Astrological Research Methods + My Writing Process

Building your knowledge as an astrologer takes time.

This week, we are straying a bit from the usual astrology topics. Instead, I want to talk about the process of developing your own theories and point of view as an astrologer, and then after that I am touching upon my writing process and tips I have for writing more consistently. It just felt right to group these two topics together, as they both have a lot to do with practice, time, and dedication. And with Jupiter in Gemini for about a year, this is a period where you may naturally have more writing ideas come to you, or you could be eager to learn more about astrology, amongst many other topics. 

So first, let’s start off with how you ultimately find your niche as an astrologer. It takes a while to get to this point, and it’s not something you can force. I would say that after about five solid years of studying astrology was when I realized I actually knew what I was talking about, and didn’t need to second guess my predictions or look at what other astrologers might be saying about a particular birth chart placement or transit. And I’m still learning something new every day, which is a huge reason why I love astrology so much. 

Below are some pointers I have for doing research and developing your own point of view. 

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Get your hands on as many charts as possible. 

Typically, as a new astrologer you start out by taking workshops or courses from other astrologers, or reading books, looking at social media content, and listening to podcasts on astrology. You can read all the books you want and take all the courses, but at the end of the day you’re regurgitating what someone else has taught you. This is why I stress so much that from the start you should be practicing reading charts on everyone you know, as well as people you don’t know (if you have correctly timed celebrity charts, for example). This is the best way to understand how astrology plays out in peoples’ lives in a very real way. 

Also, check up on your own chart frequently. It’s helpful to have first hand experience with how a certain transit, progression, etc, goes in order to fully understand what it means. When you see how astrology plays out in your own life, it gives it more of a tangible quality, and you’re able to speak on it with greater confidence. Over time, you may start to see how a transit or a birth chart placement functions in a way that other astrologers may not. That’s what sets you apart. 

Follow where your curiosity takes you. 

Once you’ve got a firm grasp on the basics, try following whatever topics you’re curious about. Your interests as an astrologer will naturally evolve over time and may end up mirroring your own life experiences as they happen. For example, several years ago I was obsessed with relationship astrology, because I was in a phase of my life where I was dating and hoping to meet someone. Wanting to know this information so badly to apply it to my own life is what motivated me to do extensive research on the topic. Now I’m currently interested in starting my own family and being smarter with my money, so my interests have pivoted to tracking pregnancy with astrology, as well as looking into the astrology of my finances more closely. 

As another example, an interest of mine that has never swayed over the years is the topic of timing. From the start, I’ve always been very interested in timing events with astrology and understanding the specific life phases we all go through. Your entire life is made up of patterns that keep repeating over and over again, which is so fascinating to me. I’ve recently learned to lean into these interests more, rather than trying to force an interest in topics that might be trending at the moment. If there’s one area that’s piquing your curiosity, I encourage you to start doing readings on that specific topic or make an effort to ask people about that area for your own research. Once you set the intention that you want to know more about a niche topic, watch how you start attracting people whose charts you can study, and who might be going through that exact thing you want to learn about. 

Test out a new technique with your own chart first. 

When I realize that there’s a new topic I want to go more in depth on, I look at my own chart first to see if the astrology behind it resonates fully. I am never immediately using a new technique in a reading or talking about it on social media or Substack - I need to gain my own perspective and experience with it first. 

When I’m learning a new timing technique for instance, I’ll check to see if it is repeatedly accurate over time. There are certain techniques that I’ve taken the time to learn (solar arc directions, zodiacal releasing, and firdaria), but have ultimately ended up discarding for now, because they haven’t proven to be the most effective for me. Maybe in the future I’ll come back to them though. Then there are other techniques (transits, solar returns, lunar returns, the secondary progressed moon, and annual profections) that are so eerily spot on every time, that I consistently use them in readings and in my own life.  

Give trial readings to friends, family, or people online.

After I start to see that a technique or specific topic is resonating, I will then branch out and test it out on people I know - friends, family, my husband, you get the point. 

Then in some cases, I need to crowdsource information. This is different from giving a formal reading, because I’m not charging people to look at their charts and I’m transparent that I’m still in the learning phases of this technique. For instance, while researching the astrology of pregnancy, I don’t know a ton of people who are pregnant at the moment or who have had a variety of experiences during pregnancy, so in a previous newsletter I put a call out to people who have been pregnant, are pregnant, or hope to be pregnant and want to give their birth information for my research purposes in exchange for a mini interpretation of what I’m seeing in their chart that relates back to the topic. The offer still stands! 

I did the same when researching the transits behind both getting into a relationship and going through a breakup. I probably looked at 50 charts over the course of several weeks, and they all ended up having similar patterns for major relationship turning points, which I wrote about in the last section of my book. 

Pay attention to current events and celebrity news. 

I have learned so much about the timing of career growth and fame by taking note of the transits to celebrities’ charts. If I hear about an emerging actress or singer that is blowing up at the moment, the first thing I’m doing is Googling to see if they have a timed birth chart. Last summer, you better believe I was analyzing the chart of Margot Robbie around the release of the Barbie movie (Jupiter on her Taurus MC to the exact degree). I will also take note of when a celebrity is making a big career pivot. For instance, 1980s film star Andrew McCarthy recently came out with the documentary Brats, where he reflected with his former co-stars on their success with movies like St. Elmo’s Fire and The Breakfast Club. I wanted to see the correlation between the transits happening then (circa 1985) as well as now, when his name is being brought back up again several decades later. You can use celebrity charts to better understand relationship timing too, like if a celebrity couple goes through a big public breakup, gets married, etc. 

And if you’re interested in mundane astrology, which is the astrology of world events, make an effort to stay up to date on the news every day. Oftentimes, there is a very literal correlation of a big news story with the astrological transits taking place on that day. Eclipses and Mercury retrograde periods tend to bring the most chaos to the news, so to practice, see what type of news stories develop this August as well as into September, when both of those significant transits occur. 

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My Writing Process

Now, I want to pivot and talk about my writing process. As an astrologer, writing plays a huge role in what I do for a living. I also think it’s a skill that astrologers should work on developing, as it opens you up to way more streams of income, like writing horoscopes, books, newsletters, or even just explaining astrology through social media captions and posts. I am so grateful that over the past almost six years of being a full time astrologer, I’ve been able to evolve my business into solely making money off of my writing. So if you’re an aspiring writer or want to get better at writing frequently, here are some tips that may help. 

1. Try to make an effort to write every single day, even if it’s just for 5-10 minutes at a time. 

In fact, only set out to write for 5-10 minutes, because then the task will feel less overwhelming and there’s not as much pressure. Chances are that the initial 5-10 minutes turns into longer once you’re sitting there. Even if it doesn’t, the act of writing for a short amount each day will add up over time. When I was writing my book, which was about 60,000 words long, I made a rule to write 500 words a day (equivalent to one page, single spaced on a Google doc). I didn’t sit down expecting to churn out an entire chapter every day, but over time that 500 words grew to be the entire book. I use this same approach with Substack too. 

2. Sentences don’t need to be perfect right off the bat. 

If you have an initial idea for what you want to write about, start by jotting down bullet points or half finished thoughts on a Google Doc, Word Doc, or even paper if that’s more your vibe. The point is, the idea does not need to be fully fleshed out in order for you to start writing. Through the process of getting random thoughts onto the page, your mind will naturally open up to more ideas that need to go into that piece of writing. 

I call this process a brain dump. I write down whatever thoughts and ideas are coming to me, and I do not edit any sentences until close to the end. I build out a general structure of how I want the piece to go, then I go back and make the sentences sound better. So the writing is usually a mess at first, but that way I don’t fixate on having every sentence be perfect. 

3. Set deadlines for yourself. 

Setting deadlines for myself is so key, because then I have a date in the back of my mind for when the writing needs to be done. With Substack, I’ll add dates in my calendar of when an article has to go out. For example, I knew this article was going to go up this Wednesday for the past couple of weeks, which gives me time to work on it for several days, with an average writing time of 10-15 minutes each day. The deadline allows me time and space to fully develop the article. 

4. Read while you write. 

I try to read about one to two books a week that don’t have anything to do with the topic I’m writing about. Keeping my mind stimulated in this way helps me to stay motivated when writing. However, I try not to read books that interfere with the topic I’m writing about. So when I was writing my astrology book, I didn’t read any other astrology books for months, so that outside opinions didn’t influence my work. Instead, I read escapist fiction books - a lot of thrillers, some romance, and literary fiction. In addition to reading, I also listen to numerous podcasts with authors to stay inspired. My favorite at the moment is Elin Hilderbrand’s podcast, Books, Beach & Beyond, where she interviews hugely successful authors on their career journeys and writing process.  

Okay, I hope all of just some of these tips help! If you have any of your own that you want to share, please leave them in the comments! I love hearing about everyone’s unique process, both with astrology and writing.