<![CDATA[Sacred Law Firm - Daniel Sowelu - Astrology Q & A]]>Thu, 24 May 2012 02:10:44 +1000Weebly<![CDATA[I've worked hard but can't seem to be financially abundant. Why not?]]>Sat, 05 May 2012 14:49:32 +1000http://www.sacredlawfirm.com.au/1/post/2012/05/ive-worked-hard-but-cant-seem-to-be-financially-abundant-why-not.htmlQ. 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!

]]><![CDATA[What role does fate have in my life?]]>Sun, 01 Apr 2012 16:01:18 +1000http://www.sacredlawfirm.com.au/1/post/2012/03/what-role-does-fate-have-in-my-life.htmlQ. 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...
One type represents karmas that are full-blown and unavoidable; the person as a soul must experience them. This can be the placements of the planets and asteroids in whatever sign or house, it’s simply how it is and must be in this life. This includes the tougher karma represented by things like the Saturn, Pluto and Chiron positions and how they will line up later in life.

The second type of karma is already present but can be influenced by what we do, what decisions we make, how we use our energies. So here is a degree of choice, of free will, that will partially determine how one’s karma plays out. I would add to this description what spiritual, healing and therapeutic work we chose to do, as well.

The third form of karma is present in seed form and not yet manifest. This can be burnt out before it does by intensive spiritual practices and probably any form of deep therapy. And even if it hasn’t been burnt up at the roots, these practices will speed up some of its expression. Those of you who have spend time in ashrams and intensive retreats will know what I mean, how time seems to speed up as we’re working though stuff, a day feels like a week, a month like a year!

So I support the notion that there is a dance between our karma and our free will, like the two serpents of the Caduceus. At every moment the universe presents us with a choice of how we will use our energy and this then impacts how things play out.

As for you personally, you are at the massive crossroads in this life which is both unavoidable and requires action on your part. In your chart, your Ascendant, representing the face you show the world, has Chiron, the South Node of the Moon, Ceres and Venus, mostly in Pisces and all opposite the North Node conjunct Pluto on the Descendent. It also important to see that the Ascendant is also the birth position and so represents all those significant influences that were present when you took first breath this lifetime.

This karmically intense arrangement links up past-life influences, good and difficult, with your birth experience, your relationship with your mother, and the mother in you, your love life and a lot of wounding, with a lot of latent spiritual and healing gifts hidden underneath. (There is so much in here you could easily do a whole reading on it alone).

Your birth was a complex, confusing and wounding mix of past-life memories, birth trauma, other people’s pain, and great love, wanting and longing to connect.  What invariably happens in this kind of setup is that the ultra-sensitive child gets overwhelmed to the point that she has no choice to split off and anaesthetise. In doing so, it minimalises the pain and trauma but also restricts her emotional range as well as her connections to the underlying gifts.

This is strong karma, pure and simple!

This is all very current, and has been for the last couple of years, as transiting Chiron, followed closely by transiting Neptune, has been and will continue to cross over these placements. No wonder it’s been very tough, as subliminally you’re being faced with past-life stuff, birth trauma, mother issues, relationship challenges and all that this has done to your very sensitive and beautiful heart.

And you have a choice, really important choices, here. You can either get stuck in victim mode, feeling powerless to do anything, a collapsing into the trauma, subconsciously wanting some one to rescue you (what’s called chronic repetitive suffering!) Or, you see this as an awesome opportunity to crack through some old karmic tendencies, heal your birth influences and flush out a lot of absorbed crap from your heart.

Chiron in particular is sending his healing laser into this territory to open it up but he requires you to dive into these ancient wounds with great commitment and high quality support. Not only is this an ongoing and awesome healing opportunity but is part of a series of initiations into becoming the healer that your karma equally demands of you, as well as, with the aid of Neptune, for claiming your abundant spiritual gifts and expressing those in your world.

There is no doubt this is a massive call, and will feel overwhelming at times, but the grace and power is there for you to be able to, quite literally, change your life. Transiting Pluto is also sextiling all of this over the same time frame, so there’s no lack of support.

The most important choice is the commitment, then getting the right support.

Past-life regression work is obvious, Primal therapy, breathwork (called rebirthing in the past) for the birth trauma and, any other support to re-awaken your true emotional range and your exquisite sensitivity and capacity for profound love.

