The Fire At Night

Hosted by Art of the Zodiac

Telling Stories With, Through, and Beyond Astrology
A 6-Week Course with Dr. Cameron Steele and Vivi Henriette.

This is a course for writers who want to use astrology to enhance their process, astrologers who want to become better writers, and anyone who enjoys a tale told well, something to hang onto during sleepless nights or routine moments, the shadowy and fantastical parts of any day. This is a course about the fire at night: about the ways in which story helps us to become more human through gathering, imagining, listening, and reshaping the world–together.

Over the course of six weeks, Cameron Steele, a writer with a doctorate in literature and a divinatory background in Hellenistic astrology and esoteric tarot, and Vivi Henriette, astrologer, tarot reader and founder of Art of the Zodiac, will guide students through close readings of the work and charts of brilliant past and present storytellers, including Audre Lorde, Alicia Kennedy, Raechel Anne Jolie, and Simone Weil, among others. Each week will feature a different elemental “logic” at work in the essays of the artists discussed–as well as opportunities to apply that logic to one’s own writing or astrology goals. This class, at its base, is really for anyone who wants to enhance their life–their well-being–through story, magic, and community.

Students will write as well as read in this course, with opportunities to workshop writing projects–whether those projects are literary or astrological in nature–join weekly office hours with Cameron and Vivi, and connect with each other outside of class sessions on our course Discord server. Astrologers can expect to come away with an enhanced ability to tell stories beyond rote chart delineation. Writers can expect to come away with an enhanced ability to work with traditional divinatory symbols in creative work. Anyone can expect to come away with a renewed sense of awe at the uncanny, impossible-yet-possible patterns that bind us to ourselves, each other, and the star-lit world around us.

Syllabus

Bonus Video: The Story of the Hour-Marker 

A quick primer on the who, what, when, where, and why of the natal chart using the thema mundi.

6

pre-recorded INTRODUCTION

Gather Round The Fire At Night: An Introduction

  • Lecture: What can we learn from close-reading literature and close-reading charts together? Learning how to enter a chart through story. Or, learning how to enter story through a chart. (Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, plus a discussion of the forthcoming class texts and charts of case-study writers)
  • Discussion: What makes a “good” story? What makes a “good” writer? What makes a “good” astrologer? What are your goals for the class?
  • Administrative: Set up the student writing workshop schedule. Assign essays by and chart of Alicia Kennedy plus writing of four student writers. Send everyone the workshop worksheet to fill out for Alicia’s essays as well as student writers. (Student writers must have their pieces for workshop submitted to the class discord no later than 48 hours before class starts).
  • Office Hours: For one-on-one questions or conversation with Cameron and Vivi.
  • Discord: For continued discussion and camaraderie throughout the week. (Student writers must have their pieces for workshop submitted to the class discord no later than 48 hours before class starts).

SECTION 1

Fire Logic with Alicia Kennedy

  • Lecture: What does it mean to tell a story with “fire logic?” Looking at Kennedy’s essays “On Domesticity” and “Both Joyful and Killjoy” and highlighting Kennedy’s Seventh House Mercury-in-Sagittarius in the Seventh House, among other chart highlights. 
  • Discussion: For astrologers: How does Alicia’s chart and writing elucidate, push back against, or expand our stereotypical conceptions of Mercury in Sagittarius or other chart configurations? For writers: How does Alicia develop a sense of voice in her essays, and which of these writerly moves do you associate with the Sagittarian themes of inspiration, big-picture thinking, a future aim, and using a past wound to inspire future healing?
  • Workshop: Four student writing projects, using the workshop worksheets and guidelines. 
  • Administrative: Assign essay by and chart of Raechel Anne Jolie plus writing of four student writers. (Student writers must have their pieces for workshop submitted to the class discord no later than 48 hours before class starts).
  • Office Hours: For one-on-one questions or conversations with Cameron and ViVi. 
  • Discord: For continued discussion and camaraderie throughout the week. (Student writers must have their pieces for workshop submitted to the class discord no later than 48 hours before class starts).

