Uncategorized – Page 2 – Astrological Psychology and Asklepios Connection

Astrological Psychology Consultations

maslowFigure 1.2 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Clients may or may not be motivated to face up to their basic needs both in therapy and in astrological consultation, instead of gratification of their fantasies, wants or desires. To accomplish this, their ego needs must be recognized and supported by the therapist or consultant as they present them. First, there is the physical need for safety and security, which is achieved by building trust in the first encounter. The consultant expresses that this is a private and confidential session and returns requests for service promptly.

There is a correlation between Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and astrological psychology’s development of ego planets. On the first two bars of Maslow’s pyramid are Physiological needs and Safety (See Figure 1.2). These refer to nourishment and growth in the first four years of life, where 70% of development is physical. A parallel situation for the client in psychotherapy or astrological consultation relates to the provision of a secure framework in the client-consultant relationship where confidentiality, privacy, physical comfort and relative anonymity are the social norm.[i]

This physiological bar correlates with the genetic endowment of the human being and relies to a great degree on the ‘average expected environment,’ based on the client’s early parenting on which the fulfillment of her/his hereditary endowment depends. The connection with astrological psychology is the correlation of the client’s psychological drive for security and safety with the planet Saturn’s horoscope placement. Saturn’s placement and aspects are symbolized by the daily routines leading to safety and security of the child initiated by the mother. Saturn’s patterns and aspects are identified in the natal horoscope and represented by the Mother’s caretaking of the child. The Mother makes sure the child is fed, comfortable as to warmth or cold, clean and hygienically cared for, and established in the routines of the sleep-wake cycle. Saturn’s quality in the horoscope can yield a great deal of information about the nature of the relationship between Mother and child, and form the structure of safety and security of physical functioning relating to Maslow’s physiological and safety needs. Thus, in the astrological psychology consultation, the consultant provides safety and security for the client, a Saturn role, as a nurturer in this relationship. He/she provides consistency, structure based on the client’s needs, and routine care for his/her client based on set appointment times. The office décor meets her needs for comfort, a nurturing environment, and relative security. The client is physically place in the office nearest to the door so that he/she can find easy exit if needed.

The second ego need is to be loved and have a sense of belonging. The love/belonging bar on the Maslow pyramid (Figure 1.2) correlates to the Moon in astrological psychology. This is the drive to contact others for the purpose of getting sympathetic love and emotional connection. Good emotional development means the child can reach out with trust to others, expecting a return of love and understanding. The Moon with its aspects and placement in the natal horoscope reveals the subjective point of view of the child as to how his emotional needs are met/not met. Thus, in an astrological psychology consultation, as in therapy, application of Carl Rogers’ concept of ‘unconditional regard,’ given by the consultant to the client, must convey empathy and understanding, not judgment.[ii] In this way, we allow the spontaneous inner child in the client to contact the therapist.

The third ego need is correlated with the self-esteem and self-actualization bars on the Maslow pyramid (Figure 1.2), and is symbolized by the Sun in astrological psychology. Qualities of the Sun refer to the psychological drive for thinking, conceptualization, and willing, which eventually can bring about self-realization and give a sense of purpose to the individual, once basic needs are met. Assessment of Sun principles by the therapist, can help determine whether the client has clear thinking, good problem- solving capacity, and the potential to awaken the strongest ego planet. The astrological psychology consultant sets goals that align with the clients’ strengths, not his/her own. Therefore, at the beginning of a consultation, one must ask why the person is seeking consultation and try to focus on ‘the presenting request’ during the session, using the chart inferences to direct the flow of communication. A respect for the independence of the client is paramount to a good consultation. For the therapist, aligning with the presenting problem of the client is the initial goal of treatment. When the client suffers from a negative feeling or ego state in a consultation, the astrologer does not ‘rescue’ her from her struggles but, using empathy and applying active listening skills, is gently supportive as she works through her struggles.[iii] Once he leaves the consultation, he/ she must function independently so we do not encourage dependency of any kind in a consultation. [i] Langs, Robert, MD, Rating Your Psychotherapist, Ballantine Books, NY, NY, 1989. p.209.

[ii] Rogers, Carl. Client Centered Therapy, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1951.

[iii] Gordon, Thomas, Parent Effectiveness Training, Three Rivers Press, NY, NY, 2000.

Information on the quality of the ego planets as they relate to the meeting of basic needs is determined by the exact birth time, place and date of the individual, and this data is calculated on a computer program by the astrological psychology consultant to erect the natal horoscope. The consultant’s assessment of the client’s strongest ego planet is determined by its placement in the house system and its planetary aspects. Ego growth and development through identification and development of the this strongest ego planet must be recognized and strived for enhancement if personality integration is to be met.

Are the will and thinking (Sun) determined to guide the individual through life as a thinking type? Are the body (Saturn), presentation of appearance and rituals of a physical nature the features that secure the personality through sensation and the nature of reality? Do the emotions (Moon) and their value judgments determine which of two alternatives subjectively feels right when making decisions?

In my practice, both as astrological consultant and therapist, many of my clients are confused by distortions of their ego needs, which hinder their awareness of the strongest ego planet or psychic faculty that will provide consistent behavior and choices. They can be distracted by their wants/ desires in an environment that may not support good development. Their sub-personalities take over, creating an inauthentic self. Whether a client is in psychotherapy or an astrological consultation, the goals are the same. Huber was wise to recognize the priority of ego integration and development before the achievement of higher levels of consciousness. Regression to meet desires, passions or wants on a continual basis, hinders our awareness of higher consciousness attainment. That is because these behavior patterns cannot be sustained and are not stable enough to lead to an authentic level of self-esteem that will allow for receptivity to the more transcendent vibrations of universal love (Neptune), universal humanitarian improvement (Uranus), and transmutation of the ego (Pluto). So, it is vitally important for the consultant to identify and support the predominant ego function that guides the personality toward achieving confidence and building self- esteem through its application in the real world.

Astrological psychology supports the concept that we build on our ego strengths through our awareness of them which results in how well we adapt to environmental pressures or not. We gain confidence in the one ego planet that consistently works for us. Then we apply our efforts to integrate our personality by application of the body, or the emotions or the mind as faculties bringing a consistent method of understanding and working into our place in the world. This is an unconscious process for some, conscious for others, facilitated by an astrological consultation and the awareness of the individual concerned. Integration through identification of the strongest ego planet or archetype is the most important type of goal setting, and is the focus of psychotherapy as well as astrological consultation because it seems to build into the integration of the lesser developed, two ego planets.

As we mature we find that ego strengths and dominance is not enough to sustain us. Because as we age, we lose our ego attachments to our jobs; our relationships through deaths of parents; close friends and/or lovers; our bodies through weakening and disease and finally we may lose our mental sharpness for accessing our autobiographical memory information efficiently. As these psychosocial realities that we built our lives on diminish through aging, we can find that the Huber method of Astrological Psychology discovers more psychological growth ahead as we continue to preserve our physical and mental health in old age. Achievement of a healthy ego is a precursor to the next stage of awareness: the deliberate realization of Self through understanding of the universal archetypes of the transcendental planets as they relate to and expand ego consciousness. Thus, the goal of self- actualization (Figure 2) involves putting some distance between one’s ego desires and gratification of them, so that one can be receptive to higher levels of awareness.

Self-esteem that results from surmounting the crises and opportunities, brought about by achievement of psychosocial tasks, is the foundation for the next step in awareness—self-actualization. It is true that a degree of intuition is needed to be motivated toward achieving non-material goals. A yearning based on the realization that there is something more, beyond mere ego gratification, can be realized once basic needs are met. Identification with spiritual and universal principles that are beyond our self-interests in individual ego gratifications alone (see Figure 1.2); this is the goal at this stage of development.

