‘Progressions symbolise our evolving soul’s development into the future – they give meaning and purpose to our lives – they show the motion of the planets after birth, thereby reflecting both the timing and nature of our psychological & spiritual development.’
The Natal Birth Chart is a moment frozen at our time of birth. Like a snapshot of ‘a moment in time’, it symbolises our inherent soul’s potentials and challenges as well as our psychological personality makeup that unfolds throughout our life span.
When a beautiful baby is born, we may wonder what will this baby look like in 10 – 20, 30 years or 50 years time? How will our baby survive – cope – how will our baby, who will become a child and then an adult, perceive the experiences and conditions it will undergo – how and what will it be when it matures? Will s/he be happy – successful – egoistic or soulful – full of hate or love? Peace, tranquillity and conscious evolvement, is what we may hope for this precious human being as we do all ‘beings’ ultimately. We may well ask the question at this point – what in predictive astrology can give us the information we ponder upon so deeply – in the above?
There is a predictive method in astrology that we call ‘Secondary Progressions’, whereby we are able to study the genetic code within the DNA of each organism to make a prognosis of how our baby may develop through the years and because of this innate genetic coding, even what experiences or conditions s/he may undergo to reach ‘self realisation’ and individuation in the later years.
Progressions not only ascertain a soul’s inner psychological changes and evolvement over a lifetime, but also how these changes can potentially manifest in the external world because ‘our outer world is always a reflection of our inner world’. They give us insights as to when the timing has come for new seeds of soul potential to blossom for our young human; or when to push forward, like a young plant reaching for the sunlight; or when it is time for fruition and to reach illumination; or when the time is right to spread our wisdom and even when it is time to withdraw again in preparation for a new cycle of growth.
Progressions assist us in understanding why one individual at a certain age of development needs to push forward for success, whilst another individual at the same age needs to retreat and withdraw.
The Progression’s ‘creed’ states that there is ‘a Time and a Season for everything . . . . . .
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to break down and a time to build up;
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance;
a time to seek and a time to lose;
a time to rend and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing”
. . . Ecclesiastes 3, verses 1-8.
In other words, each individual soul’s genetic coding has its own divine timing! Our life’s journey evolves through the phenomenon of planetary cycles that are well-timed, well-ordered and not coincidental. These cycles create opportunities of growth and evolvement both within ourselves and in our lives. If we know what these cycles of life are asking of us, we can consciously participate in life from a place of personal empowerment and inner peace. There are ‘reasons and seasons’ which have a cyclical rhythm in the universe and therefore in our lives . . . .
“As Above . . . So Below.”
The symbolism of Progressions in time and space, can assist us to understand how a short period of time represents a longer period of time.
That is, a day equals a year! Metaphorically speaking, each day in the Ephemeris equals one year! That is, one day after birth symbolises the first year of life, whereas the second day symbolises the second year of life, etc. So with secondary progressions, the first year of life is equal to one day after birth. If we want to look at our progressions for the 10th year of life, we would look at 10 days after birth in the ephemeris; 30th year of life, 30 days after birth and so on. This implies that in an average life span of 80 – 85 years this symbolises the first 80 – 85 days of life.
Progressions deal with the actual real movements of the planets after birth and are symbolically related to specific time periods in our lives. They reflect the nature and timing of our soul’s potential and psychological development.
Secondary Progressions are based on the assumption that whatever our soul experiences and records during the first three months of life, will have an impact on the rest of our life. Progressions tend to be more inner-orientated, because they move from the inner soul psyche outward to the world, rather than with ‘Transits’, which move from the outer world towards the psyche. Any year of our lives in our progressed charts, is a re-experience of the same planetary energies and relationships that occurred shortly after birth. So they are about psychological growth, psychic unfolding, developing consciousness and the ongoing relationship with soul, ego and psyche.
By understanding this process, we can with responsibility ensure that the individuation process of self realisation moves forward in its own timing through our lives. It is very important that we remain conscious of our thoughts, intentions, motives and complexes throughout these evolutionary cycles of our life.
