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

 

Psychological Astrology - Astrological Aspects and Defense Mechanisms of Ego

 

Psychological Astrology - Houses and Human Psychosynthesis

 

The Horoscope from Humanistic Psychology's perspective

If Social Psychology gives emphasis to the roles and the restrictions that they create, Humanistic Psychology has the purpose of highlighting those forces that make the human special and separate him from the mass. This psychology does not have to do, so much, with the creation of social or psychodynamic models, as with the promotion of the potential each one of us contains inside towards the direction of our personal development.

This Psychology today we call Person Oriented Psychology, but formerly was called Humanistic Psychology.

Humanistic Psychology, which is considered to have been born, in essence, by Carl Rodgers, draws, its origins, among others, from Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler. Adler, along with Freud and Jung, was one of the three major exponents of the Psychoanalysis' movement in the early 20th century. But, while, Freud and Jung consider human to be, in essence, captive of his personal or collective subconscious, Adler was the first who strongly disagreed, considering that the Ego, namely the conscious mind of human, is the one that takes the decisions in every person’s life. In a few words, while the founders of Psychoanalysis (Freud) and of Analytical Psychology (Jung) were thinking that human was basically not free, Adler believed in human’s freedom of taking decisions, despite the obstacles of the subconscious. 

Based on the Adler’s point of view about the importance of Ego, many psychotherapy schools appeared, which tried not to dissolve the Ego as Psychoanalysis did, in order for the Unconscious to appear, but on the contrary, to strengthen it, providing it with world understanding tools and skills of communication. And, in general, increasing, we could say, human’s knowledge in order for him to take as many decisions as possible freely, and knowing the consequences. The commitment to the free human who decides knowing the possible outcomes, but also taking on the responsibility for whatever choice of his, is also an important point emphasized by Humanistic Psychology.

The difference between Humanistic Psychology and previous psychological schools was that it added one more factor to the psychological outlook of the human being. While until then, various schools (psychoanalysis, behaviorism, etc.) were trying to explain human psychology based on mechanistic models and internal conflicts, Humanistic Psychology made the point that mechanistic models, various kinds of categorization and typologies did not serve psychotherapy, because, in reality, they were not trying to get into every human’s place and see how he conceives things, but they were trying to fit human into category boxes, forcing him to comply with rules and norms and thus indirectly subjugating him to the established Social System.

On the contrary, Humanistic Psychology considered the Subjective Experience is the most important factor to view a human Person. For Humanistic Psychology it does not matter, if what each of us feels at a certain moment is real. As long as we feel it, it is completely real to us and that is enough. In Astrology, the application of this principle drives us to adopt a position of refraining from interpreting the Person’s chart according to the norms and beliefs of Astrologers who do the interpretation, but instead letting the person evaluate his chart on his own while we are trying to get into his place and understand him.

Accepting, though, the view that the Subjective Experience is what matters, Humanistic Psychology made an additional leap towards comprising both Holistic Philosophy and Metaphysics. It started examining anything that was a part of the Subjective Human Experience and not just the generally and “scientifically” acceptable phenomena. Thus it started to examine the so called metaphysic experiences as well as it tried to view the person holistically, meaning that it could not exclude a big part of human experience, like metaphysical experience, just because they did not comply with the restrictions of physical science.

One branch of Humanistic Psychology, the so called Existential Psychology, started examining the Existential Anxieties of people whereas humanistic psychologists began to experiment with alternative therapies, astrology and divination and in general with all practices that seemed to have an effect on the Subjective Experience of the Human, regardless whether they have been scientifically proven or not. Of course, this had a dire consequence after a point, the fact that Humanistic Psychology was to be disputed for its scientific invalidity, but, the step towards examining the Human Subject as a Whole, had already been made.

