Episode #9: Soul Centric Biz Spotlight Meet: Tifin Dillon

Welcome to the Cosmic Innerspace podcast. I’m Kammie K interspace surfer and cosmic creator at KammieK.com. Are you ready to launch a business? Expand your cosmic consciousness, amp your intuition, or simply celebrate the everyday messiness of being human. Then the Cosmic Innerspace podcast is for you. Inside each episode, we’ll demystify the mystical and provide practical magic for everyday alchemy.

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Stay tuned for interspace best practices and sustainable business tools to help you navigate the new now. Let these stories inspire you to cultivate your curiosity, elevate your mindset and explore your own cosmics inner space. Let’s dive into the show. Welcome friend.

Tifin: Hey Kammie kay. 

KammieK: How are you?

Tifin: Doing well? I’m doing well. I’m glad we’re having this recorded conversation. I know we’ve been behind the scenes talking about it, anticipating, sharing our unique blend of our energy. 

KammieK: Yeah. Our energy of our gifts. So I will share with the listeners, well, one I’m having a little cup of tea. Let me see. It’s just right. I’m having a little cup of tea during our chat. But Tifin and I met, was it like, oh five or oh six somewhere.

Tifin: Oh six. 

KammieK: We were in a one year coaching container. With life coach Mary she’s such, she’s still doing her thing. I see her on Facebook every now and then. And she’s an inner peace coach, but really we followed the kind of guide sort of I’ll say curriculum, but it wasn’t even really like a curriculum, but we followed the chapters in her book.

She had 12 chapters in the book. And so we were in a one-year program and each month we went through a different chapter in a book, it’s so interesting. You and I have connected a couple of times recently, but we haven’t talked about this much and I’m curious how it is for you. For me, the piece that still stands so strong from that, that really helped set such a great solid foundation for just my life is the compounded daily interest piece.

 I’d already gone through, I think my coach training or I was in tandem going through my coach, You Coach training when I was in that. There was a section in the book about like, if if you do yoga everyday, or if you meditate every day on the daily, it’s not like your life is necessarily so different, but if you meditate daily a year, five years, 10 years, your brain’s going to look totally different.

Same with ice cream. If you eat that ice cream and adults today, it’s fine. A year, five years, 10 years of eating ice cream daily, the effects will be compounded. Right. So I’m curious if there’s anything from those initial, you know, 

Tifin: I think the whole, like the overall umbrella of Mary’s book was like, it was inner peace and success.

KammieK: Yeah. 

Tifin: That message of blending the doing pieces, how we get into action, what we’re doing, what we’re going for out in the world. And then that inner peace that what’s our state of being, how are we listening to ourselves, responding to and caring for ourselves and our inner space. And that has long been this, balancing of inner and outer being that is really, has been a theme for me throughout. 

KammieK: Yeah, well, and so we’re going to have a juicy conversation about astrology, which is outer for inner, right. Like looking to the stars to support and nurture our inner space. And what I’m building right, is all about the inner space and inner space best practices, because I feel like I’ve had those gifts of being in coaching programs, obviously reading a ton of books and listening to the podcasts and workshops and all the things, but it’s an inside job, right.

And we have all these amazing, phenomenal tools at our disposal. 

KammieK: So many phenomenal tools. And that’s what I, that’s what my intention with this podcast is to just be a portal, to expose people to a deeper dive, into exploring some of these modalities and tools and resources.

And then people can go off and explore, whichever one of those modalities really speaks to them. So I’m super excited to get into our Astro conversation. So that just gives people a little bit of background of how we know each other. And, I think we lost touch for years. The power of Facebook and social media, right.

We just found our way back to each other again. And we’re like, what are you up to? What are you up to? Let’s have a chat. So I love that, that we were able to reconnect and rekindle, but let’s get into who is Tiffin? Where’d you kind of come from, you have such an interesting story that I just found out in the last couple of months since we’ve reconnected. And then how’d you find your way to the stars. 

Tifin: Okay. I’m going to try to be brief and take your time. So let’s see. I am. Where do I even start? I’ve always been fascinated in who am I? Who am I is the fundamental question in my life. And I think it comes from some of my life circumstances being adopted at birth. Being that story growing up of, we wanted a child so much that we chose you, you were special. There’s this whole mystique in the adoptive myth of, we wanted you so much, we finally found you and we chose you.

Right. And that fed into my young Leo heart of specialness and shining and feeling like, yeah, and yet there was always that question of, but if you weren’t my birth parents, who was? That not knowing piece. Okay. A thread through, I wouldn’t say it was a conscious thing all my life, not at all, but a recurring thread.

Teen years, I was fascinated. I mean, I’ve always been a big reader and love reading fiction because it like helps me understand, get inside people’s heads. Right. You don’t just see the action of what’s happening, but you get to hear the inner conversations and see how people are responding and feel it.

And so tapping into what makes people, who they are, what makes us all so different and unique, and yet what makes us and what helps us connect with each other? And like, why do I like some people? And don’t like other people? When I started paying attention to horoscopes as a young, oh, probably, 10, 11, 12 year old reading in the newspaper You know, why did I notice that I had so many friends who were also Leos or who were Aries or who were Saggitarius and why didn’t I have friends who were Scorpios or Taurus really?

Or, it was like, I started to look at patterns a little bit. 

KammieK: I want to jump back real quick to the fiction piece, where there specific authors and or characters that you found yourself drawn to, since you just mentioned the specific signs that you were more, sun signs that you were more drawn to or less drawn to. Were there influences in fiction or was that just like open the door of possibility and curiousity? 

Tifin: I think there a lot of opening the door of curiosity and possibility, and I loved fairytales. I loved mythology. I loved Pippi Longstocking for her adventurous girl, you know? I loved, yes, those ones that were about freedom and unique expression and creativity and kind of quirkiness characters always appealed to me, that dynamic creative expression that seeking, meaning that like wanting to explore the world stories. Always attract, always appeal to me. Yes. Yeah. 

KammieK: Yeah. Well, thank you. I was curious cause I was a reader too. I think I talked in one of the episodes about the bookmobile. We used to have a bookmobile.

Tifin: And, the stories of children who were orphaned or whose parents died and they were sent to live… with, there’s a story called Heidi.

