The OPA Certification Program

The OPA board and group leaders have been working on our certification program. Every year, we will offer at least three certification weekends. The next certification weekend will be held November 2-5 in Calabasas, California. Email Dvora Weil for details ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). There will always be at least one certification group at our annual retreat.

What is the OPA certification program?

This process of certifying astrologers will be a little lengthier than other forms of certification. It will require each person to register to be certified, to attend three weekend retreat-like experiences, and be passed by three different certified group leaders. The weekend retreat will be at different locations throughout the country during the year, as well as being part of the annual retreat. This will require some advanced preparation on the part of each participant, because you will be graded on your ability to present a case history, give a chart session for a client, and demonstrate a realistic plan for your own professional future.

Why should we have a certification program?

We are having a certification program because our peer review process is so powerful that it can help and inspire each of us to do better astrology. It can help us clarify our professional work as an organization. It can motivate our membership to become more involved with the OPA programs and to receive tangible benefits from their involvement. This process will help each of us monitor our own development and give us a method for improving our skills. Also, the

final result will be that the world will receive a more helpful and more standardized form of astrology.

How is this program different than any other program?

Most astrology certification programs rely exclusively on external criteria for measuring and eventually passing astrologers into certification. Both NCGR and ISAR have excellent programs for proving an astrologer’s competency. However, our approach is entirely different. We have a subjective model, i.e. the certified group leader is responsible for passing/failing/giving suggestions to each participant. The virtue in this is that it allows greater latitude for each participant to express their own unique style, while at the same time, measuring in a much more precise manner, the skills, talents, attitudes and procedures that we are really interested in evaluating. This requires group leaders to look at each participant more deeply. This program will make anyone who participates in it a finer astrologer.

What is the benefit for participation in the program?

Anyone who participates in the program will acquire deeper self knowledge. The process itself reveals aspects of the personality and the professional demeanor that is invaluable. Also, group leaders will be able to steer each person toward programs, literature, and schools that can help fill in missing pieces of a person’s professional skills. And finally, when a person completes the certification program, the organization will advertise for the astrologer and help that person secure a permanent clientele. The benefit for the world is that everyone will have access to better astrology and through this we will help raise consciousness on the planet.