The Art Craft of a Roadtrip
On Royal Stars and harnessing divine agency on the road
You ever take a roadtrip that affirms how hot and cool you are?
This is my story.
I have been taking roadtrips since 2019, when I moved my harp and books and clothes from New Jersey and Oregon, where I would be living. I was in my 2nd house year then, activating the house where my Moon lies. Of course one of my resources (a 2h topic) is my skill to move from place to place, my talent for melting past cities in a day, coming and going as I please— the Moon is known for being a wanderer, after all.
Very Americanly, I have always associated freedom with having my own car, and roadtripping is one of the few ways I can feel patriotic anymore. But more importantly that having good feelings for the United States, I love the ability to go. Nothing makes me more excited for a party than the assurance that I can leave whenever I want (weirdly, it always seems to make me want to stay longer). Roadtrips sort of force me to do both: after the first day, it’s easier to just keeping going further, but you can rest assured you’re never in one place for too long.
I had that feeling too at the wedding in Phoenix— the reason for this most recent adventure. It was for an old college friend and I didn’t have to drive, but as the day drew nearer and nearer, I realized I had not yet bought a plane ticket, and had no desire to buy one. Why would I spend more money on something I hadn’t planned on doing when I didn’t even want to do it? Instead, I listened to my intuition, which can often show up in what I don’t do as much as what I do. Was it impractical, even a bit dangerous, to take my 25 year-old car thousands of miles, from Oregon to Arizona, for three days of driving each way? Certainly.
But my Moon is conjoined my Lot of Courage. I get off on taking calculated risks, on having my cake and eating it too— that is, being bad but not getting caught. Did you know there are still smoking rooms in the Motel 6 in Desert Springs, California? One of the highlights of my trip was watching Pride and Prejudice for the second time in a row, smoking a joint in that smoke-smelling room using an ashtray placed on my towel in the fluorescent bathroom. More than that, I didn’t have any obligations in this far-off city, on the way to something else. The time, the space, felt like all mine.
There’s something powerful, in other words, that road trips offer me, especially when they feel divinely ordained. I felt the desire to drive for a week from my gut, not my head. Part of the enjoyment comes from knowing something could go wrong but trusting the feeling anyway. That tends to be how roadtrips happen for me. Most of them have been solo and those ones always increase my sense of strength and potential. If I’m truly acting in alignment with a higher power, then the roadtrips feel transformational too. It makes senses as the 9th house,place of long-term travel, is also the place of spirituality, wisdom and the higher mind: often, traversing wide swaths of land also translates to similar distance covered within.
Roadtrips encapsulate the sense of personal agency, combined with divine support, that often signals true power, the beginning of accessing an inner royalty.
This most recent trip, in a way, felt like a culmination of all past roadtrips.
Because the other interesting thing this trip imparted in me is a deep sense of trust and an understanding of my limits.
I truly believe my road trip was so successful because I called on many other beings and guides to help me.
In the physical realm was my father, who not only made sure I had jumper cables and wiper fluid but checked my car before departure. There was my aunt and her family who let me stay with them for multiple days as well as my friend Ella who took me out when I stopped through Los Angeles.
But I also called on plenty of unseen helpers as well.
First off was my car herself. Ruby, as she told me to call her, has been with me since my first road trip. Not only do I have a sprig of rosemary and a clay medallion that says “Nonna’s World” hanging from my rearview mirror, I perform protective rituals with her before each of my roadtrips. This time it was with my Moon talisman, which I waved over the car along with a smoke from jasmine incense.
I say prayers for each piece of roadkill that I pass, wishing for that animal to be happy, to be at peace, to know they are loved.
But on this trip, an uninvited guide also came along, subtly steering the show. Regulus, heart of the Lion and royal star of Persia, was a constant companion on my trip too, and a big reason why I left the trip feeling so strong.
I first perceived their presence in Joshua Tree, where I was headed to potentially make a new flower essence. Since my first foray to the desert last year, herbalist friends have been excitedly telling me to visit ocotillo, a tall, spiky plant that can grow up to 15 feet. Seeing the plant as I drove through the desert, whose name comes from the Nahuatl work for “torch,” was a spiritual experience.
This time of year, the desiccated-looking stalks are covered in small green leaves and a row of crimson flowers jutting out from the top. They grow in groups of a dozen stalks at times, like a handful of curved torches stuck into the ground.
Joshua Tree is full of them. You step out of the car and are struck by how quiet this pristine desert it. The blue skies and cacti go on for miles. Cars occasionally drive by but they never linger.
I knew which one to work with because a raven had perched nearby. After diving that the plant did, indeed, want to work with me, I began to make my offering. But, as a I circumambulated around the plant, my fingers brushed against its spikes and one of them pricked me. Was it a bad omen? Or did the plant simply want a more intimate offering? I gave a few droplets from my fingertip to the leaves.
After the essence was made, I checked the chart for the beginning of the ritual, as I am wont to do. Wouldn’t you know? The fixed star Regulus was on the ascendant.
In retrospect, it made perfect sense that this star invited itself on my road trip. The very act of following my desire, to prove myself that I could complete the task I wanted to take on, was extremely empowering, especially because it felt unique to me. Others may not want to drive for six days in a week and a half, but I was more than happy to spend my time this way. Regulus’s presence showed I had successfully bet on myself.
As a royal star, Regulus is all about helping us hone our power, particularly through exalting the authentic self and believing you are deserving of living your dream life.
It is Regulus who teaches us so clearly that power is not just something we possess, but something with which we have an ever-growing relationship. Though I had to make the necessary arrangements and perform tasks to complete my roadtrip, I also felt extremely bolstered in my path by all the spirits and stars mentioned above. By continually giving my power up to the divine, to the ocotillo plant, my actions were led by a hand steadier and more wise than mine. I didn’t feel powerless because I knew all of my power is borrowed: whenever it came to me, I knew it was the right thing. I could just follow my impulse to act to lead me where I needed to go.
Can we see power as a process? As something that is always dancing with powerlessness, its opposite, given and taken as the laws of the universe allow. There are certainly ways to invite power into your life, like through working with the Royal Stars, but we don’t get to decide how and when this power comes to us. We can only trust and act.
The Royal Stars are some of my favorite stars to work with and all give us a recipe for stepping into our inner and outer sovereignty.
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Thank you to everyone who has been watching and purchasing! I feel so good about sharing my work and my experience with y’all and hope to keep doing it for a long time.
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Until next time,
Love,
Chloe