She was sent to live with her grandfather on this mountain in Switzerland or Austria or somewhere, so finding a connection of, oh, there’s someone like me who has parents, but they’re missing or there are other parents somewhere. Right. You know? And so that sort of longing to understand where I came from.

So, I do also have an adventurous freedom, loving, curious nature, and have been Self-propelled traveler and explorer. I took a year off after my first year in college and traveled the U S by myself in my little geo Metro. 

KammieK: I didn’t know that. Where did you go to college and what did you study?

Tifin: I started college at UC Davis, university of California, and finished at UC Santa Cruz. After I did the year off, I transferred. And I double majored in psychology and economics.

KammieK: Whew. Interesting combo. 

Tifin: Interesting combo. I took a lot of French. I took a lot of women’s studies and it all kind of came from there..

KammieK: Yeah. Yeah. It sounded like you either on your own or someone may have influenced you. In taking things that you were interested in, not just things to get a job, right?

Tifin: Well, it was more like that. And it was more a sense of not having guidance and mentors in my life. A very much a fend for myself experience of college, I would say.

And I did, I was encouraged to take things that were interesting. And I kept changing my mind. That also is how my mind works. Yes. Like I kept telling UC Davis like, oh, now I started as a chemistry major pre-med and then biology. And then I was, finding new things all the time. And they finally said, you don’t have to file the paperwork to change your major every time. Let us know when you’re a junior.

KammieK: Where did the passion for economics come from? 

Tifin: When I transferred to UC Santa Cruz, the way the transfer credits worked, I pretty much had, was close to finishing the psychology major. And I just was taking classes for interests since, and I had great economics professors and really interesting political economy, macro level, how does the world work on that level was interesting. But I think I was also operating out of that distortion of valuing something more serious in psychology. The feedback I was getting about a psych major was that can’t get a job, can’t get the job message, but the job message didn’t really get through.

To me, there’s a bit of a thick skull with that or something. But right. The practicality of it or the seriousness of it. And so I think that played into it for me Kammie, really, I do. And I think, you know, now that I’ve been studying astrology and working with my art for so long, it makes sense to me, my soul’s path started out with that mastery around accomplishment and achievement and systems making it real. And my soul was being called towards emotional sensitivity and perception and responsiveness and being more in the emotional, energetic realm. And so in my youth, I was that high achieving students. I was that I have to make it serious and look good.

One major’s not enough. I’d better have to, oh, I better get honors while I’m at it. And graduate piping the cap and all that stuff, and with the lens of astrology, kind of seeing that play out. I had my first reading when I was 19 part of that year off when I traveled and I was amazed that this astrologer knew me so well and knew things about my life that nobody did. I’d never met this guy before. 

KammieK: Where on your journey, did you come across this person? 

Tifin: When I was back living in Davis before. So I had to go back to Davis to up an academic probation. Cause I checked out before I actually checked out.

KammieK: You were in a hurry. You were like I’m out.

Tifin: So I was back in Davis for a while, just working before school started. Yeah. That’s when.

KammieK: Was this person referred to you? How did you come across him? 

Tifin: A flyer on a bulletin board or a telephone pole, probably hand drawn, introduction to astrology. Here’s this fun class, come take this, and I was like, oh, awesome.

I’m fascinated. Yes. I want to take the class. Took the rip off the phone number, tab, sign that tab. And then, when right before the class was supposed to start, he called me and said, well, actually you’re the only person who signed up, so I’m not going to teach the class that way. But if you’d like, I’ll do your chart for you instead of the class. 

KammieK: So you got a one-on-one. 

Tifin: Yeah. 

KammieK: And what did he uncover that was so mind blowing for you that he knew you so well at that time. 

Tifin: I didn’t tell him that I’d taken a year off and traveled and explored and had all these encounters and none of that. But that message around adventure and exploration, that it was a year of focusing on learning and expanding my horizons and doing something in the box way.

And that there was a lot that was opening up my. I mean, there were specific things. So like astrology speak. I was Saturn was moving through my ninth house of life, meaning and, foreign travel and exploration. And that speaking to me about how my mind works, I have fast, I like to go fast and deep.

And my, in my chart, the planet mercury, the way I process is in Virgo, very analytical, very wants to get at specifics, sees things in systems and patterns and sees when things are out of whack and how to improve it, how to reorganize, how to smooth it out, is also influenced by Pluto, the planet of depth and death and dying.

Deep transformation and the planet, Uranus, that has that freedom and rebellion and, unpredictability to it. So that like fast and blurting and not going to do it a standard way, even though the other parts of my chart, were steady, responsible, mature achiever, and that being at odds.

And so having that explained to me, and also I have the sun and moon in Leo. And he talked to me about how that means, and that’s very much a Leo energy, but moon there means, oh, I really have more of a need for things to be personal. Filter things through my emotions. And to really like, how does the world relate to me? 

KammieK: Yes. So it’s almost like he was able to put almost like a blueprint overlay, over your experience through the filter of the moon, the planets, the stars. And you were like, what? 

Tifin: And I mean, at 19, I really felt like, wow, this guy knows me better than I know myself, which was true. And I mean, no, nothing against that, most 19 year olds But it really did open me to that idea that there was a way of understanding who I am. Like the end, that there’s, that map that’s unique to me.

And to be able to connect it to my lived experience, what I was going through and he even talked about, oh, and when you were seven, there’s probably really hard at times with your family. And I was like, yeah, you know, I see now that has to do with the Saturn cycle and where, how that Saturn moving through the cosmos and my chart, it triggers, developmental stages of heart-focused.

KammieK: And so you have this reading at 19 and it blows your mind. And then where do you go? Career-wise where does life take you? Where does your path kind of go? 

Tifin: So finishing college, finishing back, finishing college that hard, intense academic performance still, no idea. How does that translate to life after college?

So I traveled, I went to France. I just adventure expansion, check it out adventures and misadventures with travel and with romance and with my heart continue to be interested in astrology, reading horoscopes level or at the check of book out of the library. 

KammieK: Yes. And where all did you travel? Did you travel all over Europe or were you just mostly in France? 

Tifin: That trip was really just France. 

KammieK: And were you working too, or did you just travel?

Tifin: I worked for a family. I was an au pair in France and the family, he was a lawyer, she was a psychologist. They had teenage kids and this four year old who I was mostly there to support.

And so there were four people in that, could really practice my French. And, yeah.

