The
Birth of Psychological Astrology
It is difficult to appreciate just how far astrology has
come over the last 30 years. It wasn't until the advent of humanistic
psychology in the 1960's that astrologers began to think seriously about the
chart in terms of growth and transformation. For those who began studying astrology
only recently, it might seem that it was always this way. But it was not.
Although Jung (1962) once said "astrology represents the summation of the
psychological knowledge of antiquity" (p. 142), the fact is that there was
very little in astrology prior to the 1960's that bore much relationship to
what we would generally consider "psychological" today.
Ancient peoples initially perceived the planets as gods
that ruled over the various processes of Nature, much as a king ruled over his
subjects. The conceived relationship between celestial and terrestrial events
was linear, dualistic, and hierarchical: a superior power had dominion over an
inferior one. While later and deeper forms of astrological philosophy
recognized that macrocosm and microcosm were actually interpenetrating and thus
their relationship was not linear or dualistic, this view declined with the
collapse of the Hellenistic culture in the 3rd century. A simpler model
prevailed during the medieval period and persisted in one form or another right
up to the 2nd half of this century. Human beings were perceived as fated
recipients of cosmic forces that could be propitiated but not denied.
Such a gloomy determinism was reinforced by a value laden
terminology that too often described the birthchart in ominous terms, e.g.,
malefic, evil aspect, debilitation, affliction, detriment, fall, destroyer of
life, hell of the zodiac, and so on. Of course, there were "good"
parts to astrology as well, such as benefics and exaltations, but these only served
to underscore the determinism of the system. Planets were variously conceived
as transmitters of mysterious rays or electromagnetic forces that impacted upon
the individual at birth. Understandably, this induced individuals to focus
their attention outwards to see what malice or affection the gods might have in
store for them. The rigid determinism of traditional astrology did not allow
for the possibility of change or growth in consciousness. Instead, people more
likely consulted the stars as a means of avoiding a calamitous fate or of
exploiting opportunities for manipulating circumstances to personal advantage.
The implication of traditional, event-oriented astrology
was that the individual was a potential victim of an indifferent universe over
which he had little or no control. Accordingly, astrologers were only too eager
to give people what they wanted—predictions, advice, warnings, and simplistic
solutions to what we now recognize to be complex, psychological problems. At
best, traditional astrologers were well meaning individuals interested in the
prediction of events and the description of character, and they did no harm. At
worst, they were fear peddling parasites who exploited the insecurities and
anxieties of the people who purchased their services, and they did great harm.
The vast majority of mundane predictions about illnesses,
accidents, divorces, shipwrecks, earthquakes, scandals, inheritances,
marriages, job promotions, and the like, were utterly useless except to create
an addiction to the astrologer whose pronouncements appeared to offer some
promise of control over the events in question. But no astrologer could predict
with certainty exactly what the events would be, under precisely what
circumstances they would take place, or how they would affect the person.
Especially lacking in such predictions was the meaning and purpose that the
event might have beyond its immediate effects. What relationship did it have to
the consciousness of the experiencer? What opportunities did it offer for
self-insight and growth in awareness?
Likewise, the traditional astrologer's description of
character was generally limited to superficial trait descriptions heavily laden
with moral judgments and glib advice. At best, the astrologer confirmed what
the individual already intuitively knew. At worst, the astrologer confused or
upset the individual with interpretations that were shallow, insensitive,
judgmental, overly negative, or just plain wrong. There was little if any
attempt to address the deeper dimensions of the chart that hinted at
unconscious beliefs and fundamental drives that underlay surface behavior.
Character was seen as either static and unalterable, or easily modified by
following the cosmically informed counsel of one's astrologer. Such assumptions
appear naive from the perspective of modern, depth psychology. We now recognize
that while changing one's inborn character can be extraordinarily difficult, it
can be achieved through courage, persistence, and hard work.
