[Amy Risley] Total Skin Nerds is brought to you by Skinfix. We're clean, clinically active, and on a mission to help heal your skin.
Welcome to Total Skin Nerds. I'm Amy Gordinier, the CEO of Skinfix, and a first rate skin nerd myself. On this special episode, we're changing things up, moving from our usual focus on dermatology to a one-off show about derm astrology. It's an exploration of how astrology, one of my favorite subjects, may help you care for your skin. Joining me is the brilliant Deborah Young, a Halifax based psychic astrologer who connects the stars to the skin as only she can. I've been working with Deborah for more than a decade. She's helped me on so many levels, including sometimes even as a diagnostician of sorts, identifying potential physical ailments by reading my birth chart.
A birth chart indicates the exact locations of the planets in their journey around the sun at the very moment a person is born. Astrologer's study your chart to identify your specific traits and patterns. No two people have the same birth chart as a specific chart can not be duplicated for 26,000 years. I find it endlessly fascinating to learn about this ancient, dynamic, and deeply profound science, and how each of our charts exists within the greater context of the world we all live in. It's a lot to unpack, and it moves me to think about so many aspects of human identity, including our skin.
Coming up, which signs are attached to which skin sensitivities, why Saturn's current position affects your skin barrier in a significant way, what's coming up in December that will demand extra skin protection for us all, Deborah's COVID-19 forecast, and so much more. Stick with me, nerds. Don't go away.
Deborah Young. It is so exciting to have you on the Total Skin nerds podcast. We have been waiting for this moment since February and just thrilled, thrilled, to have you here.
[Deborah Young] It's great to be here, Amy. I've been looking forward to this since February.
[Amy Risley] Well, let's take a quick step back because I'm sure a lot of people are thinking, what are we doing having a conversation about astrology on a skincare podcast? So first, because you have been my astrologer for, wow, I think nearly 15 years now, and have really changed my life. I feel as if we need to give everyone just a very brief history, because of course there's a lot of, sort of a little bit of cynicism about astrology amongst many folks. And it has an incredible history and has had a really important place and purpose throughout our human existence. So can you just give everyone a little bit of a summary as to the sort of origins of astrology?
[Deborah Young] Yeah. Astrology has been around as long as we've had the heavens, the skies, and if it wasn't for astrology, we wouldn't have math. We wouldn't have the other sciences. Math was created to measure the distance between planets. So it is foundational to really everything. The father of medicine, Hippocrates, obviously he was an astrologer. He said "Without an astrology, you're not a doctor, you're a fool." So, yeah, a lot of words come from astrology. Revolution comes from an astrology. It's really the basis of, again, all our sciences, our math, it's been around forever.
And it's taken, different cultures developed different systems, but they all used, planets and stars as their foundation. And I use Western astrology. There's many different branches within astrology itself. There's all kinds of different systems, traditions, and so forth. And I am a pretty critical thinker. I'm not somebody that jumps on or believes. I can be the first one to poopoo something. I became an astrologer very reluctantly. I had always studied it and would leave it aside and then go back to it and so forth, and there was one point where it was this deep knowing that this was what I was to do. I had never dreamt of becoming an astrologer. It wasn't a desire. I wasn't completely signed on to it until probably my 30's even though I'd studied it from the time that I was like a child.
[Amy Risley] Well, I would say to our listeners, Deborah has many times over the last multiple years pointed out things with myself or people in my life, about specific concerns to be wary of, or ask me questions about, "Does so-and-so take cholesterol medication?" Or, "Does so-and-so have problems with their feet?" And 100% of the time she's correct. I mean, it is incredible how much information about our health, long-term, short-term, temporary, chronic, is resident in your chart and in your transits and in what's just going on on a dynamic level in astrology. It's pretty amazing. I mean, I've avoided lots of health issues by being proactive and going to see a doctor or a naturopath because of something you've said to me. So it is pretty crazy.
So let's talk about skin and skin issues because you have pointed those out in my chart as well. And so what do you look for in a chart? What might indicate that somebody has a propensity towards a skin issue, potentially, like an eczema or psoriasis? What would you see in a chart that would indicate something like that?
