Astrology 101

Whether your astrological reading with me is your first or your twentieth, here are five tips to make it a worthwhile and rewarding experience.

1. Take notes of (or record) your reading.

My astrological readings last a minimum of an hour; some are two hours long.

We cover a lot of information (including, but not limited to): the family dynamic you were born into, emotional triggers, psychological blind spots, default thought patterns, advice to help you navigate relationships, and important dates in the future to keep in mind.

There are also things I say that you may not even consciously hear (or may not understand the significance of) until a subsequent listen weeks, or months, later.

If you are an avid note taker, take notes. However, many people find it challenging to take notes while simultaneously hearing someone talk. In that case, I highly encourage you to record your astrological reading.

Skype, Zoom, and Google Hangouts (I can do readings on any of those platforms) offer free recording capabilities. If you choose to do your reading with me over the phone, there are a few apps you can try:

Call Recorder Free by Component Studios (iPhone only)
Call Recorder by Boldbeast (Android only)
IPadio (iPhone only)

Transcribing a reading, or even typing out notes to e-mail clients, is very time-consuming (it can take me as long as the reading itself — sometimes longer).

That’s why I don’t offer written notes as an add-on service; the charge for that would be equivalent to, or more than, the reading you’ve already paid for. And, frankly, I don’t think that’s a good use of your money considering all the free recording tools you can use.

2. Be an active participant.

A dialogue with a client is a much better experience (for both of us) than me delivering a monologue.

The point of an astrology reading is to have a conversation (about you!) using your birth chart as a helpful guide. By all means, ask questions as we go along. And, if I say something that doesn’t resonate or is confusing, tell me right then and there. This is your time and your money, and our time together is supposed to be illuminating and helpful for you.

Some who are new to astrology may expect something akin to a “psychic reading” at a carnival, where you just sit there while someone tells you about your life. Not quite.

While a birth chart provides me with a clear picture of the road that has been traveled by, and lies ahead for, my client, I sometimes need my client to fill in some of the details.

For example: if I see a Pluto-sun opposition in a client’s chart, I know that power, control, and authority are “hot button” issues (nine times out of ten related to a father who was a tyrant and ruled with an iron fist) that can very easily become imbalanced.

However, as is the case with any opposition, the person who has it in their chart tends to identify with one end of that spectrum.

Some people with a Pluto-sun opposition become extremely domineering themselves because that’s the only way they know to command respect and attention (and to make up for the powerlessness they constantly felt as children).

Other people with that same opposition, though, cringe at the thought of power struggles and authority; they want nothing to do with it. Instead, they (subconsciously) attract that energy — aggressive and domineering people continually show up in their lives while they have a hard time asserting themselves.

Either way, a Pluto-sun opposition needs to be consciously balanced. But, I need my client to tell me how they have experienced it so I can provide meaningful and relevant advice.

Some people think it’s best to not say anything during an astrological reading so as to not “give anything away”. The thing is, your birth chart speaks for you. I’ve studied it prior to our reading, and I already have my talking points ready (some of you have seen my papers filled to the brim with chicken scratch!).

Remember, too, that astrological principles are universal. Every astrology textbook will describe a Pluto-sun opposition as a classic sign of someone who either finds themselves consistently playing the role of domineering bulldozer or powerless victim (until they become aware of this dynamic and consciously address it). There are, usually, significant emotional scars from childhood associated with the father (yes, these can be resolved and that relationship can actually become quite close later in life, but childhood is another story).

So, if you have this aspect in your chart and you share an anecdote about the tenuous relationship you had with your intimidating father as a child, you aren’t feeding me information that I will then repeat back at you as if I had come up with it myself. I always explain to my clients why I say something, and I also often encourage them to look up a particular aspect (so they can see that a particular anecdote they shared is the epitome of a particular aspect in their birth chart that we discussed).

3. Be Open to Objective Assessment

As a tool of insight, astrology acknowledges our assets and gifts… as well as our blind spots and areas for improvement.

I value compassion and empathy. I also take my role as an astrologer very seriously, which requires that I truthfully share whatever is evident in the chart. Sometimes, that’s a puffed-up ego (Jupiter square sun), emotional volatility (Uranus square moon), or mismanaged and problematic aggression (Mars conjunct the sun and square Pluto) that needs to be curbed.

