November Newsletter

November Newsletter

Welcome to the FCEA

It dawned on me a few years ago that I was getting older and the way I had been teaching was going to have to change. A point would come when I couldn’t fly all over the world any longer. Meanwhile, online teaching technology was improving. Jeff, Catie and I began exploring possibilities for more of a hybrid between what I had always been doing and some new possibilities for the future.
Along came Covid-19, almost as a confirmation that we were on the right track. People – myself included – began to get familiar with the notion of being part of an online learning community. Even more importantly,  we have all been discovering that our fears that it might be a cold experience were greatly exaggerated. Along with my existing teaching materials, I’ve recorded over a hundred teaching videos for the FCEA, with more to come. Watching them plays a central role in the experience. Even after I am gone, I hope to “continue the transmission” in that video form. As long as I retain my mental marbles, I also plan to conduct monthly “live” online question-and-answer meetings. The FCEA is not something I want to create, and then walk away from. I’ll be an ongoing presence, for sure. Perhaps even more centrally, we are hiring a small team of skilled tutors. That way, each student will have personal contact with a caring academic guide. We anticipate the FCEA creating a real sense of warm, ongoing online community. Additionally, once Covid is defeated, I do intend to continue my in-person teaching in some form. Likely those events would only be open to FCEA students, and certainly they would be mostly “master level” work.
As a bonus, the FCEA allows me to address the greatest weaknesses of my books, videos, recordings, and even my Apprenticeship Programs, which has always been their lack of structure. Beginners would stumble into advanced material and find themselves confused, while more advanced students would be “learning” that there were twelve signs in the zodiac. The FCEA, in essence, is a step-by-step, soup-to-nuts, guided tour of evolutionary astrology as I have envisioned it over the years. Students can enter the program believing that there are ten signs in the zodiac, and come out the other end as helpful, skilled professionals.
Finally, let me own that we are making all of this up as we go along. We are proud of what we have created, and it has been a huge undertaking. But it is an ongoing creation. Your feedback and suggestions will be welcome. We will grow together. We will reach out to a diverse community, and to a global one. With Jupiter and Saturn conjuncting in Aquarius, a new paradigm is emerging.
The FCEA is riding that wave. Come ride it with us.
The Path Forward
We’re excited at the FCEA to be opening the doors in a more public way later in December when enrollment opens. Many of you found your way here through our Announcement page. If you haven’t seen it please check it out as there are several informative videos. Our new website is now live with a lot more.
As we’ve previously shared, the school will be offering courses at the Apprentice (new students), Craftsperson (previous students) and Master (graduate students) levels. You can imagine that there is a lot of curriculum. Steve has been madly creating content, Catie has be speedily putting it into a curriculum, adding exercises and discussions to enhance the learning experience.
We’ve chosen to launch our programs in such a way that we can manage our resources and offer quality courses. We still have a lot to learn about how to use our online technology and engage you as students. One aspect of this, limiting enrollment initially so we can manage those resources and ensure a quality experience. We will be asking for feedback along the way, so please be patient with us as we all learn together.
Our programs will be rolling out in phases over the next year. The Apprentice Program launches in January 2021, the Craftsperson Program in summer 2021 and the Masters Program in early 2022. For you who’ve already studied with Steven, we’ll be working on how to get you inserted in the program commensurate with your studies.
The final aspect of the school we’ll be offering is membership, which is our way of creating community. As you often hear, “membership has its privileges,” ours will include things like access to astrology tools (forums and resources), priority course enrollment, book discounts and most importantly, attendance to Steven’s monthly Q&A calls.
Inside Look 
The new Apprentice Program is ready to launch. It covers the material in Steven’s books The Inner Sky and Yesterday’s Sky. The now published element book series are also referenced and are great references for aspiring astrologers.

You can navigate the material in one of three paths, a 14-week fully guided program (new students), a self-paced program (existing students) and competency program (graduate students). Whichever path you choose, there is a 5-week practicum where you will do chart interpretation with your fellow students, guided by a teacher and tutor.
 

Steven Forrest Method

Steven Forrest Method:
The Path to Mastery

When does one “attain competency” as an evolutionary astrologer? That is a very slippery question. Here are some parallel questions – when did you grow up? When does a puppy become a dog? When did the modern period begin? We are, after all, talking about an evolutionary process. It flows rather than bursts full-flower into a brand new day.

In the Forrest Center for Evolutionary Astrology program, we arbitrarily define three developmental stages for the advancing student: the Apprentice, the Craftsperson, and finally the Master. 

An Apprentice has done the hard work of establishing the foundation of astrological understanding. The work done in the FCEA 100 series is actually the most important work of the whole program. Calling it “elementary astrology” really rings the wrong bell. Better to call it the core of everything. The Apprentice learns to speak the underlying vocabulary of the universe as it is reflected in human consciousness: signs, planets, houses, aspects, and the lunar nodes. Students who have completed the Apprentice level may not yet be ready to advertise themselves as a professional astrologers – but we can guarantee that, if such graduates were to sit with a friend in need, they could be of genuine help just by looking at that person’s birthchart and speaking out loud the material they’ve learned. And that effective helpfulness, bottom line, is what we would call astrological competency!

