Guest guest Report post Posted October 14, 2002 Mu’Min: A Life Thursday, October 10, 2002 All, So many people have asked about who I am, how I got into Astrology and so on, and while I have posted my story one time before, I can’t seem to find it to re-post again; so I’ll just start over. I was born Mark Anthony Robinson, to Jacqueline Robinson and Andre’ Jackson, on Dec 2, 1968 at 9:43am EST, in Philadelphia, PA, USA at St. Luke’s Hospital in the heart of North Philly. I chose to come back this time around as a Sagittarius, with, if you use the Vedic system, a Scorpio Sun and an Aries Moon. Shortly after I was born, on April 1, 1969, my Mom married my Step Dad, and in the early 1970s, we all moved to Decatur, GA, a suburb of Atlanta. We stayed there for a few years, and during that time, my youngest sister Jeanette was born (I have 3 sisters in all). I attended Philly public schools, which I thought was a monumental waste of both my time and energy, as well as a supreme insult to my intelligence. As it often happens when you’re poor and Black, in the public schools, where the majority of teachers are White and have no vested interest in you, you’re likely to learn precious little to make you into a productive citizen in society. Add that to the fact that my parents could not afford to send me to college, and that all adds up to me having to find work shortly after graduation of High School. I worked in various blue-collar jobs, including a big roofing outfit, landscaping, etc. It was during the Summer of 1992, when I was still in the Landscaping business, that I first ran into Astrology. One night, after a long day at work, and out of boredom, I decided to flip up and down the AM side of the dial, instead of listening to the usual FM music stations; I ran across this guy talking about Astrology. The show was hosted by a man named Richard Whiten, and he spent the following 3 hours explaining the nature of Astrology, how it worked and also gave mini-analyses of the caller’s charts. He was spot-on with nearly everything he said, some of the callers sounded like they were going to pass out from him being so accurate. I knew my own Sign, but I didn’t know anything about Astrology, so I was instantly hooked. So, for the next month or so, I listened to him and finally got up the nerve to visit him for an analysis of my horoscope. We met at his home office and talked for over an hour, and at the end of the meeting, he said, “Mu’Min there is one last thing. You could be a really good Astrologer if you worked at it; there is every indication that you will write books and do things that have never been done before” (1992 was the same year that I converted to Islam and changed my name; Mu’Min comes from the Holy Qur’an and means “Faithful”). I laughed in his face, and told him that he was saying that only to flatter me so I would buy some more of his herbs and vitamins. I left his home and went about my business. But later that year, in the Fall, I was laid off, due to slowness of work. At the same time, my girlfriend left me. Depressed, and lonely, I spent the Thanksgiving holiday alone, and it wasn’t until right after that that I, out of sheer frustration and impulse, went downtown and barged into one of those Botanica/Curio stores, like the one in the first “Blade” movie. I asked for their Astrology section, and they pointed me in the direction of some bookshelves in the back. After looking around for awhile, one of the books kind of called out to me. It was called, “The Compleat Astrologer” by Derek and Julia Parker and it came in a slipcase and was pretty expensive, about $40. I slapped my money down on the counter and made off with my new book. Since it was one of those “all in one” books, you know it had the ephemeris, table of houses, astronomy section and astrology sections, I could get all of the info that I needed in one stop. I must’ve devoured the book in about 2 weeks, meaning that I had all of the meanings of the planets, their movements, and how to cast a chart by hand down pat. All of this was Western Astrology by the way – I didn’t even know that Vedic Astrology had existed at the time. That wouldn’t follow for another 6 years. I didn’t stop there – I got other books, including the standards by Liz Greene, Jeff Green, Dane Rudhyar, Noel Tyl, Donna Cunningham, Steve Forrest and so on. I stayed up many nights studying the Marc Edmund Jones chart patterns and Sabian symbols, etc. In fact, for the first 6 months of my Astrological life, I studied Astrology for no less than 12 hours a day, 7 days a week; and when I finally did work again (this time as an Operational Mgr. of a car wash), I would get up extra early so I could pray and study for a few hours, and study all lunch time, and go to the bookstore and study some more until they closed and kicked me out. I did that a lot, since I could not afford a lot of the books I wanted to read, so I would go the bookstore and read for free, and make notes and take them home and study them further. Since I was making a good bit of money, finally, I was able to save up and build up a decent library. One night, after payday, I headed straight for the bookstore, I had my eyes on some of the books for the longest time; I must’ve bought up about $400 worth of books in one night. The white lady that was in line with me, he eyes were ready to pop out of her head when she saw that. Like most Black folks in the USA, I grew up in a fiercely Baptist family, and both my conversion to Islam and my involvement with Astrology were sure signs that I was going to hell in a handbasket. Today, it’s cool they have no problem with either, but back then, oh boy, it was trouble. But I was able to win them over by doing their charts and accurately predicting events before they actually happened. So today, they’re