I Talk to Planets
I Talk to Planets is your gateway to Planet Channeling—a journaling and visualization technique that turns your astrology chart into a personal hotline to the cosmos. Author and astrologer Claire Gallagher brings this intuitive art to life with tips and practices that make cosmic conversation feel easy, vibrant, and wildly useful for everyday life.
I Talk to Planets
Planet Channeling for Your Business with Stephanie Keiko Kong
Get ready to geek out on Planet Channeling! In today’s episode, I chat with public speaking coach Stephanie Keiko Kong about using Planet Channeling for business. We get really nerdy about channeling gear, hosting multi-planet conversations, and asking the planets about offer development. This is a delightful, giggle-filled conversation that you don’t want to miss. We assume you know the basics of Planet Channeling in this episode, so be sure to catch my free webinar that covers the how-to.
Stephanie’s website: https://ponyponytail.com/
Follow Stephanie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ponyponytail
Follow Stephanie on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StephanieKeikoKong
The vulnerable podcast episode Stephanie mentions: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2384219/episodes/17803647
- 00:00 Our fave Planet Channeling beverages
- 09:15 Stephanie’s prior channeling experience
- 18:28 Geeky Planet Channeling gear talk
- 22:24 How Stephanie uses color to upgrade the Planet Channeling experience
- 25:33 Hosting multi-planet conversations
- 30:47 Planet Channeling for business
- 34:00 Designing a workshop with Planet Channeling
Learn to Planet Channel in my free webinar: https://www.astrologywithclaire.com/clarity
Work with Me: https://www.astrologywithclaire.com
Planet Channel with friends in the So Below Society: https://www.astrologywithclaire.com/sobelowsociety
Join my email list: https://www.astrologywithclaire.com/email
Claire: Hey astro Lover. Welcome back to I Talk to Planets. This is your host, Claire Gallagher, and I have a special treat for you today. You know that friend you call when you had a brilliant idea, but you're terrified to say it out loud. That friend is Stephanie. Today we're gonna geek out on all things planet channeling for your business with my brilliant friend Stephanie Kako Kong.
Stephanie, AKA pony, ponytail on all the socials is a public speaking coach for collective liberation. Stephanie helps founders speak with a clarity that actually moves people on stages in meetings online while breaking cycles of oppression. Get your gel pens out and your favorite notebook because we get real geeky about planet channeling gear in this episode.
I hope you enjoy and I'll talk to you after. Hello Stephanie. Welcome to the pod. I'm so excited. I'm so happy to be here. Thank
Stephanie: you for having me. Oh my gosh.
Claire: We're all gonna talk at the same time, the whole podcast. I know that that's gonna happen because that's how we are. That's how we do things. We get so excited when we're together.
I'm so
Stephanie: excited.
Claire: Yes, so excited. I am thrilled to be able to talk to you today about all things planet channeling and how you are using it specifically to support your business 'cause you are a fellow entrepreneur. But before we dive into all of those questions. The important question is what do you sip on when you plan a channel?
Stephanie: This is a perfect question 'cause I actually think it's really important. It nothing ruins a beautiful flowing planet channeling session like having the wrong beverage.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: Depending on the weather, I will sip on either iced or hot ho chicha, usually with a splash of oat milk. Ho chicha, it's, it gives matcha.
Which I also love, I have that in the morning as kind of a ritual, but ho chicha is roasted same exact leaf, so it's less caffeinated.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: And that that means the caffeine spike, if the planet channeling session goes long, will not impact my energy.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: And I find that anything even lightly, I guess it's psychoactive.
Can get in the way of the clarity of the channel. Yeah. So no caffeine and obviously nothing stronger or more impactful than caffeine while I'm planet channeling, channeling so that I, I maintain the clarity of the flow.
Claire: Goals.
Stephanie: I think you recently came through a no caffeine journey, so I did. I know, I'm, I'm in a safe space conversation right now.
Claire: You are. You're very safe. And like I could have kept it going, but I decided, you know, coffee is my favorite beverage in the world. And like short, I
mean
Claire: popular toys. Yeah, life is short. And I was like, I kinda miss it. It makes me smile a little bit and sometimes I need help smiling. So I was like, okay. My,
Stephanie: my grandmother, who is 97 years old and is a chaotic Gemini son.
