cover image Find Your Cosmic Calling: A Guide to Discovering Your Life’s Work with Astrology

Find Your Cosmic Calling: A Guide to Discovering Your Life’s Work with Astrology

Natalie Walstein. Fair Winds, $24.99 (192p) ISBN 978-0-7603-7279-1

Graphic designer turned astrological career counselor Walstein debuts with a stylish tour through reading natal charts, or what she considers the “soul’s blueprint.” Her “Cosmic Calling Formula” focuses on four aspects of the chart: Sun Sign (self-expression), Moon Sign (emotional needs), Rising Sign (identity), and Career Line/Midheaven (impact). With the goal of revealing the reader’s innate drives and opportunities for fulfillment, Walstein walks through each planet’s influence based on its location in one of the 12 houses (for example, the moon in the third house indicates one is fulfilled by connecting people, but if it’s in the sixth house, then one is satisfied by supportive rituals). More esoteric components, such as north and south nodes, Chiron, and Pallas Athena, point toward “deeper soul-level motivations.” While she directs readers to online sources to generate the basic chart, and replicates and annotates a blank version, the omission of a filled-in example may leave novices confused. The aim is larger self-analysis rather than career counseling: no specific jobs are suggested; instead readers should “try to see every step you take in the direction of your calling as a curious experiment.” But for those who believe their life’s purpose is coded in their birth chart, Walstein’s cosmological framework provides ample grounds for self-exploration. (Jan.)