Body Wisdom Rising
Body Wisdom Rising is a podcast for people navigating deep change — awakenings, identity shifts, healing, and the sense that the old ways of living no longer work.
We’re living in a time of collective disillusionment and awakening. Many are being asked to slow down, feel more, and re-orient their lives — often without support from systems that were never designed for this kind of transformation.
This podcast offers a grounded way to make sense of these experiences by reconnecting to the body as teacher, the Earth as stabilizer, ancestral wisdom as context, and spiritual support rooted in lived experience.
I’m Alyssa Stefanson, Somatic and Ancestral Healing Guide, and host of Body Wisdom Rising. Each episode weaves together somatic healing, nervous system regulation, ancestral remembrance, and earth-based wisdom to support personal and collective healing.
We speak honestly about initiation, death-and-rebirth cycles, trauma, addiction, disconnection, and what becomes possible when familiar identities fall away and something deeper begins to emerge.
If you’re navigating change and looking for a grounded, embodied way to understand what’s happening — you’re in the right place.
Body Wisdom Rising — where remembering becomes medicine.
IG: @wildfemininerise
Body Wisdom Rising
Walking the Eclipse Portal: 5 Ways to Work With the Shift
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
A Ring of Fire Solar Eclipse in Aquarius.
A Virgo Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse.
Neptune and Saturn meeting at 0° Aries.
The Lunar New Year ushering in the Fire Horse.
This is not random intensity. It is structural initiation.
In this episode, I break down what these transits actually mean and how they connect to larger nodal cycles, past eclipse timelines (2008, 2017–2018), and the broader Pluto-in-Aquarius era.
Then I share five embodied ways to work with this portal:
• Slow down to speed up
• Create physical and energetic space
• Practice identity-level embodiment
• Work consciously with your personal transits
• Anchor change through ritual
This is not about prediction.
It is about participation.
Acceleration requires containment.
Fire requires structure.
And initiation requires presence.
If you’re feeling intensity personally or collectively, this episode will help you orient, ground, and move forward consciously.
Alyssa's IG: @wildfemininerise
Work With Alyssa:
Final Shedding : Stepping into the Fire Somatic Breathwork Journey
Welcome to the Body Wisdom Rising podcast. I'm your host, Alyssa, and my intention here is to deliver grounded embodied insights alongside practical tools and resources to help you heal, awaken, and remember your sacred nature. This is rooted spirituality, bringing people back to their bodies, back to their roots, and back into connection with the ancestral ways that have always carried us. Not spiritual fluff, not disconnected theory, weaving together the best of ancient wisdom and modern science, living, breathing practices and conversations that integrate healing, wellness, earth-based wisdom, and conscious growth. Each week I share space with experts in trauma recovery, holistic health, and ancestral ways of knowing, as well as voices with lived experience and powerful transformational stories. Together we explore what it truly means to rise rooted, embodied, and whole. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to leave a five-star review as it helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. And let's get into the episode. I'm really excited about today's episode because we are in such a powerful, potent time right now. I'm sure many of you are feeling it. So much going on collectively and then also personally as well. And we're gonna dive deep into that today. We're gonna talk about this upcoming solar ring of fire eclipse on February 17th, same day as the Chinese New Year, stepping into the fire horse, as well as the blood moon eclipse that follows early March. And then this Neptune and Saturn conjunction in Aries at zero degrees. We're gonna talk about what all of that means, why it's such a significant time, and how to actually work with it because I love to give you guys actually practical tools. Like it's cool to hear about the information and what's going on, but what do we actually do with this? So that's what we're gonna dive into today. And I just want to thank every single one of you who registered for the breathwork workshop, the final shedding. We had the breathwork haul yesterday. There was 85 of you that ended up registering, and it was so cool to actually see so many of you face to face. And I'm gonna do more events like that. I think it's really important to bring us all together. They'll all be different. So that one was a breath work one. So anyone who registered, they got the recording. If you missed out, and if you're having FOMO and you you still want to go back and watch the recording, because you can still absolutely do that. We're in the portal for the next few weeks, right? So you can definitely go back and do the breath work on your own time. So if that is something that you're wanting to do, just go to the link in the in the show notes, or you can find it as well on my Instagram page in my bio. Just register for the workshop like you normally would, as if it was still happening. And then I'll end up sending you the recording so that way you can go back and do it. And