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INTRODUCTION

To make use of the myths and archetypes which lie behind the practice of Astrology, you may begin from the birth chart itself, or simply from your own inner response to the myths.

If you have enough astrological background to read your own chart, you will be able to identify the planets or signs which play the largest role in your own "personal myth".   They will indicate the archetypes to which you respond most strongly.

Perhaps, you identify very strongly with the planet Venus because you have always placed a primary value on  your relationships.  If your relationships have suffered, you know you must do some serious work on the love goddess within you. 

Or maybe you are having difficulty with the "material world" and you need to make friends with Saturn.

You are now ready to begin the curious and meandering process which Jungian psychology calls symbolic amplification.  This process has no beginning or end; it goes in circles.  Like alchemy, it mixes and cooks various symbols and myths until a whole new image is born  by way of a process of transmutation.  (If you are a novice in the study of astrology, it is advisable that you contact a competent astrologer to help you to understand the planets and signs and their symbolic meaning).

Another technique is dreamwork, and in some ways it resembles symbolic amplification.  Our dreams are filled with stories, characters, and themes which are also found in folklore, fairy tales, and mythology.   Our dreams embody our personal myths.  It is the unconscious psyche which speaks to us through our dreams, and myth is the language of the unconscious. 

We must examine how the dream and the birth chart combine with each other bearing in mind that the Sun represents the dreamer's deepest self - the heart of his own personal myth.  We look to transits to the Sun for meaning.

Lastly, another method of contacting the planetary and zodiacal archetypes is the most direct of all.  Jungian analysts call it the "active imagination" in which case, the therapist plays the role of guide.  If one allows one's consciousness to travel into archetypal realism with no clear intention of where he is going, he may encounter dangerous images or  unpleasant inner realities.

All the planets, signs, gods and goddesses are within you and represent part of your eternal, archetypal self.  When you make contact with a particular planet or mythological deity, you are really making contact with part of your eternal self.  Using mythic astrology, you can  choose the planet or goddess or god you intend to activate within yourself and know where you are going and what you are getting into.

When you hear something of value that echoes in the stillness of your imagination, you will know that the gods have spoken.

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               ....LOCATION OF GODS' AND GODDESSES' SACRED SITES

SUN - APOLLO

RULER OF SUN SIGN LEO (FIRE)

Apollo was the golden child of the Greek pantheon, gifted in music, mathematics, medicine, and prophecy.  He wandered all over Greece in search of a holy place upon which to found his shrine.  He decided on Delphi but had to slay the giant serpent, Python, before he could set up his shrine.  Apollo became associated with the laws that were handed down from Delphi.  Two messages inscribed upon the temple gates were:  "Know Thyself" and "Nothing in Excess".  The Sun symbolizes our will and sense of purpose and symbolizes our heart's  truest desire.

MERCURY - HERMES

RULER OF SUN SIGNS GEMINI AND VIRGO (AIR & EARTH)

Mercury, the smallest planet, is also the planet nearest the Sun.  A symbol of the rational mind, Mercury is linked with our sense of spiritual direction;  the mind must serve our sense of purpose (Sun).   In late classical times (300 BC-300AD) Hermes, the Greek Mercury, was symbolically united with the Egyptian Thoth who was considered to be the god of the Moon.  The connection is not without significance as Mercury represents the rational intellect and the Moon represents instinctual memory.  When the two planets are favorably aspected, a person has the innate ability to remember everything he/she learns resulting in a sparkling intellect.  The Greeks recognized this duality of the mind, for they considered their god Hermes, child of Zeus and the nymph Maia,  as the god of thieves, denoting his ferocious  cleverness as well as his powers of communication. The human intellect is basically amoral and not necessarily connected to any moral code.  Thus, the intellect must be directed toward a higher purpose (Sun - Jupiter).

