Untangling Client Issues with a Systemic Constellations Approach

by Elizabeth Nakata

© Elizabeth Nakata - published by The Career Astrologer, September 2022 / 08.12.2022

In every conceivable manner, the family is a link to our past, bridge to our future.
- Alex Haley.

The impact of family relationships and history is inescapable. In my practice, I combine the knowledge system of astrology with the therapeutic technique of systemic or family constellations to analyze client issues and support their personal development and goal attainment.

Systemic Constellations

We are all part of a family system where each individual has their place. We are also part of a community system within a country, a planet, and the Universe. Our human body is a system composed of subsystems, and perfect health requires that all of them work correctly. Systems always wish to remain in balance, and when a destabilizing event occurs, a force will act to seek to rebalance. Taking the human body as an example, significant ingestion of alcohol will overwhelm the liver, unleashing a chain reaction that may lead to a headache, hepatic steatosis, cirrhosis, or an alcoholic coma.

The systemic constellations model created by German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger includes a specific set of assumptions. (1) In the model, life itself is the most important value, and all human beings should maintain an attitude of reverence and gratitude for living. Life perpetuates itself and is passed forward generation after generation in various forms, not always under the best conditions for a solitary human being. Life does not need adjectives–it simply is–and therefore, no event or human act is judged as good or bad.

The assumption is that there is always a just cause for all actions. Take war, for instance. All soldiers are given the same order: to defend their nation and annihilate the enemy. Some soldiers kill others. There are victims and perpetrators. No matter their belief or ideology, each soldier who attempts to take the life of another harms the systemic order and produces a systemic entanglement.

The model requires that human perception of events should be divorced from judgment. We oscillate between the roles of victims and perpetrators throughout our lives under diverse circumstances.

Reality simply occurs and exists. Our internal perception judges and values events, and this judgment often brings us pain, suffering, and sorrow. It is the perception of the beholder that modifies the appearance of reality.

Three pillars support Hellinger’s family system, also called orders of love:

Pillar 1 - Precedence

Whoever was born first in a family has come to life first and therefore precedes those born later. The parents (or whoever has come to life first) are always “greater” than their sons and daughters (or whoever has come to life after), who are always “smaller.” The pillar of precedence is harmed when, for instance, the son of the founder of a company assumes control of it and ostracizes his father. Or when a son acts as if he was the father of his siblings. The order of precedence is broken when sons and daughters place themselves in a position that is hierarchically above their parents, whether because they consider their parents to be less intelligent, weaker, mistaken, or incapable.

Pillar 2 – Balance

There is a balance between giving and receiving in a family or a principle of equitable relationships. The amounts given and received must be equal in any relationship, whether personal or professional. Within a personal relationship, when a person gives too much attention to the needs of the other person, many concessions are made, and there is no reciprocity; one gives too little, and another receives too much. This situation will cause a rift that may ultimately lead to a rupture if it is not addressed in time.

Pillar 3 – Belonging

Each person has the inalienable right to exist within a family in a position only held by that person. Here we have the parental order, with parents and offspring each positioned in their respective roles according to their birth order. Two orders are present: that of belonging or location and that of precedence. In a family with three siblings, for instance, we have the parents who have come first, bonded, and given birth to the firstborn, then to the second child, and finally to a third child. These orders also consider abortions (spontaneous or elective) and any children given up for adoption.

Entanglements from Broken Pillars

When one of these pillars is broken, an entanglement occurs. All systems wish to remain in balance. The person in the family system responsible for the event will become entangled whenever one pillar is destabilized. This order-defying event order will re-manifest itself in similar ways in connection to other family members of later generations until a person faces the problem and seeks its solution.

Hellinger asserts that we are bound to others because of love and loyalty, often unconsciously. Whenever family members are excluded from the family system for any reason, these members are denied the right to belong to that family or to assume the position which is rightfully theirs. Exclusions may occur publicly when all family members are aware of the cause for the banishment of a person. Exclusions can also occur secretly, as is the case with a child born because of unintended pregnancy and then given up for adoption. This violates the pillar of belonging.

Combining with Astrology

The astrologer can identify disruptions in the family system through natal chart analysis. For example, exclusions may be ascertained by analyzing the 4th House, which holds information regarding the family of origin and ancestry. Neptune in the 4th House may signify the dissolution of a family–perhaps relatives that have been excluded because of addiction or mental health issues. Uranus symbolizes ruptures concerning the country of origin and a person’s roots, which can manifest as a lack of personal strength. A person with disruptive configurations in the 4th House of their natal chart is akin to a tree without any roots to bring forth the nutrients of the earth to its trunk and branches.

