You might enjoy this elaboration from Richard Tarnas on the topics of energies and potentials (archetypes) and how they unfold within contexts (concrete situations).
The main thing to understand here is that astrology is not concretely predictive,
but archetypally predictive. That is, the birth chart and transits indicate which universal
principles are emphasized, in what combination, and when. They do not give
information such as “You will get an offer of a job as editor-in-chief for a large
publishing firm on April 26, 2004,” or “You will meet your soul mate on the beach at
Waikiki at sunset on New Year's Day in 2005.” It may not be impossible for a gifted
clairvoyant to do something like this, but astrology has a different character.
Along the same lines, some archetypal dynamics symbolized in our birth chart
we recognize as true, but not so much of our own character as of the kinds of
experiences we have drawn towards us, the character of events and relationships that are
in our life. This is because the archetypal patterns in our birth chart describe the quality
of our life experience. One cannot know for sure whether the particular archetypal
energies will be something one is conscious of in oneself, or whether they express
themselves in the larger sphere of one’s life in the events, relationships, and
circumstances that are to some degree external to one, yet ultimately reflect one’s own
consciousness. Particularly if we have not psychologically “owned” those qualities in
our chart, we will tend to project them onto others--and thus draw towards us others
who will fulfill those energies in our life. As Jung often said, what is forced to remain
unconscious comes to us as “fate.”
The value of a good astrological analysis is that it can shed a more coherent light
on the many diverse and often chaotic particulars of our life, so that we can see
clarifying archetypal patterns in it. In terms of the more problematic qualities suggested
in the chart, some of these will no longer seem relevant to us simply because we have
already lived them through, fully experienced their challenges, and outgrown them.
More than that, we will have integrated those aspects and made them work for us in a
more positive way. And that of course is as it should be. An analysis like this is meant
to further encourage just this process. As an ancient esoteric dictum put it: “The
sagacious person enhances the workings of the heavens in the same way a farmer
enhances the workings of nature.”
Finally, it is important to realize that, at least in one crucial sense, astrology
operates beyond good and evil. All archetypes are Janus-faced, with positive and
negative sides, and as the foregoing discussion suggests, no astrologer can look at a
chart and, simply on that basis, conclude whether that person is “good” or “bad.” The
birth chart does not determine the moral vector of personal character. Nor does it
determine ultimate “success” or “failure.” It portrays rather the basic nature of the
archetypal dynamics that inform that individual's life and character. How the individual
copes with and grows through those particular dynamics, how she or he creatively
embodies and integrates the diverse potentials of the birth chart, depends in the last
analysis on the individual.
The same archetype can express itself benignly or destructively, in an exalted way or an ignoble way,
and to a great extent which of these occurs
will be affected by the kind of consciousness that is brought to the situation. The god
needs to be honored, the archetype will manifest, but there is considerable latitude as to
how that may happen.
And herein lies the importance of astrological insight, for the very act of
knowing the nature of the particular archetypes that are seeking to manifest, combined
with an awareness of their potential timing, can play a significant role in positively
influencing the outcome. Then life becomes more of a dance—a subtle interaction
between archetypal forces and human awareness, a play of consciousness between the
gods and the human mind and will and heart which they inform.
https://cosmosandpsyche.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/introductiontoastrology1.pdf