FREE READINGS - MYTHS AND REALITY

By Lubomir Dimitrov MSc,

Professional Astrologer, Australia

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3                                    

In part 1 of this article we outlined some of the major arguments, raised by the supporters of the so called “free readings” and then we took a brief journey in the history in order to see clearly the differences between the present Age of Aquarius and the completely different social and economic situation in the previous Great Ages. On the basis of this comparison we concluded that in our present Age almost every human activity operates as a business and in this sense its survival greatly depends on its cash flow. Spiritual services essentially make no difference between any other human activities and service providers and as such should also be regarded, operated and run fundamentally as businesses. It is a well known fact that every business depends on the support of its customers and can survive only if enough customers are paying for its services. Therefore we concluded that since in the new Age of Aquarius the need to obtain spiritual services among people will become more and more evident, they have to support those very spiritual services, just the same as they support any other businesses in order to keep them operating, thriving and blooming.

Sometimes, however, we hear the argument that there are many poor people out there that need spiritual services, but simply cannot afford them. It seems logical that in this case we should provide these poor people with free spiritual readings in order to “help” them. However, the truth is that no one can help another if the person for whom this help is intended doesn’t want it. And indeed, very often it is the case that the people on the low income simply do not want spiritual help for various reasons. Partially the reason for it is that these people do not fully understand what spiritual services are all about or simply they are not ready yet to receive this kind of help. In either case the issues should not be forced.

I would like to take the liberty to illustrate this concept with an example of my practice. About a year ago following my successful presentation about astrology in the Psychic Development Association of Australia, I was invited to conduct a similar seminar in front of Homeswest residents, who live compactly in high density blocks of flats. As we all know, Homeswest tenants are considered low income earners and for this reason I decided to make the entry fee just $2, which amount was barely enough to cover my costs for printing out brochures, producing slides, renting an overhead projector and so on. Nearly 600 brochures were printed and distributed among the residents of this place, but on the day of the event nobody actually turned up. One of the organizers of the event, who was also the president of the resident’s committee, was totally bewildered by this 0 % attendance. He could not understand why everybody was constantly complaining that nothing ever happens in this place, but once they were given the opportunity to come for an interesting event as this one, nobody turned up. Later on he was told by some of the tenants that they did not come because $2 was too high a price to pay for an entry ticket.

This example clearly demonstrates that it is not the actual dollar value that we associate with certain spiritual services that matter, but it is a question of priorities and how we arrange them in our heads (consciously or subconsciously) in order of importance. For instance, most of the low income Homeswest tenants were smokers and considered $7 - $8 as a normal price to pay for a packet of cigarettes, but at the same time they were convinced that $2 is too high a price to pay for an astrology seminar. The same thinking pattern applies to the bottle of spirit and all the other “small pleasures of life” that they were addicted to. When people are certain that they do not need spiritual services, then any price seem high.

On the other side, a few months later I organized another astrology seminar, this time in Sheraton Hotel, which is one of the most upmarket venues in Perth. The seminar was presented on a very professional level, including audio and video slides, computer graphics, demonstrating the movements of the planets and digital data projector on a big screen. The price for the entry tickets was not $2, but $45 and nevertheless I had a full room of participants, who turned up promptly for the event.

From these examples we can conclude that when people are consciously or subconsciously convinced that spiritual services are at the bottom of their priority list that any price seems high, but when they have spiritual services at the top of their priority list then any price seem low. It follows that it is not the spiritual workers who should provide their services for free to the public (because this is a fiction and cannot be provided professionally in real life), but the public should get their priorities right and position their spiritual needs on the top of their priorities list . And we can see that this trend becomes more and more obvious in recent times.

For example, let’s leave for a minute the very low income earners and turn our attention to the middle class Australians. A lot of these people indulge themselves in a ritual, which is called “going out on a weekend”. Normally middle class Australians go out at least once a week with their boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, family, friends or whatever the case may be. A lot of these people have established the need for themselves to go out, because this is their way to unwind, relax, have a few drinks, enjoy a nice conversation and simply have a good time. Normally, people go out to have dinner in one place or another. It is a common knowledge that spending anything between $40 and $60 per person in a restaurant is quite acceptable. Nobody believes and expects to receive any lunch or dinner for free, right?

