Challenge Corner
Zip Dobyns
We had four responses to last issue’s challenge; all very good interpretations of the two charts except that all guessed the wrong person because she had more “good” aspects. There is no question but that the first chart was an “Easier” one. There were earth trines, air trines, and a grand trine in water including a spiritual sign and house combination (Pisces in the ninth house) and Jupiter with the ruler of the Ascendant. The chart suggests a strong involvement with nurturance and/or dependency with all the water, but the faith should be sufficient to handle life. Yes? Maybe. There are many varieties of faith, and it is not always helpful. We may have faith in God but not in ourselves. We develop faith in ourselves by successful action. We may be a successful wife, or mother, or worker, or friend, or whatever, but whatever we define our role in life, if we fail to reach our expectations, we are apt to doubt our worth. If our faith (ideals, standards, etc.) is high enough, we may never be able to reach our goals, and may never develop self-confidence and self-worth. The ruler of the Ascendant in chart #1 is in Scorpio in the fifth house while the natural ruler, Mars, is in Libra in the fourth house. Both state that she defines herself as wife and mother. The first house Sun, Node, and Pluto repeat the message, as does the sign Cancer. Since both women have the south node in the first house, both start with a lesson in personal confidence and self-expression, and both have a key to identity conjunct Jupiter (Mars in Chart #2 and Moon ruling Ascendant in Chart #1), showing the potential for “I should be perfect.” Chart 2 even has Chiron conjunct Mars to repeat the perfectionism. The major differences between the two charts lie in the earth, and the over-loaded 7th and 8th houses of Chart 2.
Chart 2 also defines herself as a wife (Mars in the 8th house) and a mother (Uranus ruling the first house in the 5th house and Saturn in Cancer). But she also defines herself as a worker, with Saturn in the 6th house; Mars in Virgo, and Capricorn in the 1st house. Normally, such a strong statement indicates someone who works early in life, or there is likely to be serious illness. Vesta in Leo on the Sun also ties the ego (need to be proud of oneself) to work as well as to love and marriage (Leo, 7th house). With this chart, she has to have both work and marriage. The work is somewhat connected to ideals (Moon ruling the 6th is in the 9th house and Jupiter is in Virgo) but there is a strong identification with the practical earth which has at least the potential for realizing that the perfect job does not exist, and settling for idealistic work. Saturn’s trine to the MC (of which it is the natural ruler) and Mars’ trine to the Ascendant are both relatively positive indications of the capacity to work. So whether she is likely to be ill, and if so to handle it, depends on whether she has actually manifested that potential. If she is not working successfully; if she has projected her earth into her husband (the Virgo is in the 8th house), we can assume the likelihood of health problems somewhere along the line, to escape the guilt for failing to work.
How about the earth in Chart #1? She has Vesta on the MC which can be as strong a drive to do something outstanding as on the Sun, and Saturn is also more widely on the MC. She has Venus in Virgo which says she wants to enjoy her work or do something artistic, and Neptune in Virgo is looking for the ideal job or wanting to do something idealistic. Uranus and Antivertex in Taurus want a comfortable life. Her Capricorn is in the 7th house and might be projected; also, so might her Saturn conjunct MC since it rules her 7th, and her Venus in Virgo (Venus is natural key to mate) and her Uranus which also rules the partnership area (8th house). Might she project most of her earth? Indeed she might, and stay identified with her dominant fire-water and air-water combinations. She might also go on looking for the perfect job. After all, Sagittarius is in the 6th house; Saturn and Vesta are in Pisces and Saturn in the 9th house to add to the Neptune in Virgo. If she waits for the perfect, spiritual job, and lets her partner be father-mother-God, what happens to her need to be in control of her own life (Sun and Pluto in the first house, Moon ruling Ascendant in Scorpio in the fifth house)? It could easily produce power struggles with her partner if she is not using her power constructively with work. Or there could be power struggles with children. Then what would happen to her defined role, to be a perfect wife and mother? So, in the end, we have to conclude that she also needs to work and to be happy in her work, to feel a sense of accomplishing something great, to maintain her faith in herself. Her problem would not be guilt over her lack of tangible accomplishment like Chart 2, but a sense of powerlessness if she is unable to produce perfect children and a perfect marriage; if her relationships resist her need to make them be the way she thinks they ought to be, to justify her self-worth. And, that is just what happened.