yeah, it was just so, so cool to see so many of you. And in the future, I'm gonna be doing more on different topics in different workshops as well to bring us all together because I feel like we need that, you know. So many of us are moving through this and it can be pretty lonely. Like I remember going through my spiritual awakening. I didn't know anyone who was like tapped into what was going on energetically. I felt pretty isolated and pretty alone. And I actually ended up finding people virtually online. That was where I connected with a lot of people. And through there, like over the years, it just one thing led to another. I've met so many people that I've connected with virtually. Some of them are just my absolute best friends. I ended up working virtually, like it just led me to the work that I'm doing today. So yeah, I'm definitely gonna be hosting more events like that. So stay tuned. So this February 17th, the eclipse is a solar north node eclipse in Aquarius. So eclipses in Aquarius occur in cycles. The last eclipse we had in Aquarius, August 2017 to August 2018, key activations in August 2017 and February 2018. Before that, the North Node moved through Aquarius in 2008-2009, debating similar themes. So if you were conscious, building, shifting, awakening, or restructuring during 2008, 2009, or 2017 to 2018, zears may contain clues to what is resurfacing now. Eclipse cycles revisit unfinished evolutionary threads. So they do not repeat circumstances, they evolve them. Aquarius governs collective systems, innovation, rebellion against outdated structures, future vision, technology, decentralization, and community dynamics. When eclipses activate Aquarius, they disrupt stagnation and accelerate shifts in group identity, long-term direction, and societal frameworks. So this eclipse is also forming a square to Uranus, the modern ruler of Aquarius, intensifying volatility, breakthroughs, and sudden reorientation. Uranian influence amplifies unpredictability and destabilizes rigid systems. Probably why we're seeing so much going on in the collective right now. You know, it's definitely a heated time. Additionally, we have Saturn and Neptune moving toward conjunction. There is tension between disillusion and restructure. So illusions are dissolving while new structures are not yet fully formed. So this can create a liminal, disorienting period collectively and personally. North node eclipses push forward. They are driven, they increase desire, they amplify longing for growth, reinvention, and expansion. However, because this is the beginning of a multi-year eclipse series, immediate action is not required. It is the opening of a chapter. So just reflect on where were you between 2008 to 2009, what shifted in 2017 to 2018, what was beginning, what ended, what identities formed. So for me personally, 2008 to 2009. So in February, when we had an eclipse, uh in February of 2008, that was when I found out and announced that I was pregnant with my daughter. And then in uh 2017 to 2018's right, the exact timings of those two eclipses, August 2017 was when my life completely collapsed and fell apart. I finally left that relationship that I was in that was super abusive for a very long time and moved into my own apartment with no belongings. And it was right around the time where, you know, I had a bad injury. A lot happened. Like it was a complete rock bottom. I felt like I was having a nervous breakdown. So that was 2017. And then the one in February in 2018 was when I actually hit rock bottom and got sober, February uh 8th on my birthday. And that was when I had my spiritual awakening. And so February 15th, interesting enough, when we had that eclipse was when I had that owl encounter. So just really thinking back to what was going on for you during that time. And of course, you know, depending on what we have going on in our natal chart, I'm personally an Aquarius sun. Um, so really depending on your own natal chart and also what transits you have going on as well, is important to look at because this eclipse will impact every single one of us differently. Although collectively, we are all going to be impacted by it. There hasn't been a single eclipse where change hasn't happened for me or something hasn't happened during that time. But there definitely are certain ones that will impact each of us more so, depending on our own natal charts. So then March 3rd, we have the total lunar eclipse, blood moon in Virgo. So this eclipse closes the Pisces Virgo axis that has been active since early 2025. Lunar eclipses mark endings and emotional purges. So unlike solar eclipse, which initiate new cycles, lunar eclipse illuminate what is complete. So the red color the red coloration of a blood moon comes from Earth's shadow, filtering the light, symbolically emphasizing exposure, culmination, and the surfacing of what has been hidden. This eclipse occurs in Virgo, the sign of refinement, discipline, health, purification, and practical embodiment. Virgo governs daily habits, routines, work structures, digestion, both literal and metaphorical, and discernment. So since early 2025, the eclipse axis has activated Pisces and Virgo themes: illusion versus clarity, surrender versus control, spirituality versus practicality, chaos versus organization. So this March eclipse represents a final clearing point along that access before the nodal shift fully transitions into Aquarius and