posted December 11, 2010 05:03 AM            

Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
To create a little flower is the labor of ages.
Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of religion.
–William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell.

Nature does not manifest her laws bit by bit, an inch of gravitation today and another inch tomorrow. No, every law is complete. There is no evolution in law at all. It is given once and forever … There may be a hundred thousand laws and man may know only a few today. We discover them–that is all.
–Swami Vivekananda, from a lecture given in San Francisco in 1900.

Core meaning:

Saturn rules the systole or contraction of elemental energy, cor­responding to the notion of a shrinking, imploding universe. It symbolizes the crystallization of energy into specific, material forms. Saturn stands in direct polarity to Jupiter’s dias­tolic energy: the phenomenon of an expanding universe and the spread and repli­cation of life forms. While Jupiter rules the domination of the life force over matter, Saturn rules the opposite principle: the dominance of physical matter over an animate but ephemeral consciousness. Yet, these two opposing principles work in unison and depend on each other to achieve mutual expres­sion. While Saturn organizes Jupiter’s energy, Jupiter animates the soul of mere matter. Saturn permits Jupiter’s “higher consciousness” a means of incar­nating into durable, visible, material forms. It “fixes” the ever-expanding tendency of Jupiter into a specific shape, permitting its physical expression and structure, while Jupiter infuses mere matter with an immaterial consciousness and meaning. Saturn provides a structure through which Jupiter expresses a visionary consciousness.
Saturn portrays the cosmic “law of limitation,”1 e.g., the limits imposed on the individual in the form of collectively agreed upon rules and socially accepted norms of behavior. It symbolizes the “just so” nature of reality: that water freezes at precisely thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit; that light travels at 299,792.5 kilome­ters per second; that argon has an atomic weight of 39.948. (It’s “just so.”)2 These immutable natural laws govern our universe. Saturn rules the myste­rious process through which reality is “fixed” at such predetermined levels.
As experienced in everyday life, the Saturn principle is often felt to be unfairly restrictive or even depressing in its tendency to organize, regulate, and structure. This is so especially during adolescence: a period marked by fluid states of con­sciousness and by emotional upheaval and growth. During this time, when we prefer to express ourselves in manners that challenge socially condoned constraints, Sat­urn’s positive function may be misunderstood. (This is especially the case when a younger generation is confronting older people who have unconsciously identified with Saturn and who act out its rigid forms of authoritarianism.) As we age, however, Saturn consciousness may become more clearly focused and its larger purposes may be better understood. Unless it is properly integrated, however, it will pose an obstacle to the expansion of personality, now favoring a fixed social role (persona) or a form of self-identity that is no longer open to development. As discussed in the previous chapter (see “Transcendental Jupiter”), the archetypal figure of the senex (Old Man)3 personifies this rigid, authoritarian aspect of Saturn.

Improper manifestation of the energy:

•When Saturn is hyperactive, it is experienced as a fearsome, claustrophobic sense of “harsh reality”: a fear of being “orphaned” in a “soulless” space and time (e.g., “separation anxiety”).
• When Saturn is hypoactive, it produces a sense of not “fitting in” to concrete reality: a lack of discipline; an inability to structure (especially the structured use of time and space); or a lack of “apprenticeship” in learning the “skills of daily living” (e.g., archetypally sym­bolized as an “absentee father”).

The evolution of yang consciousness begins with the Sun’s development of the self as an “ego-identity”; continues with the Martian interactive self as a dynamic (or aggressive) interplay with others; and culminates with Saturn’s realignment of the personality to suit the needs of the social-collective organization, which is composed of many other “selves.” If one appropriately expresses Saturn’s energy, one is properly related to the collective through the ability to effectively produce work and to accomplish tasks that fulfill broader social needs or that maintain institutions or organizations.
When inappropriately expressed, the demands of the larger society (which may condone only narrow, limited expressions of the identity) will eclipse the personal needs of the self (Sun). Therefore, the self is not allowed a proper, healthy expression.
Because Saturn represents a channeling of energy into socially productive tasks, we must examine the abstract notion of the society itself (especially as it functions as a censor and control mechanism) in order to understand the dangers represented by a mismanaged Saturn energy. The “eclipsing” of all that is idiosyncratic about the self is one of the primary dangers of an overactive Saturn principle (in a personal horoscope or in the horoscope of a nation). An unquestioning belief in authority or in behavior based on rigid notions of “acceptable,” sta­tus quo lifestyles will result. For example, in late twentieth-century North Korea or in Chairman Mao’s China, we have examples of societies that were dominated by overbearing authority figures who continually emphasized collective needs over those of the individual (the latter was even character­ized as the “cult of the individual”). Self-identity (Sun) was usurped by a collective self (Saturn) to the extent that the notion of collectivity as something composed of individuals almost becomes heretical. Certain aspects of American culture in the 1950s also reflected this phenomenon. This period exemplified challenges for individuals throughout the world. It was symbolized by the square between Saturn and Pluto in the mid-1950s (an angle of separation of 90 degrees), leading to the Saturn / Pluto keynote: “social institutions / dominated by ‘invisible’ control-figures who willfully exert mass-manipulation through fear tactics” and through “institutionally maintained social / surveillance techniques” (Saturn / Pluto).
When someone is overidentified with the persona or social mask, we may assume that Saturn has run amuck and has usurped the proper functioning of the individual self. The persona is related to the Ascendant4 or “rising sign” in the horoscope, which represents a personally tailored and meaningful expression of persona. For example, our “profes­sional mask” or “work persona” is forged through a personal decision to pursue a particular profession: ideally, one aligned with our aspirations, talents, abilities, and goals. This is different from a distorted self-expression that results from an inappropriate or socially imposed (Saturn) persona. When the state usurps an individual’s decision-making process and imposes a role that runs against the grain of the personal self or that severely inhibits self-expression, then the mask or persona is pressing into the face of the personality and distorting it. As the scholar Joseph Campbell pointed out, this results in the unhappy faces that we see all around us, exemplifying Saturn’s usurpation of the personal soul.5
Many societies continue to maintain excessive institutional control-mechanisms. These are personified by so-called “beneficent” authority-figures who, nonetheless, ruin the lives of innovative culture bearers who are no longer permitted to make unique contributions to society. Whether in the role of rigidly programmed authorities or in the form of authoritarian governmental institutions, when such control forces are empowered by planetary transits (e.g., the above-men­tioned Pluto-Saturn square) then the analysis of personal astrological patterns no longer suffices to answer questions pertaining to such widespread social problems. The social collective is then exerting a force over the personal life that distorts the individual’s “true face,” i.e., the appropriate expression of the horoscope or “planetary portrait.”
This reflects an aggregate result of generations of those who have remained unconsciously identified with Saturn and who have maintained a dispropor­tionate belief in authoritarian control over personal life. Then an awareness of Saturn’s appropriate role in individual life is lacking, and it needs to be cultivated in the society-at-large.
(For example, the knowledge that fixed cosmic laws provide a practical means of individual growth and challenge one to greater accomplishment, ultimately providing stepping-stones that lead to concrete means of self-liberation.)
Symbolically speaking, it is for this reason that Saturn precedes neighboring Uranus, the ruler of individual freedom and liberation. By working through Saturn’s laws and by channeling Saturn’s consciousness into everyday life, we learn to gradually transcend the limits of a “fixed” reality. Through the effective structuring of our time, through the informed manipulation of matter, we actualize a real accom­plishment: one that strengthens character and that effects positive, tangible results in the lives of others (i.e., the society-at-large).
Conversely, an unconscious identification with Saturn leads to a myopic focus on the “work, discipline, and hardship” quality of this energy, to the extent that these become goals in and of themselves and result in the exclusion of other planetary principles. When this occurs, such restrictive, life-limiting patterns are elevated to a sacrosanct level. A crypto-religious approach to duty, sacrifice, and organization will result in a distorted view of material reality.
For example, Saturn may usurp the spiritual impulse of Neptune, resulting in a “spiritualizing of matter”: a belief in work as the highest function of mankind. Or some other planetary principle, which no longer functions properly because of Saturn’s general usurpation, will cryptically manifest (e.g., “philosophizing about” (Jupiter) discipline or “romanticizing” (Venus) hardship). This cryptic, subliminal functioning represents the distorted expression of one planetary energy through the dominating lens of another. It occurs when a single function usurps the general psychic energy available for the other functions. When this occurs, eventually there will be a revolution or reversal (Uranus) of libido that leads to extreme shifts of behavior, as the psyche furtively attempts to energetically realign itself. (See my essay, “Transcendental Uranus.”)

Transcendental potential:

While the restrictive quality of Saturn (with its emphasis on fixity, law, duty, and responsibility) will generate fear in those who have not properly inte­grated it, working consciously with Saturn results in dramatically shifting one’s perspective so that a more positive view of the energy comes into focus. For example, if one has already experienced the imprisoning effect that results from a lack of Saturn’s discipline, organization, and planning, then a reassessment of one’s relationship to the energy will provide one with an ability to restructure life and to actualize one’s potential. Effectively manag­ing a social role and achieving goals in a realistic manner are keynotes that are catalyzed through a conscious integration of the Saturn principle. Saturn rules the impulse to “sit down and get things done,” especially something that has an impact on the broader society.
Relocation to a foreign land may force the issue of “fitting in” (a fundamental keynote) or may render the notion of ‘responsibility” as being something desirable, as the perceived “dreariness” of Saturn’s “realistic, day-to-day, routine” quality is now balanced by the exotic experience of encountering an unknown set of social conditions and mores. In this sense, we are given the ability to start afresh with Saturn, to experience a new approach to structuring our day, enduring hardship, and reaping a reward.
Under the Transcendental Saturn locale, we may make contact with those who assist us in developing self-discipline or in realistically planning and structuring daily life. A properly integrated Saturn will enhance professional advancement and lead to a collective recognition of achievement. We may also develop positive relationships with authority figures (particularly through pro­fessional contacts), and such encounters will “humanize” the Saturnian energy, in the sense that developing a relationship with authority will transform the foreboding image of Saturn into something more humanly approachable and real. In turn, this will enhance one’s ability to realize inner authority and control over one’s life.

Personalities with Primary Transcendental Saturn:

Ethel Barrymore (the “first lady” of American theater, whose “disciplined approach” to acting was exemplified by her statement: “We became actors not because we wanted to, but because it was the thing we did best”); Otto von Bismarck (German ambassador to France who provoked the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and who later dictated the “constricting terms” of peace to France, whose Primary Saturn runs directly over France); Sean Connery (actor whose Primary Saturn is located over his birthplace in Edinburgh, Scotland; known for portraying “stoic” characters bearing “serious social responsibility” and for enunciating with a distinctive “voice of authority”); Simone de Beauvoir (with Sartre, promoted Existentialist philosophy, which was charac­terized by a “somber, severe appraisal of reality” and which evolved out of a postwar sense of “alienation, hopelessness, meaninglessness, and despair,” which envisioned humanity as existing in a “soulless universe” bereft of absolute values, and which posed personal “responsibility” as an alternative to such despair); Emily Dickinson (poet born directly under her Primary Saturn in Amherst, Massachusetts; remembered for the unusually “restricted lifestyle of self-imposed exile and deprivation” that characterized her biography and that engendered the major themes in her writing); Jeane Dixon (born near the line of her Primary Saturn in Medford, Wisconsin; “professional” psychic whose most memorable prediction foretold of John F. Kennedy’s imminent assassination; whose Transcendentals describe the “concrete manifestation / of occult forces” [Primary Saturn / Secondary Neptune]; who worked with the FBI in a “propaganda / and control” [Neptune / Saturn] program to influence public opinion; F. Scott Fitzgerald ([with Pluto] whose novel, The Great Gatsby, portrayed a man who “achieved great material success / but who destroyed himself and others in the process” [Saturn / Pluto]; Jim Morrison (“depressed and tormented” singer-songwriter obsessed with “authority figures,” who relocated to his Primary Saturn in California, where he “accomplished” his greatest work; often remembered for his aphorism: “When you make your peace with authority, you become an authority”); Van­essa Redgrave (actress who assumed a “grave sense of personal responsibility toward the “fate of the social collective”; remembered for aligning herself with causes often consid­ered radical or innovative [with Secondary Uranus] and for the “severe, authoritarian manner” she used to communicate the “seriousness” (Saturn) of such causes; best remembered for her role in promoting the rights of the Palestinians, whose homeland is located under her Primary Saturn); Eleanor Roosevelt (one of the most “hard­working” of the presidential First Ladies, who held many “positions of responsibility” and who regularly took “refuge in labor,” saying, “If I feel depressed, I go to work”); Harry S. Truman (American president whose Primary Saturn runs from southern Japan to northern Korea, the location of his two main interventions: dropping the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Korean War; remembered for his “caustic, tell it like-it-is,” “just so” style of communication); Woodrow Wilson (whose second presidential term was focused on directing the Allied victory in Europe, where Primary Saturn forms a Transcendental Midpoint-Field with Secondary Neptune; like other American presi­dents born with a Primary Saturn, through the office of the presidency he experienced a powerful form of “responsibility” to the “social collective”).6

* * *

Keynote phrases for Saturn:

•Understanding and working with the “laws of limitations.” Using such laws to actualize goals and adapt to reality.
•The ability to crystallize or “make real” a potential form.
• In its most sophisticated form, Saturn is the magician who incarnates beauty (Venus), inspiration (Jupiter), intuition (Uranus), vision (Neptune) etc., into the three-dimensional construct that we collectively refer to as reality.
•The image of God as a cornerstone. The notion of creation as a blueprint. The concept of relationship as fulfilling responsibility. The goal of action as accomplishment. The chan­neling of energy into discipline and socially productive work.
•The accumulation and accretion of yang energy into physical matter.
•The progressive evolution of yang, unfolding from an interactive self-identity (Mars) to a collective spirit expressed in the social organism (Sat­urn).
•In Indian astrology, Saturn corresponds to “prudence, frugality, self-control, loyalty and steadfastness.”7
•Yang expressed as collective identity and collective self.

