Astrology's Hard Lesson

Astrology has many insights to offer, but one of the most profound happens to be one that many people have the hardest time accepting. It goes something like this:

Suppose a person grows up in a painful or even traumatic family environment, and winds up developing considerable anger as an adult over that early upbringing, perhaps even believing those early family members were responsible for his or her later dysfunctions, relationship issues, general failures, and so on.

Needless to say, those early life-challenges will surely be indicated in some way within that person’s horoscope, whether it be through hard aspects to the Sun or Moon, the placement of Saturn or Mars in the 10th or 4th house, or some other configuration— there are many ways this type of situation can be indicated.

But here is the bitter pill that some find hard to swallow. Those horoscopic patterns, whatever they may be, were present in that person’s horoscope from the moment they were born. Why is that important? Because it suggests that before any family member had a chance to do anything at all to them, or facilitate any of the problems they’ve held grudges about since childhood, the celestial patterns indicating those things were already present in their life from the very start.

So what should we make of this? It almost seems as though those family members were simply the conduits or triggers for those problems encoded within the birth chart, rather than their Sole cause.[1] That isn’t to absolve those family members for whatever abuses or negligent acts they may have committed, of course, but it does suggest that those early life-dramas were intimately connected to something in that individual’s destiny from a very early point.

Like I said, it’s one of the more difficult lessons astrology has to offer, and actually applies not just to early family traumas but to any and all painful situations we experience in life with their reflection in the horoscope. Understandably, this idea triggers defensive reactions for some, probably because it can easily be interpreted as “blaming the victim,” or suggesting that life-problems may be payback for past “bad karma.” But there are actually a few different ways of looking at this.

For example, yes, it’s possible some of the troubling things we encounter in life are “karmic,” and that we’re reaping what we’ve sowed in one past life or another, perhaps even stemming from many lifetimes ago.

But it’s also possible, as some mystics have suggested, that a person can take on difficult situations in life specifically to learn something new, or to elicit potentials that can only be cultivated as a result of challenging situations. In these cases, it has far less to do with “bad karma” than with one’s spiritual evolution, or what some might call dharma. As Goswami Kriyananda remarked, “... one of the mistakes that many modern western astrologers make is they believe that squares or oppositions are due to ‘bad karma.’ And they’re not. Many times we induce difficult squares into a chart when we’re born in order to accomplish something.” (Emphasis mine) 2

In fact, rather than see this as somehow blaming victims for their misfortunes, I’d suggest a different reframe—namely, that it’s actually a way of taking responsibility for our lives and refusing to see our various triumphs and tragedies as the random workings of a meaningless universe. Are we simply victims of a cosmic crapshoot, unwitting recipients of the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”? Or is there some meaning and purpose to the challenges we experience?

The German philosopher Schopenhauer framed the question this way: “Is a complete misadjustment possible between the character and the fate of an individual? Or is every destiny on the whole appropriate to the character that bears it?” 3

Looked at deeply enough, astrology seems to have its own answer for that.

Excerpted from my book StarGates: Essays on Astrology, Symbolism and the Synchronistic Universe (Inner Eye Publishing, 2020).

Notes:

1. This perspective on natal horoscopic patterns can also be applied to life-events triggered by transits and progressions, too. I remember talking years ago with my colleague Rosemary Clark about some difficult experiences a mutual friend I’ll call “Louise” was undergoing during a tough Pluto transit. Among other things, Louise was contending with a dishonest and manipulative business partner who caused her untold problems. Feeling sorry for Louise, I spent several minutes complaining to Rosemary about that situation, choosing to lay the blame solely on Louise’s business partner and suggesting Louise was just an innocent victim in the sordid drama. Pausing a bit, Rosemary interjected, “Well, let’s not forget: it’s Louise’s Pluto, after all.” That caught me off-guard, because it reminded me that it wouldn’t really have happened to Louise if it wasn’t somehow in her horoscope at the time. Here as well, this doesn’t let the business partner off the hook for any unethical decisions, it simply points up how the world acts towards us in concert with our own horoscopes.

2. Cited in my book Urban Mystic: Recollections of Goswami Kriyananda, Inner Eye Press, 2018, p. 58.

3. Cited in my book The Waking Dream: Unlocking the Symbolic Language of Our Lives, Quest Books, 1996, p. 214.

Ray Grasse is a writer, astrologer, and photographer living in the American Midwest. He is author of ten books, most recently In the Company of Gods. His websites are www.raygrasse.com and www.raygrassephotography.com.