From: Counseling Principles for Astrologers:

Becoming an Effective Change Agent

2006 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

CHAPTER SEVEN:
RELATIONSHIPS IN JEOPARDY--
CODEPENDENCY, THE ADULT CHILD SYNDROME,
AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR ASTROLOGERS1

The two major issues that clients bring to the -

practicing astrologer are love and career. I find that
the most troubled relationship histories--and, all too
often, the most snarled-up career patterns--have a
common root of growing up in a dysfunctional
family. Dysfunctional families, including those with
alcoholic or abusive parents, incline their offspring
to form codependent relationships with mates,
bosses, co-workers, and friends. In this chapter,
we'll discuss how these concepts apply to astrology
clients, including the chart patterns to expect. Well
consider case examples using the charts of some
famous people. We'll find out about types of
resources clients can use. In addition, we'll look at
ways that being codependent or being an ACA
yourself can influence your astrological practice.

What is Codependency?

Codependency is an addiction to an addict or to some other person. The

obsession with trying to help or change that individual grows in strength until it takes
over your life, giving you no peace. It doesn't change just because that person leaves,
but instead can become a pattern carried over to new relationships. Melody Beattie, in
her best-seller, Codependent No More, defined it in this way: "A codependent is one
who has let another person's behavior affect him or her, and who is obsessed with
controlling that person's behavior.2"
The term codependency originally derived from the field of chemical
dependency and has been applied to families and significant others of alcoholics and
addicts. Because of the way they grow up, almost all adult children of alcoholics who
have not addressed this background form codependent relationships with mates,
1
This chapter was originally my contribution to the anthology, Astrological Counseling, edited by Joan
McEvers for the Llewellyn New World Astrology Series, 1990, and is reprinted here with permission.
2
Melody Beatty, Codependent No More, Harper/Hazelden, New York, 198, p.31.
lovers, family members, friends, and even bosses. They tend to become involved with
one alcoholic or addictive personality after another. Alternately, they may avoid from
codependency by staying away from committed relationships, especially after being
burned a few times.
Rather than lavish all that energy on fixing one person, many ACAs work long,
poorly paid hours in service fields like astrology, where they may play the role of
rescuer. There's nothing wrong with service, but when it's compulsive and driven by
codependent needs, it can ultimately be damaging to both practitioner and client.
ACAs aren't the only people who develop
codependency. It can develop at any stage of life
when you love someone who has a severe
physical or emotional problem. Parents aren't the
only source--it could happen if a beloved brother
started using drugs or a mate began drinking
alcoholically. Grandchildren of alcoholics can also
have the full-blown ACA syndrome, even when -
the parents are teetotalers. The grandparent
passes it on to the parent who passes it on to the
child.
Many traits common to ACAs apply to
members of severely dysfunctional families as
well. It's been estimated (Lord knows by whom)
that 95 percent of all families are dysfunctional to
some extent. I'm not talking about your average
unfulfilling, emotionally illiterate,
uncommunicative parents who don't validate your
creativity or worth. I'm referring to families where there was physical or sexual abuse or
where a parent was chronically and severely physically or mentally ill. It can happen
where a parent died early or committed suicide, where a parent was a gambler or
promiscuous, or where there were severe or bizarre eruptions and disruptions. It could
happen if your bedridden grandmother lived with you and her illness controlled the
entire family, or if your sister was a child schizophrenic.
Since books on the topic topped bestseller lists in the 1980s-1990s and sold
millions of copies, it is fair to say that codependency is a widespread problem. Popular
awareness of codependency grew throughout Neptune's stay in Capricorn, but first
gained widespread professional and popular recognition during the Neptune-Saturn
conjunction. Saturn represents boundaries and limits, and Neptune represents the
dissolving of them, so defining boundaries and learning to set limits became issues in
the world at large. In particular, it seems to be an issue for the Neptune in Libra
generation, for whom that perfect relationship has been the Santa Claus that never
came.
As recognition of codependency grew, so did knowledge of how to get free. In
that era, there were many helpful books on recovery from codependency and the adult
child syndrome. Both regular and New Age bookstores commonly had special sections
dedicated to these needs. Self-help groups, workshops, trained counselors, therapy
groups, and even inpatient treatment programs grew rapidly. In addition, approaches
developed elsewhere, like assertiveness training, anger management, and work with
the inner child have proven useful, keeping in mind the part dysfunctional backgrounds
and codependency play in the problem. Many of the books referred to in this chapter
are no longer in print, but may be found used on Amazon.com, at the public library, or
even at garage sales and thrift stores. Keep lookingthey are more than worth it!

