Interview with Astrologer Terence Gardino

Foreign.

Well, hello everyone. Well, it is my great pleasure to have an old friend of mine, Terence Gardino, and he has been. Been doing astrology probably as long as I have. Right. Tell me. About 40 years is my history, so hate to say it, but it's true.

And we have been. We both started with Western astrology. Right, Terence? Yes, yes. And you. What I love about you is you carry on both equally as well. And you have a very popular YouTube channel. You have been dedicated and passionate about astrology. It's like when we were talking just a minute ago, we. It's. It's who we are. Astrology is who we are. It's our life. I love astrology, everything it represents. But you have a special way of doing it, which I really appreciate and I wanted you to share with everyone how, how you help people through your readings and really what your specialty is all about.

Well, thank you for inviting me, Joanie.

My pleasure.

Yes. I started my first reading where I charged a little bit of money was 1977.

Wow.

Yes, wow. And then I.

Computers back then.

Oh, I had, you know, how it began for me was I knew how to do the math very quickly and I would, I go to classes and the people were struggling, taking hours and then they would quit to, you know, to do the calculations. I could do it in three minutes flat because I started to. This is how it began for me. I started doing readings, five minute readings in restaurants in New York City.

Fun. I bet that was fun.

Well, I got to meet people from all walks of life.

I love that. You know, I remember many a psychic fairs I worked at in the old days too.

Same thing.

Yeah. So you and I have been around the astrology world and conferences and. Yes. Tell me a little bit about what, what's your specialty when you're doing a reading? You were telling me something pretty amazing. Tell everybody what, what you've. You've been told.

The way it seems to play out is I'm looking for repeating themes. Of course, all astrologers try to do that. But as I'm going through it and then I'm dialoguing with the client, there's usually some goal they have. You know, how do I become this, how do I manifest that? And the session starts to. I use the astrology, but I'm using more of my counseling and common sense of how to get there. And I'll start talking about, you know, a lot of people are trying to do a YouTube channel because I have a YouTube channel. So I'll talk about all. All the steps, you know, so it's more, it's like a business life coach of how to actually all the steps to manifest what your goals are. And the astrology just lets me know that yes, you're on the right path.

Yes. So in other words, they get confirmation.

Yes.

About who they are. Yes, life's about. So when you do a reading, do you usually use the Vedic or is it strictly Western?

This is something that really surprised me and I mentioned it once at a conference to another astrologer and they said oh yes. And what this was is. So I just started Vedic astrology like in 2009 and I got obsessed and within five months of starting it, I go to India and start studying with Vinay Aditya because I was like crazy, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this a hundred percent. And so the, and then at first I get so obsessed with the Vedic that I was kind of ignoring the Western. But then after a year or so I got it into harmony and balance. But I started to realize that my, my western readings started to become better from the Vedic because the Vedic, you know, is very detailed, oriented. Right. And when things you. The Western can be kind of like more abstract, kind of general. And it's very specific with Vedic. So when I started learning the Vedic and then I'm looking at the Western chart, I'm seeing in the Western chart what is shown obviously in the Vedic chart. So it made my Western readings better.

Can you. Because I was clued into certain things that in Vedic, you know, without going through all the examples of how specific it can be. Yeah. And then I just started looking at. We'll look for that in the Western chart. And there it was. But the best thing is you would know this. Sometimes I look at the Vedic chart initially blank, sometimes I look at the Western chart. It's like I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this. But then the other system helps the process. So once I get going where whether the Western was, was blank, the Vedic was blank. Once I start getting going, it all lights up like a Christmas tree.

Wow, that's beautiful. I can, I, I can definitely relate to that. Do you do much with prediction or is it more psychologically based when you work with people?

I would say it is predictions. But why are they happening? So I'm bringing in the psychology, the counseling of the struggles or why is it taking so long? But people want, they want what is going to happen in their future. They have certain questions, am I getting divorced Am I getting married? Am I losing my job? Am I going to buy the house? You've getting all these questions. And so I just start right away with answering those questions, but then bringing in the counseling of why it's been delayed or why it's been a struggle or how you can start making it easier.

