End-of-year reflection is everywhere right now — and honestly, a lot of people are tired of digging. Tired of processing, reframing, and trying to extract one more lesson from a year that already asked a lot. Between the Winter Solstice, the New Moon in Sagittarius, and the Human Design Sun in Gate 10, this episode offers a different instruction altogether: tend to what’s living. We talk about why the longest night was never meant to be a reset or a reinvention, but a moment of stewardship — protecting what survived, conserving energy, and knowing when to stop excavating. I unpack what “tending” actually looks like in real life (and what it doesn’t), how Gate 10 shifts this from self-love rhetoric into lived behavior, and why the New Moon in Sagittarius is more about orientation than vision right now. I also share the personal ritual I return to every year between the New Moon and the turn of the year. This episode isn’t about fixing yourself or planning the future. It’s about stewardship, discernment, and staying in right relationship with what’s still alive in your life. If you’re feeling done with over-analysis and ready for grounded clarity without pressure, this one will land. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design ChartAccess your free Guardian Guide Shamanic Journey Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com

Let’s be honest: the holidays can bring out the best in people… and the most unhealed version of everyone at the table. You walk in as the adult you’ve worked hard to become and walk out wondering why you just played therapist, peacemaker, or designated scapegoat. In this episode, we get brutally honest about the Drama Triangle — the Victim, Rescuer, and Persecutor roles — and why even the most self-aware adult can get sucked into them around family. We talk about how your Human Design type gets pulled into old patterns, the somatic cues that signal you’re slipping, and why “no contact” has become the trendy spiritual grenade people throw instead of actually doing their emotional work. And yes, sometimes no contact is necessary — but sometimes it’s just avoidance dressed up as enlightenment. This episode is your guide to staying out of the old dynamics, not by controlling other people, but by staying connected to yourself. If you want to navigate the season without losing your center, your sanity, or your self-respect, this one’s for you. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design ChartAccess your free Guardian Guide Shamanic Journey Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com

December brings a powerful shift in orientation — the kind that doesn’t announce itself loudly but quietly reveals what the entire year has been shaping in you. The month opens with a clarifying Gemini Full Moon, a Mars–Saturn reality check, and Neptune lifting out of retrograde, clearing just enough of the fog for insight to land. Mercury’s opposition to Uranus delivers breakthrough understanding, and the final sweep of the Water Trine helps release emotional residue before the new year begins. The Sagittarius New Moon offers fresh direction, though not fixed — Saturn and Neptune still in Pisces keep things fluid by design. In Human Design, the Sun moves through an archetypal arc: Gate 9 (devotion), Gate 5 (natural timing), Gate 26 (refinement), Gate 11 (illumination), Gate 10 (authentic self), Gate 58 (vitality), and Gate 38 (meaningful struggle). Together they highlight focus, rhythm, discernment, imagination, identity, and purpose — a month-long recalibration of what actually matters. December’s theme is reorientation: seeing your life with clearer eyes, shedding what can’t continue, and recognizing the possibilities that only appear at year’s end. What’s emerging now is true, even if it’s not fully formed yet. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Latest on Substack Work with Me Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com   Would love to connect with you on Social Media IG: https://www.instagram.com/adriannemcdonald/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/adriannemcdonaldbiz

If you’ve been feeling the pressure of the season — the noise, the urgency, the “shoulds,” the endless decisions — this episode will land right where you are. We’re talking about something most people never consider during the holidays: how Black Friday quietly hijacks your energy and pulls you out of your own inner authority. In this conversation, we explore why high-pressure sales cycles activate the Not-Self, why even the most grounded people get swept into urgency, and how the open centers in Human Design become louder when the world is shouting for your attention. This isn’t about shaming spending or avoiding desire. It’s about understanding the deeper relationship you have with pressure, impulse, identity, and your own knowing — especially when everything around you is engineered to pull you away from it. You’ll learn how each center responds to holiday stimulation, why gifting can be just as energetically loaded as buying for yourself, and what actually shifts when you pause long enough to let your real authority speak. We’ll walk through three simple, powerful practices to bring you back into clarity — whether you're deciding on a purchase, choosing gifts, or navigating the emotional intensity of the season. And if you want deeper insight into how your own design handles pressure and decision-making, I’ve added links below to your Human Design Energetic Blueprint and the Frequency Labyrinth community — both designed to support you in building that unshakeable inner yes. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design ChartAccess your free Guardian Guide Shamanic Journey Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com