The Hidden ACAS in Your Client Population

Statistics show that one person in four has been deeply affected by a
relationship with an alcoholic. Therefore, at least 25 percent of the people who come to
you for charts are family members, lovers, or close friends of alcoholics. However, I
suspect it is more than that, for reasons we will presently discover. If you aren't finding
this to be true of your own clients, it may be that they're ashamed to tell you this family
secret. It's not the kind of information they readily volunteer, and they don't necessarily
view you as having a need to know. After all, they're not coming to you about the firmly
buried past, but about the future and about when their relationships are going to get
better. Until I came to know the chart patterns that go along with an alcoholic family
background and began asking the crucial questions, very few of my clients told me
about the alcoholics in their lives.
It isn't always simply a case of being secretive. One of the major traits of
families of alcoholics or addicts is that everyone, beginning with the alcoholic, tends to
deny the addiction. This protects the addict from having to give up the habit and
protects the family from the pain and shame of seeing how destructive a problem it is.
A Neptunian defense mechanism, denial means that they either don't recognize that an
addiction exists or don't recognize that they're addicted to the addict. Many see the
addiction and yet deny the extent of the damage. ACAs say things like, "Yes, my Dad
drank, but he stopped when I was 16, and it was so many years ago, it doesn't have
any impact on my life today." As we'll see later, the residuals are considerable,
especially in the ways ACAs relate and work.
So, in the consultation, if clients deny the addiction or its impact, and we don't
recognize it, it's not addressed. Then there's no clear answer as to why their
relationships are so crazy and addictive, why they're so isolated, why they just can't
get along with their bosses, why they keep on getting victimized, and why they're in so
much pain. All they get from you is the momentary comfort of hearing, "It's just your
Neptune." And yet this momentary comfort carries a long-term sense of helplessness.
You can't do anything about where Neptune is in your chart, except to die and be
reborn.

Why ACAS Are Drawn to Astrology

Many adult children of alcoholics or other addicts come to astrologers, psychics,

and other consultants looking for an answer to their inexplicable confusion, turmoil,
and pain. A major reason they come to us is that when you grow up in a chaotic,
unpredictable household, predictability has its appeal! Another reason they're drawn to
us is that astrology and other such disciplines help ACAs solve that puzzling question
of who they really are, as opposed to roles their families conditioned them to play.
Alice Miller, an important writer about treatment for ACAs, spoke of the path to
health as finding the TRUE SELF, as opposed to the roles parents conditioned they to
play. In The Drama of the Gifted Child, Miller said that the alcoholic parent is
narcissistic and may love the child, but mostly as an extension of the self. Their love is
given only on the condition that the child's self be buried to meet the parent's need for
attention, admiration, and approval.3 Astrology, numerology, and other related tools
can be major arenas for exploring the true self.
Our clientele may also have a higher proportion of ACAs than the general
population because, I suspect, more ACAs believe in us than do other kinds of people.
When you're a little kid and you have a grandiose parent whose brain is befuddled with
alcohol, you are programmed with some remarkable ideas. (A kinder interpretation is
that alcoholics are visionaries who stimulate offspring to look beyond everyday reality.)
Like Alice in Wonderland, you may be required to believe six impossible things before
breakfast. So, it's not that much of a stretch to believe in astrology, past lives, absent
healing, holes in your invisible aura, parallel realities, or, for that matter, in capsules
that will burn the fat in your body without the need to diet or exercise.
Finally, ACAs and people from dysfunctional backgrounds
may have a special yearning for spirituality, unless they've
been so wounded that they wind up hating God. Those who
had disturbed or addicted parents may have a strong need
to find closeness with a Father/Mother/God who is loving,
understanding, wise, and all-powerful and who cares deeply
about them personally. And, yes, it's also profoundly
comforting to know that this wretched life, this crazy set of
parents, this troubled history is not the only chance.
Since we inevitably confuse the relationship with the divine
with the relationship with our parents, rarely is the spiritual
path without potholes, detours, and false turns for ACAs.
Often, the problem is not so much with the Divine, but with
the messengers, to whom they transfer that need for an all-
knowing, all-loving parent. They look for godlike qualities in
astrologers and others who seem to be in touch with the
Divine. When the messengers, themselves, are ACAs, the
potential for distortion is compounded. For example, one such messenger, the
fundamentalist evangelist, Jerry Falwell, is an ACA. His father was a wealthy -
bootlegger who murdered his own brother and then became alcoholic out of guilt.4

A disproportionate number of astrologers also come from dysfunctional families.

They may have many of these same defensesand many of the same difficulties in
3
Miller, Alice. The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self, .Basic Books Inc. NY, 1981,
p.14.
4
AstroDataBank gives the birth information, rated A, from his twin brother as about noon, EST, 8/11/33,
Lynchburg, VA, 37N25, 79W09. Family history discussed in Falwell's autobiography, Strength for the
Journey, Simon and Schuster, NY, 1987. The chart is not presented here because this time doesn't
seem to fit well with the events in his life.
their personal lives. Thus, they, too, may feel safer being the helper. It can be more
comfortable focusing on clients' problems while denying the effects of their history on
their own lives. There is a problem with insisting that a client needs help while denying
one's own hang-ups. Astute clients tend to notice the discrepancy and to reject the
referral along with the source. (Watch out for those eagle-eyed Plutonians especially.
Nothing gets past them!)

Why Astrologers Should Know about Codependency

Astrologers need to learn about codependency for several reasons. First, it will
help explain why so many of our clients repeatedly become involved in painful, crazy,
abusive, addictive relationships. Second, we're on the front line for referrals to helpful
resources. Many who come to us would not go elsewhere, even if they only come to
ask when the alcoholic is going to straighten up. The codependent is used to being the
helper and has difficulty asking for help. When you go to an astrologer, you aren't
asking for help, oh, no, you're just curious as to what the future holds. Because there
are resources for codependents, astrologers need to be able to recognize the
syndrome, educate clients about what's wrong, and suggest where they can go for
help.
Most importantly, we need to educate ourselves about the ACA syndrome and
codependency because many of us are ourselves codependent without knowing it,
and, as we are going to see, it has an effect on the way we practice. Talking to
astrologers and healers around the country and the world, I find that, like myself, a
very high percentage, including many of the top speakers and writers, are ACAs or
come from severely dysfunctional families. The reasons given earlier as to why ACA
clients are attracted to these disciplines are also reasons we're attracted to study
them. They become our path for understanding ourselves and other people. Even
more, they're an outlet for the common ACA need to rescue and fix people, as we were
never able to do for our parents.

