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Vicki, the title of my thread and OP refer to two related topics:

1. The strong advice of many traditional astrologers of the past that the astrologer seek spiritual guidance prior to attempting a reading. The deities to whom they prayed varied according to their faith.

2. Whether astrologers today think it is valuable to follow this advice in some fashion. For an atheist, this might be simply clearing her mind of distractions and getting into a quiet space of calm and focus.

"Pray before reading" is just my little twist on the instructions given to spies, that the message is to be burned after reading. Maybe you saw the film "Burn after reading."

I've described my position in my first few posts. Again, I don't take a rigidly sectarian view of God or religion. But I find it helpful to put myself in a frame of mind that includes humility, and a sense of service to the individual. The God to whom I pray briefly obviously doesn't need or demand my petition. I don't kneel. I'm unclear as to how your apparent assumptions about prayer would even factor in. The purpose is to put my mind in a space suitable for "getting under the hood" (or "bonnet" for UK readers) of another human being.

pray before reading.

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Waybread, what my intuition tells me about science is that its purpose is to bring about a harmony between the human race and the music of the cosmos, of Nature.
Quoting an article about German Romanticism (around the late 18th to early ninetieth centuries) on the website Froebel Web -- Tripod.
"Romanticism is the cult of the individual, the inner spark of divinity that links one human being to the larger Truth. In poetry, visual art. and music, artists strove to articulate the personal experience that becomes, in turn, a representative one.The artist assumes the status of a prophet and moral leader, a divinely inspired vehicle through which Nature and the common man find their voices
.......................................................................................
For the Romantic, Nature was, indeed, a constant companion and teacher. She became the stage on which the humann drama was played , the context in which man came to understand its place in the universe, the transforming agent which harmonized the individual soul with what the Transcendentalists would call the Over-Soul. Throughout all of the Romantic literature, music, and art, Nature is a dynamic Presence, a Character who speaks in the language of symbols at once mysterious and anthropomorphic, who engages man in a dialogue with the life=force itself."
This is the background of "Goethian Science" in the Wikipedia article.
The eighteenth century was an eventful one, beginning with a Uranus/Pluto conjunction at the end of Leo in 1710-11. In 1711 the Great Enlightenment began with Voltaire , the great lover of liberty who wwas put in the Bastille for his writings. He was followed a few years later by the Freemasons, Diderot, and the epistemologist David Hume, whose philosophy part empiricism and part "common sense" formed the basts of scientific endeavour.
Then the riposte-- "The Great Awakening", around 1730 to 1745 involving the individualized religious experience which swept the American colonies, England, and Germany,
Then came the Uranus-Pluto square in the 1750's, with the American and French Revolutions , then the Romantic Movement in the 1790s.
But what was even more remarkable was the conjunction of the two Plutoids. Haumea at 4 Sc 49 and Makemake at 4 Sc 10, in 1749, in Goethe's horoscope, Aug 28. The two conjoin his Vesta, the sacred flame which must never be allowed to go out. at 5 Sc 3. The conduction is rare because Haumes's orbital period is 285 years while Makemake's is 310. I discuss these both in my other thread "the Plutoid Sedna and the hear Future of US Corporations" in the Mundane Astrology section.
Some modern scientists are starting to use Goethe's methods (see the article " Goethe, Nature, and Phenomenology" by David Seamon. There are also now scientists who want to reach out in the other direction, and get themselves elected to public office, to stem the anti-science tide, forming a group called STEM the Divide, and that encourages me very much. And also
Goethian science fits right in with astrology.I'll later discuss Goethe's horoscope and its genius aspects.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty

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Hello:

I would say that I'm one of those who prepares my mind in a more secular way - just clearing the mind, breathing deeply and trying to jettison any preconceptions. I'm speaking of horary here - I don't really find myself preparing in this way when I'm reading other charts - maybe I should consider it.

I try to prepare in a couple of other ways too by considering what the querent is asking and how I am going to approach the answer: ie: which houses will be relevant.

Forum member Aglaya speaks of the "question-shaping process" with the client (not that I've had any clients yet) and I think this is a useful way to look at it - getting the background to the question and making sure the question itself is well understood by the astrologer before it is asked (the chart is cast).

I find when I try to bring clarity to these three things: astrologer/question/answer then I feel more confident about my ability to read what the chart is presenting to me. Of course, there always seem to be charts that are obscure in some way and then I think it's time to go back to the querent and clarify some more.
The Moon is opposing Jupiter. Don't get involved, it's their problem. Jim Critchfield

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Good ideas for us all. Thank you!

In this Internet age of the rise of the amateur astrologer, a lot of us don't have paying clients. I've read tons of charts for people, but have never accepted a penny.

But then, "you get what you pay for," eh? :?