how someone approaches astrology is how they approach life

Recently, there was a super-active AMA (“ask me anything”) in the Astrology for Writers Discord with a lot of thoughtful questions, and I thought it might offer y’all some insight into how I think about how I approach Year Ahead readings, astrology education, and so much more. Incidentally, folks also asked questions that have been ~coming up~ in the reader survey (such as how to learn astrology — great news, I have an upcoming class for that!).

I’ve basically left the formatting from Discord as-is, so it’s very informal formatting. Hope it answers some of your frequently asked questions!

this is such a big and important question.

so, my question is: what are your goals? bc astrology isn’t really something you can... i don’t want to say easily, bc tarot is NOT easy, but it’s not like “okay, i learned what everything means, now my intuition can take it from here.” there are layers on layers on layers, many diverse traditions and lineages worldwide, and thousands of years of historical writing (much of which is in process of being recovered) that elaborate on numerous techniques.

which is to say... “learn astrology” is a REALLY big umbrella. especially considering that there is an enormous gap in the current marketplace between beginner-friendly on-ramps (e.g. chani’s work and “how to read your birth chart” books) and ... almost everything else, which being totally real is geared to professionals. this lack of intermediate, “i want to know more so i can apply it to my life, but i don’t want to do this professionally” kind of content is a big problem, and one that i try to address in my own work. WHICH IS TO SAY. foundations are everything.

to use the common-for-a-reason theater metaphor: the houses [of a birth chart] are like a stage — some are radio city, some are an experimental black box. the planets are the actors, each with roles and responsibilities. the signs are the costumes the actors wear — their “style of doing” a role. and the aspects are the stage blocking: who is onstage together? how close or distant are they? how aligned or antagonistic are the characters?

(if you like the theater metaphor, there’s more where that came from in my upcoming class so you want to learn astrology!)

this is kind of hard to answer bc i am SO oriented to the pragmatic “but how do i use/implement it?” as a person, not just as an astrologer. which is what i think makes me a good teacher — i love a good story or metaphor (which is what the fairy tale series will be!), but people generally aren’t booking [with me] to deepen an understanding of the planets, but to know how to USE them in the chart. which is to say that most of my delineations are built on “what to do.”

i think what other astrologers can do is simply ask the next/followup question, which is — and how is this going to impact someone’s lived, material existence? e.g. is a mercury rx in their 9th going to mean a delay in pitching agents, is saturn in the 2nd gonna look like a tighter financial year (so be more conservative in spending), things like that.

tl;dr i do teach things in my readings, but expounding on the nature of saturn is secondary to like, assessing what are someone’s current responsibilities, how much capacity do they have, how much capacity do i think will be available based on astro weather, etc. etc. etc.!

whew this is a big question. i think i’m gonna keep it simple. my understanding of the “but what do you do with transits” is perhaps best simplified as that truism from therapy — we can’t help what has happened to us, but we CAN choose how we respond and react and move forward.

we can’t help the transits, but we have a choice in how we respond and react. sometimes that looks like ooh let’s do a big new thing, and sometimes it’s making choices from a place of harm reduction.

a lot of how someone approaches astrology is how they approach life. and I’m looking at it from a relational and collaborative place.

with the caveat that i (obvs) do not know what’s going on in every corner of the astro world —

it’s less a content/topic absence and more a methodology gap. my impression of super-online and neo-hellenistic spaces (and others) is that there’s a lot of emphasis on technique without always addressing what the technique is for. the everyday, mundane application / the “but what does it look like in real time.” e.g., taking a “saturn is underpowered/overwhelmed in my chart / let’s think about its lack of dignity” to a, and remediation/devotion looks like getting a promotion or paying my bills on time or really addressing underlying issues with my parents or [fill in the blank].

the technique is important - so important! but (beating a dead horse at this point) my primary wish for astro spaces was that they were more application-oriented. i think there’s also a sort of trust in students that, well if i talk about saturn and responsibility, surely someone can take the steps in their head/heart to understand how that applies to their life, but in my experience lots of clients/students really need the handholding to application, ESPECIALLY at the beginning.

In this informal, inexpensive 4-week lecture series, I’ll review the core fundamentals of astrology with you live — and take your questions live, exactly like you just saw me do for the paid subscribers in Discord.

week 1 / November 2nd: the foundation of foundations — what astrology is, what you can use it for, common misconceptions, plus what a birth chart ~actually~ looks like

week 2 / November 9th: the 7 traditional planets — and how they show up in your everyday life

week 3 / November 16th: the signs (and elements and modalities) — and what they tell us about your seasons of life

week 4 / November 30th: the houses of the birth chart — and what they mean for you

We start next Sunday! I hope you’ll join us.