Since discovering astrology in 2005, Gemma Rabionet has been on a transformative path that blends celestial wisdom, symbolic language, and creative expression. With roots in esotericism, Jungian psychology, and textile art, she guides others through archetypal activation and self-discovery while exploring the intersection of spirit, matter, and myth. In this interview for Mystic Mag, she shares her journey from star maps to sacred stitching—and how living in global cities and collaborating across disciplines continues to shape her cosmic worldview.
How did discovering astrology in 2005 transform your perception of life and human connection?
Discovering astrology was the beginning of my heroine’s journey. It gave me insight into why reality was somehow meaningless without a certain level of interpretation. By learning symbolic language, the doors to an extraordinary world opened, and this helped me to connect with my soul. After that, it has just been a matter of learning to listen to myself.
As time passed, my interest in esotericism, mystery schools, and ancient traditions connected to the heavens that lived in harmony with nature grew. With astrological initiation, the magic of the subtle began to emanate from every corner of mundane reality, and I learned to observe deep roots in every aspect of everyday life. That is to say, due to the discovering of astrology, a transformation began in my way of being in the world and interacting with the cosmos, both internally and externally.
It was an irreversible transmutation of my way of understanding reality. So, since its appearance in my life, astrology has been nourishing my perception, generating connections, providing answers, opening new questions, and teaching me to make more conscious choices. Furthermore, it helped me to educate my energetic (archetypal) powers holistically, accompanying the cycles and stages of life by having a wider perspective. The way I see it, astrology is a philosophy, a Weltanschauung or world view. Hence, my approach to astrology, aims to transversally cultivate a framework that considers the four main psychological types: intuition, emotion, thought, and sensation (as suggested by Carl G. Jung), and helps to integrate them. In other words, astrology helps to move toward the completeness of being.
As individual souls, one contributes and generate echoes of vibration (emotion, thought, and action) that form perceptual and behavioral fractals—that operate from the inside out, and vice versa. A key question one should ask at some point in life is, what can I offer to the world and society with my particular energy? Likewise, one is part of the soul of the world; the collective vibration and social interactions impact and shape one. What does one receive from the environment? It is such a challenge to find dynamic harmony (Tao) between the interior and the exterior.
We are all in the cosmic and spiraling dance of evolution, both individual and collective, and self-discovery allows one to discern between one’s own path and that of others. This way, one can be more congruent with the actions one performs and at the same time sculpt reality. Additionally, when one finds one’s unique place within the “cosmic puzzle,” one fosters synchronicities, which are more evident and recurrent when one flows with the cosmos.
What do you find most powerful about guiding others through archetypal activation and self-discovery?
First, for me, it is such an honor to be allowed to enter into another human being’s own universe; it is like setting foot in a sacred temple, and, therefore, it is a privilege accompanying them through a threshold of deep connection, which, in turn, favors deep transformations.
The most powerful thing in astrological counseling is to feel the other person’s Self and to marvel at recognizing its connection with the soul. By taking their uniqueness seriously, one encourages clients to take responsibility of their extraordinary lives. As a guiding astrologer one has to mirror what the soul comes seeking. Furthermore, when empathizing, it is as if a facet of “me” is also receiving the activation and clearing of the energetic channel, harmonizing, aligning, purifying, grounding meaning, and propelling it to other levels, which, in turn, helps to harmonize, align, purify, ground, provide deep meaning to existence, and hence, to move forward to other levels of understanding, and experience.
When people come to a session, they have a receptive attitude and come with great openness. Clients come for different reasons, whether they had been through a period of crisis and are in need of understanding what caused it, or to catalyze energy, or to remember, or to validate a path that is opening for them, which they perceive but doubt before taking that important step, to open possibilities, to review their worldview, to organize, to identify priorities. Nevertheless, behind all this, there is a yearning for reconnection with the creative force within them.
At the beginning of the journey of self-discovery, the main task is to recognize the archetypes operating underneath in order to benefit from that power, redefining it, and, if possible, giving it a healthier and broader expression. For example, Saturn means reviewing the reference points as regards structural figures. Thus,, appropriating that archetype and revitalizing it could mean taking responsibility for one’s own previous choices and moving on from there. By living the archetype from within, one is assuming a commitment to one’s own life and learning to define constructive limits, but one has to learn to do it without feeling oppression, and, above all, without having a feeling of castration.
To summarize, accompanying a person in the process of self-discovery is fascinating. It leads one through the internal constellation and monomyth to generate psychic health and distill its medicine: the understanding of the purpose of that life, its meaning. Seeing human power embodied and manifested through the archetypes is a mythic spectacle that I, as an astrology counsellor, have the honor to partake in.
