Hey, everybody. Welcome to My Guest Tonight. I'm your host, Jeff Revilla.
Tonight's guest, Praxie Osong. We're going to be exploring how astrology
connects to identity, why self improvement isn't the answer,
and how divergent is actually designed. Let's hear
tonight's theme song. Divergent
by design. No need to hide.
Praxie sees the magic you got inside
ADHD turn into a gift.
Let's try the compass giving souls to live.
My Guest Tonight with Jeff
Revilla. The stars connected
to cosmic thriller. Praxie
of songs bringing light to
every soul unmasked
tonight.
Praxie officially welcome to the show.
Thank you, Jeff. I loved everything about that. That was
so cool. I really do a ton of research and I
use. It's just me. I'm a one person show and I use AI
to really look like a team of 10. But we take
all the research and then we have AI generate lyrics and generate a
song for you. So it's pretty customized and so far it's been a hit with
the guests. That's. I've literally, I had
zero, like expectations through the roof. That was so. That
was really, that was fun. I loved it. Well, I hope I didn't set expectations
too high because we still have about 24 minutes to go.
Awesome. What this show is about, it's about
exploring the journey that led you to be who you are today. It's My Guest
Tonight. We're telling your origin story and we always start way
back. And where were you born at? Where were you? Where did you begin life
at? That's actually a
wonderfully apt question because that's exactly a question I would ask
my clients because I need to know, like down to the latitude and
longitude where you were born. I grew up born and raised in
Columbia, Maryland, or you know, if you know, you know,
the dmv. And that's where I started. I
currently live in North Carolina, but yeah, I spent
my first 20 something years of life in
Columbia, Maryland. And back then,
I know that your diagnosis came later in life. Did you have moments as
a child that maybe you felt different or you didn't always feel like
everybody else or something different or, or special?
Always? Yes. I was diagnosed later in life,
but my journey was definitely my journey
was inspired because of that feeling. That was always.
That was a feeling that I thought maybe everyone had. And I
also never shared with anyone. It was a very much an internal struggle,
you know, and that's the, the initial internalized
shame that like really carried me through that kind of inspired this work. That
I do. And as a child, do you remember maybe like
seeing patterns or, or finding meanings in things
that maybe other people didn't see? You. You kind of took to those types of
things pretty early. Yes. So when I was 12 years
old, that, that's when the astrology kind of
found me. Because that's kind of what they say. You don't find astrology, astrology finds
you. And I understood it and followed it
immediately. It's extremely complex. And I always
considered myself a little bit more sensitive than other people.
And, you know, so I did a lot of soul searching at a young 12,
you know, trying to discover who I was. And that's kind of when
I discovered astrology. I started reading and down the rabbit
hole I went, like, deep. And
later in life, when you do get the ADHD diagnosis,
did you. Were you able to maybe reframe and
look at your childhood a little bit differently now that you, you kind of know
what's happening and what's going on? Yes, so. And I
think a lot of people can identify with this. There's that relief of feeling,
seen that validation in that diagnosis. And then
there's, you know, like, right, like, you know, everyone says like, your life flashes before
your eyes before you die. Like, but it's. But this is like a rebirth in
that sense where I'm now. I. Every time I
remember my childhood, every trauma, but every joy, I
see it under this new neurodivergent lens and it
brings so much clarity, but there's a little bit of grief there. So it's a
bit bittersweet. Like the explanation kind of gives
liberation. Right? Yes. Oh, okay. Now
I see what's happening here. I see
why I did that. Or, you know, like, wondering why. I just,
like, I really struggled with homework. I just, I couldn't, like,
like they would, you know, send us off from school and they're asking us
to do like a 10 page essay. And I'm just like, that's insane.
But then I would come into school the next day and everyone's doing it and
I'm like, what was it about me that I didn't have
that same kind of discipline that my peers
had? And yeah, so I look back and I'm just like, that explains it. That
explains it every day of my life. And you said it was around 12
where you found astrology, about that age. And
this is so embarrassing now. It was over a boy,
12 years old, and I'm like, in love with this Scorpio boy.
And Yahoo.com is telling me that cancers and
Scorpios are like soulmates. And I was hooked up. That's. You say no more.
That's all I needed to know. And I, you know, I read about it
and that's confirmed. But what really struck me was when I started to
dig deeper and start looking at cancers, which is what I am, and it
talked about how sensitive they are and how. And you know,
how emotional and it framed it as a
strength when that was something that I was already being
made fun of for. I was already being criticized for all the crying that I
would do for. From family, from peers. And
I had this forum that was telling me
that there was nothing wrong with how I was. And you can imagine
at a really vulnerable young age that just that it
kind of wrapped me up in a little hug. And that's the space I wanted
to live in. I wanted to live in a space where people were telling
other people what is great about them. And
from 12 years on, I'm 33 now, I have not
stopped digging into that and really uncovering all of that.
