Mapping the Human Psyche: A Depth Astrology Approach to Planetary Meanings

By Gargatholil

Gargatholil presents a deeper dive into planetary meanings than found in the Introduction to his 4-volume work, Depth Astrology: An Astrological Handbook. In Mapping the Human Psyche, they identify the core essential meaning of each astrological planet, the spiritual task associated with that planet, and show how the various keywords associated with the planet derive from its essential meaning.
Gargatholil combines Neoplatonic and psychological frameworks to arrive at a proposed essence of each planet and major astrological point. They identify the essence of each planet with its psychological function, providing an astrological "map" of the human psyche.
Employing the principle that multiplicity derives from unity, Gargatholil breaks down each essential meaning into its prime components and then explores how they manifest in still more differentiated meanings. Along the way, they provide insight not only to how the various "keyword" definitions for planetary meanings have evolved and inter-relate with each other, but to the workings of the human mind as expressed both individually and collectively.
For those to whom astrology is more than a predictive tool but rather a key to an exploration of life's deeper meanings, Mapping the Human Psyche is sure to become a classic text.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gargatholil
• Release date: Jul 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215484500

Gargatholil

Gargatholil's interest in astrology began more than 40 years ago with his discovery of the works of Dane Rudhyar and Alan Leo. Their love of music goes back farther. One of the first albums Gargatholil bought was Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.In the 1980s, Gargatholil;s knowledge of astrology was further informed by the writing of Donna Cunningham, Stephen Arroyo and Liz Greene. Gargatholil has always appreciated astrology as a tool for self-knowledge and personal growth. He believes, while transits may be valuable for understanding the "astrol weather" one is experiencing, it is the natal chart that holds the key to interpreting the drives and motivations, qualities, internal conflicts and challenges, and potential of the personality resident in this lifetime. Gargatholil has long rejected using astrology to attempt to predict the future on both practical and spiritual grounds.Gargatholil has a Libra Sun and Taurus Ascendant (both ruled by Venus), with Moon in Capricorn in the tenth house (both ruled by Saturn) cusp Aquarius (ruled by Uranus). The primary rulers of Gargatholil's chart, Venus and Saturn, are conjunct in Virgo, while the Moon forms the point of a Yod to Saturn and Uranus. Understandably, Gargatholil has a straight gig and does not wish his identity to be revealed. He also is grateful to have been blessed with the capacity to bring the content of the Higher Mind to a more concrete and structured level.Gargatholil has eclectic taste in music. His criteria for considering something worthwhile listening to boils down to "as long as she's been doin' it right." Gargatholil lived the Sixties Countercultural experience and the music of that era occupies a special place in their heart.

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MAPPING THE HUMAN PSYCHE:

A DEPTH ASTROLOGY APPROACH TO PLANETARY MEANINGS

By

Gargatholil

ISBN: 9798215484500

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2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

The Sun

The Moon

Mercury

Venus

Mars

Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus

Neptune

Pluto

The Moon’s Nodes and Part of Fortune

The Midheaven and Nadir

The Ascendant and Descendant

Asteroids, Centaurs, and Other Extra-Planetary bodies

Essential Meanings and Other Psychological Functions

Spiritual Tasks

Major Derivative Meanings

INTRODUCTION

Why talk about the meanings of the planets? Isn’t this basic astrology 101? Beginning with such luminaries as Dane Rudhyar and Alan Leo, there has been a growing awareness—growing for decades—of the deeper, transformative meanings associated with the planets. However, many in the astrological community still think of the planets primarily in terms of their attributes. Venus is associated with love and beauty, Mars with aggression and action. While these attributes are valid, they are quite derivative compared to the essential archetype that each planet represents. As Richard Tarnas has said, each of the astrological symbols is broadly multi-valent. In order to better understand the cornucopia of meaning contained within each symbol, it is useful to start at the core.

At a certain level—the level at which Alan Leo contended astrology is left behind—it all dissolves into Oneness (or, perhaps, even before we reach that level, we enter a sphere in which words and concepts that make sense in our reality no longer operate). At the edge of this domain, the Universals or Essences appear (including the astrological essences). We could also call these archetypes, understood in the Platonic sense of that word. I will later use the term archetypes in their Jungian sense and, so, I prefer to reserve that term and, instead, use Essences.

