Astrological Psychology and Asklepios Connection

Psychosynthesis Using Dreams and Astrological Psychology Life Clock

This process of dreaming and using the images to navigate life’s challenges throughout the life cycle according to one’s needs for psychological growth can be most effective using Huber’s Life Clock to determine the context of the issues involved.

This post has two theoretical basics: Use of the psychological model of Assagioli’s Psychosynthesis and The Huber method of Astrology. This approach is determined by why people visit astrologers in the first place…”one is a crisis situation of some kind and the other is due to awareness of something in the person needing to change that comes into consciousness.” ( Astrological Psychology, The Huber Method. Barry Hopewell editor, Hopewell Publishing, Knutsford, England. 2017.) This blog has therefore, the use of astrological and psychotherapeutic skills of this writer to guide the reader him/herself to deal with both of these situations. I am a clinical social worker with 40 years clinical psychotherapeutic experience as well as a trained Huber astrologer having a diploma in advanced Huber theoretical astrological psychology obtained in 2015.

To understand psychosynthesis, it is best to use the “Egg diagram” below to identify parts of the psyche that influence our behavior as individuals. Broadly, the top part of the EGG diagram represents the Future, the Middle Part is the Present, and the lower part is the Past.

The past (section 1 at the bottom of the Egg diagram below are the forgotten influences, personal complexes, long repressed memories and instincts over which we have little control. These experiences have conditioned us to yearn for the need for security (Saturn), the need for belonging (Moon) and need for Self-Esteem (Sun) as explained by Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs.

Section 2 refers to all states of mind easily brought in consciousness. It is made up of sections 4 and 5. The ego needs are represented in the horoscope by the planets Sun, Moon and Saturn respectively. ( See section 4 which represents the field of awareness of which we identify with the consciousness of one of the three ego planets). Psychosynthesis challenges the individual : to integrate one of his/her ego needs in the ‘personal self ‘so that he/she can have confidence in a preferred consciousness such as thinking, feeling or sensation in meeting his/her needs (Section 5). This is determined by which of the ego planets is the strongest quantitatively by placement in the horoscope by house, sign and aspects number. The field of consciousness is dominated by one of the 3 ego planets (section 4) that influences either our thoughts, emotions/desires and sensations. If the strongest ego planet is integrated, then the personality is induced to act or not to act in a consistent manner. This determines our choice of occupation and partner relationships and many other areas.

Section 3 of the EGG refers to superconsciousness, the evolutionary future and our receptivity to illumination and inspirations. It is not determined by ego needs but instead is associated with the 3 transcendent planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) in the horoscope and their aspects to one or more ego planets.

Section 6 represents Transpersonal SElf and the realization of that which lies beyond conscious awareness, the Divine Self. This can influence our behavior through grace and intervention of archetypes out of our control.

Section 7 represents the Collective unconscious which is a field of other sentient beings. These archetypes can influence us through dreams as visitations or other forms of psychic phenomena.

Dreams: For many years I have been recording my dreams and it wasn’t until I took a course in Astrological Psychology using the Huber Method and a course in Psychosynthesis by Will Parfitt that it all came together. Yes, the Egg diagram is somewhat obscure without knowing how to use it. Consider section one, the Past and its unconscious memories and associations. This is the area that dreams come from.

At the time a person enters young adulthood, he/she is entering the phase of individualization. That is, the functions that are amalgamated with identity are forming and becoming specialized.: thinking, feeling, intuition or sensation. (Jungian Types). Usually there are dreams with some anxiety about making it in the outer world, making a living and starting a family. I discovered that I used water as a symbol of the unknown in my dreams and that covered these anxieties at that time. So in my young adulthood, I had recorded many dreams with water themes but they were threatening: I had water dreams in which I was fearful of violent waves or tidal waves with their full destructive fury unleashed on coastal villages (circa 1976); I dreamed of water seeping through my house and breaking up the plaster walls (circa 1978); I dreamed that i was overcome by a wave that crested over my head as droplets fell to my head then I woke up (circa 1980); I dreamed I was finally brought under the water by a wave that crashed down on me as I tumbled about underwater but to my surprise I could breathe underwater! (circa 1983). So these themes evolved over time but finally transformed into an element I could handle I could survive in the water medium. From that time on in the 1980’s I dreamed that I could ride on the water in a swift boat going fast down a canyon river; I could scuba dive underwater and find treasures; I could change ice into water by taking heat from nearby hearth fires of the dwellers near the frozen river; I could cross the great river and go to a new-found land.