It was the Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, who first
recognized the vast potential of astrology as a tool for exploring the depths
of the human psyche. In various writings throughout his life, Jung made
reference to his profound respect for astrology. He asserted that astrology had
a great deal to contribute to psychology and admitted to having employed it
with some frequency in his analytic work with clients. In cases of difficult
psychological diagnosis, Jung would draw up a horoscope in order to have a
further point of view from an entirely different angle. "I must say,"
said Jung, "that I very often found that the astrological data elucidated
certain points which I otherwise would have been unable to understand"
(1948).
Jung (1976) regarded the signs and planets of astrology
as symbols of archetypal processes that originated in the collective
unconscious. The archetypes of the collective unconscious were the universal
organizing principles underlying and motivating all psychological life, both
individual and collective. Whereas mythology placed its emphasis upon the
cultural manifestations of archetypes at various times and places in history,
astrology utilized archetypes as a language for understanding the basic psychological
drives of human beings. As Jung put it, "Astrology, like the collective
unconscious with which psychology is concerned, consists of symbolic
configurations: the planets are the gods, symbols of the power of the
unconscious." The gods of mythology represented the living forces of the
universe that patterned all things. Like Plato's Forms, an archetype was both
subjective and objective; it was evident both in the innate ideas of human
consciousness as well as in the fundamental processes of nature; it informed
not only human experience but also planetary motions.
It was precisely this dual nature of the archetype that
enabled the chart to bridge inner character with the outer events that
reflected that character. "There are many instances of striking analogies
between astrological constellations and psychological events or between the
horoscope and the characterological disposition," wrote Jung (1976).
Archetypes, he concluded, were psychoid; i.e., they shape matter as well as
mind. An astrological configuration defined both the innate disposition of the
individual and the particular kinds of outer conditions which the individual
was likely to experience. In a 1954 interview, Jung stated "One can expect
with considerable assurance, that a given well-defined psychological situation
will be accompanied by an analogous astrological configuration."
Jung recognized that the unique and unparalleled ability
of astrology to disclose correlations between planetary motions and human
experience also made it an accurate way of timing life crises: "I have
observed many cases where a well-defined psychological phase or an analogous
event has been accompanied by a transit—particularly the afflictions of Saturn
and Uranus" (1954).
Jung's observance of correlations between psychological
phenomena and astrological data contributed to the formulation of his theory of
synchronicity. He defined synchronicity as "the simultaneous occurrence of
a certain psychic state with one or more external events which appear as meaningful
parallels to the momentary subjective state" (1955, p. 36). Accordingly,
Jung did not hesitate to take the synchronistic phenomena that underlay
astrology seriously. Astrology, he thought, worked precisely because of
synchronicity, i.e., the psychic structure of the person about to be born was
"meaningfully paralleled" in the positions of the planets at that
time.
When looking for a way to test the hypothesis of
synchronicity, Jung set up an astrological experiment that correlated planetary
configurations, or cross aspects, between the charts of marital partners. He
hypothesized that certain cross aspects would appear with greater frequency
between the charts of marital partners than between charts of people who had no
relationship. "The meaningful coincidence we are looking for is
immediately apparent in astrology," said Jung, "since the
astrological data...correspond to individual traits of character; and from the
remotest times the various planets, houses, zodiacal signs, and aspects have
all had meanings that serve as a basis for a character study" (1955, p.
43-4).
Although Jung never developed any systematic theory of
astrology, it appears that his own theory of analytical psychology was heavily
influenced by it. There are so many parallels that one is almost forced to
conclude that at least some of his major concepts were borrowed directly from
astrology. In addition to his explicit endorsement of planets as archetypes,
and his theory of synchronicity as a means for explaining astrological
coincidences, Jung's notion of two attitude types—extrovert and introvert—is
readily recognizable by astrologers as the bi-polar division of the zodiac into
two polarities—positive/masculine (extrovert) and negative/feminine (introvert)
signs. Likewise, his four function types—intuition, sensation, thinking, and
feeling—are roughly paralleled in astrology by the four elements—fire, earth,
air, and water.