As a, as a refined old lady, she's a chaotic Gemini son, and she says that her osteoarthritis from wearing high heels and her type two diabetes from eating donuts, her favorite food for her entire life throughout the day, uh, she, she learned the phrase, yolo,
Claire: oh my.
Stephanie: And that is what I have to offer you in this moment.
Claire: I will take it. That's exa. I had a YOLO moment. I did, I had a YOLO moment and I went and bought myself a little pour over and I was like, if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. Right.
Stephanie: Not
Claire: the
Stephanie: accessories, Claire.
Claire: The accessories are happening and so I have been doing some caffeinated planet channeling, but I think, you know.
Later on, I'm gonna experiment with waking up really early prior to coffee time and channeling just pure. But anyways, I admire your clear channeling experience.
Stephanie: That is when I channel is first thing in the morning. That's,
Claire: yeah,
Stephanie: the time when, okay, so my, my chart ruler is Venus and my, my son is in Aries.
As a Libra rising, my sun is an Aries, so there's a kind of a, a descendant sun co-presence that I play with, especially in the early hours of the morning, um, before sunrise, so that my consciousness is most available or as available as it can be once the sun is. Finish that transition. So when I have the, the light of the day literally growing in the world and in my consciousness.
The channel gets clearer and clearer, and also the pace of my priorities about doing things. So like the energy coming through my spine and into my hands and into my feet, that grows with the growing light of day and I find it harder and harder to sit and focus. Yeah, so my, my best times when. Some would say the veil is thin.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: Are the clearest times when I, when I planet channel, so to incentivize myself. Sometimes what I'll do, I have a, this is so beverage centric in, in our conversation, I bought, or my, my partner gifted me this ember mug.
Claire: I just got one.
Stephanie: You don't want these shut.
Claire: I just got one. I almost texted you a picture.
Stephanie: You sh What color did you get?
Claire: I, I got basic white 'cause it was cheaper, but that's okay.
Stephanie: No. Oh, clean it right away. It'll stain.
Claire: Yeah. It matches my desk. It needed the minimalist Virgo look.
Stephanie: I love that for you. It, I gotta say, I'm glad this is video because you look so professional.
Claire: Oh my God.
Stephanie: I am obsessed.
I'm looking down. I should be looking at the camera, but I'm looking at your setup. 'cause I'm like, ugh, I'm on like a real podcast everyone.
Claire: I know. We're trying here. I talk to planets. We're trying. Anyways, back to the Ember mug and the incentivizing,
Stephanie: exactly the high priority topic of conversation I make myself the matcha or the espresso.
Or the espresso. In the matcha, I eat dirty matcha, and because the ember mug keeps it hot, it will just be there tempting me. To stay focused in the Planet Channel because the ritual is when I conclude the conversation, I say, thank you, Venus, or well, who? Whomever I'm speaking with. Then I kind of clap my hands or some sort of closing gesture.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: Before I then pick up my beloved ember mug to have the sip of caffeine for the day.
Claire: Ooh, I love this. Maybe I'll do this tomorrow. 'cause I'm imagining this scene where it's like you Planet Channel, clear channel, clap the hands, close the channel. Pick up your amber mug and reread and just sip and like see literally
Stephanie: what I do.
Claire: Yeah, that's beautiful.
Stephanie: It's like you could see the next moment. Exactly. Literally what I do. And then because I've shifted beverage, obviously that's a complete tonal change. So I'm a different Stephanie when I. Read what's been channeled, obviously.
Claire: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Our life revolves around around beverages when,
Stephanie: when people book time, because I'm a chronically online person, I'm sure you've seen this when my little, hi, we're friends.
I hate going back and forth scheduling something.
Claire: Yeah.
Stephanie: Please pick a time, a social time to hang out with me on the calendar and the question that's kind of a. I promise me, you're not a robot. Question is, what's your favorite beverage? And I gotta say, probably I've been put onto my favorite beverages over the last two years, maybe more from people responding to that question.
Claire: Really? That's awesome.
Stephanie: Yes. I didn't realize I was basically pumping my friends for their best recommendations, but here we are.
Claire: That is fantastic.
Stephanie: If you wanna hang out with me, you better pay up. Give me your beverage rec.