Issues of belonging, like exclusions, are often identified by 4th House placements, but other natal chart placements and aspects can indicate their existence. Consider any planets that lack major aspects, planets that possess many aspects, or bodies that are the “handle” of a bucket pattern.

The balance between giving and receiving may be analyzed by the concentration of planets in one of the hemispheres of the natal chart.

• If the concentration occurs in the western hemisphere (4th through 9th Houses), there is a tendency to give away too much and tend to others to one’s detriment.
• If it occurs in the eastern hemisphere (10th through 3rd Houses), there is a difficulty in prioritizing others and an excessive focus on one’s own needs.

Any concentration of planets in a specific House may signify difficulty balancing the matters governed by that House and the opposing House in the chart.

An individual’s difficulty with the pillar of precedency may be verified in several ways, starting with the luminaries (Sun and Moon), Saturn, Uranus, or Pluto in the 10th House. Conjunction, square, or opposition aspects between the Sun and Pluto may also signify this difficulty. Pluto conjunct the Ascendant may suggest that a person feels secure by exerting total control and cannot feel comfortable being cared for by others.

Saturn is always important for analysis under a systemic constellations perspective because it represents a mandate that spans generations. Picture a relay race in which one athlete passes the baton to the following athlete. The athlete who receives the baton may run swiftly and improve the team’s overall time, trip and fall, or maintain the established pace and pass the baton to the next athlete. The baton is the mandate signified by Saturn, where an ancestor passed a mandate forward to a descendant. Whoever receives the “baton” may exercise the mandate with wisdom and pass it forward as a gift to the following generation. Alternatively, that person may pass it forward as a burden and a problem for descendants if the mandate has not been adequately exercised.

Astrologers who have analyzed the natal charts of various members of a family often notice the repetition of aspects, positions by sign or House of the same planets, or repeated signs in the cardinal cross. When a systemic constellations perspective is applied with knowledge about the life history of family members, it is possible to ascertain what entanglement ties them.

Chart Examples

Below are examples of systemic constellation issues reflected in natal charts.

Man

The natal chart Man illustrates an example of issues of belonging and exclusion in the natal chart. This person sexually abused his children and was sexually abused in his childhood. His father passed away recently. The positions of the Sun and Pluto may be seen as a lack of appropriate paternal bonding. Pluto is the modern ruler of the 12th House, with Scorpio on its cusp. Pluto has no major aspects and is located in the 8th House. The Sun rules the 9th House (Leo) and is located in the 12th House. The Sun’s only major aspect is a trine from retrograde Saturn in Aries. 

Woman

Transits, progressions, and moon cycles in the natal chart are also important because they point to areas and matters where the client is more receptive to changes in a pattern. Planetary returns are also significant because they re-activate existing entanglements, allowing solutions to arise.

In the example titled Woman, the client was sexually abused by her father in early childhood, and this event produced a premature trauma. After some time, the event was forgotten due to a psychological survival mechanism, but it was later progressively recalled during her teenage years. After marriage, she faced difficulty becoming pregnant and sought my assistance with a consultation involving astrology and systemic constellations.

The woman contacted me precisely when Jupiter was in an exact trine aspect to Venus in her natal chart. Venus is the ruler of her natal 10th House (which signifies the father) and has no major aspects in her natal chart. Venus is also the dispositor of the angular Sun in Taurus, located in the 10th House. Additional timing factors were marked by Mars transiting the 8th House and Saturn transiting the 5th House conjunct her natal Jupiter.

As a trained therapist, I used several tactics to support and assist her, starting with calculating her fertility calendar, described as the Eugen Jonas Method. (2) The method consists in identifying, every month, the exact day when the Moon and the Sun in the sky are at the same distance in degrees in her natal chart. (This is sometimes called the Soli-lunar arc, phase, or angle.) We used a systemic constellation exercise with internal visualization to heal her wounded inner child. We did further individual constellation therapeutic work with the motherhood theme, using objects representing people in her family system and the pregnancy itself. The resulting outcome was that she became pregnant within a few months and gave birth to her first son.

