Parts & Charts: The IFS and Astrology Podcast

Be sure to subscribe here on Substack (partsandcharts.substack.com) — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.And go over to Maeg Keane’s Substack to read more ⤵️Astrology and herbalism, Maeg tells us, more or less co-arose. Working with plants — people have been doing that since prehistory. Paying attention to the stars and noticing patterns and seeing what it might mean about weather or agriculture or politics or eventually even individual people’s lives — that is also extremely, extremely old. The earliest written records of plant-star-planet combinations go back to around 400 BCE, though Maeg is sure it’s older. That’s just the record we have. Most people who were practicing medicine were practicing it with plants, like most of the global contemporary world does right now, and they were doing so alongside watching stellar omens.So when Maeg got interested in both, what relief! I didn’t have to be a Mercurian Gemini person and like take two disparate things and put them together. They were already together.The framework, drawn from a Neoplatonic cosmology and other traditions less canonized by white Western philosophy, is this: everything in the heavens cascades down into the earth. All of us are built out of things from the heavens. It’s a ladder of connection and affinity and relationship. The same way any of us are made up of our birth chart — Maeg is full of Mercury and Venus and Mars and different inflections — so are the plants. So are stones. So is the garbage on my street. So is a book. To different mixtures.Which means if you’re trying to get to know one of the planets really well, you can go to a being or a thing that is very of that planet and ask it what it can tell you about the thing it’s mostly made out of.About our guestMaeg Keane is a writer, astrologer, and herbalist who runs Third Sister. In Maeg’s own words: I consort with the spirits of the stars and of the green world. Astrology and herbalism are two of the ways I listen to the sparkling fishnet of timespace that holds us, and of which we are a part.Maeg specializes in the 5th house — a part of the birth chart that gathers stories about desire, pleasure, joy, and the part of us that wants to make things — and in the fixed stars, sort of getting the whole sky back versus just the ecliptic.Website: third-sister.com Book a reading: third-sister-dio.as.me Substack — The Gleaming Feast: maegkeane.substack.com Instagram: @maeg.thirdsister Bluesky: @maegkeane.bsky.socialOn the fifth houseThe fifth house’s oldest association is actually with children. Not your childhood — literally the kids you’ll have. But it became about generativeness in general, the erotic in general. Not just children but the force of life that creates all kinds of things in your life besides other humans.It’s Venus’s favorite house, no matter where she is in the chart or what sign coincides with that particular part of the chart. She loves it there. Joy. Pleasure. Playfulness. The creative. The place that makes you want to unfurl and make and reach out in some way to the world. I have so much life in me, it has to come out somehow.What Maeg saw in client after client who hadn’t even come for a fifth house reading, was the surprising vulnerability of this place. It has all the best, I think, the best words that life has to offer. And yet people would say yeah, it is really, really hard when I can’t get to that place. And it’s really hard to be in that place.Maeg cannot tell you the number of clients sat with who can’t make art — they can, but they’re not — because they’re still hearing their parents say don’t waste those art supplies, they’re really expensive. People who went to art school and it just killed their creative flow and process completely. People who’ve taken a long break, maybe even because of a fifth house reason, like pregnancy and early parenthood, who are coming back asking who am I now? What — am I going to write the same book I was writing before I had this kid? I have no idea. People who do creative work for a living, which is supposed to be the dream, but it totally changes their relationship to that work because of the money stuff and the visibility stuff and the reputation stuff and the pressure.Maeg’s own fifth-house ruler is Saturn in Capricorn. Having Saturn as the guy who stewards your joy is a weird fit. That’s part of why this reading exists. There’s a version of: I give a reading because I’m masterful in this part of my life, like — good luck. And then there’s a version that’s like: I give a reading about this because I am in here with you. And that’s very much my approach. It’s a very Mercury, like, I’m alongside you, man. I get it.A note for anyone with an empty fifth house: you’re fine, Maeg promises. Having an empty fifth house does not mean you are empty of joy or play or creation. The ruler of the fifth is really where it’s at. Everybody has one of those.On remediation, more or less — and on a blackberry plantWhen KP Kaszubowski asks about remediation, Maeg gently declines the word. I don’t explicitly offer what I think of as professional remediation, because I think of that as a really rigorous process that is studied for a long time and is most robust in the Jyotish tradition.But there’s plenty you can do that venerates the planets, which they really like. And you also can just get to know your planets better, which I do think is magic. I think that it actually makes an impact in your life to get to know the planet itself, just like as an inherent being.You can do devotional work — light a candle on the day of the planet, because all the planets have days of the week. Leave out offerings. You basically treat them like you — lowercase-g gods. Because they kind of are. Hang out. Read hymns. Find poems that you think speak to them. It can feel really awkward and goofy. I feel awkward and goofy when I do it. But it’s also worth it.Or — alongside that — plants are really good ambassadors of the planets. If you really want to get to know Jupiter, hang out with sage, a Jupiter plant. What can sage teach me about Jupiter? If Jupiter is lending his attributes to this plant, what can I learn about this plant’s stories? Its ecology, biology, how it collaborates with the human body? What is it like to grow it? Or do lemon balm. Sit under an oak tree. Have a feast: Jupiter loves fatty foods and an overladen table.Maeg got to know Saturn through blackberry. Eating blackberries on Saturdays. Sitting with a blackberry plant for a while at a berry farm. Doing a lot of research about the folklore and different uses, especially through Maeg’s own ancestral lines — Irish stories about blackberry. That taught me a lot about that planet. That isn’t just like me reading Vettius Valens, which is also great, but it’s not the only way.KP catches what’s structurally Saturnian about blackberry mid-conversation: it’s a sweet fruit, and it’s also a boundary plant. It’ll give you a little sting. It’ll hurt a little bit if you try to pass through it. You can’t go fast. You have to take the berries gently. You can’t just throw a hand in and grab. It’s a plant that tiny animals hide in. And in herbalism, one of its primary uses is for diarrhea — it tightens lax tissue. One of the things Saturn’s really good at is reforming loose structure in the body so that there’s a way to not sort of accidentally spill out and empty out.On the wood betony momentThe first time Maeg ever communed with a plant deliberately — and it was sort of semi-deliberate — Maeg was supposed to be doing what’s very common in herb schools, a plant of the week or a plant of the month, where you pick a plant and you do everything you can possibly do with it. It’s your buddy.Maeg sat down with a tea of wood betony and sipped it. Got the flavors, of course, and then also like sensations and images. And I was like, whoa. That was very new. I was very like — I’m going to be a scientific herbalist. I don’t get any of this woo stuff, you know? Like it was — and the plants were like, jokes on you.That didn’t last very long.On the plants Maeg keeps nearStrawberry. A whole summer of being completely insourceled by it. I wrote like a 37-page — Maeg could call it a zine, but no, people who make zines should get credit for what they do with zines. It’s a PDF. Strawberry just like took me everywhere. Othello. Strawberry farming. Stories from folklore. Queer theory. It just took me on such a beautiful ride and it kept just showing up at these like really precious and beautiful moments just like saying hello. Plants really like it when you like plants. And planets really like it when you give them attention. They will give you gifts for paying attention, for giving them visibility, in the spotlight, I’ve learned.Ivy. A Saturn plant, with really strong ties to Dionysus and Ariadne. Maeg has not yet written the ivy monograph. Some plants Maeg has tried not to learn about, because I’m trying — like, it’s almost like one way for me to honor them is to learn all about them, everything that I possibly can. And some of them it’s like, I’ll be more present with you if I don’t do the academic deep-dive that I’m prone to doing.(KP, separately, is in a strange standoff with the fixed star associated with ivy — having looked it up roughly three hundred times and being, somehow, not yet permitted to remember its name.)Beach rose. Lining the coast where Maeg’s grandparents lived. Their thorns are like so sharp and many — like you can’t even touch the stalk. There’s no space. It’s all thorn. But it’s a five-petal, bright pink, with a burst of yellow in the middle. I love them so much. They’re not only there, but that’s where I know them from.On the seventh-house mirrorMaeg ran a reading once called So You Think You Hate That Sign. Almost no one took her up on it. People love to hate other signs but they don’t actually want to talk about why that might be wrong. The pitch wasn’t great. But the idea was: whatever sign you feel the most uncomfortable with, for whatever reason — that’s still in your chart. Let’s re-complexify it.Chelsea names what’s underneath this in IFS terms: the U-turn. The You-Turn. When someone’s coming in — maybe you’re complaining about your partner, my gosh they didn’t do X, Y, and Z — we encourage that person to do a U-turn so you’re just looking back at yourself. How are you showing up? What’s this response or this reaction? What parts of you are having that reaction and response? And what’s underneath that? Probably some younger part of you that had some thing happen, that felt this way with your parents. When we get activated about other people, it’s always something about, you know, yourself.Maeg picks it up: based on what you just said, it’s reminding me of the mess of the seventh house. This idea that the seventh is a place of the other. It’s the place of the other who’s beloved. It’s the place of the other who’s, like, abject and difficult or, like, triggering you for some reason or accusing you, but just by existing. The enemy in some way, which is also like often a projection of some kind. And it’s a complementary opposite of the first house — you. You can’t really disentangle them.The IFS U-turn and the seventh-house mirror, doing the same work in different vocabularies. The chart was already saying it.KP and Chelsea both have significant placements in the seventh. Both work one-on-one. It’s great to hold space for someone and also understand that you are receiving projections. You are also projecting. It’s full of dynamism, whether you’re aware of it in the moment or not.On Chelsea, Tulsi, and a dream of HawthornWhen Chelsea did her herbalism certification, what surprised her most weren’t the plants themselves but the tissue states — how my internal tissues and what different plants, how they’re helping. I’m so dry inside and I had no idea that there’s different things I can do to kind of balance that out. And the energetics. I knew it maybe intuitively, of course plants are alive and they have energy, but the variety and range of energetics that they can bring. I was just like — my god, this is like, we’re really blending the magic with science here.That summer, Chelsea fell into a relationship with Tulsi. Took infusions every day, every day, every day, felt amazing. This is like, this is my plant. I really have a strong connection to Tulsi now.But during the same stretch, a different plant came to her in a dream. She didn’t remember the context, just that Hawthorn arrived clearly and loudly and said work with me. Chelsea had not worked with Hawthorn at all, didn’t even know what it was. So she started. And learned like, it’s really great for the heart. And it’s just like a love. I think I needed that like love balm at the time. It was kind of a rough time relationship-wise. So I think that’s why Hawthorne came to me to help.This is what Maeg keeps describing without quite saying directly: that the relationship runs both ways. You don’t only choose the plants. The plants come.Hawthorn, Maeg notes, is tricky to pin to a single planet. Some traditions call it Mars for the thorns; some Venus for the flowers and the heart-medicine. It does have that heartache-protective quality while still being soft and supportive. It doesn’t keep things out. It’s just like — you can’t just grab at me. A Mars-and-Venus plant. A heart that won’t be grabbed at.Chelsea ends the section already redesigning her own relationship to plants in real time: I’m inspired to do that now. Kitchen witchery — taking or to deepen the devotion of the plant and planet by having like a physical application to it. Whether it’s a food you’re creating using herbs, or making your own deodorant, or a tincture, or even just like room spray. However you can to incorporate or deepen the relationship to the herb and the planet.On Alphecca, briefly (because Maeg could go for thirty minutes)Alphecca is the alpha star in Corona Borealis — the crown of Ariadne, Dionysus’s wife. I really even — I mean, she’s famous for being Dionysus’s wife. She’s so much more than that. I love her so much. Currently projected to around 12° Scorpio.It’s dance, mazes, flowers, perfume, parades — like not like a town parade, like a procession of people dancing, like Maenads. There’s a charm and an ability to move through social spaces that Alphecca confers on people. Sometimes associated with friendship. With being able to make friends.Talismanic magic is really interesting, Maeg says, because the way that, if you make a talisman about a fixed star, it’s supposed to give you certain virtues or like nice things people want — but what people thought was valuable and virtuous and nice depends so much on the time period and the culture. One of the things people said the Alphecca talisman would give you was chastity, which is not my experience of her at all. She is a lust bucket and I love her for it. And she likes cake and treats. She’s a queen.But she does know how to show up a certain way, which might be some of that chastity as in belonging to oneself. Etiquette and decorum and knowing how to handle yourself. And also: she can totally party. She is married to the god of wine and ecstasy. And he picked her out when she was heartbroken and just showed up and was like — how about something different?KP loves Ariadne for being one of the only female lowercase-g gods who is treated well in marriage and treats herself well too. Maeg agrees. Mistress of the labyrinth. So much of her mysteries have to do with going into spirit realms and coming out safely. Because she has the thread that pulls you back.For anyone who wants more: Marcus Manilius has one of the most beautiful passages about Alphecca. It’s so good. When you’re ready, read it to yourself.Also in this episode* Why Maeg sometimes refuses to research a plant on purpose* Taste as a primary mode of communing with plants — probably Taurus stuff, maybe* I assume that the plants are as complicated as we are and we have all the planets in us* If we’re trying to build everything based on just replicating with what the ancients did, I think we’re going to be missing what the ancients were doing. They were inventing in real time too.Quotes“I didn’t have to be a Mercurian Gemini person and like take two disparate things and put them together. They were already together.” — Maeg Keane“All of us are built out of things from the heavens. It’s just like this ladder of connection and affinity and relationship. So are the plants, so are stones, so is the garbage on my street, so is a book — to different mixtures.” — Maeg Keane"When we get activated about other people, it's always something about yourself. It's something you don't love about yourself, or you're still trying to heal." — Chelsea Owens, on the IFS U-turn“If you really want to get to know Jupiter, you can go to a being or a thing that is very of that planet and be like — what can you tell me about the thing you’re mostly made out of?” — Maeg Keane“I was very like — I’m going to be a scientific herbalist. I don’t get any of this woo stuff. And the plants were like, jokes on you. So that didn’t last very long.” — Maeg Keane"We're really blending the magic with science here, and it's so beautiful." — Chelsea Owens, on tissue states and energetics in her herbalism certification“Plants really like it when you like plants. And planets really like it when you give them attention. They will give you gifts for paying attention.” — Maeg Keane“If you’re resonating with whatever you’re working with, then that’s the relationship. I want to have relationships. It’s more interesting.” — KP Kaszubowski“She is a lust bucket and I love her for it. And she likes cake and treats. She’s a queen.” — Maeg Keane, on AlpheccaWork With MaegBook a reading: third-sister-dio.as.meStrawberry zine (and other guidebooks, classes, workshops): third-sister.com/store Maeg’s writing — The Gleaming Feast: maegkeane.substack.comMentioned in this episode:* Sarah Corbett of Rowan & Sage — rowanandsage.com* Diana Rose Harper (co-taught Celeste Natura, no longer running)* Vettius Valens — Anthologies* Marcus Manilius — Astronomica (the passage on Alphecca is in Book 5)Work With UsKP Kaszubowski — Hellenistic astrologer · Astro Parts Work · poetKP has opened up Astro Parts Work sessions (https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=22372975&appointmentType=89789886) and is currently reviewing her Book Doula waitlist right now, taking on 1 - 2 more clients this year for people ready to finish that book for real this time. Waitlist link: https://forms.gle/3LwpmAinnBN2Q4aY8Astrology for Makers ↗ kpkaszubowski.substack.comChelsea Owens — Licensed therapist · Certified IFS Level 3Chelsea works with individuals using Internal Family Systems therapy — the same framework she brings to Parts & Charts. Now accepting new clients.Book an IFS session: chelseaowenstherapy.com Chelsea’s Substack ↗ chelseaowens.substack.comCreditsMusic “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski — performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah Luther.Collage art used in this episode by Chelsea Owens Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

