Pull Up A Chair

Imagine having about five other astrologers listen intently while you tell them about a particularly difficult or puzzling reading you had with a client. A reading that left you feeling uneasy, guilty, puzzled, angry, or worst of all, incompetent and out of your depth. A couple of the astrologers ask you clarifying questions and then you sit back and listen to what each astrologer has to say about your experience. Braced for criticism, what you hear instead is encouragement, empathy, advice, confirmation, laughter. With each word, you feel a place inside you fill up that you didn’t even KNOW was empty, and your whole body relaxes.

Then it’s another astrologer’s turn to tell about their uncomfortable client experience, and you have the deep pleasure of listening and giving back. The group leader,  (Bob Mulligan in this case, who kept us all laughing and eager to learn more), keeps everyone on course, asks questions, makes comments, starts off the meeting with his own story, and guides the group to make sure everyone has a chance to share.

How Was I Fed?

First of all, I felt seen, heard, understood and…relieved. The suggestions I received were confirmation of many of my own thoughts, and a situation that had been bugging me for over a year was resolved. I even got a little “script” I could use with the particular client I had shared about. Furthermore, I was able to see what mistakes I had made with another client that I didn’t even talk about. I felt more clear on what I did that WASN’T effective, what I did that WAS effective and had direction on what to do in the future, all of which boosted my confidence.

Finally, being able to give feedback to another astrologer was satisfying in itself, because I got a chance to use my own experience and expertise to be supportive, which brings up the point that it’s a lot easier to see another person’s issues than it is to see my own. Having other astrologers to talk to when I’m too close to something is invaluable.

Not Quite Enough

As practicing astrologers, we all know that doing readings, consultations, or sessions (pick the word you like), means connecting with the client in order to be helpful and effective, without the client or yourself being harmed in any way.

Sometimes though, things don’t go as well as planned and we really wish we had someone to compare perceptions with and to get some objectivity. Maybe it’s not confined to one particular consultation with a client, but the relationship itself feels off. It could be you unintentionally crossed a boundary (the dual-relationship is an especially easy mistake to make), and are now having problems because of it, or maybe you feel manipulated by a client, and are not sure if it’s just your imagination or how to handle it if you are being manipulated. Sometimes, in fact, being an astrologer and talking to clients about their lives, can feel pretty risky when we don’t know for sure how to navigate the pitfalls. Clients often think we are god-like, or “psychic” and take anything we say very seriously (even if you ARE psychic, the client’s expectation of what that means can be very different than the reality of it).

A Little Indigestion

I’ve had the uneasy experience of having a client tell me I said something to them that I don’t even remember saying. It’s even more disturbing to hear that what I don’t remember having said, they’ve remembered and thought about for YEARS! Yikes. My point being, with this kind of responsibility, we can really use some support, and with little guidance available to us in the field, it’s easy to make mistakes, to second-guess yourself constantly or get too stressed out to be effective.
Though you may be solitary and fiercely independent by nature, having community that you can share your often lonely professional challenges with, is a deep blessing. The great thing is, the TYPE of astrology you practice matters not one whit, so there is no competing and comparing.

Table Manners

The format is simple:

1. Talk only about readings that have already taken place, thereby preventing the meeting from becoming about getting free readings or free astrological instruction. We can help each other this way if we want to, of course, just not in this setting.
2. You have to have at least a basic understanding of astrology and to be actively giving readings or counsel to people based on astrology charts.
3. There needs to be a leader who has been OPA certified to keep the meeting on course, ask the right questions, and to make sure that everyone gets a chance to share.
4. Everything about clients is strictly confidential, no names are spoken and the client names on the charts are blacked out. We even go so far as to not share a chart about someone who is a public figure that can be recognized by their chart. This part of the meeting is not ever recorded.
5. The feedback we give each other is positive and helpful in nature. No attacking or belittling allowed. Suggestions and advice can be offered, but not forced on anyone.
6. The group stays small, from 5 to 8 people, and it can be an open group or a closed group that opens up to new people once a year.

If you’ve ever been involved in a group process before such a Mastermind Group, Toastmasters, any of the 12-Step programs, or group therapy, you know how magically effective they can be. The group spirit takes over and every member grows faster and goes farther than they ever could on their own. With the Peer Group Supervision experience, a large portion of the pleasue is that you get to speak astro-babble as much as you want to and everyone gets it!

Is It To Your Taste?

If you’re wondering if you and your practice could benefit from the Peer Group Supervision experience, don’t take my word for it, try it out for yourself. You don’t have to go back for seconds if you don’t like it. But I believe that, like it did for me, it will fill you up as it whets your appetite for more.
For more details on how it works and why this kind of model, go to Bob Mulligan’s article about Peer Group Work.

For an extended OPA experience, attend the retreat coming up in October, 2010!

Each conference you go to you have expectations, and sometimes you are let down by the whole experience. Being at a conference with thousands of people is so much different from attending one with fifty people. You remember faces and names more with a smaller conference, and have more ease with connections. I believe that larger groups can be overwhelming and a bit confusing. When I am in attendance at a conference that is smaller I feel a sense of intimacy. Each conference has its benefits, they all have pro’s and con’s. With my experience at OPA I can honestly say size does not matter. It is the people who are present, it is their material and information they are sharing, and the mutual appreciation for Astrology that is truly important.

The conference is off to a rolling start, and everyone is bright eyed and perky sitting here in the chapel at Asilomar, except for the ones who attended Bob Mulligan’s room the night before. Wednesday was the day that we went over many different varieties of chart analysis and chart interpretation techniques. We had some of the best Astrologers from all over the country speaking, such as Chris McRae, Monica Dimino, and Bob Mulligan sharing their ways. I learned there is no one way to read a chart or consult with a client. Everyone has their own unique way of dissecting a chart and consulting with a client. I learned that only by practice you can come to know your own style and that it is ok to do things differently. It was a breath of fresh air to know that not one single person would judge you or your consulting skills. All of the Astrologers alike are very professional and wonderful teachers. I learned a mountain of material in such a short time. I found myself smiling on the inside, feeling so appreciative to have them pouring their hearts out teaching us their unique ways.

Thursday started out with a couple short talks with Benjamin Bernstein, Arlan Wise, and Rick Levine. Very informative material to absorb and I was taking notes. Benjamin Bernstein the genius at marketing and promoting had spoken with us about podcasting. Benjamin Bernstein has the number one Podcast on ITunes called “This Week in Astrology”. He has been very successful at bringing Astrology to the masses with his podcast. He is very knowledgeable of sound production from a past career which I think contributes to his podcast being one of the best. He provided us with the “how to” and the essential basics in getting a podcast up and running. When his talk was over I felt confident I could pursue the proper resources necessary to get started with my own podcast.

Arlan Wise spoke about being an astrologer living in a small rural community. She was able to help me understand the different elements you deal with in a small town verses being in a big city. We often forget that the place where you live and practice Astrology plays a major role within your community. I thought it was very interesting to learn about the intimacy you have with your community when everyone knows who you are, and how confidentiality plays a major role.

Rick Levine went next and he spoke to us about astrology and the price of tea in china. Seriously, he did. He made me realize that Astrology has to be connected to something. It has to be connected to something for you to make it yours. If it is not connected, then it becomes irrelevant. It becomes as irrelevant as the price of tea in china. I found his talk to be very interesting, as usual, and enjoyed all three Astrologers very much.

After lunch we joined our individual groups. I am in the writing track with Arlan Wise. The first day we had introductions, and got to know our group members and why they joined the writing track. I have two pieces of fiction I would like to bring to fruition, and thought that by joining the writing track it would give me the that extra push. Arlan has her sun conjunct Pluto conjuncting my Jupiter conjunct midheaven, who better to give me that push. We were given some basic astrological interpretations and were required to write about them. I thought it was hard at first being put on the spot, but felt I carried it out with satisfactory results. I surprised myself. I now know I chose the correct track for myself and am certain I will leave here a better writer.

