Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Parenting with Astrology: Dramatic Sensitivity

Amy Herring has been a professional astrologer for 15 years and a proud mother for 7 of those years. She has joyfully accepted Mlle. Kiddie’s gracious offer to share her thoughts once a month here at Kiddie Star Signs. To find out more about Amy and her personal readings for parents and children, visit her website at http://heavenlytruth.com.

Money and fame don’t solve every problem. Celebrity moms have their hopes and worries for their children too. However, Mlle. Kiddie would like to offer ‘everyday’ moms a chance to see astrology put into action to answer their parenting questions. After all, famous or not, you’re the world to your kids! If you’ve got a question about your child that you’d like Amy to answer, send your questions any time to amy@heavenlytruth.com.

Helen writes:
My daughter Elizabeth is very emotionally sensitive. When she has her feelings hurt, she often takes a long time to bounce back, sulks, and cries sometimes for an extended period, seemingly unable to pull herself out of her mood. I want to be sensitive to her feelings but I often feel impatient or bewildered when it's so intense. I am hoping to get more insight into where this comes from.
9-year-old Elizabeth ~ (click to enlarge)

Amy answers:

Immediately I'm drawn to the sun and moon in the twelfth house and the twelfth sign (Pisces) as the primary astrological "source" of sensitivity in Elizabeth's chart. The word sensitivity often has negative connotations in our society and it's important to take a moment to redefine it. While heightened sensitivity presents some challenges such as more frequent ups and downs, it also allows for greater empathy, compassion, and emotional self-exploration. The archetype of Pisces is about absorption, being metaphorically porous in order to experience things on a level that is beyond just the self. She feels on a grand scale and is sensitive not only to her own emotional state but the state of others around her. Learning to manage her emotions without invalidating them or suppressing them outright will be an important life skill. Sometimes something as simple as solitude can help her momentarily remove herself from external stimulus so she can deal with what's going on inside more efficiently.

Elizabeth has virtually no earth element in her chart, so she's not going to be swayed by arguments that are solely based on practicality. Emotions and emotional responses cannot be measured on a scale of convenience, so whenever you can, walking through the emotion and helping her find her way to the other side (as opposed to just fanning the "flames," so to speak) is the challenge. With a strong water and fire elemental orientation, she is going to respond to life by how she feels, which are more likely to dictate her decisions and actions more than what's sensible purely for dispassionate reasons. However, she has a wealth of Aquarius, the element of air, so cultivating objectivity and learning to detach from the emotional impact of some situations will help her, over her lifetime, will help her deal with emotional overwhelm better as she grows older.

The south node's placement in Sagittarius can emphasize an orientation toward big and immediate responses to life, and in the watery 8th house, these reactions come from deep and intense impulses. Moving toward a Gemini north node indicates that it's an important life lesson for her to learn how to mitigate the intensity of the south node (as we all are learning to do), by thinking before acting, not just using proper judgment and restraint, but specifically by learning to evaluate situations from a more balanced perspective - objectively as well as subjectively.

In childhood, we typically see the undiluted strength of the orientation of the south node, because for all of us, even adults, it is a comfort zone. It's not bad but it can be too excess, causing us difficulty in making sense of the world from only one perspective. The north node work is a lifelong process that we reach for to bring more balance to our lives overall and over time. So don't expect this to change overnight! She'll be using this lifetime to learn different skills and a different perspective, without invalidating or shaming her natural inclinations.

Hope that provided some insight. Thanks for your question!

Would you like some input on how to understand and nurture your child in the most effective way for their unique needs? Amy offers readings for parents and children; find out more at her website. If you would like to submit a question for her monthly blog here, email her anytime!

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