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.
The latest podcast is all about the seductive beguile of the planet Neptune. Wherever Neptune is found in the birth chart is a place where the beauty and the spell of the sirens live within.
The collective unconscious is the ocean that lives within each one of us. During dreamtime, Poseidon’s chariot is literally navigating us through an ancient world of memories, connecting to more memories.
Tune out and tune in!
PODCAST –then scroll down to find the episode “Neptune, the song and the memories of the sea”.
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.
This post is a continuation of the last post about the Cardinal Cross and Venus’ function within that. In the post below we went over the idea that Libra and Aries are related to each other symbolically by both celebrating symmetry. The difference is that Aries likes to fight and be number one. Aries has to be number one because it just IS number one. It is the first day of spring when the leaves push through the pavement.
And there it is- a Y shape – the symbol for Aries. The symbol for the “ONE”
The Tao Te Ching states: “one produced two, two produced three, three produced all numbers”. If one is Aries then 2 must be Libra. Libra is opposite Aries. Libra is female and Aries is male. Libra introduces the concept of partnership, and the “other”. In the last post we explored the phenomena that Capricorn (the Sea Goat), the 4th sign on the Cardinal Cross, seems to be a marriage between Aries (the Ram) and Cancer (the Crab).
A man (Aries) marries the woman (Libra) and makes a family (Cancer). It looks a lot like Cancer is number 3, symbolically, in terms of the Tao Te Ching.
The family is represented as the number 3- after the union of one and two. Aries plus Libra equals Cancer.
In these terms then “all numbers” as stated by the Tao Te Ching would then be society, everyone else in the world. Families multiply the population of the world and we have a thriving planet of constant expansion.
People get born and population constantly increases. Man plus Woman equals Family equals Society. Society is the 4th number. The number that represents “all numbers”
So the 4th number is the Capricorn, the Sea Goat, and it represents “all numbers”. Interestingly enough Capricorn’s planet, Saturn, is displayed as an upside down 4. In the last post we discussed how the imaginary Sea Goat representing the planet of concrete reality (Saturn) was a bit of a paradox. But that might make sense because it came out of the magic of Venus (marriage) and Venus to begin with represents opposites and paradox. And here again, the Tao Te Ching coincides with Capricorn being the 4th number and voila- there it is- just upside down!
The symbol for Saturn looks like an upside down four.
Jupiter looks like a four! And symbolically Jupiter represents all things OPPOSITE Saturn. Jupiter EXPANDS while Saturn CONTRACTS.
Psychologically, the ONE could be “I” and the TWO could be “anything I am noticing” making the 3 “my connecting what I notice to some internal truth” and then the FOUR “experiencing the unus mundus, or the one world” where we realize that duality is an illusion. This is the place of synchronicity that Carl Jung talks about. It is a “time out of time”. It is “once upon a time”.
So perhaps that is what lies behind the double paradox of Capricorn, as number four. The imaginary Sea Goat and the upside down number 4 points to stepping back into a place, even if just for a moment, where we experience the one world. It is there that we become momentarily disillusioned. Libra wants to take us there. The number 2 (Libra) beckons the number one (Aries) to make the number 3 (Cancer) from where we can experience the number 4 (Capricorn).
Libra is also the artist. Let’s look at how Art can perform this magic.
Art (#2 Libra) beckons the onlooker (#1 Aries) to make an inner connection (#3 Cancer) in which you experience a momentary glimpse of the interconnectedness of everything (#4, “all numbers” Capricorn).
Today we are looking at a comparison between the chart of Carl Jung and that of Sigmund Freud. I felt compelled to look further into their similarities and differences when I noticed that they both had 7th house Suns. The 7th house stands for “the other”, and it often gets it’s reputation on the “marriage house”. But “the other” is also so entirely bound up in our projections, which both of these men spent much of their lives studying. Does having a seventh house Sun put you in an easier position to accept this concept of projection because you are less bound up in your own identity (1st house)? Perhaps there is more wiggle room in the seventh, and you can see through the facade of your own illusions when it comes to how you perceive another person.
Jung’s Leo Sun is exactly conjunct the descendant. It may look like it’s in the 6th but it is in the 7th, and how.
Freud’s Taurus Sun is in the 7th, also conjunct the descendant (heightening the 7th house themes)
It stands to reason that such a comfortability in this could bring about much curiosity. Curiosity would be no stranger to Freud’s Gemini Moon, and again no stranger to Jung’s third house Moon (the house naturally associated with Gemini). These men have questions that seek answers.