Leo in July 2026. So where the February 17th solar eclipse in Aquarius opens a new storyline about collective identity and future vision. The March 3rd Virgo Blood Moon closes a chapter around outdated habits, disorganized systems, spiritual bypassing, unsustainable routines, self-sacrifice patterns, and martyr narratives. Virgo demands integration. So it is not mystical, it is methodical. Lunar eclipses often feel emotionally charged because they operate through the moon, memory, instinct, attachment, nervous system patterning. So this eclipse may feel like a release in the body more than a revelation in the mind. So if the Aquarius eclipse initiates reinvention, the Virgo blood a moon refines it. So this eclipse may expose where our energy is leaking, where boundaries are required, and where systems must be rebuilt from the ground up. Because this is the closing eclipse of the Pisces Virgo nodal chapter, there may be a sense of finality, a quiet recognition of what no longer functions. So if you look back to March 2025, which was the first Virgo Pisces eclipse of this cycle, the previous was 2015 to 2016, and then 2006 to 2007. You may notice similar themes around health, service work, identity, spiritual identity, or routine structures. Eclipse cycles repeat patterns at higher levels of maturity. Then on February 20th, Saturn conjuncts Neptune at zero degrees Aries, the Aries point, the first degree of the zodiac. So this alignment is considered significant because it fuses two opposing principles at a zero point threshold. So Saturn being structure, boundaries, karma, reality, responsibility with Neptune, disillusion, ideals, spirituality, fog, collective dreams. Aries is initiation. So Aries is the first sign of the zodiac associated with ignition, birth force, and the courage to start something. Aries corresponds to the primal yes of life, forward motion, identity formation, and the will to act. And when major transits land in Aries, themes often shift from endings in disillusion toward new beginnings and emergent direction. So what does zero degrees mean? Zero degrees Aries is widely treated in astrology as a starting point, a seeding degree. It is the threshold between the end of one cycle, late Pisces, and the beginning of another. In symbolic terms, it emphasizes first steps, new eras, and the sensation of crossing into unfamiliar territory. So what does Saturn and Neptune mean together? Saturn-Neptune conjunction occurs roughly every 36 years and correlates with periods where the collective ideals, narratives, institutions, and boundaries undergo revision. So Saturn is the cement, the skeleton, the contract, the discipline, the limit. And Neptune is the ocean, the dream, the myth, the dissolving of old forms, the collective field. So when they conjoin, reality testing meets idealism. So this can manifest as disillusionment, so fog clearing, veils lifting, spiritual maturity, so our dreams becoming structure, or confusion. So structure dissolving before a new one fully forms. And apparently, Neptune, Saturn conjuncting at zero degrees Aries has never happened in recorded history. So this is pretty significant. And then, of course, on February 17th, the same day as the eclipse, we have the lunar new year. Chinese zodiac shifts into the year of the fire horse. The horse represents momentum, independence, speed, visible action, and forward movement. It is associated with public visibility, charisma, and decisive expression. Fire amplifies whatever it touches. The fire element corresponds to ignition, passion, volatility, illumination, intensity, and rapid transformation. And when fire and horse combine, the archetype becomes dynamic, courageous, accelerated, and at times unpredictable. Historically, fire horse years carry reputations for disruption, social intensity, bold leadership shifts, cultural turning points, and heightened expression of individuality. In traditional East Asian astrology, the fire horse has also been viewed as unusually strong-willed and independent. The 1966 Firehorse Year, for example, is often referenced for its global cultural upheavals and revolutionary shifts. So symbolically, the fire horse year emphasizes rapid momentum, bold personal identity, breaking out of stagnation, high visibility, decisive action, independence over conformity. It is not passive energy. It does not wait for permission. So when you place this fire horse ignition inside a north node solar eclipse in Aquarius, a Virgo blood moon eclipse, and a Saturn conjunct Neptune at zero degrees Aries, you are looking at multiple initiation archetypes converging. Aries is the first sign of the Western zodiac, initiation, emergence, identity. Zero degrees is the first degree, a threshold point. Fire horse is ignition, north node eclipse is reinvention of collective trajectory. So there's a strong theme of initiation, identity shift, acceleration, new cycles beginning simultaneously across systems. However, acceleration does not mean recklessness. Fire must be contained to build something sustainable. And the reason the shedding conversation matters is because fire horse energy amplifies identity expression. If outdated identities are not consciously released, fire amplifies distortion. But if identities are consciously shed, fire amplifies clarity. So this is why eclipse season preceding the lunar new year is significant. So eclipses remove illusion and the fire horse