Number One Tip for Astrology Students!
Speak Out!
The most important thing you will do in your learning is to learn to speak aloud what you learn, as you learn it!
Think about this! How do people successfully learn a new language? What language would you try to learn with your head quietly stuffed in a book?
You would not! You speak it – over and over again… repeat after me!
There are things to think about when you decide to learn a new language. Consider carefully your true level of motivation, your interest and passion for the language you have chosen and what you intend to do with it.
Think about the process of learning a language!
Let’s say you decide to learn Spanish. You buy the books, you read, you write and if you work at it long enough, you may even begin to think in Spanish.
Now, imagine yourself waking up one morning to find your self in a coffee shop in Madrid. You order your favorite frappuccino, or out on the street, you ask a local person for directions. They look at you with an expression that you recognize as a combination of pity and disgust. Ugh, suddenly you realize that your skills of reading, writing or thinking in Spanish will not assist you in communication with the people who use and live with this language every day!
Now what?!
Now you must go back and relearn what you have ingrained in the pathways of your mind. You have the symbols and the meaning behind the symbols in your thinking! It is a tough blow to realize that you can not communicate with what you have learned!
How much easier would it have been to speak the language right from the beginning?
The best way to learn any language is to have a teacher, to have someone there to correct your pronunciation and to talk with you over and over until the words and the symbols connect in such a way that you can communicate easily. Without a teacher at least spend the time speaking aloud what you are learning, every day, even if you are alone in front of the mirror!
This is the first thing I tell my students!
Talk to your friends (if they will listen), talk to your cat, talk to yourself – aloud! Whatever you do, speak the words! Develop that connection between the symbols and the words.
It is great to look at a horoscope and understand the story that it speaks. Please, understand how little use it is to understand the story, if you are unable to share what you see in any meaningful way.
If you make this connection – the words to the symbols, the symbols to the words your ability to share and articulate your understanding will truly be of use to yourself and others!
I began my study of astrology with my first introduction to the language in 1968. I began earnestly teaching myself with my first serious astrology book “Your Sun Sign as a Spiritual Guide” (by J. Donald Walters) in 1976. I began a more formal study with my first correspondence astrology course (School of Planetary Studies with Mark Learner) in 1987. I was afraid of the criticism and judgment of the people in my life during those years and astrology became a very private, solitary study for me. I read everything that I could get my hands on. I learned how to cast charts by hand in the late 70’s and by 1989 I had my first computer program that would cast charts for me.
I was thrilled with all that I had learned and what I was able to understand when I looked at a horoscope. I loved how it helped me to understand and appreciate people in ways I would never have been able to otherwise.
It was a deep disappointment to realize that I was unable to do much with my knowledge. When I finally felt ready to share my knowledge I discovered that I had not learned to attach the spoken words to the symbols I knew so well!
I survived this difficulty, I learned from it. I understood that my knowledge was not worth very much if I kept it closed up within my own mind. I began to speak, I had to go back and relearn so much. It took some years to catch up with myself! I tell myself that perhaps my understanding is deeper because of this process that I struggled through.
However, if I could go back to those early years and give myself one piece of advice it would be this:
PUT THE WORDS AND THE SYMBOLS TOGETHER, FROM THE BEGINNING, ALOUD! TRANSLATE WHAT YOU SEE & UNDERSTAND – ALOUD! YOUR ABILITY TO PUT THIS KNOWLEDGE TO ANY PRACTICAL USE DEPENDS ON IT!
Follow Us!