Just was reviewing and reflecting on how I found myself in various situations and following various directions (yes I know very merc rx) and was quite entertained by a lot of the things or people that triggered it. With astrology for me, it was looking at what the basic description of cancer sun sign indicated,failing to related to much of it at all and thinkin i must have some sort of galactic interferance and away it went  

& you?

For me it was (is) the need to understand more about myself and my entourage although I must admit I fail to understand yet many things

I do actually! Ha interesting question..

I've always been intrigued by astrology,
but was completely ignorant of it's dynamics.
So, it was when I discovered my ascendant sign
that I began to start digging, and then I started to make sense of a lot of things.

Cheers :)

I have always found astrology an interesting concept, but I, like you abluelily, failed to relate to my Aries Sun at all. When I found out what a birth chart was, and that your birth time was a fundamental part of it, suddenly it all made sense!

Unfortunately, my parents got my birth time wrong and I thought I was a Pisces rising for a little while. Then I got somebody to figure it out for me, and I turned out to be Cap rising conjunct Neptune! =)

That was January of 2009, so I'm a big fat newbie! 

I was 15 and discovered Horoscope magazine.  It was a magical way of getting outside of my own head and away from a miserable home situation......if only in my imagination!  Oh, the possibilities.......

Henry introduced Annalisa and I and we started studying when we were 10 and 8,

My mother got bored reading the astrology books and she decided that her 12year old could read it and translate for her. Being 12 I did.

I became interested at about 8. Started reading everything I could find and haven't stopped the learning process since!

I appreciate astrology b/c it can explain things that don't seem to have an explanation in our Western society. It's either God or Politics given as a reason and sometimes it's something altogether different and that type of explanation gets "pooh-poohed" in our Godly society. I'm still pissed at the Puritans. England kicked them out for a reason, yanno....

Sometime in middle school I picked up Linda Goodman's Sun Signs because I desperately wanted to figure out my dad.  I just could not understand him!  But nothing that I read of Cancer Suns made any sense, so I tried to dig deeper.

When I was little my parents divorced and my mom started studying astrology. I don't know how much she might have studied before that, but it became very prevalent around the house, social gatherings etc. It's like a second language/culture from my childhood. So, I love reading blogs like this. Gives me a homey feel. :)

As a by product I see life through the archetypes, houses, transits. I'm not sure I could retrain my brain to think without it.

this is fascinating, so many different reasons

Elsa's writing.  I had been one of her readers on Xanga, which was always sprinkled with Astrology, but wasn't necessarily the focus.  I lost touch for quite awhile and then she just popped in my head one day, and I wondered if she was still writing on-line and landed here... The voice of her writing is of course the same, but now with the Astrology focus, I had to do some studying and got hooked.  Thanks Elsa for leaving the light on!

Not really, no.

I've always been marginally interested in astrology and bought a copy of "The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need" sometime near 10, after devouring Linda Goodman.  Then my interest waned -- learning on my own never produced much insight, I'm embarrassed to say.  *winks*  I picked it back up when I found E a few years ago, and, using her info as a guideline, started making more sense of things.

I've had at least a passing interest in astrology all my life.  I've always known my and my parents' sun signs, and I've known the basic attributes of a Capricorn since I was 7 or 8.  My high school class ring even has a Capricorn goat on it (I really didn't know what else to put on it, I wasn't involved in much).

When I was about 19, my then-boyfriend and I got our natal charts read by a friend's parents, and astrology really opened up for me there.  I learned a lot (but hardly even most of what there is) about the planets and the houses.  For over ten years I did fairly accurate natal chart readings using just that information.

Then just over a year ago, in the midst of my Saturn return knocking me around, I started reading Lynn Hayes' blog over at Beliefnet, got to here from there, and astrology opened up even more.  This recent surge in interest has been a part of self-seeking, and trying to make sense of the huge mess my life had become at that point.

Saturn did.

Saturn, killing me, as my 1st Saturn Return was getting closer. I was going crazy, thinking why life has suddenly got so mad, and I was getting hit from every side. I made a free chart, more jokingly than in an attempt to really get into astrology. Then I looked at the basic interpretations and every single one basically said "Hey girl, it's soon your Saturn Return!" So I googled it because I had no idea what it was, and read, and read, and was like " , WTF, but this is all true! This is exactly what I feel!"

Then of course I had to dig in and learn more, and the more that I learned, the more fascinating it got. Fast forward about 10 or so months, and here I am. Still learning.

Elsa tells a damn fine story.  That's what got me more interested than a passing glance.  Ten years later, here I am.

was always interested in astrology. Sun sign stuff I mean since as far back as I can remember. I always knew there was more to the story than adam and eve and the apple in the garden.

Alas with the pluto sextile to my ascendant I stumled into the nitty gritty last year and here I am. 

Sad I did not discover it sooner. I have had  an ongoing saturn return for about 7 years now since he was in gemini. Because gemini either squares or opposes every planet in my chart.

Its helping me to keep hope alive. Because there are some days when the thread I hang on to is very thin. 

After he gets done conjuncting pluto and sqauring  venus which is goin on now its just not exact till a month from now. I will get a break till he starts conjuncting  and squaring my whole life again in Sag.

I was about 9 or 10 years old and stumbled across the astrology section in our little library.  I had been reading the daily horoscopes in the paper since I was about 7, but somehow knew it was too general..

Read the astrology books at the library only since my mom said it's all just "fun and fiction.  Don't take any of that stuff seriously".  Well, I got serious when I picked up Linda Goodman's Sun Signs a few years later.  It's all been good ever since..

