Episode 12 - What Makes An Astrologer? with Amy Green
Today we are doing something a little bit different. This is the third episode of a mini-series entitled ‘What Makes An Astrologer,’ which came about as a result of the comments that Rob Hand made on a recent Astrology Podcast episode about significations in the birth chart of a professional astrologer.
The link to this episode is in the show notes. Therein, Rob Hand makes a bit of an off-hand comment saying
“The 11th sign from the Lot of Fortune is a Place of Acquisition. People [at Project Hindsight] started looking at their charts, and an awful lot of people had one of the following things true: The Lot of Fortune was in a sign ruled by Mercury, or Mercury was in the sign of the Lot of Fortune, or those same two condition applied to The Place of Acquisition, which is the 11th sign from the Lot of Fortune. And to this day, if I don’t find that in a person’s chart, I wonder about their credentials as an astrologer. This is for making money by astrology, by the way. It’s not for studying it. All you need to study it is a good, solid Mercury.”
In the wake of this episode, there was some commentary about it on social media. Being curious about what Hand said, I put out a tweet thread looking at these conditions in five professional astrologers charts. In one way or another, all five of those people met Hand’s criteria. I’ve put a link to that tweet thread in the show notes for your reference.
In response to that, Michel, who is @astrospeccion on Twitter, shared a database of famous astrologers from astro-seek.com with me, and encouraged me to do more research into this subject. I was reticent, but Mo, who is @austral_taur on Twitter, told me that she’d help me carry out a research project looking at Hand’s criteria in famous and/or professional astrologers. Mo and I ended up looking at about 90 charts of historical, famous astrologers, and received input from about 40 contemporary professional astrologers through a Google form survey.
In this series, I will speak with five astrologers and thinkers - Cameron Allen, Daniel Norman, Amy Green, Dorje Kirsten, and Ali A Olomi - about their thoughts on Rob Hand’s comments, and other significations they identify in the birth chart that may point to remuneration from astrology.
The series will culminate in a conversation between Mo and I where we discuss our research and the conclusions that we’ve drawn from it. In addition, I plan to release an article on my website after the series airs where I summarize our findings and the thoughts of my guests in this series.
Please be sure to subscribe to my website for updates, which is linked in the show notes below.
Now for my fourth conversation of this series with the astrologer Amy Green.
In this episode we get quite technical and textual by talking about several delineations laid out by Firmicus Maternus and Abu Ma’shar. In particular, we discuss Firmicus’ material on the house 2nd from the Lot of Fortune and the planets therein, as well as the importance of the 9th House and Venus and Mercury’s placements therein as they relate to astrology. In addition, we discussed the term lords of the Ascendent, as it relates to the native’s talents and vocation.
In reference to Abu Ma’shar, we spoke about the Lot of Works - which could be considered either a 2nd House lot or a 10th House lot, and speaks to “the nature of the goods that someone creates.” By day it is calculated by measuring from Mercury to Venus and projecting from the Ascendent. By night we would do the opposite, so measure from Venus to Mercury and project form the Ascendent.
We concluded our talk by looking at these delineations in the chart of Demetra George, which was really illuminating.
Thanks again Amy for joining me for this conversation and sharing your knowledge with us. I really appreciate it.
Please, be sure to check out the links to Amy’s website and socials below, as well as links to some of the resources that we touch on in our conversation.
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Visit my website here - https://luminaries-in-and-out-of-sect-podcast.ghost.io/
And please subscribe to and rate the show on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
You can also find me on Instagram @sphallastro and Twitter @vincit_qui_se. Please feel free to follow me there, and let me know that you’ve found me from listening to the show.
If you have any questions or feedback on the show, please feel free to email me at: sphallhorary@gmail.com
Book a consultation with Amy - https://amygreensastrology.com/
Find Amy on Instagram and Twitter - https://www.instagram.com/amygreensastrology/; https://twitter.com/frog_yama
Abu Ma’shar’s ‘Greater Introduction’ - https://bendykes.com/product/the_great_introduction/
Firmicus Maternus’ ‘Mathesis’ - https://www.alibris.com/search/books/isbn/9780866906197
My tweet thread about Rob Hand’s Criteria in 5 professional astrologers’ charts - https://twitter.com/vincit_qui_se_/status/1625196832799473665?s=20
Rob Hand on the Astrology Podcast (quote is from 47:00-47:55) - https://youtu.be/u4xJP74Rx1Q
Photo for Cover Art by Luke Stackpoole @WithLuke on Instagram - https://unsplash.com/photos/TRXSkmJb40c
Intro/Outro music is ‘Clair de Lune,’ composed by Claude Debussy, played by David O and available courtesy of Great Scott Gadgets - https://greatscottgadgets.com/2021/08-05-open-source-clair-de-lune/