I enjoyed Lynn’s post today about “trusting the voice within” and doing typed readings instead of working over the phone. I started taking almost exactly the same approach that Lynn describes after reading Jan Spiller’s “Astrology for the Soul.” It was something Spiller wrote about the Nodal placements in my chart – South Node in the 3rd, North Node in the 9th – that inspired me to take the leap of faith. Trusting one’s own instincts and knowledge seemed to be the gist of it, and it really spoke to the problems I’d always had with phone readings – that something about the interaction with the other person tends to throw me off. Perhaps it’s just my well-documented terror of the telephone.
But then again, a good percentage of astrology clients are a bit emotionally fragile by the time they book an appointment; and in a phone conversation (more so than face-to-face, in my experience) it’s easy for me to get lost in a client’s anxiety, scattered energy, or denial, and lose track of the astrology altogether. I sometimes think, too, that sensitive subjects must almost certainly be easier for a client to process while sitting alone in a room alone listening to a CD, rather than having to save face in the astrologer’s presence.
In any event, I always feel more satisfied with the typed/recorded readings that I send to people, and the feedback has been very positive. But it is an exhausting process to write out 80 minutes worth of text – about 23 double-spaced pages – then record it, burn it to CD, and package it all up. That’s why I’m currently taking another sabbatical from doing personal readings; I can only seem to do them for a couple of years or so before I burn out.
I probably shouldn’t fuss so much (Virgo Midheaven!). But speaking as a client of astrology readings as well as a purveyor, while I’ve had some readings that have really helped put things into focus for me, I’ve also had a few that seemed kind of random and stream of consciousness and not particularly helpful. And while I always appreciated the effort and good intentions that went into those readings, I haven’t always been inspired by the result. That’s why I want to give every reading my very best effort.
But I know there’s something deeply flawed in my approach, because giving these things my all takes way too much time and energy to make sense from a business point of view. I would either need to give myself a huge raise or let myself work in a looser, more improvisational way, and neither feels right to me. So I’ll take an intermission for a few months and work on some other projections, and plan my next move.
In the meantime, I’d love to hear your comments. Have you been generally happy with astrology readings you’ve received? And if you give readings, what kind of preparation and experience does it take for you to walk away with the feeling that it’s been a good experience for both you and your client?