For many years, I had a monthly advice column in Dell Horoscope Magazine, a Dear Abby type column in which readers wrote their problems and I answered based on their astrology charts. Part of the job description for that column seemed to be putting out fires that other astrologers have set, for I got many letters from readers who are devastated by the way their chart reading was handled. These letters pointed to the need for true and responsible professional training in our field and the need, especially, for a certain amount of counseling training. Like it or not, counseling is what an astrologer does each time a client comes for a reading.
I’ve heard from any number of terrified young mothers who were told terrible things about their babies’ charts. Astrologers, please exercise extreme caution and empathy for the parents if you decide to interpret children’s charts. Nothing upsets me more than hearing about astrologers wh
o make dire forecasts based on an infant’s chart, as they are prone to do when the outer planets are strong.
Predicting death is another area where astrologers cause a great deal of alarm–so much so that it is specifically prohibited in the codes of ethics adopted by several astrological organizations. One woman wrote to me saying that she’d been to an astrologer who said that one of her parents would die, based on a Pluto transit to the IC. Knowing the textbook litany of POSSIBLE manifestations of astrological placements isn’t enough. While his interpretations of the woman’s transits are POSSIBLE manifestations, there are myriads of other possibilities inherent in each aspect as well.
More often, in my practice, Pluto transits to the IC or to the Moon have corresponded to the parents retiring and moving away, a major relocation for the client, the purchase or renovation of a home, parenthood, uncovering family secrets, or the healing of old family wounds–or several of those at the same time. Numerous times, when transiting Pluto aspects both the IC and the Midheaven simultaneously, it has accompanied a major and powerful career change. As the transit affected the MC/IC axis, some such clients started home-based businesses. Often, political struggles in the workplace like mergers and takeovers impacted the client. These are some potential expressions of Pluto transits to the MC/IC axis, but I wouldn’t have a clue as to which outcome was foreshadowed here without questioning this woman about her situation.
It IS true that occasionally a parent dies when Pluto crosses or otherwise aspects the MC/IC axis. To discern whether that’s a possibility, I judiciously question the client about the parents’ situation and health, but do not mention death as a possibility unless the client presses. Some do press, especially when a parent is already in poor health. IF the client seems to be able to handle it, then the necessity to resolve any remaining issues around that parent does become part of our dialogue. Possibly that is exactly what the astrologer in question did also, but all that the client came away with was a sense of doom. Clients tend to remember selectively and focus on or even exaggerate our worst predictions-another reason it is helpful for them to have a tape of the session to listen to later.
Another Dell reader wrote to say that he had a devastating chart reading years ago. The astrologer told him never to give his birth information to anyone again, as the ch
art showed he would have a difficult life and meet a disastrous end because he has a Mars/Saturn conjunction in the 8th house. Naturally, he had been extremely fearful about the future and leery of astrology ever since. My reply was that way back then, it sounds like he ran into someone whose reading began and ended with C.E.O. Carter or some of the other fatalistic oldies.
By about 1968, when I came into astrology, we’d started mixing in psychological and humanistic perspectives on challenging chart aspects. In my 40-odd years of experience with clients who have difficult charts and lives, calamity is seldom a one-time experience, apart from plane crashes or natural disasters. The calamity prone-both psychologically and astrologically-seem to have periodic upheavals and devastating experiences. These periodic eruptions correlate with transiting planets triggering exceedingly difficult aspects in the chart-aspects that portray chronic, self-defeating behavior patterns and a propensity for taking unwise risks. The reader’s Mars/Saturn conjunction, impressive as it may have been to the astrologer he saw, is nothing compared to really difficult chart patterns I’ve worked with. (Try a Mars/Saturn/Pluto t-square in the fixed signs on for size.)
