Liz greene On the Nature of Astrological Prediction

[Guest guest]

A Psychological Approach to

Transits and Progressions by Liz Greene

 

 

The nature of prediction

 

How do we interpret transits and progressions

from a psychological perspective? I

would like to begin by saying that, although the

internal nature of our exploration should

be clear to any astrological student with a

psychological approach, I am not in any way

denying the value and long tradition of

predictive work in astrology. But the two are not

mutually exclusive. 'Psychological' does not

mean only 'inner'. Too many of us have

had experience of accurate prognostications of a

specific and concrete kind to pretend

that the planets are not related to the outer as

well as the inner world, or that it is

impossible to predict certain kinds of events

in certain situations.

 

Many years ago I gave a seminar for the Wrekin

Trust, which was then transcribed,

edited and turned into a book called The Outer

Planets and Their Cycles. In passing,

while examining the birth chart of the Soviet

Union, I made a prediction about its future.

It was really a kind of throwaway, as I did not

have much knowledge at the time about the

subtleties of mundane astrology. My rather naive

prediction was based on the fact

that Pluto would creep up to conjunct the Soviet

Union's natal Sun in seven years'

time. I had observed that every time a powerful

transit hit this natal Sun in Scorpio, the

Soviet leadership changed. In mundane terms,

this is a fairly obvious and simple

conclusion, since the Sun in a national

chart reflects, amongst other things, the

nation's leadership.

 

The reason I expected a collapse rather than

yet another typical struggle for the

leadership was because Pluto is rather more

all-encompassing than the other outer

planets. It tends to wipe everything clean,

and nothing remains of the original form or

structure. There were other transits - for

example, the Uranus-Neptune-Saturn

conjunction in the first decanate of

Capricorn, approaching the Soviet Union's Venus

in

the 4th house - that suggested that this

imminent collapse was going to be like a

marriage breakup. It would be a

disintegration from within rather than from

without, and

all the various satellite countries would

start asking for a divorce. This was how I read

it at the time, and there was no indication

in 1982 of the events to come. A new leader

was certainly on the cards; but a total

collapse was unthinkable. In the subsequent

seven years, therefore, I didn't think about

it. Then everything came to pass as

predicted. There are many situations, both

mundane and personal, in which

astrologers can make accurate

prognostications.

 

However, focusing solely on the predictive

side of astrology is like a medical doctor

focusing solely on a bodily symptom, rather

than considering the whole individual and

the interrelationship of body and psyche.

Over the years, I have come to believe that a

great deal of what we assume to be fated, in

terms of transits and progressions, is not

fate at all - it is our unconscious

complexes at work. As individuals and as a

collective,

we unwittingly contribute to, create, or are

drawn into situations which enact internal

issues - either because we have been

avoiding these issues in the past, or because

they are simply ripe and the kairos, the

right moment, has arrived.

 

It would be very foolish to imagine that all

life situations are the individual's creation,

because many are not. One cannot say that

six million individual Jews had particular

transiting or progressed aspects which meant

that they would be taken away to the

concentration camps. It is sheer lunacy to

suggest such a thing, as well as an

avoidance of our unconscious collusion when

such acts of brutality occur on a mass

level. There are collective movements and

upheavals, as well as 'natural' disasters

such as floods and earthquakes, which may

supersede individual choice, complexes,

and will. There may be other, deeper

spiritual factors as well, about which I am not

in

any position to comment.

 

Many people in the astrological world

believe in karma. I am not a disbeliever. But I

feel

it is a lot more complicated than what

someone once called the 'ding-dong theory' -

one was nice or naughty in one's last life

and therefore one is rewarded or punished in

this one. As morality is such a deeply

subjective and relative thing, I find little

value in

such simplistic approaches to the realm of

the spirit. But there may well be something

that continues through and beyond a single

mortal incarnation, which accrues

'substance' according to the choices made in

each lifetime, and which acts as a

magnet for the kind of experiences we

attract. This may be a factor above and beyond

one lifetime's efforts at consciousness.

There may also be factors in the family

inheritance over which we have no control.

However unfair it may seem, we are the

inheritors of family conflicts and complexes

that have crystallised over many

generations, and these often act as a kind

of fate. If such conflicts have remained

largely unresolved, we may lack the mobility

to choose or avoid certain events, and

any individual undoubtedly possesses greater

freedom of choice if there is not a heavy

backlog of accrued psychological

inheritance.

