Ingrid's Quest, Part I

Now, I am going to be very personal. The reason is that those who are considering the course are flirting with the possibility of being in a long-term association with me. For this to be the right decision, the result has to be what is expected.

The Astrology of Healing evolved over many years, probably many lifetimes. The first part, which I teach last, was Astroendocrinology. I am going to explain the process my way, and this either makes sense or it doesn't. I have Pisces rising and was mystical from as far back as I can remember. I thought everyone else was also mystical so the need to talk did not occur to me. In fact, I hardly talked until I was 33 and once in a while, it's still difficult to talk. Anyway, ideas sometimes come to me in torrents, and the whole of Astroendocrinology came in one afternoon in Hawaii. Only later did I realize I had been typing about 40 pages an hour. I expected to give a lecture on this topic in San Francisco; but when I got to the conference, they did not allow me to present the information.

First they said it was because I hadn't gone to college. I said, "But, I have gone to college." Then, they said, "But you don't have any advanced degrees." I said, "Well, I do have a master's degree." Then, they said, "But not from an accredited university." I said, "Yale is accredited." Then, they said it was because I did not mention Wilhelm Reich in the lecture. Since they had no idea what I planned to present, that was a correct but irrelevant remark.

As time went on, I was again asked to speak at astrology conferences, but these did not follow exactly the same patterns. I was the keynote speaker at several conferences, one that had 25,000 attendees. However, no one would let me speak on Astroendocrinology. There were all kinds of excuses, such as, "We have too many esoteric astrologers and not enough medical astrologers." Forget it, you get the picture.

Standing opposite my beloved subject matter was the need to be practical. I worked on the cause of illness. The generic cause is stress. The most obvious astrological indication of stress would be the square aspect. If you read my bio, you realize my father dabbled in astrology. Well, that is not fair. He studied at the First College and Temple of Astrology under Thyrza Escobar. For those who do not know, the college was at one time operated in conjunction with Ivy Jacobson who left at some point. I don't remember the year, but I think most of you can read between the lines.

What we call an aspect, physicists call "gravitational vectoring"; and my father explained a square by showing what happens to a signal when a TV antenna is rotated. As the distortion increases, there is more and more snow on the TV and then a total blackout at 90 degrees. With satellites and cables, I am not sure we can recreate this demonstration, but for years I was dubbed "the squares astrologer" and no matter how much new material I developed, they always wanted me to talk about squares.

This kind of pigeonholing is disastrous for anyone whose thoughts progress and unfold; however, eventually, I found more flexibility in Europe than in the U.S.

So, to make a long story short, I have taught The Astrology of Healing many times, starting back in the 70s. My first long astrological tour began on July 7, 1977, exactly one hundred years after Helena Blavatsky launched her work. However, even before that, I had a syndicated column in college newspapers as well as a weekly column in the local Kona paper. I wrote constantly, without any remuneration, for all the major astrological journals, but none were keen on the esoteric except for the Seven Ray Institute. I have literally published more than a thousand articles as well as six textbooks on astrology and more than a hundred audio cassettes, some with handouts with 60 pages.

When I moved to the Pacific Northwest at the end of 2000, everything in my life seemed to change. All my books went out of print and I did not keep up with my teaching. There were a few talks in Portland, Oregon, and some in Europe, but for the most part, I was more involved with herbs and darkfield microscopy than with astrology. However, I built some web sites, 45 of them, including http://astrologyofhealing.com. As you can see, the course was designed and ready to launch six years ago, but I somehow couldn't make it happen. So, quite a few years elapsed and the sand is running out in my hourglass. I need to finish everything I started lest I reincarnate with retrograde planets. I therefore made the decision to teach the course once, not again and again as I originally intended, but just once. Then, my work will be preserved for posterity, and if there is still some sand left, I will go on to the other 30+ unpublished books.

I have written a monumental amount, but there has not been time or money for publishing. To be honest, I have been on a treadmill for the last decade.

It's important for me to tell you that I truly will not repeat the course. I am going to present the material as perfectly as I can and then go onto other subjects. Obviously, successors to my work will emerge, and this will free me to tackle other projects.

