Overview

PART ONETHE PLANETARY GODSThe SunThe Sun is portrayed in every ancient mythology as the giver of life. Because of its obvious connection with the changing seasons and the sowing and harvesting of crops, the mythic sun gods mated with the earth and fertilized it in a great annual cycle. In Egypt the solar deity was called Ra, who rose out of the primal chaos of the Nile flood and from his own phallic life-force generated all the other gods. In Babylon the great solar disc of the god Shamash mounted the sky in a chariot each morning, and each evening descended into the depths of the earth. Most complex of the sun gods is the shining and enigmatic figure of the Greco-Roman Apollo. This highly sophisticated deity can teach us a good deal about the psychological meaning of the Sun in astrological symbolism. Slayer of the earth-snake Python and breaker of family curses, Apollo symbolizes the power of consciousness to free us from our bondage to deep-rooted and destructive complexes from the past. Called Apollo Longsight because of his power to prophesy, the god also embodies the human gift of foresight, which enables us to see the future consequences of our own actions. As the giver of knowledge he is an image of the civilizing power of human understanding, and as patron of the arts he reflects our capacity to endow our creative efforts with light and life.The Sun is the core of the birth horoscope, reflecting each person's need to become a unique individual with the power to express that individuality through creative effort. This need exists in everyone, although sadly not everyone is willing to recognize its profound importance. The life-giving light of the Sun is a symbol of our urge to know ourselves and remain loyal to our own hearts. This allows us to make choices with greater clarity, honesty and integrity. Over the door of Apollo's temple at Delphi were crowed tine words: "Know thyself." In this simple statement lies the essential meaning of the Sun in astrology. The experience of "I" as a separate, worthwhile being is vitally necessary to every person's sense of continuity, value and meaning in lite. The Sun gives warmth and light not merely on the biological level, but on the subtler levels of heart and spirit. On the Sun depends our conviction that we are fulfilling a deeper purpose and living a meaningful life. For the person who does not experience this central sense of "I", independent of identification with family, job or national collective, life passes in a fog of unfulfilled dreams and unsatisfied longings. Our fear of death grows in direct proportion to the absence of a life fully lived. If we do not express the Sun we pass into the future looking back over our shoulder, regretting what we have not done and whom we have not been. Thus Apollo in myth is portrayed as having power even over the Fates themselves. Although the Sun cannot confer physical immortality, it can engender a sense of the immortality of the spirit and the worth of a life honorably and creatively lived.On the psychological level, our need to feel unique and important reflects the Sun's urge toward self-actualization. Whenever we try to express creative ideas or images -- whether through artistic channels such as painting or music or through contributing individual style and flair to the ordinary tasks of everyday living -- we are expressing the Sun. In some individuals the solar need to find a purpose in life may take the form of a spiritual or religious quest. The highest values toward which we aspire also reflect tine light of the Sun, for it is these deeply felt individual values which give us a true core of inner morality and integrity. Without such personal values we must borrow our morality from the collective consensus which, although often noble, can also err horribly (witness the collective consensus of Nazism in the 1930s). The Sun thus reflects our individual conscience -- not the artificial niceness of the person who does good because he or she fears to do otherwise, but that deeper voice which affirms a sense of decency and generosity even in the face of external opposition or internal frustration. Apollo was the most civilized of the Greek gods, the "gentleman of Olympus". This mythic attribute was, until quite recently, projected upon kings as the vessels of solar light on earth. The solar attribute of nobility arises not from blood or class, nor from a desire to secure the affection of others through service to them, but from an inner love of truth which is the most profound expression of the symbol of the Sun.Many individuals find it difficult to express the unique qualities described by the Sun in the birth horoscope. Pressure to conform to others ideas of what one should be may partly or wholly block the Sun's light. The expression of individual values is, by its very nature, adverse to the instinctual collective identification which constitutes security for so many people. To dare to be oneself may pose a threat to one's family as well as to one's social and professional group. We may believe that failing to conform to collective expectations makes us selfish or bad. Fear of others' criticism or envy may also shroud the light of the Sun. Each person who strives to express his or her own inner nature and values will sooner or later meet opposition from those who resent individual excellence. The sun gods in myth must invariably do battle with a monster or dragon, as Apollo does with the earth-snake. This monster may be understood on many different levels, but one of its meanings is the individual's struggle with the loneliness and dark sense of isolation which inevitably accompany any real creative effort. If the monster wins, we descend into apathy and depression. If the sun god triumphs, we can face life's challenges with a feeling of strength and authenticity. The symbolism of the Sun in astrology is complex, for although it appears in every birth horoscope it will be expressed in a totally unique way by each individual. Whatever our aptitudes, talents and material circumstances, it is the Sun which gives each one of us the sense that there is a point in being alive.Apollo's chariot traverses the twelve signs of the zodiac during the course of the year, as the Roman charioteers once pursued the course of the circus which was modeled upon this great cosmic cycle. Having conquered the earth-snake in mortal battle, the god can now honor it and avail himself of its instinctual wisdom through his gift of prophecy. Refined, eternally youthful and above ordinary passions, the "gentleman of Olympus" shines his light upon rich and poor, good and evil alike, as the sun gives its warmth and light generously to everything living upon the earth.The MoonThe magic of the ever-changing Moon fascinates us now as much as it did those past civilizations who saw a great and mysterious deity in its fluctuating faces and its