Frank
Well-known member
I can’t remember a time when I was NOT “into astrology” – my mother was interested in astrology in a general way. Dell Horoscope and other astrology books and magazines were always around the house. In 1968 (when I was 8 years old), “Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs” made its appearance as bathroom reading material.
When I was 16, my mother went to a “psychic party” where she met a “Mr. Dee” - who she made an appointment with to finally have her chart read. One week before her appointment, she had a massive stroke and died after spending a couple of weeks in a coma.
The next day that the library was open after her funeral, I checked out a book that told one how to calculate a chart – I still don’t know what book it was – and I was off and running. I became a voracious reader of astrology books and delineated as many charts as I had time to calculate by hand.
Astrology followed me into the U.S. Air Force via a couple of books, an Ephemeris, a Table of Houses, and plenty of blank chart forms. It stayed with me through the Philippines, Berlin (when the Wall was still up), and England.
One thing that always bothered me was that my time of birth was not on my birth certificate – or so I thought. My oldest brother told me I was born early in the morning, so I rectified my chart to just past Midnight, with Scorpio rising.
When I was stationed in England, I needed an official birth certificate to get a Passport, and when I wrote back to Pennsylvania – lo and behold - there was a time of 4:52 a.m. – Capricorn rising, but with the same degree of Scorpio on the MC: what I had rectified my ascendant to be.
Shortly thereafter, I found out there was such a thing as computer software for calculating astrology charts. I bought a PC-compatable machine (I had been using Apple //c – this was 1989 after all) and purchased Blue*Star from the Matrix software rep in the U.K., Martin Davis.
Having freed myself of the burden of hand calculation, my astrology volume increased exponentially and I began taking paying clients. England also allowed me the opportunity to connect with an English-speaking astrology community – which I took full advantage of, joining and later acting as chair of the local astrology group and attending Astrological Association and Urania Trust functions regularly.
Fast forward a bit through the years when I left the Air Force and went back to the USA and back to school (I chose the school through Astro*Carto*Graphy and Local Space), worked at Matrix Software, served 8 years on the AFAN Steering Committee, wrote some articles, spent a lot of time doing astrology on the Internet, lectured at many conferences and local groups, and met and became friends with a lot of great astrologers and people along the way.
Astrology has always been there, and will continue to be there.
When I was 16, my mother went to a “psychic party” where she met a “Mr. Dee” - who she made an appointment with to finally have her chart read. One week before her appointment, she had a massive stroke and died after spending a couple of weeks in a coma.
The next day that the library was open after her funeral, I checked out a book that told one how to calculate a chart – I still don’t know what book it was – and I was off and running. I became a voracious reader of astrology books and delineated as many charts as I had time to calculate by hand.
Astrology followed me into the U.S. Air Force via a couple of books, an Ephemeris, a Table of Houses, and plenty of blank chart forms. It stayed with me through the Philippines, Berlin (when the Wall was still up), and England.
One thing that always bothered me was that my time of birth was not on my birth certificate – or so I thought. My oldest brother told me I was born early in the morning, so I rectified my chart to just past Midnight, with Scorpio rising.
When I was stationed in England, I needed an official birth certificate to get a Passport, and when I wrote back to Pennsylvania – lo and behold - there was a time of 4:52 a.m. – Capricorn rising, but with the same degree of Scorpio on the MC: what I had rectified my ascendant to be.
Shortly thereafter, I found out there was such a thing as computer software for calculating astrology charts. I bought a PC-compatable machine (I had been using Apple //c – this was 1989 after all) and purchased Blue*Star from the Matrix software rep in the U.K., Martin Davis.
Having freed myself of the burden of hand calculation, my astrology volume increased exponentially and I began taking paying clients. England also allowed me the opportunity to connect with an English-speaking astrology community – which I took full advantage of, joining and later acting as chair of the local astrology group and attending Astrological Association and Urania Trust functions regularly.
Fast forward a bit through the years when I left the Air Force and went back to the USA and back to school (I chose the school through Astro*Carto*Graphy and Local Space), worked at Matrix Software, served 8 years on the AFAN Steering Committee, wrote some articles, spent a lot of time doing astrology on the Internet, lectured at many conferences and local groups, and met and became friends with a lot of great astrologers and people along the way.
Astrology has always been there, and will continue to be there.