Claire: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. So I'm dying to know now that we've gotten that in important conversation.
Yes. First
Stephanie: things first.
Claire: First things first. Everybody take a sip. Um. Have you done any form of channeling prior to planet channeling?
Stephanie: Yes and no. So I've gotten sort of downloads from the universe that I knew I, I was supposed to write down. I have a very vibrant practice talking with my ancestors, but none of that.
Makes it to the page typically. Okay. Um, I think maybe back in the early days of my self discovery journey, somebody gave me a beat up copy of the Artist's way.
Claire: Yeah. And
Stephanie: I'm sure your listeners are familiar. The morning page, a classic.
Claire: Yeah.
Stephanie: And that's as close as I got to any automatic writing adjacent.
Practice. So the planet channeling in particular kind of shocked me with how easy it was being that I hadn't ever done a formal practice, anything like it before. Yes. Talking out loud, yes. Communicating with the unseen, but never so specific in my, in my direction, in, in who I'm talking with.
Claire: Hmm.
Stephanie: The specificity of your prompts in particular the the ones that you shared in the webinar?
Claire: Yeah,
Stephanie: the, I think it's at your URL slash clarity. It's got a
Claire: long name. Yeah, for just a plug. It's astrology with claire.com/clarity.
Stephanie: That's the one. So there's the end of that webinar has a guided planet channeling. Section in it. And that's the bit where I, I thought to myself, well, if it's all gonna pour out very, very easily with no direction, that could get very overwhelming very quickly.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: And your prompts. Are just fabulous for channeling the, the flow into something very specific and therefore useful.
Claire: Hmm. Well thank you for that compliment. I was not fishing for one, but I will take it. Absolutely.
Stephanie: Take it. It's wonderful.
Claire: What's interesting about the way planet channeling kind of has developed is I've never been a fan of writing prompts, so I find it very funny that I am suddenly.
In a space where I'm creating them, but I'm actually really enjoying them now. So just interesting aside
Stephanie: as, as a tag onto that, it doesn't feel to me the same as a writing prompt, like in a, in a, you should journal about this kind of way. It, it strikes me as an invitation to. Enter into a space and have the kind of experience that you can only have in a space like that.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: I'm thinking of, uh, walking into a candlelight dinner or walking into a place that's playing punk rock music where everybody's got black leather on, like, like those are big exaggerated examples, but. My point is what's available to me with a prompt that's more environmental and immersive registers in me differently prompts me differently than think about this or start the sentence with, which could also work, but I think your, your setting.
And invitation to environment is a real game changer, at least for me.
Claire: I wonder if it's because it's sensory and like maybe it feels more embodied. That's at least what, what I'm thinking at the moment. Um, but I have a question about if we backtrack the talking with ancestor practice. Yeah.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Claire: Um. Do you envision ever being able to translate that into your planet channeling?
Do you, do you ever, I guess, record your conversations with ancestors and then listen back? Or is it purely something that you do, uh, in sacred space and there's like no recording of the conversation? If that makes sense. Great
Stephanie: question. My, my ancestors arrive in, in very mundane moments.
Claire: Mm.
Stephanie: And I think I started talking to them when I was very small, like too small to really know that that's what I was doing.
I am half Japanese and half Chinese. That's a hundred percent of me. I'm, I'm fully of East Asian ancestry.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: And the, the. Familial setting in which I grew up is always conscious of ancestors without ever calling it ancestor worship or Buddhism or Taoism or anything that has a name.
Claire: Yeah,
Stephanie: so it's a very everyday experience for me where I'll be making dumplings.
I'll hear someone laughing at me or folding so slowly because how is my family going to eat? And I think, wait a minute, I don't have children. No one is waiting. You know, it's me and Joel and Toaster and we are a family, but it's not, yeah. Toaster is my dog, by the way. Uh, it's not like I have hungry mouths sitting around a table awaiting the food.
But the laugh is very clearly coming from somewhere else, somewhere. That's not me. It's coming from guides of some sort, and that's been very present in my life for a very long time. So I haven't recorded my ancestor conversations per se. I will, um, flip through my notes briefly here and tell you about when the planet channeling referenced my ancestors directly.
Claire: That's awesome. Yes, please.
Stephanie: Yes.
