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Astrologer's Notes:
AstroDPsychology:A Synthesis |
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Archetypal Characters
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by Glenn Perry, Ph.D., MFT |
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Every planet in astrology symbolizes both an inner and outer character, and the nature of the inner character is reflected in the outer one. An archetype can manifest externally as a character in three different ways-as a personality type (e.g., narcissist, obsessive), a role (e.g., mother, sibling, employee), or an occupation (e.g., accountant, professor). While all persons that we meet embody one or another archetypes, there is no single way that an archetype manifests. Rather, there is a plethora of ways that are modified by the planet's sign, house, and aspects, as well as by the degree to which that archetype is integrated within the individual.
Inner characters make their presence known through the moods, attitudes, internal dialogues, postures, and impulses that characterize different psychological states. As such, these inner characters constitute identities or subpersonalities. Externally, these same archetypal figures make their presence known through the personalities, roles, and occupations of the people we attract. These individuals, too, will be characterized by moods, attitudes, and behaviors that reflect their psychological states. Oddly enough, the planetary configuration just as accurately describes the outer character is the native himself.
Consider, for example, the archetype of Mars. We are possessed by this identity whenever we feel aggressive. "I can do it, nothing can stop me now," is the voice of Mars. There is an impulse to fight, to be free, to assert one's right to be. Externally, Mars will show up in a form that reflects the way it is constellated within the individual. The external Mars person will behave in a way that either parallels or compensates the way Mars is expressed by the native. If the native is uncomfortable with his warrior identity and is afraid to be it (overmodulated Mars), then the warrior archetype may manifest externally in a compensatory way; someone will act aggressively, or selfishly, or brutally toward the person. Or, the native may be plagued with someone who similarly lacks the capacity to assert.
Conversely, if Mars is undermodulated and the native has poor control over his warrior spirit, then Mars may show up in a compensatory way where people assert in an underhanded, passive, or covert manner toward the individual. Equally likely when Mars is undermodulated is that other people will act in a similarly primitive, impulsive, or thoughtless way. Hostilities are out in the open and there are continual fights and competitions until the native learns to better integrate his warrior spirit.
Characters symbolized by planets will be particularly evident in the houses these planets tenant. If Mars is in the 6th, then co-workers are apt to embody Mars. However, if Mars is in the 8th house, one's partner may embody Martian traits in the bedroom or in the way joint finances are handled. Wherever Mars resides, circumstances result that provoke the native to anger or assertion and thereby give him ample opportunities to integrate his Mars to a higher degree. Again, depending upon how Mars is integrated and constellated overall, the degree of difficulty will vary accordingly. As a general rule, Mars characters will behave in a manner that either reflects or compensates the way Mars is expressed by that individual.
Mars' roles are fairly straightforward. Anyone competing against the person, challenging her to fight, encouraging her to assert, violating her rights, or in some way threatening her survival, is embodying a Mars function. Mars can be a competitor, an adversary, a rival, an opponent, or a fellow combatant. The warrior archetype can also show up as a survivalist, a daredevil like Evel Kneival, a militant, or an adventurer or explorer. The more Mars constitutes a dominant trait in the people one regularly attracts, the more it is likely to be a strong component of the native's personality as well-or needs to be. If the native struggles over the way other people express their need for independence, freedom, or survival (doing it to excess or not enough), then this indicates the native is having internal problems with Mars as well, expressing it either too little or too much. Always life will provide circumstances that stimulate the native to develop skills in precisely those areas that present problems.
Although we have been focusing on Mars here, the same principle applies to the other planets as well. Each planet symbolizes a separate identity in the sense that when we are in that archetype we experience the whole chart through its eyes. If a situation evokes the impulse for relatedness, such that Venus momentarily takes over and possesses the person, e.g., a man feels affectionate, attracted, and loving toward someone, then the Venus-identified person will experience the rest of his chart as if he were Venus. If Venus is opposing Saturn, he will begin to anticipate that his love will not be reciprocated; if Venus squares Mars, he will worry that his beloved is too selfish. In other words, the planets to which Venus forms hard aspects will show up externally in a form that frustrate or inhibit what Venus wants.
While aspects will be covered more thoroughly in subsequent columns, the point here is that not only does each planet constitute a separate identity, it also symbolizes specific other persons with whom we interact. One can interpret a planet either way-as the self, or as a significant other person who embodies that function. In both instances, the planet will manifest in a manner that is consistent with its placement in the chart.
To return to the above example, if natal Venus is opposed Saturn, the Venus-possessed person is apt to perceive others as withholding or rejecting (in other words, as too Saturnian). Note, however, that this outcome occurs only when the person is predominantly identified with his Venus. If he identifies with his Saturn function, then the opposite may occur: he perceives potential lovers as too Venusian - needy, compliant, wishy-washy, saccharine, and so on. Whichever side of the polarity the native assumes, the lover may assume the opposite, such that the behavior of both participants is equally consistent with the meaning of the aspect.
