233. How True Sidereal Astrology Transforms Health & Vitality ft. Diggory From Soul Garden Medicines
233. How True Sidereal Astrology Transforms Health & Vitality ft. Diggory From Soul Garden Medicines
What if your birth chart could tell you how to nourish your body, not just describe your personality?
In this episode of the Embodied Writing Warrior Podcast, Kayla speaks with Diggory, an alchemical herbalist and medical astrologer, about the powerful role True Sidereal astrology can play in health, embodiment, and vitality.
Why True Sidereal Astrology?
Diggory shares why he moved away from Western astrology after discovering that True Sidereal charts more accurately reflect the sky as it actually exists. Inspired by the work of Phoenix Aurelius, he explains how shifting systems dramatically improved accuracy in medical astrology readings, particularly when predicting health outcomes.
For many people, encountering their True Sidereal chart feels like putting on clothes that finally fit.
Medical Astrology Meets Herbalism
Medical astrology allows practitioners to identify underlying imbalances rather than chasing symptoms. By reading planetary placements and afflictions, Diggory can determine whether issues originate in the nervous system, digestion, hormones, or vitality itself.
From there, herbal prescriptions become incredibly precise. Instead of following wellness trends, remedies are chosen based on planetary rulerships, bodily systems, and the individual’s unique chart.
Embodiment as Medicine
This conversation also highlights something often missing in health spaces: joy.
Dance, music, creativity, sensuality, and expression are not indulgences. They are regulatory, nourishing practices that directly impact vitality. Diggory shares how ecstatic dance, music, and rhythm recalibrate the nervous system and harmonize the body’s internal terrain.
Moon Signs & Embodied Self-Care
As a practical takeaway, Diggory offers guidance on how your Moon sign can reveal the most nourishing embodiment practices for you, whether that’s journaling, movement, organization, sensuality, or play.
This episode is a reminder that health doesn’t come from forcing yourself into systems that don’t fit. It comes from learning how your body wants to be cared for.
March Bonus: Join Food Freedom Fantasy pay in full and receive a True Sidereal birth chart reading to support your embodied health journey.
Links Mentioned
Diggory’s Email: ask@soulguidemedicines.com
Embodied Activation
Moon-Led Embodiment Practice
Look up your True Sidereal birth chart.
Find your Moon sign.
Choose one nourishing activity aligned with that sign and practice it this week.
Examples:
Earth Moons (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn): Organizing, bodywork, strength training, grounding movement
Water Moons (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces): Baths, sensual eating, swimming, poetry, emotional expression
Fire Moons (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius): Dance, sports, hiking, play, expressive movement
Air Moons (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius): Writing, music, breathwork, cultural exploration, conversation
Let nourishment be intuitive, embodied, and personal.
Transcript
Kayla: Hello Diggory and welcome to the Embodied Writing Warrior Podcast.
Diggory: Yeah. Morning, Kayla.
Kayla: I am so excited you are here. So I would just love for you to share a little bit about who you are and the work that you do in the world for our guests.
Diggory: Yeah. So, I've done a lot of different things. I think it's a bit of a kind of Virgo trait that you end up turning your hands to many things. But yeah, as of the last, I think nearly six years now, I've been running an alchemical herbalism business. And, a lot of that time requires me.
Making medicines, growing the herbs, preparing them, with the IC method, which is quite, involved. It's definitely a lot more, engrossing than making normal tinctures. And yeah, of course as soon as you get into alchemy, you inevitably get into astrology
so I've just been getting more and more into that as time goes on and. For the past probably three years now, I've been integrating medical astrology into all of my consultations. Sometimes or oftentimes in a way, even if the client doesn't know that I'm doing that, it's not as if I'm sort of doing it without consent per se.
It's like I will obtain their birth data as part of their, pre-consultation form work. And, do the consult with them and then check everything through, astrology wise. And oftentimes it lines up and just helps me see beneath the surface a little more thoroughly.
