Astrological Consultations

Astrology is the map of your soul and by interpreting this map we can gain valuable information about our life circumstances and validation concerning our personal issues. If you want to find out more about your personality, emotions, relationships, health and soul mission the astrological consultation is a good place to start. The natal chart is a map of your soul. We interpret your natal chart intuitively, astrologically and spiritually to help you understand yourself and your strengths.

Initial Astrology Consultation (New Clients)
Birth Chart Interpretation: Your birth chart is a tool for understanding your innate gifts, career, relationships, health, parenting, friendships and challenges that you face in life. The birth chart is what I call the map of the soul and the energy of your natal chart explains your emotional nature, personality traits, inclinations, tendencies and urges. By understanding ourselves better, we can ultimately accept ourselves and use this information to improve our lives.

30 minute consultation in person by email or phone, Natal Chart, and interpretation printout.

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Current Transits

Following the movement of the planets with relation to your birth chart explains the current energy and changes (Transit Chart). As Edgar Cayce said, “Astrology is fact, but there is no greater power over man than his own Will.” I can share with you the issues, challenges and concerns while guiding you to find practical solutions on how to face the upcoming energies in your life. All information given is shared with you to help prepare you for potential events and help you develop confidence in facing karmic issues. We will focus on helping you accept spiritual lessons as blessings.

60 minutes in person, schedule below - $75
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Annual, Birthday or Astrological Update –Current clients only
It is nice to follow up with us after our first session once a year or on your birthday to see what things have changed and how the energy is manifesting in your life. We can take a look at the year ahead for you and see what things are manifesting in your life in areas such as career, marriage, relationship, parenting, health and much more.

30 minute consultation in person by email or phone, schedule below - $75
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Parenting and Children’s Consultation
All parents would benefit by understanding their child’s strengths and personality characteristics. Understanding our children’s natal chart will prepare us and give us extraordinary skills in parenting that we cannot learn from parenting books alone. This consultation will focus on techniques for parents and includes child’s astrological personality profile and art wheel of individual child. You will learn about your child’s strengths, emotional nature, talents, gifts, communication style, and soul mission.

30 minute consultation in person by email or phone, schedule below - $75
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Relationship Compatibility Consultation
This consultation will focus on your individual personality and your lover, friend, significant other, marriage partner or business partner. We will look at both your charts and we use specialized astrological charts (Composite Chart, Compatibility Chart and Synastry Chart) to explain compatibility, similarities and differences between you. We will also look at relationship karma and what the purpose of the relationship is and what challenges you may face as a couple.

30 minute consultation in person by email or phone, schedule below - $75
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 Synastry Chart, Second Sample Synastry Report 


Opportunities Career Report Consultation - New!
"The perfect job blurs the line between work and play. It energizes you. It satisfies to the depths of your soul. It's out there waiting and Opportunities can help you or your clients find it. Among the most common questions asked of professional astrologers are those concerning vocation: What career should I pursue? Why am I not happy in my present job? Why do I feel like I am missing out in life? These questions may arise at various stages of our lives. The answers can and should be life changing. With our Opportunities program we turn to the natal chart to discover the personal characteristics, talents and inclinations that provide the key to fulfillment in our career endeavors. Though it begins with an evaluation of your natal chart Opportunities is not a passive program. Because we continue to evolve throughout our lives, and because our life situation is fluid not static the software uses both transits and progressions to show the current influences on career and personal expression. No matter where you are (or your client may be) in life, Opportunities weighs those present influences, considering them through the window of your personal natal chart to give you advice and direction that can help you discover the most fulfilling and rewarding path for you to pursue. Opportunities produces a 25 to 30 page report. It includes all the details for your clients in a handy, organized format. This report can enhance your astrological consultations, or can be offered separately to students, young adults, and people facing a mid-life career change."

30 minute consultation in person by email or phone, schedule below - $75
Report Package only $19.99, now $12.95 sale


 Sample Opportunities Report


Reports (Alone)



Report & Session



SCHEDULING
You can always call astrologer Jane Rekas, LCSW
at 971-285-5679.

You can also now book an appointment online here:

http://turtle-dove-counseling.genbook.com/

Schedule an appointment online (confidential) and receive email reminder.

Reiki & Energy Healing Sessions

I am trained in Usui Reiki second degree. I also am attuned to Kundalini Reiki (all 3 degrees) and Chakra Tantra Reiki.

Reiki is both a hands on form of palm healing and a Buddhist spiritual practice.

"Reiki is a spiritual practice developed in 1922 by Mikao Usui. After three weeks of fasting and meditating on Mount Kurama, in Japan, Usui claimed to receive the ability of "healing without energy depletion". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiki

"But it was the legendary healing power of Jesus Christ that triggered the discovery of reiki by Dr Usui. The story goes that one of his students asked him whether he could heal like Jesus. DR Usui found the answer after years of combing through religious texts the world over. His search fructified in some Sanskrit-Tibetan sutras and he developed his own healing power through austerities and meditation before starting to teach."

My personal Reiki page.

