The art of letting things happen

The intersection of personality type and astrology always interests me (typestrology, if you will). So I was intrigued to discover that Dane Rudhyar describes the 12 zodiacal types in his book An Astrological Triptych.

He posits that we have a dominant zodiacal type comparable to the Jungian psychological types.

Our type has both a creative function and a basic need. He says spirit brings us a gift that is meant to “fill the emptiness” produced by the one-sidedness of our type.

Dane Rudhyar describes the one-sidedness of each of the 12 signs and says curious and eager Gemini needs to learn “the art of letting things happen. He must learn to pause and wait. He must learn to understand first, to act afterward (p. 22).”

Failure to do so can lead to what Jung calls a “cramp in the conscious,” which results from too much mental activity.

Again I think of the 8, 9, and 10 of Swords cards of the tarot that are associated with Gemini, as I wrote about in my last post.

Those images speak to the need to wait, which is contrary to Gemini’s nature, and the chrysalis stage before transformation.

Jupiter, the planet of wisdom, is still in Gemini until July. Jupiter rules Sagittarius, Gemini’s opposite sign. In Rudhyar’s advice here we see how to reconcile the opposites of Jupiter and Mercury (Gemini’s ruler):

Wisdom is not to be rushed into: it is to be received from the wholeness of life by the wholeness of one’s nature. Wisdom which is of the spirit is a gift. It is a gift because it comes to the recipient as a completed whole. He does not piece it together, part by part, hurriedly putting forth a scaffold and throwing into it every bit of available material. Wisdom is a gift. One must not force the giving of gifts (Rudhyar, p. 24).

Today there is a New Moon in Gemini and New Moons are seeding moments. Rudhyar uses a seed analogy in describing how Gemini must receive its gift:

All seeds mature slowly; wisdom and integration are of the nature of seeds. One must grow into them, effortlessly, serenely, in faith and in beauty (p. 25).

_____________________

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Butterflies and Swords

On the surface it would seem butterflies and swords have nothing in common.

In tarot, swords are associated with air in astrology and the thinking function in typology.

The Knight, Queen, and King card of swords cards all have butterflies on them, which is a stark contrast with the heaviness of the sword.

The Sun is now in the air sign of Gemini, a sign that fits well with butterflies.

Gemini, ruled by Mercury, is curious and likes to move wherever its interests take them. It is playful, agile, and stop briefly at waystations, just like a butterfly.

(In my opinion, Gemini correlates better with the extraverted intuition function rather than with either thinking function, but I digress).

The three swords cards that are associated with Gemini are all challenging ones: 8, 9, and 10 of Swords.

Butterfly —the Greek word for psyche — represents transformation, and this can be daunting.

Caterpillars disintegrate into a soup of cells, out of which a butterfly emerges. That 8 of Swords image is cocoon-like.

Hermes (Mercury) is associated with “chance happenings and risking it all leading to great reward or great loss, making him the god of dice and lotteries. Hermes types are the caterpillars that give up everything for the possibility of becoming a butterfly” (Dennis Merritt, Hermes, Ecopsychology, and Complexity Theory, p. 37).

No wonder Gemini might want to stay under the 9 of Swords blanket sometimes or feel stabbed in the back like 10 of Swords for daring to be transformative.

Our spiritual development and transformation resembles “the death of the worm and the birth of a butterfly” over and over again in our life, per Julienne McLean:

“It describes our passages, crises, depressions, difficulties, our transitions and turning points. They nearly always, in large or small measure, entail a process of dying and rebirth into a different sense or experience of who we are, of our relationship to God and others, in our services and vocation in the world (McLean, Towards Mystical Union, p. 82).

Through a Jungian lens, the butterfly—and Gemini—represent the psyche’s capacity for transformation, the soul’s journey, and the hope for renewal. After dissolution, a new form and beauty can emerge.

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A Self Among, Not a Self Apart

Full Moons give us the opportunity to ponder the reconciliation of opposites, which is a concept important in the Jungian world.

The opposites of Death and the High Priest are in the air right now, thanks to the Full Moon in Scorpio.

The Death card in tarot is associated with Scorpio. Per Jungian analyst Ken James, who is also a tarot teacher:

We struggle with the idea that we are contingent life forms undergoing constant transformation. And the most important lesson that we can learn here on the Earth plane is to release things that no longer serve us with the confidence that there will always be something more, something new, something that will emerge that we may not understand, but that is promised to us by virtue of our day-to-day experience.

The Hierophant (often returned to as High Priest or Pope) card in tarot is associated with Taurus.

This card, like Taurus, is grounded and indicates a preference for stability and external structures.

Per Rachel Pollack, “The name ‘Hierophant’ belonged to the high priest of the Greek Elusinian mysteries.”

It “indicates the intellectual tradition of the person’s particular society, and his or her education in that tradition.”

“In its best aspect the Hierophant (as outer doctrine) can give us a place to start in creating a personal awareness of God.” And “indicates our own inner sense of obedience.”

The penetrating intensity of Scorpio, like Death, challenges established structures and would prefer to encourage necessary dismantling rather than stability.

