This is going to have a similar theme to the "Birth Chart vs Environment" thread but different enough to warrant a seperate thread, I hope. I'm asking two things, one about home environment affecting personality, and the other about the natal chart predicting childhood circumstances.
Firstly, my family, being naturally suspicious of astrology, ask me lots of questions as to how and why astrology works. Most of the time I can sprout off enough information and complicated terms to keep them quiet! But one thing they ask that I haven’t been able to explain is the question of wether personalities can be explained by upbringing/parents/home environment INSTEAD of the natal chart.
As I’m not very good at explaining myself, I’ll use an example.
My dad is a Cancer Sun but you wouldn’t guess it. He is not nurturing, warm or caring. He doesn’t show any affection, can be quite insulting and cold, etc. He didn’t want to have us kids, so you can imagine that all of our lives he was emotionally and often times physically “absent.”
As the astrologer, I explain this through his birth chart. I see aspects and planetary positions in there that account for this.
My family, explain this through my dad’s upbringing. He was abused as a child and neglected by both parents. They never showed him warmth or love. These circumstances can explain why he has been “damaged” and why he doesn’t experience love. He was never shown love himself, so how can he show warmth, love and affection to me?
My family thinks that if he had of had a different upbringing, he would have turned out to be a different person. I try to explain that our natal energies are always with us regardless of environmental factors. A Cancerian is still a Cancerian, wether his parents were good to him or not.
Still, I don’t think I really understand the explanation for this. What explains a person’s personality: their upbringing, or their natal chart? If my dad had been raised in better circumstances, would that in turn negate the “hard” or “negative” aspects in his chart? I’m confused!
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Secondly,
Still on the subject of my dad, one aspect I found intriguing, is Saturn Square Sun. Apparantly this aspect can be indicative of problems with parents.
“…conflicts with parents (especially your father) or with authority figures have left you feeling defeated and psychologically wounded. Your efforts at self-expression and communication of feelings were dismissed and ignored” (http://www.astrologyweekly.com)
I’m not disputing this statement, it’s obviously true as my dad’s early childhood was certainly like that. What I don’t understand, is how the natal chart can appear to predict the future of a newborn like this. What is confusing me, is that the natal chart is created at the moment of birth, long BEFORE dad’s father had a chance to be abusive and oppressive. What if dad’s father had turned out to be loving and kind, how would a person then explain the Saturn Square Sun aspect in dad’s natal chart?
Say a baby is born and you look at his chart. You see Saturn Square Sun and immediately think that this child is going to have issues with his father. Then as you watch the child grow, you see that his father is abusive or authoritarian. It is just as the natal chart had “predicted.”
I always viewed the natal chart as a collection of energies within us, and we had control over how we use those energies. That musn’t be so if the natal chart can tell you so definitely how your parents are going to treat you and what kind of childhood you are going to have!
Am I explaining myself well? Just because my dad was born with Sun Square Saturn, how did that make his father hate him and abuse him? How does the natal chart influence the behaviour of someone OTHER than the native?
I know I’ve asked a lot, so if anyone has some spare time to explain all of this to me, I’d really love to straighten this all out in my mind. I’m so confused!
Firstly, my family, being naturally suspicious of astrology, ask me lots of questions as to how and why astrology works. Most of the time I can sprout off enough information and complicated terms to keep them quiet! But one thing they ask that I haven’t been able to explain is the question of wether personalities can be explained by upbringing/parents/home environment INSTEAD of the natal chart.
As I’m not very good at explaining myself, I’ll use an example.
My dad is a Cancer Sun but you wouldn’t guess it. He is not nurturing, warm or caring. He doesn’t show any affection, can be quite insulting and cold, etc. He didn’t want to have us kids, so you can imagine that all of our lives he was emotionally and often times physically “absent.”
As the astrologer, I explain this through his birth chart. I see aspects and planetary positions in there that account for this.
My family, explain this through my dad’s upbringing. He was abused as a child and neglected by both parents. They never showed him warmth or love. These circumstances can explain why he has been “damaged” and why he doesn’t experience love. He was never shown love himself, so how can he show warmth, love and affection to me?
My family thinks that if he had of had a different upbringing, he would have turned out to be a different person. I try to explain that our natal energies are always with us regardless of environmental factors. A Cancerian is still a Cancerian, wether his parents were good to him or not.
Still, I don’t think I really understand the explanation for this. What explains a person’s personality: their upbringing, or their natal chart? If my dad had been raised in better circumstances, would that in turn negate the “hard” or “negative” aspects in his chart? I’m confused!
---------------
Secondly,
Still on the subject of my dad, one aspect I found intriguing, is Saturn Square Sun. Apparantly this aspect can be indicative of problems with parents.
“…conflicts with parents (especially your father) or with authority figures have left you feeling defeated and psychologically wounded. Your efforts at self-expression and communication of feelings were dismissed and ignored” (http://www.astrologyweekly.com)
I’m not disputing this statement, it’s obviously true as my dad’s early childhood was certainly like that. What I don’t understand, is how the natal chart can appear to predict the future of a newborn like this. What is confusing me, is that the natal chart is created at the moment of birth, long BEFORE dad’s father had a chance to be abusive and oppressive. What if dad’s father had turned out to be loving and kind, how would a person then explain the Saturn Square Sun aspect in dad’s natal chart?
Say a baby is born and you look at his chart. You see Saturn Square Sun and immediately think that this child is going to have issues with his father. Then as you watch the child grow, you see that his father is abusive or authoritarian. It is just as the natal chart had “predicted.”
I always viewed the natal chart as a collection of energies within us, and we had control over how we use those energies. That musn’t be so if the natal chart can tell you so definitely how your parents are going to treat you and what kind of childhood you are going to have!
Am I explaining myself well? Just because my dad was born with Sun Square Saturn, how did that make his father hate him and abuse him? How does the natal chart influence the behaviour of someone OTHER than the native?
I know I’ve asked a lot, so if anyone has some spare time to explain all of this to me, I’d really love to straighten this all out in my mind. I’m so confused!