Astrological Work
In my astrological work, I do not address only the time we call our life, nor only the frames of space we call our body and environment. I touch upon information that exists before and will remain after. I embrace movement in spirit and in matter.
The astrology I practice is an engagement with oneself — and consequently with all who wish to engage with themselves. I wish to share and exchange insights, stories, and perhaps open or contribute to the desire for each person to approach themselves and begin exploring the unknown. I do not perceive it as something supernatural, something beyond our reach. It is discovery, deepening, healing, engagement, guidance, help, calming…
The language I use may at times carry an elusive symbolic value — yet with time, it brings a clear image. The values I wish to explore and exchange are love, courage, acceptance, and respect for the frameworks and boundaries of one another, of society, and of the environment.
I envision that we can unite nature, spirit, matter, and culture — that they may present challenges that accompany us in time and space. They travel from image to matter. Intimacy and society do not exclude one another, nor do love and ego. On the contrary — only in this way can we find and understand ourselves.
The challenge on this path is to master our fears of the real and the unreal. To accept the possibility that God is or is not a game, and that we ourselves are and are not merely a story. The strength and will to accept ourselves, the frameworks in which we find ourselves and live — these are reflected in memory. Let us work together to overcome unconscious fears and the chains we hold between us and within ourselves. The work we do is not easy, nor quick — but it is worthy of respect and effort. All work is honourable.
To accept the possible as impossible — that is the true measure of balance. As dreams are, so are thoughts; as things are, so are images; and where there is no light, there is darkness. We live in a fantastic world. Let us make it visible through our work, our imagination, and our creativity.
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I — astrologer.
I was introduced to astrology when Uranus, Neptune and Saturn were conjunct in Capricorn. Pluto was also transiting my natal conjunction of Venus and Neptune. All these celestial events took place gradually and in sensitive places in my birth chart. It was a dramatic period. Yugoslavia, the country in which I was born, collapsed, the Soviet Union broke up. On the one hand there was talk of Perestroika and on the other of a New World Order. The Grunge was coming and came. The singer of Niet died, many people around me were on drugs, alcohol, money, nationalism, crime. In jobs and schools at protests and concerts. At football matches, in front of screens, we were winning, but in the end the idea of democracy won and broke down the order. Sport in Yugoslavia was at its peak, music was excellent, theatre, film interesting and very good. Theory flourished, philosophy lived. No matter which part of the country it came from. Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Skopje, Titograd, Ljubljana. The bookshops were full, books were written and translated. Record shops seriously stocked. An extraordinary time, just right for astrology.
To touch on the really first memory of astrology, I have to go back further. It was in the mid-1970s, when my aunt used to serve us tea in teacups with astrological symbols and signs on them. I don’t know where she got them, but each of us children had a joke with our own sign. She could also tell us the basics about each of our signs. I still remember my eyes widening when I first heard that I was a Libra. The joke was consciously mine. Also the words intelligent and coherence. At the end of the 1980s I went on a trip to Western Europe and came back from London with my first astrology book. I began to interpret the symbols and meanings. I studied on my own and remained self-taught. Everything was so big and like Uranus, Neptune, Pluto down the road from me. I was beginning to understand, but I must admit that I stayed in one place for a very long time. Apart from the names and a little technique I didn’t get anywhere. Other books came along, first Mila Dupor’s Don’t Faithfully Prove It, Alan Leo’s Esoteric Astrology – a study in human nature, Viktor Gerkman’s Astrology the science of destiny and character. The real breakthrough was meeting the astrologer Damir Jovetic. My mother put me in touch with him. She was his business manager. He was the first person who taught me in person and with whom I discussed astrology. Slowly, I drew insights and meaning from my unconscious. I enrolled in a private astrology institute in Ljubljana, I left. I didn’t do very well. I met and listened to lectures by Liz Green, Charles Harvey, Darby Castello and Viktor Gerkman. Many things came alive when I learned from them.
I practiced anywhere i got a chance: in bars, on the street, in bookshops and libraries, galleries and museums, the market, parks, Metelkova (Ljubljana Squat), hairdressing salons. I used to bring my own ephemerides and other books needed to calculate birth charts and work them right there on the spot. I didn’t care who was interested in astrology and who wanted to have a birth chart made. So it was drunks, drug addicts, glamourheads, artists, painters, bohemians, workers, dancers, servants, lawyers, coaches, judges, detectives, soldiers, cops, designers, hookers, athletes, the famous, the retiring, the neglected, the unkempt…. Whatever. I had the desire and the thirst and the hunger to do it and I did it. I had hundreds of birth cards and hundreds of people who were interested in me or I in them. I worked, I explained, I learned and I developed my own style. And built on it and deepened it and learned it and kept looking. It was a pleasure. Yes, I lived. I reached my peak with my astrological lectures in Trubar’s Antiquarian Bookshop in Ljubljana. I called the series of lectures where I delved into the lives of artists and their times The Muses in the Stars. I succeeded. And here, after ten years of active work, I entered the second phase. I stepped back and started to clarify with myself and to learn about intimate astrology. So for the next twenty five years I dealt more or less only with my birth chart and all its derivations. An interesting deepening which is the basis for all my work going forward. To go back to the beginning, the end of the eighties, the beginning of the nineties. That was when the transpersonal planets challenged my sun and settled on the ruler of the moon and sun in my birth chart. This ignition was so strong that I am still pulling realisations from my subconscious. I call my astrology astropoetry and it is a blend of traditional, psychological and above all intuitively personal astrology. Anyone interested in meeting me, welcome!
I invite you — and all whom you deem it meaningful for — to an astrological reading of your birth chart. The quality of time unfolds in connection with our birth charts, directly influenced by current celestial events. To create a birth chart, I require your birth time, place, and date. Readings are conducted in person or through letter correspondence.
please contact:
istokmarkoja@gmail.com
+386 30 386 179
BIRTH CHART CREATION AND INTERPRETATION Euro 100,-
Creation and interpretation of the birth chart — with a visit to your home or office Euro 125,-
The session takes place in person . The session lasts 75 minutes.
WEEKEND ASTROLOGY SESSION Euro 350,-
An in-depth look into your birth chart. Held in person over the weekend with a following schedule:
Friday – arrival, accommodation and dinner. Optional talk.
Saturday morning – first session, late afternoon – second session. In between – time for reflection and rest.
Sunday morning third and last session. Rest and tea. You can prepare your own food in the outdoor kitchen or in the kitchen of the Gajba Gallery. You can visit the surrounding taverns and discover the delights of Prekmurje. Each of the three sessions lasts 75 minutes. To create a birth chart you will need to provide: date of birth, time of birth and place of birth.
Astrological correspondence. Only serious and by prior arrangement!
Please, contact me via phone or email for an appointment and details. Thank you!
Istokstan 