Conception

September 10, 2004

 

http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/sep10.html

 

Dear Eric:

What are your views on what effect the moment of conception and the subsequent nine months in the womb have, astrologically speaking, upon the psyche of people?

Sajid Ismail

 

 

Dear Sajid,

I think this all depends on how it is you think that astrology effects us. Are the planets doing something to us, or rather is the whole effect of astrology a cosmic coincidence?

 

Whatever the answer to that question, I can say that in my experience, conception charts and certain prenatal charts are very helpful when it comes to using astrology as a tool. We don't need to know exactly how astrology works in order to get the benefits; we merely need to experiment. Astrology is about the relationship between the quality of a moment or era of time and the quality of an experience. That means whenever you can bring an experience (or idea) into a time frame and cast a chart, you can begin to decode read the quality of the moment through the charts. Meaning is what an astrologer gives a chart.

 

Typically, conception is very difficult to time accurately. This is usually because people don't time their erotic encounters in their day planner, and even if they do, the actual meeting of the sperm and egg can occur any time I the next three days. That being said, if you have done astrology long enough to trust the charts you are reading, you'll generally get an interesting chart out of someone saying their parents went out on a date on Saturday the so and so, and you were conceived 'that night' in the back of a Chevy.

 

But in doing astrological work, even knowing the story of how the person came to be born (i.e., conceived) is exceedingly valuable, as is the story of the birth. So when in doubt about a chart, get the client's story.

 

2. Look at the prenatal solar and lunar eclipses. Eclipses are extra-potent Full Moon and New Moon charts. The exact degrees of these eclipses can be put into the chart and treated like planets or points that may be susceptible to transits.

 

Eclipses often work this way.

 

When looking at these charts, look for themes that are either parallel to those in the natal chart, or which emphasize or exaggerate those in the natal chart. If, for example, the prenatal solar eclipse is exactly conjunct a planet, that planet will have extra emphasis in the natal chart and act with some of the energy of the eclipse.

 

However, here, the ancient creators of astrology were one step ahead of us. There are points in every chart called the lunar nodes. They are the points that indicate the approximate location of the eclipses nearest to birth. As anyone who has worked with astrology for a while knows, the lunar nodes are very influential in a chart; and they are the stand-ins for the pre-natal eclipses that are in every chart. They will differ in location from the eclipses by a few degrees (even up to 15 degrees), but they have the same basic effect in interpretation, which is approximately this: they deal with the issue of what came before birth, and as well, what theme the lifetime is driving toward.

 

I've gotten a few requests for a definition of the lunar nodes over the months and since there are eclipses coming up in October, let's pop the lunar node question and get that discussion going.