Sara Gilbert’s Life Journey

Beginnings

I was born at the very end of World War II in the South of England. My family lived in a small country town halfway between London and Brighton which was re-developed as a satellite town to rehouse Londoners whose homes were bombed in the war. An only child to parents in their late 30s, I grew up in a very adult centric household with my parents, my mother’s parents and her two brothers, also in their thirties.

As a child I was a bit of a tomboy, always outside close to nature and more into adventure and exploring than dolls! I spent a lot of time alone and had a vivid imagination; books were a strong source of inspiration. I was no introvert, I had friends nearby and we often escaped to nearby woods and deserted houses to play, discovering places that we felt were haunted or somewhat scary at times. I don’t have recollections of spirit world experiences just feelings that places or things were a bit eerie and scary. I was also obsessively scared of snakes and very wary of treading on one and being bitten.

My favourite book was about Greek mythology. I also had a passion for animals, water and learning to swim. I always had cats and when unhappy as a teenager would escape down the garden, close to nature, cuddling one of them! Swimming was more difficult; we lived far from the sea or even a pool!

Stretching My Wings

I was always rather young for my age, naïve and shy, a bit of a misfit at school, as I wasn’t good at sport with limited physical strength, small and had poor kinaesthetic skills. I ended up in the science stream and qualified well, but my family couldn’t afford to send me to University. I started work at barely 16, in the local laboratory of a metal producer. There were about 10 of us, all boys except me, studying metallurgy at technical college in London by day release and applying our knowledge practically at work. I ended up marrying one of them at 20. I think I always knew it wasn’t right for me, but it was what you did to fit into society then. I was always attracted to other men, often younger than me and I left him after a few years but had to return because I was pregnant and didn’t have the confidence to go it alone. We struggled to save buy a home on our income and decided to immigrate to Australia when my son was 18 months old. So at 25 I started life again, in a country where I knew no one, with a husband I didn’t love and a baby I adored!

I sold Avon and worked part-time in a post office, then left my husband for a second time, working as a waitress and a cleaner while my husband had his share of time with my son. When he started school I worked in BHP’s library, but still lacked enough confidence to create a life for myself, so I was persuaded to return to my husband again. Around this time I became interested in astrology and tarot, buying books to study and my first tiny Rider Waite cards. I eventually found work in a laboratory again, using my metallurgy at Massey Ferguson for 5 years. During this time we returned to England twice combined with extensive travel to Europe and the US.

We bought houses and moved into better ones, invested in a share of the BHP ski lodge at Mt Hotham and skied regularly, then we purchased a small yacht and started sailing. I loved entertaining with lavish dinner parties; I also channelled much of my energy into creative pursuits such as drawing, painting, pottery, stained glass and batik. Around this time of my first Saturn Return I realised that the marriage really wasn’t right for me and tried to end it yet again, but he threatened to prevent me access to my son, so I gave in and stayed. Our relationship was no longer sexual, so of course there were affairs on both sides. Whenever I left him the catalyst had always been infatuation for another man. They were always younger and always unavailable; I became very familiar with unrequited love…

Settling Down

In the end I was retrenched, moving to a job at Nissan. It came with a car and finally gave me the freedom and confidence to finally end my marriage for good. I met an Aussie guy working with the Nissan Race Team who came to me for metallurgical advice at work and ended up living with him 9 months later, around the time I bought my own home. We were together for 20 odd years, he was the first man I truly loved as a partner, the chemistry between us was very strong and I never felt the need for anyone else while we were together. In hindsight he was emotionally unavailable and unfortunately he wasn’t always honest with me. I found out after I left him, that he had fathered children with two other women whilst living with me and had been living a kind of double life. He built and raced his own Sports Sedan cars as a hobby, which we converted my home to support, through a 3 car workshop out the back. I started out as his main pit crew at race meetings; we also were on the race association committee together for many years. I worked as treasurer, edited the monthly magazine and at one stage ran a race series including promoting it and liaising with the tracks, press and sponsors.

