Retrograde Mercury and the inner vision of the astral field

Retrograde Mercury and the inner vision of the astral field

In their teachings about the texture of the astral field, many esoteric teachers say that the astral world is a different world from the physical one because, among others, our vision turns inward. In a way that a person is unable to see anything in the outer physical world but can observe only things that are inside him. An impermeable ring surrounds man, says for example Rudolf Steiner, especially the man that hasn’t worked with detachment in his time on earth and the result is that this man is unable to see anything in the astral field that is not already inside him. So the astral world gives the sense of isolation, especially, if someone hasn’t experienced love in his physical life and hasn’t any memories of it. Steiner says that we take to that world whatever we have inside us when we leave physical life and we recycle it again and again without stopping it. We live again and again what we have already lived, see our mistakes, feel guilty for the shortcomings, try to correct our duties. Every effort to move forward, unfortunately fails and the conditions in the astral field turn us back to the issues of our past.

The above description could easily describe what happens to us internally while Mercury is retrograde. Not that this happens all the time, but there are retrograde Mercury’s periods where indeed, every effort to solve problems by looking forward fails. Always something arises which forces us to go back, while many issues that we thought we left behind us, reappear in front of us. The more we try to move forward, the more past issues arise. At the end, our time is occupied so much from our past duties, so that we are forced to cancel decisions we had taken before retrograde Mercury, because we can no more keep promises we have made. Also, when trying to get closer to information we need, it seems to escape us; therefore a problem which normally would have an easy solution makes us deal with it again and again and every time something escapes us, so that we have to take another look again and again.

In conclusion, retrograde Mercury could be a period during which we have to act more with our – as Steiner puts it - astral vision than our physical one. The difference between astral vision and physical one is, according to Steiner, that with physical vision, when we want to learn something about an object, we just stand up from the chair, approach it and study it. We exercise an act of will, in order to come closer to the object. But with astral vision, these acts of will go down the drain. There, to learn something about an object we don’t have to get closer to it, we have to attract it; to bring that one to us, not to get us the object. But in order to do so, to attract an object, we have to approach it otherwise, not through the will. We have to relax, to let go and to ask for it, to beg for it somehow to come to us. To exercise no direct force, no matter how much this tortures us. If the object wants, it will come itself to us, if not, it will not come at all.

This astral vision is the way our minds are working in the state of meditation. Meaning that, in this state, we are completely empty of any urge and are left to “the will of God” or in general to the will of things, if they want to come to us. We act magnetically, not willingly and we work with anything that has the will to approach us, not with what we ourselves want to approach.

That seems to be the way that our thinking must work at retrograde Mercury’s period. Sit back and relax is the basic instruction, let your personal goals aside, what you wanted to do, your pursuits etc, and let go completely. Let go and observe what has the goodwill to come to your way. Take advantage of what is approaching to you, and if there is nothing, just wait. Otherwise, no matter how you try to submit the object to your will, the astral field, or your senses in this world, will betray you.

PS: All the above, as mentioned, do not apply so strongly in every retrograde Mercury period. In periods when Mercury transits personal points in our chart, or if our chart has generally a significant odor of Mercury, that feeling though, is particularly intense.

PS1: It goes without saying, that those who have retrograde Mercury in their natal chart, recognize the above pattern more, namely to “attract” things, by waiting patiently for fortune to bring things close to them, instead of trying to get to them on their own.

