[C ONTINUED FROM P AGE 12]
to working with me on their own lives,
using their own charts.
If you adhere to these two principles and
let your inner guidance speak to you, the
boundaries of relationships for you as a pro-
fessional astrologer become much easier.
There is another aspect of this boundaries
issue. You may have the best brain surgeon
in the world come to you for professional
advice. Does this preclude you from ever
using their professional services? Several
times through the years someone very
skilled has come to me for my professional
services, where I definitely was interested in
using their skill as soon as I recognized it,
actually as soon as I saw their chart. It was
only during my own therapy, and wo rk with
a supervisor, that I was able to understand
the necessity and the manner to put the
therapy with my client first without ne-
glecting my own personal and professional
needs. Here, as in many places in our work,
the correct answer depends on the exact cir-
cumstances. Generally you are better off not
doing “turn around” work with a client or
anything that leads to an exchange. The
guiding principle here is that you, as an as-
trologer, have a responsibility to protect the
primary structure of the astrologer/client re-
lationship. Allow your clients to do the
work on themselves that they came to you
to do. Avoid being in any situation or fur-
ther relationship with them that will poten-
tially get in the way of this work.
A friend of mine is a psychiatrist and I
have known him to leave a party because a
patient of his was present. I’m not certain
that this is a necessary boundary for most
astrologers, but your own inner guidance
can dictate whether you are on dangerous
territory with the boundaries between you
and a client. Usually when a client sees you
in a social setting, it will reduce the potency
of the work.
Personally, I have had the experience of a
client seeing me at a party and expecting me
O P A
to remember the details of his chart and be
happy to pick up the discussion with him
right where we left off in session. Seeing me
in a different context, weakened rather than
strengthened our professional relationship.
I think it is worthwhile noting, when in
session astrologers are required (like any
therapists) to be unconditionally open to
every offering of their clients. Even though
this is an artificial state of receptivity for
most of us; it can, and is, learned by every-
one doing profound work in the field.
While in session, astrologers operate from a
higher level of consciousness. We require a
loftier code of conduct in our professional
role than we expect from ourselves in our
personal lives. When clients see us acting in
our ordinary state of consciousness, their
faith in us can diminish.
It’s important to remember, only seeing
clients in session protects astrologers. See-
ing clients out of session puts us in a
dilemma; we must either disappoint them
by not being the all receiving astrologer at
the moment, or be forced into our working
role. If this happens, we end up absorbing
negative as well as positive ingredients, from
our client, the way we are required to in ses-
sion. Clients often become extremely dis-
turbed (without knowing why) when they
are not the center of our universe, the way
they are while we’re working. In this sense,
avoiding dual relationships is a deep self-
protecting step taken by astrologers.
O PA C E R T I F I E D !
As an astrologer since 1974 Bob Mulligan
sees clients and operates THE MASTERY OF
ASTROLOGY ™ correspondence school. His
chart interpretation program INDRA, his
book, “BETWEEN ASTROLOGERS AND
CLIENTS” and his free monthly newsletter
all receive praises. Bob is a life member of OPA,
NCGR, ISAR, and AFAN. He has served on
the OPA board and is the current head of the
OPA certification program. Bob is a follower
Avatar Meher Baba since 1970. You can reach
him at [email protected] and
www.theastrologycompany.com
The Organization for Professional Astrology
13
THE CAREER ASTROLOGER
SPRING 2013