The higher Self from a different (astrologically esoteric) perspective

It is clear that most of those who have been involved in esoteric astrology have in mind the model of the astrology of Tibetan and Alice Bailey. However, it is interesting to see that at the beginning of the century there was another model, more traditionally Western, which emerges when we synthesize the views of well-known thinkers of the time. In Alan Leo's model of esoteric astrology the so-called higher self is three-dimensional, with its 1st dimension, the 1st ray, corresponding to Uranus, the 2nd to Mercury and the 3rd to Venus. Not coincidentally, this model is very similar to the upper triangle of the Tree of Life and the astrological correspondences of the first three Tarot cards attributed to the first spheres of the Tree. The Fool Uranus, the Magician Mercury and the Empress Venus. The correspondence can continue with Saturn Emperor and Moon as the Pope, but somewhere along the line the correspondence seems to stop as Dion Fortune's Tree starts counting the zodiac from the Emperor on down, leaving the Planets behind.

But also if we compare that model, to that of Rudolf Steiner, we see that Steiner attributed three emanations to the higher ego, the Soul Self (the Soul as an Expression of Will), the intellectual soul and the sentient soul, which are exactly the dimensions corresponding to Uranus, Mercury and Venus. Indeed, if we mirror these three higher dimensions to the personality planes, we shall see the Soul Self associated with the Physical Body, the Intellectual Soul associated with the Etheric Field and Mercury, and the Sentient Soul associated with the Astral Field and Venus. In other words, Mercury and Venus come back in two of the three correspondences.

What could we say about these correspondences from the point of view of modern psychology? 

If we consider Social Psychology as the dimension that studies more the group psyche of man, Humanistic Psychology, on the other hand, is the one that rather tries to study more the individualized side of man and through this to connect him more with his uniqueness. We could say with his Higher Self. How does a person try to do this? There are several ways, Humanistic Psychology tells us, that a person feels differentiated and unique. One way is the unique experiences he/she may have had in his/her life. And these could be said to be linked to the planets Uranus, Mercury and Venus, as the dimension of experience always has a character of a) distinguishing b) perceiving and understanding the experience in terms of its meaning and c) experiencing it sensually and evaluating its aesthetic value.

Note that in the dimension of experiencing human uniqueness there is no concept of usefulness.

Whenever we do something because it is useful, because we are entitled to do it, we fall to the level of the group soul. Connecting with the higher self requires us to do something because a) it is part of ourselves and we cannot imagine ourselves not doing it, so much a part of our identity is it considered, b) it is meaningful and morally right, and c) it is beautiful and valuable to do it. Nowhere is there a notion of usefulness (Saturn) which we do only as long as we have not gained contact with any of the three dimensions of our higher self. For as Alan Leo says, Saturn is an enclosure that protects the higher self until it is time to connect with it.

Planet Scoring in Modern Astrology

Planet Scoring in Modern Astrology

Many people who start their involvement with Traditional Astrology without knowing how Modern Astrology works (a type that has been increasing in recent years, in the past there was no such phenomenon) seem to be surprised to learn that in Modern Astrology there is no similar system of planetary scoring as in Traditional Astrology. There are no bounds, triplicities, faces, or what in traditional astrology is called essential or accidental dignities. However, this does not mean that modern astrology in turn does not use some planetary scoring criteria, even if it does not call the whole process scoring. A prime example of this being the case is the fact that we all often say that someone is "plutonian", "uranian", "neptunian" person. What do we imply by this? We are suggesting that we unconsciously prioritize a planet, believing it to be "strong" in the chart and dominating the personality of the fellow.

What criteria could we use in modern astrology to judge whether a planet is strong or not? The truth is that there are quite a few, they just haven't been codified by modern astrologers as of yet. Some of them are a legacy of traditional astrology of course, such as rulership or exaltation in a sign. But others have to do with a more modern understanding, such as the relationship with midpoints.

Below is an attempt to codify such forces. Of course, here we should be mindful of the fact that all of these together should be considered in combination. None of the following elements either positive or negative can "lift" the force of a planet or reduce its force. However, as long as a planet shows 4, 5 or 6 or more elements on one side or the other we can begin to discuss its strength or weakness.

