The Astrologer's Mark: Effectiveness

Is astrological use directed only by people’s curiosity? Or does astrology continue due to a deeper need in the human psyche? If so, what does the earnest astrology student do to prepare himself to meet with society’s expectation of his knowledge and skill? This article reveals one essential approach.

While certain practices mature and get deeper with prolonged practice, there will be aspects within that same practice that would deteriorate or get neglected from the original understanding or psychology. This has happened with astrology after aeons of practice by diverse practitioners. As it is, most people don’t know why they go to astrologers. Worse, most astrologers are equally caught in the same warp, giving a service that doesn’t make either one grow, let alone contribute to technical astrological advancement.

Most people go to astrologers believing the following:

1. astrologers are able to “see” the future

Astrologers only get to see the future as clearly as the supplied birth data are reliable. Many people are careless about this. Coming to the astrologer with a careless and off-the-cuff, “…was born somewhere in the afternoon” is just not good enough. People have to be educated about this and an initiative be made to prepare people before they come with misconceptions about what the good astrologer may offer. Prepare a small literature to this effect, or make a small note about it behind your astrology business card if you ever reach this point: your astrological work can only be as reliable as the given birth data. Every good astrologer is particular about the quality of the data that he receives to work on: the birth date, birth time, and birth place. The birth time is probably the biggest problem for most people. Always be suspicious of the data you receive from the outset. Ask if the time is verifiable by relations, even if it was the time noted on the birth certificate. As for birth place, make sure it may be found on the map. If not, ask how far it is from the closest town on the map because you need the latitude and longitude of the birth place as accurately as possible as well. While palmistry is an excellent partner to astrology, it is not astrology. If you’re doing real astrology, stick to the model that is astrology. For instance, the hands, the face, one’s mannerisms are all means of rectifying the reliability of the chart. However, I recommend that you only include other models to empower your astrology once you mature with your skills.

2. astrologers therefore make predictions about what’s going to happen

Most people are not aware that it is not always that astrologers offer predictions. There are many times when they just offer a better understanding of what’s going on in the person’s life. Good astrologers don’t hurry into predictions unless they are extremely sure of the premises behind the issues they are reading in the chart. There’s normally a lot of interpretation and reading to do before the good astrologer dispenses with his “predictions”. In the horoscope, there are no convenient columns to read the past, present, or future. It just displays a bunch of symbols that reveal what’s “inside” the person. These things exist as “potential events” in the person’s life until when they surface according to some triggering variables. These triggers may be determined beforehand. This is the part that most people relate to, and tend to believe is the ultimate purpose and offering of the astrologer.

  

3. knowing these predictions helps to avert forthcoming disasters and reduces anxiety

Theoretically, yes; but not always. More commonly, people tend to go home and wait for the predictions to materialize. If the prediction is positive, they hope the astrologer is accurate and wait for it to happen anxiously. If the prediction is negative, most would wait for it with fear and hope that it would not happen. Either way, they would come to the astrologer again for “another set” of predictions. People only get to avert disasters and empower their potentials with astrology when the astrologer is equipped with counseling skills to guide the individual into self-realization and renewed fulfillment. Most astrologers are not equipped with this as many are still caught up in the misconceptions of the people who use their services and trying hard to fulfill those expectations.

  

It is therefore important for the astrologer to realize that there are issues outside of his technical reading skills that are equally important if not more so. And one of the most important is to know why people come to make use of the astrologer’s skill? The answer is simple. People need solutions. They may not be able to voice it in precise terms, but they need solutions. They concentrate on their material issues, but what they need is insight to the essentials behind their physical experiences. Whether they need to find out when they’re going to strike a lottery, when they’re going to find their soul mate, when they’re going to travel overseas, when they’d find happiness; what they want is guidance to lead them to the better management or understanding of the essentials behind their experiences. They are just too caught up with their living, the words come out filtered only through the terms that they see and understand. And this is what the good astrologer should know in order for his practice to be of real value to others. It’s about the effectiveness of the astrological session towards providing better self-knowledge and management skill over responses to life events.

To approach this, the astrologer should have a good practice with well defined policies as to what he should or should not want to do when people consult. He must know the parameters within which he should want to contain himself, and what provisions he wants to set up in order to go beyond his own policies to help others. These guidelines to better practice must become a part of the good astrologer’s practice, and his counseling skills based on astrology’s own metaphysical psychology will together give the kind of effectiveness every person will need to bring them closer to their unique solutions at that moment in their lives.

In summary, people generally don’t know what they want from astrologers, and astrologers themselves in general, are trying too hard to please the misconceptions of the general populace. The good astrologer should have a good practice based on sound spiritual principles and astrological psychology to provide what he should provide, rather than to provide people what they think they need.