2009 OPA Retreat
Take your astrology practice to the next level! Register Online Now!
Join us for the 6th Annual Astrology Retreat April 15 - 19, 2009
Enhance your professional skills with the wisdom of our internationally renowned faculty.A unique astrological experience- small enough to bond with your peers, big enough to expand your horizons.Enjoy the natural beauty of the Asilomar Conference Center on California’s Monterey Peninsula, a tranquil ocean-front retreat cradled by forests and white sand beaches. Relish four full days of intense astrological immersion, split between full-group sessions and intimate small-group work in one of our unique specialty tracks. You’ ll learn not only from the world-class faculty – all successful full-time 
astrologers – but from your peers as well. You’ ll be able to forge deep and lasting bonds with other professional astrologers. 
Make new friendships with kindred spirits whom you can always call on for advice, camaraderie and support. You’ ll emerge with a wealth of new strategies, techniques and ideas that will enrich your practice for the rest of your professional life. Upon registering for the conference, we will send you a form for making your reservations at Asilomar Conference Center at the special discounted OPA Retreat rate (which includes lodging and all meals). For information on Asilomar go to www.visitasilomar.com 
Register Online Now!
Retreat Tracks: You'll be asked to select your track at the time of registration.Ani Bettati – Moment of Consultation
The peer group that I will be doing the next Opa retreat is going to focus on the relationship between the chart and the client at the moment of consultation.The situations of life that the client brings, are a reflection of internal energetic processes.As astrologers we can help the clients to understand experiences as a manifestation of their own energies. We can understand the relationship between the energy of the chart and destiny.This is going to be an intensive training to facilitate the astrologer the tools that astrology can provide to transform the perception of the client. As a consequence is possible to live the energy of the chart in a more integrated level. I invite to Spanish people that understand also English to participate in this productive and rewarding experience" "El grupo que cordinaré en el proximo OPA Retreat estará orientado a trabajar la relación entre la Carta Natal y la vida de la persona en el momento de la consulta.Los problemas y conflictos que el cliente trae son el reflejo de procesos energéticos internos.Desde la astrología tenemos la posiblidad de ayudar a percibir que lo que nos toca vivir tiene que ver con nuestras propias energías.Las situaciones de destino nos ayudan a comprender y acceder a niveles de mayor integración de las propias energías.La práctica será dictada en idioma español pero es necesario tener una mínima comprensión de Inglés para las actividades generales."Monica Dimino - Chart Fluency
Fluency in Chart Interpretation. Since this would be a topic for 3 consecutive afternoons, I would dedicate each to a specific focus. A rough outline of my envisioned contents would be:Day 1. Setting up chart reading for major success.
This includes an intake process that guides the astrologer in preparing the session. Important concepts regarding an approach to a circumspect study for each client will be covered. (too often we fail to realize that the roots to our success lie in the way we start) What is the reading about? Group work will provide role plays to illustrate ways to do this.Day 2. Major keys to better chart interpretation.
Here I will share the things I have learned through 38 years of professional practice. This will include practicing with real people and real charts. (the formation of the group will determine how this will be accomplished to best include everyone)Day 3. Working with your consulting style.
Not everyone can work with the same consulting model. Eventually, each of us will be true to our own astrological make up and the conditions we have to work with. In this segment we will explore the many ways astrologers can work with clients. Working with specialties will be covered.Susan Falk – Counseling Skills and Chart Interpretation
(This workshop is limited to 8 participants). This group will be on counseling skills and chart interpretation with a psychological and spiritual orientation. Participants need to have an intermediate or higher level of chart interpretation skills. They will bring 8 copies of their natal chart with progressions. The firsr day will begin with the leader demonstrating at least one chart interpretation with an emphasis on psychological dynamics followed by explanations and discussion. On the following 2 days the participants will do readings for each other followed by feedback and discussion. There will be an emphasis on listening skills and openness to one’s intuitive faculties. Also there will be some discussion of self care for the astrologer with some yoga and breathing exercises to maintain balance and prevent burnout.
Susan has a Master’s degree in Social Work and is a trained psychotherapist who has been doing astrological charts professionally for 29 years.
