Land of Stuck

An editorial by Betty Balance

I have never given much more than a passing glance to my horoscope but I was on a mission to get out of Stuck, a land of indecision and grief after some mid-life setbacks and losses.  So I met with Lisa Hagenbuch on a Sunday afternoon in the cozy sitting room at Balance for my first Life Pattern Consultation.

Lisa had told me this life pattern stuff works much better when you know the exact birth time and according to my Certificate of Live Birth, I showed up at 1:49 p.m.  Always been more of an afternoon girl.

First, Lisa presented me with my Natal Astrological Chart, based on my birth date, birth city and birth time, showing concentric circles adorned by overlapping lines, triangles and squares penciled in yellow and orange.

“It’s as if someone took a picture of the heavens at the moment of your birth and it’s now frozen on a piece of paper,” Lisa explained, handing me the page. 

“Pretty,” I said. “I think I should frame it.”

Then, she paused a moment and told me that my idea of great artwork showed a complex life full of challenges. Ah, good, art with a message. I was intrigued.

Lisa explained my sun, moon and personality signs and identified some of the key priorities and attributes associated with those astrological signs. She led with my love for children, career in communication fields and desire to always go beyond the surface, deep into the root causes and origin of issues. She noted that I had a largely public life but that I also have a more reserved personality and that I had a vulnerable side, or what others have routinely described as “sensitive,” or more often, “too sensitive.”

True, true, all of it true. I began to think she had read my journals, not just this chart in front of me.

Through the course of the session, I found myself hashing out the particulars of my life in Stuck. Lisa listened intently and followed up with insightful questions, as good of those of a therapist or dear friend. She questioned some of my conclusions, asking if I needed to do more investigation or keep an eye open for other options. She occasionally and very gently suggested ideas, saying, for example, that for a person with my particular chart, it would be important to have introspection time, perhaps via meditation, journaling or running, in order to better process experiences and get new ideas. 

This was not a dramatic revelation or suggestion, I realize, but it was affirming to hear a stranger say such practices, so tried and true for me in the past, were exactly what I needed to be doing once again. Sometimes we just lose our way.

Rather than a predictive reading of my future, the session was much more of an interactive conversation about how I might use my interests, values and personality type to chart a new course.

“I look at it not as situations that are going to be fated…but as a representation of your strengths, your challenges for the lifetime and as a great tool for self awareness and understanding the cycles in your life,” Lisa said.

Lisa reminded me that there’s hope. I felt energized after our conversation and that led me to make some positive changes at home and at work. After all, a life that started at 1:49 p.m. several decades ago  - or any other time - is too precious to be settled in Stuck.

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