You’re listening to PART TWO of our 12th House Episode with Astrotherapist Lisa Broggi.My dawg, Parts & Charts is blessed by Lisa’s lush insights and experience — we are very lucky to have her on AGAIN! Stay tuned for more guest episodes with her. There are endless amounts of topics to cover :)Be sure to subscribe here on Substack and follow — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.About Our GuestLisa Broggi aka The Lilith Therapist is a licensed therapist who integrates astrology into her work using the birth chart and current planetary transits to support clients in their healing and growth. She is also an astrology coach and educator, working one on one with clients and also offering online workshops and courses focused on astrology, healing, and reclaiming personal power so individuals can show up in the collective with their unique gifts. You can find her on socials as @the.lilith.therapist on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.Here’s the thing about the 12th house: it doesn’t want to be understood.It wants to be survived, dissolved into, and quietly thanked on the way out — which is, if you think about it, how most of the important things in a life actually work.Nobody understands grief. Nobody understands the ocean. Nobody understands what happens in the last half hour of a good dinner with people they love, when the plates are mostly empty and nobody wants to be the first to stand up.Lisa gets there through headphones. Taurus in the 12th, doing its slow sensory disappearing act — the body going still until whatever needed to move has moved. Chelsea goes to the ocean, or to Esalen, or to a Dharma talk, or into her own apartment for a week of careful solitude she has the good sense not to apologize for. KP goes to libraries. Same house, different waters. Everyone with a 12th house — which is everyone — has a version of this.The textbooks, the apps, the astrology content designed to be frightening so people keep scrolling, they all want to name the 12th the house of self-undoing, hidden enemies, isolation, loss.Which: sure, fine, sometimes.But it’s also just what a certain kind of energy looks like before anyone’s taught you how to use it.Lisa names the sponge, and the conversation slows down around it, because this is the thing that cracks the episode open. You walk into a room and you pick up what isn’t being said — the grief under the small talk, the resentment under the compliment, the want nobody in the room has given themselves permission to name. And then something comes out of your mouth, and it lands a little too hard, and people call you intense or triggering or too much, and you weren’t doing it on purpose. You were just reading the room. You were in the soup, as Lisa puts it, and one of the things about being in the soup is that you don’t always know where you end and the soup begins. Alone time isn’t a preference for a 12th house placement. It’s a calibration. It’s how you figure out whose feelings you’ve been carrying around all afternoon like somebody else’s coat.Two vocabularies meet in this episode. Lisa reads the 12th house cusp through IFS — the signs as managers and firefighters, the strategies the psyche built to handle what it couldn’t metabolize in the open. KP reads it through a Jungian frame — closer to a map of unconscious material anyone with that placement was always going to have to meet, and the archetypal shape it takes when it finally meets them. Different languages, similar observation: something has been working on your behalf, mostly unseen, and naming it gives you choice about how it gets expressed. Otherwise — and this is KP being plain in the best way — sometimes it just turns into cigarettes.Lisa shared her “Unison” story — her most alive 12th house memory: A Billy Joel and Elton John concert. Not even a song she particularly loved. The music drops out entirely and thousands of people keep singing Crocodile Rock a capella into the dark, and something opens up in her that has not, strictly speaking, closed. She had no language for it then. She has a little now. It’s a full-body reaction she still can’t quite talk about without almost crying. That’s the 12th house — the moment the self thins out and something else floods in, not as loss but as company.KP tells another version, a client of hers who described community singing. You show up. You learn a song together. You sing it a few times. You go home. I don’t feel like I’m myself, the client said, but I’m part of everyone. There are a lot of definitions of the 12th house, some of them elaborate, some of them in Latin, and none of them are as good as that sentence. It isn’t the loss of the self. It’s the temporary porousness that lets a person locate a self worth coming back to. The self doesn’t go anywhere. It just stops being the loudest thing in the room for a minute, which — honestly — is a mercy.You cannot see the 12th from where you’re standing. It’s where human beings put God because we can’t see God from here either. The Sagittarius 12th goes on a quest — into a library, into a book, into a paragraph that rearranges the furniture. The Cancer 12th house goes to the ocean and talks to the mermaid. The Taurus 12th puts on headphones and doesn’t move until something clears. They’re the house doing exactly what it does, which is find the path to something bigger by disappearing into it first.You may feel like you’ll lose yourself. Or you may come back with more information than you left with.Healthy hermit is a diagnosis and a lifestyle. Find your sign. Find your escape hatch.Also in this episode* Why the zodiac sign on your 12th house cusp maps to protective strategies, and how to read it without judgment* The case for IFS as a clinically “woo” modality — and why that isn’t an insult* Lisa’s Taurus 12th: control parts, resistance to change, and surviving the Uranus in Taurus transit like a graduation* Healthy escapism as a legitimate 12th house practice — community singing, horse therapy, hot springs, and the Marin Headlands at the edge of the world* Why 12th housers sometimes say the unspoken thing in the room, and what to do about it when you’re the one doing itQuotes“All energies of us must be expressed. And if you know what your 12th house energy is, you have more choice in how it’s expressed. Otherwise, sometimes it turns into smoking cigarettes.”— Lisa Broggi“The 12th house is boundaryless — which is why you really do have to actively work to stay in your body and have boundaries. But there’s something super spongy and porous about it. You are a sponge. You are picking up energy everywhere you go.”-Lisa Broggi“What comes out of my mouth will be something that’s in the room but not spoken about — and I’m not doing it consciously at all. Some people say 12th housers can be really triggering to other people. But it’s just — you’re in the soup.”-Lisa Broggi“The 12th house sign — the zodiac sign — could be really great for understanding what some of your major firefighters are. Like, this sabotage. How do you abuse it? You want to find the healthy expression of that.”-Lisa Broggi“The 12th house paths are the way to find God.”-KP Kaszubowski“The 12th house is where we as humans choose where God is. It’s the vantage point we can’t see from — so that’s where we conceive of source and spirit. Our 12th house paths are the way to God, if we want to be reductive.”-KP Kaszubowski“Moon in the 12th, the ocean is my mother, no s**t.”-Lisa BroggiWork With UsHellenistic astrologer · Astro Parts Work · poetKP offers Hellenistic chart readings that treat the birth chart as a map of the psyche’s inner figures — not a verdict, a conversation starter. She’s also currently accepting a small number of practice clients for her Astro Parts Method sessions: guided meetings with your planets as parts, using active imagination. Interest form open now.Book a chart readingAstrology for Makers ↗Chelsea OwensLicensed therapist · Certified IFS Level 3Chelsea works with individuals using Internal Family Systems therapy — the same framework she brings to Parts & Charts. Her sessions are warm, rigorous, and grounded in genuine clinical training. Now accepting new clients.Book an IFS sessionChelsea’s Substack ↗Lisa BroggiLicensed therapist and AstrologerLisa Broggi’s website and teaching offerings* The Lilith Therapist TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the.lilith.therapist* Lisa’s website: https://www.pinkmoontherapy.com/Credits:Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski - performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah LutherThe cover image is a collage by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

