Raj Girn: This week’s mindset and clarity themed show, where I’ll be deep diving a question that I get asked a lot: Can astrology help you make better business decisions? To help me answer this please welcome to the show the founder of Synchronicity University, the fabulous Nadiya Shah, who is an international syndicated astrologer who Vanity Fair, the French edition, called among the top 12 astrologers in the world, and I can attest to that because she’s my astrologer. I love her to bits. I really am a fiend when it comes to this lady’s insights and her knowledge every single time she puts something up, I’m right there. She’s definitely got me pinning the notification button on her YouTube channel.
This is Part Two of our conversation:
Raj Girn: Nadiya, I want to ask you this. There’s all this talk always about planets going direct, planets being in retrograde. What does all that mean? What do people need to actually get out of that?
Nadiya Shah: Sure. I love looking at the direction that the planets are going in. And really, it is an optical illusion, right? It is from our perspective on Earth that we gaze upon the sky and planets might appear to be going forward. So they’re moving forward in the zodiac and sometimes in rare occasions, they might appear to be going backwards. From our perspective, and it has to do with the relationship of the planet to the Earth. When a planet is changing direction, so it’s gearing up to change directions, it’s gearing up to go backwards, it’s gearing up to go forward, it is especially close to the Earth.
And so symbolically, we can understand its energies are magnified for us. Its symbolism becomes that much more important for us. And so it is that change of direction that tells us whether we’re meant to take that energy and go within, reflect, go back, go over old ground or whether it is that we’re meant to now find clarity, which is what often happens when a planet is standing still in the sky and gearing up to go direct. There tends to be some sort of awakening, some sort of clarity around events that are taking place related to the archetype of that planet. And when a planet goes forward, it’s kind of like the energy finally releases. We’re finally ready to go forward.
And I am somebody who really does emphasize the core energy of the planets and the change of directions is a powerful way to get to know their energies because that’s really what it comes down to. It’s about your personal relationship with the sky. If you understand what Mercury feels like, for example. Mercury is, very famously, messenger of the gods. This is energy of communication of being understood, just like you want messages to be received as intended. It is all types of messages that we may send that we desire to have reached their rightful place. Well, what is it that we really want to say? How do we think about a thing? What is really going on? That mind level clarity tends to come when Mercury stands still and goes direct and what we’ve been mulling over where we’ve been internalizing a lot of the energy, we’re able to see it differently when the planet of perception and communication moves forward.
So similarly, all planets have their own archetypal core part of the human experience. And when planets change directions, that’s when we really can start to build that energy to understand those energies as part of us more powerfully.
“All planets have their own archetypal core part of the human experience. And when planets change directions, that’s when we really can start to build that energy to understand those energies as part of us more powerfully.” ~Nadiya Shah
It’s so fascinating to me and everything you just said there has really played deep for me this past October. I mean, I cannot even begin to tell you the layers of everything that felt so amplified on so many levels. And I think that was just my personal take on what was happening with me. And it’s fascinating because you speak to different people and depending on the mindset they have, they view what’s going on in the sky differently. And I remember an interview I did with you in the past.
A few years ago, you said something that was so poignant that always stuck with me, and I kind of want to share it with everyone here Nadiya, if I may. You have said that people’s perceptions about what they believe in is extremely potent and very powerful. It’s kind of similar to how someone reads a line in the Bible, for example, or in a holy book can be perceived one way versus another. It could be very polar one way to the other. I don’t know if you remember saying that to me, but it was so powerful to me. That perception is probably the most powerful thing to look at when you’re going through your whole your human journey. Is there anything that you want to say about that? I’d love to know your thoughts.
You and I both know two people can read the exact same passage and one person will grow more loving, another person will go in the other direction. And that is because these holy books are very powerfully symbolic. They provide this powerful language, but ultimately what they do is they reflect the human experience back to us. They reflect our own journey in terms of trying to understand the meaning of life, the meaning of the divine, how we’re connected to the divine, and really, in many ways, all of it is divine.
