Tag Archives: Natal chart

Anne, how do you feel Astrology is best learned?

Posted on December 14, 2017 | 16 comments
‎Judith Burke‎ to Astrology: Questions and Answers

Anne, how do you feel Astrology is best learned? Through books, lectures, classes, or ?

I received this message from Judith on this blog’s Facebook Page several days ago, replying to say I’d deal with it when I had time. But it’s a good, BIG question, more deserving of a thought-out answer than merely via a Facebook comment. I’ve been giving it a lot of thought; there are dozens of ways to respond!

My astrological colleagues will have their own way of replying – I’d be happy to hear their views, and those of current students or folk who are thinking about studying. I spent a happy half hour with one such person on Thursday 30th November 2017, responding to his question about Mercury Retrograde. His fascination with the whole subject was a joy to be around…

In the meantime, here are my thoughts…

My husband Ian, who in his earlier life was a professional actor, once asked a seasoned professional what it took to be a serious member of the profession. The older man replied rather grandly : ” My boy, all you need to be an actor is three boards – and passion…”

Passion

So let’s start with the passion.

Picture this scene. There I am, sitting at a cramped old desk in the bedroom of our new house, having just moved, acquired a husband (not ever part of my life plan, by the way!) a half share in his two children, his elderly cat, and his ex wife who at that time lived round the corner from us. Oh yes, and having just changed  jobs.

In front of me is an astrology text book: Margaret Hone’s Modern Text Book of Astrology (most recent imprint 1954 or thereabouts). I am already scared stiff by Margaret, although I have never met her. I am at Chapter Six: Computation. It’s a struggle to understand the maths, never my strong point to put it mildly.

There are mascara stains half way down the page. Mine. “I’ll never ever get this!” I wail to the new husband, who is looking bemused. Less than a year later, having sat a whole week of exams in May 1983, I discover that I have gained my Certificate of the UK’s Faculty of Astrological Studies – with a Distinction in the Calculation paper.

That’s where passion, allied with her much less glamorous but more useful sister persistence, can get you. So that’s where you start, if you really want seriously to engage with the art of astrology. You need to be passionately attracted to those seductive, mysterious, elusive symbols whose sliver of meaningful light cast on your life – very often, first of all,  through the Sun Signs – compels you to engage with a landscape whose depth and richness becomes increasingly evident the further you venture within.

Finding the way 

It’s fascinating to find out how well-known astrologers found their way: HERE are some of their stories, including my own, which is set in a launderette in Bath, Somerset, England; a very long time ago. Then, I thought ( based on the usual total ignorance of the subject) that astrology was a load of old rubbish. How wrong could a person be…

People vary greatly in how they arrive at a reasonable degree of competence and fluency in interpreting astrological charts. This is where persistence and discipline come in. Without those, you are going to remain on the margins: a dilettante, “into” astrology but with no real grasp of the subject. That’s fine, if that’s where you wish to remain. But you won’t get to the heart of the subject without persistent application.

I think my own pattern was fairly typical. First, I had an unexpected encounter with astrologers the accuracy of whose reading of my horoscope stunned me. It came at a time when I was seriously questioning what my life was FOR – and whether life itself was intrinsically meaningful, or not. If strangers could describe my inner world and external life patterns so accurately, I thought, that certainly suggested the likelihood of something meaningful going on in the grand scale ….but the challenge provided to my agnostic resistance wasn’t at that point ripe enough to propel me into exploratory action.

Then seven years later, a friend thrust Alan Oken’s The Horoscope, the Road and its Travellers into my hand saying “I think you should read this.” In order not to offend him, I did, and was instantly compelled to begin studying first of all symbols, planets, signs, houses, aspects. I still have that old, battered notebook with all my handwritten notes in it – and the book with my name in it “Anne Whitaker 1981”.

Next, feeling lonely as a self-directed solo student, I decided to attend a local astrology group. “Great,” I thought. “At least here I can get away from everyone who knows me but doesn’t know I’m interested in this weirdo stuff…”

“Hello, Anne, fancy meeting you here!” said the woman collecting entrance fees. It was a colleague from psychiatric social work. My cover was blown from day one. Attending the group led me to joining a class run by Carole Wilson (are you reading this, Carole?!) who held the Diploma from the Faculty of Astrological Studies.After that I just told people I was studying astrology, eliciting the usual mixture of responses from the incredulous to the dismissive, with a very liberal dollop of ” Wow, great – can you do my chart?”

Taking it further

Saying “Yes” and embarking on short, limited chart readings  very quickly revealed two things. One, that I too could study marks on pieces of paper and feed back accurate information to their owners. Two, that there was a great deal of power, and responsibility for using it, vested in the process of reading horoscopes and the person who took on that task. Feeling committed but daunted, needing some consistent high-quality teaching to take me on from Carole’s excellent introductory class, I signed up as a  Faculty of Astrological Studies correspondence student and in due course obtained my Certificate.

But you never can get to the end of  astrological knowledge: it’s too wide, and too deep. I was to further my studies much later on, at the Centre for Psychological Astrology,  by commuting by plane from Glasgow to London from 1995-1998 to complete a three-year Diploma in Psychological Astrology with renowned teacher writer and astrologer Dr Liz Greene and the late great mundane astrologer, teacher and writer Charles Harvey.

I consider myself most fortunate to have spent most of my twenties as a college lecturer, and most of my thirties as a generic and psychiatric social worker and counsellor, since both those strands wove into and greatly supported my work as an astrologer. I was also used to having my professional work supervised: thus, when I went freelance with writing, teaching, counselling and the practice of astrology – on the first Saturn square after my Saturn Return – it was a natural step for me to set up regular supervision for my astrological work.

