What Most People Get Wrong About Astrology (And Why It Matters More Than You Think) | Rick Levine
What if astrology isn't meant to give you all the answers, but to help you ask better questions? Recorded live at the 2026 United Astrology Conference in Chicago, Astrology Hub founder Amanda Walsh sits down with beloved astrologer Rick Levine for a thought-provoking conversation about what people misunderstand most about astrology, the illusion of certainty, and the power of curiosity. Drawing on nearly 60 years of astrological study, Rick shares why astrology is less about predicting your future and more about expanding your awareness, revealing possibilities, and empowering you to consciously participate in your own unfolding. Together, they explore the wisdom of embracing life's questions, moving beyond black-and-white thinking, and discovering why the deeper you go into astrology, the more there is to explore.
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🎬 IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL HEAR:
00:00 – What Most People Get Wrong About Astrology
06:22 – Why Astrology Should Help Us Ask Better Questions, Not Give Us Answers
11:11 – 60 Years of Studying Astrology: Rick's Biggest Lessons
19:01 – Rick's Advice for Astrology Students & the Joy of Lifelong Learning
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LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Rick Levine is a brilliant speaker, lecturing and facilitating workshops all around the world. He’s the co-founder of StarIQ.com, a founding Trustee of The Kepler College of Astrological Arts and Sciences, and co-author of Barnes and Noble’s annual “Your Astrology Guide.” Rick’s daily horoscope column was read by millions of readers for nearly 17 years through Tarot.com and Yahoo, AOL, Huffington Post, LA Times, Beliefnet, and more. Rick has taught an entire suite of astrology foundations with us here at Astrology Hub as well as several courses that are all available in our Academy.
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☝🏼 Disclaimer: The views and opinions in this podcast are of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Astrology Hub, its subsidiaries, or any entities they represent.
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“The search creates the reality. When you stop searching, when you stop asking questions, you stop creating reality.” – Rick Levine
Transcript
Amanda: Welcome to The Astrology Hub Podcast. We are here with the great Rick Levine, and we're here at the United Astrology Conference, and I get to ask Rick some questions.
Rick: And I get to be here with the great—
Amanda: Amanda—
Rick: —Pua Walsh, and I get to answer some questions and maybe sneak in one or two for her.
Amanda: Aha. Aha. Ah.
Rick: I've been known to do that.
Amanda: You have. Actually, I remember having dinner at your house in Seattle, and one thing you said to me is, “I've noticed you ask all the questions. When does anyone ever ask you a question?” And I kind of like, skirted away from that one.
Amanda: Okay. So this question is… And I'm asking all the astrologers.
Rick: There are other astrologers? You didn't tell me that.
Amanda: No, it's only you. I promise. Okay.
Rick: We're good. You're the only one. We're good, we're good again.
Amanda: Okay, so what do you think most people misunderstand about astrology?
Rick: Got a day? Seriously. A few hours? Seriously. The most. The most.
Amanda: I think that astrology suffers from having really bad PR.
Rick: That when someone says, “Oh, I don't believe in astrology,” my answer is, “Oh, well, you don't believe in the astrology that I don't believe in either.” Because people don't really understand the difference between public astrology and… I don't know if I can reduce it to just one thing other than the difference between what it is versus what people think it is.
Amanda: So it's—
Rick: Like, so many different things that people think it divides them into 12 different classes.
Amanda: I mean, that may be… Yeah.
Rick: “I'm a this, and you're a that, and that person's something else.” And of course, that's not what astrology is at all, and it gets back to the big problem that we are having on the planet. And that is the difference between polarity and nuance.
Amanda: Mm.
Rick: And so, you know, the idea that everybody is all 12 signs. That I am not an Aries… that I am an Aries really means that I have 11 other ways to interact with everything that I have become aware of as all possibilities.
Amanda: Right. But I think when people are new, that's kind of overwhelming. Like, how do you wrap your head around that? “I'm all of it? Like, I thought I was one of it,” right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, question for you on this polarity thing is like, polarity is built into the cosmic structure, correct? Or do we have it wrong?
Rick: Oh, no. Our nervous system is built upon a neuron either firing or not.
Amanda: This is the zero-one of computer science.
