by Lynn Hayes
A secret book written by Carl Jung nearly one hundred years ago will be released next month according to the
New York Times. Known as the “Red Book,” it was jealously guarded by Jung’s descendants until it was recently found in a bank vault and negotiations with the Jung family ultimately permitted its publication.
The work of Carl Jung transformed the field of modern psychology by incorporating the concept of archetypes and synchronicity into the mystery of the workings of the psyche. The Jungian process involves delving into our dreams and the symbols that weave a web linking the conscious and the subconscious. In doing so, we are able to venture on a path of self-discovery and facilitate the process of what Jung called “individuation” in which lost parts of ourselves are recaptured.
Jung’s awareness of the synchronicities in life incorporated the use of dreams, ancient symbols and archetypes, alchemical symbolism, and astrology. He wrote:
”The collective unconscious appears to consist of mythological motifs or primordial images, for which reason the myths of all nations are its real exponents. In fact the whole of mythology could be taken as a sort of projection of the collective unconscious. We can see this most clearly if we look at the heavenly constellations, whose originally chaotic forms are organized through the projection of images. This explains the influence of the stars as asserted by astrologers. These influences are nothing but unconscious instrospective perceptions of the collective unconscious.”
from Jung’s lecture “The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious,” Collected Works.
In 1913 Jung “found his psyche starting to teeter and slide, until finally he was dumped into what would become a life-altering crisis.” He began experiencing visions and hearing voices, and in what he later called a confrontation with the unconscious he used the experience to attempt to tear down the wall between his rational self and his psyche. ”He found himself in a liminal place, as full of creative abundance as it was of potential ruin, believing it to be the same borderlands traveled by both lunatics and great artists.” Quotations from the New York Times article.
Carl Jung’s birthchart reveals his extraordinary connection to the archetypes of the unconscious. His Sun was in the sign of Leo, reflecting the ultimate need for self-expression and self-understanding. His Sun was angular, sitting right on the cusp of the seventh house of partnership (or Descendant), suggesting that he defined himself through the Other. His Leo Sun was therefore exactly opposed to his Aquarius ascendant which requires the transcendence of the Self into an experience of the Collective.
With Aquarius on the ascendant, Jung’s chart was ruled by both Saturn (the traditional ruler) and Uranus (the modern ruler). This is a complex combination because those two planets are so different, and it gives the Aquarian nature a double-edged sword. On the one hand there is a need for order and discipline with Aquarius under Saturn, but the Uranian influence gives Aquarius its love for the unconventional and the embrace of the collective. With the Leo Sun exactly opposite the Aquarius ascendant Jung would have been torn between the individuation, as he put it, of his Selfhood (Leo), and the sublimation of individual consciousness into the mythology and symbology of the collective (Aquarius).
Angular planets are more significant in the birthchart, and Jung’s Sun was angular because it sat right on the angle called the descendant at the seventh house. His sun formed an exact square to Neptune, the planet of dreams and the subconscious, fantasy and illusion. Neptune was also angular, sitting right at the cusp of the fourth house of home and inner life, the point that we call the Nadir or the
Imum Coeli. Neptune at this point brings an intimate connection with the our ancestral past that transcends the boundaries of ordinary reality. Any planet found at the Nadir of the chart affects our inner world and our very sense of being incarnated in a body, and Neptune at this point suggests a tenuous anchor between body and spirit. Neptune, like the Sun, formed a square to Jung’s ascendant, which exacerbated the thinness of the veil between Jung’s conscious Self and the subconscious and transcendent (Neptune).
The square from Neptune to the Sun has been a topic of great debate over the past couple of years because we find this aspect in the chart of President Obama. Because Neptune has a tendency to blur boundaries and confuse the issue, when it forms a challenging aspect like the square to the Sun, which represents the development of the Self and the Ego, there is a challenge to the formation of that sense of individuality. We already see that with the Sun sitting on the descendant, the point of the Other, Jung has a tendency to lose himself. The square from Neptune exacerbates this.
At the time Jung descended into his journey of darkness, transiting Uranus was crossing the ascendant of his chart and setting off this whole dynamic that challenged his Selfhood. I’ll cover this in Part II tomorrow.
posted September 21, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Lynn, thanks so much for adding the astrological aspects on Jung and the period in which he wrote his Red Book. According to the NYT article, the book must be a highly eccentric volume, and it’ll be interesting to see how it’s received when it becomes available in early October. I look forward to your next installment!
posted September 21, 2009 at 5:28 pm
So glad to see your comments on the NYT article, which I was just reading last night. Then I had 2 strange dreams about similar themes, not being able to find a place. In the second dream, I couldn’t even find my own home because I had just moved. When I tried to phone my wife to ask the new address, I couldn’t find my phone. I have always been fascinated with the unconscious and Jung’s writings so am looking forward to Part Two.
posted September 22, 2009 at 9:18 am
I too found this quite interesting. I have my Sun, 4th house Aquarius close to my nadir. With Mercury and Chiron close by.
Nepture, 1st house squares my sun. Leo, 10th house.
I look forward to reading more to see how similiar I am.
Susan
Feb6/61, 0:23am Windsor,Ontario, Canada
posted September 22, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I had wanted to comment the other day on the Kanya West article,today i had the time so here goes! Lately it seems that people are getting more, and more disrespectful to each other. People want to blame it on alot of craziness, but to tell truth is, people have always been rude! With the economy the way it is people have dropped to a level of i could care less! God forgives us all if we humble ourselves in repentance and sincerity! Man needs to forgive each other in a greater way, because if our god, who is the beginning, the end, the author, and the finisher of all things, can forgive and forget, why can’t we, in all our imperfection, learn to forgive more freely!
posted September 22, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Lynn -
Another great post – thank you. I’m eager to see the new (to us) Jung book. TOtally agree with your take on Aquarius – I have Sun, Mercury, Venus and MC in Aquarius and Uranus conjunct the ASC and Saturn in the 4th. So the push/pull between Saturn/Uranus that the world is collectively experiencing now we Aquarians live with.
Eager to read your next post!
Diane
posted September 22, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Hi Lynn,
Great article – we must be thinking alike. I found your blog while searching for mine in the search results on google! I too wrote a two part blog on the astrology of Jung’s red book. I’d be honored if you’d take a look at it: http://www.heavenlytruth.typepad.com.
Amy Herring
heavenlytruth.com
posted March 9, 2010 at 9:00 am
Hi Lynn~
Great article….I was re-reading it again as I’ll be talking on Neptune and the Red Book this Saturday at the Boston Jung Institute. I think the transits pressuring his t-square to Neptune are impressive! And you explained it all so well~
And yet one different observation–his Neptune, at 3 degrees Taurus would be actually on the cusp of his 3rd house with 1 degree Gemini at his IC….with Moon and Pluto in the 3rd, using tropical Placidus~ his first house is so large that when one uses other systems it appears as if Neptune is going into the 4th….but anyway….your main points are excellent, and if I’m wrong on this, please let me know. You’re a great writer and I love your unique perceptions…..~ let’s be in touch~elizabeth spring http://www.elizabethspring.com