 |
 |
| |
| Departments |
Home
Columns, Special
Topics & Features:
The Columns:
Angels, Guides, &
Loving Spirits:
Angel Blessings:
with Dr. Doreen Virtue
Ask Valerie Morrison,
Internationally
Acclaimed Psychic
Trust Your Vibes
By Dr. Sonia Choquette, PhD.
Internationally Acclaimed Psychic Healer & Author
Body Mind & Spirit with John Holland
Psychic Medium, Author
& Teacher
Astrologer's Notes:
Carin Martin,
Astrologer
Donna Cunningham, MSW, Astrologer
Basil Fearrington,
Astrologer
Diana Stone,
Astrologer &
Huna Shaman
Jeff Jawer
Astrologer
Glenn Perry,
Astrologer
Ray Merriman,
Financial Astrology:
MMA Market Week
Noel Tyl,
Astrologer
Daily Aspect Calendar
by Care
MoonWatching with Dana Gerhardt and Friends
Creating Bridges:
The Spiritual &
Philosophical
Act of Power
Discovering the Key to Living Your Sacred Dream
by Lynn Andrews
The BUT Doctor
Healing America's Real Crack Problem One Person at a Time
by Eddie Conner
Avant-Gardening:
Insights by Frank &
Vicky Giannangelo
From The Heart:
Alan Cohen
Teachings from the Western Mystery Traditions: The Esoteric "Paths of Return"
by Jacquelyn Small, Eupsychia
Spirituality in Daily Life: by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron
The Conscious Column
by David Ault
Spiritual Mastery
for the 21st Century
Dr. Gwen MacGregor
Pearls of Wisdom:
with Care & Aeon
Encounters on the
Shaman's Path with
Dr. Hank Wesselman, PhD.
Anthropologist, Zoologist, Author, Shamanic Healer & Teacher
The Divine Human
by Ornesha De Paoli
Awakenings
by Karen Johnson
Worshipping by Wondering with
Sankara Saranam, MA Founder of the Pranayama Institute
Feng Shui & Chinese Metaphysics:
Inside Chinese Metaphysics
by Barbara Finch,
Feng Shui &
Chinese Astrology
In Practice:
Juliet's Marketing Wisdom
by Juliet Austin, MA Marketing Coach, Author & Consultant
Kabbalah:
Kabbalah Revealed:
Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, Kabbalalist
"Letters from Heaven:" Spiritual Guidance from
the Hebrew Alphabet
by Avigayil Landsman
Pet Care:
Dr. Carson's Holistic Animal Care
by Dr. Kathleen Carson, D.V.M.
Tarot:
Moment to Moment
by Gigi Miner
Author, Tarot Consultant, & Teacher
Reviews:
Tarot, Cartomancy,
Oracle Decks,
Books, & Software.
by Bonnie Cehovet,
Tarot Master
Humor:
Wake Up Laughing.Com:
Swami Beyondananda
Features:
Blessings & Messages
Event Calendar
Historical Notes & Data
The MetaPersonals
Opinion-Editorial
News Briefs
Symbols, Seals,
Amulets & Talismans
The What in the
World Department
Trivia & Life's Other
Novel Moments
Interviews:
Watch for Upcoming Announcements
Healing & Alternative
Health:
Living in Harmony-Astrology, Yoga & Ayurveda:
Venkat & Christine Machiraju
"Spirit and Practice
of the Wise Woman
Tradition"
By Susun Weed
Tai Chi & Qigong
by Bill Douglas
The Holistic Mystic,
by Lonny Brown
Medical Intuition: Tune
in to Your Body and Improve Your Health
by Caroline Sutherland, Sutherland Communications
Transformational Healing through the Violet Flame!
by Eva Kettles
Herbs for Health
with Kami McBride
The Directory
The Book Nook
Archives:
Past Issues
|
|
|
|
|
|
Astrologer's Notes:
AstroDPsychology:A Synthesis |
|
 |
The Horoscope
As Evolving Story
|
|
|
by Glenn Perry, Ph.D., MFT |
|
|
Occasionally I teach a seminar called "Finding The Life-Script In the Chart." I like the title since the word "script" not only conveys the idea of "story," but also of a set of instructions that are written down, as in "a script to follow." To me, this is what the chart symbolizes: a story and a set of instructions for living -- that is, for evolving.
Such an approach is consistent with what psychologists call "narrative therapy" or "personal mythology," the idea that human beings are better understood by a metaphor of story than of "thing". The thing approach, which is the traditional way of conceptualizing personality, reduces the person to a static character type ?? extrovert, borderline, hysteric, or simply a number if you ascribe to the Eneagram typology.
Personally, I dislike typologies, even astrological ones that reduce people to signs or planets, e.g., he’s a "Scorpio," or she’s a "Neptunian." Typologies tend to be reductionistic, linear, simplistic, static, objectifying, pathologizing, and dehumanizing. People are better described as stories because stories are complex, nonpathologizing, have movement built into them, and symbolize a process of change that leads toward resolution of conflict and growth of character.
