chartingthesoul.com

Here's a link to my most recent astro-talk - "Living in a Time of Change"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzW-sHcuEJ0

2024: Living in a Time of Change with Psychospiritual Astrologer and Author Rebekah Hirsch

On Saturday, October 14th, at 4.15pm, I will be giving a talk at the UK Astrological Association Conference. The topic of my talk is 'Astrology and the Psychology of Selves', so my Voice Dialogue friends may be interested.

The 'Selves', also known as sub-personalities, are not new to astrologers; working with the archetypes of the planets is very similar to working with the selves.

The theme of my talk will be discovering how astrology can lead us to a state of Awareness that lies beyond psychological process, beyond our identification with any of the Selves and even beyond our connection with the planetary archetypes - Jung's concept of the ultimate Self, which does not appear in the horoscope.

I believe that astrology is sacred work, a way of opening to spiritual experience and the profound grace of Awareness.

https://www.astrologicalassociation.com/conference-2023/

On January 21st 2023, I am giving a talk with the Caritas Centre - "Aquarius, Aquarius, Aquarius!"
So much talk about the Age of Aquarius, Saturn leaving Aquarius, Pluto entering Aquarius, etc etc etc. Now we begin to be able to access much deeper levels of awareness of the real gift of this cosmic sign!

https://www.facebook.com/events

'The Archetype of uranus and the Evolution of Consciousness'. This is the link to the recording of my most recent lecture at The Astrological Lodge of London, May 2022.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=040Hh2SIVhU

Link to my most recent talk on the astrology of 2022 and the April conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces.

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.caritascenter.org%2Fvideo-library-for-rebekah-hirsch%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3QybTNpBpUItXYssD8KhsejvGsfsS1sLka1y9mvWcW4713mt0i7mZ9DEY&h=AT0cML3T9j84Wy4hOgkHaod2rq55D-BfJc0E3LSwV2bhvsacnWegwe125BTIRYjqp90139Iyd0DqHOw-OQQC-HV93cz6lDZf1Hf18lvi79IVlC9f8uBoYyLuSTrEE8-DqA&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AT04BIr0pVMmgbhA_CVD6H9ZSwtS688B0fHrMvCTWhHNk7naXmvmdL_NBnX8gcdbg4mK8qIuA2Eh3i0GR8z5GilUowTyktqqS3hxF7Q0aH1c89t3mEWsh9ujlpnZRevEoM9cVSf9S7yuw7GqOIUvELX7xC-pvQkXVhfy6g5YURiauyimmoLHA86CS5RAyHFecqRYsg_D

Anyone who takes an interest in astrology will be aware that we are now experiencing the much heralded conjunction of Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter in the sign of Capricorn. Jupiter was the last to join the conjunction, entering Capricorn in December 2019. Since then, the three planets have been moving closer and closer together and this comes to a head on November 13th, 2020, when they will be lined up within 5 degrees of one another. (This means that they appear to be lined up one behind the other when viewed from the Earth.) The conjunction of these three planets, in the sign of Capricorn, is an extremely rare occurrence. The last time Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter were together in Capricorn was in 1285, at the time of the Crusades. Before that, the previous time they lined up was in 1894 BCE!

When I mentioned this to a friend, he told me that 1894 BCE might have been around the time of the birth of the civilisation of Babylon. Intrigued, I went to Wikipedia and looked up "Babylon" and went straight to a sentence which said: "Babylonia - A small Amorite-ruled state which emerged in 1894 BCE" Wow! Is it possible that in November 2020 western civilisation may be completing a great cycle of time that began nearly 4,000 years ago in Babylon?
Babylon does not get good press in the Bible, but it was here that some of the earliest known sets of laws were created - rules for regulating trade and settling disputes. In those ancient times, the idea of establishing rules to better manage human behaviour was a precursor for the development of the Judaic, Christian and Islamic civilisations that emerged from the Middle East.

I think that the wheel has NOW turned full circle and we are living in a time when a new kind of civilisation can emerge, better aligned with the humanitarian values of the Age of Aquarius. (Sometime around the Millennium we entered into the Age of Aquarius, which will last for the next 2,000 years. The archetype associated with Aquarius is that of Prometheus the Fire Bringer - the spirit of social evolution and revolution and the guardian of the human race.) Right now, in 2020, we have an exceptional line-up of planets pointing towards the potential for humanity to make a giant shift of consciousness - equal to that which was birthed back in 1894BC.

So what is the meaning of this transit and what is being asked of us? This is where astrology is so valuable. If you want to understand the challenge that confronts the human race, first of all, you need to understand the sign of Capricorn; and then you need to connect with the archetypes of Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter.

CAPRICORN
In Western astrology, Capricorn is the 10th sign of the zodiac and it belongs to the element of Earth. The focus of Capricorn is all about living here on planet Earth, with the emphasis on practical, human concerns and the challenges of making a good life, stable and secure. Capricorn is associated with worldly ambition and achievement; intention, responsibility, hard work and discipline that leads to the manifestation of tangible material results. In Brennan terms, I associate Capricorn with the wounds and the gifts of the Rigid characterology.

One of the main themes of Capricorn is the need for structure. In the body, Capricorn represents the skeleton, the underlying framework on which the body is built. Out in the world, Capricorn is associated with work like engineering, architecture, carpentry and construction. In the bigger picture, Capricorn has to do with the frameworks that underpin the functioning of society - the law, politics, banking, trade and all the infrastructure of civilisation.
In 2008, Pluto entered the sign of Capricorn in the year that rocked the world with the disastrous global financial crash. Since then we have seen a series of upheavals during Pluto's slow journey through Capricorn, exposing the decay eating into the foundations of 21st century civilisation.

PLUTO
Pluto is the Lord of the Dead. In astrology, Pluto is one of the most feared of all the planets for when Pluto is active in the horoscope it often heralds a time of death and destruction. Pluto is not only about death - this archetype is also associated with healing, transformation and re-birth. But there is nothing frivolous about Pluto, it represents the most fundamental challenges of living and dying - the primal root of things and the raw power of the life force. In ancient mythology, Pluto was the Lord of the Underworld - the gloomy place where the souls of the dead were sent. In psychological terms, the underworld represents the unconscious where we find the gut level, basic instincts of survival and procreation. As healers, we know the immense value of body-wisdom and a different kind of consciousness, which we can access through cellular awareness.

The unconscious is the place of the dream world and it is also home to aspects of the psyche that have been repressed. This includes taboo emotions such as murderous rage, cruelty, unbridled sexuality and greed. But along with the extremes of uncontrolled behaviour we also repress other aspects of our authentic nature - often including our gifts and talents. These are our 'disowned' energies - aspects of self that we learned to conceal because they seem to meet with disapproval. We refer to this as 'the shadow'. One of the key aspects of self that we repress is our vulnerability.

Vulnerability is met with disapproval in many cultures. A child, particularly a boy child, learns to feel ashamed of tears or any other behaviour deemed a weakness. And yet our softer feelings are closest to the sacred human heart and human beings are often at their most radiant and loveable when they express their vulnerability.
What, then, is the connection between Pluto and these lost aspects of soul?

In astrology, the archetype of Pluto is about power, the raw energy that drives the life of the body and the immense power we can access when our instincts go into action. In essence, Pluto presents that miraculous gift from Spirit - the primal upwelling of the life force. (For Brennan healers, Pluto symbolizes the Tan T'ien, an immensely powerful centre of energy located in the pelvic cradle.) The dimension of the Hara lies beneath the aura and the concerns of the personality where there is no judgement, no good or bad, just immense creative potential for living.

Pluto helps us with boundaries, and knowing how to stand in our own individual power is exactly the aspect of self that we need to support the expression of our vulnerability. Perhaps the greatest expression of what it is to be human is when we can feel our tenderness and vulnerability at the same time as being in touch with our personal power. But to be able to span the two extremes of vulnerability and power requires mastery - a lifetime of learning how to hold both. So what we often find, in human behaviour, is that the expression of Pluto becomes distorted into a mission to avoid feelings of weakness by seeking 'power over' other people, a quest for dominance. Whether it is expressed through outright bullying or through secret manipulations the negative expression of Pluto is about seeking to gain control in abusive and dysfunctional ways. When Pluto is 'active' in a horoscope it always raises issues around power struggles and that which has been hidden from consciousness in the world of the shadow.

Since 2008, Pluto has been travelling through Capricorn, digging down into the shadowy workings of society, exposing a range of abuses of power that appear to be built into the very foundations of our civilisation. Over the years we have become aware of the rise of the oligarchy, a world dominated by the influence of wealth and power. We have seen the secret exchanges of world leaders exposed by whistle-blowers so that many, including some of our most cherished democracies, look more and more like plutocracies. We have seen the flourishing of the arms trade alongside war-mongering, the rise of extreme terrorism and appalling acts of cruelty committed in the name of fanatical religious or political dogma. We have also seen the exposures of sexual abuse in the 'Me Too' movement and growing concerns about rape and the prevalence of abuse in marriage. We have learned of sex trafficking and modern slavery. We see sexual abuse happening everywhere including paedophilia in powerful institutions such as the Catholic church and alongside the revelations on the internet, we dimly see the shadowy world of the Dark Web. We have seen ongoing struggles with racial abuse and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. And we see the onslaught of corporate power hell-bent on exploiting our environment and trampling on vulnerable indigenous people, animals and nature in the name of profit.

So here we are in 2020, with the rotten underbelly of our civilisation exposed and an unprecedented line-up of planets in Capricorn. As an astrologer, I have been watching this conjunction building for a number of years; seeing the potential for profound, even cataclysmic social change and casting around for political movements that might initiate some kind of revolutionary shake-up.

Coronavirus - COVID-19. I did not see this coming! This year the planet Mars has also been moving through Capricorn, joining with the big three. I was only seeing Mars in his role as the God of War, overlooking the fact that Mars also rules infection, fever and plague.

The virus brings tragedy on a grand scale and nothing can diminish the grief of losing a beloved family member or friend. But alongside his role as the Lord of Death, Pluto is also associated with healing, transformation and re-birth. In a time of suffering and confusion, it is also possible to see the virus as an agent of change; the hope that in this great disturbance we may find a doorway to a different way of being, social and political renewal.

And there is more - from a spiritual view, the planets bring a message that goes beyond politics and speaks to the journey of the human soul, the evolution of consciousness.

The very highest expression of Capricorn goes beyond worldly ambition and material success. The planet that 'rules' Capricorn is Saturn, (for Brennan healers - I associate Saturn with the profound energy of the dimension of the Hara Capricorn is like a field emanating from the Hara Line.) Saturn and Capricorn bring unshakeable strength and commitment of intention to fulfil life's purpose.

Saturn is known as Rex Mundi, the Lord of the World. He is also the Bringer of Old Age and Capricorn comes into its own in the second half of life. The gift of Capricorn is wisdom born of experience - maturity and authority that emerge through the passage of time. As the years go by a person will inevitably encounter suffering and periods when life seems hard as well as joyful times when they are able to harvest the fruits of their hard work. The effect of passing through the sunshine and the storms of life is that an older person develops powers of endurance, patience, loyalty, responsibility and a way of understanding how things work, that a young person simply cannot know.

