PAT replies:

Hi,

It isn't acceptable to me. I get very very weary of the view that astrology is so much psycho babble instead of the useful tool we know it to be.

Frankly--and this is an opinion I have held for several years--I think the reason you get some astrologers saying 'no no let's not forecast' is because THEY CAN"T DO IT and they have no confidence in their knowledge. Either they have let the scientific community grab their minds by the short hairs or they fear its opinions. In any case, they have spent more time on the hot air than practicing their craft.

I just wonder why they're astrologers if they don't want to forecast. That's like becoming a meteorologist to discuss the shape of the clouds, but predict rain? Why whatever do you mean?

I have heard the most incredible garbage from some supposedly good astrologers. It always tells me exactly where they are coming from. Somebody like Arch Crawford who comes right out and predicts market direction on TV has my respect. Sure, he isn't going to get it 100% right--nobody does. But he doesn't hide behind some advanced degree and then pretend prediction is beneath him. And I believe his record is No. 2 for accuracy among all stock market predictors.

And as far as death prediction is concerned, I don't think that's automatically off limits. There are many times such information is of great value to a family member and if somebody wants to know--and is willing to pay the freight to find out--I think it should be available to them.

On the other hand, there's no sense in claiming we are infallible on such forecasting because we aren't and that is not a forecast I would ever make lightly for anyone.

But I have had clients with seriously ill elderly parents, for instance, who needed a time frame. One long-time client was deeply grateful to me for helping prepare her for her father's death from a many-year-long illness. She was able to approach it much more calmly and help her mother at a difficult time.

Another client was dealing with an Alzheimer case that was hopeless (as they all are) and had lasted for some years. She was desperate to know WHEN there would be some relief for her from the long burden of care-giving. Should I not have helped her?

It's easy to say we shouldn't do this or we shouldn't do that. But I think such opinions need to be tested by doing business as an astrologer and using some common sense tempered with some compassion for the people who need answers.

It think that if you want to be a professional, you have to use some common sense. Most people don't pay for psycho babble.

Anyway--I agree with your views.

Best regards,
Pat Geisler

"Hi! I'm wondering if anyone in the group can give me some insight into the
Uranus-Pluto in Virgo conjunction that occurred in the early 60's --
especially in terms of how it affected its house of residence in the chart,
how it has worked when conjunct a personal planet such as Mars or Venus, and
how it was affected by transiting Pluto squaring the configuration in Sag. "

PAT replies:

Hi, That was a really good question and I think it points up the difference between mundane and personal charts very clearly. Such a major conjunction--coming as rarely as it does--affects whole generations.

It had an enormous and sweeping effect on society at large. Pluto has a great deal of influence in birth/death matters and this is the era which produced THE PILL. Young women today have no real awareness of the dynamic Uranian changes this made in the lives of women.

Before that there was very little a woman who was sexually active could do except have a baby when she got pregnant or conversely, find an illegal abortionist. And there was real fear involved when a period was late. If it was worrisome for a married female it was far more so for a single woman.

It made the world of jobs very insecure, and is the real reason women were so slow to get ahead for so many years. No employer could count on keeping a young married woman and older ones usually were too busy with the brood. And once the babies started coming, hang it up as far as a job went.

This conjunction launched the sexual revolution, in which women could be free to play without paying the high price of the past. Of course, many other problems followed in their wake, but those were different than they had been before.

It was a time when many medical issues soared into focus, and the very beginnings of what we see today in terms of things like cloning and genetic manipulation (tiny changes as the microscopic level, etc...how Virgoan!).

When the sexual revolution led to a soaring problem of sexually transmitted diseases, new treatment methods were begun. In fact, a great many changes occurred in hospitals and care-giving institutions.

One thing you may all have seen in your communities--how the homes for the orphaned and abused children were closed in favor of "foster homes," and many state-run long-term care facilities for the retarded and mentally ill were closed in favor of "community care." Of course the foster homes and the community yielded their own share of disastrous effects, but the changes did happen anyway.

The hospice movement came out of this time period, too. Virgo deals with nursing care in general and there were many changes in the work of nurses.

It put technology on the trail of the computer and later the small practical communication devices which we have today. The tech revolution began with this conjunction.

I remember when it was happening talking to my husband about it at the time. We were sitting on the porch on a Sunday morning watching the boat races on Lake Erie,. (we rented this old house on the lake--it was wonderful) and I told him that the world of labor and employment would never be the same.

And not long after the arrival of the pill women swept in to the offices and stores , changing the face of the working world.

The other momentous thing that occurred concerns all of us: It broke open the world to astrology. It really, in my opinion, led astrology to being seen as a useful practical tool to help with life. In the years that followed, astrology became very "hip" and those of us who were were ready rode a wave of increasing business and social acceptance in its practice.

How did it work in terms of the individual chart? Much like any major conjunction does. In Virgo it showed an intense mental focus and work issues that needed to be solved in the life.

Two of my children were born with it. One is a nurse and the other works in computer technology sales. Both of them married people with computer technology careers.

This entire era is permeated by young people who know how to work the equipment that makes life so fascinating.

Many of us don't have that skill. Those who do see it as "simple," and logical. Very Virgo points of view.

Depending on how this conjunction was aspected in the natal chart, it had major or merely strong effect on the life. Whether the aspects were good or bad also counts a lot.

We are all products of the time and place in which we are born, and these big conjunctions color that with a unique shade.

Best regards,
Pat Geisler