What force was changing my relationship with water, an experience that previously terrified me? Some say the Self guided me on to transform my fears to adventure; I say it was God through Love who changed me from within. That whole process Jung called individualization was guided by an invisible hand into roles as a father and a psychotherapist and I was transformed with a confidence and faith in Divine Will. This transformation in me had occurred with the element of water being the medium because as my horoscope below indicates, I have no planets in water signs so it is a deficit.

Water symbolized my feeling function; as a thinking type, my emotional side was the least developed function.in my personality. I was guided by Divine intervention to have faith in my inner processes of development that I so needed to balance out thinking with the relationship feeling functions. Thus started the inviduation process for me around the age of 37. That was the goal of individuation: to bring about balance, wholeness, equity in relationships, justice, harmony and love beside my pragmatic thinking nature.

Age Point Progression and Dreams:

Age Point progression in Astrological Psychology is a time-based method in which the passage of a point called the Age Point (AP) traverses all twelve houses of the horoscope starting with the ascendant at birth. As it starts in House 1 when the child is born, it takes 6 years to travel through the first house and 6 years for each of the 11 subsequent houses. One full revolution around the horoscope takes 72 years as it passes through the 12th house and returns to the ascendant once again. Below is a chart with the twelve houses. 0 on the left is where the child starts her age AP progression in the first house of the Life Clock depicted below as a time piece. At Age 6, she is moving into the second house, and so on every 6 years until the whole cycle is completed at age 72. The the AP starts over again in the first house, moving at the same pace through each house 2nd house at age 78 and third house at 84, etc…

As the AP highlights sensitive points in the horoscope, certain challenges, issues and opportunities confront us.
This process continues throughout life and determines behavioral outcomes and consequences as one experiences the world.

I believe that unconscious processing of complexes in the personal unconscious, (section 4 in the Egg) as revealed in dreams when timed to sensitive points based on AP progression can reveal much to show the developmental conflict that the AP progression highlights. Dreams inform the ego, based on triggers in everyday life experiences, of the context of life problems beyond the external stressors we encounter. Dreams come from the core of the individual, the Self and from God. Through the psychic structure of the Self, the dream images lead the identify of the ego of the person. Knowledge of one’s dreams as they coincide with AP progressions, along with techniques of amplification can provide solutions to life’s problems.

References:

Life Clock, Bruno and Louise Huber, 2006 , Hopewell Publishing, Knutsford, UK.

Dreams and Astrological Psychology, John Grove, 2014 , Hopewell Publishing, Knutsford, UK.

Life Passages: Wen Age Point Aspects and Dreams Coincide, John Grove, Hopewell Publishing, Knutsford, UK, 2017

Psychosynthesis: the Elements and Beyond, Will Parfitt, PS Avalon, Glastonbury, UK,2006

2017 Publication

2017 Published book on Amazon

This newly published book has contents which correlate the Huber Age Point Progression in the life cycle with sensitive points in the horoscope. There are psychosocial tasks which must be accomplished based on Age Progression Point traveling around the horoscope beginning at birth and going till age 72.

This book identifies these passages but also finds that interpreting the dreams at these times more likely leads to a better dream interpretation. In this way the context of dream interpretation with Age Point Aspects is a much more thorough way of identifying problems and psychological developmental issues.

Here is the preface to the book written by Sue Lewis, MA.