link with the cycles of organic life. In myth the Moon is usually portrayed as female, although certain ancient peoples such as the Babylonians saw in its luminous face a young and beautiful male spirit who symbolized the ebb and flow of nature. The lunar deities presided over the cycles of line animal and vegetable kingdoms, governed menstruation and childbirth, and embodied the instinctual forces at the heart of life. In Egypt the Moon was represented as Isis, goddess of mercy and wisdom, and the archetypal image of woman in both maternal and erotic guise. The compassion of Isis was understood to be a power as great as the might of the war-gods or the procreative force of the Sun, and those in need of help appealed to her as the mother of all life. In Greece, the Moon was worshiped as the wild huntress Artemis, mistress of beasts, untameable and eternally virgin, whose great temple at Ephesus was one of the wonders of the ancient world. In Rome, she was known as Diana, twin sister of the sun god Apollo and protectress of children and animals. Her more sinister face, called Hecate and symbolized by the dark of the Moon, reflected her powers of sorcery and her rulership over the underworld of souls waiting to be reborn. These goddesses were worshiped primarily by women. They personified the female mysteries of conception and birth, and the deeper workings of Fate through the weaving of the tissues of the body in the underworld of the womb.On the psychological level, the symbol of the Moon describes our most fundamental need for warmth, safety and nourishment, both physical and emotional. In infancy, these needs are paramount and direct. In adulthood they are also paramount, but are expressed both on subtle and on obvious levels, through our longing to share our feelings and our urge to feel protected and nurtured by family and community. We express the Moon through whatever makes us feel secure and sheltered from the storms of life. We can also offer comfort and nourishment to others just as we ourselves seek it, for the lunar deities reflect an instinctive compassion and responsiveness to helplessness and pain. The image of maternity portrayed in the mythic figures of the lunar goddesses is devoid of sentiment, and sometimes expresses the ferocity of an animal protecting its young. Lunar compassion is not flowery, but is a ruthless force of nature through which emerging life is protected and preserved. The cyclical nature of the Moon's phases, and its nearness to the earth, are in myth all image of the fluctuating life-force within the earth and within the human body. Our sense of unity with the human species and with all living things is reflected by the astrological symbol of the Moon. In order to feel contented and at peace, we need to experience our participation in a larger life, just as the very young child needs to feel connected to the life-giving mother.Because of its monthly cycle, the Moon is also a symbol of time; it reflects our ability to feel connected with the past, responsive to the present, related to ordinary life and capable of interacting with others on an earthy and human level. The need to give and receive physical affection, the capacity to enjoy the scents and textures of beautiful things, and the pleasure we take in our gardens and our pets, are all expressions of the apparently ordinary -- but immensely important -- domain over which the Moon presides. The lunar need for safety and comfort is expressed by individuals in many different ways. For some, the longing to belong is amply satisfied by the feeling of empathy and containment provided by a loving family or close community. For others, work (particularly that which offers direct involvement with others) may offer an equally valid source of emotional and physical security. For many people, contact with the countryside or a relationship with animals and plants give a profound sense of connectedness. And for others, religious or spiritual fellowship, or a group with a shared ideology or philosophy, can provide the greater family which the Moon within all of us needs. While the Sun in tine birth horoscope reflects our quest for meaning and self-actualization, a life without the diffuse lunar light of relationship with the ordinary is barren and devoid of joy.Our ability to express the Moon determines our capacity to feel contented. No amount of individual achievement can satisfy the Moon's longings if our strivings separate us too much from others. Many people find it hard to express such fundamental human needs openly, and seek surrogates without recognizing the depth of their emotional isolation. At the most basic level, the Moon reflects our ability to value and look after our ordinary physical and emotional well-being. Sometimes this innate gift for internal mothering is blocked by early experiences which foster the belief that one should not ask for anything from others. Because lunar needs make us vulnerable and dependent we may deny them to avoid the risk of hurt and humiliation. We may also try to avoid pain by expressing our lunar needs indirectly and manipulatively, attempting to control others so that we will not feel at their mercy. The Moon is a great leveler, for it reminds us of our identity with all human beings in our capacity to experience loneliness, hunger, pain and fear. Under the soft and unifying light of the Moon, arrogance, and separativeness have no place. The Moon, portrayed in myth as the guardian of nature and young life, is not limited to the horoscopes of women. It appears in everyone's birth horoscope and symbolizes a universal human need. Although the physical level of tine Moon's expression is enacted most vividly each time a woman bears a child, there are many kinds of children, not all of them corporeal, and many kinds of mothering, not all of them concrete. Called the "Lesser Light" in early astrology, the Moon was seen as lesser in size, not in importance. As the complement of the Sun, the Moon's light illuminates the feelings and needs of everyday life -- but not with any ultimate goal since life itself is its own goal.Artemis, the virgin goddess of the Moon, guards the mystery at the heart of nature, holding her knife up in warning to those who would intrude upon her sacred ground. Yet she is the protectress of all young helpless creatures. Her beasts gather around her -- the panther who embodies her ferocity, the deer who symbolizes her gentleness, and the wolf who describes her solitude and fierce self-sufficiency. When the hunter Actaeon stumbled upon her bathing, she turned him into a stage so that he was torn to pieces by his own dogs. When Orion boasted in her sacred grove, she sent a giant scorpion to sting him to death. Nature thus possesses an unsuspected power to revenge herself upon those who do her dishonor.MercuryThe mysterious gift of human thought prompted the Greek poet, Menander, to