There’s a lot of work to do, but once the commitment is made, grace will not just flow but erupt in you.  

]]><![CDATA[Bullying from colleagues uncovering deeper parts of Self]]>Thu, 01 Mar 2012 07:23:36 +1000http://www.sacredlawfirm.com.au/1/post/2012/02/bullying-from-colleagues-uncovering-deeper-parts-of-self.htmlQ. 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...
Your Leo Sun is surrounded by some of the deepest and most powerful combinations, in the form of Lilith on one side and Pluto on the other, who in turn is conjunct Mars in Virgo. You are innately an enormously powerful individual and, it is totally understandable that this is been hard to access, not just by squares to Saturn in Sagittarius but by the sheer depth of these parts of self.

When we have this kind of energy within us operating unconsciously it can attract individuals and experiences that reflect the destructive side of the same power. This in turn aggravates the already existing feelings of powerlessness within, that also comes when this kind of potency is buried.

Now this sounds like a very cruel setup, and it is cruel in the sense that it activates some very toxic energies on the part of your so-called colleagues, but ultimately it’s a wake-up call from the universe. Your own deepest self and the powers that be have invited these people into your life to treat you this way, to draw your attention to what in you magnetised this experience. And clearly you are now intuiting this, a major first step.

And it is also true that it has come from certain transits. When you changed careers, transiting Neptune was just starting to oppose your Lilith and Sun, to be followed by Chiron, an unravelling and deconstruction of the old self that continues right up to now. This in itself will attract various projections from others but ones which also open up old wounds and reveal deeper unlived parts of self.

You were always going to have this kind of experience at this stage in your life; an astrologer could have spotted it at your birth. This adds a karmic dimension to your experience, as however painfully, you’ve been working through some old karmic debts at the same time. The good news is the karma is shifting and you will come into a much more empowering place inside of yourself in the coming years.

There is work to be done though, as these core energies around your Sun are also loaded up with a lot of carried and unhealed rage, with its accompanying toxicity. Both the Lilith position and the Mars/Pluto initially represent karmic and ancestral forms of distorted power in your system and you will need to draw on much courage and commitment to confront and work with these dark aspects of self.

You will need high quality, highly experienced therapeutic support to do so and I tend to recommend the more action based expressive therapies like primal, breathwork, Gestalt and psychodrama to get to the core of this, particularly because you are a fire sign person.  Feel free to call on other gentler work to assist the mopping up of the psychic-emotional residues as well.

As this turns around, and be aware it will take time, you will start to step up and protect yourself better, as you are recovering a lot of warrior energy in this work, masculine and feminine. As the system cracks, people will also change in the way they treat you, but don’t feel you have to wait until that point to make outer changes. Transiting Uranus in now fully in Aries in your house of career, suggesting that you are warming up quickly to making strong, radical change and redirection professionally.

Working with kids and in education is valid for you on lots of levels but you are in the process of becoming more than just a teacher. The Sun/Lilith/Pluto/Mars in its healed, available form ultimately describes you as a great spiritual warrior who is also an agent of deep change in the lives of others. The process of getting to this will make you more psychologically astute, emotionally courageous and spiritually powerful, in ways that will call on you to go into bat for the vulnerable, disempowered and unprotected.

Who knows what this will look like but it will be worth the journey.     

]]><![CDATA[The value of astrology in planning events]]>Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:05:03 +1000http://www.sacredlawfirm.com.au/1/post/2012/02/the-value-of-astrology-in-planning-events.htmlQ. 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... 
For the training workshops for instance, I picked out the best 9 weekends for the year and a good time for the week long retreat. I normally start a workshop at 9am on the Saturday, so I check out all the Saturdays of the year, (thank God for computers) as to which have the best line-ups for a good weekend’s inner work. This is usually a mixture of strong, deep ones involving the outer planets, Uranus, Pluto and Neptune plus Chiron, mixed with good support from Saturn and/or Jupiter if available. Having a harmonious Sun/Moon relationship is good but not critical, as are the connections between the rest of the planets and asteroids. But an appropriate Moon is critical as it colours the emotional tone of a weekend. Trying to do deep emotional work on an air sign Moon is not impossible but a lot harder work. Similarly trying to teach specific techniques on a water sign Moon can also be tricky, because our attention is drawn elsewhere.

