A horoscope is not about "discovering yourself" or "feeling it".
As I wrote, Greybeard:
Opinions in astrology are readily given yet too often differ with each other, according to the school of thought followed
There will always be a difference between the traditional-destiny defined approach and that taken by those astrologers schooled from an alternative perspective. From my own, it doesn't make one right and the other wrong.
The horoscope is what it is, and an astrologer should be able to "see what it says" independently. In a counseling situation you naturally get a litte more into the "what it feels like at this moment" and deal with that, adjusting your interpretation.
I am 70 years old. I have lived out most of my horoscope. The horoscope is a map of your destiny. It doesn't ask you how you feel about it. My life has unfolded as my horoscope indicated it should; I was not consulted in the matter.
You have an 18 month start on me.
I am in agreement that the horoscope map is a chart of life. E.g. a 9th house Sun in Leo square Jupiter will not undergo the same conditions as an 11th house Sun in Libra trine Mars. Yet my own thoughts remain that one can choose a path to take within the many configurations in order to 'make' a life. Cause will breed and take an effect. Life isn't necessarily 'fated' in the manner I believe to which you may be referring.
By 'what it feels like to you', I think MJ82 may have been implying how any said aspect works...or does not.. to the individual. From the traditional viewpoint the original poster will not even have a Venus trine Uranus-Neptune, will she?
Progressions and directions do not change the natal chart and its indications. They describe the timing and form of manifestation.
I disagree.
Progressions bring along 'life-changing' events through their manifestation. As an astrologer once said, directions show 'the direction' one is currently taking.
My Venus and Mercury are both retrograde in the natal chart. At around age 16 they both turned direct by progression. But their influence on me and my life will always be as retrograde, not direct. Period. Because my progressed Sun is now in Aries does not magically turn me into an Aries; I will always be an Aquarius.
I would hope that an Aquarius Sun also found that the realm of Pisces influenced his way of life so that, through Aries, the true Godly Spirit could express itself.
My son is also an AQ. Sun....in his 1st house. In recent years I have seen and said that it was necessary for him to give up and lose everything he thought of importance to him in order to find what he truly wanted from life. In a couple of years he will enter the Aries period. He's always been a 'team player' who has recently found his nitch in a Pisces organisation of First Aid help, yet has already said that this is not his final station. He has dreams of 'branching out on my own'. I give him 5 years.
An acorn contains within it the tree it will become. The tree will pass through critical storms and droughts, be struck by lightning, perhaps one day become the giant of the forest. But it will always be what is contained in the acorn, nothing more and nothing less. The storms and droughts and all the rest are "foretold" by the time and place of the acorn's germination.
The acorn doesn't remain an acorn, though, does it????? It grows, it becomes stronger, otherwise it would not be able to tackle the storms and drought, would it? That's also progression, surely.
"Generational" planets act far more personally that that school of thought would like to believe. If you think Pluto is only "generational", ask someone with that planet on the Ascendant how "generational" it feels. "Generational" is nonsense. It is true, but misunderstood and misused, and misguides a lot of astrologers into thinking that those planets are less than personal.