Huber’s Psychological Age Point Progression through the 12 Houses, exemplifies the struggle with ego conflicts in 12 environments that can enhance our development when we complete the psychological tasks inherent in each House. A consultation using astrological psychology’s AP progression and transits can trigger an awareness that there are higher states yet to be developed beyond the levels of ego attachments. States of consciousness that are beyond healthy ego development and good self-esteem can set the stage for one to reach into the transpersonal realm of spiritual awareness. The consultant is tasked to re-frame the threats to ego integrity that identification with transcendental realms represent for older clients and, at the same time, reinforce for the client what she has already accomplished. Steps of passing through to a transcendental awareness and experiencing the higher realms of consciousness requires completion of the 52 Life Passages. These are not accomplished neatly and perfectly but noisily with the banging of drums, the playing of music, and working out much inner conflict. There are stages of awakening on the way past psychosynthesis and awareness to the transpersonal Self between the field of consciousness and the middle and higher levels of the unconscious. These require quieting of the ego because the ego corrupts and distorts the higher vibrations from higher realms.

For those coming to an astrological consultation, integration of the personality and receptivity to spiritual experience can unfold only with psychosynthesis, as the sub-personalities lessen their influence. Those clients can become aware, with a therapist’s or a consultant’s prompting, of the existence of their sub-personalities and learn to decrease their power. But work on developing ego integration and putting to rest ego distortions is not within the scope of practice of an astrological consultant. It is totally in the hands and efforts of the client. Consultants can refer clients to psychotherapists, who can work on these issues if a client is receptive. This is especially pertinent when a client’s behavior leads to distortions of reality and maladaptive or self-injurious behavior.

Neptune Part 2

New post on The Astrological Psychology Website

The Astrological Neptunian Character 2

by Barry

Post by John Grove

This is the continuation of John Grove’s explorations into his Neptune, following on from the previous post.

A complex is an inner state of opposition between these two contrasting energies within the psyche; based on my personal psychological past of early attachments. The way a complex works in the outer world is that a bipolar behavior pattern is expressed. When one side of the complex is expressed at one time you get one presentation and when the other opposite side is expressed you get another presentation. I had this complex that was forgotten and repressed in my personal unconscious. i A complex is not caused by an aspect pattern in a horoscope. It is caused by a traumatic event. “An experience of high emotional content… with great dynamic power.. an event which hits a vital point of our psyche and our ego structure.” ii

In my 12th year I was with my father who was driving drunk and we were hit by a car traveling 60 miles an hour broadside. This event (occurred when my Age Point was at the crossing of the Nodal Point at the cusp of my 3rd house in Aquarius). This event shattered my sense of value and feeling toward my father by fear and anxiety. I adopted a rigid state with a tight ego shell within me which helped me to avoid hating my father for this irresponsible act. I could also deny that he was responsible for my anxious state. As a coping defense I developed a rigid pseudo self-confidence (Neptune self-deception) and toxic values. I behaved as a substance abuser adolescent in identification with father.

So I had to dig deep using my Capricorn focus and determination to discover that I expressed love and sympathy based on a need of belonging (to father) through a drive for selfless egoic surrender as a calling (as reflected by the opposition between Neptune and the Moon). This required endless sacrifice of my ego need for authentic expression of spontaneous anger-based resentment toward my dad which caused repression of these feelings. All this was generalized in the service of a higher ideal: to sacrifice my needs for the needs of others.

As denial began to lift about my inner complex I realized, I had to balance both sides and accept myself as I was- a contradiction. By the way, all people have contradictory sub-personalities but they may not all have trauma complexes so they may not be forced to understand themselves unless they dig deep into self-analysis. iii That is unfortunate because that application of self-study is not readily done today…our shadows are usually repressed parts of ourselves which we can project on people we love to hate.

How this played out in my youth was that my father was an alcoholic who I thought needed unconditional love from me; my mother who was my main caretaker was depressed and felt that my childhood presence “kept her young” as she would say. The way my complex chose to express itself was that I could not build self-esteem in an identity without giving love to both parents which took a lot of psychic energy. So even when parents were at odds with one another over father’s affairs, his continued alcoholism and selfishness, I actually did shuttle diplomacy giving love to one and then the other in total denial that I was giving up a major part of my striving for independence. It was a totally misplaced and confused loyalty to them, especially when I should be on my own. The only way to work this conundrum out was to encounter the world. (the Huber’s give reference in their book on Houses that to deal with in inner polarity, one develops a third pole, in this case the Encounter pole). iv Joining the Peace Corps and leaving home was my encounter with the world.

Encounters with reality in Huber’s perception can have the result of teaching you to see Neptune and the Moon as an initiation ritual. In their book, The Planets, Neptune in aspect to the Moon we see that:

The path of Neptune and the Moon speaks to the experience of love and suffering that one must go through in relationships when one subordinates one’s ego for another. This initiation leads to the subsequent refinement of the ego needs. When one does not get reciprocal sympathy and unconditional love, yet still loves and forgives another, this changes consciousness. Ego based love is conditional and selfish. But when one suffers from a betrayal of love and yet still continues to love without resentment and is able to forgive, then one is able to elevate one’s emotions beyond petty ego wants and desires. He/she can transcend opposites and avoid the projection that promotes conflict; because emotional identification with either extreme of two opposites can bring resentment. This requires a dis-identification from the emotional ego. The suffering of the ego and its ‘death’ brings about the dark night of the soul, causing one to feel abandoned and hopeless. As a purification experience, Christ was baptized to love all people, despite being persecuted. Through the betrayal of Judas and his crucifixion, He was able to forgive those who persecuted him. Because the experience of suffering and continuing to love is a continual process throughout the life cycle, there is an ongoing struggle to let go of the childish ego for the sake of ideal love. The passing phase of being betrayed and forsaken can last a long time and, during this process of purification, we are asked to let go of hope and what we consider are legitimate demands of reciprocal love. This process puts one in a completely different situation and changes consciousness. One surrenders to God’s will and that process is transformative. Transits of Neptune to an ego planet can trigger these experiences and crises. v

So, as I encountered the world, I had to figure out who I was because I had given so much attention to my parents, I was confused about what I had to do to grow up. All I had to go on was the ego identifications of father that I had incorporated into my false self-identity. Neptune was guiding me to encounter my cousin who introduced me to astrology and actually told me that I really had impressive dreams. I took those beginning bits of truth and went on with gusto to study in depth both subjects. After many years I found my own new identity as a psychotherapist, a depth psychoanalyst and astrologer which I practice this to this day.

So many times, in my encounters with the world I had to defend why I studied astrology. Those days are over now as I am confident in my craft; but I realize, I was guided by Neptune all along, an archetypal guide that presented me with experiences that helped heal the split within me and at the same time confused me because I believed all I had to go on was an ego consciousness that demanded self-expression of my ego identity against the world.

As I studied Jungian psychology on my own, I incorporated it into my practice on myself through dream analysis early on in my 20’s. I kept journals and dream diaries over 30 years. My service to others had been a calling and before I even had the license to practice, I was helping other people with grief, with separation and loss. My journaling with Ira Progoff started with a workshop he gave when I was in graduate school. vi My dream theme was water in many forms; Neptune was presenting me with tidal waves, rivers, seas images that evolved over the years. My emotional reactions to these dreams were mostly fearful and threatening at the beginning as they represented a threat to my striving toward development of individuality which I was afraid of accomplishing due to my split allegiances to my parents. I did not want to incorporate conscious identifications with either parent into my psyche. Later on, I developed a lofty and loving relationship with water and enjoyed water adventures in my dreams and put my relationships with my parents in proper perspective.

