Management of Measurement Constructs

Take Away the Measurements, and What’s Left?

If you know a very good card trick, a well-developed scenario of magical transformation or prediction or an entertaining deception, and you have practiced it thoroughly and gained skill through practice, you are “performing” indeed. Something magical is happening under your attention; you are giving form to the intangible. –Just think about the creative impact of a magical illusion mounted by David Copperfield, with his skills, in his television specials; what effects!

If you can play the piano well –or any instrument, or sing—you strive to communicate a mood, a message, an effect with your skill. –Just think about the creative impact of a pianist playing Ravel or Rachmaninoff, or a singer presenting Schubert’s Ave Maria or Bizet’s Toreador Song.

We can see this as well in astrology: the consultation is a performance of skill.

These performances establish something we appreciate, feel, and remember.

But what if we take away the measurement guidelines of astrology used in the consultation? What if we remove the sleight of hand or materiel in the magical illusion? What if we take away the notes of the piano piece or the song? –What is left?

This may sound absurd to you initially. You say, “Well, nothing is left; the analysis, the magic, the music is not there!”

But that is not so. The effect we create in these performances is not dependent on the accouterments! It is dependent upon the performer who brings an intangible component into the performance event. –To prove this: contrast one person’s analysis of a horoscope with another’s analysis of the same horoscope; one person’s portrayal of the same trick or illusion with another’s; one pianist or singer’s presentation of the same song with another pianist or singer’s delivery! While the measurements, the playing cards, the notes and text are the same, the effect is different; because of the performer .

So, you go to hear this or that pianist or singer because you know he or she will please you, touch you, regardless of the selections being played! You tune in the famous magician because you know how impactful he is; you appreciate being asked to do an astrological consultation because you know what you bring to that moment is special … because of you.

I can remember many times –as an opera singer—being strangely aware during performance that something special was happening; something extra was occurring because of me, because of the moment I was articulating with the sound I was making on the stage. I felt that if you were watching the performance on videotape, with NO sound, we would still pick up that dimension of the special. Our senses can see it!

I can remember many times –as an astrologer—being aware during consultation that something special was happening; something extra was occurring because of me, because of the moment I was articulating with the client. –I repeat: these experiences had nothing to do with the music, the words, or with the measurements! They had to do with me. In those moments I felt I was a medium for very special communication and bonding with others.

What are you bringing to the stage, into the consultation? Not just in terms of life experience and skill –let’s assume that—but what extra are you bringing that will envelop the consultation time in magic, make music within it, to be remembered importantly by the client?

When we can answer what “that” is, we are really recognizing our distinctive selling proposition as a professional. –You are you; not somebody else doing the same thing.

It is too easy in astrology to pick and choose measurements that have some kind of meaning for ourselves, our Aunt Matilda, or some celebrity, and think we can apply this as valuable knowledge in our performance for anyone who will listen.

Astrology is not measurements as much as it is process; it is the process of becoming, within time and through its experience structures. To see this is to appreciate it. To illuminate it helps us appreciate who we are.

This is a remarkably helpful mind-set, by the way, going into a consultation: our preparation speaks through ourselves directly into the awareness and experiences of the client. We are the vehicles for the magic, for the melody. Are we in tune?

The healer does not effect us through his or her hands. There is something else. –Please, let’s think about this.