So – returning to Judith’s question by way of conclusion: Judith, as you can see from this post, you answered your own question in the way you posed it!

Passionate interest, for whatever reason, kicks the whole thing off. Then it’s as you say: books, lectures, classes … and preferably some disciplined study with a reputable, recommended school, leading to a qualification which is recognised in the astrological world – that’s if you wish to establish some credibility as a practitioner and teacher.

There is a great deal more to be said on this topic, including the fact that many well-respected astrologers have no formal qualifications. You can find some of what I have previously discussed HERE if you want some food for thought regarding the professional and ethical dimensions of being an astrologer. I’d like to put on record here my appreciation of the work of the late, great master astrologer Donna Cunningham, who as you will see features very much in the first post in the series you will find by going through the above link.

Enjoy the browse – and many thanks, Judith, for inspiring this post!.


Zodiac

Zodiac

1350 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2017

Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page of Writing from the Twelfth House

 

 

 

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Posted in How do I learn astrology?

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Teaching astrology: the magic of the moment…

Posted on February 8, 2016 | 4 comments

You never quite lose that magical feeling of being a tiny but unique part of a meaningfully shifting, dancing pattern of interconnectedness which immersion in the symbolic world of astrology brings. However, it does tend to recede into the background as time marches on and your connection spans a few decades. Then every so often, the sheer potency of what practicing astrology means, can knock you sideways.

This happened to me – and my tutorial students – on  the morning of our resumed classes ten days ago.

Astrologers at Work

Astrologers at Work

Being an orderly group (as astrologers go…), we had decided on our schedule before taking a break for the holidays. We would continue with our exploration of the progressed Sun/Moon cycle, using our own charts and lives as our research material. I have known those students for a long time; it was their persuasion that drew me back to astrology teaching after a long break. So we are happy to share our life experiences with one another in the interests of learning.

Just before the class, however, I decided that a recent, shocking private death which had resulted in a very public, prolonged outpouring of grief, ie that of David Bowie, would make an unmissable topic for part of our class discussion. I duly prepared David Bowie’s chart, then added the transits for his death day by hand.

David Bowie + Death Transits

David Bowie + Death Transits (click on image to enlarge) 

The most striking features to hit my eye were David Bowie’s natal 12th House Capricorn line-up squared by a 9th House Neptune: Mercury 8, Mars 16, Sun 17, squared by Neptune at 9 Libra. The transiting Uranus/Pluto square had been triggering that line-up for some time, now almost exactly via his Mars/Sun conjunction as January 2016 advanced. Saturn had crossed his natal MC for the last time in November 2015, and was conjunct his South Node at the time of his death, that whole axis also being squared by Neptune’s transit. What a powerful emphasis on Saturn/Capricorn, I thought. Saturn always gives, and takes, what is due…

I love my Io software and have been using it for twenty years now ( no, Io hasn’t paid me to do a commercial! ) – Io Sprite is a great programme to have running as background to astrology classes, enabling you to comment on the moment arising, at any relevant point during a class. Just before the class began I opened it up.

Here is what we saw:

Tutorial Class Start 26.1.16

Tutorial Class Start 26.1.16 (click on image to enlarge)

The MC for 26th January 2016 at the start of the class was almost 15 Capricorn, exactly conjunct newly-direct Mercury, with Pluto at 16 Capricorn – all closely conjunct David Bowie’s Capricorn natal and transiting planets, and with Mars at 12 Scorpio  squaring Bowie’s Saturn/Pluto conjunction. The Moon for the start of the class was 3 Virgo – exactly conjunct David Bowie’s 8th House cusp.

We all fell silent– awestruck– as we regarded this line-up, so powerfully and appropriately symbolising the topic of our opening discussion. There wasn’t much I needed to say by way of  elucidation: the moment was speaking to us, most powerfully, of the fundamental inter-connectedness of all things. “As above, so below“ – vividly illustrated right there in front of our very eyes.

We went on to have an intense, in-depth discussion about David Bowie’s death, and its timing two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his acclaimed last album, Blackstar. Was it co-incidence? Was it planned? One student, who is in the music business, observed using Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson’s deaths as examples, that an artist’s death was the best possible promotion for his/her music. I leave you readers to decide what conclusions we came to, with Mercury/Pluto conjunct the Capricorn MC of our class horoscope that day…

As we went on with the class, the Mercury/Pluto/MC /Capricorn overtone continued. It’s worth noting that the IC ruler of this class horoscope for 26.1.16 at 11 am,  is the Moon. So, with Capricorn MC/Cancer IC, what was our main planned topic, decided in mid-December 2015, several weeks before the class?  It was to follow the progressed Moon through Capricorn in all of our Secondary Progressed horoscopes.

This arose from one of the student’s enjoyment of her progressed Moon’s journey through Sagittarius, and her apprehension at the prospect of its imminent move into Capricorn. She had had a difficult time 28 years previously with a very Capricornian relative as the progressed Moon traversed Capricorn, and feared that something similar might happen once again with the same relative.

We were of the view that much of her apprehension was projection. She was much cheered by that analysis, especially since the feedback we all gave from our own experiences of the progressed Moon through Capricorn at a variety of different ages and life stages, centred round becoming more organised, taking on greater responsibility and often promotion, becoming grandparents, buying or renovating property, becoming more responsible about money, etc etc. Nothing too grim there, just very typically Capricornian!

