A continued collection of Facebook posts on beginners astrology.
“Maybe we could try a test of this method.
Would anyone like to send me the birth details of someone they know well.
This should be someone who has lived a good many years so their life themes have had plenty of time to work out (they could be people from the past as well).
I will choose the charts that are simplest to assess because I want to throw it open to readers to offer their own comments and deductions.
We can try and identify the main themes and then the person sending them could give feedback as to their accuracy.
Here’s the first offering.
What do you make of it? Using the methods that I’ve identified over this beginners course, how would you go about picking the main themes?
Any particular transit periods stand out?
So let’s have a look at the first subject chart.
This is a good one to start with as there are very clear themes.
Lots of people mentioned the bottom heavy focus, particularly the 4th house. So home and family themes. Likely matriarch (Sun in Leo would add to that).
Difficult relationship with own mother (who could also be the matriarch) was also mentioned.
Problems with communication (Mercury opposite Saturn).
Struggling with emotions and dreams in relationships and possible missing partner (Moon conjunct Neptune in the 7th).
A sense that transits and progressions in early fixed signs would be very demanding and possibly overwhelming.
So lets look at a possible step by step approach.
First glance emphasis leads us to the base of the chart with the Sun right on the IC. So home and family themes will dominate.
Secondary focus is on the Descendant, so relationship themes also strong.
Then look for strongest aspects.
The most powerful is the Sun/Moon square. This is tight as Sun at 8.19 Leo in the 4th and Moon at 8.57 Scorpio in the 7th.
So this is going to be where this lady’s life is focused.
The square aspect means it’s very difficult for her to balance her needs for a secure and stable home life with the kind of relationships she also needs and the people she is drawn to.
She has probably been used to this theme since her own childhood as it’s likely that her own mother and father presented very different input to her.
It’s likely that there was conflict between them and with Moon conjunct Neptune there’s a fair chance that one of them was missing for large parts of her childhood (emotionally if not physically).
Neptune coming into this as it’s closely conjunct the Moon and square to the Sun suggests that a parent but more particularly a partner would have looked to retreat from relationship with her through drink, drugs or other escapist activities.
Having identified the Sun/Moon square (with Neptune) as the most important aspect we look to see if there are any others that connect to this.
This brings us to the Ascendant (2.22 Taurus) which is opposite the Moon/Neptune and therefore forms a T square with the apex Sun.
So now we have a 3 way pull between Ascendant, Descendant and IC.
So its very difficult for her to balance the conflicting requirements of her family, her relationships and her own needs to express herself.
It’s likely that her own family would not approve of the type of relationships she gets involved with and that could be a source of considerable tension.
The apex Sun in Leo in the 4th suggests that this lady is a very strong character, but maybe that is because she has had to become that in order to deal with these powerful conflicting pulls in her life.
She becomes the strong person at home because she has to do it all herself, she cant rely on her partners thats for sure.
Once we’ve identified the main themes in this way, just have a look to see if any other aspects catch your eye.
The might reinforce what you’ve already spotted or detract from it.
She has a very busy 4th house with a close Venus/Uranus conjunction.
Venus is her ruler so this makes this aspect very important.
This is saying that she is attracted to very unusual people and cirucmstances that will again have a big changing impact on her home and family.
Uranus and Pluto in the 4th usually means much movement and change in homes.
She has her Sun in a Fixed sign in the 4th and security and stability at the core of her being and family is so important to her.
Uranus conjunct her Venus there and Pluto are not going to give that to her, she will be constantly destabilised and will have to spend a lot of her own energy trying to find this place of security.
Neptune obviously plays a strong role because it’s in the T square, and will particularly focus on her relationships.
Therefore when it comes to transit to another point in the T square, it is likely to trigger this sense of loss and being undermined through relationships very strongly.
Transit Neptune moves very slowly and has only made one aspect to the T square in her lifetime, this would be when it was in the early degrees of Aquarius, forming a Grand Cross from the 10th house, opposing her Sun and square to both her Ascendant and Moon/Neptune.
This happened between 1999 and 2002.
There would be a secondary period when transit Pluto was conjunct the Moon/Neptune square to the Sun and opposite the Ascendant.
