Astrological Anamnesis. Unveiling the Unconscious.

Across a table on the French Riviera this summer, surrounded by the clinkering riggings of sailboats, a conversation with Juan de la Fuente revealed to me the ground-breaking perspective of a new approach in astrology, astroanamnesis. Years had gone by since Juan and I had last met as fellow students in London. Thanks to the waiter's pen, breathtaking new horizons about astrology and my own birth chart were scribbled on paper napkins. What follows is a brief account of our fascinating encounter. Sarah: First, tell me what astroanamnesis actually is? Juan: Astroanamnesis is the brain child of Spanish astrologer Eliseo Gallardo, with whom I studied this method, and together we wrote a book on the subject. Originally, Astroanamnesis springs from an attempt at bridging the two main astrological perspectives on the chart: Tropical and Sidereal. It uses a cartographical tool made of up to three charts for the natal. Tropical chart, Sidereal chart, and a third one: the Unconscious Memory chart. It also includes the very ancient method of Decans, as described by Manilius in his Astronomicon, to enhance the scope of subtle undertones available from the Zodiac. So, what is the difference between the common western psychological approach to the tropical Chart, and this other context you work with? Western Tropical Astrology attempts at probing into the unconscious from certain areas of the chart, while from the Astroanamnotical perspective, we conceive the tropical chart, as a whole, as a complex network of defence mechanisms - all at the mercy of the unconscious. Translating a paragraph from the book Introduccion a la Astroanamnesis, about the tropical chart we conclude that:"The Tropical chart describes the conditions from which the individual perceives his/her reality, unaware of the extent to which the reality that he/she takes for granted, is nothing but the projection of his/her own unconscious. Anamnesis is an important element at the core of Platos philosophy, isnt it? And the Allegory of the Cave, an accurate analogy of the stance from which astroanamnesis observes the Tropical chart. From this hypothesis of the tropical as a description of the cave we live in, we could say, that while neglecting this perspective, most of the astrologers attempt at unravelling a sense of meaning and purpose to the vissicitudes of our existence from the description... of the cave we live in...may only end up reinforcing the false idea that the cave...is the reality.

Yet the Tropical is a wonderful diagnostic tool to describe what kind of perception the individual dwells in. Indeed. But perhaps not quite as rich, used as a therapeutical tool. For without other elements to reinforce it, however good it is at describing...what I become...it cannot easily answer the question: Why have I become like this? Nor, what for? And that is when the other charts emerge to complete the picture. At what point in time or space are you looking to create the Unconscious Memory chart? UM does not use a different birth time from the tropical, nor the sidereal. The three charts belong to the same space-time coordinates, each chart observing the same "reality" from different perspectives. The UM is basically an optical inversion of the tropical. So, would the Unconscious Memory be something like an inverted image that conditions our perception of reality? Yes. That "something" is the unconscious memory, and our "tropical personality", is the external manner in which the unconscious is trying to "recreate" its own images. But would that imply that the Tropical Chart itself cannot portray the unconscious? No. Of course a good astrologer can obtain information about the unconscious from the tropical chart. But there is a subtle difference here. If you take the stance of observing the unconscious patterns arising from your tropical, the question would be: Are these patterns really mine? For they could be somebody elses, they could be a portrait of family dynamics, and yet we end up becoming loyal to those dynamics,reinforcing them,perpetuating them, becoming its unconscious slaves. For we construct our personality, to adapt and survive those patterns, yet unconsciously expecting that we are going to obtain "something else" in exchange...something to compensate our efforts. The Tropical Chart thus becomes a reflection not of who we are, but what the world has made of us, and the manner in which we adapt to those circumstances that conditioned us from the start. That is the environment, and the Persona. Our character, the armour we wear, and the specific region of the cave we were born into. So, every single celestial body in the chart can be observed from three different frames of reference, so therefore, and taking the moon as an example, one now has three moons. Tropical Moon, Sidereal Moon and Unconscious Memory Moon, observed in different signs, decans and houses. Yes, shall we take a look at that Tropical Moon of yours?