Since I have a Capricorn Sun it focused my complex to a point of achievement where not only did I make my living dealing with Neptune’s realm, but I also became the recipient of many of Neptune’s cloudy and murky influences which induced confusion, stormy days of hypersensitivity that sometimes triggered me to deny all emotion actually making me afraid of my ‘affects’. For a long time, I thought I was a thinking type and gave myself over to that for a while doing research and empirically based studies. vii But then there was the other me, that subpersonality that was receptive, loving, daring to question the status quo in my profession… a feeling type. I was angry that I seemed caught between two worlds: one of accountability and the other of dreamy and emotional rapport with myself and others so that I did not always know where I stood.

All through my life I had struggled with what thoughts I created that played out the scenario that people were going to deceive me, betray me, and hold back secrets from me. These thoughts would spontaneously get in my head and make me suspicious of others. I felt that maybe I did not to deserve love from others without having to save them or nurture them. That template based on guilt I re-enacted from my childhood onto relationships with others.

If I ever wanted to have the security that I could perceive reality without self-deception or without illusion, or without confusion or false hope; I needed to be clear minded and withdraw my projections from my past onto others.

If I ever wanted to give and receive love, then I would have to give up fantasies that are elusive and unreal shimmering in allurement but always too far away in the mist to chase.

Consider this dream: 7/18/2019

I am Christine Amanpour on a mission, on assignment. I have to choose a photographer for my next news cast. But I want no drama, no confusion of roles, no partner who will deceive me with promises to be the best ever reaching the ideal of photographers of the perfect picture. I want someone just right for the role. So, I stop this photographer; he is a man in his jeep driving on the road and I interview him hoping to nail down once and for all that this partner will not be… A chameleon who deceives me. A lover who confuses me.

But then I realize, illusion is not in him; it permeates all around me, is in me and projects out of me. I can’t get rid of it; I carry the self-deception factor everywhere I go.

Only living with the uncertainty of the unknown, not having anything solid beneath my feet, nothing to hold onto – that is my karma. That is the nature of Neptune the planet of mystery, of gaseous foam and the last bridge to the mystery that is deep space. We may never break it down and understand this: “I, Neptune am everywhere, all the time permeating every part of your existence as a fact.” I could no longer get rid of my uncertainty than to amputate my arm or my leg.

It is an illusion, that I could have Neptune out of my life. I have to make peace with the Master of the sea and waters. I have to learn to accept his dissolving of everything that as a Capricorn (where my Sun is located) I hold dear. His earthquakes break up the ground I am standing on. My therapy work represents everything I strive for and what I hold dear and that is the only solid thing I have. But that too will disappear as if an apparition. Going forward I will have to go on knowing my ego death will happen over and over that he will spread turpentine over the vision of my master works. And eventually when all is gone, I too will become one in unity with outer space that is beyond the boundaries of Neptune.

Maybe that is what I yearned for all my life.

i Hall, James A. Jungian Dream Interpretation, Inner City Books, Toronto, Canada, 1983, p. 120

ii Rudhyar, Dane, An Astrological Study of Psychological Complexes, Shambhala, Berkeley, 1976. P4

iii Parfitt, Will, Psychosynthesis: The Elements and Beyond, PS Avalon, Glastonbury, Somerset, UK,2003, p. 29

iv Huber, Bruno and Louise, The Astrological Houses; A Psychological View of Man and His World, Samuel Weiser, Inc. York Beach, Maine,1978, p.86

v Huber, Bruno and Louise, The Planets and Their Psychological Meaning, Hopewell Publishing, Knutsford, UK, 2006, P111.

vi Progoff, Dr. Ira, Intensive Journal Workbook, Dialogue Hose Associates, Inc. NY, NY 1968

vii Jung, Carl G. Psychological Types, Bollingen Foundation, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. .1958Barry | October 17, 2019 at 10:03 am | URL: https://wp.me/p7ktCb-1gL Comment See all comments

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Neptune the Mystic

Part I The Astrological Neptunian character

What is written here is an example of my life-long project to understand the effect and siren call of the planet Neptune in my natal horoscope. The struggle I have had is nothing less than a battle with my own ego, first caused by the disillusionment that comes from recognizing the force of the Neptune energies in my chart and then going beyond the limitations of my own ego identifications to include a universe of possibilities that Neptune represents. This amounts to nothing less than transcending ego consciousness and learning to perceive non-duality against the backdrop of my personal history of taking a stand against the chaos that comes in when I allow Neptune energies to influence me in negative ways.

When Neptune was discovered in 1846 there were synchronistic events on the world stage of technology with photography and moving pictures which paved the way for movies and the illusion of art imitating life. Concurrently at that time, the study of the unconscious psyche was advanced by C. G. Carus.[i]

Steven Forrest in his Book of Neptune wrote that a “sextile between Neptune and Pluto took place during the 1940’s and this sextile will break up by 2030. This will continue to have the effect that all people living on the planet will have this aspect which… they will have (the energies of these planets) consciously integrated into the collective… and in sextile these planetary drives induce spirituality and psychology to excite one another…the synthesis of which is a relatively new development…having the consequences of inviting us as a people to move to the pole of consciousness that is opposite the ego.”[ii]

The Myth:

During the Etruscan era in the 8th to 2nd Century BCE, Neptune (Netphones) was associated with wells, rivers, springs, the ocean and was worshiped as a god. The god had two aspects: a tranquil water type and a gushing water type. He was the god of moisture and also of the sea. Later in Greek myth, he was known as Poseidon and he was the god of the sea. He had the qualities of striking his trident and with one blow could split rocks and cause earthquakes. Later in Roman myth, he was known as a god with violent temper who could change forms ( shape shifting); he was charged with ruling over the Sea.[iii]

[iv]

To understand the nature of this planet we want to study the symbolism of Neptune in myth which was refined and condensed over the centuries. Recently there are four psychic aspects of Neptune which Dr. Maureen Demot first identified.

Its psychological function was to create an affinity with the collective unconscious, the imagination, dreams, intuitions, and empathy.
The psychological processes in action were to transcend, to surrender, to sacrifice, to rescue, to envision, to inspire, to escape, to deny, to vacillate, to sabotage, to confuse, to mystify, and to deceive.
Psychological ego states are selfless love, unitive awareness, empathy, compassion, forgiveness, inspiration, GUILT, passivity, confusion, uncertainty, grief, sickness, victimization, helplessness, and delusion
Environmental events associated with Neptune are spiritual pursuits, aspire to ideal, rescuing or helping victims, victim of fraud and deceit, losses, endings, working with grief, use of the imagination, imagistic art forms. [v]

My Personal Journey:

Neptune is so prominent in my chart hitting with hard aspects to both my two ego planets, the Sun and the Moon. Below is my horoscope where I shall explain how Neptune in my chart effects my character and psych. Below is also a depiction of the glyphs of the Planets. Neptune is in the bottom row, second from the left.

Look at the glyph of Neptune in my chart above. Neptune the planet is near the top of my chart with a red line opposite another Glyph, that of the Moon. That is called an opposition aspect with the Moon. Any opposition aspect produces tension, repression and pressure.