write that the intellect in every human being was divine. In ancient myth, the powers of reflection, speech and communication are personified by a clever, quicksilver deity who taught human beings to write, build, navigate and calculate the course of the heavenly bodies. This enigmatic god symbolizes not only our capacity to think, but also the planning arid organizing faculty which allows us to name and categorize the myriad components of the chaotic natural world. In Egypt, the god Thoth, portrayed sometimes as an ibis and sometimes as a baboon, was the patron of science and literature, wisdom and inventions, the spokesman of the gods and their keeper of records. Creator of the alphabet and endowed with total knowledge. Thoth invented arithmetic, surveying, geometry, astrology, medicine, music and writing. In Norse myth, this elusive and multifaceted god was called Loki, lord of fire, and an incorrigible manipulator. In Teutonic myth, he was known as Wotan, patron of magic and lord of the wild hunt, who sacrificed one of his eyes for the gift of wisdom. In Greece, he was personified as the tricky and unfathomable Hermes, lord of travelers and merchants, patron of thieves and liars, guide of the souls of the dead and messenger of the Olympian gods. The Romans knew him as Mercury, from which both the metal and the planet derive their name.On the psychological level, the bewildering multiplicity of roles assigned to Mercury reflects the multileveled functions and capacities of the human mind. As patron of merchants and money, Mercury embodies the exchange of goods and services which forms the practical dimension of human interchange. As guide of souls, he symbolizes the mind's capacity to move inward in order to explore tine hidden depths of the unconscious psyche. In both these roles. Mercury embodies the principle of communication -- between human beings, and between the individual and the inner, invisible world. An amoral and cunning deity, Mercury could also play terrible tricks on humans, suggesting our remarkable ability to fool ourselves, and to follow what we believe to be "truth" into a morass of confusion and self-deception. The mythic images associated with the astrological symbol of Mercury also describe our fundamental urge to learn. Because we are obliged to go to school, and expected to acquire an education in order to progress in life, we are often unable to experience the simple delight of learning for its own sake. In childhood, our boundless curiosity about life is a reflection of Mercury. Why is the sky blue? How does a caterpillar become a butterfly? Our need to understand the names of things and how they are made is one of our most fundamental human impulses.Just as Mercury has many mythological faces, human intelligence has many different forms, not all of them sufficiently valued by our academic establishments. The shrewd, worldly Mercury who invented coinage reflects a practical intelligence, which shows its best gifts when dealing with facts and concrete objects, yet may not be convinced by abstractions. Mercury as guide of souls portrays an intuitive intelligence, more at home in the imaginal world than in the domain of numbers and facts: it is often underrated, yet it reflects deep insight into human nature, and a gift for expressing inner truths through symbolic images. Mercury as messenger of the gods represents a fast-moving, comprehensive intelligence, which perceives connections between different spheres of knowledge and different levels of reality. This kind of intelligence may be indifferent to isolated facts, but builds mental bridges by translating disparate realities into a common language. And Mercury as inventor of science portrays the capacity for logic and the formulation of theoretical concepts. Whenever we pursue knowledge we are expressing Mercury. Also Mercurial is our urge to communicate, which is as fundamental a human requirement on the psychological level as breathing is to the body. Verbal language is only one dimension of communication. We also share our thoughts and feelings through body language, facial expression, inarticulate sounds and emotional atmosphere. We use clothes, cars, makeup and regional accents to tell others about ourselves. Our individual communicative gifts also vary. For some, the articulate use of words conveys a complex array of ideas. For others, artistic forms are the most natural medium of communication. Whenever art speaks to us Mercury is at work, translating the insight of the artist across space and time to the heart and mind of the reader, viewer or listener.Many individuals find it difficult to express Mercury. The urge to learn may be dulled in childhood by teachers who have themselves lost all curiosity, or are envious of young minds more promising than their own. Families and social groups may scorn the pursuit of knowledge because they are mistakenly convinced that education is the hallmark of a particular social class, rather than the expression of a universal human need. Nothing is so destructive to Mercury as the refusal of others to listen: and nothing is so conducive to its flowering as a receptive and interested parent, teacher, partner, colleague or friend. But even if Mercury has had a slow start in our life, no planetary god can be permanently stifled or destroyed. No matter what our background, Mercury is alive and well within all of us; it can be expressed if we have the courage to follow our longing to learn and communicate. In myth, the god is portrayed as ever-youthful. The human mind is not bound by age or social position. One can go to university at sixty as well as at eighteen, and no lifetime is long enough to exhaust the fields of knowledge open to us. In ancient Greek cities a statue of the god was erected at every major crossroads, to help show the traveler on his or her way. At each crossroads of life, we too can seek the inner god of journeys, for he can be found in every spark of genuine curiosity about life. Through the eves of Mercury, life itself is an endless road strewn with an infinite variety of fascinating things to discover and learn.Messenger of the Olympian deities and guide of souls to the underworld domain, the winged god Mercury holds aloft the caduceus entwined by two snakes. The serpents, one dark and one light, are the bearers of all instinctive wisdom and the secrets of life and death. Playful, coy and deceptively innocent, the god's smile can portend the sudden flash of inspired insight or the alluring vision of hopeless self-delusion.VenusAs both the Morning and the Evening Star, the planet Venus has always been linked in myth with tine goddess of beauty, joy and erotic love. Perhaps the magic of this heavenly body, rising just before dawn or gracing the sunset, evoked the image of an intimate deity tantalizingly close to the human heart, who was not ashamed to show herself naked to