Designed To Be Awake Podcast - Dr. Starchild Speaks: Part 1

This special bonus episode of Design to Be Awake serves as a closing punctuation mark to Season One and an introduction to a three-part astrology series titled Ways of Being. Rather than focusing on astrology as prediction or belief, this series approaches it as a living library of archetypes—patterns and ways of being that describe the human journey from birth to death.

Whether or not you’re familiar with astrology, these episodes invite curiosity, reflection, and resonance. They are meant to be felt, explored, and enjoyed as a lens for understanding yourself and others.

Thank you for listening, for being part of this season, and for bringing your presence to Design to Be Awake.

Transcript

You are listening to Designed to be Awake with Mick Kubiak.

Hello,

Beautiful listeners.

This is Mick Kubiak coming at you with an episode about astrology,

Which has been an interest of mine for decades.

It started early in my life.

The book that I first read,

I couldn't necessarily tell you the name,

I found it in a drawer in my bedroom.

And this is true story.

My mom was a big fan of like kind of going to yard sales and buying things and then you should just stick them in your room somewhere and forget to tell you about it.

So that's the most logical explanation for the fact that this book was there.

And then I surprisingly got into it,

But in kind of an interesting way where I was like,

Oh,

Well,

I know what my sign is.

I'll read about that.

And it did not fit.

I was just like,

I don't relate to that at all.

So then I started looking at other people and noticing,

Oh yeah,

She is like that.

Or I see that.

I see that.

And occasionally I demonstrate an ability to know what someone's sign is.

Not always though,

Because this is a complex art form.

The sun sign is one aspect of many.

It is a strong aspect in terms of this lifetime that you're in,

But it is again,

One of many things.

You might have multiple other things impacting your son.

Like sometimes if your son's in the 12th house,

It'll be harder to read.

First house son,

You would think could mean that you really show up as your sun sign.

So I don't want to get too deep in the weeds on that because I want to share this whole thing that was just downloading in me this morning at 4.

15am.

And I never got back to sleep.

And I am okay with that because it was so joyful to just sort of feel into and move through the signs.

I felt like I was in the presence of a teacher,

Which I probably was,

You know,

This inner astrologer,

This helper,

This angel,

This guide came through.

And I alternated between thinking I was thinking this and talking and then thinking,

Oh,

Wait,

I'm just listening.

I just need to receive.

I need to relax and receive.

And I relaxed and continued to listen to this mini lecture on the signs specifically.

So it wanted to take me from Aries all the way through to Pisces.

I just got into Sagittarius before I had to get on the phone with a client.

So we'll see what happens when I get to that part in sharing all this information with you guys.

You know,

We all kind of like focus on our sign,

The sign of our lover,

Boyfriend,

Husband,

Wife,

Children,

Our best friend,

Our mom,

Like we want to know those.

And then we kind of just skip over the rest.

And I'm going to suggest that you don't do that.

And I'll tell you why.

Because what this teacher was saying to me this morning at 4.

15 a.

M.

,

The way it was pictured to me was at the center of that wheel from the first to the 12th house is where the soul resides.

The far less defined,

You could say undefined,

But there are layers to that.

But let's just for the moment,

Imagine you're a soul and you haven't taken on any of these characteristics of any of these astrological signs,

But you're standing in the middle of them and you get to like kind of go around the whole wheel and get a feel for each one of these signs.

And then maybe at some point you'll decide to step into one and go deep into that experience.

You know,

One idea about incarnation would be that's exactly what happened when you were born on the day that you were born,

At the time that you were born,

In the place that you were born,

So specific to the family you were born.

How conscious or unconscious the soul was at the time that it took birth is debatable.

If you look at a lot of past life experiencers,

We have an incredible library of people sharing very reliable accounts of dying and going into another realm,

Still being able to see this realm often,

And that's what makes their journey beyond death verifiable.