So really this curiosity kind of led to
maybe not understanding the world, but understanding how people
react with each other within the world, maybe. Yes. So
I also, like, as much as I love astrology, I love psychology.
Psychology is one of those disciplines where
you want to go far, you want to do higher education. Um, I would have
loved to have been a psychologist, but again, I didn't have
the systems in place at 18 pre diagnosis
to make it that far. I just knew I wasn't going to
get to doctorate level. I did, like, I wasn't. I just
didn't have that discipline. And to me, astrology and psychology are
really having a very similar conversation. And so all I always, I always
tell people, astrology is just a different language and
a unique way to explain very real
psychological aspects that people experience. And I'm
just a decoder in that sense. You reference it
as like pattern recognition and your brain's native language is.
I think I'm reading direct quotes there. Can
you walk us through what you notice as a child
and then as you grow up and you're studying astrology and you're
seeing these patterns and. And do you start to see, like
just different ways the world's put together and the different ways
that people react in situations?
So I used to have. And it's this. This is a muscle I haven't
stretched a long time. I used to have this, what I call a party trick
where I would go and someone could talk to me for a Few minutes and
I'd be like, Capricorn. And I would be, I mean I was, I
had to actually stop doing it. I made this one guy leave a
party at college because I think he's like, he felt like I saw right through
him because I was like, yeah, you're a score. He's like, how did you know
that? You would think I like read his diary. His reaction was so like visceral.
He left. And I was like, okay, maybe I'm going to turn that skill off
for a very long time. But yes, I, when I
look at it and this pattern recognition, I also realized that this
deep dive that I did into astrology, turns out it was a, this is
a special interest. You know, people on the spectrum, people
with asd, they sometimes find a topic and what
makes it different than a hobby is that they be,
they dive into it so deeply they become almost expert level.
And now when I look back on what happened to me at 12, I'm
like, oh, I did that. I've like, I mean, I've
taken certificate courses, I've studied under multiple
teachers, I've done self taught. My entire library bookshelf is
entirely dedicated to studying this. And yes, I
do see patterns. I hear people speak and
I have to hold back because astrology, especially in
the day to day is a bit woo. And so I do
have to hold my tongue because I'll hear people talk and I'm like, that is
some Leo stuff. That is. I was like, if I've
never heard anything more Virgo than my husband, he's very
mercurial, he's dominated by the planet Mercury and I'll
see him do something and I'm like, oh my God, that Virgo energy is
coming right through. So like it really is my way
of understanding the world. And
honestly, it's my, my way of learning how to give people
grace, give myself grace. To break down and
not judge immediately and look at the root
cause. Why did this person do this? Where are they coming from? It is
very much a humbling space to exist in. In my
head you say sometimes you pull back, you know,
so that you're not overly, you know, adding to the discussion. Do
people who are close to you, do you often find maybe sometimes
they pull back just because they're like, I don't know if I
don't want to say everything if she's going to figure it out anyway.
I've, I've, I've found that people.
And it's like it's hit or miss, you know, I very much,
I'm very tepid about it. I like, want to read the room and I
will like the people closest to me. They know, don't
get me started or I'm just gonna go off on it. Most people that come
to me and talk to me about astrology, they genuinely want to know.
But if it's just an acquaintance or something like that,
I try and stay quiet. I remember walking past somebody at the
coffee shop two days ago and he said something about being a Scorpio. I've never
turned my neck so fast. And then I had to. And I was like, wait,
dial it back, dial back. Because I'm about to jump into that conversation.
It really, it depends. I like to see where someone else is coming
from because it is a very personal conversation or at least the way that I
approach it. This isn't the five reasons or the five signs
that are going to make a million dollars. That's not really what I'm
doing. I want to talk about you. And that's a personal
conversation. So I usually try to err on the side of caution.
One of the reasons I love going back and telling these stories of,
of who you were and how you've grown and become the person you are
today is we're going to talk about wisteria rising, right?
The divergent by design astrology. And
tell us, what are you blending in this
practice? It's pretty incredible. Yeah. So, and
this is, this came to me again post
diagnosis. So astrology was always a self reflection tool,
always for validation. I always read it that way.
When I was diagnosed again, I. There was this moment
of being. It's bittersweet. You kind of feel like,
okay, well, if I am, if I was ADHD or
I had autism this whole time, like, what
aspects of me are me and what. How have I been
masking and which, like, how do I drop the mask?
How do I live my life more authentically? And
so I found myself once again in a space of feeling like,
who am I? How do I blend in? Why am I so different?
