Lee’s Speaking Topics
Lee is available on a limited basis to speak to groups in either an evening, full-day, or weekend workshop. These are some of her titles and topics.
Lectures (1½ – 3 hours)
Truth Be Told! Telling the truth in a chart is more than Mercury-Neptune! In this workshop we discuss natal, horary, and electional – and philosophy too, because capturing truth in a chart also means asking the question: what is truth? In horary, the generic question type is: is the rumor true? Here, we discuss broader applications of this idea, as well as natal interactions with information and its interpretation. This lecture presents the horary techniques for answering the generic question, “Is the rumor true?” Along with this, certain markers for truthfulness on the part of the person asking the question will also be reviewed.
The Nexus of Electional Astrology and Magic: During the Arabic and Latin Medieval periods, a portion of electional astrology was stripped from astrology and afterwards was only found in magical texts. This transfer of methods allowed electional astrology to remain barely acceptable in practice, although it was officially interdicted by the Catholic Church. What was lost was the complete system of medical remedial measures that paralleled the Vedic system, as well as much practical knowledge for picking effective times for inceptions. This lecture explores these ideas which, if recovered into electional astrology, give the astrologer more powerful results.
Translation, Reception, and Collection: Planetary Interactions beyond Aspects: Aspects are the lifeblood of understanding dynamic action through time. However, the ancient astrological world saw the development of other systems to understand how planets dance with each other. These alternate methods add new stories to the ways planets encounter each other, and so weave yet more detail into the tapestry of planetary action and function.
A Brief History of the Soul in Western Astrology: Astrology’s close linkage with natural philosophy meant that the development of ways to examine the soul in astrology first followed philosophical ideas, and then medical ones. Lee will examine these two different approaches, and their astrological signatures. In the end, you’ll discover that common sense isn’t what you think it is.
The Prediction of Doom and Gloom: It is stunning how often people are convinced that they are witnessing either the end of times, or a transition to a new order. Conversely, astrologers, and other future predictors, often miss the big ones, like astrologers missing the beginning of World War II. In this lecture, Lee discusses how our own beliefs about the world impact our ability to predict the future, and shows how we can use the past to help us identify important trigger times in the future.
The Astrology of Sustainability: In order to understand the coming events of the next fifty years, we have to also understand the environmental stresses of Pluto going through Saturn’s signs. This lecture presents a history of those events, and how it will apply as we move forward.
Real Estate Questions in a Real Estate Slump: For a while, it seemed like anybody could make money at real estate. Not so today. This lecture reviews the major horary and electional issues in examining real estate questions. There are better times to buy and sell, and even if this is a buyer’s market, there are still a lot of lemons out there.
When the Chart Says “No”: If we are honest about it, the old cartoon, “If my natal chart were a horary, the answer would be no!” is true. This fact should not be disturbing to us as astrologers, but instead, should be the demonstration for why our craft is so needed to understand life. A statement of “no” is merely the realization that we need to think outside the box to get a “yes.” Join Lee for this mind-bending exploration of how we trip ourselves up on the way to our free will.
Introduction to Medical Astrology: In order to do medical, the astrologer needs to be able to combine natal techniques with electional ones. In this introduction to the field, we examine the intrinsic susceptibilities to disease from the natal chart, and examine the method of ascertaining a plan for the Native to maintain health.
Classical Temperament and Modern Wellness: The ancient medical analysis of temperament has practical applications in designing lifestyle practices which support well being. Astrological indicators can be used to compute the proper mix or balance for the individual.
Wealth: The 2nd House & Lifetime Financial Planning: Classical astrology has specific methods to examine how matters of a house change over time. This lecture considers one of the most practical applications: how to use this technique to develop a lifetime financial plan.
Solar Returns: A Classical Approach: Solar Returns were one of the techniques that classical astrologers used to predict future events, but their methodology differed somewhat from modern method. Here we examine the use of Solar Returns to evaluate the significance of particular years, and the themes they present.
Longevity: Can we predict it, and what do we do with it? The classical method for studying longevity was to compute the Hyleg, and then, with some other factors, calculate a length of life in years. This seems unsatisfactory in a modern setting, because average lifespans have changed so much since then. In this lecture, we discuss these methods, and se what conclusions we can draw about how to use this system to help enhance longevity, rather than giving a futile death sentence.
