The posts from both CJ and Joan were insightful on the connection of weight gain and loss with emotional states. My own belief is that our emotions are primary in everything, and our charts show the emotional issues we are currently experiencing --- many at the subconscious level but some quite consciously.
At the same time, we do live in a physical world and can take practical physical steps in addition to dealing with the emotions through psychological understanding and spiritual faith. I think that life is circular, as I have written before, and we can break into the circle anywhere --- in the material link in the chain, or the cognitive, or the emotional, or the spiritual --- by changing our habits in that area which then affects the whole circle.
Finding a diet which "works" for us, or increasing our exercise are material changes. Investigating the options of diets and exercises involves the intellect - the cognitive link in the chain. As the changes take effect and we actually see some results, we increase our sense of self-esteem and personal power which change the emotional habits. If we really increase our faith in a benign Absolute and tap into that spiritual level where we are connected to the Absolute, we can be guided to do what is best for us, to realize our maximum potential.
The problem with traditional astrological details which omit the underlying principles --- like associating Jupiter with fat and Saturn with lean and Mars with muscles --- is not that they are "wrong" but that they are superficials which do not explain what is actually going on in the person. Unless we know that, we are left feeling like "helpless victims." Not everyone gains weight with Jupiter or loses it with Saturn, but it happens often enough to be noticed, so those who believe that the planets are the power making it happen just stop at that point and ignore the exceptions.
It is quite possible to lose weight with Jupiter and to gain it with Saturn, depending on our emotional state. If our faith (Jupiter) encourages us to just do what we please, we may overdo in any number of areas --- with food, money, sex, study, preaching, kids, or wherever we have put our trust --- made into an absolute value. If our faith is in our own ability to produce the best muscles in the world, we could become Mr. America during a Jupiter period. If our faith is in money, we could become a millionnaire and stay so busy making money we forget to eat and become quite thin. If we lack faith, if, for example, we have lost a person or pet or job or goal in which we had invested our primary faith and trust, we could feel hopeless and helpless and depressed. But those feelings could lead one person to stop eating in their despair and lose weight and become ill while another person could subconsciously feel that the only form of security and/or pleasure which remains within their power is food and they could lie in front of the TV and eat themselves into oblivion.
The chart shows the issues, not how the person will respond to the issues. Jupiter is the issue of faith in something beyond personal power. If we have Sag or Pisces rising, Jupiter or Neptune or Chiron in Aries or in the first house, Aries or Mars or any ruler of any first house sign in the 9th or 12th house, etc., we are identified with whatever we believe in and trust --- with our concept of the Absolute.
The preceding is an example of my "alphabet" which Sylvia asked me to explain again. It is a very simple concept and I described in a previous post how I was forced to recognize that houses as well as planets and signs are keys to character, not just events. The idea is simply that planets and signs and houses symbolize the same 12 psychological principles. So any form of letter 1, whether Mars or Aries or a factor in or ruling the first house, is a key to one's basic identity --- to what we do naturally from the beginning of life. Any form of letters 9 and 12 are keys to our faith in something beyond humans --- more conscious with letter 9, more subconscious with letter 12. So any mixture of 1 with 9 and 12 is an identification with whatever we believe in.
We may believe in ourselves as the final power. We may attribute that power to other people. We may lack faith and live anxious. We may put our faith in any fragment of life and lose it to force us to find a bigger god.
If the identification with the Absolute is expressed as "I have the right to do anything I want, to have anything I want," it produces a psychopath.
In a basically spiritual person, this identification is experienced as "I should be God. I should be perfect. I should never make a mistake. I should know everything and be able to save everyone." Since we are all still human, no one can realize such an expectation. We may react to the inevitable failure by driving ourselves into illness to avoid feeling guilty over our failure. Or we may just give up and not even do what is within our power since we can't do it all. For any of the common human dilemmas, usually compromise works the best. With this really pervasive issue, we just need to do our share, let others do some also, trust the Absolute to do some, and enjoy the journey.
Protected by copyright (© 1995~1996) at the AquarianAge!