Summary: <br> In episode 75 guests Laura Nalbandian and Gary Lorentzen join the show in order to talk about the late astrologer Maggie Nalbandian, and her contributions to the astrological community.<br> Maggie is primarily known for running a popular astrology bookstore in Seattle called Astrology et al, organizing the Northwest Astrological Conference starting in the 1980s, and founding Kepler College in the early 1990s.<br> Below you will find an outline of the episode, followed by links to download or stream the recording of our discussion.<br> Episode Outline<br> Here are some of the topics we covered during the course of the episode:<br> <br> * Place of origin, family background, growing up.<br> * Born April 5, 1937 at 3:00 PM in Plainview, Texas – Hale County (she rectified to 3:12 PM). <a href="http://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Nalbandian,_Maggie" target="_blank">AstroDatabank entry</a>.<br> * Moved to Northwest in mid-1950s.<br> * Married in 1956. Two children: daughter Laura born in 1959, and son Gregory in 1962.<br> * Moved to Seattle in 1960.<br> * How and when did she get into astrology?<br> * Got into astrology as a skeptic, in order to disprove it to a friend around 1963/4.<br> * Studied under Dorothy B. Hughes, who was the founder of the Seattle Astrological Association.<br> <br> * Hughes was the Grand Dame of astrology in Seattle in the 1960s and 70s.<br> <br> <br> * Opening up the Astrology et al bookstore. First bookstore opened in April 1975.<br> <br> * Bookstore grew over the years, and moved to different locations around Seattle.<br> * Different astrologers worked there, taught, or passed through over the years.<br> <br> <br> * Jeffrey Wolf Green did readings there during his formative years.<br> <br> * Walked in for the first time the day of his Saturn return.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> * Maggie’s general openness and inclusiveness towards other astrologers.<br> * Involvement in local astrology groups.<br> <br> * Gary became President of the local astrology group in 1976, and they held a mini-conference in 1977.<br> * Seattle Astrological Association (SAA) became Washington State Astrological Association (WSAA) in 1976.<br> * Maggie organized a larger regional conference with WSAA in 1979 after Gary moved.<br> <br> <br> * Starting to plan the annual <a href="http://norwac.net" target="_blank">Northwest Astrological Conference</a> in early 1980s.<br> <br> * The first NORWAC took place in Seattle in 1984. March 23-25.<br> <br> <br> * Anti-astrology legislation in the 1980s causing concern.<br> <br> * Legislation proposed in Washington saying that in order for a person to provide counseling services that you had to have a degree in psychology.<br> * A lot of astrologers were calling themselves counselors in the 70s and 80s.<br> * The astrologers were able to defeat the bill, but this acted as a precursor to Kepler College because it brought up the issues of credentials, regulation, and education.<br> * One law that did make it on the books says that if an astrologer runs afoul of the law then they could be brought in front of a panel of their peers before or potentially instead being brought before the state.<br> <br> * This was part of the impetus to form Kepler, because you can’t have a panel of peers unless you have an accrediting body and some sort of standardization.<br> * The need to create the astrological equivalent of the American Medical Association, in order to set out criteria for what a professional astrologer is, and what qualifies a person.<br> * Maggie’s position on regulation was “If we don’t do it, then the government will do it for us.”<br> * The Kepler graduates were always ideally going to be the people who would be on the accreditation or overseeing board, because they would be well-versed in all of the necessary areas and traditions of astrology.<br>
