North East: Infancy
Everything is brand new and there is a blur between the self and others. There is also a sense of trust that we will be cared for. We are still deeply connected to our parents.
East: Childhood
We become more independent from our families. Friends are of great importance and we find a great many things we are interested in learning and doing.
South East: Adolescence
We begin to be more independent from our families. Friends become very important. We struggle with the uncertainties of who we are and what we look like to others.
South: Young Adult
We finish our formal education and begin to settle into jobs and perhaps marriage and a family. It is a busy time of care-taking, establishing careers and community involvement.
South West: Middle Adulthood
We begin to take a look at our life and at how we can bring to balance. There is often a shift of focus, perhaps from job to family or from volunteer organizations to personal interests.
West: Middle Age
This is often a time when we discover that there are things we are clinging to and need to release before we can move on; perhaps it is a relationship, a job a house or a grudge.
North West: Senior
Children are grown and retirement nears or begins. We find we take more quiet contemplative time for ourselves. We see things more in perspective and appreciate things we were to busy to notice before.
North: Elder
We are grateful for what we have and what we have had in our lives. We are more accepting of things and are able to guide others without expectations of how they might use that guidance.
It is important to be aware that we reach these stages at different ages. Some folks reach the South quite young with an early marriage and family. This may force them into the care taking of the South before they have had the time to really process the Southwest. Others take may years to sort out who they are in the Southwest before they take their place in the South.