If it was, we would be making more money! This is a social experiment in the decency of people who want to better their lives. By giving away "extra information" in support of the book, we hope to build a community of people of good character, and really help people learn what we teach—even if they never choose to come to school (which is where we teach this stuff in-depth—kinda our jobs in life).

Painfully. We have to eat, and this is not helping.

Technically, this is a $1,000 course, but no one would believe we are that stupid, so we are purposefully undervaluing it. But once you take it (still free, by the way), you will agree it was "worth at least $500." We have successfully charged $3500 for this course several times over the years—but that is taught live, by Dusty.

YOU GET THE RECORDED VERSION.

Okay, so, the hope is that this will accomplish a few things. We are literally putting our money where our mouth is. This course costs money to create, record, preserve, present, and distribute. Giving it away not only means that no income is coming in, but that all associated expenses come out of rent money every month. Honestly? This may be an expensive decision that people abuse. Maybe giving away vast amounts of high-value information will increase book sales as people realize this is the ONLY astrology author who is backing up their words (the book) with real time and effort. Trusting in the sincerity of people’s desire to learn and improve their lives may end up being a huge mistake. Maybe no one will buy the book, and maybe no one will take the course. We are betting that doing the right thing for people will pay off in the end. Take the free astrology course and find out with us.

Dusty teaches free workshops every month, puts out free audio lessons in the form of podcasts frequently, makes instructional videos, and teaches in-depth courses on metaphysical subjects. These generate awareness of the books, and help build a community of friendly people who support each other in a collective effort to understand the nature or magic in a pragmatic (real-world application) sense.

So, in essence, all of these add to the bedrock of a true community that will hopefully grow and flourish. They also form the basis of the Academy of Divination, and so these free courses serve as potential introductions to serious students. Hopefully people will value the quality of this free education, and realize that we give away more value than other schools charge you money for. Then maybe you will become a student, learn from us, and in turn, bring great value to the world through your gifts. It's an experiment after all. Let's find out together if it was worth betting on the positive aspects of humanity. Hopefully the bad people won't win in the end.

Yeah, how can anyone "give away" $500 for a $27 investment—especially when Amazon gets most of that money (from book sales)? It just seems fishy, doesn't it? It's like the bus that went by just now (on Christmas Eve), or the mailman who delivered a package an hour ago (as I am writing this). Do these things really happen? Who gets that job? Can't they just skip out of work? I mean, who has to drive a bus on Christmas Eve, and who is dumb enough to give away a course they already charged seven times that amount—and got paid regularly to do so?

This course is an investment in real people investing their time and energy bettering their lives, and educating themselves. Astrology is one of the avenues of enhanced awareness that pays tangible dividends to serious students. But it has always been the quiet secret of the wealthy and powerful. You don't have to believe any of this, and it is better for those in power if you don't. But if enough of us ("regular people") understand the inner workings of human nature, persuasion, physiological and psychological pattern behavior, we might actually understand each other's motivations and mannerisms.

Ignorance is the breeding ground of war. Ignorance breeds bias, arrogance, and hatred. Consideration can only come from awareness. Astrology is "an additional" way to understand yourself, your lover, your friends, your neighbor, and yes, even your cat. "Pet astrology" sounds funny, like it is some kind of New Age scam, but if you really learn astrology (polarities, qualities, elements, and so on), you will see how everything in nature has pattens that can be analyzed. All of this adds to your knowledge.

Astrology has never been intended to replace or diminish logic and common sense. It is an enhancement of knowledge. How can we as humans afford NOT to learn it? Will we keep this knowledge only in the hands of those who know its true power? Sure, let's try that again; how has ignorance of knowledge worked out so far? Wars, racism, fascism, and wondrous eras like the Dark Ages, the Inquisition, and other extended periods of keeping the public stupid has really worked out well for humanity.

I say, let's try this out and see what happens if we try to enlighten a portion of humanity, and see if the rest of the world catches on, or if the smart people get burned at the stake. I am putting my money where my mouth is. What will be your contribution to society? Personally, I hope you roll up your sleeves and help make things better through productive effort. We have enough naysayers already.

Astrology is *one way* of organizing this mess we call "reality." It doesn't seem to work on the moon, or Mars, but no one lives there, so this is not a hurdle we have to cross yet. Astrology is the measurement of all energy on Earth, from the perspective of the observer. Being that everyone lives on the surface of the earth, this is why we measure everything from that perspective.

