Astrology Explored

November 22, 2008

Last year a good friend sent to me a link to a “free personal reading” generated by Internet contact asking me my opinion. Here is an except of that “reading”:

I’ve received all the information you sent through to me on the (date my friend visited the website), I can see that you’ve visited my website and I want to thank you very much for that. You may be wondering why I’m writing to you again so soon, well it’s because I have just finished your Astrological Reading and I have discovered that your immediate Future is very interesting - the Astral Bodies are very explicit about your Destiny! I can very clearly see that not only you are soon to live through an event of great astrological importance but also that you will be blessed with a period of chance and opportunity.

I am very lucky to have powerful psychic skills, which I was born with, and I have worked hard to develop these skills. I’ve also studied the Stars for over a dozen years now and I have to say that it is VERY RARE that I have such a strong feeling about someone so early on! I felt such a powerful jolt (as I felt for you Donna) when consulting your details for the first time. I immediately sensed that a strong psychic connection was forged between us when we first entered into contact and I now know why this connection was so strong. You are quite simply on the threshold of a very, very important period in your life and you may have already felt these changes.

It was lengthier, of course, but there was no actual reading. It was a sales pitch for the full report and pretty powerful one too. My friend was promised a full reading upon coughing up the full fee. Should she, she asked, pay for this reading?

Today, I ran across another astrological marketing piece and its pitch went like this:

The ancient science of astrology can help… In fact, it has helped predict a couple’s lifelong compatibility for thousands of years.

But you must be careful, because most astrology resources are dangerously wrong.

It doesn’t take an astrologer to tell you that finding out if he’s the “right man” for you is easier than you think!

This system ISN’T based on misleading information from comparing Sun signs, or mere “planet to planet” techniques.

It INCLUDES the specific, CRUCIAL information about birth place and time of day.
And it’s rooted in Vedic astrology – the ONLY system of astrology that has a compatibility technique that reveals how you and a man will actually FEEL in a relationship.

And the best part is, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, an astrologer no longer needs to meticulously calculate your horoscope by hand (which, believe me, used to take astrologers hours and hours, causing them to easily make tons of mistakes…).

Now a computer program can do the calculating in a matter of minutes.

The piece also alluded to the “hundreds of dollars” you can spend with a professional astrologer. Oh my! I wish I made “hundreds of dollars” doing readings. I could quit my day job. But I am quite afraid that for most general practitioners of astrology the market will only bear a fee quite a bit less than that.

And as an aside, I laughed at this: “an astrologer no longer needs to meticulously calculate your horoscope by hand (which, believe me, used to take astrologers hours and hours, causing them to easily make tons of mistakes…)” In my hand drawing chart days, it would take me about a half an hour to calculate a chart, but that was years ago. Astrologers have computers now too.

There is nothing wrong with computer-generated reports, if you take them for what they are. They are, however, no substitute for a reading with a live astrologer.

Let’s not confuse sales technique with astrology. Here is what I wrote back to my friend:

“It sounds like a canned report. It is specific in that it uses your birth information. It would lack the synthesizing ability that only a human can provide.

That she claims to have sensed something about you. From an astrologer’s point of view is quite nonsensical. A competent astrologer knows you from the chart. She is appealing in her sales pitch to the consumer’s need for a “mystical” connection. Unfortunately, many consumers prefer the perception that the astrologer has some sort of oracular gift that validates the astrologer’s statements.

I’m not saying not to buy it. You might like it. You asked for my opinion though.”

In any case, both of these are examples of hokey marketing techniques preying on the lack of knowledge about astrology possessed by most people. Consider the techniques:

1.) Claiming a “mystical connection” to the client.
2.) Offering as bait, but not revealing, urgent “special knowledge” of the future.
3.) Making exaggerated claims about securing your health, wealth and happiness.
4.) Claiming other astrological techniques “are dangerously wrong” or “misleading.”
5.) There is only one technique, theirs, that will get you the information you are looking
for.
6.) Alluding, quite incorrectly, that professional help from a human being would be too
expensive.

If you want to buy, go right ahead, if you can afford to part with the cash. Just don’t be swayed by marketing techniques that play upon your curiosity, or fear of the future. It is my opinion that using techniques like this tarnish the value of astrology to the average person.

As for my friend, she decided not to buy the report. I gave her a free reading on this site instead.

For computer generated reports, I Village seem to have some very nice ones. Though brief, I liked how the sample personality profile I received focused on things other than my Sun sign.

Open Forum: Have you ever bought a report over the Internet? What did you think of it? Did it live up to its marketing? Was it worth the price?

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