There is a lot of focus in online discussion about astrology on how to use it to describe future events, which overlooks one of astrology’s biggest benefits: it can help us live more fully in the present.
There can be no doubt that the power to remember and predict, to make an ordered sequence out of a helter-skelter chaos of disconnected moments, is a wonderful development of sensitivity. …But the way in which we generally use this power is apt to destroy all its advantages. For it is of little use to us to be able to remember and predict if it makes us unable to live fully in the present.
The Wisdom of Insecrity, page 34
Thanks to astrology I often forget my exact age because I instead focus on which year I’m in astrologically. For example, in the current year I’m living since my most recent birthday, I’m in a 9th house of Leo year and the Sun is the highlighted planet of my year because the Sun rules Leo. That means 9th house topics such as astrology, higher education, religion, philosophy, and so on will be more pronounced. Planets that visit Leo during the year will speak more loudly as will my natal Gemini Sun. The last time I was in a 9th house year was 12 years ago and will be again 12 years from now. This helps me remember that time is circular, not linear, so focus on the present and not on next year’s 10th house of Virgo year.
Way back when I was in high school I played violin in the school orchestra and I also played in church bell choirs back in the day, I enjoyed how we would work on only parts of a muscial score at a time. If it was a part with a lot of rests sometimes I would get bored and lose track of the count, which was never good, because it could make me miss my entrance when it was time to play again (a bell or violin played at the wrong moment can be excruciating to listen to). Staying in that moment of rests contributes to the greater good of the musical score just as much as the extreme focus needed when playing a bunch of sixteenth notes for several measures. All of this is analogous astrology and our lived experiences.
Yes, it’s fun to muse about what Pluto in Aquarius will be like during the next 20 years. But what part of your musical score are you working on right now? Are you paying attention to the rests and practicing the complicated bits of melody? What type of musician are you (something your astrological temperament, rising sign, and more can give insight into)?
Alan Watts again:
If, then, my awareness of the past and future makes me less aware of the present, I must begin to wonder whether I am actually living in the real world.
Below are my top 10 favorite Jungian books that I read this year. I have a monthly newsletter where I share the best of what I read each month. I don’t put those in blog posts, so feel free to subscribe if you’d like to get that book email.
Here is my list:
The Broken Mirror by James Hollis – This is my favorite of his 18 books, as it is the most autobiographical, and manages to be even more densely packed with wisdom. Hollis is such an inspiration. Chapter 6 Doing Difficult Therapy is outstanding and could be a stand alone book. This chapter is a must-read if you are married or in a serious relationship.
The Dream of the Cosmos: A Quest for the Soul by Anne Baring – This is like a Bible of Jungian psychology and picks up where Jung left off in regards to metaphysics and topics like reincarnation and the after-life. A deep, rich book that I will revisit again and again.
The Eden Project: In Search of the Magical Other by James Hollis. James Hollis said at a workshop I attended that “this book will ruin your love life.” Which is exactly what you should read it. He reminds us again and again in this book to withdraw the projections from our partner and not put upon them that which we should be doing for ourselves.
Other Lives, Other Selves by Roger Woolger. This is similar to Anne Baring’s book in that it picks up where Jung left off. Jung spoke against hypnosis early in his career, but beginning in the 1960’s the field has advanced greatly. Beginning in the 1980’s, which is when several other therapists such as Brian Weiss discovered past-life regression hypnosis, Jungian analyst Roger Woolger began focusing on past life regression. His results showed him that it gives a more expanded picture of the psyche and can shave many years off of analytic work.
The Racial Complex: A Jungian Perspective on Culture and Race by Fanny Brewster brings a much-needed perspective on Jungian psychology. In this book she writes about what she calls the racial complex, which broadens Jung’s idea of the individual complex. She cites studies that show how even two generations of trauma will cause trauma in many generations to come.
