“Freedom of will is the ability to do gladly that which I must do.” Carl Jung’s paradoxical maxim can be seen as a motivational urge to make the best of a bad situation by wearing a happy smile. Or at a more profound level as an encouragement to accept who you are and live that out with enthusiasm.
Gauquelin’s work with astrology indicated, as I recollect, that the most successful were those who lived out their birth charts most fully. Which resonates with another of Jung’s thoughts “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” Stay unconscious and you’ll be buffeted by outer events for which you are seemingly not responsible but in some mysterious way are part of who you are.
Patterns of life fascinate me and more the older I get. How seemingly random life experiences happen again and again. Even with growth of self-awareness (and consciousness) there seems to be no escaping some level of repetition – which can usually be found in the chart if the individual is keen to know the whys and wherefores.
The birth chart lays out personal temperament, psychological dynamics and the pattern of a life. It does not pin point what can best be described as ‘grace’ or in different parlance level of soul evolution. Or the level of conscious versus unconscious that operates within the individual’s life.
Accepting the hand of cards you were handed at birth, reflected in the birth chart, would appear to be the way to fulfilment. Which means kicking envy (they are richer than me) and regret (I never won Wimbledon) to one side and becoming fully invested in who you have the potential to be – i.e not designed to make mega-millions or be a sporting superstar. Be yourself.
But can you ‘choose’ to become conscious? I have never been able to decide whether that is a choice or not, since some individuals are predisposed to be curious and dig for answers where others have a different temperament and are content/resigned to plough the same furrow without scratching the surface or plumbing the deeper mysteries. Indeed there is an argument that the glue which holds society together are the less-than-fully-conscious ones since they offer cohesion, structure and stability. While the constantly-questioning ones threaten to upset the applecart. Of the latter variety, some become trailblazers and inspired leaders, while others are creative or troublemakers.
Harsh influences accompanying challenging experiences bring positive results? Positive change usually only comes through pressure – not quite as extreme as a breakdown means breakthrough but heading in that direction. There was an intriguing hypothesis by Julian Jaynes in his Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind book which posited that major climactic crises and natural disasters two/three thousand years ago caused significant changes and advances in human consciousness.
Some temperaments come alive in moments of high stress and sink into a gloom when life become settled and calm. Squares in a birth chart teach resourcefulness and resilience. Too many trines/sextiles don’t. Life and psychology are complicated.
Astrology while it does not have all the answers has more than enough to make it invaluable. The only explanation I have ever seen which even touches on a possible explanation is an analogy with theoretical physicists David Bohm’s thoughts on an implicate universe which unfolds into the explicate order. The implicate universe which is a realm of potentials and possibilities is what astrology taps into and that unfolds in a variety of possible ways into external reality, but within the constraints of the underlying pattern – if that makes sense.
Sun sign astrology though simplistic can be astonishingly accurate in terms of temperamental inclinations, including the signs which distrust astrology or say they do. Top of the list would be Taurus – maybe too earthy and practical to be drawn into what feel like mystical realms. But also I suspect more to do with Taurus’ underlying drive which is for power. They dislike the idea that they are not masters of their own fate. When the truth is we are and we aren’t.
My remedy for most lives it to find a context which suits your temperament (and chart). If you have a substantially Cardinal chart you are a sprinter, not a marathon runner and have an overdose of resourcefulness and initiative. Find a lifestyle with frequent new starts and variety.
All Fixed? Go for an unchanging lifestyle where you are ploughing the same furrow for ever. Periods of change are inevitable and will cause strain.
Too much Mutable – blown around like a feather in a strong wind, you need to find a calm centre out of which to operate and be grateful for your ability to be flexible and fit in with prevailing trends.
Heavy Mars Pluto or Mars Uranus aspects – you won’t turn yourself into a suburban plodder no matter how hard you try. You need crises, excitement, thrills and risk otherwise you’ll constantly be creating disasters just to feel alive.
Random thoughts. Astrology works in its own peculiar way and has some limitations but used sensibly it will bring more freedom to act not less.