KammieK: It’s interesting because you and I are similar age and at that point, It’s so weird because I was so curious about other cultures and yet international travel wasn’t really on my radar. I had my best friend took a month after graduation and backpacked around Europe.

With another friend of hers. I went to school, I went to a small private college shout out to Lindenwood in Missouri. And we had kids from all over the world that played sports. We had lots of sports and there were lots of athletes over. And so I was exposed to tons of cultures, but it wasn’t like a thing in my mind to go, oh, I can do this. This is something I can do. Or I need to go do this at this point. Like, for me, it was all like, oh, I got to get a job. Cause my student loans are coming to kick in six months. Like that’s where I was at that same time. So I’m so envious of people like you, who were able to go, I’m gonna go to this thing and oh yeah, I’ll get a job and make money while I’m there too.

Tifin: Right. I’ll figure it out somehow. Yeah. So, and then there’s a lot of that in my nature. There’s a lot of that spontaneity that I’ll figure it out somehow I’m going to impress the flow. And I think that is a lot of my soul lesson is that which is different from how other people are designed. Yes. Work-wise and all, okay.

Following my nose, following my heart. I am within the, what feels like the absence of guidance. I have to say, because nobody was saying, what are you going to do for work? Or have you thought about an internship or any kind of? I knew school. I had been good at school. I loved kids as a all through, since I was 11, I babysat.

And in high school I had kind of a babysitting empire where I, worked for as many families as I could and did group babysitting’s. Like summer camp things so that I could maximize and have fun with that business savvy. I was always an entrepreneur from the time I was seven and had my recycling business.

When they first had recycling centers in Berkeley, I went to around the neighborhood with my wagon and collected newspapers and glass. And my parents were willing to drive me to the recycle center for a fee. Like they taught me like, you’re in business, but you have to pay for your own materials and your own costs.

And this is it. And lemonade stands and cookie sales, all the things. So I knew school and I had been a tutor and started a tutoring mentoring program at the high school and a freshman orientation program. Like that kind of leadership that really was like, oh, well, I should be. And so you have to go back to school for that.

I did. I went back and got my teaching credential and then taught middle school and taught sixth grade, was my first job and self-contained classroom and got to be all the creativity, all the relationship building. School teaching in schools is a lot of things. Yes. But that school, at that point in time, the early nineties there was a lot of autonomy, I mean there was curriculum and there was guidelines, but there was still like get to it, how you get to it.

KammieK: Yeah. Your classroom is your domain. 

Tifin: Right. And I love that. And and had great colleagues and it was a big middle school. So there were 10, sixth grade classes at this school. A lot of good things in those five years. But I got to a point where I was like, oh my gosh, I am too young to be living such a middle-aged life.

 I was 25 when I started teaching. So I had the bug again and I joined the peace Corps and had another overseas adventure. Lived in the Caribbean Eastern Caribbean for two years. Worked with teachers, worked at a school, developed a school library and a reading program and young authors program. Worked with that program and more adventure, following my heart, Caribbean island romance.

KammieK: And I can’t wait to read that book someday. 

Tifin: Yeah, that book hasn’t been drafted yet, but there’s some good stories in that book. But really, the threads are working with people, being fascinated in what makes them, what makes us tick, education and learning and personal growth. And so sometime after peace Corps, and I mean, there were a lot of stops along the way.

Back to the classroom, working on the Navajo reservation for a year, teaching in Costa Rica for a year. And out of that, those experiences, really thought that I wanted to go back to grad school for psychology, for counseling psychology. Like what really makes people tick and how can I help people become the best version of themselves?

 And in researching. Counseling psychology. I was like, oh, but I don’t want to work with pathological issues and hard stuff or addiction or trauma, or I want to work with basically healthy people who want to move forward in their lives and know themselves. They want that inner space knowing. 

KammieK: You and I share that because I was on the same path too. And then I was like, Nope. 

Tifin: Right, right. 

KammieK: So when was that? Time-wise for you? Like what years was that?

Tifin: That was in 1998. And one of my peace Corps friends, fathers was a counselor who had just switched to coaching and she said, oh, you should talk to my dad. He’s doing this thing called coaching. And he seems way happier than when he was a therapist.

So I talked to him and he pointed me towards the coaches training Institute, which was in San Rafael. They’re now all over the world. And I called them up and they had their Fast Track program starting the following Tuesday and I dove in. And that coach training opened so much, it really resonated with me.

They had a very experiential learning program, dive in practice, do feedback, live experiential. 

KammieK: Yeah. I know several people who went through CTI training and just rave about it. Yeah. That it was very experiential and that there was a spiritual component. 

Tifin: In the sense of talking about the being and the doing honoring our inner knowing and how do we access that, you know, and powerful ways of listening.

KammieK: Yes. 

Tifin: Listening to self in word, they call that level one level two, listening to another person like you and I are doing I’m over there with you. What are you saying? What’s your essence? How are we relating ? And then this concept of listening to the field, our environment is talking to us all the time.

 And it’s actually this part of my learning and experience. And so, and these levels of listening translate so much to my work currently because I’m still coaching. So I got coached certified in 99, did their leadership program in 2000 and then had a coaching business that I called life adventure.

Coaching is, appropriate way. It felt to me like it is all of our lives are like the hero’s journey and choose your own adventure books, you know? And you are the protagonists in your story. I remember we had a powerful conversation about enchantment and story and, like centering ourselves in our own life.

Yup. And that’s so resonates for me. 

KammieK: Well, and that’s not outside of us. That’s within us. It’s not, someone’s not coming to save us. It’s we are that hero. And how are you showing up and listening and responding to the field? Because a lot of people aren’t listening and responding to the inner and how that interplays with the outer.

And they’re just listening to this gunk kind of fringy matter. Right. 

Tifin: And, being socialized in our families, our schools, our culture, there is so much, you called it gunk just then, that all those expectations and those layered on personality, and this is what’s expected of you. And, you know, I kind of felt like as an adoptee, I sort of got out, it was a get out of jail free card for family expectations. Because nobody ever said to me, you’re just like your aunt Rosie. You’re just like your mom, your, you have your dad’s musical talent. So we expect you to be blah, blah, blah. That was off the table. I got to be just me.

KammieK: Well, it’s an interesting thread around the nature versus nurture. And I know from our other conversation, how you came back to find on uncover and excavate, some family knowledge, history and information. Yeah, so fascinating. 