Reiki 1.5 Hour Session:
Suggested Offering $50

Reiki & Guided Counseling 1.5 Hour Session:
Suggested Offering $75

Reiki included in Ongoing Counseling:
please discuss


SCHEDULE: http://turtle-dove-counseling.genbook.com/

Life Coaching in Therapy

Life Coaching in Therapy
Life coaching is a future-focused practice with the aim of helping clients determine and achieve personal goals. Life coaches select from among several methods to help clients set and reach goals.
Life coaching has its roots in executive coaching, which itself drew on techniques developed in management consulting and leadership training. Life coaching also draws inspiration from disciplines including sociology,psychology, positive adult development,career counseling, mentoring and other types of counseling.

Contemporary life coaching can also be traced to teachings of Benjamin Karter,a college football coach turned motivational speaker of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The coach may apply mentoring, values assessment, behavior modification, behavior modeling, goal-setting and other techniques in helping their clients.

If you would like assistance and support with any of the below issues Life Coaching is for you:

•Relationships and Intimacy
•Stress Management and Balance
•Spirituality and Personal Growth
•Entrepreneurial and Small Business Development
•Career Planning and Strength Finders
•Motivation and Time Management
•Creativity for Artists, Writers, Musicians and Performers
•Finances and Budgeting
•Health, Aging, Lifestyle and Self-Care
•Parenting & Grand parenting
•And much more

Astrological Counseling

Astrological Counseling
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 20 years experience providing therapy.  I've studied astrology as a passion for 30 years.  With your natal astrology information, I can help navigate the complexities of your personality as well as help with understanding the effects of transiting planets in your journey.

What is Psychological Astrology?

What is Psychological Astrology?

Definition

Psychological Astrology is a study of astrology focusing on psychological dynamics as represented by the chart archetypes which are universally repeating patterns. The individual’s birth chart is considered a symbolic representation of a person’s psyche as well as their potential for creative manifestation in life.

From an astrological chart, you can understand an individual’s personality and psychological make-up; you can understand their core needs, desires, and deep seated fears, as well as their natural talents and limitations. You can see life lessons embedded in the chart; there are different energies and challenges which, when integrated, allow the person to function in a healthy manner, from their source, and at their highest potential.

Assumptions & Biases


  • We live in an intentional and enchanted universe in which everything is conspiring to awaken our divine consciousness.

  • We may refuse the call to awaken. We may be victims or perpetrators. We are born with the demand to learn and experience. We do not consciously choose what occurs all of the time, however we definitely choose how we respond to our various opportunities, catastrophies, and calls to our heart.

  • The astrological chart is a precise map of archetypal correlations which, when lived fully, connect us to ourselves, our loved ones, and the community of all things.

  • Studying the mandala of the natal chart leads to the blossoming of a spiritual and compassionate perspective of human kind.

SCHEDULING


You can always call astrologer Jane Rekas, LCSW at 971-285-5679. Office Location: 11 Third St., Hood River, OR

You can also now book an appointment online here:

http://turtle-dove-counseling.genbook.com/

Schedule an appointment online (confidential) and receive email reminder.

Jungian Approach To Astrological Counseling

Jungian Approach To Astrological Counseling
by Michael McLay, M.A.

(This is a transcript of a presentation made at a conference some years ago. So it reads rather informally. It was published in the Mountain Astrologer and in Glenn Perry's Journal of AstroPsychology.)

Let me tell you a bit about what has come out of my own struggles to integrate astrology and psychology. What I do or try to do during a consultation...

It's one thing for a therapist to use the chart as an adjunct tool that informs their ongoing therapy with a client. I know therapists who do this, and I admire their work. But it's another thing altogether to try to do something therapeutic within the confines of a traditional "chart reading."

Assuming that I will see a client once (which is often the case) for an hour and a half or two hours, how do I fulfill their expectations, give them a thorough introduction to the chart, and lead them to a greater understanding of themselves, all in a manner that is in keeping with my own ideals of soul-work? Or, more succinctly, how can I take someone on a journey through their soul image in an hour and a half? And how do we enter into the image together, rather than having the client stay at arm's length, waiting for me to explain it to them? An even greater challenge will be trying to tell you how I attempt to do this in the limited time we have.

Let me begin with a quote from James Hillman's book, We've Had 100 Years of Psychotherapy and the World is Getting Worse. Hillman writes, "if at the soul's core we are images, then we must define life as the actualization over time... of that originating seed image, what Michelangelo called...the image in the heart, and that image--not the time that actualized it--is the primary determinant of your life." He goes on to say, "I am not caused by my history--my parents, my childhood and development. These are mirrors in which I may catch glimpses of my image" (Hillman 1992, p. 63).

Obviously, I am now going to tell you that the birth chart is a reflection of the seed image of the soul. Think of the birth chart as a picture of the heavens taken at the exact time and place of your birth. A freeze frame of the heavens. This freeze frame shows us "what's in the air" at the time you were born. "What's in the air" literally, in terms of the planets and their geometric relationships, and "what's in the air" imaginatively, in terms of the gods and goddesses above and their interactions. As above, so below. The seed image of the individual soul is a reflection of a frozen moment in the history of the World Soul that surrounds it. Like a seed dropped from a tree.

The birth chart is a blueprint of the seed image of the soul, an archetypal map of the psyche. If we understand the chart to be a map of the archetypal patterns hard-wired into the soul at birth, then we have a sense of the potential of the chart as an imaginative tool, allowing us access into the foundations of our psychic structure.