 

Thus there are many factors other than

individual consciousness which determine

how transits and progressions are going to

be expressed. Nevertheless, a great deal

of what we assume to be predictable may not

be predictable at all, once individual

consciousness has begun to expand the levels

at which we experience reality. For this

reason I believe we need to try to live as

though we have the freedom to work with our

transits and progressions on a psychological

level. We may then have room to

transform or alter future events, or deal

more creatively with anything that is our own

creation due to the workings of unconscious

complexes. As for those things about

which we truly have no choice, we will find

out soon enough, and can hopefully learn to

accept and live with our necessity in a more

tranquil spirit.

 

One of my main objectives in exploring this

theme is to suggest that we may have

more freedom than we think, on levels of

which we might not initially be aware. If we

can learn to work with the planetary

movements with more insight and less of a

literal,

'Uranus is going over whatnot and therefore

such-and-such will happen' approach, we

might discover what Pico della Mirandola

meant when he said that human beings are

co-creators with God. Literal-mindedness

doesn't do us justice as astrologers. It can

also be downright destructive, because there

is, of course, such a thing as a

self-fulfilling prophecy. Because our

perceptions are invariably distorted by our

individual complexes, we are inclined to

interpret transits and progressions not

according to what they might mean, but

according to what our complexes tell us they

will 'do' to us. Even the most orthodox

'traditional' astrologer is not really able to be

objective when it comes to predicting

events. We cannot even be certain what an

'event' really is, since so much depends on

how and when the person registers what

has happened. Our assumptions about the

future are just as heavily coloured by our

own psyches as our assumptions about the

present.

 

A psychological approach to transits and

progressions is more challenging than a

literal one, because it involves taking

responsibility for what is symbolised by the

configurations in one's birth chart. It also

necessitates learning to work with traditional

predictive techniques on more than one

level. It doesn't mean that there is no value in

trying to get a sense of how a planetary

movement is likely to come out on a material

level. It is as foolish to ignore this

dimension of life as it is to ignore the psyche.

If one

has the progressed Sun square a 2nd house

Neptune while transiting Saturn is

conjuncting that natal Neptune, it may not

be a good idea to go into a business

partnership with someone whose background

and credentials one knows little about.

The concrete application of astrological

principles can be of great value to us. But

without the background of psychological

understanding preceding any literal

interpretation, I think we may, much of the

time, create our own fate, manifest our own

predictions, and generate considerable

suffering when it may not be at all necessary

to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Levels of expression

 

1. Meaning or teleology

 

Now I would like to examine the different

levels on which transits and progressions are

likely to be expressed. There are three main

levels on which planetary movements

seem to operate. Some of you may think of

more than three. But as a general

overview, I have found this division quite

useful. The first level is the one which is

likely

to be of greatest concern to the spiritually

inclined astrologer - the deeper meaning of a

particular transit or progressed aspect. By

'meaning', I am referring to its teleology - its

ultimate purpose in terms of the evolution

of the personality, the soul, or both. Those of

us who have a religious or spiritual bent

assume that the cosmos has some kind of

purpose, and that there is meaning in the

experiences which occur in an individual life.

Events therefore have a hidden design, a

teaching function, and if we can grow

because of what happens to us, we are

fulfilling some greater spiritual or evolutionary

design.

 

Whether such a cosmic design really exists

is an arguable issue. However certain we

might be about the objective existence of

such a deeper pattern - which is another way

of saying that God, or the gods, exist -

none of us is in a position to prove it. We may,

in fact, project a highly personal

perception of meaning onto an utterly arbitrary

and

unconnected universe. But even if this were

the case, a great many people experience

life as containing an innate meaning and

purpose, and this conviction, whether

projection or not, can be life-sustaining.

It is psychologically and spiritually creative

even if it is not 'true' in any scientific

sense.

 

When we view transits and progressions from

this perspective, we ask ourselves,

'What am I meant to be learning from this

conjunction of transiting Saturn to my Sun?

What is this progression of Venus square

natal Pluto meant to be teaching me? What

can I discover while transiting Uranus is

opposition my Moon? What is the positive

potential of this progressed Mars sextile

Chiron?' This approach is an extremely

important dimension of any transit or

progressed aspect. Although I have used the

term 'spiritual', it is as psychological as

an exploration of parental complexes, because

we are considering the planetary movements

in terms of the evolution of the psyche.

We might see this view as belonging to

transpersonal or archetypal psychology, rather

than reductive psychology. But it is

psychological nevertheless. Without this

perspective we are treating astrology, and

ourselves, as merely mechanical.

