Kim Farnell

British-American astrologer who earned her diploma at the Astrological Faculty of London in 1990, taking over the class that she had originally attended. She had read Tarot while in college, but apart from that, had no astrological background prior to then. With her diploma, Kim became involved in everything on the British astrological scene, including a consortium for the south-east of England, working for the Urania Trust, running a local group and whatever else was current. She taught evening classes and spent nine years on the Council for the Astrological Association of Great Britain doing everything at one time or another and ending up as Vice Chair. Eventually there were local policy conflicts and it was time to move on. Kim first moved to London in 1980, where she got her degree in Media Studies with a journalism major. As a teen she had become heavily involved in politics as a member of a variety of political groups, until she found the political area lacking soul. She had also spent time booking and promoting bands. In London, she was swept into the student scene and the mod scene, sex'n drugs'n rock'n'roll. Once college was over and the real world beckoned she tried a variety of jobs, including working as a Committee Clerk for the local council. During a period when she was out of work and bored rigid, Kim went to some local evening classes, 1984, and the astrology class grabbed her attention as it seemed so obvious. After leaving work to have her daughter in 1990, Kim realized that office work was not for her and she decided to try working for herself. It took a long time to become established, especially with the birth of a son in 1992, but she ended up writing sun sign columns for women's magazines, lecturing, doing some consultancy work and taking on all sorts of odd jobs with a tenuous connection to astrology. Gradually she did less consulting work and more writing. Kim has had articles published in numerous magazines - astrological, theosophical and mainstream. She still writes sun sign columns and has done radio and TV work on the back of that. She finished an astrology text book which was published in Japanese recently and is working on a text to be published in Serbian. She edited the AA Newsletter for five years and has published three issues of a satirical astrology magazine. Kim caught a history bug a few years ago. Finding it hard to put her hands on what she wanted to know about astrology in the last 150 years or so, she began research. That led to a biography of Sepharial, "The Astral Tramp," published 1998, and the beginning of a collection of biographical essays of nineteenth century astrologers. Her interests widened out to extend beyond the research of astrology, although she is still planted deeply in the nineteenth century. She reads obsessively and writes even more so. To relax, she plays saxophone and flute and ice skates. Kim writes, "Astrology is my job and a way of life. My personal astrology has been gradually going further and further back in regards to techniques. After a spell in the 17th century I'm starting to go back further. I hate clutter, I despise pomposity, I detest pseudo intellectualism. I am totally 100% unashamed of doing sun sign astrology. It's the best job I've ever had. I'm certainly not a rank beginner but equally no one will ever make me into an astrological superstar. It's more enjoyable staying at the grass roots."