Zodiac Signs in the Southern Hemisphere

 

The character of the 12 signs is a result of three or four things overlapping:

1. The character of the planet that owns the sign
2. The character of the element the sign is made from
3. The character of the mode the sign moves in
4. The natural “house” order of the sign
   

The character of the zodiac signs does not have anything to do with seasons or weather. Thus it is irrelevant if the native is in the northern or southern hemispheres. The signs are what they are, regardless of the hemisphere you look at them from – because the factors that make the signs what they are are independent of hemispheric considerations.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

A Statement on Pricing

A Statement on Pricing

Many of you have been with me for several years now, and have watched me experiment with pricing my astrological services – sometimes to great extremes. Over the last few years I have tried everything from normal, to low, to donation pricing. After all this experimentation I’ve reached a conclusion. I’d like to take a few moments to explain it to you.

There is the noble idea that “Knowledge should be given freely.” But this necessitates another noble principle, “Those who give knowledge should never be charged for anything.” These two interdependent noble ideas actually worked in many ancient and classical cultures, especially in India’s history; but in today’s culture of global capitalism, it’s a pipe-dream.

If I couldn’t give it for free, I tried giving it cheaply. But the result was exhausting. I had to overwork to keep up with my expenses (I support a family with three children, living in Japan). I felt that the quality of my work declined somewhat, which I dislike, and I lost the precious time an astrologer requires to continuously study and contemplate.

I tried another angle: donations. I thought that this may allow people with less economic facility to get knowledge, while people with more economic facility could be more generous and make up the difference. It did work somewhat, but “making up the difference” still amounted to working at very inexpensive rates, and thus the same exhaustion, overwork and loss of quality. People in general cannot be blamed for not understanding the hours of study that must go into every hour of giving a reading, so it’s not really feasible to ask them to donate as much or as often as I need.

And so, to my decision: Fixed prices that I know to be fair to myself and my clients.

To determine exactly what that is I did a survey of seven astrologers with similar credentials and situations as I and found their average fee for a birth chart reading was $300, for a transit or progression was $265, and for a compatibility reading was $280. I used these figures as the guidepost for establishing my fee structure.

From here on, I don’t intend to experiment anymore with pricing. My fees will not change except as fluctuating currency values necessitate from time to time. Here are the readings I will offer.

Thank you,

Vic DiCara

Do you want to be “good at astrology?”

_-_ complexity [1] (Photo credit: nerovivo)

If you want to be “good at astrology” here is my advice after a few years of trying it myself and teaching others how to try for it:

When you get a complex question, don’t try to answer it theoretically. For example, one excellent student of mine asks me:

What is the effect of Ve[nus] is 5th in Rasi [the main chart] and 6th in Navamsa [a sub-chart]?

The subject is just too complex for a direct answer. I think astrologers have given too much effort to trying for direct answers to such question. Whole volumes of very moderately useful and accurate “yogas” and heaps and heaps of fairly useless complicated statements have been authored in the attempt.

The real answer to a question like this is not in a black and white statement. Here is why:

If you want to be good at astrology, there are three steps:

Step 1: Really understand the inner details of the fundamental symbolism in the planets. Then do the same with the signs. Then the same with the houses. Understand the symbolism of these things in a way that is “elegant” – meaning that lots of meaning fits inside a few simple words or images.

Step 2: Practice combining the symbols. Do it theoretically – meaning, in isolation from a real chart – just practice combining, for example one planet with one sign (pretending that nothing more complex exists in the horoscope). Doing this teaches you the fundamental methodology of how to synthesize meta-symbols from the basic set of symbols. Strive for clear and elegant theories about each planet in each sign and house, and each lord in each house.

Step 3: Gradually start exploring how those meta-symbols really work when they are  in a real horoscope, subject to elaborate modification and adjustment by their combination with all the other meta-symbols in the chart.

Don’t treat step 3 like it’s step 2! You will go crazy and get lost; you will lose your perspective and become myopic. In step 2 it is OK to make theoretical statements like: “Venus in the 6th House increases the sophistication with which we deal with enemies and obsticles.” This is OK because the number of potential meta-symbols to define is still fairly limited – Venus has 12 options for houses, for example. At step 3, however, the potential combinations of meta-meta-symbols multiplies exponentially! If you try to give a theoretical definition of every possible combination you will be working at it full time for several years, and you will miss the point! The point of step 3 is to stop being theoretical and start being practical and intuitive.

Don’t latch on to concrete answers to things that are fluid by nature. Don’t hang on to step 2 like a security blanket. When the time comes that you have significantly mastered the first two steps, you have to make the leap to step 3 – the leap from theory and intellect to reality and intuition.

Complex astrological situations exist in complex environments, that are fluid because they are different in each and every chart. The correct answers to question like the one I quoted at the beginning are therefore fluid answers – ones that rely on the student’s ability to synthesize the answer on his own, as a result of excellent theoretical education and well-oiled intuitive talents.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

The Limits and Potentials of Astrology

How accurate can it really be?

by Vic DiCara

Is it even possible to tell the future?

Yes, you can even say it’s easy.

I can perfectly predict what time the Sun will set or rise on any given day; or when the next eclipse will happen. I can tell you when the seasons are going to change. In fact, it seems that even birds can look at shadows cast by the Sun to foretell the approach of winter and summer. So, the future obviously is predictable to some extent.

But that’s the real catch, “To what extent?”  Sure, I can predict the date of the next full Moon, but can I tell you with equal accuracy the date of your marriage?

