Carl Gustav Jung said there were two centers to the human psyche; the ego and the Self. The ego is the center of consciousness and the Self is the center of the whole psyche; consciousness and unconsciousness.
These two centers are separate, autonomous identities that organize and attempt to bring coherence to the lives we lead. But the problem is, the relationship between the two of these centers is often out of whack.
In childhood, the ego and the Self are one, and the child experiences him/herself to be a deity. As the child grows and begins to act and think for themselves, an ego is formed; a new center of gravity, an idea of who they are.
In his book, Ego and Archetype, Jungian scholar Edward Edinger describes psychic growth as a process flowing from ego-Self separation to ego-Self reunion and back again in a spiral pattern.
A child stealing a cookie from the cookie jar is similar to Prometheus stealing the fire from the gods. It is a kind of daring that initiates ego development. It is a willful act against a reigning authority.
It is on the subject of authority that things get really interesting. For as it turns out, the Self is the reigning authority; “an autonomous inner directiveness” at work. There is an organizing force within you to which the ego serves. More often than not the ego goes against this authority too, wreaking havoc on one’s sense of wholeness and authenticity.
How can one come to recognize the Self and allow the ego to work for it and not against it?
Edinger explains that the ego has to learn to relate to the Self without being identified with it. In other words, the ego must get cozy with the Self’s authoritative role.
The trick is to train yourself to recognize yourSelf in the numinous ‘other’. This way your ego relates to the Self without being identified by it.
When the ego relates to the Self without being identified by it, the ego-Self axis maintains its integrity.
Picasso likely saw himSelf in cubism and his ego served this higher calling. Jane Goodall likely saw herSElf in the social habits of chimpanzees. Martin Luther King saw himSelf in the suffering of his fellow man.
When the ego recognizes the separateness and the authority of the Self a primary feeling takes over. Landscapes of creative possibilities open up. There is plenty of fire in the engine because the engine is authentic and the fire is real spiritedness.
The funny truth of the matter is that yourSelf is bigger than you! But in relating to this bigness with humility and a productive spirit, you become more you. Your nature smiles, along with the larger nature that surrounds and connects to it.
To associate Mars with hotheadedness, anger, combat, etc. is really to sell short the psychic usefulness of the red planet.
At it’s most crucial level, Mars is the Will. Everyone possesses this, and some are far more in touch with it than others. It’s only when one’s Will is being thwarted or ignored that hotheadedness, anger and all of these pressure-cooker emotions bubble up. Let’s try to go to the root of things rather than obsessing over symptoms, shall we?
What is the Will?
Other words for the Will include striving, urging, wanting, desire, effort, you get the idea!
Arthur Schopenhauer’s Philosophy of Will sees Will as a slave to the world of ideas, therefore we are not free, and life is a sorry affair.
Schopenhauer saw the Will as an omnipresent force, not particular to the individual, but controlling us all, and so he was quite the pessimist.
The only thing that could kind of help us in this sorry world, was in experiencing something beautiful like art. In the midst of a great painting or an exquisite piece of music, the Will was transformed into ‘representation of the Will’ – the better the art, the better the representation- and in that moment, the person ceases to even exist!
Ah! At last I am nothing and no longer a slave to the Will! Courtesy of Van Gogh’s Cafe Terrace at Night.
Another famous thinker who gave considerable amount of attention to the Will (and was incredibly influenced by Schopenhauer) was Frederich Nietzsche. But Nietzsche ended up being a total optimist about it!
Nietzsche claimed that “The world itself is the will to power and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power- and nothing else!”
But where Schopenhauer used the Will as an ultimate negation of life, Nietzsche used it as an ultimate affirming of life. He proclaimed himself a yea-sayer- and likened this Will to seeing life as positive as similar to that of the ecstasy-loving Dionysus.
Dionysus- the original “Life is Good” sayer.
So let’s just be happy to be clear on the notion that Mars as the Will is a powerful force that has been pondered for centuries. It is no small thing. It might be everything. So what is it up to now in the sign of Cancer?
Cancer is the sign of home and family but, as the first of the Water signs, it begs us to feel this truth, not just to think about it.
This is Chip (or Dale) inside of a Christmas tree from the Disney 1952 Classic “Pluto’s Christmas”.
I remember seeing this cartoon as a kid and being utterly enchanted by the sheer twinkling magic and coziness of these two chipmunks wandering around on the actual inside of a Christmas tree.
It’s not enough to convey the feelings of Cancer by referring to Christmas alone because you may not even celebrate it, or it may bring up family strife instead of warmth and sparkle.
But the inside of a Christmas tree, with your good pal Dale, now that is magical coziness. That is a recipe to feel great.
The Will to Home is an urging towards a place of magical coziness. Magical in that it is dynamic, not stagnant. Cozy in that it offers total restoration to the spirit. The destination may still be unknown to you, but you can follow the clues of what it is by tuning in to your true feelings.
Cancer is the stillness of the North Star. The sureness of that great feeling.
