Exploring Ancestral Patterns

So many revelations and connections can be made through the exploration of generational charts. You will be amazed at the connections between your own chart and those of earlier generations. Whether these connections speak of bright hopes or hidden trauma, they continue to move, often hidden, under the surface of our own lives. 

Part 1: Family Patterns in Astrological Practice

Family patterns are first experienced through the great ruling forces of our childhood – our parents – who we see through Sun and Moon, and Saturn and Venus. We interpret the world using the cues they give us, while their responses were in turn influenced by others, the extended families and ancestors whose successes and failures, quirks and talents, are often found as repeating planetary patterns in our own lives, and in our charts. The closer we look, the more we see mysterious repetitions of dates, parallel events, and strange twists of fate that mirror stories from earlier generations.

Throughout this series of three webinars, we will learn to identify and work with these patterns, to see how we can honor the past, and walk our own path in life at the same time. 

More importantly, how do we meet the un-lived energies of our ancestors, that seem to rise up again in our own experience? What gifts are waiting to be found? What are the ghosts of the past asking from us before we can go on our way?  

Families carry patterns around success and failure, around sex and money, values and beliefs, and working with these imprints can be a powerful part of our lives, as well as that of our clients.  

Beyond the coincidence of similar signs or planets there are more specific connections that recur in family and ancestral charts. 

We will learn how to understand recurrent themes in family charts, and also those of extended family members, to reveal the gifts that have come through time, but also understand the task of bringing the ancestors’ stories to light.

Note: Your experience of these webinars will be even more powerful if you gather the birthdates of extended family. Even without exact birth times a certain number of ‘threads’ can be recognized.

Part 2: Family Values

In every family there is a dominant value, one thing you must have to be a real member of the tribe. It may be strength, or smarts, or the capacity to get things done. For some, money is the highest value. While for others it is closeness and affection, love and loyalty. 

A family of athletes may mock the bookish child or dismiss the dreamer. Our loyalty to the family may keep us from following our own gifts. What happens to the odd one out? 

The 2nd /8th house axis and aspects to Venus will give us clues to these issues, which are often reflected in “success” or “failure”.

How do we navigate the tension between what the family values, and what matters most to you? There are values that nourish from inside and those that are imposed by culture and family. How do we honor the soul, and still keep faith with those who came before us and filled us with their hopes and dreams?

Part 3: Family Secrets and Family Trauma

Many secrets are found in family closets, often shown by the 8th house, or aspects involving Pluto. Some things are hidden because they are dangerous, others because they are too precious to share, like a lost love, or a child given for adoption. 

Secrets can involve small indiscretions, or huge betrayals.  They may hide pain, or desire, or terrible wounds. The 12th house often describes events that took place in a forgotten time. These locked away energies may have hidden power over us, generating anxiety. Bringing them to the light, gently, helps the process of healing. 

We can bring release and transform the forces of guilt and shame that run through families. This vital energy can then surge more powerfully in the creative pathway of our lives. 

The 4th house describes the roots of our inheritance, how we draw from the ancestral line, what may need to be cleaned up or recognised as belonging to the deepest strata of our being.