5 weeks (Saturday evenings):
Beginning May 23, 2026
$165 CAD
Online over Zoom.
We may think of the stars as letters perpetually being inscribed on the heavens or inscribed once for all and yet moving as they pursue the other tasks allotted to them; upon these main tasks will follow the quality of signifying…. All teems with symbol; the wise man is the man who in any one thing can read another.
Plotinus, Ennead II.3.7
What is the goal of this course?
Spiritual work is about finding freedom for ourselves and our clients.
Astrology is a family of symbols that can show us how the libidinal energy expresses itself in our lives on multiple levels. Therapists, coaches and analysts can use astrology to help their client make conscious the connections between the archtypes outside themselves and the energies at work within, helping them lead a more fulfilling, successful, integrated life.
What will you learn?
Week 1: Orientation to the Planets
- Introduction to the concept of Astrologer as priest vs counsellor
- Meaning of the planets and their rulerships
- The ancients’ relationship to each planet
- Identifying the planets in your chart
Week 2: Orientation to the Zodiac– Mesopotamia and Egypt
- Astrology from Mesopotamia/Greece to Constantine & Christianity
- Tropical vs. Sidereal Zodiacs, procession of the equinoxes
- The 12 zodiac signs
- Essential dignities of the planets
- Identifying the zodiac signs your planets are in and their dignities
Week 3: Orientation to the Houses
- Astrology from 8th century Islamic empire to 17th century rebirth and decline in Europe
- Overview of different House systems (ie. Placidus vs. whole sign vs. Koch, etc.)
- Identifying which houses your planets are in
Week 4: Orientation to the Aspects and Aspect Patterns
- 20th century Modern astrology and Jung’s contributions to the 21st century astrology
- Major aspects: Sextiles, Trines, Squares, Oppositions, Conjunctions
- Aspect patterns: T-Squares, Grand Trine, Grand Cross, Yod, Mystic Rectangle
- Looking at the aspect patterns in your chart
Week 5: Orientation to the Fate vs Freewill and Ethics
- 1980’s till Now: Resurgence of Hellenistic Astrology
- Fate vs. Freewill discussion- King vs Church,
- The Spiritual Dimension of our Human Experience: Mindfulness and Manifestation
- Ethics of using Astrology with clients
- Bringing your chart reading together
Alchemy is inconceivable without the influence of her elder sister astrology, and the statements of these three disciplines [mythology, alchemy, astrology] must be taken into account in any psychological evaluation of the luminaries [Sun and Moon].
Carl Jung, CW 14, para. 222
Over the course of five weeks, you will:
- understand how to navigate your own chart
- discover the ways to see blockages and trouble spots in a client’s chart
- understand how un-integrated planets carry our projections
- see examples of character analysis used alongside astrology
- develop an approach of curiosity toward your clients’ chart and planetary placements.
- have a better understanding of what’s involved in the fate vs freewill discussion and its history
- be able to navigate a conversation around house systems
“As I am a psychologist I’m chiefly interested in the particular light the horoscope sheds on certain complications in the character. In cases of difficult psychological diagnosis, I usually get a horoscope in order to have a further point of view from an entirely different angle. I must say that I very often found that the astrological data elucidated certain points which I otherwise would have been unable to understand. From such experiences I formed the opinion that astrology is of particular interest to the psychologist.”
Carl Jung in a letter to Indian astrologer Bangalore Venkata Raman, 1947.
Optional Materials
Materials for this study group are optional, not required. I will send you the slides for the class after each session.
- Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene, The Astrologer, the Counsellor and the Priest
- Liz Greene, Jung’s Studies in Astrology: Prophecy, Magic, and the Qualities of Time
- Kylea Taylor, The Ethics of Caring
- Chris Brennan, Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune
- Carole Taylor, Astrology: Using the Widsom of the Stars in your Everyday Life
Who is this for?
This study group is for you if you:
- are a coach, therapist, Jungian analyst, or another type of counsellor who sees themselves using astrology with their clients
- are curious about how astrology can help people improve their lives
- are willing to share some of your reflections with the group
- want help navigating discussions and controversies around astrology
Who is leading this?
My name is Erin, and I “discovered” Astrology in the mid-2010’s when I was waiting for my cello lesson and reading my horoscope: it said that I would double-book myself that week. Well, I ended up triple-booking myself that week and my antennae went up and said, “Hmm, maybe I should look into this a bit more.” I did casually, but it wasn’t until 2019 when I really became serious about studying Astrology. I learned about the Enneagram in 2010 when I was considering becoming a nun and to this day, I consider it the most brilliant moment of my life when I learned my type, it was so helpful. I had been quite angry growing up and I was lost as an adult, and the Enneagram helped me learn how to nagivate my inner turmoil. I love both modalities so much and I find they come together beautifully in Jungian thought and mindfulness.
In February, 2026, I started being challenged on my understanding of fate vs. freewill because without giving clients tools to improve their lives, astrology can be a lot of delivery of bad news, and we want to give people tools and hope. Mindfulness has always been a tool of mine, but is mindfulness enough to help us live satisfying lives? It was for [one of my favorite spiritual teachers] George Gurdjieff who said that mindfulness is how we get from sleepy machine on automatic pilot to awake aliveness, and I agree with him. However, as I was moved to watch over 80 Near Death Experience videos within a month, I saw how over and over, Near Death Experiencers came back and said how much they learned from their “conversations” on the other side how our thoughts create our reality, and how important it is to guard our thoughts. I realized that as astrologers, in addition to mindfulness, we also have an important role with clients to help them understand how to use a healthy and grounded manifestation practice to get what they want out of life, just as much as they need to understand the reality of their chart.