Freud was very focused on sex, seeing it as the ultimate reason why anybody does anything. He has Scorpio rising (the sign most associated with sex) and an eight house Moon (the house most associated with sex, and death, and psychotherapy!). His Moon is in Gemini, so he seeks a lot of stimulus, and wants facts. His Taurus energy will stand behind these facts like a Sumo wrestler. Just look at the expression on his face!
Every picture I came across of Freud had a similar expression to this one. His words (Gemini) are firm (Taurus).
Jung saw the libido as not just a means for sexual gratification (as Freud saw it) but rather as a well of psychic energy that could be used in a variety of ways, including the creative drive. Jung’s Mercury (mind) is in inward Cancer and conjunct Venus (creativity). This is a quieter mind, a mind that is naturally more in touch with the feminine (Venus) and therefore more attuned to mystery and things hidden (feminine). His Leo energy vitalizes this standpoint, blazing a well lit path into the unknown. This mission seems to fill him with visible delight. His ultimate emotional drive is a sense of solid ground (Taurus) in matters of the mind (third house).
Nearly every picture of Jung features this held back grin. His work infusing his Leo spirit to bask in his own radiance.
In the natal chart, the libido is represented by the planet Mars. Both of these men have Mars in the eleventh house, which is a Succedent (security seeking) house that is naturally associated with the sign Aquarius (the most intellectual of the air signs). Thus, the eleventh house represents where we seek intellectual security. For both of these men, the libido is very involved in their intellectual pursuits.
Gigitty- let’s talk libido…
Jung has his Mars in far reaching ever-philosophizing Sagittarius. It is naturally associated with his Jupiter which is in Libra (balance and beauty-seeking) and in the 8th house (in places hidden, the occult). Sagittarius is a mutable sign, and it will seek to change and reinvent itself again and again. Jung famously studied alchemy, and astrology to a lesser extent, incorporating the metaphors of these occult practices into his therapeutic work. He also commonly had patients make their own personal mandalas, a practice used by many ancient cultures including Buddhism, Hinduism and Native American, to better understand their emotional disorders and put them on a path towards inner wholeness.
A mandala painting by Jung. He saw mandalas as a means to meditate back to your natural center, where the Self can be found. The Self is our true nature, beyond what is conscious in our egos.
Freud’s libido is another story. It is in the sign of balance-seeking Libra, which is associated with the planet Venus. Here is where it gets interesting. Freud has QUITE a lot of Venusian themes in his chart. He has all that Taurus (ruled by Venus) in the 7th house (also associated with Venus) and now we see that he has a Libra Mars. Taurus is related to Venus in a visceral, carnal way, as in “this cake tastes good” or “nice legs!”. Libra is related to Venus in a more social and graceful way, as in “shall we have some cake?” or “thank you for that compliment”. Ok, so what we want to know now is WHO is Freud’s Venus???
Freud is famous for introducing the Oedipus complex, where a patient has sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex. His Venus is conjunct the North Node and in the service-oriented 6th house. The North Node is connected to our dharma, the things that we do in life that feel like we are traveling on our rightful higher path. However, the Nodes are ALSO highly connected to the concept of MOTHER. Freud’s Venus (projections of women) is naturally bound up in the concept of mother! The Oedipus complex likely has an exceptional resonance with this man. His Venus is in Aries, which ties it right back to his libido (Mars)!
Jung has Aquarius rising, which is associated with strong intellect as well as breaking rules. His dabbling with esoteric teachings made him somewhat of an outcast (Aquarius) amongst his peers. He has Saturn (the planet of inner authority) in the first house (identity) in Aquarius. His intellectual inner authority is blown up with empowerment as it is squared with Pluto. It is also very connected to the 12th house (because Capricorn is on it’s cusp), which is the house of mystical realms. The collective unconscious, a concept introduced by Jung, represents a vast well of psychic material that connects us to all of humanity. The 12th house is that very deep oceanic territory of the collective unconscious.
The deeper we get the less we know. That is the feeling of the 12th house. It is a place of surrendering to the ever enduring mysteries of life.
Hope this was a fun little jaunt into the behind the scenes of some very mysterious men! ‘Til next time!
Toroidal Zodiac 