Pluto: On the basis of discrepancies observed in the orbit of Neptune and aberrations yet unexplained in the orbit of Uranus, the existence of a further planet was posited by the American astronomer Percival Lowell, which led to its discovery in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. After much consideration among many alternatives, the new planet was named Pluto, god of the underworld. Observations of potential correlations with Pluto by astrologers in the subsequent decades suggested that the qualities associated with the new planet in fact bore a striking relevance to the mythic character of Pluto, the Greek Hades, and also to the figure of Dionysus, with whom Hades-Pluto was closely associated by the Greeks. (Both Heraclitus and Euripides identified Dionysus and Hades as one and the same deity.) Closely analogous to Freud’s concept of the primordial id, “the broiling cauldron of the instincts,” and to Darwin’s understanding of an ever-evolving nature and the biological struggle for existence, the archetype associated with the planet Pluto is also linked to Nietzsche’s Dionysian principle and the will to power and to Schopenhauer’s blind striving universal will, all these embodying the powerful forces of nature and emerging from nature’s chthonic depths, within and without, the intense, fiery elemental underworld. Again, as with both Uranus and Neptune, so also in Pluto’s case the mythological domain and element associated with the new planet’s given name appear to be poetically accurate, but here the archetypal parallels between the mythic figure and the observed qualities are especially extensive.
Beyond these ancient Greco-Roman figures (Pluto, Hades, Dionysus) and cognate modern European concepts (Freudian id, Darwinian nature, Schopenhauerian will, Nietzschean will to power and Dionysian impulse), the archetype associated with the planet Pluto also encompasses a number of major deities outside the Western context, such as the Hindu deity Shiva, god of destruction and creation, and Kali and Shakti, goddesses of erotic power and elemental transformation, destruction and regeneration, death and rebirth.
To summarize the consensus of contemporary astrologers: Pluto is associated with the principle of elemental power, depth, and intensity; with that which compels, empowers, and intensifies whatever it touches, sometimes to overwhelming and catastrophic extremes; with the primordial instincts, libidinal and aggressive, destructive and regenerative, volcanic and cathartic, eliminative, transformative, ever-evolving; with the biological processes of birth, sex, and death, the cycle of death and rebirth; with upheaval, breakdown, decay, and fertilization; violent purgatorial discharge of pent-up energies, purifying fire; situations of life-and-death extremes, power struggles, all that is titanic, potent, and massive. Pluto represents the underworld and underground in all senses: elemental, geological, instinctual, political, social, sexual, urban, criminal, mythological, demonic. It is the dark, mysterious, taboo, and often terrifying reality that lurks beneath the surface of things, beneath the ego, societal conventions, and the veneer of civilization, beneath the surface of the Earth, that is periodically unleashed with destructive and transformative force. Pluto impels, burns, consumes, transfigures, resurrects. In mythic and religious terms, it is associated with all myths of descent and transformation, and with all deities of destruction and regeneration, death and rebirth: Dionysus, Hades and Persephone, Pan, Medusa, Lilith, Innana, Isis and Osiris, the volcano goddess Pele, Quetzalcoatl, the Serpent power, Kundalini, Shiva, Kali, Shakti.
With respect to Pluto’s discovery, the synchronistic phenomena in the decades immediately surrounding 1930, and more generally in the twentieth century, include the splitting of the atom and the unleashing of nuclear power; the titanic technological empowerment of modern industrial civilization and military force; the rise of fascism and other mass movements; the widespread cultural influence of evolutionary theory and psychoanalysis with their focus on the biological instincts; increased sexual and erotic expression in social mores and the arts; intensified activity and public awareness of the criminal underworld; and a tangible intensification of instinctually driven mass violence and catastrophic historical developments, evident in the world wars, the holocaust, and the threat of nuclear annihilation and ecological devastation. Here also can be mentioned the intensified politicization and power struggles characteristic of twentieth-century life, the development of powerful forms of depth-psychological transformation and catharsis, and the scientific recognition of the entire cosmos as a vast evolutionary phenomenon from the primordial fireball to the still-evolving present.
In retrospect, the discoveries of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto appear to have coincided with the emergence of three fundamental archetypes into collective human experience in a newly constellated form, visible in major historical events and cultural trends of the eighteenth century (Uranus), the nineteenth (Neptune), and the twentieth (Pluto). The centuries of their discoveries in each case appear to have brought forth in the evolution of human consciousness the rapid development and radical heightening of a distinctive set of qualities and impulses that were also systematically observable in precise natal and transit correlations involving those specific planets for individuals and eras throughout history. Although the astrological tradition developed on the basis of the seven ancient celestial bodies and their inherited meanings, much of the evidence we will be examining involves alignments of these three outer planets whose corresponding archetypal principles appear to be particularly relevant for illuminating the deeper transpersonal and collective patterns of human experience.
The discoveries in the past several years of small planet-like objects in the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto, probably the remnants of a very early stage in the evolution of the solar system, are too recent for adequate assessments to have been made concerning possible empirical correlations or their potential significance. Appearing at the beginning of the new millennium, with their unusual orbits and ambiguous astronomical status, they serve well to remind both astronomers and astrologers of the still-expanding horizon of our knowledge of our own solar system.
