Renee Sills is an astrologer, somatic movement educator, artist, and the host of the Embodied Astrology podcast. Through her work, she seeks to articulate and centre the embodied experience. For Renee, astrology is inherently embodied. Based in Portland, Oregon, she is a second generation astrologer and her work is deeply influenced by that of Melanie Reinhart, Liz Greene, Alan Oken, Eric Francis, Dane Rudhyar, and Demetra George. Though Renee has primarily studied Tropical, Psychological, and Western Medical Astrology, her work is also informed by Sidereal Astrology and a multitude of other cultural cosmologies.
Maria Blyth How did your astrology journey begin, Renee?
Renee Sills My mother got into astrology when she was in her 20s. She and her best friend (who is my godmother and now my close friend) studied the correlation of plants and astrology for a herbalism business they started, then later she became a massage therapist and learned some Medical Astrology to help her work with bodies, then later in her life she started to work as a counselor and used astrology with her clients. Since it was something she was actively learning and researching throughout my life, I picked a lot up from her (and her synthesis of astrology with health, healing, and psychology) simply by sharing an environment. She would always explain me to myself through astrology and when, at 13, I wanted to drop out of school and do my own thing, she saw that my chart supported that and so she used my chart to help me figure out how to self-direct an education.
My mother died when I was 17 and I inherited her library of astrology books which I then began to read obsessively. I think that since I’d grown up with it as a common language, the concepts and methods felt super intuitive and were very easy for me to grasp when I started to study it on my own. I started reading charts of my friends in my mid 20s and then started the Embodied Astrology podcast a few years after that. It’s only been 5-6 years or so now that I’ve read charts for clients professionally, but about 20 years that I’ve been committed to the study. I’m always learning, and I learn from everything - books, podcasts, classes, talking with other astro-nerds, my own chart, and observing astrology daily. I’ve had two short-term mentors – Heidi Rose Robbins and Carol Ferris. I learn a ton from my clients and reading charts all the time. I learn a ton from teaching!
MB What do you consider unique about your personal approach to astrology?
RS I think that my synthesis of astrology, somatics, contemporary art, and politics is pretty unique. I was born in 1983 when Jupiter and Uranus were conjunct in Sagittarius. I’ve noticed that my generation is full of people who synthesize, combine, and work in innovative intersections of various streams of esoteric mysticism and praxis. I haven’t (yet) met any other astrologers that share my particular intersections.
I’ve been a dancer and a mover all my life and have studied somatic methods since I dropped out of school at 13. A lot of my somatic study has been focused on embryonic, fetal, and systems development and movement repatterning. This awareness blends naturally with astro for me since so much of astrology helps us to see into a person’s psycho-energetic patterning. Working with embodiment and astrology as a combined practice allows me to work directly with people’s psycho-energetics through guided felt-sense awareness and breath and movement practices.
I also have two degrees in contemporary art - a BFA in Intermedia and Cyber Art (a dated term by now!) and an MFA in Social Practice. I think that living and surviving is inherently creative and I’ve found that I’m significantly happier when I think of my life as an art practice (jobs, relationships, all of it). I try to bring artistic methods into embodied astrology through using sensory scores, textural descriptions, imagination games and visualisations, and always, always promoting creative perspectives and agency in my clients, students, and listeners.
Finally, I am a very political person. I think embodiment is inherently political and astrology is a very interesting lens to view politics through. I identify as a progressive and an anti-capitalist, anti-racist, abolitionist. In everything I offer – whether to a large audience through the podcast, or in a 1-1 session – I am always orienting towards the political. It’s not always didactic, but it is always political for me. I want to support people in listening to their hearts and intuitions rather than authority figures, in untangling themselves from the destructive, dehumanizing mind-states of capitalism and colonist white supremacy, and taking a critical approach to deconstructing the formulaic expectations colonized society lays out for us in terms of what our values “should be”, and how we “should” work/labour, relate, love, live.
MB What do you believe is the relationship between astrology and divination, or fortune telling?
RS I think astrology is a very useful tool for divination. In my experience as a sensate intuitive, looking at a person’s chart really helps to open up my intuitive channels and direct my attention. I am not really a fan of fortune telling or prediction. I do think that we can use astrology to see into and articulate someone’s past or to describe the idiosyncratic nature of a person’s inner experiences. I think we can also effectively use it to describe future possibilities, upcoming challenges and opportunities, or to give perspective on timing. But, I believe deeply in free will and I don’t personally think it’s useful or possible to tell someone exactly what will happen in their future and to trust that that information won’t create its own magnetic attraction or cause and effect.
Astrology allows for a very nuanced approach to divination and it can look at a wide range of information as well as things that are extremely specific. In this way I think astrology is special because it can be so acutely directed. I do think it’s important to cultivate one’s intuition though, because otherwise astrology will just be methodical and prescriptive and fall flat. Because it is so specific, it is possible to use astro quite precisely to name and describe elements of a person’s life but, without intuition I don’t think we can really connect with the needs of their soul, which will direct our attention in more non-linear ways. At this point for me, reading an astrology chart feels like channeling. I don’t spend a lot of time calculating degrees or concerning myself with what others have said the meaning of something is. I just let the symbols speak to and through me.
MB For readers interested in learning about astrology, where would you recommend they begin?
RS I think we always learn best when we’re excited about what we’re learning. I would say to start with media and teachings that feel the easiest to absorb and integrate. Not everyone can pay attention to books for a long time, but some people love to read. There are such great podcasts and online classes now, and so many astrologers who offer mentorship. Also, there are so many different kinds of astrology (Tropical, Sidereal, Jyotish, Mayan, Chinese, to name a few) and the amazing thing is that all of them work! Choose an approach and teachers who resonate with you.
Start learning by asking how astrology can help you with what is current and relevant in your life. Astro is something that is so big that we’ll never be able to learn everything there is, which can be overwhelming, but that knowing can also be supportive to maintaining a beginner’s mind. My number one piece of advice is to not have a goal/destination. People get “good” at astrology when they love it and are hungry to learn it. Just connect with what’s the most interesting for you and let it lead you and you won’t go wrong. After that, my number two piece of advice is to observe it happening. A lot of astrologers get so caught up in making meaning that they forget to observe their own experiences. Keep a lunar calendar and notice how the moon’s phases feel in your body. Pay attention to seasonal light. Track your transits and progressions. Be fascinated by your own chart and what it’s doing.