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Astrologer's Notes: |
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Presenting Astrology Professionally
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by Basil Fearrington |
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I like to say that astrology is the best act there is but because of poor public relations and bad management, it has a tough time attracting a large audience. This is absolutely not a reflection on Astrology but is more of a reflection of Astrologers and the manner in which astrology is presented to others, in consultations, in print, and even casually. Astrology will not advance beyond the interests of astrologers and the very small percentage of people in the world who respect it (reputed to be only 3% with half that number being astrologers), until it is presented professionally, pragmatically, and is consistently helpful.
In times past, before the inception of the psychological era, astrology was practiced almost exclusively as a tool to "predict the future." Astrologers believed in, practiced, and presented astrology to others in a way that suggested that people are pawns of a fate handed down by the planets. The human being's will was taken out of the equation in favor of planetary and horoscopic control. While this gave astrologers a feeling of esteem and power, it insulted the common sense of disbelievers, most of whom looked upon this idea of planets calling the shots as being totally ridiculous and laughable. This approach did nothing for astrology but perpetuate the negative image that people inherited from religious dogma that crucified astrology since the meetings of The Council of Constantinople (probably in 553 A.D. when meetings were held to detemine the anathemas relating to the Bible.). To devout Christians, astrologers are trying to replace God by forecasting the future, so when astrologers project the idea that planets rule people, it falls in line with what devout Christians are against and fuels the fire of those who see astrology as being a joke or an entertainment topic.
In today's world of astrology, there are still very many astrologers whose vision and practice of the art continue to be influenced by the old astrology, sometimes with very negative results. I had a situation that is an example of what I am talking about.
An old friend of mine from my basketball days made email contact with me. His marriage of 6 years was on its last leg. He gave me his wife's birth data as well as his. We set a consultation time for some three weeks later. In the mean time, another friend of his, a woman with strong interests in astrology (but is not a professional) ran into him in an airport. He also gave her the data.
I received a phone call from my friend a week before our consultation was scheduled. He was frantic. He had stayed up all night the night before because this [astrologer] friend of his had written an analysis accusing his wife of being a liar, a cheat, etc. He read the analysis to me and I found myself becoming irritated and even angry that this woman could say such things about someone she never met, had never talked to and did not know, simply because she had her horoscope. It is totally irresponsible to do such a thing. It served no positive purpose.
What this astrologer did was take every possible negative cookbook aspect delineation and pass that on. For example, the wife had Neptune squaring her Mercury. Just from that alone, she pronounced the woman a liar! In her mind, she was probably telling our friend what she thought he wanted to hear since an alleged affair was the focal point of the marital issue. Instead of helping, she worsened the situation by projecting what she knew (and didn't know) about astrology. She made value judgements about someone whom she had not even met and knew nothing about. It is one thing to make suggestions based on a horoscope but value judgements - "She has a bad temper;" "He is definitely cheating on you;" "She is a born liar," these kinds of statements cannot and should not be made, especially without knowing the person. It is these kinds of issues, and many more, that need to be changed in the way astrology is presented to others.
Using Jargon
"The reason why this relationship trouble is happening is that transiting Saturn is square your Venus with transiting Neptune on your Descendant and Uranus is on your Sun." That is an actual quote that I heard from an astrologer conducting astrology on a radio show.
For starters, the reason the person's relationship was in trouble is because of the people involved, not because of their horoscopes. When astrologers make statements like these to people who know nothing about astrology, it does very little but help the astrologer.
People outside of astrology know nothing about planets, Signs, Houses, and aspects so it does them little good to have astrology communicated to them in that way. You, the astrologer, is the one who knows the astrology and it's your job to communicate what you know in the same way that you would describe a good movie that you saw or how you enjoyed your vacation.
If you are having severe pain, what you want to hear from the doctor is how he or she will stop the pain, not the Latin name or names of the body parts causing the problem. Think about that when you are doing a consultation. Knowing what the issue is and communicating it using astrological jargon boosts your ego but does nothing for the client. The client has come to you looking for insight regarding an issue, not to learn the astrological configurations that symbolize the issue.
The symbols of astrology are there for the astrologer to be able to have a plain language dialogue with the client, not to show off what he or she knows about astrology. If you find that you must use astrological jargon, see it as an insecurity that needs to be resolved. Instead of repeating the aspect or configuration, just communicate what it means.
Reading or Consultation?
Does it make a difference as to whether or not the astrologer refers to the work as a reading or as a consultation? I believe it does because both terms project different expectations. When you sit down with an attorney to go over your business, the attorney doesn't give you a reading. He or she consults with you. You probably wouldn’t trust an attorney who described the work as a reading unless it involved the reading of an inheritance Will. Remember, we need astrology to have a different public face.