There were quite a few talks on Thursday, Chris McRae going over the nuts and bolts of her practice, Glenn Perry talking about running his multi-layered practice, but I would have to say the most memorable for me was the talk by Henry Seltzer on Eris. Henry Seltzer is the writer of Time Passages Astrology Software. He has been working on and researching the planet Eris. Eris is a planet outside of Pluto’s orbit. It has an orbit of 556 years. Its orbit is irregular and is not symmetrical. The planet Eris is in Aries currently at 21 degrees. Eris is a violent planet. She is the sister of Mars and would often go to war with Mars. She is much like the Hindu Goddess Durga. She is violent and goes after her desires with great perseverance. He had showed us how Eris played a role in the lives of famous people’s charts, and proved the planets validity. It was very informative and I will enjoy hearing more about Eris in the future.

After a couple of nights of hanging out in Bob Mulligan’s room, I finally got some much needed sleep. It was Friday morning and I felt good. We as a group got to a late start but didn’t waste time getting enlightened by Monica Dimino and her talk on Chinese Astrology. This proved to be very interesting and she was able to elaborate on every animal in the Chinese Zodiac. The Chinese Zodiac starts with the Rat at the 4th house cusp (IC) and moves clockwise. After the Rat is the Ox, Tiger, then Rabbit(also known as Cat) at sunrise, Dragon, Snake, then the Horse at noon, Goat(also known as Sheep) ,Monkey, Rooster at sunset, Dog, Pig, and finally back to Rat at the Midnight. It was interesting to see that the more exotic animals that fell to the East side of the zodiac were considered independent. The more domesticated animals that fell to the West of the zodiac were considered team players. The signs are assigned according to the year you were born. The time of day you were born would give you your rising sign. I happen to be born in 1978 which makes me a horse and my rising sign is a dragon. I found it to be very accurate in its descriptions. I was even envisioning my relatives’ signs. It was very informative and I appreciated everything Monica had to tell us. I only wish she had at least another hour or two to devote to Chinese Astrology. I was definitely wanting more by the time she had finished.

Next we had one of the best geeks around, Rick Levine, giving his talk about running a web based practice. This is a talk I found to be very relative to our internet based society. I realized that there are specific programs I was not using, such as Outlook. Outlook happens to be an email program which enables you many possibilities. Signature emails grabbed my attention, what a time saver. Signature emails enable you to send a pre-formatted email which you can alter by just simply adding a new name every time you send one out. These are invaluable if you need to save time in responding to emails. He also went over some of the major networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to name a few. He discussed how it is important to get yourself out their let others know who you are, what you do, and most important make yourself available to them. Most people are computer savvy but even if you are not, his discussion would have enlightened you and inspired you.

After all of the lectures at around 1 o’clock we meet with our individual groups. I looked forward to this everyday because it meant I would be able to work on my writing. Arlan was very prepared and had a couple of passages from the book “Stephen King, the memoir of the craft of writing”. It was very interesting to see the dos and don’ts from a real professional writer such as Stephen King. I was so happy to have Arlan guiding and helping us to be better writers. She is so professional and is excellent at giving us constructive criticism and praise. As we typed away at our assignments, I couldn’t help thinking I wish we had more time. I enjoyed the feedback from my group members and will look forward to their continued support.

Later that evening Robert Corre spoke about the business side of astrology, back side of astrology. He has an interesting approach to teaching astrology which he had learned from Zoltan Mason. He now is a full time astrologer and full time astrology teacher. He also has many different techniques of getting his astrology lessons to you. If you are not able to attend classes as most are not now days due to this economy, he broadcasts them over the internet. He makes himself readily available to his clientele, and even sees or takes calls up to midnight. His talk was informative and showed me that yet again you be completely unique in your approach of using, teaching, and working with astrology.

It is Saturday and it is the last day unless you have signed up with Richard Smoot for a class on AstroDataBank Workshop which is on Sunday. It is a beautiful day and the sun is shining. We start off with Sandra-Leigh Serio speaking to us about astrology and non-verbal cues during a session. She had great enthusiasm and I felt she was very passionate. I learned that you need to be very observant of the client’s non-verbal cues such as repeating comments, emotional behavior, and just knowing when to address these issues. She made us understand that your professional appearance can have an effect on your client and their comfort. I believe some people needed to be reminded of this, because it is so easy to be casual when you are seeing clients from your own home. I understood most of it to be common sense, but remembered not everyone has common sense. Her talk was to the point, and I also appreciated her directness.

Jacqueline Janes spoke about astrology and psychotherapy. She started out with what I believe to be the most important thing she said in her talk, she said “I wake up every morning happy doing what I do”. This is true; if are not happy to do your work you probably won’t make very much money at it. Jacqueline not only is an astrologer she is a certified psychotherapist. What I found interesting is that Jacqueline is able to take insurance. She is able to do this because of the psychotherapy she offers her clients. She also is a member of OPA, ISAR and NCGR, and continues to pay dues for a couple of other organizations. Her charisma was most memorable. I must remind you of her words in the beginning of her talk, she said” I wake up every morning happy doing what I do”. I feel this is very important and was glad she reminded us to be happy in what we do. Are you happy doing what you do?

Bob Mulligan’s talk was about astrology and karma. Bob is a follower of his spiritual master Meher Baba. He talked about being able to see his master in other people, instead of seeing their flaws. He said those flaws are really a reflection of your own, and that by seeing his master in the other person enables him to have love and compassion for them. He said that Mars in your natal chart is the reason you reincarnate, it is your desire. Saturn in your chart is your karma in this life. Karma is what you must do in order to be released from your karmic bonds. The Moon is your habits, and Jupiter is your consolidated knowledge. Together they give you the larger picture of what your dharma is. Bob helped us see that everyone and everything you come into contact with is karma. You must see the lessons in everything you do to advance yourself, and by understanding your karma it gives you the key to your destiny.

We met in our specialty groups again. This time it was to finalize or initialize our projects, depending on where you were. Alexandra Karacostas and Laurie Twilight Jetter were working on their career astrologers articles, Arlan was just starting her book, and I was finishing up my blog. There was so much to write about and so little time. It was our last day together and it was a little depressing. We really wished we had about 5 more days to write. We had been such an inspiration to each other. It was easier to be motivated to write when we were together. I knew that after we went our separate ways we would still keep in touch. I have a wonderful support group now, writers alike. We exchanged emails, numbers, and said some last words of encouragement. I owe our group success to Arlan Wise, one of the best group leaders I have ever had the privilege of working with. She was direct, inspiring, and articulate. I hope she continues to have the writing track in the future.
After group we went back to the chapel for the closing ceremony and the celebration of OPA’s 20th year anniversary. Each group was called up to the stage and everyone was given a chance to say a few words. Some people cried, some laughed, and altogether it was an emotional event. I know now that it was not just my group who connected, it was everyone’s. This is another reason I feel smaller conferences are much better than the larger ones; it allows us to connect in ways you would be unable to otherwise. This conference is so unique, and I feel it has so much to offer. The groups are so intimate; we open up and really try to help one another further ourselves and our careers. We do it with the most sincere hearts, and this is why I will be going to the next OPA retreat and the next one after that. I can only say to those that missed this year’s conference, you better sign up for next year. How can you miss out on another opportunity to learn from the best?

Experiencing the connectedness, the love, and the harmonious relationships was the best part of this conference. This I feel was the best OPA conference to date, and I believe everyone else would agree with me. Thanks to all who attended for making it so special. Thanks to those who made it happen. I hope I was able to keep the spirit alive by putting my experience in this blog. I hope I have inspired others to want to attend next year. Until we meet again, the planets just keep on moving. Happy transits.

A fulfilling career means you are personally happy and look forward to your work each day; you earn enough money to meet responsibilities in the material world; and you feel successful while contributing something of value to your field. In this sense, I have been successful as an astrologer. Further, I have worked professionally with many other astrologers to help them make their careers more rewarding. I have trained professional astrologers with my classes, correspondence school, and a series of testing and consulting sessions, and for years, I have donated many hours every month to the Organization for Professional Astrology, OPA. The ideas presented here are a consolidation of exactly what has worked in bringing practical results.