The 12th house, the dreams and the astral field

In many esoteric teachings we are taught that the person in the astral field loses contact with the natural environment. The whole world that we observe in astral field, is a world that the person carries inside him. Whatever the person sees existing around him, people, objects, nature, are memories and information that he carries inside him from the time of incarnation.
In essence, he tells us that the astral field is a world of dream if we compare it to the physical world. All senses are inward oriented instead of outward and the person observes himself with his senses instead of observing the outside world.
Is there any astrological correspondence in this approach? I believe that this approach is related to some degree to the approach of karmic astrology of the reverse houses. Indeed, karmic astrology claims that our karmic ascendant is not the one we know, but it is the 12th house. In a sense, the house system can be seen in reverse, placing 11th house as 2nd house, 10th house as 3rd house and so on. Of course, there are other approaches at this topic, but we are going to analyze now this specific approach and its usefulness.
So, this specific approach tells us that the karmic ascendant is the 12th house. But, this should not be interpreted as usual, that this ascendant is from a previous incarnation. It has to be interpreted that it is our ascendant when we are going out to the astral field. And indeed, the characteristics of that house look alike to the approach of esoteric teachings. When we are in the 12th house we live in a dreamy world, we το have to do with ourselves and we are isolated from the rest of the outside world. The 12th house world is made out of imagination and dreams that are the material of this house. In there, our senses work and give us information for our inner world as if it were the real world. Everything we live in our dreams, that we consider them as real, is in fact information that we carry within us.
Proceeding with our interpretation, we could actually continue with the sequence of reverse houses in order to explain the meaning of the rest of the houses during our stay in the astral field. So, according to one approach the 11th house could be the house of Principles, the 10th house could be the house of Lords of Karma, the 9th house could be the house of  Soul Guides, the 8th house could be the house of the new conception, the 7th house could be the house of the acquaintance with our new parents, the 6th house could be the house of incarnation, the 5th house could be the house of birth, the 4th house could be the house of the new born age, the 3rd house could be the house of the beginning of learning and the 2nd house could be the house of developing awareness of ego, where subsequently the reverse of the wheel happens and the person begins to live in the outside world and takes the sequence of the houses in the right order.
Of course, this is only one approach, always as an experiment, as it always happens when we connect the esoteric philosophy with astrology. However, it is something worth trying as an analogy and to see, if it explains our experiences and the behavior that we display in the inner world of astral field.

The symbolism of Lilith and numbers 3 and 9

The symbolism of Lilith and numbers 3 and 9
A lot has been said by many, about Lilith, with a particular emphasis on the familiar subjects of “the evil woman”, “the marriage wrecker”, “the devil's bride” and so on.
Yet, the symbol of Lilith hasn’t been sufficiently studied on a scientific level by the astrological community. Instead, we are being influenced by all the metaphysical associations that the specific name brings to us and we are laying out all the medieval prejudices about Lilith.
For instance, who has ever examined and determined that Lilith is related via its rotation in the zodiac to number 9? Indeed, Lilith changes sign every 9 months while it makes a full rotation around the zodiac in 9 years.
Its behaviour alone to have a rotation period that cannot be divided by 2, shows a tendency to be freed from the male archetype of solar number 12. A similar attempt is only observed with Saturn, which rotates the zodiac in a period multiple of number 7 and with progressed Moon, which has a similar rotation period. On the contrary "prince" Jupiter, as an obedient successor of the Sun, also has a rotation period multiple of 12, even though 12 in this case refers to years rather than months.
As far as number 9 is concerned though, there doesn’t seem to be another planet whose rotation period is based on this number. Regarding numbers 5 and 8 we have the rotation period of Venus that is completing a combined orbit with Earth in a pentagram shape in 8 years, while for Mercury we have numbers 3 and 6 related to the Star of David, that his orbit forms if we include retrograde motion.
9 is however not an indifferent number. It's the number if months of a pregnancy. Why haven't we ever made the connection that pregnancy lasts so long as Lilith remains in an astrological sign?
Furthermore, a full rotation of Lilith around the zodiac takes 9 years. Therefore, if we break the rule of 10 for a decade and we introduce a rule that decades would last 9 years, then a decade would correspond to a zodiacal rotation of Lilith.
Unlikely? Maybe not, as numerology already uses a circle of 9 years. Therefore, we don’t suggest something original.
The information above shows us that Lilith is an astrological archetype which hasn’t been sufficiently investigated yet, and its astronomical correlations haven’t been detected. Therefore, it should be better studied and more facts should be gathered about it in order to have a more realistic and scientifically documented analysis of it.

Astrological Aspects and Mental Conflicts

It is probably known to many that the study of specific planetary aspects is possible to give hints for the existence of unresolved internal conflicts which lead to mental illnesses. This has been especially noticed for the Moon aspects and secondly for the aspects of the other personal planets. Some hints of that type that are very far from being characterized as certainties could be these:

The Moon aspects, especially with the outer planets, can, if the rest of the horoscope allows it, possibly give:

- A tendency towards hysteria (lack of sexual satisfaction according to Freud) when there are hard aspects and are aspects to Uranus. That is expressed in a somehow distant emotional behavior inside relationships and an unwillingness to come close. In attempts of others to come close emotional outbreaks might take place and the person leaving.

- A tendency towards over idealization or paranoia when the aspects are hard and are aspects to Neptune. Furthermore a tendency for the person to allow itself to become a victim in relationships, to tolerate what should not be tolerated and to be fooled.