Motherhood

I had managed to assume an equal parenting role with my son over this time, he lived with us for half of the week and we developed a common love for North Melbourne in the football. I took him to play football for his school, and then afterwards, we would go and watch the Kangaroos. Later, when he moved to Warrnambool to go to University, I would often spend weekends down there and watch him play for their team in the country league. I also joined the coterie group for North and continued to go to many games including dinner or lunch beforehand. My son finished his last year at school with one of the North players who originated from Warrnambool so we got to know a few of the current players, adding more interest. His first serious girlfriend boarded with us for a year around this time and it was nice having a surrogate daughter around the place, we all did things together and it was lots of fun. He worked interstate and overseas for long periods of time following University.

Corporate Highlights

I went from strength to strength at work too, taking a leadership role in the Nissan laboratory with increasing areas of responsibility. I became a leader in developing systems around introducing new models and quality as well, interacting strongly with suppliers, engineers and other areas of the company. Finally I was ready to move away from metallurgy completely into a full time quality role at Toyota. My role at Toyota boomed, I co-ordinated the company entering and winning the Australian Quality Awards, now the Business Excellence Awards. The company was on a huge improvement drive to justify investment in

the new factory planned for Altona to increase export ability. My role was developing systems to improve the way people worked together across the entire Australian organisation. I mainly worked with the CEO, Executive Team and the 18 General Managers at the top, so it was incredibly high profile and influential position. It also involved my becoming Toyota’s spokesperson on how we did “Quality and Improvement” with interviews published in magazines and newspapers and regular public speaking engagements at seminars and for other large organisations involved in benchmarking. I visited Japan during this time and was first exposed to Buddhism and Shinto temples, which resonated strongly with me.

Business Excellence

I became a voluntary evaluator for the Business Excellence Awards for some 13 years after winning the award and became a passionate advocate for the framework it operates around. It’s a holistic, values driven model for organisational success, based on Deming’s principles around empowering people, understanding & improving systems of work, delivering what customer’s need and using data in decision making. Over 70 of the world’s significant economies have a similar framework and awards process. I donated much of my spare time to helping other companies implement this approach and later set up a small business consulting in improvement using this approach.

I was headhunted to take an Executive Quality role at Howe Leather after Toyota which involved setting up operations in South Africa and Mexico to support international customers in Europe and the USA. This was followed by working for another international automotive supplier in Ballarat, where I also had responsibility for quality teams in Malaysia, Thailand and China. My partner and I had built a house in Bacchus Marsh as a halfway point, but our relationship started to drift apart. I spent regular time in England with my son and my mother; my son settled down and had a daughter. My mother died at 91 which had a much greater impact that I had imagined. Soon after, my son returned to Australia to work in Sydney, and my grandson was born. I was often able to visit them, but my partner would never come with me and I was often overseas or interstate for work and he became more and more immersed in his love for motor sport, CAMS committees and I guess other women. I found I was very drawn to the temples in Thailand and wanting to learn about the mythology surrounding the Buddha. I became unhappy with my job and lost a lot of confidence, I’d got quite unhealthy and overweight over the years. My partner was also quite critical and negative about what I did, which I had become somewhat accustomed to. I guess one thing I learned from the experience was to be totally independent and resilient.

Management Consultancy: Sally Gilbert Improvement Unlimited

A male business friend helped me get myself back on track and regain some of my confidence and I gradually lost some weight and felt better about myself. I also decided that I was fed up with all the politics in international companies and developed the confidence to give consulting a try. I was able to get retrenched to give me the capital to set myself up and develop a successful small business. I also started to get myself fit in earnest with a young Italian personal trainer. We went on a ski trip together and he made me aware of my spirituality, from talking about my life. I began to realise that I wanted a meaningful relationship with someone positive and encouraging like him, who I could connect with physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Finally I decided that I could do a lot better than remain in the one sided relationship I was in for the rest of my life and split with my partner of 21 years. This was around the time of my second Saturn Return!

