Eaks, Duane L. (1940-)

Duane L. Eaks, a contemporary Australian astrologer, was born in Montrose, Colorado, on March 6, 1940. He grew up in Colorado and attended Northern Colorado University, from which he earned a degree in chemistry in 1963. Following graduation he switched to psychology and attended San Diego State University. He earned his master's degree in guidance and counseling in 1967 and completed his education at the University of California at Berkeley with a doctorate in counseling psychology (1972). Soon afterwards he moved to Melbourne, Australia, as a lecturer and counseling psychologist at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Victoria.

Eaks began his study of astrology in 1977 at the Melbourne Academy of Cosmobiology, where he mastered the system of uranian astrology as developed by Reinhold Ebertin. Over several years he studied with some of the country's leading astrologers, including Pamela Rowe, Gillian Murray, and Doris Greaves. With his educational background, he quickly emerged as one of the most prominent voices in Australian astrology, and he lectured widely on the psychological aspects of astrology, drawing deeply from Jungian themes. He also pioneered exploration of the gay experience and astrology. Sex and love relationships have been a major theme in astrology, but have dealt almost exclusively with heterosexual relationships.

In 1982 Eaks was elected to the National Executive Committee of the Federation of Australian Astrologers (FAA) and named its executive secretary, a post he retained for the next six years. In 1985 he was made a professional member of the FAA and in 1988 named a fellow. Through the 1980s he also served as the treasurer of the Victoria branch of the FAA and as the newsletter editor of the Regulus Ebertin Study Group that began in 1981.