Astrology

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 (question charts), initially via John Frawley's text on that subject, before discovering medieval Persian-Arabic astrology, Hellenistic and Indian systems.

 

I studied medieval astrology through New Library and received their DMA in the same (diploma of medieval astrology), originally created by Robert Zoller. I then delved into the Hellenistic system and texts, initially through Chris Brennan, and shortly thereafter tackled Indian astrology from a few different angles (Hart Defouw, Ernst Wilhelm). I decided to synthesize the best aspects of each of these into my own unique approach, which I am always adding to and refining as is necessary.

 

The last system of astrology I studied, before shifting my focus to practice, was Uranian astrology (with astrologer Kate Petty), a modern German system which draws heavily upon ancient astrology and the logic behind it. I've found that all of these systems essentially say the same thing while utilizing their own unique methods and protocols while studying a chart.

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Currently I base a lot of my astrological work directly in the traditions of Jyotish, and yet I cannot help but utilize techniques and perspectives from the other systems I have studied, something that more ancient astrological practitioners likely also did because they did not think in the rigid boundaries of historical traditions as we often do today. Astrology was a living and evolving tradition and it still is today for those who choose to engage with it as such.