I recently released a new set of posters that depict the astrology of 2018, and while I was working on creating those it gave me some time to reflect on the major planetary alignments that will happen over the course of the next year.

In this post I want to highlight the top 5 transits that I found that seems like they will coincide with important turning points for people during the course of the year.

While some of these alignments may be more or less important for you personally, depending on where they fall in your chart, it is good to be aware of them ahead of time since they will be the hot spots for many people over the next 12 months.

So, without further ado, let’s get to the list!

1. Uranus Ingress Into Taurus

By far the biggest shift that will occur this year is the ingress of Uranus into Taurus, which first happens on May 15, 2018. This is notable because Uranus is a slow-moving outer planet that takes about 84 years to go all the way around the zodiac, and the last time that it changed signs was when it moved into Aries back around 2010/2011.

The ingress of Uranus into Aries seven or eight years ago set of the Uranus-Pluto square, which was associated with a tremendous amount of change and upheaval in different parts of the world in terms of mundane astrology, such as the events of the Arab Spring.

This is also an important transit in terms of people’s personal lives, because in my approach I use the whole sign house system, and from that perspective when a planet changes signs it also moves into a different house in a person’s chart. This means that the planet associated with change, upheaval, revolution, and liberation will be shifting its focus to a new area of your life, and it will stay there for the next seven or eight years, until Uranus eventually moves into Gemini around 2025/26.

While the intensity of the immediate aftermath of the ingress of Uranus into Taurus will vary from person to person depending on how your birth chart is set up and if you have any planets or sensitive points in the early degrees of the fixed signs, for just about everyone this will mark the beginning of a new chapter of Uranus’ transits through some part of your chart, and you will see a culmination of some of the themes that are kicked off in May sooner or later.

2. Overlapping Venus and Mars Retrograde Periods

This year is also unique because Venus and Mars will both be going retrograde this year, and these retrograde periods occur so close together that the tail end of one will be finishing right as the other is about to begin.

Mars begins slowing down towards the middle of the year, and eventually stations retrograde at 9° Aquarius around June 26. It then begins moving backwards in the zodiac over the next couple of months, until it eventually stations direct at at 28° Capricorn around August 27.

By this time in August Venus is already starting to slow down as it enters its pre-retrograde shadow period, and eventually it stations retrograde at 10° Scorpio around October 5. Venus then spends the next forty days or so moving backwards through early Scorpio and late Libra, before eventually stationing direct at 25° Libra around November 15.

Venus goes retrograde around the same spot in the zodiac every eight years, so this Venus retrograde is a repetition of a similar period in time from October/November of 2010, October/November of 2002, 1994, 1986, and so on. If you have important placements in your natal chart tied in to those degrees and had notable events occur in your personal life during one or more of those times in the past, then you may see some similar repetitions occurring under this upcoming Venus retrograde period.

Interestingly, both Venus and Mars make multiple hard aspects with Uranus during the course of their retrograde periods, since they will both be moving back and forth between the cusps of the cardinal and fixed signs, and that is where Uranus will be hovering around most of the year on the cusp of Aries and Taurus. I suspect then that the Venus and Mars retrograde periods will end up being the initial triggers in many people’s lives for the long-term changes that are indicated by the Uranus ingress over the next decade.

3. Lunar Eclipse in July

In 2017 a lot of people focused on the solar eclipse that was visible across the United States, but this year a lot of astrologers are focusing their attention on the lunar eclipse that will take place in July.

A lunar eclipse shows up in an astrological chart as a Full Moon that takes place close to the north and south nodes. This particular eclipse will go exact with the Moon at 4° of Aquarius, and the Sun of course in exact opposition at 4° Leo.

What is unique about this eclipse is that it takes place right in the middle of the Mars retrograde, so that Mars is very closely conjunct the Moon at the time of the exact eclipse, with Mars being at 3° Aquarius. If that wasn’t enough, by this time Uranus has made it to 2° of Taurus where it is slowing down and preparing to station retrograde, and thus Uranus is creating a T-square between Mars and the two luminaries in Aquarius and Leo.

This alignment creates a pretty explosive dynamic, which at best provides a sudden opportunity to assert change in some area of one’s life, and at its worst may force change and upheaval in a sudden and dramatic way for those whose charts are closely tied in with this transit.

To top it off, Mercury stations retrograde only a day or two before the lunar eclipse occurs, and so some of the typical Mercury-retrograde type hi-jinx are thrown into the mix as well, as if the rest wasn’t enough.

4. Saturn in Capricorn

The other major shift that we will all still be getting accustomed to this year is Saturn’s recent ingress into Capricorn, which just happened in December of 2017, after completing a three-year transit through Sagittarius.

The transit of Saturn through Sagittarius was surprisingly literal in many ways, especially in terms of the general Sagittarian theme of of “that which is foreign”, and Saturn’s tendency to bring challenges, fears, and apprehensions to the areas that it transits. I would expect Saturn’s transit through Capricorn to be even more literal in many ways than the Sagittarius transit was, as Saturn returns to its home sign and therefore begins producing a more pure form of his natural significations.

Of course, one of the interesting things about Saturn’s transit through Sagittarius is that many of the people who went through their first Saturn returns during that time also had their natal Uranus in Sag activated as well, which often created an unexpected or surprise component, in terms of what their Saturn return story ended up being about. We will likely see a continuation of similar themes for those who are just starting their Saturn returns in Capricorn now, as Uranus was in Capricorn with Saturn in the late 80s and early 90s, along with Neptune.

Additionally, while it will not get anywhere near to going exact in 2018, Saturn’s ingress into Capricorn did begin the process of applying to a conjunction with Pluto, which will eventually occur around the 2019/2020 time frame. Many of the dynamics and themes that will eventually culminate with the completion of the exact degree-based conjunction between those two planets in a few years will start to be set in motion now that the two have moved into the same sign.

5. Jupiter Moving into Sagittarius

To end this on a high note, the fifth and final major transit that I would like to highlight this year is Jupiter’s ingress into Sagittarius, which will take place in early November.

While Jupiter will be spending most of his time in Scorpio this year, and that has already coincided with some interesting and positive developments in terms of people seeking justice for past wrongdoings and abuses of power, there is something about the ingress of Jupiter into Sag that seems like it will lighten up the mood of what is otherwise going to be a pretty heavy year.

