I have studied astrology for a long time. Like everything else human, there are many personal opinions, conflicting information, and conflicting authors. Some of them may whip you around as your mind struggles to understand the contradiction, argument, or paradox created. One of those areas of variation is where do you find Mom and Dad on the graph, and which parent is represented in the houses on the parental axis, the fourth, and the tenth? This particular conflict has existed for many decades and even centuries. If teachers disagree, how can we, as students, come to conclusions for our own work? I decided to use logic to see if it would prove itself in experience.
My favorite way of explaining myself through something like this is to start with our “insights”, those areas that make sense, don’t have as much contradiction, and seem to work consistently. In this case, we will first look at the houses themselves. In the Tropical Placidus system that I am using, the house numbering starts with ascending and moves counterclockwise (widdershins) through the wheel sequentially. The ascendant is the cusp of the first house, moving down the wheel of houses to the Immum Coeli (IC) which is the cusp of the fourth house, then moving up the wheel towards the descendant (opposite the ascendant, 7th house), moving still up to midheaven (MC) as the cusp of the 10th house, then moving down to complete the circle of houses on the ascendant. Twelve houses equally divided into quadrants (4).
The ascendant is where we enter the stage, so houses 1, 2, 3 on the left side of the table are intensely personal: I am (1), I need (2), I communicate (3). We branch on the cusp of 4 from “me” to “others” on the right side of the table and who we are becoming now has to take into account “others” and our interaction with those others. That is true for the six houses (4-9) on the right side of the graph. The remaining three houses (10-12) are again on the left side of the graph and join the first three houses in “I-ness.” Left side “I”, right side “other”. The six lower houses are internal and introspective. The six main houses are external and objective. (I just defined free hemispheres for you). Back to the houses: each of these angles are important points of change of experience, from the pure “I” (1) to the encounter with the “other” (4), to the purely “you” or “us” (7 ), to achievement and eventual return to purely “me” (10). I hope at this point you can see that there is a natural progression here and that we gradually develop through the sands of physical and psychological experience. The 4/10 axis and its houses represent our parents. Which is which?
The fourth house itself represents home, home, family, where we go deeper (IC) in subjectivity, the womb (this should be a good clue), the dark and warm cave, our first sense of security (4 / 10 is also the axis security), our roots, genetic, intensely personal, part of the houses in subjective development (1-6).
The 10th house itself represents achievement, goals, stature, mission, where we go the most (MC) in objectivity, the mountain we climb to achieve, the success or failure of some, where we know how to “do it” or not. ‘t. It is the other half of the security axis, exteriorized homes, which develop objectivity (7-12).
Just looking at what the house traditionally represents gives us a clue as to which parent belongs there. In a general sense, this would indicate that the CI and its house are more the mother, the cocoon, the family value, the nurturing father, the center around which families are built. The MC and his house are more like the father who expects more of us and who prepares us for the outside world and its demands. This parent must teach us how to achieve potential success (if they know how to achieve it themselves). The concept or function is that one provides internal security while the other prepares you for external security.
But life doesn’t always flow ideally, does it? Role reversal is possible. Not all moms are loving, not all dads know how to be successful in business. Not all parents cooperate in their roles, they have the skills, motivation, love and support individually or as a team. Some parents can do it all, some are totally negligent, some are just plain bad, and some are beyond achievement. Parenting is truly a complete mix of tradition, not tradition, ability, motivation, and application. Logic may get us here, but the roles of parents are not always clearly defined in traditional terms. What I came up with in my own readings was a verbal description for my client of how I saw each parent individually in their chart and asking my client to place each parent correctly, because it is not a description of a person, it is a description of a role. I am not an astrologer to ask questions of the client and then return their answers as a reading. I have no problem clearly defining the two roles and allowing the client to place them. Works for me!
Can we establish a somewhat flexible rule regarding the traditional roles that parents play, allowing for uniqueness and individuality in non-traditional applications? I think that’s okay too. This is a ‘normally you act this way, but occasionally we run into the exception’ thinking. All of life contains exceptions, paradoxes, contradictions and anomalies, and we are allowing it from the beginning.
Who is the first parent you meet when you are a newborn child? Personal and subjective, passing from the self to the other. Is it your mother or your father? There will always be exceptions, choose normal.
I have an excellent personal example of the complexity of reading parenting roles. My father came to play both roles when my mother died very young and he became father and mother. My dad was a good man, a farmer, and a construction worker who had no idea how to be successful otherwise and thus taught me to work hard, earn a living, be loyal to my boss, etc. That’s what he understood about success, which is what he taught his children. His whole life was his family, his children and his personal circle: mother, sisters, brothers, etc. I would do anything for any of us. He instinctively “raised” us all. My mother died early, but while she was alive she was a typical Broadway theater mom, she wanted me to be a little Judy Garland or any other Hollywood child success story. She fought for our success and did everything in her power to get us into the spotlight of the late 1940s.
Astrologically I have Pisces in the MC with Neptune in the 4th, and the co-ruler Jupiter in the 9th in conjunction with the Moon, Virgo in the IC, the ruler Mercury in the 6th. What is translation?
- My mother was the dreamy Pis / MC, rulers Nep in the 4th and Jup in the 9th joining the Moon.
- My father was the practical person Vir / IC, ruler in the sixth.
- My father became both father and mother: Pis / MC, Nep / 4th ruler (4th / 10th association)
- This is a very good example of an astrological puzzle piece that fits into a chart.
Please note that the 4th / 10th axis is just a piece for parent reading in a table. Other than my only example of a parent occupying both houses, no mention has been made of the planets in the fourth or tenth house. This discussion has been about the axis itself and how parents can be read from that axis. Any planet on the 4th or 10th must be added to the material developed for the parent described by that house. Adds to the flavor of the description, expands or enhances and gives you more detail.
The two lights, the Sun and the Moon, also traditionally receive parental designation, the Moon for the mother, the Sun for the father. And, just to confuse the subject, Saturn is frequently used for the father. While these may contribute to your reading of each parent, it does not help us determine the 4th / 10th parent, so it is a topic for another day.
And as if that weren’t enough for the parents’ choice of axis, what could change as we go from a newborn baby taking his first breath with a pair of parents to a fully grown adult with the same but different parents? ? Life changes us through experience, all of us, including our parents. Your role has the potential to change just like your whole life does. The identification process we use for our concept of our parents is also constantly changing. Ask any teenager; I’m reasonably sure that you were one of those too at some point. We grow through life, hopefully in a progressive and evolutionary way, but not always, like an onion growing from the inside out.Our core is our natal pattern, at our very core, and experience adds as layers in the outside as we grow. and it becomes. We will all see life differently when this happens, including our parents.
Comments are welcome.