Astrology: The only introduction you’ll ever need. Charles Harvey

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СКАЧАТЬ but this can be problematic as in Britain the time is only recorded on the birth certificate in Scotland, except in the case of multiple births. If you were born in a hospital or a nursing home your time of birth will be on your original birth records, which the authorities are obliged to keep until you are 21. After that your records may be less readily accessible or even destroyed.

      Astrologers vary a lot as to whether they want to take a detailed case history before the consultation. Some astrologers prefer to work ‘blind’, allowing the chart to speak for itself in terms of its pure potential. They will then relate that potential to the actual life history later in the consultation. Most astrologers will ask you the reason for the consultation and any special issues that you would like them to consider.

      THE CONSULTATION

      A typical first consultation or reading of a natal chart with an astrologer will last between 90 minutes and two hours, and sometimes longer. Prior to your arrival, the astrologer will probably have spent at least an hour preparing your natal chart, usually with the help of a computer, looking at current trends and probably making notes. If it is a first consultation the astrologer may well have prepared the chart several days earlier and have had it mulling over in the back of her mind for some while.

      When it is not possible to meet in person, some astrologers work very effectively by phone. Some will also supply a reading dictated on to a cassette. A few astrologers will provide written reports. These, however, are very costly as a full written report would be unlikely to take less than one full day to prepare and write up.

      FEES

      Fees vary considerably. A first consultation is unlikely to cost less than £50 with a follow-up hourly rate of £20. A top astrologer in London will charge at least £40 per hour which, allowing for preparation time, will mean that the first consultation could be about £90 or £100.

      CHARACTER ANALYSIS

      At the simplest level, an astrologer can interpret your horoscope as a pattern of character traits, aptitudes, strengths and weaknesses. This approach is purely descriptive, the astrologer attempting to sketch out a personality profile in words and images. If you have a lot of fire in your chart and a strong ninth house, you will be seen as impulsive, energetic, intuitive, idealistic and mentally adventurous. If you have a strongly placed Saturn in the first house as well, you will also be described as serious, self-doubting, ponderous, but reliable and conscientious too. These and other contrasting features of your character will be identified, together with the inner tensions and creative potential they involve. It will then be up to you to go away and draw your own conclusions.

      PSYCHOLOGICAL ASTROLOGY

      An astrological consultation will reveal valuable insights about your personality and the dilemmas you experience in life, but it will not change deep-seated behaviour patterns or heal psychological wounds overnight. However, since we humans are blessed with the faculty of self-reflection, we can choose to go beyond a mere description of our character and actually engage with this knowledge in a deeper way. If you find that the beauty of this language really speaks to you, astrology becomes a kind of wisdom path which can lead to empowerment and desired life changes. This takes time, commitment, and the development of self-analysis.

      Some people are natural self-analysers. Others will benefit immeasurably from the experience of psychotherapy where someone else analyses and, over time, teaches you to self-analyse. Add astrology to this activity and you suddenly have a much more powerful experience of understanding what is going on. In this way, astrological insights can help us work through negative conditionings and to see that when it comes to forming our inner attitude, there is a choice.

      When the astrologer moves from giving descriptions of personality to relating energies in the chart to the actual personal experience of the individual, the astrologer is also acting as a counsellor. Increasingly now, astrologers undergo some kind of therapeutic training which enables them to listen effectively and to manage the emotional responses of clients, rather than just impart information. If you wish to work more deeply with astrology as a tool for self-awareness, it is important that the astrologer you choose has experience and training in counselling. The Faculty of Astrological Studies offers a two-year Counselling Within Astrology course, and the Centre for Psychological Astrology offers a broad base of knowledge in psychological theory and requires students to be in individual therapy for a minimum of one year.

      Some astrologers are beginning to work with astrology as a framework for longer-term therapeutic work. C.G. Jung’s daughter, Frau Gret Baumann Jung, was a great pioneer of this approach. Each of her therapeutic clients was given an introductory book on astrology and asked to study the basic principles so as to be able to work within that archetypal framework. She believed that the value of inner work was greatly enhanced by astrological symbolism, and that it encouraged within her clients both a sense of responsibility and a desire for self-knowledge. Astrology’s ability to enrich the meaning-making process makes it a central tool for all people who seek a greater experience of freedom in their lives.

      LIFE TRENDS – FORECASTING THE FUTURE

      What will happen to us? What is our destiny? Astrology can never answer these questions in absolute terms. The astrologer looking at a chart cannot see ‘events’ and people written on it. The astrologer sees in a chart combinations of energy and patterns of ideas which experience has shown are likely to manifest in certain ways. By studying the chart it is possible to see the kinds of issues that are likely to arise in a person’s life. If the astrologer knows how an individual has responded to certain kinds of patterns in the past, and also knows the current circumstances, it becomes more possible to make reasonably reliable inferences about the way that things may develop.

      By the same measure, knowing the kind of energies which will be to the fore at a particular time, the astrologer will suggest ways in which they can be most constructively be directed. Thus planetary patterns which an astrology textbook might associate with the breakdown of a relationship may in practice express themselves as a ‘breakthrough’ which transforms rather than breaks the existing relationship. Ultimately, how the chart expresses itself is not preordained but a matter of individual consciousness and choice.

      Almost everyone who decides to consult an astrologer wants to know what will happen to them. But destiny is, in fact, simply another expression of character. To the astrologer, they are one and the same thing. To take a simple example, a person with the planet Jupiter prominent will tend to be optimistic. Because he is cheerful, people will like him. This jovial type will tend to see the opportunities in any situation and people will be inclined to help. Thus he appears to be ‘lucky’ as ever-new vistas open up for him. By contrast, someone with Saturn in a dominant position at birth will be inclined to pessimism. The saturnine type will focus on life’s problems and may spend much time and energy defending against ‘what may happen’ and in becoming self-reliant. In the longer run, the eternal optimist may start too many ventures and finish none of them, take too many risks and waste his resources. By contrast, Saturn’s disciple, who has carefully put aside resources for a rainy day, and who has finished each project as it comes along, may well end up as a person of substance who has made a real tangible difference to the world. In each case, however, character has led the way and an astrologer merely reads the signatures of character and its implications.

      Astrology cannot ‘foretell the future’ as such. It can, however, look at the qualities of a particular period and, like a weather forecaster, make intelligent conjectures about the kind of issues we are likely to be facing.

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