In his discussion of complexes, Carl Jung made an important distinction between the archetypes that constitute the basic building blocks of the psyche and the network of personal associations that surround them. An archetype forms the core of a complex, and our personal associations form the shell that surround these cores. I think that this concept is a very important one for astrology. It suggests to me that the birth chart offers us direct access to the impersonal archetypal cores in symbolic form, but not to the personal material, the memories, feelings, experiences, etc., that surround these cores.

Understanding this relieved me of the tremendous burden of trying to live up to the fantasy of the omniscient astrologer. I really didn't have to be the expert on the details of my client's life. I couldn't be. Understanding this distinction between the shell and core of a complex, and its implications for astrology, was the entry point for me into therapeutic astrology.
I finally understood the possibility of using the chart as a symbolic tool, much like a dream, or a mandala drawing. It is generally understood that the ultimate authority on a dream is the dreamer. Simply interpreting a dream for a client is counter-productive therapeutically. It disempowers the client and places the therapist in the role of expert, in the role of guru. The analyst and dreamer collaboratively seek to find meaning in the symbols of the dream. The analyst is the expert in the symbolic language of the dream and has the ability to fit the symbolic meaning of a dream image into the context of the dreamer's life experience.

With this model in mind, it should follow that the astrological client is the ultimate expert on his or her own soul image, and the astrologer is simply the expert in the symbolic language of astrology. The astrologer, like the analyst, is both scientist and artist. The science of astrology is the astrologer's understanding of the complex symbolic language and its infinite possibilities for expression in human life. The art of astrology is the astrologer's ability to connect the client's everyday experiences to this symbolic language in a meaningful way. The astrologer, like the analyst, can act as mid-wife to the unfolding personality.

I send every client a letter before I see them. In this letter I tell them that my area of expertise is limited to the symbolic language of astrology. And I remind them that they are the experts in their own life experiences. In the letter, I also describe my process for exploring the chart with them. I tell them that I will suggest a range of possible manifestations for each archetypal core or archetypal pattern in their chart, and then ask them to share their personal experiences related to that core. As they share their personal experiences in the area of a particular archetypal pattern, they are fleshing out for me the otherwise impersonal symbols of the chart. They are explaining their chart to me, rather than the other way around. In the process, I am connecting their daily experiences to the symbolic, archetypal realm via the symbols in the chart. We each contribute to the story, and by the end of our discussion, we both have a sense of how the symbols live and breathe in the client's life. Interweaving their history and experience with the trans-historical (archetypal) brings a little more depth, a little more richness, a little more meaning, and perhaps a new perspective to their daily experience.

I generally begin a consultation with an exploration of the parental images in the chart. If the birth chart reflects "what's in the air" at the time we were born, then we can conceivably view the chart as a reflection of the atmosphere of the home at the time of birth.

If you are familiar with Arnold Mindell's work, I think of the chart initially as a representation of the dreambody of the parental relationship. The chart shows us the psychological disposition of the mother and the father, both individually and collectively as a couple, at the time of the client's birth. The masculine planets offer us some insight into the father`s experience, and the feminine planets offer us some insight into the mother's experience. The flowing aspects to the masculine planets represent those aspects of the father's personality that he was comfortable with, that were well integrated. The stressful aspects represent those areas of his life that were in conflict, that were not integrated. The same is true for the feminine planets and the mother. (I'm sure this is not new to most of you.)

When you look at many charts in this way, you begin to see that the chart represents the parents' psychological legacy. Whatever they have actualized, individually, and together, is passed down to us as a gift, something that works easily for us. Whatever they haven't actualized is passed down as our life's work. I like Jung's statement about parental influence in Memories, Dreams, Reflections. He said, "I feel very strongly that I am under the influence of things or questions which were left incomplete and unanswered by my parents and grandparents and more distant ancestors. It often seems as if there were an impersonal karma within a family which is passed on from parents to children. It has always seemed to me that I had to answer questions which fate had posed to my forefathers, and which had not yet been answered, or as if I had to complete, or perhaps continue, things which previous ages had left unfinished" (Jung 1965, p. 233).

While it is true that our parents create us, biologically and psychologically, it is also not true. There are a number of esoteric traditions (Plato, etc.) that suggest that we choose the time, and place, and circumstances of our birth. We choose our parents to reflect, to act out for us, to imprint upon us, the complexities of our individual destiny.

I like this idea. Whether we believe in past lives as literal events in time or not, it allows us to place our family experience very much in the realm of the archetypes, in the realm of divine play. We can imagine our parents as messengers, conveying the character and flavor of the gods, in the form of a complex drama, acted out for our benefit.

I realize this is very abstract and theoretical, so let me give you an example from the chart of someone you are probably all familiar with. I want to give you a sense of the parents as divine messengers, acting out for us, dramatizing for us, the complex archetypal energies that comprise our soul image. I am intentionally using the chart of someone that most of you know well. I don't intend to give you any new astrological information. My intention is to show you how I use the material that is already fairly familiar to most of us.

In Carl Jung's birth chart, he has the Sun square Neptune. The Sun represents the father, the Old King in alchemy, and Neptune represents the oceanic, the ecstatic, the realm of Dionysus, the irrational, the imaginal. The square between these planets suggests the father's unsuccessful integration of Neptune's realm.