mortals. In Babylon, she was known as Ishtar, and she presided not over the sanctity of marriage and family, but over the pleasures of illicit erotic encounters. In Egypt, she was called Harbor, patroness of dance and orgiastic sexual rites, and was also portrayed as Bast, cat-headed mistress of magic and sexual arts. In Greece, she was called Aphrodite, a subtle and complex goddess, golden-skinned and golden-haired, vain and capricious but the undisputed bringer of all beauty and delight. In Greek art, unlike other more modest goddesses, she was portrayed nude, reflecting an unashamed appreciation of sexual love. Her sacred flowers -- the rose and the lily -- reflect her eroticism in their heavy perfume. Her bird, the dove, was seen as tine gentlest and most affectionate of nature's creatures. Yet Aphrodite, whom the Romans called Venus, could also be terrible and threatening. In Sparta she was worshiped as a battle goddess, for the ancient Greeks understood that the ecstasy of bloodletting can, for some, be as sexually exciting as the act of sex itself -- as the horrific overlap of war and mass rape have demonstrated throughout the centuries. Refined and primitive at the same time, she presided over artists, craftsmen and the arts of cosmetic beautification. Yet she also embodied the forces of uncontrollable desire, for she afflicted unsuspecting mortals with the madness of obsessive lust, and could topple rulers and kingdoms into the golden net of her passions.On the psychological level, Venus reflects our longing for beauty, pleasure and the powerful intoxication of being loved. This need to feel valuable and lovable impels us to form relationships in which the idealized passion of the other person reflects back to us our own innate beauty and worth. The need to be loved forms part of every, passionate bond, for it is through others' appreciation of us that we discover and develop important aspects of our own natures. By adorning ourselves and creating beauty in the world around us, we also fulfill our Venusian longing to be pan of a harmonious universe, where conflict and discord are seen as the prelude to greater unity -- much as a lovers' quarrel can lead to greater affection and closeness. Just as those who love us reveal to us what we wish to become, those with whom we quarrel help us to define what truly matters to us. The astrological symbol of Venus is a reflection of our need to form personal values, since we express what we value most highly in the people and things we love. The Latin phrasede gustibus non disputandum est-- one should never dispute other people's tastes -- elegantly describes our instinctive understanding that, in matters of love, taste is a highly individual issue, where there is no established set of rules except the dictates of one's own heart, mind and eye. Our need to discover and express our own personal values is a profound reflection of who we really are as individuals. Even the apparently superficial details of life, such as choice of hairstyle and domestic decor, become surprisingly profound when we understand that it is through such simple human pursuits that we reveal our deepest sense of what is beautiful and worthwhile.In myth, the goddess Venus was often inimical to marriage, since the passions which she engendered in human beings were frequently illicit, compulsive, and oblivious to moral codes. Yet this mischievous goddess was not perceived as innately evil or destructive. Her tendency to provoke crises invariably arose from an existing situation of stagnation, in which values had grown stale or twisted, or the individuals concerned had never properly formed their own identities. It is often through the suffering engendered by what we call the 'eternal triangle' that, with sufficient insight and self-honesty, we discover where we have grown stagnant and sold ourselves to a presiding collective value system in order to feel secure. Through such conflicts we also discover what we have not developed in ourselves, for it is in the mirror of the rival that we may glimpse our own unlived lives. Venus reflects a fundamental need within us to challenge those social and moral restrictions which we impose upon our hearts for the sake of safety and respectability, and draws us instead into relationships which connect us with an immediate, passionate and vivid sense of life. The Venusian urge within us is not always so troublesome, however, and we may succeed in discovering our own values within a framework which preserves stability, and the continuity of long-standing relationships. But in those whom Venus has led into difficulty, there is often a profound -- although unrecognized -- need to make real choices and affirm real values, instead of relying on the facile borrowing of conventional morality as a shield against life.Vanity and frivolity are both attributes of the mythic Venus, who was frequently portrayed in ancient art admiring herself in a mirror. They are also attributes of Venus within ourselves, seen by many to be undesirable and "selfish" qualities. A climate of political correctness and stern insistence on duty and self-sacrifice may make it difficult for many people, both men and women, to express the joyful, effervescent spirit of the goddess. Sadly, the impulse for self-beautification reflected by the planet has also been interpreted in some quarters as a "selling out", a ploy on the part of women too weak to live without the affirmation of men. But the great goddess of myth did not adorn herself for any reason other than her own pleasure. She chose her lovers according to what gave her satisfaction, not according to the security they could provide. Denying Venus within us leads the way to a soulless and dreary inner landscape of ugly buildings and eternally grey skies; and all the ideological correctness and social respectability in the world cannot compensate for what has been lost. The urge of Venus within us may sometimes lead us into terrible trouble. Yet this urge, like the goddess herself, is also life-enhancing and enormously creative, for it connects us with the joyful recognition that life is really a good place to be after all.The goddess of beauty and erotic love offers the apple to those who wish to taste the sweetness of life's pleasures and the bitterness of life's ungovernable sexual compulsions. The heady perfume of lilies enchants and confuses the senses, but this goddess is no mere frivolous conveyor of sensual delight. Through her artifice, the rau substance of nature is transformed into objects of beauty and grace, and through the suffering she inflicts on unsuspecting mortals, the greater design of life is unfolded.MarsIn the myths of every ancient people, the gods of war have always occupied a prominent and honored place. War was personified by these fierce gods as the glorious expression of the human fighting spirit -- not merely bloodthirsty