When you talk to Zorian, he’ll try to forget everything you tell him within 48 hours.
He does it to stay sane.
Zorian, 59, of Pass-a-Grille in St. Pete Beach, Fla., is a local astrologer who claims between 5,000 and 10,000 clients over the past 15 years.
“It’s like having a bajillion little kids,” Zorian said. “But I have to immediately disremember everything you tell me because otherwise it plagues you for every moment of every day.”
He’s a self-taught entrepreneur who said he wants the world to see that by knowing how the planets and stars affect us we can make more educated choices and understand the consequences of our behavior. And with one of the biggest elections coming up this fall, as well as the struggling economy, people like Zorian say they are in demand for offering insight into where they think the world is going. He’s been doing it for about 20 years. He spent five of those years working as a psychic in Tampa.
“Most people are not aware of the profoundness of astrology because they’re somewhat fearful of it,” Zorian said as he smoked Dunhills — British cigarettes. He gives off a calm presence and has a charismatic, expressive face. “But there are good astrologers and bad ones. And the bad ones take advantage of the people they work with.”
Zorian was born in Evanston, Ill., and moved to St. Petersburg, Fla., when he was 14 years old. He said he attended the University of South Florida and studied music and art. He said he then got his master’s degree in music. He said his father was an opera singer and his mother was the first woman to graduate in industrial engineering from Northwestern University.
Zorian said he traveled to Switzerland to sing, and worked in New York and Paris as an advertising photographer.
He began studying astrology in his 20s, and began practicing it in 1993.
“I started to ask questions. Like, ‘Why does this happen?' So then I said my job is to learn to interpret,” he said. He speaks slowly and pauses in thought between sentences. “I woke up and realized I had a gift. I wanted to get better at it.”
Both his parents died, his family was alienated from him at one point in his life, and some of his friends have died tragically.p>
“That’s why I wanted to have a firm background and understanding of it all,” he said.
“So I started reading.”
He’s had to deal with change and loss heavily throughout his life. It’s no surprise to him, given the astrological reading of his birth date, Sept. 10, 1948.
“In my lifetime, I’m supposed to experience everything. From making lots of money to having no money at all, from finding dynamic, perfect love to having terrible heartbreak,” he said.
He said he’s also a self-employed physical fitness trainer who teaches people how to heal with herbs and live a healthy lifestyle, a photographer and a former opera singer.
“Everybody tries to pigeonhole me. They ask, ‘What are you, really?’” Zorian said. “I say, ‘I’m attempting to be someone who tries to become a Renaissance man.’ By ‘Renaissance man’ I mean I’ve always tried to be good at many things. I’m a doer as opposed to a thinker.”
Zorian said he was married when he was 21 and divorced by age 23.
Today, he lives in a studio apartment in Pass-a-Grille with his girlfriend, Aria Tova, 27, who is learning to be an astrologer herself. They’ve been together for 5 years. She’s Zorian’s assistant for his photography work.
Zorian did most of his astrology work from 1997 until 2002 at the 7th Heaven Psychic Cafe in Ybor City in Tampa, where he was a psychic who saw between 20 and 40 clients a day. The cafe closed in 2002 when the owner, Lisa Cohen, died of ovarian cancer.
“He became actually well-known in the community in Tampa for his really accurate readings,” said Rosalind Smith, who has been his client for 18 years. She was skeptical of astrology before she met Zorian.
“Zorian is one of those people in life that you go home and think, ‘God, I met the most interesting person today,’” Smith said. “After you meet him, you’re kind of inspired by what the world can hold.”
Zorian left the cafe in 2002. It was for his own safety, he said.
According to Zorian, he was the target of multiple shooting incidents at the cafe, which left him shaken, he said. There are no police reports of the shootings because they were reported as vandalism. The owner feared a report of a shooting would hurt her business, Zorian recalls.
That led him to practice astrology more for fun now rather than as a full-time career.
Zorian was sitting in the psychic cafe one day when gunshots were fired at him, he recalls.
The windows shattered.
Later, he found out the gunman was his client’s husband.
The woman had come to Zorian suspecting her husband was having an affair. He told her to follow him home after work at 2:30 and he’d be walking home with his mistress.
So she did. She caught them in action.
Her husband found out how she knew and sought revenge on Zorian.
“I’ve had shots fired at me right and left. A lot of people feel like it’s their right,” Zorian said. Protection is the reason he goes by his nickname; people know him as just Zorian. “I got tired of being shot at, so I moved away.”
Now, he works independently and is known through word of mouth. His rates range from $25 to $50 for a half-hour reading. Most of his clients live in Tampa and met him when he was working at the cafe.
“Just by the nature of things, there’s always change no matter where you go,” he said. “I’ve come to accept change.”
Zorian sits on his porch above a garden filled with exotic plants and fresh herbs.
