Clients come to astrologers for insight and for news about change. Most clients are eager for the former and afraid of the latter: while insight usually resurrects insecurity as one works to improve a life situation, change can threaten the status quo with transient insecurity within the development process. As a result, what is already routined prevails; life remains “predictable”, even stagnant; and all kinds of rationalizations develop to excuse it all away, i.e., “that’s the way things are (meant to be).”
Astrologers justifiably get the feeling that all of this treading water that is the norm in our society will require a real cosmic kick in the butt to get things going afresh, if things are indeed going to change. This developmental “kick” has to do with the Angles, our space (Ascendant-Descendant) and time (Midheaven-Immum Coeli) orientation within individual occurrence on this planet. There will almost always be a mirror-tie between Angular activity in the horoscope and major development in life.
Yet, because we astrologers are so caught up with heavy transits to the Sun, Moon, and planets -and because so many astrologers still do not know the measurement magic of Solar Arcs-we all too easily lose sight of the Angles of the horoscope, the crucial “antennae” of our life orientation. And then, when we do pay attention to an Angle, it is all too easy to neglect the opposite Angle within the mix; i.e., Arcs and transits to the Ascendant involve the Descendant as well! [With Uranian contact with the Ascendant, isn’t it high individuation energy that contrasts with growth rates and directions in a relationship and threatens the relationship itself? With a major change of job orientation, aren’t there challenges of many kinds brought into home considerations, from ownership and location to family atmosphere?]
This was brought home to me yet again just recently: at a dinner party, in a foreign country, I re-met a client of mine there, whom I had seen two years earlier. I remembered the consultation well: the woman craved change, rescue, from her excellently remunerating job which she hated’; from the tedium of being a single parent of a teenager. She had no resources or options for a way out. It was clear to me in our consultation, in her horoscope, that there was also no “kick” suggested anywhere for two or three years. Her angles were asleep, and the status quo would rule.
There was not much to say to this client at that time; we addressed insightful themes that helped her with her social life, guidance of her child, and management of her weight, etc. -This is so often the case for astrologers, and it is a real dilemma: the client wants to hear about dynamic development, whether or not the client could possibly manage it(!). The consultation is an ego-orientated hour; bad news is feared; no news seems to negate identity and emphasize the rut rather than the road. The astrologer is pressed to come up with a miracle and, in turn, presses the measurements into impractical, unreasonable dimensions. -Who hasn’t, eager and well meaning, fallen into this trap?
The Angles prevail I teach my students to test Angular “hits” (conjunctions and squares by Arc and by Transit) throughout a client’s past development to determine responsiveness within the cosmic scheme of things, within the individual reality. Then, looking ahead to the next Arc-hit in the near future (almost always within the next three years) and listening intently to what the client projects for her/himself within that time period, we learn to anticipate development and invite change, prepare for it, crank it up to the best level, and balance response to best individual advantage.
If actress Brooke Shields [31 May 1965 at 1:45 PM, DST in Manhattan NYC] had come to see you, say, in 1997, you would have looked ahead in your consultation preparation and seen that SA Neptune [ruling her 7th] would arrive at her fourth cusp (IC) in 1998-99. This would promise “ego wipe-out”, a tremendous down-time of deep introspection. You would have seen the contemporaneous transit (trigger) of tr. Pluto opposed her Sun. You would have had to ask about her marriage. [And of course, you would have studied the natal aspects to her Angles as well.]
Shields could very well have told you that all was well in her marriage. [Her natal Venus in Gemini is conjunct her Midheaven and Moon, and exactly square her Asc-Dsc axis: she desperately needs (cerebrally, theoretically) for the relationship to be fine.] She would not have had any inkling of such a major potential change. You would have had gracefully to explore the values of the marriage and urge the protection of what was dear to her and her husband, with the specifics emerging in the discussion. You would have planted the seed of insight that, with alert work between wife and husband, the measurements could well develop into a change of personal, creative perspectives for Shields without threatening the union. -Shields was divorced exactly when the Arc became exact upon the fourth cusp, opposing the Midheaven and tr. Pluto opposed her Sun.
Remember when Arsenio Hall [12 February 1956 at 3:18AM, CST in Cleveland OH] came out of nowhere, it seemed, to star in his own late-night, super-cool talk show? Out of a fractured family in the ghetto, Hall became nationally famous and wealthy [the promise of his Pluto-Jupiter conjunction opposed his Aquarian Moon]. His popularity seemed to be mega-powerful. When SA Pluto came to his Midheaven with tr. Saturn squaring his Ascendant [both Angles simultaneously], there was enormous career change: Hall abandoned his television show and quickly slipped into relative obscurity.
Knowing Hall’s Angles’ responsiveness, we can now look ahead here: Hall with have tr. Pluto conjunct his Ascendant in January, May, and November 2001 with tr. Uranus conjunct his Sun in March, September, and December 2001. There is little doubt that Hall will be reaching for grander public position, perhaps in a humanitarian, social services orientation (Aquarian Moon) in late Summer 2001. -What good news to share with a client, searching for development and change (or, so often, rescue’)! How can Hall best prepare for that period, lay secure groundwork, open doors, to make the future happen? That’s the challenge and fulfillment of the astrological consultation.
What’s your Angle? When we check our own life development through Arcs and transits to conjunctions and squares to our Angles -write it down, study it, and relate changes one to another over time– we learn a great deal. We are better informed and we are better prepared to live our life to the max.