This astrologer is bringing the secrets of the stars back down to earth.
– KEYS SOULCARE
Since launching her astro-coaching practice My Life Created back in 2012, author Mecca Woods has been turning weekly horoscopes into practical magic. With astrological features in Bustle, Essence, Cosmopolitan and more, Mecca has spent the last decade demystifying the signs, their elements, and purpose — while keeping us grounded in reality as a guide for a life well-lived.
We chatted with the native New Yorker to get her to take on celestial maps and how to build a career along an uncharted path. Read on to learn more on how she embraced doing things her way and how tapping into your astrology can help you do the same.
HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR ROLE IN LIFE?
I like to see myself as a change maker. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been creative, but my creativity has always been shaped by wanting to do good in the world. I knew that I wanted to be a writer for a really long time. I used to get stacks of paper when I was a kid and I would write, make stories, and make little books because writing was something that made sense to me. It’s funny how through my life trajectory, I ended up becoming exactly what I wanted to be when I was a kid, which still kind of blows my mind.
HOW DID YOU COME INTO ASTROLOGY?
I honestly didn’t take [astrology] seriously until around my 30s — I was having my own little quarter-life crisis, which is typically what a Saturn Return is.
I was like, What am I? What am I doing with my life? What do I want to build for myself? I’m a single mom, [which] informed a lot of my choices because I never wanted [my daughter] to look at me and see me as someone who wasn’t happy with her life. I wanted to be a good role model for her and show her me doing things my way. I wanted to show her that she could do the same thing, too.
I ended up stumbling upon this book called The Celestial Sexpot’s Handbook, [which] is a book about love and astrology. I enjoyed what it said so much that I ended up getting a couple of readings with the author, Astrosexologist Kiki, who was also a full-time astrologer. This was the first time I ever had my birth chart read and I was really blown away because — even though I’m an astrologer and I work in this — I’m still skeptical about certain things. I was so blown away by the readings that I just started becoming obsessed and scoured the internet [for] everything that I could find. I ended up meeting my good friend and mentor Rebecca Gordon; I told her that I was really interested in [astrology] and I started studying under her.
Before then, I was still a little on the fence about whether or not I wanted to go in that direction because I didn’t want to give people bad advice. I was battling against a bit of stigma and my own personal fears. Are people going to take me seriously? What will they think? I also connected to other Black astrologers early on in my astrology career. That helped to push me along [because] there are people out here that look like me and have made this a career. It was definitely an exercise [to] belief in myself.
WHAT ARE SOME COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT ASTROLOGY YOU WOULD LIKE TO DEBUNK OR DEMYSTIFY?
There is a myth that astrology is a science, and it’s not. It’s more of a mystical art. I’ve actually heard a friend of mine, Samuel Reynolds, explain it as being the marriage between math and myth. The mathematical side of it has to do with where the planets are positioned and how they’re moving around with each other. At the same time, there’s the myth, which has to do with the stories that give context to the planets to inform how we interpret a birth chart. Those interpretations help people to have more understanding about themselves or their life, or what’s going on in it.
Whether astrology is a science or not, there is a pattern to it. I like to think of it as being [similar to how] economists will forecast the trends for the economy or meteorologists will forecast patterns in terms of the weather. Astrologists are doing the same thing. We’re going back in time, into history and saying this is what happened during this time. And then we know that those planets are going to cycle around in the same spots again, so it is highly probable that this is going to happen again.
YOU SPECIALIZE IN NATAL CHART READINGS. WHAT IS THAT AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
A natal chart is basically a chart that someone gets at their birth. The chart is a map of the sky at the time of your birth: the day, the month, the year, the time that you were born [as well as] the location.
In that natal chart, we can see all kinds of things about a person from their history in terms of what has shaped them. Sometimes, I find myself talking to people about ancestral stuff, too. We can look at a person’s chart to see what makes them tick, what drives them, and what they care about — their fears, their passions, their dreams, and what they are trying to do in this world. What do they want to make of themselves? How do they want to express themselves and live out their life? We can see where they are in the current time and then we can also look ahead in time and see where they’re going as well.