[Deborah Young] It would be a combination. I can think of my son, my son's chart. He's pretty Mars-y. He has Mars in the sixth house, so right away, you know that there's an issue there. His south node is in Pisces, so opposite from yours. So people that have that, if I can just spend a moment on this, people that have that have typically have spent some previous lifetimes in kind of pure environments. Kind of pure environments. It could be like retreats. It could be monasteries, convents, but pretty pure environments where they weren't around kind of the chemicals and contaminants that most people are. And so they come into this lifetime and they can be theory easily triggered by chemicals and they get some chemical sensitivities, for example. So they need to be clean environments, to eat clean, clean environments. And then his Mars makes a difficult connection to the planet Pluto, plus there's some Saturn stuff there as well.
So it's really a combination of a number of different things, but symptom of Pisces right away, I would say there's going to be some skin conditions, because of that purity, the pure past lives. Also Neptune plays a role too, in terms of say sugar. He's sugar sensitive, for sure. I'm, sugar sensitive, but not to the degree he is, where if I have some sugar, kind of cheap sugar, I will have a little breakout. And so I'll wait, "Is it going to be worth it? Do I have any kind of public appearances? Can I have this cookie and have a little breakout or not?" And I can almost time it, that it'll happen. So Neptune in combination with other planets can indicate some sugar sensitivities that would lead to say blemishes and outbreaks. And then there's hormonal energies too, that show up in an astrological chart. Are you going through some kind of hormonal fluctuation that indicates some skin issues that that will come up.
[Amy Risley] So if you looked at someone's chart, would you be able to potentially determine what the root cause of a particular skin issue is?
[Deborah Young] Yes. And then I would refer them to a dermatologist, naturopath, and I would refer them to those folks. But yes, absolutely, you could determine what a certain skin condition is and what the root cause is.
[Amy Risley] Absolutely. So if you know that somebody has the sugar sensitivity that could trigger acne, then you could give them that intel and say, "For you, I think it's sugar." For somebody else it might be dairy. For somebody else it might be this hypersensitivity to toxins in your environment. And so you kind of are helping with the forensics.
[Deborah Young] Yes.
[Amy Risley] So that people can pinpoint, because often we don't know what may or may not be triggering our skin concern. Can you see any genetic sort of pre-determinants? I suppose all of these are sort of genetic pre-determinants.
[Deborah Young] They are genetic and you see the line that runs through. Virgo, for example, which my son, they're more prone to like psoriasis, eczema. And my son's grandfather was a Virgo. He had psoriasis. So you see the lineage energy, absolutely. And there's some people that are extra dry, too, they just have a very dry chart and that's usually a Moon, Saturn thing, where they're just really dry. Somebody's husband the other day, a client that was in, oh, her husband, like just incredibly dry. So, yes, you can determine root causes, and absolutely, there's always some connection to lineage, no question.
[Amy Risley] Can you also help people resolve skin issues? I mean, are there things-
[Deborah Young] Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Certainly determining what the reason is or the causes, and then of course recommending them to say dermatologists, for example, or the health professionals that can help them support a healing going forward.
[Amy Risley] Why we continue to put toxic things on and in our bodies, I don't know. I mean, a lot of the time we aren't aware of what's in products. I mean, I think of the years, the decades, I spent ingesting things and putting things on my skin, not really understanding the long-term effects. And now I come to understand that I had PCOS and that I have insulin resistance. And how much of that has been due to the ingredients that I've been putting on my skin for years, and putting in my body for years. I believe a lot of it has to do with that.
Now would a north node Pisces, cause I'm a north node Pisces, I'm obsessed with clean, I'm obsessed with getting toxins out of every piece of my home and regimen. Is that important for north node Pisces?
[Deborah Young] Well, it is your south node Virgo that is obsessed with that.
[Amy Risley] Okay. Okay.
[Deborah Young] And so we don't sideline the south node, its wisdom, that could be hard won wisdom that we've accumulated over lifetimes, so we don't just shut that down.
[Amy Risley] Yes.
[Deborah Young] It's important. So your south node Virgo, yeah, would be obsessed with clean and hygiene and purity and all the rest of it. That's a benefit. And you take that into your north node Pisces, right?
[Amy Risley] So with your son's particular skin issues, were you able to sort of help tackle those and treat those from a fairly young age, knowing what the influences were that were creating that scenario?