I love that. I love that because you're, you're actually giving solutions as to what that individual needs to be doing to change their life. Because in so many cases, as you well know as a counselor, people are creating their problems. And if they could figure out what they're doing that's actually causing the problem, then guess what, there's a remedy. And, you know, it's like, how many people have told you this? Which they tell me all the time. Well, one reading is like years of counseling.

Oh, yes.

You get right to the core of what it's all about.

Yes. When I first, those first years, I started off, I got that comment all the time. I said, it should have come to you instead of my therapist for a year or 18 months. And it's true. Because with astrology, you can really focus on to what the issues are in an hour.

Exactly. And you know, I always say this, that a birth chart is like all of our lives, a sum accumulation of all of our lives. They're in the chart. And therefore most people, it just plays out. They just, you know, do what the chart says they're gonna do, but with conscious awareness to know what you're doing so you can quit the cycle of like, you know, every lifetime coming back and doing the same thing, like dysfunctional relationships or problems, parents or whatever the problems are. The chart is so real and tells you what needs to be worked on so that. Because otherwise we're just going to come back with the same issues, different faces, same issues. Right. But we can really get cut to the core and the chase and, and get to what needs to be done. That's what I love about really, astrology. West or east or east, it, you know, we're getting to the core and the essence of what the individual needs to know. So, of course, I'm with you. All astrologers are counselors because we're here to help people and help people change their lives. And let me, so many people tell you that.

Yes.

Let me talk about how it all began with the Vedic, because it's really fascinating.

Love it.

Okay, so it was 2009, and I'm, I'm looking in my bookcase and there's James Braha's book on the all the basics of Vedic astrology. And I realized I had bought it because I had to sales slip 10 years before. And I probably opened it up, got overwhelmed, shut it, shut the book. Ten years later I open up the book and I couldn't put it down. Read it through over the night, go on Amazon, start ordering a bunch of Vedic astrology books. Discovered the American College of Vedic Astrology was starting a new class in three weeks. Signed up. Five months later I'm in India because I just went full tilt. That is how that. But how what the, what the passion was is when I'm studying about the dashes and I was like, oh, this is really cool because western astrology is very limiting. The outer planets. It's like back and forth for two years. The solar return, it's one year. And when people say what's going to happen in five years? It's like I got to redo all the progressions. The solar return, I says I have to get back to you. But then that was solved. So I got really excited with the theory of the dasha periods. So then I didn't have the software because I just bought the book and I'm just reading about it. So I go online and I, and I and I notice what my dasha periods were. It blew me away. One example was that in 1973 I started my Jupiter and Jupiter rules. My ninth Jupiter is on my midheaven. So it's really strong. And so one of the, one of the things with the Jupiter DASHA period was I traveled internationally without my parents for the first time. What also blew me away because the Jupiter period started in.

When I. That whenever that was.

Yes, when I was 23. But anyhow.

You know there's the 360 calculation and the 365 calculation.

For determining the dasha periods.

Yeah.

Wasn't until later when I started studying that I went back to that Jupiter dasha period. The dasha period with the365 began in that June 1973.

Several years later when I found out that more of the scholars are using 360. So I went and I went into my software and I changed it to 360. And then the Jupiter Dasha started that February 1973. That is when I went to Mexico for three weeks for my first time in an international country without my parents. It was like my God.

So was it, was it associated with your 12th house with born?

Yes. Yes.

Okay, that makes sense.

It rules my 9th and my 12th.

And your 12th. Yes. Got it.

But when it began, using the 360 calculation, I was on a plane to a foreign country.

Wow. Well, you must be in Aries Rising. Correct?

Yes.

So Jupiter's in your first house now. All right. Transiting Jupiter. Just had to make that comment. Couldn't resist.

So that's amazing. You know, the dashes. To me, like you say, it made it so simple. It's like exactly what you're talking about with the transits, with the. The solar arc directions or the progress chart, you know, there was only so much you could do. And then you're like, how do I see the big picture? Or, you know, 10 years or five years. And consequently you have to know this too, just like in your own life. Seems like every time I have an A reading with somebody, they're just beginning a new dasha, because that's when they go to an astrologer. They feel like something's changing. I need to know what's going on. And usually that's it. Those dashes are just profound and. And it does. It actually makes reading a chart simpler, clear, simpler, easier.

