In rich psychologically sensitive analysis of life development, it is vitally important to study the formative years of life, the modeling impact of the parents upon the young person, the interaction with the parents. There must be varied degrees of developmental tension there; there mustbe; that’s why the Ascendant is always square to the parental axis in the hologram of our horoscope.

The objective for analytical discussion is to asses the nature of the relationships with the parents, the modeling situation, the tensions that emerge from that arena. And, of paramount importance, study of the routinization of self-worth protections (defense mechanisms), feelings about lovableness (undermining the capacity for intimacy), and security in relating to others in the world that are instinctively adopted by the person. –It is a question of degree: to what degree and in what ways has the parental experience been assimilated by the person. This is what fashions who we are, on top of the birthrights to be who we should be.

[Please know that this study theme is fully developed in my book The Astrology of Intimacy, Sexuality & Relationship.]

There are four ways to see the parental profiles in the horoscope

The Saturn phenomenology, dramatically pronounced when Saturn is retrograde, will immediately register paternal significances, keying possibly a legacy of inferiority feelings taken on in early life because the father was taken out of the picture, there and passive/absent somehow, or tyrannical so as not to have provided the guidance of authoritative love. [Please see the deeply developed study of my discoveries about this in Synthesis & Counseling in Astrology.]

Let’s remember the impact of the father ordained by society. Let’s appreciate that the father is the first “foreign”, unknown person the baby, the child meets! That paternal relationship is absolutely crucial in the leadership of family development, reflection of personal worth, and modeling for relationships with authority figures anywhere.

At the same time, the discovery about the Lunar Nodal Axis and its depiction of the mother/female influence when configured strongly with a planet or point in the horoscope. [Please see as well, the enormous study of this in Synthesis & Counseling in Astrology]

Together, Saturn and the Node, when they apply within the analysis, are the most powerful, direct indices to early life development that exist in the human sciences.

The second key reference to the parents in the horoscope is through the significators of the parental axis (10-4). This can be a major planet focus within the House axis or –and this is 90% more common, apparent, reliable: the planet(s) ruling each of the parental Houses. If the ruling planet of a parental House is under high developmental tension, such tension is suggested within the parental reality situation as well. The skilled question about this begins a rich discussion with the client.

The Sun and the Moon are the primal symbols of male and female, and they do reference the father principle and the female principle, respectively. –But their reference to the parents is more descriptive of the male or female principle embodied in the parent relationship. If the Sun and Moon are in close square in the birth horoscope, the parents were almost assuredly under great tension between themselves, possibly in relation to the baby about to be born, at the time of birth. Often, this imprint is painful from the baby’s first breath onward.

With difficult parental profiles suggested by Saturn and/or the Node and rulership axis tensions, the person may have a lovely Sun-Moon trine. This is a protective idealized defense, an image of what the parental situation should be, not what it is.

A strong aspect to the Sun or Moon will sharpen the situation this more, and it is that aspect that introduces assessment potential of the particular parental relationship.

The fourth way to ‘visit the parents’ is keen awareness of the Angles of the horoscope. The angles are all-important in our astrology because they capture the time (MC) and space (Ascendant) of our birth on this planet. The Angles define our orientation in life [and crucial disorientation, i.e., angular chaos, almost always announces considerations of suicide. See the Astrological timing of Critical Illness.].

While we see the parents clear through the 10-4 angular axis (or 4-10, it makes no difference in this day and age), the Ascendant is the tenth House of the parent in the 4th; the 7th House is the tenth of the parent in the 10th. [See “Derivative House Systems” in Synthesis & Counseling in Astrology.]

The development of the family structure in our early years introduces change, occasional trauma, break-up of parental organization (divorce, for example), social status (through the job), relocation, and much more. ALL of these considerations affect how the parents relate to each other and, in turn how the parents relate to the child and how the child responds to the family situation, the modeling.

*******We must discover the nature of the family environment in every horoscope we do for a person. To avoid this search and assessment demeans the awareness we must have of the acculturation process and dilutes our helpfulness to others, in support of their life development eventually to reach the Sun.

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Next update June 1, 2003