I want to share a five-step process that comes from years of talking to professional astrologers and comparing notes with astrologers all over the world. The five stages are: Preparation, Apprenticeship, Getting Started, Building Your Practice, Sharing Your Knowledge. Each is very important in its own right. Before embarking on a career in astrology, you can use these steps as an indispensable road map. If you as an astrologer have difficulty in your career, the problem can be traced, diagnosed and treated by carefully examining how you approached and dealt with each of these five benchmark points. These demarcations are five prominent aspects or facets of one continuous process. Each step affects and colors profoundly the other four significantly.

After the description of this process, I give you a discussion on money and the astrologer’s place in society. These two additional topics are necessary in order to have a rounded picture of how an astrologer achieves a personal sense of success in career.

For our purposes here, I define an astrologer as someone who uses some standard astrological techniques to talk to clients about their lives. They are paid to read charts. Further, the money so earned forms the majority of personal income. If you don’t fit these criteria, you will have a different set of considerations powering your career decisions. This puts you clearly on a different career path and the comments here will be less significant, and maybe even tangential.

Preparation

First of all, is this what you want to do?

Most astrologers remember the moment when their relationship with astrology began. We have charts for practically everything and, if you are lucky enough to remember the exact moment that a professional astrologer told you that you would become an astrologer, you can set up your personal “Astrological Conception Chart.” Regardless of whether or not you can remember the exact time and day, this moment is quite important in your life. This was astrology reaching out and selecting you.

An important rite of initiation takes places when an astrologer suggests you will become an astrologer also. Just as the moment of birth foretells you the history of the soul in this incarnation, how and when you enter astrology (just as how anything begins) will tell you how you will perform as an astrologer. The moment an established astrologer predicts you can or will become an astrologer, your “Astrological Conception Chart” is put in motion. This is the field calling and choosing you.

This basic acceptance is necessary for you to feel at home in astrology and among astrologers. If this hasn’t happened, i.e., if you have not heard or felt the “calling”, seek out an established astrologer’s professional opinion. Can you make it as a professional astrologer? If you really want to be an astrologer (or are an astrologer) and this hasn’t happened for you, the “swim upstream” to become a successful astrologer can be “against the current” of collective astrological thought. You may not make it because you will unconsciously feel that all other astrologers are wrong. You may end up sentencing yourself to be yet another isolated critic on astrology’s sidelines, unaccepted by your peers, unable to build a practice and eventually proving everyone else right, i.e. you can’t make it as an astrologer. Like Excalibur knighting King Arthur, astrology selects and initiates its own, regardless of the personalities in your environment.

If you can’t get an established astrologer to say your chart indicates that you will become an astrologer, you are probably having some inner resistance to this career move. This will be shown in your chart. This pattern of resistance is manifesting through your environment when you aren’t able to “hook up” with someone who will affirm your desire to be an astrologer.

Since astrology is the study of the structure of the universe considered as time, astrology can be a faithful ally in every line of work. Many of my corporate clients have gone on to be fine “astrologers” (or users of astrology) from behind the scenes, using it to plan personnel work, dividend and investment strategies, changes in organizational structure, and hundreds of daily decisions, without talking to anyone about their charts. The same is true for stock brokers using astrology, medical personnel, historians, psychologists, social workers, teachers, and police and on and on. Actually, even most astrologers would be surprised at the number of people in our society who use astrology as a tool while being in a different career.

Ask yourself this vital question: “Is this what I want to do with my life?” Do you want to interact with clients over specific concerns that come up in their daily lives? This is to say, you love astrology, but, do you love people? Just like being a dentist, counselor, or social worker, a career in astrology means a lifetime of working with people. Be certain that you really find other peoples’ lives interesting enough to be involved with them all the time, that you receive some deep satisfaction in helping others. If you love astrology but aren’t that crazy about people, consider using your astrological interest for a different type of career other than astrology.

Next, it is important for you to evaluate how astrologers earn a living. What is it that astrologers do for money? We talk to people about their lives. We give information; we render opinions.

Astrologers have an insatiable curiosity about people and life and the universe and everything. Without this burning desire to know, forget trying to earn a living as an astrologer. I guarantee, you won’t make it without this. Further, you had better love talking to people about their lives. If you don’t enjoy helping people with issues in their lives, then forget this line of work. But if you love astrology, love knowledge in general, and love people and their lives, then perhaps this is a line of work for you.

Finally, to make it as an astrologer, you need to be able to be self-employed. This requires incredible self-discipline. Most people who try to be self-employed end up going back to work for someone else. This part of personal appraisal is critical. There are a few jobs available for people who can’t be self-employed and yet still want to be doing astrology. Most of these people are part-time astrologers and full-time something else.

In the Western world today, there are a number of entertainment, part-time astrology lines of work: doing cocktail parties, reading charts in restaurants, working on a 900 telephone line, etc. This has not been an interest of mine and the whole approach tends to give a bad image of astrology to society. Still, this lighthearted, fun orientation can be a legitimate way of honest practice in the field. While the astrologers who take this approach tend to “dead end” in their careers, one should examine its potentials.

Sometimes, people involved in astrology who can’t or don’t want to be self-employed, end up working for other astrologers or an astrology company. These jobs usually boil down to occupations around astrology like working for a chart service company or being an assistant to an astrologer or an office manager. I have had several assistants work for me in the last 34 years; sometimes it was a natural transition point for a person deciding to get into the field. All of these people earn very good incomes today, except one who has chosen not to work. If you are not sure about your motivation or discipline, this type of position can work out nicely for you while you are deciding on whether to go forward into astrology or to use your astrological insight in a different way.

Next, We Have To Consider Education

After years of conferring with successful, professional astrologers all over the world, one common property emerged in everyone’s conversation as to how they got to the position of feeling successful in their work: EDUCATION. Education seems to be important on three distinct levels: your own continuous process of personal education, teaching students, and educating your clients.

Because astrology is a path of knowledge, becoming an astrologer means being committed to a life of self-education. You will never reach a point of being finished with education. There will always be more to do. The more formal education that you have; the better your chances are of succeeding in the profession. This is so important that, although I teach a four-year correspondence school in astrology, having a college degree is necessary in order to graduate. You will find that astrology doesn’t happen in a vacuum and that knowledge of many other things is necessary for you to be of any real use in the world with your astrological knowledge.

High levels of mental determination and education are essential in order to become a professional astrologer. Study with everyone that you can. Take any local classes that you are able to take. Consider relocating to study with someone whose work you admire. Just as people grow up and go away to school, you may go away to astrology school. I have gone far and wide to get an astrological education, and it has always been worth the investment. I might add that the travel and study were always a great financial sacrifice, but dealing with limits organizes your priorities. Getting a good astrological education should be a top priority if you are going to be fulfilled as an astrologer.

So, get the best education that you can. Being an astrologer is very important to our society, yet how much time and money do we spend preparing to practice? Doctors go to medical school. Lawyers go to law school. Astrologers should go to astrology school! You need a B.A. degree to get into law school or medical school. Astrology school should be four years in length and require at least a four year college degree as a prerequisite. Doctors and lawyers spend more than $100,000 on education. How many astrologers spend this much on education?

As a profession, our first real coming-of-age will be to have a comprehensive, well organized educational procedure. We need a place where people can get a real astrological education. I had eight years of college, finishing an M.A. in philosophy and an assortment of astrology classes when I entered astrology in 1974. I was ill-prepared, poorly trained, and I knew it at the time. I was like an airline pilot getting training on the job by reading manuals and then attempting to fly a plane. For all of my ridiculousness, I was still more prepared and educationally fortified than most people entering the field.

The best way to get training right now is to take correspondence courses, attend local classes and private instruction under an astrologer you respect. Have your own chart done by at least ten different astrologers so that you can become familiar with what astrologers do. Take a series of astrology exams. There are many correspondence schools. In recent years it has been possible to enroll in Kepler College in Seattle Washington and to earn a BA in astrology, or to go to Gainesville Florida and get a two year degree from Avalon College. Both of these colleges are worth looking into; they have very fine programs, and are new measurements within the field.

Local classes take place everywhere privately, through metaphysical and New Age type book stores. Adult education and university extension classes are successfully taught by some astrologers.3 There are some-well meaning (mostly ideas at this stage of the game) “Schools” in England, Serbia, Netherlands, India, and Argentina. They are worth your time to search them out.5 In the future, each of these places and others will be able to implement actual comprehensive four-year curricula. At least some of your study should be directly under the supervision of a professional astrologer who earns a decent income and whose work you respect.

