Astrology Conference Review: Portugal

And then it was time to speak.

Those Inner Voices

So I opened my big mouth, spoke in Portuguese and started the English part of my lecture when I realised there were people calling out to me. “Alex, we can’t hear you!” I looked out in the audience and saw Lynn Bell calling out: “Turn your microphone on!” Now here’s when I realised that I don’t have just one inner voice. I have two. And here’s what they sounded like: Voice one: Why didn’t you check the bloody mic before? Voice two: That’s what sound engineers are for. Just switch the thing on. Lynn Bell: Turn the mic on. Press the button! At this point I’m sure I looked totally gormless. Voice one (as I stare at the mic): Where’s the fucking button? Voice Two: Try the other fucking mic! Me (reaching for the other mic): What? This? Lynn Bell: No. Just press the button. Voice One: OH MY GOD WHERE IS THE FUCKING BUTTON?? Voice two: Alex, just calm down and look for the fucking thing. You got this. Struggling not to burst into giggles, I found the button and pressed it. Me (VOICE MAGNIFIED): IS THAT BETTER? OOPS!! (another struggle not to giggle) Voice one (face palm): Oh my God, can’t take you anywhere. Then Voice two pipes up: Well you found the button… Voice one: For god’s sake. About fucking time. Voice two: Now take a nice deep breath. I started speaking in Portuguese and I got a round of applause from the Portuguese audience. Then I got laughter from my eclipse joke. I found out a bit later that my references to being an English teacher went down a treat. So what did I learn about myself as speaker from this experience.? Check the fucking mic beforehand and tell voice one to take a bloody hike. Knuckle bump to voice two.

Taking a Load Off

And what a difference to be sitting down to lecture! I felt calm, grounded and I had prepared so well nothing went wrong. Despite the hiccup at the start, I did manage to shut out voice one and just focus on voice two. Sure there were times when I wanted to jump up and start waving my arms around and making crazy lecture faces like a lunatic but I held myself back. Voice two said: You got this. Voice one: The audience is awful damn quiet. Are you sure they didn’t fall asleep? Voice two: These are adults, not children. They can sit still for an hour. Of course I was relieved to be finished (I tried not to show that too much). I left the auditorium and went to get some fresh air and bumped into Christian Konig and Rod Chang who told me I did brilliantly (thanks chaps). But the biggest surprise was that Margaret told me I sounded “elegant”. Trust me when I say I’ve never been called “elegant” about anything in my life. And I was extra pleased because I was reading my own writing. I also got a few compliments about my voice—and that has never happened before. So it was all a very good exercise in extending myself and learning about how I function as a speaker.

Workshop

I wasn’t really up to doing too much listening after my lecture. After coffee with Roy, Wendy and Carolyn (always great to hang out with the Brits), I just needed to chill for a bit before my workshop. There were about the workshop at all as it’s essentially material from my book. I didn’t even flinch when I learned two minutes before I started that my audience didn’t need for me to be translated. It immediately doubled my lecture material (because I wouldn’t have to stop after every paragraph to be translated) but that wasn’t a problem at all. Glenn as my victim was brilliant and I got some feedback on how I can make some of the graphs I use more readable to non teachers (I still need to do a little work  on not assuming my audience knows more about my subject material than me). But I was pretty spent and left after my workshop to get some rest before dinner. We had another fabulous dinner in Maia on the waterfront. Again, just really nice to be with other astrologers.

Learning from the Masters

I arrived at the auditorium raring to watch other speakers. First up was my buddy Glenn Perry. He was so calm, so informative and just so experienced that I really learned an awful lot from him on presentation skills. I loved the content of his lecture too on “Present Centered, Purpose Focused Prediction”. A lot of the psychology I studied at university began to return. Luiza Azancat (an amazing polyglot) spoke on “The Astrology of Twin Siblings”. Her lecture demonstrated how one twin acts out one half of the chart and the other twin acts out the other. Absolutely fascinating research. Next was my good friend Christian Konig who did an incredible presentation on the different types of stars (“Between Heaven and Earth—Helical Rising and Setting Stars”) that was visually appealing thanks to his wicked skills on powerpoint (yeah guess who’s getting a phone call when it’s time to prepare the next lecture?). Like Glenn, Christian was incredibly calm even though I knew he was very nervous. After all that sitting and listening, I had worked up a bit of an appetite so we found a local restaurant and indulged ourselves in some Portuguese cuisine. Fab company with Rod, Christian, Carla and Monica and a few others. Oh I had codfish which is the local speciality. Yummy.

More Workshops

I watched Glenn again for his workshop and again was just blown away by his calmness, experience and professionalism. His topic was “Venus-Pluto Dynamics: Transforming Fears of Intimacy”. I just loved the way he took a few case studies and made quite complex points very simple. Then I went to watch Roy who did a good job of making key mundane points easy for beginners (I’m not a beginner but it was still good to learn from an experienced speaker). Roy certainly taught me about how to plug my own material in the future (one can’t be shy about it!). The talks at this conference went on quite late—almost as late as in India (and you KNOW how much I love India). But what made it all so enjoyable was that there was so much to do outside of the auditorium and if anything was needed, one could just wander out to get it. So the last workshop I went to was Margaret Gray’s astro-drama which was a lot of fun and I think we made a pretty good tag team. We were both knackered by the end of this. But it was fun.