In recent years, it’s been hopeful to see astrology conferences include lectures, seminars, and discussions on ethics, as well as to see articles on the topic in our organizational journals and on their web sites. The trend doubtlessly relatedto the transit of Pluto through Sagittarius, although like many of the manifestations of that placement, such discussion can become dogmatic and, alas, humorless. Some principles are non-negotiable, like not exploiting clients. However, many other ethical questions are situational rather than absolute, and all the factors and parties involved must be considered before arriving at a conclusion as to correct behavior.
This is an excerpt from Issues and Ethics In The Profession of Astrology, edited by Glenn Perry. It can be ordered at http://www.aaperry.com/index.asp?pgd=76
READERS: Has an astrologer ever told you anything that scared or seriously upset you–some dire prediction, perhaps? Please tell us about it in the comment section so astrologers can understand how powerfully their words affect their clients.
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- Astrologers’ Hang-ups about Money—How they Hurt our Clients
- Real World Astrology—Continuing Ed for Professionals
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- Chart Clues to Marriage—Will You or Won’t You?
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- Q&A: What Professional Astrologers Want to Know
- Avoiding Potholes on the Professional Path (Link post)
Sky Writer 
I have a young client with Pluto transitting over the IC. It just means that his thoughts were on whether his Father was his real dna father after being abandonned for so long.
Astrologers will always do their own thing, and others get things wrong in their learning experiences. Are you concerned about how other astrologers work Donna?
kingsley
By: kingsley on March 5, 2009
at 10:36 pm
Hi, Kingsley. Wow, that’s a fascinating expression of that transit…haven’t heard that one before. But it just goes to show you how many different ways a Pluto transit to the MC/IC can manifest.
Am I concerned about how other astrologers work? In my experience, most of us work from the heart and do the best we can to help our clients. Like any service field, the better prepared we are to understand the emotional responses of our clients–and our own responses during the session–the better we can serve.
But unlike many of the more traditional helping professions, as newly professional astrologers, we get little training and support for the often anxious transition from student to pro. (In social work school, I spent two days a week in the field with an instructor/supervisor; student teachers have placements; medical students and student nurses have close supervision.)
What concerns me most, however, are the horror stories my Dell readers send to me about devastating things astrologers have told them in consultations…like a young mother who was told her little daughter would be a sex maniac because she had several planets in Scorpio.
By: Donna Cunningham on March 6, 2009
at 1:14 am
Not every astrologer will have skills to deal with some clients and perhaps that can be also said about Counsellors. I have heard some tales – thats for sure.
When a client starts complaining about other counsellors I wonder whether I will be next. It seems to me that the Astrology industry is self regulating like restaurants. If one doesnt like the food you dont go back and then spread the word to others.
I am glad that your readers tell you about such experiences. It was just this week that I refused to do a reading for a woman. She wanted me to do her 24 yr old son’s chart because of some worry’s she had. I would have been happy to do her chart however thought in this case there was some ethical concerns. So, god knows how one could deduce from a mothers chart that the daughter will be a sex nmaniac?
kingsley
By: kingsley on March 6, 2009
at 1:47 am
I know what you’re saying–when a potential client flatters me but complains bitterly about several other astrologers’ readings, I know beyond a doubt my reading would be next in the litany, and so I say I’m too busy now. The “sex maniac” comment was on the baby girl’s chart, not the mother’s.
I do have ethical concerns about doing the charts of adult offspring, especially without their knowledge or permission. It smacks too much of parental interference with the son or daughter’s life. After the age of 18, and sometimes before, I tell the parent the offspring should be getting their own readings now.
By: Donna Cunningham on March 6, 2009
at 3:28 pm
I haven’t heard much about other astrologers doing scary readings, but I’ve heard from a number of clients and non-clients that they feel scared of impending Pluto or Saturn transits, probably because of a combination of past experiences of those transits and what they’ve read in books about astrology. I’ve experienced plenty of stressful Pluto and Saturn transits myself, but the important thing about these transits, I feel, is the way we can use them to create positive changes in our lives, even when the transit itself feels unpleasant while we’re going through it.
