Our advice to you

How to learn good astrology and from whom?

There are many different ways of learning astrology, but what you want to ensure is that when you put your precious time into doing so, you are not wasting it by learning rubbish. As with anything, there are  good ways to learn and there are some really bad ways.

Let’s look first at some ‘what-not-to-do’ ways.

What-Not-To-Do… Chat Groups on the web

Chat groups on the web can be fun, but recognize the people who seem to be the authoritative voice in these groups are probably only known within these groups. If they did really have a voice in professional astrology, then they would not have time to hang out on the groups. They would be busy lecturing at conferences, writing books, teaching students, and doing astrological consultations. Indeed, the more a person is active on a chat group, the less time they will be spending doing of the all-important work of the professional astrologer: studying, teaching, writing, and consulting. Be wary of the opinions of the chat-group ‘authority’.

What-Not-To-Do… The quick learn, make-money-fast type of astrology school.

You know this sort of school. They are all over the web and promise you lots of work as an astrologer. The reality is that if you are interested in astrology for making easy money, then we suggest that you study accounting, law or plumbing but not astrology! It takes years to become a competent astrologer – not weeks or even months – and it can then take more years to build up a good client base. Later, on this page, we will give you tips on how to find a good astrology school, and there are many, but none of them promise you silly things.

Astrology is a vocation, not a career choice. You may be able to turn your vocation into a career choice as you become more knowledgeable in the subject, but even then it is not work that is necessarily going to make you financially rich. It does have many, many rewards, but in a nutshell, pursuing astrology because of a love for the subject rather than because of your material needs will give you far greater riches in terms of personal satisfaction.

What-Not-To-Do… Learning from someone who has no astrological credentials

Sometimes it can be tempting to learn from that ‘friend-of-a-friend who is just around the corner’. In such cases, many people find that after two years of lessons and out-of-pocket weekly classes held in someone’s living room, they are none the wiser about how to actually ‘do’ astrology: how to read someone’s chart, what professional astrologers term ‘delineation’. This fundamental skill is where the professional astrologer picks up a horoscope and begins to talk at great length in a clear and focused manner about what makes that person tick. This is delineation. Isn’t this the heart of what you want to learn? Yet many people find that all they are left with is a pile of different techniques and a raft of endless books.

Computers can spit out computer reports which, if they are written by good astrologers, can be a good learning tool. However, after two years of classes from a poor teacher, all your hard work may amount to less than what a computer report can do in one minute flat!

Learning any skill takes time and bad habits can creep in which can seriously impede your ability to become a good astrologer. Like learning a musical instrument, it is always wise to start in the right place if you want to learn to play more than just a few simple tunes. A poor teacher can actually prevent you from ever learning how to delineate a chart or, in our analogy, to conduct the full orchestra. But we are getting ahead of ourselves and later, on this page, we will expand on the order of learning all the different parts of astrology.

Good ways to learn astrology

Learning from good astrology books

A simple approach is to go to your favourite online or real bookshop and look at astrology books that you like. Note the author and the publisher. With authors that you do not know, read a few pages to see if you like or can understand what they are saying. Look also at the ‘About the author’ or look them up on the web and read their CV. What you are looking for is previous publications, teaching qualifications, membership of professional organizations, and so on. Take the time to find the authors that you like and who have already received good book reviews (you can find these on the web). When you are happy with this author, note their publisher and see what other astrologers they have published. A good publisher with a stable of authors will not publish an inept astrologer. Publishers have standards and any new author generally has to fight hard to get their book accepted for publication. So a good publisher has already completed a lot of your selection work for you. They have already selected what they think is the best.

Remember, also, if you are on a tight budget, you may well be able to get these books from your local library (such places do still exist!) or second hand. If they do not have them on the shelves already, most libraries will get them in for you as an inter-library loan. If the library cannot get the books in for you, you do not need to buy them new. There are many web sites now which sell second hand books for a fraction of the price. Once you have your wish list of books, type ‘second hand books’ into Google and pick book suppliers in your own country to save on postage.

