Birth data, and the hoarding/sharing thereof

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I recently emailed an elderly astrologer who published a few books back in the 80s, seeking birth data for a half-dozen or so significant – and now deceased – figures in the history of a healing modality which he has written a little about (and who I know, via his writings, knew one of these individuals personally back in the 70s).

He wrote back saying "I do have birth date" (not clear if that was a typo, and meant "data," or if he only has the dates) for four of the persons requested. He also asked who I was and why I was interested in this information.

I replied courteously, expressing delight at his indeed being in possession of such data, and added that – although not involved in the astrological community in any way, and mostly involved with other interests/activities these days – I am nevertheless curious to look at the charts for these people.

A few days went by without any reply, and then I received in my Inbox his "newsletter," basically some paragraphs describing the current "astrological weather", followed by blurbs promoting his upcoming courses and workshops, along with the following statement: "If you would like to step up and donate toward my newsletter you can do so here". (As if it is incumbent upon one who has been delivered what are basically unasked-for promotional materials to compensate the sender for their selfless generosity.)

I am left with the impression that he is unwilling to provide the data requested unless I make a donation (for a newsletter I did not request and which is not of interest to me). Has anyone here ever experienced anything along these lines??? Surely birth data is one of the few things in this world that is always shared freely when requested?

I replied again, stating that as someone living on a small pension, "it's nice to have something small like this to look forward to! Hopefully, I was not expecting too much by asking", to which he has not replied.

Anyone care to comment on this perplexing experience? Is it somehow "unmannerly", "presumptuous", or simply "wrong" to expect not-personally-known astrologers to give up a few samples of the precious birth data which they hoard in their well-guarded databases? Would anyone here behave in a similar manner when receiving such a request? Kindly enlighten me on your reasons for doing so, and thereby ease my state of utter bewilderment!

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hi eris,

here is what i have learned in life about people....

some are very sharing, generous and giving and some aren't.... and then there is every angle in between that may or may not be cause for exploitation...

i mostly like to see people are generous, giving and caring people...

i never think of sharing data with other astrologers as something i can use as leverage to get money out of them, or whatever.... but i suppose it is possible someone could view it this way....

look at the beautiful site - astrodatabank.. a wealth of information on just what you talk about given freely by lois rodden and continued on by the good folks who continue to maintain and update adb - astrodatabank... so, there is that! all from the kindness of strangers!!!

i would just ask the person and if they can't give a straight answer, i would move on...

cheers
james

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Thank you for replying, james!
james_m wrote:look at the beautiful site - astrodatabank.. a wealth of information on just what you talk about given freely by lois rodden and continued on by the good folks who continue to maintain and update adb - astrodatabank... so, there is that! all from the kindness of strangers!!!
Yes, I guess that's why I was so taken aback by his behaviour: I participate in various internet forums where strangers around the globe gathered together via their common interests go out of their way – incurring vast expenditures of money, time, and labour/energy – to fulfill the wishes of others with similar interests who also participate (most of whom, it must be said, are not in such fortunate positions to be able to themselves afford such excessive expenditures of time, energy, and/or money). All of it without any expectation of personal gain (apart from the knowledge that each individual acting in such a manner contributes to the greater good, and inspires similar behaviour in any other participants who are in a position to contribute in whatever manner). These are people who almost every day commit many hours of their time (driving hours to distant locations, operating photographic or scanning equipment for untold tedious hours...) and, often, money, to helping fulfill others' wishes in any and every way they can.

So... it comes as something of a shock to come across someone who is unwilling to even email a few scraps of data that would take mere moments to transfer from his chart files into a message. I mean, unlike the things referred to above, this is information absolutely without monetary value ...unless one were willing to use sole possession of it to extort "donations" from those few people who might be interested in acquiring it. (It is interesting to note that he did not simply ignore my request, nor reply saying that he did not have any such data, but replied stating whom among those I had mentioned he had the data for, and added other names in the field as well that I had not requested. So it seems clear that he was not entirely unwiling to divulge the State Secrets (he would simply have not replied at all were that the case), but not willing to offer them freely either (since he would simply have sent them along to me after my first or second email to him). What stands between these two possibilities? To my mind, one thing only: conditional willingness to share, the condition in this case undoubtedly being that of a monetary donation.

I will look for the birth dates (which may be all that he has anyway) from other (non-astrological) sources. Apologies for the wall-of-text, and I remain interested in any comments any of you are willing to share on this rather unhappy non-transaction.



edit:typos