In this new series of articles, which will take us into and through the summer of 2021, we will be revisiting the natal chart, our truest document, with a focus upon what it is and upon the value of understanding what it is able to tell us. As we do so, we will consider the natal chart as a pattern that unfolds in time and that assists the recognition of our opportunities. We will provide a guide to assist in the understanding of aspects created between two or more planets to encourage a more conscious use of time.

Finally, we will look at the reality of studying astrology and at what it takes to become a competent, responsible professional.

DKF-K has always shared its time and energy between the discipline of astrology and wider spiritual considerations. If ever it was necessary to bring these two activities together it is surely now, as the generation with Pluto in Sagittarius (born between 1995-2008) enter adulthood with a crisis, as yet recognised and unnamed by them or their parents, hanging above their heads like the Sword of Damocles.

When we are on a journey to we know not where, for a reason that is not at all obvious, urged on by people whom we do not trust or respect because we know that for all they claim to know what matters, they themselves have never found the point of life, then we are in an existential crisis.

Just such a crisis is gripping those presently aged 12-26 years. Within them is a knowingness, which is part of the Sagittarian inheritance, that without questing and aspiration to give structure to our emotional lives and provide a raising agent to the personality, we enter a state of entropy. They feel this entropic disintegration taking place around them and, unsurprisingly, it fills them with despair because they were born to search, explore and quest, not stare at their phones, post selfies, and shrug off questions. They are physically strong and agile – the girls as well as the boys -, they are physically courageous, and remarkably self-sufficient, but they have no direction because they have met with nothing that makes sense to them.

The writer Rudyard Kipling was born under the sign Capricorn, but Jupiter was conjunct his Sun, he had a stellium in Sagittarius and Pluto was in the House of Sagittarius.

He spoke for Sagittarians when he said ‘He travels furthest who travels alone’; and perhaps he wrote for them with his autobiographical story about the loss of the thing that gave meaning to his life, The Light that Failed.

Those who work seriously with astrology soon find out that when the Sagittarian light fails, what is left is a black hole.

1. The Natal Chart and the Idea of Ourselves

For the purposes of Astrology, the true birth time is the time at which independent breathing is established. This may or may not be with the first breath.

A chart drawn up accurately for this time reveals the truth of who we are, how we are designed to develop in consciousness, and the kind of lifestyle choices that will assist this. It gives us both our true identity and our direction.  Gurdjieff called this energy field that our natal charts calibrate, our essence. Our essence is God within us.

But living in essence, or the true personality, is not a plug-in-and-go arrangement. We must work consciously at achieving integration within this energy field to get the planets working together. The chart shows a scheme that needs to be organised around the Sun. There is nothing automatic about this happening. Conditioning will encourage us to over-emphasize certain planets to the detriment of others.

When young, most of us will be using the Moon not the Sun as the central organiser, and this has a detrimental effect upon the operation of the pattern. Rarely will we find ourselves following our true direction, if we are not made aware of it.  Rather, we will follow what conditioning recommends. This is how the persona, an extrapolation from the personality, rather than the true personality, comes to steer a life.

If conditioning is one reason why we do not get our lives on course, another is spiritually inspired assumptions. Throughout the Christianised world, there is still unease about the very word self and confusion about the distinction between a sense of Self and self-love, or egotism.

In Esoteric Astrology, Master DK describes the Sun as the line of least resistance. What he means by this is that, in the absence of anything to give the personality something higher to aspire to in order to achieve alignment and open the higher centres, it will become egotistical and self-centred with its energy trapped in the solar plexus.

It is the absence of something higher to aspire to that is the missing piece in the lives of the generation with Pluto in Sagittarius. They feel that they are on the path to nowhere, or as Kipling put it in The Light that Failed, they are ‘islands shouting lies to each other across a sea of confusion’.

There’s a quote for the iphone age!

Understanding what is involved in getting behind the Sun, to enable it to become the organiser, is the first major challenge to the individual who is aware that life is not as s/he would like it to be. The next is working towards alignment. A competent astrologer, using a blend of orthodox and esoteric planetary rulers can see what alignment involves for any individual.

Once there is that alignment or at least an awareness of alignment powerful enough to serve as a goal, then the personality can take on a new role: as the agent for the Spiritual Soul on the Three Worlds. To bring through and ground Spiritual Will, we need a strong sense of individuality, an ability to stand firm on the material plane, and an understanding of how best to use this energy in the Three Worlds i.e., of our function.

When we engage with our essence, there will be a sense of recognition of Self.  Children will often have previews of this, especially around the age of 8 years and in connection with certain activities to which they are introduced. That recognition connects us up to the Solar System and to the whole phenomenal Universe above, below and around it.  On a scale immeasurably greater, and on planes immeasurably higher, they too are also working with the idea of Self recognition and realisation.

A spark is not a flame, and a flame is not a conflagration, but they are all of the same substance. Our spark is in our essence, and it can become a flame when it is aligned with the Spiritual Soul.

Knowing who we are and what we are designed to do to make our contribution in the Three Worlds during our lives is our rightful spiritual goal now; and it is one that competent astrology can assist.

Suzanne Rough

DKF-K

March 2021