Your education needs exposure to a number of astrologers’ work. This does two things; first, it helps you know yourself better through the use of the therapeutic modality you will actively encourage others (your clients) to use. You can tell your clients firsthand that astrology has value; second, this procedure gives you great exposure to several different styles and approaches so you will have more structural knowledge for what the field can become and what others are doing with the astrological tools.

It is important to take examinations, either self-administered, from a school, from ISAR (International Society for Astrological Research) or from NCGR (The National Council for Geocosmic Research), whichever is most convenient. This will build self-confidence. The examination process should include some consulting with another astrologer who comments on and critiques your interchange with clients. In my four year correspondence and online school of astrology, The Mastery of Astrology™, my students have homework and take a test after every class. This promotes confidences and accuracy in each student’s work.

Apprenticeship

After your education is secure enough to start a practice, find someone under whom you can apprentice. I did not have this opportunity, so I worked on my own for six months, seeing five clients a day for free in order to gather experience and to see whether or not I could handle the load of work and the pace of life to practice astrology as my job in life; this is one way of getting practical experience. It was, however, hard, time-consuming and mistake-ridden. It is much better to have an astrologer whom you trust sit in on your readings and give you some supervision and comments; I had been in the field for years before I had this opportunity. Supervision is so important, and students today need this in their learning process.

A less formal apprenticeship is possible by getting permission from your clients to make a copy of the tapes from your sessions and share them with another astrologer who can provide supervision for you. This type of work is so valuable: I monitor sessions of all of my advanced and professional-level students to help them not make (and then repeat) costly mistakes; to help them find a consulting style that is appropriate to the way they wish to practice, to their personal resources and talents.

Getting Started

Elect a chart for turning professional. It is important that you select this chart yourself. Since you will be working for yourself, this self-initiation, this rite of passage is very important symbolically. It will help you to understand and believe in the integrity of your work.

Make sure when you start that you have your business procedures down cold; getting them right from the start will save a lot of grief later as you and your practice grow:

1. Know how to take and schedule appointments;
2. Get every client’s name, address, and telephone number recorded on a data base;
3. Know how to refuse work that you are not prepared for (the client’s needs are out of your range of expertise);
4. Have a quick way of screening and placing clients to determine the beginning level of your consulting work;
5. Devise a rapid and reliable way to have the materials that you need, including the client’s chart, ephemeris, graphic ephemeris, dials or whatever you use (either from your own computer and/or a chart service) up and ready, neat and organized, for efficient operation;
6. Have your office work space neat, comforting, and comfortable;
7. And, finally, make sure all the equipment and tools of the trade are in order and working.

Setting Your Rates

Before you can charge clients for your work, you have to set rates for your services. How you set your rates is determined by what you feel your work is worth to others. If lots of people come to see you and pay you your fee, you were correct as to your worth. If no one comes to see you or just a few do, you have set your rates too low or too high. At least we know that your fees were not set appropriately.

I recommend that you do not use a sliding scale. A few astrologers use a sliding scale and make a very good living, but most astrologers who use a sliding scale have poor practices because they have an inaccurate picture of their self-worth. Not everyone on the planet is supposed to be able to afford your work. To believe so is to have feelings of inferiority and a messianic complex simultaneously. At any rate, your inaccurate self-picturing will make it difficult to earn a living in astrology.

Rather than adjusting your rate to meet a client’s financial needs, better see if you can heal your client’s pocketbook through your work. If money is their chief concern, then concentrate on helping them get more of it and handle it better. It is good to do work for free once in a while, to donate a certain amount of your time to volunteering your professional services. It is a sane principle and will possibly help others become familiar with good astrology and see the good that astrologers can do.

One way to set your rates is to ask your teacher to set them for you initially. Alternately, you can ask the people whose charts you have been doing for free or those whom you have been seeing under instruction of your teacher, how much your work would be worth to them. Take an average of the numbers given to you and let it be your rate. You can always adjust it later.

Some people can’t afford your work. Fine. There are plenty of people who can, and they need you as much as you need them. Don’t let the people whom you can’t help use up your time so that it is unavailable for those who you can help.
Make your policies having to do with money very clear to your clients. Do you take postdated checks? Don’t! Will you take partial payments? Don’t do it! Will you do a trade? Don’t, they are insulting and unnecessary. It’s better to just give your work away. Do you want deposits in advance? I don’t, but some astrologers have found this to be helpful in making sure that the client will show up. I deal with this through my no-cancellation policy and taking new clients only by referral. This ensures that time and money won’t be an issue between me and my clients. It also saves the extra accountancy hassle of having to record money twice for one appointment.

Setting your rates, getting your time/money equation correct for your talent and your preferred way of working is very important. Until you know your own stride, keep your astrological reading light, short, and cheap. This will allow you to present an honest, sincere, and positive picture of yourself and your work. Further, you become affordable to a large client base. Charge $30 for 15 minute readings and you become an instant success. Everyone can afford you, and you can do 20 appointments a day! This requires some real work with the issue of boundaries and time, but this is one fast way to success. I have seen some astrologers do this and succeed. This is one winning formula.

Those of you who need more time than a fifteen-minute session can try working in thirty-minute or forty-five-minute or one-hour segments. You will need to charge enough for your work so that you will be able to survive, of course. Remember, however, if you have an interactive consulting style requiring sessions to last one or two hours, your practice will build more slowly. Your work will cost more because it requires more time and, by the nature of interactive dialogue, it will require more commitment from the client. It’s very important that you have a clear picture in mind as to what you want to achieve with your client and how you want to achieve it. There is a pitfall here.

Don’t forsake astrology and become a psychotherapist, thereby ignoring your best tools. This has been a mistake taken by some modern astrologers. See “Astrologers and Psychologists are Different.”7 Also read “Diversified Profession: Astrological Consultant and Psychotherapist”8 for a discussion as to how these to modalities of service can help each other.

Legality

Astrology is not legal everywhere, locally or internationally. In the United States, it is of different legal status in each state. The astrology organization AFAN (Association for Astrological Networking) publishes a legal aid kit for astrologers as well as a media package, which can be very helpful in making your young practice secure in the face of any local legal problem.

It is good to know exactly where you stand legally before you start practicing. Find out from other astrologers who practice in your area what their perspective and experiences are about. Many anti-astrology laws are very antiquated and unenforced; many are unconstitutional and actually unenforceable. Talk to others about this issue and stay in contact with other astrologers. We often represent a different point of view than the one expressed in the rest of the community. And it is helpful, when the time is right, to let everyone else know what astrology is and what it isn’t. Often we are lumped together with people who are not part of the community and who aren’t really involved in trying to improve life on the planet.

Equipment

Today’s astrologers need certain equipment to have a cost-effective practice. As a minimum, you should have a digital recorder, computer, printer, answering machine, telephone, and maybe a fax machine. The financial sensibility of owning equipment as opposed to just renting, or using a service with the equipment, is a twofold proposition: accounting and time.

For accounting, there are simple formulas as to how long it will take you to amortize the cost of a piece of equipment and how much income is lost if you do not own the equipment. Renting or using a service may be helpful if you are not in frequent need of the equipment.

It takes time to learn how to use a new piece of software or a new computer. It may be very difficult for you to factor the time of learning a new system into your procedures. Talk to other owners of the same system to appraise how long it will take to learn reasonable proficiency. Even answering machines, tape-recorders, fax machines, and printers require some hours of learning to know the machine well enough to use correctly. Buying equipment without factoring in the learning time is a mistake people frequently make. If, for example, you see something on sale but won’t have time to work with it for several months, you are better off generally to wait until you do have the time; then look for a sale. Prices on all electronic equipment tend to go down in time. The longer you wait, the better deal you will get.

Investment

When you develop a Business Plan, be sure to include time and money each year for your continuing education. Your knowledge is what produces income in astrology. Your mind is your most valuable equipment; it is your factory, your means of production. Your knowledge base is not a static fixed asset. What you know goes down in effectiveness if you are not making some conscious effort to improve it on a daily basis.