I’ll give you an example. A Sufi mystic and astrologer and philosopher who lived a thousand years ago. His name was Ibn Arabi, and I actually wrote my master’s dissertation on Ibn Arabi, and I loved his work so much. And really, if I had to say who has shaped my understanding of the sky most, it would be his work. And so even Arabi, he wrote this little essay called Who So No Knoweth Thyself. And I remember when I read this essay, I had sort of a spiritual experience reading this essay because in this work, he says that we are, and what he’s really known for is what is called and what he coined the magnificent breath. It’s this idea that we are new ways in which the divine itself knows itself. We are the breath and the expansion of God itself. And he said that every ache, every longing, every desire, every elation of your heart is a new way that God itself experiences itself, knows itself, grows in itself. And if you had not been there to experience that exact longing or elation or disappointment or sadness or love or happiness, then it is as if God itself cannot be made more cannot be made stronger.
And so what he’s saying here is that yes, your life is divine, your expression is divine. But really, all of the human experience is divine. It’s all spiritual. And I think that’s what we see when we read sacred texts. Now take that to a meta level. Take that now to symbols in the sky. We’re moving beyond language. We’re now going to symbols and we are interpreting them. And really, you really know what someone’s worldview is when you look at how they interpret the sky. So if someone is a person who sees life as a space that is unfair where lots happens outside of you, that affects you, that there are these outside forces that are going to determine your path that are going to determine your success, then that’s going to show up in how you interpret the sky that’s going to show up in your astrology.
However, if you’re somebody who looks to the sky and believes that the universe is wise and loving, that believes that sometimes the universe has a greater plan for you than anything you can plan for yourself, well, that’s going to orient you very differently to the symbols. You are going to explore those symbols and interpret them and understand them with a whole other lens. And so as much as we see this play out in sacred text, take that now to a much more symbolic, much more meet at a place and we see this play out in terms of how people interpret the sky.
Absolutely. It’s so fascinating, and it’s the kind of rabbit hole that I love to just re-dive
Me too. This is my nerd hat coming on this. This is the stuff I look for, like this is why I do what I do. It’s wonderful. Yes, I know the techniques. I have a foundation and that and I love speaking to the symbols. I love what astrology affirms, our interconnection to the universe and to each other. I love that. But really, the point is for us and for my audience and for my readers to know that they are a part of that very energy that is divine, that whatever they’re experiencing right now, they can in some way tap into it to become more wise, to become more loving, no matter how hard it may be. And I just love affirming that for people, that is my purpose, and I feel like that being the foundation, it allows business to be that much easier.
“The point is for us and for my audience and for my readers to know that they are a part of that very energy that is divine, that whatever they’re experiencing right now, they can in some way tap into it to become more wise, to become more loving, no matter how hard it may be.” ~Nadiya Shah
The sacrifices that go into being an entrepreneur because there are sacrifices. We talk a lot about following our bliss. And yes, there is bliss and connecting to the sky. For me, for example, we can talk about that. But the truth is there are also sacrifices involved when you are determined to share or to reach people, or to find a way to align your work with your success, with your happiness, with your spiritual path. But maybe that’s part of the journey, like that’s part of what allows us to become who it is that we’re meant to be. It’s never really about the milestone. It’s never really about the success, it’s about who we become in the process and the sacrifices are part of it. But staying aligned to mission is what makes the sacrifices worth it, and it is absolutely worth it.
Absolutely agreed. You know, it’s human nature to look for answers outside of ourselves as well as within ourselves. You know, the hope is to show insights on those aspects that we struggle with most like love and happiness, wellbeing and money. What would you want people to understand about astrology in that realm when it comes to wanting to optimize the presence of all of these in our lives? What’s that connection there that you feel people need to understand?
So there’s a couple of things. It can depend on how you approach the chart, of course, how you approach the sky. Now I’m personally of the belief because I have a business that is rooted in spiritual affirmation, spiritual principles, spiritual meaning. I am of the belief that if you are sharing from a place that is authentic within you, if it is that you are aligning what you do with your spiritual purpose as you understand it, then it’s sort of like you enter a flow. That doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges or sacrifices, but when you enter the flow, it feels different. The external things, the physical things, the resources you need, they have a way of coming together. And I think about my own business and how much I struggled in those first years in particular, and how so often I made it harder on myself because I was fighting. I was fighting against life instead of listening to life. But the more I learned to integrate that understanding of entering the flow, it’s almost like the business started to find its own flow as well. It started to find its own audience.
