I am 100 % sure I don’t use what I have…because I am not to sure what it means and how to go about using it. I have had a few people that have read charts for my kids and I understood them better and am able to work to what they need…but when it comes to myself…I am completely in the dark. It makes no sense to me. except the times you have advised me…those I understood..you spoke to me in a way I could understand.

Hmm, yeah, I relate to that last paragraph that max wrote. I also feel many people would think — through my chart and also knowing me a little bit — that I don’t fully use my potential. And it is hard for me to not take on that opinion internally. But then, I’ve been through so much ridiculously hard stuff that frankly I sometimes think that my just being still alive is an impressive accomplishment.

I even had a decently well-known astrologer sort of chide me on this, that my chart had so many gifts that I shouldn’t be having such a hard time in my life…leading me to believe both that many life circumstances don’t show in the chart, and also that astrologers should *really* not presume to know about someone’s life without asking about how all that symbolism has gone down in reality.

So I don’t agree that seeing supposed ‘promise’ in a chart going unused is disturbing. I really think most people are always doing the best they can at a given time.

I hate what I have. My chart is full of red lines–oppositions and squares and bad conjunctions. But, as you say, the dice were thrown and I just need to learn to live with it.

The only thing I do think I use well is my sun conjunct Venus. I am very friendly and open to making others feel good. Talking cheerfully to cashiers, waitresses and random people I meet is my thing.

Still working on it after all these years - to me, working out ones chart potential is not a card game, it´s more like chess. There´s a multitude of different possibilities for each moment. And there just might be no winner - or no judge- in the end. So let´s play for the joy and the beauty of playing, and not get hooked too much on what form “potential” has to take. Those definitions are part of (Saturn…) society, not necessarily part of the (ch)art.

By the way, from my experiences those people with friendly, harmonious charts have been the more troubled ones by far. I remember so many times I raved about their potential, and when they told me about what mess they were stuck in - it was obvious it had nothing TO DO with “potential” as one might see it from the outside. I really learned to keep my mouth shut and not go by the book anymore.

As far as the fulfillment of potential goes: according to that great book of Liz Greene, “Dark of the soul”, I am fully equipped to become a psychotic mass murderer (not that I didn´t know before…) So, anybody here wanting me to use what I have on hand? *evil grin*

I use to but not so much this last while.

I was The Smart Girl in school, and now (20 years later) I often feel that my teachers would not feel that I’ve lived up to my potential.

I don’t know whether I do or not. I have saturn square my sun and always feel like I’m not quite doing what I should or doing it hard enough or well enough. However most of the feedback I recieve is positive. The number of times people have told me how much energy I have and that they can’t believe the amount of stuff I do, kind of amuses me because I think I’m a giant slacker.

I would absolutly say I use my 12th house neptune to escape all the time in all kinds of ways, and I also realise my ninth house jupiter very well through big trips and lots of reading, the exploration of a wide variety of ideas and people. And my 11th house Uranus definitely helps me with a wide variety of friends, and most definitely execises its sextile to my mars. Dispruption helping to keep off the boredom and providing all kinds of escapes. Anyone who has had to live with me will tell you they hear my mercury cnj sun all the time too. But I don’t think I live up to saturn or the capricorn in my chart.

not even close. it’s tricky to figure out the best way to apply what i can do. for me, anyway.

and school trained me to do what other people wanted, in they way they wanted, rather than figuring out what i was called to do and how best to do it myself. have to unlearn a lot of that.

probably because i was such the overachiever in school as a kid.

I like to play strategy games such as Age of Empires, Ages of Mithology including the Titans expansion, and I really master that game.
My experience is, if you play the “easy” level of difficulty you win surely(ok) but you don’t learn to play. May be the life is something like that, the difference of course is: in real life if the monster hit you, it hurts, and hurts so much. On the other hand I know a strategy game is not for a girl (if that girl has venus in libra ) however I like it That’s all what I have to say (or a mars in leo has to say)ha ha ha!

Charlotte - I’ve got the oppositions and squares too. I don’t particularly like my chart. It takes a lot of work to convert this mess into something manageable! I’ve always been an underachiever in things that came easily, and an overachiever in things I had to work to achieve. Now, I’m finally learning to use the energy and benefits from my easier aspects to overcome all the difficult ones.

I do use what I have on hand.
Oh heck, in light of the comments… its not wrong to blow ones own trumpet?

Have a mix of trines, conjunctions, squares and oppositions. I can intensely learn new technical skills, mastered and applied then they dissipate, or morph into something else, as people can’t operate in a vacuum.
I figure people develop and progress by tiny baby steps when applying themselves. I have a very nice trine from 5th house to the 9th (& to Asc)which can be likened to mastery even if it is mastery over the kitchen sink!

I’m learning to. It’s not easy to change a lifetime of screwing it up and not doing what needs doing when it needs doing, but I’m starting to get it now. Maybe I’m hitting my stride at mid-life.

I fully believe you can work with your chart to benefit yourself, even if its a difficult one or one with lots of fun retrogrades. When we understand our charts, we can understand ourselves, with this we can work with the energies of our planets that were given to us at birth.

“How can you tell by reading a chart if someone is not giving the best they can?”

I can’t. Ultimately it is up to the person to judge themselves, however I do offer my opinion at times, to those who ask. I mean some people really respond to another person’s vote of confidence.

“I think you could probably do better..”

And then the person agrees and change is made

One of my exes, the one with the worst luck I’ve ever seen, has a grand trine. Talk about not using the luck. I think he truly has no clue what to do in life, nor is he particularly motivated to do anything. He was always buggering things up somehow when he did try. I think his ideal job would be “stay at home dad” with a rich wife supporting him because he just can’t manage working, but boy, is life not gonna work out that way. His parents (generally broke) will be supporting him the rest of his life while he tries to find token jobs. I didn’t get into astrology in a major way until after that relationship was over and I was surprised at that grand trine in there.

As for me, I’ve got a grand trine and a T-square, tied to each other via Saturn at the top. I’m a hard worker, but odds are I haven’t 100% lived up to my potential either. Then again, I have about as much clue as my ex does as to how to do that.