Common Characteristics of Codependents and ACAs

In his important book, A Primer for Adult Children of Alcoholics, psychiatrist,

Timmen Cermak discussed the major characteristics of codependents.5

1) Codependent people will hide or even change their identity and feelings in
order to please and be close to others.

2) A sense of responsibility for meeting other people's needs comes first for
codependents, even at the expense of their own needs.
3) Low self-esteem and very little sense of self to begin with is common to most
codependents.

5
Timmen L. Cermak, MD. A Primer for Adult Children of Alcoholics, Second Edition, Health Publications,
Inc., Deerfield Beech, FL, 1989, pp. 19-23. Reprinted with his permission.
 4) Compulsions and addictions drive codependents and keep them from having
to confront their deeper feelings.

5) Just like alcoholics and other addictive personalities, codependents hide

behind denial and have a distorted relationship to will power.

Cermak, who was the first president of the National Association for Children of
Alcoholics, lists traits many ACAs share. Although not every ACA has all of them, these
are common. They are fearful and especially fear their feelings, losing control, conflict,
authority figures, and angry people. Although they're fiercely self-critical and suffer
from low self-esteem, they're frightened of criticism from others, so they constantly
seek approval. ACAs take on too much responsibility and feel guilty standing up for
themselves. Intimate relationships are a special area of difficulty. Because they're
afraid of being abandoned, they'll do almost anything to hold on to their relationships,
which are often with addictive personalities or other unavailable people. They confuse
love and pity, often becoming attached to people who are victims or whom they can
rescue. They can also place themselves repeatedly in the victim role6.
One statement in a list of traits circulated at ACA Twelve-Step meetings is that,
"even if we never picked up a drink, we took on all the characteristics of the disease of
alcoholism." That is, ACAs who never drink can still act like alcoholics at times
because, like all children, they pattern much of their behavior on parental models.
Specifically, grandiosity and defiance are two main characteristics of alcoholics, and a
great many New Age people are massively grandiose
and defiant. (It sounds like Neptune and Uranus!)
In their cosmic dimensions, studies like
astrology encourage grandiosity. We may see
ourselves as very, very special because of what we
know and may subtly or even unconsciously
encourage clients to see us in the same way because
of that hunger for approval. We may even come to
see ourselves as having a direct pipeline to the
Divine. This arises from ACAs' need for a close tie to
an all-loving Heavenly Father without the problems
we experienced with our earthly father.

The defiant, rebel ACA often masks these traits by

rigidly acting just the opposite. This doesn't mean
they've overcome the conditioning from their alcoholic
families, but rather that they're controlled by having to
act out the opposite pole. As Cermak and others in
the field have remarked, ACAs are reactors, rather
than actors. For instance, rather than showing their fear of authority figures, they may
glory in defying authority. Rather than seeking approval from society, they may go out
of their way to dress and act in ways that get negative attention. (In astrological terms,
these are the Uranian types.)
6
Cermak, pp. 34-37.
 Astrological Indicators of the ACA Syndrome

Let's look at chart signatures

that go along with the ACA syndrome.
No single aspect can be taken as a
certainty, so you'd be looking for
several confirmations. Neptune,
naturally, is prominent, often in the 1st,
4th, or 10th, or in aspect to the Sun or
Moon, or with Pisces in any of those
spots, or many Neptune aspects or
Pisces planets. The 12th house may
also figure strongly, with the Sun or
Moon often appearing there.
An individual who has many of
these signatures would be classified as Neptunian. It is often possible to distinguish
which parent was alcoholic, because when the Moon is aspected by Neptune, the -
mother generally is either an addictive personality or made severely dysfunctional by
the situation. Sun/Neptune or Mars/Neptune aspects hint at the males of the family as
the addicted ones. Saturn/Neptune aspects often show that the authority figures were
unable to provide consistent structure, security, or discipline, with alcoholism only one
of the possible reasons.
Neptune aspects also indicate psychic abilities, in which we lose our boundaries
and merge with others. Psychic abilities and boundary problems may just be two ways
of describing the same phenomenon. As discussed in The Medium, the Mystic, and
the Physicist, Lawrence Le Shan found that healers were able to heal when they could
let go of self and become one with the person in need7. The problem for many with
psychic abilities is shielding--i.e., establishing boundaries so that people's thoughts,
feelings, and needs do not bombard them.
Psychic merging is common in addictive and dysfunctional homes, as the child
or spouse uses psychic radar to monitor how the troubled person is doing, to prevent
an eruption. Thus, psychic gifts are common in ACAs, as a survival skill. Many intuitive
astrologers are ACAs who use this gift in their work. We who are psychic need to
examine ways in which we may be codependent or have difficulty with boundaries in
our practice. Many who study astrology but don't practice are wise to hesitate. They
may sense that they haven't established firm boundaries and don't know how to set
limits or to shield themselves psychically.

7
Ballantine Books, NY, 1982.
 A WHO'S WHO OF FAMOUS ACAS:

In case your client files aren't full to over flowing with recognized or confessed Adult
Children of Alcoholics, here are the data for some famous ACAs whose charts you may
want to analyze.

