Some dimensions of this core principle of professional astrological conduct are too obvious to belabor. If a client shares with you that they have an improper relationship with a rubber duck, don’t post that information on Instagram. If you are a decent counselor of any sort – psychologist, astrologer, or tea-leaf reader – you will go to your grave with more juicy secrets than you can remember. That’s the deal. That’s what you signed up for. Most of your greatest victories, most of your brilliant moments – all are known only to you and one other person, bound for eternity under a seal of confidentiality. If you want applause from an audience larger than one person, try another career.
That’s just a hundred words or so and I could probably have thrown away fifty of them – just keep your mouth shut about any private information that your clients share with you. It’s as simple as that. Everything here is clear as a bell . . . so far.
Some people – and some astrologers – prefer to keep their charts secret. Personally I prefer to be an open book, but that’s just me. God knows, you can learn a lot about a person from his or her birthchart! If someone doesn’t want that to be public information, that’s their business. So, along with personal secrets of the “rubber duck” nature, I also make a policy of never revealing anyone’s time of birth without their explicit permission. (The date and place are often public knowledge, so they’re a moot point.) Even the simple fact that someone has been a client of mine should never become public knowledge unless that person chooses to reveal our relationship. The situation is improving, but in some circles there is still a stigma associated with anyone consulting an astrologer, so once again, that information needs to remain confidential.
There are no surprises or controversies in any of this: just keep mum about the details of a person’s life and birthchart. That’s an obvious ethical imperative. All of that’s easy to understand. What I actually want to explore in this essay are the gray areas. Once we get past what’s clearly right and wrong, the question of confidentiality collides with the real world in some tricky ways. Everything becomes more nuanced.
As with much that happens in life, with questions of confidentiality good astrologers may come to different ethical conclusions. Let me say loudly and clearly that from now on all you read here are nothing but my own opinion – my suggestions, really. My aim is to reflect with you about the nature of right and wrong regarding confidentiality in more ambivalent circumstances. I’m mainly hoping to encourage some thought and some mindfulness, and maybe some dialog in the broader astrological community – and what I mean by that last comment will be clearer when we get to the final point that I want to explore in this essay.
SYNASTRY
A couple asks for astrological support as they work out their relationship. We set up their charts and off we go. This can be one of the most satisfying, straightforward dimensions of our craft – provided that both of the people have given their blessing to the process. What if one of them has not? What if, say, a wife asks you to explain her husband’s chart to her without telling him? Maybe he hates astrology. Maybe he has some religious reservations about it. Can we ethically share our interpretation of one person’s chart with another person without the absent person’s blessing? Is that right or wrong?
My first instinct here is to say no, we shouldn’t do that. I feel that I should have the other person’s approval before I explain their chart to anyone else. Note that this does not require that they “believe in astrology.” They can be dismissive of the whole thing. They can even say,”Go ahead, waste your money.” I have no problem with that. All that I needed to hear was that “go ahead.”
In concrete terms, my only specific requirement is that my client assures me that their partner has given the green light to the process. To ask for a note seems silly – one could easily be faked.
A gray area? Yes indeed – once again, this is simply how I personally have chosen to navigate this particular ethical quagmire.
Let’s have a look at some nuances and some exceptions.
ABUSE
A client is abused or even battered by a partner. Naturally they’re desperate and frightened. They ask me for help. Obviously under those circumstances the main astrological focus should be on their own chart, but in an extreme situation like that I might set up a bi-wheel with my client’s chart in the center and their partner’s planets in the outer wheel without the partner’s permission. What I am looking for is how the abusive partner impacts my client – how his (or her!) Pluto opposes my client’s Moon, for example.
The focus is on understanding that interaspectual impact rather than understanding the nature and motives of the abusing partner.
In setting up that bi-wheel, I’ve edged into ethically-questionable territory in terms of confidentiality, but in this situation that breach seems like the lesser of two evils. If my client needed to ask her abusive partner’s permission for the session, she might face physical harm. It would clearly be wrong for me to put her in that position. And because her position is so dire, I want to pull out all the stops to help and empower her as much as I can. So I skate along the edge of an ethical abyss and I pray that I don’t fall into it.