Kayla: So it is. Fascinating to me that you can take this work with alchemy and plants and use it to also weave in astrology, which is so cool. Mm-hmm. So can you share a little bit about how you got into practicing Sidereal astrology and why you made the switch from traditional western astrology that most people are familiar with into this other type?
Diggory: Yeah. So, that's sort of a favorite point of mind to share with people. So initially I was practicing the planetary hours and days method, which is a Rosa Cruin system. Basically every day of the week has a planet ascribed to it. And then, within the day itself, it's broken up into hour, hour and a half intervals where each hour is ruled by a certain, planet.
And so in alchemy, we basically say that we are harvesting planets through our work with plants. Obviously you can do that with metals in a more direct way and also animals in a more sort of intricate way. And so with this planetary hours and days method, you would have a plant like nettles or garlic or something, and those are both ruled by Mars.
And so you would say, okay, I'll work with it on Tuesday, which is Mars Day in Spanish or Mars' Day. And then, you'd pick the Mars Hour and do it like that. Um. Except, yeah, in, in venturing into Alchemy, of course you try and, learn from the great alchemists of the past and of the present.
And, Phoenix Aurelius is definitely one of them. I, me and my friend who I started doing alchemy with, we would message him every now and again if we had questions and, sort of received some subtle mentoring from him. He also has a podcast there was a few episodes that came out that really went into side astrology, and I heard of his experiments where he took, groups of clients and he predicted their health outcomes for a year in advance.
And he, when he tried the tropical, which he was fully convinced of at the time and had been practicing for years, he only got up to about 55% accuracy that really wasn't, good enough. So he went back over all of his workings and calculations and swore that he could have gotten better than that.
And, yeah, so then he switched to Vedic, which is, a little bit more aligned with how the stars actually are in the sky. It does, track backwards with the procession of Equinox. So. Yeah, he managed to get up to about 65, 70 5% with that. And, still that wasn't good enough for him. And, yeah, so he just let it sit for a while and then he switched to true side when he heard of that, which is basically, as a chart is an exact representation of the sky, not just in terms of procession of equinoxes, but also in terms of having.
The portions or the signs on the chart represent how big the actual constellations are in the sky. And yeah, when I heard that he got up to 95% accuracy in predicting his client's health outcomes, I was just totally sold. The fact that, you can go outside and look at the sky and whatever is on a true side general chart is exactly what will be happening in the sky.
To me, it just made a lot of sense in that way. And yeah, also in applying it to myself, it just felt like I was putting on a really. Comfortable, well footing pair of clothes. And I was like, oh, I feel really at home right now as this chart is reflecting me. So, yeah.
Kayla: Do you find a lot of your clients have that same experience when they learn about this chart?
Because I definitely had that when I found out about this type of astrology versus traditional Western.
Diggory: Yeah, it's a really interesting question. Lately I've actually calculated about 45, human design charts for people based on true side calculations. And the vast majority of those people who had also looked into their tropical human design found that the true sidel human design felt way more resonant for them.
Just doing normal true idea readings for people. They do definitely find a lot of resonance. I love to, speak of my fiance in regards to this. In tropical, she would have a number of plants and Aries, but in True's idea, she's just a total Pisces with no planets in Aries.
Yeah, I think that just is very accurate in terms of her, you know, like Aries love sports and things like that. And when she's gone running in the past, she'll literally spew sometimes, which could be an Aries affliction in a way. But, she's also just such a dreamy, poetic artist type. That's so, caring and just such a kind of all welcoming, all nurturing soul, which really to me is much more Piscean.
In terms of how passing and people just really are that cosmic ocean that welcome everyone in and are very aware of the subconscious in that regard
Kayla: yeah, I can imagine a lot of people having those types of experiences and human design is interesting as well because in. Regular human design.
I'm a manifester and parts of that resonated, but also I have so much energy and I don't wanna rest 80% of the time, and I always felt more like a manifesting generator. And sure enough, in true sidel, I'm a manifesting generator, so that is so interesting.
Diggory: Yeah, totally. Big difference there for sure.
Mm-hmm.