It just so happens that what people are most interested in, is their love lives, their fortunes (and futures), and what is going on with other people.

This is why so much of astrology focuses on personality traits. That's where the juicy gossip is. No one cares about the astrological construction of a tree, or a corporate strategy. But that's where the money is (shrewd application of astrological analysis to business and marketing).

I got serious about my astrological studies just before my Saturn Return. I thought I was so smart I would be the one to disprove all of this nonsense. I got my ass handed to me. The more I studied, the worse it got. Granted, the books I read were full of nonsense and misinformation, or more politely, inconclusive and inaccurate hypotheses.

But there was enough factual evidence I could test that I found my way down the rabbit hole to a world of awareness both comically stupid and uncannily insightful.

The hardest part over the past three decades has literally been teasing out all of the New Age nonsense and ancient superstitions to reveal the core of what indisputably works.

And that is how we get to this book (The Easiest Way to Learn Astrology—EVER!!), and why it took 12 years of my life to complete (just the writing of it—not the decades of research and testing). This book distills the essence of what works in astrology, allowing other aspects of astrology to also be true, but open to research for validation before confirmation. I have done my best to present only indisputable fact, in a conversational style, laced with mildly dark and often snarky humor. But I have attempted to write a 450 page book people will actually read, enjoy, and come away from smarter than they were before—even you Mike Brown (yeah, I am calling the poor guy out; he has done nothing improper, but I think this book will scramble his mind, knowing what he knows about our solar system).

Be that as it may (with apologies to Professor Brown), yes, I believe.

It took me several years to admit that. But when you strip away the nonsense, there is so much value in knowing astrology that it is literally a cardinal sin that everyone does not have this knowledge available to them.

Perhaps people like fumbling around in the dark, but as a cop once told me (after he busted me for jaywalking—at age 16, walking home from a Sea Explorers meeting—at midnight, in Santa Monica, with no cars within a mile, other than his), "Ignorance of the law is no excuse."

Yeah, I am still sore about that, but like lemons into lemonade, I have remembered his asinine admonishment (I wonder if I ever paid that ticket by the way), and it holds true here. Believe this stuff or not—it really isn't my problem. Horse. Water. Drink. Not my problem, I showed you the water. You could at least taste it.

Yeah! (Merry Christmas by the way, or whatever you celebrate on the 24th) Why not just pirate a copy? Or better yet, why not just read whatever you find on the internet? And what makes (me) such an "authority"? These are all serious questions by the way.

Why should you waste your money on my book? Well, I certainly wouldn't presume to kick down your door and tell your boss to give me your paycheck—and that you should work for free because I am an arrogant ass who doesn't want you to eat or pay rent.

But why shouldn't you just take whatever is free on the internet and believe that? Well, first off, aside from the problem that free information is usually worth its cost (ironic that I am giving away a "free course," right? — Let's see me talk my way out of this one!), there is so much conflicting information about astrology from website to website, and "expert" to "expert" (not to mention the self-proclaimed "debunkers").

Paying for something doesn't make it more valuable, but it does generally happen when something has actual value. Knowledge costs time, energy, effort, stress, and much experience to acquire, and so generally people with enhanced knowledge want to be paid for sharing it. This is true in all walks of life.

Education is the best investment ever, as it grants knowledge, access to power, and enhanced awareness—which in and of itself is a salvation from being manipulated or abused. Education pays dividends far beyond its cost (unless you go to Harvard*).

"My" book is unique. I got angry that astrology books generally fall into two categories: the fluff and the boring. I prefer the later, but I am a sucker for the former. The fluff books are really fun to read, and they make you feel as if you are "learning" astrology, but you are mostly just learning keywords and catchy phrases without understanding syntax and grammar. It is no wonder otherwise intelligent people don't take astrology seriously. They are ignorant.

(That's okay, I am here to help fix that.)

The second category of astrological books are written by highly intelligent astrologers who throw you right into the deep end of the pool, and just for fun toss in some sharks, on your first day of swim class. Open any book on astrology and see how few pages you have to turn before you are confronted with a circular diagram "pie chart" filled with lines and squiggles and arcane terminology. Literally, "WTF man!"

