How to choose your astrologer, fortune-teller or clairvoyant? What services can they actually offer you? What are the differences between these three approaches? No official and credible organization sanctions the skills of those who make a job of predicting or predicting the future, whose legal status is identical to that of a horse racing columnist. Anyone can call themselves a diviner. All you have to do is screw a plate on your door and make yourself known through advertising. How then to distinguish a charlatan from an honest practitioner? How to be sure not to be scammed?
In France, the number of various diviners is currently estimated at 40,000, of which less than half are listed by the tax authorities. A figure to be compared to the number of doctors (about 50,000), priests (about 30,000) and psychoanalysts (about 4500). The cumulative annual turnover of “seers” is estimated at around 1,300,000 euros (8.5 million heavy francs). It is therefore not only a flourishing market, but also a very important sociological reality, too often underestimated.
Are placed in the catch-all category of “divinatory arts” all sorts of methods and practices, some of which have absolutely nothing to do with divination (bewitchment and disenchantment, returns of affection, witchcraft, sales of pentacles and amulets, white or black magic, dowsing, etc.).
So there remain the astrologers, cartomancers and clairvoyants who constitute the vast majority of “seers”, the last two being clearly more numerous than the first, which would only be around 300 to 500. Between the three, the limits are often blurred: for example, some astrologers also claim to be clairvoyant, others do not hesitate to accompany their horoscopic interpretation with a Tarot reading; some clairvoyants are also fortune-tellers, etc. Finally, there are those who do not mix genres: the “pure”.
What social backgrounds do they come from? The majority of seers and cartomancers come from the female sex, from the working classes and their level of education is very low, but there are also people with a university education among them. The general profile of astrologers is very different. Men are much more numerous there, a majority of them have a high level of education and very often a university education. Why this difference? Probably because, unlike clairvoyance which is a “gift” or cartomancy which essentially appeals to intuition, astrology is a complex knowledge that requires long and difficult years of study before mastering it.
It is estimated that eight to ten million consumers consult astrologers, fortune-tellers and clairvoyants each year. The customers of the diviners are overwhelmingly women of all ages, probably because they are more open to mystery and the irrational than men. These consultants belong to all classes of society.
What are the reasons for using the services of “seers”? The causes are very varied, but four clearly stand out: love, sex, money and power. So divination consumers are just like everyone else. What questions do they ask? They want to know if their emotional life will improve or not, if they will change professions or earn more money. Nothing very extraordinary therefore: just a diffuse anxiety about the future, the need to be reassured about one’s own fate or that of one’s loved ones, and above all that of being listened to, cared for, helped.
In the mind of the uninformed consumer, astrology, cartomancy and clairvoyance merge. These are however extremely different things that only the label “divinatory arts” brings together improperly.
Astrology: Astrology is the knowledge or science that studies the relationship between man and the stars of the solar system. To establish his analyses, diagnoses or prognoses, an astrologer bases himself on the positions of the Moon, the Sun and the planets at the time of the birth of an individual, that is to say on the study of astronomical phenomena. For a serious and competent astrologer, the divinatory character of astrology is secondary: it is above all a question of making his client understand how he works and how he consciously or unconsciously manages his relationships with others. In this sense, most of his intervention resembles that of a psychologist.
It is only in a second time that he can, based on his knowledge of planetary cycles and intercycles, try to predict, not predict, how the situation of his client can evolve given the way he lives the present. The difference between forecasting and prediction is simple: to forecast is to consider probabilities, whereas to predict is to indicate with precision future events.
A good astrologer does not need overdeveloped intuition or gifts “supernatural” to practice his knowledge. It is enough for him to have long and seriously studied his knowledge, to have a good psychological flair, a keen sense of analysis and synthesis, common sense and realism.
Cartomancy-clairvoyance: Putting these two divinatory methods in the same category is a bit reductive, but legitimate insofar as they come out more from intuition than from reason. Certainly, a fortune-teller must learn the meanings of the cards to synthesize their various combinations. Contrary to the assertions of astrologers, based on astronomical realities, the meanings of the cards are pure human creations.
