Knee Deep in the Hoopla

OK, the tag for my blog is "Because I sometimes forget where on earth I'm supposed to be. . ." but lately, I've just been getting on with life and work in London.

But that doesn't mean I'm not busy!

Whew. . .what a few weeks.

I'm happy to say all the speakers have been now been selected for the Institute of Vedic Culture's (Krishnamurti Institute of Astrology) conference. You can view the speakers' list here. There's still a lot of work to be done with sorting out topics and descriptions and papers, finalising touring packages and all the other things associated with being on the organizing committee of such a large organisation. But it really has been a great privilege to work with a man who shares my vision in truly uniting the two zodiacs under one roof. Gopal Bhattacharjee and I joke that we must really be long lost twins--we seem to anticipate what the other is about to do and we even seem to share the same sense of humour. But I think we are both very happy so many astrologers from across the globe (from TWENTY countries) also share in our vision of setting aside our factions and taking on the skeptics, critics and the indifferents of astrology.

And in the flurry of everything, Robert Currey honours me with a place on his hard-nosed academic research site! To be on the same webpage as Michel Gauquelin and Suibert Ertel  is beyond mind blowing.

And speaking of mind blowing, I just have to boast that Dr Glenn Perry bought a copy of "Growing Pains"!  here's the proof:

And just because I'm grounded for the moment in London, doesn't mean I'm not getting out and about. . .I have a lot of webinars coming up.

9th April 10am BST: "How to Get Children to Reach For the Stars" for the Cosmic Intelligence Agency. If you didn't already know it, I write the yearly, monthly and weekly horoscopes for the CIA and it is just such a thrill to write for a magazine people actually read! More articles coming out for the CIA soon.

15th April 9pm-10:30pm BST: "Astrology and Education" for Kepler College. One of the great things about attending the ISAR conference back in October was the great connection I made with the prestigious Kepler College! Astrology research at its finest! I did my first webinar on International Astrology Day last weekend and I'm offering this free one for beginners.

29th April 5pm-8pm BST: "Growing Pains" for Kepler College. This webinar is based on my research on astrology and education. $49 for three hours.

7th May: Mercury Internet School of Psychological Astrology. Further details coming very soon. I'm chuffed to bits to be working with John Green, Clare Martin, Lynn Bell, Darby Costello and Faye Blake-Cossar!

And that leads us nicely on to. . .MY TOUR OF THE WEST COAST, USA!!

So I'm starting off with NORWAC 25-29th May near Seattle where I'll be re-united with lots of astro buddies including Rob Hand and Mark Jones. Then I'll be doing a webinar as part of a series on relationships with the delightful Dorothy Oja, Samuel Reynolds, Margaret Gray and Armand Diaz on 5th June.Then I'm so excited to be speaking at NCGR San Diego on 17 June, NCGR Las Vegas 25 June and San Francisco Astrological Society on the 29th June.

Hopefully "The Wolf You Feed" will be ready to be officially announced by the time I get home from the tour so I can start planning the book launch (I do have a few secrets I'm keeping to myself).

But the fun goes on into September with an appearance at the Woking Astrology Group followed by a jaunt up north to the Scottish Astrological Association. The autumn and winter of 2017/18 will be completely occupied by preparations for the KIA conference. I'll be at UAC (Chicago) spring 2018 to mooch about and crash Ray Merriman's party again. BUT I just got an invitation to speak in Italy in the summer of 2018!

FRENZY!! But in the best possible way.

After all that planning, sometimes a girl just needs to chill out with a good friend after a long day of teaching eager minds. What a great evening I had with my astro sister Laura Boomer-Trent. Spaghetti and conversation. Sigh.