activates what remains. So now I'm going to talk about how I am working with this energy personally. If you want to follow along, if you want to join me, that would be absolutely incredible. Of course, you can do your own thing, whatever you feel called to, but I'm just going to share personally how I actually work, you know, with eclipse portals or any significant astrological events. And so let's just mention how this is an acceleration window. So eclipses, they accelerate, right? Fire horse accelerates, zero degree Aries initiates, and North Node amplifies. So I'm slowing down to speed up. And so why slow down? I'm sure many of you are like, what, Alyssa? Like this is an acceleration period. Why would you slow down? So I'm actually going to be heading off to Costa Rica. I actually leave on the 17th. So I'll be arriving there late at night. And I'm so excited just to be in that land. Costa Rica is so powerful. It's my third time going back in the last 18 months. I'm so grateful for that. And, you know, the land there is very supportive for slowing down and really connecting to the body, really connecting to Earth is just such a magical place. So many synchronistic events happened when I'm there. I'm really looking forward to being back. But we need space, we need time to slow down and process and digest what we've been through in order to actually create space for what wants to come in, right? So it's like if we're constantly busy and constantly moving and not giving ourselves time to actually go inward and, you know, refine anything that we have been moving through, to integrate anything we've been moving through, there won't be space for it. And it'll feel really chaotic. So if we don't slow down, this energy can feel pretty chaotic. And, you know, everyone has a million excuses of why we don't have time to slow down. We're all busy. Space is something that you have to create in your life, right? Most people aren't gifted, just tons of space in their life. There's always things that we can be busy with doing. And, you know, I've really chosen to create a life of spaciousness. We are all co-creators in our life. We are all responsible. And um, space is something you need to create. And that came with periods of hustle at first for me. So there were times where I did, you know, ride that forward momentum and I did have to hustle. But the only reason I was able to do that was because I also created space at other times in my life. So I go through periods of hustle and flow. So periods where it's time to take action, you get a lot done in a short period of time. And then also times where you just need space to integrate, to process, to rest so that you can create space for what wants to come in. So it doesn't feel so chaotic. So many of us can have the excuse of being too busy. And often what I find is it's actually just a fear to go inward. It is hard to sit with yourself. It's not something many people can do to just actually sit and reflect and go inward and connect with your soul, connect with your heart can feel a bit confronting and uncomfortable. But, you know, really that's how we're able to really connect to anything that's soul aligned in our lives. You know, we need to give ourselves that time, time in quiet, time in solitude, time in nature. So that's what I'm going to be doing is I am going to be spending plenty of time out in nature in silence, reconnecting to my soul. So when collective energy intensifies, the body can interpret it as a threat. So before interpretation, before decision making, before planning, we need to regulate. So that could be just walking outside, even in cold weather. You know, I used to always make the excuse of not going outside because it was wintertime, because it was freezing out. And I just dress for it. I get outside any chance I can get. Deep breathing, connecting to your body, doing some somatic practices, you know, acceleration amplifies our state. So if you're dysregulated, fire magnifies the dysregulation. But if you're steady, fire magnifies clarity. And space and slowing down allows this intelligence to land. So if your schedule is constantly filled, just ask, where can I remove one thing? Where can I underschedule? Where can I create silence? Without space, nothing new can enter. So we need to create space in our lives. You know, I've really made this conscious choice to live a pretty minimalist life. You know, I'm not super focused on materialism or collecting things. For me, a rich life is having space, having time, time freedom. Without space, nothing new can enter. So embodiment is actually living what you preach, what you believe, living in alignment with your own values. And, you know, this isn't about mindset. It really is about identity. And this is where embodiment comes in. And a really great practice is to act as if, you know, this future that we're wanting to call into, even if our minds are there, if our body is not, you know, it we need to get the body aligned with this future reality that we're wanting to step into. There's a really good book actually called Psycho Cybernetics, and he speaks to identity level change. So the nervous system moves toward what it believes is safe and familiar. So you don't manifest a new life by thinking differently. You manifest it by rehearsing the identity that already holds it. So, you know, this is how I've worked over the past eight years. I've been able to make