So Chart 2 worked, from the beginning, as a physiotherapist—an idealistic job, and was quite successful in it. She was too emotionally invested in her husband, and when he was critical of her, she was disturbed (since she obviously tends to be self-critical) but she knew enough psychology to realize that her illness was connected to her relationship to her husband, and she left him and recovered in a matter of weeks. She is now back in the marriage, but with a decision that if the relationship does not improve, she will leave permanently. She is sufficiently earth to be self-sufficient financially, in spite of her emotional vulnerability to her husband.
Chart 1 never worked. She considered herself too “sensitive” to be in a normal job in the normal world. When her children became increasingly independent and refused to be controlled, and her husband developed a friendship with another woman, even though it was not a sexual alliance, she was consumed with resentment but impotent to do anything about it. Both women had cancer (as one reader guessed), but the one who was boxed in by her dependency and sensitivity, who couldn’t manage her perfect job, was the one who felt helpless and hopeless—LeShan’s descriptive words for the personality associated with cancer. I think that to make an accurate choice between the two charts, we needed the information on whether the subjects were happy in their work. Chart 2 did have stress aspects, showing the tension with her husband and the temporary separation, but she knew how to cope with life. Chart 1 believed in reincarnation, psychic healing, the power of the mind, but she couldn’t live it when the chips were down. She died on April 6, 1979 at about 9 to 9:10 A.M. for those who want to check the aspects. Chart 2 went for a medical check-up after dreaming of fire; discovered the cancer; left her husband for two weeks (February 1978) while she worked with her frustration and resentment, and came back without the cancer. Both she and Chart 1 had Jupiter progressed to conjunct a key to personal identity; hers on Mars and #1 on Moon, ruler of the Ascendant. Chart #1 had also just finished progressed Mars going over natal Jupiter (during which time the cancer was spreading through her body), so there was a double dose. A strong emphasis on faith, for sure, but how conscious and how manifested? Jupiter is quite often involved in cancer, which is excessive cell growth, and almost always aspected at death, which is a journey to a higher level of life—sometimes an escape from misery here.
Despite her temporary triumph, I hope that Chart 2 continues to build her self-worth, to work successfully and avoid any projection of power onto her partner. Her really heavy aspects are still ahead, including Neptune reaching the exact square to Saturn; Saturn reaching the exact opposition to the Ascendant and Pluto the quincunx to the Ascendant; Jupiter will square Uranus, and Uranus go retrograde (and it is a first house ruler). All these will come within a few years of each other, some 15 years from now, with Mars square Saturn and Ascendant for some years about the same time. She obviously will be tested again, to see whether she has indeed learned not to project her power; to love and let go if necessary, rather than become martyr to a critical, rejecting husband. Only time will tell whether she will handle life equally well at that time.
Just as The Mutable Dilemma was about to go to press, another response came in with the right answer. Congratulations Shirley. She pointed out the emotional fire-water mixtures in Chart 1, and the Mars square the first house planets for self-blocking, and the search for the perfect job among her reasons for the choice.
The new challenge returns to twins, and deals again with health, since we are presenting the 6th house in this issue, and the Pisces-Virgo polarity can choose between artist-craftsperson; helper-savior; and victim. We have female twins again; born September 10, 1946 at latitude 42 N 2 and longitude 87 W 41. One was born at 1:34 and one at 1:37 A.M. CST. Three minutes means less than a degree change on the angles—a real challenge. Especially since one twin died of Lupus Erythematosus and the other was healthy, though she did have an accident in the last half of 1973. The death occurred on December 8, 1973, for those who want the help of progressions and transits. Good luck.
P.S. Charts of two individuals with the same illness are discussed in another article in this issue.