001: Getting Started as an Astrologer: A Series Introducing Arwynne O’Neill

If you have ever wondered how people got started in astrology this series is for you.

Fireside chats around how each astrologer began their journey into the fabulous world of astrology. In this episode I chat with Arwynne O’Neill who is a research astrologer in Vancouver.

Resources

First book Linda Goodman’s Love Signs

Arwynne’s artworks

Arwynne’s Instagram @mspinkdotcom

Saturn Opposition Neptune Heavy Water

Arwynne’s astrology Holy Trinity (SC-VI-VI) = (-3) = Icy 💙

Read more about the Astrological Holy Trinity.

 (SC-VI-VI) = (-3) = Icy 💙

Episode 001: Transcript

Alison Price: Hi Starz, you’re listening to the Starzology Astrology Podcast with your host, Alison Price. In this episode, we’re going to be chatting with another astrologer and finding out their story about how they got into astrology. 

Please welcome Arwynne who is a research astrologer here in Vancouver and we’ve been a, we’ve been friends for quite a while, and we are very happy to have you here today.

Arwynne O’Neill: Thank you. It’s good to be here. 

Alison: Ah, it’s great having you. Our audience is interested to know how you started out in astrology and what was the first spark of interest that you had. 

Arwynne: Sure. Well, I actually grew up in a family of sort of casual astrologers in a way. My grandmother and my mother were both very just into astrology in a casual way.

I think both of them at some point did charts for, for friends and, and maybe for a living here and there. It was just part of the conversation as I was growing up. It was always like, oh, I just met this person. They’re a Virgo with Leo Rising, blah, blah, blah. It was always just, before you’d even know what the person looked like, oh, this person was a Virgo.

It was the first thing that you’d find out about somebody. My mother, still to this day, when I tell her about a new friend or a, a new, co-worker, she’s, she’s like, what sign are they? ? And if I don’t know, well, oh, well, why haven’t you asked? So it’s just part of the conversation, and it always has been in, in my, in my childhood, in my life, the first spark of.

Sort of external to my family was Absolutely, and it, this is funny. This is a call back to your first episode where you talked about Suns by Linda Goodman. Yeah. I mean, we’re giving Linda Goodman a lot of, airtime here, but it was Love Signs. I have to admit, I still have it. It’s on the shelf.

It’s a big red book. Linda Goodman’s website. Linda. Good. You have a hardback copy then with the No, it’s a paper bag, but it’s a massive tone. It doesn’t need to be a hardback. Yes, it’s got the bright lurid red cover. Yeah. Linda Goodman’s love science, and I was 12. I was all of 12 years old, and so everything was about love.

Everything was about like the one true love. Just all of the romantic movies, all the romantic stories, the, the fact that there’s Peter Pan quotes at the beginning of every chapter. Yes. Which are just so poignant and true for every sign combination. And I did my sign and my boyfriend at the time, and my mother and her husband, and everyone and all the celebrities I could think of who were couples. I would read their, their little, chapter and, and found so much meaning in it. And that is definitely what sparked my, my interest in astrology was being a, a pubescent Linda Goodman fan girl. Wow. Yeah. That is amazing. 

Alison: So, what you’re saying really is that you learned about astrology almost at the kitchen table in your own home.

Arwynne: It was, oh, absolutely. Just a matter of course, that astrology was part of your, your life as a, as a young girl. Absolutely. 

Alison: And were they interested in other new age topics as well, or was it mainly astrology? 

Arwynne: some, yeah. I mean, we had Tarot cards. We had crystals. We had, crystal necklaces and jewelry and things like that.

I mean, it was. Late seventies, early eighties, when I grew up. So there was a lot of that kind of stuff around and, and we were also like very much into science fiction and fantasy, like shows and movies. One of the things I remember vividly sitting around watching, watching Star Trek, the Next Generation with my mother and my stepfather. And we would like, figure out what their sun, moon, and rising signs were of all the characters. Oh, stop Trek, right? Yes. It’s just, just figuring out these, these fictional characters, like what, what signs are do they embody? Like, and I was watching the, the Picard show recently and I texted my mother and said, Picard is totally a Taurus with, Sagittarius rising in Moon in Aquarius and she was like, lol. Totally. 

