Below I highlight the fundamental steps that led me to define Soul, as an astrological element, in the way described below. In this second piece (https://www.astrologiajunghiana.it/astrologia-junghiana/interpretazione-anima-nel-tema-natale-parte-ii/) I have inserted a concrete example of research and interpretation of Soul in a birth chart.
SOUL IN THE BIRTH CHART
Soul can be represented by the interpretation of the following elements in order of priority:
- Moon in a sign, house and aspects
- Venus in a Sign, Home and Wait
- Cuspid of the Fourth House, its governor for sign and aspects, planets present in the House
- Mercury in a Sign, Home and Wait
Soul, moreover, depending on the zodiacal elements predominant in its interpretation: water, air, earth, fire and similar to four female figures: Sofia (Air), Mary (Water), Helen of Troy (Earth), Eve (Fire).
“The feelings of a man are, so to speak, the feelings of a woman, and as such they appear in dreams. I have designated this figure with the term “Soul”, because it is the personification of the lower functions that put man in relation with the collective unconscious.” CW, XVIII, par. 187 [Works, XV, p. 100]
The Soul stands as the foundation of the Ego and consequently of Consciousness because both complexes depend on each other even if the Ego has a certain priority over the second. Through Soul flow the other Archetypes and their representation that reach the Ego, are then always preformed by Soul, receive its imprinting. The Ego is represented by the Ascendant, by its governor, by the planets present in the I house and by its aspects, while the Shadow is in relation with the VII and the same elements mentioned corresponding to this domination. While the Ego represents the superior psychological function, the Shadow represents the inferior one.
The question becomes the following: how do the archetypal forms of the collective unconscious reach the Ego and then become conscious? Through the position of the Moon, of Venus, of Mercury, of the governor of the fourth house, of the planets tamed in it and their aspects.
One of the reasons why I also associate the archetype of Soul with the Fourth House is evident from the following quotation: “The inner personality is the way in which a person behaves in relation to his internal psychic processes; it is the inner attitude, the characteristic face facing the unconscious. The external attitude, the face facing outwards, I designate it with the term Person; the internal attitude, the face facing inwards, with the term Soul. CW, VI, par. 803 [Works, VI, pp. 419-20]
Similarly, the archetype of the Person is represented by the X Zodiacal House, even more Soul must be represented by the IV house.
The more the subject identifies himself during his life or in certain periods in the Person, therefore towards the exterior, towards the collective consciousness, towards being recognized by society or, to say it with Heidegger, towards the spirit of the time, the stronger will be the dominion of the Soul that will try to invade the Ego with its representations. (hillman, soul 27). Between Person and Soul there is a compensatory relationship, the stronger the Person is lived, therefore the social appearance becomes dominant, the more numerous images of spiritual and immortal figures will appear within the personality.
“Just as the Person is the self-image that the subject presents to the world, and that is seen by the world, so the Soul is the image of the subject in its relationship with the collective unconscious… One could also say: the Soul is the face of the subject as seen by the collective unconscious. … If the Ego adopts the point of view of the Soul, the adaptation to reality is severely compromised. So the Ego, while using the Soul’s filter to form the lenses through which to know the world, must not identify with it.
What the Person is lacking in and therefore complementary to, is found in the Soul, in the inner attitude that becomes form for the birth of the I that is born through the tension between Soul and Person.
Soul and Animus have the common root of the Greek word anemos, wind. The synonym of the same word is pneuma, spirit. Breathing, fresh, bellows, instead are related to the word Psyche, from this we can see that Soul is close to the meaning of air in motion which leads us to Mercury.
Moreover, Anima is interested in the past, while Animus is interested in the present and the future, the different ways of living temporality. Anima and Animus are one of the opposite archetypal pairs, but three of the most important. As it happens for Soul and Person, which are opposite, therefore it is conceivable that Animus, is represented for a part of meanings by the X house, by the governing planet and by those present in the house itself, together with the Sun.
