Every Natal Chart is an Ecosystem
Every natal chart is an ecosystem, reflecting not only our personal strengths and challenges, but the physical, emotional, & spiritual environments in which we find ourselves when we’re born.
Our natal charts are relational & vibrational mandalas, illuminating a constellation of soul-stories: of family, friends - antagonists, even; including the environment & circumstances into which we arrive. The natal chart is both very personal codex, & a multi-petaled cosmology, with its potential unfolding over time.
Not one of us is an island, and in the ancient system of astrology I practice, the nativity isn’t simply a self-referential or psychological mirror of who we are. Although we’re sovereign, self-responsible beings, we are crucially also interdependent beings. It’s an isolating unkindess to ourselves (and possibly to others) to believe we must each carry entire worlds solely upon our own backs, as though we exist in a vacuum of heroic individualism.
Since early childhood I’ve been fascinated with the elements and how Air, Fire, Water & Earth shape and are shaped by one another, the land, sky & sea - the cycles of the moon too. I’d watch the elements interact and joyously collide or fiercely tussle. The awe at the king tides that would arrive - nearly to my doorstep (a la Ponyo) when the Moon was fat and as golden as butter, melting into the sultry quiet of the cove. I desired to be absorbed into their movements and patterns in union. To become the power and beauty they held.
I remember long, wild chats with the spiritus loci as I played alone by the shores, and in the rockpools near my home. I watched the wind dance around certain corners, tormenting certain trees relentlessly until they were hobbled and bent nearly double. Winds so giant they effortlessly bounded up cliff-faces, rushing towards the sleeping volcano behind me. I’d feel the sting on my cheek when the gales whipped sea-spray & sand into a fury. I would sing songs of devotion to please, appease or simply evoke a game, (or sometimes when I felt wicked, a storm).
There was the mesmerism and seduction of bonfires on the beach, flames galloping towards the stars. The dance of phosphorescence on the water, the sea a cold lover’s embrace when I swum secretly, naked in the night. The rich, deep bass of Earth-songs lulling my heart’s rhythm as a homing call. Inhospitable hillsides of gorse within which burrow & hide. The elements were animated glyphs, moulding the clay of my child body and spirit. Being with them constantly they made my mind untameable and my body ferociously instinctual.
But it was when I discovered astrology as a teenager, that I felt as though I had been handed a golden key to unlock an elaborate pattern. Unmediated in my early experiences, glimpsed in the myths and stories I devoured, but never articulated until then.
Years later, (before I was a recovering academic), I did a PhD in Literature (post-colonialism and semiotics) and I discovered Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space. This had a profound impact upon me, & laid in me another elemental memory-stone. So too did Irigaray’s The Marine Lover of Friedrich Nietzsche, in which Water is a sensual, wildly amorous & Feminine challenge to post-structuralism. Written at a time when “Feminine” was a problematic term.*
These experiences were providing more of the weft to the astrological weave…
As a life-long gardener (my first words were the names of flowers and plants) my obsession with observing land, space, and the elements led me into to studying not only herbalism formally, but also Permaculture design where I learned more about creating microclimates, as well as restoring and remedying challenging conditions with soil, wind factors, water drainage, & fire risks. On a deeper level, this was also about working with the elements and spiritus loci in co-creational, respectful, even poetic ways in order to bring back life and fertility to the land where it was suffering or depleted. This was through observation and listening deeply to what the land wants to be and become. To help guide it into its natural flow state - not by pushing, imposing, or abusing it with chemicals, but with a spirit of curiosity, acceptance, and wonder.
We can similarly co-create with the elements in our natal charts. Through crafting and cultivating little microclimates that support the health and integrity of certain areas of our charts, we can also support the health and integrity of our lives, and more fully appreciate the beauty and spirit we each possess.
In every nativity there are planets or challenging aspects that may need a little support, nourishment, or a little extra care. Although we can’t control everything that happens to us in our lives, we can mitigate and remediate certain planetary conditions - tone, soften and tend to them in a way that cultivates compassion, generosity and gentleness towards ourselves. We can begin to feel more supported and held by the planets. We can better appreciate the gifts of their energetic expressions more clearly in our lives. Even with challenging aspects or transits.
Magic is real. We can attune ourselves to this magic, and open channels for love, gratitude, and grace to flow in and take root. For creativity and abundance to flower. In strengthening our relationship to the stars, and through building, feeding and watering our astrological soil with certain practices and approaches, we can also enrich our relationship to self, others, and the unfolding of our life’s beautiful potential.
*There are others too. The Laugh of the Medusa, by Helene Cixous - how relevant (in parts) this book is again in these times, despite its vintage.