In the Death card, look at how there is a High Priest figure about to be taken out by Death.

How will these two ever reconcile?

I posed that question to the I Ching and received Hexagram 13: Fellowship.

It is fellowship and community that will bring about the reconciliation of these two opposites.

The additional figures on the Death and Hierophant cards aren’t exactly fellowship together. They are in submission to either Death or the High Priest/Hierophant.

James Hillman describes community as “not individuals coming together and connecting, and it’s not a crowd. ” So what is it?

Community to me means simply the actual little system in which you are situated, sometimes in your office, sometimes at home with your furniture and your food and your cat, sometimes talking in the hall with the people in 14-B. In each case your self is a little different, and your true self is your actual self, just as it is in each situation, a self among, not a self apart (Hillman, We’ve Had A Hundred Years of Psychotherapy-And the World’s Getting Worse, p. 43).

In the Death card there is a sun in the background, above the High Priest’s head and in between the two towers.

As selves among, maybe we can make that sun a little brighter.

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Pastoring our inner congregation of selves

For the first time this year I drew the Three of Cups as my tarot card of the day.

The Three of Cups is about celebration and connection with others. I immediately thought of today’s Full Moon in Libra, which then brought extraverted feeling to mind, of course:

Extraverted feeling types are generally amiable and make friends easily. They are quick to evaluate what the outer situation requires, and readily sacrifice themselves for others. …there is a genuine rapport with others … The predominant impression is of a person well adjusted to external conditions and social values (Personality Types, Sharp, p. 50, emphasis added ).

That description of extraverted feeling resonates strongly with the energy of Libra, doesn’t it? And considering the Cups in tarot represent the feeling function, it further strengthens the connection.

This Full Moon in Libra highlights the core tension of this sign: the balancing act between Aries’s drive for independence and Libra’s yearning for relational harmony. To truly embody Libra, we must find a way to integrate our individual needs with our desire for connection.

One place to start is to practice extraverted feeling towards the many parts of our psyche first:

For Jung, then, the psyche is plural – composed of many parts, each jostling the others for control. To acknowledge the plurality of identity is to recognize both one’s brokenness and the possibility of growth. To accept this plurality is to realize that one does well to pastor this inner congregation of selves. -Alvin Dueck (The Living God and Our Living Psyche, Ann Belford Ulanov, emphasis added)

A few things that help with this pastoring are dream work, active imagination, and the parts work of Internal Family Systems (Bob Falconer and C. Michael Smith describe using parts work from a depth psychology perspective).

Acknowledging our multitudes ultimately enriches our collective experience so that we can see that “everything belongs:”

I was asked once by someone if I could capture the essence of Jung’s psychology in a single phrase…Finally, it came: everything belongs (Russell Lockhart, Psyche Speaks).

Not just everything, but everyone.

_____________________

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Working on ourselves, in ourselves, and for ourselves

And so it begins, the much-awaited Aries eclipse and entrance of Neptune into Aries, ushering in a new era where fire will become the dominant element. This marks a shift away from water and earth energy.

Am I the only one who has felt a bit waterlogged as of late, what with various planets all congregating together in late Pisces? Plus Mars is still in Cancer.

So let’s bring one some fire: individuation, freedom, spiritual autonomy, clarity, independence, charisma.

The shift from water to fire is like the withdrawal and return in the individuation process:

The withdrawal must conclude with a return—otherwise the journey was self-indulgent. Creative persons who respond to a challenge have to communicate a sense of their experience. If they can’t communicate their response, if they can’t cause others to listen and hear, they may suffer serious psychological damage within themselves (Sparks, Carl Jung and Arnold Toynbee: The Social Meaning of Inner Work, p. 72).

When we retreat to work on ourselves, we must then take it back outside and help fix the problems in society, otherwise we will remain detached:

By working on ourselves, in ourselves, and for ourselves, we are also working for society. Inner work, done at depth and with integrity, leads us back to the social world insofar as the problems we have addressed and made progress in solving in ourselves are also the problems ailing our times (Sparks, p. 41).

The fire energy is supportive of you doing what you do best.

Be clear on your values and what you stand for.

Remember you are not what happened to you – you are what you choose to become.

Reclaim the lost parts of yourself that you have previously disowned, as they are your treasures.

Learn to feel your fear without letting it stop you.

Finally, as James Hollis says, “keep the fire for freedom, dignity, and respect for all burning with a hot blue flame in your heart.”

We’re all depending on it.

_____________________

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How you are is who you are

How you are is who you are and not what you are said to be by your personality type, astrology chart, a medical diagnosis, job title, your role in your family, and so on.

That is a key concept of James Hillman’s “acorn theory” as described in his book The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling.

We are not able to see how any one is when we try to see by means of types, categories, classes, diagnostics. Types of any sort obscure uniqueness. (p. 124)

The acorn is “concealed invisible potential” that is visible in the how of an action. For example, it’s not that James Hollis is a Jungian writer but how he writes. It’s not that Jon Batiste is a musician but how he performs and composes music. (His song “Waldstein Wobble” is playing on repeat as I write this and I highly recommend it!)