[Deborah Young] When he was young, I didn't have all this information. And I was intuiting it, but I didn't have the information on the nodes. Astrology's always evolving. It's a dynamic, as it should, everything should be evolving, like our understanding of COVID has evolved, and will continue to evolve. So when he was young I didn't have all the information I do now, but I was intuitively getting there. And then when I got there, certainly this sugar sensitivity was one. The idea that he was extra sensitive to impurities, that was another piece that I had. He was going to a marvelous team of dermatologists at the children's hospital here in Halifax. It's an amazing team. I was so grateful for them. But so, yeah, that all helped moving forward.
[Amy Risley] We are obviously obsessed with the skin barrier at Skinfix, and the skin is our largest organ and it's our external organ, and we feel that it's so important to keep it healthy for both physical and also overall wellness. So is there a astrological link to the skin barrier in particular?
[Deborah Young] Saturn. Saturn is, and right now Saturn is also in its most potent sign. It's this perfect kind of thing. Saturn is. It is so incredibly important with Saturn is in Capricorn and to double up at skin barrier. No question about that. And Saturn does rule the skin in general, so there's kind of an extra kind of dryness, stress. Everyone is stressed.
[Amy Risley] Yes. Lots of eczema breakouts and acne breakouts.
[Deborah Young] Absolutely. If you're not stressed, you're crazy. So you absolutely need to double up on all those skincare, the barriers, the lipoids, you absolutely need to double up with that. But Saturn, then it moves into Aquarius in December, where it'll be for a few years. And that again is kind of a dry sign. So again, you need extra moisture, again, it's the barrier between you and me. It's not a brick wall. I see you, you see me, but it's a healthy boundary energy, basically, boundary barrier energy. So it's absolutely essential right now.
[Amy Risley] Okay. And are there any sort of insights for specific sun signs with respect to skincare and what their particular needs might be?
[Deborah Young] Yeah, again, it's your own unique individual birth chart that tells the whole story, but in terms of sun signs, the Ares is a Mars-y energy. So, they can be prone to skin rashes, skin eruptions, and they need more hydration. They tend to be dry and fiery. Taurus, again, important for them to relate to sugars and fats in their system. They can, in terms of dry, moist energy, they're pretty okay if I'm just looking at sun sign. They can kind of stay in in the medium there. The Gemini, the whole system is so impacted by the nervous system. It's kind of a hyper energy.
[Amy Risley] We're wired.
[Deborah Young] You're wired. It certainly can use more moisture. Cancer can be moist, but it also is a little bit of a hormonal energy there.
[Amy Risley] Okay. Prone to acne and that kind of skin concern?
[Deborah Young] More prone to acne. Yeah, kind of more of the blistering. The Leo, it tends to run a little hot and dry as well. Virgo is one of the big ones, that's the number one sign for eczema, psoriasis and so forth.
[Amy Risley] Interesting.
[Deborah Young] Yeah.
[Amy Risley] So if you have Virgo in your chart that could indicate propensity to skin concern.
[Deborah Young] They need a lot of hydration, a lot, a lot of hydration, and good diet and so forth. They would need extra moisture. No question about that. The Libra, it depends, but some Libras can have some issues in terms of kind of detoxification, especially kidney. SO milk, lactose products may not be their friend. So that's, yeah. The Scorpio, definitely hormonal, no question about that. And they can be prone to kind of the oily skin. Again, that's a general kind of oily, hormonally driven, no question about that. Sagittarius, there could be some liver detox things that are good for them to take. They're, again, a little hot and fiery so they could use more hydration, Capricorn, absolutely. They can run super, super dry, really dry. The Aquarius, again, can be prone to kind of nervous system, kind of a heightened parasympathetic nervous system. So they need that kind of calming. And, again, it could run dry. I certainly run dry in the winter. I need a lot more hydration. Aquarians are not terribly good at self-care.
[Amy Risley] Ah.
[Deborah Young] I've got my partner who takes care of kind of, mother me's, that way.
[Amy Risley] Yeah.
[Deborah Young] So they can get so in their head, they forget about self-care. It's like, "Oh, what do you mean I've got a body?" So they need that kind of stepping back. And the Pisces, they could run a little bit moist.
[Amy Risley] Watery.
[Deborah Young] So they can be prone to very watery, yeah. Very watery. So that's kind of a brief, very, very brief.