You know what else I don’t really get: why is Uranus the (modern) ruler of astrology?
Astrology, in my view, is actually very Neptunian ( confusing, chaotic, illusory, unclear, and, also, in some cases, a fraud, hoax) and Plutonic (“I have your chart!” meaning “I have power over you, I know your deep issues, your upbringing, what lies below the surface”, “I have control over you” etc. You get the gist.)
Saturn, in a certain sense, can be a mystery as a traditional ruler, but if you think of it as Chronos, ruler of time, astrology can be thought of as a timing mechanism, a gear, which by spinning sets in motion events in life or otherwise.
Though the ancients probably had a different idea of why Saturn is the ruler.
Great dive into this topic….
One I struggled with for many years. All the while studying astrology anyways!!
Spent about 15 years basically trying to prove astrology was absurd.
I balked at the deterministic language… you ARE this, etc.
Don’t TELL me who I AM! 🙂
Steven Forrest used one word that changed it for me…. “becoming”.
I know that other astrologers had that concept but I was ready to hear it with Steven.
I love that you mentioned David Bolm’s theory of implicate and explicate order!
I have used that often enough, although usually peoples eyes glaze over even more!
What a great concept, though! “entwine, enfold, interweave” becoming “to unfold”.
Yum… I’ve always enjoyed just tasting those two words, the feeling in my mouth.
I have a strong 9th house with a happy Jupiter conj N. Node next to my MC, so have always been a Seeker. Astrology offers the most. A tool. A touchstone of sanity. A window into human nature or medicine or politics or the weather!! A one stop shop in a way!
What do I believe now? I think astrology works in our human realm and a bit beyond. I can imagine that there is a place (in a person’s development or in another realm?) where astrology no longer applies. but who knows? Is there karma? Or are we in a computer simulation?
I have no idea and it doesn’t matter anymore to me.
I am here in THIS body in THIS world. That’s meaning enough.
In fact… it’s the Mystery of this whole thing that holds me.
And astrology offers glimpses into that Mystery. Wow..
If interested, look on Youtube for Susan Osborne singing “Mystery” on the Paul Winter album Missa Gaia.
Amazing and apropos…. “it moves the planets and the stars in the sky”.
…
*Cries in Mars opposite Pluto*
I really enjoyed this. Thanks Marjorie.
Really interesting and thought provoking, Marjorie, thank you. I’m reminded of the old adage from an astrologer a while back ‘the worst charts make the best people’ …. Too simplistic perhaps, but those difficult circumstances and shocks do knock the corners and sharp edges away, I know from bitter experience 😉
Also: very aware that at the same moment we were born, a chicken was probably born somewhere nearby, with the same chart, etc etc
Sometimes we all take ourselves too seriously. But astrology has some useful insights and archetypes to play with.
Atleast those having saturn prominent will touche on that adage….all thier lives people consider them losers who r forever struggling but in the end, those same people vanish while saturnians smilingly enjoy sunsets…all the struggles taught them that happiness is in not materials hoarding or fame or family
Thank you for this, Marjorie, food for thought indeed! El Aznar’s point about “phlegmatic” people chimes with religious ideas about the simple soul having the key to heaven. Probably correct in a way.
‘The birth chart lays out personal temperament, psychological dynamics and the pattern of a life. It does not pin point what can best be described as ‘grace’ or in different parlance level of soul evolution.’
Amen to this.
What I think the chart does NOT do so well, is to describe the environment into which one is born (I know some might dispute this). I say this based on my own experience. I have consulted several astrologers and none of them have been able to pick out anything in my chart that accurately describes my upbringing (and one’s upbringing is a major influence, it goes without saying).
Furthermore, here is an interesting quote from Paramhansa Yogananda on the subject of astrology, “As a child of God, you have been given the free choice and intelligence to surmount the difficulties of life. You are made in the image of God, not in the image of the stars. If your body and mind are very strong, and certain evil vibrations from the stars begin to shed their rays upon you, you will experience no reaction as all because you have become impervious to their rays.”
