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To be premature is to be
completed before the proper time: such a definition, if applied to the
newborn, takes on a significance of profound suffering, in as much as if
obliges the child, from the first moment of life, to fight for survival.
Too small a being to live autonomously, given the difficulty chiefly in
breathing, but also in terms of metabolism, neurology and feeding, simply
because it has not been able to stay in the mother’s womb long enough for
its complete formation. The period of gestation depends on complicated,
detailed psychological and physical mechanisms of the parental couple,
primarily of the mother, but indirectly of the father.
In many maternal birth charts analysed, the constant that is most
frequently repeated is the strong presence of “masculine” values:
accumulations of planets in Aries, Capricorn or Scorpio or in the first,
tenth or eighth houses, which are respectively co-significant. In Aries
and in Scorpio, the masculine houses are in a position of excellence,
while in Capricorn, Saturn and Uranus they confer rationality and
determination, rendering the sign authoritative, rather than masculine.
The planet common to all three signs is Mars, which symbolises aggression,
pluck and that, even if in a haphazard fashion, invests the individual
with strength, the will to live and leave their mark.
In other cases, there is always the presence of a very strong Sun or Mars,
often in aspect with Saturn or Pluto, while the Moon is afflicted or
isolated.
If these characteristics are present in the birth chart, the woman has
difficulty in accepting her feminine role, including therefore that of the
mother, especially in the sense of “homemaker”.
She is instead driven to be a strong and determined person, who from an
early age is used to relying on her own resources, to being independent:
her two principal goals are therefore work and personal autonomy, from
which she draws gratification, precisely because she attains and retains
them easily. This brings the mortification of her femininity, which shows
in her emotional relationships and which comes to the fore when she
becomes a mother. The expiation of the “guilt” of not being or not feeling
“feminine”, even if unconsciously, translates into romantic and family
life as an attitude of ambiguity and in a discontinuous participation.
The choice of partner of these women will be a subject who seems strong
and sure of himself, but who deep down nurtures doubts about his own
virility and this insecurity drives him to see women as a source of
support and as a stabilising influence, able to give him something to hold
onto. The aspects that are most frequently found in the birth chart are
quadrature or opposition of Pluto or Saturn to Mars.
The most interesting point to analyse, in the case of a premature birth,
are the transits on the mother’s birth chart of the slow planets, Pluto,
Neptune and Uranus, in as much as they accompany the pregnancy from its
beginning to its conclusion and also the period afterwards, given that the
premature baby strongly shapes the life of the mother and all the family.
In nearly all cases analysed, the transit that is most often seen at the
moment the mother becomes pregnant is that of Pluto in quadrature or
opposition to the radical Moon: the most obvious reading is confirmed by
the person themselves and the unease with which at that moment she
experiences her femininity. Almost always, she feels diminished by her
partner, abandoned to herself: she cannot find either personal or
professional satisfaction: she feels like “a servant” subordinated to her
partner and her family. There may also be problems between the couple,
such as betrayal by the husband: the woman realises the need to do
something to bring the couple back together, regaining the husband’s
attention and, at the same time, the need of having someone on whom to
shower her love and affection. This is a need, a conscious and definite
wish, not an unconscious desire to have a child, as indicated by Pluto in
his symbolism of creativity and fertility, which, turned into the
negative, is transformed into difficulties in creating anything, if not in
destruction. The aspect strikes the Moon – woman – mother, preventing her
staying pregnant, or wanting an abortion, or making the pregnancy in some
way difficult.
Neptune, in his symbolic representation of amniotic fluid, when in transit
in negative aspect across the birth Moon of the mother, can determine an
inadequate production of this fluid with the possibility of negative
repercussions on the child. An excessive production can cause a high
percentage of foetal malformations, in particular in the digestive tract.
Scarcity, on the other hand, correlates with insufficient function of the
placenta or foetal malformation of the kidneys with associated problems in
the respiratory function.
Uranus governs technology, which in recent decades, through scans and
amniocentesis, has allowed us to see the foetus, permitting us to discover
not only the gender but also to identify any possible genetic diseases. If
the transit of the planet is negative this will create doubts over the
possibility of carrying out the amniocentesis for fear the foetus may
abort, which this can provoke, and which may happen if there is also the
presence of a negative transit of Mars.
In the past, up to the fifties, a sort of “natural selection” prevailed
for babies born before their proper time: in effect, only those born after
seven months survived because, after some initial difficulties, the child
was able to live autonomously. The only way the parents could take care of
the child was to put it into a sort of “nest” made of cotton wool, perhaps
placing the child in a half-closed draw or shoe-box or in a suitcase: all
homemade remedies to better protect the baby.
Nourishment was administered by spoon or with a dropper since the
premature baby was unable to suck.
At the end of the fifties, ever more advanced technology (Uranus) gave us
the incubator which increased the percentage of survival. This is made up
of a motor that heats and maintains, through sensors, a body temperature
of 37º, which the premature baby was unable to regulate and maintain
itself. This support is of vital importance because the diminution of
temperature, even by a few degrees, can cause serious metabolic
alterations, such as a state of metabolic acidity that can even cause the
death of the newborn. In addition, it is fundamentally important to
maintain a sufficient degree of humidity in the air to avoid severe damage
to the skin or mucous with the possibility of infection.
If the temperature of the air inside the cradle is insufficient, it is
necessary to use special mattresses containing heated liquid to put under
the baby.
The head is wrapped in warm bandages, covered on the outside with tinfoil
to prevent heat escaping; in fact, this is the largest part of the body
and so is the area of greatest heat loss.