1. “The Saturn glyph reveals one of the most important aspects of terrestrial life: the law of limitation ...” Oken, As Above, So Below, p. 297.
2. An expression coined by Rudyard Kipling, frequently used in a more psychological context by Carl Jung. These “just so” statements are a paraphrase of Jung’s work.
3. “Saturn ... is the mysterious and sinister Senex (Old Man).” Jung, Mysterium Coniunc­tionis, p. 224.
4. The degree of the zodiac that is rising at the moment of birth and that designates the cusp of the First House.
5. See the widely acclaimed Power of Myth interview with Bill Moyers.
6. Saturn and Pluto appear as the least aspected planets in the horoscopes of many American presidents. Including George W. Bush, the 42nd person to hold that office, there were 9 presidents with least aspected Saturn [21.4%]; 4 with second least aspected Saturn [9.5%]; and a total of 13 [30.9%] with Saturn as either least- or second least aspected. For more presidential statistics, see Part II, chapter III, “Transcendental Biogra­phies.” (Although George W. Bush is referred to as the “43rd” president, one president, Grover Cleveland, served two nonconsecutive terms (as the “22nd” and “24th” U.S. president.) See my essay on Saturn and Transcendental Nations, below.
7. Dreyer, Indian Astrology, p. 94.

Additional Saturn quotes:

Laws made clear uphold the city [...] / One’s bearing / shapes one’s fate.
(Heraclitus.)

There is a limit to everything.
(Proverb.)

posted December 11, 2010 05:03 AM            

Things keep their secrets.
–Heraclitus.

The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destruc­tive sword, are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man.

For light doth seize my brain
With frantic pain.
–William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell and “Mad Song” from Poetical Sketches.

Called or not called, God shall be there.
–Erasmus.

Core meaning:

Pluto is considered the Great Transformer of the cosmos and is epitomized by Einstein’s dictum that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. While the organization of energy is altered, metamorphosed, and transformed into new forms, the energy itself does not perish. Pluto symbolizes this transformative alteration and the process that determines such far-reaching change.
Pluto rules in-depth transformation processes that occur in the psyche. While such processes have an enduring effect on the personality and on the structure of consciousness, they originate at a level far removed from the ego-complex and its ordinary functions and concerns. Pluto symbolizes the archetypal world of the col­lective unconscious (a terrain first brought to the attention of the contemporary world through the research of Carl Jung). Although each planetary symbol describes an archetypal pattern (typical patterns of perception and behavior that are innate and that transcend the spatial and temporal world), Pluto symbolizes the overall repository of the archetypes. It represents the “underworld” of the collective unconscious and of the collective psychic changes that originate there and that manifest as mass movements in social history.
Pluto also rules psychoanalysis (and the collective aspects of the Freudian subconscious). The date of (astronomical) Pluto’s discovery roughly corresponds to the period of initial research into depth psychology: a field originally termed “deep psychology” and, later, the “depth psychology” of Freud, Adler, Jung, and others. The existence of Pluto was strongly suspected by Percival Lowell and by other astronomers as early as 1905; it was officially discovered by Clyde William Tombaugh in 1930. Besides the exploration of the Freudian subconscious and of the Jungian “collective unconscious,” these dates roughly parallel the era of the First World War and the rise of political mass movements (such as Fascism and National Socialism) that culminated in the Second World War.
Such mass movements reflect a transpersonal dynamic at work within the collective unconscious. Whether on the mun­dane, intrapsychic, or spiritual level, Pluto symbolizes forces that mani­fest through broad, deep, and irrevocable change. Such Plutonian effects engender transgenerational repercussions, which reach forward through time (horizontally) and which reach up (vertically) and touch the foremost point of collective consciousness: the focal point round which humanity as a whole is regen­erated and reborn (i.e., the Zeitgeist). Since Pluto symbolizes forces that contain a greater potency and range than the ego, the proximity of such energies to conscious­ness is often experienced as life threatening, fracturing, or overwhelming. When the need for such change is not recognized, Pluto forcibly enacts it in ways that are often experienced as terrifying to the ego, with its limited field of con­sciousness and its merely personal range of experience and comprehension. It was in this sense that the philosopher Rudolf Otto conceived of God as a terrifying and fascinating force, which he called mysterium tremendum [Pluto] et fascinans [Neptune].1
When such Plutonian energies are not feared and, instead, are “worked through” by means of a conscientious cooperation with the ego, this leads to a positive transforma­tion of consciousness. This is the goal of Pluto as manifested on the human plane. In accordance with its “depth” symbolism, Pluto signifies penetrating depths of awareness. Depth comprehension of the divinity of the higher Self (the god in man) is the ultimate goal of individuation, and it is toward this goal that Pluto con­stantly (often imperceptibly) moves. In its extroverted form, this includes a “reach­ing in-depth” into the divine Self of another person and achieving a spiritual understanding that transcends all mundane forms of comprehension and explication.

Improper manifestation of the energy:

•The attempt to transform another person against his will.
•Widespread destructive transformations that affect people, places, or things and the psychic inflation that results in channeling such destructive energy.

Just as Pluto is the mythic god of the underworld, the contemporary use of the term “underworld” signifies marginal forces in society, such as organized crime, that eat away at society in a manner that remains invisible to the ordinary person. This exemplifies the hidden or invisible nature of the Pluto principle; the most powerful and mysterious forces in the world remain beyond our capacity to perceive or to understand. When someone is unconsciously identified with Pluto, rather than assisting Pluto in its transformation of consciousness, they may act-out processes that reflect nega­tive, destructive transformations (either personal or social in nature). Pluto will then manifest as a need to control another person or situation, often in an “invisible” or “behind the scenes” fashion, e.g., executives of corporations who control processes of mass consumption. Leaders of crime syndicates personify yet another aspect of Pluto, especially in their seizing of “mass control” through negative forms: murder of enemies; corruption, on a global scale, of social-collective institutions etc. The phenomenon of “deep politics” or of the hidden agendas of the “powers that be” (sometimes referred to as the “invisible” government) also falls under the Plutonian rulership. In its most negative form, we have instances of mass surveillance and control; incarceration; and liquidation. Other negative keynotes include psychotherapists who misuse their knowledge of the “collective” unconscious and physicists whose research into subatomic particles results in the use of weapons of mass-destruction and control (e.g., the critical “mass” of an atom bomb).
When the archetype of transformation directs energy to a new pathway of regeneration and that pathway is blocked, then mental illness may ensue. Pluto will then manifest in a repetitive cycle of symbolic behavior, ideation, or hallucination. Such symptoms contain meaningful symbols that point to rebirth and reconstitution, yet such clues and “hidden meanings” will not always be decipherable to consciousness. This is the meaning behind such complex, highly baroque symbol structures and behind the hermetic nature of neu­rotic and psychotic behavior and ideation.2 When the hidden meaning contained in such ideation remains unrecognized, the symbols will be acted out in a concrete, literal fashion. Since Pluto symbolizes energies origining at the fur­thest reaches of the archetypal realm, Pluto’s language, like that of myth, religion, and poetry, is metaphoric: rich in imagery and ideation.
The “death and rebirth” function of Pluto tears away at and destroys out­moded forms of psychic functioning and transforms these into expressions that are more vital. When such regenerating pro­cesses are blocked or halted while in this “tearing down” phase,3 however, Pluto will manifest in self-destructive urges. Instead of the regenerating power of “death and rebirth,” destructive behaviors and a fascination with “dark forces” will ensue, minus any positive attempt at regeneration or reconstitution. Another typical form of halted transformation is an obsession with suicide: instead of the rebirth of consciousness, the psyche concretizes the death-and-rebirth symbolism as a literal need to physically perish.4
When Pluto’s positive function of in-depth transformation is blocked, a yearning for inner transformation will haunt the personality, but the means of effecting such a change will remain difficult or impossible to imagine. It will then manifest in a projected guise, e.g., as an unconscious attraction to “shady characters” who embody dark, underworld aspects of the Pluto complex. This represents a dangerous psychic symptom, particularly if it involves a romantic attraction. A fascination for dubious situa­tions or experiences that seem to promise some form of elemental regeneration will result. Yet the surrendering of one’s will to the control of a repressive force is usually the price one must pay (e.g., submitting oneself to analysis with an irresponsi­ble psychotherapist; the offer of lucrative employment with an organized crime figure; agreeing to a quid quo pro arrangement with a powerful yet corrupt politician or political machine etc.). Such dangerous behavior is avoided if the need to “redeem” the unconsciously functioning transformation process is consciously recognized.

Transcendental potential:

One of Pluto’s most peculiar qualities is that, sometimes, even if one is working con­sciously with psychological transformation processes, the effects of such processes are only dimly perceived at the level of ego-consciousness (particularly when such work is in process). This is a keynote effect of Pluto’s “invisible” quality.5 Many of the effects wrought by Pluto will not be consciously assimilated or fully appreciated until years later, well after Pluto has achieved its metamorphosis.
There may be a function of psychic self-pres­ervation at work here, as certain experiences are, indeed, over­whelming, especially if they are made too apparent to the conscious mind while they are occurring. For example, a person undergoing medical treatment for a life-threatening illness may repress the full implications of such an experience until some time afterward, when the ego will more safely absorb the horrifying details of such an event. Similarly, the astrological (or astrocartographic) enhancement of Pluto as a Transcendental energy will result in transformations that may take years to fully integrate.
Pluto symbolizes the need to comprehend things at a core level: to uncover ultimate truth. Historically, this has manifested in a variety of ways: examples include Sigmund Freud, who studied under Charcot in Paris, in proximity to his Transcendental Pluto; Teilhard de Chardin, who contemplated the evolution of spirit and matter and the processes of creation and change in the universe under his Transcendental Pluto, in China; and the Dalai Lama, born under Transcen­dental Pluto in Tibet, who served as a figurehead for collective spiritual move­ments that reaped social change in the world-at-large.
In the Tran­scendental Pluto region, psychic processes that were previously blocked or repressed will break into consciousness in the form of impersonal images that press for conscious recognition and formal expression in life. The “sex, death, and rebirth” theme of Scorpio (traditionally ruled by Pluto) will find formal expression in a broader understanding of sexuality, perhaps as a means of transforming or transcending the personal identity (e.g., la petite mort); an awareness of death as the ulti­mate transformer of the Self; and a fuller comprehension of the forces that must be channeled to effect a collective rebirth in the global society. Pluto’s transformational energy finds expression in cer­tain classic Pluto professions: a therapist who tears down inhibiting autonomous complexes; an archaeologist who tears through layers of sediment to uncover archaic ruins; a researcher who delves deeper and deeper, burrowing into the essence of his subject; a surgeon who penetrates the body and transforms its functioning.
The search for an ultimate metaphysical truth (and the realization that it will ever elude us) lies at the center of the Plutonian mystery. According to Rudolf Otto:

The truly ‘mysterious’ object is beyond our apprehension and com­prehension, not only because our knowledge has certain irremov­able limits, but because in it we come upon something inherently ‘wholly other’, whose kind and character are incommensurable with our own, and before which we therefore recoil in a wonder that strikes us chill and numb.6

Or, as succinctly stated by Tersteegen:

A God comprehended is no God.

As Jung has remarked, “Death is a drawing together of two worlds, not an end. We are the bridge.”7 Through Pluto, worlds are drawn together and, through the new incarna­tion of personality, symbolized by the Sun, the cycle begins once again. In the words of Heraclitus, “The beginning [Sun] is the end [Pluto].”