Secondary Progressions are also about the maturation process our soul’s need to undergo to reach this stage of individuation. Each planet in our chart progresses forward after we are born and carries its own unique recipe for this maturation process to occur. In its own way, our natal birth chart has its own innate knowledge of maturation which has already been experienced in the early months of life. Each planet in the chart has the seeds of its own evolution.
We usually focus more on the Inner Personal Planets in Progressions, because they are closer to the Sun in their orbit and move more quickly throughout our lives, allowing us to evolve our ego sense of identity (Sun), our emotional nature (Moon), our mental intellectual nature (Mercury), our relationship values (Venus) as well as our approach to life (Mars). The Outer Planets, from Jupiter out to Pluto, average no more than a degree movement per month, therefore in 30 years (1 month = 30 days = 30 years of progressed time), they may hardly progress at all.
To give you an example of how progressions work, in this article, we will be touch on the Progressions of the Sun in our charts.
The Sun is the centre of our solar system; it is the source of energy that creates and sustains all life forms on Earth. The Sun represents the natural path of the soul towards wholeness and fulfilment of purpose. So the Sun is the Giver of Life – and every soul is becoming their Sun. The Sun symbolises our creative life force energy so it represents our conscious sense of Spirit Self; it is who we are ‘becoming’ as individuals and how we can shine out in the world when we confident and full of vitality.
The Progressed Sun symbolises our evolving (changing) sense of ‘Self’ and Ego development, which is important for the soul’s growth towards individuation. It symbolises the growth of our sense of identity and confidence in life and assists us in building a secure ego container to support our creative self expression.
It symbolises the unfoldment of our hero/ines’ journey through this lifetime. When our Sun’s creative expression is blocked, we can appear meek, tired and may have low vitality. In these instances, we may not be conscious of the soul’s needs and life can be separative and lonely for us.
When our ego personality and soul self are separate, we may avoid the imprint of our innate genetic coding or life script, which can result in complex and repetitive karmic patterns in life.
When our evolving Sun is strong in its creative radiant expression, this often means we are in touch with the souls’ needs. When we pursue our Sun’s pathway – reward and fulfillment lead to evolutionary soul growth.
As our Sun progresses forward by approximately one degree a year, it can eventually shift into the next sign. When the Sun changes sign by Secondary Progression, it will reveal a significant shift and turning point in the way we express our creative selves out in the world. The SIGN CHANGE is very important, as it marks a new cycle of change in our ego’s sense of self identity. It indicates a change both in the pathway we have been traveling as well as in the unfolding narrative of the soul’s life.
This shift in consciousness through sign change, is important so that the evolving soul can fulfill its higher purpose through the different experiences it will undergo when our Sun progresses into a different elemental focus for about 30 years. For example, if your Natal Sun is in a fire sign at birth, it will progress into an earth sign, tempering and grounding the assertive fire energy for positive manifestation on the earth plane. Likewise, when our Natal Sun progresses from an air to a water sign – it indicates a need to move from the mind to the heart – to get in touch with our feeling body for further growth. It is interesting to note that that by the age of 30, we would have all experienced our Progressed Sun changing signs at least once. The later the Sun’s degree a particular sign, the earlier in life this change will occur.
The Sun progresses about one degree a year, so it will only progress through about a quarter of our birth chart in a lifetime. By following the Progressed Sun’s pathways around our Natal Chart, we can map out our soul’s evolutionary pathway. In a lifetime, the progressed Sun contacts only three or four signs and three or four houses, because it is so slow in its progressed motion.
It is also important to note when our Progressed Sun crosses the cusp of a new house area, because our sense of ‘Self’ now innately needs to express itself creatively through a new avenue of experience so that the soul can evolve forwards on its pre-programmed genetic soul script encoded at birth. House changes signal the times when new interests and attitudes come into our life which is important for the evolution of our souls in this lifetime.
‘Change is a constant in our lives.’
It is only through the acceptance of changing cycles in our lives, that the soul has the opportunity to reach its potential.