 

SECTION 2

Earth Logic with Raechel Anne Jolie

  • Discussion: For astrologers: How does Raechel’s chart and writing elucidate, push back against, or expand our stereotypical conceptions of Mercury in Capricorn or other chart configurations? For writers: How do the tone, theme, and structure of Raechel’s essay work together to engage a broad audience, and which of these writerly moves do you associate with Capricornian themes of the body, the relationship between content and form, gender, time, and the success-failure axis of human experience?
  • Workshop: Four student writing projects, using the workshop worksheets and guidelines. 
  • Administrative: Assign essay by and chart of Simone Weil plus writing of four student writers. (Student writers must have their pieces for workshop submitted to the class discord no later than 48 hours before class starts).
  • Office Hours: For one-on-one questions or conversations with Cameron and ViVi. 
  • Discord: For continued discussion and camaraderie throughout the week. (Student writers must have their pieces for workshop submitted to the class discord no later than 48 hours before class starts).

SECTION 3

Air Logic with Simone Weil

  • Lecture: What does it mean to tell a story with “air logic?” Looking at Weil’s essay “On The Abolition of All Political Parties” and highlighting Weil’s Mercury-in-Aquarius in the Third House, among other chart configurations. 
  • Discussion: For astrologers: How does Simone’s chart and writing elucidate, push back against, or expand our stereotypical conceptions of Mercury in Aquarius or other chart configurations? For writers: How does Simone imbue her essay, which could easily have slipped into polemic or “passion,” with a sense of intellectual coolness? How does this and other writerly moves relate to Aquarian themes of the collective, focusing on caring for humanity as whole, breaking the rules, and seeing into the future?
  • Workshop: Four student writing projects, using the workshop worksheets and guidelines. 
  • Administrative: Assign essay by and chart of Audre Lorde plus writing of remaining five student writers. (Student writers must have their pieces for workshop submitted to the class discord no later than 48 hours before class starts).
  • Office Hours: For one-on-one questions or conversations with Cameron and ViVi. 
  • Discord: For continued discussion and camaraderie throughout the week. (Student writers must have their pieces for workshop submitted to the class discord no later than 48 hours before class starts).

SECTION 4

Water Logic with Audre Lorde

  • Lecture: What does it mean to tell a story with “water logic?” Looking at Lorde’s “Breast Cancer: Power vs. Prosthesis” and highlighting her Mercury-in-Pisces in the Sixth House, among other chart configurations. 
  • Discussion For astrologers: How does Lorde’s chart and writing elucidate, push back against, or otherwise expand our stereotypical conceptions of Mercury in Pisces and other chart configurations? For writers: What elements of Lorde’s writing help her to navigate multiple emotional registers at once? How does this and other writerly moves relate to Piscean themes of unity, compassion, suffering, sickness, and healing?
  • Workshop: Five student writing projects, using the workshop worksheets and guidelines. 
  •  
  • Administrative: Detail order of student presentations for final class!
  • Office Hours: For one-on-one questions or conversations with Cameron and ViVi. 
  • Discord: For continued discussion and camaraderie throughout the week.
4

INTEGRATION

Gather Round The Fire At Night: A Conclusion

  • Students read or perform their own work!
  • Final remarks from Cameron and ViVi
  • Course evaluations and feedback

 

“The storyteller was uncanny … she was doing something that should have been impossible” –Laurie J. Marks

 

“They made a small fire under a group of alders standing stark and bare on the riverbank. They did not need it, but a fire made people feel human, a fire was something to gather around.” –Nicola Griffith 

sign up for the course now

Course enrollment is offered at a sliding scale. Please choose the option that best suits your financial needs.

The Fire At Night, Six-Week Enrollment, Tier 3 

$360

The Fire At Night, Six-Week Enrollment, Tier 2 

$300

The Fire At Night, Six-Week Enrollment, Tier 1 

$200

The Fire At Night, Individual Session, Tier 3

$111

The Fire At Night, Individual Session, Tier 2

$88

The Fire At Night, Individual Session, Tier 1

$68

© ARToftheZODIAC 2025

© ARToftheZODIAC 2023.

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