The Diploma in Applied Astrology Thesis
As part of the Diploma in Applied Astrology the candidate must submit his or her final thesis on a topic of their own choice. This project is usually completed after all the other assignments and requirements of the program have been finished; however, this is not always the case as often students wish to begin their research as soon as possible during their advanced training. As part of the thesis component the student is supervised.
Since the Diploma program began in 1995, there have been 40 Diploma Graduates who have completed the full program, which includes five other assignments, counselling and supervision as well as submitting their thesis. Click here for each graduate’s diploma thesis topic.
Following are four recent graduates who share their thesis with you; these can be downloaded and read:
1. The Road Home: Belonging, Destiny and Locational Astrology
by Keppel Cassidy
No doubt Keppel’s fascination with location was an underlying motivation for his thesis which led him to research the validity and value of locational astrology while also scrutinising the claims made by others using relocational techniques. First Keppel starts with his philosophy of belonging and then expands this into looking at places of belonging through three locational techniques: astro*carto*graphy, local space and the relocated chart. He helps us see the validity of the techniques through using interesting case examples. The thesis culminates in a study of Bob Brown, an Australian icon, environmentalist and humanitarian and his relationship with place. Keppel expresses the merit of locational astrology this way: ‘locational astrology has great value in helping those of us who are fated to confront the loss of meaning and belonging, and search distant lands for a better answer than mainstream rational consciousness can provide.’ His inspirational thesis was completed in June 2014.
2. Weird, Unconventional & Shocking: A Moon-Uranus Tale
by Gillian Dwyer
In April 2012, Gil completed writing her thesis focusing on the Moon-Uranus aspect encouraged by her own 8th house Moon-Uranus conjunction in Cancer. It’s an animated exploration, full of life even before life, as Gil reflects on her personal intrauterine experience, emotional disconnections and reconnections. Throughout the thesis she explores biographies of prominent people who have entertained, intrigued and shocked us, demonstrating the rollicking and intriguing Uranus Moon symbol in all its flavours. As she says, her thesis: ‘demonstrates the multiple layers and the ways in which the Gods remind us of their domains on many different levels and some more conscious than others.’
3. Planting, Uprooting, Replanting: Spirit’s Gardening and Emigration
by Malgorzata Zieba
Gosia finished her thesis in December 2103 and acknowledges in the beginning, that during the writing that year ‘transiting Neptune was hovering over my natal Moon in Pisces’ and transiting Saturn ‘was also squaring my personal planets in Aquarius one by one.’ This is reflected in Gosia’s sensitive exploration of emigration from Europe, especially Poland, to Australia, something she herself had experienced, an inspired reflection on the past. Using five case studies and the evocative metaphor of replanting Gosia takes us on a thought-provoking journey about the impact of location and relocation on our personality and demeanour concentrating on the Ascendant-Midheaven combinations. She concludes her thesis poetically, yet emphatically stating: ‘no matter where the physical location is the place influences our whole being, it’s irrevocably connected to our perception and experience of physicality’.
4. A Matter of Spirit
by Nada Smark
The thesis’s subtitle is The Saturn/Uranus Cycle as a Symbol of the Practice of Individual and Collective Awakening and Nada completed this major work January 2010. Nada examines the dialogues between Saturn and Uranus in many ways, such as through their aspects and phases, to bring meaning to our individual and collective experience. By anchoring us in the charts of the last four conjunctions Nada reflects on the events and emissaries that have been symbols of this archetypal pairing and asserts that ‘the Saturn/Uranus cycle represents a powerful voice calling us to not only contribute wisely to the process of social change, but to embrace and consciously participate in its call to our own psychological and spiritual transformation, not as an end in itself but to realise the part this transformation plays in the evolution of consciousness at a collective level.’
Graduate Thesis Topics
Our Diploma in Applied Astrology began in 1994 and the first Diploma was awarded in 1997. The prerequisite for the program is the Certificate in Applied Astrology which began in 1986. Since its inception, 40 students have graduated in the Diploma program, having successfully completed five major assignments, the thesis, counselling and supervision. Before the Diploma course, Astro*Synthesis offered an Advanced Certificate.
We are proud of the commitment and integrity that students have brought to their studies; many have continued on to work professionally as astrological practitioners and educators.
Click here for the list of graduates who have been awarded their Diploma in Applied Astrology.