This is also likely to have marked a big change in her relationship situation. This occurred between 1984 and 87.
It will be interesting to find out what happened to her during those periods.
Some feedback from the poster. This was the chart of her mother
“Mother is the youngest of 4 siblings by 14 years. Spoilt rotten by mother and very close to her. Also very different from family who are conservative and she has an alternative lifestyle. Called her the weird one. Her father was a gambler and her mother had to work (back when women didn’t) to pay for food, bills, mortgage . Very strong women in family.
Had first and only child when Saturn was conjunct moon- Neptune 84.
Her father in law died in 87 and her husband died 89 nearing her Saturn return making her a single mother and pushing her into full time work.
Her family has never approved of her choice in partners. Some partners had addiction issues like gambling and alcohol. Never re married and is still single. 99-02 – sold her house and moved to a different city (essentially running away from her hometown and the problems she felt she had).
Always felt like the black sheep in her family, although she was spoilt.
Has difficulty communicating.
Never felt like she had security or support within family or relationships. Very idealistic in relationships and loses herself.
I hope I have covered everything. Thank you again for using my mothers chart. You are brilliant and please thank the other students.
Let me know if you need further clarification.”
Just thinking back to that chart. It’s interesting that the lady was the youngest of 4 siblings by 14 years.
She has 4 planets in the 4th house, her Sun is at the beginning of the house. The other three are quite some way ahead.
Sometimes astrology can be that symbolically literal.
How about another beginners subject? What do you see in this one?
Posters have picked up a lot about this chart. We have someone with community standing, in the public eye, a judge or religious preacher, an academic, architect or computer person, someone with a social outlook, a visionary and an adventurer.
Someone with financial issues, who maybe has addictive behaviour or helps people who have.
A possible partner who is foreign or working in secret services or an unsavoury character.
So let’s try our aspect driven approach to this chart.
The general spread of planets has a strong emphasis on the top of the chart, with a 6 planet stellium in the 10th and 11th houses.
So out there in the world is this person’s preferred direction. Their own career (10th) and the connections that are made through it (11th) are the key arena in their life.
There is a bucket shape with one planet (Moon) near the bottom of the chart acting as a handle.
This would generally mean that although it is on its own, it has quite a bit of power to distract this person from their main focus in life.
So there could be something to do with family (bottom of chart), perhaps siblings (3rd) maybe a female member (Moon) that plays this role for them.
There is a strong blue aspect pattern.
This is a Grand Trine in Earth signs involving the Sun, Saturn, Mercury, Moon and Pluto.
It also forms a Kite pattern which includes Neptune.
Even the Ascendant is part of this fluid, easy pattern.
Some of these aspects are very close (Moon trine Saturn and Mercury trine Pluto both about half a degree in orb).
This is the type of pattern that suggests that practical and material things generally go pretty well for this man.
The Sun/Moon trine suggests that most people are on board with his main drives and he receives general support in the environment he wishes to be in.
The Sun/Saturn conjunction in Capricorn suggests that he has a strong sense of mission and is a hard worker although with the Grand Trine he probably wouldn’t need to be to survive.
When a Grand Trine forms a Kite, this often gives extra drive to a pattern that otherwise might make the person relax and just let things come to them.
The Moon’s opposition to Neptune could indicate a difficult start in life and family issues.
The Sun/Saturn conjunction will often point to a lack of father figure or at least feeling unsupported by one.
The Moon’s opposition with Neptune may be addiction problems relating to a female relative.
There is a sense of someone who had to find his own independent way and support himself from a young age and is driven to succeed because of it.
The other very significant pattern is the T square – His Ascendant is opposite Pluto and both are square to an apex Venus in Sagittarius in the 10th house.
This further emphasises the career, and makes it a very strong focus for him.
Together with a Mars/Jupiter conjunction in Sagittarius in the 10th you would imagine that his career involves a lot of travel.
It could also be intellectual travel with the posters ideas of the academia, the judiciary, or religion as possible areas of employment.
Whatever this Sagittarius stuff is, it is a very potent direction in his life that consumes him.