Laura and I: post spaghetti dinner

About the Astrologer

Alex Trenoweth was voted Best International Astrologer, 2015 for her dynamic presentation on her innovative and original research into Astrology and Education. Her book, "Growing Pains" is an exciting development in astrology as it combines classroom teaching experience, sound investigation and the potential to have a positive impact on struggling adolescents, parents, teachers and those who have been labelled "at risk". She writes the weekly and monthly horoscopes and other articles for the Cosmic Intelligence Agency, one of the largest astrological social media groups on the web and was also a speaker for the AstroSummit, a guest lecturer for the London School of Astrology and has spoken at several UK local astrology groups. Upcoming international events include Breaking Down the Borders, the Kepler Conference, Congresso Internacional de Astrologia (Portugal), Kepler College, the Mercury Internet School of Psychological Astrology, NORWAC and the San Francisco Astrology Society.  Alex is also Vice Principal and Secretary General of International Affairs for the Krishnamurti Institute of Astrology and will will be taking up her residential post in India 2017. For queries, consultations or syndications, please contact Alex via www.alextrenoweth.com or leave a message in the comment section.

"Growing Pains" can be purchased in paperback or kindle format on Amazon or can be signed and posted directly to you by Alex.

About the New Book

There are two wolves fighting inside of me, the old story goes, one wolf is good and the other is evil. “But Grandfather,” asked the child, “Which one wins?” The Grandfather answered, “The wolf I feed.”

We might like to think that being good is a natural instinct. In fact, doing the right thing takes a conscious decision. Every day, we are met with temptation to get ahead at the expense of someone else, to get away with something we know is wrong or to cut corners if we think no one is watching.

Following on from her powerful book on astrology and Education, “Growing Pains”, Alex Trenoweth explores the benefits of using “the bad guy” of the solar system: Saturn. Often avoided and seldom understood, if we understand our own Saturn then we can help others to understand theirs. Using case studies of  highly successful people contrasted with convicted serial killers, Trenoweth deftly demonstrates the dire consequences of feeding the wrong wolf.

Portugal!! Parte três

We had another fabulous dinner in Maia on the waterfront. Again, just really nice to be with other astrologers.

I arrived at the auditorium raring to watch other speakers. First up was my buddy Glenn Perry who was so calm, so informative and just so experienced that I really learned an awful lot from him on presentation skills. I loved the content of his lecture too on “Present Centered, Purpose Focused Prediction” and a lot of the psychology I studied at university began to return. Luiza Azancat (an amazing polyglot) spoke on “The Astrology of Twin Siblings” which demonstrated how one twin acts out one half of the chart and the other twin acts out the other. Absolutely fascinating research. Next was my good friend Christian Konig who did an incredible presentation on the different types of stars (“Between Heaven and Earth—Helical Rising and Setting Stars”) that was visually appealing thanks to his wicked skills on powerpoint (yeah guess who’s getting a phone call when it’s time to prepare the next lecture?). Like Glenn, Christian was incredibly calm even though I knew he was very nervous.

After all that sitting and listening, I had worked up a bit of an appetite so we found a local restaurant and indulged ourselves in some Portuguese cuisine. Fab company with Rod, Christian, Carla and Monica and a few others. Oh I had codfish which is the local speciality. Yummy.

I watched Glenn again for his workshop and again was just blown away by his calmness, experience and professionalism. His topic was “Venus-Pluto Dynamics: Transforming Fears of Intimacy”. I just loved the way he took a few case studies and made quite complex points very simple. Then I went to watch Roy who did a good job of making key mundane points easy for beginners (I’m not a beginner but it was still good to learn from an experienced speaker). Roy certainly taught me about how to plug my own material in the future (one can’t be shy about it!).

The talks at this conference went on quite late—almost as late as in India (and you KNOW how much I love India). But what made it all so enjoyable was that there was so much to do outside of the auditorium and if anything was needed, one could just wander out to get it. So the last workshop I went to was Margaret Gray’s astro-drama which was a lot of fun and I think we made a pretty good tag team. By the end of this, both of us were knackered.

Sunday morning and it was time to catch Mark Jones in action. “The Destiny Line: the Nodal Axis of the Moon as the Key to Personal Evolution” was the title of his workshop. Now Mark is a very popular speaker so I really wanted to see what I could learn from him. And I think the key to his success is that he makes one point and keeps reinforcing it. He also has an incredible, measured voice (he’s also a hypnotherapist) that was very pleasant to listen to.