Tifin: Right? And that, so that peeling away and with coaching for me, my fascination with coaching people in the early days was really about helping them get clear on who they are and what they want.

One of the first questions in CIT training that first day is like a mingle and like tell somebody what you want. Like, what’s a dream of yours. What do you want? And that question used to paralyze me. Like, I didn’t know if there weren’t a menu of choices. Right? I couldn’t tell you, but I could choose, but it was like, how do I self-generate how do I know myself well enough, how do I listen? I know what I want. Yes. And coaching gave me those kinds of questions, the kinds of conversations that helped me tap into that. And help me have the kind of conversations with other people that got to the rich, meaningful conversations about, for me, what mattered and what was meaningful was yeah.

Who are you? What do you like? Why do you like what you like, what’s important to you about that? Why is that a key value? Why is that? You know, all those things now we’re on track. 

KammieK: I was fascinated with the same things. I studied psychology also, and I did it opposite. I was a broadcast journalist communications major. And then I was just taking psych classes as electives. Cause I liked them. And my advisor was like, if you take three more classes and stay one extra semester, you can declare this as a second major. And I was like, well, sure, I’ll stay an extra semester and wrap that up, put a bow on it.

But it was, it was funny for me because it was like externally storytelling and telling other people’s stories. And then on the psychology side, the internal piece and what are the stories people are telling themselves, what are the stories they’re writing for themselves? How and why we do those things.

So yeah, very interesting. So where then in that, so you had your coaching business, where did this? Atrology kind of pick up momentum again. 

Tifin: So in my twenties, before, while before I was, while I was teaching mid to late twenties now with astrology language, that’s my first Saturn return, which is a huge developmental milestone.

We in our culture tend to associate it with how people freak out right before they turn 30. Of like, oh my gosh, I’m 30. I’m supposed to be a real functioning adult by now. Oh my gosh, am I doing the work that I’m supposed to be doing? Have I found a partner? Have I had kids? If I want to be a parent, like all of those questions are so up and we’re so attached to like, does it look good?

Do I look like I’m a functioning adults? Yes. External validation. 

KammieK: Yes. Yes. Yes. 

Tifin: Confronting that external validation. And I started seeing a counselor. I was also super stressed as a teacher and there was family stuff going on. And anyway, this wonderful counselor was also an astrologer and he helped me with the counseling through the lens of astrology.

So it felt so personalized.. And he would share from my chart as well. 

KammieK: Love that. 

Tifin: And I feel, I just felt like that was such deep rich work. 

KammieK: Yeahit’s such a personal, customized lens yeah, yeah. And so did that start the catalyst? 

Tifin: Oh, I want to know more about what is Saturn. So more personal reading and then pause, like got away from that, all the peace Corps stuff from the Navajo reservation stuff and Costa Rica stuff.

And astrology was kind of, back-burner learning about myself through relationship and exploration and trying new experiences and all that. But with the coaching coming back to, what am I interested in? What are my top values? How do I orient my life around my values, what matters to me, you know?

KammieK: Yep.

Tifin: And so much of coaching is that it’s like, let’s be aware of that and like question the assumptions and the expectations, the cultural, the familial, all that, like, is this really what you like doing? Or is that what you think you should be doing? Peeling those onions. 

KammieK: Well, and it goes deep, right? Those really deep, familial claws can get in there and some people are never able to extract themselves out of it. You know what I mean? 

Tifin: Yeah. Right. And some people don’t need to because they’re actually there, they are aligned to the, where their families have raised them in that they are, you know?

And so when I started, oh, there’s so many coaching business, Back to the classroom, coaching business, back to the classroom for a lot. 

KammieK: So you were dipping in and out of being in and out. 

Right. But I feel like the same for me, coaching and education just sort of overlap. I mean, they’re very similar in certain ways.

I mean, my entire, I went from corporate and marketing and branding to higher education and then never left higher education. But the coaching piece has been a thread that wove through at all for me as well. 

Tifin: They really, to me, they really are connected. And 

KammieK: At the root of it, it’s about wanting to help people evolve and advance into their highest, you know, most actualized self, whether it’s through classes in the classroom, one-on-one with them or in my case, it was higher education and helping to advise and or teach whichever role I was playing from year to year.

Tifin: Exactly. And that is what I really think all of this is about is that we, we’re all after that self actualization at some. And Maslow’s hierarchy of needs so many different conversations we can have with that. I’m like, oh, self actualization. If you’ve got not, your security needs met, like that’s not happening.

Like, but coaching and education help all levels of that. Right. And so they made sense to me also, I’m a teacher at heart and I love group process. I love group work. And so whether that’s in schools, in classrooms, in outdoor ed experiential. I led ropes courses for years and did outward bound instructor training and worked with outward bound for awhile.

And things like that. And now I have my one-on-one clients with the coaching and astrology, but I also have small groups that I lead and I love. I love teaching and speaking. And so, in the, before times, when we could do things in person, I loved I public speaking and attending conferences and leading sessions or being the keynote and setting the tone for the conference of like, Hey, we’re all here for this purpose.

And we’re all bringing our unique inner universe, our unique who we are, we’re going to be interacting with each other and all that uniqueness. And we’re all here in this shared field, this shared and like, well, what is that? And using some of the astrology to like, help people understand like, oh, wow. And look at this.

This is how the universe is supporting us in what we’re here to do together. And a fun way to think about that and access it, help people tune in, in another way to the energy and to their own intentions and their own desires. 

KammieK: So what is it about astrology and teaching people astrology? What are some of the specifics within that, that you’re like, oh, I can’t wait to share XYZ because when we get there, they get to experience this.

What are some specific parts of the astrology that you love sharing and teaching and having your clients or groups experience as they begin to learn and dive deeper into. 

Tifin: Yeah. So part of what I love about it is that it is multi-dimensional like, there are a lot of parts. There’s a lot of moving parts.

Like, we can study the planets and the meaning of a planet and the energies they hold and the signs of the Zodiac. So that piece of and back to the enchantment piece, like for me, I feel the planets are like, my imaginary are your allies. They’re my allies. There’s like, I can partner with my girl Venus and like, appreciate and save her the beauty of life and the interconnectedness of relationship values and like, feel the goodness.

I can partner with Mars to get my mojo up and my vitality and to get into action and to like drive, go, call in that freedom, loving rebel, Maverick energy. 