Continuing education is required in every major profession and service occupation. Be willing to allot time and money for this process. The investment that you make in your own education before and during the practice of astrology is such an important investment that all other investments are insignificant in terms of time and money. Most successful astrologers will invest thousands of dollars in their initial education and several thousand more annually. Very few of us will ever invest this much in equipment or other factors.

Finding Your Spot

You make some type of investment in real estate. After all, you will have to see clients somewhere. You have four options: your home, your clients’ home or office, your office, another public or private space.

Of course, it is most important that your space be private. I was asked to do readings in a bookstore one time while traveling and the proprietor of the store wanted me to see clients in a public space. This wasn’t good for the type of work that I do, and it presented astrology to the public in such a casual way that people easily could get the feeling, “If you don’t take this stuff very seriously then why should I?” This is wrong. Astrology is too powerful to be played with. An entertainment-oriented, exhibitionist astrologer can inflict much damage onto a client reading in a casual setting. The most professional rule I can offer is never look at a person’s chart casually or make offhanded comments. You will certainly damage your credibility as an astrologer, but more importantly, you may do some real damage to the other person.

So, see people in a place that guarantees privacy. An office is nice, but you may want to operate out of your home if you have a room that is private and comfortable enough for both you and your client.9 This is one way to avoid making a frivolous investment.

I work under all four circumstances: I have a home office, I have rented an office away from home in an office building, I have used other people’s homes and offices, and I use classrooms, hotel rooms, and even the park. An office in the home is my favorite because I have everything that I need at my fingertips and the environment can be decorated and organized to meet my moods easily.

In an office building, it is easy for your clients to picture you in the “I’m doing business” mode. In the home, it can become too casual if you do not go to lengths to keep it professional.

A personal informal survey I’ve made of astrologers through the years has shown that astrologers who earn the least and those who earn the most (more than $200,000 a year) practice astrology from their home. It may be that the astrologers who have little experience are forced to work from their home and the astrologers that are very well paid do so out of choice and close identification with their work.

Doubtless, in the future, astrologers will work in an office with other astrologers where there will be lots of shared resources, equipment, staff, space, journals, etcetera, just as doctors and lawyers work in clinics and firms. Astrologers will have some kind of collective enterprises that will benefit everyone.

Building Your Practice: The All-Important Client Base

Treat every client with your full attention and patience. It will take a while to build a practice by word of mouth, but it is the only way to ensure the roots of your work go deep enough so that you will always have plenty of work. You must be the best listener you can be. The first five years of practice will be slow for most people, but as your work improves in quality you will get a higher and higher return rate of old clients.

Before I see a client for the first time, I ask them to go to my web site www.theastrologycompany.com , click on the tab “Personal Consultations” and read “General Information for My Clients”. It is good to put into print for your clients exactly what you do and what you do not do. This is very important because it screens out people who will only be troublesome. Further, this practice gives you some reasonable assurance that your time in session will be productive. Also, it leads the mind-set of your new clients toward your work in a manner that enables you to assist them in realizing their goals. Don’t let your time be wasted, repeating many times over the phone your policies and details of your practice. Put the information into print and give it to people.

Look for ways to make sure the people coming to see you are on the same wavelength as you are. If a person has unrealistic expectations about themselves, life, or you, know this in advance. It will make your life simpler. If potential clients expect you to magically change their life, let them know that it can change; only they must ultimately do the changing. Your job is to give advice and help them create a realistic and comprehensive vision of their future.

In order to grow in understanding, be sure that you have a fail-safe system to get feedback from your clients and do case histories every so often. I do case histories with my clients after they have seen me for a number of sessions and are committed to our work together. After our third session, the work starts taking on a new dimension. At this point, I do a case history matching and timing events to their chart. Some astrologers do this before they see a person for the first time. I find it helpful to wait until the client has committed to working on themselves in our relationship before I devote this kind of time and energy to their life.

Be very certain about what you do and what you do not do. Don’t ever say to a potential client, “Astrology can’t do what you ask.” Who can speak for all of astrology or even all astrologers? What you can honestly say to a client or potential client is, “I can do that” or “I don’t do what you are asking; please see so and so, or try someone else.” This is honest and to the point. All you do need to know on this topic is what you can do and further, what you like doing. Have a referral list for sending people to astrologers and non-astrologers who specialize in other areas.

When you are working, work. When you stop working, stop. This means, when clients meet you on the street, don’t talk to them about their chart or for that matter, anything professional. This is a very important way to set boundaries that will allow your client to respect your work, plus, help you maintain a psychological balance and perspective on your own life.

Everyone who sees you should see you again at least once a year, just for an update, which means that every new client will be a growth in your practice. Obviously, after about five years of practice, you will have more clients than you can possibly serve. You will end up referring most of the new people who call you to other astrologers. At this stage of your practice, you will start to specialize quite a bit, even if you, like me, are in a general type of practice, meaning that you do a bit of everything.

There are four specialty practices on which you can build a practice: horary astrology, relocational astrology, medical astrology, and financial astrology. Each of these specialties has its own career path, but both horary and relocational astrology are pretty straightforward and astrology-intensive without requiring special training in other fields. Medical and financial astrology are specialties that require extensive training in things non-astrological, e.g. health and finance.
If your memory is not excellent, you should take notes on every client and session, during the consultation or shortly thereafter. Written notes help you build an inner bridge to the person whose life you have become involved with and facilitates your work with this person again in the future.

Set up an annotated data base with the client’s address and birth information in your computer. This allows you to see when you last saw the person and review what you talked about. You can use the information to mail them a birthday card which will remind them that it is time to see you again. I personally write a note or email to each client within a month of seeing them. This lets them know I’m thinking about them. It reminds them of the things we talked about. Further, it helps me to organize my own thinking about our session together.

While in the process of working with your clients and building a client base, you will make at least one very bad mistake. This is an initiation rite-of-passage. It has been confessed to me so many times by other astrologers that I realize it is an archetypal princ

When we enter the practice of astrology as a consultant, one of the first decisions we make is where and when to see clients. We can see clients: in our home, in an office, in another type of venue, in their home or office, or exclusively over the phone.

Home Office vs. Office Building

I have personally had an external office in an office building and seen clients exclusively there. Sometimes I have had a separate office and an office in my home…but the majority of my working adult life I have had primarily a home office.

A separate office from the home has many advantages; you have a clear division between your work space and your private space; this helps keep you focused on business during working hours and also helps you stay oriented toward your family in your personal time.

An office in the home has some advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantages are that it is possible to get to work quickly and to get away from work quickly; you have a very short commute. The big disadvantage is that it is impossible to keep your personal life and your professional life entirely separate. Your clients will see something of your personal life and you must keep any portion of your home that your client will have access to immaculate. Your home office must be separate from the rest of your house and create a feeling of privacy.

If you work from your home, it is very important that you have carefully defined work hours and that you resist doing anything personal in home during work hours. The dishes and laundry will always be there to be washed, but not during working hours. You have to pretend that you are actually in a different location.

Telephone Based Practice

You can have a telephone based practice which doesn’t require you to have an office anywhere. There are astrologers who practice this way. It saves you the cost of having to pay for a separate space and you don’t have the worry of making a place in your home presentable.

You do have to be comfortable with dealing with clients in an auditory space without seeing them in person…although…Skype may change this as it becomes possible to talk with clients on your computer and see them on webcam simultaneously. I have done this with clients in foreign countries and it is very interesting. Also, with a telephone based practice you still have to have a reliable telephone which is in a place which offers enough privacy so that you can concentrate on your client; and it has to be comfortable enough that you can work from it many hours a day.

Alternatives

There are astrologers who are running practices where they are offering services to their clients through email…this may be the new model but I can tell you it is not so easy to establish a real relationship with your clients in this way … many astrologers that I contacted doing this are running marketing based practices where they are primarily sending out prewritten computer generated reports that carry the pretense that it is personally written for you. But, this may be the way of the future.

It is possible to see clients at an alternate venue, like a metaphysical bookstore, the library, or meeting rooms. The only astrologers that I have met running their practices this way have astrology as a second profession.
It would be possible to have a practice where you went to see your clients at their home or office. I have heard of astrologers trying this out but I haven’t seen anyone earning a living this way yet.