Finding Myself At Last

My life really changed then getting back into single life again and coming to grips with internet dating, flirting by sms, msn and being able to meet younger men, as I found I couldn’t connect with most men my age. My son had moved to the Gold Coast, and I was spending a lot of time up there with my family, loving walking on the beach and getting back in the sun. So I decided to move back to Melbourne, nearer to my friends and the beach in Carrum Downs. I found a wonderful oasis of a cottage, set in a breathtaking Bali style garden full of ponds, vegetation and meditation spots. The house is filled with loving energy, everyone who comes here comments on it. I built a huge fenced in cage for my 3 Bengal cats off the side, and proudly grow my veggies according to the phases of the Moon. Synchronicity made it a number 11, but I bought it well before I understood numerology!

Spiritual Development

I had started to explore my spiritual beliefs and found most of the people I was close to were similar or at least open to that way of thinking. I started to get intuitions about what to do and where to go with my life. I became very attracted to crystals and I started to play with my tarot cards more often. I had my spirit guide drawn, which opened me up to getting more intuitive thoughts. I did much of my consulting work for my previous boss, now CEO of a local company, his hobby was martial arts and energy healing so he offered to help me with my journey. I learnt the equivalent of Reiki I at his school which opened me up even more.

My son’s family became concerned about the direction I was heading in as they had become increasingly involved with fundamental Christianity. I became aware that I had some emotional patterns that were repeating and I would need to resolve them to have a fulfilling relationship. I started to search for what I believed in, I knew I didn’t want a religion, Buddhism was the closest fit, but I wanted to think for myself, develop my own beliefs, not conform to any dogmatic philosophies. I read a lot of books, Osho really helped me the most I think, but Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer and Deepak Chopra were very influential too.

Spiritual Apprenticeship

On moving to the Frankston area, I found a spiritual institute right on my doorstep with a 20 week certificate course in tarot. So I decided to give it a shot, it really changed my life; it was so wonderful being able to mix with like minded people who were loving and accepting. I soon found I had a real talent for inter-relating the cards in their different positions. My guides started giving me “goose bumps” as confirmation when I was onto something significant. I was exposed to part of my numerology, through synchronicity within a week of starting the tarot course. It intrigued me, I had to know more! I looked it up on the web and a course was starting that day, so I had to make the time and do both courses. Then I was really hooked! I found it explained why I was like I am, so much more clearly than any psychological test I had done in my business career. I felt that I was meant to do something with it corporately; it could really help with self-development and life balance that organisations seek for their people.

I’d never been interested in palmistry but once I studied it as part of the course I realised this all wasn’t just fortune telling and it really added another piece to the puzzle. About this time, I also joined a mandala painting group and regained some of the joy I had experienced years ago with expressing my creativity. I was finally connecting with who I was meant to be! Once I began readings for others I could feel that this was what I’m really here to do. I started finding it hard to concentrate on my consulting work, my passion was all for learning more and helping people. I’d always enjoyed developing my staff and training people. I had done a lot of coaching and training through my consulting and I had found throughout my life, I had ended up helping people with their personal issues too!

I pursued further courses on chinese astrology, meditation and developing my channelling ability. As well I continued my passion to develop further with the tarot, by joining the Tarot Guild, completing their transition process to become a Professional Member, attending their workshops, and working on the committee as treasurer for two and a half years. My next developmental step was exploring the Kabbalah Tree of Life, with Evelynne Joffe from the Institute of Spiritual Studies, over a four year period.

I worked regularly at the Mind Body Spirit Festival from 2007 – 2019, as well as other New Age Expos like Melbourne Psychic Expo and I read at corporate events for my business and for other companies, such as Mystic Party Entertainment. I love being able to read for larger numbers of people, it’s such a buzz being able to help so many people in such a short period of time, and you learn so much from broadening your experience, especially with hands!

I began to teach tarot in 2007, the way I wish I’d been taught, integrating in knowledge from the other modalities that relate. I had found I had a special gift in blending aspects from all the modalities into my numerology profiles as I went along. I also find colour inspires me; I have quite a collection of decks, but love the Tarot of Dreams and Legacy of the Divine Tarot which I use in my readings and profiles. Ciro Marchetti is such a talented man, I just love his work.

