Jim Sher, M.S.W., is a full-time astrologer and teacher at the school he founded in 2001, the Sher Astrological Institute. After receiving his Master’s, he also received post-graduate training in Jungian theory and practice. After extensive social service experience in the fields of mental health, drug and alcohol treatment, domestic violence, and child abuse, he began working in private practice as a therapist and counselor, with an emphasis in family and relationship counseling.
While he continues to practice as a therapist his practice is primarily in astrology specializing in individual, family, and relationship astrological counseling as well as in the fields of relocation, electional, and vocational astrology. His love of education and teaching began very early in life, so it is a great joy to be able to extend this love into the field of astrology. The philosophy of his School reflects the notion that astrology provides a model that allows a person to discover their own uniqueness and is a tool that enables one to become self-aware in a meaningful and profound way. He shares the view of Richard Tarnas that “astrology is archetypally predictive, not concretely predictive.” This viewpoint changes the way one thinks of the individual in relation to the Cosmos for we see that as we become more conscious, we become free to aspire to manifest the highest potential manifestation of the archetypal complex that is our birth chart. This is how we can move beyond the deterministic way astrology has often been used. The value of going beyond this way of approaching astrology is that it can enable the mind to cross over from a ‘dis’-enchanted soulless universe to one full of profound meaning and purpose. The classes of the School stress an interactive approach that encourages the student to discover ever-deeper ways in which astrology can describe the nature of the archetypal energies of their natal chart. We can then see that transits and progression reflect an unfolding of the potentials of the natal chart and how we can handle and even use these in a more intelligent, expansive, and fulfilling way. The student then is both learning astrology and being transformed by it. The potential depth of these changes can lead to an increase of one’s recognition of oneself as an autonomous being while simultaneously a totally connected participant in the much larger cosmic drama of Life.