If you’ve been feeling ungrounded, disconnected, or like you’re carrying everything on your own, this episode will meet you where you are. We’re talking about the kind of spiritual support most people don’t even realize they need: a team of guides who help you feel steadier, clearer, and more anchored as you move through everyday life. In this conversation, we explore why guidance has always been part of human experience, why so many people today feel unsupported even with strong intuition or spiritual practice, and how guides actually help you hold boundaries in both your inner and outer world. This isn’t about outsourcing your life to something mystical — it’s about remembering that you don’t have to navigate uncertainty, transition, or rapid growth by yourself. You’ll learn how the relationship with your guides begins, why the first signs are usually subtle, and what shifts when you finally stop white-knuckling your way through your inner world alone. We also cover what guides are not so you can approach this work with clarity, agency, and grounded discernment. And if you’re curious about meeting your own support team, I’ve created a guided journey to help you connect with a Guardian Guide — a steady, accessible starting point. The link is blow. Access your free Guardian Guide Shamanic Journey   Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com

In this episode, I’m joined by fellow Celtic shamanic practitioner and intuitive healer Dani Smith for a grounded conversation about what it actually means to build a spiritual support team & how to practice safely in a world full of overwhelm and mixed messages. Dani shares her path into Celtic practice, and how that shift helped her reconnect to her body, her inner seasons, and her own self-trust. She breaks down her “sacred triangle” of support: you, your guides, and the humans who genuinely have the capacity to hold you—therapists, mentors, practitioners, and friends who meet you where you are. We talk about the messy middle of healing: why you don’t need to be a practitioner (or have an hour-long meditation routine) to have a real spiritual life how to weave simple, meaningful practices into a busy day—omen walks, clearing energy while doing dishes, five minutes of automatic writing between naps what integration actually looks like in practice (often rest, stillness, and letting things land instead of sprinting to the next breakthrough) We also get into safe practice and ethical spirituality—opening and closing space, setting clear intentions, working with trusted guides, and spotting red flags like spiritual ego, fortune-telling, or any practitioner insisting “my way is the only way.” Underneath it all is the slow rebuilding of self-trust and learning to discern who—and what—feels safe in your nervous system. If you’ve wondered how to build a spiritual support team that’s real, sustainable, and rooted in everyday life—not performance or perfection—this conversation offers both language and lived experience to guide you. Connect with Dani Smith - Seasons With Dani   Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com

This episode continues our listener-favorite series on moving from doubt into intuitive clarity—but this time, we’re going deeper. We’re exploring the archetype of the North Star: the part of you that remembers who you’re here to become long before you feel ready to embody it. We’ll look at the North Node through both astrology and Human Design—the signs, houses, gates, and lines that shape your soul’s direction—and how this energy acts as a compass for your intuition. I share why embracing your North Star can feel both strangely familiar and profoundly uncomfortable, and how your conditioning, nervous system, and past identities can make it difficult to hear the guidance that’s been whispering all along. If you’ve ever felt pulled toward something you couldn’t explain, wrestled with the tension between who you’ve been and who you’re becoming, or found yourself caught in the trap of “fixing” instead of evolving, this conversation will help you reconnect to the deeper wisdom already moving through your life. Your North Star isn’t a destination—it’s a relationship. And when you learn how to orient toward it, doubt loses its power and intuitive clarity finally has room to land. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com   Would love to connect with you on Social Media IG: https://www.instagram.com/adriannemcdonald/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/adriannemcdonaldbiz