Prince Harry and the British Royal Family

A practical example of entanglement exists within the British Royal family, where a generational knot binds Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, to his great-granduncle King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne to marry his lover Wallis Simpson. Both men married foreign women—American, divorced, born out of nobility—who were not accepted by the royals, and, as a consequence, both men settled away from London. Both men were also burdened with heavy scrutiny and criticism from the press, relatives, and politicians who opposed their marriages.

In systemic constellations, analysis begins by ascertaining which side of the family should be addressed, paternal or maternal. Prince Charles and his son, Prince Harry, have the following in common: Ascendant in Leo, Moon in Taurus, Venus in Libra, and Mars in Sagittarius. These many commonalities point to an entanglement related to the paternal side of the family.

According to the systemic perspective, Saturn signifies the mandate passed from generation to generation. Prince Harry and his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, have natal Saturn in Scorpio. Queen Elizabeth II’s Moon in Leo falls in Prince Harry’s 12th House and is in the same sign as this House and his Ascendant. She has Saturn at the Midheaven, befitting her role as the ultimate authority within the Royal Family, and Prince Harry receives her mandate in his 4th House, correlating with the family heritage.

Chiron is related to the wounded child in the systemic perspective and signifies pain related to the matters ruled by the House, where it is found in a natal chart. King Edward VIII’s Chiron is conjunct Prince Harry’s Sun. King Edward VIII’s Chiron is within the 8th House, which rules over crises, losses, death, sex, and finance. Prince Harry’s Chiron is within the 10th House, which rules over his public image, and was emphasized in his life due to his parents' marital crisis and his mother's premature death. Both circumstances were publicly endured as signified by Prince Harry’s Moon conjunct Midheaven.

King Edward VIII’s Saturn in Libra is conjunct Prince Harry’s Venus, and Prince Harry’s Moon in Taurus is conjunct King Edward VIII’s Venus.

The natal chart commonalities reveal a hidden symmetry: the coincidence of numbers, dates, and ages between both natal charts. Both display the same Sun square Mars aspect, and Jupiter conjunct Neptune by the same 5-degree orb within the 5th House. Both King Edward VIII and Prince Harry were born on a Saturday, and the same numbers repeat themselves in the years in which both, and Prince Charles, were born: 1894, 1948, and 1984.

From the perspective of systemic constellations, what happened to Prince Harry?

His great-granduncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated the throne because he was denied the right to marry the woman he loved. His internal statement to his beloved was,

if you cannot have a place by my side, then I will also exclude myself.

This displays the loyalty to which Hellinger alludes. Prince Harry, on the other hand, is loyal to his ancestor, who was excluded from the family system, and thus he re-enacts the same story.

The situation between ancestor and descendant displays the force within the family system, which consistently demands the reparation of a broken order. Once again, a solution was not achieved. We can expect that this entanglement will remain in existence. A future descendant may again re-enact this event until the Royal Family welcomes and includes all within its family system.

Conclusion

Systemic constellations bring new tools for analysis of the natal chart by adding a specific and direct perspective that may be applied to clients’ issues arising from entanglements, past traumas, and family history. The natal charts of clients facing troubles in any other areas of their lives–whether related to health, finance, professional or personal matters–may be analyzed to ascertain the probable origins of their problems in connection to entanglements of their ancestors and past family events. Astrology and systemic constellations are separate bodies of knowledge that add to each other and move in perfect attunement.

References:
1 Hellinger, Bert. Ordens do Amor. São Paulo: Editora Cultrix, 2003
2 https://www.astro.com/cgi/genchart.cgi

Published in: The Career Astrologer, September 2022.

Author:
Elizabeth Nakata is a journalist, therapist and astrologer, expert in following areas of astrology: childhood, business, vocational, kabbalistic and psychological. She has worked in Astrology since 1992. Creator of the Simetria Áurea method that includes Radionic Board, Pregnancy Constellation, Kabbalah Tree of Life Etz Chaim Constellation and Natal Chart Constellation. Her main interest and work is Astrology, integrating all other professional training with that ancient knowledge, to better provides the clients. She is also working as therapist of Trauma Therapy, Identity Oriented Psychotrauma Therapy – IoPT. Born in Brazil, member of the Organization for Professional Astrology – OPA since 2021. Member of Central Nacional de Astrologia – CNA. She can be found at www.elizabethnakata.com

© 2022 - Elizabeth Nakata - The Career Astrologer

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