posted June 01, 2009 01:27 AM         

Juno

It has been suggested that Juno’s position in the horoscope is related to an individual’s marriage potential. A study conducted on ling-term marriages revealed that one partner’s Juno aspecting the other’s ASC/DSC was the most frequently occurring aspect in these married couples’ charts. But no matter what position she holds in an individual chart, it must be admitted that Juno’s marriage to Jupiter was usually stormy. Still because she represents the institution of marriage and was always called upon to bless the newlyweds, her position should always be taken into consideration when studying the charts of those who desire to be married, along with her position on the intended date.

Juno’s jealousy and vindictiveness towards Jupiter was not based simply upon his frequent extramarital affairs. It also had to do with the fact that he continually lied to her about his escapades. As a lover, he dressed himself up in many disguises, thinking that he was fooling everyone. Juno’s humiliation increased with each new affair after which Jupiter would return home and beg her for forgiveness, only to repeat his infidelities again and again. Perhaps, in the beginning, Juno could have forgiven one or two violations of the sacred vow of marriage, but when the contract was knowingly violated time and time again, there was no more acceptance or forgiveness. Similar patterns among modern individuals may reach the point where anger turns to rage, rage turns to disease and one is eventually consumed and sometimes kills because of it or is even killed by it. The frequency of crimes of passion in the present day may indicate a collective dysfunction of Juno.

Thus Juno’s appearance in a chart may not be related strictly to marriage; she also represents the internal emotional rage which develops and combusts when a loved one has deceived, betrayed, or misused his or her vows of loyalty and devotion. It is something that occurs frequently in the love and marriage game. No matter how much love may have departed from the relationship over the years, when one’s partner leaves for another person (whether one night or permanently), the wrath of Juno can be felt.

Another dynamic of the marriage between Juno and Jupiter illustrated the notorious standard, still in evidence today. It was fine for Jupiter to have as many sexual liaisons as he wished, but not for Juno. The Junos of modern times who sit around pining over spouse’s infidelities but refuse to do anything about it, or who inflict their anger on the spouse’s lover rather than the spouse, are examples of dysfunctional Juno principle at work in the chart.

Although Juno tends to be a problematic planet or archetype, it is nevertheless a common theme. It is sometimes the “society wife” or husband who assesses life according to the status she or he achieves. Such people build for themselves a little queendom or kingdom in their own community, and must let everyone know they are seated upon a throne of gold. For a woman of this type, marriage to a doctor or a lawyer equals success, while marriage to a mechanic or a janitor equals failure. It does not matter if the doctor is an alcoholic or the lawyer is an abuser. It does not matter if the mechanic is the kindest of men or the janitor is a promising poet. A man with this kind of Juno complex may choose the archetypal cheerleader or society girl, neglecting his real emotional needs for the sake of a partner who will look and act correctly in the social sphere. The relationship, its success or failure, is defined purely in terms of status.

This focus upon social approval is frequently extended to the Juno individual’s children. The Juno’s person love or her or his children is very conditional – they have to meet her social expectations in order to be worthy of parental affection. When Juno people focus all their attention on what they want in children, to be or achieve, and consequently neglect the issue of who these little strangers really are, they will almost certainly incur the resentment of their children, who will strike out angrily against the status and social respectability which means so much to Juno.
Typically, Juno in the birth chart will represent the type of partner or the type of marriage desired. If the Juno is “weak” or afflicted by power planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto or even Sun or Mars, one might experience a relationship filled with disgrace and humiliation; one may be subject to victimization at the hands of a spouse who is powerful or too threatening to challenge. Up until recently, these negative Jupiter/Juno roles were typically played put by a man who was dominant in the professional or political world (Jupiter) married to a woman who lived in his shadow (Juno). But recently it has become just as likely that the woman will play Jupiter, possessing a powerful and dynamic career and wielding power of a threatening nature over a male spouse who feels inadequate or powerless. It also true that many women with a strong Juno archetype live in their husband’s shadows and are gloriously content with such a position. Others stay in the relationship out of fear, shame or quilt, feeling they have no alternative.

It has frequently been found in the chart comparison that Juno contact from one chart to another “bind” a couple together in unexplainable ways. It is definitely meaningful to check these Juno contacts when examining the astrological significance of a relationship. Juno’s aspects to planets, other asteroids and particularly the angles of a potential mate’s chart will give clues as to what is expected in the marriage and how it will work out.