Preface

I was very pleased to be asked to write the preface to Life Passages, in which John Grove synthesizes age progression through the twelve houses of the horoscope—the method devised by Bruno and Louise Huber—with the eight stages of psycho-social development identified by Erik Erikson—the German-born, American psychotherapist who coined the phrase, ‘identity crisis’—and he applies these methods to the processing of personal material that arises from within at strategic times of change accompanied by vivid dreams. John is a psychotherapist with extensive experience of working with veterans and interpreting dreams, who has a Diploma of the Astrological Psychology Association and is ideally qualified to write this sequel to his earlier work, Dreams and Astrological Psychology: The Way through the Maze of the Unconscious. Time Passages is a more tightly constructed volume that concentrates on establishing connections between the Life Clock of astrological psychology, developmental psychological profiles, and dreams that represent a turning point in the lives of individuals. A selection of revealing case studies illustrates John’s findings.

The quest to identify correspondences between astrological significators and dreams has a long history, dating back to classical and biblical eras. Notably, the Renaissance astrologer Girolamo Cardano kept a dream diary on which the psychotherapist C G Jung gave a series of lectures in the 1930s. Cardano’s dreams stimulated him intellectually, and he looked for clues to understanding the immediate future, so he took a different perspective from Jung, Huber, and Grove, who use astrological and dream interpretation to guide the individual towards wholeness and strength.

The Huber Life Clock adds all-important timing to events in the outer and inner lives of individuals. Its location in house and sign, and its relationship to specific planets can help client and counsellor to make sense of images that emerge in dreams at pivotal moments, and connect them with the motivational patterns shown on an accurately drawn astrological chart. As well as being rooted in esoteric wisdom and attuned to the hermetic maxim ‘as above, so below’, astrological psychology’s birth chart is a precise psychological map, and its method is assimilated with the psychosynthesis of Roberto Assagioli, as reiterated by Louise Huber in her interview with Verena Bachmann (2003). This volume emphasizes the importance of using visual and symbolic language to develop a healthy ego in preparation for the spiritual path, and images that arise from the unconscious in dreams can be assimilated into consciousness with the help of astrological interpretation.

Following the Introduction, Chapter 1 presents the seventy-two-year cycle of the Life Clock with its loud and soft phases and rhythms, together with psycho-social tasks from infancy to late adulthood. Notwithstanding the acknowledged need to revise Erikson’s dated definitions of sexual identity in a contemporary context, overall the combined framework of reference stands up well. This first chapter culminates with an analysis of an important dream the author had at the age of 24, just after his age point entered the fifth house. At this time, he finally left behind the security of the family home and took a challenging job overseas. John is at his very best when illustrating his points with case histories, and giving honest portrayals of himself and those who are willing to share their experience with a wider public.

Chapter 2 takes a closer look at life tasks, and emphasizes how necessary it is to differentiate between wants, desires, and self-gratification on the one hand, and what one actually needs to do to develop a healthy ego on the other. The threefold personality of Huber astrology and Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs provide helpful tools for working in a supportive therapeutic environment. Tensions between inherited behaviour traits and environmental pressure are explored in some depth, with a couple of illustrative case histories, testing the ego as it strengthens and prepares for initiation.

In Chapter 3, the focus is on dream patterns, how to create the right environment for capturing dreams, and how to assimilate such ephemeral material from unknown worlds into waking consciousness. This sets the scene for the six case histories of dreams at critical moments in life, featured in Chapter 4.

The final chapter sums up the advantages of using the Huber method of astrological consultation with dream interpretation to achieve personal integrity and psychosynthesis, preparing the way for a spiritual path, a perspective on life supported by astrological interpretation that I fully endorse.

Sue Lewis, MA (Western Esotericism), DipAPI, DFAstrolS

7 April 2017

Dreams revealing unknown emotional content

Associations: Donald Trump during the week of 12/21 impulsively withdrew our troops from Syria and Afghanistann territories 12/212018 The Dream by John D. Grove: Mr. President Donald J. Trump lifted himself up and climbed through a hatch to get out of a submarine vessel. He opened the hatch and disappeared. Meanwhile I watched this but the hatch closed, sealed off and locked preventing me from following even if I wanted to do so.