It gives me more confidence because I'll say, oh, well, you've started this Mercury book day period in March, and over that next two years you should be getting a job. And they're like, oh, my God, I got a job that March.

Yeah, I know. It's just. Yeah, it does all the calculation for you pretty much. It's just clean and simple outlined on a page. I remember trying to look up all the transits, like, oh, what happened? You know, somebody will ask you what happened 20 years ago. This was the worst time of my life. And I'll go. I'll have to go look up where Saturn was and where. Where Rahu and K2, where I have to go look them all up in the books. But this. Just look at the dasha. Everything's there, clean and simple. Yeah, the thing I don't.

I've talked to a lot of Vedic astrologers going to all these conferences, and they mostly started off Western. They discovered Vedic and they dumped Western. Yeah, I don't get it. Because you got two brilliant systems. When one isn't working, the other one is. And you'll get so much more detail. And with the Vedic, the pure Vedic astrologer isn't using the outer planets, which is our as powerful as the dasha periods.

Right. I have to use the outer planets. There's no way. That kind of detained me from going into Vedic for a while when I heard they didn't use the Outer planets. I was like, well, wait a minute. I don't think I'm going to. You know, this is not for me, because I knew how well they worked. And then all of a sudden, I found teachers that use the outer planets. And it was like, oh, okay, this is. This is what I want to use. Vedic with the outer planets. Perfect. You're right. We can't drop those. They're amazing. Amazing. So I want to bring something up right now because you mentioned James Braha, which I'm putting on a conference. This is June 2nd through the 5th. I have to give a little plug here. Terence, you should be there. Yes. And James is going to be one of our speakers, as a matter of fact. Have you seen his new book, Raha Sutras? No. Oh, you're gonna love it. You're gonna love it. Okay. Anyway, he's got a new book out, and he's going to come talk about. Really what the book's about is all the things that he's learned over his past. I guess he's been around as long as you And I, too. 40 years. So that's. That's basically what it's about. But. But yeah, we all kind of started with his books. Way back in the very beginning, he had the only books that were understandable, if you recall.

Let me also tell you. So that's how the Vedic started for me. Let me tell you how the. How Western started for me.

Oh, good.

Because it was also so destiny. But at the time, I didn't know what was going on. So I'm in college, and it's. It is when we're starting the new semester, and one of the classes was chemistry. Chemistry lab.

So I show up and the teacher announces to everybody, pick a lab partner. So I want to be cool about everything. So I'm looking around, who's the coolest person? But instantly, everybody just grabbed the person next to them. And I'm like, oh, my God, I'm gonna get stuck with some kind of nerd. Because I was too busy looking for the right person. And so I got hooked up with Ramona, who's an astrologer, and she's trying to get a degree in psychology. And this was, like, nearly 50 years ago. And she comes up to me, what's your sign? No one had ever said that to me at that point. I didn't know all the 12 signs. And I thought, oh, my God, she's a lunatic. This is awful. And she wouldn't shut up. But she. But when she was telling me these things, how does, is she a witch? She must be a witch. This is like the best kept secret in the world. And I was obsessed and but.

Saturn was exactly on my ascendant that moment. And when out of destiny because I didn't choose her, destiny chose her because we didn't have a partner. And she starts blabbering about astrology immediately as Saturn is crossing my ascendant.

That is amazing. You know, talking about the outer planets. Terence. This was funny because when I found my very first teacher, I was in college at University of Texas in Austin. And it was the whole, the whole hippie era, right? Well, I, I had all these books going into the college dorm, how to construct a chart. I mean I was serious, it wasn't like sun sign stuff. I was trying to figure out how to construct a chart. So all of my roommates in college, when I would be getting my key to get in the room, they say, did you see those books she reads? She's a witch.

And so I was the witch. But I found my first astrology teacher when transiting Uranus was exactly conjunct my son in the fifth house. I thought that's astrology.

Close your mind.

Yeah, yeah.

The other great thing is I'm no, I don't take anything for granted. I've been doing it for over 40 years. I'm still amazed in some ways. Like this stuff to this day I'm like, this stuff still works.