This is the gift of Capricorn, the benign wisdom of the Elder. Whatever storms life brings this person remains unshakeable, even in the face of death and disaster they stand strong and offer protection and leadership to those who are lost. Not everyone achieves this state simply by virtue of being old. But a true Elder has learned how to embody states of consciousness that transcend everyday thinking. Such a person has developed the ability to stand in Hara with an energy field like an oak tree of light - rooted deep into the Earth and reaching up to the stars.
So Capricorn teaches us to learn to be still and only to act when an authentic impulse arises; to be sure that our actions are in harmony with nature and in keeping with the needs of all including future generations. Capricorn is also the sign of the Cornucopia, the Horn of Plenty, bringing the abundance that comes to us when we know how to listen to Wisdom that has nothing to do with greed.

There are many people speaking of the virus as the hand of destiny bringing a halt to the frantic treadmill of 21st-century life. What else could have brought the entire world to a standstill in this way, demanding exactly that which Capricorn requires, patience, stillness, space and time for reflection?

And if the gift of Capricorn is the strength of an oak, what is the essence and the gift of Pluto? In the first place, we cannot ignore the awareness that Pluto often comes to us as the Angel of Death.

The saddest moment of my life was being with my father as he stood at the end of my mother's death bed singing her a little song of farewell. Unbearable. And yet, in that very moment, as the tears poured down my face, I felt my mother's spirit expanding out of her body like a supernova, filling the house, a golden cloud of joy, bursting with love for us, the ones she now left behind. And all of us, my siblings and my father entered into something of an altered state, wandering through the house, crying, speaking, silent, singing, touching, separate, together. Not every death is like that, my father's was not. Sometimes there is just silence. But every encounter with death is transformative and even in our grief, it brings us into the presence of Love.

Like Capricorn, Pluto slows down time, almost to a halt. If we can tolerate it, and sometimes even if we can't, each moment expands so that we descend into the dark, sinking down to levels of consciousness we never normally reach. Pluto rules birth, as well as death, and woman who have been through childbirth speak of how time slows right down until we can breathe through the pain to access those necessary instincts that will bring about the birth. The essence of Pluto requires us to go beyond the safety and comfort of our familiar daily existence and for most of us, this makes us afraid. But heroic Peter Pan says, “To die will be an awfully big adventure.” When we have no choice, when the beloved is dying or when this baby must be born then we enter into a place which is also wonderful, the place of mystery, the infinite beauty of the void - the place from which we all come and to which we will return.

Whenever a person experiences this state of being, alchemy occurs and they returned changed, transformed. Perhaps some youthful hope has died, something we longed for has been lost but something new is born. Through these difficult journeys, old shadows are released and new awareness emerges into the light, liberated from the memories and beliefs that have been blocking us. Pluto opens a pathway to a profound depth of connection with the source of our creative personal power, which is why I associate Pluto with the Tan T'ien.

In mythology, the hero Perseus took the sword of Pallas Athena and cut off the head of Medusa, the Gorgon who had snakes for hair and a gaze that turned a person to stone. Perseus seized the head and fled from the scene but as he glanced back into the cave of the Gorgons he witnessed a moment of transformation. Out from of the cadaver of Medusa came Pegasus the winged horse, who struggled free and flew up into the sky. Pegasus, like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, represents the liberated creativity of the life force that is also the gift of Pluto.

So much of life is beyond our control; we cannot avoid suffering, we cannot avoid death, we cannot halt the advance of the Coronavirus. But perhaps the greatest gift of Pluto, Lord of Death and Capricorn, the Lord of the World, is that they teach us how to live, no matter what is occurring.

Now that the virus has struck, can we learn from experience and use this time to transform our societies and change the way we run our world? Can we create a society grounded in the wisdom of Capricorn - reverence for the Earth, respect for the laws of Nature, accountability to future generations and support for the well-being of all?

And can we come to know Pluto - learn how to access that raw instinctual energy at the root of our being - our legitimate personal power. Even in the face of death can we know the power of transformation, the rising of the Phoenix, the creative energy that is our gift from Spirit - the life force that is ours, and ours alone?

Inside every one of us, there is a great star - our Core Star, a huge radiant source of life and love. The Core Star brings our unique essence through into the manifest world. In living, we can become conscious of that which stands between us and our great light, of that which we hold in shadow. One day, this life or another, each of us will master the Earth wisdom of Capricorn, each one of us will embody the tremendous depth and power of Pluto and we will know how to live from that place. The archetypes of the planets are Divine, living beings and they also live in each of us. The only thing we are asked to do is to turn to the planets and say "Yes". And even if you think you are not able to do that they will still find you and show you how.

SATURN AND JUPITER
I feel the need to include this addendum because in this article I have not spoken about the transits of Saturn and Jupiter who play an equally important role in what is unfolding this year. My next article will focus on Saturn and Jupiter but I feel the need to add something here.

Jupiter is the principle of expansion and it seems that it was when Jupiter entered Capricorn in December 2019 that the coronavirus first emerged and started to spread across the globe. (Another little cosmic joke - in January a large asteroid named Asteroid Wuhan also entered Capricorn and will remain alongside the big three all year!)

In the last few weeks, on March 22nd, Saturn has actually left Capricorn and entered the first degrees of the sign of Aquarius. However, between April 24th and May 14th, all three planets, first Pluto then Saturn then Jupiter, will slow right down and turn retrograde, (appear to travel backwards). This means they will be retrograde all through the summer - from May until late September - and a retrograde period like this will sometimes give the feeling that everything is completely stuck. The best way to get through a period of powerful retrogrades is to use it as a time for deep reflection and coming to terms with what is occurring, without pushing for everything to immediately return to the way it was.

Then in mid-September, we will feel the change coming as the planets start turning direct and move into their closest conjunction in November, just in time for the American presidential election! Immediately after that - the faster planets, Jupiter and Saturn will move swiftly on coming to the end of their journey through Capricorn, (Pluto has not finished, it will not leave Capricorn until 2024). On the day of the Winter Solstice, Jupiter and Saturn become exactly conjunct at 0° of Aquarius. Aquarius is a very different energy - humanitarian, idealistic, revolutionary and far-seeing. The Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Aquarius has the potential to initiate the creative visioning of a completely different future for the human race.

© Rebekah Hirsch 12th April 2020

Over the weekend I had an extraordinary experience around a Virgo New Moon meditation that I held at my home. This is what happened - I hope this gives people the awareness of how a simple evening of focused meditation, can bring unexpected healing into everyday life.

Three of us gathered for the Virgo New Moon meditation at my house. We started by sharing together, much sadness coming up around the fires burning in the Amazon rainforest and the devastation of our Earth. I spoke of my childhood years growing up in East Africa in a time when wildlife was abundant and I never thought it would be possible to witness the loss of iconic species that we are seeing today.

When we started to meditate I soon felt the presence of Spirit - with a physical sensation in the middle of my head as my 6th chakra opened up to my Higher Sense Perception. We stayed for a long time in silence and then began to give voice to our prayers. As I spoke of my sorrow for the Amazon forests I felt that the giant trees were with us in the room, surrounding our little circle. Then Sima spoke and she called upon the Hindu god of the wind Pavan Dev, to come and work with Indra Dev, the god of rain, to push the clouds over the forest and bring rain. As she named to gods, I felt the rain falling in sheets as it does in the tropics, running down the tree trunks and into the Earth. When we closed the circle I felt happy to have had this small gathering and to have felt such a powerful connection with the Earth spirits.

The next morning I woke up and, very unexpectedly, found myself stuck in a place of deep personal pain. I am at the beginning of a year of transits from Pluto and Saturn to my natal Venus in Capricorn and I was sinking fast into all my personal issues around Venus the goddess of love, happiness and prosperity. Soon I was inescapably locked into feelings of being unloved, rejected, unwanted and opening up deep old wounds around failed relationships. Failed is the key word - I spent the whole day sunk in relentless unyielding feelings of failure and worthlessness, in Voice Dialogue we call this a 'Critic Attack'. I realised I was not able to shift out of the pain and by the end of the day I was reaching out to friends asking for help. It was not until the next day that I got to speak to my dear friend Fern. Speaking with Fern I found stillness in deep acceptance of the pain of old wounds, neither of us making any effort to 'fix' these feelings, just allowing myself to own the grief and pain of my experience. The only affirmation that came out of that sharing was a deep commitment that I would continue to meditate with the New Moon and Full Moon, to create sacred space, deepen my relationship with the Earth spirits and with the spirits of the planets, archetypal gods and goddesses, especially to heal my relationship with Venus.

The next day I felt somewhat recovered and got on with some practical work setting up the workshops I will be running this autumn. At the end of the day I suddenly remembered that I had promised a friend that I would go along to a little gathering happening at a community garden at the end of my street. I hurried along to the garden and when I arrived I could see very small group doing a walking meditation around the little garden and I quietly slipped in to join them.

The workshop was being led by three beautiful young women. The first one was leading the meditation and asked us to sit in a little circle around a rose bush baring one red rose. The woman invited us to meditate on the rose, focusing on the real sensual experience, the delicacy of the petals, the perfume as well as the thorns.

Then the second woman, who was a herbalist and flower essence practitioner talked about the properties of the rose, how it is connected in many ways to the heart. She told us how the rose provides medical remedies for physical heart conditions, she also spoke of the historic poetic connection with the heart as a symbol of love and gave me a little jolt when she mentioned that the rose is the flower of Venus. She passed around little cups of rose hip tea and also gave each of a rose hip - asking us to get the sensual experience of the beautiful red seed pods. I broke open my rose hip and when I saw the little collection of seeds the thought suddenly came into my head - these seeds are the people who are coming to my workshops this autumn.

I was aware that I was beginning to shift into an altered state and then the third woman invited us to find a comfortable seat or a place to lie down on the grass. She had some big sounding bowls and soon the gentle musical tones of a sound bath were ringing out. And then I went into a profoundly altered state. There I was lying on the grass in a very humble garden, surrounded by three blocks of social housing flats and looking up at the sky through some dusty but determined silver birch trees. I could hear the big London buses rumbling to the bus stop about a hundred yards from where we were, I could hear the ordinary working people chatting as they walked home. The musical tones from the singing bowls mixed with all the everyday sounds, with the wind in the trees and even with the sounds of jet planes flying through the pink evening sky. And all of it was utterly beautiful. It was like a fairy tale that such humble, non-glamorous surroundings became completely luminous with the beauty of life, that every sound was music, and that I should be lying there feeling myself 100% present with each moment, each breath of the wind in the trees, each rumble from the buses in the street, the distant laughter of children mingling with the heavenly ringing sounds from the singing crystal bowls.

Of course it came to an end. I made a lovely connection with the three women, helped clear up and walked slowly home, still amazed by the synchronicity of what had occurred and profoundly grateful to have had this experience. Three young goddesses, London girls, bringing spirit and connection to a rag bag collection of random people in an insignificant garden in the back streets of London. When I looked back at the garden, I knew that I had been given a great gift, welcomed into the presence of Venus. I saw the humble square lit up with the goddess light of love, peace, beauty and the oneness of all life.

Writing in my journal afterwards, one thing stood out. That extraordinary blessing did not come from "me", not from little everyday "Me". I had not consciously been seeking this but I felt it connected straight back to the New Moon meditation as well as to the intense grieving process I had the next day. In my process of grieving and accepting I had cleared a space and this utterly beautiful moment of grace flowed through from the essence of Venus, allowing me to enter into another dimension where all is one and there is only Love.

I am just going to say a bit more about this experience. This is not the first time this has happened to me. Back in the 20th century, before I went to BBSH I used to meditate regularly on the New Moon and the Full Moon. And now I am remembering that often, in the days after the meditation a big healing would occur, often something completely unexpected, like my experience in the garden.