This is not done to put anyone down (I have my own challenges in my chart), but rather to cut to the core and provide helpful advice on what you need to master to support your personal evolution. As anyone who has had a reading with me knows, the hour and a half (or more!) flies by. I need to cut to the chase.

If you’re not psychologically ready to look in an emotional and spiritual mirror that leaves nothing to the imagination, I recommend that you hold off on getting an astrological reading.

And, as with any assessment, you will walk away from a reading with many things to think about and suggestions on what to consciously work on and address.

4. Seek Clarity, Not Answers.

I can — and do — provide advice on how to best proceed based on your chart’s coming landscape. However, you have free will. I don’t like to think of myself as — nor do I want to put myself in the role of — an omniscient guru whose orders must be followed.

Please! My Virgo moon highly values self-efficacy!

If I see that Uranus will be challenging your personal planets over the next nine months, I will highly recommend embracing detachment during that time and remaining flexible since things will be changing significantly.

That information should be sufficient to inform your choices.

So, asking me: “I was thinking of moving to the other side of the country in three months; should I do it?” is a moot point. It depends. My hope is that you will apply the newfound knowledge you gained from our reading to help you decide.

Consider these two very different scenarios:

1) If that move comes up unexpectedly as a result of a job offer you get after randomly meeting someone at a dinner party (which is all very Uranian), it would be worth pursuing since it embodies the energy of the Uranus transit currently happening in your chart.

2) If, however, that move is fear-based and about returning to something that feels safe and familiar, you would be going against the very things Uranus is trying to teach you: freedom, independence, and trying new and unfamiliar things.

You are welcomed to book mini “check-in” readings or very focused readings for important events (e.g., launching your new business) so I can help with date selection, but my purpose as an astrologer is to empower you… not to foster co-dependency.

5. Think “Cycles, Lessons, and Themes”.

I don’t do “doom and gloom” astrology. I also don’t wear rose-colored glasses.

So, yes… objectively, a transit of Jupiter trining (120 degrees away from) your sun is a lot more pleasant than Pluto squaring (90 degrees away from) your sun.

However, the Pluto transit is happening for a reason. It has nothing to do with “bad karma”, suffering for the sake of suffering, or you being a helpless puppet on planet Earth that is controlled by a planet tens of thousands of light years away.

Think of planets as renowned professors in certain subjects. When they come around and pay a visit to your sun, moon, sensitive angles, or personal planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars), you have been enrolled in one of their classes. It’s now time to show up to class, study, and prepare for the occasional pop quiz — and, at the end, a final exam.

The nature of your birth chart indicates just how steep your learning curve will be. If, for instance, you have a lot of Uranus aspects in your birth chart (and/or a lot of planets in Aquarius), a Uranus transit will be easier for you than for someone who has a birth chart loaded with Saturn aspects.

Planetary transits inculcate lessons and themes. Pluto, for example, demands that you face your shadow (often times, so you can finally kiss it goodbye). Do precisely that and you’ll evolve to the next level.

Okay, but what if you don’t grasp Pluto’s lessons? In that case, the transit will feel especially heavy (and Pluto will continue to throw tests your way during its transit).

If you don’t pass the final exam, you aren’t suddenly “cursed” or “forever doomed”. It simply means that, once the transit ends, you’ll still have to grapple with the issues Pluto meant to help you with — but, this time, without Pluto’s assistance. You can do it, but the window of time when you would have had a renowned expert helping you out has come and gone.

If you’d like to book a reading with me, head to my services page! I look forward to working with you and helping you navigate the cosmic landscape.

Free will — the ability to act at our own discretion — and astrology may appear to contradict one another. After all, isn’t a birth chart a predestined account of who you are, what you’ll do, and where you’ll be headed?

In order to unpack this we must redefine, or at least reexamine, the purpose of astrology and its role in our lives.

I view a birth chart as our mental, emotional, psychological, and motivational ‘factory settings’.

Your smartphone has default factory settings. Those settings, just like the innate character traits and blind spots in a birth chart, can be increased, decreased, shut off, or turned on to enhance your user experience.

In astrology, the moon represents our emotional default setting. It describes where we automatically (subconsciously) seek emotional refuge when faced with challenges or stress. A Virgo moon, for example, defaults to control, logic, and preparing for the worst. An Aquarius moon detaches and runs away. A Gemini moon gets verbal diarrhea and throws in some sarcasm as a defense mechanism.

