Astrology and Personality: Your Star Self

Astrology is often thought of as a prediction system (who you should marry, the best times to plan events, etc.), but it is also a very rich and complex system of personality information—much more than just your sun sign. Regardless of whether you “believe in” astrology, it provides a spiritual/metaphysical lens of exploring the different parts of your personality and how they relate to each other.

Your birth chart is a snapshot of the moment of your birth and your identity in the universe. The placement of the planets, signs, houses, and aspects (the relationship of the planets to each other) in it complete the puzzle of your universal identity.

Here is a brief guide to what the planets in your chart may tell you about yourself:

• Sun—Your Core Self, your essence, the self you show to the public/others
• Moon—Your Inner Self, your inner child, vulnerabilities, the self you keep hidden
• ASC—Your Mask, the first impression you make
• Mercury—Your Mind, intelligence, mindset, thoughts
• Venus—Your Heart, emotions, feelings
• Mars—Your Energy, passion, fire, actions
• Jupiter—Your Development, horizon broadening, learning, growth, expansion
• Saturn—Your Structure, discipline
• Uranus—Your Originality, uniqueness
• Neptune—Your Dreams, fantasies, ideals
• Pluto—Your Evolutionary Self, rejuvenation, generation, regeneration
• Nodes—Your Lessons, what you are here to learn and teach

Use these resources for more information:

Free birth chart website

*Reference Tables:

Planets—Your subpersonalities

Signs—The manner in which you use your subpersonalities

Houses—The areas of your life where your subpersonalities are most emphasized

Aspects—How your various subpersonalities interact with each other

*Two good websites for introductory Astrology lessons:

Bob Marks Astrology Lessons

The Mountain Astrologer Beginning Astrology Lessons

Intro to Psychosynthesis: Integrating Our Subpersonalities

Psychosynthesis is a branch of Psychology that works with our various subpersonalities/roles in life with the aim of integrating them all into a whole. It starts from the premise that we are all healthy (as opposed to other therapies that aim to fix what is wrong).

 

 

It has been called “Psychology with a Soul”, as it integrates a spiritual dimension into the understanding of the Self for both personal and spiritual development. Psychosynthesis recognizes various levels of consciousness and two stages of development that often overlap: Personal and Transpersonal (Spiritual). A major emphasis is placed on the spiritual part of our identity—our Higher Self, or our personal experience of Spirit.

Psychosynthesis was developed by Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli in 1910 to merge the grounding, reflective process of psychology with the deeper, soul aspect of spiritualism. It is the forerunner of Humanistic Psychology and Transpersonal Psychology.

Some of the goals of Psychosynthesis are the following:

• Create self-awareness and discover our spiritual nature and potential.
• Enhance the full range of human experience and support our movement toward self-realization.
• Make the subpersonalities/roles creative and helpful in our life.
• Integrate personality through self-realization, self-actualization, and spiritual (transpersonal) development.

Working with our subpersonalities is a five-stage process:

1. Recognition
2. Acceptance
3. Coordination
4. Integration
5. Synthesis

According to Psychosynthesis, we create our own problems. We must have awareness and will to change/get unstuck. Will, imagination, and intuition are all necessary. Wants are an external manifestation of subpersonalities that mask needs.

Subpersonalities want to transform/evolve themselves and integrate to become whole. Once all our subpersonalities are integrated, we are able to experience a new level of growth on our journey of evolution.

Related articles

• Psychosynthesis and the Inner World (thejungian.com)
• Symbols of the Inner World (thejungian.com)

X-Men Chronicles: Rogue—Intimacy

One of the most popular X-Men characters of all time has been Rogue (aka Anna Marie), a young runaway girl from Mississippi who was born as a mutant. She considers her powers of absorbing energy through skin contact, which includes the skills, abilities, powers, memories, and psyche of others, a curse, as they make physical intimacy impossible for her.

Throughout the course of her adventures, she passes from exploring her dark, shadow side as a malevolent terrorist while in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to claiming her light, good side as a benevolent mutant working on the X-Men team. After absorbing other identities, she holds these various subpersonalities within her (until eventually they are released). The personality that had the major, turning point influence on her and convinced her to leave the Brotherhood was Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers). After completely absorbing her Kree (alien) powers, she realized the evil of the Brotherhood and sought help from Professor Xavier to control her various personalities.

Rogue represents several parts of us—our desire for connection and intimacy, our struggle between light and dark/good and evil, and our efforts to integrate all parts of our personality for wholeness and happiness.