KammieK: As an Aries I resonate. So, you know! 

Tifin: Yes you do. Right. And I love sharing that, introducing people to that idea and seeing that, I mean, as a teacher that, you talk about it as the light bulbs going off, people making those personal connections.

We don’t have to talk. There’s a lot of jargon with astrology and a lot of specific stuff, but to see people, almost everyone I’ve taught can relate to that idea of part of me feels part of me feeling me operates like this. And feeling a sense of either internal alignment or internal struggle confrontation.

Like there’s always an internal, something’s got to compromise, like, you know. And almost everyone relates to that sense. And astrology gives us a language, a symbolic language to talk about that. 

KammieK: Well, I that’s the part I love too because I the filter or the translation technique for me is definitely symbols and signs.

And so a lot of nature, lots of animals, symbols, words, phrases, music, lots of imagery. You know, tarot speaks to me on the visual level, but I’m not able to, you know, I don’t know all of the cards and all of the symbols, but I do have a nice feel about them when I see them because of the visuals. I mean, it’s a visual little type in the store.

Tifin: And we, as you know, we have done, we have had done a reading of your chart and the parts is you do your perception, your, the planet of perception, mercury. So we talked, it’s really important in each of our charts, our style of perceiving, you are a visual, intuitive perceiver. You do think in symbols and language and, you know, dreams. Art and beauty and make so much theory.

KammieK: People will go, how did you get that out of that? You know, I’ll drive by a billboard or see a bumper sticker or whatever. And I’m like, oh, that’s connected to this and this and this and this and this, but what’s interesting is that’s also, I’m also a very strategic thinker.

So on the business side of things, it’s like a dashboard pulls up in my, I don’t know, third eye, I guess. And I see all of these connections that other people are not able to see. And so it’s very interesting knowing that now that those things are similar and strengths when used and harnessed towards.

Tifin: Know, that’s the thing I love is working one-on-one with people, helping them understand like, oh, I, well, for one thing with mercury, it’s kind of funny because most people, we grow up thinking, wrongly that other people think the way we. Well, it’s not true. It’s not at all. Once. It, this gives us a way of understanding more how, where we come from or what our natural style of perception is. And we can all stretch ourselves into all of these things. We all have all of these archetypes and energies in us, and yet they’re emphasized in different ways based on what planet was in the sign of Pisces when you were born or Gemini or Aries, or, you know. And that uniqueness, helping people identify their unique strengths.

I bring in my coaching skills to every play in astrology reading. I’m always, I’m coming in as a coach and a teacher, a playful let’s have these be your allies and in her inner friends, you know. And that way of putting it together helps people find that personal meaning. How is it relevant to who they are?

How can they make a connection to it? And not everybody thinks the way I think obviously, but I’m a, I’m very adaptable. And as a teacher, a lot of my skill was okay, I’m not a classroom of 32 kids who all have different learning styles. Right? How do I do it? And, you know, success and not success along the way. But get that practice in, like I’m meeting you and I’m talking to you about who you are and through this language, but I can tell from your chart oh, how can I phrase this?

How can I offer this? How can I present this? That it’ll make sense to you because I can see kind of learning style communications. And then I bring a lot of curiosity as a coach. Like, how does that show up for you? What does that mean for you? Oh cool. Oh, and that’s part of this and you know, it’s all interconnected and I love that, you know, we were talking about, okay, we’re going to background in life and where’s the thread.

Well, I love finding the threads and pulling them and seeing where they’re connected and how they’re, you know, adding to that overall tapestry of your life. 

KammieK: And so, so, so many questions.

How does having, so for your clients, we’ll say, or people who are interested in, oh, well, you know, maybe they’ve never had a reading, maybe had a reading years ago, but how are they able to use astrology more to empower them? What, whatever the thing is that they want to kind of look at through the lens of right.

Relationships or work or creative project or endeavor, or maybe they’re starting a business. How does looking through the lens of the stars and through astrology empower them or what specific ways can it empower them? 

Tifin: Great questions. Great question.

So through that lens of personal awareness, knowing who you are, knowing what’s important to you like inherently. So I see the birth chart is that snapshot of where the planets were in the sky at the time you were born. 

KammieK: Yes. Let’s do a little one-on-one as you kind of talk through this, explain to us the birth chart and what that snapshot entails.

Tifin: The planets move around the sun basic astronomy, right? The sun is the center of our universe. Each of the planets are a certain distance away from the sun and are in orbit to the sun. The earth is the third planet out, mercury Venus, and earth. Then Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. Okay. And they move at different rates of speed based on their orbits.

And from our perspective on earth. The earth is going around the sun. We know that, but from our perspective, the sun seems to be going around us, comes up in the east. Goes across the sky, that’s in the west every day, or is this turning on its X? So there’s astronomy. The science of the universe connected to the chart is made by identified where was the planet in the sky at that moment where it was from our perspective on it, it’s always from our perspective. So this first chart is that snapshot based on the time and place where you were born on earth, where in the sky was the sun, was the moon all the place, right? So that’s a static picture that, that is like the blueprint of your soul of your soul’s journey of the potentials in your life. Okay. I kind of like the DNA in our cells is the blueprint for our physical body. And many would say family traits and ancestral trauma, and carries that blueprint for who we are in the physical level. Yes. The birth chart is like that or who we are.

Right. And this past year I was doing a lot of DNA research. Did the DNA test did a lot of genealogy, it was a huge research project. It looked like crime scenes over here, cause family trees potentials. And I was trying to figure out who my birth family was based on these third and fourth and fifth cousin matches that I had on DNA.

And I did solve that. And I did figure out who the birth family was. But during that, when I’m deep in with my astrological work, deepen with the DNA work, then we went, oh, wait a minute. These are similar system. The birth chart is that soul map and makeup of who we are. The parts are the same for everyone.

We all have sun moon, Venus mercury here. DNA is the unique map of our genes. We all have the same for new alphanumeric, whatever acids, you know, CT, GA, whatever that is, the biology is way back. 

KammieK: I have to reach into a box in the garage way far back. 

Tifin: But seeing that, oh, there’s a similarity. Or I made that connection like, oh, okay.

So we can think about that. You know, each person has very unique DNA, very unique fingerprints, very unique makeup that way. And astrologically, we all have a very unique chart, even twins, right? Who are born within a minute or two at each other, a slightly different rising sign, slightly different position of the moon.

