Mapping the Body

How Astrology & Bodywork Help Us Navigate the Human Condition

Jul 03, 2026

I sat down to write astrology. But I can’t sit and write on a clock work schedule - creativity has its own time and we can’t always plan or structure that. Trying to adjust to a self imposed clock is akin to soul suicide. And just like healing work, or anything that is about transcending the logical mind, it moves in it’s own timing and rhythm

My client has finished work. They arrive, they unpack - their day, briefly. How is your body? I ask … sometimes the response is detailed, sometimes disconnected, sometimes a bit of both. Often, they have been bombarded by artificial light all day, caught in the motion commotion of the city’s kinetics - disrupting their energetics - the mind, an array of thoughts, feeling, electricity firing en speed … The first deep breath, the sigh, the exhale, signals the arrival.

Hey, you’ve landed now. Lets go on a journey.

Contact.

Nervous systems connect, unwinding begins.

I am a bodyworker most of the time. An astrologer in between. During the hours of life, I touch humans, I breathe with them, I apply warm oil, I knead, stroke, rock and hold them. I’ll press and work into tight adhesions, tracking the subtle responses.

I sit with them. I sensate. I think, this is something primal, inherent to our beingness, of being alive, of being human.

Often, the journey has its own timing, and I move with that.

There is a language of the body - the way we hold, or brace, our posture, the way our spine curves and move, the freedom or restrictions, the way the chest and belly expand and contract - the body expresses what the mind represses.

There are stories written in the sinews, the bones, the tissues, the way the body flinches, the shallow breathing, or the unconscious bracing - showing where we are not at ease - with our body, our mind, our life.

Bodywork and Astrology are tools that help us unwind, drop in and finally have the space to feel, see, understand and explore that which has been pushed down for so long, to finally hold and integrate.

Astrology has taught me how the planets and signs connect to different parts of the body, limbs, organs and systems.

This concept is termed Kaal Purusha - The Cosmic Person / personification of the zodiac.

The Sun represents the heart, overall vitality and immunity, Mars is blood, muscles, haemoglobin and marrow. Mercury is the nervous system, communication, brain and intellect, Moon is the mind(perception), mental health, hormones and fluids, Jupiter is growth, fat, tissues, liver and metabolism, Saturn is the bones, the structures of the body, joints and long term, chronic illness, Rahu represents mysterious, unusual or rare diseases, and Ketu represents sudden and unexpected events, hidden or difficult to diagnose illness.

The signs & houses of the zodiac also represent the body, from the head(Aries, 1st House) to the feet (Pisces, 12th house).

The combinations of all these factors give us a rich portrait, reflecting the health of the body, a person’s inner and outer world, as well as the potential physical/psychological weakness and timing of diseases, or health troubles.

But, it is the mind which is the most important factor in healing - the way we perceive reality is what can make or break us, which is why so many psycho-spiritual practices are about balancing and working with the mind.

“To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders” - Lao Tzu

A calm mind = a nervous system that finally feels safe to surrender and trust. A regulated nervous system = balancing your Mercury.

And vice-versa. Mercury governs the Earth element, called ‘Privthi’ in Sanskrit. When it is imbalanced, what happens? A constant mercury retrograde - foggy thinking, scattered and ungrounded energy, overthinking and burnout.

I don’t always mention this to clients unless an astrology session is part of their treatment. But I will notice it in the body, the speech, the way the shoulders stay braced, the arms lock etc. I know they are in their heads with thoughts running around like speedy gonzales.

Such is the human condition - and there are so many methods we have created to avoid what we are and the internal terrain - possibly from fear, but also, perhaps from a lack of tools, community and connection. What can we do with big feelings? How to feel safe with experiences that hijack our controlled, logical mind?

As adults we are expected (by others, or our own notions) - to hold everything together - to not fall apart … because what happens then? It’s about realising that falling apart is not the end, instead, it’s an inevitable, ongoing process of being Human - an integral part to psychological and physical wellbeing (this is my personal opinion and experience).

Falling apart means coming together again and again and again, not as weakness, but in response to the ever cyclical and changing nature of … nature. To become intimate with ourselves invariably means continually meeting and accepting these parts that ordinary society has little space for.

This is what I help with, To hold space for the tumult to find a safe place to settle in the body and mind.

Healing, like creativity, has its own rhythm - and you have your own timing. Little benefit comes when we try to force or repress - living a natural life means learning to work with our nature and the nature of the elemental forces, not against them. What comes of that? Hopefully a more integrated, calm and balanced inner world - the right foundation for a calm and balanced outer world.