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How did you learn astrology? (Read 328 times)

Iris92Ex Member

How did you learn astrology?
« on: 10.07.2012 at 15:08 [UT+1] »I would say I'm an intermediate to advanced student of astrology. I'm trying to decide whether to continue
studying on my own or take one of the online astrology courses out there. Any advice would be appreciated.

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IP Logged_Paul_Ex Member

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #1 - on: 10.07.2012 at 15:31 [UT+1] »Quote from Iris92 on 10.07.2012 at 15:08 [UT+1]:
I would say I'm an intermediate to advanced student of astrology. I'm trying to decide whether to continue studying on my own or takeone of the online astrology courses out there. Any advice would be appreciated.

The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know.
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lindamelinda
Member

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #2 - on: 10.07.2012 at 15:52 [UT+1] »Quote from _Paul_ on 10.07.2012 at 15:31 [UT+1]:
Quote from Iris92 on 10.07.2012 at 15:08 [UT+1]:
I would say I'm an intermediate to advanced student of astrology. I'm trying to decide whether to continue studying on myown or take one of the online astrology courses out there. Any advice would be appreciated.

Posts: 319
The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know.

I admire the knowledge of Paul and some other members of the forum, and I am also curious how you got youreducation... I imagine it must have been a hobby, a passion, a favorite pastime... However, I would be careful atchoosing the proper course and really examine what they have to offer, because from what I have seen, they docharge a lot of money.
I was thinking about working in some esoteric bookstore, earn some money and learn astrology from the books
while watching people passing by through the window.

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_Paul_Ex Member

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #3 - on: 10.07.2012 at 16:29 [UT+1] »Quote:
I admire the knowledge of Paul and some other members of the forum, and I am also curious how you got your education... I imagine it
must have been a hobby, a passion, a favorite pastime...

I'm not that knowledgeable. I have this sense that I am always ignorant of something, like I just don't reallyknow enough. I guess this fuels the desire to learn more.
I started after needing to use Tarot cards as a prop in an interactive film I was creating for a university project.
I bought the cards having always been curious and played with them and started to learn them. I didn't take it
too seriously, but I was curious about the history of tarot and it drew me in. Eventually I started taking it more
seriously and I would 'play' at doing readings with a little book that gave the meanings. I was 17 at the time. I
was the youngest in my class so I guess starting Uni at 17 is young.
At this point I'd already known about some of the basics of the sun signs of astrology but didn't take itseriously at all. It was only when I was seeing connections between tarot symbolism and then references toastrological symbolism, mostly via the intermediary of the kabballah that I became more interested.
I found a book on astrology. It was some weird book by someone with a silly name called Linda Goodman. I
read the section on Gemini whilst on my lunch one day and was quite impressed. I came back the next day andre-read it. And the day after that too. I didn't really think I was fully like the person described, but I WANTEDTO BE. It appealed to me. As an experiment I tried for Aries, the first chapter in the book. Oh that wasn't likeme at all. I didn't relate. I DID relate to gemini though and I liked it.
I continued being fascinated by tarot and by kabballah. I read several books on the subject throughout
university. In fact I probably read much more on those subjects than what my actual course was meant to be allabout. By about 19 or 20 it became clear that too many of the books I was reading woudl refer to astrologicalplacements. Like one book would say something like, "Binah, like Saturn which represents it, makes manifest
the energies emanated from Chokmah" etc. I'd be like "Saturn?! that tells me nothing!
Or I'd read a tarot card and the author would say something like "The correlations here between this card andVenus are obvious". But not to me they weren't. Once again, I was faced with the feeling of being utterly
ignorant. I hate that feeling.
So I returned to astrology and went out and actually bought Linda Goodman's book - I couldn't actually afford
it cos I was just finishing my degree and had no money. But I bought it having scoured every bookshop I could
find for it to be second hand, but ended up having to buy it new. I read it from cover to cover this time. Then I
went back and read back over some of the ones that I related to. I related a lot to Gemini and Scorpio themost. But I wasn't a Scorpio. I then asked friends to read a paragraph and choose one most like me, mostchose gemini or scorpio over the rest. This made me realise that there MIGHT be something to these signs
after all. I then heard of something scandalous to me - a moon sign. What the heck!? Maybe my Moon was in
Scorpio!? But no. I had a moon in Aquarius whatever the hell that meant. I went online - weirdly I didn't go
online up until this. This might not make sense but I was actually afraid I'd be told off if I did this on theuniversity computers because it was 'occult' or people would think I was into black magic or demon worship orsomething. A stupid fear obviously. Anyway I read that not only was there a moon sign, but all the planets hada sign. What a joke! I'd never learn this. But I needed to know, I had already discovered a timing method in
Tarot that was exceptionally promising and was based on astrology and I needed to make sense of astrology toknow more about kabballah and tarot. I was obsessed. Then I discovered something esoteric called an
ascendant. Mine was Scorpio!!! I was shocked.
In time I made some discoveries. Firstly that the planets are not that difficult to comprehend, especially if you
relate them back to a Tarot card or to a sephira of the tree of life. I understood Saturn because I understood
Binah. I got mercury, it was like Hod after all. Venus? Well there's some cards that relate to it. Mars yeah I
recognise that kind of symbolism etc.
Eventually I understood the basics enough to follow those tarot and kabballah books a lot more. But I was
gripped now. I was always skeptical of astrology and still am. But I decided to do a course. So when I was 21 or
22 or something I started a course in London, at the same time I found astrology groups online. I became amoderator of an astrology forum on tribe.net. I spent hours reading through the old articles and sections.
Between this and my course, I quickly learned LOADS. At this time I discovered Liz Greene and loved thosebooks. I read as many of her and Howard Sasportas' books as I could.
Then disaster struck. Someone did a horary. I was astonished. I always secretly mocked it. Once again I was
ignorant. I had to know everything on this amazing tool. I read whatever I could get my hands on, and spentnearly all my spare money on books some months.
I still feel ignorant of things. But I try really hard to explain things to others because I know what its like to feel
ignorant.
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_Paul_Ex Member

