How to Learn Astrology, Part 1

This is the first of a series in nine parts intended for the late beginner or very early intermediate student of astrology. If you know your natal placements, follow some of your transits, and have formed some opinion about which house system you prefer, this series is for you. If you have no idea what most of those terms mean, the early steps will take longer for you, but you should still be able to follow along. It is the guide I wish I’d had when I was an enthusiastic beginner, memorizing keywords and delineations with little understanding of what they actually meant in context of my own chart. If you’re nodding along, then let’s begin.

Astrology has won a reputation for being one of the more fantastically complicated occult sciences. Some astrologers prefer to call themselves lifelong students of astrology; it is not uncommon to find accounts by people who have been studying astrology for decades and still feel that they have only scratched the surface of what it has to teach. And, as I think most astrologers would agree, astrology is complicated. Yet, possibly in an attempt to protect our professional status, astrologers seem to have somewhat elevated the difficulty in recent times. I have not uncommonly heard sentiments that it takes seven or ten years of study to become a good astrologer, or that it is necessary to take an expensive and well-regarded course, or that it requires some hard number like a thousand charts delineated. The sentiment appears to culminate in attempts to identify astrological aspects that delineate an aptitude for astrology, particularly done professionally, without which, the subtle implication seems to be, one might as well not bother.

Yet this attitude is far from universal. The older astrological writers are very clear on one point: they overwhelmingly state that no special talent is required for astrology, and that anyone can learn to cast a chart. The origin of the idea that astrology requires special ability is probably based on historical fact. In former times, casting a chart by hand required a certain degree of mathematical ability, which is often delineated by a strong Mercury placement. It is no coincidence that Mercury traditionally rules astrology. However, society has changed a little since then; with the advent of the printed ephemeris, logarithm tables, and tables of houses, the necessary mathematical knowledge diminished so greatly that anyone who could add and subtract could learn to cast a horoscope. The invention of computerized astrology software has made even this modest calculation unnecessary. Astrology has never been easier, and yet the number of good astrologers does not seem to have increased proportionally.

There is one requirement for being a practicing astrologer, and that is to practice astrology. (Having been a classical musician in my earlier years, I learned a thing or two about practice.) To practice something is to commit to doing it for a certain amount of time every day of the week, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks per year. (Classical musicians–the good ones, anyway–never skip practice; if they do, everyone hears it.) The discipline gained by practicing every day–even if it is only for ten or twenty minutes–will take you very far indeed. It is possible to become a capable astrologer, musician, or almost anything else by practicing twenty minutes a day for several decades. If you wish to become better in a shorter amount of time, practice longer. It really is as simple as that. In astrology, as in every field, there are no shortcuts.

Many people seem to believe that some secret knowledge is the key to learning. This belief may be fostered by the amount of introductory books and courses published which purport to teach some proprietary knowledge or technique, often in an improbably short amount of time. These books are intellectually equivalent to get-rich-quick schemes, and the people who read them rarely seem to succeed at much other than making money from other people looking for shortcuts. The secret is that there is no secret. The amount that you will benefit from studying anything is precisely proportional to the amount of work that you put into it.

In the age of free information readily available on the Internet, there seems to be another common belief, which is that one can attain competence in a field by reading a random assortment of articles and watching videos on the subject. There is a grain of truth here; if you need information on a topic, it can often be found online. However, consuming information haphazardly on a Wikipedia-style rabbit trail is not a good way for a beginner to attain competence. It inevitably leaves gaps in the subject, and often turns up advanced material which requires another dive down the rabbit hole to understand the terms of art used, and so on. Some people do very well with this chaotic style of learning. For those of us who require a modicum more structure, however, blog posts and videos are better used as a supplement or for fun and community than as a primary learning resource.

There are a few ways a student traditionally went about learning astrology; from a teacher, in a university, by correspondence, or from books and casting charts. If you’re fortunate enough to have a teacher, continue to follow their instruction and make every effort to cultivate a good relationship with them. One-on-one or small group instruction from a good teacher is the gold standard for learning. Furthermore, an astrologer is the foremost expert on their own chart reading style, and if you like their readings, the odds are good that they’ll be able to teach you how they do it.

Unless you live in the Middle Ages, the odds that you’ll be able to study astrology at a traditionally accredited Western university are quite low. This niche has been filled somewhat by online video courses and classes, some of which are taught by astrologers who are preeminent in their fields. These courses can work very well for people who enjoy the online learning format; the downside is that they can be quite expensive.

The old-fashioned correspondence course also deserves some mention. These courses proliferated during the late 19th and early 20th century; typically, you found a course that sounded interesting, mailed the parent organization a form and a small fee to cover postage and the cost of materials, and a few weeks later, you would receive the first of a series of lessons in your mailbox. If you chose to continue, you would send a completed packet back with another small fee, and so on until you completed the course. Some of these courses can still be contained through their parent organizations or secondhand.