VENUS - APHRODITE

RULER OF SUN SIGNS TAURUS AND LIBRA (EARTH & AIR)

In the beginning the world was ruled by Uranus, the sky father, and Gaia, the Earth Mother, the primordial pair.  Uranus became a tyrant and was overthrown by his son Saturn (Cronus), who castrated him with a sickle.  The creative seed of the primal sky god was scattered throughout heaven and earth.  Some of it fell into the ocean and gave birth to Venus, whom the Greeks knew as Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love.  Aphrodite means "born from the sea-foam".  Venus is exalted in the sign Pisces and Pisces is the symbol of the great ocean. Psycho- logically, we may say that the desire for love, sex, and relationship is the first human function to emerge from that ocean of unconsciousness symbolized by Pisces.  It is Venus, the Goddess of Love who dances on the waters of the collective mind or world soul.  She is the mediatrix or guide to the deepest layers of the unconscious. Married to the lame   Hephaestus (Vulcan), God of  Fire, whom she rejected, she favored Mars and enjoyed a long love affair with him and bore his children. While a  Mars/Venus aspect for two people indicates sexual and romantic passion resulting in a love affair, it does not indicate a  commitment for marriage. There must be other aspects.   As ruler of Taurus, Venus represents self-worth and that which you value and own.

MARS - ARES

RULER OF SUN SIGN ARIES (FIRE)

Astrologers of medieval and Renaissance times watched the progress of the red planet with some trepidation, for it portended war, fever, and plague.  The Greeks looked with equal reservation upon the god Ares, whose domain was war.  He was the legitimate son of Zeus (Jupiter) and Hera (Juno), though it is said that both parents hated him.  He delighted in battle and violence for its own sake; and if heroes worshipped him or sought to develop some of his "martial" qualities, they also feared him.  Even Homer, whose Iliad glorifies the arts of war, has little good to say about him; he is called "murderous Ares", "violent Ares", and even "Ares, blood-stained man-killer and stormer of cities".   There were no temples to the god of war nor any sacred places.  To the Romans however, who glorified war heroes and "martial arts", Mars was considered the patriarch of Rome.  He was their heroic god;  his name was invoked on battlefields.   He is also considered the motivating force or energetic level through which one is impelled to act.

JUPITER - ZEUS

RULER OF SUN SIGN SAGITTARIUS (FIRE)

To the Babylonians, the planet Jupiter (Zeus) was known as Marduk who was "king" of the gods. Apollo is the Sun, and the Sun was the "king" of the planets.  Both the Sun and Jupiter exercise the kingly function of bringing order into chaos, of harnessing vital energies for the purpose of conscious achievement.  Both participate in the masculine archetype called the "inner" king. As king of the gods, Jupiter was the administrator of the classical cosmos.  He had the power  and authority, as sovereign ruler, to reward one and bestow immortality upon another, or condemn them to terrible fates, based on his judgment of those acts.  Jupiter is associated with lawyers and judges, and Jupiter's transits can bring golden opportunity.  To follow Jupiter's road to abundance enables us to maintain a spirit of generosity and good fellowship.

SATURN - CRONUS

RULER OF SUN SIGN CAPRICORN - (EARTH)

Saturn (Cronus) constitutes one of the most complex archetypes in the astrological mandala. He is associated with "karma". Most of the other planets reveal their problematical side when combined with Saturn - he is known as the "taskmaster"  among the planets.  Darkness, doom, disease, and delay are all laid upon his shoulders.   Saturn  appears as an authority figure in the chart; often the Father.  He himself was the son of a very   domineering father (Uranus) and so he too became very domineering.  (Often the child becomes a tyrannical parent.) Saturn's  career was ended as a prisoner in Tartarus.   On the positive side, through  commitment, perseverance, struggle, obstacles and delays, we eventually refine and purify our character and earn the rewards offered by Saturn:  wisdom and perfection.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel . . .   Saturn was also ruler of the Golden Age, the mellow springtime of humanity.