So I felt called to share my experience, to encourage people to remember that the gods and goddesses are right here, right now, waiting for us to reach out to them, just a breath away from consciousness. Wherever you are, the Goddess is walking alongside you and she is within you and our only task is to make ourselves available for grace.

For people in London, the next meditation will be on the evening of Friday 13th at my place in Walthamstow, all welcome. Full Moon in Pisces conjunct Neptune, the planet I associate most with the Goddess and square to visionary expansive Jupiter.

THE ARCHETYPES AS 'EIDOS'

The other day I gave a teaching on the astrological archetypes. Like many astrologers, I help people understand the nature of the planets by telling the myths and the stories associated with the Greek gods. Today I listened to a recording of the session. At first, I was just casually listening from an analytical head space but when the story-telling began I suddenly noticed that my whole way of listening had changed. Even though it was my own familiar voice that I was hearing - something else was starting to happen. Without any conscious effort, my higher sense perception had woken up. I became aware that I could feel currents moving through my human energy field, currents that came from the living, active presence of the archetypal energies of the gods and goddesses, the heroes and heroines of the story.

The realm of the archetypes lies beneath our everyday thinking and it requires a shift of consciousness to access that level. When we enter into the presence of the archetypes then we awaken to a transformational realm where we find new understanding, new possibilities, an expanded state of awareness.

Sitting here at my computer, I am wondering, "What just happened, what is occurring when I sense this mysterious connection?" I am a double Aquarius, and the astrologers among my readers will understand that I always enjoy it when I notice something that makes a bridge between science and spirituality. Here goes...

The physicist David Bohm theorised that we live in a 'holographic universe' i.e. that the world of our human experience of space, time and causal events is like a holographic projection emerging from a deeper level of existence. The "explicate, unfolded order" of our human experience emerges from the "implicate, enfolded order", an underlying dimension in which an entirely different arrangement of things exists. That is to say, this vast "implicate order" is the ground from which our reality emerges.
The concept of archetypes goes right back to the early Greek philosopher Plato who spoke of the "eidos" - pure mental forms that he thought were imprinted on the soul before it was born into the world. It seems to me that Plato's "eidos" and Bohm's "implicate order" are connected. Thus, in our encounters with the archetypes, they lead us beyond the "explicate order" of our familiar world towards the underlying realm of the "implicate order".

Bohm's theory provides an explanation for the puzzle of Einstein's 'spooky action at a distance' - the fact that particles separated by vast distances can remain in instantaneous connection. The idea that things remain in some way connected even when separated by distance is also the explanation for energy healing. Bohm developed his theory of the "implicate, enfolded order" using objective, logical, complex, mathematical formulae. And, as a healer, I am saying that we can find our own personal doorway to a lived experience of this dimension through a subjective, non-rational, intuitive, shift of awareness. This experience cannot be achieved through mental analysis. In fact, it requires the ability to bring a halt to mental activity, to find stillness, to slide through the silence between the dimensions. It always entails a step into the unknown, always a willingness to surrender to whatever awaits.

In the Greek myths, the Gods and Goddesses are often described as hostile, fickle and merciless in their dealings with mortal beings. We humans are inclined to try to get through life without acknowledging our connection to the archetypes, to the non-physical worlds of spirit. This leaves us very alone and in childhood, as a coping mechanism, we try to gain protection by forming a little crust, a shell around the terrifying truth of our extreme vulnerability. But inside our shells, in our own essence, we are not separate from the archetypes, they are the 'eidos', elements of soul, living at the core of us. The archetypes seek consciousness and when they emerge from the place beneath then the eggshell gets broken.

Into every life, sooner or later a moment arrives when the Gods make their entry bringing a time of crisis, difficult choices, breakdown, loss. Someone dies, we suddenly find ourselves without a job, without a partner, or we get seriously ill. We dread these moments and I have experienced too many of them myself to underestimate the pain of those dark times. Yet they are the substance of all our stories and it is often these times of personal crisis that bring about awakening. In our struggles with adversity we search for a deeper awareness, engage with the essence of the archetype and this is a doorway that can lead us directly into the presence of Spirit.

It is paradoxical. When the archetypes make a forced entry into everyday life they seem relentless and cruel. Yet it is also true that when we meet them with expanded consciousness and sink down towards the depths of the implicate order then we discover the archetypes as beings of immense beauty, power and the harbingers of Love. My personal experience of making many journeys into the archetypal realm is of being welcomed into the presence of benign conscious beings, immensely powerful, immensely loving spiritual life forms; of entering into another dimension of consciousness in which Love is the only reality.

More and more, these days, I am feeling that my work as an energy healer and facilitator of consciousness is to be a guide to those wanting to make that sacred journey to the world of the archetypes and beyond, into the presence of Spirit.

"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing."

1 Corinthians 13:2-7

©Rebekah Hirsch 2019

CHARTING THE SOUL WORKSHOP
MARCH 2ND, 3RD 2019
OKEHAMPTON, DEVON

The framework for the Charting the Soul workshops is a synthesis of child development theory and the experience of working with the aura and with astrological archetypes. On each week-end we will look at two of five developmental stages - from a psychological view, a spiritual view and through encountering the astrological archetypes related to each stage.

MARCH 2ND 3RD - WORKSHOP 2: INTEGRATION
ESTABLISHING A SENSE OF SELF

WOUNDING AND DEFENCE IN THE MASOCHIST AND PSYCHOPATHIC STAGES
GIFT AND PURPOSE IN THE BUDDING AND FLOWERING STAGES
ARCHETYPES OF PLUTO, MARS, THE SUN, JUPITER

NARCISSISTIC WOUNDING
In the previous Charting the Soul workshop we looked at the first two developmental stages, known as the Schizoid/Germination stage, and the Oral/Rooting stage. These extend from conception through the first eighteen months of life. This period is characterised by extreme vulnerability, when the infant is totally dependent on adult care. The energy field of a baby is completely open and so they need to get protection from the energy fields of their parents - to a large extent they remain 'merged' with the parents and carers.

By the age of one the baby will be crawling, making sounds and attempting to communicate in words. As they learn to walk and talk and feed themselves, they begin to separate from the merging of infancy, to experiment with self-reliance and independence. This is sometimes referred to as the rapprochement phase, when the infant is dealing with the initial challenges of separation and individuation. This is the foundation of the 'individuation' process - the start of a lifetime's exploration of what it is to be Me!

A child in this stage is still incredibly fragile and they need the love and support of their families to reflect back their newly forming sense of an individual identity. Problems occur when the parents are not able to celebrate the 'Budding' or 'Flowering' essence of the child but have an agenda of their own, which oppresses and overrides the child's authentic spontaneous expression of self. When the infant's fragile sense of individuality is not mirrored and welcomed by the parents, the child starts to experience self-doubt and shame and this is the basis of narcissistic wounding.

Narcissism is a term much banded about these days and seems to have quite a wide range of interpretations. So it may help to read the myth of Narcissus and notice the images that it evokes.

In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a beautiful youth whose mother had never allowed him to see his own reflection. One day he saw his image reflected in the surface of a mountain pool and he became besotted with the face mirrored in the water. He lay gazing into the pool for days until he was overcome by the pain of his obsessive love and killed himself.

In the place where his young blood soaked into the earth, a flowering narcissus sprang up – symbol not so much of Narcissus’s tragedy but of the human need for self-knowledge.

The infant in the rapprochement phase needs the family to see them, welcome their unique qualities of essence and affirm their worth. When this healthy 'mirroring' does not occur the confused child becomes increasingly, obsessively bound up in the difficulties of establishing their sense of identity.

In the myth, Narcissus is loved by a nymph called Echo, but Echo is unable to speak, she can only repeat what others say to her. Echo can be said to represent Narcissus’s anima, the numinous voice that speaks from Essence – but the narcissistically wounded child can no longer hear that inner voice of guidance.

In the upcoming Charting the Soul weekend we will be looking at two character types associated with this phase - the Masochist/Budding type and the Psychopathic/Flowering type. We will be exploring the impact of trauma leading to the Masochist and the Psychopathic defences and we will also be celebrating the qualities of creativity and courage - the gifts which are longing to shine through the Budding and Flowering souls - and we'll be connecting with the radiance and creativity associated with the archetype of the Sun.

CONTACT: chartingthesoul@gmail.com

HOW ASTROLOGY WORKS

THE TAO
There are many aboriginal cultures in which people use the cardinal points when giving directions, e.g. saying go north or south rather than saying turn left or right. For people whose lives are rooted in their relationship to nature the directions are the inherent way of expressing spatial awareness. Similarly, in ancient times it was natural for people to have an innate understanding of navigation by the moon and stars and to find meaning and guidance in all aspects of the natural environment. 3,000 years ago, in ancient China, sages and shamans described a way of seeing all of life arising from a vast underlying web, an unending sea of connection known as the Tao.

The Tao is infinite, it encompasses all that there is, so it transcends the limitations of human vocabulary - as stated in the enigmatic opening lines of the Tao te Ching: "The Tao that can be named is not the Tao". We can probably never have more than a dim awareness of our place in the Tao, like one tiny pulse in a never-ending field of consciousness. Taking that as a given, the Taoists sought to develop awareness of the Tao and often describe the Tao in imagery related to water:

“The Tao which Taoism knows is a seamless web of unbroken movement and change, filled with undulations, waves, patterns of ripple and temporary ‘standing waves’ like a river.”

The Taoist seeks to perceive the changing tides and currents in this vast ocean of connection and learn how best to dance with the passing waves.

A HOLOGRAPHIC UNIVERSE
In the history of Western civilisation scholars developed a much more dualistic framework from that of Taoism and for many centuries believed they could explain the physical world in terms of separate units that affect each other in measurable, mechanical ways. But in the 20th century quantum mechanics revealed that these mechanistic laws stop working when we examine the activities of sub-atomic particles, which do not behave in such predictable logical ways.

One of the puzzles is that subatomic particles are able to remain instantaneously connected even when they are separated by vast distances, breaking Einstein’s tenet that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. In the 1980's, in the struggle to make sense of this anomaly, physicist David Bohm proposed the idea of a ‘holographic universe’. Bohm believed that there is a deeper inner level of reality, an 'implicit order', which underpins the 'explicit order' that we perceive with our physical senses. Thus super-connected particles are not sending signals that defy the laws of the space time continuum; they are emanations from the deeper (implicit) level in which they are not separate but part of the same fundamental thing. By the end of the 20th century both empirical physicists and metaphysical scholars were recognising that these ideas had a match with the ancient, mystical philosophy of the Tao.

ASTROLOGY
I was brought up to be an atheist. My father was Jewish, my mother a Christian and as they were both intellectual, scientific materialists they decided their children would be brought up with no religion at all. Therefore, it came as a surprise to me when, in my twenties, I started having spiritual experiences in which I found myself in the blissful presence of a vast universal consciousness. These experiences changed everything and the quest to explore and understand the nature of the 'unseen world' has been at the core of my life ever since.

As soon as I turned myself to face in the direction of Spirit a number of doors immediately opened up. One of these was astrology. A friend casually gave me a do-it-yourself book called 'How to Cast a Natal Chart'. I gave it a try and quickly turned out charts for family and friends. I was so pleased and fascinated by the results that I ended up training with Liz Greene and Howard Sasportas, two of the greatest astrologers of our times, at the Centre for Psychological Astrology in London.