In the old days, before astrology gained the psychological sophistication it now enjoys, people came to astrologers with the expectation of a performance, quite similarly to what one expects from a psychic or Tarot card reader. The person would sit on the other side of a desk while the astrologer spent an hour or so spouting astrology. Dialogue was kept to a minimum. What I don't like about this approach is that it
a) suggests that people are pawns of a fate delivered by planets
b) there is little helpful dialogue and
c) the word "reading" doesn't project a sense of professionalism. It sounds more like crystal balls and incense burning in a darkened room than it does two people having a meaningful, quality, substantive dialogue about life.
I prefer to use the term, "consultation." The client pays you to consult with her or him about life through using what you know about astrology (and life) as a guide.. This happens through a mutual dialogue, a shared conversation, not through an astrological performance of jargon by the astrologer.
Example
The following is an example of the two different approaches to the same horoscope. First, the reading: "You have the Sun in Capricorn in the 6th House in Capricorn. That means that you are a hard worker. Your Cancer Ascendant means that home and family are important to you. Normally the Moon in Leo means fluctuating finances but this Moon is not "afflicted" (ugh....a terrible word to use that goes back hundreds of years) aspect state so you probably don't have to worry too much about finances. But with that Uranus on the Ascendant, you have to be on guard from being too individualistic. And you see here, with Jupiter in the 12th House, your enthusiasms are muted and with that opposition to Venus, you probably eat too many sweets." (If you have seen report writers in astrology, you've seen a reading in print. Report writers cannot print consultations because consultations depend on dialogue and artful communication, not just a rehashing of aspects and planetary positions).
Do you see the problems there? In that approach, the human being is tossed on the side of the road with no say in the matter. The person is thus and so because the astrologer and the horoscope have commanded it. There is no focus on the human being. It's ring-around-the-rosy, picking planets in their Signs and Houses within the context of aspects. It goes nowhere. The client is not helped. The ultimate issue is that you can make these statements and be wrong, cutting off all of your credibility in an instant.
Using the same horoscope, here is a different approach: In the first impression of your horoscope, there is a suggestion shown that emphasizes the formative years of your development in the deepest parental sense. Typically, we expect that things happened during those years that were left unresolved. These things are normally brought forward into adult life where they are projected onto your relationships and different facets of your life. Please tell me about those early years, your parents’ relationship with each other and, in particular, this powerful maternal relationship in your life that has such a powerful effect on you." (This was taken verbatim from a taped consultation).
In that kind of presentation, the door is left open for modification by the use of the word, "suggests" instead of saying "you are" or "Venus in Sagittarius MAKES YOU...." I'm making an initial statement, not of fact but of suggestion. I, then, ask the client to comment on it for confirmation or modification. I always have, in the back of my mind, that the horoscope is a map that shows what the needs are and how to fulfill them.
The woman responded that her mother was everything. "We are super close. If she sneezes, I am at her house with a tissue before she finishes. I can't imagine life without her."
Immediately, in the first seconds of the consultation, several things have happened. Astrology looks pretty good because I have presented it skillfully, which gives me respect in the eyes of the client. And we have established a solid initial focus to develop in dialogue during the consultation. The client is involved. The astrologer is involved. It is a win-win situation and the client walks away with a good feeling about astrology.
In this particular case, the client had come to me because of a troubled relationship situation. In consultation with her, she revealed that she had been the victim of physical abuse from a man she was married to. Although she had and still has no trouble attracting relationships, there is a common theme that operates through all them. With experience, we develop intuition with clients. This maternal influence (Uranus conjunct the Nodal Axis) shown in her horoscope is quite powerful. I assumed that it permeated everything, including relationships. So, my question to her was, "Mary, can you have a relationship with someone that your mother doesn't fully approve of?" Her response? "Mother has put her stamp of approval on all of them. I would be very uncomfortable otherwise." "Well, let's do some basic arithmetic here. Your relationships have been continually unfulfilling, to say the least. The common thread running throughout has been that you sought out your mother's approval for all of them. Yet none worked out. Can you see what the natural assumption is, Mary? You are very attractive and look much younger than your 50+ years. It really is okay to leave everyone else out of the relationship election process."
Although our consultation covered many other ancillary topics, the core of it had to do with this super idealization of her mother (and of life, period) carried over from her childhood years. The point here is that astrology was able to see that, quickly and accurately and it was presented correctly to the client! I did not mention a single word of astrology. What would have been the point of saying, "The reason your relationships are tough is because the ruler of your 7th House conjoins Mars"? That means nothing and besides, Mary's relationships are continually problematic because of Mary, not her horoscope.