In August 2008 I visited the Red Centre on a Spiritual Adventure Tour which included Rachel Pollack to provide wisdom and finally gave me the impetus to resign from my management consultancy and pursue my spiritual activities full time. I also began to help a close friend, “Caveman”, set up the foundation and networking business he was developing to help resolve the homeless situation, through coaching people to overcome their limiting beliefs. I still play a minor role for the GR8 M8s Foundation Inc through its Committee.

Mystical Dragon

I worked as the Astrologer, Numerologist and Palmist at Mystical Dragon in Seaford from late 2008 until the end of 2011, teaching courses and workshops around those modalities, mythology and the Kabbalah Tree of Life; consulting in numerology and astrology and reading tarot & palmistry there by appointment. It was a wonderful experience, I met so many lovely people, but towards the end of 2011, spirit told me it was time to lift my self-confidence another notch and concentrate my energy through one outlet, consulting and teaching solely as Life Spirit Connections which I had set up, as my own business in March 2007.

Astrology

I’ve been on a massive learning curve with astrology since the start of 2007, building up a library and passing my FAA exams in May 2009, just over two years of starting to study through a variety of different sources. I became a member of the Association of Professional Astrologers in April 2011 and began to consult professionally late in 2008. I have taught a 3 year Astrology course through face to face sessions, or if students prefer, by correspondence, from the beginning of 2010 to 2019. I found more students wanted to learn the basics quickly so converted my courses into a series of shorter 10 week courses from 2020. Teaching by Zoom helped me survive the difficult periods under lockdown from 2020 to 2022.

I have a special interest in the asteroids within astrology, having studied them in 2008 with Brian Clark, Tess Cullen and Roderick Kidston. Demetra George and Melanie Reinhart were also hugely inspirational mentors and gave me many helpful hints in developing the suite of 53 additional archetypes I work with. I began by working on an astrological thesis, researching the role these mystical asteroids and planets play, in charts of over 250 individuals who practice all kinds of oracular or psychic healing modalities and/or white witchcraft. I still have to decide on the format to write about this as it has evolved over the years since I began the research. I continued to increase my knowledge in psychological astrology, studying with Brian Clark and Glennys Lawton over many years at Astro*Synthesis at the Chiron Centre in Abbotsford Convent.

Pilgrimages

I have been truly blessed in the places I have been able to visit on pilgrimage, the conferences and workshops I have been able to attend both here in Australia and overseas, as well as the wonderful astrologers I have been able to meet and learn through. My previous highly paid management consultancy provided me with both the time and funds to do this at the right time, to acquire the wisdom and knowledge to pursue my career once I found my true purpose. Don’t you love synchronicity and the Universal timing of spirit energy!

In late 1977 had I visited Athens and Delphi which made a huge impact on me. The site was covered in snow and there were only 5 of us prepared to venture out in the cold, so the impact was palpable. The site of Apollo’s oracle temple and its slogan “Know Thyself” made a big impression. I recognised the awesome energy without knowing the significance of what I was experiencing at the time!

When I returned there in 2015, Zeus decided to take over! We experienced a massive thunderstorm, got absolutely drenched and were unable to explore much of the site around the stadium and the amphitheatre! We had to shelter in a cave and listen to our guide perched on a rock like a Sybil. What was it with me and weather at Delphi?

At Easter in 2001, I was able to take advantage of working in Asia to make a short visit to the Beijing, visiting Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall of China. I was resonating more and more with the myths and sites associated with the Eastern religions as I travelled there and particularly in Thailand, but never usually had enough free time to explore. Once I began to pursue my spiritual beliefs I decided to go to England in 2006 and visit one of my remaining relative an elderly aunt of 90 years old, who had always followed Rosicrucian beliefs. I later decided this was not my path.

However on the way home, I spent 4 glorious days visiting many historic temples in Thailand I had always wanted to travel to and visit in the ancient capital cities of Ayutthaya and Sukhothai. I rode a bicycle (something I hadn’t done since I was a child) around the historic temples in Sukhothai and as well as the beautiful giant Buddhas encountered one place that really raised the hairs up the back of my neck. I later to discover that the Royal family had been massacred there on that island!

