It has been an eventful several months since my last update, and it is probably time to recap some of what has happened and also to mention some upcoming events that I will be speaking at, as well as projects that I’m currently working on.

NCGR Journal

I spent a decent part of the summer editing a volume of the NCGR Research Journal based on the seminar that I organized in Boston earlier in the year.    It was finally published in September, and although it didn’t come out as well as I had originally planned, the response was generally positive.   There is more information about the journal on the Horoscopic Astrology Blog, and you can order a copy from the NCGR website.

After the journal was completed I stepped down as editor so that I could focus on other projects, completing a two and a half year stint as the Research Director and then the Editor of the Research Journal.

Louisville, Melbourne, etc.

I had a great time giving lectures and workshops in Louisville, Kentucky in September and then in Melbourne, Australia in November.

The Regulus Traditional Astrology Conference was a great success, and I was really honored to have had the opportunity to take part in it.   You can view some pictures I took at the conference on my Flickr page.

I also gave two online lectures on Hellenistic astrology, first at Robert Corre’s Internet Astrology Conference, and then at the International Academy of Astrology’s Breaking Down the Boarders conference.  Both of the talks went really well, and it was interesting seeing how the the online conferences worked.

I did feel that there was a bit missing when it came to the social interactions that one usually associates with conferences, although I suspect that we will still see many more online conferences taking place in the future.

Traditional Astrology Radio

In November I took over the Traditional Astrology Radio podcast from Jacqui Menkes.   I’ve done two shows since then, one was an interview with astrologer Alan White, and the other was a discussion about the recent release of a translation of the Anthology of Vettius Valens.

Right now I’m in the process of setting up setting up a new website for Traditional Astrology Radio, and I’m scheduling interviews with some big names in the field to take place over the next few weeks.

Upcoming: Seattle, Phoenix & San Francisco

I’m getting ready for a trip to Seattle next week where I’m going to be giving a lecture and a workshop for the Washington State Astrological Association.  I spent some time living in Seattle while I was attending Kepler, and I’m looking forward to going back to visit for a few days.

After that I will be speaking in Phoenix in June for the Arizona Society of Astrologers, and then in San Francisco in November for the two local groups out there.

It should be a pretty interesting year!

It has been a while since I’ve posted any updates here, so I thought that a quick recap of the past year and a half would be in order.

After that there is some information about my current projects, as well as plans for the future.

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Recap of 2009

• My weekend long workshop on Hellenistic astrology in February went really well, and I integrated some of the recordings from it into my Hellenistic astrology course.
• I spoke at NORWAC in Seattle in late May, which is always a pleasure.
• I spent most of the summer doing research, working on my book, and working with a friend on a translation of Porphyry’s Introduction to Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos.
• I gave a lecture and a workshop on Hellenistic astrology in New Jersey in October, and I got to meet some really nice people on the East Coast.
• The rest of the year was spent doing some historical research for my book and writing articles on my other astrology blog.

2010 so far

• The year started out with a bang with the NCGR conference in Boston in February.  I organized a day-long seminar on the history and future of astrology that involved 9 speakers, and it turned out pretty well.  I also gave a talk at the main conference which addressed the way I understand the philosophical foundations underlying Hellenistic astrology.
• I gave a talk in Boulder, Colorado on Hellenistic time-lord techniques in May.
• I spent most of the spring working on the historical and philosophical sections of my book.

Present and Future

• At the moment I’m in the process of editing a journal for the NCGR that contains a collection of papers from the history seminar that I organized at their conference in February.   That should be out sometime later this summer.  I stepped down from my position as the Research Director of the NCGR earlier this year, and my new role now is as the editor of the journal.
• Most of the summer I’m just focusing on trying to finish my book.
• I have a busy lecture schedule later this year, with talks at two online conferences in October and November, as well as a talk and a workshop for the Astrological Society of Kentucky in late September.  I’m most excited about the Regulus Astrology Conference in Melbourne, Australia in November though, which I will be the keynote speaker at.   It looks like it is going to be a great conference, and I’m really looking forward to the trip.
• I just got an invitation to speak at the next United Astrology Conference in New Orleans in May of 2012.   I made it on to the list of the top 30 astrologers in the world that were selected to be core presenters, and so I’m very excited about that.

That is pretty much it for now.    I usually post updates more regularly on my Twitter account, so it is a good idea to subscribe to that if you want to keep up on the latest stuff that I’m working on.    Also, of course, the Horoscopic Astrology Blog, where I post articles sporadically.

I just wanted to write a short post with a few updates about upcoming events, as well as some reflections on the past year.

Hellenistic Astrology Workshop in February

At the moment I am getting prepared for my three day workshop on Hellenistic astrology which takes place in Austin, Texas from February 27th through March 1st, 2009.

I’m really excited about the workshop, and I’m planning to pack a lot of information into it.  So far the response has been good, and registration spaces seem to be filling up.  Apparently we have a limited number of space available though, so if you are interested in registering for the workshop then you should probably contact the organizers pretty soon.

