Australian-British astrodata collector, researcher, editor, publisher and blogger. Mentored by Lois Rodden for several years before her death, he has researched and contributed hundreds of timed astrodata to various software programmes and books, and published hundreds of new data on his websites and blog.
Sy Scholfield is currently the largest active collector of astrodata in the world. He joined AstroDatabank as editor in 2013 and over 17,000 of his timed research data are included in the database. He is credited as data editor of various astrology books including Frank Clifford’s Astrologer’s Book of Charts (2009), Horoscope Snapshots (2014) and The Book of Music Horoscopes (2018).
Scholfield wrote the weekly “Star Lust” Sun-sign column for the Sydney Star Observer, Australia’s premier gay and lesbian newspaper, 2000-2002, and worked as a ghost writer in the same field in the mid 2000s.
As hobbies, he works cryptic crosswords, lap-swims, mountain-treks, and enjoys gardening.
On 23 February 2011, he was awarded a Master of Philosophy degree by the University of Queensland, Australia. He also holds a BA in Modern Asian Studies and an Honours degree in Art History and Gender Studies.
Analysis of his DNA in 2020 revealed his ancestry as 46% Northern English, 26% Scottish, 8% Norwegian and 6% Southern Chinese, along with continental European (German and French). While his parents are British-born, his paternal Scottish-Chinese grandmother’s ancestors were his earliest family born in Australia.
His interest in “the stars” was sparked in childhood while camping regularly with his family on the beaches of Moreton island (Mulgumpin) under brilliant Australian night skies.
Sy Scholfield follows a lifestyle with a low-impact on the planet’s resources. He chose not to have children and has never owned or driven a motor vehicle. Having been a vegetarian for most of his life, he became a vegan in 2002 in support of animal and human rights and for health, environmental and spiritual reasons (before Greta Thunberg was even born!).
He has travelled the world by foot and by public transport, by river canoes through Malaysian rainforests, buses and Jeeps through the Himalayas, various boats along the full length of China’s coastline, and so forth.
Reckless in his youth, Scholfield left home at age 15 and hitch-hiked thousands of kilometres across the Australian continent, often alone, several times. In 1988, aged 23-24, he spent 6 months on a solo land journey across the length and breadth of China and Tibet, where he was detained for a week while in an unauthorised area near Kashgar (having been refused entry to Afghanistan en route to India).
Scholfield has trekked through many of the most beautiful mountainscapes in the world, having climbed to the top of the highest mountains on the Australian mainland (Kosciuszko), Tasmania (Ossa), Borneo and Malaysia (Kinabalu), along with Mount Hua in China (Flower Mountain, “one of the most dangerous hikes in the world” including the plank walk in 1988 before safety ropes were available), Tiger Leaping Gorge (“one of the deepest and most spectacular river canyons in the world”), the Tongariro Alpine Crossing in New Zealand, and to several Tibetan monasteries such as Paro Taktsang (Tiger’s Nest) in Bhutan.
He grew up in Colonial Queenslander homes in Brisbane and Victorian terrace houses in Sydney. He has also lived in warehouse squats in Melbourne, skyscraper apartments in Hong Kong and on a sub-tropical rainforest commune near the beach in Byron Bay. He currently resides in a century-old cottage he rescued and renovated in a country town in Australia.