There are moments when so much attention becomes focused on where we’re trying to go that we lose sight of where we actually are.
This can happen when we’re trying to level up, call in new desires, meet a higher version of ourselves, navigate a Tower moment, or simply move through the unknown.
This is where Orientation comes in.
What Is Orientation?
Within The Cosmic Creation, Orientation is the practice of orienting (or reorienting) yourself with your current reality.
It’s looking at your current lot. It’s considering where your soul currently is in its journey. It’s checking in and taking inventory.
Orientation is closely connected to Soul Mapping, the first pillar of The Cosmic Creation framework. Before we can map where we’re going, we first have to locate ourselves on the map.
What we take inventory of depends on what we’re currently navigating. Orientation isn’t one all-encompassing checklist or a practice that looks the same every time.
Sometimes it may require looking at the birth chart. Sometimes it means tracing our way backward, looking for patterns, or using writing to uncover something we haven’t been able to name. Other times, we may need to examine our values, desires, environment, creative direction, self-concept, or the larger vision we hold for our lives.
The point is to identify what is actually relevant to where we are right now.
Taking Inventory of What Matters
Values are one place an Orientation practice can begin.
As our lives shift and change, so can what we value most—or the priority we give to those values. It’s easy to make a list of ten things we value. It becomes a different exercise when that list is narrowed to five, or even three.
We have to decide what is actually taking precedence in this particular stage of our lives.
Orientation can also mean returning to the larger vision.
What is the mission?
What is the vision we have for our lives?
Has it evolved? Has it changed or shifted in any way?
Sometimes reorienting means recognizing that the map itself has changed.
Taking Inventory of Self
Orientation can also create space to examine self-concept.
What do you currently believing about yourself?
What do you believe you are worthy of?
What do you believe you deserve?
What do you believe about your own power?
How do you envision your next highest self?
From there, we can begin considering the conditions and environments that support who we are now and who we are becoming.
Orienting With the Current Astrology
Astrology can also be part of an Orientation practice.
What is the current astrology?
How are current transits affecting this part of your life or this part of your mood?
How can you work with these transits instead of against them?
If you’re currently in a transit that says you need to be prioritizing fourth-house themes—your body, your home, your altar—maybe it’ll hard for you to be social, out and about, and building up community.
Maybe that’s flowing against the transit.
That doesn’t mean community is something you need to completely shy away from, but you also don’t need to be hard on yourself if it isn’t shaping up the way you want.
The astrology becomes another part of the inventory. Another way of understanding where we currently are and what may need our attention.
Orientation Before Creation
This is where Orientation meets Conscious Creation.
Before creating what comes next, we get honest about what is present now. We locate ourselves, identify what matters in this particular moment, and create from there.
The practice will change as we do. The questions that help us orient today may not be the questions we need six months from now.
The point isn’t to follow the same process every time.
The point is to know where you are on the map before deciding where you’re going next.
Practice Orientation
Want to practice this independently? The Orientation Guide is a self-paced guided experience for taking inventory of where you are before deciding where you’re going next.
Coming Soon to Your Inbox!
From the Institution→ The Advisor
Part of being Your Cosmic Advisor means practicing what I advise.
And right now, I find myself returning to Orientation.
I’m taking inventory of where I currently am, what matters to me now, what has changed, and what my current reality is asking of me. I’m using what I find to determine my next moves.
Behind the paywall, I’m taking you inside my own Orientation practice—what I’m finding when I take inventory of my life right now, and how that inventory is shaping what I do next.
And the next move may be a big one.