If you know someone’s sun, moon, and rising but still can’t figure out why the work isn’t landing, these three data points will tell you what you’re missing.Take a look at this episode’s reference guide: https://kpkaszu.notion.site/Quick-Chart-Reference-for-Therapists-32f9fb7abf14802b943dfd6b115bf4b2This is Astro 201!Which means we’re assuming you already Googled your rising sign and went on a deep dive with it in 2019. If you want more of this — we’ll be back with more Astro 201 throughout the season!What This Episode Is Actually AboutThis is about the gap between knowing astrology and knowing how to use it in the room with another person — how to listen differently, ask better questions, and stop assuming everyone processes the same way you do just because you’ve both got feelings and a birth chart.Also In This Episode* Why chart ruler matters more than sun sign when you’re trying to understand how someone moves through their life — a Venus-ruled person and a Mars-ruled person are going to approach the same conflict with completely opposite instincts* Day chart vs. night chart (sect) as a way to understand whether someone’s natural mode is extroverted or introverted, and why that matters when you’re helping them figure out where their energy actually comes from* The Mercury in Libra thing: how someone’s Mercury sign tells you what kind of language makes them feel safe enough to go deeper (spoiler: sarcasm does not land the same way for everyone)* Why knowing someone is Saturn-ruled might explain the chest-weight feeling they keep describing, while a Mercury-ruled person’s fear shows up as a mental loop they can’t get out of* KP’s Uranus-Mercury aspect and why her therapist (if she had one) would give her extra space to invent the perfect strange phrase for what’s happening — which is very first house of her* The quiet precision required to work ethically with someone’s chart when you’re also holding space for their actual lifeChart ruler tells you the rhythm someone’s life moves at.Sect tells you whether they bloom in the spotlight or the study.Mercury tells you what grammar their nervous system needs to hear before it believes you’re not going to flatten them into a diagnosis.Anchor MomentKP Kaszubowski talks about Mercury in Libra like it’s a person who will leave the room if you use coarse language — not because they’re precious, but because fairness and beauty in phrasing is how they know they’re safe. Chelsea Owens immediately thinks of all the times she’s dropped an F-bomb in session and wonders which Mercuries trusted her more because of it.KP describes sect like this: if you’re a day chart person and your luck comes from being seen, you’re going to process feedback from your boss differently than a night chart person whose luck comes from the work nobody watches you do. Same problem, completely different nervous system.The glyph for Jupiter was referenced—The Jupiter glyph (♃) represents the triumph of mind over matter, depicted as a crescent (soul/mind) rising above a cross (material world). While some jokingly refer to it as "24" because of its shape, its resemblance to the number 4 is a common association in modern astrology. The modern form actually evolved from a symbol of the Greek letter Zeta (ζ), which is the first letter of Zeus, the Greek counterpart to the Roman god Jupiter.Subscribe at partsandcharts.substack.com and tell us if you’re a day or night chart. We’re collecting data. For science. And also because we’re nosy.Quotes:“I would just approach it differently because of their chart ruler. Fear shows up differently depending on your chart ruler, if you’re saturn-ruled fear has more like a weight on the chest sense where mercury-ruled people that’s virgo or gemini rising, fear might be more of like a mental thing or more of a thought loop kind of thing.”-KP“I was going to say the chart ruler is kind of their leader, right? And we’re just helping them understand, to come into that power of what that feels like, what it looks like,and how to lead.”-Chelsea“And chart rulers make all the sense in the world because you’ve done all of that connecting,energetic connecting work in your heart,and in your mind.So much more of astrology opens up when that happens.”-KP“So the last thing I would look at if I were a therapist, which I’m not,is the mercury sign and placement and aspects to mercury, because when you’re in conversation with a therapist as a client, your mercury is being utilized.Mercury is in the room.”-KPUpcoming EventsChart Roulette with KP [Apr 18, 2026 12:00 PM CT · Virtual via Zoom]KP reads birth charts live — fast, candid, no fluff. Bring your chart or just watch someone else get their planets read in real time.Register here → https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/1HWNohQMTn6Sxm5qlnZ3_Q#/registrationShadow Summit May 2nd, 10AM Virtual eventA virtual gathering for shadow work practitioners, depth psychology nerds, and anyone who’s done enough inner work to know the shadow isn’t the villain. Hosted by Moonshadow (KP + Ashley Abubakar ). Keynote by Barry Michels , breakout sessions, and a closing ritual that doesn’t make you roll your eyes.Register here → https://events.humanitix.com/virtual-shadow-summit?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&utm_id=97760_v0_s00_e0_tv3_a1denni7a5idfgWork With UsWork with KP Hellenistic chart readings + Astro Parts Method practice sessions (meeting your planets as inner figures using active imagination). Not therapy! Not coaching! A structured creative and psychological inquiry into what your chart is actually saying.Book with KP → https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule/30448d1aWork with Chelsea IFS therapy sessions with a licensed marriage and family therapist (Level 3 IFS certified). Rigorous, warm, and grounded in the belief that all your parts make sense — even the ones you wish didn’t exist.Book with Chelsea → https://chelseaowenstherapy.com/ Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode.Parts & Charts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.OpeningThe question underneath this whole episode is whether you were ever actually one thing — or whether that was just something you were told, and believed, because it was easier than the alternative.Two frameworks, one questionChelsea came to IFS by experiencing it first — in her own therapy, without knowing what it was, before she ever read the theory. KP came to parts through the chart, through the planets, through a symbolic grammar she’d been using for years before she realized it was already describing exactly what IFS calls a system. Neither of them arrived here the same way. The episode sounds like that.A kid showed up to every single class at juvenile hall and made himself impossible — throwing things, talking over everything, a constant disruption. Finally the teacher pulled him aside and asked why he kept coming back if he hated it so much. The kid said: I just wanted to see how long it would take for you to kick me out. Chelsea tells this story about mercy, about what parts do when they’re still waiting to be rejected. It’s the center of the episode and it lands without any editorializing at all.KP talks about a friend who, years ago, said something about her being too loud, too sunny, too comfortable in her own vibrance — and the tone made clear that wasn’t a compliment. She’s still sitting with it. Working with Venus as a part has been giving her more room to understand what was happening in that friend’s system when they said it. Not excusing it. Just — more room.“Once you actually come to them with understanding and inquiry and curiosity and a little mercy — instead of being like, what the f**k are you doing, stop, get out of here — that’s what they’re expecting to hear. But when you come to them with a different energy, they’re like: okay. Now I can relax.”— Chelsea OwensThe landingThe kid kept coming back to the class he was destroying because he needed to know if someone would stay. Parts do that. They act out the thing they’re most afraid of, to find out if the answer is different this time. What IFS calls parts, what Hellenistic astrology calls the planets — both are just different languages for the same fact: you are many, the many are trying to help you, and none of them are bad. Not even the ones that bite.What this episode is actually aboutWe’ve inherited a model of the mind that assumes one driver, one will, one self that’s either disciplined enough or not. IFS says that’s not how it works. Hellenistic astrology, it turns out, never thought so either. This episode is about what becomes possible when you stop trying to get your parts to be quiet and start asking them what they need.Also in this episode* Why Chelsea stays away from explaining IFS theory before a client experiences it — and what happens when people encounter it in the body first* The monomind model, what it costs you, and why willpower is often just one part running a very exhausting long con on all the others* Dick Schwartz working with people who have committed murder — and what happens when you actually ask a part why it did what it did* Cultural and legacy burdens: the parts that are carrying something that isn’t entirely yours, maybe wasn’t even born when you were* Spiritual bypassing, and how parts can get very enthusiastic about meditation or religion if it means the other parts finally have to shut up* KP’s closing synthesis: the birth chart not as a verdict on who you are, but as a map of who’s in the room — and the argument for no bad chartsBefore you goIf this episode gave you something to sit with, subscribe at partsandcharts.substack.com — that’s where we put the things that didn’t make it into the episode, and occasionally where we tell on ourselves between seasons.Leave a review if you’re the kind of person who does that. One of our parts will be very grateful.Upcoming EventsArts, Parts & Charts | Apr 8, 2026 · 7:00 PM CT · Virtual via ZoomChelsea leads a guided meditation into whatever is moving in the sky right now. You make art with what comes up. Then we talk about