Rick: That everything that's done digitally, everything that's done in the electromagnetic realms is all based upon polarity. An electron either fires or it doesn't. It's one or other. In our body, that same digital polarity happens in the colon where the body says, “This is good, assimilate it into the bloodstream through the villi in the colon,” or it says, “This is shit. Send it out. Get rid of it,” and Pluto takes over and transforms it. But polarity is a basic operation of how we humans create consciousness. Consciousness is not bipolar, but every little nuance of every little neuron is firing, creating a field of infinite possibilities that we call the quantum field, for lack of something better.
Rick: But Buckminster Fuller used to say that the Trinity was one in heaven, two on Earth. He actually told that to Albert Einstein in a conversation where Einstein said, “Wait a minute. I had no idea that my formula of $E=mc^2$ had any real-world application.” And Bucky Fuller says, “No, it's this simple: God in heaven, and the Son and the Spirit on Earth.” The Son is physicality, mass—
Amanda: Yes.
Rick: —and the Holy Spirit is light, is—
Amanda: Wow.
Rick: And so energy equals mass and light. One in heaven, two on Earth. And so this whole idea of polarity is built into the illusion of the three-dimensional world, which is, as astrologers know, is a function of Saturn. And Saturn says, “This is either real or not.” And Saturn is that wall. It's the boundary. So yes, polarity is a basic thing, but as astrologers, we also know that it's an illusion.
Amanda: Ah, okay. So when we're wanting to, quote-unquote, like, “transcend polarity,” we're basically wanting to just see beyond the illusion. Like, not totally be asleep in the dream, to realize we're in the dream, but that we're still participating in the dream. So it's not like we leave it.
Rick: Marshall McLuhan said that environments are invisible. A fish doesn't see water. Right. And so as humans, we live in this world of invisibility that we just don't see. But astrology gives us tools to make that which was invisible, visible. Right. And so in a way, we have a tool to begin to see the water that we're swimming in, and that helps us break out of the ignorance. Ignorance just means without knowing. Right. Like agnosis, ignorance. Yes. And it helps us break out of that illusion of not knowing. Right.
Amanda: Okay. Next question. You ready?
Rick: Yeah. And then I'm saving up my questions for you.
Amanda: Okay. All right, all right. What's something you believe about astrology that other astrologers might not agree with?
Rick: Oh, that's an easy one. I think most astrologers fall into a category that they accuse practitioners of modern science, of medical doctors, practitioners of religious systems of fundamental thought… Those people all suffer from this idea that they think they know more than they do. And I think astrologers think they know more than they do.
Amanda: Wow.
Rick: Myself included. Because astrology creates—again, we're back to illusion—it creates the illusion of being able to give us answers, and I don't think astrology gives us answers. I think astrology gives us knowledge and languaging to realize that our questions need to be honed better. And it's the act of asking questions that creates reality. When you stop asking questions, reality becomes fixed and de-animated. You know, everyone has a friend that they've lost to quantum physics, Scientology, Jesus, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo Buddhism, whatever it is. And when someone discovers that, they die. They're no longer present. Their journey stops. And so I think it's very dangerous for astrologers to answer questions, because what you're doing is stopping someone else's ability to create their own reality.
Amanda: Can you give us an example of a question that needs to be asked better or differently?
Rick: Any, “Should I sell my house, Mercury just went retrograde?” “I just met someone. Is this the person that I should be with for the rest of my life?” “Is this a good relationship?” Any of those kinds of questions. See, my problem is that I'm a really good question-answerer, which is why I don't like to answer questions. Because if I answer your question and you take that as your answer, it's not your answer, it's my answer to your question.
Amanda: Right. Yes.
Rick: So instead, I have learned through astrology—as many astrologers… I'm not the only astrologer promoting this perspective, but my job as an astrologer is to use astrology to help you become clearer about the intersection that you're standing at in your life so that you can ask better questions than, “Should I sell my house, Mercury's retrograde?”
Amanda: Okay, upgrade that question for us. What would be a different version of that question that is an elevated version?