The Practice of Dream Healing: Bringing Ancient Greek Mysteries into Modern Medicine by Edward Tick. Asklepios was the gentle Greek god of healing and the priests were considered the first therapists. Marcus Aurelius and Socrates were two devotees of Asklepios. There were 300+ healing sites and dream incubators in Greece during a 1000+ year period ending roughly 500 CE.Modern medicine would benefit from learning more about this ancient practice that understood how healing means becoming whole; it is about repairing our souls, not just our bodies.
Personality Types: Jung’s Model of Typology by Daryl Sharp is required reading if you want a solid overview of Jung’s typology that is clear and easy to understand. He gives an overview of the eight main personality types and explains the practical use of typology. It is an important reference book that you’ll refer to again and again if you are interesting in typology.
Writing Towards Wholeness by Susan Tiberghien Although the title implies this book is about writing and journaling, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was much more than that. It is a primer on Jungian psychology with easy to understand chapters about dream work, active imagination, Jung’s Red Book, and alchemy. Even if you know a lot about Jungian psychology, it’s always good to have a refresh on the basics.
Towards Mystical Union: A Modern Commentary on the Mystical Text the Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila by Julienne McLean . The author is both a Jungian analyst and an Anglican spiritual director in England. She compares Jungian depth work to The Interior Castle, which I found interesting.This book will especially be of interest to current, or former, contemplative Christians, particularly Anglican, Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox.
Reflections of a Passerby: Jesus, Jung, and the Power of Choice by Eleanor Norris. This is another book that will be of interest to those that are recovering or practicing Christians that are interested in Jungian psychology. She provides a Jungian perspective on the Gospels.
If you read any of these books, or have any favorite books of your own you’d like to share, please email me or message me on Instagram. I’d like to hear from you! Click here to see my list from 2021.
The choleric tempermanet is traditionally associated with the fire element and therefore correlates to quick action, courage, ambition. On the less beneficial end of the spectrum, when imbalanced, there can be anger and insensitivity.
The choleric temperament relates to the summer season and is comprised of hot and dry qualities.
Easy to see the world as black and white, as absolutes
Activity, more activity – hard to sit still
Believes in hierarchy, with them at the top
Quick on the uptake
High expectations
Life is a series of challenges to be overcome – triumphantly!
Linda Berens call the choleric temperament Idealist in her temperament system and associates it with the INFJ, INFP, ENFJ, and ENFP MBTI types. Please note that she makes it clear that her system and the Kiersey system don’t directly correlate to the MBTI types. And the more I study the temperaments from an astrological perspective, the more I would NOT correlate choleric with any of the above four MBTI temperaments (but more on that in future posts). I like her modern terms for the temperaments, and feel that the word Idealist is easier for people to understand than Choleric. Idealist does seem to describe well the choleric temperament.
Berens says that Idealists want to be authentic and are generally enthusiastic. They “think in terms of integration and similarities and look for universals.”
In this post I’m going to compare and contrast tennis legends Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.I recently watched the ESPN documentary Unmatched: 30 For 30 about the two of them and of course pulled up their natal charts to calculate their temperaments and also considered their possible MBTI types.
Chris Evert is a strong phlegmatic type. She came across as an easygoing, All-American type, and was self-contained and in control of her emotions, but she says deep down she was very intense and competitive. Her rising sign is Scorpio. By contrast, Martina is a strong choleric type. According to Chris, Martina came across as arrogant on the court at times. Martina would have emotional breakdowns on the court at times, which Chris marveled at. Martina said that deep down she was a softie and not as intense as she appeared on the court.
With Martina as a choleric type, she has high hot and dry qualities, which I associate with thinking and intuition (she has Aries rising). She has almost no phlegmatic in her tempermanet, which means almost no water and very little cold qualities. Jung said that thinking types more likely show their emotions and lose their temper, because feeling (water) is inferior in them. By contrast, Chris is very high in phlegmatic and water and cold. Feeling types generally have good control over their emotions. From an MBTI perspective I see Martina as perhaps ENTJ and Chris as perhaps ISFP.
Chris and Martina are very close friends. Their tempermanets are opposite of each other so they balance each other out. Both women are excellent examples of the choleric and phlegmatic temperament because they don’t really have a secondary tempermanet balancing it out, so it is easy to see the choleric and phlegmatic. Most people have a blend of two temperaments.