In this conversation with my Celtic Shamanic practitioner peer Judy Crooknorth, we get real about what it takes to hold sacred space—without making clients carry our unfinished stories. Judy is a trained therapist and intuitive healer, and together we unpack the gritty middle ground where nervous-system repair meets soul work: how to tell when a pattern is emotional vs. spiritual, why discernment matters more than “quick fixes,” and the lifelong practice of becoming a neutral vessel for healing. We talk boundaries (saying no when you’re not the right fit), the savior archetype and ego checks, and why embodiment is the point—those moments when a client stops mid-sentence and says, “That’s not my voice anymore.” We also wander the Celtic Wisdom Wheel, reframe the Void (from terror to pure potential), and trade very human rituals for finding beauty in the mundane. What you’ll hear How to discern spiritual roots vs. emotional expression (and why it’s often both) Soul retrieval, power retrieval, and why talking about change isn’t the same as embodying it Ethics in spiritual practice: trauma literacy, referrals, and refusing the “one-weekend shaman” myth Working with the savior complex without burning your work—or your people—down The Void as fertile ground + seasonal medicine from the Celtic wheel It’s an honest, grounded look at the intersection of therapy, spirituality, and the courage it takes to walk beside others without losing yourself. Links to Judy’s podcast & IG below: Judy on IG – The Seer and Shaman Judy's Podcast on Spotify - The Seer's Sanctuary Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com

November hums with electricity meeting water, emotion meeting revelation.Uranus dominates the sky, opposing Mars, Mercury, and Venus, shaking loose what’s become rigid while the Grand Water Trine softens what resists. It’s not chaos — it’s movement. Energy wants to flow again. Mercury’s retrograde from Sagittarius back into Scorpio turns the mind inward, and Saturn’s station direct in Pisces at month’s end grounds what’s been shifting into lived understanding. Through the Human Design lens, November’s story unfolds through the Quarter of Mutation — the season of transformation and creative renewal. We begin in Gate 44, the Gate of Alertness, where instinct notices the echo of the past and the wisdom tucked inside it. Then the Sun steps into Gate 1, the Gate of Self-Expression, opening the door to individuality and authentic creation. Gate 43 follows with insight and epiphany — sudden clarity that interrupts old mental loops. Gate 14 moves that awareness into embodied purpose: using power with integrity, not pressure. Gate 34, the Gate of Power, translates that strength through the body — vitality in motion. And Gate 9 closes the month with focus and devotion, turning revelation into rhythm. Together, these gates mirror the sky’s tension — Uranus as Trickster, the Water Trine as Alchemist — teaching that true mutation doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens when feeling and awareness meet, when instinct becomes creativity, and when the body becomes the bridge between electricity and emotion. November is a month of cathartic wisdom — not the flash of awakening, but the steady current of transformation that rewires you from the inside out. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com

Everyone’s talking about “finding your voice,” but most people are forcing it.In Human Design, the Throat Center isn’t just about communication — it’s the bridge between energy and manifestation, where truth becomes sound and sound becomes creation. In this episode, we explore how your voice moves through timing, not pressure — and how your Mercury placement reveals the unique way your truth wants to be expressed. You’ll learn why silence is part of your voice, how to tell when you’re forcing vs. flowing, and three ways to work with your Throat energy so your words actually land. Because your voice isn’t something to perform — it’s something to remember. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com

This episode takes an honest look at the myth of willpower — how we’ve been conditioned to measure our worth through effort — and what it really means to work with your energy instead of against it. Through the lens of the Will Center — the heart of commitment, promises, and worth — we’ll explore how both defined and undefined Wills experience motivation, procrastination, and integrity differently. I share how the Will’s tribal circuitry reveals our ancestral relationship with power and reciprocity, and how shamanic wisdom reframes willpower as sacred exchange rather than endless proving. If you’ve ever felt guilty for not being “disciplined enough,” pushed through when your heart wasn’t in it, or confused procrastination for failure, this conversation will help you understand what your energy is really saying.Because true willpower isn’t about force — it’s about alignment, honesty, and keeping promises your spirit actually made. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com

This episode takes an honest look at doubt—how it disguises itself as logic, caution, or control—and what it takes to move beyond it into true intuitive clarity. With the Sun moving through Gate 57 — Unease, Intuition, Clarity — we’ll explore how this frequency heightens instinct and tests self-trust. I share why this gate is deeply personal for me as someone who carries both Gate 57 and the 57-10 Channel of Perfected Form, and how your Human Design, Gene Keys, and nervous-system patterns reveal where your intuition gets drowned out by fear. If you’ve ever second-guessed a gut feeling, over-analyzed a truth you already knew, or mistaken anxiety for intuition, this conversation will help you reconnect to the quiet authority of your own body. Doubt isn’t failure—it’s the fog before clarity. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com   Would love to connect with you on Social Media IG: https://www.instagram.com/adriannemcdonald/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/adriannemcdonaldbiz