When I work with a client, I’m much more interested in the transits he or she is experiencing or will soon experience than in the (apparently) static pattern of the birth chart. In fact (as you point out, Donna, in your superb ebooks), the way a particular pattern in the chart manifests can be quite different when a person is young from when the person has been through a lifetime of transits to the planets involved and is more experienced at dealing with the planetary energies.
Rather than focus on specific potential events that may occur in connection with a transit, I prefer to talk about the kinds of issues the client is likely to be thinking about during the transit and the opportunity this presents for the client to make positive changes he or she may have been wanting to make for some time. Talking about the kind of energy a particular transit activates in a person’s life can be very reassuring to a client who is already feeling pressured by a specific transit, and offers a gentle nudge that helps the client figure the specifics out for him- or herself.
By: Margaret Donsbach on March 6, 2009
at 10:19 pm
Our views on sessions are similar. There’s no understanding transits without reference to the life issues represented by the natal planet’s condition.
By: Donna Cunningham on March 7, 2009
at 12:17 am
Absolutely. The “same” transit can affect different people very differently, depending on both the birth chart and the way each person expresses the birth chart’s potential.
By: Margaret on March 7, 2009
at 4:52 am
I favor Margaret’s “gentle nudge.” I like to ask “how” a client wants a transit issue to work out, then encourage them to work toward that goal.
I was very disturbed when I heard that an astrologer had said to someone, “I don’t like this in your chart.” It made a huge impact on the client. The feeling of inadequacy and doom is going to remain in the client’s head no matter how many positives are mentioned. It’s like a parent telling a child they’re stupid or ugly. That never completely goes away.
By: cjwright on March 7, 2009
at 2:30 pm
I like that idea of asking clients how they would like a transit issue to work out. Thanks, CJ!
The terrible thing about astrologers (amateur or professional) commenting in such a negative way about birth charts is that the birth chart itself doesn’t change, which makes a person feel hopeless. I always think that our charts are meant to be blessings for us, with each of us given specifically the chart that will help us work through the issues we need to work through in this particular lifetime. If someone was born into a life that offered no challenges or opportunities for growth, how meaningless that would be!
By: Margaret on March 7, 2009
at 6:53 pm
I once had a young man come to see whose esoteric guru, apprently, told him that he would commit suicide by a certain date. I told him this that is a totally unacceptable thing to do to anyone, but I was not yet able to really empathise with how scared he must have been, until someone, a palmist who used a little astrology, came to me to give me a reading so I could ‘vet’ her for an organsiation of diviners in the UK.
She told me that if did not follow what she felt was supposed to be my ‘true’ destiny – incidentally dissing one of the most important things in my life, my artistic path – I would commit suicide.
I think it can be all too easy to underestimate how impressionable and vulnerable a client may be – I think there is a good deal of superstitious fear about going to someone whose occupation does seem to be altogether a little too related to ‘magic’ for comfort. So it could be all too easy to make mistakes, even the Parkers when I first started setting up charts as an amateur had a good whiff of the gloom-and-doom side of Carter about them.
But there are more suble ways in which power can be misused in these contexts. I once had a young teacher come to me, who had been for one of the more ‘evolutionary’ type of reading. She had a stellium of planets in Taurus in the 12th, and had become mortally afraid of ‘Becoming’ and ‘evolving’ into something awful!
I told her that most likely, she was more of a ’12th-House’ type than anything, which seemed to satisfy her.
I fully understand fears like this, as this had been ‘done’ to me – the idea, that you have to kill off what you ‘are’ already, in order to ‘become’ this new and altogether unprepossing entity you ‘have’ to grow into. Oh, and my artistic interests were dissed on occasions like these, too.
It is reasons like these why I have not followed astrology as much as I would have liked to have done, considering how much I have always been drawn to astrology. More recently, I have confined myself to writing articles based on my reservations about certain underpinning beliefs that colour the way charts are interpreted on my site, in the hope that at some point in the future, these things are understood a little more.