After 30 years as a professional astrologer, constantly studying charts and witnessing the impact of the 'transits' of the planets in person's life, I know that astrology works. Astrology gets a bad press from the ludicrous simplicity of magazine astrology, based only in the understanding of the 12 signs of the zodiac. But real astrology at even the most basic level of interpretation, is immensely complex and requires full knowledge of the 12 signs of the zodiac, the 12 houses of the chart (not the same as the signs) and the essential nature of the 10 major heavenly bodies (planets). The number of possible variables in even a very basic chart is in excess of 360 to the power of 10.

I have been an astrologer for most of my adult life but it has sometimes been difficult for me to reconcile my scientific materialist background with the seemingly inexplicable world of horoscope interpretation. So, when I came across David Bohm's theories of the 'implicit' and 'explicit' universe, it was quite a ‘Eureka’ moment for me as I felt I had finally found the basis of an explanation for how astrology works.

Astrologers sometimes refer to the ‘influence’ of a planet. People with a mechanistic view of the world find this language hard to take – as if the astrologer is saying that in some unknowable way the planets of the solar system have a direct effect on human beings. But when we recognise Bohm's "implicate, infolded" order underpinning the "explicit, unfolded" world then we understand that a human being is not a separate object waiting to be acted upon by some unexplained force exerted by the planets. Instead, we can see the kaleidoscope of configurations formed by the passing of the planets as a giant celestial mirror to patterns emerging from the implicit order. If we imagine a wave in the implicit order that has an essential quality that can be symbolised by the nature of Jupiter then the movement of that wave will automatically appear in the explicit world as the passage of Jupiter through the heavens above us. It is not that Jupiter is the cause by which we are affected; rather our inter-connectedness means that we all simultaneously shift together in the unfurling of the Jupiter wave in the Tao.

Bohm spoke of a "holographic universe", in which every part contains information about the whole. And this means that we ourselves are holograms; we ARE Jupiter and we are also Saturn, Venus, Mercury etc.. We are linked to everything in the Universe and each life is a tiny mirror to all the rippling changes in the Tao. When any new entity is born, every aspect of its’ being will be a microcosm of the energy patterns arising in the implicit order and flowing through the Tao, at the time of birth. This pattern of energies then forms a template for the unfolding of that life and this template is, of course, the horoscope.

“If I have manna in my constitution, I can attract manna from heaven. Saturn is not only in the sky, but also deep in the ocean and Earth. What is Venus but the Artemisia that grows in your garden, and what is iron but the planet Mars? That is to say, Venus and Artemisia are both products of the same essence, while Mars and iron are manifestations of the same cause. What is the human body but a constellation of the same powers that formed the stars in the sky?”
Paracelsus 16TH Century

© Rebekah Hirsch 1/12/18

VOICE DIALOGUE

"In every corner of my soul exists an altar to a different god." Fernando Pessoa - poet and astrologer

I have been a psychological astrologer for roughly thirty years, I have been an energy healer for twenty years and in the last ten years I have also worked as a trainer and facilitator of the transpersonal process known as Voice Dialogue. Voice Dialogue is a great compliment to the body-psychotherapy that is part of my approach to energy healing. Both methods lead us away from mental analysis and into direct contact with the body, with our human energy field and, eventually into our own personal connection with the Divine. I realise that not so many people know what Voice Dialogue is or have even heard of it. So it seems to be time for me to write something about it.

The method of Voice Dialogue, was developed by Drs Hal and Siddra Stone, as a way of working with 'The Psychology of Selves' - the theory that every person's psyche is made up of a vast range of different sub-personalities. As the psychosynthesis therapist Pierro Ferrucci says - "Each of us is a crowd"! At any given moment, we will have different aspects of self expressing different needs, sometimes completely conflicting needs.

For example, what happens when someone decides to do a bungee-jump? As they step up to do the jump - there'll be one adventurous, sub-personality saying "Wow! This is fun, look how high up I am!" Meanwhile there'll be another, more health and safety oriented voice saying "What the Hell are you doing? Get away from the edge.....Oh God no, we're going to die!!!" One of these voices will win and the person will either make that leap or they'll back away or faint or something!

So that example is quite an unusual situation but these kinds of conflicts are going on inside of us all the time. The self who says "Mmmm, doughnuts...." vs. the self who says "You are not seriously thinking of eating that number of calories?". The self who attends a family gathering and says, "How lovely to see you all" vs. the self who is wandering "How soon can I get away?". The self who yells "Go on then, get out, I hate you!" vs. the self who whispers "Don't leave me, I love you."

Everyone has a vast range of these internal voices. They originate in childhood when the child realises that some things about them are welcomed by the family whilst other aspects of self are rejected. For example, in most families, a child will get praise and approval for doing what they are told and they get blame and disapproval if they are disobedient. So that child might grow up with a very strong 'Pleaser' - a dominant aspect of the personality who is anxious to get approval and always tries to figure out what the other person wants. Or they might grow up driven by a very strong 'Rebel' who will react to any kind of instructions with anger - "Don't tell me what to do!" And, in a Voice Dialogue session, what we might find is that the person actually has both those voices running. The dominant sub-personality may be driven by the urge to please, be compliant and avoid conflict. But buried underneath all that there will be the voice of the Rebel Self who can't stand being told what to do but never manages to get heard. We call the dominant self a Primary Self and we call the rejected self a Disowned Self. There are also Vulnerable Selves, who are rooted in childhood experience and hold tender feelings such as sadness or fear that have been repressed by the Primary Selves. Vulnerable Selves are usually the most disowned selves in western culture.

In a Voice Dialogue session, a person starts to make an exploration of their range of sub-personalities by giving each voice a clear space in which to speak and be heard, one at a time. It sounds very simple, which it is, but people are often astonished, sometimes profoundly shocked by the sub-personalities they discover among their Disowned and Vulnerable Selves.

THE AWARE EGO PROCESS
You can think about Voice Dialogue in three stages. I have written about them sequentially but actually they are all happening at the same time (e.g. you can't have an Aware Ego Process without Awareness). But we can say that we begin by just getting to know your own system of selves; which selves are running the show - the voices of the Primary Selves - and which ones are being repressed - the lost voices of the Disowned and Vulnerable Selves. Developing consciousness of the many different voices of the psyche is a lifelong journey referred to as developing an Aware Ego Process.

Most people have little awareness about their Disowned Selves and in their day to day lives they are run by what we call the Operating Ego. The Operating Ego is a conglomeration of mostly Primary Selves who feel safe and familiar and have habitual reactions to situations. Once we start allowing the voices of the Disowned or Vulnerable selves to come into consciousness, we realise that there is much more to us than our habitual range of selves. We step outside the limitations of the Operating Ego and move into the Aware Ego Process, allowing more and more of our Disowned voices to be heard and included. We become increasingly aware that we are not any one thing and we start to see how we have become identified with a small bunch of Primary Selves when actually we are so much bigger and more complex.

BECOMING AN ENERGY DANCER
As we increase our understanding of Voice Dialogue we develop more and more ability to move between the old familiar selves and the new voices we have discovered through the Aware Ego Process. Then we become much more free in our choices of how to meet life, how to respond to situations. We are no longer trapped in the identification with the Primary Selves. Instead we go beyond those identifications and allow ourselves the freedom to try a new response, giving voice to our Vulnerability or speaking from one of our previously Disowned Selves. We become an 'energy dancer' flowing between the different aspects of self.

Identification is a key word here. Many people might think they know who they are, think they have figured out their personality but actually they have just learned to navigate their Primary Self system. It is a liberating moment of awakening when we become aware of the limitations imposed by our Primary Selves and stop identifying with them. It is as though we come out of the narrow caves and tunnels in which we have been living and find ourselves under the sky.

In Voice Dialogue there is no need to 'fix' anything. None of the selves we discover, not even the worst bully or the cringiest pleaser or not even the dreaded voice of the Inner Critic is required to be eliminated. And no self is required to behave itself and conform to the agenda of any other self. When a self emerges into consciousness and comes into the presence of Awareness then we find that the heart of every self is a dynamic living pattern of energy, an expression of divine consciousness.

AWARENESS
The third aspect of Voice Dialogue is my favourite. In the early stages when we are strongly identified with one of our selves, we hold it close and it takes up a lot of our field of vision, it dominates our way of being. During a Voice Dialogue session, as we give this Self space to speak and be heard we start to separate from it. We may appreciate it's point of view and the ways in which it helps us in life, but we slowly start to understand that this is not "Who I am". We are not rejecting or abandoning any of our selves, all we are doing is separating from our identification with them. As we separate, from even our most favourite aspects of self, we move through the Aware Ego process and we touch into a vast space, which we can refer to as Awareness. In this space of Awareness we begin to experience the connection to our own divine core star, to the Mind of God-Goddess, to Universal Consciousness, to stillness and presence. Awareness is a place of transcendence, where we are able to hear from deeper, wider more expanded states of consciousness. On the journey of accessing Awareness we may encounter profound and powerful aspects of being such as the archetypes which are the building blocks of the psyche and the elements of the life force. And it is in the presence of Awareness that healing occurs, magical moments of release and the birth of new consciousness.

We are eternally grateful to Drs Hal and Siddra Stone who created Voice Dialogue in the 1970's and brought it to the world. They are the authors of 'Embracing Our Selves', 'Partnering', 'Embracing Your Inner Critic' and other books. and can be found at http://delos-inc.com/index.htm

27/07/2018
My friend Justin just asked me for my thoughts about tonight's Blood Moon here goes....
This is a powerful Full Moon. The Moon is closely conjunct retrograde Mars and both Sun in Leo and Moon in Aquarius closely square to Uranus in Taurus - forming a tight, fixed T-Square. In addition, both the Moon and Mars in Aquarius and the Sun in Leo are closely aspecting Chiron in Aries and even Saturn is jumping on this band wagon making an inconjunct to the Sun, an exact semi-sextile to Mars, a square to Chiron and a trine to Uranus.
Even if you don't understand the technicalities of astrology, if you just read that last paragraph you will get the sense of a very tightly knitted and knotted bundle of energies - a bit like an overheated rugby scrum.
So now I am thinking about Mars and the many tragedies involving wild fires that we have had this summer. Mars - always associated with Fire - is retrograde and has been for the last month, moving slowly between aspects to Jupiter (who just inflates the heat) and now into the square with Uranus (like a dry wind whipping up the flames) and sextile with Chiron (senseless tragedies, natural disasters).
So tonight the Sun is in golden fiery Leo and the Moon in Aquarius, (which many people do not realise is an Air sign). Fixed Fire and Fixed Air and a dry wind blowing. This recipe for wild fire is, of course, not just about the wild fires in the northern hemisphere but it also has universal meaning - an inner sense of dry, stagnating, (because of the retrogrades) heat.
Mars represents the life force, raw energy which likes to surge out into directed action, passion and aggression. But, when any planet turns retrograde, (and right now 6 planets are retrograde, which is not a common occurrence), the energy turns inward. This is not easy for Mars but this is not an ideal time to try and make events happen in the world - the period of a retrograde is about inner exploration and reflection.
The overall sense that I have with this Full Moon is pressure...the aggression of Mars, the expansion of emotion which goes with a Full Moon - it all has a kind of lid on it at the moment.
An eclipse is made by shadow, in this case when the shadow of the Earth falls on the face of the Moon. So all eclipses are associated with opportunities for shadow material to come into consciousness. It can bring about a difficult time in the weeks after an eclipse when a few ghosts start popping up from the underworld.
But the strongest sense I have of this eclipse is the feeling of pressure - particularly from the fixed T-square with a lot of heat in it but not a lot of movement - frustration. And what I hope is that the people of the world use this time, the hottest summer on record, to reflect on the grim realities of climate change as well as thinking deeply about the various political messes that we have brought upon ourselves. The sign of Aquarius is ruled by Uranus and both are connected to the quest for political change and revolution, the intention to bring about a more just egalitarian society. Uranus goes with the archetype of the Titan Prometheus who gave up his life to bring fire to the human race - his longing to make the human condition better.
If you really want to get a felt sense of the experience of retrograde Mars conjunct the blood Moon in Aquarius and square to Uranus, then look at the disastrous fix we in the UK have got to with Brexit. Right now, there appears to be no possible way forward. What can we do but stand still and reflect on this mess, which is entirely of our own making? We are right in the middle of this paralysing, impossibly matted tangle of planets - our very own Gordian Knot.
The great thing about astrology (and life), is that nothing ever stands still. In exactly 1 month from now, Mars turns direct and as we progress into the autumn, slowly all the retrogrades will start moving direct. The hope (for Brexit) is that as Mars gets back into action something new will happen - possibly some new direction will emerge, something we haven't even thought of yet, some unknown Alexander coming to slice through this Gordian knot? We shall see....
Well, that brings me to my next article, which I have been trying to get myself to write for at least a year), about the massive line up of planets in Capricorn coming in early 2020, which is what we are all really waiting for.

