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Interview:
Erin Sullivan, Astrologer:
A personal glimpse
Part 1 of 2 Parts
by Robbie G. & Rhonda C. |
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This month's interview gives us a personal view into the life and accomplishments of one of Astrology's most prolific and brilliant minds. The legendary Erin Sullivan.
Born in British Columbia, Canada, Erin's parents spent the post war years in Western Canada, while her father studied medicine at Western University, ONtario. Thus, her first four years of life were spent on a university campus - all working toward her father's vocation as a physician, before "defecting" to the USA in 1954. In some subtle way, this point of origin influenced her life, as we shall see. In the following interview, in an ever-gracious manner, Erin gives a glimpse into some of the personal and professional influences that shaped of one of the most gifted minds in modern Astrology.
The Meta Arts: How did you grow yourself as an Astrologer? You have a particularly incredible background with your classical studies, psychological studies, and of course Astrology. What were the steps? What came first
and how did it grow?
Erin Sullivan: That is a good question - it is not often that someone takes astrology up as an entire lifework, as I have done. It is an odd and unusual career, one which I feel is truly vocated, and every so often in the last thirty years, I have looked at myself and thought, "Wow, this is a very strange occupation." When it came time to take full responsibility for being an Astrologer in all ways, I did that with conscious intent, realizing that it was the perfect medium for mind, body and soul. It comprises now the full array of my creativity - my thinking, my practice, my designs and my new personalized reports. I had been reading and studying psychology since my teens, and have always been fascinated by the inner workings of the mind and human consciousness - my curiosity about why people did what they did and my ever present awareness that "there is more here than meets the eye" informs and inspires my ongoing work and research in human behaviour related to astrology and its cycles.
My parents had divorced by the time I was seven, and I moved from California where my father was a doctor, back to BC where I lived with my mother during school terms. So, I was Canadian education but American in many other respects - since California in the fifties was a paradise, I was always dreaming of sun, fun and convertibles (whenever I was not depressed due to the hard childhood I had). My father was a bona fide genius, and an humanitarian - to the dereliction of his paternal love - with a Moon
Uranus conjunction in Aquarius, his "love" was truly his medical practice and given freely to rescuing - a man who I admire tremendously to this day, though he died in 1990. He was an eccentric man, who had an interesting influence on me - because he was brilliant, and eccentric, I didn't realize he was terribly moral and conventional in his own beliefs, and as I matured (or not, as the case might be) into adolescence, my taste and lifestyle was offensive and insulting to him, and we broke off for many years.
However, I inherited his scientific and ever questing mind, but as family dynamics prove out, I broke the circuit on the family destiny level - as not only am I a critical thinker, but also by nature I am a magical thinker! I can do both simultaneously. And, as an astrologer, it was impossible for him to understand at all, how I had "wasted my mind" as he said.
From the earliest days, my earliest memories, I was a metaphysician as well as a female with a mind. This proved to be a problem when I "came into my conscious self" from the age of seven right through the adolescence and into my twenties.
Reconciling the polarities of my parents and my relationship to them both, and the social ethos of the time - the true sixties person that I was - created a revolution in both mind and soul My relationship with the world, was always a bit shocking to me because, like all kids, I truly believed that everyone perceived the world like I did. When I found out that it was not only very different, but sometimes counter, and even revolutionary, it was (and still, today, occasionally is) a shocking disappointment. - what I perceived was often not what was presented.
The Meta Arts: Was that shocking too?
Erin Sullivan: It was very shocking, and it precipitated a whole load of internalization and a lot of acting out in adolescence - many of my age group, my generation were born to break the mold, and did so openly and radically. Though I was not political at all, I realize now that I was involved in a radical political change in society.
My political consciousness has only just arisen at this time in my life, due to the necessity of being conscious of the state of the world and the obvious problems that we young people of the sixties were aware of but couldn't seem to change.
The Meta Arts: When were you first made aware of astrology?
Erin Sullivan:The first turning point was when flying to Los Angeles, at age 16, to visit my father for the summer. In the airport, I went into a bookshop and bought a novel, and little book by Ronald Davison called "Astrology".
I boarded that plane and opened that little book and read it in an hour - and came away from that book with an already imprinted total recall of the symbols of the signs and planets, and the distinct feeling that this was pure recollection for me, not something new and strange. I realized that it would be important for me for the rest of my life, and that this book was incomplete - I would find something more from astrology than I had just read.
I had already been reading Freud, as a teen, babysitting for a psychiatrist. My father too, had the Collected Works of Freud, in his library, but he was cynical about psychiatry (1950's - 1960's) and figured that psychiatrists were quacks. He used to say that they were afraid of real doctoring! Remember it was a time of high experimentalization in psychology, and there was a "mental illness" stigma
The Meta Arts: Yes, we remember that.
