Erin Sullivan - The Astrology of Family Dynamics

The Astrology of

Family Dynamics

ERIN SULLIVAN

First published in 2001 by

Weiser Books

P. O. Box 612

York Beach, ME 03910-0612

www.weiserbooks.com

Copyright 2001 Erin Sullivan

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Weiser Books. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sullivan, Erin.

[Dynasty]

The astrology of family dynamics / Erin Sullivan,

p. cm

Originally published: Dynasty. London : Arkana : Penguin Books, 1996, in series: Contemporary astrology.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-57863-179-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Astrology. 2. FamilyMiscellanea. I. Title.

BF1729.F35 S85 2001

133.5-dc21 00-50328

BJ

Cover design by Kathryn Sky-Peck

Printed in the United States of America

08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01

0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).

Contents

Introduction

PART I : The Big Picture: The Organic Family

1. The Individual and the Collective

THE FAMILY OF HUMANITY

EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION: ROUND AND ROUND WE GROW

2. The Nuclear Family as a System

WHAT IS A FAMILY SYSTEM?

WHAT HOLDS THE FAMILY SYSTEM TOGETHER?

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A FAMILY?

ASTROLOGICAL MODELS OF OPEN AND CLOSED FAMILY SYSTEMS

3. Family Patterns and Family Trees

4. The Sun and Moon in Families

ASTROLOGY IS NOT GENDER-BIASED

THE SUN AND SOLARISM

SOLAR THEMES IN FAMILY DYNAMICS

THE MOON AND LUNACY

LUNAR THEMES IN FAMILY DYNAMICS

5. Mothers and Fathers: Freud Had It Half Right

6. Family Themes: Movers and Shakers in the Family

FAMILY ROLES (FAMILY SECRETS; THE SCAPEGOAT; THE BLACK SHEEP;

THE MEDIATOR OR CIRCUIT BREAKER; THE CATALYST)

7. Families and Our Familiars

SEEING THE INSIDE ON THE OUTSIDE

PART II : Family Dynamics

8. The Modal Family: The Tension of Life

CARDINAL

FIXED

MUTABLE

9. The Elemental Family: Circuits of Being

FIRE: I AM

EARTH: HERE WE ARE, WHEREVER WE ARE

AIR: I THINK, THEREFORE YOU ARE

WATER: WE ARE ALL ONE

10. The Water Houses; The Ancestral Eyes of the Soul

THE TWELFTH HOUSE: THF. COSMIC FAMILY SOUL

THE FOURTH HOUSE: THE ANCESTRAL FAMILY OF ORIGIN

THE EIGHTH HOUSE: THE ANCESTRAL LEGACYMEMENTO MORI

11. Families in Flux: Transits and Moving Forward

NATAL PLANETS AND ANGLES: FAMILY CORE-THEMES

TRANSITS TO THE NATAL HOROSCOPE AS A FAMILY DYNAMIC

PART III: Dynasty

12. Real Lives, Real People

13. Tobias: Touched by God

14. Mohsin: Who am I?

15. Rejected in the Womb

16. What's Bred in the Bone: The Circuit Breaker

17. The Procession of the Ancestors

18. The Last in the Line: The Many in the One

Appendix

THE KENNEDY FAMILY

OVER-DEVELOPMENT IN A SIGN

Bibliography

Index

Origins and roots cannot be amputated or divorced by conscious willby one's self or by another. Our roots and ancestral heritage cannot be dissolved by human mandate. There is that which seems, and that which is, and the illusions of both are as real as we might imagine. Thus I acknowledge my ancestors, my parents and my family of origin. Just as there is no real beginning or end of a cycle, there is no beginning or end of a family or an individual. However much we are made of others, there is a spark of originality, of something unknown and new, which lies in the soul of each of us. This is the Promethean fire of truth-seeking and survival, of renewal and continuance. Thanks to my family, my Promethean side is very, very well developed!

The two Geminis, my brother Robbie Lamoureux and his fathermy late stepfatherBob Lemoureux, are a very important part of my own unconventional family experience, and have spread the genes out a bit.

Especially my stepfather, who was an objective, compassionate eye and loving support.

Many of my astrological friends have at various times fed me with their family stories and allowed themselves the freedom to talk about their planetary family dynamics and listen to some of my own, but especially I want to mention a few whose stories have been shared in conversation and confidence and who in some way, indirectly, gave me the confidence that what I was seeing was working: Melanie Reinhart, Lindsay Radermacher, Jim Lewis, Brian Clark and Ani Black. Many, many of my clients have affirmed the phenomenon of dynastic lineage through the planets and those are too numerous and confidential to list, but thank you each and every one.

Most importantly, I thank my daughters, Spirit and Yesca, for being the next step forward into a new world, one which I can inhabit for only part of their time; now, for thirty-two years, I have shared life with two of the most remarkable combinations of historic family dynamics! Both are prisms of their origins, but absolutely unique unto themselves; both are finding ways of being that have no exemplar. They too are Promethean creatrices! And to the next in line, my grandchildren for whom I wish a good life and an influence in their world.

Thanks to Carmen Reynal for helping midwife the manuscript; and to the late Jim Lewis, my dear friend and brother in soul, for sharing ideas and family stories.

On the practical side of things: thanks to Robert Curry and Barry Street at the Astrology Shop in Covent Garden, London, for supplying me with chartservice and for the astrological contribution; to Bernadette Brady for her understanding of the heat of the moment of the writer's seizure and for faxing, writing and sending me the JigSaw graphics I have used for Toby and for the Kennedy family case-example in the appendix; and to my son-in-law, Philip Ginn for the big picture diagrams. And, as always, to Barbara Levy, my London literary agent, who helped me with the process by indulging some very elaborate ideas which took place throughout the development of the book!

Last but not least, to the individuals whose stories appear in The Astrology of Family Dynamics. These people have my deepest respect; they are all courageous in their own ways and they are amazing individuals, each and every one. There are five stories in this bookall of which are more remarkable than I can even begin to portray; they shared these stories with me, and worked with me to bring myself and thus you, the reader, a deeper understanding of how mysterious is the web in which we find ourselves at the center! They are all exemplars of individuals who have needed to go back into their family matrix to wrest from it a measure of their own essence, and who understand this process to be just thatan ongoing, evolutionary drama which lies in infinity.

Devotion 17
No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe;
every man is a peece of the continent, a part of the maine;
if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse
as well as if a Promontorie were,
as well as if a Mannor of they friends, or of thine owne were;
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