posted October 30, 2005 10:26 AM
Oh please, spare me the PC nonsense. There's nothing wrong with the term affliction. If someone interprets that word as purely negative, it's they who are at fault for lacking a nuanced and intuitive grasp of the nature of such aspects and placements. Changing the terms won't automatically make someone automatically more insightful. Besides I've seen no general concensus among astrolgoers to weed out that term in preference for another one. I've seem the terms "harmonious" and "challenging" used quite a bit in relationship astrology, but my take on that is the astrologers dislike scaring their clients with words a novice wouldn't understand very well and might easily misinterpret or misapply.
Anyhow, about afllictions...It is actually astrological proper to think of affliction as stress or distress - affliction causes stress upon the expression of the energy and that is what makes it challenging. If you don't get the stress part and just think something's challenging because it's challenging, not only are you commiting a logic fallacy (legal positivism), you're not understanding the aspect very well or very deeply.
Yes stress can be negative, especially if not counterbalanced or coped with effectively. And if you ask me, to be an effective astrologer, you need to be able to acknowledge the less than desireable potential as when as the more desireable, and avoid glossing over things that people may not wish to hear. Afflictions often represent traits in ourselves that we are not proud of, wish we could change or avoid confronting. Laying out the potentially negative effects of these afflictions, espeically when they are ignored, in very straightforward terms often helps a client understand 1) why afflictions ought to be dealt with and understood properly, and not ignored or de-emphasized 2) that astrology doesn't deny accountability and free will, but is a tool we can use to exercise choice over how we live ourselves and what kind of persons we are.
ANother important thing to understand is that this stress "afflicts" different signs, plaents, aspects and placements differently, which is why it's essential to get the basic of astrology under your belt and also the . It's not a blanket effect, and the distinction are very critical. As norm, affliction tends to either emphasize, exaggerate or pronounce more difficult traits of a sign or planet, but it's hard to understand that unless you have a good understanding of the signs and planets frist.
Lastly, just remember that you cannot really interpret aspects and placements in isolation away from the rest of the chart. Whatever affliction you have, it has a context and a relationship everything else in you chart. So even if you have a pretty scary affliction in your chart, how it ultimately manifests depends a lot on what else is in your chart. The effects of affliction can be constructively balanced out either by other aspects in the chart. Also, since we are not "ruled" by our charts, we can do a lot to "own" our charts, including afflicted aspects. This can be done through personal growth, awareness and good coping skills.
Lindaland
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posted October 30, 2005 03:37 AM
posted October 30, 2005 08:31 AM
posted October 30, 2005 10:26 AM