Читать книгу Astrology: The only introduction you’ll ever need - Charles Harvey - Страница 38

Most astrologers in the English-speaking world work with western tropical astrology, as taught in this book, although there is now a growing number of Vedic astrologers in the West who practise sidereal astrology following the ancient Hindu tradition. The work of this rich tradition is beyond the scope of this book.

As astrology tends to be a subject which, like psychology, benefits enormously from life experience, few astrologers qualify before their Saturn Return, when they are about 30 years old. About 80 to 90 per cent of astrology students on most courses are women and probably 80 per cent of practitioners at the present time are females. This is probably because women usually have better access to the right-brain functions associated with poetry, imagination, the metaphorical and the symbolic, and a natural interest in people and their psychology. These are essential qualities for working fully and effectively with astrology. An increasing number of astrologers will also have some kind of additional training in counselling.

Like doctors, astrologers usually undergo broad training, which familiarizes them with most branches of astrology. Then, when the astrologer sets up in practice, she will tend to specialize in one particular area, and will probably undertake additional training. The great majority of practitioners now work in the area of psychological astrology and character analysis. Most psychological astrologers will also undertake work on chart comparison and relationships, including parent-child relationships and family dynamics in general.

Astrologers usually work by personal consultation, usually from an office within their own home and sometimes in alternative health centres. Very few astrologers are sufficiently affluent to have their own secretary or receptionist, so the consultation is normally booked directly with the astrologer herself, who will take the preliminary details and possibly some case history.