In this episode of AuDHD Magic:

• Why this time of year brings up issues with intuition and self-trust

• How year-end reflections can ding your self-confidence and spawn disempowering narratives

• The curious pattern I’ve seen with my clients in their relationship to intuition

• Why Autistic, ADHD and other neurodivergent folks are naturally intuitive

• The roots of your issues with intuition and self-trust and why it’s not your fault

• The five ways you might be unconsciously suppressing your intuition without realizing it

• The most common block to intuition that I see with my private intuitive development clients

• Strategies to reconnect and build confidence in your intuition, even if it’s been hard in the past

Read the text version:

Welcome back to episode six of AuDHD Magic! It’s hard to believe that this is the final episode for 2025. After this, I’ll be taking a holiday break until mid-January, so I wanted to give you something to really sink your teeth into over the next month.

Today I’m going to get on my soapbox about one of my favorite topics, which is intuition and self-trust.

For a number of reasons, I think this time of year tends to really put a spotlight on our relationship to intuition and inner knowing, and how much we feel we can trust ourselves. We are often reflecting back on how the year has gone and looking ahead to what next year might hold.

Many people are seeking out intuitive readings and guidance right now. And as an intuitive reader myself, I certainly know the value of having someone else read for you, but I also know that you undoubtedly have your own intuitive insights on what lies ahead and where you’re being called to focus in the new year.

You might not be feeling that confident, though, especially if 2025 did not go the way that you had hoped. It has been a challenging year for many of us, to say the least. If you’re anything like me and most people I know, your first inclination is to blame yourself and start to construct narratives about where you went wrong and what you should have known to create better results in 2025. That’s understandable, but I want to remind you that sometimes life is just life-ing, and it doesn’t have to mean anything about you, especially in turbulent times such as these.

Are you arguing with me in your head about that right now? Are you unsure if you can really trust what you know? Do you just kind of wish someone would tell you what to do? Has your intuition seemingly faded away or dried up and evaporated at some point? Then this episode is for you.

Neurodivergent intuition

As a highly sensitive AuDHDer, you’re naturally intuitive. Truth be told, we all are, but a lot of neurodivergent folks are especially gifted. And it makes sense because a defining trait for many Autistic, ADHD and otherwise neurodivergent folks is a pronounced sensory experience. We feel a lot, and that sensitivity isn’t limited to the five senses. It extends to the sixth sense and beyond. We are feeling more in all the dimensions, seen and unseen.

Have you ever noticed that all your fave highly sensitive healers, psychic mediums and spiritual practitioners, have come out as ADHD, Autistic or otherwise neurodivergent over the last few years? That’s a whole other episode in itself….But my point is, if you are neurodivergent and you are wondering if you’re intuitive, the answer is yes. And if you feel like you are secretly a fairy, then go ahead and multiply that.

I’ve been working closely with highly sensitive and neurodivergent folks for years now, and I’ve noticed something curious: Most of them are highly intuitive and psychic, yet they don’t see themselves that way.

For example, clients in my intuition accelerator will show up to a session saying they have no clue what to do, and then they will turn around and channel 20, 30, 45 minutes’ worth of insight and guidance like it’s nothing. I’m not pulling any rabbits out of hats here. We’re simply evoking the inner wisdom and intuitive knowing that is already present by giving it support and space to be heard.

If you’re listening or reading this right now, you are likely no different from these clients. You already have the intuitive ability. You just don’t recognize the full extent of your inner wisdom, so you believe it’s unreliable or not that strong, and then you feel unsafe trusting it.

The roots of your intuitive blocks

Now, why is this? Well, most of us are taught, directly and indirectly, that intuition is a flight of fancy rather than a valid way of knowing. We are taught that only so-called rational, intellectual knowing is real and reliable, and that is how we’re trained to navigate life and make decisions. This mindfuck that has lodged itself in your psyche courtesy of white supremacy, Christian colonialism, patriarchy, late stage capitalism and co, is an unwanted gift that truly keeps on giving.

Dragon 🐉 Letters from Ixchel Lunar

Epistemicide and the Reclaiming of the Intuitive Body

Hola! I’m Ixchel Lunar (they/them), an Indigenous time ecologist, ancestral medicine guide, and rhythm witch for creative rebels, decolonial dreamers, and neuroqueer visionaries. This Substack is ded…

Read more

4 months ago · 2 likes · 2 comments · Ixchel Lunar

Unfortunately, even if you think that intuition is valid or even desirable, this societal conditioning and gaslighting is likely still operating beneath the surface. It’s like a kind of spell that sows doubt and undermines your self-trust. It minimizes, it distracts, it drowns out and explains away your authentic inner knowing, thus keeping you disconnected from your power. All the better to keep you working, consuming and complying with the social order, while feeling shaky in your ability to discern what is true. In other words, intuition and self-trust are politicized.

The thing is that even though it didn’t start with you, the call is now coming from inside the house, and it could seem to be very convincing. I’ve seen it clearly in myself and my clients over the years. But the good news is that this programming loses its power the more you see it and shift the pattern, because beneath all the bullshit and barriers, your intuition is still there waiting for you.

So let’s take a look-see into this whole operation, because I’m going to break it down and show you the reasonable-seeming habits and priorities and false beliefs that are unconsciously blocking your intuition, and also share with you some tips on how you can free up your true inner power and guidance.

Before I get to the first item on the list, you know I love a preamble. I want to say that you might feel a little called out by some of what I’m going to share, and that is okay. There is nothing to be ashamed of if you recognize any of these patterns in yourself, in your life. As I said, these are culturally ingrained, and you came by it honestly, but you don’t have to keep it going.

5 ways you’re unconsciously blocking your intuition

1. You say your intuition isn’t speaking to you, but actually you’re not listening.

Look, I get it. It’s hard to wind down and dedicate time to your spiritual practice or just find unstructured time to check in with yourself. Society has told you it’s not a priority. It’s definitely not as important as work and chores and childcare and your never-ending to do list, because we know capitalism does not want you to rest, and you’re probably a former gifted kid who over identified with being capable, hard, working and productive.

Then we have all the screens and the dings and the AI curated perpetual scroll competing for your 24/7 attention, either lulling you into distraction or getting you worked up into a ragebait tizzy or crushing hopelessness. (Ask me how I know.)

Maybe you’re an under-stimulated ADHDer who’s never to be found without 108 open browser tabs while that one song is looping in your earphones. Or maybe your inner ear is constantly hijacked by intrusive thoughts or rumination. Focus? Mindfulness? Never met ‘em.

Maybe you even have time set aside on your calendar, but showing up is a struggle because of demand avoidance and task switching difficulties.

No matter what the reason is that you’re not really listening, the reality is that intuition needs space to be heard. You have to pay attention in order to get it, because your guides can’t just leave you a voicemail.

How to get unblocked:

Start really, really small. Can you give yourself just one minute to take some relaxed breaths and check in with yourself, listen to your inner voice? You might be surprised at what is possible in just a brief moment of presence.

Also, do you need some kind of support to be able to show up for your practice or have that time for yourself?

If demand avoidance is a barrier, what could make it more fun and appealing for you? Where could you take the pressure off so it doesn’t feel like another obligation on your to do list?

I really encourage you to do what works for you, not what you think you’re supposed to do. If sitting in silence doesn’t work for you, then switch it up:

• Take a walk with your guides

• Put your playlist on shuffle and ask for a message

• Get out the journal and just do a brain dump.

Whatever it is, just start where you are and begin to carve out some time for yourself in a way that works for you, so that your inner wisdom can start to be heard.

2. You don’t recognize intuition when it shows up.

The next one on the list is sort of related, which is your intuition may be right under your nose, but you don’t recognize it. Sometimes we’re trying to listen but we’re not hearing because it’s not what we expect. Or we don’t even know where to start because we never learned. How are you supposed to know if nobody ever taught you?

Because of how intuition is viewed and portrayed in the media, a lot of people are also expecting it to be dramatic and profound, like something that hits like a lightning bolt, and that’s possible, but relatively rare. Chances are that your intuition is speaking in more subtle ways, like a feeling in your gut, a passing thought, a bird outside your window, a persistent question or impulse that keeps coming up.

In fact, sometimes we don’t notice intuition for what it is, because it seems like just a normal part of your internal experience, something mundane. Personally, I thought for years that I wasn’t intuitive, until eventually I realized that I was always having gut feelings and knowing things about people that I was never told. But it was normal to me, whereas I was expecting intuition to be something overtly mystical, like seeing a spirit with my naked eyes. And for some people, it can be--there are people who can do that, but intuition can show up in so many different ways, and it’s different for each of us.

If you aren’t familiar with how your intuition works, it might be right there, and you don’t even realize it. If you are comparing yourself to others and expecting your intuition to work the same way that theirs does, remember that your intuition is subjective. It’s personal and unique to you.

Another thing that can happen is where you’re experiencing intuitive messages, or what I like to call spirit guide winks, but because you aren’t really tracking them you’re not realizing just how often they’re happening and seeing the bigger picture that they’re painting.

How to get unblocked:

• For you to shift this block, turn your attention to getting to know your intuition and how it speaks. Reflect on any past times that you experienced intuitive insight. How did it show up? How did you know? What thoughts, sensations, synchronicities were there? Was there anything you brushed off that you later found was right on? Build on that.

• If you’re not sure where to start in your practice, consider incorporating tools like tarot or oracle cards, guided meditations or a pendulum, something that helps you tune in. Because intuition is not better if it comes out of thin air. Reaching for a tool or a medium is just a way to bring more support to the process.

• Also, guides tend to speak in phrases and blurbs rather than paragraphs, but you can string them together. So if you’re getting brief messages and you’d like your guides to elaborate, you can try automatic writing or recording a voice note to help unfurl the full message and translate it into words.

3. You’re seeking intuitive guidance from a place of urgency and pressure to perform.

The third block is one that I see so often, which is that accessing intuition feels really hard because you’re approaching the process with urgency and pressure to get it right on the spot.

This happens most often when you’re trying to connect with your intuition at a pre-determined time, or you’re pondering a big question or life decision. You need to know, so you turn to your intuition and you expect an immediate, unequivocal response. While it’s very possible to access intuition in the moment it’s not necessarily going to spit out definitive answers like Chat GPT (which, by the way, often doesn’t have immediate answers either, so it just makes them up.)

