As astrologers, we\u00e2\u0080\u0099re often portrayed as oddballs, out on the fringe of the healing arts professions. Unconsciously or not, this has given some of us a collective insecurity complex, such that we\u00e2\u0080\u0099re left clinging to the hem of society\u00e2\u0080\u0099s skirt, crying for attention like some little kid in need of a hug.<\/p>\n
Little wonder that, when the least evidence of our legitimacy arises, we embrace it with all the fervor of a re-born Christian who hears the Messiah is coming to town. Last time this happened was in the 70s, when French statisticians Michel and Francoise Gauquelin turned up significant evidence that angular planets had a bearing on professions. Since then, we\u00e2\u0080\u0099ve had little more than our faith to keep us going.<\/p>\n
Today there is, if not a Messiah, at least a kindred voice on the scene \u00e2\u0080\u0093 James Hillman, Jungian psychologist, scholar, and author of twenty-plus books, one of which should be required reading for all astrologers. The Soul\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Code: In Search of Character and Calling was first published in 1996, and since reprinted in a trade paperback version. The copyright page lists its library catalogue headings as: (1) Individuality, (2) Individuality in children, (3) Fate and fatalism, and (4) Gifted persons.<\/p>\n
Hillman\u00e2\u0080\u0099s central thesis, illustrated by several biographical sketches, is that remarkable people, ranging from serial killers to renowned artists, are born, not made. This flies in the face of conventional psychological wisdom which says that either genetics or parental upbringing is the greatest determinant of what a person makes of themselves. To the contrary, Hillman asserts \u00e2\u0080\u009cneither nature nor nurture\u00e2\u0080\u009d dictates the outcome of a life. Rather, it is an innate quality possessed by each person, a spark of individuality that, like a master code for a person\u00e2\u0080\u0099s life, determines the direction of his destiny.<\/p>\n
Hillman employs the Greek term daimon for the notions of guardian angel, spirit, or soul, all of which imply an over-arching intelligence guiding the course of life. This is the \u00e2\u0080\u009csoul\u00e2\u0080\u0099s code\u00e2\u0080\u009d. Thanks to the daimon, the adult\u00e2\u0080\u0099s true fate is already known to the child, and this knowledge guides the child unerringly, despite all the obstacles imposed by parental and societal norms, in the inevitable direction of its fate.<\/p>\n
A child’s daimon can\u00e2\u0080\u0099t be reduced to either parents or genes. Each soul chose its parents to be born from, and the genes through which it could grow. It is not controlled or developed by us; we are fated to become the image it has conceived of us before we were born.<\/p>\n
Hillman\u00e2\u0080\u0099s \u00e2\u0080\u009cacorn theory\u00e2\u0080\u009d suggests that in each small child there is a tight bundle of compressed future-self, the acorn practically exploding with its furious desperation to grow into its \u00e2\u0080\u009coak-ness\u00e2\u0080\u009d. Plant an acorn in a corn field, and it will produce an oak, not a corn stalk. Let mother encourage or discourage, it makes no matter, the child knows where it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s going and will have its way in time. The daimon is in the driver\u00e2\u0080\u0099s seat.<\/p>\n
Readers with an appreciation for astrology might well wonder whether the \u00e2\u0080\u009csoul\u00e2\u0080\u0099s code\u00e2\u0080\u009d could be a reference to the birth chart. Although Hillman never gives his readers an explicit nod in this direction, his occasional allusions to astrology encourage us to believe he\u00e2\u0080\u0099s familiar with its basic principles and practices. He is perhaps even sympathetic when he says, \u00e2\u0080\u009cThere is in each of us a longing to see beyond what our usual sight tells us. A revelation of the invisible in an intelligible form leads us to the astrologer.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/p>\n
The Soul\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Code is about one\u00e2\u0080\u0099s calling, fate, character and innate image, notions encapsulated in the term daimon. Hillman\u00e2\u0080\u0099s acorn theory suggests that \u00e2\u0080\u009ceach person bears a uniqueness that asks to be lived and that is already present before it can be lived.\u00e2\u0080\u009d Doesn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t this sound remarkably like karma?<\/p>\n
In Sanskrit, the planets are called grahas, those which have the power to seize. In the birth chart, planets are forces for both the divine and the demonic, and their respective conditions determine which way the balance tips. Hitler was seized by his daimon from an early age. Indeed, his whole life appeared to have been mapped out for him to such an extent that he himself commented: \u00e2\u0080\u009cI go the way Providence dictates for me with all the assurance of a sleepwalker.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/p>\n
As Hillman notes, the old Greeks said of their gods: \u00e2\u0080\u009cThey ask for little, only that they not be forgotten.\u00e2\u0080\u009d And in practice, this is why many Vedic astrologers, prior to an astrological analysis or consultation, invoke the navagraha (nine planets) via a brief mantra, thus honoring the planetary deities in the birth chart, within whose chakra we read the soul\u00e2\u0080\u0099s heart and purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As astrologers, we\u00e2\u0080\u0099re often portrayed as oddballs, out on the fringe of the healing arts professions. Unconsciously or not, this has given some of us a collective insecurity complex, such that we\u00e2\u0080\u0099re left clinging to the hem of society\u00e2\u0080\u0099s skirt, crying for attention like some little kid in need of a hug. Little wonder that, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,7,6],"tags":[324,29,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667,"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions\/667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}