URANUS - OURANUS

RULER OF SUN SIGN AQUARIUS (AIR)

Because Uranus was discovered during the American and French Revolution in 1781, it has been correlated with freedom, independence, and a revolutionary or rebellious nature.  Those born with prominent aspects to Uranus have a pioneering spirit and god-like consciousness, often at the sacrifice of a personal or earthly life.  Uranus is the iconoclast, the divine rebel; he is also the creative power of human will.  It is as the creator rather than the rebel that he first makes his appearance.  His name is derived from the Latin "Ouranos", which is related to Sanskrit Varua, who, in the Rig Veda,  is both the creator and the guardian of cosmic law.  In ancient Greece,  Ouranos was the original sky father, the first child of Gaia or Mother Earth when she emerged from the primordial chaos.  Because of his tyranny, he was castrated with a sickle by his son, Cronus (Saturn).

NEPTUNE - POSEIDON

RULER OF SUN SIGN PISCES (WATER)

Brother of Zeus, Neptune (Poseidon) was given the domain of the oceans and the collective unconscious.  Neptune appears strongly in the horoscopes of idealists, musicians, painters, dancers, as well as alcoholics, drug addicts, therapists, and those who follow a spiritual vocation.  The typical Neptunian turns to his inner vision where he creates his fantasies - sometimes as an escape mechanism.  This dreaminess alerts us to the fact that Neptune is acting as the carrier for an additional archetype - Dionysus who is primarily a god of religious ecstasy.   Ecstasy is both the gift and the fatal flaw of the Neptunian individual. It is dangerous to be possessed by an archetype. When we begin to believe that we are godlike beings, above and beyond human laws and limitations, we risk being swallowed by Earth Mother.

PLUTO - HADES

RULER OF SUN SIGN SCORPIO (WATER)

When Pluto was discovered in 1930, the world was embarking upon another crisis.  In the grips of a severe depression, the U.S. was experiencing its darkest hour of the 20th century.   In Europe, the age of the dictator was in full swing:  Hitler, Mussolini and Franco and their dark armies were evoking terror, while the Mafia was implementing their own brand of terrorism across Europe and America.  The atomic bomb, made from plutonium, was in its early stages.   Lastly, one more Plutonian element emerged from the depths of the underworld - depth psychology and the psychoanalytic process - with Freud (Plutonian sexuality), Adler (Plutonian power drive) and Jung (Plutonian transformation).  Pluto was quickly assigned to the rulership of Scorpio since both planet and sign  have underworld affinities.   The feminine part of Pluto is Persephone.

HERA - JUNO

When Zeus claimed Hera as his wife, he was not simply taking a marriage partner, but incorporating within his ruling domain the entire matriarchal world, previously headed by his new bride.  When the invading Indo-Europeans entered Greece, they found it necessary to incorporate many of the previously existing religious customs and rituals into the new system, so that the indigenous populace would put up less resistance.  This tradition has been repeated for centuries, especially among royalty and powerful families, as a way to increase their power and holdings.  A Libra rulership has been suggested for Hera-Juno since Libra   is concerned with equality and primary one-to-one relationships.  Juno's name was given to the month of June, a month still chosen above all others as the most desirable month for marriage.  Hera was always invoked at wedding ceremonies in ancient times.  Her marriage to Jupiter (Zeus) was stormy and turbulent.  His frequent infidelities, her jealous rages, and their mutual successful attempts to revenge themselves upon one another would have many wonder why they would continue their relationship.  In reality, Juno is the embodiment of Jupiter's female polarity as Jupiter is the embodiment of Juno's male side. Her strength and temperament empowered Jupiter and vice versa.

EROS AND PSYCHE

Theirs is a story of love (Eros) in search of a soul (Psyche) and a soul in search of love.  Eros was  the son of Aphrodite, the Goddess of  Love.  One day it became known that there was a woman more beautiful than Aphrodite herself  so she ordered this woman executed.  Her son, Eros was given the job of making sure that Psyche would meet her death.  His usual task was shooting mortals with his magic love arrows, but when he saw Psyche tied to a rock and blindfolded, he accidentally shot himself with his own arrow. One look at the beautiful Psyche and he was instantly in love.  He untied her and carried her off to his castle in the valley.  He insisted that she remain blindfolded when they were together so that she would not discover that he was the God of Love.  She disobeyed and he fled.   Psyche prayed to Aphrodite for his return to which she consented after giving Psyche a series of seemingly impossible tasks which were designed with the assurance that Psyche would fail.  However, with the help of the animal kingdom, Psyche completed all the tasks perfectly and was reunited with Eros.