Ok. It is in Cancer 7th house, and in the Decan of Aquarius. The tropical Moon would refer us to the manner in which we relate to the environment, becoming the "provider" of a specific type of food. But this attitude, is not who we are, but the position from which we have had to adapt to the family dynamics and the conditioning circumstances of our environment in order to survive. We become the "breast" for our environment in the way we relate closely with those from whom we are expecting to receive a specific type of "food" in return. But, the "food" that we unconsciously believe to be the "one thing that I need", is part of an image which is not easily recognizable in the Tropical Chart, but very much so in its inverted counterpart: the Unconscious Memory chart. What about the decan of Aquarius? Contrary to common opinion, Aquarius and Uranus do not reflect a "space of emotional independence, or freedom, or autonomy", but the entrapment inside a process where one loses ones own will, and become "trapped", orbiting around a "will" which is external to oneself, and from which one cannot escape or change. It is the will of the family group that one adopts, or that which one "should" be, for others. Wrapped in this undertone, you would tend to become the instrument that provides the protection and nourishment (Cancer) of "other peoples projects", protecting and nurturing "their" ideals and projects(7th), yet, unconsciously expecting to obtain in return the moon's needs. Where is that Moon in the UM? In Taurus, 2nd house, decan of Virgo. So what would be the unconscious expectation? To be provided with stability, continuous physical attention and care, to be valued, and held, be appreciated, and desired? Yes. The problem is that this is exactly what you do not obtain. Or, if you do, it does not satisfy the craving. And you might feel your own "substance" is drained. Because in the process, we end up forgetting our "Sidereal dimension", or, so to speak, the place where the moon can finally get all her needs met, where there are no longer un-met cravings. Yet, as long as one remains trapped in this pattern, the Sidereal Moon becomes also part of our "distorted" perception, representing for us what we actually obtain in the end. But this outcome is only painful and grotesque, as I said, as long as the previous pattern prevails. And what would be the end result?

You may end up seeing how those "others", finally appear as unreliably immature, cheaters, liars or robbers who apparently end up betraying you. (Sidereal Moon in Gemini 7th house decan of Scorpio). By becoming the motherly provider of "their needs", what you actually do, is adapt to the youthful needs and desires of others. Repressing your own needs, or even treated, please forgive me the expression, as their toy. So if I am unconsciously expecting to be held and valued, and always let down - is that because I have forgotten the Sidereal me - i.e. the essence of myself as at one with the universe where my needs are concerned anyway - who is in fact the unreliable, childlike, playful 7th house trickster, and if I accept that in myself, I won't continue to wind myself up in needy vicious circles or keep bumping into game-players? You are right. The playful 7th house is YOU, but, as long as one unconsciously carries the burden of a judgement on it, (Tropical-Memory), our external Sidereal reality will only reflect a distorted version of it! The sidereal represents what happens when we recall our sense of unity within our universe, rather than being stuck in an Ego-Tropical stance, at the mercy of some unconscious expectation that we never obtain, perpetuating us in pain and suffering .And from there, from that very sidereal image of the Moon, the breast is no longer what we give away expecting this or that in return, because we finally learn to drink from our own source. If we have the tropical and sidereal charts in front of us, why do we need the Memory chart to bridge them? Am I right in thinking this is just a tool for the astrologer to see what the unconscious is up to, when in fact it is probably of little use to the client, and the sidereal chart would be far more fascinating for the client to access their 'soul -well'? Brilliant question!! the answer is yes and no. Yes, because in the one hand the UM is the gate through which (in the consulting room), the astrologer contours his client's defenses without resistance. So in a way it is a tactical maneouver, yet at the same time the UM is crucial to access"the little child", behind the mask, the one who is really still suffering the whole process deep down, and that,s a place of profound intimacy. I have been fascinated by the 'daimon' in neoplatonic thought, and accessing our personal daimon in astrology. I know many have said it's linked to the chart ruler, or the sun-sign ruler, but if there is a sidereal and memory chart to work with too, then you may have a suggestion here. My impression is that the daimon could be suggested by the sidereal, but, and this is the magical dimension of it, it will invariably need us to put the tools of a solidly established tropical personality and its unconscious inheritance at its command, in order

to incarnate in our life time. Then our reality truly begins to transform. So where would my Sun be in these two other charts? Now, you are going to love this!! In the Tropical Chart, the central point of reference is the Sun, but when you transpose the information to the other charts, then, the main reference is no longer the Sun, but the Earth. We place Planet Earth in the chart as in exact opposition to the Sun, forming an axial polarity. The Sun could be said to portray the goal of ones existence, but that goal can only be achieved once I integrate the Earth, for we are not Sun creatures, but earthlings. The Sun becomes available as the ultimate goal, once I go down the path of remembering what Ive forgotten in the process of individuation or incarnation portrayed by the Sidereal Earth. So the sidereal chart is then both a reference point for the eternal now of oneself, but also what we have lost from here to eternity? You use the word forgotten, I think forgetting is a very profound word. I'm thinking here of the concept of unforgetting, which is not so much 'memory' as relinquishing the forgotten. And if one is expecting to occupy a specific place in life, that is because that place is part of an imagery rooted in realms that may extend beyond one's own "conscious recollections". A realm of far reaching speculations that, again, cant be squarely pinned down. That is the "reminiscence". Forgetting the Sidereal me is unavoidable, for the sidereal self implies transcending the false perception of separatedness between I and not I. And losing our perception of unity is the necessary price we all have to pay, once born, to develop a distinctive sense of separatedness, which is crucial to the development of personality. I'm beginning to see the multi-layers of the trop/sid and how in an awesome way using them both is like piecing together the universe. The precessional movement itself is being bridged by, well, I assume the UM chart? What we were and have forgotten, (Sid) is locked up and hidden away by the UM and gets projected as the tropical? Not what we were, but what we have ALWAYS BEEN!! But yes, you could put it that way. Lets take your Tropical Sun. Sun Gemini 5th house, decan of Libra. Beyond "creatively expressing your writing skills", your defense is that of adapting to the environment, generating admiration, trying to obtain their attention, approval, and word of praise. Where is the Earth in your UM chart? In Libra, 10th house, decan of Scorpio.