The Essences themselves may be said to be ineffable but they each carry a distinct impression or essential quality, which is then manifested in the world of differentiation and multiplicity. Ultimately, however, each of these Essences is pointing to that Transcendent Realm which lies beyond them and, so, they may be conceived as different paths toward Oneness. While the Essence itself remains beyond description, at some point we can begin to attach words to it.

A central idea in depth astrology is that each planetary Essence manifests in the human psyche as a specific function. Taken together, the astrological planets (and here are included certain points) become a map, as it were, of the psyche. We can see, in the planets and their relationships, the human psyche functioning as a complex but unified organism. From this perspective, it is the imprinting within the individual psyche of the Essences associated with the astrological symbol set and the various meanings that derive from the Essences that provides the causal or synchronistic mechanism that gives astrology its validity.

Another way of conceiving this is that the Essences symbolized by the astrological planets collectively form the Universal Human Psyche, the Great Person or Universal Man conceived by some of the Neoplatonic philosophers and Sufis. Each individual psyche is patterned after the Universal Psyche and mystically participates in the Universal Psyche, which is its origin and to which it must ultimately return. The individual psyche can be viewed as a fragment of the Universal Psyche and, thus, fragmented and needing to become Whole. Another view is that as the Universal Psyche projects and individual psyche, it descends into multiplicity and differentiation. The individual psyche is differentiated from the Universal Psyche in that it is a particle and not the Whole; and it is differentiated from all other individual psyches because it is a unique expression of the possibilities inherent within the Universal Psyche as potential, until manifested in the individual psyche.

In a similar way, the Essences—which themselves can be seen as a first-order differentiation within the Universal Psyche—take on multiple meanings as they are manifested in the material world—which includes not only the physical but the emotional and mental processes as they have descended into and become mixed at the level of physical matter.

As Essence or Idea inherent in the planetary astrological symbol becomes more manifest and differentiated, we can observe its travel through various levels of meaning. When I say observe, I mean this in general terms, not specific, for it would be foolish and presumptuous to try to map out and assign various meanings to some imaginary level. Rather, we can intuitively perceive that as we attempt to put a name on the essential meaning of an astrological planet we are at a less differentiated level of meaning; and as we derive more general meanings from the essential, we descend to a more differentiated level; and as we derive a still wider range of meanings from those general meanings we are at a still more differentiated level.

At the level of the individual chart, we are dealing with a complex set of relationships affecting each astrological planet and the meaning that can be assigned to that planet. These include sign placement, house placement and aspects, of course, but also include such influences as deciles, rulerships, dignities, receptions, etc. Adding the dimension of time, we have the effects of transits, secondary progressions, solar arcs, etc. Layered onto this technical level of complexity is the fact that each combination of astrological influences produces a set of multi-valent meanings. The specific meaning that any astrological planet or combination of planets manifests with respect to an individual at any given time is a uniquely differentiated selection from the soup of possibilities that constitute the potential meanings that can be assigned to that set of astrological symbols and relationships.

The goal of this book is more modest. We endeavor to discover the essential meaning behind each of the planetary astrological symbols, to specify the function within the human psyche symbolized by the planets, and to trace the derivation of qualities and characteristics (keywords) commonly associated with the planets. For a more detailed exposition of the planetary meanings within the context of the horoscope, see my four-volume work, Depth Astrology: An Astrological Handbook (Introduction, Planets in Signs, Planets in Houses, Planets in Aspect). In a sense, this book may be considered to be an expanded discussion of the planets contained in volume 1, Introduction, of that work.

As hinted above, by essential meaning we are referring to the closest verbal conception of the Essence of that planetary symbol, recognizing that others may arrive at a different verbal conception. Included in the astrological planets are the key points of the horoscope—the Ascendant, the Midheaven and the Moon’s Nodes. Asteroids and other sub-planetary bodies are also considered, as a group. The order proceeds with the luminaries first, followed by the planets in order of distance from the Sun, followed by the astrological points and asteroids.

The Sun

A word that we can use to describe the essential meaning of the Sun is Beingness. We need to distinguish this concept of Beingness from the Aries-associated state of the initial awakening of self-consciousness. The Sun’s Beingness is Everness. It simply IS.

The Sun’s role in the human psyche is that of the Self. The Self is the purest and simplest expression of Beingness at the human level. In its essential form, the Self has no attributes. It will take on attributes, symbolized by the Sun’s sign, its house placement, its aspects and its degree. In its essence, however, it is pure Being.

