Understanding Astrology 7: What first attracted you to astrology? And continues to do so?
For the first 27 years of my life I was a scornful astro-dismisser, this stance typically based on the wrong assumption that popular astrology eg ‘…You’re a Gemini, I’m Scorpio so we won’t get on…’ tells the whole story of an ancient and complex art and science going back millennia.
The Callanish Stones, Isle of Lewis:
Measurement and Mysticism, Neolithic Style
However, during my late twenties Marxist phase, in a launderette in Bath, England I had (in retrospect) a fated encounter with a couple of artist/astrologers who invited me home to theirs for a cuppa. They drew up my actual horoscope, giving me such an accurate in-depth reading of my character (including the murky bits we all try to hide!) that it took me a long time to get over the shock. However, seven years after that, just as they had predicted ie ‘…in seven years time you’ll end up either doing this yourself, or something very like it…’ I became compelled by astrology, ending up as a qualified and committed practitioner. Here’s the full story…
Looking back, though, I am quite sure that two major factors had an unconscious but powerful impact on my subsequent attraction. Initially, growing up in the wild and beautiful landscape of the Outer Hebrides with its clear starry night skies, its stunning seascapes, wild weather, and famous Neolithic Callanish Stones made me very aware of the power and rhythms of nature – and of humans’ attempts during our long history to make some sense of why we were here and what it all meant. And secondly – from the moment of opening my eyes to the world, it was in my nature to wonder what Life was for: my horoscope makes that very clear!!
That curiosity still drives me…
I am by nature sceptical, in the open-minded sense of the word. I need good evidence: quality experiential as well as scientifically tested procedures are of equal value in my eyes. The challenge set by those astrologers’ being able to give me an in-depth character and life pattern reading from marks on a piece of paper – when they knew nothing about me – was a piece of experiential evidence I could never quite set aside. How could they have done it?
So – by more apparent quirks of fate seven years later I found myself enrolled for a year’s correspondence course with the UK’s Faculty of Astrological Studies. The Faculty really put you through your paces, up to and including a whole week’s exams on every aspect of the maths, craft, art, history, ethical and interpretative skills required to become a fledgling astrologer. I was fortunate to have a long background in adult education, generic and psychiatric social work and counselling before beginning to practise.
Astrology is a powerful art, and should not be taken up lightly.
On obtaining the Faculty Certificate I began teaching small classes, and doing ‘blind’ readings with birth data only. Just as those Bath astrologers had done, by then I too could make marks on a piece of paper from which to give people accurate character and life pattern readings. I continued and deepened my studies in the 1990s – whilst continuing to practise and teach in Glasgow – by flying to and from London to attend classes at the Centre for Psychological Astrology, graduating with the Diploma in 1998. It was such a privilege during that decade to study with Directors Dr Liz Greene, the late Charles Harvey, and many of the top astrologers of that era.
The more experiential evidence I amassed of astrology’s capacity accurately to mirror back in symbolic form every level of complexity in my students’ and clients’ lives, and in the collective lives of human beings both in the present time and throughout history via planetary cycles, the more fascinated I became. Although my preoccupations within the subject have changed over the years, my fascination for in-depth astrology has not…it’s a voyage of discovery which never ends.
The study, teaching and practice of astrology over more than 40 years has shown me that certain dimensions of life appear fated: eg our genetic inheritance, or that birth moment from which every horoscope is derived. Each planet in that horoscope describes, symbolically, a core essence which must be met in our lives: eg Saturn which demands from us self-definition and the taking of personal responsibility. However, as we have seen from the challenges already described ( in Part 3) at the Saturn Return, many branches of manifestation can and do grow from that and every symbolic planetary core.
We have agency – and my life’s experience in sum has taught me this: working to develop as much self-awareness and self-responsibility as possible in how we live our lives is the key that unlocks our capacity for sidestepping poor decision-making and making the most constructive life choices. I have also seen through my work as an astrologer how the astrological model can help greatly in that process.
For me, astrology’s greatest power and gift has been to show me through its symbols – both in terms of the natal chart and how the planets move in their regular pathways through space/time – that we are not just random meaningless blips in space and time. We are not just butterflies pinned to the board of Fate. That great psychologist, mystic,(AND astrologer!), Carl Gustav Jung, once observed that
‘Man cannot live a meaningless life…’
The study, teaching and practice of astrology has challenged and stimulated the rational, imaginative and spiritual dimensions of my being in a manner unique in my experience. Nothing else I’ve done in a colourful and varied life has even come close. I am forever grateful to that great, ancient Art for providing me with my sense of meaning and purpose. I do hope I have managed in some small measure to help develop a similar sense in the many astrology students and clients I’ve encountered along the way.
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1000 words©Anne Whitaker 2025
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