it together. No art experience required — just a willingness to see what your parts have to say when they’re handed a pencil.Register →Chart Roulette | Apr 18, 2026 · 12:00 PM CT · Virtual via ZoomBring your chart. KP reads it live. The wheel decides who goes first — which is another way of saying: the planets decide. Fast, candid, and probably illuminating in ways you didn’t expect.Register →For those applying to grad programs in counseling: Chelsea Owens pulled together a deeeeeep dive into all the practical elements of this decision, for the price of a cute cafe lunch ($25) — follow this link: https://chelseawow.gumroad.com/l/bfbiauWork With UsKP KaszubowskiHellenistic astrologer · Jungian parts work educator · poetKP offers Hellenistic chart readings that treat the birth chart as a map of the psyche’s inner figures — not a verdict, a conversation starter. She’s also currently accepting a small number of practice clients for her Astro Parts Method sessions: guided meetings with your planets as parts, using active imagination. Interest form open now.Book a chart readingApply for a practice sessionAstrology for Makers ↗Chelsea OwensLicensed therapist · IFS Level 3Chelsea works with individuals using Internal Family Systems therapy — the same framework she brings to Parts & Charts. Her sessions are warm, rigorous, and grounded in genuine clinical training. Now accepting new clients.Book an IFS sessionChelsea’s Substack ↗Key Quotes“Parts are more than just something the mind is creating. Whatever they’re made up of — particles, waves, thoughts, feelings, experiences — they are coming from somewhere. They have more substance than that.”— Chelsea Owens“He just wanted to see how long it would take for you to kick me out.”— Chelsea Owens, relaying a Dharma teacher’s story“Not the chart as the person — the chart as the place of data that shows us where all the parts are and how they’re in relation to each other. There are no bad charts.”— KP Kaszubowski“I feel proud when I let it come out. And so when someone calls attention to that — in a place where I feel proud because it took a lot of energy to get there — yeah. That’s what’s coming up.”— KP KaszubowskiCreditsMusic: “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020), directed by KP Kaszubowski. Performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah Luther.Cover image: collage by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

In the twentieth and final episode of Season One of Parts & Charts: The IFS and Astrology Podcast, Chelsea and KP reflect on what they’ve learned through twenty weeks of exploring the intersections of astrology, Internal Family Systems, and the inner worlds of creativity and healing.Parts & Charts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.They look back on how the project began as a simple experiment and became a practice of shared discovery—testing, trusting, and tending to their own parts along the way. From astrology’s structure and symbolism to IFS’s intuitive flow, the two hosts explore what it means to live without an agenda, to “be like water,” and to let the work itself reveal its next form.The episode closes with setting intentions for Season Two: The Magician Season, where they’ll invite more guests, deepen their experiments, and bring their integration work into practice and play.Time Stamps & Topics00:00 — Welcome to Episode 20 and the close of Season One02:00 — What surprised and delighted us this season04:00 — How Chelsea’s view of astrology has evolved06:00 — Playfulness, memes, and ethical astrology08:00 — How IFS continues to shape Chelsea’s worldview10:00 — Practicing therapy without agenda and trusting the client’s system13:00 — KP on the tension between structure (astrology) and flow (IFS)16:00 — The power of being in the present moment19:00 — Learning through experience vs. collecting information24:00 — Reimagining client-led astrology sessions29:00 — Learning through one’s own system and the value of embodiment33:00 — Encouragement, integration, and creative boldness37:00 — Reflections on growth and gratitude for Season One40:00 — Setting intentions for Season Two: The Magician SeasonResources Mentioned* Internal Family Systems (IFS): a therapeutic model by Dr. Richard Schwartz exploring self-leadership through working with inner parts.* Chiron: discussed as an archetype of wounding and healing within astrology.* The Magician Archetype: representing integration, practice, and creative manifestation — the energy guiding Season Two.* Tarot’s Major Arcana (The Fool → The Magician): referenced as symbolic stages of creative and spiritual development.For those applying to grad programs in counseling:* Chelsea Owens pulled together a deeeeeep dive into all the practical elements of this decision, for the price of a cute cafe lunch ($25) — follow this link: https://chelseawow.gumroad.com/l/bfbiauConnect with Us✨ Subscribe to Parts & Charts on Substack📺 Follow on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@partsandcharts📸 Instagram @PartsAndCharts💌 Send a question or note through Substack🎧 Share this episode with anyone exploring their own intersections of intuition, creativity, and healing.Work 1:1 with Therapist Chelsea Owens at https://chelseaowenstherapy.com/ and schedule an astrology session with KP Kaszubowski at www.kpkaszu.comCredits:Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski - performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah LutherThe cover image is a collage by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

In this eighteenth episode of Parts & Charts: The IFS and Astrology Podcast, Chelsea and KP explore the Libra archetype (the sign of balance, beauty, and relationship) and its connection to parts work, projection, and self-reflection.Together, they discuss Libra’s mythic symbolism, Venus’s rulership, the spectrum between harmony and conflict avoidance, and how Libra teaches us to meet others without losing ourselves.[to watch the video version, head over to Substack or YouTube. For the audio version, listen through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app.]Parts & Charts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Resources Mentioned* Internal Family Systems (IFS) — discussion of parts that mediate, mirror, and balance internal voices* Venus rulership — connecting aesthetics and relational skill* Aries–Libra axis — polarity of assertion and harmony* Ritual practices — embodying balance through beauty, symmetry, and choiceFor those applying to grad programs in counseling:* Chelsea Owens pulled together a deeeeeep dive into all the practical elements of this decision, for the price of a cute cafe lunch ($25) — follow this link: https://chelseawow.gumroad.com/l/bfbiauConnect with Us✨ Subscribe to Parts & Charts on Substack📺 Follow on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@partsandcharts📸 Instagram @PartsAndCharts💌 Send a question or note through Substack🎧 Share this episode with someone who’s learning how to balance honesty, beauty, and connection.Work 1:1 with Therapist Chelsea Owens at https://chelseaowenstherapy.com/ and schedule an astrology session with KP Kaszubowski at www.kpkaszu.comCredits:Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski - performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah LutherThe cover image is a collage by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

In this sixteenth episode of Parts & Charts: The IFS and Astrology Podcast, Chelsea guides KP through a live demo session exploring protector parts, inner critics, and the surprising imagery that surfaces: bridges, blimps, storms, and kingdoms.This episode marks Part One of an inner critics series, offering listeners an intimate look at how IFS process work unfolds in real time—with pauses, visuals, and artwork.[to watch the video version, head over to Substack or Youtube. For the audio versions, listen through Spotify, Apple podcasts, or your favorite podcast app]Parts & Charts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Time Stamps and Topics:00:00 – Disclaimer: “We’re not really sure what’s going to happen.”03:02 – Entering the world of inner critics06:16 – Introducing Freedom from Your Inner Critic by Jay Early & Bonnie Weiss08:11 – The seven types of critics: perfectionist, taskmaster, underminer, destroyer, guilt-tripper, inner controller, and molder10:00 – Publishing despite the perfectionist: “We’re hitting publish whether it’s perfect or not.” – KP12:00 – The role of inner critics when putting work into the world15:31 – Bringing in the inner champion or mentor19:02 – Entering KP’s system: bridges, rivers, and blimps22:00 – The blimp appears: “It sucks the fun out of the room.” – KP26:14 – The blimp as surveillance and taskmaster energy29:00 – Introducing themselves: “They really like themselves. Even more than I like my own self.” – KP32:30 – Drawing the blimp as a storm cloud: “Lots of power, lots of electricity… it was beautiful, but dangerous.” – KP36:47 – Naming the part: Remarkable41:09 – The fear of fire and destruction of the kingdom45:04 – Remarkable’s encouragement: “You can expand. You can make your kingdom bigger if you want.”47:00 – An assignment: “We would love for you to focus on your muscles and building your core strength.”52:50 – Drawing the kingdom and the whale-blimp54:00 – The exile vs. protector difference in session55:28 – Feeling more Self-led: “This time, the part trusted me.” – KPKey Quotes:* “I think we’ll