Jung saw the heart as “the centre of wholenes” and believed it possessed its own intelligence.
Ancient traditions located the mind within the heart, not the head.
In Chinese the word for mind and heart is the same: xin. “The heart-mind is the seat of our emotions as well as the center of our rationality” (Puett, The Path, p. 70).
Fast forward to today and we now know the heart has its own mind:
Over the last twenty years, even our understanding of the physical heart has given rise to a whole new specialty of medicine called neuro-cardiology. We now must think of the heart as a very complex system, with its own intrinsic mind, its “heart-brain.” Indeed, the heart sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart (Becker, Soul-Making, p. 182).
This kind of intelligence isn’t the kind you can learn from books or going to school:
As Jung reminds us: “Scholarliness alone is not enough; there is a knowledge that gives deeper insight. The knowledge of the heart is in no book and is not to be heard from the mouth of any teacher. It grows out of you like the plant from the green seed in the dark earth. … But how can I attain the knowledge of the heart? You can attain this knowledge only by living your life to the full” (Becker, Soul-Making, p. ).
Living life to the full will inevitably involve encounters with suffering:
They say that life itself is the best therapist; it constantly confronts us with new challenges and the bittersweet possibility of a bigger vision. Jung wrote that it was this wounding of the personality that led to the most fundamental of Shifts…the opening the heart (Hill, Cosmic Human Cosmic Intent).
According to Michael Puett, the heart-mind is the middle ground between the senses and the intellect. “Cultivating the heart-mind is what fosters our ability to decide well” (Puett, The Path, p. 70. Click here for a post I wrote about how to cultivate the heart mind).
It is now Leo season and, astrologically, the sign of Leo is associated with the heart and is ruled by the Sun.
The heart is not just a personal organ, but a microcosmic sun—”a cosmos of all possible experiences that no one can own” (Hillman, The Thought of the Heart and the Soul of the World, p. 26).
On the one hand, Leo wants to own their individual, authentic experiences. Jung says, “Your vision will become clear only when you look into your own heart” (Jung, Letters, Volume 1).
However, the new Moon in Leo, happening just after the Sun entered Leo, is opposite Pluto in Aquarius, triggering an intense reconciliation of oppopsites.
Leo is individual and personal with a desire to express its unique self. Leo shines and radiates like the Sun.
Aquarius offers one’s individuality for the benefit of the collective.
While discussing this Leo-Aquarian axis in his recent video, Adam Elenbaas talks about how, in the ancient world, astrologers helped guide solar figures such as queens, kings, and other powerful people:
They acted as advisors that helped the central figure, the central authority, to remain aware of larger collective forces like the gods, whose planets, whose powers resided in the planets. So in that way, the astrologer makes sure that the king knows that they are an ambassador on behalf of the gods. Their order is supposed to mirror cosmic order.
So, too, should we align our heart-mind with the microcosmic sun, which astrology can help us do:
“With the heart, we connect the embodied soul to a higher purpose, something larger than ourselves” (Becker, Soul-Making, p. 183).
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