My approach is a synthesis of classical psychology, psycho-spiritual energy healing and archetypal astrology. The psychological model I use is Wilhelm Reich's concept of Characterology, the energy healing model I use is based on Brennan Healing Science and the astrology from my training in Jungian based psychological astrology. Now I am writing a series of articles hoping to make clear some of these very big concepts. Here is, What is Characterology?

WHAT IS CHARACTEROLOGY?
Not all that many people have heard of Characterology yet in my own life and in my work I have found Characterology invaluable as a way of helping me to understand people. Characterology is a psychological approach, based in understanding the impact of childhood experiences on the development of the personality. It describes five different character types, which emerge from five stages of child development. Clearly there are more than five types of people in the world so Characterology is a simplification of something which is highly complex. Knowing how to recognise the five character types provides a very clear way of understanding a person's behaviour and can greatly expand awareness for counsellors, psychotherapists, astrologers and healers.

The idea of the five character types was developed by Wilhelm Reich one of the great psychologists of the 20th century. In his work with his clients Reich noticed that the psychological effect of trauma experienced in early infancy was different to the effect of trauma experienced in an older child. Based on these observations Reich mapped out the psychological development of the personality through five stages of childhood. Each stage was associated with the emergence of a particular character type. Each of the five character types has a distinct recognisable physical and psychological profile including specific patterns of defence, which block the healthy expression of the Self.

Everybody has been through the five stages of child development so everybody has some signs of all five of these character types. However, some people have a dominant emphasis on one of the types; most people have an emphasis on a mixture of two or three. Character Structure, or Characterology, is the term used to describe the balance of these five personality types in a person’s make-up.

The 20th century psychologists tended to focus on mental health problems resulting from trauma experienced in childhood. More recently psycho-spiritual practitioners have understood that Characterology is not just about wounding but each of the character types have specific gifts of soul to express and these will be outlined in a separate article on The Creative Process.

Below is a brief outline of the psychological view of the five character types with the focus on the specific issue presented by the developmental stage and the kind of defence that will result from any trauma experienced during that stage:
• The Schizoid Type: The ‘Schizoid’ type is associated with the stage extending from conception through the gestation period and on into the critical time of labour, birth and the earliest days of life. Wounding and defence in this stage arise from the primal experience of mortality, the terror of being in a physical body and the fear of physical death and annihilation. A person in the Schizoid defence will disassociate from their feelings and body sensations and they will split away from physical reality and escape into a state of extreme mental detachment and fragmentation.
• The Oral Type: The ‘Oral’ type is associated with the period that extends from birth through the first year of life while the baby’s survival remains totally dependent on receiving care and nourishment from others. Wounding and defence arising in this stage centre on the experience of neglect or deprivation – the fear of abandonment and hunger. This can develop into a chronic feeling of inner emptiness, lack and unmet needs. The Oral type will try to get their needs met through others and the defence is associated with extreme emotional dependency and collapse.
• The Masochist Type: The third type is the ‘Masochist’ type, associated with the second and third year of life when the child develops mobility and speech and begins to assert their autonomy. Wounding and defence in this stage arise from experiences of being over-controlled, dominated and humiliated by the parents. This can leave the child with deep rooted feelings of powerlessness and shame. A person in the Masochist defence will try to protect themselves by hiding behind some kind of mask and withholding their spontaneous self-expression. They may try to assert their autonomy by going into stubborn resistance but this often leads to a repeating pattern of defeat.
• The Psychopathic Type: The fourth type, the ‘Psychopathic’ type, is associated with the older child, aged three to five who is ready to focus on the area of relationship and begins to explore their sexual identity in relationship to the parent of the opposite sex. Wounding and defence in this stage occurs when the child is drawn into a triangle of seduction by one parent and rivalry with the other. When there is uncertainty of safe boundaries being held by the parents the whole experience of relationship becomes overcharged from fear of betrayal. The child in the Psychopathic stage gets stuck in an unwinnable struggle to win the love and approval of the beloved parent. This develops into a life pattern of obsession with winning, overly aggression behaviour and repeated experiences of betrayal.
• The Rigid Type: The fifth type, the ‘Rigid’ type, is associated with the child between five and seven years old, who is learning the social rules of how to fit in and achieve success with their family, their tribe and their community. Wounding and defence in this stage occurs when the code of rules and expectations in the family are overly rigid and wounding in this stage centres on the fear of being criticised and rejected – the fear of failure. The overly-controlled child will give up on their inner sense of knowing and instead, they become focused on the prevailing codes of behaviour in their family and culture. The Rigid defence is associated with issues of control and judgement.

Learning about the different character types is fascinating but it is easy to have a negative reaction to the uncomfortable descriptions of childhood trauma, distortion and defence. Reich named the five character types using terms from classical analytical psychology so the names themselves have unpleasant associations with madness. People reading the descriptions quickly find themselves identifying with one or more of the Characterological types. Almost without exception readers go into a state of judgement – against themselves for being flawed – against their own parents who ‘wounded’ them and/or into a state of guilt about their own failings as a parent! Yet Characterology only describes the results of a child’s struggle to deal with their circumstances as they grow through the developmental stages. We go into defence as a way of coping when difficult things happen and it is a simple fact that in life, difficult things happen. While it is clear that some people suffer appalling neglect and abuse in childhood and become profoundly damaged, even children from stable and loving homes have their issues. The development of individually distinct patterns of Characterology is as intrinsic to human psychological development as the growth of ten fingers with unique finger prints is to physical development.

Two things came to me in the years when I was studying Characterology. One was the awareness that there is much more to Characterology than trauma, wounding and defence. Each of the five types also bring specific gifts such as mental brilliance; empathy and compassion; creativity and communication skills; courage and leadership; authority and wisdom built of experience. I will explore the whole area of the gifts of soul that come with each of the character types in a separate article on The Creative Process.

The second realisation was that, as an astrologer, once I understood that every person has their own individual character structure then I started wondering if this would show up in a person's horoscope. I did some small scale research, looking at the charts of fellow students at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. What I discovered were consistent patterns of planets in a horoscope representing the different character types. I found that bringing in the archetypes of the planets brought me both a new understanding of the Character types and a fresh approach and new information into my understanding of astrology.

For astrologers, below is a brief outline of which of the planets are associated with each of the character types.
• The Schizoid type - associated with Uranus, Mercury and Chiron
• The Oral type - associated with Neptune and the Moon
• The Masochist type - associated with Pluto and 'afflictions' to the Sun
• The Psychopathic type - associated with Mars, the Sun and Jupiter
• The Rigid type - associated with Saturn and Venus

The relationship between the planets and the different character types will be discussed in a separate article, The Astrology of Characterology. And for anyone particularly interested in this subject please read my book, 'Charting the Soul: Astrology, Characterology and the Human Energy Field'.

WHAT IS AN ARCHETYPE?

Some People are from Mars and Some People are from Venus!

The psychologist C. G. Jung recognised that there are common themes found in the minds of human beings from all over the world. It is as though there is a bed rock foundation of the human psyche which is common to every human being who ever existed. Jung referred to this vast primal mind as the collective unconscious.

Specific elemental aspects of consciousness arise out of the collective and these fundamental elements of the psyche are known as archetypes. Jung said, "The archetypes are essentially, the chthonic portion of the psyche … that portion through which the psyche is attached to Nature." So the archetypes live deep down in the unconscious close to the activity of the reptilian brain that controls the autonomic functioning of the systems of the body - the drawing of breath, the beating of the heart.

For example, we each have our own personal story around the nature of the relationship with our parents but the archetypes of the Mother and the Father are universal images rooted deep in human consciousness.

Well, I thought that was a fairly safe thing to say but when I mentioned this idea to my sons it developed into a long discussion about gender stereo-typing. These days a person can grow up in a family with a single parent or with one male one female parent or with parents of the same sex, trans gender parents or not knowing their biological parents at all. We are living through times of great change and our cultural ideas around what constitutes 'Mother' and 'Father' are in flux. Is it possible that we will create new archetypes as we move through the age of gender neutral Aquarius?

Maybe. But an archetype is something that arises in the depths of the unconscious. It is close to instinctive, unchangeable biological imperatives, it's existence dates back to the birth of humanity and it precedes and pre-empts our individual personal stories, preferences and cultural shifts. The only way to get to live on this planet is to start with a sperm from a man and an egg from a woman. So there is some profound but unconscious way in which we all share the experience of this universal biological fact. In the ancient Chinese text the I Ching, the first two hexagrams are Ch'ien the Creative - the masculine principle which directs energy outward and takes action, and K'un the Receptive - the feminine principle which takes energy inward and receives and contains it. I believe these are two fundamental archetypes and that the sense of a Yin and a Yang, of feminine and masculine aspects of consciousness is deeply rooted in the human psyche.

It may well be that a person born into a male body will want their life to be an exploration of Yin, feminine energy and a person born into a female body may want to explore the expression of Yang, masculine energy or any mixture of both and this should not present a problem to anyone who believes in freedom. But I feel the archetypes of the Masculine and the Feminine are a real and a beautiful thing. So we could say that some people are from Mars and some people are from Venus but wherever the individual lives on that spectrum, the underlying archetypes of Mars and Venus remain.

There are many other archetypes e.g. those that represent the stages of life such as the Child, the Lover and the Elder or those that express needs such as the urge to communicate, the instinctual drives such as sexuality and aggression and survival.

In the study of astrology it is clear that the planets of the horoscope are symbols of archetypal principles. When we look into space and observe the physical form of the solar system we can see how the Sun, born from the infinite void sits at the centre generating a field of light and elemental chemicals from which life on Earth was created and we can see each of the planets embodying an archetypal principle, an essential element in the chemistry of life.

Some form of astrology is found in every culture across the Earth. In ancient times, shamans, priests and priestesses living close to Nature recognised the archetypal energies brought by the 'wondering stars', which are named after the gods and goddesses of the cultures of our ancestors.