As previously mentioned I visited the spiritual centre of Australia in 2008. My birthday August 8, the “Lionsgate” was also the day chosen for its lucky significance by the Chinese to open the Beijing Olympics. By coincidence, Rachel Pollack is also a Leo born just 9 days apart from myself! This was the turning point in my life, at Uluru, when I decided to give up my management consulting and corporate life. I was staying in tent 8, (I didn’t know they had numbers when I picked it!), and decided to sleep outside beneath the stars for the first time in my life that night! Eight is the number of good fortune and success but it is also the number of material and spiritual balance. I have two eights in my numerological core, my life path and birthday, of course that day was also an 8 when you add the date 8+8+2008. The rest of my core consists of 6 and 11, the signature of the spiritual healer…..

Attending the 2008 FAA International Astrology Conference in January earlier that year had really ignited my thirst to immerse myself in the subject. Then in 2009 I discovered the Astrological Apprenticeship program that Steven Forrest has been holding in Newcastle every year since 2007 and I have attended every year from that time. Evolutionary Astrology totally makes sense to me, I had already discovered Judy Hall’s work on the North Node, which resonated strongly, but Steve’s approach takes this to another level entirely.

January of 2010 saw me in Brisbane for the FAA Conference, gaining more astrology wisdom from Demetra George and the highly entertaining Michael Lutin. We were fortunate to have more of Demetra back in Melbourne afterwards at the Chiron Centre. Then in May 2010 I attended “Conversations with Astrology” with Robert Hand, Liz Greene, Bernadette Brady and Nick Champion, held near the Welsh border, which gave me the opportunity to visit Glastonbury and walk the labyrinth on the Tor, inspired by teachings from my beautiful friend Lucy Cavendish beforehand. It was awesome to be able to sit down and discuss all manner of astrological concepts with the people whose books had inspired my learning and teaching, in particular Liz Greene who shared my interests in the tarot and the Kabbalah.

Later that year I was also lucky enough to go on a pilgrimage to the Middle East. I spent 10 days in Israel exploring the Biblical sites around Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee, as well as Safed, the centre for the Kabbalah. I even drove myself around on the wrong side of the road, going up as far as Mount Hermon, Fort Nimrod, Banias Falls and Rosh Hanikra right up on the coast by the border with Lebanon. This was followed by 13 days in Egypt guided by Demetra George and Andrea Mikana-Pinkham of Sacred Sites Journeys, visiting the Pyramids at Giza & Sakarra, Abu Simbel, then sailing the Nile around Luxor, visiting Esna, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Karnak, Abydos, Denebera, Philea. Andrea guided us through wonderful initiations in the temples of all the Egyptian Neters, Amun, Isis, Osiris, Horus, Hathor, Soebek, Thoth and my beautiful lady Sekhmet. The energies I encountered were unforgettable. Finally I visited the magnificent city of Petra carved from the rock in Jordan and the mythological mosaic floors in the town of Malabar on the way back to Amman.

2011 was a also huge year for me in astrological learning, it began with attending a workshop on Visual Astrology with Bernadette Brady in Adelaide. This was followed by another of Evelyn Robert’s wonderful Heaven and Earth workshops in Ubud, Bali this time with Michael Lutin. I made a wonderful connection with Melanie Reinhart who has a house close by, so joined us for the week which inspired me to come back at Christmas for her 12 Holy Nights workshop into the beginning of 2012. This gave me the opportunity to participate in two Balinese Full Moon ceremonies which were incredibly good for working with affirmations, I also toured the Prambanan Hindu temple in Yogakarta and the huge Buddhist temple in Borabadour in Java Indonesia.

Back in Melbourne for the 2012 FAA Conference, there was more wonderful wisdom from Demetra, Melanie and Michael Lutin and a first introduction to Frank Clifford from the London School of Astrology who is a wonderful teacher of both astrology and palmistry. When he returned for a tour around the Australian States in 2013, I helped him set up the connections with the VAA and the Tarot Guild and drove him around to his workshops in Melbourne, so was able to learn even more from him informally.