(All of us chuckling)
Erin Sullivan: But this is where I was so inclined, by nature and by mind, and it was so discouraging because my father refused to pay for any university education because I was supposed to be a doctor. But, I wanted to go to art school, which I did, and studied painting and history of art. Back to when I read this astrology book - I thought well, now, this is something to think about! It peaked me because I was not too satisfied with the read out on my own sign, it was accurate, but not as psychologically orientated, as I myself was already thinking along those lines of psychology and metaphysical/soulful "meaning" in life.
I was clearly a philosopher from birth - my father once told me when I showed him a children's book I had written, "You never thought like a child when you were a child, and you don't now".... pretty cold but true advice on my children’s book on the phases of the moon.
The Meta Arts: And, you are a Scorpio? No wonder you are such a good researcher!
Erin Sullivan: Yes, and with Mercury retrograde in Scorpio in the twelfth house. I know how to entertain myself. And, I was born to do something radical with my 9th house - with Mars- Saturn-Pluto in the 9th. But because I had a very difficult background, totally bad parenting on both sides, my fascination with psychology - REAL psychology - not as it is taught, but literally, the wisdom of the soul . I was also absolutely fascinated with families, how they work, and why they do what they do, and how people survive and transfer family dynamics and the family legacy.
I loved Dickens and other family stories and all the English lit of the day - Louisa May Alcott, the , if they do. Which is why I developed such a strong work with families, "The Astrology of Family Dynamics". That book is just so important to me, and put a lot of things to rest. I felt it was important for me as a once-child of parents, and now mother of grown daughters and three grandchildren (now) that I do something for families. And, to reduce the guilt and sense of totalitarian responsibility, but heighten the sense of true accountability was what I feel The Astrology of Family Dynamics really contributes. Because it is a book that shows the absolute fact that we inherited from the family of origins a remarkable "duty" or "intent" and destiny that enfolds the entire legacy back through generations.
The Meta Arts: I remember when that book came out- it is almost thrilling.
Erin Sullivan: Thank you. I think it frees a lot of people from guilt - both parents and children of parents - and unwarranted responsibility, but it makes them accountable. And so, yes indeed, I do believe that we are not born a tabula rasa. That we come in to our lives with a
predisposition and a fate, which will unfold in collusion with our culture, the community, the family of origins and their "place" in society.
I have empathy for people who have been victimized, and have always had incredible relationships with people who are in some way impaired or challenged. Sometimes it is due to astounding difficulties, physically or psychologically .
I truly love to work with people in crisis and in life paths that are challenging - because I know they can become better for it. My first real friend in grade three was "deaf and dumb". . .as they said in those days. And, My dear partner and colleague, Howard Sasportas, he was in a wheel chair in the last months of his life, and we traveled to Australia, and to a conference in the States (from London) just before he died.
There was an example of heroism! Also, I once took a friend of mine, a quadriplegic in a wheel chair, to Peru! So I seem to have an empathy with people who are so-called victimized.
The Meta Arts: Does that have anything to do with your Chiron placement?
Erin Sullivan: Well, perhaps it is augmented by Chiron, indeed! I have a Sun/Chiron conjunction just into the twelfth house (square Pluto), and a Moon Neptune conjunction, as well. So, I am deeply sympathetic with people who are wounded; but because they are often people who tend to do the best work, I can help them stabilize and contain their gifts and maximize the healing and productive aspect of "wounding".
Thus I was attracted to astrology because it seemed to answer a level of questioning I had, at a very young age, about why and how people are so uniquely different, found problems with conventional contemporary psychology which corrals individuals into various "types" and models. Worse, still, I have a huge disagreement with the Male Psychiatric model - based on many good case examples.
The Meta Arts: And, to continue with the astrology influences that touched you?
Erin Sullivan: About age 18, I had begun to read Dane Rudhyar. My first serious astrology book was "The Lunation Cycle" - that was when I knew I had found it - "Heureka!".I found a place in my mind and in the universe that I could go that would work to answer the questions I always had, but that no one else could answer.
The Meta Arts: Was most of your Astrology self- taught, or did you study with others as well.
Erin Sullivan: You know, because I was itinerant, in the late 60's, travelling and moving around so much - and also having my daughters very young, I did not spend time in classes or at the odd convention that happened.
The first astrology conference I ever went to was in 1974. In the late nineteen sixties, '66 - '69, I did the light shows in San Francisco for the rock bands at Avalon Ballroom, the Fillmore,and later in LA at the Shrine Auditorium - The Who, The Cream, The Velvet Underground, The Doors, The Dead, you name them I colored their music and environment to enhance consciousness of the moment.
