Being a parent is challenging. A job description for a parent would include something of almost every other job. When we study the child’s astrological chart, we can instantly attune to how we can best guide them. Strengths, weaknesses, aptitude, and potentials jump off the page. We can see how to turn around negative momentum and maximize talents that otherwise may not have been readily apparent. Understanding leads to greater patience, a virtue of immeasurable worth in child-rearing!
Many parents intuitively take a reading at the moment of birth and evenbefore through dreams or visions and receive a prescient knowing of thechild soon to be born. The child comes to us with his or her own birth chart,and life plan, which many believe is determined prior to birth.
Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that environmental factors, decisions made by parents, education, and free will can change, alter, or mitigate the prophecy foreseen in the chart for better or for worse. A seed containing the blueprint of the most magnificent rose will not flower if denied sunshine, water, and good soil. And many have cultivated beautiful flowers in rocky soils through love and care.
How can we challenge the child to bring out the positive Sun sign potential, but, at the same time, teach them to know clearly when they cross the line into negatives that could cause them much grief and sorrow later, if not corrected now? This is the challenge before us as educators and parents to our children, even to the child within ourselves. So, we search the chart with an eye for potential problem areas that could disrupt, hinder, or block the child’s best expression. We devise how to turn them around. We take note of the positive potential and see how, like a good seed, it can be nurtured to bring forth the ripest fruit on time.
Astrology is meant to CONFIRM, NOT REPLACE, the inner guide! In reading about your child, emphasize the positive. Negative patterns can be changed; indeed, sometimes only a shade of grey separates our Achilles’ Heel from becoming our most valuable asset. Conversely, our natural talents can stagnate and, if we fail to develop them, become the open door to selfindulgence.
In astrology, trines and sextiles are considered aspects that indicate energy flowing in harmony. Squares point to challenges, blocks, internal frustrations and also pronounced talents. Oppositions indicate potential conflicts we resolve in the Tai-Chi of our interactions with others. We call squares and oppositions “dynamic aspects.” Here is where your child may meet her greatest challenges, but also where she may demonstrate her greatest strengths! In expressing and mastering the dynamic aspects, we grow and can realize our greatest achievements. Remember: Wherever you find dynamic aspects is where your child may need the most guidance, consistency, and patience on your part.
A child with Mars square Saturn can feel blocked. However, if Mars and Saturn receive positive aspects from other planets, these will mitigate the difficulty and allow the aspect to manifest in a more dynamic and purposeful way. The positive aspects can also indicate to you how to work out the difficulty successfully.
Contradictions abound in any natal chart. What to do when you come across information that is contradictory? None of us is black and white. For example, a child might be extroverted in sports, but shy in academics, or vice-versa. Some children, however, will need help in working out such structural conflicts. Sometimes we come across strengths or talents in the child that may not be our forte. A child with a grand trine in earth signs, but whose parents have little or no earth emphasis in their own charts, may need other, more practical, and business-like people coming into their life to bring out the inherent qualities of efficiency, order, and organization typical of this positive configuration. Astrological knowledge must never be used to demean, criticize, or put anyone down. Take note of areas of great sensitivity, vulnerability, or pain in the child’s chart. Find ways to help them master these. Be kind to your child. Their star has appeared, and it may be different in magnitude and brilliance than your own! Love them and teach them, and learn from them, but don’t expect them to be who you are. While the child is still in the process of turning her weaknesses into strengths, we can often fill in the gap!
In studying the child’s chart–as a representation of the book of their life with many pages left to write on–we seek to understand them better to guide, help, and instruct in bringing out their special uniqueness, their calling in life, their special star. In understanding our children, we also come to better understand ourselves, our own inner child.
