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Are you serious about
astrology?
There is a great deal of astrology on the internet and if you are new to
the subject, this array of web sites, schools, chat groups, charts and
consultants can be daunting.
This page offers you some of our astrological experience so you are
better informed about what to learn, when to learn and how to learn it,
and even to make choices about who you learn from. So if you are
really serious about becoming an astrologer, then do yourself a favour
and spend five minutes with this web page.
Of course we, at Astro Logos, can
help you to focus your learning with different products and help you
learn to read charts. However, we recognize that at this stage
you probably just want a few simple home-grown truths from some
“insiders”. So here they are, some of our insights gained over the last
25 years of teaching astrology.
So how to learn good astrology and from whom?
There are many different ways of learning astrology but what you want to
ensure is that when you put your precious time into doing so, you are
not wasting it by learning rubbish. As with anything, there are some
good ways to learn and, to be honest, there are some bad ways.
Let’s look first at some “what-not-to-do” ways….
What-Not-To-Do... Chat Groups on the web
Chat groups on the web can be fun but recognize the people who seem the
authoritative voice on these groups probably are only known on these
groups. If they did really have a voice in professional astrology, then
they would not have time to hang out on the groups. They would be busy
lecturing at conferences, writing books, teaching students and doing
astrological consultations. Indeed the more a person is active on a chat
group, the less they will actually be doing of the all-important work of
the professional astrologer: studying, teaching, writing and consulting.
Be wary of the opinions of the chat-group authority.
What-Not-To-Do... The quick learn, make-money-fast type of
astrology school.
You know the sort of school, they are all over the web and promise you
lots of work as an astrologer. The truth is that if you are interested
in astrology for making easy money then we suggest that you study
accounting, law or plumbing but not astrology! It takes years to
become a competent astrologer - not weeks or even months - and
then it can take more years to build up a good client base. Later,
on this page, we will give you tips on how to find a good astrology
school, and there are many, but none of them promise you silly things.
Astrology is a vocation not a career choice. You may be able to
turn your vocation into a career choice as you become more knowledgeable
in the subject but even then it is not work that is going to make you
rich. It does have many, many rewards but in a nutshell you should be
pursuing astrology because of a love for the subject not because of your
material needs.
What-Not-To-Do...
Learning from someone who has no astrological
credentials
Sometimes it can be tempting to learn from that friend-of-a-friend who
is just around the corner. However, the truth is that after two years of
lessons and out-of-pocket weekly classes held in someone’s living room,
you will probable have a great pile of different techniques and books
but still have no idea how to actually “do” astrology: how to read
someone’s chart, or what professional astrologers term “delineation”.
This fundamental skill is where the professional astrologer picks up a
horoscope and begins to talk at great length in a clear and focused
manner about what makes that person tick. This is delineation. After
all, isn’t that what you really want
to learn?
Computers can spit out computer reports – which, if they are written by
good astrologers, can be a good learning tool. However, after two years
of classes from a poor teacher, all your hard work may amount to less
than what a computer report can do in one minute flat!
Learning any skill takes time and bad habits can creep in which can
seriously impede your ability to become a good astrologer. Like learning
a musical instrument, it is always wise to start in the right place if
you want to learn to play more than just a few simple tunes. A poor
teacher can actually prevent you from ever learning how to delineate a
chart or, in our analogy, to conduct the full orchestra. But we are
getting ahead of ourselves and later, on this page, we will expand
on the order of learning all the different parts of astrology.
Good ways to learn astrology
Learning from good Astrology Books
A simple approach is to go to your local bookshop and look at astrology
books that you like. Note the author and the publisher. With authors
that you do not know, read a few pages in the bookshop to see if you
like or can understand what they are saying. Look also at the “about the
author” page and read their CV. What you are looking for is previous
publications, teaching qualifications, membership of professional
organizations, and so on. When you are happy with this author, note
their publisher and see what other astrologers they have published. A
good publisher with a stable of authors will not publish an inept
astrologer. Publishers have standards and any new author generally has
to fight hard to get their book accepted for publication. So a good
publisher has already completed a lot of your selection work for you.
They have already selected what they think is the best.
Remember, also, if you are on a tight budget, you may well be able to
get these books from your local library. Take the time to find the
authors that you like and have already been given good book reviews (you
can find these on the web). Most libraries will get them in for you. If
the library cannot get the books in for you, you do not need to buy them
new. There are many web sites now which sell second hand books for a
fraction of the price. Once you have your wish list of books, type
“second hand books” into Google and pick book suppliers in your own
country to save on postage.
Learning from Studyshops
Yes, this is one of our products and yes you can buy them from this web
site. However, we mention them here because they are a unique product created
with your needs in mind and to our high standard. They are
designed specifically to give you tight, focused, packaged information.
These are the images on the left of this page and you can explore them
by clicking on them.
We’ve called them Studyshops
because they are a cross between going to a full-day workshop (each
Studyshop contains between three-to-five hours of audio files) and being
able to study at your own pace in your own home with masses of written
and visual support material contained in the one package.