How have your global experiences living in cities like Buenos Aires, Singapore, and Barcelona shaped your spiritual and creative work?
Living in different geographical locations has been an anthropological and social experience that has shaped my life and, as a result, my work.
Firstly, on a personal level, having to learn to adapt to new codes and ways of behaving made me realize that the world is made up of many realities, or even other worlds within what we call “the world”. As an employee from the city-state of Singapore once said to me while I was living there, “Different countries, different rules.” As a matter of fact, living in different countries is like a life journey (a heroic journey), in which each new territory is an opportunity to actualize oneself. When one moves from one geography to another, one loses one’s places of reference, and this can provoke some crises, which certainly is an experience that goes side by side with the process of individuation. By being reflected in different realities, one’s own image is often altered, to the point one is forced to ask, “Who am I?”. And, usually, what follows is a reconfiguration of one’s identity, a mutation that creates internal connection and, consequently, it becomes a drive for continuous learning. That is why it is so important to travel, because one’s identity shifts, or at least it is reconfigured quite frequently.
Besides, travelling helps one to identify what is more significant in life and to detach oneself from material things that are not really relevant. For instance, travelling with the bare minimum, sometimes just a backpack, means that one is not what one has; it is one’s attitude what has value, one’s perception of life.
Moreover, in terms of locational astrology, astrocartography, or astrogeography, when one moves from one location to another, one loses connection with the earthly forces of one’s birthplace, and it will take time to feel harmony. (This is also true for shamanic practitioners, as connection with the earth is essential).
On an astrological and astronomical level, for me, travelling around has been a great learning experience, as it has allowed me to experiment through self-inquiry. For example: in my birth chart in Girona (Spain), my Ascendant is in the sign of Cancer, ruled by the Moon. When the birth chart is relocated, my AC changes. In Buenos Aires, it is Aries, ruled by Mars; in Singapore, Libra, ruled by Venus. These are important shifts that one has to consider. Also, experiencing solar revolutions in different cities has allowed me to study and discern key astrological theories, such as the relevance of changing hemispheres—Northern and Southern in temperate zones—and the reversal of the seasons. For example, spending Christmas in the summer in Buenos Aires was extremely strange in relation to mythology and meaning—until then, I was used to relating Christmas to darkness and winter—. Or visiting the Tropic of Capricorn close to Huacalera, Jujuy, during the June solstice, which is winter in Argentina but the summer solstice in my home town. Or living in a tropical zone, such as Singapore, and experiencing the connection with the Moon in a very different way. Additionally, in Singapore, they use Chinese and Hindu astrology, which got me started in those branches.
In terms of human communication and relationships, body language is different, and the way people make physical contact with others also changes. For instance, whether we should look somebody in the eyes or in which contexts are important things to learn.
On a spiritual and philosophical level, travelling around also shaped me. Experiencing the contrast between the West and the East, the difference between atheism or monotheism, and Buddhism, animism, polytheism, for instance, in Bali.
On a creative level, I have always been interested in cultural differences. I love diversity, traditions, and the experience of living abroad, surrounded by different aesthetics, colors, sounds, and flavors, has made an indelible impression on me, and this reflects on my art and thinking processes.
More importantly, having lived in different places has given me the sense of surprise that travelers have. Even when I am at my home town, I continue marveling and discovering the specialness of every corner, every flower, every person I meet as if I were in foreign lands.
In what ways do your textile art pieces—such as mandalas and talismans—reflect your astrological and shamanic insights?
From the beginning, astrological and textile practices have been intertwined for me. Prior to studying astrology, I had a background in art, both as a painter and a pattern designer. As a consequence, when I started my training as an astrologer, I could not avoid seeing the chart as a mandala and, soon enough, I started representing it as a textile pattern. But as my training in astrological symbolic language increased, so did the themes of representation, exploration, and interest. Accordingly, each piece encapsulates meaning. My preferred technique is mixed media, specializing in textiles (collage, tapestry, crochet, nuno felting, screen printing, dyeing, volume, and character creation), I tend to represent archetypes in the form of costumes, puppets, or masks. In general, I choose and merge techniques according to what I want to represent. Since each material has its own sensitivity, knowing the archetypal correspondences (in colors, shapes, and types of minerals) allows me to explain complexity more precisely. For example, for Aries we could use red tones, straight and sharp lines, red stones, and jasper. To create a talisman, I would also craft it on the day and hours of Mars, the ruler.
