study group introduction

we're still here isthmus

back in my days at uni, many subjects were aproached by first taking a survey course. we would spend the first year or semester, on an overview of the subject. then after we had a grasp on how the big picture worked, we could take more detailed in depth courses on the individual parts.

is something like this what you had in mind?

sounds good!

i just got my chart "updated," so, i'm "ready to go!"

~Z~770

Yes, that's exactly it, zorya... great analogy. I had no idea that we would have to cover the *basic* basics In other words, I was shooting for a 2nd year course, only to find no one had taken 1st year!

To address the earlier problem; I'm thinking that if everybody read up on basic qualities for every planet, sign, house (this info is everywhere on the internet, I suggest looking at this page: http://www.bobmarksastrologer.com/ or any beginners book, it would help a lot. I'm not talking about major research here, just general associations you get at the most basic level.

Thanks for all the work

I have been quietly reading the posts and enjoying them. With everyone's knowledge at different levels it's hard to make presentations that everyone can grasp straight away.

Can I make a suggestion? Something that I would find useful is this practical exercise. We are shortly coming up to Saggitarius. Is there a chart on any of the various internet sites of a Saggitarian that we coud all get hold of? Then perhaps Minderwiz and Isthmus could lead us though a simple explanation of what the chart actually might mean. Many of the issues you have been discussing up to now could be thus illustrated in a really practical and useful way.

You could explain the basics of a natal chart, and we could even perhaps get a chart that has progressions and transits on it so that we could learn about these and how they assist in understanding what is going on with the querent (do we use the same descriptors?). And we could ask questions along the way.

Do others see this as a potentially good way of learning? We could do a historical Saggitarian. It might be fun to this and I'm sure there are charts available for such figures that we could use for an exercise like this. If we were to do it this way, we would need to start a separate thread. It wouldn't stop other discussions happening.

Just an idea.

Moongold

PS I just found Edith Piaf's chart on WWW. astro.com. She was a Saggitarian with Scorpio rising and her Moon in Gemini - a fascinating person to study perhaps.

All suggestions are welcome! Studying natal charts of famous figures sounds like a great idea, it'll give us a good opportunity to apply our knowledge.

It seems everyone is hot to trot to interpret charts. Like I said before, this is fine except it's going to be very very difficult to do this w/the current structure of studying each sign w/its associated houses/planets for the duration of the sign. Already I'm running into problems interpreting for others in the Scorpio application thread b/c I'm unfamiliar w/some planets and signs that won't be covered until later.

I know that interpreting a chart is loads of fun and I think we can do it too, but the way we've set up the study group (sign/month) makes this difficult. If we want to start chart interpretation right away, we're going to have to learn the basics of each sign, planet and house before we even begin w/aspects, transits, progressions and suchlike.

To draw an analogy (not tarot this time! You guys must be sick of my tarot analogies ^_^).... in life drawing the first thing everyone wants to do is draw the perfectly rendered figure. But that's *never* the first thing you get taught! You have to learn so many things first; gesture, contour etc and then later anatomy, form etc. The early exercises are boring, yes, and they're certainly not something you'd be proud of. But only when you're at a certain level w/basics skills can you hope to render the human figure realistically and produce something you want to hang on your wall.
There's nothing stopping us from trying read charts along the way, but I think we'll need to hold this in check w/learning the basics. Everyone loves to offer their charts and give interpretations, but as I've said before; I don't have the time to do the more boring grunt work (looking up keywords etc) alone.

I'm not trying to discourage reading natal charts here, it's just if everyone wants to be doing this together, I think going through the basics *before* chart reading will be the most effective approach. Of course, if the majority disagrees, I'm quite open to doing the study group a different way, provided that there is support that the different way will work. *Please* don't be afraid to disagree w/me here. I'm just offering up my opinion, and it's certainly not intrinsically the "correct" way of seeing things.

Cheers!

here're some url's that . . .

. . . may be of interest (the first is regarding "how to read natal charts; the second a "astrology course," soon to begin, by a friend of mine):

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8487

http://www.bellaonline.com/site/astrology

~Z~770

Happy to go with the flow

Hi Isthmus,

Your comments about needing to learn the basics are important.

With limited knowledge I've struggled with understanding my own chart. I have a book (Choice Centred Psychology) which does go though some demonstration charts.

You have inspired me to seek out a local astrology course and see what I can do there. This thread is very interesting though and I thank you and Minderwiz for the time and thought you put into explaining things.

Moongold

Moongold - is that a Gail Fairfield book? I know she has also written some good 'Choice Centred' books for Tarot.

In terms of chart reading - I was actually thinking of something along the lines Moongold suggested but in another context. I do have some web space that I'm currently clearing and I had thought of posting charts there for people for whom I've done a reading. The idea could be modified to fit into a parallel strand to the Study group.

I think it would be best to do this for someone on the forum rather than simply a famous name - it adds a little 'local' interest. However I don't think it would work in the context of, say, a Sagittarian (or any other sign) because the Sun sign is a relatively small, though important part of the chart. It's actually possible to be almost Sagittarian in nature without any planets in Sagittarius at all!!!!!!!! IF you have a preponderance of Fire signs and Mutable signs (Sagittarius is the Mutable Fire sign). This is an unlikely situation but it could well be the case that someone who is Sun sign Aquarius actually is predominantly Sagittarian, if say they had Mercury, Venus, Mars and the Moon in Sagittarius and one or two other planets in Fire or Mutable signs.

Chart interpretation though is a rather long process so I think we could only get the ball rolling and then let people take it from there for any detailed reading - unless the subject is particularly interested in a reading related to one area of their life.

restructuring

OK, calling for a basic restructuring here. If anyone has other ideas pls post b/c I'm not confident this new structure will work out.

You can probably tell I've been wanting to junk the sign/month idea. I'd like to study signs/houses by element and quality and link this up to the planets

So:
1) Elements
2) Qualities
3) Planet breakdown
4) moving onto chart interpretation...

Let's begin w/fire since Sag is one of them. When I have time, I'll make an intro post about Sag, Aries and Leo and their respective houses 1, 5 and 9. b/c I'm tackling 6 areas (3 signs, 3 houses), this will be much more brief than the Scorpio thread.
As for time, I have no idea how long it will take for ppl to absorb the info. Let's play it by ear.

moongold> Yay for astrology courses! And you're very welcome

Alright, will try to get the fire post sometime next week. The sun is now in Sag, so if anyone wants to stick to the old way of doing things, pls speak out *now*!