Symbolically, the progressed Sun focuses light or consciousness on the planet it aspects by progression. The main themes of our soul’s script can be further seen when the Sun progresses forward on its hero/ine mission to ‘become’ more than it can be, as it makes aspects to our Natal planets. These aspect contacts reveal how we are maturing/evolving through the activation of our innate birth chart potential.
When the Sun progresses to make an aspect to natal planets, it is time to become conscious now of different aspects of the ‘Ego Self’. These are times when our ego defences can be very strongly resistant; however, the soul has a great need at these times to identify with this energy consciously and to strive to integrate what the planet (being aspected) symbolises in our lives. Some planets the Progressed Sun touches, by nature, are much more challenging to the soul (for example aspects to Natal Pluto or Saturn). At these times, we are often confronted with owning the shadow aspects of our psyche. In this way, we are given an opportunity to accept and own the darker aspects of the ‘Ego Self’, as well as different ways of being, which is important for our soul’s evolution and growth in this lifetime.
We could say that the Progressed Sun’s heroic mission is to free us from our darker shadow instincts (by confronting our dragons and demons along the way), so that our soul can reach greater self awareness and be more in harmony with its overall life pattern. When we lose our way through a lack of awareness or ignorance, this can result in many internal conflicts and missed opportunities; this is when the soul experiences pain and struggle. When the soul is not following its natural evolutionary pathway, our Sun energy can be blocked from its natural creative unfoldment. When we are not ‘becoming’ our Sun, we can deny any opportunity to learn more deeply about the ‘Ego Self’. When we observe and accept the Progressed Sun’s gradual movement throughout our lives, we can then anticipate and accept the necessary shifts to our soul’s life force energy, so that our Sun ‘Self’ can shine out in its full glory and radiance. This is our divine birthright, after-all !
Because the Sun is the only luminary with a steady mean motion of approximately 1 degree per year, it is quite easy to determine the age when your ego personality will evolve into a new way of being, with changes in attitude and self expression. E.g., a person born with their Sun at 0 degrees of a sign will undergo a change in attitude around the age of 30 years, when the Sun enters a new sign through Progression.
Every Sun sign matures and has the potential to evolve through the qualities of the sign it progresses into:
The self-oriented and impulsive Aries Sun sign becomes more settled, loyal and patient when it progresses into Taurus, searching now for intrinsic value and substance in life. The security conscious Taurus Sun learns to embrace change and variety with much curiosity when it progresses into Gemini. The changeable Gemini Sun learns how important home, family and feelings are when it progresses into the sign of Cancer. The nest-building Cancer Sun can now venture forth into the world with more confidence to display talents through creative self expression when it progresses into Leo. The exhibitionistic, applause-seeking Leo Sun now searches for meaningful everyday service and learns to bring more patience and precision to its innate talents when it progresses into Virgo. The precision-oriented Virgo Sun learns to recognise that harmony and balance, rather than correctness and perfection are of greater value when it progresses into the sign of Libra. The harmony-at-all-costs Libra Sun learns that a little intensity and passion are OK, as values and relationships are transformed when it progresses into Scorpio. The intense one-to-one Scorpio Sun now evolves into becoming the seeker, via a quest for wisdom through higher learning & travel as it progresses into Sagittarius. The restless, freedom-loving Sagittarius Sun now has opportunities to learn about responsibility and develop a more realistic sense of their limitations with regard to time, money and goal-setting to manifest ideals in the practical world of its Capricorn progression. The responsible, establishment-loving Capricorn Sun now learns that humanitarian group energy and group needs are worthy causes to pursue in its progression through Aquarius. The team-oriented & detached Aquarian Sun now has the opportunity to learn about emotional sensitivity & compassion, whilst discovering there is a spiritual inner world through its progression of Pisces. Our sensitive, sacrificial & ‘no-boundaries’ Pisces Sun has an opportunity to develop courage & faith in ‘Self’, by competing and succeeding in the outer world, when it progresses through the sign of Aries.