CAROL BURNETT: It is well known that both of Carol's parents were alcoholic, and a
grandmother raised her. AstroDataBank rates her data as AA, birth record quoted, as
4/26/33, 4:00 AM CST, San Antonio, TX, 29N25, 98W30. (She herself gives the time as
4:15 AM.)

LYNDON B. JOHNSON: The alcoholics were his father and brother. AstroDataBank
rates his data as A, data from his mother's diary as 8/27/1908 at sunrise, 5:00 AM
CST in Johnson City, TX, 30N016, 98W24. Family history in Kearns, Doris. Lyndon
Johnson and the American Dream, Signet, NY, 1976, pp. 24-26.

JOAN KENNEDY: The alcoholic was her mother, as discussed by Joan in a speech at
the Houston Council on Drug Abuse and Alcoholism in 4/87. AstroDataBank rates her
data as AA, birth certificate quoted. She was born 9/5/35, 6:10 AM EDT, NY, NY,
40N45,73W57.

JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS: The alcoholic was her father, Black Jack
Bouvier. AstroDataBank rates her data as A, from memory. Profiles of Women, p. 159,
as 7/28/29 2:30 PM, Southampton, NY, 40N53, 72w23. Family history in Adler, Bill. All
in the First Family, G.P. Putnam's Sons, NY, 1982, p.112-3.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: Her father was an alcoholic, and away most of the time, and
at the age of 9, her mother died of diphtheria. AstroDataBank rates her data as AA,
based on a family birth record submitted by Joan Negus. She was born 10/11/1884,
11:00 AM EST, NY, NY, 40N45, 73W57. Family history discussed in Roosevelt,
Eleanor, with Helen Ferris, Your Teens and Mine, Doubleday, Garden City, NY, 1961,
pp. 21-22.

LILY TOMLIN: AstroDataBank rates her data as AA, birth certificate quoted. She was
born 9/1/39 1:45 am EST Detroit, MI, 42N20, 83W03. This puts Neptune on the IC in a
grand trine with Uranus and Mars.
 29 20'

45' 03
DREW BARRYMORE 42'

01
03
2/22/75 11:51 AM PST 24
29 10

Culver City, CA, 34N01,118W25
17'
34'
11'

51'
21 17' 23 11

42'

12'
10 31'

19 19
41' 11

03' 57' 03'
05


18'
21'
11 12 07' 51'
23 05' 18 02

02' 19 31'
47'

10
29'
26 08
07
13
09
21
03 45'
57' 12 42'
10'46'
28' 39' 18 01
59'
29 20'
25 10'

0854'
20 20

19'
22 36'
28' 19'
2628'
04 39'
12 01'
15

18 03' 28'

00 SUZANNE
10' 25
SOMERS:
19 02'
2/22
29'
26 /75 11:51
23 05'
AM PST
Culve
r City, CA
 34N
01,
118W2
 Chart Examples of ACAs

As an example of the Neptunian type of ACA, Drew

Barrymore's chart is shown here8. Part of the famous
Barrymore theatrical family, Drew began her career in the
movies at the age of six in E.T. and has appeared in a great
many movies since. The Barrymores have been noted for
alcohol problems, including Drew's father, John Drew
Barrymore, and her grandfather, John Barrymore. In fact,
Drew has called herself a fifth-generation alcoholic. Drew
began drinking at nine, smoking pot at ten, and using
cocaine at twelve. By 1989, her drug problem was serious
enough that, at the age of 14, she went to rehab centers
twice and tried to commit suicide9. In maturity, she lives a
lively, unconventional life, but appears to have left addiction
behind and is a fine actress.
Neptune is angular in her chart, in the 6th, the house of
work. This suggests that the pressures and terrors of fame at an early age may have
contributed to the addiction. The legendary success of the father's side of the family as
well as their addictions are shown by the Sun, Venus, and Jupiter in Pisces in the 10th
house. Although the relationship has been a difficult one, her mother does not drink
and was the main stabilizing force, as seen by the Moon/Saturn conjunction in Cancer.

Strangely enough, Pluto is often as prominent as Neptune in ACAs charts and is

also often found in the positions noted above. Thus many ACAs would also be
classified as Plutonians. Here Pluto signifies the sober or less addicted parent who
struggles mightily to keep the addiction and the addict under control. It also signifies
the child's efforts to control his or her environment and keep it safe, efforts that
continue into adulthood, long after the original threats have passed. In my practice,
these same Neptune and Pluto signatures, undiluted, often appear in the charts of
grandchildren of alcoholics whose parents are not alcoholic. The ACA patterns of
behavior and relating get passed on through the parents. Although a great many ACAs
themselves have addictions, the strongly Plutonian type may at least resist the parent's
drug of choice in an effort to maintain control.
Suzanne Somerss chart, shown here, is an example of the Plutonian type of
ACA10. In her autobiography, Keeping Secrets, she was open about her alcoholic
family background. (Warner Books, NY,1988.) Pluto squares Suzanne's ascendant, a
8
AstroDataBank rates her information as AA, birth certificate in hand. She was born 2/22/75 11:51 AM
PST, Culver City, CA, 34N01,118W25.
9
Family and adolescent history discussed in, "Falling Down and Getting Back Up Again," by Jeannie
Park and Robin Micheli, People Magazine, 1/29/90, pp. 57-61.

