astrology is ambient, like the Latin meaning of the word : it is all around

Astrology is vast. Housed within this broad term are many cultures’ systems and variants. A multitude of methods, approaches, and schools exist.

Astrology is as diverse as the earth’s inhabitants and it has been utilized in some way as long as we have been here. We look to stars and cycles to see patterns and meaning. It is a symbolic language, a starry logos. We see correlations, confluence, and synchronicity, as above so below. We ask questions.

astro logia   a telling of the stars 

Maybe you have noticed there has been a massive astrological renaissance underway for some time. It is an incredible time to be a student of astrology. There have been many translations of ancient texts in the last few decades, and so we have available for the first time in history a plethora of teachings coming right from the source of our traditions. I believe interpreting and applying this knowledge in skillful and responsible ways is our task at hand. 

I’ve been a nearly lifelong student of astrology. I am interested in its origins as well as its metamorphosis. My approach is eclectic and integrative, nonlinear and structured — lunar — while honoring a solar axis. I’m a poly and punk astrologer. This means I practice many forms and don’t subscribe to hierarchies or hegemonies. I love tradition, but am very wary of dogmatic, essentialist, colonial, or supremacist thinking. I draw on and learn from many cultural traditions and innovations (e.g. visual, mundane, Uranian and symmetrical, Hellenistic, Persian, Jyotish, BaZi, Chinese astrologies, harmonics, newly found objects, different zodiacs, lunar mansions, etc.). It all works.

My darkest days are behind me, as I recenter poetics and the imaginal in my work and abandon stodgy and damning traditional rules and judgments.

🜄 water  🜂 fire 🜃 earth  🜁 air

some technical specifics:

I use the sacred seven visible planets as zodiac sign rulers. I don’t subscribe to the very recent notion of modern rulerships: that the (invisible to us) outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto rule signs Aquarius, Pisces, and Scorpio. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn have been doing just fine as these domicile lords (rulers) of Scorpio, Pisces, and Aquarius for at least two thousand years. Even more importantly, there is an elegant symmetry to the original sequence of rulership which is totally lost when you hand over domain to trans-Saturnian planets. While there may be some associative similarities between outer planets and their proposed sign relationship, I think it is actually a disservice to try to limit these transpersonal bodies—to encapsulate or trap their meaning in a single zodiac sign feels forced, trivial, linear, mechanistic… See: A Conversation With Robert Hand - The Modern Astrologer With a Medieval Heritage.

I think you can read a chart with just the seven traditional (visible) planets. Many modern astrologers get hung up on outer planets. You can always derive a tremendous amount of information from just the visible planets (the wanderers) ― especially via planetary configurations, house placements and house rulership, and so on. After establishing structure with these essential points, moving on to the outer bodies (including asteroids) makes sense as they can offer quite specific additional information. 

I use a blended house system. Like the astrologer Morinus, I use Whole Sign Houses along with a Quadrant system. Whether a planet is "advancing" or "retreating" around the actual angles is an important phenomenon that should not be overlooked. When a planet is rising, setting, culminating, or anti-culminating it is a physical/visual reality that helps to determine a planet's terrestrial strength and quality. I sometimes use the Porphyry house system, as 2nd century astrologer Vettius Valens mentions using for specific techniques in his Anthology, and I experiment with intermediate house cusps as sensitive points in other Quadrant systems, like Placidus, Regiomontanus, Campanus, etc.

I use niche techniques. Whether planets are in munakara (“contention”) or antiscia symmetries of light or time — I always consider these important facets of delineation.

I use techniques from Jyotish, Indian astrology. Although I typically work with the tropical zodiac. Jyotish is remarkable for supplementary timing and divisional charts (which convey specifics around career, relationship, children, happiness, wealth, etc.), and to assess planetary strength like with Dig Bala (the directional strength of a planet).

I use midpoints, the 360 and 90 degree dials, planetary pictures (lots), and some other symmetrical (Uranian and Cosmobiological) tools and methods. This is atop a traditional Hellenistic, Persian, Early Medieval, and Indian perspective. 

• Note: the Lots (commonly called the Arabic Parts, i.e. the Part of Fortune) are one major unifying component between systems and astrologies throughout time. The Lots are older than Hellenistic astrology, probably Babylonian or Egyptian in origin, and utilizing them was of chief importance to Hellenistic and Persian astrologers. Modern astrologers too, due in large part to the lunation cycle work of Dane Rudhyar, employ the Lot of Fortune and sometimes the Lot of Spirit. The Lot of Fortune itself even offers an alternate Ascendant! Lots are planetary pictures―an important feature of Symmetrical astrology—and are expressions of planetary phase relationships. These sensitive symmetrical points are potent and mysterious, they marry astrological thought through the ages! To me they feel timeless.

I work with essential dignity as a framework, though I do not place extreme emphasis on it. I see many practitioners limiting their judgements to essential dignity alone and I find this can be damaging and not wholly accurate. I like to see how dignity might influence planetary interchanges through reception, management, and aspects. Dignity must not be over-personalized. Damning judgments cause harm and people internalize this harm.

I also work with triplicity, trigon lords, bounds, circumambulations, firdaria, declination, parans, phasis, heliacal risings and settings, and planetary stations.

Occasionally I work with asteroids and Transneptunians (TNPs): Cupido, Hades, Kronos and company. They are not imperative from my viewpoint but add embellishment and nuance, and can eerily describe the nature or quality of character and situations. Outer planets are a bit like asteroids, imo.

I find the twelve-letter astrological alphabet to be too simplistic and frequently misleading: Aries = Mars = 1st House, Taurus = Venus = 2nd House, etc. For a deeper understanding of the signs, houses and planets, and meanings associated within, it is best to begin one’s study with the Thema Mundi (the hypothetical chart of the world). It is a tremendously beautiful teaching tool.

* And/or consider the symmetry in the sign-based decanates of the zodiac—reinforcing the significance of the seven planetary rulers.

Recommended:
Articles at Seven Stars Astrology
Vettius Valens, Anthologies
Claudius Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos
Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra
Komilla Sutton online Library
The Planetary Joys and the Origins of the Significations of the Houses by Chris Brennan
Books
Astrology & the Authentic Self by Demetra George
The Combination of Stellar Influences by Reinhold Ebertin
The Houses: Temples of the Sky by Deborah Houlding (also see articles on Skyscript)
Introductions to Traditional Astrology and Traditional Astrology for Today: An Introduction by Benjamin Dykes, PhD
(I need to update this list.)