Because we are looking at Jung's inner image of the father via his chart, this aspect also suggests Jung's awareness of his father's failure to integrate Neptune's realm. The primary image of the father will be one characterized by the negative expression of Neptune. He will experience the father as weak, as wounded, as disappointing, as suffering. We know that the Sun square Neptune can be experienced as the alcoholic father, the father who drowns his sorrows in spirits, or a sick father, or the idealized father who eventually falls off the pedestal, or an absent father we can't remember clearly, whose image is fuzzy, nebulous. The essential image is the father who embodies an ego with a hole opening inward and downward into the irrational, which he is fearful to explore.

We know from Jung's autobiography that this is true of his father. (I should pause and mention that Jung's father was a minister, a "poor country pastor" in Jung's words.) Jung writes, "it was clear to me that something quite specific was tormenting him and I suspected that it had something to do with his faith. From a number of hints he let fall I was convinced that he suffered from religious doubts. This, it seemed, to me, was bound to be the case, if the necessary experience had not come to him" (Jung 1965, p. 92). And later, "I was seized with the most vehement pity for my father. All at once I understood the tragedy of his profession and his life" (Jung 1965, p. 55). "I was disillusioned and even indignant, and once more filled with pity for my father, who had fallen victim to this mumbo-jumbo" (Jung 1965, p. 59). This is all very much the language of Neptune. Pity, tragedy, disillusioned, victim...

Now imaginatively, archetypally, this wounded father is the Fisher King, the guardian of the holy Grail, himself a priest, passing on the necessity of the spiritual quest to the next generation. A young (Jung?) knight, a Parsival, is needed to restore both the Fisher King and the kingdom, which has become a waste land.

Jung himself referred to his father as Amfortas. He recognized the Grail King in his father. He said, "my memory of my father is of a sufferer stricken with an Amfortas wound, a `fisher king' whose wound would not heal" (Jung 1965, p. 215). Jung's father's religious doubts also had a very personal focus. Jung says of his father, "his marriage was not all he had imagined it to be... These difficulties understandably enough, later shattered my father's faith" ( Jung 1965, p. 91). The impression you get from Jung's autobiography is that his father assumed that if he was really on good terms with God, then he should have had a wonderful, successful marriage. The fact that he didn't was interpreted as a religious failure of some kind. The Sun in Jung's chart, representing the father, the old King, is in the 7th house, the house of marriage. So we have an indication from the chart about this personal focus of the father's sense of failure. Neptune squares the 7th house Sun.

Let me add one other aspect to our discussion. I don't intend to do a complete profile of Jung, just give you a few brief examples. But the feminine plays an important role in the Grail myth. The Fisher King is wounded in the thigh, or sometimes actually castrated, suggesting a wounded sexuality, or a wounded relationship to the feminine, to nature, to the instinctual. The Sun in Jung's chart, representing the father, is square, in conflict with, the Moon, representing the mother.

Jung's mother was the embodiment of the instinctual. In Jung's chart, the Moon, representing the mother, is in the earthy sign of Taurus, conjunct the planet Pluto, the lord of the underworld. Jung described his mother as "somehow rooted in the deep invisible ground, though it never appeared to me as confidence in the Christian faith. For me it was somehow connected with animals, trees, meadows, and running water, all of which contrasted most strangely with her Christian faith... it never occurred to me how "pagan" this foundation was" (Jung 1965, p. 90). "By day she was a loving mother, but at night she seemed uncanny. Then she was like one of those seers who is at the same time a strange animal, like a priestess in a bear's cave. Archaic and ruthless, ruthless as truth and nature" (Jung 1965, p. 50). So the mother image is that of the sorceress, Kali, Circe, the dark mother, the embodiment of soul. She embodied all of the characteristics that the father needed desperately to integrate.

I'll come back to Jung's parents again in a moment. What I want you to get a sense of is how Jung experienced all the elements of the Grail myth walking around in his house. He was in the myth. And he had his own part to play in it. The stage was set at the time of his birth.

It is obviously easy to look at someone's chart in retrospect, but what I would like you to consider is how you might have used the chart if Jung had come to you at age 20, for example, to talk about his relationship with his father. Many people with this Sun-Neptune aspect tell me they have been in therapy for years trying to understand their father. We know from the chart that their inner image of the father is by nature nebulous, hard to grasp, imbedded in the insubstantial. We can refer them to the Grail myth here, where Parsival spends his life in search of the illusive Grail castle where the Grail King lives. We can also mention the figure of Proteus, or other oceanic figures portrayed as shape-shifters, to give the client some sense of this elusiveness.

We can also suggest that the starting point for understanding the father may not be through attempts to make his image concrete. It may be more useful to accept and inhabit the image as it is given by the psyche. Stick to the image, as Jung said. They have to enter Neptune's realm to come to the father. They have to enter the realm of Dionysus, the irrational. As you know, Jung did this rather well.

Let's consider another aspect in Jung's chart briefly. Jung had the Moon aspected by Pluto, Saturn, and Uranus. It's a very complex combination. But you don't even need to know what sign they are in or what house they are in to have some sense of the mother image in his psyche. Pluto is a volcano, spewing up hot material from down below. Saturn is a cap on the volcano. And Uranus is the unpredictable on and off switch that controls the cap. These are certainly over-simplified images, but you don't really need to know any more astrology than that to frame a question about the mother image.

