The planets in a t-square can represent different archetypes in your life at different times. For example, as I wrote last week, the three warring planets of my t-square are Saturn, Neptune, and Mars, which often make it hard to stop snacking, with Neptune ruling my fourth house (emotions) and sitting in the 2nd house (food). However, the manifestations of your three planets are always swapping out, depending on context. For example, because it rules my 4th house, Neptune is going to sometimes play the role of family. The tension between this particular trio often makes itself felt at Christmas- in this opposition, I have to decide whether to stay home (Mars) or fly across the country to see my family (Neptune).
When I choose my family, I am often finding myself pulled away from myself, not by any of our conscious choices, but that’s just energetically how it comes out. Travelling to see my family for Christmas means going towards Neptune where I find it hard to maintain my personal boundaries and priorities- they all seem to get swept away in the cheery, social gusts of wind that are my family. When I feel my boundaries gone, I run back to my mars side (in the 8th house) to hide and get back to my thoughts and feelings to solidify my sense of self again.
However, whether I’m with Neptune or Mars, Saturn, the apex, is always following me around. When I’m with Neptune, Saturn is making me feel like I don’t belong and am separate from my family. When I’m on the Mars side, Saturn makes me feel guilty for missing out on family time, and selfish for needing to be alone in order to feel my individuality.
A good activity is to see what the three planets in your t-square represent in your chart (what houses do they rule) and swap their archetypes out at their respective points in the t-square to see what kinds of conflicts it imposes on you.
It is important to remember that your apex planet may act like an overlord on steroids, and it’s not you, but it is showing you what is asking to be integrated in your psyche.