Roy Gillett – Understanding Others and Timing our Actions
Group sessions to discover together how to use astrology to help clients and ourselves. Roy will explore with the group methods to cover a compassionate and intelligent understanding of the- true nature and needs of other people
- moments and periods of time to act
Dennis Harness - Archetypal Astrology
Archetypal Astrology - This track will explore the cross-cultural "sacred stories" or myths associated with various cultures as reflected through the planets, signs, constellations, fixed stars, nakshatras and asteroids of our natal charts. Come and explore your archetypal signature and meaningful myths as revealed through both tropical and sidereal astrology.Jacqueline Janes - Beginner’s Astrology
How to open the message of the natal chart - A workshop for the beginning astrologer who has a basic understanding of astrological language.Have you ever wondered how to even begin interpreting the natal chart? This workshop will teach you the basics to opening the message of the chart. You will be given a method to open the mystery of interpretation. Then you will actually give a short reading, practicing your knowledge and your skills in a supportive environment of peers. The goal is to begin forming your basic astrological knowledge into a coherent story for a client, developing your own style of presentation. Now is the time to take the step towards being an Astrological Professional!Rick Levine – Experiential Astrology
This track is facilitated by Rick Levine and combines OPA’s Peer Supervision Model with learning how to do more effective client work. This is a hands-on track and will consist of both lecture/presentation and real-time experiential work using participants’ natal charts. This track is for both professionals and students, but all participants should have some client experiences. (This track is limited to 8 participants.)Day 1: Instruction: How to approach a client session.
Getting to the core of the chart. Working with timing issues. Setting priorities. Experiential: client presentations (participants should bring 9 copies of a client chart to present to the group).Days 2 & 3: Instruction: Building client relationships.
Individual business plans. Experiential: Individual chart readings (participants should bring 9 copies of his/her own chart). Each participant will have an opportunity to role play client and astrologer. Short chart readings and discussions will be used to elucidate ways in which we can improve our consultation work and to get peer feedback and supervision.Chris McRae - Working with Clients
Exploring and organizing client presentation. Being prepared to see your client helps to build confidence in presentation and assures the client of your professionalism and your sincerity to be helpful. Preparation includes observation of underlying factors, finding the theme or thrust of the birth pattern and how it influences the future, then the current influencing patterns that provide insight into their reason for booking the appointment. We will explore styles of presentation in finding the one that feels right for you. Chart examples will be used and we could use charts of those in the group who volunteer. You may wish to bring your 2 wheel chart, natal on the inside with progression in the 2nd wheel with only the 10 planets, Nodes, Chiron and Fortuna if you wish. This will provide consistency in our work together. I have been teaching a semestered-structure course consistently for over 35 years and this material is taken from the semester I call "Advanced Chart Reading."Bob Mulligan & Benjamin Bernstein - "Building Your Successful Astrology Practice"
Personalized Guidance for All Professional Astrologers.If you’re a professional astrologer, or would like to be, then you have every right to earn an abundant and prosperous living from your practice. And you can learn how to do just that in the "Building Your Successful Astrology Practice" track, co-taught by two successful astrologers: Bob Mulligan and Benjamin Bernstein. This highly interactive experience will give you and a small group of your peers the specific information – and personal attention – that can take your practice to the next level!Want more clients? We’ll show you how to attract them based on your chart, professional skills and current situation. Need to boost your confidence? We’ll help you build faith in yourself and your mission. Have questions? We’re here to answer them. Whatever’s missing from your practice, we’ll help you put it into place!You’ll receive valuable input on your mission, business ideas, and chart. Your experience will also include prosperity-building information on accounting, marketing strategies, websites and much more!The experience is supportive, intense and transformative. Most importantly, it will empower your career as a professional astrologer! We hope you’ll join us in the "Building Your Successful Astrology Practice" track. Where the surf’s up – for your prosperity!Glenn Perry - Psychological Astrology
This specialty psychological track is facilitated by Glenn Perry and will focus on the development of skills that empower astrologers to maximize the therapeutic impact of consultations. Instruction in chart synthesis is combined with counseling technique to give students supervised, practical application of previously studied theory. A variety of skills will be taught and demonstrated in a manner specifically geared to the astrological counselor. Learn how to help clients work through difficult aspects, see the meaning and purpose of their experience, resolve conflicts that impede potential, and transform debilitating weaknesses into enduring strengths. Experiential learning will be supplemented with group discussion and sharing.Moses Siregar III – Astrocartography and Locational Astrology
I really found my niche as an astrologer when I realized the passion I had for locational astrology and Astrocartography, and began to improve our understanding of what is commonly known about this subject. This led me, through looking at many thousands of relocated charts, to some exciting new discoveries about relocated charts that really deliver consistent results. These realizations also lead more than ever before to success with regards to my goal of having a full-time astrological clientele. For me, locational astrology is the most consequential application of astrology, because where we live changes our lives so immediately and dramatically.
But this also means that the locational astrologer generally has an even larger level of responsibility than the average astrologer, because what we do can and does change others' lives so much when it impacts their questions about "Should I stay, or should I go?" It isn't possible to learn all there is to learn about locational astrology through this OPA track, but you will learn a lot of valuable new things from someone working busily in the trenches of real-life experience on this topic. I will share the most important things I have learned, and be open to your questions as well. If you have any interest in learning more about locational astrology, and how to use it to improve the work that you already do, then I believe you will find this to be an immensely valuable and mentally enriching experience.
Robert Corre - Improving interpretation skills through structure and work habit
The fundamental obstacle to effective horoscope delineation is appreciating that a chart contains much too much information. Unless trained otherwise, this complex of information hinders interpretation and poses a serious problem.