see where we’re going, but it might be something we do in part two.” – Chelsea* “Oh, is this inner critic? Probably, yes.” – KP* “It sucks the fun out of the room.” – KP* “It was really beautiful to be in that energy, but it was dangerous.” – KP* “They really like themselves. Even more than I like my own self.” – KP* “We would love for you to focus on your muscles and building your core strength.” – Remarkable (protector part)* “This time it was part of the experience. The part actually trusted me.” – KPResources Mentioned:* Freedom from Your Inner Critic by Jay Early & Bonnie Weiss — resource with categories of critics, inventories, and practices for self-led work* Internal Family Systems (IFS) framework — key concepts of protector parts, exiles, critics, and self-energy* Art materials — using drawing and creative imagery to explore inner parts* The imagery of “Remarkable” — blimp, storm cloud, whale, protector of a kingdomFor those applying to grad programs in counseling:Chelsea Owens pulled together a deeeeeep dive into all the practical elements of this decision, for the price of a cute cafe lunch ($25) — follow this link: https://chelseawow.gumroad.com/l/bfbiauConnect with Us:✨ Subscribe to Parts & Charts on Substack📸 Follow us on Instagram: @PartsAndCharts💌 Send a question or note through Substack or DMWork 1:1 with Therapist Chelsea Owens at https://chelseaowenstherapy.com/and schedule an astrology session with KP Kaszubowski at www.kpkaszu.comCredits:Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski - performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah LutherThe cover image is a collage by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

In this fourteenth episode of Parts & Charts: The IFS and Astrology Podcast, Chelsea Owens (IFS and Art Therapist) and KP Kaszubowski (Writer, Filmmaker, Astrologer) explore:* What eclipses are—astronomically and astrologically* How eclipse season can feel like chaos, endings, beginnings, and surprise* Ways to stay “self-led” during moments of upheaval and rug-pulls* How different elements (Earth, Fire, Air, Water) might access the 8 C’s of SelfThis episode takes a closer look at eclipse season, the Virgo–Pisces nodal axis, and how to approach cosmic change without shame or self-blame. Chelsea grounds us in the Internal Family Systems (IFS) principle of Self-energy—reminding us that all parts are welcome, even in chaos—while KP unpacks eclipse cycles, their 18-year return, and how to track them in your own chart.Time stamps and Topics:0:30 Introduction to eclipse season and self-led energy2:00 What eclipses are (astronomy vs astrology)4:00 Pisces + Virgo eclipses of September 20256:00 Tracking eclipses through houses in your chart7:15 Eclipses as beginnings and endings (North + South Node)10:30 Why eclipses feel eventful and destabilizing13:30 The cycle of Virgo–Pisces eclipses, 2024–202716:20 Houses of resources and trust (2nd + 8th house examples)18:00 Jamie Lee Curtis quote on character and chaos20:00 Lessons vs. self-blame—Saturnical or soulful?23:00 Rug pulls, cosmic frustration, and staying gentle with yourself26:00 The Chariot card: intention vs. rigidity32:00 How Chelsea helps clients access Self-energy during upheaval38:00 Befriending chaos instead of suppressing it40:00 Virgo Sun thought experiment: 3 practices for Earth signs44:00 Elemental prescriptions: Earth, Fire, Air, and Water accessing Self-energyKey quotes:“Eclipse season can be chaotic, can be shifty and turny and all those things. So the best that we can do is to channel our self-energy or to tap into our self, take care of our self.” — Chelsea“Eclipse season is usually globally full of news that has to do with the themes of those zodiac signs. But personally, in our lives, for those two and a half-ish years, we can sense there's either a beginning or an ending—or many beginnings and many endings.” — KP“Eclipse season often looks like shedding, whether you want to or not—a part of your life or an identity or something. And it can also look like something brand new shows up in your life.” — KP“It doesn't feel good to be in chaos. But also, like, there's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing wrong with that energy. It's totally okay. It's not going to overwhelm the system. All of it's welcome.” — Chelsea“If I keep thinking that these rug pulls are because of my bad character or my bad choices, I will go insane.” — KP“It's not a moral judgment on your soul, but it's more of like a moment to practice—like, practice being better at handling chaos, better at handling stress.” — Chelsea“Self can handle all of it. Self can sit with all of these big emotions and hear them out.” — Chelsea“How can Earth energy get curious? If you need to put yourself in physical places like the beach or a hot tub or a quiet room, how can you just access more curiosity?” — Chelsea“Listening to truly inspirational speeches—like James Baldwin, or that Denzel Washington commencement speech—that might be fire energy. Always listening to inspirational anythings feels like a good entry point to more self-energy.” — KPResources Mentioned:* Internal Family Systems (IFS) — especially the principle of Self-energy and the 8 C’s (Calmness, Curiosity, Clarity, Compassion, Confidence, Courage, Creativity, Connectedness)* Astrological Nodes + Eclipse Cycles — 18-year return of eclipse patterns* Tarot: The Chariot card — guidance for facing change with intention* Jamie Lee Curtis said in an interview that “every single thing in her life, whether good or bad, has hinged upon a ‘couple of second [she] didn’t see coming.’” She is referencing this quote that comes from Marisha Pessl's novel, Special Topics in Calamity Physics:"Life hinges on a couple seconds you never see coming. And what you decide in those few seconds determines everything from then on... And you have no idea what you'll do until you're there".* Elemental “prescriptions” for accessing Self-energy We’ve officially entered eclipse season: from now until the end of September, the energy may feel a bit wobbly. Personally. Globally.We’re aware of the forced famine on the Palestinian people in Gaza. There is so little we’re able to do right now, especially with most of the humanitarian aid being blocked by the IDF. But, World Central Kitchen has been able to serve bread and water still, despite the blockages. In times of destabilization, eclipse season or not, one thing we can do is give generously to others experiencing displacement and persecution.For all of September, I (KP) am offering free birth chart readings to anyone who donates $50+ to World Central Kitchen.Shoot me a DM with a screenshot of your donation receipt and I’ll share a direct booking link.For those applying to grad programs in counseling: Chelsea Owens pulled together a deeeeeep dive into all the practical elements of this decision, for the price of a cute cafe lunch ($25) — follow this link: https://chelseawow.gumroad.com/l/bfbiauConnect with Us:✨ Subscribe to Parts & Charts on Substack📺 Watch on YouTube📸 Follow on IG: @PartsAndCharts💌 Send a note, question, or love letter via Substack🎧 Share this episode with someone who’s bracing for change, or wants to reframe chaos as an invitation to Self:Credits:Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski - performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah LutherThe cover image is a collage by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

Announcement time!* On September 5, 2025 at 1pm PT, Chelsea is leading a free live Q+A for anyone considering becoming a therapist. Let her save you precious time and money on this long (and worth it!) journey. REGISTER for the call here — the recording will be sent out for those not able to attend live.* For those actively navigating all the details of applying to counseling grad programs: Chelsea Owens pulled together a deeeeeep dive into all the practical elements of this decision, for the price of a cute cafe lunch ($25) — follow this link: https://chelseawow.gumroad.com/l/bfbiau* Do you also love making deep friendships through book-clubbing? We want to start a “Novels of Manners” Book Club, starting with Jane Austen’s Persuasion. Message us if you’re interested in joining a slow book club!In this twelfth episode of Parts & Charts: The IFS and Astrology Podcast, Chelsea Owens and KP Kaszubowski lean into Virgo season’s back-to-school vibe. But specifically for those interested in joining the counseling profession.This episode explores what it actually means to go back to school as an adult, whether that’s literal (therapy grad school) or symbolic (a new season, a new structure, a new initiation).Chelsea shares her journey through therapy school and the realities of becoming a therapist—the long hours, the burnout, the breakthroughs, and the quiet joys that make it worth it. KP reflects on almost becoming a counselor herself, her curiosity about grief work, and how vocation shows up in astrology. Together, they tease apart the fantasy and reality of “school” in midlife: the excitement of new supplies, the terror of debt, and the soul-level satisfaction of being in a helping profession.This one’s for the part of you that still loves syllabi and fresh planners, the part that wonders if it’s too late to pivot careers, and the part that’s secretly thrilled by the words “grad school application.”Parts & Charts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Key Quotes:“It’s way overdue for me to read a Jane