Management of Measurement Constructs

How Organized is your Horoscope Preparation?

A telling question to ask astrologers is, “How long does it take you to prepare a horoscope for consultation?” –You would be amazed at the answers!

I kid you not (say I with a twinkle in my eye), I hear these answers soooo often: “A week, Several days, Hours and hours.” I have actually watched astrologers stare blankly and interminably at horoscope drawings, waiting –it seemed—for some Muse to step forward and guide their preparation! I’ve seen astrologers work over and overwork horoscope drawings so that they become covered in marks and notes … and still the astrologers are not ready to get on with it!

Extended Preparation as a Defensive Maneuver I suggest that we delay when we are not confident. On the one hand, this is only prudent; we must build our confidence in order to be helpful to the client, to avoid embarrassment. We have to know that we’ve covered the waterfront, so to speak, in our preparation. We need to grasp things in our mind.

But on the other hand, part of the delay in endless or over-preparation is rationalized by the pursuit and incorporation of more and more and more measurements. We feel (often obsessively) that some magic measurement will pop up that will open the Sesame door to understanding. ButHow many measurements do we really need in order to get on the analytical track? [See “Analytical Techniques this month: “Why and To What Extent”]

I maintain that the magic measurements we search for are inside us, inside us the astrologers: our mind-set, our learning, our applied knowledge of life appreciation, our ever-growing interpretative skill. We routinely overlook how intelligent and perceptive we are … or should be. –We must see that the symbology and expressive networks of our astrology are guidelinesonly, not ends in themselves. We must relate what we see to the reality potentials of our client’ experience, all supported by what we know about life.

Disciplined Organization as Analytic Security One of the great lacks in our education system, in my opinion, is that we are not anymore taught how to learn. Education has become just presentation of information and not the inter-relating of that information and its application [the difference perhaps between intelligence and intellect]. This is a downside problem taken on from the computer world, where we are screened in not to think, but to take what is served up to us.

Try this: Make a list on paper of every major maneuver you do in preparing a horoscope. Count the steps. Then go through the list and annotate just what you can expect from each step, each technique. –I think you will be startled at how much you are doing for meager or only occasional gain. You are probably doing what a succession of teachers did, accumulating disparate techniques and ideas that now come together like a snowball rolling downhill picking up all sorts of things on the way to greater size.

I suggest you eliminate the maneuvers and techniques that do nothing. —Be honest about this!. –When was the last time a Lunar Return chart really came in handy in a consultation? Or a complicated Fixed Star profile? …How long will your consultation be anyway? Remember: a person’s concentration wavers reliably at one hour and twenty minutes.

Then, take the essentials and see a flow chart of preparation before you: note how much time and paper and confusion and worry … and time, time, time you have saved!!!! Can this help you organize the actual consultation to 75 minutes, to 60, to 50? [Don’t psychotherapists maintain a 50minute hour?]

My personal regimen is as follows:

1. I construct the natal horoscope, with an aspect grid that is meaningful in its content (orbs adjusted tightly; extraneous manufacturer-inserted aspects discarded). –I will analyze the horoscope from this piece of paper, utilizing the fifteen or so indispensable keys to analysis (including full life development through Arcs and transits) I teach in the Master’s Certification Course and that apply themselves instantly whenever I look at a horoscope. The students learn to do this.

2. I print out a 90-degree Midpoint Sort. This will tell me quite quickly certain dimensions –“pet” observations—that I have learned are meaningful for me in my style.

3. I print out a double-ringed Solar Arc/natal horoscope for the present date. This will tell me with great accuracy backwards and forwards when the “big bells” will have rung or are getting ready to! I will see vividly the developmental picture of the expanded present.

4. Lastly, I create a two-year “combo-search” (Matrix term) that is tailor-made to show only hard aspects of transits, Direct and Indirect Arcs, the SP Moon for two years into the future, in dated detail. This I study for projections.

And that’s all. That’s about 5 or 6 pages of paper, accomplished at the computer in 4-5 minutes maximum.

The day before the client appointment, I address the file, on paper, on my desk. I have disciplined myself to notate a whole life development within 23-28 minutes.

AND I trust this!

It is the same procedure every single time I prepare a horoscope. Not one thing is added or overlooked. I am prepared for a consultation that will last between 45 and 60 minutes.

Organization and Economy Now, as a busy astrologer, I am often faced with, say, serving 28 horoscopes in four days. That’s seven horoscopes a day, consecutively. How much preparation time can I accommodate in that schedule [Yes, I do get up at 4:30 on those days]. How reliable is the preparation procedure in relation to the appointment schedule in relation to the lunch break, etc.

This procedure works for me like a stopwatch. Necessarily, it is the business of art.

One of the greatest –secret— tips I give my senior students, becoming busy professionals, is for them to purposely schedule three clients in one morning. This will force efficiency into being. Only that which is reliably significant in their analytical work will be pursued. Their style will have been confirmed; the pattern for future performance and organized efficiency wil have been set.

The feeling of accomplishment within that kind of discipline is grand!

Is your doctor doing otherwise?

I suggest strongly please that you study the organization of your horoscope preparation routine. Know what you are doing with your valuable time and brain-power. — Don’t be afraid to overlook the eclipse of Arcturus on the Southern Declination point of Admetos, trine to your SP Pluto. Such measurements help with nothing but clutter. Your mind can organize better than that! Trust it!!