After a wonderful experience at the Astrological Association conference

When I returned from the Astrological Association (AA) Conference, I felt that I needed to write my experience about it.

Why?

I think that I had left with such positive feelings that it wouldn’t have been fair if I hadn’t shared my gratitude and my humble opinions with everyone else.

I am a member of AA and this year when I saw the ad for the conference, I told myself ‘Teri, you need to go!’ And after I discussed it with my husband, he also said “You definitely need to go there to meet new people and discuss astrology, exchange ideas” since in his field of work, the networking and the brainstorming in the conferences play an important role.

After I made the booking, the time passed so fasr and finally the 13^th of October arrived. Friday the 13^th😊)) just before the Solar Eclipse on the 14^th.

I was already very excited when I got on the train from Edinburgh to Stone in Staffordshire.

After 4-5 hours trip, I was finally at the conference area.

There was a nice meetup for the newbies. Yes, it was my first time in an astrological conference. I really met very nice people. I already knew some people from social media and had the chance to meet them in person among other astrology enthusiasts.

The opening plenary talk by Roy Gillett and the evening talk by Gill Dorren were really inspiring about AA and the cosmos respectively.

On the 14^th, I was in panic as I forgot all the list that I made at home about the conference talks. (I forgot clothes, decks and more at home. I got betrayed by my sharp memory and mind) However, thanks to the programme provided by AA, I relaxed.

I will not get into the details of any talk in case that you have access to the recordings, and I wouldn’t like to ruin your magical experiences.

It is worth noting that the talks I write about are the ones I had the chance to follow and I am sure that the other talks that I couldn’t listen to were great, too.

I think that the list of talks made me feel like I was like a kid in a chocolate store (the real expression is actually in a ‘candy store’ but I am not a big fan of candies😊))) without the ability to choose only one.

Day 1 (14/10/2023)

The first talk for me was ‘Astrology and Family Constellations’ by Christos Archos. Even though I am a bit distant to family astrology, I decided to listen to this talk and the moment Christos Archos started talking, I was like ‘Wooow, this is something really interesting, a lot of new information and a different perspective!’

The next talk was ‘When Fixed Stars Make Move’ by Rod Chang. I have to admit that I was amazed by Rod Chang’s search for precision in dates by using 5 different softwares. It was a very nice journey among the fixed stars both in terms of astronomy and astrology.

The third talk I followed was ‘Saturn: The Shadow and Glory of life’ by Stellar Chan. I was happy to see this title as I don’t appreciate the malefic label on Saturn. Stellar Chan gave a perspective on Saturn in the Chinese astrology which was really intriguing. She also came up with a nice chart example to compare Saturn in terms of Western and Chinese astrology.

In the fourth talk, as I listened to Lianne McCafferty many times on Instagram lives with Rod Chang, I wanted to listen to ‘The Deep Evolutionary Force of Pluto and Haumea’ by her. As I am a big fan of mythology, it was really nice to hear about Haumea’s myth and its astrological correlation with the current and possible future medical innovations along with Pluto.

The fifth talk I had the chance to listen to was ‘The Karmic story – Without the Karma’ by Kay Taylor. It was really interesting to hear about the lunar nodes from an evolutionary perspective and how they are interpreted in our charts. The chart examples along with Kay Taylor’s own story added an extra layer to my understanding.

The next talk was ‘The Psychology of Selves’ by Rebekah Hirsch. I haven’t heard about ‘Voice Dialogue’ before and this has been an opportunity to learn about this concept more. And I also learnt about identifying the primary and disowned selves in the chart.

The last talk of the first day for me was ‘The British Empire: Survival or implosion?’ by Wendy Stacey. It was really nice to have a sense of the Commonwealth countries with a mundane astrology perspective. To see the unfolding stories with these countries’ and London declaration charts was also inspiring.

If I don’t mention the gala dinner talk by Stormie Grace, it wouldn’t be fair at all. She gave a very nice talk about ‘Jupiter in Taurus’ which was great fun and absolutely touching at the same time.

Day 2 (15/10/2023)

The first talk on the second day was ‘The Use of Ingress charts in Ottoman Astrology’ by Öner Döşer. It was great to learn about the importance of the astrology through ‘müneccim’ ‘munajjim’ tradition in the Ottoman palace and how the ingress charts were utilised in different occasions.

What was next? ‘The Karmic Houses of The Zodiac’ by Giorgia Pecora. This talk gave me a lot of new insights about the 4^th, 8^th and 12^th houses with regards to family astrology and made me rethink about my own natal placements in these houses (Yes, I do have placements in all these three houses and they are water houses for me, too).

As I personally like the secondary progressions a lot, when I saw the title ‘Planetary Stations and Life Changing Events’ by Sandra-Leigh Serio, I just headed to the meeting room. It was like a rediscovery of the stationary planets in the progressed charts as well as in the natal charts. This talk made me to see the stationary planets in my progressed chart with a different eye.

The fourth talk was ‘The Edge of Time’ by Lynn Bell. It was a really beautiful talk about Saturn in Pisces. It was important for me to understand this current transit much better since I am going through a Saturn opposition in my life.  

I feel that the last talk with the title ‘Letting out the Light’ by Liz Hathway was such a sweet way to finish the conference, at least for me. We had a journey back to the times of ‘East India Company’ to learn about the story of Koh-I Noor diamond followed by other stories in the world of gemstones.

The closing talk was ‘More than a Star’ by Rod Chang. I couldn’t stay for the whole talk as I needed to head back home. However, to see that great astrophotography was really a big chance.

I personally look forward to the next conference which I hopefully can participate in again.

I would like to thank everyone who made this conference possible. I think that the people who volunteered in the meetings deserve a special applause.

All the best,

Teri