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Astrology
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Excerpt from Donna's e-book:
An Astrological Guide to Self-Awareness: 2005 Edition
© Moon Maven Publications
Oppositions to the Ascendant and How They Modify Our Approach to Others
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by Donna Cunningham, MSW |
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The Rising Sign shows a great deal about our external façade, the part of our personality most readily apparent to other people who don’t know us well. We’re not talking about intimate friends, family members, and lovers—people we’re comfortable enough with to allow them to come through the back door of our existence, grab a brewski from the fridge, and pull up a chair in the kitchen. Instead, we are talking about people who hopefully will never see the inside of our fridge—more casual acquaintances, members of our astrology group, people we meet at a party and pray to never see again, or people we tolerate once a year at the company picnic. Who cares about them, really?
The quality of relationships with people you do care about, however, can be strongly affected by planets that form aspects to the degree of your actual Ascendant. Conjunctions are the most powerful modifiers—they are like doormen people have to check in with for admittance into your inner life. Trines show social assets that draw people to you, as do sextiles. Squares and semi-squares are like security checkpoints along the way, because they can show how you actively run into conflict with your environment. While I may some day write about all those aspects, here I want to work with oppositions to the Ascendant and share some observations of that aspect. For instance, there is a difference between a planet that opposes the Ascendant from the 7th house and one that opposes it from the 6th house.
We’ve spoken about the opposition in a more general way in other essays in this series. Briefly, when an opposition that involves two planets is being used in a healthy way, the person is experiencing two sets of needs, concerns, or desires, but is managing to juggle them so that neither is neglected to a dysfunctional degree. While it is seldom possible to meet the needs of both planets—including their signs and houses—at one time, the person will often alternate the sets of demands so that a balance is maintained.
However, if one planet in an opposition is disowned or ignored, the planet’s energies are often played out through a dialogue with The Other. That is, significant people may APPEAR to get in the way of or even actively subvert the person’s expressed and conscious wishes. Some typical phrases that you hear from those who are misusing an opposition by blaming others for their difficulties or failings are, “If it weren’t for my (wife/boss/mother/whoever), I would….” or, “Look what you made me do!”
This is more often than not a projection, meaning that on a less than conscious level, The Other is either deliberately chosen as a saboteur or may be seduced into playing the role by the person’s overtly or covertly provocative behavior. The more completely individuals project the responsibility onto others and disown their part in the situation, the more The Other is cast in the role of nemesis. Webster’s’ New World Dictionary of the English Language defines a nemesis as “anyone or anything by which one must, it seems, inevitably be defeated or frustrated.”[1] If that term rings any bells with you, have a look at your chart to see if it corresponds with an opposition.
Oppositions to the Ascendant—“Because of Them, I Can’t...”
Oppositions to the Ascendant are especially prone to being lived out through projection. A planet that is opposite the Ascendant is also invariably conjunct the Descendent, since the Descendant is the same degree as the Ascendant but in the opposite sign. Therefore, The Other who gets blamed for difficulties in connecting with people is all too often The Significant Other, especially when the opposing planet is in the seventh house (committed relationships).
Thus it is the partner who appears to get in the way of participating more actively in the world—“I’d dearly love to serve on the Board, but, you know, my husband….” Having offered a reason no one can argue with, the proposed board member breathes a sigh of relief and rushes off to do what she wanted in the first place. (One of the ways people with strong oppositions wind up alienating others, I am convinced, is their endless supply of lame excuses.)
Still, when the 7th house planet that opposes the Ascendant is a tough one, we cannot deny that the partner’s frailties, demands, or needs weigh heavily on the mind of the person with the opposition and take up a good deal of time and energy. Neptune in that position, for instance, may signify a partner who is addicted, physically challenged, emotionally disabled, a starving artiste, or out to save the world. Saturn in that position might portray a partner who is older, is heavily involved in a career, and demands perfection—the individual with this opposition might be expected to work in the partner’s business or play both parenting roles because the partner works 18 hours a day.
Yet the Ascendant/Descendant axis explains a great deal about the types of partners that we are attracted to and that we attract, so it isn’t happenstance that the person has been drawn into a commitment with a partner who lives out the qualities of the planet in question. For reasons related to their history, individuals with Neptune opposite the Ascendant may have been drawn into a codependent relationship with the addicted or emotionally disabled partner in order to save them—with all the suffering that can entail. Even if they somehow break out of that painful marriage, they can wind up connecting with a series of addictive personalities, unless they get to the roots of their codependency.
Likewise, people with Saturn on the Descendent are often looking for a Father or Mother figure to make them feel secure and safe. In consequence, except when Saturn is well aspected and in a fairly forgiving sign, they are drawn to people who strongly display the qualities of Saturn and are also likely to play the parental roles of taskmaster, authority figure, and disciplinarian. (Good aspects might include trines to Jupiter or the Sun; unforgiving signs for Saturn include Virgo, Capricorn, Scorpio, and Aries.) The hard-won lesson of 7th house oppositions to the Ascendant is that we pay a great price for subcontracting the functions of any of our planets to a partner. Until we are willing to take responsibility for fulfilling the needs of that planet for ourselves, our closest relationships are likely to be dominated by its less desirable expressions.
