SIGNIFICATOR
In general, every planet is a significator (one who signifies) of the matters associated
with the house in which it is located, or with the house it rules. Mars, for example, is a
significator of marriage and partnerships if it is located in the seventh house (the house
of marriage and partnerships), or if Aries, the sign Mars rules, is on the cusp (at the
beginning) of the seventh house. This term is infrequently used outside horary astrology.SIMMS, MARIAKAY
Maria Kay Simms, contemporary astrologer, was born in Princeton, Illinois, Novem-
ber 18, 1940, to Anne and Frank Simms. Following her B.F.A. in painting from Illi-
nois Wesleyan University, she taught public school for five years, and later was a
gallery painter and commercial artist. She began studying astrology in 1973 while liv-
ing in San Francisco, and later studied with A. Charles Emerson in New York City,
becoming a specialist in Cosmobiology and Uranian Astrology.
In 1976, in New Milford, CT, she combined art with astrology in mystic arts, a
metaphysical bookshop and arts and crafts gallery, and also started a local chapter of
the National Council for Geocosmic Research (NCGR), serving as president for the
first three years. In 1982, after election to NCGR’s national board, she served as publi-
cations director and editor of the NCGR Journalfor nine years. Active as an astrologi-
cal consultant from the mid 1970s, Simms strongly believed that her practice of
astrology required credentials beyond her art degree, so she passed the American Fed-
eration of Astrologers professional certification exams in 1981, and in 1985, achieved
NCGR’s Level 4 in consulting. She has been an avid supporter of NCGR’s Education
Program from its inception.
Simms moved to Florida after divorcing in 1985, did art production for a pro-
fessional dinner theatre, and freelanced as an astrological consultant and a cover artist
for ACS Publications. In 1987, she moved to San Diego, became ACS’s art director,
and married the owner, Neil F. Michelsen. After Michelsen’s passing in 1990, she con-
tinued his plan to combine ACS and Astro Computing Services under one corpora-
tion, Astro Communications Services, Inc. She served as corporate CEO for eight
years, until selling ACS in 1998.
Simms authored several books on astrology and Pagan spirituality, plus text for
computer reports and numerous articles. Though her initial approach to astrology was
skeptical, and then her specialty technical, Simms found the correspondence of astrolo-
gy with spirituality to be its highest calling, and the Neopagan path a fulfilling expres-
sion of her worldview. In 1988 she began formally studying within an eclectic Wiccan
tradition of Gardnerian lineage, and after initiation through third degree, was named a
high priestess and began her Circle of the Cosmic Muse in 1991. Through ordination in
Community Church of Religious Science (CCRS) in 1994, and also in 1995 through
affiliation with Covenant of the Goddess, she holds credentials of legal ministry.
In 1998, Simms moved to New Hampshire, remarried, and in 1999 became the
first woman chair of NCGR. She is also on the advisory council for Seattle’s KeplerSignificator
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