Everybody understands that in order to enjoy a nice meal in the restaurant, the owner has to make substantial expenses before our dinner is put on the table. He has to pay rent for the place, has to purchase tables and chairs, has to equip the kitchen etc. He also has to prepare the menus, has to hire a chef and waiters, has to buy products from the market, has to cook them, serve them, wash the dishes and at the end he has to declare all his income and pay tax on it. Thus, we understand that from the $60 we pay for our meal, probably as much as $50 goes towards the expenses, while only $10 remains as profit. While most people understand this concept quite well, they still have difficulties when it comes to spiritual services, although the principle is in actual fact the same.

In order that let’s say a natal astrological chart is produced, the astrologer first has to acquire the skills to interpret the chart correctly. We are talking about many years of preparation, during which time thousands of hours and thousands of dollars are spend for education, study, practice etc. Then, similarly to the owner of the restaurant the astrologer has to pay rent for the office, equip the place suitably, purchase computers, printers, professional astrology software, consumables, and so on. Then in order to promote the business and to advertise new services or seminars, thousands of dollars has to be spent on adverts in magazines, newspapers, radio and so on. The list is endless. At the end, tax is deducted from any profit that is made, which effectively leaves the profit margin not too far away from what we calculated for the owner of the restaurant.

The difference, however, is that while most people have established for themselves the need to attend restaurants every week or so, they still do believe that it is not really necessary for them to read their astrology chart or use any other spiritual services. And while this may hold true for some people, in fact nothing can be further away from the truth for the large majority of people. The point is that the new Age of Aquarius simply demands from us to become more spiritual. This call of the times is absolutely evident in every area of our lives. It is necessary to look just 20 years back in time to see what people’s attitude towards astrology and all the other spiritual services was back then and what it is today, to be convinced that there is a huge difference. And this is just the beginning of a process, which will gain momentum much more in the very near future. If people 20 years ago had to hide from the public eye before consulting an astrologer, today they consult him openly on a more or less infrequent basis, when they strongly feel the necessity to do so, but in the near future they will consult their personal horoscopes on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis in order to plan their time scientifically and to reduce the wasted “swimming against the tide” energy to zero. People will learn how to ride on the top of the planetary tides in order to obtain the best results in their lives, according to their major life goals, which are clearly outlined in their personal, natal charts. People will not get married, have children, purchase houses, move locations and so on before scientifically consulting the stars about the feasibility of such moves.

Once again, this does not mean that astrology and the other spiritual sciences are going to deny the people their free will, but it will provide people with the tools to make informative and wise decisions about their future. It will tell them where they can expect to end up if they make one choice or another. It will tell them what their strongest points are and what their weak spots are, so that they can work on them and improve. It will inform them about what is the best time to take action and when is the time to simply cool off, ruminate about the past and sensibly plan the future.

The number of people that are convinced today that they really need astrology and the other spiritual sciences as a valuable tool in order to live successfully their lives is growing rapidly. In due course people simply will know that they need this knowledge and simply can’t do without it. The very few who decide to remain ignorant about the powerful planetary forces that shape their lives will realize very soon that they simply cannot afford to remain unaware about these forces because this will cost them too much wasted effort and energy. Sometimes such unawareness will lead them to wasting their whole life, which is too high a price to pay in order to remain blissfully ignorant.

Astrology and the other spiritual sciences can easily reveal to people what are their major life goals and tasks. Some people who have their list of priorities reversed spend thousands of dollars for restaurants and going out for example (as mentioned above). At the same time these people consider just a small fraction of the money they spend for transient pleasures too high a price to pay let’s say for an astrology report. If they could only understand the real value of the priceless information that such report contains about what their real life purpose is, for example, they would quickly change their minds. But if they decide to remain stuck to having their “pleasures” at the top of their priority list, the result is often a waisted life. What these individuals do not know is that once they have missed the chance to fulfil their real life purpose they have to start everything all over again in their next life, this time, however, at much more miserable circumstances. The waste of time is one of the “spiritual crimes” which is karmically punished most severely.

In the future most people will be aware of these spiritual truths and will employ astrology to navigate through their lives wisely and intelligently just like the navigator of the ship is using the compass and the other apparatus on board in order to arrive at his destination. And whoever states that astrology is denying the people free will and choice in life is in the position of a fool who states that it is the compass that is ruling the direction of the ship and not the navigator that is using it!

In this article we established that in our present Age of Aquarius the need of employing astrology and other spiritual services is becoming vital, while in the near future it will simply become an integral part of everyday life. In the final third part of this article we will learn how to delineate between the real spiritual workers and the false prophets that are already flooding the spiritual market.

Go to the final part 3

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