After stepping out of a high-achieving academic life and into the stillness of Malaysia during her Fulbright experience, Mallory Hasty found herself reconnecting with long-held intuitive gifts. In this candid interview for Mystic Mag, Mallory shares how her path led from teacher to professional astrologer and intuitive healer, why she fell in love with Hellenistic Astrology, and how her trauma-informed, soul-centered approach empowers Highly Sensitive People to reclaim their power.
How did your time in Malaysia with the Fulbright Program help shape your path from teacher to professional astrologer and intuitive healer?
My whole life, I was a very academically motivated individual, and spent the majority of my time in college studying, writing papers, reading, etc. Seriously, I would go to the library on Saturday mornings to study. Who does that? Once I got to Malaysia, it was the first time in my life I was taken out of the intensity of my rigorous, academic bubble. I had no heavy coursework or papers due, my duties as a teaching assistant were fairly light, and suddenly I had free time for the first time in 10 years. I was able to rest, get quiet with myself, and spend time in nature.
As I began hearing my inner voice, Astrology and Tarot became the forefronts of my focus. I realized these subjects had always been with me, even at a young age. It was at that point I really had the time and space to finally give myself permission to pursue them.
What drew you to Hellenistic Astrology, and how has it shifted the way you approach readings compared to modern methods?
Perhaps this is Saturnian of me to say, but I really fell in love with the rules of Hellenistic Astrology. A pinnacle of Hellenistic Astrology is the “essential dignities,” a traditional rulership scheme where certain planets take ownership of certain signs. If you ever hear a Modern Astrologer & a Traditional Astrologer arguing over whether Aquarius is ruled by Uranus or Saturn – they’re actually arguing about the essential dignities. Some people think this traditional rulership scheme is archaic, and even patriarchal. Personally, I think it’s beautiful and poetic, and it’s why I named my school “Poet’s Astrology School.”
When it comes to readings, I still approach Hellenistic readings in a very soul-centered way, keeping in mind the story of past lives in the chart, as well as free-will in the present life. Some people think Hellenistic Astrology is inherently fatalistic, and doesn’t leave room for personal choice. I couldn’t disagree more. My clients always walk away from a reading with their free will intact. I’m just not sugar-coating everything into “love and light,” and “it’s all about your mindset.” I hate that stuff. Hellenistic Astrology is more like, “yeah—this Mars transit sucks. Let’s acknowledge that. Let’s actually work through this grief instead of trying to wrap it in a bow.”
As someone who identifies as a Highly Sensitive Person, how do you protect your own energy while holding space for clients who are also deeply sensitive?
It’s funny, because during my first year of doing Astrology & Tarot readings for clients, I was super focused on “protecting my energy.” In general, I felt really burnt out after facilitating readings, and my general mental and physical health was suffering. I hated to think it, but maybe I was too sensitive to be holding space in the first place. I bought all the protective crystals, sage, spells, you name it. I just needed to protect myself more, right?
I was wrong. The best “protection spell” was actually going to therapy, and learning about how our inner child wounds of enmeshment and codependency can show up in our client work. Codependency says, “you have to feel other people’s pain and take it on in order to help them. You gotta save them.” If you are a practitioner with that underlying belief, you will always leave the session feeling drained. As I became more aware of my wounding, and also built up my self-esteem and confidence through my entrepreneurial endeavours, I started to show up to my readings differently. I had more faith in myself, and started to believe in my guides’ inherent protection over me. I started to attract clients that were aligned with me (a lot of other Highly Sensitive People learning to empower themselves). Most of all, I witnessed how amazing Highly Sensitive People really are; we do not have a condition, but a rare gift.
Now, I hardly think about “protection.” I am inherently protected. Readings rarely drain me anymore. I also believe that spending time in nature is the best grounding ritual there is.
How do you integrate your trauma-informed approach into your astrology and tarot sessions without losing the mystical or intuitive essence of your work?
I believe a trauma-informed approach is inherently mystical! For me, this approach is all about thinking in terms of “parts.” I’m a big fan of Internal Family Systems Therapy, or IFS, a form of psychotherapy developed by Richard Schwartz. Essentially, this theory works on the basis that we are all made up of multiple parts that have different wounds, narratives, and protective mechanisms. Like that 12-year old part of yourself that witnessed your parents’ divorce? Yeah, that part is still with you, and subconsciously comes up every time you get in a fight with your partner.
If you’re familiar with different types of energy work and shamanism, you’ve probably heard of “soul-retrieval”, or the idea that we have lost parts of ourselves along the way and need to be put back in contact with them. Sound familiar? IFS therapy and shamanism are definitely in the same roadhouse, according to me.
Astrology and Tarot can help us connect better to our parts as well. Inner child parts come through intuitively to me all the time. I’ll tell a client, “there’s a part here that feels a lot of shame from a public experience.” And they’ll be like, “yeah, my mom would yell at me in public.” And then I’ll see the Aries Moon opposing Mars in their chart. It’s all connected!
What do you see as the biggest misconceptions about astrology in mainstream culture, and how do you aim to reframe those through your practice?
There’s often an overarching, societal attitude about Astrology that it is a silly little pseudoscience with no real facts to back it up. In reality, Astrology is simply the correlation between planetary events & earthly happenings, and is one of the oldest documented cause-effect relationships. Documentation of celestial observations can be tracked as far back as the Babylonians and ancient Egyptians. If science is defined as the testing of theories through observation and experimentation, then what is Astrology other than one of the oldest sciences known to man?
On this note, I try to bring back the ancient act of celestial observation, and encourage my clients and students to do this in their own lives. For instance, if Jupiter is moving into the 4th house of the home this summer, how are you going to observe archetypal Jupiter in this area of your life? What is being called to expand? How could you increase your luck and abundance in this area by being more open to receiving? What is being called to change? Okay, now sit back and observe!