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning and it was time to catch Mark Jones in action. “The Destiny Line: the Nodal Axis of the Moon as the Key to Personal Evolution” was the title of his workshop. Now Mark is a very popular speaker so I really wanted to see what I could learn from him. And I think the key to his success is that he makes one point and keeps reinforcing it. He also has an incredible, measured voice (he’s also a hypnotherapist) that was very pleasant to listen to. After lunch with the astrologers, it was time to watch Margaret in action again. Her topic was “Understanding and Transforming Compulsive and Addictive Relationship patterns with the help of Psychological Astrology” which she delivered in heels! What I found quite striking was the crossover between her talk and Glenn’s. They didn’t work together on their lectures but they made a lot of the same points. Fascinating. My attention span was dwindling so a few of us gathered to chew the fat. And I learned something else about myself:

The Dirty Word

I’ve said before I don’t attend conferences with the expectations of making lots of money (although I do expect to cover my expenses!). I go to conferences for the connections with other astrologers. I like to learn about what’s going on outside of merry England (LOTS!!). And of course I’m always searching for opportunities to collaborate. If I do make money, it’s almost exclusively in book sales, private consultations and future engagements outside of the big conferences. There’s a part of me that really dislikes discussing finances and a different part of me who is very reluctant to focus on astrology full time in the hopes of being able to leave teaching (for goodness sake, I just got the teaching/practising astrology balance just right!). I know I would miss teaching if I ever did discover the key to making tons of money in astrology so there’s a real reluctance to talk turkey about money. Having said that, it was nice to have a bit of extra jingle in the pocket (mainly through book sales) at the end of the conference (even if there were a few misunderstandings around EU taxes). With the old finances in order, it was time to enjoy the last lecture. “Turning Lead into Gold: Planets in Detriment and Fall” was delivered by Lynn Bell. I’ve seen Lynn lecture a lot and she is one of my astro heroes for her really well considered examples, her knowledge of mythology and her consistent elegance. And she didn’t disappoint.

Thank You Portugal!

It really was a great conference and as it was the first one for the Portuguese astrologers, I thought it was absolutely bloody marvellous. The generosity of the hosts, the central location of the event and just the experience of being able to enjoy the setting was nothing short of glorious. Oh and guess who is going to have a few articles translated into Portuguese? I spent my last dinner in Portugal with the Brits. Lynn (like me, she’s an honourary Brit) gave me some great advice and Carole Taylor (I’ve seen Carole lecture a lot too so I had to make the decision to see speakers I hadn’t seen before) gave me some encouragement about the lecture circuit. It is a great feeling to know that I am now experienced enough as a speaker that I can step back and get a better feel for what I enjoy in a conference, how I can be a better speaker and just to enjoy observing the masters. What a terrible teacher I’d be if I thought there was no room for improvement! My sincere thanks to Isabel Guimaraes and team for a wonderful conference.

Astrology Conferences Around the World

Serious astrologers should endeavour to visit at least one astrology conference outside of their own country at least once in their lifetime. Different cultures and different approaches offer so much for your astrology toolkits. As I often say: “We speak the language of the stars but we have different accents.” Not convinced? Check out my article “10 Reasons Why You Should Get Yourself to an Astrology Conference“! Here’s a list of my favourite astrology conferences around the world with links to my reviews! Canada: Canadian Astrology Conference, held every other year in September (next conference in 2021) Northern Stars Astrology Conference, 2-4 October 2020 Halifax Nova Scotia USA: United Astrology Conference, various locations in the US, every four years in May Northwest Astrology Conference, Seattle Washington, every year in June International Society for Astrological Research, various locations in the US, every other year in the autumn. Next one 10-14 September 2020 near Denver Colorado State of the Art Astrology, Buffalo NY every year in October (sadly organiser Donna Van Toen has died and further plans are now unclear) Sedona Vedic Astrology Conference, held annually in Arizona every November Kepler Astrology Conference, now defunct but still worth a mention for the potential it had to bring brilliant research to astrology India: Institute of Vedic Culture (IVC), Kolkata India, 4-9 February 2020 (postponed to a later date) Europe: Kepler Institute, Belgrade Serbia, every year in March Associação Portuguesa de Astrologia, ASPAS, Lisbon Portugal, every other year, last one in March 2019 Associazione Cultural Jayavidya, Perugia Italy, every year in June Latvian Astrology Conference, held annually in Riga South Africa Astrology Restored, Cape Town, next one to be announced soon Australia The Cosmic Intelligence Agency holds some truly amazing workshops and other events, many are online too South America CINASTRO, online conference from Brazil. Sign up for their newsletter for more information My lecture schedule is here

ASPAS 2019!

Another really wonderful conference for ASPAS! David, Margaret and I had a wonderful day sightseeing in Lisbon. The conference was set in a beautiful hotel in the centre of the city so we were free to walk around and choose from any of the numerous local restaurants nearby.