I had a client with an outrageous chart. Situations like this have to be acknowledged. I wound up talking to her about playing cards when I was a kid.
When I was a kid, I played cards for my life. That’s certainly how I saw it. And I played cards A LOT. You know that old book, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten?” I had countless hands dealt to me over a number of years. All I really need to know, I learned at the card table!
I don’t think people play cards anymore, but I’ll tell you, it’s exciting. For me it was, anyway. It would get my adrenaline going, that’s for sure. Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! The cards are dealt you, like fate.
I’d pick them up and scan them, quickly, plotting how to play them, nearly simultaneously. And I would feel something.
Some hands would be disappointing. Some hands were comical, like a cosmic joke. Some hands seemed to be dealt by God, Himself. Some hands were a problem that had to be solved.
Some hands the best you could do was limit your losses, but some hands SCARED me. Yes. Like I was sitting a the table with all this power, that I could totally screw up…or not.
This gal, had that kind of chart. She’s either going to play like a master or it’s all going to come to nothing. Worst thing, is she knows this. She knows what’s holding.
Separate but related, I wrote about playing cards in my book, Heaven I Mean Circle K. If you read it, you know it’s shocking. It’s a weird book. It’s a collection of true stories, broken up into three acts. The stories stand alone. Each are important, but put together they tell a bigger, more important story.
The structure of the book was deliberate. The third act is meant to explain the first two. There was a lot of debate about the potential of the material would overwhelm people. But ultimately, we made the decision to explain to the reason, how this happened. How I happened.
The card-playing in the book was a very important piece. I think people with truly complicated charts can use this analogy to improve their lives.
I’ll tell you where people tend to get stuck. They refuse to play. Their cards scare them or they don’t like their cards, or they are confused by them. For whatever reason the come up with, they simply refuse to work with what they’ve been given, to try to make some kind of magic happen.
Even worse, some people like to blame others for their cards, like that’s going to help. It’s not going to help.
If you have an extremely complicated chart, consider sitting down with it, and deciding that you’re going to play everything you see in it, to the best of your ability.
I think you’ll be surprised at the wonderful result.
I don’t know that I have a complicated chart, but in taking the time over the last 7yrs to learn about it has been a big gain. I’m still learning how to play all the different parts, but slowly I am learning and it’s more than worth my effort.
Also, I enjoyed your books, Elsa. They were entertaining, they were gritty, they evoked a depth that is hard to find in stories these days. I was thinking about that when I read about the whiny documentaries, but just found the words for it 🙂
Angie
I noticed the universe gives some ease or help in a chart, even the hardest ones. Like I know someone who has two fixed crosses in his chart and four T-squares….damn!
But he has Sun conjunct Jupiter and Venus conjunct Jupiter. I think he’d be dead had it not been for these two aspects.
I am laughing because I played pinochle as a little child with my aunts and uncles and I was quite canny too! 🙂
Thank you for this post. I’ve been told twice by astrologers who looked at it that I have a dreadful challenging chart, and they told me about in a “you’re doomed” manner that sort of put me off knowing more for a few years. Then my brothers’ MIL said, “nonsense, I have books, here, learn!” and I decided to try — i.e., how bad is it? What’s good? My life has been challenging with some tragic things and harsh events beyond my control but I am the “fall down seven times, stand up eight” sort. So I thought l can perhaps find the good somehow. It has been a horrible week but I am going to keep looking forward. I have to get your book. My cousin’s friend loved it.
I have had a few readings in my time I don’t know if I have a difficult chart but I live a mostly difficult life. Nothing as startling as yours, Elsa, but trying. Some of it’s my fault.But here’s what pro astrologers have said ,”Geez…where do you go?”, “You should be living like Buddah or Jesus”, ” You’re emotions are off line” and “You Sneed to work on your self-esteem”… All true but none relate to each other. Being a 12th house Sun iin late degrees, I don’t work with or against my chart. II just go with the flow. Life supports me. I have faith.Making things happen is foreign to me.
Dawn, interesting! I am a 12th house Sun too, though early degrees. My natural instinct is to work hard, but also follow the flow with my gut too. I love the idea of letting your chart support you and having faith and I want to feel that way. Because I had suddenly to support my family in a heavy duty way by the time I was 17-18 due to my father having a stroke + more, I had to turn down lovely “meant to be” opportunities that just flowed toward me, and instead in a panic, chase down opportunities I cared less about — but I had their mortgage, medical, food, etc to pay for. I’ve spent most of my life “being” this aggressive person I am not, to keep them going. It’s wiped me out personally this week. And I had a clear thought: “okay, I saved them, but I can’t do this anymore.” My hard-charging survival style suddenly popped today like an old balloon and I am feeling….unleashed, a little lost, but authentic. I think it is odd I bottomed out at this moment. I saved three people in my family, but now, can I save me? I have some tiny opportunities that floated to me in drips this week. Stepping off the life-long panic-bike I am thinking of floating toward them.
I meant to add that pro astrologers told me — you are on the wrong path, you should be doing X (precisely what i want and am good at and had nibbles about), not this — you will save others, but destroy or crush yourself. I did. Timing, as they described it. Their thing — do X and you may save yourself. I am surrounded by people who want me to keep on being what I am not (no kidding! it works for THEM!) but…it’s like a huge “NO MORE” sign is flashing inside me. Like, you are heading for a cliff, turn left NOW. I have ignored my gut for years and paid for it while helping others, now….I think I will pay attention to the flow.
Damned if I played the cards and damned if I don’t play the cards. Sometimes the only thing to do is wait for MAGIC or create it. My chart of T-squared fixed signs including a rough Leo/Scorpio stellium traps me in a corner all the time and the only thing I feel I have to do is to take big jumps…big leaps of faith to even move in life.
