Skyscript Astrology Forum

Hello,

Has anyone here taken Chris Brennan's Introduction to Hellenistic Astrology Course?

http://www.hellenisticastrology.com/cou ... gy-course/

Any thoughts on it and how in-depth it is? Does it go beyond 'introduction'--I have read a few introductory and intermediate books already, so I was hoping to dive deeper. Also, the site doesn't seem particularly updated often, which could be a cause for concern--though Brennan does seem to have a lot of irons in the fire!--and a few other websites and podcasts to boot!

Any other suggestions for courses on Hellenistic astrology?

Obviously Robert Zoller's courses are excellent for Medieval, and there a few excellent horary-specific courses (horary is not much my interest right now), but I was hoping for something broader--perhaps starting with a course in Hellenistic astrology, and then moving on to a Medieval course (hopefully including Lilly's natal work as well).

In that way, I would get the whole breadth of the Tradition. There does not seem to be a full comprehensive course on traditional astrology. This may speak to the fact that there are actually traditionS--plural-rather than A traditional astrology--but that's probably another topic!

I would like to get beyond introductions at this point, as I have self-studied with some excellent introductory and intermediate texts, so a good course might be the right way to go.

Thanks in advance for the feedback and advice!

I'm a member of that course, and I have to say I think it's great. I would definitely recommend it.

When you say does it go beyond the basics, it is difficult to answer as it depends on your own expertise and experience, however there was a great deal to learn there and Chris goes through several examples of the techniques and explains it all as fully as possible - certainly you will come away understanding the concepts clearly.

From memory, some of the topics covered include:
Some history and philosophical context, dignities, sect, the hermetic lots, the hellenistic aspect doctrine which includes concepts such as confinement, overcoming, the three types of doryphory etc., and then some advanced hellenistic techniques such as particular time lord systems like annual and monthly profections (including an easy to understand explanation of vettius valens' more advanced method of handing and taking over), and finally concludes with the very interesting technique of zodiacal releasing.


Even if you are already somewhat familiar with all of the above then I still think there'll be a lot you can learn and expand upon from Chris' material, and if any of this is new to you then I would definitely recommend it - particularly his explanation of profections and zodiacal releasing (which I did not understand at all until I enrolled).

Overall I definitely recommend it. My only criticism, if this can be considered a criticism, is that there can be so much material available that you may feel a sense of information overload at first.

Paul,

Thanks for the reply! What you said really helped.

I have read a few books on the subject, namely from Joseph Crane and other books that at least touch on it like Avalar and Ribiero's On the Heavenly Spheres. So I have been introduced to the concepts, and understand some of them fair enough. But not enough to actually 'employ' them in an interpretation or delineation.

So based on what you suggest, I am certainly more interested.

Thanks again,

JP

I have something that comes close to a mini-course in Hellenistic astrology but it is a tutorial on using Delphic Oracle software (usually using your chart) and involves using techniques such as zodiacal releasing and how to find the focus periods and cross reference these techniques with more modern methods.

http://www.astrology-x-files.com/classes.html

I recommend previous study such as Robert Schmidt's Antiochus text or Chris Brennan's course because my tutorial is quite advanced focusing on both software and philosophy/astrology.

In case people are new here, I've been working in this area since the early 90's and first met Rob Hand, Robert Schmidt and Robert Zoller in summer 1994 at Princeton University after subscribing to Project Hindsight. It is through this project that my involvement in software for Hellenistic/traditional techniques began.