Skyscript Astrology Forum

Hello all,

I have seen threads on this, some of which go back a few years, so I thought I would see what people have to say now!

There are a few options for 'courses' in traditional astrology that are out there. Some seem to focus on Medieval only (e.g., the formerly-Robert Zoller-affiliated Academy of Predictive Astrology) or on Hellenistic (e.g., Joseph Crane's, or Chris Brennan's), or on Horary (with special emphasis on Lilly's horary work).

With the exception of an over-emphasis on horary, I am looking for courses that span the breadth of the Tradition, where I could learn Hellenistic, Medieval, and Renaissance astrology through to the age of Lilly.

For example, I think that Avelar and Ribeiro's "On the Heavenly Spheres" is a masterful book that seems to synthesize and contrast much of Traditional astrology into a single volume, even if more predictive/horary techniques in astrology are not quite as emphasized--it does capture the fullness of the subject, I believe, and would serve as a model of developing a curriculum.

Can anyone point me in the right direction on this? Or can anyone comment on specific courses?

The 'nice' thing about the Academy of Predictive Astrology is that for all of the work put into it (not to mention British Pounds!) one does get a 'credential', and one that has been received by shining stars in this community.

Again, thanks for your thoughts on this!

i don't recall Avelar and Ribeiro's "On the Heavenly Spheres" as having much of a focus on hellenistic astrology.. it was thin on that and thicker on medieval as i recall... i believe they run a school in portugal, but i don't know if it is open to english speaking people via the internet.. you could check that out..

Hey JPSkyman!
You're looking for a real synthesis of traditional occidental astrology if I got the gist of it correctly. If you do find one, tell me !
What I know of are these courses you mentioned, 2 of which I study: Zoller's DMA and Chris Brennan's Hellenistic Astrology course.
That combo has been interesting for me because zoller is highly medieval on his focus, with a very pratical approach to astrological concepts, giving many of bonatti's texts translated, his understanding of them, followed by chart examples.
Chris's course on the other hand being hellenistic, and Chris himself being a scholar, has lots of theoretical/philosophical discussions on astrological concepts and touches on topics you don't see in common practice, outside of forums like this one (and even in here it isn't everyone that explores them, like the 7 hermetic lots, the joys, etc...). He also presents the zodiacal releasing technique, restored from valens, with LOADS of examples.

But as always, the greatest challenge in astrology is learning to convert theoretical understanding into concrete predictions of who/what/where/when/ why the native is/does what he is/does. And that's a path only you can walk.

I still have to mature my astrological understanding a great deal but I find these two courses have given me a good direction.
And for working all of that together you have the examples of many people like Mark, Tom, James_m, Goran, Steven Birchfield, and many others who can point the way.
We're all together on this grand journey towards enlightenment. I'm just glad there's always someone ahead of us and someone else who's behind us.

Cheers

Well if you haven't started here you should read over what Deb says:

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/horary_intro.html

I realize the Lilly's three volumes of Christian Astrology are sometimes hard to understand, and Guildo Bonatus's works are very difficult being he wrote in Latin in such a way that there are those who avidly question Lilly's trusted friend Coley's translation, as I have to question Ben Dyke's translation in that *without the aid of a horary astrologer and a Phd. in Latin* it is difficult to get the correct meaning similar to translating various religious texts.

But I don't think we can keep Lilly or Bonatus out of our horary library, and though John Frawley is seen as a horary renegade, he did in fact base his works on Lilly to a large extent!

I'm wondering who or whom this website could be as the website is Not finished yet it appears to support Traditionalism:

http://axacta.net/user/astrology-book/a ... tments.php


Clinton Garrett Soule

Wise men truly know how little they know

james_m wrote:i don't recall Avelar and Ribeiro's "On the Heavenly Spheres" as having much of a focus on hellenistic astrology.. it was thin on that and thicker on medieval as i recall... i believe they run a school in portugal, but i don't know if it is open to english speaking people via the internet.. you could check that out..

Avelar and Ribeiro's course is more focused on the William Lilly's approach. They run their school in Lisbon (Portugal), and I know they had an on-line course, but I don't recall if it was lectured in English or Portuguese.

Their site is at (http://www.academiadeastrologia.com/), their contacts is at (http://www.academiadeastrologia.com/contacto.html)

UPDATE: I thought I should update my old post, in which I asked for course recommendations on traditional astrology:

I've been enrolled in Chris Brennan's Hellenistic Astrology course since the early summer and I have to say that i have really gotten a lot out of it. I completed most of the course a few months back, but he just announced a couple of major overhauls and new lectures--HOURS long, mind--and that has re-brought me back to the course for more work.

All I can say, since I posed this question to the forum, is that Chris' course is a sophisticated, in depth, and very detailed course in Hellenistic astrology, and I would highly recommend it. The fact that he revisits and improves his material over time really impresses me.

Of course my 'hope' is that there will one day be a fully synthesized, comprehensive course in traditional astrology, that details the techniques--and evolutions of techniques-- and philosophies across the ages, from pre-Hellenistic, to Medieval, to Renaissance era astrologies. But I've been very pleased with Chris Brennan's course.