You study astrology and you learn enough to scare yourself. You see Venus square Saturn and conclude that you will never be loved. You see Venus square the Moon and decide you will never feel satisfied. You’ve got Saturn conjunct the Moon or the IC and you think, oh no! I’m depressed!
What happens next?
It’s bad enough to get something like this in your head in the first place, but you get into thought patterns like these and stay there for years. Your beliefs become reinforced as you live your life, looking for evidence of your plight.
Why does this happen?
This happens because the seed is bad. The original information is bad.
This is no different than having a parent tell you you’re good for nothing when you’re a kid. If you don’t address something like this, you wind up walking around, fulfilling the prophecy.
How to I fix this?
You’ve got to get at the root of it. You have to address the core belief. It’s like a weed left to grow in garden. As long as it’s left there, nothing else can take that space.
This is a good analogy because weeds grow over time, both above and below the ground. Bad beliefs are the same. They flourish not only in the visible world, but deep in the psyche. If you want to be rid of something like this, you’ve got to excavate the root and plant something new in it’s place.
How do I go about that?
Change your perspective. You’ve got to broaden your view.
I’ve said many times, energy is neutral until directed. This is fact that is undeniable but you have to deny this fact to look at an aspect in a chart and determine that is can only manifest in negative ways that bring about a negative outcome. You can see how narrow-minded that is. You’re oppressing yourself. You’re poisoning your own well with misinformation.
Tell me step by step how to fix this.
- Identify something in your chart that you’ve tagged as bad and horrible and your personal curse.
- Brainstorm positive ways the energy might be expressed, and see if you’re not missing the entire side of a barn.
Example: You may have limited choices, but there is an upside to this. A person with three choices is going to have an easier time making a decision and getting on with their life, then the person with thirty choices who winds up doing nothing. Or let’s say you have a serious mood or disposition. You could be lighter, it’s true. But you could also be a flake. You get the idea here. You have to expand your view of things.
- Adopt the new perspective.
Let me give you a real life, somewhat off-the-wall example of this.
Right now, my son and his friends (ages 13-15) have gained independence in that I allow them ride the light rail to the amusement park on their own. They have season passes and want to go all the time. A slice of pizza costs $6 so you can imagine how fast it adds up trying to keep these kids fed, on these 2-3 times weekly trips to the park , considering they get there when the park opens and leave when it closes. I told them they best brainstorm how they are going to eat on the road, considering they only had so much money. Where is you ingenuity?” I asked.
They didn’t like this at first but they quickly realized they could leave the park and walk to the McDonald’s and eat off the $1 menu. They felt really good about solving this problem and it occurred to me last night, these kids will be boasting to their kids someday, about how they used to go all the way to Six Flags with $5 in their pocket. I hope you can see how their limits and hardship has benefited them, in the short term and the long term as well.
Is there something in your chart that you feel sinks you? How might you alter this?
this is such a great post!!
I’ve always tried to do this with myself.. with mars/neptune in the 12th, quite often my drive is lost. so instead i use my pluto/MC to push forward.
most people hate anything and everything that has to do with pluto, but he’s all I have to work with on the “forward momentum” front.. so i use his energy to the best of my ability.
kickin butt and takin names.. it’s how i roll.
🙂
i also have a touch square between my moon in the 9th and neptune in the 12th.. it’s taken me a long time to realize how easily my emotions can run away with me.. and also, how quickly i can find myself lost in an emotional mess over something that isn’t even true! but now, instead of jumping to false conclusions and freaking out, i take advantage of the objectivity i get from my uranus sextile moon. with that energy, i can step back.. take space and gain a new perspective, using the uranus energy of ingenuity to handle my emotional reasoning..
who would have thought uranus could do such a thing?
even with pluto and uranus square, i’ve already discovered how to benefit from their energies in my own life.. so having this great conflict over our heads right now just seems like a huge learning experience to me.
as they’ve both pummeled my jupiter/venus/saturn stellium, my love life has been a wacked out barrage of craziness.. and a lot of it has been incredibly painful. but all of it has been a lesson….
so.. here’s to the bad things in life. may we never live without them.
Mars Neptune in the 12th is psychically driven / motivated.
Awesome post. I have Venus square Moon. Will have to brainstorm this… I wonder what the other side of the barn looks like.