And you know, I often look at my natal chart, I look at my
husband's natal chart to sometimes to figure out why he's talking to me like that.
You know, like it's a, the natal chart, while it's a
static thing, it's something that you can
continuously look at and reflect on. And so when I looked at it
with this new neurodivergent lens, I
found myself once again finding ways in my chart to
validate my experience, to validate my true
self, my
nature and what was nurtured in me
and figuring out how to pull out more of my
design, so to speak. My original
blueprint. This. And I, I, this is what I want people to know, is
that you were designed intentionally, and that's what this natal chart is, is
that when you were born, when you came into this world, you were
intentionally this way, and that's perfect. That's exactly how you should
be. And the world shapes us, and
sometimes, and a lot of times it's to our detriment. And I want
people to go back to what and who they are, because that's where they
feel good and that's where they feel safe. And
it's a unique name. Wisteria Rising. Where did that come
from? What influenced the name, the
color Purple. And
rising, essentially. So, okay, Wisteria is
this plant that is gorgeous and beautiful, but it's also
invasive. When you plant it somewhere, you'll see it
like they, everyone always says, like, don't plant it if you don't want it to
grow through the roof and things like that. It is persistent and
it is going to do what it's going to do
and it's going to grow up. And so when I think of
that, I think of the neurodivergent experience. We
are who we are, and we are absolutely always going to do what we're going
to do. And we have that resilience in us. We have that
ability, we have that adaptability. And I want people to know that they
can push past whatever barrier is in their way, and
they're going to be beautiful when they do it. They're going to be this gorgeous,
lovely purple tree plant. And
rising is just, you know, we have parts of our chart, and
if, you know, you know that there's your sun sign, your moon sign, and your
rising sign. And this is that the rising sign is that
person that the world sees, the way you show up in the world initially, how
we see you. And so I just kind of blended that together. It's an
interesting, interesting perspective as a lot of people maybe feel
weighed down by self improvement. Like, oh, my goodness, all
these things I have to change and work on. And why do you think that
reframing it as, you know, seeing divergence as design
is more liberating than the self
improvement? Because I think that
some self improvement, while a lot,
the intention is always good, is it still
reinforces a lot of shame. It reinforces molds
that I don't believe that a lot of us need to Fit into. I don't
necessarily agree with some of society's
rules. There's some that just don't make sense. If you ask why,
you know, the amount of times I spent
shaming myself for not fixing my bed, but nobody's
walking into my room but me. I quite literally don't care
if I fold my sheets. So why do I beat
myself up about it? Why do I feel like less of a functional adult?
Because I didn't do it. Those are really silly things. But
I know that there are people walking around holding that in their
heart and adding a
value system to whether or not they're a good enough adult
or a person because of these very arbitrary rules that
society set. Some people who
thrive when they listen to music and are doing five different
things a day, that doesn't necessarily mesh with
a traditional school setting, but that doesn't
make them wrong. And so I really feel
like reframing and
deprogramming people to believe
that again, you're divergent by design. This was
intentional because neurodivergence is simply an
alternative brain makeup. It's. That's all that it is.
And instead of, you know, pathology and diagnosing, we should
just be ex, like accommodating. Like, this is 100%
a conversation about inclusivity and
accessibility. Not, you know, do better
and I'll show you how to be better. That's. That doesn't. To me, that
doesn't exist in my vocabulary. You mentioned the unmasked
self. Yeah. You think of a time or example of
when a client really took this information and
really embraced their unmasked self.
I had someone who
was, I was speaking to them and they
were, they kind of were, you know, a little timid and a little.
I, you know, I was, I think I was asking them about, you know, what
do you do for fun? Who are you? And they were just kind of like,
you know, I do this and I do that. And this was during a session.
And without, and this is. Without revealing too much. I kept looking at this
aspect in their chart and I was just like,
you seem kind of quiet, but that doesn't really.
I'm. I just wasn't seeing that in their chart. I was seeing something a little
bit more loud, a little bit more forward
facing something that she should share with the world. And
it wasn't until the end where she just. Cat. Where they
just casually dropped that they
write poetry and music. And I'm looking at
their chart and I'm like, and you're keeping this to yourself.
And it's, it's, you know, she, her, her
hesitation was that it was too, like,
it was too, it was too vulnerable and.
Vulnerable as in like, you know, people might think it's like too heavy.
And I just kept looking and I was realizing like, there's. When I
look at someone's chart, sometimes there's something that's just like yelling like,
this is this person, is that. And I look at that person and
we're talking and you can see that there's something below the surface.
And if you scratch a little bit, you poke at it a little bit more.