Claire: I love when planet channeling like you create such a rapport with the planets that they can do. Remember this in your journal and remember that, and there's like callbacks to things and conversations you've had in the past.
Stephanie: They were a bit. They, I, I did a planet channeling session with a number of planets at the same time, and I'm sure we'll get into that.
I was planning
Claire: a
Stephanie: workshop, um, for my business and there were some interjections from other planets. And, uh, I, I will say that going through my planet channeling notes is, uh. A wild ride. So in the, in the interest of not disturbing my notes too much for the purposes of this conversation, I didn't highlight anything that's, I put little sticky notes and it's, it's even a, a wooly, wooly experience combing through this right now.
Um, what I remember though is that there were, I was channeling with Venus
Claire: mm-hmm.
Stephanie: And my ruling planet, and, uh, they appeared in a. Non not entirely human and certainly not gendered.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: Being form and they, they referred directly to colluding with my ancestors in a kind of committee meeting where, you know, the kind of conversation where people that love you talk about you behind your back, but it's not malicious.
Claire: Sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Stephanie: It's like, oh, why won't she, why, why won't Stephanie do this and that? Have you talked to her about it? Yeah, I've talked to her about it. Uh, we've taught her the same technique. Yeah. We've taught her the same technique. She doesn't seem to be doing it. Do you think she needs help? I'll say something.
Claire: Oh my.
Stephanie: It was really cute.
Claire: They love you so much.
Stephanie: They love me so much and they're the busy body. Energy is very familiar to me. It's very. Auntie Energy.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: So I didn't take it any particular, I can imagine a different type of person would take it as like, get off my back. I don't live under your roof anymore.
Claire: Sure.
Stephanie: But my, my relationship with that kind of energy is like, oh
Claire: yeah. They
Stephanie: slide a, a plate of cut sandwiches across the table and they don't say anything. They, they're like not to bother you, and it's just like a bag of chips and they run away. Yeah. That kind of energy.
Claire: Mm-hmm. I love it. Thank you for being vulnerable and sharing that with us because yeah, you're not expected to read your planet channeling notes.
That's so private, but so fun to share at the same time. And so many people learn, um, and get permission to do planet channeling in their own way when people share their own entries. So that leads me to another thought I had. I love. To know how people are personalizing this practice, and it sounds like that was a perfect example of personalization.
But I would love for you to tell us how you make this practice your own, and I want you to get Ner DI want you to tell us about the notebooks, the pens, any music, the accessories. I want you to give
Stephanie: us the full Spanish, not me pulling up my notes. To make sure I don't forget anything. Yes. My favorite planet channeling supplies.
Claire: We need to know just
Stephanie: yes. Give me, let me just give you the rundown of the equipment. I'm about to put these in a basket 'cause I can't handle gathering all of my things in my two arms and potentially dropping my pre precious ho.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: It is a cup of pens. For anyone listening to the audio of this, I am holding up a, probably like a five inch diameter cup of multicolored pens.
Claire: It's robust.
Stephanie: It is. It's not small.
Claire: It's well
Stephanie: stocked. Very. I don't know how to say this for paper. If it was sheets, it would be high thread count. I think it's, the weight of the paper is very heavy. My notebook has like archival paper and, and I'm not flexing my fancy notebook, but the, the quality of paper makes a big difference for how fast I can write, and I find that when channeling with particular.
Um, planetary entities, I have to go really fast or I will miss stuff.
Claire: Yeah.
Stephanie: Or I won't be able to understand my notes. When I read, I'll, I'll continue to write fast, and then my ability to read my own writing is. Limited by the friction of my implement on the page.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: So just reducing the friction there with a thick, smooth paper.
And I use colored markers instead of a ballpoint pen because the marker has more of a watercolor kind of resistance on the page as opposed to a scraping, uh, greater friction with the metal of the ballpoint. That's, I know really specific, but I, I, no, that's
Claire: great. I mean, hello. I'm a, I'm a Virgo. I have been surrounded by stacks of paper and pens since I was, you know, just fresh out the womb.
It's like my favorite thing. Yeah. You're born with a
Stephanie: stationary set.
Claire: Yes, I was. Yes, I was. I love, you know. The difference between our planet channeling journals because we've, we've shared them with each other and yours is so colorful and mine is like
Stephanie: black. Yours is black and mine, as I recall. What is your favorite pen?