If Jung came to you as a young man, he may not be very comfortable talking about the crap that floats to the surface (an appropriate image since Pluto rules elimination, sewage, etc.) when his usually blocked (Saturn) emotions (Moon) suddenly burst (Uranus) through the dam. I'm thinking of his dream of the turd falling on the church and his "bad" thoughts about God, etc. He didn't write about some of these experiences until he was 60 or so.

But what if, armed with a little information from his birth chart, you asked him about his mother? If you asked him if she had something deep and dark that occasionally erupted out of her, I would guess that he would know exactly what you are talking about. If you remember the quotes I read earlier about his mother, he spoke of his mother as having two natures, "one innocuous and human, the other uncanny. This other emerged only now and then, but each time it was unexpected and frightening" (Jung 1965, p. 48). So he would know what that energy is. He has looked it in the face. It's probably going to be easier for us to approach the Pluto, Saturn, and Uranus aspects to Jung's Moon through his image of the mother rather than beginning directly with his daily emotional experience. This might lead us to a discussion of Jung's own experience of a personality number one and personality number two.

When you relate his experience of Pluto, or Uranus, or Neptune, etc., to his experience of his mother, or his father, you objectify it for him. He can now imagine the archetypes walking around, speaking through someone. I suspect that this is why Homer always portrayed the gods and goddesses disguised in human form when they visited the characters in his stories. We rarely meet the gods in blinding visions. We meet them through the personalities of our parents, through our friends, through our spouses.

Starting a consultation with an exploration of the parental image is valuable in a number of ways. It gives us an objective, and therefore safer, more comfortable entry point into the client's story. We are not talking about them yet. Clients come to see me with all kinds of interesting expectations. I must already know all kinds of stuff about them. I can probably read their minds. Maybe something horrible is going to happen to them in the future, and I'm going to tell them about it. Or even worse, I might know something horrible that is going to happen to them, and I'm not telling them. They expect to come in and sit down and cross their arms and be amazed by the revelations I have for them. And the first thing that I do is ask them about their parents. And we drink our tea and talk about their parents for quite a while.

Talking about the parents also connects the client to their psychological heritage, to the family history that precedes them. But it is important to remember that we are not on an archeological dig, we are not looking for the causes of their problems in their relationships with their parents. We are on an archetypal dig. We want to look back at their history and then through it. I want to try to place the family experience in the archetypal realm, in the realm of the imagination, in the realm of divine play.
Imagine a client with the Sun square Neptune. They have just met me for the first time, and have an hour and a half or two hours to spend with me looking at their chart. They have come to "have a reading." How quickly can I get at the core experience of this Sun square Neptune if I don't look at the parents? How subtle and diplomatic will I have to be to get the client comfortable with opening up about their most intimate experience of the self? More importantly, how long will it take?

I can ask them about their intuition and their creativity, of course. That's fairly comfortable. However, when I start into their sensitivity, their vulnerable feelings, a core issue, how far will I get? Jung refers often to his overwhelming sense of inferiority when he was young. If the Sun represents the central sense of identity, the ego, and the oceanic Neptune is plugged into it, what would that feel like? "What's it feel like to have your ego on a slip-n-slide, by the way? Do you ever have a fleeting fear of drowning? Or feel like you are standing in quicksand?" I'm being painfully direct for effect. But I'm sure you can hear the psychic doors slamming shut. "No, not really. That doesn't sound like me at all."

In fact, I can, and do, ask some of these very blunt questions, in the same words, an hour into a consultation, after first exploring the father's wound. We have brought the wound into the room, we both know what it is. And yes, it is familiar. Yes, it is in me, too. Yes, I know what that feels like. It's easier to see it out there first in some objective form. And the parents are a bridge between the objective and the subjective worlds. They are somebody else, but they are our flesh and blood.

After exploring (in this case) the father's wound, and exploring the nature of Neptune as an archetype, we have the ingredients to reframe the client's experience of inferiority into a meaningful, archetypal context. The father has passed on the hole in his soul that opens inward and downward. It is not a comfortable legacy. In fact, it is by nature very confusing and painful. This sense of inferiority, this deeply felt sense of not being real, of having no self, of being in the world but not of it, is tied to the inner image of the father, which in turn is tied to the archetype of Neptune. Do you see how the reframe can just happen by itself? The archetype of Christ crucified is conveyed through the father's wound. Or the Fisher King. It's the father's fault we have one foot in the ocean. Dionysus is your father. There are many ways to approach it.

Our current experience can be tied to our history, and then moved beyond history. We not only validate the current experience, but also give the client a new perspective on both their current experience and their history.

The one point that I haven't really emphasized yet that needs to be emphasized before I finish is that, regardless of how familiar you are with the planetary symbols, you can't know the specifics of an individual's experience of the mother or father. They will always surprise you with the details of a unique expression of an archetypal configuration. You may know that the father was spiritually wounded if we see the Sun square Neptune, for example. And you could hazard an educated guess about the nature of his wound based on the signs and houses involved. But that places you in the expert mode, in the mode of the diviner, the fortune teller. When we make impressing our clients more important than helping them to heal, we are doing them a disservice. The point is not to try to tell the client about their mother or father, but to ask them questions that open the conversation in the direction indicated by the symbols of the chart.