It started to find a path. It started to find a more clear identity that people could resonate with, that they could feel more deeply. And so things sort of came together on that level. So I am all about honouring the spiritual path first and foremost. Now, having said that, of course, we are embodied for a reason. We live in the earthly realm. There are practical things as well that we can do. And yes, absolutely. You can look at the chart and consider what types of industries or what forms of behaviours, or even what type of keywords are buzzwords to use to optimize your ability to create more prosperity for yourself. So absolutely, we can look at the astrological symbols to help people understand everything from aligning to life purpose to what could I be doing more of in order to earn more money or stabilize my finances? What cycle in my in right now, and how can I tap into this so that I can make the most of it for my present and future prosperity? There are symbols that we can explore,
You know, I wanted to just bring back for anyone. Just this whole idea that you mentioned earlier that, I think is just so brilliant when it comes to business and that is having a chart for your business, like a natal chart for your business. Is that something you offer? You offer for people to kind of come to you and figure that piece out.
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, to give a little bit of a plug, we have this wonderful teacher coming up at my school in the new year who’s going to be teaching people the techniques as to how to actually align with your chart and also to align your business chart for success. And so these are very established techniques that have been used for a really long time. Remember, astrology was able to develop and flourish because it had the support of the people, empower the people with the money, the kings and also they were deeply connected to the spiritual leaders, the priests, right?
And so for a very long time, astrology was only for royalty. Yeah. And what does royalty do with it? They time things like, for example, Queen Elizabeth. The first had an astrologer, John D, very famous astrologer John D was her astrologer, and he chose her coronation date. He chose that moment of her coronation, knowing that that would set the foundation for her monarchy, for her realm. And that’s exactly what happened. She was considered one of the more successful in terms of her longevity in terms of her reach in terms of the peace of England during her reign.
Similarly, we can, in our own lives, think about how we can tap into astrology because now we know we live in a time when you are the queen or king of your own realm, whatever that realm is for you and your business is your realm. Especially when it’s something near and dear to your heart, especially when it’s something you’re passionate about. So, of course, why not? Why not tap into the same techniques that Queen Elizabeth the first used? Those techniques are available to us. You can tap into them as well.
“We can, in our own lives, think about how we can tap into astrology because now we know we live in a time when you are the queen or king of your own realm, whatever that realm is for you and your business is your realm. Yes, especially when it’s something near and dear to your heart, especially when it’s something you’re passionate about.” ~Nadiya Shah
Well, it’s how you know the three kings or prophets found Jesus. There’s just so many historical stories in every single corner of the world that leads to how astrology has helped them. People navigate some really tremendous things that have happened. The birth of Buddha, for example, it was seen, it was seen in the in the sky is such a brilliant thing.
I want to ask you a question because I think it’s important that we also ask as we figure this piece out as well. Are there any contraindications to utilizing astrology? Or is it like a glass of wine? You know, one glass of wine is good for your health. You have three bottles and obviously isn’t like taught to me here.
Sure. I get it. Like, we are being nerdy here together, and I absolutely love it.
I’m taking full advantage of the time I have with you to ask those questions that are always kind of in my head and I never get answers to.
I love it. I would say, of course. You don’t want to become obsessive. You don’t want to become dependent. There’s a famous phrase I think is from Shakespeare, where he says “The wise man rules his stars, the fool obeys them.” That’s the quote from Shakespeare. And that really is it like, look at the end of the day. I am very much of the belief that astrology is supposed to empower you to trust yourself more, empower you to find whatever it is that is your unique part of the Breath of the Divine, the magnificent breath. That’s how I look at astrology, and a part of that means trusting yourself. It means listening to your life.
And I think it is so important for us as astrologers, for example, not to foster dependance. I’m very, very reluctant with that. That’s why I don’t see people very often. If somebody is contacting me again and again, they want to see me every week, every two weeks. That, to me, is not healthy. That’s not the way to go. The way to go is that an astrologer is going to guide you to yourself. They’re going to remind you of yourself. And of course, for business, you want a time certain things. But it really is about tapping into the big moments, right? The big moments as much as possible. Then you can look at the smaller things like every lunar cycle. But ideally, you’re listening to your life or listening to yourself, and then you are using the sky as a way to understand some larger energies that could be at play and how to align with them, but always align with them in a way that feels right to you. That is so important and has to resonate as right for you. Because remember, as I said earlier, so much of what we do is actually out of a deeper spiritual drive.