By: nexus7 on March 10, 2009
at 8:25 am
Hello, Nexus, thanks for sharing those stories. Scarey stuff we hear from clients. We just don’t know how powerfully our words affect them, whether for the good or the bad. Words of encouragement and faith in us go a very long ways, too. I have always held close to my heart something my main teacher, Richard Idemon, said when he read my chart in my early days in astrology. I struggled so with my weight and felt so hopeless about it, and he said, “With Pluto in the first house, you have the power to totally transform your physical body.” Talk about a life-affirming sentence!
Folks, I met Nexus at THe Astrology Community, a great site with forums on many different topics. See it at http://www.astrologyweekly.com. There are astrology lovers from all over the world. Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on March 10, 2009
at 3:12 pm
Oh my God- this. (I got to this old entry of yours via CJ Wright writing on a similar topic.) I met a woman about a year ago who had had several consultations with a French astrologer some twenty-odd years ago and was waxing poetic about how renowned and incredible and brilliant he was (I can’t remember his name, but it’s just as well), but the more she talked, the more it became clear that he freaking sucked. She kept asking, “Isn’t Capricorn Moon bad? The other astrologer said it was bad,” and “Doesn’t this mean I’m never going to…” And I had to be like, “Lady- your French astrologer is a quack. Would you trust a therapist who heard your whole life story and said, ‘WHOA- your mother sounds like the biggest freaking See You Next Tuesday I’ve ever heard of!’?” No, you would not.
It is so important to remember that you are just an astrologer and not freaking Joseph the Pharaoh’s Dream Interpreter. Every time I hear about an astrologer who says insensitive deterministic things like that I want to find them and hit them.
By: Lucy on September 28, 2009
at 8:37 pm
thank you, Lucy and Deborah. I get such appaling stories from readers of my Dell column about astrologers who’ve told them devastating things. I guess my advice would be to listen very carefully to what you’re about to say to a client and then consider how it would affect you if someone said that to you. The short version: Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on September 29, 2009
at 3:06 am
Donna,
You were right on target about astrological interpretations. As both the planets and aspects can play out their energies in different ways.
That’s why most astrologers appreciate feedback, so they can keep on growing. I feel that astrologers with many water planets can offer more intuitive answers since the same planets and houses rule different things — the water-element astrologer seems to hit “right on”!
Donna, what are your thoughts on the Vertex angle? Do you feel it plays an important part in astrological interpretation? I always believe in free choice, yet many astrologers claim that the Vertex has jurisdiction over fated encounters that cannot be prevented. Your thoughts…
Trish
By: patricia darrow on September 29, 2009
at 4:11 pm
Oh, I’m not big on fated–nor do I even recall my own vertex, much less know where anyone else’s is. It must still be packed from my most recent move 12 years ago.
On the other hand, I do believe that most of the people who are of any real significance to us in this lifetime have been recurrent players in the repertory theater we call life. So if we are bound/bonded to these people–for better, for worse–we are likely to encounter them this time around as well. Call it fate, if you will, call it a wry act of that big casting director in the sky, they’re usually here to stay. What we DO with the encounter isn’t fated–it depends on how much smarter we are this time around. Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on September 29, 2009
at 4:46 pm
I dont see anything wrong with presenting astrological information to a client. An astrologer may describe certain natal functions or transits to the client that they may digest in their own ways. Its a bit like cognitive work in counselling. Its up to the client to relate their own situation to the info or that the info adds to the clients intuitive explorations of what “is” or “might be” for them.
I would wonder why a more sensitive client would choose a traditional astrology reading though.
There is a concern when an astrologer or counsellor uses the client for their own needs. Such as the astrologers own psychological need to be important or authorative or intense with the client. That is called counter transference. Not all astrologers have the backgound in these things.
