The best Jungian psychology books I read in 2024

The best Jungian psychology books I read in 2024

What a great day to talk about books! There’s a full Moon in Gemini and Mercury stations direct today. I appreciate this dose of Gemini energy as we enter our final week of Sagittarius season before the winter solstice.

My approach to reading is much like what Simone Weil describes, as I don’t follow a syllabus or structure in selecting the books I read and write about:

In reading, as in other things, I have always striven to practice obedience. There is nothing more favorable to intellectual progress, for as far as possible I only read what I am hungry for at the moment when I have an appetite for it, and then I do not read, I eat.

The selections here are my favorite Jungian books that I read in 2024 (for visuals, and fun Jon Baptiste music in the background, here is a Reel I made of the books):

  1. Life and Ideas of James Hillman: Volume 1: The Making of a Psychologist by Dick Russell This covers Hillman’s life from childhood through his years running the Jung Institute in Zurich. I look forward to reading volume 2 in 2025.
  2. The Faithful Gardener: A Wise Talk About That Which Can Never Die by Clarissa Pinkola Estés Estés grew up in a foster family and says she learned more from those family members about grief, rebirth, and nature than she did in all her years of psychoanalytic training. The stories about the trees in this book have stayed with me all these months later. It is less than 100 pages and a book one can easily reread many times.
  3. Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill: Using Dreams to Tap the Wisdom of the Unconscious by Jeremy Taylor This book gives you all the information you need to work dreams in a group. Note that this isn’t group therapy but any gathering of individuals who want to work through dream material together. Taylor shares his experiences running dreams groups in the local community and in prisons. A major theme of this book is that dreams come in the service of health and wholeness. All dreams reflect society as a whole as well as the dreamer’s relationship to it.
  4. Tracking the Gods by James Hollis This is one of Hollis’ earliest works and a favorite of his. Hollis explains myths using real world examples, which is very helpful. He defines depth psychology as care of the soul and “a process whereby the fractured psyche may heal, whereby one may achieve a personal myth to supplant the bankrupt cultural ideologies. It is not a dogma, but rather a methodology that seeks to facilitate one’s encounter with inner transforming powers. It is not New Age but Old Age, as old as the archetypes.”  Overall this book reminded me of why I love depth psychology and it would be a great one for astrologers to read as well, as astrologers essentially engage in tracking the gods.
  5. Coming Home to Myself: Reflections for Nurturing a Woman’s Body and Soul by Marion Woodman and Jill Mellick This is like a daily devotional/day book of Marion Woodman passages that have been reworked into poetry. I started most every day in 2024 with one of these passages and highly recommend it.
  6. Addiction to Perfection by Marion Woodman Woodman shows how body movements can be understood as a waking dream. Perfectionism inhibits us in taking responsibility for our bodies and keeps us trapped in our heads. She was the daughter of a minister and is also brilliant on the topic of Christianity and religion in this book.
  7. Labyrinths: Emma Jung, Her Marriage to Carl, and the Early Years of Psychoanalysis by Catrine Clay It is clear when reading this book that Jung’s work and legacy wouldn’t have endured without Emma, who, in addition to being a mother of five children, was an analyst and scholar in her own right. The book also provides a birds-eye view of the early years of Jung’s career and his relationship with Freud.
  8. Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams by Lisa Marchiana, Deborah Stewart, and Joseph Lee This book was released just a month ago. I’ll have more to say about it in my December newsletter, but it is a much-needed practical and accessible guide for working with your dreams. James Hollis wrote the foreword and the book is written by the three Jungian analysts of the This Jungian Life podcast.

Every month I write about the Jungian books I read in my Reading in Depth newsletter. Would love to have you as a subscriber! I also weave in quotes from these books into my blog posts and post quotes on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky. I cross-post my blog posts onto Substack.

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or comments. Talk to you soon!

Continue ReadingThe best Jungian psychology books I read in 2024

Portals to wonder: letting go of certainty

Portals to wonder: letting go of certainty

The neutral color palette of this season can remind us that the most vivid colors often emerge from times of stillness and reflection.