A Studyshop opens automatically when you place it in your computer's CD
or DVD drive and you run it from your own computer using your browser
(the software you are using now to look at this web page) to show you
the pages and listen to the lectures.
Studyshops allow you to self-study and gain access to some of the world’s
recognized and acclaimed top professional astrologers for only a small
outlay. We are proud of them and thousands have been sold to astrologers
all over the world from the mountains of China to the urban depths of
New York City.
So when you feel you are ready to roll your sleeves up and start working
with some of the world's best astrological teachers, you can view
our full catalogue here.
Steps to learning… the order of subjects
One of the problems students have is not knowing the order in which to
learn things. If you picked up a musical instrument, would you try and
play a complicated piece straight away? No, you wouldn’t - but it is
amazing the number of people who think they can learn astrology by
working with whole charts straight away – planets, houses, signs and so
on. It’s the fast track to going absolutely nowhere.
Students in their frustration keep adding more and more points to their
charts in the hope that something will give them the blinding flash of
understanding. It wont, it doesn't. What does occur is that you move
into a thicker and thicker fog of confusion.
The
simple truth is - and we have found this out by
working with thousands of students and teaching astrology for many years
- the slower approach is better then the fast approach. A methodical
approach making sure each step is understood actually allows a student
to begin to read a chart faster, yes by taking a slow methodical
approach you can actually get the blinding flash of understand as the
chart begins to "talk" to you. Slower to start with but quicker in
the end. It really is like the Tortoise and the Hare. Be slow and get
there first.
So what is this slow approach? Here is the pathway we worked out
for students which we have fine-tuned and altered over the course of twenty
five years
to enable students to get the best results. This is the pathway that will
get you delineating charts like a professional:
Step 1:
The Zodiac
- Many beginners think they know the zodiac but they don’t. The
Zodiac is the basis of astrology and everything else - the houses, the
planets and chart delineation - is placed into it. So it needs to be
engaged with and understood in your daily life.
With this most important but often neglected area of astrology in mind, we
have taken our special tutorial classes on this subject and put it into
our very first Tutorial Series Studyshop -
The Zodiac: Urban Tribes. This
is designed to quickly and easily give you a good, in-depth
understanding of twelve signs. It does this by linking the
twelve signs to what you already know about your world, your friends and
your life. Take one day of your precious time and work with this
Studyshop and by the end of that day you will have a good understanding
of the zodiac. More importantly you will have begun your journey of learning
from your environment, empirically and not just theoretically, seeing
living astrology in your everyday life and learning from it. This
Studyshop of The Zodiac is available now.
Step 2:
The Angles and The Houses –
This places the twelve signs into your own chart and allows you to
personalize what you have just learnt about the zodiac signs. Thus the
signs on the cusps of the angles of the chart, or Cross of Matter, give
you an understanding of how you are seen by others and what you expect
from a partner, as well as your concept of house and home and what you
seek from work or a profession. The signs on the other eight houses allow
you to understand how and why you use different approaches to different
areas of your life. This Studyshop is
now available but even if
you do not want any of our Studyshops, this is still the next topic that
you need to learn.
Step 3:
The Planets and The Luminaries –
These are placed into the zodiac inside houses. That is why you need
firstly to learn how to read the information without planets
before you rush ahead and add this next component to your astrology. The
planets and the luminaries teach you about your pathway in life, what
you need emotionally to feel safe, how you think, how you network and
relate to other people, what motivates you, how you learn, how you take
responsibility, how you define yourself as different from other people,
where you need to have clear boundaries and integrity in your life and
how you undergo change. Do not rush into the planets. When we teach students
in a classroom they study astrology for SIX MONTHS before they get to
play with a planet. Remember - slow is better than fast! You can
get this information if you wish from our set of lectures - 32 hours of
audio - from our Planet and Aspect
Kit
Step 4:
Aspecting, Simple Aspect Planetary Patterns and Grand Aspect Patterns
– The next step is to tie the planets and luminaries in your chart
together and you do this by what is known as aspecting. Aspecting is the
way the planets and luminaries “talk” to each other and modify each
other, so that the simple meanings of the planets that you have just
learned become more meaningful to you personally.
Step 5:
Delineation
– Now you can start looking at the patterns of your whole chart,
understanding the three-to-five major themes on which your chart rests.
Finally you will be able to read the narratives written into your chart
and to be better able to understand who you are and why you act in the
way that you do. This Studyshop is currently available but we strongly
suggest that you work though the above topics first before you encounter
the information contained here. – We do have a Studyshop on this
Delineation,
Unfolding the Story within your Chart. Indeed it is the only
educational item that we know of available anywhere that actually addresses
this all- important astrological skill.
However, if you have been working with astrology for awhile but are
totally stuck on how to read a whole chart, how to do what the
professionals do, then this Studyshop on Delineation will open that door
for you.
