She hopes eventually to offer an associate degree, which would require further accreditation. With the respectability of accreditation and the possibility of financial aid, Jensen, an astrologer herself, hopes to draw younger people more interested in astrology as a profession than a know-thyself pursuit. Many of the students now are in their 30s. Astrology claims a person's character and fate are directed at birth by the position of the Sun, Moon, and planets. This is charted in a horoscope, which is often done these days with the help of computer software.
Scientists scoff at the pursuit.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist who heads the Hayden Planetarium in New York, noted astrology was discredited 600 years ago with the birth of modern science. Education should be about knowing how to think, Tyson said. And part of knowing how to think is knowing how the laws of nature shape the world around us. Without that knowledge, without that capacity to think, you can easily become a victim of people who seek to take advantage of you. Jensen is familiar with such criticism.