"As above, so below". As well as functioning in the depths of the instincts of the body the archetypes also speak to us from the heavens, from the realms of Spirit and the archetypal energy of the planets can be perceived as specific patterns of light and colour and feeling running through the energy field of every person. Several times, in sessions with clients I have heard a person speak with the voice of an archetype, for example the archetype of Mercury coming through a man who was a poet and an actor and took on the authority of the Herald speaking passionately about truth.

We human are so much more powerful than we realise. In our everyday lives, we move around weaving our own unique and poignant stories most of the time unconscious that we are dancing with the archetypal drives of the planets. When we look at a person's horoscope we can see what is going on and how the energy flows or gets obstructed in the relationships between the mighty planets. We see the rising waves of a storm approaching, we see the sky light up with opportunity, we can see the turmoil of death and birth and the quiet places of stillness and harmony.

Without fail, I find that people love to hear the story of their own horoscope and to understand which of the archetypes is calling to them. The archetypes root us into the depths of the Earth and they are also our bridge to the stars - helping us to remember who we are and illuminating the path our Souls have come to follow.

THE ENERGETICS OF ASTROLOGY

A WEEKEND WORKSHOP WITH REBEKAH HIRSCH AUTHOR OF
"CHARTING THE SOUL: ASTROLOGY, CHARACTEROLOGY AND THE HUMAN ENERGY FIELD"

NEW YORK, JUNE 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 2018

FRIDAY 22nd, 6.00 - 9.00pm - public lecture
THE ASTROLOGY OF CHARACTEROLOGY

SATURDAY 23rd - SUNDAY 24th
THE CREATIVE PROCESS; FROM ESSENCE TO MANIFESTATION

"Every creative act you have done began within your core consciousness and upwelled through the deeper levels of your being until it reached your physical world. All the creations in your life take the same course." Barbara Brennan - from 'Light Emerging'

At the source of every human life is the eternal light of Spirit flowing through into the physical world and manifesting in the miracle of the body. So life on Earth is a dance between the vibrational energy of the non-physical realms and structured form arising in the world of Matter. In this workshop we will be exploring five stages of incarnation in this continuum of creation. The workshop will include teachings from Rebekah on the different stages and on the archetypal nature of the planets associated with the passage from inspiration to manifestation. Together we will bring awareness alive through story-telling, guided meditation, personal process, music, art and sacred ritual. This workshop is suitable for professional healers, therapists and astrologers and for anyone walking the path of psycho-spiritual awakening. It is not necessary to have prior knowledge of astrology.

REBEKAH J S HIRSCH is a psycho-spiritual astrologer, originally trained at the Centre for Psychological Astrology in London. She is an experienced energy healer, an advanced level graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and a trainer and facilitator of the process known as Voice Dialogue. She is a teacher, a writer, a painter, a grandmother; a double Aquarius with a Scorpio Moon.

TO REGISTER PLEASE CONTACT: theguidedhealing77@gmail.com
WORKSHOP FEE - $375; PRE-REGISTRATION - $325
ONE DAY ONLY - $150; FRIDAY EVENING LECTURE ONLY - $75

Venmo address for electronic preregistration: theguidedhealing77@gmail.com
LOCATION: 301 West 55th street, #4 (Corner of 8th Avenue) Manhattan.

REBEKAH HIRSCH INTERVIEW WITH SYLVIA-ANAIS MOUZOUROU

SUNDAY MAY 20th 2018
3.00pm EST NEW YORK, 8.00pm BST UK

On Sunday evening I'll be talking with Sylvia-Anais Mouzourou of Meditation, Yoga and Healing NYC, about the themes of my book 'Charting the soul: Astrology, Characterology and the Human Energy Field', bringing together ideas from body-mind psychology, energy healing and archetypal astrology. While I deeply honour the necessity and importance of psychological process my emphasis is always on expanding our awareness to the spiritual dimension where healing, transformation and transcendence of old wounds occurs and where we can reconnect with the loving creative power which is at the source of every human life. I'll also be focusing on the ideas of Astro-Energetics, a new way of understanding astrology, experiencing the archetypes of the planets as a living dynamic presence running through a person's Human Energy Field.

CHARTING THE SOUL
A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Self-Awareness, Integrating Psychotherapy, Spirituality and Astrology

Rebekah Hirsch's innovative approach brings together the body-mind theories of Wilhelm Reich,
the psycho-spiritual healing work of Barbara Brennan and the archetypes of the planets of the horoscope.

SATURDAY 24th AND SUNDAY 25th MARCH 2018

THE SOUL IN THE FLOWERING STAGE

In the Charting the Soul workshops, we are exploring five key stages in the creative process of living in the manifest world. The fourth stage is the Flowering Stage, a time of blossoming as the hero or heroine goes out into the world to prove themselves and find romance.

In Wilhelm Reich's psychological model the fourth stage is known as the Psychopathic stage. In the Psychopathic defence a person has an overpowering need to be 'special', they are driven to demand attention and by the need to win, to overpower, dominate and control anyone who appears to pose some kind of threat. At the core of the belligerence of the Psychopathic defence is a child who is afraid that in their essence they are just not good enough and the tragic hope that if they win enough battles they may finally prove their worth. No matter how wounded and defended a person becomes, it is also possible to see their authentic qualities of essence that are struggling for expression. The gift that wants to come through the soul in the Flowering Soul is the ability to light up a room - to bring through the fire, the light, the life force of their own individual uniqueness. The soul in the Flowering Stage is full of courage, initiative, creativity, desire, passion and the urge to take action. They inspire others, they are confident leaders with flowing access to the life force, radiating warmth and confidence.

In this workshop we will have a chance to explore our own experiences round the issues of self-love, self belief and our need to shine the light of our own beautiful essence. We will be working directly with the human energy field; experiencing the vibrational energy of the Flowering Soul, meeting with the astrological archetypes of Mars, the Sun and Jupiter discovering them as a presence in our own energy field.

Workshops take place in Okehampton, Devon, with Rebekah and Rachel Hirsch.
Cost £150, concessions available.

Phone: Rebekah Hirsch on 0779982879 or Rachel Hirsch on 07800590350

email: chartingthesoul@gmail.com

Last night I stayed up way too late catching a Pacific time seminar led by Stanislav Grof and Richard Tarnas - speaking on 'The Healing potential of Archetypal Astrology'. Well - you can imagine, I was so excited I could barely watch it! Stan Grof has been a hero of mine since the late 1970s when I read his book, 'Realms of the Human Unconscious'. And here he is speaking about the hugely important relevance of astrology to the development of human consciousness.

So, my world keeps getting shaken up - because over all the years that I have been a student and then a teacher of astrology a shadow of doubt has been constantly eating away at me - the suggestion that astrology is not valuable. In fact the opposite belief has been sitting quietly by my side like a resident saboteur - the idea that many people think astrology is a joke and that when I say that I am an astrologer they will smile to themselves and think that I am either a fool or a charlatan. And now I have Stan Grof saying that it is important that we get with astrology, and I have more and more people telling me that my book has been important to them or inspiring, ('Charting the Soul: Astrology, Characterology d the Human Energy Field').

I remember back in the 1985 when I began studying astrology with the late, great, Howard Sasportas. I would come out of Howard's classes feeling so expanded, so profoundly inspired that I felt like my feet could hardly touch the ground. With the passing of the years, a lot of that magic became lost to me, worn down by the folly of magazine astrology and by the de-valuing of astrology by friends, family and colleagues - intelligent people who could not see what I was seeing. But once anyone begins to understand the extent to which astrology really 'works', then it automatically leads to the awareness that Jung and now Grof are speaking of - the realm of the archetypes which underpin all of existence - physicist David Bohm's "implicit enfolded order".

As I am sitting here writing now, my love and delight in astrology is lighting up again. A sleeping dragon is waking up in me. Through all the eleven years of writing my book, something kept me going, something in me would not let me stop. And, maybe, now it is time - time for me to put my heart and soul into bringing through the beautiful, breathtaking wisdom of astrology.

In a minute I will be setting out for Devon (sorry Rachel, late again but had to write this!) where my sister and I will be leading the second of our Charting the Soul workshops - the Rooting Soul, the tender, vulnerable, collapsing, co-dependent, over-sensitive souls with major problems with boundaries and without whom our world would be devoid of compassion, empathy and love. The Moon and Neptune. Looking forward to welcoming in Christmas with the stardust energy of Neptune. The first weekend went so well, a heartfelt privilege to work with the group that came along. Here we go again - may the Force (and Neptune) be with us!

WHAT IS HIGHER SENSE PERCEPTION?

When my son Mikey was a very tiny baby, I remember watching him, lying on his little blanket with his arms stretched out. He was so new that he couldn't yet lift up his head but his face was turned to the side and that he was looking at his tiny pink hand, concentrating, or so it seemed to me, on watching his tiny pink fingers moving. Well, who knows, but I speculated that he was watching the blur of his fingers moving and thinking - "Is that me? Am I doing that?"

When we come to this earth we are born into this utterly incredible biological form. Believe me, I am just like everyone else, I bop around taking my body for granted and making it drink Coca-Cola, eat chips and sit in front of one screen or another for much longer than it wants to. But every now and then, especially when something in me escapes from the computer and gets out under the trees, then I have moments when I am struck down with gratitude for my senses - for the moments when I see something so beautiful it takes my breath away, or when I am listening to music and my whole being shifts; the exhilaration of diving into the sea, the utter pleasure of food, the ecstasy of touch.

We have these amazing senses, biological organs - eyes, ears, skin and a vast nervous system that brings all this incredible information into our brains to be analysed and experienced and felt and understood. Some scientists believe that all our thoughts and feelings are the result of chemical activity in the nervous system and that the brain is the source of consciousness. But for many other scientists, the more they understand about the immense complexity of the systems of the body, the less they can accept the limitations of the materialist view. For neuroscientist Candace Pert, author of 'Molecules of Emotion', her research led her to this conclusion:
"Emotions exist in the body as informational chemicals, the neurones and receptors, and they also exist in another realm, the one we experience as feeling, inspiration, love - beyond the physical. The emotions move back and forth, flowing freely between both places, and, in that sense, they connect the physical and the non-physical."
She talks about a vast, infinite field of information that is - "beyond, time and place, matter and energy".
This means that all of our reactions and responses and interpretations of sensory information happen in a realm of consciousness that is beyond the limited structures of the physical realm.

In my years of training as an energy healer I was taught how to use what we refer to as 'Higher Sense Perception' - the ability to perceive and receive data from this 'field of information' in the non-physical world. In the past this ability was traditionally known as clairvoyance, clairaudience and as 'sixth sense' but was more associated with spiritual mediumship. As a Brennan healer, I learned to develop my ability to receive all kinds of information from the non-physical realm - in particular to see, hear, touch and directly understand what is happening in a person's aura, which I usually refer to as their Human Energy Field. Everyone has Higher Sense Perception - nobody is born without it - and we use it all the time, for example when you walk into a room and immediately know that something is wrong even though nothing is said or when you can sense a person's emotional state, even when they try to hide it. In western culture, as we are growing up, we are taught to rely on information from our physical senses and not to trust the information we get from our HSP. And it is may be that information from our physical senses is more consistently reliable than information from our HSP - it is quite tricky using HSP because your own emotional state can colour the information that you are receiving. However, I also think that there are situations when HSP is life-savingly important. I imagine that indigenous peoples rely heavily on their HSP living their lives in wild natural environments. And I have met healers who 'see' patterns of energy everywhere, in the same way that you or I see the physical world. I am not one of those, most of the time I am seeing with my physical senses and I have to make a conscious effort to switch my focus to my HSP.