Thanks Elsa. Three of those four aspects you named up there are in my chart – Venus sq. Saturn, Venus sq. Moon, Saturn conj. Moon. But I got Neptune in that mix, and it makes it aaaaallllll better. 😉
Really, though, I think these “difficult” aspects have actually been a boon to me. I’m a Saturn-heavy person raised by two Saturn-heavy people. I learned two very important lessons growing up: I work hard for what I want, and I don’t want to live depressed.
Saturn can be like a big boogeyman, but I’ve learned to work with him, long before I learned about astrology. How I do that is working for him. I’ve worked on how to deal with my feelings (Moon), I’ve worked on my self and my identity (1st House), I’m currently working on relationships (Venus, Saturn in Libra). It really makes it easier, even though I’m always working my posterior off. (But I love it.)
I think signs play a part in how “afflicted” a planet is as well. I have a Virgo Moon, and I think she appreciates the structure and protection Saturn offers. On the other hand, I would think something like an Aries Moon would resent the constriction of Saturn.
To actually answer the question – I think lack of knowledge about my chart sinks me more than any aspect I have.
i loved the post
Ive got so many hard aspects… i try my best, to get the best.
But this MOON MARS SQUARE seems the worst, one that easily triggers the worst of other bad aspects. Part of a grand square involving Saturn and Uranus.
I have Venus square Saturn in my chart and felt unloved (by myself and others) and unworthy of love moat of my life, long before I knew anything about astrology. What I’ve learned (partly with the help of astrology) is that I am lovable and more importantly is that I can and do love myself which makes life a whole lot better. I don’t have to hope or wait for love from an outside source. I am that source. That is very empowering knowledge and I may not have learned it without the Venus-Saturn aspect. Of course I also have a SN in Pisces in the 7th conjunct Chiron and NN in 1st conjunct Pluto and Uranus so the energy to develop my own identity is strongly present.
“Mars Neptune in the 12th is psychically driven / motivated.”
..I suppose that’s why I go with my intuition above all else…..
God bless you Elsa. Soooo Sooo many exact squares and planets in the 12th. The Mars in Pisces is no picnic either. I will take this exercise on. In a way I have already started.
My whole chart gets me down sometimes since it’s all angles and oppositions, nefarious conjunctions and wtf placements but, you know, I’m an uber-Pisces and theoretically try to transcend. To whom much is given much is required, what does not kill us makes us stronger, with great power comes great responsibility, all that jazz. Not everyone is born to have an easy time in life. A Saturn/Mars conjunction sits right at the root IC of my chart, opposing Chiron and squaring pretty much everything else. It’s the absolute ball and chain, I literally feel the weight sometimes.
However, I do understand that tiny shifts in perspective can turn a burden into a weapon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9iIKn1Bl6c
I agree! This is a great post. The structure of your approach here appeals to the seriously ‘afflicted’ Saturnian-Scorpio energy that is prominent in my chart (Stelliums of energy square off between the 10th H and 7-8th H). With this tight and concentrated energy my challenge is as you wrote “not poisoning my well” with all that power struggle.
Neptune in Libra in the 9th House offers me the transcending and different prospective and life view … a bigger and different picture.
Jupiter and Venus are in the 11th House and a couple years ago I saw how I could turn the tide by seeing ‘others’as my great resource for good. Pulling out of my “poisoning the self” drama (8th House).
Uranus is the only planet in the Northern Hemisphere (other half of my chart) in the 6th House. I never “saw” it there, nor appreciated how sudden strikes of insight could come from see things turned upside down. Uranus is in good aspect to my 8th House stellium.
You wrote “adopt” a new prospective. Yes, and for me this means remember that I’ve adopted for the best of reasons (every time I’m tempted to revert to sowing weeds)
I have Neptune retrograde in my 5th house and Venus in my 12th. I’m beginning to wonder if that is why I have talent that I keep hidden. I’m working on my MFA in Traditional Illustration, but have not put much of my work out for others to see.
I need to figure out a way to work through my very Saturn heavy chart and get past my fear.
Excellent post, thank you!
I went through the “playing a country song backwards” trauma events some years ago. Searching for answers I bought an astro chart from one of the top services then. In my extremely vulnerable state I read that I had a packed 8th house with an “unusually difficult fate,” a saturn conjunct mercury (depresssion), a severely constricted planet of faith/luck(jup in cap) and on and on. My ‘downloading’ this info at that vulnerable time really distorted some of my views of life, which I still wrestle with today…
Some things I have been able to overcome (counseling), others still are being dealt with. Maybe a new chart reading might elucidate some of this…
12 house Saturn rx in cancer. At least I know how it feels like from the inside… Trine from 9 house jupiter in pisces offers a gentle hand and lots of patience with this aspect.