Learning from the House Kit & Studyshops

Yes, these are Astrologos products and, yes, you can buy them from this web site. We mention them here, however, because they are a unique product created with your needs in mind and produced to our high standards. They are designed specifically to give you tight, focused, packaged information. You can explore them by clicking here.

We’ve called them Studyshops because they are a cross between going to a full-day workshop (each Studyshop contains between three-to-five hours of audio files) and being able to study at your own pace in your own home with masses of written and visual support material contained in the one package.

You can download a Studyshop – there are some free samples – and once you unzip it, you play this on your computer. They use your browser (the software you are using now to look at this web page) to show you the pages and listen to the lectures.

Studyshops allow you to self-study and gain access to some of the world’s recognized and acclaimed top professional astrologers for only a small outlay. We are proud of them and thousands have been sold to astrologers all over the world from the mountains of China to the urban depths of New York City.

Our Online Course

We also offer Online Courses. Some of these offer you tutor involvement with a Q & A session while others will offer you a series of video lectures on a particular theme what will help you sharpen your astrology.  You can view our list of current available Online Courses here.  

Steps to learning astrology… the order of subjects

One of the problems students have is not knowing the order in which to learn things. If you picked up a musical instrument, would you try and play a complicated piece straight away? No, you wouldn’t – but it is amazing the number of people who think they can learn astrology by working with whole charts straight away – planets, houses, signs, and so on. It’s the fast track to going absolutely nowhere.

Students in their frustration keep adding more and more points to their charts in the hope that something will give them the blinding flash of understanding. It wont, it doesn’t, and it never has done. This may have happened to you and what does occur is that you move into a thicker and thicker fog of confusion.

What we have found by working with thousands of students and teaching astrology for many years is that the slower approach gives the fastest understanding. We know this because here at Astro Logos, for over thirty years we have produced fine, professional, consulting astrologers, as well as those who contribute by teaching, writing papers, and developing and selling astrological software. A methodical path, making sure that each step is understood before moving on, allows you to begin to read a chart faster and will give you the blinding flash of understand as the chart begins to ‘talk’ to you. Slower to start with, but quicker in the end.  It really is like the Tortoise and the Hare. Be slow and get there first.

So what is this slow approach? Here is the pathway we have worked out for students which we have fine-tuned and altered over the course of thirty years to enable students to get the best results. This is the pathway that will enable you to delineate charts like a professional:

Step 1: The Zodiac

Many beginners think they know the zodiac, but they don’t. The Zodiac forms the basis of astrology, and everything else – the houses, the planets and chart delineation – is placed into it. Engaging with the zodiac and understanding the role it plays in your daily life gives you the vital foundation to reading charts. 

Keeping this most important and often neglected area of astrology in mind, we have taken our special tutorial classes on this subject and put them into our very first Tutorial Series Studyshop – The Zodiac: Urban Tribes. This is designed to quickly and easily give you a good, in-depth understanding of the twelve signs. It does this by linking the twelve signs to what you already know about your world, your friends, and your life. Take one day of your precious time and spend it with this Studyshop and by the end of that day you will have a good understanding of the zodiac. More importantly, you will have begun your journey of learning astrology from your environment, empirically, not just theoretically, seeing living astrology in your everyday life and learning from it. The Studyshop of The Zodiac is available now.

Step 2: The Angles and The Houses

The Houses Studyshop places the twelve signs of the zodiac into your own chart and allows you to personalize what you have just learnt about the zodiac signs. The signs on the cusps of the angles of the chart (the Cross of Matter), give you an understanding of how you are seen by others and what you expect from a partner, as well as your concept of house and home and your status in the world, what you seek from work or a profession. The signs on the other eight houses allow you to understand how and why you use different approaches to different areas of your life. This Studyshop is now available and even if you do not want to engage with any of our Studyshops, this is still the next topic that you need to learn.

