Q. I am a disciplined, hardworking, creative person and good at whatever I set my mind to. I have had success in my career, people like to work with me as I am trustworthy and will always try to do my best by all concerned. And yet no matter how hard I work or how much energy I put into projects (films, writing), very few seem to really get off the ground and if they do they never seem to be enough to sustain me in a solid financial way. I appreciate very much the freedom I have gained by having made this choice of working as an independent and I can manifest funds when I need them, but just enough - never a lot of cream so I can feel comfortable and not always have an underlying anxiety about where the next cycle of funds is coming from. What to do? I can’t seem to break out of whatever karmic pattern I find myself in, which seems to be one of Saturn like restrictions. NB: I have worked at different jobs to sustain myself and my creativity, so not afraid of change.
A. Your power potential is more than obvious in your chart, with the Sun and Moon in Leo conjunct Pluto which sits, depending how accurate your birth time is, around the cusp of the 2nd and 3rd Houses, the traditional houses of money and communication. You do have a strong and initially debilitating Saturn in your 4th House, which describes a family system very much ruled by feelings of lack and struggle and some very masculinising and negative forms of underlying conditioning that undoubtably contributes to your financial woes. However, there is more to it than this...click 'Read More' below to continue...
Your New Moon core is also indirectly conjunct the Black Moon in between your Pluto and Mercury, from the 2nd House; is conjunct the South Node with all its karmic residues, gifts and challenges and, part of a T-square with Mars in Scorpio and a conjunction of Jupiter and Hygeia in Taurus. Each part of this pattern is intense on many levels, let alone the whole, so I’m not surprised that the going hasn’t been smooth for you, just yet!
The South Node position does describe some very old karmic patterns that will hold you back until certain karmas are complete, processes that are deep and mysterious and mostly beyond our control. With Pluto and the Black Moon here there is much past-life territory to do with the use and misuse of power in various forms, usually as both victim and perpetrator (don’t give yourself a hard time here, its very common in individuals attracted to this kind of work, at least amongst my clients!).
At the same time, the very same alignments say that one of your major soul tasks in this life is the purification and liberatation of the same awesome power potential, to be able to bring it creatively into this life. There are ways of helping this along, firstly to do some past-life regression work to get a first hand experience of where you’ve been as a soul and what you’re dealing with on this level.
One of the consequences of this history is a subliminal fear of your power, which dovetails rather neatly with the essential transformative power of Pluto turning into forms of control that are far deeper than traditional Saturnian resistances. Identifying these forms and finding safe ways to open up to the deeper energies therapeutically and creatively is the way to go here. You are sitting on a massive volcano and you need to blow it up safely.
This is easier said than done obviously and you’ll need very experienced high quality therapeutic support as there are lots of emotional/psychological manifestations to the same karmas. Nothing light weight, New Agey or exclusively meditative will do here.
One of the main issues here has to do with the suppression and control of anger and rage, coming simultaneously from past-life, ancestral and parental sources. Your parents are very much connected to the same karmas and had a powerful relationship that was very destructive on some levels and potentially very healing and abundant on others. It appears that you’ve been jammed in the middle of the same paradox and even in traditional astrology Pluto square Mars in Scorpio waves a flashing red light over this issue of repressed rage sabotaging your work and financial life, and getting in the way of both your healing journey and your right to abundance through your Jupiter in Taurus. Work with it and it will eventually do the opposite; empower you on multiple levels.
And there is fantastic support at this time as well, around the same territory. Transiting Pluto is crossing your 7th House Chiron, a transits of deep transformation and healing that will attract to you the right support in this journey.
Your progressed Midheaven, which describes how your professional life is unfolding, is conjunct your natal Jupiter, a two year alignment that opens, expands and liberates great energy in your work and with your visions. On top of this, transiting Jupiter is crossing both, as part of your Jupiter return, right now!
You have the potential of becoming one of the great film-makers and/or writers, because your work is also meant to be vehicle for healing in these next years. You’re at a turning point now. Go for it!
Q. Is my life fated/mapped out from my birth chart? Do I have any options for change? Or is it always going to be this way? What could I do to make things run differently?
Your first question is one of the greatest questions following “why am I here” and the subject of debate from time immemorial, “is my life fated?” or “how fated is my life”.
Certainly the whole basis of astrology rests on the notion that we are fated. If an astrologer was at the birth of a child, he or she could construct a chart and immediately be able to tell the parents a great deal about the child’s future, life paths, gifts and challenges. In an eastern context, we would be talking about the little one’s karma, good and bad.
The real question from my perspective is “how much of this is set in concrete and unchangeable? To answer that, I draw from the same karmic teachings of the east, that there are 3 types of karma...Click 'Read More' below to continue...
Q. I've been experiencing many challenges including bullying from colleagues & bosses in the last 6 years since I've changed careers from business to teaching children, and previously I'd always had good rapport with colleagues, bosses and clients. Am I now in the wrong career or was this due to challenging transits/progressions? And regardless of the reasons, how can I overcome these obstacles and obtain harmonious relationships and shared vision with those I work with?
A. There are lots of different layers to this obviously painful and demoralising situation but the one that stands out the strongest is that this all has to do with the implosion of your own power...click 'Read More' to continue...
