Is there a 12 Steps for Astrologers?

My husband calls me a junkie.  We have a joke that teachers are “Workshop Junkies.” Adding to that, folks in education have overused that phrase, “Lifelong Learner.”  I certainly qualify for this and my passion for studying Astrology over the last few years has only made this worse, poor man.  Being a lifelong learner, is that what we should really be doing?  

I just wrapped up a 5-week Introduction to Greek Myths for Astrologers class, ($265)  offered through Kepler College online.  It was very informative and helped me brush up on these archetypal stories for my 5th Graders.  Sadly, workshops such as these are not free.

Reading and self-education is free, but requires time, something teachers don’t have a lot of, but a lot of interest in.  I have a new book I want to pick up, which was recommended out of that Greek Myth class, I just wish I had more time to read it, so I continue to add it to my reading list.  I have stacks of books I have picked up this summer but am at various stages of working through them and have desire to read them all but now that school begins I find my lesson preparations take a huge amount of time and energy.  It took me three full hours last weekend to plan and execute a watercolor painting for this week’s painting class, though everyone was pleased with the results, this means that many other parts of my life get ignored, like exercise, meal planning and food shopping, and time with my family.

I am currently reading A.T.Mann’s book, A New Vision of Astrology. I am finding his ideas fascinating.  AT Mann was giving lectures at the Rubin Museum in New York this summer which were live-streamed over Facebook.  When I start talking about these topics of interests with people I begin to realize I am getting blank stares and I am beginning to be like that guy in the episode of the Twilight Zone where the guy breaks his glasses and cannot read all of the books, even though time has stopped. This summer I have gradually been learning:  Maybe. I. should. keep. this astrology addiction. to. my. self.  Meanwhile, my quest for learning, my addictive itch is beckoning, “So where is my next fix?”

Now that my Greek Myth class is over I turn to the study of the Ancient Greek Hero through Harvard’s online education programs, at least that is free!  I should be ready to teach my 5th graders all about the Greeks this year.  Will I ever know enough?  Answer: No.  We will never know enough. I will never know enough, and so the addiction grows.

Over the summer I have grown more interested in taking an Astronomy course which would help me for 6th Grade when we come to that subject, but also it will help my understanding of the celestial objects in general.   For that, I may go back to Kepler, which offers an Astronomy for Astrologers course, or I may seek a weekend sky observing workshop in West Texas or Arizona to get fully immersed in sky observing, or both.  Wouldn’t that be fun!?  And now, you really start to see my addiction pattern here.  Time to hop a flight to Vegas so I can earn money for my next fix. (Just kidding, I have never actually gambled to support my addiction.  Yet. )

In November I will go to hear Richard Tarnas’ weekend lecture at the Jung Center ($120). He is the author of several books, Passion of Western Mind and Cosmos and Psyche, which I have been reading this past year.   Cosmos and Psyche is a fascinating study of historical trends of revolutions and how those trends follow a predictable pattern when the outer planets Uranus and Pluto are conjunct, square, opposing, and back to square and conjunct.  This picture of larger time cycles puts a single human life into historical perspective.

This is why my “need to know” qualifies me as a junkie. Again, my poor husband. He is so patient.   Adam Gainsburg called this, “Going on a death march for meaning.” I like that.  I think it is true for me in many cases.  I certainly have been on many a death march for meaning.  There, I admitted it.  At least it helps me laugh at this strange tendency of mine.  This I relate to my Pluto in the 3rd House in Libra and Saturn in the 11th House in Gemini.    My Saturn is square to forceful stellium of Aries in the 9th House, which seeks higher learning and philosophy and Pluto opposes the stellium in Aries in the 9th house.    

I realize that perhaps my continual striving for understanding is not the way to do things and I could somehow take it easy, or make it easier for myself and take things as they come.  That isn’t really my way.  I do like a challenge.  But nonetheless, I am beginning to think about this addiction more and how to transform it, I am  looking for ways to try to try let things just come to me, and not be on such a death march for meaning all the time.  Still, a junkie is a junkie.  Is there a 12 Steps for Astrologers?