The question of human freedom

The purpose of Humanistic Psychology according to Carl Rodgers was no longer to focus on the problems of people, but on their opportunities. Life has a purpose, a meaning, which is learning, evolution, awareness. The person’s mental health, which for Psychoanalysis was based on solving internal conflicts and for Jung on the union with the Other and the avoidance of alienation, for Humanistic Psychology was based on the unification of human experience in order for the person to find meaning in what is happening, to feel that he is able to cope with everything, that life is in his hands, that he is the one who makes the decisions and that he, finally, is free.

This freedom of the human, which comes from raising his awareness, his skills, his abilities, his confidence to interact with the world, is the biggest gain of Humanistic Psychology, a gain that among others affected the Educational System and helped it escape producing technicians and laborers with specialized knowledge and become a system that is supplying human with tools to interact with the world in a better way and become more free.

In Astrology, this consideration is translated to an interpretation of the chart, not as a set of problems and predeterminations, but as a set of opportunities of evolution. So for example hard astrological aspects are not considered to create problems, but give opportunities to become better and more skillful, planets without dignities do not suggest a lack of ability, but the need to substitute something that is missing with something that the person can achieve. The entire view of the astrological chart, transits, or progressive systems changes in order to display how the human personality evolves, the changes it goes through, the challenges and the lessons it has to learn and not just the facts that are about to happen in a somewhat unavoidable way.

Destiny and Freedom

Integrated to the studies of Humanistic Psychology, though, is also Metaphysics. And that, because human, according to the Humanistic approach, does not deny the presence of forces which seem to determine Destiny. Humanistic approach considers however, that as much human needs the Divine Powers, so do they need him to accomplish the Divine Plan (if one is assumed to exist). Human from the Humanistic perspective, does not consider the flow of spiritual energy to come from above to the earth only, but he considers emanating spiritual energy himself towards the world as well, and furthermore that the Divine Plan (if any) is always up to him, as he is the one who is going to put the final details or produce the final outcomes of any situations.

The Divine Plan, in other words, does not define predefined events that must happen, but Principles that have to be respected and Balances and Analogies that need to be maintained. If these are respected, the final way of living his life is up to the man himself.

Lastly, 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. 

Because then, he would be really creative, when he puts his own ideas into realization, and not those of whom he imitates or he is obliged by others to follow.

Therefore a Humanistic Astrologer has as a purpose to help his client to see how His own chart works and not the charts of others in general. A Humanistic Astrologer is not interested in what Mars in Aries means in general, but what Mars in Aries in that very specific chart might mean and even more, he is obliged to help his client interpret that Mars by himself and assess his own challenges instead of using general interpretations that might apply to others.

Of course, the nature of Astrology, as we inherited it from our ancestors, does not fit perfectly to this model, as it contains a great deal of typologies and general interpretations, which categorize the experience. So, it is a challenge for us astrologers to apply the principles of Astrology Consulting to clients, despite this, at least apparent, contradiction and if necessary to review some astrological principles, provided it serves the development of diversity, creativity and of people’s originality, because at the times we live, this is what humanity needs more in order to progress and not the return to the old good tested solutions.

Forecast Horoscopes and the Person-in-the-Environment theory

A variation of looking at the chart from the Social Psychology perspective is to consider it from the perspective of the Person-in-Environment theory. The Person-in-Environment theory is a method commonly used in Social Work and has its background in psychosocial theories of Psychology. Its basic feature (which is making it a precursor of Systemic Theory and brings it close to Social Psychology) is that it does not treat human as a patient, who requires psychotherapy, because he has some specific psychological problems (like the most psychotherapy schools usually do), but as a person who lives in a specific situation and is obliged to improve his functionality in this situation rather than cutting himself off from this situation.

That means, in practice, that the psychotherapist or the social worker who supports the person, tries to find ways of strengthening him in the current state of living and therefore, necessarily, he makes diagnosis and treatment "per occasion". With this methodology he is developing, in essence, a series of treatments each for a different occasion instead of one single treatment that is addressed to the client. It is not the client who is problematic, but it is the relation of the client to that particular situation which is dysfunctional. The client needs help, specific for his situation, and not generally, because he, allegedly, has a troublesome personality. And if his situation changes, he might need different support or no support at all. So the client is not stigmatized as "sick" or dysfunctional but instead, the current situation is analyzed and specific help is given.