The evidence in this area is so strong that I think if you're ignoring it,

It's because you're being held hostage by a belief system that is no longer relevant or accurate.

And I just want to really encourage you to let it go.

In Buddhism,

Which was where I first kind of got deep into,

It was one version of the past life that I got into.

And if you look at that,

It's kind of saying,

Listen,

We need to wake up here now in this lifetime,

Because when we don't,

What happens is that when our soul dies,

It can get pulled in all these different directions.

And especially if when you die,

You're dying in a of anger or fear or frustration or any of those kind of really intensely seductive,

Dark side emotions,

You're going to get unconsciously pulled into another lifetime that looks like that,

That has those elements.

And it will happen without you.

Like you'll enter the bardo,

You'll lose consciousness,

And you'll just be sucked into something.

So those are two different ideas.

And you can sort of play with each one if you want.

That's what I've done.

In this visualization,

I want you to imagine you're at the center of 12 doors.

You're in a middle room,

And there are these 12 doors.

Ways of being is the way I'm thinking of it.

And the first door you're going to enter is Aries.

And you're going to get a real feel for that.

Like,

What's that like being in Aries?

And then you can just as easily and quickly transition into Taurus in the second room.

I think there's doors between the rooms too.

So like,

You might just move straight from Aries to Taurus,

Which is kind of what we're going to do in this little lecture.

But please bear in mind that you remain that soul at the center.

Maybe it's almost like little fragments of yourself pop into each sign as I go through this kind of download that I got this morning.

So yeah,

Let's start with Aries.

Aries is a sign that I feel like takes a lot of abuse.

And a lot of what gets like laid onto Aries is they're selfish.

They are insensitive.

They are just on their own path,

And they really just stay on it.

And you don't want to get in the way because they're not going to stop.

So you get out of the way.

And that's a stereotype,

Okay?

And stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason.

But when you start to understand from a position of like,

What if I inhabited the energy of Aries?

What if I was just born in Aries?

Here I am.

You might start to understand them and be like,

Oh,

That's what they're here for,

Folks.

Like,

That's it.

They are not here to like go slow and compromise.

That's opposite them on the expression,

The wheel of ways of being.

That would be a Libran type of reason to be here.

And one is not better than the other.

So just please take that in as I'm talking to you about this,

That one is not better than,

Not one of these signs is better than the other.

They are ways of being,

And they all have their incredible beauty.

And they also have issues that come along with being in the world that way.

However,

Again,

Once you understand the way this person is,

What an incredible gift you have to offer them.

So yeah,

Aries is the first sign.

And that just tells you so much about them,

Right?

They like to be first.

They want to be ahead of everybody else.

That's the kind of energy that it takes to come into this world of incarnation,

Right?

It is not for the cowardly.

And Aries,

That's where we start.

It's like,

Yeah,

I'm going to do this.

It's courageous.

It's confident.

Some would say fearless.

To me,

It very much connects to the tarot card,

The Fool.

There's this kind of interesting trustingness to Aries.

They're like,

I'll be fine.

Yeah,

I'm just going to jump off this cliff and I'm sure I'll somewhere.

And then I'll figure it out from there,

But just get me out of the gate.

I want out of the gate.

Let me go.

And there's tremendous resilience and freedom and excitement in that.

And then if you have ever seen an Aries who's being held back,

It's a sad thing to see,

To be honest.

I don't delight in it at all.

And if we can see the Aries people in our lives or Aries in ourselves,

Because everyone has every sign in their chart in some way,

Even if it doesn't appear in your chart,

I guess this is my point,

You have access to it.

And why not let yourself have that rather than getting bogged down?

And these are the signs available to me in this chart,

Because even if you don't want to have that Aries energy,

It might help you to know who to seek out for certain things like,

Oh,

That's my weakness.

I want to work with somebody who has that in spades.

Some of the ways that that works is like they're great leaders.

They need to be fully free to lead well,

But they lead well once they're there.