“As a child of God, you have been given the free choice and intelligence to surmount the difficulties of life. You are made in the image of God, not in the image of the stars.”
Some undefined concepts, here. Are you a child of God? What is God? According to one of the dominant tenets of Christian dogma, and the beliefs that influenced it, God is omnipresent, God is all. So the stars ARE God, at least in some cosmologies. You see where this is going. Furthermore, as an astrologer –at least in the works–, I think we ARE made in the image of star configurations. I think this is why Ebertin called it Cosmobiology. There is your genome, RNA and DNA, and your cosmobiology. We are the three dimensional energetic expressions of the totality of the sky the moment we were born.
It depends what you mean by environment – it won’t distinguish between a less well off and a wealthier upbringing though it will reflect hardship or the opposite. What it will do is pin point the psychological dynamics of the family very accurately.
Hmm, that hasn’t been my experience, to be honest…(sorry), although the Vedic reading I had DID go into much more detail and depth on the family.
It actually does…as I found out few days ago…when I searched for my algol in chart but then not many know that asteroids also have to be seen….at most it’s planets for masses ..
Astrology is huge probability chapter of mathematics but in the end as hindu god krsna says,”it all is individuals choice”
We cannot choose our parents or our complexion or birth conditions but we can definitely decide whether to stay in or to get out forever and for that courage lacking, none can be blamed.
In abusive marriages, we come across this pattern of same kind of violent partners repeatedly entering life unless the individual takes courage to shun relationships, heal self and starts self respecting and makes boundaries to permit those who respect her
As an ageing Taurus, with Scorpio rising, I functioned as a spiritual astrologer in Germany for.many years, where everyone knows their birth-time as it is recorded on the birth certificate, so an astrologers dream. Astrology is a wonderful tool for getting to know your self and Self and to avoid wasting our opportunities to evolve and become more conscious. Astrology can be used and read in so many ways; it is an invaluable tool in gaining understanding on all levels.
Beyond my natal chart, the biggest driver of my life has been the transit of outer planets through the houses. I haven’t always seen it at the time but looking back it’s clear how the focus of my interests and motivations align with the nature of the houses. When the planets change house, I almost immediately find the energy going in a new direction.
I am very keen on house transits – quite agree. They tell you a good deal.
Using Placidus house borders?
The general advice seems to be find the House system that works for your chart. I use Equal because there is a clear fit of the things I was doing to the nature of the house. I don’t get the same with Placidus.
Koch
What is the best way & best resources to learn about astrology, and how to apply it to your birthchart?
Ideally free or low cost resources.
Practice. There are free birth chart calculators on the net and a great many sites with decent explanations of signs, planets and houses. Sort out your family and friends charts and then practice, practice, practice.
You know what else? That paragraph about finding who you are, and then try to be great at that (under the condition that such a thing as “be yourself” exists at all, since we all change, and are at one point one thing, at another another).
I wonder if there is a theory that says that there are “fountains of energy”, to call them that way. E.g. someone is great at maths, and maybe he or she tapped into that fountain, and that just works. Someone else, looking at them, might not be, and that’s because he or she hasn’t found that source of energy. The question is can it be found or not? It is not that that other person cannot be that which he or she is looking at; it’s just that the socket hasn’t been found into which to plug into. It’s a similar thing when you can’t understand something, and then maybe years later you bump onto another explanation, and you figure out it wasn’t you all along – it was that that first explanation wasn’t good and didn’t resonate with your mind.
So u have a heart n soul 🙂
God gives us friends to spouses and those who love us to plug that socket which we can’t fit in…it’s all about being complementary and supporting each other…the basics of peace and prosperity
Even in people we dislike instantly, it’s because they have what we lack and what we don’t want to confront..the day we take them as supporting our that part which we don’t have, we got a friend
Thank you Marjorie, for this wonderful article on astrology and how it can truly help us understand the universe and our place in it. The thing with having too much of one element or one quality I.e fixed or mutable is that one tends to spin wheels in one direction without getting anywhere for long. With Sun, Mercury, Mars exactly opposite my Taurus ascendant and Uranus all in Scorpio Aquarius moon and Taurus rising I’ve been resentful and unable to act on my goals or express myself for years. Now we have Pluto in Aquarius which I dread is going to serve me my just desserts and it’s going to be awful.