Well, I thought it might be useful for people who read my book 'Charting the Soul: Astrology, Characterology and the Human Energy Field', for me to expand on what I mean when I say that during a healing I "saw" my client's horoscope as a vibrational pattern running through their energy field. And the minute I say that, it feels rather daunting because we do not actually have words in the English language to adequately convey the experience of Higher Sense Perception. Let's have a go.... when I see the energy of the horoscope it goes like this.... My client is lying relaxing on the massage table while I take myself into a state of mind where I can focus on my HSP. With my inner eye I 'see' different areas of colour and light surrounding my client, extending far out from the body, actually filling the whole room and beyond. I focus on the area nearer to the body - some places are radiant and brightly illuminated, some areas more shadowy. These areas of light and shadow also transmit a sense of emotion and sometimes they contain whole stories about the person. I put my hand out into the field and I can 'feel' areas where the energy is expanding - pushing my hand upwards and others where the energy is contracting, so my hand sinks down. Sometimes the movement of energy feels tangled and overheated, sometimes it feels completely blocked or frozen.

The day came when I felt that I was perceiving the energy of the horoscope in a person's field. I became aware of a powerful hot, red, current surging through my client's field pushing energy upwards towards the head. And somehow, (and this is a form of HSP which we call 'direct knowing'), I recognised this as the energy of Mars in the same way that you might recognise a piece of music as one composed by Beethoven because it has a characteristic quality that is so distinct from the work of other composers. Another time I had a client, with everything in her horoscope in Gemini and Virgo. She was someone who was inclined to talk non-stop, a kind of wall of words coming at you. I could 'see' how the energy of Mercury (ruler of Gemini and Virgo) kept her mind relentlessly active so that there was a constant whirling of energy around her head not unlike a swarm of bees and not at all comfortable for her. But Mercury is the only one of the Gods who can make the descent down into the underworld - the dream world, the vastness of the unconscious. As the healing session progressed, my client's whole energy field became increasingly calm, the buzzing stopped, the focus of her energy sank right down into the base of her field. Then she was able to access stillness and silence and when she spoke she had fantastic insights brought back from that deep 'otherworld' of Pluto's realm.

So, that is a little bit of information about my personal experience of Higher Sense Perception. The one big key to HSP is trust. You have to put all your sceptical thoughts to one side - "Yes, I hear you Voice of Scepticism, yes, I could be making all of this up...but let's just stay curious and see what happens?" I have to put the sceptical part away from me, make it go and stand, muttering, behind me. That leaves the rest of me clear to dance around with the energies I am perceiving, trust in what my 'sixth sense' is telling me, and follow my impulse and my curiosity like an explorer.

One last thing, for anyone who is working with their HSP. At the Brennan school we were taught always to access at least two, preferably three different forms of HSP senses. That means not just relying on clairvoyant 'sight' or 'direct knowing' but backing up your perception by checking if this information is something you can also feel with your hand and/or hear etc. The more you deepen into connection with HSP the less likely you are to get distracted by ego-based distortions.
Food for thought, I hope. We humans are much bigger than we realise, there is so much more to explore in our infinite inner worlds.

© Rebekah Hirsch 28/10/17

"I can say "Golden Gate Bridge" and you can picture that. No one really knows exactly how that happens. They know how the sodium-potassium balance changes in the auditory nerve and goes to the auditory centres of the brain. But beyond that...."
Jack Kornfield

.....last minute addition to the article I wrote at 4.00 this morning!!....
In answer to my friend Hilly's question - "WHAT ABOUT THERESA MAY?"

So.....one of the things that have made it difficult for me to get a clear sense of how this election might work out, is that initially, nothing obvious leapt out at me about what was happening in Theresa May's chart. Yes, she has the Sun at 8 degrees of Libra and Jupiter is stationary at 13 degrees of Libra on the day of the election. But from now on Jupiter is heading AWAY from May's Sun. It was last year, on 7th July 2016, four days before she became the Prime Minister of the UK, that Theresa May had her Jupiter return i.e. Jupiter in the skies reached 17 degrees of Virgo - exactly the position it holds in her natal chart. After that moment of triumph, Jupiter carried on through Virgo and Libra so that, following a series of happy aspects to various other planets, Jupiter conjuncted her Sun at 8 degrees of Virgo on October 18th 2016. So that was a great time of expansion and hope and vision for May as the new leader of the UK.

But now, for Theresa May, that time of Jupiterian expansion has passed. And as I search around to see what transits are happening for her this week THIS is what I find....

When you look for significant transits you are looking to see which of the planets in the sky are making a very close aspect, preferably an exact aspect to the planets in a person's natal chart. And, (how could I have not seen this till now?) on June 5th 2017, Chiron in the skies reached 28 degrees of Pisces making an exact opposition to Theresa May's natal Mercury at 28 degrees of Virgo. This very difficult aspect has been active in May's chart for well over a month and reaches peak intensity this week.

Chiron represents the archetype of the Wounded Healer and it is a planet that can bring up profound, toxic wounding. Mercury rules everything to do with communication, including speech. Over the last weeks we have seen a number of rather excruciating moments highlighting May's difficulty with straight communication e.g. when a series of journalists asked Mrs May if she regretted the cuts she had made to the police force in her time as Home Secretary she simply refused to answer yet could not get off the hook as reporter after reporter asked her the same question. Perhaps most telling of all has been her refusal to join the head to head TV debates with the leaders of the other parties - really there could not be a better illustration of the wounding of a Chiron transit to Mercury as May irreparably damaged her own election campaign by her inability to enter into an open, public debate with the other parties.

In astrology Mercury is the 'ruler' of the sign of Virgo. May has the Moon, Jupiter and Mercury in Virgo and so this gives a lot of weight to the opposition from Chiron to her Mercury. I actually find myself feeling rather sorry for Mrs. May as a Virgo Moon is actually extremely sensitive, not at all an ideal Moon placement for a person involved in the rough and tumble of politics. Both the Virgo Moon and the Libra Sun give her extremely high standards, a tendency towards a big inner critic and, very likely, a paralysing shame when publicly exposed to questions she cannot answer or when mocked for her failure to show up at the debates. I think her political ambition is driven by the exact square in her chart between Saturn (in Scorpio) and Pluto (in Leo). This is a slightly less intense version of the combination of Saturn, Pluto, Scorpio and Leo energy found in the chart of Hillary Clinton and an indication of the difficult challenges, battles and compromises of integrity that both women will have had to make in order carve a path through the politics of the patriarchy.

One more thing, in answer to my friend Alan's query - in Jeremy Corbyn's chart, does this station of Jupiter mean that after June 8th the positive energy of expansion will just disperse? Not really, Corbyn will be feeling the benefits of the energy of Jupiter right through until October when it trines his natal Uranus (the planet that rules radical politics and revolutionary ideals).

Well who knows? The winds of change are blowing throughout the western world and this is definitely a moment of truth for the people of Britain. I don't believe in last chances, when some kind of Truth is wanting to break through it is unstoppable, it will keep on coming. But wouldn't it be exciting if that moment was NOW???

a little bit of election astrology, particular for those following the UK election ......

UK GENERAL ELECTION 2017; JUPITER STATIONARY DIRECT

I am not much of a predictive astrologer, I prefer to use astrology to understand the issues that are being presented and to see the patterns formed by the planets in the sky as a kind of weather map showing the way the wind is blowing. However, I care very much about the coming election in the UK - feels like more at stake than at any other election in my lifetime and so I have been pouring over the horoscope for June 8th trying to see what might be trying to occur. And the thing that stands out is the energy of Jupiter.

I feel apologetic as I normally like to write so as to be easily understood by non-astrologers whereas this article is a little more astrologically technical. Here goes...when we look up to the heavens from our perspective here on earth, the planets - the 'wondering stars' sometimes appear to change direction and travel backwards - retrograde - for a few months at a time. When they are about to change direction, they slow down and seem, for a day or two, to be standing still in the skies before slowly setting off in the new direction. They station once when they turn retrograde and once again when they turn direct. The energy of a planet is at its' most powerful, a tangible presence hanging in the air on the days when it is stationary, particularly on the day when the planet is stationary ready to turn direct.

Synchronicity is a term coined by Jung, used to describe events that are "meaningful coincidences" occurring with no causal relationship yet seeming to be meaningfully linked. Earlier this year Theresa May and her team decided that a general election for the UK would be held on June 8th, 2017. As it happens, they chose the one day of 2017 when mighty Jupiter is stationary direct in the skies above us at 13 degrees of Libra.

In traditional astrology Jupiter was known as the Greater Benefic, the bringer of good fortune. Jupiter represents the principle of expansion, optimism, a vision of previously unseen possibilities and a new hope. Theresa May was born with the Sun in Libra so at first glance one might think that this powerful energy of Jupiter in Libra would bring her good fortune. But May's Sun is at 8 degrees of Libra and so when Jupiter starts travelling direct again, on June 10th, it will be moving away from May's Sun not towards it. So I am going to stick my neck out, (and I have a modest bet placed on this possibility), and say that it is Jeremy Corbyn who will be feeling the benefit of Jupiter's golden light on June 8th.

Jeremy Corbyn has the Sun and 3 other planets in Gemini. Corbyn has Venus at 14 degrees of Gemini and Mercury at 16 degrees and it is these two planets, particularly Venus, the Lesser Benefic and the Goddess of Love and Happiness that will be harmoniously aspected by stationary Jupiter. In his natal chart Corbyn has Neptune at 12 degrees of Libra in a close trine to his Venus in Gemini. And so the station of Jupiter at 13 degrees of Libra falls directly onto Corbyn's happy aspect between Venus the Goddess of Love and Joy and the compassionate, charismatic energy of Neptune.

However, the station of Jupiter is not the only significant event that is happening among the planets on June 8th. At 1.00 pm we have a Full Moon in Sagittarius and at 2.00 pm the powerful Jupiter rises over the Eastern horizon i.e. conjuncting the Libra Ascendant. This might be a peak moment for Corbyn and after that the energy shifts.

As the day wears on the Moon travels through Sagittarius moving into a conjunction with Saturn which becomes exact in the small hours of June 9th. Saturn is the opposite of Jupiter - traditionally know as the Greater Malefic the bringer of misfortune, Saturn represents the principle of limitation. Where Jupiter is visionary and optimistic Saturn is cautious and restrictive. While Jupiter could seem to be closely linked to the optimism expressed in the Labour vision under Corbyn, Saturn can definitely be associated with the Conservative's view that his vision is pie in the sky, an utterly unrealistic Santa Claus wish list etc. etc. Both Saturn and Jupiter are associated with the Law but whereas Saturn wants to balance the books, stick to the rules and work through things slowly and methodically Jupiter is more interested in morals, principles and the ideals of justice. I could easily associate the energy of a Moon Saturn conjunction with the Conservative party's emphasis on austerity, getting the deficit under control and maintaining the status quo, while the energy of Jupiter goes with the much more idealistic Labour party demanding change and social justice.