significant shifts in my life and step into the world and the life that I'm living now and the purpose that I've stepped into. And it was a lot of just acting as if and embodying it. And I'll give you an example. So, one thing that I've been working on over the past few years. So I went through a lot of financial instability and struggle, right? Like I lost everything eight years ago. And so losing everything, starting your life over as a single mom. I was working multiple jobs. I went back to school. I was building a business. Like financially, I did this all on my own. And so that was a lot. And it was hard. It was very, very hard. And I often felt so behind because I was joining so many different masterminds with other people who were doing things that I was wanting to step into. So the work that I was wanting to do in this world, I joined a lot of masterminds because it is very important to get into rooms of other people who are doing what we're wanting to do, right? So we actually are the average of the top five people we spend the most time with. So it's really important to surround yourself with people in environments, you know, people who are going in the direction that you're wanting to go in. So I put myself in a lot of these environments and a lot of these. Different masterminds in a lot of these communities. And I felt a bit intimidated because I always saw these people who were thriving financially. And I just wasn't there. And I felt so far behind. And so I caught myself feeling that way, like that insecurity, that low self-worth, not feeling worthy of being in these rooms and still identifying as a struggling single mom. So when I recognized that, that was a massive shift for me because my body still felt like it was a struggling single mom, even though that may have been my situation at that time. Like I wasn't thriving financially at that time. But how could I shift if my body still believed that? You know, I needed to feel and get into a state where abundance just felt natural to me. So I started to slowly let go of that identity. I refused to take that on. Like I am not a struggling single mom. I am not a victim. I'm not getting stuck in like this martyrdom. And I started to just to feel like this sense of power. Like, no, I am not. Maybe it hasn't physically manifested yet, but really feeling that and holding my body with this sense of being powerful, of being abundant. There's nothing I love more than seeing women rise and become financially abundant. You know, we really need to see this financial shift happen and get the money into the hands of people who are going to do good with it. We are seeing what happens in the world when money gets into the hands of people with not so good intentions, right? And so money really is just an energy. Money is not inherently good or bad. And so healing my relationship around money and the feeling of money was massive for me. So even just starting to feel like I was worthy to be in those rooms, I was equal to them. So it started to feel natural. And things drastically began to shift for me when I began to do that. Another thing that I used to do too, so I hadn't traveled my whole life. Like I didn't know what it was like to really travel uh anywhere because I had never traveled before the age of 30. I went to Think Vegas a couple times in my 20s, and that was it. That was the only time that I traveled. I never traveled as a child at all. So I really wanted the opportunity to start traveling. So I filled my apartment. This is when I was living at my old apartment, and I had like no furniture at that time. And I remember just like, I couldn't wait till I could fill my apartment with plants. I used to just dream of that and I used to just envision that. And so when I started having a little bit of extra money, I started collecting plants and they were tropical plants and I filled my apartment with them. Well, interesting enough, now I've manifested like incredible opportunities to travel. This is my third time going to Costa Rica in the past 18 months because I started to surround myself in those environments. I started acting as if. And, you know, when we start to put ourselves in those environments and when we start to pretend as if we're actually there, like fully embodying that feeling and feeling it in our body, we start to call these things into our life. It's really important to get rid of any guilt or shame around receiving. I had a lot of guilt and shame around receiving. You know, there's so many people in the world who are struggling who don't have. And it was like almost like I felt this guilt for having, which is so ridiculous because I know the more that I have, the more that I give, the more that I'm able to support others, the more that I'm able to invest in movements that I care about. So really healing any wounding I had around money and really embodying the feeling of abundance. You know, if I'm stepping into or wanting to step into a more visible role, I practice visibility now. If I'm stepping into a more sovereign identity, I make sovereign choices now. If I'm stepping into leadership, I regulate like a leader now. Neural pathways reorganize through repetition, not through inspiration. So we have to keep practicing these things and keep feeling it. Act as if until your nervous system recognizes that it is normal, that it is natural. This is new wiring. Another way that I'm working with