In posts to date, I’ve investigated many different way to astrologically identifying your past and future karma using invaluable information gained by attending workshops/retreats led by July Hall many years ago as well as a very special technique, the Draconic chart, which I learned about from Christeen Skinner, a clever and articulate financial astrologer here in the UK.

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To demonstrate how this all fits together, Ms KS, has volunteered to have her chart, as well as that of her husband, used as a case study. 

SUMMARY

In prior lifetimes, Ms KS gave up her personal power in service to groups whose agendas were of a political and social nature. The position that she played in those groups (of which her now husband might well have been a member) was not 100% above board and involved conning or otherwise using clever communication skills to ensure that what people saw was not what they got.

This might have operated in the healing arts or other positions ‘of service’ – perhaps as a courtier.

During this incarnation, Ms KS is asked to take back her sense of self and personal power but that won’t be easy. In those prior lifetimes, she developed (or adopted) an inflated – or haughty – sense of self that will all too easily slip back into play during this lifetime if she’s not careful. Likewise, she will struggle with ‘learned helpless’ during this lifetime – take the easy way out – and shuffle-off sideways without confrontation. Holding her personal ground in a practical yet pleasant way is key to success.

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DETAILS

Natal Chart (Ms KS) – (inside ring)

• Ms KS has Gemini rising and Mercury, the ruler of her chart, in Leo in the karmic 4^th house.  
  • Clustered at her Gemini ascendant, we find Venus (12^th house) and Mars (1^st house) in Gemini, although they are too far apart to be considered in conjunction.
  • Ms KS was not so pleased when I reminded her that Gemini can be quite indiscriminate when it comes to telling the truth – this does not mean that Gemini is immoral but rather more amoral – if in doubt, revisit the Greek/Roman mythological surrounding Mercury/Hermes – who is known as the ‘trickster’ god for good reason. 
  • Also consider that Boris Johnson, current prime minister of the UK, has an unusually high dose of Gemini (Sun, Venus, Mercury and Mars) ­­­in his natal chart: Boris spends a good deal of time defending himself of claims that he’s a liar. 
  • This is not to suggest that Gemini tells untruths (I myself have two personal planets in Gemini and believe that energy to be truly charming). But it is to suggest that the relationship that Gemini has with the truth can often be perceived by others as, how shall we put this, ‘challenged.’
  • Mercury in this chart is in Leo in the 4^th house – this suggests communication during past lives (4^thhouse) was ‘self-aggrandizing’ and ‘boastful’ and ‘self-serving’ (with a casual nod to truthfulness) and being in the 4^th house, is quite possible something that ran in Ms KS’s birth family. 
• Next, we have a Sun/Jupiter conjunction in Cancer in the 2^nd house. 
  • On the plus side, this is the signature of an upbeat person who has a knack for finding the silver lining in the darkest of clouds. Ms KS is a very caring and considerate person, perhaps , however, sometimes to a fault. Although her chart is reasonably well-balanced elementally (i.e. there is a nice distribution of planets in the fire, water, air, and earth zodiac signs), Ms KS does have an imbalance of mutable planets, leaving her more than capable of ‘slip-sliding’ away from trouble, which of course is also the nature of Cancer the crab. 
  • The karmic question asked by the Sun in any chart is ‘who am I’ – both in this incarnation but also in respect to prior incarnations – this is not as easy a question to answer as you might think – remember that inscribed over the entrance to the temple of Apollo at Delphi is the ancient Greek aphorism ‘know thyself ‘. Good advice for certain but before you can follow it you need to dig deeper into the very nature of the self that you wish to know. To learn more about this, you may wish to consult an informative book: Selfie: How we became so self-obsessed and what it doing to us by Will Storr. 
  • The karmic lesson of Sun in Cancer is to develop a healthy vulnerability in her relationships, especially with those whom she considers to be part of her ‘family’ or ‘tribe’. 
  • Add Jupiter to the mix, and this suggests past lives where MS KS had in ‘inflated’ sense of self-worth – haughty – and above her station. With the Sun/Jupiter conjunction in the 2^nd house, there’s a suggestion that this is something with which Ms KS has grappled over many lifetimes and has for the most part come to grips with this and hence that knack for finding the silver lining in the darkest clouds is considered a karmic resource – none the less, there are suggestions (see below, for example, Moon in Capricorn) that this comes at quite a price. 
