Thought it might be a good exercise to try to put down a foundation for myself about how Divorce is indicated by Astrological Rulerships. There is close to no material out there from which to draw on.
This won’t be written for people with no understanding of Divorce. Sorry. If I ever write a book with all this I’ll include it but, really, there’s so much out there that’s better than what I can write it’s not necessary. If interested in learning more about astrology (not the stuff in the newspapers) I can recommend a couple of great books that are both concise and well-written. Steven Forrest’s The Inner Sky and Donna Cunningham’s How to Read Your Astrological Chart: Aspects of the Cosmic Puzzle. Horoscope Symbols by Rob Hand is really great, the classic basic reference text for Astrology, but maybe not as easy to plow straight through.
One can draw up a free chart online at Astro.com. This is a really great resource for astrology. This site offers a Wikipedia devoted to Astrology, a forum, and pretty much everything else. Needless to say, there are tons of other resources on the Internet. Astrologer Bob Marks has written some great basic lessons at his website bobmarksastrologer.com.
First statement, close to no work has been done in this field. I’m using Rex Bills Rulership Book and an insight that was shared with me by another astrologer about derived houses and am adding some opinions of my own. (Please observe copyright rules in this regard. With some astrologers I know that this is a pointless thing to bother trying to say). There is a lot of information for Step-Parents because Astrology has been around a long time and before Divorce there was Death of a Parent. The information in here is generally figured out by the Technique of Derived Houses. This is a technique which says that you can look at the house which rules your parents (the 4th and 10th Houses) and, realizing that Death is often attributed to the 8th House, count off 8 houses from 4th and 10th. In this case, “Death of a Parent” in an individual’s chart is ruled by the 11th House.
My source here is The Rulership Book by Rex Bills. I was initially going to list off all of the pertinent keywords but realized that this breaks all kinds of copyright laws. So now through my embarassing prose I will try to make a little sense of all of this.
“Divorce”, in Rex Bills’ book, is ruled by the 7th House and its natural ruling sign, Libra, because these rule marriage, and by Uranus, the sign that rules Rebellion, Sudden shocking events; Groups; Friends; Wishes and Hopes. Since all these rulers have a commonality of rulership by Air I am going to assume that Divorce is a Mental Type of Activity. It happens because somebody in the relationship has detached him/herself enough from (or is overly and underly exposed to) Feelings/Receptivity (Water), Passions (Fire), and Reality (Earth).
“Home” in Astrology is ruled by the 4th House and Cancer and the ruler of the cusp of that House which is called the Imum Coeli (or IC). This also represents early early childhood, family, tribe, probably co-rules genetics, unconditional love, etc.
The 4th House and the 10th House rule the parents and currently there is no set answer as to which parent is ruled by which house. Interesting that right around the time that people have been feeling free to chose their household and family environments much more than they used to they also feel that they can chose which astrological house represents which parent. When I wuz young, the Mother was ruled by the 4th House as that house is ruled by the Moon which represents the Mother. The Father was ruled by the 10th House and Saturn which is natural ruler of the 10th House. People generally had one parent indicated by each house and life was easy.
“Childhood” according to Bills is ruled by the 1st House and the Moon and 4th House. Clan, Tribe, Land, Conditions describing one’s Home.
A Person’s children are ruled by 5th House, Leo, the Sun, and to a lesser extent Venus and Mercury (and I’ll add Mars to Bills’ list). Girls are ruled by Venus. Boys are ruled by Mars.
Siblings are ruled by one’s 3d house, Mercury and Gemini. You can also figure siblings by Birth Order by skipping every other house from the 3d.
H3 = first born; H5 = second born; H7 = third born; H9 = fourth born; H11 = 5th born
Brothers- and Sisters-In-Law are ruled by H9.
Half-Siblings could be ruled by the 5th House of whichever marriage the parent is on when the child is born. They also could be ruled by the houses that were indicated above.
Step-Siblings are ruled by the 5th House of whichever house is indicated by the Step-Parent.
Step-Children are given rulership by the 11th House. This is figured once again through derived houses as this house is the 5th House (children of) the marriage partner (H7).
