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astrology
for s e p t e m b e r
ASTRO-COACH
Nicki Michaels was tutored by Dane Rudhyar, one of the most influential
astrologers of all time. She was thrust into the limelight in the late 80s when she
discovered she'd been computing astrological calculations for President
Reagan's astrologer, Joan Quigley
BY MARION WILLIAMSON
N
icki Michaels' life reads like an astrological
Who's Who. Sitting in her tranquil San
Francisco office with its framed photographs
of groundbreaking astrologers, past and
present, I knew there would be stories to tell. She's a
columnist for The Mountain Astrologer; she worked
for the first telephone astrology lines; she sold the
world's first astrological computer; she ‘crunched'
data for Presidential astrologer, Joan Quigley, and she
1974 Convention. It turns out the event was fatefully
linked to the mysterious advert, “I remember the
conference because it cost $18 dollars just to go to
the talks - that was so much money for me at the
time. There were 3,000 people attending and it was
the first time I'd been around astrologers. One of them
wanted to see my chart. She took a look and said, ‘My
South node is conjunct your Saturn. My astrology
teacher says this means I owe you something from a
past life.' I asked her who her teacher
was and she told me it was Mark
“I became very close friends with Rudhyar. He
and that I should buy his book
became my mentor and my friend until his death in 1985. Robertson
Transit of Saturn. Fast-forward to the
He was an extremely bright and hardworking man”
interview…"
Michaels arrived at the interview
was taught by eminent astrologer, Dane Rudhyar. The
already suspicious of the mysterious organisation
only thing I was worried about was that I hadn't
based in the centre of San Francisco. “There was this
brought enough tape for my dictaphone.
really messy desk and a guy in a suit…he looked like
Michaels was relaxed and happy and, luckily for
CIA. But he told me I'd been chosen to go into this
me, she appeared to be in a chatty mood. The
training class and that it was part of a new business. I
California sun streamed through the window causing
scanned his desk trying to figure out what it was all
her excitable little dog to fall asleep in my lap as
about and I saw a piece of paper with Mark
Michaels took me back some 30 years to September
Robertson's details on it. Someone knocked the door
1974, the month Michaels began her professional
just then and stuck their head in, apologised for
career. She was in her early 20s when she spotted an
having interrupted, and left - it was Mark Robertson. I
advert in the local paper. It read: ‘Counsellors. We
asked the suit what he had to do with the course and
need people with astrological or counselling
he said, ‘That's who'll be training you'."
background, experience not required - will train
TELEPHONING THE STARS
qualified persons. Good pay and working conditions.
Two hundred and fifty people answered the advert to
Send letter of experience and complete birth date to
join Astro Phone, the world's first astrological
Human Potential Research at…' Intrigued and already
interested in astrology, Michaels sent off her details.
telephone consultancy. To determine who had what it
In the month between the time she replied to the
would take to make good counsellors, the applicants
ad and was invited for an interview, Michaels
were divided it into two piles: one for those with
attended The American Federation of Astrologers
counselling experience and the other for applicants
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with astrological knowledge. “They wanted to train half
and half and eventually picked 20 from each pile whose
astrology charts suggested they would be good at the job.
They didn't know if the people without the astrology could
learn it in three weeks, and needless to say they couldn't.
So when Mark taught the classes, instead of using the
symbols for the planets he used ‘Sa' for Saturn ‘Su' for
Sun, etc.”
Astro Phone needed people that would be good at
giving concise information in a short time period. The
phone lines were expensive - $9.95 for the first ten
minutes then a dollar a minute after that, $60 an hour in
1974 - that equates to
about $250 an hour today.
Remembering, Michaels
said, “They needed people
that could be quick, logical
and get to the heart of the
chart in ten minutes.
Clients would call Astro
Phone, toll free, with their
birth details and would be
given an appointment
sometime in the following
24 hours. It took so long
because back then we had
no computers to calculate
the charts - these were all
compiled and sent over by
an outside agency.”
Michaels trained for
four hours a night, five
nights a week, for three
weeks, followed by written
and verbal tests. Michaels
expressed a doubt that
many current astrology
phone services would be
so thorough. Michaels
worked at Astro Phone for
a year and a half and had
over 625 clients. “That's
how I got started," she said
brightly.
undergraduate course based on Rudhyar's textbook, The
Astrological Study of Psychological Complexes for a
number of years."
In 1975 Michaels visited a bookshop where Rudhyar
was giving a talk. “I became very close friends with
Rudhyar - and his wife, too. He became my mentor and
my friend until his death in 1985. He was an extremely
bright and hardworking man - he wrote every day everything in longhand and worked until he could no
longer continue. Rudhyar's main identity was that of a
philosopher and composer. Music he wrote in the early
1900s is still played at new music concerts. He felt that
Nicki Michaels
and companion
in her San
Francisco
garden
MEETING RUDHYAR
Michaels had been at
Astro Phone little over a
year when she was looking
through a local San
Francisco magazine and
saw an advert for a
university where you could
develop your degree in a
specific field of interest. “I
got into an undergraduate
degree in astro-psychology
that I developed myself. If
you didn't have classes in
your major - clearly they
wouldn't have in mine they gave you back a third
of your tuition so you
could develop your subject
area. So I signed up for
every astrology class going.