DIONYSUS

In ancient times, Dionysus was the divine son of the Earth Mother, or even of the underworld mother.  To the Greeks, his father was Zeus and his mother was Semele, a princess of Thebes.  Hidden from Hera, he was raised as an androgyne by a group of nymphs called the Hyades who disguised him as a girl.   When he became conscious of  his godhood, he introduced the cultivation of the vine, traveled the world, and spread drunken ecstasy wherever he went.  His devotees, the maenads, were inebriated women who danced with wild abandon, and in their madness, tore men to pieces.   Dionysus met and married Ariadne, princess of Crete.   Ariadne had been abandoned by Thaeseus.  Neptunians are typically attracted to relationships that have a savior-victim quality, which is often unhealthy.  However, through his marriage, he acquired maturity and balance and took his place among the gods, abandoning his wandering lifestyle.

HEPHAESTUS

GOD OF THE FORGE

Hephaestus/Vulcan, son of Jupiter and Hera, was the lame husband of Venus/Aprodite, whom she rejected in favor of Mars, the god of war. She and Mars enjoyed a long love affair and she bore his children.  Hephaestus, a skilled craftsman, was married to his work and may have been partly responsible for Venus' infidelities.  He did not possess much of a capacity for intimacy or relationship - something that Venus needed.  One of the most common stories involving Mars and Venus concerned the response of Vulcan when he learned that his wife was involved in a love affair with the god of war.  Pretending to take a vacation, he caught them making love and captured them with a magic net of gold that he had made for this purpose.   He then called upon all the deities of Mt. Olympus to witness his wife's shame.   However, at the insistence of Neptune, Mars and Venus were released from the chains of love.

HERCULES

To the Greeks and Romans, Hercules was a vigorous and powerful character; the quintessential hero.  But Hercules was just as chaotic as he was courageous - he gets drunk, starts fights, rages and rants.  Like life itself, he is a force of human nature,  unconstrained by social traditions or ethical values.   The wild arrogance of Hercules points out the Sun's more unpleasant side - too much will-power and purpose leads us to arrogance, which can have destructive consequences.   The Sun's annual drama of death and rebirth reflects the process of the development of human consciousness - the cycle of death and rebirth common to all mythologies everywhere - the essential story or myth of the human soul.  A number of myths seem to link the hero's journey with the Sun's zodiacal journey in a very direct way such as the Greek story of the twelve labors of Heracles.

HADES AND PERSEPHONE

THE RAPE OF KORE (PERSEPHONE)

Kore was the maiden daughter of Demeter (Ceres), goddess of the Earth and harvest.  As she was picking flowers in a field near Eleusis, the earth opened up before her.  A dark chariot emerged from the depths, driven by a dark rider.  It was Hades (Pluto), lord of the underworld; he seized Kore and took her unwillingly into the land of the dead.  Demeter went into a serious depression and forbade the Earth to bear fruit.  Fearful of the extinction of humanity, Zeus sent Hermes into the underworld to beg for Kore's release.  There was a compromise; Kore would spend three months of every year in the underworld (winter) and the remaining nine upon Earth.  But she would remain the dark lord's queen, and her name would no longer be Kore (maiden), but Persephone, "she who is to be feared."