During the Renaissance, Marsilio Ficino, an Italian philosopher who revived Neoplatonism, incorporated the practice of talismans. Beyond being objects of protection, they were tools to channel astral influence and enhance the connection between humanity and the cosmos. For my practice, I seek to strengthen that connection and use the Planetary Hours, a symbolic system in which Each hour of each day is associated with one of the seven visible planets.
Shamanism also uses the creation of sigils and objects, each practitioner creating their own “craft” with the spirits—from the world above or below, power animals, beings of love and compassion who favor the qualities of the pieces—, you give them a particular chant.
Regarding the type of piece, mandalas, the way in which we astrologers refer to the birth chart, provide center, core, and are symbolic representations of the self or the entire personality. In the work of Carl Gustav Jung, mandalas reflect the process of individuation. He says, “Mandalas are not just symbols, but ‘are’ transformation, representing personal development and the integration of different aspects of the psyche.”
Each piece acts as a talisman or activator, depending on the material and intention I instill in the creative process.
I also create artistic pieces, less decorative and harmonizing, which, contrarily, seek to mobilize, to evoke the tensions, squares, and polarities one sees in the astrological chart
Art and expression serve as a direct channel to the cosmos, both internal and external. When I completed my postgraduate degree in art therapy, I realized art could work as a bridge between the textile background and the type of self-knowledge I activated by learning astrology and shamanism. With a Jungian orientation (humanistic, transpersonal, evolutionary, mystical), the internal world is an invaluable source of images that guide self-discovery. To facilitate the process of remembering important insights, I use an astrological creative journal, in which I sketch them as images that I later develop in the textile pieces I make. For this reason, my textile pieces emerge from a connection with the depths of my unconscious and are charged with intention.
Can you share how your collaborations with projects like MISPA and R.B. Dharma deepen your mission of integrating the spiritual with the material world?
As regards my collaboration with MISPA, it is worth providing some context first.
«The Mercury Internet School of Psychological Astrology was set up in 2015 by John Green to allow worldwide access to psychological astrology, a discipline combining astrology and depth, humanistic, and transpersonal psychology. John, a tutor for the Center for Psychological Astrology (CPA), set up the school to fulfill the demand for a qualification in psychological astrology following the work of Liz Greene, Howard Sasportas and many others who have been explorers in this fascinating world» from the MISPA website.
At a professional level, MISPA has nourished me with astrological visions that have stimulated my world view. Being an Accredited Astrologer allows me to disseminate spiritual content that promotes psychic health and accompany other human beings on their creative soul journeys, manifesting greater coherence with their internal world and, in consequence, seeing the deeper meaning in their experiences.
With respect to R.B. Dharma, it is an artistic collaboration with Carlos Ruiz Brussain. This project is based on the concept of a ‘third mind’, as developed by William Burroughs and Brion Gysin. But perhaps it is better lo know how R.B. Dharma defines itself, “I am a psychoid. I am the result of an alchemical process. I am a hermaphrodite. I am the unseen and superior collaborator that shows when Gemma and Carlos work together.” R. B. Dharma is a hermaphrodite ‘entity’ who has created hundreds of drawings, exquisite corpses, and poems. S/he is a psychoid that manifests when an artistic union takes place. As for the creative process R.B. Dharma utilizes, “The method I use to produce my works is automatism; a type of channelling that allows these artists to be able to let their hearts and hands ‘know’. Only when they totally release control, I reveal myself. As this is not always easy for them, sometimes I need to make them play. In the end, the uncertain and unproductive nature of games enables them to destroy all rational thought and, thus, to cross boundaries that lead them into unknown territories. My influences are surrealism, Burroughs and Gysin’s cut-ups, magic realism, fantasy, visionary and psychedelic art. I am also interested in alchemy, magic, esotericism, astrology, tarot, Kabbalah, mysticism, mythology, shamanism, and Jungian and transpersonal psychology.” R.B. Dharma explores liminality (a Mercurial function) and the re-union of anima-animus, shadow, collective unconscious, synchronicity. As a third mind, it operates as a liminal force that channels and shows invisible connections to the naked eye.
It is worth informing that R.B. Dharma is always seeking the possibility of collaborating with other artists.
To conclude, for me, the most important thing is to be able to put into practice theories and to explore them through creative processes which come directly from the soul and talk directly to it. I seek to find concepts and paths that are bridges that connect conscious and unconscious, incarnation and the Self. Once again, my aim is always to move toward the completeness of being.