Capricorn

Capricorn

Although some astrologers give more credence to the progressed Moon’s travels through the houses in terms of ‘delivering’ corresponding meaning than they do with the signs, we certainly found in our small piece of research that both sign and house ‘delivered’ recognisable symbolic correspondences between the progressed Moon’s positions and our reported life events .

For example, in my own recent case the progressed Moon entered Capricorn in the Fourth House in the early summer of 2012, just as I was re-organising myself with professional indemnity insurance, supervision arrangements, promotional materials and web stuff, etc as I returned to my astrology practice. (The progressed Moon entered Aquarius in the Fifth House in August 2014, the same month in which I returned to astrology teaching.)

Further illustrating the Mercury/Pluto/MC /Capricorn overtone of the day was not only the depth and seriousness of the topics which came up, but also that famous ‘graveyard’ humour which is the realm of any Mercury/Saturn/Pluto combination. Despite the intensity of our discussion around not only Bowie’s chart but also our own experiences, we had quite a few laughs– albeit of the black humour type.

And where was the Moon by transit, as I (very slowly !) drafted this post on Friday 5th February? Yes, you’ve guessed. It was in Capricorn…

I’m sure the experience I have described here of the energies of a particular moment in time clearly mirroring what was taking place in that moment, is something which is pretty familiar to most astrologers. I can think of quite a few other outstanding examples from my teaching and practice over the years.

There was the autumn in the 1980s when I – with transiting Pluto in the Third House beginning to square Mercury, then all the rest of my Leo planets – attracted a Beginners astrology class in which most of the ten students had very strong emphases on either Scorpio, Pluto, or both. It was like teaching a black hole! My classes are usually lively, communicative events. This lot hardly said a word – just sucked in information as though their very lives depended on it. The horoscope for the start of the class, needless to say, was very, very Plutonian..

I would be most interested to have examples from other astrologers of the kind of experience of interconnectedness which I have been describing here. If we were conscious all the time of the full power of astrological symbolism to describe in symbolic terms the intricate weave of which we are all part, we would probably burn out mentally pretty quickly. So it’s healthy to ‘tune out’ of full awareness much of the time. But every so often it is magical, powerful, to be pulled into unfiltered direct experience of the meaning-charged energy field into which we are all woven. What do YOU think?

Zodiac

Zodiac

1300 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2016

Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page

 

 

4 Comments

Posted in An Astrological Miscellany: of cusps, virgins, atomic scientists, Muhammad Ali and much, much more...(13 articles), Teaching astrology: the magic of the moment...

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Called from the Bar to the Stars…Why Victor Olliver became an astrologer…

Posted on January 16, 2016 | 4 comments

Last Spring, I had the fun of Victor Olliver’s company as a Guest blogger whilst we slogged it out – in a civilised manner, of course! – over the merits and demerits of Sun Sign astrology. This January, I am delighted that he has returned to help kick start my blog for 2016. 

A recent article in Harper’s Bazaar, in which four women talk about why they chose to become astrologers, inspired me to tell my story a couple of weeks ago. I then decided to run an occasional series this year, inviting leading astrologers to share theirs. It is my great pleasure to have Victor Olliver, astrologer, author and editor of the UK’s Astrological Journal, tell his tale with his  unique combination of  cheek, challenge, verve – and depth. Over to you, Victor!

Victor Olliver, Barrrister

Victor Olliver, Barrrister

“…It never occurred to me that astrology was rubbish. Such were the many oddities of my early life – born of an Anglo-Italian mismatch into a world of wars that sang love songs while I played playground peculiarity (sorry about all the pees) yet looked like angelic jailbait and had a posh voice despite working class pedigree – that my mind was ready to accommodate exotic and weird notions not readily explained in school physics textbooks.

The sky lab technician who created me in his/her cosmic test tube prepared me well for a world that is essentially, profoundly inexplicable. We dream our way through life and pride ourselves on our logic. Paradox is to be found in everything as we pretend to follow highway codes. We feel our way through life and engage in the charade of decision-making. Yet one by-product of all this chaos and melodrama and hallucinating is that we (many of us) still manage to pay our bills while getting better on prescription drugs.

So, in the beginning, astrology was for me less a ‘topic’, more an arrangement of images in a book, without any unifying thought. Frankly it all looked comfortingly bonkers. At about the age of 12 I’d won a book voucher at school for being clever after years in the dunce stream. I now know that at about the time of my first Jupiter return and not long before my first Saturn opposition, my brains started to grow. The book voucher added to my reputation for being odd (and probably queer – though what did fellow kids or idiot teachers know?) when I exchanged it for a huge coffee table tome about mythology; Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Roman, you name it. That copy is still in my library.

What intrigued me was that inanimate humanoid forms made of stone or paint, sometimes winged, diaphanous or bearded, ruled worlds temporal and spiritual. These days such undead powers are called brand logos – so, through the likes of Coca Cola and McDonald’s marketing, I understood by association the idea of mysteries having mastery.

Thanks to those modern sages Russell Grant and Linda Goodman, the stone/plaster/paint gods migrated in my head to astrology where Jove, Mercury, Venus/Aphrodite and others still lived despite the progress exemplars of TV game shows and penicillin. The gods lived through the ‘zodiac’ and those much-maligned media Sun-sign columns, the then top dog of which was Patric Walker (more about whom just below). Incidentally, he was wrongly suspected of murdering his predecessor ‘Celeste’ at Harpers & Queen magazine in order to grab her stars column.