The Nodal Cycle: From Ptolemy to Rudhyar: Rudhyar and Ruperti discussed the Moon’s cycle of latitude, which requires no calculation except visual inspection of the chart. Yet it yields fascinating information about how the individual interacts with ideas and the world. This analysis clarifies Ptolemy’s and other ancient authors’ interpretation of the nodal cycle, and explains why the squares to the Nodes are so important.
Using Horary for Relationship and Job Questions: This lecture introduces the classical style in horary examples which utilize the movement of planets to produce a result, namely perfection. Relationship and job electional techniques are also discussed.
Using Astrology to Win in Conflict and Negotiation: The rules of warfare that have been developed through horary and electional astrology can be applied to any potential conflict situation, including divorce, the sale of a company, or making a deal. Through the use of event interpretation, you can counsel your client in how to encourage a successful negotiation.
The Part of Fortune: Its History and Use: This lecture examines the ideas that have been advanced behind the meaning and use of the Part of Fortune, including the question of which way to calculate it for persons born at night. We will also examine how to use Fortuna as the starting point for an alternate house system.
Classical Mundane Techniques: Most of the attention which has been paid to classical astrology has been either in natal or horary. However, the classical methods of interpreting mundane events – eclipses, major conjunctions, lunations, ingresses, charts of countries or rulers, and events – are still used by modern mundane practitioners. Find out what the classical spin is for these techniques as we explore how to predict the flow of events.
How would William Lilly look at Pluto? Have you ever wondered how William Lilly might look at Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto? The astrologers who invented our modern interpretation of the Outer Planets did not understand much of classical astrology. Uranus was added to astrological interpretation without consideration of whether there were more undiscovered planets, and what this would mean. This lecture presents a philosophical approach to the meaning of Outer Planets without losing the power of traditional Astrology.
Sporting Events: The way to pick a winner depends on the dynamics of the sport in question. This lecture considers what factors produce different winning signatures. It also takes up a number of factors which sporting statistics can address, such as the magnitude of the relocation effect.
The Soul, Mercury and the Moon: the Mind/Memory Interface: This lecture traces the history of the concept of soul as its developed in philosophy and medicine, and its relationship to the interpretation of Mercury and the Moon, which includes how the native learns, and what experiences will be retained in memory.
1-2 Day Workshops
One Day Electional Astrology: learning the traditional rules of electional astrology can be a lengthy process, in part because most works assume that the electional astrologer has already mastered horary. However, there are a small number of very direct techniques which can be used for perhaps 70% of all electionals, from a job interview, to making phone calls for gain, for timing presentations or rituals, to incorporating a business. The more conventional electional should be used for surgery or other dangerous procedures, or long-lasting electional like marriage. The great advantage of this quicker electional system is that, not only can it be learned through a simple series of procedures, but it does not require delpt knowledge of traditional astrology in order to apply it.
Essential and Accidental Dignities: This workshop considers the material from the rulership and “Sky” lectures above in considerable depth. It is basically a study of the relationship between planetary placement by sign, degree and house and the intrinsic functioning of that planet. This system shows the difference between the concepts of strength and affinity, and thereby re-examines the recent idea of the twelve letter alphabet. The different kinds of essential dignities – Rulership, Exaltation, Triplicity, Term and Face – are discussed, as well as the detriments and peregrine planets. Both the traditional accidental dignities, such as angularity and retrogradation, and the Hellenistic concepts, like diurnal and nocturnal, are presented and explained.
Herbalism & Medical Astrology: The Twin Systems of Traditional Medicine: In this weekend we examine how medical astrology developed as a system within traditional medicine to both predict the course of disease, and to correlate herbs as potential curative agents based on their astrological rulerships and elemental relationship. We will examine the theory behind the choice of herbs, how different societies approached herbal preparations, the system of rating the potency of herbs (and how that correlates with their astrological rulerships), and how the elements were also used to understand other medical treatment protocols. We shall study how the medical work of the great Arabic physician Avicenna has been used historically and in modern times as a basis for understanding the disease process, and how this understanding of elements provides the basis for a do-it-yourself system of wellness.