So if the CF can be associated in the interpretation to Soul and the MC to the Person and Animus, the idea that somehow Animus and Person are closer than it seems, what differs astrologically is the absence of the Sun as the reference planet of the Person, comes naturally. If we had a MC in Leo we would instead have a greater but always partial correspondence. The correspondence is partial because although the main pillar to define the Person is the MC, there are also other zodiacal elements that contribute to its formation, as we will see below.
Personal identity is carried by the Soul and then filtered by the Ego. Hillman recalls that: “It is also implicit […] that the sense of personal identity is not given by the Ego, but is given to the Ego by the Soul.
He also adds: “According to Jung, it is the Soul that provides the link between man and the world and between man and his inner subjectivity. Indeed, the Soul is the personification of that interiority and subjectivity, of the very meaning of the personality: “man draws his personality as a man … his consciousness of himself as a personality … primarily from the influence of personal archetypes” (CW, V , par. 388 [Works, V , p. 254]). But, as we have seen in chapter V, “Soul and psyche”, it is in particular the archetype of the Soul that makes possible the experience understood as personal experience“. J. Hillman
An important fact emerges for astrological purposes, the phrase “personal archetypes” that are the five personal planets: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, in the definition of Soul we have used two: Moon and Mercury, but in the dynamics of a birth chart could also relate others with our definition of Soul, as we read earlier.
“Soul creates receptacles in every place, in every place, for the very fact of entering into it. The tool with which he does this is fantasy. Phenomena come to life and become bearers of soul through our imaginary fantasies about them. When we have no fantasies about the world, the world is objective, dead; […]. Fantasy is not simply an inner process that takes place in my head: it is a way of being in the world and of returning the soul to the world.” J. Hillman
The image that each of us has of the world is therefore a fantasy that is based on our Soul, outside we can find Soul. Just the imagination is the faculty that allows us to enter into a different relationship with the consultant, we can make him imagine different places, different situations through the most disparate tools: mythological stories, tarot, activities to be carried out at home. Each activity of the consultant is a way to find your Soul.
“Soul as Moon, passive, cold, proliferating, absorbed, folded on itself, describes in alchemical language the reflection. The archetype corresponding to the instinct for reflection would therefore be the Soul. In this quotation we find a clear reference to the Moon that is related to the Soul and that leads to reflection. Through retraction, reflection, we have a way of knowing our interiority, but consequently the world we have seen as a reinterpretation of the Soul itself, we become conscious. Consciousness arises, after the Ego, through the act of reflection. In astrological terms, the Ascendant (I) is formed through the relationship with the planets and houses associated with Soul, the consciousness is the next step in the formation of the I that makes the images taken from outside, from the world to inside and through reflection become conscious. Consciousness, in the last instance, is based on a lunar action. Obviously it is wrong to say that the Moon is consciousness, but it is certainly an important element that participates in its formation and in astrological analysis it must be considered. In the word “reflection”, we astrologers, must similarly include the archetype of Venus, it is also one of the foundations of consciousness, even if the main actress remains Soul.
“Reflection is a spiritual act that goes in the opposite direction to that of the natural process; the act by which we stop, we call to mind something, we form an image, and we relate to and come to terms with what we have seen. It must therefore be understood as an act of becoming conscious” C. G. Jung
In conclusion, Soul is the foundation of our existence, which is why it is essential to trace it correctly in the birth chart.
“If we shift what we place as the foundation of consciousness from the ego to the archetype of the soul, from the “I” to the soul, then the “relativization of the ego”, the opus and goal of the imagination of individuation, becomes possible from the beginning. Then we would immediately realize (a priori and by definition) that the ego and all its fantasies of development have never been, even initially, the foundation of consciousness, because consciousness refers to a process that has more to do with images than with the will, more with reflection than with the ordering activity, with the reflexive gaze that penetrates into the “objective reality” rather than with the manipulation of the same. We would no longer assimilate consciousness to one of its phases, to the evolutionary period of youth with its mythology of heroes in constant search of cimenti. And as we begin to educate consciousness already in our youth, giving nourishment to Soul would seem to us to be an equally important goal of strengthening the Ego. J. Hillman
