Skipped Steps in Evolutionary Astrology

What are they, and how to work on them

I intended to discuss Pluto in Aquarius this week, but once again Neptune poked at me, this time to share my story from an evolutionary astrology perspective. It will definitely include references to Pluto, as Pluto is the ruler of my birth chart, and I promise I will cover Pluto in Aquarius before he closes up his Capricorn shop for the next 200+ years on November 19th. Neptune aside, I share my own story as an example also because in order to really illustrate this concept, you have to see what is happening from the individual’s emotional perspective.

For some context, I practice in the lineage of Jeffrey Wolf Green, who received teachings in 1977 in a dream from the spiritual master Swami Sri Yukteswar, Paramahansa Yogananda’s guru. In that dream the entire paradigm of this practice of Evolutionary Astrology was conveyed to him. This detailed paradigm, centered around Pluto as the representative of the soul’s bottom line psychology and desire, allows us to see the evolutionary intentions and progress through lifetimes. It is entirely satisfying to my prominent Virgo, Pisces, and Scorpio energies and called to me so subtly and deeply that I cannot even pinpoint exactly how I came upon this lineage. Starting a year and a half ago, I immersed myself in the teachings, got a mentor, attended conferences, and am almost done with a certification program taught by Jeffrey Wolf Green’s daughter, astrologer Deva Green.

What I feel called to discuss today, though, is the concept of a skipped step in your soul’s evolution, and what that may look like in a life. In my life, to be specific. Allowing a skipped step to remain unaddressed can be quite painful. It can cause you to self-sabotage, repeat destructive or fruitless patterns, and feel as though you are not in control of your happiness. It is important to note that it is not a cheat code to bypass all suffering and start living your best life. The only way to evolve is through the emotional body, therefore there is a certain amount of feeling that must take place. 

Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash

However, once you sufficiently work with the skipped step and/or have learned the lesson, you move forward with your soul’s plan. I can’t say I entirely understand how all this soul planning with free will thrown in works. I have encountered some practice charts of lives that seemed purposely brief and/or painful, and I don’t want to minimize the actual suffering people feel by stating that it is all necessary. Those larger concepts are therefore out of scope for today.

A skipped step is marked by a planet in a square aspect to the lunar nodes in the birth chart. The planet, its house, and sign will indicate the energies and area of life that are the focus of resolving the skipped evolutionary step via the lunar node that it was most recently in contact with. You can already see how my Virgo placements were lit up by the detail and complexity of this system.

In my birth chart, you may have guessed, Neptune represents my skipped step. Neptune is in Scorpio in my 1st house. My north Node is in Pisces in the 4th house, and my South Node is in Virgo in the 10th house, conjunct my Sun in Leo, also in the 10th. Note that Pluto and Mercury are conjunct in Virgo in my 11th house.

My process and analysis follows, always with the caveat that I am oversimplifying by ignoring much of the nuance, key transits, and the rest of my natal chart. For the below especially, I place the gigantic caveat that I am not a teacher with the JWG School, rather I offer this as my personal application of the teachings on this specific topic, so you can think about how it may apply to your own chart and life.

1. Describe the key energies involved (I list some keywords for the archetypes which are most applicable to my situation):

   1. Neptune and the Pisces archetype: Spirituality, Imagination, Dreams, Alcoholism, Medium, Psychic, Escape, Weak boundaries, Surrender, Subconscious, Confusion, Denial, Guilt, Isolation, Dissociation 

   2. Pluto and the Scorpio archetype: Power, Psychological depth and examination, Intensity, Compulsions, Power-powerlessness, Violence, Sex, Manipulation, Secrets, Sexual Violence, Metamorphosis, Alchemy, Darkness

   3. Mercury and the Virgo archetype: Perception, Communication, Precision, Inferiority, Victim, Shame, Perfection, Diligence, Place in Society, Self-improvement, Health, Guilt, Healing, Discernment

2. Describe the key areas of life, as represented by the houses:

   1. 1st house: self, identity, youth, survival, initiation.