He’s a tall man with a shaved head. Zorian wears a thick turqoise bracelet and a matching watch. His stark white collared shirt is buttoned a quarter of the way down, revealing a white necklace made out of shark cartilage from a shark he says he caught himself. The necklace holds a wooden face of a Polynesian Tiki God — the God of Luck. He smokes slowly and ashes his cigarette into a seashell on his glass table.
When he talks, it’s easy to believe, no matter how outlandish the topic may seem. His charismatic, expressive face takes you through his stories. Here is one he told from his porch on a recent Friday afternoon:
A young woman in her 20s and her parents paid a visit to Zorian.
They wanted help making a decision.
“You want to go on a trip and you don’t know if it’s the right thing to do,” Zorian recalled telling the girl, before she said why she was there. “And the trip isn’t about taking a trip — it’s about trying to rekindle a past relationship.”
“Is there any chance we’ll get back together again?”
“No.”
Zorian looked at the woman’s mother, and back at the woman.
“And I recommend you do not go on that trip. Under no circumstances should you go on that trip. I recommend you do everything you can to avoid going on that trip. Don’t go. Don’t go on that trip.”
A week later Zorian said the woman’s mother went to the psychic cafe to let Zorian know her daughter was killed in an automobile accident on her trip.
Even now as he tells the story to others, tears roll down his face.
That’s his dilemma: he lives through things with other people as they experience it in their life, he said as he cried. He gets a direct interaction with these things.
“I kept thinking, ‘What more could I have said that could have kept her from going?’” he said. “It plagues you forever.”
There are unwritten rules in astrology, according to Zorian. One is if the client doesn’t want to know anything bad, it is Zorian’s responsibility not to tell them. Another is not to tell people what they should do, but rather let them know what the consequences of their actions will be.
“It’s very difficult when you see someone with a very dangerous period of time coming up in their life,” Zorian said.
The big rule is to never predict how someone’s life will end, unless it’s an apparent consequence of something they want to do.
“It can be figured out, but I don’t like to,” he said. “It will predestine the person to think that’s the day they should fear. I really don’t go there at all.”
By knowing your birthday, Zorian creates a mathematical Zodiac chart in his mind and sees where the planets, sun, and moon were positioned the day and moment you were born. Everyone breathes in a certain energy during their first breathe on Earth, he believes, and those energies build up and interact throughout a person’s life. When Zorian does a reading, he closes his eyes and squints them as he mouths out numbers. Then, he reveals things about your life: past, present and future. His work combines the science and math of astronomy and the art of interpretation.
“It’s how the stars affect your destiny,” Zorian said.
The moon runs on a 28-day cycle. Depending on where the moon was when you were born, the geographical location of your birth with latitude and longitude, and the year you were born (so astrologers can figure out where the planets were positioned at the moment) the Earth had a specific magnetic field or pull that you inhaled at your birth, Zorian said.
“We field the magnetic zones of the planets,” he said. “Astrology helps you make educated decisions knowing the ebb and flow of how the universe works.”
The core of some planets are metal, and there is metal (iron) in our blood, so that is how the planets interact with us, he said. Also, the moon created tides on Earth and much of the tidal height is determined by where the moon is. Similarly, our bodies are 90 percent water so the moon affects the water in our bodies, he said.
“We feel each planet as it orbits and changes positions,” he said. “As the moon moves around the Earth, there’s a pull effect on the tides of the Earth.”
The physical energy created by the stars, planets, sun and moon the moment we were born builds up throughout our lives and accumulates, Zorian said. Then, it expresses itself.
“Astrology is about when things happen and when things occur,” Zorian said. “One day we’re fine and the next we’re ready to bite our best friend’s head off and we don’t know why. Astrology is the exact science to calculate when this will happen in this particular second. If you know how to read the language, you can mold yourself into who you want to be.”
But astrology is not just about celestial movements and space, he said.
“Most people don’t realize how much astrology they use on a daily basis,” Zorian said.
We live on the cycle of the sun, he said, getting up at daylight and going to sleep at sunset. Similarly, some people live their life by the moon: farmers plant their crops according to when the full moon is, and some fishers only fish during a full moon, he said.
Zorian is aware that there are people who don’t believe in astrology and don’t believe it’s not real, he said. He has stopped trying to defend it like he used to.
“Why bother?” he said. “You either understand it or you don’t. What happens is people tend not to believe. Because we’ve been programmed not to believe until you see it in action.”
Here’s another story Zorian told from his porch.
A man wearing jeans, a white shirt and a leather jacket came to Zorian one day. The man sat down and said to Zorian, “Tell me about myself.”
Zorian recalls telling him he was one of the most spiritual men he had ever met.
“You’ve devoted your life to God,” Zorian said. “And your specialty is helping children.”
Zorian continued to tell the man how religious and spiritual he was.
The man didn’t say a word.
“You want to know if you should change careers,” Zorian said. “Follow your intuition, and you’ll still be devoted to God.”
The man told Zorian he was a Catholic priest and he wanted to become an architect to create buildings to help children, Zorian recalled. The priest wanted to know if he had fulfilled his duty to God and was pleased to learn it was OK to become an architect.
