One simple step ( a "baby-step" seeming, perhaps, but a *huge* one!) is: to exit the psychological {intellectual, but emotional also} paradigm of perceiving some of the planetary-ergies --- any of the planetary "principles' or factors, and whether observed in transits or as natal factors, etc.! --- as
inherently "problematic", "difficult" etc.
... I've written this about 8 months ago, but at the time it ended up in the Archive, instead of being posted on the blog or the FB page, and thereafter I forgot about it, so never came to be published (until now, as I'm posting it here); --- as these things with writing go, if I'd to write it now, it would surely come out in a different form -- the same central message would be conveyed in some different manner; but since it already exists as a written text, and it addresses exactly this question/subject, here's the full contents of it as it is - in hopes you -- and other reading here as well -- can find it of use:
[what is said about "natal planets" applies as well to planets observed in framework of prognostics, in synastry, etc.]
Ad-astra or dis-aster
An Astrological chart (Natal, etc.) by itself, as such, is inherently Harmonious.
It is a symbolic representation of the harmonious functioning of conditions (at any such-and-such moment of time-space) of the wider environment of which Earth itself is a part.
There are no 'malefics' nor 'benefics' in it; there's no 'auspicious', or 'lucky', neither 'ominous' or 'unhappy', etc. --- nothing such whatsoever --- in an Astrological chart, or in "the heavens".
A human person - and collective - can be aligned, or not, and aligned more or less so, with this, that the chart is a "picture', a representation of: the actuality of Harmony of movements of bodies through time-space, to which the Earth belongs functionally, and are in most-immediate sense the most-relevant in our observations here on Earth from practical perspective: the Sun, the Moon, the Zodiac-area, and the Solar-system bodies.
Although there indeed can be an intellectual argument, an "undecidedness", or an eternal-vagueness-seeming condition, about: by what "measure", what referential-framework, to ascertain what is the degree, or the presence or absence thereof, of Alignment (or: harmonious being) of a human person/collective, there is the "measurement"-referential which is indisputably and universally factual:
Is the human, its being/existence, in a sustained manner, and in longer-term scope, thriving - in the sense of: authentic Joy, Beauty and lasting-Vitality, such that it supports the same condition of everything around it, within the ecosystem that the human is a-part-of?
-- It is easy to ascertain by this the actuality of whether there has been the alignemnt or the misalignment ( = dis-aster).
Only for a fragmented, dispersed perception this is something elusive-to-see, something that can be "argued about" and perceived (and presented) as "an equally yes & no", or such. This is perspective of the intellectual airy-charade, which has no actual foundation, or in other words: is characteristic for the bio-psycho-vehicle devoid of such vital-energy-movement through-it which is the-living-Beauty: the whole-&-full functional *connectedness* with everything else around it that isn't itself. -- It is this cut-off state, this dis-connectedness that nurtures the conditions for such perspective to at all exist -- but this is, necessarily and naturally, very limited in its existence in time-space.
The next evolutionary-stage for Anthropos is emergence from such (limited, isolated, fragmented, cut-off) state/condition as its mode-of-being, into existing such that fully-aligned with the Harmony of Nature ( -- "Nature" in sense wider than a human-body, or the conglomerate-mass of these bodies, with their generations of self-replication over time, i.e. "blood-lines".)
The exact nature-&-quality of the ideas, notions, concepts and intellectual-patterning operative -- as an aspect of the human functioning -- is of importance:
these can be such which tend toward further greater-and-greater blurring, into fully-disabling, the capacity for Connection (not only the capacity for seeing/noticing/registering the Connectedness, but for the *connectivity*and *connectedness* as such*!), that is: these can be the energy-movements & patterning thereof, within the human conscious and subconscious mind, such that supports further the cut-off condition;
or they can be the energy-movements and patterning thereof such that supports the human existence in Alignment with the Harmony of the wider-Natural-phenomena, and their rhythms and tides.
When it comes to Astrology, in this process of emerging into the aligned-condition, the first-next immediate step from where we are collectively now is: recognizing and discarding of all such notions, concepts, ideas that are inherently oriented to train-the-psyche-for the cut-off condition.