There are so many implications that I haven't had time to discuss and material that I have covered far too quickly. I certainly haven't done justice to Jung's chart in this brief discussion. However, if you have a sense that the seeds of Jung's archetypal destiny were transmitted to him through his parents, and that the flavor of this inheritance can be accessed through the symbolic language of astrology, then I have been successful.

Let me sum up by saying that looking at the actual parents via the symbols of the birth chart provides us with an objective, living, familiar model for reflecting upon the subtle and complex archetypal world that lies within us. This approach sees through the prevailing attitude that suggests that we grow despite our parental influence; that if we could only overcome our poor parenting, we may possibly become whole again. We become whole not despite our parent's wounds, but because of them, through them. Archetypal psychologists tell us that we meet the gods through our own wounds, but our wounds are part of an inheritance. We stand on the shoulders of (wounded) giants.


References:

Hillman, J. Archetypal Psychology. Dallas, Texas: Spring Publications, Inc., 1985.

Hillman, J. We've Had A Hundred Years Of Psychotherapy And The World Is Getting Worse. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992.

Jung, C.G. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1965.

Astrology Glossary

Astrology Glossary
Ascendant: The zodiac sign on the cusp of the 1st house is called the Ascendant
or Rising sign. This sign, determined by the precise time and place of birth, is one of the three most important factors in the chart, along with the Sun and Moon. It represents our outer personality, the characteristics people first remark on when meeting us. It also shows the mask we wear in social situations, which may or may not show our true nature. Our physical appearance often reflects the Ascendant rather than the Sun.

Aspects: The zodiac is a circle of 360°, and the angles formed between two planets in an astrological chart—like 30°, 60°, or 90°--are called aspects. The effect of an aspect is to blend the energies of the two planets together in a way that modifies the way they both function. The type of connection between the planets is determined by the nature of the angle. For instance, a square (90° angle) is generally a stressful aspect, while a trine (120° angle) is usually harmonious.

Astrological generations: People born during the time the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto were in a particular sign are classed as an astrological generation. For instance, most of those born between 1956-72 have Pluto in the sign Virgo. They are called the Pluto in Virgo generation.

Astrological sub-generations: Within a particular astrological generation, there are often groups born with two or more of the outer planets in aspect to one another. For instance, many who belong to the Pluto in Virgo generation also have Uranus in Virgo close by, conjunct Pluto. I call that a sub-generation.

Benefic planets, benefics: Venus and Jupiter are traditionally labeled benefics by astrologers, meaning that they are benign forces that bring good fortune our way, yet both have their ill effects when misused. (Also see malefics.)

Cardinal signs: The signs Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. They are square or opposite one another and thus form challenging aspects.

Conjunction, conjunct: A conjunction is formed when two planets stand within range of one another in the zodiac, anywhere from 0-10° apart. When planets are conjunct, their energies and functions are blended, as though they were one. This is a powerful aspect, and when the Sun is conjunct another planet, that planet is very important. The person takes on some qualities of the sign the planet is associated with—with Mercury, for example, that sign would be Gemini.

Cusp: The cusp of a house is the border between it and the adjoining house, e.g. between the end of the 2nd house and the beginning of the 3rd. The zodiac sign on the cusp of a house describes, in part, how you function in that area of life. For example, if you have Libra on the cusp of a house, you will show some Libra qualities in matters related to that house. The term cusp also refers to the dividing line between two zodiac signs, and so to hear that someone is born on the cusp of Aries and Taurus means that the Sun on their birthday was either in the last degrees of Aries or the first degrees of Taurus.

Degrees: The zodiac is a circle divided into 360°, and many of the more technical facets of the astrological chart are based on these divisions. Each of the twelve signs contains 30°, and each degree is further divided into minutes (‘) and seconds (“). Thus you may note that there is a planet in your chart at, say, 25° Aries 55’.

Detriment: This is the sign in which a planet’s inherent characteristics have the most difficulty being expressed freely. A planet is in detriment in the sign opposite the one it rules—e.g. Mars rules Aries, and so Mars is in detriment in Aries’ opposite sign, Libra.

Elements: Based on a medieval system, the zodiac signs are divided into four elements—fire, earth, air, and water. Fire and air work well together (air keeps a fire burning, and fire warms up cold air), but they do not complement water or earth. Water and earth complement each other—no crops would grow without both—but they do not blend so well with fire and air. The fire signs are Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius. The earth signs are Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn. The air signs are Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius. The water signs are Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces.

Ephemeris: A reference book, calendar, or computer program that gives the daily positions of the planets in the solar system. An ephemeris is used to calculate birth charts as well as transits.

Exaltation: In a traditional method of evaluating the strength of planets in various zodiac signs, exaltation is the sign where a planet is supposedly at its best, including Venus in the sign Pisces, Mars in the sign Capricorn, and the Moon in Taurus.

Fall: In a traditional system of rating the strengths of the planets, a planet is in its fall in the sign where it is supposedly at its weakest or worst—the sign opposite the one where it is exalted. Since Venus is exalted in Pisces, it is in its fall in Virgo.

Fixed signs: The signs Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius are known as the fixed signs because they work hard to consolidate and preserve the things that matter to them. They can be inflexible and resist change, but without some fixity, we would be forever shifting.

Grand Cross: A rectangular formation consisting of at least four planets in hard aspect to one another—it involves both squares and oppositions between planets in the same sign type: cardinal, fixed, or mutable. It is considered extremely difficult, especially when the outer planets are part of the picture.