I have been thinking a lot about this polarity and I have kept on putting off writing this article because I just could not see which way this pendulum would swing - Jupiter or Saturn - and I have been wondering if this is what the energy of a hung parliament would look like? But if you take a look at some of the speeches that Corbyn has made this week then you will see a man coming into his own, illuminated with the light of Jupiter and beginning to access the kind of charisma associated with a great political leader. And if you see Theresa May with her face like a mask meeting difficult questions with a fearful and stony silence you will get the sense of the rigid energy of Saturn. So, I come back to my opening paragraph - synchronistically, this election has fallen on the day of the year when Jupiter is at its' most powerful. If ever Corbyn is to have his moment - this will be it.

On June 8th the stars are hung in a polarity between the Greater Benefic and the Greater Malefic. I am a great believer in free will, destiny is not fixed and the planets can show us the prevailing energies of the day but they do not make choices for us. In the end, whatever occurs will be a clear illustration of the state of Awareness, of the consciousness and the hearts and minds of the British people.

Rebekah Hirsch 7/06/17

I am hoping that this blog may help to bring some kind of acceptance – especially for my American friends trying to get over the shock of the election.

AN ASTROLOGER’S ANALYSIS OF THE AMERICAN ELECTION

One of the great things about astrology is that it evokes a sense of a bigger picture; of the weaving of the over-arching tapestry of destiny. When the changing currents of planetary alignments are understood, very often a release occurs and events that appear highly disagreeable may suddenly be recognised as just one thread in the weaving of a pattern that has not yet come to completion. Right now, this may be helpful for those struggling to come to terms with the unexpected result of the American presidential election.

This year, like everyone else, I have watched events in the USA with growing dismay as the American people found themselves cornered with an unwelcome choice of candidates for the presidency, possibly the worst in their history. Whatever my doubts about Clinton, from my British perspective, Trump was incomparably worse and I had been hoping the American people would go for the lesser of two evils and vote for Clinton.

A couple of days before the election I decided to take a look at the horoscopes of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. As soon as I did so, I had the rather upsetting insight that Trump was going to win. Anxiously I talked this over with an astrological friend and she persuaded me that Clinton has a much more stateswoman-like chart, only it turned out that my initial perception was right.

Donald Trump was born with Jupiter in Libra. On 9th September 2016, Jupiter in the skies above us, entered the first degree of the sign of Libra and started moving, with increasing momentum, towards 17 degrees of Libra, the position of Trump’s natal Jupiter, (astrologers refer to this event as a ‘Jupiter return’). Jupiter was the king of the Gods and he is known in traditional astrology as the Greater Benefic, the bringer of good fortune. Lucky, golden Jupiter represents the principle of expansion and brings a time of opportunity and the opening of many doors. So what we have seen is how Trump has been picked up and carried aloft by the glorious wave of mighty Jupiter surging towards his Jupiter return, which will become exact on December 4th.

Much disturbed by the information about Trump’s Jupiter return I moved tentatively on to take a look at Hillary Clinton’s natal chart. I saw that Jupiter was having no particular impact, instead a very different energy was active in Hillary’s chart. Hillary Clinton has the Moon at 22 degrees of Pisces and on the day of the election the little planetoid Chiron was at just under 21 degrees of Pisces.

Chiron was discovered in 1977 and there is still uncertainty as to exactly what kind of object it is. Whatever doubts astronomers have, astrologers have recognised, since the mid-1980’s, the tremendous significance of Chiron in the horoscope. Chiron represents the archetype of the Wounded Healer. When transiting Chiron approaches the position of planets in a person’s natal chart it has a very powerful impact and in the first place this transit is all about the wounding, the healing comes later. One of the features of the wounding that Chiron brings is that, at first glance, it seems to make no sense, it appears to bring an entirely unreasonable outcome.

The ancient Greek myth of Chiron is now widely understood by all kinds of astrologers, therapists and healers. Chiron was the wise and noble king of the centaurs. One day he was accidentally wounded by an arrow belonging to the hero Hercules. Hercules had dipped the tip of his arrow in poison that he collected from the Hydra – a monster that he had defeated and killed. The Hydra’s poison was deadly and incurable and left its victims dying in agony. But Chiron was immortal – he could not die and so he lived with the constant agony of his toxic wound.
What all this means is that on November 9th, while Donald Trump was dancing to the fanfare of Jupiter, Hillary Clinton was suffering the wounding of Chiron. The poisoned arrow was piercing through her armour into the heart of her Pisces Moon; the Moon representing the archetype of the Feminine, the Yin energy, the Matriarch, the Goddess.

And there is much more to this story, because there always is with astrology.

Donald Trump has fiery, Leo rising with Mars right on his Ascendant. Mars is the god of War and it is in his Mars that we meet Trump’s persona of the Braggart, the Narcissist; selfish, aggressive, crude, brutal and violent. But Mars also represents the archetype of the Hero and probably many Americans were willing to overlook his maverick, egotistical behaviour in the hope that underneath all that they might find Robin Hood, Davey Crocket, Wyatt Earp or some other fantasy of a John Wayne-style vigilante overthrowing the bad guys. I guess we can all pray that there might still turn out to be a fragment of truth in that fantasy.

Trump has the Sun in Gemini – a brilliant mind but mercurial like quicksilver, fickle, changeable and likely to be unreliable – easier to take flight than to stand still and deal with difficult issues. Mars brings energy and will power but there is not a single thing in Trump’s chart that connects with the element of Earth, of grounding, of presence, of responsibility and endurance. We are looking at the archetype of the eternal youth, of Peter Pan, a charismatic and courageous boy who can never grow up. So how will Trump find the resources to deal with this incredible responsibility that has come upon him? That remains to be seen, the horoscope is not a static thing, individuals always have the chance to develop and transform the characteristics represented in their chart. He may surprise us. He will certainly have a capacity to think outside the box that a more steady and earthbound individual would lack. But he may turn out to be America’s nemesis, a 21st century Nero fiddling while the world around him burns. The astrologer Eve Jackson noticed that Jupiter and the sign of Sagittarius were strong in the horoscopes of the leading figures of the Nazis. People are easily inspired by the optimistic promise of Sagittarius but the shadow side of this energy is fundamentalism; extreme self-righteousness and fanaticism that can lead, all too easily, to fascism. It may be that under Trump’s leadership we are about to be confronted by a level of patriarchal brutality that we hoped might, by now, have been consigned to history.

And Hillary. If any of my readers wants to learn astrology in a day, just sit and study the chart of Hillary Clinton – it is all so transparently there to be seen.

Hillary Clinton has the Sun, the Ascendant and three other planets in Scorpio. Scorpio is one of those signs that gets a bad press – the poisonous scorpion with the sting in the tail, hiding under rocks and working in the shadows through secrets, machinations, hidden alliances, plots and power struggles. The Hydra, the poisonous, multi-headed monster that Hercules killed, lived in a dark swamp where the sun never shone and this is one of the images of the negative side of Scorpio – a malevolent festering energy living in a swamp! Donald Trump has referred to Washington DC, the political heart of the US as a swamp and promised to drain it and Washington has definitely been home to Clinton and the place where she developed her formidable talents as a politician. So, right there we have Hercules and the Hydra!

However, there is much more to Scorpio than the well-known image of secrets and lies. Scorpio is the deepest and most complex of all the signs. In the higher expression of Scorpio there is the capacity for profound understanding, compassion and wisdom and the beneficial exercise of power. Scorpio is also represented by the eagle – soaring high and seeing far and by the phoenix that symbolises transformation and the possibility of new life arising from the ashes of destruction. So these are the qualities we have missed out on in the loss of Mrs. Clinton as president.
The major challenge in Clinton’s chart is found, not in the energy of Scorpio but in a difficult grouping of planets in Leo. The conjunction of Mars, Pluto and Saturn in Leo is found in the charts of all those born in the end of 1947 or the summer of 1948 and this configuration has a grim reputation with astrologers. Mars the God of War, Pluto the Lord of Death and Saturn the Greater Malefic, bringer of misfortune and the archetype of the Patriarch – coming together in fiery Leo to present a formidable charge around issues of will power and control. Individuals with this rather terrible knot in their charts can have immense difficulty in finding the right use of power. For those who believe in re-incarnation, Clinton’s chart could represent the challenges of a soul working through a life time of issues around world leadership and the right use of power.

Nearly all of the planets in Clinton’s horoscope are dragged into the battle ground of the Scorpio/Leo configuration and so her Pisces Moon stands out all the more because of its isolation. We have said that the Moon represents the archetype of the Feminine, including the human capacity to love and to care and to nurture and the Moon in Pisces can be exquisitely sensitive, gentle and empathic. However, we can see that much of Clinton’s life has been locked into working through the knots of Mars/Pluto/Saturn hence her reputation as a ‘hawk’. She has definitely taken a leading role in some of America’s recent acts of war and nothing could be further from the capacity for gentleness represented by a Pisces Moon. It seems that in the mire of the Washington swamp and the desperation of the struggle to get power in a man’s world on men’s terms, Clinton has had to disown much of her Pisces vulnerability. Like Agamemnon sacrificing Iphigenia she has betrayed an aspect of her own female nature and this has contributed to her downfall. Whatever your opinion of Clinton, it is hard not to feel sympathy for her as the pain of the wound that Chiron has inflicted upon her Pisces heart is great indeed. But when I sit with Clinton’s chart I wonder if her attempt to play the game of Washington on the terms of the patriarchy was inevitably going to lead to defeat. Perhaps, if we are to have a female leader of the western world, it will need to be a woman who is able to draw a line in the sand, step away from the patriarchy and operate on female terms – a champion of the needs of planet Earth honouring the preciousness of all of life, valuing people above profit, a peace-maker and one who speaks from the heart.

I think it cannot be denied that issues around the Feminine principle and the question of misogyny have plaid a major part in this election. Donald Trump has the Moon at 21 degrees of Sagittarius so he has also been directly impacted by the transit of Chiron ‘squaring’ his Moon. We can see how the exposure of his misogynistic behaviour reveals profound and painful wounding in his way of relating to women. The transit of Chiron to the Moons of both Clinton and Trump shows the blow that his victory presents to the Feminine principle and women’s struggle to find a fair and equal place in American consciousness.

I started this article by pointing out that astrology can be extremely helpful in giving a sense of meaning and a sense of timing to the unfolding of world events. When I first looked at Trump’s chart I saw that, for whatever reason, his time has come, this is his moment. Now we have but to watch and wait to see which way this maverick will go. A transit of Chiron can bring some of life’s most painful experiences of wounding but the archetype of Chiron is above all, about healing. When the wound has been opened and exposed there is an opportunity for a major shift of consciousness to occur and a silvery light of healing and transcendence can begin to shine through the transparency of the scars.

At the time of the next US election, Neptune, possibly the most beautiful the most gentle and the most feminine of all the planets will be at 20 degrees of Pisces and in the following year slowly moving towards the 21st and 22nd degrees of Pisces where all the trouble is happening today. We can speculate and we can hope, that this might well be the time for a new kind of world leader, coming to bring through the energy of the Goddess.

My book - Charting the Soul: Astrology, Characterology and the Human Energy Field
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Our world is a turbulent, changing place. In myself, I feel an increasing need to be in regular contact with like-minded souls who remind me of who I really am and the importance of stillness and presence and trust. And now I am ready to speak up and hope that my words might land in the right place at the right time for someone who needs them. It's likely to be an article about astrology, or something spiritual, or something about Voice Dialogue, but who knows?

Whoopeeee! Just finished making my very first web site with the invaluable help of one of my oldest friends - Barbara Kay. Well - this has been a long time coming - here we go.......