After lunch with the astrologers, it was time to watch Margaret in action again. Her topic was “Understanding and Transforming Compulsive and Addictive Relationship patterns with the help of Psychological Astrology” which she delivered in heels! What I found quite striking was the crossover between her talk and Glenn’s. They didn’t work together on their lectures but they made a lot of the same points. Fascinating.

My attention span was dwindling so a few of us gathered to chew the fat. And I learned something else about myself:

I’ve said before I don’t attend conferences with the expectations of making money. I go to conferences for the connections with other astrologers, to learn about what’s going on outside of merry England (LOTS!!) and to pick up opportunities for collaboration. If I do make money, it’s almost exclusively in book sales, private consultations and future engagements outside of the big conferences. There’s a part of me that really dislikes discussing finances and a different part of me who is very reluctant to focus on astrology full time in the hopes of being able to leave teaching (for goodness sake, I just got the teaching/practising astrology balance just right!). I know I would miss teaching if I ever did discover the key to making tons of money in astrology so there’s a real reluctance to talk turkey about money. Having said that, it is nice to have a bit of jingle in the pocket (mainly through book sales) at the end of the conference (even if there were a few misunderstandings around EU taxes).

With the old finances in order, it was time to enjoy the last lecture. “Turning Lead into Gold: Planets in Detriment and Fall” was delivered by Lynn Bell. I’ve seen Lynn lecture a lot and she is one of my astro heroes for her really well considered examples, her knowledge of mythology and her consistent elegance. And she didn’t disappoint.

It really was a great conference and as it was the first one for the Portuguese astrologers, I thought it was absolutely bloody marvellous. The generosity of the hosts, the central location of the event and just the experience of being able to enjoy the setting was nothing short of glorious. Oh and guess who is going to have a few articles translated into Portuguese?

My last dinner in Portugal was spent with the Brits. Lynn (like me, she’s an honourary Brit) gave me some great advice and Carole Taylor (I’ve seen Carole lecture a lot too so I had to make the decision to see speakers I hadn’t seen before) gave me some encouragement about the lecture circuit. It is a great feeling to know that I am now experienced enough as a speaker that I can step back and get a better feel for what I enjoy in a conference, how I can be a better speaker and just to enjoy observing the masters. What a terrible teacher I’d be if I thought there was no room for improvement!

My sincere thanks to Isabel Guimardes and team for a wonderful conference.

For part 1, click here
For part 2, click here

About the Astrologer

Alex Trenoweth was voted Best International Astrologer, 2015 for her dynamic presentation on her innovative and original research into Astrology and Education. Her book, "Growing Pains" is an exciting development in astrology as it combines classroom teaching experience, sound investigation and the potential to have a positive impact on struggling adolescents, parents, teachers and those who have been labelled "at risk". She writes the weekly and monthly horoscopes and other articles for the Cosmic Intelligence Agency, one of the largest astrological social media groups on the web and was also a speaker for the AstroSummit, a guest lecturer for the London School of Astrology and has spoken at several UK local astrology groups. Upcoming international events include Breaking Down the Borders, the Kepler Conference, Congresso Internacional de Astrologia (Portugal), Kepler College, the Mercury Internet School of Psychological Astrology, NORWAC and the San Francisco Astrology Society.  Alex is also Vice Principal and Secretary General of International Affairs for the Krishnamurti Institute of Astrology and will will be taking up her residential post in India 2017. For queries, consultations or syndications, please contact Alex via www.alextrenoweth.com or leave a message in the comment section.

"Growing Pains" can be purchased in paperback or kindle format on Amazon or can be signed and posted directly to you by Alex.

About the New Book

There are two wolves fighting inside of me, the old story goes, one wolf is good and the other is evil. “But Grandfather,” asked the child, “Which one wins?” The Grandfather answered, “The wolf I feed.”

We might like to think that being good is a natural instinct. In fact, doing the right thing takes a conscious decision. Every day, we are met with temptation to get ahead at the expense of someone else, to get away with something we know is wrong or to cut corners if we think no one is watching.

