Carl Jung was a Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist that helped bring forth the birth and development of psychology. In 1914 he began a journal in which he described his personal journey, his "confrontation with the unconscious," as he called it. From 1914 to 1930 he wrote in this Liber Novus (new book) with a red binding and cover, which he simply called his "Red Book." It has remained mostly unseen, even during his life and certainly after his death, until it was taken from a safe deposit box in Zurich in November of 2007. It's long-awaited publication date is October 7th, 2009.
In part 2, I'll discuss the astrology of the publication date, both on its own and in Jung's chart specifically. Then we'll move on to his natal chart.
October 7th, 2009: The Date of Publication
Mercury catches up with Saturn in Virgo after turning direct. The words (Mercury) become real (Saturn), in black and white for all to see. The moon also trines the two that day, adding the element of the subconscious coming into consciousness and reality.
In Jung's own chart, the transiting Sun sextiles his Uranus exactly, seeming to indicate the light shining on Jung's true self, warts and all. We are all likely to get a view of Jung that may challenge the view we'd like to hold of him and how we've adjusted his views and his work to suit our own perspectives. This is a view of the man in a truer sense than the work he chose to publish and reveal, but perhaps due to the nature of a sextile, that light will reveal delightful surprises into the man, as well as challenge the ideas we've settled into about him. The moon conjuncts his Pluto in the third house that day as well. Two symbols of the unconscious coming together indicate the intensity of the moon that may prevail as the pages are opened, and in the third house, new ideas will be presented to be investigated and pulled apart. The third house's opposite, the ninth house, is about pulling ideas together to form meaning, a larger understanding. But the third house is about new data coming in and pulling things apart that we thought we knew. To truly SEE without judgment or filter is highlighted here.
Jung's Natal Chart: Why Was He Here? An Evolutionary Astrology Perspective
The placement of the south node in the 8th house seems to reflect the second nature of Jung to dig deeper into the motivations behind the behavior of others and therefore his life's work of mining the unconscious. With that sound node in Libra, it's quite likely that he benefited greatly from seeing the contrasts between people and himself from 'the other' in relationship as the primary incubator for what he brought forth in this life in his work. On a personal level, though, he may have entered this life with a vulnerability to deferring to much to the other or depending too much on the other in relationships of all kinds. Mercury and Venus square his nodes from Cancer in the 6th house, signifying the importance of filtering his observations and beliefs through his own subjective mind (Cancer/Mercury) and through right relationship dynamics (Venus), especially in work partnerships (insert the obvious Freud reference here). It also indicates that it was important for him to really dig in to the emotional nature of the work (cancer) in a tangible and detailed way (6th house) on a daily basis by simply talking to his patients and what he could really learn from them. His 3rd house planets in Taurus would have assisted him in a willingness to take in the data from his patients as it appeared without an agenda, however with those planets being the Moon and Pluto, he would have to work hard to maintain a sense of the objective as he took in that information. His heart was in the learning and the surprise of what he uncovered though, and his natural Libran ability to see more than one perspective would be of assistance, although with a lot of energy in Taurus and Cancer, it seems that he was trying to get out of the bottomless tendency to second guess or consider 'the other hand' so often that he could not come to the intuitive connections that he would otherwise. Seeing the Moon and Pluto in the 3rd house and Mercury in a water sign seems to be an indicator of the astrological source in his interest in dreams and the subconscious as well, not to mention Neptune squaring his Sun and ascendant, always reminding him of the 'other world' and perhaps representing his willingness to eventually explore 'alternative' theories and systems such as astrology.
Considering the Sun and Uranus in the 7th house in Leo, Aquarius rising, and Saturn in the 1st house, in the light of his south node in Libra in the 8th, these placements represent the perfect incubator of relationship being the actual modality through which he expressed his individuality and his need to be heard and seen. The 8th house classically represents the resources of the other, and with Libra energy there in addition, a tendency toward relying on the validation or sanction of others rather than one's own resources or merit is what he may have come to resolve. Saturn in Aquarius in the 1st shows the difficulty in walking one's own path as it comes to the very essence of who he is. To 'be yourself' sounds simple until we realize how isolating it can feel when there is no beaten path; something he would need to work with for self-actualization.
The famous break with Freud proved to be very traumatic in the light of a south node that needs validation and the ruler of that south node in the 6th house, associated with work but also heavily with unequal relationships: mentor/mentee relationships. This was part of the work he was meant to do, to break away from giving his power away in unhealthy relationships of this apprentice/master nature, but not an easy thing to do. The beginning of this period also marked his beginning of his Red Book. His exploration into his own darkness and the phoenix dying and rising from the 3rd house is about to be made visible.
With his north node in Aries in the 2nd house, developing courage to come to believe in his own capability and empowerment outside of the shadow of another was the gist of his soul's task. Risk taking (Aries) would have been a key factor in his journey to, as Steven Forrest has said, "prove himself to himself." The ruler of his north node is Mars, in Sagittarius in the 11th house, suggests that a primary method through which to do that is to share his own beliefs, philosophies, and truths (Sagittarius) with the world/public (11th house) with the courage of conviction. His progressed Midheaven (evolving role in the world) has been crossing over his own north node beginning with the Red Book's removal from the safe deposit box. Looks like one's work is never done!
To read a fuller analysis of his chart, see my July 25th 2010 entry, Happy Birthday Carl Jung: An Astrological Vignette.
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