 

Some astrologers focus almost entirely on

this level, and consider other levels too

negative or materialistic. They will look at

transiting Pluto over natal Chiron, or

progressed Venus square Saturn, and they

will talk primarily about what is on offer in

terms of growth. Let's say transiting Saturn

is coming up to oppose one's natal Sun in

the 5th house. If we approach this transit

from a teleological perspective, we may talk

about a developing sense of who one is as an

individual. Out of this transit one could

get a stronger sense of identity, a clearer

sense of purpose, and a realisation of one's

creative talents. The challenges of the

material world might hurt, but they can

ultimately result in a deeper commitment to

a particular vocational direction. Any

events which occur, however difficult, are

'meant' to make one more aware of oneself.

 

The teleological approach on its own is

often sufficient with nice transits and

progressions, like transiting Jupiter trine

the Moon, or progressed Sun sextile Uranus.

When we experience harmonious planetary

movements, we tend to 'plug into' a sense

of cosmic purpose and goodness, and such

interpretations fit how we feel at the time.

The meaning and the emotional response at

the time of the transit or progressed

aspect seem to be in accord. When less

attractive planetary movements come along,

one can still interpret them in terms of

potential. Often such an approach can be

wonderfully healing in the midst of turmoil,

stress and pain.

 

We may see a veritable planetary nightmare

coming along, and we need to ask

ourselves what potential for growth might be

hidden beneath all the stress. It is very

important that we keep this in mind, and are

able to communicate it. But we may also

need to remember that, however profound and

positive the meaning, the individual

experiencing such transits and progressions

may not be in any condition to listen to

evolutionary possibilities. For many people,

particularly those who have been

accustomed to viewing reality from a purely

material or extroverted perspective, the

deeper meaning and potential of a difficult

transit or progressed aspect may not be

accessible until long afterwards. While they

are going through it, they may be aware

of, and able to hear about, nothing except

their conflict and pain.

 

 

 

2. Emotional stuff

 

Transits and progressed aspects also involve

an emotional level of expression. This

too is psychological, but it is more

concerned with the individual's responses, both

on

the feeling level and in terms of the

unconscious complexes which are being activated.

The past as well as the present is usually

involved. Our emotional responses at the

time of a transit or progressed aspect are

extremely complicated, and a lot depends

on how much self-understanding we have

achieved, how strong the ego is, what kind

of containment we can bring to the feelings

which are activated, and how much we

know about our parental complexes.

 

Past experiences are almost invariably

activated by any important transit or

progression, especially if a similar transit

or progression has occurred in the past, and

we need to consider what sort of memories

and associations we have accrued under

successive planetary movements to a

particular natal placement. Also, an experience

which may be ultimately positive and

productive in meaning may, by its very nature,

require suffering as part of its process.

All these factors lie on the emotional level, and

because of this, the emotional response to a

transit may be wildly different from its

teleology.

 

There may appear to be absolutely no

relationship between the meaning of a transit or

progressed aspect and how one actually feels

and behaves at the time. The

astrologer, not to mention the client, can

get extremely confused by this. I have seen

wonderful transits of Jupiter come along

which feel anything but wonderful at the time.

We tend to sit and wait hopefully for

Jupiter, thinking, 'Oh, how splendid, something

fantastic is going to come my way when

Jupiter conjuncts my Sun.' Something

wonderful may indeed happen from the

teleological perspective, but what happens in

actual life may be an emotional nightmare.

 

If one is a very earthy person, for example,

with lots of planets in Taurus and a strong

Saturn and a powerful need for structure and

stability, and one has been faithfully

married for twenty-three years and has three

children, two cars, a safe job, and a

mortgage on a large house, and progressed

Venus arrives on natal Jupiter in the 5th

house, what ensues may be anything but

wonderful on the emotional and material

level. We astrologers may know that the

opening up of the heart which such a

progression reflects may ultimately be just

what the person needs. But meanwhile,

what is he going to tell his wife? And can

he afford to pay the court costs?

 

Much depends on how one has been living

one's life, and whether one is in touch with

all the different configurations in one's

birth chart. It is unlikely that any of us can

claim

we are totally in touch with everything

within ourselves, so it is a question of the

degree

of unconsciousness. If a person has married

early for security or social reasons, and

the potential excesses of a 5th house

Jupiter have been ruthlessly suppressed, such a

progressed aspect may unleash a great deal

of conflict and suffering. The person may

fall in love with someone other than his or

her spouse, and must then face the

consequences. Sometimes it is the spouse who

acts out the renegade Jupiter. It is not

uncommon to see this kind of apparently

vicarious experience in the charts of clients,

or in one's own charts. One sits waiting for

Prince or Princess Charming to arrive

when transiting Uranus goes over natal

Venus, and one's partner runs off instead.