this energy right now is, you know, working with the transits that I personally have going on in my chart. So astrology is not prediction, it is timing. I look at it as, you know, evolutionary, you know, energies that we can work with. So we do not need to fear transits. We just have to learn how to work with them. I was just navigating, you know, a pretty intense Saturn transits. I had four Saturn transits at once. It was a very intense time. And Saturn can feel really depressing. It can really feel like it's holding you back, that it's delaying any forward movement. But I learned how to work with it, to create more structure in my life so that when that energy cleared, I could really step forward. And I actually started to really enjoy this Saturn transit because at first it felt like it was punishing me. In the beginning of these Saturn transits, they often do. When you learn how to work with them, you can get a lot done in a short period of time. And that was my experience. And so personally, what I'm stepping into is a Neptune square Neptune transit, dissolving illusions and Saturn conjuncting my north node, all about responsibility aligned with destiny. I'm in an Aries North Node. So this is really significant time for me because my future, my destiny is stepping into leadership. I'm also a Pisces rising. So Pisces rising with this Aries North Node is all about spiritual leadership. So look at your own major transits. It's not about predicting your fate, but to orient yourself and to work with these energies that are available to you. So what is being developed, what is being tested, what is being released. And then the fifth way that I work with this is, of course, ritual ceremony to really anchor this shift. Ritual stabilizes acceleration. So fire energy without ritual can become chaotic. Fire energy within ritual becomes initiation. Ritual is not about superstition. It really is about anchoring. So I work with full moon gatherings, new moon circles. I gather with a group of women. We meet twice a month and we do full moon and new moon gatherings. So during the full moon, we focus on anything that we're wanting to release and we all write this letter. And then on the new moon, we focus on what we're wanting to call in, like the seeds that we're wanting to plant. It's been so powerful gathering with a group of women. Women are powerful co-creators or powerful manifestors. So when we gather, we can just literally create ripples in this world. And it's really cool to see. We've been doing this for about a year, the things that all of us have been calling in. I'm a completely different place than I was a year ago. So these gatherings and these rituals and these ceremonies that we do are really powerful. When I first began consciously calling in my ancestors, you know, my life dramatically changed. Actually, I did a whole ceremony this past year of asking my ancestors to step into business with me and to really make sure that I was helpful, my ego was stepping aside, which can be challenging in business, right? And really asking for their support and their guidance. And when I did this ceremony, I actually went out to a park. This is right after I did this ceremony. And I saw this eagle flying high in the sky, circling above me. When you see an eagle flying above you, above you, high above you, it often symbolizes your prayers being brought up to the spirit world. And so about a week later, I went outside to throw out the garbage and I ended up seeing an eagle. I've never seen an eagle right by my home. I live in the city, flying very low, right directly over my head, over my building. And that symbolizes that your prayers have been delivered. Right after that happened, you know, everything with my content, with my social media, with my business just started taking off. I also received very clear direction of these programs that I was meant to initiate and to start and to lead. So it's don't underestimate the power of ceremony, the power of ritual and going in with, you know, clear intentions, going in, you know, aligned and willing to let go of things, you know, willing to let your ego step aside. That's often the fear that blocks people, is when we ask for ancestral support, it's also asking our small self, our small desires to step aside and asking for them to support us and to work with us and to work through us. And that means that letting go of the idea of how you think it should be and allowing in and receiving that support and that guidance, and it often turns out so much better than we could have created on our own. I just want you to know that if there is any fear, yeah, it might turn out differently. It might not look at all as you completely imagined, but it can turn out a million times better. So those are the five ways that I'm working with this energy right now. So creating more silence and slowing down, spaciousness, creating more space, decluttering in my life, in my mind, embodiment, acting as if, working with the transits that I'm currently moving through, and ritual ceremony. So I hope you all found this episode supportive and helpful. Uh, can't wait to connect with you again. I'll be hopefully possibly recording another episode this weekend. There's something on my heart that I feel called to share, to create. And um, I'll be sharing in my stories, but my experience in Costa Rica if you want to follow along. Until next time, love you guys.