Over at our awesome Chart Harmony 💙🖤🧡💗💜💚 Discord, I get asked questions. Recently, one of ’em was about choosing an astrology school. Specifically, the Q was:

Question: what astrology schools do you recommend, @bon ? I want to get some formal instruction on astrology because I feel like my knowledge is super piecemeal and random, and therefore probably pretty Swiss cheeseish.

And — as I often do when asked a question in our community — I wrote up not just an answer but a whole blog post about it. So, let’s get to it! (SCROLL for the whole list o’ wonderful options.)

First, my initial response (asking for some clarification details):

Ooh… great question! Are you looking to get a degree? Or a certificate? Or just get immersed in classes? What TYPE of astrology interests you the most? Modern? Evolutionary? Hellenistic? Chinese? Islamicate? Jyotish? Uranian? Esoteric? Vibrational? Natal? Mundane? Medical? Horary? Predictive? Electional? Financial? Locational?

Because there are so many, I found a great NORWAC talk by Samuel Reynolds about the various schools and branches of astrology. Here’s the talk. And here’s his handout from the talk.

Before I know your specific area(s) of interest, what I’d recommend you do right away is sign up for the free webinars that almost ALL of the astrology schools and programs out there offer ALL THE TIME. Attending a bunch of those will get you a sense of how each particular school operates, how organized their instructors are, how cliquey their students are, what their instructional style is, and whether their curriculum resonates with you.

Beyond the SCHOOLS (which there are plenty of), there are also INDIVIDUALS who offer multi-year certification programs, so you may feel more connected to a smaller group like that vs. a big SCHOOL with multiple tracks of study, larger enrollment, etc. — of course, you may absolutely love a more collegiate experience! It’s fabulous that there are so many options. Yay!

I’ve taken a LOT of classes and done mentorships under particular astrologers to get myself to a point at which I feel my childhood foundation in astrology has been updated to reflect more recent techniques (as well as more recently-discovered ANCIENT techniques) and definitely support my enoughness in choosing my own specialty (planetary remediation AKA Chart Harmony).

The are grouped loosely by schools, then individuals, then organizations. No real order beyond that. I’ve experienced all of these, so feel free to ask specific questions after you’ve checked out their websites and offerings.

Kepler College
London School of Astrology
Astrology University
Astrology Hub
Faculty of Astrological Studies
Claire Gallagher
Kira Sutherland (medical astrology)
Kirah Tabourn
Mel LaFara
Kelly Surtees
Chris Brennan (Hellenistic astrology)
Kathryn Hocking (business astrology)
Andrea Gehrz
Ricky Williams
Austin Coppock
Rebecca Gordon
Sam Reynolds
Debra Silverman
AstroTwins
NCGR
OPA
AYA

In the time it took to pull the above roundup together, our community member came back with some details about their reasoning for becoming more fluent in astrology. So, I’ll add to this post what I replied in our Discord as well.

From what you’ve shared about your goals — IN GENERAL — you don’t need a certification program or degree, etc., and you probably would do well picking a school from which to train. Like, take a class at Kepler College, and another at the London School of Astrology, then watch a bunch of vids at the YouTube channels of places like The Astrology Hub or organizations like AYA or OPA or NCGR… any org that has a collection of instructors they feature. Because I think, from what you’re saying, it’s gonna be the ability to learn from MULTIPLE people that works best for you.

For me, learning from lots of different people helps me KNOW that there is “no one right way” to do any of this, and THAT fact helps me with my own enoughness around earning money offering up my own astrological gifts to the world. 😉

Come on over to our Chart Harmony Discord server) to share in this convo. And if you’d like to go deeper with any of my free (or non-free) on-demand resources, head over here to the library I’m continuing to build for you!

Much love,

Bonnie Gillespie is simultaneously all characters in The Wizard of Oz (esp. the yellow-brick road). Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!