October carries the energy of regeneration — less about spectacle, more about integration. Mercury’s move into Scorpio sharpens conversations to the bone while the Aries Full Moon lights a fire of bold clarity. Venus and Jupiter open a pocket of sweetness, then Venus shifts into Libra as Pluto turns direct, recalibrating relationships and surfacing transformation. The Sun’s tension with Jupiter reminds us that growth isn’t always about going bigger, while Mercury’s conjunction with Mars brings words with sharp edges. A triple threshold follows: the Libra New Moon inviting new balance, Venus retrograding into Pisces to stir old stories, and the Sun’s descent into Scorpio — the season of endings becoming compost. Mercury’s move into Sagittarius widens vision, and the month closes under a Grand Water Trine, where intuition, emotion, and spirit flow together in deeper currents. Through the Human Design lens, we move from Gate 18’s refinement into Gate 48’s well of depth, followed by Gate 57’s intuitive clarity. Gate 32 carries us into continuity and legacy, Gate 50 calls us back to values and balance, Gate 28 tests meaning through risk, and Gate 44 closes the month with the alertness to patterns and the possibility of re-weaving. October is a month of regeneration. Eclipse season cleared the field; now the gates and transits walk us through the archetypal arc of Refinement, Intuitive Wisdom, and Sustainable Roots. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Latest on Substack Work with Me Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com   Would love to connect with you on Social Media IG: https://www.instagram.com/adriannemcdonald/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/adriannemcdonaldbiz

This episode takes an honest look at people-pleasing through the lens of Human Design. Where do we bend, over-correct, or shrink ourselves just to keep others comfortable — and what does it cost us? With the Sun moving through Gate 18 — Judgment, Integrity, Perfection — we’ll explore how this energy reveals the fracture of pleasing others and the gift of standing whole. I share why this gate is personal for me and how your design and astrology show the subtle ways people-pleasing hides in authority, profile, and open centers. If you’ve ever traded integrity for approval, this conversation will help you see judgment not as a weapon but as a compass — guiding you back to resonance and wholeness. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com   Would love to connect with you on Social Media IG: https://www.instagram.com/adriannemcdonald/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/adriannemcdonaldbiz

This episode dives into the September 21st Solar Eclipse in Virgo. With the Sun and Moon meeting in Gate 46 — the Gate of the Determination of the Self — this eclipse pulls us out of the mind and back into the body. It asks us to stop treating life like a burden to carry and start experiencing it as something alive in every step. We’re standing at a culmination point, with the South Node close by, showing us the old Virgo habits that have to go — the over-functioning, the self-critique, the chase for perfection that drains joy. Mercury hosts the eclipse, sharpening communication both within and without, while Saturn’s opposition demands that what begins here is sustainable. Add Venus in Virgo squaring Uranus in Gemini, and the themes of devotion, disruption, and surprise are impossible to ignore. This isn’t about reactivity. It’s about learning to respond from presence — to make choices rooted in the body instead of panic. And woven through it all is a reminder we rarely let ourselves claim: joy doesn’t have to be earned the hard way. Sometimes the easier path is the truer one. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com   Would love to connect with you on Social Media IG: https://www.instagram.com/adriannemcdonald/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/adriannemcdonaldbiz

I’ve been wanting to weave more shamanic insight into the podcast, and this episode is the first step. In a polarized, chaotic world where real spiritual support often feels thin, tending your inner life matters more than ever. When you show up from a more healed place, everyone benefits. This week, I share the Celtic teaching of the Three Cauldrons from The Cauldron of Poesy: Coire Goiriath (Warming), Coire Ernmae (Motion), and Coire Sois (Wisdom). These aren’t chakras to “balance” but living vessels that can be full, tipped, or overturned. We’ll explore what each cauldron holds, their states at birth, and how sorrow and joy shape them over a lifetime. You’ll also learn three simple ways to begin working with your own cauldrons — and I’ll share how I support people through this work in my 1:1 offering, Healing Through the Labyrinth. The book I recommended in the episode is Rhonda McCrimmon's The Cauldron and the Drum: A Journey into Celtic Shamanism Work with Me Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com   Would love to connect with you on Social Media IG: https://www.instagram.com/adriannemcdonald/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/adriannemcdonaldbiz

