T-Squares from an Evolutionary Perspective

I won’t go into specific details but my natal chart is full of t-squares and I also have a skipped step. I am actually fairly sure that every single one of the planets are involved in a t-square configuration. If you really wanted a perfect chart to look into for this dynamic, mine would be it! Hahaha.

I would say that yes—the t-square configurations feel very much like the skipped step. I actually almost can’t discern what is what because all the planets are involved. Almost every part of my life is filled with constant growth, change, and challenge. Lots of frustration, tension and sometimes even rage. Everything going on at once, no place to hide, no place to rest. And an immense feeling of being blocked by a force I’m aware I have no chance of overpowering or avoiding at the same time as having absolutely no idea of what to do about it.

As I’ve learned EA, I’ve been able to single out a t-square signature in my chart and analyse it using my experiences. In doing that, I’ve found that there is some grace afforded when I focus on the ‘apex’ planet—the one that the planets in opposition are both squaring. It’s as if by consciously working on the apex planet archetype, it brings the opposing planets back into balance. If I don’t consciously develop the apex planet, I simply oscillate between shadow expressions of the opposing planetary archetypes until I implode and an existential crisis ensues; depression, mania, hiding, rage, etc.

Not sure if I’m correct from an EA framework standpoint, but in terms of my experience, the t-square as an archetype seems to be about rectifying an imbalance between two parts of the psyche; ie, the opposing planets. You do this by consciously developing the planet that is squaring the opposition. It’s almost like the planet squaring the opposing planets is the causal factor of the imbalance, and thus, needs to be focused primarily on.

To echo what Lou has said above, this has been my experience too. I see the apex planet of a t-square as the kind of “middle ground” that is being defined/brought into awareness via the polarisation of the planets in opposition, as a means of bringing balance.

In respect to the opposition, I have also found it helpful to look at the faster moving planet as being “the manifestation of intention” - the intention reflected by the slower moving planet. So in other words, what are the consequences of the original intention, and how are they manifesting in the individual’s life? The thing with the opposition though is that there is the way the individual experiences and perceives the dynamics from their own egocentric perspective, and then how the soul, reflected back to them, through the external environment and its various relationships, experiences it - which as is suggested by the opposition, can be in contrast to and confrontation with one another.

So this is where the term “skipped step” begins to make more sense, because the balancing or “middle ground” that the squaring planets implies, has been in some way “skipped over” in the development of the intention from the new phase to full phase, leading to an imbalance between the egocentric orientation and the soul orientation. In a sense, the ego has forgotten it is merely the vehicle for manifesting the intention, and that they are not the “whole thing”. Their experience/perception is just a part of it, one side of it. So the skipped step/squaring planet helps us to go back and remember, or recover that.

Thanks for all the feecdback and thoughts guys. Really appreciate your input.