Retinoid, what follows is kind of a rant. Forgive me.
I read a lot of charts for people on this forum and at Astrodienst. Sometimes people are stuck merely because they want their reality to be different than what it is. Oh, you know: "Why am I 40 and still single?" "When will my money problems clear up?" "When will I get married?"
They want an astrologer to tell them that Mr. Right is just around the corner, and that they will win the big lottery next Tuesday. But actually, you can look at their charts and get a sense of exactly why they are single (afflicted Saturn-ruled 7th house,) or why they have difficulty in managing the money they do have (Saturn in the 2nd squaring Neptune or Pluto.)
I know they don't want to hear this, but my advice to the lovelorn and perpetually broke is generally to "ride the horse in the direction it's going." The lovelorn generally have so much need and energy riding on finding Mr. Right (as they have pre-defined him) that they would drive any ordinary man running for the hills, because the lovelorn have so much need and control issues. The perpetually broke don't need an amulet as much as they need to learn basic principles of personal finance; and that Saturn in the second teaches thrift, budgeting, deferred gratification, saving for one's old age, and not spending money they don't have (which Jupiter or Neptune are all too happy to promote.) A shocking number of people who win the lottery actually end off worse financially than before, because they have no idea how to save and invest money, or how to live within their means.
One difficulty with the LOA is that so often people think that externalities will make them happy. ("If only I were married to Prince Charming, then I would live happily-ever-after." "If only I were rich.....") Why not just be the happiest and best single one knows how to be? Be grateful you're not married to a cheater or an abusive alcoholic, which is who Prince Charming might turn out to be, once the honeymoon is over. Why not appreciate the money one does have? These are attitude shifts that people have some control over. And heaven forbid that such people would put themselves out there on a reputable Internet dating site, join a singles group or read up on personal finance.
Or use the LOA to become a more open and loving person, or someone with sufficient funds to contribute to the local homeless shelter. Use the LOA to drop the sense of entitlement.
I would never deny that some people have serious problems that we cannot just paste a smiley face overtop. Things like injuries, illness, long-term unemployment, addicted children, a jailed spouse, and so on. But what we can do is identify the real problem, and then pare away the disempowering, self-defeating stories we tell ourselves about the issues. Oftentimes we can look laterally, and recognize that a solution awaits us, but that it will take us way out of our comfort zone.
I guess that if an amulet makes somebody feel better, I shouldn't try to deny them that boost. But what concerns me is that an amulet is yet another externality when the real work is probably to be done within.
And the horoscope does give us hints as to how best to do that inner work.