So what’s the deal here? If intuition is available to you in every moment, why doesn’t it work when you need it? Here’s the thing: approaching with an expectation of on demand insight, even in a low stakes check in, puts a lot of pressure on yourself, which then leads to performance anxiety and a fear that aren’t you aren’t doing it right.

The culprit here is your nervous system, because intuition is happening in your body, not somewhere outside of you. When you put pressure on yourself, your nervous system goes into high alert, and you’re then likely to either go blank or slide into your tried and true coping strategies.

For many of us, that looks like the perceived safety of intellectualizing, problem solving and going into mental overdrive in an attempt to figure it out. Filtered through this frame of mind, any intuitive insights that are coming through get distorted, leading to confusing, unclear responses, which only makes you more doubtful.

How to get unblocked:

• Whenever possible, seek out your intuition when you’re feeling relatively safe, calm and grounded.

• Take the pressure off by giving yourself plenty of time, either longer sessions to really drop in deeper, or taking a break and returning on another occasion. This also a great strategy, because if you check in repeatedly over a number of sittings, you’ll start to see if there is a coherence and a consistency. Are you repeatedly receiving the same guidance and impressions?
  
  This might feel unappealing because we live in a world that expects instant results, and you likely have a desire to get it resolved immediately. Which brings me to the next item on the list:

  

4. You’re demanding certainty and holding intuition to an impossible standard of proof.

In a desire for safety and certainty, you might be holding your intuition to an impossible standard of proof. It’s not just because you’re a stickler, it’s because a sense of certainty creates relief.

As I mentioned earlier, we’re encultured to believe that certainty comes from facts, proof, plans that make sense on paper and adhere to a rational explanation or an established conventional pathway. So when we approach intuition, we’re often expecting it to meet that same standard in order to be trusted, and when it inevitably can’t, we fall back on the perceived certainty of mental reasoning rather than staying with the tension of the question.

This is not a science lab or a court of law. There’s often no single right answer, no objective truth, and uncertainty is unavoidable in life. Even a seemingly foolproof course of action that makes complete sense on paper can still lead to unexpected results.

Demanding complete certainty does not eliminate risk. And uncertainty is actually a neutral condition, if you think about it. It doesn’t necessarily mean that something bad is going to happen.

This particular block tends to show up in a few different ways:

Dismissing insights that don’t come through with a feeling of complete confidence, because your brain tells you that lack of confidence must mean that it’s not right. But the thing is that true confidence is not really a mental thing. It’s a felt sense, a body knowing, like much of your intuition.

You may also feel a need for intuition to deliver all the details and show you the full plan and a guaranteed pathway to the end result before you even begin. But here’s the thing: the pathway is not always pre-determined. You are co-creating your life, and the path is unfolding as you make choices.

Also, sometimes we do intuitively know something, but then we convince ourselves that we don’t know it, because we’re scared. We’re afraid of what comes next, what we’re going to have to do with this information. What will have to change?

Remember that you’re a capable person, and if you make a wrong turn, you can change direction. There are relatively few decisions in life that are truly irreversible.

How to get unblocked:

If you feel like you’re really getting caught up with this block, you can try reflecting on what is your standard of proof? What does it actually take for you to trust yourself and your intuition? Is that even possible to achieve?

If not, it’s getting in the way of receiving the inner guidance that is trying to help you out and guide you to your best possible outcome.

5. You wonder if you’re just making it all up.

This is probably the most common one, which isn’t surprising given how intuition is denigrated and misrepresented as foolish, silly, delusional, even.What do you mean you just know? What do you mean you talked with the trees and got a dream message from your ancestors?

We’re taught that knowledge is only valid if arising from outside yourself, from someone who is an expert, from a book, someone who knows better than you.

When intuition is dismissed as “just” imagination or superstition, that is a dog whistle for anti-magical bias. And I want to point out there’s a long history of white male elites cloaking their biased and nonsensical beliefs in the guise of science.

So if you’re wondering whether your guides are real or if it’s all in your head, my answer is that it doesn’t really matter too much. Whether you see intuition as communication with the spirit world, nonlinear creative intelligence, heightened pattern recognition or just your imagination, the question of where it arises is somewhat irrelevant. What if your imagination has something important to share with you?

A more salient question is, does this have a real impact? Is it helping or hurting?

How to get unblocked:

If you’re caught up in this one, employ your powers of observation. Look at the data and draw a conclusion. What happens when you follow your intuition? What happens when you don’t? Chances are you will see that what you experience as intuition is guiding you well, even if you don’t understand how it works.

The bonus is that seeing the evidence here may help your rational mind to relax a little and get out of the way so you can better hear what your intuition is communicating and use it to support what matters most in your life, not just for yourself, but also for your community, for your purpose.

✦ Find support for your intuitive reclamation:

I’ve given a lot of practical and philosophical suggestions here for unblocking your intuition on your own in your solo practice, but intuition is also easier to access when you’re not holding it all yourself. It’s literally less for your brain to do. So if you’re ready to stop struggling through it on your own, I have two invitations for you:

• You can come to my monthly online meditation circle, Spirit Hour, where you’re going to intuitively connect with personal guidance in a supported community space. At our next circle on December 19, we’re doing a special Winter Solstice Celebration with your guides, so I’d love to see you there.

• Prefer completely private, customized support? My one-on-one intuition accelerator is a proven pathway to meet your guides, nurture your self-trust and establish a clear process for accessing your intuition. Find more details here.

Thanks for spending this time here today. I hope this has been illuminating and supportive for you. I would love to hear what this brought up. If this gave you any a-ha moments, or if you tried any of the suggestions, let me know what happened!

I’ll be back in mid-January with the next episode. Until then, take care and stay magical!

P.S. Want to celebrate Winter Solstice with your guides and a community of kindred spirits? 💖✨

Join us at Spirit Hour on Friday December 19 at 12 pm EST to receive the wisdom that’s waiting for you. You’ll enjoy an illuminating Winter Solstice meditation journey, followed by a little candle magic to enchant your New Year! 🕯

Get your ticket now for access to both the live event and replay recording. See you there! 💫

• Find more illuminating content on Stephanie's YouTube channel.

• Get the free Spirit Guide Meeting Place guided meditation audio to easefully connect with your guides in your solo practice.

• Hear from your guides and be in community at Spirit Hour Guided Meditation Circle, a monthly online event.

• Receive private support from Stephanie: birth chart readings, akashic records readings, intuitive development training & spiritual life coaching.

• Be a guest on AuDHD Magic

AuDHD Magic is created and produced by Stephanie Elizabeth. Our theme song is Crystal Waves by Starry Eyes.

In this episode of AuDHD Magic, I’m taking you behind the scenes into my creative process as a chronically ill AuDHD creator with a looooong history of procrastination. Tune in for the scoop on:

• Why this episode is late and I don’t feel bad about it

• The price I paid for performing ease and keeping up with grind culture

• How I’m navigating demand avoidance and self-imposed deadlines as a solopreneur

• The truth about my writer’s block and what the real problem was

• Discerning the difference between self-care and self-sabotage

• Unshaming rest and flex time as a chronically ill spoonie

Read the text version:

Hey, welcome back to episode five of AuDHD Magic. Today, I’m giving you a peek behind the scenes into my creative process as a chronically ill AuDHD creator with a long, long history of procrastination. I’m getting into why I recently found myself asking, Is this self-accommodation or self-sabotage?

To tell you the truth, this wasn’t the episode I thought I was going to be making, but this is what’s alive for me right now, so I’m going with it.

I was scheduled to have this episode out last week as part of my every other Friday publication schedule, but I hit a snag in my process: writer’s block.

I couldn’t decide on where to focus, so I started with something, but I just didn’t feel enthused about it. That zing of creative energy? It wasn’t there. What had been a joyful creative pursuit with this podcast suddenly felt hard and obligatory.

It brought up all the feelings from times when I felt blocked and frustrated as a writer over the years. There were the hours of dread while I procrastinated (because you can never truly enjoy whatever you’re doing when you know you’re procrastinating). I remembered the feverish race to write my college papers just hours before they were due. Later in my solopreneur life, it was overnight stints hunched over my laptop at an angle that strained my neck and shoulders, all with the excruciating feeling of overwhelm and pressure urging me on.

This was my routine for years, but it was only when those hours at the laptop eventually started turning into weeks of painful muscle spasms and sleepless nights that I finally got that I needed to take better care of my body. Because it had previously been an afterthought in my heady AuDHD nervous system.

So the first step was learning to notice when I’m in pain and make adjustments. Sounds simple, right? But I had to become fussy with my physical comfort, because if my body isn’t comfortable now, it’s really gonna hurt later. And as you can imagine, that brought up all the people pleasing shit, because I am no longer suppressing my needs to perform easy breezy.

These days, I’m still willing to put in the time required to do writing projects, but I’m no longer willing to do so at the expense of my health. Because as a chronically ill, neurodivergent person in my 40s, I have to honor my body’s limitations and fluctuations, or I am met with pain as a searing reminder.

Since I’m a Mercury-ruled person, the current Mercury Retrograde has got my wires crossed, so that’s part of it. But I’ve also been dealing with a lot of problem solving lately, while pondering big, huge life decisions. So as my self-imposed deadline approached last week for the podcast, I saw the reality that I wasn’t going to make it without another punishing late night marathon.

I asked myself and my guides: What does it look like to be consistent when I’m not feeling it and my spoons are all over the place?

The question bubbled up in my head: Isn’t this just self-sabotage and procrastination? It was a sly hint from my inner critic that maybe I’m actually just a lazy brat. But no! That’s just the voice of internalized capitalism and ableism trying to shame me for falling short of what are impossible standards for most people.

Ultimately, I chose to relax my deadline and reschedule it, allowing myself to rest and have downtime, because laziness doesn’t exist. And the snag that I was dealing with? It wasn’t just writer’s block. It was also migraine attacks, and a recurrence of my old friend the muscle spasm, that came on suddenly after a moment of poor posture and a failure to express my needs. The joys of hypermobility. 😑

So my creative block and my demand avoidance were both signs of exhaustion and low spoons from going too hard. It wasn’t a personal failing.

I also remembered that my ancestors have been sending me rest-oriented messages and card pulls for the last few weeks. They literally sent me one that has a person curled up, laying down!

So I decided, and I remembered, that it’s not about pushing through for a rigid deadline. That’s not what consistency is for me, as a spoonie. It’s actually just about remaining devoted to the goal and the project and working on it as a priority when I have the spoons: when I’m well-rested, when I’m fed, when my emotional self is tended to.