10
Suzanne Somers was born 10/16/46, 6:11PM PST, in San Mateo, CA, 37N34, 122W19.
AstroDataBank rates her data as AA, birth certificate in hand.
potent aspect that is easy to miss in these charts. It is in the 4th house, conjunct Saturn,
the ruler of the 10th, a combination in itself suggesting a difficult childhood and possibly
abusive parents. (Drew Barrymore had a square. I've seen Pluto/Saturn aspects in the
charts of several child stars like Danny Bonaduce and Britny Spears.)
The Pluto-Saturn conjunction squares angular Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars in
Scorpio, aspects that lend additional Plutonian energy. The Moon again is in Cancer,
which does not in itself suggest an alcoholic background, but may show that the issue
of nurturing is a critical one for the individual. Neptune is quincunx the Ascendant, but
otherwise unaspected except for a mild sextile to Saturn. Richard Idemon used to say
that an unaspected planet was like a loose wire, often more important in the native's
life than would be expected.

Chart Signatures of Codependency

Astrologically, who are the codependents? Obviously

many of the same patterns will be seen as in ACA
charts, but there are additional indicators and
interpretations. People with Neptune aspects to the
Moon are often addicted to giving others the nurturing
they themselves never got. Those with Neptune
aspects to the Sun may have their self-esteem and
identity bound up in rescuing. People with Neptune
near the Ascendant keenly feel the needs of everyone
they meet. When Neptune is near the Midheaven,
rescuing can be a career choice. People with Neptune
in the 7th or aspecting Venus are especially prone to
committed but agonizing relationships with addicted
people. People with Pisces planets in any of these
places can have similar tendencies. Note that many of
these placements can also signify an addicted or
dysfunctional individual. Such people can become vulnerable to addiction, even
BECAUSE they rescue, as a way of coping with the depletion and sorrow of rescuing.
While not all of us are codependent, we all have Neptune somewhere. We could
become vulnerable to the syndrome, given the right predisposition, the proper transits,
and a painful set of circumstances. (The child you adore starts using drugs, your
beloved mother has a massive stroke, or your spouse develops cancer.) Neptune's
house and aspects in your chart show areas of confusion about where you leave off
and other people beginwhere your boundaries are blurred. In those areas, you may
have trouble setting limits and can be taken advantage of or even victimized. Thus,
Neptune in the natal chart is often where we feel powerlessa victim or martyr. It is
also the area where you would be most likely to become involved in codependency if
the right set of circumstances triggered it. With Neptune in the 3 rd, one could be a life-
long sucker for siblings, some of whom may be alcoholic or addicted; in the 5th, with
your love affairs or children; in the 8th, with sexual partners; or in the 11th, with friends.
 Judy Garland
6/10/22, 6:00 AM PST,
Grand Rapids, MN 13 13'
93W31; 47N14.
38'

17
53'
18
13
16
34'
40' 47' 28

02 19'

18
48'

10
00 08' 10

09 02'
54' 10' 54'
01' 55'
29

19
18

28 40'
46'


19' 00' 02
13 51'52'

09
05
00


17
53' 38'
18
13 13'

19 21'
39' 26
54'
14

47' 02

17 54'
21
01 29'

0901'
01'
01 01

19' 07'
19'
03' 26

41'
20
07
L
02 35' 47' i


54'
13 02'