Knowing your temperament will help you better understand both your personality type and your natal chart. Most importantly, it will help you improve your interactions and relationships with other people.
The “Big 3” in an astrology chart are the Sun, Moon, and Rising signs. In an ideal world everyone would know what their Big 3 are.
Temperament also has a Big 3: Rising sign element, Moon sign element, and Season of Birth. If two or more of these are the same temperament, then you have a very good idea what the overall temperament is before diving into a more formal calculation of temperament.
Choleric correlates to the fire signs of Leo, Sagittarius, and Leo. Sanguine consists of the air signs of Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius. Melancholic has the earth signs of Capricorn, Taurus, and Virgo. Phlegmatic is found in the water signs of Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces.
The seasons of birth are as follows: Spring is Sanguine, Summer is Choleric, Fall is Melancholic, and Winter is Phlegmatic. With temperament, the season of birth is more important than the Sun sign, which Jung also believed. Modern astrology places a lot of emphasis on the Sun sign, but the Sun sign isn’t about your personality, despite what the memes say. The Sun sign shows the plot line of your life and what your soul is up to and feels compelled to do. It is a lifelong process that we grow into.
The word phlegmatic probably immediately brings to mind phlegm and respiratory illnesses. In traditional medical astrology phlegm was associated with the water element and, when in balance, was believed to to lead to a calm and placid disposition.
By the way, speaking of medical astrology, here is a quick fun fact from Astro.com’s excellent wiki: “Belief in astrological influences over the humours, health, and personality was one reason why the predominant Christian authorities permitted medieval and renaissance medical students to study astrology even in times and places where the church banned astrology for predictive purposes.”
The phlegmatic temperament is associated with the water element (Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces), the cold and wet qualities, and the winter season.
Would rather study one thing in depth than a lot of things superficially.
Visits the same places over and over, becoming more comfortable each time.
Greta Garbo: “I want to be alone.”
Inertia is wonderful.
Slow and steady wins the race – does winning even matter?
Linda Berens calls the phlegmatic temperament Rational in her temperament system and associates it with the INTJ, INTP, ENTP, and ENTJ Myers-Briggs personality types. Note, however, that she emphasizes that temperaments don’t directly correlate to MBTI types. John Beebe’s typology system is the one I follow for MBTI, but I like refering to Berens’ temperament system to see how her modern take on temperaments might enhance our understanding of the astrological temperaments.
Berens says that the Rational’s “prevailing mood is one of tranquility.” They “place a high value on competence, coherence, and quality” and are “born with a predisposition for the complex…Rationals tend to focus on patterns and ‘think systems,’ both technical and social, and move with ease from the big picture to the minute details of ideas or situations.”
As indicated in Greenbaum’s book, astrologer Joseph Crane correlates phlegmatic to the introverted feeling and introverted intuition functions of the personality type. This is because introversion is cold and intuition and feeling are wet. Cold plus wet equals phlegmatic.
Most people have a compound temperament, which is a blend of two temperaments, with perhaps a smattering of the other two. Refer to my post on the melancholy temperament for more information on temperament and how to calculate temperament. Knowing your temperament will help you better understand both your personality type and your natal chart.
I was delighted to discover archetypes for the eight functions in Michael Pierce’s book Motes and Beams: A Neo-Jungian Theory of Personality. Even better, these archetypes are from the I Ching. This is the first time I’ve seen the I Ching used in personality typology outside of Human Design. I’m also excited to see how these can be used with John Beebe’s archetypes for each role of the functions.
If you aren’t familiar with the I Ching, it is an ancient Taoist Chinese text comprised of 64 hexagrams and commentary of the meaning of the hexgram. There are eight main trigrams and a hexagram is made out of two of the eight three-line trigrams, for a total of six lines in the hexagram. Using coin tosses or yarrow stalks one can pose a question and receive an answer in the form of two hexagrams. There are 4,096 possible combinations and the answer you receive is often eerily accurate. Jung used the I Ching and was close friends with Richard Wilhelm, the first English translator of the I Ching. Jungian analyst John Beebe is an expert in the I Ching.