No interest at all until college. Once I began reading descriptions of planets in houses, I was HOOKED. I have been fascinated ever since! I credit this to 'The Astrologer's Handbook'

Guess when i was 17 and was deeply in love with my piscean bf..i bought this Linda goodman love signs..and read all i can about scorpio woman and pisces man...

and since then my astrolical journey started...i got deeply involved in it when saturn transited over my 8 house..tats when i started readin elsas bog along with one other imp blog site..

Welcome, scorp. :)

My aunts gave me this crazy astrology "computer" when I was 8 or 9.  They (God rest their souls, they're both gone now--they were Libra and Aquarius) were always into astrology.  My interest in it waned in my teen years, then I got back into it in college, around the same time I taught myself how to read the Tarot.

I've long been fascinated with what makes me and other people tick, and astrology is a very useful tool for that.  I'm more interested in psychological as opposed to predictive astrology.

When I was 15 years old and bored out of mind I found Dell Horoscope magazine. I changed everything for me. According to my mother when she was pregnant with my brother she groaned in pain. I was 2 years old and she said that I said, "Don't worry mummy, the sun and the moon will help you". Lol!

I'd say my youngest brother & I got interested in our mid-high school years , when someone on the school bus mentioned his sign. 'Course since we found out we were Scorpios (he 3rd decanate me 1st) we made fast comradeship that's lasted to this day. It explained "why" we were always at each others throats. It also explained why we tag-teamed to protect the Family reputation.

My interest in astrology minimized when church became primary focus of my life for about 15 yrs. Then when nothing explained why I was still single (not to mention always falling asleep during services) , astrology helped explain why I was the way I was. Too bad I didn't realize about Venus-Neptune being a Fantasy-focus , 'cause then I wouldn't have married the woman I did (and then divorced)

I'm back doing serious study of astrology since Mid-1990's. Virgo ascendant looooves details , Scorpio stellium likes being the detective.

It was in University. A guy in my class offered to do my chart for me.

Yeah, he was a Scorpio.

When I was 8 I wanted to be an astronomer. When I figured out there was symbolism attached to constellations and had been that way for several millennia, the deal was done.

It always kinda half assed nagged at me.  I grew up during the space race program and the stars just fascinated me,  and then along the original Star Trek,  my mom came home one day with Linda Goodman's sun signs and for me they only made half sense, sometimes,  still believed in the power of the universe but never took it any further until one day someone asked me what time I was born and I thought WTF you already have the day and they described rising signs for me.  It was then all the pieces in the puzzle began to fit and make sense so I got curiouser and curiouser and bam I was hooked.  

I will always be grateful to the first astrologer that I paid a small fee to read my natal chart.  She was an old pro and the first thing she did was ask me about my horrible childhood which I had revealed nothing about previously.  I was hooked, and read every book I could on the subject and learned the ropes.  After discovering Astro Mapping I was able to understand why I felt so much angst living in a Mars IC line and was able to find my way to a Jupiter MC line and finally my permament home on a Venus Asc. area where I am most content.  Natally I have Venus in the first, Jupiter in 10th and Mars conj. IC so the moves were not too far away for me.  I consider my son and astrology to be among my greatest blessings from God.  Hopefully I have not offended anyone by saying that.

I typed out my response, but it got lost in the Mercury Rx abyss, it appears. But it didn't really answer the question anyway. I had a friend who studied astrology and that is how I became more interested in it. I have been interested in astrology for as long as I can remember, but at one point during my childhood, my father told me that astrology is worshipping false gods (he is a strict Catholic), so the interest was dropped until 2007. No longer friends with that girl, though.

It goes so far back into my childhood.I can't even recall the genesis.I remember vacationing with my Mother and Father at the age of 6.We were walking on the main st. the word Fortune Teller caught my eye.I went into the parlor and asked the "Gypsy Lady" if she could tell my future.She told me I was too young,and gently sent me on my way.Neither of my parents were interested in metaphysics and the like.I've always felt the magnetic pull.I became fully immeresed at the age of14.I had Linda Goodman's "Sun Signs".And Debbi Kempton-Smith's "Secrets from a stargazer's notebook".

Hitting bottom of transiting pluto conjunct my moon (chart ruler) & jupiter, opposing my sun & squaring itself.  With a 12th house sun, I was having a hard time figuring out what was going on, all I knew was my normal emotional self had gone dry.  Then I found astrology and have been studying hard for almost 2yrs now.  Then I found Elsa's, thanks for leaving the light on Elsa!!!!
Angie

Well, within minutes of being born my father drew out my birth chart.  I still have the original.  There were books in the house.  It was a common reference for self-learning as a child.  I don't think I've known life without astrology.

welcome to growing up with .. interesting people :D

it was always in the background, vaguely.

then the aries stellium hit my ninth. gonner.

plus i love the jesuits. (true fact. i know several men eductaed by jesuits.) study. study. study.  learn. incorporate into life. not much different.

(I awlays wonder what voltaire would have been like as a lover.)

I was always interested in it, but figured it would be too confusing and too technical for me to ever learn even the basics.  A friend got me interested and taught me the basics.  He's been doing it for 40 + years, having learned from his grandmother.  He asked if he could check my chart after a series of bad things kept happening to me and that's how I finally got interested and decided to delve in!  ;)

Props to Linda Goodman, as she's corrupted many a young mind ! *winks*

When I was 14, my family and I moved into a rental home. The landlady left some books behind, and 'Linda Goodman's Sun Signs' was among the titles. I read the whole thing, and became adept at sussing out a person's sign, often just by looking at them ! Not as a cliche, but as an expression of that sign's energies. Since then, I've learned in bursts. It's kind of cool to have a plausible way to explain some of life's craziness.