I was very concerned for a client some time ago. There was some difficult cycles going on. She said she was due to give birth in two months and I suggested that the birth will happen sooner than that. In my mind the charts pointed to a specific day. Unfortunately I had predicted the day her new born child died – about two days after she was born. Sometimes its best not to go there. In this case perhaps I had no business to suggest the doctors were wrong about when the baby was due.
kingsley
By: kingsley on September 29, 2009
at 5:37 pm
Hi, Kingsley, Of course there’se nothing wrong with presenting astrological information to a client–it’s what astrologers do. But my concern is with those who present an extremely negative or biased picture and present it as The Truth, for they can do a great deal of harm. I’ve seen plenty of the aftermath. Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on September 29, 2009
at 7:55 pm
These horror stories surely show just how circumspect we all must be as astrologers. In consultations, I often DO find myself (to myself) thinking, “just what and how should I say this?”
In the last 20 years, I have heard many clients comment about what other astrologers have said. As much as there are the blatant and obvious comments, many of the more damaging ones have been little “harmless” statements made by the astrologer that the client then WAS USING AS PART OF THEIR (“justified”) PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. It *IS* drastically important to keep in mind the LEVEL OF EFFECT THAT ONE CAN HAVE.
To some astrologers, I get the feeling that to them, it’s just “one more reading” and so it’s seen as an isolated hour out of a day. There is not the realization that something said might get replayed in the client’s mind DAILY, influencing them in ways the astrologer never anticipated.
One can’t be paralyzed so that they can’t really say ANYTHING, but you are right, Donna, the scales are tipped (presently) way in the balance of “Astrologer, not knowing what SHOULD be said, says too much of what SHOULDN’T.”
Peace…and good luck.
James
By: James Alexander on October 1, 2009
at 3:25 am
Thanks for both your comments, James, excellent input! I do think some deadening of sensitivity can occur when professionals do sessions day in and day out–needing, after all, to make a living–until it becomes almost rote. Like any other helping field, burnout can occur. With that and economic downturns, it’s a good thing to have more than one way of making a living. Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on October 1, 2009
at 6:19 am
(If I may), to Patricia above, who asked about the Vertex. I have seen some pretty amazing correspondences involving the Vertex. They tend to have related either to “fated relationship” activity or of “unworldly experiences”… but in BOTH cases, to events of a nature in which the client is firmly (mentally or spiritually) uprooted from their focus on the mundane and thrust into a “oh, so there IS so much more to life than what I thought” mode of thinking. (Think of how people are DIFFERENT after a near-death-experience, seeing a U.F.O., reconnecting with someone they’ve known over many lifetimes. Oftentimes, one isolated experience/meeting can completely change our thoughts about what life is REALLY all about. The vertex is often obviously implicated at theset times. These are new ideas for me (in the last year or so) and I got my initial start to looking into the Vertex from Australian astrologer, Alice McDermott (previously Alice Portman, I think). At any rate, don’t take my word, look at some example charts and see major activations to the Vertex and see how they relate to the circumstances. Someone on another astrology Forum had commented how they had asked the same question (about a date in their life) to astrologers over 15 years of time! in order to understand this Event. (Not to brag, because really, I am no one) I was the only one who got to the heart of what happened in that event (the event was not explained, only the TIMING). Without the Vertex, I would have had a much different (and wrong) answer.
Please do follow your own lead and look into it. After all, no harm can come from a little investigation! 🙂
James
By: James Alexander on October 1, 2009
at 3:36 am
I completely agree with James about the Vertex, though I admit I don’t usually use it when working with others, I find it to be incredibly important in my own chart.
“Oftentimes, one isolated experience/meeting can completely change our thoughts about what life is REALLY all about.” This is very well said, and I have had such experiences. I know a man with whom I share Vertex conjunct Asc both ways and after a very brief meeting I had exactly this kind of experience.
Another thing I can point out about the Vertex (from Sandra-Leigh Serio at ISAR 2009 conference) is that we often have important planets of our family members falling on our Vertex axis, and who is more fated than our family? My own father’s sun is on my Vertex. My brother’s sun is on my anti-vertex and with him I also share Vertex conjunct Asc both ways.