Setting Your Schedule

Regardless of where you see your clients, you still have to have a time to see them. You need to plan your schedule. This means you have to set your hours when it will be possible to do charts for people, have time for other job related functions: like chart calculating, answering phone calls, accounting, banking, emails, answering mail, marketing, etc.

Make sure that you have enough time to complete the tasks which need to happen every day: such as accounting and answering inquiries. Also, plan to see clients when you are at your best; when your mind is sharpest and you will do your most profound work. By all means make sure that you plan time off; you must make sure that you get what you need for yourself; otherwise you will not be at your best for your clients.

As Chris McRae said “Working for oneself has a major pitfall which involves the efficient and effective use of time.” 1 She goes on to explain that we have to be good employers as well as good employees. This is not so easy; many astrologers allow their clients or lack of them to dictate their working hours. It is very important to set regular work hours, then report for work just as if you were going into an office and would have to explain yourself to the boss if you were late.

If you don’t have a full schedule on a working day, remember that these are hours that are meant to be used to acquire clients; also, there are many things that go into a successful practice besides seeing clients that have to be scheduled into your day somewhere.

Plan your daily schedule and make sure that any task not completed in one day gets repositioned on another day so it doesn’t just get lost in the shuffle of events.

Many astrologers practice without an assistant. I started practicing as a full time astrologer in 1974. From my first day in practice I have had an assistant; this has always been someone that I paid to do certain tasks that had to be accomplished but it wasn’t cost effective for me to do myself. A good assistant frees you to spend more time doing what you do best, seeing clients.

Yes, I’m a Libran and relationships mean so much to us; coming to the office every day when there is someone else who is showing up for work at the same time is a big perk, but it always seems to make perfect economic sense. My assistant, Katie, prepares chart for my client work, updates client files, does the accounting, collects money, pays the bills, answers the phone, goes to the bank, post office, office supply store, etc. She sets my schedule and keeps the business running smoothly. She proofreads everything I write and should probably be writing this section, on scheduling, since she is so good at it. But, she has her job and I have mine. Astrology is the most rewarding job that a person can have if they are organized so that all the pieces of the job work together. I’ve enjoyed the learning curve for 34 years and plan on many more.

(1) How to Start, Maintain, and Expand an Astrological Practice” page, 22.

How Astrologers are Faring

First, it’s worth mentioning that some astrologers are doing just fine, or even better, these days. Most of those that I’m aware of in this enviable situation have been professional astrologers for decades, however, and have a stable and devoted client base. I know of another who specializes in horary and electional astrology. With so much uncertainty in the air, her business is booming with clients who want answers to their burning questions about the future!

Many of us who focus more on a more psychological style of astrology, however, seem to be facing more challenges. One trusted source, who is extremely well-connected with the astrological community, has told me that many astrologers who were practicing full-time are now taking other jobs to make ends meet.

The Law of Attraction

So what can those of us who are seeing a downturn in our business do to attract more clients?

I was among those whose phone grew disconcertingly quiet after the stock market first lurched downward. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, however, since it forced me to get much more serious about using a prosperity technique that I had long been aware of: the Law of Attraction.

As you are probably aware, this technique is described in The Secret, The Moses Code, your local Science of Mind Church, and many other sources. (I first read about it decades ago in Napoleon Hill’s classic book Think and Grow Rich.) The basic idea is that your thoughts help to create your reality. The more you focus on a specific desired outcome, especially if you do so with strong passion, desire and persistence, the more likely it is to manifest in physical reality.

The Law of Attraction —On Steroids!

Since I was already engaged in a spiritual practice that lent itself to using the Law of Attraction, I began doing my prosperity affirmations in that context. I follow a path based on a type of shamanism practiced in northern Peru. It is based on ceremony done around the Pachakuti Mesa, a cloth on which sacred objects are placed and ritually activated.

You can learn more about this by googling “Pachakuti Mesa,” but the specifics of my particular path are less important than the general concept. By the time I get to the point near the end of my daily ceremony where I’m affirming my prosperity, I have called in numerous divine beings and sacred powers. (I’ve even started calling in all of the planets – except Eris, of course. No one wants her at their party!) I have found that the effectiveness of my affirmations is significantly enhanced by the power of my numerous allies.
The proof of this is in the results. A few days after I began daily prosperity affirmations in this ritual context, my phone started ringing again. In fact, I am now seeing a substantial and consistent increase in my client flow.

Of course, you can try to use the Law of Attraction simply based on the power of your own human will. You might even get some results. But in my experience, the more power you’re able to invoke from the invisible realms, the better your results will be. Call upon whatever divine powers of light you’re comfortable with. The old adage, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” was never more true than in this context!

Bad Karma?

I know some people who shy away from this sort of thing because they’re afraid of creating bad karma. This is a legitimate concern, but is also easily addressed. First, make sure that there is no malicious intent in your affirmation. Then make sure to include something along the lines of this “karma free safety clause” at the end: “This, or something better, now manifests for the highest need of all concerned.” This is your way of telling Spirit that, if your request would create bad karma, you’re asking that it be appropriately modified or canceled.

More Down-to-Earth Marketing Methods

Of course, with four Sixth House planets in Capricorn and a Virgo Moon in the Second House, I also believe in hard work on the physical plane. It makes sense to me that the gods help those who help themselves. So I continue with the core marketing strategies that have historically helped me build my practice: my monthly e-mail newsletter, my websites, my weekly podcast, my local print advertising, and so on.

I am also now reactivating certain marketing strategies that I had used in the past, but have neglected of late. These include public lectures, press releases detailing noteworthy achievements and an expanded menu of services and online classes. It’s worth noting that the vast majority of the marketing tools available to you cost nothing except your time and energy!

Advertising: Expense or Investment?

The primary marketing tool that does cost money — advertising — can be a tricky issue when business slows down and money gets tight. On the one hand, it can be tempting to cut down on your advertising expenses by canceling ads or running them less frequently. On the other hand, when used properly, advertising is an investment that covers its costs and then some!

In my home market of Asheville, North Carolina, I run a small 1/16-page ad in the Mountain Xpress, our local weekly paper. Each ad costs me about $50, and I spend roughly $200 to $250 per month on the ads. However, I gross around $150 per consultation, so I’m ahead if the ads only bring in two clients per month. (And they do much better than that!) The longer and more consistently an effective ad runs, the more business it will bring you.

So think long and hard before you respond to a slowdown in business by cutting cut back on your advertising. Too often, this turns out to be the first step in a downward spiral.

Diversify Your Astrological Services

Several months ago, I learned how to do electional astrology and added it to my menu of services. Electional is a relatively small part of my overall business, but the fact that I make $125 for each date I select definitely helps pay the bills! Most of my electional questions come from my existing client base, and gives me another way in which I can serve them.

Sometimes a client wants a yes or no answer to a question, which I’m currently unable to give them. To fill that void, I am now learning horary astrology. This will give me the ability to help these clients astrologically instead of referring them to psychics, and will also open up an additional revenue stream.
If you’re not already doing electional or horary astrology, consider whether this type of work is supported in your chart, and if it would be a good way for you to bring in additional money as an astrologer.

Sliding Scale

One of the things I elected was the date on which I most recently raised my rates. After holding at $95/hour for two and a half years, I had finally taken what seemed like a reasonable increase to $125/hour. At first my business percolated along as steady as ever, then nose-dived when the global financial crisis hit.

At first I thought of reverting back to $95/hour, but my Leo rising pride couldn’t bear the thought! Then I came up with an intriguing solution: maintain $125/hour as my standard rate, but offer a sliding scale back down to my original $95/hour rate. This way, I figured, those who could afford the higher rate would pay it, while those who could not — and would not otherwise use my services — might be able to afford the lower rate.

Happily, this is just how it turned out. Partly this is due to how I present the choice (phrasing is so important)! I say something like, “My usual rate is $125/hour, and I’m absolutely worth every penny. However, if that’s more than your budget can accommodate, I will accept a sliding scale fee as low as $95/hour.”

I also discovered that it was better to let clients make the decision about how much to pay at the end of the session, not before. They tend to be more generous when they’re basking in the rosy afterglow of the consultation!

