I'm wondering about this after following Kashmiri's post "Do your (life) problems have a theme?"

What have you experienced?  Can therapy or meditation help leap over the most challenging problem in a chart and never look back or is it always going to be there?

Do you know of any good books to recommend on this? 

Interesting question. I don't think you can get out of anything that is in your chart but you can transcend the negative expression of it and use the energy in ways that are positive and productive.

Michele I do think so. With my Pluto opposed Mars, when I was a kid I had such a bad temper it did me a real disservice. There was a fair amount of violence in my childhood but no matter how much I screamed bloody murder about it I was left to my own devices. It took me until my 20s to curb my anger.

As far as how I "transcended it" I credit the kind and loving people in my life...they saw something good in me and my potential and through their love I saw the kind of person I wanted to be. Now that aspect is (mainly) used to protect myself from harms' way.

To paraphrase ex-British PM Tony Blair,

"Being mean isn't the same as being effective." 

books? I was moved by "The Long Walk" and the Dalai Lama's autobiography "Freedom in Exile."

Must be my North Node in Libra/10th House. I'm moved by stories others tell about overcoming adversity. I think "If they can pull off this [trek through the Gobi Desert] surely I can stop freaking out when bad shit happens to me..." 

Yes, but it'll take time and patience. Sigh:. Something I need to work on with all that fire in my chart.

I agree with Elsa.

At this point, I've gotten good about getting up, dusting myself off, and carrying on. Life throws shit at me, you see, and when it does, I get rammed  squarly in the chest. I get emotional. I get sensative. But I've learned how to compensate, how to handle it, how to get strong enough to accept what's up, deal with what I've got to deal with, and move on and learn.

Like a line-backer hustling through a line of people, ya know? Keep the ball close to your side and keep one hand out and keep running and shoving past. I'm going "Oh, shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.", but I'm doing it.

Someone else with different planets might fumble it, or drop the ball and cover their head before the tackle hits, but...I can't do that. I was given a chart that makes it easy for me to be strong - not all the time, mind you, but when the bottom line comes around I can handle it.

When I went through my nasty divorce, sometimes it felt like I was going to die. But, no. I knew I wouldn't. I'd get through.

for me I know that I change my behaviors exactly when I really stop wanting to do them.  when I am really done I'm done.  I have to ask myself, why does this work for me, if I'm still doing something.  and I've realized that nothing that is "happening" to me is not something that I want either.  I know if I really wasn't up for something I wouldn't participate.

I remember the last time I threw something at a boyfriend.  I used to throw things and yell a lot.  I thought I was justified.  but that last time as I was cleaning up spaghetti sauce off the wall and the floor and the stove, I thought, I don't  want to clean this shit up anymore.  and I never did it again.

it reminds me of David Sedaris telling of his brother (the Rooster) getting beaten up at a bar.  he asked him, "oh my god, when did they stop" and the brother looked at him incredulously, "I guess they stopped when they were good and fucking done." 

i think therapy and meditation and such can help you reframe, control, manage and redirect energy.

the energy is there. you have the cards you're dealt. you decide how to play 'em.

I think it's always going to be there. Some people have way heavier energies than others and have a much more difficult time. I guess it depends on your awareness and desire to overcome. Plus if you're attributing to astrology...then you are always going to be dancing around one transit or another that affects your chart in different ways and self awareness can be both a curse and a blessing.

"...you can transcend the negative expression of it and use the energy in ways that are positive and productive."

"...and self awareness can be both a curse and a blessing."

Kashmiri, I loved your quote, too, "I think "If they can pull off this [trek through the Gobi Desert] surely I can stop freaking out when bad shit happens to me..." 

Fascinating on an existential and then personal level.  I wonder about those with heavy and dark energies, but then again I've seen in a close family member a transformation in mental health issues over a loooong period of time and work.  And why are we so blind to our own issues but can see what needs to happen in someone else so clearly? 

Personally, I've struggled, as I've said in other posts, with my Pluto opp Sun and my contribution.  I simply haven't been able to see what my role is with the conflict I have with certain personalities, especially narcissism, which I had to deal with growing up with my father, and then several boyfriends.  I'm in my current situation because of a boss who had the strongest manifestation of this to-date.   

Then I found this while looking around this morning:

"The opposition of the Sun and Pluto shows a defensive attitude when challenged by others. You have a compulsive power drive that creates an aura of forcefulness. There can be resentment and defiance in your temperament. You may experience difficulties getting along with others until you learn not to be so assertive and defensive when you feel the slightest sense of threat. You must handle situations better when others disagree with your position. This aspect is usually subject to undergo major changes at sometime in life when a psychological realignment occurs. When this happens you become more self-assured and tolerant of others. "

I've also been experiencing Uranus conjunct Sun and Ascendant, opp Pluto.  I think I'm being forced to address this finally.  It's finally making sense.  Humbling.  I think of narcissism as an intractable evil and I dig in because I think they need to change but will not.  I need to drop it. Finally.  "...for me I know that I change my behaviors exactly when I really stop wanting to do them.  when I am really done I'm done."

I apologize for the length here... I process everything through writing.  This site has been amazingly helpful in moving past some major blocks over the past 2 months.  Thank you everyone.

<3

"The Long Walk" was such a good book.

A classmate of mine wrote a book with a man whose family was exiled to Siberia - his grandfather starved himself to death on purpose to the rest of them could eat. It's a very moving story.

It was published overseas as "Radical Gratitude and other life lessons learned in Siberia" but it's coming out in the US as "One Life to Give: A Path to Finding Yourself by Helping Others"

http://www.amazon.com/One-Life-Give-Finding-Yourself/dp/1615190082/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256402693&sr=8-1

All three of these books are going on my list.  I can't wait.

I don't know what his chart looks like, but one of my favorite books about overcoming challenges is John Lewis' memoir, "Walking with the Wind".  Unbelievable courage.

http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Wind-Movement-John-Lewis/dp/0156007088/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256403962&sr=1-1

I just looked up John Lewis' birthday:  Feb 21, 1940.  His chart shows Pluto conjunct Moon AND square Mars and Saturn.  Yikes.  Look what he did with that.  He literally transformed this country through the violence he personally took on.

thanks for the book recommendations! jilly, yeah...got to the end of that booked and cried for days...michelle i have a special place in my heart for existentialism, i'd go so far as saying it helped me transcend my personal problems, too. new philosophies, yanno?

I have to recommend Pema Chodron again, to sound like a broken record.

Do younger folks even understand that analogy haha?

You're welcome K.