Associations: This has current associations to events that have happened this week of 12/21/2018. As this above drawing shows, Mr. Trump the President abandoned the submarine. Likewise by unilaterally deciding to bring our troops home from Syria and Afghanistan; he did not involve his Secretary of Defense nor alliances of other parties including the Armed Forces, the Kurds, the Taliban and other governmental agencies. Water symbolizes the collective unconscious; the submarine is a vessel within the collective which we humans navigate. Mr. Trump, the President, is leaving the vessel and being absorbed by the collective unconscious with results- no one can predict. Sometimes dreams can show the dreamer another side of conscious life in an event that is current or in relation to a person that the conscious mind is not aware of.

“The shadow is an unconscious part of the psyche characterized by traits and attitudes whether negative or positive, which the conscious ego tends to reject or ignore. Persons of the same sex as the dreamer personify it in dreams. Consciously assimilating one’s shadow usually results in an increase in energy. (Hall, James A. Jungian Dream Interpretation, Inner City Books, Toronto Canada, 1983, p. 31).

Mr Trump represents my Shadow; the side of me that I reject, suppress and when I see it in other people- I become extremely prejudiced against them. I had been feeling distress lately at the way Mr. Trump is handling our national and international affairs. He is not in favor of traditional alliances like NATO and other relationships with foreign groups that support each other when facing a common threat. This dream is showing the side of me , my shadow, personified in the dream by Mr. Trump who represents a negative attitude that I have personally toward him. He is abandoning international tradition and global alliances which makes our country less safe in my opinion; he angers and disappoints me by his behavior. But I have to own the fact that maybe in my uncionscious, there is a part of me who would like to act with impunity and without caution, merely by instinct. If I don’t recognize a part of Trump in me, I will have hatred toward him and project all my negative attitudes on him every times he acts as President. I have had a lesson by this dream…don’t think your shadow projections are harmless. They are not and there are consequences for hating someone so much.

“Dreams come from psychological complexes in the personal unconscious of the person and from the collective unconscious. Dreams can act as compensation in content, balancing the conscious perspective so as to give the dreamer a new perspective on a person or event. They usually take the form of unpleasant images in the dream of the individual challenging him /her to face changes in an old, maladaptive attitude” (Grove, John D. Dreams and Astrological Psychology, Hopewell Publishing, Knutsford, England. 2014, p. 84. If I hate Mr. Trump, I miss the opportunity to gain a new perspective on him. For example, in the above dream, I am not to follow Mr. Trump into the field of the collective unconscious symbolized by the ocean that the submarine was submerged in. In stead, I stay within the vessel navigating through the maze of the collective unconscious while Mr. Trump “jumped ship’ and entered into the field of the unknown.

This dream , as a fact, is not looking at Mr. President critically but instead is contrasting his journey of being adrift into an impersonal unknown world in which he loses his individuality versus my journey which is navigating within the confines of a ship submerged so that I can control where I go, what I see and when to disembark. This is a new attitude that my unconscious is instructing my ego to be aware of. It is merely stating neutrally and objectively that we have differing paths and Mr. Trump may have to be swallowed by the psychic storms at sea, the waves and the uncertainty of nature in his leaving the ship.

Mr. Trump’s actions have created a departure from the norm of International and National political navigation. In the past two years of his presidency, he has chosen paths that reveal a scary possibility of an incompetent, yet instinctual individual adrift in the sea of the unconscious, unaware of where he is going. This scenario is common in elders in retirement who as they age, there is a loosening of complexes (Hillman, James Force of Character), a stubbornnesss, and if they can act out their impulses, there is usually no harm to anyone because they have little influence. And when one is an elder, one can have a second childhood, drift into the world of fantasy without any repercussions. But when one is a world leader, being a powerful President; then going on this path can scare a lot of his constituents. I believe we are in for a whirlpool of a ride. And where we will end up is anyone’s guess. I can say at this point that I have to navigate my own ship through murky waters and hope, and pray that we all make it to portside sometime.

Security in Chaotic Times

Dream on 11/30/2018: I was presented with an oval butterfly wing by a woman. The image captivated me.