Step-Parents can be figured in two different ways:
- One can lump all parents into Houses 4 and 10. Since parents often are attracted to the same mistake over and over again this will often suffice for interpretation. Rex Bills says that they are indicated by the opposite houses that would rule one’s parents though as represented by Gender. A Step-Parent of the opposite Sex of the native is considered ruled by the 4th House. A Step-Parent of the same sex as the native is considered ruled by the 10th House. It would be interesting to study the charts of parents who really do improve their children’s lives through their second relationship to try to understand what works and what doesn’t. I would assume that if one has a strong presence of Fixed Signs or Rulers in their 4th houses then perhaps the parents would be less likely to change their attractions as “Fixed” Signs are related to lack of changability.
- Or, one can use the Derived Houses Technique to show the Marital Partner of the Parent according to whichever number Marriage the Parent is on. These skip two houses per marriage. Assuming that one’s Father is indicated by one’s 10th House in one’s chart, this means that the Father’s first marriage is 7 signs away from the 10th House. That’s the 4th House and that indicates one’s Mother. The Father’s 2d marriage, however, would be indicated by skipping 2 houses from the 4th House. This would mean that the 2d Mother (or first Step-Mother) would be indicated by the 6th House. The 3d Mother (or 2d Step-Mother) would be indicated by the 8th House. Considering the dark emotional underpinnings of the 6th and 8th Houses which are related to being considered 2d rate, deep anxieties & criticisms of Virgo and the paranoias and power-tripping (and money grabbing) of Scorpio, I suppose this could explain why relations with Step-Mothers are often very complex. Step-Fathers will be indicated by houses directly opposing these houses. 1st Step-Father would be indicated by H12 (house related to empaths, artists, hidden enemies, alcoholics and addicts) and 2d Step-Fathers would be related to one’s 2d house (House related to money, values). 3d Step-Father would be described by one’s 4th House (same as biological mother). 4th Step-Father would be described by the 6th House. And it goes on and on according to Mommy’s whims.
Summary:
Biological Mother = H4; 1st Step-Mother = H6; 2d Step-Mother = H8; 3d Step-Mother H10; 4th Step-Mother = H12; anything after that, God Bless You.
Biological Father = H10; 1st Step-Father = H12; 2d Step-Father = H2; 3d Step-Father = H4; 4th Step-Father = H6; anything after that, Do Drugs.
If you personally feel that your Biological Parents are better represented by opposing houses from what I’ve indicated, then the parents will be reversed from these houses. As said before Step-Siblings will probably be figured by looking at the Children, or 5th House, from whichever Step-Parent influence you are looking for in the chart.
It’s also good to keep in mind that 4th House will indicate your general attitudes towards home and living environment no matter what. You look at Sign(s) that are in this house, placement of Planet that rules the IC or house cusp, planets that are contained within that house, and the houses that they rule in the chart. No planets placed within this house is interesting to watch for. I’ve noticed in my studies of “Successful People” that often they have no planets in the 4th House. This would indicate that this part of their lives doesn’t manifest in their consciousness as it would for those with many planets in the 4th House. It doesn’t mean that they don’t suffer emotionally from divorce. Curt Cobain, for example, who is said to have been devastated by his parents’ divorce had no planets in his 4th House. It’s almost as if he needed more help to be able to find expression for his early childhood.
Parents are additionally ruled by the planets. Fathers’ influences are ruled by Saturn in an individual’s chart, and often the Sun. Mother’s influences are ruled by the Moon. The Moon is emotional and reactive and caring. If the Moon is afflicted in one’s chart in some way one will have to honestly look at the ways he/she reacts to his own feelings (these are very simple descriptions). If Saturn is afflicted in one’s chart one will have to look at how he handles authority with others. Both planets are key indicators (along with Pluto) of how an individual will try to control himself and others and how he handles inhibitions and fears. Moon and Saturn can suffer a lot during divorce as they represent the family structure and basic emotional fears related to where they are coming from in life and where they are going (as represented by the Midheaven). They also rule the IC/MC Axis of the chart which are two of the the strongest points in the Wheel. They square (meaning they challenge) anything an individual goes through related to his relationships as represented by the 1st and 7th House Axis.
The amount of planets in Feminine and Masculine Signs will also indicate which parents influence was strongest. Just noticing whether or not the Sun is in a Feminine or Masculine Signs tells a whole lot in this regard (Feminine Signs are Water and Earth / Masculine Signs are Fire and Air).