Rick: “Why do I think my house should be sold today, and what would I gain by selling it today versus tomorrow versus next week?” “And what patterns in my life does that bring up for me that I might learn from why I am thinking about putting my house on the market?” “And what do I hope to gain, and what of those issues may be things that are based upon things that aren't as important as they seem?”
It depends on the question. It involves dialogue and conversation. And I don't think there's just one, “Oh, this is a better question.” It's a discussion of how does the question that you're asking fit into the pattern of your life, and how have you asked this question at other times in your life? And how have those answers worked out for you then? And what are you expecting different now, and what can you do between now and the time that you actually put your house on the market that might help you get something out of this more than what you've gotten out of it before?
Amanda: Love it. Okay. Hi, friends. We had so much fun at UAC that we wanted to figure out a way to bring a little bit of that magic home to you. So for a limited time, our podcast listeners can build their own bundle of mastery classes that they'd like to add to their library. You can choose three classes out of a special collection of 10, or add Amanda's book, Life by the Stars, to your bundle, and get three classes just for the price of one. So if you go to www.astrologyhub.com/uac, that's /UAC, you can build your bundle today. And now, back to the episode.
After all the years of studying astrology, what do you wish you knew then when you first started that you know now?
Rick: Oh, all of it. No, I… Yes. Yes. Well, here's the problem: if I knew then what I now know now, I wouldn't have ever learned what I know now, because it all comes from learning. And again, if I had all the answers, then I wouldn't ask any questions. I wouldn't have had this journey.
I had a philosophy professor when I was 19 years old in college who used to say, “The search creates the reality. When you stop searching, when you stop asking questions, you stop creating reality.” So I don't know. I mean, I've hated some of the dark nights of the soul that I've gone through over the 60 years of being interested in astrology. I'm 77, and when I was in my late teens was when I became interested in astrology. But I don't know that I would want to know what I know now.
Although, I have to say, there's a part of me that would like to feel as I did 30 years ago, and that is, “Wow, I know everything I need to know about astrology.” And now I feel like I don't know shit. You know, I feel like… And I know people look at me and go, “Wow, you know a lot about astrology.” Sure. But I also… there's so many people here at the conference who know so many techniques and have so much knowledge of different facets of history and different perspectives that I'm never gonna have. It doesn't matter how much I learn and how much of a beginner's mind I try to have. And so that to me is frustrating. I need a few more lifetimes without forgetting this one.
Amanda: Right. What do you say to new students? What do you say to people that are curious in terms of how to approach their learning?
Rick: If you can capture anything about your current curiosity, that's the only thing you need to hold onto. Hold onto. It's… and I've probably said this with you before, but one of my favorite William Blake lines is from what he called his Proverbs of Hell. And to Blake, hell was a place that was so beautiful it would torment an angel to insanity.
Amanda: Whoa.
Rick: I mean, this is not a Christian place where we would go to be punished. It's a place of magic. And Blake wrote, “Rather than describing the shape of the buildings and what it's like in the hell realms, I'm gonna share with you some of the proverbs that I've gleaned from hell so you can understand the nature of its infernal wisdom.” Like, “The hands of folly are measured by a clock, but those of wisdom no hands can measure.” That was one… I mean, many of them. “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”
And one of my favorites is, “What is now proved was once only imagined.” I love that one. But the one that came up just from this is very simple, and this goes back to curiosity. It's, “If the fool would persist in his folly, he would become wise.” And that's why after 60 years of studying astrology, I'm still just the fool persisting in his folly. Yes. Yes. Ah. That's it. Yes. So anything that's capturing your curiosity, follow that. Have that yearning sort of quenched, then you're probably gonna have another question, and follow that.
Amanda: Oh, it's the many-headed Hydra. Exactly.
Rick: It's not another question. It's everything that you follow… get that answer, and then there's two more. And then there's four more, and then there's eight more, and then 16. Yes. And that becomes the… you know, again, the infernal wisdom is that the more you know, the more unfollowed paths there are that you can never quite follow.
Now, I have this image in my mind. I turned this into a slide for a presentation years ago, and I think it's been lost in the shuffle, but I need to resurrect it. It's a sign you've come to a fork in the road, and it says, “Quantum intersection. Proceed both ways.”
Amanda: That's so good. That's so good. I love it. Okay. Those are all my questions for you for now.