In a year that will largely be dominated by the seriousness of Saturn in Capricorn or the unexpected disruptions of Uranus and its aspects to retrograde Venus and Mars, it is nice to know that there is a relatively positive light at the end of the tunnel, if even just in terms of a shift in the mood and demeanor of the times. Plus Jupiter returning to its home sign should be great for the purposes of electional astrology, and that is something we can all look forward to.

Conclusions and Tracking the Transits for 2018 At A Glance

Well, that’s it for this article! Let me know in the comments section below what you think the most important transits are for 2018, and if there are any others that I should have put on this list.

If you would like a handy reference where you can see all of the major planetary ingresses, lunations, and retrograde stations over the course of the year, then you should check out my 2018 Astrology Calendar Poster Package, which display all of the major transits for the year at a glance.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great 2018!

Video Overview of the Astrology of 2018

Here is a video version of this post, with an overview of the astrology of 2018:

The post Top 5 Astrology Transits for 2018 appeared first on The Horoscopic Astrology Blog.

I am pleased to announce that my long-awaited book on ancient astrology has finally been released, and it is titled Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune.

The book was actually published in February, but the past couple of months of getting it out and promoting it have been kind of hectic, and so I’m just now getting around to announcing it here on my main blog.

In the book I provide an overview of the history, philosophy, and techniques of ancient astrology. More specifically, I focus on the type of astrology that was practiced during the time of the Roman Empire, from approximately the first century BCE through the seventh century CE.

The book is of general interest to modern practitioners of astrology because most of the techniques that astrologers still use today can be traced back to this specific tradition of astrology that originated in the first century BCE. In some instances by learning about where the techniques of western astrology come from and how they were originally used we can actually learn how to apply some of those techniques more effectively today.

In other instances there are important techniques that were used by ancient astrologers that were not passed along in the transmission of astrology over the past 2,000 years, and it is only recently that we have started to recover some of these techniques through translations of ancient texts in the past decade or two.

One of these techniques that I spend a lot of time talking about in the book is the concept of sect, which is the interpretive distinction between day and night charts. According to this doctrine, each of the planets can function in either a more challenging or a more constructive fashion in a given chart depending on whether the native was born during the day or at night. This becomes a crucial factor when evaluating the condition of a planet in a natal chart, as well as when determining whether something like a Saturn transit will manifest in a more positive or negative manner in a person’s life.

Sect is an example of a technique that has been recovered from ancient astrology that simply enhances other techniques that modern astrologers already use, and it does not require that you stop using some techniques or approach that you prefer. Instead it just provides an additional piece of information that you can use in order to make more precise statements about different placements in a chart.

In the book I also talk about a collection of ancient timing techniques known as time-lord systems, which are used in order to determine when the natal potential underlying certain placements will become activated in the native’s life, for better or worse. The premise underlying the time-lord systems is that not all placements in our chart are activated at all times. Instead, many of the placements in the birth chart represent latent potentials that lie dormant in the native’s life until the placements become activated, and only then will the placement become awakened and manifest what is essentially the promise that was made in the natal placement.

In the book I cover one basic time-lord technique known as annual profections, which can be used in order to determine which planet is activated in the chart in a given year, by counting one sign from the rising sign for every year of the native’s life. This results in a simple but powerful method for determining which planets are activated in a given year, which in turn lets you know which transits will be more important or will result in a “hit” in a given year, thus sharpening the modern approach to transit analysis.

At the end of the book I deal with a more advanced time-lord system known as zodiacal releasing, which is used to divide the native’s entire life up in to chapters and paragraphs, as if the life was a book and you could determine where the different chapter breaks are. More interestingly, zodiacal releasing can be used in order to get some sense of the sequence of the native’s life, and when they will reach major high points and transitions in terms of their overall career and life direction.

As you can tell already by this short synopsis, I covered a lot of ground in the book. It is actually about 700 pages long, because I tried to make it really comprehensive, not just in terms of the techniques, but also in covering the history and development of ancient astrology, talking about all of the major astrologers whose works survive, discussing different philosophical issues in ancient astrology, and even getting into more contentious topics like the origins of the house system debate in ancient astrology.

I also used 120 example charts in the book, so that you can see how the techniques worked out in practice, and these are complimented by more than 50 diagrams and tables, which help to illustrate various technical concepts that are introduced at different points in the book.

The book took me 10 years to write, as I started it way back in September of 2006. Ultimately it was a labor of love, although I’m excited that it is finally out and I’m able to share it with the rest of the astrological community, in order to provide one of the first comprehensive treatments of this tradition in modern times, and show people why some astrologers have become so excited about the revival of traditional astrology in the past few decades.

You can find more information about the book or order a signed copy from me directly through this page on Hellenistic astrology website: Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune description page.

There you will find a PDF excerpt of the introduction and table of contents, as well as some early reviews of the book on the sidebar, and a gallery of pictures that people have sent in of the book arriving and being read in different parts of the world.

Ultimately my writing style has grown and been refined a lot over the past decade through doing things like writing this blog. So, thank you to everyone who has read the blog and given feedback over the years, because in some way you have contributed to the overall process of writing this book.

Alright, that’s it for this update! Thanks everyone for reading, and I hope that you enjoy the book! Let me know what you think of it in the comments section below.

The post My Book on Ancient Astrology Has Been Released! appeared first on The Horoscopic Astrology Blog.

The episode was not so much about the history of astrology as it was on debates about the validity of the subject in modern times.

I had a lot of trepidation going into it because sometimes things like this end up being a hatchet job, but I was surprised to see that they gave a much more balanced treatment of many of the arguments for and against astrology than I expected, for the most part.

Of course, at the end of the day they gave more weight to the positions of the astronomers they interviewed who were against astrology, understandably, but in the process they actually provided the viewer with a great deal of information about what contemporary astrology is actually like, which was really refreshing.

For example, at one point they spent quite a bit of time showing and talking about an actual birth chart, and discussing some of the different facets of it. Obviously for anyone who is familiar with the subject this is just basic astrology, but so often debates about the subject end up focusing solely on Sun-signs, and so even just presenting the idea that there is more than just one sign of the zodiac that is relevant in each person’s life is actually a pretty big step in terms of the way that astrology is typically portrayed.