Associations: Lately I was doing blogs on the relationship of Astrology, the way it works and Synchronicity. So I had on my mind, what principles would explain Astrology? The oval wing of a butterfly is related to chaos theory and how astrology may also be explained by this. Chaos theory is known as the ‘butterfly effect’.

Chaos activity is the way in which a small event initiated in a time and place far away can correlate with a large event in another place. The example used is that of a butterfly wing vibrating and correlating with a tornado in another place.

Enter Wikipedia: Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics focusing on the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions. “Chaos” is an interdisciplinary theory stating that within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals, self-organization, and reliance on programming at the initial point known as sensitive dependence on initial conditions. The butterfly effect describes how a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state, e.g. a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can cause a hurricane in Texas.^[1]Small differences in initial conditions, such as those due to rounding errors in numerical computation, yield widely diverging outcomes for such dynamical systems, rendering long-term prediction of their behavior impossible in general.^[2][3] This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future behavior is fully determined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved.^[4] In other words, the deterministic nature of these systems does not make them predictable.^[5][6] This behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply chaos. The theory was summarized by Edward Lorenz as:^[7]

Sue Lewis in her book, Astrological Psychology, Western Esotericism and the Transpersonal , ( Hopewell, Knutsford, England, 2015. p. 159) suggests chaos theory helps explain Astrology.

“Brady’s investigation (Chasms) comprehensively demonstrates astrology’s greater affinity with chaos theory and complexity than with the cosmic perfection delineated by Ptolemy, and application of this approach does not require the use of any specific techniques, rather a change of attitude on the part of the astrologer”. One can see the archetypal patterns of the planets “whether in the life of an individual, the history of a nation or the behavior of non-human systems like weather – all are in the matrix of belief of astrologers. Indeed, the astrological community is in its strongest position when talking about cycles, for at the heart of their culture are the measurable and predictable cycles of the celestial sphere and the planet archetypes (Bernadette Brady- Astrology and Research).

When one cannot count on moral, legal, fiscal, or traditional order in chaotic times; then one can be grounded on cycles of time as reflected by nature. Making goals also depends on making sure that they are timed correctly according to seasonal requirements in spite of the hectic changes happening in the earth due to Global Warming. Living on planet earth causes limitations making goals depending on whether it is spring, summer, fall or winter. The precession of the seasons with the Sun and Moon act as a biological time clock for planting and harvesting. This process has been used as early as 500 BC and planetary conjunctions presaged for early astronomers when to tell the masses to plant and reap. We take liberty to advance planting in spring both with growing things and with ideas. In summer we maintain what we started by watering and nurturing the small growth and in fall we harvest both ideas and food. In winter we reflect on the quality of the crop of ideas and get ready for the next growing cycle. The balance and cycles of nature determine the amount of liberty one can take and can be a source of security in times of upheaval and constant change.

The orbits of the planets correspond with the timing of activity: Mercury cycles have to do with active communication, Mars cycles with assertiveness and aggressiveness, Jupiter cycles with finding meaning of life, Saturn with reckoning and consolidation of actualization, Uranus with finding like-minded friends, Neptune with achieving union with the All, Pluto with guidance according to the divine will.

Here is another dream to illustrate the responsiblity I have to a voice to my vision in these times of great change and uncertainty.

12/8/2018

D1 In the early part of the night I had a dream.

I was in a room, a wood-paneled bedroom, sheltered by the chaos surrounding me outside. I went to the window and saw fierce lions, and people running around in a frenzy. They were running around going nowhere and were confused and frightened. This was a public catastrophe but it didn’t touch me so I went to sleep in this paneled bedroom. Years later a person came to reprimand me as to why I didn’t help those people who were in those life/death situations. It was a kind of accounting of myself for not doing more to help others.

Associations: Survival guilt is a theme in my life brought about by my personal history: guilt about my brother who died due to psychic injuries suffered as a spy for Army Security in the cold war. My role in taking his mission forward , being of age for Vietnam but getting a student deferment when so many of my peers suffered from that war. And finally as the dream suggests, not bringing my voice out to the public when I have a system that can help people stay grounded, get a sense of security and safety in difficult times. Survival guilt has motivated me more than I was aware and it motivates me to post this.

