Welcome to the Summer of Re-Enchantment.

the summer of re-enchantment

Michelle · May 22

I’ve spent the past year circling the concept of re-enchantment.

Read full story

ICYMI, it’s pretty much what it sounds like — we’re spending the summer resisting algorithmic flattening and apocalyptic death spiraling by attuning ourselves to the Magic, the Mystery, the Mundanity (complimentary) of the world.

There’s a hundredy jillion ways to do this, but there are two strategies I’m well-versed in that I like to lean on when feeling particularly verklempt and uninspired by the world at large: (re)awakening to your own magic via meaning-making systems, and creative research.

More on creative research later. Let’s do the fun stuff: 💕💕💕💕 TALKING ABOUT OURSELVES! 💕💕💕💕

I’ve been infatuated with many a meaning-making system (my mom used to read me my monthly horoscope from her copy of Vanity Fair when I was way too young to understand what Pisces meant, which I suspect is why I turned out like this), but none so much as the Matrix of Destiny.

A numerology system channeled/created by a woman named Natalia Ladini, the Matrix of Destiny blends a bunch of esoteric languages into a personalized chart to help you understand your best “strategies” for being-doing-making-relating-growing. There are 22 different archetypes or energies that make up the octogram-shaped chart, organized across different positions to map your gifts, talents, relationships, life themes, ideal job sitch, etc.

Probably part of why I imprinted so quickly on Matrix of Destiny is because reading my chart felt a bit like someone pouring ice water down the back of my sweater. Wtf — but also — wow, that was enlivening?

I started studying my chart in earnest while I was pregnant. Pregnancy is so weird as an entrepreneur or self-led creative, because everyone loves to tell you in this sort of menacingly ambiguous way about how “everything will change” once you have a baby. And they’re right! But they cannot tell you how things will change for you, and it is absolutely, completely, cosmically out of your control. I was terrified about my ambition, my creativity, my desire, and my identity shifting postpartum. My future felt Natasha Bedingfield-esque — which is to say, unwritten. (And I hated that I couldn’t Google or tarot card my way out of it. Trust me, there were many vigorous attempts to control the future on my end.)

Learning about my Matrix of Destiny chart reminded me of my core archetypes — the elemental aspects of my nature that I’d been systematically claiming and disowning since adolescence.

There were creepy accuracies, but also startlingly specific call-ins. With all the truths I was thrilled to claim (my chart has psychic bog witch archetype energy? yeaaaaaaah I’ll take it), there were just as many that felt a lil’ too truthy for my comfort. Reading my chart made me reckon with the ways I’d stopped growing — it made me realize there were areas in my life where I’d let my curiosity and potential for possibility wither.

It’s not that I had abandoned hope that things would change about myself or my identity… it’s more that I was so habituated in those ways of being that I hadn’t really investigated whether they were truly cemented or if they were a bit more mutable.

Being reminded of what I was capable of was a shock to the system. (Finding the 9 “Hermit” archetype — study, education, philosophy, esotericism, higher learning — in my Complex Karma position was the tripwire that made me seriously consider getting my doctorate. I had simply never imagined that option was available to me, a girl with a BFA in experimental dance. My chart said otherwise.)

Another thing the Matrix of Destiny helped me with? It pointed our where I was unnecessarily living life on Hard Mode.

My favorite part of giving Matrix of Destiny readings is showing people their Gifts and Talents section of their chart. This area shows you the three archetypes or energies were you have a supernatural affinity. It’s so funny — most of the time, you’re not totally shocked by your gifts. But you’ve become so accustomed to your innate talents that you don’t consider them gifts. Using your gifts as often as you can will make your life easier, but because you sort of take them for granted you don’t whip ‘em out or even lean on them when things are feeling challenging.

Unnecessary Hard Mode! Matrix of Destiny reminds me to choose my Hard Mode.

I believe breaking out of our typical habituations — our usual la-di-dah way of seeing, being, feeling, doing — is a necessary element of re-enchantment.

And regardless of their perceived veracity, I think the break with our habituated self-concept is the biggest gift meaning-making systems like astrology, tarot, numerology, Myers-Briggs, Human Design, and Matrix of Destiny can give us. Not necessarily the “accuracy.” The disruption.

