Ep 1: Adar is an A-Doozy! Anya Riddell-Kaufman Has Your Jewish Astrology Rx
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Astrology, has been banned, and rebanned, and allowed back with sanctions, and banned again by rabbis and tribal institutions for hundreds of reasons through our Jewish people's history.
And nonetheless, it always persists. It’s no surprise why astrology has remained interwoven with the underground threads of the Jewish mystical tradition. If divine oneness is the heart of Jewishness, time cycles are the blood vessels that it pumps us through.
The never-ending, constant spinning circles of Shabbat, interwoven with daily ritual, spiraling through cycles of chag and Yom Tov, weaving through every Torah parsha. All of that then dancing with the spiritual structure of the seasons that is then locked into the moon and the months which mixes with our time cycles of birth and death, of mourning, of raising children, of coming of age. We measure the stars in the sky every Friday night, the days of shiva and the months of grieving, the minutes of mtazo, the years between resting the land, etcetera etcetera.
To be a Jew is to be in a dance with time, to be in time and to be moved by time. And I think when we need more answers, time is still there. It's right in front of us. It's turning the weather, it's turning the planets, it's turning the stars. It's one more angle to see into this endless soup of energies that make up life and creation.
Even in closed-off ultra-orthodox communities (and perhaps especially here) where leaders and the rabbis command everyone with the most dire of warnings not to look through this window of wisdom, astrologers still thrive in the shadows.
We see this art passed dor le dor. There's always someone's aunt who, in exchange for helping her with her car, look at your bar mitzvah Torah portion, your birth calendar, and the weather of the day to tell you those secrets that are hiding just beyond your reach.
INTRODUCING CELEBRATED JEWISH ASTROLOGER AND SACRED ARTIST ANYA RIDDELL-KAUFMAN
Today we have a message from time and sky channeled by our favorite Jewish astrologist, Anya Riddel Kaufman. Anya is a rainbow of Jewish magic: a sacred artist, a painter, a sculptor, a poet, a kabbalist, a powerful activist, an architect, and a card reader. See some of her work at @_anya_mind_
Here's Anya's Divine Trailer for this topsy-turvy upside down darkly comic drunken sob fest and belly laugh of an Adar that we are currently sailing through. Enjoy.
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Anya: Hello, this is Anya Riddel Kaufman. I'm a Jewish time apprentice, steadier, participator, worshiper and budding astrologist. I just needed to share some 📍 lookaheads at a Adar 5785 because WOW, we have times ahead of us. Looking at the astrology of this particular Adar, it feels very aligned with the themes of this month in Jewish time.
It's said that in Adar, joy increases. We're feeling coming into spring. We just came out of Shvat where we were feeling the sap rising, the trees celebrating and waking up. And then we come into Adar and we feel this joy slowly increase and bud. And within that, we're feeling there's also this element of Adar that's a lot of energy.
You're kind of thrown back in it. And, and while the joy is slowly increasing, it also peaks with this wild and crazy celebration of life and of dichotomy and of story that is turning ourselves upside down and topsy-turvy and into not understanding the differences between things that we normally consider binaries.
We get to do play with that and we get to, um, explore and try things on. And part of that is like, it's, it's like a release valve. And what are you. Trying, what do you need to release in order to open up? Um, and, and it's like kind of considered in, in relationship to Passover that we're, we will celebrate next month and we'll, we'll dive into our liberation story and making space for our liberation.
But we have to do that first with Purim of really, um. Making that space and, and releasing it all, and wow. He, this year, um, there's a lot going on in March in Adar that, um, you know, somehow it's, it's a little rare that the, the months. Match up, um, in the, in these two calendars that we look at the Jewish and the Gregorian calendar.
And this year they're like perfectly matched. The first is the first. Um, and so we kind of get these themes together. And then also we welcomed in as we came into March 1st, Adar one. Um. A Venus stationed retrograde. And that's not the only retrograde we're gonna experience in this Adar. Um, but it is one that we only experience every few years.
Um, and this one is an Aries and we only experience. A retrograde, a Venus retrograde in a certain sign every eight years or so. You can think back to 2017 and when what you were going through in this part of your chart and life, um, and. Yeah, retrograde, it's a time to reflect and to think and kind of everything.
It's like the, the, the planet in the sky looks like it's going backwards to us, and that just feels like so aligned with this month that we're kind of like, well, what if I looked at it upside down and like, what if I really considered something else and like played with it and, and got to like have fun with it.
And so we are in this Venus retrograde, which. You know, we get to think about our values and, um, the love in our life and our relationships and how all those things are aligned and like review them. Um, and then, and then we're going into a clips season, which is also so topsy-turvy, and this aligns, there's a lunar eclipse in Virgo on.
Purim on the full moon, um, which, you know, Purim aligns with. And, um. You know, this is so interesting 'cause it's, it's this lunar eclipse in Virgo. And Virgo represents like the details. Perfectionism organization being analytical and the lunar eclipse is kind of like reverse that, like slow that down and maybe not so much with the details.
Maybe just play, maybe just don't worry about it. Um, and that's so purum, right? And it's like, it maybe takes a lot of work if you're like, putting on a spiel or organizing people to get together. But then you just like, let loose and like, let what you prepared for happen and let it be what it'll be and let it be this wild card.
Um. And then, you know, if that weren't enough, then we have Mercury Stationing retrograde on the 14th. So also like basically Purum and like on Purum. Um, and I. You know, people like to talk about Mercury, mercury retrograde. Um, it's, it's everything I said on the retrograde earlier. We get to review and reflect, and also our communications that Mercury represents is kind of like, well, maybe double check that and maybe don't just.
