Stephen Poplin is a professional astrologer and hypnotherapist, and the author of two books on reincarnation: Inner Journeys, Cosmic Sojourns, Vol. 1 and 2. He is presently writing another book on the topic of Eutopia, contemplating how humanity would live together when it gets its collective act together.
Meryl Ann Butler: Thank you for visiting with OpEdNews, Stephen. How did you get into astrology?
Stephen Poplin: I love patterns and synchronicity. I make comparisons. The classic saying "As above, so below" speaks to me. For instance, as a photographer I am drawn, especially in spring, to the delicate patterns of petals, or the garden trellises near trees. From there, at night, I look up towards the skies and remark upon the celestial movements - and the corresponding coincidences in our world below.
Isn't that grand? The patterns of worldly events reflected upon the moving sky. Astrology is an art, and one has to make the connections to find the corollaries and meanings. I find it fascinating.
MAB: It is! I know you are interested in art, too, and that your mom was an artist. How does that fit in?
SP: Yes, a parallel interest of mine is art. I have a degree in Humanities, and I love the greater flow of cultural changes over time. For instance the blossoming of architectural styles through epochs and eras. Think of the style of painting in certain centuries and decades, such as that lovely phase of popular Impressionism in the latter half of the 19th Century. The stargazer in me again appears, and I ponder if there were corresponding alignments of the planets. What was happening in the skies at that time?
MAB: Yes the influence of the stars on the Impressionists is so fascinating. For one thing, they were born recently enough that their birth data is often available. You and I have been researching this, and offering some workshops, and I am so excited to share t his information with our readers. Can you share some more about this?
SP: Well yes, we both wondered about the cosmic coincidences, as it were. We saw that there were indeed planetary phases, call them influences, upon many of the impressionists born in the 1840s. One thing immediately comes to mind: Neptune was discovered in that very decade. And what are some of the associations with this far off gas giant? Nebulousness, imagination, hunches, intuitions and impressions. Yes, impressions.
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