An 18th Century Persian astrolabe – maker unknown. The points of the curved spikes on the front rete plate, mark the positions of the brightest stars. The name of each star being labeled at the base of each spike. The back plate, or mater is engraved with projected coordinate lines. From the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge. (Courtesy of Wikimedia)
By Sharon Knight
In my humble opinion, no one can ever be called a Master Astrologer. We are all Students of the Divine Art of Astrology. Every new client and new event teaches us something new. We continue to learn by keeping an open mind and accepting our own shortcomings. As long as we are above ground and warm to touch, astrology will never cease to capture our hearts, our minds, and our soul — in other words, it is alive!
To be a Master of Astrology would imply a deep knowledge and understanding of life as it presents both above and below. To even consider one is on the path to Mastership, one needs to have studied all those who have gone before and left their works to posterity. The works of Valens, Dorotheus, Ptolemy, Manilius, Rhetorious, the Arabic/ Persian astrologers, Bonatti, Morin, Lilly, Gadbury and many many others, not forgetting Hippocrates, Galen, and Culpeper with Medical Astrology, need to be read, understood and applied in the context of the 21st Century. The ART comes in through making predictions before the event and guiding clients to accept and understand their lot in life.
Then there are the fixed stars and comets. There are a few “modern day” astrologers that I would consider to be Masters. The reason I would refer to them as Masters is, despite their achievements, they are aware they still have so much to learn and continue to study and pass on their new findings to others. Robert Zoller, Dr. Ben Dykes, Steven Birchfield, and Oner Doser remain humble in their skill and are every ready to help those who wish to learn this ancient art.
Contributing to Mastery are Dr. Dorian Greenbaum, Meira Epstein, Rob’s Hand and Schmidt, along with Chris Brennan.
Here in the UK, the only people I would say have acquired a Mastery of 17th Century Astrology is first and foremost, Barbara Dunn, Deb Houlding and Sue Ward. Barbara is true to the tradition and shows her understanding consistently and is humble about her immense knowledge. Deb Houlding too has great knowledge and via her publications and incredible website, Skyscript, has done much to further traditional astrology. However, I do feel by mixing the modern planets with the traditional seven, this can lead to a muddying of the waters when imparting the ancient knowledge but I understand the need to appeal to a wide audience and hopefully those who visit Skyscript may eventually be drawn to studying and applying the Traditional methods.
So, to sum up: I don’t believe anyone in astrology can ever be a True Master as Astrology is a lifetime of learning. Those who call themselves a “Master” have by default, ceased to be a Master!
Sharon Knight is one of the most respected astrologers in the world. She is the Chair of the Association of Professional Astrologers International (APAI). In 2016, she, along with Steven Birchfield, was among the very few astrologers who predicted the triumph of Donald Trump in the US Presidential elections. Also in the same year, she was awarded the prestigious “Astrologer of the Year.”
http://www.astrologersharon.co.uk/
First Published in Medieval Astro-Clock 2018