I relate totally, completely. It's just amazing to me every day how it works. Is that crazy?

Well, here's a recent example.

I'm born on the in western. I'm born on the last day of Capricorn and Pluto is now at zero Aquarius Western. So in February into March, it was at the last degree of Capricorn. Now a couple of things happened because I was expecting big huge changes with Pluto crossing my son. The first thing that happened was I got an opportunity to really upgrade my apartment big time. So a big change in my lifestyle. Well, Pluto Natalie is in my fourth house of the home. And it was crossing on the sun. The sun is the lord of the fourth house of my home. At the same time I found this great new apartment and I started packing in my kitchen, started flooding from the floor because the plumbing Pluto hidden underneath the floor started to leak excessively. And then I had workmen coming in as I'm trying to pack, as they're tearing up my kitchen. But I, part of me didn't care because I was moving. But still there was this big mess and there Was Pluto first hitting my son? And I'm having plumbing problems in my home as I'm packing to move to a much greater upgraded home.

Wow. I mean, talk about literal. Pluto is underground plumbing.

Which reminds me of another great story. When I first started doing clients at the end of the 70s, I started to attract a couple of. It was only a couple, but it freaked me out. They were all like Mafioso types. And, and so I went to my teacher and I said, if I, if astrology is all up, if I'm going to be attracting nothing but wise guy mafia criminals, I don't want anything to do with this. This is scary. I did a reading for one. There was mafia with the. And I knew him through his girlfriend. And the girlfriend had one of her first readings with me and he shows up at six o' clock in the morning, ringing my doorbell and high on cocaine, crying and crying that his girlfriend, our mutual friend, has dumped him. And he was there obsessing and coking and crying for the next.

And I'm freaking out. I call up my teacher later and I said, I'm done. And she says, no, you have Pluto criminal, the dark world in your fourth house of the home. At the time, doing readings in my home. She said, I suggest you just shift the energies. Which is a big lesson I've used in all my counseling ever since. So I decided to go back to my college days because I had quit and go and go back to getting my degree in psychology because Pluto rules psychology. And so as soon as I focus my attention on psychological astrology.

To my knowingness, there's been. Not a single Mafioso criminal has showed up. At least they haven't told me about it. It's all been. People in therapy just shifted the energies.

So shifting the energy is basically from what I'm surmising. When you're experiencing the negative qualities of a planet, what are the higher, more positive qualities of a planet? That's where you go.

So if you're feeling like a victim of circumstances, the astrology can let you know what it is, what the dynamic is, what the planet is, and you'll see the negative effects. Well, what are the positive effects? Instead of being a victim of it, you just take control and you start moving towards manifesting the positive.

Absolutely. And Pluto is about control. So that's really interesting. Thank you for sharing that very simple but so true. So story. Yes. You know, working with the astrological energies, that's. That's amazing. So, Terence, is there anything else you want to share with us as a closing or for us to know about you and your work and what you're all about.

Well, you did have me think about all these different things of my past, so thank you for that. I haven't thought about it in a long time.

No, it's like we've known for 40, 50 years. Astrology is the greatest psychological tool. At the time, I couldn't afford therapy and my parents wouldn't pay me give me any money. And the astrology was my therapy. And it gives you so much insight and one of the greatest things and every all astrologers know this, that we can endure anything when we know what it is and when it's going to end.

There you go. You nailed it. You're so, so right. That's what everyone says. You know when you can tell them, yes, this is what it is, but here's when it's over. Yeah, you can endure it. Such a great point.

Yes.

That you're well.

Joanie, thank you so much for inviting me. It's been so great to see you. Now.

It's been so great to see you too, Terren. This has been my pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing some of your gifts. We truly appreciate it. You are a gift to the world. Thank you.

And the best of luck on your conference.

Thank you.

I'd be there, but I'll be in Germany, so I can't.

I know. Too bad. You're gonna love in Germany. And I, I as I love your all of Europe. So have a blast. And I look forward to seeing you in person one day. Okay.

Soon. Soon.

Okay. All right.

Okay. All the best.

Bye. Bye.