Learning to See Obvious Things in Birth Charts

Transcript:

0:01
Hi everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology. Happy Monday, everybody. Today we are going to take a look at a birth chart and a question that I received from a viewer about this chart. It's a really good question. I'm sure that a lot of people have similar questions, so I thought it would make for a good video today. It's a little bit of a slow week astrologically we'll be tracking the entrance of Venus into Virgo Sun is changing signs into Leo, we're looking at the full moon in Aquarius by the end of the week, that one's pretty potent because it picks up the conjunction with Pluto right before it perfects. That's on Friday. So that's kind of the agenda for the week, a little bit of a slow week. I'm still technically on vacation right now. But I am making content each day it's not seeing clients. And so at any rate, one of the reasons that I do these teaching videos is because I know that a lot of you at home are studying astrology on your own, you don't have the time or maybe the resources to take a class. And so I know that it's really helpful to have actual instructional videos on reading charts from time to time. So today's video, the question came in, and I thought it was a really good question. It's actually a question about Muhammad Ali's birth chart. But the birth chart, it could be any chart, the question is really important: "I know that Muhammad Ali was a prizefighter. And so I look at his chart, and I can see that symbolism in his chart. But I'm not sure that if I didn't know that about him that I would have been able to say he's he's going to be a prizefighter. Should I be able to say that looking at someone's chart, and where and how could I see in Muhammad Ali's chart that you would be a prizefighter, if I didn't already know that he was?"

1:48
Good questions, really good question. Some of them a little bit philosophical, some have to do with the actual learning of astrology, and then some technical pieces about his chart. So we'll look at those. First of all, it is very normal when learning astrology, for there to be a certain portion of your education that is done with hindsight, like for years, in fact, you should be using hindsight in order to learn and develop your interpretive skills, what is so does that mean it means you should be able to take a look at a friend's chart, and let's say the friend gives you their chart to study, a great exercise is for you: you know some biographical details about their life, you know, for example of their parents split up or you know, for example, that they work in it or you, you know, for example, that your friend is really athletic. Or, let's say that, you know, for example, that your friend has a pattern of dating guys that have been like this. Then, with that knowledge, you sit down. And now this, of course, the prerequisite to all of this is that you have some interpretive techniques and understanding of how to interpret planets, signs, houses, and aspects in the Hellenistic mode. Obviously, I'm speaking now as a Hellenistic astrologer, but I think this is applicable to any other type of astrology.

3:08
So if you're sitting down and you have some knowledge, some some interpretive skills, and you know, that biographical detail about the person's life sitting down and looking at a chart and saying, Now I know this fact about this life, where do I see it in the chart, and then whittling it down. Sometimes there's a chart will speak to the same thing in multiple different ways. There's sometimes called the rule of three, you know, you get to see the same kind of themes in three different places in the chart, then you can bet your bottom dollar that that's going to be something worth talking about to the client. But let's just say that you find it in the chart that work of locating through the symbols, something that you already know, it's not hands off, it's not illegal, it's not cheating. We're not psychics as astrologers. Some astrologers may have psychic ability, but astrologers are not psychics, we're like karmic weathermen. And so, our job is to learn how and where symbols show up to say different things. And we need as much exposure to different things and different placements of the symbol saying different things as possible. And most of that in the beginning is not going to happen. predictively it's going to happen through hindsight. Here's a detail where do you see it? Here's the fact about the life where do you see it? Here's a personality trait where do you see it? And it's not that any answer is correct. And so, at some point, having the guidance of a teacher classroom peers is really important because it's going to hold you accountable. Make sure you're getting the answers right because it's not just any answered that's correct. But you know, even at home you should be able to in the early stages of your development as an astrologer with Hellenistic tools, knowing which houses represent what looking at the rulers of certain houses, looking at aspects from one topical ruler to another, knowing which planet naturally signifies love or whatever the case may be, you should be able to pick up on things, big facts, big biographical details about a person's life fairly easily by looking at a chart. The more that you do that, the more you start building up kind of a diviners Almanack in your mind, and you start being able to identify or recognise different ways in which the symbols can play out. And this is important to do, because the symbols don't just play out in one way, it would be way too big of an ask for people to sit down and do predictive astrology right off the bat without having developed that network of associative symbolism through houses, planet signs and aspects, dignities, and so forth. You know, Saturn in the 10th house could mean that you do something for a living that Saturn like. Saturn in the 10th house could mean that there's a certain degree of confinement or isolation and the type of work you do, or the life that you lead. Saturn in the 10th house could mean that you know that you're an outcast in society somehow; because the symbols are multivariant. Again, you're going to need lots of different scenarios in order to refine your predictive abilities, but never you're never perfecting them. When I sit down with a client, I'm usually going to offer them a range of possibilities here, I see this planet in this house. I think it's speaking to these topics, and here are some of the different ways it might be speaking to them. Please give me some feedback. That's very common for astrologers to do to ask for context from the client when they're asking questions, to ask for feedback when you're making interpretations. By doing that, we're able to more accurately hone in on the specific ways in which those multivaillant archetypes are playing out in person's life. So first of all, it's just really normal. So, hindsight is 2020. And that's not out of bounds when you're an astrologer learning as you go along.

