South Node Astrology; How Love Sabotages and Saves our Lives

South Node Astrology; How Love Sabotages and Saves our Lives

I’m just beginning my second book, a sequel to North Node Astrology—this one with the title above (and soon a new blog) to focus on that South Node aspect of astrology and the ways that love, and expectations around love, both saves and sabotages us. North Node Astrology focused more on life direction and soul purpose from the point of view of who and what we are doing in the world, and this new book would focus on how love, and lack of love, shapes our lives.


It’s a huge subject—love and loving is intricately bound up with our early attachment experiences with our parents and, in my opinion, from past life re-incarnational experiences. And as we age we develop attitudes, expectations and assumptions about how love operates in our lives. I believe quite simply that the more conscious awareness and insight we bring to this subject, the better our choices will be, and the happier our lives will be.


These two books, on the North and South Nodes, are intimately connected, because how we feel about ourselves and whether we have a sense of life direction and soul purpose, is related to our capacity to give and receive love from others. These North and South Nodes speak to those issues in our charts and they are the two of main issues clients want to know about in astrological counseling. Who doesn’t want to know: “How can I best fulfill my soul’s work and agenda, and how and when will I experience the sweetness of love—that which makes life worth living?”


There are so many types of “love.” Our culture is permeated with the ideal of romantic love as the saving grace--in music and movies we hear about the romantic “falling in love” and what the psychologists, the Jungians, call “anima/animus soul projections” wherein we lose our sense of Self/Soul by giving it (projecting it) onto the other person…the beloved. Ah…such a painful ecstasy. And there’s the soothing yet more sober love that can come at mid-age, with its loyalty, dependability, and willingness to work on the issues that inevitably arise in close one-one relationships. And then there’s the compassionate love that we feel towards others we don’t even know—those people who we may be sitting with us in the emergency room in the hospital when our hearts are open, and our mutual needs felt deeply.


In the astrological chart we look at how love plays out in our lives by looking at it through the lens of Venus and Neptune and all that they represent both in our personal lives and in myth. These two archetypes give us insight into this intense play of love and illusion in our lives. The planetary archetype of Neptune runs this gamut from illusion to disillusionment, escapism, co-dependency, addiction, and being “swept away” or being deceived and sabotaged up to the highest forms of compassion, inspiration, and divine love. It’s all in how we play it out.


Venus is a more “grounded planetary goddess” in that she represents human love in all its sensuality and messiness, and intertwined with all the dramas of relationship. Interesting too, how Venus in astrology relates to money! As a symbol of money, it reflects something of our power or lack of power to attract to us what we think we want or need…..for what we buy and identify with in the material world is a big part of how we define and judge ourselves and others.


So both Venusian love and Neptunian love help give us a sense of identity and purpose in our lives. In this new book, South Node Astrology, we’ll look at how they show up for you as principal players in your life story. The current book, North Node Astrology also delves into this realm, especially in the long chapters: “What’s Venus Got to Do With It? The Alchemy of Desire: Healing the Wounded Heart” and in the chapter devoted to Neptune. Both books are truly part of a whole.


South Node Astrology will acknowledge the importance of both our early life attachments to our parents as well as our past life default patterns of behavior. These two contribute heavily to how we think and feel and act on love in our life right now. But always the good news is that we can choose to continue to reframe our stories with understanding and compassion. We can make new choices based on new insights.


I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts about this…..although I’d ask you to distill the details of your stories to what you’ve learned and what insights you could share on this with the rest of us. You can respond personally at elizabethspring@aol.com or leave a short pithy insight or suggestion below in the comments section. www.elizabethspring.com

Surrendering to the Gods: Jungian Psychology and Archetypal Astrology

I’ve recently finished writing "North Node Astrology" and I’m so aware of how it was much more work than I originally thought it would be. And so I’ve been wondering, why did I write this book? And then I remember—I love making connections—to people and ideas. And I crave the sense “of belonging to the world” and of making heartfelt and thoughtful connections with others--people who playfully and seriously like to entertain these ideas. Jungians and Astrologers. Writers and readers. You and Me. I like to bridge gaps.

