Do I need to know my time of birth to book a session?

Astrology is only as accurate as your birth time. But not all of us will know the time when we were born. I believe astrology can still help and be useful, it just won’t be as precise or specific as it might be when the time of birth is known.

If you have a rough idea about the time of birth it’s possible to try to narrow down the time window by looking at what was happening astrologically during certain events in your life. Looking at the dates of births, deaths, marriages, divorces or house moves is one way to try to pinpoint that time of birth and I can do that as part of a session or reading.

How does astrology work?

I often turn to the historian Richard Tarnas’ explanation of how astrology works. He writes about an ensouled world, a world that communicates and has purpose.

This communication with the ensouled world can happen through the Tarot, the i Ching and through astrology and there are many, many more methods and ways and tools out there. They all tell us stories and through those stories we can start to weave a pattern that helps us make sense of our existence.

Does astrology predict the future?

No, but it can give us an insight into the themes, archetypes and patterns that are playing out in our lives and through us. It can also give us a weather report about what’s to come and how to best work with the quality of that weather.

A Pluto or Uranus transit to your IC would in most cases mean changes to your home or family – perhaps you’re moving, renovating or maybe you’re having a baby.

The symbols can sometimes mean many different things. It’s through the skill of the astrologer and in the conversation between an astrologer and the person whose chart is being interpreted that the meaning starts to come into focus.

How can astrology help me?

To me astrology is a shortcut, a language of symbols that helps me to spot patterns and trends. It’s also a tool for self-acceptance. We are who we are and sometimes that means accepting and loving the difficult and contradictory parts of ourselves as well.

Astrology can also be of comfort as it shows us that everything is cyclical. There will be good times, bad times, stressful periods and quiet ones. Looking at the astrological story can tell us how to make the most of a certain period – there are several ways to deal with a storm, you can hide, get wet or perhaps even build a wind farm to generate some energy. Astrology is a lens that can help us make the most of different periods in our lives.

It can also be helpful to look back and to figure out the astrological story of different events in our lives as a way of making sense of our astrological patterns, placements and our story so far.

What I, or astrology can’t do though, is to tell you what to do. That’s up to you.

What kind of astrology do you use?

My practice is rooted in looking at ancestral patterns and stories. And I am a story-teller, not a therapist. When looking at a chart I’m trying to find meaning and the goal is always to promote clarity and self-acceptance.

To me astrology is a form of story-telling and one of the many tools we can use in order to grow, heal and thrive. I use a blend of modern and traditional methods to shape a story about a person, an event, a life or a family. 

I also see astrology as a useful method when doing ancestral work. The birth chart isn’t just you, it’s your family, your ancestors and the many things you’ve inherited from those who came before you. The chart placements and the aspects between the planets tell the story of your ancestral line and its strengths, its shadow and the trauma those who came before you might have experienced.

It’s a powerful tool for those who want to look at their ancestry and work on repairing the ancestral line, healing some of the patterns they have inherited.

Finally I believe we are all expressions of the creative energy of the cosmos. Our birth chart is like the sheet music for a particular segment of a larger symphony. Those notes can be played in many different ways, loudly, quietly, with joy or sadness. There are, in other words, many different ways the chart can be expressed. There are no good or bad placements, only what we make of them. And what astrology offers us is an insight into the particular themes we’ve been given to work with.