Step 6:
Predictive Astrology
– One of the best kept secrets, or maybe it is one of the points that
most astrologers never learn.... You can only predict the future once
you know what the chart inherently contains. You can only be alerted to
the long and short cycles, the seasons of your life, once you know how to
delineate a chart.
We have a Studyshop on this by Bernadette Brady the author of
Predictive Astrology: The Eagle and The Lark
(Samuel Weiser 1998). In this Studyshop -
Predictive Astrology
- you will learn about fate and freewill, how to construct Time
Maps and how to read them for yourself and for clients.
If you do not wish to engage in the Studyshop you can always buy the book (from your local bookshop or from Amazon)
and slowly work your way through each chapter.
Remember: only once you have a good understanding of natal chart
delineation and predictive astrology should you even think about going
on to learn other astrological techniques. Piling new techniques onto
your plate without first understanding these basic astrological tools
does not clarify anything but is guaranteed only to cause you confusion and despair.
Astro Logos can teach you advanced predictive work as well as advanced
delineation skills once you have the basics under your belt; so too can
other good teachers of astrology. What is most important is that by the
time you can delineate a chart and do predictive work, then you will
also have the skills to move onto to other more specialised techniques.
At Astro Logos, apart from advanced delineation and predictive skills,
we also teach:
Relationships: The Astrology of
Partnerships
How to read the charts of Children and
Families
The Astrology of Time and Space
Weft and Weave: Astrological Techniques
If you want to learn formally to gain astrological qualifications, how
do you choose a good astrology school?
There are many different astrology schools and many of them are
extremely good and many of them are, let’s face it, not so good. They
may be well-intentioned but they teach their student sub-standard
information and, furthermore, they teach it poorly. So how do you find a
good school if you are looking for one?
Well here is our suggested check-list which if you follow when selecting
a school you will not be wasting your time and money.
1.
Are the teachers qualified?
Do they have qualifications which are recognized nationally or even
better, internationally? How long have they had those qualifications?
So does Astro Logos fit these parameters?
Yes. We’re not the only teachers who do but these are the standards we
have prescribed and we use them to set the benchmarks of everything we
undertake in our professional life. Both of us at Astro Logos hold F.A.A. Diplomas - Bernadette Brady since 1987 and Darrelyn Gunzburg
since 1988 and Bernadette Brady holds an M.A. in Cultural Astrology
and Astronomy from Bath Spa University (UK) and is currently reading
for her doctorate in astrology and chaos theory.
2. How
long have those teachers been teaching successfully?
You do not want to be someone's "guinea pig". Look for a school with a
track record.
Astro Logos
was formed in 1990, located in
Adelaide, Australia, teaching students in class and through Open
Learning. In 2002 the school relocated to the UK and now operates as a
graduate school only, teaching only through Open Learning.
3. Has the school put a consistent number of
students through a recognized examination system? This
will quickly tell you if the school's teaching methods actually work.
Since the formation of Astro Logos in 1990, we have successfully put
over a thousand students firstly through the F.A.A. examination system
and then, since 1998, through the A.G.E. Int. examination system. Many
of our graduates have gone on to teach astrology students. Two have
set up a successful international astrological software company.
4.
Do those teachers continue to upgrade
their knowledge? A most important question as it will
quickly tell you if the teachers are presenting their work beyond their
own school. Needing to present to one's peer group of the professional
global astrological community always keeps teachers polishing their own
astrology.
As members of the A.G.E. Int. we have to submit
annual CPD (Continual Professional Development) journals which means
giving a certain number of lectures and workshops, writing articles or
books and attending conferences each year.
We lecture regularly at international conferences and have published
dozens of articles over the years in recognized astrological journals
such as the AA Journal, Culture and Cosmos and The Mountain
Astrologer, to name a few.
The two
principals and tutors of Astro Logos have written three
ground-breaking books published with recognized astrological
publishers (Predictive Astrology: The Eagle and The Lark -
Samuel Weiser 1998; Brady’s Book of Fixed Stars – Samuel
Weiser, 1999; written by Bernadette Brady and Life After Grief: An
Astrological Guide to Dealing with Loss – Wessex Astrologer, 2004
written by Darrelyn Gunzburg.) Bernadette Brady has also
co-authored two major astrological software programs (JigSaw
and Starlight).
These are all serious points to consider when selecting your astrology
teacher, for they will be your guide and mentor for several years and
you need to establish a respectful relationship where you can be taught
and they can teach.
Remember, a true teacher has the gift of generosity of knowledge, wisdom
and spirit.
We hope this page has helped you in your desire to learn astrology. It
is a wonderful subject and learning it should be a thing of joy for you
not, as so many find, a pathway of confusion. So in summary: good books,
Studyshops, a slow methodical approach and finding a good teacher or
school is at the heart of becoming a professional astrologer.
Welcome to the journey! You are not alone
and it is a pathway that we have all been walking for at least three
thousand years. If you have any questions then please feel free to
contact us.
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