I also had some trepidation going into this episode because I wasn’t really familiar with the two astrologers that were chosen by the History Channel to represent the astrological community, and in the past when the media has randomly chosen astrologers for interviews the results have been kind of hit or miss. This wasn’t really helped by the fact that they were both introduced as “two well respected astrologers,” because generally within the context of the astrological community I would expect that statement to be reserved for really well-known or influential astrologers such as Robert Hand, Liz Greene, or Steven Forrest. Nonetheless, I think that the two astrologers who were featured, Robert Ohotto and Alanna Kaivalya, ended up doing a pretty good job.

I should also say that while I was pleasantly surprised at how much more balanced the treatment of astrology was in this episode compared to typical treatments of the subject, that is not to say that it was completely balanced. The show ended on a decidedly anti-astrology note, and even the number of people who were interviewed that were against astrology far exceeded the number of astrologers that were interviewed, which gives you some idea of what the overall agenda was for the show. The five scientists who appear in the show at various points were Andrew Fraknoi, Alexei Filippenko, Lucianne Walkowicz, Clifford Johnson, and Michio Kaku. This is compared to the two astrologers mentioned above.

Of course, I understand that part of the reason for this is that with fringe fields like this they want to make the episode interesting by talking about a weird subject, but they also want to represent the current consensus of the scientific community, and within that context the episode was never going to be overtly pro-astrology.  Still, at some point I’d like to see a more balanced discussion between and equal number of astrologers and scientists on the subject. I realize that this might come off kind of like climate change deniers complaining about not having equal representation in debates about global warming, despite the fact that they only account for a small portion of the overall scientific community, but I would argue that if you are going to treat the subject of astrology at all then you might as well do an adequate job of presenting what astrologers actually think or do. This episode came closer to doing that than anything like it that I’ve seen before, but there is still more that could be done.

In terms of the specific arguments that were discussed that were either for or against astrology I have a lot to say, although I think that I’m going to save that commentary for an episode of my podcast on astrology sometime in the near future. Suffice it to say that I was a bit disappointed that a lot of the episode focused on discussions about the absence of some sort of causal mechanism for astrology, and the astrologers didn’t really seem to get a chance to point out that most astrologers believe that astrology works through some sort of acausal mechanism such as synchronicity. This is something I’ve discussed before here in my article on the definition of astrology. It was also a bit disappointing that the astrologers didn’t get more of a chance to explain or defend the tropical zodiac, and some of the same arguments and misinformation from the zodiacal controversy from a few years ago were repeated.

Despite these issues it was still great to see a full hour-long television episode on astrology featured on the History Channel, and I appreciated that the subject was treated much more respectfully than usual. I would definitely recommend that people check out the episode.

The episode was part of the series The Universe: Ancient Mysteries Solved, and it was episode 9 of season 7, titled “Predicting the Future.” It first aired on Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 9:00 PM EDT, and it is scheduled to air again on May 23 and 24 according to this schedule. A quick Google search shows that clips of it are already popping up online, and it looks like you can watch it for free on the History Channel website if you have a cable subscription, or the episode is available for for purchase on YouTube, on iTunes, or through Amazon instant video.

Please check out the episode and let me know what you think in the comments section below!

Update June 6, 2015: Listen to my full commentary on the History Channel episode on astrology on The Astrology Podcast.

The post The History Channel Airs an Episode on Astrology appeared first on The Horoscopic Astrology Blog.

Birth data collection itself becomes almost like a separate skill set that astrologers have to develop in order to obtain birth times. This is because there can be many challenges and complications involved in finding out what time a person was born, especially if you don’t know them personally. Astrologers draw on a wide variety of different sources in order to determine or confirm when a person was born, such as obtaining a copy of their birth certificate, birth announcements, the recollection of parents or other family members, and so on.

In the 20th century entire databases were created in order to collect birth data and provide background information about where it came from and how reliable the source is. Astrodienst’s AstroDatabank is the largest and most well-respected example of this sort of database in the astrological community, and they employ a system for classifying the reliability of birth data called the Rodden Rating system, which has become the industry standard. AstroDatabank is not the only purveyor of birth data though, and another website that frequently shows up in the results when you search for celebrity birth times is Astrotheme.

Astrotheme is a French website founded in 2002, which has pages set up for thousands of celebrities where you can see their birth chart, a biography, and a computerized delineation of some parts of the celebrity’s horoscope. The purpose of these long reports appears to be that they help to draw in traffic and advertise the personalized reports that Astrotheme sells to visitors. Since Astrotheme is one of the few websites which lists celebrity birth times besides AstroDatabank, their pages often rank very high in the search results, and sometimes when AstroDatabank does not list a known birth time for a celebrity you will be able to find it on Astrotheme.

Unfortunately Astrotheme has gained a reputation over the past decade amongst some data collectors I know for not being very reliable when it comes to the birth times that they give for some celebrities. Usually the birth times they list are just taken from AstroDatabank or other birth data collections, and in those cases the data will be more or less reliable. However, in instances where there is no known birth time for the celebrity in any of the databases Astrotheme will sometimes claim to have obtained it from another source.

This first came to my attention maybe 7 or 8 years ago, because I noticed that they often listed exact birth times for a number of celebrities even though the other databases said that those birth times were unknown. At first I thought that this was great, since it gave me another source for birth times when the other databases failed. However, there was one glaring issue at that point, which is that they didn’t seem to regularly list their sources for the birth times on their website, so it wasn’t clear where they had obtained the data from. This is problematic because sometimes in the astrological community if you see a birth time with no source it means that the time was rectified through astrological means. This is problematic since rectifications are not always accurate, and thus they are not usually treated as reliable by birth data collectors. In some instances a poorly done rectification is no better than just a random guess at the correct birth time.

Examples of Unreliable Sources

In 2009 one astrologer I know went so far as to write to Astrotheme in order to request that they start listing the sources for their birth times, because they commonly didn’t at that point. Here is the email:

Hello Astrotheme,

You have a really incredible service going. Absolutely incredible. This could be a really wonderful tool of research, but I have one suggestion. The site would be just that much more incredible if you gave the sources for all the birthdata. Sometimes when I’m searching for a birth time, you will be the only site on the internet that gives a birth time for someone, but I can’t really trust it because you give no source. I don’t know if someone just rectified it or if you actually have a credible source for the birth information. Will we ever see this on Astrotheme?

