Management of Measurement Constructs

Getting it All together

How long do you spend with a horoscope to get to the point that you feel you understand what it suggests? Three days? A day and a half? Four hours? –Why does it take so long? The answer to this question is really in the form of another question: Do you know what are you looking for?”

I’ve watched hundreds and hundreds of astrologers prepare analyses. I’ve seen them staring at the horoscope vacuously, because they don’t know where to go first, they don’t know what to ferret out for guidance to analytical synthesis, they don’t how a life-development scenario emerges.

Then, I see astrologers taking the horoscope apart –rather than viewing it developmentally in large chunks—which is like analyzing a small corner of an architectural drawing without knowing the size or nature of the building. They pile specific upon specific, culling out stored behavioral descriptions drawn from myriad sources. [Recall how each one of those descriptive epithets was supposed to be the end-all quick-fix!!!!]

Astrology easily becomes a ponderous chore, a fearful experience: will I be “right?”; will my client appreciate me as an astrologer?. The exhilaration of discovery, of the humanistic dynamic of service to another is diluted considerably by not knowing where to start and where to go … and the concomitant unsureness.

Would you believe you can train yourself to get to the analytical outlines of a horoscope by seeing the horoscope paper lying on a table, upside down (facing away from you) four feet away!!? Would you believe you can train yourself to gain a dynamic orientation to the horoscope within 20-30 seconds and then spend perhaps just another 20-25 minutes polishing your initial deductions?

While this is what is accomplished in my Master’s Degree Certification Course (see Menu), I can share some tips here that can cut down your preparation time considerably, increase your confidence, and save your energy, diminishing your fears of underachievement.

1. What do you know about the enduring validity of the first impression? How do you see this in the horoscope? –Please see the archived “Analytical Techniques” posting for July 15, 1999; and of course, “Synthesis & Counseling” pages 5-34.

2. What about the fact that out of the first impression comes the coloration, the modifications to the Sun-Moon blend, and then the dominating aspects (including the phenomenology of Saturn-Rx and the Lunar Nodal Axis)? –Please see AT, August 21, 1999; S&C, pages 35-190.

3. Can you manage rulership reference routings, those networks that tie psychological needs to developmental experience? These tell the tale! –Please see S&C, pages 225-378.

4. Then, do you know how –at sight—to delineate key time-orientations within the developmental scenario unfolding in your mind? I must be bold within my confidence and state here that no astrologer in the world can afford to be without the knowledge of Solar Arcs. Please see “Solar Arcs” (Booklist).

These four points above are not a commercial for my teaching energies or my published works. Instead, they are reminders or even wake-up calls for astrologers to get with it; to use their talents efficiently, effectively; to grow; to take all their knowledge and put it together sensibly, in orderly fashion, creatively, to ‘get it all together’ and be fulfilled in this most important career.

Let me show you. Please draw this horoscope preferably before reading further below; then come back: male, May 16, 1919 at 11:15 PM, Milwaukee, WI.

1. Now place into your mind –the best way is with a horoscope diagram that is clean in the center– draw in several of your ownlines for key aspects, quickly guided by your aspect grid (which should be in top-flight, precision condition). Do this for the conjunction between Mars-Sun and Pluto Venus; see the quindecile from the Moon to Venus-Pluto –an enormous emotional intensification, of course; see the square between Mercury and Neptune … more intensified aesthetic; see the square from Saturn to Mars-Sun, developmental pressures in the early home and more, identity-development difficulty since Saturn rules the Ascendant; note the Uranus square to Mars-Sun. –Enough.

2. Immediately back off. Start again. Note the hemisphere emphasis. It’s to the WEST, i.e., giving one’s self away to others, to the world. You are now focusing powerfully on the Pluto-Venus conjunction at the seventh cusp; you see that the Moon which is quindecile –obsession—with Pluto-Venus rules the 7th. –This is enormous emotional projection to the public; it’s obsessive.

You check Jupiter (through the aspect grid) right there in the 7th: , it will run away with the horoscope. This is an overwhelming statement of giving one’s self out to the world, probably in emotional/aesthetic terms, broadly expansive, charitable, etc.

Your mind races to check that out further: you see 5 quintiles, enormous creative energy coursing through the entire system, [See “Notebook” April 31, March 31, 2000]

3. Everything is adding up. –Next, much attention is called to the 5th House and the 8th by rulerships. The sexual profile will have to be part of the consultation discussion (the 5th-8th simplex is augmented clearly by the Uranus square to Mars-Sun), perhaps about guilt or protectionism, what with the contradictory nature of Saturn square Mars [see “Notebook” essay, this month].

4. Then some further rulerships: we have the powerful 7th House, the 5th and the 8th; see the fourth indicated, ruled by Venus conjoined with Pluto, ruler of the 10th: a very important focal point for discussion will be the parental interaction, the modeling of the parents, leading to enormous emotional upheaval. Note that Pluto also rules the 11th, the concept of love received, desired, hoped for.

At this point: realize how much you know from the guidelines of the horoscope. Start connecting the ideas to each other creatively, causally, developmentally.

Add some strong brush strokes: AP=Mars/Neptune (charisma, always), Sun/Neptune (aesthetics); Jupiter=Sun/Uranus (rewards for innovation, ego recognition); Sun=Moon/MC; Node=MC/Asc, the world’s nicest person …etc.

See that Mars is oriental: “the self-promoter”! [See Notebook, January 30, 2000]

5. Then, a quick time-projection sings out from the horoscope: SA MC=Neptune (“accentuation of creativity on the job; disruption in the homelife”) and, at the same time, Mercury=Neptune (“special awarenesses”).

Enough! For now!! Isn’t it amazing how quickly this portrait formed: a charismatic male, probably a most creative, powerfully self-promoting, extremely affable professional artist obsessed with public acclamation, perhaps tied over-compensatorily to early homelife tensions through the father, with an intrusive, probably over-dedicated (by default) mother.

This man adored his mother, was crushed psychically when he followed his father one day and watched through a window as the father consorted sexually with another woman, etc. The broken family was extremely important within the early rise of this most sensitive of artists, one of the greatest entertainers who ever lived, Liberace. –Liberace died of AIDS; he had never admitted his homosexuality.

Now, turn this horoscope upside down (), facing away from you. Using your knowledge of the first-impression patterning, see how much you can see from this position!! MAKE YOUR MIND WORK WITH THE KNOW-HOW YOU HAVE. —This breeds enormous confidence with your skill: your mind understands, knows where to start and how to proceed. Soon you can walk into a room full of horoscopes, a Dixieland band can be blaring, threatening distraction, but you know where to start with your eyes and mind in every one of the horoscopes!

How long did our organized analysis orientation take? Not very long at all!!!!!!!!!

Let me know how you are progressing.