From powerless to empowered through your personal myth
“As ever with images and archetypes, this work is all about reflection and a search for illumination through exploration rather than analysis. Our aim is to form relationships with the archetypes which are at work in our natal chart; to be open to all of the ways they might offer us insight into our path through this life.”
Sharon Blackie
As an art form and symbolic language, Astrology has illuminated the path for humanity’s evolution in consciousness for eons. However, as we evolve, so does Astrology and the way we engage with it. We now know that the Observer affects what is being observed, revealing how all things are interdependent. This understanding dramatically shifts how we work with Astrology in our lives.
The interdependence of our ability to acknowledge and observe affects how we approach the lens through which an archetypal approach to astrology helps us make sense of our world and our place in it.
We’re no longer beholden to the idea that the ‘planets out there’ are governing our lives. But instead, we are invited to establish a relationship with these archetypal forces. We’re now empowered and called to step up to the plate of deepening our viewpoint while assuming more responsibility for our place in this cosmic dance.
Instead of being passive receivers of an astrological reading, we’re now invited to be engaged participants in this cosmic dialogue. As a result, we can approach our birth chart not as an immutable force of fate but as a landscape to be acknowledged and understood with the many layers of meaning that inhabit it.
“The archetypes do not only manifest as single images; they also appear as those structures and patterns which form the recurring motifs of every mythology.”
Patrick Harpur
Creation of the Birds
Remedio Varo (1957)
It all starts with the Archetypes
For many, myth is a widely held but false belief or idea. Or it’s viewed solely as a traditional story involving supernatural beings or events, which helps explain some natural or social phenomenon.
Now for others, myths and fairy tales are testaments that we’re more than Homo Sapiens; we’re Homo Storytellers. Stories, be them myths or fairy tales, serve as a bridge between the personal, the universal, and the Cosmic. Stories help us reimagine the journey we’re on while informing our sense of what is possible and enabling us to cope with the challenges on the path. Moreover, stories help us engage with the world around us and experience it more richly and colorfully.
The lasting power of myths is due to the archetypes that inhabit every weave of its story. A simple definition of an archetype is that it’s a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or myth. For the Swiss psychoanalyst C.G. Jung, archetypes bridged the inner world and the outer worlds of the humans (individual/collective) and the outer world (Earth/cosmos.)
The word archetype comes from the Greek archetypos, which has two root words: arkhe (archai), meaning first and original, and typos, meaning model or type. As the original types or models, archetypes can be understood and seen as mythic gods/goddesses, Ideas or Forms as Plato taught or as psychological patterns in the Jungian perspective.
Thus approaching Astrology from a mythic perspective invites us to activate our imaginations and ways of seeing beyond simple definitions. It acknowledges the multi-layered nature of this ancient symbolic language and how it speaks to the landscape of our psyche.
“Mythology is a psychology of antiquity. Psychology is a mythology of modernity.”
James Hillman
The Call
Remedio Varo (1961)
Weaving Depth Psychology & an archetypal approach to astrology
Depth Psychology can be understood as a ‘way of seeing and being in the world.’ Its emphasis is on exploring what lies beneath the issue presented via working with imagination, dreams, images, and stories as a way to see what’s underneath the structure of our lives. It draws on literature, mythology, philosophy, history, and the arts as an interdisciplinary modality.
As for Archetypal Astrology, which is a branch in the fruitful tree of Astrology, it’s heavily influenced by depth psychology, mythology, and contemporary spirituality. Its focus is on studying the connection between the planetary movements, the archetypal patterns, and our human experience. It’s a bridge between the ‘Astrology out there’ and our world in and down here. Its drive is in seeing the underlying unity between the psyche and the cosmos.
One of Depth Psychology’s fundamental teachings is that myths are the stories of the soul. Thus, approaching Astrology from these lens gifts us with a treasure trove of images to help us better understanding ourselves while helping us feel meaningfully connected to the world.
“There is no place without Gods and no activity that does not enact them. Every fantasy, every experience has its archetypal reason. There is nothing that does not belong to one God or another.”