For the purposes of typology, Pierce focuses on the symbolism eight trigrams for the eight functions. But first, Pierce starts with the four binaries of the I Ching and compares them with the four functions The broken line (— —) represents receptivity and is yin. The unbroken line (——) represents lack of receptivity and is yang. Therefore the four binaries and the four functions are as follows:
The eight trigrams include a third line added to the above binaries. According to Pierce, a third line that is unbroken represents introversion. A third line that is broken represents extraversion. Below are the eight trigrams and the personality function that he assigns to each one. Keep in mind that the bottom line of the trigram is the first line and the foundation. The third line is the top or “roof.”
Extraverted Sensation (Se), Earth – With three broken yin lines, earth is the most receptive of the eight trigrams. Its symbol is earth because it is “plowed and sown” and receives from Heaven. According to Pierce, “Se is the function that deals with the most raw, unworked material, direct from the world.
Introverted Feeling (Fi), Heaven – With three unbroken lines, this is the most yang and unreceptive function. According to Pierce, “Fi is the made-up mind…Opinions are usually in conflict, so there is no room left for receptivity or compromise. Fi poses ideals and goals; it is the sun beyond Kant’s horizon of reason, drawing one on to greater heights (and depths). It is the expression of Man’s active hoping.”
Introverted Sensation (Si), Mountain – The unbroken line and two broken lines represent a mountain. Pierce says, “It is assertive of its own unassertiveness. While Se seeks external presence, Si seeks internal presence: it represents reality to itself in a way that is personally meaningful. Thus, like the earth, it endures all thiings; yet, unlike the earth, it remains fundamentally unchanged, except by the greatest and most sustained efforts against it.”
Extraverted Feeling (Fe), Wind – This is the opposite of the Si mountain with a broken line followed by two unbroken lines. As Pierce says, “Wind penetrates the thickest fortress walls with its infinite powers of diffusion. Just so, Fe penetrates the heart of the public – either with a breeze, or with a raging, overzealous hurricane, that can sweep the multitudes along.”
Introverted Intuition (Ni), Fire – A broken line between two unbroken lines. It is assertive in the same way fire “asserts” itself on its surroundings. Pierce says,”The seeds of fire lie in the earth (Se) and its products, dead grass and trees. Fire begins with a spark (the epiphany), and the Idea begins to smolder, dance and blaze, casting more and more light upon its environment, until it even rivals the stars. But this tremendous radiance is all dependent upon a receptive core, its eartly fuel source. It is a nothing that affects everything around it.”
Extraverted Thinking (Te), Water – An unbroken line between two broken lines. Pierce contrasts this with fire. Fire has arises upwards from an insubstantial center, where water has a substantial center, has weight, and rushes downward. Interestingly, Pierce says Te completes a cycle. “Earth (Se) sparks a fire (Ni), which rises into the heavens (Fi), from which rain waters down (Te) and runs back down into the earth (Se).” I like how he describe the motion in type.
Extraverted Intuition (Ne), Thunder – There are two broken lines with an unbroken line as the roof. Like Fire (Ni), thunder is caused by a spark or epiphany. Pierce says, “but unlike fire, which escalates, thunder is a concentrated burst of energy…The two broken lines indicate reception, namely, of static change, leading up to the consummate systole of energy (the top line) and the subsequent rousing percussion of the thunderclap. The mountain (Si) often serves as the grounding rod for this energy, because of its height. Thus, the Ne brainstorm, lancing and daggering the sky in every direction, finds its grounding in Si.
Introverted Thinking (Ti), Lake – There are two unbroken lines with a broken line as the roof. This is the opposite of Ne (Thunder) and, per Pierce, “represents resting water. … the lake is a rush of energy settling down to a halt. The water has finished running downhill for the time being, and now stands open to receive. Now, like Si, it is essentially unmoving. Ti has worked out is fundamental principles, and all that is left is to live by them.”
