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Review
by Chris Lorenz Your local bookstore probably carries plenty of astrology books designed to show you how to find true love or perhaps better manage your existing relationships. Maybe you can find a Sun-Sign guide that explains potential mates, or more sophisticated cookbook-style methods of comparing your planets to your partner's planets. In truth, these popular methods only scratch the surface, a good astrologer can grasp and explain your psychological dynamics with the goal of bringing more rewarding and fulfilling relationships. In the transcribed seminars 'Relationships and How to Survive Them' author Liz Greene presents two uniquely profound perspectives of relationship dynamics. The hardback book available from the UK's Centre for Psychological Astrology Press, is really two seminars packaged under one cover. Part One discusses the composite chart, not as a one-by-one explanation of what composite planets mean but rather actual interpretive methods using real horoscopes. Part Two delves into the most painful of relationship patterns, the triangle, where one partner betrays the first lover for a second. Overall, these two seminars represent breakthrough psychological analysis of relationships using fundamental astrological tools. Any astrologer desiring to understand relationships beyond the traditional cookbook studies will enjoy and benefit from Greene's transcribed talks. According to the author, composite charts won't tell you about the chemistry you have with another individual; this is what synastry charts do. Composites have their own patterns of destiny, their own meanings and energies which come alive once you've entered into the relationship. The purpose of the relationship can be defined by the composite Sun, and the personality of the relationship can be seen in the composite Ascendant. If you want to know how the relationship will make you feel, then you compare the composite to your own chart. The relationship itself unfolds according to the transits and progressed composite to the composite chart. These techniques are explained and clarified by examples. In Part One, Greene explores various planetary combinations that are particularly telling in the composite. You'll find keen explanations of what happens when transiting Pluto goes over the the composite Sun for example, or what a relationship is like that is characterized by a Sun-Uranus combination in the composite. If one or both partners have a strong Saturn in their natal chart, the composite Sun-Uranus would become problematic, especially in the feeling of being threatened by the relationship's more unconventional tendencies. The author has fully embraced Chiron in these descriptions, giving this recently discovered planetoid equal footing with Saturn in terms of the damage or pain in can inflict. Chiron's meaning and other interpretive insights become clear in the lengthy discussion of Princess Diana's and prince Charles' composite horoscope. Greene doesn't mention the controversy over Diana's birth time but when using 7:45 PM. (one of the leading acceptable times), and comparing the composite with Charles to their marriage or her death, this birth time seems very accurate. The interested student might want to run the composites for a 2:15 PM. birth time and check these against the same events. Part Two is called 'The Eternal Triangle' and for those on the road to self discovery, this section may be the most difficult, and the most rewarding. The three members of the triangle are termed the Betrayer, the Betrayed and the Instrument of Betrayal. Greene affirms early and frequently that none of these players are more or less guilty than any of the others; to the contrary, the parts are often interchangeable, and one individual may play out all three in the course of a lifetime. Others stick to just one role, and the repetition of the pattern indicates a lesson that has never been learned. Greene demonstrates a fascinating mastery of the psychological dynamics involved with triangles. Freudian and Jungian techniques are deployed with surprising precision into the subjective or unconscious causes, often related to unresolved conflict with one or both parents. The astrology of triangles develops naturally after the psychology is clarified. Mars-Pluto or Mars-Chiron aspects points to feelings of being overpowered or humiliated as a child, which then leads to Oedipal fantasies, and then on to triangles as an adult. Venus-Pluto aspects are particularly prone to triangles; but after following all the planetary indicators, it becomes clear that any hard aspect involving a personal planet can lead to triangles. Planets in the fourth and tenth houses are readily connected to the unresolved conflicts with parents that lead to triangles. For example, if two planets are opposite each other in these houses, the parents may have separated. The child usually identifies with one or the other, and later a personal partner becomes the Betrayer or Betrayed. Or if Venus is conjunct Saturn or Chiron in the fourth or tenth, these combinations can represent two irreconcilable attributes. How can a parent be both beautiful and threatening? The child can't resolve this, and later in life the two attributes manifest as two different people in a triangle. The seventh and eight houses are also discussed, and Saturn and Neptune get plenty of credit for creating the kinds of psychological conditions leading to triangles. Beyond the gripping stories of triangles and composite horoscopes, Relationships and How to Survive Them is filled with many interpretive jewels. Liz Greene's depth of knowledge permeates all her work, and the serious astrology student can readily advance by thoroughly understanding just one of her books. The Eternal Triangles and Composite Charts seminars presented here are well worth the effort of long-term study. © Horoscope 2002 |
