Steven Forrest is a living legend and considered one of the best astrologers in the world today. His contribution to the development of the spiritual Evolutionary Astrology paradigm impressed Ashish Virmani. In this interview with Lotus’ Writer-at-large, California-based Forrest delves into his life’s mission, how he uncovered the intricate details that comprise Evolutionary Astrology, and his legacy for planet Earth. Excerpts from the interview:
Bridging Eastern Wisdom with Western Astrology
Ashish Virmani: Considering karma and past lives are basically Oriental concepts, aren’t you doing something unique by introducing them to Western astrology? What are some of the obstacles you’ve faced in the process of bringing East and West together?
Steven Forrest: With all my clients, east or west, I always ask them if they are comfortable with me talking about reincarnation. If not, I can always switch to a language that focuses on ancestral themes, family patterns, and genetics.
I am sincere about that, but interestingly, only twice in my career has anyone asked me not to use the language of past lives. My point is that even here in the West, people are generally open to the idea.
I would also add that even though you are correct in seeing that karma and reincarnation are not part of Judeo-Christian theology, these ideas do have deep roots outside Asia. The Druids of Britain accepted it. Similarly, the Gnostics did so back in the time of Christianity’s inception. So did many Native American tribes. There are even a few cryptic references to it in the Bible.
Although reincarnation language is not generally used in mainstream Western astrological practice, I am certainly not the first person to employ it. A great deal of wisdom was brought back from India to Great Britain during the colonial era. It suffused much of the work that the Theosophists were doing, for example. I am thinking of Alice Bailey and Helena Blavatsky, and the deeper metaphysical perspectives they brought to bear on astrological practice at the time.
I believe the clearest truth we can affirm is that the notion of reincarnation is so ancient that its origin is unknown, and while it has always been prevalent in India, it has never truly disappeared in the rest of the world.
You ask about the obstacles I have faced. The reality is that I have not faced many of them at all. My work has generally been received enthusiastically, and I am grateful for that. I believe that here in the West, there was a hunger for more spiritual forms of astrology. Along with many other astrologers, I have helped to meet that need. The resistance I’ve encountered has been minor. Perhaps the greatest obstacle I’ve faced is people’s tendency to overlay a misleading Judeo-Christian interpretation over the concept of karma – seeing it as “God’s punishment for our sins” rather than as the logical consequence of prior-life actions, both positive and negative.
“Although karma and reincarnation are not part of Judeo-Christian theology, these ideas do have deep roots outside Asia. The Druids of Britain accepted it. Similarly, the Gnostics did so during the early years of Christianity. There are even a few cryptic references to it in the Bible.”
~ Steven Forrest
Evolution of the Evolutionary Astrology
Ashish Virmani: How did you figure out the complex techniques of Evolutionary Astrology — the placement of Pluto and the importance of the moon’s nodes and manage to correlate them to past and present lives? Did they come to you in a dream, a vision, your meditation sessions, statistical analysis, experience, or something else?
Steven Forrest: While spiritual practice and wisdom are inseparable, much of what I have discovered is actually derived from logic and reason. Once you observe the simple fact that astrology works, you are left with two possible explanations. One is that the universe is random and pointless, and that astrology is simply a natural phenomenon, much like the law of conservation of mass-energy (E = mc²). We live, we die, and it’s over – and your life meant nothing at all.
I don’t believe any of that myself, but it is logical. However, as soon as we reject that kind of nihilistic thinking, we are forced to recognize that you must have your astrological chart for a reason – and since you have had your chart from the instant of your birth, it follows that what caused you to have it must have happened before you were born.
That does not prove reincarnation, but it is consistent with it. Since I accept reincarnation, I began to realize that clues about prior lifetimes must be hidden within all the configurations of our present charts. That’s really where the whole system originated.
I was not alone in those realizations. There was a great spiritual awakening in the West during the 1960s and 70’s. Many of us who have created Evolutionary Astrology were impacted by those times. To my knowledge, the first person to use the term “evolutionary astrology” was Raymond Merriman in a book by that title, which he published in the 1970s. I used the term in my own first book, The Inner Sky, which was published in 1984. The following year, Jeffrey Wolf Green brought out his first book, which significantly contributed to popularizing the term. While Jeffrey and I were probably the most prominent proponents of the approach, there were many published astrologers who didn’t use the term themselves, but who were part of the larger movement – Martin Schulman and Jan Spiller come to mind.
The world of Evolutionary Astrology is wide and diverse, and in my opinion, it would be wrong to name any single person as its founder or creator. Sometimes I am introduced that way at conferences, and I always cringe a bit when I hear those words. To me, Evolutionary Astrology is something that arose in the collective consciousness. It’s bigger than any single astrologer. I rode the same wave that many others rode. I was fortunate to be born when I was, fortunate to be a skilled writer, and fortunate to be born a hard-working Capricorn with Saturn in Virgo on my midheaven!
When people ask me to define Evolutionary Astrology, I reply that it is the synthesis of three traditions: technical astrology, modern psychology, and ancient metaphysics. Without all three, it would be like a tripod with only two legs. It would fall over.
~ Steven Forrest
Ashish Virmani: You’ve taught thousands of students your techniques in the last four decades. What do you see as your legacy for planet Earth — and how much of it is connected to spirituality?
Steven Forrest: I would say that my work is 100% connected to spirituality. It cannot exist outside the context of the notion that we are all ultimately spiritual beings who enter these physical bodies to learn certain lessons that we carry with us beyond death. When people ask me to define Evolutionary Astrology, I often say that it is the synthesis of three traditions: technical astrology, modern psychology, and ancient metaphysics. Without all three, it would be like a tripod with only two legs. It would fall over.
When I was a young man, I was blessed with a very clear sense of purpose. I can say it very simply, although it has been the culmination of a lifetime’s work. It was to marry a grounded, practical kind of spirituality with mainstream astrological practice, and to bring that synthesis to a wide public audience.
Now that I am in my mid-seventies, as I look back on my life, I feel that I have accomplished what I set out to do. I have touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, and I am grateful for that and proud of it. My 17 books are widely distributed in various translations around the world. My school, The Forrest Center for Evolutionary Astrology, is producing effective, well-trained evolutionary astrologers on five continents. For those who want a quick, practical taste of how Evolutionary Astrology can enhance their lives without needing to learn the system, I offer my LILA app. That has been part of my mission as well. Part of that app will always be free as a gift to anyone who wants it, although the premium version, which comes with a fee, offers much more depth.
All of that – the books, the teaching, and LILA – plus the thousands and thousands of personal readings I have done are my legacy.
About Steven Forrest
Steven Forrest is the author of several astrological bestsellers, including The Inner Sky. His work has been widely translated, and he has traveled the world, teaching his brand of choice-centered Evolutionary Astrology that integrates free will, grounded humanistic psychology, and ancient metaphysics. He won the 2018 Regulus Award for Education.
Between 1998 and 2019, over two thousand people passed through his Astrological Apprenticeship program. In 2020, he launched his online school, The Forrest Center for Evolutionary Astrology (www.forrestastrology.center), a four-year program that guides individuals from zero to astrological mastery. To stay grounded, Steven still does several private consultations each week. He lives in the desert of southern California near the Mexican border with his partner, Michelle Kondos, and two cats.
Also read this article on Evolutionary Astrology by Ashish Virmani:
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