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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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The Meta Arts: It really comes through. I remember when I read "Retrograde Planets: Traversing the Inner Landscape" the first time - and I have probably read that book four times - my jaw just dropped. I was just so bowled over by what I was reading.
Erin Sullivan: Oh, If you could see the grin on my face! That book was the love of my mental life - that was my debt to astrology. I was so appalled by everyone's approach to it up to that point, I thought that there had to
be something more to it - I knew there was, and I felt obligated, responsible for the information and the material
and simply had to let people know what Retrograde Motion and the Solar System really was all about - and I managed to do it .
It is a "good read" and also a good reference book. When I realized the elegance of Retrogression, and the interior working of the solar system from the earths' vantage point, I simply was in awe. That Jupiter Retrograde did not mean that you were a drunk in a past life - which I had heard - much crap is said about retrograde planets natally and in transit, I said, "Well that just can't possibly be, because for four months per year Jupiter (for example) is retrogrades every year, and if planets are retrograde for four to five months out of every year, then there certainly has to be something to it besides dreamed up fantasies of bad astrology!!! And, I found it.
None of the material was logical. Even in the popular transit books, whenever one reads about a Sun opposition
to Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune or Pluto, the author NEVER acknowledges that the planet is ALWAYS retrograde, which has a unique meaning - so I corrected a 2,500 year lacuna and misunderstanding in astrology. So I assure you, that when I started to write that book, I had no true idea what it was going to be - it is always
like that with a book. So I spent six months obsessing, calculating, writing and talking, while walking up and down Abbey Road in London, and eating fish and chips at the Sea Shell, with a colleague and friend of mine, Mike Harding - going on and on about that book.
The Meta Arts: Frankly, we're rather amazed that it could be done in six months.
Erin Sullivan: Well, that's how I work. I build up for 20 years, "cook it", really embody the thing, whatever it is,
then I can write about it - and then it just explodes. I just open a vein - it all comes out.
The Meta Arts: That is amazing. Where do the classical studies come in?
Erin Sullivan: Well, in 1985, I had my mid-life aspects - Uranus opposed itself, along with the conjunction of Saturn. That was the Saturn/Uranus conjunction at 25 degrees Sagittarius. But it was also my progressed Sun - 25 Sagittarius. So I had phenomenal mid-life experience.
I had so much fun teaching, going to conferences and being among other Astrologers in the States. But when I had this mid-life crisis, it ended up sending me to university. I had never had that chance till then. I took an Astronomy course - and that was fabulous- but that wasn't "it". Then I took a couple of courses in Greek myth, Greek tragedy and Greek philosophy. That is what turned me around.
I went down to the Classics Department and was standing around in the library, looking at all these books. I thought, "This is it - this is the next step; here is where I seek again answers to the Big Questions." So, I took on classics with a Latin major and Greek philosophy. I read the Tragedies, and I got into psychology from a Jungian viewpoint much more intensively, while realizing that. the Greek tragedy playwrights were the first psychological observers in history.
I knew in the 1980's what I had felt first when I was four years old - that the world was going to come to this huge crashing juncture and it felt familiar, as if it had "happened before" in western civilization. What I found out was corroborative, and familiar because that it has happened before. It happens every 2100 years.
So that was what got me into the Epochal Year Cycles - those being found in the precession of the equinoxes and the 2100 year epochs "ruled" by the astrological/astronomical signs. And that is what got me to a place where I could place the Big Picture in my own mind. It was nothing but mental stimulation - I had an absolute ball! I got along really well with the profs as I was a mature student, with a body of knowledge well in place, which "fed into and augmented" that work - astrology and Jungian psychology!
I went to the Classics Department, headed by a young Archeologist, and told him I my midlifer's sob story of how I was an Astrologer, studied Jungian, and wanted to be a Classics professor. And he said, "Well, you know, you really should stay with the body of work that you are bringing to the classics, because that will serve you better - because first of all, it is very rare for a Classics professor to get a job, and second of all, you are more passionate about what classical studies brings to your already active work!."
I did bring my work to the Classics department, and I honored him for having taught me several things. One of which was to speak good English well. I was already writing articles and such, but they really taught me to write.
When I got the opportunity to go to England, in 1988, to take care of Howard, help by assuming his practice as he was moving toward the downside of AIDS, and tutor for the Centre for Psychological Astrology, which he and Liz Green founded, I fell madly in love with London, and stayed four weeks. I then, went home after getting my first publishing contract with Penguin, and decided to move over there.
I ended up staying in England for ten years. And, I assumed the position for Series Editor for Arkana, Contemporary Astrology (Penguin, Arkana) and ended up publishing some of the greatest minds in our work. I underwent intensive Jungian analysis, and a training program in analyzing, and from all of it, I became different. Or, I should say, a part of me that had lain dormant awoke while there, and changed me for the rest of my life - especially my professional attitude and work in astrology.
The Meta Arts: What do you think created that difference?
Erin Sullivan: Well, inherently, I have a really strong sense of respect for rigor. And I don't mean that in a boring
sense. I actually appreciate the scientific "method", and the process of "defending one's thesis - that is, backing up an idea with a practical explanation - not some fuzzy trip from the air.
Critique is more acceptable in England than the US, for instance. It is not considered to be criticizing if you say to somebody, "Why do you think that? Can you prove that to me?" That is considered to be an engaging beginning of a stimulating and enlightening conversation.
The Meta Arts: So it is a different way of educating?
Erin Sullivan: Totally! My own Canadian education was thus, too. I am not trying to say the English are perfect people, but when it comes to ideas, there is more acceptance of being different - now again, I don't mean that everyone is grinning like idiots, ego is present, but not as frighteningly and unproductively so for astrology, as it has become here - YET!
In North America, and that is Canada included now sadly, there is a strong tendency to be angry with people and decimate them when they think differently. Also the ego need is high, and production and aggression is inbred into the American soul. And, more of a tendency to self-aggrandize and boast and be a "star" - there is no sense of collective harmony or a sense of Astrology as a subject being greater than the astrologer as a star.
I have found the ethos in the USA to be very combative, competitive and alarming for someone as sensitive as myself. I have not this sense of ambition as I see all around me - that doesn't mean I don't want success, a good income and old age security, a home and furthermore, loads of recognition for my work, but that is not the modus operandi underlying my intent and efforts.
So, I learned how to feel pretty secure in my mind while there - Jeff Jawer once told me decades ago that "my
problem was that I thought like a European". I didn't’' know what he meant at the time (mid 1970) but I sure do
now! And, I will always remember him saying that to me. I have a hard Saturn, and this helped me work with that.
The Meta Arts: So, how would you define Astrology, what do you think it should achieve?
Erin Sullivan: Astrology is a tool for making healthy people better, and to help people who are out of touch with them selves and the world around them connect to their deep Self and the Big World. And, within the knowledge of their own soul, to be at ease and confident with themselves. Within whatever situation that they are in.
Astrology can tell people more about the larger picture of the situation they are in, whether it is good or a time of crisis. That's the fundamental. meaning of my own work individually is to link the soul and mind to the "real" self, the practical, workable Self and personality. So that one becomes more "real" within AND without!
Hence, more successful. All my work, writing, teaching, mentoring, editing, counseling and doing astrology for individuals, is toward that end. To bring ecology to the human condition and to improve each one of us - in that way improving the collective. Also, it is the most creative outlet for me, that is the personal perquisite I get - and love.
End Part 1
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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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