The last few colorful autumn leaves have fallen. A few pink petunia flowers are still barely there but are now wilted and dark purple. The orange pumpkin remains are now barely visible in the soil.

We are in the two week period of Lesser Snow per the I Ching calendar and today is the New Moon in Sagittarius, with Mercury currently retrograde in Sagittarius.

This period remains under the guidance of The Receptive. The amount of darkness in each day is increasing until the Winter Solstice. The Receptive energy encourages us to “embrace the power of yielding, and you shall receive…A heart receptive to faith will never fear darkness or uncertainty.” (Benebell Wen, I Ching: The Book of Changes)

Because it is Jupiter’s domain, Sagittarius season might find us occasionally too preoccupied with opinions and lofty ideals as a way, perhaps, to fend off fear of the darkness. Yet Jupiter, the planet of expansion of wisdom, also reminds us that wonder—an openness to what lies beyond certainty—can be the antidote to fear.

Saturn is keeping a sharp eye on Mercury and this New Moon, offering opportunities to get more grounded. Perhaps we could choose to focus on wonder instead of opinions.

I think the most interesting things are the things that light us up, the things that are portals to wonder for us. And the thing about opinion is that it’s based on certainty. To have an opinion is to have a certainty about something. And wonder is the opposite of certainty. Wonder is this openness to reality, whatever it may bring, and without fear, right? — Maria Popova | 3 Books Podcast

I came across a portal of my own today when, in true Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius fashion, I suddenly remembered a book about wonder that I enjoyed many years ago in a much different phase of life. Dusting off an old shelf to find it I was happy to be reminded of this story:

“There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of one candle….

“This inscription was found on a small, new grave stone after a devastating air raid on Britain in World War II. Some thought it must be a famous quotation, but it wasn’t. The words were written by a lonely old woman whose pet had been killed by a Nazi bomb.

“I have always remembered those words, not so much for their poetry and imagery as for the truth they contain. In moments of discouragement, defeat or even despair, there are always certain things to cling to. Little things, usually: remembered laughter, the face of a sleeping child, a tree in the wind—in fact, any reminder of something deeply felt or dearly loved.

“No man is so poor as not to have many of these small candles. When they are lighted, darkness goes away…and a touch of wonder remains.” —A Touch of Wonder by Arthur Gordon

In yielding to stillness and reflecting on the small lights in our lives, we may find that wonder continues to guide us, even in the darkest days.

_____________________

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A boon of wild provisions from the soul

A boon of wild provisions from the soul

We are in a transitional space that invites us to enter into a state of receptivity, grace, and openness.

November 7 marked the halfway point between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. In the Chinese calendar, this date signals the start of a two-week period referred to as the “beginning of winter,” which we are now in the midst of.

The Receptive is associated with the beginning of winter:

To receive, be receptive. Embrace the power of yielding, and you shall receive. … Supportive power is the blessing of finishing to completion….A heart receptive to faith will never fear darkness or uncertainty. You are blessed with knowledge and intuition…you are a vessel for healing and receiving sustenance. —Benebell Wen, I Ching: The Book of Changes

This weekend’s full Moon in Taurus happens to fall during this time. Taurus is receptive earth and seeks stability.

This is a good time to follow the recommendation of Clarissa Pinkola Estés regarding “intentional solitude:”

Solitude is not an absence of energy or action, as some believe, but is rather a boon of wild provisions transmitted to us from the soul. In ancient times, as recorded by physician-healers, religious and mystics, purposeful solitude was both palliative and preventative. It was used to heal fatigue and to prevent weariness. It was also used as an oracle, as a way of listening to the inner self to solicit advice and guidance otherwise impossible to hear in the din of daily life.” —Clarissa Pinkola Estés

I love that phrase “boon of wild provisions transmitted to us from the soul.” I sometimes call it to mind whenever I observe the squirrels in my backyard as they gather wild provisions almost constantly. (Fun fact: squirrels have an association with Hermes/Mercury because of their ability to go up and down trees and cross difficult terrain).

