I’ve been pondering how we belong to others, to our parents, children, other relatives, friends, co-workers, neighbors, ancestors, nation, clubs, religions, etc. These folks share a bit of our identities due to common bloodline, passions, hobbies, experiences or ideas. Astrologers can add clients to who we belong to, and the Astrologers who taught and mentored us. And in posting to this fine Blog at R. Ann Rousseau's gracious invitation, so starts a new belonging in this online community.
To answer the above question about me, takes us back to 1966, Brookline, Massachusetts. Picture an exhausted single Mom of 2 teen girls, coming home to her apartment after work. The older girl, age 16 is out with a boyfriend. The 14-year-old is alone in her room musing over a word she’d put on her chalkboard, which she changes whenever the word stops resonating in her psyche, which may be days or weeks. She’s eager to return to Beacon Hill to skateboard with her Hippie friends, spend money she earned babysitting to treat friends at Brigham’s ice cream shop and find new subjects to draw on her sketchpad. Alienated from her parents due to harsh family events, most of the adults who know her are clueless about what's on her mind. She and Mom seem to be mostly ships passing in the night.
Not that evening! Mom informed me that she spent her lunch hour that afternoon visiting an Astrologer, who said unexpectedly good things about me and wanted to meet me! Surreal curiosity made me agree to attend a Friday night class, and Isabel Hickey soon became the guiding light in my life. I was her protégée at her Boston School of Astrology for the next five years and couldn’t get enough. Fortunately for me, “Issie” was happy about that. As I’ve said many times, if Issie had been a cobbler, I’d have become a cobbler too, just to be in the Light and Love that she radiated to all who came within her aura.
Blessings, Amy Shapiro
To answer the above question about me, takes us back to 1966, Brookline, Massachusetts. Picture an exhausted single Mom of 2 teen girls, coming home to her apartment after work. The older girl, age 16 is out with a boyfriend. The 14-year-old is alone in her room musing over a word she’d put on her chalkboard, which she changes whenever the word stops resonating in her psyche, which may be days or weeks. She’s eager to return to Beacon Hill to skateboard with her Hippie friends, spend money she earned babysitting to treat friends at Brigham’s ice cream shop and find new subjects to draw on her sketchpad. Alienated from her parents due to harsh family events, most of the adults who know her are clueless about what's on her mind. She and Mom seem to be mostly ships passing in the night.
Not that evening! Mom informed me that she spent her lunch hour that afternoon visiting an Astrologer, who said unexpectedly good things about me and wanted to meet me! Surreal curiosity made me agree to attend a Friday night class, and Isabel Hickey soon became the guiding light in my life. I was her protégée at her Boston School of Astrology for the next five years and couldn’t get enough. Fortunately for me, “Issie” was happy about that. As I’ve said many times, if Issie had been a cobbler, I’d have become a cobbler too, just to be in the Light and Love that she radiated to all who came within her aura.
As many of you know, Issie was the pioneer of spiritual astrology. She spoke throughout the U.S. and was renowned as a counselor, healer and metaphysical teacher whose guidance lifted thousands of lives. She explained reincarnation and universal laws in her third book, It Is ALL Right. Issie left the body in 1980 yet has touched many thousands more lives through charts I have done in her tradition. Mom too has now left this Earth, and – like Issie -- lives on in my heart.
The rest of this story and more on Issie is coming soon in her fourth book, called Never Mind, held posthumously by her grandson Jay, with whom I am publishing it with our memoirs. And after a long delay, her Astrology: A Cosmic Science will soon be a natal report, a project conceived in 1998 with her daughter Helen who has since passed onto the other side too.
If longing precedes belonging, then the kind of Astrologer we each are stems from who we emulate, not just what we know. That’s been true for me.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
For 40+ years, Astrologer Amy Shapiro has nurtured soul growth with skills and services drawn on her training with Astrologer Isabel Hickey, William Swygaard, Jo Onvlee, John Chung Li and Dr. Oskar Adler. Amy was the first Clerk for NCGR and an early President of NCGR- Boston. She co-discovered a technique with Astrologer Ron Davison called The Relationship Chart or as she calls it The Conception Chart of the Relationship due to its esoteric implications. Her TV and radio show, "Good Heavens!" won her wide acclaim with the public and her Good Heaven’s column appeared monthly in Dell Horoscope Magazine. She founded the Cape Ann School of Astrology and has been a consultant, editor and writer for Para Research, Astral Research, Cosmic Communications and Dell Horoscope. After earning her MA in Education and Psychology, she earned an M.Ed. in Counseling, and trained in stress management, T’ai Chi, meditation, visualization; reincarnation, hypnotherapy and nutrition. She has been as a Head Start Advisor, taught at Wheelock and Endicott Colleges, and trained at Harvard’s Mind-Body Institute and New England Society of Clinical Hypnosis.
She has dedicated 20+ years to The Testament of Astrology, a 7-volume course by Austrian Astrologer Dr. Oskar Adler, and has now published a comprehensive Curriculum Guide for the entire 7 volume series. She has also written and published Dr. Adler's biography called Dr. Oskar Adler: A Complete Man. Her other books include One Sex to the Other – Reincarnation and the Dual-Gender Soul, The Dis-Appointment Book –A Human Therapy Guide to Conquering Disappointments. She coauthored the book Questioning the Oracle—The IChing and The Gift of the Tortoise-New Insights into the I-Ching.
Her newest book with Jay Hickey called Never Mind, is Isabel’s last book, never before published. Along with the book, she has written an Astrological Natal Report adapted from Issie’s Astrology A Cosmic Science, called “Your Cosmic Blueprint: A Seeker’s Guide.” The Natal report and program are available at http://www.newagesages.com/.
With her husband, Ed Kaznocha, Amy raised two sons in Gloucester, MA, where they enjoy gardening and landscaping.
With her husband, Ed Kaznocha, Amy raised two sons in Gloucester, MA, where they enjoy gardening and landscaping.
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