Following on from her powerful book on astrology and Education, “Growing Pains”, Alex Trenoweth explores the benefits of using “the bad guy” of the solar system: Saturn. Often avoided and seldom understood, if we understand our own Saturn then we can help others to understand theirs. Using case studies of  highly successful people contrasted with convicted serial killers, Trenoweth deftly demonstrates the dire consequences of feeding the wrong wolf.

Portugal! Parte dois

Morning came too quickly and it was time to get my Moon in Leo out of the cupboard with my gold and black jacket and leopard print brogues (oh yes). I also had to give myself a serious lecture about positive thinking and to stop worrying about not measuring up to other people. I have my own research, my own style (I finally convinced myself) and my own path in astrology (which I found when I stepped away from the well trodden path of astrologers before me).

On the bus to the venue, I read my lecture for the final time. And found a mistake (thankfully before I started to lecture) and was able to fix it before everything kicked off. I also made an unprecedented decision: I was going to sit down for this lecture. No pacing around like a nervous kid who doesn’t have the experience in lecturing. I was going to be cool. I was going to be calm. I was going to speak slowly. I was also going to say a few sentences in Portuguese.  And I certainly wasn’t going to freak out because I was the first lecturer in the main auditorium. I took a quick look at how my powerpoint looked on the big screen: gorgeous!

And then it was time to speak.

So I opened my big mouth, spoke in Portuguese and started the English part of my lecture when I realised there were people calling out to me.

“Alex, we can’t hear you!”

I looked out in the audience and saw Lynn Bell calling out: “Turn your microphone on!”

Now here’s when I realised that I don’t have just one inner voice. I have two. And here’s what they sounded like:

Voice one: Why didn’t you check the bloody mic before?

Voice two: That’s what sound engineers are for. Just switch the thing on.

Lynn Bell: Turn the mic on. Press the button!

At this point I’m sure I looked totally gormless.

Voice one (as I stare at the mic): Where’s the fucking button?

Voice Two: Try the other fucking mic!

Me (reaching for the other mic): What? This?

Lynn Bell: No. Just press the button.

Voice One: OH MY GOD WHERE IS THE FUCKING BUTTON??

Voice two: Alex, just calm down and look for the fucking thing. You got this.

Struggling not to burst into giggles, I found the button and pressed it.

Me (VOICE MAGNIFIED): IS THAT BETTER? OOPS!! (another struggle not to giggle)

Voice one (face palm): Oh my God, can’t take you anywhere.
Voice two: Well you found the button...
Voice one: For god’s sake. About fucking time.

Voice two: Now take a nice deep breath.

I started speaking in Portuguese and I got a round of applause from the Portuguese audience. I got laughter from my eclipse joke and I found out later that my references to being an English teacher went down a treat.

So what did I learn about myself as speaker from this experience.?

Check the fucking mic beforehand and tell voice one to take a bloody hike. Knuckle bump to voice two.

And what a difference to be sitting down to lecture! I felt calm, grounded and I had prepared so well nothing went wrong. Despite the hiccup at the start, I did manage to shut out voice one and just focus on voice two. Sure there were times when I wanted to jump up and start waving my arms around and making crazy lecture faces like a lunatic but I held myself back.

Voice two said: You got this.

Voice one: The audience is awful damn quiet. Are you sure they didn’t fall asleep?

Voice two: These are adults, not children. They can sit still for an hour.

Of course I was relieved to be finished (I tried not to show that too much). I left the auditorium and went to get some fresh air and bumped into Christian Konig and Rod Chang who told me I did brilliantly (thanks chaps). But the biggest surprise was that Margaret told me I sounded “elegant”. Trust me when I say I’ve never been called “elegant” about anything in my life. And I was extra pleased because I was reading my own writing. I also got a few compliments about my voice—and that has never happened before. So it was all a very good exercise in extending myself and learning about how I function as a speaker.