and cruel, but also disciplined, courageous, honorable and directed toward a noble goal. The war gods of myth are almost always portrayed battling with a monster -- an image not merely of the diner enemy, but also of the bestial dark force within human beings which must be conquered for the sake of humanity. Hercules, the quintessential Greed-Roman warrior hero, battled the Hydra and the Nemean Lion to free the people from destruction. The war gods symbolize not only the raw struggle for survival, but also the instinct to champion the weak, and defend the integrity of the soul as well as the life of the body. In Babylonian myth, the war god.Marduk, battled with his mother, the sea monster Tiamat, and carved heaven and earth out of her dismembered body. In Egypt, the fighting spirit was represented not by a god, but by a goddess -- the lion-headed Sekhmet, daughter of the sun god Ra and dispenser of divine vengeance. In Norse myth, the ferocious Thor. personification of the Vikingberserker,wielded his thunderbolts from the vault of heaven to smite the enemy. The Greek god of war was the flamboyant and virile Ares, who, according to Homer inThe Iliad,was hairy, sweaty and three hundred feet tall. Known to the Romans as Mars, he fathered the twins Romulus and Remus who founded the city of Rome. and thus achieved his apogee in the classical world as the personification of Roman military might.On the psychological level, Mars embodies our need to defend ourselves physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually, and define ourselves as separate individuals in a potentially hostile world. We fight not only individually but also through organized groups. We fight for our families, our countries, and for political or religious principles. Self-preservation in the human animal is also combined with the urge for self-definition, and psychological survival necessitates fighting for an individual identity. We fight to be more important than our fellows and better loved than our rivals. Sometimes our battles are disguised and called by other names, as in the domineering tactics of emotional blackmail or the inverted aggression of suicide -- the ultimate act of war against life. Yet although aggression has many ugly and life-destroying forms, it needs containment and intelligent channeling, not forcible suppression. Anger is one of the most fundamental expressions of Mars. and although misdirected auger only causes suffering, we need to be able to feel angry when we are truly threatened by violation on any level. The capacity to say "No!" when we mean it is one of the most important and positive dimensions of Mars. for otherwise we become victims of life and of our own cowardice. Mars is the fighting arm of the Sun in the horoscope and enacts, on the worldly level, the need to express one's individuality and define one's own goals and values in an effective way. The phallic power of the war god describes our ability, to know what we want, and do what is necessary to get it. This masculine capacity to take charge of one's life, equally relevant to men and women, is profoundly connected with feelings of potency and strength. Whatever we desire from life. Mars ensures that we stand some chance of getting it.Many individuals experience conflict between their urge for self-assertion and their longing for emotional closeness. Consequently, they may find it hard to acknowledge or express perfectly healthy and justifiable anger, out of fear that others will reject them or find them unlovable. Early experiences may contribute to the conviction that defining one's own identity will antagonize one's family or social group. The experience of domestic violence -- a Mars run amok -- may also make it difficult for an individual to understand and express the positive and creative face of aggression, because the initial model has been so appalling. Yet we often fail to see the intimate connection between the expression of domestic violence -- so commonly a reflection of deep feelings of impotence -- and the apparent impotence of the victim, who ultimately wields the greater power because of his or her claim to the higher moral ground. No one could accuse the war gods of turning the other cheek, since, from their perspective, it will merely get punched as well. An inability to express Mars may lead to the deceptively noble -- but ultimately unrewarding -- stance of the martyr. Yet perennial martyrs, apparently unaggressive, so often provoke aggression in others.The instinct to compete and win is also an expression of Mars, and we recognize its vitality and importance in such spheres as competitive sport. The war god will be satisfied by nothing less than first prize, because this is an affirmation of personal excellence and a reward for individual effort. Many people suffer deep inhibitions around the experience of competing -- either because they are frightened of the humiliation of losing, or terrified of the inevitable envy of others if they win. Yet if we suppress our need to assert our individual capabilities because of fear, or in the name of political or spiritual ideology, we are left feeling frustrated, angry and envious ourselves. Mars expresses itself in different ways and on different levels according to the individual, and the competitive spirit may fulfill itself through intellectual or artistic effort, as well as through physical prowess. But somewhere within each of us is the need to be recognized as first and best in some sphere of life, however small, and we all require that sense of personal potency and worth which comes from achieving a hard-won goal. Every planet in the birth horoscope provides a balance to every other, and the naked fighting spirit of Mars is moderated and given meaning by our ideals, our sensitivity to others and our realistic acceptance of human limits. The mythic god of war is not innately vicious or evil. In his most creative form, he embodies a fundamental instinct which fights on the side of life.The god of war fiercely guards his territory, warning away loudly those who would impose their will on him or intrude upon his righted domain. He will strike if he must with the cutting edge of sword or word, but only if those who threaten him disregard his right to exist as he sees fit. Loud, forceful and aggressive, the lord of battle is unloved by the Olympian gods; yet he will fight their battles too, with the same honor and courage with which he fights his own.JupiterJupiter is the largest planet, and in myth he is the biggest of the gods. In Babylon, this deity, king of heaven and dispenser of law and justice, was called Bel, Lord of the Air. He ruled over the hurricane and held the insignia of royalty which he bestowed upon the earthly kings of his choice. In Teutonic and Norse myth, he was known as Odin (Wotan), ruler of the gods, who granted heroism and victois most creative form, he