«OTHER PEOPLE'S CHARTS»
When my client asked me to look at his fathers
chart, I could in fact look at the clients chart to see
what he had to deal with right now. This allowed me
to give an opinion from his perspective. Is there anything left unsaid or undone between the client and
his father? Since there was a lot of activity connected
with the fourth house at the time, was he dealing
with changes in his family of origin, his nuclear family, his home, his foundations in life? We addressed
these issues. It's important to be clear; though I have
an opinion, my client has his life. He had to make his
own decision about what to do over the weekend.
Every astrologer will have his or her own methodology for examining other people in the clients
charts. Many different systems work quite well. I use
a house-based system for examining other people,
symbolically in the birth chart. This is simple and direct; the spouse is the 7th house, children (especially
the 1st) is the 5th house, etc. In this way it is possible
to extract information about people and events that
are designed by God to be useable by the native. The
birth chart is the individual's personal bible. Everything that is necessary for the person to live a good
life is shown in this map. This map includes everything in the cosmos in symbolic form, from the perspective of the individual. When I do a chart comparison for a client, I need both people to be present.
This seems very important and safe. Both people can
ask questions and make statements and it prohibits
"talking behind anyone else's back."
We are all curious about our girlfriends, spouse,
boss, children, etc. And I have no argument with doing an INDRA report for anyone using anyone else's
chart. But, one might ask "What is the difference between giving someone a computer generated report
on someone else's life and, as an astrologer, looking
at their chart?" Astrological information, written without reference to a specific individual, is not personal.
When an astrologer looks at an individual's own unique
chart, regardless of how technically unsophisticated
the astrologer might be, the aim of the information is
personal. Any shift from the generic and universal to
the specifically personal level, needs to be between
the astrologer and the client over the client's chart.
КАРЬЕРА АСТРОЛОГА | 4 2013
This is for two primary reasons and a few secondary reasons. One, is that to examine someone else's
chart is an invasion of privacy; two, the shift in focus
to another person's life is generally wrong for the
client.
With clients, I make very few exceptions. One, I
will occasionally read a chart of a newborn or small
child for the parents. This is usually an adjunct to
counseling them about their parenting skills. Two,
personnel work for companies. My rule for doing this
type of work is; that I work with the head of the
company first, the chart of the company is treated as
a separate entity, all the key officials down the chain
of command have access to the information. The
person whose chart I look at knows what we are doing, has freely given his or her consent, and has access every recorded conversation in which they are
mentioned. There is a protocol for this type of work.
All the twelve issues discussed in my book "Between Astrologers and Clients" have some bearing
our discussion of other people's charts. However,
three issues "Boundaries", "Confidentiality", and
"Ethical Consideration" merit some special mention.
To read another person's chart for a third party; is a
violation of boundaries, in principle you violate a
confidence or trust, and you raise an unconscious
doubt in the mind of your client about your own ethics.
"Other people's charts" is such a vast subject because it goes to the root of what we as astrologers
really think the astrology chart represents, what we
think the enterprise of astrology is all about, and
what role we see astrologers playing in the lives of
their clients. An astrology chart can be used for many
different purposes, but, from it's highest use we see
it as a temple of life. Astrology's highest use is selfunderstanding. Astrologers have the potential for
carrying the client across the terrain of frustration,
disappointment, and misunderstanding to genuine
self-understanding. This is a lofty mountain which
every astrologer must eventually tread. "Other people's charts" and the surrounding issues are one of
the many guideposts along the way. ■
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