Again, once we’re beyond the most obvious situations, confidentiality is a nuanced subject fraught with plenty of individual judgment calls.
CHILDREN
Kids, especially younger ones, are always a special case. A baby is born. The parents ask me for a reading of the child’s chart. I’m delighted to do it – and as soon as I open my mouth, I am flagrantly waiving the child’s right to confidentiality. Is that wrong? I don’t think so, but I’d be willing to take someone seriously who argued in the opposite direction. Children are human too. One could make a case that they have the same rights as any adult.
As the man said two thousand years ago, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I wish my own parents had had the benefit of an understanding of my chart when they were raising me. That would have helped us all. Personally, I think the good that comes from parents understanding the specific needs and karmic situation of their child outweighs any issues of the kid’s right to confidentiality. Every culture and every legal system that has ever existed grasps the need to treat children differently than adults. To me, the “bad” of violating a child’s natural right to confidentiality is outweighed by the good of supporting the parents – and the child – by providing astrological perspective.
Maybe you feel differently? Other perspectives are of course possible.
What about teenagers? We’ve all been “them,” languishing in that twilight zone between childhood and adult life. Should we respect their confidentiality or share our understanding of their charts with their parents – with or without their permission?
Again I go back to “do unto others.” When I was, say, fourteen years old, how would I have felt about my parents “knowing my secrets?” Some stranger whom I did not know is talking about me to them behind my back? Forget about it! As a teen, I probably would not have wanted that, so for that reason I personally feel that I have no right to impose that violation on a teenager.
Still, with a very troubled teen – for example, one with suicidal ideation – I’d probably make an exception. Nuances, nuances, nuances . . .
Generally starting around the age of puberty I avoid reading kids’ charts until they are old enough to absorb the work directly themselves. That “black out period” is not very long. I’ve had many fine astrological experiences sitting with bright, motivated sixteen year olds. In those sessions, there’s something sweet and intimate about us both understanding that everything we say is our secret – usually including a few private giggles about their parents.
All my work is recorded, so later on teens can share it – or not – with their parents. That’s up to them.
THE DEAD
At the other end of life’s trajectory we of course encounter relationships with people who are deceased. A client might come to me troubled by an unresolved relationship with her mother who’s just passed away. Without any hesitation, I would say “show me her chart.” Once more, I’d be the first to admit that this is a judgement call. Someone might fairly criticize me for violating the privacy of the dead. Maybe I am wrong, but I feel that once someone is beyond any harm that this world can do to them that I have an open invitation to help those who are still here as they try to deal with whatever situations such a soul left in his or her wake.
In practice, I’ve not done much of that kind of post mortem astrology, but when I have, it’s been profound. I remember one instance particularly vividly. A woman came to me with pain about her father’s life-long emotional distance from her. She knew he loved her, but he always seemed to be withholding any expression of it. The man had a Cancer south node in the 12th house conjunct Saturn. As we speculated about his karma, we saw him as a celibate monk fasting in a cave somewhere and still scarred today by the wounds inflicted by that extreme austerity and isolation. Immediately the Holy Grail of informed compassion toward her father arose in my client’s heart. Through that astrological insight, she was able to feel more forgiveness towards him. I call that a good day.
Did I violate her father’s confidentiality even though he was currently in the Great Beyond? Yes, clearly so. Am I glad I did? Yes I am. It gave my client real comfort – and I suspect it gave her father some comfort too as he listened in from the Other Side.
CRIME
Client: Steve, I’m planning on murdering my wife. When’s the best time for me to do it? Naturally I’m hoping to get away with it.
Me: Ah, well, I see that next Tuesday after about 3:00 PM, the stars are aligned . . .
Perhaps you sense an ethical lapse here? As with my opening lines about generally not blabbing about our clients’ charts or their secrets, the ethics here are pretty obvious: don’t collude in a crime.
