Dutch artist, a painter who had his first exhibition in 1958. In 1960, he was introduced to astrology by the father of a friend. His exhibitions continued with recognition of his art, going up and down with occasional successes and a setback every now and then. He does make his living as an artist and in 2000, is working on a commission for a sculpture in a public space.
Sander’s first years were colored by the war, lots of military display from the Germans who confiscated parts of his childhood house for several years until the Canadian military brought peace. As soon as the war was over, a severe disease of the lungs necessitated that Sander stay in bed for almost an entire year and more. In that time, he began to read his father’s “People’s University” volumes: from Esperanto to Cosmology to Egyptian Sculpture. He also found hidden booklets with terrifying pictures of the holocaust that haunted him, as did the pictures in another book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
Sander did not want to enter into the wholesale shoe business of his father’s, but had ideas of becoming an artist. Showing talent at drawing, he was finally allowed by his parents to attend an Art Academy, which led to his first exhibition.
When the friend did Sander’s first astrology chart, he used an entirely wrong birth time. However, from the planets he concluded that maybe Sander could have trouble with his knees, a problem which he did have at that time, and never since. Sander was intrigued and curious.
In 1962, Sander married and they are still together with two children and four grandchildren. That year, he took his first course in astrology with Hans Cosman who belonged to a very serious Dutch school of astrology (still existing and founded by Thierens, Ram and Knegt in the early 1900s), where one practiced a rather complicated calculation system that included the use of Latitude of the planets, so that if the Moon were visible in the sky, it could never be situated in the 1st or 6th house (as in today’s common practice). Also the calculus of the House system was notoriously difficult and it was called the “Ascendant-Parallel-Circle” method. Intermediate house cusps were never exactly opposite each other.
He worked for several years with this system and the adjacent strict interpretation methodology and became editor of “Urania,” the astrological community’s magazine. In 1969 he moved to a different part of the country and the struggle for life in the artistic field prevented him from further active involvement in astrology, let alone astrological organizations. From then on he used astrology for his private use only. From 1978 till 1983 he started to feel the Dutch system as too stifling and in 1983 his eyes were opened to a whole new approach through a couple of books by modern American and English writers, along with Rudhyar’s works.
In 1987 he started to teach astrology classes on a small scale. Somewhat later he also began giving consultations, building up a small but regular clientele. The last couple of years he has lectured and conducted workshops. He is a regular astrology contributor to a local periodical in the field of alternative science.
Sander writes, “My Gemini-ASC needs art and astrology at the same time, or rather, in turn. I have never till now succeeded in bringing the two together in a satisfying way. In fact I never tried seriously, as one of the two almost always seems to become ridiculous in the presence of the other, in my eyes anyway….As does table tennis, another of my longtime favorite pastimes.”
His daughter was born 5/17/1967, 8:19 AM GMT, 51N48, 4E40, ASC 29CAN) married in 1998 and has one child. His son, 12/27/1963, 9:05 pm GMT, 51N48, 4E40, married in 1992 and has three kids. A redhead, he had serious acne as a kid.