Astrology is one of humanity’s oldest symbolic languages, practiced across cultures as a way of understanding personality, timing, health, destiny, and the energetic forces shaping human life. Far from being a modern trend or entertainment tool, astrology has long functioned as a rigorous system of meaning, orientation, and relationship between humanity and the cosmos.
This episode explores astrology as a living tradition that blends technical knowledge, intuition, lineage-based wisdom, and embodied experience. The conversation traces astrology’s roots across cultures and time periods, highlighting the distinctions between major astrological systems including Western, Vedic, Hellenistic, sidereal, tropical, traditional, and evolutionary approaches. Rather than reducing astrology to a single framework, the panel reflects its diversity, depth, and cultural specificity. A central focus of this discussion is the dilution of astrology in modern culture.
The panel addresses common misconceptions that frame astrology as personality typing, prediction-only entertainment, or social media content divorced from study and responsibility. In contrast, the conversation brings forward the discipline, ethical considerations, and spiritual intelligence required for meaningful astrological practice. The episode also explores the historical relationship between astrology and medicine. Across major European universities such as Bologna and Oxford, astrology was once a core component of medical education. Physicians worked with planetary and lunar cycles to guide treatment decisions, operating from a worldview that understood the human body as inseparable from cosmic rhythms.
The panel reflects on the separation of astrology and astronomy, the loss of astrology’s academic standing, and what was lost when symbolic and holistic frameworks were removed from medicine. Throughout the discussion, panelists speak from lived experience, sharing their training, lineage, and personal relationship with the planets. The conversation remains grounded in ethics, consent, and scope of practice, while also addressing astrology’s resurgence as a tool for healing, meaning-making, and collective orientation in uncertain times.
This episode invites viewers to look beyond the horoscope and engage astrology as a complex, culturally rich, and enduring system of knowledge when practiced with integrity and respect.
ABOUT OUR PANELIST
Laurie Naughtin
Laurie Naughtin brings decades of scholarship and lived experience to her astrological practice, combining both medical and metaphysical backgrounds. She is qualified in Modern, Medieval, and Horary astrology and remains a dedicated student of the Tradition. Laurie began her studies in 1998 and has practiced professionally since 2004.
She founded Sublunar Astrology Academy in 2006, offering training from beginner through advanced levels, including internationally accredited horary courses. She is the founder of Sublunar Astrology and a past President of Astrology South Africa.
Leonie Maritz is a certified Traditional Astrologer, Tarot Reader, Life Coach, and crystal consultant with a BA in Psychology and English. She consults and teaches through her practice, Zodiac Tarot, which focuses on client empowerment, spiritual wellness, and consciousness development. A graduate of Laurie Naughtin’s Sublunar Academy, The Centre of Applied Jungian Studies, UNISA, and Dialogue SA, Leonie brings a grounded, structured, and thoughtful approach to spiritual education. Her areas of expertise include Traditional Natal Astrology, Tarot, Dream Analysis, and Crystals, and she is known for holding conversations with clarity, balance, and respect for diverse perspectives.
The Public Education Panel Series brings together multiple voices to help the wider public understand healing, spirituality, and practice in clear, grounded terms. Each episode focuses on a single theme and invites practitioners to share lived experience, practical examples, and diverse viewpoints so audiences can learn without jargon or gatekeeping.
