We were lucky to catch up with Jaime Wright recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jaime, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?
Before I was an astrologer, I was pursuing a “career” in theater and performance in the downtown scene here in New York. I consider my move to astrology to be less a career transition though, and more that I just finally found the correct medium for my creative practice. There are some astrologers who have the story of leaving a fancy job in the corporate world to pursue astrology, but I don’t have that kind of background. I was always hustling at all kinds of gigs—from restaurants to childcare to non profit admin to a random stint working on a game show—and doing my theater projects for no money on the side. I was blessed to find astrology: a field where I could both express my creativity and build my own business. What I didn’t expect was the stigma! The same people who blindly supported my performance art in bars at 2 am would look at me like I had six heads for studying the language of the stars. It didn’t make sense to me. These weren’t corporate drones. These were artists! IMHO, theater is a less viable industry. It’s almost impossible to succeed at it unless you come from wealth! But for whatever reason, doing star math is more alienating than rolling around on the floor in front of an audience. I think people hear “astrologer” and their mind goes to a fortune teller with a crystal ball instead of what it really is: me sitting at my desk with a ton of charts and spreadsheets and giant textbooks building a case to help you see the world or yourself more clearly.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m Jaime Wright! I’m a writer and astrologer from New York. My work is observing patterns in astrology and culture and reporting back on them, mostly in my cult-favorite newsletter, moon missives. moon missives is an ever-evolving astrology writing project that began in 2016 as an email zine, and is now a weekly astro-cultural newsletter and forecast podcast on Substack. I also write a weekly and monthly horoscope column for PureWow, and see clients online and in person here in New York. I practice a blend of Hellenistic, Medieval, and modern psychological astrology. In my client practice, I specialize in timing whether that’s discussing life’s ebbs and flows, reviewing a difficult period in the past, or choosing the best time in the future to launch the next project. My ultimate aim is always is to have fun and create space for joy, even when processing difficult things. Whether I’m meeting with a client 1-on-1, writing an essay about the symbols found in Jeremy Strong’s birth chart, or hosting an event for the new moon, I want to celebrate the language of astrology. Astrology is movement. It won’t solve our problems. It’s about noticing patterns of the universe and finding ourselves within them. It’s not about “what the stars say,” it’s about what we contain.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Not to be all “goes to Europe once” but I was just recently in Florence, and I couldn’t stop thinking about, you know, the Renaissance, and what artists were able to do under a patronage model. I love seeing artists who’ve found the support they need on platforms like Patreon or Substack really thrive, especially because they’re able to take the time to do what artists really need to do: rest, read, see other people’s art, watch movies, listen to music, cook, space out, do nothing. Living in this late capitalist hellscape, everything is branding, productizing and selling. But that’s not art. That’s sales and marketing. Artists need patrons so that can take time away from the capitalism hamster wheel and do their research, write their little poems about their findings. Also, things like Patreon and Substack and Kickstarter are fine for now, but also ultimately benefit Big Tech (all those companies take huge cuts on payments). I’d like to see more rich people writing checks that go directly into artists’ pockets (without getting a “tax break”) and big businesses creating and funding artist residencies.
How did you build your audience on social media?
When I was a shy seventeen year old, I was hanging out with my friend who was a few years older than me and already off at college. We sat together but we weren’t talking because her flip phone was getting blown up with texts. I was feeling very socially isolated at the time (no one was blowing up MY flip phone) and I asked her, “How do you get so many texts? No one ever texts me.”
“You have to send texts to get texts,” she replied, before grabbing her purse and heading out the door.
For whatever reason, that flippant remark, that *aphorism* has stuck with me through the years. I think it applies to social media. You have to like other people’s posts to get likes in return. The more social media is actually *social,* the more fun it is. I do my best on there when I don’t take myself too seriously.
Contact Info:
- Website: jaimewright.net
- Instagram: @jaimeallycewright
- Other: Substack: jaimewright.substack.com Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-fortune/id1689116988