Birthday Month Discounts

Another marketing tool I recently implemented is a 15% discount when a client books a consultation during their birthday month. (This is only available as a discount off my normal rate; clients cannot combine discounts.) Time-limited discounts such as this are effective because they force the client to act by a deadline to get the savings.

I know what you’re thinking: a client could actually save more than 15% by using the sliding scale! However, I promote the birthday discount prominently in each monthly newsletter, whereas the sliding scale is only mentioned on the website.

Plus, there’s an interesting psychology at work. Some clients feel as if they’re somehow taking advantage of me by using the sliding scale. Or perhaps the sliding scale feels too much like a handout that they’re unwilling to take. But they feel fine about taking the 15% birthday discount, which is offered to everyone without regard to financial need.

Help the Client Choose a Longer Consultation

Until recently, I made no effort to guide a client toward a particular session length. I let them choose whether they wanted a session of one hour, 90 minutes or two hours.

They still have that choice, but more of them are now choosing 90 minutes instead of an hour. Why? It’s all in the labeling on my website, as you can see:

One hour (Basic). Enough time to cover the most important information.
90 minutes (Standard). Thorough coverage. Recommended for most clients.
Two hours (Deluxe). Extremely detailed analysis.
Maybe one day I’ll get up the courage to make two hours my standard session, and label 90 minutes as basic. But then what would I call one hour: “The Scrooge”?

Other Business-Building Resources

I could go on, and have: I have done several presentations of my two-day workshop called “Smart Marketing for Lightworkers, Bodyworkers and Holistic Practitioners,” and lectured on guerrilla marketing for astrologers as a free speech presenter at the 2007 NCGR conference. (To view that presentation for free, go to the Audio/Video page of ItsAllGoodAstrology.com and click on the video link. You’ll also find helpful marketing tips contained in the free audio of my appearance on the “Growing Your Business” Internet radio show, also on the Audio/Video page.)

I also lectured on guerrilla marketing for astrologers as a faculty member at OPA member Moses Siregar’s first “The Blast” astrology conference. In fact, it was at The Blast that our president Bob Mulligan first saw me lecture, after which he asked me to become OPA’s Director of Marketing!

Boosting Your Success at the OPA Retreat

This brings to mind another opportunity to make your astrology practice more prosperous: the “Building Your Successful Astrology Practice” track that Bob and I will be leading at OPA’s Sixth Annual Retreat April 15-19. Here’s the track description from OPA’s retreat web page:

This highly interactive experience will give you and a small group of your peers the specific information – and personal attention – that can take your practice to the next level!

Want more clients? We’ll show you how to attract them based on your chart, professional skills and current situation. Need to boost your confidence? We’ll help you build faith in yourself and your mission. Have questions? We’re here to answer them. Whatever’s missing from your practice, we’ll help you put it into place!

You’ll receive valuable input on your mission, business ideas, and chart. Your experience will also include prosperity-building information on accounting, marketing strategies, websites and much more!

The experience is supportive, intense and transformative. Most importantly, it will empower your career as a professional astrologer!

We hope you’ll join us in the “Building Your Successful Astrology Practice” track. Where the surf’s up – for your prosperity!

So if you can afford the initial investment of attending the “Building Your Successful Astrology Practice” track at the retreat, the personally customized information and insights you’ll receive should more than pay for themselves as you incorporate them into your practice!

Summary
There’s no question about it: times are tough. And with Pluto in Capricorn, Uranus opposing Saturn through mid-2010, and the orb of the Uranus-Pluto square extending for many years to come, boom times for the general economy may be far down the road.

All the same, a calling is a calling. If you’re like most of us, you didn’t get into astrology because of some shrewd calculation about how lucrative it could be. You became an astrologer because your soul called you to it.

I take the following statement as an article of faith, and have risked my livelihood on it for the last seven years: no matter how challenging the times, if you are following your calling, you will be supported. Deep in your heart, do you know that your calling is to be an astrologer? Are you unable to imagine any livelihood that would make you happier than helping others with this extraordinary system? If you answered yes, then don’t you owe it to yourself to give yourself every chance to succeed as a professional astrologer?

If only one idea in this article caught your attention, then milk it for everything it’s worth. If your own marketing skills are not enough to make you successful, or if you have the skills but lack the time to implement them, then invest in a few hours of a marketing expert’s time to help you cover those bases. Whatever it takes, if astrology is your calling, don’t give up on your professional practice as long as there’s a way to keep it going.

Because for those who are called, there’s always a way.

At the end of the day we drove to town to go to the fish market to buy lobsters for a special dinner, a reward for working so hard. On the way back we noticed the moon and Venus, the only lights shining in the early evening sky. A few minutes later, a deer ran across the road and then another deer followed and ran into my car, or, my car ran into the deer. It happened so fast.

Did we, could we, predict that this would happen? No.

The next day Jacqueline created a composite chart for the four of us, and put the transits of the deer accident on the outer wheel. We read the whole story of the incident in that chart.

A composite chart is a chart of a couple or a group. It describes a hypothetical being. This one showed the energy within the car that intersected with the deer. In the composite chart, the Sun is in Aries opposite Mercury and both are in square to Mars. This is good symbolism for a writing group trying to write astrology and express new ideas. Uranus in Gemini in the 3rd house says the same thing. Venus, the ruler of the 3rd house of vehicles, sits in Pisces on the 12 house side of the Pisces ascendant and is in trine to Mars and Saturn, giving inspirations and artistry to our work. She is in square to Uranus in the 3rd. The Sag midheaven calls out to the world that we have something to teach.

I’ve already mentioned the Moon-Venus conjunction visible in the sky. The composite Sun is midway between those two planets. The transiting Sun was conjunct Venus, thus in square to Uranus. Transiting Uranus was square to the MH/IC axis. Deer are large animals and I place them in the 12th house since horses are 12th house animals and deer are somewhat similar to horses. Uranus rules the 12th house in the composite chart and describes the potential for a car accident as he is in Gemini in the 3rd.

As I sat shaking in the car after the accident while we waited for the police car to come, Jacqueline said, Moon-Venus, deer, this is Artemis/Diana symbolism. Artemis is the goddess of the hunt and a goddess of the moon who personifies the independent feminine spirit. She is the goddess of wildlife. She is also associated with women getting together in sisterhood as we were doing at that writing weekend. It felt like she gave one of her deer in sacrifice to the creativity of four sensitive and intelligent women.

I followed up on this theme of Artemis by emailing Demetra George, the astrological community’s asteroid goddess, and asking her the degree and sign for the asteroids Artemis and Diana. Demetra told me that Artemis is at 4 degrees of Cancer, the degree of the composite Saturn, and Diana is at 12 Aquarius, the degree where Jupiter was on that day. Jupiter was transiting through the 12th house of the composite, a traditional signal of protection. Jupiter protected us. If I had been driving a weensy bit faster, the deer would have run into the passenger seat and hurt Jacqueline or Twink who were riding on that side of the car.

The lesson about prediction this incident taught us is that the story is written, and once one knows the specifics of the situation, one can always go back and read it in a chart. This accuracy does not exist in looking ahead. One sees themes, timings, and directions, but I do not think that one can be precise in predictions.

Just like that night, we knew that there are many deer in the woods, but we didn’t see this one coming until it was in our face and on our fender.

We were represented by various types of professionals, non-professionals and many expert astrologers. What we all had in common was a genuine interest, curiosity and desire to learn more about astrology and some of its specialized fields.

Numerous times I reflected on how much I would have appreciated attending a retreat such as OPA offers early in my studies and practice as an astrologer. In 1975 when I began studying astrology there were not nearly as many places to go to further my education. To compound the situation, I often chose to live in beautiful, but remote places. In the late 1970′s we were very fortunate several times to welcome Zip Dobyns to our tiny astrological community in Missoula, Montana. What a treat that always was!

Over the decades I have pursued and furthered my astrological knowledge through cycles of raising a family, employment in other fields, relationships and the likes of life. Today, looking back, I realize how much I yearned for and missed help along the path to becoming a professional astrologer. To have had a mentor, someone to show me what works, what doesn’t, and to affirm that developing my own style would be the key to my success, would have been invaluable, perhaps the most useful support I could have used.

