this is such a wise, deep and impressive – as well as grounded and practically helpful – piece of work. The sooner that book on progressions is finished and out, the better!

I have recently checked my progressed MC/IC and note that it is shifting in the next year to Leo/Aquarius. The shift from Gemini/Sag to Cancer/Cap 30 years ago (with prog Asc shifting to Libra the same year) was life-changing: I got married (having sworn never to do so!) and acquired two part-time children, and became self-employed, working from home.

I have always been stunned by the accuracy of progressions in charting “the stormy journey of the soul” ( Stan Grof ) and your work has refreshed my interest and increased my understanding. Thank you.

Your Scottish friend
Anne W

The real art of astrology lies in synthesis. You can’t dissect a chart down to its parts, even the Sun and the Moon. When you learn to synthesize, you learn what has weight, what has value, what is a dominant influence over a lesser one. You begin to be able to ‘see’ the chart from the inside. Properly synthesized, you can tell whether Sun/Jupiter is a gambler or a philosopher, or whether Sun/Saturn is repressed or hard-working. No aspects sits on its own, but must interact with the other elements in the chart. Even an unaspected planet will have to interact via progression and transit.

We’re here to learn, to grow, to interact, and that means change. Change is part of the definition of living. If we don’t change intentionally, change of some kind will be thrust upon us, according to the dictates of the chart. We become victims, rather than active participants. Many times, lack of change manifests as illness. The illness causes us to go inwards and re-assess. I’ve seen extraordinary changes in people forced to cope with illness, changes you would not normally expect them to make. It’s impossible to live in this world without being touched by it, and that means change, whether its dramatic or subtle. We move on. Fate is nothing but our illustrated individuality, meeting us from the outside.

I don’t believe that any challenge is lost before we begin. I’ve seen too much evidence otherwise.

Good post.

Personally, I’m still not sure where I fall on the fate versus free will thing.

I love the evolutionary prespective: making the best of what is happening, using the energy well. But what is it that makes one person make the best of something and makes another person bitter? Faced with an event, a Sun-trine-Jupiter will have a different internal reaction compared to someone with a hard Sun-Saturn aspect. So isn’t it natally decreed in our charts what out attitude will be? Or even in our progressed charts?

We’re on leash, I think, with some room for movement. How many alternatives will we examine? Isn’t that too hard-wired in us?

I do live my life as if I had free will. It’s the only way to completely engage in it. To go down fighting. To really live. But that attitude also causes a lot of psycholoigcal wear and tear. Hope can be such a pernicious thing.

A favourite quote of mine, not for its philosophy, but for its dramatic impact: “We are all victims, Anselmo. Our destinies are decided by the whims of the stars, a cosmic roll of the dice and the vagrant breezes of fortune that blow from the windmills of the gods.”

Perhaps a balance then? Some battles we engage in with a fair chance of winning, and some are lost before we even begin.

This is an awesome post; it touched on so many questions I have about progressions and transits and why one and not the other? I have frequently been surprised when I’ve had a major transit and it was much smoother than I thought it would be and vice versa. This post of yours will have me checking progressions as well as transit for major events in my life in addition to those serious emotional upsets. Thanks for the info.