Step 3: The Planets and The Luminaries

These are placed into the zodiac inside houses. That is why you first need to learn how to read the information without planets before you rush ahead and add this next component to your astrology. The planets and the luminaries teach you about your pathway in life, what you need emotionally to feel safe, how you think, how you network and relate to other people, what motivates you, how you learn, how you take responsibility, how you define yourself as different from other people, where you need to have clear boundaries and integrity in your life, and how you undergo change. Avoid rushing through learning about the planets. When we teach students in a classroom they study astrology for SIX MONTHS before they get to engage with a planet. Remember – slow is better than fast! You can get this information from the Planetary Kits we advertise on our website.

Step 4: Aspecting, Simple Aspect Planetary Patterns and Grand Aspect Patterns

The next step is to tie the planets and luminaries in your chart together and you do this by what is known as aspecting. Aspecting is the way the planets and luminaries ‘talk’ to each other and modify each other, so that the simple meanings of the planets that you have just learned become more meaningful to you personally.  This is where you will be beginning to engage in what is known as delineation, Astro Logos has a unique onlne course focused on these first steps in delination, and you can check this out on this link  

Step 5: Delineation

Now you can start looking at the patterns of your whole chart, understanding the three-to-five major themes on which your chart rests. Finally, you will be able to read the narratives written into your chart and to be better able to understand who you are and why you act in the way that you do. We strongly suggest that you work through the above topics first before you encounter the information contained in the two Studyshops we have available on natal chart delineation, both by Darrelyn Gunzburg: ‘Delineation, Unfolding the Story within your Chart’ and ‘An Advanced Guide to Chart Reading: Finding Your Personal Stories’. Indeed these Studyshops are the only educational item that we know of available anywhere that actually addresses this all- important astrological skill.

We also have Online courses focused on how to read a chart, these vary in their availability but you can see the current courses here. 

Step 6: Predictive Astrology

One of the best kept secrets, or maybe it is one of the points that most astrologers never learn, is that you can only predict the future once you know what the chart inherently contains. You can only be alerted to the long and short cycles, the seasons of your life, once you know how to delineate a chart.

We have a Studyshop on this by Bernadette Brady, the author of ‘Predictive Astrology: The Eagle and The Lark’ (Samuel Weiser 1998, republished in 2022 as a Weiser Classic Edition). In this Studyshop – ‘Predictive Astrology’ – you will learn about fate and freewill, how to construct Time Maps, and how to read them for yourself and for clients. If you do not wish to engage in the Studyshop, you can always buy the book (readily available from Amazon) and slowly work your way through each chapter.

We also off an extensive series of Online Courses on Predictive Astrology – click this link to see our current courses. 

Remember: only once you have a good understanding of natal chart delineation and predictive astrology should you even think about going on to learn other astrological techniques. Piling new techniques onto your plate without first understanding these basic astrological tools does not clarify anything and is only guaranteed to cause you confusion and despair.

Astro Logos can teach you advanced predictive work as well as advanced delineation skills once you have the basics under your belt. So, too, can other good teachers of astrology. What is most important is that by the time you can delineate a chart and do predictive work, then you will also have the skills to move on to other more specialised techniques. At Astro Logos, apart from advanced delineation and predictive skills, we also have the following study kits available:

• Relationships: The Astrology of Partnerships
• How to read the charts of Children and Families
• The Astrology of Time and Space
• Weft and Weave: Astrological Techniques

If you want to learn formally to gain astrological qualifications, how do you choose a good astrology school?

There are many different astrology schools with extremely good teachers. There are also those who are not so good. They may be well-intentioned, but they not only teach their students sub-standard information, they also teach it poorly. So how do you find a good school if you are looking for one?

Here is our suggested check-list to follow so you will not be wasting your time and money when selecting a school.

1. Are the teachers qualified?

Do they have qualifications which are recognized nationally or even better, internationally? How long have they had those qualifications?

Does Astro Logos fit these parameters?