I, I always end up, we always end up
uncovering that thing that they want to hide. And then you get them to talk
about it and they don't stop talking about it. And
I'm like, that's what I'm. That's what you want. You want that passion. Because
the world has a way of kind of wearing us down and, you
know, we're trying to just get through the motions of making it through a day
and there's no spark, there's no creativity, and that's what
I'm looking for. And somebody listening to this maybe
hasn't thought about your practice or wisteria rising and they're just
going about their normal day, maybe day to day. They're in a routine and
they're just used to getting up, not making their bed, going to work, getting
the groceries, coming home, cooking the dinner. They're not always thinking outside
the box. What kind of, you know, who can really
benefit from just having a session with you or
talking with you? What's the. Is there an ideal client
or is it something that really anybody could learn something from?
I think this is an everybody conversation. Like I said,
this is. Astrology is 100%
inclusive. You it does not you. It. When you look at a
natal chart, If I just look at a natal chart, don't give me the name,
don't give me the birth date, any information. I just see a chart that is
just a whole person. And so I believe that everybody can
benefit. But with that said, I have found a lot of
comfort as a late diagnosed neurodivergent person. I
there that this particular demographic, our demographic is
overlooked. We made it by just
enough, but obviously not enough to not get
diagnosed later in life because something broke down, we hit a wall, we got
burnt out. A lot of us moms gave birth
and all of a sudden now we can't juggle it. You know, something
happened and work got a little bit difficult and all Of a sudden you're like,
why can't I keep up? You get this late diagnosis. Diagnosis. And so
it's. I love that demographic, particularly
because you are gonna. We're gonna hit a point after
diagnosis where we're looking for something. We're looking for our
identity, we're looking for how to unmask. We're looking to be authentic
and we don't know where to begin. And I want to remind people
who the hell they are, because that's where. That's where you start. You
start with just being who you are and living that because you haven't
been up until this point. So that particular
demographic. But overall, this isn't. Everybody could benefit
from. From this kind of searching. Yeah.
With all the clients and growth you've experienced over the years, where
do you see Wisteria rising going in five to
10 years? Is this something that you can branch out? Do you envision
speaking on stages or books or what's. What does the future hold
for you? I absolutely adore that question, Jeff. I.
I would love to do workshops, I would love to
do seminars and have
this conversation and really sit
there and get people to chime in and talk about the ways in which
we are put in boxes and put in molds. I want
this conversation to be in a mixed room in the workplace,
in schools. The amount of times I look back and I get really
frustrated at teachers and counselors who
should have seen my neurodivergence because.
And I am not a. I'm not a medical
doctor. I am not a. I have no capacity to
diagnose anybody. I have self researched and I
know symptoms in myself and you know, this and that. And it is
so obvious to me, looking back at my behaviors and
I would love. And this is something that I'm studying and working on to become
a inclusivity practitioner so that I can
educate people on what it is and to see the signs and
how to accommodate, because this is a conversation and I will. And
astrology is fun and I think it's a really great
way to get people to pay attention because most people know their sun sign
and it's a great icebreaker to let people help people wet their walls
down. But it really does open the door to a really important
conversation. And so in five to 10 years,
I would love Divergent by Design, Mysterio Rising Company. I would love
to be in a room. And there are a lot of people
having this conversation because that's really all it takes
to get people to think differently, change perspectives and
to open that door to getting people to feel good
inside their bodies. Because we also all know that the better you feel about
yourself, the better you're going to treat people around you. So
look forward to 5 to 10 years wisteria
rising world tour. We're gonna take it on the road to
different conferences and seminars and different communities. And we'll
have a. You'll have a big meetup, you know, and have those
conversations with that. You're right. Sometimes it goes
undiagnosed or the people don't have the right conversations.
And that awareness really helps people see,
you know, the. The different things that you need to have those conversations about.
Yeah, I'm. I'm manifesting that. Absolutely.
That's amazing. Praxie, if people wanted to connect with you, if they wanted
to, you know, reach out to you, what's the best way
to connect with you and, and, and get on board with
Wisteria Rising? You can find. You can find me
divergentbydesign.co. And that's
my Instagram handle, TikTok handle and
divergentbydesign co is also my website. And
click all the links and I will continue to add to it for
educational purposes, for booking, and just to share
more of my story and to get people more involved in the conversation.
Awesome. I'll have all those links in the show. Notes.
Let's go back to that theme song.
Divergent by design. No need to
hide. Praxie sees the the magic you
got inside ADHD
turn into a gift. Astrology is the
compass giving souls to live. My Guest
Tonight with Jeff Revilla. The
stars connected to cosmic
thriller Praxie. Of songs
bringing light to every star. So
unless tonight.
I love how that theme song was. I was not expecting that. That's. I can't
wait to tell my husband. That's so fun.