Re: a few questions,
Hi, holmes --
1. with your acquired knowledge do you think it is possible that you could of got all that knowledge from books , (i mean going through your two basic astrology books your intermediate two books, your advanced two books, and then your specifics aspects of astrology course).
What I basically gained from the parts of the course that I completed was a good general understanding of the planets, signs and houses, as well as a good understanding of what's going on three-dimensionally with the solar system, and everything that's involved in hand-calculating a chart. I probably could have gotten all these things from books, but it was nice to have them all in one source, with a step-by-step approach.
2. do you know feel you might go professional with your knowledge.
Well, I knew even before I took Joanne's course that it wouldn't be enough to make me a professional astrologer. I basically viewed it as something which would give me a general background in the subject, and a good base on which to build if I decided to pursue further astrological education elsewhere. But since I didn't even complete the course, I absolutely don't consider myself to have even a fraction of the knowledge I would need to go professional.
3. do you feel that astrology combined with psychology and spirituality is a valid way of conselling others ?
Sure. But it would depend on the individual (same as with tarot or anything else).
4. what is your next step from here, ?
to go after another course. ?
to study from books?
to let it go ?
Well, I'm certainly not going to do any more correspondence courses!
After two failed astrology correspondence courses and one failed tarot correspondence course, I've come to the conclusion that this just isn't the learning path for me. It's a combination of two things.
First, in my opinion, individuals and organizations that offer these courses are simply not large enough and well-established enough to be trustworthy. I think they all have good intentions, but when the faculty is only one person or a few people (I believe even the Canopus Academy is basically only a few people), times change, things happen, people move on, and it's unrealistic to expect that if you pay for something that includes continued involvement with them, that they'll always be there and available to give you the support which you paid for.
Second, I believe that esoteric or occult subjects are not good candidates for correspondence courses. They're simply too subjective. The prospective student thinks that there's a generally-agreed-upon body of knowledge which can be easily packed into a correspondence course, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Just as every astrology book has the individual viewpoint of its author, the same is true with courses. All you're getting is that author's or group's viewpoint. Of course every astrology student, whether learning from books or courses or teachers or whatever, has to pick and choose from different approaches. It's just disappointing with a course, because you think you're getting a particular tradition which you can follow, and the course author's particular choices turn out to be just as arbitrary as you see in books. I'm kind of rambling here and perhaps going beyond your question.
For now, I'm giving astrology a break. I'm sure I'll come back to it; I've got plenty of books at this point to study. But I got kind of burnt out on it, combined with the frustration of dealing with the course. I think probably the best way to learn astrology would be to attend a live class with a teacher (I believe several people said this at the beginning of this thread). If you're a correspondence student, a teacher may end up putting you on the bottom of their priority list, as happened to me. But at least at a live class, you can be reasonably sure the teacher will show up. If, like me, you're isolated and can't go to a class, then I think my recommendation would be to not do a correspondence course, unless maybe someone you know and trust has gone through that course and recommends it.
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be one particular book or set of books which will take you from the basics all the way through an intermediate understanding of astrology. The "Only Way to Learn" books look good, but when I looked at its discussion of how to calculate charts by hand, it seems quite inadequate. Noel Tyl wrote a whole series of books for Llewellyn whose goal was to do just that, take you through everything step by step. They're out of print now, but you can find them at used-book websites. The set is called "Principles and Practice of Astrology." I haven't seen them, but it's all I can think of in terms of a set of books from one author which takes you all the way through.
As far as being a professional astrologer, that was something I toyed with when thinking about taking a correspondence course, but I knew even then that I was ambivalent about it. As of now, I don't think I could ever be a professional astrologer. When I first started posting in the Astrology forum many moons ago, I expressed doubts about astrology's validity (i.e., does it really work). Even after all the studying I've done, I still have those doubts. I'm not convinced that it doesn't work, but I'm not convinced that it does work either. And there's no way I could accept money to do something where I feel I'm not sure about whether I'm giving the client something of value.
I do think that the Robert Mulligan course that we talked about on the first page of this thread would be a good one for someone who knew they wanted to be a professional astrologer. It's a four-year program (although you can take and pay for each segment separately, of course), and while fairly expensive, it seems like if you put in the effort, Mulligan takes it seriously and will be there for you. However, here we have the same problem... it's only him, with I think one person to help him, and so if you take his course, you're really dependent on him.
Hope this is helpful --
Lee
I'd like to keep in touch with you about all this too.