“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
–Yogi Berra
I have reached a proverbial fork in the road of my life. At 50 years-old, I am considering what amounts to a late-stage career change. After 25 years as a successful television professional, I am ready to answer the deeper call of my soul and endeavor to make a career out of my true passion: astrology. The time is now.
Most people my age wouldn’t even consider such a drastic change at this stage in life. Many of my contemporaries have already begun looking forward to the possibility of an early retirement, so the thought of giving up a comfortable six-figure income to become an astrologer seems insane to them. But to me, it just seems inevitable. And this call of destiny won’t let me wait another 10 years to unfold. The time is now.
And it is a renewed awareness of time itself that is giving me the courage. 2020 is proving to be one of the most dramatic years of our lives, and the recent unfolding of events has forced many of us to deeply reconsider our true purpose in this lifetime. During the many quiet hours of quarantine, some of us have begun to tune in to that clarion call to “be the change you want to see in the world.” The time is now.
The Saturn Cycle
In astrology, Saturn (aka Chronos) rules time. This is why an understanding of the Saturn Cycle is such a useful guide in the timing and unfolding of major stages of development over the course of a human life. Most of us are familiar with the concept of the Saturn Return—which relates to the roughly 28-year cycle of Saturn’s orbit around the Sun. Every 28 years it “returns” to the place in the heavens where it was when we were born.
So at around 28 years-old—our 1st Saturn Return—is a time when we are all naturally called to take a hard look at the direction our life is taking. We are standing at the threshold of our adult lives. And there are many questions that need to be answered at this time. Are we on the right path to a successful career? Or are we wandering aimlessly in a dead-end job? Should we go back to school and earn another degree? Or take that workshop? Are we in a relationship that will stand the test of time? Or do we feel like we have yet to find our soulmate?
For many of us, this is the first major fork in the road of life. How we respond at this critical stage of development will greatly determine the relative success or failure of our progression into the next stage of adulthood that will unfold over the next 28-year cycle. Some find that they are already on the right path, and they proceed to “double down” on their intentions and follow that fork full steam ahead.
Others realize that they have “drifted off course” and often literally “course correct” by going back to school and taking “courses” that are more aligned with their true calling. Those who struggle to find their path at this critical juncture in life become “failure-to-launch” cases, and could find themselves at age 35 still living in their parent’s basement and wondering why life has seemingly passed them by.
At my 1st Saturn Return, I was in the “double-down” category. After graduating from college at age 21, I had landed a job with a small production company in Colorado, and spent 7 years learning the ins and outs of the television business. At age 28—exactly on my Saturn Return— I packed my bags and headed to Los Angeles in order to try and make it in the “big time” of Hollywood. And over the last 20 years I have done just that, building a successful career here in LA as a freelance creative, working as a writer, producer and editor on numerous film and tv projects. It has afforded me a lifestyle in which I’ve been able to travel the world and pursue my many varied interests.
Two of those interests are astrology and yoga—which have formed the “twin pillars” of my personal philosophy of life. My interest in astrology dates back to my teens, but it wasn’t until my early 30s that I started to dive deeper into the vastness of the subject. And the deeper I dove, the more rewarding I found it as a “self-help” tool. I began to use it as a “personal guidance system” for navigating my life choices. And it has proved to be phenomenally effective. I also began doing astrology readings for my friends and family, helping them find their own guidance system, and over the years I have developed a real aptitude for the art and science of interpreting birth charts.
At age 35, I took my first Kundalini Yoga class and knew instantly that this was a “spiritual path” that I was destined to discover. In my travels to India and Nepal years earlier, I had more than a few of those profound “I’ve been here before” experiences. I remember arriving in Kathmandu for the first time. I had never been to a place so strange and foreign. It felt like stepping back in time 1000 years. But it was also uncannily familiar. Within hours of arriving, I felt like I knew my way around the ancient labyrinth of a city. It felt like home. I was filled with a profound sense of having spent many past lives on the Indian subcontinent.
And when I discovered Kundalini Yoga a few years later, I had a similar feeling like “I’ve done this before” even though it was something new and foreign to me. It was as if I had waited many lifetimes to “rediscover” this ancient practice. Like astrology, I dove deep into the subject of yoga. I became a certified Kundalini Yoga teacher. During teacher training, I was given a spiritual name—Daljeet—which means “spiritual warrior blessed with the gift of group consciousness who leads the team to victory.” It felt aspirational, but at the time I wasn’t prepared to take up that calling.
The Student Becomes The Teacher
So I became a yoga teacher with only one student—myself. Which suited me perfectly fine. My intention when I initially enrolled in teacher training was to deepen my knowledge, not become a full-time yoga teacher. I was still deeply invested in my television career and attached to the lifestyle it afforded me. Yoga and astrology would continue primarily as “interests” for me.
But lately, I’ve begun to feel a real shift. My “interests” in astrology and yoga have become more meaningful to me than my “career” as a television professional. And that has brought me today to this fork in the road. Traditionally, the second major fork in the road of life comes at age 56, the time of the 2nd Saturn Return. This is when many of us naturally begin our transition from the role of productive adult to the role of contemplative elder. But at age 49, my 2nd Saturn Return is still seven years away. What I’m experiencing now is what is known as a “last quarter Saturn square” which is described as a “crisis in consciousness” by the great astrologer Dane Rudhyar.
And that’s exactly how it feels: a crisis in consciousness. The deeper urge to “follow my bliss” is being stirred within the crucible of the current collective crisis we are all moving through together. These trying times are making it increasingly difficult for me to continue to act in the world in a way that is not in alignment with my highest vibrational frequency. Making TV shows seems much less important than trying to make a meaningful impact in people’s lives.
So as I’ve been meditating on how to proceed, I’ve decided that my best approach in the near-term is to try and walk the “middle path” of the Buddhists. Rather than completely abandon my television career and jump head-first into my new role as an astrologer, I am endeavoring to plant the seeds of my transition to “Astrological Counselor” while continuing to support this growth with the fruits of my labor as a “Television Professional.” Launching astrolab21.com is the planting of one such seed. I hope that I can utilize this website as a place for me to further cultivate my interests and share my insights into this profound art and science, and hopefully begin to have a positive and meaningful impact on the lives of others .
I firmly believe that astrology has a significant role to play in the development of humanity at this seemingly critical time in our evolution as a species. The fact that astrology still resonates today, across many millennia, speaks to its power and potency. In these challenging times, many of us are turning inward and looking for deeper meaning and purpose in life. I believe that astrology holds a key to this process, and I hope I can serve to amplify its message. The old axiom is true: as above, so below. The stars are aligned. The time is now.
