Elective Courses
The Garden of Opportunity
(Evelyn de Morgan)
Each year we will schedule a number of Elective Courses – at least three, often more. The full current list is given at the bottom of this page and we will select from it in any given year. New Electives will be added from time to time, as we develop new material. Most of the Electives are aligned with the subject area of one of the six Modules; a few open up additional subjects.
These courses are typically four weeks long but occasionally eight weeks. Four-week Electives attract 20 credits and eight-week Electives attract 40 credits. Their accompanying course material may include video recordings, but not always, depending on the subject matter.
All live sessions are held on Zoom and are recorded. You will have access to these recordings, plus the course materials in our online platform, for the duration of the two-year programme plus three months after the date on which you finish the final course that gains you the 360 credits.
(If more than one year has elapsed since your last course enrolment, we reserve the right to cease access to the recordings and course materials. However, these will be reinstated if you take up the programme again by enrolling on another course).
Note: our annual live event also attracts 40 credits which can be used as 'elective credits'.
Course fees: £225 per four-week Elective; £425 per 8-week Elective.
Electives scheduled in 2026-2027
The Horoscope as Mandala
Tutors: Brian Clark & Carole Taylor
4-25 August 2026
For Jung, the mandala was a symbol of the Self which emerges from the process of individuation, reflecting the Self's capacity for wholeness and inner integration, our true and undivided nature. Contained within the mandala is the circle as a symbol of unity and divinity, quartered by the cross as a symbol of incarnation in the material world.
For an astrologer, the horoscope naturally reflects the idea of the mandala, encompassing both the raw material of our life, the alchemical prima materia, and the image of who we can become. We come to understand that these are one and the same – our essential nature which develops into its fullness in the alembic of daily life. The divine circle of spirit, represented by the zodiac signs and the planets which orbit within it, is brought to earth through the cross of matter of the four angles, from which flow the 12 mundane houses. Thus the birth chart becomes the ritual circle of the magician, making the connection between heaven and earth, divine and mortal, inner archetypal and outer lived worlds.
This course will explore these concepts. The heart of the course is the exercise of drawing your own birth chart step by step, as a form of creative, imaginative and meditative engagement with all of its component parts, understanding the chart as a meeting place of inner and outer cosmos.
Four sessions:
Tuesday 4, 11, 18 & 25 August 2026
UTC: 10pm
3pm Pacific Daylight (PDT)
4pm Mountain Daylight (MDT)
11pm UK time (BST)
Note: this is equivalent to Wednesdays at 8am Melbourne (AEST) 5, 12, 19 & 26 August 2026
Theogony: Birth of the Gods
Tutors: Brian Clark & Jason Holley
7-28 July 2026
As the shepherd Hesiod was tending sheep on Mt Helicon the Muses called, inspiring him to sing about the birth of the gods and the generations that followed. The result was the epic we know today as Theogony, a mythic evolution from Chaos to Cosmos.
The ancient Greek epic poem Theogony (ca. 700 BCE) is the first comprehensive cosmological record that details the origins and genealogies of the gods and goddesses from the primal deities to the triumph of Zeus. We might think of the epic as the original text on Greek mythology, amplifying the myth of creation and divine family trees, an analogous journey from chaos to order.
In our four classes we will engage with this seminal text on Greek myth, a cosmological blueprint that traces the mythic lineage and allegorical narratives of the heavenly archetypes we place in our horoscopes. We will trace their story through time, from the epic to the horoscope.
Four sessions:
Tuesday 7, 14, 21 & 28 July 2026
11pm UTC
4pm Pacific Daylight (PDT)
5pm Mountain time (MDT)
Midnight UK time (BST)
Note: this is equivalent to Wednesdays at 9am Melbourne (AEST) 8, 15, 22 & 29 July 2026
Alchemical Images
Tutors: Safron Rossi & Carole Taylor
Four weeks in February-March 2027*
Without an understanding of astrological symbolism, alchemy’s images, illustrations and themes are almost impossible to understand. Alchemy gives to astrology a sense of dynamic process, animating the symbolism of the birth chart. In this short course, we will engage deeply with a selection of images that allow us to see our lives, and our charts, through the eyes of the alchemist.*
*More information about this elective course, including the live session dates, will be posted here soon.
Current list of Elective Courses
Module 1: Symbol
The Horoscope as Mandala Brian Clark & Carole Taylor 4 weeks
Module 2: Myth & Story
Sacred Songs in Contemporary Times: An Astrological Reading of the Homeric Hymns
Jason Holley, Carole Taylor, Brian Clark & Safron Rossi 4 weeks
Theogony: Birth of the Gods Brian Clark & Jason Holley 4 weeks
Mythic Dynasties: Tracing Family Themes Brian Clark & Safron Rossi 4 weeks
Sky Stories: the Mythic World of the Constellations Carole Taylor 4 weeks
Module 3: Dreams, Reveries, Visions
Dreaming the Horoscope - an online dream group Brian Clark 8 weeks
Alchemical Images Safron Rossi & Carole Taylor 4 weeks
Module 5: Guides
Joseph Campbell and the Hero with a Thousand Faces Safron Rossi 4 weeks
Other Electives
Complexes: Astrological Archetypes and Personal Patterns Brian Clark 4 weeks
Opus: Astrological Work and Consultation as Conversation 8 weeks
Self, Myth and Symbol: Finding Core Myths in the Horoscope 4 weeks