Dealing With Trauma
Trauma, personal or generational, is governed by Uranus. With this planet’s current fall in Taurus and all those squares with Saturn it is going through, we must ask ourselves which lesson should be learned and how will this reflect on each of us on a personal plain. It is obvious that times of collective trauma are upon us and with Saturn strong, all those distances must serve a greater good, a foundation of clearer boundaries and personal space. On the other hand, Uranus is fallen, speaking of the profound effect of stress on our emotional world, carried on by Venus (its current ruler) as it travels through the zodiac and touches our personal points, house cusps and planets. To understand your lessons, start by observing the transit of Venus from the very start, the zeroth degree of Aries, throughout its next colorful year, with all the emotions it will bring to your plate.
Trauma in Astrological Terms
The word “trauma” was first used for a physical wound but grew to become an undeniable wound of any kind. This gives a vague astrological image as it can be seen through Mars and Saturn, Chiron and Uranus, as well as Pluto as a dot in which our life breaks and is never again the life we once knew. Still, its essence is seen through Uranus and the sign of Aquarius with the element of surprise freezing us in the moment until we are ready to evolve. The loss and the wound go deep and set it apart from acute or chronic painful conditions that would be seen on through primal roles of Mars and Saturn. Although they are most certainly involved, it is Uranus that sets the tone and shows that big breaking point where we got torn, lost identity (the Sun is lost in Aquarius), set a tone that cannot be overcome, one that tears up our life, shatters it to bits and pieces, and leaves us unable to cope.
We can deal with Saturn, as hard as it may be to accept, for it is a visible planet, close enough to home, and even though we often fail to understand it, we overcome its issues by resting, meditating, sparking the sense of physical calm on the long path of spiritual growth. On the other hand, Mars, as instinctive and unconscious as it is, can only be the instant and the trigger of trauma, but will not be the dark and “unaccepting” side to it. Mars will speak of the energy that got blocked and stand for our ability to continue with our lives after the traumatic experience. Debilitated Mars will have a hard time moving on, pushing through, and using bits and pieces of the aggression within to build an entirely new life. When this red master is stable in its sign, disposition, and house through accidental dignity, a person will remain active and chase for grounding to build a new future, no matter how rough the circumstances and feelings carried within.
Acceptance, Narrow and Wide
The sign of Taurus is the “dark side” of Uranus as the sign of its fall, and as hard as it may be to understand how the exaltation of the Moon and the sign of Venus can be any form of dark side, this is understandable considering how ill Mars can get when passive and giving up in front of victimized sides of feminine Taurus. With this issue in mind, the sign of Taurus is the essence of trauma. What this sign has trouble accepting (its eighth house) is found in Sagittarius, in beliefs and the actual width of perspective needed to understand the situation that occurred.
We are speaking of the event that acts as a tsunami on a personal level. It is a storm that takes away everything in its path, not only what is instantly visible. For example, loss of a child is an impossible loss to emotionally process, but what makes things even harder is what it takes down with it. The event takes away the identity of being a parent, deletes the routine, the future, sometimes destroys marriages, partnerships, our job, toxic environments, stable environments, you name it. Nothing goes unaffected in one’s life. Trauma has no narrow target, it is a place where life stops, even when we don’t speak of death itself. It is the width of the impact that feels impossible to understand with all the underlining emotional consequences. Each of the waves that follow is stressful on its own, but under the wing of trauma it is no longer seen as “such a big deal” when really – it is. Who cares for a job when their child just died? But without the trauma, is quitting a job a big deal? This shift of perspective (Jupiter) is impossible to digest. Everything seems small while carrying numerous little emotional impacts that us humans are simply built to react to, as well.
The core of the traumatic circumstance is an issue that one will work on throughout their lifetime possibly, but the surprising, hidden shreds of troubles are in all those things connected that came tumbling down with it. Deeply wounding trauma will often not only take away the essence of our beliefs and make us deal with loss, death, and determination of the Universe, but it will affect all areas of life that were depending on the flow of energy that got broken in the moment. Even with the silver lining being the big “cleanup” of things that haven’t had profound value to sustain trauma, this won’t really help when our pillars of support have been shattered and we have no idea how to rebuild parts of our lives that seemingly had nothing to do with the event. Using our Mars and Saturn we worked hard to build stability and protection, and in the blink of an eye this image of safety may simply – disappear.
Squaring Gas Giants
Current square of Saturn in Aquarius with Uranus fallen is the image of generational trauma rather than personal, but it will remind us of all its depth through personal issues. To separate the collective responsibility from personal ways, we can observe the astrological context where signs will speak of what is generational and collective (carrying collective responsibility that we are to understand) and houses will speak of personal issues that we are to overcome in order to set free.
This is a challenge to accept how small we are in the face of the Universe with all its perfectly balanced ways. As dark as things might get, there is a bigger image to strive for. If we allow ourselves to be small, only human, we have room to actually heal, bit by bit, instead of just being “meant to get over it” or “moving on” as if nothing happened. We cannot just move on from a point where nothing made sense, and to make sense out of it, we must embrace forces much bigger than our little human lives. With this understanding comes enlightenment, but are any of us as close to it as we might think while spiritually awakening? It is the feeling of calm, acceptance of circumstance that tells us where we are right now, not the lack of emotion.
Clear Image
With Uranus in Taurus the real difficulty is to see that trauma is REAL. Taurus is the first sign in the element of Earth, the first point where grounding and our bodies are found. Emotional trauma is the turning point in every family tree, in each individual life, however small it may seem to peers, or social contacts that seem to define some general rules and imperatives on “which feelings are acceptable”. We all have Aquarius and its rulers in our charts and our lives, and even if there is no big event that you currently relate to, there is always leftover baggage from the family line that goes deep and is to be healed and embraced. As easy as it may be to glorify compassion for another, love and forgiveness over all things, we must first face what we were given and see our problems as real and as wide as they may be. We must see the reality of our feelings and our bodies intertwining and working in perfect balance. This allows us not only to give love but also to take it in and heal through pure emotional contact.
Exalted in Scorpio, Uranus is a phoenix, reborn. This is exactly the image of trauma healed in the element of Water, where deepest emotion and sexuality is stored. To start healing is to release oneself into freedoms of deeply wounding emotions for frailty and value of life itself.