Yet, the Sun exists in relation to the entire horoscope. In other words, the Self is contextualized within the individual psyche. The most primal experience of the Self, before it even recognizes its individual attributes, is of its quiddity—its own essential nature, that which makes it distinct and different from other beings. The first experience of this quiddity is pure self-awareness. Here, we become primally aware that we are not Other (which is different than an awareness of pure Being in which there is no Other). This level of awareness may last only for an instant before the next level of quiddity is reached—identity. In practical terms of living on this Earth, it is our identity that the Sun symbolizes.

As we become attached to the external objects and phenomena of this world, our sense of identity quickly slips from its primal awareness of I AM and we begin to view our identity as a set of attributes. The Self becomes the self. The more solidly we attach ourselves to our attributes and claim these as our identity, the stronger becomes our association with the ego as self. Ultimately, our concept of identity is spread all throughout the chart, as we take our identity from our career, our family, our relationships, the way we act and react, etc. However, our strongest identity is naturally centered in the Sun, taking its qualities from the sign placement, its place in the world from its house placement and its energetic flows and struggles from its aspects. If we find that our identity is focused elsewhere (e.g., we identify ourself primarily through our career), this is a sign of imbalance and lack of being centered in our own selfhood.

The psychological (or spiritual) task symbolized by the Sun is to return to centeredness in our own selfhood and, ultimately, to realize our identity with the Self. This is embodied in a central question of the human experience: Who am I? This is a question that almost everyone asks at some point in their life, often during adolescence (but it may be asked at any time and multiple times). We often settle at the level of attributes, defining ourself by our place in the world. Those who are not satisfied with this answer will inevitably dig deeper.

The Sun’s placement can be seen as a blueprint for this journey. If our Sun is in Taurus, then it is through a realization of the transcendent qualities of Taurus that we can reclaim our True Self. We may find our path by clarifying our values, identifying our real basic need, realizing our place in the organic whole of the Cosmos, and cultivating a steady devotion to our spiritual goal. If our Sun is in the seventh house, our task may be to seek our relationship to the Divine Beloved within, which is likely to entail a journey through relationship(s) in this world. If our Sun is square Mars, our challenge may be to pursue that desire whose achievement will not let us down, or to follow the path of Right Action without compromise. We (or our clients) may not be there yet but at whatever level our Sun identity is manifesting, it can be taken as a stepping stone toward the ultimate goal of reclaiming our True Identity.

Another facet of the Sun’s essence of Beingness is closely linked to our search for identity. This is Consciousness. Another name for consciousness is awareness. Consciousness is concomitant with Beingness in that one does not exist without the other.

The dawn of Consciousness is described in Genesis by the phrase, Let there be Light! That light is a characteristic of consciousness can be seen when we consider its opposite. Unconsciousness, or Not-Being, can be characterized as being complete and utter darkness. Thus, with the Sun’s association with consciousness we have the genesis of the Sun’s association with light. It is not just the fact that the physical Sun is the source of our light that is the reason for this association. In fact, this physical connection can be viewed as a Platonic reflection of, or a Jungian synchronicity with, the Sun’s archetypal association with Light.

Metaphysically, Consciousness is at its highest and purest at the instant of its coming into Being. As the created world is manifest and our consciousness spreads out into the Creation, it becomes more and more attenuated. The Light begins to fade until at some point we enter the darkness of Illusion, or Maya. It is through this Maya that the self becomes attached to its attributes and takes them as our identity. Thus, the Sun-journey to our True Self is also a journey to greater Consciousness and one does not occur without the other.

We can also see that, as we actualize our Sun meaning, we draw closer to the Light within us and, consequently, we are more and more filled with Light. As this occurs, the positive qualities associated with our Sun placement become more and more pronounced. In effect, we begin to shine and we radiate the positive qualities inherent in our Sun placement.

The Self is also the source of all Power, for the Self is the Divine within and one of the attributes of divinity is omnipotence. Power has many dimensions or aspects but, with the Sun, Power is that which is connected to Beingness. It is the essence of power and empowerment—the power to Be. Thus, the Sun symbolically empowers what it touches.