7:01
Of course, you want to be able to make predictions, of course, and you want to be able to describe things more and more accurately, or get closer to the bullseye. But the analogy that I always use is, in astrology, if you try to make the most specific concrete prediction, you're likely to miss the dartboard altogether, throwing for the bullseye. Whereas if you throw for the board, which means you hone in on a symbol, but offer a range of consistent archetypal descriptors for a client, one of those descriptors will hit the bull's eye, and the client doesn't feel cheated of anything, because they can see, as you're describing the different ways the symbols could play out that they all are similar intimations of the same thing. And they're then saying, Ah, that's the one that really fits my situation. So, at any rate, it's normal to not be able to look at Muhammad Ali's birth chart, in other words, and if you're newer, and if you're developing your skills to look at it and go, Well, you know, I don't think I would have been able to guess that he was a prizefighter. Well, me either, but as time has gone on, I can tell you, that fighter would be one of the words that I would now choose to describe his chart, although fighter for what? Physical fighter, ideological fighter, hard to say. But you will be able to get closer and closer to the essence of what his chart is about over time, and I'll hopefully this will be able to illustrate this with his birth chart.

8:40
So I'm going to put his birth chart on the screen now and just show you where and how we can see that he was indeed a prizefighter. Among other things, right. But that was one of obviously the things that made him most famous. So here's his birth chart on the screen. Now, again, the question was, if I didn't know, this, I'm not sure would have seen it? Where can I see it? So there's a few ways that we can see it. First of all, you know, let's look at the 10th house. When you're looking at the 10th house, you're saying, Well, what does this person do for a living? That's one of the possibilities of the 10th house public reputation, it's associated in Indian astrology with the word artha, which would mean the development of power, reputation, wealth, esteem eminence in the world. So here's that 10th house. Now. We see Saturn and Mars both in the 10th house. So one of the things that we can do in this chart to say, Well, what would Muhammad Ali have done for a living or what may he have gained the steam or honour a recognition from. That doesn't mean that we can just look at 10th house planets and gold there's 10th house planets, they must be famous. No, I mean, relative to one station in life, we we have to look for different eminence factors. But the point here is just where can we see the potential for someone to become known for being a fighter. So, of course, the low hanging fruit is Mars, Mars, the God of War is in the 10th place. Okay, so fair enough, one of the things you could say right away is that he has an angular Mars, and angular Mars will often mean that someone has some kind of executive power, or warlike qualities in the workplace, or that there will be, strength, power, muscle assertion, leadership, those kinds of qualities, but that doesn't alone, say, boxer, I mean, you could certainly put that it might be a good guess that you would get that but it's the Mars like qualities. So if you talk to a client and you say, look, it looks to me as though Mars will be on display in your life, and you may gain honours or esteem or you may do well at jobs that feature Mars like things. Well, what do Mars like things include, and that's where you can start unpacking some of the options. You say, Mars is a God of War. If you say Mars is the god of war, as you're describing the different possibilities to Muhammad Ali, just say he's your astrology client, then he would be like, well, I'm a fighter. So there you go. And that's what I mean by throwing for the board, you'll hit the bullseye. But you just you say, these are the kinds of things you could gain honour recognition status, you may do some of something Mars like for your career. But it's not just Mars. It's also the combination of Mars and Saturn.

