Ignorance of your natal aspects is NOT bliss
In the comments section of The Moon-Venus Conflict, Eme Kah and Noctule bemoan their chances of resolving their Moon-Venus squares.
Our inner worlds feel amorphous, and having a handle on -- i.e., being able to succinctly identify -- a troubling pattern can be relieving. Whether you're consulting a therapist, astrologer, psychic or a friend, if they can name your experience, you have an "ah ha" moment in which you feel a match between a concept or a phrase and an experience that had previously been difficult to pinpoint.
Take, for example, the Moon-Venus square. An anonymous commenter described her experience as "sacrificing emotional security in sexual liasons and staying in emotionally secure situations without passion." Whether you know astrology or not, just being able to identify the pattern is the first step towards liberation.
The added benefit of associating this pattern with a Moon-Venus square is that you can study this aspect's many manifestations, both "good" and "bad." You can look at how other people with this aspect have dealt with it.
In addition, you recognize that there is a karmic component to your suffering. After all, you were born with your aspects, and you've got them for the entirety of this lifetime. Part of your path is to consciously work towards resolving your inner conflicts -- for example, by finding a way to integrate the Moon and Venus such that you get both emotional security and passion in the same package.
You can only become aware of your relationship patterns once you've identified them. Then, with a little detachment (i.e., being able to step back and observe yourself), you can notice yourself repeating your modus operandi. "Ah, there I am, again being drawn to a man who cares for me but who doesn't make me weak in the knees." You can then start making different choices, taking little risks -- choosing a path slightly different than the one you've trodden, a behavior that challenges your belief that you can't have both your Lunar and Venusian needs met in one man.
Only by finding yourself on the map can you choose a different road.
Eme Kah: Sometimes, I have to admit, I feel extremely discouraged by astrology, specifically by my chart. The more I know and the more I see how aspects play out in my life, the more discouraged I feel about ever getting out from under them. If it's not the Moon/Venus/Pluto t-square (lovely) then it's the Sun/Saturn square that comes into play.Knowing how to define the source of your suffering, yet not knowing how to resolve the internal conflict that drives it -- I believe this is the source of our collective gripe that ignorance is bliss.
Noctule: I double that! The more I know about my natal chart aspects, the less I want to know, but I can't help and dwell in further. I get discouraged by my aspects too. I don't let astrology steer my life, but the thing is that it corresponds and explains a lot of my difficulties (and advantages) in life so far. I'm not sure what I want to know and what the stars have to hide. Ignorance is bliss.
Our inner worlds feel amorphous, and having a handle on -- i.e., being able to succinctly identify -- a troubling pattern can be relieving. Whether you're consulting a therapist, astrologer, psychic or a friend, if they can name your experience, you have an "ah ha" moment in which you feel a match between a concept or a phrase and an experience that had previously been difficult to pinpoint.
Take, for example, the Moon-Venus square. An anonymous commenter described her experience as "sacrificing emotional security in sexual liasons and staying in emotionally secure situations without passion." Whether you know astrology or not, just being able to identify the pattern is the first step towards liberation.
The added benefit of associating this pattern with a Moon-Venus square is that you can study this aspect's many manifestations, both "good" and "bad." You can look at how other people with this aspect have dealt with it.
In addition, you recognize that there is a karmic component to your suffering. After all, you were born with your aspects, and you've got them for the entirety of this lifetime. Part of your path is to consciously work towards resolving your inner conflicts -- for example, by finding a way to integrate the Moon and Venus such that you get both emotional security and passion in the same package.
You can only become aware of your relationship patterns once you've identified them. Then, with a little detachment (i.e., being able to step back and observe yourself), you can notice yourself repeating your modus operandi. "Ah, there I am, again being drawn to a man who cares for me but who doesn't make me weak in the knees." You can then start making different choices, taking little risks -- choosing a path slightly different than the one you've trodden, a behavior that challenges your belief that you can't have both your Lunar and Venusian needs met in one man.
Only by finding yourself on the map can you choose a different road.
Stumble It!
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posted by Jeffrey Kishner at 7/20/2007
5 Comments:
Love this post, Jeffrey! Especially the last line: "Only by finding yourself on the map can you choose a different road."
The "you are here 'X'" spot is the most essential part of the map. :)
Hmm. I think my big challenge is in cultivating detachment. When I run across my squares in life, I think: Oh, man, I did it AGAIN!. Why can't I stop doing this?!
And I feel like the squares' bitch so I fall into despair. I think, man, I'm NEVER gonna get out from under this, no matter how hard I try.
And I do try. I try very hard which is why it's all the more frustrating when I keep getting stuck in these ruts. The feeling of being stuck saps my strenght so I think at this point, I have to not think about my squares. I have to ignore them so that I can move forward.
I have been following with great interest the posts on Venus, Moon and Saturn and I totally agree with Jeff, ignorance is not bliss. But is knowledge the panacea?
Having a t-square (Venus in Aries opposing Moon in Libra and both squaring Saturn in Capricorn) has been the bane of my emotional life and the biggest challenge that I have to face in my chart. As far as I can remember I have been working on overcoming it. Astrology has really been an eye opening instrument, but at this point in my life I am not sure if knowing the “you are here X spot” is really useful in helping you make different choices. Yes, it is great to be aware of it, but in reality it is only the cookie prize. Being aware of this configuration hasn’t prevented me from compulsively working in proving that I am right about being wrong (i.e, nobody will ever love me), in having my gremlin working overtime with false explanations of why this relationship is never going to work out “I am not sexy enough, he is going to cheat on me!” or reasons for him to be with me “ I remind him of his mother” (that’s a classic!)
And if this doesn’t work, you start counting the number of times he said “I love you”. Yesterday he said it four times; today only once. His love is diminishing. (It’s the old Venus-Saturn joke: it doesn’t matter how much love you get, it’s never enough and even if you get a lot, you will always be measuring it, comparing, etc…)
The end result is that time over time, a Venus-Moon-Saturn child will do it’s darn best to sabotage the relationship by convincing with great details her boyfriend that in reality he does not love her. It’s just an illusion, projections and neediness on his part. And she can be very skillful at this game and win every time.
No wonder this aspect is considered one of the most difficult in astrology.
So knowing you can take another road is good, but until you are reading to change lanes, knowing is not going to do a lot for you. I guess the question how you become ready to change. I know it can happen in a split second, but the road to that instant is a long winding one.
I agree with the map-argument, yet at the same time I'm scornful towards the thought that my issues and traits are weaved, confirmed by something bigger. Difficult to explain, but it becomes more true and inevitable when something big and material confirms or parallels it. Hence the wish to defy and deny.
"Ignorance of your natal aspects is NOT bliss"
You can say that again. What you don't know CAN hurt you.
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