Thursday, February 10, 2011

Conquer The Universe With Steven Forrest!

Back in the 1980s when I was still struggling with many of the concepts of astrology and reading everything I could get my hands on, I had reached the point where I was tempted to give up on it. There were a lot of fine books out there, and I had read a lot of them, but something was missing. I didn't quite know how to define it, but I was frustrated. Then I found "The Inner Sky" by my guest tonight... Steven Forrest... and everything changed.

If you've heard of him and you'll already want to listen to tonight's show...


...10 PM Eastern (7 PM Pacific). And, if not? Read his bio. Then... you'll want to listen.

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Gazing through astronomical telescopes in his early teens led Steven to begin exploring astrology. He received a B.A. in Religion in 1971 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and shortly thereafter began to establish his astrological practice.

In 1984, Bantam Books published his first book, THE INNER Sky. Esquire magazine called it "intelligent, well-written and actually fun." That volume was followed in 1986 by THE CHANGING SKY. In 1988, with his then-new wife, Jodie Forrest, he released the third volume of the popular Sky trilogy, SKYMATES. Steven's fourth book was published by ACS Publications in May 1993. Titled THE NIGHT SPEAKS, it is an extended argument for the intellectual and philosophical plausibility of astrology. His fifth work, THE BOOK OF PLUTO, was released in May 1995. Regarding that book, HOROSCOPE magazine described Steven as "not only a premier astrologer, but also a wise man." The two volume series, MEASURING THE NIGHT: EVOLUTIONARY ASTROLOGY AND THE KEYS TO THE SOUL, by Steven Forrest and Jeffrey Wolf Green, is based on a series of lectures the authors did together. They were co-published by Seven Paws Press and Daemon Press in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, Steven and Jodie celebrated their eighteenth wedding anniversary. Their years together had taught them a thing or two and so they decided completely to re-do their 1988 book on relationships, Skymates, this time in two volumes. Volume One, SKYMATES: LOVE, SEX, AND EVOLUTIONARY ASTROLOGY, came out that same year, and the second volume, SKYMATES: THE COMPOSITE CHART, followed in 2005. In 2004, Seven Paws Press published Rafael Nasser's UNDER ONE SKY, which featured a chapter by Steven. In that project, twelve astrologers were given a woman’s birth information. Each created an interpretation. Chris Lorenz, writing in HOROSCOPE, wrote, “As a perpetual student myself, I wanted to know which astrologer did the best . . . Readers will come to their own conclusions about which astrologer was most on target, but for me, the clearest, most consistently accurate statements were given by Steven Forrest.” Changing pace, in 2002, Seven Paws Press published Steven's first novel, STALKING ANUBIS, a murder mystery featuring astrologer-detective Plato Mims. And in 2008, as the culmination of ten years of research, Steven released his YESTERDAY’S SKY: ASTROLOGY AND REINCARNATION. That book was made possible by a generous grant from the Integrative Medicine Foundation, with which Steven has worked closely for some years. The same Foundation sponsored his writing, THE BOOK OF THE MOON, which was published in September 2010.

Additionally, Steven has written technical articles for most of the major American astrological journals and several national magazines outside the astrological field. He also composed the texts for two popular computerized astrological report writers: "The Sky Within" and "SkyLog," and with Jodie he wrote a pair of relationship reports: "The Sky We Share"and "The Single Sky." All of them are widely available on the Internet. In an effort to bring his choice-centered approach to wider audiences, Steven has also wrote the monthly astrology column for ELLE magazine for a couple of years. He has appeared on many radio and television programs. His work has been translated into numerous languages, and he travels widely throughout the world lecturing on astrological topics although his primary focus is still on his private astrological practice. Most notably, he has taught at Omega Institute, the New York Open Center and the Marion Foundation, and addressed the Fellows at Andrew Weil's program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Steven served on the Ethics Committee of the International society for Astrological Research from 2002 through 2006, helping to write the Code of Ethics that governs professional astrology. He served for many years as Chair of the Kepler College Advisory Council, which is part of an effort to open an accredited astrologically-oriented university in Seattle, WA. Steven is currently leading three ongoing Astrological Apprenticeship Programs, two in California and one New South Wales, Australia. Over four hundred students have passed through this training program.

Steven won the 1985 Professional Astrologers Incorporated Award for "Outstanding Contribution to the Art and Science of Astrology," and was nominated for a United Astrology Congress Regulus Award in 1992, 1995, and 2008.

Of Steven's work, Sting says that he ". . . manages to disarm the sceptic, as well as debunk the charlatanism that surrounds popular astrology, with language that is as intelligent and cogent as it is poetic." DELL HOROSCOPE describes him as "not only a premier astrologer, but also a wise man." Callie Khouri, who wrote the screenplay for the mega-hit film Thelma and Louise praises his "humor, insight, poetry, and astute, articulate observations of human nature."

O: THE OPRAH MAGAZINE describes his philosophy this way: "Forrest's approach . . . stops the blame game in its tracks. . . we're warriors fulfilling our turbulent evolutionary paths." Rob Brezny, in his popular Real Astrology column simply calls him “the most brilliant astrologer alive.” And Robert Downey, Jr. says, “I marvel at the accuracy of Steven’s readings. He insists that nothing is so grave as to be beyond repair, and correspondingly that there is no rainbow that won’t be evaporated by poor judgment in the now. I can’t recommend him highly enough.”

After forty years of living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Steve and Jodie recently moved to the little town of Borrego Springs in the desert of southern California. They live there with their three tyrannical felines, Manda, Clouseau, and Cato, where they entertain themselves with hiking, gardening and making music.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It was a wonderful interview. I got the feeling it was way too short!!

Take care,

David Gil