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Blando, a medical doctor, discusses her relationship with astrology and embracing the uncertain in this debut memoir.

The author is a Gemini with Virgo rising. In her own words, “Geminis are curious and have the ability to make connections and talk with everyone. However, the Virgo part of me discriminates with whom I wish to make connections.” Born in the Philippines but raised in the United States, Blando had a western mindset instilled early: work hard, find a steady job, and succeed. Medicine seemed a natural conduit to that end, suited to both her Gemini and Virgo sides. But soon after graduation, she realized that western medicine, and its ideology rooted in facts and data, couldn’t answer all of her questions, assuage her fear of failure, or fulfill her desire for purpose in life. Her first job out of medical school in 1991was in the Bronx as HIV decimated communities throughout New York City, and she realized that there were layers to her understanding of the world that science did not account for: “Science gained knowledge through observation of that which could be perceived and measured in the physical, material world, but what could be understood through direct perception was limited…what wasn’t grasped by the senses was both immense and immeasurable.” After moving to Miami, she took an astrology class with Iris, who would serve as Blando’s guide to reading the stars and planets, restructuring her approach to medicine and her personal life. Through astrology, the author was able to gain “another perspective to view myself beyond society’s standards.”

In the epilogue, Blando admits that her mentor, Iris, was going to be the subject of her book, but she dissuaded the author from this course and encouraged a more personal approach (however, Iris remains the most prominent character in Blando’s narrative). It’s unclear how the author’s deepening relationship with astrology impacted her relationships with her family and friends, though she does use astrological insights to come to terms with the ways she navigated situations and decisions growing up. At the heart of the book is the way the author braids the three pillars of her worldview—Catholicism, western medicine, and astrology—together over time. Each system appears to have informed her life in healthy and productive ways, as her faith gave her moral lessons and rituals, science gave her the means to investigate questions, and astrology helped her to honor her internal self and desires. This convergence is in evidence in one of the book’s strongest passages, in which Blando participates in an ayahuasca retreat in Peru. By contrast, other aspects of the narrative feel underexplored. While the author’s ruminations on harmonizing these ideologies are compelling, her prose doesn’t always rise to the challenge of persuading readers that no single school of thought has all the answers. As astrology continues to engage the mainstream imagination, Blando’s more restrained take will appeal to skeptics inclined to disparage the subject as too “woo woo”; astrology, as Iris notes, “is the map of your potential,” not an answer key.

A contemplative consideration of incorporating astrology into daily life.