Estés says that the only thing needed for intentional solitude is the ability to tune out distractions. This can be practiced anywhere, even in the middle of a contentious meeting, in the crowd at a loud sporting event, or in a cluttered home where children make constant messes.

“It is not hard to do, it is just hard to remember to do.”

Estés says that the word alone was once treated as two words, all one. This means to be wholly one and is the goal of solitude.

With the chaotic and distracting energy of Uranus involved with this full Moon in stable Taurus, being all one will be more difficult. I can’t help but note, however, that Uranus energy can also relieve the tension of opposites. From that, not only do we have the ability to be all one as individuals, but an opportunity to see that, ultimately, we are all connected and participants together in the Great Round.

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We are all feeling types

We are all feeling types

One of the biggest misconceptions in personality typology is that the feeling function is about feelings. 

Feeling is about feeling into what we perceive through our intuition or sensation, and then accepting or rejecting it. It is a rational process, like thinking, because it is about evaluating.

To make it even more confusing (or fun!), Jung said that extraverted feeling types can “sometimes be the coldest person on earth.” As Marie-Louise von Franz says in Lectures on Jung’s Typology: “people who have differentiated feeling are, in a hidden way, calculating.”

Introverted feeling types, per von Franz, are “difficult to understand…Feeling is very strong, but it does not flow towards the object. It is rather like being in a state of love with oneself.” She also compares it to the “flow of hot lava from a volcano” that moves very slowly “but it devastates everything in its way.”

There’s definitely an edge to being a feeling type!

Anyway, here is something I’ve been pondering lately: Since none of the four functions (intuition, sensation, thinking, and feeling) are directly about emotions themselves, how do we understand type in relation to emotions?

If we can reconcile the thinking/feeling polarity within each of us, that could help us develop what Chinese philosophy calls the “heart-mind.” 

I recently learned about the heart-mind from The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life by Michael Puett. Chinese philosophy—especially Taoism—influenced Jung, so I was eager to read this book after hearing about how Puett’s classes are among the most popular at Harvard.

In Chinese, the word xin refers to both mind and heart. Those who cultivate their heart-mind are able to navigate life well, balancing reason and feeling. As Puett explains, wise decisions don’t come from intellect alone—they come from an integration of both mind and heart.

How can we develop this heart-mind? 

Pay attention to your physical sensations during acts of kindness. That’s the “sprout of goodness” within you. 

“In this way, you are not growing your goodness in the abstract: you are learning through every step of this process how to sow the conditions in which it can thrive,” according to Puett.

That’s easier said than done for those of us who aren’t sensation types and forget to pay attention to our bodies.

Think of yourself as a farmer. Rather that focusing on setting long term goals and five-year plans, you cultivate different parts of yourself:

You can’t plan out how everything in your life will play out. But you can think in terms of creating the conditions in which things will likely move in certain directions: the conditions that allow for the possibility of rich growth. By doing all this, you are not just being a farmer. You are also the results of the farmer’s work. You become the fruit of your labor.

That’s easier said than done for those of us who are intuitive types and like to begin with the end in mind.

Become aware of what triggers your emotions on a daily basis. Then strive to change them for the better.

What are the patterned habits, the entrenched narratives, through which you perceive the world? Does your partner’s criticizing you for the way you load the dishwasher trigger memories of your own childhood, when you were constantly made to feel inept? Do you tend to placate friends instead of being assertive because you feel unworthy of expressing a strong opinion?

Become more comfortable with ambiguity. When we let go of rigid expectations and don’t have “cherished outcomes,” what’s left is the heart-mind to guide us through life’s complexities.

Just like individuation isn’t a solo effort, cultivating the heart-mind isn’t only about inner balance—it’s about engaging more deeply with the world and others.

It teaches us that both feeling and thinking work best when they are aligned. Although some of us identify more strongly with the feeling function than others, the capacity for heart-mind wisdom resides in all of us.