Putting it all together with the John Beebe archetypes
I like how visual and practical the I Ching archtypes are and am interested in how they can work with Beebe’s archetypes for the roles of each function: Hero, Parent, Child (Puer), Anima/Animus and shadow functions of Opposing Personality, Witch/Senex, Trickster, and Demon. (For fun, here is a post I did where I picked a tarot card for each of Beebe’s functions).
For example, someone with an INTJ type would have Fire as their Hero function, Water as their Parent function, Heaven as their Child function, and Earth as their anima/animus function. This provides a more complete picture of the personality and captures the movement between functions. The online typology communities often differ on how to define the eight functions, so starting with the trigrams provides a solid starting place.
I’ve thought about which astrological symbols might correlate to the eight functions, but there are only seven traditional planets and there are 12 zodiac signs, which is too many. Jung and Liz Greene say that the fire signs are intuition, the earth signs are sensation, air signs are thinking, and water signs are feeling. But that quickly falls apart when you start looking at the eight functions, which is why astrology is better for calculating temperament (here is my recent post on the melancholy temperament). You can work with both your temperament and personality type for a deeper understanding of yourself.
What do you think about the I Ching trigrams and the personality functions? Feel free to contact me if you have any comments questions.
Most everyone knows about melancholy and, unfortunately, often confuse it with depression. For this reason, the melancholic temperament is probably the most well-known of the four ancient temperaments (which include sanguine, choleric, and phlegmatic).
What is Temperament?
Before I describe the melancholic temperament, I will first describe a bit about temperament in general. Temperament is innate to the individual and means “mixture.” Temperament originated in the medical world with Hippocrates and Galen .It dates back to the fifth century B.C.E.
Astrologers began working with temperament early on, beginning with the Greeks and continuing through the Renaissance with Marsilio Ficino, Paracelsus, William Lilly, and others. Then astrology went into a recession in the west for the next 200+ years. In the 1800’s Rudolf Steiner and Marc Edmund Jones revived the temperaments and, along with Jung and several others, brought astrology back to life in the west. In the 20th century Linda Berens, David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates brought temperament into the personality typology world.
In astrology, temperaments are more than just descriptive – they are prescriptive. I calculate the temperament of my clients’ charts and charts of famous people that I study. If you know that someone has, for example, a melancholic/phlegmatic temperament (most people have a compound temperament of at least two predominant temperaments), then an upcoming transit from Mars potentially provides and opportunity for some much-needed energy and initiative. If the person instead has a choleric temperament, then they will likely need to guard against angry outbursts and find outlets for the excess of energy during that time period.
The Melancholic Temperament
Melancholic is associated with the earth element, cold and dry qualities, and the autumn season.
The light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.
Idea of a fun time is reading the dictionary.
Likes to play the blame game.
Can’t bear the idea of superficial knowledge.
Linda Berens calls the melancholic temperament the Guardian in her temperament system and associates it with the ESTJ, ESFJ, ISTJ, and ISFJ Myers-Briggs personality types. Astrologer Joseph Crane correlates it to the introverted thinking and introverted sensation functions of the personality type.
Melancholy vs. Melancholic
Although someone with a melancholic temperament may experience melancholy more often than other types, anyone can have melancholy. My favorite book about melancholy, and about Abraham Lincoln, is Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness. This book makes the case that Lincoln’s melancholy was the fuel for his achievements.
Unfortunately there isn’t an exact birth time available for Lincoln. In looking at the Aquarius rising chart that is typically used for him, he had a compound melancholic-phlegmatic temperament with a smidgen of choleric and sanguine. The phlegmatic adds some emotion to the melancholic temperament and one can see that in this description from the book: ‘Lincoln was reserved in personal details but quite open in showing his true emotional self, including the suffering that sometimes overtook him. Reporters, allies, and ordinary citizens who watched Lincoln rarely came away thinking they knew his secrets, but they often came away thinking they’d seen the man.”