embodies a fundamental instinct which fights on the side of life.The god of war fiercely guards his territory, warning away loudly those who would impose their will on him or intrude upon his righted domain. He will strike if he must with the cutting edge of sword or word, but only if those who threaten him disregard his right to exist as he sees fit. Loud, forceful and aggressive, the lord of battle is unloved by the Olympian gods; yet he will fight their battles too, with the same honor and courage with which he fights his own.JupiterJupiter is the largest planet, and in myth he is the biggest of the gods. In Babylon, this deity, king of heaven and dispenser of law and justice, was called Bel, Lord of the Air. He ruled over the hurricane and held the insignia of royalty which he bestowed upon the earthly kings of his choice. In Teutonic and Norse myth, he was known as Odin (Wotan), ruler of the gods, who granted heroism and victory and ordained the laws which governed human society. In Greece, he achieved his noblest and most humanized face as Zeus, father of gods and men. The name Zeus comes from a Sanskrit word which means light or lightning, and as bearer of the thunderbolt which illuminated heaven, Olympian Zeus was worshiped as the All-high throughout the ancient world. In many ways he resembles our Judeo-Chris-Iran image of the Almighty Father -- omnipotent, omniscient and the source of all moral law. But Zeus was not solely a benevolent, fatherly deity. He was also restless, vain, bad-tempered and incurably promiscuous, and mated with innumerable mortal women to produce a race of heroes or demigods, who became the chief protagonists of Greek myth, poetry, drama and art. Son of the earth god Kronos, Zeus had to fight his father to claim his kingdom and establish the dominance of heaven over earth. To human beings, he was alternatively spiteful and generous -- not unlike Yahveh of the Old Testament -- attempting to destroy tine human race with a great flood, yet conferring immeasurable wealth, power and honor on those he favored. The Romans called him Jupiter, or Jove, and the joyful, energetic and dramatic nature of this god has found its way into the English language in tine adjective "jovial".On the psychological level, Jupiter, dispenser of law and giver of gifts, reflects our longing for a Father in Heaven -- a need to experience some guiding spiritual principle at work in life. Although we might not recognize it by this name, our craving for the reassurance of moral absolutes reflects Jupiter at work within us. The mythic king of heaven personifies our deepest religious urge -- not an inclination to orthodoxy, so much as a need to experience the universe as orderly, and in the wise and beneficent hand of a higher power who, even if occasionally temperamental, stands for ultimate justice. This instinctive religious urge may not always be clothed in the trappings of a recognized form of worship. It can also be expressed through the artist's quest for contact with the divine, and through our human efforts to create a social and legal system which dispenses an ideal of justice, as well as removing the criminal from the streets. We model our codes of right and wrong on the intuition of a higher set of laws, and this need for a world-view, or philosophy, which gives direction and moral authority to our lives, is reflected by the astrological Jupiter. The restlessness and promiscuity of Jupiter in myth represent our own restless longing for a future somehow bigger, better and brighter than the present. There is nothing quite so seductive as our dreams of the future, and no one quite so seductive as the king of heaven in myth (no mortal, male or female, ever refuses his amorous advances). The sometimes indiscriminate fashion in which we pursue new experiences may squander time, energy and resources; but such restless striving can also expand our awareness and give us a glimpse of immortality. Jupiter is the perennial adolescent of the divine pantheon, too big and brash to be stifled for long, and forever seeking new horizons. Through Jupiter, we discover our need to free ourselves from the bondage of time, age and circumstance in order to discover life all over again with tine enthusiasm and optimism of youth.Whenever we look around us and imagine possibilities bigger and better than the world in which we live, we are expressing Jupiter. When we say to ourselves, "Surely there is some lesson to be learned from this experience!" it is the voice of Jupiter telling us there is an intelligent pattern hidden beneath seemingly chance events. Yet many people find it difficult to express the mythic giver of gifts in ordinary life. Fearful of the future, and lacking faith both in themselves and in life, some individuals cling too tightly to what they know rather than open doors to the possibilities of what might be. Early circumstances, such as chronic financial hardship, or a family atmosphere full of bitterness and fear, can make it hard for a person, later in life, to believe that anything will ever be better than it is. And if we believe that nothing better is possible, then we never take those few important steps toward a different future, but sink instead into the darkness of cynicism and hopelessness. Jupiter, in myth, was understood to be the bringer of good luck, dispensing his gifts like the lightning bolt from heaven. Yet to a great extent luck consists in our capacity to intuit opportunities, and to work toward making those opportunities manifest. In this sense we create our own luck, because we have enough faith in the future to take risks in the present.In myth, Jupiter dealt with his children in a characteristic way. He left them some sign of their semi-divine destiny and then, having glimpsed a greener pasture of his own, vanished and let them get on with pursuing the future through their own resources. Only if they really got into trouble did he intervene, and then only indirectly. This sign from the god -- we might call it an intuition of the "right" way to go -- is a most important feature of the astrological Jupiter. h is through our hunches and intuitions that we sometimes discover the most profound clues to a future which is only possible if we have faith in our dreams, and the courage to journey into the unknown without guarantees. From the perspective of Jupiter, the greatest failure is aiming too low. A hopeful spirit depends, not on the concrete props of a reliable job or a solid bank account, but on a deep intuitive conviction that life is ultimately on our side. The urge to journey into the future, and the belief that we will somehow find the resources needed to get there, are both expressions of this bright planet which physically dominates the sky with its bigness, and equally dominates our dreams of the future with its message of enthusiasm and hope.The king of the gods contemplates with