The Development of Astrological Techniques: Because there was a hiatus in (English- speaking) astrological practice during the 18th Century, most of our astrological concepts were garbled to a greater or lesser extent by the 19th Century astrologers who rescued astrology from its moribund state. We are in a good position to reclaim the original modes of practice of many of these techniques. This workshop includes information about the historical use of house and house-like systems, essential dignities, planetary cycles, and zodiacs. In addition to presenting a historical survey, examples will be given of how to integrate these ancient methods into modern practice.
Classical Solar Returns: This workshop presents the theory and practice of solar returns, beginning with its historical variations, but mainly focusing on and hands-on approach to give participants the opportunity to leave the workshop feeling confident in the use of solar return methodology. Here we examine the use of Solar Returns to evaluate the significance of particular years, and the themes they present, as well as the use of multiple consecutive solar returns to understand the flow of time over longer time intervals than a year. We will also examine common life themes and how they look in solar returns.
Classical Horary Methods: This workshop is an introduction to the classic method of doing horary. It begins, as does horary, with a consideration of what constitutes the moment of a question, and how best to ask a question. It is designed to intersperse techniques with example horaries. Included among the techniques are: classical planet and house rulerships, essential dignities, orbs, perfection, destruction of the Question, the Part of Fortune, and whether the Chart is fit to be judged.
Classical Electional Methods: Electional astrology is the real test of the practitioner’s mastery of interrogatory method. This workshop presents techniques with example charts of electionals and events. Key to understanding electional is to understand the flow of events: how often it is possible to compensate for difficult astrological configurations by teasing out a sequence of events which maximizes the potential success. The session will aso show how to make an electional look like the desired result.
Classical Natal Methods: There are two possible approaches to the incorporation of classical method into natal delineation: either we can attempt to replicate the style of delineation used in a prior era, or we can choose to incorporate particular classical techniques into a modern delineation. In this workshop, we will do the latter, and learn which classical techniques can add the most bang for the buck in natal consultations.
Electional Astrology and Event Interpretation: Electional Astrology and Event Interpretation are both branches of Interrogatory Astrology. This workshop examines what kinds of events can be elected or interpreted, and provides as examples matters primarily of the 1st and 7th Houses: marriages, relationships, real estate, contests, and labor actions.
Relationship Analysis: This workshop illustrates every way from soup to nuts to compare two or more charts with each other. We will cover the ways to study relationships through synastry (aspect comparison), the Davison time-space chart, the composite chart, asteroids, and charts for significant times in the relationship. In addition, we will learn how to interpret relationship horaries, and some of the rules for electing a marriage chart, or other significant time in a relationship.
Medical Astrology: We begin by studying wellness: what is the best way for each individual to stay healthy through diet, exercise, and life style. We then consider how transits, profections, progressions, or other dynamic chart movement can impact the body, and whether particular patterns are likely to lead to disease. We then consider what makes a successful surgery chart, and examine some examples of charts for when people have manifested illnesses in order to learn how to diagnose the severity of the problem, ideas for treatment, prognosis, and whether their health care provider is doing a good job.
Achieving Astrological Mastery: Sad but true: many people study astrology for decades and never find that they are comfortable reading a chart on their own. It is as if they are perpetual beginners, searching for the technique that will allow everything to suddenly click into place. Lee thinks that what is often really happening is that the way most of us learn astrology isn’t conducive to giving people what they need to get beyond a beginner stance.
In this workshop, Lee presents a teaching system to take people past the bottlenecks that have prevented them from utilizing the astrological richness that they already know. This is not a workshop designed for only people who use classical astrology. This is designed to teach anyone to use her or his techniques more efficiently and comfortably. Lee presents a model for learning, and then shows how to apply it to astrology. What do you do when you get conflicting indicators? What are your goals in the reading? Can you predict everything about a person’s life from astrology, and, if not, where are the limits and contours? What do you need to know besides astrology to help a client? Creating the “short list.” Do different types of readings call for different techniques? The interface of mundane with personal.
Horary Until You Drop: For the real horary junkie, Lee briefly outlines the method for each kind of horaries, and then sets you loose as everyone digs in to example after example after example.