Conflicting Signs/Elements

[Kristyjnh]

Okay, first off before I get started, I'm very new to Astrology, and don't know a whole lot about it. I'm trying to learn, but it's hard to do so when I keep seeing everything through my "how does this affect me" filters so I want to get some of my stuff figured out before I confuse myself learning. If that makes any sense. Okay... Here goes...

I'm a Leo - but I never felt like one. I always hated being in the spotlight, having eyes on me unnerved me terribly. I never had a gift for making friends or expressing myself; just talking to one other person was difficult. I was always super shy around other people, save for the few close friends I had (among them my Leo might've shined through, I've always been a little... Eccentric).

Whenever I would look at astrological signs I would be drawn away from what I consider the "feeling" types - Fire and Water - toward the more controlled elements. I'm intellectual, critical, a little OCD (I can't play Rummikub with my family because I drive them crazy constantly straightening the tiles), and I love learning and knowing things not generally useful. I'm definitely a Sword. I often identify more with the masculine (my nickname in high school was The Godfather - I still have friends who call me that) but usually dress myself very girly in skirts and dresses.

Honestly, I always felt drawn to the sign of Virgo, who was highly critical, neat, analytical, and shy. As a child I was a bit of a girly-girl (I wore only dresses from the age of 2 1/2 to 8. ONLY DRESSES). When I got older and took a more masculine stance on the world, I still idealized my inner princess, and still had those traits named above.

Mostly, I always felt like I was contradicting myself. Was I liberal or conservative? I felt like both. Girly or "the Godfather"? Again, I felt like I was both and at the same time wondered how exactly that worked. I was outspoken among my friends (sometimes a little offensive) but in larger groups or among unfamiliar people I was hyper-careful about what I said to keep from offending anyone. I either couldn't shut up or wouldn't speak unless absolutely necessary. Basically, I always felt pulled in two directions.

Finally, this past year (at 22 years old) I looked up my Astrological Chart and everything fell into place.

Rising - Gemini
Sun - Leo
Moon - Cancer
Mercury - Virgo
Venus - Virgo
Mars - Virgo
Jupiter - Leo
Saturn - Aquarius
Uranus - Capricorn
Neptune - Capricorn
Pluto - Scorpio

All four elements are present in important positions (Earth by sheer numbers), and with lots of Male signs. Virgo carries a strong presence, and I feel like Gemini fits me almost to a T. My Sun sign is THE Sun and my Moon is THE Moon. Maybe the interaction of Water and Fire lessens the strength of the other? Would that make my Ascendant stronger?

I don't know all that much about Astrology (I haven't even touched Trines and Sextiles yet, still trying to figure Houses out), so this is all the conjecture of an amateur.

Anyone else have conflicting signs? How do they affect you?

 

[Minderwiz]

We all have 12 Signs in our charts, not one So if Signs 'conflict' then everyone has these conflicts. The aim is to try and decide how strong the conflicts are for individuals based on their charts. and how the conflicts coul be resolved.

You've taken that first step of realising that you're not a 'Leo' but an amalgam of more than one influence by looking up your chart positions. The next step is to begin to make sense of them. An approach used by many Astrologers is and which you employ here is the element balance. This can be done in several ways by weighting some planets and points more than others.

Usually this would mean giving more importance to Ascendant, Sun and Moon, which in your case would reduce the emphasis on Earth. Personally I'd also ignore the elements for the outers. That doesn't mean you should ignore them altogether but reflects two points. The effect of the outers is said to be generational (though that is arguable) and secondly because it's unclear how a change in Sign effects their influence. Doing that is likely to mean that Earth is no longer dominant. Again, at a personal level, I think modern element analysis is too simplistic but this is not the place to go into that

The next thing you need to work towards is an understanding that it's the planets plus Ascendant (and possibly MC) that are the important things. Whilst Sign placement will modify them, what counts most is their placement by house. Sign placement can tell you something about their strength to act but house placement (along withnfactors such as Direct or Retrograde motion) gives you an indication of how effective they will be.

That takes you on to house meanings, as these will show the areas of life that individual planets influence most That will eventually lead you to consider the aspects that link one or more planets.

 

[Kristyjnh]

Oh wow, thank you @Minderwiz! I think I'll have to study houses next then.

By the way, when you say "Outers" you mean the more distant planets, right? Like Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto?

 

[Minderwiz]

By the way, when you say "Outers" you mean the more distant planets, right? Like Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto?

Almost I mean the trans-Saturn planets, Uranus and Neptune and the dwarf planet Pluto plus other bodies beyond Saturn, such as Chiron. But there are many more than those and someone, somewhere will be using them on a regular basis.

The planets are the most important element of Astrology - they are the 'wandering stars' which first attracted attention to the heavens and first raised the notion that changes in the heavens reflected changes on Earth (or vice versa).

Use of the planets for divination stretches back far beyond the origins of the Zodiac or the houses. Some of the earliest records left by human beings, such as cave art, show the Sun, Moon and Venus (the brightest of the remaining planets).

By comparison the Zodiac is very new - about 2,500 years or so and developed out of the need to record the positions of the planets relative to Earth and also to identify their movement and cycles.

The use of houses is even newer, being about 2,000 years old give or take 50 years. Whereas the zodiac allows us to record the position of a planet relative to Earth, the houses allow us to identify where in the sky a planet is situated at a given moment at a given location. That is the houses are location specific. For example Mercury is currently at 0 degrees Aquarius. That holds no matter where are on Earth you happen to live, because it's a position relative to the whole planet. At my particular location Mercury happens to be above the horizon and were it not for the light of the Sun, I'd be able to find it in the South Eastern part of the sky. Elsewhere on Earth, Mercury could be below the horizon, as it would be night time, or is visible just above the horizon after sunset.

It is where the planet is relative to me, rather than to the Earth in general which shows it's importance in my natal chart. That's why the Ascendant, rather than the Sun sign should be taken as the most important position - it relates directly to me, at my moment of birth - it's the link between the planets and me.

There are twelve houses, because the original way of looking at them was to use the signs of the Zodiac relative to my position. So with my Ascendant in Leo, the whole of Leo was used as my first house, Virgo the second and so on. However very soon after, probably in the first 50 years or so of the use of houses, a system was devised to measure the strength of planets by dividing the heavens into four quadrants, based on the four 'angular' points - Ascendant/Descendant and MC/IC. It's this system that is most used in Western Astrology, though Indian Astrology (Jyotish) still uses the Whole Sign approach. Without going into it too deeply we now have several ways of dividing the houses on a quadrant basis, plus Whole Sign Houses, plus Equal houses (30 degree segments measured from the degree of the Ascendant).

When you get round to taking a look at them, please feel free to start asking questions about them.