In short, transformational astrology is the use of the birth chart for self-discovery, healing, growth and change.

A nice, neat definition.

Every chart reading conducted by a sensitive and skilled astrologer is capable of transforming you. But when it comes to deep, profound, lasting transformation, we need to view the chart through a particular psychological and evolutionary lens, and the changes must be lived to be truly understood.

For me, the journey to transformational astrology has been more a meandering quest (with many wrong turns and dead ends) than a straight shot.

In this post I’ll tell the story of my own journey, and how astrology literally transformed my life. In later articles I’ll write in more depth about my approach, and the factors that distinguish transformational astrology from other approaches.

Psychological astrology

I began studying astrology in the heady days of the 1990s. New Age retail stores were popping up on every street corner, Mind Body Spirit conventions were heaving four-day events held annually in every capital city and esoteric bookstores were busier than Myer on Boxing Day.

Anyone who has taken up the study of astrology will know there are as many approaches to this ancient art as there are astrologers practicing it. But in the early 1990s the biggest rodeo in astrology town was undoubtedly psychological astrology. Heavily championed by the incomparable Liz Greene, psychological astrology views the birth chart through a Jungian lens. And let’s face it, if ever there was a self-development tool designed to channel the work of the great C.G. Jung, it was astrology.

Liz Greene and Howard Sasportas were the co-creators and directors of the almost mythical Centre for Psychological Astrology and I yearned to travel to London to learn from them in person. This was way before the internet, before online courses, before every piece of information imaginable could be yours with a few keystrokes. So it remained a yearning, and I satisfied myself with buying every text book that came out of the CPA which I poured over with maniacal hunger. Those well-thumbed texts remain on my bookshelves today.

I soon came to a deeper understanding of my Capricorn Sun, my Gemini Moon and my Capricorn ascendent. And I experienced first hand the potential of astrology as a personal development tool. I learned that every placement had a shadow aspect, and that the water houses (4^th, 8^th & 12^th) were the domain of the personal subconscious and the collective unconscious.

Interesting stuff indeed.

Formal study

By the mid-90s I knew I needed structured training so I signed up with the Aquarian School of Astrology in western Sydney. There I received the necessary grounding in planets, signs, houses and aspects that I’d somehow skated over in my obsession with the Jungian approach. I did three years with my wonderful teacher, Juanita, before I sat the Australian Federation of Astrologers exam. 

I got the top mark in the 1998 exam and received the Allan Johnson silver medal. I kept going to classes with Juanita and began doing readings professionally. I worked in new age stores and at the festivals. I saw clients at home and I started writing a forecast column for a local magazine. Everything was on track.

Then life happened, or did it?

In 2003 I got divorced and moved house. They say those are two of the top three most stressful experiences we can endure (the other is the death of a loved one) but for me they were liberating.

Except for one very important factor. My husband’s departure left me in a bind I hadn’t prepared for: I had no regular, stable income of my own. Sure I was making some money with my readings, but it was nowhere near enough to pay rent and put food on the table.

Let me segue here to fill you in on the astrology of the time. I had made it through my Saturn return virtually unscathed, and my first Pluto square had only sent me deeper into my study of astrology. At the time I was pretty chuffed with myself. Aren’t these two supposed to be uber difficult? Aren’t they supposed to upend your life? If I knew then what I know now I’d have ignored these two planetary heavyweights, which it turns out don’t have a huge impact on me by transit, and paid attention instead to the two wrecking balls of my life – Uranus and Neptune. In 2003 I was 41 years old. I divorced and moved house under my Uranus opposition (transiting and ruling my 2^nd house and south node, opposing my natal 8^th house Uranus) and my Neptune square (transiting my second house and my south node, activating the natal Neptune/node t-square and ruling my 3^rd house).

If you’re not astrologically minded, that all reads like gobbledygook. So with the benefit of both hindsight and my experience with transformational astrology, I’ll translate for you: I was unwittingly activating a soul-deep trauma pattern involving shared resources, self worth, money and aspirations. And I wouldn’t come out of that pattern, and its effects for the better part of twenty years.

The effects of deep-rooted soul trauma

Following my divorce, and move, I returned to work. With a background as a Jazzercise instructor, I took an admin job with a large fitness chain which turned out to be nothing more than an enormous soul-sucking sales machine. Over the ensuing years I was promoted, retrenched, hired, promoted, retrenched, hired, promoted, retrenched (yes there’s a pattern here) and hired again. None of the jobs lit me up in any way, nor did they provide for me financially in a way that would secure my future.

And in the background, I continued to do readings for friends, helping them with their lives and solving their problems, while only digging myself deeper into my own.

Back to school

In 2010 I’d had enough of the low-earning jobs. I decided to return to university (I have a Bachelors degree in Economics straight out of school) to study law. Solicitors earned a fortune after all, and my grandfather used to tell me I’d make a great barrister because I loved to argue so much.

This was a sure fire way to secure my financial future, so I applied for, and was accepted into, a part-time Bachelor of Laws by distance education at the University of New England. I started off at a sprint and by the end of my first year I had a distinction average. I found a local law firm who took me on two days per week, and I negotiated my other job down to three days per week at a higher rate of pay. Things were looking up.

Then in January 2012, my father died unexpectedly. And everything went to hell.

