Why Are We Stuck In Life? - A profound astrology teaching we forget about

Life is basically Change. Our thoughts, feelings, environment are in a state of constant change. One time it is minor stuff, like doing groceries in a different shop. Other times we experience significant events (relationship, marriage, family, vocation, new house, travel) marking major shifts in how we see ourselves and are seen in the world.

Many of these experiences may seem completely unrelated. A corporate employee gets tired of being unfulfilled and quits. After few years, he experiences trouble finding a stable and fulfilling relationship, partners keep coming and going. Why isn't he successful in partnerships? Well, why isn't he successful in the job department?

What if there is little or no difference between failure at work and in relationships? And what does astrology say about that? Enjoy the reading :-)

Introduction

The natal chart (or any astrological chart) is essential for understanding. There many reasons for it e.g. the necessity to see the whole picture. The synthesis of all chart elements is required for an accurate reading. Right now I would like to focus on one reason in particular - the picture itself.

There are actually many forms you can present your life blueprint. You have the standard one (the wheel), there's also the data sheet view and others like the classical view in a square form. 

All of them carry the same information, although in my opinion one form is superior to others. And it is the wheel style view.

The reason for it is that it resembles the Mandala - a symbolic representation of (a part of) the cosmos. But if you're not much into the esotericism, the wheel-style reminds us of the concept of periodicity. The role of the astrological chart is to remind that our potential (and its unfoldment throughout time and space) has a lot do with cycles.

It is so obvious we forget about it. After seeing hundreds, thousands of charts I'm guilty of it as well. But hey, we can successfully interpret the horoscope without this, so no harm done, right? True, though I think we lose an important piece of information. What is there to gain remembering about cycles?

The wheel

We do not have to search far in our life to find the presence and significance of cycles. There is the 24-hour rhythm of activity resulting from the Earth spinning around its axis (day/night), the 365-day cycle of Earth orbiting around the Sun (seasons), the menstrual cycle etc. Why wouldn't our personal growth have a cyclical nature as well?

Imagine the Example Chart is a natal chart. The planetary influences e.g. transiting planets, would enter each zodiac sign and interact with each element of our natal chart, again and again. It is a cycle. Planetary pairs can also form cycles - a popular example would be the lunar phases, a composition of Sun-Moon cycles ... in relation to our natal chart. You can track any planetary pair you want e.g. Jupiter-Saturn, Sun-Venus, Uranus-Neptune etc., depending on what you want to study.

Example of a planet (Venus) moving around the zodiac

Think of a major life event, of any kind. It is very likely that during that time you were affected by the energy of the transiting planet (let's use Saturn as an example). After all is said and done, this planet continues its movement (cycle) around the zodiac. Now there are several phases of this cycle, which we call aspects (conjunctions, trines, square and so on). Each aspect shows a different facet (aspect!) of a theme this cycle has to offer you. 

There is only one major theme unfolding through many phases - this is important. How would becoming a class treasurer at the age of 14 be possibly connected with being promoted and having a whole department under you at the age of 43? If those two events happen to be different phases of a single (Saturn) cycle, then linking them is not a far stretch - in fact, it is a must. 

Astrology does exactly that.

Naturally, the circumstances around 14 and 43 will never be the same - your awareness might be different, just like the social/material background, your emotional/mental/physical integrity (a technique called progressions can help you identify this). 

But the teacher is the same, as well as the classroom. And if you applied yourself, you might learn using the next textbook. 

But our topic is about being stuck. 

Astrology tries to teach us one significant remark - our issues are cycles that keep repeating in our life. It is not about being stuck in multiple/complex life domains; we are stuck in singular cycles that take different forms. 

Repeating the patterns

In psychology, there is a phenomena called "compulsion repetition", which is about exposing oneself to situations reminiscent of the trauma one has suffered in the past. This way of behaving was named, for the first time, by Sigmund Freud, one of the fathers of modern psychology. It is a re-enactment that is not conscious and has its source in earlier life experiences. One example of it would be a child from an alcoholic family that would (as an adult) involve himself in co-depended relationships. Attracting people that take advantage of you (Neptune cycle). Many criminals' early life background has a history of violence and various forms of abuse. 