I don’t think I’ve ever read a more wonderful description of astrology than it’s the hand you’ve been given and I got it here, from you. My friend the other day, she has been begging me to “read” her chart, which I’m always too lazy to do (and also people get paid to do that). I showed her the astro.com click portrait thing and she goes, “well, how do I read my future?” and I said I can’t do that, why do you even want to know that? your character is your destiny, all that. But she wanted to know what was Going to Happen To Her. I told her, look, this is your hand, these are your cards and you were born with them, it’s up to you how you play them and then walked away.
I don’t think I have a challenging chart, but thank you for the good analogy: a hand of cards to work with.
No doom & gloom!
Refusing to play, yes that really sums it up perfectly.
It’s a very encouraging outlook!!!
I think I have a rather challenging chart. Transits that trine one thing almost always square or oppose another like the way lights twinkle in a Christmas tree. On. Off. Blinking. Some stay ‘on’ all the time.
As far as cards.
I think I should be a killer but I kinda fear my cards.
When I’d play pinochle – those ppl are killers – I’d feel like ummmm what do I do next?
I’d have hands that other ppl would likely wipe the floor with their opponents with.
Me?
I’m tentative. I never felt like ‘counting Trump’ and allat where everyone else were meticulous about that.
Which of course would get me excoriated.
I think It’s a case of me not taking it seriously enough while simultaneously wishing I could be ‘like everybody else’ who played as if it was second nature.
I think if I tried harder I’d be great.
Maybe that’s a great metaphor for my chart n life. Whenever I really bear down on something n lean hard in it I get really great success.
And then I’ll ask but why don’t it just come to me?
I think that’s Taurus kinda stuff.
Like it’s already mine so why must I have to work so hard for it?
An astrologer once told me my chart didn’t look that bad. I almost hung up on her that instant. I’ve had one of the WORST lives of anyone I know; and people who know agree with me. As for cards, my guy’s family and I have played some pinochle and board games but I prefer Mexican Train.
I think my “worst” aspects is Moon conjunct Saturn conjunct South Node second house in Aquarius (besides horrible Mars square Pluto..) But I have worked through a lot with my family. Still have to work with my resources and not to forget Pluto conjunct Venus in Virgo 9th house.. I have a Water Trine so I always can float around in spiritual waters.
What do you mean by complex and challenging? Lots of lines criss-crossing?! I look at a chart and I think, oooh! pretty! Seriously though. I know my life is complex and challenging, and I have been given pain and suffering in equal measure with beauty and glory, but I wonder, what makes a chart complex and challenging?
Also, I bought your book last night, I love your voice, it is the first book that wasn’t a practical manual that I have read since before my divorce in 2009. Thank you!!!
Hi Elsa: What a BRILLIANT analogy. If we can all just remember that each life challenge is just “a hand” being dealt to us at that time. Play it your best, till the next deal comes around! BTW, have you ever played Mah Jongg?
“New Yawka” over here!
Thanks, Renee. Poker, Pinochle, Hearts and Spades. Pinochle (partners) was my favorite though, by far! 🙂
I have a difficult chart but I’m grateful for my placements. I’ve always been a deep thinker (3rd pluto) so I am not afraid to analyze situations and find a solution. Also, my mercury/ venus opp neputune and sag moon make me very optimistic. There’s always a way out or a plan B and I don’t mind looking for it.
My 11th/12th house mars is afflicted so I don’t really recognize it until I feel overwhelmed by the world. I’m trying to learn how to use it because I don’t want to spend my life feeling like a victim of circumstance or another person.
I once read that I would be poor because my north and south nodes are in the opposite house than they should be, and I’ll never have a happy stable marriage due to my moon-uranus in my packed 4th house. So far, I’d say those predictions are accurate but I think I’m supposed to use this life to overcome my past failures and transcend them.
My chart definitely shows where I struggle but I have a yod to pluto so whatever I do learn to overcome will probably be worth it.
Interesting comment about your NN & SN being in opposite houses than they should leading to being poor and relationally challenged. I have never heard that before, but I have those conditions too. NN in Leo H10/H11 cusp and SN in Aqua H4/H5 cusp. So yeah, poor and un-partnered seems to be a persistent thing. Like you, I keep trying to transcend that, but I’m not there yet.
I have a complicated chart. What a great analogy. I’m definitely seeing myself more whole than picking at the parts of myself that aren’t so shiny. I’m both shallow and deep, loving and willful, loyal and independent. It seems I’m destined to find a workable balance between energies, since they form hard aspects in my chart I suppose the energy is more pronounced.
Hi Elsa … omg .. if any one has a heavy chart it would mine … but I liked reading this and also read part of your book on amazon Heaven I mean circle K .. very cute and funny the few pages I read:) I have A scorpio 10th house with 5 planets opposing Saturn in my fourth house Taurus…. Ascendant in Capricorn … moon in Capricorn .. Pluto in Virgo in the eighth … Mars and Uranus in Libra in the ninth house…. totally opposing chart … totally Saturnian …. totally hard:(
Kathy
Doesn’t everyone feel their chart is complex and challenging? I have Ascendant and rising in Capricorn and 3 planets in Scorpio…it feels dark and heavy and I yearn for the sun(shiny) but feel dark and moody..
No. Mine is simple and I’ve seen many others that are straightforward and easy to resolve.
My saturn-spectacular chart. 3 semi-sextiles, the only easy saturn aspects in my chart. Felt like I had to make saturn the star, since it’s my chart ruler, the apex of my two fixed t-squares and the ruler of my North Node. Plus the bane of my existance. Hah.
You don’t need many hard aspects to make your chart challenging. I have a Pluto Saturn conjunction in 4H involved in a t square with my ascendant and sun in fixed signs. Hard to find solid ground to create anything in life, too many obstacles to overcome especially from within