For details of my professional history see my LinkedIn profile.
I’m part of the team which runs Walthamstow Folk, the Walthamstow folk club at the Old Rose and Crown Theatre Pub in Hoe Street.
I’m very interested in food, sustainability and their political ramifications. Local politics and activism is extremely important to me.
Astrology was a major part of my life for a long time. Currently I’m reviewing how it fits into my life. My astrological pedigree is as follows:
I am President Emeritus of the Astrological Lodge of London, having been president of the Astrological Lodge from 2002 – 2008 and the editor of Astrology Quarterly, their publication, from 2001 – 2004. I was the secretary of the APAE (the Advisory Panel for Astrological Education) from 2001 – 2009. I tutor for the Mayo School of Astrology and am currently studying for the MA in Cultural Astrology and Astronomy at the University of Wales Lampeter.
Astrology has been part of my life for a long as I can remember. I began to study it seriously in 1993 when the Uranus Neptune conjunction squared my Moon. I gave my first professional consultation in 1995 and have been working . I set up the first incarnation of this website in 1997 and have kept it broadly up to date since then.
I received my diploma of the Faculty of Astrological Studies; am certified by Continuum, the Jim Lewis foundation ,as a practitioner of Astro*Carto*Graphy; and have studied towards the Diploma in Medieval Astrology (DMA) with Robert Zoller and studied Horary Astrology (Qualifying Horary Practitioner with Olivia Barclay). I also have a Certificate in Counselling Skills awarded by the Gestalt Centre in London.
My areas of interest are mundane and political astrology, eclipses, cycles and the place of the individual within larger, collective systems. Away from astrology, politics and history are my fascinations.
I have lectured and taught at the Astrological Lodge of London, at many astrological groups in the South East of England, at Astrological Association Conferences and at UAC 2008 in Denver, CO, USA.
The background that the above fits onto goes like this:
I graduated from university in 1990, with a degree in Economics and Computing; completed the WH Smith management training programme, which gave me a variety of skills and experience, and spent several years with the firm, becoming a valued, trouble shooting manager. In 1994, I took advantage of voluntary redundancy, it coincided with a progressed New Moon conjunct natal Moon, to leave and establish myself as a professional astrologer. I soon became aware of the necessity of a day job and combined formal, 9 – 5 paid employment with my astrological practice and other astrological work.
Claire Simms is now Claire Chandler having married Russ Chandler in July 2003.
