A bit on my current obsession: astrology and the family.

[BlueIris]

So, I just discovered this nifty thing about astrology: family connections are often reflected in family members' charts. As a new learner, I didn't know astrology could well, work like that exactly. But since I figured this out, I've been really, really interested in the way that familial connections (and disconnections) are reflected in curious ways throughout the charts of my immediate family.

Here are a few things I've noticed that I find fascinating: my mother's mother is a Capricorn born on January 3rd. My little sister is a Capricorn born on January 3rd. My father's mother was a Taurus born on on May 13th. I'm a Taurus born on May 14th. As I've posted here before, I think I was "supposed" to be born on May 13th--sort of. (My mother has often said that her labor went a lot faster once she'd checked into the hospital.) Actually, based on a few things I've been thinking about since looking at all of the family stuff which I think is reflected in our natal charts, I now wonder if I wasn't "supposed" to be born on May 14th so that I wouldn't be quite so much like my father (or his mother; not nice people).

Now that I have an accurate birth time for him, my father is a Pisces with a Cancer rising sign. My mother is a Cancer with a Pisces rising sign. I find it curious that my parents, two of the least stable Water sign folks ever (with a marriage that the word "turbulent" just doesn't do justice to) produced two Earth sign children. I also find it...amusing that my little sister, a Leo Rising, is getting married to a man with a Leo Sun who has Capricorn as his rising sign. I really hope this does not indicate that I may wind up involved with a Scorpio who is a Taurus Rising...I can't see myself with one of those people.

Other connections of note, which fascinate me: when I used astro.com to calculate "composite charts" for me and my father and then for my sister and my father, the composite charts for both sets of relationships reflect a composite Sun in the eighth house--that reflects "fated" relationships, right? Then when I did that for me and my mother and then for my sister and my mother, the sets of charts showed that my sister and I share a composite Sun in the sixth house with our mom (all astro.com wants to say about that is that the sixth house is about "unequal relationships" and "one gives, the other takes" kinds of relationships, which, well, she is our mother). The "fated" nature of the our composite horoscopes with our father is one of the more intriguing discoveries I've made since looking at astrological patterns in our family, as my mother was married before she met my father, to another man who was also a Pisces, with whom she had no children, (long story) which brings me to another issue I've been reading a lot about lately, and seeing conflicting opinions on...

What is the feeling here about whether a specific house will represent the father's influence in his child's natal chart? I've read that some say the fifth house in a woman's chart represents her so-called natural father, while others say it is the ninth, and others, the eleventh. (I actually just finished reading three or four pages on another astro board full of posters claiming they felt that in a woman's chart, the placement of the fifth house is where to look if you want to guess the Sun sign of any children she may have, especially as concerns the first child, while the ninth or eleventh houses can indicate the Sun sign of the other parent she may raise these children with.) I have Pisces in the fifth and my ninth house is in Cancer. My sister has Scorpio in the fifth and her ninth is in Pisces. I just noticed last night that my father's own fifth house (in Libra) contains no planets, which I read is not always a sign of childlessness, but it can be, while my mother's fifth house is in Cancer, where she has an allegedly benefic Venus/Mercury conjunction.

One other thing I observed is that my Moon is in Capricorn, technically in the second house but inching toward the third, (house of siblings, yes?) which I'm told is one of the indicators of all the female Capricorns around me, particularly my sister, grandmother, and two girl cousins on my mother's side (not to mention my college roommate, also a woman). My sister and mother share a moon in Virgo, and my sister's moon is in the third house. Kinda makes me wonder what would have happened if my mother's pregnancy scare at age 40 had worked out differently (I don't like Virgos...another little sister who was also a Virgo would have sucked).

[LaurenG]

1. There are ways to look at charts that are not all equal

It was drilled into my head that the generic approach to astrology would never ever give you an accurate picture of a person taking life initiations and deliberately working toward higher principals. The best personality indications in a chart would apply to those who were treading a higher path. I was told that those on the physical path would show more qualities attributed to their sign of the negative sort and that one could assume that they would fit well into their own signs.