So that’s what I did. I came back day after day and kept working on this podcast for the amount of time that I could. And I let myself also do other things on those days. But the thing is, I still wasn’t really getting anywhere. I thought that maybe just taking one night off was going to be enough. But no, it was still a grind! It was still not fun.

And so eventually I just gave up and said, You know what? I’m just gonna give myself the rest of the week off, and try again next week. And then a funny thing happened: Last night, shortly after I decided to just give up, the whole thing came to me in a flash–what I’m sharing with you now. It was because I took care of myself and also because I took the pressure off.

In conclusion, this podcast is late and nothing has gone terribly wrong.

This is not a self-sabotage fail. It’s a self-accommodation win that takes care of me. It keeps me in my integrity and allows me to keep showing up and creating, long past any arbitrary deadline.

If you have been shaming yourself, if you’ve been pressuring yourself, if there’s something that you’re trying to push through and you know that your body needs a break—please give yourself a break, if at all possible!

That’s all. I’m keeping it short and sweet today. I want to thank you for reading and spending this time here. Until next time, remember to take care and stay magical! 🦄

Further reading:

I recommend engaging with these creators and resources that have influenced my thinking on this topic!

• Ellen Samuels: “Six Ways of Looking at Crip Time.” Disability Studies Quarterly (2017)

• / The Nap Ministry

• :

Dragon 🐉 Letters from Ixchel Lunar

🫶🏼 Please Don’t Become a Flat Tire

Hola! I’m Ixchel Lunar (they/them), an Indigenous time ecologist, ancestral medicine guide, and rhythm witch for creative rebels, decolonial dreamers, and neuroqueer visionaries. This Substack is ded…

Read more

5 months ago · 1 like · Ixchel Lunar

• / The Spiral Lab:

The Spiral Lab

Compulsory Executive Function

Compulsory Executive Function is one of the ideas we explore in-depth in Neuroqueering Your Creative Practice, and neuroqueering the problematic paradigm of executive functioning—and instead creating new paradigms and metaphors—are among the many powerful and healing experiences neuroqueerdos have in this course…

Read more

8 months ago · 55 likes · Marta Rose

• Price:

Devon Price

Laziness Does Not Exist

Devon Price…

Read more

3 years ago · 138 likes · 15 comments · Devon

• Find more illuminating content on Stephanie's YouTube channel.

• Get the free Spirit Guide Meeting Place guided meditation audio to easefully connect with your guides in your solo practice.

• Hear from your guides and be in community at Spirit Hour Guided Meditation Circle, a monthly online event.

• Receive private support from Stephanie: birth chart readings, akashic records readings, intuitive development training & spiritual life coaching.

• Be a guest on AuDHD Magic

AuDHD Magic is created and produced by Stephanie Elizabeth. Our theme song is Crystal Waves by Starry Eyes.

In this episode of AuDHD Magic, we’re diving into the astrology of neurodivergence! Tune in to discover:

• the key signs I use to identify neurodivergence in the birth chart as a professional astrologer focused on highly sensitive and neurodivergent clients

• the part of your chart that may reveal your masking strategy

• how some of these signs show up in my own natal chart

• the astrological explanation of why I’m drawn to create more astrology content these days, AND

• the secret sign of neurodivergence in your chart that you’ve probably never heard about!

Read the text version:

Hello, hello, and welcome back for episode four! I am still basking in the post-Halloween glow over here. I’ve truly been living my best feral cosplay life.

I actually dressed up twice for Halloween this year, first as a flower fairy1, aka myself, and then also as a look that I called “Lilith the angry feminist,” complete with a sword, of course, to cut through patriarchal bullshit. And honestly, it was one of my favorite costumes ever.

So today I wanted to lean in and tackle a topic that I have often spoken of with clients and friends, but which I haven’t fully articulated in words yet, which is: the astrology of neurodivergence, and specifically how neurodivergence shows up in your birth chart.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you might remember my work and my online platform actually started with astrology. Even though I’ve still been doing private readings this whole time, I have branched out and pivoted away from astrology-focused content over the last few years, as my interest was just pulled elsewhere. (I know my fellow AuDHDers know that feeling!) But lately, my love for astrology has been sort of rekindled, and naturally, there’s an astrological explanation for that, but I’ll get into that later on.

I wanted to make this episode not just because it’s a fun topic that I think people are interested in, but also because I want to actually articulate and organize my thoughts on this in one place!

So keep listening if you’re curious about the signs of neurodivergence in your chart. I’m going to share not only ones that probably a lot of astrologers agree with, but also I’m going to drop a top secret sign that I look for in the chart that most people don’t even know about!

Setting the context for neurodivergent astrology

Because I’m an AuDHDer, I have to start, of course, with a bit of a preamble. So first to say that this is all going to be my opinion, and this is based on almost a decade of reading charts professionally, combined with just my own personal gnosis, things I know intuitively.

I’m not here to diagnose anyone or tell you whether or not you are a neurodivergent based on your birth chart. I’m just going to be sharing some of the patterns that I’ve observed, and it’s up to you to draw your own conclusions about that and how it might relate to you and your life.

What I’m going to share here is also not a definitive, exhaustive list, because when we’re examining something through the lens of astrology, we are always looking at a layered, interconnected web of meaning and mythology.

Yes, astrology is quite technical, and it actually involves math, which I never thought I would be doing work that involves math, but here I am. But beyond the technicalities, there’s also a sense of poetry to it, because astrology is a symbolic language, and it’s always going to have a subjective element, which is why every reader will have their own spin on a chart.

So just like with writing, there are multiple ways to express an idea in words. The same holds true with astrology. There’s never one way that something can show up in the chart.

Additionally, when we’re looking for the core themes about someone’s chart, those are going to show up in multiple places in the chart. It’s not going to be just one thing. It’ll be echoed over and over and over.

And finally, there could be exceptions to everything I’m sharing here, because ultimately, the expression of neurodivergence is an individual matter, and that’s true in the birth chart, just as it is in life. As the saying goes, if you know one autistic person, you know one autistic person. In other words, generalizations are always going to be imprecise and at times inaccurate. We are complex individuals.

Neurodivergence in your birth chart

Okay, so now that I’ve got that out of the way, let’s dig into the topic at hand: the astrology of neurodivergence and high sensitivity in the birth chart.

Key Planets & Zodiac signs

So there’s sort of a key theme that I want to start with that’s going to inform everything else that I have to say, which is there are three planets in astrology that I personally associate with neurodivergence. These planets are Uranus, Mercury and Neptune.

• Uranus: The reason that I start with Uranus is because Uranus is a more recently discovered planet. It was discovered in the 18th century, and so it’s not part of traditional astrology. And it has an association with revolution, with liberation, with things that are different and perhaps out of sync with generally-accepted ideas and principles. And also has a strong association with technology as a concept, and tends to also go with a stereotype of the crazy genius, the mad scientist. Somebody who dares to look at something differently, who dares to question the commonly accepted ideas, and therefore is able to discover something, articulate something, that has not yet been acknowledged. And as I discussed in episode two, this also correlates with really anyone who has a marginalized identity in society.

• Mercury is associated with the intellectual realm, the mental realm where we’re discussing ideas and just anything that we’re communicating, exchanging information.

• Neptune is one of the signs of neurodivergence that’s especially associated with highly sensitive people, as well as anybody who sort of has an experience outside of consensus reality. Neptune is often traditionally associated with the concept of insanity in the chart, and that’s obviously, again, a laden term. It has a lot of problematic elements to it, but we’re just saying that Neptune can show somebody who has a different neurotype than what is normalized in Western culture.

• Zodiac signs Aquarius, Gemini, Virgo & Pisces: The three planets mentioned above rule some of the zodiac signs that are also associated with neurodivergence. Uranus is the ruler of Aquarius, Mercury is the ruler of Gemini and Virgo, and Neptune is the ruler of Pisces.

So when we are looking at a chart, we’re first going to look for any of these planets or zodiac signs to be prominent in the chart in some way: planets Uranus, Mercury, Neptune, and the signs, Aquarius, Gemini, Virgo and Pisces.

I’m not going to keep making this disclaimer, but just want to say that these are not the only ways that this can show up, but these are the ones that, to me, ring the bell.

Where signs of neurodivergence show up in your birth chart

So what are we actually looking for in the chart? What does it mean to have these planets and signs being prominent?

Some of the ways that this can show up most clearly:

Rising Sign & Chart Ruler

• Number one would be with the rising sign and chart ruler (the planet that rules your rising sign). So we each have a rising sign. You might know that as part of sort of the big three pieces of your astrology chart. The rising sign is represented by the ascendant. That’s what it’s officially called in the chart.

• The rising signs that I look for in neurodivergence are those ruled by the planets that I mentioned earlier. So we’re looking at rising signs, Aquarius, Pisces, Gemini and Virgo.

• Now I would also say that having just generally a water sign as your rising goes with high sensitivity, so that can go in there as well. But really, these four rising signs are the ones that I see the most, and especially with folks who identify as autistic and or ADHD.

Your rising sign and your neurodivergent masking strategy

• Since your rising sign represents your physical presence in the world, your embodiment, it also has some insight on your masking strategy.

• If you are a neurodivergent person who masks in order to fit in with a neurotypical dominant society, as many/ most of us have to do, your masking strategy will be revealed in part by your rising sign. Now I’m not going to get into the specifics of that here, but I definitely will think about making another episode on that specifically.

Key planets in your first house

• So we want to look at the chart ruler and your rising sign. And then also, we want to see if you have any planets in your first house that were on that list. So again, we want to look for Uranus, Mercury and or Neptune in the first house, especially if these are near your ascendant.

• Your whole first house is sort of associated with the ascendant, but if you have one of these planets really close to your actual ascendant point, that’s even more so. And I would say with all of this that Uranus is the most indicative of neurodivergence overall.

Prominent planets and signs

• So we also want to see, are any of these planets near or in a prominent aspect a connection to any of the luminaries (your sun and your moon), or any of your personal planets (Mercury, Venus and Mars).

• We also want to see, are any of these planets near any of your chart angles? Your Ascendant is one of the chart angles, and there are three other angles. I’m not going to get into that, but you can learn more here if you’re not familiar with the angles.

