30/01/2025
A Revolution for the Aquarius New Moon đ
You may or may not know that I have a Masters degree in Life-Writingâbiography and autobiography. As far as I know, I am the only person to hold this degree, at least from my university. It wasâI wasâan experiment. I donât think this is the reason they discontinued it, but I discovered that one cannot tell a life story. The story I tell you today will be different from tomorrow. The story you tell me about your life is different from the one you tell someone else. More so, they also change in cultural contexts, nevermind across language barriers and different media platformsâŚ
I interviewed and âwrote the(a) life storyâ of an elderly isiXhosa sangoma (medicine woman/âshamanâ) from the Free State in South Africa. I was young. At first I was so frustrated that could not even answer the basic questions one starts a biography with.
When was she born? âMy father said it was before The War.â I know one cannot trust an identity documentâwhen my grandmother arrived in South Africa as a refugee, her new ID showed her as two years older than her twin sister.
What is her name? This became the structure of how I wrote the story. She had the name her father called her, the name her mother called her. Her identity document showed the name that she was called by her white bosses when she earned money as a domestic worker, as well as the name her first mother-in-law gave her, and her first husbandâs surname.
I called her Gogo, a sign of respect for her status in society, and as a sangoma. But everyoneâs grandmother is âGogoâ.
When I asked her what name she thought of herself by, she said it was the name given to her by her ancestors in spirit.
Why am I sharing this with you?
Because I understand her now. And I want to make this my Aquarius Revolution. To shake up our categorisation of each other.
Over the last years, by choice, I have had no address. I have had no country.
I do different sorts of work when I think of what I do as âworkâ (astrology and body-psychotherapy and sailing and art and , and, andâŚ). And receive streams of abundance that reflect that, and reflect that this world is made of Magic (insert your own scientific explanation here).
I meet people and I am invariably asked:
What is your name?
Where do you live? Okay, but then where are you from? (This, I found out, is illegal to ask on many campuses.)
What do you do?
Ask me what I love, whom I love. Ask me about my friends. Who was the last person I sent a WhatsApp message to? Ask me what I value. Ask me what I support, and how I show that support. Ask me what was the most beautiful thing I saw this week. Ask me what is Beauty for me. Freedom? The Divine? Funny? Do I have any tension in my body? Do I know why? Do I know what might help it? What drives me? Am I being pulled or pushed today? What would I prefer?
We may need categories to help us navigate this world. Okay, if soâ Letâs create new categories. Categories that reflect the future in which we want to live. That show me what is important to you.
At least for today. This moment.
I allow the hierarchy your values to be different tomorrow. To change. And also to hold contradictions. To be uncertain.
âŚBut thatâs another Aquarian revolution, for another moon.
What is important to you today? Iâd love to know
