Wednesday 24 December 2014

Star Sign Columnist?

I know, I know. . .what the hell has gotten into me.
Well, with a stellium of planets in my solar 7th house, I'm feeling provoked. And challenged. Like many other astrologers, I had taken the secret "I'm never going to be hungry enough to write a star sign column" oath wa-a-a-a-a-ay back when I first became an astrologer. I did this mainly because I realised how pointless they were very early on: I could never identify with my own star sign (Cancer) but could (and still do) resonate with my Moon in Leo (yeah I know Cancer rules the Moon). So this new stance is a big step for me. I'm not saying star signs are right (yet) but I now realise perhaps I'm being very unfair when I say how useless they are when I've never even tried to write a column. I have always understood that star sign columns take a lot of discipline to get out there every day but that has only just led to me asking 'why waste the time and energy?' and declaring 'I didn't study all those years with the FAS to churn out rubbish.'. But okay, I'll do this challenge just to see if anything changes. As it's taken me just over an hour to finish one day's horoscope, I'm already starting to question my sanity. Do I have the time to do this every day? Do I want to do it?
Well the answer to both questions is a Great Goddess Almighty 'NO'! But having already been congratulated by the Astrological Association's new Journal editor (Victor Olliver) for doing this challenge and assured by my buddy Jessica Adams that star signs are not only acceptable but needed for the astrology business, I want to give it a shot. I need business, right? (Actually I don't but how can a few more clients or book buying customers hurt?).
I am guilty of very often not giving my craft its fair due time and attention: I just went through a period of nearly 6 months with only about 10 entries of my blog (albeit some mighty fine writing went in there). Forcing myself to write (well post as I intend to bank a few days of writing in advance) a star sign column will certainly make me pick up an ephemeris a bit more often. And I kinda like the idea of being obligated to writing 600 or so words every day. I did "National Write a Novel In A Month" month four years running, right?
So here's how it's going to work:
  1. I'm going to post a daily horoscope column from today to the Spring Equinox. I will post the next day's column the night before.
  2. I am going to measure how many more people come to my Facebook page/re-tweet, share my blog, visit my website, buy my book, commit to my classes or arrange for consultations because of the daily horoscope column.
  3. I will keep a separate journal of my feelings as I write the column. 
  4. At the end of this experiment, I will post the difference in website traffic/business between now and 20 March 2015 (the spring equinox) as well as whether or not my feelings towards star signs have changed.
  5. Publicly (after this post), I will be positive towards this challenge. If Victor wants to publish the excerpts of my journal and the results as set out above when it's all done, it will be up to him.
  6. I have done a few little things like adding a pop up to my website and will add my own advertisement after every entry. I might change this as I get a little more au faux with such things as we go along.
  7. I will be receptive to any sensible advice I get along the way.
Just for a chuckle, I include the transits for my chart below.

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