In recognizing that everyone has or is a story, we are reminded that identities are neither simple nor fixed; rather, people are complex and continually changing. Each planet constitutes a sub-personality, or part-self. These sub-personalities become increasingly differentiated over time, and are gradually integrated into a more-or-less unified sense of self.
People are not only multi-selved, they are multi-storied. Depending upon one's current level of development, there are many possible stories symbolized by the horoscope. Identities, or stories, are constructed from the meanings we give to experience starting in infancy and extending into adulthood. How we interpret our experience constructs a world-concept and a self-concept. These combine to produce a life-story or "script." Since people learn and grow, the meanings they attribute to their experiences evolve. A parent seen as "mean" in childhood becomes worthy of our forgiveness and even pity by the time we're fifty. As meanings change, so also do the constructed stories they support.
Because many of these constructions were laid down in childhood, and thus form the bedrock of our personal theory of reality, they are necessarily narrow, arbitrary, and distorted. Worse, they can be grim, false, and self-limiting. They often predict that bad things will happen if we pursue our basic needs, and thus cause us to adapt solutions that create the very suffering they were designed to avoid.
Maladaptive beliefs and false ideas operate like self-fulfilling prophecies. They bring about poverty, loneliness, shame, estrangement, betrayal, loss, failure, shock, and tragedy of every known variety. The good news is that we can eliminate these stubborn fictions by becoming aware of them, and there is no better way of doing this than study of one’s own astrological chart.
Constructing A Story From The Chart
The interaction of planet, sign and house form the sentences of our story. Various grammatical rules can be utilized for constructing sentences, e.g., Mars in Sagittarius in the 10th can be translated to mean: "He pioneered a new theory, which launched his career." It can also mean, "My father was an angry man, especially about religion and politics; He taught me that people in authority often make up laws for reasons of expediency and personal gain."
By playing with different combinations, it is possible to elaborate planetary sign-house sentences into paragraphs. Taking every planet and treating it in a similar manner, we would have about ten paragraphs all of which are in some manner descriptive of the process and probable experiences of the person involved. A narrative, however, is not told by paragraphs alone. In order to be fully understood by a reader, it must be unified and coherent. Each paragraph should be logically related to the others so that taken together they constitute a plot structure. Plot can only be gleaned by looking at the story as a whole. It is the same with the astrological chart. The individual is not simply a conglomerate of disparate and unrelated parts, but a complex network of interlocking needs and functions. We call this approach to the chart synergistic, meaning the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The process of constructing a story from the chart can be outlined in the following way: Planets symbolize the story’s characters; the signs they rule represent underlying motives; roles are designated by the signs they occupy; and the houses they tenant depict the various settings that provide a background for the story’s action. Planetary aspects and dispositors reveal the overall plot or story line of the chart. Whereas aspects represent core beliefs that often symbolize the main theme or conflict of the narrative, dispositor?s tie signs, planets, and houses together into a continuous and flowing whole, thus revealing the story's skeletal structure and unfolding sequence. Aspects and dispositors give the story unity and coherence.
Discovering The Plot of The Story
Plot constitutes the arrangement of elements in a story and is characterized by a reoccurring sequence of events that are all related to a central question. This sequence makes up the plot’s pattern; incidents keep occurring that have a similar meaning or quality. Pattern is not simply a mechanical repetition, but a process of stages in progression. Each incident brings about a modification in awareness that leads toward resolution of the core conflict.
A chart has a plot, too. Just as the planets and their various relations symbolize one’s character, so they also symbolize the plot of one’s story. Each planetary character represents a type of action, which serves as a catalyst for the action of its dispositor. For example, Mars in Sagittarius activates Jupiter in Libra, which, in turn, acts as a catalyst for Venus in Leo, and so on around the wheel. Taken as a whole, the chart symbolizes the structure of action. An astrological chart has a pattern; incidents of the same or similar quality keep reoccurring, e.g., an individual continually experiences the same kind of outcomes in his relationships, career, or finances.
Ideally, pattern is not simply repetition, but constitutes a path of evolutionary unfoldment. Each incident modifies awareness, which leads toward a progressive development and integration of character. Every new episode has the potential to alter consciousness. People learn, develop insight, and realize their potentials over time. In this sense, plot is an unfolding of character; fate is soul spread out in time. One could even say that fate is the means whereby soul unifies itself.
As the action of the chart unfolds, there are invariably conflicts and allegiances that form between the various characters that make up the narrative. As archetypal characters, planets symbolize specific types of action, and every action has the potential for harmonizing or conflicting with other types of action. The challenge of any life-story is to resolve conflicts and knit parts together into an aesthetic whole. To the extent that this is accomplished, one becomes a person of good character, i.e. one attains integrity.