And so if your objectives align with an Aries objectives,

Put them in the front,

Let them steer the ship.

There is an incredible just child like resiliency to them.

They get up,

They fall down,

They get back up.

They just don't stop.

It's a beautiful quality.

And it's again,

Kind of what it takes to be born into this world of form that can be so daunting and unreliable and dark and scary and cruel.

Yeah.

So that's Aries.

And so imagine,

Yeah,

Your soul,

It's come in here and it's going,

Going,

Going,

And it's experiencing all of these things as it's going and going along.

It hits a moment.

Taurus.

Taurus,

What came through this morning is Taurus is the Garden of Eden on Earth.

If you've ever been to the home of a Taurus,

Like a real true Taurus or someone with many Taurian aspects or strong Taurus influence,

It's just so cozy and comfortable and warm and beautiful.

And you kind of just get pulled in there and you're like,

Now,

Why would I leave?

I can't think of a good reason.

And even the most outgoing Tauruses,

The ones that you see out in the world,

Someone like Cher,

You can still get this sense that she understands that she is the Garden of Eden.

She is the Garden of earthly delights.

And the people in her world kind of rotate around her,

I would imagine.

I don't know.

But like fans rotate around her.

She's she is central.

And this is another thing about Taurus,

This earth sign,

Right?

There's just this gravitational pull and magnetism,

And they don't really have to do anything for it.

Another person who crossed my mind was Michelle Pfeiffer,

Who like,

For all intents and purposes,

Is just never out there doing the thing.

She's not like shaking hands and kissing babies to be famous.

She just is.

And I don't know anything about her.

But again,

What comes forward in the media,

In my sense,

Is that she found her person,

She made her garden,

And that is where you can find her.

And you better have something pretty impressive to lure her out of it,

Or she's going to stay there.

And she's fine.

She's perfectly fine.

And I guess a third if I had to think of a third Taurus,

And I know I didn't do this for Aries,

But this is just coming through as it comes through.

I would think of Eckhart Tolle,

His moon is in Taurus.

And you can just,

It's that inner stability that he's so gifted at accessing and sharing with other people.

And so that's kind of how the moon works.

So this Garden of Eden image has like some layers to it.

One is,

When you're in the Garden of Eden,

Like why would you go out?

And we're famous for not going out.

We're famous for being like,

No,

I'm good.

I'm happy at home.

Everything is here.

It's very comfortable.

It's very beautiful.

It's just the way I like it.

And one of the things that I heard about Taurus was that oftentimes,

You'll be born with a lot of placements in Taurus if you're coming from a lifetime that was very shocking,

Or another like violent and just horrible.

The gift of the gods is to give you birth in the sign of Taurus,

Where you will have the gift of providing safety,

Stability,

Consistency,

Respite for your soul.

That's what it is to be a Taurus.

I myself have four planets in Taurus,

And it took me a long time to come to terms with it.

Because I believe in this lifetime,

I'm learning to be a Taurus.

It's not like I came in knowing how.

I didn't.

My sense is that I really didn't.

And it took me many,

Many years to be like,

Oh,

Hey,

This is cool,

Actually.

Like,

This is nice.

I could actually really enjoy this,

Rather than constantly flinging myself off a cliff,

Which is what I used to do all the time.

Not understanding my soul's deep need for stability and containment in this world.

Doesn't mean I'm not gonna like throw myself off cliffs in the But again,

Has to be the right thing.

And when you know a Taurus,

You know what it's like to be allowed into that Garden of Eden.

And you know what it's like when you get shut out.

That strikes me very much as that Old Testament version of God,

Where it's like,

Look,

There are rules here.

And if you dig what's happening here,

And you can play by these rules,

You can stay.

Like with most Tauruses,

It's not like you're going to get officially kicked out in a violent fit of whatever.

You're just going to literally find yourself on the outside of that door to the garden.