Kayla: Definitely. So when you do these medical astrology readings what are some of the lifestyle choices and practices and different activities that you've suggested for people based on these charts?
Diggory: Yeah. It's definitely a big range and I find this to be, a really beautiful aspect of it in terms of how specific one can get.
I just found, even for myself at the start of this year, I really noticed I needed to have more. Self-care practices or embodiment practices and, um, I was feeling a bit lost as to which ones that I would sort of take up more in the coming year. So I think, yeah, the.
Idea readings are very beneficial for pointing people in the right direction as to what forms of, practices and self-care are gonna be most nourishing for them. Because honestly, out there it's definitely a real smorgasbord, which is beautiful, but also can be, overwhelming and perhaps a little time consuming to figure out which ones are most suited to oneself.
So, yeah, I recommended all kinds of things. There was one time where I was doing a reading for someone. And, her and her partner were gonna start conceiving or trying to conceive. And, I could tell just from the rest of the consultation that there were definitely some hormone imbalances going on there.
And I think she had a kind of, an affliction in Taurus of Venus. And obviously, you know, Venus has a lot of, rulership over female hormones, one of the practices I suggested to her was sensual eating, you know, and sensual eating with her partner. If her partner just prepared her a really beautiful platter of fruit and then they just took time to eat that slowly and just recommending doing that, before intimacy potentially, another child I did recently, a woman had a lot of afflicted plants in Scorpio in the fifth house. And the fifth house is our house of creativity and joy. And she had Jupiter in there. And Jupiter in the fifth house should be really a recipe for like massive creative potential and joy
because, you know, the word joy comes from, you know, the word Jupiter. They share the same route. And so because it was in Scorpio, I was suggesting yeah, like, sort of sensuality practices or yeah, something that just sort of create cultivates aeros and maybe even sort of burlesque or something like that, could be beneficial.
So yeah, I can definitely get pretty, unconventional in terms of health suggestions. But I definitely feel like, it's quite a beautiful thing to consider how nourishing our own self-expression is in terms of our overall vitality and things like that. And, I think it's definitely quite possible to get bogged down in more Virgo and approaches to health, which are beautiful in themselves.
You know, I have planets in Virgo. Same with this woman who had the planets in Scorpio. And I could really feel how she was getting bogged down in that more forgoing side of things of just like, give me all the details. What do I need to eat? When do I need to eat it? What supplements do I take?
And I make medicines for those reasons. But then at the same time, exploring the rest of the chart in the ways in which someone wants to just become more. Hole in themselves I think is really beneficial.
Kayla: I think you're absolutely right that in a lot of health spaces we do get hung up on like all of the, the how's and the details and the structure.
Mm-hmm. And we almost forget that like mind body component and how much creativity and being expressed. Actually boosts our health for so many reasons. Yeah. And I know you also do a lot around dance and that kind of thing. Mm-hmm. So can you share a little bit more about how that fits into your process?
Diggory: Yeah, totally. Yeah. , So , I've been an ecstatic dance DJ for about, seven or eight years now. And then at certain points through my own healing journey, also found poetry and then eventually that poetry converted into. Free styling and rhyme and I just really know for myself and for other people that, the vitality that is created through, enjoying the body, be it via dance or song and sound or, anything else like that, like, swimming or.
Being out in nature and just really being in the sense is, I think all of those things are really, potentially yeah. Underestimated in terms of how much vitality they create. And I think as, as we become adults, I guess you could say, I think we can easily become dismissive of just having fun and, and being enjoy and, luckily, I'm in a really beautiful community here that values those kind of things, and you just see the difference when people come into a dance or come into, maybe like a song circle or something like that, or a freestyle cipher. And then versus when they come out, you know, it's a's a radical change.
And, , I think, . Owing to what the body is on some levels in terms of it all being energy or it being, you know, 98% water, water by molecular count. The ability of the frequencies that are created during, freestyling or dance or enjoying the body in any other way, the ability for those frequencies to ripple out.
And, harmonize all the flows of energy and structure, all the water integrated resonance, it's just profound.