I wasn’t really up to doing too much listening after my lecture. I had coffee with Roy, Wendy and Carolyn (always great to hang out with the Brits) and just chill for a bit before my workshop. I wasn’t really worried about the workshop at all as it’s essentially material from my book. I didn’t even flinch when I learned two minutes before I started that my audience didn’t need for me to be translated. It immediately doubled my lecture material (because I wouldn’t have to stop after every paragraph to be translated) but that wasn’t a problem at all. And Glenn as my victim was brilliant and I got some feedback on how I can make some of the graphs I use more readable to non teachers (I still need to do a little work  on not assuming my audience knows more about my subject material than me). But I was pretty spent and left after my workshop to get some rest before dinner.

For part 1, click here
For part 3, click here 

About the Astrologer

Alex Trenoweth was voted Best International Astrologer, 2015 for her dynamic presentation on her innovative and original research into Astrology and Education. Her book, "Growing Pains" is an exciting development in astrology as it combines classroom teaching experience, sound investigation and the potential to have a positive impact on struggling adolescents, parents, teachers and those who have been labelled "at risk". She writes the weekly and monthly horoscopes and other articles for the Cosmic Intelligence Agency, one of the largest astrological social media groups on the web and was also a speaker for the AstroSummit, a guest lecturer for the London School of Astrology and has spoken at several UK local astrology groups. Upcoming international events include Breaking Down the Borders, the Kepler Conference, Congresso Internacional de Astrologia (Portugal), Kepler College, the Mercury Internet School of Psychological Astrology, NORWAC and the San Francisco Astrology Society.  Alex is also Vice Principal and Secretary General of International Affairs for the Krishnamurti Institute of Astrology and will will be taking up her residential post in India 2017. For queries, consultations or syndications, please contact Alex via www.alextrenoweth.com or leave a message in the comment section.

"Growing Pains" can be purchased in paperback or kindle format on Amazon or can be signed and posted directly to you by Alex.

About the New Book

There are two wolves fighting inside of me, the old story goes, one wolf is good and the other is evil. “But Grandfather,” asked the child, “Which one wins?” The Grandfather answered, “The wolf I feed.”

We might like to think that being good is a natural instinct. In fact, doing the right thing takes a conscious decision. Every day, we are met with temptation to get ahead at the expense of someone else, to get away with something we know is wrong or to cut corners if we think no one is watching.

Following on from her powerful book on astrology and Education, “Growing Pains”, Alex Trenoweth explores the benefits of using “the bad guy” of the solar system: Saturn. Often avoided and seldom understood, if we understand our own Saturn then we can help others to understand theirs. Using case studies of  highly successful people contrasted with convicted serial killers, Trenoweth deftly demonstrates the dire consequences of feeding the wrong wolf.

Portugal! Parte um

After a white-knuckled take off in the middle of a hurricane, I arrived in beautiful Portugal just in time to take part in a tour of the cities of Porto and Maia. Although I had lost my stomach somewhere over Southeast England, seeing all my astrology friends made everything all right again. And what a beautiful place we were in: it almost made up for all those Hail Marys I had to recite on the plane.

We were taken to a port tasting event but I have to admit that of all the choices at a bar, port would defo be my very last choice. Red wine gives me a stinking headache and I just don’t like the flavour of port. But one has to be polite. So I accepted my glass with the assumption that I’d find the nearest plant pot after a toast to our hosts. I was very pleasantly surprised by the bouquet (don’t I sound like I know what I’m talking about?) and the flavour was rich and smooth and completely different to any port I had ever had before.  What on earth do they do to the port in England?

As I caught up with old friends and made new friends, I could almost forget I was the first main speaker the next morning. Of course, the port helped too. I had been thinking a lot about speaking at conferences and whether or not I actually like lecturing. The Kepler Conference really knocked my confidence (so many clever people and then there’s me. . .) that I was seriously considering whether or not I was “deep” enough to be a successful speaker. I see myself as a kind of lucky goofball who really doesn’t belong amongst all these amazing people.

And then I got chatting to Glenn Perry who had generously agreed to be my “victim” for my workshop on healing the inner teenager.