• And then also we want to look at the sign where you have your lunar nodes. So we each have a south node and a north node. And the lunar nodes are especially important in evolutionary astrology, where we’re looking at sort of your soul’s journey through your lifetime, and where we are sort of finding more integration and balance of different astrological archetypes and energies in our lives.

• So again, we’re looking at these planets being near or in connection with any of these key points in your chart, as well as having any of these planets, points, luminaries, in the signs that I mentioned: Aquarius, Gemini, Virgo and Pisces.

Prominent houses in your chart

• Another layer of meaning here we want to look at are the houses of your chart that are associated with these signs and planets. So if you’re not familiar with the houses, the houses are sort of different segments of your chart. Each chart is divided into 12 houses, and I actually like to think of them more like rooms within the house being your entire chart. You could think of it as like a clubhouse as well. It has different themes and areas of your life associated with it.

• The houses that are associated with Uranus, Mercury and Neptune are the third house, the sixth house, the eleventh house and the twelfth house. So we want to see if you have a lot of activity in any of these houses. Do you have personal planets? Do you have your sun or moon? Do you have a chart angle? Do you have your lunar nodes?

Elemental profile

• Another thing, just more generally, that might be accessible for you even if you are a complete beginner to astrology is looking to see which elements are dominant in your chart.

• Now I will say that there’s no one element that is or is not neurodivergent, but I will also say that some of the people that I see having the strongest neurodivergent signatures have dominant air and or water elements in their chart. So the air signs are Aquarius, Gemini and Libra, and the water signs are Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio.

• Now, why is this? The Air signs are associated with Mercury because they operate primarily in the intellectual realm.

• The Water signs are operating on the emotional level, the level of subtle energy, that which we cannot see, touch, feel, measure, but which we sense. And so having a lot of water in your chart tends to correspond to being highly sensitive, and oftentimes being what people like to call an empath.
  
  Now, obviously being an empath is sort of a stigmatized, highly debated term at this point, but that’s outside the scope of what I’m getting into. If you have a lot of water in your chart, especially Pisces, but really, any of the three water signs, you’re probably absorbing a lot of the energy around you.

Putting it all together

So to summarize, we want to see if you have multiple of the above placements, which would suggest that you have an experience of neurodivergence, most likely from birth, but possibly also acquired during your lifetime.

Analyzing neurodivergence in a real birth chart

This could all sound really abstract unless you’re really an astrology buff. So I wanted to give an example to show you what this can look like in a real chart. And we’re going to use my chart, because why not?

My birth chart:

Selected chart placements:

• So first off, we see that I have a Virgo ascendant, Virgo rising, which means that Mercury is my chart ruler.

• And then when we go to look where is my Mercury hanging out? My Mercury is very prominent in a conjunction with my Sun in Libra. A conjunction means that two planets are close together, and on some level, there’s a fusion there and operating together. And not only is it conjunct my Sun, one of my luminaries, but this is all happening in Libra, an Air sign associated with Mercury and the mind. I also have Pluto just over the cusp in Scorpio, but still in a conjunction with my Sun and Mercury. And so this just adds quite a bit more oomph to the whole situation.

• The Mercury theme also continues in my chart, as I have my Midheaven in Gemini, which is also, of course, ruled by Mercury. And the Midheaven is one of the chart angles that I mentioned earlier. The Midheaven is sort of the pinnacle of your chart. For lack of a better example, it’s the church steeple in the center of the village, the highest point, what is most visible in terms of your public life and legacy.
  
  So oftentimes, people associate this with work, but it might not be. In my case, with my Midheaven here, my voice, my words, my ideas, my perspective and my, I guess, mental agility are key attributes that I carry with me, by way of Mercury being my chart ruler and also having my Midheaven there.
  
  And in terms of my career, there’s a sense of multiplicity as well. With Gemini, we have the sign of the twins. So it’s not just one. There’s more than one. So for me, I’ve worked in a lot of different roles and industries and settings over my working life. I started working at age 14 at a museum. I have worked in the legal field. Obviously, I do this work as a creative and writer and intuitive and I also have done some marketing and copywriting work at times, as well as just all manner of organizing and project management, managing information, sharing information.
  
  My public persona itself is multidimensional. And again, there’s a multiplicity. I literally have multiple stage and pen names that I use professionally. Not to mention the way that growing up as a high masking AuDHDer forced me to constantly code switch and curate my social persona for different environments. All of this is encapsulated by Mercury, as ruler of my chart, and the Gemini Midheaven.

• Moving on, I also have my Moon in Cancer in the eleventh house. The eleventh house is ruled by Uranus, and it is the natural Aquarius house. So again, we have themes of neurodivergence, and my Moon being in Cancer is very strong, because Cancer is the sign that the Moon rules. And this is an exceedingly sensitive placement with strong intuitive potential. And I don’t just say that because I’m a professional intuitive, but for me, it’s especially strong in expression, also because it is the personal planet or luminary that is closest to my Midheaven. So it’s closest to the top of my chart, and thus more prominent.

• I have Pisces in my seventh house, which is the house of partnership, and it is naturally ruled by Venus and the sign of Libra. So again, we have a link back to my Mercury and Sun in Libra.

There’s even more—I could keep going on for quite a while, but I’m going to stop there, because this has been a lot of technical details. And what I’m really trying to illustrate here is the interconnectedness of it all, and the fact that evidence of my neurodivergence, of my embodiment of a neurotype that is not preferred in the mainstream, that all shows up in numerous places in my chart. And there’s probably things that I don’t even notice yet in my chart that are hinting to my neurodivergence.

The astrology of why I’m getting back into astrology

I also want to just quickly touch on why I feel there’s an astrological explanation for my sort of return to astrology. And again, this is something I discuss in detail on Episode Two, but I have a lot of Uranus and Aquarius energies activating in my chart right now through astrological transits to my chart, my Year of Profection being in the sixth house Aquarius, as well as my progressed moon being in Aquarius. So this is why I’m committed to being weirder than ever at this time in my life.

Astrology being an esoteric subject, and arguably also a kind of technology, is itself considered a Uranian/Aquarian pursuit in contemporary astrological theory and imagination. And this type of thing is why I geek out on astrology so much, because it has so many layers of meaning.

The secret sign of neurodivergence in your birth chart

I mentioned in the intro of this episode that I have a sort of a secret sign that most people don’t know about because it’s kind of a small detail that most astrologers don’t look at. But to me, this is an incredibly strong indicator of neurodivergence, and that is having luminaries or personal planets that are out of bounds.

Out of bounds planets

So what does out of bounds mean? You may not have even heard of this concept before. This is a technical concept that describes a planet or luminary that is operating sort of outside the typical range of motion of where we expect to see it in the ecliptic, which is a sort of imaginary pathway that we see the Sun following in the sky, and it is a key area in astrology, in constructing the chart.

So when we have something out of bounds, we could say it’s going to extremes in its expression. It’s going beyond what is normalized or typically seen. And so with a personal chart, this tends to correlate with non-conformist tendencies. And this could be on purpose, like willfully, or not, because sometimes you literally can’t conform, even if you want to. Even if you’re trying really hard, some of us can’t mask. Some of us can only mask in certain scenarios, some of us hold embodied identities that are immediately marginalized before we even do anything.

When I came across this concept, I then, of course, had to go check my own chart. I would say I’m a very intense person. I feel a lot, and I discovered that I have both my Moon and Mars out of bounds in my chart. This was absolutely wild to discover, and I found out later that my father also has Moon out of bounds in his chart.

So with all this, I would just say this is majorly emo, and especially since my Moon is in Cancer. You might know that we’re widely viewed as the cry babies of the Zodiac, and it’s true, the feelings are really, really big sometimes, but that’s partly a function of the sensitivity that we experience. We’re picking up on every little thing. We are more impacted by our environment, and oftentimes we’re picking up on that sort of subtle energetic level that other people aren’t even acknowledging or might not even be aware of, but it is impacting us, like the canary in the coal mine. That sensitivity is also one of the reasons that there are so many artists with Moon in Cancer.

Now I also have my Mars placement being in my Fifth house of Capricorn. I go hard in my drive to play and create, sometimes too hard, and it does go along with some of my perfectionist tendencies that I’m always trying to loosen a bit. And that’s certainly a process!

Out of bounds planets are relatively rare, which is probably why it’s not something that a lot of people are looking at, as well as the fact that it’s fairly technical, and not something you can necessarily see at a glance in the chart.

How to check if you have planets out of bounds

But if you are curious about this, whether you might have out of bounds planets in your chart, there is a way that you can easily look it up with your birth details on Lunarium.

Get a private, personal reading of neurodivergence in your birth chart

If you’re totally confused with all of the jargon here, you can also just book a private reading with me and leave the technical details to me. In my Soul Session Birth Chart readings, we dive deep to understand the full scope of what you’ve got going on in this lifetime, what you’re here to do and experience, what you’re learning, what you’re working on. And these are not just informational readings, but they’re also transformational, at least according to my clients. So if you’re curious about that, you can find more details and booking information on my website at Stephanie-Elizabeth.com

Call for podcast guests

And that brings us to the end of today’s excursion into the world of astrology! But before I go, I have one more fun announcement to make, which is that I’m looking for podcast guests. I would love for some folks to join me on future episodes, and this invitation is open to AuDHDers and anyone who listens and resonates with this platform, especially if you are some flavor of neurodivergent.

My vision for these guest episodes is for them to really be more conversational, rather than a stiff, pre-scripted interview format, because part of AuDHD magic, as I understand it, is emergent and relational. So I want to create space to see what emerges here in conversation with you.

You can find more details and submit an application to be a guest right here.

And with that, I thank you for reading today and until next time, take care and stay magical. 🦄

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AuDHD Magic is created and produced by Stephanie Elizabeth. Our theme song is Crystal Waves by Starry Eyes.

In this episode of AuDHD Magic, we’re examining the hidden threads between cosplay and the AuDHD experience, including":

• How repressive cultural norms and my complicated family legacy turned me from a cosplay loving kid to a normcore adult

• The family villain that unexpectedly inspired me to reclaim cosplay

• A tale of two outfits, aka that time I wore a costume to a music festival and everything changed

• Cosplay as an AuDHD masking hack

• The complex nature and paradox of being seen as a neurodivergent person, and how cosplay connects me with my fae roots

• The power of cosplay to facilitate connection and spread joy and magic

• Why it’s worth the risk of (cos)playing the fool

Read the text version:

Hello, hello, and welcome back for episode three!