According to the Huber Method, the Moon represents our emotional response: the spontaneous inner child, compassionate, sensitive part, reaching out for love and sympathetic understanding. And it can be associated with the Mother as a caregiver but could represent any caregiver who nurtures and gives love back to the child reaching out for love. It is associated with our ego needs for total acceptance and it is very sensitive to rejection. [vi]

Psychologically, Neptune represents transpersonal love, uncertainty and is associated with mysticism, paranormal and the selfless, non-ego state. In analyzing Neptune aspects to the Moon, it helps to consider that Huber designated hard and soft planets. The hard planets are Mars, Sun, Pluto, Saturn and Uranus; the soft planets are Jupiter, Neptune, the Moon, Mercury and Venus. Huber astrology determines that activating red lines to sensitive planets (like the Moon and Neptune) could irritate and lead to bad reactions of exaggeration, hypersensitivity.[vii] Potentially, one could deceive oneself by over-identification with significant others in relationships; through empathy and compassion one could rescue them from themselves. These negative qualities of Neptune were more prominent with opposition and square aspects to my Moon and the Sun, respectively.

I have given you some of the astrological psychology principles above. But now you will see how this horoscope was set up to influence my development. Below is a figure of the House system, if you look at my chart, Neptune and the Moon are in the 10^th and 4^th houses respectively (At the MC and IC positions on my horoscope). It is called the individuality axis and has to do with the polar opposites of being an individual vs. belonging to the collective (family, tradition, society).[viii]

The opposition between the planets Moon and Neptune show a tension between tradition and the family vs. the authority that comes from individual development in American society. So, I would have a tendency to overidentify with family members at times and then at others assert my individuality causing tension, repression and confusion in both areas. As one area gets attention, the other area of life suffers. You can imagine the cognitive dissonance these behaviors caused in myself and others as I vacillated between these environmental domains.

Neptune also has a red square aspect to my Sun in the second house which is in conjunction to my Jupiter. A square aspect has qualities of friction, stress and deployment of energy. The Sun which is a hard planet and the focal planet of an achievement square (a T-square) is stimulated by Neptune; but the Neptune square can also deplete and sabotage the Sun’s need for egoic self-expression. Assertive ego identity vs. a selfless identity within myself created friction for me as I tried to navigate my actions in the outer world and become self-supporting. Jupiter also receives Neptune’s red square aspect too so it expands its energy to be generous to others which causes friction in the arena of personal resources and this generosity and kindness can deplete my resources. (Jupiter in 2^nd house). I could tend to promise others more than I could deliver; or attract people who would take advantage of me.

Neptune opposed the Moon square my Sun and Jupiter slowed down the developmental achievement of leaving home because the complex created guilt and a sense of vacillation in going forward with my individualism process- becoming my own man. Part II will cover in more detail the continuing working out of a complex through dream work and self-analysis.

[i] Le Grice, Keiron, The Archetypal Cosmos, Floris books, Edinburgh, UK, 2010, p. 202

[ii] Forrest, Steven, The Book of Neptune, Seven Paws Press, Borrego Springs, California, 2017 pps. 23, 24, 37

[iii] Mythology.net, Neptune by Professor Geller, 2017

[v] Demot, Maureen, in Dreams and Astrological Psychology, Grove, John, Hopewell Publishing, Knutsford, UK, 2014, p. 107

[vi] Hopewell, Barry editor, Astrological Psychology The Huber Method, Hopewell Publishing, Knutsford, UK. , Cheshire, WA 2017, p. 33

[vii] Huber, Bruno, Louise, Michael, Aspect Pattern Astrology,

[viii] Huber, Bruno and Louise, The Astrological Houses, A Psychological View of Man and His World, Samuel Weiser, Inc. , York Beach, Maine, 1978, p. 85

Couples counseling and subpersonalities

Today I was interviewing a couple when Mary asked me…”Why do I hold back from people and not communicate but push information that is unpleasant back in my mind and let it just sit there? ”

Mary was explaining that she has a split between what negative feelings she has and does not communicate to others vs. what she thinks others want to hear. These two versions of reality are not comparable, not compatible.

Then I introduced the concept of subpersonalities and self-expression. In a course by Will Parfitt, I learned that of “all the contributions of psychosynthesis, the sub-personality model is the most well-known.”

I asked Mary to consider first how she likes to come across to others. She said the behaviors she shows is as a confident, determined and a non-dramatic person. She said she dampened down her emotional side, thought of it as weak and not useful to show her vulnerable side to others either in her work or with her family.

The psychosynthesis model looks at the start of the subpersonality patterns of interaction being set up in the family of origin. (Parfitt, Will. Sub-Personalities and Self Expression, Lesson 3, page 3, Course I Elements of Psychosynthesis)

One example , Mary traced her behaviors back to her family of origin as a child when she knew her father had extramarital affairs and she addressed it with him once but then stopped. She stopped because her inner child felt she would not be loved and be censured when she contacted her father if she kept telling him things he did not want to hear. She risked rejection from him if she continued. So, a pattern was started way back in which she buried aspects of herself that she found unacceptable and unable to show for fear of being unacceptable to others in some way or another. So, it happened that her feeling, vulnerable side was buried and repressed and formed a sub-personality of its own sabotaging her relationships by holding back important negative information about herself. But Mary’s subpersonality was unconscious not available to her conscious scrutiny.

Then she met Gus. Gus grew up in a family newly migrated from United Kingdom. His father was a self-employed businessman in the technical field. Gus was taught never to lie. He expressed one episode in which in 3rd grade, he lied about doing his homework. He would tell his parents every school day that he left the homework at school. This behavior resulted in the pattern that he never did it the whole year-long. When Gus’s parents had a parent-teacher conference and they found out that Gus never once handed in his homework that school year. Gus’s father came home with all his unfinished homework and told him that he had all weekend to do it and he would sit beside him the whole time while he was finishing it. Gus worked all weekend with his father looking on and on Monday, took his finished homework back to the teacher. He anticipated the shame he would feel in giving the teacher the homework and by that act was admitting that he lied to everybody. Gus was vomiting when he got to school that Monday morning, he was so anxious. Thus, Gus developed a sub-personality to never lie about anything and he learned to hate this behavior in others. It was so conscious of a pattern of behavior that it was like a laser in the most formative part of his awareness. And yet there are hidden parts of Gus that form a shadow subpersonality.

When Gus and Mary got together, they formed a relationship based on emotional intimacy except in one area. When Mary could not communicate negative facts that did not fit into her self-concept, Gus would eventually find out and see Mary as lying which would infuriate him. Mary was in fact not lying but withholding information that was negative because that information seemed to her to risk their continued relationship. At one instance, she even told a court judge that she had school loans paid off so she and Gus could move away with the custody of her son; when in fact she did not pay them back. When the judge found this out, she was not allowed to move out of the area. Gus was furious and felt that major trust issues were broken by Mary because she lied.

The shadow is defined as an unconscious part of the psyche that we don’t want others to see. Mary had conjoined her emotional, feeling side of herself with the shadow part of the psyche because she saw emotional vulnerability as negative to her self-concept; thus, she kept hidden an important part of her feeling side and when Gus repeatedly found out these patterns, he called it lying and told Mary he did not trust her.

I have the goal with this couple of freeing Mary’s sub-personality from her shadow and tampering down Gus’s self-righteous sub-personality which is joined with rage so he can stop projecting onto Mary that she is lying when in fact she is dealing with a splitting of her feeling side into her unconscious which she is not aware of.

Here is an example of Mary and Gus’ subpersonalities:

Mary Subpersonality Name:	Image	Role	Want	Need
Drama queen Fanny	Weak-kneed emotional weeping mess	To avoid risking rejection	To be loved even when I’m bad	To belong, be loved
Manager Mary	Calm, cool collected professional	Deal with all problems	To be respected	Self-Esteem

Gus Subpersonality Name:	Image	Role	Want	Need
Righteous rageful Black Knight	A Revengeful warrior using a Knife to cut Liars	To punish bad ones	To have honesty in relationships	Self- esteem, respect
Harry Helpful	Hospice worker	To support others	To be accepted	Belonging and to be loved

Mary’s Astrological Psychology natal chart

Mutable shaping : “Such people live for the present and , are happy with a changing world, and easily adapt to situations of crisis. They can be creative and have the ability to transform their surroundings.” (Astrological Psychology, The Huber Method, edited by Barry Hopewell, 2017. p. 59).

