Reverse Engineer Your Natal Chart
Lessons from my haunted dishwasher
Rob Hand's classic astrology guide book Planets in Transit describes every major aspect that each planet can make to your natal chart. In other words, his book describes how the current location of any planet in the sky relates to its (or another planet's) location at the time of your birth.
For instance, when I was born, Venus was in Virgo. Currently Venus is in Capricorn, making a "trine" to that point. So, to use his book, I would look up "Venus trine Venus" and read a succinct description of the glories and pitfalls of this transit (Venus is good, trines are good - to radically simplify it).
I noticed, after referring to this book hundreds of times, that he would often suggest facing rough transits head on (squares involving Mars, Saturn or Uranus, for instance). That the challenging energies were going to arise one way or another, so confronting them will be easier than denying them. Letting difficult energies fester on the unconscious level will only lead to situations that make you feel like "why is this happening to me?!" (A.K.A projecting your shit externally rather than handling it internally).
As a Virgo who likes to be prepared, this had me imagining a reverse engineering process, and the trials and tribulations of renovating my 1860's farmhouse gave me the opportunity recently to do just that.
three words no one wants to hear
Back in January, I had a dishwasher installed as the last step in a big slog of a 4-month kitchen renovation project. I ran it about 5 times before it stopped working. Upon inspection, it was revealed that rodents were systematically removing the cozy insulation layer around the machine to use in their nests. My contractor took one look at the damage and said "you've got rats". Yikes. 🐁
No doubt, I’d heard some scuffling in the walls prior to this, but with the chaos of a home renovation, a new puppy, and no evidence of them actually running around the house, I decided to "live and let live". ✌️
We used foam and wire to barricade the back side of the dishwasher and block any entrances behind the cabinets. With that, the dishwasher started working again. We found no damage to the machine itself, and did nothing to fix it. It was almost like the dishwasher was acting up in order to alert me to the rodent issue behind the scenes. Rat traps were purchased, a big fella got taken out one night, and I figured my troubles were over.
Not so fast
A week or so goes by and it stops working again. This time it's supposedly the drain. I'm getting frustrated with this brand new dishwasher and wondering if it sat on a tanker, bobbing around out a sea for too long, getting damaged because of whatever was happening with ports and supply chains this past year. Shit was starting to get geopolitical up in my farmhouse kitchen. 🌐
We removed it again and discovered that there had been yet another incursion by critters, evidenced by scattered bits of foam insulation. "But they're somehow coming from... inside the house...." my contractor said. Doom.
The oracle
I'll cut to the chase: another pest control caper ensued, involving a live capture and release at a dairy farm down the road. Mind-bogglingly though, no damage to the drainage apparatus was found; it just started magically working again ✨ once we learned what it had to show us. At this point I'm like "ok spirit realm, I hear you. You've somehow chosen my Bosch 300 as a medium, but I will listen".
I discovered that rats and mice were coming and going from the sump pump area in my basement, so although the scuffling in the walls had subsided, we left traps there for ongoing abatement.
A few weeks go by and one night I'm woken up at midnight to a rhythmic thumping. It didn't stop, so I ventured to the basement to discover that the sump pump was going non-stop, like a zombie, even though there was no water left to pump. 🧟♀️ After a bit of searching, I found enough info to calm my fears of it blowing up and I left it chugging away until morning, when I could think clearly and realize that a little nudge of the float arm would get it to stop.
This continued on and off for about a week when I it occurred to me what the real issue was. "Uranus....Uranus is on my IC in Taurus!" I set about some Feng Shui and astrological reverse engineering to tackle it...
Feng Shui + Astrology as spiritual property managers
So, for some background info: Uranus is the planet of innovation, radical change and disruption. It's on a 7-year journey through Taurus, and I happen to have a cluster of interesting planets and points in mid-Taurus. An important one being the IC or Imum Coeli.
The Medium Coeli (aka Midheaven) and the Imum Coeli are opposite points in a natal chart—the highest point in the sky and the lowest—representing one's very outer expression (MC) and the very inner (IC).
With this insight now top of mind, I referred to Rob Hand's description of Uranus in this position and discovered that this indicates a lot of disruption in the home. With the aforementioned move, renovation and extremely active puppy, it couldn't be closer to the truth.
I then thought—ok, how can I somehow be the cause of the disruption in my home, rather than the victim... without making my life a nightmare? I remembered my drum set, still in pieces from the move, waiting to be set up. Ta-da! I had my answer.
Taking matters into my own hands
So, last week I set up my baby drum set in the corner of the living room to begin the reverse engineering experiment. This spot is perfect for my both spatially and Feng Shui-wise. According to Feng Shui map, known as the "bagua", this part of my home has the following qualities:
Bottom right section = Qian ↘️
Representation = heaven ☁️
Element = metal 🏆
Colors = white/gray 🤍 ☑️
Supports = helpful friends and travels 👯♀️ 🧭
My drum set has got a whole lot of metal, and the finish is a shimmery white-gray, almost a literal representation of a heavenly layer of clouds, ticking all the boxes on the color and elemental qualities of this section of the bagua.
Everything about my drum set is “heavenly”
With my drum set ready to play at any time now instead of in pieces, and I'm sloppily getting back into practice (I've had a total of 4 lessons in as many years), which does a great job of causing a joyful disruption in my space and is my preferred meditation technique to boot.
The good news (fingers crossed): ever since I set it up and started playing it, the zombie sump-pump situation has ceased, as have the rodent play dates. Dishwasher and sump pump, just acting like normal appliances again, nothing to see here!
Bonus Round
On top of this success in reverse engineering, I've noticed an additional Feng Shui bonus. The topics represented by the Qian section of my home—helpful friends and travel—got a boost since I brought this rowdy, but perfectly aligned, addition into my space. New York and California are dropping their restrictions on public life, making the prospect of a trip to visit friends and family (mostly concentrated in those locations) that much more enjoyable.
It starts off in the literal and ends in the spiritual. Paying attention to messages coming through my space and literally adjusting the energy in practical ways—this is how I've started practicing energetic alignment. Combining Feng Shui with astrological insight from my personal natal chart helps me decipher and embrace the story I'm living. In The Case of the Haunted Dishwasher, these two systems came together seamlessly to address my problem and enhance the energy in my space, and the results are delightfully on-point. 🎯
Let’s Do This
Got any haunted appliances of your own that could use a Feng Shui exorcism? 👻 Curious what a combination of Feng Shui + astrology could do for your general well being or perhaps an urgent situation? Join us for energetically-informed home design at the next workshop, just in time for the Taurus-Scorpio eclipse season, coming in April 2022. Sign up to get notified.
Mr. Boba relaxing in the Qian section of my house, where my little drum set works its magic