_____________________

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Finding Ground: The need for contemplation and a dash of humor in astrology

Finding Ground: The need for contemplation and a dash of humor in astrology

As someone who contemplates astrology every day, I’ve noticed how astrology can sometimes feel like a disembodied experience — lost in theory rather than grounded in reality. I found myself in one of those moments just last week.

While driving to the grocery store I was listening to a podcast episode about the October astrology forecast. They were discussing the upcoming Mars-Pluto opposition in early November in grim terms, as Mars’ intensity clashes with Pluto’s transformative force, a potent recipe for upheaval.

Before I knew it, a wave of anxiety overwhelmed me for a few minutes.

To find balance, I turned to reading, seeking something to ground my thoughts. A few days later I stumbled upon the essay An Urban Farmer’s Almanac: A Twenty-First-Century Reflection on Benjamin Banneker’s Almanacs and Other Astronomical Phenomena by Erin Sharkey (from this book). It was a wonderfully grounding experience to read it.

Sharkey said “I was uninterested in astrology until I learned that farmers had used it.” Farming! What a great entry point into astrology.

She made references to the The Old Farmer’s Almanac in clever ways throughout the essay, so I went to the library yesterday and picked up a copy of the 2024 Farmer’s Almanac.

Of course I took a look at what it said for the first day of the dreaded Mars-Pluto opposition. “On the 1st, Mars, now a brilliant magnitude 0, rises at midnight just below the Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux, with dazzling Jupiter high above them.”

Confession: I didn’t know what “magnitude 0” meant so I asked ChatGPT. It turns out magnitude measures the brightness of celestial objects. The sun is the brightest, at -26. A full moon is -12.7.

“Mars, at magnitude 0, would be bright but not as overwhelmingly luminous as Jupiter.”

Overwhelmingly luminous Jupiter! It’s too easy to forget that Jupiter is still in Gemini, adding magnitude to our collective astrological garden.

With Jupiter here we would do well to consider that the founding editor of the Almanac said back in the 18th century that his mission was to be “useful, with a pleasant degree of humor.”

I can’t help but take a fun jab at Pluto by noting that Pluto’s magnitude will only be +14.6 on November 1, which means it will be “incredibly faint.” Take that, Mars-Pluto!

In the the astrology section of the alamanc, called Best Days of 2024, while Mars and Pluto stir cosmic drama November 1-3, the Almanac urges us to “brew,” “demolish,” and “straighten hair” – down-to-earth tasks that remind us to stay present in our bodies.

My preference to focus on astrology as an embodied experience is why I like weaving in nature references from the Book of Changes/I Ching when writing about astrology and avoid writing typical horoscopes. I find there is a lot of value in focusing on the simpler things like the Moon and Sun and going deeper in learning more about the zodiac signs.

According to the I Ching calendar, we are near the end of the 15 day solar term that began with the fall equinox and are in the five day micro-season called “water begins to dry up.”

Per this calendar, which is similar to a farmer’s almanac, the Contemplation hexagram is the one presented to us:

A wind rustles the earth. Watching, observing.

Kings past call upon the four guardians of the universe to aid them toward the correct guidance of their people. You must see and also be seen. Others will then put their trust and faith in you.

…There is a need for contemplation. Reevaluate your motivations… Observe. Observe the wind. Observe the earth. — I Ching: The Oracle by Benebell Wen

As we move toward potent astrological shifts, the I Ching offers a timely message: contemplate, observe, and be seen.

Much like the wind rustling the earth, this Mars-Pluto opposition will be an opportunity to watch closely, not react hastily. There is wisdom in letting things unfold while staying rooted.

In astrology, as in farming, timing and observation are everything. Whether it’s the magnitude of planets or the rhythm of seasons, both systems remind us to stay grounded and to approach life with contemplation—and, when possible, with a little humor.

_____________________

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Growing with the Flow: Pumpkins and the Psyche

Growing with the Flow: Pumpkins and the Psyche

Virgo season is associated with the harvest, and around here, we’re getting ready to gather seven pumpkins from our little patch.