“Ideally, you’re listening to your life or listening to yourself, and then you are using the sky as a way to understand some larger energies that could be at play and how to align with them, but always align with them in a way that feels right to you. That is so important and has to resonate as right for you. Because remember, as I said earlier, so much of what we do is actually out of a deeper spiritual drive.” ~Nadiya Shah
We’re here to understand our unique journey towards greater love and greater wisdom, even if we are very practical, even if we’re very materialistic, that’s okay. Even though from a spiritual perspective, the material is illusionary, it’s still a part of the human experience. Yes, but when it is that we put focus on the spiritual journey, then sometimes something may make sense astrologically, but karmically we know that that may not be the way for us. That may not be the path for us. So I’ll give you an example. We know that certain relationships you may have in life can feel really easy, right? But easy is not necessarily love for all of us. Right? What love is and how love is felt and love is experienced is deeply personal and it is complex and it is varied. And so you could meet somebody who astrologically is the perfect match. But do they awaken your karmic path towards understanding love? Do they touch on your own chart and what you understand love to be? Do they awaken those feelings in a way that’s healthy? Or maybe in a way that’s not healthy? That’s going to show you something about what your karmic yearning is, and that is deeply personal. It depends on your consciousness, the consciousness you bring to the sky.
Absolutely. So anyone out there who is curious about wanting to find out more on how they can utilize astrology to the benefits that they’re looking to accomplish in their lives, how do they choose an astrologer?
I’m a big believer in trusting yourself and going with what resonates with you. And especially now with astrologers out there. I mean, when I started on YouTube, there were a small handful of us, a very small handful of us. I mean, I can count on perhaps one or two hands all the astrologers that were on YouTube way back in 2008. But now, of course, there’s such a variety. So on the one hand, trust your intuition to take you where it needs to go. But also, who do you resonate with? There were all kinds of ways to see what an astrologer sharing through video through YouTube through their website, through reading them on social media. There are a lot of astrologers who are only doing what they do on social media platforms. So there are all kinds of ways to connect with different astrologers to observe Is this person sharing from a world view that resonates with where it is that your soul journey is taking you? And if you feel that connection, then, yes, trust that. Go for it.
Absolutely. You know, Nadiya, before we close off, I cannot believe that we’ve gotten to that point where I need to close off, which means that you still have to come back again and again because you are just the queen.
Oh my God. Thank you. You know, you’ve been such an inspiration to me. You are this pioneer of just being this woman with such strong life force and you created an empire. And it’s so incredible how you’re utilizing these tools and you seem so cool and personable and you are that person. But you are also really the goddess of the empress of this massive empire that’s been so inspiring to me. And so thank you. Thank you for being a trailblazer in your own right. And it’s just so exciting to have this moment with you, but also just thank you to you. Thank you to ANOKHI media, because you have really been there for me since way back in 2015, when I first launched my school when nobody knew about it. It was a low key media that did a feature on it. It was a low key media that was there for me in so many ways. So just thank you for the incredible platform you’ve created and the ways in which you’ve allowed me to share on it. Thank you.
Oh sweetheart, you are the real deal. That’s the reason why. That’s the reason why it’s that simple. I want to ask you this as we get ready to close off, just because this is something that I feel a lot of people get confused about. People put astrologers, psychics, tarot card readers and all of the above in the same bucket. Can we just share once and for all why astrology is not like the other forms of looking into “the future”?
Absolutely. I think that the other forms that you’re talking about, they rely on synchronicity, they rely on intuition, they rely on a meaningful moment, and they rely on that sense of touching another energy, right? Tapping into an energetic principle that has something to share or speak, but ultimately represents the energy of the moment. That’s the thing. You come to a reading. I’ll give you an example.
I remember speaking to somebody from the New York Times and she was telling me about — you wanted my opinion on exactly this — and she was telling me about how she was working for another media outlet. And she was miserable and she was in a relationship and she was miserable. And so she went to a psychic like she literally was walking down the street and she saw a storefront and she went to see the psychic and she asked about this, and the psychic basically told her that this dude was as good as it was going to get. She should just settle and marry the guy, and this job was as good as it was going to get for her right now. If she left the job, she was going to be miserable and broke for many years to come. She was so mad after that.
