A small group of professional astrologers and myself will be presenting a beginner’s astrology course in the near future. This has led me to think about the many ways that people learn about astrology. I know how I did it, and I know how others became better versed in astrology, whether for personal use or (eventually) to become a professional.
(No matter what transits are happening, how they play out in your life depends on your individual birth chart. Write me with your date, time, and place of birth — and I’ll send you a copy and a free sneak preview!)
If you want to understand astrology better, let me give you some hints… spiced up with a few warnings.
Read a lot, but…
There are a whole lot of astrology books out there, and many of them are directed at beginners or intermediate students. A number of them are quite good, and I’m not getting paid to promote or review any of them. So all I’m going to say is that if the title includes the phrase “you’ll ever need,” odds are good that if you go very far with astrology, it will not be the only one “you’ll ever need.” There are also plenty of free resources on the Internet. BUT: be cautious. Free birth chart reports can often be misleading, and are never as good as talking to a professional.
I’d also like to warn you specifically about putting too much stock in various Facebook groups where beginners and learners gather around and throw out their two cents worth about other peoples charts. You probably know the kind of thing I’m talking about: someone posts their birth chart and asks a question like “is my love life doomed?” or something. And then everyone in the peanut gallery throws in their overly-simplified opinion. This is a bit like a room full of first year medical students trying to talk each other through giving you a heart transplant… and there’s no real indication you actually need a heart transplant.
Check out celebrities, but…
If you want to learn synastry (how the charts of two people get along with each other), one way to get a lot of practice with it is to see how well your birth chart compares to birth charts of celebrities and famous people that you either really like or really dislike.
BUT: be careful which website you are getting your information from. I don’t link out to other websites from this blog, but here’s a tip: if you type the name of a celebrity into Google followed by the word “astrology,” the site that usually comes up first has the word “theme” in its name. It is frequently inaccurate, and I can tell you a story about where that can lead…
On the other hand, if you are getting info from a site that starts with the word “astro” and ends with “dot com,” with nothing in between? You are looking in the right place.
Examine your chart and the charts of those close to you, but…
Based on the assumption that you know the people you’re close to fairly well, looking at their birth charts can be very instructive.
BUT: if astrology is hard, objectivity can be much harder. If you freshly fallen in love with someone, it’s easy to see all the wonderful things in their birth chart. If it’s five years later and you’re getting divorced and you have a restraining order on them? It’s easy to see all the terrible things in their birth chart.
Take an online course, but…
This can be an excellent way to learn astrology. Doing lots of reading may be essential, but sometimes an instructor who knows what he or she is talking about can answer your specific questions a lot more quickly than trying to dig around all over the Internet trying to find the exact answer to your exact question.
BUT: Dig around and find out if whoever is teaching it looks legit, and knows what they’re talking about, and aren’t just selling you sizzle without any steak at an inflated price. With some courses, you’ll get the the same value (or less) for twice the price… from some guy who’s mostly in it to pay off his new Jet-Ski.
And finally: if you get to the point where you feel qualified to offer people advice on their birth charts? Most astrology books and courses will neglect to tell you what the most important thing to keep in mind when it comes you doing astrology for yourself or others.
Here. Have a look at this and I will tell you all about the importance of Lesson Zero.
Want to know how to work with the current and future energy to get maximum benefit? Feel free to write me about it!
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