But ultimately, in the relationship with its customers, it is the quality and depth of intuition, sensitivity, “feeling” of the fortune-teller who will be decisive. Without intuition, the Tarot cards are just piles of printed cardboard, and she can only repeat stereotypes that do nothing to help the person who consults her. With a little intuition and psychological flair, she can prove to be a useful advisor. With a lot of intuition (we are then at the borders of clairvoyance), the Tarot is often for her only a support, an object of mediation.
Foresight, when it is real and proven (which is very rare) is a completely different phenomenon. One of the best definitions of clairvoyance was given by surgeon and biologist Alexis Carrell in his book Man, this unknown: “Psychics pick up, without the intervention of the sense organs, the thoughts of other people. They also perceive events more or less distant in space and time. This faculty is exceptional. It is exercised effortlessly and spontaneously. It is simple to those who possess it.” Clairvoyance is therefore in a way a “sixth sense” or a higher form of intuition reserved for the privileged few. An indicator “pure” does not need any support to practice this strange gift which makes it possible to predict future events with precision, even if, to reassure or satisfy his customers, he agrees to use Tarots, a crystal ball or any other object to set up a concrete mediation space with his consultant.
Making the decision to consult an astrologer, a fortune-teller or a clairvoyant means taking risks, and this even though one very often goes through a difficult or painful period of one’s existence (very few people consult out of pure curiosity, or even when everything is going well for them and their loved ones).
The first risk is to fall on an incompetent person at best, a charlatan or a crook at worst. How to avoid these false soothsayers who thrive on the misfortune of others? We will give you some tips to achieve this.
The second risk is to get the wrong address: if your problems are of psychological or relational origin, it is better to contact an astrologer… but this is not systematic. Indeed, there are bad astrologers who will be of no help to you, or even be harmful, and good fortune-tellers or clairvoyants who can play an excellent role as counselors and psychological aids.
The third risk is obviously financial. The average price of a consultation is around 75 euros, for a very variable duration, and can easily go up to double or triple this sum depending on the notoriety, justified or not, of the person you are consulting. Suffice to say that it is not given, and that one may have to spend considerable sums if one is “addict” to divination, or more reasonably if you make many attempts to finally find someone serious and competent
In his editorial in the latest issue of the journal Clairvoyance, Jacques Mandorla, who has conducted numerous in-depth investigations in the field, gives ten tips (sentences in italics) to avoid being scammed. We make them our own, but by qualifying them and developing them. Here are, according to him, the characteristics of a good practitioner of astrology, cartomancy or clairvoyance:
▶ 1) “He does not need to advertise in magazines or be present at trade fairs: word of mouth is his best calling card.” In principle and in the ideal, but in reality a little less simple. A good professional may need, during his first years, to make himself known to his future clients through advertising and by attending specialized fairs. Once his gifts or knowledge are recognized, word of mouth fully fulfills his function. The problem then arises for the consumer of distinguishing his advertisements from those of charlatans. Good advice: the more it presents itself in a sober, discreet way, without wonderful promises, the more likely you are to hit the right number.
▶ 2) “He receives few customers each day, otherwise he does chain divination, not personalized.” That is absolutely correct. A serious consultation and truly personalized requires great listening and strong concentration, which is very exhausting nervously. This is even more true in the case of astrologers, whose consultations can last up to three hours and who have often studied the charts of their clients at length before receiving them. In the case of real visionaries, it has been proven that their “gift” eventually wears out from wasting it. Beware of overcrowded waiting rooms.
▶ 3) “He must accept that you record the session on a tape recorder, which will allow you to later check the validity or inaccuracy of his predictions.” We will even go further: if he refuses this recording (to do so, some take the pretext of “waves” of these devices that would interfere with their “donations”), you must be very suspicious. The recording has another utility: that of not having astrologers, fortune-tellers and clairvoyants say what they did not say and of having material proof of this: very many customers literally hear something other than what that we communicate to them.
In the particular case of astrology, registration is absolutely essential. Indeed, most of the interviews are very intense, very emotionally charged, and it is only by listening to it again at home, at least two weeks later and comfortably seated in an armchair, that the client can usefully analyze the dialogue he had with the astrologer.
