Redefining "Unfortunate" Placements

It's interesting that other people reading this blog have experienced the constant moves and situational changes that seem to come with the Plutonic/Scorpionic transformational process we're a part of (or, um, whatever you like to call it). I don't usually meet people who have had similar experiences, so that's really nice. 

There are many different placements and aspects that can create these similar dynamics. For me (to clarify where I'm coming from on this blog), I was born during a part of the zodiac called the Via Combusta (the burning path or the fiery way). 

The Via Combusta is the degrees of the zodiac from 15 Libra to 15 Scorpio, except for 23 through 24 degrees Libra, which are considered safe degrees due to the fixed stars Spica and Arcturus residing there. I don't have anything there, of course. My Pluto, Sun, IC, Mercury and Uranus are in Via Combusta degrees. (My mother was also caught in a tornado two months before I was born, which was quite fitting, I must say. All this has added up to one hell of a changeable and bumpy ride from birth on.) 

The funny thing about the Via Combusta is that it's another piece of my birth chart that many astrologers (and outside observers, in general) would find "unfortunate." The Via Combusta's astrological definition includes this: "an indication of unfortunate or ineffectual situations." 

Yeah, I've had more than my share of those. But as I was saying in the Venus "Affliction" post, when you actually live these so-called "unfortunate" placements, you can come to understand them in a deeper way. You can comprehend the purpose of them and the long-term (sometimes way long-term) benefits. 

The way I've explained living the Via Combusta in the past is that it's like running the gauntlet. Pushing through seemingly insurmountable odds, heavy karma, booby traps and weapons wielded, very often related to relationship dynamics (Libra and Scorp territory). 

There is a fire in a Via Combusta individual that keeps him or her burning a path through life, as you would imagine a shooting star burning a sometimes accelerated path through the night's sky. There's a feeling that you have to keep going, no matter what. Just keep burning through it. It has a lot to do with the desire to break out of past patterns, dynamics and structures in an attempt to get to something more fulfilling and workable, something good and right, personally and collectively. 

The Via Combusta is about burning through and, therefore, past - hitting the evolutionary marks. "The only way past it is through it." 

It's also a huge collective karma aspect (especially when Pluto is there and especially when Pluto is there conjunct the Sun). Themes of processing and purging for the whole through your personal life. Busting through collective dynamics that have been reinforced for decades, maybe centuries, maybe millennia. It isn't easy. 

And we've got a whole Pluto gen (Libra 15 to Scorpio 15, excluding 23 through 24 Libra) working on just these dynamics. (You also have to know, of course, what to refuse to take on personally from the collective. "Nope. Sorry. That isn't my baggage to deal with!") 

So to me, my supposed unfortunate placments are very purposeful and very important - not just to me personally, either. But from an outside perspective, viewed by people who don't fully comprehend the underlying dynamics, all this adds up to a very unfortunate individual who has to deal with a lot of turmoil and difficulty and angst. As would the (often) difficult conditions symbolized by many other placements or aspects...whether it's natal planets in detriment, in retrograde, afflicted placements, heavy Saturn or Pluto, a full sixth, eighth or twelfth house, a tonne of squares or oppositions, or whatever. 

Again...true from one level of perception...but not the whole story by any stretch. 

This is why it's so important not to let other people define us and our lives. When people again and again paint you into the same corner, perceive you in the same superficial ways, interact with you from the same limited grasp of the issues, it's difficult not to let it affect you. Unless you're willing to constantly define yourself on your own terms and (often) correct the mis-perceptions people place on you, it can become a damaging burden and a disconnect from your true reality that can eat away at you. Again, it's not easy to be that vigilant, but it's definitely worth it. 

This is one of the most important things I've learned from living an "unfortunate" chart - to stand up for myself and my life, especially the difficult parts. Refusing to let people define me according to their limited understanding is a constant effort, but it's getting easier. 

I now know to give them a little zap when they need one. Being misunderstood is hurtful, so it really is worth the effort to reframe things. 

Anyway, the heaviest parts of the Via Combusta path are behind me now. I've done what I can do, and I just don't have the youthful energy to continue with that craziness anymore. This reminds me that things do progress, cycles do complete, alchemical fires do lose their charge, even when it feels as if things will never let up.