47' 17 z
06'00'09'
a
26

09
16
18
19
26 39'
M
54'
14
19 21' i
n
e
ll
ii
3
/
1
2
/
4
6
,
7
:
5
8
A
M

P
S
T
L
o
s
A
n
g
e
l
e
s
,
C
A

3
4
N
0
4
,
1
1
8
W
1
5
.
 The Liza and Judy Show--a Case Study

As a case study in codependency, let's look at the charts of Judy Garland 11 and
her Oscar-winning daughter, Liza Minnelli12.
Judy's long struggles with alcohol, pills, and
suicidal depression are as much a Hollywood
legend as her gifts. Liza herself has been in rehab
many times for addiction to pills and alcohol.
Although Liza remains intensely loyal to her
mother's memory, her childhood sounds like an
ACAs nightmare. By age 10, Liza was begging for
food for herself and Judy and sneaking out of
hotels and apartments to avoid paying bills and
back rent. She was her mother's confident,
comforting Judy after her many suicide attempts13.
In her teen years, the relationship between them
became more explosive, and Judy would
periodically kick Liza out. In 1962, Liza left home
for good at the age 16, going to New York with
$100 to pursue her show business career.
Liza's chart is a prime ACA profile, qualifying -
strongly as Neptunian and less obviously as Plutonian. Her Sun in Pisces is in the 12th
house. The trine from the Sun to her angular Moon/Mars/Saturn/IC conjunction in
Cancer shows her closeness to her mother, but also the mutual dependency. Liza's
Venus and Mercury are also in the 12th, opposite Neptune. Pluto in the 4th makes a
wide 8 square to Liza's Ascendantbut wouldn't you say it worksplus a 3
sesquiquadrate to that 12th-house Sun.
Judy's Neptune does not immediately register as a strong one, and yet she was
both a sublime musician and actress and an addictive personality--all Neptunian
pursuits. Then we note that her Neptune forms an eye of God with her Pisces
Uranus/MC conjunction and her Descendant. The strain of being constantly in the
public eye and a sensation from her teens onward must have contributed to her
addiction. We also discover that Neptune forms an odd-shaped triangle of semisquares
and sesquiquadrates with her Mercury and her Sagittarius Moon (definitely somewhere
over the rainbow, but how do you do a relocation chart for those coordinates?).
Like Liza, she has a strong 12th house containing Sun, Mercury and Pluto,
although Pluto is closely conjunct the Ascendant. Both had a waif-like, lost quality,
which can be attributed at times to the 12th house. Once more, we see the prominence
of Cancer, with the Ascendant, Mercury, Pluto, and Venus. Pluto isn't exactly pallid,
being on the Ascendant, widely conjunct both Venus and Mercury (a midpoint), trining
11
AstroDataBank rates Judy Garlands data as AA, birth record in hand. She was born on 6/10/22, 6:00
AM PST, Grand Rapids, MN 93W31; 47N14.
12
AstroDataBank rates Liza Minnellis data as AA, birth record quoted. She was born on 3/12/46, 7:58
AM PST, Los Angeles,CA, 34N04, 118W15.
13
Family history discussed in Petrucelli, Alan W. Liza! Liza! an Unauthorized Biography of Liza Minnelli,
Karz-Cohl Publishing Inc., Walled Lake, MI, 1983.
the Uranus/MC conjunction, and squaring the Nodes and Jupiter. Once more, there's
that child-star signature of a Pluto-Saturn aspecthere a wide square to Saturn.
When you look at the connections between their charts, you will note that Judy's
Venus at 19 Cancer is exactly conjunct Liza's Moon and IC, and closely conjunct
Liza's Mars and Saturn as well. Liza's Neptune falls in Judy's 4th, conjunct Judy's
Jupiter/North Node/Saturn conjunction, suggesting confusion about which one of them
was the parent. Liza's South Node on Judy's Moon suggests that nurturing her mother
was an automatic reaction. Judy's Neptune is widely conjunct Liza's Pluto. Even
though those are generational placements, they do suggest a truth about the
relationship, which was that Liza perennially had to keep the situation under control
when Judy was falling apart. There are wide Sun-Uranus contacts on both sides. They
not only show the stormy nature of the relationship and the wildness shared by both
women that the relationship may have sparked, but also that each supported the
genius, charisma, and uniqueness of the other. The contacts also form a restless but
lively T-Square in mutable signs involving Pisces, Gemini, and Sagittarius. The outlet
for the T-Square is on Judy's Virgo IC, and the two traveled constantly during Liza's
childhood, never successfully establishing a home.

How Having an ACA Background Can Affect Astrology Practice

As we got to know the astrological profiles of the ACA and codependency

syndromes, did you find some of your own chart in it? You're not
alone--as mentioned earlier, a great many of us in the field of
astrology, myself included, are ACAs. It is up to us as individuals
to recognize and work on how the dysfunctional background
affects their personal life. My concern here is to explore how it
can affect your astrological practice.
Many of us have worked very hard to transform ourselves -
through a variety of healing tools. Thus, we are generally able to
give good service. By now, many of us have already worked on
our ACA issues. Yet, unless we remain conscious and vigilant,
we may still be triggered into ACA and codependent patterns
when clients' problems are similar to those of family members or
others we love--or to our own problems. I myself attended ACA
groups and later Al-Anon for several years and thought I had
some good quality recovery. Yet, when reading the material on
codependency, I was dismayed to see my blind spots.
The issue to think about now is your practice. Many ACA astrologers and ACA
clients are still in ignorance and/or denial about the effects of growing up in an
alcoholic or dysfunctional background. When we dont deal with this information
consciously, the personality traits identified with the adult child syndrome can
profoundly affect the ways we relate to clients. The following exploration of traits of
untreated ACA therapists was developed by Cermak in A Primer for Adult Children of
Alcoholics14. My comments about how these traits may manifest in astrological
sessions or healing work are highlighted in yellow.
Cermak says that untreated ACA professionals can be recognized by the way
that they encourage you to be angry for their own purposes. They often push you to
take action before you're ready. (Although astrology clients may come to you about a
life concern like a marital separation, they aren't necessarily ready to make a move.)
They intellectualize, rather than encourage you to express your feelings. (If you
suddenly find yourself inundating the client with astrological jargon and technical
material, ask yourself if the emotional content of the session is making you
uncomfortable.) They are uncomfortable with silence. (When the client pauses for
reflection, do you rush in with a metaphysical lecture or information about their fixed
stars, asteroids, and so on?) Untreated ACAs resist exploring Twelve-Step programs
and are certain that they've already dealt with all their codependency issues.
Reading other writers on the subject like Claudia Black, Melody Beatty, Alice
Miller, and Janet Woititz, led me to consider additional ways the ACA syndrome and
untreated codependency can cause difficulty in our sessions. For instance, in The
Drama of the Gifted Child, Alice Miller says narcissistic practitioners, as many ACAs
can be, have a great need for approval, understanding, and validation from clients.
There is a pressure for the client to meet one's expectations and to present material to
fit one's concepts and belief systems15.
Miller notes that the codependent practitioner easily becomes defensive and
needs validation and stroking from clients. Do you get upset if a client questions your
chart interpretation or doesn't tell you how right on target your interpretation is? Many
of us are overly-attached to clients approval and admiration. We feel we have to know
it all and have the right answers. We do tap dances
to dazzle and amaze. We may also be overly-
attached to being right in our predictions and
interpretations, at the cost of a true dialogue with
the client. We can get depressed after the
consultation if we don't get enough positive
feedback. Then we question ourselves, our work,
and our worth.
Boundary problems show up as over-
identification in its various forms. The client's
problem becomes your problem, or conversely,
your own difficulties get confused with the client's.
You may feel pain or anxiety about giving clients
interpretations and predictions other than what
they want to hear, even though the transits or progressions are anything but positive.
There may be problems insetting limits--e.g., taking too many phone calls from a client
whom you allow to become excessively dependent or else your sessions may go on
for hours. Fuzzy boundaries can also result in being drained afterwards. (This may
mean you're doing energetic healing without conscious awareness and need to
channel divine energy rather than your own energy.)

