The FCEA 100 Series.
The FCEA 100 series of classes lays the foundation for everything which follows. In it, beginning students start by learning the “words” of the astrological vocabulary – signs, planets, houses, aspects, and the lunar nodes.
Once they’ve learned the “words,” they move on to forming “phrases.” That means that they begin to figure out how being in Cancer makes Mars a different beast than its being in Aquarius. They learn how Mars in Gemini in the fourth house has an entirely different expression than that same Mars in Gemini when it is in the eleventh house.
Having learned how to form and interpret these astrological phrases, they move on to “speaking in sentences.” That means taking that eleventh house Aquarian Mars and putting it in the context of a square to Uranus, a sextile to Venus, and a quincunx to the Ascendant.
With all of that understood, the student moves on to looking at the birthchart as an integrated, interactive whole – he or she learns how to put it all together, in other words.
That’s a steep learning curve! Don’t worry – we will guide you and support you.
With all of that material – which is essentially the essence of Steven’s book, The Inner Sky – fully grasped, the learning curve gets even steeper. There is always “a chart behind the chart.” What that means is that you have the chart you have for a reason, and that reason had to exist before you were born. That brings us into the language of reincarnation – and the insight that, woven into your present chart, are clues about the unresolved issues which haunt you from previous lifetimes. There is nothing abstract or flaky about this material! We always see clear evidence of this unresolved karma in the difficulties of the present lifetime. Happily, we can also see their remedy. That is built into the chart too.
All of this is the subject of FCEA 102, based on Steven’s book, Yesterday’s Sky.
By the time we come to the end of FCEA 103, where we see all of these principles vividly in action in the lives of some well-known people, students are solidly grounded in the heart of the most precious and powerful system for the generation of self-knowledge that humanity has ever known: evolutionary astrology.
They may be tired too! As we’ve indicated, the learning curve in the FCEA 100 series is indeed a steep one. As ever, confidence and comfort come with experience, not to mention the support of the FCEA community.
“In the words of Albert Einstein, we have kept it as simple as possible – but no simpler. “
The Craftsperson has gone even further, mastering two more core astrological skills: astrological “prediction” and synastry, which is the astrology of human relationships. These are the topics covered in the FCEA 200 and 300 series. They build on the foundation of the 100-series – the language of the birthchart, in other words – and they constantly refer back to it. One who has graduated as an FCEA Craftsperson is ready to be a member of the ancient guild. He or she has all of the essential competencies of a working counseling astrologer. Add some practice and some experience, and nothing more would really be absolutely necessary in order for that person to be of real service to the community. But of course there is always more to learn . . .
A Master has internalized the astrological fundamentals and has now, with the support of the FCEA community, begun to polish them, mature them, and deepen them. Some more advanced or specialized topics are presented, so our technical training does not come to an end. Steven will teach advanced interpretive programs which are only available to students who have reached this Masters level of competency. Perhaps more importantly, masters will teach each other. Some words you may have seen elsewhere in our website bear repetition here:
Astrological mastery, as defined by the Forrest Center for Evolutionary Astrology, means getting to a level of competence, confidence, and experience in which you can sit down with a stranger and the stranger’s chart and speak meaningfully and helpfully to that person for an hour or two, even if that stranger has chosen to share nothing personal with you until you have actually earned that kind of trust from him or her.