How to Calculate Temperament
There are different formulas for calculating temperament from an astrology chart, but all of them involve the Moon, Sun, and Ascendant. I introduced one of the formulas in this post. I am now also testing a more intricate formula described in the book On The Heavenly Spheres by Helena Avelar & Luis Ribeiro. This formula closely adheres to the work of 17th century astrologer William Lilly.
Again, these formulas aren’t meant to reduce someone to a label. Temperament is a starting point in looking at a person’s whole potential and one must look at the entire chart for a complete picture. For those who are interested in Jungian personality typology, combining temperament with it is a winsome combination in my opinion because, unlike typology, temperament provides an objective starting point.
I will soon write posts on the other three temperaments. In the meantime, feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
For fun I decided to find a tarot card that matches up with each of the eight John Beebe personality archetypes. This can be an aid to journaling about your personality and also gives you a visual to draw upon when you consciously use a function in a situation.
Here is a Jungian take on exploring the archetypal characters within us:
Jung believed that our disposition to experience the heroes, villains, lovers, and despots in ourselves derives from archetypal, which is to say, ancient, universal character formations that are the root structures of our psyches…in our deeper or fuller consciousness we are multiple beings…we have many personalities within us. Some of these other selves are surprisngly close to consciousness and can be awakened quite easily by the use of theater games and guided imagery exercises.
In astrology, there is a tarot card for each 10 degree slice of a zodiac sign (three cards per sign). These 10 degree slices are called decans. Decans were the earliest form of astrology beginning in the third millennium BCE. In the early 1900’s the Golden Dawn assigned a tarot card to each decan and the decans influenced the symbolism in the Rider Waite Smith deck.
I really enjoy the blending of tarot with astrology in that way and want to give a try at doing that with the personality types. I’ve seen tarot cards used to represent a single personality type, but let’s take a look at tarot cards for each of the 8 functions.
Here goes:
Hero function: The Sun. The Sun represents being seen for who you truly are. There is clarity, success, enthusiasm, feeling safe to be yourself. Wholeness and health. I find that this card resonates most with me for the hero archetype. There are other candidates too, like The Magician, Six of Wands, and Strength, so use whichever one resonates. The Sun’s opposite is the Moon, which I chose for the anima/animus (inferior) function, so that’s also why I settled on the Sun.
Parent function: The Empress/Emperor. The Empress is associated with the archetype of the mother. She is an emotional leader and represents unconditional love, nature, creativity. The Emperor is associated with the archetype of the traditional father. He represents stability, authority, and masculinity.
Eternal Child (Puer) function: The Fool. The Fool is innocent and unaware and at the beginning of the journey. This correlates well to the Eternal Child, which is a weaker function and where we remain child-like.
Anima/Animus function. The Moon. The Moon represents are deepest fears and being carried along by forces we pretend to understand. It represents being in the dark about something and acting instinctively. On the positive end, The Moon reminds us that the anima/animus (inferior) function is the gateway to the unconscious and the importance of dream work and shadow work.
Opposing Personality – The Hanged Man. The Hanged Man represents looking at things from a different perspective. Letting go, martyrdom, self-sacrifice, facing doubts. To me this matches up well with what is is like to use the function that is opposite our hero function.
Critical Parent/Senex/Witch –10 of Swords. 10 of Swords represents feeling hurt, criticized, stabbed in the back. It is opposite the Parenting function, and in the absence of proper parenting, the card represents feeling like you have to take care of everyone and the exhaustion that entails.
The Trickster – 7 of Swords. This card is the sneak. It represents lying or using manipulation to get out of or control a situation.
Demon – The Devil. Beebe says that the demon function is the part of us that is both devil and angel, so I chose the Devil card to represent this function. The Tower would work too. The Devil represents being chained to a person or situation. Darkness, chaos, destructive behavior, wanting what is forbidden are all part of The Devil.
I’d love to hear what you think about these tarot card associations and if you came up with any different ones. If you get this blog post by email, just click reply to email me. Otherwise click here for my contact page.
If I were to summarize why I love personality typology and astrology, it is because they can help us see and become who we already are.