So we’ve done this all our lives. Yeah. Yeah 

Alison: And then, when you got a bit older, did you take any formal lessons or did you just continue, self-learning? 

Arwynne: It was really just self-learning. I mean, and actually I took about probably a 20 year break almost between, the Linda Goodman love signs and, and doing anything semi-professional or, even social with it.

It was all just, I collected the information for myself. I would obviously find out what sign my friends. Boyfriends or, coworkers were, and just for my own benefit, like, yeah, sometimes they would be like, why do you wanna know what time I was born? And I’m like, just for me, like, don’t worry.

I’m not gonna, do your chart or anything. You’re like, whatever. Okay. And most of them wouldn’t have wanted me to. No. So it was just, my own curiosity so I could use the information to get along with them better. And yeah, it helped me. And occasionally they would ask,

Alison: But what was the, what was the catalyst then, like the 20 years later that that brought you back? Was there something that cropped up? 

Arwynne: Absolutely. I, well, I, I started asking my grandmother for book recommendations, and it’s funny because this is mid-nineties we had just gotten a computer, which is sounds so ridiculous. Yes. We had just gonna go a home computer.

Alison: And the neighbors came to look, right?

Arwynne: Well, no, it was, it was the internet. I mean, literally, I had the internet at work throughout the nineties and the, I think it was like 98 or something when I first got the internet at home. Right. It sounds ridiculous to say like imagine not having the internet at home. Like what?  but yeah, literally it was, it was just looking at websites and finding a bunch of astrology sites.

I mean, a bunch back then there were like, a handful of good ones. Yeah. astro.com was and still is. Amazing. Planet Waves I found, and Planet Waves was amazing because it was also political. And I remember the first thing that got me into it was, was rants about George W. Bush and the administration and the war in Iraq.

And, now we’re getting into the early two thousands. And his, his essays were, it was, it hit all kinds of different interests of mine. There was the astrology, but there was also politics. There was also social consciousness. And I, remember this one article that he had written where he said, well, okay, so Taurus, or sorry, Mars is going to Taurus and it’s gonna be retrograde.

And I looked at my chart and sure enough, I’ve got Mars and Taurus. And so he said,  if anyone out there wants to do some research into the history of Mars and Taurus retrograde, send me some, send me some events that have happened, like major events in, in the past. And I thought, well, that’s right up my alley.

So I wrote like three pages of research, just un, un . Whatever, and, and sent it in. And,  that sparked his interest. And so who, who is he? Oh, I’m, I’m so sorry. Eric Francis,  of Planet Waves. Eric Francis of Planet Waves. Yeah. And, and he wrote back to me right away, which was, it was kind of like getting, a spotlight from a celebrity.

And, and I wrote back to him and, and we started a sort of a correspondence and I ended up working,  for Planet Waves for like,  Doing research, writing articles. I, I traveled to Toronto to present at a conference on my Saturn Neptune opposition, article, which became a, a presentation. It was sort, kind of almost the cornerstone of, of the conference.

I mean, not to brag or whatever, but I was actually a little shocked because it was, Quite a, a prestigious conference, in its way. It was, it was kind of a small independent conference. Yeah. Not like these big, as they put it, Davos-style astrology conferences. Yes. With all the celebrities, but it was, it was, kind of a little bit of a big deal.

And, mine was one of the only presentations that didn’t have,  a competing event at the same time. And I didn’t know that until the day. And I was like, wow, there’s a lot of people signed up for this one. And they’re like, There’s nothing else going on at this time.  so I was incredibly nervous, but I, I did okay.