Theoretically…

• The movements of the heavenly bodies mark the passage of time in a regular, mathematically predictable way.
• Those movements – especially those of the Sun and Moon – seem to cause or indicate changes on Earth and therefore life on it.

Theoretically I should be able to predict when you are going to get married. The idea is: if we can foretell some things by the motion of the planets, why can’t we foretell everything by a suitably sophisticated application of the same basic principles?

The problem is the degree of sophistication required. The effect of the Sun upon the seasons is so much simpler than its effect on your love-life. The complexity of such correlations is so mind-boggling that most people say its impossible to figure them out. In my opinion, it’s possible, but incredibly difficult. Not “impossible,” but pretty close.

To illustrate this point, the great classical astrologer Ptolemy wrote (in Tetrabiblos 1.2):

If our heavenly observations and measurements were infinitely precise; if the symbolism we assigned to the heavens was infinitely perfect; if our interpretive intellect was infinitely subtle; and if our practical experience was infinitely vast… perhaps then we could predict the affairs of a human individual with 100% accuracy. Anyone who claims it is easier than this overestimates himself and underestimates the complexity of this science.

Wild Claims of Accuracy

Unfortunately, that there are a whole lot of people who “overestimate themselves and underestimate the complexity of the science.” They proclaim that their predictions are 80%, 90%, even 100% accurate.

How pompous and preposterous are these claims?

Think about how many possible answers there are to a relatively common question like, “when will I get married?” There are 12 months in a year, and people are of marriageable age for 20 or more years. So, just to answer this question to the month involves more than 240 possible answers. So, a random guess has about 0.4% chance of being right. If someone could give the correct answer even 1 or 2% of the time, it would represent a 200-400% improvement over guessing! If an astrologer can sustain something like 10% accuracy over a large sample of individuals, that would demonstrate roughly a 2000% better foreknowledge than a common person. Is this not monumentally significant?!

But if you put a sign above your fortune telling booth saying “15% accuracy!” not a whole lot of people are going to sit in front of your crystal ball. They are all headed instead to those with neon signs flashing “100% accuracy.” Before you join the flow of lemmings, consider this: If someone really had 100%, 90%, or even 70% perfect knowledge of the future, all the governments, stock traders, and major corporations of the world would be lined up to pile money at their feet for a mere minute of their advice.

Then what’s the use?

If even the best astrologers are really only 25-50% accurate, what’s the use of astrology?

I have this gadget on my iPhone; it tells me the weather for the next seven days. How often is it accurate? Well, for today’s summary it’s correct maybe 75% of the time. For tomorrow I’d say its about 60% accurate. The accuracy keeps decreasing as you go further into the future, down to maybe 10-20% reliability.

But still, we all look at weather reports quite often. Why? Because even though they aren’t perfect, they’re still useful.

Astrology is just like that. Ptolemy brings this up (in Tetrabiblios 1.2):

The human astrologer cannot be perfect, but that does not change the great worth of this complex science! When the objective is very lofty – as is the objective of astrology – we shouldn’t point out the mistakes but focus on the merits of any progress or success.

The potential gain from even a little foreknowledge or self-knowledge is so great that there is, in fact, great use to seeing a good, honest astrologer.

How to Get an Astrological Reading

A lot of focus has been given to the subject of how to give a good astrological reading, but perhaps it is even more relevant to talk about how to get one. How can you get the most benefit from going to an astrologer?

1. 1.       Find an honest and trustworthy person to be your astrologer.

Enough said.

1. 2.       Realize that a reading involves communication and communication involves two people.

Don’t expect the astrologer to be Merlin the Magician and spell everything out in black and white for you every time. That’s just not possible. Much of what goes on in the process of giving a reading is to apply astrological symbolism to relevant factors in the person’s situation, upbringing, culture, development, etc. There is little point in expecting an astrologer to know the details of such things better than you do. An astrologer surely has to have more access to divination and foreknowledge than you do, but that does not mean he or she has to be a godlike storybook genie. Listen for the astrologer to communicate the essential astrological symbols; listen to their suggested interpretations of those symbols, and then communicate! Make dialog (even if only internally, to yourself). This will allow you to discover clearer, fine and detailed import in what the astrologer sees.

1. 3.       Don’t expect an astrologer to tell you the date and time you last picked your nose.

It’s just not realistic. Try to ask answerable questions. And let the astrologer guide you to answerable versions of your questions.

1. 4.       Figure out what the weird stuff really means.

Inevitably some things in a reading won’t make sense or will sound “wrong.” Personally, I have very substantial faith and experience that the astrological symbols themselves are nearly flawless and perfect. It is the application and interpretation of those symbols that is difficult and prone to error. When you encounter something that just sounds wrong, try to “deconstruct” or “abstract” it back to its original astrological symbolism, and then give another shot at interpreting the symbol in a different way.

Admittedly, you need to have a pretty thorough education in astrological symbols to do that. So either get that education or be sure to find an astrologer who is willing to sit and walk you through it. Avoid astrologers that are “hit and run,” anonymously giving readings or disappearing from the radar entirely until you pay another big fee.

1. 5.       It’s not just the about the present.

Sometimes things an astrologer says won’t make sense in the present tense, so don’t forget about the past and the future.

Remember, it is in your best interest to get a “good reading.” Sure, every astrologer loves to give “great readings” but the person who really benefits is you, not the astrologer. If you follow these guidelines you will be much more likely to get readings that are 70%-100% helpful, useful, and yes, “accurate.”