FAQ

Each session can include astrology, shamanic astrology, invocations and/or shamanic healing. Astrology fees include the session, prep time, charts and reports, and an MP3 download or CD of the session. Shamanic fees include the session and a full or partial recording of the session.

Long-distance astrology clients can choose to see everything on Benjamin’s computer screen during their consultation via streaming video. (High-speed internet required; no extra charge.)

Your session will be unique, and completely customized to your needs. It will be shaped by your needs, desires and questions, as well as Benjamin’s intuition and expertise.

In astrology sessions, you and Benjamin will typically explore your horoscope’s most important soul messages, as well as your most important challenges and opportunities during the next 12 months and beyond. If you choose to include invocations and/or shamanic healing in your session, you might also experience spiritual healing and awakening.

Technically speaking, an astrology session might include discussion of your natal chart, moving energies (transits, progressions and solar arcs), solar return(s) and/or relocation astrology.

If you prefer, you and Benjamin can focus on an astrological time period shorter than a year, and cover it in greater detail.

Sessions are available by appointment days, nights and weekends. Sessions can be done in person at Benjamin’s Asheville, NC office, or by phone or Skype. Solo digital recordings are also available for astrology sessions.

Benjamin leads his clients in invocations during all shamanic healing sessions, and most astrology consultations. These give his clients a simple, powerful way to maintain and deepen divine states of consciousness, as well as call in healing energies. For Benjamin’s astrology clients, invocations often provide an effective way to work through the challenges revealed by their charts.

Benjamin’s sliding scale fee structure allows him to serve those who could not otherwise afford his work.  ♥  Benjamin usually takes no money or financial information in advance. At the end of your astrology or shamanic healing session, he’ll ask if you’re satisfied. If not, your session is free. If you are satisfied, you choose how much to pay within the sliding scale.  ♥  If you thought your session was worth the normal rate (the high end of the scale), and can afford it, Benjamin welcomes your generosity. If you don’t feel the session was worth the normal rate, or can’t afford it, you may pay any amount you choose within the sliding scale.  ♥  Advance payment is required for gift certificates and Electional Astrology. If you purchase a gift certificate, and your recipient is not satisfied, you are entitled to a refund.

While Benjamin routinely receives intuitive insights for his clients during astrology and shamanic healing sessions, he does not consider himself to be a “psychic.” His intention is never to tell someone exactly what is going to happen to them, such as a specific foreordained event at a particular time. In his astrology consultations, his intent is to educate his clients about the best use of the raw material available to them: their natal and moving astrological energies. With this understanding, Benjamin’s clients can use their free will to make better decisions about how to consciously partner with these energies for a more happy, successful and fulfilling life.

Benjamin works from the basic premise that we are all evolving souls temporarily inhabiting human bodies. We each choose, before birth, the exact time and place where we draw our first breath. This critical moment sets up a unique energy matrix, marked by the positions of the planets. The resulting natal chart serves as the blueprint for that lifetime.

The more we live in harmony with this blueprint, the more wonderful and fulfilling life becomes. Benjamin helps his clients awaken to their soul’s intentions by accurately interpreting their natal charts. He also tells them about the important energy shifts (transits, progressions, etc.) that affect their lives.

Astrology shows each person’s highest potential, as well as their ever-changing “cosmic weather.” But the astrology Benjamin practices is not fortune-telling: free will is always at play. Benjamin’s clients find that astrology helps them to understand themselves better, fine-tune their life directions, and be better prepared for life’s important challenges and opportunities.

Benjamin can do your chart even if you don’t know your birth time. But without a precise birth time, Benjamin cannot know the location of your planets within the astrological houses. And without houses, certain astrological information is unavailable.

To find your birth time, you can try to locate a birth certificate or other document that may give the time of birth. (Visit this website to learn how to get an official copy of your birth certificate.) Or you can contact a family member to see if they know.

If you can’t determine the time using those methods, however, there is another way: rectification. This technique allows an astrologer to work from a list of significant life events to determine a client’s time of birth. Benjamin can refer you to an astrologer who does this, and who gives Benjamin’s clients a special reduced rate of $125 to determine their birth time.

You can also have your chart done with no birth time, which means no astrological houses. This still gives Benjamin most of your astrological information, and is more than enough to let him give you an accurate and helpful consultation. And, of course, any invocational and/or shamanic healing work you might do during the session (Benjamin often combine astrology with these modalities) is independent of your astrology chart.

Benjamin conducts his healing ceremonies at his shamanic mesa, which is based on ancient healing technologies. It consists of a hand-woven Peruvian cloth covered with healing objects. These include stones, crystals, rattles, tobacco, perfumes, musical instruments and other sacred objects.

Benjamin activates the mesa by calling the directions in Q’echua, the ancient power language of the Incas. He then charges the mesa by calling in the angels, guides, masters and other benevolent beings which actually do the healing.

During his healing ceremonies, Benjamin acts as a conduit for divine energy. He acts as “Spirit’s puppet,” and only takes action when intuitively instructed to do so. Some ceremonies are low-key, with most of the work done quietly and subtly. Others can be quite eventful and dramatic!

Even when Benjamin asks for the healing of a particular issue, he always includes the “karma-free safety clause”: let this take place only if it serves the highest good. Benjamin cannot guarantee any particular outcome, since the end result of each ceremony is entirely in Spirit’s hands. But his clients have been very pleased with the results of this “thy will be done” approach.

Benjamin has done energy healing for over 30 years. He was called to be a shamanic healer by ayahuasca, the living spirit of a sacred and powerful plant medicine. For thousands of years, ayahuasca has been used for healing and spiritual awakening by the indigenous peoples of the Amazon.

Benjamin has traveled to the Peruvian jungle four times to participate in deep-immersion ceremonial work with ayahuasca. He has drunk this sacred tea over 70 times.

This profound work radically accelerated Benjamin’s healing and awakening process. It has been central to the development of his shamanic healing abilities. As a result, he can now reliably access the spiritual dimensions to assist his clients.

Benjamin began his healing plant spirit work by attending several sacred ceremonies led by a San Pedro Cactus shaman, starting in 2006. He cultivated the healing power of the Pachakuti Mesa, based on indigenous Peruvian healing traditions, from 2007 to 2013, and now sets up his mesa as guided by Spirit.

More recently, he took classes in key elements of Sandra Ingerman-style Core Shamanism. Benjamin is a Shamanic Minister and Shamanic Breathwork™ Facilitator, as ordained and certified by the Venus Rising Association for Transformation. His multi-year participation as a Blessing Giver in Oneness Blessing (Deeksha) ceremonies also helped his healing abilities flower.