None of this was enough to persuade me to follow in Patric’s footsteps. Instead I took a 25-plus-year detour and became a barrister before embarking on a career in journalism, as you do. But astrology was not ready to give me up. Around the time of my fifth tr Jupiter-Jupiter square (with tr Uranus on my Saturn – and astro scepticism on a high), a glossy magazine commissioned me to interview…Patric Walker. His reputed Libran charm took leave of absence that day as he sat in his hotel bathrobe firing off the odd barb he thought I did not catch. Librans can be so Arien, don’t you think? My acid write-up repaid his put-downs. I concluded he was a right bitch trying to chat me up – but he knew his stuff. I stayed in journalism.

By the time of my 4th Jupiter return, my curiosity about astrology had reached the point where I felt it was time to do or die of boredom. I enrolled at the Mayo School of Astrology and fell under the guiding and sane influence of tutor Wendy Stacey.

This coincided with one of those events that in retrospect one calls ‘fated’. Yes, I didn’t fall in love. That is to say, I started a brief relationship with a notable astrologer called Henrietta Llewelyn Davies (called ‘Henri’ by her friends) – sadly no longer with us. Our eyes met across a crowded room at London’s Groucho Club – an opiates dungeon for doped up media types and their whorish hangers-on. Henri had done well: columns in Cosmo, Woman’s Own, TV Times – astro stuff in The Times. She was psychic, too. She talked a lot about her work, I was fascinated. She encouraged me to learn the art and craft of horoscopes.

And at this time a clairvoyante medium told me that my dead father was with her. Or as she put it: “He’s saying do something with those, oh, they look like, well, whatchamacallit, horoscopes”.

I lost my job, graduated with a distinction diploma in natal and mundane astrology, landed the role of the first-ever stargazer on The Lady magazine (by another misadventure) and then ascended to the heavens of The Astrological Journal editorship.

In other words, the career I should have first pursued flowed like a dream with scarcely an impediment. In contrast, enter a hostile place and all you experience are gremlins and gargoyles. Astrology on the other hand had the air I breathe and the vistas I appreciate. It presented me with a perspective which, in its predication on the unknowable yet adherence to systemic thought and practice, summed up the paradoxes I’d suffered and experienced in other life departments.

I had arrived in Astro-Wonderland. Mad Hatters aplenty.

I couldn’t care less which system of astrology you prefer, or whether you think luminary orbs should be 12 or 15 degrees. It’s all background chamber music to me. No matter what the astro academics like to propound, I know astrology is half instinct, half method.

Without that first half I may as well have been a lawyer…”

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Victor’s website is: Victor Olliver Astrology

Victor Olliver, Astrologer

Victor Olliver, Astrologer

Victor ’s book Lifesurfing: Your Horoscope Forecast Guide 2016 is available exclusively from Amazon in eBook and paperback formats.

Lifesurfing 2016 cover

Lifesurfing 2016

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Zodiac

Zodiac

1000 words copyright Anne Whitaker/Victor Olliver 2016

Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page

 

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Posted in Becoming an astrologer: leading astrologers tell all ! (5 articles - occasional series), Guest Posts 2015/6 (6 articles)

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Moving forward today: Jupiter in Leo, master of creative excess!

Posted on April 8, 2015 | 6 comments

Jupiter has now gone direct in Leo. I hope to write a longer post about this ere long, but personally the last couple of days have been typical of the power of a planetary station, in this case prior to the planet in question turning direct. 

e-publication by co-occurrence

e-publication by co-occurrence

Jupiter natally falls in my Third house; events have clearly expressed this Mercury/Jupiter vibe! I’ve had book proofs (for The Moon’s Nodes in Action) and a 12500 word politics essay land on my desk for me to read through, complete with short deadlines. On the same day I had a computer meltdown around the issue of accessing wifi and 3G connectivity in my new office. Today, there was  a very creative meeting with a new colleague who I hope will be a research subject in my next book project…..I suspect he has Jupiter strongly marked in his horoscope!

Jupiter is always the planet of excess both positive and negative. I feel oppressed by literary demands! But I’m optimistically sure it will all turn out just fine…

Now, tell me, how was it for you folks out there?

(NOTE: I will let my readers know when the download of  ‘The Moon’s Nodes in Action’, elegantly rendered as an e-book by co-occurrence, is available…likely by the end of April 2015… if you want to pre-order a copy, just send your email address to me, at info@anne-whitaker.com)

Zodiac

Zodiac

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250 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2015

Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page

 

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Questioning popular astrology (2) : media astrologer Victor Olliver’s robust reply…

Posted on March 5, 2015 | 18 comments

Yesterday, I posted Part (1) : Questioning popular astrology, listing my challenges and questions regarding the merits – or otherwise – of popular astrology. True to form, Victor responded thus: “…feels like a bull fight and you’ve just flicked the red cape…”

Read, react, enjoy – and REPLY!

( nb anything offensive will be ruthlessly binned)

Mars being reasonable - must be in Libra....

Mars being reasonable – eh?!!…

Thanks for inviting me to contribute to your wonderful site, Anne. Though I’m the editor of  The Astrological Journal, and The Lady magazine’s resident stargazer, I am still relatively new to professional astrology and only recently have become a lot more aware of the huge psychological gulf between serious and popular astrology. This surprises me because in all worlds there’s a spectrum of expression, from public face to purist core and in between. Why not in astrology, too?

