A Birth chart is a paradigm, an outlook on the world, and a way of seeing and understanding one’s life. It defines our deepest tendencies, like our mental blocks and our complexes. On this basis, it allows us, by definition, to do two important, complementary things :
- 1- to be able to express our personality in its entirety
- 2- to be able to fight against the obstacles that are holding us back
I have addressed the first of these points, Individuation, in many different articles before this one. I have also discussed the various consequences of mental blocks, which often include Depression or simply any of its symptoms.
There is no need to passively accept any situation of any kind : there are options for actively managing a “difficult” birth chart or “complicated” Aspects during Transits or Progressions.
This active management can take place in a preventative manner, before a depressive episode occurs, or during one.
Here, you will find a few starting points to help you to actively fight your mental blocks !
Identifying the mental blocks
These mental blocks, or complexes, may be psychological, emotional, or affective in nature, and have concrete consequences in one’s daily life, including psychosomatic impacts.
They are linked to internal tension which results in losses of energy, hyperemotionality, and sometimes anxiety, and these “nodes” often occur in an endless cycle of repeating psychological patterns.
Fundamentally, psychological complexes are the result of an inability to keep one’s individual personality in tune with the collective environment and society (according to both Freud and Jung).
“When I see myself in pictures, I look ugly, and I want to cry.
It reminds me of the burden of passing time and also everything that I have failed at in my life.
[…]
It’s as though my body is carrying all of these failures and everyone can see them.”
I am transcribing here part of a conversation I had with a person while studying her Birth chart.
This sort of discussion is very revealing, and represents a process that is much more common than we believe.
In these three sentences, we can perceive both her lack of self-confidence, which has taken hold and gotten worse, and a large part of the underlying destructive mechanisms. The psychological cycles involved unfortunately were not identified in time or fought back by the ego.
Knowing what is “objectively true or false” in this story does not matter, though it’s also not the case that the person is lying; it’s really all about her subjective inner perception.
But that is the problem : it’s nothing but a “perception”, a subjective vision, and a relative, partial understanding.
The way in which we see our life depends directly on our personality.
Understanding this reality is at the heart of fighting against our mental blocks, and moreover it’s at the heart of developing our personality.
In order to take up this fight successfully, we first need to identify anything that is preventing progress and development.
The various mental blocks or complexes that a person may be confronted with are often visible “nodes” of their Birth chart.
These nodes are not, however, necessarily visible features such as a simple Square or Opposition, or planets with a “bad” reputation, such as Saturn or Pluto : it’s more complicated than that.
If we had to define them astrologically, we would more likely be talking about a planetary configuration with complex, intertwined Aspects (this is also useful for identifying mental blocks in Synastry and in social relationships).
An astrological approach can teach us many things, both about how these nodes are structured at their root and about the framework for their evolution (especially using Forecasts of planetary cycles).
Understanding our subjectivity
Every human viewpoint is by definition “subjective”, and is thus biased on any level. Only God can claim to have perfect, absolute objectivity (the synthesis of the 12 Signs and 4 Astrological Elements).
The Aspects of a Birth chart are like “mental predispositions”. We look at all of our experiences with these assumptions in mind, given this particular framework, and through this prism, and so people have a hard time seeing things outside of this framework. It’s an example of the glass half empty or half full metaphor : some people are conditioned to see it as “full”, others to see it as “empty”.
By definition, we each have our own interpretation of reality. We extrapolate, thinking that everyone thinks and believes the same things as us, and by believing this we project our own Shadow onto our fellow human beings.
When we anticipate a criticism in our social sphere, we are actually the ones who are formulating it in the first place : it already exists in our minds. The worst part is that, for the most part, we are never aware of it; this process is unconscious.
The problem is that based on these Projections, we often formulate a series of “scenarios” that do nothing but remove us even further from the reality of the present moment and pull us away from our personality (see Karma in astrology).
In every birth chart, there are always, in one way or another, some factors that are more complicated and difficult to live with, and of course we all have hardships that we need to overcome over the course of our lives… but there is also invariably much richness there ! We all have various assets that we absolutely need to make use of, such as creativity, a unique form of originality, and various astrological factors that are just begging to be developed.
If you have a handle your perception of the events around you, if you are smart enough to change your point of view when necessary, and if you have the freedom to deal with your mental blocks or ignore them, then you have a good understanding of subjectivity !
Acting to create change
The longer the pattern of a mental block has been established, the more complicated it’s to take action. Moreover, the mind is structured in a way such that if the ego senses that there is a desire to create change, there is a good chance that it will actually reinforce the original pattern.
Nonetheless, once the mental block or complex has been “translated” into astrological terms, it’s possible to :
- find a conscious, active way of expressing these energies in everyday life in order to somehow “bypass” or divert them
- determine at least one period of time that is favorable for exploring them using Transits and Progressions
The goal is to try to confront your mental blocks, at your own pace, giving yourself a defined period of working time, with objectives to achieve and “challenges” to overcome. It’s all about experimenting empirically with the various aspects of your birth chart.