Astrologer Noel Tyl has also added a lot of interesting research on family influences, especially with regards to Saturn Retrogrades and placement of planets above and below the Horizon. He has written a lot of books and has published a DVD of his basic lessons which is probably really good although I haven’t seen it. Erin Sullivan has also written what looks like a really interesting book on family.
In the case of bad Step-Families it’s also good to look at the houses which indicate enemies to see if one has some kind of vulnerability in this area. The 7th House rules open enemies. The 12th House rules hidden enemies.
I’ll also mention money here since money is a huge influence in divorced children’s lives. Namely, there often is a lot less of it after the divorce. And the parents use it to manipulate the kids and to anger the ex-spouse. One’s own money and sense of values related to possessions are ruled by the 2d House, Taurus, and Venus. Money of one’s partner is represented by the 8th House. This is also the house related to Inheritance.
It will be interesting to see if something can hone down how Alimony and Child Support were handled within a family. This will involve the 9th House as this is the house that rules lawyers. If Neptune is somehow involved with the Resources Houses (2, 5, 8, 11) then perhaps a parent was witnessed being used or victimized in this area. Saturn in the 4th House can often indicate poverty. Saturn anywhere can instill a frozen feeling brought on by a need to grow up before one’s time. If Saturn touches a Resource House perhaps this indicates troubles with finances related to watching how the parents handled it.
Parent’s earning capacity is going to be represented by the 2d House from whichever house represents them. If Mother is represented by the 4th House, her money will be represented by a child’s 5th House. If Father is represented by the 10th House, his money will be represented by a child’s 11th House. I suppose that fighting over the money of one’s parents during Divorce would be related to these houses.
Secrets are generally ruled by Pluto and the 8th House with some help from Neptune and the 12th House. Bills also says that Saturn is a ruler as well. He also adds that personal secrets are ruled by the 4th House and Moon. If you’ve got Moon in strong aspect to either Neptune or Pluto and somehow related to the 4th House, you’ve got a lot of family secrets.
Since the idea of “Manipulation” comes up a lot in divorce I thought it was interesting that Bills give rulership for Manipulation to Uranus. I would have thought it was one of the Water Sign rulers, Moon, Neptune or Pluto. This is interesting, because Uranus is considered one of the main rulers of Divorce in general. And Step-Parents are told that step-children in their lives are ruled by their 11th houses. And step-parents certainly like to use that word in reference to their partner’s children.
Blame isn’t mentioned in Bills. I suspect that this would be ruled by Saturn as Saturn rules Guilt. Neptune is also probably connected due to its connections to feeling martyred. And perhaps Mercury as well just for its mental ability to verbalize and analyze what’s wrong with a situation.
Anger is ruled by Mars. War is ruled by Pluto. Pride and Ego is ruled by the Sun.
Synthesis, which is necessary for recouping and regrouping after the split is ruled, according to Bills, by Uranus and Pluto. I think that Virgo/Mercury is also heavily involved here. I wrote a previous post about how I think that Virgo is related to being a Child of Divorce. It is the sign related to subservience, pursuit of a healthy lifestyle, daily habits, (all that scheduling of parental visitations) and high levels of anxiety and extremes of perfectionism which are problems for Children of Divorce. Virgo is also related to dealing with huge amounts of details and developing systems that can contain all that information.
Anything that is split is going to be ruled by signs that are described by duplicity. That would be Gemini (twins) and Pisces (twofishes).
An interesting area for study would be kids whose parents never married. I am studying only a couple of charts which are extremely interesting but don’t have a basic idea of distinct aspects to look for in the chart.
A child who is easy-going and just follows along quietly will probably have Mutable Signs or Venus/Libra strongly emphasized in his chart. Children who are uncomfortable will probably have strong needs for tradition and structure and will have Moon and Saturn indicated strongly in the chart. Kids with a lot of Aquarius and Uranus are simply amazing and seem to be able to tolerate enormous amounts of stressful conditions. How people handle frustration will be shown through their Saturn placement. How people handle anger, especially bottled up anger that is brought on by watching other people fight will be indicated by Pluto. Self-esteem is indicated by the Sun. One’s ability to love and to receive love freely will be indicated by Venus (well, along with most of the rest of the planets). One’s ability to go after what one wants will be indicated by Mars.
