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.

_____________________

WHAT I OFFER:

Consultations:
Astrology Consultations and Tutoring

Writing:
Subscribe to the Reading in Depth monthly newsletter
Get blog posts for free by email or on Substack (also free)
Index to my popular blog posts about personality typology

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

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.

_______________________

WHAT I OFFER:

Consultations:
Astrology Consultations and Tutoring

Writing:
Subscribe to the Reading in Depth monthly newsletter
Get blog posts for free by email or on Substack (also free)
Index to my popular blog posts about personality typology

Continue ReadingGrowing with the Flow: Pumpkins and the Psyche

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.

_______________________

WHAT I OFFER:

Consultations:
Astrology Consultations and Tutoring

Writing:
Subscribe to the Reading in Depth monthly newsletter
Get blog posts for free by email or on Substack (also free)
Index to my popular blog posts about personality typology

Continue ReadingLike a Virgin?

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.

——————————-

I have started cross-posting my blog posts onto Substack, so that is now an alternate way to get these posts if you’d like. The subscription is free.

_______________________

WHAT I OFFER:

Consultations:
Astrology Consultations and Tutoring

Writing:
Subscribe to the Reading in Depth monthly newsletter
Get blog posts for free by email or on Substack (also free)
Index to my popular blog posts about personality typology

Continue ReadingThe influenza of the Sun

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?

_______________________

WHAT I OFFER:

Consultations:
Astrology Consultations and Tutoring

Writing:
Subscribe to the Reading in Depth monthly newsletter
Get Blog Posts by Email
Index to my popular blog posts about personality typology

Continue ReadingWhat makes you roar?

A Wild and Wise Inner Mother

A Wild and Wise Inner Mother

A branch fell off the top of a large maple tree in our backyard a few days ago, narrowly missing the power line and family members in the yard at the time. The day was sunny with no wind.

It was yet another jolt from Mars-Uranus in Taurus.

There were many other such zaps in the air last week, especially the aptly named CrowdStrike, which is the largest IT outage in history.

To top off the fun, we get some Full Moon energy this weekend!

It’s the second Full Moon in Capricorn in a row. The Sun was just barely into Cancer during the first Full Moon – now it is at the tail end of Cancer.

Cancer and Capricorn are opposite each other on the zodiac. It’s a polarity of the archetypes of The Great Mother and Wise Old Man (Senex).

I have been contemplating the below quote during Cancer season, and it seems fitting to share it now under this Full Moon:

Rather than disengaging from the mother, we are seeking a wild and wise mother. We are not, cannot be, separate from her. Our relationship to this soulful mother is meant to turn and turn, and to change and change, and it is a paradox. This mother is a school we are born into, a school we are students in, a school we are teachers at, all at the same time, and for the rest of our lives. Whether we have children or not, whether we nourish the garden, the sciences, or the thunderworld of poetics, we always brush against the wild mother on our way to anywhere else. And this is as it should be.

Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Capricorn would have us disengage from the mother.

Such disengagement is necessary when it focuses on withdrawing projections from the personal mother, or an idealized image of mothering, and developing one’s own inner mother.

With the Sun entering Leo the day after the full Moon, the focus shifts to the father archetype, as Leo is the home sign of the Sun. It provides an opportunity to reflect more on becoming father to your own life:

One becomes a father to one’s own life by becoming intimately acquainted with it and by daring to traverse its waters. I’m talking here about a deep father figure that settles into the soul to provide a sense of authority, the feeling that you are the author of your own life, that you are the head of the household in your own affairs.

Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore

WHAT I OFFER:

Consultations:
Astrology Consultations

Writing:
Subscribe to the Reading in Depth monthly newsletter
Get Blog Posts by Email
Index to my popular blog posts about personality typology

Continue ReadingA Wild and Wise Inner Mother

How you can influence the archetypes…and the world

How you can influence the archetypes…and the world

Astrology, personality typology, and working with dreams and the I Ching can all lead to a dead end of passive introspection if we aren’t careful.

That’s not necessarily a fun thing for my introverted intuitive self to contemplate! But it must be done. After all, it’s immoral to focus on individuation and not pay it back, as Jung wrote in The Symbolic Life.

Or as James Hillman said, “You make soul by living life, not by retreating from the world into ‘inner work’ or beyond the world in spiritual disciplines and meditation.”

Currently the terrain we are navigating as a collective includes a dynamite-like Mars Uranus conjunction in Taurus, which perfects on Monday.

The Mars-Uranus archetype is the Rebel. Its themes include sudden urges for freedom and independence, recklessness, sudden breakthroughs, angry outbursts, and erratic behavior.

Unfortunately, here in the United States we already have one major Mars-Uranus event at the collective level, which is in the headlines all over the world.

Passively thinking about a transit like this, especially in regards to one’s own chart, can lead to anxiety and viewing the energies as a threat.

An alternative is to instead view this Mars-Uranus Rebel as an invited guest that comes “in the service of health and wholeness,” the same way dreams do, per Jeremy Taylor.

You could totally flip the script and actually have an influence on the Rebel (or any other archetype):

“Each time an individual overcomes fear and creatively embodies the Willing Sacrifice in his or her dreams and waking life, the archetypal energies themselves are influenced and helped to change and evolve. … Whether or not we can measure either aspect of this influence doesn’t matter; at its worst, this is a useful way to imagine the “unknowable,” and at best it is true.”

Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill by Jeremy Taylor

The language of the I Ching helps describe the type of situations we likely might face as we hang out with this Rebel: the polarity of Conflict and Holding Together.

For those of us in the United States, the type of culture in which this is happening is ESTJ, top-heavy in extraverted thinking, with extraverted feeling in the deepest recesses of its shadow.