[Amy Risley] That was great. What are Pisces prone to? I'm sorry, I interrupted you. For the Pisces out there.
[Deborah Young] They could be prone to some of those impurities as well. The natural impurities, so again, they need good products. They need products that are-
[Amy Risley] Clean.
[Deborah Young] Clean, definitely need clean products. These days currently with Neptune moving through Pisces, which is a beautiful energy in terms of all kinds of intuition and so forth, but it's on the neurotic side or the shadow side, there's more of those poisons and chemicals. So we absolutely have to have pure products. It's just, folk's it's non-negotiable. You just have to have it.
[Amy Risley] It's good that there are a lot more choices out there for clean skincare and clean color and clean haircare. Amen.
[Deborah Young] Yeah, amen. Yeah. They can be quite sugary and the sugar can certainly have an impact in terms of like skin health. They're not per se, they typically like their sugars, the Taurus.
[Amy Risley] I was going to say. Taurus' sugars and fats.
[Deborah Young] They can be like chocoholics, yeah. And it can have an impact on their skin health. And skin is huge. It is the largest organ in the body. There's no disputing that. There's not enough attention paid to the skin, really. And that includes like astrologers. I naturally gravitate towards health, psychological health, emotional, physical health. And they're all combined. They're all absolutely combined. One impacts the other. But yeah, no the Taurus can be, their skin health could be impacted by sugar, and caffeine for that matter. I mean, I would never do without my coffee in the morning ever, ever, ever, but I make sure that I hydrate after, because it is a natural, so.
[Amy Risley] You have been predicting for years a lot of what's going on right now, pretty much all of what's going on right now, which is sort of amazing, really. I mean, you predicted the pandemic. You predicted the recession. You predicted some of the political unrest and upheaval. And can you tell us a little bit about sort of what was in the charts of a country like the US, for instance, that might've indicated that stuff was going to be happening.
[Deborah Young] So much. In a sense, it goes beyond the US but certainly the US is, a country that's a huge example of what's going on globally. The planet Pluto is back in Capricorn. It hasn't been there since the American-French revolution. And so the US, as a country, countries have birth charts by the way, the month, day, year, time, and place where a document declaring nationhood was signed. We could say that's the first breath of the nation. So we look at the US chart, July 4th 1776 at 5:00 PM in Philadelphia. That's it's chart.
And so the US was born with it's a Sagittarius rising. So we have the national psyche, giddy up and go, all that enthusiasm, wild cowboy, wild cowgirl, kind of energy. Love it. It has its moon in the Moon, which is kind of the heart of the country in Aquarius, freedom for all, don't tell me what to do, it's independence. But it's born with Pluto in Capricorn, and Pluto is back to there. Canada wouldn't have that for like another 100 years or so. So in the US, it is this upheaval, this absolute dismantling of all systems that were born from the ashes of those times that no longer sustain us and move us forward.
So it's uncomfortable. It's huge. It's amazing that we're living through these times. I feel that each of us are spiritual ready to do so. And I feel each of us has something to contribute. And that's a part of a workshop I'm going to be offering in September, you were born for these times.
[Amy Risley] That's a workshop for all of us to take, for sure, because I think so many of us are struggling.
[Deborah Young] Absolutely. It's massive. The systems that have been in place for the last few hundred years, some of them are terrible. Some of them we like. And they're all being swept away from us. Where's the ground? It's so important to anchor. When you're feeling crazy, drop an anchor. Self-care has never been more important than now because all these huge things surround us. This is the biggest year in the US, 2022 is actually the bigger year, but.
[Amy Risley] Oh, wow.
[Deborah Young] Yeah.
[Amy Risley] Well, yeah, it's quite interesting to think that the last time Pluto is in Capricorn was during the American Revolution.
[Deborah Young] Was the birth of the country. And so it was the birth of the country, and so now the US has an opportunity to rebirth, but what does that look like? Transformation, and even though that word is overused to the point that kind of dilutes the meaning, because transformation is a great big freaking deal. And all of us resist it because it seems to be a force outside of yourself, which it isn't. We're not a puppet of the stars and planets. As an Aquarius, I would rebel against that very naturally. I'd be protesting against astrology up the street.
[Amy Risley] Exactly.