The dark night of the soul

In that first year after my dad’s passing I was the closest I had ever been to the dark night of my soul. I put my law studies on hold, my anxiety ramped up to beyond previously known levels and I felt nauseous all the time. By mid-year I knew I wasn’t going back to law, and I enrolled in an introductory psychology course as a pre-requisite for a Graduate Diploma in psychology. By then I’d developed a keen interest in positive psychology and wanted to pursue a Masters in that field. I scored in the 90s in my psychology 101 & 102 and commenced my Grad. Dip. in 2013.

By October 2014 I’d completed my Grad. Dip. with a high distinction average, and I was offered a place in the university’s honours programme. I accepted and finished 2016 with Class 2A Honours.

The study had gotten me through my dark night and importantly, a seed had been planted. I have always been more interested in human potential than human limitations, and my studies in psychology, along with my background in psychological astrology seemed like a match made in heaven. I developed the concept of “Positive Astrology” and began applying some of my newly developed ideas in readings.

If I’d fully committed to treating astrology as a business, either in the late 90s when I first started doing readings, in 2003 when I divorced, or in 2017 after I finished my Honours degree in psychology, I wouldn’t have had to endure all that came next. But at the bottom of everything was my second house south node. Translated: fear that I wouldn’t be able to provide for myself financially.

The problem with fear

Let me tell you something about fear: if you let it drive you, if you let it make your decisions, it will manifest in your life exactly as you feared it would. In my case, the fear was around money – not having enough, not earning enough, not being worth enough – and consequently I found myself in low-paying jobs, with selfish bosses who didn’t value me.

Compounding all this was the undeniable fact that my fear wasn’t just the old garden variety. My fear was rooted in traumatic soul memories that I was unwittingly reliving. 

Of course at the time I didn’t know I was stuck in a repetitive traumatic soul pattern. I just thought I was destined to live like an ever-tiring hamster on a wheel, waiting for the next retrenchment.

The true dark night of my soul

The culture of the small law firm where I worked for almost 15 years can be described in one word: toxic. At least it was to me. Throughout my time there I was subjected to ongoing bullying and discrimination by management. Why didn’t I leave? I now know I stayed because of my trauma patterns. I always aspired to see the best in people (Neptune in the 11^th) and my fears around money (2^nd house south node) kept me there when any sane person would have fled without looking back.

By May 2025 the bullying and discrimination had gone into overdrive. I knew I had to get out. Fortunately I inherited a small sum from my mum’s estate and with a well-laid plan to rebrand and relaunch my astrology business I walked out of there and haven’t looked back.

So how will this move be any different to my previous ones that ended in disaster?

Transformational astrology

The day after I walked out of that toxic workplace, I wrote a cheat sheet of my astrological wellbeing placements (if you haven’t downloaded the PERMAnent Wellbeing guide, you can do that here). Even though I had known that job had been slowly and excruciatingly strangling my soul, I’d only entertained a weird kind of detached understanding of why. My Gemini Moon needs variety, conversations with interesting people and to be constantly learning. My Capricorn planets need to be committed to a “Great Work” as Steven Forrest calls it, and my Aquarius stellium craves freedom, individuality and the creation of something the world has never before seen.

Each morning I reviewed my cheat sheet, and committed to one action from each of the five wellbeing pillars. Then I took action. Every single day.

And that’s when I truly woke up.

You see, throughout the 25+ years I’d been reading charts for people, my approach had been simple: I spoke to my clients about whatever they came to me for, then looked for confirmation of their issue, and a solution, in the chart. If they wanted to change something, I looked to the chart and guided them forward. 

But when I was in the very deepest, darkest night of my soul, I unwittingly flipped the script. Instead of thinking about what I wanted and how to use my chart to best get it for me, I started with my chart and asked what was best for me. In short, I began to live every aspect of my life in total alignment with my chart.

And that’s when everything changed.

With my wellbeing planets as my guides, I signed up for a bunch of webinars on both astrology and business. From there I developed the idea for a rebrand and relaunch of my astrology business. I found the amazing Becky who does astro-branding and website development that aligns your brand with your chart. I brainstormed ideas for books, shorter print offerings, a YouTube channel and a blog.

And most importantly, I took action on what I was learning. I booked my astro-branding, I booked my website development, I created a YouTube channel, I opened a new Instagram account, and importantly I signed up for Mark Jones’ foundation course on transformational astrology. And that’s where the final piece of the puzzle fell into place.

Mark’s work on Pluto and the nodes, and particularly his work on Uranus as the holder of soul memory, was a revelation to me. I was finally able to crack open and heal the trauma pattern in my own life. Without his work, and the work I have done on myself around it, I would have simply kept repeating the same mistakes over and over. I likely would have walked out of the toxic law firm and straight into another low-paying job that wouldn’t secure my future and where the management didn’t value me. Instead, I’ve transformed my life within a matter of months.

Maintaining focus on my chart as my blueprint

Once I complete Mark’s Transformational Astrology course I intend to become a certified practitioner. In the meantime, I’ve used what I’ve developed over the years from psychological (Jungian) astrology, combined it with my own take on the evolutionary potential of the birth chart, grounded that on a solid foundation of practical astrology and aligned it with the latest research in positive psychology.

My approach can be summed up as a unique blend of psychological astrology, applied through the lens of the evolutionary potential of the chart, with an overlay of positive psychology, to guide my clients to the revelation of the life they were born to live. I am now adding the ability to read traumatic soul memories and experiences, and in doing so I’ve come to a place where I offer a service that is truly transformative.

I was born to transform myself, and others. It’s etched into my birth chart. And now that I’ve transformed myself, I’m ready to transform you. To book a reading, click here. If you’re ready to fully claim the life you were born to live, click here.