And this was another great article, I have seen the same things happen and it is incredibly important how a thoughtless way of phrasing by the astrologer can often make an enormous impact on a client. And worse things than thoughtless phrasing have definitely been said!
By: Nikki on February 15, 2010
at 8:49 am
My half-sister’s sun is on my Vertex and I met her for the first time right as the transiting sun was going over my Vertex. I didn’t meet her until I was an adult, at the time of my Chiron Return
By: MEL810 on May 31, 2010
at 5:57 pm
I am fairly knowledgeable in astrology although I am far from a professional. And I can’t afford a top notch pro. So far in readings, the astrologers I have talked with have completely missed my artistic talent.
Another astrologer told me that if I did not relocate to a certain area in a foreign country (I am having a Pluto conj. IC opp. MC conj. Moon/Uranus sq. Neptune in 1 transit soon) by a certain time in 2010, my life here in the US would be a total and depressing disaster. I probably would enjoy that area he suggested but to suggest I relocate there is folly. I know no one there and have very little money. He also suggested I would be teaching at university there, which is total folly, as I have no college degree.
According to this person, there is no where else in the world I could succeed.
I do want to move in 2010, but I am thinking out of state or at least out of my current area, not a continent away.
I am also wanting to work FT with my art & photography, an area I was too scared and had too low self-esteem to pursue in my youth. (Saturn in 12 in Virgo.)
BTWY: MY deceased Dad’s chart is one of those monster charts you mentioned. The man had a chart that reeked evil and confusion.
By: M810 on October 23, 2009
at 9:41 pm
If the astrologer really did say the actual words “your life will be a total and depressing disaster,” then he or she was totally out of line. The best source for an astrologer who is qualified and certified in relocation astrology (e.g. Astro*Carto*Graphy) is the list at http://www.continuumacg.net. That site also contains a suite of over 50 articles on the subject. Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on October 24, 2009
at 4:56 am
I get many clients who are terrified of retrograde planets based on what other astrologers have told them or based on what they have read or heard. This bothers me. It makes me feel like astrology is being treated as some sort of mumbo-jumbo fortune-telling device in which magic retrograde rays can mysteriously beam down and fry your job search or whatever. Considering that some planet or another is retrograde much of the time, it seems a little unfair to terrorize people into believing that they have to act like deer in the headlights for much of the year.
By: Victoria Bazeley on May 30, 2010
at 3:45 pm
I couldn’t agree with you more, Victoria–and I love what you said about magic retrograde rays. It’s actually for brief periods of the year that NO planets are retrograde. Folks, Victoria is a very fine and readable astrology writer herself, and she has an article about debts in the blogathon collection for Pluto. (See the link under “Pluto Problems Got You Perplexed?” Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on May 30, 2010
at 8:39 pm
Donna, No one should ever make such a sweeping and irresponsible statement. Oddly enough though, it is exactly what happened to me and my husband.
My father died under very mysterious circumstances when transiting Saturn and Pluto were conjunct my Neptune/Saturn/IC conjunction. Years later, when Pluto hit my husband’s IC square to his natal Pluto/Saturn conjunction, his own father died.
I never check “death dates” in my practice. I had to once for legal reasons, and though it was accurate, it didn’t help anyone on an emotional level to have that information in advance.
Thanks for a great information forum.
By: Tbyrd2211 on May 31, 2010
at 9:18 am
Having cultivated an interest in karmic astrology, I once got my hands on a book about retrograde planets and their significance in regard to past lives. Now, I have 7 retrograde planets in my birth chart (all of them except for Venus), but I only read half of the first chapter on Mercury.
The way it was written made me feel like I must’ve been a terrible person in my previous lifetime (and that was only Mercury – I can’t imagine what the author would have to say about Pluto or Saturn retrograde in the natal chart).
