(This is a part of my Beginner’s Astrology course, which is just starting now. Feel free to contact me about getting in at the last minute, or in a few months when I do it again.)
We are all a vast collection of parts, yet we as individuals are much more than the sum of those parts. I myself am a Canadian Caucasian cisgender heterosexual male, right-handed, and a writer and an astrologer and a science fiction fan with no musical talent and a fondness for animals. This is more than most people actually need to know about me, but what does it really tell us? Certainly based on that description we know more than nothing, but: if I am right-handed, are there rings on that hand? Scars? Is it manicured? How’s my penmanship? Can I juggle?
All of these things about me can become important in one context and will be completely meaningless in another one. When we learn astrology, and we break down the birth chart into the individual components and how they interact, it’s a bit like that.
I could tell you that the Sun in your birth chart represents your spark of life, your ego, your life energies, how you want others to see you, your relationship to father figures, and so on. But each one of those will also be modified by the placement of the other planets in the chart, and the aspects between those planets.
So instead of giving you any of the usual textbook descriptions of what your son placement meetings, contemplate this image:
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Imagine you’re at a gathering of adults, all getting together for some adult reason. It could be a planning meeting or a barbecue or a church gathering or a yard sale or a funeral.
Now imagine a toddler runs onto the scene. And not just any toddler, but a stark naked one – running around, flailing his or her arms in the air and yelling WHEEEEE!! and zigzagging around and doing everything he or she can to be both a maximum disruption and to avoid getting caught.
This kid may or may not know that he or he is breaking the rules of normal social convention. In fact, on some level or another, this child probably does know that this is somehow “naughty,” but the pure thrill of being able to run around naked yelling in front of the grown-ups is simply too much to resist.
The adults in the situation have a wide range of responses: surprise, amusement, concern, embarrassment. Some think it’s adorable, and others think that some people simply shouldn’t be allowed to have children.
That naked, yelling toddler? He/she is simply doing his/her thing, and doesn’t care about being judged for it. In fact, what judgment this child does receive may in fact be part of the reward of it.
That naked, yelling toddler, running around like an untamed ape is the Sun in your birth chart, once you remove all the other planets and aspects and Signs and House placements.
Ponder this.