If you aren’t familiar with ‘team you,’ it’s a concept that I originally got from the Captain Awkward advice blog. The idea is to build a team of people who support you and who you can rely on. I talk about this in the Agile Manifesto (and the Risky Business book and the Modular Magic Framework course). Note: your team you should include spirits, non-human persons, and non-corporeal beings as well as other humans, but human connections are still critical, particularly in our atomized and isolating western societies.
When you are in the business of giving advice, it’s also really important that you have people who you can go to to get advice yourself. For me, that means a regular astrologer who can focus on my own chart and life. This is because no matter how much I learn and develop, I still have my own blind spots and need help seeing them. This is the first lesson.
Now there are all kinds of astrologers in the world, with different systems and styles. I have my criteria for the kind of astrology I like. I prefer whole house systems (because that’s how I work, not because it’s right and other systems are wrong). I like a proactive, remediatory approach — rather than more fate focused — because again, that’s how I’m wired. A magically operant astrologer is absolutely required. And finally, and most critically, I need an astrologer who’s accurate and WON’T BLOW SMOKE UP MY ASS.
This is huge for me. Optimism is great, yes, but ignoring bad signs in the sky isn’t optimism… it’s avoidance. Last year I was looking at my natal return chart and seeing some things that were, well, concerning to me. I reached out to one of my other networks and asked if any astro-heads were willing to ‘read me to filth’ – no holding back. The point is that you need someone who’s a good match for you. This is the second lesson.
Jack volunteered and sent me a write up on what he thought the year held. Not a full consult, but a written review – gratis. And yeah, it was pretty blunt. A year later he reached out and did something that no astrologer in my experience has ever done… he asked how accurate he’d been. So I reviewed his reading (which again, I had in writing) and, yeah, it was very, very accurate. Even when his specific guess about an area or transit wasn’t perfectly spot on (he knew nothing about me, remember) the general assessment was right and I could see ahead of time where it might manifest in my life.
In fact, it was clear that I should have reviewed his reading more throughout the year. Because while I found his writeup actionable and useful, there were opportunities for planning, remediation, and magic that I’d missed in the day-to-day living of life.
I won’t make that mistake again. This year I’m priming my personal calendar with dates to look out for and will revisit the material during my monthly planning. Because when it comes to leveraging the skills of your team, it’s only useful if you use it. This is the third lesson.
Still, seeing it in hindsight was really powerful and gave me huge confidence in his skill. So this year, I booked a formal consultation.
His consulting style was different than most astrologers, and for me it was absolute MONEY. First of all, he was very generous with his time. Second, he didn’t waste time on the basics that I already knew, but was open to questions where my knowledge had gaps. He obviously can do a first time natal reading, but he knew I didn’t need that. He also ran multiple charts looking at transits through the year ahead and included them with his recording and post-reading material. Finally, he ran charts on the fly, during the consult, looking at things that concerned me, checking synastry charts when I brough up some things I thought might be relevant. Like he was just whipping up charts in multiple tabs and flying between them to highlight our discussion.
If you are interested in an astrologer who’s accurate, magically operant, reads tarot, and won’t pull any punches, I recommend Jack Steiger. Tell him I sent you. Tell him he’s awesome. Enjoy the ride.
