It happened again yesterday: from the chart for the consultation time through to the Arcs and Transits in her natal horoscope, everything for this 64-year old, asthmatic, slow afoot but sparkling of mind lady screamed a big new project, a new business Ö not the everyday occurrence in life at that age. What a marvelous opportunity for her!

I've learned to have fortitude with observations like this --not censoring my thoughts, "Oh, this is impossible"-- and I built the whole consultation up to get to this point. The client confirmed "the big idea"! It just welled up out of her; my observation became enormous corroboration for her.

All the details from conception of the idea to testing it were corroborated by timely measurements. The projection for fulfillment, completion, start-up was highly focused for March-April, 2001. My client replied, "But my birthday is in July." --What did THAT mean?

Well, it turns out that the funds and peripheral concerns that would support her big idea would be at full strength only after my client passed her 65th birthday. The situation was more complex than this, but this is enough to make my point here. Planning could proceed, of course, in great detail, but formal confirmation of the business would have to wait some four months for all the ducks to be in a row.

First of all, this kind of strategy would be very, very, very difficult to find in the horoscope ahead of time. But it is essentially enough that it comes from the client to reflect the client's reality. -That is the key. The strategy resides within the client; the practical consideration about the process must often transcend the measurements. -How many times have you noted a Pluto-Angle contact with the fourth cusp, for another example, and suggested a relocation at a certain span of time, or a major change of professional direction, only to be told, ""Oh no, it was 10 months later"? This is NOT "a miss."

Your reply should be, "When was all this being planned." THERE is the answer. Clearly, there were practical concerns that delayed things, and very, very often there is no way to see that clearly in the horoscope Ö and searching for it in such details after the fact amounts to a considerable waste of time. I repeat: it is essentially enough that the corroborating information comes from the client to reflect the client's reality. -That is the key

So, we must listen to the client, inspect the reality carefully, in order to adjust the strategy that will bring the measurements literally and figuratively to life.

There have been many, many clients in my office between August and November this year (2000) who were talking about divorce. Measurements dramatically suggested the tension, the parting of the ways, and the discussion during consultation fleshed out the time structure powerfully, convincingly. Often, the partile finality of everything was focused in November or December or January.
--In the spirit of this discussion, we must ask ourselves, what are the practical concerns attendant to the measurements here? What is reasonable? What must be assimilated from the time of year and often from other people's involvement to bring the measurements to life?

A main consideration -and I certainly am no Scrooge when it comes to sentimentality-is the pressure of the holiday period in our culture, the time from mid-November (thanksgiving) through Christmas and into the New Year. Family love, togetherness, gift giving, resolutions -all these things influence us enormously. Then, in January, there is the severe drop off of all this -the music on our radios changes, the stores alter decoration, people are exhausted emotionally, the incidence of depression and suicide are at their highest of any time in the year.

How does this affect your client in the midst of agonizingly difficult concerns, say, about divorce? There is the pressure of insincerity; can a super gift at Christmas make a difference or cause embarrassment? Can a New Year's resolution save the day?

A client warned about the pressure of insincerity is a client fortified with objectivity during a time of emotionalism that can be quite bewildering. -This concern is a highly practical bit of insight and counsel from astrologer to client in emotional dilemma. Such a seasonal consideration can delay action to fulfill measurements; this is not "a miss", if you will, it is a practical consideration, and that is very much part of astrology.

How many times have we astrologers heard, "Well, yes, our marriage is in very difficult straits, but we are going to stay the course until the children are out of school"? Now, that time projection may be 5 or 6 years!!!! What is going to happen during that time? How will life stagnate, personal development go into a coma? This is a tough consideration.

We must remember that measurements only suggest; change can only happen if the client is knowingly involved and if the environment cooperates. This where the consultation process demands wisdom from the astrologer; and the seasoned astrologer learns to see ahead through delays in time, to other times when change will present itself. Five or six years later? --What about the spouse's horoscope in the intervening time? Will the 'agreement' to wait it out be ruptured through the spouse? What will happen then: agreement collapses to victimization.

There are no cut-and-dried answers here, except that the astrologer must be practical more than exact. And how full we must be in our studies about life to reflect back a changing reality to the client in a way that is supportive, creative, and promising.

Think. Study.