Now the word "trauma" is a charged one. Our childhood might have been a benevolent one, filled with love, understanding and deep bonds, but it doesn't mean we will not be victims of compulsively repeating the past. It could have been the small details that, objectively speaking, are not significant, but still live within. A teacher who never liked how you draw or speak. A family member that never wanted to look into your eyes or shake your hand. Losing and never retrieving your favorite toy. You may not name it "being traumatized", but "suffering a wound".

Repetition can be a discouraging experience, because we get keep getting the same signs, over and over again, "same old, same old". We can lose faith in changing anything in our life. Or changes ever happening to us. In fact, many things constantly offer transformation for us, but thanks to the repetition, we become numb and "are not impressed by what is coming". 

Some of the most profound changes cannot be made when being stuck in the cycles of their prerequisites. And Changes Are Cycles - we don't get to truly start a new one without finishing the old one.

Planets are the signposts

We are stuck because we haven't found the Self, the real Self. We haven't touched it, felt nor understood it. IT is not yet a part of us. Instead, we are just a shell of who we could become. The direction we take ends up not working for us - it is the direction of the shell or of the conditioning we assumed to be our Self. 

Planets are not the saviors. Neither we are the planets, nor the planets are ours; their role is to show us the direction, the traits of our personality that has the key to our real, creative Self. The natal chart is called the "MAP of potentials" for a reason - it is a navigational system. 

Being stuck can help us find our Self, touch and integrate it. We can start this process by putting a name on it as we're going through it i.e. find the cycle we are dealing with. There are two ways to go about this:

1) Natal planets tell us of the lesson. 

2) Transiting planets point towards teachers; some changes may require us to delve deep into the subconsciousness and dig out everything out into light (Pluto transit), but we may be unable to be absolutely honest with each other and crumble under the weight of destruction in our life. When analyzing the teacher, it is always important to look at the class being taught. So if Pluto is the teacher, we look at the Plutonic lessons and our natal Pluto to figure out how we handle destruction.

Here is a table with some of the planet's keywords:

The complexity

A corporate employee gets tired of being unfulfilled and quits. After few months, he experiences trouble finding a stable and fulfilling relationship, partners keep coming and going. Why isn't he successful in partnerships? Well, why isn't he successful in the job department? 

There are tons of nuances to life. Each of our natal planets points towards a specific theme, but the very same planet can govern a multitude of experience fields. 

In the chart above, Venus rules three fields of life: our vitality, the way we project to the world (1st house) and resources, financial matters (2nd house) and higher education, faith (9th house). So every disruption regarding our energy levels, outlook on life would automatically transfer to how much money we are able to earn.

The same Venus makes contact (aspecting via conjunction) with Jupiter, thus the mentioned above changes would also involve the quality of expansion, reliance on higher forces, patronage attraction etc.; Jupiter also rules certain life domains. It's all interconnected, some links are stronger, some are weaker.

Some of our personality traits (symbolized by planets) are more prone to repetition than others. For example:

- being in the "Water" houses (4th/8th/12th); being the ruler of these houses or making contacts with the ruler of these houses.

- making contact (aspecting) Saturn and particularly Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

How to move forward?

Find the Self. Instead of administrating the world around you, try administrating the world within you. One of the biggest advantages of astrology are the predictions (outer world), but they can be its greatest vice as well, because we don't tend to our inner while we are busy with the outer.

Otherwise, work with your discoveries. Every person is unique, and so are the solutions to their issues.

I refer to "administrating the world within" as garbage disposal. When we are stuck, we cannot fully take out the garbage. We don't get the message for the first time, so we are bound to get it later in life, the repetition process being a necessity for us to face the issues. You can use astrology to track the time window of the repetitive events.