Personalities with Primary Transcendental Pluto:

Muhammad Ali (world heavy-weight boxing champion renowned for his “destructive” talent); the Dalai-Lama (born near Primary Pluto in Tibet; a spiritual leader who personified a “transformation and metamorphosis of self”; renowned for “catalyzing deep-seated change in the personality” of others); Claude Debussy (musician whose work “revolutionized and transformed” composition in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth century); Benjamin Disraeli (British statesman remembered for “imposing the will” of England on other nations: notably, through the imperi­alistic policy of his second ministry–a classic Pluto keynote of dictatorial “control of others”); Adolf Eichmann (Nazi and chief-coordinator of the deportation of Jews to the “extermination centers,” whose Secondary Mars / Primary Pluto manifested as “autocratic, willful, aggressive, and violent acts leading to widespread social upheaval”; “enforced collective transformation”; and “energizing the forces of mass destruction”; whose negative use of such energies epitomized the darker qualities inherent in this intense planetary pairing); F. Scott Fitzgerald ([with equally aspected Saturn] author who chronicled “excess and self-destruction” in his autobiography, The Crack-Up, and in his most acclaimed novel, The Great Gatsby (which was written under his Primary Pluto line, in France), and who was a central figure in the “Lost Generation” Paris of the 1920s: a site directly under his Primary Pluto); Sigmund Freud (whose “research” led to the discovery of “depth psychology” and the “unconscious”); Benito Mussolini (“dictator” whose “politi­cal activism” led to political upheaval, “mass movements, and social turmoil”); Arthur Rimbaud ([with equally aspected Venus] poet who “revolutionized” creative expression in modern literature); Teilhard de Chardin (“paleontologist” whose “research” near his Pri­mary Pluto line in China led to the discovery of the Peking Man; whose “deeply reflective” writings explore “profound transformation processes in the cosmos” and “ultimate ques­tions concerning cosmological processes”; whose writings were censored and repressed by the Church and which were all pub­lished “posthumously” (Pluto rules the “return of the repressed”);8 Luchino Visconti (Italian film director who attempted to “transform social conditions” through the artistic medium of film [with Secondary Venus] and whose later works portray “decadence”).

* * *

Keynote phrases for Pluto:

•Wisdom gained through in-depth transformation processes, often experienced as horrifying, annihilating, and ego fracturing.
•The tripartite archetypal process of: complete breakdown into constituent elements; realignment and metamorphosis; transformation, regeneration, and renewal (rebirth).
•A process whereby the ego or will (Sun) undergoes a thorough change through an intercession of the transpersonal Self (the latter referred to as the Divine Will; the Cosmic Will; the imago Dei; or the god in man).
•The experience of God as a terrifying or insurmountable obstacle upon which the iden­tity is smashed apart and, ultimately, reborn.
•The deus absconditus: the “hidden” or “concealed God,” whose presence is felt during experiences of profound and irrevocable change.
•The final form of yang consciousness in the symbolic solar system.
•Yang energy experienced as a cosmic identity or transpersonal spirit.

1. See his Das Heilige (1923): “These two qualities, the daunting and the fascinating, now combine in a strange harmony of contrasts, and the resultant dual character of the numi­nous consciousness, to which the entire religious development bears witness, at any rate from the level of the ‘daemonic dread’ onwards, is at once the strangest and most notewor­thy phenomenon in the whole history of religion.” The Idea of the Holy, trans. John W. Harvey, p. 31. Or, in the words of Joseph Campbell, “Here is the revelation. And it’s a rev­elation of what? Of a mysterium. A mystery. And there are two aspects to it: one is the tre­mendum, the horrific, and the other is the fascinans, the charm.” “[Kant] said that blue eyes are beautiful; dark eyes are sublime. And this indicates the problem. The problem is beauty and the sublime. Beauty invokes; the sublime shatters, overpowers ... It’s the expe­rience of the mysterium tremendum. The beauty is the experience of the mysterium fascin­ans: that’s the difference.” The Hero’s Journey, pp. 191, 88-89. Yang planets fall under the category of the mysterium tremendum; yin planets describe various stages of fascinans, as noted in my essay, “Summary of Planetary Energetic Evolution.”
2. John Weir Perry, Roots of Renewal in Myth and Madness.
3. See Robert Hand, Horoscope Symbols.
4. See Hillman, Suicide and the Soul. Hillman’s emphasis is on suicide as the unintegrated fantasy of rebirth.
5. Often, this effect is often observed in natives undergoing a Pluto transit, particularly when the native is open to working with the transformative powers of Pluto, rather than fearing change and psychic transformation. (A Pluto transit occurs when Pluto reaches a degree in the zodiac that aligns with a planetary degree in the horoscope.)
6. Otto, “The Analysis of ‘Mysterium’,” The Idea of the Holy, p. 28. (See my essay, “Numinous Consciousness.”) This work, which explores essential aspects of the fascinans et tremendum experience, was published in 1917 (and it appeared in English translation in 1923): the quintessential Pluto epoch, marked by Tombaugh’s discovery of the planet, as well as by the rise of mass movements, fascism, world wars, and research into subatomic physics and the psychology of the collective unconscious–all classic Pluto themes, as previously noted. At the moment of Tombaugh’s discovery of astronomical Pluto, Pluto and Saturn (Pluto’s lesser octave) were the least aspected planets: hence, they were the Primary Transcendentals for the discovery of astronomical Pluto. (See part two: Transcendental Events.)
7. C. G. Jung, Emma Jung, Toni Wolff, p. 95, as cited by Claire Dunne, Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul. An Illustrated Biography, p. 180.
8. Brau, Jean-Louis, Helen Weaver, and Allan Edmands, Larousse Encyclopedia of Astrol­ogy. Ed. Helen Weaver. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980, p. 220.

Additional Pluto quotes:

What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.
(Don DeLillo, White Noise.)

That which always was, / and is, and will be everlasting fire, / the same for all, the cosmos, / made neither by god nor man, / replenishes in measure / as it burns away.

By cosmic rule, / as day yields night, / so winter summer, / war peace, plenty famine. / All things change. / Fire penetrates the lump / of myrrh, until the joining / bodies die and rise again / in smoke called incense.

What was scattered / gathers. / What was gathered / blows apart.

The living, when the dead / wood of the bow / springs back to life, must die.

Gods live past our meager death. / We die past their ceaseless living.

After death comes / nothing hoped for / nor imagined.
(Heraclitus.)

Even in a wound there is the power to heal.
(Nietzsche, Twilight of the Gods.)

Does anyone know what is in his subconscious? It would not be his subconscious if he did.
(Picasso.)

True philosophers make dying their profession.
(Plato.)

The more one probes, the more one deepens the mystery; it’s always out of reach.
(Georges Braque.)

posted December 11, 2010 05:04 AM            

Without the sun,
what day? What night?
–Heraclitus.

The soul awakes; and, wond’ring, sees
In her mild hand the golden Keys.
–William Blake, “To the Queen.”

Energy is the only life.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
–William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

The beginning is the end.
–Heraclitus.

I celebrate myself.
–Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself.”

Core meaning:

Many of the traditional qualities of yang energy as defined in the I Ching correspond to the astrological Sun. It is “light-giving, active, strong, and of the spirit.” “Its essence is power or energy. Its image is heaven.” “In relation to the universe,” it “expresses the strong, creative action of the Deity. In relation to the human world, it denotes the creative action of the holy man or sage, of the ruler or leader of men, who through his power awak­ens and develops their higher nature.”1 The yang energy is “conceived of as motion. Time is regarded as the basis of this motion.” Yang energy also expresses “the power of time and the power of persisting in time, that is, duration.”

Some of these qualities amplify the nature of the other yang planets in the symbolic solar system. The phenomenon of “motion” is further characterized in the yang manifestation of Mars. Mars and Saturn each symbolize ‘“strength in character” and the ability to “endure,” which here make their initial appearance in the Sun symbolism. A discriminating management of time, and a comprehension of the limitations that time imposes, fall under the rulership of Father Time as Chronos or Saturn. This cycle com­pletes itself in the final planetary form of yang: that is, in astrological Pluto.2 Through the transformative power of Pluto, the merely personal self is metamorphosed into the higher or Divine Self, upon which the ego structure is archetypally based. Therefore, from the crystallization of the ego, symbolized by the Sun, we progress to the “awakening power of the sage or holy man” (Pluto). It is through the “power of the Deity” (Pluto) that the sage awakens the higher nature that resides in humankind. From the incarnation of self (Sun), we finally arrive at the revelation of Self (Pluto): an evolution toward an ultimate, inner­most truth (Pluto).
A quality of singular importance in the solar symbolism is individualization: notably, in the creation of the ego, with its ability to dis­cern reality from its central position in the field of consciousness, allowing for the unique development of identity and personality. As the ego moves through “particular conditions” (Sun) of linear time and space (“motion” and “the power of persisting in time”), a uniqueness of experience, perception, and identity is the result. This “idiosyn­cratic particularization” is a principal keynote of the astrological Sun.
While the Sun rules “leadership” and being a “role model” for others, a more fully evolved Sun principle is exemplified by the “holy man or sage” who realizes the unique path that each sentient being must take to qualify for “enlightenment”–a word which itself partakes of the illuminating quality of the Sun. The path of each particular being moving toward higher consciousness is symbolized by the Sun’s brilliant, heavenly arc, which rises over the horizon and marks our ephemeral, daily passage through life. As an ontological symbol, in its rising, noontime, and setting positions the Sun’s apparent move­ment portrays our passage from birth, to midlife, to death. Finally, the Sun’s unique move­ment through the cosmos further symbolizes mankind’s unique journey of discovery in an ever-evolving universe.
While the vital energy of the Sun triggers the growth of individual life forms, the ultimate goal of the yang force is symbolized by the transpersonal planet, Pluto. Pluto sheds uniqueness and transforms the idiosyncratic identity to reveal the transcendental nature of a higher Self. In its movement from the personal to the transpersonal, identity progresses from the unique self (Sun) to the Divine Self (Pluto). As ruler of the Underworld (i.e., the archetypal realm of the collective unconscious), Pluto quali­fies the uniqueness of the solar path by placing it within a larger, transpersonal context.

The astrological glyph for the Sun (a circle with a dot in the center) symbolizes the focal point through which such eternal cosmic energies incarnate into a particular life form. In Western religious symbolism, this point (or scintilla, in alchemy) corresponds to the Christ-principle or “the Way of Christ”–a unique path one must discover (and cre­ate) within oneself. (“The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, nor the lion the horse, how he shall take his prey.”–Blake.) Even the Church Fathers drew a metaphoric correspondence between Christ and Sol. In alchemy, we have the equivalent symbol of the sol terrenus or “earthly sun”: the alchemical symbol of Sol that we recognize today as “correspond[ing] psychologically to consciousness.”3

Improper manifestation of the energy:

Egoistic tendencies, exhibitionism, and a myopic focus on personal self to the exclusion of the identity of others are typical manifestations of yang in its “immature” solar form. This kind of obsession with the “I” (identity) serves only as an obstacle to the higher Self, which then has no recourse but to cryptically manifest in such banal personalized forms (e.g., mistaking one’s ego for something “divine”).
Intrapsychically, such improper channeling of yang represents a fixation upon an ear­lier stage of ego-development. As children mature and grow into adults, a singular focus on ego growth is necessary to ensure the ego’s “durability” and “power of persisting in time.” For the creation of a strong and healthy identity, such a focus is a necessary devel­opment. In later life, however, the absence of a transpersonal (i.e., non-ego) perspective will result in inhibiting the development of the Sun’s other qualities. ”).
The ego is a psychic focal point through which yang energy will fuel inner growth; enlighten the conscious­ness of others; and illuminate the meaning of one’s own identity. These solar functions allow us to obtain and sustain meaning as a coun­terpoint to the meaningless dimension of the world. ”).
When solar consciousness becomes developmentally “stuck,” however, then the identity is corrupted by the vulgar notion that “the only thing that means anything to me is me.” Ironically, there is nothing unique or meaningful about egoism, self-centeredness, or a stage of con­sciousness that is severely limited and lacking a transpersonal dimension. What appears as uniqueness is merely the idiosyncratic and meaningless accumulation of egocentric expe­rience. This rather linear and two-dimensional realm of random experience will block the expression of the higher Self, with its potential for providing a broader scope of consciousness.

