Today I’m celebrating the 10th anniversary of BigSkyAstrology.com – which was actually yesterday, but I remembered too late in the evening to write a post or, for that matter, have a piece of birthday cake. In the early summer of 2000 the site had already existed for a year, but I consider the moment when I registered the domain name, on June 10, 2000, at 12:44:33 pm in San Diego, CA, to be its true birthday. Here’s the chart (click on image to view a larger version). Note: I posted this chart on Facebook a few months back when I first unearthed it… you can see a discussion thread about it here.
I don’t remember electing the date and time, but I’m certain I must have – because just look at that Sun/Venus conjunction in the 10th house, trine Uranus, and the Moon in Libra approaching a trine to all of it. Though it’s not the direction I had in mind at the time, looking at this chart it’s pretty obvious that wedding astrology would end up being a huge part of my work and comprise the most-visited material on the site!
It’s impossible to imagine what my career as an astrologer would look like if I hadn’t had access to the internet. Opportunities to publish astrology writing (other than horoscopes) in print media were limited even then. Certainly there was little freedom to write about astrology in any way you wished, about any topic, on any schedule, unless you were willing to pony up the money to print your own newsletter (which I did, from 1991 until shortly after I launched the website).
When I began my astrology business in 1991 I called it “Gemini Moon.” That was fine for a business that focused on newsletters, teaching, and local clients. But somehow, a website begged for a larger, more Sagittarian name. In its first year, the site was simply called “The Big Sky” – a name that appealed to me because of the inclusivity it implied. (When it came time to get serious and register a domain name, I added “astrology” to the name.) This will be hard to comprehend for the generation of astrologers who cut their teeth on the internet, but in the dark ages of the early 1990s, it was a lot more difficult to connect with fellow astrologers. Plus – at the risk of sounding uncharitable – my generation was trying to carve out a place amongst the deeply entrenched Pluto in Cancer “old guard” of astrology, many of whom yielded no quarter. (Some of my most important mentors were Pluto in Leo astrologers – but of course, the Pluto in Libra generation feels the same way about them as we Pluto in Virgos did about Pluto in Cancer!)
Why, I wondered, did the business of astrology have to be so proprietary, so lacking in generosity? “It’s a big sky,” I often mused. “Surely there’s room for everyone.” And that’s been the underlying ethos of Big Sky Astrology. Each of us has a story to tell – a unique contribution only we can make to astrology, and to the world.
One of the very best things about having a website has been the immersion in a global support system of fellow astrologers. I run the risk of accidentally omitting someone, but I have to give a shout-out to some of my colleagues, many of whom were among Big Sky Astrology’s earliest and most enthusiastic supporters: Dana Gerhardt; Moses Siregar III; Richard Nolle; Candy Hillenbrand; Maria Alexander; Sharon Leah; Natori Moore; Simone Butler; Diane Wilkes; astrobloggers Lynn Hayes, Jeffrey Kishner, Michele Lessirard, Dharmaruci, Elsa, Jude Cowell, Barbara Palliser, Urania, and Twilight – and in recent years, Jessica, Fern, Amy, Matthew, and Neeti.
I’ve always loved to write. Some of my earliest memories involve taking pencil to paper. But it wasn’t until I began telling my own stories through the language of astrology that I really learned to be a writer. I began by writing quarterly essays at the turn of each season, but soon segued into writing about the New and Full Moons, mostly because of my collaboration with the awesome Dana Gerhardt and her web enterprise, Mooncircles. Writing about astrology’s most basic cycles, year in and year out, has, I think, brought me to a deeper, more helpful understanding of astrology. Certainly, it’s brought me to a deeper understanding of myself.
I’m currently working on a collection of some of these older essays that will soon be available as an ebook. Until then, here’s a selection of some of my favorites, one from each year of Big Sky Astrology.
Thanks to all of you for reading, for your emails,
and for your support throughout BSA’s first decade!
A decade of Big Sky Astrology:
2000 – True North
2001 – Heart of Darkness
2002 – Life as a House
2003 – The Thirsty Moon
2004 – The Banquet
2005 – Slowing Down, Turning Ar0und
2006 – Go Deeper
2007 – Mother in the Moon
2008 – The One We Feed
