Organization for Professional Astrology

The annual OPA Astrologers Retreat is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before in Astrology!

• Do you feel isolated and unsupported as a professional practicing astrologer?
• Are you unsure how to transition from practicing astrology as a hobby to practicing astrology full-time as a professional?
• Do you want to talk to other astrologers who are self-supporting to find out how they do it?

A Professional Astrology Practice is Demanding

There are many facets to being a professional astrologer:

• Technical astrological proficiency
• Highly developed intuition
• Counseling Skills
• Marketing
• Having a website (a daunting task in itself)
• Business Systems
• Writing (a LOT of writing)
• Giving Lectures and Teaching

This is quite an intimidating learning curve!

What Are Your Options for Growing Your Business?

There are some excellent books to help you with this process (we recommend How to Start, Maintain, and Expand an Astrological Practice by OPA to start with, and Robert Blaschke’s book A Handbook for the Self-Employed Astrologer), but nothing beats the one-on-one, in-depth and personal help you will get at the retreat.

At the retreat you will get support from other successful astrologers who have already gone down the road of self-employment. Astrologers have a lot in common with other helping professions, but at the retreat you will not only get help with being a self-employed professional, but with the unique aspects of being in business as an astrologer.

Is This You?

You’ve been studying and practicing astrology for a while now, sometimes for a fee, but mostly for free because you don’t know if you are good enough to charge. If you’ve been studying astrology and giving readings for a long time now, you may just need to boost your confidence. You would love doing this as a career, nothing you can think of would be as satisfying and you believe that you could really help people in the profound way that only astrology can — but do you dare to take that leap of faith to being a full-time professional? You are worried that you wouldn’t be able to make a decent living at it.

Maybe you’ve already been practicing professionally for a while but are having trouble with one or more aspects of your business. Mostly what you crave is community with other astrologers walking the same path, as it can get lonely sometimes. You would really like to discuss the problems you have with some clients (you wonder “is it me?”). You’d also like to know if you can improve your counseling skills or if there is something more about astrology you can learn that will help.

• Click here to read Peer Group Work: Astrology’s Next Step, by Bob Mulligan
• Click here to read I Didn’t Know How Hungry I Was Until I Was Being Fed, by Karen White

Is This Really a Worthwhile Investment?

Times are tough and you’re not sure you can get away for four or five days and spend money when you’re not sure it is going to actually going to benefit you and your practice. Why is it worth it?

The OPA retreat is not like going to an astrological convention where you hear several lectures on different topics with different astrological styles. At the OPA retreat you get in-depth, one-on-one attention (you and your chart), on one topic that is most relevant to you, for four days!

The sessions are so personal and emotionally intimate that it is forbidden to record the conversations for confidentiality reasons.

It’s like a four-day reading with a great astrologer where you also learn how to greatly improve your own astrological skills.

You make friends that you will keep for life, and professional connections that will give you the deep sense of community that your soul has been longing for.

You will be part of the advancement of good astrology in the world, by bringing astrology to the level where it can be respected in society just as other helping professions now enjoy.

You may be saying to yourself that you can figure it all out for yourself, and of course you can. It will just take a whole lot longer, cost you thousands of dollars that you could be earning as an astrologer, not to mention, be a lot lonelier, and far less fun!

What Previous Retreat Attendees Have to Say

Monterey Bay

“Thank you so much for such a beautiful experience!  I will treasure my time with Rick Levine and the people in my group forever.  Meeting you was also a treat.  One of the nicest parts of this conference was meeting all of you high ranking ”Professional Astrologers” and experiencing how compassionate and warm you all were towards “us” (newbees)!  It was sooooo refreshing.  No egos were present
—Patty Kamson, OPA Member

“Going to the OPA retreat opened my eyes to new possibilities of group interaction. I made new friends and expanded my astrological family while I learned how to become a better astrologer. I can’t wait to return to next year’s retreat.” — A.M.

“…the retreat was superbly executed and thoroughly enjoyable…It will go down in my book of memories as one of the most memorable times of my life…Your conclusion speech on our closing farewell hour was so heart rendering…you touched the heart of my soul with how well you expressed the peaks and valleys of my feelings about this planet.”— With love and Respect, Robbie Coulson

“I did not have expectations and I leave with a sense of community and incredible support.” — Maki Hanawa.

“…The support and learning …is priceless.” — Lori DeSotter.

“This has been a pivotal experience for me and I deeply appreciate the opportunity to attend….I feel like I’ve been through an initiation and much is already shifting and now doors are opening.  I am also happy to have made some new deep and meaningful connections in the international astrological community.” — Angela Werneke

Pacific Grove, CA

“Hello Ellen and the rest of the Board at OPA. I am so delayed in sending this email that I feel a bit embarrassed. But I cannot be silenced. I want to send word to all of you how very much I enjoyed the retreat in Florida. I felt completely welcomed after so many years of being a lone practitioner. And the atmosphere was so warm and inviting. I so enjoyed being around professional astrologers and to see the high level of integrity and responsibility that you had for the field. And most of all, I was in awe at the openness and sharing of what it takes to be a successful professional astrologer. There was no hint of competition, just the sense that by working together we can make the astrological professional the solid, respectable, profession that we all know it should be. I was in the Astrologers at Work group and was amazed at the knowledge and sharing that went on from the panel. It was so much more than I could have imagined. And the setting was so beautiful, that it added to the whole experience. So thank you all for putting your time and energy into such a wonderful organization and great meeting.” — Dr. Lilan Laishley

Join us at the 2010 OPA Retreat for the experience of a lifetime!

The focus of the retreat for each participant revolves around one of ten tracks.
Review the retreat tracks.

Click here to download the Asilomar Housing Form to reserve your accommodations.