We planted three pumpkin plants during a rainstorm on the last weekend of May. I’m no expert gardener, and I’ve never tended to pumpkins before.

I searched for a “Pumpkin Gardening for Dummies” book but found nothing, so I ended up having more than a few ChatGPT consultations about pumpkin care. In the end, I mostly left it to Mother Nature, trusting her to handle what I couldn’t.

Before long, the vines outgrew the space I had set aside for them. They stretched into the front lawn and claimed half of the porch. The result? A bit chaotic, and not very Virgo-like!

Speaking of which, with today’s full moon in Pisces, I’m reminded that Pisces sits opposite Virgo in the zodiac.

If you were to add a hint of Pisces to Virgo, it might resemble this beautiful description of the virgin archetype from Marion Woodman: “As I understand the virgin archetype, it is that aspect of the feminine, in man or in woman, that has the courage to Be and the flexibility to be always Becoming.”

One of the things I love about depth psychology is Jung’s idea that we often outgrow our problems rather than solve them. As James Hollis puts it, “This capacity of the psyche to enlarge is what makes healing possible.”

Fittingly, some of our pumpkins are the Big Moon variety. They remind me that, much like the psyche, true growth rarely follows a strict design. Instead, it often requires giving nature—and ourselves—the freedom to expand beyond the limits we first imagined.

_______________________

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Devout preoccupation on the court of Virgo

Devout preoccupation on the court of Virgo

After the brisk square dance of energies in August, I re-evaluated my astrological macro diet and realized that I didn’t help myself to enough servings of Jupiter in Gemini in August.

Maybe we need a MyFitnessPal app equivalent for astrology!

While playing pickleball this morning, on this day of a New Moon in Virgo, it suddenly occurred to me that I was actually having fun.

Pickleball, like tennis and other back and forth games, is the domain of Mercury, the planetary host of Virgo and Gemini. (A fun aside: Roger Federer has Virgo rising and Steffi Graf is a triple Gemini).

I also remembered that the New Moon is happening in a section in Virgo that has an association with Deliverance in the Book of Changes (I Ching). “The obstacle has been removed, the difficulties are being resolved.” Whew!

Jupiter in Gemini also happens to be in a relationship with this New Moon.

For me pickleball is mindfulness disguised as a sport. Everything I try to do on the court is just as applicable off the court. Pickleball, like any other sport, is a microcosm of all of life.

While preparing to serve the ball I focus on my breathing and have an inner and outer routine I follow that is a form of active meditation.

After the ball is in play, practicing that old maxim of “keep your eye on the ball” is another form of meditation that keeps me in the now perhaps more than any other activity I engage in.

Because I always play doubles, the game also requires taking others into account. Sometimes mindfulness takes a hit as a result and is replaced with shadow work! Ideally playing with others should help us attune ourselves to the energies around us.

If my partner is not coming up to the kitchen line when they are supposed to, which is a common court position error, it leaves us vulnerable to losing the point. It is always best if I adapt and reposition myself to help fill in the gap rather than think about how they are playing “incorrectly.” It goes without saying that my partners have to deal with my court position errors, too.

When I notice that the players opposite me are new to the game, I will slow down the pace on my serve most of the time. But not all of the time, because learning how to return faster services is important, and I also don’t want them to feel like I am dumbing down my game for them.

It’s always best practice to say things like “good shot” or “nice effort” and never give unsolicited feedback to a player about how to correct their shot.

“Bangers” are a common type of player in recreational pickleball. They focus on hitting the ball hard all the time. Admittedly, I sometimes get triggered by them. It works best if I focus on counteracting that energy with finesse, gracefulness, and a soft game. It also motivates me to be attentive to stretching my muscles regularly and work on hand-eye-coordination exercises off the court.

I was going to close with a quote about tennis by Jungian therapist Thomas Moore, but then found this in my stash of quotes and was happy with how well it fit with the theme:

In tennis, I am happiest when I am surprised by focus. When the concentration falls over me like the shadow of a bird overhead. Maddeningly, when I try to narrow my mind to a single outcome—hitting early, following through, footwork, even breathing correctly—I fumble. When I urge myself to just “enjoy” the contact, something clicks. I can see the ball spiraling toward me, and I hit it however I feel like. It is closer to forgetting than remembering, closer to “devout preoccupation” than “planning.”