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #4 - on: 10.07.2012 at 16:44 [UT+1] »...continued..

Right now I'm more interested in the history of astrology and having gotten a good grasp of the basics ofastrology I have much more room to experiment with charts and techniques and look back at people's chartswith different techniques and see what works.
I eventually stopped being the moderator of the tribe.net site. I found it distasteful. I had thought people
would respect one another naturally once a moderator was in place. They didn't. I felt like a parent trying to be
dipomatic between their and their neighbour's kids. It became a nightmare. I started to lose my passion for
astrology because of some posters on that site. I stepped down and abandoned the site. I was too hooked on
horary at this point anyway and bought some books on horary and from horary I learned a much moredisciplined approach to reading a chart than I was accustomed to I guess. You simply cannot 'fudge' the details
with horary. Or guess. Or whatever. It's much more disciplined, you either find that lost watch or you do not.
You either correctly show the two people starting a relationship or you do not. There is no being 95% right.
You are either right or wrong. More importantly, unlike Tarot, I could do it for myself.
I pretty much devoured everything I could read on it. Of all the areas of astrology I'm probably better read on
this than anything else.
For the past few years I've discovered too much wealth of information in the history and tradition of astrology
to turn away from it. Several things which I've never found work with modern astrology is explained by the
traditional approaches or techniques. Particularly rulerhsip. I tried so hard to get modern rulerships to work forhorary. They just didn't. Once I realised what rulership actually meant and how it worked I realised that themodern rulerships didn't work in the natal chart either. It was a big leap for me to jump to traditionalrulerships. It was only really from joining this forum a couple of years ago that I even realised how much of adivide there was between modern and traditional astrology. I just never thought in those terms. It was justastrology. Different schools, thoughts, opinions, approaches - but never felt there was some primal or tribal
associations between those schools. I got some sense of this toward the end of my time on tribe.net but thissite exemplified it much more.
I guess a lot of my posts here demonstrate my comfortability with the psychological/modern approach as wellas the traditional approach. I never had this idea in my head that one had to belong to one camp. It justdoesn't make sense to me to think that way.
So right now, I'm just as ignorant as ever, but am less ignorant about some things than others. One thing I dothough is that if I see someone else trying to figure out a method/technique, I surprise myself sometimes atthe lengths I'll go to to help them understand it. I just can't stand thinking "oh I remember when I didn't getthat either, I wonder can I put it this way instead and she'll get it, no? Maybe if I say it like this? Or like this? orthis one?".
I'd love to actually teach astrology some day I think.
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SteveS

Ex Member

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #5 - on: 10.07.2012 at 17:47 [UT+1] »Paul wrote:
Quote:
But I try really hard to explain things to others because I know what its like to feel ignorant.

