The Three Circles

Astrology is a symbolic language that somehow holds the message of potentiality in the natal chart. In my astrology there is the mixture of fate and free will. I do believe that factors must play out in the chart, but that the potential for more than one answer, event, or approach exists within the same signatures. For me, a wonderful graphic way to explain this conundrum is the breakdown of life into three circles.

Three areas contribute to life’s mystery for individuals. I symbolize these areas as Astrology, Genetics & Environment. Take these as three interlocking circles. A person’s life is symbolized by that shaded part in the center of the three interlocking circles that is shared in common. Life as we experience it is simply a result of how we mix these portions. The genetic imprint affects the astrological possibilities. The environment chosen also has an effect.

Now use the example of twin charts. Nothing is more closely timed than twin charts. The Astrology is almost exactly the same. Even genetics is exact with identical twins. One level out is fraternal twins. Not quite exactly similar genetics at all, even here. The Environment is very dissimilar even for twins. As an example: One fulfills the aspects to midheaven planets for one pursuit. This avenue is then “taken” so that the other searches for her own and separate way to work out the same aspects in a “successful” way.

Another example would be to find someone born at same moment as Prince Charles for instance.  Not being in same environment of nobility, not to mention possessing the same blue blood, will change the potential of that life.  I do believe that we choose the life we choose, but I do not see astrology as covering all three elements of that choice.

Another example— Both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin are born on the same day. (Lincoln 2-12-1809 6:54am Hodgenville KY, Darwin 2-12-1809 London, ENG, no time solar chart). They both have a Mercury/ Pluto conjunction square Saturn.  Lincoln participating in that archetypal complex as an intense thinker of moral issues (Saturn) with the determined intension (Pluto) to change people’s thinking (Mercury) through writing or speaking (Mercury). Darwin obviously was attuned (Mercury) to the underlying principles (Pluto) of biology (Pluto) and studied (Mercury/Saturn) it in such detail (Saturn) as to recognize the evolutionary propulsion of nature (Pluto).

Astrology simply offers an intuitive language using symbols that speaks to the ways that the various urges and energies are tied together in any specific case, and what that might mean, what that might offer. In my studies I have come across many charts and lives where the astrology that is offered is hampered by limitations or negative tendencies that get in the way of the possibilities inherent in the astrological promise. You can read about some of those either in other posts on this site, or in individual chart interpretations found in my book. Examples:

Jimi Hendrix – he had no family that he could deal with. That whole world was negative. It ended up causing addictions to drugs and alcohol in attempts to escape that sadness and emptiness. The result was premature death before the astrological potentials could be realized.

Janis Joplin – same general setup but different details. Post is on the site.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – his limitations were physical, deformities and weaknesses that led to a life shortened by drugs and  syphilis.