- A tendency towards depression when the aspects are hard and are in aspects to Saturn. The person might work too hard, which is one form of depression, or quit his goals due to believing he will never succeed. An overachieving mother might have put the stakes too high, or neglecting parents who were too busy with their success. The person feels he can only get loved if his a winner but sometimes the effort is too hard for him and he gives up trying.

- A tendency towards hurting oneself or being attracted by death or abuse when the aspects are hard and are aspects to Pluto. The person then might confuse violence and molestation for love and stay with an abusive partner mistaking his mistreating for love. He also might become abusive himself treating or even committing suicide or hurting himself to manipulate others' feelings.

- Simultaneous aspects to Jupiter and Saturn (i.e. T-square) are possible to give a behavior similar to a bipolar disorder (manic depression). Namely, the person is sometimes extremely optimistic and some other times extremely pessimistic. T-Squares are more serious than single aspects and the astrologer should be able to indicate to the client that he might need professional psychological help when he has one in his chart. The life of those persons is a constant series of ups and downs, successes and failures both in professional and emotional life and many times the native believes this is just how life is not realizing this is a life pattern caused by his natal chart. If however the Moon forms a trine with another planet - along with the T-Square - the trine might work as a more creative way out for the person and stabilize him emotionally to a certain degree. This trine could indicate a therapeutic hobby, a friend or even a doctor who puts the person's emotions to some kind of perspective.

- The orb between the degrees of the planets could also indicate the repeated circle of manifestation of such a disorder. One such example, we will examine below, on Marilyn Monroe’s natal chart. If for example, Jupiter and Saturn have a 3 degree orb, then a timing factor for example a transiting planet or a progressive Moon can stimulate the angles of the T-Square sequentially. In the case of the progressive Moon it can form an exact aspect with the first planet and after three months an exact aspect with the second planet. If this sequence in stimulation is repeated we could assume the creation of a pattern where manic and depressive behavior follow one another in specific and predictable time intervals. This could help forecast the next episode in the manic depressive behavior of the client with some considerable accuracy.

- All these, of course, are indications and by no means certainties. It's far from correct to assume a person’s behavior by singling out an isolated aspect or aspect pattern no matter how important it is. Furthermore behavior could be modified according to Egos defense mechanisms expressed astrologically as we have seen in another section. And last but not least a positive aspect of the Moon can always give a way out to handle the situation and ease up the steam of an internal emotional conflict.

Apart from Moon aspects, some other aspects of other planets - mainly personal planets forming aspects to outer planets - are possible to give some, if not mental illnesses, at least traumatic experiences. So for example:

- Hard aspects of the Sun or Mars to Saturn and Pluto can suggest a sense of lower self esteem or some kind of emotional emasculation or a forced integration of violence and domination as a form of survival.

- Hard aspects of Venus to outer planets could indicate some kind of perversion of libido or the instinct of pleasure.

Traumatic experiences though could also be caused by Moon aspects in the progressive chart, the first years of life of a person. An aspect of the Moon to Saturn in the progressive chart could indicate that the child felt restricted. An aspect of the Moon to Uranus could mean that the child felt exposed or that the child’s parents left it alone. An aspect of the Moon to Pluto could mean that it had fears possibly from the dark. These feelings might seem temporary to us as we would normally consider most progressive Moon aspects. However, because they happen in the first years of the life of the child, they could create important mental recordings that might require a lot of effort for the person to overcome in the future.

Therefore, it is of great value to study such aspects and mainly those of the Moon in the natal as well as in the progressive chart. Let us take a look at two examples to elaborate on that a bit further.
As a first example, let’s see the aspects of the Moon on Marilyn Monroe’s natal chart.

Marilyn Monroe 

Birth: 1 June 1926, 9:30, Los Angeles, California, USA

Source of birth data: AstrologyWeekly

Let's examine the square of the Moon to Saturn; we realize that it is a difficult aspect that indicates a repeating issue. A repeating issue is a relationship between two planets which appears repeatedly in a natal chart directly or indirectly. In our case the Moon and Saturn are not only linked via their mutual aspect, but because Saturn is also located in the 4th house, an indirect reference to the Moon or whatever it is symbolizing. The Moon-Saturn issue was very difficult for Marilyn, as it was related to the fact that she was abandoned by her mother when she was younger, - a mother who was unable to take care of her - and was going to family after family living with foster parents ever since.