I basically just read my article, but I had a big, PowerPoint thing with all the,  all the photos of all these crazy events, and I basically went through the, the history of Saturn opposite Neptune in, in all these, previous cycles and, so I had like the,   like 1918. Spanish flu and all these different sort of epic water disasters that had happened, the Exxon Valdez.

Okay. And, and, and the, the flood of New Orleans in, in 2005. These all kind of happened like right on the dot of, of Saturn, Neptune oppositions. And it was like, heavy water was the name of the presentation that I did. It was like, heavy water, Saturn, Saturn, Neptune, amazing. And,  yeah.

So I had, I had like this huge slideshow with all these amazing photos and  it was a lot of. So that was, that was definitely the first sort of professional astrology thing that I was involved in. And Well, that’s, that sounds like it was an absolute, a spectacular entryway for you to Yeah to get it on a gig like that.

Yeah. back then. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that was 2006 and,  yeah, that was the, that was the first sort of re-entry into astrology, publicly doing astrology. Yeah. 

Alison: Interesting. Now, what could you tell us about, what do you really love about astrology? What is it that really attract. To the art of astrology?

Arwynne: Well, I mean, for me it really is. It’s an art and a science, which is something that I love about it. I’m,  I am an artist as well, but I’m sort of more of a, a crafty artist than like a, a creative artist. I’m not to say that I’m not creative, but,  I sew. Okay. And I, but I sew from patterns. I don’t, I don’t have these visions of a garment that I need to, somehow create, I, I can, I can craft something impeccably as a Virgo nice.

But, but with a pattern, and I can modify patterns to make something exactly as I want it. But I, I’m not the person who has these visions of something that doesn’t exist, that needs to be pulled into creation, like a, like a, a Pisces or something. 

Alison: And. So do you see astrology as well as a creative artwork?

Arwynne: Really? I mean, it’s a creative, like the storytelling is, is the creative part for me. Yes. And so it’s taking all these elements which exist. They, they are mathematical, which, and, and I’m not a math fan. Yes. But what I, what I do love about it is the precision that you can find these exact dates, these exact cycles.

You can predict them way in advance thousands of years, project them back thousands of years and find these cycles that. And then find these historical correlations, because thank God for the internet, we can find all these, all these events. It, it takes very little research to, to say, show me all of the times that Pluto has been in Aquarius and then all of the, the major events that happened in those periods, and then compare them and say, oh my God, there’s, there’s actually, something in common with these things.

And wow, what can we learn about that? What. Due to predict something into the future. Right. And that’s what I’ve always loved about it was the, the precision and the, the practicality of it. The applicability of it to our lives and, and to, broader social and political and historical trends. 

Alison: Wow. So you’re, you like the, almost, let me say the overarching cycles that are running behind in the background, not just, oh, it’s a new moon and blah blah.

Arwynne: Absolutely. Okay. In fact, I barely ever know where the. It surprises me every month when I see that it’s full. And my boyfriend always says, how can you not know you’re an astrologer? How can, how can you not know when the Moon’s full? And I’m like, yeah, it’s not my thing. It’s not your thing. So it’s super interesting that, yeah, the moon’s not my thing.

Alison: No, it’s not your thing. So, how would you say that you actually are using astrology, today in, in your practice? 

Arwynne: It’s always something that I am aware of like when I’m watching Picard and I’m thinking, oh wow, he’s such a Taurus with Sagittarius rising in mooned, Aquarius, or what have you and I’m, I’m really fascinated with the broader cycles or the, the outer planets, where Pluto is, going into Aquarius and all of a sudden we’ve got chat GPT Yes. And self-driving cars. Yes. And. It’s crazy to me like how right on the date sometimes these things are. When, Uranus moved into, I believe it was Aries, Aries back in 2011 on the day the tsunami hits in, in Japan.

Tragic. It’s horrible, incredible, tragedy. But it’s, it’s these crazy events that you can kind. See the day sometimes. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. The corresponds with a movement of the outer planets and  and that’s the stuff that fascinates me. The, the generational cycles, but also like these major events that, that seem to correspond sometimes.