What about reporting one? How does client confidentiality fit into the picture then? I’m using a terribly broad example here – a man planning to murder his wife. If you were an astrologer in that position and felt that the man was serious, should you inform the police? It would be a painful moment fraught with uncertainties, but I think the right answer is yes. You’ve broken confidentiality in a huge way, but in this case higher principles seem to supersede our normal ethical reflexes.
What about a client who mentions cheating on taxes? What about having run a stop sign or been guilty of littering? As we move down the criminal food chain from Murder One to relatively minor peccadillos, you’ll encounter gray areas where all you have is your own judgment and your own conscience.
In a half-century of astrological practice, I am grateful to say that I’ve never had to report anything about a client to the authorities. People have confessed crimes to me, but none so horrendous that I felt obligated to violate the sanctity of the counseling room. Believe it or not, I actually once heard the following lament: “Do you have any idea how much money it costs to bribe the (bleeping) senator from Louisiana?” That really happened – and I’ll go to my grave with the specifics, even though the client who said those words is now deceased.
Am I what a prosecuting attorney might call “an accessory after the fact?” I guess so. Let’s hope I make it over the Mexico line before this essay hits the Internet. I’m optimistic. As I sit here writing these words, it’s only forty-five miles south of me . . .
THE ONE EXCEPTION TO ALL OF THIS . . .
. . . . Or is it? Or should it be? I am talking about the confidentiality of famous people. You can’t go to an astrological conference without some astrologer doing a lecture that uses the chart of a celebrity as an illustration, often going into intimate detail. I do it myself. We all do. And we never ask for permission. Is it right to do that? Is it ethical? Or are we violating the most primal ethical imperatives of any legitimate counselor? The FCEA curriculum, for one obvious example, is full of such charts.
This is one of those questions that the astrological community has collectively agreed to sweep under the carpet.
The temptation to pepper our lectures or even our consultations with sexy references to famous people is ever-present. Go to Astrodatabank on Astro.com and you can get birth information for literally thousands of public figures – none of whom have explicitly given their permission for that information to be used in public. Go to Wikipedia or any other media source, and you can often get lots of salacious detail about their personal lives too – embarrassments and scandals included.
For an astrological teacher, welcome to paradise. From the perspective of astrological education, the benefits of this practice are enormous. Almost anywhere in the Western world, you can invoke “Elvis Presley” and virtually everyone knows who you’re talking about. Add a few moments of research and you’ll know that he basically died on a toilet seat of a drug overdose on August 16,1977 while transiting Neptune was conjunct his Ascendant. A teaching moment? For sure!
Celebrities have become like modern versions of the Greek gods and goddesses. They now function as public property, holding mirrors before us all, like archetypes. Is that the price they have to pay for all the fairy dust in their lives? Maybe. If you need an illustration for sainthood, try Jane Goodall. A tragic beauty? Marilyn Monroe. Geniuses, devils, fools – they’re all there. Today the names of Taylor Swift or Timothee Chalamet create a far deeper human reaction in almost everyone than, say, Arachne or Poseidon. How many people anymore even know that the latter two are characters in Greek mythology?
Can we forgive astrologers for de-humanizing modern celebrities and thus robbing them of the ethical protections we feel that everyone else naturally deserves? Should we feel bad about using them as if they were cartoon illustrations in our lectures, books, and articles for The Mountain Astrologer?
Should I forgive myself for doing it?
Discuss.
One final point. I’ve done astrological work for a lot of famous people, mostly in show business. Once there’s a personal relationship like that, in my mind everything shifts into maximum, inviolable confidentiality. I know that a number of other astrologers are in the same position.
I live in horror of the day when someone asks me a question about the chart of a celebrity for whom I’ve done astrological work and who has not gone public about our relationship. What can I say? If I answer the question, I’ve broken the golden rule of keeping silence about clients. On the other hand, If I explain why I can’t answer, I’ve revealed that the person is a client – another no-no.
What can I do? It’s a moral checkmate. So far, I’ve been lucky enough that the situation has never come up. I can only pray it never does! Like so much of this tricky territory, I have no clear answers – only an instinct to try to do a good job of balancing right and wrong.
And in the end, that’s the essence of my suggestion to you.