Their response was a bit disappointing, basically saying that it would take too much time to list their sources for all of the biographies, and instead saying that astrologers should just email them if they want to find out the source for the birth time they list for a specific person:

We do better: we answer for any question about a celebrity. We have around 100 and more sources. It is a lot of time, and we propose the best source, because we compare all. If you have any question about one person, ask and we will give you the source and comments. It will take about 6 months to finish all the biographies, and to enter sources would be too much time, but we can find it if you ask. We answer everyday for that.

My friend then asked a followup question about a specific birth time that they listed on their website for the actress Jennifer Love Hewitt:

Ah that’s great. I didn’t know you could do that. Could you please look up the source for Jennifer Love Hewitt’s birthtime?

They responded:

Sure, For her, for example: http://www.vegaattractions.com/celebrity/stars/jenlove.html

But it is not a “very good” source, unfortunately.

The link takes you to some random commercial astrology website that sells computerized reports, which lists the same exact birth time for Hewitt that Astrotheme gives, also with no source. They do have a notice on their site though saying that the primary astrology website that they use for finding celebrity birth times is, surprisingly, Astrotheme. In other words, the source that Astrotheme cited for this piece of birth data claims that Astrotheme itself is their primary source.

What this demonstrates is that back somewhere around 2009 Astrotheme had a general policy of not listing their sources for every entry, and while you could email them to request the source of the birth time, in some instances the source would either not be very reliable, or would lead back to Astrotheme itself.

Another inquiry in 2009 about the exact birth time listed for the actress Kate Winslet produced an even more dismaying response from Astrotheme:

7:15 is found on many sites, we have taken the same birth time, but it seems that this is not sure.

For example: http://joycehopewell.blogspot.com/2009/02/kate–winslet.html or http://www.vegaattractions.com/celebrity/stars/winslet.html or http://astrologicalassociation.blogspot.com/2009/02/oscars-winners-and-astrology.html

Everybody says “We don’t know Kate‘s birth time for sure but the Internet widely reports 5th October 1975, 07:15am BST, Reading, UK. “.

So, basically in some instances, like with Kate Winslet, they just list whatever speculative birth time seems to be floating around the internet. In other instances, like with Jennifer Love Hewitt, there becomes this circular loop where they cite other websites for the data, and those same websites cite Astrotheme as their primary source, which implies that at some stage in this process someone fabricated the birth time and put it on their website as legitimate. The question is who?

A Fabricated Birth Time?

I’m not sure if Astrotheme’s policy on citing sources for birth times has changed since 2009, but I get the impression that it may have, because I’ve come across a few instances where they cite old entertainment magazines as the source for their birth times recently. For example, even though neither AstroDatabank nor any of the the biographical works I’ve found give a birth time, Astrotheme lists an exact time of 11:04 AM for the rapper Eminem, citing the November 2000 issue of a German teen magazine called Bravo. Here is a screenshot. Based on this I thought that perhaps Astrotheme was starting to get better about both listing their sources and doing the necessary research in order to obtain accurate birth times. But unfortunately the situation may have have actually gotten worse rather than better.

I was recently trying to find the birth time of rapper Kanye West by doing searches for it on Google. AstroDatabank has no entry for Kanye West, but Astrotheme does, so they come up as the first result when you search for the phrase “Kanye West birth time.” I was both surprised and happy to see that they listed not only an exact birth time for him of 8:45 AM, but they also gave a source for the birth time, which they claimed was from an article in the October 2007 issue of Blender Magazine. Here is a screenshot.

So, that seemed pretty good, but I wanted to verify the source for myself just to be sure, so I did a search on Amazon and ordered a copy of that old issue of Blender Magazine from 2007. It just showed up in the mail today, and I was shocked after I read through it and found that not only does the article not mention Kanye’s birth time, but it doesn’t even list his birth date. There is just one brief biographical reference to the fact that he was born in 1977, and that’s it. No birth time, even though Astrotheme cites this exact issue as the source for the birth time they list on their website.

So, we have a bit of a problem here. While it is nice in theory that Astrotheme seems to be making more of an effort to cite their sources for birth times now, in this instance even though they cited a specific source for the exact birth time they gave, the source does not support the time they claimed. So, this makes it look like someone concocted a false birth time and then provided a fake citation in order to give it an air of legitimacy, for some unknown reason. This is arguably even worse than listing no source for the time at all, because astrologers generally know that they shouldn’t trust unsourced birth times, whereas the citation of a legitimate publication in this instance might otherwise lead people to take this time more seriously than they otherwise should. In point of fact, at least one astrologer has written an article about Kanye West in just the past few months using the 8:45 AM time from Astrotheme, so there are astrologers out there who have been misled by the faulty time listed on their website.

The more troubling question here is whether this was just a fluke, or whether it is a more common practice. Unfortunately I don’t know the answer to this question, although I find it troubling that other data collectors on AstroDatabank who have checked the sources for birth times that Astrotheme cites for the rapper Jay-Z, the actress Jennifer Lawrence, and the actor Hugh Jackman report they do not in fact mention those times at all. So, I would encourage more people to research this issue in order to find out just how extensive it is.

In the meantime, the main point that I want to convey with this article is simply that I do not personally believe that Astrotheme is a reliable source for birth data because of issues like the ones I’ve cited above, and in light of that I would recommend that astrologers avoid using them as a source for unverified birth data, at least unless or until they take steps to implement some better practices.

At this point in history it is important for astrologers to to start taking birth data collection more seriously. One way that we can do this is by implementing systems like the Rodden Rating system which allow for a greater degree of sophistication in describing the sources of the data that we use. It is not enough to just list a birth time that you got from some random website anymore, but it is important to also know where that time came from, how reliable it is, and whether there is any conflicting information that should be taken into account. By taking just a few simple steps like this we will create a much better environment for conducting proper research in the field of astrology.

The post Astrotheme Untrustworthy for Birth Times? appeared first on The Horoscopic Astrology Blog.

As part of the debate each of us made opening statements in defense of our respective traditions. What I have below is the position statement that I wrote in defense of traditional astrology.

The debate itself lasted for 2 hours, and you can download the full recording of it through The Astrology Podcast: Modern vs. Traditional Astrology Debate.

