Hiding in plain sight

The ability to read charts gives you some power. You don't realize how much until you get deep into your own chart and realize how far it goes. If you read enough about your Pluto placement or aspects*, or stuff that's in your 8th house, or even the sign on your 8th house, you'll probably realize that you'd never admit much of this stuff out loud, much less tell anyone on purpose that these are your hangups, because these are elements that are very much hidden. Not everyone is going to be a walking textbook definition of their Pluto placement or 8th house, for the record. Like, you might read a definition and say "well, I don't do *that.*" (But the other 9 things on that 10 thing list, yeah, that's me.)

I've learned that charts never lie, but rather than be overly prescriptive about how energy shows up, I just think of likely energy manifestations as buckets, and conclude that the person whose chart it is will do something in that bucket, or it'll show up somehow. Then I'll wait and mind my business. When it ultimately does show up somehow, it feels like things are adding up rather than eruptions out of nowhere. I used to find it fascinating to watch and wait to see how energy manifested itself, but people hide significant parts of themselves that they don't feel are socially acceptable, and digging in order to poke at a sore spot is mean.

Pluto + Mars is rage issues. Saturn + Mars is frustration with expressing anger/being assertive. For a while, I spent a lot of time with someone with both of these aspects, mixed up with Mercury and Moon, as well. I knew they had a temper, but they persisted in being the most easy-going, affable individual known to man. It didn't add up. But then one day I saw how the temper manifested, and where that energy had been hiding (in plain sight!) and guess what? I was on the wrong side of the temper. On the one hand: yay! I was right! On the other hand: it didn't feel good at all to prove myself right.

The other power you have is helping people put words to stuff they do automatically without thinking, or help them describe something they know about themselves subconsciously but not explicitly. This is super useful for people who are already pretty self-aware and want to become more so. Also: pretty useless for people who don't want to know more about themselves or have the awareness of a brick (beware people without much water energy!! They're either going to be really into this stuff or argue with every single point you make about their chart). Astrology is a great tool for personal growth, but it's a terrible one for psychological awakening (it's too much).

As a PSA for people dealing with Plutonians or people with a lot of water energy: just because they don't immediately react to something, it is a mistake to assume there is no reaction: just because you didn't see it doesn't mean it wasn't there. Personally, I won't react to 99 things but then there will be 1 where I can't contain myself anymore, and those explosions are pretty epic and have taken a number of people by surprise. The thing is: I am pretty reactive to intellectual stuff, so when it comes to things with emotional content, it seems like there is no reaction, since I am usually so expressive, but I'm just hiding it. I emote in private: that's instinctive and it's never going to change. But when I tell other people about things I feel are obvious about what I like or hate, they're surprised. I've scared the shit out of people in both directions because they didn't realize what they were dealing with and pushed me.

The other day I watched people practice putting tourniquets on each other, and cutting off blood flow to an extremity while doing so. Some of them made all kinds of expressions and noise and others didn't flinch at all while their forearms turned purple. Some of the non-reactors just have a high pain tolerance and the others...well, they're Plutonian. The pain was there, but they're never going to tell you about it (and that, my friends, is a metaphor).

*Pick up a Jeffrey Wolf Green book and prepare to be very afraid. Caveat: you must have some ability to read charts or this information break your brain.