The basics behind the basics for learning Astrology
The basics behind the basics for learning Astrology.
Before you read several books and familiarize yourself with the symbols and read your newspaper horoscope column, you need to first assess your own nature and skill-learning capabilities. Consider these issues:
** MYTHOLOGY. When in school, did you read about Greek, Roman, Egyptian mythology? Does it interest you? So much of Astrology's context is based on stories of ancient times and the practices that have been developed over time and handed down to us that knowledge of these subjects is very helpful.
** ASTRONOMY. Do you wonder about the stars, the changing phases of the Moon, why the seasons behave as they do? Do you understand that the stars appear to stay still relative to each other but may appear in different areas of the sky depending upon the season of the year? Do you know the planet's names, can you spot Venus in the morning or evening sky? Being comfortable when reading and learning about these topics is important to the learning process of Astrology.
** HIGH SCHOOL MATH & GEOGRAPHY. Are you capable of working with high school math? Although computers do much of the work for us, knowing how to add, subtract, do proportions, being able to convert hours-minutes-seconds or degree-minutes-seconds into a decimal format or back again is essential. Do you feel comfortable with geography in general. Do you know how to identify time zones on a globe or world map? Do you understand latitude and longitude? Geography and math go together for the Astrologer.
** READING and FOCUS. Do you like to read and study? Learning astrology requires that you do some reading, lots of reading. And, you need to be able to absorb and understand what you read --- either because you are mentally flexible and imaginative, or because you take up a pencil and paper and make notes and sketch out ideas, or because you have people you can and will discuss this with in length ---- all of this to take in and absorb what you read through the step-by-step process of applying every detail in some way.
Along with reading, do you or will you buy astrology magazines, search the Internet for astrology sites, find sharing lists such as this one and follow along and ask questions ---- and more importantly, use that gained knowledge and participate such that you show your progress. Astrologers as a whole will help anyone at anytime, but they lose patience with those who ask but do not work at the learning process.
ALL OF THE ABOVE is what you need in terms of your personality, attitude and interests before you start the process of learning. If this is not in one's makeup, then they should be willing to recognize that they are curious but not dedicated to learning. Astrology will require a lot of time and effort to learn ---- I encourage anyone to learn Astrology, I know it will be highly rewarding, but it does require effort, patience, curiosity, interest and a child-like joy in discovering yourself within the mysteries of the world and the stars. Dave