Traditional Astrology: Opening Statement

For the purpose of this debate I will define “traditional astrology” as a collection of astrological doctrines that coalesced into a system for studying fate somewhere around the 1st century BCE in Alexandria, Egypt, and was practiced, refined, and expanded until the late 17th century. While there were a number of different traditions and variations in both the practice and conceptualization of astrology during this period, there was an underlying continuity in the main outlines of the approach. Hellenistic astrology in particular represented a synthesis of the scientific, cultural, and spiritual trends of the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Greco-Roman traditions. The syncretic form of astrology that was produced by these cultures was practiced within both a practical as well as a spiritual context, equally giving room to both spheres of life.

In the 17th century astrology fell out of favor culturally and intellectually due to a variety of different reasons. It was not revived again until the late 19th and early 20th century, at which point it was largely taken up by proponents of spiritualism and Theosophy. There were deliberate attempts at this point to simplify the technical apparatus of astrology in order to make it easier to learn and disseminate, and these efforts resulted in a decline of the system from a technical standpoint compared to what had been practiced before. At the same time changes in education which made it so that Greek and Latin were no longer taught in primary schools made it so that the texts of the earlier tradition were inaccessible to modern readers, thus further isolating them from the tradition.

This lack of familiarity with the actual practice of traditional astrology made it an easy scapegoat, and reformers have continually used it as a sort of bogyman in order to justify their own further modifications of the few fragments of the system that they inherited. While those in the scientific community could genuinely say that they were standing on the shoulders of giants when making some of the greatest scientific discoveries of the 20th century, modern astrologers could not share the same sentiment, as they only stood on the ashes of the 2000 year tradition of astrology that existed prior to their time.

The Uranus-Neptune conjunction in the early 90s coincided with a revival of traditional forms of astrology in the west, as astrologers began setting up translation projects and recovering the primary source texts of the Hellenistic, Indian, Medieval, and Renaissance traditions. During this period of recovery astrologers found many useful techniques that complemented and enhanced concepts that were already in use in modern times, such as the distinction between day and night charts known as sect, and they also found some powerful timing techniques that could do things that astrologers didn’t even know were possible, such as Zodiacal Releasing and the time-lord systems. The end result of the revival of traditional astrology is that astrologers are once again rebuilding a system of astrology that is capable of making specific statements about the concrete external circumstances of a person’s life with surprising accuracy. However, traditional astrologers do not simply focus on external events, but they draw on their historical connection with many different religious, spiritual, and mystery traditions in order to provide a deeper spiritual and philosophical context for astrology as well – one that is rooted in the genuine philosophies of the western exoteric and esoteric tradition, rather than just the more recent appropriations of some pieces of those traditions by the New Age movement. This ability to address both external circumstances as well as internal dispositions results in an astrology that is more holistic than an astrology that is only capable of dealing with the psyche.

From a technical standpoint traditional astrology is more oriented towards the subjective experience of the individual, and many of the techniques are designed in order to be able to explain both how the native will experience events personally, as well as what the broader meaning and purpose of those events are in their life. While modern astrologers reject distinctions such as benefic and malefic in order to attempt to empower their clients, traditional astrologers utilize these distinctions as necessary tools in giving the proper level of respect and credence to the wide spectrum of human experience, which includes extremes of both positive and negative, as well as many shades of grey in between. Far from being too simplistic or black and white, traditional astrology employs more technical distinctions and nuances than modern astrology, which allows it to more accurately describe the full range of possible manifestations of a specific chart placement.

The purpose of the revival of traditional astrology is not to go back to the past and simply to stay there, but rather the purpose is to reconnect us with what was a continuous living tradition of knowledge, wisdom, and experience that was passed down from generation to generation until the link was severed a few centuries ago. The revival of the ancient traditions and their subsequent synthesis with whatever the prevailing modern paradigm is at the time is a reoccurring theme in the history of astrology in the wake of every Uranus-Neptune conjunction going back over 2000 years. In my opinion the syncretic approach that this represents is a far better alternative to astrological fundamentalism of any sort, either of the old or of the new.

The post The Modern vs. Traditional Astrology Debate appeared first on The Horoscopic Astrology Blog.

This was the very first time that the three main sponsoring organizations AFAN, ISAR, and the NCGR got together in order to hold a large conference like this.

It has been 28 years now since the first UAC, and there have been several other successful conferences since then, so it is interesting to see how it all got started.

The most interesting part is seeing what a lot of prominent astrologers looked like and were doing almost 30 years ago. Since this was a major conference there were a lot of big name speakers there, and a number of them did interviews for the documentary.

There are too many names to list here, but it was particularly interesting seeing people like Rob Hand, Jeffrey Wolf Green, Michel Gauquelin, Alan Oken, Michael Lutin, Erin Sullivan, Jim Lewis, Jeff Jawer, Philip Sedgewick, Joan McEvers, Marion March, and many others.

The documentary was shot and edited John Steinberg, and he was assisted by his wife Rachelle Young Steinberg and their two children, according to a post she made on Facebook. The video was just uploaded to Vimeo on May 30, 2014, and it can be viewed in two parts:

United Astrology Congress 1986 Documentary – Part 1

United Astrology Congress 1986 Documentary – Part 2

I have just a few random thoughts that I wrote down while watching the video, largely from the perspective of a younger astrologer who wasn’t even 2 years old yet when this conference took place:

The post United Astrology Conference 1986 Documentary appeared first on The Horoscopic Astrology Blog.

The purpose of the show is to have discussions about technical, historical and philosophical topics related to astrology.

On each show I usually either have another astrologer on as a co-host in order to talk about a specific topic or theme, or I do an interview with a well-known astrologer about something they’ve been working on recently.

Episodes are released somewhat sporadically, but I’ve been trying to record a new one at least once a month. At this point I have done 13 episodes of the show.

I just realized that I never really announced the launch of this podcast here on the Horoscopic Astrology Blog though, so I thought that it would be a good idea to do that now.

I had previously done another podcast called Traditional Astrology Radio, and episodes of it are still available. I wanted to do something that would be a bit more mainstream though, because even though I specialize in Hellenistic astrology, I do not usually tend to limit myself to just traditional astrology. I wanted to be able to talk about a wider variety of topics, and I think that the new podcast provides a better format for that. I may still do some more episodes of Traditional Astrology Radio at some point in the future, but for now I’m focused on developing The Astrology Podcast.

Listening and Subscribing to The Astrology Podcast

The podcast is free, and in order to listen to it you can either stream episodes right from the website or you can download each one as an MP3.

