It is too general to say that the upper half of the birth chart is public and the lower half private, but it is true in terms of the sun’s appearances. We were talking about Capricorn and the 10^th house and Saturn and the top of the chart and used the Queen of England as an example alongside Esther Hicks. Then we veered off into the next two signs, the final two of the zodiac: Aquarius and Pisces, 11^th and 12^th houses, Uranus and Neptune. All of this has been about the 4^th quadrant of the map and really originated on this blog from an examination of Esther Hicks in her role with her collective non-physical group, Abraham.

Ruminating on the process of meditation and why some people allow it more readily than others I thought about Esther’s description of her first experience of meditation – which is surely a most private ritual – although some people seem to have a need to do almost everything in company. I wondered how Esther with a restless Mercury in Aquarius in the 4^th house felt in a private, deeply rooted way: this is the opposite persona to the public one we know of Esther-Hicks on stage. She said she loved the feeling of detachment that came when she meditated, of not knowing her toe from her nose. Abraham and Esther have said that meditation is essential to alignment with source energy and that this alignment precedes a good day and a good way of life.

Esther continued to enjoy meditation in the early days of her pre-Abraham story for about 9 months until she realized that she seemed to be making letters with her nose. Jerry helped in the translation of these slow messages and Abraham gradually appeared. The roles became cast: Jerry asked the question, as he was full of questions, and Esther received the answers from non-physical. Eventually, after Jerry had asked all his questions and Abraham-Esther had provided answers for friends and acquaintances who were interested, they decided to take the show on the road apparently to find more questioners and more questions. Jerry had a history of entertaining and public speaking. So the very personal, the meditative process became public. I haver not heard or seen any mention of Jerry’s meditation experiences.

Esther says the question and the receiving of the answer are two very different energies – one asserting, one receiving. Astrologically, it sounds rather like Mars and Venus or Aries and Libra. Or the moon which is perhaps the most receptive of all the energies in the chart. In the chart for Esther we have the ruler of her chart, Venus in Aries on the Descendant – the Descendant represents the ‘other person’ – the one we see ourself reflected back in, the one we want or need to bounce off. People with a strong Ascendant and/or Descendant really do need another person in their life as much as possible. They are very sociable. So I cannot make the obvious statement that the top of the chart is the most public and the bottom the most private because there is a great deal of social interaction in between on the horizon axis.

Nevertheless, for an astro definition of private, think moon, Cancer and 4^th house, these three weave together like a plait of hair to make the theme of private and personal. See this on a spectrum from the very private, introspective person to the very public extrovert type and a huge variety of interesting variations in between. We never get to know exactly how private a person is – because it is private; but astrology reveals that our roots are all very different. Remember the tree from a couple of posts ago with its long roots spreading into the ground of its being, mirroring the upper branches which reach out from side to side and all the way to the heavens. I am thinking of those roots when I think of the 4^th house in anybody’s chart, for that tells me something about the degree to which they are in touch with who they really are. Their story will include all geometrical aspects to anything which lives in that house.

I, myself and me have sun, Saturn and Neptune in the 4^th house – the latter two being conjunct the IC, yet I have never been comfortable with meditation although I do practice it irregularly. I definitely felt nothing like the pleasure Esther describes herself as experiencing. Remembering that we have read the chart here for Esther as one which reveals a wonderful communicator, and seeing Mercury, the planet of communication placed in the 4^th house and in trine with Uranus, the higher octave of Mercury, I see something going on which is quite alien to myself (a 4^th house, private person). I see a type of privacy and rootedness which is in motion, which is restless – which will not stay quiet. I think Esther loves to meditate because it is a continuation of her constant dialogue with everything in her life, and that she savours it as a dialogue with the roots of her own being which is quite different to her dialogue with the ever present other person she needs.

Whether it is Esther or Abraham or both is relatively unimportant, but what is important is that it is the most private and authentic that we will get from this chart and this person. Friends and others in conversation with Esther will receive the Asc/Desc; attendees to the seminars will receive the midheaven. But Esther in private is to be found in her 4^th house.

Therefore, what about other psychics, others who produce non-physical entities? What about Jane Roberts who brought forth, Seth, did she have anything in the 4^th house?:

An instant Google search yielded to me a mine of rewarding information (am I psychic?): see her new moon eclipse in Taurus in the 4^th house (we are right now recovering from a full moon in Scorpio/Taurus); and see Saturn on Jane’s Ascendant conjunct the Black Moon (placements on the Ascendant often describe our mother) – then read the Wiki bio. on her life and early experiences at home. People who have early experiences which shut them up or shut them out of healthy interaction with the world around them have a 4^th house emphasis. It does not have to be as difficult as that of Jane Roberts, but the child will find him/herself alone a lot. But when we are alone, are we really alone? Our 4^th house tells the story.

Next time: alternative ways to personal alignment with Source/God.