I feel that just the fact of having an horary done, even a spectacular one, does not relieve one of their human nature, which is prone to anxiety over important matters. Also, what about those of us who are decidedly not "spiritual" and don't want to be?

I am new to this board but have noted a definite "spiritual" leaning. For instance, there have been many comments about "base" questions, as if there is a list of concerns considered spiritually OK, and others that aren't.
My opinion is that all concerns of humanity are legitimate fodder for exploration if one is so inclined. That is a choice made by the individual, and no astrologer need feel obligated to respond if they find the subject distasteful.

I feel that astrology is a physical phenomenon that we presently have little understanding of, and there is room in the astrological community for all points of view, or should be.

That?s probably a view worth exploring, and it?s a question I?m planning to raise shortly in the philosophy forum ? for a slightly different reason but it fits the bill. One of the problems when old threads get resurrected like this is that they don?t reveal the wider picture of what was happening at that time. There had been a number of previous questions relating to this issue, so what seems to be the initial response in this thread wasn?t the real starting point of the discussion. Rightly or wrongly I felt that Sandra wasn?t getting any benefit out of continuing to put such a heavy emphasis upon her horary for reassurance. Sometimes we can get locked into our own issues, so that all we see back in our own charts are the expectations we place there. When that?s the case I do think it?s best to be able to put the astrology aside, and I do make it clear to all my clients that if what I am telling them is right, it will also feel right too - even if it is uncomfortable or is disappointing in its content. In my experience querents always report a feeling of reassurance, even when the horary has only strengthened or confirmed a doubt that was somewhere in their mind, but about which they?d been trying to remain hopeful, or feeling somehow emotionally obligated to dismiss.

Just a note, but... this forum attracts people from all over the world, so, what may seem quite empathetic to one person may seem trite or condescending to another. A large part of this I've decided after years of observing this forum is cultural difference. It might behoove all those who post to take into consideration that English has a great variance of use in its different parts of the world.

So, tone of voice is not conveyed and cultural bias is a definite consideration when posting. So it would probably be good for people to think hard about what they are saying and how they are saying it, and instead of getting hurt feelings, perhaps question what it is you heard in the reply post, you may misunderstand. If the person truely is being offensive, then you can always deal with it AFTER you've questioned and confirmed or re-assessed your opinion or concern.

this of course is my opinion, and merely a suggestion, others may vary. I've come accross a lot of this lately. One person on a group I'm on recently has been taking every question or comment as severe criticism, where only very simple and non judgemental questions have been asked. Quite odd for that person to do, I'm suspecting he's upset about something and taking it out on others, but still!

And possibly those reading posts might take into account, as I think Deb has, that the poster may be a bit upset and not responding as rationally as they might... (I'm feeling awefully Libran today in case one can't tell)

Granny

Oh yes, Granny I agree with you about how things get turned around when we write on here. With the spoken word we have our tone of voice that fills in so much that is missing from the written word.

As to Deb's overall point, I don't think it can be stressed enough. And man I've struggled with it too. When I get a no to an answer from a horary, it's tough to be philosophical and to let go of my concern, but really that is the best way. Before I go on with this, I have to say that I've only managed this recently and partially. Someone once told me that even the best baseball players get a hit only one-third of the time, the rest of the time they strike out. So if something is hard, and we only succeed one-third of the time, we're doing really good.

I recently had a horary that said I would get what I want but the timing said that it wouldn't happen until around February. I can take this several ways. I can go against the chart and try to rush things and get my head hurt banging up against a wall. I can do nothing but fret and worry for the next five months and become a nervous wreck. Or I can find other things to do, enjoy myself and trust in the way of the universe. In real life I'm doing a combination of the last two - finding other things to do, enjoying myself but fretting a bit on the inside. But the more I talk about it, the better I feel about not having what I want right now.

I've also recently managed to feel good even when I get a no answer. There does come a point when a no answer can feel like the burden that I have to work harder, try more and fight longer has been lifted off of me. I don't know how I got to that point. I wish I could tell others how to get there, but I think that's one we all have to find for ourselves.

What I guess surprises me the most is when I just ignore a no answer as if it didn't happen. I had a client book my services for a few days and then did a chart to see if it would happen; I guess I had some doubts. The chart showed the significator of my client going under the Sun's beams, in other words, he'd vanish. I saw that, I understood what it meant and then forgot about it. The next day, someone else wanted me to work for them on the same dates and I told them that I was busy already. Of course, then the first client did just what the chart said, he disappeared. So just because we have astrology as a tool, it doesn't do much good because we're all human and want to believe that things will go as we planned them.

Another chart done for a very sick man showed that in the short term there would be improvement, followed by a turn for the worse. A few days later his son calls me and said that the sick man had seemed a lot better. I patted myself on the back for what a good prediction I made (the son asked me not to tell him even if I had done a chart on his father so I said nothing to anyone about it) and then just forgot about the second, darker part of the chart. When the old man died a few weeks later, for some reason I was surprised, when it pretty much was in the chart and in my interpretation of it.

Reading a chart is by far the easiest part. The harder part is dealing with, and acting on what it says. And like I quoted above, if we get it right only one-third of the time, we're in the Hall of Fame.