STARS, WOMAN, SEX. Judith Bennet

Dedicated to Z., whose love, understanding and support helped write this book, and to my patient children, Anina and Niki, who fill my life with joy and from whom I learned a lot.
To my good friend Gerald Bourne, whose wise advice I greatly respect.
Preface.
Оригинал рукописи этой книги стал прощальным подарком Judith Bennetт ее друзьям и тем многим женщинам, которых она консультировала по вопросам психотерапии. Judith tragically died in a plane explosion over O'Hare Airport in 1980 when she was scheduled to go on a sixth trip organized to educate the public about the book before it was published. A group of close friends and colleagues came together and completed the editing of the book from Judith's notes, as well as putting together all the parts of the manuscript and preparing it for publication.
This book was first published in the United States of America in 1980. It has since been published in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, and has been translated for publication in France, Spain, Holland, Italy, Japan, and many countries in South America. Record sales of the book in the United States over the past two decades have accelerated the reprint of this book.
Stars, Woman, Sex is the key to women's personal and sexual freedom. However, the world of intimate relationships has expanded enormously since 1980, making it necessary to include health and safety issues that did not exist at the time of the first edition of the book. In keeping with the spirit of freedom and personal choice when it comes to female sexuality, the publication also addresses the issues of intimacy in relationships that women face today.
Сила книги Judith Bennetт «Звезды, женщина, секс» не ослабевает в наши дни благодаря своей ясности, глубоким догадкам и очевидной интеллигентности. We hope that today, having entered a new century and a new millennium, readers will find in this book everything they need to understand their own strength and freedom of choice.

INTRODUCTION
I am a psychotherapist and have worked with women for ten years, helping them in a variety of ways: as the founder and president of the Life Crisis Counseling Clinic and the Career Maneuvering Counseling Center. Both institutions are located in Chicago and designed to help people in the areas of relationships, sexuality and health. As a sexologist, I am currently working on a PhD on human sexuality, and as a teacher who explains to people what the meaning of love and intimacy is, how to increase self-esteem, assertiveness, self-knowledge, sexuality, how to use anger and power constructively. I am also a professional astrologer and have studied various astrological approaches, Jungian dream analysis, numerology, palmistry, handwriting analysis and tarot cards, all with the aim of helping clients and satisfying my own curiosity. I am the editor-in-chief of Forum magazine, an international periodical dedicated to human relations issues. In this capacity, I receive more than fifty thousand letters a year from readers who would like to share their personal problems with me.

I was born in Hungary on April 13, 1944, and educated abroad and in the United States. I graduated from the University of Chicago, the mother of two children, a girl and a boy.

Shortly after the founding of the Life Crisis Counseling Clinic, I received a phone call from a psychiatrist. He wanted to refer a suicidal patient to me for psychoastrological counseling. I agreed to see the patient, but expressed serious misgivings. After all, it was a big responsibility, so I was only going to make one attempt. I'll have to do more than I can, I told myself.

As a rule, I conduct a dialogue with patients, and the conversation lasts from an hour to an hour and a half. Each psychoastrological patient receives a tape recording of the conversation and is free to call me at any time. Until now, I have never received a call to say that I gave bad advice, but many said that the conversation helped them a lot.

Pale, detached from everything, depressed woman. The conversation with her took only forty minutes, because she had been sitting very still all this time. To say that the woman spoke little would be a gross exaggeration. I rushed into the fight, trying to speak as clearly and positively as I could. I sought to convince her of the correctness of the conclusion I had drawn from her chart: the period of crisis would end within four months. I remember telling her that I considered her situation a test of her strength and love of life. I remember I expressed to her my conviction that the crisis is indeed the greatest time for learning, the springboard to evolution and happiness, if we manage to cope with it adequately.

I repeated that I considered the crisis a special test of her courage. Somehow, with the help of her subconscious, she set herself the task of living without a family and without a man on whom she could lean. She herself believed in her independence, but her emotions protested. Fear of the future and self-pity were all she seemed to feel.

I remember I предупреждала, что ей не следует ожидать помощи от окружающего мира, но подчеркивала, что всего через четыре месяца, если она будет достаточно настойчива, у нее появится великолепная возможность получить новую работу и затем завести роман. I also told her that it was unlikely that anything would happen if she locked herself in her room: although she had opportunities on her chart, she had free will to accept them or refuse them.

Very gently, I tried to persuade her to accept the fact that we are all in charge of our own lives. If we agree with the existence and importance of our subconscious, if we listen to dreams and inner voices, we will find the hidden purpose of almost everything that happens to us. In my opinion, there are no coincidences, and all her fears and depression appeared in order to teach her something important - they will pass.

I don't know if she listened to me then or if later listening to the tape helped her. My patients usually leave me in high spirits when they leave. The point of my lectures has always been to kindle a new light and renew a person's perception of himself and his life - past, present and future. The growth of self-knowledge ultimately leads to harmony and improved relationships.

I don't predict the future. I predict probable patterns of human behavior. I predict the possible impact of the current cycles of the planets on human life, at the same time reminding of free choice and personal responsibility for one's life. I engage patients in dialogue, reviewing with them the best choices they have.

In my consultations, as in this book, my goal is to help the patient understand what is best for her. For this woman, to continue to stay at home would mean giving up the existing opportunities. This behavior would get her nowhere, and I pointed it out to her. I ended the conversation, as always, with a practical part: a “tailor-made” recommendation on how to deal with the problem. It is usually always very well received by the patients. But I was very worried about this particular woman. As far as I understood, she could go and commit suicide right on the same day. And yet, my intuition told me that I needed to remain optimistic that I would hear about her again.

Six months passed, and I began to receive requests for psychoastrological consultations from a group of women who seemed to know each other. In the end, I calculated that the first contact in this chain was my depressed patient. So she didn't die.

A year later, she called me. I will never forget our conversation. She started something like this: “Hi, do you remember me? I came to you about a year ago. I was in a terrible depression at the time." I told her that not only do I remember, but I often think about her and hope that she has found a job and a new love, and as a result she has an incentive to start life over again. Here is what she said:

“Everything you promised, what you then read on the tape, happened. When the time came, I forced myself to get out of the house and start visiting places where I could meet people. I was very skeptical about what you said, but when I received a job offer out of the blue, I decided that maybe I should try to act in the direction of the novel.

Believe it or not, but I met a man with whom I now live. We have a good relationship, the job is great, and I'm a different person now. I want to thank you. I also want you to know that I carry a transcript of the consultation in my purse. Besides, I told a lot of people about you.”

I thanked her for calling, leaned back in my chair, and closed my eyes. Here is a sure confirmation that my method works. Psychoastrology, combined with knowledge of psychotherapy and sexuality, helps even in the most difficult cases, and one consultation is enough. Since then, this technique has helped hundreds of people find new meaning and hope in life.

Let me briefly describe my position. The planets do not control the destinies of people. People manage them themselves, and they do it most effectively when they recognize a certain universal rhythm.

For many years of work I I understood how to polish psychoastrology so that it becomes a unique tool for self-development. I get confirmation of the