Take the fashion world, for instance. Expensive haute couture and pret-a-porter are showcased at the international collections and these in turn inspire high street looks for ordinary budgets. The cheaply-produced mass market is as much a part of fashion as Anna Wintour’s Vogue. But we don’t say that the clothes in shop windows are not fashion or that these looks are embarrassing. Indeed, without the retail outlets there would be no fashion except for the super-rich.

Likewise, in another sense, in astrology. Many practitioners of serious or scholarly star-gazing disdain the popular expression, namely in media Sun-sign horoscope columns; and some even doubt the validity or credibility of the solar chart. Others are shamed by the apparent crassness and simplicity of these media columns and try to ignore them.

This really is self-defeating in my view.

The actual ‘enemy’ of astrology is prejudice. It comes in a number of forms. Chiefly, the prejudice of many secularists and what I call science cultists can be dismissed quickly. We know who they are. They rubbish astrology yet know nothing about it. They laud science yet respond most unscientifically to something they’ve never studied or researched.  Then there’s prejudice in the world of astrology against popularisation. Serious astrologers fear that the Mystic Megs are letting the side down and making it easier for science debunkers to debunk.

But here’s the truth: debunkers/doubters/science cultists are not interested in whether your astrology has been assayed by the laboratory’s finest geeks or simply dreamt up by fake stargazers. No matter how learned the astrological study and compelling the results, nothing will sway the know-all who’s certificated with a science professorship. They believe astrology is rubbish. So in their case, media Sun-sign horoscopes is a non-issue – it’s just the thin end of the fraudulent wedge. We need not concern ourselves with determined nay-sayers. We waste our time trying to play up to them.

Nonetheless, I fully support those astrologers who bring academic rigour to the subject and seek to find mainstream respectability – not because I think a professional debunker can be turned, but for the sake of a better appreciation of astrology. Science itself will in time gradually move towards a greater understanding of the nature of the cosmos, possibly through quantum mechanics – you’ve written about this yourself – and the time will come when the intellectual climate for astrology will be a lot more receptive than it presently is.

Now, what about Sun-sign astrology. Is it valid? That’s the real question. Let me quote the brilliant late astrologer Dennis Elwell who was known to be highly critical of ‘trivialising’ media horoscopes. This is what he actually wrote in a 1975 essay titled ‘Is There A Solar Chart?’: “I do believe in the basic validity of solar chart transits but that is not to say that they can be relied upon to produce readings every day, week or month, depending on how often a particular journal happens to be published, or that they are always interpreted correctly.”

Elwell was quite idealistic in his expectation of constant ‘reliability’ and perhaps forgot McLuhan’s well-known dictum: “The medium is the message”. In other words, a mass market entertainment magazine is not likely to play host to a discursive, learned, nuanced forecast from the house astrologer. Newspapers and magazines usually seek snappy one-liners that can be digested at a glance. The ‘house style’ is what matters and the astrologer must seek to fill the allotted space as well as she or he can.

A great many media astrologers these days are actually trained astrologers, such as myself. The ‘simplistic’ solar chart, with the relevant Sun-sign cusp placed at the ascendant point, is all about transit ingresses and aspects. To state the obvious:  if we accept that transits-to-birth chart speak to us then transits-to-transits have something to say also – an idea that’s no problem to, say, electional astrologers. The challenge is less the solar astrology and more what is selected for the column and how it is written up.

My approach to the solar chart, interpretively, is more-or-less the same as to a natal chart. My professional media grail is to find a form of words that is both entertaining and true to the spirit of the moment for each sign. It was Elwell who wrote so beautifully (in his book Cosmic Loom) of how an aspect can find concurrent expression in a multiplicity of ways in life and events, from the ridiculous to the sublime. We’d be wise to keep our minds open to this feature of astrology which even now we do not properly comprehend.

Astrology is a flexible thing: it communicates its wisdom no matter the house system, national culture, computer programme, dubious birth detail or oblivious opposition.

Anne, to answer your question: there’s nothing to justify. If one’s mindset is dead against popular expression, then avoid reading the Jonathan Cainers. Avert your gaze. If you fear that Sun-sign astrology is polluted by the Shelley von Strunckels, then here’s a comforting thought: in the minds of science cultists, astrology is already polluted. It’s dead! And if certain persons judge astrology by their cursory reading of Mystic Meg, you can rest confident that they probably skate over a lot of life’s other treasures of the spirit. Perhaps their preference of depth is cricket or crochet.

Contrary to what many scholar-astrologers think, media horoscopes are the main bridge to the public, just as a short chic affordable jacket in Marks & Sparks may resonate with fans of high-end Chanel. We should be grateful for the enduring need for ‘irrational’ advice from our nation’s stargazers. As Nick Campion has averred, the Sun-sign column – for a great many people – offers the only one moment in the day when time is taken to consider the general shape of the life (or Life) or to question the point of doing something. In a materialistic world, this is a form of spiritual awareness, albeit rudimentary in many instances. But don’t knock it.

And, Anne, next time you’re offered a Sun-sign column, take it. And aim to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse. The experience may prove both humbling (in the challenge to bring high minds down to earth) and rewarding (as in, er, bank balance). 