“Beebe notes that extraverted feeling is oriented towards connecting with the emotions of others. When differentiated at a group level, it fosters ‘mutual trust and the harmonious working of groups’. Authentic empathy for the moral injury of identity groups other than one’s own is the necessary foundation for coordinated political action.”

Mark Hunziker and Peter Dunlap, Journal of Analytical Psychology, November 2021 issue

Fortunately, within the Conflict there is always the seed of Holding Together. We could have an influence on the Rebel archetype by bringing out our individual and collective extraverted thinking to help us Hold Together.

Then we can start to think beyond just my personality type, Mars-Uranus in my chart, my dream, my Conflict, to include our type, our Mars-Uranus experience, and seeing the collective elements in our dreams. This is how we become psychological citizens.

Mark Hunziker writes about how many psychological citizens engage in “Listening and empathy circles, ‘one-on-ones’ that invite activists to share their stories with one another. and many other practices.”

Jeremy Taylor wrote about the power of dream groups: “Working with dreams in groups helps us overcome the sense of isolation that we all feel from time to time, bringing us into more meaningful contact with one another. This renewal of community has an effect on the shape of society as a whole.”

The journey towards individuation is not merely an inward quest, but a call to engage with the world and its challenges, embracing both our inner and outer Rebels.

WHAT I OFFER:

Consultations:
Astrology Consultations

Writing:
Subscribe to the Reading in Depth monthly newsletter
Get Blog Posts by Email
Index to my popular blog posts about personality typology

Continue ReadingHow you can influence the archetypes…and the world

The value of adversity

The value of adversity

Could you use a breather and an emotional reset?

That’s what the energy indicated by today’s New Moon in Cancer invites us to do.

As a small example of this, last week my local community received the abrupt news that this will be the final year of our local July 4th festival, which has run every year for almost 60 years.

Immediately a grassroots effort began to save the festival. Many residents didn’t know the festival is run by volunteers and that there is a dire shortage of them. That, combined with lack of funding, caused an Obstruction.

It has been heartwarming to see many people in the community come together to volunteer and raise money to save this charming festival, especially during these times when there is so much polarity at the national level.

It is the epitome of a Cancer type of activity – a community banding together to preserve one of its important traditions.

Today’s New Moon in Cancer occurs in the Obstruction part of Cancer, which is hexagram 39 of the I Ching.

Through introspection an external obstacle becomes “an occasion for inner enrichment and education. … An obstruction that lasts only for a time is useful for self-development. This is the value of adversity.” (The I Ching, Richard Wilhelm translation).

The New Moon in Cancer creates a brief, nurturing pause before the action-packed Mars-Uranus conjunction in Taurus perfects on July 15.

I admit I’m not looking forward what some of the headlines will be like during those several days.

But the reflections and intentions set during the New Moon in Cancer can be grounded in Taurus’s earthy energy, which will provide emotional resilience and practical readiness.to face the Mars-Uranus conjunction.

WHAT I OFFER:

Consultations:
Astrology Consultations

Writing:
Subscribe to the Reading in Depth monthly newsletter
Get Blog Posts by Email
Index to my popular blog posts about personality typology

Continue ReadingThe value of adversity

The art of letting yourself go

The art of letting yourself go

No, not that kind of “letting yourself go,” which is a phrase used to disparage someone who pays less attention to their appearance than they used to.

We’re in the Keeping Still section of Cancer season, so I’ve been reflecting on the Chinese wu wei sort of letting go. Jung described wu wei as “the art of letting things happen, action through non-action, letting go of oneself.”

The Keeping Still hexagram of the I Ching is a doubling of the mountain trigram. It correlates with introverted feeling (Fi) per Chinese Jungian analyst Chenghou Cai: “For Fi, deep feelings are seldom articulated, but are powerful when they are expressed. At this level of introverted feeling, one is like the person who has mastered the art of Keeping Still as taught by the I Ching.”

One is at rest, not merely in a small, circumscribed way in regard to matters of detail, but one has also a general resignation in regard to life as a whole, and this confers peace and good fortune in relation to every individual matter.

The I Ching translated by Richard Wilhelm

The opposite of introverted feeling is extraverted thinking. The United States is an ESTJ culture and one-sided in extraverted thinking. Jung said extraverted thinking is the only kind of thinking recognized by Western culture.

Extraverted thinking (Te), which compares to Thunder in the I Ching, acts with directness and authority and has little use for wu wei and Keeping Still.

Since the Aries eclipse this spring, followed by the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Taurus, and then all the Gemini energy, it sometimes felt like it has been a never-ending parade of extraverted thinking, extraverted sensation, and extraverted intuition.

Now that it’s Cancer season with its introverted feeling energy, hopefully some of how we let ourselves go can be in the “Calgon, Take Me Away!” kind of way.

If the waters of Cancer ever get too choppy, here’s Marion Woodman’s reminder about stillness, with its introverted feeling undertones:

To find the stillness at the center of the whirlpool, the eye of the hurricane, and not hold onto it with the rigidity born of fear, is what in analysis we struggle to reach. That center I call Sophia, the feminine Wisdom of God. It is not the masculine standpoint, the highly-principled “Here I stand.” … It is an invisible center encountered only in a creative process, at first not consciously recognized, but gradually revealed as the process unfolds.

Addiction to Perfection by Marion Woodman

WHAT I OFFER:

Consultations:
Astrology Consultations

Writing:
Subscribe to the Reading in Depth monthly newsletter
Get Blog Posts by Email
Index to my popular blog posts about personality typology

Continue ReadingThe art of letting yourself go