satisfaction the world he rules, envisaging an infinite number of possible futures which might acid to its -- and his -- potency and glory. The throne on which he reclines is made not of wood or stone, but of living men and women whose adoration and earnest supplication fuel his strength, magnanimity and power, and give substance to his dreams.SaturnThe Golden Age is an ancient and indestructible human dream. Not only the Bible, but the myths of the Sumerians, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans describe it, each with its own story of a Fall when divine law was transgressed by erring humans. And we conjure up the dream of the Golden Age now, whenever we turn to the past and glimpse the shining vision of a time of law and order, when human beings lived in harmony with the cycles of nature and had not yet degenerated into violence and corruption. In Hesiod'sCosmogony,this Golden Age was under the benign rule of the stern but just Greek deity, Kronos, whom the Romans called Saturn. He was a god of earth, not of heaven, and he governed the orderly cycles of the seasons, the irrevocable passage of time, and the laws by which men and women might live in accord with nature and their own mortality. As patron of agriculture and lord of the harvest, he symbolized the fertility of the tilled earth and conferred the rewards of honest effort. He was a working god and a wise king, who taught men and women how to press the olive and cultivate the vine. To those who obeyed his laws of discipline, time an mortality, he was a generous ruler who offered peace and abundance. To those who sought to impose their own will on the laws of life itself, he was a merciless and implacable judge. The Romans worshiped his friendly face at the year's end through the two-week carnival of the Saturnalia, which even Rio, in Brazil, has never succeeded in surpassing. It has been suggested that the name Saturn comes from the Latinsator,meaning to sow; and on the most profound level this god symbolized the dictum that as we sow, so shall we reap.On the psychological level, the earth god Saturn symbolizes our need to create solid and enduring structures, within which we can live peacefully and in accord with the limits of mortal life. The laws of Saturn are not the same as the idealized spiritual principles of Jupiter, but reflect a realistic acceptance of what is needed to keep individuals and societies safe and productive. Saturn's domain is not the afterlife, but the affairs of this world with all its failings and imperfections. Our profound need for order and security underpins our efforts to create social laws which curtail the excesses of human behavior, and preserve the tested and proven values of the past. Saturn is an unashamedly pragmatic deity, and impossible ideals of human perfection seem childish and irresponsible when challenged by the depth of his worldly wisdom. Unimpressed by polemics, the voice of Saturn within us tells us that we deserve to reap -- and keep -- the rewards of our efforts, and that self-sufficiency is more efficacious than demanding that others take responsibility for our welfare. We all need something of permanence in our lives, and the astrological Saturn symbolizes our urge to set boundaries for ourselves, internal and external, within which we can feel secure. We also need to embody our hopes and dreams in concrete form, and Saturn, as god of sowing and harvesting, reflects our urge to actualize our potentials and make some solid contribution to life.Saturn is a conservative deity in the broadest sense, portraying our need to preserve what has proved its value and strength over time. He also represents our efforts to maintain the status quo in the face of threatening chaos and revolution. The fundamental human needs described by the astrological symbol of Saturn make us want to possess our own house, gain respect and remuneration for our efforts, and defend ourselves against those who try to take from us what we have worked so hard m achieve. Our pride in self-sufficiency, and the sense of self-respect we gain in having done something well, both reflect Saturn at work within us. The earthy nature of this deity describes our desire to see theories proven before we trust them and take risks with our intellectual, emotional or material resources. Time and experience are, for Saturn. the only true teachers. Any effort we make toward the establishing of a respectable place in society reflects our expression of Saturn, for the approval of the collective constitutes a very. important dimension of what makes us feel safe. The intrinsically defensive nature of Saturn may also reveal a darker face, making us perceive as dangerous and subversive those who are foreign or different in race or lifestyle. This ancient earth god is not a trusting deity, and that which is unfamiliar must be tested -- and perhaps even scapegoated -- before it is allowed to pass through the guarded gate and enter the walls of the citadel.Some people find it hard to express the needs of Saturn. Many individuals fear the limiting effects of their own security needs, convinced that their personal freedom and creativity will be curtailed by too many rules and responsibilities. They may avoid commitment on many levels because it demands the sacrifice of future possibilities. Yet those who fail to express Saturn overtly may find themselves seeking security covertly, hoping that some Saturnian surrogate -- a reliable partner, an open-handed government or a supportive company hierarchy -- will play the part of the earth god and provide what is needed without their having to work for it themselves. Although sometimes narrow and defensive, Saturn is the planetary symbol of the human capacity to provide for oneself in an unsympathetic world. Without this solid core we remain psychological infants, always crying for a surrogate parent who will feed and shelter us, and protect us from loneliness and extinction. In failing to honor Saturn, we give away our inner authenticity, authority and capacity to respect others' boundaries. Sometimes Saturn has hard lessons to teach about the necessity for separateness and self-reliance. Yet the myth of the Golden Age. over which this just and incorruptible god presided, is the potent symbol of a serenity which is available to all of us. It cannot be found in nostalgia for the past, nor through a surrogate parent in the present. But we may discover it by respecting those fundamental laws of life which require us to accept our expulsion from the Paradise Garden. In making peace with mortal limits, we discover the strength of Saturn within ourselves.The Titan Saturn, his feet rooted in the stony earth over which he presides, faces us with the duality of his nature. In his right hand is the Cornucopia, the promised reward for adherence to nature's laws, and the image of the fecundity and peace of the Golden Age