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Astrologer's Notes:
AstroDPsychology:A Synthesis |
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Content Mirrors Process
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by Glenn Perry, Ph.D., MFT |
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In an earlier column titled The Protean Nature of Astrological Archetypes, I discussed how the language of astrology could be divided into two areas: process and content. Process has to do with the person's inner life, whereas content refers to the outer life, or what is sometimes called fate. A general rule is that content mirrors process. Intrapsychic dynamics are reflected in the nature and quality of one's outer experiences.
As discussed in previous columns, process constitutes the psychodynamics of the birthchart and has to do with the underlying motives, beliefs, goals, and intentions that characterize a person's inner life. Because process can be defined as a series of operations conducive toward a goal, it is dynamic; it is the active movement of consciousness as it progresses from motive to action. Content, on the other hand, is the outcome of psychological functioning. It shows up in a person's lived experience --relations with people, things, and events. Whereas process is psychological functioning, content is the consequence of psychological functioning, an epiphenomenal by-product of psychic life.
A planetary archetype can be interpreted in terms of both process and content, each of which includes four dimensions. Process or inner dimensions include motive, function, emotion, and target state. Jupiter, for example, signifies the motivation to seek truth, the function of theorizing, the emotion of enthusiasm, and the target state of faith (the target state is the intrinsic goal of a planet). The four content or outer dimensions include person, place, thing, and event. A Jupiter person could be a teacher, place could be a University, thing could be a diploma, and an event could be acceptance into graduate school. Other words can be substituted for what I have chosen here, but these serve to illustrate the general idea.
Behavior is the ninth dimension and has qualities of both process and content, for behavior is the connecting link between inner and outer experience. Any behavior, by definition, involves some sort of interaction with an outside environment. A Jupiter behavior, for example, might involve expressing an opinion to one's professor during a classroom debate.
Since the same astrological variable can symbolize any of nine dimensions, planetary archetypes are protean entities that serve as unifying psychological principles. They manifest in diverse ways across the entire spectrum of human experience, from inner motivation to outer event.
Many people consider astrology's primary value to be its capacity to forecast events. Predictive, event-oriented astrology has a long and respected tradition, its major branches being horary, which answers specific questions, electional, which "elects" favorable times to begin an enterprise, and mundane, which studies the relation of planetary cycles to political and cultural trends. Event-oriented astrology works because planetary archetypes have a tendency to manifest not only through human behavior but also through the events humans experience. From a psychological perspective, however, the meaning of an event is considered more important than ability to predict the event itself. The psychological astrologer is interested in (1) how events reflect the psyche of the experiencer; and (2) what the event's purpose might be in the larger framework of personal growth and evolution.
Again, there are four ways an archetype can manifest externally-as a person, place, thing, or event. An event can be defined as a segment of time in which something occurs of a particular quality; i.e., an event is a significant occurrence, happening, or outcome. Actually, the term "event" constitutes a higher order class of which "people, places, and things" are members, for the people we meet, the places we go, and the things we acquire are events in themselves. Events are referred to as content because they constitute the prime subject matter of life. Content is contained in awareness, as when we focus our attention on a spouse (person), live in an ashram (place), worry about our bank account (thing), or go on a vacation (event). Clearly, these four dimensions tend to overlap and represent somewhat artificial distinctions. A woman can pay attention to her husband while vacationing at an Ashram in India and worry about her bank account all at the same time. For our purposes, however, it is useful to distinguish people, places, and things as different dimensions of our lived experience.
Content is always a product of a planetary action. We may fight someone (Mars), attract goods (Venus), investigate a topic (Mercury), protect our children (Moon), or visit a foreign country (Jupiter). Sometimes events appear to happen to us, as if we bear no responsibility for their occurrence. A woman is raped, a man's car is stolen, or a fire destroys the family home. From an astrological point of view, however, such events cannot be mere random occurrences. A core principle in astrology is that consciousness generates conditions consistent with itself. We must remember, however, that individual consciousness is always embedded within a larger consciousness -- the objective psyche -- which may have purposes that supersede the intentions of its individual members. Since we are indissolubly part of this larger consciousness, our every thought, decision, and action has consequences that reverberate throughout the whole and eventually come back to us in the form of an event. Painful events may not simply be retribution for past sins, but opportunities for strengthening underfunctioning parts of the psyche. Other events, like wars and natural disasters, are collectively generated and may be an unavoidable consequence of our embeddedness in the larger consciousness that subsumes us.
Sometimes it is necessary to take a long-range view when attempting to understand the significance of an event. While many of the events we experience appear quite different, every life has a pattern that originates in childhood. Early experience leaves a powerful imprint and becomes a kind of template for later experience. This is due, in part, to the ideas that developed in response to these early events. Once established, core beliefs function like self-fulfilling prophecies, generating conditions that have the same or similar quality as the ones that occurred in childhood. Cognitive patterns that developed during one's formative years continue to influence decisions and behavior right into adulthood. Ultimately, these internal patterns form the pattern of our everyday life; they construct the very fabric of our existence, showing up in our jobs, our relationships, and our finances. Everything of significance bears their mark. Pattern is the endlessly repeating story of our lives.
One of the wonderful things about astrology is that the chart symbolizes this inner template, which reveals the structure of our soul and the pattern of our fate. Accordingly, a horoscope can be interpreted on multiple dimensions --childhood experience, resultant core beliefs, subsequent behavior, and corollary adult experiences. When interpreting an astrological chart, therefore, it behooves the astrologer to pay close attention to the nature and quality of a person's lived experience. For each and every event can be seen as a metaphor for some intrapsychic factor that may be operating outside of awareness. The outer world is psyche turned inside out. Events are derivatives of consciousness. Fate is soul spread out in time. Content mirrors process. In subsequent columns, we'll explore how specific archetypes can be discerned behind the persons, places, and things that characterize a person's everyday life.
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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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