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.

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 mixup, 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.

Next month I am off to England to give a talk at the 25th history of astrology conference in London and then another talk a few days later at the Astrological Lodge of London.  I’m rather excited because this will be my first trip to the UK, and I’m looking forward to meeting a number of people there.

Lately most of my efforts have been directed towards organizing a new cooperative translation project over at www.HellenisticAstrology.com, and so far things are going really well.    We are planning on hosting a sort of conference or symposium for the project and for Hellenistic astrology in general next July in cooperation with the AFA.  More details should be available soon.

I’m also in the process of trying to revamp the Association for Young Astrologers in order to get the organization ready so that we can work with the AFA on their conference next year in July.   I’m also organizing a local astrology group here in Denver which meets each month at the Mercury Cafe.  So far we have had five meetings and they keep getting better and better.

The year started off with a great personal loss with the death of my sister, but I’ve tried to channel a lot of the energy surrounding the grief that I was going through into my work, and in many respects I’ve tried to honor her memory along the way in doing so.   At this point the future looks rather bright and I’m excited about where things are headed.  It was nearly 10 years ago now that I started out on this path with my astrological studies, and I’m rather grateful to have found what I was meant to do with my life at a relatively early age.  I’m looking forward to what the next 10 years will bring.