Kayla: So I imagine the type of music you are listening to makes a huge difference as well.
Diggory: Yeah, for sure. I mean, when I dj ecstatic dances, there's definitely a lot of meditative stuff at the start, and I try to include.
Songs with, spiritual tones to them. But yeah, I definitely play some club bangers, during the middle. I feel like that's one thing astrology definitely teaches me is to. Welcoming the complete array of the human experience and, you know, getting a little grimy and a little, basey and unctuous in that regard, I think is very, beneficial for people as well, especially if someone's, leaning into more of a kind of puritanical mindset, or just being too rigid with themselves.
Just getting a bit, rambunctious in that regard is pretty good.
Kayla: Allowing for that full range of motion.
Diggory: Mm. Which
Kayla: is so cool.
Diggory: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
Kayla: So I'm just curious, your birth chart obviously has a lot of Virgo in it, like you mentioned. Were there any parts of your chart that made, you know, like, I need to be an ecstatic dance dj, or did you fall into it more organically?
Diggory: I think. It's been more organic for sure. I mean, now as I learn more about my chart, I become convinced of the things that I am already doing or some of the things that I resist. As with the exec dance or just rhyming and freestyling, a lot of these things can.
For me, be seen as real cream of the crop type, life experiences where, it's not like a stable path. They're not big earners necessarily, with events it's like you do an event and then that's it until you run your next event. There's no income really coming in from it, that kind of thing.
And you know, ticketing only really picks up on the last day, so it's a very undulating, stressful path potentially. So yeah, I'm really glad that my chart, affirms for me the need for artistry, for the creation of beauty. 'cause yeah, I have Virgo placements, but. I've got our son Mars, Pluto, and Mercury all, in Libra, in conjunction in Libra.
And that definitely emphasizes the need for just making art for gathering art as well. And I have a Leo Moon and Leo moon's love to be expressive it's in the eighth house, which I think is quite interesting because the eighth house is other people's stuff. So on the one hand it means that I could guide people emotionally, which is the moon through expression and song and dance and things like that, which are all Leo activities.
To move through their emotions, which is the eighth house, and at the same time. To be receiving other people's forms of art and expression and their sort of alchemy within that, through just listening to their music as a dj and then sharing that is also a manifestation of that.
Kayla: That would be quite a powerful circle to be in, for sure.
Diggory: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Kayla: So I would also love to know, so I did a birth chart reading with you and I got the whole chart, which was awesome. And I was like, there's all the fire placements that were non-existent in my Western chart. And you also do plant medicines alongside of your birth chart readings.
And I swear that. Spring season, I was like the healthiest and fittest I've ever been. So can you share how you like bring these two things together and how the plant medicines fit into the birth chart readings that you do?
Diggory: Yeah, so I find the beauty of medical astrology is just how specific it can get.
Herbalists everywhere are aware of the specificity that they need to, bring to consultations and prescription. Obviously in the wider sort of natural health world, there's definitely herbal fads that go on, like, turmeric or everyone getting on Lions mane or Astro gunner or something.
But yeah, in the medical astrology reading, we can definitely see the origins of things quite well so, you know, say for instance someone is having, brain fog issues or something like that, and you look to their chart and you don't necessarily see things affecting, the more cerebral planets like Aries or Aquarius or, things like that.
But you do see maybe afflictions to Virgo or even to Pisces and you think, okay, so maybe what's going on there is actually a gut permeability issue because, Pisces and Virgo have a lot of rulership over the gut. So maybe it's a matter of, toxins entering the bloodstream and then, moving up to the head and causing brain fog issues there.
And so then it becomes less an issue of prescribing something like, lion's Mane or, maybe like Rola to just really amplify energy and sort of create focus in that way and maybe more of a thing of prescribing something like go to cola and calendula and gut lining, strengthening herbs that address root more so on that level.
As I was saying earlier in the podcast, all. Plants can be attributed to a planet, but you can take it further than that and you can say, okay, so if calendula being the sun or being, sun plant, has its affinity for moving lymph gently, and Pisces rules the lymph, then you could say, okay, so Al is the sun in Pisces.
