Interview with Renee Hlahle
What was your first job?
I was a primary school teacher. My subjects were English and life skills/orientation. I went into studying the profession already aware that this wasn’t where my heart was. I struggled to find the joy in the work which then led to struggling to find the joy in life itself, which brought on a depression that compelled me to resign within just two years of working. I have since then filled in substitute positions for financial reasons, however, every time I’ve gone back to the profession, I’ve been met with the same lackluster experience. I have taken this as motivation to seek my true path and live it.
What is your profession/job?
I am an actress and an astrologer. My journey with acting has been a character-developing one, to put it mildly (excuse the pun), with so many challenges and rejections to overcome, yet even so I am certain that I have found in it, what makes my heart sing. Astrology came into my life like a “knight in shining armor” during a confusing and dark time in my life, we have been inseparable ever since.
Do you like your job?
Yes! I am deeply in love with my job/s.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Going back to as young as I can remember, I wanted to be a housewife, mother to be exact, this was my 6-year-old self. As I grew older my preference changed from marketing and advertising work, or businesswoman (not knowing what business it would be), to psychologist, which is where I landed for most of my high-school years. My love for psychology arose as I began to discover my love for understanding people and wanting to get to the bottom of what makes them the way they are. Little did I know this curiosity would be met in a different way later in life.
How did you get into this line of work?
It started with a friend of mine sending me an online tarot reading about a situation I was going through and the accuracy dropped my jaw to the floor. I then began to go down the rabbit hole of obsessively watching random online tarot readings which led to even more confusion about my life, I realized that I needed to stop feeding the gremlin. However what stayed with me was this mentioning of “sun, moon, rising” that the readers would say at the beginning of each reading. Wanting to know what they were talking about, I did my research and found that they were referring to astrological terms. I enthusiastically got my birth chart, started researching my placements and once again, the accuracy dropped my jaw to the floor. For several months all I could talk about was birth charts, transits, and retrogrades until the inspiration came to create a platform where I could talk about this freely and as often as I’d like. I began reading transits for friends, then monthly readings, and now yearly readings aka solar returns. I am still a student of astrology, I am enjoying mastering the knowledge and skills that I currently have.
What are you proudest of in your career?
I am proud of how much I have grown and come out of my shell, as scary and intimidating as it is to be in an uncommon industry where I am also the underdog not having a long list of accolades under my name, I hold my own. I also appreciate how welcoming and supportive the astrology community is.
Who was your greatest mentor?
In life, my greatest mentor is my mother. She has remarkably stayed true to who she is while still managing to evolve enough to keep up with the times. Watching her reap the rewards of all that she has dedicated her life to, is such a gift and a great reminder to me, to keep fighting the good fight and that even when things don’t make sense at the moment, they do make sense for where I am headed. I am inspired by many of the young astrologers I come across online who have a genuine love for astrology and are turning it into a notable worthwhile career path. One who stands out to me is Heather Eland from the “Cosmic Academy of Astrology”, who runs an astrology boot camp and also has various in-depth courses to help level up an astrologer’s education, of which I am a part.
What is your passion and how did you get started with it?
I would say acting is my passion, whereas astrology is more so who I am. It feels like accessing parts of my Akashic records and reliving them. I had always loved to perform or role-play in school projects but never had the confidence or courage to pursue it professionally, so even after matriculating I didn’t consider it a viable path. Through my spiritual awakening, I realized that the only thing keeping me from trying it was fear-based beliefs and other people’s opinions and expectations for my life. In 2019 I built up the courage to just go for it and do an acting course, through which I received confirmation and validation of my talent and skills and have been at it ever since. Through my studies and performing experiences, I have come to realize how spiritual acting actually is and I hope to make this realization more of a known fact that the glamour is, throughout my career.
