The ancient texts discommend charging for astrological readings. You may get a dakshina for teaching the subject, and the
king may reward you if he chooses to, but you are not supposed to fix a fee. Commerce kills intuition.
A holy lady my mother-in-law used to consult saw the future by gazing into the flame of a lamp. I met her once, a middle-aged lady with a large bindi and long hair let loose. Her visions were uncannily accurate. She never used to charge for sittings. This, in spite of the fact that her husband was only a streetside tea-vendor. After a few years, however, the commercial bug bit her and she started accepting gifts. Grateful people gave her sarees and jewels. After that she began suggesting suitable gifts and later, demanding them. The last I heard was that her predictions lost their accuracy and she lost a lot of believers.
What I recommend is that you learn
astrology yourself. For your primary education, you may choose to visit practicing astros, but it is money well spent. The honest ones will also take time out to discuss theories with you and further your edu. Anybody really into any subject practise it, read about it and discuss it. A totally com type would only be interested in your money. Dot edu or dot org better than dot com. Speaking of the net, which is either a trashbin of infor or a treasure chest depending on the sites you get, it is a good thing to develop your search skills. Only be wary of the info you get. Be like the mythical hansa: discriminate between trash and treasure.
Astrology has a lot of variables; this makes it both fascinating and complicated. Don’t get lost in the wayside, start with chewable bits and use them as stepping stones to bigger concepts. One thing I hate about the ancient texts in astrology is that they are so chaunistic. Guess they had to keep up with those times. For example, if there are evil planets in your third house, the house of siblings, you won’t have brothers, which is a bad thing then. If that house is slightly afflicted, you will have only sisters. Likewise, minor afflictions to your 5th house or its lord will give you only daughters, not sons. Afflictions in your 7th house could make you marry outside your caste. Extremely prejudiced, our ancients. Didn’t believe in equal rights. We need more liberal astros now. Hopefully you will become one.
One insight I had regarding astrology and all these occult –ologies is that they are mere rituals, bridges to the real thing. The rituals followed in a place of worship are designed by holy people of yore to increase the effectiveness of your communication with
divinity. You shouldn’t lose sight of your primary motive, which is communicating with God, when you follow rituals. You may circumambulate the navagraha, and go through other motions prescribed, but don’t forget to pray. The devices used in occult practices should only be to get you communicating with your superconsciousness, your inner self that knows all the answers.
That being so, what is required for a proper astrological session, is the openminded enquirer, the horoscope, and a good astrologer. A good astrologer is one who is free from prejudice, one who practices for the sake of astrology and to serve others. Not from commercial or selfgrandifying motives. When everything is just so, magic will happen and the future will be revealed. I believe in the nonlinearity of time. Your physical and mental self may exist in the 3rd dimension but this bit of you is only the tip of an iceberg. You exist in all dimensions and your real self knows everything. Use any occult device you are comfortable with, let your mind open out to spiritual interference and you will know more. Or just drop everything and meditate. This you can do if you are a highly evolved person who doesn’t require support material. I even suspect that your inner being is mine, and everybody’s. Maybe that divinity is the Divinity behind the universe. May the Force be with you!