Horoscope and Defense Mechanisms of Ego
The theory of defense mechanisms of ego is a theory of psychology that comes from psycho analysis and is often used as a key for interpreting human behavior. Applied in astrology it could explain why some people, often don’t showcase the expected behavior that their natal chart shows, but behave as if they have transmuted the original tendency of the chart in a different outer expression.
The basic defense mechanisms according to psychoanalysis are the following:
Repression of a painful experience or an experience that causes discomfort
Denial of a painful event.
Rationalization, namely the effort of a person to justify rationally, attitudes and behaviors, so he can protect himself from emotional pain.
Projection, namely the attribution of characteristics and thoughts regarding a traumatic event to others when in fact one was having these thoughts and his feelings himself.
Introjection, namely the incorporation of other peoples' rules by a person in purpose of his own survival or to avoid the punishment.
Identification, which compiles an unconscious process in which the person pursues to mimic another familiar person who is in position to face situations better.
Overcompensation. It is the unconscious effort of a person to replace forbidden behaviors with their opposites.
Displacement of forbidden emotions to another person.
Somatization that is the conversion of non acceptable emotions to body symptoms, i.e stress to nervous movement of your knee.
Idealization or idolization of a person or a situation. That way we pretend not to look at other people’s character flaws and we don't feel obliged to do something about them.
Intellectualization which concerns the usage of mental functions instead of the non acceptable or unbearable emotions. For example someone's love is too much to accept if we feel unworthy. So we are trying to understand it instead of feeling it.
Regression, which refers to the return of a person to an earlier developmental stage where he feels more comfortable, i.e. can't bear responsibilities and behaves like a child.
Sublimation or the conversion of a non acceptable emotion to an accepted one. For example a sexual attraction to a married man which becomes a friendship.
By studying astrological symbols one realizes that some of the above defense mechanisms could correspond to symbols of the astrological language that are used with amplitude.
For example the opposition aspect could easily be related to the mechanism of projection. It is very rare for a person who has an opposition aspect in his chart to not have in his environment people who relate to one of the two signs of the opposition. The mechanism of projection here shows that the person cannot balance the two counterbalancing forces inside of him, so he projects one of them to a familiar person, usually his partner.
In the same way, the square aspect could easily operate as a mechanism of overcompensation. Especially when the square is compiled of a personal planet and an outer planet or Saturn, the difficulty of the personal planet’s expression leads firstly to denial or repression, especially if it doesn’t have dignities or supporting aspects. But then it is also possible to give it the drive to express itself in the opposing sign, as a means of overcompensation. This way we have Cancers who become business men, Leos who function collectively, Pisces who are obsessed with cleaning and Capricorns who become spouses and look after children at home.
Overcompensation is an essential mechanism of explaining why people do not always showcase the behavior that a natal planet indicates for them; furthermore the process of overcompensation can be expanded to the interpretation of the planet’s house. So, someone with a Sun in the 2nd house, when he cannot be economically autonomous, because of a square (view) aspect i.e. with Saturn of Pluto, can function as a Sun in the 8th house, namely trying to manage or claim money from someone else. A person with the Sun in the 4th house, when he cannot have his own place, can transform his office to a home, displaying a Sun in the 10th house. And a person with the Sun in the 10th house, who would like success, when his Sun receives bad aspects and doesn’t have dignities or supporting aspects, he may quit his job and become a housecat displaying a Sun in the 4th house.
Having said that, these defence mechanisms can also be manifested through other aspects, which can function as outlets for emotions, in cases of internal conflicts. This way when a planet, mainly a personal one, is burdened with difficult aspects on the chart, has i.e. a square with Saturn or an opposition with Pluto and at the same time has a helpful trine with Jupiter or Neptune it is quite possible that the trine will function as an outlet mechanism for emotional tension and as a defence mechanism to work around internal conflict.
We could actually say that many of the defense mechanisms mentioned above could correspond to such trines. Rationalization for example could be indicated by a trine with Saturn, Intellectualization by a trine with Uranus, Idealization by a trine with Neptune and Sublimation by a trine with Pluto. These trines, of course, could also exist as independent aspects. In this case though, they do not function as defense mechanisms. They function as defense mechanisms only when they exist at the same time with other, more difficult aspects, which build up tension which demands an outlet.
Some defense mechanisms though can correspond to other astrological mechanisms besides aspects. Denial or Repression for example could easily be correlated with things we accumulate in the Water Houses in our Natal Chart, while Displacement could be linked with the relationship of a planet with the house it rules.
More specifically, it is possible that when the planet doesn’t have enough dignities or support to express itself in the house it is in, displacement could lead it to express itself easier in the house it rules. This could suggest a displacement process, that is keeping the same emotions but expressing them to a different target, but it could also indicate Sublimation since it changes the expression sign of the planet and that way it could change the nature of the emotion itself. In both cases the interest of libido is turning to another direction, since it cannot be expressed in its initial placement in the natal chart.
Of course the aspects could also be explained in the simplest way, according to the symbolic glossary down below.
Astrological dictionary of aspects:
Conjunction, the need to share the same space
Opposition, need to compromise our disagreements
Square, dilemma, which makes my life bounce between two different directions
Trine, good fortune, possibility of expansion or in a different context a scandalous situation, no one can put a stop to.
Quincunx or inconjunction, situation of intensity, which we all are aware of but we don't display it, it functions from within.
Sextile, a situation where we realize we are different but maybe we could share the work. You can clean the windows and I can do the mopping. We need time to coordinate but we will get there.
Semi Sextile, misfiring we choose to neglect but will come to face its consequences later on.
Semi Square, incompatible intentions.
Sesquiquadrate, incompatible intentions already displayed through conflicting actions.