Transcendental potential:

When the Sun principle is underdeveloped in the horoscope, the identity may remain in a nascent state for an inappropriately prolonged period. This may result in an inability to develop a personal style or means of expression; shyness; or an inability to “shine” around others. Instead of an extroverted, dramatic expression of self, one may have difficulty in properly directing psychic energy into the external environment. “Surrogate egos,” in the form of attachments to those who have developed a more expressive, dramatic personal style, are typical in the lives of those with an underdeveloped Sun principle. The psychological projection of the Sun upon others is often expe­rienced as a strong admiration or even a compulsive attraction toward the beaming, radi­ant egoism of the surrogate-Sun companion. This will be especially pronounced during early life and adolescence: a period when the ego should be making a distinctive debut upon the world stage. Relationships with such surrogate-ego friends will be pursued without any conscious realization of the psychological princi­ple at work. The search for self can also take an introverted form, such as an attraction to solar principles of a more abstract nature (the inner search for the archetypal father, e.g., realizing the need to develop leadership qualities within oneself.3

Conversely, highly evolved Sun personalities may be drawn to illuminating the consciousness of the underdeveloped Sun friend or to triggering the formation of his iden­tity. Such a person finds his purpose in dramatically personifying the heroic process of individuation. He may present himself as a leader or role model and point to his own life as an example to be fol­lowed (one “orbits” around the Sun, just as the student follows the illuminating “path” of the teacher). In a similar fashion, we speak of the astronomical sun’s ability to “attract other celestial bodies into its orbit” and to “dramatically illuminate the solar system” with spectacular solar explosions and dramatic flares that emanate from the chromo­sphere, brighten the solar corona, and extend out into space as heat and energy.
In cases of ego-inflation (identifying with the solar principle), the under­developed-Sun personality may be tolerated simply as a means of “bouncing one’s rays” off an inferior orbiting object. Here, the Sun-identified personality–stuck in a develop­mental stage of flamboyant egoism and childish exhibitionism–exploits the presence of such orbiting “satellites” or revels in “collecting admirers” simply as a means of verifying the force of his own identity. Minus such attention-seeking devices, which he uses to gain and hold the fascination of others, the solar-identified personality might doubt the value and power of his own personality.
Therefore, the danger for the underdeveloped Sun-“orbiter” is clear. While he may learn to develop certain ego skills in emulating the solar role model, he may also become locked into the orbit of this more charismatic personality. (Vicarious living has its limitations.)

In cosmogonic myths, the Sun initiates a process whereby unformed primal darkness is shaped, illuminated, and vitalized, thereby engendering unique, living beings. Astrologically, we would speak of a desire to create a specific identity; to pursue a talent; to render a unique manner of expres­sion; or to celebrate, dramatize, or dignify the self. Focusing psychic energy upon tasks that uniquely match one’s abilities or that develop one’s potential will assist in the formation of an identity. In its acts of creative, the ego generates a solar force of its own: an electro-magnetizing and “heating” of the psychic atmosphere through the illumination of the self.
This pro­cess foreshadows the next astrological stage of yang: the interactive pro­pensity of Mars. In its extreme form, this will result in aggression, violence, or other forms of “yang madness.” Positively expressed, however, Mars’s interactive exchange of energy, especially when channeled through work or in dynamic groups composed of various specialists (e.g., a team working toward a specific goal), leads to positive accomplishment.
In turn, this foreshadows the next astrological stage of yang: the collective self, experienced through Saturn. Saturn sacrifices the merely personal or interpersonal goal so that the demands of the social collective are met. Saturn’s “self-sacrifice” foreshad­ows the final stage of yang, symbolized by Pluto: the surrendering illusions and, especially, shedding the “illusion” of the ego. When the self fulfills its social respon­sibility and comes to recognize society as an expression of many individual self-identi­ties forming a collective self (Saturn), a transformation process will then lead beyond the collective-self to the transpersonal encounter symbolized by Pluto.
Those “sacrificed” to the fulfillment of duty (i.e., the societal responsibilities of Saturn) or to the task of assisting others in depth transformation processes (e.g., Pluto as psychotherapist, surgeon) will need to activate any unfulfilled desires for ego-gratification, -fulfillment, -expression, and -growth (Sun). Unless this is approached consciously, one will be drawn to unconsciously fulfill such desires through one’s social (Saturn) or transpersonal (Pluto) roles. In such a case, for example, a psychotherapist’s judgments (Pluto) will be clouded by unfulfilled identity issues, e.g., he will recommend things for the patient that symbolize the unfulfilled needs of the doctor. Similarly, Saturn’s urge to engage in “dutiful” action may become tainted by the expression of egocentric control (Sun) over others. A father’s physical abuse of his son–so-called disciplining–is, in fact, not the disciplining (Saturn) of his son’s self but the engorging of the father’s ego (Sun) with negative forms of psychic energy, which are experienced as “rigid and severe authoritarianism” over others. Therefore, the solar principle must not be “skipped over” in favor of a later phase of the yang spiritual force, as the Sun energy will, sooner or later, manifest in another form: in a cryptic, subliminal, unconscious form that will be intermingled with another planetary force, as in the examples cited above.
The proper goal of solar consciousness is the individual expression of our transpersonal nature. The I Ching portrays this in the image of the sage who incarnates a creative force. The divinity of the higher Self and its noble expression in individual life forms is the ultimate manifestation of the Sun symbolism. We experience this in the singular nature of our brief human incarnation.

Personalities with Primary Transcendental Sun:

Charlie Chaplin (silent screen “celebrity” whose “dramatic self-expression” received widespread “acclaim” and who worked directly under his Primary Sun line in Hol­lywood, California); James Dean (Hollywood “star” of “nearly mythic proportions” whose “dramatic talent” flourished directly under his Primary Sun line, in Hollywood, and whose “self-absorption” is the subject of countless biographies); Amelia Earhart (avia­tor whose “well-publicized” transoceanic flights resulted in her enduring “celebrity sta­tus” as a “courageous heroine”); Paul Gauguin (one of the most “celebrated” modern artists, who relocated under his Primary Sun line in Tahiti and in the Marquesas Islands); John F. Kennedy (American president whose “heroism” in the South Seas occurred under his Primary Sun line and who was criticized for being “self-centered”); John Lennon (one of the greatest “celebrities” of the ’60s whose “talent” and “flamboyant personality” inspired a generation); Marcello Mastroianni (a “dignified” international film “star” who became the cinematic “alter-ego” of the noted film director, Federico Fellini); Pablo Picasso (“self-centered” artist who possessed profound “talent, willful individualism, and unmitigated pride,” who relocated directly under his Primary Sun line, in Paris, to become the “most celebrated” painter of the twentieth century); Rainer Maria Rilke (greatest Ger­man language poet of the twentieth century; a verse chronicler of the “self” who was born almost precisely under his Primary Sun line, in Prague); Erwin Rommel (“willful” German gen­eral and military “celebrity” who was given the “colorful” nickname, “the desert fox”; born in Heidenheim, Germany, almost precisely under his Primary Sun line).

Events: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy (the most “visible” and “publicized” assas­sination in history, which occurred under a Primary Sun line).

* * *

Keynote phrases for the Sun:

•The self actualized in sentient form.
•Consciousness, especially as structured through the focal point of the ego.
•Dramatically displaying an appropriate expression of identity to others.
•The presentation, promotion, and celebrating of the self. The ego as a tool or talent with which to define, create, or illuminate identity (i.e., identity real­ized through ego-functions and abilities).
•The “light”-giving aspect of consciousness (i.e., the illumination of consciousness through per­sonal insight).
•The experience of “shining forth.”
•The function of the individual will.
•The self-actualizing principle.
•The expression of an individual style, flair, or dramatic delivery. Style not as an expression of Venusian harmony and beauty but rather as an energetic, beaming cele­bration (“celebrity”) of self.
•The willful expression of self in attention-seeking, overtly public manners.
•A level of fame that transcends ordinary human bounds.
•Ontologically, the emergence of the identity (Sun) from the “night-world” of the emotions and from the preconscious or intrauterine psyche (Moon).
•In Indian astrology, the Sun corresponds to Prana, the “breath of life.”3
•Yang energy expressed as unique self-identity.

1. Dr Victor Mansfield has kindly granted permission to use this insightful remark from a note I received from him on October 14, 1998: “I had a guru with an unaspected Sun. He always thought that it allowed him the maximum freedom of expressing the Sun’s meaning and function. Perhaps, aspects not only help manifest or express a planet’s mean­ing and function but they also limit its scope of action.” See his groundbreaking work, Syn­chronicity, Science and Soul-Making, Chicago, Open Court Publications, 1995.
2. “It is possible to trace a line of development linking the Sun, Mars, and Saturn, which parallels the line linking the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter.” Moore and Douglas, Astrology, The Divine Science, p. 41. “Neptune is the higher octave of Venus”; “Pluto is the higher octave of Mars.” Oken, As Above, So Below, pp. 317, 324.
3. “The metaphorical designation of Christ as Sol in the language of the Church Fathers was taken quite literally by the alchemists and applied to their sol terrenus. When we remember that the alchemical Sol corresponds psychologically to consciousness, the diur­nal side of the psyche, we must add the Christ analogy to this symbolism.” Jung, Myste­rium Coniunctionis, p. 100.
4. The Sun is said to “trigger” or energize the transits of the other planets when the Sun’s apparent movement through the zodiac corresponds to celes­tial degrees reached by these planets in their movement (or transit) through space. In such a case, we can also anticipate the Sun’s “illumination” of the core meanings symbol­ized by the planets in question.
For example, when transiting Sun and transiting Ura­nus each reach a celestial degree that corresponds to the degree of one of the planets in the horoscope, the core Uranian qualities of “liberation, freedom, and intuitional brilliance” will be “illumined” by the pres­ence of the Sun’s vital energy. While the transiting degree of the Sun may seem to correspond to the moment when the Uranian event will occur (it is a traditional tenet of astrology that the Sun acts as this kind of “trigger”), the Sun’s transit may vitalize the ability of the ego to comprehend the meaning of what is actually occurring (i.e., to “see” it more clearly). Without the Sun’s participation as a transiting factor, the same event might have occurred without our conscious awareness or without our ability to discern the meaning of the experience. For this reason, the Sun may have more to do with triggering insight into transiting events and less to do with acting as a mere, mechanistic astrological trigger.

5. Dreyer, Indian Astrology, p. 87.

Additional Sun quotes:

Life is or should be an affair of each person, each one of us, getting in touch with the ele­mental forces of the universe (which is, throughout, a personal universe).
(James Jackson Putnam.)

To make a circle without a compass, try to trace a line always equidistant from the center, but do not think about other forms or about the many people who have traced circles before you. If you kill yourself, you will not make it perfectly round; and in the discrep­ancy between perfect roundness and your closest approximation to it, you will find your perfect expression. If you work in good faith you will try to make it perfect, but each of your circles, in spite of your improved dexterity in drawing them will always suffer from the same defect. Every one of them will bear your mark. But if, suddenly, you decide to imitate somebody else, you’ll do it worse, and your deception will fool only morons.
(Picasso.)

The man is only half himself; the other half is his expression.
(Emerson.)

As any artist will tell you, to be universal you have to be specific.
(Director David Cronenberg.)

Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touched from; / The scent of these arm-pits is aroma finer than prayer, / This head is more than churches or bibles or creeds.
(Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass.)

That which makes my life good makes my death good also.

(Chuang Tsu, trans. Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English.)

We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

(Teilhard de Chardin.)

posted December 11, 2010 05:04 AM            

Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
–William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell.

Core meaning:

In furthering the evolution of yang through the symbolic solar system, Mars pro­pels the “uniquely expressed ego-consciousness” (Sun) into a larger interpersonal playing field. This is not experienced as soulful union or a merging of personal (Moon) or romantic (Venus) feelings but, rather, as the experience of a distinct, particular identity maintaining its separateness yet interacting with other “selves.” The experience of two people engaged in a competitive match is an example of separate, isolate, individuals joined together in a process (the game) yet matching their respective skills against one another in order to refine and further differentiate such skills. The Mars complex describes the ability to extend one’s will, focus, and concen­tration (Sun) in a forceful manner. Therefore, Mars rules experiences that further discrimination through acts of separation.
This yang form is notable for maintaining a spirit of separateness and independence. Examples include groups composed of specialists (e.g., a battle regiment; a construction crew) whose combined efforts result in achieving a desired goal. Such groups are often composed of members with highly differenti­ated skills who work in dynamic, stressful atmospheres replete with displays of dominance assertion.
Just as Venus rules the personified yin energy, Mars rules the personification of the yang force. This is often symbolized by an adventurous, heroic, or idealized male figure. The members of such groups will either rally around or compete with the central figure upon whom the group is largely focused and by whom it is directed or ruled. The fruits of such interactive labor are produced as a result of an aggressive play of forces directed and overseen by such a key figurehead. Finally, it is through this interac­tive extension of the self that individual identity (Sun) is tested, refined, and inte­grated into consciousness and into the competitive group dynamic.
Mars rules the maintenance of distinctive self-borders. This function comes into play when one’s identity is threatened (physically or psychologically) by another person or thing. Martian assertiveness must be relied on not only to protect oneself from physical intrusion but also to separate oneself from the web of psychological projection that others attempt to impose on us. When we are viewed by others not for whom we are but, instead, as a symbol of some unintegrated aspect of their psychological material, we will become involved in their attempt to redeem or to destroy their own unconscious through an attempt to either “redeem” or “destroy” us. For example, the scapegoat is victimized by bearing the projection of society’s unintegrated “dark side,” “moral inferiority” etc. As a result, he will suffer unjustly because of an inability to force­fully demand a separation–and to therefore effect discrimination–between what is “I” and what is “thou.” Drawing a clear line around one’s territory (one’s psychic or physical boundaries) and effectively guarding and protecting it from intruders may prevent such projec­tions from taking hold in the first place. Indeed, the word projection is notoriously close to projectile: an implement of war that, like all weapons and sharply pointed objects, is traditionally associated with the Martian rulership. Indeed, one’s martial shield, martial strategy, and martial fortifications must be positioned properly in order to protect oneself effectively in the battlefield of life.
This maintenance of a discrete, separate identity is anticipated by the “light” of the Sun (i.e., conscious insight), which “show[s] up objects in all their pitiless dis­creteness and separateness” under “the harsh, glaring light of day.”1 Such solar symbolism also anticipates the Saturn complex, as Saturn traditionally rules separation wrought through “collectively agreed upon fixed boundaries and set limitations.” While the Sun engenders a “psychological light” that illuminates consciousness and that furthers the ability to discern identity, and while Mars enhances the process of discriminating between the subject and object of desire, Saturn provides a fixed structure within which an aggregate of separate identities may productively function in the society-at-large. Through Pluto (the final yang symbol), we attempt to discern the core elements of identity and of objective reality. Such Plutonian acts of discrimination involve research into the symbolic representations of the unknown (e.g., symbols of the building blocks of reality, such as mathematical equa­tions that describe the nature of subatomic particles; the symbols and imagery of the archetypes of the transpersonal psyche: the invisible, unknowable realm that lies at the substratum of being).
The quality of “separateness” that astrologers typically cite to describe Mars portrays only one aspect of Martian interaction. While never experienced as an “interpersonal merging” (such as Moon or Venus), nonetheless Mars energizes partnerships of all kinds. Energy is created through what might be termed the “tension of opposites”: positive and negative poles in proximity to one another create a force: action is the result. (Energeia is the Greek root of the word energy, from energos, meaning active, at work.) The energetic dynamic in male friendship is often based on this quality of polarity. For example, the Mars archetype ruled the eon of Aries2 (approximately 2,000 B.C.-1 A.D., which preceded the “Age of Pisces” [1 A.D.-2000 A.D.]). During this Aries eon, Mars was especially incarnated in the form of dynamic partnerships that existed between warriors. The notion of “fraternal bonds of loyalty” adequately expresses the sacred dimension of this Martian experience (much more so than does the rather profane and banal social-worker phraseology of “male bond­ing”!).
The qualities of “power,” “energy,” and “action” described in the I Ching correspond to the traditional attributes of Mars. Often, astrologers ascribe these qualities to Sun and Mars and do so in a manner that does not properly distinguish between the solar and Martian forms of expression. While the Sun signifies power, energy, and action particularly in the context of triggering the nascent self and catalyzing its function as the central point of identity (i.e., the ego-complex), Mars has more to do with power, energy, and action as it is applied with or against others on an interactive, interpersonally dynamic basis. Interactive expressions of power over others (e.g., a military regiment dynamically working together to achieve victory over another regiment) or applying one’s personal energy to complete a group task or to achieve a group goal (e.g., a team effort) are examples of the Mars effect. The intra­psychic energizing of one’s spirit as a result of these experiences is also ruled by Mars (e.g., the feeling that results from expressing interpersonal power). Unlike the further development of yang through Saturn (expressed in a larger, social-collective organization) or Pluto (the global or transpersonal expression), Mars acts on an interpersonal basis: through differentiated, interactive groups or on a one-to-one interpersonal basis. Power expressed through the “collective self” (through institutional means or through the rigid expression of socially condoned laws [Saturn]) or through the “transpersonal self” (e.g., the great dictator altering the fate of the masses through his personification of archetypal forces within the unconscious [Pluto]) describes, respectively, the collective self of Saturn and the transpersonal Self of Pluto. With Mars, interactive self-identity describes the self competing against, or acting in accord with, other “selves” and how this further defines one’s identity or the group’s self-identity, e.g., a regiment receiving group hon­ors. This experience is qualitatively different from the self-refinement achieved through social-collective (Saturn) or transpersonal forms (Pluto) of experience. In a similar manner, Mars rules the manipulation of the immedi­ate environment by an individual who actualizes his individual will: a will fueled by Martian potency, determination, and assertiveness. When work or action is the outward expression of the inner experience of power, strength, courage, aggression, ambition, adventure, hunger, passion, sexual drive etc., we witness the Martian desire that seeks to fulfill itself by obtain­ing its immediate goal.

Improper manifestation of the energy:

While Mars is usually channeled through physical energy and work, internally it is experienced as psychological vitality and desire. When challenged by diffi­cult aspects in the birth chart, and particularly when Mars is lacking in conscious integra­tion, problems will arise in channeling energy to one’s goals.
Besides symbolizing male potency, the arrow-shaped glyph of Mars signifies the expansion of identity through the expression of desire. When desires are suppressed, the self remains stuck in a nascent, unvitalized phase of development. The need to express interpersonal desire will then be usurped by another planetary principle: for example, through the assumption of an impersonal social role (Saturn), Saturn may demand an unhealthy sacrifice of personal desire in favor of fulfilling the desires of the social collective. With Pluto’s usur­pation of Mars, an urge to explore a transpersonal dimension of the Self will arise, especially in the form of developing a fascination with archetypal energies of transformation or with the notion of the Divine Self, which in religious systems promise a complete “regeneration of the identity” (Pluto). With the crypto-religious3 mani­festation of Pluto, the masses are led by a quasi-religious belief in the transformative powers of the “great dictator.” (The personification of the yang energy in the local heroic figure is here extended to the transpersonal realm in the notion of a dictator as embodying a global, transpersonal spirit or Zeit­geist.)
The conscious fulfillment of personal desire (Mars) is all the more crucial once we realize that, in such subliminal forms of its expression, we may simply add fuel to the destructive fire of unconsciousness, as in the examples above. When Mars is properly functioning, however, the social persona (Saturn) serves as a means of channeling the interpersonal experience of work (Mars) into a socially productive form (Saturn). In this sense, Mars, in extending the individual self of the Sun into the Martian interactive self-identity (especially through the experience of working with others), foreshadows the collective achievements wrought through the sum of interac­tive efforts: the Saturnian or collective self.
The most common form of an improperly expressed Mars is the aggressive self that asserts its presence into the environment in harsh, humanly “unrelated” manners and that incurs damage upon the self-image of others. In maintaining a separate self-identity, Mars may, in extreme form, sever rather than merely separate. Museum collections around the world are filled with examples of the chopping, slicing, bludgeoning, ramming, cutting, impaling, and repulsing implements of war, all of which attest to this humanly “unrelated” aspect of Mars: as the god of violence and aggression.4 This form of yang madness is symptomatic of an ego inflated by the Mars principle, which is now obsessed merely with dominance over others. The productive experience of interacting with other self-identi­ties is now replaced by a form of interactive abuse.
This abuse is centered on the interper­sonal level, rather than through impersonal institutions (Saturn) or through a dictato­rial international dominance of the masses (Pluto). Mars channels the yang energy directly upon the environment so that the repercussions of such actions are instantly felt.
In a similar manner, Mars rules the immediate gratification of desire (unlike the long-range, “collective” planning of Saturn’s linear time management or the transpersonal time frame of Pluto). There is a sense of immediacy connected to the Martian yang expression: desire roots us to the present; it demands life, life lived now. Mars forces us to act. This is the proper expression of Mars, especially since unlived desire will cloud the ego’s perception of the social-collective and/or transpersonal nature of the Self. In Indian religious tradition, certain Hindu temples illustrate this tenet of spiritual expe­rience through the creation of erotic stone sculptures that festoon their outer facades. If the worshipper has experienced a transcendence of earthly desire, he may safely enter the temple without being distracted by the experience of base arousal. Otherwise, an inability to transcend instinctive urges will leave the worshipper transfixed at the facade, projectively bound to the erotic expression of the godhead.5
Viewed from another perspective, base desires are expressions of the higher Self as experienced through a sensual, erotic life force.6 Through the burning of desire we are cleansed, and the dramatic need to continually reenact the cycle of desire-and-fulfillment is finally transcended. Through a continual experience of penetrating ever deeper into the nature of desire, we even­tually arrive at a more sophisticated understanding of it and of the regen­eration of the yang force in its higher octaves of expression. The sacrifice of personal desire in order to better assist the collective purpose (Saturn) and the transpersonal Self (Pluto) represent further stages of yang consciousness, which are rooted in the red-blooded life force of Mars.

Transcendental potential:

Mars triggers the appetites that define and propel the self. Our conscious identity is expressed through the ego (Sun), and it then develops in an interpersonal manner, i.e. through dynamic inter­action with others and by effecting alterations in the environment that reflect one’s true desires. The Mars location may activate such intrapsychic or spiritual needs, stirring desire to the point that action is the first and immediate result. This may manifest as newfound courage, determination, drive, and the ability to actualize the will. Mars engenders a maturation that in the Sun may remain only a potential idea, spirit, notion, or nascent thought form.
While the Sun riggers planetary energies through certain natal transits, or may “illuminate” the meaning of their symbolism, Mars “fuels” the various planetary principles. Under the Transcendental Mars location, Mars extends the Sun principle from “defining the self” to acquiring the goals of the desirous self. The means of defining a broader social role may now come into sight, as dynamic interpersonal contacts create inroads into larger institutional structures (Jupiter / Saturn) or as interactive accomplishments prove one’s merit and ability to fulfill collective responsibilities (Jupiter/Saturn). And sexual vitality and potency will now properly complement and energize the love experience (Venus).
The conscious integration of Mars prepares the spirit for a complementary experience of soulful qualities (yin). The Mar­tian tendency to maintain separation and affirm personal strength will enable one to withstand the otherwise enervating yin qualities of being yielding and recep­tive (Moon); of being intimately related with another person (Venus); of the interpersonal soul expanding upon its contact with the cultural or collec­tive soul (Jupiter); and of being merged or dissolved within the anima mundi or world soul (Neptune). The “revolution and liberation of self and soul” symbolized by Uranus and the “maintenance of cognition and communication” symbolized by Mercury each take a toll on the nervous system and the supramaterial aspects of psyche, and an effectively functioning Mars will provide the strength necessary for a healthy functioning of one’s physical and psychic well-being.
Relocation to the Transcendental Mars region will result in experiences that test and challenge one’s courage, fortitude, and strength or that require an intensely focused concentration, stamina, and will power. This location will foster the experience of “living in the moment,” as psychic energy will directly express itself through the drive to obtain the goal of one’s desire. Perhaps as a result of this, energy that was previously lacking a focal point will now manifest in “direct action, “resulting in a more man­ageable energetic interaction with one’s immediate surroundings.

Personalities with Primary Transcendental Mars:

Clara Barton (founder of the American Red Cross; known as the “angel of the battlefield” because of her “energetic work” in “braving enemy fire” to deliver food and supplies dur­ing the American Civil War; whose Primary Mars line sets over the Confederate South, the setting of some of the “bloodiest battles” of the “war”; who wrote: “I wrung the blood from the bottom of my clothing before I could sleep”); Lord Byron (born in London, almost precisely under his Primary Mars line, whose Primary Mars / Secondary Pluto describe the “burning of desire” [Mars] and the “desire to transcend the identity of the desirous self” [Pluto]: succinct definitions of the Byronic quest in literature and in Byron’s personal life); Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (“surgeon” and prolific, “hard-working” writer; born in Edinburgh, Scotland, near his Primary Mars line); Henry Ford (founder of the Ford Motor Company, born near Primary Mars in Greenfield, Michigan; noted for his assembly-line method of “production”–“a most effective way of channeling energy in the work place”–and for his “aggressive” modern business methods); George Harrison (whose equally underaspected Mars / Jupiter lines pass over the center of India in a narrowly focused Transcendental Midpoint-Field, reflecting Harrison’s “ardent, deter­mined pursuit / of higher forms of consciousness, especially those found in the philosoph­ical and religious doctrines” of India (Mars / Jupiter); Katherine Mansfield (whose Primary Mars describes the “adventurousness” and the “passionate approach to life” that clearly marked her biography); George Washington (“military general” born in close prox­imity to his Primary Mars, whose “military engagements” also occurred directly under his Mars line; elected first president of the United States as a result of his suc­cessful “command” of “military forces”; temporarily appointed as “com­mander-in-chief” of the U.S. “Army” in 1798, when “war” with France seemed imminent); Edward H. White II (who “took the first step” in space in the American space program and who was called the world’s first “self-propelled” astronaut; whose Pri­mary Mars line was near the new Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, which became the space program’s nerve-center for the first time during his Gemini 4 flight).

Events: Atom bomb: First controlled nuclear chain reaction; Civil War: Secession of South Carolina (with Secondary Transcendental Pluto); Vietnam: The Tet Offensive (with Secondary Transcendental Pluto).