According to the shaping of Mary’s chart we see a mutable triangle figure encompassing what is known as a dominant learning triangle. Mary is motivated to be dynamic , able to adapt and is capable of being change-oriented all in the service of learning life-long lessons and gaining a new perspective on a recurrent problem which is presented by Mary’s Pluto. (Astrological Psychology, the Huber Method, Hopewell, Barry editor, p. 82). Pluto in the first house is compelling transformation of Mary’s personal outlook which is at first resisted but she is forced to change by a square with (Saturn in the 4th house) challenging her family patterns which make her avoid responsibility yet want to escape from binding ties to her family that burden her. Her understanding and the slow process of change (Quincunx Saturn and Moon) involves her to think about her inner child (the Moon) which as the tension ruler of her chart, (in Cancer) wants to resolve these stubborn family insecurities to find freedom and emotional release. She can realize that her guilt over being independent from her family, only prevents her from finding significance in her life and keeps her constantly depressed.

Mary’s moon is the tension ruler or singleton of her chart. The can be indicated as the inferior function (Internet Cafe Astrology, Singletons) and a sub-personality which is repressed and unconscious. The Moon as inner child who wants contact with others for love and understanding does not want to be independent from the family and resists. Thus this understanding to take responsibility and stand on one’s own is delayed but it is such a driving force, it cannot be ignored. The resistance to change puts Mary in a situation that causes resentment when she can’t strive for independence. (Pluto 1st house and Saturn in 4th house square). Yet her dependency on her family and the need to be taken care of are jeopardized by her independence. It is as if all the energy of the stellium (6 planets in one sign) in Capricorn telling her to be aloof, a manager and independent is thrown up against an extremely dependent inner child who wants to belong and is not emotionally ready for independent thinking.

Gus’s chart:

Here we have a pattern of a quadrangular shaping in which he is looking for making things stable, balanced and secure. In addition he has a Leo ascendant which brings a goal of wanting to be in charge and to express himself fully without limitation.

He has a stressed Sun before the 10th house which according to Hubers:” the ego is strongly emphsized…The cardinal energy wants to be expressed at all costs. Sometimes the ego is inflated and asserts claims of uniqueness. Other people who can not keep up may be viewed as rivals, pushovers, idiots”. Gus’s focus is so much on individual competence that he cannot accept anything but his best” so he sees others as competitors or dummies when they cannot shape up. “( Huber, Bruno and Louise; Transformation, 2008 p. 56) This subpersonality can engage in actions of power expression when setbacks occur. Then he goes all out to win; and he sometimes wins and sometimes suffers defeats. Gus can attract a crisis which then brings about a change in his consciousness. Gus has the potential to put his power and will into a more spiritual perspective submitting to a higher power.

Gus has another subpersonality in which he sacrifices his assertiveness for the sake of helping others. His aggression can be masked by a subpersonality which experiences a passive dissatisfaction in life. He can take on the persona of the “Incredible Sulk”, a victim who vicariously enjoys violence toward others through dreams and fantasies of a destructive nature. This energy can be expressed in deceptive and shocking ways, unconsciously in his shadow personality.
Gus has a trapeze aspect pattern which involves his need for security, his need for love in contact with others and his need for expression of his will which makes him a dominant quadrilateral personality. “It is an impregnable kind of figure which is like a knight holding two shields. Such people can be models of self actualization as they tower above others due to their stable, work on the foundations of their personality, and show deep wisdom.” (Aspect Pattern Astrology, Huber, 2006, p. But this may not show if he does not remain true to himself aligned with his inner convictions. Thus he can adapt to the outer world without becoming internally dependent. Gus wants to start his own business and he could develop this task depending on a balancing of internal ego issues that would want to be transcended and addressing his shadow side that would beg for understanding.

Taken from Psychosynthesis: the elements and beyond by Will Parfitt, PS Avalon, Gastonbury, UK,2003

Within the person there are many sub-personalities which clashes with one another.

“Our subpersonalities know what they want and are determined to get it. They really look out for themselves. This can be all right in itself, but problems arise when what one subpersonality wants is in conflict with the wants of another one.” P. 35

For example, part of Mary wants to be independent yet part of her won’t let that happen because her desire to be loved and popular with everyone so she can’t say anything that increases her separation from others and jeopardizes her popularity.

And Gus wants to be free to be truthful and make decisions on his own but his self-sacrificing subpersonality puts others wants before his

We receive qualities and inspiration from the transpersonal level:

Courage to be independent

Humanitarian help to people in need through service

Morally honest with others

But these qualities become degraded by the use of subpersonalities which always engage our egos.

Courage becomes foolhardiness

Humanitarian help becomes enabling and self- pity

Truthfulness becomes blunt superiority

Many of the conflicts of subpersonalities both within the individual and between couples in disagreement happen as they act out the dynamic between Love and Will.

2. Conflicts between subpersonalities among individuals

Between people the sub-personality of one person can conflict with the sub-personality of another person; for example, Mary may act out her need for love and to be taken care of by suppressing any contradictory thought; that would , her subpersonality believes, jeopardize her want to be included, listened to and be taken care of. Gus wants to be able to choose, at any given moment, and express his desire for truth and not be restricted from any decision he feels is right. Yet when he comes up against what appears as lying by another; his Righteous subpersonality kicks in with a bluntness and blame toward the other person that takes on a superior tone.

To harmonize the wants of different subpersonalities, it is necessary to get behind them to a deeper level of needs. Needs are more inclusive than wants. “I want you to love and respect me right now” (Mary); I want you to stop lying and tell me the truth even if it hurts. (Gus)”.

Use the hierarchy of needs by Maslow as an aid to determine the real needs behind ego based, wants and desires:

What Mary needs is Love and belonging; and she is responsible for finding intimacy by being self-disclosing, taking risks and letting people hear what she says and still connect with her and accept her.

What Gus needs is self-esteem. His ego desires for the other to accept his brand of honesty; it is an effort to control others. What he needs is to recognize his need within for honesty as a form of self-respect rather than desire for others to give him his brand of honesty.

To focus on our own needs moves us to our true self rather than distorting and confounding our wants by expecting changes in others to meet our needs.

“To do subpersonality work, dialogue with each of the conflicting parts of yourself and realize the qualities of each subpersonality; use your will power to stop from slipping mindlessly into different subpersonalities so that you become the driver of the car rather than just the back seat driver. P. 36

This couple has benefitted by understanding their invisible motivations expressed through their sub personalities. This insight can postpone blame and negative judgements which can harm trust and the longevity of relationships. I hope to bring this awareness of sub-personalities to those caught in a web of conflicts so that they can resolve them.

The Psyche in action and present dangers of psychic inflation

Some Christian groups which believe in the rapture believe Trump will usher in the end of the world. These Evangelicals believe that the end of this millennium will result in the Second Coming of Christ and that believers will be transported to heaven. It is an eschatological concept of certain branches of North American Christians. Their belief is that there will be an end time event when all Christian believers who are alive will rise along with the resurrected dead believers into Heaven and join Christ. Apocalyptic events would result in the extinction of humanity, a collapse of civilization, or the destruction of the planet. The Last Judgment , Second coming of Christ, and Great Tribulation are common events described in the Christian scriptures. A poll conducted in 2012 across 20 countries found over 14% of people believe the world will end in their lifetime. Global weather phenomenon which occur with warming of the atmosphere has ushered in more belief in this area ; but these are man-made events and they often become conflated with eschatology.