But then we also in both systems need to remember that we have free will, we have our experiences and our relationships and other influences. And so even twins who have, you know, are identical, biologically, genetically, they’re still different people with freewill and different influences in their lives and their choices and actions. Back to your, you know, the compounded interest of our choices. Right. And with the, you know, we see how that can impact our biology, right? The choices we make, the way we live, what we’ve been exposed to, what happens in our experience affects how we live it out. But I found it really fascinating to think about it that way. So back to how do we use astrology?

You know, how do my clients benefit? I think, you know, in the one-on-one work that awareness of who am I, it gives people another way of seeing and knowing themselves and of seeing and knowing parts of self. So in psychology parts work like internal family systems fascinates me. But we all have different parts of ourselves.

And astrology gives us a way of talking about that, the chart and you and I also, I don’t know if you know this, the structure, we both have our disco balls on the screen as I, when I’m thinking of, and I’m so drawn to a disco ball because it’s like so many facets and you know, and it’s sparkly and celebratory and look at me and hay and fun.

KammieK: And, oh, it’s a, it’s a lot for me. It’s also like, remember to keep shining and keeps spinning. And it’s also my little protective bubble. I visualize myself inside of it. And then I just keep sparkling shining, shimmering, all my multifaceted ways and that other people’s shit can bounce right back at them.

I don’t need to take it. I’m not responsible for it. I heard a, I’ve been listening to this amazing affirmation music and in one of her songs, her name is Tony Jones, by the way. And I am going to get her on this podcast. I’ll just play it, that little seed out there right now. In one of her. Oh, which one is it?

It might be one of her money, affirmation ones. It’s something like, I am not responsible for other people’s trigger something, right? Like it’s not, you’re responsible for what comes out of your mouth, your being your word, you know, your energy, but you’re not responsible how that is for someone else.

Because like what you’re saying, everyone’s perceiving all of these things, different rates, people listening to this conversation are going to hear different things. Different things are going to resonate, click spark, an idea, a thought, you know, all the things. 

Tifin: So it’s the self knowledge, that self knowledge of who am I combined with?

You know, a ways of knowing who am I ways of talking about. Right. And that self-empowerment of like, okay, I am these things. And these things mattered to me. I’m responsible for my life. I’m going to work the parts of me that are strengths, I’m going to learn how to work with the parts of me that are challenging and how do I then develop in myself, ways of working.

And so, the coaching and astrology together help my clients in that self-awareness, self-empowerment helping them clarify values and clarify, I mean, our lives go on and we have these new experiences and like, oh I said yes to this thing. And then I realized it’s not quite a fit. Okay. What about that?

How we refine? 

KammieK: You know, timing of what’s happening in the sky, right? Full moon, new moon. Mercury retrograde, which gets a really bad rap. So maybe tell us the healthier aspects…

Tifin: so what you’re, what you’re doing is you’re bridging. So the one-on-one work I do to work with you and your birth chart and poaching around you becoming aware of it and strengthened by it.

How is this useful for you? That’s the personal work. That looking at the astrology of now, or of next month or of how does it look, if I want to launch this thing in September, right. Is looking at what’s the universe bringing as my creative partner, how can I respond to the environment energetically of those cycles?

And so, right. The moon cycle is the one that we’re most familiar with because it’s the one we can see. We can see the moon easily and we can see it changing through its phases of the cycle. Right. 

KammieK: We talked a little bit about because I think people, you know, we see it and we understand, you know, we understand on the fringe, right?

Tifin: Well, yeah, it affects the tides and it affects these things, but like what, how speak to how that’s actually affecting us as a physical being part of nature. We’re sinked up with that cycle too. Right? So obviously as women, we know this moon cycles. Hello. But just maybe speak to a little bit of, even that waxing and waning, ebbing and flowing dark and light.

So the waxing and waning is how much light is the moon reflecting of the sun. At the new moon, the sun and the moon are sitting together in the sky. There’s no distance between them. So there’s no reflection of the sunlight on the moon. We cannot see the moon, then that’s the dark. A week later the moon has moved to another part of the Zodiac, which is the path that the sun and the planets appear to travel around the earth called the ecliptic.

There’s a technical word, but that’s the path, the predictable path. And we can see, oh, here’s the sun. You know, when the moon is looking like a half a moon, it’s over here and we can see the stars around it and oh, those make the shape of the Zodiac sign of Taurus. Oh, the moon is in Taurus. Very basic and very controversial because this system was created millennia ago and there’s been scientific called the procession of the Equinox and shifting, and there’s tropical Zodiac and Siberia, lots of technicalities, but people with their, you know, your iPhone stargazing. Like, and it’s like, wait, my astrologers been saying the mains and Torres.

No, this says it’s in Aries, right? That’s fine. So it’s a symbolic language of meaning that astrology is, was connected to physically stars. Okay. Moon, why does the moon affect us? Okay. You spoke to the physical, the tides, right? We can see that measure that scientifically honor, it’s a regular pattern based on the Earth’s rotation in relation to the moon and shifting.

I used to be able to really explain that not so much right now, because our bodies are made of 70% water. 

Yeah, of course. 

There’s a physical, you know, effect on us. The human female reproductive cycling menstruation moon cycle is connected to that 28 day rhythm. I don’t really know why that is, but in S cycles and measuring time, it’s very much aligned to the moon and women tend to align the phase of the moon. Groups of women who live together, tend to sync up with each other.

KammieK: Well, and even just being aware of my own rhythms, you know, full moon and new moon. I know in one of our conversations previously, I was talking about like, I’m noticing now, you know, there’s all the, there’s all the chatter about full moon, right? Full moon gets all the attention about, oh, ER, visits, go up and people just start acting crazy and kg and pent up and popping off.

And, but I’m finding that now more, a little bit, there’s some interesting things that are percolating up during new moon cycles and what that’s bringing to the surface for me. And just, it’s just an awareness of, oh, oh, it’s that? Oh, it’s new moon again. And there’s that kind of little pattern or interesting thing that’s popping up or emotions. New moon still pack a punch for me emotionally yesterday.

I was like, you know, feeling things and just through watching the calendar. I need to get a moon calendar. I should get a moon calendar. But sometimes a little bit before, or a little bit after two, I feel things it’s not necessarily like just this day. Right? 