* * *

Keynote phrases for Mars:

•The “masculine” or yang force expressed through energetic interpersonal interac­tion.
•The spirit (animus) principle in its forceful individual manifestation.
•The masculine lover, especially in his personification of a virile and potent force.
•The power of desire.
•Experiences that further discrimination (i.e., consciousness) through acts of separation.
•A “relational function” in which the self interacts with others but maintains a sense of distance or “separation.”
•Biological drives demanding expression in everyday life.
•The urge to actualize desire in the immediate present.
•The drive that thrusts the ego (Sun) into manifest action (Mars).
•Energizing the will (Sun) and directing it upon the environment in an intense, dynamic fashion.
•The urge to express and defend the self.
•The desire to procreate.
•The urge to possess, ravish, experience, push away, discard.
•Relating through “assertion.”
•The notion of a “personal force.”
•Actualizing the self by counterpointing it against one’s surroundings in order to real­ize, through separation and discrimination, one’s distinctive self-borders (“I am this; I am not that.”
•The secondary manifestation of yang consciousness (following the Sun) in the sym­bolic solar system.
•In Indian astrology, Mars rules strength and corresponds to “desires and the animal instinct in man.”7
•The yang energy experienced as the interactive self.

1. “The ‘mild’ light of the moon ... merges things together rather than separates them.” Carl Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, p. 179.
2. Unconscious identification with or ego-inflation by the Mars principle can result in the usurpation of its planetary complement, Venus. When Mars dominates Venus, an unconscious romanticizing of aggression is the result. This violent form of Martian excess particularly dominated the eon of Aries.
3. A term coined by Mircea Eliade, the modern scholar of comparative religion, to describe the hidden religious instinct at work within much seemingly secular activity.
4. “Swords, knives, and sharp cutting edges of all kinds belong to the [alchemical] symbol­ism of separatio ... One of its major symbols is the cutting edge that can dissect and differ­entiate on the one hand and can kill on the other.” Edward F. Edinger, “Psychotherapy and Alchemy,” Quadrant, vol. 14, no. 2, p. 49.
5. “I asked an Indian about the obscenities on the walls of the Black Pagoda at Konarak. He replied, ‘But see how interested the people are.’ I objected that they were probably already far too much interested in sex. But the Indian answered: ‘That is how it should be, other­wise they keep out of life and then how can they live their karma right through?’” Jung, “The Process of Individuation. Notes on Lectures given at the Eidgenössische Tech­nische Hochschule, Zürich, October 1938-June 1939.” Unpublished mimeograph, Lecture II, Nov. 4, 1938, p. 13.
6. “... the West has contrived to fabricate a duality between body and spirit, whereas the East has striven to unite the two. For the East, there is no difference between body and spirit; they are indissolubly bound together. [...] You’ve seen those great temples in India, with their facades crammed with erotic figures which exceed anything imaginable. Can one say those temples are the work of atheists or sensualists? No, they are the work of deeply religious people. They represent a worship of the flesh, of the body, which leads men to the gods. [...] Even in the Middle Ages the co-existence of body and soul was accepted. Look at the cathedrals: to a certain extent their exteriors remind one of the Hindu temples I was talking about just now; they bear the mark of the human body, and this is most evi­dent in the forceful expression of sexuality in the small sculptures on the cornices. Once you get inside, doubtless it’s something else entirely.... You could think of man as a full-scale cathedral, in his way.” Henry Miller, Henry Miller in Conversation with Georges Belmont, pp. 77-78, 81.
7. Ibid., Dreyer, Indian Astrology, p. 89.

Additional Mars quotes:

The poet was a fool / who wanted no conflict / among us, gods / or people. / Harmony needs / low and high, / as progeny needs / man and woman.

The mind, to think of the accord / that strains against itself, / needs strength, as does the arm / to string the bow or lyre. From the strain / of binding opposites / comes harmony. (Heraclitus.)

The strength of one who attacks has in the opposition he needs a kind of gauge; every growth reveals itself in the seeking out of a potential opponent–or problem: for a philos­opher who is warlike also challenges problems to a duel.
(Neitzsche, Ecce Homo. Here we see how Mars anticipates the symbolism of its planetary neighbor, Jupiter: ruler of philos­ophy, “the love of wisdom.”)

posted December 11, 2010 05:05 AM            

It is the opposite that is good for us.
–Heraclitus.

In your uniqueness you are all the time a crime against convention.
–Carl Jung, “Lectures at Swanage.”

The poems of individualism will remake the social world.
–Elie Faure, History of Art: Modern Art.

Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
–William Blake, Proverbs of Hell.

Core meaning:

Although certain astrologers believe that Uranus corresponds to the yang energy, our point of view is that it transcends the dualistic expression of yin and yang: that while Mercury is hermaphroditic (embodying each principle), Uranus is neither male nor female. Instead, Uranus symbolizes a cos­mic function that reverses yin or yang energy into its opposite form when either achieves an extreme state of expression. This principle of dynamic reversal is represented in the I Ching by unfolding energy patterns (or “hexagrams”) that switch into alternate forms (i.e., the “moving lines”). In the West, this notion is best exemplified by the ancient Greek notion of enantiodromia, a “running opposite or counter to,” promulgated by the philosopher Heraclitus (575?-641?): “Fate is the logical product of enantiodromia, creator of all things.”
In modern psychological literature, Jung notes that enantiodromia is synonymous with an “emergence of the unconscious opposite in the course of time. This characteristic phenomenon practically always occurs when an extreme, one-sided tendency dominates conscious life; in time an equally powerful counterposition is built up, which first inhibits the conscious performance and subsequently breaks through the conscious control.” He adds, “Sooner or later everything runs into its opposite.” Such reversals include the shift from one extreme form of behavior, perception, or ideation into a seem­ingly opposite form or way of being. Through the enantiodromian “dynamic reversal” of Uranus, the form of Mercury’s ideation is transformed by Uranus’s reformation (Mercury poses the question “Why,” while Uranus asks, “Why not?”). Ultimately, beyond this seesawlike energetic reversal, the final Uranian goal is to alternate currents of energy until a nondualistic or transcendent “third” form is discovered: ideally, one not as extreme as either opposite but one that incorporates the best elements of each, in order to create a more manageable (i.e., more con­sciously operating) reformation. The union of such opposing tendencies results in a new wholeness and in the newfound freedoms and liberties that are symbolized by Uranus.
While the astrological glyph for Mercury resembles a human figure endowed with a crescent-shaped antenna (symbolizing cognition and communication, i.e., the capacity to absorb and transmit information), the glyph for Uranus is composed solely of a large antenna shape, symbolizing its function of transpersonal or Divine communi­cation. The centrally placed cross in this glyph, symbolizing the “two opposites crossing one another,”2 emphasizes a transcendence of dualism and the function of “receiving” transpersonal insights. Like Mercury’s crescent­like glyph, the outer, horizontal sides of the Uranian cross are linked to two crescent-shaped forms that resemble satellite dishes: again, signifying the “receptive” (yin) potential of Uranus, while the up-ended, pointed top of the central axis signifies the “transmitting” (yang) potential of Uranus. Human communication, cognitive awareness, and the ability of all members of a species to comprehend each other are ruled by Mercury, but the transpersonal communi­cation processes (visionary insight, inspiration, Divine intuition) reflect the suprahuman or transper­sonal capacity of Uranus.
On the mundane level, Uranus is associated with the revolutions (dynamic reversals) and reformations of social organisms. Such reformations are often conceived of as a means of gaining newfound freedom (at least, for some members of the revolutionary order). Having “smashed open” (Uranus) the “stultifying struc­ture” (Saturn) of the previous regime, the revolutionaries are in a position to effect “ultimate freedom” (Uranus) for themselves. Yet, this sometimes occurs at the expense of the common peo­ple.
In such a case, we can speak of becoming overidentified with the Ura­nian principle of freedom. In our example, the revolutionaries have experienced a dynamic reversal: at first identified with the common people, they now assume the role of a new aristocracy. A true revolutionary ideal, however, is a complete reversal of (yin or yang) energy: a collective reorganization whenever it reaches an extreme form. For example, when a government reaches its extreme form of expression, its reversal into a new system of energetic organization is inevitable, especially after a period of rigidity or stagnation (Saturn). A swing in public opinion, from supporting one political party over another, is a typical example of Uranian enantiodromia. Invention, a phe­nomenon traditionally ruled by Uranus, is also related to gaining freedom through the acquisition of a new energetic structure, as a new method or device will unite traditional technologies with recent innovations and advances and, therefore, provide greater freedom and flexibility in accomplishing tasks.
Uranus rules electricity (including the electrical dimension of the body) and computers. These phenomena are strangely “in between” the physical and imma­terial states of being. Electricity provides mechanical devices with their motive force, yet it is invisible and, ultimately, inexplicable. Computers and the so-called cyber reality present us with an immaterial or “virtual” reality, created, in part, by the electrical stimulation of com­puter chips, yet they possess a quality that seems to extend beyond the merely physical. Like other Uranian phenomena, computers have the potential to provide mankind with a greater sense of freedom and a means of reinventing the self and of advancing its methods of organization and communication in a manner that appears so innovative and unusual that our normal cognitive limits are pushed beyond their traditional boundaries, i.e., they are reformed. This spark of “futuristic” insight, often experienced as a shocking, exciting, or “peak experience” (a Uranian term used by astrologer Bil Tierney), is a keynote of the Uranus symbolism. Other Uranian keynotes include originality, inspiration, brilliance, and even genius.

Improper manifestation of the energy:

Because one person’s idea of freedom may portray (or depend upon) another’s sense of nightmarish confinement, Uranus is associated with “negative utopias.” In modern literature, this genre (also called the dystopia) describes a “perfectly” organized society that, with its mania for creating an ideal social-collective, perfectly excludes all that is idiosyncratic and individual in mankind. For example, in its negative manifestation, political leaders who are improperly identified with Uranus will “free” the individual of his true responsibility by turning him into an “innovative” cog in a newly invented “machine.” This is especially the case when such leaders lack the ultimate freedom: the ability to reinvent the self through conscious personal insight and psychological growth, i.e., the individuation process actualized in a particular life.
In its hyperactive expression, one becomes “over-Uranian”: overrebellious; overidentified with the freedom principle; overly innova­tive (eccentric); overly intuitive (a crank). Other keynotes include amo­rality, anarchism, fanaticism, iconoclastic nihilism, or behavior characterized by restlessness, wanderlust, irritability, anxiety, or irrational, impulsive, and explosive behavior. One may be a physical nomad, wandering from place to place, or a cultural or psychological nomad, jumping from one lifestyle, ideation, or intuition to the next. The iconoclastic shattering of something of value before a new form is ready to replace it is another negative manifestation of Uranus.3 Then the native is identified with and glorifying in the “peak experience” of Uranus as it surges haphazardly through body and mind, rather than creating an authentically innovative form with which to replace the old, outmoded structure.
In such cases, Uranus behaves like an overloaded circuit, with ideas leaping about yet making the “wrong connections,” resulting in eccentric notions and cranky moods. In mundane astrology, a difficult Uranus transit (i.e., when Uranus transits a degree in the sky that corresponds, in a discordant manner, to a planetary degree in the birth chart) may symbolize electrical problems or shortages in the home. Psychologically, it rules the classic “nervous breakdown.”

Transcendental potential:

Relocation to the Transcendental Uranus region will result in a positive liberation of the personality and to reformations of emotional patterning that are no longer productive. Under this location, the forward-moving or telic urge of psychic energy to manifest the future personality will be enhanced. This “realignment” of psychic energy manifests as a “higher frequency” of thought and intuition. Uranus rules the “immediate vision” of the here­tofore-missing elements that will now provide “freedom,” so much so that the former condition, which was previously viewed as “livable,” now seems untenable. Uranus proposes a change and realignment of personality that takes us far beyond the dimensions of the previous self, transporting the native to completely new outlooks, ideas, and situations. The word that comes closest to such a state of Divine inspiration is intuition. Unexpectedly presenting us with an aspect of reality that transcends our personal history, Uranus pushes us to the unrealized, future self.
Uranus symbolizes a “Divine communication” that results in “unheard of” intuitions and inventions. The “ingenious” aspect of the Uranus complex was exemplified by inventors such as Nikola Tesla (with Secondary Uranus) and by innovative artists, such as Hans Christian Andersen, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, and Henry Miller (writers who were each born with Pri­mary Uranus). The Uranian principle inspires one to redefine and reorganize physical matter, resulting in supramaterial organiza­tions of energy (e.g., the invention of the computer chip).
Uranus works through “erratic,” “leaping,” and “bounding” intuitive paths.5 It exemplies a unique ability to “tune in” to nonrational dimensions of thought. (“Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement are roads of Genius”–Blake.) This is symbolized by the “antenna” of Uranus (one that is “stepped-down” through the humanizing receptors of Mercury). Such visionary intuition instructs us to follow new expressions of self and soul, liberating us from the collective bonds of identity (Saturn). In shattering the collective mold, Uranus permits whatever is unique in us to emerge. It is the freedom to create anew.
Uranus promotes a final refor­mation / reinvention of spirit and soul while they are still connected to the social-collec­tive sphere. In shattering our rigidity and sparking our genius, Uranus prepares us for the final shock: dissolution, death, and rebirth, symbolized by the transpersonal complexes of Neptune and Pluto (i.e., beyond the social collective). Before we reach such ultimate developmental stages, however, Uranus will reshape our profoundly experimental life, working as it does through the shockingly unique incarnation of human consciousness.