People and Not Planets
It is extremely important in today's world to realize and understand that people are not controlled by planets. Of all the things that one could learn in astrology, understanding that a human being's horoscope is a reflection of that person as she or he is intended to be and is NOT the person, is of primary, crucial importance. It is the foundation of the perspective through which you practice astrology because if you believe that what a person is or does or what happens to them is because of a planet, it colors everything you do in astrology. It is the free will of the human being that calls the shots, not that person's horoscope.
Consciousness Of Level
I was raised in an area of Philadelphia that is now pretty violent. Even as a child growing up, there were always issues and concerns of safety. That is the landscape of any poor urban community anywhere in the world.
I had both parents when I grew up. I had someone there telling me right from wrong. There were parental repercussions to pay if you "messed up." I was insulated from the negative things in the community that so many get immersed in. I was fortunate.
There was a man who lived with his sisters and mother just a few houses away. We will call him, "Michael." Michael did not have both parents. He never knew his father. He had a mother who had to move in there with her mother because she couldn't take care of her kids. Each one of those kids including Michael lived in that house well into adulthood. His maternal role model had been a wild teenager herself who started having children as a teenager. She passed her wild genetics to all of her children, Michael being the worst. He never lived on his own.
I can remember seeing Michael, quite often, stumbling down the street in drunken stupors, never employed and always involved in "a hustle."
This is Michael's horoscope. Saturn is retrograde, which should always flash like a red neon sign when you see it. With its symbolism suggesting a father concern, you always look immediately to the parental Houses (IV-X) for corroboration, as well as conjunctions, squares, or quindeciles to the Lunar Nodal Axis. Here, we see an opposition of Pluto to Mercury in the parental Houses conjoining the Nodal Axis. Venus is exactly quindecile the Nodal Axis. As well, Jupiter opposes the Sun in the parental axis so we can easily see astrological corroboration of the reality I saw every day. Michael was born into a difficult situation, depended greatly on his mother his entire life and never achieved anything. His drinking led to cirrhosis of the liver and he left his body in his late fifties. There were no highs, no lows, no achievement, no expectations. His was a day to day existence, hustling in the ghetto.
The next horoscope belongs to Jerry Springer. It is practically identical to Michael's!!! Yet, Springer is a millionaire with a lot of achievements and successes in his life. His "Jerry Springer Show", as nutso as it is, is the only talk show ever to take the Oprah Show out of first place for even a week. Two exact horoscopes and two completely different lives lived all because each person made decisions about how they were going to live, not because of their horoscopes. With so many trines in a horoscope, laziness is not surprising because trines are weak aspects symbolizing self-contentment and lack of motivation. However, it is not expected that one does nothing at all in life.
In a consultation, you could not have approached both of these individuals the same way because the same things cannot happen. They have lived lives on two opposite planes. They were not controlled by their horoscopes.
Both horoscopes have practically two complete Air Grand Trines that empty out into the 10th House, which suggests that the career should be the outlet, the release point to break up the defensiveness in social and intellectual circumstances that characterizes the Air Grand Trine. Springer put himself in a position to take advantage of his horoscope. Michael did not.
This example shows that you must always take level into consideration. Before you actually see, talk to, or know the person, you have no idea how or even if what the horoscope suggests is even a reality. This is why it is always wise to leave the door of possibilities open by saying something like, "Your horoscope suggests_____" instead of, "Your planet makes you_____." The one statement that really should never ever be used is, “Thus and so MAKES YOU_____." "Your Venus in the Ascendant makes you attractive." It's a ridiculous statement to make.
See the horoscope as potential to be instead of a fact of reality. No only does this keep you from getting egg on your face but it sounds much more professional. If every astrologer becomes more in tune with presenting astrology professionally rather than in "hocus pocus" fashion, society, astrology and astrologers become beneficiaries of one of the greatest creations ever.
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Basil Fearrington,
Astrologer
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Basil Fearrington is the author of "The New Way To Learn Astrology." He has been a professional astrologer for 22 years.
Basil's articles have appeared in the leading astrological publications around the world. He was the Inaugural Chairman for the MilleyDome project in Johannesburg, South Africa and taught astrology there for one year.
Basil has twice been a faculty member of UAC and spoke at Astro 2000. In addition to his work in astrology, Basil is a professional musician who has toured with and/or recorded for artists such as Stevie Wonder and George Benson.
He was on a team of composers who did the music for a network show called "New York Undercover." The same team won a Grammy award in 1980.
basilfearrington@
Yahoo.com
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