The Mountain Astrologer is widely acknowledged as the best English-language astrology magazine in the world today. We can be found at your favorite bookstore or newsstand ~ we're carried in more than 2000 stores worldwide or by subscription.
We are known for:
• Lively, well-written articles on a wide variety of astrological topics
• A User-friendly Student Section
• Astrological Data
• Astro-humor
• A comprehensive forecast section
• A calendar outlining each day's aspects and the global astrological climate
If you are hungry for top-rate astrological information, enjoy our online offerings, then contact us for a sample issue or subscription. See details.
Publishing Schedule/General Information
The Mountain Astrologer Magazine publishes 6 times per year, bi-monthly. Each issue has approximately 10 feature articles, plus columns, forecasts, and Article Particles - a forum for new ideas or brief responses to published articles. Our article mix is designed to please professional astrologers as well as students at many levels of expertise.
Each issue is approximately 8.5" x 11", 112 pages in length, with a glossy full color cover. The content ratio is 75% content to 25% advertising. Subscriber issues are mailed 4 to 6 weeks before the issue date, directly from our printer in Wisconsin. They are timed to arrive before the first of the issue month.
Distribution/Readership/Stores
As of December 2007, we have a distribution of 19,000 copies. Each issue is mailed to more than 9,000 subscribers worldwide, with the remainder sold in over 2000 stores internationally - including Barnes & Noble, Tower Records & Books, independent bookstores, metaphysical bookstores and health food stores.
Staff Members
Tem Tarriktar is the founder and publisher of TMA (for 17 years now). He enjoys astrological research and writing, especially when printer deadlines aren't looming. He's a triple Leo (western) and a double Cancer (Vedic) with Mars in Pisces (either), and a side of french fries with that, please. Tem has a few articles posted on this site (see the archives). He lives with his partner Kate - and a dog who thinks she is a human (Chelsea), and a cat who thinks he's a dog (Jack).
Senior Editor Nan Geary has studied astrology since 1970; she is married to an astronomer/telescope-maker, so theirs is a union of inner sky and outer sky. Nan also writes and performs music and is a member of a three-woman a cappella vocal group, Harmonious Combustion. As an editor for TMA, she competes with Tem for the position of punster-in-chief.
Janette deProsse, our Managing Editor, has learned almost everything she knows about astrology from editor Nan Geary and from reading and re-reading every single word that has been published in The Mountain Astrologer since the Leo/Aquarius issue (Feb/March 2000). Her extracurricular passions include reading, Latin jazz, baseball, European travel, playing Scrabble, and watching Deep Space Nine reruns. She lives in a lovely little cottage on two wooded acres with her partner and two black-and-white cats.
Web & Book Editor Mary Plumb is a consulting and teaching astrologer living in Ashland, Oregon. She wrote most of the Beginner's Series for TMA, as well as numerous articles for the Planet Tracks section, and various articles for the printed magazine over the years. With Sun, Moon and Ascendant in water signs, Mary spends as much time as possible at the coast, in the pool or the bath tub. Her email address is mplumb@maryplumb.com
Ray Grasse has been Associate Editor of TMA since 1999, and has been a practicing astrologer since 1973. He is author of two books, The Waking Dream, a study of synchronicity and symbolism, and Signs of the Times, an exploration of the emerging Aquarian Age. He has contributed to many anthologies, among them Eastern Systems for Western Astrologers and more recently The Astrology of Film. Throughout the 1990s, he worked on the editorial staffs of Quest Books and The Quest Magazine. In 2001, he decided that being known as an astrologer wasn't quite oddball enough, so he took on side work as a hypnotist for a local hypnosis center in the suburban Chicagoland area, where he has worked three days a week ever since. His email address is jupiter.enteract@rcn.com
TMA Vedic Astrology Editor, Linda Johnsen, M.S., is author of six books about South Asia including Daughters of the Goddess: The Women Saints of India (which won the publishing industry's MBA award for "Best New Age Book of the Year") and A Thousand Suns: Designing Your Future with Vedic Astrology. Linda is a passionate student of the Hindu sacred sciences, as well as ancient Greek philosophy and modern theoretical physics. She and her husband, geologist Johnathan Brown, are initiates in the Shakta Advaita (Goddess) tradition of Hinduism.
Robert P. Blaschke, TMA's newest Associate Editor is founder of Earthwalk School of Astrology in February 1992, is an internationally respected full-time professional consulting, lecturing and teaching astrologer. He has lectured at regional and international astrology conferences in the USA, Canada, Australia and Serbia, and has been a guest speaker for over thirty-five different U.S. astrological associations in sixteen states. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Astrology: A Language of Life series: Volume I - Progressions, Volume II - Sabian Aspect Orbs, Volume III - A Handbook for the Self-Employed Astrologer and Volume IV - Relationship Analysis.
TMA calls on Kate Sholly for Special Projects when needed. Kate also does chart readings in Nevada City, where she lives with Tem and the infamous human dog and canine cat (see Tem's bio). She loves and practices an energy approach to astrology, ala Stephen Arroyo, and has a special on-going interest in the 4th, 8th, and 12th houses. More recently, Kate has been teaching Skills for Change, a combination of problem solving skills, communication skills, and body awareness.
Judy Schwein is our Advertising Manager. The oldest member of TMA staff, both in time working here (10 years) and in age (still water-skiing at age 60), Judy describes herself as: "Annoying combination of Virgo & Libra, single, two children in their 30's, one grandchild on the way and one beautiful grandson who is three; his chart says he's psychic, but we don't use "the p word" around here. I'm the odd one on the staff; the only smoker, don't have animals, don't eat tofu, like a good rare steak and more than one glass of fine wine, and I'm proud to be a logic-driven conservative. And yes, I do have a supply of duct tape in my office."
Art Director Tara Sanders has a Libra Sun, Gemini Moon, and Aries Rising. Tara does the layout and most of the covers and illustrations in the magazine, starting with the Aug/Sept 1999 issue. In the world outside of TMA, she is an artist, photographer, and craftsperson, and also an avid Renaissance Faire enthusiast. Tara's son Tony, daughter Diana, cat Mandarin, and iguanas Zak and Anaugi have figured in the illustrations of many articles in TMA over the last few years.
Judith Cooper is our Circulation Manager. She enjoys gardening, meditation, cats, photography, graphic design, and reading mystery books. She recently began taking herbal medicine and aromatherapy classes. She now concocts and foists aromatherapy sprays and oils on anyone so foolish as to complain of emotional or physical aches and pains to her.
Ann Meigs is the Circulation Department Assistant. She works every Monday and fills in as needed. Her other career is as a Massage Therapist and she has an office in nearby Nevada City. She also volunteers for Hospice and does Reiki and massage for their patients. Spare time, and there's not much, is spent with friends, gardening, playing music, and with four planets and the south node in Cancer, on endless home improvement projects.
Carol Springer handles store distribution from her office in the San Francisco Bay area, and has been with TMA for many years