And you're going to maybe be like,

What happened?

And the chances are,

There was a whole period of time where you were allowed in the garden,

That you didn't maybe even know what was happening.

And then somehow over time,

You trampled on a plant one too many times,

You messed with the garden,

You didn't follow the rules,

And so you're out the door.

Now,

Is that right?

Is it fair?

I don't know.

All is fair,

I believe.

Like,

I think we all have to live by our own rules,

I guess.

And knowing what your soul needs,

And being really clear about that,

And having a very clear boundary between what's aligned with that and what's not,

I believe is a gift of Taurus.

Now,

If we think about,

Allegedly Eve did these things,

Right?

This is where I feel like we start to get into Gemini.

Because just like Ares was running and running and going and going,

And then suddenly it was like,

Hang on,

I found someplace great.

I think I'm going to camp here for a while.

I'm going to build a house here.

And that's Taurus.

Getting bored is Gemini,

Right?

Gemini is like,

It's amazing,

But like,

What else is going on?

Curiosity.

And we have that thing like,

Curiosity killed the cat,

Too.

Like,

Curiosity got Eve kicked out of the garden,

And Adam,

Too,

By association,

I guess.

Again,

These are just stories I'm referencing.

I'm not here to download a religion to anybody.

I'm just sharing this.

So there goes Gemini.

Curious,

Looking over the fence.

Who's that out there?

Is there anything outside of the garden that I might like,

Might be more interesting?

Or like,

What's going on out there?

Always wanting to talk,

Talk,

Talk,

Talking to everybody.

Asking lots of questions and so curious and interested about everything.

I think about the Geminis in my life as these butterflies,

And they will fly into the garden,

And they will so enjoy being there.

They can be great listeners.

They can be great talkers,

And maybe too much sometimes.

But really,

They love playfulness.

They love the exchange.

They want to,

Like,

Share a joke and have a laugh and play.

They're very playful.

They're on their own trajectory in a way,

And there's just a mysterious underlying order to that,

Right?

So they come in,

And they're going to land on the flower for a while,

But then they're going to be gone,

And they're going to come back.

But you don't know when.

And again,

Depending where their moon is,

And the rising sun,

And all these other placements,

They may be in this essence or might be muted.

But this,

To me,

Just if we're looking at the whole thing,

Again,

Archetypally as ways of being in the world,

Gemini is that part of ourselves that's curious about the other in a different way from Libra,

And we'll get to that.

But they are curious,

And they just want to talk and chat and,

Like,

Go to the local coffee shop and find out what's going on with everybody in town.

And they're ruled by Mercury,

Which is the planet of communication.

But again,

Very different from Virgo,

Earth sign,

Later coming up,

Also ruled by Mercury,

And puts it to use in a very different way.

So we're going to move on to Cancer,

And then I'm going to take a break and move through the next four signs and then the next four signs.

So these will be,

This will be three episodes.

So Gemini out there,

Like,

Left the Garden of Eden,

Now is out free in the world,

Having a great time until suddenly they're like,

Where am I?

Where am I going to stay tonight?

Shit.

And then they're aware,

Like,

Oh,

Wait,

I can't go back to the garden.

So now I have to find a place to live.

I have to forge a place to live in this kind of wilderness.

And it's from here that we enter the sign of Cancer.

So Cancer is symbolized by the crab,

And this made me think about how I understand that better with this idea of moving through the signs.

A crab carries its home with it,

Right?

It's not the same as,

Like,

The planted deep root earth home of Taurus.

It's like,

We gotta get safe.

It's very efficient.

It's kind of like,

This is what we need to survive in this world outside the garden.

We need this hard shell so that nothing can quite get in,

And we need to be able to move if we need to move in order to be safe.

It's highly adaptable structure,

And it's a brilliant structure because it holds life inside and keeps it safe.

And it's associated with the mother.

It's associated with the womb.

It's associated with breasts and breast milk.