Ditto for me. My introduction to astrology came in 1977 when I went to Chicago specifically for a Tarot reading,because some friends in Chicago recommended this Tarot reading. I was from a small rural southern US town,
and only went to this Tarot reading because my wife was curious. I had never read anything about astrology
and was very skeptical about the subject of astrology. During the Tarot reading I was told I soon would comeinto contact with some astrology books through a study of financial markets and then would come into contact
with some out of print astrology books which would demonstrate how astrology worked in my life. Four months
after the Tarot reading I was in Houston Texas visiting my favorite cousin and he introduced me to his girlfriend who just so happen to be a Tarot Reader. I did not tell her about the Tarot reading in Chicago but after
asking me some questions she asked if she could read for me. During the reading she said I had to visit Rice
University’s Metaphysical Bookstore and get some astrology books. I said to myself ‘what the hell is going onwith these readers seeing me and astrology books’. The next day I went to the bookstore and got amazed withsome of the Titles and spent $200 on astrology books—the rest is history. Years after this I came into contact
with some out of print books which led me to Ancient Egypt’s culture pertaining to astrology. Bottom line—I
became convinced the ancients were computing Solar Returns accounting for Precession and became obsessedwith Solar Returns which became my specialty in astrology. It just so happened when I first was introduced to
the field of astrology, I was working for a company who put me in charge of managing a sizable pension fundand gave me a very large expense account to learn how to make money with money—it was a huge
responsibility—you can read this story at this link:
http://www.solunars.net/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=889
Anyway this expense account allowed me a hot pursuit in the field of astrology which I pursued with Passion
after recognizing certain truths about astrology. I had the $ to seek out certain non-public astrological Pros whotaught me the Art of Solar Return analysis, which btw imo can never be perfected. I have been blessed to comeinto contact with some very experience people (Paul being one) who have taught me their best astrology. As
Paul says, the learning never stops. It was only recently, after 34 years of studying astrology, Paul introduced
me to Profections/Loy’s and my limited learning with Loy’s has convinced me of truths about Loy’s. Paul also
led me to some readings which have convinced me Profections/Loy’s probably came straight out of the Ancient
Egyptian culture, IMO. I am a great believer in the acute symbolism contained in the Tarot but rarely use theTarot cards, but I have seen Tarot Readers do some amazing reads for me and other people—just make sure
you hear about Tarot Readers with good word of mouth—the field of Astrology and Tarot readers are full ofscam artist. Bottom line, regardless where your study of astrology takes you—just make sure your individual
study resonates strongly with your gut instincts. IMO, the study of astrology has to do with certain personal
revelations to the individual mind and there are many layers of good astrology—so many—you have toconstantly simplify your studies, or you can easily get overwhelmed and confused.
Many happy returns and studying--Steve
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blombido
Ex Member

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #6 - on: 10.07.2012 at 18:02 [UT+1] »Quote from Iris92 on 10.07.2012 at 15:08 [UT+1]:
I would say I'm an intermediate to advanced student of astrology. I'm trying to decide whether to continue studying on my own or takeone of the online astrology courses out there. Any advice would be appreciated.

In the main astrologers talk about human behaviour and events stemming from these. So studying this does
appear to be logical.
If you wish to involve yourself in Psychological Astrology:‘Can provide a surgical scalpel which cuts through to the underlying motives, complexes and family inheritancewhich lie behind the manifest problems and difficulties which the individual faces. It can also provide a lensthrough which can be viewed the teleology and purpose of our conflicts in the context of the overall meaning of
the individual’s journey’.
then an undergraduate degree in Psychology and Psychodynamic training, which can vary between 3-5yrs, isgoing to enable you to enter, even master, this terrain.
There is also the course at Lampeter now which studies the terrain in a wider sense.
So you got about 8 years minimum of formal study which would hopefully get you to the Intermediate stage
then after another 10 years of practice, which ideally should be done concurrently with your therapeutic work,
you could become quite advanced. Individuals vary, some grasp material quicker than others so you might beable to ''fast track'' so to speak. Rare though. Astrology is like any other subject 99% perspiration and 1%
inspiration.
Ps- An understanding of Western Philosophy is also going to be essential, particularly the Greeks, so at somepoint you are going to need to find time for this as well.

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IP LoggedIris92

Ex Member

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #7 - on: 10.07.2012 at 21:44 [UT+1] »Thank you all for your thorough and thoughtful responses. I've become disillusioned with the astrologicalschool I am currently studying with and was wondering if I should stop working with them. My worry was that
I would miss out on something and there would be holes in my learning if I stopped taking courses. I know I'll
never be a professional astrologer, but I want to learn to do it right if I do it at all. It seems that many of you
here have been just fine letting your curiosity be the guide and learning on your own, so maybe that is thebetter choice for me. In any event, I imagine I will study for the rest of my life without ever reaching a level
where I feel completely "done" or that I have learned everything. As one of my favorite astrologers says, there
will always be wonder in astrology.
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Squirrel
Ex Member