Historical and prophetic examples are that Jean Dixon, psychic predicted that the world would end in 2020. F. Kenton Beshore predicted the second coming of Jesus between 2018 and 2028. The Messiah foundation International is a spiritual organization that predicts the end of the world in 2026 when an asteroid collides with Earth. There are other sources too many to mention that predict the End in 2129, 2239, and 2280. (Wikipedia).

Some see the Administration of Donald Trump as president representing important events leading to the Second Coming of Christ. Mike Pence the Vice President is pushing this movement along. The moving of the US Embassy to Jerusalem and the expressed sovereignty of Israel to the Golan Heights are revealed as steps toward gaining land to set the stage for Armageddon for some Evangelicals. ” For many US evangelical Christians, one of the key preconditions for such a movement leading to the ‘rapture” is the gathering of the world’s Jews in a greater Israel between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. It is a belief, known as premillennial dispensationalism or Christian Zionism and it has very real potential consequences for US foreign policy( The Guardian, Jan 11,2019 by Julian Borger).

Announcing the strategic recognition of “sovereignty of the Golan Heights, a plateau east of the Sea of Galilee known in Bible times as the region of Bashan, …the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it is possible to help save the Jewish people from the menace of modern-day Persia, Iran.” (Dipsensationalists delight in Trump’s Golan Heights statement”, Bob Allen Baptist News Global, March 25, 2019)

Dispensationalism which is the collective movement, a theology and metanarriative for the Bible. The theology states there are ages to which God has allotted distinctive administrative principles to be manifested on Earth. Each age of God’s plan is administered by a steward during that time to do God’s will. Who are the stewards to usher in the period when God judges humanity and introduces a new period of probation under a new administration? I leave that to the reader to speculate. (Wikipedia).

Some even say that Trump is a flawed leader but vessel of God like King Solomon of the Old Testament. Actually Donald Trump is an opportunist who needs the Evangelical vote to be re-elected in 2020. He was raised Presbyterian and represents to the Evangelicals a bright spot for their values. 80% of Evangelical Christians voted for him in 2016.

Mike Pompeo, secretary of State says, “I keep the Bible open on my desk to remind me of God and his word, and the truth”. In a Cairo, Egypt meeting Pompeo spoke about America’s innate goodness. In fact, Pompeo called on the congregation of a Kansan mega church three years ago to join a fight of good against evil. “We will continue to fight these battles’ the then congressman said at a Summit church in Wichita. “It is a never-ending struggle…until the rapture. Be part of it. Be in the fight.”

This conjunction of Evangelical religion with politics does not bode well for the Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. In fact this conflation of religion and politics is against the Jeffersonian idea of separation of church and state. This conflation of relgion and politics makes the US unable to be a neurtral broker in the Middle East conflict. Prominent evangelical leaders, like Robert Jefferies who is a Christian Zionist goes on record as saying ‘Jews, like Muslims and Mormons, are bound for Hell’. Many see the Netanyahu government, the lack of balancing sympathy for the Palestinians and the insistent demonization of the Iranian government as part of Trump’s administration policy that would usher in a Holy War. (The Guardian, Jan 11, 2019 by Julian Borger)

Psychic inflation can occur on a collective level and that is what I can see happening at these times among paranoid people, dispensensatonalists, and evangelical Christians who believe the American way of life threatened by diversity and the global involvement of Islam in our government. But I think evangelical nationalism is a real threat to democracy. Tolerance and cultural relativism which are very common in today’s cultures in America and Western Europe is frowned upon by evangelical nationalists. What is described below is the process in which individuals become radicalized by archetypes which then create psychic imbalance first on an individual level and then collectively.

The process of psychic inflation by the archetype of the Self.

Sometimes the Self (see diagram) becomes innervated with archetypes ( ex. prophet/false prophet) that overwhelms the ego with contents through complexes in the personal unconscious. One part of the complex for example, the False Prophet part can eclipse the ego complex of the person. This causes an inflation of the ego identity of the person. This inflation of the ego becomes contaminated with unconscious contents so powerful so as to make the person appear fanatic. He can become apparently psychotic or unable to function as well in daily life because he is preoccupied with the grandiose delusion that he is a prophet of eschatological events, divinely inspired. A powerful delusional identification of the person with a prophet can result when unconscious contents from the Self archetype flood into ego awareness thus creating a challenge to current ego identity of the person. Moods and attitudes can change abruptly and the person is bewildered by a new state of consciousness. Obsessions and manic behavior may take hold and create a physical imbalance creating insomnia and psychic states that appear unstable. When these delusions are coupeled with politics an operational catastrophe is waiting to happen. These conflations are manifestations of the Self and its teleology toward wholeness. This experience can be described by the metaphor of a ‘psychic storm’ that unless there is counter compensation from another part of the psyche to create balance again the person(s) will deteriorate in relationship and occupational functioning as well as in reality testing ability.

The inflation that arises here is from ambition and desire for recognition to solve the Israeli – Palestinian conflict. Both manifested in the politicians and religious individuals, namely Donald J. Trump and John Hagee. The ego of person(s) become obsesses with Armageddon happening in our time.

Trump believes that the solution to the Irsraeli-Palestinian conflict lies with his son-in-law , Jared Kuschner, who will negotiate peace in the Middle East. Trump is ambitious to pave the way for this to happen and receive favor from Christian Evangelists before the 2020 election.

John Hagee predicts a religious war with those countries that oppose Israel. In his book, Earths’s Last Empire (2018), John Hagee has said, those who do not vote for Trump are going to be punished by God.

I suggest that it is these two mens’ joint ambition is a form of psychic inflation that attracts entities from the astral level that feed on the life force’s of individuals who are stimulated by ambition and desire for it… desire for a world-wide Christian theocracy that comes from Apocalyptic visions of Armageddon which John Hagee sees as coming soon. In John Hagee’s mind, this grandiose and paranoid vision of End of Days will result with tribulations. There will be a great war involving Russia, Germany, Iran, Syria against Israel which will usher in the greatest world destruction in history involving the Antichrist, Satan and false prophets. Armageddon is nothing but a vision and predicted eventuality that will elevate Hagee and his believers into a elite position in the eyes of God. Further the rapture will deliver the true believers before major tribulations prior to Jesus’s second coming.

“But alas, ere they are aware of their danger, an army from the Principality of Ambition rushes through and captures the citadel of their hearts, and they are carried away captive; so it is with all the other principalities when we open the door through harboring or contemplating their characteristic thoughts.” From Realms of the Living Dead, Curtiss, Harriet and F. Homer, 1926, p. 140.

I am not qualified as a spiritual leader but am a psychotherapist. I believe however, that to create balance in the psyche caused by inflation, that a ritual prayer and spiritual intervention is called for by those qualified individuals who are called to do so. I also believe that in the collective field there can be entrained, Guides or entities who can provide assistance as I explain below.

It can be that Guides can be constellated by prayer from the collective field, sentient beings like the archangel Michael (who leads God’s armies against Satan), to help with psychic inflation. And the person(s) willingness to accept a prayer that may help restore psychic balance is of course a necessary precondition. However, that is unlikely because of the ‘certainty’ that events are unfolding to reveal historical biblical prophesy of the Second Coming of Christ.

Even if these actors are not receptive to balance, those who are concerned about this unprecdedented development of marriage of religion and politics in modern times can pray for balance, restoration of sanity to the US. One example of a counter treatment to his psychic imbalance is to invoke an Archangel archetype through prayer as follows:

St. Michael the Archangel, illustrious leader of the heavenly army,

defend us in the battle against principalities and powers,

against the rulers of the world of darkness and the spirit of wickedness in high places.