[Deborah Young] But it's something that is, we're born with all these energies. And I feel it's a sole choice in a way, at least a co-choice, that, okay, I better grab a hold of that this lifetime because I really mucked it up another time. So I better kind of learn this this time. So I better have this energy and that energy. So our birth chart, I feel, is a co-creation with our spirit, our soul, the evolution of our soul. So we're born with this particular map. It's ours. We are responsible for it. If you learn astrology, you can develop awareness around that, and how to cooperate with this. Transit is only going to trigger what the birth chart has already agreed to do or not do.
[Amy Risley] And do you see how long this might go on? Is that in the sort of global chart?
[Deborah Young] Yeah, I believe that there'll be a vaccine early, early 2021. And in very late this year, early, early 2021, we'll have a clearer picture of the destruction, and we will gain clarity around what practical steps we need to do to move forward into our future. 2024, we're moving into a different age and so we'll have a clearer picture. The restrictions will remain, the cautions will remain, it part there will be herd immunity. In part, anti-vaxxers. People that don't have a good relationship with Saturn always have authority issues, always have shadowed fears around authority. I think we absolutely should question authorities. We know what has gone on. We know some of what's gone on. The rod has been exposed with in Pluto in Capricorn. It'll continue to be exposed till 2024.
In general, the pandemic won't be over till 2024. The cautions, and that's kind of a shadow, not a shadow, but the the masks and all that will be in place till March 2023. We'll still require that for institutions like hospitals and prisons, which stands to reason. So it'll hang till 2024, but we'll have more freedom of movement. People will be traveling. There will be some sports, there'll be some gathering, larger gatherings of people, but those restrictions will be in place till 2024, or 2023, shadow be 2024. And it's an accelerant to what I was talking about before, about all systems and governments and so forth, upheaval, and this dismantling, this great dismantling. The pandemic is serving as a massive accelerant. There'll be other accelerants, but it's serving us probably the biggest accelerant for this dismantling.
[Amy Risley] Wow.
[Deborah Young] And I've had six clients in different parts of the world that have had COVID and it's interesting when people say, "Oh, you're immune," or all this. Every one of them under 60, no underlying health issues, all of them are naturally healthy people. They supplement, they're truckers, they're runners. They're vibrant people. And it's interesting to see some of the effects. So I had to learn how to be COVID. I had to get a really read on COVID and how this interfaced someone's chart. Who's at risk, who do I have to raise a yellow flag to, a red flag? It's my responsibility as an astrologer to do that. And so it's been interesting. This one woman I could think of, she still has breathing and cognitive issues. And she was okay with me telling her that it'd be March of 2021 before she would feel confident in her breathing and her cognitive.
[Amy Risley] Well, at least she knows.
[Deborah Young] She knows. Oh, she was okay, totally okay with that. I think just the idea that she would feel better, she would have confidence in her breathing and her mind and she's a smart woman. Yeah.
[Amy Risley] Yeah. To know that it will get better as the best solace.
[Deborah Young] Yeah. There is a September and October just downright depressing in the US, they're just down right depressing. There's no kind of getting away from the information, the news. So people have to really double up in terms of self-care and watch a funny movie. You know what I mean?
[Amy Risley] Do whatever you need to do to lift your spirit.
[Deborah Young] Do what you need to, 100%. Drink wine in the bathtub. Do what you need to do. If you need to sleep 10 hours, sleep 10 hours. We'll get through this. This is our crucible year. We will get through this, but you really need to do what you can to be easy on yourself. No question.
[Amy Risley] It may sound crazy to people that aren't students of astrology, but it is real. And we feel these things and we respond to these things and we move through these things. And I believe that having a better understanding, obviously I have the tiny, tiniest, fraction of an understanding, that Deborah has, but having even a little bit of an understanding helps me to stay a little more even keel in the world and take a deep breath and understand that I'm here for a purpose and part of living is going through all of this.
[Deborah Young] And purpose is, all of it, every life has meaning, every life has, I believe, every human, we all deserve a human dignity. Dignity is encoded and promised in our birth chart. It's something I've been thinking a lot about lately that I will not have anyone around that treats me or other people with less human dignity than what we deserve. And that includes intolerance. That includes many, many different things. All of us have a purpose. And some people think it's maybe, it could be a grand purpose, it could be some grand, big, life-changing purpose, but maybe the purpose is that I'm to bake bread and create a kind of a comfortable nest. Maybe my soul has been through lifetimes of great intensity and a front row seat at the horrors that human seem to be so happy to inflict on each other. And now this lifetime is about calm and creating something comfortable in and okay for myself.