She was so angry after that that she immediately left and she quit her job and she broke up with her boyfriend before the day was even over. She did this because she was so mad. And I said to her, “How do you know that that isn’t exactly the message that you needed in that moment?” That was exactly what she needed, because that allowed her the impetus to make those changes. If she had been told, “Well, yes, of course you can.” Things like that, that would have been a very different energy that would have been created that maybe she wouldn’t have responded the way she did, but maybe she was meant to respond the way that she did. So that’s one layer.
We tap into that sense of meaningful chance, meaningful coincidence, meaningful omens that much more when we’re looking at other defamatory forms. Now, astrology can have that meaningful synchronistic quality to it, which is why my businesses have the name synchronicity to them because I think it’s very powerful to sort of be in the right place at the right time and receive a message that can make all the difference in your life. Astrologers can facilitate that, but what’s different is that we route to what it is that we’re doing in celestial phenomenon and actually celestial phenomenon and human beings feeling connected to it is so fundamental to the human experience itself. In fact, the oldest documents that exist, I mean, going back to cave drawings of humanity, we can see people documenting what’s happening in the sky and figuring out what that means for us here on Earth.
So we have this very primal understanding that what is happening selectively speaks to us personally. But then there are very established techniques around that. There is a physical phenomenon taking place that is outside of us, but is deeply connected to us, and of course, yes, there are techniques and there’s in some perspective there is a science behind it. In fact, there are few universities in India that teach astrology under social sciences. But for the most part, we can understand astrology now, depending on the perspective you bring. So if you are the scientific type, the mathematical type, you will approach your astrology differently than somebody who is more poetic, for example. And yet that connection within and the experience in the external world being intimately connected is part of what astrology affirms very powerfully.
And finally, can astrology help you make better business decisions? Your final word on that, Nadiya.
My final word on that is if astrology is part of where you feel called to go as part of understanding yourself as an entrepreneur, as part of understanding your business, then you would be in very, very good company because lots and lots of business leaders have used astrology all the way to Ronald Reagan very famously used astrology, especially in the second term of his presidency. And we can see Fortune 500 leaders using astrology as well. So you’d been very good company. But ultimately, it is a deeply personal thing.
Understand yourself and what feels right for you to align with and also experiment. If astrology is meant to be a tool for you to utilize, then you will experience its benefits rather quickly, and that can help you to amplify its power in your business that much more. But I think, being an entrepreneur, what a rewarding journey it has been, and I’m sure you share this as well. It is one of the greatest blessings I can think of, like the great privilege of self-actualization, really, which a lot of people don’t get to align with. You and I have been able to align with and the fact that astrology helps us to self actualize that much more fully. What a gift it is as well.
“Understand yourself and what feels right for you to align with and also experiment, if astrology is meant to be a tool for you to utilize, then you will experience its benefits rather quickly, and that can help you to amplify its power in your business that much more.” ~Nadiya Shah
Absolutely. And a lot of these things that we are conditioned as humans, limiting beliefs and this is your role because you are, for example, a woman or you are a certain colour or if you’re from a certain family. All of these things, these kind of rules and regulations of these boxes that humanity has created. I found personally that I’ve been able to break all of them down because I’ve tapped into my spirituality because I’ve tapped into how astrology speaks to me and my need for freedom. Because for me, freedom is power.
Yes, I’m right there with you. I’m right there with you. I too have that that thing in me that you have that wants to be yourself and know something about yourself, right? It’s like knowing something about yourself outside of the expectations of others. I think that’s part of the entrepreneurial journey as well, because when you’re on that journey, a lot of people may tell you that that isn’t the path. I mean, I’ll give you an example.
When I went to university to do my master’s in England at the University of Kent, I remember meeting a lot of students, especially the first week. It’s like all these orientations and things. And of course, I’m connecting with lots of students, South Asian students, and every one of them is taking engineering right, engineering, engineering. And I remember people would ask me, “What are you studying?” And I would say cosmology and divination, and I would hear things like, ‘Why would you study that?” That was the reaction. “I didn’t know you could study that.” But I had the great privilege of being able to say, “That’s what I want to study. That’s what I’m going for.” And that in and of itself is such a gift because a lot of those people in those engineering programs didn’t feel like they had that option, didn’t feel like they had that choice.
