The Crucial Consideration of Level
Astrological measurements are not the same for all people. Just as Brahms does not suit everyone’s musical taste; just as red does not fit into everyone’s fashion; not all measurements find the same outlets in individual realities. Manifestations may be very similar, but they can be vastly different in terms of Level. -This is why astrology is not primarily descriptive; it is analytical, evaluating, always adapting itself to the reality being lived by the individual.
It is perfectly possible, for example, that a farmer living in a little house on the plains of South Dakota (born June 15, 1963 at 1:00 PM in Onida, SD), surrounded for miles by isolated farmlands, doing his job as his father did before him, has the ‘same’ or very closely similar horoscope to that of a woman of the same age (born June 15, 1963 at 1:15 PM in Scarsdale, NY), raised in an affluent, privileged family, educated in the Ivy League, and employed by TIME magazine as an agricultural editor, assessing the crop comeback in the Balkans.
How each of these people was raised, their family lineage, the life experience of the parents, the stimulation of their sociocultural environment, the reinforcement patterns for behaviors developed within different arenas of competition and reward -these are vital considerations. What was expected of each of these people, what was possible for each of these people was vastly different. Looking at the horoscope of each (and please do so!), it is an easy matter to adjust the level of potentials, to direct the measurement guidelines to what is practicable in each person’s developmental reality. –It’s easy and wise to make this adjustment Ö if one knows to do it and remembers to do so.
A Pluto transit in connection with the Ascendant, for example, could be a change of citizenship to fit an international businessman’s power play, for an executive with strategies at that Level Ö or it could corroborate a cosmetic face lift, a do-over, for someone else, poking about for change. Some people will buy or build a new home with a strong activation of the fourth cusp –if that is “in the stars” for the family-or there could just be a redo of one of the rooms. Level is all-important.
Finding Level The only way to ascertain the Level of a horoscope is through disclosure about/from the client. We need to know the client’s reality profile, for that will tell us the horoscope living within, how it manifest in life behavior.
There is no way to look at a horoscope and know if it is male or female, or an animal or a mundane event. There is no way to determine race, nationality, or religion, which is so much a determining variable in one’s upbringing throughout the world. -How can any astrologer profess to know it ALL from the horoscope, when it is impossible to do so? Are they afraid of the responsibilities and disciplines in the art of interpretation? –We have to know a lot about life in order to know a lot about astrology.
We are not playing a game of “gotcha” in modern astrology. We are managing a system of guidelines to reality principles and developmental tensions, all those concerns that lead us through a scenario of individual effort to fulfillment. The horoscope is not a control panel; it’s a mirror.
We must assess our client: through speech pattern, grammar, thought development; job status; personal presentation (fastidiousness, clothes sense); psychological poise (the giving and receiving of compliments, courtesies, nervous preoccupations, perceptiveness); and actual involvement with personal development. These observations tell us about sociometric Level. These observations guide us into an idiom of conversation with our client, which the client will understand. Then, together with the client, the consultation discussion develops further and fulfills itself, more likely than not.
Many, many times, I have underestimated my client. So, over the years, I have learned to delay assessment of Level as long as possible, since, with every turn of measurement, with every disclosure about the steps of past development, more is added to the reality flow of the client. There are surprises; there are nuances that bring the horoscope more and more to life.
Many, many times, I have overestimated my client. I have learned that not everyone feels they can achieve something by virtue of wanting to do it and working hard to make it happen. Many people expect change and improvement and reward. Many people avoid risk, avoid the truth they know about themselves because of the insulating security of their present routine, even if it is a negative one.
This ascertainment of Level is often complicated in a female horoscope by virtue of the fact that it is her husband who is leading the life development for both of them. It is his horoscope that is the more tactically important. How do you read his horoscope through hers? [This is a compellingly interesting subject in itself; the stuff of a future essay.]
The Age of the Client is extremely important, of course. We must be aware that age level changes manifestation potentials for all behavioral faculties. Think of the planets as hormones: we all know how the press of some hormones propels life at some times in our life and not at other times. It is rare to start a new business at age 60; it is perhaps not the proper consideration to get married at 18; it is difficult to change jobs at 50, etc. So, our interpretative application of the horoscopic measurements within the client’s emerging reality must recognize Level, a clear reality principle, not a textbook prototypical profile of expectancy.
The ‘bottom line’ here is that Level presents itself through the client, from the client, in relation to the clarity and depth of disclosure in conversation with the astrologer.
Things that get in the way of such rapport with the client The inexperienced astrologer faces intimidation by the process of the consultation and the presence of the client. The pressure is on to please the client: will the client like me and what I’m saying?
When this occurs, nervous laughter abounds from the astrologer, closely followed by the astrologer talking too much about her/himself(!), afraid to talk about the client’s development; terribly insecure, weakening phrases emerge, like “We can see if this will make sense; what do you think? Are we on the right track?” –In short, any question answerable by “Yes” or “No” is usually a wasted question, one that can quickly STOP the consultation dead in the water. “Make sense?” -No. Then where are you? [Please see pages 75-87 in The Creative Astrologer]
The unprepared astrologer overlooks learning about the client’s development in past time. Using rapport measurements (elementary, abbreviated Solar Arcs) and transits to question the client about developmental time in the past is crucial to elicit disclosure keyed to specific development periods in life. This process also builds authority into the astrological process and for the astrologer.
The astrologer who does not know where the consultation is going to go in terms of Arcs and Transits of key importance (usually involving an angle of the horoscope) will be unable to be strategically helpful to the client. The astrologer may not understand the full potential of the future measurements until disclosure establishes Level and practicable strategy clearly, but the measurements must be made beforehand and a target in time established. The whole consultation must be geared to that moment ahead in time. –The key question at this bridge-time from appreciation of the past to strategic fulfillment in the near future is “What do you project for yourself in the next 6 months to a year?” [Please study pages 177-186 of The Creative Astrologer]