Interview – A Vintage look at Lana Wooster

My mother-in-law recently unearthed a magazine interview from 1978 when I was writing a regular column for “Good Life” magazine.  I was prepared to cringe throughout the re- reading of it but will let it pass except for a slight airbrushing of my throwaway opening comments, to include the concept that over time you learn more and more to work with the planetary transits.  Feel free to remonstrate with the ideas expressed by my 28 year old self as you take this trip back in time.  A website is a handy place to keep something you do not want to mislay again.

The interview was written by Rob Lowthian

Can These People Really Predict Your Future?

[My interview was preceded by interviews with Astrologers Jilly Collings and the late Patric Walker]

Lana Wooster doesn’t watch her own stars too closely.  “I just bear in mind where the planets are generally,” says Lana, who compiles Good Life’s stars column.  “I don’t think it’s wise to do your own…you could become neurotic.”

Lana is a thoroughly modern astrologer.  There’s no hint of the gypsy or crystal ball at her North London home.  One concession is the teacups, decorated with signs of the Zodiac.  By coincidence (?) Lana handed me one bearing my own Sagittarius sign shortly after I arrived.  Nor is her background what you might expect for an astrologer.   After studying for a degree in history and psychology at Nottingham University, she worked in a psychiatric unit.

Astrology, like psychology, is a way of dividing people into types, says Lana.  Her interest in the subject began when she picked up a compendium for beginners.  “It slotted into my personal philosophy of life.  My life and those of other people, formed a basic pattern.  When you look into it, astrology is a very logical system.”

It played an important part when she met her husband Mike. “We were just casual acquaintances when I first looked at Mike’s chart,” says Lana.  What she discovered was a striking link.  “His chart looked like an upside down version of my own,” she explains.

Compatibility of signs is very important in relationships thinks Lana.  “But” she warns “you can only tell a limited amount from the sun sign alone.  You must look at both people’s birth charts to judge compatibility.  However, there are strong links between ‘opposite’ signs.  These she lists as Leo and Aquarius, Gemini and Sagittarius, Aries and Libra, Taurus and Scorpio, Virgo and Pisces, Cancer and Capricorn.  We are also compatible with people of the same element.  “Relationships should be fairly smooth and easy if a couple have their sun sign in the same element.” Says Lana.

If you’ve had a bad forecast, don’t feel too downhearted.  “You can turn bad aspects to good account” says our astrologer.  “I don’t look at it in such dire terms as some people do.  A large element of will is involved in what happens…life is not completely fatalistic.  Personality and character shape events to a great extent.  If you know how to control your personality, and change it if necessary, then you can have some influence over your destiny.”

People often expect astrologers to be able to spot a person’s sun sign instantaneously.  Lana is often asked to do this at parties and has found that “to some extent” it can be done. “Someone’s outside appearance is usually governed by the ascendant sign rather than the sun sign, making it difficult,” she explains.  “But some have a lot of their sun sign in their make-up.”  Sagittarians like myself look  “sporty” according to Lana.

Before one of the biggest events in her own life, she could not resist a quick consultation of the charts.  When her daughter Rebecca was born in January she knew the date of the induced birth in advance and had all the ascendant signs already worked out for the possible times.  The moment Rebecca was born Lana could make certain pronouncements.  “She’ll be a very artistic child.  Born on a cusp she will have a complex character with a lot of contradictions in her make-up”.

Final word from Lana: “People shouldn’t let astrology influence them to do anything they wouldn’t normally do.  They should analyse what they’re doing and take responsibility for their actions.”