Grand Trine: A Grand Trine is an equilateral triangle in the astrological chart made up of three planets about 120° from each other. It requires planets from all three of the signs in a particular element. For instance, a Grand Trine in air would include at least one planet in Gemini, one in Libra, and one in Aquarius. The Grand Trine is supposed to be an extremely fortunate combination.
Glyph: A shorthand symbol that astrologers use to represent a planet, sign, or aspect. An example is the glyph for Mars, shown here.

Hard aspect: When two planets are combined by angular relationships that are considered difficult, they are said to be in hard aspect to one another, meaning their energies are not in harmony. Usually these difficulties are created by tension between the two zodiac signs and houses involved in the aspect. Hard aspects include the square, quincunx, and opposition. The conjunction may or may not be a hard aspect, depending on the planets involved.

House, Houses: The astrological chart is a circle divided into twelve pie-shaped wedges called houses. Each house represents a number of related areas of life (e.g. the 7th house represents marriage, business partnerships, and other committed relationships.)

House cusp: The cusp of a house is the border between it and the adjoining house, e.g. between the end of the 2nd house and the beginning of the 3rd. The zodiac sign on the cusp of a house describes, in part, how you function in that area of life.

House Position: The house of the chart where a given planet is placed; e.g. if Jupiter’s glyph is found in the 2nd house, then that is its house position.

House Ruler: The ruler of a house is the planet that rules the sign on the cusp (beginning edge) of that house. If Neptune ruled the 10th house, this would mean that the sign Pisces, which Neptune rules, would be on the 10th house cusp, also known as the Midheaven. With Leo on the 7th house cusp, the Sun is the ruler, so for more information about this particular 7th house, you would look at the sign and position of the Sun. The ruler of the 1st house (a.k.a. the Ascendant) is considered particularly important—in traditional astrology, it was called the Chart Ruler.

Impersonal Planets: The outermost planets in the solar system are Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. They move so slowly through the signs that they are a signature of the various astrological generations. They are also referred to as outer planets.

Inconjunct: (150° or five signs apart) This aspect—also known as the quincunx—usually involves two signs that are absolutely at odds with each other and therefore are difficult to reconcile. There is no natural connection between the two signs by element or by the cardinal/fixed/mutable division of signs.

Inner planets: The innermost planets in our solar system—the Sun, Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, and Jupiter. They move more rapidly than the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, and so their positions in the chart define what makes us individuals. Saturn is at a pivotal position, between the inner and outer planets, and takes almost 29 years to move through all twelve signs.

Major configuration: A triangular formation involving three or more planets in aspect to one another. Depending on the nature of these aspects

Mercurial people include not only those with Gemini Sun, Moon, or Ascendant, but also those with many aspects to Mercury in their charts or with several planets in the 3rd house of the chart, the house of communication.

Midheaven: The cusp of the 10th house, the career point at the top of the chart, among the most powerful points in the horoscope. It is determined by the precise time and place of birth and changes by a degree every four minutes, and is so sensitive that transits to that point can correlate with profound changes in our career and status in the world. Both the sign on the Midheaven and any planets that aspect that point are powerful career indicators.

Multiple conjunction: When three or more planets are close together, whether they fall into the same sign or house or not, their energies are blended into a powerful whole. While the orb for a conjunction between two planets is usually 8-10°, a multiple conjunction can be strung together over a wide range, so long as each planet is conjunct the adjoining one.

Mutable signs: Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces are called mutable, in that they are flexible and have diverse interests, so their focus changes often. They adapt more easily to new situations and demands, and yet they can lack perseverance.

Mutual reception: This occurs when two planets are in the signs ruled by each other. For example, from 2003-2010, Neptune—the ruler of Pisces—is in Aquarius, which is ruled by Uranus, at the same time that Uranus is in Pisces.

Neptunians: This group includes those with Pisces or the 12th house strongly emphasized in their birth charts because the Sun, Moon, or several planets falls in either Pisces or the 12th house. Also included are people with Neptune aspecting the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Midheaven or several planets.

Opposition: (180° or six signs apart, plus or minus 8°.) This can be an aspect of conflict, since two very opposite sets of needs and desires are involved, like Libra’s desire for relatedness and Aries need for self-development. However, signs opposite each other are compatible in two ways: they are in complementary elements and operate in the same modality (a cardinal sign is opposite another cardinal sign, and so on). When expressed properly, opposite signs complement and fulfill each other.

Outer planets: The outermost planets in the solar system are Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. They move so slowly through the signs that they are a signature of the various astrological generations. They are also referred to as impersonal planets.

Out-of-sign aspects: When a planet is at the very beginning or the very end of a sign, it may form an aspect that is easy to overlook to a planet at the beginning or end of another sign. For instance, Mercury at 2° of the water sign, Pisces forms out-of sign trine to Neptune at 27° of the air sign, Libra. Despite the change of signs, Mercury is only 5° past the exact trine to Neptune—that is, within the standard 5° orb for a trine. Since the trine would usually be between two signs of the same element there is a mixed influence, more difficult to integrate and understand.

Personal signs: According to a system Richard Idemon taught, the first four signs—Aries through Cancer— are called the personal signs, meaning that the people who have these signs strong in their charts tend to be absorbed in matters related to the self. Also see social and universal signs.

