The following article explains Psychological Astrology's  position of our innate patterning that dictates our perceptions of present day life experiences.  I hope that you enjoy it.  

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INBORN IMAGES

It is interesting and worthwhile to explore what a horoscope reveals about our childhood experiences, traumas, and adjustments and how they relate to our lives presently. It is a powerful journey one may engage in to unclutter issues in the present.

There are distinctions between the way in which many schools of traditional psychology and psychological astrology view childhood experiences. Certain schools of traditional disciplines uphold the idea that a child is born a blank slate upon which different things are subsequently written - this is called the tabula rasa theory - the notion that how other people treated you in early life gives rise to certain patterns or scripts which then determine your self-image and your expectations of what will happen to you latter in life.

Around different experiences in childhood, certain decisions or attitudes are formed or made about ourselves or life in general. These might be called existential life-statements or patterns.

example: If Mother isn’t very adept at looking out after you, you might believe that ‘the world is not such a safe place to survive in’ or ‘those I need most will let me down.’

Or, if Father storms out, disappears and abandons the family when you are three years old, it may give the belief or expectation or statement about life such as ‘men are unreliable’ or ‘I am so bad, I drive people away.’

Early experiences cut deeply. Using the analogy of a young tree or sapling that incurs a small cut in its bark, as the tree matures - the cut will mend - but the scar remains.

What happens in early life forms a very deep impression on us which, very often, is embedded in the subconscious; we don’t even remember them. However, we carry those expectations and beliefs into adulthood and we continue to perceive and organize experience according to them. So what we see and evaluate in the present is conditioned by what has happened in the past. Sometimes this is referred to as psychic determinism. Any particular mental event or phenomenon is connected to chronologically preceding events. Even a fantasy about what happened in the past can determine how we interpret the present. It does not have to be something that actually happened. If you imagine that you drove your father away, when in actual fact he left for entirely different reasons, the earlier fantasy will still influence your later expectations.

Later in life, we selectively perceive or pick out of any circumstance those things which support our assumptions and beliefs and we fail to see what doesn’t fit into those expectations. In short, our beliefs and expectations give rise to our experience of reality which in turn reinforces the original beliefs.

Psychological Astrology views all this slightly differently. Rather than just being born a blank slate and having things done to you which then lead you to form opinions about life and yourself, psychological astrology believes that you are already born with an innate predisposition which expects certain things to happen. It’s not just the childhood conditioning which is of primary importance - it is your own inner nature as seen through placements in the birthchart which predisposes you to perceive experience in a certain way. Certain inborn archetypal expectations structure what you filter out of experience as a child.

WHAT IS AN ARCHETYPE?

An archetype can be defined as a mental representation of an instinct. Humans have been around for eons of time and the evolutionary processes have built up and structured into our psyches certain expectations which are passed down generation after generation - a kind of cell wisdom. One of our built-in expectations is that there is going to be a Mother or, more basic, a nipple. Even in the womb we have an expectation of a nipple. It is carried in our cell memory. There is also the expectation of a Father and the expectation of life and death. All these images are there latent in us even before we have an actual experience of such things.

People have slightly different images of these archetypal phenomena. For instance, the Moon has to do with Mother and everyone has a moon in their astrological chart. But the nature of a person’s image of Mother and the more exact kind of Mother one is anticipating, is shown by the sign placement of the Moon and what aspects are made to it. Similarly, the Sun, the symbol of Father, will be seen differently by each individual for the same reasons. The sign placement and aspects of the Sun will color and describe a particular inborn image of what Father is going to be like for each individual.

Remember that perception is a function of expectation and that content is a function of content. What you are expecting to see will influence how you perceive that is actually there.

 Inborn images and archetypes organize and structure what we experience. So if one is born with Moon trine Jupiter he/she will have an inborn expectation of abundance and expansion coming through the Mother. Conversely, if one is born with Moon conjunct Saturn, he/she expects some difficulty or coldness around the Mother and will be attuned to notice the times she fits this description more than when she acts in other ways.

 Traditional psychology blames the parents for what they do to us; but psychological astrology says that we are partly responsible for how we experience our parents - because of our tendency to interpret the Mother’s and Father’s actions on the basis of inborn assumptions and beliefs about what we are likely to encounter.
What our parents are actually like will drive our innate impressions in deeper or perhaps serve to mediate or mollify some of our basic expectations of them. If we expect a ‘bad’ Mother and our birth Mother turns out to be loving and an extremely safe container, some of our negative expectations will be toned down. But if our actual birth Mother does not nurture us or can’t cope with the role of ‘caretaker’, the archetypal expectation of ‘Terrible Mother’ is driven home deeper. It is solidified based on the actual experience of her.