The 'astrological benefics & malefics' comes merely as the tip-of-the-iceberg: perceiving the wider-natural-phenomena as somehow being of an "inherently-tending-quality" to operate *against* the human is at the basis of the mis-aligned patterning. (Solely such a human that itself in its being *operates-against*, rather than *for* and *in-accord with*, these wider-phenomena and their rhythms, can come up with such an idea/notion, and take this -- its own limited, fragmented, blind and selfish, isolated perspective -- as a "measurement" or some "undisputable factual-reference" of the reality of Natural-conditions in a universal sense!)
As 'easy' as, by-habit-established, the existence in fear-of-the-astrological-factors may come to be, or perceiving them as "cause" of this-or-that that we are experiencing, or to simply proclaim how "these are not actually functioning" --- none of that leads to something good for the human being, whatsoever; on the contrary, it explicitly leads further away from the condition of our existence which is in- and by- the Harmonious-Alignment.
The master-slave dynamics --- as a locked-in, self-enclosed loop of energy-movement-patterning --- keeps the psyche within condition of blindness and cut-off-ness: the Astrological factors are perceived as either "divine-rulers", or as something that is to-be-overcome/fought/worked-against by the side of the human [ - whether by rejecting to recognize their functionality, or by 'acknowledging' it in such a way that is motivated-by & oriented-toward one's-own-self being in position of controlling-the-conditions]; at the basis of it is: will/orientation to be-active (operational: to function - to perform Activities, or simply put: to exist) whilst *simultaneously* to not-be-responsible for these activities. (Whatever one does, and from whichever of the two polarized stand-point positions within this dynamics-patterning, there's always the *far-away*-another who is presented as the actually-responsible-faculty, and one's own self is thus being kept within what feels as a "safety-net", but is actually a kind of an iron-wall-tower: built and kept-maintained to protect the 'all-preciousness' of such a "self", and de-facto functioning as the active mechanism of it existing in a misaligned, cut-off condition.)
... The process of emergence into the Aligned condition of being is not something transpiring (in our at present-day accustomed manner of perceiving/experiencing Time) in-an-instant; it first of all requires Will for it: the inner adamant-orientation of directedness-toward what's Harmonious; and along with this, requires effort: in very practical sense, on daily basis, the in-actu expression of this internal adamancy of will/orientation of such quality, in approach-to/interaction-with/presence-to *everything* that comes-up as an-Otherness in one's experience.
It requires continual, sustained conscious effort to train the psyche out of the tendency to perceive this Otherness as something inherently-antagonistic/inimical, that as such exists and/or 'by nature' tends to operate-against oneself as the observing-point.
It requires such I-Thou relating with the Otherness which is not based on the "self" side of it existing via the dynamics based on overcoming/domineering/demeaning the "otherness"-side. ...
This goes far beyond what the (as numerous and as voluminous as these came to be) writings explicitly related to Astrology, and the various schools/traditions within it as a human scientific-endeavor, have been addressing.
Learning about --- consciously getting to know, as thoroughly as one can --- how the mammalian limbic-interconnection functions is one small, but very important starting-point step, for those willing to get out of maintaining-the-loops of the dis-aster patterning, and to actively start moving toward and along the alignment-patterning.
... The fundamental discarding --- not merely as a single-moment-consideration, but entirely, and *practically* --- of each and every myth-story & notion about the astrological factors as 'in-themselves malefic or benefic' (with all the related, inherent-to-it, misalignment-oriented mental constructs), isn't some "process on its own", it is simply but an aspect of the human evolutionary "growing pains"-process; for the vital, it is a necessary part of the journey.
And the journey transpires *step-by-step*.
Some steps come as huge leaps, some as just-a-tiny-movement; and occasionally -- for as long as the primary collective-patterning is of such quality -- a loop-in-the-road appears.
But if *each-and-every step* is inherently-oriented to Harmony, performed with adamant, whole-hearted willingness for coming-into-Alignment, with the consequences-side of one's own activity being properly recognized & fully adequately honored-&-accepted, it's the journey of the-Living: out and away-from the dis-aster, existing by moving Ad-Astra.
It's quite wise to look now for a way to navigate this process. Next year, Saturn and Neptune will be travelling close to each other for several months, and that combined transit will be harder to navigate.