In 2025, I quit my job at a financial firm to do Astrology and Enneagram work full-time. I have a degree in Political Science from the University of Regina in Saskatchewan and a degree in Intercultural Studies from Providence College in Manitoba. I’m currently the secretary-treasurer for the Canadian chapter of the International Enneagram Association. If you’re interested in gently poking and prodding the planets in your chart and learning how to do the same for your clients, I warmly welcome you to study with me.
Jung’s understanding of the zodiacal images as imaginal projections by the human unconscious, generated through an intuitive understanding of the qualities of cyclical time, reflects his insistence on an interior approach to astrological symbols. The planetary ‘gods’ are found within, and can only be dealt with on a psychological level by the individual.
Greene, Liz. Jung’s Studies in Astrology: Prophecy, Magic, and the Qualities of Time
How do I Generate my chart?
Open an account at either astro.com or astro-seek.com. Here are the instructions.
When are we meeting?
The first class is Saturday, May 23, 2026 at 8:00 PM EST over Zoom. The first session will start a little late (8:03 PM). The rest will be at 8:00 PM.
1.5 hours each meeting
Time Zone Conversion:
5:00 PM PST=
7:00 PM CST=
8:00 PM EST
Join the Class for $165 CDN
E-mail erin at psychology and you dot ca to add your name and I will send you the next steps to transfer the payment.
*[Sometimes] Difficult but Rewarding: Finding your Enneagram Personality Type
Finding your Enneagram gives a BIG boost to integrating the planets in your astrological chart. When you see yourself wholistically and understand that your disparate, unintegrated planets make sense and you see the internal logic that you’ve been operating on, however flawed, you can have a much greater compassion yourself. When you learn your type, the Enneagram gives you a personalized map of emotional intelligence growth specific to your personality type, which also helps you get more out of your astrology sessions. To find out your type, you can do an Enneagram test. There are lots of “free” versions online that surprise you with a charge at the end, but one of the original and most well-known tests is the RHETI test, and it is USD $20. It takes about 40 minutes to complete. A test can only do so much, though; ultimately, your observation practice of your reactions and mental, instinctual, and emotional patterns will help you find your type more than a test will. To start finding your type for free, you can peruse these short descriptions here or here. The Chestnut-Paes team have a good overview on youtube here.
Quotes
Astrological symbols as psychological impulses
“The sun, moon, and planets were the exponents, so to speak, of certain psychological or psychical constituents of the human character; and this is why astrology can give more or less valid information about character… The religious mysteries of later antiquity were all concerned with freeing man from the Heimarmene, in other words, with freeing him from the compulsive quality of the foundations of his own character.”
Carl Jung, Modern Psychology, Vol 5-6, pg. 120
Alchemy
“In the Middle Ages, the work of alchemy was to produce gold from base metals. There were charlatans trying to make actual gold, but the best alchemists were those working with the gold of the spirit.”
Robert A. Johnson, Inner Gold
Owning our Shadow
“Any repair of our fractured world must start with individuals who have the insight and courage to own their own shadow. Nothing “out there” will help if the interior projecting mechanism of humankind is operating strongly. The tendency to see one’s shadow “out there” in one’s neighbor or in another race or culture is the most dangerous aspect of the moden psyche. It has created two devastating wars in this century and threatens the destruction of all the fine achievements of our modern world. We all decry war but collectively we move toward it. It is not the monsters of the world who make such chaos but the collective shadow, to which every one of us has contributed.
Robert A. Johnson, Owning your own Shadow
The planets represent the various “I’s” we identify with
“Planets are enormous beings, and have relations between themselves as people do. They are reactions, tensions. They vary in shape and form, but their revolving in space causes them to appear as spheres. They communicate by emanations- a pure force which does not operate through and by means of matter; and by radiations- which operate through and by means of matter. … In very ancient times, priests, who were then men of understanding, knew how to organize religious ceremonies on a vast scale so as to use the forces of the tension. … We ourselves as individuals are subject to these tensions, we get out of sorts, irritable, rash, and find ourselves doing and saying things that we afterwards regret. How often a person pursues a certain course under the influence of one of his I’s, completely identified, oblivious of everything else; and then, with a start, as it were, he comes to himself, wakes up, and is horrified with the realization of what he has been doing. Examples of this, from the comic and merely irritating to the tragic, are to be seen every day. … This is the result of the influence of the planets….”
Orage’s commentary on George Gurdjieff’s writings.
The Client’s Unconscious Attributions of Power to the Astrologer
“…. Whatever our affinities, we would be wise to remember our ancient roots, for they are still with us and are sometimes contrary to the role in which we presently see ourselves. Not only do we lose a rich and valuable sense of belonging to an ancient and continuous tradition if we disregard those roots; we also remain unconscious of their reffect on us and our clients.”
Liz Greene, The Astrologer, the Counsellor and the Priest