I’m wishing a Happy Spooky Season to everyone. As I’m recording this, Halloween is only a week away, so I thought, what better time to delve into cosplay, and why I’ve come to see it as a form of AuDHD magic.

I’m actually using it right now. I went and grabbed my neon flowered headband (that will appear later in this episode), along with a couple enchanted pieces of jewelry to wear as I’m writing and recording today.

I didn’t realize just how much I actually had to say on this topic, until recently, when I spent a day in costume at a music festival. And if you heard episode one, I told the story about a magical moment I had that day that really helped me get this podcast launched amidst a lot of self doubt that was coming up.

My experience that day was so illuminating, and I’ve had some great personal revelations about the power of cosplay. So today, I’m going to be sharing some of that: the stories, thoughts, interconnecting threads on cosplay as AuDHD magic.

My cosplay story begins, of course, in childhood. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, and I loved spooky stuff, even as a little one. I guess I’ve always been drawn to the paranormal. It’s probably the Scorpio South Node in me, but it was also because I got to dress up in costume when it was Halloween. Back then, I really only wanted to be something scary for Halloween—no Disney princesses. At age five, I accessorized my basic witch costume with a plastic skull on a stick.

I also loved to play dress up at preschool, at the local children’s museum and in the living room, where I would put on impromptu performances for my family with a magic wand and an old fashioned purple satin dress gifted by my grandmother. Some of the costumes were improvised, like when my sibling and I played figure skaters, scooting across the floor in sock feet and tutus that we fashioned from plastic grocery bags.

Back then, I wasn’t afraid to be seen playing and having fun, but as I grew up, my relationship to cosplay and self expression became much more complicated. In middle school, I began to be self-conscious, and by high school, I started trying to keep a lower profile, because attracting attention could mean attracting the wrong kind of attention and making myself a target for bullying.

Still, I had a colorful personal style through my college years, but by my mid 20s, I was fully norm cored as I dressed for corporate office culture. By then, I had understood that as an adult, you’re “too old” to wear fun outfits and play dress up. It’s not cute. It’s a weird hobby. It’s a guilty pleasure, it’s a foolish embarrassment. People call you childish, cringe, silly, crazy, maybe even dangerous, if you dare to flout gender norms in your self-expression.

Of course, this is the type of criticism that’s often lodged at neurodivergent and queer folks and our joyful hobbies. (Side note, a ton of neurodivergent folks are queer.) And in case you haven’t noticed, neurodivergent and queer folks are at the forefront of cosplay and fashion typically. We are the campy theater kids and drag enthusiasts, the LARPers and Comic Con fantasy nerds, the weird artists and manic pixie dream girls dressed in arty, thrifted boho or bright, colorful attire that gets us accused, yet again, of shopping in the kids section.

Why is it bad to still like fun, colorful outfits just because you’re grown up? I don’t get it. Most adults will say they do not feel grown up inside. Yet in US culture, at least, Halloween is one of the few times that it’s socially acceptable for adults to cosplay. I mean, God forbid adults be allowed to play unless we’re getting paid to entertain someone. Sure you can play, if it’s your job.

It’s just one piece of the fucked up legacy of my colonizer ancestors, the Puritans. Yes, I am related to some of the most terrible people who ever lived. These are the same people who demonized communal celebrations and public festivities wherever they went as part of their imperial genocide campaigns and in order to maintain social control and assimilation into white supremacy. Because, of course, it goes back to that. So these norms and ideas about cosplay and what age is appropriate, they’re cultural, and like most, they’re not neutral, objective or inherently true.

I have to ask: if there was no power in cosplay, in cultivating joyful self-expression, then why would it need to be suppressed?

For me, there was also more family baggage centered on the complicated legacy of my grandmother, the one who gave me the purple gown. She was an eccentric individual, to put it mildly. In other words, she was neurodivergent. She was a lover of the arts and a charming fixture in her local arts community, and attracted many friends and admirers who swanned over her wit and her daily fashion looks.

To say she dressed with flair would be an understatement. Over decades, she had hoarded a huge wardrobe from which to fashion her outfits. They weren’t quite costumes in the sense of being a particular character, but they were definitely costume adjacent in that they were a strongly coordinated look, which often had a holiday theme.

When I was small, I didn’t really think anything of it. I remembered the process of getting dressed with her seemed very important and involved. But as I grew older, I understood that her outfits, although charming in the art world, were considered weird and embarrassing to most people, including her family members.

Everyone in the family joked about it, and this humor was one of the few coping mechanisms that we had, because my grandmother was incredibly abusive and had a fragile ego. She was born into a family of privilege and inherited wealth accumulated through their literal crimes against humanity and from this foundation in life, she lived to her mid 90s with an apparent unwillingness or inability to center anyone but herself. And she caused great pain with her behavior, which is why I eventually went no contact with her until her death.

She was the family villain, and her every attribute became tainted, including her love of fashion and her snazzy style. I internalized this notion that dressing in an eye-catching manner would make me a self-centered attention whore, just like her. On a deeper level, I learned it’s not a good thing to want to be seen.

It’s only over the last few years that I’ve been able to consider my grandmother as the complex, contradictory person that she was. She had unsupported neurodivergence and untreated mental health conditions, which was a complicated matter in an era when seeking treatment, especially as a woman, even one of privilege, could mean institutionalization, forced sedation or a lobotomy.

Underneath her performance of joie de vivre, I think she was miserable because she secretly wanted to be an artist herself, and she felt trapped into conventional family life, which is a thread I have also seen in other women who came before her in this family lineage.

She was born in 1927; she had really no choice but to get married, raise kids, be a housewife, and she performed conventionality on paper. She bought into the cult of proper white womanhood, and she tried to enforce it on others, even though she never truly fit the norm.

So she hung around art and artists, using her personal style as her form of artistic expression. And despite how awful she could be behind closed doors, upon her passing last year, I saw the outpouring of tributes, and I realized that her colorful presence truly did bring joy and inspiration to some in her community.

This is one of the reasons that as I grow increasingly fae and feral in my self liberation process, I’m reclaiming the magic of cosplay that I feel runs in my blood. Because once I lifted away the shame and judgment about my grandmother’s style, I realized that I, too, am a clothes horse with a natural tendency to wear overly matching outfits with a strong visual theme, without even meaning to. It’s not for attention. It’s because I’m having fun! I have an eye for color, and I take pleasure in creating new and vibrant pairings.

It’s something I’ve incorporated into my daily life and magical practice more and more over the last few years, because for me, it’s life-giving magic, and it’s part of my identity as an artist.

That’s what inspired me to show up in costume at the festival last month, so I wanted to share all of the insights that I had that day.

The tale of two outfits

On the first day [of the festival] I actually wore a regular outfit, because I was playing it safe with my old standby strategy of hiding. I wanted to be comfortable, which meant not standing out and not being seen.

Now this was mid-September 2025, a particularly fraught moment here in the US, and I was really on edge that day. I was extra hypervigilant as I observed the sea of hippy dippy white people around us. Yes, there were plenty of costumes, fae vibes and a fuck ton of tie dye, as well as the scent of cannabis wafting through the air. Yet I could not relax, because I was wondering who here was a Burning Man fascist? Who here was enthusiastic about RFK’s eugenics agenda?

My anxious, autistic energy translated to awkward interactions with vendors who seem to find me annoying, if they even noticed me at all. At the end of that first day, I realized that I was making myself miserable with this hyper vigilance, and I decided that I would try to let it go and have more fun on day two,

Pretty soon, a solution bubbled up from my inner guidance: wear a costume. I immediately decided I would spend day two dressed in my flower fairy finest. And right away, I felt myself relax into a sensation of joy and in anticipation.

It was a deliberate choice to shift my energy, but I had no idea just how profound the vibe shift was going to be and how much I would learn from this experience.

So I woke up on day two excited to put my outfit together. I didn’t have a plan, but instinctively grabbed just the right items to completely transform my look: a long green dress, rainbow sleeves from Pride, an old orange hat that I added a neon flower headband to for extra pizzazz (by the way, that’s the headband I’m wearing now). And the finishing touch that I used to complete the look was a long blonde fantasy wig from last year’s Halloween costume.

I hesitated on the wig for a second because I worried that it was going to be a pain in the ass to wear this all day. And to be honest, it did get a bit uncomfy by the end of the day, but it was totally worth it.

The thing is that even though I had made myself objectively less recognizable, I felt more like myself, and in this era of surveillance it was quite a winning combination, if I do say so myself.

Arriving at the festival grounds that day, I felt a whole sense of euphoria and playfulness take over, amplified by the fact that my partner stepped out of their comfort zone to also wear a fun eye catching outfit.

The joy was infectious, and I noticed that people were catching glimpses of us. Folks walking by smiled and complimented our outfits. Some even approached us specifically to say how much they loved the vibrant colors we had going on. It felt like we were welcomed into the community in a completely different way.

As I took some solo time to explore the festival, I felt myself walking taller and sporting a genuine smile instead of my usual resting bitch face. My interactions with vendors took on a completely different vibe from my experience the day before, and that’s when I began to realize that cosplay could be an amazing masking strategy and social support.

Because the costume did most of the heavy lifting for me. I felt people immediately perceived me as fun and friendly, and that was an energy they mirrored back to me. The usual awkwardness, indifference, or, let’s be honest, lowkey hostility, was not coming my way. I didn’t have to initiate the interaction or navigate small talk, because the costume was like an ice breaker, providing a ready-made inspiration for friendly conversation. People seemed eager to talk to me, exchanging pleasantries and telling me how cute my outfit was.

It wasn’t until the man handing me my sandwich paused, looked me in the eyes and said a heartfelt, “You have a wonderful day,” that I realized it wasn’t just the costume as a whole. With the wig, I was experiencing the blonde effect, and as a lifelong brunette (with a few ginger interludes), I had forgotten that blondes do have more fun.

Now this may be taboo to admit, but I think I was benefiting from an increase in pretty privilege. For a time in my early 30s, after I had a glow up, I had experienced a drastic improvement in the treatment I received everywhere I went. That time in my life made it abundantly clear to me that pretty privilege is very real. Yet as I have aged into my 40s and left my gray hair undisguised, I have faded back into quasi-invisibility. But with the wig and the outfit, I still got it.