Q. Do you use astrology to work out the best times for your workshop and the like? If so, how do you go about it?
A. Absolutely. This is a fabulous way of using the same tools that have been used for centuries to choose the best moments for any great event, wedding, coronations, holidays, even battles (Hitler for instance was a serious occultist and used astrologers all through the war years. Poor guys, I wonder how many survived him? Nancy Reagan also used astrology to counsel President Reagan’s timing of certain decisions. Imagine the furore if the American religious right had of found out about that one!)...click 'Read More' to continue...
Q. I’ve come to realise that I may be called a “healer”, but am struggling with this because of fluctuations in my own health and state of mind. Am I meant to be practicing now or stepping back from getting too involved?
A. From the point of view of your natal chart you are indeed a healer, with a prominent Chiron, Pallas Athena in House of career and the South Node in House of health and healing. Great credentials! But it is not yet time for you to launch fully into this work and there are important hurdles to be faced, ones that are part of it very healer’s journey. The best are often the most wounded ones and being able to separate one's own wounding from that of others is absolutely crucial.
Many natural healers launch into their work soon after they discover the gifts, naturally so but without adequate preparation this can set them up for eventual burnout. Particularly people with strong Chirons, part of their own wounding has to do with the psychic absorption of other people's pain in their early years. This very openness goes hand in hand with healing gifts but if this tendency is not made conscious and worked on, then they tend to also absorb their client's wounding on top of their own. This further perpetuates this original wounding and become a subtle form of self-abuse. It also sets are some unhealthy dependencies with their clients...click 'Read More' to continue...
Q. My biggest area of limitation and absolute frustration (to the point where I have a very violent temper) is work where I feel that my individuality and sense of power and potential is crushed by idiotic authority figures in the work place.
A. Initially your work involves accepting that the crushing, idiotic authority figure is within yourself. This inner tyrant is the source of so many of the other frustrations you mentioned in your letter and is a composite of much that you already know, i.e. parental influences, negative conditioning from very wounded and essentially powerless individuals who used control and negation to keep you in line...click 'Read More' to continue...
Q. I’m reaching out before the end of the line, trying to put myself together again and defeat the demons that want to drive me into a telegraph pole or agree to a permanent sleep. I don’t want less than body, mind and soul? Why is it so difficult to find my spiritual path?
A. Firstly, I’m not going to attempt to minimise the strength of the “demons” you’re facing.
On one hand you do have a very difficult chart (Saturn in Scorpio squaring Moon conjunct Pluto, Venus conjunct Uranus square Neptune, Lilith conjunct Chiron conjunct Ascendant, Mars oppositions etc) and there’s no doubt this is tough shit to face. But you also have a gifted chart, not just because of the obvious (Sun/Moon conjunct Jupiter, Saturn conjunct North Node at the top of a kite involving Mercury and Chiron, a Grand trine between Mars, Venus and Saturn) but because of the tough stuff!
And the tough stuff can and should be worked with, not to defeat the demons (an impossibility, you can’t destroy any part of self, however destructive it appears to act) but to transform them; not to block the pain with drugs but to embrace it and pass through it; not to implode your rage but to own it as part of your power... click 'Read More' to continue...
Q. You write about creating healthy relationship but this is seems so far from my own experience that I truly wonder what that would look like for me or how to get there!?
Continued from 'Preparation for Healthy Relationship - Part 1'Continuing our discussion from last month, there are some other perspectives from astropsychology about relationships, all of which dovetail with many other traditional and alternative points of view.
Fourthly, own your projections, own your 7th House. This house and the Descendent in our charts (the opposite point to our Ascendant) represents long-term, committed relationship in our lives and on the quality of energies we attract and invite into our world from these significant others. These are however as much part of our charts and our inner self as any other part of the wheel, but are less than conscious in us initially and we get magnetized to individuals that resonate with what appears missing in ourselves. If I have Taurus on the Descendent I will automatically get attracted to women who may or may not have Taurus strong in their charts but are strong, earthy, sensual individuals. All well and good but if I don’t claim and re-own this quality of my own nature, then I’m going to need them to not just fulfil that role in my life but to make me feel OK and a bit more whole. This obviously sets up excessive neediness in a relationship and rips me off in terms of claiming my own wholeness...c lick 'Read More' to continue...
Q. You write about creating healthy relationship but this is seems so far from my own experience that I truly wonder what that would look like for me or how to get there!?
A. From an astropsychology perspective there are a number of processes that must be worked on within to prepare the way for the possibility of creating or attracting a healthier form of bond with someone else. These are all obviously ideals but keeping the notion that we are all works in progress, in general and in relationship, gives us permission not to attempt unrealistic perfection and allows us to be more lovingly human. Another helpful attitude is that in relationships, like parenthood, expect to stuff up along the way as a necessary part of the journey...click 'Read More' to continue...
Q. I have a number of male friends who are in varying degrees of inner turmoil and some are either recently separated or juggling joint custody of their kids. Are there some astrological events that go with the so-called “mid-life crisis”?
A. In my early years of practice I was very influenced by the very solid work of Robert Hand who wrote, amongst many others, the classic “Plants in Transit”. He spoke of the midlife transits, primarily Uranus opposition Uranus, Neptune square Neptune, Pluto square Pluto and Saturn opposite Saturn, all of which came around the 38-42 year mark, at least for those born in the 1950’s. For later generations, these are much more spread out, due to the varying movement of these great outer planets (which is perhaps why some, particularly men, feel that 35-55 is one continuing midlife crises!)...click 'Read More' to continue...
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