What Time Were You Born?

What does it mean to be born on a solar eclipse? Double Virgo, Libra rising actor Sisi Rafter found out on mic, and they had NO idea.

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Sisi grew up in a New York theater family and informed me it takes seven years to become a New Yorker, not ten, so thank Gawd, I'm officially in. And this is why I love reading Virgos: give them the clarity first, then watch them run with it.

We start by reading the chart as both a clock and a map, then the reveal: the Sun, Moon and North Node all together in Virgo, which means Sisi was born the day of the September 1997 solar eclipse. We get into eclipses as the moments fate takes a detour, why September into now has felt so topsy-turvy (two words: nodal opposition), and Sisi's Saturn return in the 7th house, what I like to call time under tension. There's chosen family and a friend's birthday wish to "test what you've built," small goals only ("I don't should, I get to"), trans beyond, the idea of a second-chance lifetime as my astrology godmuthah Maria DeSimone taught me, and the Long Island mom threat of the bar of soap. Plus Sisi on playing Lynette Taylor, who was at the 504 protests, in Being Heumann.

Sisi's after-hours G'head, Hun! is uncut on Patreon.

Catch Sisi in Being Heumann, in select theaters Nov 6 and on Apple TV Nov 13: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/being-heumann/umc.cmc.5gf63v7zj97yiozkpj26lpy55

Follow Sisi: https://www.instagram.com/sienarafter

Book a reading with me: https://colinbedellreadings.as.me

Follow me: https://www.instagram.com/queercosmos

CHAPTERS

00:00 Episode Teaser00:40 Meet Sisi Rafter01:13 Does Long Island Count as New York?02:35 First Look at the Chart03:43 How Astrology Helps a Double Virgo06:39 The Chart as a Clock and a Map07:55 Libra Rising and Venus09:09 Character Is Destiny10:35 Turning 29 and Chosen Family11:44 Born on a New Moon12:11 Born on a Solar Eclipse12:51 This Is Why I Love Reading Virgos13:46 Sisi's Birth Story16:02 Eclipses and Chaos17:39 Virgo Keeps the World Running20:31 Nodal Opposition23:05 Join Signs & the City24:40 Habits, Routines and Meditation25:58 1997: Titanic, Spice World and The Artist's Way27:37 Masculinity the Musical28:29 Sun and Moon in the Same Sign29:28 Trans Beyond33:25 A Second-Chance Lifetime34:30 Leader of a Failed Revolution?35:09 Small Goals Only: "I Get To"36:39 Queering Everything37:58 LUNA Astrology39:14 The Saturn Return39:54 Honcho Campout41:25 Time Under Tension43:22 Don't Be Fresh (The Bar of Soap)44:01 Saturn in the 7th House46:44 Letting It Not Be About Me47:22 Romantic Friendships49:00 Being Heumann52:32 Libra Rising and the 504 Protests54:05 Coming Up on G'head, Hun!

Drag artist and activist Marti Cummings gets their very first astrology reading, and finds out why they love like a Cancer and lust like a Leo.

Get episodes early and ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/colinbedell

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I'll say it on the record: Cancer is the strongest sign in the zodiac. Cancer is the mother, the one who fights for who she loves, and Marti has spent their life doing exactly that, from the drag stage to the political podium. Sitting across from a Cancer who feels everything and says it out loud was a gift.

Marti came in knowing two things: they're a Cancer, and they're a "nighttime girl." So we start from scratch, from why cusps aren't real to what Mars in Leo and Venus in Cancer say about how they love. Chiron in Gemini brings in Wittgenstein ("the limits of my language mean the limits of my world") and a real-time workshop on answering a hard text from a friend without going for the jugular. Then Marti tells me about their lifelong Princess Diana obsession: the VHS of the funeral, the Franklin Mint doll, and the revenge dress they had made for the opening of Diana on Broadway. We get into Pisces rising and all three water signs, why Pisces is the sign of apology and forgiveness, going back to apologize to a barista, considering becoming an Episcopal priest for a hot minute, and a spiritual awakening on the dance floor at Horse Meat Disco.