Yeah. So precisely. I mean, cuz we’re talking that Pluto just recently went into, Aquarius, what, two weeks ago? From, from today. And honestly, I too have now got into chatGPT and I. Whoa. Right.  Revolut, it’s transformed to revolutionize the actual,  the internet and the way we use computers. Very interesting indeed.

And it’s gonna be in, in Aquarius for the next 40 years. And what is that, what are the next 40 years gonna hold as far as ai? I mean, just that alone is a fascinating thought experiment. That’s a, yeah, that is definitely a topic for another day. I for sure, definitely explore that as well. 

Alison: So now Arwyenne, could you tell us a little bit about your chart just for our listeners to, get a bit of an understanding of, of your chart standouts, or which, parts of your chart do you feel are more prominent and are drivers for you?

Arwynne: Sure. Well I am a Virgo. I’ve sort of triple Virgo. I’ve got the Sun, the Moon and Mercury, conjunct in Virgo in the 10th house.  so that’s definitely like my personality for sure. Core personality, like everything in its place. I’m a writer, blah, blah, blah. but I also have Scorpio rising and Wow, that is probably, the most noticeable thing about me first front and center.

I, even at the age of like, Say 12. I was, I, I went through a, not goth, but I mean, I was wearing lipstick and, my hair always was a different color and, okay. Okay. So you presented yourself. I I was always being mistaken for like 16 or 17 when I was like 12 or 13. And honestly it was the eighties.

It was a different time. Yes, yes, I understand. it’s,  there was no bad parenting involved. My mother was actually a little horrified by, the attention that I got. She’d seen my chart. She, she knew the deal. just obviously I just Scorpio rising responsibly is all I have to say about that.

Alison: And so with Scorpio is rising like that, would you say that Pluto is more dominant or Mars in your chart? 

Arwynne: Honestly, it’s both really. It’s interesting because Mars is right on my descendant Mars and Taurus is literally conjunct my descendant and my partner is a scorp. And hilariously, his Sun is conjunct my rising, like within minutes his, he’s got two degrees or two, yeah, two degrees and like 11 minutes.

And my rising is two degrees, six minutes. So we couldn’t be more conjoined. And when we met it was, I hesitate to say love at first sight. Crazy. And yeah, it, we’ve just been inseparable literally ever since then. Amazing. 

Alison: And what about the Pluto? 

Arwynne: The Pluto, the Pluto? yeah. Pluto is in my 11th house, conjunct Venus, and those are in Libra. Okay. Very feminine there as well. They Okay. Like conjunct in Libra and Yeah. my relationships have always been life or death to me. I don’t. Casual relationships. I don’t understand casual friendships. it’s all in the 11th house. I, I don’t understand the point of being in a relationship where you wouldn’t kill or die for your partner.

Alison: Wow. Kill or be killed. 

Arwynne: Yes. Yeah, exactly. And, and luckily I’ve,  had, incredibly good fortune or whatever you wanna say to, to have partners who feel the same way. Me. Super intense. Yes. Yeah and I’ve been with my, current partner for 25 years now. 

Alison: So you need a medal for that one. 

Arwynne: Yeah.

Alison: So would you, so you said, didn’t you just say that Pluto is conjoined Venus, and how do you think that may be expressed? 

Arwynne: I was obsessed with Barbie from a very young age. and that’s a Venus thing, although lots of girls were, I did go through as, as I said, dancing maybe tiny goth phase. Yes. I just recently picked up,  burlesque and I also was,  I drew burlesque dancers for about 10 years.

