I was trained in depth and archetypal psychology. I used its arts for years with my clients, and found much success and satisfaction. I knew Carl Jung, our father in the art, was a closet astrologer - preparing a birth chart for his client before his sessions. Yet he never found the will or courage to come out of that closet and face his peers.
I embraced psychological astrology studying Rudhyar, Liz Green, Arroyo, Huber, Haymaker-Zondag, Sasportas, among others. Yet even while it was more effective than any traditional psychological technique I had been schooled in, ultimately I found it lacking, incomplete, and unsatisfying to the needs of my Soul.
Yet reading the Inner Sky, The Changing Sky, and Steve's other works I saw glimmers, flashes and growing awareness of the power of the birthchart to unlock not the "who we are" but the far more importantly, "why we are." I knew I had to learn more.
Thus began my direct in-person apprenticeship to Steven Forrest. Over the years, I and my fellow apprentices, have watched Steve's understanding and elucidation of a deeper substrate to astrology mature with grace, wisdom, and experience. Steve taught us to see that, "everything in the chart is karma." (pg. 29) Karma was the hidden key to unlock the closet that would allow the sacred art of astrology to come forth and speak directly to the soul.
Steve writes on page 24 of Yesterday's Sky: "I value psychological astrology very highly -- in fact, one could define Evolutionary Astrology as a form of psychological astrology which is integrated with metaphysics. Where a twentieth century psychological astrologer might focus on the dynamics of childhood, the evolutionary astrologer focuses on the childhood of the soul -- prior lifetimes, and issues left unresolved from them. It is a sacred psychology, in other words. But it is also a demonstrable one, grounded in observable, present-life realities."
Evolutionary astrology has come of age with this book. I am so proud and excited that Steven has boldly, courageously, and confidently "come out of the karmic closet" and proclaimed - in no uncertain terms - the metaphysical, sacred foundation and life-force of our art.
My Native American ancestors believed that when you imagine your ancestors and the past...you do not imagine them standing in a long line behind you. Instead, you imagine them standing in a line in front of you. They lead you into a new future.
This book helps us to understand that vision. All our yesterdays are promises of tomorrows. Not in some fatalistic "doomed to repeat the past" mentality...but in the sense that just as our ancestors lead us into the future, our yesterdays/karma can lead us into a more vibrant, fully alive, empowered, and deeply conscious life -- but only IF WE CHOOSE to follow the evolutionary plan our soul has created for us under the guidance and leadership of our ancestors, karma, guardian angels or whatever metaphor you choose.
Steven's profound and brilliant work frees us from seeing the past as shackles that bind us...to seeing our yesterdays as a school of freedom, a sacred school which teaches us to find and embrace our brightest future. "An inherent ambivalence exists in every configuration in your natal chart: it is simultaneously a statement about your soul's pre-exisitng evolutionary condition -- and a formula for advancing beyond it." pg 31
This book, and the techniques it elaborates, can change not only the way you view astrology, but the way you view your life. It is indeed a life-changing book!
I am confidant that one day history will regard this book as one of the great and seminal works of modern astrology, the moment when Astrology finally took its place in the sun as Sacred Psychology...a profound healing art and a clear strong resonant voice for the Soul.