We turn now to the basic theoretical principles by means of which astrologers have observed and interpreted correlations between planetary movements and the archetypal patterns of human experience.
Forms of Correspondence
It is a peculiar fact that every major advance in thinking, every epoch-making new insight, springs from a new type of symbolic transformation.
—Suzanne K. Langer
Philosophy in a New Key
As the astrological tradition developed, the observed correspondence between planetary movements and the patterns of human affairs took a number of forms, of which three are now considered most essential:
The natal chart: The positions of the planets relative to the time and place of an individual’s birth are regarded as bearing a significant correspondence to that person’s life as a whole, reflecting the specific archetypal dynamics and relationships expressed in his or her specific psychological tendencies and biography.
Personal transits: The positions of the planets at any given time in relation to their positions at an individual’s birth are regarded as bearing a significant correspondence to the specific experiences of that person at that time, reflecting a dynamic activation of the archetypal potential symbolized in the natal chart.
World transits: The positions of the planets relative to the Earth at any given time are regarded as bearing a significant correspondence to the prevailing state of the world, reflecting the state of collective archetypal dynamics visible in the specific historical and cultural conditions and events of that time.
In all three forms of correspondence, the particulars of the planetary interaction—which planets are involved and how they are geometrically aligned with each other—are considered to be the most important determining factors in understanding the corresponding human phenomena. These three forms of correspondence can be understood as different expressions of Jung’s basic principle of qualitative time cited earlier, in which time is “a concrete continuum which contains qualities or fundamentals which can manifest themselves in
relative simultaneousness in different places and in a parallelism which cannot be explained, as in cases of simultaneous appearance of identical thoughts, symbols, or psychic conditions…. Whatever is born or done at this particular moment of time has the quality of this moment of time.” In this view, time is characterized not only by quantity, as in the conventional scientific understanding, but also by quality, the latter as tangible as the former is measurable.
From an astrological perspective, the planetary archetypes constitute a kind of Olympian pantheon of fundamental principles governing the ever-shifting qualitative dynamics of time. The birth of any being or phenomenon—whether a person, a work of art, a cultural movement, an historical phenomenon, a nation, a community, or any other organism or creative emergence—is seen as reflecting and embodying the archetypal dynamics implicit at the time of birth, and creatively unfolding those dynamics over the course of its life. In Jung’s words, “We are born at a given moment, in a given place, and we have, like celebrated vintages, the same qualities of the year and of the season which saw our birth.”
A birth chart or natal chart (horoscope) is a geometrical portrait of the heavens from the perspective of the Earth at the moment of an individual’s birth. The Sun, Moon, and planets are positioned around the chart to reflect their positions around the Earth when the person was born. For example, where the symbol for the Sun is located in the chart reflects the time of day at which the person was born. If one were born at dawn, the Sun would be shown rising on the left side of the chart near the eastern horizon, called the Ascendant; if one were born at noon, the Sun would be at the top of the chart, called the Midheaven or MC (Medium Coeli). A birth at sunset, with the Sun on the western horizon, would be shown with the Sun on the right side of the chart at the Descendant; a midnight birth would be shown with the Sun at the base of the chart, the IC (Imum Coeli).
Thus the natal chart of a person born at dawn at the time of a Full Moon would show the Sun positioned at the Ascendant on the left and the Moon at the Descendant on the right, reflecting the Sun’s rising in the east and the Moon’s setting in the west, as in Figure 6. If Jupiter had been high overhead at the time of birth, it would be shown near the Midheaven.
The principal difference between a natal chart and the astronomical reality it portrays is that the natal chart has two dimensions rather than three and does not reflect the varying distances of the Sun, Moon, and planets from the Earth. As a simplified schematic diagram, its primary purpose is to convey accurately the exact pattern of angular relationships existing at a given moment between the celestial bodies and the Earth in the larger cosmic environment.
Personal transits to the birth chart can be depicted by placing outside the circle of the chart the celestial positions of the transiting planets in the sky at any given time, so as to clarify their current geometrical alignments with the natal planetary positions shown inside the circle. The nature of those patterns—which planets and how they are positioned—appears to correlate in a strikingly consistent way with the archetypal character of the individual’s experiences at that time. Each planet or luminary has a different length of orbit; consequently, each body’s transits are of a proportionately different duration. Transits of the Moon last several hours; transits of the Sun, Mercury, Venus, or Mars last several days; transits of Jupiter and Saturn last several months; and transits of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto last several years.
World transits, like a birth chart, represent the planetary positions with respect to the Earth at a given moment. The most significant correlations in this category involve long-term cyclical alignments of the outer planets coinciding with distinct archetypal patterns in collective historical and cultural phenomena, with a duration of many months or years at a time.
