The houses and the human Psychosynthesis from a Jungian Perspective

The houses and the human psycho synthesis

In classical astrology, the houses signify the areas of our life in which things happen and outside events take place. If we view astrology, though, from a psychological perspective, the houses acquire a dimension of a psychological map which shows areas of our psychology in which internal psychic processes take place. These processes although initially internal, lead us to basically attribute thoughts, ideas and emotions to the external environment while in fact they belong to ourselves. 

Furthermore the fact that we choose to be occupied with one of those stimuli every time, while every other stimulus escapes our notice or we do not react to them, suggests that interactions and their meaning do not exist by themselves but are related to our esoteric psychology. 

From a psychological point of view, the horoscope expresses in its entirety what we call The Self in the psychology of Jung. With its psychological meaning, The Self is that part of our psychology we recognize that it belongs to us. This does not mean that in our soul there are no other parts that operate esoterically and produce results. These parts exist, but we do not recognize them as part of ourselves but as mere automatic reactions, inheritance factors and as third party influences which we do not want to integrate on our self, we do not accept them as part of it and we would like for them to not exist, if possible. 

The Self is made from two distinct parts. The conscious part is made up from Ego, namely the way we make our conscious decisions. The unconscious part is the one we do not comprehend and we cannot observe but acts and causes results and we recognise its presence from its effects. One part of this unconscious we accept as our own, even though we cannot control it (e.g. instances when we say “oh shoot, I did a blunder again, I forgot!”. So, this part we recognize as part of the Self. 

Generally speaking the Self is a working area where we try to come to terms with and bring balance to the environment’s demands, the unconscious effects from our training, our conscious thoughts and our unconscious impulses. Whichever out of them we do not accept as our own and we would not like to have it, we automatically place it outside of the Self.

If we consider that Self as the horoscope in its entirety, then the Ego is expressed through the fifth house of a person’s horoscope. The Sun, ruler of the fifth house sheds light to the self and guides us to its understanding and realization. Therefore, the question we pose to each other “What’s your sign?”, actually means “How your Ego is expressed, what about your creativity?” 

The Ego is also related to two other aspects of the realization of the Self, the 1^st and 9^th house. The 1^st house (rising sign) determines some specific data about appearance and bodily functions on which Ego will count on to be able to do what it is meant to do. The 9^th house is the house of self-realization through comparing ourselves to the others. It is the house where we compare ourselves to what could be our ideal Self, something already achieved by a person we admire in our social environment and who embodies what we ourselves could become. This ideal Self is constructed to a large extend by the environment we live in, our ideas, religion, role models and beliefs. So, the process of realization of our Self evolves through three houses, the first, the fifth and the ninth house. 

If we consider the houses of fire to describe the process of self-realization, then the houses of the earth are related to what we call personal conscience. When the Self, expressed through the houses of fire, gains the impulse to become something, when it goes away from Being and goes to Becoming, how does the Self operate, through which processes? The houses of the earth describe how we set goals (2^nd), how we incorporate them in what is the collective desire (public opinion, collective desires of the team we belong in, etc. 6^th house) and how we react to our achievements (10^th) or our failure, how we criticize ourselves, how we compare our self with what it should be. 

In this context, the 2^nd house is the house our personal desires are being born (I would like to be this, I would like to do that, I would like to learn the other), the 6^th house is the house of confrontation with our environment, the house where we should adjust our desire to the rules of the others, the house where our reactions of that adjustment will be visible, psychological reactions (stress) or physical reactions (overwork) and the 10^th house, which corresponds to the Midheaven, is simply what we call the voice of conscience, where by conscience this time we don’t mean realization of what we are doing but judgement, evaluation of our actions, our rating of ourselves compared to what we would like to be our ideal self.

If the earthly houses are connected with what we call personal conscience, the houses of the water are connected with what we call the Unconscious. The fourth house is the house of personal unconscious, the surface of the water, where the deep esoteric currents arrive to the surface and are expressed outwardly. The eighth house is the house of complexes, and by complexes we mean those concentrations of psychic energy we have deep in our subconscious, such as the pictures of Animus or Anima, pictures that rarely reach the subconscious’ surface, but still shape our everyday behaviour, even though we do not realize it. The twelfth house is the house of the collective unconscious, the house of archetypes, the house where we learn to recognise the paths of psychic energy flow of all the humanity since the world’s creation and with some of which we can identify with, adopting roles, behaviours and habits that do not belong to us, but are part of some archetype we chose to impersonate.

At this point and before we move on to the examination of the houses of the air, it is worth to see how the houses of the earth and water are placed in the chart, the houses of consciousness and unconsciousness and how they contradict themselves, expressing, humanity’s esoteric conflict in its entire spectrum.

On one hand, personal goals in the 2^nd house, tangible things we want to learn and possess and on the other hand in the 8^th, the things we subconsciously want to have but we will never consciously know it. In the 6^th house, the rules, social norms, behaving socially and coming to terms with the others in the outer world and in the 12^th the others as archetypes, as roles, which each and every one of us hides behind its superficial behaviour. 

And finally, the most important contradiction in our psychology; the opposition between our ideal self (10^th house) and our emotions (4^th house), between the “one I am supposed to be” and the “one I like to be”, the opposition between “have to or am obliged to” and “want to or feel comfortable to”, the Midheaven and “hypogeion” (a Greek term meaning literally our “basement” thus inferring to the 4^th house as the place where we keep hidden, everything we don’t want others to see, but it is also the place we feel comfortable as it is filled with our memories).