This episode dives into the September 7th Lunar Eclipse in Pisces. With the Moon in Doubt opposite the Sun in Confusion, this eclipse isn’t here to hand us neat answers. It’s asking us to live inside the question — to notice where we grasp for certainty and instead lean into what we can feel, sense, and trust in our body. We’re standing at a threshold moment where old cycles are dissolving and something new is quietly pressing through. The past and future overlap, endings blur into beginnings, and the usual rules of time feel thin. Collective patterns are shifting, the stories we tell are being disrupted, and the ways we relate to truth, power, and one another are being rewritten. There’s also a tug-of-war between pushing forward just to prove something versus expanding in ways that actually nourish. The invitation? To let urgency fall away and choose growth that feels rooted, supportive, and real. This isn’t about quick fixes. It’s about letting the mystery do its work — and allowing a deeper pattern of meaning to slowly take shape. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com   Would love to connect with you on Social Media IG: https://www.instagram.com/adriannemcdonald/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/adriannemcdonaldbiz

September 2025 is a threshold month, defined by a Pisces Lunar Eclipse (Sept 7), a Virgo Solar Eclipse at 29° (Sept 21), Saturn retrograding back into Pisces, Mercury’s shift from Virgo into Libra, and the rumble of Uranus retrograde in Gemini shaking what we thought was stable. This isn’t about control — it’s about surrender, reorientation, and emergence. Through the Human Design lens, we move from Gate 40’s resolve into Gate 64’s imaginal initiation under the Pisces eclipse, then to Gate 47’s transmutation work as Saturn re-enters Pisces. Mid-month, Gate 6 brings the friction of intimacy as Mercury moves into Libra, followed by Gate 46 at the Virgo Solar Eclipse, where the body itself becomes the threshold for delight and ecstasy. The month closes with Gate 18’s confrontation with judgment, integrity, and the weight of expectation. September is an initiation. The eclipses dissolve certainty, the planets rearrange the stage, and the gates walk us through the archetypal arc of Threshold, Reorientation, and Emergence. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com   Would love to connect with you on Social Media IG: https://www.instagram.com/adriannemcdonald/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/adriannemcdonaldbiz

This episode dives into the August 23rd New Moon in Virgo — a Black Moon at zero degrees that marks a threshold reset. With the Moon in Gate 59, the Gate of Intimacy, we’re moving through the Gene Key spectrum of Dishonesty → Intimacy → Transparency. Virgo’s call for refinement collides with a square to Uranus in Gemini, shaking up neat plans and breaking down the walls we’ve built around closeness. We’ll explore what this lunation means for intimacy, truth-telling, and harvest — plus how each Human Design profile can work with the invitation to strip down, get real, and let transparency become the seed. Because this isn’t just a new moon — it’s a Black Moon reset before eclipse season, a chance to release the walls and begin again from truth. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com   Would love to connect with you on Social Media IG: https://www.instagram.com/adriannemcdonald/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/adriannemcdonaldbiz

This episode cuts through the mystique around the Human Design Incarnation Cross — the life theme you’ve been living all along, whether you’ve named it or not. With roots in your conscious and unconscious Sun/Earth gates, the Cross isn’t a cosmic job title or a prescriptive “purpose.” It’s the background frequency of your design — and the way it expresses depends on your Type, Profile, and the Quarter you’re in. We’ll break down what Ra actually said about it, why generic descriptions often miss the mark, and how your astrology Sun sign and Personality Sun gate speak the same truth in different languages. You’ll also hear how two people with the same Cross — my RAX Service 1 and a friend’s RAX Service 2 — can live it in completely different ways. Because this isn’t about “becoming” your Cross — it’s about recognizing the theme that’s already in motion and learning to work with it, without forcing it into a script it was never meant to follow. Purchase your Human Design Energetic Blueprint Schedule a Kairos Session Schedule a Human Design Reading Access your free Human Design Chart   Questions? Send an email to inquire@adriannemcdonald.com   Would love to connect with you on Social Media IG: https://www.instagram.com/adriannemcdonald/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/adriannemcdonaldbiz