Come to the rescue of mankind, whom God has made in His own image and likeness,

and purchased from Satan’s tyranny at so great a price.

Holy church venerates you as her patron and guardian.

The Lord has entrusted to you the task of leading souls of the redeemed to heavenly blessedness.

Entreat the Lord of Peace to cast Satan down under your feet, so as to keep him from further holding man captive and doing harm to the Church.

Carry our prayers up to God’s throne, that the mercy of the Lord may quickly come

and lay hold of the beast, the serpent of old, Satan and his demons, casting him in chains into the abyss, so that he can no longer seduce nations.

Source: Roman Ritual

The Changing , Emerging Consciousness

Having practiced psychotherapy as a clinical social worker for 40 years, I have felt torn between the life of my professional identity and the studies I have pursued outside my profession. I have lived two worlds which became increasingly difficult to resolve: the world of empirical psychotherapy in my daily work vs. the world of astrological psychology.

Of course the usual justifications existed and I could prepare my defense. But Astrological psychology was not able to be brought out in the sun to be scrutinized by my peers. It was too vulnerable and would only be measured for efficacy by standards that were not suited to it. So I had to be cautious and preserve its precious caldron of meanings, insights and faith engendering proclamations.

Today I have written this article to state my position and make it clear to myself what I believe and why. I feel less threatened by being labeled kooky, charlatan or mentally ill. So here is not my defense but the foundation of a new way of finding meaning in life in pursuit of being mentally healthy. I propose to make us all our own psychologists for it is possible for anyone inclined to look inside and try to understand the puzzle of their own psychic existence.

The Prevailing Waning Collective Consciousness:

The conscious psyche in the life of people is the focus of much attention especially as it relates to mental health of individuals in the constantly shifting and changing world of the 21 century. The Western development of therapeutic treatments to heal the imbalance of psychic troubles has been only in existence since the early 1800’s and only systematically studied since the 1900’s. The 20^th Century had seen the emergence of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders, which is a compendium of atheoretical behaviors, in which patients have presenting problems which they bring to consulting rooms of psychiatrists. With the advent of psychotropic medications in the 1960’s many people who were institutionalized were discharged because the medications they were given controlled their symptoms well enough for them to live somewhat independently. These two developments: a classification system of mental disorders and psychotropic medication have shaped the field of psychotherapy in the Western world but not for the best. Diagnostic categories pigeonhole people and medications try to make delusions and hallucinations extinguish when they can provide insights into life’s quandaries during the modern-day. We have settled for a mediocre standard of mental health rather than being focused on helping our people find meaning in their lives so they could be integrated, balanced human beings.

Western societies define pathologies of their people in relation to the degree of negative adaptation they exhibit in their societies. Maladaptive behaviors can be looked at as social anomalies depending on the evidence of a lack of functioning defined by negative survival skills. Generally positive survival skills are those that have high social value in capitalistic societies: ability to hold a job, to have a partner and be able to distinguish between what is real and what is fantasy. These judgments of good mental health are assumptions based on mores and values of the majority of society. Dominance of these value-based assumptions of what in society constitutes as the healthy occupational, relationship and reality testing is evident as the world becomes more homogenized through globalization. For centuries Western Societies have framed the cultural definition of mental health. United States and Western Europe’s ability to conquer , with English spoken as the key to business institutions, and to define the major cultural Weltanschauung or spirit of the times is well documented. But now that world view is breaking down, as recent dominance of Western societies is being challenged the world over.

When we survey the Western models of treatment of the pathological psyche, the academic and treatment focus is concentrated on building ego-strengths. Most psychotherapies are designed to build a healthy “executive function” of the ego through cognitive strategies (Ego Psychiatry, Anna Freud). The ego then is perceived as the center of the psyche with ultimate say in the every day functioning of life. And this is appropriate for ego development in early adulthood. But in America and the Western world ethos, ego building is the model for the whole life cycle. That assumption is fallacious, because, ego strengths are important to survival at the young and middle adulthood stages of the life cycle but actually maladaptive as one reaches mid- life and retirement age. I shall propose that this value system is an unsound model for the healthy psyche putting too much emphasis on youth without an alternative for the rest of life cycle when ego energies wane as in later life.

The value system of this Western psychological treatment approach supports the beliefs that individualism is the end-all and teleological purpose of man in society. Along with this view is supported the clichés that “time is money” and one has to develop his/her ego potential or else lose to competitors, “you have to use your will to take chances, you may not get another one“ and to be successful one has to possess the conscious attitude of the all important ‘youthful‘ approach to life. These views are based on social Darwinism. They represent one way to view today’s societies; but they are not pragmatic because they assume that people are pitted against people to compete for limited resources. In the reality of today’s job market, not everyone has access to the competitive market place to make a survivable living. To survive today we have to learn cooperation or else we shall limit our existence by war and end humanity as we know it on earth.

When the ego fails to serve our survival needs, when chaotic losses enter into our lives; the ego breaks down and all the support that structure has been given us, fails. Futile attempts to find reasons why bad events happen to us fill the case notes of many psychotherapies. The suffering of the ego may cause us to return the pain to the “reasoned” sources of our pain but that is only revenge. Profound self-examination is needed. Self esteem may be attempted by some by making supplication to God to give them Grace through prayer. Thus a mystical journey awaits some and a humility is needed in that case to give up our ego-self-righteousness. In this way, what can lead to real healing is spiritual not psychological. By reflecting on observing ourselves and learning to be receptive to intuitive guidance is an answer even when doing so may humiliate us and defy reason. (Caroline Myss, Defy Gravity, 2010).

Conscious spatial perceptions in the West are structured in terms of seeing land that is guarded or infringed upon (through Imperialism) by the ever watchful eye of the collective conscious ego. Protecting land boundaries and building walls between sovereign states is a common defensive stance to allow only those in who can contribute to the economy as immigrants. And by imperialists, intrusive forays into the borders of nation states to “democratize them” belies the underlying motive of exploiting their resources for selfish state-sponsored materialistic ends. Notice the American business practice of the cement curbing off of restaurants from competitors that makes it impossible in a strip of chain restaurants to drive /or walk from one parking lot to an adjacent competitor’s parking lot in order to compare menus or prices. Add to this the rights of property owners to defend themselves against perceived intruders by ’the gun’. It is now a right that if someone enters your property without just cause, you can shoot them. This has led to tragic results even fathers killing their own sons.

Today’s social fabric of education and upward mobility promises more than it can deliver. A meritocracy like the United States promises more than it can deliver. There is no American Dream within reach in 2019. Ego inflation is endemic to society; in that the higher one goes in the stratum of society in career advancement, the more one is able to violate the ego boundaries of others and dominate them, through the exercise of sex and power. For example, wealthy Politicians, Actors/Actresses, and Sports stars are known for multiple sexual liaisons and not conforming to the boundaries of monogamy which is the norm in common society. Witness the ‘me too movement’ which tries to balance the field of equality in the marketplace.

Overemphasis on the development of the individual conscious ego is valued over development of society with the assumption that all are given equal opportunity to survive and fulfill themselves materially. Supporting this egocentric mind warp is the myth that there is a ‘top- down’, trickle down economic benefit to the lower classes from the sterling enterprise of wealthiest among us. Thus, we should be grateful that the wealthy create jobs for the rest of us. History has shown us, this does not work for the middle class as wages have been stagnant since the 1980’s for working class Americans.

