It brings me tremendous satisfaction to provide people with individualized support and clear direction in their lives using evolutionary astrology. I first approached astrology with a heavy dose of discernment and an equally high amount of skepticism. Before studying astrology, I had assumed it was a technique used to place people into twelve different categories, or boxes, known as the twelve signs. This all changed for me in 1996. At that time, I was attending John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California, working on my Master’s Degree in Consciousness and Transformative Studies—a phenomenal program that was offered through the Holistic Studies department. It was the spring quarter, and I had to pick two electives. I chose two courses, both offered by the Transpersonal Psychology department: “Life of the Unborn Child,” and “Methods of Self-Exploration: Transpersonal Astrology.” Little did I know the astrology course would become an integral component to my life’s work as a Holistic Practitioner.
By the end of the third class, I was hooked. Our professor, Stephanie Austin, had provided each of us students with a copy of our birth chart. As she lectured, we applied her teachings to our own chart. I remember the experience all too clearly. At the first class meeting I proclaimed myself to be an open skeptic before my peers. After the second class, my rather negative beliefs about astrology got challenged and began to crumble. It was uncomfortable but exciting at the same time. On my three-hour drive back home to Placerville, CA, following the third class, I realized there was something going on at a deeper level regarding astrology. Something truly mysterious and fascinating. The information astrology was providing into the nature of my personality was precise, highly detailed, and eerily accurate. In that third class, astrology provided a clear profile, or map, into the core nature of my being. The detail, nuance, and complexity of the profile it generated through the birth chart was astounding. This level of self-realization almost always requires years of journaling, meditation, introspection, and self-inquiry to get to, aka “inner work.” And, yet, by the end of the third class, it was all there—clear, detailed, fully mapped, and objectively laid out before me.
The following nine classes, leading up to the end of the course, further illuminated deeper levels and intricacies of my psyche. I was even making new discoveries about myself. I discovered my birth chart is a map. I have freewill. The birth chart, serving as a map, clearly affirmed the direction I could take if I wanted to most fully honor myself as an individual and follow the life path that is uniquely mine to follow. Or I could deny myself the right to be true to who I am and live a much less rewarding, less authentic, and less fulfilling life. I chose the former.
After completing the astrology class, I engaged in a three-year intensive self-study program to learn everything I could about astrology. I read most all of the “cookbook” astrology books on the market. I read and studied Vedic (Eastern) astrology. And I immersed myself heavily in every psychological astrology book I could find. The published works of Liz Greene, Howard Sasportas, Steven Arrroyo, Jeff Green, Steven Forrest, and Dane Rudyar all hold a prominent place in my library to this day.
Serving as an evolutionary astrologer and spiritual guide to others is an intuitive art that takes years of study and practice to do effectively. After you move past “fortune telling” layer of astrology, many levels of depth open up. Essentially, astrology is a complex system, or model of psychology, that is based on a language of symbols. The power of a language that is based on symbols stems from the fact that a symbol holds and contains multiple meanings simultaneously. This is one of primary reasons people new to astrology often struggle and find it difficult to get to the point of being able to effectively “read a chart,” whether their own or somebody else’s.
Each symbol in astrology carries multiple layers of meaning, and those symbols never operate in isolation. A planet is expressed through a sign, located within a house, and connected through aspects to other parts of the chart. Effective interpretation therefore requires synthesis—the ability to recognize the larger patterns and themes emerging from many interconnected pieces of information. This is where years of study and experience become especially valuable.
Over more than three decades of professional work, including thousands of astrological consultations and more than 25,000 private and group sessions across my practice, I have witnessed firsthand the empowering effects evolutionary astrology has to offer. One of the most meaningful things I have witnessed through astrology is what can happen when a person feels truly seen and understood. A thoughtful reading can affirm qualities, needs, conflicts, and potentials that a client may have sensed within themselves for years but never had language for. For some people, that experience can be profoundly validating. Their authenticity and right to be, value, and honor who they are is affirmed. For many clients I have met with, this is a first-time experience for them. Being able to give the gift of self-affirmation to another human being is one of the greatest rewards astrology has given to me. I remember my astrology professor telling the class, “Astrology chooses the astrologer.” I sometimes wonder how many of my fellow students back in the day at JFKU were chosen by astrology. I am grateful I was.
Just like individuals, each chart is unique. There is nobody else out there with the same chart as you, unless they were born at the same time and place you were. I do not see charts as good or bad. Each chart describes a unique set of potentials, tensions, strengths, needs, and developmental themes. The work is not to judge the chart, but to understand it more fully and explore how its possibilities are being lived. Some charts are very open and easy to connect with—easy to read. The meta-themes and messages speak loud and clear and are impossible to miss, even for an amateur astrologer. And, just like people, some charts take great care to get to know. There is a delicate trust you must establish with the chart first before the chart will open itself and share the wealth information it contains. This is what makes my work so intriguing and interesting. Sitting with a client for the first time and exploring their chart together is always an exciting experience for us both.
If you are interested in exploring your birth chart, current life cycles, relationships, or personal direction through evolutionary astrology, I invite you to get in touch. I meet with clients in person at my Nevada City, California office and online through Zoom.
I also teach Astrology & Spirituality: An Introduction to Evolutionary Astrology, my eight-week foundational course offered both in person and online.
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Sincerely,
Mark