Marti's after-hours G'head, Hun! is on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/colinbedell/posts/ghead-hun-with-173489007

On Patreon, Signs & the City members get every episode early and ad-free, G'head, Hun!, our live monthly Transit Cawls, workshops and member discounts. Come hang with us: https://www.patreon.com/colinbedell

Book a reading with me: https://colinbedellreadings.as.me

Follow Marti: https://www.instagram.com/martigcummings/

Follow me: https://www.instagram.com/queercosmos · https://www.tiktok.com/@queercosmos

00:00 Episode teaser

00:55 Meet Marti Cummings

01:46 A first astrology reading

03:03 Three July birthdays and the cusp myth

04:51 Reading the birth chart

05:52 Mars in Leo and what attracts us

06:47 Love like a Cancer with Venus in Cancer

08:53 Mercury the nonbinary planet

10:54 Chiron in Gemini and finding the words

13:15 Conflict and going for the jugular

15:56 What to text a friend you flaked on

20:22 Cancer is the strongest zodiac sign

23:14 Moon in Gemini and political speeches

24:00 Marti and Princess Diana

26:14 LUNA Astrology

27:12 What Diana teaches about Cancer

30:10 Wearing the revenge dress

31:50 Pisces rising and the horizon line

32:50 Running into a Pisces ex

34:15 All three water signs

41:26 Pisces apology and forgiveness

44:15 Church ritual and spirituality

45:20 Drag at St John the Divine

46:39 A spiritual awakening at Horse Meat Disco

49:05 The dance floor as church

50:10 Where to find Marti

50:43 Coming up on Patreon

John Roberts turned his mom, Margie, into one of the most beloved characters on the internet, and his chart shows exactly why. His Moon, the planet of the mother, is in Virgo: his mother's Sun sign.

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Honey, he got it from her. John is truly one of the most important comedic inspirations of my lifetime. My cousins and I fell out of our chairs watching his mom videos back in the day, because those were OUR aunts, our grandmothers, our godmothers. Having him in the studio was a dream come true.

We get into all of it: how his Gemini Rising gave him the voices ("I'm Linda, but I'm not, but I'm my mom"), the Red Door perfume choking everyone in the car on the way to church, Margie wrapping every Christmas present in two hours flat, and "stop buying crap," which John still says to himself. He tells me about finding his mom's wigs in the closet, his freshman-year Pee-wee Herman act, and the janitor who told him he was going to be famous. And because he's a Scorpio, we go deep on grief and life after death, the King Kong toy that goes off when his mom's around, and how her joy lives on in every video. Plus the new album, I Am, and why the lesbians will always wash the sheets.

John's after-hours G'head, Hun! segment is on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/colinbedell/posts/ghead-hun-with-172594727

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rilH7T-ylao

John's new album, I Am, is out November 20: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5HGXZdpWmmXoDqbCCsBlYt

Follow John: https://www.instagram.com/johnrobertsfun

Follow me: https://www.instagram.com/queercosmos

00:00 Episode Teaser

01:07 Welcome, John Roberts!

03:26 Inside John's Birth Chart

05:50 Gemini Rising: Voices & Characters

13:31 Scorpio Sun: Death, Sex & Loyalty

14:32 Virgo Moon: He Got It From His Mother

17:19 Red Door, Lists & "Stop Buying Crap"

20:03 Mom's Wigs, Bamberger's & Pee-wee Herman

22:59 Why New Yorkers Are So Funny

29:32 "My Son, the Star"

33:26 What John's Mom Videos Mean to Us

39:20 Scorpio, Death & the Afterlife

42:45 Grief & Signs From His Parents

50:38 John's New Album, I Am

55:53 The Lesbians Will Wash the Sheets

Between Venus stationing retrograde in just a few days, and Mercury and Mars gearing up for their turns, we are stepping into a massive season of retrograde transits.