No Conflict, No Story
Conflict is essential to stories. This is as true for the average person as it is for the protagonists of myth and literature. Conflict is what drives a story forward. No conflict, no story. In external conflict, characters struggle against the environment or with each other. In internal conflict, one part of the psyche struggles against another part; motives clash and ideas vie for dominance. In most stories, a strong element of inner conflict balances the outer conflict. To understand a story it is crucial to determine the nature of the conflict and the pattern that the opposing forces assume. Toward this end, the astrological chart is an invaluable aid, for almost invariably there is at least one central conflict clearly revealed in the horoscope.
Planetary aspects symbolize the various types of relations -- some conflictual, some harmonizing -- that exist between parts of psychological structure. Aspects not only signify the organization of the internal world, they also describe how the external world is structured. Planetary archetypes are non-local entities that manifest simultaneously in both inner and outer events. Just as in stories, inner conflicts tend to be balanced by outer conflicts.
In the beginning of a story, there is generally some situation that entails a lack of wholeness -- in other words, a conflict between characters, within a character, or both. Stories can be thought of in terms of problem and solution, conflict and repose, tension and resolution. Whether and how the conflict is resolved constitutes the main question of the drama. This is what creates suspense.
Again, a story can be seen as a metaphor for a person. Just as stories denote conflicts between characters, so every human being experiences internal conflict between the various parts of his own nature. The planetary archetypes make up our inner cast of characters. Whereas one part of our nature may be quite compatible with another part, e.g., our maternal instinct (Moon) may form an alliance with our inner warrior (Mars) so that we are fierce in our capacity to protect, other parts of the psyche may be at war. Our impulse for pleasure (Venus) may be at odds with the drive for perfection (Saturn) so that we feel undeserving of pleasure. This may show up in the outer world as an interpersonal conflict; one person craves the pleasures of physical intimacy, the other withholds. The outer conflict reflects the inner one while also providing a vehicle for its resolution.
Purely physical conflict does not denote a story. A story requires characterization. There has to be characters that arouse sympathy or antipathy. We have to evaluate the ideas or motives that underlay the external conflict. We may sympathize with one character’s perspective, and feel hostile toward another. Sympathy and antipathy, a conflict of ideas, is what makes up a story.
In astrology, too, the horoscope reveals how the native may be more sympathetic toward some planets than others. Conflicting emotions and motivations are portrayed by hard aspects between planets, e.g., the antagonism between family ties and adult partnerships (Moon-Venus), or disharmony between one's rational and imaginative sides (Mercury-Neptune). These conflicts often emerge as pathogenic beliefs -- negative ideas -- that express pessimism or fear about the relative likelihood of meeting basic needs. Negative ideas generate self-defeating behaviors that perpetuate external conflicts and frustration of needs, and so the story goes.
Character Is Destiny
The relation between character and events is a fundamental principle of organization in astrology, just as it is in stories. In story, plot is the unfolding of character; in astrology, character is destiny. Just as in every story there is an obvious external conflict and a less obvious internal conflict in the hero's mind, so each planetary aspect has an objective and subjective meaning.
An aspect, for example, symbolizes a facet of character and a characteristic event. If an individual believes that he can never truly belong (Moon) unless he achieves distinction in his profession (Saturn), while also fearing that too much work will jeopardize his relations with his family, this internal conflict of Moon-Saturn ideas may emerge externally as a situation in which his wife accuses him of neglecting the children in favor of his career.
Often these conflicts appear as impossible predicaments for which there is no solution. Yet, it is the challenge of the life to integrate the respective planetary functions and, in so doing, bring into being a unique talent or accomplishment that resolves the conflict. Perhaps our Moon-Saturn man builds a company (Saturn) that provides a protective service (Moon) to the community, an accomplishment that ultimately allows him to spend more time with his family.
In every story, there is a key moment that brings into focus all previous events and suddenly reveals their meaning. It is the moment of illumination for the whole story, the instant in which the underlying unity is perceived as inherent in the complexity. Likewise in an astrological chart, there is a potential unity that is inherent in the complexity of the various parts and relations. If the chart is properly interpreted, this wholeness can be illumined. Suddenly the native sees his life as all of a piece; there is an "ah ha!" recognition. Most importantly, the native realizes that the main conflict of his life provides an opportunity for learning a lesson and for actualizing a potential that can only be achieved by working through complexity, complication, and confusion -- just as in any good story. Pointing the way toward such a "happy ending" is one of the main values of interpreting a birthchart.
|
|
|
"Astrology is a religion inasmuch as it reveals the anatomy and psychology of God."
~ Manly Palmer Hall
|
|
|
|
|
Glenn Perry,
Ph.D., MFT
|
 |
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
|
 |
You'll find it in
The
Directory! |
|
|
|
|