As someone who speaks the languages of astrology and typology I, of course, see the irony here. Are not type and astrology just ways of putting people in a box, as the critics like to say?

On the contrary, astrology and typology are tools that have the potential to facilitate the “imaginative perception” that Hillman says is necessary to look “with the eye of the heart.” They also provide the language with which to craft a narrative of insight that says what we see:

To see the acorn requires an eye for the image, an eye for the show, and language to say what we see.

Failures in our loves, friendships, and families often come down to failures of imaginative perception. When we are not looking with the eye of the heart, love is indeed blind, for then we are failing to see the other person as bearer of an acorn of imaginative truth. (p. 124).

Hillman goes on to describe how psychological jargon is often used instead of describing what is really happening. For example, “your husband is not ‘mother-bound’, he whines and expects and is often paralyzed.” Defaulting to jargon happens in the astrology and type worlds too.

An example in astrology is when someone blames the planets – a sort of archetypal bypassing – when saying something like, “Mars retrograde in Cancer is making it hard to deal with my mother right now!” In actuality, astrology is divinatory; the planets are metaphoric mirrors that reflect what is happening but don’t cause things to happen. A thoughtful approach would include asking questions and exploring what material is being activated and brought to their attention regarding their relationship with their mother. From there, when the story is revealed, one can take a closer look at the archetypal ground of Mars in Cancer.

An example in typology is when someone says something like, “That’s my J talking!” It’s better to instead ask questions and explore how they used their extraverted thinking parent/caretaking function with a colleague in such a way recently that was close-minded and too focused on achieving the project’s goal.

John Beebe describes his archetypal model of typology as one that “opens life up the way a novelist does.” So, too, can astrology.

Empathy is the main requirement for imaginative perception:

[Empathy] enable[s] people to see through typical conceptions and into the heart of the other. Put yourself in your husband’s place, your wife’s, your child’s. Imagine how they feel, how would it be to be them? Imagine! Maybe you can discover a kernel of truth in their behaviors if you look again by means of imagining. (p. 125)

“To be is to be perceived,” said the Irish philosopher George Berkeley (1686-1753). We are all wounded healers of each other, whether therapists, astrologers, typologists, atheletes, or customer service representatives, it doesn’t matter. “Perception bestows blessing” as Hillman says, and by having the patience to perceive someone, we bestow blessing. “In your patience is your soul.”

How are you?

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Following in your own footsteps

The Great Mother does not tolerate childish dependence.

Cancer is the sign of the Great Mother archetype, and under today’s Full Moon in Cancer, co-present with Mars, the god of war, I can’t help but think of the Great Mother’s dual nature:

She has two aspects: in her light aspect she is compassionate, filled with maternal love and pity, and in her dark aspect she is fierce and terrible and will not tolerate childish dependence.” -M. Esther Harding

Harding reminds us that the Great Mother embodies both nurturing compassion and fierce demand for growth. This Cancer Full Moon highlights where we lean too heavily on others—or let others lean too heavily on us—hindering the balance she represents.

Mars in Cancer stirs up family karma — drama, conflict, and old patterns tied to parental complexes.

Rather than getting caught up in all that, how about pondering what you ask of others that you should instead do for yourself?

Also: do you take too much responsibility for the emotional well-being of others?

If you are a parent, this Cancer/Mars combo is a good time to remember Jung’s oft-quoted statement that a child’s greatest burden is the unlived life of the parent. Ouch!

This applies even if you aren’t a parent, as you likely mentor or take care of others in some way. There’s no Jungian author better than James Hollis on these points:

As parents, mentors, leaders of one kind or another, we are called to grow up, take care of business, gain our own authentic journeys, and thus lift this terrible distraction to the soul off those whom fate has brought into our care. That is how we are healed, our children healed, and their possibilities liberated. – James Hollis, Living an Examined Life

On the flip side, the assignment for adult children is to not just blame the parents and instead work with the Mars energy to become more conscious:

Being a grown-up means, essentially, that despite whatever formative things happened in my life, I am responsible for what spills into the world through me. I cannot just blame my personal parenting, however influential it might have been. I cannot blame ignorance. I cannot blame unconsciousness. In fact, Jung once said the unforgivable sin is to *choose* to remain unconscious. -James Hollis, The Broken Mirror

Mars in Cancer could find us saying “you can’t go home again,” but as Clarissa Pinkoloa Estés says, “While you cannot crawl back into the uterus again, you can return to the soul-home. It is not only possible, it is requisite.” Journaling, working with dreams, drawing mandalas, active imagination, and contemplation are a few ways to connect with your soul-home.

I shared the below quote on Instagram last week and a couple of people commented on how it is appropriate for Mars in Cancer:

For some, home is the taking up of an endeavor of some sort. Women begin to sing again after years of finding reason not to. They commit themselves to learn something they’ve been heartfelt about for a long time. They seek out the lost people and things in their lives. They take back their voices and write. They rest. They make some corner of the world their own. They execute immense or intense decisions. They do something that leaves footprints. – Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves

As the Full Moon casts it light, leave your footprints boldly, and follow them with courage and curiosity to your soul-home.

_____________________

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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

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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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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