So I do a quick scan of all these weekends for the ones that look potent and juicy in general, without getting too specific. In my mind, I have an approximate idea of what I want to cover, based on past experience and from a feeling of the people who are joining up, but without being too hard and fast about it. I learnt early on that these charts will throw up other possibilities and inspirations that hadn’t been on my mental radar, so you leave room that. Its part of the magic of the trade, how they will speak to you.

While holding all this loosely in mind, I match up my program with the one of the 9 weekends that fits best astrologically, using both classic and left field interpretations. For relationship and sexuality work for instance, strong positions of Venus and Mars plus the 7th House are obvious, complemented by Juno, Eros and Psyche, sometimes Lilith (Lilith? Yep!) and possibly Saturn while he’s in Libra. The aspect patterns between all the points will show up what kind of support our relating is getting as well as what’s in the way. These show up the subplots on the day and allow us to anticipate the resistances and challenges, and to plan for them, by providing the appropriate structures to work with them. 

Similarly, the timing of the Primal Therapy weekend  on 14 and 15 July 2012 (which could have been run on most weekends over the year because of the strength of the Pluto/Uranus square!) was influenced not only by a strong Pluto line-up (Mars square Pluto opposite Uranus) but also by a deep Moon position (Leo Moon in the 12th house) as well as strong aspects from both the Cancer Sun and Leo Moon to the Black Moon in Taurus.

The workshops in the program that seem to create themselves where the Spiritual Warrior workshop on 12 May, with Mars, Shiva, Lilith and Pallas Athena all showing up big-time and, the Deep Shakti, Strong Magic, Big Medicine workshop on 21 July, where the Goddesses Persephone, Medusa and Hekate are all demanding their rightful place.

Now that will be an interesting one, which I will look forward to!

This natural creative emergence is one of the great gifts of astrology, one of being able to recognise the energies afoot, to listen to their voices and to act on their calling, as a conscious act of service.


]]><![CDATA[Ready to Heal?]]>Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:40:21 +1000http://www.sacredlawfirm.com.au/1/post/2011/12/ready-to-heal.htmlQ. 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...
If healing comes too easily, without some form of self-responsibility being taken by the client, it diminishes the effectiveness of the work and can encourage victimhood and disempowerment. If this victim/ saviour dichotomy is introduced into the work then it keeps both healer and client stuck in some significant ways. Part of the journey is to remain vigilant of denying one’s own woundedness by over-identifying with the professional role. There is much to learn about inter-psychic boundaries and it is worthwhile enhancing natural healing gifts with some form of psychotherapy training, which can provide greater understanding of what is called transference and counter-transference issues between therapist and client. Such training always includes continuing one’s own healing work, a must for every healer/therapist, which better equips us to deal with the needs of our clients. Such training also demand periods of professional supervision from senior therapists, which can be invaluable in the long run and gives natural healers much greater psychological depth and awareness.

At the moment however there is a much stronger focus on your own healing, which is simultaneously part of your professional preparation. This includes rooting out subconscious tendencies to  create illnesses as a way of avoiding the challenges of dealing with the external world. This can stem from the child in you feeling unprotected and unready. As it is also your Saturn Return year, you are in a prime position for identifying these old patterns, to create a new relationship between adult and child in you, and so develop greater solidity and groundedness within. And you will need this as there will be tremendous psychic and spiritual openings for you over the next 2 years, accompanied by an exaggeration of this tendency to absorb others energies. This is not to say that you cannot be doing some work but you will need to take very good care of yourself on these levels, with regular meditation and any other supports that firms up your psychic boundaries, such as flower essences, Aurasoma etc. This is all part of the essential preparation for a full birthing of the healer in you in 2004.

]]><![CDATA[Critics at Work]]>Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:59:33 +1000http://www.sacredlawfirm.com.au/1/post/2011/11/critics-at-work.htmlQ. 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... 
While this gives you very effective and highly selective radar for attracting fuckwits (or arseholes?) for bosses, ultimately these are but pale imitations for what lurks inside you. Secondly then, you need to shift your focus away from them because, even though you know its pointless to blame the world, your parents or anyone else, your wording betrays a pervasive belief in your own powerlessness. As long as you continue to blame, you are caught but the opposite is also true. Use the intensity of your anger to confront these inner figures and things will start to move. You are after all an Arian and it’s in your nature to confront challenges with your inherent feistiness, irrespective of your past.