I'm dying to know.
Claire: Oh, what is this? I have it right here. It's a pilot. It's a
Stephanie: G two
Claire: G two. Yes. Yeah.
Stephanie: I haven't had a G two since the early two thousands. Girl, it's great. You're a classic.
Claire: I'm a classic. What can you say?
Stephanie: Black coffee and G two pens.
Claire: Yeah. Uhhuh, yeah.
Stephanie: Wait, next, next you'll be telling me, you, you write on folder paper.
Claire: I'm not quite there yet, but
Stephanie: I I do remember a previous episode about. A grocery store, 1 99 notebook.
Claire: Yeah, that happens. I have that. And then I have my fancier journal. Um, and I like to go back and forth between the two. Um, but I'd love to hear more about your use of color.
Stephanie: Yes. Oh, okay. That's, that's been one of the things that allow me to go fast.
And maybe this is other. Natal chart reasons why Stephanie likes to go fast. The color change allows me to rapidly switch between, uh, planetary speakers, shall we say, without labeling. So I don't have to write Mars over and over and over.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: I can just change to whatever color. Mars has shown up for me today in, so again, calling back to the prompts that you articulate so beautifully, having setting and kind of persona and certainly characteristics associated, even if it's not like a, a embodied personality with the planets.
So I'll just give you an example. Today I was channeling with, uh. Uh, energy of Mars and this energy showed up garbed in a vibrant purple. So I selected my purple pen and that was an indicator to me whenever I was writing with my purple pen, I was writing in the Voice of Mars. So that, that made it very clear.
And, and actually when I look at my. Planet channeling pages in my journal. I have them all together in the same journal. It's got my agenda, it's got my brained up notes. It's not very, uh, like sectioned off journal to journal. I do have tabs in the pages though. When I flipped all the Planet, planet channeling pages, I can see very clearly how much each planet has contributed to the conversation.
And as a. As an overview, I think that's interesting. Not to put any interpretation on it right now, but just to note like, oh, when I channeled with Uranus recently, Uranus didn't say much. Mm-hmm. But the, the contributions were very punchy.
Claire: Yeah. I, I love that also as like you're flipping, like sometimes I'm looking for a certain channeling session and I can't find it.
But like when you're using color and it becomes more visual, there's another memory there of like what that entry looked like. And I bet you can find it a lot faster too. Um,
Stephanie: ooh, you're making a great point. And, and what you said earlier about the embodiment being that layering of depth of experience, that's yet another sensory experience to add the, the visual component of color.
Yeah.
Claire: Yeah, so you're inspiring me to get some markers.
Stephanie: I will say that Pilot G two has additional colors. If you really
Claire: Oh, I will go look for those. Seriously.
Stephanie: I'll send you a link.
Claire: Okay, thanks. Um, since you have this multicolor thing going on, it's clear that you are also hosting multi-plan conversations, which is something that.
I don't think all of my listeners have tried yet, but are curious to try and I would love to hear your take on hosting a multi-plan conversation. I always suggest like writing it as a script, but I have a feeling you have a really unique way of doing it.
Stephanie: It's true. There's, there's either all the pens.
I'm gonna start with materials and then go into kind of structure on the page.
Claire: Naturally
Stephanie: first, all of the pens get uncapped. If I'm using markers, I also have a multicolor pen. We're really into gear today, so I'll say, I know this. What I use, this is the. Uni brand, UNI, brand style fit, and there's these multicolored refills, so I can have up to five inks in one pen.
It reminds me a lot of those multi pens that we had in the nineties that were terrible. Mm-hmm. Except these are amazing 'cause it's uni, as in uni ball.
Claire: The best.
Stephanie: The best, objectively,
Claire: basically.
Stephanie: And so not cheap, but very, very worth it for compact and multicolor and high quality. Uh, also we're such
Claire: nerds and I love us so
Stephanie: much.
Okay, same. Continue. Also, they don't fade if you happen to fall asleep in the sun and leave your page. 'cause I hate that one. I can't read what I wrote. Okay, so that's that with color and voice determining what contribution came from which planet. Sometimes I actually chunk out, so let's say I'm channeling with three different planetary entities.
