Thank you for your interest in the astrological work that I
do.
Initial Consultations and Fees
Please read my "Message to New and Returning Clients Concerning the Length
of my Consultations and my Current Fees."
Follow-up Readings (sessions done after your initial natal chart reading):
I have found that with my style of astrological consulting that the time tends to pass really quickly, and so I usually prefer not to schedule follow-up sessions for any shorter than one hour and 30 minutes. I have made some exceptions to this, but the shortest session I am willing to schedule for is a one hour session. And so my fees for follow-up consultations are as follows:
One hour: $120
One hour and 15 minutes: $150
One hour and 30 minutes: $180
Longer sessions have the same fees as listed above for an initial session. If you want to leave the length of your follow-up consultation flexible, that is fine, and you can send the adjusted payment afterwards.
I do offer one or two sliding-scale slots each month to people with financial need. Please contact me for more information.
Consultation Options: In-Person, Telephone, Skype
I do my consultations in person, by telephone, and now also via Skype. If you have Skype and a reliable broadband service, it is great to be able to go with the Skype video option. Skype can sometimes be unreliable, though, and so if you decide to go with this option, I ask that you be prepared to call me on my telephone landline in case of technology problems. My Skype contact name is matthew.stelzner
My consultations are always recorded, whether we meet in-person at my office here in San Francisco, or if we do it by telephone/ Skype. I will email you after the session with an mp3 file of the recording.
I do over half of my work by telephone/Skype, and I have found that these sessions are generally as effective as meeting at my office (although I certainly enjoy meeting in person whenever it is possible).
If we do a telephone session I will need to receive payment in advance, and I have two payment options.
You can either mail a check to me here at:
Matthew Stelzner
3880 21st St.
San Francisco, CA 94114.
 Or you can pay me with a credit card via PayPal.
Also, if we do a telephone consultation I will ask you to place the call to my office phone at
415-821-7439 and pay for any telephone fees.
If we meet in person, you can pay me when we meet (Or pay in advance with a credit card through Paypal).
What I Will Need From You
Before we meet I ask all of my clients to read an introductory essay by my
teacher Rick Tarnas, An
Introduction to Archetypal Astrological Analysis. This essay will help
to answer any questions you might have about my approach to astrology. It will
also introduce you to the meanings of the ten planets, and will serve as a
helpful reference for you after the consultation when you listen to the tape.
I also ask my clients to fill out a questionnaire, and this will be e-mailed to you automatically when you register for a reading. The questionnaire helps me prepare for the consultation, and will also help focus our time together. It is not something you have to spend a lot of time filling out (an hour should be more than enough time), but it does help to deepen the consultation.
Sometimes people don’t understand why I need a questionnaire. They say, “You’re an astrologer, shouldn’t you be able to tell the answers to these questions by looking at my chart?” While I can certainly understand why someone might ask this, the truth is that astrology is much more complicated than this question implies. I cannot make concrete predictions based on looking at a chart. I can make archetypal predictions, yes, and have a general sense about you from looking at your chart, but concrete specifics are not something I will be able to tell.
Each symbol has a wide range of possibilities (not limitless, but wide) as to how it might manifest in a person’s life. Each symbol has a very positive way it might come through, a positive end of the spectrum, and each symbol also has a shadow side, a dysfunctional end of the spectrum. I cannot tell, just from looking at your chart, where on this spectrum of possibilities you lie. Therefore, I designed my questionnaire to get a sense of how well you are working with the archetypal energies indicated by your chart. In this way, I will be better able to counsel you on how to work toward manifesting the highest potential of each symbol.
It is very important to me that your consultation be grounded in the reality of your life. My hope is that I will be able to offer practical suggestions that might help you live a more fulfilling and balanced life, and towards that end I ask to know a bit about you through the questionnaire process.
Follow-up Readings
Many of my clients do follow-up consultations with me. Sometimes clients will desire to schedule a follow-up reading soon after the initial consultation, if there is a sense that there is significantly more to be explored, or if the person has a strong connection with the way I’m approaching their chart. For other clients, there is a desire to check-in once or twice a year to continue to dialogue about the changing archetypal energies symbolized by the ever-changing transits.