Custody Problems could be painted in the chart in all kinds of ways. Of course, one would want to look at difficult aspects between Moon and Pluto in the natal chart to check for problems with regards to possessiveness. I would expect to see many planets placed below the Horizon of the chart but have nothing to back that up with. The 9th House rules the Courts and Lawyers. The 10th House rules the Judicial System. The 12th House and Neptune rule Institutions and Social Welfare.
Issues around Custody remind me of the Ceres/Demeter and Pluto/Hades Myth a little bit. Pluto abducted Persephone who was the daughter of a possessive Mother, Ceres. Ceres appealed to Persephone’s Father, Zeus, to return her daughter. Persephone ended up living 6 months of the year with her Mother as an agricultural Goddess. The other 6 months of the year she lived in the underworld with Pluto. She is represented by Asteroid Number 399 and is said to represent the point in life where one feels captive and imprisoned. A very nice description of the various Persephone Myths are told here. Ceres and Pluto are both considered dwarf planets at this point.
Ceres also could represent the possessive Mother. In astrology she is said to represent the point where we are most nurturing as she is connected with agriculture and fruitfulness. In Divorce situations, though, she sounds a bit like the possessive parent.
A parent who uses the child like a pawn in the divorce proceedings will have a strong Pluto which is related to needing to be powerful.
An absentee Father will be indicated by a badly placed Saturn and a challenge to Neptune. If the Moon is in a place of emphasis this might be because the Mother made it happen. In that case, I’d expect to see Moon working with Pluto.
An absentee Mother might be more related to Jupiter and Uranus but this is only my supposition.
Pluto represents Sex, Death and Other People’s money. His influence is much more prominent in the childhoods of kids from divorce than in kids from most intact families because they must think and feel much more deeply than those children at a much earlier age. Pluto does rule abduction, rape, murder. He also rules Research. All of these planets represent many different things. I’m just discussing possible representations that they could symbolize for those who are growing up in or have grown up in Divorce.
Venus and Libra will influence how a child feels around his friends. He may become envious of others and may be constantly comparing himself to them. Friends are represented by the 11th House. Early education is ruled by the 3d House, Gemini, and Mercury.
The rest of the Asteroid “Goddesses” also seem to have strong relevance for Divorce. As coincidence would have it, they’ve been introduced into mainstream Astrology just as Divorce became prevalent in society.
Lilith is a very strong presence. She is represented by 3 different points. I tend to stick with the point that is called “The Dark Side of the Moon.” This is a fictitious spot in the Moon’s orb. Lilith was the 1st wife. Feminists like her because she refused to be considered unequal to her husband. In some myths she is said to have murdered her children in a rage.
Juno is considered “The Wife.” She is constantly following her philandering husband around and having fits of rage and jealousy.
Zeus is the same character in Mythology as Jupiter. And Jupiter is represented in Astrology very strongly. But his character as the philandering husband is never discussed by Astrologers. It’s fair to say that Zeus fathered many children.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Blogger Carolyn is writing a really great blog for people who grew up in Divorce. It’s here. (If I’ve done my usual stupid and messed up the link, please find the URL down at the bottom of this post).
Carolyn’s attitude is positive yet she confronts real problems. Of course, most of the comments are from divorcing parents who did not grow up in divorce. What can I say? I find that exhausting. It would be like trying to go to an Al-Anon meeting in a room full of alcoholics who don’t know the rules of cross-talk.
http://thegrownupchild.ca/
Filed under: Uncategorized
I went on a little drive yesterday because I just had to get out of the town where I live. And I ended up back in a town where I used to live. And just as I was pulling up into the parking lot of the disgusting cheap motel where I stayed last night a show came on the radio honoring the memory of the only poetry teacher I ever took a class from, Morton Marcus. He died last week on Wednesday.
I took the class from Marcus becaus his poetry went straight to my heart. I generally don’t like vagueness so I generally don’t like poetry. I went to the class sort of as a joke mostly because I wanted to meet a poet who I could understand. The class was incredible. Marcus’ energy was open and positive. He shared stories about getting drunk with Raymond Carver and he read his poetry and one woman who had been writing poetry for years said that she had had a major breakthrough in her writing. I sort of remember embarassing myself with my own writing attempt.
I remember that one of Marcus’ poems was a brutal description of an abusive father. I had no idea a poet would ever be able to survive into adulthood after experiencing such an awful event, let alone honestly confront it in words. These are the events that you stay silent about because they are always taken as vindictiveness.
