As we enter February our attention inevitably shifts toward love and relationships. Whether you hate the excessive commercialism of the holiday, or you dress in your favorite heart sweater to celebrate a day of love, Valentine’s Day is here. The collective conscious animates the themes of love, soul connections, partnership and relating in some way for all of us.
Astrology is a powerful tool for the understanding of ourselves and how we relate to others.
Using Soul Contract astrology, we look at different archetypal themes and patterns associated with each sign and planet and where they are uniquely positioned in the chart. The different themes and archetypal forces have been pre-selected prior to your birth. Our natal chart is like a snapshot taken of the sky at the exact moment that we took our first breath. It shows the blueprint of our soul contract and the exact position of how the planets were aligned at the time of our birth. We bring our natal chart with us through our lives, even though the planets continue their movement and cycles.
A natal chart can depict relationship dynamics and themes. It can show if intimate relationships are something that you came in to primarily work on in this life. A natal chart is divided into sections like pieces of a pie. Each section is called a house, and represents a different area of life. There are three main houses that highlight relationship patterns. The 5th house is associated with how we uniquely express ourselves, romance and creativity. The 7th house deals with one-on-one partnerships, key relationships and marriage. The 8th house is all about transformation, death, rebirth, sex and intimacy. Having more planets in these houses may indicate stronger themes of partnership in this life. Knowing the specific planets and signs and how they interact or aspect each other will tell us a story or the color and tone of the conversation of archetypal forces.
Looking at how the planets are currently aligned (called transits) and how they are in aspect and activating our natal chart reveals much about the current life cycles that you are in. Transiting planets form relationships to the planets and points in our individual natal charts. It is like they are in a constant dialogue with one another. Transits act to stimulate what is already there in our natal blue print. Said another way, they highlight and trigger parts of our own psychological make-up.
When working with transits, it is generally best to begin looking at the outer planet (slower-moving) transits in order to get an overview of the main themes. First look at Saturn, Pluto, Neptune and Uranus themes first and work your way into the more personal planets. For example, if someone has Saturn transiting their 7th house of partnership, one-one-relationships, they are in a life cycle of becoming more authentic and congruent with their key relationships. Depending on where you are at with this lesson in your life will determine how much work and shifting is needed. One may need to do a lot of closet cleaning and inner-Feng Shui in this area and let go of what isn’t working. Saturn energy is asking to put in much effort, focused attention and discipline like the energy of a personal trainer saying “drop and give me 20 pushups” in whatever area of your life it is directing your attention. It asks that you do the work, get serious, grow and mature the part in you it is animating. With Saturn you get what you put in effort wise. Knowing the specific archetypal themes of the house and sign each planet is in with give you much information about the what the life cycle is asking.