Sixth House Oppositions to the Ascendant—“I Can’t Because I’m too Sick/Busy.”
When the planet that forms the opposition to the Ascendant instead is in the 6th house (the world of work), over-commitment to the job is offered up as the reason the person cannot engage with us. “Oh, I’d love to get together with you sometime, but, you know, my job just takes up all my time.” Because the planet is still forming a conjunction to the Descendant, there is generally an important though not necessarily romantic relationship that gets in the way, whether with a boss, coworkers, or customers/clients. Expect to get emails from them that say, “So sorry I had to miss your dinner party—I know it’s the fourth time in a row—but we were running behind at work and my boss couldn’t get along without me.”
Work pressures are real—especially in today’s understaffed workplaces—and yet when these defaults on outside relationships are habitual, the pattern may have more to do with fear of connecting socially—possibly out of a sense of unworthiness. (In my observation, people with a strong 6th house emphasis sometimes experience self-worth issues having to do with a blue-collar background.)
Another 6th house matter that can get in the way of these people connecting with their surroundings in a meaningful way is health. (“I can’t come to your house—I’m allergic to your cat.” “No, I can’t really attend the meeting—I suffer from chronic fatigue.” “I wish we could make love, but I hurt my back on the job.”) Health, again, provides an unanswerable reason for not participating in life, and yet with these individuals, the health problem is often a consequence of long-term overwork or unwisely abusing the body in service of the job. And, as observed earlier, a workaholic may habitually use work pressures as a reason to avoid connecting with other people.
Certainly, people with a strong 6th house in the natal chart often contribute to the world at large in meaningful and rewarding ways, contributions that far outweigh the importance of socializing. Certainly, that may be their major karmic focus in this lifetime, rather than a committed partnership. However, if they are interested in maintaining a balance between work and connecting deeply with other people, consciously keeping both of these sets of needs in balance is the key. (Likewise, those of you who are smitten with individuals who have this opposition, do NOT assume that you’ll finally become the center of their existence as soon as they find a better job.
Can you expect that the next essay in this series will fill in the missing aspects? Will you find out why those two conjunctions to your Ascendant are so significant and result in such compelling relationship patterns? Will you learn why your partner’s Mars square to the Ascendant from the 4th house makes you feel like you have to pass through Checkpoint Charlie every time you come home from work? Will you finally figure out why that coworker with Uranus trine the Ascendant blatantly gets away with everything and anything, yet is still the boss’s favorite? Maybe. But you see, I’ve been having this transiting opposition to my Ascendant for several years now, not to mention the opposition from my progressed Neptune, and so I really can’t say how I will be feeling when I sit down to write the next piece. You understand.
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[1] Webster’s’ New World Dictionary of the English Language: Second College Edition, p.953. Simon and Schuster, New York
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Donna Cunningham,
Astrologer
& Healer |
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Donna Cunningham is an internationally respected astrologer and the author of 13 books on metaphysical topics.
Donna Cunningham has a dual background in astrology and psychotherapy, with a Masters in Social Work from Columbia University and over 30 years experience as a professional astrologer. She considers doing the astrology charts of children to be a sacred trust. It is a way of knowing who these Indigo children are on their own terms rather than as their families, teachers, and society expect them to be.
In these sessions, she focuses on typical childhood concerns such as family and peer relationships, the best educational approaches, and the child's special gifts and abilities. She can be reached for consultations at (503)291-7891, by email, or at her web page. Ask about her special rate for children's charts.
Donna is also co-editor of Vibration and a frequent contributor. She has written fourteen books on astrology and other metaphysical topics, including her Flower Remedies Handbook. Astrologers who want to know the special considerations involved in doing children's charts can read the chapter on this topic in Donna's text, The Consulting Astrologer's Guidebook.
Listed in several Who’s Who volumes, she has given seminars on astrology around the world and won the prestigious Regulus Award at the 1998 UAC.
She teaches astrology classes online at: astrocollege.com
You may reach her for long-distance astrology consultations at her web site:
DonnaCunningham
MSW.com
by email:
moonmaven @spiritone.com
or by calling:
(503)291-7891.
For the past 20 years, she has worked with the flower remedies, and she is co-editor of Vibration Magazine, a free online educational quarterly at:
essences.com/
vibration/
For information on Donna's online classes about flower essences, visit her website:
DonnaCunningham
MSW.com
"Donna's first astrology ebook will be available in March.
For more
information go to her web page:
http://www.donna
cunninghammsw.com
This series is reprinted with gracious permission from Donna Cunningham.
©2002 Vibration Magazine/The World Wide Essence Society
PO Box 285
Concord, MA 01742
978 369-8454
If you are interested in ordering a copy of Donna's new ebook:
"Flower Remedies--How Plant's Energies Can Heal Us,"
It is $15, available at Moon Maven Publications:
www.moonmaven
publications.com
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