Why are we so reluctant to understand how

powerfully the unconscious psyche

affects the manner in which a transit or

progression is expressed?

 

Sometimes there may be an experience of

great depression with an apparently happy

transit. I have seen this very often when

the so-called Benefics are involved. Jupiter

arrives on one's natal Sun, or progressed

Sun conjuncts Venus, and the astrologer

assumes that a time of happiness and

fulfilment has arrived. Instead, the person

plunges into a black hole. Conflicts may be

activated by a happy experience, reflecting

deep-rooted feelings of guilt linked with

the parents. Or it may be that Jupiter makes us

aware of unlived potentials, which can

exacerbate feelings of failure. If we are so

cemented into a rigid structure that we have

cut off all the bridges to future

possibilities, we may ask ourselves, 'What

is the point of life?' Jupiter can be

connected with deep depression because the

gap between our potentials and our

present situation may be revealed in a

blinding moment of painful truth, and this gap

may make us feel ashamed of how we have been

wasting our lives.

 

So the emotional response to a transit or

progressed aspect may be very different

from its meaning. We need to be able to

communicate with a client who is in the

throes of an emotional state which bears

little resemblance to what we understand as

the teleology of the transit or progression.

We may be so full of what a particular

planetary movement means that we forget that

the person may not feel that way at all.

He or she may be very frightened by what is

happening, even if on a teleological level it

is going to be transformative. We may know

that the end result will be positive, but the

client may not feel it. And if we cannot

relate to the immediate emotional situation of

the client, and explore any personal

psychological issues which could help him or her

to find a way through to the deeper meaning,

then all our enlightened interpretations

will wind up sounding like a load of waffle.

 

 

One level without the other is incomplete.

It is extremely important to understand how

people feel under difficult transits. Many

transits are very painful, and it is stupid and

short-sighted to pretend that they are not,

or that one 'ought' to feel optimistic. If

somebody with progressed Venus square natal

Chiron is sitting there saying, 'I'm

miserable!' we cannot very well respond by

saying, 'Nonsense, you should be feeling

positive and enthusiastic, because this is a

time of healing.' We can certainly talk

about healing, but we also need to empathise

with the sense of isolation, inferiority and

unfair treatment which the person is likely

to be experiencing, so that we can make

intelligent comments about why he or she is

feeling this way. We may also need to

talk about the past, especially those times

when Chiron was activated by other

important transits or progressed aspects.

The emotions which accompany profound

inner change are often extremely

uncomfortable.

 

In some ways it is the most complex of the

three levels of expression, because we are

confronted with the mystery of individual

consciousness. Emotional reality is the glue

binding the level of meaning with the level

of manifestation, and it is also the area in

which we have some opportunity to exercise

individual freedom of choice. By the time

a psychological issue is so solidified that

it must be expressed in concrete form, we

can only plan for the future, but we cannot

undo what has been knit into the reality of

the present. This is really the ground which

Jung and Hillman call the soul, and it is the

mediator between spirit and matter.

 

The person with transiting Saturn opposition

natal Sun, who has, in terms of teleology,

such a superb opportunity for a greater

sense of personal identity, may be deeply

depressed and insecure. He or she may feel

like a failure, and all the achievements of

the past may seem worthless. Parental issues

may rise to the surface, particularly

those connected with the father and the

father-complex. The challenges of this transit

may not be perceived as challenges, but as

victimisation. Questions about the basis

of personal identity may have to be raised,

and many attitudes and assumptions about

life may need to be cleared away before a

healthier world-view can grow in their place.

The relationship with the masculine - within

oneself and with the men in one's life -

may have to undergo a complete

re-evaluation. There are a lot of things that

people

can feel under the transit of Saturn

opposition the Sun that are not very pleasant,

and

when people feel bad, they want to know that

the astrologer can recognise their

unhappiness and help them to understand its

basis. The more spiritually inclined

astrologer may need some experience of

psychotherapy to work on this level.

 

 

 

3. Materialisation

 

The third level of transits and progressions

is the level of materialisation. It is in this

sphere that many, although not all, older

astrological approaches have their focus.

