Coyote Howling at the Moon

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Please Note: I work predominantly with clients who are in America and the western hemisphere, but also with clients in the UK and Europe. If you live in Asia, Australia, or the Pacific Rim countries, the 12-15 hour difference in time zones rules out finding a mutually convenient time to schedule a phone call. As a result, if you live in that part of the world, please seek out a local astrologer to work with.


How do I schedule an initial session?
Send an email to bill@billherbst.com requesting a session.

Click here to send me an email to request a session.

Please be sure to include in your email:

1. your FIRST and LAST NAME (whatever you call yourself)
2. your BIRTH DATA (full date, accurate time, and place of birth)
3. your LOCATION (the Time Zone where you'll be when we talk)
4. the TELEPHONE NUMBER you want me to call (if you're in the U.S.)

I'll email back dates and times when I'm free over the next couple of weeks. Scheduling may take a couple of email exchanges, but we'll find a day and time that works for us both.


What birth information do you need from me?
I require full birth data to do a session. This includes:

  1. DATE of birth (month, day and year)
  2. TIME of birth (local clock time, from a birth certificate or hospital record)
  3. PLACE of birth (city, state and country, with any clarification necessary for me to determine the location)

How important is an accurate time of birth?
Time of birth is critical in real astrology. Birth times that are incorrect by as little as half an hour (or even less) can radically alter the entire meaning of a chart.

DO NOT guess your birth time. And DO NOT trust your parents' memories. Check your birth certificate or call the hospital where you were born and ask for the Records Department (hospitals in America are required by Federal Law to keep all birth times on record, and you have a legal right to your own birth time). While even birth certificates or hospital records are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate, such written records are the best sources we have.

If you cannot obtain an accurate birth time, then astrology is probably not the right system for you. Instead, consult with a practitioner who uses a different symbolic or intuitive method. (For a personal referral to two of my colleagues who are trustworthy, experienced, and reputable professionals using non-astrological techniques, please email me. I will send you their names and contact information.)


How long are your sessions?
Sessions vary in duration. Typically, they're about 90 minutes long. We talk until you've taken in enough or until I've offered all I feel is relevant for a single conversation. Think of the session as a meal. We'll cook and serve food until you're full, but not stuffed. Each session has its own character and content, determined mutually by our interaction. Given the energy-intense focus of attention sessions require from me and the vulnerabilities of my advancing age and physical health, I don't go beyond two hours.


What is the cost of a session?
My astrological sessions are a flat fee of $207.00, regardless of duration.


How do I pay and when?
Immediately after the session, I will email you a Paypal invoice, which allows clients to pay me using a credit or debit card. This method makes payment quick, simple, and easy for us both. You don't need to have a PayPal account, and I like the fact that I never see or have to deal with credit/debit card numbers. Your payment just shows up in my PayPal account. Nice.

I continue to accept payment when necessary by mailed check or cash, but the PayPal invoice method is preferable and safer.

Some individuals and merchants require payment in advance. I understand why, but I've never been comfortable doing that. For me, the work happens first, then I get paid.


Should I send you specific questions before the session?
No, please don't. Any questions you have about specific issues or particular circumstances are correctly part of the session itself. By all means, you should think about what you want to know, and writing down your questions is a great way to prepare, so that you get as much out of your session as possible, but I don't want to have to think about or deal with any of that until the session is actually happening. I do thorough technical preparation for each session, and in the rare event that you want to discuss something my preparation doesn't address, I can access other techniques quickly on the fly.


Do you work in-person or over the phone?
Right now, almost all my sessions with clients are by telephone. In earlier decades most of my sessions were face-to-face. Now it's reversed. That's fine, though, because I'm very comfortable with phone sessions. Working by telephone is easy, efficient, and keeps the sessions focused, with no distractions.


Do I call you?
I call all my clients who are in the U.S., but international clients outside the U.S.
must call me.

If you schedule a session with me and are outside the U.S., I offer four options
for how you may call me. The first is a normal international call to my iPhone.
That can be pricey, however. International clients may also use Skype-to-cell,
which is much cheaper, or either of two very popular iPhone/Android apps —
Facetime or WhatsApp. Both of these apps enable users to make VOIP calls
that are completely free to people around the world. I'm set up for either of those.

Please Note: I don't do video calls. All my sessions are audio-only. Seeing people
on the phone is fine for families and friends, but I don't want to see my clients
while I work with them. All my sensitivities are geared toward conversation —
listening and talking.


Do you record sessions for your clients?
Yes. I record all sessions for clients at no extra charge.

I make a two-way digital recording of our conversation from my cell phone headset. Immediately after the session, I transfer the file to my iMac and convert it to an mp3 format. Then I upload that mp3 file to a private page on my web site. After uploading, you'll get an email from me containing an active link to that page, from which you can access and download the file. This means that you get the recording right after the session, usually within an hour.

The mp3 files are big, roughly 25 megs, but downloading with a broadband connection takes just a couple of minutes. Each client's private page and recording stays up on my web site for about a year after the session, during which you can download your mp3 file again if you lose it (which happens more often than one might think).

Should you lose your downloaded copy of the mp3 session recording file after I remove the page from the web site (generally one year later), it takes me half an hour to repost the recording on my site. As a result, there's a $25 charge for that. So back up your mp3 file!