Most people enter and examine a chart in a chaotic and haphazard fashion which predisposes them to becoming overwhelmed with the risk of becoming discouraged; this ends typically in most cases in frustration and only modest satisfaction. We introduce a solution to this dilemma, a methodology that stresses discipline.
We illustrate how a systematic approach used consistently leads to a managed and organized chart inspection which begins with a comprehensive examination of the Ascendant. But a complete and rewarding evaluation requires that the astrologer perform this same appraisal on the Midheaven, Moon, and Sun that ends with a final observation of any additional noteworthy factors. This structured way to proceed epitomizes a rational method to interpretation.
We demonstrate the need for complementing this systematic approach with a set of work habits that facilitate delineation irrespective of the particular astrological tradition practiced. These include skills that give the ability to prioritize specific chart factors based on their importance along with techniques to simplify your observations and economize your thinking. These provide the means to protect you from becoming intimidated by the complexity of the chart’s image.
The above capabilities will dramatically improve the effectiveness of your interpretative skills and will lead you to a more assured and reliable judgment of a natal horoscope. Please come join us for a program that I am sure will prove to be a valuable complement to your own studies and practice.
Sandra-Leigh Serio - Predictive Astrology
Predictive Astrology - Forecasting Techniques that Make you a Better Astrologer.Learn all about Eclipses, Transits, Secondary and Solar Arc Progressions and how to synthesize these techniques so they can be applied to a natal chart to make accurate predictions. Sometimes a transit doesn't deliver, why is this? What is the difference between Solar Arc and Secondary Progressions and why are both so important? The ancients only used eclipses for their predictions, what did they know that we should know about eclipses? Chart examples from case studies will be used and we will be applying these techniques to your natal chart as well.Arlan Wise - Writer’s Workshop
The purpose of this track is to build confidence in writing astrology with a view towards publishing in newspapers, newsletters, magazines, and websites. This group is for those who love to write, those who want to write, and those who have difficulty in writing. We will sharpen writing skills as we create new pieces of astrological writing. During our three sessions together we will learn basic journalism techniques as we use fun exercises to practice “translating” astrological events and symbolism into plain English. We will write longer pieces on various topics, read our work to each other, discuss the pieces of writing without criticizing, and help each other discover and gain confidence in our writing strengths. We will encourage each other to start/continue/finish our personal writing projects. The goal for the track is that by the end of the conference we will each have an article to submit for publication.Gary Christen – Symmetrical Astrology (Previously called Uranian Astrology, Cosmobiology and others)
This is a specialized peer group to ground all levels of astrologers in modern astrology. Contrary to popular belief, the twentieth century was the most innovative period for astrology since Ptolemy. New systems of thought and ideas permeated and shaped the field for the greater part of the century. Not only were great minds involved in the field, but ground breaking ideas and innovative synthesis of all that came before were revealed. From the use of 90 and 360 degree dials, arc openings, oblique angularity and the ground breaking Nova Chartwheels software, you will have the unique opportunity to learn in-depth these methods with one of the masters of these concepts. This rare opportunity to learn the concepts and techniques of Symmetrical Astrology, often so difficult to find, and will pull many of these new methods into a framework that reflects modern thinking and conceptualization.
This peer group is a departure from the normal signature of the OPA workshops and peer sessions because Gary is teaching technique and the material is quite striking and groundbreaking. Yet, once understood in context, symmetrical techniques can augment any methods one is currently using and provide a clear framework to classify where to go and what to do as one approaches the horoscope. Using Nova Chartwheels software, a program that is ground breaking in its own right, you will now find it easy to move towards mastery and will find that the work is readily understandable, easy to use and quite powerful. It is also important to note that these methods will not replace what you use in your study and understanding of astrology, but will augment your work and add a richness and easy identification of critical pieces of the astrological puzzle.
This is an offer to study a system of thought, in depth, from Gary Christen, a respected innovator of modern techniques, who is President of Astrolabe (publishers of Solar Fire, Nova Chartwheels and other great programs since 1979). Gary has been working with these methods since 1971 and is well known for his teaching and professional work. You will gain a great methodology and your work will excel in its depth and understanding.
Gisele Terry: Astrology & Psychotherapy
This seminar is designed for astrologers who are also psychotherapists. The three-day format of this workshop will focus on the theoretical, clinical, and research applications of astrology to psychotherapy. Specific attention will be given to the unique ways that astrologers draw upon their skills in astrology to enhance the clinical process of psychotherapy. While it is generally agreed that astrology’s use as an interpretive tool is contraindicated for severe diagnoses, astrological symbols have the capacity to generate spontaneous images that can become guides along the unfolding path of any treatment. These images emerge from the dynamic unconscious dialogue between therapist and patient. The concept and use of astrology as Winnicot’s potential space, or transitional space, will be discussed.