Introduction

The purpose of the present research is to try to answer the question: are astrologers aware of their own non-astrological beliefs (NABS) in their astrological consultations? Secondly, I will try to present the NABS which emerged during the research.

Owing to the nature of what I am trying to find out (non-astrological beliefs) and the question I am trying to answer (are astrologers aware of them?) I think that qualitative research is the most adequate approach. As long as my research problem is related to beliefs and meanings of the people studied, qualitative methods seemed potentially richer. In particular, for my purpose, a focus group discussion seemed specially promising.

According to Silverman there are four major methods used by qualitative researchers: observation; analysing texts and documents; interviews; and recording and transcribing naturally occurring interaction. The focus group technique is a method of interviewing that involves usually at least four interviewees. This kind of research is normally undertaken within the tradition of qualitative research with the concern to reveal how the group participants view the issues they are confronted with. The original idea for the focused interview was that people who were known to have had a certain experience could be interviewed in a relatively unstructured way about that experience; “there is an emphasis in the questioning on a particular defined topic; and the accent is upon interaction within the group and the joint construction of meaning”.

As Bryman refers “focus groups reflect the processes through which meaning is constructed in everyday life and to that extent can be regarded as more naturalistic”. Another aspect in this kind of interview is the low level of the moderator involvement, and as the idea is to get at the perspectives of those being studied the approach should be non-intrusive and non-structured.

The main aim of my work, and specifically the analysis of this focus group, is not to discover and identify the non-astrological beliefs of the astrological practices, but to check if astrologers are aware of their existence.