A Guide to Learning Astrology for Witches
Image Credit: Flavio Gasperini
You’ve learned enough about astrology to know that you want to go deeper. You had a dramatic Saturn return or Mercury retrograde. Or, maybe, you just really like your sun sign.
Whatever your reason, you’re ready to take the next step in getting to know your signs and planets.
But what do you do?
Check the weather.
Have you ever noticed that it seems sometimes like everyone you meet is sharing the same mood? It’s not your imagination. In astrology, we use the positions of the planets in the sky right now (i.e. transits) to talk about the collective mood.
There are few things better for learning astrology than watching what’s happening in the sky as it happens. Even if you don’t understand everything that’s happening, spending time regularly thinking about transits can help you make connections between the things that are happening in your life and the movements of the planets through the sky.
Transits are a regular conversation point in my astrology community on Discord, and I’d love to have you join our conversations.
If you’d rather learn about transits on your own, I recommend following a regular astrology transit forecast, such as:
Astrology University’s The Cosmic Eye Monthly Forecast.
Make a plan.
Listening to forecasts is good. Applying what you hear to your life is better.
Listening to astrological forecasts, figuring out how those predictions apply to you, making a plan for how you’re going to respond, and going back to see if the predictions were right levels up your skills in a gentle, natural way. You learn through trial and error how to make the information you hear relevant to your life.
Even better, if an astrologer consistently interprets the astrological weather in ways that make sense to you, you know that you’ve found an ally in your journey and that their work is worth paying attention to.
Get a planner.
Keeping track of the astrological weather can be as simple as making notes in a note app on your phone or jotting things down in a cheap notebook, but an astrological planner can save a lot of work.
I have been using the Honeycomb Collective Personal Astrological Almanac (Price: $10+), and I like it because it doesn’t just show you what’s going on for everyone. It uses your chart to show you what transits you’re experiencing personally each day. This means you don’t have to do the calculations for yourself to see if you’re going to be impacted by a transit you hear about. If you get the Hellenistic astrology add-on, the planner also highlights the transits that are especially important.
I make notes on transits right in my planner, so I can see the weather and the weather’s impact on my life side-by-side. It’s done wonders for my practice.
Read a book.
The Inner Sky by Steven Forrest - A classic introductory book and reference guide. If I was stranded on a desert island with one astrology book, I’d want it to be this one.
Astrology: Using the Wisdom of the Stars in Your Everyday Life, Carole Taylor - Beautifully designed and a great introduction for visual learners.
Cosmos and Psyche, Richard Tarnas - A deep dive into the question: How can you be an intelligent person and believe in astrology? Also an exploration of the cycles of history through an astrological lens.
Introduction to Traditional Natal Astrology, Charles Obert - If you’ve been studying astrology for a while and want to explore some slightly more advanced, traditional astrological techniques, this book will explain the basics and give you a step-by-step process for applying what you’ve learned to reading a chart.
Saturn Returns: Thinking Astrologically, Tom Jacobs - If you are between 27-30 years old, the biggest transit you’re going through right now is your Saturn return. This book will help you figure out how to navigate it.
Take a class.
There are lots of free resources out there on YouTube and social media, but if you really want to get serious about your studies, a class can help you level up in a structured way. Many individual professional astrologers also offer classes and certification programs. Some classes are pre-recorded, and some have the option to study with them live and ask questions.
I offer an Introduction to Astrology Course and a la carte lectures that help you learn astrology at your own pace. If you have questions along the way, my astrology community on Discord is there to help.
If you like lots of examples and anecdotes, I highly recommend Steven Forrest’s lectures or his apprenticeship program.
I have also taken Austin Coppock’s The Proper Care & Feeding of a Birth Chart: Planetary Refinement & Remediation and found him to be a great teacher. I especially recommend this class if you’re feeling anxious about things in your chart. He gives you lots of ideas for working with difficult placements.
Astrology University has classes on just about any subject you can think of, and they have a 4-year training program taught by professional astrologers from a variety of backgrounds with an option to get certified at the end. I have not gone through the program, but I have heard lectures from each of the members of the faculty, and they are all wonderful.
Join the astrology community.
If you are just starting out, it can be hard to find other people to talk to about your interests.
My private astrology community on Discord is a great place to start meeting people.
The Association for Young Astrologers (AYA) ($20/year membership) has regular community Zoom chats, a Discord server for text chat, and a library of free classes for members by experienced, professional astrologers. The library alone is worth the cost of membership many times over.
Find a mentor.
It can be fun to puzzle astrology out for yourself, but everyone runs into questions they have a hard time answering on their own. A professional astrologer can answer difficult questions and provide a valuable outsider perspective.
Astrologers I recommend:
Jay Imarah Evans (my mentee)
I also offer readings and mentoring and answer questions about astrology for my Patreon patrons.
