About the Practice

I'm a Classicist devoted to reconstructing Sasanian Persian and Zoroastrian astrology, a sidereal practice reading fixed stars as active givers and planets as wanderers who filter, aid, or contest their light. Sasanian-era Persian astrologers assimilated Hellenistic and Indian technique and blended it with their own and with Zoroastrian doctrine; my developing practice continues that same integration.

I hold a PhD in Classics from the University of Toronto; my dissertation examined how different groups in the Roman world involved in risky trades like mining, quarrying, silvopastoralism, and beekeeping, used votive religion for guidance and protection.

I've held research positions and taught in the UK, Canada, and the US, and published internationally on ancient religion, votives, epigraphy, beekeeping, and technical literature, including a study of one of the earliest known artistic depictions of catasterism, the ancient theme of mortals transformed into the sky.

I'm a Professional Member of the International Sidereal Astrology Association (ISAA): https://siderealinternational.org/ 

The Logo: A Diagram of the Mixture

The Gumezishn Astrology logo is designed to depict in shorthand the stellar battle described in the Bundahishn.

At the center sits Saturn, alone, undefeated: spahbedān spahbed, general of generals, the pivot the whole structure turns around. The four arms extending outward are a literal compass, each pointing to one of the four quadrant-commanders and the direction it was posted to guard at the dawn of the Mixture: Jupiter to the north, Venus to the south, Mars to the west, Mercury to the east.

Colour indicates outcomes of each battle. Saturn and Mars, the two undefeated, hostile generals, are shown in solid orange: victors, unpacified, still holding the ground they won. Jupiter and Venus appear pale, ringed in starlight, the two who lost their own contests and were compelled ever since to distribute the very goodness that defeated them. Mercury alone is split evenly between the two colours, marking its own contest, stalemate with Sirius, as the one the myth itself leaves genuinely undecided.

Around the outer rim, at north and south, two smaller circles sit apart from the four generals entirely: the lunar nodes, Gochihr, read in this tradition not as combatants who won or lost, but as a dragon already bound, corded to the sun and moon's own chariots. Their place on the boundary rather than the compass points reflects that difference: contained, not defeated.

Two powers stand at opposite ends of everything. Ohrmazd (Ahura Mazda): wise, luminous, the maker of everything good, and Ahriman, his enemy, ignorant, destructive, driven only to spoil what he cannot make. Ahriman broke into Ohrmazd's finished creation and tangled it: order with disorder, good with evil. The Pahlavi (Middle Persian) sources call this state Gumezishn, the Mixture. It is where we still stand.

This has a location, not just a name: the spihr ī gumēzishnīg, the sphere of the Mixture, the actual band of sky the zodiac occupies. And the parties involved are specific, not abstract. Five named pairs, planet against star, still hold their positions:

• Kēwān, Saturn,  against Mēx ī Mayān ī Asmān, the Peg at the Middle of the Sky, the pole star. Saturn won. He commands the rest, undefeated, hostile, general of generals (spahbedān spahbed), holding the center itself rather than any single direction.

• Wahrām, Mars, against Wanand, Vega, general of the west. Mars won too. Unchecked, still fighting.

• Ohrmazd, Jupiter, against Haftōring, the Great Bear, general of the north. Jupiter lost, and was bound ever since to give away the very goodness that beat him. (Confusingly, this planet carries Ahura Mazda's own name. Some sources say this was deliberate, the planets, though hostile, were given divine names to hide what they really were.)

• Anāhīd, Venus, against Sadwēs, the star Fomalhaut, general of the south. Venus lost too. The same sentence: compelled to give.

• Tīr, Mercury against Tishtar, Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, general of the east. Neither won. The only true draw among the five, which is why Mercury is beneficial when conjoined, bounded, or overcome by beneficial planets (Jupiter, Venus, Moon, Sun), but malefic placed in the same situation among malefic planets (Saturn, Mars).

Two further figures, the lunar nodes and a wandering comet, entered the sky the same day, and were bound rather than defeated by the Sun and Moon.

Nothing here is finished. The stellar contest continues even now, and your birth chart is the specific moment you entered it, where each of them stood, and which star each was closest to, the hour you were born.

The Current Cosmic Era

I offer three different services that serve different astrological purposes.

1) Chart Defense Training: A weekly group class, £20/session, no chart required to attend (can be taken in person in Exmouth (Exmouth Healing Centre (times TBD) and online).

2) Natal Reading: A private session focused on your own chart, £100, 90 minutes (includes prep-time and client package), return reading discount.

3) Electional Consultation: A private session to choose a favourable time for something you're about to start, £120, 90 minutes (includes research and election report and guide).

Start with the Natal Reading first if you want to know exactly where and how to best apply the strengths of your own chart. Start with Training if you just want to learn how to navigate malefic planets, gather support from stellar allies, and read the sky accurately. A Natal reading will facilitate how best you can participate in that stellar weather. Book an Electional Consultation when want to choose an auspicious date for an activity.

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