A Birth chart is what it’s : it will never change, but you can change your perception of it. You can actively make it come to life and create the “shock” that is necessary to make changes and sublimate your mental block.
With this creative slant, you can cause new, positive possibilities to emerge in your conscious, and these possibilities may spontaneously take up more space than the old patterns that caused the block.
To a certain extent, it’s thus advisable to “consciously” create opportunities in our lives for these obstructive aspects to express themselves.
No matter what Aspects you have, they will affect your birth chart : you cannot avoid the fact that you have, for example, a Sun / Saturn Opposition in 1st House / 7th House axis, but instead of simply suffering through it, you can consciously look for a positive, constructive way of expressing it. For example, you could accentuate the evolutive side of Saturn, as well as your perseverance, discipline, and concentration, in order to develop your Sun and your assertiveness in your relationships.
You cannot change the aspect but you can consciously modify how you use it !
I insist on the idea of doing this “consciously” because it’s really all about actively regaining control over what is unfortunately usually experienced too passively and repressed. You thus give this part of yourself the opportunity to express itself freely by channeling it.
It’s important to understand that each of the Planets and the Houses can express itself in many different ways, and it’s up to you to determine :
- How and when has the planet expressed itself so far ?
- What has it given you ?
- Where has it gotten in your way ?
- What has it taken away from you ?
- Which sides of it have not been expressed thus far and are ones that I can put forward ?
- What is going on in the houses impacted by these aspects ?
You need to establish an empirical connection with these energies : test one side of a planet to see how it works, and if it does not work for you, try another one !
If you have Saturn in your 7th House, it can influence your social, personal, or professional life, and it would be useless to believe that you could escape from this influence by ignoring it or cutting all of your relationships with “other people” out of your life; however, you can at least find another channel for Saturn to express itself,at least in part, integrate it, and turn your Saturn into an asset instead of a burden.
By expressing it in this way, it will unload some of its energy where you want it to, and it will not overflowor at least overflow lessin the other aspects of the house it is in.
With a Square, an Opposition, or some other aspect that could be causing you problems, try to instead imagine what it could be if it were a Trine or a Sextile. This is a method for finding a way to create harmony among the relevant energies. Try to redirect your mind towards this alternative, positive energy.
The secret : not becoming attached to the results
We often feel powerless in the face of the inescapable, superior forces of destiny, but it’s important not to focus on our failures. Our circumstances may change, and we may find ourselves constantly becoming stronger and succeed where we once failed.
We also need to understand the other side of the coin though : success is always fickle, ephemeral, and partial. We should not get more attached to it than it really merits.
By developing this attitude where we treat failure and success as equals, we gain emotional stability and wisdom.
Dane Rudhyar, in his book “An Astrological Study of Psychological Complexes and Emotional Problems” elaborated on the differences between people who are overrun by the negativity of their complexes and people who are more positive and choose to focus on personal development :
“The tragic suffering [of our history] was not created by one person, one group, or one nation.
[On a deeper level] it was born from a collective attitude towards life, one that is deeply rooted in the collective unconscious : seeing life as nothing but a battle between antagonistic forces, as though this antagonism stemmed from the laws of nature.Seeing life in this way logically leads, above all else, to a negative attitude, a philosophy of pessimism, and defeatism.
The same cannot be said of someone who is convinced (Editor’s note : this idea of being convinced and completely certain is important) that they should live life in order to develop their inner capabilities, no matter the circumstances, through both pain and bliss, and for whom the only true excellence is in the ability to fully and effectively express one’s innate abilities, no matter the cost or consequences; in the face of the powerful forces of nature (both internal and external), battered and beaten, bruised and wounded, they will not succumb to the “feeling of defeat” as long as they know that they have undergone personal growth and learning.
Seeing the emergence of deep values and personal, creative development as the only true meaning of life leads to a positive attitude that can completely transform one’s situation, which would otherwise be experienced as a tragic defeat”.
To live is to face challenges that result from our personal development or from change in the collective environment : it means adapting to various situations. Any significant attachments need to be re-evaluated periodically, from time to time.
Learning from life also means knowing how to detach from things once they have been assimilated.
As Dane Rudhyar explains quite well in his various teachings, only “one who is creative” is free because, since they are unconstrained by the symbolic systems of the past, they can perpetually visualize new things, and so only these people can free their consciousness.
Remind yourself of the importance of the present moment : the “here and now” (see Karma in astrology). Even an extremely well-established mental structure is experienced in the present moment, and it is there that we can step in to reconstruct our development.
As Buddhist teachings have told us, we need to “make friends with ourselves” : reconciling with ourselves is part of reconciling with the world.
Do not be too hard on yourself. Give yourself the right to make mistakes and not always be strong. Take the time to be gentle with yourself. Be kind to yourself, as you might be with your best friend. The most important thing is to make sure that you always assiduously do your best as undertake your journey of personal development.