This is a transcript of a YouTube interview between Debra Silverman and Josh Trent about basic astrological concepts and spiritual practice. Debra explains the three core placements — the sun (life force/ego), the moon (inner emotional world), and the rising/ascendant (soul/aim) — and applies them to Josh (sun in Taurus, moon in Scorpio, rising in Virgo; born under a full moon). She frames each sign as having a "high road" and "low road," discusses duality and practical spiritual tools (observer practice, meditation, sacred medicines), and names the "observer" as the 13th sign (last chapter of her book).
Questions this video answers
Sun in Taurus; Moon in Scorpio; Rising (Ascendant) in Virgo.
The 13th sign — the observer.
Chapters
So the sun, the life giving force 93 million miles away, the most influential, energetic to every plant, every flower, what you wore today, everything is based on that sun. It gives us our life force, where it was when you were born, as a Taurus describes your life force, the primary ego structure of your personality type. When you dive into the book and you read Taurus, you're going to laugh because you're so Taurus.
Oh, I got it.
No, no, no, no. Did you? Of course he did.
It's right here. Taurus, stop and smell the flowers. That's what I do with Nova.
I love that you just did that.
I bookmarked it.
And everyone's gonna do that. They're gonna read the book and they're gonna look for their sun sign. Good job. So Taurus is stop and smell the flowers. You learn about your ego structure. Go slow, be calm, be focused. The moon describes the inner world at night, what's going on in the unconscious, the part of us that lives in the depths. You were born under a full moon, so that's auspicious. It only happens once a month. It's a sign of a really big energetic. The whole world wakes up in a full to sleep. The waters rise, crime raises. It's a real thing. You were born under a very strong, emotional, intuitive moon where you. You're so. I just want to swear. You're so fucking Scorpio. You pierce people. Why is this interview so good? Why are you so good at this? You take your focus and you stay the whole. That's very Scorpio. That's the moon in Scorpio. Your emotional temperament, the inner world, the dark world, has a depth to it that can't tolerate mediocrity and will stay the course no matter what. And then the third is the rising sign. This in the book is your soul. It's called the ascendant. It's the higher self. It's what you're aiming for. And yours is Virgo, which is the selfless server who loves to help people more than anything else. At the worst, they criticize themselves and feel like they're never getting it right. And they worry, they get nervous. At their best, they remember, oh, wait a minute. I'm nervous because I really want to do a good job. I can relax. I always do a good job.
Yeah.
So that's the rising sign, is your soul, your rising. The moon is your inner world at night, your emotional temperament. And the sun is your life giving force. It's the part that you will never ever get rid Of, Ha ha. You're a Taurus, and I'm a Gemini, in case you were wondering.
So we all have these proclivities based on our sun, our moon, and our rising that are really impossible to overcome. And you even said that my fear is a gift, which was so counterintuitive. I'm like, what is she talking about? Why is my fear gift?
Because you're born under a full moon in Scorpio and they scare themselves. It gives you the awareness of how to stay on edge, how to be, how to make sure you don't miss anything. You're the guy that we would want in crisis. You know exactly how to handle intensity. So it creates a little bit of edginess because you're on, your awareness is on, and you're paying attention to where the negativity is. You've got, like, a lie detector test. So on one hand, what a great detective, what a seer. On the other hand, it's a little scary. It's the doctor. It's the energy of a surgeon. We come in and we say everything that's wrong, and you're like, I'll get. I'll cut that. Don't you worry. I'm here. So it creates, like, a. What does. The doctor every single day hears what's wrong? You're here to help us figure out how to take off whatever's wrong. And that's what you're teaching us on your podcast and your supplements and your biohacking. Thank you.
Oh, you're welcome. The proclivity we have, it doesn't have to be a death sentence. Like, they can be so good.
Oh, there's high road and low road in the book.
Okay.
Everything has a high road and low road. So the low road of Scorpios are miserable. They go very dark and they don't laugh. They're heavy. The high road is they're piercing and they're poignant. And they will talk about death and fear and sex, like, fearlessly. High road, low road, low road of Taurus. Insecure, a little scared, feels vulnerable, and nobody really likes me. High road of Taurus, the Buddha. I know exactly how to stay still. I'm not going to impress you. I don't need to. My ego's quiet.
