From the Rearview Mirror
Written on July 28, 2026
Astrology makes the most sense from the rearview mirror. Anyone who has been in my circle or had any kind of astrology conversation with me has likely heard me say this.
I have studied astrology deeply for several years. I have a lot of “book knowledge” on the subject. I have a lot of, what I consider to be, innate knowledge. When I started studying astrology it was like I opened a door to a vast world I already knew very well. Like a long lost language that I appeared to be fluent in almost overnight. It was more than just intuition. It was like, I’ve been here before…I’ve done this before…many times over.
Even though the studying of the subject came very easy to me, I didn’t immediately share this with others. I am a life-long learner, but book knowledge is only a piece of the puzzle for me. I learn through lived experience as well. And I do not share my knowledge or wisdom on any subject with the world until I’ve accumulated a fair amount of lived experience.
I began to examine my own chart deeply. Learning what my own individual placements meant made a lot of things in my life make sense. Once I had a solid understanding of my chart, I began to pay attention to transits. How was the planetary energy moving through my chart in real time and how was this showing itself in my daily life?
I started with the shorter transits that produced information more quickly. The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars all give solid information within one to two months. Then I began observing the longer transits like the North and South Nodes, Saturn, Chiron, and Uranus. These took 18 months… 3 years… 7 years to get the full picture.
Over time, I began to notice a pattern within myself. At the beginning of a transit I would attempt to “predict” what this might be about for me. This prediction was based mostly on my study of astrology and what I knew about the energy of each planet, sign, and house from an academic perspective. About half way through a transit I would start to see how this was actually playing out in my life - sometimes partially in the ways I had predicted, but more often in different ways than I initially imagined. By the end of a transit, it was very clear to me exactly how it had played out, and while the energies would always fall in line appropriately, the actual lived experience was never anything I could have predicted.
I also went back and studied previous transits and looked at what I had lived during those transits. This gave me a much better understanding of the longer transits. I could look at a previous 7-year, 13-year, or even 20-year span of my life and clearly see exactly how a transit played out for me. This was especially fascinating to me because I could see, through the rearview mirror, what unfolded, even during times when I had no conscious knowledge of astrology. This particular lens gave me a much greater faith in astrology itself. Seeing how it had tangibly played out again and again in my own lived experiences was undeniable.
After I had done this long enough to gather not only enough academic knowledge, but also enough lived experience, I began sharing this with those closest to me. I studied their charts and helped them understand their placements and taught them to observe their own patterns. I found the same pattern in others that I found in myself. They could see quite clearly, at the end of a transit, how it had played out in their actual lived experience.
Once I had built enough lived experience through myself, and observed enough lived experience in those closest to me, I began bringing my astrology guidance to the world. And everything I believed to be true was, and is, continuously confirmed.
We can make educated guesses about what transits will be about for us. But we cannot predict the exact events that will play out. If we make conscious choices to observe our lives through the lens of the transits, we will begin to make small connections as the transit progresses. By the time it ends, we will see it clearly. And nine times out of ten, it will have played out in ways we could not have predicted.
So what’s the point of paying attention to astrology at all if we don’t know the real answer until it’s over? If we can’t use it as a reliable prediction tool, why use it?
You may have to wrestle with your own conclusion on that. For me, it builds faith in the universe. It helps me to understand my own patterns. It helps me to understand why things happen at certain times, or why things had to happen at all. It helps me to understand that some transits bring a lot of challenges and some bring a lot of joy, but they all eventually shift.
Whatever you’re experiencing, good or bad, it’s going to change. If you’re in a season of hardship, you can have faith that it will come to an end. If you’re in a season of extra blessings, hold as much gratitude as you can, because it will also come to an end. The universe balances the scales… in its own sweet time.
Astrology gives me more appreciation and understanding of time itself. There are cycles and patterns that become quite clear once you begin to observe. I have become more patient with myself and life in general.
If I’m feeling dark and broody when the moon is transiting my Scorpio 12th house, I know I’m going to feel much better in 2 days when it moves into Sagittarius. If I am experiencing a lot of unexpected upheaval in my long term relationships, I know that Uranus is in my 7th house for the next 7 years, so I can expect the unexpected. If I’m witnessing my daughter go through some big challenges as she navigates her Saturn return, I know how to support her through this 3-year initiation into adulthood.
I’m a very skilled observer of patterns and cycles. The universe works in patterns and cycles. Astrology gives me a deeper faith in the workings of the universe, a deeper trust in my own journey, and a deeper understanding of the journey of others.
From my experience, the middle can be very messy, uncomfortable, and painful. But when you get to the end and view it from the rearview mirror, more times than not, the result is better than expected.
Angela Dawn
Helping people come home to themselves
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