14
Ibid., pp. 69-70. Used with his permission.
15
Ibid., p.24.
 The common ACA need to fix people may have motivated us to do charts in the
first place. That need may lead us to want to rescue clients who are addicted or in
severe difficulty. We may try very, very hard to solve every problem in the client's life
through three-hour sessions. Where we are overly responsible, we may take on too
much of our clients' problems or spend too many hours preparing. For instance,
astrologers may think they have to do several years' worth of transits, progressions,
harmonic charts, midpoints, and fixed stars. (This can result in an information overload
for the client, far too much to assimilate in one session.) The pervasive trait of low self-
esteem may result in not charging or charging too little.
Untreated ACAs and codependents also tend to be extremely controlling,
although they can be subtle and gifted at manipulation. (Keeping things under control
was a survival skill at home. Are we talking Pluto?) When clients don't respond by
doing what ACA astrologers recommend or don't believe that this is THE ANSWER,
ACAs can sometimes become agitated, enraged, or vindictive. They may respond by
guilt-tripping, shaming, and invoking their divine connection, scaring clients about their
Pluto transits, or threatening clients with cancer if they don't straighten out their way of
thinking. Similarly, there can be agitation and even rage when clients don't change in
the way the ACA thinks they should.
There are two main issues clients come to us aboutcareer and relationships.
Unfortunately, two primary characteristics of untreated ACAs are that they have
authority problems and distorted relationships. If we haven't addressed these issues in
our own lives and are in denial, it's a matter of the blind leading the blind. If we have
difficulty around intimacy or anger, can we teach clients how to have healthy
relationships or be positive role models for them? Let's suppose you're still living out
the victim role and have a history of being betrayed in relationships. You bring your
ACA mind-set to the session, so when clients ask about difficult relationships, you
counsel them to watch out for betrayal.
Similarly, out of unresolved anger toward
our own parents, we may encourage clients in
anger against their parents or bosses. If we're
grandiose, we may encourage clients in grandiose
career plans, rather than taking a grounded and
realistic approach to vocational astrology. Many
ACAs live on the edge financially, due to improper
grounding in their unstable families, and the
financial path in career astrology is anything but
sure. Many of us have serious difficulty working for
anyone else, and that's part of the attraction of
being self-employed. When a client is having
difficult 8th or 2nd house transits, we may ignore the possibility that this client has gone
deeply into debt with credit cards and bill-payer loans 16 or we may be inhibited about

16
An astrological aside: Pluto rather than Neptune appears to be the predominant theme for people who
are addicted to their credit cards and to ruinous debt. It may show up in the 2nd or 8th or forming
important aspects to planets in those houses, or with Scorpio placements in those houses. Here, the
issue seems to be spite and revenge. Many incest survivors have debt compulsions.
asking the relevant questions. (In such a situation, the currently popular equation of the
2nd house with values simply does not meet the clients real life needs.)
Traits like low self-esteem explain why some ACAs study astrology for many
years and never feel good enough to turn professional. Many don't practice or practice
infrequently because they don't feel they CAN fix people and yet expect themselves to.
Or they don't practice because they feel it's too much of a responsibility. Given the
grandness of our tools, they may expect themselves to be all knowing and feel self-
hate if they're not as grand as their sources of knowledge.
Finally, ACAs are especially susceptible to addictions and compulsive
behaviors. In our field, more of us than we like to recognize are alcoholic or suffer from
some form of addiction. We practice individual and collective denial about it, but it's an
occupational hazard. It's a way of dealing with the sometimes overwhelming
responsibility, sense of isolation, endless giving out of energy, and psychic
bombardment that our consultations entail. We also may want to stuff feelings that are
stirred up in a session when we deal with major life issues in such a concentrated
form. If your role models used substances or compulsions to deal with stress and keep
feelings at bay, you tend to live what you learned.

Toxic Shame as a Barrier to Change Efforts

Many clients suffer from severely damaged self-esteem.

Particularly if they come from dysfunctional backgrounds, their level of
shame may be so high, that the idea of exposing their inadequacies to a
therapist or other helper is daunting. They may also feel they don't
deserve a better life. If we, the practitioners, also come from
dysfunctional families, our own level of shame may be so toxic but so
unrecognized for what it is that we are unaware of when it is operating.
We also carry a certain level of shame at practicing a profession
that is held up to public ridicule. Without being aware of it, we may find
relief from our own shame by feeling superior to clients, especially
morally or metaphysically. ("I'm okay because I can tell you all the ways
you're not okay.")
At the magical level where the damaged inner child operates,
many clients project onto astrologers such a level of omniscience that
for us to judge them is devastating. So, on the one hand, we may be
trying to build their self-worth by listing the positive qualities in the
horoscope. On the other hand, the very way we discuss their difficulties and urge them
to seek help may reinforce the shame.
As a caring person, you no doubt are watchful of what you say to clients, so that
you'd never knowingly shame them. Often, however, it is not so much what you say
aloud, as what you are thinking and feeling. The true reaction bleeds through by tone
of voice, body language, or even telepathically. It is difficult to control such negative
reactions--and even less effective to feel shame about having them. The best solution
is for astrologers to heal their own shame. The most helpful material in this regard is
John Bradshaw's book, Healing the Shame that Binds You17. The bonus for working
out your own shame issues is that you can also speak about it to clients whose lives
are crippled by shame-based low self-esteem.

