external forces and social pressures.
What is often called a “midlife crisis” can be reframed as a shifting or awakening. When you begin to look inward and open your heart to possibility, you are more able to find a sense of purpose in your life. In his practice, Cameron starts with the psyche and descends into the physical body, looking inward for the truest self.
Evolutionary Astrology: Surfacing the Shadows
Cameron is passionate about Evolutionary Astrology, which was started by Jeffrey Wolf Green. In this practice, the journey of self-exploration and understanding begins at Pluto. This is a different orientation from most astrology, which typically begins with the seven main planets.
Pluto is the deep self or the soul, representing the deepest emotional and psychological attachment that the soul has. It begins with a wide, zoomed-out view, encompassing the question of why your soul wants to come here.
From there, Cameron explores the nodes of the moon. The South Node represents the formation of an emotional identity in this life, or identities from lives prior. The North Node is the projection of that emotional identity into the future. Whereas the South is the perceived past, the North is the perceived future, and both are in dynamic tension with the present. Combined, the two nodes encompass how the past has influenced you, and how you will project yourself moving forward.
The North Node can be represented by the head of a dragon, and the South Node by the tail of the dragon. Between them is the moon, which functions as the stomach. If you’re not connected to the stomach, it’s not possible to process the past. If you’re connected only to the North Node, the head of the dragon, you’re eating without satisfaction. Therefore, the moon has to be understood in combination with these nodes, digesting the past in the present. If the past hasn’t been digested or processed, fear is projected into the future.
The return of Pluto represents the transmutation of the value systems that this nation was created under. All of these shadows need to be surfaced and then addressed in order for collective change to occur.
Rather than assuming that change happens by itself, this new cycle in Pluto urges us to locate ourselves within it, especially because individual change creates collective change. We each have our part in dismantling the disenfranchisement and disempowerment that this nation was founded on. One question that Cameron poses is to think about your values and ask whether it aligns with the nation right now.
Unhealed wounds perpetuate the same behavior. The more that people in positions of power lack awareness, the more disempowerment disperses through other people. The return of Pluto is a time of awakening to and dismantling “me vs. you” mentalities and the scarcity mindset.
This pandemic is a time of mass grieving, and this grief has to arise and be transmuted. This is a period in which more and more people are looking inward and experiencing a collective healing crisis. Through inner work, and by gathering different modalities, practices, and tools, it becomes possible to find connection with personal truth and the essence of your authentic self.
In this period of awakening and addressing the shadows, Cameron reminds us that our responsibility on this planet is to enhance our ability to respond. It’s time to undo the false boundaries we have created against the perceived “other,” and to finally let go of guilt, shame, blame, and judgment. Instead of erecting walls, boundaries have the power to create connections.
To learn more about Cameron Allen and his work, click here.
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