PRO

1. Rulership or Exaltation

2. Situated in an angular house

 3. High on the map

 4. Conjunct with MC , ASC

 5. Many aspects, preferably with personal planets and benefic

 6. Close orbit aspects (same degree preferably)

 7. If we are talking about Sun and the Moon, the Sun is strong in a day chart, the Moon is strong in a night chart

 8. If it a planet aspects the Luminaries

 9. If it makes a positive aspect to Jupiter or the North Node

 10. If it makes a trine to ASC, MC

 11. If it is the dispositor of the Sun or the Moon or has a mutual reception to them

 12. If it conjuncts a favorable fixed star

 13. If it's in conjunction or opposition to a favorable midpoint, e.g. Sun Jupiter

 14. If it makes favorable aspects to its dispositor or the ruler of his house

 15. If its dispositor or ruler of his house is in a good sign and with good aspects

 16. If it is at the top of a formation such as a bucket or grand triangle, and sometimes a T-square if it can manage controlling the other planets.

 

CONTRA

1. Detriment or Fall.

 2. Situated in a malefic house i.e., 6, 8, 12

 3. Situated Low on the chart

 4. In succedent or cadent houses

 5. Has few aspects or aspects with planets which do not play a major role in the chart

 6. Has more malefic than benefic aspects

 7. Aspects with wide orb

 8. If we are talking about the Sun and the Moon, the Sun is weak in a night chart , the Moon is weak in a day chart.

 9. Retrograde or stationary

 10. If it makes a negative aspect to Saturn or Pluto. For Moon or Mercury possibly with Uranus or Neptune (this of course is a bit subjective)

 11. Conjunct a malefic fixed star

 12. Conjunct or opposed by an unfavorable midpoint e.g. Saturn Mars

 13. Situated in the last degrees of the sign, i.e. 28 and 29.

 14. Makes malefic aspects to its sponsor or ruler of the house or none at all

 15. Its sponsor or ruler of his house is in a bad sign and has bad aspects

 16. It is conjunct, opposing or squaring a nearby eclipse

 17. It is at the apex of a T-square or YOD formation in relative weakness to manage the other planets.

 

Feel free to experiment to the charts on your own following the above guidelines.

The seven basic planets in the horoscope and their meaning

Astrology may have various complex specialties and approaches for the ordinary student but it ought to be able to be as simple, clear and easy as learning the central idea for each of the 7 main planets:

1. The Sun : What do I want to do and who do I want to be in life?

 2. Moon: who do I want to belong to in my life? How do I empathize and care? What habits have I developed?

 3. Mercury: How do I implement my decisions? How quickly do I understand what I am being told? Can I easily express what I am interested in? How quickly do I find solutions when I have a problem?

 4. Venus: How do I enjoy my life? Whi do I want to enjoy my life with?

 5. Mars: How do I defend myself when threatened? How do I attack when I get angry?

 6. Jupiter: What long-term plans do I have? What do I believe is worth living for? How can I help others if they ask for my help? What am I considered good at?

 7. Saturn: What things do I hold as values that I cannot violate for fear of being punished or harmed? What things do I find difficult to do and require a lot of effort?

Each of us who learn astrology should be able to answer the following questions about our own chart and the charts of the people around us as a beginning of our learning. So slowly the understanding begins.

Humanistic Psychology and Applications to Humanistic Astrology - More on Dane Rudhyar's Interpretation of the Planets

More on Dane Rudhyar's Interpretation of the Planets - The meanings of the planets in the four levels of consciousness

Having considered what the four basic reference levels mean, let us return to the planets for a moment to briefly mention some of their meanings in the four levels.

So, at the biological level Rudhyar considers the planets it is worth examining are the planets up to Saturn. He believes that the Sun's biological energy (its energy body so to speak) does not reach the extra-solar planets.

He cites as evidence for this that the solar wind has been measured by scientists as not exceeding Saturn's orbit.

·   At this level, then, the Sun expresses concepts such as the biological father, male fertility, and vitality.

·       The Moon expresses the biological mother, female fertility, and menstrual cycles.

·       Mercury the nervous system, Venus the genitals as the focus of the sperm or ovum, while Mars the male ability to penetrate the form and in this sense the power of the seed entering the soil, the power of the sperm that fertilizes, the muscle power that performs work.

·       Jupiter expresses the metabolism and the systems generally associated with the development of the body, while Saturn expresses the structure and skeleton of the body.

On the social level the meanings of the planets selectively as extracted from his treatise are as follows:

·      Saturn is the father, as the head of the family, the bearer of the law of society in the microcosm of the home.

·    Moon is the mother-foster, the one who raises the child, the mediator between the father/law of society and child, but also the mediator between the social frame of reference carried by the father and the biological needs of the child. Thus, she helps in the transformation of the child's psyche so that from the biological level of basic needs the child can progressively enter the social level, from where the father or society will then take over the child for further education.