So we all have a purpose and the purpose can be literally anything. And each us plays a role in the other's lives. We're not walking around in a bubble. I guess we were a few months ago, but we all have an impact on other people. So all those energies.
[Amy Risley] I love that. I actually think that's a beautiful sort of summation of what astrology is really all about and at least your philosophy of astrology, and so I'd love to underline that and sort of almost end with that in the sense that astrology is, we would not be able to do astrology justice in a 45 minute podcast. There's just so much richness to astrology, but in the end, it's really about learning how to be a good human and have compassion and show dignity to ourselves and others. And I think that's just a really noble, noble purpose. And I'm so happy to have met Deborah and had the ability to work with her for years. And I am definitely still working, a work in progress. My Mercury Taurus is trying to learn the lessons and apply them. It's taking some time.
[Deborah Young] You're doing great. And that's one thing too. There's no prize or race, at all. There's no like, "Oh, check, I got this done. Oh, check, I got that done." If I have a particular, maybe very sensitive and maybe painful pattern in my chart, it's going to come up, maybe in later versions as we go. I think that there's a certain tyranny to the fix-it society that we're in. We open up and we allow like, "Oh, this is back again. Shake my first at the sky, but it's back again. What subtle piece did I not heal before?" There's no kind of end point or prize.
[Amy Risley] Yes. The Moon's going to cycle through every three days and I'm going to get that Moon Scorpio every month that I really am challenged with. It keeps coming back. Deborah, it never skips. So it's the idea of just continuing to try to work on the lessons that we're here to work on. That's amazing. Deborah, thank you so much for your time.
[Deborah Young] You're quite welcome.
[Amy Risley] We're going to leave your details for everybody. And you may be flooded with appointment requests. Don't forget about me. I still need my appointments with you, but we hope that all of you out there, if you aren't familiar with astrology, real astrology, and you're interested at all, reach out to Deborah or another really adept practitioner. It is a science that I have found incredibly helpful in my life. So we're just so thrilled to be able to bring Deborah on this podcast.
[Deborah Young] Thank you so much for having me. It's always great to talk astrology with you.
[Amy Risley] To learn more about Deborah Young's work, visit www.deborahyoungastrology.com and follow her on Instagram at Deborah_Young_Astrology.
As always, I learned so much from talking with Deborah. Here are three things I can't stop thinking about. One, it's amazing to me that something so granular as a tendency toward a skin condition can be found in our astrological DNA. As a student of Deborah Young, I have learned that so much rich information is encoded in our charts if we know where to look and how to interpret it.
Two, when my astrologer tells me that right now is a critical moment for self-care, I am definitely going to take her seriously. It's so important to nurture ourselves and care for our bodies, our minds, and our spirits at this time.
And, three, not on the topic of skin per se, but nonetheless it's fascinating to think that countries have birth charts, which can reveal their characteristics and their course. Deborah says now is an opportunity for rebirth in the United States, one way or another, which is very clearly the case.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Total Skin Nerds. Please subscribe to our show on iTunes and Spotify. Total Skin Nerds is produced by Rob Corso, Casey Kahn and Howie Kahn for Free Time Media. Our theme music is by John Palmer. Special thanks to Katherine Spears, Kara Canning, Jenny Chen, Jane Meredith, and Megan Collins. And I'm your host, Amy Risley. Till next time, nerds.
Total Skin Nerds is brought to you by Skinfix. We're clean, clinically active, and on a mission to help heal your skin.
Speaker 3: Total Skin Nerds is a podcast created to educate. It is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical advice. If you are looking for help with a skin concern, we would encourage you to seek the advice of a board certified dermatologist, functional medical practitioner, or other qualified healthcare provider. You can find a registry of board certified dermatologists in the US at find-a-derm.aad.org and in Canada at dermatology.ca. For a registry of qualified functional medical practitioners, you can visit ifm.org. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode. We hope that you enjoy listening to Total Skin Nerds as much as we enjoy making it.
