The Myth of the Separate Mind: Astrology and the Politics of Wellbeing

Lecture Description

What does it mean to be mentally well in an unwell world? This session examines the foundations of institutionalized mental healthcare, tracing how Cartesian dualism, white supremacy, and capitalism have shaped dominant understandings of mental health. Through the astrological charts of important events and figures in the field, we’ll explore how systems of diagnosis and treatment often reproduce conditions that create mental illness. Considering wellbeing as inseparable from our bodies, relationships, communities, and environments, we’ll ask how astrology might offer alternative frameworks for healing—that honor difference rather than pathologize it, cultivate self-awareness, and support belonging, agency, and collective liberation.

Speaker Bio

Renee Sills is the founder of Embodied Astrology, an evolving project that prioritizes co-learning, co-leadership, and accessible, experiential approaches to astrology through wide application and synthesis of astrological practice in combination with arts, healing, activism, and social design thinking. A second generation astrologer, intuitive, and somatic educator,…