The Dish Runs Away With the Spoon: Energy Emphasis Within the Chart

Everyone has each energy within the chart; there’s no way any of us are ‘missing’ any of the planets, asteroids, or lights. And each body has, within its sign and House placement, a consciousness, a viewpoint, like a window that allows one to look at the world through its particular lens. Sometimes the energies are in complicated webs of relationship to other energies, combining and re-combining to give us highly unique ways of sensing, interpreting, and dealing with the world; other times the energies are able to relate to the whole of the psyche through only one or two pathways, which inevitably color their presence in the chart and the life. And on occasion, an energy is a singleton, lacking major contact with any other horoscope energies, or is isolated in a quadrant or even half of the chart without any companions; these can find difficulty expressing, and can either feel unavailable to the individual, or can take over the chart, seemingly the only energy the person can relate to. Of course, even without contacts, a placement still has a sign and a House through which to express–and even when it feels like there’s a disconnect between the individual and an energy, it’s still there within the person waiting to emerge or be re-claimed (as happens when one projects the characteristics onto others) and evolve into fullness.

Though each energy has a ‘voice,’ we naturally identify more with some energies than with others. Often we gravitate to the chart ruler (ruler of the Ascendant), the Moon, the Sun, Venus, Mars (and sometimes we may identify with the ruler of one of these prominent energies; this is especially common when it rules many placements or has another important role, such as ruling the Midheaven or squaring a stellium); also possible as a focus are those energies posited in the 1st House or that lie close to an angle–these latter can feel more prominent within consciousness and more closely identified with who we are as we interact with the world (the meaning of the angles). What happens, though, when we have a prominent placement such as one of these and struggle against it? We see this when a placement offers a characteristic that stands in strong contrast to the qualities we typically identify as ‘us.’ A Capricorn Moon/ Sun may balk at their 1st House Neptune, feeling that they appear too spacey on first meeting, while a Libra Ascendant with Sun/ Venus conjunct square Uranus/ Pluto conjunct at the Midheaven may be disturbed by the way the ‘nice’ Libra personality is overshadowed by flashy, serious, and startling energy in the public perception. No doubt about it, we are resistant to some energies; we would do ourselves a big favor to ask why.

It’s human nature to favor that which we perceive as flattering, attractive, admirable; it’s also understandable that we are reluctant to see those things that are less than flattering, that draw criticism, within our own minds, if not from those around us. But we must realize that we are subject to all manner of imbalances and distortions to the psyche when we refuse to embrace everything that is within us. And there is another problem that is nearly impossible to overcome: those instances when a single energy takes over the consciousness, and thus takes over life development.

We see a good example of an energy that runs away with personal development and experience in the horoscope of singer Karen Carpenter (2 March 1950, 11:45 AM, New Haven CT USA). She played the drums and sang, along with her brother Richard, as a very successful duo of the late ’60s/ early ’70s. She had an extraordinary voice known for her control and her perfectionism–every note had to be right–there was no improvisation, no unusual sounds or off-key yet effective renditions, so common in popular music. Karen was also an anorexic, in the days when this disorder was just becoming known in the Collective. Her chart gives us some strong clues as to what was happening. She has a 00 Cancer 36 Ascendant, with Uranus retrograde at 00 Cancer 58–this shouts naturally wired, high strung, nervous, and in Cancer the likely conduit for the nerves is the stomach, and possibly in motherhood (or, as in this case, a rejection of it). Uranus suffers significant isolation from the other chart energies, with only a semi-square to Pluto and a square to Juno; these aspects suggest intense control issues, a known component of the equation that prompts anorexia. Pluto rules the 6th of work, and her Venus (which rules creative 5th and Sun ruler Neptune), her Jupiter, and her Mercury are all ruled by Uranus, and the Leo Moon hooks into things in several ways. If we follow the path of each chart energy from its ruler, to the ruler’s ruler, and so on, we discover a very precarious overall balance, one any individual would be hard pressed to sustain with such a prominent, even insistent, Uranus. As in the old nursery rhyme, the ‘dish’ of a single energy runs away with the ’spoon’ of the entire natal chart picture, and thus with the life.