·    The Sun is the character of the individual as "impressed" by society. The concept of "imprinting" refers to the primary teachings we receive as children, which are "imprinted" in our subconscious minds without being evaluated or judged. Rudhyar believes that the attribution of personality traits (George is a good kid, a good student), of labels is very much done through the mechanics of the name we are given. That is, the name accompanies desirable character qualities that society/parents would like us to have. Subconsciously there is always a tendency within us to express these qualities to achieve acceptance. To point out for the student, however, that in previous chapters we have illustrated this process of giving "face" to the Moon's function. The two are not necessarily contradictory, as in essence what they tell us is that the Sun is "born" from the Moon, in the same way that the mother symbolically and mythologically "gives birth" to her son-hero.

·    The planets Mars and Venus and Jupiter and Saturn function as dipoles. Venus, in addition to emotional relationships, is our sense of values, the attitude we hold towards the ideals of the group we live in. Mars is the power to change the facts when Venus judges that we don't like those ideals and the given situation we live in.

·     Jupiter is the making of interpersonal and social relationships. The concept of organizing people, delegating tasks, collective action and work leading to group development.

·    Saturn is the hierarchy. The laws that stand as a boundary to Jupiter and cannot be broken. The leader who allows Jupiter's collective work initiatives as long as the laws of the group are not violated. Jupiter on the other hand constantly challenges Saturn and tries to go beyond his limits by expanding the group.

·     On the social level, Venus and Jupiter are considered favorable planets because they promote the cohesion and growth of the group, while Mars and Saturn are malefic because they bring changes and restrictions to the group's functioning.

·   Mercury is an auxiliary planet both in the functioning of Jupiter's organization and in finding hierarchies and structures for the group.

·       The outer planets at this level only function collectively. They influence concepts such as education, fashion, public opinion, but they do not operate on an individual level.

At the individual level, the meanings of the planets are as follows:

·    The Sun gives the individual's desire to stand out, to form his own group in which he will be the leader - king, his own world.

·    The Moon gives the desires of others, the factor that the Sun prefers to ignore because it does not understand it. It is the subconscious and the repulsions.

·       Mercury is a helper planet to the Sun and helps it express its identity.

·       Mars is the individual's attempt to stand out, while Venus expresses the now personal value system.

·     Jupiter is the pride the individual feels in his or her successes. The bravo or motivation that he or she needs to develop individually.

The traditional meanings of the planets here may be changing. Mars is considered a rather favorable planet as it promotes individuality while Jupiter can be considered a malefic because it can bring conceit.

·     Saturn is the outer aspect of life that the individual considers his own. His possessions, his outer appearance, the boundary that distinguishes what is his own in relation to others.

·    Uranus on this level expresses individual intelligence. Through this, the individual can stand out from others and also bring about changes that change the whole society.

·       Neptune expresses a sense of uniqueness that comes from metaphysical inspirations. The individual has metaphysical experiences that progressively - if he understands that they only happen to him - give him a sense that he is not like others.

·  Pluto expresses a sense of uniqueness that arises from experience. The person goes through difficulties that steel his character and make him learn to act without unnecessary sentimentality. Through these difficulties he acquires a sense of uniqueness.

At the transpersonal level many of the above interpretations of the planets change orientation again.

·  At this level the Sun is the Hero/Son mystically marrying the Mother/Soul. More prosaically perhaps the man serving society or the ideal woman. Rudhyar says that if a man is to move from the individual to the super-individual level, women often appear in his life with the characteristics of the transcendental woman who helps him or Lilith who is called upon to test him and see if he is ready to give. In the ancient days of matriarchy this union was also symbolized in part by the sacrifice of the king, who was allowed to be king for one year. Of course, this sacrifice had a biological meaning, but it also had the meaning that the king/ego was sacrificed on the altar of Nature (capitalized as a transcendent entity/goddess).

·      According to Rudhyar at this level a big role is now played by the Moon. The Moon is a symbol of the Other, the Whole, to which we are called to open ourselves.

·      Mercury is a bridge used so that the transcendental knowledge of the collective can descend into the brain and become thought and action.

·   Venus grounds our Soul in practical beauty, healing, and compassion. She is the compassionate princess who attends to the sick, the creator of charity and attracts universal love and grounds it at the level of society.

·      Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are mainly obstacles on this level. Mars is indiscipline that needs to be restrained, Jupiter is conceit that prevents surrender to the Whole, and Saturn is insistence on rules without content, empty formalities.

·       The transcendence of these planets is done according to Rudhyar with the outer planets. Though in classical astrology Uranus is considered the upper octave of Mercury and Neptune of Venus, here Rudhyar corresponds things a little differently. He connects the planets through the zodiac signs that used to rule as traditional and recently as newly discovered.

·    Thus, Uranus is called upon to transcend Saturn, bringing out the emptiness of formal forms and through non-conformism tries to convey the message that only forms that have substance should remain.