Working on this level, the astrologer is

primarily concerned with what will happen in the

material world under a particular transit or

progressed aspect. This may seem a

simple approach, but it is actually

extremely complex. There are many issues, inner

and outer, that may affect whether a

planetary movement will materialise on a

concrete level, and in what way. One

important factor is the individual's complexes,

which have a tendency to materialise if they

are highly charged and dissociated from

ego-consciousness. If there is such a thing

as karma, that may also be a factor; and

the family inheritance, genetic and

psychological, is also relevant. And we should

not

neglect the importance of the environment,

especially the prevailing social attitudes

and world-view, because the individual is

always circumscribed, to a greater or lesser

extent, by the collective of which he or she

is a part.

 

There may also be a destiny in every life -

something that the soul or Self may wish to

accomplish in a particular lifetime. In

Greek philosophical thought there were two kinds

of fate affecting the individual, erinyes

and daimon. The former might roughly be

equated with ancestral inheritance, and the

latter with the soul's destiny or purpose.

And there may be a collective fate as well -

entire nations or peoples may have a

specific destiny in terms of human

evolution, and a specific ancestral inheritance.

As

individuals we are sometimes caught in

movements that are bigger than we are,

because we are part of a larger humanity

which is itself attuned to planetary cycles.

Therefore we share in the vicissitudes of

this larger humanity, and may have to cope

with the psychological baggage we inherit

from our racial, religious, social and national

background.

 

These are philosophical questions about

which each of you will have your own

individual beliefs and convictions. I am

mentioning them because they may be factors

in the materialisation of transits and

progressions. Of all these areas I have touched

on, the only one where we can be really

effective as individuals is the sphere of our

unconscious complexes. Our ability to

recognise, contain, work with and transform

these may ultimately affect the collective

of which we are a part. It may even affect our

'karma'. Behind the prediction of any event

there is always an individual or a group of

individuals. In the end we are forced back

into our own gardens to contemplate what is

growing there, if we wish to understand why

and what kind of events are likely to

happen to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When does an event occur?

 

There is another important issue about the

materialisation of transits and progressions

and the prediction of events. The moment we

consider what is going to 'happen', we

enter the fraught area of what constitutes

an event, and we are in very mysterious

terrain. I will give you an example of how

complicated it can be.

 

Recently I had a second session with a

client who first came to see me several years

ago. I had heard nothing from her in the

intervening years. I noticed that transiting

Pluto

was now approaching her 4th house Chiron in

5° Sagittarius. It transpired that, a few

years earlier, her father had died. My

client told me that when he died, it hadn't meant

anything to her. It was apparently a

non-event. She had not had a close relationship

with him. She believed that she felt little

for him, and therefore when he died it was as

though nothing had happened, because he had

never been there to start with. This is

how she put it. We had discussed her

relationship with her father during our first

session, and her perceptions had not changed

since then. I am not inclined to view

Chiron's placement as an area of life where

the individual feels nothing. But my client

was convinced that this was so, and that was

where the discussion about her father

ended.

 

The reason she came to see me for a second

session was that she had become very

upset about her brother-in-law, who was ill.

He had been developing small malignant

growths, and although the doctors kept

operating and removing these, new ones kept

growing, and she feared that he would die.

What she couldn't understand was that,

although she was not close to this

brother-in-law, the idea of his dying filled her

with

blind terror. Contemplating the death of

anyone else, including her husband (she had

married since I had last seen her), evoked

no such drastic response.

 

For some reason the role this brother-in-law

played in her life was far greater than she

had thought. She saw very little of him.

They had a friendly relationship, but she wasn't

close to the sister who had married him, nor

had she ever entertained erotic fantasies

about him. She couldn't understand why she

was now in a state of extreme anxiety

about the mere idea that this man might

leave her life. She called her state 'an

irrational obsession', which indeed it was.

We should also note that, along with

transiting Pluto conjunct Chiron, transiting

Neptune was crossing and recrossing her

natal Sun.

 

Gradually it became apparent that the real

event which underpinned her anxiety was

the death of her father. This may sound

strange, because he had already died, but on

the inner level he had not died at all.

There was no grief, no emotional separation, and

no sense of loss at the time of the actual

death. Yet the presence of Chiron in the 4th,

combined with a Sun-Jupiter trine, suggested

to me that there were highly ambivalent

feelings about this father, extremely

positive as well as extremely painful, which had

been totally suppre

 

 

 

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