I found myself very upset at someone who appropriates the right to condemn people like that and then expects these same people to actually pay money in order to gain a defeatist, negative attitude from the book.
It was my first shocking astrology experience.
By: Simon on May 31, 2010
at 1:04 pm
Hi, Simon, the business about having many retrograde planets was discussed more thoroughly in a recent article here called The Cosmic Pinata #4. Briefly, I made the point that every person born on the planet in certain periods (like part of the 1960s and part of the 1940s) for several months at a time had as many as 5-7 retrograde planets and that means it’s a generational thing having to do with the historical events and social conditions of the time and how they shaped the lives of that generation rather than just individuals. use the search function for that article for more details. Donnas
By: Donna Cunningham on May 31, 2010
at 5:02 pm
Thank you, Donna. It makes much more sense to me that it would have significance on a generational level rather than on a personal level and therefore the meaning would become more visible when looking on a larger scale (especially where the outer planets are involved).
By: Simon on June 2, 2010
at 8:17 am
Thanks, Simon, glad it helps. That’s one of the problems I have with canned astrological interpretations, especially the past life/karmic ones. They don’t take into account the collective/global of retrogrades and outer planet aspects. My background is in both psychology and sociology, and then in social work, which is a blend of both. Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on June 2, 2010
at 9:45 am
One Vedic Astrologer once told me, that you will have everything but will never be able to enjoy anything and he also said that you have a disposition where you will not be able to be grateful for anything even if someone does everything to you. I was a teenager back then and it meant a lot of overcompensation and codependence for me.
By: JG on May 3, 2012
at 12:35 pm
Ghastly! And we carry such things with us for years. Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on May 3, 2012
at 3:19 pm
My mother was a closet Astrologer. She would pour over her books and hand cast charts for hours on end. I can remember asking my mother what I would “be” when I grew up and she promptly told me that I would be a “prostitute”. I cannot tell you or anyone else what that proclamation did to my heart and mind. I think, at first, my 15 year old brain was siezed with anger then fear, guilt and eventually despair set in…….then I went back to anger. I thought, “who is she to tell me what I am when in my heart and soul I know who I am”! Fast forward to 2006, 30 years later, I had a radio interview with a well known Astrologer and she said, “Were you ever a prostitute”?
(******blinking here*******)
Ok, so my entire existence is defined by what I would do or have done with my vagina. Is it true that I prostituted my body? Yes, and in this currently misogynistic world where men set the standards of living that all must follow, I found myself using a personal resource ( well, at least men think of it as a resource to be exploited ) to help support my four sons. What these Astrologers failed to note is the circumstances that would compell me to enact such a vicious attack upon my own body and with whom I would allow my body to be used. Is it possible that my father’s molestation of me, and my sisters, had something to do with how I saw my body and what value I placed upon it? ( Sun in the 2nd House Square Pluto/Uranus and Jupiter )
Did I make a living using my body? Absolutely not. I had the opporuntity(?) to do so at the age of 18 but was so repelled by the thought of being used and abused I decided to commit suicide. That enterprise was thwarted by a higher power it seems as I am still here on this side talking about life.
I had a fear and loathing of Astrology from the age of 15 on until I decided that I would face my worst fear ( that I am a “prostitute” ) and just learn this language myself. I wanted to see what my mother saw ( and this East Coast Astrologer)….even if it killed me!
I began studying Astrology in 1999 and what I found was altogether beautiful, sad, tragic and uplifting inside that “Wheel of Incarnation”. I found that each person has choices based upon many factors. The most important, it appeared, was environmental influences. I, like everyone else, was born into this world for my evolutionary growth and based upon this universal reality we are all subject to the environment we are born into, thus, shaping our future choices. I also know how important it is to note the placement and condition of the Nodes as they point to clues of our past and our future, potential destiny. My South Node is conjunct my IC and Saturn……a hard habit to break? So perhaps I had used my body, in a past life, as a means of support so fell back upon this old pattern in this current incarnation? That would seem plausible…but, for me, and perhaps only to me, is the setting of the stage, which I find more important than the act itself.