You can subscribe to the podcast by entering your email address in on this page, and then you will receive an email each time a new episode of the show is released. Or you can subscribe to the show on iTunes. You can also follow our pages on Facebook or on Twitter in order to get notifications about the show there as well.

Episodes of the Show So Far

Here is a list of episodes of the podcast that I’ve done so far:

1. The First Episode of the Astrology Podcast – The first episode was a solo-show where I talked about different topics that I wanted to discuss on the podcast in order to give the listener some sense of what the show would be about in the future.
2. Interview with Benjamin Dykes About Electional Astrology – I interviewed Benjamin Dykes about his new translation of a compilation of Medieval texts on electional astrology.
3. The Definition of “Astrologer” with Nick Dagan Best – My friend Nick and I discuss what it means for a person to be an “astrologer”, and how that is defined by different people.
4. The Astrology of the 2012 Presidential Election – Patrick Watson and I discuss the astrology of the upcoming presidential election, based on work we had done on the Political Astrology Blog.
5. The Fifth Episode of the Astrology Podcast – Several months after the last episode Patrick and I got together again to talk about things that happened since the last episode, including the outcome of the presidential election and the unsurprising lack of an apocalypse in December 2012.
6. NORWAC Recap With Kelly Surtees – After the Northwest Astrology Conference I talked with Kelly Surtees about how it went, and different things that we learned and found interesting about it.
7. Mercury Retrograde: Myths and Realities – Kelly Surtees returns to talk with me about the phenomenon surrounding Mercury retrograde, and the ways in which it is a bit over-hyped, as well as the ways in which it is a valid astrological consideration.
8. The Issue of House Division in Astrology – Kelly and I talk about different approaches to house division in western astrology, and particularly how whole sign houses seems to resolve some of the issues associated with the topic.
9. The Relationship Between Hellenistic and Indian Astrology – I talk with Kenneth Johnson about the connection between the Hellenistic and Indian astrological traditions, and the ways in which both traditions borrowed certain concepts and techniques from each other.
10. The Future of Astrology – In this episode I talked with Austin Coppock, who is the current President of the Association for Young Astrologers, about some trends and developments that we see happening in the future of astrology.
11. The Astrology of Uranus and the United States – An interview with Nick Dagan Best about his new book on Uranus and the chart of the United States. In it we discuss events that occurred in the past under specific Uranus transits to the US chart, as well as what we might expect from the upcoming Uranus return.
12. Robert Hand on Reconciling Modern and Traditional Astrology – I talk with Rob Hand about his views on the recent reemergence of traditional forms of astrology, and how they might be integrated at some point with the prevailing modern paradigm.
13. Ben Dykes’ New Translation of Hephaistio of Thebes – I interview Benjamin Dykes about his new book, which is a translation of a 5th century text on electional astrology. We also talk about the implications that the book has for clearing up a longstanding dispute over the historical origins of horary astrology.

If you enjoy the show then please give it a good rating on iTunes, or “like” it on Facebook.

The Future of the Podcast

If you have any suggestions about specific topics that you would like me to address in future episodes of the show then please let me know in the comments section below.

I’m in the process of recording some new episodes of the show right now, so be sure to subscribe so that you will be notified when new episodes are released in the future.

The post New Podcast on Astrology appeared first on The Horoscopic Astrology Blog.

Let’s get the main point out of the way right from the start:

Generally speaking, people who practice astrology prefer to be referred to as an astrologer, not an astrologist. This is the designation that virtually all practitioners of astrology have adopted and prefer.

When in doubt, I would always recommend using the word astrologer rather than astrologist.

Now, technically “astrologist” is an actual word, and it is sometimes used as a synonym for “astrologer.” However, the Oxford English Dictionary says that the word astrologist is

Less common than astrologer and not the preferred term amongst practitioners.”

I would estimate that something like 99% of practitioners refer to themselves as astrologers, which arguably makes astrologer the more “correct” designation, in the same way that the correct designation for someone who practices psychology is “psychologist,” even though technically “psychologer” is a legitimate word that just isn’t really used anymore.

Usage Frequency for the Terms Astrologer and Astrologist

While researching this issue I decided to check Google in order to get a sense for how frequently each word is used online at this point in time.

Right now a search for the word “astrologer” on Google results in approximately 3,200,000 pages. On the other hand, a search for the word “astrologist” results in approximately 755,000 pages.

Here is a graph from Google Trends which shows the number of searches for the term “astrologer” (in red) versus “astrologist” (in blue) from 2004 through to the present:

What this shows is that the term astrologer is used far more frequently than the term astrologist. This raises the question of who is even using the term astrologist then to begin with?

Who Uses the Word Astrologist Anyway?

So why is this even an issue, and who still uses the word “astrologist” anyway?

As a practicing astrologer, usually the only people that I typically see using the term “astrologist” are those who simply don’t know any better. That is to say, usually the term is used by people who are not very familiar with the field of astrology, to such an extent that they don’t even know what the “correct” or preferred designation for an astrologer is.

Typically there are only three groups of people who find themselves in the position of talking about astrology semi-regularly without having enough familiarity with the subject to know what the proper designation for an astrologer is, and they are:

1. Skeptics
2. Scammers
3. Journalists

These three groups seem to account for the majority of the instances in which I’ve seen the term astrologist used. What all of these groups share in common is that they tend to talk about astrology from an outsider’s perspective, and they don’t tend to know very much about the subject.

Skeptics frequently attempt to criticize astrology, although it is often surprising how little they know about it. From what I’ve seen they often tend to have this implicit conceit that since they “know” that astrology is wrong they don’t need to familiarize themselves with it in order to debunk it. I’ve explored this issue a bit previously in my articles on the definition of astrology and the zodiac controversy.

Scammers are people who profess to be professional astrologers and essentially attempt to impersonate them, but in reality they tend to have a pretty shallow understanding of the subject and are really just trying to rip people off. They usually know enough to give the impression that they are a professional astrologer, but then they slip up by doing little things like referring to themselves as a “professional astrologist” or a “master astrologist.”

The third group consists of journalists who occasionally write a story about astrology when it comes up in the news for some reason. News coverage of astrology tends focus on sensationalist stories, and for some reason the more sensationalist the story, the more likely it seems that the term astrologist will be used. Journalists often end up misunderstanding and mangling many of the technical terms and concepts that astrologers use though, so sometimes the use of the word “astrologist” is the least annoying issue. It seems like scientists often complain about similar issues when it comes to science reporting in the news though, so there may be a similar underlying issue there when it comes to the media.