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #8 - on: 11.07.2012 at 04:39 [UT+1] »Library books...lots of them over the years...and the internet.
The internet is really...a dubious way to learn though because anyone who wants to can decide to make anastrology website or blog or whatever...and I've been at more than a few where it was clear they had absolutely
no idea what they were talking about even though they clearly thought they were experts.
That's why I really think it's a good idea to do all your learning from BOOKS initially, or even classes if you're
lucky. Then from there once you have a grasp of the basics...you can start reading online, but you always haveto really pay attention to what you're reading and not blindly accept it as valid just because it's on the internet.
Once you have a strong foundation then it's easy for you to be able to sift through things and separate the real
stuff from the nonsense.
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EnlilMember

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #9 - on: 11.07.2012 at 05:21 [UT+1] »It took me several years to get into astrology. I was friends with a few local professional astrologers, and I
always felt like what they told me was wishy washy. I tried to learn it, and picked a few things up over theyears.
Posts: 1210
Gender:Finally I "discovered" William Lilly's "Christian Astrology" and for some reason everything made sense to me forthe first time. It required very little memorization on my part. Everything fell into place.
Then I took a course on medieval natal, and that was the breaking point. That's when I consider myself as
becoming "good" at astrology. I later took a course on horary.
I think course are vital personally, if for no other reason than the fact that you have a teacher to guide you
when you're stuck. That means everything.

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IP Logged_Paul_Ex Member

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #10 - on: 11.07.2012 at 09:27 [UT+1] »Quote from Iris92 on 10.07.2012 at 21:44 [UT+1]:
Thank you all for your thorough and thoughtful responses. I've become disillusioned with the astrological school I am currently studying
with and was wondering if I should stop working with them. My worry was that I would miss out on something and there would be holes in
my learning if I stopped taking courses. I know I'll never be a professional astrologer, but I want to learn to do it right if I do it at all. It
seems that many of you here have been just fine letting your curiosity be the guide and learning on your own, so maybe that is the better
choice for me. In any event, I imagine I will study for the rest of my life without ever reaching a level where I feel completely "done" orthat I have learned everything. As one of my favorite astrologers says, there will always be wonder in astrology.

Iris
Part of any course like this will be the realisation that you have to learn some things that you might not
actually be all that interested in. On my course this was never truer than when it came to the astronomicalsides of things. People simply did not care how to calculate a chart by hand or the astronomy of eclipses orwhatever else. However it is being taught to you for a reason. For you to be a better astrologer with a wider
foundation to support you. I wasn't interested in several techniques I was being taught but I'm still glad I know
them. Now that I have been taught them I am more informed about them and when I disagree with thetechniques it is not out of ignorance for example.
It's best to stick with it if you can.
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Squirrel

Ex Member

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #11 - on: 11.07.2012 at 16:40 [UT+1] »Quote from _Paul_ on 10.07.2012 at 16:44 [UT+1]:...continued..

Right now I'm more interested in the history of astrology and having gotten a good grasp of the basics of astrology I have much moreroom to experiment with charts and techniques and look back at people's charts with different techniques and see what works.
I eventually stopped being the moderator of the tribe.net site. I found it distasteful. I had thought people would respect one anothernaturally once a moderator was in place. They didn't. I felt like a parent trying to be dipomatic between their and their neighbour's kids. It
became a nightmare. I started to lose my passion for astrology because of some posters on that site. I stepped down and abandoned thesite. I was too hooked on horary at this point anyway and bought some books on horary and from horary I learned a much moredisciplined approach to reading a chart than I was accustomed to I guess. You simply cannot 'fudge' the details with horary. Or guess. Or
whatever. It's much more disciplined, you either find that lost watch or you do not. You either correctly show the two people starting a
relationship or you do not. There is no being 95% right. You are either right or wrong. More importantly, unlike Tarot, I could do it formyself.
I pretty much devoured everything I could read on it. Of all the areas of astrology I'm probably better read on this than anything else.
For the past few years I've discovered too much wealth of information in the history and tradition of astrology to turn away from it.
Several things which I've never found work with modern astrology is explained by the traditional approaches or techniques. Particularly
rulerhsip. I tried so hard to get modern rulerships to work for horary. They just didn't. Once I realised what rulership actually meant andhow it worked I realised that the modern rulerships didn't work in the natal chart either. It was a big leap for me to jump to traditionalrulerships. It was only really from joining this forum a couple of years ago that I even realised how much of a divide there was between
modern and traditional astrology. I just never thought in those terms. It was just astrology. Different schools, thoughts, opinions,approaches - but never felt there was some primal or tribal associations between those schools. I got some sense of this toward the end of
my time on tribe.net but this site exemplified it much more.
I guess a lot of my posts here demonstrate my comfortability with the psychological/modern approach as well as the traditional approach.
I never had this idea in my head that one had to belong to one camp. It just doesn't make sense to me to think that way.
So right now, I'm just as ignorant as ever, but am less ignorant about some things than others. One thing I do though is that if I see
someone else trying to figure out a method/technique, I surprise myself sometimes at the lengths I'll go to to help them understand it. I
just can't stand thinking "oh I remember when I didn't get that either, I wonder can I put it this way instead and she'll get it, no? Maybe if
I say it like this? Or like this? or this one?".
I'd love to actually teach astrology some day I think.