Marilyn, herself having her Moon in Aquarius, had every intention of being a simple person, amiable and easy to get along with but also helpful towards others and mainly towards her partners. The rejection she experienced, though, from her family environment or the lack of good intention from it (Saturn in Scorpio), made her not to begin her relationships with good intentions, but from a position of suspicion. So, we could assume she overcompensated her hurt Moon by moving it to the opposing house, in which case she very likely expressed this Moon as a Moon in Leo. She became a diva, a star, a bossy woman who didn’t give a damn about others and wanted only her needs to be taken care of. This was an attribute she could easily display because of her ascendant sign in Leo as well as Neptune in Leo in her first house which was Hollywood’s glamour impersonated influencing her personality as well.

The Moon, though, does not only form a square to Saturn, but also a conjunction to Jupiter. In case we have strong aspects of the Moon to Jupiter as well as to Saturn, then, as we mentioned above, we might also have a manifestation of a manic depression. A theorem that can be easily confirmed by Marilyn Monroe’s life.

Of course, the chart has more indications which suggest difficulties. The concentration of malefic planets inside or near houses of the subconscious for example (Saturn in the 4th, Mars and Uranus in the 8th and Pluto near the cusp of the 12th) could indicate recordings of painful emotional experiences, while Mars with Uranus in the 8th could be an indication of a tendency to suicide. The lack of difficult aspects to these two planets could mean that there was no counter force to stop this tendency. And not only that, but the trines of  Pluto and Saturn to these two, could mean that with their help this tendency was prolonged, took strength and became something permanent in her, in a way that it was hiding and waiting for a long time until the right moment to manifest.

A more general statement we could make  here is that sometimes, it is preferable to have a square to Saturn because this way, tendencies that could be self destructive, like the presence of Mars and Uranus in the 8th house, can be avoided. Otherwise, there is a tendency that nothing stops it in the environment but is reinforced or tolerated by everything surrounding it. Realizations like “everyone around me comes from destroyed families”, parents who emphasize on how worthless I am, friends who introduce me to the life of artists, who also have suicide tendencies… So, if i am worthless and nobody loves me and my friends find it ok to commit suicide using drugs, why not me?

Another example of deciphering Moon’s aspects is the chart of Princess Diana. In that chart we also have a Moon in Aquarius, this time though, it forms a square to Uranus and Venus. Here we have a different defense mechanism, the mechanism of projection which when combining the Moon and Uranus could indicate a hysteric behavior towards an indifferent and arrogant person.

Here the Moon does not have the room to overcompensate in the opposing house, because Uranus is already there. However the thing that could be done is the consciousness of the person to be shifted to the other side of the opposition, adopt that type of behavior and become what I hates. Indeed, Diana from a gracious person and amiable Princess gradually became a distant Queen with scandalous romantic relationships, moving towards Uranus rather than the Moon. At the same time, the square to Venus gave an even more unstable dimension to her emotions and a difficulty to understand herself and know her preferences. It is my opinion that hard aspects between the Moon and Venus generally create a situation where a person wants to do one thing but actually does the other, giving an impression of a person who doesn't know what she wants.

Princess Diana

Birth: 1 July 1961, 7:45 pm, Sadrigam, England.

Source: Astroweekly

Indeed Diana constantly changed her attitude towards things and she did generally give the impression of a person who does not know what she wants in order to feel better and feel safe.

This behavior, obviously lead her to a state of constant stress and a way of life she constantly felt as if she was being chased. She risked daringly (she was walking as an ambassador of goodwill on narc fields) and was being provocative to danger in ways that maybe are not known by many, until today.  

Her mental state under constant stress, at the edge of hysteria was a very important dimension of her character, which lead her to the separation but also to the occasional relationships and fickle state her life resulted to after the divorce. When taking to account that the Moon is also the ruler of the 8th house and that Uranus is positioned inside of it, it might ever relate to the fact of her death. Sudden as well, manifesting Uranian energy, coming from an accident.

Horoscope and Defense Mechanisms of Ego

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.

The progressive moon in the natal houses

The progressive moon in the natal houses

Progressive moon position related to natal chart houses is a significant indication of change in the course of our life, abandonment of old activities and beginning of new ones. Especially in the transition time from one house to another, we are in a period of change which can cause insecurity, especially if it is combined with eclipses or transits on the progressed moon.

The sign of progressive moon plays a significant role in trends and habits we are going to develop for the next two or three years. In relationships it is important to know the course of partner’s progressive moon, in order to predict possible changes that he will want to make, so that we can be prepared for them.

Indicatively, the position of progressive moon in a house can bring tendencies as above:

In 1^st house: A period that indicates a new chapter in the life of a person. After the grief of 12^th house, the person seems to leave behind the pessimism and become more active again. Although the energy, for the time being, is without purpose, it has a testing nature. The person acts for the sake of acting, just to feel alive, to get away from previous period’s failures. The person discovers, also, talents and abilities that he didn’t know he had. Period of exploration of sexuality also.

