How a Birth Chart Changed the Way I Parent
Amy Doeun shares how reading the birth chart of your loved ones can change the way your family responds to and supports one another.
I grew up in a very conservative Christian home. They were lots of taboo subjects. One of them was astrology. I grew up thinking that anyone who read newspaper horoscopes were silly at best. Astrologers were dangerous (it was never really clear how they were dangerous). And that astrology was a tool to lead you away from God.
As a parent my approach has been vastly different. Over time I was gradually introduced to tools that would enhance not only my parenting journey but also my personal growth.
I actually came to a serious study of astrology while studying herbs under Sajah Popham. His book Evolutionary Herbalism, deals with connecting healing traditions from around the world. This connecting leads to the evolution that he talks to of an herbalism that heals not only physical conditions but also emotional and spiritual conditions. The key to this work is energy.
The planets have a tremendous amount of energy. The gravity/energy of the moon controls our tides. It stands to reason that the planets would also have an effect on humans. Popham describes astrology and your birth chart as a stamp of the energy of the heavenly bodies at the time and place of your birth.
I found a free copy of my birth chart. While not comprehensive, it included some curious indications like that I would work as a journalist and that I would marry someone from another culture. Having never looked at my birth chart before, I found it unsettling that it would outline such things, which did indeed come to pass.
I began to wonder what the birth charts said about other members of my family.
Through this cursory review of my family I found that while my husband and older son had similar interests they had completely different ways for relating to the world. My husband was a fiery warrior Aries and my son was a nurturing Cancer. My oldest daughter however was an Aries just like her dad. While they didn’t have similar interests that had similar ways of reacting. Suddenly things started to make a little more sense.
I delved into it further when I purchased the birth chart for my fourth daughter. Though she was just five at the time, we had questions about some quirks of her personality.
The birth chart confirmed what I suspected.
While she is an earth sign and very practical she also is a deeply spiritual being. She may struggle with bad dreams and that if she does she needs to be able to share those dreams with you as her parent and safe person (up until that point we had felt that sharing her bad dreams would cause her to relive them and so discouraged her talking about them).
Some details of her birth chart also indicated that when the environment in the home gets chaotic she could experience stomach pains. In some ways she is a barometer of the family’s emotional health.
The study of astrology is extremely complex. And I am by no means an expert, but I am thrilled to have found a tool that enables me to have a stronger grasp of some of the underlying energy patterns in my family. It has vastly contributed to my patience and ability to see my children as individuals that need to be nurtured. I also have more ideas about just how to nurture those individuals.
If you are interested in delving into astrology here are some tips to get you started.
- To begin, look to the Sun Sign for a look at overall personality. When we think of astrology, it is often the Sun Sign we are talking about. The Sun sign simply means what part of the sky the sun was in when you were born. If you hear someone say something like, “I am a Gemini” they are referring to their Sun Sign.
- The Moon sign would be what sign the moon was in at the time of your birth. This sign is more closely associated with your emotions. See Resources below for more information.
- Consider getting a birth chart drawn up of yourself first. It is important that you first have an idea of how astrology works in your life and what your energetic stamp may be.
- A child’s birth chart is written with parents in mind. It contains a special section for how the parents can best nurture the child. It also suggests ways to help your child develop into the fullness of who they were meant to be.
Resources
The Inner Sky by Stephen Forrest—very good basic astrology guide
Astrology of the Moon by Amy Herring—focuses on Moon signs.
www.astro.com for birth charts. A child’s birth chart at the time of this writing is $65. There are also free birth charts, but I found Astro.com child’s birth charts to be the most comprehensive and helpful when looking for parenting information.