Personalities with Primary Transcendental Uranus:

Hans Christian Andersen (“intuitive” writer of “unique, original” fairy tales); Queen Anne (whose reign was marked by numerous attempts to “maintain her freedom and inde­pendence” from the dominating political parties and for her “abruptly shift­ing allegiances” during a time rife with “instability”); Louise Brown (the first “test-tube” baby whose birth (the result of an ovum “experimentally” impregnated in a laboratory) epitomized the “innovative, experimental conditions” of Uranus); Cathe­rine the Great ([with Mercury] empress of Russia who eagerly absorbed the “innovative / thinking” [Uranus / Mercury] of the French “Enlightenment”; who authored Catherine’s Instruction, a draft constitution considered so “shockingly” liberal that the “scandalous / document” [Uranus / Mercury] was prohibited from publication in France; and whose “reversal” and “reformation” of her own liberal position led to worsening conditions for most Russians, resulting in “greater freedoms” only for herself and for the Russian aristoc­racy; especially remembered for “novel, innovative reforms” of administrative meth­ods throughout Russia); Louis-Ferdinand Céline (“eccentric inventor” of a “new” literary style); Indira Gandhi (Indian prime minister whose Uranus sets directly over India; remembered for “extreme reversals of fortune”; “dystopian systems of reform”; “surprise tac­tics”; and “innovative” authoritarianism [with Secondary Saturn]; Adolf Hitler (dictator obsessed with “negative utopias” and “eccentric notions of social reorganization”); Grace Kelly [with Primary Mercury-Jupiter] whose “forward-looking vision” of guarantee­ing success in the “future” led her to the Elitch Gardens stock company in Den­ver, directly under her Primary Uranus line); Richard Nixon (“innovator” of historic “China opening”: a country directly under his Primary Uranus; obsessed with “cranky notions” of “dystopian” domestic reorganization); Dante Gabriel Rossetti (“intuitive” painter-poet born near Primary Uranus in London; remembered for a “rebellious” childhood and an “unusual lifestyle” as an adult; exhumed his wife’s body to retrieve a poetry manuscript that was entwined in her hair); Edith Sitwell (noted English “eccentric” renowned for a “quirky” dress code and for an “original” writing style); Algernon Swinburne (poet whose work was considered “provocative and shocking”; wrote of “revolt” against the divine will).

* * *

Keynote phrases for Uranus:

•Inspired intuition; brilliance; genius. “Divine” communication.
•Sudden leaps in individual and collective consciousness.
•The inspiration for innovation.
•A sudden “unveiling” of “future states of consciousness,” i.e., the “future personality.”
•The principles of freedom and rebellion.
•Freedom gained through an innovative rearrangement and recombination of disparate elements, e.g., invention.
•Unusual methods or approaches.
•The higher octave of Mercury. While Mercury rules cognition and communica­tion, Uranus rules Divine communication, which is experienced as reve­latory flashes of insight, intuition, and brilliance.
•The “alternating current” of yang / yin energy experienced as a revolution and liberation of spirit and soul.

1. Stobaeus, Eclogae physicae, cited by Jung in Psychological Types, p. 425. Jung adds: “I use the term enantiodromia for the emergence of the unconscious opposite in the course of time. This characteristic phenomenon practically always occurs when an extreme, one-sided tendency dominates conscious life; in time an equally powerful counterposition is built up, which first inhibits the conscious performance and subsequently breaks through the conscious control.” In Psychology and Alchemy, while discussing the “transformative princi­ple at work in nature and the harmony of opposing forces,” he notes: “Chinese philosophy formulated this process as the enantiodromian interplay of yin and yang” (p. 245), adding (in a footnote): “The classical example being The I Ching or Book of Changes.” Elsewhere, he writes: “Old Heraclitus, who was indeed a very great sage, discovered the most marvel­ous of all psychological laws: the regulative function of opposites. He called it enantiodromia, a running contrariwise, by which he meant that sooner or later everything runs into its opposite.” “The only person who escapes the grim law of enantiodromia is the man who knows how to separate himself from the unconscious, not by repressing it–for then it simply attacks him from the rear–but by putting it clearly before him as that which he is not.” Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, pp. 72-73.)
One of the earliest references to enantiodromia in Jung’s work occurs in a series of lectures he gave in Swanage, England: “When something has been accomplished, an opposition must be established before anything else can occur. You may hold a Christian ideal, but this is also impossible, for though a mind may be spirit, you cannot go endlessly into spirit, as you constellate the materialism of the uncon­scious. A living system is a self-regulating system and must be balanced. Neither spirit not matter is good in themselves, for, in excess, both destroy life.” “Lectures at Swanage,” unpublished typescript, August 1, 1925, Lecture VII, pp. 51-52. He also discusses this concept in his Analytical Psychology seminar: “In the I Ching, they [the pairs of opposites] appear as an ever-recurring enantiodromia, through the action of which one state of mind leads inevitably to its opposite. This is the essential idea of Taoism …” Lecture X, May 25, 1925, Analytical Psychology, p. 73.
2. “Often the polarity [of the coniunctio] is arranged as a quaternio (quaternity), with the two opposites crossing one another ... thus producing the cross as an emblem of the four elements and symbol of the sublunary physical world. This fourfold Physis, the cross, also appears in the signs for earth, Venus, Mercury, Saturn, and Jupiter.” Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, pp. 3-4.
3. The eccentric behavior traditionally associated with Uranus is reflected in the quirky and unique astronomical qualities of this planet (and of some its satellites):
“Uranus is considered unique because its equatorial plane is inclined about 98 degrees with respect to its orbital plane. This extreme inclination gives the planet a retro­grade motion, i.e., rotation opposite to the direction of its revolution.” The New Columbia Encyclopedia, 1975, p. 2846.
“Uranus is distinguished by the fact that it is tipped on its side. Its unusual position is thought to be the result of a collision with a planet-sized body early in the solar system’s history. Given its odd orientation, with its polar regions exposed to sunlight or darkness for long periods, scientists were not sure what to expect at Uranus.
Voyager 2 found that one of the most striking influences of this sideways position is its effect on the tail of the magnetic field, which is itself tilted 60 degrees from the planet’s axis of rotation. The magnetotail was shown to be twisted by the planet's rotation into a long corkscrew shape behind the planet. […] The peculiar orientation of the magnetic field suggests that the field is generated at an intermediate depth in the interior where the pressure is high enough for water to become electrically conducting.” NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (online), ”Voyager 2,” www.jpl.nasa.gov / calendar / voyager2.html. Uranus was accidentally discovered by Sir William Herschel, in 1781.

Additional Uranus quotes:

Whoever cannot seek / the unforeseen sees nothing, / for the known way / is an impasse.
(Heraclitus.)

I am convinced of the validity of contradiction. There are many worlds. Each is true, at its time, in its own fashion.
(Errol Flynn.)

Perhaps the immobility of the things around us is imposed on them by our certainty that they are themselves and not anything else, by the immobility of our mind confronting them.
(Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way, trans. Lydia Davis.)

posted December 11, 2010 05:07 AM            

The Question of ‘Triggers’

As interest in Transcendental Astrology continues to grow, many readers have been asking: “Is relocation the only manner in which underaspected planets can be effectively channeled? If not, what other mechanisms are involved in expressing the least aspected planet?” Indeed, LAPs are rarely enhanced only by relocation. In general, they symbolize an internal guiding principle: an inherent raison d’être or spiritual focal point.

Points of Inner Focus

Underaspected planets represent a primary focal point: a core ideal and key element of our spiritual journey. Historical biogra­phies and the biographies of personal acquaintances each revealed that the traditional notion of underaspected planets as portraying an “unintegrated element” in the horoscope was erroneous and that the opposite notion seemed to be true: that underaspected planets symbolize our essential psychic nature: what we are meant to do in this particular lifetime. Subsequent scrutiny of biographical data revealed a par­allel between horoscopes and the geographical locations of clients, vis-à-vis least aspected planets.

Traditional Definitions, Traditional Assumptions

What makes such energies special is that, when underaspected, the planetary principle is unfettered. It is pure, so to speak; it is its own master. It can express itself without being tied down, through aspect, to other planetary focal points.1 ”
Why did it take so long to discover this astrological principle? It may simply be a case of believing things without testing them: of allowing ideas to be passed along, without asking the fundamental question, “Why?” But it may be something else, as well:

If it is indeed the case that least aspected planets (LAPs) are rarely, if ever, “untriggered,” and if the reverse is true–that LAPs signify energies at the forefront of our nature, of our exis­tential purpose: our essential spirit–then why did we originally develop the false assumption that underaspected planets are indicators of “unconsciousness”?
When I first encountered this traditional notion–that underaspected planets reflect “an energy that cannot be integrated with the other planets: a free-floating, nonintegrated principle”–I immediately became intrigued. My approach to astrology was influenced by a psychological orientation, so this naturally raised the ques­tion: If it’s not operating consciously, then which region of the psyche does it symbolize? From a psychological point of view, we often think of a conscious / unconscious duality. Therefore, it was a natural assumption to conclude that underaspected planets represent an unconscious complex. But a deeper understanding of archetypal psychology will result in a more complicated view regarding such matters.

Beyond the Duality of Triggered-Untriggered; Conscious-Unconscious

We may have become too habituated to approaching things in a dualistic fash­ion, especially as regards what is “conscious” and what is “unconscious.” For there also exists what the Rudolf Otto calls the “numinous consciousness”: an experience of the holy: of grace; a participation with a sacred dimension in life. Otto took the Latin term numen (deity), and coined the adjective, numinous. Later, Jung borrowed the term from Otto. Jung wrote that the difference between his psychology and Freud’s was that Freud focused on the neurotic while Jung was concerned with the numinous.2 This difference is crucial. It reflects an essential difference between a sacred and a profane experience: an experience of grace as opposed to an experience of life as a mere linear succession of meaningless events.

“Numinous consciousness”

For Otto, the encounter with the sacred is a revelation of “numinous conscious­ness,” i.e., a direct experience of the numinosum, of the mysterium. And this experience for­ever alters us: after such a revelation (mysterium tremendum = yang) and revaluation (mysterium fascinans = yin), we are no longer the same. In this experience, we transcend ordinary consciousness, as the self has been graced: destined to encounter a higher Self–the eternal god within.
Such an experience transcends a dualistic notion of conscious versus uncon­scious. Here the smaller self (ego-complex) is suddenly “opened” or “expanded,” and what the expansion of consciousness reveals is a Sacred Absolute: an Absolute Knowledge (and Absolute Feeling) of a mysterious and transcendent whole­ness. This is a realm about which we cannot really speak (as certain traditions have it, the “name” of God is never spoken by one who has been truly touched by Him).
Otto’s was a reverent and feeling-toned (rather than hyper-intellectualized) approach to the sacred: to what he called the mysterium fascinans et tremendum. Here is how he portrays it:

Mysterium tremendum: “A mystery inexpressible and above all creatures”

We are dealing with something for which there is only one appropriate expression, ‘mysterium tremendum’. The feeling of it may at times come sweeping like a gentle tide, pervading the mind with a tranquil mood of deepest worship. It may pass over into a more set and lasting attitude of the soul, continuing, as it were, thrillingly vibrant and resonant, until at last it dies away and the soul resumes its ‘profane’, nonreligious mood of everyday experience. It may burst in sudden eruption up from the depths of the soul with spasms and convulsions, or lead to the strangest excitements, to intoxicated frenzy, to transport, and to ecstasy. It has its wild and demonic forms and can sink to an almost gristly horror and shuddering. It has its crude, barbaric antecedents and early manifestations, and again it may be developed into something beautiful and pure and glorious. It may become the hushed, trembling, and speechless humility of the creature in the presence of–whom or what? In the presence of that which is a mystery inexpressible and above all creatures.
–Otto, “The Analysis of Tremendum,” The Idea of the Holy, chapter IV.

For any astrologer worth his alchemical salt, this is synonymous with the symbol of “Pluto,” which I posit as the extreme yang point (or tremendum) in the planetary spectrum (i.e., Sun-Mars-Saturn-Pluto).
But that is only one-half of Otto’s mysterium:

Mysterium fascinans: “The Dionysiac-element in the numen”

These two qualities, the daunting and the fascinating, now combine in a strange harmony of contrasts, and the resultant dual character of the numinous consciousness, to which the entire religious devel­opment bears witness, at any rate from the level of the ‘daemonic dread’ onwards, is at once the strangest and most noteworthy phe­nomenon in the whole history of religion. The daemonic-divine object may appear to the mind an object of horror and dread, but at the same time it is no less something that allures with a potent charm, and the creature, who trembles before it, utterly cowed and cast down, has always at the same time the impulse to turn to it, nay even to make it somehow his own. The ‘mystery’ is for him not merely something to be wondered at but something that entrances him; and beside that in it which bewilders and confounds, he feels a something that captivates and transports him with a strange ravish­ment, rising often enough to the pitch of dizzy intoxication; it is the Dionysiac-element in the numen.”
–Otto, “The Elements of Fascination,” The Idea of the Holy, chapter IV.