Many astrologers will equate the Sun with consciousness and the Moon with unconsciousness. The waking hours of daylight (consciousness) bring us out of our dreamlike state (unconsciousness). It is pretty impossible to argue that obvious symbolism, it speaks loudly and clearly. The thing that doesn’t sit right with me personally is when the Sun is therefore associated with the ego, i.e. the center of consciousness, and further more the Moon just cast out into her own sea of irrational emotions. There seems to be so much more going on here…
Mr. Sun
and Mrs. Moon
Let’s start with looking at the days of the week that these two represent. Sunday for the Sun, and Monday for the Moon. There certainly is a big difference between these two days for most of us.
Some go to church while others may indulge in a mimosa. The principle is similar though, taking a break from busy life to honor yourself.
On a Sunday we generally are doing what we want to do and enjoying ourselves. In latin, the word for Sun is sol, and in french soleil, thus we have a connection with the word soul, and the other “s” word spirit. Spirit is associated with breath, as in respire. The Sun rules the heart in the body which is intimately connected with the lungs. And in nature, fire (Sun) needs air to grow. Sundays are the time for us to reconnect to spirit, to tune back into ourselves and let the world pass us by a bit.
Quite a contrast from the general associations with Monday. Scrape yourself out of bed and get back to work, back to busy life.
Monday not by accident sounds similar to the word MUNDANE, defined by the dictionary as “of this earthly world rather than a heavenly or spiritual one.” This derives from the latin word mundus, meaning “world”. The french call the world “monde”. The moon brings in an earthly element. Monotonous mundane Mondays where we tend to earthly matters. We go to work to make money, another Moon sounding word. In fact, the words for ‘silver’ (the element associated with the Moon) and ‘money’ are the same in fourteen languages or more.
Silver is the metal associated with the Moon and gold is for the Sun. Let’s look closer at the properties of these metals.
All that glitters ain’t GOLD!
The elemental symbol for gold is Au, derived from the old Latin name for gold, aurum, which means “shining dawn” or “glow of sunrise”. Gold is the most malleable and ductile metal of all. Malleable as in it can be pounded out into the thinnest piece of paper, and ductile meaning it retains it’s strength. Webster’s definition for ductile is “able to be deformed without losing toughness; pliable, not brittle.” So with gold comes immense flexibility without sacrificing it’s strength. Because of its resistance to heat and acid it’s also a symbol for immutability. Sounds a lot like an allegory to the heart and it’s capacity to love again after hardship and inevitable changes.
As the Neil Young song goes..
Gold is the only metal that is yellow or “golden”. Other metals may appear yellow, but it’s just because they have oxidized or reacted with other chemicals. Follow the yellow brick road, a.k.a follow your heart?
Silver’s elemental symbol is Ag, derived from the latin argentum which means “grey” or “shining one”. Silver is the most reflective metal of them all. What other metal could better represent Mother Moon who’s main function is to REFLECT the light of the Sun. Carl Jung talks about how the ideal job of the ego is to reflect that nature of the Self (the radiant totality of our beings that dwells in the unconscious). This is why I can’t get cozy with the idea of the Sun being the ego. It seems to me that ego is more in the realm of the Moon. We can reflect our own Selves, as well as the Selves of others.
Who the heck is that Groucho??
Children seek reflection in the mothers (Moon) in order to learn certain rules of conduct to get along in the world (Moon).
Another interesting fact about silver is that it conducts electricity better than any other element. There are some theories out there these days of us living in an electric universe, with the Sun being a giant force of electric energy. What if the Moon not only reflects the Sun but also conducts it’s energy toward Earth? I am no scientist– just a fun idea.
There’s nothing mundane about mysteries!
So if the Moon is all matter and the Sun is the “spark” of spirit, what would one look like without the other?
Without Moon’s matter, the Sun’s spirituous light would have nothing to land on and illuminate.
Without the Sun’s spark we have this
Aside from the Sun, we don’t see much fire in nature. The spirit remains hidden. We can’t look at the Sun too long without burning our eyes. We can only look at it reflected in EVERYTHING around us. Perhaps this is why things like fireworks are so mesmerizing. They fill our hearts (Sun) with a joyous feeling (most of us!).
ahh! LIFE! Bravo!
Warmth on our bodies and warmth in our hearts
Light finds it’s way out of our bodies through our eyes. Think about how much more they shine when they are in love (the heart, i.e. the Sun)
So to bring this all back home, literally let’s go to mom and dad. When reading a chart I find that an excellent beginning is to discuss the client’s parents with regards to the Sun as the father and the Moon as the mother. Ultimately these perceptions are deeply infused into who we are, and getting at these routes can be enormously helpful. If for example someone has a Sun that is squared with Uranus, we would be looking for what in the father has a challenging Uranian element. Issues of emotional detachment or mental superiority perhaps. Or strangeness, not fitting in somehow.. these are all shades of a challenged Uranus. The first step is to have the client see it in the parents, the second step see how they’ve integrated that into themselves. Or how about Moon conjunct Saturn. How is the mother an authority somehow or how might she be restrained? Or how is she the symbol of hard work and perseverance? Have you set that bar too high for yourself? It can really open up a well of dialogue. We can’t escape our beginnings and we certainly can’t dwell in them, but they can teach us a ton.
At their core, this is Mom and Dad. The spark and the world.
Toroidal Zodiac 