So I spent several years designing my outline. This was before I ever set pen to paper (yes, I am old fashioned, I like pen and paper—but also my MacBook). I ended up designing a text that works remarkably (and unoriginally) like we learn our first language. "See Spot run." We learn the alphabet before we learn words, and we learn words before we learn grammar. We build on what we know to create a more complex understanding of the world around us, and ourselves.

The result is a truly unique book, filled with secrets never revealed to the public before (but you will have to read the book for yourself to see this is true), and many that are public knowledge, but presented in ways that make astrology make sense, even when scrutinized by intelligent skeptics. It is my hope you will read it for yourself and see more than you ever thought possible. Astrology *will* make you smarter, whether you read my book or not.

* Okay, that was a joke. I go to Harvard, and it is a wonderful campus with really smart professors, and a surprisingly friendly staff!

But I attend the Extension School, not "Harvard College," so my classes are a LOT cheaper, but they get to eat in the dining halls (grr!). By the way kiddies, Harvard is hard—and it eats inordinate amounts of my free time, which is why it takes me forever to find time to respond to email.

Did you buy the book? Did you buy it (new) on Amazon? That's the only place you can get it (legally). Don't be a jerk and steal or I will just stop giving away stuff and raise my rates so that only the wealthy can afford these secrets I have wasted my life chasing. Okay, so, go to the SIGN UP page and fill in your (real) name and (real) email address.

If you try to BS the system, thinking you are cool, you are just going to screw yourself later, because when we do give away things and have special events, you are just going to be blacklisted. Yes, we are building a community of honest people, and asshats get kicked and banned. Permanently. They can go play their reindeer games with other low life idiots and see where they gets them.

Click send and wait. Hopefully not too long. Usually within 24 hours you should get an email that has your first lessons. Every few days after that, you will get another lesson. Astrology is not something you can read through and instantly understand. You need to practice. Yo need to get out in the real world and test what you have learned.

Look around; you will see all of this prove itself, every day. This is why the lessons come out every few days instead of all at once. If you speed read a book on astrology, you may end up remembering some keywords and overall concepts, but you will be like a talking parrot: squawk, squawk, squawk. You will be no better than a monkey at a typewriter, banging out gibberish you don’t understand.

Take your time and everything will make sense. Free or not, this course will change your life if you take your studies seriously. But here is a special treat for the few people who read the fine print: If someone tells you they have taken this course, you will know if they are truly dangerous (they see through you) or if they just skimmed the surface. If they have really paid attention, and worked through the workbook (The Easiest Way to Learn the Tarot—EVER!!), they will instinctively understand how the world around them works, and they will not be a puppet to anyone else.

Oh, and on another note, we will always inform you of special workshops, new books, and more indepth lessons, in case you really want to have a competitive edge over everyone else. After all, nature is hardly "fair." Nature favors the smartest animals in the forest.

"Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya . . ."

Oh wait, that's that other guy. I am just some typing monkey that banged away at his keyboard long enough (twelve years just on this book alone!) to pound out something that made sense. Prior to that, I have been studying metaphysics since I was 11. I was that odd kid (this is about a million years before Harry Potter by the way, because I am old) who asked too many questions in Sunday School, and scoured the public libraries for any kind of reference materials to magic (not the stage kind), divination, and anything on the occult.

If only I had known that 30 miles south was the Mecca known as The Eye of the Cat, or that 12 miles away was The Bodhi Tree, and two miles beyond that was The Sorcerer's Shop. Wow, the mid-70's sucked if you were a broke tween! I cut my teeth on Gavin and Yvonne Frost's mail order book, which I bought from an ad in a tabloid newspaper (I believe it was the Weekly World News). I read Sybil Leek's Diary of a Witch, and Never on a Broomstick. I read several questionable books on psychic power (called "ESP" at the time), and a few classics you will never find today.

I studied and practiced. I pulled off tiny miracles regularly and I wondered why. Sometimes I stopped trying, just to see if I was making things up in my head, or if I was unnaturally lucky (compared to everyone else). I found my passion in life (studying religion, philosophy, and metaphysics). No matter what job I had (working for "the man"), I always pursued magic as a hobby, and haunted every occult store I could find—once I learned of their existence.