The show on the radio was evidentally led regularly by Marcus. It’s called, “The Poetry Show” on KUSB if anyone’s curious (sorry, I haven’t looked it up). There were two readers, a woman and a man and the male reader read two poems from Marcus’ book of prose poems called Pursuing the Dream Bone. The first poem was about Marcus’ Mother. The second poem he read was about Marcus’ Father. Turns out Marcus grew up in divorce.
His Mother married seven times; his Father was her 5th husband. The parents divorced when Marcus was 3 years old. He saw his Father twice after the Divorce. Once at Age 8 during the Divorce proceedings between his parents. The second time was at age 12 during his Mother’s 6th Divorce. Marcus was sent to boarding school almost immediately where he spent the school year while during the summers he was sent to camp. His Mother would visit him a few times a year. And he lived at home at ages 9, 11, and 13 which was when he witnessed his abusive step-father. This information is given so matter of factly in the poems it really is unreal. I read one critic’s opinions of the poems taken from a poetic, symbolic, non-literal point of view. I wonder if other people can only hear these kinds of stories as abstract fantasy. Of course, the poems are poetic. Marcus choses just the right detail to describe his Mother’s narcissism and his Father’s indifference and one can certainly feel his sense of childish despair in his relationship with them. The two poems are available through Google in the link up above (if they keep the book online, that is).
Marcus recently published a memoir, Striking Through the Masks, which I plan on reading. I guess he suffered for years from renal cancer and before that I took care of his ailing Mother for something like 8 years. I really don’t know how he could have done that. So many people have much bigger heart than I do.
Morton Marcus, Rest in Peace. Thank you for your song.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Tomorrow Saturn will be moving into the Astrological Sign that rules Marriage. That’s Libra. For about the last year Saturn has been opposing Uranus which is the sign that is often considered to rule Divorce. They are being squared by the planet that rules, among other things, Crises and deep Psychological Change. Rules themselves are being reviewed. Saturn likes to set the rules and keep the traditions going. Uranus like to rebel against those rules and invent new ways of doing things. Pluto wants to control from behind the scenes.
People need to consciously bring patience, humility and caring into their lives. Be aware that fear is going to be at the root of most of the obnoxious things that people are going to do to each other over the next year and a half. This is fear that can’t totally be expressed in words so they might try to use Force.
If relationships are too difficult, realize that time and distance might be the only thing that can keep things together. A huge reaction will bring about a huge problem while these guys are working together. It’s important to protect yourself by taking the high road. Well, and watch your back.
This aspect is repeating a theme that was introduced in the mid-1960s, but could also bring up similar problems that were hatched in . It could bring about some sudden shocks which could induce terror.
Eat right. Drink enough water. Exercise. Take Time Outs. Keep your dignity and respect others. This is a great time to take a martial arts class to avoid feeling victimized.
Don’t smother anyone with your kindness or they will use you. Don’t assume that you are as giving as you think you are. People will tend to be selfish during this transit, you included. Wisdom is needed now. Conserve your energy. Look for the humor in what’s going on. Cooperate, but don’t annihilate.
If you want to Force something, Force yourself to visualize how to improve the World. The problems that exist in human relations will probably begin to be glaringly obvious.
This transit is due to not only bring big changes to some people but it will most affect people who have strong emphasis in their astrology charts on the cusps between Pisces/Aries, Gemini/Cancer, Virgo/Libra, and Sagittarius/Capricorn. These are very important points in the charts that rule coincide with the changes of the Seasons.
Filed under: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Birth Order, Movies About Growing Up in Divorce
The Boys are Back is an Australian movie about a man whose second wife dies leaving him with his 6-year old son to raise alone while in the middle of grieving. The entire vibe of the household changes as the single Father sets up house the way he thinks is fitting. And then into this commotion his English first wife sends their son over to visit. The Father hasn’t seen this son in 8 years (I might have the years wrong).
The marquee outside the movie theater said this is based on a real story which is believable because, although in the end all problems seem to have been solved (which is unlikely because no Father who is that good looking is going to be single for such a long time) the relationships and the way the emotions come out really does seem genuine. The feelings of the children is explored. This isn’t just another film about an American parent who has to think of some way to make his child useful to his life. The older son from the divorced older family is clearly left out of the picture, feels like the oddball out for a very long time in the story and the Father confronts these feelings. He confronts his absentee Fathering. There’s no denial. The Father takes an active role as a parent rather than letting the relationship slide. So I guess it really is make-believe because that just doesn’t happen in real life.