In addition to these more obvious analogues, there are
additional correlations that have been explored by astrologers. These include
ego/Sun, persona/Ascendant, shadow/Pluto, anima/Venus, animus/Mars, and
collective unconscious/Neptune. Difficult astrological configurations,
especially those involving hard aspects from the outer planets to Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Moon, or Sun, have been observed by astrologers to represent
trouble spots in the personality similar to what Jung described as psychic
complexes, i.e., unconscious, emotionally charged memories, images, and
thoughts clustered around a central core.
In the 1930's, Dane Rudhyar began to reformulate modern
astrology in terms of Jung's analytical psychology. He especially focused on
Jung's idea that the psyche was a dynamic compound of opposing forces in
equilibrium, and that the psyche was intrinsically motivated to evolve in the
direction of psychic wholeness, a process Jung called individuation. Jung
believed that the process of personality transformation was innate, or
teleologically motivated. Personality was not merely the product of external
forces, but strove purposefully towards a final goal of self-realization. As
the individual learned from self-created experience, the archetypal structuring
of the psyche became increasingly differentiated, integrated, and whole.
Rudhyar (1936) recognized that these ideas were readily adaptable to astrology.
The chart, too, was a dynamic compound of opposing forces (signs) in
equilibrium. And the various parts of astrology with their myriad aspects and
interrelations were symbolic of archetypal forces struggling to transform themselves
into an integrated whole. Rudhyar realized that the process of individuation
was implicit in every horoscope.
By the 1960's Rudhyar's project of reformulating
astrology received new impetus from the humanistic movement in psychology.
Humanistic psychology, as embodied in the writings of Abraham Maslow, Carl
Rogers, Rollo May, and others, had arisen in response to the bleak pessimism
inherent in the Freudian psychoanalytic view and the robot conception of human
potential implied in behaviorism. Both psychoanalysis and behaviorism were
deterministic in that they conceived of personality as the effect of causes
external to the person himself—i.e., genetics, parents, environmental
conditions, and so on. Humanistic psychologists countered this trend by developing
models which could account for the apparent purposiveness and growth-seeking
behavior of human beings.
Rather than portray the individual as caught in an
interminable struggle between instinctual drives and the inhibiting influence
of society (psychoanalysis), or fragment the person into a multitude of
conditioned behaviors as seen from an external vantage point (behaviorism),
humanists perceived the individual as a unified organism made up of autonomous
drives and functions which could be differentiated from one another and
integrated into a functional whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Humanistic psychologists challenged Freudian theory by
postulating that instinctual drives were not dangerous forces erupting out of a
primitive id, but healthy impulses that should be valued and trusted. The
individual was perceived as a creative, self-actualizing, and self-determining
organism capable of making responsible decisions and growing progressively
toward an ideal state. Unlike behaviorists who ignored the internal world of
consciousness, humanists emphasized the primacy of the subjective element.
Whereas behaviorists contended that behavior was solely conditioned by external
causes, humanists focused on the relevance of intentionality as an internal
cause of behavior. While behaviorists were concerned with how behavior could be
manipulated and controlled, humanists emphasized the capacity for personal
freedom and choice. In sum, it was not the outer environment that was of
central importance to the humanistic psychologist, but the person's inner world
of perceptions, values, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, expectations, needs,
feelings, and sensations.
Rudhyar was the first to recognize how astrology and
humanistic psychology complemented one another. The chart, in effect, could be
utilized as a tool for mapping the complex inner world that humanists were
starting to explore. Just as humanistic psychology was a response to the
determinism inherent in psychoanalysis and behaviorism, humanistic astrology
was a response to the determinism inherent in traditional, event-oriented
astrology. Borrowing from Carl Roger's (1951) Client-Centered Therapy, Rudhyar
(1972) developed Person-Centered Astrology. Rudhyar was less concerned with
whether astrology works than on how it could be utilized to assist the process
of self-actualization. The real question was, given that astrology works what
is its proper use?