In the Jungian world, personality typology is a stepping stone to wholeness and to discovering who we already are. Jung described the end result as the “transcendent function.”
Here is one of my favorite definitions of the transcendent function, from Jungian analyst Polly Young Eisendrath:
Resisting our tendencies to defend our complexes, we develop an ability that Jung called the “transcendent function.” It is the capacity to hold tensions and let a meaning emerge without prematurely deciding whether a situation is “good” or “bad.”
From a personality type perspective, Marie Louise-von Franz, Jung’s close associate, described it as how the first step is to assimilate our dominant function. Then we make the second more conscious and, eventually, the third. The inferior function always remains a problem and we can’t approach this function directly. Jung said the practice of active imagination is the best way to approach it. Painting, dancing, and other creative expression can help.
Additionally, focusing on the middle two functions of the personality type through active imagination forms a “middle ground” of the personality – a kind of “inner center” – and you can start using the functions at will instead of unconsciously. Remember that in the first half of life the focus is on developing the middle two functions of our personality type, with one of those becoming the auxiliary function. In the last half of life the focus turns to the inferior function.
Knowing where Mercury is in your astrology natal chart can help with this process. In the book Inner Planets, Howard Sasportas says Mercury is the mostly closely related to the transcendent function:
The secret of alchemy was in fact the transcendent function, the transformation of the personality through the blending and fusion of the noble with the base components, of the differentiated with the inferior functions, of the conscious with the unconscious. I believe that Mercury is the planet most closely aligned to the transcendent function.
Mercury was the only god that could go to the underworld and return. This back-and-forth quality of Mercury helps us unite the opposites within us. Mercury is also associated with communication, mediation, business, negotiation, analysis, and even back-and-forth games like tennis, pickleball (my favorite), basketball, and so on. Mercury also shows where we need variety and change and how we like to be playful and curious.
The zodiac wheel is divided into 12 areas of life called houses. Take a look at your natal chart to see which house and zodiac sign Mercury is in. This will show how Mercury can help bring the opposites together within you, in regards to personality type, and also the opposites form without in relationships and interactions with others.
For example, if Mercury is in Pisces in your 7th house of relationships this points to a more creative form of Mercury. Giving space to creative expression in whatever form appeals to you will make your personality flourish. Active imagination will probably come easy to you. Spirituality may also be important to you. Mercury here also means that relationships will play a key role in discovering who you already are.
Although it can be helpful to work with a typologist or Jungian analyst to discover your personality type, doing much of the work on your own will be even more meaningful, as it gets you in touch with your inner self.
Journaling is one of the best methods you can use for this process as it helps you keep track of trends over time. As author and Jungian Analyst Daryl Sharp wrote:
In the area of typology, as with any attempt to understand oneself, there is no substitute for prolonged self-reflection.
The daily journal prompts below draw from Jungian analyst John Beebe’s archetypal typology model, but they will work for any Jungian-based typology system, such as MBTI and Objective Personality.
I phrased these questions as archetypes because it important to not use the language of the functions in your journal entries. Refrain from saying “I used my Fe today while listening to my co-worker talk.” Instead say something like, “I “parented” my neighbor today by listening to her talk about her problems.” Don’t make assumptions about which function you are using. Instead, tell the story of how that archetypal role was apparent in your life that day.
Here are the prompts:
How did I act heroically today? This can be any activity you did effortlessly or in a flow state.
Did I “parent” anyone today? Described how you helped someone in a way that came naturally to you.
How did my inner eternal child show itself today? This can be a situation where someone else “parented” you and provided help in area you aren’t strong in. It can also be something you were enthusiastic about in a child-like way.
Did I get triggered in a positive or negative way today? This helps you track the “other” within you that gets overly upset when your ideals aren’t met and overjoyed when they are. Pay particular attention to surges of emotions you felt in your body.
Once you have settled on what your personality type might be you can continue to use these prompts to help you become less one-sided in your personality, which is the entire point of knowing your personality type, so that you can become the unique personality that you are.
