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Daily Inspiration: Meet Karolina Barwinski

Today we’d like to introduce you to Karolina Barwinski

Hi Karolina, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was born in Poland and spent the first 8 years of my life there before my family moved to the US. I went to college and spent my 20’s and 30’s in the corporate world – first in the private sector and then in academia. It wasn’t until I had my first son in 2017 and then quitting my job a bit abruptly in 2021 that I feel like I finally started living my purpose. It’s still something I am exploring, but I realized life is not linear, it’s topsy turvy and hard and beautiful at the same time.

We were living in Portugal at the time that I quit my job in Public Health. It was the first Summer in years, maybe since my childhood, that I let myself play. My son and I and my husband would spend hours at the beach, hanging with friends, eating delicious fresh food from the local markets. It finally felt like this is how life should be! That Summer I started to tap into my creativity again and co-created a fun Waldorf and Astrology Inspired Days of the Week Wheel for Kids.

In 2022 we came to Austin, TX where we’ve been since. I was pregnant and followed my intuition to freebirth my 2nd son in January 2023. My pregnancy with him and his birth also opened me up in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I connected deeply with the Earth and her rhythms – enjoyed connecting with the waters around here, grounding my bare feet in the Earth, etc. My practices during my pregnancy with him helped me birth a Pregnancy Journal and Birth and Postpartum Guide in 2022.

I also have the honor of being home with him instead of putting him in day care. This, too, of course has its challenges because there’s such a lack of a village that all young mother’s so need and deserve, but I revel in our sweet moments together and getting to know him and his unique self on the daily.

I’m also in the midst of healing my thyroid and slowing way way way down. I’ve come to believe that we are here on this Earth to remember pleasure and joy. We know this as babies yet at some point we get conditioned to go to to school, do all the things expected of us, go to college, get a job, get married, have kids, keep working, and then retire.

Going on the journey of healing my thyroid – I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis at age 15! – is helping me see how I’ve strayed so much from my own perfect design. This is why I have found that Astrology and Human Design have offered me validation for the way I truly am meant to live. And that’s more play, more pleasure, more fun and adventure, more rest, and a lot less work, getting things done because you think you have to. I’m reclaiming all this right now and it feels so right and so expansive.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think one of my biggest challenges in life has been not having someone earlier on to help me really see myself, my beauty, my gifts, my uniqueness, my light. I never got the permission to be who I am, even to rest and just be. I love delving into astrology, the occult, investigating and unearthing what’s beneath the surface. I’m a Scorpio Sun! I also now know I’ve had these gifts and passions – astrology, art – for a reason, but I was led to believe I can’t live my life or make a living doing those. And so I ended up choosing things that weren’t aligned with my heart of hearts. By the time I quit my job I couldn’t take it anymore, that numbness I felt in my soul! I’m grateful I had the courage to quit even if I didn’t know how I was going to “make a living” at the time. I went through some lows financially esp, but I’m getting to be on the other side of it now and I’ve never felt more whole.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a bit in the midst of a dissolution, yet at the same time a formation of my work at the moment. At the moment I’m finally beginning to enjoy being of service to the collective from a more creative stance, focusing on growing as an artist and as an astrologer. At the same time however, I am really allowing myself to grow and flourish as a mother, first and foremost. It’s funny how just as I am starting to get to do what has been a life long dream I am being asked to allow for that dream to steep a little longer as I know my two young boys are a priority.

That said, I am offering astrology readings and weaving in Human Design as well. As an astrologer I brings me joy to help illuminate and lighten someone’s path and understanding of themselves in a way that allows them to exhale and really feel their unique blueprint. I’m especially passionate about illuminating the charts of young women and as well as charts of parents and their kids. Getting to know yourself through the lens of astrology can offer someone a huge permission slip to be their most authentic selves and align themselves with their own uniqueness and light. It’s the same when a parent gets to understand their child through the same lens – you get to see, objectively, how these humans are wanting to express themselves and paving the path for them to do so.

I so wish I had the chance to learn about myself from this perspective as a teen – I wish someone said, you CAN be an astrologer if you want to even if it’s not a course in school! And same with becoming a mother – I wish I had this lens 7 years ago when I first became a mom, that I do now. It has been invaluable to get to know myself and our little family constellation through astrology.

I am also in a very creative phase of my life and am really enjoying combining my love of astrology with my love of expressing myself creatively through art. I have an Etsy shop with astrology-related prints, a pregnancy journal and guide, and a Waldorf and Astrology inspired Days of the Week wheel for kids that I co-created with my now 7 year old son.

And finally I recently became a Cacao Practitioner. I love holding cacao ceremonies for birthdays, mother’s blessings, or as part of an astrology reading. It’s a beautiful was to connect to your heart and remember how nature’s medicine reflects our own inner healer.

I think what sets me apart is this combination of art and astrology with motherhood and reverence for nature’s rhythms and medicine. All are such passions and I’m so grateful to be able to weave them all in some way in my life right now – whether it’s for my own healing and evolution or that of others. I have a gift of really seeing someone and offering them this reflection of their own beautiful unique light. They can enjoy receiving from me via a reading, through one of my art pieces/ prints, or via a heart-opening cacao ceremony.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
When I was a little girl in Poland – maybe 6 or 7 years old – I remember being at my grandmother’s country house garden. She had all kinds of fruits and vegetables growing – potatoes, sour cherries, raspberries, peas, cabbage. It felt like paradise. When we would spend Summers there I would frolic in the garden eating to my heart’s content. It was the closest to nature and paradise I felt like I had experienced until that point and since!

Pricing:

  • Astrology Readings – $155
  • Days of the Week Wheel – $35
  • Zodiac Prints – $25 – $60
  • Natal Chart Paintings – $88
  • Human Design Prints – $45 – $55

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Kate of Freebird Photography – https://www.wearefreebird.com/about. This is just for the feature image.

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