The archetypal potential symbolized by the planetary alignments at any given moment is thus observed both in the collective dynamics and cultural phenomena that occurred at that time (world transits) and in the lives and personalities of individuals who were born at that time (natal charts). These individuals then embody and unfold that dynamic potential in the course of their lives, and the timing of this unfolding development is observed to coincide with the continuing planetary movements of the world transits as these form specific geometrical relationships (personal transits) to the natal planetary positions. In essence, the precise interaction between the world transits and the natal chart at any given moment constitutes the individual’s current personal transits.
From this perspective, each person and each period of time is informed by multiple archetypal forces in dynamic interplay. The research set forth in the following chapters involves the examination of correlations between particular planetary alignments (transits) and what appears to be the simultaneous activation of corresponding archetypal complexes in specific individual lives and historical periods. I use the term “complex” here (in the noun form, as when discussing a particular “archetypal complex”) to signify a coherent field of archetypally connected meanings, experiences, and psychological tendencies—expressed in perceptions, emotions, images, attitudes, beliefs, fantasies, and memories, as well as in synchronistic external events and historical and cultural phenomena—all of which appear to be informed by a dominant archetypal principle or combination of such principles. An archetypal complex can be conceived of as the experiential equivalent of a force field or a magnetic field in physics, producing an integrated pattern or gestalt out of many diverse particulars. Any given archetypal complex always contains problematic and pathological shadow tendencies intertwined with more salutary, fruitful, and creative ones, all of which inhere in potentia in each complex.
Cycles and Aspects
In the course of every planetary cycle as viewed from the Earth, each planet moves into and out of certain significant alignments or geometrical relationships with respect to every other planet. These alignments are called aspects. The presence of an aspect between planets is regarded as indicating a distinct mutual activation and interaction of the corresponding planetary archetypes. That is, when two planets enter into a specific geometrical relationship (measured in degrees of celestial longitude along the zodiacal circle of the ecliptic), the two corresponding archetypes are observed to be in a state of heightened dynamic interaction and concrete expression in human affairs. This was for Kepler the most fundamental and empirically validated principle in astrology:
Experience, more than anything else, gives credibility to the effectiveness of aspects. This is so clear that it can be denied only by those who themselves have not tried them.
That power that makes the aspects effective [is] a reflection of God, who creates according to geometric principles, and is activated by this very geometry or harmony of the celestial aspects.
Five such alignments were recognized by the Greeks as most significant. They are now referred to as the major aspects:
Conjunction (0°)
Opposition (180°)
Trine (120°)
Square (90°)
Sextile (60°)
The conjunction and opposition—the “axial” alignments—represent the two climaxes of every planetary cycle. For example, the New Moon each month is formed by the Moon’s conjunction with the Sun, the Full Moon by its opposition to the Sun. The other major aspects represent significant intermediate points in the unfolding cycle. Generally speaking, the conjunction, opposition, and two squares—together constituting the “quadrature” aspects—are regarded as indicating a more dynamic and potentially critical (“hard”) interaction between two planetary archetypes. The two trines and two sextiles that occur during each cycle are seen as reflecting a more intrinsically harmonious and confluent (“soft”) interaction.
The forming of a major aspect between two planets is seen as coinciding with a significant mutual activation of the two corresponding archetypes, and the nature or vector of that interaction reflects which specific aspect has been formed. Both the astrological tradition and contemporary research suggest tha
t it is especially the hard-aspect quadrature alignments in any given cycle (conjunction, opposition, squares) that coincide with highly dynamic archetypal tendencies and decisive concrete events reflecting that dynamism. By contrast, the soft aspects (trines and sextiles) are regarded as reflecting harmonious and potentially generative states of being in which those principles are fully present and mutually activated but in a manner that is generally less challenging, less dynamically evident, and less likely to be correlated with stressfully constellated concrete events.
As the planets move close to and then away from exact alignment, the concrete archetypal expression of the aspect is observed to gradually intensify until exactitude is reached and then diminish gradually afterwards in a wavelike continuum, with the general shape of a bell curve. To be considered “in aspect,” two planets must be positioned within a certain range of degrees of exactitude. This range of degrees on each side of exactitude within which the alignment is considered to be archetypally operative is called an orb. The specific orb varies according to aspect (a conjunction having a wider orb than a sextile) and also varies according to the form of correspondence involved (aspects in natal charts and world transits having wider orbs than aspects in personal transits).
Generally speaking, in the theoretical framework outlined here, the most important astronomical factors to know are which planets are in major aspect, which aspects are involved, and how close to exact are the alignments.
These few concepts and principles—the three basic forms of correspondence, the five major aspects, and a progressively deepening understanding of the specific meanings of the ten planetary archetypes—formed the essential theoretical structure for the research surveyed in this book. Though many other factors, such as the twelve zodiacal signs (Aries through Pisces) and the twelve diurnal sectors of the chart called houses, play a significant role in both traditional and contemporary astrological practice, I consistently found that it was correlations involving the major planetary aspects in natal charts, personal transits, and world transits that seemed to represent the fundamental core of the astrological perspective and offered the most cogent and clarifying path of entry into this field of study.14
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