The internet loves to treat retrograde season as cause for collective panic, but in this episode of What Time Were You Born?, I sat down with my dear friend, author, and incredible astrologer Mecca Woods to offer an empowering, grounded alternative to the doom-and-gloom.

Mecca was one of the very first astrologers to welcome me into this community nearly a decade ago, modeling what collaborative, zero-scarcity friendship looks like from day one. In this episode, we get into:

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The "Law of the Re-": Why consecutive retrogrades invite a collective pause, and why fighting the slowdown only creates burnout.

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Mecca’s Retrograde Medicine ("Reflect & Reset"): Somatic, practical ways to regulate your nervous system, step away from screens, and reconnect with the person behind all the roles.

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When the Past Shows Up: How to handle exes, former colleagues, or old friends resurfacing during Venus retrograde (and why choosing not to respond is a valid response).

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Neptune & Saturn in Aries: Creative bravery, stepping into the unknown, and why nothing new happens in the "known".

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The Leo–Aquarius Axis: Balancing visibility and authentic self-expression with community care and dismantling hyper-independence.

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The Power of Sincere Compliments: Why positive acknowledgment is the ultimate antidote to cynicism and isolation.

WATCH OUR SPICY AFTER-HOURS SEGMENT G’HEAD, HUN! WITH MECCA:

Head over to Patreon to watch the uncut, after-hours conversation.

GET 10% OFF LUNA ASTROLOGY SOFTWARE:

Track your natal placements and transits using the exact software we feature in our studio readings, LUNA.

This week’s episode of What Time Were You Born? is one of the most personal, healing conversations I’ve ever had on camera. I’m joined in-studio by somatic psychologist, certified sex therapist, and author Dr. Holly Richmond.Content Note: In this episode, Holly and I explore the journey of reclaiming desire and bodily autonomy, including high-level, non-graphic reflections on survivorship and recovery from sexual trauma (between 12:00 - 24:00 if you would prefer to skip ahead). We approach this through an empowering, therapeutic lens. If you are navigating your own healing, please see the supportive resources linked below.Holly isn’t just a guest to me; she is someone whose clinical work and friendship fundamentally shifted how I understand safety, visibility, and my own body. Using her astrological blueprint, we dissect how the body speaks, how pleasure is reclaimed, and what somatic autonomy looks like.In this episode, we explore:

• The Astrology of the Body: Holly’s powerful Taurus stellium (Saturn, Mercury, Venus, Mars) and how it anchors her grounded, somatic approach to healing.Does the Body Really Keep the Score? Holly’s take on emerging research, moving beyond the narrative that trauma is permanently “stuck,” and viewing the body as an expressive storyteller rather than a fixed verdict.
• The Vulnerability of Being Seen: Why Leo energy can sometimes feel unsafe to express, the limbic survival wisdom behind the “fawn” response, and learning to loosen control without losing your footing.
• Reclaiming Pleasure: What desire, eroticism, and imagination ask of us when we’re ready to step off the island and return to connection.

Join Signs & the City for early, ad-free and uncensored episodes along with live community calls, bi-weekly office hours, deep-dive astrology workshops, and our uncensored bonus segment G’head Hun: http://patreon.com/colinbedell

Get full video episodes with chart visuals early, ad-free, and uncensored on Patreon!

On episode four of What Time Were You Born? I read the birth chart of recording artist, entertainer, and RuPaul’s Drag Race season 13 finalist Ross (Rosé). Two Geminis born two days apart unpacking what it means to navigate a double-bodied sign: balancing the studious, hyper-organized perfectionist at home with the explosive performer who commands the stage.

Inside the Episode:

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The Aquarius Moon: Why early experiences of feeling othered turned community and belonging into a lifelong search.

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The Virgo Rising: How precision, detail, and Beyoncé became survival blueprints for mastery and self-protection.