“There are many things we can say about the Forrest Center for Evolutionary Astrology, but probably the most fundamental one would be that it provides the missing catalyst to Steven’s existing work: structure. “

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.

Becoming a Tutor

Becoming a Tutor

While there is much teaching that is online and essentially automated in the FCEA, especially at the early stages of the program, we are committed to keeping the experience as warm and community-oriented as possible. Time constraints prevent Steven from having an ongoing  relationship with each one of the students individually. That is where tutors come into the picture. Essentially,they are the human interface between the student and the technology. 

The tutors’ work is varied. They are available to answer individual questions. They facilitate online discussion groups. They monitor the online forums. Invariably, tutors will do some hand holding and counseling too – astrological studies are intense at a personal level, and they can trigger powerful emotional reactions. A student may need to reach out to a tutor from time to time for counsel and encouragement. As an institution, the FCEA is committed to supporting close connections between students and their tutors. One expression of that commitment is that we prioritize “people skills” in our selection of tutors. 

As students advance, their FCEA education can no longer be sustained by answering computerized multiple choice questions. Sooner or later, every budding astrologer has to face the ancient task: turning the symbols into meaningful speech. That is always the heart of the matter. As students develop their voices, the hardest and most important part of the tutor’s job comes into focus – commenting, correctively and supportively, as the student begins to turn astrological language into human language.

There are many forms of astrology, but the Forrest Center for Evolutionary Astrology is unabashedly a “trade school.” That means that we are teaching one specific method of astrological interpretation. Anyone qualified to be an FCEA tutor is, by definition, already an astrologer. That usually suggests a high level of individuation in the work. No one is expected to be “a Steven Forrrest clone.” We respect that – but still, in the FCEA, it is Steven’s methods that we teach. That means, among other things, Placidus houses, the Mean lunar node, and so on. In order to avoid confusing the students, a tutor must agree to work within the framework of the system which Steven has developed, and not to introduce exotic elements, at least not until we reach the highest “counsel of wizards” levels of the program, down the road.

“No one is expected to be “a Steven Forrrest clone.” We respect that – but still, in the FCEA, it is Steven’s methods that we teach. That means, among other things, Placidus houses, the Mean lunar node, and so on. In order to avoid confusing the students, a tutor must agree to work within the framework of the system which Steven has developed, and not to introduce exotic elements, at least not until we reach the highest “counsel of wizards” levels of the program, down the road.“

The process for selecting tutors is a delicate one. Emphatically, these choices do not fall on Steven’s solitary shoulders. A selection committee will be established and its discussions will be private. Some details remain to be worked out, but essentially anyone immersed in Steven’s work can apply. Advanced students from his Apprenticeship Programs are in a good position to be chosen, but we will avoid favoritism and the “buddy system” as much as possible

 

Studying with Steven

Studying with Steven

Over the years, countless thousands of people have studied astrology with Steven Forrest. A couple thousand have done it in his flagship Apprenticeship Programs. Those intensives met regularly in California, Kansas, and North Carolina, plus Australia and Italy starting in 1998. He has also taught countless weekend workshops around the world. His annual programs in China, for example, which have run since 2011, have introduced many hundreds of Asian students to the methods of evolutionary astrology. Beyond those face-to-face meetings, there are serious students whom Steven has never met personally. They have been studying with him via his bestselling books or his many videos and recorded lectures. Some have attained high levels of mastery.

All of that teaching has been a good thing, but the problem Steven has always faced was “the little red schoolhouse” syndrome – beginners and advanced students all in the same room at the same time. How could he meet such a wide spectrum of needs? Another expression of the same underlying issue has simply been the inherent potential chaos of such a multifaceted system – astrology is complicated and students have often been confronted with the whole thing all at once. It’s simply too much for most people. It leads to confusion. Maybe, for example, Steven is teaching an advanced program on the solar arcs of the nodal axis. A new student signs up, unsure of exactly how many signs are in the Zodiac. Someone who should buy The Inner Sky goes to his online shop and settles on The Book of Neptune – it’s a fine book, but it is not a good starting place. That, or someone with an established professional practice signs up for a class in which Steven is patiently explaining that the Zodiac contains twelve signs

“There are many things we can say about the Forrest Center for Evolutionary Astrology, but probably the most fundamental one would be that it provides the missing catalyst to Steven’s existing work: structure. “

Clearly, Steven’s next step had to be bringing some order to the confusion. There are many things we can say about the Forrest Center for Evolutionary Astrology, but probably the most fundamental one would be that it provides the missing catalyst to Steven’s existing work: structure. A student in the FCEA will be guided efficiently, caringly, and often personally, along a step-by-step path leading to astrological mastery. No one will have to go back and pick up any missing pieces. Nothing of importance will be left out. A graduate of the FCEA program will stand on the solid, confident ground of knowing Steven’s full system of interpretation.

Steven himself plans to continue teaching personally, both in live classes and in online formats. Most of his live teaching will be advanced work, available to students who have made progress in the FCEA curriculum. His “little red schoolhouse” material has all been recorded in various media, including the hundreds of videos he has made especially for the FCEA. From now on, he anticipates teaching serious students at a Master’s level in what amounts to “university” format.