Maybe, something like, wild Oats, could have, Venus connotations or potentially Mercury as well. And so if someone had Mercury or Venus in Gemini, because Gemini rules the nervous system at large and wild oats, or sorry, oat seed, Milky oat seed is such a nervous system, nourisher.
And it has that moistening aspect you would say? Yeah, Venus can be moistening or maybe even Jupiter. Jupiter can be moistening. So you could say if someone's got Jupiter or Mercury or Venus in Gemini and that's being afflicted, you can give them something like milky oats or maybe in mul mob relief. I love the nerves as well.
Kayla: It's fascinating how specific you can get not just the planets, but the planets and the science together, which is so interesting. So you've mentioned something a few times that I'm not super clear on. So you've mentioned like afflicted planets in Scorpio mm-hmm. Or afflicted planets in different places.
What does it mean for a planet to be afflicted?
Diggory: Yeah. So for one, you can have. Planets that are afflicted simply by being in the house or sign that they're in. So for me, for example, in Tropical, I had, four planets in Scorpio and they were, two of them were exalted in there like Mars and Pluto.
And then I shifted to side and I ended up with, four planets being afflicted or in detriment, which are my Virgo ones of like Jupiter and Venus. They're in fall or in exile in Virgo. So they just have a harder time expressing themselves basically if a planet is in fall or detriment, and you could say that it's, yeah, kind of suffering in that regard.
So you might have Venus and Jupiter issues come up as a result of that. But really in medical astrology, what we're looking for in terms of afflictions is hard angles. So squares, oppositions, sometimes certain conjunctions. So it's like if you are. You've got a planet like Mercury or the sun or the moon, and it's in conjunction with, which just means next to, so within about eight or nine degrees.
If it's within, conjunction with Mars or Pluto or Saturn or Neptune, they can all exert a different, maleic effect. So just that just means detrimental. So with Neptune, Neptune can bring a kind of weakening, dissolving force, so. If Neptune is conjunct your sun, that might mean just a, a dissipation of vital force in a way that the person quite can't, that can't quite put their finger on.
Maybe that would lead to like a loss of eye health because the sun has rulership over the eyes or, maybe heart health, things like that. Or, if Mars is conjunct one's mercury, because mercury rules communication and the nervous system. You might find that there would be inflammation in connecting tubes, like maybe the fallopian tubes or, or just inflammation in the nervous system or, that the voice might be prone to raspiness or dryness, things like that.
Yeah.
Kayla: Okay. So a lot of different places it could show up.
Diggory: Yeah, totally. Yeah.
Kayla: Nice. So just a few more questions. I know you also take a terrain based approach to health, and that's gonna include using astrology. Can you share a little bit more about what that looks like as well?
Diggory: Yeah, so I think terrain health is something that we all practice unwittingly.
It's just a very kind of natural way to look at the world. In many ways it can be put in contrast to germ theory, but I don't think I'll go there today. There's lots of resources out there on that. But basically terrain theory kind of, accepts and postulates that we have a lot more influence over our health than outside influences like germs do.
And yeah, I think we all practice this because, we try and take care of our health by. Exercising and eating right and thinking better thoughts and improving our relations and things like that. All those things are working with the terrain to create greater vitality and resonance and, that's where the chart can come in because the chart can speak to us as to, what are the best ways for us to eat, to exercise, to create vitality.
They can speak to ways in which our relationships are. Yeah, maybe struggling or harder and with specific people, you know, like a mother or a father or, you know, being bullied by peers at some age, you know, in our youth or things like that. So, it can really direct us as to how to yeah. Navigate our own internal terrain and optimize that.
Yeah.
Kayla: Hmm. That makes so much sense. And it just gives you, again, that hyper specificity based on your chart, which is very cool. So ri this has been so much fun. I always get my guests to give the listeners some kind of a embodied activation, so that can be even as simple as go look up your true Sidel birth chart.
It can be, you know, do an ecstatic dance on something you'd love for them to go and do after this episode.