It’s a tool [for guiding someone] through their self-development or [someone] trying to accomplish a certain goal or a task. The natal chart can also show you a map on how to best do that, too.
BESIDES THE BIG THREE — SUN, MOON, RISING/ASCENDENT — WHAT PLACEMENT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND FOLKS PAY CLOSER ATTENTION TO?
The thing that comes to mind the most right now is probably Mercury: it has a lot to do with how we communicate, how our mind tends to work, and how we process information. Sometimes, people don’t realize that your Mercury can be found in any of the 12 signs of the zodiac. It’s not just about the planet and the sign that they’re in, but it’s also where [Mercury] is located in your chart and if [Mercury] is talking to any other planets in your chart because that’s going to give some extra influence on how that planet functions or operates.
When we talk about Mercury, it has a lot to do with how people learn. Not everybody learns and processes information the same [and] not everybody has the same communication style. [Through Mercury], people could get a little bit more understanding on how people communicate with each other. Just because someone may be quiet doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re shy; it can mean that they’re more reflective. Because someone talks a lot doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re being obnoxious; maybe they’re just really eager to talk about what’s on [their] mind. People do need to give Mercury a little bit more attention outside of just when Mercury is retrograde!
WHAT ABOUT GETTING YOUR BIRTH CHART READ SURPRISED YOU?
I think it has a lot to do with relationship style because I am very fire- and air-heavy in my chart. The fundamental building blocks of astrology are the four elements, and the 12 signs fall somewhere in one of those elements. When we talk about fire and air, those elements have a lot to do with being very independent, driven, and outgoing. It’s a very forward, dynamic, moving kind of energy. In finding that out, I realized that I’m lacking the element of water. It’s not uncommon for people to lack certain elements in their chart but, when you typically [lack a certain] element, that imbalance will be taken care of by people that you often interact with. (Everybody I was interacting with all had the element of water in their chart somewhere!)
When I was practicing astrology about 10 years ago, there were a lot of people who were like, “Oh, I don’t like Scorpios and I don’t like Libras.” [But], have all the 12 signs somewhere in our chart. What I typically find is that when you don’t like a sign, that sign is probably very prominent in your chart somewhere. It’s almost like they are trying to teach you a lesson about how to integrate that energy into you.
WHAT IS YOUR HIGHEST VISION FOR YOUR WORK?
I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately; the way that my chart is currently activated and I’m thinking about the next steps in my career. I’m pretty sure I will be putting out more books. I also have been thinking about studying herbalism. The other thing is thinking about being trained in grief work. Just about every client I had last year [was] dealing with a major death in their family. I found that in talking about their grief, a lot of what I was doing was just giving them space and permission to feel what they felt. I’ve been thinking about how to beef up my skill set a bit more because we are going through a collective trauma and so many people are not doing well.
WHAT IS YOUR HIGHEST VISION FOR YOURSELF?
My highest vision for myself is something that I’ve been talking to a friend of mine about. We had a somewhat similar upbringing — I come from a background where there was a lot of turmoil growing up. My parents were both dealing with addiction, [but] they also did their best to try to educate myself and my brother as best as they could on how to avoid that. But, being Black and poor growing up in the Bronx, the odds are stacked against you.
Because of that, I feel like a lot of my past has been peppered with a lot of crises and responding to crises. I’m in a good place [now], but I definitely want to maintain it. I want to be in my garden, you know what I mean? I want to find my little slice of garden right now and that’s my highest vision: to be in a place where there can be peace, tranquility, beauty, love, security — all of those things.
WE DEFINE LIGHTWORKERS AS THOSE THAT BRING AND SPREAD LIGHT AND POSITIVITY INTO THE WORLD. WHAT MAKES YOU A LIGHTWORKER?
I like to bring humor to my work because I think [it] is a good medicine. So when I think about being a lightworker, definitely helping people [comes to mind], but doing it from a place of joy and happiness — and wanting to spread that to other people. That’s a big thing for me.
How do you use astrology in your everyday life? Share your astrological rituals in the comments.
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