“If I can say something to someone and it gives them an opportunity to understand that where they’re going is right, attainable and doable, then I’ve done my job,” he said. “Our whole life is geared toward certain moments and certain decisions we make. Astrology helps you understand that.”
Like a counselor, Zorian hears from people the most when they’re going through hard times.
“Life is fine and dandy and then their whole life goes down the toilet and they’re on the phone with me twice a week,” he said.
Because he’s had clients for years, Zorian said he tries to work with the long-term in mind rather than only focusing on the present or the next 30 days, for example.
“My philosophy is that you have free will,” he said. “I let people know what’s going on so they can test the waters themselves.”
Other astrologers and psychics criticize Zorian, he said, saying he gives too much away.
He disagrees.
“I try to give as much as I can because I want to help everyone as much as I can,” he said.
Many astrologers view things on a day-to-day basis and only look at things like a person’s job, happiness, love life and health. Zorian looks at more — like spirituality.
“It’s fun to watch people evolve and change,” Zorian said.
He addresses to his clients where we’re going, where we came from, and what our life purpose is.
“I believe I will never know the answer to how and who created everything,” Zorian said. “But I believe in the ineffable power of the universe.”
Zorian doesn’t like being the bearer of bad news. So when he sees something exciting coming up in someone’s life, it’s easy for him to express that. He smiled as he told another story from his porch from the days of when he worked at a psychic cafe in Tampa:
An old couple in their late 80s celebrating their 65th anniversary together came to Zorian to find out about their future. They were a huggy couple, Zorian said, who looked like two teens in love. They ran away together when they were 14 and have been together since.
They had always struggled financially.
He told them in the next three months they would acquire more wealth than they’d ever imagined.
“You’re going to be rich,” he said. “And I mean wealthy.”
Six weeks later a mall developer offered them $17 million for their property — a corner lot out in the country.
“The good things are easy. It makes it a joyful experience,” he said. His boyish smile stretched across his face, and his ambient personality shone as his blue eyes twinkled. “If I see something joyful, I express that with as much joy and happiness as I can.”
One client, Jo Miller-Frost, planned her wedding date according to Zorian’s astrological advice. She has been Zorian’s client since 1993, and they have become good friends.
Miller-Frost, 38, wanted to get married in 2007, but Zorian saw a difficult period in both her and her boyfriend’s Zodiac chart coming up in 2007. He advised them to get married in 2004 so that they could experience the difficult time as a married couple instead of as a dating couple.
“He said, ‘If you want your relationship to stay healthy and happy, don’t wait to get married,’” Miller-Frost said.
Taking his advice was the best thing she’s done, she said.
In 2007, her family business had problems and she was forced to close it down. They also had difficulties with their teenage children that year, just as Zorian had predicted, she said.
“We’ve endured a lot in our marriage,” Miller-Frost said. “He advised that we would have a tendency to work together better as a married couple. And he was right.”
She still consults Zorian every week for astrology advice and for ways to be physically healthy. She met him through her parents, who were his clients. He’s been most helpful to her to figure out the timing of big events in her life, such as her marriage and closing her business.
“One of the things that stick out in my mind about him is that he can take the simplest thing and make it meaningful,” she said. “We share ideas back and forth. If I have a question, he can say this is why you’re experiencing this question now. It’s nice having a second set of eyes, especially ones with an esoteric point of view.”
Every birthday has a meaning in astrology.
America’s birthday, the Fourth of July, has its own meaning. Zorian said. July 4, 1776, is the day of the seller on its Zodiac chart. Zorian explained that is why our country is the biggest buyer and seller in the world. Most of the U.S. presidents have been sun Cancer and moon Aquarius as their Zodiac signs, he said. Cancer stands for family, home, security and family values, Zorian said. But since 1993 to the present day, these signs have been in direct conflict with the planets, according to the U.S. Zodiac chart.
“The planets and the sun have been in conflict, which brought on war, 9/11, and it has shattered or weakened our sense of family and security that existed before that,” he said.
With the struggling economy, where does Zorian think that leaves the future of our country according to astrology?
2010 will be a bad year, he said. Why? The astrological configuration during that year will be the same as it was between 1929 and 1935. Those were the years of the Great Depression.
Certain Zodiac signs will thrive over the next 17 years, Zorian predicts. These are Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn, Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio.
Sept. 11 and the day of Pearl Harbor had very similar energies to each other, which helps Zorian explain why the tragedies happened.
“They have almost identical energies on the Zodiac chart,” he said.
The reason history almost repeats itself is because astrology runs on a circular cycle, he said. The sun, planets, moon and Earth all orbit in a circular motion.
With the upcoming elections, Zorian predicts the new president will have the same struggles as the president did after the Gulf War.
“Nobody’s going to like the next president. Whoever it is will take so much heat from the American people,” he said. “We’ll have to fund the war bill and people will blame the president for having no food in the fridge.
“But I don’t believe in gloom and doom,” Zorian said. “America is the most innovative country on the planet, and we will work this out.”