▶ 4) “If he doesn’t ‘feel’ anything during your first contact, he must admit it to you and stop the session, without charging you.” This is especially true for fortune-tellers and clairvoyants. Intuition and the gift of clairvoyance are intermittent, and are also dependent on the relationship of sympathy or antipathy that is established with the client. There are times when the best clairvoyants do not see anything, either because their “gift” is temporarily suspended, or because contact is not established with the consultant. But it is also true for astrologers: appointments are often made a long time in advance, and it can happen that an astrologer does not feel in his plate that day, and therefore not available for an interview. If this is the case, it must be adjourned and made a new appointment…
▶ 5) “He agrees to provide his interpretations without you having spoken beforehand, otherwise you risk, without realizing it, providing him with personal information that he will then ‘refill’ for you!” This is true for fortune-tellers and clairvoyants, false for astrologers. In principle, the first two read directly into your present and your future. You must therefore reveal absolutely nothing to them about yourself and your situation. In the case of astrology, it is the reverse. An astrological consultation is an egalitarian dialogue between an astrologer who knows, thanks to your chart, the main lines of your psychological functioning and, thanks to his knowledge of the planetary cycles, the development deadlines that you will be confronted with, but who knows nothing of your experience and of your concrete problems, and a consultant who must inform the astrologer of his experience and his problems. It is by synthesizing the information he knows and that which you give him that he can enlighten you usefully. But again, you have to be on your guard. The best thing is to ask him to describe to you in broad strokes the main components of your personality, if he does not do it himself from the start, to judge his skills. If you think he was right, then you can confide in him with confidence.
▶ 6) “It should give you enough details about your past that you can easily verify.” Same comment as before. A true seer sees into the past, the present, and the future. Note that the details of your present and your past must be extremely precise. It is easy to back-state, for example: “There was a brown man in your childhood” or “Someone close to you died during your teenage years”, that “Around five years old, you lived in a blue room by a river” or “Your little sister had a very serious illness around the age of seven”. The first two propositions are vague and can be true for almost anyone; on the other hand, if the two second propositions turn out to be real, you can have good confidence in the clairvoyant’s abilities.
A real astrologer, he must necessarily ask you to give him information about your past, information that he ignores, since the past of an individual is not in his Chart, but in his experience. It is only by being informed of the education you have received, the relationships you have had with your parents, loved ones and educators that he can really help you solve your problems.
▶ 7) “He must not ‘blacken the picture’ of what will happen to you, by sinking into catastrophism, otherwise it is likened to an attempt at destabilization which can then lead to the risk of disenchantment… where the scam is queen!” This is true for everyone, astrologers, fortune-tellers and clairvoyants alike… but the reality is more complex. Some pseudo-diviners actually darken the picture for one purpose: to establish power over you by frightening you and offering you various remedies, always expensive, to allow you to escape a fatal fate that exists only in their imagination. crooks. Others, just as harmful, do so not out of greed, but out of paranoia: they are deranged and sick minds. But what should a real seer do when he foresees an avalanche of various disasters (ruin, illness, death, etc.) which will inevitably fall on his client? If he does not inform him, he does not render the service for which he is consulted and paid. And if he informs him, he can lead him to an abominable despair whose irruption could have waited… What to do then? Oncologists encounter the same dramatic problems when they have to announce to their patients the prognosis of a disease that can be quickly fatal: should it be announced or not? Does the patient want to know or not? It is very difficult to solve these kinds of problems. This is where everyone’s ethics and sense of humanity ultimately come into play.
▶ 8) “He must favor direct contact and not offer you a consultation by correspondence or by telephone.” TRUE. Nothing can replace, fundamentally, the face-to-face experience between two living beings to which is reduced, in the end, the consultant-consulted relationship during which an exchange takes place that goes well beyond this relationship.
But then again, it’s not all that simple. Some people cannot travel for various reasons: why would they be deprived of contact with a divination specialist? Here again, we can distinguish clairvoyance and astrology. As far as clairvoyants are concerned, we have already said it: the phenomenon of clairvoyance is to a large extent dependent on the empathy between consultant and consulted.
From this perspective, the distant, emaciated, even artificial nature of clairvoyance by telephone, which is moreover too often purely commercial, can be criticized. But there would be seers called “auditory”. For them, clairvoyance would only be triggered through the sounds they perceive, therefore the voice of those who consult them. In their case, it would be legitimate to consult by telephone. But then, how not to confuse them with the “clairvoyance offices”, real commercial companies employing mostly blind temporary workers to answer the chain to the calls they receive? There is nothing to answer this question. Be careful and circumspect, that’s all.
