There are a lot of different service companies to choose from in any class about people, and astrology is no different. If you type the name of any class into a search engine, you can find hundreds or even millions of options. Just out of curiosity, I just Googled my own name and got 4,120,000 results. I had no idea I would become that well-known (me and every different name like mine). This huge amount of information has made it impossible for anyone to study just one thing in a meaningful way. How do you choose the best from such a large number?
Since our problem is with astrology and astrologers, does an astrologer have to be an expert, licensed, well-known, or just available? If you are just starting out as an astrologer, you will have to decide what kind of astrologer you want to be. Your choices will be based on the services you offer clients, how skilled you are, and how trustworthy you are. Plus private motivations and desires. I'm going to give you an overview of a number of things that will help you make good astrological predictions for yourself and for your clients. As you learn more about what drives you and why you make the decisions you do, you should be able to use the same logic to choose an astrologer to read you.
Motivation: Where do you come from in terms of your philosophy? Do you see this as a service job, a way to make money, a profession, a hobby, or some other basic personal power? Do you care more about self-improvement, fun, business, dating, evolution, or some other astrological method? How does this kind of test or piece of art fit into your own way of thinking? If you don't solve any internal conflicts, you'll spend your whole life thinking about yourself. When choosing an astrologer to do a reading for you, you should know that they face the same questions when making their own choices.
Personality: Are you a scientist or do you care more about how you feel? Some readers care about what they think about what they're reading. Some people choose objectivity. Astrology gives people a diagram, which is a personal map of a person or thing in the shape of a wheel, that lets them look at their lives. The wheel can be used in so many different ways. One of these is choosing between the goal method and the subjective method. Do you choose the arms-length method or the personal method? Do you want a one-hour reading once a year for yourself or to give to someone else? This could be done in writing, on a pre-recorded tape, or on a computer. Do you want for yourself or do you want to give other people private access so they can call you with questions? Every person is human and will choose the position that makes them feel the safest, that fits their own standards, and gives them what they want. First, look at yourself. How can an astrologer tell if he or she is analyzing? Do you have to be the doctor or the touchy-feely while you check on other people? Then go one step further with those questions. What kind of astrologer would you choose to do your reading? Do you want the doctor or the touchy to check you out?
Setting: Do you feel more comfortable in a business-like setting with a proper office, whether you want to see an astrologer or become one? Are you more comfortable being read by someone in a home-like setting or reading for someone else in a home-like setting? Do you want strangers in your private space before the reading? Everyone who comes into our private space, whether or not they are astrologers or not, brings their own influence into our area. I've been doing astrology for a long time, and I've read clients in both business and private settings. When someone reads me, I've also been in a lot of different situations. We do what we can and what makes us feel good. Your choices might be based on the chance of a place, whether it's in a city or in the country, whether it's private or public, or whether there are enough resources. Due to religious or philosophical differences with their own families and their extended or cultural families, many students study in silence. Each person has the option of putting whether they are reading, being read to, or reading for a customer.
Learning Curve: When I first got into astrology, I taught myself on my own, and I spent the first few years reading a lot. I didn't know there were teachers in my area, so I didn't have special teachers. Later, I started to study for other people and then ended up teaching. If you could learn this way, it would be very close to the perfect way to learn. If you were lucky enough to have a teacher or a long-term class, your experience is just as valid and might have been a lot easier than mine. One way to learn is not better than another; they are just different. You have to choose from what's available to you and what makes you feel the most at ease in your learning options. Students don't learn to be good astrologers just by reading or listening. Instead, they have to do the work. Method and method are only ways to get to an end. Most of the time, the proof will be in the readings. This is true for both your own data collection and conclusions, as well as for the same learning curve in different readers.