·     Neptune is called upon to overcome Jupiter, diffusing conceit and giving compassion, so that Jupiter understands that the work must be done for the whole and not for personal exaltation.

·    Pluto subdues Mars. Through harsh conditions and trials, he teaches him to be disciplined in duty and to promote strength as an agent of protection and service to the whole.

 

Humanistic Psychology and Applications to Humanistic Astrology - Introduction to Dane Rudhyar

Humanistic Psychology, we have to say, is revolutionary to some degree. It refuses to formulate personality theories like other psychological approaches, refuses to categorize people and to contribute that way to their compliance to the Establishment. It symbolizes the transition from the human who complies with laws to the human who transcends them and unleashes, literally, a burst of creativity to the world. Mental Cure for Humanistic Psychology is not the restoration of the individual to a “Functional” state but his encouragement in order to become as unpredictable as possible.

In order to to describe the issue of choice between social norms and individuality in astrological terms, a very successful method is what Dane Rudhyar described in his work as the four levels of consciousness. This, for example, explains why in astrology from a social psychology point of view, emphasis is given meaningfully to Moon and Saturn, whereas in humanistic astrology planets as the Sun, Uranus and Mars are the ones that promote human to stand out, and are therefore more important.

Indeed in his analysis, Rudhyar talks about four types of consciousness which classify human behavior and therefore also the interpretation of a natal chart, depending on the consciousness level of the person who owns it.

These types or levels of human experience and interpretation are:

• The biological level

• The sociocultural level

• The individual level

• The transpersonal level

At the biological level astrological interpretations focus on material issues and matters of survivor. The planets correspond to physical or alchemical substances and body organs or perhaps to elements, metals, and minerals. The most important effects are the Sun’s and the Moon’s which define the biological cycle of everyday life. Both the Sun and the Moon express energies, the Sun expresses the energy of vitality, and the Moon expresses the nature’s rhythm of change such us the tides or the human menstruation. At the biological level, the basic polarity of the chart is the Sun – Moon polarity, given yet, clearly with biological characteristics.

At the sociocultural level, the person is not considered anymore as a set of organs which work with each other and are affected by the various planets. Instead, the person is considered as an undivided biological unit and is treated as such. Having achieved biological unity the emphasis of consciousness now focuses on the psychology and the sociology of the person. The person now faces new dilemmas which are formed by social and emotional influences, influences which relate to the persons relations to other people. At this level social planets like Jupiter and Saturn become more important and the Moon as the power to comply and conform in order to be accepted has more power than the Sun in forming the person’s behavior. The basic polarity of this level is Moon-Saturn, Cancer-Capricorn or 4th to 10th house. This - if I might comment - is usually the level of interpreting when one is interpreting the chart from the traditional astrology point of view and mainly the seven traditional planets' model.

At the individual level, the person tries to escape from the group consciousness control and from the roles that are assigned to him by society or family or friends and tries to complete a process we call individualization. At this situation one takes individual decisions and also the analogous responsibility for them, even if he/she comes to conflict with his/her environment. At this stage, the person learns to differentiate between his individual interest and the ones of other people around him and shows a tendency to integrate his emotions under a unified will, creating a healthy or unhealthy personal ego. The Sun becomes again the dominant influence at this level, but this time hard aspects of personal planets to Uranus, Pluto, or Neptune, might indicate the process of breaking free from group consciousness.

The hardest level to understand is the transcendence of individualism or else the transpersonal level. At this level the person which has formed his own egoistic kingdom, is called to unite with something else beyond himself. Philosophically at this level, a soul is attributed to the person. It is however difficult to define the soul in psychological terms and what it does to human behavior at this level. Carl Jung tried to describe it by saying when one is influenced by the soul one is united with the collective unconscious. Rudhyar believes that it is not exactly that. He rather suggests the soul allows us to understand that in the human family, everyone has a position, if he voluntarily submits his ego to service of mankind. This sounds more Christian, but Rudhyar says that it is an experience that we feel in our organism. Unfortunately, for most of us, it remains unknown how it is experienced, as most of us operate consciously somewhere between the social and the individual level.

In any case, at transpersonal level, the human stops living for himself and doesn’t focus so much to what today we call the individual evolution. On the contrary, he puts himself to the service of the collective whether that is Humanity or the Planet and acts more as a conductor of a higher consciousness, than as a person, achieving in a sense a unity with the collective. The Moon again becomes more important indicating the Soul and a transition of planets to their higher octaves might take place (Mars to Pluto, Saturn to Uranus and Jupiter to Neptune, according to Rudhyar’s perspective)

Psychological Astrology - The horoscope from the aspect of social psychology

 

Psychological Astrology - Astrological Aspects and Mental Conflicts