Correspondence consultations pose another kind of problem. In the field of clairvoyance, most of those who offer this kind of service to their clients generally ask them their date of birth, and very rarely their place and time. In other words, these so-called clairvoyants use cheap astrology for their petty dealings. In the field of astrology, it is different: it is possible — even if it is not desirable — to consult by correspondence. But you should know that an astrological consultation by correspondence is infinitely more fixed and less rich than a live meeting with an astrologer. Moreover, many unscrupulous astrologers use the same fraudulent methods as pseudo-psychics.
▶ 9) “It must help you to always be positive in difficult situations.” Here again, our friend Jacques Mandorla is right. No doubt we touch here on one of the most complex, subtle and ambiguous aspects of the consultant-consulted relationship. It is indeed rare that those who consult astrologers, fortune-tellers and clairvoyants come only to seek glimmers on the future. In most cases, living through a painful and difficult period, they are also looking for a relationship of help, advice and support.
Is the future ineluctable, inscribed in the “book of fate”, as the seers suggest? In this case, if they reveal it to their customers, they have only one solution to be both consistent and “human”: to help them face the trials that await them, which requires very great human and spiritual qualities. For a pure astrologer, this kind of problem does not arise: it is obvious to him that he must be part of a relationship of help and accompaniment since for him the attitude vis-à-vis the present can influence the future.
▶ 10) “Finally, he must not promise you miracles, reserved rather for Lourdes or Fatima.” It seems quite obvious. Astrologers, fortune-tellers and clairvoyants who are also sellers of miracle recipes, perlimpinpin powders, charms, pentacles and amulets are theoretically crooks and charlatans. But again, the reality is more complex. To take just one example, let’s take the case of those who believe or claim to be “bewitched”. Are they or are they not? Objectively, it does not matter: as soon as they are intimately and personally convinced of it, they are, and only sincere rites of unbewitchment, which can be carried out by people who do not believe in the objective reality of the phenomenon of bewitchment, will allow, in all cases where it is not a question of deep psychosis, to feel “disenchanted”. Reality is teeming with such paradoxes.
Article published in issue No. 1 of the Astrologie naturelle (December 1997).
▶ L’astrologie peut-elle prévoir l’avenir ?
▶ Astrology-tarots-clairvoyance: predicting or forecasting the future?
▶ Astrology and clairvoyance: the difference
▶ Astromancie et astrologie : un malentendu paradoxal
▶ Choose your “seer”
▶ How to choose one’s astrologer?
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par
620 pages. Illustrations en couleur.
La décision de ne traiter dans ce livre que des significations planétaires ne repose pas sur une sous-estimation du rôle des Signes du zodiaque et des Maisons. Le traditionnel trio Planètes-Zodiaque-Maisons est en effet l’expression d’une structure qui classe ces trois plans selon leur ordre de préséance et dans ce triptyque hiérarchisé, les Planètes occupent le premier rang.
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La deuxième partie est consacrée, d’une part à une présentation critique des fondements traditionnels des significations planétaires, d’autre part à une présentation des rapports entre signaux et symboles, astrologie et psychologie. Enfin, la troisième partie présente brièvement les racines astrométriques des significations planétaires… et propose une voie de sortie de l’astrologie pour accéder à une plus vaste dimension noologique et spirituelle qui la prolonge et la contient.
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par
117 pages. Illustrations en couleur.
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Ce livre récapitule et analyse en détail le pourquoi et le comment de cette incroyable et irrationnelle décision contestée par de très nombreux astronomes de premier plan. Quelles sont les effets de cette “nanification” de Pluton sur son statut astrologique ? Faut-il remettre en question son influence et ses significations astro-psychologiques qui semblaient avérées depuis sa découverte en 1930 ? Les “plutoniens” ont-ils cessé d’exister depuis cette décision charlatanesque ? Ce livre pose également le problème des astres transplutoniens nouvellement découverts. Quel statut astrologique et quelles influences et significations précises leur accorder ?
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