Lee Mullican
"Space"
40" x 50" oil on canvas, 1951

Astrological Nativity

A framework for seeing what we’re here to rise above.

Arrogance, accolades, exaltation, inferiority complexes, detriment and fall, ego defenses, hang-ups, obsessions, triggers. The whole chart can be understood as a kind of myth we are invited to transcend.

We are much more than the structure, symbolism, players, and texture of a chart. We express these things, but they are not the whole of us. In that sense the chart is a kind of mirage.

There’s an interesting parallel here with the Gnostic idea of the Archons: structures that can appear to govern reality when we mistake the structure for the whole of reality. The chart can become a kind of prison when we mistake its symbolism for who we are.

It maps the whole gambit: things we’re afraid to pursue but secretly long for, self-limiting beliefs, addictions, questions of worth and self-esteem, and even projections placed upon us by others.

For instance, I’ve come to think of places like the 12th house very differently from the way they’re often treated, especially in traditional astrology. What was feared, hidden, or pathologized can also point toward radical sovereignty, depth, and liberation. Jyotisha’s understanding of the 12th as a place of moksha speaks to this.

We ought to question the cultural assumptions, even colonized reasoning, behind some of this fear-mongering: what has been labeled dangerous, hidden, or undesirable, and why? Sometimes what is repressed is not weakness at all, but power. Hidden power. Power that has been pushed out of sight because it could not be easily controlled or understood.

Astrology is not a diagnostic tool, and it should not be used to pathologize ourselves or anyone else. Trauma-informed practice means leaving room for a person to be the authority on their own experience, rather than treating the chart as an explanation of them. We are more than our charts. We are beyond the lens through which the chart describes us.

Soul, or life force, is not the outer layer, structure, or story. We are whole. Spirit is beyond framing.

The chart may describe a myth.

It is our story to write.

A strengths-based astrology begins here.