CHIRON

The "planetoid" Chiron was discovered in 1977.  He somewhat resembles the asteroids but though similar in appearance, he is located far away from the asteroid belt.  His orbit, between Saturn and Uranus, constitutes something of an anomaly, being extremely elliptical.  According to obscure classical works, Chiron was the child of Saturn who had pursued and made love to a nymph named Philyra.  He was surprised by his outraged wife Rhea and at the moment of climax, Cronus turned himself into a stallion and fled Rhea's jealous wrath.  Philyra gave birth to Chiron, half human - half horse, and from Chiron sprang the race of the centaurs.  In Greek mythology, the centaurs were depicted as creatures of raw instinct.  Chiron was an exception.  He lived in meditative isolation , a reclusive philosopher/teacher.  He possessed knowledge of astrology and astronomy, nature, medicine, and mathematics.  Presently, he has been assigned to the sign Virgo and astrologers acknowledge his position in chart analysis.

PALLAS - ATHENE

Perhaps the most remarkable myth about Pallas Athene is the story of her birth.  It is said that Zeus pursued the Titaness Metis and made love to her.  Metis was the original guardian of the planet Mercury, and her name meant "counsel".  Gaia told Zeus the first child of Metis would be a female but if Metis were allowed to survive, she would in time give birth to a male that would supplant Zeus.  Like his father, Cronus, Zeus took action and swallowed Metis - though she continued to give "counsel" from his stomach.  Later, Zeus was seized with a raging headache.  His son Hephaestus relieved his pain by splitting his head open - and out leapt gray-eyed Pallas Athene, daughter of Metis, clothed in armor and giving a great shout!  As the child of her father's brain it was natural to associate Athene with the human intellect.  There are strong links between Pallas Athene and the archetype of Pluto.  Snakes played an important role in the secret teachings and mysteries surrounding life, death, and immortality (Scopio) and Athene was, to the Greeks, the Goddess of Wisdom.  She was also the goddess who was said to have invented weaving, cooking, pottery, mathematics, the plough, the chariot, and ship-building - all the "useful" arts.  It is in the area of love that Athene seems to have been at her weakness, and her armor is symbolic of the difficulty she had in establishing any kind of close relationship.

PROMETHEUS

Uranus is very closely associated with Prometheus who was of the race of the Titans, son of Eurymedon.  His name means "hindsight".  A prophetic or futuristic slant on reality was his characteristic and he always befriended humans and defended them against the gods.   He is said to have fashioned the first humans of clay, and then to have breathed his vital spirit into them to make them live.    Because he captured a spark of the divine fire and gave it to humankind (enlightenment) he was punished by Zeus.   He was chained to a mountaintop in the Caucasus, where an eagle would rip his liver out each day, keeping him in perpetual torment.  This is significant of the incredible loneliness and isolation that overwhelms us when our Promethean spirit is fully awakened as we are now different for the experience. It was Chiron who sacrificed himself so that Prometheus might be released.

ATLAS

THE TITANS

The Greeks did not believe that the gods created the universe; rather it was the other way around. The universe created the gods. Before there were gods heaven and earth had been formed. They were the first parents. The Titans were their children, and the gods were their grandchildren. The Titans, often called the Elder Gods, were supreme in the universe for eons. There were many of them but the most important was Cronus (Saturn) who ruled over the other Titans until his son, Zeus dethroned him and seized the power for himself. According to some traditions, Atlas was the son of Uranus and thus the brother of Cronus. He belonged to the generation of monstrous and unbridled divinities which preceded the Olympians. He took part in the struggle between the Gods and the Giants and Zeus sentenced him to carrying the vault of the sky on his shoulders as punishement. Herodotus was the first person to refer to Atlas as a mountain in North Africa. Perseus was said to have turned Atlas into a rock on returning after slaying the Gorgon, by confronting him with Medusa's head.

GAIA

EARTH

The Earth conceived as the primordial element from which sprang the divine races. According to Hesoid's Theogony, Gaia was born immediately after Chaos and just before Eros (Love). Without the aid of any male, she gave birth to Uranus (Heaven), to the Mountains, and also to Pontus, the male personification of the marine element. After the birth of Uranus, she coupled with him, and the children she bore thereafter were no longer simple elementary powers, but actual gods. ;k;k;k;k;k;k;k;k;k;k;;;k;;;k;k;k;k;k;k;k;k;k;k