Astrology
I understand the attraction, but it is hard for some clients to accept that you can't ask, "What should I do with the rest of my life?" and get the answer, "In 3 months, two day and five hours, call this number, talk to Joe and all your wishes will be granted." After all it would be nice to have a magic answer machine!
The reality is that with a horary, if you ask a broad, general question you get a broad general answer. Asking, "Where should I move?" will get something like, "Not far away to the East" as the answer. It really isn't that surprising that you need to ask a specific question to get a specific answer. With horary the best way to do this is to ask a yes or no question without multiple possible answers.
Let's give some examples. As noted, "What" questions are often going to be to broad. Also a "what" question tends to be expecting that the horary will solve their problem. "What should I do to be elected president?" is an extreme example of this approach.
Similarly the "When?" question. Again, "When will I be elected president?" assumes a positive outcome to the question. This is a particular problem with job question. "When will I find a job?" Often clients who are unemployed are unconsciously looking for reassurance that they will find a job. Unfortunately, as in all questions both a negative and a positive answer are possible. I ask these clients if a "no" answer will be helpful to them, if not, don't ask!
What I call trying to get astrology to do the heavy lifting most often manifests itself when the client wants to use astrology too early in the decision making process. Since the best horary is a yes or no, single outcome question, if you can't decide between moving to Cleveland, Buffalo, LA, NYC, San Francisco or Reno it is still too early to be asking horaries. Some clients realize that you can't ask about multiple outcomes in one question and try to ask separate questions, "Should I move to Cleveland?" then "Should I move to LA?" then "Should I move to Reno?" I don't refuse to do these sets of questions, but I am starting to recommend against doing this. These questions, usually asked within a relatively short time of each other, don't seem to be as "juicy", or have the emotional punch of a good horary.
It is better, in my experience, to go through your decision making process, narrow down your options to one, and then use horary to confirm that option. I have a sense that when you are still dealing with multiple possibilities that you haven't manifested their reality at the same power as when you finally make your decision.
Now this is a different approach from the modern idea that prediction somehow robs clients of their precious Free Will and that we can do anything we want with sufficient positive thinking. The Renaissance view is that Fate and Free Will both exist simultaneously while the wondrousness of Free Will and the evil of Fate is part of the modern worldview.
I don't see much Free Will operating even in my own life. I have no ethical problem predicting the future for clients, I am just part of the seamless web of Fate and Free Will. My main concern is to accurately predict. When I understand what seems to work for accuracy and communicate that to my clients, I'm doing my job better as a traditional astrologer.
- Considerations Before Judgment?
Horary Textbook and asking me what I thought about them. The Considerations Before Judgment are listed in Lilly's Christian Astrology at pages 121-3. Some contemporary practitioners of traditional astrology have taken to refusing to judge charts...
- Ask A Broad Vague Question, Get A Broad, Vague Answer!
I had a poster ask about astrocartography, a modern astrological technique that claims to be able to map your natal chart to a world map and thus provide good or bad places to live. The poster asked if there were traditional techniques that could do...
- What Can I Get From A Horary Question?
1. Precise, accurate, concrete answer Must ask reasonably precise question about concrete situation ?Will I marry X?? Works! ?What is the meaning of life?? No way! Vague, broad, not concrete question 2. Focused answer Must ask focused, ie yes/no question,...
- Horaries About The News?
Not infrequently I get asked to horaries about topics in the news like Obama's re-election, or the outcome of a celebrity scandal. Ok, I wouldn't like to say that this sort of horary was impossible, because Lilly used to do political horary...
- Tips For Professional Astrologers
I had a series of phone calls recently that really brought into sharp focus one of the things that a professional horary astrologer needs to keep in mind, which is that when querents ask a horary question they often do not want an accurate prediction,...
Astrology
Trying to Get Astrology To Do the Heavy Lifting
I understand the attraction, but it is hard for some clients to accept that you can't ask, "What should I do with the rest of my life?" and get the answer, "In 3 months, two day and five hours, call this number, talk to Joe and all your wishes will be granted." After all it would be nice to have a magic answer machine!
The reality is that with a horary, if you ask a broad, general question you get a broad general answer. Asking, "Where should I move?" will get something like, "Not far away to the East" as the answer. It really isn't that surprising that you need to ask a specific question to get a specific answer. With horary the best way to do this is to ask a yes or no question without multiple possible answers.
Let's give some examples. As noted, "What" questions are often going to be to broad. Also a "what" question tends to be expecting that the horary will solve their problem. "What should I do to be elected president?" is an extreme example of this approach.
Similarly the "When?" question. Again, "When will I be elected president?" assumes a positive outcome to the question. This is a particular problem with job question. "When will I find a job?" Often clients who are unemployed are unconsciously looking for reassurance that they will find a job. Unfortunately, as in all questions both a negative and a positive answer are possible. I ask these clients if a "no" answer will be helpful to them, if not, don't ask!
What I call trying to get astrology to do the heavy lifting most often manifests itself when the client wants to use astrology too early in the decision making process. Since the best horary is a yes or no, single outcome question, if you can't decide between moving to Cleveland, Buffalo, LA, NYC, San Francisco or Reno it is still too early to be asking horaries. Some clients realize that you can't ask about multiple outcomes in one question and try to ask separate questions, "Should I move to Cleveland?" then "Should I move to LA?" then "Should I move to Reno?" I don't refuse to do these sets of questions, but I am starting to recommend against doing this. These questions, usually asked within a relatively short time of each other, don't seem to be as "juicy", or have the emotional punch of a good horary.
It is better, in my experience, to go through your decision making process, narrow down your options to one, and then use horary to confirm that option. I have a sense that when you are still dealing with multiple possibilities that you haven't manifested their reality at the same power as when you finally make your decision.
Now this is a different approach from the modern idea that prediction somehow robs clients of their precious Free Will and that we can do anything we want with sufficient positive thinking. The Renaissance view is that Fate and Free Will both exist simultaneously while the wondrousness of Free Will and the evil of Fate is part of the modern worldview.
I don't see much Free Will operating even in my own life. I have no ethical problem predicting the future for clients, I am just part of the seamless web of Fate and Free Will. My main concern is to accurately predict. When I understand what seems to work for accuracy and communicate that to my clients, I'm doing my job better as a traditional astrologer.
- Considerations Before Judgment?
Horary Textbook and asking me what I thought about them. The Considerations Before Judgment are listed in Lilly's Christian Astrology at pages 121-3. Some contemporary practitioners of traditional astrology have taken to refusing to judge charts...
- Ask A Broad Vague Question, Get A Broad, Vague Answer!
I had a poster ask about astrocartography, a modern astrological technique that claims to be able to map your natal chart to a world map and thus provide good or bad places to live. The poster asked if there were traditional techniques that could do...
- What Can I Get From A Horary Question?
1. Precise, accurate, concrete answer Must ask reasonably precise question about concrete situation ?Will I marry X?? Works! ?What is the meaning of life?? No way! Vague, broad, not concrete question 2. Focused answer Must ask focused, ie yes/no question,...
- Horaries About The News?
Not infrequently I get asked to horaries about topics in the news like Obama's re-election, or the outcome of a celebrity scandal. Ok, I wouldn't like to say that this sort of horary was impossible, because Lilly used to do political horary...
- Tips For Professional Astrologers
I had a series of phone calls recently that really brought into sharp focus one of the things that a professional horary astrologer needs to keep in mind, which is that when querents ask a horary question they often do not want an accurate prediction,...