In 2^nd house: At this time, the person goes through financial turmoil. Maybe he will need to do a second job to respond to liabilities or perhaps he has to learn how to control his expenses. Maybe he is at a stage when he gets his first salary and so is able to consume “big” for the first time (like to get a television or computer on his own money). Given that besides psychic energy, the Moon also creates vacillation and fluidity, the point here is to create a stable balance between income and expenses.

In 3^rd house: The person makes his first steps in a new society. If he is a child, maybe he goes to school for the first time, if he is older maybe he moves out to a new neighborhood or to another city.  A period of exploration, allows him to get to know better his new region. Also, maybe, he gets a means of transport or a driver license for the first time.

In 4^th house: The person examines the issue of his residence. It may be the first time a young person leaves his family’s home in order to live in his own house, or maybe someone leaves a small apartment to find something better. Personal space becomes important; the person spends plenty of time at home alone or spends money on home or for his quality of life generally. If his partner, for example, has a progressive moon like this, she will probably want relocation or a redecoration during this time.

In 5^th house: Time of erotic experimentation. An individual makes a lot of acquaintanceships, occasionally in parallel, mostly of short duration. The person maybe considers the issue of a descendant for the first time, while coming generally closer to his sexuality which he becomes familiar with or is confronted with.

In 6^th house: The person emphasizes a lot on his job matters. The job becomes very important and he is very much involved in it. He draws self-confidence and acceptance from work. At this period he probably is connected more closely to colleagues from work. Perhaps, the person indentifies more with what happens there and takes it more personally.

In 7^th house: A good position for smoothness in relationships. We are going through a period during which we pay attention to our partner and our relationship and we support it. We pass a lot of time with our partner and maybe we get married or move in with him. The progressed Moon sign, is an indication of how we pass our mutual time together (for example with Sagittarius, we travel a lot with him).

In 8^th house: The person goes through emotional difficulties. Separations happen, changing relationships from one to another, financial and emotional closures which usually cost a lot. At this particular period we cannot hide problems under the carpet, so if our partner has his progressive moon in 8^th house, we ought to put all issues on the table.

In 9^th house: The person begins to become more active mentally. He might write his first books, take his first courses and start to teach for the first time. Also he begins to become active ideological (for example to join a political party) and come out of his shell making professional travels or travels for studies or training. If the partner has his progressive moon in a house like this for instance, he might wish to travel.

In 10^th house: The person shows a mood to take on many responsibilities. A lot of work and many new jobs at this time. If this is your partner, you have to be prepared for many hours of absence from home. It’s a period of particular exposure with relevant ease on behalf of the person to undertake this role.

In 11^th house: The person appears willing to offer in a more altruistic way. He becomes humbler and more democratic, while creating groups around him or participating in them. Compared to the previous position of the progressive moon, the person now avoids positions of authority and avoids being the one exposed the most. He can develop healthy friendships.

In 12^th house: A mood for the person to withdraw from the spotlight, to rest and decrease socializing with a lot of people. If the person was social before at 11^th house, it may seem to his own people that something is happening to him, because now he drives friends away and reduces going out as he did before. A melancholic attitude may arise. Perhaps, he has to deal with his health. Karmic issues may come to an end in his life. Childhood dreams, a job of many years, a parent may depart with this position.

It is worth noticing that from our personal research we have seen that the progressive moon position in a house, displays several times supplementary results in the house system of equal houses. While external changes for instance may begin to manifest when the progressive moon reaches the cusp of a house in the Placidus house system, the recognition of this change is coming to the person when the progressive moon reaches the cusp of the same house in the equal houses system.

For example, a person with a 12^th house cusp on the 28^th degree of Aries in the Placidus house system and a 12^th house cusp on the 4^th degree of Taurus in the equal house system, may begin to have health problems by the time the progressive moon reaches the 28^th degree of Aries but he realizes and embraces the change or refocuses his attention to health, only when the progressive moon reaches the 4^th degree of Taurus. Likewise, a person with a 9^th house cusp on the 24^th degree of Capricorn in the Placidus house system and a 9^th house cusp on the 4^th degree of Aquarius in the equal house system, may begin to teach when the progressive moon reaches the 24^th degree of Capricorn, but may begin to realize that he is becoming a teacher and embrace it, when the progressive moon reaches the 4^th degree of Aquarius.

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.