Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway will answer your questions and help relieve wedding stress. Please e-mail your questions and wedding challenges to The Wedding Goddess.

Dear Wedding Goddess:

Do you believe astrology be used as a tool for assessing the best times and dates for a wedding and wedding related activities? I just got engaged and I am sort of interested in this and wonder what you think of it. I understand it is a practice in other cultures. -- Stars in My Eyes

Dear Stars In My Eyes:

Selecting an auspicious wedding date and time is always a great idea. Just be aware that the reality is it can be challenging to arrange schedules to take full advantage of favorable times. For example, you may want a Saturday night wedding but the best time is 6 am in the morning.

Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese cultures in particular consults with astrologers or seek most auspicious days for weddings.

In some cases these decisions are based on a session with an astrologer who takes the groom's birth information and the bride's, and figures out the best date for them personally. In some cases a date is selected from a calendar or book of auspicious days or because of an auspcious number. Or it may be done in a more auspicious time of year. I have seen it done in many ways.

I have married a number of couples who ask me to perform their spiritual ceremony at night, after having gone to the justice of the peace in the morning or on another day, because it was deemed more auspicious then the day they selected for their public wedding. I have also had couples who've asked me to perform spiritual and legal ceremonies months before their wedding date, to take advance of a favorable time of year -- or at the urging of their parents.

Shelley Ackerman, who in my estimation is New York’s best astrologer (she’s also a columnist and President of the New York affiliate of the American Federation of Astrologers), says YES. Every couple should look into finding out the best astrological time for their wedding, she says, pointing out that the trend has caught on in the west.

“It is important for modern couples to consult an astrologer to find a perfect date, time and place – which is different from having a great party,” Shelley tells us. “The mistake couples makes when planning a wedding is they are trying to please everyone but themselves.”

In any culture or time zone … your marriage has an astrological birth time based on the time of your ceremony, which is why it is important to pick a time and date that will bring your union plenty of luck and support from the stars.

Shelley also supports the idea of getting to know each other even-better-than-before by having a consultation with a professional astrologer.

"An astrologer can cast a chart comparison between the bride and groom (known as “synastry”), a composite chart, or a relationship chart, as well as select an all important wedding chart," Shelley says. "This would help you to understand why you are together in the first place and clarify what the real strengths are in the relationship; it will also provide language and tools to better grasp the challenges and obstacles that need to be overcome.”

“The reason this is invaluable is that once you have language to understand the specifics of what each person has brought to the relationship (background, ancestry, intimacy requirements, etc.) that's half the battle in resolving those issues early on, thereby insuring a more peaceful and enduring marriage."

This kind of astrological assessment is much deeper than the surface kind of treatment astrology gets in magazine and newspaper columns.

As Shelley surmises: “Astrological insights can help you go into the marriage grounded. It will deepen your readiness and enhance, through understanding, the next part of your journey together."

For more information, contact Shelley Ackerman at www.KarmicRelief.com.

Many blessings,

Rev. Laurie Sue