In conversation: Shelley von Strunckel and Frank C. Clifford
scare you. You’re going to have to undo
that reasoning”. I’m always trying to get
them to think what a placement or aspect
could mean in terms of energy, and to
consider the context, the lifestyle and
a range of external and internal choices
that affect how that Venus-Saturn energy,
for example, will manifest in a person’s
life.
SvS: This is part of the difficulty of
learning anything subjective in this era in
which everyone’s taught in an objective
manner. Knowledge is measured that
way, people and their capacities are
judged that way, in an objective manner,
so that it’s very difficult for anyone to
even conceive of not seeking an objective
interpretation of how they function. For
many people the time they spend reading
my column in the Standard or in the
Sunday Times is their only reflective time
of the day. Being reflective isn’t part of
our culture. And unless you’re a perverse
kid like me or you who’s into this, people
don’t know how. They haven’t been
drawn into it. I think for many people
that moment is lovely and it isn’t about
whether you’re going to get a letter in the
post tomorrow. It’s about contacting a
part of yourself that’s so important and
so nurturing that not many people get to
know.
VO: So in your mind a newspaper Sun
chart, shall we say, has the capacity to
make you reflect or to prompt you even
at a basic level.
SvS: If it’s written by someone that has
that in their nature which I do, certainly.
VO: This is the interesting thing about
people who generalise about Sun-sign
astrologers. They tend to see them in
the Mystic Meg sort of mould, predicting
that you’ll meet someone in Tesco or
whatever, which is a trivialisation. We
all know that we can’t predict things like
that. But it’s interesting that you see it
that way. I presume, Frank, you see it that
way too.
FC: I do.
VO: It seems to me that the professional
astrology world went through a very
hostile approach to Sun-sign astrologers.
Now it seems to have softened up a little
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Sep/Oct 2015 The Astrological Journal
In conversation: Shelley von Strunckel and Frank C. Clifford
bit. Would you agree with that?
VO: That’s an interesting point.
SvS: I don’t know. I’ve ducked most of
the brickbats.
SvS: One of the things I say very often
when I start a consultation is, “I’m
looking at your chart, which is a map of
the heavens. I view that as a mirror of
your energy. Some of what I say will make
sense today. Some of it won’t. Some of it
may never make sense but I’m recording
this and in three or six months some of
what sounds real rubbish today will make
total sense”. The problem is that people
are trained to expect information to be
precise and unchangeable because that’s
scientific, when in fact you’re giving
them information that is somewhat
variable based on the way they react to
that information and their own personal
development. That’s not scientific. But
increasingly it’s what areas such as
medicine must deal with now because
people behave in all kinds of different
ways. A medication doesn’t always
function the same way. There are thes P