Be Your Own Astrologer, Part 4: Final Thoughts
The birth chart is a rich treasure trove of information, but just by knowing your sun sign and its neighboring signs, you can already extract some meaningful and useful insight!
In part one, you learned to identify your destiny this lifetime through your sun sign.
In part two, you learned how to look at your neighboring signs to find your inherent weaknesses.
In part three, you learned meaningful ways in which you can support your sun sign through the sextiles--aka the neighbors of the neighboring signs.
I didn't get into this in the last section, but sextiles are a way that your sign can achieve balance and bridge the gap with its opposing sign. What’s really awesome about working with sextiles is that the sextiles are the same element as opposing signs.
(If it starts to sound confusing, just remember that we're only talking about the sign itself, its neighbors, and the neighbors' neighbors--aka two signs away. That's all we're dealing with!)
Let’s use Capricorn as our example. Capricorn’s opposing sign is Cancer—they are on opposite sides of the spectrum from each other. Capricorn wants discipline and Cancer wants to nurture. Capricorn is the stern father and Cancer is the coddling mother. Capricorn and Cancer both care about society, but they disagree on how to care. However, Cancer is a water sign just like Capricorn’s sextiles Scorpio and Pisces, and if Capricorn can make friends with its sextiles, it can learn the language of water and get that much closer to bridging the gap between itself and its opposite, Cancer.
Think of it as taking a detour around a blockage to get to the destination. Capricorn doesn’t understand where Cancer is coming from because they’re in opposition, but the harmonious sextiles, Scorpio and Pisces, can teach Capricorn some of that watery sensibility and help it to understand Cancer. And by doing so, Capricorn can achieve balance. When a dutiful Capricorn learns to not be afraid of its own feelings (the Scorpio lesson) and develops empathy for other people (the Pisces lesson), that sense of Capricorn duty naturally will understand Cancer’s desire to protect and nurture. This results in a wiser, more flexible Capricorn. Capricorn thus achieves balance.
Another way of thinking about this is having really great mutual friends with a problematic coworker who can help bridge the gap between the two of you. For my budding astrologers out there, the reason for this is geometry: your sextiles trine your opposition. (If that's confusing, don't worry--it just means that your sextiles get along with both you and your opposing sign.)
Wow. There you go. No need to learn fancy words or memorize angles and their meanings—you just need to know the sign in question, what its neighbors are, and what their neighbors are, and you can start thinking like an astrological counselor.
Disclaimer:
There are so many connections and epiphanies that can be made when you study astrology, and while this method is easy to use, it isn’t entirely foolproof. Remember that astrologers look to at least nine other planets that aren’t the sun sign! So, if you don’t particularly feel connected to your sun sign, that’s okay—you might just need an astrologer to look at your chart. Your planets might be arranged in a way that mutes or blocks the expression of your sun sign, and your lessons might not be as straightforward. If your sun sign doesn’t resonate with you, you might have a stronger moon placement, Saturn might be inhibiting your sun, Neptune might be confusing your sun, etc.
There are so many other factors at play but I do believe that looking at your sun sign is a good (and easy!) place to start.
Speaking of other planets, we've so far used this technique for sun signs because sun signs are a strong significator for your personal destiny as an individual and it's easy to understand. However, we can apply this very same technique to the other personality planets in your chart (which you can get on astro.com or you already know from a reading with me). Your sun is your sense of overall identity, but the other personality planets govern separate aspects of your personality:
Moon: How you process emotions and what you need to feel safe. (Example: Moon in Libra needs peace, harmony, social connections, and beauty to feel at ease.)
Mercury: Your thinking function and communication style--your thinking mind. (Example: Mercury in Scorpio is suspicious and investigative--like a detective!)
Venus: How you relate to other people and the things you enjoy. (Example: Venus in Gemini enjoys variety, needs stimulation, and gets bored easily.)
Mars: How you get sh*t done and how you stand up for yourself. (Example: Mars in Aries is powerful, explosive, and impatient.)
Using the same steps 1-3, we can provide our own astrological counseling across various areas of our life. Just remember:
1) Identify the destiny of the planet via the sign placement
2) Identify pitfalls and weaknesses using the neighboring signs
3) Identify ways to strengthen the planet through the sextiles (the neighbors' neighbors)
(Bonus: And now you also know that the sextiles help to bridge the gap in between a sign and its opposition.)
Using the first example of Moon in Libra, they 1) feel safe when their environment is beautiful and harmonious, 2) they struggle when faced with criticism (Virgo) or faced with uncomfortable truths (Scorpio), and 3) the warmth of charming Leo's authentic expression along with Sagittarius's enthusiastic search for truth help to combat Libra moon's tendency people-please, because Libra moon learns through its sextiles the value of truth and honesty. That, in turn, helps a Libra moon to understand its opposition, which is the warrior Aries who never backs down and always stands up for itself.
It's not easy to implement right off the bat (it's all fun and games until you try your hand at interpreting without training wheels!), but as with anything, you will get better at it with practice, and this is an easy way to find wisdom in your personal astrology without having to dive into a bunch of astrological technicalities.
If you're interested in a free webinar where I can help you apply this technique to your chart and perhaps do some mini readings as a group, please let me know in the comments.
And if you enjoyed this series and are curious to learn more, please feel free to comment or reach out with ideas, questions, requests for future blog articles! Stay safe, my friends! (And if you're on my mailing list, please note that you received a discount code for summer readings. If you'd like to get on the list and receive future promotions, click here!)
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