If you're not computer-savvy and are unfamiliar with downloading procedures or mp3 technology, please find a friend who can help you (as opposed to asking me).

After you download your mp3 recording, you can listen to it on your computer (desktop, laptop, tablet) or smart phone using iTunes or other free mp3 software players, or download it onto any portable mp3 player, such as an iPod.

You can also listen to the recording of your session online, right from my web site, during the year when it's posted on my site.


Is the first session mainly a "natal interpretation"?
No. A "natal interpretation" offered by many astrologers is an in-depth character analysis without reference to any particular time in your life. That may be of interest to astrological students learning the system, but it is less relevant to me and my clients, who almost always bring specific issues of interest and concern that change as we grow and age. Many of our core experiences evolve over time. They carry certain meanings early on in our lives, but different meanings later. Offering perspective on those evolutionary changes to reveal how they fit together over a lifetime is a significant part of what I do with clients.

My technical preparation for every session includes the natal chart and four years of major personal cycle activity: one year before the session, this year, and two years after. I'm concerned mainly with longer-term cycles and changes. With certain clients in specific situations, I may look at shorter-term, day-to-day cycles, but that's relatively rare.

The natal chart provides the basic pattern and meaning of a person's life-journey. Any personal cycle activating at a particular time must be referred back to the natal chart to understand its full implications and possibilities. I do that in every session.

I'm most interested in why you're here, what's important to you, where you are now, and where you're headed. That's what we typically focus on.


What kind of information can I expect in a first session?
What we discuss in any session, whether the first time we talk or the fiftieth, depends on two things: what's happening in your life and what's happening in your chart. You bring the information from your real life, I bring the information from your astrological chart, and together we'll make sense of where you are on your life-path.

Sessions vary dramatically in content, from one client to another, and from one session to the next with a given client. Charts undergo dramatic changes over time, so every encounter is unique.


Are any topics out of bounds in your sessions?
I'm happy to discuss with you the meanings of any life-experience you wish to bring up. That said, two specific arenas tend to be out of bounds for my session work.

1. Health and Illness. While I may discuss certain ramifications (psychologcal and/or philosophical) of physical, mental, or emotional health in your journey through life, I am not a doctor. I do not diagnose nor suggest treatments for illness. My doing so would be both illegal and unethical.

2. Money and finances. I am not a financial consultant. If you wish to discuss the particulars of money in your life, please do so with a competent financial advisor.


Does the session cover everything in my chart?
No. Astrology is a symbolic system that contains literally endless information. No matter how many sessions we did, we could never address "everything" in your chart. In most sessions, I focus on what is most relevant and important now.


If I like working with you, how often do you recommend my having a session?
That's entirely up to you, and depends on numerous factos in your life — time, money, interest level, urgency of circumstances. etc. Some people have one session, and
I never talk to them again. Many others become ongoing clients and return for subsequent sessions. I've known and worked with some of my core clients for decades.

In any given period, I usually have one or two clients with whom I'm working on a more frequent basis — monthly, or even weekly. That's rare, though. For most of my existing clients, a session every year or two seems standard.

My work is not about short-term, day-to-day astrology. I’m interested in the more major shifts of symbolic emphasis and cirumstantial change in my clients’ lives. I tend to focus on chart developments (active cycles) within a particular year or patterns of overlapping multiple cycles that indicate a theme that will unfold over several years.


Is there a minimum age to have a session?
Yes. My work is designed for people who have amassed a certain level of life-experience. Except in extraordinary circumstances, I do sessions only with people who are at least 21 years old.

I sometimes work with children's or adolescents' charts, but mainly for existing clients who are parents and want to better understand their children's lives. Parenting is the hardest job any of us will ever face, and families are a big deal for almost everyone. Knowing the timing and pattern of a child's arrival into personhood (the four birth-moments) can be immensely helpful to a concerned parent.


Will you send me a copy of my natal chart?
After the session, I will email you a PDF file (Adobe Acrobat format) containing the custom graphics I prepare of your chart and major transits. You can view this file on your computer or print it out as hard copy for your records.


Do you sell written reports?
Absolutely NOT. "Written reports" are generally canned (pre-written) textbook interpretations that are then assembled piecemeal into a long document. They may claim to be comprehensive, offering 40-50 pages of written material, but they usually do little to provide an integrated overview of the chart's meaning as a whole. I do not offer written reports.


Do you recommend additional sessions?
If you decide after our initial session that you'd like to work with me further, that's great. Life changes, and each session is different. While initial sessions have a special impact all their own, there is no substitute for deepening knowledge and trust. I much prefer to work with people I know — the longer I know my clients, the better the work becomes. I have many clients I've worked with for more than 20 years, and those enduring relationships make this crazy profession worth doing.

When and how often we have further sessions is entirely up to you. I don't have any particular structure or schedule for work with my ongoing clientele. Instead, I'm more like a coach who is always on the sidelines and is available when you want or need insight or feedback into how the game is going or how you should approach it. Some of my clients consult me once a year, like an annual check-up. Other clients have sessions much more frequently. That is always up to you and the unique needs of your particular life.

Simply email me to request a session whenever you want or need one.



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