Introduction
I am a therapist who has spent a decade helping women in a variety of ways: as founder and president of the Life Crisis Counseling Clinic and of the Flexible Careers Counseling Center, both in Chicago, and both concerned with helping people in the areas of relationships, sexuality, and health; as a sexologist currently studying for a Ph.D. in human sexuality; and as a teacher who has taught people around the world about love and intimacy, self-esteem, assertiveness, awareness, sexuality, and how to use anger and power constructively. I am also a professional astrologer who has studied various astrological approaches, Jungian dream analysis, numerology, palmistry, handwriting analysis, and Tarot cards, all for the purpose of helping my clients and satisfying my own curiosity. I am senior editor of Forum, the International Journal of Human Relations. In this capacity, I receive over fifty thousand letters a year from readers who wish to share their personal lives. I was born in Hungary on April 13, 1944, and was educated abroad and in the United States. I’m a graduate of the University of Chicago, and the mother of two children, a girl and a boy.
Shortly after establishing the Life Crisis Counseling Clinic, I received a phone call from a psychiatrist. He wanted to refer a suicidal patient to me for a psycho-astrological consultation. I accepted the client, but with serious misgivings. After all, it was a grave responsibility, and I would only get one crack. I’ll have to do better than my best, I told myself.
Usually I hold a dialogue with my clients, and each session takes an hour to an hour and a half. Each psycho-astrology client receives a tape of our session and is free to call back at any time. So far, I have never received a single call to tell me I had given the wrong advice, but I have had many telling me the session helped.
This woman came to the session pale, withdrawn, and depressed. Her session took just forty minutes because she was very quiet. To say she said little would be an understatement. I plunged ahead, speaking as clearly and positively as I could, trying to convince her of the conclusion I’d reached by studying her chart: that her crisis period would come to an end within four months. I remember telling her that I felt it was a test of her strength and love of life. I remember describing my belief that crises are actually our greatest learning times, springboards to evolution and happiness if we cope well.
I repeated that I felt her crisis specifically tested her courage. She had somehow, with the help of her subconscious, set herself the task of living without a family or a man to lean on. Mentally, she believed she was independent, but her emotions were resisting. Fear of the future and self-pity were all she seemed to feel.
I remember cautioning her not to expect that the world would help her out, but I stressed that in just four months, if she persisted, there would probably be a great opportunity for a new job and a romance. I told her, too, that nothing was likely to happen if she hid in her room; though the coming opportunities were indicated in her chart, she had the free will to accept or deny them.
Very gently I tried to get her to accept the fact that we are really in charge of our own lives. If we accept the existence and importance of our subconscious, if we listen to our dreams and inner voices, we’ll find a hidden purpose in just about everything that happens to us. There are no coincidences, in my opinion, and her fears and depressions had come to teach her something important; they would pass.
I could not tell if she really listened or if the taped reading would help her. Usually my clients leave me feeling high. The point of my readings has always been to shed new light and bring fresh awareness into a person’s life—past, present, and future. Greater self-knowledge eventually produces greater harmony and better relationships.
I do not “predict the future.” I predict probable patterns of human behavior. I predict the probable effects of current planetary cycles on a person’s life, at the same time stressing free choice and individual responsibility. I engage my clients in a dialogue, reviewing the best possible choices open to them.
In my consultations, as in this book, my aim is to help the client sort out what is best for her. In the above instance staying home might have denied this woman her opportunity. It would have been unproductive behavior, and I pointed this out. I finished the consultation, as I always do, with a practical, tailor-made “how to cope” segment, which is always well received. When this particular client left, however, I was very concerned. For all I knew, she might kill herself the same day. Yet my intuition told me to remain optimistic; I would hear from her again.
About six months later, I began to receive requests for psycho-astrological consultations from a group of women who seemed to know one another. I finally figured out that the initial contact had come from my depressed lady. Apparently she was alive.
Almost a year later, she called me back. I have never forgotten the conversation, which went something like this: “Hi, do you remember me? I came to see you about a year ago. I was awfully depressed.” I told her I not only remembered her but had thought of her often, hoping that the job and romance had come through and had given her the boost to start living again. She then continued:
Everything you said on the tape has come true. When the time came, I forced myself to go out and be in places where I could meet people. I was very skeptical that what you told me would really happen, but when I got a new job offer out of the blue, I decided I might as well go all the way and try the romance department.
Believe it or not, I met a man I am living with now. It’s a good relationship, my job is fine, and I am a new person. I want to thank you, and I want you to know that I carry the tape of that session with me in my purse. I’ve also told many people about you.
I thanked her for letting me know, and I leaned back and closed my eyes. This was clear confirmation of my method. Psycho-astrology, combined with my knowledge of therapy and sexuality, has been helpful even in the hardest cases, even in just one session. Since then, there have been hundreds of instances where the technique has given more meaning and hope to people’s lives.
Let me state my position succinctly. Planets do not rule destiny. People rule their own destinies, and they do so most effectively when cognizant of a universal rhythm.
Through years of experience, I learned to refine psycho-astrology into a unique tool for self-development. Its validity as I use it has been proven to me over and over again. The women in my sessions relaxed quickly when they heard that others with similar charts had also had problems and had overcome them. They learned some new things; they made important choices. They gained more faith in the order of things. They came away more prepared for their own roles, actions, and reactions, and for the events that might befall them. Many began to develop a belief system that relieved prolonged agonizing and helped them to gain detachment from the pettiness of their all-too-human egos.
In the course of our sessions, we concluded that life is not the meaningless, chaotic thing it may seem when one is confused, angry, or depressed. Anger and depression can be confronted, and what’s more, there are ways to build on the knowledge gleaned from such episodes. Life can be seen as a constant challenge and a gift. And life may be one step on a ladder of reincarnation, each step with a purpose of its own, each containing a lesson in love and in relating, each accompanied by struggle. Albert Einstein once said, “God does not play with dice.” It seems he had the same idea of the regularity, purpose, and order of the universe, and of our lives in it.
Perhaps the most important thing to come out of my consultations has been my clients’ perception of the value of change. Most people who came to see me were suffering from aftershock or future shock: a bad love affair, illness, loss, fears of going out, getting a job, having a baby, moving to another city, getting married, getting divorced. Change was always the ogre, or so it seemed.
What underlies most fear of change is ignorance and lack of self-trust. Recognizing this, I shared with my clients some of my own fears and how I had overcome them. I suggested they make a “Risk List” to learn how often they had already taken risks—and succeeded. The Risk List became one of the most popular exercises (see “Taurus Relationships”).
Copyright © 1980 by Judith Bennett
