How To Unravel Your Family Karma Using Astrology
Your birth chart can provide clues to your unique family history as well as your path to healing.
Hayley Lyla via Unsplash / Blixa 6 Studios via Canva The natal chart presents us with many planets and aspects that teach us about some of the lessons we have learned in the past and will continue to learn in this lifetime.
Further, certain connections between people can show us the potential karmic debt they owe one another.
This type of chart comparison, known as synastry, is often used to delineate romantic connections. However, platonic synastry connections also exist between friends and family members. They can show us how we relate to one another and how we can grow and learn from each other.
To see the impact of karmic connections with friends or family, we can see it through three key houses in the natal chart: The third house relates to friends, siblings, and cousins, the fourth house represents our parents and ancestral roots, and the fifth house represents our children and creating our foundation in the home we build.
Having planets in any of these houses can show the karma we will work on in this lifetime or what can push us to research more about our roots.
Ancestral astrology placements and family karma in the birth chart
The third house
Planets in your natal chart that fall in this house will show some insight about siblings.
Sometimes our siblings can represent the planets in our natal third. The personal planet will reflect their personality. For example, Sun and Mercury in a natal 3rd can show a sibling that we respect and look up to. They can be witty or popular.
In a synastry connection, someone’s planets in our natal third house or vice versa show that they will teach us a lot about ourselves and how to tap into our confidence with self-expression.
Parents with planets that fall in our third will inspire how we view education and learning. There is mutual learning with third house synastry and ongoing understanding.
The fourth house
The fourth house is synonymous with home, so the planets that fall here in our natal chart will reflect the overall energy of our early childhood years.
Having our parents' planets fall here can also represent how we view them.
For example, a parent's Sun falling in their child's fouth house will show that they will serve a pivotal role during their child’s earlier years. They could view the parent as someone they respect and can even see them as friends when they become adults.
Meanwhile, a parent’s Mars or Saturn falling in the fourth can show that they will teach their children discipline or will have very strict rules in their home.
Natal Mercury in the natal chart or synastry with a friend or family member shows that there is a need for the native to dig deep and uncover their roots.
According to Reddit user @TolerableSimulacra, the fourth house can also "serve as a way to emotionally ground oneself when they’re lost in the escapist clouds of the 12th House," which represents karma that you carry with you from past lives.
The fifth house
Natal planets in this house reflect how we build our own home or creative space, including the type of foundation we set and the rules we create for our children.
Having a synastry connection in the fifth with friends or family shows that this person can bring us some happiness and creative energy, especially when Sun, Mercury, and Venus are here.
Focusing on the energy of the fifth house in the natal chart will reflect what boundaries we set to protect our peace and energy.
Potent planets or nodes that can impact the karmic connection are:
North Node
Any connection to the Lunar Nodes shows that there may have been a past life bond.
With this aspect, there is a need for the native to evolve and the person with the planet will push them to do so. We will be able to tap into the energies of our past incarnation when a planet makes an aspect, especially when it's a square, opposition, or conjunction.
The energy is uncomfortable but pushed us to evolve.
South Node
A South Node synastry connection can show someone that is a guru for the people in their family. The energy is focused more on tapping into the gifts from your previous incarnation and bringing them now to teach others.
While North Node can encourage growth, South Node is all about navigating with the tools at your disposal. The native with the South Node will help guide the person with the personal plane.
Sun and Moon
Having Sun synastry activates our core. The Sun and Moon are powerful luminaries and when either is activated, in synastry and the natal chart, we can see the role we can take in the family. We will either be parental figures to our siblings with planets in the third or we may take the parental role with synastry in the fourth.
Mercury
Mercury is all about learning and uncovering information. Having Mercury in synastry with the family will have us curious to learn, dig deeper into the past and develop a new foundation for the future.
It is a powerful placement since we can also be gurus to others or we may view our parents as mentors with their planets falling in our key houses.
Chiron
Chiron in the natal chart shows us where we must do the work to heal and empower ourselves.
In synastry, the person with Chiron or who activates our Chiron will help us have a deeper understanding of ourselves. With Chiron synastry, the impact goes both ways. Both parties learn to grow and heal from one another, especially when there are other supportive planets in the natal houses or synastry like Venus and Jupiter.
Pluto hard aspects
According to @TolerableSimulacra, "those with hard Pluto Aspects experienced control/loss at an early age (literally or figuratively), which creates a void that must be addressed, or it’ll start to enforce its will on your life."
These aspects "tend to run in families," the Reddit user explains, "and might be the most interesting thing to look at in family lines [sic], in seeing how power is exercised, abused, and sacrificed within nuclear families."
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A.T. Nunez is an Afro-Latina Astrologer and philosopher living in NYC. She is passionate about astrology and aims to continue writing more about stargazing in the future.