Progressions & Anatomy

[Venus_Daily]

Hello, everyone.
So, my mother is still recovering from a nasty stroke, but before she had the stroke, several weeks ago, she was diagnosed with low blood oxygen. Now, she was a smoker since 14, but the X-rays and other tests rule out COPD. The doctors think that it could also be rheumatoid lung disease, but I looked up her progressions, and she has progressed Saturn conjunct the IC in Scorpio.
Obviously, Scorpio's symbolism with Serket and controlling breath come into play. I am a bit confused though as Scorpio is always seen with diseases of the throat and windpipe. I was wondering, what progressed planets or signs are symbolic of an affliction with the lungs or circulatory system?

My mother's info is
1/30/1957
4:42 PM
Alice, Texas.

[Jim Eshelman]

Great question.

There is, of course, much more that we don't know about medical astrology than that we do. I do know that one of the biggest sources of error is mistaking manifestations of symptoms for underlying disease.

I haven't looked at the chart yet, so this might not apply here; but let me go over this ground first. A couple of simple examples: (1) Because of the nature of the tricephalous nerve, a headache can be caused by an upset stomach. The symptom might appear in the head, but the underlying affliction is in the stomach. Which would the chart show? Can it show both? (2) Shooting pan and lost strength in the lower extremities is commonly caused by a pinched nerve in the lower part of the spine. Despite the localization of symptoms in the legs, shouldn't the chart especially show the spinal condition foremost?

So... in addition to the stroke, there is low blood oxygen. No COPD but the doctors thing an inflammatory pulmonary disorder. You spotted one very promising indication (especially since the angular Saturn alone can indicate this considerable illness through several keywords you used). If we want to localize it to the lungs, we expect Sagittarius, but... what, in fact, is here?

OK, now to the chart...

First the transits: Pluto is approaching her Descendant. It's not there yet, but it's getting really close. Oh, and it's in... Sagittarius! (Interesting.) At the very least, it likely will have her contemplating her mortality. It's quite interesting to me, though, that it falls in the constellation of pulmonary (nd general upper chest, upper torso) body relation.

Note that in January 2020, Saturn and Pluto will both be exactly in the degree of her Descendant and Venus. Uranus will exactly conjoin her Mars at the same time. That's a critical time - take what precautions for her you can.

Switching to progressions, I see the Saturn-IC you mentioned. Tough aspect, and surely related to her current debilitation. I wonder, though, what happened two and a half years ago (give or take half a year): That's when progressed IC crossed natal Saturn. It might give some good clues.

Progressed Neptune has crept closer to her Mars (opposition) her whole life, and is not within 19'. That deserves watching, and, at least theoretically, fits the stroke (by planet symbolism and by Libra-Aries).

The current, acute progression, though, is progressed Moon conjunct her Mars. This likely set off the Neptune-Mars progression. It's acutely inflammatory, too - like what the doctors suspect in her lungs. Besides inflammation, Mars aligns with iron, the basis of hemoglobin which carries oxygen molecules.

If I were to push the sign symbolism, I'd suspect something quite different to go along with all of this, though. Mars in Aries, activated and afflicted, would relate to the kidneys, bowels, and uterus area. One has to wonder if there is something in that zone of the body that is actually causing the other symptoms.

[Venus_Daily]

Thanks, Jim. Your opinion means the world to me. As for the kidney thing, I am going to ask her doctor to order an erythropoietin test since it has a lot to do with the low O2 response, which arise from the kideneys. 2 1/2 half years ago, nothing too major happened except my mother did hit herself in the head by accident when working, but she quickly recovered.

[Jim Eshelman]

Interesting. Remember, I'm not a doctor - so yes, work with the doctor on this. I'm just calling out symbolism. It will be very interesting to hear the outcome.

When I wrote the above, I really didn't understand why I felt compelled to talk at length about the "symptom location vs. underlying cause" question. If it turns out the kidneys have anything to do with her current problems, I'll credit that decision to intuition, and the victory to astrology!

[Venus_Daily]

Well, my mother became very sick tonight, experiencing new symptoms like cold flashes and nausea. Turns out she has very large kidney stones and delayed menopause due to being overweight. They still don't know if this is making her COPD worse.

[Jupiter Sets at Dawn]

Sorry she's hurting, but glad they found the kidney stones. They have much better options now for breaking them up so they'll pass, so I hope they won't need to operate.

[Venus_Daily]

Thanks JSAD, much appreciated.
It's very odd, a lot of the phantom symptoms she was having were actually tied to kidney stones and delayed onset of menopause. She hadn't had her period in more than 10 years, but she was probably still creating enough hormones to keep the hypothalamus in check until now. She was even complaining that it felt like she was going to get her period since she stopped getting it, and I always thought it was just a bladder infection, but it was the menopause.

[Jim Eshelman]

Astrology wins Kidneys and uterus... I'm really sorry she's going through this much pain. But, as little as we know about medical astrology, the answer was right there, very forthright in Cyril Fagan's reframing of the body-sign attributions. No Tropical astrologer would have been able to detect this.

[Venus_Daily]

I have more good news as far as progression and anatomy goes. I never thought there would be a day when I Would not be dependant on external corticosteroids to function properly, but I was wrong. With Mars on my pr. DSC conjunct n. Jupiter, my adrenal glands actually woke up after a few months of tapering down on my consumption of external corticosteroids, per my endocrinologist's recommendation. I am still taking a small dose, but I hope to be rid of that by the end of the fall. I just wish my entire pituitary gland would start functioning again. I have a Sun conjunct Mercury progression coming up, maybe that will knock something lose in my brain, figuratively speaking.

[Jim Eshelman]

This is excellent news! Steroids are miraculous if you need them, yet really hard on the body - to be able to thrive without them will be great.

Neptune getting off your Sun surely hasn't hurt, also.