To calculate your own Matrix of Destiny, you can use this website. All you need is your birthdate! To get your bearings on the basics of your chart, keep reading. (And stay subscribed — I’m going to walk you through more of this as we delve into the summer of re-enchantment. There might even be homework…)

The Core Diamond: Your Essential Self

There’s too much to untangle in one post, but start by pulling your chart. Pay special attention to the numbers in the positions below.

• Left Point (a): Your intrinsic identity — personality, charisma, how you present yourself to the world

• Top Point (b): Your divine connection and highest gift — higher self, authentic truth, spiritual talents, reason for your soul’s being

• Right Point (c): Your complex karma — your life theme and work

• Bottom Point (d): Your karmic tail — challenges from past life, the love karma to move through before meeting your ideal partner

• Center Point (e): Your extrinsic identity — core personality in this lifetime, comfort zone, how other people see and praise you

The left side reveals your natural charisma and presentation style; the right side governs your relationship with the material world and career manifestation. The vertical axis connects your highest spiritual potential (top) with your deepest karmic work (bottom).

The 22 Archetypes

The 22 archetypes mirror the major arcana in tarot, but with a different spin — so try not to bring your complicated feelings about the Hierophant into your reading if you have a 5 in your chart. They are not one-for-one.

1 - The Alchemist: Turn lead into gold; bridge the mystical and mundane. Master manifestor, intuition-and-intellect in one.

2 - Intuition: Synchronicities and timing; acknowledge the unseen. Trustfall!

3 - Fertility: Birth ideas into reality; creative sovereignty. You can do it all yourself (for better or worse).

4 - Sovereign / Leader: Embody authority; lead through presence, not force. CEO energy, but make it earned.

5 - Teacher: Learn deeply, teach wisely; keeper of lineages. The eternal student who eventually has to share the notes.

6 - Beauty / Creativity: Create connection through aesthetics; art as communion.

7 - Winner / Motion / Warrior: Move when inspired — unstoppable momentum, or the rest that makes it possible.

8 - Integrity: Seek truth relentlessly; lighthouse in moral fog.

9 - Wisdom: Retreat to receive wisdom; emerge to illuminate. The one who actually read the book.

10 - Fortune / Flow: Ride waves of luck; trust ease over effort. (Yes, this is a real archetype. Some people just have it.)

11 - Endurance / Potential Energy: Channel immense energy; endurance as spiritual practice.

12 - Empathy / Service : Hold space for transformation; vision through compassion.

13 - Transformation: Die and be reborn; comfort in metamorphosis. Embracing change as a feature, not a bug.

14 - Soul / Art: Guide others to their calling; clairvoyant midwife.

15 - Magnetism / Development: Polarize through truth; charisma as catalyst. Lover of shadow work and difficult conversations.

16 - Revelation: Burn down what’s false; radical reinvention. (Terrifying in the best positions. Terrifying in the worst ones too, honestly.)

17 - Mirror: Reflect others to themselves; talent as service.

18 - Magic / The Moon: Influence from the shadows; psychic architecture. Power that doesn’t need an audience.

19 - Sun / Light: Shine without apology; prosperity through visibility.

20 - Annunciation: Build soul family; community as sacred container.

21 - Universe: Connect across boundaries; expand.

22 - Freedom: Redefine liberation; creative autonomy as rebellion.

I think you can pick any meaning making system you like to dive deeper into as we engage in this Summer of Re-Enchantment together. The point of any system was never to tell you something you didn’t know: It’s to hand you a different flashlight so you can walk back through your own house and see what you’ve been stepping over. You already live here! You’ve just been bumping around in the dark, acting a little bit haunted.

My thesis for this summer is that re-enchantment isn’t out there somewhere, waiting to be discovered — it’s the moment you look at the thing you stopped seeing and think: oh. there you are. That’s the whole game. That’s what we’re here for during these next few weeks. Let’s play?

More on using meaning-making systems to re-enchant your world…

• Ruthless Clarity is an 8-week email course for multi-passionate people drowning in options — it builds a decision-making framework that makes the right moves feel obvious instead of agonizing.

• The North Node is a membership for multi-passionate people done building their life on someone else’s blueprint — 280+ hours of courses on meaning-making, creative business, and building your own compass.

• Become a paid subscriber for the full archive, bonus essays, and everything the free tier doesn’t have room for.

Read this next 👇