Victor Olliver

Victor Olliver

Victor Olliver’s Lifesurfing: Your Horoscope Forecast Guide 2015 is available in Kindle or paperback on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lifesurfing-Your-Horoscope-Forecast-Guide-ebook/dp/B00KHUE6US/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424635718&sr=8-1&keywords=lifesurfing+2015

Victor Olliver is the editor of The Astrological Journal and media officer of the Association of Professional Astrologers International, and has a distinction diploma in natal and mundane astrology from the Mayo School. Before turning to the study of astrology back in 2008, he was an entertainment/lifestyle editor, journalist and writer. He has worked as an editor for, among others, IPC Magazine, Mirror Group and Daily Mail & General Trust. As a freelance writer he has contributed to many publications including The Sunday Times Magazine, Australia Women’s Weekly and Marie Claire. He currently lives on the south coast in West Sussex.
Victor Olliver
volliver5@aol.com
Twitter: @VictorOlliver
Facebook: Victor Olliver Astrology
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To read Part 3 of this debate, click HERE
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Mars being reasonable - must be in Libra....

Mars being reasonable – eh?!

1350 words copyright Anne Whitaker/Victor Olliver  2015

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Posted in Astro-Debate: questioning popular astrology with Victor Olliver (3 articles), Guest Posts 2015/6 (6 articles)

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Questioning popular astrology (1) : Anne Whitaker challenges media astrologer Victor Olliver

Posted on March 4, 2015 | 15 comments

In recent months I’ve had the pleasure, thanks to Facebook,  of ‘meeting’ astrologer Victor Olliver, the new Editor of UK’s long established Astrological Journal and star sign columnist for The Lady magazine. As well as sharing a love of astrology (and a very black sense of humour), we have already collaborated on several writing projects. This is proving to be great fun as well as being most stimulating.

One of the things I like about Victor is his love of a good argument. So, I decided he was just the person with whom I could raise my various doubts about the merits of popular astrology. I wrote to him, airing my questions and objections at some length. Here they are. Victor’s response will follow in the next post.

Dear Victor

I have always refused invitations to write popular astrology columns, feeling that to do this would be to throw my lot in with the ‘entertainment wing’ of astrology. Those of us who are trained and experienced astrologers know that there is a profound, ancient and some would say sacred art hidden behind this popular mask. Some of us who know this – like yourself – still manage to combine in-depth astrology practice with writing astrology for the popular press, apparently without feeling any particular discomfort at straddling both worlds.

I suppose my big problem is that the astro-dismissers are almost invariably people who have never gone into astrology in any depth, because they never get past the shallow waters of popular astrology where they find plenty of ammunition for their scorn, much of it valid when you have a look around a lot of the astro-stuff published in the world’s media.

Personally, I see off any astro-dismissers by fixing them with a keen gaze, enquiring very politely whether they have ever studied the subject in depth, and responding to their evasions (very few direct admissions of ignorance are forthcoming) by suggesting they go away to study the subject in depth for a couple of years then come back to resume our conversation. As a ‘serious’ astrologer, I have to admit to feeling defensive when asked what I do, invariably saying that I do in-depth stuff which has very little to do with the astrology to be found in the popular press.

Is there any way round this problem? Should we all just accept that astrology of whatever shallowness or depth will simply never be taken seriously within our current materialist culture, and cheerfully get on with it, whatever kind of astrology we do? Would it be helpful if ‘serious’ astrologers who also do popular astrology were to admit that for many of us, the gap between the public face and the private reality of astrology and its practice is a very hard one to bridge?

What are your views on this, Victor? How do you justify occupying both worlds to yourself and others – and what do you suggest those of us do (apart from go boil our heads) who feel uncomfortable at having our commitment to serious, in-depth work ridiculed by people who have taken their stance from perusing the shallow material available in much of the popular press?

Do feel free, dear Readers,  to leave some observations  of your own on this contentious issue – as long as you understand that anything abusive will be binned without mercy!

To read Part Two, click HERE

 

Mars being reasonable - must be in Libra....

Mars being reasonable …eh?!

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600 words copyright Anne Whitaker  2015

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Posted in Astro-Debate: questioning popular astrology with Victor Olliver (3 articles)

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As Neptune turns direct, some thoughts on interconnectedness…

Posted on November 15, 2014 | 15 comments

One of the many intriguing things I have found about astrology is this: even when you are not being particularly attentive to exactly what is going on with the planets, you are still living out the energy patterns they describe in symbolic terms.

During my long 2001-8 retreat, when I simply did not have the physical energy to engage with astrology’s power ( does this sound strange? That’s exactly what it felt like ) I did not practice as an astrologer and rarely looked at an Ephemeris, although I maintained an interest in the subject in which I had been immersed for the preceding twenty years.

Nevertheless, there were certain days when I would feel energies which I could only express in planetary terms, would check the Ephemeris, and sure enough my felt sense of eg Mars crossing my Descendant (stay out of my way today, friends and partner!), or the Moon triggering my Saturn/Pluto conjunction (ouch!) would prove to be correct. This used to make me smile wryly and say to myself : ‘Well, you may take the girl out of Astrology, but taking Astrology out of the girl is another matter altogether!’

Today I have had a similar experience. It has felt right in the last couple of days to begin to move forward in promoting my memoir and analysis of thirty years’ paranormal experiences, ‘Wisps from the Dazzling Darkness’; I have begun asking Friends and colleagues as well as astrology students past and current, for some help in PR which I am not best at doing.

I wondered why this felt like the right time to be embarking on the task of promoting this piece of work: I wrote the book from my conviction that it is important for all of us who know we live in a multi-levelled, interconnected Universe to speak out against the stance Scientism, and its offshoot Skepticism takes, ie that anything which cannot be explained in reductionist terms not only does not exist, but cannot exist.