There are many Juno individuals that decide to marry themselves to their positions in life rather than to another individual. Juno’s chosen positions, no matter in what field, will typically involve power. Thus power struggles, those that were played between Juno and Jupiter, may also involved parents, authority figures on the job or even siblings and peer relationships. That is not to say that Juno will always be the one in power, but when Juno is dominant in a person’s chart he or she will be likely to experience both sides of the power game – as one who is initially abused by the system (perhaps due to sexual, racial or other discrimination) but one who has the strength, will, and determination (and sometimes the spirit of revenge) to fight back and eventually overtake a system that formerly subjugated him or her.

Thus Juno in the birth chart describes, at worst, the feeling of victimization or jealousy in relationships due to an overwhelming surrender of one’s power for the sake of the relationship, and at best, a power truly centered in oneself, revealing charisma and magnetism and emanates out to all who come into contact with it.

posted June 02, 2009 03:05 AM         

It is no secret that Zeus’s favorite child was Athene, and the Greeks reflected their chief god’s opinion by honoring her second only to Zeus. Thus the father-daughter bond is established here, just as the mother-daughter bond is paramount with Demeter and Persephone. Athene’s paradoxical relationship with her father – and by extension with the prevailing world-view symbolized by the king of the gods – has been responsible for the most popular image of the goddess in our modern world. Whether seen from the vantage point of astrology or Jungian psychology, the Athene-type woman is readily recognized as an archetype – perhaps even as stereotype. Heavily armored behind her emotional defenses, disdaining relationships by choice, she charges ahead into the world armed with her briefcase and dressed in a grey suit sporting outsized shoulder-pads. As a business-woman she plays hardball with more force than the men, whom she delights in overpowering (Margaret Thatcher fits this archetype) The armored Amazon type of Athene. But this is not the only aspect of Athene, and not necessarily her most healthy manifestation. It is true that most Amazons tend to be Athenes but most Athenes are not Amazons.

In identifying Athene’s specific mode of wisdom in any given birth chart, one must first determine how she relates to the signs and planets that represent the father symbolism in the chart. When Athens is dominant in a chart there is often a strong projection onto the child in early life by father. Whether accepting the father’s projection, which is an Athene would most likely to do, or rejecting it, which might be symbolized by an early transit of something like Uranus to Athene, the ultimate goal is to break through the shield and armor and get in touch with one’s own personal wisdom. It often comes as shock to those who have been living in the father’s shadow or projection all their lives to have to come to terms with the fact that this no longer works for them. It is then up to these people to get in touch with their own sense of inner wisdom by breaking out the suit of armor they have worn for so long.
It is the areas of love that Athena seems to have been at her weakest, and her armor is symbolic of the difficulty she had in establishing any kind of close relationship. Many gods and Titans offered themselves to her in marriage, but she rejected them all. Often, she failed even to understand sexual implications of relationship. For instance, she once asked Hephestus to forge for her a suit of armor. Hephestus replied that he would do it “for love”. Athene naively thought that the celestial smith intended to work for her out of the goodness of his heart, but Hephestus who was accustomed to being paid for his work, meant something quite different by the word “love”.

posted June 02, 2009 03:38 AM         

The process attached to Ceres as mother is to lose her child, Persephone, and then to regain her. Most of us do indeed “lose” their children – they grow up and move away. We feel that pain of separation. But our children do not return to us literally. The myth hints at a more symbolic “return”. Note also the Demeter herself suffers rape; that she rages at her loss and violation. But the child of this loss, pain, and frustration paradoxically brings ecstasy. The aspect of human consciousness which was so deeply experiences at Eleusis was one of sorrow and pain over the loss of innocence and the breaking of bond between mother and child, followed by a rebirth into spiritual ecstasy – the Dionysian freedom of the Self. Ceres’ position in the horoscope obviously involves her role as a mother and for the reason she can be associated with and it perhaps exalted in the sign Cancer. The emotional, psychological, and biological connection between mother and child as a unit is discussed in Cancer – and the Moon plays a large role in the birth chart as the primary agent of the association. But what of the earth mother, who carefully and lovingly gives her child its first book to read bedtime, who teaches the child to lace its shoes, and who provides the framework for the child to make its way in the world? This is what Ceres governs in the horoscope. Those with Ceres in prominent positions will identify strongly with their inner earth mother, or, in the charts of men with their ability to play the role of “caretaker”, and if Ceres is involved with the Moon there may be a strong emotional dependency between mother and child, such as Kore and Demeter shared with each other.

It should be no surprise that Ceres position in the horoscope has a strong connection with food and eating habits, based on her role as grain goddess. An afflicted Ceres will usually result in one kind of eating disorder or another, a problem that afflicts too many people in modern, industrial world.