Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The Astrological Unconscious

What I love about the art of astrology is that it opens up, as opposed to closes down, possibilities and potentialities. As Richard Tarnas writes in Prometheus the Awakener, Astrology is archetypally predictive, not literally so. Likewise, it is archetypally descriptive. That is, Astrology describes essential energies which can take form in a variety of different ways. We might say that Venus is the archetypal energy of Desire, and that this desire (one’s Venus) can show up in matters of love, sexuality, child-rearing, appetite, and creativity. One of the challenges of writing about Astrology, then, is to maintain this openness- the full-of-potential flavor that enriches experience rather than diminishes it. It is with this intention, and caveat, that I write about the 12th House of Astrology- the House that has something to do with what we call the unconscious, though cannot be reduced to this alone.

Some of the keywords associated with the 12th House include: Spirituality, destiny, the past, karma, secrecy, sacrifice, institutions- especially hospitals and prisons, limitation & constraint, freedom (interestingly enough), and the unconscious itself. This paints a picture of a more elusive realm of experience, one that is slippery and hard to grasp yet profoundly influential perhaps, in part, because of its inability to be easily captured.

Let’s start with the unconscious. Does something like this exist, and if so, what is it exactly? It may be helpful to first define the terms as an adjective and adverb rather than a noun. Think of “it” less as a place or a thing or an “it” and more as a description of certain aspects and processes of experience. What is unconscious is outside of our usual awareness. In the same way that breathing is usually happening outside of our awareness, psychological needs, motivations, fears, and goals can influence us even if we are unaware of such influences. This is why an individual can say “I really want x, y, or z” and yet he or she continues to act in ways that seem contrary to the stated desire. The person is not lying. She may truly want what she says she does, and also want something else. If this latter want is outside of her awareness, her life path can seem confusing, frustrating, and outside of her capacity to create it as well.

This is the realm of the 12th House and we can begin to see some of those keywords taking on life. A common experience is the person who says he wants an intimate, romantic relationship yet can’t seem to find someone(s) to share this with. Of course, the experience may be just that. Even the father of the unconscious admitted that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. There could, however, be more to the cigar than meets the eye. There may be a motivation that lies outside of awareness at work here. Maybe our gentleman is desperately afraid of losing some measure of autonomy if he were to enter into a committed relationship of some sort. Perhaps he learned, sometime long ago, that to be in a relationship means tending to the other’s needs and having his own preferences diminished, or even destroyed, in some way. Maybe these messages were so subtle that they settled somewhere outside of awareness (i.e., “in” the unconscious) and are all the more powerful because they are not consciously acknowledged- not because of denial but because he has not yet had the support he needs to see in the dark. And maybe this is a pattern passed on to him by his mother, who shared some of the same fears that likewise remained hidden outside of the light of awareness; and perhaps her father passed this on to her after “inheriting it” from his father and so-on.

Some of the most subtle and unconscious dynamics within our psyches have been passed on through generations and lifetimes.

This realm, which we might call the unconscious or 12th House, is dark, unclear, foggy. It is so subtle and under-the-surface that it is difficult to make contact with. The motivations that are formed in this way, or hang out in the 12th, therefore- and ironically- have great power in our lives, which may be why terms such as destiny and karma and secrecy hang out here.

Precisely because this realm of experience is so powerful, it also points to spirituality, transcendence, and healing. What is hidden and dark and foggy isn’t nonexistent. Rather, such needs, motivations, fears, and dreams break through into awareness in the form of symptoms, fantasies, dreams, and internal conflict. We notice the existence of this realm when in touch with the pain of the longing for an intimate relationship that never seems to happen, for example. If we can then, in such moments, shine a light into this shadowy realm we can bring more of our needs and motivations and fears into awareness. Therapy helps us to do this; so too does art, journaling, and working with dreams.

Shining the light is the first step. Ultimately, we’ll need to examine the full complement of motivations and choose among them, implying the involvement of some sacrifice. We may need to give up others’ approval in order to move toward a desire. We may need to sacrifice one potential path in order to pursue another. Letting go is a huge part of moving through life, moving forward, and creating the life one most wishes to live. This may be why sacrifice shows up in the last house of the zodiac.

Here again is another interesting offering of the 12th: As we sacrifice and let go, as we own up to limitations that are an essential part of being human, as we face the constraints that come with making one choice over another or having those choices made for us, we find freedom. One of the times I felt most free in my own life was a week that I spent confined to a hospital bed. I find this fascinating.

I imagine that the birth chart of Russian composer, Igor Stravinsky, reveals an interesting 12th House. His words: “My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self of the chains that shackle the spirit.” The 12th House is that realm where we discover both the shackles and the freedom. As Stravinsky so insightfully points out, they are intimately related.

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