Thirdly, you will need high quality support here, in the form of strong, expressive, no-bullshit therapy such as primal, psychodrama or breathwork. Nothing lightweight or New Agie will be enough. Your frustrations are fed by both rage and pain, negatively fuelling these controlling, suppressing figures inside you and you will need firm and safe support to be able to get in touch with these and get them out of your system. As you do this, their power over you will diminish and, you will find greater freedom in dealing with external authorities.

The timing for this is good, as you are in your Saturn Return, which is a time of great power. It’s a turning point in rolling the old negating Saturn, to reveal the fact that you have the power and the ability to take control of your life, so you can own your responsibility for creating it.

Unfortunately, there is no end of crap out there, so the only true power you have is in how you respond to it. This you can change. Good luck!

]]><![CDATA[Suicidal]]>Mon, 10 Oct 2011 11:52:41 +1000http://www.sacredlawfirm.com.au/1/post/2011/10/suicidal.htmlQ. 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...
You will need quality professional help but most of all you need an absolute commitment from within your self. There’s a part of you that has a subconscious investment in you staying a victim, powerless, regressively a child hoping for someone else to save you. If you chose, and there is a choice, to continue to believe in this, then there can be no real change. Basically you’re stuffed. But if you make the commitment (and you do have the power to do so, in fact your soul is calling, even demanding that of you) to do whatever you need to do therapeutically and spiritually, then great things can happen for you. There’ll be no magic bullets; the healing will be progressive over time, needing consistent, regular sessions with someone you can learn to trust. Don’t go towards “straight” psychiatry unless you become actively dangerous to yourself but within the field are people who have gone beyond the medication culture and developed tools from depth psychotherapy, breathwork, Gestalt, Hakomi or primal therapy. These are the people to seek out and because they come under the umbrella of the medical profession, are financially within your reach.

You will particularly need to work with your anger and rage systems, as these are contributing directly to the suicidal feelings. Energy that should have been expressed earlier in your life has imploded and become destructive to yourself. Better to psychodramatically kill someone from your past than harm yourself. And it will take some the viciousness out of the inner critic who wants to fail you.

You are meant to do this work, not only for your own healing. Neptune on the Midheaven says that you are meant to not only live a spiritually connected life but that your spirituality is inherently a part of your true work. Similarly Saturn on the North Node speaks of you as a leader and teacher of the very transformation processes you will be undertaking, because you’ve done the tough stuff! In fact it’s a huge part of why you took birth this time around. Go for it. Even making the commitment internally will shift how you feel. 

Good luck and God/dess Bless.     
]]><![CDATA[Preparation for Healthy Relationship -Part 2]]>Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:27:26 +1000http://www.sacredlawfirm.com.au/1/post/2011/09/preparation-for-healthy-relationship-part-2.htmlQ. 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...click 'Read More' to continue...
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.

Fifthly, you are not in a relationship to heal, fix or be your partner’s therapist! In my work with the Wounded Healer archetype, I come across so many individuals who are innately but unconsciously brilliant healers who have this part of self tangled up in the needs of a “wounded” partner. Whether Chiron in the 7th House or conjunct Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars, Juno or Psyche, they come into this life with a karmically driven tendency to get over-exposed to and absorbing of, other people’s wounds, usually these parts of mum and dad. And while this is a necessary wounding from the soul’s perspective, the tendency gets transferred onto later partners, felt as some deep, subliminal guilt and an exaggerated sense of responsibility for the pain of others.

Whether the individual expresses this as care-taking, over-protecting the other from their pain or constantly trying to “fix” them, or in some people, keep absorbing their partners wounded energy without ever challenging them, in each case it becomes a form of self-abuse, creates inequality in the relationship and some very murky entanglements that disempower both parties. It is also very convenient for the fixer, as it puts too much focus on the other’s issues in a way that allows the fixer to avoid the necessary confrontation with their own wounding. The best relationships I know are where both individuals have taken deep responsibility for their own healing, which empowers both and gives each other greater emotional freedom in the relationship. It can also turn the karma of the above Chiron positions into one that attracts truly healing relationships and puts each individual the opportunity to claim the fullness of their own inner healer.

