Considerations XX: 4
servable manifestations, all apparently different, which spring from the same core, never quite stops being thrilling no matter how long you’ve been a practitioner. u in x squared my w during the Eighties. I don’t especially recall what the emotional challenges of the time were. But I still vividly remember that my favorite silver chain turned almost black for no reason at the start of the transit, resisting several jewelers’ attempts to clean it up. It was dumped at the back of a drawer. Just after the transit was over, I came across it again—as sparking bright as the day I got it. Every bright light, however, has a dark shadow; in the promethean nature of our art lies its shadow too. It is all very well to steal the gods’ fire, with the noble intention of liberating humanity from some of its bonds with the powerful enlightenment which that fire brings. But fire burns. It is impossible to light up the darkness of our human limitations of perception, without the hand that holds the illuminating fire being burned by it. It’s not so easy to talk about that. But it does less than justice, in exploring the impact of the astrological model on human consciousness, to concentrate on the healing aspects of the interaction, while glossing over the wounding dimensions. Exposure to the model brings both.
From Art to Actual Life: the Client’s View
I
MPETUS in translating this essay from inner reflection to a grounding in the actual world of people’s lives came, fittingly enough, from a recent chance encounter with a former client, Lisa, now aged thirty three. She was very excited about her imminent departure to live and work in California, and we talked about that. But then, quite unexpectedly, she brought up the subject of the one-off reading I had done for her eight years previously. In common with most astrologers, I am always interested in feedback from former clients, especially those with whom one only has a one -off encounter, and usually no idea of what the impact of the experience over time has been for them. What she had to say was so clearly expressed that I invited her to email me with her comments, which she did. “It must be about eight years since I came to you for a reading, but there are one or two things that stand out in my memory about that visit. The first was how accurately you were able to describe aspects of my character—I can’t pretend to understand it, but for some reason seeing it laid out in front of me was very reassuring; perhaps because it gave validity to my personality. That was who I was, and you encouraged me to feel good and confident about that. However, I think that the main benefit of that visit was the discussion relating to my decision-making process. You said you imagined that I would find this quite difficult as there were three equally valid and contradictory aspects to my
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