Tifin: And we’re moving through the Zodiac.

We feel the phase of the moon collectively, that’s the collective astrology. But then we each respond to the moon movement through the Zodiac and through our own chart. So you, with your planets and Aries, the last few days, the moon has been in the sign of Libra directly opposite. So you have been more directly tuning in with the moon. Feeling that more strongly, probably even than the Virgo full moon, which was just before, right?

Because there’s more like a personal full moon. Like your sun in Aries is directly opposite that moon in Libra. Oh, there it is. There’s the feeling. So there’s been a lot more. Awareness of moon phases, working with moon phases over and, you know, a lot more. I mean, astrology is just booming as far as, you know, common cultural interest and, you know, with the advent of the internet and podcasts and YouTube videos and websites, and just like so much more in our collective awareness and it’s relatively easy to track and feel into. And that’s where it’s like, oh, we can relate to the moon because we can see it.

We can watch the change. We can feel it’s the moon symbolically is about our emotional self and our needs. And so, and the light on the moon is reflected from the sun, which is represents our conscious awareness and in our birth charts, our consciousness or our self, that identity energy. Yes. 

KammieK: So if someone is wanting to get started, like they’re interested, maybe they’ve had a reading before.

How would one go about getting started? And if they wanted to work with you, what are some offerings that you have on your website? 

Tifin: How do you work with people? I worked with people at several different ways like that. One-on-one exploring your birth chart, getting really, to know the personal makeup of your chart, do that through a reading or through a six week intensive that I offer where it’s really all about you and your chart, and really having, you know, all the ins and outs of you and we do some life timeline. They’re like, okay, so this is Saturn has this energy and this influence, and this is how it may have shown up when it was at its quarter phase with itself, when it was at its opposition phase with itself, when you’re at your Saturn return, if you’ve gotten there yet kind of thing.

So really to know the personal. Okay. I share a weekly newsletter Facebook group, keep telling myself I need to, you know, make a splash on Instagram, do that, but I haven’t done it yet. Where I talk about what’s currently happening like this week in the sky, what’s happening. And so getting, and that’s easier to share broadly is to talk about this as the energy that we’re all experiencing.

And my perspective of seeing the planets as our allies, as our partners. How are you going to partner with that energy? I don’t need to know anything about your personal heart or your orientation to it. But we all right now have this opportunity of Jupiter in the sign of Aquarius opportunity, expansion and growth through Aquarius. New ideas out of the box, creativity and thinking and being concerned for how a collective is connected.

What’s for the good of humanity. Yes. We all get to work with that right now. And this year Jupiter’s going to be in Aquarius for most of the year in a different devices. We all get to work with that energy. And so that’s, those ways are easy ways to plug in and learn about astrology. I share that weekly news, weekly newsletter, several times a week, ish, Facebook about the general waves. And I offered tips off what, you know, how could you work with as possibilities for those people like me, who liked to know the menu of choices. And there’s so many wonderful astrologers on YouTube and podcasts. 

KammieK: And do you have a couple of favorites that you like or a book that you liked? 

Tifin: Yes. I think Molly McCord is a phenomenal teacher and she does very regular YouTube videos.

And and Jessica . Yes, I follow her ghost of a podcast. She’s got a really interesting take and connects to a lot to current cultural aspects. Molly is a very clear teacher of astrology and a great beginning kind of intro book. Name of it is escaping me, but it’s by April Elliot, Kent, it might be fundamentals of astrology.

KammieK: Or I can look it up and add it to the show notes to. 

Tifin: I could send you the link to it.

KammieK: Yeah, we’ll do that. And then if people want to find you, your website is 

Tifin: TifinDillon.com and my Facebook group is your stellar life.

KammieK: And what I love, so Tifin and I have had, you know, a couple of other conversations on the side and the enchantment piece and your love of looking at it through that lens and the magical sort of mystical and incorporating that into it. And so I love hearing you, I love hearing astrology through your lens also because you can hear your curiosity, you know. You can hear your, that you have a psychology background and you know, just the, the archetypes and the way that people kind of filter in through, you know, especially when you did my chart, which I just loved that session. We could’ve talked for hours and hours. I think we talked for two, we could have kept going.

So yes, if anyone is interested for sure, reach out, follow Tiffin, follow. I’d, love your videos on Facebook. Although the algorithm is so funky . Am I seeing it? All of that?

Tifin: Those are great general ways to plug in, start getting a feel for who I am. What’s my style. Does it, do you relate, you know, have a reading, I do group Astro coaching. Small group weekly about the current astrology and then teaching people how to see that through their own chart. Like, what is that bringing up for you?

What’s the potential during this month of Pisces season that we’re in. The sun is in the sign of Pisces for all of us, but that is having a different effect in each of our charts. It’s highlighting a different area of our chart and our lives.

KammieK: Love it. 

Tifin: So we all have access to that intuitive, dreaming and completion and surrender energy right now.

So this is like the next couple of weeks are really that. It’s letting go. It’s incubating. It’s, you know, the seeds are there, but we’re composting all the experience on finishing it up. And for you personally, as an Aries, it’s like the last sign before your birthday. Aries is that first sign of the astrological years, spring equinox, Aries, fire that spark of inspiration. And I’m here, that’s Aries for all of us, and we’re going to feel a big boost and yes, I’m currently in the dreaming, designing phase.

Another offering for the Astro year. So stay tuned with that. The best way is to be part of that group and on my mailing list. 

KammieK: Well, and I’ll make sure I put all those links in the show notes too. And then I wanted to drop this in there that I am going to be having inner space camp this summer in June.

So we’ll be launching in June. The best way to stay in touch about that is on my website, but I’m sharing that because Tifin is going to come on the front end of that. I’m calling it zero week. So the week before we get into the content of the program, Tiffin is going to do a reading for the container time of the program, which is going to be so freaking fun. 

Tifin: The most fun things that I enjoy doing.

I mentioned that I used to do keynote talks and conferences. And partner with people who are leading retreats or leading weekend experiences and give, set that what’s the context for our time together. And then people who relate to that, then I’m available to support with the individual readings or that, you know, more in depth. So much fun for me to share that. 

KammieK: And I’m so excited, inner and outer space. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And I love that. We’re going to kick it off with that. So that for the eight weeks of the camp, we can kind of have that as a filter to look through and know where to put the energy and where to show that time that’s going to be three to full lunar cycles.