And isn’t this our own plight, as adults at play? That we are at once trying to “cultivate” a skill, even as we seek that elusive “gladness”? What if we dared to replace the mindfulness paradigm with playfulness?

Racquet magazine, Issue #15

I’m up for such a dare.

Practical, earthy Virgo—rooted in planning, cultivating, and service—blended with a dash of Jupiter in Gemini, might just help us embrace playfulness and devout preoccupation as the ultimate mindfulness.

Continue ReadingDevout preoccupation on the court of Virgo

Like a Virgin?

Like a Virgin?

Is there any archetype more misunderstood than the Virgin?

We are now at the beginning of Virgo season, which is associated with the Virgin, so it’s as good a time as any to ponder this question.

For starters, the word virgin in Greek (parthenos) and in Hebrew (almah) simply meant “unmarried” and was also used in reference to unmarried mothers. Virgin wasn’t associated with being chaste and innocent.

Now let’s consider the deeper meaning of Virgin in this quote from the late Jungian analyst Marion Woodman:

The virgin is the being-ness in us, the I-am…One-in-herself. That is what the word really means. I’m talking about the initiated virgin, not the 14 year-old-maiden who is not initiated yet, but the virgin who has worked on her feeling, knows what her values are, has the courage to live those values. Use the word as you would the word “virgin forest” where the forest is untrammeled, there’s nothing foreign in it, it is clear to be itself, but it is full of all kinds of seeds so that there is immense potential.

The Crown of Age by Marion Woodman

Here is Esther Harding’s description of the virgin goddess:

She is essentially one-in-herself…Her divine power does not depend on relation to a husband-god, and thus her actions are not dependent on the need to conciliate such a one or to accord with his qualities and attitudes. For she bears her divinity in her own right.

Woman’s Mysteries by Esther Harding

For a visceral sense of what this is like, even a very brief encounter with a young child will present you with “One-in-herself” in action.

My mother has often told me that when I was around age four I would go around saying, “I’m the boss!” She always found that amusing and her coworkers would often ask her “how’s the boss today?”

There certainly wasn’t much I could be boss of at that age, other than my stuffed animals, but that child was in touch with her inner authority in a way that my adult self marvels at and has often struggled to replicate.

One can also sometimes see “One-in-herself” in the elderly. There are many Jungian analysts, for example, who are in their 80s who are “full of all kinds of seeds” and continue to write, see clients, and travel. James Hollis is just one of many that come to mind. He maintains a full client load and writes books in the evenings, even though he has had significant health challenges in recent years.

For the rest of us in between childhood and old age it can be hard to bear our divinity in our own right. But perhaps in those fleeting moments when we truly know ourselves, we can reconnect with that inner authority and, like the Virgin, stand fully in our own power, untrammeled and whole.

_______________________

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The influenza of the Sun

The influenza of the Sun

Have you ever tried to imitate the influence of the Sun?

That is what scientists in the Middle Ages tried to do through alchemy. They thought they could turn base metals into gold:

They wanted to imitate the influence of the Sun, which was traditionally thought responsible, under God, for making all the gold that already existed in the Earth. This, we might say, was the original understanding of ‘solar power.’

–The Narnia Code: C.S. Lewis and the Secret of the Seven Heavens by Michael Ward

It’s currently Leo season. Leo is the temple of the Sun and symbolized by the lion. As James Hillman describes it:

The heart of the lion is like the sun: round and full and whole. The classical symbolisms of this heart are gold, king, redness, sol, sulfur, heat. It glows in the center of our being and radiates outward, magnaminous, paternal, encouraging.

The Thought of the Heart and the Soul of the World by James Hillman

That brings us to the current Full Moon in Aquarius. Full Moons are polarities, with the Moon in Aquarius opposite the Sun in Leo.