While I was browsing vintage wares, one of the owners came up to tell me she had seen me walking by earlier, and she loved my outfit. The other owner scurried over to join in, asking, “Are you an artist? Wasn’t I talking with you last night in the line for the bathroom?” (She was not.) Later, another fae cosplayer wearing wings walked by and said to me, “you’re such a fairy!”

And I felt so seen, because the costume was amplifying my vibe. It made my inner self more legible to others, which made it easier to actually connect and attract my fellow fairies. It was an alternative to masking and a curated self-presentation that actually facilitated authentic connection, rather than a hollow performance of normalcy.

I’m still so tickled by the paradox that hiding my true appearance under a costume somehow made me more visible as who I really am. In the past, I had learned that being seen meant danger, but in this case, I felt safer because people approached me with goodwill.

It felt like a more empowering, less gatekeepy take on the adage to dress for the job you want", and in this case, it was fairy witch extraordinaire. I truly feel like I found the hack to living my best Libra life without my usual Virgo rising aura getting in the way that people seem to find oddly intimidating.

In itself, this feels like such a fae concept. In mythology, the fae are often adept at shapeshifting and glamour magic, presenting a curated appearance to deceive or manipulate unwitting humans, not unlike that daily process of masking my autistic and ADHD traits that I’ve been practicing since childhood. While I didn’t have a nefarious intent with my costume that day, I did feel like a benevolent trickster in the fae sense of the word.

At the festival, I truly understood that cosplay is not just for my own personal enjoyment, it’s a way of spreading joy and magic to others. It was very clear that I was brightening people’s day with my costume, and I think that’s a good thing. We need joy. We need fun, humor, play in this life, especially as the system tries to grind us all down into dour compliant worker bees.

Certainly there are environments where my vibrant self expression would not be welcomed, spaces where I may be seen as the crazy fool like my grandmother was. To be honest, neurodivergent folks have likely been seen as foolish for a long time, yet there have always been those who value our so-called foolishness.

Even if no one says a word, being colorfully myself also invites others to do the same, most notably my fellow neurodivergent folks, and that is something I can feel really good about, because life is hard enough as it is. We need some play. And in this case, I also inspired my partner, who got to have a positive new experience of being seen.

Was it truly just the costume that did all this, or was it the way the costume allowed me to inhabit my body differently and move through the world with my light shining? I can’t say for sure, but I’m just glad that I fooled around and found out.

Have you experienced the magic of cosplay, or ever noticed how your self expression ripples out to the people around you? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments, and if not, I strongly encourage you to try it out and see for yourself, because, as my friend and colleague Andréa Ranae recently said, the world desperately needs more zanies and fools.

Thank you for listening in today and until next time, take care and stay magical. 🦄

AuDHD Magic is created and produced by Stephanie Elizabeth. Our theme song is Crystal Waves by Starry Eyes.

• Find more illuminating content on Stephanie's YouTube channel.

• Get the free Spirit Guide Meeting Place guided meditation audio to easefully connect with your guides in your solo practice.

• Hear from your guides and be in community at Spirit Hour Guided Meditation Circle, a monthly online event.

• Receive private support from Stephanie: birth chart readings, akashic records readings, intuitive development training & spiritual life coaching.

Welcome to the era of unhinged. Here’s what we’re diving into in this episode of AuDHD Magic:

• What does it mean to be feral and unhinged?

• The paradox of sanist cultural norms

• How I’m neuroqueering my life and subverting the nice white girl conditioning

• The astrological context for this chaotic moment

• Connecting the thread between Aquarius, Uranus, and the AuDHD experience

• Embracing the edge and becoming willing to repel people

• Navigating loss and renewal of community

Read the text version:

I’m back! This is episode two, and I want to start with a shout out to everyone who has subscribed so far. It’s been a great response to this project, and I’m excited to share the next installment today.

So if you caught the first episode, or if you’ve just had a conversation with me recently, you may have heard me say that I have entered my unhinged era. That might sound like just a flippant, chronically online kind of statement, but it actually has a deeper meaning, and today I want to talk about it.

I’m going to share about what that means to me, how I recognize that it’s time for this, why now, and how it’s connected to the AuDHD experience. And I will be bringing in the astrological context, so keep reading to find out all about my unhinged era.

So for anyone not familiar with the term unhinged, Oxford languages defines it as “wildly irrational and out of touch with reality.” Cambridge English dictionary goes straight to “mentally ill” as their definition, and Reddit user MalarkeyStar writes, “it means ‘crazy and socially unacceptable’,” going on to accurately point out that the word unhinged is often weaponized to invalidate people who do not conform to typical social norms and opinions.

I feel like there’s some overlap between the connotation of being unhinged and being feral, a term that I’m seeing a lot more people adopting in the neurodivergent community, possibly because of the Feral Neurodivergent Raging Memes page on Facebook. (If you know, you know.) And again, there’s the concept with feral, of being unsocialized, of not conforming to the expected behavior and social norms.

One of the memories that came to mind as I was thinking about this is when I was a teenage Fiona Apple fan. Okay, we’re talking the Y2K era. I remember at one point being told by my then-boyfriend that Fiona is crazy and she’s mentally ill, and a lot of this was because of her famed Grammy VMA acceptance speech denouncing the bullshit of the music industry. And she wasn’t wrong. She just said the uncomfortable truth out loud.

This guy and I later broke up over his religious fundamentalism and conservative political views, by the way, and he also went on to become a successful right wing Christian author and TV commentator who is still spewing more of this harmful nonsense. (Don’t get me started on that.)

So let’s be real: Being seen as crazy can have devastating consequences, especially for those who do not have the protective shield of privilege to legitimize and sort of smooth over their differences.

There is a long history of insanity as a concept being defined by racist, misogynist, ableist frameworks, and being something that’s weaponized against marginalized individuals and communities, whether that’s for personal or political gain or just to maintain a social hierarchy and conformity. Even now, you only need to go into any comment section to find dog whistles about the “dangers” of mentally ill folks and why we should be bringing back institutions.

With all of this in mind, I think you could make the case that unhinged is a slur, or at least slur-adjacent. So I do think it’s a word that’s best applied to oneself and not something to use in description of someone else.

Although I do hold multiple neurodivergent identities personally, and I have significant lived experience with depression and anxiety that have at times distorted my view of reality—all that said, I don’t consider myself to be crazy, wildly irrational and out of touch with reality. So then why am I calling myself unhinged?

For me, entering my unhinged era is about acknowledging that I am intentionally moving closer to the edge of what is socially acceptable. For example, I hold some so-called irrational beliefs that I stand by, such as:

• I am a fairy with magical powers.

• I can read people and communicate with trees and spirits.

• I believe astrology is a legitimate source of insight to navigate the people patterns and timing in my life.

• I know that my ancestors speak to me and we are intimately connected.

• I have the understanding that I have a different sensory experience as a highly sensitive person, and it’s not because I’m fussy or I just want to be a special snowflake.

• I even hold the cringeworthy notion that I have insights and ideas that are worth sharing with strangers on the internet. 😉

Being seen as foolish, crazy and unhinged is something I have long feared and tried to avoid by adopting my Virgo rising mask and presenting myself as smart, rational and pragmatic, with a reasonable explanation for everything. Add in a little of my Mercury and Libra to tone down any edgy statements and tailor my message to the people in front of me, and you have a recipe for maintaining an illusion of respectability.

It’s kind of a mindfuck that in order to be seen as in touch with reality, we have to pretend and suppress our actual reality. Seriously? Meanwhile, the people and institutions who tend to disparage us are actually the ones detached from reality and projecting their own violence onto anyone who makes them uncomfortable. Every accusation is a confession, as they say.

I’m not okay with performing for that agenda, and it’s a barrier to being the person I’m meant to be in this lifetime. So entering my unhinged era is really an acknowledgement that I’m knowingly putting myself further out there, despite the fact that there are people who undoubtedly think I am delusional, or at the very least that I’m a silly, childish person who should just grow up and get a real job. And I just want to say, been there, done that, and I will continue having fun and aging in reverse.

I realized that I can’t control what other people think of me, and staying silent or attempting to hide my so-called unhinged qualities and beliefs will not keep people from judging me. Neither will hiding my gifts, talents and brilliance keep me safe from insecure people who find me threatening. Others’ judgments about me do not have to mean anything true about me. Those judgments emerge from that person’s psyche and worldview.

I started getting bullied in preschool, and it continued through college, even though at that point I had sort of developed my masking strategy and I was actually trying to be way more normie in my presentation and activities than I am at this point in my life.

I was masking so hard in an attempt to stop people seeing me as the uncool, weird girl. And the thing is, it didn’t even work, because they still thought I was weird and funny and entertaining. Not in a laughing with way, but in a laughing at. And studies have shown that allistic people (people who are not autistic) unconsciously sense who is autistic within seconds, and they react unfavorably. This is all unconscious bias. It’s the reason why people will say, “Oh, I welcome your unmasked self,” but then the second you unmask, they’re uncomfortable and they think you’re rude.

I’m flipping the script on being weird and “rude” and different, and now it’s something that I relish and claim for myself as a positive, because weird people are often the most creative and interesting people that I encounter.

So entering my unhinged era means embracing my AuDHD nature and my queerness and all of the elements of who I am that I want to live and express, even if they’re not welcomed by the mainstream or the people around me.

And I do want to say that I am very fortunate and privileged to have wonderful, truly accepting people in my life, a partner who sees me, loves me and supports me as my authentic AuDHD self. So many people do not have that, because AuDHD is othered in this culture. And the expectations of conformity and productivity do not work for us. They do not allow most of us to exist as we are, with our gifts, our needs, our limitations. But at the same time, the culture will gladly extract our labor, our creativity and ingenuity, while tossing the rest.

For me, embracing unhinged means:

• Less people pleasing, more unapologetic existence

• Embracing my rebelliousness and subversive tendencies, which have been long hidden under the veneer of being a nice little white girl, as I was socialized to be

• Speaking the truth, acknowledging reality, even when people think I’m paranoid or a downer. “Can we talk about something better? Let’s just focus on the positive. It’s probably going to be fine.” Yeah, that’s oftentimes bullshit. So owning my opinionated nature is part of this, and remaining true to my values even when they’re considered controversial or extreme.

• Owning my joy, my enthusiasm and my genuineness. If you heard episode one, I talked about a notebook that I found from years ago that had some really important insights for me. And one of the things I found in there was a line I had written at some point, and it says: I’m not cool, I’m warm and goofy. And that’s true.

