by Sam Reynolds, president of the International Coalition of Astrology Educators
As an astrological educator, I’m concerned about contributing to quality astrological education. Since 2020, COVID-19 has changed the landscape of our astrological community for the better and the worse. Some changes are disturbing, and some are encouraging. Let’s celebrate what’s better.
What’s getting better?
For starters, there are more opportunities for lovers and students of astrology to learn astrology from a broad range of global educators. Our community has also considerably grown in diversity and number, whether we mean virtually, in-person, or hybrid conferences and gatherings. The global COVID lockdown prompted everyone to think about how they conduct business, and astrologers were no exception. Many astrologers thrived financially from having a more extended reach than ever. But that also brought some downsides.
What can be improved?
Many who had only studied astrology for several months or even a few years felt comfortable starting their practices online. Of course, as there are no universal or global requirements or certifying mandates for becoming an astrologer, this is perfectly legal, and some have been responsible and ethical practitioners. However, many have not.
Although there have been many calls to create certifying standards and requirements in the field, like other disciplines such as acupuncture, psychotherapy, and other helping professions, I’m unconvinced that’s the central issue to discuss or, even if that’s a viable pathway for astrologers. It would be a herculean effort to convince local, municipal, and national governments to honor and respect such standards, considering astrology is often greeted and treated as pseudoscience. I view that as a “them” problem rather than an “us” problem for astrologers. So, I’ll save that topic for another essay. The critical issue over which we have more control within our community is quality astrological education and educators.
Quality education in astrology means acknowledging that there are core competencies and standards along the various branches and schools of astrological thought upon which astrologers can generally agree. For instance, an evolutionary astrologer will have a different perspective on what the Lunar north and south nodes mean from a Vedic astrologer or a traditional Western astrologer. But all would likely be able to agree on how to identify what the nodes are and their astronomical natures related to the ecliptic.
As educators, it’s even more critical that we have instruments and tools such as quizzes, exams, homework, essays, presentations, and other ways to measure students’ demonstrable growth. That’s sorely missing in our community.
Education by Organizations vs. Schools
For almost three decades, the astrology community has looked to organizations like The Astrological Association, NCGR, ISAR, OPA, AFA, the Federation of Australian Astrologers, and others globally to address the issue of quality standards in astrology. However, serious dilemmas have surfaced with their methods and work in the last four years.
One key problem for these organizations is that they each offer certifications with training and exams. Still, there are only a few times when any of them recognize the credentials or certifications of the other. For instance, my three levels of certification with NCGR meant little to nothing when going through the certification process for an ISAR-CAP (Certificate of Astrological Proficiency). I believe much is the same with the other orgs. Perhaps the one exemption that I know of is that OPA will recognize competencies from ISAR’s Consulting Skills. What’s more is that the testing is primarily available in English, though there are more recent and growing efforts to offer it in other languages.
Another growing issue is that these organizations are becoming more involved in astrological education, though not formally schools themselves. Organizations have always offered astrological education, research, and fellowship. Almost all of their mission statements mention this. However, since the pandemic, nearly all organizations have accelerated their educational offerings via online conferences, webinars, and workshops. Many educators are quality and qualified astrologers, but the issue is that there’s no accountability with the courses and classes offered.
Assessing Learning
Many may think they have been given an astrological education, and they have on some level. Still, the consumers/students of these classes don’t have anything that accounts for their learning. This accounting seems to only happen with formal courses offered by independent educators and schools, and that may not always be the case. Plenty of educators strive to meet the demand of a growing number of people wishing to study astrology but don’t provide any assessment tools like homework, exams, presentations, etc., to gauge a student’s proficiency with what they’ve studied. However, many practitioners have taken these courses and perhaps even used the information and techniques learned at these organizations’ events without any external validation that they’ve learned well what they’ve been taught.
Finally, organizations are often unable to do as much for independent schools and educators and can even do some inadvertent harm. Although independent astrological scholars and educators, even some with schools and courses of their own, offer classes and courses with organizations, these organizations don’t work in tandem with these schools and educators for tangible mutual benefit.
ISAR has long had an affiliate program for astrological schools and educators. When I was on the ISAR board, ISAR changed its school affiliate program from a free service to a paid one with some expectant “benefits and rewards.” ISAR asked for $1000 to stay an affiliate over two years. This was a direct conflict of interest for me as an astrology college board member. I knew my school, the International Academy of Astrology, couldn’t pay that fee, nor should it. ISAR’s website, which it lauded as a benefit for schools to promote them, was in flux and then went down for several months because of ISAR’s internal challenges. Ultimately, ISAR reneged on much of its promised benefits to the few schools who had paid to play. Fortunately, ISAR has abandoned its affiliate pay-to-play scheme but is still offering its affiliate schools program.
According to its website, its school affiliate program still positions ISAR as the bedrock for schools to support and expand rather than the reverse.
After all, for ISAR’s competency exam, test-takers once had to qualify to sit for the exam by demonstrating they had taken courses of study with an educator or at a school. I’m unsure whether ISAR will keep up with this practice.
Regardless, the schools don’t singularly exist to bolster one exam. Nor does taking and passing one exam make or break an astrologer. There’s more to education than taking exams. And, of course, even if you pass an exam, it doesn’t mean your education was enriching or fulfilling.
For instance, I know a popular self-taught astrologer who is an ISAR CAP but didn’t understand how the signs of long or short ascension worked with progressed ascendants. Another long-established astrologer who had written questions for the ISAR competency exam did not know what primary or secondary motion was in a chart. Educators and schools fill such gaps and help maintain high standards in astrology.
Collaboration, Not Isolation
But this won’t happen if we don’t center those educators, schools, and those standards and competencies in astrology. Otherwise, we have nearly everyone in their silos without any possible cross-fertilization or cross-checking of standards and competencies in the field. For this reason, a new organization emerged after ISAR’s pay-to-play for schools delivered the final straw.
The International Coalition of Astrological Educators (ICAE) exists to help correct many problems that have beset other organizations without challenging what these organizations were designed to do best. Our website states, “We have created a credentialing body to facilitate cooperation, high standards, and professional and academic advancement in our field. We are not a school but a standards organization, meaning we do not grant degrees. Our goal is to encourage consistency and quality in education and practice, to invite not compel, to encourage, not criticize, and to foster professional practice across the discipline.” Okay, I’m criticizing. But this critical engagement is necessary to start a conversation about what’s happening in the astrological educational community. We can imagine a different future for astrological education.
Imagine if a graduate with a diploma in horary astrology from the School of Traditional could take their competency badge in horary for credits at Kepler College or for one of the schools in Turkey. Similarly, using competencies that we mostly come to agree upon as a community, future test-takers could take exams or certifications with ISAR and have them count with NCGR, AFA, or OPA. We can’t do that now. But we could. And it’s time we give it a try.