In, we, we had this thing called, Dr. Sketchy’s, which is an art class. Bars that,  that just shut down because of Covid. Sadly, this is where all my art came from, from the last 10 years, is drawing these beautiful burlesque dancers who would,  would pose for three hours in bars. And,  and I met a lot of these burlesque dancers, who now wow, I have actually shared the stage with over the last year since I started doing this.  so this is amazing. And we’ll put a link to, we’ll put a link to some of your art, in the show notes as well. Sure, yeah. Yeah. So it’s, it’s super interesting that you’ve taken up this, expression of that Venus Yeah. Can join the Pluto. I think it’s actually hilarious. Also my grandmother in 1950s was a burlesque dancer briefly in really Hawaii. So it’s, it’s actually kind of a family. Funnily enough, she was a Sagittarius, but whatever. It’s, yeah, but I definitely do see that, Venus conjunct Pluto there. It’s, and it’s also the kind of, the, the owning your sexuality or owning that whole thing, whatever the empowerment sort of thing of it.

It’s, when my grandmother was doing it in the fifties, it was definitely not really about empowerment. It was, it was a little bit less, of a, of a thing back then, but I mean, from the pictures you’d never guess. you would just think, wow, she’s owning it. That’s amazing. what an icon.

 and it was a little but also too grittier back then, but, but yeah, now it’s just all women. It’s all, . Well there’s also trans women. There’s also, wonderful. male to female, female to male. Like it’s all shapes and sizes and, and the dogs. It’s true. Everything. Yeah. Exactly. And it’s a really amazing community and it’s a lot of fun.

It’s really cool. It’s quite an expression. Yeah. Quite a, a visual expression of those two entities coming together in the chart. Yeah. Super interesting. Yeah. And also, as you say, it’s in the 11th house, so that is, as you say, it’s a, a troupe. Like, so there’s community. The 11th house is all about your, your friends and your community and sort of your, your social your squad.

Alison: Squad.

Arwynne: Yeah, exactly. Squad goals. Yeah. 

Alison: Great. Now the next thing I just wanna have a chat with you about is, Very often, when people have in interviews and conversations on podcasts, they do this lightning round tea, coffee, cat or dog. But because we are astrologers, what, what I’m gonna be doing is what we are calling the Holy Trinity, and that is your Ascendant, Sun Moon in that order and, we are just going to have a quick chat about that. Could you tell us your Ascendant, Sun and Moon? 

Arwynne: Scorpio is Scorpio Rising Scorpio, descendant of Virgo Sun and Virgo Moon. So we are saying, Scorpio. Virgo. Virgo. Yeah. Which is super interesting because, I, I’ve, I’ve been looking into this, pattern of the polarities of the active and passive.

Alison: Mm-hmm, and, the combinations, and I think there’s only 16 (actually 8) combinations are, will link to the website, post about this. 

So in your particular case, it would be passive, passive, passive, which is a combinnation which actually expresses who you are for sure. 

Arwynne: Oh, yeah. In a very deep way. 

Alison: So it’s super interesting and I believe that, going forward or in the future doesn’t want to say going forward in the future.

I’d be interested to just ask those things about people’s charts. Yeah. Because I don’t think that’s giving too much away and it’s a great way to, tap into the astrology rather than the cat dog thing. Yeah or coffee tea beause nobody cares. But we wanna know what’s your Ascendant, Sun and Moon is.

And of course if you go to an astrology conference and you have that little tag on your shirt, it. A sentence on Moon. 

Arwynne: I wish people had to wear those everywhere. 

Alison: Yeah, and then you, you go up to the people who think, yeah, no, I’m not gonna talk to that one. Let me talk to this one. Because you can see what their signs are.

So that’s a super interesting thing. Yep. Exactly. So, Arwynne, if our listeners would like to see some of your artworks, is it okay if we put a link in the show notes?

Arwynne: Absolutely.

Alison: Where they can see the type of work you’re doing? 

Arwynne: Absolutely. That would be great. 

Alison: Lovely. Well, thank you very much for being here with us today it’s been a pleasure as always. 

Arwynne: Thank you. It’s been wonderful to be here. Thank you.

Author Bio

Alison encourages you to explore your unique creativity and live a satisfying life through your personal astrology. She offers her insights from the heart and with a sense of humor.

Go here to read more about Alison’s story.

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