• It’s also about moving and inhabiting my body in ways that are natural for me. For example, when music is playing, I need to move, even if people around me are remaining rigidly still. And I have to say that has happened at so many live music shows, and it’s mind boggling to me.
  
  Another thing, I wear colors, I wear patterns. I dress with flair in a sea of beige and neutrals.

Now, all of this I understand in the context of neuroqueering, which, if you’re not familiar with that, it’s a concept defined by Dr. Nick Walker as “the practice of queering, subverting, defying, disrupting, liberating oneself from neuronormativity and heteronormativity simultaneously.”

So again, we’re existing in our bodies as they are. We’re existing in our authentic sexual identity. And I would also add gender norms to this as well, because my mask was shaped by being socialized as a girl, where it was important to not make anyone uncomfortable, not to stand out or take up too much space; defer to other people.

So why am I doing this now? Especially in a moment when we have an increasingly terrifying, actually unhinged authoritarian government and the feeling that here in the US, we are on the verge, if not already in the early stages of a civil war.

There’s a well known quote from Black feminist writer and activist Audre Lorde in her poem A Litany For Survival:

When we speak, we are afraid, our words will not be heard nor welcomed, but when we are silent, we are still afraid, so it is better to speak.

Astrological Context

So let’s turn to the astrology for some context on all of this.

This is a moment when we have Aquarian and Uranian energies coming to prominence. We have Uranus in Gemini and Pluto in Aquarius. The collective narrative has fractured and fragmented, and we are in a decentralization process. Fact-based, consensus reality is really kind of not a thing anymore. We’re all in these reality silos and echo chambers. And with this, certainly in the context of the collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic (which is ongoing), our social norms are shifting, and this is a very chaotic time.

Thinking about Aquarius as an archetype, this is one that I associate with neurodivergence, and it can sometimes be said to have an unhinged quality, as it is out of sync with the dominant social paradigms. Often we think of Aquarius as ahead of its time. It could also be behind the times, as we’re seeing with some of those in power at the moment. Aquarius is also associated with friends, activism, collective visions and community gathered around shared causes or affinity.

Uranus is the modern ruler of Aquarius, so they go together. And the energy of Uranus is revolutionary. It’s destabilizing. It can be ingenious, and it carries an association with technological advancements.

In the Zodiac, Aquarius is symbolized by the water bearer. The water bearer is the one who leaves the village to go fetch water and then brings it back so everyone can partake. And in the course of leaving the village, they gain insight from outside the village walls. They can see from the outside things that people who remain inside cannot.

So in the same way, those of us who hold marginalized identities, inhabit marginalized neurotypes, bodies, experiences—we hold valuable awareness and insights that the in group, the people who fit the norm (or are able to perform that they fit the norm well enough to convince others), those people don’t see and understand what we can see from the margins.

With Aquarius, there can be this sort of alien quality, someone who’s not quite in alignment [with the mainstream], while it also does speak to the gathering of kindred spirits, even if it’s a group of aliens.

Side note: Audre Lord had Sun in Aquarius.

Now, bringing this back to my personal unhinged era, I have a confluence of Aquarian and Uranian transits hitting my chart right now that are ushering in this era for me:

• Pluto in Aquarius is transiting my sixth house of service and health, definitely shifting some of my daily routines and how I prioritize my physical, mental, and emotional health.

• Uranus is transiting my Midheaven in Gemini, which concerns my career, reputation, legacy, impact, role as a citizen and a public figure. (Even though I’m kind of allergic to calling myself a public figure, but you get what I mean). With it being in Gemini and ruled by Mercury, which is also my chart ruler, it also speaks to my whole way of moving through the world, and especially my voice, my writing, my speaking.

• I also have new friends coming into my life because I have Jupiter bringing expansion to my eleventh house, which is an area of the chart that generally is concerned with Aquarian matters (friendships, groups, activism, etc.). And Jupiter is going to pass by my natal Moon in Cancer in this transit of my eleventh house.

• At the same time, my progressed Moon has moved into Aquarius, bringing me into the next two and a half years of an Aquarius era for me. And interestingly, that progression happened exactly on September 26, which is the day I released episode one of this podcast. And yes, that was intentional.

So if you’re curious about the astrology of neurodivergence, I will be sharing more on that in a later episode, so be sure to subscribe to hear more about that. (You can also book a reading with me to get the personalized scoop on your birth chart).

But for now, all of this astrological context tells me that drastic shifts are likely at this time for me. New possibilities are emerging, and beloved community is becoming a bigger focus. Community has always been important to me, but I’ve gotten clear that embracing more of the radically queer and unhinged is the pathway to the type of community that I want to surround myself with.

The truth is that over the last five years, my prior community has shifted drastically, and I have felt adrift. People I once called friends have fallen out of touch or fallen down the crunchy-to-right-wing pipeline with all the other self-styled “daughters of the witches you couldn’t burn.” And yes, I’m being snarky.

At the same time that I’ve been sitting with my deep disappointment and grief of these shattered illusions, I now understand, after getting repeatedly hit over the head with it by my guides, that those who are leaving my life are making way for those who are coming in.

It’s now about four years after my late diagnosis of autism and ADHD (although I had self-identified previously). I have reached the point where I’m finally willing to repel people, because the truth is, I’m not for everyone, and I never have been. And there’s no point in trying to find the perfect words to explain myself to people who are not going to get me.

When it comes to my work, it’s time to niche down and speak specifically to my fellow fae and freaky neurodivergent folks, the AuDHDers, who get me without overexplaining or watering it down.

The things that repel the misaligned community will simultaneously magnetize the kindred spirits. And it’s hard, because it’s not just about getting okay with the consequences of repelling the “wrong” people. There are people I enjoy that I don’t want to leave behind. I don’t want to repel them. I don’t want them to feel unwelcome, but the fact of the matter is that trying to be legible to everyone will only keep me from serving my community and cross-pollinating the magic with my soul friends.

So I’ve come to the conclusion that if you want my brilliance, you’re also going to get my unhinged.

Well, I guess that’s it for today. That’s about what I have to say at the moment, and I’m sure I’ll be continuing these reflections in future episodes.

But for now, I’d love to know your thoughts and what this brought up for you. Have you been through a process like this? Have you encountered any of these challenges or interpersonal sticky points? Drop into the comments or send me an email. I’d love to hear from you and know more about your experience.

I want to thank you for listening/reading today. 🦄 Until next time, take care and stay magical!

AuDHD Magic is created and produced by Stephanie Elizabeth. Our theme song is Crystal Waves by Starry Eyes.

• Find more illuminating content on Stephanie's YouTube channel.

• Get the free Spirit Guide Meeting Place guided meditation audio to easefully connect with your guides in your solo practice.

• Hear from your guides and be in community at Spirit Hour Guided Meditation Circle, a monthly online event.

• Receive private support from Stephanie: birth chart readings, akashic records readings, intuitive development training & spiritual life coaching.

What is AuDHD Magic and what happens when we articulate it? That’s the premise and the core question behind this podcast.

In this introductory episode, I’m taking you behind the scenes into the origin story and “why” behind AuDHD Magic. Listen in to find out:

• 7 key qualities of AuDHD Magic

• Why I decided to pivot and relaunch my podcast now

• Entering my unhinged era and how it’s changing my approach to creating

• Following the threads of AuDHD Magic, and the old notebook that held a key piece of the puzzle

• Who I’m creating this for and how the current sociopolitical environment inspired me

• Setting the context for who I am and what my perspective is

• The momentary interaction at a music festival that instantly silenced my self-doubt

• What to expect with the podcast going forward and how you can be part of the community conversation

Read the text version:

What is AuDHD magic, and what happens when we articulate it, when we put words to our reality?

This is AuDHD Magic, a celebration of Autistic and ADHD magic, mysticism and sensitivity. I’m your host Stephanie Elizabeth, a fairy witch, intuitive artist and guide obsessed with all things weird and witchy.

Keep listening for an unfiltered, unapologetically queer and fey journey into unseen dimensions and intersections of Autistic and ADHD reality. By the way, I have a potty mouth, so this podcast is definitely not appropriate for children.

Okay, so here we go. What the fuck is AuDHD magic?

So to back up, I had this podcast Soul to Life, and it’s been sort of gathering dust for the last few years. I just lost my spark of interest for that. Classic ADHD thing. When the passion wanes it means that it’s time to pivot. It’s time to switch it up.

I was called to get weirder and realer, less palatable, less performative, and I really wanted to basically fuck around and find out: what is AuDHD magic? Because it’s a thread and a breadcrumb trail that I’ve been following for the last five years. And I sense it. I feel it. I know it on some level, but I haven’t fully articulated what I sense feel and know.

I found this notebook that I had started in 2020 and for some reason, I had packed it away, even though there’s some blank pages still left in it. I don’t remember why, but when I opened it up to a random page, I literally found my notes I jotted down with all these ideas about AuDHD magic. And it was the same things that I’m still thinking about and obsessing about and wondering about and trying to talk to people about, and looking for other podcasts talking about this shit. Nobody is talking about it, so I guess I have to.

I don’t know why I decided to pick up the notebook that day, because it’s literally been sitting there in that spot, in a in a minor doom pile next to my desk. But I just was like, I’m just gonna pick that up.

It had the exact thing I needed in it, and it was really affirming and validating for me, because it reminded me, like, No, this is not some flash in the pan thing. Because that’s what the sensible part of my brain came up with, like, Oh, this is just a flight of fancy, which, maybe it is, but also that’s very AuDHD. And in some ways, I feel like being an artist and being a creative is just stringing together all those flights of fancy, all the different seasons and eras and interests.

Over the last few months, I have entered my unhinged era. I just find myself running low on fucks about my perfectionist ideals. It’s time to shed the next layer of respectability and just stop watering myself down so I can be understood by everyone and focus on being understood by the people that I most want to speak to and with, the people I want to be in conversation with.

I wanted to have a space to just explore and reflect and see what awareness is even gonna come out as I’m talking. There’s so many times when I don’t know what the fuck I think until I start talking!

I’m making this for myself to figure out what I think about AuDHD magic and to share my process and to share more stories. I really want to share some stories from my own life and get to hear stories from others in the community.

I also just want to celebrate and love up on my AuDHD community at a time when many of us are being targeted, at least here in the US, by systemic and interpersonal ableism, transphobia, Make America Healthy Again, RFK, Tylenol, vaccine, bullshit, etc.; all the goodies of late stage capitalism.

