It’s a week for gratitude, so it’s the perfect time for a throwback from the archives of appreciation! Astrologer, teacher, and historian Gary Lorentzen joined host Jenn Zahrt in this sweet reunion episode: Gary was Jenn’s first astrology teacher in high school! Join the warmth as Gary and Jenn chat about must-know books, archetypal shifts in history, the intersection of synchronicity and physics, the four humors, humanistic psychological approaches, the eight phases in progressions, the Barbault index, and more. Plus: humans as meaning-making creatures; measuring time vs. marking time; and… can you guess what the least lucrative form of astrology is?

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Transcripts available upon request.

Song “Wake Up” used with permission by The E-Block Band.

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Episode timestamps (conversation recorded June 2023):

00:01 – Jenn offers a little intro and shares some exciting news about upcoming content! And if you’d like to connect with producer Jen Braun about starting a podcast, visit her website.

01:50 – Gary has been studying astrology since 1972. He takes not only a psychological approach to interpretation, but also focuses on what he dubs “astro-history” (the mundane studies of history and geopolitics). He’s an educator who is trained as a historian, with a graduate degree in Medieval Germanic Linguistics. Gary was one of the original founders of Kepler College and helped to develop the curriculum for Kepler’s bachelor program. He also served as president of the Washington State and Oregon Astrological Associations.

02:10 – Gary remembers initially buying two astrology books back in the day. First up: Dane Rudhyar’s The Astrology of Personality, which gave Gary a practical way of looking at astrology and observing its applications. He also purchased Marc Edmund Jones’s Astrology: How and Why It Works; this one is a wonderful, and challenging, philosophical text. (And did Gary write the date and time he bought these texts on the inside covers? Yes, he did – a budding astrologer for sure!)

06:05 – What other books changed Gary’s astrology life? Three Books on Life by Marsilio Ficino, who basically did modern psychological astrology in the 15th century! In this text, Gary sees the intellectual threads that led to Rudhyar and humanistic psychology. Also, the tome Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View by Richard Tarnas makes the list.

15:36 – Gary explains how he became an astro-historian, which differs from mundane astrology.

16:46 – Interlude: Join CAELi and snag yourself a Saturn stress-relief ball. (Yes, you read that right!)

17:32 – The books that helped Gary develop his practice with astro-history include: Planetary Cycles: Mundane Astrology by André Barbault; The Book of World Horoscopes by Nick Campion; and Cycles of Becoming by Alexander Ruperti. (Included is a lovely side trip to Cosmobiology: The Engine of Destiny by Marc Robertson, where Gary gives an elegant description of the eight phases of any two planets in the progressed chart.)

26:34 – For beginners, Gary would recommend something formulaic, like Joanne Wickenburg’s The Spiral of Life: Unlocking Your Potential With Astrology. This one offers a great foundation!

29:57 – Find Gary at his site: http://garylorentzen.com/. And check out the blog post he references, Planetary Pairs and the Aspects in the Eight Phases of their Synodic Cycles.

30:30 – Thanks for listening to Within Orb! If you love the show, please help support it at no cost to you: Follow or subscribe wherever you listen, rate it five stars, or write a happy review! And if you’d like to become a CAELi member or support our work with a contribution of any amount, we’d be delighted – thanks!

Show notes by Jen Braun, JJ Boots Productions LLC.