This represents a succinct and marvelous description of the Neptune principle: some­thing that “captivates and transports”; a “strange ravishment”; a “pitch of dizzy intoxica­tion.” Thus, in the fascinans we have a portrait of the classic yin qualities (Moon-Venus- Jupiter-Neptune), which reach their final form in the transpersonal sym­bol of Neptune. And while Neptune allures with as great a promise of otherworldly power and delight as Pluto, it can destroy one through “bliss”3 as surely as Pluto will rend one asunder in agony.
It is my contention that, in partaking of the numinosum (the sacred dimen­sion), all the astrological principles embody what is primarily a fascinans or primarily a tremendum nature. (At any rate, that is how we experience them.)

Lines of development

As I have illustrated in my essays on “Transcendental Planets,” there is a specific line yin of development, beginning with the Moon and progressing through Venus, Jupiter, and Neptune.4 There is a parallel line of yang, beginning with the Sun and progressing through Mars, Saturn, and Pluto.5 Mercury (hermaphroditic, and traditionally described as possessing a “dual nature”) acts as a liaison in the overall dynamic,6 while Uranus (asexual) transcends such fixed dualistic expressions of yin/yang and acts as a cosmic switch or circuit breaker, especially in regard to the outer planets and the attempt we make to integrate them psychologically.7 The Uranian principle serves an enantiodromian function by reversing conditions (similar to the moving yin or yang lines in the I Ching) whenever an extreme point has been reached, i.e., extremes change into their opposites. Therefore, Uranus rules the principle of “dynamic reversal.”8
But where does the least aspected planet fit into all this?

The LAP as a Psychic Focal Point of Numinosity

We are all moving, in telic fashion, toward the Self: toward our own futurity: to the as-yet-undefined, undiscovered Self. As such, we will progress in only one of two pos­sible manners at any one time: along either the yin (fascinans) or yang (tremen­dum) scale of values. As Jung has shown, ultimately there is no dualism. Yet when the archetype (the mystery in life) approaches, we must split it in half, for we cannot digest it in its enormity. If we attempt to do so, either we will dissolve (fascinans) or be crushed (tremendum) by it.
With the inherent limits of our ego-bound perceptual processes, we can only chip off a tiny piece of the godhead, and that piece will serve as a guiding stone: like a magnetized compass that points to the unknown and that beckons us to follow, no matter the trepidation, fear, or horror (mysterium tremen­dum); no matter the bliss, intoxication, or joy (mysterium fascinans). That is the nature of the numinous. The underaspected planet sym­bolizes this. It represents a crucial aspect of the future Self: an expression of the higher Will, of the unknowable spirit that attempts to lead us toward meaning.

Numinology and the Transcendent Function

As Jung has demonstrated in his studies, the creation of a numinous con­sciousness is assisted by the transcendent function. This is a term I assume he borrowed from Hegel, which he defines as a “uniting function that transcends [the] tension of opposites.” Therefore, the transcendent function is a “psychic function that arises from the tension between con­sciousness and the unconscious and supports their union.”9
Since the least aspected planet is portrayed as an isolated energy (due to lack of aspect interaction), it symbolizes an energy that is less reflective of such conflicts of opposites. In that sense, the LAP serves the same role as the transcendent function. Therefore, its numinous quality is probably not coinciden­tal. The LAP serves as a focal point through which several antithetical views (or energetic tensions) come into parity–since it stands not only aside from them but, also, above them, transcending their dualism. As such, it is the ter­tium non datur or “reconciling third.” “[Nature] acts symbolically in the truest sense of the word, doing something that expresses both sides, just as a waterfall visibly mediates between above and below.”10
It is with this in mind that we speak of a Transcendental or “reconciling” symbol. For it stands there between two worlds, as a kind of twilight guidepost. It is through its presence that we discover a telic, purposeful, and forward-moving drive. It resembles a bridge that links two worlds, simultaneously making them one as it creates a third transcendent possibility: “a mystery inexpressible and above all creatures” (Otto).11

1. Dr Victor Mansfield has kindly granted permission to use an insightful remark from a note I received from him on October 14, 1998: “I had a guru with an unaspected Sun. He always thought that it allowed him the maximum freedom of expressing the Sun’s meaning and function. Perhaps, aspects not only help manifest or express a planet’s mean­ing and function but they also limit its scope of action.” See his groundbreaking work, Syn­chronicity, Science and Soul-Making, Chicago, Open Court Publications, 1995.
2. “The main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neurosis but rather with the approach to the numinous. But the fact is that the approach to the numinous is the real therapy and inasmuch as you attain to the numinous experiences you are released from the curse of pathology.” Carl Jung, C. G. Jung Letters, vol. 1, letter to P. W. Martin, p. 377. (Special thanks to Douglas Boyd of Galaxy: Archetypal Astrol­ogy (online) for reminding me of this fine quote.)
3. Homer’s Odyssey, a classic tale of such developmental dangers, poetically addresses the delightful (and harrowing) aspects of such “yin insanity”: the dissolution of the ego in “The Lotus Eaters” (Neptune); the imprisonment (and psychological regression) of Odysseus on Circe’s island (Moon); and, in a story of anima-ridden allure and enchantment, Odysseus bound and –his ears plugged with wax and his torso tightly fastened to the mast of his ship–listening raptly to the sweet nothings of the Sirens and their song (the personification of the anima, i.e., Venus). Indeed, yin “bliss” (and the effects of the yin planets that symbolize its incremental stages, i.e., Moon, Venus, Jupiter, and Neptune) is not always all it is made out to be, i.e., it is advisable to pro­ceed with caution.
It is worth noting that this classic yin “adventure tale” the­matically follows in the footsteps of the Iliad–a yang adventure focused on the opposite side of the energetic spec­trum: the blood and guts of the tremendum, with its less nuanced and more overt dangers and pitfalls.
4. “Together, the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter represent successive stages in the evolution of consciousness ...”; “Neptune completes the sequence of the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter ...” Marcia Moore; Mark Douglas, Astrology, The Divine Science, pp. 40-43. Although consid­ered the original ruler of Pisces (yin), often Jupiter is considered a yang planet. Here, however, we have taken a different point of view, i.e., Jupiter as symbolizing social-collective yin.
5. “It is possible to trace a line of development linking the Sun, Mars, and Saturn, which parallels the line linking the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter.” Marcia Moore; Mark Douglas, Astrology, The Divine Science, p. 41. “Neptune is the higher octave of Venus”; “Pluto is the higher octave of Mars.” Alan Oken, As Above, So Below, pp. 317, 324.
6. We see this especially in alchemy, which speaks of Mercurius as effecting and personifying a union of opposites on a micro­cosmic human level (i.e., he partakes equally in (and at times alternates between) the yang (actively communicating and promoting) and yin (passively absorbing and comprehending) principle. He is the microcosm within which opposing planetary principles are united and through which their oppositional tensions are integrated and resolved (especially through the mediation of rational comprehension and reflective consciousness). In alchemy, Mercurius was envisioned as standing between Sol and Luna–the principle ele­mental forms of spirit (yang) and soul (yin)–and providing, through receptive awareness and active transmission of thought, a mediating function: one providing continual psychic evolution and stabilization.
7. As Linda Reid has pointed out (in an online Webfest post), trying to “integrate” the energy of an outer-orbiting planet is a misnomer. To paraphrase her remarks, an energetic complex such as Uranus is not so much integrated as it is held, for a brief moment, like a sparkling bundle of energy in the palm of one’s hand. For, how can we “integrate” something that is so much larger than the ego-complex?
8. Although certain astrologers believe that Uranus corresponds to the yang energy, our point of view is that it transcends the dualistic expression of yin and yang: that while Mercury is hermaphroditic (embodying each principle), Uranus is neither male nor female. Instead, Uranus symbolizes a cos­mic function that reverses yin or yang energy into its opposite form when either achieves an extreme state of expression. This principle of dynamic reversal is represented in the I Ching by unfolding patterns of energy (“hexagrams”) that switch into alternate forms (i.e., the “moving lines”). In the West, this notion is best exemplified by the ancient Greek notion of enantiodromia, a “running opposite or counter to,” promulgated by the philosopher Heraclitus (575?-641?): “Fate is the logical product of enantiodromia, creator of all things.”
In modern psychological literature, Jung notes that enantiodromia is synonymous with an “emergence of the unconscious opposite in the course of time. This characteristic phenomenon practically always occurs when an extreme, one-sided tendency dominates conscious life; in time an equally powerful counterposition is built up, which first inhibits the conscious performance and subsequently breaks through the conscious control.” He adds, “Sooner or later everything runs into its opposite.” Such reversals include the shift from one extreme form of behavior, perception, or ideation into a seem­ingly opposite form or way of being. Through the enantiodromian or “dynamic reversal” of Uranus, the form of Mercury’s ideation is transformed into a Uranus’s reformation (Mercury poses the question “Why,” while Uranus asks, “Why not?”). Ultimately, beyond this seesawlike energetic reversal, the final Uranian goal is to alternate currents of energy until a nondualistic or transcendent “third” form is discovered: ideally, one not as extreme as either opposite but that incorporates the best elements of each, in order to create a more manageable (i.e., more con­sciously operating) reformation.
The above note excerpted from my essay, “Transcendental Uranus.” See also Sto­baeus, Eclogae physicae, cited by Jung in Psychological Types, p. 425. In discussing the “transformative princi­ple at work in nature and the harmony of opposing forces,” he notes: “Chinese philosophy formulated this process as the enantiodromian interplay of yin and yang,” adding (in a footnote): “The classical example being The I Ching or Book of Changes.” See Psychology and Alchemy, p. 245.
One of the earliest references to enantiodromia in Jung’s work occurs in a series of lectures he gave in Swanage, England: “When something has been accomplished, an opposition must be established before anything else can occur. You may hold a Christian ideal, but this is also impossible, for though a mind may be spirit, you cannot go endlessly into spirit, as you constellate the materialism of the uncon­scious. A living system is a self-regulating system and must be balanced. Neither spirit not matter is good in themselves, for, in excess, both destroy life.” “Lectures at Swanage,” unpublished typescript, August 1, 1925, Lecture VII, pp. 51-52. He also discusses this concept in his Analytical Psychology seminar.
9. Daryl Sharp, C. G. Jung Lexicon, A Primer of Terms and Concepts (Toronto: Inner City Books, 1991), p. 135.
As an incidental note, in mathematics the term “Transcendental Function” refers to a function involving real and imaginary numbers. “Transcendental Numbers” refers to “the theory of irrationality, transcendence, and algebraic independence of various numbers.” From “Number Theory IV: Transcendental Numbers,” Yu V. Nesterenko, N.I. Feldman, Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences, vol. 44.
The relationship between numerals and archetypes was one of Professor Jung’s principal interests, especially during the final decades of his life. See C. G. Jung Letters, vol. 2, letter to Steven Abrams, p. 400: “… I have always come upon the enigma of the natural number. I have a distinct feeling that Number is a key to the mystery, since it is just as much discovered as invented. It is a quantity as well as meaning.”
10. Carl Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis. Collected Works, vol. 14, par. 705, cited in Sharp, p. 134. Perhaps, it is not completely coincidental that Jung penned such thoughts in a chapter entitled, “The Conjunction,” bearing witness, as he often did, to the power of astrological thought and its influence upon him.
11. All Otto citations are from The Idea of the Holy, trans. John W. Harvey.

Supplemental notes

The role of the least aspected or Transcendental Planet is especially highlighted in the follow­ing manners:

•Birth under or near the line of Primary Transcendental Planet.
•Relocation (or temporary travel) near the Primary or Secondary Transcen­dental. A temporary relocation often results in a “Transcendental experience”: a meaningful event that marks one’s psychic development.
•Through insight and emotional development, often initially expressed as a spiritual yearning. Remarkable natures learn to unite the ego-will with the unconscious Will. What the unconscious has in store, in the deepest sense, is often symbolized by the least aspected planet.1

1. It was in this sense that Jung spoke of “autonomous movements of the unconscious”: eruptions of archetypal material, but minus any causal connection to external personal experience: “It requires a very close contact with the unconscious, and an understanding of it, for a man to realize that the origin of his mythological or spiritual experiences is within himself, and that whatever forms these experiences may appear to take, they do not in fact come from the external world.” Analytical Psychology, p. 132.

posted December 11, 2010 12:09 PM            

Moon opposition Sun,Merc,Venus,Jupiter
Mars opposition Saturn, Neptune, Uranus/trine Pluto.