I sometimes sense that there’s a gap between these two worlds that I hold so dear to my heart: the Jungians and Astrologers. The Jungians often view popular predictive astrology with distain, yet quietly study archetypal astrology and talk about it with their friends (or their astrologer.) They tend not to write about it in their professional journals.

And the Astrologers hear the reserve in their attitude, and often wonder if these Jungians have delved into the differences between predictive/pop astrology and archetypal astrology. Archetypal Astrologers who focus both on mythological and pragmatic approaches to the spiritual mandala of the chart, sometimes question the "oohing and aahing" of the Jungians and their general quacking over what seems to be the “obvious.” The languages, or jargon of each, is different yet similar. Each can sound simplistic to the other if not read deeply.

These same Astrologers might be wise to listen deeply, as Jungians do, remembering that the word “vocation” has its roots in the ability “to listen” to our deep selves. Astrologers can sit with someone once, for a couple of hours talking with them about “their map of the psyche” and the astrologer will help their client with insights by translating the archetypal patterns in a way that might have taken months with more traditional therapists. A Jungian will sit with someone, for hours over many years helping their client listen to the various inner voices in order to discover who they essentially are. They give time for the inner work and the “alchemical process” to truly evolve and they support the client in the process. A sense of safety and love develops. Each approach works, for as Jung once said: There are three aspects to help create change in therapy: insight, courage, and endurance. The astrologer and the analyst can help with each.

Both astrologers and Jungians honor the complexity of the Self, and the variety of our inner personalities—call it what you will: voices, archetypes, planets. Both know that we need to understand the “gold” and the “shadow” parts of ourselves. We need to understand the unique gold of Jupiter and the North Node, and the shadowy wounding of Pluto and the South Node. We need to bring responsibility into our lives—Saturn, and yet dare to take our freedom—Uranus.

Different words, same ideas. Dreams or divination? Both Astrologers and Jungians would agree that we project ourselves out into life and yet swim in the deep wine-dark sea of the unconscious. There are reasons beneath reasons why we do what we do, and our outer choices and inner revelations echo each other. The outer pragmatic solutions of the coach or astrologer will reverberate with the inner “Jungian” nourishing and unfolding process of the Self, and it will reverberate with life in the outer world. Neither better—both needed.

Carl Jung was a trickster, a shaman, and a scholar as well as a spiritual man. His psychology came out of his life; he broke some rules, he kept to some. As John Perry, a Jungian scholar and friend of Jung once said: “There was always a little something magical about the way Jung’s mind worked. He said that he felt himself to be more shaman than psychiatrist.” And Jung studied and practiced astrology and alchemy. He was a bridge maker.


I do not aspire to be a "Jungian". But I have “an inner Jung” within me that desires to make connections and bridge gaps. I want to keep encouraging all the ways we can “attend to our inner life”. We come into this life bringing woundedness and a sense of wonder and possibility. It’s a great thing if we can stay aware of both, and how they continue to play out in our lives. And so then we ask….can I accept my fate and live it out well? Can I work within the limits that I have, and yet stretch to be all I can be? Yes, I think yes….we can all do that. And make bridges…

***

Jim Hollis, in “Enterviews with Jungian Analysts” says: “The greatest gifts of Jungian psychology are found in recovering for us a sense of participation in an ancient drama…and in a mindfulness regarding the profound sea of soul in which we swim at all times. When most modern psychologies serve the ego fantasy of control, Jungian psychology affirms a more sober appreciation of the summons to surrender to the gods, to what wishes to live through us into this world.”

I love that last phrase! It hints of a knowing that something is calling to come through us, and that we are able to discipline ourselves—we can be a disciple to that which is calling us, but that we are also summoned to surrender ourselves to that which we must do. Jung spoke about this as “doing gladly that which I must do.”

Sometimes it’s just putting one foot in front of the other. If you’ve had a stroke, that is a huge effort! If you are caring for a baby, that is a huge effort! So the summons and the calling may sound soulfully glamorous at times, but as Jim Hollis is also suggesting here “Jungian psychology affirms a more sober appreciation of the summons.” For everyone and anyone who has worked long hours at a task, we can appreciate that soberness also has its high moments.