Back in 2008, I announced that there would be 36 lessons. As I tried to schedule these and sequence them, I remembered that we hit a reef with the printed version of the course (1995-6) because I introduced esoteric topics in the 8th and 9th lessons and people got stuck. I have now moved those lessons to Level Three and taken the Kitchen Doctor material and placed it much earlier. This always worked in the live classes, but in the printed versions of the course, I had a different sequence and, as I said, it didn't work.

The course is long and, as we all know, life happens. Among other things, Neptune will cross my ASC in 2016-17 so we have to see what happens then. In the meantime, I have created a tentative outline and schedule. I have also decided to do a free podcast on July 20th to introduce the subject matter so people can see where I am coming from and why. Try to keep in mind that I have Mercury in Virgo on the 7th house cusp so what starts in Pisces gets translated into practical terms by Mercury. The course is therefore sort of inside out for me. It makes sense to others but is backwards for me.

There are 1600+ people signed up to receive astrological posts so we'll see who decides to take the course and who doesn't. In the meantime, I am thrilled with the applications. There are several people from Africa — South, East, and West — and many from Asia, a few from South America and some from Europe. There are doctors, herbalists, massage therapists, acupuncturists, professional astrologers, musicians, gardeners, artists, authors, you name it. There are also people of all religious persuasions: Muslims and Hindus, Buddhists and Jewish people, and most probably also some Christians, at least some who like me were brought up as such.

So, the first part of the course will focus on getting people to think astrologically. Then, we can all be on the same page. In the meantime, I am going to share my dream for the course which is that we use the diversity of the members to practice the art of listening, and we hone our astrological skills by respecting all points of view even when they are very different from our own. Respect is very important for me personally; well, I will go so far as to say that I will not tolerate disrespect in any form. For me, the most beautiful part of knowing astrology is the ability to recognize that each person is unique. Therefore, each person is entitled to be different in his or her own way. In the normal course of our work, we have to deal with very complex life situations; and to be competent counselors, we have to understand each issue from the perspective of the client or patient. Our own understanding is for the purpose of framing the information, not for the purpose of criticism, one upmanship, or power. So, there are going to be strict rules for communicating on the bulletin board, and what I expect from members is teamwork. Unless the information posted is relevant and potentially helpful to others, don't post.

Next, in noting the geographic distribution of applicants, I should mention for those who use Jyotish that I use Western astrology. I know very, very little about Vedic astrology. I have given some thought to how this might work and have been discussing it with my cousin who is also an astrologer as well as co-author of a book on Jyotish. I am open to a discussion with the applicants from India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka so we can resolve this. Tentatively, I believe that some of the material will work just as well in both systems. This would include material on Kitchen Doctor and herbs as well as protocols for illnesses. Most of the work on lunar consciousness and chakras will make just as much sense in Jyotish as in Western astrology. However, the techniques are very different. To tell you the truth, I don't know care what techniques are used so long as they are used skillfully. I have never been one to get bogged down in long arguments over different house systems, midpoints, strange asteroids, or new aspects. I am very technically competent in the systems I learned, mostly from Ivy Jacobson; however, I have an open mind about what I have not studied. Anyone using another system simply has to convince me that the system is reliable.

People do get into long discussions about the ayanamsa, and this is where I see the most potential for confusion. On the rare occasion when I do dabble in Jyotish, I use the Lahiri Mahasaya ayanamsa, but the real issue is not the ayanamsa but the signs. For instance, my Pisces ASC would be Aquarius in Jyotish. In our textbooks, we describe these and all the other signs in very specific ways. If no one is uncomfortable with this "problem", then it's okay for me that some course members will be using Jyotish. I will probably learn a lot, but applicants can think about this.

Now, when it comes to something like the healing systems I use, people in the East ought to be very comfortable. The purpose is not to be comfortable but rather competent. However, the energetics of fire, earth, air, and water remain the same regardless of the system used. The method of calculating the energetics may have to adapted. These challenges are actually enormous so if anyone cares to comment now, we can either open up part of the bulletin board or correspond privately about these matters.

In the meantime, I might remind those who do not know already that I am very mutable. That means that I am open to suggestions. I cannot zigzag too much without losing focus, but if the schedule looks impossible, make some suggestions that show me how to improve it. This is the download link: Course Outline.

Blessings,

Ingrid

Part II, Ivy Jacobson