In 1969 Rudhyar founded the International Committee for
Humanistic Astrology and declared that astrology was, or should be, primarily a
technique for understanding human nature. He decried the implicit determinism
of predictive astrology and focused instead on astrology's potential as a
symbolic language. Instead of seeing planets as transmitters of physical
influence, Rudhyar saw them as symbolic of human functions. As a psychological
language and diagnostic tool, astrology could serve as a guide to the
integration and transformation of personality. Rudhyar's approach was
"person-centered" in the sense that every birthchart was unique; a
horoscope represented the individual's total potential in which no planet was
"good" or "bad" but rather each element was part of an
organic whole. Events were not interpreted as isolated occurrences with
fortunate or unfortunate effects, but as purposeful, phase-specific
manifestations of developmental cycles. An event derived its meaning from the
stage it represented in a given planetary cycle and contributed to an ongoing
process of growth that lead inexorably toward self-realization.
In the 1970's, the humanistic banner was taken up by such
astrologers as Ziporah Dobyns, Richard Idemon, Stephen Arroyo, Robert Hand, and
others. Humanistic astrologers asserted that there is no absolute separation
between human and divine; rather, people and planets are woven into the same
seamless web of being. Every individual is a focus and channel for the numinous
energies that permeate the entire cosmos. Consciousness, not matter, is the
primary reality of the Universe. As the human psyche is both reflective of and
embedded within the Universal Psyche, it partakes of the creative power of this
parent Consciousness. The psyche is bound and animated by the laws and
formative principles of the One Being of which all lesser beings are parts.
While the universal laws of Absolute Being cannot be violated, the individual
is free and self-determining within the boundaries of these laws.
Rudhyar held that each person was born in response to a
need of the Universe at a particular time and place. The birth chart, in
effect, represents the solution to this need; i.e., it reveals the purpose of
the life and the key to one's destiny. Put another way, the horoscope is like a
"seed-plan" that shows a person's unique path of development. Just as
a seed packet depicts a picture of the plant that the enclosed seeds may
eventually become, so the horoscope symbolizes the kind of adult that the
individual may become. In this view, nothing occurs in a human life except for
a purpose, and this purpose is the purpose of the whole acting through the
individual. This whole is often referred to as the core Self, the indwelling
divinity that is rooted in a living, purposive universe. The question then
becomes not what is going to happen, but what is its meaning? Astrology, said
Rudhyar, can be utilized as a kind of karma yoga in which everything that
happens is related to who the person is and what he or she may become. Thus the
humanistic astrologer should not be concerned with events per se, but only with
the response or meaning that the client gives to them. "It is not the
predictable events which are important, but the attitude of the individual
person towards his own growth and self-fulfillment" (1972, p. 54).
The advantage of the birth-chart is that it depicts the
individual as a whole and thus provides a means for understanding how internal
conflicts result in personality fragmentation and the exteriorization of
conflict. Individuals split off and deny certain parts of themselves when the
needs that underlay the expression of these parts meet with pain and
frustration. Various functions get repressed and projected, and thus the
individual is reduced to only part of what he or she potentially is.
Unintegrated functions are typically experienced in the outer world in the
guise of people and situations the individual attracts. What the individual
experiences as a problematic situation or relationship can be seen in the chart
as an aspect of his or her own psyche. In this way, the horoscope indicates
what functions have been denied and projected, and through what circumstances
(houses) they will likely be encountered.
While the birthchart provides insight into the client's
internal conflicts, it is transits and progressions that tell us when these
conflicts will be targeted for healing. These planetary movements indicate the
nature, meaning, and duration of various developmental periods, each of which
presents its own challenges and opportunities. While transits may correlate
with outer events that seem to impinge upon the individual, astrology suggests
that these events are the synchronous external manifestation of inner changes.
In other words, environment and psyche are reflections of one another. The
outer events serve as the trigger or stimulus to promote inner psychological
growth. Seen in this way, transits reveal those parts of a person's nature
which are ready to be consciously integrated, explored or transformed.
