The Natal Chart – Part 9 of The Chemistry of Time
Under thousands of feet of water beneath the oceans, there are volcanoes. As they erupt the magma is released from below the Earth’s crust and they begin to cool and form new rocks. Because these rocks are high in iron content they are influenced by the Earth’s magnetic field as the liquid magma crystallizes, determining the direction in which the crystals are formed. After the magma has hardened into rock it retains a record of the direction and strength of the magnetic field at the time it was created. Underneath the sea today we find a striped pattern in those rock layers with some pointing north and others pointing south. It alternates at somewhat regular intervals and this is how we know that the magnetic field of the Earth itself switches polarity. The rocks retain a snapshot of the conditions of the magnetic field of the Earth at the time they were formed and this persists as it is built into the physical structure of the rocks themselves. Such is the nature of our physical world.
Perhaps unsurprisingly a similar effect occurs when all things are formed. The process of formation itself implies that the characteristics of the world into which it is formed will be imprinted into the newly created thing. It is because the characteristics of the world change over time that this is significant. All things which are created contain an image of the world as it was at the time of creation. The mechanics of this will be discussed later – for now it is the basic principle that is important. We have already seen how the calendar shows us the changing characteristics of the world over time and now we will consider how the changing characteristics of time after formation impacts those things which retain the features of the world when they first emerged into it.
When a new thing is created we can take a snapshot of the calendar at that time and use it as a reference for the characteristics of the newly formed thing. This can be a living creature, a country, a project, or anything that is formed. For now we will consider the natal chart of persons (as that is what we are), and the key first step to understanding the external world is to know who we are, because who we are is the angle through which we interact with the external. Below is the chart of a person, showing the placement of the planets and the horizon at the time of birth:
The life of this individual can be entirely understood through the information contained in this image. Doing so completely is difficult – likely impossible – but total and complete understanding is not necessary (is it even desirable?). What is less difficult to understand is the ways in which this person interacts with the world itself. This chart tells us which elements were real at the time of formation and therefore how the individual experiences life. The assumptions this person makes about what is human, how the self works, how things tend to occur, and what can be done is entirely rooted in the polarity and orientation of the world that created them – a world which no longer exists, of course. Similar to how the magma is crystallized according to the polarity of the Earth’s magnetic field, this person has been formed by a world in which Mars is in the territory of Virgo, and the Moon is in the territory of Scorpio. As a result the things which are indicated by the elements of Mars and the Moon will exist to this person according to this alignment. For them, that which is formed by the active element of the Moon is always combined with the territorial element of Scorpio. They know no other reality. Time rolls on however, and this person will proceed to live in a world in which all of these planets and positions will change. The world they enter tomorrow may have the Moon in the element of Cancer, but they will always be interacting with the present world from the perspective of their natal positions. It is in this way that the substances produced in this world can vary so greatly and can encompass the entirely different lives of all who live. Moments of time are themselves being formed out of the properties of the combined elements, but we ourselves introduce a series of elemental combinations into the formula when we interact with it. You are a walking, talking vial of “Mars in Virgo” and whenever you meet the external world you are throwing that into the beaker with whatever today’s mix happens to be. As you may expect, results vary.
Next, consider that every other person is doing the same. As such, every meeting with another person is really a three-way conversation between different formations of reality. The one at the time when you were formed, the one at the time when they were formed, and the one forming at the time the meeting takes place.
A few days ago, nearby, one teenage girl was in a fight with a second teenage girl, who stabbed her in the neck leading to her death. The disagreement and friction between the two girls was likely a result of the combination of the elements in their respective natal charts, but it was the nature of the time in which their disagreement occurred that propelled it to the exceptional level that it did. According to the calendar, Mars is in Aries and Venus is in Taurus. According to the system, Mars is action and it has great strength in Aries, which starts things. One characteristic of Mars is that it separates, and Mars is often compared to a hot surgical knife in the way it’s influence is shown. Further, Taurus is said to describe the neck, and Venus has great strength in Taurus, where it receives. One characteristic influence of Venus is justice. The placement of the other planets at the time provides greater context, but it’s already enough to see the influence of the third-party on the particulars of this unfortunate interaction. As it turns out, timing isn’t everything, but it’s probably like a third of everything.
Now, many readers will have been taken aback by the way in which I have reflected this very real, public, and horrible event that has occurred just days ago, just blocks away. That is a fourth conversation, that of the observer and their own chart. How they see what has occurred in a time, between others, is influenced by their own perspective. How you respond is influenced by the Moon because it is the Moon which reflects. I am the chart above, and this is how these events were reflected to me because my alignment carries the Moon in Scorpio. As we will discuss later, Scorpio is itself influenced by Mars, and carries the theme of separating as well. Scorpio is the fixed modality sign of the water triplicity, which lends it the property of depth. As such, for those with the Moon in Scorpio, what is reflected is a deep and persistently flowing separation of the elements observed. The Moon in Scorpio understands the strength of what is reflected, and the corresponding pieces of what it contains. It does not understand it in the precise ways that it will in the other eleven signs, each of which is considered better and more functional for the Moon. Fortunately, at the time of this writing the Moon is in Cancer, where it is considered to be highly effective. As a result the event is viewed at this time with the aid of the Cancer element, the likely impetus of this additional paragraph apologizing for the cold, hard analysis of personal tragedy for the purpose of discussing astrological placements. I as an individual have a way of experiencing reflection that is according to how I was formed, but because time continues on I will experience the world reflected in other ways as well. The relative ease by which my own natal chart interacts with the transits in the chart of the moment has to do with the relationships between where the planets are in transit (now), versus where they are in my own chart.
It is these layers of interacting elemental combinations (charts) which determine the reality of the moment for us. Differences in our charts result in different perspectives and responses to the moment, and to each other (who are a snapshot of the moment in which we were formed). It is a very complex combination of substances which produces the world that we know, and the most fundamental element of this for us individually is the portion which we ourselves contribute. You are a walking vial of Moon in Scorpio, constantly interacting with a changing world and people of other alignments. To understand how the moments of your life were and will be created you must first understand your contribution to them. Then you can understand the contributions of others, and the contributions of the times in which you live.
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