While I see the merit of using the modern idea of changing your view or perspective, and having agency, the hard part is aligning the new changes with integrity and accepting the person you will become do to these changes. It may not be who you want to be or value at all! That’s the most painful part for me.
I find it’s a clash between who I *want* and work hard to be, and certain energies my chart naturally contains that I must work with regardless. You can make lemonade with lemons, but some of us are very sour and spikey pinapples and there is only so much you can do with that! Sure, there are ways to enjoy this, but some folks with heavy afflictions, even if used positively, are rarely accepted or liked, and I find that the hardest to live with.
It’s sort of a gap between what is perceived as more broadly desirable with what is a positive manifestation that is more of a eccentric variety. When I’m living in a place that values the afflicted planets’ energies, it’s great, but when in another place where other energies are more mainstream and valued, the pain is aggravated. No excuses, but there is a thing as deterioration from dealing with environmental and social pressures.
I have too many to count :/ But one that stands out to me is Pluto conj. Moon in Virgo square my natal Sun. They are square from my MC (Virgo)to my 12th House (Scorpio). And I have a really hard time sometimes out in the world. I have a lot of compassion and a critical streak for assholes that don’t think of others. I can transcend or try to fix it. But I don’t know how. I guess the antidote is to transcend my ego and know that I can’t save the world from it’s foibles :/ and just work on myself to be the best person I can be in whatever environment I am in.
Excellent post. 🙂
Saw on a church sign, today: Calm waters do not make skillful sailors.
Not sure which gets me in more *trouble*, moon vs mars or Venus conjunct Pluto…I love/hate them both, and my Libra stellium can’t decide…
😀
Elsa this post is tremendous! Poured from your everlasting font of wisdom. Thank you.
Scorpio Venus conjunct Pluto, Leo Moon/Chiron opposite Saturn, afflicted Mars…
Astrology, and seeing my chart was a lightbulb. Oh, that’s why this is so and so…and that’s why I feel like this… It’s an empowering tool, for good and bad. Luckily I didn’t (and don’t) have the issue of wallowing or self fulfilling prophecies. But it did help me accept that certain things just aren’t going to come my way. Like starkttn’s post, not all of us are lemons, and if lemon if the collective society well that can create a disconnect for those with different energies.
THANK YOU ELSA! This is an amazing post, I love the “How to” step by step that you’ve given here.
Elsa, I think you are the only person I know, besides my mom, that appreciates and admires hard work and the ability to overcome obstacles. You are not a whiner, secretly or openly (I don’t know you but this is how you appear). Don’t get me wrong – I know many hard-working people, but most of them wish they were kings sitting around all day, doing nothing. Consequently, they surround themselves with people that are their complete opposites. I love these hard working people for their resilience, strengh, but how can I continue doing it if they don’t love themselves?
Congratulations for being who you are and for accepting and sharing it. You are a breath of fresh air for ‘suffocated’ people such as myself.
I love the way you promote hard work and you teach your kid to work for results.
Are you aware of what is ‘out there’, meaning outside this blog? Out there people just want everything free (money, love, posessions) and if they don’t get it they get mad and whiny – consequently, everyone is enraged. Or maybe, it is just the world around me, I don’t know, but, anyway, thank you for existing.
That’s interesting, elisei. I tend to mind my own business and expect others are doing the same. I realized some time ago, I am not really interested in an easy life – I like the one I have. Maybe I can find something on that because I’ve written about it.
Mmmm…. good post Elsa, got me pondering all night and most of today. I would add just one teeny but imho a crucial addition and that is SELF ACCEPTANCE.
‘When you look at yourself and feel dissatisfaction about any part of you, you will continue to attract feelings of dissatisfaction, because the universe mirrors back to you exactly what you are holding inside.
Be in awe and wonder at the magnificence of you!’
Before any real and lasting change in perspective can be made, acceptance of ‘what is’ must be cultivated.
And I talk from a Saturn heavy lifetime of experience.