It’s a dumpster fire out there. And so I just want to create this as like a cozy space where we can get a little unhinged while we fold the laundry or cook dinner or doodle in the notebook, whatever. (I know you’re doing something else while you listen to this!) And of course, I highly encourage you to adjust the playback speed to meet your preferences and your needs.

So just a little bit more about me: I am a queer, agender, elder Millennial. I’m a fairy witch. I’m an artist, writer, singer, musician, and also an intuitive coach and guide, helping people trust themselves, find guidance and embrace being who you are: a magical AuDHDer, a magical, highly sensitive being, a magical, neurodivergent creature.

I am based in New England, in the US, and I am an Autistic ADHDer with chronic illness, anxiety, depression, all the fun stuff that we get to live with.

And in this podcast, I’m speaking from my own experience and perspective and understanding as someone who holds a lot of privilege alongside my disabled, marginalized identities. I’m white, I’m college educated, high masking. I’m perceived by the general public to be a cishet woman and able bodied. And all of this impacts how I was socialized, and how I am able to move through the world as an AuDHD person, as a witch, etc. So everybody’s experience of AuDHD magic is going to be different, and I’m not at all attempting to speak for anyone but myself.

I guess this is about the point when I should go ahead and tell you what I think that AuDHD magic is. I don’t hold that AuDHD magic is some singular concept that I can define in a sentence with a period at the end. It’s more like ellipses and parentheticals and footnotes and prequels and post scripts.

It’s an embodied experience. It’s an existential experience. It’s a philosophy and a dimension of reality, and I believe that it becomes strengthened and enhanced when we consciously engage and build relationship with it.

My list of AuDHD magic qualities:

✦ Culture creators: AuDHD magic is shaping and creating culture, and we do this through art, creativity, writing, teaching, visionary leadership, personal expression, and all the other dimensions of our unique brilliance that can serve and influence our communities and also potentially seed cultural influence and change.

There are so many of us in the arts, so many iconic creators and thinkers and performers and innovators that are part of the AuDHD community. Some are self-identified. Others, I suspect, but I really have a feeling that more and more of us are going to reveal ourselves in the years to come.

✦ Sensitivity: Secondly, sensitivity. We connect, experience, engage with more of reality, and we can be more deeply impacted by experiences that do not touch others in the same way, with the same depth. We also tend to have an awareness of what is unseen, unspoken, unacknowledged, unquestioned.

✦ Multidimensionality: There is also, of course, a multidimensionality. There’s a diversity and a variety of interests and talents and activities and self-expression that tends to defy neat categories.

We tend to embody supposed opposites and complexities: the Autistic desire for predictability and to plan ahead and to know what to expect and have consistent routines and rituals that help us to feel regulated and safe. But also, there’s that ADHD part that needs the novelty and the stimulation and the adventures and the curiosities and the rabbit holes, right? And so these can come together as an AuDHDer to contribute to the culture, as I mentioned earlier.

✦ Liminality: And when I talk about multidimensionality, I also mean this in the sense of inhabiting multiple dimensions of reality, multiple worlds. As I see it, we are somewhat ethereal beings, right? We’re human, but we also have one foot in the other world, and one foot in this world. We’re sort of on each side of the border. We’re on the margins. We tend to even be on the margins within groups, within social settings. We’re in between, and we’re at the intersections

With this liminality–and this is connected to our sensitivity–we have intuition, healing and psychic gifts. We tend to have a pronounced connection, as I mentioned, with the Other world and oftentimes, with the Fae. Many of us identify with the Fae. I’m gonna have a whole episode on that at some point. So if that piques your curiosity, make sure you subscribe.

And again, as I mentioned with the the arts, I find the same thing to be true that quite a few, if not the majority, of spiritual practitioners are neurodivergent. I think quite a few of us are specifically AuDHD, especially if you if you look at the online spiritual practitioner community.

✦ Curiosity & learning: Next thing of course, we’re curious, and we have a search for understanding. I’ve seen our nervous system described as an interest-based nervous system. So we may not be motivated by sort of external demands or priorities or interests, but instead, we’re motivated by our own interests of what we want to dig into and dive into. So we do self-directed research, self-directed learning and scholarship, and we also tend to make connections that others miss, and this is how we contribute to deepening knowledge in these areas of our interest, through our bodies of work.

✦ Rebellious pattern shifters: We tend to be rebellious, existing outside of the box of how we’re supposed to be in a culture that tries to enforce conformity and consistency, that does not respect difference and diversity. We are a neurotype that just does not function within the guidelines of how we’re supposed to be in this culture. Of course, capitalism has a lot to do with that.

So we exist outside the norm. We tend to speak truth, and as I mentioned earlier, we name the things that others are not naming. We are the ones pointing out the elephant in the room, and that’s a big reason why I think oftentimes people don’t like us, because it makes them uncomfortable when we point out the things that they’re trying to ignore or pretend aren’t there.

And as part of this rebellion, we also tend to be really good at shifting patterns. If we’re able to express our authentic priorities and our authentic way of being, we can create shifts, not only from our personal patterns, but also for our ancestral patterns, and again, hopefully a larger cultural influence as well. You know, as we each combine our individual efforts, it comes together into a larger cultural impact.

✦ Emergent process: And then finally, as I mentioned earlier, I think AuDHD magic is emergent. It’s a process. It’s evolving. It’s improvisational, it’s iterative, it’s relational and it’s interconnected.

To give a taste of AuDHD magic as I understand it, I’d love to share a story now about a moment of relating that was really key for me in getting this podcast out here.

A couple weeks ago, I was at a music festival, and I was thinking about the podcast, and I had this thought come up, like, I don’t know how I feel about putting the unicorn on the cover. Like maybe I should have something different on the cover.

I walked around the festival, and I kept seeing all these unicorn things, like a unicorn stuffed animal and a unicorn on a flag. And then I was walking by a vendor booth and struck up a conversation. And the reason the conversation started is because I was wearing a costume for fun. I dressed in my my Fae vibes, even though I didn’t have any wings or anything. It was just me, my vibe, and they were vibing with my vibe, and they were like, Oh, hey, you match our booth. And I was like, Yeah, I do!

We got to chatting, and they, of course, had a unicorn on their logo. And then they’re like, here. And they handed me a teeny, miniature pink unicorn. I’m holding it in my hand right now, and it’s keeping me company here. And so that was a very clear wink to me from my guides. It was the sign I needed. Like, yes, this is right. Because their rainbow unicorn magic vibe drew me in, and there was resonance. They gave very neurodivergent vibes. I’ll be honest, I would be very surprised if they’re not Autistic or ADHD or another neurodivergent identity.

So basically, in this podcast, I’m going to be sharing my unhinged, unverified personal gnoses and curiosities and experiences and stories, and will be inviting my fellow magical people to do the same. And that includes you, because I would love for you to join the conversation get in the comments with us at AuDHDMagic.com [at the bottom of this post].

So please jump in. I want to hear your unhinged thoughts and questions, or if you even have topics you want me to discuss, let me know. I’m a manifesting generator, and I need something to respond to. So if you want to help me out, give me a question, give me a comment.

And you can also sign up below to get these episode posts emailed to you as soon as they’re published, so you don’t have to remember to go into your podcast app and search for it and listen there. You can literally read it directly in your inbox or click through and listen to the audio.

I guess that’s all for today. Hope you enjoyed this little ramble, these first few steps into the world of AuDHD Magic.

I don’t know if I know yet what the fuck AuDHD magic is, in a way I can put into a sentence, but I guess we’re gonna find out. So I hope you’ll stick around for that.

🦄 Until next time, take care and stay magical!

AuDHD Magic is created and produced by Stephanie Elizabeth. Our theme song is Crystal Waves by Starry Eyes.

• Find more illuminating content on Stephanie's YouTube channel.

• Get the free Spirit Guide Meeting Place guided meditation audio to easefully connect with your guides in your solo practice.

• Hear from your guides and be in community at Spirit Hour Guided Meditation Circle, a monthly online event.

• Receive private support from Stephanie: birth chart readings, akashic records readings, intuitive development training & spiritual life coaching.

Here’s a short and sweet taste of what’s to come, with Episode 1 dropping on September 26:

Read the text version:

Welcome to AuDHD Magic, a podcast celebrating Autistic and ADHD magic, mysticism, and sensitivity.

Get ready for an unfiltered, unapologetically queer and fae journey into unseen dimensions and intersections of AuDHD reality (new age fluff and spiritual bypassing NOT included).

I’m your host Stephanie Elizabeth, a neurodivergent fairy witch, intuitive artist and guide obsessed with all things weird and witchy. I’m creating AuDHD Magic as a love letter to my community of highly sensitive artists, healers, visionary leaders and pattern breakers.

Featuring new episodes every other Friday, AuDHD Magic is your source for illuminating stories, musings, and conversations on AuDHD life, art, spirituality, culture, and community in these times.

Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app, and visit AuDHDMagic.com to access episode transcripts and join the conversation in the comments section! This is also where you can sign up to receive new episodes in your email inbox as soon as they’re published, so you never have to miss the latest dose of AuDHD Magic.

Thanks for listening today, and until next time, stay magical!

AuDHD Magic is created and produced by Stephanie Elizabeth. Our theme song is Crystal Waves by Starry Eyes.

• Find more illuminating content on Stephanie's YouTube channel.

• Get the free Spirit Guide Meeting Place guided meditation audio to easefully connect with your guides in your solo practice.

• Hear from your guides and be in community at Spirit Hour Guided Meditation Circle, a monthly online event.

• Receive private support from Stephanie: birth chart readings, akashic records readings, intuitive development training & spiritual life coaching.

AuDHD Magic speaks to the experience of Autistic, ADHD and highly sensitive artists, healers, visionary leaders and sacred rebels in these times. You can look forward to twice monthly doses of illuminating stories, musings, and conversations on AuDHD life, art, spirituality, culture, and community.

We’re taking an unfiltered, unapologetically queer and fae journey into unseen dimensions and intersections of AuDHD reality (spiritual bypassing and new age fluff not included).

AuDHD Magic will be available soon on all podcast platforms! In the meantime, we’d love for you to subscribe here on Substack so you can follow along and join the conversation once we get started!

Learn more at AuDHDMagic.com, and follow us on socials @audhdmagic. You can also find out more about Stephanie’s work at stephanie-elizabeth.com.