Rick: Okay. So my question for you… In your interest and study of astrology, what is it that you think that most people out there who hear about astrology don't know about it?
Amanda: Ah. I think they don't know kind of what you were just talking about. Like, at the fork in the road, go here and go there. That there's really no getting it wrong, that they are not wrong… I mean, before my first reading with Natasha, my thought was, “What if she sees something wrong about me? Or what if she tells me something bad about my future?” And one of the things I've realized in studying astrology is there really is no bad. There's no bad about my future. And plus, anyone telling you something bad about your future, they're not a good astrologer. Someone saying, “This bad thing is gonna happen,” but just that… It is a study of unfolding. It is a study of deepening understanding. But then like you said, you just realize there's more to understand the deeper you go. But what I think people get wrong is that there's gonna be some answer. It's gonna be good or bad.
Rick: You know, for years, back when there were telephones, as an astrologer, the phone would ring and I would answer it, “Rick Levine,” and someone would say, “Well, I've been recommended to give you a call because this is what's happening in my life, and I need to know whether I should do this or that.” And my answer was, “I'm sorry, but I think you misdialed. I think you were looking for the answer astrologer. You got the question astrologer.”
And if you want an answer, I know 20 astrologers who will give you answers faster than you can ask them. But it's not me, because you don't have enough money and you're not smart enough to trick me into answering one of your questions. I won't do it. Yeah. You know, I will not do it, because I think it's a very dangerous thing to do. And I don't have the answer to your question. I have the answer to what I might do in that situation, but I don't know that situation 'cause I'm standing in my shoes, not yours.
Amanda: Totally. And we want things black and white. We wanna be told what to do. You know? It's easier that way. I think that's what we think. But the truth is, it's harder that way.
Rick: If you're limited by computer technology, there's black, there's white, and there's 254 shades… 256 shades between 100% black and 100% white. Wow. So there is no black and white. It's the illusion of black and white.
Amanda: Ah. I love it. So that's how I would answer your question. What else you got for me?
Rick: Nope. That was my question. That was it? Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. God, you let me off the hook easy. Okay.
Amanda: One more question for you.
Rick: I don't believe that.
Amanda: Well, one more question for now.
Rick: Oh, okay. That I'll accept. Yes. One more question for now.
Amanda: If there was one thing you could say to people out there who are curious and interested about astrology, who are just embarking on their journey, what would you say to them?
Rick: Okay, I have to say two things, not one thing. One thing I would say to the people out there is that they're not out there, 'cause there's no such thing as out there out there.
Amanda: Perfect. Yes, thank you for that. Okay, yes.
Rick: So they're already in here just by the nature of them being. But separate from that wise-ass response—which is true, it's true—I would say that anyone who's beginning a study or interest or curiosity of astrology, it's not monolithic. You're not going to read a book or take a course and know it. It's a path of curiosity. Some people drop their entire life and say, “This is now what I'm doing.” And other people… we know people like this who have said to us individually, “I got interested in astrology 65 years ago, and I've never been an astrologer. I don't ever imagine becoming an astrologer, but I've been dabbling in astrology for 65 years, and it's as meaningful to me as anything else in my life.” Pick your place on the spectrum. But there's no single way to learning or doing astrology. It's just something to know about.
Amanda: Mm. Rick, thank you. Thank you for—
Rick: Amanda, thank you. I mean, really, thank you for being.
Amanda: Make me cry. Oof. I met you eight years ago here. Here. And we went out to a quick lunch—
Rick: —that lasted three hours.
Amanda: Exactly. And it has never ended. It's never ended. Thank you so much for everything you've contributed to this community, for being so willing to come. You're so generous with us. You share so much, and we love you. And I just want you to know that you are cherished and adored and appreciated and… Ah.
Rick: Not only that we have this, but I love the fact that over the years so many people that I've said, “You know, why don't you get in touch with…” and now they're such an important part of Astrology Hub. I love that my friends are all here.
Amanda: Me too. Thank you. Mm. That's it. Oh my God. You're wonderful. I love you. I love you so much. Oh, God. Ah. Okay.
Rick: And I love her. Can I go home now?
Amanda: No.
Rick: Oh wait, I am home. God.