Throw it out there. So kind of as we're just like, we're in the play, we're in the ruckus, we're in the, who knows what's going on. Maybe we still watch what we're saying. Maybe, you know, mercury wants us to mess up a little. It wants us to learn from reflecting and reviewing. Um, and maybe just like perfectionism is not the goal, but maybe we're.
We're being careful also. Like we're not, we're not involving people. We don't wanna involve in this mess, but we're, we're getting messy with people that we trust so that we can release and we can expand, and we can get ready in preparation for the freedom that we all deserve and can work towards all of us collectively having that liberation.
Um. And then at the end of the month on the, it's March 29th and, and so it's in, it's still the end of Adar. Um. We are gonna have a solar clipse, but it's kind of, you know, it's like solar eclipse happening on the New Moon, which is right before we, we enter the new month. Um, the new Jewish month. And so, um, and this is of course happening in Aries also, which represents our, our independence and it's action oriented and.
You know, this is like amplifying those venous retrograde themes and we're kind of like ending, like sending off a Adar with this kind of like, well, well, we're still eclipsing, we're still like, what are we bringing? What do we want of that, of this month, of this wild, of this play, of this full energy.
What do we wanna bring in with us? What are we, what have we learned and what do we wanna bring? Um, I think is what I'm thinking about that. And then on Rosh Chodesh Nissan, there's Neptune enters into Aries, um, on March 30th and. You know, Neptune is very slow. It's one of the outer planets. That's something actually about this whole year that we're experiencing.
Um, a lot of the outer planets are gonna move. That's a big thing that people have been talking about with 2025 and the Gregorian calendar and, um, yeah. Yeah, we're like. We're experiencing one of those. It's like Neptune. It, it doesn't move a lot, it hasn't changed science since 2011. Um, so this is like a pretty major deal.
We're gonna spend a long time, the rest, uh, like a another chunk of time. With this, with Neptune in Aries, and we get to kind of start this feeling of what does this feel like as we move months, as we move from play into liberation and, and thinking about those themes and how are those, how is this, how are we, you know, incorporating this transition and thinking about.
Uh, you know, Neptune is like escape and fantasy and imagination and Aries is kind of conflict and, um, you know, yeah. Just thinking about like how our ideals might like. I might have some conflict in them and like, I don't know, that feels very potent for this time that we're experiencing politically and culturally, um, to really dive into those themes and that we're really supported by the energy and what the planets are doing and the weather and our Jewish container calendar to like really dive into that and think about what our role is.
Um, and, you know, there's potential to get swept up in it all. Um, and so it's just a reminder to like really ground and, and how can you stay in with it all and, and come, um, with it. And so that's kind of like an overview. And I think I just wanna,
I wanna end with a little, some questions about like, you know, how do we find joy? In this time. And what is the value and importance of finding joy right now, and what does joy mean to you and what needs to be released as part of that? And can we find joy in the release? And what is that release making space for?
And what is your relationship with your values and how do you wanna investigate that? And how do we play with this really complicated story of Purim that really embraces some vengeance and some learned and taught violence against our others? How do we, how do we wanna play with that? And how do we wanna.
Work on unlearning some of our othering that we've incorporated and how do we wanna investigate that story? This particular year with these retrograde, with the eclipse season, it's like ripe for playing and, and learning and thinking and unlearning. These taught. Ways of our empire that we're living in and how, how can that get us closer to collective liberation?
Yeah, I think, I think those are the questions. That's what I'm sitting with. Thank you so much for listening and yeah, wishing you so much. Joy and play and mess and safe mess and silliness and expansion and release. And may we find our joy that leads us all to freedom. Love you.
Anya’s Divine Trailer: Navigating a Topsy-Turvy Adar
Anya brings us her Divine Trailer, a forecast for the tumultuous month of Adar in the Jewish year 5785. Known for its joyous spirit, Adar is a time when joy incrementally rises, celebrating life and dichotomies through Purim—a festival marking topsy-turvy festivities and turning ourselves metaphorically upside down.
This Adar, cosmic alignments bring rare occurrences, with Venus retrograde in Aries and a lunar eclipse in Virgo aligning with Purim. These phenomena mirror the month's unpredictability, inviting us to play with perceptions and challenge binaries. Anya advises embracing this energy, releasing tensions, and preparing for the liberation themes of Passover in the forthcoming month.
Astrological Alignments and Reflections
A reflective journey accompanies this cosmic play, with Mercury retrograde urging careful communication and introspection. The month's astrological events compel us to consider our values, relationships, and the messiness of life—trusting in those we choose as companions in our journey of exploration and self-discovery.
A Glimpse into Future Transitions
As Adar draws to a close, a solar eclipse ushers in fresh energies, prefacing the new moon and new Jewish month. This transition student by Neptune's entry into Aries marks a significant shift as we navigate the interplay between imagination and conflict, and the cultural and political themes challenging us today.
The Joy and Liberation in Jewish Time
Anya invites us to find joy amidst these explorations. What does joy mean in these times, and what needs releasing to embrace it fully? Our journey asks us to unlearn taught otherness, engage with the narratives of Purim, and aim for a collective liberation rooted in joy and freedom.
In closing, Anya wishes us all joy, play, and safe messiness—may these releases lead us to the freedom we all seek. As we reflect, let us ground ourselves in this sacred dance with time, celebrating expansion, exploration, and the richness of our shared traditions.