I often see people doing things they don’t realize they are doing. Astrologer, Liz Greene said it best: “Consciousness is a struggle”. Generally speaking, people have no interest in struggling.
It’s a struggle to figure out what you are doing. It’s much easier to focus on what the other person is doing and what their problem is. In other words, we’re inclined to project. The more a person projects, the more they act unconsciously.
Being aware of the havoc a person can wreak due their unconscious drives, I’ve gone out of my way to train myself not to concern myself with what other people are doing as it is really none of my business and surely not my problem. An exception is made when someone hires me to read a chart.
It’s rare a person tells you something POTENT. Twenty-five years ago, a therapist told me that my IQ dropped fifty points when I met a man. Stuff like that is PRICELESS.
Until she said that do you think I knew?
I did not.
I wholeheartedly agree with your statement that people in general have no interest in struggling. I read this Nietzsche quote with this view in mind: “To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence.”
Looking up Nietzsche’s birth info on the web, I find that he’s a Libra sun in the 11th with opposition to Pluto in the 5th, Scorpio rising.
8th house moon says what about acting subconsciously? I always thought it was more about truth-seeking behavior in unusual places and bringing unconscious fears to the surface? am I wrong on that?
flyingdog – anything that has to do with “truth” is Jupiter / 9th house / Sagittarius..
ohhhh, this is a big big struggle. shouldn’t we all be building a sub-marine- or something…i think most of us operate on auto-pilot/ maybe when saturn is put to good work in a chart, it is easier to real deal and be aware of yourself and your motives>>actions in the moment– instead of a post-mort. review
I totally missed this.
I feel like those who focus too much on what other people are doing are lazy, because it IS hard to look at yourself. I can my own astrology (questioning why) after reading this. I have 8th House Saturn. I’m inclined to work on my self-awareness (it squares my Sun).
I can easily see how other people would find this an unfair view. I’m on the fence…I guess my Saturn likes tough love.
My sister has 8th House Sun and Moon and finds unconscious behaviour maddening (and boring, I think that’s her Gemini talking).
Cripes did any of that paragraph even make sense?
“people in general have no interest in struggling” Yeah, if they can avoid it.
Funny, my IQ drops 50 (at least) when I’m afraid of something. I’ve learned not to make any decisions under fear. saturn/neptune
banana me too about the not making decision & saturn/neptune but then I freeze and get nothing done at all. I’ve been withdrawing because … for many reasons including not wanting to embarrass myself being seen doing or saying stuff like a puppet on strings. I best see the unconscious at work with my family, it is saddening heart breaking stuff. Compared to them I realize I am quite conscious, but then my own life is such a mess…
there’s a foreign expression which states: in the land of the blind, the one eye men rules LOL. Not!
We have “tendencies,” then we have experiences, karmic, early childhood, etc. If we get hurt (which we do), then we develop responses in order to protect/cope that become automatic patterns of response. The more rigid this set of patterns becomes, the less freedom we have to act on our own. (Or even think on our own).
Something else has taken over, and that includes the internal “projector.” We don’t even turn on our own TV or pick our own shows to watch at that point. Some of us become “walking patterns,” and to become conscious of that and to act outside of the pattern is to open oneself up to discomfort automatically in most cases.
In peer counseling they had something for this called doing a DAD, which means decide, act, and discharge (sounds gross, yeah?) So, you realize your pattern won’t let you go to the grocery store, you go to the grocery store anyway, then come back and bawl about it to somebody who is safe to talk to and doesn’t mind having their shirt snotted on. Rinse, and repeat. Viola, a little more consciousness and a freer life. These boards and consults can work this way because astrology can shortcut the trial and error of figuring things out, then there are good folks here who will read with attention. We still have to do the work, then. grrr… in my experience, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man gets targeted and scapegoated (this is how projection plays).
Mena I love this “decide, act, and discharge”. I’ll share this with my repressed 7th Aries Mars + Neptune/Saturn involving the 8th.
Re. the one-eyed men, that’s why I added NOT! at the end of that expression. As stated above I best see the unconscious at work with my family, I gotta say I was at my best functionality when I was banned. Though I remain a black sheep (the one-eyed men) this ban was lifted a few years back and it’s not been to my or anyone’s benefit that I can see. Yet I must be gaining some hidden benefits/secondary gain. clueless? Tangled strings!
This.
I understand this on a deeper level since my break up. All of a sudden I realized…. Stop thinking about what he’s doing. Stop imagining her and him.
I need wake the eff up and focus on my own life.
….and there is freedom.
It’s a constant effort though.
Thanks Elsa, always.
Projecting is like living outside of myself. I never really saw it that way before now.
I too, am working on unconscious me. Stunning, I’m realizing I am quiet cold. I have started walking around saying ‘ you are jupitarian!’ Too help rebuke all the saturn in my chart. It’s darn near half and half, the Jupiter stacked against the saturn. I like my saturn it’s safe. I want to be fun though!
Do not make decisions under fear. I like that.
That’s a solid breakthrough.
Love this.
“Twenty-five years ago, a therapist told me that my IQ dropped fifty points when I met a man. Stuff like that is PRICELESS.
Until she said that do you think I knew?
I did not.”
Wow, that really made me laugh, “sort of”. But sudden realisation of a hidden dynamic, that is potent indeed.
At any rate, consciousness isn’t obvious or easy at all, especially since it can be mistaken consciousness waylaid by unconscious mechanismes!
Yeah, projection is a way to keep busy about other people’s lives while avoiding one’s own mess. It’s ood suggestion to try to avoid that, if possible. Waste of time and energy. It’s just not real.
4rh house sun in the basement. Jupiter magnifies from the 10th. I’m committed to overcoming unhealthy self focus and benefit others. It seems to me a question first of shining light, appreciating the gift ? f life through being this manifestion. Practically pluto transits 6th House now.
As the ancients said – know thyself!
The first step to growth, is to recognize thy own self through learning to observe thy own behaviors or patterns of behavior.
As the Dalai Lama once said, “If you think everything that happens to you is the result of somebody else, your suffering will be great.” (This is projecting onto others)
Good Luck!
It seems the things we criticize in others are the things we most fear about ourselves.
You are what you hate! That was a tough pill for me to swallow, still is sometimes. So I started working first on not hating. Man, I used to be such a hater. Know thyself, been working on that one too for a long long time. Still working……lolol. 12th H Scorpio stellium, how can I be any other way with all that deep water? I still cringe at the thought of all those unwashed masses (metaphor for unexamined consicousness?) not knowing or caring WHY they do what they do? But I am learning to accept that brutal self examination isn’t for everyone, eh? The thing that gets me though is I can tell a lot about a person’s psychology from observing them and the way they communicate, etc. I would never want to have such an obvious tell. I prefer to remain an unfathomable mystery to everyone but myself. 🙂
I probably have more tells than I realize though – it’s the curse of being so Scorpio…I think I’m way more mysterious, sexy, deep and cool than I am! Hey. At least I can admit it.
My practical Capricorn husband has a favorite quote:
You see in Others what you hide in yourself!
Brilliant