Glenn and I are on the same page when it comes to astrology and psychology. I don’t have the experience and qualifications he has but I can hold up my end of the conversation with him (most of the time). As I was talking to him, I realised that I must be at least a little interesting to keep his attention and for him to remember my name (I can also boast that he gave me a hug when he saw me!). Every now and again, a girl needs a little pick-me-up. I was feeling better. Of course, the port helped that too. It helped so much that I decided that I was really going to stop focusing on how nervous I was and whether or not anyone actually cared about what I had to say in my lecture. I was going to make an effort to watch and learn from the masters. I was going to study everyone’s style and I was going to compare my style to theirs.

Of course that raised a question in my head about what I thought my style was: I know that I speak way too quickly sometimes, I know I like to use my hands when I speak and I know I like to stand and be able to move around when I talk. I also know I don’t like it when people read their lecture to me.

And at these thoughts, my stomach returned to its normal position and then did a flip-flop.

For the first time ever, I was going to read my lecture. And the reason is this: “Herschel, Uranus and Mary Shelley’s Vision of Horror” is packed full of complicated English words and the Portuguese-speaking translators would need to be able to follow my script. I was going to have to remember to slow my speech down (I had already knocked myself out with the powerpoint). The other thing making me nervous was that I had given this old lecture a complete overhaul. When I re-read it, I realised I simply was not the same astrologer who had written this lecture almost 12 years ago. And this is a good thing because I’ve done a lot of studying since then. So, you see, Kepler had a pretty big effect on me and I wanted that effect to be apparent to my audience.

But back to the party (because that’s what it felt like!).

When we returned to the hotel, we were treated to an amazing dinner and my date for the night was the charming David Perloff. Sitting across from me was Mark Jones and his lovely wife Claire, next to me was Lynn Bell and also across from me was Margaret Gray. Is there anything better than a good chinwag with fellow astrologers? I am always so grateful for the support from other astrologers. After all, we were all in the same boat: tired from our journeys, nervous about our lectures and a little uncertain of how it was all going to work out (but mostly very optimistic). We were in it together.

For part 2, click here
For part 3, click here

About the Astrologer

Alex Trenoweth was voted Best International Astrologer, 2015 for her dynamic presentation on her innovative and original research into Astrology and Education. Her book, "Growing Pains" is an exciting development in astrology as it combines classroom teaching experience, sound investigation and the potential to have a positive impact on struggling adolescents, parents, teachers and those who have been labelled "at risk". She writes the weekly and monthly horoscopes and other articles for the Cosmic Intelligence Agency, one of the largest astrological social media groups on the web and was also a speaker for the AstroSummit, a guest lecturer for the London School of Astrology and has spoken at several UK local astrology groups. Upcoming international events include Breaking Down the Borders, the Kepler Conference, Congresso Internacional de Astrologia (Portugal), Kepler College, the Mercury Internet School of Psychological Astrology, NORWAC and the San Francisco Astrology Society.  Alex is also Vice Principal and Secretary General of International Affairs for the Krishnamurti Institute of Astrology and will will be taking up her residential post in India 2017. For queries, consultations or syndications, please contact Alex via www.alextrenoweth.com or leave a message in the comment section.

"Growing Pains" can be purchased in paperback or kindle format on Amazon or can be signed and posted directly to you by Alex.

About the New Book

There are two wolves fighting inside of me, the old story goes, one wolf is good and the other is evil. “But Grandfather,” asked the child, “Which one wins?” The Grandfather answered, “The wolf I feed.”

We might like to think that being good is a natural instinct. In fact, doing the right thing takes a conscious decision. Every day, we are met with temptation to get ahead at the expense of someone else, to get away with something we know is wrong or to cut corners if we think no one is watching.

Following on from her powerful book on astrology and Education, “Growing Pains”, Alex Trenoweth explores the benefits of using “the bad guy” of the solar system: Saturn. Often avoided and seldom understood, if we understand our own Saturn then we can help others to understand theirs. Using case studies of  highly successful people contrasted with convicted serial killers, Trenoweth deftly demonstrates the dire consequences of feeding the wrong wolf.