I came to understand that “prostitution” is all about using one’s energy in ways that are unworthy of the soul. It really has very little to do with what one does with their genitalia…although, in a supremely materialistic obsessed culture ( I understand that it affects more than just our immature culture here in America ) what one does with one’s genitals would become a major preoccupation.
What most people find offensive to hear is sometimes becomes the very thing that will lead them to wisdom and, ultimately, self love.
What these two women interpretated about my person had really nothing to do with me but, rather, had everything to do with where their minds and hearts were at that particular time in history, and, if I have learned anything about this world is that everything we have been taught is either a lie or filtered through the lens of an ignorant soul.
By: Jamie on October 13, 2012
at 4:47 am
Thank you so much for sharing your story, Jaimie. I am outraged on your behalf. More than anything I could ever say, it illustrates the serious and lasting damage astrologers can do with mindless comments like these. Astrologers, be mindful of how deeply your offhanded statements can wound–for a lifetime in many cases. Donna Cunningham
By: Donna Cunningham on October 13, 2012
at 7:31 am
Love to read all your experience astrologers. Thanks for sharing such a great post.. Keep on sharing like this informative post forever,,,
By: Astrology on October 17, 2012
at 10:18 pm
I know a friend who was told that when he was just a boy, his family asked an astrologer about his future and the astrologer said that he would never find a lover. To this day he blindly shuns astrology yet, at the same time never quite believes in himself and his ability to find someone who would love him which I think has something to do with what was told to him when he was little.
I checked his chart and honestly couldn’t find anything that would indicate that and I told him so. Maybe the previous astrologer said what she said because of the absence of planets in the 5th and 7th house.
By: Sage on July 16, 2014
at 7:36 am
Thanks for contributing that, Sage. Awful–and may have created a self-fulfilling prophecy, since he believes it at some level and may have lost hope and willingness to try. Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on July 16, 2014
at 9:01 am
I recently had a reading w/an astrologer who’s supposed to be really good. Well, this person projected their situation onto mine throughout the reading. The individual continually referred to their own experiences w/a particular transit and extrapolated what the effects would be on my chart and on my relationship. The way I see it, what happened to them –quite unpleasant, granted– was nonethelss pretty much because of their own lack of responsibility. But they blamed it on a planetary transit. Even worse, they implied that I was in danger of undergoing a similar experience. It was clear this person was projecting their situation onto mine, and as happens quite often, did not really want anyone else to have what they themselves can no longer have — in this case, a relationship. What’s even worse, they taped the session. So now I have to listen to their crap every time I want to listen to the analysis. (Needless to say, I have to fast forward those sections of the tape). But come on! Part of being a professional astrologer entails being PROFESSIONAL. If the client is paying for the reading, and it’s a pretty penny, they should refrain from extemporating with their own crap. If they cannot, they should see a counsellor or therapist before reading other people’s charts, which indeed is a form of counseling. It’s not fair to the client! Gawd! I don’t think I’m getting another astrological reading ever again. This is what gives astrologers a TERRIBLE name!
By: Rox on October 12, 2016
at 11:05 am
Hello, Roxie, I’m sorry you had such a bad experience. Astrologers are, unfortunately, not required to get any professional courses in counseling, and it’s a big part of why we aren’t viewed as a serious profession. I have been working on this issue for a long time, even wrote a book about it, but there is still no requirement in the organizations. I was much gratified, however, that at the last UAC (biggest international conference) to see in the program that 25 of the speakers now had counseling degrees.
I can understand your aversion to having another reading after a session with someone who calls themselves a professional but who has no boundaries at all. If and when you do want another session, look on the web for someone who does have a dual background in astrology and a counseling degree. Sorry again that there are people like that who can call themselves professional astrologers.
Donna Cunningham
By: Donna Cunningham on October 12, 2016
at 2:03 pm