When we consider Leo, with its focus on a heart-centered personal journey, we also need to take into consideration Aquarius, its opposite sign, which is the temple of Saturn and emphasizes the intellect and the collective.

Carl Jung was born under a Leo Sun and an Aquarius rising sign. One of the major themes in his work is that we should not capitulate to collective norms and should instead strive towards our own individuation.

By contrast, a major emphasis of James Hillman’s work was that if we focus too much on the inner soul and neglect the outer soul, we contribute to the decline of the world. Hillman had Jupiter and Mars – the Sage and the Warrior – in Aquarius in his natal chart.

Another example of this Leo-Aquarius polarity comes from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, which is a book drenched in Sun symbolism. In a subtle reference to alchemy, Eustace gets greedy when he discovers a pool that turns everything it touches into gold. Suddenly he wants to turn all the things into gold and rake in the money.

Of course that doesn’t work out so well for Eustace. His greed turns him into a dragon and he desperately tries to remove the dragon skin, but is unsuccessful.

Aslan the lion – a solar figure – appears and removes it for him. Eustace says, “The first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart.”

After this, Eustace evolves from a self-absorbed individual to someone who embodies more Aquarian traits, with a greater focus on the collective and a more cooperative approach to life.

There will never be perfect balance between the Aquarius-Leo axis in our lives, but we can regularly remind ourselves that, as James Hollis says, “group action can be no more efficacious than the sum of individual consciousness brought to it.” A deeper understanding of the Sun’s placement in your astrology chart, and of your Aquarius-Leo axis, are two practical ways astrology can begin to assist with this.

C.S. Lewis prefered the metaphorical use of the word influence in astrological passages, which was influenza. Therefore the change in Eustace was brought about by the influenza of the Sun through Aslan.

Rather than trying to imitate the Sun’s influence like the alchemists, we should instead allow its “influenza” to transform us from within, letting its light guide our personal growth while also illuminating our contributions to the collective.

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What makes you roar?

What makes you roar?

When you were a child did anyone ask you “How do you want to be when you grow up?”

My guess is probably not!

Calling is more how you do something than about what you do. That is a key insight I learned years ago from my favorite James Hillman book, The Soul’s Code.

We tend to find ourselves going through the first half of life focused more on what we want to be when we grow up.

Leo season presents the opportunity to revisit and reflect more deeply on the Hero archetype:

In reflecting on the archetypal gestalt of the hero, Jung notes how each of us has an innate cluster of energy whose task it is to overthrow the dark powers that threaten, whether outer or inner. The outer threats are the powers and principalities of this earth that confront us and generate fear.

Each of us knows this well, for more of our reflexive, patterning behaviors arise out of fear management, or rather our being managed by fear, than any other motive. And yet, each of us also knows a summons to show up in life as ourselves, no matter how deeply buried that impulse is.

–Living Between Worlds: Finding Personal Resilience in Changing Times by James Hollis

For a clue as to that “innate cluster of energy” within you, consider the Hero function of your personality type.

One indicator of the “summons to show up in life as ourselves” is the location of the Sun in your natal chart. The Sun shows us the manner in which we respond to that call; or, the how, not just the what.

Because the Sun is the host of Leo, the location of Leo in your chart also gives clues about that summons, even if there are no planets in Leo in your chart.

During the New Moon in Leo tomorrow, the Sun will be in the Retreat section of Leo (per the I Ching). Retreat is about a leader remaining at a distance from their people – an advisor rather than a friend. It takes the 10,000 foot view and practices caring detachment.

The lion is the symbol of Leo. The roar of a lion can be heard from great distances and establishes the lion’s presence without physical confrontation. A roar is used strategically; a lion never says more than is necessary. The roar of a lion captures the essence of Leo’s confident, expressive energy and Retreat’s strategic wisdom.

When you speak from your core and show up fully as yourself, it is like roaring. Roaring helps you reconnect with the essence of how you want to be in life, beyond just what you want to do. The deeper the summons to show up as your true self is buried, the louder you might need to roar!

What makes you roar?

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