Austen.” — KP“Most of therapy school is actually just doing your own work. The counseling comes later.” — Chelsea“It’s an initiation. You go down to the underworld, you do your hours, you come out rebirthed.” — Chelsea“You get to witness little windows into people’s souls. That feels indescribable.” — Chelsea“There’s this undeniable richness and satisfaction to the job, which is not usually part of other jobs.” — KP“Burnout is real, both during the 3,000 hours and later in private practice.” — Chelsea“IFS really saved me from burnout. It keeps me engaged, it feels like an adventure in the soul every time.” — Chelsea“If I’m really going to be in this for 30, 40, 50 years—how do I stay invested, healthy, able to give and receive?” — Chelsea“Going through therapy school is really just excavating yourself—facing your own stuff so you can be solid for other people.” — ChelseaTimestamps & Key Topics:00:00 – Welcome back & why we love back-to-school season03:00 – Announcements: our Novels of Manners Book Club + upcoming Q&A07:00 – Therapy school as initiation: the long road to becoming a counselor15:00 – KP’s almost-career in counseling, grief work, and vocation in the chart20:00 – Why midlife is often the moment for a big career pivot27:00 – The financial + emotional costs of therapy school35:00 – Burnout, self-care, and staying in the work for decades42:00 – Convince me to become a therapist… now convince me not to50:00 – Freedom, balance, and art-making as a therapist in private practice58:00 – Wrap-up: what “back to school” means in Virgo seasonResources mentioned:* Persuasion by Jane Austen (our first book club pick)* IFS Institute: ifs-institute.com* Info on therapy graduate programs + licensure paths — Chelsea made a mini course for $25 will all the info you need before you take the plunge: https://chelseawow.gumroad.com/l/bfbiauWe’ve officially entered eclipse season: from now until the end of September, the energy may feel a bit wobbly. Personally. Globally. We’re aware of the forced famine on the Palestinian people in Gaza. There is so little we’re able to do right now, especially with most of the humanitarian aid being blocked by the IDF. But, World Central Kitchen has been able to serve bread and water still, despite the blockages. In times of destabilization, eclipse season or not, one thing we can do is give generously to others experiencing displacement and persecution. For all of September, I (KP) am offering free birth chart readings to anyone who donates $50+ to World Central Kitchen. Shoot me a DM with a screenshot of your donation receipt and I’ll share a direct booking link. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

In this tenth episode of Parts & Charts: The IFS and Astrology Podcast, Chelsea and KP explore:What does Leo energy really mean beyond the stereotypes?How can we reclaim pride, visibility, and creative fire as sources of healing and self-leadership?[To watch the video version, head over to Substack or YouTube. For the audio versions, listen through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app.]This episode dives into Leo season and the Leo archetype—how it shows up in all of us, not just those with Leo placements. Chelsea and KP explore Leo as a fixed fire sign, its polarity with Aquarius, and the connection between Leo and Self-energy in Internal Family Systems (IFS). They also get personal about how Leo shows up in their own lives and how to work with clients who have strong Leo signatures in their charts.Time stamps and Topics:1:00 Intro: Welcome to Leo Season2:00 The basics: Leo as a fixed fire sign3:30 Understanding Leo through polarity: Leo–Aquarius6:45 Leo energy is inside everyone—even if you have no Leo placements10:00 How Leo shows up in KP and Chelsea’s charts14:30 Leo doesn’t always mean loud—grounded, quiet Leos exist too16:00 Leo’s fascination with the self and identity18:00 Mutable vs fixed energy: playing with identity vs defining it21:00 Role-switching, persona, and the fluid Leo Moon/Mercury combo26:00 Leo as joyful, doting, generous—sometimes hard for others to receive30:00 Leo vs Aquarius: the polarity of selfhood and collective belonging33:00 Cultural resistance to Leo energy and self-pride36:00 Why Leo energy is often misunderstood or rejected40:00 Shadow Leo: performance, power, pride, and unmet needs44:00 The joy and articulation of Leo in writers like Ross Gay 47:00 Questions KP asks when seeing Leo in a chart54:00 The ache of not being received and early wounds around pride and visibilityKey Quotes:“They were like, ‘Why are you so cheerful?’ ‘Why are you saying this?’… It was so hard to receive.” — Chelsea“That Leo energy is often told they are ‘too’ — too loud, too much.”— KP“When someone knows what they need and what they want, that's a threat to unhealthy dynamics.” — KP“I’ve always noticed people thinking I’m not being totally genuine when I show up super sunny and cheerful and excited… but it, like, so is.” — Chelsea“I think there’s such a fear of too much self-focus — what that would do.” — Chelsea“I think about how Leo is the performer, in that they're so aware of and they've played with their own persona, their own selfness, that they can step in and put on masks of other selves more easily than other people.”— KP“Even if you don't have any placements in Leo, there are many parts of you that are expressing that energy in different ways.”— KP“The shadow side of pride is being really easily hurt if someone doesn't appreciate something you did or doesn't tell you you look good today.”— KP“We need Leo energy. We need more of it. We need more Leo workshops. We need more Leo leaders.” — ChelseaResources Mentioned:* Internal Family Systems (IFS) — explored through the lens of Leo’s connection to Self-energy* The Sun Sign — as the animating force that corresponds to Self in IFS* Leo–Aquarius Polarity — balancing visibility and individuality with collective care* Ross Gay — poet and example of embodied Leo energy in joyful articulation* Frida Kahlo, Madonna, Hemingway, Obama — notable figures discussed as Leo examples* The 12 Zodiac Houses — referenced for understanding how Leo energy expresses in different life areas* The phrase “Don’t dull your shine” — discussed in the context of Leo’s wound when rejected for being too muchConnect with Us:✨ Subscribe to Parts & Charts on Substack📸 Follow us on Instagram: @PartsAndCharts💌 Send a question or note through Substack or DM🎧 Share this episode with someone who’s ever been told they’re “too much” or who needs a reminder to step into their sun energy.Credits:Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski - performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah LutherThe cover image is a collage by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

In this eighth episode of Parts & Charts: The IFS and Astrology Podcast, Chelsea and KP explore:How wounds live in us not just as pain, but as pathways to presence, curiosity, and storytelling.[to watch the video version, head over to Substack or Youtube. For the audio versions, listen through your favorite podcast app]This episode dives into the deep end of woundedness. We talk about the IFS concept of burdens, how parts hold pain from the past, and what healing actually looks like (often visual, elemental, and slow). We also wander into Chiron’s domain in astrology, the “wounded healer,” and reflect on how our charts reveal both the tenderness and the tools we’ve been given to metabolize it.We bring in tarot, psychodrama, middle school shame, and how speaking up (even in a podcast) can feel like standing at the front of class with no notes. This one’s for the part of you that’s scared to say the wrong thing and the part that knows that woundedness can be alchemized, not erased.We also dream up workshops where Pluto gets played by a friend in a cape, talk about how burdens get released through elemental rituals, and share our own Chiron placements and the tender places they light up.“There’s no reward for being woundless. We’re not rushing to get anywhere.”Key Quotes:“What the wound is… is just a beautiful need.” — Chelsea, reframing pain in the language of compassion.“Chiron energy is ripe for exploration—because it asks us to love, not fix.” — KP, on astrology’s wounded healer.“The swords hold the wound in place. And you get to choose whether to pull them out.” — KP, interpreting the Three of Swords tarot card.“There’s a whole protocol for unburdening in IFS. It’s like soul-level somatic magic.” — Chelsea, on releasing burdens through elements.