Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have seriously studied and practiced astrology for more than 50 years. But I didn’t decide to write a book on astrology until I was 66. I’ve now completed three books, two of which are published. And I have a four-book series underway.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My most recently published book is WHERE ALPHA MEETS OMEGA. I’ve always been really interested in the ancient symbolism and mythology at the root of astrology, and I’ve been increasingly interested in bits and pieces of information we are getting about the zodiac from space exploration. I kept trying to find a book that brought it all together and made astrological sense of it, but I couldn’t find it. So I wrote it. And it turns out there is SO MUCH I didn’t know. Writing that book was one of the most amazing and mind-expanding journeys of my life.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
When I have a book in my mind, I have a tendency to just sit down not not get up until a book is finished. I have to force myself to get up every few hours and garden or swim, or sometimes just move around the kitchen cooking. Mind body balance is a lot more than words. They really do fuel each other.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Dane Rudhyar for certain. And Eleanor Bach’s amazing work on the asteroid belt. Marc Edmund Jones, Ivy Jacobsen-Goldstein, Baba Ram Das, Hazrat Inayat Khan, John O’Donohue, Ronald Hutton, Joseph Campbell–some traditional Western astrologers, some Eastern, some Celtic, and then of course, the Myth Master of all.
But honestly, having twin grandsons born one minute apart has influenced me and the way I view astrology more than any book.
What are you working on now?
I’m in the midst of a four-book series called READING BY SYMBOL LIGHT. It looks at astrology in a very different way than “traditional” astrology is taught today in the West. The series focuses on the symbolic language itself, which as it turns out is actually the oldest and most universal language on the planet. The symbols themselves speak. And each person can learn to read–or “see”–an astrological chart in a way that is very unlike memorizing paragraphs of meanings. We don’t have to translate astrology through the French language or the German language or the English language. It’s right there in its own language for anyone to read. That’s what this series is about. The original language.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t promote. I light little fires.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Whatever you do it in life, find joy. And do it more every day.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
To thine own self be true.
What are you reading now?
NATIVE TONGUES by Charles Berlitz and COSMOS AND PSYCHE by Richard Tarnas. I always seem to read in twos.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I need to finish the READING BY SYMBOL LIGHT series. And then I have another book outlined in my head that looks at learning astrology through the study of history, and still another that looks at a meaningful intersection of the Tropical Zodiac and the Sidereal Zodiac. I’d also like to do a series of children’s books that look at ancient goddesses as morality plays because there is so much ancient wisdom in mythology we seem to have lost in popular consciousness. But it’s getting clear to me I’m going to need another lifetime pretty quick to get this all done.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
ANAM CARA and TO BLESS THE SPACE BETWEEN US by John O’Donohue.
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