Credibility: This should be a huge problem from an astrological point of view. The same old problems of honesty, integrity, and respect for privacy come up. No one wants to meet a con artist, but they are just as likely to be around as any other human activity. Just because a person says they are spiritually uplifted does not mean that they are. A person who is spiritually influenced always acts spiritually and never lies. Remember that I'm talking about both you and any outside counselor you choose to look at you. You have to be careful... Now, don't be judgmental. Just be observant and make your decisions without emotion. Don't second-guess yourself. If you don't feel comfortable with a reader, go find another one. When you do any kind of reading, you give someone else (probably an unknown game-changer) permission to walk around in your mind. You need to feel good about the choices you make. Having said all that about a reader from the outside, you need to deal with and build the same credibility issues within yourself as you gain more skills and offer your services. It is very important that you are honest, have integrity, and respect other people's privacy. There are no secrets in a skilled person's map of where they came from. Astrologers have to take into account what people believe. You have the right to assume the same level of trust when you give someone else your route map.
More on Credibility - As we've already said, problems with people misusing records or abilities can happen anywhere there are people. There are fakes and con artists in every group of people. Some people seem to be cheaters by nature, and the field of analysis is no different. Again, you need to be careful. If you get burned, think of it as a bad life lesson and move on. Don't do the same thing again or tell other people to do the same thing. Word-of-mouth advertising is both the best and worst kind of marketing that can be done. If you've been hurt in any way (and money is the least of your worries), get treatment or repair as soon as you can. Don't let a problem grow from something small to something big over time.
If you meet someone who is always trying to sell you outside services like lighting candles to stop bad things from happening or playing on your guilt or grief after a personal tragedy, this has nothing to do with astrology. A trustworthy astrologer won't go down that bad road. I've also met people who needed help with such pointless bad things in their lives, and I've helped them as part of my service as a person. This help no longer had anything to do with astrology. Nature became important to me and a place where I could heal. Carefully choose the people you let into your mind and life. Choose carefully what kind of astrologer you want to be, because you can have a big effect on how another character lives and makes decisions. ABC: Always Be Trustworthy.
Information Flow: Astrologers should be able to tell you things about yourself and your life without having to start the information pump. I no longer agree with the idea that an analysis would be valid and honest if I asked you a lot of questions first or if you gave me a lot of statistics. If I'm good at what I do, I really shouldn't want to do that anymore. I might bring up an either/or dilemma in the middle of a reading, such as "It will be this or that; how do you see this working in your life?" If you give me records and I give you a reading based on them, it is no longer honest. I ask people not to give me information about themselves and their lives, but instead to let me get the information from the wheel itself. So I know the information is coming from the patterns and not from what I already knew about the person. I can't stop people from talking and telling me private information I'd rather not know, but I do try. What do I do? I ask my clients if they want to hear their own voice or mine on the tape recording of our meeting. This is a good example of my choice for the easiest reading possible. Oh... The answer is clear: I do record what I read. I talk very quickly for probably an hour or more, which is hard to understand in one reading. As the reading goes on, more and more of the person comes out through the reading style, which is natural. Just don't turn up the records pump right away, whether you're being read or giving a reading.
What about credentials? You can take standardized astrological tests to prove your skill. There are a number of companies that can give these tests if you want them, and they are quite hard. I know some very good astrologers who never went through the testing process and a few others who did go through the testing process and did just as well. The desire to do or not do something is always different for each person. If one group decided that their way was the best way, that would cause trouble. But astrologers are still people, so the ego walking away with the mouth isn't that strange, is it? If you choose an astrologer to study for you, you should know that passing such a test shows that the astrologer really knows the basics of astrology, which is a great foundation for an astrologer. As I said before, the readings themselves will always show if someone is good or not.
Psychic or Astrology: Do you have both psychic and astrological skills and want to use them together? Astrological talent and psychic sensitivity may be very different. I train in both, so I do know what the difference is. Astrology is based on intellect, intuition, or reasoning, while psychic abilities are based on emotions, instincts, or feelings. From my point of view, if you are psychic, you can use that skill on any level of your life, and it should help you and other people (in case you are reasonably accurate). In and of itself, psychic has nothing to do with astrology, but it can be just as helpful in that setting. My personal astrologer was both psychic and a great astrologer, and he or she combined these skills well. Personally, I try to keep the two skills separate at least most of the time. My favorite. Do you want a pure psychic or astrologer to read for you, or are you okay with a mix of the two?
These are some of the problems you might run into when choosing an astrologer for yourself or choosing to be an astrologer for someone else.