Queer Mysticism and the Stars: Mapping Desire, Healing, and Identity

“We Have Permission to Be More Avant-Garde”

Astrology and queer mysticism offer complementary frameworks for exploring identity. Both identify patterns that often feel ineffable, and both provide symbolic languages to interpret desire, belonging, and transformation. Across literature, horoscopes, and ritual practices, queer seekers have repurposed celestial archetypes and ceremonial tools to understand attraction, trauma, and the longing for community. This work transforms experiences that might once have been pathologized into scaffolds for resilience. Rather than predicting fixed outcomes, astrology and mysticism translate inner signals into self-care, boundary-setting, and ethical healing, which provides metaphors and methods for repair and reinvention.

Astrologer, tarot expert, and psychic medium Danny Santos embodies this approach in contemporary queer spiritual practice. He began studying astrology as a child, alongside his sexual and spiritual awakenings. Since then, his training has spanned ayahuasca shamanism, Shipibo ceremony, Reiki, breathwork, and mediumship. This cross-disciplinary approach exemplifies a key theme in queer mysticism today: combining tools from different traditions to clear emotional residue, cultivate presence, and build communal frameworks that honor both trauma and healing.

Astrology, Queerness, and the Magic of Masks

October carries a mystical charge: the seasonal shift, Halloween rituals, and fascination with the unknown. For many queer individuals, these liminal spaces allow identity and transformation to be explored more freely. As Danny observes, “as queer people, we almost have permission to be a little bit more dramatic, a little bit more avant-garde, a little bit more out there.” Masks, costumes, and magic become symbols of deeper self-expression rather than mere play.

This period also reflects a survival strategy. Many queer individuals develop hyper-vigilance early in life, reading environments for safety or acceptance. Over time, this awareness can evolve into intuition, creativity, and attunement to subtle dynamics. Astrology provides a symbolic language for this perception, while rituals like Halloween offer a stage to transform necessity into celebration—an expression of resilience, imagination, and pride.

The Birth Chart as a Queer Roadmap

At the center of astrology is the birth chart, a map of the stars at the moment of birth. Danny refers to it as “your soul’s blueprint,” revealing potential and the lessons necessary for growth. For queer individuals, this symbolic framework affirms identity as an evolving story rather than a limitation.

Astrology also serves as a language of connection. Questions about home or family, often fraught for LGBTQ+ people, can be replaced with conversations about signs, archetypes, and planetary influences, which are neutral yet meaningful pathways into intimacy and belonging. When combined with healing practices like tarot or 12-step programs, astrology functions as a mirror and compass, helping queer individuals navigate trauma, resilience, and renewal.

Saturn’s Return and the Queer Journey

Saturn’s Return, occurring roughly between ages 27–30 and again later in life, marks the planet’s return to its birth position. Danny explains, “Saturn represents karma. And the point of karma is to bring us back into balance.” This cycle coincides with career changes, relationship shifts, and choices that redefine adulthood.

The challenges of this cycle are intense, yet they offer opportunities to build sturdy foundations that support authenticity. Its resonance also appears in pop culture, from Kacey Musgraves to Ariana Grande, highlighting collective recognition of growth and breakthrough.

Astrology, Queer Love, and the Search for Compatibility

In queer communities, astrology is a vital tool for understanding romance and relationships. Danny notes, “I will not date somebody if I don’t know their birth chart,” reflecting its deep role in queer dating culture.

Methods like synastry and composite charts explore daily interactions and long-term dynamics, revealing harmony and potential friction. Astrology also illuminates chosen families, crucial for LGBTQ+ individuals, with moon signs revealing emotional needs, and IC aspects exploring roots and concepts of home. For those who experienced family dysfunction or rejection, these placements guide the formation of affirming connections.

Intuition, the Third Eye, and Past Lives

Astrology often intersects with intuition and psychic awareness. Meditation, particularly focused on the third eye chakra, cultivates perception, focus, and emotional awareness. Synchronicities, like thinking of someone who then calls, illustrate how psychic experiences appear in daily life.

Past life regression, conducted in meditative or trance states, can reveal recurring patterns, karmic lessons, and unresolved emotional themes. Danny states, “I absolutely believe in past life regression and how it can help give us answers and clarity and move us in the right direction.” For queer individuals, these practices offer tools to understand patterns, cultivate self-awareness, and make intentional choices, deepening identity, agency, and connection.

Twin Flames, Soulmates, and Queer Connections

Astrology also frames relational dynamics through concepts like twin flames and soulmates. Twin flames ignite intense transformation, surfacing trauma and karmic lessons. Danny explains, a twin flame “is a soul contract of somebody who you agree to share a certain level of dysfunction and activation and spiritual karma and pain and healing and growth from.”

Soulmates, by contrast, offer harmony, ease, and enduring support, appearing as friends, chosen family, or romantic partners. Astrology, combined with metaphysical tools like past life regression or birth chart analysis, provides a lens to navigate love, intimacy, and personal growth with awareness and intentionality.

Starting a Spiritual Practice: Meditation, Empathy, and Everyday Magic

For those beginning a spiritual journey, meditation is foundational. Danny emphasizes, “Meditation is the number one most important tool in the toolkit for expanding your intuition.” Even brief daily practice strengthens intuition, calms the mind, and clarifies perspective.

Equally important is cultivating empathy toward oneself and others. Recognizing shared human challenges fosters patience, resilience, and meaningful connection. Finally, embracing the magic of everyday life through rituals, creativity, and playful exploration encourages joy and perspective. These practices show that spirituality can be woven into ordinary moments, cultivating grounding and expansiveness.

Embracing Magic and Mindful Reflection

As queer individuals navigate the complexities of identity, relationships, and personal growth, astrology can serve as a guide for self-reflection and alignment. Life often feels like a rush to achieve, accomplish, and keep moving, but pausing to connect with intuition and inner guidance allows new perspectives and possibilities to emerge.

Bringing “magic” into daily life doesn’t require spells or rituals; it can be as simple as immersing oneself in nature, enjoying a favorite hobby, or carving out quiet moments to rest and recharge. By intentionally making space for joy, curiosity, and mindful reflection, individuals can reconnect with themselves, clarify their goals, and cultivate a life that reflects both their deepest desires and authentic selves. Regardless of how metaphysical or skeptical one may be, these practices encourage a life lived with awareness, intention, and a sense of wonder.

And remember: every day is all we have, so you've got to make your own happiness.

For more information on this topic, listen to Episode 164. Exploring Queer Identity Through Astrology (with Danny Santos).

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