The basic characteristic of this approach is that it takes the “external” factor more into account, in supporting a person and abandons the psychoanalytic model that was looking at the overall environment exclusively as a result of our own mental defense mechanisms (projections, displacement, etc.)

But, what does this differentiation mean for astrology? And where can it be useful in the interpretation of a natal or a progressive chart? In modern astrology, in the last years, we have given special emphasis to planetary forces and to the way that these, through the aspects, symbolize esoteric conflicts or projections or displacements. What we have begun consciously or unconsciously to underestimate however is the importance of the Ascendant.

If the Ascendant in the natal chart suggests, as we saw in previous chapters, the person’s personality, what is it that manifests though the Ascendant in the Progressive Chart, or the chart of Solar Return?
The Ascendant, in such cases, could be said to symbolize the “Situation”. This is the situation in which we are at the specific period and which we are called to deal with through the astrological chart. According to the approach of “the Person-in-the-Environment” theory, the situation that the Ascendant symbolizes has some degree of “independence” from the subjectivity of each one of us. In other words, in an astrological forecast chart, a dipole is created. On one side is the person in interest, who is symbolized by the Natal Chart, and on the other side is the situation that he has to deal with, which is symbolized by the forecasting chart that is summarized in the Ascendant.

The idea of “independence” of the Ascendant from the subjectivity of the planetary influences in the natal chart, will not look especially strange to those students of astrology who examine the Ascendant in a Solar Return’s chart. There, for instance, the specific degree of the Ascendant or its sign can give us general information for the Situation the person is going to be in the entire next year and that, before we get into the details of the interpretation of the aspects.

But to those who work more with the Natal or the Progressive Chart with the rules of the Projection that Jungians astrologers use, when interpreting the 1st – 7th axis in a chart, it would be a bit difficult to imagine the Ascendant as an isolated status indicator and they will find it difficult to differentiate it from the “Self” of the “Other”.

The answer to this is that this subjective approach is quite satisfactory in the case of the natal chart, however it is not sufficiently satisfactory in the case of the forecasting charts.

So, when the Ascendant is calculated as a random moment in time, it must necessarily become independent from the subjectivity of the natal chart and be treated along with the forecast chart in total as an independent “subject”, a “situation”.

Of course, this situation is not completely independent of our choice. The Progressive chart and the chart of Solar Return are not made from zero but they derive from the Natal chart. Even in horary astrology charts we will many times see ascendants that form some kind of aspect with one of the major planets of interested person's natal chart. This indicates that the interested person “chooses” to interact with the “situation” in a specific moment of time when his conscious or some part of his psyche pushes him to this direction.

So, the ascendant, in this case, could be seen as that time when the person “chooses” to come out, chooses to interact with others, and chooses to come to a dialogue with the “situation”. Through this choice of his, the querent gives some element of subjectivity to the situation, in the sense that it deals with it through a filter. However, the situation remains different and has a certain degree of objectivity and independence from the querent.

So, as we said before, a dipole is created in the forecast chart, where on the one side we have the ascendant (but also by extension the house placements of the entire forecast chart) which symbolizes the “situation” the person is in - even if this situation the person is comprehended, to some degree, subjectively through the filters of his natal chart (especially when this chart has some relevance to the forecast chart) - and on the other side, the querent is placed as a subjective entity, which symbolically is symbolized by his natal chart. The relationship (synastry) of the forecast chart with the natal chart can give us a picture of what we call a Person-in-the-Environment assessment.

Studying the aspects between the Natal Chart and the Forecast Chart, we can comprehend the person’s “position” in a situation and to advise him to take action within this situation. Even more by having the ability to separate to some degree the situation from the querent, we can also explain to him more clearly the “situation” but also the subjective attitude we see he has adopted. Bringing to the surface this dipole, we give the querent the opportunity to recognize how he interacts with this environment and to let him make his final decisions for how he wants his case to develop.