I am wondering if you have been taught this as well? I must say that a Virgo with a Leo rising who was on a spiritual path may not look anything like a typical virgo to a trained astrologer or lay person. Do you have any opinion on this? I keep "getting" that you may well end up with a Virgo or Scorpio partner or someone with either of those as rising signs. Just a weird blip on my radar perhaps but for what it's worth (not much I am sure :7) I'll say it. :shrug:

[jbnow]

2. The parental axis

has been the 4th/10th, with some debate if the MC represents the father, the mother or the dominant parents.
But I think you can't look at one side of the axis without the other. I sometimes feel the IC is the childhood home and the MC perhaps more how we relate to them when we are adults, but not enough charts I study of people I know well have accurate time of birth.

I've never heard of the 5th being the father's influence...it is romance, pleasure, play, creativity, children. (Not to discount what you have read

The Sun and or Saturn is reflective of the father and the Moon mother/mother figures. Not so much what they ARE like but how you perceive them. With a Cap Moon perhaps you saw her as cold or critical or restrictive or whatever?

My sisters have Cap Moons too, they all saw my mom as rather selfish and/or uncaring. I have an Aquarius Moon and saw her very differently then they did.

Does your Moon rule the 8th house? That would be another clue.

Generally planets in the 5th might show something about your children (especially the 1st child) or how you relate to them. Fertility itself would be more related to the sign on the cusp and the state of the ruler of that sign. The # of children is something I have read about but I have never studied it.
(One of my mentors was an expert in ancient astrology and I know he talked about it several times, once in explaining his own 11 children)

I'm just throwing out what I have learned, but there is much more I don't know!

[BlueIris]

4. Okay; this was a great post. It reminded me of some things I learned

a while ago...learned...heh. I am an amatuer not working or studying astrology in any formal sense. I'm just sort of feeling my way along here and currently trying to use the knowledge I've (sort of) acquired to better enhance my understanding of my family.

I guess I just need to learn to be a little less literal/superficial when it comes to astrology; I'd forgotten about the Saturn representing father's influence (I used to think my Saturn was in Leo, it's actually in Virgo) and moon representing mother's--not necessrily which sign/what personality those parents have, but what our own perceptions of them were (smacks forehead). Which is kind of important, and could be a clue to this whole puzzle I'm trying to sort out. The way my sister and I perceived our mother/father as indicated by astroloy, that is. For the record, I didn't see my mother as critical or uncaring in every instance; though she was a typical nurturing Cancer mom when I was younger, I see her as having become weirdly critical when it came to our emotions, particularly as we gew older. The only thing I can tell you about how my sister views my mother is that my sister actually is critical of my mother (and has said she doesn't think my mother cared about us in appropriate ways).

So, on the fifth house: I've also read that it reflects issues related to family of origin (relatives) not necessarily family of procreation (children). If this were true, it would make sense to me that my fifth house is in Pisces (my family on my father's side is quite large). Anyone else read that?

[BlueIris]

3. Interesting. There is kind of a "part two" here that's about OhioBlue's

note about my "ending up" with a Virgo or a Scorpio. But I can't post it now since I'm kind of...tired. Family stuff is exhausting, and getting some of the new information I have about my family in the last twelve hours, which tied together some threads for me and left one major thread strangely untied...phew. I'll just say that I'm not going to be with another Virgo, though. I actually think it's part of my mission in this life cycle to stay the hell away from Virgos (hence chucking the abusive Virgo I was with three years ago to the curb) as a way of distinctly NOT making the same mistake my mother and her mother did with men and life partners. Seriously? What I just learned his blown my mind. And not in a good way.

[MissWaverly]

5. very interesting

My mother's birthday, (she has passed on) was May 14th, and my older's sister's birthday
is January 3rd, of course the years would be way off.

[sofedup]

6. Isn't this fascinating?

It continues to boggle my mind the way families are interwoven astrologically. I agree with the previous poster that the parental axis is the 4/10. I consider the parent who is most dominant in forming the child's personality as represented by the ruler of the 10th but of course that is sometimes difficult to determine.

Do you really dislike Virgos? :( All Virgos? If so, why?

[BlueIris]

7. Welcome to DU! Ah, the Virgo question...

It might take me a while to come up with an answer that does not offend all of the remaining Virgos I have already angered with what might look like an unfair or inaccurate generalizations about those born under that Sun sign. The bottom line is: it's unhealthy for me to be around most Virgos (and I can't imagine that it's good for the Virgos, either!). The negative characteristics of many Virgos rub against the my negative characteristics in the worst way, is the best I can explain it. Very little compatibility between me and your average Virgo in any form. So much so that whenever I meet one, I just want to run away.