You know more than you think you know.
...Blombido knows less.
*runs out like my arse is on fire*
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EnlilMember

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #12 - on: 11.07.2012 at 17:05 [UT+1] »Quote from Squirrel on 11.07.2012 at 16:40 [UT+1]:

You know more than you think you know.

Posts: 1210
Gender:...Blombido knows less.
*runs out like my arse is on fire*I think Paul's point (and I would agree) is that we're always students in some way.
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StellarEx Member

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #13 - on: 11.07.2012 at 19:28 [UT+1] »Quote:(From Paul)The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know.

Oh how I relate to this statement!!!
When I was 10 years old, I used to spend afternoons at the local library with my mom, and avid reader. I wasn't
interested in children's books anymore once I stumbled upon an old copy of "Your stars are numbered" by
Grant Lewi that my mom had checked out.
I don't think this book is in print anymore, but I think it could
be found on Amazon.com. I'm not entirely sure. After reading that book, I became hooked. I then, like Paul,read Linda Goodman's Sun sign book and was completely fascinated. From that point on, it was ON, and I wasat the library everyday checking out one Astrology book after another. I never stopped! Even to this very day,and I have a few hundred books in my collection now. If I could only afford it, I'd have a few hundred more!
In my teens and early 20's, I began to study the Tarot. So funny Paul mentioned doing this before he began to
study Astrology.
I did very much the same but in reverse!
In my early 20's I began to take classes in Astrology. First beginning classes, but I quickly became bored as I
had all the basics already down. I then took intermediate and advanced classes, however I am mostly selftaught.
Then of course, this statement: "The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know". No truer words wereever said!
No-matter how much I "think" I know, I can never know enough, or will ever know enough to be satisfied.
Sometimes I feel like I am starting from square one, and don't know anything.

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blombido
Ex Member

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #14 - on: 11.07.2012 at 19:50 [UT+1] »Quote from Stellar on 11.07.2012 at 19:28 [UT+1]:

Then of course, this statement: "The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know". No truer words were ever said!
No-matter how much I "think" I know, I can never know enough, or will ever know enough to be satisfied. Sometimes I feel like I am
starting from square one, and don't know anything.

There might be something else you don't know:''The following quote from Bertrand Russell's "Theory of Knowledge" illustrates the difficulty in defining
knowledge. "The question how knowledge should be defined is perhaps the most important and difficult of thethree with which we shall deal. This may seem surprising: at first sight it might be thought that knowledge
might be defined as belief which is in agreement with the facts. The trouble is that no one knows what a belief
is, no one knows what a fact is, and no one knows what sort of agreement between them would make abelief true. Let us begin with belief."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge
PS - Satisfaction is an Apple Turnover with fresh cream, that I do know, and it does not need fresh bloody
strawberries stuffed in it! (Sorry, nasty incident earlier on today, still exorcising the demons).
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PKea888

Ex Member

Re: How did you learn astrology?
« Reply #15 - on: 11.07.2012 at 20:32 [UT+1] »Quote from Iris92 on 10.07.2012 at 21:44 [UT+1]:
Thank you all for your thorough and thoughtful responses. I've become disillusioned with the astrological school I am currently studying
with and was wondering if I should stop working with them. My worry was that I would miss out on something and there would be holes in
my learning if I stopped taking courses. I know I'll never be a professional astrologer, but I want to learn to do it right if I do it at all. It
seems that many of you here have been just fine letting your curiosity be the guide and learning on your own, so maybe that is the better
choice for me. In any event, I imagine I will study for the rest of my life without ever reaching a level where I feel completely "done" orthat I have learned everything. As one of my favorite astrologers says, there will always be wonder in astrology.

Can you explain what disillusioned you about it?
I found Campion covers pretty well the history and basics of the western astrology though not as much indian.
did you read his work? I recently switched to the indian sidereal principles and am very satisfied with theresults. I was in the same boat where I got completely disappointed and never got any answers to myquestions by the cookie cutter western approach.
but to asnwer your OQ, reading is your best friend
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