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The Gemini Sun & 10th House Stellium: The astrological engine behind public visibility, and why learning to be silly on purpose is the ultimate reclamation of joy.

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Natal Mercury Retrograde: Moving from Scotland to Texas at nine years old, code-switching accents as a secret cosmic superpower, and what Hermes in Disney's Hercules explains about chart rulers.

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The Artist’s Way & Sacred Medicine: The difference between sheet music and the song, what plant medicine opened up around conflict, and why taking ourselves too seriously kills the magic in the room.

Watch the full video reading with chart overlays on YouTube, or join our inner community on Patreon for weekly office hours, workshops, and our uncensored bonus segment G’head Hun.

This is What Time Were You Born? People-centered Astrology, taught the way New York taught it to me.

Get full video episodes with chart visuals early, ad-free and uncensored on Patreon!

In episode three of What Time Were You Born?, I read the chart of Olivier Award-winning stage icon and West End-to-Broadway powerhouse Layton Williams. A Virgo Sun who balances proactive preparation with an off-switch, a Sagittarius Rising bringing pure fire, passion, joy, and larger-than-life Jupiterian energy, and a Capricorn Moon embodying the ultimate Broadway iceberg.

Timestamps:

0:00 Teaser: Dancing like Britney & meeting at Pilates

1:06 Intro: Layton Williams’ Very First Chart Reading

3:24 The Pilates Benchmark: Meeting in the Back Row & Titanique

6:17 The Moment Point: Reading a Birth Chart

9:40 Sagittarius Rising: Why the Rising Sign is the Energy You Perform With

12:20 The 11-Year-Old West End Debut: Bypassing the Rules Early

14:10 The Off-Button: Virgo Restraint vs. Sagittarian Fire

17:15 “I Live Like There’s Constantly a Camera Around”: Natural Star Quality

18:50 ADHD Diagnosis, British Hustle & The Shock of New York Work Ethic

21:40 Preparing at 80%: Why Over-Preparation Kills the Thrill of the Edge

25:30 Spontaneity Over Structure: The Power of Mutable Signs

28:36 Sagittarius as Freedom: Relationships, Space & Solo Independence

32:06 Divine Timing on Broadway: Refusing to Chase the Visa

32:51 The Tina Turner Iceberg: Camp, Joy & Winning the Olivier Award

38:50 Delusion with Purpose: Cultivating Confidence vs. Cockiness

41:20 Queerness, Black British Identity & Reclaiming the Stage

42:54 Mars in Cancer: Ancestral Roots, Lineage & Who Do You Think You Are?

47:33 Astrological Timing & Travel Windows

49:00 Capricorn Moon as Iceberg: Tina Turner Drag, Splitting & Standing Ovations

52:04 Star Quality, Faith & The Spiritual Impact of Theater

53:40 Why the Moon Sign Stays Private & Final Chart Takeaways

Layton Williams is a Virgo Sun who commands the stage with the explosive, radiant fire of a Sagittarius Rising. In this episode, we unpack that alchemy: how someone who made their West End debut at 11 years old balances a relentless Virgo work ethic with an absolute refusal to live a rigid, over-prepared life. We talk about the thrill of showing up 80% ready, why New York forces you to hustle ten times harder, and how we met dying in the back of a humbling Pilates class before I saw Latyon's face on a Broadway marquee weeks later.

And then we get into ancestral connection. We look at Layton's Mars in Cancer and trace what cracked open when he traveled to Jamaica for Who Do You Think You Are?, reconciling Blackness and queerness as a sacred both/and, and what it really means to embody Tina Turner as an iceberg in Titanique to standing ovations every night.

Follow along on Patreon and YouTube so you don't miss what's next.

This is What Time Were You Born?. People-centered Astrology, taught the way New York taught it to me.

Get full video episodes with chart visuals early, ad-free and uncensored on ⁠Patreon⁠!

