My Interview with Rachael Stephen
Creator of the Constellation System
When I do my end of the year reflection for 2022, Rachael Stephen’s “Constellation System” will definitely be in my top five list. This system has changed the way that I approach the things that matter the most to me, and as a result I’ve been able to dedicate more time and intentional focus to my relationships, movement practices, self-care, and creativity.
Since I recommend Rachael’s system so often, I asked to interview her about how and why she came up with the system and how it currently functions in her life. I’m sharing some of my favorite parts of the interview with you in today’s Tending Letter, but I encourage you to watch or listen to the entire video interview with Rachael by clicking here (closed captions and transcript are available via the web player).
Who’s Rachael?
Rachael Stephen is a writer, maker and secular witch. She is the author of the novel State of Flux, and founder of the Story Magic Academy - an online school for creative storytelling. Based in Glasgow, Scotland, she spends her time writing, teaching, and making YouTube videos.
Where You Can Learn More about Rachael and Her Offerings
Here’s the link to sign up for Rachael’s Patreon, which includes access to lots of extra goodies and a robust community.
Here’s the link to sign up for Rachael’s newsletter, which is how you’ll find out about her future offerings.
Some excerpts from our interview
While I encourage you to view or listen to the entire interview, I want to share some of my favorite parts of our discussion with you.
What is the Constellation System?
Rachael likens the Constellation System to a “categorization system” for “six different domains of life” that are “meant to be kind of porous and a little bit amorphous at the edges because that's the only way that we're going to be able to divide the massive complexity of life into six categories.”
The six domains are:
Genero: Creativity
Divitiae: Money and Financial Life
Domum: Home
Corporalis: The Body
Socialis: Connections and Relationships
Spiritus: Mind and Mental Health
Rest and the Domains
Rachael and I had a great chat about how rest fits in with the domains. Here’s some great stuff she had to say: “There's different types of restoration and thinking of each domain as having its own way of being restorative, refilling that well, instead of it just being like work or rest.” She gives some great examples of how to rest for different domains and then says, “It's not just like one type of work and one type of rest…in one area of your life, you could have lots of energy and you could be completely burned out in another. And I wasn't really seeing the nuance of like, okay, well what part of life actually needs tending versus where can I keep producing?”
On Cycles
I asked Rachael how she thought the Constellation System might be helpful for folks whose day-to-day experiences are impacted by chronic health issues, and she had such a compassionate and wise answer, part of which pertained to cycles. She said: “Looking at the cycles are one of the only ways that we can predict the future really. And obviously we can't do it with perfectly. It's like the difference between like climate and weather.” She shares tangible examples of how to use cycles in your own practices, too.
A few key topics we touched on (with rough timestamps)
How her use of the system has shifted or changed since she first developed it (around 12:00 minutes into the video)
How to choose which tasks go in which domains (17:00)
Rachael’s awesome discussion about rest and the domains (23:30)
We dive into thinking about how the Divitiae domain fits into different people’s lives (27:00)
How might the Constellation System be helpful for folks who live with chronic health issues? (30:00)
Rachael tells us a little about her exciting Constellation System news (38:00)
For Your Consideration
Follow me on Instagram
My offerings: 1-on-1 Coaching and workshops and IPSP
Sign up for the waitlist for Perceptible Progress: A Goals Course
Order my book, Tend to It: A Holistic Guide to Intentional Productivity
Listen to my podcast interviews