11:39
So with Saturn here, when you put Saturn and Mars together, you get that sense of confinement discipline, constraints, seriousness, focus. And then you're blending that with the god of war. Well, one Mars, Saturn. Common symbolism for Mars and Saturn will be the military, or martial arts, or martial discipline, you know, an Olympic, you know, bodybuilder or something that requires a lot of both effort and discipline, perseverance, and strength and muscle, but also the kind of stoic hard quality of someone who like a drill sergeant or boot camp, these are the kinds of things that can come together through Saturn and Mars. Now, you could also unpack those symbols on a variety of other levels. For example, Muhammad Ali is a civil rights icon, Muhammad Ali is an anti war activist, etc, he becomes Muslim. And so in terms of a major change of status in the eyes of the world that could make a person a more controversial figure, Saturn again, in the 10th house, those are quite common motifs for people with Saturn in the 10th. So anyway, some of the themes here of Saturn and Mars are pointing to exactly what he what he is and what he does as a fighter. You know, as a an activist and as someone who's has a major identity change in his lifetime. Okay, so now that's that that alone isn't enough.

13:25
I wouldn't necessarily go Okay, you know, here's where, you know, I look at his chart, and I just go that set. It's usually a combination of factors. For example, in his chart, the other thing to pay attention to is his Ascendant is in Leo, sign of the Sun, we want to take a look at the sun and every birth chart, but here we see that the sun is in Capricorn, in the sixth house, and this is going to describe his personality, his physical characteristics and traits vitality, health, demeanour. Well, this is a this to me is the dead giveaway in his chart. Why is that? Because the sixth house was traditionally called the joy of Mars. And it was a house associated with warriors and soldiers and fighting it was associated with martyrs, people who would die for a cause, people who selflessly serve something that's difficult or in a difficult environment, say like a medic or on the war on the battlefield or a surgeon who has to go in and cut things up for people, maybe social workers or freedom fighters, or, you know, social activists are people who have fight in them. And this is a big part of what they do fight or serve. There could be a degree of suffering or sickness or even slavery, that are a part of what a person is dealing with. And, obviously, I mean, I'm talking about figurative slavery for the most part, but obviously, you know what you can you can be quite literal about this in the ancient world there you needed to have houses that could cover slavery, so, and of course still applicable in our modern world not very long ago.

13:51
At any rate, we have the ascendant ruler then as the Sun in the sixth house, the joy of Mars. What's interesting about it is that then you're taking the sun in Saturn's sign Capricorn, and you're putting it in a trine with its ruler Saturn in the 10th house. So now we know that this Sun and Capricorn sixth house characters connected to that Saturn Mars in the 10th. Not only this, but dignities are a big deal. It's in Saturn's sign, but it's also in the exaltation of Mars. Capricorn is the domicile of Saturn and the exaltation of Mars. So we have a very, very Mars the sun here. Why? Because it's in the joy of Mars in the sixth house. It's in Mars's exaltation. It's in a whole sign trine to Mars applying square if you take it across the sign boundary. And it's also in a trine to it. So Saturn in the 10th. So everything about that sun connects back to Mars and Saturn.

16:11
So when I look at his chart, I think, gosh, this personality is going to be very, you know, sixth house, Capricorn Suns, you know, these are, these are tough people, people who are often going to be very determined, steely, hard nosed, sometimes they're, you know, they're going to have that chip on their shoulder, and potentially can also struggle with health problems. So one of the problems of the sixth house is that the sixth house is being drawn down by the primary motion into the underworld. So it was associated with degenerative chronic health problems, and Muhammad Ali dies of a degenerative disease. But the point here is also that again, if I'm an astrologer, and I'm looking at his chart, could I look at all of this and say prizefighter? Probably not. But here are some things, I'm just going to write them down so you can see them? These are some things that I would say, I would say, determined, sixth house, Mars, like personality, hard, concrete, persevering. Let's see, I'm going to put in disciplined, martial. I'm going to put in things like, let's see, goal oriented. So these are the kinds of things that I end up coming up with. Now, if I'm sitting down, and I'm talking to Muhammad Ali, and I'm saying, hey, look, it's a sixth house Sun. It's a marsy, saturny, Sun, you know, those are your characteristics. You got Mars and Saturn in the 10th, it's, etc. You can even go to the earthy side of the add the element of Taurus and Capricorn, you're going to hit pretty close to home. Now, of course, there's lots of other elements in his chart to interpret as well. For example, the story around his marriages are really interesting. I read his Wikipedia bio, I'm not like an expert on Muhammad Ali.