• The Moon in Capricorn is in the karmic 8^th house, although again a bit too wide of the mark to be considered in opposition to the Sun/Jupiter. 
  • Nonetheless, in this chart, the Sun and Moon are linked. The price for keeping a tendency for an inflated sense of self-worth in check comes with some deeply engrained – and highly unconscious – emotional patterns of thought and haviour of being cold and judgemental, a fortress of stone and an impenetrable heart. 
  • In the 8^th house, this plays out in the way that Ms KS shares both herself and her personal resources with others – think Ebenezer Scrooge before his reformation. 
  • The 8^th house is a highly karmic house suggesting many lifetimes of perfecting this way of relating to others. I figure that there is no such thing as good or bad in karma, but instead it’s about finding balance and so I’ll go out on a limb here and suggest that Ms KS developed this fortress of stone/impenetrable heart in order to compensate for being too open to the judgement of others.
• Mars in Gemini is square to Saturn/Chiron in Pisces across the 1^st and 11^th houses.
  • Mars in contact (in this case, by square, suggests a constant tension one tends to ignore until it blows up in his/her face) with Saturn suggests present life feelings of powerlessness/helplessness in the face of knowing that one needs to take action.
  • The suggestion is that in prior lives, Ms KS abused her personal will (through communication) and because the 1^st /11^th houses are involved, this was carried out as part of a group, in which she shared radical ideas/ideals.
  • There is also a suggestion that Ms KS may have given away her personal power for the ‘greater good’ of the group and as the result, fears (or is blocked) taking it back to use for herself.
  • In karmic astrology, Chiron symbolises the wound of the soul, and because he is found is the 11^th house of Ms KS, the suggestion is that this occurred as being considered an ‘outsider’ or ‘outcast’. With Pisces involved, there is also a suggestion that the wound as to do with loss of one’s own contact with the divinity. When we chatted about this, Ms KS did say that as a young child, she resisted her parents attempts to make her attend Sunday School because it made her feel that she as if she were being ‘controlled’ by religious dogma. Healing with Chiron in the 11^th house comes from the realisation that one size doesn’t fit all and what’s good for the goose is not always good for the gander. It seems that Ms KS is well on her way to healing her Chiron wound, which only makes sense as she ‘enjoyed’ her Chiron return back in 2018. 
• In the 6^th house, we have a Neptune conjunction with the South Node in Scorpio (the North Node being in the karmic 12^th house in Taurus). 
  • Although that Neptune/South Node conjunction does not make an aspect with any of Ms KS’s personal planets, and hence is purely a generational marker, I consider it important because the nodal axis is involved and as we will see, it provides good clues as to what the types of karmic patterns that Ms KS has developed during past lives. 
  • Neptune is the planet of seduction and glamour as well as illusion and disillusion. The suggestion here is that in regard to healing (6^th house), Ms KS may have been a charlatan, perhaps a courtier, who masted the art of indiscretion through flattery pretending to yield to his or her superiors in order to assert power over others in a most oblique and graceful way. 
  • As the South Node is involved, the suggestion here is that MS KS has honed this art – these skills – this craft of subtle, yet fascinating power games to achieve her own ends over many lives. This comes easily to her. she also has to work extra hard to be more truthful more direct and more grounded (North node and tourists). 
• The generational signature of a close Pluto/Uranus conjunction in Virgo shows up in the 5^th house of Ms KS. 
  • This symbolises a political vision which combines an urgent need to destroy old forms and attitudes in regard to ideologies quite possibly having to do with unjust wars (as was the case during this time at least in the United states with the Vietnam War). 
  • Although this generational signature does not tie to any of the personal planets of Ms KS (thus suggesting that this is not her personal karmic responsibility during this incarnation), it does raise the important question of why do we reincarnate in a particular time and place? I’m guessing that the answer to this has to do with that Neptune in Scorpio (in the six house , the House of Virgo closed parentheses the only other generational marker that strongly resonates in the chart of mis KS. Yet looking at her Draconic chart (which comes up next) this  urgent need to destroy old forms and attitudes was not really ever part of Ms KS’s karmic game.

