A.  Your son's quite dramatic natal chart reflects enormous creative potential (5th-house Sun, Mercury, and the North Node trine Jupiter), along with a healthy dose of challenges. The greatest one is to overcome his innate sense of insecurity (Uranus-Neptune-Mars-Saturn-Venus in the 4th) and competing desires to simultaneously stand out (Uranus-Neptune conjunct the IC) and fit in (Jupiter in Cancer, retrograde near the Midheaven, the handle of his bucket pattern chart).¹ Chart patterns were first identified by Marc Edmund Jones. The classic bucket pattern chart is composed of a primary group of nine planets, with a singleton planet opposing the primary group's center. See Dane Rudhyar, Person Centered Astrology, Aurora Press, 1980, pp. 186-225 A packed 4th house (five Capricorn planets) can indicate a late bloomer, which is amplified by retrograde Jupiter near the Midheaven (often indicative of one whose search for his calling leads him far and wide). It may take him some time to define his special place in the world, but when he does, he'll be powerful and effective.

His chart reveals fascinating complexity: an independent spirit (his free-wheeling 3rd-house Sagittarius Moon) with a sensitive soul (Libra rising and his Sagittarius Moon in mutual reception² Mutual reception is when two planets are in each other's ruling sign, creating a powerful but benign relationship between those planets. with 9th-house Jupiter in Cancer.) Your son was born during the rare and potent Uranus-Neptune conjunction,³ The Uranus-Neptune conjunction occurs every 171 years; the most recent one was during 1993 and was part of a series of major planetary conjunctions that took place between 1980-2000 and brought a peaceful end to the Cold War in a most surprising way. Those born at the time of this conjunction (especially if it is powerfully placed, as in this chart) hold a particular potency. To learn more, read Astrological Timing: The Transition to the New Age, by Dane Rudhyar. and we find these outer planets near one of the most sensitive and personal power points in his chart (the IC), showing his intense need to stand uncompromisingly for his own truth.

Born in the Last Quarter square phase of the lunation cycle,⁴ Learn more about the Progressed Lunation Cycle from The Lunation Cycle: A Key to Understanding of Personality by Dane Rudhyar, Aurora Press, 1967 and in the article, An Overview of Dane Rudhyar's Approach to Cycles (TMA, 2/98), by Nicki Michaels. with that 4th-house Capricorn stellium,⁵ A stellium is a cluster of three or more planets closely related by sign or house. Astrologers differ in their use of this term; some consider a stellium to be five or more planets (Nicholas deVore, Encyclopedia of Astrology, Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1976), although others define it more loosely, as I do (Fred Gettings, The Arkana Dictionary of Astrology, London: Arkana, 1990). your son is destined to reject existing structures in order to discover and create his own direction and unique talents. This predisposition is supported by 4th-house Uranus and Neptune, lending a more bohemian and artistic overtone to Capricorn's usual conformity, as does his 5th-house Aquarian Sun, Mercury, and North Node—all revealing an iconoclastic flair with an insightful and, at times, a rather dark sense of humor.

Over the past two years, your Aquarian son's push for autonomy may have started in earnest, as solar arc IC conjoined natal Saturn (inner urge to define his own structure), transiting Saturn opposed its natal place (normal teenage rebellion)⁶ The Saturn opposition occurs around the age of 15, when teens move toward autonomy. Read more about developmental cycles in Cycles of Becoming: The Planetary Pattern of Growth, by Alexander Ruperti, CRCS Publications, 1978. following transiting Uranus square natal Moon (powerful polarization away from mom and family, to establish autonomy)—totally age-appropriate, yet no doubt of concern to you.⁷ The solar arc IC conjoins natal Saturn from September 28, 2003 to September 26, 2007; transiting Saturn opposed natal Saturn from July 25, 2004 to May 16, 2005; and transiting Uranus squared the Moon from April 15, 2003 to February 7, 2005.

Your main challenge, as his mom, is to offer appropriate guidance without promoting your own agenda. This can best be done by leading by example, by sharing philosophical principles that might guide his decisions (anchoring his 9th-house Jupiter), and by exercising extreme patience. Your straightforward directions and advice are likely to be rejected out of hand. Ask yourself "Am I walking my talk?" and then rise to the occasion.