by Robert Wilkinson
The relationship of the various signs to each other, and why some signs do better with certain signs than others, has major implications for how we work and play with other people.
Just as each planet has its “department of labor,” so too each sign also has its “department of labor,” with its own methods and means of achieving its best function. Knowing what type of energy to bring forth in a given situation often determines the difference between “success” and “failure,” and most definitely whether we find ourselves in friction or harmony with another, or even ourselves.
For example, when it’s time to take the initiative, then we need to invoke Cardinal sign energy, and those who try to bring fixity before it’s needed will be obstructive rather than facilitative. When it’s time to stabilize a situation, then while the Cardinal signs can bring new directions and ideas, the Mutable (distributive) energy may be counterproductive to the stability we’re trying to establish. Again, the challenge to find the right type of sign energy is unique to each situation, which is why throughout our lives we are learning to apply the right type of energy to bring the best results that can be achieved in each moment.
I touched on some of these themes in yesterday’s article Astrology Class – Are You An Initiator, Stabilizer, or Distributor? Please revisit that post to refresh your awareness of the 3 Modes of expression, since by knowing whether to take the initiative, or consolidate and stabilize, or break up and distribute energy and/or forms in various situations, we can come to some level of “doing our Being” with expertise, wisdom, and awareness that whether anyone else knows it or not, we’re functioning exactly as we should.
All this information has a definite practical benefit. As I offered in that article, by knowing where the transits are working in your chart, we can see whether we're initiating, stabilizing, or fragmenting any given area of our lives. This can help explain why we are letting go of some things while other parts are moving along smoothly and other things are emerging. The trick is to see the whole picture so we are cooperating with our natural process rather than resisting it or fearing it.
We do not have to be trapped by our instinctive responses as shown in our charts. While we may be inclined toward certain modes of expression under specific conditions, since we have all the modes of expression in our charts, we can definitely transcend the instinctive mode of expression of our planets. As I pointed out, we are offered methods to adapt our responses as a result of the progression of our inner planets out of one sign and into the next one, as well as the various transits, since our natal outer planets may never change signs, but the transiting outer planets do change signs, and therefore the quality of their response.
We may have natal tendencies which conflict with each other, as well as others we meet along the way. Because we all have all the signs active in our charts, we all have conflicting energies within us which we are learning to discipline so they express accurately rather than erroneously according to the need of the moment. As we learn to harmonize conflicting energies within, we learn how to move through the conflicts of life as a harmonizing and productive force, bringing understanding to each type of friction we encounter.
I’ve also found that we learn to deal with conflicted inner energies through our encounters with the exact circumstances which help us practice the responses we’re refining. While our natal planetary positions show our natural “default” expression of each planetary department of labor, these are modified by their progressions as well as their transiting positions as we deal with those lessons.
For example, I have Mars in Aries which progressed through Taurus and is now in Gemini. So my birth inclination is to be self-initiating and quick in my response to “attack the problems of life,” but as I matured, I learned persistence and directness when my Mars was in Taurus, and have learned adaptation and the ability to take multiple approaches during the time my progressed Mars has been in Gemini.
So while Mars in Aries has a much different expression than Mars in Cancer (which it squares!), my progressed Mars in Taurus was a much more favorable way of expressing Mars’ energies to those with planets in Cancer. And just because it progressed into Gemini doesn’t mean I lost all I learned when Mars was in Taurus.
Mars transits all the signs every two years. That means we’re getting constant information about various ways Mars can express its energy regardless of our natal and progressed abilities. While my Mars naturally expresses itself in instinctive Aries ways, and learned Taurus and Gemini ways, I’ve also learned productive Mars responses when it occupied all the other signs. While Mars in Cancer may feel frictional to my inherent response, those periods also allowed me to become more sensitive in the moment, and find ways to modify my inherent Aries inclinations.
In another example, while my natal Jupiter is in late Pisces and has progressed into early Aries, I’m still learning about how to express Jupiter’s energies based in the transits. I learned a balanced, moderate way to express Jupiter’s energies when it was in Libra, and learned a more intense focus and the principles of magnetism when it was in Scorpio. I’ve been learning how it operates in expansive adventurous Sagittarius in 2018, which will be “made real” and grounded in practical, organized ways in 2020 as it transits Capricorn.
So even though our natal planets may be in signs which are in conflict with other signs, we can still learn a healthy planetary expression both by what we have learned about expressing those energies in the “real world” as well as by taking our view to a higher spiritual level. Once we understand the energies in play in any circumstance, regardless of the friction between planets and signs in our chart and between our chart and others’ charts, we can step outside of our instinctive and learned ways of responding by finding a broader, unifying spiritual view of what is, and what needs to be.
We can always transcend our natal and progressed instinctive modes of responding through higher awareness. As we learn to be more conscious in our responses to the challenges of life, we become adept at using any and all of the specific energies needed in a given moment. In walking our Path to Truth leading us to become an Arhat or Paramahamsa, we all learn about all of life’s energies so we may become conscious of what to do or not do in any circumstance.
While we may have our innate and learned tendencies of expression, we also are not bound to those forms. Our Eternal Self is always beyond the binding force of the material world, except as those binding forces show us Dharma as we live it within the Ring-Pass-Not. Even then, we may view all the modes of force as tools with which to express our Dharma and highest expression in that moment.
So from one point of view, we learn to be the expertise of our innate forms of expression while also learning to transcend the limitations of those forms of expression. By learning to use all the modes of expression on our path to Self-realization, we are able to use the appropriate type of energy to express the truth of what we’re there to BE and do in that moment. That can make life a joyous adventure in learning how to BE, whether the circumstances, be strange or familiar, frictional or harmonious.
© Copyright 2019 Robert Wilkinson
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