You can find out more information about the workshop or register for it at www.texasastrologyretreat.org

Astrology Blogging

Over the past couple of months I’ve been doing a lot of astrology blogging over at the Horoscopic Astrology Blog, and I also launched two new blogs with my friend Patrick Watson.  The Celebrity Astrology Blog went online in November, and then the Political Astrology Blog went live on January 5th.  We are in the process of recruiting a team of writers so that we can provide fresh astrologically-related content on all three blogs on a daily basis.

Unfortunately this project, as well as some other unrelated translation complications, have led to some delays in my forthcoming book on Hellenistic astrology, although the book is looking really good at this point, and it is going to be excellent by the time it hits the market.

Notable Mentions in Books

Speaking of books, I realized today that I received notable mention in 4 different books that were published over the course of the past year.

The first mention was in the acknowledgments section of Nick Campion’s new book The Dawn of Astrology: A Cultural History of Western Astrology, for providing him with some helpful feedback and corrections on his chapter on Hellenistic astrology.

The second mention was in Ben Dykes’ compilation of Medieval translations titled Works of Sahl and Masha’allah, primarily due to the many discussions that I had with Ben about the origins of horary astrology while he was writing the book.   I wrote a review of the book on the Horoscopic Astrology blog.

Just tonight I realized that I was also mentioned in Steven Weiss’ new book Signs of Success: The Remarkable Power of Business Astrology.  Here is the except:

The new breed’s names – Chris Brennan, Nick Dagan Best, Rebecca Crane, Adam Gainsburg, Maria Mateus, Kenneth Miller, Jonathan Pearl, Kelly Lee Phipps, Sherene Schostak, Bill Street, and others whom I may have most regrettably but unintentionally failed to mention – are not yet well known through the length and breadth of the astrology kingdom, but they will be. For while apparently well versed in traditional astrological knowledge that has been passed along for millenia, these younger astrologers also bring a unique message that, as an internationally-respected astrologer by the name of Robert Blashke pointed out, represents a clear “new wave” passing of the generational torch. Thse new astrologers, in terms of Blashke’s cogent analysis, are unique in that they are questing for synthesis. (pg. 236)

More recently, I received acknowledgements in Regulus Astrology’s book America is Born: Introducing the Regulus USA National Horoscope.  I spent a few weeks in October helping him to edit the book, and it came out really well in the end.

The Rest of 2009

That’s about it for this update.   I’ll be lecturing in Seattle and Miami in May and July, respectively, finishing up my book, and continuing to work on the astrology blogs throughout the course of the year.  So, stay tuned for future updates.

Today I’m flying to London in order to attend the 25th History of Astrology Conference hosted by the Astrological Lodge of London.  On Saturday I will be presenting my paper on the origins of horary astrology titled The Katarche of Horary.   If you would like to read a version of the paper that I will be presenting at the history conference then just click the link above titled The Katarche of Horary in order to download a PDF version.

On Monday I will be giving a talk at the Lodge on a Hellenistic time-lord technique known as zodiacal releasing.   This will be my first trip to England, and I’m really excited about it.    If you happen to live in or near London then please stop by one of my talks and say hi.

I’ll probably post some pictures from the trip here at some point in the near future, so stay tuned.

Update – November 9, 2008: The trip was really great.  I made a lot of new friends, and both of my talks seemed to go over well.    Here are some pics from my talk at the history conference:

I just launched my new website here at www.ChrisBrennanAstrologer.com.  The old website for my consulting practice was at www.AstrologicalConsultingServices.com, but I wanted to start taking that site in a new direction and I thought that it would be a good idea to set up a more personalized website in order to showcase my work and the different types of services and classes that I offer.

I chose the URL www.ChrisBrennanAstrologer.com primarily because the domain name www.ChrisBrennan.com belongs to some wrestler with the same name, and I wanted to differentiate myself from him since his nickname is “The Westside Strangler.”  So, its Chris Brennan the astrologer, not Chris Brennan the westside strangler.  While I appreciate the comedic value of the mix up, and my friends do especially, I think that it is time to start working on my own name recognition here.

My main astrology blog has been the Horoscopic Astrology Blog for a while (formerly the Apotelesmatics Astrology Blog), although I think that I will start posting on this one more frequently now.   It will probably be a bit more casual and contain more information about my life and observations, but I will try to keep the quality high and the articles relevant to astrologers.

My life has been rather busy over the past few months, and the next month or so should continue to be rather hectic.  I just got back from speaking at the Blast astrology conference in Sedona, Arizona and I had a great time.  I spoke on the Hellenistic astrology track with Demetra George, Joseph Crane and Dorian Greenbaum.  I ended up giving three lectures and a three hour long workshop during the course of the week, and I made a number of new friends at conference.

At one point I drove to Tempe, Arizona to have a meeting with some people from the American Federation of Astrologers, and I discussed plans to work with them to help put together their conference in Miami next July.  I also discussed plans to publish my first book with them, and at this point I am shooting for a release date of sometime early next year.   I had the pleasure of meeting James Holden and talking with him for a few hours at this meeting, and it was quite an honor since he has long been one of my favorite researchers/authors.

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