A friend just wrote to me and asked me how one learns astrology — or rather, how she can. I just wrote this reply and will post it for the benefit of all who are curious.
Hi…
I may not be the best person to ask. I learned the work after seven years pre-preparation of spiritual training and therapy. Then I began a process of reading, writing and adopting mentors. I learned because I was on a mission, responding to a calling. I use the same basic method to guide my learning process today.
I think the single most important thing someone can to do learn astrology is go to therapy. No matter what comes out of the clients or the charts, you have to be aware of the issue yourself and know how to handle it in the client.
I have my teaching method for astrology itself (not counseling, I do teach that professionally but that is another matter), which involves starting with basic writing and mundane (news/event) astrology. I want my students right in the soup, working in realtime, on non-personality oriented charts (i.e., initially mostly on events, not natal).
One learns this craft by doing it, basically, every hour of the day. Mentorship is also important, but there are a lot of frauds out there, and people who are waaaay to cerebral about the work in my view, or driven by will-to-power, to use a term from Alice Baliey. Astrology is a human skill in the first instance; a little goes a long way. The better question than how to learn astrology is how to use what you know, as you learn it.