How to overcome the suffering of a “bad birth chart” ?
Sometimes (especially if one tends toward pessimism), it’s easy to feel “overwhelmed” by one’s birth chart or by the transits one is experiencing, often involving the slow-moving planets Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, and of course Saturn…
In fact, it can feel as though we regret that life is not a “permanent rainbow of trines”, that things are not always clear and simple, and we tend to “judge” what we are experiencing and what we are, rather than trying to understand it…
Crisis, suffering, evolution
Dane Rudhyar said many insightful things about the nature of suffering in his book “Astrological Triptych” :
“Suffering is proof of human greatness not yet fully realized or carelessly wasted.
Suffering can never be an end in itself nor possess intrinsic value; it is a means of training toward objective understanding and emotional detachment, a test of endurance for our will and our faith.
Suffering is the determining condition that enables human beings to break away from identification with the “lesser”, gradually climbing their path toward the “greater”.
The trap that lies in wait for more than one soul here is self-pity : “Why did this happen to me ?”
To this there are various metaphysical answers, but the only practical answer is this : because you do not yet know what your full power and your essential purpose truly are !”
I believe that the culture of immediacy in which we live plays a major role here.
We imprint in our minds that “everything” must be obtained “right away”, and as easily as possible, while overlooking difficulty, suffering, and frustration, which are also part of the system and form the other side of the same coin.
Without suffering, there is no meaningful success.
Thus, understanding and integrating the fact that there are long cycles, lasting several years, often deeply unsettling and difficult to live through, is not easy. There are unavoidable time scales that are simply part of life.
From the perspective of humanistic astrology, a “crisis” is simply a phase of growth for the individual, or for the social system in which they live.
It has a function and a deep meaning connected to the overall development of individuality.
It’s necessary for evolution, even if the form it takes can sometimes be partially modulated.
When facing a crisis, there are precisely two main reactions.
The first is logically to try to maintain the status quo (“I’m fine the way I am ! Why change ?”).
The second is to use the instability it generates, consciously or unconsciously, as a lever for growth, enabling one to climb the step it represents (turning things into a principle of action).
This may apply just as much to a sensitive natal square as to a conjunction that drags on in transit over a sensitive point in the chart.
Either we take the initiative and move ahead, or we remain passive and endure events, more or less at the mercy of fate.
The value of astrology lies precisely in the fact that it allows us to be on the front line if we choose to fight and overcome difficulties, because it provides a depth of understanding that very few tools can offer.
Change is never truly comfortable. One moves from a known state to something more unknown and therefore frightening.
But as Rudhyar rightly points out, suffering is not the goal in itself; it’s a means, a test, whose ultimate purpose is to move toward a better state, even if this is not always apparent when one is immersed in hardship.
Astrology cannot prevent crises or suffering, because they must occur; they are written in the sky.
However, it gives meaning to events and helps us understand their significance. This is what fundamentally distinguishes human beings from animals.
What is commonly called a “bad chart” is often a chart that includes tense Aspects (Square, Opposition, Quincunx, Sesquisquare, Semi-square) involving strong, strained planetary energies.
Yet these are also “dynamic” energies in the sense that they generate evolution.
In this respect, they can be seen as real “assets”, often more useful than so-called “static” energies.
Trying to force the expression of the birth chart before its time is not only pointless, but can prove counterproductive and even dangerous in the process of Individuation.
One must simply accompany the energies at the rhythm indicated by the sky through Progressions and Transits.
A few years ago, I read a small book with an appealing title that intrigued me on this subject and that may give you a few additional insights:
“How to build a ‘good’ life with a ‘bad’ chart” by Brigitte Fracheboud