So the expectation is to generate profound bondings of dependancy. To be valued by others, from a high place. And that is the trap. To the extent that we expect reality to accommodate our unconscious expectations, in the same measure we guarantee ourselves the opposite result because reality will show us an "inverted image" of that which we expected to obtain through all our efforts. Then, in this case, it is you who puts the other above yourself. Where is the Sun- Earth polarity in your Sidereal Chart? What is it that one forgets? I have Sidereal Earth in Scorpio 12 house -aquarius decan,and what I have forgotten is not at all clear - this confuses me slightly because if the 12th house is to be swept away under a Neptunian cloud - or living with ghosts of the ancestors, or addictions, illusions or 'loss' itself, then what have I got to remember, and how can I if it's 12th house? Ok, bearing the criteria in mind, the sidereal image of the Sun (Taurus 6th house, Leo decan ), suggests the recovery of a healthy sense of personal self esteem, humbly in peace with what one "has", and the recognition, from without, of one's role as a useful individual who provides wealth and beauty into the world. But that only occurs after one has had to "face down to Earth", (Earth in Scorpio 12th). To understand what happens in the sidereal, and recall the full sense of meaning and purpose that this chart unveils, it is important to take into consideration that the process is impossible while I continue to identify with the tropical Sun role, while expecting to "recover" the Memory Earth, for this only condemns us into a vicious circle of pain and suffering, repeating the same pattern incarnation after incarnation, or relationship after relationship, and harvesting disappointment.From the distorted dimension of this Sidereal Earth placement, this is an image of victimisation, (12th house). One ends up feeling victimized or robbed, or abused,(Scorpio), then retreats from reality into addictions, be it alcohol, fantasy, sex or whatever, while the feeling of loss and powerlessness, betrayal, and disappointment, begins permeating all perception of ones reality. And in this process one becomes trapped, unable to change anything (Aquarius decan).Obsessed by everything one has lost: ones expectations around love (UM Earth), youthful beauty and promise (Tropical Sun), one may end up feeling rotten and wasted. Fearing that if you "lose what youve got", you are going to die. Yet that is precisely the turning point, and the crisis of the Sidereal. The Earth is inviting you to "throw in the towel", retreat into a place of solitude (12th house), where you can undergo your own internal process of transformation and purification of your mental and emotional world, and let go. You can go into that process reluctantly, forced by circumstances, or willingly, which is somewhat better. You've really put it simply and beautifully. I think this retreat into solitude is already a process I've begun, albeit perhaps through force of circumstance, but with a willingness to, as you say, 'throw in the towel', not that I've become a hermit, but I am finding great joy in my alone-ness and even in my loss.

Once you engage in that process, you have a chance to re-emerge from there having recovered health, wealth, and springful beauty, regenerated and healed, to shine and enjoy the simplest pleasures of life. ( Sidereal Sun Taurus 6 th Leo decan). And then, from this new virtuous place, both the Tropical and the Memory begin to transform also into a virtuous expression. Tropical Sun brings you back into the witty, communicative, adaptable social world, for you then stand in a place of total self confidence and faith, (Tropical Earth in Saggitarius 11 th house Aries decan). And your Memory Earth recovers the love, truth and beauty, which has always motivated your actions.(Memory Earth in Libra 10th). How does one free oneself from the 'cave'? The answer which I prefer to assume and I think you've steered me in that direction, is that this 'reality cave' is in fact, paradoxically also one's liberation if we engage in the process of facing the mirror and 'seeing' the distortions that are reflected back and forward of ourselves into eternity. Entering the UM realm requires a different excercise away from a standard intellectual interpretation, for the UM approaches a place of stirring intimacy, so the excercise we are concluding here does not really reveal the consulting approach. This is not a formal consultation. Rather, we have been only surveying criteria. What is one unconsciously aiming at? How do I break this vicious circle? Take a Stereotyped Tropical Sun in Aries for example. If the person identifies completely with his forceful facade: heroic, unbeatable, "I can do it, I am strong," his sidereal Pisces dimension will be projected, and he will always be either running in to rescue of all those "poor little creatures" who "without ME" will not survive, (thus perpetuating his quixotic pose), or will become the "bully" that "hates weakness in people", surrounding himself with weaker dependent souls in front of whom he can stand as the strongest.Either way, the end result will be a disconnection from his own emotionally vulnerable nature, and then the cosmos, to balance things back into order, will bring him into situations where he is forced to remember that side of himself, either thru illness, prison, alcoholism, or victimization at the hands of those "others". So, yes, one has to face the mirror. And what we "see", is nothing but an inverted image of that which we do not "see", but that which we do not see, is what we bring along with us. That is what the UM unveils and that which the Tropical perception becomes, at the mercy of the unconscious - is sheer hallucination. Need further proof?...just switch the TV on for a while! The Cave? That is the Cave.

