Blog 1

Astrologer’s Ethics and Obligations

February 13, 2011

The profession of astrology has evolved a great deal.  In very early days of astrology, especially in India, Egypt and Greece, astrologers were retained and supported by kings or rulers to exclusively serve them.  Astrologers then were treated with respect.  Sometimes they also played role of teachers, advisors, philosophers or spiritual leaders, and with their astrology based guidance, kings or rulers would make decisions and act accordingly.  Ordinary people would hardly have access to the astrologers. Even if some of them did, they couldn’t consult astrologers for personal guidance since birth information then was hardly available let alone the accurate birth time.  Astrologers would only provide the general predictions and collective guidance for people in general. And those predictions and guidance were supposed to help people collectively in their daily life. 

In last couple of centuries the profession of astrology is very different.  The staunch critique of astrology has been the mainstream scientific community; and their argument for dismissing astrology is its very basis--- the influence of planets on individuals.  As a result, astrologers, in general, are not only respected but they are ridiculed every now and then.  With this backdrop the profession of astrology remained unattractive and the popular belief has been that one should only consider the profession of astrology after failing to pursue other professions.  Despite such adverse conditions, since last century several astrologers have positively contributed to astrology, especially complementing the field of psychology and psychotherapy by providing the insight in personality and behavior pattern based on the natal charts for subjects undergoing psychoanalysis or psychotherapy.  Then several people with scientific background and discipline became curious about astrology and have been started looking at it with an open mind as a pseudo-science.  Several hundreds of thousand charts were studied and analyzed to identify correlations between the planetary positions at the time of birth as portrayed in the respective natal charts.  Also, with the advent of internet, the amazing instantaneous communications between the like minded astrologers across the globe helped astrology to further grow at a phenomenal speed.  It’s only a matter of time that astrology will soon earn the respect it deserves as research minded people are becoming more interested in learning astrology.

In my opinion, astrologers today have a greater responsibility to observe the ethics in this profession required to maintain the level of respect and importance for astrology.

The first and the foremost responsibility is the confidentiality. When it comes to personal consultation, it should always be provided on one-on-one basis, unless the client insists a third party involvement.  Confidentiality makes client at ease and it allows astrologers to guide their clients more effectively by accurately comparing the actual facts provided by his client against the client’s natal chart. Thus, a mutual trust between an astrologer and his client is absolutely a must as professional ethics. And therefore, astrologers do have obligations to abide to confidentiality.

The second responsibility is to accentuate the positives without compromising the truth as interpreted by analyzing all the aspects of the natal chart.  I strongly believe that predictions arrived by analyzing natal chart are not cast in concrete. There always exist a potential to turn things around in the positive direction.  Astrologer should attempt to focus on the areas of the client’s chart where the possibility of realizing such positives are high.  I believe there is not a natal chart worse than any other natal chart, and it’s a challenge for an astrologer to figure out what that uniqueness the chart offers to that individual and give it to that individual.

As in any profession, an astrologer must listen to client and client’s immediate needs. And he must address those as openly as possible without sacrificing the quality of the predictions.

A good astrologer is always open-minded in his quest for unraveling the essence of his client’s chart.  He never assumes anything and let his own judgment come in the way of the chart analysis.  In other words, he respects astrology, the profession of astrology, and never lets his bias guide him when it comes to reading.  The reading is strictly based on the sound principles of astrology, his keen observations and detailed analysis of the chart.  He should never get overwhelmed by astrology, and consequently becomes a slave of astrology.

In my opinion, astrologers should stay away from making fatalistic predictions.  They should always consider the usefulness of their predictions or consultation to their clients. For instance, predicting death for his client serves no purpose under any circumstances, but its negative implication would certainly adversely affect client’s state of mind.  The astrology must be used to enhance client’s life by suggesting the best life choices and the right life goals.

A good astrologer always knows limitations of astrology based predictions since the predictions are based on so many factors—planetary positions with respect to zodiac signs and the houses in the natal chart, the inter-relation and interaction among the planets through aspects, angles and sign ruler-ship.  I’m of the opinion that no astrologer can make any prediction with absolute certainty.  In other words, astrological predictions only point to probability or likely hood of certain events or achievements that client might experience.

An astrologer must charge fee for his consultation based on mutual agreement.  Thus, proper compensation for his consultation does not only remind astrologer of his professional obligation but it also makes him indiscriminate when he deals with his clients and therefore, he always offer an open-minded and useful guidance.

In ancient days, people treated astrology as a divine knowledge.  I think there’s some truth to it.  Although astrologers have to make living, they must avoid the temptation of misusing it for short term personal gain or use it to acquire power over their clients or others.  The sole focus of astrology should always be to offering the ways to enhance client’s life without becoming a slave of astrology.