Joanna Watters was born and raised in the north of England but migrated south to Essex University in 1978, and graduated with a B.A. Honours in English and European Literature in 1981. Her original career plan, to teach junior school, went on hold as she returned to the north to nurse her mother through a terminal illness. This changed everything as she never did make it to teacher training college but moved to London in December 1984 to start afresh.
Having worked out her own Ascendant at the age of 7 Joanna finally sought out a place to study astrology seriously. She studied intensively with the The Company of Astrologers over the following six years, gained the Advanced certificate in Craft and Creativity of Astrology and became a tutor for the Company in 1990. Her studies, teaching and consulting work also triggered an interest in psychotherapy. She went into individual therapy with Jocelyn Chaplin, founder of The Serpent Institute, from 1987 – 1994 and teaches counseling skills to her astrological students as an essential part of the consultant’s craft.
Joanna represented the Company at a major convention in Moscow, in June 1994, and the following year finally decided to make a Sagittarian life long dream come true and move abroad. She headed for the Greek island of Lefkada and set up a new practice, combining astrology and Tarot for the English speaking tourists and local population. During the winters of 1995, 96 and 97 she lived in Cairo and found clients amongst the ex-pat community. She also started writing up her own material at this time, along with “ghost” writing for colleagues working in the national press.
In early 2000 Joanna submitted work to agents in the field of Mind, Body and Spirit and was accepted by the Susan Mears Literary Agency. Her first book Tarot for Today, was placed in 2002 with London publishers Carroll and Brown. This book also incorporates astrological analogies and was published on 27 June 2003. It was dedicated to her beloved twin sister Sue who moved out to join her in Greece in 2001. In December 2002 Joanna was commissioned by the same publishers to write the companion title, Astrology for Today. This book was completed by the end of the following April and was published in November 2003. Both books are based on her own client work and personal experience and are therefore highly anecdotal. They also illustrate how the astrologer or Tarot reader must also wear the therapist’s hat. In other words, this is “hands on” material rather than academia. The books have been translated into six other languages so far. Two new book synopses – one for astrology and one for the tarot – are currently with her agent.