However, what is too close to the Sun becomes combusted. One way to look at this is that in the presence of the Sun’s (the Divine’s) magnificence, one realizes their existential insignificance and becomes humble. From an ego-perspective, this is malefic and weak, for the ego does not like to feel small. From the perspective of the journey to the Self, this is a necessary step, for the self cannot approach the Self while it holds onto the ego-baggage of its own illusory self-importance. Thus, a combusted planet may be viewed not as a detriment but as presenting an opportunity to learn humility.

Still another attribute of Beingness is creativity. The connection between Beingness and the Creative Force is seen in the Qur’anic verse: When Allah wills a thing to exist, He says to it Be" (kun) and it is." This makes it clear that Beingness comes about through an act of creation. Perhaps a more accurate term to use is manifestation, for the Creation is not a thing separate from the Creator. Just as the primal Being manifests (or is created from) the Un-Manifest, so as Being manifests Itself at levels of greater diversity, creatures (created things) come into existence, or realize their Beingness. From Being springs Being; from Life springs Life. The Creative Force, originating in the seminal act of Being being brought into being, flows through the manifest world. Each creature, each self is also a locus of that Creative Force, since we are all Beingness or Self existing at our level of manifestation.

Thus, the Sun, as symbol of Self and self, symbolizes that Creative Force and the locus of creativity within the psyche. From this central meaning, the Creative, springs a host of related associations as this meaning manifests at various levels in the material world. Astrologically, this becomes clear as we contemplate the qualities associated with Sun-ruled Leo and the fifth house.

We begin at the point where the universal Creative Force enters the human psyche manifesting as the creative urge or the creative power of the individual. While human creativity may be focused into the arts, drama, music and other forms of traditional creative outlet, it is more generally revealed as self-expression. The Solar energy then crystalizes into the modes of self-expression and into those attributes by which we show our special identity for others to see. We, thus, become identified with those objects through which our creative energy shines.

Creativity also manifests as play and imagination, which is creativity manifesting without the constraints that the super-ego imposes. We commonly associate these Solar activities with children and, when they are activated in adults we frequently say that we are getting in touch with our inner child. We can see this as a yearning to return to a more innocent time by which is really meant that stage when our identity was less encumbered by all of the associations to which we have become attached.

The Solar energy is also associated with children through one of the most basic expressions of creativity—procreation. More specifically, it is the masculine component of procreation that is associated with the Sun and, through this association the Sun is seen to symbolize the father figure. Cosmologically, it is the manifesting or projecting aspect of the Creative Power that we have traditionally associated with the masculine. Thus, the Sun is linked to the patriarchal version of our idea of the Godhead—the Father figure who has created the Universe and who rules over His domain as a father takes care of his children.

From this manifestation of the Solar meaning, we have the Sun’s (and Sun-ruled Leo’s) connection to authority and to the type of power that springs from and that supports the idea of authority. We can also derive from this the Sun representing strength and rulership in general. We can also see the Sun’s association with these qualities as a reason that it is considered to be a benefic, conferring those energies and qualities associated with kingliness on whatever it touches.

Still another aspect of the Sun’s association with creativity is its identification with the Life Force, for the act of creation and life are intimately bound together. In fact, we can easily conceive of the Life Force as indistinguishable from the Creative Power. This identification is reinforced by the astronomical role of the Sun as being necessary for life to exist on Earth and, indeed, one of the appellations of the Sun-as-deity is Life-giver. A strong Life Force is often seen to manifest as vigor and vitality, qualities that are also associated with the Sun.

The Sun as the source of Life brings to mind the Sun’s association with the heart. While the Sun is associated with the physical organ, the heart, that association springs from its association with the energetic heart center. Just as the physical heart is the central organ of life flow, so the heart center in many systems is the energetic center of Being or presence. (Alternatively, the spiritual heart may be located at the eye center or third eye, sometimes represented as the pineal gland in the body.) Heart is associated with a number of Sun qualities, especially as expressed through the Sun-ruled sign, Leo. These include courage, pride, confidence, and loyal devotion.

When the idea of the creative force, associated with the Sun, manifests in the human psyche and becomes attached to our ego-identity, it produces a dichotomy. As we alluded to above, the ego appropriates the fruits of creativity to augment its identity in the world. In a sense, this is natural. When we speak about the qualities of the Sun sign or its house placement, we are talking about the accoutrements of the identity that the ego has