The Practicing Astrologer: Working Within Context

cosmic-eyeA couple years ago, I worked a popular psychic hotline as an astrologer. One of the things that struck me about my clients was their expectation that in a psychic version of a Zipless F***k, (read your Erica Jong, will ya?) I would know everything about them.

Now as astrologers go, I think I’m pretty good, but there was no way that I was going to know EVERYTHING through the horoscope. There is just too much variation in expression of the energies of the planets. Someone’s Moon square Uranus square Mars is just a bad day at the office while another’s is the day her boyfriend beats the beejeezus out of her.

Even now, sometimes it seems to shock clients when I ask about their job or their marital status. Hey, it’s their dime, but things move along much more quickly and we can get farther when I have some context to work with.

As an example of how context can help in an interpretation, let’s take a look at the composite chart I did of Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg. One of the striking features of the chart is the inconjunct from Uranus in the twelfth house to the Sun which is part of a stellium of planet including Mercury and Chiron. This stellium is loosely sextile the Moon/Neptune combo. In the composite chart the Sun represents the man (usually) and the Moon, the woman (usually).

The twelfth house is packed with all sorts of symbolism. What then does the Uranus in the twelfth inconjunct the Sun mean? The Sun sitting alongside Chiron indicates a wound in the vitality of the Sun. Does it mean that illness has the man in an out of hospitals? Does it mean that the guy has mental health issues? Does it mean that there is some issue with religion and spirituality that affects the relationship? My days at Syracuse University taught me that while some Jews may date non-Jews, my Jewish girlfriends told me the family pressure is to marry within the religion. Was this the issue between Spielberg and Capshaw? I remembered that Capshaw converted to Judaism before her marriage to Spielberg *. Was this indicative of pressure from Spielberg and/or his family?

As it turns out, no. Here internet research was helpful to frame the context. Spielberg was born an Orthodox Jew, but his family didn’t practice the religion outside of attending some temple and lighting candles on Saturday. His family purposely didn’t make a big deal of Capshaw converting “to show it didn’t matter to them.” However, when Capshaw gave him a son, suddenly a desire to explore his Jewish roots and religion made sense to to Spielberg. Capshaw made a preemptive move to ensure family cohesiveness through a shared religion, preparing the way for Spielberg to rediscover his own roots. This then, out of all the possibilities, was the meaning of the Uranus in the twelfth and the connections to the planets as described.

For astrologers: Do you feel the need to elicit some information from your clients and if you do, how do you handle it?

For everyone else: How do you feel about astrologers asking you for some information during a reading?

Note: Aquarians, while lacking the ability to remember to put the laundry from the washer to the dryer will remember decades old trivia without any trouble.

speilberg-capshaw

Photo published under a Creative Commons License from Flickr.

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2 Responses to The Practicing Astrologer: Working Within Context

  1. Catherinenm says:

    I almost expect Astrologers to ask me questions. Just because some is an astrologer doesn’t mean that they are psychic.

    With the studing I know that people can tell what type of relationship I’ve had with my mother or father but no one is going to know to what extreme the relationship went because of all of the different choices that we have made in our life.

  2. Funkstar says:

    There is so much we can’t see from a chart such as sex, race, religion, and all these impact on the psychology. Therefore I feel it is important to ask questions. For example, transiting Pluto conjuncting natal Moon, I would ask about the mother or other females close to the client. An eclipse on the MC I would probe about the career.

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