It's Carl Jung's would-be 135th birthday today, so in celebration, I'm taking a look at his natal chart. According to Astro.com's calculations, he has about 1-1/2 degrees Aquarius Rising with an "A" birth time accuracy rating. Click the image to enlarge the chart.
Starting with the south node and the past/prior-life carryover influences, his south node is found in Libra in the 8th house, indicating a strong ability and predisposition toward awareness of the nuances of the hidden layers that take place in any human transaction. He would rarely take refuge in certainty, but be more inclined to recognize that for everything he observed and every conclusion one could come to, there were always more possibilities and equally opposite possibilities. He came into this world with an inherent understanding of how to balance these possibilities by committing to none wholeheartedly, at first.
On a personal level, a south node in the 8th house in Libra carries double partnership themes: first through the obvious association of Libra, being the sign of relationship, but secondarily through the 8th house, commonly referred to as the place of "other people's resources." Often a south node in the 8th house finds someone who tends to take shelter in another, whether it's financially, emotionally, or multiple levels, and/or is at least very influenced by the presence of another, as either a symbiotic relationship or a one-sided dependence.
Venus, the ruler of the south node, is found in the 6th house in Cancer. The 6th house experience may find him with a tendency toward subservience or deference to others, especially those who he perceives to be an authority to him in some way. There is an innate humility that may have often worked against him, since the planet that rules his south node also squares it. In Cancer, perhaps this was most often done with family members; or a not so literal translation may be a tendency to withdraw into himself, perhaps to hide a feeling of shame, unworthiness or a sense of not measuring up.
Given the overall amount of 7th house, Libra, and Venus importance in his chart, the tendency toward a being split inside himself or a tendency to project part of what he may see in himself onto another instead, seems great. An example of this is his well-documented feeling of living in two worlds: one in the present as a normal schoolboy, the other as a sort of melancholy, 18th century hermit, studying the mysteries and living in "God's World"1.
Mercury is also squaring his nodes, indicating his opinions, intellect, and ability to communicate what he intuitively knew was at stake in how he was to evolve in the current life. His 'voice,' or lack of voice/speaking up', could have given him some karmic problems in the past.
His north node lies in Aries in the 2nd house, which speaks to a need to end the second-guessing, playing too nice, and hesitating/indecisive tendencies that might accompany a Libran south node, and to be less invested in what others think or will accept (and hiding what they won't accept) and just putting it out there, standing behind it and himself, developing enough confidence in himself to be able to stand on his own without 'backup' or endless justifications, proof, explanations or hand-holding. There no longer needs to be an investment in convincing others to be on his side and supporting him (Libra, 8th house), but a trust in one's own support, power, and will to be more than enough. To go out on a limb for himself, so to speak.
The Venus and Mercury conjunction in Cancer in the 6th house might have him going through the work and study to gain enough skill and practice to be able to back that confidence up. Teachers/partners would probably come along that would spark his own intellect, which he would then carry forward with until it was time to move forward into independence (toward the north node lesson) instead of backward into reliance on the shelter that the teacher's theories and opinions might provide, even if Jung himself differed (which he did, often, the most famous case, but not certainly an isolated one, being the split between he and Freud).
Everything in his chart conspired to move him forward in his soul work, with his cooperation and choice (more or less; some things just land on us and force us forward!) Here are just a few of them:
- His Sun on that 7th house cusp, which indicates a need to develop a strong sense of ego awareness and identity within the context of relationship, but often as an outgrowth of it, as a way to contrast what he is from the person he is trying to relate to. Of course a Leo Sun helps to have a healthy sense of self-referencing. Uranus not too far away ensures a constant need to detach from partnership when it threatens his freedom or forces too much compromise to his integrity.
- Aquarius Rising presents a view of the world that is markedly set apart from 'the norm', a unique filter that is always set apart, seeing what is different as objectively as possible. Saturn in Aquarius in the first house indicates the challenge of creating a new, internal (Rx) structure that reflects this difference, the ability to detach from expectation to be in integrity with oneself and one's true nature. Saturn is widely opposed Uranus (as it is exactly in the sky today at the time of this writing, on Jung's birthday), indicating the dance between breaking free of someone's hold on him and recognizing that the freedom only comes from creating the internal rules of true independence, without the shelter of another's approval or dependence on the rebellious urge at their disapproval to propel him into that autonomy that must be built brick by brick on his own. Saturn's location in our chart often reveals where we must stand alone ('on our own two feet').
- Pluto in the 3rd house reveals a potential attachment to ideas and the seeking of new ideas, which would constantly have one pulling ideas apart and constantly questioning, something that can work poorly (or TOO well, depending on your perspective) with a Libra south node, which can have a tendency to vacillate. However, Pluto is in Taurus, along with the Moon in this house and sign as well, indicating that the comfort zone is more likely to be in fixed ideas and/or hard data. It is in a T-square with the Saturn Uranus opposition, indicating that his views, his ability to form conclusions as well as renew them when needful, is a huge factor in resolving the "your way/my way" dilemma for him.
- Finally, the Yod, involving Pluto's quincunx to Jupiter and Mars (and the sextile between those two). A Yod tends to produce a feeling of 'mission', a feeling of being propelled/compelled forward, almost as if one's will is overridden by a higher will like a monkey on one's back (or the 'finger of god' as the Yod is often referred to). The Yod's top two points have a personal, spiritual truth component to them. Jupiter, representing one's sense of larger truth is in the 8th house, indicating that these truths have a gut/intuitive feel to them, and come from the unconscious, from dreams, from archetypes and mythology, from hidden messages and symbolism, and a natural talent with those things.
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Mars, in Sagittarius, echoes Jupiter here, but also has it's own meaning: the will and resultant actions that need to be taken to deliver one's truth to the masses, through publication, speaking, or any number of methods. But it all hinges on the Pluto work: detaching appropriate from the security of only presenting the facts and common sense and provable, and discounting other ways of knowing, while all the while they surge in him.
This may be why the Red Book was such an intense and frightening undertaking for him (which actually began with black books), for it represented a voluntary dive into the madness he perceived that was creeping up on him from around the edges of his sanity. Read more about the Astrology of the Red Book here. Read more about Carl Jung here or here.
1 Reference: Red Book, page 195
Wow, I did not know all this about Yung. Thanks.
Posted by: Happy Birthday | April 22, 2011 at 06:08 PM