The T square identifies the chief problem area in his life – relationships.
This Pluto on the Descendant is part of both patterns (Grand Trine and T Square).
Its tight square with Venus in the 10th suggests that any partners are going to find his obsessive career/adventure drive too much to cope with.
Consequently it is difficult for him to maintain any personal relationship for long.
Despite the Pisces rising, that stellium, particularly with the Sun/Saturn in Capricorn doesn’t really suggest that he would be that aware of the feelings and needs of others.
With the Venus/Pluto square, I would imagine his love life would be challenging.
With Venus, Mars, Jupiter in Sagittarius he has a strong sense of his own maleness but doesn’t really understand what the women in his life want.
It might not be very Sun/Saturn in Capricorn but I would imagine he’s not averse to spreading the love around, and this could well be why he has 7th house problems.
This chart suggests someone who has had his career sorted but maybe not his love life.
But there is also the suggestion that he would take that combination, because his life out there in the world is more important to him.
As Pluto plays such a big part in both of his aspect patterns, its own transits will have a powerful impact on his life.
There are many but we can focus on two in particular.
The first would be the only time Pluto makes another aspect to his T square, conjunct Venus and square his Ascendant.
I would expect this to have been the end of a significant relationship and possibly the start of another one.
The other would have been Pluto’s conjunction with his Sun in 2015 – 17.
Again a big change in his life, but probably more to do with his work.
It will be interesting to bet some feedback and see how these themes actually worked out in his life.
Here’s some feedback from this subject’s daughter. “When Dad was 10 he began drinking, smoking and having relations with women.
At 15, he left home and joined the Navy, had an illegitimate child with a woman who didn’t want him involved so he never saw her again.
At 20 he met my Mum in a residential facility where they looked after intellectually disabled adults.
At 26.5 they married. On their honeymoon Dad was wrongfully imprisoned by a corrupt rural police team, 2 hours from home. Mum had to visit him there for 2 years.
Just prior to his 28th birthday his mother had a heart attack walking to the prison to visit him – she lived and had a few more before she passed in her 80s. He was released in the end due to them not having a proper lineup for identification-
Age 29. He falls off a wall during army training and injures his knee – he has had 30 odd surgeries since them.
Dad didn’t want kids, Mum did. I was born when he was 31. He agreed to stay so I could gtfo when needed.
At 38, he moved across the country without a job to move in with a lady he had spoken to on the internet for the last 2 years. He became stepdad to 3 kids, they are still together to this day.
At 45 he and my mum trick me into moving in with him since thats how she likes to handle conflict. This shook his life up to the point of having 2 heart attacks in the next 2 years.
At 49 (I was 17) I move out and he can now focus on his wife and has a career change (to security guard in the mines, from a computer administrator).
Age 50 he manages an extreme obstacle course event and has a pretty serious sporty life chunk. Spends his early 50s gaining almost 10 grandkids.
At 55 he marries the woman he moved over for at age 39.
A bit more feedback
“Your posts, without me telling you his story yet, are incredible! Very spot on. Especially regarding the 96-98 period.
His father was a radio repairman [died 2011] in the airforce and mum was a kind woman who loved birds [died 2008]
He enjoys travelling to Bali with his wife, buying new cars and working.
Thanks for this, amazing”
I think we got the main themes pretty well. This man seems to be more of the physical travel side of Sagittarius than the intellectual one.
“At 38, he moved across the country without a job to move in with a lady he had spoken to on the internet for the last 2 years.”
Fits exactly with the first Pluto transit through the T square as identified 1996-98 (age 36-38).
“At 45 he and my mum trick me into moving in with him since thats how she likes to handle conflict. This shook his life up to the point of having 2 heart attacks in the next 2 years”
Fits exactly with the second Pluto transit, conjunct his Sun identified as 2015-17 (age 45-47)
This did bring about a significant change of career.
So you can see how this aspect/transit driven approach to astrology hits all the important nails on the head.
This was the final article in this collection of Facebook posts. I think it shows how this method of looking at charts can give you a clear, simple in sight into the main themes of someone’s chart and their lives.
Posted 5 Aug 2024
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