Likewise, if the Venus-possessed person has Venus square Mars, then his love interest will behave as if he she had Venus square Mars, too, but she will tend to embody the Mars side, which the Venus-identified man has for the moment projected, e.g., she may be abrasive, demanding, or feel restricted by his desire for intimacy. Of course, the argument could be made that the individual who actually has the aspect is behaving in a way that evokes exactly that behavior in the other which is expected. Aspects signify beliefs, and beliefs operate like self-fulfilling prophecies. From a synchronistic perspective, however, at least part of the reason for the experience is that the native has unwittingly sent out a casting call and advertised for someone who fits his script. The Universe is only too happy to oblige.
Knowing which part of a person's chart someone else is playing has two diagnostic advantages. First, one can infer the purpose of that person in the life of the native. If the external character embodies a predominantly Saturn function, e.g., as an authority figure, then there may be challenges and opportunities for developing the Saturn function within the native. Second, the precise nature of one's experience with the external character provides feedback that reflects the state of integration of the corresponding psychological function, while at the same time stimulating it to further growth.
A common example would be the role of a parent in a child's life. It appears that part of the child's fate is to complete unfinished business from the parent's life that is reflected in either the Moon (mother), or Sun (father). It never ceases to amaze me how the placement of the Moon not only describes the native's history with the maternal figure, it also describes the history of the maternal figure herself. How the mother was affected by experiences prior to the birth of her child seems to get passed on to the child as a kind of psychic inheritance. The child's experience with the mother is internalized and then worked with continuously over the course of the lifetime. If the mother was depressed, the child inherits the depressive tendency and must heal within herself what remained unresolved in the mother.
The same could be said of the Sun and the child's experience of the father. The position of the Sun in the chart suggests a theme in the life of the father that may constitute "unfinished business." Like two runners in a relay race, the father hands the baton to his son/daughter whose fate then becomes to run his/her leg of the race-i.e., to advance the cause and, hopefully, to achieve in his/her own life whatever the father left unfinished in his own. The sign, house, and aspects of the Sun reveal the specific nature of the challenge. The child must literally "out do" the father by actualizing his/her solar potential to a higher degree that the father, i.e., attain a higher level of creativity, self-esteem, confidence, and capacity to love with a full and open heart. The situation may repeat itself when that child becomes a parent, such that each subsequent generation must carry forward the evolutionary trajectory of the family line.
To say that children "inherit" certain traits and challenges from parents has an unintended social and biological connotation. I do not mean to imply that one's psychic inheritance is behaviorally transmitted from parent to child, although this may play a part. And I certainly am not suggesting that the determining factor is genetic, although this, too, may be a corollary. What I am saying is that the fate of a child is prefigured in its chart and externally manifest in the character and psychological history of its parents. This is a mystery that goes beyond childhood conditioning and genetic inheritance. It is a subject we shall take up in future columns.
Suffice to say here that the psychological functions of planets become embodied in the various roles, personality types, and occupations of people that the native encounters. These external manifestations of archetypal characters reflect the state of integration of that archetype within the individual, while also providing a necessary stimulus to further development. Table I provides a brief listing of some of the archetypal characters that planets symbolize.
Table 1: Archetypal Characters
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| Sign-Planet |
Archetypal Characters |
| Aries-Mars |
Warrior, competitor, rival, young man, adventurer, pioneer, noble savage, sociopath |
| Taurus-Venus |
Hedonist, settler, earth mother, voluptuary, builder, young maiden, money maker |
| Gemini-Mercury |
Messenger, herald, reporter, student, amateur, dilettante, librarian, sibling, neighbor, punster |
| Cancer-Moon |
Mother, women, dependents, caretaker, cook, protector, historian, Realtor, patriot, the public |
| Leo-Sun |
Hero, father, men, performer, star, playmate, buddy, romantic interest, audience, narcissist |
| Virgo-Mercury |
Efficiency expert, fix-it man, trouble shooter, doubting Thomas, novice, analyst, critic |
| Libra-Venus |
Beloved, partner, spouse, diplomat, arbiter, artist, host, social butterfly, beautician, ally |
| Scorpio-Pluto |
Healer, shaman, criminal, tyrant, stranger, financier, evil person, sex object, prostitute |
| Sagittarius-Jupiter |
Teacher, guru, prophet, traveler, demagogue, moralist, optimist, promoter, sales person |
| Capricorn-Saturn |
Authority figure, father, executive, manager, superior, expert, professional, taskmaster |
| Aquarius-Uranus |
Witness, trickster, rebel, radical, humanitarian, inventor, eccentric, free spirit, liberator |
| Pisces-Neptune |
Savior, victiavior, victim, martyr, alcoholic, addict, mystic, fraud, poet, dreamer, psychic, wimp |
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"Astrology is a religion inasmuch as it reveals the anatomy and psychology of God."
~ Manly Palmer Hall
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Glenn Perry,
Ph.D., MFT
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Glenn Perry, Ph.D., MFT
Doctorate in Clinical Psychology
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
Director of the Association for Psychological Astrology
Board Member of the International Society of Astrological Research
Glenn Perry lectures and conducts workshops throughout the world on the application of astrology to the fields of counseling and psychotherapy.
He has written six books, including "Essays In Psychological Astrology".
Dr. Perry is the founder and president of the Academy of AstroPsychology, a masters and doctoral degree program.
For more information:
www.astropsychology.org
Information on Glenn's books, tapes, and on-line mentorship program can be obtained at:
www.aaperry.com.
E-mail: glenn@aaperry.com
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