Reflections on NORWAC 2023
{In early 2023, i WAS AWARDED A DIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP TO ATTEND THE 2023 NORTH WEST ASTROLOGY CONFERENCE. AS A CONDITION OF RECEIVING THE SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS ARE ASKED TO WRIte a short essay reflecting on their experience at the conference. In mine I explored my experience of the particular fault lines I found apparent in the astrological community and my excitement at helping to shape the future of astrology. Dig it.}
When I consider my involvement with astrology -- what attracted me to it, what fascinates me about it, why I have decided to make it my life’s work -- the first thing that comes to mind is community. Astrology has given me language, techniques and practices that put me in contact with the distant past, ground me in the present moment and allow me to extend myself into the world. This web of relationships has enriched my life beyond measure.
Like so many, my formal practice of astrology began during the Covid-19 pandemic, which means that most of my experience with the astrological community has happened online. While I am grateful for finding avenues for community during a time when much of the world felt isolated, I am aware of all of the ways my experience with respect to the field of astrology has been somewhat limited. Which is why it was so important to me to come to NORWAC 2023.
Of course, I was excited to put faces to names of people that I had been interacting with online for years and meeting astrologers whose work I’ve long admired. But at this point in my practice I’ve been thinking quite a lot about my place in astrology. Wondering if there is room for my voice, my perspective and what it is I might have to say.
What I saw was a community in flux: A pre-pandemic generation of astrologers excited to be getting “back to normal” amid a sea of newcomers whose entire experience in astrology is the post-pandemic “new normal.” Organizers navigating the complexities, technical and social, of putting on a hybrid conference. Established modern astrologers trying their best to make space for the increasing popularity of “traditional” astrology and AstroTwitter astrologers answering for the reputation for verbal combat that preceded them.
There was tension between those pushing for professionalization and mainstream legitimacy for the field of astrology and the desire of others to preserve the open approach and decidedly outré nature of astrology itself, for which there is often little room in the mainstream. There was a similar tension at the intersection of astrology and spirituality, between the contemporary alternative spiritual landscape that includes animist perspectives, indigenous cosmologies and magical practice and the New Age philosophy and modern psychology that has predominated in “western” astrology since the 20th century.
And sitting in the middle of all of this I thought to myself, “What a time to be an astrologer!”
My sense of what we all had in common that weekend was a deep love of astrology, an earnest questioning of the place of our practice in the contemporary world and a willingness to extend ourselves in good faith despite our sometimes wildly different perspectives. NORWAC’s Diversity Scholarship certainly made it possible for me to attend the conference but it was not until the weekend was almost over that I realized that NORWAC made it possible for me to be a part of the conversations that are shaping the future of astrology.
What I found for myself is a clearer sense of my voice and perspective, how I might make a place in the broader astrological community and an even deeper appreciation for our work. I consider being engaged with the natural world in participation with an ancient, living tradition to be an honor and privilege. After NORWAC, shepherding our tradition into the future for the time I have to contribute is a notion to which I feel a palpable responsibility.