And so the fact that we do what a blessing, the fact that astrology helps us to tap into more of our personal freedom. All right. I mean, that’s very powerful as well. But I think when I think about being young and how rebellious I was, I was just such a rebel. O course you were too right? Because that energy of freedom is trying to figure out how to be directed. And we didn’t really know that. I didn’t really know how to direct it, but it really was when I went a little bit deeper. When I went through that very difficult time, what I call a dark night of the soul, or what’s been called a dark night of the soul. That was really when I tapped into something much deeper that. Was really when I realized that this was a force for good. It wasn’t a force that was within me to make life harder for me to have, you know, the world hate me to be ostracized or anything. It was really for me to trust myself and to be my authentic self.
And when I did that whole rebellious energy, it just calmed right down because it has a focus now. And I think to be an entrepreneur, you’ve got to be a bit of a rebel. No matter what you’re doing, you’ve got to be a bit of a rebel because you have to be willing to trust yourself. And that’s not something that some of us have the luxury of choosing. And also, it takes guts. I’m going to close where I started. I started off by saying it takes guts to be an entrepreneur and really, it does take guts to go your own way. But it is the road less traveled, and it is such a rewarding journey as well.
Absolutely. Because not only are you are you living your truth, but you’re opening up the possibility that this is a choice that people can make. You’re allowing people through you to see that there is another way.
Absolutely, you following your path following your soul journey gives other people permission to do so. That gives people you may never know or never meet permission to do that. Well, before I met you, you were inspiring me with this media empire that you built. Just you being you and doing what you felt called to do made me possible. And I’m sure that there are many, many, many people out there watching right now who feel exactly the same way
You blessed me and make me feel so good about all the things that I’ve gone through my love. I thank you so much
You’ve earned it. You’ve earned it. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you, my love. I would like to close off by at least letting people know again, how can they get a hold of you. And we haven’t even shared your social media platforms so people know how to go hang out with you there.
Sure, it would be lovely to meet you wherever you are online. I will say if you put in Nadiya Shah astrology in Google like really adding spelling of Nadiya Shah because there are a lot of different spellings out there. Any spelling of Nadiya Shah astrology will bring up my work. But yes, you can find me and the different websites I mentioned: synchronicityuniversity.com, synchronicitypublications.com, nadiyashahsuperstars.com, NadiyaShah.com. Social media is basically Nadiya Shah most places. So on Youtube it’s Nadia Shah lspelled out and Facebook Nadiya Shah spelled out. On Instagram it’s Nadiya_Shah and on Twitter it’s nadiyashah one word.
You are everywhere, girl. So guys, there is no excuses. You have got to go hang out with my girl. She is the real deal and you guys have spent this time with us how the energy was kind of flowing beautifully between the both of us. That is something that this lady has the power of doing and why I adore and love and respect and honour her journey.
Thank you so much for joining me today, my darling, and sharing your insights. I just love everything that you always share with everyone. And it’s funny because every time that I have a conversation with you, something new kind of shifts in my mind and in my heart about what the possibility of living life could be. And that is a big, big, big statement.
Oh, that makes me so happy. Thank you. Thank you for the part that you play in my journey as well, Raj.
Absolutely, sweetheart.
Guys, thank you so much for hanging out with Nadiya and I today. I really hope that you got some real value for my discussion and I would be shocked if you didn’t. I also want to just support you guys and ask you that if today’s episode has really shifted a perspective in your mind. I want you to send me an email.
Email me at [email protected]. Again, that’s [email protected]. Tell me your story. Because if I love it, I’ll be inviting you to be a guest on my show right here to share your story. So together cyclically, I say this every single time that I come out to chat with you guys, we can help someone else expand their possibilities to reach their version of Nirvana. That is magical.
For more trainings like this, please subscribe to my YouTube channel at the Open Just Confidence Academy. Go hang out with me on podcast platforms. Search ‘The Transform Your Confidence Show.’ I also encourage you to join my free coaching newsletter community. Just go to www.TheOpenChestConfidenceAcademy.com/newsletter and also hop on over to Facebook, search, Transform Your Confidence and join my free professional development incubator where I personally answer your questions. You’re going to be a member for that.
Okay, guys, I want you to always remember that positive vibes is what’s going to keep you focused on building who you are, who you are meant to be, and for living your best life. I will see you next time.