Sy Scholfield

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Overview

Thanks for visiting. I'm a consultant astrologer, astro-data researcher & collector, editor, writer and scholar (B.A. [Hons], M.Phil.). I run the AstroQueer (a.k.a. Queer Stars) and Aussie Stars websites. Hundreds of my research data have been published in leading print, software and online astro-data collections. I'm currently writing a book about the planetary archetypes and writing my PhD thesis. Born in Australia to British parents, I have European, Chinese & Jewish ancestry, and I'm gay and a vegan. Having lived in Beijing, Hong Kong & Sydney, and on community farms, etc, I'm now settled in Queensland where I'm renovating a 100-year-old 'timber and tin' cottage. Oh, and I'm a Taurus with Eris unaspected, a Fixed T-Square and Pluto rising.

Consultant Astrologer, Astro-Data Researcher & Collector, Webhost

My interest in "the stars" was sparked in childhood during family camping trips to pristine Moreton Island ("Mulgumpin") off the sub-tropical East coast of Australia, where we slept on beaches under brilliant night skies. The constellations and planètes-étoiles simply fascinated me more than anything else in nature.

Since my mid-teens I've researched and collected "astro-data," i.e., the sort of information (like names, places, dates, years & times of birth) required to cast accurate astrology charts for famous or otherwise remarkable people and events. Today my collection contains thousands of timed astrological data, selections of which have been published on my chart collection websites: Aussie Stars and Queer Stars. I've contributed hundreds more data to various other data collections which also provide resources for the study, research and enjoyment of astrology (see below).

An experienced astrologer, I have analysed thousands of the charts I've collected, along with the charts of hundreds of clients I've helped during over 20 years of practice. My published work includes the weekly "Star-Lust" column (2000-2001) written for the printed and online Sydney Star Observer.

The "ABC" Book

Colleagues, Reciprocal Collections, Published Work

I work with a dedicated team of professional astro-data collectors from around the world. For many years now I have contributed selections of my data to their collections, and vice versa. For example, my data is included in Lois Rodden's Astrodatabank software (600+ data, c2000-2008); Frank C. Clifford's 2003 book British Entertainers: The Astrological Profiles (3rd edition, 30+ data; see more at his London School of Astrology website); Stephanie Johnson's Australian Data Collection, 2004 Solar Fire Deluxe, 2008 Solar Fire Gold software (700+ data) and 2011 Solar Fire Version 8; and GraZia Bordoni's Italian & European Data Collection. I edited the data in Frank Clifford's 2009 The Astrologer's Book of Charts, available in softcover and hardback editions. Please note that you can find any updates and corrections for the data from these authorised publications in my data errata section.

Solar Fire Gold CD

I hold full copyright over my collection of research data. Contrary to what you may have read elsewhere I have never signed copyright of my data over to anybody. If you wish to publish a few of my data (or charts using my data) for your project, and you include full attribution to me as the collector, including the URL or a hyperlink to this website, then to do so is considered fair use. If you wish to publish more than a few of my data (or charts using my data) then you should contact me and make arrangements which may include payment.

Unfortunately, several websites have republished my research data without my permission (let alone payment), including Astro-Databank which published hundreds of my timed astro-data in 2009. Ditto for Astrotheme, which does not even have the decency to include basic attributions like the names of the collectors of the data it has stolen and published. I would like to come to an agreement with the owners of such websites regarding their use of my research data, but until that time their use of my data remains unauthorised to say the least. These websites also contain many data mistakes, so I suggest that you contact me to confirm the correctness and accuracy of any data attributed to me before using them for your project.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Independent Scholar, Writer, B.A., M.Phil.

Being gay and of mixed European, Chinese & Jewish ancestry, I have explored these facets of my identity through academic studies of homosexuality and ethnicity. I hold a B.A. in Modern Asian Studies (1994), with a Double Major in Chinese/Mandarin language Studies & Anthropology/Sociology, from Griffith University. I was the first male to enrol in a subject within the Master of Arts in Women's Studies programme (1995) at Griffith, probably becoming one of the first men, if not the first man, to complete a subject in feminist studies at this level in Australia. My 20,000-word Honours dissertation (1996) analyses representations of the body in 20th-century gay & lesbian visual art, and my 50,000-word Master of Philosophy thesis (University of Queensland, 2010) examines imagery of the Freudian primal scene in Australian political cartoons published during the Keating, Howard and Rudd years, 1992-2009. In 2011 I was granted a merit-based APA scholarship. I am now undertaking a PhD programme at the University of Queensland, 2011-2014.

In 1994, I compiled and edited Queer Gravity (under the pseudonym, 'Simon-Alice') for the national tertiary students conference, Queer Collaborations. To my knowledge this was the first Australian magazine produced for and by LGBT students to be distributed across the country. See the "publications" section for examples of my writing in media and cultural journals.

Queer Gravity

Traveller, Trekker, Photographer

Cosmopolitan yet down-to-earth, I've travelled across Australia, Southern and Eastern Asia (where I lived for almost 3 years), and the West coast of the USA & Canada. Adventurous treks have taken me to the mountains and lakes of Tibet & Tasmania, the rainforest jungles of Borneo & Far North Queensland, and the coastal and river systems of China & Oregon. I particularly like mountain-trekking (having climbed Mt Barney in Queensland, Kosiosko in N.S.W., Hua Shan in China, Kota Kinabulu in Borneo, and Mt Anne & Mt Ossa in Tasmania, etc). My forthcoming Travel photo section will include various albums documenting my travels (from Laos to Lhasa, Tasmania to Cooktown, Los Angeles to Vancouver, etc) plus a portrait gallery. (At right is Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, near Lijiang, Yunnan, China, which I visited in January 2009).

玉龍雪山

Linthorpe Cottage

Apart from the wilderness & rural breaks, I generally live in inner-city environments, having resided in the "global mega-cities" of Beijing, Hong Kong and Sydney; the medium size "most-liveable" cities of Brisbane, Melbourne and Newcastle, and the Queensland tourist destinations, Cairns and the Gold Coast. I currently split my time between Brisbane and Sydney, while renovating a century-old Queenslander cottage in a country town near the QLD-NSW border. This house will be my home and retreat from the city.

My Natal Astrology Chart

What's in my stars? I have all of the outer planets personalized. Pluto ("the death planet") is rising at the very end of the 12th House (my mother had a severe cold caused by influenza when I was born and so we were separated at my birth, and possibly were both near death), plus a full 8th House ruled and tenanted by Mars in Aries (helping to explain my interest in sex, gender and sexuality). My Aquarian Moon is ruled by Uranus ("the Astrology planet") which conjoins Pluto, meaning that I have the rare conjunction of these planets on my Virgo Ascendant, ruled by Chiron ("the wounded healer") in Pisces on the Descendant, just into the 7th House. Chiron, in turn, is ruled by Neptune in Scorpio, which is found in hard aspect to both luminaries. Neptune is ruled by angular Pluto, which takes us back to the Ascendant, which quinunxes the new dwarf planet, Eris, unaspected in my 7th House. A bit of trivia: I was born with a star in the centre of each palm (a five-pointed asterisk in the right hand & a seven-pointed one in the left one). These stars are located on my "life lines" between my "head lines" and "heart lines." Interpreting the meanings of the stars has thus become an enduring passion.

My Star Chart