Reaching Through Time

This post was inspired by a question from Substack writer Farhanah Ali, at Sunday Chisme.

Farhanah is a Malaysian-American storyteller tracing love, friendship, and identity across borders, languages, and lifetimes.

Farhanah’s question is this:

“A friend once told me that astrology happens to us, whether we believe in it or not, the way time does. We just haven’t learned to read the stars the way we read a clock.

I wonder if love works the same way — if the people who alter us are written into our orbit long before we meet them. Do we have a choice in that, or are we just tracing patterns that were already there?”

As you can see, Farhanah is a beautiful and lyrical writer, and I’ve taken my inspiration for this post from a passage in her essay, published on 12 October 2025, titled Maybe That’s How It Happens:

“Back then, I thought I was stuck. But really, I was stacking invisible bricks. That job, that routine, those podcasts, they were teaching me persistence. Two years later, when I was invited to be a guest on Ethnically Ambiguous, it felt like the world had folded in on itself — that the version of me who listened half-asleep in freeway traffic had somehow reached through time and pulled herself forward.”

---

Dear Farhanah,

I agree with your friend about the clock.

I often explain to my clients that the planets don’t make anything happen any more than the clock on the wall causes 3:00 p.m. to arrive. They’re simply telling us the time. An astrologer reads patterns the way a meteorologist reads the pressure systems. We’re not summoning the weather, as the ancient gods might do; we’re interpreting the conditions so we can understand what’s coming our way.

Many cultures conceive of time as cyclical rather than purely linear, and see existence as unfolding through repeating patterns, not a single, irreversible timeline.

Neuroscientist Dr. Tara Swart has spoken about this cyclical concept of time, particularly in relation to synchronicity. On 16 September 2025, she told podcaster Andre Duqum (Know Thyself, episode 163, The Hidden Language of Signs, Synchronicity and the Mystery of Consciousness) that some ancient cultures viewed time not as a straight progression, but as a spiral – a model that may help explain why certain themes or relationships recur. In her view, moving through time cyclically means you might “pass by events similar to ones you have experienced before and might experience again.” Swart draws from both neuroscience and mysticism, suggesting that seeing time as cyclical expands our understanding of meaning, coincidence, and connection.

So your question about love, and whether the people who alter us are written into our orbit, might best be explored in that context.

When I first pondered your question, I thought about fate and free will. But then I realised you’d already given us the answer, in that image of the invisible bricks, and of your past self reaching through time and pulling you forward.

I was captivated by that line from the moment I read it. It sidesteps the whole fate-versus-free-will debate in the most elegant way. It suggests that the person who altered your orbit – who stacked those bricks, who showed up for that tedious job, who sat in traffic listening to those podcasts - was you. You just didn’t recognise your future self in that moment.

When we talk about people being “written into our orbit,” we usually imagine it like casting: a higher power wrote the script, assigned the roles, and we’re just showing up to say our lines. But orbits aren’t scripts. They’re gravitational patterns. And gravity isn’t one body pulling on another; it’s two bodies pulling on each other. So at certain points in the cycle, you’re not just being drawn into someone’s orbit – you’re pulling back.

When you met the person who changed everything, when you walked into that Ethnically Ambiguous studio, you weren’t tracing a pattern that was already there; you were adding to one that was already in motion. Those invisible bricks were the foundations of what was to come. Your past self didn’t just reach forward, she created the conditions that made reaching possible.

This is where neuroscience and astrology meet. Your brain filters thousands of pieces of information every day, deciding what deserves attention. And what it chooses isn’t random, it’s trained by your focus. If you focus on obstacles, every door seems locked. If you focus on possibilities, you start to notice the ones already standing open, inviting you in.

This is what I actually see in a birth chart. It’s not a script of what’s going to happen to you, but a map of opportunities, possibilities, and potential turning points.

It’s a tool for training your attention. It helps you notice what might be right in front of you while your brain is preoccupied with scanning for threats or red flags. The patterns aren’t fixed; they’re alive. And they need your participation. The more you engage with them, the more clearly they respond.

Do we get to choose who changes us? Not exactly. It’s more about recognising who or what is vibrating on our wavelength. We’re not creating something out of nothing; we’re noticing what resonates. Some connections will never work out for us, no matter how much effort we make. Others are already tuned to our frequency, we just have to be observant enough to notice when they appear.

Astrology sharpens that awareness. It helps us make better choices by showing us what kind of season we’re in, what themes are recurring, and what’s calling for our attention right now. We’re not reading fate; we’re reading the moment and learning how best to work with it.

Your friend said that astrology happens to us whether we believe in it or not, like time. I’d agree that time happens anyway, whether or not we notice. The stars aren’t writing your story; they’re telling you the time while you write it. The people who alter us aren’t random, but they’re not preassigned either. They’re the ones standing beside us, waiting to be noticed.

So the question isn’t whether love or purpose is written in the stars, but whether we’re willing to look up and notice what time it is. And if you’re paying close attention, you might see that the hand reaching through time to guide you forward is your own.

An Invitation

Do you think our future is written in the stars? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

I write this Substack because I love astrology, I love to write, and I love to connect. This space is where all three meet.

You — my small but growing circle of readers — are my collective muse. Just as I learn from every client session, I want to learn from you here.

If you have a question about your chart, your transits, or astrology in general, get in touch — DM me or leave a message in the comments — and your answer could be featured in a future post.

And if you’d like the full 90-minute experience, book a reading with me. Together we’ll explore your unique path, creative potential, and next steps in a way that’s entirely personal to you.

Find out more at magentadeluxe.com.

As above, so below.