]]><![CDATA[Preparation for Healthy Relationship - Part 1]]>Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:24:41 +1000http://www.sacredlawfirm.com.au/1/post/2011/08/preparation-for-healthy-relationship-part-1.htmlQ. 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...
Firstly, create a better balance between the masculine and feminine within. We’ve had centuries of enculturisation to over identify with our gender and to live out our contrasexual self through a partner. This creates imbalances in both self and in a relationship that keeps both individuals stuck in traditional roles. In a chart this is represented by the Sun and Moon equation. The more balanced we are the less we need someone to make us feel complete or whole (as if that was ever possible in the first place!)

Secondly and related to the first, get to know the inner child within yourself. The more we know that little one within and have taken responsibility for healing, nurturing and claiming him or her, the less we however unconsciously expect our partners to be a substitute parent or to heal, nurture and protect us. Nothing drives codependency like unresolved childhood issues and needs. The Child is represented in the 5th House of our charts, within the Moon, Venus and Mars and has elements in both Uranus and Neptune as the creative, sensitive and magical child. The more loved our child is, the more we are naturally open to love.

Thirdly heal your anger issues and look after your warriors. Mars is the partner of Venus, the goddess of love and the two of them are the traditional planets of love and sexuality. If Mars is out of control or suppressed, Venus cannot work well either. In the former, relationship is compromised by too much ego, individualism or abusiveness, in the latter poisoned by unresolved rage and debilitated by the lack of passion, vitality and good boundaries. Mars (and Lilith) working well ensures that we can balance our individual needs with that of our relationship, helps maintain good boundaries and, with Lilith, sets the scene for the possibility for relationship between true equals.

This is just the beginning of a long list which we will continue next month, but the bottom line is that the more we take responsibility of our inner balances, the more likely we are to attract and sustain healthier relationships than we’ve known. It requires great commitment, courage and effort but the fruits are great, as whether we are “successful” in relationship or not, we become far more whole in ourselves.

]]><![CDATA[Men and Midlife Crises]]>Wed, 06 Jul 2011 10:44:03 +1000http://www.sacredlawfirm.com.au/1/post/2011/07/men-and-midlife-crises.htmlQ. 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...
Each of these transits calls for transformation and revolution in an individual’s life and they are meant to be strong. Each represents deep psychological and spiritual processes, which is why those who have not tended to these parts of self have the toughest time of it. They are necessary steps in the process of growing up psychologically and, initiations into a much more expanded form of individuality that incorporates more of the spiritual and creative essence of self.  Seen correctly, they are enormous opportunities for creating a more fulfilling life. However, those who don’t make the transitions on an inner level tend to start to die psychologically and spiritually from this point on, with life becoming progressively greyer and meaningless.

Simply put, Uranus opposition Uranus is a call to greater individual freedom, by cracking or crashing anything that has imprisoned the creative genius of self. Unfortunately the Boomers have tended to interpret this calling from a rather adolescent place, hence the drop the wife/red sports car/ young girlfriend syndrome. Certainly the outer reflects the inner but if the changes are not done on the inner level, targeting self-imprisoning mindsets then nothing essentially changes.

Neptune square Neptune challenges where we have anaesthetized ourselves to cope with the demands of the world to the point that we don’t know who we are or want we truly need. It brings to the surface the residues of all the emotions that we haven’t been able to feel, making us vulnerable and anxious as our system flushes out the plumbing. The end result however is the reclamation of our sensitivity, intuition and creativity, as part of the journey to live a life more inspired and directed by spirit and vision.

Pluto square Pluto does similar to the Neptune process but deeper and more ruthless. As a dark angel of transformation, he demands a death of the old self, so that a newer, more authentic and empowered self can be reborn. S/he works like a dredge in the bowels of our past, our lower chakras, our psychological deadwood. Out of this we can reclaim our true potency to be a creative and transformative agent in our world, emerging out of the rubble of our emotional naivety.

For all of the above, we need help, because of the intensity of these processes but also for all the fantastic possibilities that can come from doing it well.  Men do need a lot more encouraging in this and the work of Steve Biddulph’s book “Manhood” is a good place to start.

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