The Adult Child Syndrome and the Politics of Groups

The combination of grandiosity

and defiance, as you can imagine,
plays holy heck with the politics of
astrology organizations and other New
Age groups. Many of the traits
Cermak mentions also play into group
dynamics. They include the leaders'
need to be in control, the members'
fear of conflict and of angry people,
inability to take criticism, the tendency
to see things in a black and white
perspective, the need for agreement
and approval, and the tendency to feel
like a victim.
Put a large number of defiant,
grandiose, unrecovered and in denial ACAs together, and you're likely to see some
bizarre group behavior. It is likely that you would find feuds, splintering, flaming each
other on email lists, casting out those who dare to question, and crowds who are
oohing and aahing over the emperor's non-existent new clothes. These types of
brouhahas do erupt periodically in astrology groups, the main reason being an officer
or board member has never appealed to me.
When such groups predominantly consist of ACAs, it's not unusual for top
positions to be filled by the equivalent of alcoholic parents. That is, even if they never
pick up a drink, leaders have been known to behave alcoholically. Strong denial and a
high tolerance for bizarre behavior are ACA characteristics that can be carried over into
group life. Thus, members may indulge and overlook even the most astonishingly
dysfunctional behavior from leaders. The members' need to create a happy, close
family-type experience is a powerful one. The painful isolation they've suffered, and the
life-long sense of being different and not belonging, makes the group so precious to its
ACA members that they tend to deny dysfunctionality in order not to threaten the sense
of finally belonging. With these blinders on, everyone and everything is
WOOOOOONNNNDERFUL.
If you should be so unwise as to point out that the emperor is not, in fact,
wearing any clothes, they may turn on you as though you'd done something indecent.
"Oh," they say, "but he's sooooo spiritual!" The group may ostracize you, and they
certainly won't ask you back to speak. Truth is an unwelcome visitor in places where
denial is king.
17
Health Communications Press, Deerfield Beach, FL, 1988, still available at Amazon.com and other
outlets.
 Further characteristics of alcoholic families that may be replicated in groups
made up largely of ACAs are codependency and fuzzy boundaries. Many ACAs
(myself included) elect to stay out of even healthy groups and out of group politics
because of family histories that wildly violated personal boundaries. Far more likely
than the average astrology group to violate members' boundaries are cult-type
organizations, to which ACAs are more vulnerable than the average person.
A close-knit spiritual group can be a priceless gift; a group which insists that
you give up your individuality to belong is destructive. A group mind intent on invading
boundaries can do great damage to an individual whose boundaries are shaky in the
first place. Cults which profess to be spiritual are notorious for this, but even a more
loosely organized group can at times lose respect for individual members' rights,
beliefs, and feelings.
The hope for sanity is the hope that more and more ACA members will come to
recognize the syndrome in themselves and their groups. It would be helpful if some of
the traditions the Twelve Step programs aspire to were used in these groups. Just for
starters, there is one that says, "Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not
govern."

How Current Conditions Intensify the Need for Recovery

Current world conditions, as signified

astrologically by the passage of the outer
planets through the universal signs, are
intensifying the demands on all the service
professions. People are extremely needy
and confused, feeling helpless and
powerless over the vast social changes just
on the horizon. The forces of chaos are
very strong just now. As a result, people are
looking to astrologers and other service
professions for guidance and ANSWERS.
It would be easy to become burned out from
clients' demands. Learning to set limits is
becoming a crucial. We will need to master
limit setting in order not to get so burned out that we stop the work.
Before we act, we also need to assess which clients' demands are legitimate
and which are not. Alcoholics and chronically dysfunctional people can project feelings
of helplessness and bottomless need so powerfully that the psychically sensitive pick it
up and react to it. To bolster low self-esteem, rescuers need to be needed. Thus, they
often hook into the helplessness and keep people helpless by enabling them to
continue dysfunctional patterns. We need to learn how crippling rescuing is so we
don't do that with clients. We cannot keep on enabling, rescuing, and answering the
non-genuine need or we will not survive.
However, we're also being forced to function at the outer limits of our
capabilities and to stretch ourselves to a higher level of professionality, and that's
stressful. You'd be in physical pain if your limit was a mile a day and then you ran a
ten-mile marathon. If you then proceeded to run ten miles everyday, that would
eventually become your new limit. Likewise, as we continue to be stretched past our
limits as service workers, those new levels of functioning will ultimately become ours.
Just as marathon runners have to nourish themselves carefully while training, we must
also nourish ourselves carefullyphysically, emotionally, and spirituallywhen
stretching our capacities.
Even where clients needs are legitimate, there's so much more pressure that
we can grow weary. It's important to rest, relax, and take care of ourselves emotionally,
spiritually, physically, and fiscally. An important way of taking care of ourselves is to
recognize and let go of codependency in our personal and professional lives. I hope
this discussion has been a beginning of that recognition. If we astrologers who have
the syndrome use the tools that are available--the books, the groups, and other
self-help aids--and if we tell our ACA and codependent clients about them as well, we'll
all gradually get free.