AstroBookReview: Astrology and the Authentic Self

This one essentially talks about how to be an astrological counselor. Now, I don't especially plan on doing this myself (I don't think frequent one-on-one appointments are going to be my thing here), but it was an intriguing read.

It starts out as a rundown of the basic astrology, with discussion of certain angles and asteroids (I particularly liked her Juno, Chiron and Persephone writeups), and discusses one person's chart and how she'd treat it in a reading. Relationships and career in the horoscope are discussed.

But the kicker with me, seeing as I am one of these people is...she talks about how do you deal with people with really hard charts, who want something with all their hearts and have nothing but resistance in their charts to getting it?

Points she makes that I like:

• Don't ask will you get married, ask what do you need in a relationship that will make you happy, and can your current partner provide that? Also, what is your capacity to do relationships well and can you sustain interactions with others?
• If all of their indicators are unfavorable for something, encourage the development of other parts of their life. If it's a mix, relationships will be good and bad/difficult, but you can identify where the problems will emerge. What's at cross-purposes with your desires?
• Chiron is an unfixable wound. How do you deal with it? Are you supposed to be a healer? (In my chart, apparently YES, but I don't feel that urge.) Maybe you are supposed to learn personal knowledge of a condition so that you can help others.
  
• Likewise, Persephone-issue people might be called to deal with going into the darker side of the psyche.
  

As for what do you say to those who aren't going to get what they want, she suggests:

• What is the best expression for the greatest good that I can do given these circumstances? How can I best use the situation, NOT for what I want or what I think will make me happy, but for what realizes the chart?
• What is being asked of you instead of realization of what you want?
• Reframe/spin the situation to get a different perspective.
• Make peace with not getting what you want, focus on what the chart does say you'd be successful at.
• Help others with their suffering.

I especially liked the section where (and this is relevant for my upcoming talk) she talks about a man with Mars conjunct Saturn and a Libra ascendant, who repeatedly ends up with angry, dictatorish women who rag on him all the time, and he stays with them until he throws them out.

"You may think it unlikely that this person will find happiness and peace with a partner who is gentle, kind and appreciative. Yet it is the topic of relationship that guides his life, and the thought of not being in a relationship is untenable to him. How can you reframe these chart indicators to make sense of his predicament? The counselor in you might speculate that he may have taken on a karmic commitment (ruler of seventh in the twelfth) to women who are filled with inner rage towards men due to their own previous circumstances (his Venus in Aries in the seventh). Because he is secure enough in his own inner strength, he is able to withstand their tirades and give them unconditional love, commitment, continual help, and emotional support to bring some healing into their lives. Everyone can benefit from and heal by being loved, and it may be that he is able and willing to extend this compassion to a type of woman who needs it very much. The question here is how to find peace with a situation a person is unable or unwilling to change by viewing it in a way that affirms the higher impulses of the individual."

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Anyway, I'd recommend this book.