Acorns, Birth Charts, and Purpose

Jan 22

3 min read

There is an idea that all things are like an acorn. A seed, full of potential, with an orderly, natural course of growth and development into the full image and form of itself: the oak tree.

The oak tree is a matured form of an acorn, but even fully grown, the oak sheds old leaves and winters itself, growing anew in the spring. A reminder of continual regeneration and transformation within purpose. A reminder to embrace what growth is possible in each season with the resources available.

This helpful imagery of transformation and growth progression offers us encouragement to be present and to appreciate each stage of growth: from seed to sprout to awkward stick tree to a gangly, uneven thing, to finally, a giant oak. Continually expanding according to our nature. Embracing transformation with trust that life purpose is inherent in many forms.

This is a helpful idea in approaching life, as well as astrology, personality, and relationships.

If we see an astrology chart as the seed of a moment, we read for potential and accordingly describe an oak tree, a beech, a pine, or the like. It offers an image of something to identify with and an ideal to imagine yourself towards. With personality we describe the temperament, the probable life conditions, and follow reasonable growth patterns to guess at choices and life experiences. Thinking of life and ourselves as acorns gives us a hope that our raw potential can, indeed, become something as magnificent as an oak tree. That we can become something magnificent. The idea of an acorn becomes imagery for potential being and becoming purpose.

But you now, I’ve been thinking and dreaming.

Acorns

I was more than even an acorn becoming an oak

I was a land

Charted and uncharted

Wild and tame

Oceans and rivers

Beaches, mountains, fields, and rainforests

Rock, sand, soil, and clay

I was continually made over

By my own winds

By my own rains

By my own days

And the nights too

And in the cycles

I became aware of my own universe

Mariah Ames Braden

I’m dreaming of the acorn continually changing form. I’m dreaming of the soil that holds the seed, the rainfall that waters it, the cottage nearby, the people that sit beneath the tree. I’m dreaming about endless potential and creation, cycles of transformation, and the enduring spirit of life. My thoughts have been cracked open into awareness of these many acorns of my life, and of the terrain that makes up me and my life experience. I can see a raindrop collect and travel into a waterfall, an egg hatch and become a bluebird, a pile of wood become a fence or a fire or a house. An exchange of humor become the corners of a smile or a laugh. All of this, expressions of potential and purpose in a dance of transformation and life.

I think feeling a life purpose goes beyond something singular you can describe once. Purpose is alive, creative, and experienced. It is equally unearthed and planted. Purpose is explored and told over campfire stories and songs, transformed again in the act of sharing the tales. Purpose is attained but never grasped, and therefore, cannot be lost, but only change form. What form does purpose look like for you right now? What form would you like it to take?

I’m dreaming imagery more expansive than an acorn of purpose: an entire inner world and existence of purpose. And for now, I’m going to go explore and create and rest in my own.

Ungovernable

I am ungovernable

A garden, wild

Despite my best efforts

Thank god

Over pruning myself with regulation

Misguided good intentions

Rotten down into something indigestible

But nature knows me

Better than I know myself

My Self, composed into better things

I am reborn through fire, fermentation, and dirt