In episode two of What Time Were You Born? I read the chart of SNL legend, Las Culturistas co-host, and Broadway's newest leading man, Bowen Yang. Four planets in Scorpio including a Venus cazimi he explains himself, a Gemini moon, and a celestial glam Libra rising: we get into it all.

Timestamps:

0:00 Teaser

0:55 Intro: Bowen Yang's Scorpio Stellium & Celestial Glam

2:36 Growing Up with the Chinese Zodiac & Shifting Perspectives on Astrology

7:13 Being a Scorpio Stellium in the Public Eye: "Look at Me, Don't Look at Me"

8:56 Satirizing Media Figures on SNL & Managing Public Perception

12:36 Mystery as a Bridge & Balancing Dialectics (Britney Spears & Long Island Smarts)

14:46 Libra Rising, 9th House Gemini Moon & Multinational Roots

18:01 Air Signs, Levity & The Iconic QVC Blooper

22:42 What Makes a "Third Space" (and Why Democracy Needs Them)

25:08 Unpacking the Gemini Moon: Interpersonal Awareness & Verbal Safety

29:15 Final Fantasy XIV, Active Nihilism & Creating Meaning Through Connection

34:04 Why Critics Hate Astrology (Misogyny, Myth & Joseph Campbell)

37:28 Resetting After SNL: Permission Structures & Industry Gatekeepers

41:57 Filtering Criticism: Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue & Staying Real

49:04 Monoculture Today: Titanic, the Iceberg Sketch & Oh, Mary!

51:11 Bowen's Chart Deep Dive: Venus Cazimi in Scorpio & Jupiter Square

1:00:23 Venus Conjunct Pluto & The True Definition of Trust

1:03:50 How to Trust the Unknown: Rachel Botsman & Charles Feltman's Frameworks

1:08:51 Creative Self-Trust, Internet Noise & Overcoming Competence Anxiety

1:12:08 The Mystery of Beyoncé's Uncle Johnny & Capricorn Nieces

1:17:26 Embracing Discomfort & Unlearning the SNL Sprint for Broadway

1:20:17 "Have Fun, Don't Rush": Oh, Mary! on Broadway & Outro

Bowen Yang has four planets in Scorpio and is also one of the most public, beloved comedic voices of his generation. In this episode we sit with that contradiction: what it's like to be a "look at me, don't look at me" sign living in front of millions of people, and how he's learned to regulate it. We talk about resetting after SNL, filtering real criticism from noise, and a movie from 1997 that changed the way he reads about himself online.

And then we talk about trust: what it means to earn it, lose it, and get it back. I bring in Rachel Botsman and Charles Feltman's frameworks, and somewhere in the middle of it all we end up talking about Beyoncé's Uncle Johnny, which neither of us saw coming.

Follow along on ⁠Patreon⁠ and ⁠YouTube⁠ so you don't miss what's next.

This is What Time Were You Born?. People-centered astrology, taught the way New York taught it to me. Subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next.

In the first episode of What Time Were You Born?, I read the chart of Astrologer Maria DeSimone, who gave me my very first reading in 2013. Full circle moment.

Maria DeSimone gave me my very first astrology reading in her kitchen when I was 21 years old. And I have never forgotten what it felt like to have someone read my chart with that much compassion, that much permission, and that much realness.

Maria is one of the pioneers of video astrology, a 23-year professional Astrologer, founder of Insightful Astrology School, and honestly just a girl from Ozone Park who answered a Craigslist ad during a divorce and ended up changing the game. In this episode we pull up her chart, trace how her Mars in Cancer in the third house shaped the way she teaches, and follow the thread of her career from a 19-year-old intern named Dan to syndicated video horoscopes watched by millions.

We also talk about her cousin John, who was an Astrologer in Manhattan, and Maria tells me a story about him that stopped me in my tracks.

Get episodes early, ad-free and uncensored on Patreon: patreon.com/colinbedell

For video episodes, including chart visuals, find me on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@colin.bedell

This is What Time Were You Born? People-centered astrology, taught the way New York taught it to me.