Heavenly Branches
Divination for Awareness
My name is Lars. I'm a classical and electric guitarist who became engrossed in astrology, tarot and the occult while pursuing a BFA in music at California Institute of the Arts. After graduating I shifted focus to studying these newly discovered disciplines alongside psychology, religion, philosophy, occultism and yoga.
I am currently pursuing an MA in philosophy at the University of Tartu in Estonia.
Astrological Biography
My first astrology teacher was the harp professor at Calarts, Susan Allen, an amazing individual now dwelling beyond the veil. She turned me onto Dane Rudhyar and I assiduously read and studied most of his books (astrological and non-astrological) and gained a firm grasp of his holistic approach and philosophy of life. I later studied with a local teacher in Alburquerque New Mexico, Sandy Bryan, mostly for the astronomical and mathematical aspects of astrological calculation. Both of these women had teachers who were direct students of Dane Rudhyar. Another heavily Rudhyar influenced astrologer I took an excellent workshop with was Jason Holley, who is also a licensed psychotherapist who uses astrology in his practice. It consisted of 12 sessions spanning several months and centered around the holistic psychological forms of chart reading and incorporated myth and astro-drama (similar to psycho-drama).
While I loved Rudhyar (and still do) I had a hard time applying his ideas because I lacked the more mundane footing afforded by older astrological traditions. I stumbled upon a book on medical horary astrology by Oscar Hoffman and fell in love with what was contained therein. It was mostly based in renaissance astrology, which is rather different than most modern systems. I delved deeply into renaissance horary astrology (question charts), initially via John Frawley's text on that subject, before discovering medieval Persian-Arabic astrology, Hellenistic and Indian systems.
I then studied medieval astrology through New Library and received their DMA in the same (diploma of medieval astrology), originally created by Robert Zoller. Afterwards I made a foray into the Hellenistic system and texts, initially through Chris Brennan, and Indian astrology from a few different angles (Hart Defouw, Ernst Wilhelm and others). The last system of astrology I studied (though very informally), before shifting my focus to practice, was Uranian astrology (with astrologer and friend Kate Petty), a modern German system that is quite unique to say the least.
Recently (2023) I have come full circle, returning to the place where my astrological journey began — Dane Rudhyar’s humanistic and transpersonal astrology. I feel that his ideas and approach correlate the best with to what I am attempting to do as a practicing astrologer — namely to use it as a tool to promote meaning, understanding and transformation.
Tarological Biography
I flirted with Tarot for a few years before finally being called to study and learn it in greater depth. Upon discovering the Tarot Marseille, refurbished by the amazing filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, I was hooked into his perspective and this deck in particular. I restricted myself to this deck alone for quite a while and became intimately acquainted with it before other decks began to appeal to my heart. Interestingly I became serious about Tarot around the time I was also studying traditional forms of astrology, and I believe that while my mind is fascinated by astrology, it is to Tarot that my heart belongs perhaps for the simple reason that I am an extremely visual person and have a great of love stories. I have read the tarot in a variety of settings and for a great many individuals and have cultivated a variety insights about the nature of its structure based what I have found insightful from others and my own life experiences.