Tifin: So you’ll really, people will get to experience. Yes. 

KammieK: Yeah, thank you so much for hopping online. I feel like we have so much more work to do together, and I feel like we could just have these chats forever and ever. And so we can have you back on the show, anytime we feel like we want to do more Astros, 

Tifin: I would be happy to do that on a topical thing. Like you brought up like mercury retrograde is something that is so, it’s familiar and it’s feared. And it’s, you know, we have several, we have three to four mercury retrogrades every year. 

KammieK: That would actually be a really good one. So I feel like this one was more of an introduction to you who you are.

You’re one of our soul centric business spotlights, and then we could do a demystify, the mystical on mercury retrograde. Because there’s so much there to understand it gets such a bad rap. Doesn’t it? 

 I mean, I’ve learned a lot about the positive aspects of it. And it’s funny though, for me to watch people who are not at all in the conversation of astrology in any way, shape or form, but you still see them, like, you’ll be like, you’ll see people, I’ll see people post on social media or whatever.

Right. Like, oh my car broke down. My battery died. My laptop crashed my phone won’t work there’s some of my clients are rescheduling their appointments. 

Tifin: Yeah. And I’m like old friends from fourth grade showed up, popped back up. Yes. 

KammieK: So it’s almost more funny to observe people who aren’t in the conversation at all, but are still experiencing, we’ll say symptoms of that aspect because we’re all tuned in actually.

Tifin: And it’s like, is this way of talking about it? Does it make sense to you or not? And you know, people often ask me too, like, how do you prove astrology? Believe in astrology. It’s like those, aren’t the questions. I’m not interested in proving it’s not at all right. Or you’re not into it. 

KammieK: And it’s not a matter of believing.

Tifin: It’s a, do you find it useful and interesting and enhancing your life? Does this help, you know yourself better? Does it help you have compassion and empathy and understanding for other people? Yes. Does it help you live? And this, this question is so rich for me this last year. Does it help you live in a cyclical aligned way?

Because I think when we’re aligned with our own nature and the cycles of energy, Life is easier here, we’re in the flow, in the flow. And I know, you know. 

KammieK: Yeah. Because I feel that when I try to resist it, when I want to try to release it, or when I try to use my Aries smart energy and push on the gas.

Tifin: Push on the gas versus there’s time for that. Absolutely. And for you to know in your chart and in the time of the year, when is that most effective and when is it more challenging? That’s helpful. 

KammieK: Well, it’s also helpful in dealing with other people, right? If. If the collective is not in a space for that.

And you’re pushing in a group project at work with a partner, whatever, right. At the bank at the grocery store, you’re going to feel that resistance because collectively we’re not in a push phase, right. It’s like, you’re trying to like bulldoze your way through something just because you’re in that energetic space.

Doesn’t mean everybody else is going to respond to that. So that’s what I love also about the collective type readings and beyond a horoscope situation. Right. I think sometimes people think, oh, it can be whatever that’s cool, then it’s not for you. But if this speaks to people and they want to dive deeper into this, we want to, we want people to know that Tifin is a resource.

Tifin: Knowing the current astrology in that context is like a weather report. Definitely. It helps us to know, is it going to be pouring down rain today? I will dress appropriately or bring my umbrella. Or if I know that mercury is retrograde, I’m going to pay more attention. Oh yes. You know, check my machines and make sure I’m going to be more spacious with communication.

KammieK: Yes. 

Tifin: I’m going to double check like you did this morning. Hey, it’s still up for our interview. I’m feeling it. Are you feeling it? Yeah, we’re good. And then I was like, good. Okay. I need the zoom. 

KammieK: I’m good. But I don’t know how to get there cause I don’t have the link. 

Tifin: I mean, those kinds of details are things that are more, they’re more emphasized with.

KammieK: Yes. 

Yes. So good. So good. Thank you for sharing. Just the tip of the iceberg of all the ways a little bit of that is astrology. Yeah. I feel like, well, you know, we’re definitely gonna bring you in for interspace camp this summer. And then I think we should do a deep dive into mercury retrograde, but also if some listeners out there are interested in other aspects of astrology, 

Tifin: I mean, what I’m thinking about is like what brings people to me, you know, and you’re right.

Questions of relationship, of work and purpose ,of timing of things. And I’m not a predictive astrologer, so I’m not so much with this specific sometime some astrologers are. But like developmentally, and this is my psych background and my teaching background, you know, the cycles of our lives are connected to the astrology.

Yeah. So there are people I get a lot of clients. At their Saturn return, 28, 29. And again, second Saturn return, which is what I’m approaching late fifties. You know, we have that early 50, 50, 51 is a big time for people to come to Australia. Well, I’m two years from 50 and I feel like there’s a wave of stuff.

Yes. So developmentally and having context for that again, and self-awareness of it helps you move through it more empowered and more able to be your shiny disco ball, self. Yeah.

KammieK: Well, we’ll figure out which area we want to play and dive deeper in and have you on for a follow-up visit and I’ll link all your goodies up in the show notes.

We’ll put those resources in there for people, and I appreciate you spending some time with me today. Well, thank you so much, Tifin.

Tifin: I’m looking forward to whatever wonderful synchronistic connections from listeners and I love connecting with people. So if you’re more curious, you know, reach out through my website, send me a message on Facebook connect either way.  

KammieK: Is there an email address? What’s good 

Tifin: people@tifindillon.com

KammieK: All right, lady, I’ll talk to you so soon. Thank you so much. Okay. Have a great day. Thank you so much for sharing your time and space with me today.

And for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode of the cosmic Innerspace podcast, please leave a review on apple podcasts or share this episode with a friend. Shout out to our amazing sound editor and producer Xtrordinair Brendan Shanahan, the Cosmic Interspace podcast is proudly produced by the podcast pro shop at podcastproshop.com.

I’d love to stay connected with you. I’m at KammieK.Com on Instagram and Facebook. And I share a lot more cosmics goodness on Instagram stories. And of course we can always stay connected via the cosmics interspace mothership over on the blog Kammiek.com, where you can find ways to work with me, stay tuned for new art and interspace support in the KK shop. And subscribe to the cosmics e-news to stay updated for future programs and on demand course drops. Okay, friend, until next time I’m sending you Stardust and so much love.