051 | Travis Black: On the Least Worst Astrology & More

Astrologer, magician, and bodyworker Travis Black joins host Jenn Zahrt from Seattle, Washington to chat books and more! Together, the duo tackle a lot of ground, including: decoding planetary magic; Vedic astrology; the Plutonian elements of a famous TV reboot; Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions; planetary cancellation conditions; finding the least worst astrology; ritual and timing recipes; Jupiter in Gemini and Lemminkäinen; myth knowledge and cultural exploration; barycenters; astrology as an access point to philosophy, science, psychology, divinities, literature, and more; citing your sources; observational astronomy; telescopes and theodolites; images of synodic cycles; Dark Moon Lilith; and getting comfortable with not knowing. Plus: Twin Peaks, the “Gideon” ephemeris, and… it’s the water!

 

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Transcripts available upon request.

Song “Wake Up” used with permission by The E-Block Band.

 

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Episode timestamps (conversation recorded June 2024):

 

00:31 – Travis Black is a Seattle-based astrologer, magician, and bodyworker with shamanic tendencies. As a student and practitioner of the occult for 30 years, his decades-long private practice has been informed by initiations into traditions such as Western Esotericism, Hermetic Qabalah, Gnosticism, British Folk Magic, New Thought, Taoism, Tantra, Yoga, and Shamanism. He is currently a psychotherapist-in-training researching occult interventions for mental health, and he’s also an advocate for the rights and dignity of sex workers. He aims to integrate mental health care with alternative healing modalities to provide services to the community at the highest level.

 

02:11 – Travis initially went searching for a book on how planets can open portals (thanks, Twin Peaks!), and so his first astrology book was Planetary Magick: Invoking and Directing the Powers of the Planets by Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips.

 

06:35 – A throwback to the OG! If Travis could bring only three books to a desert island, his first choice would be a deep dive into Book V of Carmen Astrologicum by Dorotheus of Sidon, (which you can find translated by Benjamin Dykes or David Pingree). Travis finds this treatise on electional astrology so important that he returns to it every year. Also, perhaps with good timing techniques, Travis could generate a rescue effort off the island!

 

13:04 – Interlude: Join CAELi and snag yourself a Saturn stress-relief ball. (Yes, you read that right!)

 

13:50 – Travis’s second text is MythAstrology: Exploring Planets & Pantheons by Raven Kaldera. Travis loves how this one gives him room to dream, instead of feeling confined by chart configurations.

 

22:46 – The third title that Travis references is not quite nailed down yet, but it would be something related to observational astrology or an in-depth book on teaching oneself astronomy, because he wants to work more deeply with this topic. (Other books mentioned here are Progressions & Directions by Charles Jayne, and Tables of Planetary Phenomena Paperback by Neil F. Michelsen with revisions by Rique Pottenger and illustrated by Maria Kay Simms.)

 

30:20 – For beginners, Travis recommends Astrology for Yourself: How to Understand and Interpret Your Own Birth Chart by Demetra George and Douglas Bloch and You Were Born for This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance by Chani Nicholas.

 

32:50 – Find Travis at his website: https://bathhousemystic.com/. You can also find him everywhere on social @bathhousemystic.

 

33:17 – Thanks for listening to Within Orb! If you love the show, please help support it at no cost to you: Follow or subscribe wherever you listen, rate it five stars, or write a happy review! And if you’d like to become a CAELi member or support our work with a contribution of any amount, we’d be delighted – thanks!

 

Show notes by Jen Braun, JJ Boots Productions LLC.