Australian Institute of Primal Astrology
The Australian Institute Of Primal Astrology (AIPA) Is the teaching arm of DanielSowelu.com incorporating all the trainings in experiential astrology which culminate in accreditations in Experiential, Therapeutic, and Primal Astrology.
Daniel is a global leader and pioneer in this deep and transformative form of astro-therapy. These trainings are the product of 40 years of experimentation, befitting Daniel’s early years as a scientist, alongside his professional and spiritual preparation. Officially launched in 2003 in Australia as one to three year live processes, the 2025 cohort will be his 12th.
The first year of the program, Primal Astrology I: Experiential Astrology Practitioner, is now totally online and can be done in a group context when available or, as an apprentice over a 12 month period. The live in person and more advanced trainings Including Primal Astrology II, II & IV, will be starting in 2025 or later as twice yearly Ten Day Intensives based in Australia, Bali, and/or India. There are plans to bring this unique and powerful work to the UK and the US in the following years. Hosting invitations are very welcome! (Join the Membership Newsletters to stay up to date with these developments here.)
About Primal Astrology
Primal Astrology* is the deepest form of therapeutic and experiential astrology, a combination of primal therapy, in utero regression, spiritual and shamanic midwifery and practices from the tantric Shiva Shakti traditions of India, all utilised within the astrological medicine wheel or circle.
It is simultaneously deep, bodily emotional release work that goes down to the primal layers of our core emotional wounds, while clearing our lower chakras and liberating greater Shakti, or lifeforce into our systems. Any archetype in our birthcharts can be cleared of ancient blockages, whatever their origins.
It also allows the practitioner to work with deep therapeutic, transformative, tantric, and awakening processes within individual clients and is especially powerful in groups.
Daniel has worked with this unique and multifaceted process in over 300 weekend workshops and has been offering 1 to 3 year professional trainings since 2003.
Organic States of Release and Transformation
Primal Astrology creates a safely held space which allows natural body based catharsis and release to happen spontaneously, whenever a client feels their feelings more deeply. This kind of permissive energy field is created by the depth of the practitioner’s inner work and, by the archetypal power of the astrology wheel.
Primal releases frequently happen when taking a client enters the circle to work with any of the Outer Planets, with the healers Chiron, Hygeia and Hekate; with any of the “Dark Goddesses” and the Black Moon. Periodically the combination has organically opened clients to major spiritual, heart, and healing awakenings, especially when working with the tantric archetypes, and the deep sacred feminine.
Daniel is also a pioneer in introducing these Tantric archetypes, including Durga, Shiva and Kali, Lalita and Parvati into Western astrology. These add tremendous richness to the birthchart, to our understanding of relationship dynamics and evolution, to the healing of sexual wounds and the reclamation of pure, sacred, organic sexuality.
This form of Primal Astrology is a therapeutic system and not to be confused with the shamanic based Primal Astrology in the U.S.
Forty Years of Development
Daniel trained with the Australian pioneer of primal therapy, the late Dr Graham Farrant in the 1980s while he was developing his own form of the experiential astrology. Graham was a former student of US psychiatrist Dr Arthur Janov, the creator of primal work as a revolutionary psychotherapy.
The training with Graham allowed Daniel to work with birth and in utero trauma, sexual abuse, with anger and deeper forms of toxic rage and severe emotional suppression in general. During the training he also discovered that the work allows access to past life memories and PTSD, conception and implantation trauma, to toxic masculinity and equally toxic distortions to the sacred feminine.
This more therapeutic style of work dovetailed very easily with Daniel’s 40 years of transformative and tantric spiritual practices from the Shiva Shakti traditions of India, working with the sacred masculine Shiva energies and those of the Shakti goddesses. These therapeutic and embodied spiritual practices found a united meeting place in the sacred space created by the astrology wheel, which is a transformative vehicle in its own right.
Since those early days Daniel has been using the Primal Astrology wheel work successfully with psychodrama practitioners, spiritual and shamanic midwives, and with the architect and leader of sacred activism Andrew Harvey.
Intensive Training Requirements
For the above reasons, anyone training in this modality is required to work deeply and intensely on these primal layers within themselves, while preparing for the advanced stages of the program. Fifty percent of the training involves working repeatedly, and on increasingly deep levels, with every archetype in our birthcharts.
For those interested in this pioneering work, whether for individual work, workshops or professional training click here.