But I was a malcontent. I didn't want to learn anything that didn't work. With a stellium in crappycorn, I was born without a sense of humor and no patience for New Age bullshit. I quietly demanded only the best instruction, and while I would read anything I could get my hands on, and ordered far too many new Age audio tapes from Sedona, I tossed more fluff into the garbage than can probably be recycled in one lifetime. I had to know what was "true," and I shouted at "God" endlessly (literally, and yes. Yes I did.) that I wanted to see "his" face. I wanted to know the "Truth."

Kids, try this at home. But be ready for a serious ass-kicking. "Be careful what you wish for," right? Try that with sincere, fervent, repeated prayer. It is far worse.

I ended up working as a psychic after 20 years of reading cards for fun and that much time studying metaphysics in my spare time. I have since read for tens of thousands of clients internationally, and taught students all over the world. I am far from the "best magician" or witch the world has ever seen, but I am one of the best teachers of metaphysics alive, and I care more about my students' education than any other teacher.

Prove me wrong. Until then, I teach, therefore I am. It's a fun job. I hope you will study with me—free lessons for now, and hopefully you will get serious and come to school after that. Join our student body, family, maybe even our faculty at some point.

But study with someone (competent). Don't let life pass you by, thinking you know more than God. Astrology *will* open your eyes to things well over 99% of everyone you meet is ignorant to, no matter how much I shout and stomp my feet.

First off, thank you. It would be great if you read it. Start with the first two chapters. Focus on chapter two, and go out in the world and spend a few days observing what you learned—in real time. Watch people behave and try comparing what the book asserts with physical objects. Does it square? Can you see it in real life? Hopefully you will also watch the first video lesson and read up on any relevant information in that section. Give yourself at least 3–5 days to test this out "in real life" and verify this is not fantasy nonsense. In school we make you do this for an entire week.

Do this again for each chapter. Don't worry, the further in the book you get, the more time you should devote to observing what you see in each chapter, or it will just become a jumbled mess of facts and knowledge.

Perhaps now you see why there needs to be a course that goes along with this book . For each chapter, read the book and then watch the lesson. If you really want to learn all of this, why not come to school?

The Academy of Divination is our online educational facility (global campus, study wherever you like: the beaches of Tahiti, floating on the Rhine, in a busy New York Subway . . . ). We would love to have you in class, and we will let you know when we are accepting members of the public as students.

We will tell you about the live workshops and also send you emails when there are new (free) audio lessons [in podcast form], and new short videos (usually on Youtube). Be sure to open and read the emails.

We can't do the work for you, but we can make it super easy, barely an inconvenience.

This is not as easy as it may seem. With 21 metaphysical projects (books, courses, calendars, apps . . .) in the works, it is a bit difficult to get Aphrodite's Book of Secrets or the one year life transformation course out in a timely manner.

But, hopefully the new astrology, tarot, and How Magic Works courses will be completed, edited (for a more pleasant viewing experience), and released as fast as our students can absorb and actually implement these enhancements in their daily lives.

By the way, we are hiring, if you are interested. Drop us a line with your qualifications and preferred job description.

Thank you for asking! (or at least clicking on this FAQ). Over at easytarotlessons.com we have a free tarot course, a full tarot course, and links to hundreds of hours of FREE audio and video lessons. The paid course is far and away the best value if you are serious about learning the tarot, but we can keep you entertained and educated for several months (and longer) just with our free materials.

Other materials are forthcoming or hidden behind the veil. Our students know where to find these things.

Okay, I admit.

I am just too dumb to pull off a good scam. I have seen crimes in my short lifespan (in real life, in movies, on TV, on the Interwebs, read about them in newspapers and books . . .). I just don't have the IQ to pull off a crime and get away with it. It's just easier for me to give away shit and hope people will appreciate real value enough to pay for something even better. The course is worth (well over) $500 because I teach it, and I know my stuff. The course I am hoping you will pay for after you see how good this free course is, eclipses this. It is the same information, but more in-depth, and it comes with our original and still the best, small group study buddy system of friendly people studying together. And it will be a value too.

But we are just getting started. Stick around and you will see several amazing new books, courses, decks, calendars, apps, and other goodies. All of these are meant to make your life easier and make you more influential and powerful. Whatever you do, don't make the mistake of being so skeptical that you miss out. Because that is not a problem I can solve, and too many people miss out in life. Oh well. Let's not add to their number.