What I’m getting at here is that in each of these instances one of the dead giveaways that a person isn’t very familiar with astrology is when they use the word astrologist. So technically while it is not grammatically “wrong” to use the term “astrologist,” it does have a tendency to make you look like someone who isn’t very familiar with the subject.

Astrologers Who Use the Word Astrologist

All of that being said, I do need to point out that there are a small number of astrologers who sometimes prefer to call themselves “astrologists” as their professional designation. It is very hard to put numbers on something like this, but I would estimate that it has to be something very small, like less than 1% of the total number of practicing astrologers that I’ve met, if even that.

Most of the legitimate professional astrologers (as opposed to scammers) who refer to themselves as “astrologists” do so with full knowledge that “astrologer” is the more widely accepted term, and so in these instances they are typically using the term “astrologist” either for novelty reasons, or to be quirky and set themselves apart somehow.

As a result of this I want to emphasize that I am not saying that all astrologers who call themselves “astrologists” are automatically scammers or are wrong somehow. There are legitimate professional astrologers who use this term.

However, I would say that there appears to be a greater tendency for this term to be used by people who are scammers rather than legitimate astrologers, and because of that it will naturally raise some eyebrows within the astrological community if you are a legitimate astrologer who chooses this as your professional designation. It is certainly a matter of choice and personal preference on some level though, and while I would probably advise you that you shouldn’t use it if you were asking me for advice, I’m not going to tell you that you can’t use it or that it is inherently wrong if you do.

If you are not an astrologer, then you probably don’t have a good reason to use the term “astrologist” in a sentence though, so I would recommend just sticking to using the word astrologer.

The post Is it Astrologer or Astrologist? appeared first on The Horoscopic Astrology Blog.

Biographical Dictionary of Western Astrologers

James Holden spent the vast majority of his life studying the history of astrology, and his Biographical Dictionary of Western Astrologers represents the culmination of more than 70 years of research in the field.

The book consists of a series of biographical entries for over 2,200 astrologers, ranging from the 2nd century BCE through the 20th century CE. Holden limited himself mainly to astrologers who were born prior to 1936, with only a few exceptions for some astrologers who were born after that date.

Holden is generally regarded as one of the leading historians of astrology. His Biographical Dictionary acts as a nice complement to his earlier work A History of Horoscopic Astrology (American Federation of Astrologers, 1996), which is still one of the best books available on the history of astrology nearly 20 years after it was originally published. While there is some overlap between the two works, generally A History is better at providing a concise technical overview of the history of astrology, whereas the Biographical Dictionary generally provides more extensive and in-depth treatments of individual astrologers and their works. There is a lot of valuable historical information to be gained from reading the entries in Holden’s Biographical Dictionary, though, because as he says at one point in the introduction, “History is made by people, so biography is the basis of history.”

Holden’s knack for languages and fluency in ancient Greek and Latin allowed him to read many of the primary source texts of the early western astrological tradition. He was also fluent in a number of modern European languages such as French, German, and Italian, which gave him the ability to read much of the modern astrological literature that has been produced in different languages over the past few centuries as well. His fluency with languages combined with his three decade long position as the Research Director of the American Federation of Astrologers (AFA) gave him access to a wide variety of astrological texts, which he drew on while doing research for the book. He acknowledges that the entries for some of the more recent centuries are skewed towards authors who wrote in English or were associated with the AFA, although his coverage is quite impressive nonetheless.

Naturally given the scope of the work, the book itself is physically quite big. It is a large hardcover book, measuring 8.4 x 10.9 inches, and weighing about four and a half pounds. With nearly 800 pages, the book is undoubtedly the most comprehensive biographical treatment of western astrologers ever published at this point in time.

It is more of a reference work than a book that is meant to be read from start to finish, since the entries are listed alphabetically rather than chronologically. So, for example, the entry for the 16th century astrologer Luca Gaurico comes right after the entry for the 20th century astrologer Michel Gauquelin.

The entries for individual astrologers vary in length and depth; some simply containing a list of books the astrologer is known to have published, while in other instances Holden is able to go into great detail about specific facts that are known about the life of the astrologer. In some of the longer entries for major astrologers Holden delves into interesting and important historical issues, for example as with the question of the extent to which Aleister Crowley helped to ghostwrite parts of Evangeline Adams’ two well-known books on astrology. In these instances Holden both demonstrates his familiarity with the secondary literature that is available from other scholars who have talked about the issues, but also contributes a useful analysis with unique insights of his own. The end result is a massive compilation that presents not just the result of Holden’s own research, but also the research of hundreds of other scholars and astrologers whom he drew on during the course of his long career.

Sadly, James Holden died in August of 2013, only a month after the publication of his Biographical Dictionary of Western Astrologers. With this book he left a lasting legacy of research and scholarship that will be studied and emulated for many years to come, and the astrological community owes him a debt of gratitude for doing so much to reconnect us with our history.

—

This review originally appeared in the February/March 2014 issue of The Mountain Astrologer magazine.

The post Book Review: Biographical Dictionary of Western Astrologers by James Holden appeared first on The Horoscopic Astrology Blog.

Conferences play an important role in the astrological community because they allow astrologers to meet up and interact with each other in person, which is more important than one might initially assume in the Internet Age.

Conferences are also a good educational resource for those who want to hear some of the leading astrologers in the field give lectures on specific astrological topics. Most of the larger conferences have a range of lectures that cover beginner, intermediate, and advanced concepts, so there is usually something for everyone.

My definition of what constitutes a “major” astrological conference is one that has at least 100 people in attendance. This is what differentiates the conferences on this list from some of the smaller workshops and events that take place from time to time in different places.

At the end of the list I will include some tips for attending conferences, for those of you who are new to the scene.

The American Federation of Astrologers Conference

The American Federation of Astrologers 75th Anniversary Conference will be held in Tempe, Arizona from May 2-4, 2013. The title of the conference is “The Art of Prediction: Traditional to Modern,” and the focus will be on ancient and modern approaches to predictive astrology.