Although death and divorce are talked about in one breath together in real life they are really so much different, especially for the kids. Death brings finality. The grief involved has to do with coming to terms with complete loss. Divorce brings complete loss of secure family (which can’t be discussed), feelings of failure, guilt, trying to fix things, false hopes, maybe relief (although the only people I’ve ever heard say this were shrinks), and just general dis-ease and awkwardness that one has to get used to.
Anyway, this is probably the only movie that I remember being able to relate to on an emotional level. Maybe that’s because I’ve experienced both Divorce and Death of parents. At any rate, it will make you laugh. It will make you cry. And it will make you wish you could live in the Grandmother’s house which is so cool.
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Child Development Psychologist Robert Hughes answers basic questions about how divorce affects the kids for Parent News. Kind of interesting how quickly the magazine says that a kid who reacts to his parents divorce has a “disorder.” Of course, there is no insight into how to deal with the situation.
There is an interesting section where Hughes categorizes how children of a certain age react to their parents divorce. Always like to match these phases up with what I’m working on through astrological return cycles which show developmental phases as well. I’m supposing that if you nuke a kid spiritually or emotionally while he’s going through one of his first Return Cycles he relives the cycle very intensely later on in life. Divorce is the ideal H-Bomb for such nuclear fall-out.
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Somebody should write a children’s book for a kid from divorce who has to face growing up after being told these statistics about his chances of future happiness.
Don’t know how credible some of those statistics are. Society has changed a bit since some of the studies were created so some numbers may have adjusted. Either way, they are very, very scary.
Our Child’s Book: Adventures with factory produced, assembly line step-parents, blind rage that causes one to kill others, jail time. The greatest horror of all, of course, is going to the shrink to get some “help.” That’s a blind alley if ever I’ve seen one. Most shrinks are divorced at least 3 times over themselves. Who’s in denial here?
Filed under: Alcoholism, Exemplary Children of Divorce, Health, Household Pets, Raised by non-relatives, Uncategorized
In 1937, his parents divorced and he was passed from relative to relative before being returned to his alcoholic father, experiences that profoundly shaped his life. ‘A nomadic existence made Nature my companion of choice, because the outdoors was the one part of my world I perceived to hold rock steady. Animals and plants I could count on; human relationships were more difficult.’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/oct/01/usa.science
Sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson whose parents divorced when he was 7 years old found a creative outlet for his expression through the life style brought on by his parents’ divorce. The year of the divorce he was blinded in one eye during a fishing accident. The eyesight in his other eye began to lose vision and he began to lose the ability to hear in the upper registers, so lost the ability to hear bird songs.
Because he obviously is incredibly adaptable (and adaptable) he continued his love of the observation of nature by focusing on the study of insects later on in college. They were small and could be observed close up.
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Dutch Social Workers are trying to keep a 13 year old girl from trying to be the youngest person to sail around the World.
That’s odd enough in itself but they are using arguments against the girl’s trip based on the fact that she’s from a divorced family. Laura lives with her Father in the Netherlands. Her Mother lives in Germany.
Bits from the above linked article:
But the Dutch Council for Child Protection is so concerned about the dangers of the marathon voyage it has asked a court to grant it temporary custody of Laura so it can do what her parents refuse to: Halt the trip.
Judges at Utrecht District Court were to announce Friday whether they will scupper Laura’s record-breaking plans. In the meantime, the legal battle has ignited a wide-ranging debate even in this traditionally seafaring nation about the role that parents should play in their children’s risky adventures.
The rat race to become a so-called “super child” — the youngest to accomplish some grueling feat — can be fueled by ambitious parents, laser-focused children with talent, or youngsters with a deep need to please or be praised, psychologists say.
Dutch social workers fear that could be an issue in Laura’s case, for she lives with her Dutch father who is divorced from her German mother.
“Laura has divorced parents and it is very normal for a child of this age to be very loyal to the parent (he or she) is living with,” Child Protection spokesman Richard Bakker told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “How much does she identify herself with her father, who is a good sailor?”