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Draconic Chart (Ms KS) – (outside ring)

• Along with that natal Neptune/South Node conjunction, we now have the draconic Moon in Scorpio in the 6^thhouse. 
  • Again, the Moon represents deeply engrained and largely unconscious behaviour and emotional patterns and karmically, functions very much like the South Node. This puts extra emphasis on Scorpio in prior lives and again in the 6^th house.
  • Again the image of a con-man, a charlatan, perhaps even a courtier, who used subtle manipulation(Neptune) to take advantage over others. However tempting it is to suggest something along the lines of a psychic vampire or even a black magician, if that were the case, I’d expect to find Pluto (‘power over’ others) lurking around in a prominent position – and he’s just not there – in neither the natal nor in the draconic charts. With Neptune is involved, the power plays are accomplished not with guns but with smoke and mirrors – sleight of hand, fascination, and glamour. 
• Interestingly, the Natal North Node in Taurus (where Ms KS is heading in this lifetime) is still right on top of that Sun/Jupiter conjunction – in the draconic chart, now in Taurus in in the natal 12^th house, the most karmic house of them all. 
  • This suggests that in prior lives, Ms KS had plenty of Taurus energy but somehow lost touch with it and so in this lifetime, her goal is to gain it back. 
  • This might be going out a bit on a limb, but I have a feeling that because Saturn/Chiron in the draconic chart is now in Aquarius at the MC, or the top of the natal chart, this is all connected with that natal Saturn/Chiron in the 11^th house – see above – re: in prior lives Ms KS abused her personal will (through communication) as a member of a group, in which she shared radical ideas/ideals.
  • If that were the case, then Ms KS did not do that alone. Her social status/career were tied up in a partnership, likely with a spouse (draconic MC sits on the cusp of the natal 7^th house).
• Finally, both the natal and draconic charts continue to point to communication in past lives as being the source of present life challenges. 
  • Again, the emphasis on amoral, gossipy, loose affiliation with the ‘truth’ Gemini is highlighted. In the draconic chart, Mercury now in Gemini is sitting right on the natal ASC – Ms KS’s window on the world in this incarnation. 
  • Again, the notion of a courtier who had to bow to the will of others and sing the party line – and bow to the will of others – in order to survive comes to mind. Yet with the draconic Venus in Aries, when it comes to love relationships, in prior lives Ms KS most certain got around – yet again, this fits in with the idea of a courtier, one whose challenge is both to be noticed as well as to be seen as a source of pleasure to others without getting too attached to anyone or anything except her next ‘challenge’.

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Relationships

• More often than not, we get an ever more detailed picture of someone’s karma through looking at the connections he/she makes with important others in the present incarnation. 
• Often people come and go into our lives without making a huge impact. But we all know that some persons – regardless of the amount of time we’ve actually spent with them – make a huge and lasting impact on us and our lives. Especially when we choose to strengthen the bond either by marriage, partnership, or other close family relationship. 
• Ms KS was especially interested to discover what she might have to learn from her relationship with her husband. The results actually were not so surprising:
  • The husband of Ms KS has a grand earth trine (Mars/Saturn/Venus)– and karmically these are gifts to be reclaimed during the current lifetime. Yet more often than not, trines can be the ‘slippery slope to hell’. The incarnating soul often responds to further development of these gifts with an attitude of ‘why bother’. The attitude suggested here (and confirmed by Ms KS) was one of a strong-willed person who demanded everything to be ‘his’ way whilst at the same time playing an unconscious script in his head of ‘I don’t deserve to be loved’.
  • The ‘why bother’ response is suggested by his Moon in Pisces in close conjunction with the North Node, which suggests that for him, the goal of this incarnation was to do with developing behaviours that would allow the sharing unconditional love with takin on the burdens of others/or paying the martyr. 
  • At the same time, he has a stellium of planets in Libra (Sun/Uranus/Mercury/Jupiter) which put the emphasis on finding balance in the essential dance of give/take in relationships. 
  • His draconic chart suggested he’d lived similar lives dealing with similar issues multiple times. 
• Enter Ms KS – who because in synastry (comparison of his and her charts on a grid to see where they interact) her natal Saturn in Pisces is closely conjunct his Moon/North Node in Pisces has some karmic debt to repay to her husband from prior lifetimes. The composite chart (putting the two charts together to make one that symbolises the relationship a whole). Here we find the classic signature of the teacher/student karmic aspect and the sense that they both had something difficult to teach each other in his lifetime. 

This is the final post in this series on Karmic Astrology, so thank you for reading!

If you’re interested in learning more about how your prior lives (psychological and otherwise) impact your life now, book for an astrological coaching session now.

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