Diggory: Hmm. Yeah, beautiful question for sure. So what I would encourage is, to look up your side chart and then to look at your moon placement, because the moon is one of the chief indicators as to how we become embodied and how we nourish our baseline physiology.
And then maybe look up the, sign that it's in and look up activities that that sign likes to do. So. Say for a moon in Virgo, moon in Virgos love journaling, or writing, or, honing in on their thoughts. Any moon in an earth sign like Capricorn or Taurus is gonna benefit from doing, very physical activities, quite sort of structured activities in a way.
Maybe body working or, a moon and Capricorn might be. Yeah, could it even be like organizing one's, one's house could actually be quite nourishing for that moon sign. I don't know if you want me to go through all and every sign in terms of a moon practice or you're gonna leave it for people to look up.
Kayla: That would actually be super fun if you have a couple extra minutes. Also, I'm laughing 'cause I'm looking at my bookshelf behind me and I'm a tourist moon, so Yeah. Yeah. Organizing stuff is
Diggory: like Yeah, exactly. Such a organizing for the sake of making it beautiful. For sure. Tour. Love that. We could go through the signs.
Mooning cancer, that's a place where the moon loves to be. Um, yeah, it could be, having a bath is a typical mooning cancer thing to do 'cause it's at home. Which cancer rules the home and, it's a watery thing. Moon in Pisces might be, engaging with some forms of poetry, very free flowing dance or expression in that way, or potentially going to the ocean, which Pisces rules and just having a swim.
Moon and sage, sage rules the thighs rules, expansion, long distance travel. So a moon and S could benefit from. Hiking, getting up to some mountainous places and enjoying a very expansive view or even, yeah, philosophizing, or enjoying comedy. Those are things that SAG loves to do as well. What have we got?
Aquarius. I find Aquarius to be one of the more mysterious signs to me because, it's, it's a very oddball sign anyway, so maybe a moon in Aquarius is, yeah, going out into wider society and just kind of experiencing the cultural milieu of the time. , Could be going to, , maybe like a fair of some kind.
Even. It could be regulating for a Moon and Aquarius or in Perth. At the moment, we have this thing called Fringe, which is like a big comedy festival, but there's also a lot of other kind of ideas that are brought up there. They could enjoy something like that, which is just a big smorgasbord of ideas.
Moon in Libra, Libra is quite, an artistic sign. It's a Venus rule sign. So Moon in Libra could be really nourished by listening to music, just taking time out to do some writing. I find Libras are often really good with words, so maybe, doing some writing to some music could be really beneficial.
What else we got? Moon and Aries? Well, Aries is, yeah, the sportsmen, the warrior, the heroes. So Moon and Aries could be very easily nourished by, yeah. Engaging in sports. Running could be team sports, could be individual sports, rock climbing. Yeah. That's another Capricorn thing. Capricorns, , are the mountain goats, so they could be well-nourished by, , doing some rock climbing.
Um, what have I got? I think it's just Gemini. Gemini and Scorpio. So yeah, Gemini as it rules the nervous system and the breath, forms of breath work or, it rules the arms as well, so maybe forms of, activities that just help to open up the chest area and the arms. Even walking, you know, because it's a very rhythmic thing.
Yeah, so Scorpio last sign, Scorpio is one of the most erotic, sensual signs there. So Scorpio can do really well from, engaging in a real depth of sensuality and cultivating errors, whatever that may be. Could be from things like central eating or could be from Yeah.
Even self pleasure practices, things like that.
Kayla: So now everyone, no matter what their sign is, has some kind of great way to nurture their moon sign. So thank you so much diggory. And when people do wanna connect with you further, what are the best places for them to go?
Diggory: Yeah. So yeah, my website, soul guide medicines.com has a contact form on there.
Or yeah, via email, which I think you'll be sharing in the notes. Ask@soulgardenmedicines.com. Yeah.
Kayla: Perfect. And thank you so much again for being here. This was awesome.
Diggory: Thank you, Kayla. It's been really lovely.