Laura and her father appeared at a court hearing Monday to discuss the council’s request, but the mother did not show up, Bakker said.
“She simply does not have the experience to anticipate the problems and possible crises that await her,” the paper wrote.
Besides the physical hazards, experts also warn that being alone for so long at such a young age could hinder the child’s emotional development.
“A 13-year-old girl is in the middle of her development and you don’t do that alone — you need peers and adults,” said Micha de Winter, a professor of child psychology at Utrecht University.
Adults can make choose to be alone, he added, “but for children it is not good.”
“Particularly the absence of parents at such a crucial time of the child’s development … the risks are serious,” he told AP.
Ah, hahahahahhaa! Well, for one, I had no clue that Social Workers knew about the loyalty gig between Children of D and their Resident Parent. Bravo, Netherlanders. But, really now, haven’t these Social Workers grown up in a Divorced family? Sitting around listening to your parents’ endless personal problems is healthy? Bouncing back and forth between parents is healthy? Disruption to friendships because two sets of parents need extra attention is healthy?
I’m not interested in record breaking super kids myself, this trip sounds unbelievably foolish, but to use these arguments in Laura’s case is ridiculous.
Come on, guys. Kids used to be on their own at age 13-14 anyway. They grew up to become Greta Garbo and Charlie Chaplin. Dream makers.
According to the article linked, Laura Dekker was born into an oddball lifestyle. She wasn’t born in a little brick house with tulip pots in Deutschland. She was born in New Zealand while her parents were sailing around the World and spent the first 4 years of her life on the ocean in a boat. She has been sailing solo since she was 6 years old. If she were to take off by herself in this venture she estimates the trip would last about 2 years.
Her situation does sort of sound psycho-babbly because it looks like Laura might be wanting to repeat the best part of her childhood when her family was together and happy and free. Maybe that’s not good. But, if she’s held back from pursuing such a strong dream her spirit will be squelched anyway. Can’t they make a compromise?
Filed under: College Drop Out, Exemplary Children of Divorce, Religion, creativity
Biographies of Modern Artists are difficult to come by. Artists speak through their work first and if they’re successful a biographer comes along and explains the life experience from which the art springs. I was really pleased to find that Artist Liza Lou is from a divorced family. Lou is an American Artist who makes unbelievably beautiful sculptures which are covered in tiny beads. She became famous for her life-size portrayal of a modern american kitchen which sparkles and gleams. It’s a feminist commentary. It’s also interesting that she chose to show an idealized version of something related to home.
Lou’s childhood seems very strange. Her parents were bohemian artists living in New York until they found God and became Born Again Christians and moved to the suburbs. Lou’s Father seems to have gone off the deep-end. She has performed a piece about his abuse. Lou has a sister. I don’t know what age she was when her parents divorced. She is said to be still close to her Mother.
Excellent article (with pictures) here.
From the article:
“Liza’s work is an imitation of life, where nothing is real,” says her Paris gallerist, Thaddaeus Ropac. “At the same time, it’s so present that it can be very frightening.” According to art historian and critic Robert Pincus-Witten, it offers a unique synthesis of issues deriving from conceptualism, Pop art and feminism. “There’s that ambiguity between the extremely luxurious and the politically terrifying,” he says.
You don’t have to dig very deeply into Lou’s personal history to find the wellsprings for her works’ conflicting themes. Her parents lived determinedly bohemian lives in Manhattan until 1965, when they attended a revival meeting and became born-again Christians. After burning all of their books and artworks, including Roy Lichtenstein paintings that were gifts from the artist, they moved to Minnesota, where they worked for various fundamentalist churches. Lou and her sister grew up watching exorcisms and speaking in tongues.
At a certain point in her teens, Lou began to question some of the tales she’d been told: Did King David really speak to her mother in the hospital after Lou was born, to explain that the baby was a blessing unto this world? (Today, although not exactly an atheist, Lou says she isn’t a believer, either: “Certain things have to line up for me in terms of logic.”) In 1989 she took a summer trip to Europe, and in the cathedrals of Florence and Venice, she experienced revelations, though they had less to do with Jesus than with mosaics and Byzantine domes. “As an American kid who grew up in the suburbs—postmodern churches with plastic chairs and all that crap—it was totally transforming to be in a place that took hundreds of years to make,” Lou says. “That blew me away.”