I'm perceiving the UM chart as a symbol of what the soul has known, and these unconscious dynamics, recollections of archetypes, stifled as they are by consciousness, need expression, and thus in their attempt to slip through the tiny cracks and fissures of the wall of ego-consciousness - our 'apparent' self - i.e. the Tropical chart - become distorted images of that which we have brought with us. Then the Sidereal Chart is the 'soul-self' , the 'soul's code', the at-oneness with the universe you talk about, which has been lost itself, but by necessity gets projected externally - so that's what we finally encounter all around us from the 'confines' of our tropical hallucination, but can never grasp. But if we can stand outside ourselves and see the threefold experience of the wholeness of ourselves, (Threefold in the sense of the three charts acting as a barometer for the infinite of ourselves), there lies some kind of peace and at oneness with the universe. Indeed. and perhaps to integrate that UM, one first needs to recognise it, and decondition oneself from its self-perpetuating inertia. Recognize personality for what it is, a complete system of defence mechanisms. Then a different option appears, where there is no longer a mother, a father, a sibling, a partner, an other...there is no longer anything...outside OneSelf. The process might be wonderful, or it may feel dreadful at first, but it will be IT. And how would the astrologer know how much to reveal about such an intimate chart to a client? It's OK between astrologers, because we are talking our own language, but wouldn't this kind of work require such a fine degree of discretion and ethical consideration? Perceiving himself from his ego-centred 'cave' the client is at the mercy of that cave and may be unable to take one step out of it, or not want to. Are we assuming too much self-awareness or intrinsic sensitivity on the part of the client by using this method? If the astrologer thinks that he "ought to give" something to the client, that will stop "the other one" short from opening up, because the astrologer will end up only talking about HIMSELF!. Who's that useful for? Not for the client. The client is there for an encounter with "himself"... not with the astrologer. So the first step would be for the astrologer not to asume his self-awareness superior to the client's. Always! The Unconscious does not need the astrologer to provide any solution, because unconscious movements work themselves out best in dreams, while we sleep. And to answer your question, if a client does not want to know about what's lurking, you can be certain that anamnesis will never take place during consultation. But if he does, and the astrologer "opens up" to what the client brings along, then something very different happens and both are enriched. I can only speak, but how can I know what the

other one IS hearing? So the astrologer is there only to facilitate an encounter of the other with themself? Is not that, after all, the purpose of astrology? Of course, and time for the astrologer to see himself outside of his own cave, too? Exactly. The other one, is also part of the astrologer. We walk out of the Cave Sarah, to be blinded by the light. It is not surprising that the moment after, we rush straight back in. We astrologers complain about our lack of recognition in our blind society. But that lack of recognition perhaps is nothing more than the reflection of what the astrologer no longer re-cognises, or has lost sight of. And that is perhaps where we have gone blind.

*********** After our meeting, as sailboats drifted silently across the marina, I sat for a while to reflect on what had been said, and just for a moment, experienced a true encounter with myself. That moment was enough to realise that astroanamnesis is both a radical, yet magical departure in astrology. On the table, among the empty glasses, the scribbled paper napkins were the truth of 'me'. It was time to 'see the light' of astroanamnesis, and to work with the beauty of this threefold path, just as I had once devoted myself to tropical astrology over thirty years ago. Perhaps, like the lines from the poem by W.B Yeats below, the forgotten past and unforgotten future is all of who we are? What marks upon the yielding clay? Two marksMade by my feet, two by my daimons feetBut all confused because my marks and hisAre on the selfsame spot, his toesWhere my heels fell, for he and IPausing a moment in our headlong flightFace opposite ways, my future being his past. -William Butler Yeats.

This article appeared in the January 2012 Issue of The International AstrologicalAssociation of Great Britain. Also available from the authors Website at http://www.astrologyfromthesource.com/