In the 10^th house we pursue our social recognition, our career, our goals, and our ideal ego. And then in the 4^th house comes a reaction by our self, an “I have had enough of my tiredness from work”, a desire to relax and a desire for love and warmth, acceptance of ourselves as we are, reaction to the pressure of “I have to” and emotional outbursts involving crying, anger and others.

It is very interesting to see how the psychological complexes of the water houses and earth houses correspond to the parts of the Self that Carl Jung called in his work, the Shadow, the Persona, Animus and Anima. Are there houses in the horoscope which can give information for these parts of the Self and how they act in the life of a specific individual? According to Jungian Astrologers, for example Karen Hamaker Zondag, the Persona is a complex of psychological influences which originate from the 4^th and 10^th house, but by extension from all the earthly and aquatic houses. The Persona, in simple words, is a role, an archetype we retract from the area of the personal (individual experiences we have pushed very deeply) or the collective Unconscious (8^th and 12^th house) and we adopt it as the image we project to the outside world (10^th house). But we also “believe” ourselves deeply to truly be that role, take it within us that this is true, and thus allow our emotional reactions to change as well. And we tell ourselves not only how to behave outside but also how to feel inside to fit in to this image we think of ourselves to be (4^th house).

Such Persona roles are the “femme fatale”, the “lady”, the “sophisticated”, the “good guy”, the “hero” and other similar roles and we adopt them not because they are our true self but because we are feeling inferior and not adequate enough. And they end up affecting not only our outer behaviour and self judgement but even our feelings. They overwhelm our Self completely, urging our real self to the side in a way that we live someone else’s life completely. 

The Persona is actually initiated by the desires of the 2^nd house. Once the “I would like to...” wish emerges in the 2^nd house, it shows we do not feel well with our current self (i.e. the 1^st house) and this is why we have to leave the “who we are” of the houses of fire to get to “who we want to become” of the earth houses. As a counter reaction to the Persona the 8^th house, wakes the image of our Soul Saviour, the Animus or the Anima, the Fairy that the man is waiting for or the Hero the woman is waiting for to save her.

Animus and Anima are our complementary sides usually in the area of the opposite sex, which we really look for to complete our real self and not the one we have adopted as a Persona. And since as a Self we have been totally taken over by Persona, we cannot (and neither do we want to) remove its dominance through direct confrontation. Therefore our salvation can only come from the Other, the complementary Other, the Erotic Other, which functions beyond rules, beyond obligations, transforming, reinventing and regenerating us. It is our only hope to find our true self again and when we find it we pretend to follow it reluctantly, when in fact we crave for it. And I know you do not correspond to my public image and my wants, I cannot willingly accept you as you are but if you are strong enough and convulse my life, I will thank you forever because I know that deep down I am meant for you and you are meant for me.

Animus and Anima are the psychological sides that none of us shows to the outer world but always remain hidden.  A man who is dominant at work but wishes for a dominant woman in bed, a woman who is aggressive as a man but deep down wishes for a man’s hug to lie in, our behaviour at work in the morning and our behaviour in the arms of the one we love are examples of the critical struggle that takes place inside between the adopted Persona and our real self; a struggle, during which each side is in turn triggered to balance the other. The more goals and dedication to success during the day, the more intense one’s desires in the moments he relaxes away from obligations. Social success walks side by side with erotic extremity, whereas less stressful lives are better accompanied by erotic tolerance. 

Other than Anima or Animus, our “Saviour”, in the 8^th house we also find our biggest enemy, our Shadow. The Shadow comprises all of those traits we would never consciously want to have, a personality we would never want to become, the “Evil One”. But at the same time it also has, all the characteristics we are secretly jealous of and we would like so much to have. This time, the Shadow is a representative of the same sex, who just like Animus and Anima, acts compensatory to our Persona. It is displayed in a sensitive girl who is secretly admired by a very successful businesswoman (who will never be like her) who in order to hide her admiration talks down to the poor girl. And also in the mucho man who is admired by a poor ordinary guy, who knows will never be like him and who is going to hate him for that and also, given the chance and if accidently in a position of power, will destroy him for that.

If these aquatic houses show us the structure of the unconsciousness, the houses of the air show us how the individual is manifesting all these influences in his relationships with others. The Self, brought to existence in the houses of fire, feeling inadequate in the state of “Being” and choosing to proceed into the state of “Becoming” gets involved in the eternal struggle between the conscious and the unconscious; but at some point, he manages to overcome its endless circle addressing himself to something outside of him, by addressing himself to the “Other”. The “Other” is the thing which he explores and first comes up against in the 3^rd House.

This is where he projects the content of his soul to the people he meets in the random and short acquaintances of his everyday life. Acquaintances of which he will select the person that will become a permanent partner and companion in the 7^th house and will endure further projections he has prepared for him. And if the 3^rd and the 7^th house show what we project to the others and the permanent partners in life and work, the 11^th house shows what kind of projections we perform to the groups we belong to and what we expect from them.

To conclude, the correspondence of the houses with the psychology of the individual could be described as following: 

Houses 1-7: Our existence, our appearance, our body, what we begin with, the others and their existence, their appearance, our relationship

Houses 2-8: Our desires and the desires of the subconscious

Houses 3-9: What we project everyday to the others. What the society projects to us as Ideal.

Houses 4-10: The climax of our efforts, our esoteric self judgement, the moments of relaxation and love, the emotion

Houses 5-11: The Ego as is expressed creatively, capabilities filled with originality, talents we were born with, creativity and self expression of others, their talents, and recognition of our talents by our friends and social circle.

Houses 6-12: The collective consciousness, the obligations to society, the rules of behaviour, the conventional liabilities and the social roles, as they exist as subconscious archetypes and affect it.