Astrology - natal charts

[Magpie]

After doing a Hellenistic natal chart and interpreting it, I can absolutely understand why we have a whole bunch of systems for interpreting planets. Someone got a shitty chart like me, so they created a new system. The new system disappointed another guy and we kept the thing going until we arrived with the modern "psychological" readings...

Anyhow, I got a reading that is somewhat true - hard to properly assess how accurate these are, especially since they deal with the future. However, it is also very inauspicious. I don't want to get into details, so I'll proceed to the question - how do you treat your charts? My take is - that is a state of affairs during birth, so synchronicity have it that this child was born then. So it sort of kind of pushes the child that path. But how hard? No idea, is it a nudge or is it a kick? Some other people seem to think these are hard ceilings and if we force the world to bend, whatever we gain will be short lived. That the path "prescribed" in a chart is the path of least resistance.

I spent a good amount of time on this stuff and I am not sure if it was a good investment. Left me with confusion at best and another bad inner belief to fight at worst (you are destined to toil serf!). Sure, there is some stuff to consider, some mirror-facing type of exercise in it, but it is expensive time-wise.

 

[Zelator2148]

These are all good questions. There is an old maxim from the 1970s that goes "The stars don't compel, they impel." The birth chart provides a roadmap or blueprint that we can follow or not as we choose once we adequately understand what it's saying and what the rewards and consequences might be of pursuing or diverging from the path that has been laid out. I began as a psychological astrologer but more recently moved into classical seven-planet astrology because its "temperaments and humours" are adequate to understand human nature at the functional level. I don't get much value out of predictive methods like secondary progressions and solar/planetary returns but I do pay attention to major transits (forget retrograde Mercury, if it doesn't tie directly into my natal horoscope its a transitory event along with other temporary "sky patterns" that scientists might call "statistical crud." My main source of reliable astrological forecasts these days is horary.