Last weekend, I made a video about three ways to heal your T-Square, but I realize that the accompanying worksheet that I posted in the video description isn’t hyperlinked, and you can’t even see the whole web address. I’m going to have to figure that out, but in the meantime, I’m just posting it as a web page. Everything is rough, so your comments and suggestions are very much welcome.

A Conversation with your T-Square

This worksheet riffs off a common technique used in therapy called the Empty Chair Exercise where you sit across from an empty chair and talk to a certain person that you envision sitting there. In this case, we’re talking to the unintegrated planets in our t-square to see if we can come up with some strategies or agreements that might help us achieve integration.

Don’t feel intimidated or constrained by the amount of lines for each question- if there are too many lines, just jot down words that come to mind. If there isn’t enough space, feel free to write on the back. You’ve been living with this t-square all your life, so there will be things to say.

Label the planets in your t-square.

Strategy 1: Becoming Aware of the Energies of the Three Players

Apex Planet: _____________________________________

Who in your life—or what – do you feel embodies this energy for you? (I say “who” because often there is projection here onto someone outside ourselves, but not necessarily)

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What is this planet asking from you?

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What do you want to say to this planet* about its need to be involved in the opposing planets? (or * people/thing/energy)

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Why is it so hard to integrate its qualities into your first opposing planet? Like what fight happens when your apex wants to get involved with this planet?

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Why is it so hard to integrate its qualities into your second opposing planet? What fight happens when your apex wants to get involved in this planet?

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Opposing Planet #1: _____________________________________

What part of yourself does this planet represent to you?

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What does this planet want to be free to do?

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How does it feel when the apex planet tries to be involved in your exercising of this planet?

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What are ways that you’ve already seen this planet and the apex planet working together effectively? Do you remember when? (ie. What were the transits?)

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If you could speak to this first opposing planet right now in bodily form, what would you say?

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Opposing Planet #2: _____________________________________

What part of yourself does this planet represent to you?

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What does this planet want to be free to do?

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How does it feel when the apex planet wants to be involved in your exercising of this planet?

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What are ways that you’ve successfully seen this planet and the apex planet working together effectively?

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If you could speak to this first opposing planet right now in bodily form, what would you say?

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Strategy 2: The Empty Space (Fourth Leg of the Stool)

Now we should notice the empty space that is opposite the apex planet. If there is more than one planet at the apex, find the midpoint between them and then find the degree opposite it and the house it’s in. Also locate it on the chart on the first page.

House: ___________________________________

Sign: _____________________________________

Degree: ___________________________________

What is something you could do to honor the energy of this house?

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What is something you can do to honor the energy of this sign?

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What are the current transits to this degree? Any slow-moving planets moving toward this degree?

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Strategy #3: Integrating your Projection on the micro-level

Now we need to think about integrating the qualities of the apex, but it a safe manner. I can’t say this for certainty that this is universal, but I believe the apex planet is experienced as quite threatening outside of ourselves. There may be people who represent the archetype(s) of the apex in your life who truly are abusive and bullying and I’m not saying start including them back in your life. If that person is not in our lives, there will be other ways the archetype manifests and we can deal with those examples on a micro level.

The apex planet creates a false exigency for us. Like for example, Saturn is my apex planet, and I find myself saying over and over that the people representing Saturn in my life want me to fail, which is probably not true. If your apex planet is Neptune, it might be telling you that you need to sacrifice yourself for others when you don’t actually have to. What is your apex planet telling you?

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Do you notice anything false about it?

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What does it feel like to sit with that idea, that it might not actually be true? What does the felt sense feel like in your body? What doubts or fears come up around that?

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In what way(s) would your identity be affected if that were not true?

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To get you thinking along the lines of projection, I’ll give a couple micro-examples. My unintegrated projected Saturn criticizes me, discourages me, and says that I’m trapped in my t-square and can’t get out, and that’s probably how things will be from now on.

When I’m with my boyfriend, because he’s such a good fatherly figure and sometimes takes on that responsible “adult” dynamic in our interactions, I can sometimes fall into acting like a kid around him, the loving father. Eventually when that gets old, I’ll realize “OK, time to be an adult here again.” And I’ll take a breath, and kind of “take on” my adulthood again. I just breathed in my Saturnian energy.

When I see a dirty thing on the kitchen counter that I don’t want to deal with, I hear “See? You can’t get out of your rut today- you’re bound to just be unproductive and waste the whole day because you can’t even deal with a dirty dish. This mess just illustrates how trapped you are.” But then when I make a point to stop and deal with dirty thing, I feel better and more capable. I have used the discipline of Saturn (the positive manifestation) to deal with it, and successfully integrated it.

Thinking about the lies your apex planet tells you when it’s unintegrated and projected, and the positive, healthy manifestation of that planet, what happens when you do one small thing to integrate it? Talk about how you feel afterward too.

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Now think about your two opposing planets- they are two things that you can’t enjoy or partake in because your apex planet is always meddling or interfering with your exercising of it. What is something you can do to get one step closer to take on the projection around opposing planet #1?

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Now opposing planet 2. You want to enjoy it in some way, but can’t because the apex planet is meddling. What is something you can do to get one step closer to take on the projection around opposing planet #2?

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The T-Square Worksheet

A Conversation with your T-Square

Strategy 1: Becoming Aware of the Energies of the Three Players

Apex Planet: _____________________________________

Opposing Planet #1: _____________________________________

Opposing Planet #2: _____________________________________

Strategy 2: The Empty Space (Fourth Leg of the Stool)

Strategy #3: Integrating your Projection on the micro-level

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