Susan Dearborn Jackson, MS is a counseling astrologer who uses astrology, mythology, and Jungian Psychology in her practice of almost thirty years. Her training includes Bioenergetics, Gestalt, Tibetan Buddhist Psychology, and Dreamwork. She has lectured at astrology and psychology conferences since 1981. Susan's writing includes a chapter on astrology and bioenergetics in a book on counseling. She leads women's spiritual retreats and dream circles. Susan is also a founding member of Dreams and Imagination, a Bend, Oregon group dedicated to dream education, and Confluence Therapies, where Depth Psychology, Bodywork, and Jungian Astrology converge for health and wholeness.

Susan was a Chautuaqua Scholar for the Oregon Council for the Humanities and traveled around the state, giving presentations on Mexican celebrations, folklore and folk art. For several years, she lived part-time in Oaxaca, Mexico and still loves to visit Mexico and practice Spanish. She's been a student of Tibetan Buddhism since 1981 and attends meditation retreats 2 or 3 times a year, in addition to daily practice.

Susan's Philosophy

My core belief is we live in an ensouled world where all life is conscious and all life is connected. As an ancient language of the soul, astrology speaks through cycles, symbols, and metaphor.  The planets "out there" simply reflect our own inner constellation of energies.  Throughout our lives, and, particularly at key life stages, we may experience the paradox of conflicting needs, drives, or values.  Rumi's poem, "The Guest House", comes to mind:

  This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival

  A joy, a depression....a dark thought
Some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor

  Be grateful for whoever comes
  Because each has been sent
  As a guide from beyond.

Whether it's your birth chart (based on the time, date, and place of your birth), an up-dated look at your current cycles, or a compatibility analysis, astrology reminds us to be spacious and accepting and aware of all of our parts.  A Pluto transit (Pluto's current planetary position relative to your birth chart) may feel scary and intense; but when you can work with the energy, you're going feel like you have more choices about how to respond to life's changes.

I don't see anything in astrology as good or bad. Instead, every energy has its wisdom expression and its garden-variety neurotic expression.  Welcome to the human realm where the energy of Jupiter can manifest as faith, wisdom, and big-picture awareness or as unrealistic expectations, distrust, and loss of meaning.  One person's Jupiter may dress up as Pollyanna and another's as a hell-fire and brimstore preacher.  And there's wisdom and neurosis in both manifestations.

One of the beauties of astrology is that it's also a multi-vocal language.  Made up of just twelve archetypal energies (we know them as the Sun signs), the symbols of astrology operate on many levels.  The archetype can show up in our waking lives as people, events, and/or as internal expereinces.  For example, Gemini energy might manifest as a teacher, a life-changing decision, or an attitude of open-mindedness.

I believe that astrology offers the best description of personality, psychological issues, and family history and background.  Astrology also clearly describes predictable life cycles and transitions in human development.  This includes timing, meaning, and how to collaborate with life's challenges and opportunities.

How I work with Clients

I like to have telephone contact with each client and I don't do any work on-line, including emails.  However, I can be initially contacted by email through my website.  That initial phone conversation, an in-take which includes gathering birth date, discussing current concerns, and setting up an appointment, is an opportunity to establish trust with clients.  This is important to me because I generally have an hour or two at most with clients each year and that hour is better used if we've already had a chance to connect.

When clients arrive at my office, they can expect I will have prepared the necessary charts and that I don't speak "astrologese" in my sessions unless I'm asked to do so.  I've found people are more apt to relax if they aren't bombarded by jargon.  My style is conversational;  I like to ask questions and I welcome clients' inquiries.  For me, this style has a couple of advantages.  First, it allows us to move directly to the level of interpretation best suited to the client, and, second, it moves me out of the "All-knowing, all-seeing" role into the human realm we all share.

I work with imagery and symbols from mythology, folklore, Buddhism, bioenergetics, dreamwork, and nature.  Astrology is an intuitive art that lends itself to symbolism that describes the interior landscape of the psyche and speaks to many levels of being.  I give clients timing information, a sense of the deeper significance of life's changes, and practical strategies to work with change, suited to different personality types.

I especially like to work with clients who have never had an astrology reading because I love to open the door to deeper self-awareness.  I also love to work with clients who use astrology as a tool in their psychological and spiritual growth.  After almost thirty years as a professional astrologer, I'm not so interested in prediction or using astrology to label or pigeon-hole.  Astrology is such a rich language, describing our life, our challenges, our potentials, our strengths and the path before us, that to use it deterministically seems, to me, to be a disservice.

I believe that we ech have a way of bringing the beauty of spirit into form.  Some people do it in big ways, like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Nelson Mandela.  But most of us find meaningful ways to bring the beauty path into being in our ordinary lives.  I see my work as helping clients discover how to access thier inner wisdom so they, too, can bring the beauty of their spirit into full expression.