Yes. Both of us at Astro Logos hold FAA Diplomas – Bernadette Brady since 1987 and Darrelyn Gunzburg since 1988. Bernadette Brady holds an MA in Cultural Astrology and Astronomy from Bath Spa University (UK) and a PhD from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David on the role of fate within contemporary astrology. Darrelyn Gunzburg holds a BA (Hons) from the Open University (UK) and a PhD from the University of Bristol on the role of medieval astrology in the fresco scheme of the medieval law courts in Padua, Italy.

We use these qualifications to set the benchmarks of everything we undertake in our professional life. 

2. How long have those teachers been teaching successfully?

You do not want to be someone’s ‘guinea pig’. Look for a school with a track record.

Astro Logos was formed in 1990 in Adelaide, Australia, and taught students over the course of 12 years, through face-to-face classes and through Open Learning.

In 2002 the school relocated to the UK and until July 2014, operated as a graduate school only, teaching all its classes online through Open Learning to those students who already had a basic knowledge of astrology.

Now Astro Logos offers  online self-study courses for those who wish to encounter an astrological technique for the first time through Studyshops, or to polish their already solid astrological knowledge through short courses.

3. Has the school put a consistent number of students through a recognized examination system?

This will quickly tell you if the school’s teaching methods actually work.

Since the formation of Astro Logos in 1990, we successfully put over a thousand students through the FAA (Federation of Australian Astrologers) examination system. From 1998-2009 our students graduated through the A.G.E. (The Astrological Guild of Educators) Int. examination system. Finally from 2010-2014, we offered our  students the Astro Logos Diploma and Advanced Diploma of Astrology. All of these examination systems upheld the same rigour and high standard of accomplishment.  Many of our graduates have gone on to teach their own astrology students and set up schools of astrology. Two have set up a successful international astrological software company.

4. Do those teachers continue to upgrade their knowledge?

This is a most important question as it will quickly tell you if the teachers are presenting their work beyond their own school. Needing to present to one’s peer group of the professional global astrological community means that teachers keep learning and polishing their own astrology.

We at Astro Logos lecture regularly at international conferences and have published dozens of articles over the years in recognized astrological journals such as the ‘AA Journal’, ‘Culture and Cosmos’ and ‘The Mountain Astrologer’, to name a few.

The two principals and tutors of Astro Logos have written four ground-breaking books published with recognized astrological publishers: ‘Predictive Astrology: The Eagle and The Lark’ (Samuel Weiser, 1998) and ‘Brady’s Book of Fixed Stars’ (Samuel Weiser, 1999) written by Bernadette Brady, and ‘Life After Grief: An Astrological Guide to Dealing with Loss’ (Wessex Astrologer, 2004) and ‘AstroGraphology’, written by Darrelyn Gunzburg. Bernadette Brady has co-authored two major astrological software programs: JigSaw and Starlight. Both have co-authored ‘Restoring the Heavens to Astrology: Visual Astrology Chronicles 2005-2006’ (Astro Logos Publishing 2010), the latter based on the seven years of monthly newsletters – The Visual Astrology Newsletter – testing the predictions of the letters of the  Assyrian astrologer/ priests to their king in 7th century BCE with contemporary world events.

These are all serious points to consider when selecting your astrology teacher, for they will be your guide and mentor for several years and you need to establish a respectful relationship where you can be taught and they can teach.

What Courses does Astro Logos Offer?

We offer ongoing self-study Online Courses.

Remember, a true teacher has the gift of generosity of their knowledge, wisdom, and spirit.

We hope this page has helped you in your desire to learn astrology. It is a wonderful subject and learning it should be a thing of joy for you not, as so many find, a pathway of confusion. So in summary: good books, Studyshops, a slow, methodical approach, and finding a good teacher or school lies at the heart of becoming a professional astrologer.

Welcome to the journey! You are not alone and it is a pathway that astrologers have all been walking for at least three thousand years. If you have any questions then please feel free to contact us