A one that I did recently inspired by a conversation that I had with you was with the sun and moon, and so I had the sun and moon sort of in, in colors. Then Uranus decided to join the conversation, was invited to join the conversation, and, and Uranus showed up in, in its own column. So everything that Uranus had to contribute ended up sort of like marginalia.
Because Uranus was not, uh, a voting member of the committee. This is getting really official, but more of a, uh, contributing community member with a, a stake in the project.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: So it ended up being. Two different colors. And then this margin. I am currently experimenting with a full column division. So let's say the sun is in a left hand column, the moon is in a middle column, and then a third planet, maybe Venus is in a right hand column.
Yeah, I That's cool. Go into the column to write sort of. What their contribution is, meaning identity would occupy the horizontal axis and time would occupy the vertical axis. And I could read it sort of like a movie script.
Claire: Wow.
Oh, we are getting so detailed today and it's fantastic. Is the moon in Virgo? I'm pretty sure it is. Is it? I think so.
I love how you've like totally added personality to it. You've done like, you've added your own gear to it, like it's really become part of. Who you are. And like,
Stephanie: for sure, it's amazing because I just started doing this, uh, uh, really inspired by the resources that you've shared on the internet so generously, um, in the past couple of weeks, I think I, I'm almost disbelieving myself that I'm saying weeks.
I think it's just been weeks and the facility with which. These things are coming through. Um, this speaks one, the specificity of your prompts and, and two, how available this practice can be to someone who's open to it. I, I do not consider myself an expert automatic writing spiritual channel at all. I'm a business owner and I like the incense for my ancestors every morning, and we have conversations in my kitchen and.
My life is very spiritually vibrant, but that's about it when it comes to direct contact with unseen guidance. So this has been a delightful and very enriching addition to the ways I receive guidance. It's honestly like getting free business coaching. With some life coaching and style coaching sprinkled in.
Claire: I totally agree with that, and that's how I use Planet channeling the most personally. So I love to transition our conversation into how you use it for your business, because this geek wants to know
Stephanie: Absolutely
Claire: my favorite thing to talk about. But first, like tell us a little bit about your business and what you do.
Stephanie: I'm primarily a coach and my, my tagline is I'm a public speaking coach for collective liberation, so that means a bunch of things that don't have to do with public speaking. Most public speaking coaches will not tell you when your stated goals for beginning the coaching relationship, uphold capitalism and patriarchy most.
Coaches won't tell you when a stated goal will uphold the systems of oppression that are trying to snuff out the aliveness in all of us. Mm-hmm. And I will do that. And so I, I don't take every client that I possibly could, I. I select as mindfully as I can, and that work means I get to have conversations with community leaders, activists, spiritual entrepreneurs, disruptive leaders, thought leaders, and and people who are generally a thorn in the side of.
Oppression of systemic injustice, which is great, but it also means I have some of the toughest conversations that people will have in a month as my daily job.
Claire: Yeah. Yeah. That, um, is just light conversation you're having all the time with people.
Stephanie: Hence my practices that keep me grounded and
Claire: yeah,
Stephanie: connected to, to unseen support are very, very important to me.
And, and, right. I hope I didn't downplay this too much, but that, that mundane connection to, and I'm speaking mundane as in everyday sort of unremarkable, not mundane, like mundane astrology. The, the, sure. Um, pedestrian nature of many of my awarenesses. Like, I don't go to a temple or, and I don't, um, buy special crystals to adorn my special altar in a special corner of my home.
It's very, very mundane. It's very every day. So to have something available to me with pen and paper, as elaborate as those pens and papers may be. Is is very precious to me now, more and more precious than I could have imagined, certainly. So I've been using planet channeling to get guidance about my business.
That comes from the, the most optimistic, hopeful, yet practical and action oriented parts of myself as, as reflected and supported by the cosmos. So,
Claire: mm-hmm.
Stephanie: From, from the mundane to the most cosmic.
Claire: I would love to know because you're in the process, I believe, of hosting a really amazing workshop series and.
I would love to know if you used Planet channeling at all in the design and implementation of the series and
Stephanie: Oh, you know,
Claire: I did. Tell me all about it.
Stephanie: Yes. I was having kind of a Dark Night of the Soul, uh, about a month ago, quite recently, right before I started Planet Channeling. And as it happens, your podcast episode, introducing the practice came at.
A, a brilliantly and almost eerily perfect time. I'm referring specifically to the the Vulnerable podcast episode that. Yes. That the
Claire: one where I shared my story when I was
Stephanie: in my twenties, my early twenties. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And I, I too have experienced, and I won't get into any specifics at this time, some.
Uh, direct, uh, abuses from a spiritual leader, someone who I had thought was very close to me. Um, we had traveled together and done one-on-one partnership, co-leadership of retreats and things, uh, all over the world. And it was, uh, a great source of pain and and grief for me for lots of years that I had lost this connection to my experience of the divine.
Claire: Yeah. I
just
Stephanie: really, really
Claire: feel that. Yeah.
Stephanie: Yeah. So to have a reawaken connection is ever more, um, important to me. And I was thinking about how, how. I have to get back into these practices, even if they remind me of this person and I, I have to reconnect because isn't my channel to the divine. Uh, just as sacred, even by myself.
I had always done it in groups or in special places. Uh, and I would sort of downplay my connection to my kitchen and my incense and, and clapping of my hands and my journal pages. So when your podcast episode came out and you shared. Your personal story that I felt so resonant with my own story. I heard a lot of confluences of not only experience, but also the transformation and the resolution that you found yourself coming through.
I was like, oh, I will try this planet channeling thing. And in this dark night of the soul that I was in about a month ago, I knew I needed to teach a workshop because businesses. I think really ought to have revenue.
Claire: That's what happens in a business. Ideally,
Stephanie: I think without revenue, it, it swiftly fails to be a business.
Claire: It is a hobby, so
Stephanie: an expensive one. At that very, there are overhead considerations and I, I. Knew that I needed to lead something, but I was unwilling to do it in a way that would reduplicate any of the patterns that I was painfully re aware of. Not that I had been, but that my awareness of even being even a little bit close seemed so sharp.
Yeah, that I, I was not even willing to do anything. I thought, I'm not gonna teach. I'm just going to do one-on-one client work. And yet I felt this pull. So I had a conversation looking at transits to my natal chart, my natal chart itself, and, and going, oh, I need to talk to the sun. And fortunately, the resources available, as we mentioned, um, in your webinar and on your podcast, led me to having a conversation also with the moon, sort of as community members.
Claire: Yeah,
Stephanie: and that is the conversation I was referring to earlier when Uras popped up and I took the Uranus contributions as marginalia and they, they told me. That I was to market a, a group gathering based in ritual and based in a kind of collaborative, uh, consent based sphere of belonging, and that was all I needed to know.
I will tell you that the 15 year experience entrepreneur in me and the marketing nerd that I am was. Very alarmed at the fact that I didn't have educational objectives. I didn't have a problem that I was solving. I didn't know who my target market was. I didn't even know the title of the thing. So I, I asked, I said, what's the title of the thing?
And they said, well, it's about connection specifically. The moon was saying, well, it's about connection, sweetie. It's about ritual. It's about, um, flow and about inviting flow because you cannot force flow. Force is actually antithetical to flow, which is such a lunar thing to say.
Claire: Yeah.
Stephanie: And what came out is the current workshop titled it had a title before this title.
I'll, I'll tell you both. Um. My cosmic committee wanted me to call it mushroom because it lights up the mycelium network of connection between humans and between all beings and between the earth.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: And I replied, I can't call it that they will think I am leading an experience about psychedelic drugs.
Claire: Yep.
Stephanie: And you honest, you love the pushback. Yeah, the pushback.
Claire: Yeah.
Stephanie: Yes. We're I am also a member of this committee, I get a say. I think that's important to say. Just as a note about planet channeling, I am an active participant in the conversation. Yeah. And not just fly on the wall. Exactly. So I have more than agency.
I'm actually like the sitting, the committee chair, if you will.
Claire: Yep.
Stephanie: So Uranus was like, yeah, boy, call it mushroom. Let them be confused. And I said, uh, if you please, if you please another name, please, sir. Yeah.
Claire: Yep.
Stephanie: So the, the circle is called matriarch and yes, it's, it's about nothing that I thought it was gonna be about, and it's about everything that lights up my little revolutionary heart.