“Middle school logic is still alive in us. And it deserves respect.” — Chelsea, on exiled parts and internalized beliefs.Timestamps & Key Topics:00:00 – Welcome back + how to talk about wounds without it being a bummer02:00 – Tarot pulls: Three of Swords, Ace of Swords, and the Magician as wound wisdom06:00 – Acting, pretending, and the psychodrama of healing09:00 – What burdens mean in IFS and how they’re released15:00 – Do we all have wounds? What’s “normal”? And is healing ever done?20:00 – Exiles in IFS: the tender parts we bury and protect26:00 – Chiron in astrology: the wound, the gift, the alchemy33:00 – Protective parts in the chart? Chiron's planetary neighbors38:00 – Trauma bonding, skepticism, and why wounds don’t define your worth43:00 – Chiron transits + the “middle school energy” of re-wounding46:00 – Our middle school wounds + how they still show up today50:00 – Chiron in KP’s chart and what it means for art, value, and loveResources mentioned:* No Bad Parts by Dr. Richard Schwartz* The Internal Family Systems Institute: ifs-institute.com* Chiron mythology (search your Chiron placement + aspects for insight)* The Rehearsal by Nathan Fielder (HBO)* Tarot cards discussed: Three of Swords, Ace of Swords, The Magician* Narrative astrology & psychodrama groups (Google: “astrology drama circle”)or check out the Living Astrologies conference: https://livingastrologies.net/about Connect with Us:✨ Subscribe to Parts & Charts on Substack📸 Follow on IG: @PartsAndCharts💌 Send a note, question, or love letter via Substack🎧 Share this episode with someone who over-prepares before speaking and secretly loves the drama of tarotCredits:Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski - performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah LutherThe cover image is a collage by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of Parts & Charts: The IFS and Astrology Podcast, Chelsea and KP explore:What it means to cross a personal threshold—astrologically, emotionally, and internally—through the lens of Chelsea’s 40th birthday.Parts & Charts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.They unpack the traditional astrology technique of annual profections and how each year of life is shaped by a different house and planetary guide (aka “Time Lord”). KP walks Chelsea through the energetic shift from a Mars-ruled fourth house year (39) to a Jupiter-ruled fifth house year (40), illuminating how themes of interiority, effort, and conflict give way to play, creativity, and joy.Chelsea reflects on the intensity of her 39th year—how her parts showed up, how astrology intersected with life’s challenges, and what she’s hoping to leave behind. Together, they consider how astrology and IFS can support us in navigating expectations, reclaiming agency, and trusting our own unfolding.This episode is a birthday celebration, a mini astrology class, and an invitation to be with whatever season of life you’re in—especially if it feels like a liminal one.Key Quotes:“Mars says no. Jupiter says yes.” — KP, on planetary rulership energy“You don’t have to achieve anything before any timeline—because time isn’t real.” — Chelsea“The Time Lord is like the rhythm-setter for your year.” — KP“The energy of the year felt like: try something… and then nope. Try something else… and nope again.” — Chelsea“You don’t have to let astrology dictate everything. But you can learn how to flow with it.” — KP“Time isn’t real. Even though that is technically my business.” — KP, lol“There was friction because I was fighting the flow.” — Chelsea“You’re not doing it wrong if your year feels crunchy. It might just be a 12th house year.” — KP“I was trying to overpower the universe… and just made myself suffer more.” — Chelsea“The fifth house isn’t for hustle. It’s for wonder, play, and creative expansion.” — KP“There’s still things I want for my life, but it doesn’t have the same desperation anymore.” — Chelsea“A 22-year-old astrologer can be brilliant if they’re self-led and coming from the heart.” — KPTimestamps & Key Topics:00:00 — Welcome back + birthday vibes01:00 — What is a perfection year? A time-based astrology technique05:00 — Chelsea reflects on turning 39, societal pressures, and internal parts10:00 — Mars-ruled years: conflict, frustration, and movement13:00 — How the fourth house shaped Chelsea’s experience of grounding16:00 — The energetic shift ahead: Jupiter as Time Lord in the fifth house20:00 — KP on Mars retrograde, protection parts, and burnout cycles25:00 — Why the next year is for joy, not intensity30:00 — The internal resistance to “bad” astrology news35:00 — Reframing aging as magic, not limitation38:00 — Grottoes, Gothic churches, and Mary energy40:00 — Support for anyone crossing a threshold—astrological or otherwiseResources we mentioned in the episode:* Annual Profections (Hellenistic astrology timing technique)* https://horoscopes.astro-seek.com/annual-profections-astrology-calculator* No Bad Parts by Dr. Richard Schwartz* Internal Family Systems Institute — ifs-institute.com* Chelsea’s therapy practice: chelseaowenstherapy.com* KP’s astrology sessions, writing, and workshops: kpkaszu.comConnect with Us:✨ Subscribe to Parts & Charts on Substack📸 Follow us on Instagram: @PartsAndCharts💌 Send us a note, question, or birthday blessing on Substack🦀 Share this episode with someone facing a big milestone (or in a crunchy Mars year)Credits:Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski - performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah LutherThe cover image is a collage by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe

In this fourth episode of Parts & Charts: The IFS and Astrology Podcast, Chelsea and KP explore:What if the parts of us who manage our day to day lives are really intending to protect us? What if those manager parts are connected to Saturn?[to watch the video version, head over to Substack or Youtube. For the audio versions, listen through your favorite podcast app]In this episode, Chelsea leads KP through a live IFS demo centered on manager parts—the internal protectors who keep our systems running smoothly, often by gripping tightly to control, productivity, and perception.You’ll learn:* What manager parts are and how they function in our daily lives* Why they can feel both essential and exhausting* How Saturn, the astrological planet of structure and responsibility, mirrors manager energy* The surprising overlap between tarot symbolism (hello, Death and Six of Pentacles) and internal systems workMidway through, KP gets curious about her own Saturn placement and what it says about her patterns around income, health, and timing—and then opens to a poetic and powerful visualization of one of her manager parts. What emerges is a mermaid on a rock, equal parts ancient and devoted, sturdy and a little dramatic. This part becomes a living metaphor for how structure allows for creative freedom, and how containment doesn’t have to mean limitation.This episode is part tutorial, part therapy demo, part astrological meditation—and offers an up-close look at the internal world of a practicing poet-astrologer as she makes contact with her parts.✨ If you’re a practitioner, this episode also offers a rare chance to witness Chelsea’s gentle, skillful facilitation of an IFS session in real time.🎥 We highly recommend watching the video version to catch key visual cues, including KP’s astrological chart and Chelsea’s micro-expressions during the demo.Key Quotes:“Managers do a lot of the front end stuff, managers do a lot of proactive work or preemptive work to control the situation or control the activation in the system so an exiled part doesn’t get too activated. ” — Chelsea“Controlling the environment, the body, how people perceive you, it can look like people pleasing, striving, schieving, type A stuff can be manager material.” -Chelsea“I think that I wasn’t seeing him [Saturn] as significant as I should have been, because he’s the last visible planet, I think he gets this kind of reputation like he’s isolated, he’s out there, he will come in when he needs to fix something.”-KP“The best manager is not asking you to notice them, the best manager is doing things behind the scenes and not calling attention to the 300 things they just got done.” -KP“When you listen to us, we don’t have to work as hard.” — KP’s internal partTimestamps & Topics:00:00 – Tech notes and why the video version is still worth watching :)02:00 – What’s on the tarot table: Death, Nine of Swords, Six of Pentacles04:00 – Introducing manager parts: the backbone of your internal system06:00 – How manager energy might show up in daily life08:00 – Perfectionism, people-pleasing, overworking, and control12:00 – IFS demo begins: KP meets a part shaped like a mermaid on a rock18:00 – Barnacles, devotion, and multi-generational parts21:00 – Saturn and the second house: slow growth and sacred work24:00 – Saturn in the first house: vitality, routine, and body responsibility28:00 – Shape and restraint as allies to power31:00 – A manager’s fear of internal chaos—and how structure helps36:00 – The volcano and the rudder: managing explosive creative energy40:00 – When parts want more attention: building trust through ritual43:00 – Rhubarb the analyzer part, and other unexpected guests48:00 – The astrological case for Saturn as a spiritual ally53:00 – Debrief: chart geometry, Venus-Pluto, and deep sea symbolism58:00 – Creative devotion, sacred pacing, and why Saturn gets better with ageResources Mentioned:* No Bad Parts by Dr. Richard Schwartz* The Internal Family Systems Institute – ifs-institute.com* Astrology chart tools – astro.com or astro-seek.com* Tarot decks discussed: Rider-Waite Smith, Mary K. Greer interpretations* Concepts: manager parts, Saturn return, birth chart rulers, containment, sublimation, sextile aspectConnect with Us:✨ Subscribe to Parts & Charts on Substack📸 Follow us on Instagram: @PartsAndCharts💌 Send a question or note through Substack🎧 Share this episode with someone who’s ever doubted their chart or wanted to silence a part of themselves.Credits:Music “Vape Juice Dave’s Bistro” composed by Scott Cary (Wild Western Avenue) for the feature film RINGOLEVIO (2020) directed by KP Kaszubowski - performed by Scott Cary, Max Wikoff, Else Albeck Gasparka, and Sarah LutherThe cover image is a collage by Chelsea Owens. Get full access to Parts & Charts at partsandcharts.substack.com/subscribe