The conclusion of this post is that we can rely on cycles of time and get guidance from the cosmos of when and how to act when normal order has been broken down. These are the times we are in and astrology provides some grounding during uncertain times.

Empirical Science and Astrology

Having been a student of the scientific method as a psychology major in undergraduate, I used the American Psychological Association’s methodology in testing hypotheses. Both in graduate and undergraduate studies, I see the value in the statistical methods as approaches to truth. For a normal bell shaped curve distribution to which the results of empirical studies apply, there is 68.2% applicability percentage of the study’s results to the general population. 26.8% are outliers with 13.4% on the extremes which do not apply. So we can generalize from results of good empirical studies that is reliable and valid at the most being true 68.2% for the sample studied.

When results are published, they have contextual relevance to the sample studied as well as the historical time the study was done. The study’s conclusions and results are relative to the limitations of the study. A representative sample of the general population is a gold standard in empirical studies. To do that, expensive demographics and Subjects’ outreach is necessary. To that end, only well-funded institutions that can afford the studies are Corporations and some Universities. Having said that hypotheses in empirical studies have to be operational, defined with independent and dependent variables being measurable; we see the limits of this kind of research. Constraints such as these provide for the best results when dealing with the material universe such as physics and inorganic chemistry,for example. And the cause and effect validity of empirical studies are limited by confounding variables.For example, if you are researching whether a lack of exercise has an effect on weight gain, the lack of exercise is the independent variable and weight gain is the dependent variable. A confounding variable would be any other influence that has an effect on weight gain. Amount of food consumption is a confounding variable, a placebo is a confounding variable, or weather could be a confounding variable. Each may change the effect of the experiment designs. The above is not to imply that empirical studies are irrelevant or not valid. They are valuable and relevant to the population sample used, along with other constraints. But that is not often how studies and conclusions are reported. They are often reported as generalizations of truth that ignore confounding variables. When I am researching a topic of concern in the literature applicable to my clients’ issues, I make sure the studies are well researched before I present the conclusions to them and I mention limitations.

What are the operative bases of Astrology?

When we try to approach truth through a more subjective means based on a non-rational approach, there is a problem with defining the variables because there is no objective, operational variables mix so you can’t quantify them. For example, if I take a sample to survey people who believe in astrology, that is subjective. There are so many ways to approach and verify that question: based on their individual horoscope aspects correlated with their perception of its truth to their lives or belief in astrology based on the underlying principles in Astrology such as ” as above, so below”, i.e. the macrocosm and the microcosm are mirror images of each other so that the planets’ configuration in the sky have a corresponding effect on their psyches. For Astrology, cause and effect are basically not capable of being determined because the independent and dependent variables cannot be operationally and objectively quantified. So we cannot say, for example, that Saturn conjunct the Mercury in a natal chart causes depression. But correlations can be made. In fact the Kepler Conference has conducted empirical studies that find correlations between various topics of concern at https://www.facebook.com/TheKeplerConference/ Roberto Assagioli, MD who founded Psychosynthesis has stated in the study of Transpersonal Inspiration that ” In the first place an erroneous conception of the scientific method is widely held, which would limit its use to quantitative and statistical techniques suited to the natural sciences. Furthermore, the mind is reluctant to admit the existence of non-rational reality and values; it confuses the super-rational with the irrational or even anti-rational. There is also the fact that the descriptions of experiences in this ‘higher sphere’ are generally couched in terms associated with religious doctrines, employ pictures, symbols and forms no longer accepted or recognized as valid by modern mentality.” (Assagioli in Parfitt, Will,Lesson 10. Course 1, Elements in Psychosynthesis, Global Issues in Action, copywrite, Avalon Distance Learning.) I accept that empirical science does not embrace the super-rational; a rejection that has been fraught with struggles to bring my voice to the fabric of transpersonal inspiration which is how I use Astrological Psychology. Science sees my work as a branch of study that is often designated as‘pseudo-science’. Based on the erroneous assumption of the scientific method that limits the use of quantitative and statistical techniques to the natural sciences, my work is out of the scope of valid inquiry. Carl G. Jung, MD provided support by researching Synchronicity and Causal Principles as both valid approaches to truth but both at differing ends of a continuum.

