Personal Power & Simone Biles

The ‘It’ girl of the moment, everyone is talking about her withdrawal from high-profile Olympic events.

There are many striking things about Simon Biles, notably her ability to connect with online audiences despite being a sportsperson, her susceptibility to losing herself, and of course her drive for mastery of her craft.

But in this article, I want to cover an intriguing part of Biles’ personality: the need to continually push herself physically, far beyond necessary just to attain gold.

As of 2021, the gymnast has given her name to no less than four gymnastics elements, which now rate among the most difficult in the world.

Simone Biles shares an astrological component in her chart with two other famous men, Richard Branson and Keanu Reeves, specifically, Pluto on the Ascendant.

See here for their charts:

Simone Biles

Richard Branson

Keanu Reeves

Click here to generate your own chart.

If you don’t read astrology, here’s the layman interpretation:

The Ascendant (read: the 9 o’clock position of the chart) is an indicator of how an individual experiences the world, but is also an indicator for the experience of the physical body.

When Pluto is located right on the Ascendant, we get individuals who push themselves physically and personally to test the limits of what’s possible.

While Richard Branson is most known as an entrepreneur, he is also known for several world record attempts, all involving speed records in unconventional vehicles such as balloons and amphibious vehicles.

His YOLO approach to everything has earned him the nickname ‘Doctor Yes’ among his employees, for all the things he says ‘yes’ to.

Keanu Reeves may be most known as a movie actor, but anyone who’s watched the John Wick series (I’m a fan!) can see that he has pushed himself further with stunts and martial arts than any other actor, save possibly Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan.

In all three cases, the extra mile they’ve taken were not strictly required or even called for in their job description.

Keanu Reeves may be an action star, but actors are never really required to go this far physically, or even to carry out their own stunts. Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee were primarily martial artists, while Reeves was not.

Some may point out that Biles and Branson were, in fact, actively challenging records, but both were already undoubtedly successful people for whom the records were not pursued for the attainment of success, but rather just to prove that they can.

For these three people, it almost seems like they were pushing themselves just to see where the breaking point was.

When this mode of expression exists in a person’s psyche, a few implications stand out.

1) What’s it like to work with someone like that?

Undoubtedly, these are individuals capable of achieving superhuman feats, but it also requires a team, a community of people who can keep up with the risks they take, and the stamina to keep up with the limits they keep pushing.

It is infinitely exhausting, and the people supporting such individuals need to have almost the same levels of tenacity as they do.

2) If you don’t have a ‘world stage’ to operate on, how do such extreme expressions thrive?

Lots of people have this placement, even regular people. But obviously not everyone has Hollywood-size budgets, Virgin-scale resources or Olympic platforms to work with.

People with this placement won’t be able to work with conventional limits. The concepts of safety or rigid risk management won’t be things they will adhere to.

Here runs a dilemma: do we support their extreme endeavours, or do we ‘manage’ and ‘limit’ them?

For decades now, I suspect it has been the latter. Many such individuals have shut down their power, played at half-speed, lived a half-life.

That’s why there are so few John Wicks, Doctor Yeses and Simone Bileses.

If the universe delivers people like that, I say we support their full expression, and let them educate humans on what, indeed, is actually possible.

3) They can, and do, break

And this is what we see happening with Simone Biles now.

Sometimes they’re too young, sometimes it’s too hard, and sometimes it’s too much.

It seems there are limits, after all. And people must know where those limits are – not to avoid them, but to know how to handle ourselves when we break down every now and then.

Simone Biles has been hailed as an inspiration – for athletes, girls, black people, mental health sufferers and everyone else who has been pushed too far.

I want to add one more to the list.

She is an inspiration for showing that we can push the limits of what is possible, break, and then get right back up again.

Astrological Signs & Symbols:
What Does It All Mean?

I’ve seen hobbyist and astrology enthusiasts go about for years, scrambling to try to put the Planet, Signs, and Houses together for an interpretation to make sense.

Often they try with great difficulty, especially without a proper structure or a way to apply it back into a practical real-world context. – which usually end up with a string of gibberish words that an average person will not understand.

At Selfstrology Academy, the focus is not to teach just the planets, signs, houses, and the boring technicals of astrology. But rather, we go to the root of what it means and how it influences real life, and always applying astrology to a practical context.