As stewards of this popular political illusion, the wealthy tells us that people who are poor are lazy, and they just want a hand out. It is only they with their positive motivation and enterprising spirit as capitalists who are virtuous ones. These views are “democratized” in a preferentially pluralistic society where only the wealthy can get access to lobbies that promote legislation that support and sustain their status quo and world view. The political result, for example, is to cut medical access to the poor and to cut budgets for education for the young rather than tax the wealthy. Head start programs for children and subsidies to Universities are cut before raising taxes.

The computer has for decades replaced human workers on the job through automation and artificial intelligence. And more than that, statistics have become the language to justify, measure goals and award pay for good work performance. Algorithms are employed by physicians to treat presenting medical problems with the mixed outcomes. Now people in the work force are evaluated on how much they conform to performance measures, thresholds of achievement and productivity standards. Because this is often the only measure of work performance, it has dehumanized the process of workplace trust among people and created a lack of social responsibility in others. This one-sided way of measuring human achievement creates an imbalance in the individual and society leading to more alienation and mental illness in the workplace and society as a whole. This is due to the way the ego has dominated consciousness in the western world and it has become inflated. As societies have become inflated, narcissistic and devaluing of humanistic values and institutions becomes common normative social behavior.

The dominant values that this collective consciousness represents are now reaching a nadir as new developments occur in perceptions of mental health. The emergence of these new forms of consciousness has been revolutionized by the Internet, which equalizes the playing field for all people as long as they have access to information.

The New Consciousness:

We are heading to a paradigm shift, some call it a new Age of Aquarius where deterministic values are becoming subservient to a more holistic approach that takes into account measurable, objective realities plus humanistic considerations. As humanistic values seem to threaten the hold on materialistic and measurable approaches to truth, the anxiety increases among the stewards of the old order. W.I. Thompson describes the phenomenon known as “the sunset effect“ that occurs at the end of a millennium, when the tenacity to hold onto waning values becomes more desperate as we move closer to the future with new values emerging. Within the collective consciousness of the culture, there is a powerful tendency to see life through a rear view mirror and hold onto old worn-out values in the face of threatening changing times. “Make America Great Again” becomes a byword of a passing generation. Myths that reflect the Weltanschauung and mesmerize our people into glorifying the times gone by are “The Fountain of Youth”, “The Spirit of Capitalism” , The “Magic Bullet” , “God and Country” and “The Cowboy” to name a few. In this environment, nativist movements and nationalism replace a cooperative world view.

The propaganda proposed by the proponents of reactionary politicians are using our fear of change to prevent us from realizing a “reality we are living in (which) remains largely unconscious, but (which) we acknowledge by grabbing back onto the sentimental things of the past” (William Irwin Thompson, New Story , “It Has Already Begun- The Planetary Age is an unacknowledged daily reality“, 1986).

But there is a counter movement. Consciousness is becoming less bound by fear of poverty and pride in material wealth and more focused on courage to be. (Hawkins, David Transcending the Levels of Consciousness p. 167) What this present reality means to the individual is that he/she can let him/herself be led by his personal dreams to prepare for critical periods in his life. But this is really a new process because it is possible only by a loss of old, ego identifications. This is such a new awareness, to be able to stop our striving and look at subtle images, revealed by our personal visions. But it is also much more. It is also gaining a perspective that involves personal timing of events in our lives as revealed by Astrology, namely the Huber method of Psychological Astrology (The Cosmic Egg Timer, Hopewell, Llwellyn).

Dreams have been relegated to a small corner of the psychological reality for individuals in our study of the psyche. But dreams are important to development as they contain vital personal information and insights that can guide our inner and external goals. When dreams are interpreted in conjunction with the Huber method’s timing of nodal and radix age point aspects and Cross Points in the horoscope , they can help increase personal power addressing psychosocial crises. Age point aspects in the horoscope mark critical shifts in the developmental understanding of ego attachments and when aligned with dreams of that time. They can yield important psychological insights about when to act and when to retreat in the external world.

To hold back, to withdraw and retreat by reframing losses in external affairs is the mix that is needed to negotiate the world of today. However, few Westerners can achieve the emotional detachment to persevere with the losses of occupational identity, role identity in the family or bodily identity through illnesses that threaten ego integrity as narrowly defined by the West. Dreams that occur at these critical times that indicate a reversal and change from dominant ego identities to submissive ego identities resulting in different tactics of engagement with the external realities are facing us. They are blessings and curses but they can be clues to upcoming losses and gains. Getting rid of the illusion of the ego as the seat of consciousness is most difficult without a road map. But being able to understand one’s dreams, put them in the context of critical periods astrologically and finally relinquish the ego attachment that allowed one to believe in the ego dominance in the first place, can be a source of fulfillment and renewal.

Most Westerners face a crisis or depression when facing such losses in occupation, relationships or their hold on reality. And the more they attempt to hold onto the ego identity that is threatened and forge ahead in another direction blaming external factors for an internal process, the more mentally unbalanced they become. We westerners are psychically one-sided with amalgamation of the ego identity to the persona or dominant function of our psychological type (Jung, Psychological Type ). We do not have the broad-based foundation of wholeness with which to withstand losses when our dominant ego function is thwarted. This is because we know little of our personal inner processes and how our own unconscious can interpret for us through dream imagery how to time and apply ourselves to real life events. Plus, we do not know alternative rituals to help us cope with the losses so that we still feel psychologically secure. So this is the challenge that this work will try to accomplish: helping people at critical times with the relinquishment of the force of the ego illusion as a dominant focus in the person. Thus, we can find the true meaning of what is mentally healthy and balanced.

Flexibility in psychic attitudes is called for but not the ego’s total annihilation. This shift is true on individual as well as collective levels. W. I. Thompson illustrates that the world in the present is a world of an integrated planetary consciousness in which all the old forms of industrial might: defense, territorial imperialism, and the work ethic break down. In his article in New Story, he notes the new era:

“In the emerging planetary world, what counts can’t be counted and so you don’t have a world of objects that are separated in space – wealth and mansions here and dioxin dumps over there. You have a world of interpenetration of presences; you have a world in which consciousness is immanent in matter in that matter isn’t separate from consciousness. You have a world of play, of performance, of a willingness to lower your lifestyle if that will increase the joy, and the spontaneity, and the innovation and the risk-taking, and the imaginative fun of being.” (William Irwin Thompson, New Story , “It Has Already Begun- The Planetary Age is an unacknowledged daily reality“, 1986)

On a macro- level, paralleled to the individual loss of ego identity, one can assume that with these dramatic shifts of Collective power in governments, the change to being a second or third-rate nation, not being dominant as a world power will be felt as having devastating effects on the unsuspecting nation states and individuals within their boundaries. “Look at what we have lost” becomes a nostalgic rallying conversation among those who cannot embrace a new vision of humanity.

How shall we endure such a shift of consciousness on so many levels without losing our psychological security our self-esteem? With the advent of self-psychology mostly propagated by Carl G. Jung and the Jungian, comes the small, but vigorous movement to re-define the nature of the psyche rather than focus on the narrow conscious mind of the behaviorist and on ego strengths alone. Coming from it roots in Hinduism, the Self is seen as the center of the Psyche, not the ego. And it is mostly unconscious.

“The recognition of this civilizational unconscious, this hidden cultural reality, is the end of a process that began intellectually in the early 20th century. Freud began with the instinctive unconscious. Jung followed him and reflected the instinctive life into consciousness as it was created in the collective unconscious and reflected in patterns of imagery that would occur in science or poetry or dreams or the rest of it. It wasn’t instinct. It was instinct reflected in imagery creating consciousness“ (Thompson, William, see above reference).

TAken from my book Dreams and Astrological Psychology by John D. Grove

Aspect pattern astrology explained

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