My Parenting Secret–Astrology
Growing up astrology was relegated to the daily horoscopes in the newspaper. These were often vague and a bit kitsch. Astrology was definitely not something I took seriously. I certainly didn’t see it as a valuable addition to my parenting arsenal. Now it is my parenting secret–astrology.
I was already well into my parenting journey when I was introduced to serious astrology through herbalism. In my herbalism courses we studied the energetics of plants and people. It was a natural progression to include astrology in the discussion. Astrology was presented as a tool to help discover a person’s energetic profile and help to match them up with plants that would either increase their existing energetic patterns or decrease them, depending on how best to bring them in balance.
Astrology as the study of energy
Suddenly my eyes were opened to astrology as a study of our energy. It made perfect sense that if the heavenly bodies could affect the pull of the tides, why wouldn’t the energy of the heavenly bodies affect the energy in our bodies?
I began with my birth chart and was blown away at how much it said about me, including that I would work as a writer and marry someone from another culture. I then decided to look at the charts of my children. At first, I didn’t want to look at the birth charts for my younger children because I didn’t want any ideas from the birth chart to color how I saw them. Instead, I started with my older children who had already exhibited personality traits. I was then able to match their personality traits to their charts.
How does Astrology help us Parent?
Through astrology we are able to see tendencies in our children as an overall energy pattern. For example, my oldest son is a Cancer. My oldest daughter is an Aries. My husband is also an Aries. While my husband and son have very similar interests their way of relating to the world is completely different. Because their interests are similar my husband had felt that our son was a lot like him. However, my son is more laid back, worried about taking care of others and not rocking the boat too much.
My daughter on the other hand will argue over anything. She is a warrior who is totally driven and very successful in her schooling and has her career completely planned out.
My son is still not sure, he wants a family most of all and is picking a career around whether or not it will support his family and how much time he will have to spend with them. This includes extended family.
Father and daughter also clash often. While the son has similar interests the daughter has a similar way of relating to the world—as a warrior.
Discovering all this made our parenting journey much easier. It gave us the language to discuss personality traits with our children as well. Instead of having conflict over a particular battle we are able to see it instead as an expression of personality rather than a disciple issue.
Recently our daughter got her driver’s license. When my son got his license, he really had no desire to go anywhere. He preferred to stay home and spend time with family. But my daughter wants to go. Go anywhere. She said she has been dreaming of this since she was 10. Now we are having conflict about where and when she can go.
This warrior needs structure. A military structure perhaps? So now we have to sit down and lay out the game plan (battle plan?).
As the younger children have grown older, I have seen examples of how astrology plays out. I am a Gemini. I thrive on communication. The son that I struggle with most is a Sagittarius–my opposite sign. My daughter that tells me her favorite part of going on vacation is packing is a Virgo. In our family we do have some repeat signs but otherwise our family has a representation of all but three signs (2 of the missing signs are in my family of origin).
The signs do seem to be holding true if you look at it as a way of relating to the world rather than a more superficial list of traits. In the end astrology has helped tremendously in noticing patterns and tendencies in my children. It helps discover the basics of personality while herbs help us bring it into balance.