**Synchronicity the basis of how Astrology works**

Carl Jung and physicist W. Pauli studied Archetypes in Astrology. Archetypes are ” primary images which the soul can perceive with the aid of innate ‘instinct’ (Kepler). The agreement with the primordial images or archetypes were introduced into modern psychology by C. G. Jung and functioned as ‘instincts of the imagination’. (Jung, C. G and Pauli, W, The Interpretation of Nature and the Psych, Bollingen Series III, NY, NY, 1955, p. 153). Since the Archetypes are in the realm of the Soul and are not capable of being operationalized by using the experimental method, a different way of finding meaningful correlations of the individual and the soul is necessary. Synchronicity is the explanation in which we find meaning within the correspondence (or correlation) between the Astrological archetypes such as planets with their angular relationships in the horoscope and the individual. In Jung’s experiments, he studied the archetype Mars expressing “intense emotional excitement when found in aspect with the Sun” in women subjects within twenty marriage pairs. This aspect occurred at a higher frequency than other Mars aspects. Thus Jung concluded that the relative ‘defeat of the powers of the conscious mind constellates the moderating archetype… Mars’. This I interpreted to mean that emotional excitement erupts from the unconscious of the Psyches of these individuals; with the consequence that the ability of conscious filters to inhibit it fails in individuals with this configuration. (On Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle” in The Interpretation and Nature of the Psyche, Bollingen Series III, NY, NY 1955, p. 81).

When I want to connect with clients who have given me their birth data, I can without fail find for them meaningful correlations between aspect patterns and their psychic states. They report to me that is meaningfully true about 90% of the time. (based on their subjective evaluation). I have also found that stating statistics of correlations from studies relevant to clients experience also, i.e. that high attribution of blame usually results in couple divorce (Gottman, John, Four Horses of the Apocalypse, Blog) ; this statement does have a meaningful connection for them. My points are basically this: We need both Scientific studies and Synchronistic correspondences to make meaningful sense for our clients. And I use Astrological Psychology to identify psychic states and match them to my clients as well as empirical studies when topics come up that require evidence based conclusions.

Dreams and the water of life

Psychosynthesis involves grounding images that intend to drive one to meeting real needs rather than wants. If a dream (or any psychic image) does not become grounded through a process of writing it down and to be preferred -drawing it; maturation does not become manifest in the process of individuation. It is a gift to realize that there may be an invisible hand guiding one as a dream evolves over time. For example in my young adulthood , I had water dreams in which I was fearful of violent waves or tidal waves with it full destructive fury ; I dreamed of water seeping through my house and breaking up the plaster walls; I had dreams of water crashing into coastal villages; an finally I was overcome by a wave that broke over my head as I tumbled under water thinking I was a gonner. But then a transformation occured at mid-life: I could breathe underwater. It is as if the Self was guiding me to transform my opinion of water to a substance that I could survive in…:In subsequent dreams I had changed my relationship with that element and was guided to ride on the water in a boat, change ice into water as if by magical touch, to scuba dive under water to find treasures underneath. What force was changing my relationship to water? It was certainly the Self, the center and originator of psychic wholeness or indivuation (that empty center in the middle of the horoscope). In real life asfter the symbol of water became benign, my fears of the unknown vanished and I was able to feel more confident moving out and about in the outer world using different faculties of my personality. A transformation had occured with the contents of water, as symbolized by the feeling function in my personality (I had no planets in water signs in my astrological chart). As a thinking type my emotional side had been the least developed psychic function in my personality and I needed to balance out thinking with relationship feeling functions. That was the goal of individuation in my case: to bring about balance, wholeness, equity in relationships, justice , harmony and love into my pragmatic thinking nature.