Claire: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I love how the planets gave you just enough to get started, and then you had to like, take a step forward. And then get more. It was like a major act of faith almost.
Stephanie: Oh yes. Beautifully said and very uncomfortable and I didn't wanna do it. There is a lot of security though, in knowing that it's an open conversation that I can always.
Come back to, yeah, so that feel less like a wild leap into the unknown, after which I would be alone and more of a Come on in, honey sweetie pie. Don't worry so much about what happens after you come in. Just come in. Sit down, you know, a very invitational conversation was had between me and the Sun and Moon and Uranus.
Claire: Yeah. And you maintained your authority and your agency the whole time. And that's what I find most important to me personally as someone who's sharing the technique, that it's very clear that. It's a conversation and if you disagree, you disagree, and you can say no. And you can say, say that a different way.
And you can ask questions and you can push back and I love that you did that.
Stephanie: Yes, yes. It occurs to me that these planetary voices are consistently aspects of myself and something you pointed out. And one of your explications about this practice is that a way to think about planet channeling is aspects of my higher self.
Claire: Right.
Stephanie: And that that comes to me as oftentimes images of myself, either that I have been in the past or that perhaps I could be in the future.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: And I'm a former stage performer. I'm a former. Um, professional touring theater actor. So I am no stranger to how different I can present given lighting and costumes and posture, and the right shoes do a, a, a big, big, uh, lion's share of the work and how I present posturally and in my gate.
So even though I know all of that and how variable it can be consistently. Planet channeling surprises me in how different they are from me while still being very intimate with who I know myself to be and what I know my values and my voice and my presence to be.
Claire: Yeah. Well said. That's fantastic. And I also love like.
That all of that is true and it's easy to do at the same time, it's not like this complicated ritual where you have to have like, I mean we talked about our favorite supplies, but really all you need is scrap paper and something to write with, and you don't have to be like this uber spiritual identifying person and let, yet you get all of this rich information.
It's if you haven't tried it yet, listener. Please try it.
Stephanie: Do it, do it, do it, do
Claire: it.
Stephanie: To emphasize your point there, it's the easiest thing. It's as easy as picking up the phone and calling a friend.
Claire: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie: And accordingly, when I pick up the phone and call a friend, I wanna be sat with all the things that I want or need to have a juicy conversation.
Like when bestie calls, and I know it's gonna be kind of a yap sesh, I close my door, I fill my water ahead of time, and if I need to reference notes, like if it's one of those conversations that requires screen screenshots and other kinds of receipts, I have my stuff ready. Okay? Mm-hmm. So. In the same way planet channeling and hilarious that we talk so much about all of our very detailed supply considerations.
It's the same as talking to a friend where if the friend calls or if I want a more casual conversation with a friend, it can be super impromptu, short, even
Claire: mm-hmm.
Stephanie: On a scrap piece of paper with a, a free pencil from Ikea.
Claire: Yep, exactly. Stephanie, I've had so much fun picking your brain about your planet channeling practice.
I appreciate sharing. Oh, I had such a good
time.
Stephanie: Thank you so much, Claire, for this beautiful conversation.
Claire: Yeah, it was really fun. I would love it if you shared with the listeners where they can find you, where they can get plugged into your work because it is such important work. I wanna make sure people know.
Stephanie: Thank you so much, Claire. I am Stephanie Kako Kong on the socials. You can find me as pony ponytail. That's pony as in a little horse. Hey, yeah, like my little pony pony millennials, you feel me? Pony ponytail. And on LinkedIn it's my full name. Please find me on LinkedIn and. That's very profess of you on there.
I'm trying. I'm the least professional person I know, and yet we do what we can out here.
Claire: I am impressed. Um, thank you so much for your time and for just your shininess, your shininess, your playfulness, your creativity. Which is just, it just oozes from you and I find it so delightful and we appreciate you.
Thank you.
Stephanie: Thank you. I talk to planets.
Claire: I talk to planets Tooles. All right, Astro Lover. Thank you so much for listening or for watching if you're on YouTube. I hope you enjoyed this conversation. And again, if you're like planet channeling what, you can get a free webinar instructing you on all the basics@astrologywithclaire.com slash clarity.
And if you wanna learn more about Stephanie, you can find them as pony ponytail on all the socials. Talk to you next week.