To re-engage a split-off part usually results in crisis
since it means that the old order has to die in order for a new, more inclusive
order to emerge. The humanistic astrologer, says Rudhyar (1975),
welcomes crises
as signs of growth. He attempts to help the client or patient to reorient himself
toward the causes of the crisis, to reassesses his goals as well as his
motives, to accept what is, but in a new and holistic manner...which eventually
should lead to harmony, inner peace, wisdom and compassion. (p. 56-7)
The value of astrology, then, is not its power to predict
what the gods have in store for humans, but its ability to reveal the god-like
powers that reside in the depths of every human being. Accordingly, the focus
in humanistic astrology is inward, not outward, and interpretations are made in
terms of personal growth and fulfillment. Simply put, the goal is to help the
client realize the potentials that are symbolized by the horoscope. For
example, Saturn opposed Venus in the natal chart indicates not simply
"misfortune in love," but the potential to love deeply, enduringly,
and responsibly along with the patience and determination to overcome
obstacles. While realization of this potential may require a certain amount of
hardship and suffering, to predict only hardship and suffering with no
understanding of the potential gains involved is shortsighted at best and
damaging at worst. Dobyns (1973) put it this way:
Telling people
they are fated to experience specific negative events can be highly
destructive. The view taken here is that character is destiny, and that by
changing our character (our habitual attitudes, beliefs, and actions) we can
change our destiny. With self-knowledge, we can integrate conflicts, overcome
weaknesses, further develop talents, and move toward balance. As humanistic
psychology puts it, we can achieve self-actualization and self-transcendence.
(p. 2)
In many ways, humanistic astrology represents a genuine
advancement in the theory of humanistic psychology. Both Jungian and humanistic
psychologies have been criticized for their lack of precision in describing the
inner nature of the human being. References to archetypes, faculties,
functions, impulses and the like tend to be vague and speculative, with no
concrete referents for outlining in a systematic manner the structure of the
psyche. Humanistic psychology is more a set of attitudes toward the person than
a precise and useful theory of personality and human growth. Astrology, on the
other hand, provides objective predictable correlates for the structure and
dynamics of the psyche while also indicating the directions that growth might
occur. The person with Saturn opposed Venus, for example, may shift over time
from a negative, fearful attitude toward relationships, e.g., "I will
resist being controlled by my domineering partner," to one of responsible
and loyal commitment. Such a shift would reflect a more mature, realistic
attitude toward relationship, e.g., "a good marriage requires patience,
humility, and hard work," while still being consistent with the
astrological meaning of Saturn opposed Venus.
Astrotherapy is the application of astrological concepts
to clinical practice. Astrology is both a theory of personality and a
diagnostic tool. It presents a complex, multidimensional model of human
behavior that depicts the psyche as a hierarchical structure comprised of
archetypal needs, cognitive structures, emergent thoughts and behaviors, and
corresponding events. It is also a powerful and flexible assessment device that
allows the practitioner to discern clues to the formative experiences of
childhood, gain insight into the meaning of current events, and target periods
of future growth. Unlike traditional, event-oriented astrology, astrotherapy is
not concerned with superficial trait descriptions or the prediction of future
events. Rather, astrology is used to foster empathy for the client's internal
world and thereby enhances the therapist's ability to effectively treat
psychological problems, modify or remove existing symptoms, and promote
positive personality growth and fulfillment.
References
Dobyns, Z. (1973). The astrologer's casebook. Los
Angeles: TIA Publications.
Jung, C. (1948). Letter to Professor B.V. Raman. American
Astrology, June, 1948.
Jung, C. (1954). Interview with Andre Barbault. Astrologie
Moderne, May 26, 1954.
Jung, C. (1955). Synchronicity: An acausal connecting
principle. In C. Jung & W. Pauli, The Interpretation of nature and psyche
(pp. 1-146). New York: Pantheon.
Jung, C. (1962). Commentary. In R. Wilhelm (Trans. &
Ed.), The secret of the golden flower. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World.
Jung, C. (1976). C.G. Jung: Letters (Volume II). Edited
by G. Adler and A. Jaffe (R.F.C. Hull, trans.). London: Routledge and Kegan
Paul.
Rudhyar, D. (1936). The Astrology of Personality. Garden
City, New York: Doubleday & Company.
Rudhyar, D. (1972). Person Centered Astrology. Lakemont,
GA: CSA Press.
Rudhyar, D. (1975). From humanistic to transpersonal
astrology. Palo Alto, CA: The Seed Center.
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