This is an advanced course in judging natal charts by traditional methods. It is open only to graduates of The Horary Apprenticeship.

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My aim in this course is ‘astrology without textbooks’. What passes in most cases for astrological practice is no more than a cut & paste job, gluing together pieces either from books on the desk or what happens to have stuck in the memory. This may be a pleasant intellectual pastime, but it is certainly not astrology. My aim is to teach you to judge the chart from what you truly understand, working from the most basic principles of what the planets and signs mean.

 

As with horary, we aim here at precision: the prospective student should be warned that some of the methods for achieving this involve a considerable amount of work. Although it involves effort, however, the course reflects the two guiding principles of all my tuition: astrology can be simple; astrology can be fun.

 

This course proceeds at a much more leisurely pace than the horary course. Dealing with each piece of natal homework demands a great deal of my time, so I usually turn round assignments in 2-3 weeks rather than the 2-3 days of the horary course. I make no attempt at presenting a comprehensive coverage of techniques: I teach what I use in practice, because I know that it works. There are other techniques - primary directions, for example - that also work, but enough is enough.

 

Syllabus:

 

Lesson 1: What is temperament and how to assess it. Hyleg, alcochoden,anareta.

Lesson 2: Wit and Manner.

Lesson 3: General fortune. Eclipses & lunations.

Lesson 4: The houses, part 1.

Lesson 5: The houses, part 2.

Lesson 6: Electional astrology: simple methods.

Lesson 7: Electional astrology: the classic technique.

Lesson 8: Prediction 1: introduction to progressions.

Lesson 9: Prediction 2: return charts and profections.

Lesson 10: Prediction 3: the hyleg and the time of death.

Lesson 11: Introduction to decumbiture. Interventions in the chart.

Lesson 12: Your ‘masterpiece’: drawing a detailed natal judgement of an (unknown) historical figure, with whose birth data you will be supplied, describing the character and ‘predicting’ major events in the life.

 

Admission to this course has been suspended. Each natal student takes a huge amount of my time, so I have had to close admissions as I try to find enough time to get another book finished.

 

Fees:

The course costs 6000 UK pounds. Fees are non-returnable, and may be paid as four instalments of 1600 pounds. I accept payment by Paypal or bank transfer. It is possible to fail without completion if work is repeatedly below standard. Successful students are awarded the diploma of Craftsman Astrologer.

 

 

Books:

Although my aim is to get away from the textbooks, they are nonetheless a useful starting-point in learning: reviewing what the texts tell us is a useful way of getting the student off the side of the pool and into the water. Our main resource is William Lilly’sChristian Astrology. Also required are works by Al-Khayyat, Worsdale, Al-Biruni, Culpeper, Ramesay, and others. The student should expect to spend around 150 pounds on books during the course, although it is anticipated that the prospective student will own many of the set books already.

 

 

FAQ:

 

I have studied with xyz. Can I enrol for your natal course?

No. I have found that students from whichever schools and teachers can still have alarming holes in their basic knowledge. The only way that I can be sure you will have the preparation I require from you is to have given you that preparation myself.

 

You say there is no value in electional astrology. So why do you teach it?

Although I see no value in electional astrology and would not accept such a commission from a client, learning to elect a chart remains a useful educational tool. It greatly increases the student’s facility in handling receptions and in understanding movement within the chart. It is as close as we can get to building a chart from scratch, and so allows us to understand the chart from a different perspective – seeing the back of the tapestry, as it were.