For a long time, I felt that venus conjunct saturn ‘sunk me’. Everytime something went wrong, it’d just confirm venus/saturn to me. Then I started to really look at this stuff and turns out, I’m not cursed in love, I’m very mature & reponsible. I’m dependable to those I love and can be relied upon. Maybe that’s not all that sexy, but to my cappy placements, it’s at least respectable ;). I now know that there is a positive way to use this energy (venus/saturn) and in a way that is a win-win for those in my life 🙂
Angie
Thank you for this post Elsa. I’ve kind of lived like that in fact, having come to some understanding of my chart with its afflicted Jupiter and Mars, and all my T-squares, pretty late in life; and I’m glad of that in a way since if I’d understood my chart when I was young I might well have taken a very negative view of it and fallen into despondency before I even started out on life’s adult journeys
I think it would have been easy enough to look at my chart and to despair of succeeding in anything. As it is things have been very tough, but I’ve never stopped trying to initiate projects and move them forward – which if I’d taken a negative view of my chart, I might not have had the courage to do.
So I’d agree that it’s very important not to let harsh aspects in the chart deter anyone from believing that they can still make a success of whatever they set out to achieve. Too much ‘knowledge’ can be a handicap sometimes!
I really like your post. Most people posts about what aspect means but never give advice on how to overcome bad aspects.
I have heavily afflicted mars and jupiter but both in a very good signs, aries and cancer respectively. I’m still figuring out how to take advantage of the exaltation to overcome the affliction.
another issue is that I have mercury in gemini conjunct ascendant.
sun conjunct moon in cancer in 1st house. so people always see me as cheerful , intelligent and kind person which I am. but once that afflicted mars and jupiter show in my behaviour, they hate me forever.
God I needed to read this.
I have Mars with the south node in the 8th house in capricorn.
Saturn with Jupiter and Pluto in scorpio in the 6th.
Sun, Mercury, Venus, Uranus, Neptune in sagittarius in the 7th.
And Moon in the ascendant in gemini.
And the thing that really scares me is that Mars in the 8th.
Everywhere I read stuff like “sudden violent death by fire, gun, knife, accident” and I’m HORRIFIED and panicking to be honest.
Why do people write that stuff. It is not helpful. I have Saturn in the first squaring Pluto so the first thing I read in starting out looking at my chart was ‘your death will be the result of mass karma’. Wtf! Famine, plague, war, mass incarceration? Yegads! When the current plague hit, I still could not help thinking, is this it? Still haunts me. How unproductive. Still kickin it in my 60s.
I thought Saturn in Cap in the 10th across from Mercury in Cancer in the 5th was a detriment making my thoughts too slow and unoriginal. As I aged this aspect helped to make me an effective lecturer and teacher! People understand why sometimes the old ways of thinking need a revisit in these chaotic times.
Ah yeah. I remember those Six Flags days. I’m glad youngsters are still doing that sorta thing.
Reading this in my mercury square saturn fashion. Being aware that at the same time, it’s my brain more prone to being negative and seeing the worst. Regarding the chart, all of my planets have afflictions due to the t-square, some planets are in detriment, some retrograde, and so on. I agree with energy/ thoughts are neutral until directed. I do small exercises daily, small ones. When something unnerving happens and I’m expecting a bad outcome I let it go and flow, have a bit of trust and not worry about it. My trust is very little. But at the end of that day, I witness that by not giving it such a preemptive negative vibe, it turned out the situation went smoothly in the end, and occasionally not smoothly but great. But then I fall back into pessimism. And then I try again. Just with small things. For the time being.
Not sure about my chart still haven’t learned to read can say about my pattern got to change,word I love “why not?”
Uranus opp Chiron. Moon square Mercury by six degrees. But mostly Saturn square Pluto. These personal blocks were buoyed by in the ‘supposed to be’ world. However, these placements actually pushed me to be true to who I am. Not without some work of course. And of course I have my grand water trine that powered me through it all.
I could add Venus square Neptune and mars rx opp Jupiter (by 9 degrees. Every chart I run always has a big bold line between the two). All part of the process of getting to real.
If I was to make up a story about a past life(s), I would say I was identity-less as a member of a religion or cult and that this incarnation is about being an individual. I always wanted to trust and believe people who professed to know it all. Thought oh the leg work is done, I don’t have to think because they have the answer. Wrong time after time. And the good leaders I worked with always pushed to bring out my strengths for the benefit of the team. They did not want followers. In lieu this thinking, I can see the strong parts in my energy set up, that aided me in getting through all the obstacles so that I could accomplish my individual selfhood, which I am sure sounds trite to those whose mission it is not.