Your Cosmic Kids

This excerpt was taken from
Your Cosmic Kids by, Trish MacGregor, with the permission from the publisher, Hampton Roads.

As a parent, you undoubtedly recognized your child's uniqueness at a very young age. Perhaps your child spoke before her first birthday or didn't speak until she was four. Maybe your son or daughter skipped the crawling stage altogether and went straight from the crib to an upright walk. Perhaps your four-year old daughter is painting like Van Gogh or playing the piano like Mozart. Maybe your son has a magical way with animals.

Your child's uniqueness, however it shows up, is often apparent in her birth chart, as a pattern depicted by a particular arrangement of planets.

Your Aries toddler, for instance, may have his Moon in Cancer, which makes him fiercely attached to his home, his neighborhood, his turf. Your Sagittarian second grader may have her Moon in Pisces, which fills her with compassion for strays and outcasts of any species. And if your humanitarian Aquarian has her Moon in Leo, it might explain why her donation program for the homeless hit the front page of your local newspaper.

While the Sun represents your child's overall personality, his ego, his outer radiance, the Moon symbolizes his emotions. It describes his emotional temperament, how he acts and reacts emotionally, what kind of relationship he has with his mother. It also provides hints about his early childhood, his domestic situation later in life, even the state of his health and the kind of work at which he may excel. The sign of your child's Moon gives you, as a parent, insight into his inner world, into what makes him tick. Your child's rising sign or ascendant is the face he shows to the rest of the world. When it is combined with your child's Sun/Moon pairing, you have a powerful and insightful tool for guiding your child toward his fulfillment.

If you're not sure of your child's birth sign, look at table 1 in the text. To derive maximum benefit from Cosmic Kids, you'll also need to know the sign of your child's Moon and his ascendant, derived from his birth date and time and place of birth. Most New Age bookstores provide computerized natal charts for about $5.00.

This chart is unique to your child, pegged specifically to his birth data. It depicts talents and tendencies with which your child was born--and yet nothing is written in stone. Astrology isn't about fate or destiny; it's about free will and how that will is brought to bear on the pattern depicted in the natal chart.

In other words, your little Lydia may very well be the next Marie Curie. But if she doesn't have the opportunity or the environment in which such a talent can flourish, then it benefits none of us and she may end up blocked creatively. If she's lazy, if she's unmotivated, her genius remains nothing more than a seed.

A child whose chart indicates genius may use it to cruise through life, living off others, or she might find a cure for cancer. A child with a compassion for animals may take in so many strays that he eventually goes bankrupt. Or he may become a vet and write best-selling books about his adventures as a vet for exotic animals. There's no telling where a child's free will might take him. Any astrologer who tells you otherwise is playing God.

Cosmic Kids focuses on the signs of the Sun, Moon, and ascendant, a fraction of a complete natal chart. But these are the three most important elements, because they show who your child thinks she is, how she feels about herself, and how other people perceive her.

Parts of the various descriptions will fit your child, others won't seem to apply at all. And that's as it should be. Each child is unique and yet each child holds membership in a particular tribe that exhibits certain personality and behavioral tendencies.

When my daughter was born in 1989, I didn't have an astrology software program. But I had her exact time of birth, so I headed over to the local New Age bookstore for a computerized birth chart. I then asked an astrologer friend to interpret it, because I felt that I, as her mother, might read things into her chart that weren't there.

"She's going to have terrible colic," said Renie, the astrologer.

Megan was only two days old at the time, but I hadn't seen any indication of colic. "Tell me something good."

"She's very bright."

That sounded better. But it seemed rather, well, generic, something a good friend would tell a new mother. "What else?"

"She's artistic, very psychic, and she's going to love animals."

Great. Things were improving. Then again, maybe Renie was just being nice. "Go on."

"Her health is directly linked to her emotions."

"That's true of everyone."

"It's especially true for her. Just be aware of it."

I didn't like the sound of that, but before I could question Renie, she went on. "She's going to be fussy about details, but that fussiness will be selective."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, you know, a messy room, but her art will have to be perfect in every way."

At this point, I took the chart from Renie and studied it, trying to find the part about the messy room and the perfectionism about art. I didn't see it. "Where're you getting this stuff, anyway?"

She pointed at the Sun and Moon, both in Virgo in the sixth house of health and work. "These ground her and force her to pay attention to details, but her rising in Pisces sweeps in and connects her to much deeper levels and makes her a dreamer." Renie paused and looked up. "You should massage her feet, she'll like that, it'll calm her."

By now I was taking notes. "So what else is in there?"

"Her art will be rendered in miniature."

Now, eight years later, most of what Renie told me then has proven true. I still don't know where she got the part about miniature art, but Megan's little drawings and paintings are posted all over our house.

And that, really, is the ultimate riddle about astrology. Does a child grow up to become a particular type of person because his environment was conducive to it or because he was born with a particular agenda? Personally, I think it's more complex than anything we can imagine, that it's ultimately a spiritual choice that the soul makes before birth.

But even if you remove the cosmic slant from the equation, one salient fact remains. Astrology is a practical tool that you can use to guide your child through the labyrinth of life and help him fulfill his greatest potential.