James Hillman
Exploration of the Sources of the Orinoco River
Remedio Varo (1959)
All roads lead to the archetype
A more creatively expansive perspective is to see the archetypal underlying order of the cosmos, with myth as a way to explore it, both in our inner and outer worlds. As such, we can work with myth as the entry point to see how the archetypes show up in our lives and our culture and world.
Approaching our birth charts from this perspective enlivens our experience of how these archetypes play in our lives while beckoning us to be in dialogue with them.
The mythic approach to our lives and how we engage with the Astrology of our birth charts can serve us as a therapeutic modality. It’s no coincidence that the roots of the word therapy come from the Greek therapia, and it meant attendance to the gods.
Moving beyond the ‘old story’.
Thus approaching our birth charts and what it says about our inner landscape and how it manifests in the outer world is a way for each of us to attend to how the archetypes manifest in our lives. When we do this, we no longer stay stuck ‘in the story’ we’ve been throughout our lives. As we evolve and widen our perspectives, so does the mythic thread of our lives expands and evolves.
From this mythic perspective, the birth chart is approached as a metaphor, with the myths that arise from it reveal the underlying patterns of the psyche. It’s engaging with the mythic images that rise from the birth chart that transformation and understanding are evoked. Healing activation happens in the oral exploration of the story.
The Astrologer serves as a guide on your journey of self-knowledge.
Thus, the astrologer becomes Virgil to the client’s Dante, helping them navigate the mythic landscape that is their birth chart. From this approach, the astrologer is then seen as a storyteller, opening the door for the client to explore the images within.
Joseph Campbell believed that myths are inexhaustible energies of the cosmos manifest in the human psyche. As myth makers, when we explore the myths and their attending archetypes in our lives, we gain perspective, a deep sense of meaning, and purpose.
As our Western Culture has lost its living connection to myth, we struggle to counterbalance its materialist hyper-focus and connect to a spiritual dimension in our lives. It’s in the crux of this absence that Astrology serves as a doorway into the mythic realm – starting with our own lives.
“…stories [we would] tell if we considered our purpose to be neither destroying nor saving the world but learning to live more beautifully in the world that we have.”
George Mead
Embroidering the Earth’s Mantle
Remedio Varo (1961)
A more expansive life awaits you
We live in intensively creative and destructive times.
Destructive because our old ways of perceiving reality are crumbling. The old stories are increasingly revealing their fault-lines and coming undone in front of our very eyes. Yet, at the same time, amid the destruction, we see the first shoots of the creation of new ways of envisioning our lives and place in the world.
More and more folks are realizing that to keep going as we have for centuries is akin to punching the tip of the knife, doing more damage than providing sustainable solutions.
Change begins at the individual level, and it also starts with imagination.
Healing our connection to the larger world and cosmos is the beginning of a new myth for our human story. The archetypal forces, be them the gods/goddesses, as well as the planetary archetypes that live in our birth charts, live and evolve according to the relationship they’re in. They move and live through us.
Understanding ourselves by exploring the archetypal landscape of our birth charts is one way to help create a more expansive life for ourselves and the world we belong to. Getting an ‘astrology reading’ is not a passive activity. It’s your doorway to exploring the archetypal dimension and hear its unique calling to you.
An archetypal approach to
astrology session can help you:
- bring awareness to the foundational dynamics that are running your life;
- shed light on the underlying meaning of your life’s experience;
- reassuringly validate your experience and sense of self;
- place your experience into a broader cultural-historical context and collective cosmic cycles;
- help you cultivate a growth perspective that honors depth and soul;
- nourish your abilities to empathize with others while fostering in you the recognition of your unique evolutionary unfolding; and
- deepen your appreciation for the cosmic order and patterns that inform the interconnectedness of all events.
Solar Music
Remedio Varo (1955)
Lastly, the astrological images as seen through the lens of our birth chart help in ensouling the world while gifting us with the perspective that our life’s trials and joys are meaningful, connective, and coherent.
Through an archetypal approach to astrology, we learn to see our experiences in life and the world not as random, fated, or disconnected, but instead infused with a sense of belonging.
Want to learn more about how astrology can help you? Click here to find out more about how to work with me.
Enjoy & Thrive!
Like what you read? Share it with your friends.
Vanessa Couto ©2021