A simplistic view of astrology leads to silly conclusions like “I can’t help but be (insert negative emotional trait here)… my moon is in (insert zodiac sign here)!”. That isn’t astrology; that’s a refusal to look inward and evolve.

Through analysis of our birth chart, we can learn, for example, that a square aspect between our moon and Saturn inhibits our emotional expression and frequently manifests as frigidness that interferes with meaningful connections.

That, right there, is the astrological “factory setting”.

It’s precisely because it is the factory setting that we can trick ourselves into thinking that’s just “how we are”; that it’s a fixed quality which can’t be altered because we’ve been that way “for as long as we can remember.”

Alas, that’s a common cerebral defense mechanism rooted in our inherent resistance to change. After all, it’s easier to label something as “fixed” (and therefore not in our control) rather than “adjustable” (which means we can do something about it).

An astrologer can — and, in my opinion, should! — suggest how to mitigate challenging aspects in a birth chart. However, as I always remind my clients, while I can speak to the themes, lessons, and issues that need to be addressed, they should seek respective licensed professionals to guide them during that process.

Okay, so the basic energies in our birth chart do not have to control us. Once we gain conscious awareness, we can play around with the knobs to bring balance.

Great. But, what about when an astrologer looks ahead at the next twelve months and provides a glimpse of what’s on the horizon? How can we possibly exercise free will in that scenario?

That’s where I provide “the GPS analogy”.

A GPS assesses the landscape in relation to where you are presently and where you want to go and then suggests the quickest, safest route. It is aware of things that are out of your hands (traffic jams, lane closings, and detours) and suggests the best way to navigate them.

That, in essence, is what an astrologer does when they look at the astrological cycles that are at play in your chart over the next year.

Your chart may show that the next year will largely be dominated by a nine month-long conjunction of transiting Uranus to your natal Midheaven (in other words, over the next nine months, Uranus will be in the same part of the sky where your Midheaven was at your time of birth).

Without a doubt, this is a transit that will rock your career, public reputation, and/or vocation. You can expect disruptions, sudden changes, and even out-of-the-blue developments.

It’s important to note that the nature of that change (a sudden big-time promotion is very different from your position suddenly being eliminated) depends on other factors in the chart (concurrent progressions, solar arcs, and the nature of that year’s solar return will yield clues).

Regardless of whether this transit brings opportunities or challenges, remember that astrology simply presents situations; we choose our reaction. We can choose to accept a promotion or not; we can choose to view the elimination of our position at work as an opportunity to try something new or to become bitter and look for external blame.

Every planetary transit ultimately imparts a lesson. Uranus transits teach us to adapt and remain flexible. You can choose to cling to the status quo during a Uranus transit, but that’s as advisable as sticking to your plans to host a barbecue in your backyard when the weather forecast changes from partly cloudy skies to a torrential downpour. No one is stopping you from going outside and lighting up the grill; you just won’t have a good time (or guests).

Okay, so free will also applies to transits and forecasts.

But, but, but… what about global astrological influences?

For example: the January 2020 Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn which, in astrology circles, was long-predicted to be a time of significant changes in global business and governments? How much free will can there be when it was obvious that these two planets getting together would dismantle existing economic structures and collapse foundations?

Well, I see it as another example of astrological aspects bringing issues to light which we then have free will to address as we choose.

This particular aspect is showing the many longstanding structures — political, economic, social, etc — that are no longer sustainable because their foundations are crumbling and beyond repair. The cosmic “nudge” created by the January 2020 Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn is to acknowledge that these structures are outdated and build new ones.

However, that is merely a suggestion that requires human awareness and action to become reality.

Like any other transit, Saturn and Pluto’s conjunction in Capricorn simply brings up an issue; it does not “guarantee” that we’ll take the suggested course of action (the GPS equivalent of the quickest, most efficient, and safest route).

This, of course, is where astrological guidance comes in. Any astrologer would wince at the suggestion that the solution lies in trying to patch up the old foundation or, even worse, rebuilding something by utilizing the same old blueprints.

As renowned astrologer Alan Oken once wrote: “you can transform an astrological lemon of a chart into terrestrial lemonade. The ‘sugar’ is consciousness.”

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