Renstrom, Christopher

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Renstrom, Christopher

PERSONAL:

Born in Menlo Park, CA. Education: Attended Juilliard School of Drama for one year; privately trained in astrology by Zoltan Mason.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Astrologer, writer, playwright. Astrologer in private practice, New York, NY, 1985—. Creator of Condé Nast's 900 Astrology phone line for Allure, 1996; creator of Renstrom's Horoscopes for nGames. Lecturer at the Learning Annex, New York, NY.

WRITINGS:

Ruling Planets: Your Astrological Guide to Life's Ups and Downs, HarperResource (New York, NY), 2002.

Also author of four plays produced Off-Off-Broadway. Author of daily horoscope column for Allure, 1991—, San Francisco Chronicle, 1997—, and SFGate.com.

SIDELIGHTS:

Christopher Renstrom is a nationally known astrologer who has been in private practice since 1985. "I basically see myself as a cosmic weatherman," Renstrom told Jeff Belanger in an interview on GhostVillage.com. In addition, Renstrom serves as the astrologist for Allure magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle, and he is the author of Ruling Planets: Your Astrological Guide to Life's Ups and Downs.

Though astrology dates to Babylonian times, Renstrom told Belanger, it didn't become popular in the United States until the early twentieth century. "The contribution America made that no one else did was psychological astrology," Renstrom stated. "America was the first country to really wed astrology to someone's psychology and use it to understand your behavior and potential as a person and use it to better yourself." In Ruling Planets, Renstrom explains that an individual's personality traits are based on one's ruling planet and not one's zodiac sign. Traditionally, Renstrom notes, people identified themselves as a "child of Mars" rather than an Aries; the practice of using zodiac signs originated in Great Britain in the 1930s. "Renstrom tells us that the original emphasis on a ‘ruling planet’ (which is continually in motion) is missing from today's astrology texts," stated Hilary Williamson on the BookLoons Web site. In the work, Renstrom shows readers how to determine their ruling planet, discusses the characteristics associated with that planet, and offers a compatibility analysis. "Rich illustrations and very witty and warm text make this book a keeper," noted a contributor on the Cafe Astrology Web site.