Astrologer Britten LaRue on Potential vs. Emergence, Building Saturnian Skills, and the Magic of Change
Welcome back to Living the Spiral: Magicians!
My guest on this episode, my friend and teacher Britten LaRue, was the perfect person to talk to this week. I joined her Magicians Table container a few months ago, and meeting so many truly magical folks there was a huge inspiration for starting this interview series.
Britten is the creator of Emergence Astrology, the author of the incredible book Living Astrology, and the host of Moon to Moon podcast. She is also someone who, before all of this, was immersed in academia, studying and teaching art history and the ways popular culture helps sell empire.
When the Neptune transit hit her sun, she was gifted an astrology reading by her brother, and seeing the art, symbolism, and meaning in her chart, she thought- I can read that! And almost immediately, she decided to walk away from her dissertation and became a professional astrologer. And it worked- she has certainly made a splash in the world of astrology, looking at the signs, houses, and beyond as ways to transcend shame and connect with all the facets of ourselves through our voices. She connects the dots between concepts and people and communities in a way that I deeply admire.
I have been a part of several of Britten’s classes and group containers over the past few years, and am just now finishing up a 3-month cohort of one of them, The Magician’s Table. In this space, 12 of us practitioners and a 13th reader/facilitator are paired up to exchange readings with each other every week. We then gather as a group to share reflections on what we’ve witnessed and how we’ve been transformed by our partner’s magic.
It’s been such a delight to be a part of. I’ve received tarot readings, journeys into the akashic records, business-astrology readings, guided somatic experiences, and more. I’ve also had the opportunity to hone my skills as a reader and hear positive what stands out to the other practitioners about my style of Astro-HD and beyond. All of my experiences in Britten’s offerings have all been filled with insightful new ways to look at my internal world, and I have met so many truly wonderful humans through the spaces she creates- Britten has a way of attracting deeply magical people from around the world!
One of the things I love about Britten’s work is the way she moves beyond astrological prediction. It is clear that she is interested in where you are right now from multiple angles, and what the deeper thing underneath the astrology of the moment actually is for you. She describes her approach to astrology as being about holding people and helping them feel connected to something bigger - helping them see their vastness, but also helping them unshame their unique specificities. We talk about this living, emergent way of working with astrology on the podcast, and so much more.
Thanks for chatting with me, Britten! I hope y’all enjoy this fun and emergent episode of Living the Spiral Podcast.
Below are a few highlights of our conversation - watch the full episode in the player above or listen wherever you find podcasts!
On the meaning of magic:
When I asked Britten how she thinks about what magic means, she said something simple but thought provoking: Magic is Change.
“There’s something about taking on being a magician that is an acknowledgement that you’re available for change. That you want change, that you can play with change, dance with change, call in change, surrender to change.” - Britten La Rue
What I love about this is how it removes the gatekeeping from what it means to be a magician. There are no muggles, she said. Magic is not a gift you either have or don’t. It is a relationship you build with change over time, through building skills and being open to being changed by the skills.
On skill as a Saturnian love:
Britten talked about skill in a way I have not stopped thinking about since our conversation. Skill is Saturnian, she said. It grows through time and devotion, through the willingness to be new at something without shame and showing up to a practice consistently, well before it feels like yours. Before she was a professional astrologer, Britten said, she was an impostor professional astrologer.
“Through time is how we grow skill. And so it’s about expanding the capacity to trust that time will bring me what I’m wanting.”
This feels like an antidote to the urgency that lives in most of our bodies. Britten reflected on how urgency and scarcity are the same thing somatically, and the practice of skill is the practice of trusting time.
On there being no such thing as potential:
I talk with Britten about how she no longer uses the word potential, because potential is always out there somewhere in the future, a thing you have to find your way onto the path toward and prove yourself with. It is exhausting. It is extractive. She named the colonial words we reach for around it: maximize, harness, unlock.
Instead, she says: there is only emergence. Here is the longer version of how she put it:
“I came to this phrasing, “there’s no potential, there’s only emergence” because emergence is staying with the present moment and creating the path from there, just trusting that we’re always on our way towards what we’re meant for.
We don’t have to think that it’s a path that we can’t even see. It’s right here. It’s emerging at our feet from desire, from skill, from the dream, from guidance, and we’re just tuning into it one step at a time, one day at a time.
And I don’t think that we understand ourselves at all, in our fullness until we die. I have not died before, so I don’t know. But what I imagine is that we can only ever really see a portion of ourselves at once. And then when we die, we get to experience our multitudes. And that is the potential in a way- the one we meet when we die.
So how do we want to feel about that? I want it to come from the inner place rather than that exhaustion, depletion, shame place.”
On why community so deeply matters:
When Britten first left academia and committed to the magical path, she went into hermitage. She only wanted to hear her guides. Every human she told about her plans got big worried eyes, concerned that she’d left a stable career path for a mystical life. So she just stopped telling humans.
She said she builds her community containers (like the Magicians Table) partly because she never wants anyone else to have to be that alone with their process of emerging into a mystic, astrologer, or seer. I do know that there is a specific kind of isolation that comes from having a vision the people around you cannot yet see. Finding a room where you can speak the full language of your passions and visions, with no disclaimers, is its own kind of medicine.
We also talked about Britten’s work restructuring her offerings right now, creating a pathway toward active learning (Emergence Astrology Pathway) and a community container for ongoing integration and building alliances with likeminded souls (Living Emergence Community).
I’m so excited to see how her containers will evolve- she is such an experienced master teacher with a truly open and kind heart!
Work with Britten LaRue
You can find Britten at @brittenlarue on Instagram, listen to her wonderful Moon to Moon podcast, and get her book Living Astrology through her website at brittenlarue.com. Enrollment for the Emergence Astrology Pathway will open at summer solstice.
This one was a real gift of a conversation. I hope you feel that too!
🎧 Listen to the episode in the player above, or find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
About Alison & Living the Spiral
Alison Dale is an artist, writer, astrologer & human design guide based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work lives at the intersection of ancestral systems that track the seasons and the planets, embodiment practices, creativity, and earth-based spirituality. She hosts the podcast Living the Spiral, and offers astrology and human design readings as well as 1-on-1 astro-somatic coaching packages at hearthandspiral.com.
Join her here on Substack by clicking the button below, and follow along on Instagram at @hearthandspiral.
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