INTERVIEW - RICHARD SMOOT
have these grand teachers. This would not
have been possible if there were not OPA.
Then there is my favorite backpacking and
camping spot along Pictured Rocks along
Lake Superior, Michigan is the 42 miles
between Grand and Munising, part of the
National Lakeshore Trail. Its outback camp-
ing so you have to register. From the walk-
ing trail on top there is often a 100 to 200
foot drop into Lake Superior.
What would you define is an
important evolutionary lesson
for you in this life? The term “evolu-
tionary” evades me. I my client work, I use
“evolutionary” as the passage of the tran-
siting North Node around the chart. If this
term is meant as insights into where the
soul has been, its current life purpose, and
ultimately where the “soul” is going, I can
feel several periods in my life where such
a lesson was learned. This was the period
between transiting Pluto squared my Asc/
Dec to transiting Uranus conjoined my
Descendant. (2003-2008).
This was a period of major upheaval and
awaking in my life. It was a period of great
growth and emergence as a full time profes-
sional astrologer; a recognized owner of a
software sales company (AstroDatabank and
AstrologySoftwareShop), and recognized
for my publishing work as ISAR’s journal
publisher and consulting skills co-author. It
was also a time of release when my business
collapsed into bankruptcy and a marriage
divorce. Incredible lessons learned and “soul”
defining moments.
Your chart?
April 8, 1949 @ 4:20 PM in Detroit, Michigan.
Pick your house system, yet I seem to follow
my Koch chart most closely.
YOUR PRACTICE
Where do you live and practice?
I have lived in Lakewood, Ohio for the
past five years. Most of my clients are by
telephone or Skype, however I do have an
active clientele in Michigan and will meet
with people there once a month. If there is
someone local, I do have an office I can use
or I just meet with him or her at his or her
home (I do house calls.)
How long have you been practic-
ing – How did it start?
It’s rather a long story. I believe in 1970 (21
years old), I was working at a Crisis Center/
Suicide Prevention Center (Hearing Aid)
in a suburb of Detroit. A group of us just
completed writing a grant to the National
Institute of Mental Health to establish a
crisis center, free medical clinic, a metha-
The
Career
Astrologer
done maintenance program, and a five-bed
unit at a local hospital to provide barbi-
turate and pain killer withdrawal support.
During that time several of us received
listening skills training from two groups
in Lansing. We hired our first Executive
Director, Ray Merriman. That is how I start-
ed astrology. I sure wish I had the time and
date for that event.
Your Astrology teachers?
To top the list, Ray Merriman was my first
teacher and lifelong mentor. I still work wit