About Eric Francis and Planet Waves

After a 10-year career as an investigative reporter writing for The Village Voice, Sierra magazine and elsewhere, Eric blazed into astrology with relentless passion and curiosity.

Photo by Jeff Bisti.

He quickly became a beacon for readers around the world, making his first mark on astrology at the dawn of the Internet.

To this new work, he brought with him the discipline, integrity and courage demanded of a reporter whose fraud investigations pursued justice for the corporate crimes of Monsanto and General Electric.

Inspired by the writing of New York Post astrologer Patric Walker, Eric wrote his first horoscope in April 1995 as an experiment. He faxed it to a local newspaper, which immediately offered to publish it.

He approached the horoscope column as a platform for ideas about growth and personal development, incorporating what he learned from Gestalt therapy, A Course in Miracles and his lifelong spiritual study. Presenting these ideas in a highly accessible journalistic form, his writing engaged larger and wide audiences.

Within a year he was writing for Chronogram, then a fledgling regional arts magazine in New York. His devoted, even passionate readership spurred the magazine’s rise to regional prominence. For 18 years running, his section is still where most readers turn first.

By 1997, Eric’s horoscope was featured on AOL-UK’s Mystic Gardens, a central online spiritual hub in England. The next year, he covered the astrology of the Bill Clinton impeachment for the website of American astrologer Rob Brezsny. On this assignment, he combined for the first time his astrological and investigative skills into a new genre of writing.

Soon after pursuing additional astrology studies in Germany, he was standing in as a daily horoscope writer for Jonathan Cainer, the leading British astrologer. In that role, he had than three million readers across England, Australia and Europe.

Press Card.

Press credential issued by the European Commission, executive branch of the EU, where Planet Waves is a recognized press agency along with The New York Times and AP.

He is the only American astrologer ever to write for the Fleet Street tabloid press, standing out even in the hotly competitive world of the British horoscope column — and the first horoscope writer to be elected into the National Union of Journalists of the UK.

His work has been carried in The Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror, People.com, Hola.com and the leading British publication Woman. His horoscopes and articles have been translated into Japanese, German, Spanish, Italian and Finnish.

Today he is the horoscope writer for the Omega Institute, the premier holistic studies center, where he’s on the faculty. He also writes the horoscopes for Marie Claire, Chronogram, and many regional publications around the country.

In addition to being a prolific horoscope writer, workshop leader, astrology teacher and internationally-respected pioneer of the newly discovered planets, Eric is editor in chief of Planet Waves, the magazine he founded in 1998.

Offering the first paid subscription service in the astrology field, Planet Waves features the work of more than a dozen writers, on astrology, tarot, personal growth and the Planet Waves speciality — the meeting of the personal and the political.

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Eric Francis – Photojournalist & Astrologer

Eric Francis at the Berlaymont Building, European Commission headquarters. Photo is by the Aga Khan IV's personal photographer, who was traveling with his entourage.

Eric Francis at the Berlaymont Building, European Commission headquarters. Photo is by the Aga Khan IV’s personal photographer, who was traveling with his entourage.

Contact: (206) 567-4455 during East Coast business hours or email info@planetwaves.net to get on our press list (additional info here). For off-hours contact please call (845) 797-3458

Eric Francis Coppolino offers an original analysis of world events.

He’s been reporting on breaking news stories as an astrologer since 1995, covering elections, new legislation, aviation, terrorism and the charts of newsmakers.

Foundations of Eric’s astrological perspective include working with A Course in Miracles since 1986, including a year in a live-in study program. He also lists Gestalt therapy and many years experience as a sex educator as among his influences, giving him a rare perspective that specifically include sex and politics as central to his point of view as an astrologer and writer.

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Eric is available as a guest or to comment for print, internet, radio and TV on current and historic news events, as well as stories directly involving astrology or cultural astronomy. He is a specialist on astrology in the media, new planetary discoveries and psychological astrology.

He began his career as a municipal and business reporter. Eric’s investigative reporting, focusing on corporate fraud and environmental crime, has been carried by Sierra, The Village Voice and The Las Vegas Sun. The New York Times said that Eric “has a hunger for government documents that rivals that of Seymour Hersh.”

His urbane, articulate horoscopes (available in syndication) have been carried in newspapers throughout England, Australia and the U.S., including in Harper’s Bazaar, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail. He is the astrology columnist for the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. Thanks to his eclectic background he is able to uniquely assist clients situated in positions of corporate and government leadership.

As the world’s only investigative reporter-astrologer, Eric’s grounded but visionary approach has caught the attention of astrological experts and newcomers alike, and has assisted many journalists previously unfamiliar with astrology. Here are a few recent quotations from articles and interviews, a recent edition of Planet Waves that analyzes the charts of RMS Titanic and demonstrates what is possible when astrology and disciplined reporting are used together.

Eric Francis, who is based in New York, said he’s weary of the endless skirmish between astronomy and astrology. “When astronomers make fun of us, they’re making fun of the human suffering that leads people to seek answers,” he said. “People do get comfort and wisdom from astrology — and science gives us Prozac.”

Associated Press, with Bill Ward, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 2011.

“This is a moment that I’ve been waiting for a long time,” says Eric Francis, a minor-planet astrologer who edits the Web site Planetwaves.net … “Most of our clients are women, and we need stories women can relate to.”

The Wall Street Journal, 2006 front page article.

“Reading the chart is an interpretive art, much like writing poetry. Every aspect or pattern in the chart is going to be interpreted differently by every astrologer. I understand the role of creativity in the process. What to one astrologer may look like a problem to me looks like an opportunity, but that requires a creative leap.”

Artful Mind magazine, 2011 interview

“The astrology you get is only as good as the astrologer who is doing the work: their skill and commitment and writing talent. It’s silly to dismiss as fluff a system of organizing life dating back to the dawn of civilization (the Chaldeans or Babylonians). Astrology is a foundation of mainstream intellectual thought. With mythology, it’s the first true study in psychology.”

Generation magazine, 2010 interview

“The virtual world to some extent demonstrates that there is existence beyond the body, as does astrology — we’re overcoming this belief that everything is strictly limited by physical reality. To get into virtuality we need these interconnective devices … Without the need to use any equipment at all, astrology can demonstrate that we’re all part of the same reality, and that communication extends beyond the body and the known senses. We try to emulate this with all of our technology.”

Interview with Savas Abadsidis, 2010

Recommended Article: What’s Your (Pluto) Sign, Baby?

Credentialed as a photojournalist by: National Union of Journalists (NUJ) of the UK, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the European Commission and the State of New York. Planet Waves is registered as a news agency with the European Commission, the Benelux Area, the State of Washington and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

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