Tykes And Teens

MOON IN ARIES
The moon, planet of hidden emotion, is traveling through the youngest sign of the zodiac, Aries. A bout of childishness will emerge in many people, but in subtle ways. Keep an eye out for your own inner child and try to give him or her what she needs before he or she takes over and you find yourself watching unattractive children's theatre.

So, continuing with the lesson in child development (oh, stop it, you were fascinated by the last post), we discussed another theorist - Piaget - who has four stages of development. As my professor was discussing these stages, one thing became abundantly clear: adolescence is just a repeat of early childhood. I'll pause for the resounding, "Duh!" from all of the parents out there.

Let's examine the evidence.

The main quality that exemplifies the early child: they are egocentric. Well, of course they are; they have no concept of other people, except for the parents, who, if they're typical parents, dote on the child. I mean, come on, even if there are older siblings, the parents are going to show attention towards the younger child for awhile. Unless the child is taught to share, a young kid is going to focus completely on themselves and believe that everything revolves around them. No one could feel differently from them. The only rules that really apply are created by them. Everyone thinks exactly the same as they do.

Sounds like a lot of teenagers I know. Egocentric? Check. Name one teenager you know that doesn't think that the world revolves around them. Exactly. They believe they are invincible; they can do whatever they want at any time without repercussion because they knew best. They take this to the extreme. They are consumed with themselves. No one could possibly understand them.

Taking it a step further, I believe that age 15 is the equivalent of the terrible twos. Where a two-year old is "no"-it-all, a 15-year old is a know-it-all. It's the wonderful age that a teenager believes that they know everything and it starts almost the second that the 15th birthday occurs. Fortunately, eventually, that dissolves and the teenager regains a sense of humbleness.

...hopefully.

A Matter Of Trust

SUN AND GEMINI IN CANCER
As these two planets traverse the sign of nurturing and home (Cancer), we'll see a lot more communication with our "home" groups, whether that be family, friends, coworkers, etc. We turn especially to the mother figures in our lives to find a trusting soul who understand us.

This week, I began my class in Child Development. Stop groaning; it's actually fairly interesting, especially to me since I originally went to school for psychology. For those of you who were just tempted to stop reading, consider that each of you was a child at one point and this applies to you. I'm also highly intrigued by this subject because of the psychological aspect of astrology. From the first day of class, the comparison between these two subjects was setting off bells inside of my brain. The teacher, on the first day, asked us to think about the question, "Who am I?" as we read the eight stages of development by Erickson. (If you're unfamiliar with Erickson, do not fret.) Who am I? There are so many ways to answer that question, including, on an astrological level, Libra sun, Pisces moon, and Gemini rising. I'm also a firstborn and the only boy among four grandchildren.

However, this question was asked in specific respect to Erickson's article. Erickson defines the development of the human being as a series of crises. The first crisis (and I'm sure I will be working through each of them here over the course of the...well, course) occurs between a person's birth and 18 months of age. The crisis is called trust vs. mistrust. It's when we either learn to trust the world around us or we learn to to distrust it. Who is to blame for all of this? Why, our parents, of course. If they are inconsistent in their ministrations to us as babies, we do not develop that sense of trust that we so desperately need throughout life. Without this, we will be unable to to form relationships or even know that there are things we can depend upon.

That's an awful lot of pressure to put on a new parent! Fortunately, there are ways to overcome this crisis, should we fail to develop the proper sense of trust. Therapists love this, of course. Babies must feel that they will be taken care of. There is no better sign for this than the nurturing sign of Cancer, the sign of the mother. Additionally, it's probable that a strong Piscean influence will produce a desire to escape, which Erickson may say stems from the infant's learned mistrust. While I am fairly certain that my teacher will not accept a strong planet in Cancer as a compensation or a Piscean excuse, I have to admit to strong curiosity regarding these stages and what other influences may be involved, and not just the astrological ones.

My teacher, so far, seems pretty hardcore about the Ericksonian developments, but then, I suppose it's her job. I certainly enjoy having a professor who is passionate about her subject. I am not likely to broach the star route in class, but I will certainly be keeping track of any parallels between them.

On a personal note (as if there isn't a part of this blog that isn't personal), I do not think that trust vs. mistrust is a crisis that I have carried on. I believe my parents did a very nice job helping me to trust the world around me. I learned my mistrust later, but not from them (or maybe it's my moon in Pisces influence).

And so the Erickson blogs are in their infancy. You can trust me on that.