If there are things which, astrologically speaking, can be quite futile and without much interest, studying the birth chart of one’s young child is on the contrary extremely important ! Why is that ?
The birth chart indicates all the potentialities of the individual as well as his or her possible Complexes and blockages. It indicates them with a finesse and depth that no other psychological test can match.
For the parents, if they have the necessary wisdom, knowing the content of this chart gives them a better understanding, and thus a better guidance of their child.
Through a Synastry with their own charts, parents can also better understand the essence of the relationship they will have with their child, what they will have in common, why there will be certain misunderstandings and how to deal with them as intelligently as possible.
There is, however, a huge trap to understand and avoid when looking at your child’s chart : placing it in time and in its cyclical nature (see Generic Cycles).
How should a child’s birth chart be examined ?
There are several levels of interpretation of your child’s chart, a little bit like Russian dolls, each level is nested in the upper level and/or contains lower levels, but the levels do not mix.
Always on a spiral model, but seen from above, the individuation process is concentric, the personality develops in an inclusive way, each cycle builds on the previous one.
The child’s birth chart is at the same time :
- the seed of his/her latent potentials
- the map of the final becoming of one’s personality, one’s destiny (one’s purpose)
- by different means of Forecasting, a kind of dynamic guide for the accomplishment of one’s process of Individuation
It’s essential to keep this trinity in mind.
All the difficulty for the responsible adult is first of all to understand these levels of interpretation, then to well integrate their cyclical and temporal nature, and finally, most importantly, to plan and accompany their accomplishment.
Understanding the levels of interpretation
The levels of interpretation can be divided into 3 perspectives : short term, medium term, long term.
This makes it possible to place any astrological analysis more precisely in its temporal dimension.
From these 3 perspectives we must remember :
- most people have almost no awareness of the long term, or then very weak, or on an intuitive unconscious mode (which is understandable, the human being is made this way)
- on the contrary, most people have a short-term vision, or for the most farsighted, a medium-term vision
- these 3 visions can be contradictory : a useful and relevant achievement for the short or medium term, will either have no interest for the long term, or will be contrary to it, and conversely, something that may seem totally futile in the short term may turn out to be a “determining brick” for the long term
The important thing to remember is that we are always living in the present, it’s the present that must be continuously fulfilled, regardless of the perspective that is being examined (see Karma in Astrology).
Understanding the Cyclical and Temporal Nature of Life
In my article on the Generic Cycles of Life, I approach in a general way the main points of evolution, as well as the concept of the 3 spiritual births of man, correlated to the great cycles of Saturn (1st day, 29 years 1st saturn return, 60 years 2nd saturn return).
It’s the interweaving of the personal cycles with the generic cycles that forms exactly the cyclical and temporal nature of life.
To understand this interweaving is in a way to understand the nature of the different mandatory points of passage of human life projected on the life of the child.
These points form kinds of “nodes of existence”, they precisely indicate the types of psychological evolution that are likely to occur, which will sometimes be materialized by different external events (but not necessarily).
The astrological cycles indicate the “punctuation” of the child’s evolution.
The first saturn cycle (from 0 to 29 years old), enormously “conditioned”, is extremely important and very rich in potentialities for the child.
It’s precisely because it’s conditioned (by family, cultural and societal influences in general) that this particular cycle must be the object of particular attention from parents.
It’s indeed the role of the parents to study all the virtualities and probabilities at this moment when the child still has a certain psychological permeability and malleability. It’s even more their role to monitor and control all the different contributions / inputs of these influences.
All subsequent cycles are derived from this first saturnian cycle. The astrologer Dane Rudhyar evokes in his teaching the “fateful threshold” of the 7 years, correlated to the first increasing Square of Saturn, on his side the psychoanalysis insists on the importance of the first 5 years…
But astrologically speaking, one remains a “child” as long as the first Saturn return has not passed (29 years).
Understanding the process of accomplishment
So what can parents do ? What should they do ? and what should they refrain from doing ?
In reality, the essential role of parents will be to identify the “nodes” of the personal and generic cycles, to understand their deepest meanings in the short term, in the medium term, and their integration in the long term, then “simply” accompany these phases, without hastening them, without forcing them, without fearing them, without denying them, without skipping them…
This is in fact excessively subtle and requires time, patience, wisdom, an alliance of firmness and affection.
It’s necessary to give time to time, so that the child can be accomplished at his own pace, and make his own formative errors.
This point is important : error and failure are formative and, as such, necessary for accomplishment.
A parent identifying a “trap” in these “astrological nodes” must also sometimes be able to let his child “fall into it”. This trap can teach the child much more empirically than many theories and excessive mothering…
One must handle the alternation of the Moon and Saturn, the “Cardinal” qualities of the father (action), and the “Fixed” qualities of the mother (coordination, stability, security, see Signs and Houses).
It’s the role of the parent to have this global and structuring vision on the life and psychology of their child, to have this depth of analysis, to put it into perspective.
The ultimate goals of the child’s life are as many successive phases of accomplishment to be discovered and realized : Sun, Ascendant, Moon, Black moon, Lunar Nodes… everything is meaningful.
As the child grows, the analyses will become more complex : Educational learning, Shadow, Anima, Animus, Individuation and Social Relations, Karmic Study… but each thing in its time.
From the wisdom of the role of the parents…
It’s indeed the child’s life path, not the parents’, nor that of the “society”.
The child must develop and be fulfilled by and for him/herself (not for you, nor for others).
When we analyze astrologically the birth chart of our child there are different “traps” : we can believe we want to do good by committing ourself as early as possible to what we believe to be his/her “fundamental path”, we can easily make all sorts of Projections of one’s own existence or frustrations, on the history of our child, we can try to avoid to him/her, experiences that we judge ourselves useless or traumatic…
This is equivalent to ignore the fundamental chaotic rules of Life (chaos at least in appearance).
What is certain is that astrology, within the limits of any Interpretation, can give parents an enormous power of understanding of their child’s “Being”, but at the same time it gives them a very great responsibility, so they should always consider themselves “on a knife edge” and not make any false moves, never deviate.
In the absolute, a parent must first of all know well his/her own birth chart, know well himself/herself, if he/she wants to be able to approach the analysis and understanding of his/her child’s birth chart without preconceived ideas, without prejudices, and with as few negative projections as possible… To make a Synastry with your child’s birth chart allows you to identify the synergy that emerges from the parent/child relationship and to better judge its accomplishment.
But in any case, parents, be reassured, as Sigmund Freud would have told you :
“Whatever you do, you will do wrong.”
😉
It’s not a question of making parents feel guilty, but just to make them aware of the enormous importance that astrology used in an educational setting can have.