If a child is born with Moon square Pluto, his/her inborn image of Mother is that she is potentially dangerous or life-threatening. The Mother may not actually be this type of person, but the child is particularly sensitive to when she has moods of depression and anger. If a Mother has given her child loving attention and a good feed, she would expect the child to be content and happy when she puts him down. However, the child may instead begin to scream and cry. If for some reason, his Moon/Pluto aspect was activated that day by a transit of the Moon or Venus, the negative image of Mother is activated in the child’s psyche. The Mother could then react with frustration or anger reinforcing the child’s image. But if she picks up the child and lovingly holds him until he is calm, the image of the ‘bad’ Mother he was born with is mediated.

It would be very beneficial for Mothers to study the charts of their babies to derive a sense of what the child could be projecting onto them and learn how to do a dance with these projections to negate the inborn negative images.

NATURE VERSUS NURTURE:

To sum up, what is being discussed is known as the ‘nature versus nurture’ conflict in psychology. Those who advocate the ‘nurture’ side believe it is how we are treated as children that will determine who we are. Those who believe in the ‘nature’ side believe that we are born with a certain innate predisposition which determines how we experience life. Astrological psychology has a bias towards the idea that our archetypal conditioning pre-dates our childhood conditioning.  However, it is undoubtedly a mixture of both. 

DETERMINING THE ARCHETYPAL PATTERNS
                as shown in the birthchart

It is the astrological birthchart which depicts our archetypal conditioning and expectations.  Let’s assume you had a horoscope professionally computed by an Astrologer. This is always derived from the date, location and time of birth. Every aspect or placement in the chart will offer the archetypal expectations you will experience and what kind of patterns exist within you. These patterns gives rise to statements, beliefs, or assumptions about yourself or life.

Different archetypes are brought out at different stages of life. At birth, the focus is on the Ascendant.  Issues around the Ascendant will be brought up at the birth experience.

The first two years: The main drive is survival and getting your needs fulfilled. The symbol of this drive is the Moon. Therefore, your innate patterning around the Moon will be flushed out.

Between two and four: The drive to assert and become more autonomous. You deal with issues of power, self-assertion, self-control, mastery of the environment and potency. You begin to walk and talk. Focus is on the Sun and Mars.

After four: Awareness of Mother and Father. Relationships are observed. It concurs with the Oedipal phase. Focus is on Venus.

PATTERNS: THE UNRESOLVED ISSUES OF ANCESTORS

As stated, we are born with certain archetypal beliefs and expectations that we are challenged to work out. Since the possibility exists that these patterns are related to heredity and genetics (cell memory), we inherit unresolved issues or conflicts from our ancestors. That which they have gone through or contended with is passed down to us through some sort of ‘psychogene’ just as physical characteristics are passed down to us. Genes are passed down from generation to generation and we not only inherit physical traits, but we also inherit psychological issues or unfinished emotional business.

Maybe an ancestor, or set of ancestors, had trouble with the correct use of assertion and power and you are born with Mars conjunct Saturn square Pluto. You have inherited something of their ‘unworked - unresolved’ problems with ‘assertion’ and it is up to you to redeem this in some way. Or you might inherit a dilemma between one set of traits from certain ancestors and another set of traits from other ancestors. Perhaps you are born with a Jupiter square Saturn aspect. Certain ancestors may have been Jupiterian swashbuckling pirates while others may have been Saturian local magistrates. Thus, one part of you wants to be free and expansive (Jupiter) and another part of you is pulled toward conventionality and settling down (Saturn).

If you understand the concept of reincarnation and karma and embrace the possibility, perhaps you had certain difficult experiences with Mothers in previous lifetimes. Perhaps you were not a caring Mother. Thus you may be born with an expectation of difficulty with a Mother in this lifetime. This would be indicated by challenging Moon aspects or difficult aspects and placements in the 10th house of the chart (assuming you take the 10th to symbolize Mother). Once you become aware that you have a bias to see matters in a certain context, or that you have certain inborn assumptions or beliefs, you can begin to work within that framework to gradually expand the borders of a belief or pattern to allow for alternatives.


'It is in limitation that the master first shows himself.’
. . . Goethe


An archetype can express itself on many different levels. If it isn’t working well on one level, you can start experimenting with others. By focusing the problematic energy to a positive expression of the same energy, you will relieve the pressure. For example: If you have a Saturn/Uranus conjunct in the 5th house squaring Mars in the 8th, and it manifests as trouble and grief with your children - become involved in other expressions of 5th house energies.  Take a course in art, join a dramatic art or dance group, become active in sports, etc. Or if you have a Mars/Saturn/Pluto conjunct in the 7th house and you are  experiencing marriage difficulties, form a business partnership to take the pressure off your more intimate or personal relationships.