Does each sign have a high and a low, or are there any common threads that.
All of them have a high and low, and they're all.
They're all individuals. What's your high road?
Well, my high road is a channel. You may have noticed I have the gift of the gab.
Yes.
And my low road is a dipstick. You know, just superficial and dippy and watching social media and being entertained by TikTok.
Yes. It's interesting with me.
That was funny.
It's very funny. Look, these phones right now, in our end of the Piscean age, the beginning.
Of the mass weapons of distraction.
They're mass weapons of distraction, but there's. There's, like people are watching this potentially on their phone right now. So there's. There's a gift in every what is perceived, evil or bad.
It's always true down here. It's a dualistic reality. The sun and the moon, the night and the day, the men and the women, goes on and on and on.
What's been the hardest paradox for you in your life to see is actually love and of service.
What's been the hardest paradox for me to see? I have a really hard time with this existence. I can't stand that people are hungry. I don't get it. I don't know why there's any children being violated. I can't even talk about it. So it's not easy. This planet is not easy for me. Some people have so much fun here. And I have definitely done a perfect recipe with a little spice of fun, because I live half the time in Hawaii, and so I live in a very ecstatic state, but it never leaves my awareness that this place has been. And it hurts me.
Well, I told you I wasn't going to ask this, but now's the perfect time to ask the two worlds. This is like big question for me of, like, how do I hold my mom and her process of bipolar, and how do I also know that life is good and I'm here to serve? How do you hold those two worlds of knowing there's hunger and then knowing what you're here to do?
It's such a great question. We said that earlier.
I said I wasn't going to ask.
It's okay. It's the most important question. How do you live in two worlds? There's dimensions here behind the veil, and there's dimensions here at the physical plane. I think the simplest answer for me is doing my practice, my spiritual practice, which is to disengage at times, to go into my observer, to go into my meditation and drop the story. And that's why sacred medicine are here, and that's why meditation and why yoga and why healing bowls and essential oils. All these things remind us, oh, oh, it's so sweet when I find that still place in the Middle. And it's a practice, and I do it every day. And I've gotten better as I've gotten older. I did not come this way. I was a wreck. I was an emotional wreck because it hurt me so much. This place hurt me. I couldn't figure out where the middle was. And eventually, as time has gone by, I've really made a practice of sitting in the middle.
Last night at your book party, you said this amazing phrase and the whole room went. You said, observer on. I love this. We've heard Eckhart Tolle be like, okay, well, you know, be the observer of your thoughts. Personally, I just kind of get. It's not a knock on him. I'm just like, I can't listen to him. I'll go to bed, right? It just makes me sleepy. Of course, he has divine wisdom. When did observer on really turn on for you? When was that a real thing?
That's a great question. I was very young. I was in my 20s. I read a book by Ouspensky. It's a book about Gurdjieff, an ancient teacher from the early 1900s in Russia. And he taught the skill of how to be in your day while you're cutting the tomatoes and the cucumbers and keep your awareness. He called it the work to be watching yourself in the most mundane of activities. And I started practicing it, and then I started practicing it, and then I kept practicing it, and all of a sudden I realized in the middle of a fight, when the drama was ensuing and it was getting really escalated, I was getting really pissed. I could after it was over, not during it. Because I don't want you to bypass. Once I finished, my observer would kick in and I'd go, whoa, you got a little reactive there. What did you just say to that person? And it gave me pause. So it really honestly started at a very young age. I understand now it's a metaphysical principle that was in place. It's an esoteric law. And it really works. It requires. I do say it out loud. Observer. I literally, by myself, in traffic.
On.
In traffic, when I'm having a really difficult thought process and I'm in a loop, I catch myself going in a circle, and I go, what are you doing, Deb? Observer on. And it makes me laugh because it sounds like a command position from some space, like Star Trek or something.
Like a game being activated.
Yes. But it actually really works, and I encourage all of you to do it. Last chapter of my book is called the 13th sign, and that is the observer.