Plutonians: These include people with several planets in Scorpio, a number of planets in the related 8th house of the birth chart, many aspects to natal Pluto, or Pluto near the Ascendant, Midheaven, or aspecting the Sun or Moon.

Progressions: Refers to how the planetary positions unfolded in the days and weeks after birth. In one simple form of progression, called Day for a Year, the positions of the planets on the tenth day after birth correspond to the conditions in your life at age ten. We will not be dealing with progressions because I don’t often use them.

Quincunx: (150° or five signs apart) This aspect—also known as the inconjunct—usually involves two signs that are absolutely at odds with each other and therefore are difficult to reconcile. There is no natural connection between the two signs by element or by the cardinal/fixed/mutable division of signs.

Retrograde: occurs at various times of the year in the orbits all of the planets in the solar system--excluding the sun and moon. In these periods, which can last several months for the slower-moving outer planets, the planet appears to be moving backward from the point of view of the earth. This illusion occurs because while they are on the opposite side of the sun from the earth, they appear to be moving in the opposite direction from us.

Rising Sign: The zodiac sign on the cusp of the first house is called the Ascendant or Rising sign. This sign, determined by the precise time and place of birth, is one of the three most important factors in the chart, along with the Sun and Moon. It represents our outer personality, the characteristics people first remark on when meeting us. It also shows the mask we wear in social situations, which may or may not show our true nature. Our physical appearance often reflects the Ascendant rather than the Sun.

Rule, ruler, rulership: Each of the twelve signs has a ruler—that is a planet that is most like the energies, urges, and needs of that sign. For Aries, that planet is Mars, for Gemini, it is Mercury, for Sagittarius, it is Jupiter, and so on. See the table that follows the glossary for a complete list. In order to fully understand the expression in your chart of a sign or house, look at the condition of its ruler. (See house ruler.)

Saturn return: These significant eras in our lives occur each time Saturn completes an orbit around the Sun from where it was when we were born. Since Saturn takes around 29 years to complete that orbit, these eras occur when we are between 28-30 years old (the first Saturn Return) and 56-8 years old (the second Saturn Return). These Returns are considered significant milestones in maturity.

Saturnian: These are people with important planets like the Sun, Moon, Ascendant or several planets in Capricorn or in the associated 10th house. They also include those with Saturn on the Ascendant or Midheaven, aspecting their Sun or Moon, or with numerous planets forming aspects to Saturn.

Sextile: (60° or two signs apart.) Complementary elements are usually involved in the sextile—water with earth and fire with air. Planets in sextile, then, can complement or enhance each other in some ways, each one filling in something the other lacks.

Social signs: According to a system Richard Idemon taught, the second four signs—
Leo, Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio—are considered primarily social in their functioning, meaning that people who have it strong in their chart are absorbed by relationship issues. See also personal and universal signs.

Square: A square is formed when two planets are 90° apart in the zodiac—three signs apart, plus or minus 5-6°. For instance, a planet in Cancer could be square to planets in Aries or Libra, the two signs that are 90° apart. Squares represent two urges or needs in a head-on conflict. Squares are the energizing forces within a person—the needs that drive them on. The needs and desires of the two planets clash, and the individual must work to reconcile them.

Stellium: A stellium is a combination of three or more planets placed within a narrow range of the zodiac, within the same sign and/or house. This makes the planets involved act in concert with one another, becoming a very powerful influence. The influence is strongest if they are also conjunct.

Transits, transiting: This refers to the current positions of the planets in the solar system and what aspects they form with the planets in your natal chart. You would discover your transits by consulting a reference book called an ephemeris that gives these positions on a daily basis or by ordering a computerized printout of your personal transits.

Trine: (120° or four signs apart, plus or minus 5°.) Planets in a trine aspect are usually in the same element—e.g., from water sign to water sign or from air sign to air sign. Since they have many similar traits, needs, tastes, preferences, and abilities, the two planets enhance each other and do not create resistance or friction. They work together cooperatively for the same or similar ends.

T-square: A triangular formation consisting of at least three planets. Two of the planets are opposite one another, while a third forms squares to both ends of the opposition. An example would be Pluto in Cancer, Saturn in Capricorn, and Uranus in Aries, a signature of the mid-1930s depression era. Tensions between the needs and desires of the planets, signs, and houses involved are difficult to resolve, and so the person is often rather driven, but often highly productive. A t-square usually involves planets in the same sign type—cardinal, fixed, or mutable.

Universal signs: According to a system taught by Richard Idemon, the final four signs of the zodiac—Sagittarius through Pisces—are absorbed by collective or universal issues. Also see personal and social signs.

Uranians: These are people with Uranus strongly featured in their birth charts. Uranus is strong when it is on the Ascendant, Midheaven, in aspect to the Sun or Moon or several planets, or if the sign Aquarius is prominent in the chart because the Sun, Moon, Ascendant or several planets fall into that sign or the 11th house of the chart.

Yod: A major configuration also called an Eye of God or Finger of Fate, this triangular configuration consists of two planets that are sextile (60°) one another plus a planet that forms quincunxes (150° aspects) to both of them. The planet forming the quincunxes is considered extremely difficult to integrate and yet becomes a major dynamic in the person’s life.