Isa Nakazawa

Biography

I’m a professional astrologer, writer, and host based in Oakland, California. I came to astrology through a lifelong curiosity about people and the mystery of being alive. I think of myself as a translator and a connector, and astrology has become one of the most generous languages I’ve found for doing that work. I approach astrology as an interpretive art and a practice of meaning-making. I love Jessica Dore’s phrase “naming the world,” because that’s often what we’re doing in a reading. We’re finding language for something you may already know or feel, but haven’t quite been able to name. My readings are collaborative. You’ve lived inside your chart your entire life; I haven’t. My role is to bring what I’ve learned through years of study and practice, but I want to hear what you see too. I’m interested in what resonates, what surprises you, and even what confuses us. I don’t believe every contradiction needs to be resolved. Sometimes staying with the question is the work. I draw from both traditional and modern astrology and primarily use Whole Sign houses. I work with natal charts, relationships, and timing techniques, but I never want the technique to become more important than the person sitting across from me. I take presence seriously. When someone trusts me with their story, I want them to leave feeling more connected to themselves, not simply impressed by what I know. That ethic is central to how you’ve described holding someone in a reading. Outside of my private practice, I’m the creator and host of Stars and Stars with Isa, a SiriusXM and Futuro Studios podcast where I use astrology as a doorway into intimate conversations with artists and cultural thinkers. I still approach the cosmos first and foremost as a student and a listener. I don’t believe astrology can explain everything about us, and I wouldn’t want it to. There is a vast intelligence moving within you already. The chart simply offers another way to listen.