I also taught a 12-week
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astrology
➔❙ Who was Dane Rudhyar?
Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985) is considered by many
to be the greatest astrologer of our time. He was
an accomplished composer and came to
astrology through an interest in Oriental music
and philosophy. He brought a spiritual approach
to astrology and, as with so many great thinkers,
was way ahead of his time. His legacy is a vast
storehouse of astrological wisdom for generations
to come. For further information on Rudhyar and
free online copies of all his works visit:
www.khaldea.com
astrology was a wonderful language in
which to frame his philosophy that came
from the theosophists. He knew Alice
Bailey and his book, The Astrology of
Personality, was dedicated to her. On a
personal level he was a human being and
he was getting old. There was human
Rudhyar and teacher Rudhyar."
In the early 80s Michaels talked
Rudhyar into putting on a RITA (Rudhyar
Institute for Transpersonal Activity)
conference. It was held at a beautiful
retreat centre and Rudhyar liked that so
much, that for his 90th birthday he wanted
another one. He begged Michaels to put it
together. It turned out to be the last public
talk he ever gave.
for s e p t e m b e r
astronomical calculations for astrologers. It was
something that would revolutionise the way astrologers
work. It cost $3000 and would compute astrology charts
in a fraction of the time it takes to do them by hand. “It
was incredible to be able to calculate so accurately, I was
the only person in town with an astrology computer! I
became the Northern California sales representative for
the machine and one of the people I was trying to sell it
to was called Joan Quigley. I spent a lot of time with her she didn't actually want to buy the computer but we had
an arrangement where I would supply her with
astrological data. I did her calculations from 1981 - 1988.
I fed through hundreds of charts for her, thinking she must
be doing a research project or writing a book on political
astrology”.
In 1988, Donald Regan, former
Whitehouse Chief of Staff, revealed his
disagreements with Nancy Reagan in his
book For the Record: From Wall Street to
Washington and included claims that
Nancy's personal astrologer, Joan Quigley,
helped steer the President's decisions.
Michaels remembered the excitement the
story caused, “Oh my god, when the story
broke that Reagan had an astrologer, I was
getting calls from People Magazine and
Newsweek, I could not believe what was
going on. It was on the cover of Time
magazine. I was on CNN!"
Nancy Reagan
LIFE COACHING
Michaels learned early in her career that
clients appreciate a no-nonsense approach
HOSTAGE CRISIS
to their astrological consultations. “What I
New Year's Eve is a busy time when you're
learned from my time at Astro Phone was
an astrologer - everyone wants to know
to speak in plain English. I could talk to you
predictions for the coming months.
about your chart with no jargon. Mark
December 31st, 1980 was no exception for
Robertson taught me that the client should
Michaels. She was approached by a TV
get some really useful information so that
station for predictions concerning big new
when they walk away from the consultation
stories. For 1980 going into 1981 the Iran
they can apply it to their life. I really enjoy
hostage crisis was hitting the headlines
helping people in that way - giving them
and Michaels was asked when they would
really practical, useful stuff."
be released. “I knew Jim Lewis, who lived
One of Michaels' clients suggested that
in the San Francisco area - the guy that
she become a life coach. She took on a
started Astro Cartography (a branch of
training program and found that she
astrology specialising in using maps and
absolutely loved it.
relocation charts). I studied the maps for
“As an astrologer, people usually come
Joan Quigley’s revelations to see you when there's a turning point or a
Tehran and Washington DC and looked at
the upcoming lunations. At the end of
challenge in their lives - you advise then
January for that year I noticed certain planetary lines
and a lot of the time you don't get to see how things
going right through Washington and Tehran and thought
turned out until the next big change when they're back for
that looked interesting - and there was a lunation that
more guidance. There's not a whole lot of interaction with
indicated a window of opportunity, so that's what I told
the client. But the thing I love about coaching is that I can
the press. In 24 hours of that lunation the hostages were
help someone identify what he or she needs to change
released. But do you think they showed me on the next
and discuss how they're going to go about it. As an
year's show getting the prediction right? No of course
astrologer I have to come up with the answers but as a
they didn't - that's why I decided not to do that again. But
coach the client comes up with the solutions. It's very
I called up Jim Lewis to say his map had been on TV nice for me to see results!" ■
and he hired me to become a staff astrologer for Astro
Cartography! I used to produce four-page, typewritten
interpretations for four different locations. I did over 400
of those in little over a year, all on a rickety old
To contact Nicki Michaels write to her at:
typewriter. It was great experience."
PO Box 31477, San Francisco, California CA 94131
or email: [email protected]
REAGAN REVELATION
web: www.SFCoach.com
In 1977 Michaels opened an astrological centre. One day
➔❙ Further Information
two guys walked in with the first microprocessor that did
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