focuses on advocacy and action for astrology as a whole through media watch, net-
working activities (including a mentoring program), and providing legal information
and assistance in reversing antiquated city ordinances that forbid the practice of
astrology.The birth of AFAN was primarily due to two conditions. The first of these was
the new generation of astrologers that came into the profession in the late 1960s and
early 1970s. Many of these people had been caught up in the wave of interest in
astrology and related subjects that had its roots in the turbulence of the late 1960s,
and by the mid-1970s had begun to look on astrology as a profession. As astrologers,
and as professionals, they expected to have a place at the table in making decisions
that would affect astrology’s future.The second condition was inherent in the nature of astrology in the United
States at the time the new generation came into its own. At that time, the dominant
organization in the United States was the American Federation of Astrologers (AFA),
a stable and conservative organization not inclined to rapid change. Over its several
decades of existence, it had built up a large membership and a successful publishing
and book distribution program, and it held a biennial conference that was at that time
the largest in the astrological world.Perhaps understandably, the AFA’s old guard was content with the status quo,
but the many newer members brought in on the “astrology wave” wanted change and
expected participation in making that change. Because of this, the main forum for
members, starting in the mid-1970s the business meetings at the biennial conventions
of the AFA, became scenes of open discontent, as the new generation tried to put its
issues before the membership. From the mid-1970s on, as each successive conference
came along, the voices demanding change became louder, and at some conventions
there were even walkouts led by discontented members. However, as the AFA
restricted access to its membership list, follow-up between conventions was difficult.Finally, the pressure for change began to take other forms, first evidenced by
the forming of the short-lived Association for Professional Astrologers (APA) in 1980
after an AFA convention in New Orleans. The organization’s purpose was to “create
and support the profession of astrology amongst astrologers and the public.” However,
due to its lack of resources, and the fact that its founders were spread across North
America, the APA could not get out its message or recruit members, and thus lasted
only a few months.Though the APA had failed, it pointed the way to a solution beyond the frus-
trating succession of vitriolic business meetings and organized walkouts. Rather than
try to force change from within the AFA, the dissidents began to feel they needed to
focus on the particular issues they felt were not being dealt with either by that organi-
zation, or, for that matter, by an earlier breakaway, the National Council for Geocos-
mic Research (NCGR). These issues centered around the need to enhance astrology’s
standing as a profession and to free it from its image as a fortune-telling device mainly
used by either the suspicious or the superstitious, not to mention the antiquated and
oppressive laws bred by that view.Association for Astrological Networking
[58] THEASTROLOGYBOOK