STAR-TELLING / STAR-GOWISHNIH

Your Star-Gowishn

Sasanian-Hellenistic Astrologer

My name is David Wallace-Hare. I'm a Devon-based, Sasanian-Hellenistic astrologer (Middle Persian Star-Gowishn), and classicist whose work focuses on how ancient peoples sought guidance, protection, and meaning from the divine, in the uncertainty of their livelihoods, in the risks of their trades, and in the movements of the sky itself.

Sidereal Ascendant/Rising Sign (Pahlavi/Middle Persian: Mex ī Gyānān "the peg of the souls/lives"): Haftoring (Ursa Major) in Virgo.

I am a Professional Member of the International Sidereal Astrology Association (ISAA).

I hold a PhD in Classics from the University of Toronto, where my dissertation, Mountain Industries and Votive Dedications in Roman Aquitania and Hispania, examined how communities working in Rome's riskiest and most uncertain trades, mining, quarrying, silvopastoralism, and beekeeping, turned to votive religion for guidance and protection, inscribing vows to gods tied to their specific trades and landscapes.

It's a question that has stayed with me ever since: how people, ancient and modern, seek orientation and agency when their livelihood and future feel uncertain, and what role the sacred plays in answering that need. I have held research and teaching positions in the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, and the United States, teaching Greek and Roman history, mythology, ancient religion, and classical literature, alongside training in ancient Greek, Latin, and their use in scientific and technical contexts.

My academic research spans ancient religion, economy, and technical texts more broadly, published internationally, including and most relevant a study of one of the earliest known artistic depictions of catasterism, the ancient theme of mortals transformed into stars (more below).

My astrological practice builds on this same foundation. I work primarily with the sidereal zodiac and whole sign houses, situating these techniques within the wider philosophical and religious traditions from which they developed. I am especially interested in Hellenistic and Zoroastrian star-lore, as well as the Persian Illuminationist philosophers and their exploration of how the planets and stars were understood as living intelligences. My long-standing interest in how people made religious choices in the face of uncertainty has also shaped my preference for astrological traditions that emphasise free will over more deterministic approaches.

My published research spans ancient religion in the Mediterranean and Europe, the ancient and medieval economy, ancient fable, and technical texts (like agricultural manuals), it also includes a study of one of the earliest known artistic depictions of catasterism, the ancient theme of mortals transformed into stars:

"On the Theme of Katasterismoi: An Attic White-Ground Lekythos with the Figure of Krotos," with Rui Morais, Frank Hildebrandt, and John T. Barnes, in Myths, Gods & Heroes: Greek Vases in Portugal (2022). This chapter examines a rare Classical-period vase depicting the satyr Krotos, companion of the Muses, whose transformation into the constellation Sagittarius is preserved in Hyginus and Pseudo-Eratosthenes' Katasterismoi. Drawing on literary sources and comparative iconography, from the constellations on the Shield of Achilles in Homer to Near Eastern astral traditions, the chapter argues this vase may be the earliest surviving artistic representation of catasterism. This research predates my own practice as an astrologer; my interest in the subject goes back further still, to first reading Manilius's Astronomica. It shapes how I teach the fixed stars now: not as inherited technical points on a wheel, but as figures with real, told mythic histories, worth knowing the way the ancients themselves knew them.

Work With Me

Chart Defense Training: a weekly drop-in group class in Devon or online, teaching the skill of reading the sky itself: real astrological literacy and agency, built through lived, repeated practice rather than passive reading.

Natal Reading: a one-to-one session on your own chart, in Devon or online, for anyone who wants to understand their own placements in depth, and which practices call to them most.