Patterns or existential life-statements are principles by which we live. Patterns give rise to the kinds of dreams we have, to the kinds of traumas we have, and to the kinds of illnesses we may attract.  They set the parameters of what we are going to experience in life. Another word for pattern or paradigm is something called a ‘mental set’. A very depressed person might have a mental set that the world is out to get him and will organize his experience of the world according to his mental set. He will only see threatening experiences and fail to see ones that are life-supporting. Our self-image determines so much of what happens to us. For instance, a woman or man may see themselves as ‘fat’. Even if he/she goes on a diet and really slims down - if his self-image sees himself as ‘fat’- he will probably just get fat again!


EXPERIENCING AND UNDERSTANDING PATTERNS


The first step in working with patterns and beliefs is to fully experience them. Experiencing a pattern means fully getting in touch with it. Review your chart and focus on an aspect - let’s say Venus square Saturn. Determine your statement about life which relates to this aspect. The statement might be: ‘I am not good enough to be loved’. Then really exaggerate it; really dramatize it: ‘How could anyone love me?’ Feel the impact of your statement with feeling. Fully experience it. This is necessary before you can transform it. It must be acknowledged in yourself.

After experiencing this pattern and gaining some understanding of it, the next step is transmutation: finding some way to change that statement about life - to change that belief, assumption, or expectation. The task is to redirect the archetypes involved into some new life statement, to re-choose how to use the energies involved.

It is never easy to get rid of an old pattern because it has quite a hold on us. And if you try to fight a belief or assumption you have about your life, you are actually giving a message to yourself about important that belief is and you may drive it in more. Rather than trying to fight it - create a new belief and pay a little more attention to the new one. You will create a shift in dominance from the old one to the new one.

Case example: A 20 year old woman had Uranus/Pluto conjunct in the 10th house opposition Sun/Mars conjunct in 4th. One of her basic statements about life was ‘that she was weak and ineffective compared to other people’. Her early home life was disruptive as her Father left home when she was still young and part of her sense of weakness stemmed from her inability to do anything to stop the parents from splitting. In addition, she saw her mother as very strong, powerful and slightly threatening which was projected onto the world and her career environment/marriage. Women in particular were formidable challenges. In her mind - the world was dangerous and more powerful than she was.

An example ‘new life’ statement might be: ‘Yes, the world at times can seem overwhelming, threatening and unsafe, but sometimes people are alright and it’s also possible to have some influence in it’. She might then expand her statement with more positive suggestions about where and how she could be more effective in the world. Where could she use her Picean imagination and sensitivity along with her Virgo technical ability?

The original statement is never denied. The focus is changed to more positive options.

WHAT CHOICE DO I HAVE?


You might ask yourself: ‘Are the beliefs I am currently holding - the beliefs I have about myself, about men, women, the world in general, my success and happiness - are these the beliefs consistent with what I want in my life and with what I want in my future?’

By doing this you are adding the element of choice, the element of consciousness, the element of being a creative force in your own life rather than just taking what’s given and living your life out in a passive resignation.

Your pattern around Mars has a lot to do with how you start things. Observe the aspects made to Mars in the chart:

Jupiter - expansion, confidence, exaggeration

Saturn - fear, rigidity, caution, conservative

Uranus - Ingenious, erratic, unstable, rebellious

Neptune - idealistic, confusion, unrealistic, vague

Pluto - ruthless, vindictive, manipulative, life and death

 

WHAT ABOUT THE FUTURE?

The key to your future is right now - not the past - right now. If you believe that the past determines your future, then you energize that happening. It is helpful to think of your beliefs and statements about life not as hard, cold facts, but as opinions. Create some other beliefs that you would like to see happen and focus on these.

example:   Original belief: Venus square Saturn - ‘I am unlovable’.

 When the original belief comes up, you do not try to deny it as it is embedded in your psyche and any resistance will only reinforce this belief. Instead, try creating some alternative belief which you would like to see happen. How can you bring the two energies in a more creative and constructive connection? So, believing you are ‘unlovable’ ‘ is only an option. It is not in tune with what you wish.

Remember: (You must stick with the archetypes of the planets involved).

(Venus=love - Saturn=denial)


Try stating: ‘I am loveable and worthy of love’.   ‘I have many wonderful qualities to offer someone such as loyalty, character, truthfulness, honesty, etc.’

 Visualization techniques are very powerful tools when you are making your alternative statements. Creating and seeing a picture of yourself in your mind’s eye in union with the verbalization of your intent of what you wish to accomplish and experience will bring faster results. You will not erase the old pattern completely in this way, but by creating an alternative track in the mind-brain system, you will attract an alternative experience to what you actually had.