It is often said that the stars incline but do not compel meaning the man lacking awareness is ruled by his stars but the aware man rules them. Then again, as I read recently, the stars do not bind the liberated man, but they do mark the average man, who is mostly driven by forces he mistakes for himself.
This is all true but only up to a point. The fact is that a person's birth chart does mark that person, saint or sinner, fool or wise. The pattern of the chart will be the pattern of the person. What does differ is how the subject responds to the pattern. There will have been someone born at the same time as the Buddha but he will not have become enlightened. Someone born at the time of JS Bach will not even have been musical. The chart will determine the form a personality takes but it does not determine the quality of consciousness the person brings to bear in expressing that form. Otherwise put, it shows the personality but not the soul behind that personality. And yet even the highest soul is obliged to follow the pattern of the chart in expressing himself on Earth.
Take a simple aspect like the Sun conjunction Mars. A person can either respond to this by becoming an aggressive bully, a highly competitive sportsman or a valiant warrior for truth. And all shades in between. The aspect shows force allied to the self and can be expressed in a multitude of different ways though all with the same basic signature of strength and purpose. This is the case for every astrological configuration whether in sign, house or by aspect. There is always a higher and lower way to respond to the energy involved.
Take squares, for instance. This is a 90 degree aspect between two planets or points in the chart. They are traditionally regarded as hard aspects because the points involved do not pull in the same direction so creating psychological friction or difficulty. For an unevolved person this aspect might express itself negatively but for someone who is more self-aware, meaning aware of the deeper currents of life and not just reacting to inner urges without reflection, they can be a catalyst for growth. Such a person does not respond to the resultant pressure by blowing off steam but by using the energy that ensues from the clash between two conflicting principles creatively.
The transpersonal planets of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto will affect everyone, and presumably even did before their discovery though probably in a more veiled manner then. The discovery of these planets did coincide with changes in human consciousness, most obvious in terms of Uranus, discovered by William Herschel in Bath in 1781 and heralding the Enlightenment, revolution and maybe even the capture and use of electricity. But Neptune in 1846 and Pluto in 1930 also prompted/coincided with radical changes. These planets are called transpersonal because they are generally perceived as having a collective rather than an individual influence, but if they hit other planets or important angles in a chart they will certainly have an impact.
What that impact is depends on the consciousness of the individual. Uranus can lead to erratic individualism and a rebellious streak or innovation and even genius. It can be the lightning bolt of inspiration or the crazy radical. Neptune can cause dreamy mysticism, inspired art, deep spirituality or even drug addiction, all linked by the dissolution of boundaries which can have a transcendent or a destructive effect, again depending on the quality of consciousness or the soul behind the chart. As for Pluto, he was the god of the underworld and he represents what is hidden beneath the surface and that includes death but also its other side of rebirth. Incidentally, these planets were all well-named because their god forms really do encapsulate their energies. Make of that what you will. I believe there was divine purpose behind it.
Sapiens dominabitur astris. "The wise man will master the stars." This was the medieval maxim that summed up the idea that although the stars (really the planets) did influence the unconscious man, the conscious man could dominate them because while the stars certainly did influence everything in the lower worlds, all of which expressed their patterns, free will is paramount. And this is true. Free will is paramount. It is why we are here. Its exercise is how we grow. Nevertheless, the stars will determine the form that the personality of even the wise man takes. Where free will comes in is that he can choose to express the higher pattern rather than the lower one, and also by overcoming what is negative within himself he can prevent that unresolved negativity from manifesting externally. But still the pattern of his birth chart will operate. He cannot escape that. He can only work within it but what he can do is choose how to express it. And is this so strange? It is the same with everything about us. We are born as the embodiment of a certain form and cannot change that (we really can't despite some modern ideologically-based denials of that truth). We can only manifest our form to its highest or lowest aspect and everything between those two extremes. It's the same with the birth chart which shows our astral genetics.
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