Of course I attended conferences and workshops all throughout the decades. But there is a huge difference between taking notes in lectures and having the opportunity to participate! Being in a setting where some of the finest teachers of our time show us how they read horoscopes would have been priceless. What a time saver that would have been… maybe even a decade saver, at least for me. Even more significant, I think, is the peer work. This has to be amongst the most effective learning tools, especially as it relates to the psychological and emotional components of building up one’s professional confidence.

Recently I was reading a terrific article in the March 2006 issue of The Career Astrologer by Amanda Owens on “Receiving your Astrology Practice”. In the article, Amanda writes about Neptune and the sacrificial themes connected to Neptune’s placement in one’s horoscope as it relates to ones ability to receive. That is, to receive anything, including money for our astrological services.

This brought to mind the issues concerning Saturn in ones’ horoscope, fears and insecurities, especially as they relate to ones professional astrology practice. We all have Saturn someplace in our chart from where he closely observes and steadfastly encourages us to recognize our limits, function within them and succeed because of them, not in spite of them. Even with a “well aspected” Saturn, we all have an area or areas in our life that call for further improvement and increased confidence. Already as astrologers we often fight a battle just to be recognized and respected. Having a support system in place which can assist us in moving through the challenges specific to our career, with mentorship and peer interaction is critical!

I really look forward to the next retreat. Asilomar proved to be a fitting and lovely venue. The dates are set. Mark your calendars now for October 20-24, 2010. I look forward to visiting with our OPA community soon again. Until then, be well!

So will the present global economic crisis prove to be a pay back time for astrologers? Will we be listened to at last? If so, what should we say?

Certainly some astrologers have told me that they do tend to receive more requests for their information and insight, when things go wrong – be it economically or otherwise. Just as we tend to double-check the transits, when an occurrence in our own lives takes us by surprise, our clients are more likely to make an appointment, when their relationships, careers and finances seem threatened.

Right now, stories of the loss of cared-for homes and investment schemes relied upon for retirement have been hard to hear. What advice can we give when, with Pluto just in Capricorn and the Saturn/Uranus opposition ongoing until July 2010, it is the lessons of Saturn, rather than those of Jupiter, that have to guide our analysis?

If our foresight of the coming four years provides understanding, we will be sought out by clients. In what ways might this happen and what should we say when it does?

Before answering this question, we have to point out a crucial irony. Even though the best qualified financial and other professional advisers have been shown recently to be profoundly wrong in their judgement, they, not we astrologers are still considered to be qualified. You should continue to encourage clients “always to seek professional advice to match their judgement against.”

We are likely to be consulted about matters that fall into three interdependent areas that tend to flow on from one to the other. These are: financial and ecological; careers and relationships; our children and their future.

Financial and Ecological

After the 1987 Stock Market crash, there was a massive development of Financial Astrology, which built through the 1990s and continues to be used at an expert level. Even with a rudimentary understanding of outer-planetary transits, most astrologers can see their connections to changing fashions of business and culture.

Yet, Melvyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, and Alan Greenspan, long time Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, in evidence to their respective legislative committees, implied it would be unreasonable to expect them to have hindsight when they planned for our future. Economic booms and busts cannot be anticipated. They are occasional factors of the system that we have to adjust to.

Is that good enough? Does not a world economy seduced by Pluto in Sagittarius and Neptune in Aquarius, and then petrified as Pluto approached Capricorn explain our current situation? If it does then why was it not planned for? Also, how successful will be panic measures initiated on retrograde Mercury and extended in a rush around the first Saturn/Uranus opposition, just before Pluto left Sagittarius – no wonder Barack Obama stayed away from that November G20 meeting. A void-of-course Pluto three pronged strategy aims to avoid financial collapse by re-capitalising the banks, artificially reducing interest rates (makes debt easier to maintain) and to borrow money to pay for tax cuts.

The aim is to “kick start” a process of consumption, production, buying and selling, employment, so increase asset value of stocks, property and pensions to act as collateral for more borrowing and so back to a growth based world economy. Will this work with Pluto in Capricorn and the continuing Saturn/Uranus opposition, or will it make matters worse and bring our nations closer to bankruptcy?

Whether advising individuals or the large macro-economy the golden rule seems to be the same – let go of Jupiter for a while and turn to Saturn to help you. Seeking to spend our way back to a past that has gone is the road to ruin – right now growth (Jupiter) is your enemy. So replace growth by sustainability – make Saturn your friend – let its ways guide you to a more lastingly happy future. What we take, we give back. What we do not use, we do not need. During the times ahead ecological demands are not an “inconvenient truth”, but rather exactly what we need.

Applying such a key principle to every area of our lives could be remarkably reassuring. How much less do we need to spend (and work). How much more can we share with and help each other. By using less, how much less is there to put right. Letting go, accepting change relieves the pressure.

Such rationalisation of economic activity does not mean turning away from scientific and technological progress; rather we use all our skills to enable sustainable give-and-take to be a practical golden rule. If we are to borrow and invest let it be for this – to apply our innovative genius to the cutting edge of sustainable technology – lead the world again through a brilliant New Deal of the 21st century.

Careers and Relationships

Financial downturns force us to ask questions about what we want from life (career), how we relate to each other and to what extent these two work against or take the strain and support each other. Status, losing a job, family responsibilities, feeling you have let down or been let down by a partner do not have to blight our lives. All can be used to improve their quality. Perhaps our relationships were suffering from overwork. By spending more time with those we love, we can find better ways of organising.

Maybe what I have been working so hard for was destructive or unwanted. By losing a high powered job, I have found the way of life I really wanted. The key thing about structural change symbolised by Capricorn Pluto and a Saturn/Uranus opposition is we are forced to make adjustments that are based on certainty; not assumption, hope and illusion.

Of course, for some people times will be so hard that it would be unhelpful and unkind to suggest “everything is for the best”.

Yet, even here, the Saturn archetype can encourage strength, teach us to be stronger and clearer in the future. When we see past errors we make an investment that ensures we will never make the same mistake again. Great present challenges offer the chance of great future achievements. If that does not work then we must turn the tables; apply Saturn to Saturn; insist that enough is enough; limit limitation; change to systems that work better.

Our Children and their Future

Cultures vary, but in United Kingdom the relationship between society and its children is ambivalent and contradictory. On one hand there is great concern for the physical welfare of young children and that their education should give every child an equal chance to succeed in the competitive adult world. On the other hand, we tend to abrogate responsibility for their values and what they do with their spare time. In financial matters, we have used our prosperity to be generous in the short term, but have mortgaged their future by our economic decisions. Having taken on massive debts as individuals and a society, we have encouraged them to do then same in late adolescence.

In many ways the nemesis of the economy, upon which such approaches to the next generation were based, is a new opportunity. Instead of our children being held and fixed at the mercy of an established world economy, the future is more fluid. If we do not know the answers, there is room for them to express themselves and create.

Maybe the first step is to accept a radical change in assumptions about the objectives of education. Would it be better to base it upon values, respect and relationships, not academic achievement alone? Indeed, much less certainty about attitudes and structural relationships between the adult world and younger generations could open creative channels. We may well find that the insight of a youth culture sired in a world of advanced technology and multi-faceted information is far more appropriate than our own. In the challenges that lie ahead, categorising and making policy for certain age groups and stages in life may be replaced by care based on individual need.

Should we see our relationships with our children as more than a limited period of obligation ending in release of responsibility? Seeking mutual understanding, co-creating the future with them could make many problems concerning pensions, debt and world ecology far easier to solve.

Conclusion

Of course, you will have you own ideas on how to use the change from a Jupiter focussed to a Saturn focussed world to give positive advice to clients. Whatever these are, seeing the limitations of Saturn as an opportunity to put right the problem the client comes to us with seems to be a fruitful way to proceed.

The magic of astrology comes from understanding the essential meanings of the astro-cycles, so that, whatever the times we are living through, we can make things better – ease the difficulty. As when interpreting a chart we see squares and oppositions provide strength to achieve; so, unlike most other advisers, astrologers can have the insight to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat – however hard the way toward it.

If we can do this, then the global downturn may well be of great benefit to astrologers and the world we seek to serve.