As Strange as News from Far Harran - Issue #2

In this issue, I am going to extol a subset of my favorite astrologers, and of course keep up with the news.

۩ We get to start with the obvious: Chris Brennan, host of The Astrology Podcast, and pioneer and promoter of Hellenistic Astrology, whose excellent book, Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune, is available wherever fine books are sold.

۩ One of my main teachers, and the first one to bring astrological magic back to the mainstream, Christopher Warnock‘s amazing website is the best single stop for Renaissance astrology. It is, of course, named

۩ A frequent guest on The Astrology Podcast, author of a book on the Decans (36 Faces) and a great anthology on astrological magic (The Celestial Art), Austin Coppock is another “astrologer’s astrologer.” Austin has a stellar gift for finding excellent analogies to illustrate astro-points; he definitely has the astro-poetic power. He’s also co-founder and “Chief Elections Officer” of Caitlyn Coppock’s Sphere&Sundry, the most amazing magical materia store on the Internet.

۩ Gary P. Caton is a teacher, brother, and mentor. His podcast is an excellent source of astrological and magical ideas. You can catch the podcast and other excellent content on YouTube. He’s a leading expert on planetary cycles, especially (as befits a Hermetic astrologer) Mercury. He wrote the book on it, in fact. I probably have more common interests with Gary than I have with anyone.

۩ My local friend Mandi Rae, of Ecstatic Astrology, puts out lots of great content in her weekly newsletters and twice-monthly videos. She’s also a professional musician! Give her a listen. You’ll feel like you’re home. She also gets a lot of credit for me having the stones to go live as a pro now, and she introduced me to the marvelous Organization for Professional Astrology.

Five is a reasonable bite size for recommendations. I have the next five in mind for next issue, yet I don’t think I will be able to stop at ten, however delightfully Pythagorean it would be.

“But thus I counsel you, my friends: Mistrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful. They are people of a low sort and stock; the hangmen and the bloodhound look out of their faces. Mistrust all who talk much of their justice! Verily, their souls lack more than honey. And when they call themselves the good and the just, do not forget that they would be pharisees, if only they had—power.”― Friedrich Nietzsche

Yes, this did come up while investigating a Saturn placement.

Nate may be right, but square charts make my eyes jangle: ;-)

Also, if you want to see my best eyeroll, call me an astrologian.

2021-09-14: Although my orientation is generally traditional, I am interested in whatever astrological techniques work. I’ve been looking into harmonic charts (and the extension of it by David Cochrane called Vibrational Astrology). Sirius 3.0 has a built-in report analyzing the harmonics of a chart. I ran the one for my birth, and thought it hit well enough to pursue further. So, I recruited 25 people to evaluate their own reports. I asked them to rate each item as 1 (no match) through 5 (I strongly experience this).

I got 13 responses. For each one, I counted the items, and calculated a percentage of the maximum possible rating.

Overall, it hit 92%. This is a staggering result.

If you book a natal analysis with me, you get this report, along with a great detailed workup of your influential fixed stars, on top of the usual analysis of planets, signs, houses, and aspects.

2021-09-16: So, years ago, I did some work on myself to remediate the dryness of my temperament…seems to have worked: