What you'll learn
- Read the fundamentals of your own astrological birth chart.
- Identify the 12 zodiacal signs and their most important characteristics.
- Identify the planets and other celestial bodies, and their major qualities.
- Understand the functions and main characteristics of the twelve astrological houses.
- Understand how these features indicate tendencies you may have in your personality, as both resources and challenges.
- Learn potential alternatives to these manifestations, opening yourself to a greater range of choices in your life.
Requirements
- Obtain your astrological birth chart. This will take around 30 minutes. It is essential to know your place, time, and date of birth. We recommend AstroDienst, a free online service. (Please note that we have no affiliation with AstroDienst. We recommend them because their interface allows you to select inclusion of the asteroid Chiron and True Nodes, which we’ll reference in our materials.) The next lesson will give you instructions on how to generate an accurate chart.
- Read the module content and listen to the corresponding video for each module (less than 1 Hour)
- Study your chart, corresponding planets, houses and aspects (about 15 minutes per module).
- Do guided meditations on each component of the lessons (about 15 minutes per module).
- Reflect on and journal around how these characteristics and key words manifest in your life, both as resources and challenges (15 minutes and up, based on how deeply you’d like to explore this).
Description
Our natal chart is sometimes called our ‘Soul Map’ for this lifetime. This online course helps you better understand the fundamentals of Transpersonal Astrology as a tool for awakening.
The combination of Dharma and Transpersonal Astrology is a powerful method to help you to understand your soul map––your natal astrology chart–– and your unique Hero’s Journey depicted therein.
With the Teachings of the Buddha, also known as “Buddhadharma” or just “dharma” we gain insights from 2500 years of profound consciousness studies. With Transpersonal Astrology we draw on Western Greco-Roman mythology plus Jungian principles and archetypes to help us understand ourselves, others and the cosmos.
Understand the Map of Your Soul’s Journey & Transform Challenges
Intro to AstroDharma is an online self-study program that supports you as you begin the journey of self-discovery and transformation through the uniquely combined lens of Buddhist teachings (Dharma) and transpersonal Western astrology.
Learn the Fundamentals of Astrology
This introductory course will help you get to know your own astrological birth chart. Along the way, you learn the spectrum of corresponding characteristics that you can choose to manifest in your life and your personality, as shown through the zodiacal signs, the planets and the houses.
If you don’t quite understand what this means, this course offers an exciting learning frontier … and you will understand by the course’s end.
Bonus: A Dharmic Perspective for Self-Realization
Intro to AstroDharma is different from a typical astrology course in that it takes a dharmic perspective. In addition to learning about how to read your own astrological birth chart, we’ll focus on how to harness and develop its positive elements wisely. We’ll also share how to recognize and overcome those that may be out-of-balance or manifesting in a way that’s slowing down your self-realization.
As part of this course, you’ll be encouraged to meditate on the basic themes of each lesson. This serves to allow you to recognize which elements are helping or challenging you. You can then use this knowledge to redirect your energy into more effective patterns of living.
Who this course is for:
- If you’ve been curious about astrology but find it too woo-woo, or if you’re attracted to Buddhism but feel it’s too foreign, the combination of AstroDharma may be perfect for you. If you’d like to do some inner work that’s interesting, fun, and that you can apply in many different ways, you’ll enjoy AstroDharma.
Instructor
Planet Dharma is the virtual teaching vehicle for dharma teachers, Catherine Pawasarat Sensei and Doug Qapel Duncan.
Catherine Pawasarat was a student of metaphysics, Western spiritual traditions, and the ayahuasca sacraments in the 1990s. Living in Kyoto, Japan for 20 years, she worked as an advocacy photojournalist specializing in environmental and human rights, and edited sustainability-related publications for various United Nations bodies. She also studied traditional Japanese arts.
Since 1998 she has trained daily with Buddhist teacher Achariya Doug Duncan (Qapel) in an intensive spiritual apprenticeship that’s rare in the modern West. Transmitted from the remarkable Namgyal Rinpoche, they are both lineage holders of these teachings.
With Qapel, she is co-founder and resident teacher at Clear Sky Retreat Center in the British Columbia Rockies. There, Catherine Sensei has spearheaded an innovative and sustainability-oriented culture and organization, specializing in conscious community. Together Doug and Catherine also teach through a virtual vehicle, Planet Dharma. In 2018 they wrote the best-selling book, Wasteland to Pureland.
Catherine Sensei is an expert in traditional Japanese culture, and the author of the first comprehensive English guidebook to Kyoto’s 1150-year-old Gion Festival, a gigantic living collection of diverse spiritual rituals. She also teaches and advocates for the unique role and experiences of Women in Buddhism.