This will be a somewhat smaller and more intimate conference that features a plenary format where everyone is in one large room and gets to see the same lectures. There are 6 core speakers: James H. Holden, Demetra George, Benjamin Dykes, Bill Meridian, Shelley Ackerman, and Deb Houlding.

I spoke at the 2011 AFA conference on traditional astrology, and it was a really great conference, so I trust that this one will be as well. The recordings for the 2011 conference are available here.

The Northwest Astrological Conference

The 29th Annual Northwest Astrological Conference (NORWAC) will take place in Seattle, Washington from May 23-27, 2013. NORWAC is a regional conference that tends to draw a lot of people from the northwest, although the family who organizes it has been doing it for about 30 years now, and it tends to draw a few hundred people each year. Since it tends to be more of a medium-sized conference, this makes it a bit easier to meet new people and socialize.

They have a great speaker lineup this year, and one of the awesome bonuses of NORWAC is that they always have an amazing bookstore, because the organizers of the conference are the former owners of one of the largest astrology bookstores in the world, Astrology et al. So, they know a lot about astrology books, and going to the bookstore at the conference is always a major treat.

I will be giving two talks at NORWAC this year. The first will be on the origins of the significations of the houses, and the second will be on the original seven conditions of “affliction” and the corresponding positive conditions of bonification.

The Polish Astrological Association Conference

The 5th Annual Polish Astrological Association Conference will take place in Warsaw, Poland from June 14-16, 2013.

This will be the 5th conference that the Polish Astrological Association (Polskie Stowarzyszenie Astrologiczne) has organized, and they are expecting more than 200 people to attend. It is the largest astrological conference in Poland.

The National Council of Geocosmic Research Conference

The National Council of Geocosmic Research Conference will take place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from August 15-19, 2013. The title of the conference is “Everything Under the Sun: The Art of Astrology.”

The NCGR is one of the largest astrological organizations in the world, so this will probably be the biggest conference of the year. There are over 50 speakers who are scheduled to give lectures and workshops, and so we should expect several hundred people to be in attendance from around the world.

Because of the size of the conference, this one will have the largest range of speakers to choose from, covering most of the major astrological traditions. They will also have some awesome pre- and post-conference workshops, as well as some great free-speech lectures from up-and-coming speakers.

I will be giving a lecture and a workshop at the NCGR conference this year. For the workshop I will be teaching attendees how to use an ancient Hellenistic time-lord technique in order to determine periods in a person’s life in which some of their most important relationships will take place. You can read the full workshop description here.

The Astrological Association of Great Britain Conference

The 45th Annual Astrological Association of Great Britain Conference will take place in Wyboston, Bedford, UK from September 27-29, 2013. The title of the conference is “The Magic of Astrology.”

The Astrological Association is the largest astrological organization in the United Kingdom, and they host what I believe is the largest annual astrological conference in Europe. It features a pretty diverse array of speakers, representing both the traditional and the modern approaches to astrology.

One of the unique features of this conference is an archeoastronomy track, which looks like it will feature some interesting lectures from Nick Campion, Bernadette Brady, Frances Clynes, and others.

The State of the Art Conference

The State of the Art Astrology Conference (SOTA) will take place in Niagara Falls, New York from October 24-27, 2013.

SOTA was started by astrologer Donna Van Toen in 1993, and it is billed as being the only annual astrology conference in Canada.

The full speaker list for this year’s conference has not been posted yet, although I assume that it will be shortly.

The Federation of Australian Astrologers Conference

The Federation of Australian Astrologers International Conference will take place in Hobart, Tasmania from January 23-27, 2014. The slogan of the conference is “Finding New Ways of Growth: Exploring Nature from the Ashes of Greed.”

This is the only conference on the list that takes place in 2014 rather than 2013, but it is close enough that I don’t want to leave it out, since it is a major conference.

They have a great lineup of international and local speakers from Australia, and it looks like it will be a really good conference.

General Tips About Attending Astrological Conferences

Here are some general notes and tips about attending astrological conferences:

• All of these conferences have early-bird specials where you are able to register for the conference at a discounted rate if you sign up early. So, generally speaking, if you are planning on attending a conference then it is better to sign up earlier rather than later, as the prices do tend to go up the closer you get to the actual date of the conference.
• One good way to cut down on the costs associated with attending a conference is to share a hotel room with one or more people. So, find someone you know who is attending the conference and see if they want to be your roommate. Or sometimes you can contact the organizers of the conference, and they can let you know if there is anyone who is looking for a roommate.
• If your budget is tight this year but you still really want to attend a conference, try looking around to see if there are any volunteer positions or scholarships available. Some local and national astrological organizations offer scholarships for people to attend conferences. The conference organizers also sometimes need volunteers in order to help do things at the conference, and sometimes they will waive the admission fee for the conference in exchange for you doing some work for them at the conference. Unfortunately as a volunteer sometimes you will end up working more than attending lectures, but you still get in for free, so it can be a good tradeoff if money is tight but you are still passionate about astrology.
• At most of the major conferences there is at least one major banquet, which usually takes place towards the end of the conference. It is usually a good idea to sign up for these, since it is a good place to meet new friends, and sometimes there are important lectures or award ceremonies that take place in the same room. For the rest of the conference it is usually fine to go elsewhere to eat, but try to make it to the main banquet if you can.
• Although it is a good idea to look at the lectures available and try to attend the conference that seems to cater to your own specific astrological interests more, it is also a good idea to sit in on some lectures that are outside of your own specific area of interest or study as well, as you might learn something new that you didn’t even know you were missing. One of the main benefits of these conferences is that they bring together astrologers from a number of different traditions and approaches, so you have the opportunity to expose yourself to many different ways of doing astrology during the course of the week. Don’t miss the opportunity by only focusing on one tradition or approach.
• As I said at the beginning of this article, conferences are important because they allow astrologers to meet up in person and build friendships that will last a lifetime. The educational aspect of the conferences is important, but it is not the only thing. You should definitely attend lectures, but try to meet some people and build some connections as well, as this is also a good way to learn more about astrology.

Other Conferences and Events

There are a number of other smaller conferences, workshops and events taking place around the world in 2013 as well. There are probably too many to list here, so check with the local astrological organizations in your area in order to see if there is anything going on near you.

If you know of any other major astrological conferences that I missed then please let me know in the comments section below.

The post Astrological Conferences in 2013 appeared first on The Horoscopic Astrology Blog.