   2. 4th house: emotional foundation, family, home base, mother, roots

   3. 10th house: vocation, public area of life (role, responsibility, reputation, status)

   4. 11th house: groups, organizations, social causes, friends

3. Create a bio for the planet representing the skipped step. In this case, Neptune in Scorpio in the 1st house. This energy is of compulsion in wanting intimacy with one’s very soul and the Universe. With this placement, one can feel everything and see through people with psychic x-ray vision. Not super kid-friendly! This sensitivity can make escaping, denial, and numbing with alcohol appealing. It assumes everyone else has the spiritual depth and drive to understand the self and the Universe. With that (false) assumption, there could be the tendency towards denial and disillusionment, as illustrated when a former boyfriend finally told me “I am just not that deep”, breaking the illusion I had built on top of heaps of denial over the course of a four year relationship.

4. Describe the energies and momentum of the lunar nodes.

   1. South Node in Virgo in the 10th house. This soul has experienced lives in the public eye with some component of service. Due to the conjunction with the Sun in Leo (and Pluto and Mercury also in Virgo in the 11th), likely as a powerful and exacting leader. The past life imprints will be readily available to this soul, and are meant to enable movement toward integrating experience with the North Node energies (working through the natal Neptune), rather than to hold the soul in the comfort of repetition and likely certainty of outcome that remaining solely in the South Node energy would yield.

   2. North Node in Pisces in the 4th house. This soul wishes to create a spiritual foundation and to become emotionally fluent and secure. To feel at home with a physical family and a spiritual one.

5. Identify which node is the resolution node. This is a bit more advanced a technique, so I will just say that in my case, the resolution node is the South Node. What this means is that the soul’s intention is to gain competency with the North Node via the natal Neptune, and integrate that into the South Node. This would look something like discovering the spiritual self, and developing an emotionally safe foundation from which to build the external vocational work upon. 

Of course, a ton of self-reflection (this likely would have begun already, or you wouldn’t have been called to evolutionary astrology), life analysis, possibly major changes in behavior or your environment would be involved with this life-changing work. And remember that part about having to evolve through the emotional body? Well, it’s real and until you have done enough of that, having someone describe your soul’s intention for this life to you will be like a foreign language. If however, you feel a stirring in your soul after reading my story, perhaps start the self-reflection now, asking yourself where that stirring is coming from, and why now?

My Skipped Step Story (with keywords and concepts of the main archetypes in my story bolded). This is intense (I am a Scorpio rising, after all!), yet it demonstrates how accurate astrology is.

I must have been so sensitive and psychically tuned in to the energies of the 7 other family members, that I started dissociating, escaping and numbing so early, it was intrinsic to my sense of self. I had a confusing childhood, being one of two biracial kids (of six total) in the family, but the only brown skinned one. There was an illusion of wealth and status hiding a dysfunctional family dynamic with all the secrets, denial, and emotional manipulation (sprinkled heavily with guilt and shame) that go along with that.

I turned to sugar, calorie restriction, alcohol, and sex at a young age as a means to escape and numb. Yet, I was a perfectionist who diligently worked to achieve status in school and extracurriculars. I was both extremely sensitive and emotionally numb, yet I was taught to keep up appearances and achieve status, so that was my goal.

I was driven to initiate my own family from a young age. I couldn’t emotionally express the challenges I faced as a wife, mother, and primary earner, so I applied myself with precision and effort by day, and numbed with alcohol by night. I felt imprisoned by my life’s roles.

I climbed the ladder and became a leader at work, while dissociating and numbing at home. Finally, my marriage ended, and I ended up being the victim of sexual abuse by my ex-husband. I suffered mental health issues, PTSD, loss of self, violent nightmares, and I felt isolated.

A metamorphosis happened over the course of a year and a half, in which I got sober, discovered my connection to Spirit, freed my authentic self and found the groups where I was accepted. I quit participating in delusional and dysfunctional family dynamics, quit my career as a corporate leader, and began a business from my home writing and using my spiritual abilities with clients to facilitate healing.

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