A Real-Life Example
May 2015
This article is copyrighted and all rights are reserved. No portion of these articles may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, scanning, photocopying, recording, emailing, posting on other web sites, or by any other information storage and retrieval or distribution system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
My Strongest Pattern
To this point in the series, I have been laying out the bare bones conceptual groundwork for the astro-chakra system. But rather than talk about this in the abstract, let’s take a real-life example and see how this might work. Since my work for the last 15 years has emphasized the use of astrology for self-understanding, I will use my own chart to demonstrate how the astro-chakra system can be used to facilitate growth and understanding.
The strongest pattern in my chart is a mutable t-square formed with a Sun/ Mercury-Moon opposition at the base and a Saturn-Mars conjunction at the apex. Sun/Chiron is in the 12th house just above the horizon, Mercury is in the 1st house, Moon is in the 6th just below the horizon, and Saturn/Mars in the 9th. Of these placements, only the Moon sits in a classic position as a 1st chakra planet. The rest are hybrid placements.
The Sun is in a 1st chakra position opposed the Moon, so there is some indication here that this is a 1st chakra aspect.
The Sun’s square to Mars suggests a 3rd chakra pattern. Since Sun is also square Saturn, which is conjunct Mars, this suggests a 3rd chakra pattern of deficiency.
The Sun is also conjunct Mercury, which sits in a classic 3rd chakra position and is tightly square primary 3rd chakra player Mars.
Putting all this together, it seems plausible to suspect that this t-square is a hybrid 1st-3rd chakra pattern, somehow bringing together survival issues and the challenge of finding my place within the world.
The Ashpile Incident
A rather graphic image of my particular 1st-3rd chakra predicament emerged when I was about 3 1/2 years old. I was playing king of the mountain on a huge pile of ashes in my grandfather’s backyard with the neighborhood kids, of whom I was the youngest. Somehow I managed to make it to the top of the pile, only to have the other kids gang up on me, knock me down, and stuff ashes in my mouth. I started choking, and turning blue. My grandfather rushed out, chased the other kids away, and took me to the hospital, where I contracted pneumonia, and was sick for some time.
The message I got from this experience was essentially that “winning is dangerous.” “If I make it to the top of the mountain, it is inevitable that I will be attacked and possibly killed by those at the bottom.” Can you see how this message might compromise my 3rd chakra capacity to find my place in the world, making what might otherwise be a straightforward process a 1st chakra matter of life and death? This is essentially my 1st-3rd chakra deficiency dilemma, played out in rather graphic – what I would call astropoetic - form.
Of course, I have done a lot of work on this issue since then, and have somehow managed to find a way to be in the world without seriously jeopardizing my survival. But the process has been one of learning to more skillfully address this 1st-3rd chakra issue, while having this the astro-chakra system as a framework helps me to understand the process more clearly. And of course, the process continues. With any core issue, of which this is certainly one, there are layers upon layers to explore.
The last post in this series is The Workshop.
To read more blog posts, go here.