So what with the children, and all that, I was fundamentally an auto-didact - self taught. I read the "Pulse of Life," and "The Lunation Cycle." They were my first two serious astrology books. And, the old standard, now a classic, The Margaret Hone book, "The Modern Textbook of Astrology," from which I taught myself to construct charts from this dinosaur, and found a shorter way to find the Ascendant! Already being cheeky to my elders. So, the scientist in me created a 4-step method instead of a 14-step method to the Ascendant.
As it is often the case,I began to set up people's horoscopes - those of my friends, and family, and they loved it. I would do their charts, and we would talk about it, they would be amazed, and so would I. It just kept going on and on, and I just kept reading.
In the 70's, I went to one class - in the Metaphysical Town Hall, on Mason Street - by an astrologer/witch/psychic named Fritzi Anderson. She taught Astrology classes, but it was that old style venue, where you go up these old, creaky stairs in dark lighting with wafts of incense, and all these brocaded curtains....very strange and weird, but perfect for the times.
(Hysterical Laughter from all of us)
But, I just loved her and I went to just one class and I learned one thing - that Mars in Virgo in the sixth house rules small animals! That is all I remember, and I'll never forget it. But, I bought most books and also met Dane Rudhyar.
When I could, I would take my children to Palo Alto, from the center of the Mission District where we lived in that time, once a week, and attend classes where he would just sit and talk and I would sit and listen and thin "trip out" as I would say then.
The Meta Arts: We have talked to a couple of people who met him, studied under him, and say he was just astonishingly brilliant.
Erin Sullivan: That is true. There's a lot about Rudhyar that people do not know! What we do know generally is that he was a true Renaissance men that we know because of his facility for music, maths, science, literary ability and knowledge and also a metaphysician - in fact, Noel Tyl and opera singer, and astrologer, as you know, sang one of his arias, that Dane Rudhyar actually wrote, for Dane's memorial in Washington, D.C. - to critical acclaim, I might add.
The Meta Arts: So, would you consider him your master teacher?
Erin Sullivan: He was an influence on me because of his way of visioning cycles and the fact that everything is connected to and built upon everything else. In a sense, he thought like me but with knowledge, information and skills - after all, this is what a real teacher is, one who midwifes that which the student already contains.
His work and ideas made sense to me even before I could "formulate" the concept.s In an indirect way he was the first "teacher" for me, and thus, as all firsts are, a true mentor. But, in fact, I feel that anyone that I encountered, in my early days, and even now , is my teacher. And there were a lot of them, but I guess Rudhyar was my "philosophical mentor." He unleashed the capacity to make one believe in the Universe, and in cycles - retrograde timing - and so on.
The Meta Arts: Your books are so unique and so insightful
Erin Sullivan: Thank you. I can only write something I have truly lived, and am passionate about. Then the hard work of finding the "right" way to express that fascination, passion and knowledge is the real work! I have to be able to express it honestly and powerfully, taking into consideration at all times THE READER.
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Erin Sullivan,
Astrologer
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Erin Sullivan is one of the brightest lights in contemporary astrology. She has been integral to the growth of today's astrology, having founded many groups, run symposia, taught for over thirty years and presented at international conferences around the world.
She is Canadian born, and has lived in many cultures - in 1989 she moved to London England where she took on the position of Series Editor for Penguin, Arkana's prestigious Contemporary Astrology Series. Her tutoring for the Centre for Psychological Astrology in London gave birth to two of her books: Where in the World?Astro*Carto*Graphy and Relocation, and Venus and Jupiter: Bridging the Ideal and the Real.
Erin returned to North America in 1998, and continued to teach, write and consult with clientele from all nations. Her three other books are published by Samuel Weiser (now RedWheel/Weiser Publications):
The Astrology of Family Dynamics (a best seller)
Saturn in Transit: Boundaris of Mind Body and Soul,
and her masterpiece, Retrograde Planets: Traversing the Inner Landscape.
Her company, "Southwest Contemporary Astrology" publishes unique personalized astrology profiles - reports - available online on her website's secure shopper!
She now lives and practices and writes in her Rio Grande riverside home in Northern New Mexico.
Erin Sullivan
SOUTHWEST CONTEMPORARY ASTROLOGY Reports online at:
www.ErinSullivan.com
"As the World Turns: Your Personal Solar Return Profile" - a 60+ page booklet with predictive timing and trends for your solar year - fully illustrated with calendars, beautifully written.
"Your Personal Heroic Journey" - a 70 page booklet, illustrated with full interpretations for a lifetime of Saturn Transits - your cycles of growth and development.
Erin Sullivan
223 N. Guadalupe
#168
Santa Fe, New Mexico,
87501-1850 USA
Phone: ( 1 ) 505-983-3211
Ext. 1 for SCA
Fax: ( 1 ) 505-983-3212
www.ErinSullivan.com
for Southwest Contemporary Astrology
Erin Sullivan
erinsullivan@cybermesa.com
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