Guidelines On the Practice of Astrology

It has now been roughly two years since I last posted on this site. During that period I quit practicing astrology altogether; I quit taking readings and I phased out all of my classes. This was for a mix of reasons, some personal, some political and some religious. I needed to back off for awhile.

I am now convinced it is time for me to pick up doing astrology again, hopefully with a fresh perspective on what I’m doing. In order to do that I needed to think long and hard about what an appropriate set of guidelines would be to practice astrology effectively.

This essay is a set of notes that lays out my thoughts along these lines. Part of what I am doing here is pointing out mistakes that I think need to be avoided. This is an area I can speak as an authority since I have made all of these mistakes at one time or other in my astrology life.

There is some overlap between some of these notes, and I circle back to some topics a couple of times to add further detail. This also complements a post I wrote around three years ago, titled, Tips on Astrology Interpretation.

You can think of these as guidelines for practicing astrology effectively; or, you can take them as advice to aspiring astrologers; or you can view these as my talking to myself about the mistakes I have seen and have made myself, and what I have learned from them.

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First, and perhaps most important –

Astrology is descriptive and not prescriptive.

Astrology can describe a general situation or tendency, or a particular area of life; it can describe whether the factors are favorable or unfavorable, easy or difficult. It cannot tell you what you must do, or what you should do; there are no Shoulds in astrology.

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I find that is is rare for astrology to predict specific events, and one of the easiest novice mistakes is to try to get too specific too quickly. To get an idea of what I mean, take some time to read predictions you find online for an upcoming year – but go back and read the predictions for a previous year and notice how well they pan out. My own experience is that such predictions tell me far more about the writer’s opinions and predilections than it does about what will happen. It often seems like I could do as well by reading a newspaper and flipping a coin.

Resist the urge to be overly specific unless a discussion with the client focuses the astrology enough to warrant it. That can happen, and when it does it is usually in response to a client having a very focused agenda for a reading who is willing to share enough life detail to warrant a detailed astrology interpretation.

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It is often impossible to predict just what area or level of life a given astrology configuration will end up working out. The resulting events could be physical, or emotional, or interpersonal, or mental or spiritual, and they could effect the person or their family or their belongings. This is one of the main reason why it is best to describe general areas of life, and tendencies or qualities. To get more specific than that you really need a specific question and need on the part of the client.

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A natal astrology session has a lot of similarity to a horary question, in that the best readings come from the most focused and need-full question by the client. It is worth looking at Bonatti’s Considerations before a reading, points that William Lilly also talks about. The best readings happen when the client has a focused personal need that they are consulting Universe/God/Divine/VALIS for help in making a decision or pursuing a particular course, or about the fate of something or someone that concerns them.

A focused need on the client’s part makes for a focused chart and reading. A vague curiosity makes for a vague chart and an unfocused reading. I find it similar to other divination systems like I Ching or Tarot in that sense – and yes, I do think astrology is ultimately a form of divination.

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Resist the urge to tell the client what to do. A lot of people come to astrologers wanting just that. You can lay out what the astrology says in terms of positive or negative factors. You can’t make a decision for them, and I think it is important to make that very clear to the client. It sometimes feels like the client is trying to offload responsibility for a decision onto the Astrologer – or, via the astrologer, on God or The Gods. Life doesn’t work that way.

Resist the urge to give advice – or better, any advice that you give needs to arise out of the chart. For instance, if a planet that stands for a problem in a clients life gets a positive aspect from another planet, then it is appropriate to mention that planet’s qualities as a line of approach for dealing with the problem planet. If the Moon is in trouble and it is receiving a trine from Mercury then it’s appropriate to talk about how Mercury can help out.

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You are not there to please the client, nor are you there to tell them what they want to hear. You are there to be honest. It really doesn’t matter if they like what you say or not. Frankly I think that if an astrology configuration looks bad to you and you paint it in positive terms, that is a disservice to the client bordering on malpractice.

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Do not put a positive spin on what you say. I think that is one of the worst mistakes of much modern astrology. Sometimes what the chart is saying is really difficult or negative, and it’s not your job to falsify that, or to somehow rephrase or euphemize it to make it sound positive. Don’t put lipstick on a pig. Again, it is not your job to end on a positive note.

There is absolutely no warrant for saying that every astrology chart can have a positive outcome if you just find the way to do it right.

Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel really is the headlamp of an oncoming train.

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DO NOT under any circumstances give medical advice of any sort in a reading unless you are a licensed medical professional. Aside from being inappropriate it is also illegal and can land you in prison.

I personally think that in today’s world, in the wake of the years of the covid debacle, it is inappropriate to tell a person to see a doctor. There are a lot of people out there by now who have had bad experiences with the mainstream medical system and do not trust it, and choose to look elsewhere for their health needs. A lot of people have decided that intelligent self-care is their best option, and you need to respect that. If you see health concerns they can be mentioned, but past suggesting that they pay attention to that I really think further advice is inappropriate unless you have medical training.