Once we have done an initial reading of your chart, we can do follow-up sessions of any length. Again, follow-up sessions are recorded, and can be done either in person or by telephone. For my follow-up readings I keep a file on each client, so there is no need to provide birth data or to fill out my questionnaire again. Just e-mail me at with a couple of times that can work for you, and I will write back to confirm the appointment. Payment for telephone follow-up sessions can either be made in advance of the appointment, if you know the length of time you will need, or we can leave the length open, and you can send payment after the session.
International Telephone/Skype Consultations
I have done many international telephone consultations, and while they present certain challenges, (time zone differences, financial arrangements, telephone fees) if you are motivated to overcome these challenges we can certainly set something up. The main challenge in the past has been arranging payment. Now that I can receive credit card payment through Paypal, this should be easier. If you cannot do Paypal for some reason, I would need to receive an international bank draft made out to US dollars, in the amount of my fee, in advance of whatever appointment we make. I will also ask that you, as with all of my phone clients, place the call and pay the telephone fees.
Now that I have the Skype option, it should make working with International clients more manageable. If you have Skype and a reliable broadband service, it is great to be able to go with the Skype video option. Skype can sometimes be unreliable, though, and so if you decide to go with this option, I ask that you be prepared to call me on my telephone landline in case of technology problems. My Skype account contact name is matthew.stelzner Please send me a "contact request" in advance of the session, and I will accept the request so we are ready to go.
I recognize that for some potential international clients the combination of my consult fee and the telephone fee may be too large to handle, and in this case I encourage you to find a good local astrologer. But if you really feel called to work with me, I want you to know that it is certainly possible to do so. For those in non-English-speaking countries, it is important that you understand and speak English well enough that we will be able to have a conversation. I regret that I am not fluent in any language besides English.
Types of Work I Don’t Do
- I never do consultations by e-mail, and I do not offer written reports. All of my work is done in dialogue either in person or by telephone.
- In the past I have been asked to simply tape-record my thoughts on a person’s chart as a gift for that person. I do not do this. Again, I only work in dialogue. When I give “gift readings” to people, it is always done in dialogue in the manner described above, either meeting in person or over the telephone.
- I do not discuss the charts of other people besides the client I am working with. In the past I have discussed the charts of third parties, but I no longer feel comfortable with this.
- I only work with adults who are on a psycho-spiritual growth path, and I no longer work with anyone younger than 21 years old.
- In the last couple of years I have simplified my practice and I no longer do relationship readings or readings focused only on using astrology to time events or inner work.
Gift Readings & Gift Certificates
An astrology reading can make an excellent gift. I have done many “gift readings” in the past, and my sense is that people have really appreciated these readings as a special gift. If you are interested in giving a friend or loved one a gift reading, the only thing that I ask is that you be somewhat sure that the person is interested in having a reading, and that they have an open mind about astrology. If you are not sure that the person would be interested in working with me, perhaps have them visit this website and read the intro essay by Tarnas to get a sense for how I work. Once you are reasonably certain the person would be interested in having a reading, have them visit this web site to fill out my forms, read the Tarnas essay, etc. Also, please contact me to give me the person’s name, e-mail, and phone number for my records. Once I receive your check (or payment via Paypal), there is no time limit on when the person can have his gift reading. I keep a file on the gifted readings, and I trust the person will do the session whenever he or she feels the time is right (this could even be a year or more after payment).
Please send a check for $250 for a 2 hour 15 minute session (or for shorter
sessions please see the fees listed above) to Matthew Stelzner, 3880 21st St. San Francisco, CA 94114. (Or pay via Paypal with my email address Matthew@MatthewStelzner.com or through the link above)
I hope to eventually have some kind of electronic gift certificate that will be automatically sent to the person receiving the gift, but this is down the road a bit. For now, I invite you to design your own gift card with my web site address on it. I look forward to working with your loved ones!
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Matthew Stelzner. All rights reserved.
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