Archetypes

An astrological chart is made up of a number of symbols. There are many different types or groups of symbols. The five types that I emphasize in my readings are the planets, signs, houses, aspects, and Nodes of the Moon. While differing in many ways, all these symbols share one thing in common - they represent archetypes.

Archetypes are basic organizing principles - both of the individual psyche and the universe we are a part of. They are active, dynamic. Archetypes generate form, bring order from chaos. They are the underlying patterns, or better, patternings, of the universe. As we are each a part of the universe - a particular manifestation of the whole - the archetypes organize our individual basic nature.

For a more in-depth description of the nature of archetypes, see the Archetype entry in the Words section.

Sets of Archetypes

Each group or set of archetypes has a unique way of forming our being and the world we live in:

Signs - The Signs of the Zodiac represent energies - twelve basic modes of action and change.

Planets - The planets represent the different aspects of our personality, our psyche, our being.

Houses - The houses represent the different areas of experience in our life, situations we can be involved in, points of view we can take.

Aspects - The asepcts represent the nature of the energy flow between parts of our psyche (planets) and between areas of our life (houses).

Nodes - The Nodes of the Moon represent our life path - from an area of familiarity, expertise and attachment to an area of new learning, challenge and release.

Similarities

While these five sets of archetypes are different from one another in their method of manifestation, there is a meaningful connection between several of the sets. Specifically, for each sign there is a house that shares many of its basic meanings. The first sign, Aries, shares many characteristics in common with the first house, the second sign, Taurus, with the second house, and so on. Further, each sign-house pair has a planet with which it shares characteristics of meaning. This planet is called the ruler of the sign and house. So we can think of this combination of a sign, house and planet as constiututing a "meta-archetype" - an organizing principle that transcends and informs each of its three constituent archetypes. Some astrologers say that there is a fourth member of each meta-archetype, namely an aspect. While I don't categorically deny this connection, it has always seemed a bit of a stretch to me, so I simply leave it out of my thinking.

As you read the pages for individual signs, houses and planets, you will notice a section of keywords on each page. The group of keywords is associated with a particular meta-archetype, e.g. the Aries-First House-Mars keywords, the Taurus-Second House-Venus keywords, etc. Some of the words will connect more strongly with the sign, others with the house, and still others with the planet. Experience will teach you to make these more subtle distinctions.