18:12
But you know, he's got Venus retrograde, in the seventh, he has a few pretty turbulent marriages. There's a degree of violence in some of the marriages. You could read, for example, the fact that he's got a moon mercury conjunction, he's very compelling speaker, it was one of the things you know, the way he talked, was so compelling. So a lot of different things in his chart that we could speak to outside of just he was a fighter, right. But the point here is just to to notice patterns, you start, you see a dominant Mars, and then all of a sudden, you see the ascendant ruler in the exaltation of Mars and in the joy of Mars, and with an applying square to Mars, whole sign time that applying degree based square to Mars, see that Saturn Mars up at the 10th. That's when you start to get the archetypal outlines of the thing that you're in. And suddenly, the point is that by the end of this, you're not going well. I never would have been able to tell that he was a prizefighter. The goal is not to be able to say this chart prizefighter. The goal is to be able to say you're going to do these specific kinds of things in these specific areas of life. And you're going to have a little range of archetypal descriptions. But if you're if you become good at seeing consistent repetition of patterns in a chart, like the ones that I just went over, you'll get pretty close to the bullseye, you will and that's more important than being able to sit down and say Muhammad Ali, you will be a famous prizefighter. Because with the client, what we're really trying to do, after all, is what I mean when I'm reading a birth chart for someone, I'm trying to say, Hey, you know, this is what it's gonna, this is what your life will be like more or less in these different areas, and I want to describe them in the way that I just said. Then a person who already knows their life goes, Okay. Yeah, I see. And then they may ask questions, you think it could be like this? I know the symbols. And so I go, No, I think that's probably a little too extreme. You know, let's dial it back a notch or person says, Oh, is it going to be so great like this? And I say, maybe not that great. But yeah, it'll be pretty good. So as we describe the symbols, we help them adjust and adjust their expectations in different areas of life, usually balancing out extremes that people have in their heads. But more importantly, most people are coming in for forecasting. So if I'm sitting down with a client, I'm doing some forecasting work for them, I need that Natal context to know what kinds of things or what the parameters of the birth chart tell us as possible. And then when I'm doing forecasting, if I say, look, these are the different types of things likely to happen in this area of life, the client, knowing their life is already going to be much more aware of what the most likely scenarios are that are playing out. If I say for example, hey, look, Saturn's about to enter your career house, it could represent these five different types of things that are happening, that person is going to know probably more than I do exactly which of those five Saturn expressions is most likely to play out. But even if they say, Okay, well, that I think that's the most likely one, I'm going to change jobs. A year down the line, they get a promotion, they don't change jobs, but they get a promotion. But one of the things that I said about Saturn was that, you know, hard work and discipline pays off when Saturn is in your 10th house. They're gonna go ha, that's funny. I remember he said, I could get a promotion, I thought I changed jobs. So, you know, if a weatherman gets on and says, Look, it's going to be mostly cloudy. It's going to rain, probably, you know, good chance of rain between, you know, 10am and 4pm. Okay, 10am and 4pm. And I go out in the morning, and it's overcast, no, the weatherman was right. It's overcast, and looks like it's gonna rain. And then maybe there's a few drops in the afternoon, but it doesn't it doesn't fully rain. Do I say do I think to myself? Well, the weatherman was totally off. No, I've had an experience very much like what the weatherman described was it exactly what the weatherman described. No, but it was pretty close. That's what we that's, that's really our goal as astrologers is to be able to be, you know, the weather changes. Our choices affect things karmically. But we want to be able to more or less described between this time in your life in that time, these types of things are likely to occur. And then when a person goes through them, they feel prepared. And they also they feel they remember when these things play out that there is a divine intelligence guiding things and it gives us comfort. So at any rate, I hope that this lesson today was helpful for all of you out there studying on your own. I again this week's a little bit of a slow week for me. We'll have a few more there be some more chart demos, and then we'll be taking a look at Venus into Virgo and the full moon on Friday. All right, well, I hope you guys are having a good, good start to your week and I look forward to more soon. Take it easy, everyone. Bye.