History of the Turning of the Ages Mystery School

Forward: Before the Beginning

Daniel Giamario, the founder, first discovered astrology in 1969, and then through the 1970s was part of Dane Rudhyar’s Humanistic Astrology Movement, which was the vanguard of the Astrological Renaissance of the early 1970s. This joined the depth psychology of Jung with Theosophy, and the spirituality of Sri Aurobindo and Bahai.

Quite significantly, it steered astrology away from “prediction”, and a cause and effect approach, to a more wholistic life purpose-focused intentionality, without good or bad judgments. Mythic astrology came next, and later in the 1970s, this approach transformed into Transpersonal Astrology.

The Beginning

Giamario, who had through the 1970s been mainly involved in an “Eastern” and more intellectual approach, was going through a spiritual transformation, and becoming disillusioned with it.

Upon meeting up with Joan Halifax and the original Ojai Foundation, he went to Mt. Shasta for a vision quest experience in the summer of 1981 that profoundly changed his life. A vision came through of an astrology that was Earth and Sky centered. The insight was that astrology was not complete without direct experience with the night sky, connected to Mother Earth. An earlier in life interest in naked-eye astronomy was reanimated. He decided to ground astrology with the embodied experience of an Earth-centered astrology.

Over the next decade, he toured the country, over 25 cities in the US and Europe, taking groups to secluded locations, often at sacred sites, to transmit a new form of astrology. While the initial elements of the astrological paradigm of TOTAMS had been in place since 1970, now it was presented within a format then called “The Astrological Vision Quest” and within a non-profit organization, formed in 1987, called the Harbingers of the Turning of the Ages.

Significantly, Daniel coined the term “The Turning of the Ages” during this time to reflect the awareness that global humanity was at a great turning point in the 26,000 year precessional cycle. Many new insights and developments in the astrological paradigm were developing during this time. Around 1990, the astrological paradigm began to be called: Shamanic Astrology.

The Next Phase

In the early 1990s, on tour to Arizona, Daniel met up with Cayelin Castell, then known as Carolyn Brent. A seminal series of seminars were held in Tucson that were transcribed by Castell, which then formed the bulk of Giamario’s first book: The Shamanic Astrology Handbook. Soon after, Cayelin and Daniel created: The Shamanic Astrology Mystery School™. Initially, this existed under the umbrella of Daniel’s non-profit Harbingers of the Turning of the Ages. The initial certification program was created during this period, as many in-person events occurred all over the country and in Europe and Hawaii.

As the School was expanding, we made the decision to become a 501-C(3) educational nonprofit corporation, one of the very few astrology schools to achieve this. It was a long process from 2007-2009, which eventually succeeded! During this time, the certification process greatly expanded, and many in-person courses were held, both in wilderness locations and Daniel’s home at that time in Arizona. Daniel’s collaboration with Cayelin, and her husband Peter, were instrumental in making this happen.

The Current Evolution

In the time frame of the great world changes of 2020-2021, Daniel and the governing council decided to re-boot and re-brand the school in light of the current global conditions.

This newest evolution has lead to the birth of the Turning of the Ages Mystery School. Recreating the school in this way captures a 40-year arc from the original vision of an Earth/Sky version of astrology from 1981, with a shamanic basis, to the present time, as the Turning of the Ages rapidly accelerates. This is also designed to capture, as best we can, an arc of 300,000 years of our species on Planet Earth.

A new website has arrived, and an updated version of our foundational online Courses has been created, as well as an evolving astrologer certification process to encourage the growth of more and more seed people to serve global humanity and carry the dream onward!