You are not a separate, sovereign self floating through the world making your own choices in a vacuum. You are a node in a web — and that isn't a loss of freedom, it's the thing that was supposed to make you feel less alone the whole time.

Ximena used to believe safety lived in answers. In clarity, in certainty, in having the right conclusion to point to. Then she started asking what is real, how do we know, and how do we live, and found that the ground kept moving no matter how hard she gripped it.

The perspective shift that changed everything for her wasn't finding better answers. It was learning to live inside the questions themselves. Discovering that the "separate individual" she'd been sold her whole life was never actually real.

Today’s conversation is a masterclass in thinking differently and wearing incredibly light philosophical robes. Ones that blend with the modern era instead of distract from it. It's about tentacular ontology and why the octopus is a better model for the self than the eagle. It's about why your nervous system craves false dichotomies (and who benefits from selling them to you). And it's about why the most radical thing you can do with a large language model (AI chatbot), a scary headline, or a philosophical crisis might be to just ask it a better question.

Together, Ximena and Ashley dive into:

• Why Ximena feels like she's returned to her "caterpillar stage" after reaching her butterfly era — and why she loves it there
• The shift from intellectualizing feelings to actually locating them in the body, taste, and color
• Phenomenology: why experiencing something comes before naming or categorizing it
• Donna Haraway's tentacular thinking — the octopus versus the eagle as two totally different ways of relating to reality
• Substance ontology vs. relational ontology, and why the difference reshapes your entire ethics
• The illusion of the sovereign, separate self and why "freedom" as individualism might actually just be loneliness in disguise
• Sympoiesis — the idea that nothing makes itself, everything is made together
• Why false dichotomies feel so relieving to the nervous system (and why that relief is manufactured, not earned)
• A real debate on whether large language models can actually "think," and why Ximena says thinking is an ecological, embodied process
• The masks of domination falling — and the discomfort and possibility that live in that tension
• Curiosity as a daily practice: how noticing something as small as a change in the smell of the air can become a philosophical practice
• Why boredom is a lost art, and why productivity culture is actively eroding your capacity to ask good questions
• Ximena's two offerings: Rooted Impact, a 13-week philosophical formation program, and Mythos, a seasonal deep-dive into humanity's greatest stories
• The dream Ximena is finally ready to build in real life

Work with Ximena:

• Join Rooted Impact — a 13 week philosophical formation program for people who sense that the dominant story isn't working and want the intellectual tools to understand why, and the imagination to think past it. Philosophy that meets Mysticism. Now enrolling for September 2026.

• Mythos — a seasonal exploration, a lens for understanding the world, yourself, and the complexity of human experience delivered through some of the most powerful stories ever told.

The universe isn't going to hand you your good sh*t — you have to flirt with it first. After all, the cosmos and magick love consent.

Leah Vanderveldt knows this better than anyone.

She spent years hiding her love of the spotlight behind her Cancer rising and Taurus moon, insisting she wasn't "really" a Leo despite a sun and stellium that insisted otherwise. It took becoming a mother of two, moving to a city that sat directly on her Venus line, and a purple wig at Mardi Gras to finally coax the Leo out of her — the shining, the joy, the refusal to dim herself for anyone else's comfort. Now that Jupiter has freshly moved into Leo and a rare planetary configuration called the Barbault Basket is lighting up the sky this July (the 19th to the 21st), Leah confirms none of us are exempt from being asked to do the same.

Today’s conversation on the Effects of Butterflies is about what happens when you stop performing your light for other people and start shining because it's genuinely who you are. You’ll discover how your favorite things are clues on a treasure hunt back to yourself, learn how style is a form of self-trust, how to use the cosmos to practice glamour magick, and why the astrology of the summer of 2026 is asking every single one of us to stop clinging to old, waterlogged patterns and structure, and start rebuilding our Dream World from the ashes. 🐦‍🔥

Leah and Ashley dive into:

• Why "flirting with your astrology" is a reciprocal relationship, not a passive one you wait around for
• Leah's Leo stellium and years of resisting it in favor of "safer" placements
• How having a Leo-rising, Leo-moon daughter (and living on her Venus line in New Orleans) finally made her Leo undeniable
• The difference between performing your shine for others and shining because it's who you actually are
• Using the astrological natal chart as a multi-dimensional style tool — glamour magic, adornment, and self-expression as a way in
• The "love list" practice: mapping the media, art, and obsessions that reveal who you already are
• The astrology of this summer: Jupiter into Leo, the nodes shifting into Leo/Aquarius, and the rare Barbault Basket configuration exact the week of July 19–21
• André Barbault prediction of a "reblooming period" after years of collective tumult
• Why the South Node in Leo is about to drain everything that's exhausting your spirit and not worth your energy
• De-patriarchizing astrology: asteroid goddesses, postcolonial astrology, and reclaiming ancient egalitarian goddess worship
• Ashley's tarot-inspired poem from 2016 — proof that the things we're obsessed with as kids are breadcrumbs back to ourselves
• Practical ways to retrain your brain to notice joy and play, even if you don't yet know what "favorite" feels like

• The dream Leah is finally ready to have the audacity to chase

This episode is for:

• The Leo (or Leo-placement-haver) who's spent years insisting "I'm not like that" about their own chart
• The person who keeps waiting for the universe to hand them their breakthrough instead of engaging with it
• Anyone exhausted by burnout culture who wants permission to build a life around what's actually fun
• The one who dims their own shine to make other people comfortable and is ready to stop

Where you can hang out with Leah:

Instagram: @leah.vanderveldt

Substack (Cosmic Style): leahvanderveldt.substack.com

About Leah:

Leah Vanderveldt is an author, astrologer, cosmic stylist, and tarot creator. Guiding the astro-curious to understand their natural gifts and challenges through a cosmic lens, she uses the natal chart as a map for their next chapter — rooted in self-trust and self-expression. As the founder of the Substack and podcast Cosmic Style and author of Seasonal Power Tarot, Magical Self-Care Tarot, Magical Self-Care for Everyday Life, and three cookbooks, Leah bridges the spiritual to the material world and uses the mystical to unlock your most iconic self IRL.