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Keep political and social issues out of the reading! I would put this point in blinking bright neon red type if I didn’t find animated gifs so bloody annoying and rude.

These days politics has infiltrated and contaminated pretty much all areas of life, including a lot of astrology I see, and every astrology organization that I am aware of. That is the main reason I am no longer a member of any astrology organizations or groups.

Using astrology as a soapbox for a political or social agenda is not appropriate.

An astrology session is not an appropriate place for lectures on issues of race or gender identity or politics – that is just not what astrology does. It is far, far too easy to hallucinate those issues into charts – I see that in online astrology, and I saw it far too often in the classes I used to teach.

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Be very cautious when your astrology prediction somehow manages to coincide with what you hope is going to happen, or that aligns with your political ideals. In dealing with a client, be very cautious if your prediction somehow happens to align with what you think SHOULD happen with your client, or with what your client wants or deserves. It is frighteningly easy to make this mistake.

The one way I know of to counteract this tendency is to have an objectively measurable way of weighing up the conditions of a planet or configuration, its strengths and weaknesses. This is where the traditional system of dignities and debilities is absolutely essential. That is why using a scoring system can sometimes be helpful as a way to keep you honest.

Without a way of weighing positive and negative factors you are flying blind.

William Lilly’s way of summing up chart delineation was:
–Find the significators for the question,
– weigh their strengths and weaknesses,
– and judge accordingly.
Period.

He’s right.

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This next point circles back to an earlier topic.

A configuration in the chart can play out on any of a number of levels – including physical (and there it can affect your body or your property or the people close to you or…) – and/or emotional, and/or mental, or and/or spiritual, and any or all combinations thereof, including no effect you can measure.You can’t really tell beforehand what level will be affected.

When dealing with a chart of an individual this is an area where you need to factor in the internal state and actions of the person.

Action on the part of the subject can SOMETIMES affect where and how the chart plays out – awareness can and does make a difference, sometimes a very profound difference. If a chart points to a physical issue then taking steps to improve your health, or to pay attention to whatever warning signals you get, can make a big difference. Or, sometimes an emotional issue that is ignored or not dealt with can easily lead to some kind of crisis on a physical level.

We are multi-level beings – spiritual, mental, emotional, physical – and the levels interpenetrate and affect each other. The flow of energy and influence in astrology seems mostly to be from higher to lower, so that action or intervention on a higher level affects outcome on a lower.

The configurations in a chart with transits, returns, progressions, directions and so on are going to play out somewhere – and giving them an outlet higher in the chain (spiritual, mental, emotional) can avoid their coming out in an explosive way on the physical.

Sometimes.

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This one is a very important note to myself.

When you make a reading or prediction and turn out to be wrong, admit it. Admit your mistakes and learn from them.

During the next few months I plan to go over the pieces I have written on this site over the past decade or so. There are a lot of things I think I got right, and there are some places I made some serious errors. I want to talk about them.

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This last point is my own personal conviction and need.

I pray before and after sessions, and I would not feel comfortable practicing astrology if I didn’t have a regular prayer practice. I pray about each reading I set up, and if I don’t feel right about taking a given session request I turn it down. If I did not have that spiritual underpinning in my life I would not consider it safe or appropriate to read for others.

Astrology is a spiritual and occult discipline and needs to be approached with that sense of responsibility and maturity. Ultimately astrology is a form of Divination – consulting the Divine.

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A final note here.

Frankly I am frightened by the level of authority that people give to what comes out of the mouths of the astrologer in a reading. That is one of the main reasons I took a couple of years off from practicing astrology. I have prayed about this a lot. I now strongly feel I should be doing readings again, and I am writing this essay to put an appropriate frame of understanding around what I do.

I am not an Authority, and I do not have a private hot-line to God’s main desk. I am mucking along in this confused world the same as everyone else, and all I can offer is my own observations and feedback based on what I know of this curious symbol system called astrology, combined with my life experiences over a lifetime seventy-odd years – some of them very odd years.

Above all else I try to be honest, to offer the best information I have, and to make as clear as I can that how a client acts on the reading is the responsibility of the client.

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My favorite memory of feedback from a client came in a session where I had to tell the person that, based on the chart, something they had their heart set on for a long time just wasn’t going to work out the way they wanted and needed – this was a case where the chart was clear and definite. At the end of the reading the person told me that there were parts of what I said that they just couldn’t accept, and that is fine. They also said that I had been recommended to them because I was honest, and they agreed that was true.

To have an unhappy client describe me as honest is the most treasured compliment I have ever received.