At this point a note may be in order about learning astrology through reading charts. There are some astrologers who learned by interpreting a vast number of famous charts and checking their work against the corresponding biographical details. There is something to be said for this approach, both in that astrology is empirical and based on observation, and in that any good astrologer will have read hundreds, if not thousands, of charts before becoming fluent. There is, however, some temptation of choosing a technique to fit the facts in this approach, which should never be done. I consider it better suited as a daily practice for the intermediate or advanced student rather than for learning from scratch; still, if that’s your speed, then more power to you.

One final method of learning astrology is self-study through books; it exploded into the English-speaking world when William Lilly published Christian Astrology, and has never slowed down since. There are books on learning every style of astrology imaginable, from Hellenistic astrology to Uranian astrology, and many are specifically written for individual study. Learning astrology from a good book has several advantages; it will cover all the basics in an orderly manner, and you can take all the time you need to understand a topic before going on.

These, then, are the requirements and resources a serious student has for learning astrology. The rest of this series will focus on self-study through books, as it’s the way I learned, and I found it very effective.

Assuming, then, that you’ve decided to follow along and study astrology from a book, you have many options. You may have learned about the existence of different schools of thought in astrology, which can, very broadly, be divided into three groups in the West: traditional astrology, modern astrology, and Jyotish or Vedic astrology. Each of these, in turn, has many sub-schools, such as Hellenistic or psychological astrology. The student, then, is faced not only with learning astrology, but also with choosing which astrology to learn. How can you, as a beginner, evaluate which astrology is most accurate and best? My advice on the matter is very simple:

It does not matter what kind of astrology you learn. Choose one, and stick with it.

This may raise some eyebrows. If astrology is empirical, and a chart reading may be judged as either accurate or inaccurate, surely one style of astrology must be more accurate than the others? Not at all. Astrology, as I tend to define it, is the study of planetary influences in the astral light. The astrologer reads these influences and predicts how they are likely to manifest on the material plane. It is a capital mistake to ignore the interaction between the astrologer and the astral light. The vibrations of the planets are transmitted in the astral light to the subtle body of the Earth, from which they influence all living things; the astrologer, in turn, interfaces with the astral light through that subtle body which formerly was called Anima Mundi, and by practicing astrology, becomes attuned to specific currents within it. An astrological system is a specific set of symbols by which the astrologer communicates with the Anima Mundi; it is a language, not that reality which language describes. Thus, there is no point in asking which astrology is most accurate. They are all accurate for the astrologers who are fluent in them.

With that said, you might justifiably think that I am glossing over the differences. It is quite true that different astrologies are useful for different purposes, and that you are likely to find some more agreeable than others. (I don’t get along well with Hellenistic astrology, while there are many astrologers who swear by it.) The next thing to do, then, is to acquaint yourself with many different styles of astrology. You will probably know after one reading whether or not psychological astrology interests you, for example. Once you have had some readings done or read some books on prominent astrological styles, you will have a better idea of what you want to do with astrology. You may not find a style which is entirely to your liking; in that case, it is a good exercise to learn the one that fits best, including the parts you disagree with.

Once you have chosen a school of astrology which interests you–and this can be as vague as ‘traditional Western astrology’–you will want to find some introductory books on the topic. At this point you may have already read one. Ideally, you will want to read several by different authors. The ideal textbook should have several characteristics: it should contain an explanation of how to cast a chart by hand; it should give meanings for the houses, signs, planets, and aspects; it should contain instructions for both natal and horary techniques; it should contain a predictive method such as primary directions, transits, or progressed charts; and it should be enjoyable, or at least clear, to read. Choose one book which fits these qualities to be your primary textbook. You are free to supplement it with more books and online resources, but for our purposes, choose only one book as your primary resource.

Now that you’ve chosen a textbook, you will be learning astrology from it, not me. Read your chosen book carefully, work through it in systematic fashion, and do all of the exercises it recommends. The rest of this series is not dedicated to any specific book. Rather, it will contain techniques for how you can get the most out of your chosen book and establish a daily practice.

It would be remiss of me to conclude without mention of some of the many persons who can help you learn astrology, if you ask them. These are the gods and goddesses, the angels, and the planetary intelligences who are traditionally considered to have something to do with astrology, as well as any god who you already have a good relationship with and who is willing to help you, even if they are not traditionally considered to have anything to do with astrology. Astrology is a spiritual discipline deeply intertwined with spiritual realities. I do not consider a materialistic approach to astrology to be effective. Since astrology is not a religion, however, it is entirely up to you and your practices whether and how you choose to approach the Divine regarding it.

Your assignment, if you wish to follow along, is to research some different styles of astrology, as discussed earlier in this post. If you want to schedule a few readings by different astrologers, that’s another option. Once you decide on one that you like, find out what the generally recommended introductory books are for that school, skim or read the first few chapters of each, and choose one to be your textbook. You’ll need it for the following posts.