IN THE STARS, NOT THE BARS

[August 10th, 2005] Don't call Alan Oken an astrologist. "There's no such thing," he says. And he should know: The 61-year-old has been in the field for almost four decades.

Oken is the author of several-hundred astrology articles and 12 books, as well as the founder and director of the spiritually minded Wisdom School, based in Santa Fe, N.M. In Portland this summer to teach at the Oregon Astrological Association (I didn't know we had one of these either), I met the metaphysical queer man in June at the opening of the Wonder Ballroom.

And that got me wondering: Are our lives destined by the stars? Or are they just likely to be determined by the amount of time we spend in the queer bars? I had to know. Thankfully, Oken obliged, giving me some advice about drinking. Maybe he got a little too personal.

Can you predict the future?

Alan Oken: I'm capable of seeing both collective and personal cycles as they unfold in the future. That's right.

Do people ask you...

All the time.

Do you indulge them?

I don't indulge them, I advise them. I see it as a way of helping someone.

Are the stars in us?

You've got it. Planets represent archetypes of psychological realities. The Greeks knew that. I think human beings are limited in that they don't see energetically-objectively-but only see the reflections of their own desires.

So is gayness a higher state of consciousness?

No. In certain cases it represents an elevated sense of sensitivity. But there is a tendency for super-narcissism. I have a problem seeing the gay and the straight world as something separate when the whole orientation of life is to live together.

So where do gay people fit into astrology?

There are certain things in the horoscope you can see as signifiers of sexual proclivity. When I did Michael Jackson's horoscope, there [was] an obvious tendency to pedophilia-homosexual pedophilia. Now, whether he [acted on] that or not, that's not for me to see. Any astrologer can see there are certain astrological aspects that show homosexuality, or a tendency to be a great military hero, a sadomasochist or any other facet of human nature.

And that's why you came up with alcohol for me.

I could see by your energy field that you have that problem.

What advice would you give to gay men?

Get over it! Get over your narcissism because it leads to alcohol and drug abuse. And it leads to sex with no love connected to it.

What's wrong with that?

[It's] the draining of your soul out your penis. I've been married, had kids, long-lasting male lovers and brief ones, but I've never been promiscuous or felt inclined to separate my sexuality from my being-ness. To be homosexual is difficult. Yet the rewards of that special kind of poetry is a beautiful thing. I wouldn't trade my life-being a conscious person in a gay body-for anyone's. The Latin word for sex means "that which is divided." Why would I want to focus on my division when I can focus on my wholeness?