cool, and from time to time, they come to me for advice. One day, back in Jan of 1993, Richard Whiten, the man that introduced me to Astrology, asked me to sit in on one of his shows, where he planned to have on some of his colleagues. I was so excited to be there, and all of his friends were very good, but one stood out – Basil Fearrington. I immediately took a liking to him, and he to me, and it was he that I learned virtually everything I knew and know about Western Astrology from. Although today we have had our differences, I will always acknowledge the role he played in my development, and I will always be thankful for his teaching me the ropes. It was at this time, shortly after my return from prison (I served about 2 years for beating up a couple of guys for trying to attack me after I confronted the man who beat up my sister – it was spousal abuse; 1995) that I wanted to get a computer. I knew that I couldn’t go on doing charts by hand, and so I really wanted one badly – but I didn’t have the money that most computers cost. Richard Whiten, my old friend from way back, had a computer he got from Basil, and he told me that he would sell it to me for $250. It had all kinds of Astro-software on it, so it was worth the price, plus I couldn’t afford to get anything else, so I bought it. The only problem was, I didn’t know how to type, didn’t know anything about computers and I definitely didn’t know anything about Astro-software. So, I bought it and took it home, and everyday after work I would turn it on and push buttons until I finally figured everything out. That took about a month. That was when I could type my first letter, cast charts and database them. Since then, I have owned at least 5 computers, 3 of them laptops. Oh yeah, I forgot – I now own a Palm too. In 1998, Basil turned me on to Vedic Astrology, which to me, was really weird. He told me about a man named Vishnu Sharma, Ph.D, of New York City. He said that he was a very good Jyotishi, and so I decided to see for myself. I went to NYC one weekend to meet him. He lives in Elmhurst, Queens, NYC, and that is a place, for those that know, where a lot of Indians reside. When we first met, in May of 1998, he took about an hour and lectured me on Astrology and how it ties in to the other Sciences, and the role and responsibility of the Astrologer, and so on. Finally, he asked to see my horoscope. I told him my data, and after studying it for about 60 seconds on the computer screen, he exclaimed, “You will be a great Astrologer!” I thought he was going to have another heart attack. I asked him why he said that: “Because Mars and Jupiter with Ketu in the 10 house in Virgo not only gives Astrological skill, but also gives Raj-Yoga!” I wasn’t convinced, and he went further: “Mercury Vargottoma in Scorpio in the 12 house associated with 9 lord Sun gives both foreign influence and Astrological skill. You will travel overseas and teach Astrology at major universities, you will write books, and you will get name and fame overseas, much more than you will ever get in the land of your birth”. I told him that I never even went to college, so how could I teach at one? He exclaimed, “You never went to universities, but you will TEACH at universities!” I didn’t tell Sharmaji that I was being considered for teaching Western Astrology at a community education, volunteer program at Temple U. back home; I had run into a lot of resistence, primarily because I had no teaching background at all, I was very young and thus hard to take seriously, the executive director was a staunch Christian and the last Astrology instructor had a lot of bad blood with this lady who ran the program. In fact, at that point in time, in the Spring of 98, it didn’t look good. In late Aug of that same year, I got the green light to teach Astrology at Temple University’s PASCEP program. I have been there ever since, and in fact I have a class tonight. Score 1 for Sharma. Sharma told me that he couldn’t teach me in the way that I wanted him to, due to both his age and his ill-health (he had many heart problems), but he said that my chart indicated that I had the ability to teach myself many subjects, including Vedic Astrology. Since then, I have met with him in person a total of 3 times, one of those times, by best friend Zamani was with me. Everything else I learned, pretty much on my own. Sharmaji’s 2 for 2. After doing an analysis of his daugther’s horoscope, Das Goravani gave me a copy of his program; before that, I had one those old, old DOS-based Jyotish programs. In fact, I have had the very good fortune to be able to get hold of softwares from people that believed in me, and for this, I am most grateful. It’s been a very interesting experience this whole Astrology thing; through it I have seen all sorts of things, both in my life and in the lives of others, both good and bad. The other thing I have noticed that is kind of weird to me: I have more and more people from places like India that are coming for either advice and/or instruction in Vedic Astrology, which to me is like a bunch of Chinese folk in Hong Kong wanting a Brotha from the hood to teach them Kung-Fu. Wow. One day, about 2 years ago, out of boredom, I tallied up all of the hours I spent studying Astrology; I averaged it out to 3 hours a day over the course of about 8 years. I think I arrived at something like 5000 hours – I’m told that would be equal to about 3 Ph.D’s in any subject. Wow. So, I guess that’s my story. One of these days, maybe I’ll write a book. Salaam, Mu ===== Mu'Min M. Bey Western and Vedic Astrologer mumin_bey AOL IM Screen Name: JediMu 2Way Pager: 1-877-345-6499/8773456499; Cell phone: 267-978-2812 Join the Pan Astrological Forum, Where Freedom in Astrological Thought Lives! 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