Devika, The classic fixed sign chart was Queen Elizabeth 11 or indeed David Attenborough below. It gives tremendous endurance and the ability to keep going on the same track.
Any successful mutables?
A lot of successful singer songwriters, poets, musicians and writers have mutable emphasis charts.
I have heavily fixed but I choose to focus on my single mutable…Virgo and that pleases me…I somehow don’t wish to resonate with excessive fixed and at times find it necessary to ignore it since mutable works without straining as much as fixed.
But I do agree with Marjorie, fixed gives the strength to keep going despite like this…several times fire on homes..as in Hopkins case
Thank you, yes indeed the Queen was a perfect example of doing one’s duty with unswerving grace and courage. Hope i can find similar spiritual strength.
“But can you ‘choose’ to become conscious?”
This paragraph made me wonder if phlegmatic people, those bothered about almost not a thing, are the really happy and lucky ones. They just don’t care, and Lady Luck goes along with them.
Whereas those who constantly question, e.g. maybe those with a rich 8th house, who might often be great psychiatrist or astrologer clients, always kind of look for something and maybe never really find it? Or if they find one thing, there is another one in need of being delved into.
Be phlegmatic. Maybe that’s the advice? It reminds me again of that weird Russian esoteric philosophy, if it can be called that, Reality Transurfing, which states that the moment you give importance to something, equilibrium forces, a concept in that theory, come rushing in to restore order. So if you crave something and pour a lot of importance into that, the forces will push it farther from you to restore balance.
It’s a popular rumour….what all feel is lady luck is actually tonnes of homework done…and homework is usually done when none can see it being going on. Also either u can smile or cry…u have that choice so some choose to smile …crying gets nothing (though gen z keeps telling me to use it to advantage).
8h is others money, assets….those who have rich 8h enjoy others wealth but it does not give happiness like one gets when one earns by shedding ones sweat
Also a lot of the time a chart for an institution or nation will be a reflection of the intentions and energies behind its creation, and these energies are not always consciously realised at the time of the chart’s creation.
U just touched the topic I was thinking since few days…Marjorie in 2024 predicted Jupiter luck on India from mid year. She’s usually right but this time indians got deeper into poverty and I kept thinking…so now as corruption gets revealed, india got profits by selling Russia oil to Europe despite sanctions but tyrant enjoyed it all…people became poorer as due to his avarice to use sanctioned oil , indian rupee kept falling (obviously, those who can place sanctions won’t like it being overlapped) and so indians had to pay more for everything and kept losing their savings.
So 2nd time, I am watching how one indiviual can enjoy a country’s good luck chart and throw bad luck of his actions on masses.
I think in this area it is important to note that while it is possible for an individual to understand and best utilise their chart through study of it, doing so on a collective level requires a level of mass coordination that societies tend not to have.
An example is the UK chart. The 12th house Uranus in it is the reason why British governments and corporations etc. tend towards chart term impulsive thinking a lot of the time. In the 12th house this energy is unrecognised and therfore it is happening on a subconscious or more hidden level. An individual with this placement might study their chart and take this into account accordingly, but trying to get a whole country to do this en masse isn’t really possible. So the planetary energies of that placement continue to play out in the same way repeatedly.
Sorry I meant short term impulsive thinking. Typo.
I agree country charts work in a marginally different way – because of the difficulty of getting to critical mass for a shift. One oddity of country charts is they tend to react to supposedly soft transits as if they were hard.
I have observed as in India’s case…it’s generational and theory of economics ro political cycles also affect.
We had a generation when it was created which had the charts qualities, today due to economics and political cycle of depression following excess and plutocracy following democracy…we are watching disastrous effects of excess. It might be due to transits too.