Star reader

I was walking down Virginia Street, and a stranger asked me a bizarre question: “You’re a Virgo, aren’t you?” I am. Clinton Soule, a local astrologer, explained that he has spent years studying astrology and has plenty to tell anyone about themselves, as long as they’re willing to listen. To get your astrological chart read, e-mail Soule at starmedicine@excite.com.

Why do you think so many people don’t believe in astrology?

I think it’s mainly because the monarchies and church of Europe in the old days wanted more control, and by keeping the masses ignorant and the people orthodox—only understanding one viewpoint of astrology—they kept more deception and control. In certain kingdoms, it was illegal to be an astrologer unless you were under the crown because you could predict revolutions. You could get a following and overthrow a government, so astrologers were beheaded if they were not under the crown and they had the gift. It was a control mechanism.

My editor, Brian Burghart, thinks astrology is bullshit. What would you say to convince him otherwise?

Well, there’s a court case for Evangeline Adams, who was taken to court where they were trying her for a hotel she predicted burning down. The owner of the hotel had thought she plotted it, conspired and did it just to prove [she was an astrologist]. But the judge had her do a reading on his son—which was accurate—then said, “Case dismissed, this woman is no fraud.” But, you know, it’s just like anything. We can be ignorant of anything we don’t know about until we test it. Roosevelt and Reagan and so many others have used it. But most men are sticks in the mud about that. About 85 percent of people who come to me are women. Men are just so in the dark in that area. But you just have to test it out, just like anything. You saw it work the day we met. The odds were one out of 12 that I would be able to guess your sign like that.

And how did you do that?

Some astrologers don’t have this ability, but I’ve had it since I was 21 years old. You had a face that looked of purity and earthy, and the puritanical sign is Virgo. It just went in my head. Sometimes I’ll be walking down the road or something, and someone two or three blocks away—my intuitions sometimes are so acute—I’ll see them get in a car and make it [to them] before they’re gone and say, “Are you a Libra?” I’ve done this, and I don’t know how in the world I do it. It’s an intuitive link.

What’s the worst news you ever had to give someone when you were reading a chart?

The worst really is my own because my lady in 1990 was murdered. And I saw that a trial was in the horoscope, and being a Christian man, I refused to look at the rest of the chart for a long time, and I put it away. Well, when she was murdered, it showed the whole thing. It showed the trial, it showed the burglar, it showed the romance. It showed everything. It showed the kind of person that did it. I’ve never had to tell anyone else something of that severity.