Recap: DAOs, Fake Astrology & Wisdom

Welcome to this week's recap and thanks for being a subscriber! If you haven't had the chance yet, be sure to check out my newsletter archives here. Since it's Sunday where I am, grab yourself a ☕️ or 🍵  and enjoy the read.

Summary of this issue:

• Last week - DAOs, dreams & Cuauhtémoc

• 3 Lessons - fake astrology, blood moons & lone wolves

• Next week - Wisdom soft-launch

Feel free to skip to the section you want.

⏪ Last week: DAOs, dreams & Cuauhtémoc

Here are the newsletter issues that went out to paid subscribers last week:

• North nodes, Cuauhtémoc and his hidden treasure

• Why dream analysis is flourishing

• Tiny homes, DAOs, and community

• Finding people who resonate

• The 6th sun & why we're not satisfied with materialism

It's been humbling, yet motivating, to see some of the responses:

So thanks to those of you taking a chance with me! I didn't quite expect to be getting paying members so early on in the subscriber-building process, especially with content this eclectic.

But looks like there's a desire there people are willing to pay for! 

🌙 3 Lessons

Three key lessons last week circled around fake astrology, blood moons and lone wolves. Biggest lesson (and reminder) was that it's important to be courageously you. It's a big key to happiness.

1 - Fake Astrology

I know how many people think about astrology - the proverbial "woo woo" - especially in entrepreneurial and tech circles. 

Even I've used the term in the past. 

However, the fascinating thing is that the same, self-proclaimed rationalists conflate modern horoscopes for actual (traditional) astrology.

Although we can blame modern psychology and mass media for this misconception, without actually doing some research, folks who blatantly dismiss the field as pseudoscience are mistaking what's popular for what's true.

It's actually no different to how people mistake dominant alphas as being the "ideal leader", or even accept BTC as Bitcoin.

All popular myths, but wrong.

Astrology began in Babylonia about two and half millennia ago. The Babylonians, believing the planets and their motions influenced the fortunes of kings and nations, used their knowledge of astronomy to guide their rulers. When the Babylonian culture was absorbed by the Greeks, astrology gradually came to influence the entire Western world and eventually spread to Asia as well.

By the 2nd century BCE the Greeks democratized astrology by developing the idea that the planets influence every individual. In particular, they believed that the configuration of the Sun, Moon, and planets at the moment of birth affected a person’s personality and fortune—a doctrine called natal astrology.

Natal astrology reached its peak with Ptolemy 400 years later. As famous for his astrology as for his astronomy, Ptolemy compiled the Tetrabiblos, a treatise on astrology that remains the “bible” of the subject. It is essentially this ancient religion, older than Christianity or Islam, that is still practiced by many of today’s astrologers.

But the Babylonians and the Greeks weren't the only civilizations finding connections between the stars and people's personalities or "destinies."

Just like computer algorithms today use online data to predict potential buying decisions, ancient astrologers observed connections between astronomical data and individual behaviors to predict potential "destinies".

I will expand more on all this during the week for premium subscribers, but the lesson (and reminder) has been that people tend to accept what's popular more than what's true, especially when it comes to a field like astrology.

Someone who's managed to combine the appeal of astrology with cryptocurrencies is Youtube & Tik-Tok star, Maren Altman. This cross-over is a rising market. Although some of her content can be questionable, you can't deny her ability to make a name for herself inside a unique niche.

If anything, it shows that anything is possible, no matter how quirky or eccentric.

2 - Blood Moon

Speaking of astrology, a cousin of astronomy, there's something called a "Blood Moon" coming up tonight here in the Americas. This specific one is known as a Super Flower Blood Moon.

NASA and the New York Times have shared some tips on how to watch it with the naked eye here.

There are a few different types of full moons, which include blood moons, supermoons, blue moons, and harvest moons. The name "blood moon" is sometimes used for a Moon that appears reddish because of dust, smoke or haze in the sky. It occurs during a total lunar eclipse, where Earth lines up between the Moon and the Sun, which hides the Moon from sunlight.

Most entertainment astrologers will continue dishing out typical sun-based horoscopes for this blood moon in Scorpio, but it will not resonate for everybody.

Horoscopes within astrology are like weather forecasts. They may give you a general lay of the land that day, but it's not all set in stone because you still have free-will in terms of deciding which actions to take (e.g. taking an umbrella in case it rains, or not). 

If you want specific details relevant to you, you usually have to consult a birth chart (I may even offer this as a service in the future, because traditional/ancient astrology systems fascinate me to no end - and don't even get me started on Aztec astrology 🤯, which I've been learning about here in Mexico).

3 - Lone Wolves

Speaking of moons, have you ever wondered why wolves howled at the moon?

Well, they actually don't (another myth), but they do use it to communicate with each other. 

Howling is the most direct way of communicating across long distances, and is especially important in areas where wolf territories are vast. A howl can communicate things like a wolf’s location, warnings about predators, and the position of prey.

I "howled" on Twitter recently to see how many "lone wolves" self-identified as such.

Now, although lone wolves (statistically) don't last that long in the wild, it's fascinating to see how modern Western culture glorifies being a lone wolf as a good thing.

I'll be covering this topic more in the future, but many solopreneurs, introverts, and even ex-corporates end up applying the label as a form of empowerment due to: (1) not working well with others, (2) not wanting to be seen as "sheep", or (3) just thinking it cool.

However, the reality is that many lone wolves become that way due to not fitting in, coming from an unhealthy/dysfunctional "pack" (group/team/community), or simply not learning how to work well with others.

This is why I ended up writing a book about the Lone Wolf Entrepreneur, and how my productivity mastermind The Pack ended up forming in 2016.

🦉 Next week: Wisdom soft-launch

Since you're following my journey, tomorrow (16 May) I'll be launching a landing page to validate a new business idea called Wisdom. If you'd like early bird access, click here and watch for updates throughout the day.

Premium subscribers will be getting access to behind-the-scenes documentation.

I'm also on the hunt for x3 individuals interested in getting a 1:1 reading from me (pay-what-you-want).

I'm adding new services under my personal brand, which bring together my knowledge of dream analysis, power animals, and personality profiling systems (e.g. Myers-Briggs, Wealth Dynamics, Human Design, etc.). 

All I ask for in return is a testimonial of the session (as this may morph into a coaching business later on, let's see how we go). 

Until next time, remember: through patience and persistence, it will come.

George

PS. Enjoyed this issue? Feel free to share with a friend! Got feedback? Just hit reply. I answer everyone.P.S.S. Not really diggin' this content? Unsubscribe below, then check out the newsletters for my other two companies: MetaLetter at Faia (blockchain + community-building) and Building Consistency at Honā (1 story each week about achieving success through consistency).