over which he rules. In his left band is the scythe, symbol not only of the harvesting of the crops, but also of the harvesting of the mortal body which has fulfilled its earthly span. Life and death are thus knit together as part of the pattern of birth, maturation, decline and extinction, and those who can accept the laws and necessity of time can partake of the fruits of their labors in a spirit of serenity.ChironThe Greek myth of Chiron, the king of the centaurs whose incurable wound transformed him into a healer, is deeply relevant to our understanding of human suffering. The theme of the wounded healer-priest may be found in many cultures, and forms part of the training of the shaman in African and American Indian tribes. Yet nowhere is it so vividly portrayed as in the strange figure of Chiron. In myth, centaurs, half horse and half human, are images of the powerful forces of the instincts directed by human reason. Chiron, son of the earth god Saturn, was a denizen of forest and cave and a cunning hunter wise in plant and animal lore. He befriended the hero Hercules to his eventual misfortune, for Hercules accidently scratched him with the point of an arrow used to destroy the monster Hydra; this arrow was tainted with the monster's blood, a corrosive poison for which there was no antidote. Despite his wisdom, the centaur could not find a way to ease his agony and heal his wound. This injury, caused by carelessness rather than any deliberate act of violence, transformed Chiron. Unable to release himself from pain, yet unable to die because he was immortal, he found meaning in his suffering through healing others. He became the wise tutor to many young Greek princes, and led his untamed tribe of centaurs into civilized habits and greater friendship with human beings. The mythic theme of wisdom gleaned from suffering is symbolized in astrology by the planet Chiron, recently discovered and now demonstrated -- through nearly twenty years of research -- to be a profoundly important dimension of the birth horoscope.The little planet itself, like the mythic centaur, is a maverick trapped within our solar system. An asteroid or dead comet caught in the gravitational pull of the Sun, it will one day leave as mysteriously as it entered. Its orbit is erratic and elliptical. On the psychological level, Chiron embodies urges and experiences which reflect this alien and alienated quality. When we are wounded by life's unfairness, we are trapped in our suffering, and experience the need to find meaning in our pain. It may not take the pain away, but it can help us cope creatively with feelings which otherwise would poison us with unending bitterness. Many of our hurts spring from our own attitudes, and even if we are reluctant to face this, we can, if pressed, recognize how we have brought misfortune upon ourselves through wrong choices or unconscious actions. We may also discover the roots of painful experiences in the unconscious ways in which we recreate our childhood hurts in adult life. Such wounds can be healed, because in recognizing our own contribution, we can alter our attitudes and create a better future. Even when we are injured by a person's malice, we have the comfort of moral, if not legal, judgment. But when life itself wounds us with its blind savagery -- through the impact of wars, natural disasters, or an unfortunate genetic inheritance that is no single individual's fault -- then we are bewildered and frightened because it seems that life has no justice after all, and we face the dark impersonal forces of chaos. Simple religious faith may help some people to make peace with such experiences. But many individuals need more than the promise that God's will is inscrutable and that the afterlife will be more pleasant.Chiron reflects our need to stretch our understanding beyond collective social and religious precepts, for even Jupiter's faith in a benign cosmos may at some point fail to satisfy our demand to know why life is sometimes so dreadfully hard. Psychological insight of the Plutonian kind may also fail us, when we face tragedies that have no deeper purpose than that which we make for ourselves out of the ruins. In his efforts to alleviate his pain, the mythic Chiron became a skilled healer of others, for eventually there was nothing about pain which he did not know. Thus Chiron within us can lead us beyond self-pity and blame into an increasing understanding of the endemic nature of human unhappiness, and of the means available to help others cope with it. From this is born compassion -- a frequently misused word which comes from a Greek root meaning "to feel with." We cannot experience compassion unless we have suffered. Avoiding the deeper challenges of life may allow us to feel a self-indulgent sentimentality in the face of human tragedy. But compassion as a living, healing force only springs from the experience of one's own incurable wound. When we face those areas within ourselves which have been irrevocably and pointlessly damaged by life -- and we all have them -- we realize how hard it is to be human, and how much nobility there is in human nature to prompt so many to respond to misfortune with integrity and generosity.Chiron may be difficult to express, because the child in us is challenged to grow up and face life as it is, rather than as we wish it could be. Because this inner child always hopes for a happy ending to the story, we may stubbornly cling to our instinct to blame someone or something, rather than allow Chiron's hard-won wisdom to grow from stony ground. It is at the point where innocence is challenged by purposeless suffering that Chiron comes to meet us, for at such critical junctures our faith crumbles and we are at the mercy of life. Learning to carry our wounds without cynicism or self-pity can generate deep empathy and a profound capacity to share tine loneliness of being human. Strangely, such silent sharing of a fundamental human dilemma may be more healing than the strenuous efforts of tine professional do-gooder. Chiron's recent discovery may also reflect the timely nature of this quality of compassion without sentimentality, for as a collective we need it badly. We are at present faced with the collapse of many old values and the disintegration of a world-view which can no longer explain what is happening around us. In desperation, many people have retreated into the rigid moral and religious attitudes of the past in an effort to find someone or something to blame. Yet we may one day discover wiser and more mature ways of coping with the chaos in which we find ourselves. As we face the real nature of the wounds we carry, Chiron points toward the emerging compassion of childhood's end.In anguish the wounded centaur seeks to pull the arrow from his thigh. But all his instinctive skill and knowledge cannot take away the pain he suffers, nor heal the wound of its corro