(c) Elizabeth Spring http://www.elizabethspring.com/

Elizabeth Gilbert, Soul Purpose, and the Creative Daimon

Is living a life "of purpose" reserved only for a few great people? Is creative genius limited to a few gifted people? What would it mean for me, for you, to truly "show up" at our work and in our lives with a deep trust in the rightness of the process of our life and of our creative unfoldment? Big questions, with perhaps simple answers.


In this linked video, by writer Elizabeth Gilbert ("Eat, Pray, Love"), she brilliantly reminds us that when we show up and make space for our genius to flow through us, we open ourselves up to something larger than ourselves--to what Carl Jung called the collective unconscious. Art, inventiveness, soul purpose, intuition, and all kinds of creative "gold" floats in this collective pool. When we choose to open to it--ie simply when we "show up" for our work, we take the responsibility off our shoulders and onto the Muse, onto God, onto the process of life; the Tao. We become a channel for divine inspiration, and the creative daimon.


When we make an intention to "show up" on the yoga mat, the writing table, the painting canvas, or the childcare center, we are showing up for our life. We are allowing "God" and the creative daimon a space in which to be and to act. How responsible are we for what happens then? Perhaps not as much as we think. That's a fascinating thought--we do our part, and then let the rest go....


Elizabeth Gilbert reveals some of her genius in this video--this realm of purpose, joyful creativity, and responsibility...and the lack of responsibility! This is all what we've been exploring in this blog on life direction and soul purpose. Enjoy...!

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

North Node, South Node, and the Quest for the Authentic Self

“Let go of your distractions

before they rob you of your life.”

The South Node holds your

distractions, your old habits, and your reactive tendencies—all those things

that rob you of your authentic life. It’s familiar and easy to “frame” the story of your life in terms of your old life, because you know it—life has showed you certain things up until now, so that this is your reality. It doesn’t have to be that way. The negative qualities of the South Node have shown you where you’ve been and what you’re bringing over from a past life or from earlier in this one. It reflects your family karmic inheritance, and your particular karmic story. It’s old, it’s tired, it’s familiar—and it’s not the whole story!


The North Node is what the Soul aspires to, and by following the positive qualities of its sign and house it leads you to what is unfamiliar and new. It’s both the road and the Quest itself. It takes the old personal story and says: “why not this, instead of this?” The North Node holds the homeopathic medicine that leads you away from the distractions and habits that keep you from creating the new story of your life and from being your authentic Self.


Authentic Self? So how do you know when you are truly being you? What story about yourself are you buying into now? You may be getting married, divorced, or going off on a new adventure to Barcelona or Peru, but what “distractions” will you carry with you that will keep you from being open to the new experience? Yes, it’s the baggage of the South Node distractions that we all bring with us, and we need to “repack our bags” if we are going to truly open up to something new in life.


The “Quest for the Authentic Self” is a great idea in theory and rings true for spiritual seekers whether we are existentialists, astrologers, or Buddhists. In this quest we’re looking at maps in the form of books and charts, and we are looking to unleash the silenced voices in the psyche. We’re also listening to others, and the truths they speak. We’re questing for new questions, new answers, and risking the journey; we’re willing to be brave.


The Buddhists remind us that we suffer because we’re attached to specific outcomes and permanence. The Existentialists remind us of the necessity to use our freedom and free will in creating an authentic Self, and the astrologers remind us that we’re not alone—that we fit into a larger meaningful pattern in the Cosmos, and that there is much that is unconscious within us.


I believe that as we discover the many planetary “voices” that live within each of us, we find that these archetypal symbols—these planets and Nodes—point the way to a larger and more authentic life than we’ve ever known. And as for me, I’m in a new process of “re-packing my bags” with a North Node Directional Map—which means I’m looking at how I distract myself from a more authentic relationship with myself, with others, and with my work. I’m going to delve deeper into my Taurus North Node to find what resources and values are truly waiting to be lived. Once I release myself from all the distracting stories I tell myself about myself—all those old South Node Scorpionic stories of “how it all was and how it still is”….well then I’ll have time and space in my life to open up to a deeper more authentic life. It all takes time and compassion, but I’m ready to bring on the new! What about you? © Elizabeth Spring http://www.elizabethspring.com/