“I wonder when Neptune turns direct?” I thought this morning. “It feels like that kind of energy right now.” Neptune has been transiting my Sixth house of work, health and service for a very long time and is due to cross into the upper hemisphere of my horoscope over the next couple of years. So I checked the Ephemeris: Neptune moves so slowly that I don’t check its daily position very often.

Sure enough, Neptune turns direct tomorrow…..and Neptune as we all know is the planet which connects us to the mysterious, ineffable, spiritual and symbolic dimensions of our existence.

Have any of my readers had similar experiences which they would like to share? I would be most interested to hear from you!

Zodiac

Zodiac

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400 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2014

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Posted in Neptune (5 articles), Uncategorized (35 articles)

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Answering a challenge: “Is it true that REAL astrologers do not charge for their services ?”

Posted on November 2, 2013 | 10 comments

“Horoscope” ‘s Question:

Is it true that REAL astrologers do not charge for their services as it is against the code to take profit out of a gift from God to help people? I read this and saw a medium on tele say it.  In these circles it is donations given based on good work.Is this true at all?

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(Readers with some knowledge of astrology will know that the planet Mercury is currently in its retrograde phase, ie it appears from our standpoint on Earth to be travelling backwards in its orbit.They will also know that tricksterish Mercury can cause all kinds of communication disruptions during this time.

The question above, which I have just received, is a case in point! It came in this morning via  an email from the webmaster of the local West End Website here in Glasgow UK where I write an occasional column. Despite being sent the link, I was unable to trace its location or the time it was left….the webmaster may be able to help out!

In the meantime, here is my answer to the anonymous writer’s question – one with which I am sure my fellow astrologers will be quite familiar….)

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Dear Ms/Mr/ X (I am assuming ‘horoscope’ is not your real name)

thank you for raising this interesting question. Before getting down to discussing the issue of  payment of fees for any  professional service, whether the professional is for example a highly trained,well qualified and experienced astrologer, lawyer,  or accountant, it is important to clarify a few points for you.

Your question strongly suggests that you associate the practice of astrology in some way with the practice of mediumship. They are two separate activities. Thus a comment on how mediums operate cannot usefully be applied to the practice of astrology.

Popular Astrology

Secondly, it would perhaps help you if I made clear that there are broadly speaking two main types of astrology. The first type, popular star sign or sun sign astrology, is the kind which most people know about. Perhaps that is the type of astrology you have in mind in asking your question?

This astrology functions as popular entertainment, in which the point of reference is the twelve Sun or Star signs under which individuals are born, depending upon the time of year, eg Scorpio, Aries, Leo, etc.

The predictions offered on the basis of this limited focus entertain millions of people across the world on a daily basis. No-one with any real intelligence seriously can believe that one-twelfth of the human race are all doing roughly the same range of things on any given day, month, or year. It’s entertainment!

Popular astrology as found in the media can only give a very general picture of one dimension of the person. It’s simply NOT possible for this astrology to describe in any detail  who you are. It’s like trying to tell the story of a complex play with reference to only one character on the stage.

Using this analogy, you  can only get a view of all the characters on the stage of your life from the map which an astrologer draws of the heavens at the particular TIME and PLACE, as well as DAY, of  your birth.

 Astrology In-Depth

This map or Horoscope or Birth Chart can then be used as a tool to mirror back to you, as lucidly as possible, with great care for your sensitivity and level of awareness, what the different characters are on the stage of your life and how they interact with one another.

Example Horoscope

Example Horoscope

click on image to enlarge

After many years of doing readings professionally – and keeping my hand in by occasional informal readings during my long sabbatical – I think the central thing that an individual gains from an astrology reading is confirmation of who they actually are: what their  strengths and weaknesses are, what their gifts and their difficulties are. It gives them more confidence and courage to be themselves.

It is a very powerful and potentially spiritual experience to have a stranger, who knows nothing of you, describe your essential qualities accurately from a map drawn of the heavens for the moment you entered this world.. This helps you to see that we are all interconnected and part of the One, whatever name you choose to give that vast, indescribable Mystery.

Qualifications and Training

I have a university degree and three post-graduate diplomas, the third of which involved three years’ travel to and from London in order to meet the stringent requirements required to obtain my Diploma in Psychological Astrology in 1998. This included one year of mandatory personal therapy in order to have the experience of being a client myself .

I am not alone in having made considerable efforts and allocated a great deal of time and money to becoming skilled and competent at my profession.Whilst not wishing to speak for my colleagues, all the astrologers I know and with whom I associate are well-educated people of considerable intelligence and integrity who share the same core values as I do regarding the importance of treating our fellow human beings with sensitivity and compassion.

I consider that I owe this to the often vulnerable people who come looking for help and clarifiaction, often at turning points in their lives. Their experience, and mine, is that an astrology reading can be of considerable assistance.

And now, about money….

However, in the process of being useful people in the world, astrologers, like anyone else, need to eat, put a roof over their heads, and bring up their families. We also need to pay for our office rent, professional indemnity insurance and organisational memberships as well as the many other expenses involved in running a professional practice. For example, my work is regularly supervised by a highly skilled and experienced colleague whose fees are £60 per hour. Other astrologers will have similar arrangements.

Ms/Mr X, are you suggesting that we can live in this world and practice our profession with compassion and integrity, without charging realistic fees to cover our living costs?