In April – May 2015 I spent 5 weeks in France and Greece exploring some sources of the mythology that is so dear to my heart. My original plan was to gather images to design my own oracle deck using the archetypes I have been working with for the last seven years or so. I visited the Louvre, Versailles and the Gustave Moreau museum, then had a day trip to Chartres and was fortunate enough to be able to walk the labyrinth in the cathedral there. I had been told it may have already been closed for renovations but I was lucky!

This was another big item to tick off my bucket list!

In Greece I toured the islands on my own for two weeks before meeting up with Brian Clark and Peter O’Connor for one of their two week Dream Odysseys on Aegina and the mainland. I visited Corfu and the Achilleon, a palace dedicated to Achilles who has been my courage guide right from the start of my spiritual journey. Then to Samos, the birthplace of Pythagoras, the father of the numerology I use. Then to beautiful Mykonos where I spent two days taking the boat to the sacred island of Delos, birthplace of Apollo. From there it was a hydrofoil to Naxos and Santorini. I visited a temple to Demeter in the centre of a wheat field in the centre of Naxos. Santorini and the buried village of Akrotiri, started me on a wonderful trail of synchronicity and past life experiences, that I had no expectation of in planning my visit. From discovering the story of Atlantis and the volcano explosion, while at Ia for the sunset, to visiting the volcano, swimming from the boat to the hot springs at its base, to visiting the remains of the Minoan town of Akrotiri and following the trail on to Crete and realising I have been here before!

From Santorini I flew to Rhodes to stay at the Minos Pension and went on a wonderful boat trip to a fort at Linos. Then in Crete I visited the palace at Knossos and realised I had to visit the remote site at Phaistos, where I got the biggest case of past life chills ever. Coming back to the Archeological Museums in Heraklion and later Athens confirmed this even more strongly. I had connections to Akrotiri, Minos, Ariadne, the Cretan labyrinth and the snake goddess that I had not even dreamed about before! I just found recently that my Mercury/ASC line in Astro* Cartography runs smack through Phaistos as well! My experiences explained the connection I have had with labyrinths and the Golden Ratio, ever since I became aware of them, and the fact that my predominant fingerprint type is the whorl, another labyrinth. This inspired me to make the Cretan Labyrinth part of my body through a tattoo on my left shoulder, four months after my return

Knowledge Transfer

In November 2015 I helped run a 3 day C*I*A workshop at the Maitra Centre in Healsville for Kaypacha from New Paradigm Astrology and started to gain valuable insight into my own nodal story from his teachings around Chiron and Evolutionary Astrology the Jeffrey Wolf Green way. This was compounded by attending a workshop with Mark Jones from the Pluto School in January 2016, another Wolf Green trained astrologer.

I began making presentations on my research with the asteroids in 2012 and was invited to speak at astrology associations all around Australia, often holding workshops on “Finding Your Life Purpose” whilst I was there. This included Melbourne, Newcastle, Hobart, Brisbane, Adelaide and the Gold Coast. In January I attended the 2016 FAA International Astrology Conference in Sydney as Victoria’s sponsored speaker, my lecture was on “Bringing the Stars Down to Earth”.

I have been writing a monthly newsletter and astrology report to a mailing list, since the beginning of 2012, as well as regular posts on my facebook pages. I have also had many articles published in journals and magazines. These can be downloaded on the Astrology Articles and Presentations Page.

I became an Agent for the C*I*A in 2013 and have posted regularly on the facebook group, which I am also an administrator for, since as well as on the websites. I contributed a monthly video on asteroid archetypes for the Collective Membership for a period of time and run a monthly Friday night C*I*A Astro Group first in Seaford and now on Zoom. In December 2021 I started to write a regular column on asteroids for the quarterly Timelords magazine. I am passionate about spreading knowledge of astrology to the wider community especially among young people, it is so valuable in helping you understand yourself and live a happier and more fulfilled life.

I look forward with great anticipation and excitement to the next stage of my life, from my Jupiter Return in August 2016. The last heralded in my spiritual development I believe the next will involve me taking my writing to another level in some way.