It's,

To me,

Like Taurus out in the world without being in the garden.

It's out of the garden,

But it's creating that same.

It's almost imagining back to like,

Oh yeah,

What was that like to feel so safe?

And people expressing Cancer are very safety-oriented.

They're very protective,

Not only of themselves,

But of all life.

They're very protective of the people they love,

And they build these hard shells around themselves.

And at the center is this incredibly soft being,

This incredibly sensitive being,

Because Gemini,

They're sensitive.

They're picking up on everything.

They just get so carried away with it,

And they're just so into every conversation and going over here and going over there that they don't always track when they're suddenly tired.

And again,

This is where Cancer comes in to say like,

Home.

I'm going to go home.

I know how to create a home that's safe,

Protective,

And inside that home,

I will nurture and preserve and nourish.

Beautiful,

Beautiful.

Again,

Though,

To that sensitivity with Cancer,

And there can be a skittishness and a fearfulness,

That can be one of the difficulties of having this sign.

You know,

There's just that hard shell on the outside and then this like deeply sensitive individual on the inside.

So keep that in mind with your Cancer-loved ones and yourself if you have Cancer placements.

And also bear in mind just like the brilliance of the design of it,

Creating this protective structure to save and preserve life and therefore to continue.

This is why it's like such an adaptable sign.

It's adapted to this wild world in a way that allows us to continue on here.

So that is the first four signs.

We have done the fire sign of Aries,

The earth sign of Taurus,

The air sign of Gemini,

And the water sign of Cancer.

And we've seen how there's like these connected doors between those four signs.

And again,

When we know people in those signs or we are people with those signs,

We can start to like play with this way of being rather than trying to control this way of being.

So like you're in a relationship with an Aries and you're constantly trying to drag them home.

Not a very loving way to be,

Right?

I know I was married to an Aries and I think I did that.

And Taurus,

When you've been invited into a Taurus's life,

Pay attention,

You know?

Understand the rules are there for a reason and they're not personal.

And loving a Taurus is like knowing what those are and honoring them.

And it's a beautiful thing.

And then when you can do that,

Now that doesn't mean you have to spend the rest of your life there.

You might be a Gemini who's like,

Look,

This was great and I love you.

And if you have a Taurus who understands Gemini,

They're going to know you're leaving.

It's fine.

Off you go,

Gemini,

Into the big bad world,

The wilderness,

Right?

And you're out there and you're like having a great time and going from thing to thing.

And then suddenly,

Oh my God,

I'm so tired.

Where am I going to rest my little butterfly body?

This is when cancer comes into being and it's like,

I've made a home.

I'm going to make a home.

This is different.

We're not back at Taurus.

We can't stay there in that Garden of Eden where everything's taken care of and we're protected.

We're out here because we chose this.

We chose to be out here in the wilderness.

And now we have to figure out how to survive here.

And that is where you have cancer,

Providing this very protective,

Safe place to hang your hat and take a nap.

And then this energy of cancer,

Right?

There's this sudden respect that Gemini needed to learn of like,

Oh,

Yeah,

There's value in this nurturing,

In this holding,

In this containing,

In this protecting,

So that we can go on.

And that will cue us up nicely for Leo,

Virgo,

Libra,

Scorpio in the next episode.

So if you want to just sit with these first four signs and really notice like,

How do you feel when each of these things comes up,

When each of these ways of being either arises in you or in someone you love?

And how does that impact your way of being with yourself and with them?

And how can you shift to be more accommodating of yourself and the other?

Amen to that.

Love talking to you.

Love that you're out there listening more in the next episode.

Thank you so much for listening today.

This episode and every episode would be impossible without the brilliant Chase Coughlin,

The organizational genius of Maya Young,

And of course,

All of you.

Please hit subscribe,

Follow,

Leave me a review.

Thank you so much,

And I will look forward to connecting with you next week on Designed to be Awake.