I do hope this answer has adequately addressed your question, for which I thank you. It has given me an opportunity to offer to non-astrologers a clearer idea of  what it is that professional astrologers actually DO…

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Zodiac

Zodiac

1000 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2013

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Posted in Astrology: challenges, ethics and practice (11 articles)

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When we relocate, do we get a new horoscope? Rian’s Question

Posted on August 13, 2013 | 8 comments

Dear Anne,

I have a question for you. When a person moves far from their birthplace (as so many people do these days), do we cast a new chart for them with the new latitudes and longitudes? Or, what DO we do, if anything. Thank you for your consideration.

Hello Rian

nice to hear from you again! I am currently taking a rest from blogging because of tendonitis in my left hand. So, a brief reply….

Asian Tsunami Dec 2004

Asian Tsunami Dec 2004

http://www.astrocartography.co.uk/

There is a whole branch of astrology known as AstroCartography, in which your natal Birth Chart is projected onto the map of the earth. From this, one can deduce where in the world it would be best to live to get the best out of different energies in our natal charts – or where it might be best to avoid. eg John F Kennedy‘s Pluto line ran right through Dallas, Texas.

Here is a link to a reputable UK site which will tell you more about this fascinating and complex subject
http://www.astrocartography.co.uk/

Also, it is indeed possible to cast a new chart for the latitudes and longitudes of your current place of residence and compare it with your natal chart to see what the different emphases are as a result of those changes. To use a very simple example, someone might marry and settle down in a different location, then find that the planet Venus was much more prominently emphasised in their horoscope there than in the natal horoscope for the birth location.

It’s a very interesting topic – not one with which I have worked either personally or with my clients. I wouldn’t want to find out that my five twelfth house planets would be conjunct my Midheaven, bringing me fame and fortune – but only if I relocated to Ulan Batar!

Zodiac

300 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2013

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Posted in An Astrological Miscellany: of cusps, virgins, atomic scientists, Muhammad Ali and much, much more...(13 articles)

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How does it work when you do a horoscope for twins?

Posted on June 23, 2013 | 11 comments

Helene’s question:

By email: 16.6.13
How does it work when you do a birth chart for twins? Or two babies born the same minute at the same hospital?  Can two people have the same horoscope!?

Twins

My Answer:

During nearly twenty years of teaching astrology classes, I found that the above questions came up very frequently.

It is important at this point to emphasise to readers who are familiar only with Sun Signs that to get ‘beyond the Sun Signs’ requires an individual’s horoscope to be drawn up for the date, place AND time of birth. Human beings are complex and contradictory. It’s not possible to approach any satisfying symbolic exploration of that complexity through the Sun or Star Sign alone.

A number of years ago, I decided to address the typical questions students asked about twins (summed up by Helene’s questions here) via one of the tutorial classes I ran for my more advanced students, all of whom had a good grasp of the basics of astrology, and some of whom were already practitioners in their own right.

One student – let’s call her Anna – was the devoted aunt to a set of twins in their mid teens, a boy and a girl –  let’s call them Angus and Miriam. These two had been born less than fifteen minutes apart and had almost identical horoscopes.

I had formulated a theory about twins and astrology which I wanted to test out, so I obtained permission via Anna from Angus and Miriam’ s parents as well as the twins themselves, to calculate their horoscopes and discuss them anonymously in class.

My method was to put up on the board only one horoscope since there was so little difference between the twins’ horoscopes, and ask the students to take an hour to prepare along with me a basic outline of the key characteristics revealed by this one horoscope. We did the preparation as though we were preparing a birth chart for just one person.

The class knew nothing about either of the twins, and I asked Anna to observe us, but not to make any comments at all.

Once we had written up the outline, we spent the next hour discussing our findings with Anna, who knew her nephew and niece well.

I am writing this after a gap of about twenty years and no longer have the notes for detailed reference, so can only give a summary of the essence of what emerged from our discussion.

Anna found our summary from the one horoscope of the basic characteristics of both her nephew and niece to be very accurate. What was very clear was that certain traits were held in common, but that the rest were, as it were, divided up between the twins. To put it very simply, looking at a range of traits: 1,2,3 and 4 were recognisable in both; Miriam manifested traits 5,6 and 10 whilst Angus lived out traits 7, 8 and 9.

This very interesting and enlightening experiment does not of course constitute any kind of proof: but it bore out my impressions from reading about the similarities and differences in the lives of twins about whom I had read, as well as my own observations of twins I had come across from my own experience, as well as the few horoscope readings I had done for individuals who were twins.

What was this impression? Coming back to the analogy of the horoscope revealing the characters poised on life’s stage, waiting for the moment of birth to kick start the action of the play, it seemed that twins unconsciously chose which characters on their joint stage they were going to live out jointly – and the ones which they were going to live out separately.

The experiment which I did all those years ago with my students, Anna and her nephew and niece certainly bore out my theory….

After writing this piece I googled ‘astrology and twins’ to see what came up, and was pleased to find on my favourite astrology site, Astrodienst, that other astrologers including Dr Liz Greene had come to much the same conclusion.

As far as two people born at the same time in the same place is concerned, yes, they would in effect have the same horoscopes.  You would certainly see considerable similarities if you studied both their lives over time. But each character on the stage at a given moment in time has a range of possible modes of expression. Thus the influence of different family circumstances and different opportunities, etc, would call forth a range of possible responses from the same basic character.

To read much more on this topic, do go over to master astrologer Donna Cunningham’s excellent blog Sky Writer, where she has an excellent piece on the astrology of  twins.

Then come back and let me know what YOU think!

Zodiac

Zodiac

800 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2013

Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page of Writing from the Twelfth House

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Posted in Astrology and Twins (2 articles)

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