When possible, nourishment is administered by tube directly into the
stomach via the nose or mouth.
In all cases, the premature child is kept constantly under the control of
medical personnel and as a result is always under artificial light, which
impedes its perception of night and day, which interrupts the
sleeping-waking rhythm with possible repercussions on the secretion of
hormones.
The premature baby is forced to follow this course, which astrologically
is traced by the axis of the second-eighth house, Taurus-Scorpio.
The second house symbolises the age of the individual, which ranges from
zero to three to four years, the period in which it lives in symbiosis
with the mother, the source of its nourishment and well-being, and
therefore its very survival.
In Taurus, co-significant of the second house, we find the planets Jupiter,
Venus and X. Jupiter symbolises nourishment, speech, the serene entrance
into life, and health, and here he is in exaltation. Venus is situated in
base domicile and represents affection which is manifest in the lavishing
of caresses, in giving food and offering all the essential comforts. X,
positioned in the primary domicile, represents the uterus, the primordial
home of every individual, where one feels protected and secure. It is not
by chance that in premature babies, the second house is always populated
with planets or in some way makes up a focal point from which the aspects
of the chart depart. The construction of the “nest”, which over the years
has changed its form, according to technical progress, is nothing less
than the recreation of the maternal womb, which for the adult will become
that “territory” that is so dear and indispensable to the Taurean for
living and feeling himself secure. Analysing the Taurean values, relating
to the second house, especially if afflicted or populated by aggressive
planets such as Pluto or Mars, we can understand the entire course laid
out for the premature baby. The afflictions of Jupiter strike nutrition:
the baby is born small and the less weight it has, the less of its mother’s
milk it can consume because it is unable to digest it; a little heavier,
it is not able to suck and is therefore deprived of pleasure and warmth,
which transmit affection. In the symbolism of speech, negative Jupiter
influences the newborn, which, forced into isolation, does not hear known
voices, above all that of the mother, to which it had become accustomed
during its life in the uterus; such privation can have an influence on its
command of language, which may develop late. The planet is afflicted also
in its symbolic representation of sight, in as much as the newborn passes
brusquely from the most profound darkness of the womb to an environment
that is illuminated twenty-four hours a day.
The affectionate nature of Venus has no way of being expressed because the
warmth of the hands of the mother who caresses the baby, washes it,
changes it, nourishes it, is substituted with the touch of the strange
hands of doctors and nurses, perhaps to take some blood or to apply the
phleboclysis needle.
The afflictions of X are clearly manifest in the symbolism of the uterus,
the container of the foetus that is unable to adequately host the child
until it is completely formed: it hasn’t protected him, on the contrary,
it has expelled him, perhaps because it does not wish to bring its work to
conclusion.
The eighth house, co-significant Scorpio, present the symbolism of death,
heredity and heritage, of transformation, of rebirth, that which comes
after destruction. The planets positioned in the sign are Mars in base
domicile, Mercury in exaltation and Pluto in primary domicile.
Mars symbolises the head: as a physical entity it is present above all in
the sign of Aries; in Scorpio, it is read as the brain, as a genetic
machine that runs and co-ordinates the body and thought. Mars and Pluto
together produce the vital energy, the spur of the libido necessary to
activate the organism, Mercury supervising its functioning, originating
and transmitting the data that spreads from the brain around the whole
body, consuming the energy that the two other planets put at its disposal.
It is from here that is drawn the physical and symbolic importance of the
head which in the individual is the fulcrum. Not by chance does the head
emerge first during birth: it is the biggest part of the premature child,
the source of the greatest heat loss and the object of the first and most
rigorous medical attention. The afflictions of Mars can cause a high
percentage of deaths from cerebral haemorrhage. Mercury, who most readily
symbolises perception, is afflicted and prevents outside sounds and voices
reaching the child, which would stimulate him to learn to speak and
communicate: this is the combined negativity of the two planets of Jupiter
and Mercury. Even mercurial mobility is impaired, forcing the premature
baby into the immobility of the incubator, where its little hands and feet
are tied down to prevent it removing the catheters.
Pluto symbolises the testicles, containers of the seminal liquid,
necessary for the conception of life and creativity, the vital energy. If
afflicted, as is seen in the great majority of the birth charts of the
premature, this means a potential vitality that will not completely be
realised, someone who unconsciously feels not fully accepted and who feels
a sensation of suspension in precarious balance between life and death.
In addition to the Taurus-Scorpio symbolism, second house-eighth house,
one notices in the charts of the premature a prevalence of mercurial
values, due both to the presence of the planets and the luminaries in
Gemini or in the third house, which may present afflictions. The forces
predispose to speed, mobility, the capacity of hearing but above all to
breathing, which can represent the most serious problem for the premature.
Another populated house, or which becomes important because Neptune is
strong in the birth chart, is the twelfth house, co-significant Pisces,
which signifies isolation, diversity, the necessity of facing challenges
in life, which fits in perfectly with the premature child whose first
years of life reflect these themes exactly.
The delays in following the normal course of infancy make the parents
first of all consider the as different, a feeling that will stay with the
person for the rest of their life. There are many, likewise, who, if from
being a small child they have suffered from a particular “handicap”, learn
as adults to exorcise them so much that they transform them into
strong-points.
The fifth house too, co-significant Leo, which symbolises vitality and the
energy reserves of the individual, if populated or influence by planets,
is important in reading the birth charts of these newborns, in fact the
vital capacity is the innate spur that is fundamental and essential in
deciding the survival or otherwise of the child: neither being underweight,
nor the short period of gestation exerts so peremptory an influence. |
