Cosmic Clash: Steven Forrest Controversy and a Solar Eclipse

Join the Awake Space to explore how to use astrology in practical and liberating ways!

This week on The Awake Space Astrology Podcast, Laurie tackles the Steven Forrest controversy and addresses the idea that Western Tropical Astrology is exclusionary or a rip off of Vedic. (Find source material links below)

Laurie traces the fascinating development of astrology from ancient Mesopotamia through Greece, India, the Islamic world, medieval Europe, and into modern practice. She explains why Western Tropical and Vedic/Jyotish astrology are distinct traditions, how scholars exchanged knowledge across cultures, and why astrology has always evolved alongside our understanding of humanity.

She also shares why she developed Progressive Evolutionary Astrology, an approach centered on the complexity of human experience rather than rigid binaries, limiting labels, or outdated interpretations.

Plus, Awake Space Magazine Subscriber questions, this week’s Ralph Report, and a look at the August 12 Leo New Moon and solar eclipse.

Chapters

00:00 — Welcome & What’s Ahead
03:49 — The Steven Forrest Controversy
13:15 — Moving Astrology Forward
29:21 — The Real History of Western & Vedic Astrology
47:02 — Mundane Astrology & the U.S. Chart
51:10 — Your Astrology Questions Answered
01:05:00 — The Ralph Report
01:11:01 — August 12 Solar Eclipse & Leo New Moon

Astrology has never existed in a vacuum. It has grown through observation, mathematics, cultural exchange, scholarship, and generations of astrologers asking better questions. This episode explores that history while looking toward what astrology can become next.

Show Links:

July Archivist Report on Laurie's Predictions

Citations: Please note that some information is debated by scholars.

• Encyclopaedia Iranica — Horoscope, David Pingree
• Encyclopaedia Iranica — Astrology and Astronomy in Iran, David Pingree & Christopher J. Brunner
• Encyclopaedia Iranica — Zodiac
• Encyclopaedia Iranica — Planets
• Bill M. Mak — The Date and Nature of Sphujidhvaja’s Yavanajātaka Reconsidered
• Cambridge History of Science — Translation and Transmission of Greek and Islamic Science to Latin Christendom

• Please note he was an astrologer (astronomers and astrologers were not separate occupations until the 18th century) https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Al-Biruni/
• https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-science/islamic-astronomy/DBE63FFD4918F948F362A66DE721C022
• Plato Tiburtinus who translated Ptolemy into Latin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato_Tiburtinus

Also not mentioned directly in the podcast, but given the Islamic Empire was very vast throughout it's history I decided to look up what might be in Timbuktu which still houses literature that goes back over 1000 years. Here's an article that might be very interesting - remember, there was not division between astronomy and astrology until the 18th century. https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2014-12-02-africas-ancient-astronomers-made-their-mark-in-culture-folklore