This series on Astrology was written by Amy Herring for Kiddiegram.com.
When Time Stands Still … and When It Starts AgainWhen your little one is born, time seems to stand still. A birth chart is a snapshot of the heavens, forever frozen in time, but the planets continue to move in the heavens after that moment. A transit is where a planet is at any given time. When a planet in transit moves over a sensitive location in a birth chart, it can indicative that the timing is right for you to do or experience something.
For instance, if Mars (planet of action) is in Virgo in your natal chart, it can generally be said of you that you are someone who benefits from taking a detailed and hands on approach to achieving your goals. Now if the current location of Saturn (planet of responsibility) happens to be in Virgo right now, then it is making contact with your Mars. This can reveal that it is time for you to buckle down and do some hard work to accomplish something, or that maybe it’s time for you to take on a big project or new responsibility.
To put it succinctly: the current location of a planet and where it’s landing in your birth chart can reveal what you are experiencing right now or are about to experience in life.
Oh, It’s Just a PhaseIf you understand how a transiting planet may be triggering your child’s birth chart, you can track developmental cycles in your child’s life and see what they are learning in different phases of their life. One easy to use example of these cycles is the planetary return, which simply means the time when a planet returns to the place it was when your child was born. If you understand the concept of a birthday, than you are more familiar with a planetary return than you may think. Every time you have a birthday, the Sun returns to the place it was when you were born. This, of course, repeats yearly, and each year, you have the opportunity to come back to a sense of self, take stock, and begin a new annual cycle.
The cycles of the Sun, Moon, Venus and Mars are especially relevant in the development of children 2 and under because they are experiencing these returns in relatively close succession for the first time. It is easy to see big peaks in development around these planetary returns (and it’s kind of fun to track, too!). For instance, Mars returns to the place where it was at the time of birth about every 2 years. To refresh your memory, Mars is the planet that represents our will, our personal sense of empowerment, our ability to defend ourselves and to pursue what we want. It is also representative of how we encounter and handle conflict with others and deal with our own anger.
When Mars returns for the first time in a child’s chart, the development of their personal will encounters a leap in growth: they start learning how to get what they want (will), and most of all, they learn how to say NO (defending themselves). This is the appropriate time in a child’s development to process these emotions and lessons for the first time and so the Mars return reflects that developmental reality. It tends to be rather intense because the child is experimenting with this energy surge for the first time. This is the Mars return, but we commonly know it by another name: the famous “Terrible Twos.”
Children’s astrology is not just for parents of small children. It is useful for adult children as well, especially since it’s probably rare that our child gets to a certain age and suddenly we understand them. Being of use and guidance to our child never needs to end, it can simply change. Understanding your child’s natal chart, at any age, can allow you to support them in the best way possible, according to their individual needs, and can even open the door to a deeper relationship and healing with adult children. The biggest gift we can give our children is to provide them the resources, nurturing, and best foundation we can. Your child’s birth chart can help you be better equipped for one of the most difficult and important jobs of your life.
Copyright Kiddiegram.com 2008