So Many Planetary Events in Aries! — What is Individuation and Why Does It Matter

Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/]. Today we are going to take a look at the topic of individuation. The reason that we're going to cover this topic, which is a major concept in Jungian psychology, is that Jungian psychology has had a major influence on modern psychological astrology. Not surprisingly, Jung delved into astrology himself, and as modern astrologers have mapped that process of psychological individuation into things like the Zodiac, the houses, and planets. There has also been a way in which the topic of individuation is consistently linked to the sign of Aries as well as the first house.

Now today, I'm going to separate the two. We're not going to go into the first house, but we are going to look at the link between the sign of Aries and the process of psychological individuation that Jung talked about. There's some real benefit in doing this because we have so many major transits happening in Aries right now, and there's a really strong and clear link between this sign and that topic. So I hope that you'll enjoy this, and if you've never really delved into the topic of individuation in Jungian psychology before, this will be something like a little primer.

So anyway, before we get into it, remember to like and subscribe. Share your comments and reflections. If you have any insights to share, we love hearing from you guys. You can find transcripts of any of these daily talks on the website, which is NightlightAstrology.com.

Now, I have another monthly webinar coming up. This month's webinar is happening. Usually, they happen mid-month. This one's happening early because my family's going to be doing some traveling. So when you go to the events page, click on live talk, scroll down, and you will see that on April 3, we have a talk coming up. Excuse me, April 3? March 6, we have a talk coming up on, that's this Thursday night on the third house, which was called the Temple of the Moon and was called the goddess. So if you want to really diversify your understanding of the houses, check out all of the webinars I've done on the houses. But this one, in particular, if you want to dive deep into the third house and get in touch with the feminine goddess culture that was associated with the third house, this is going to be a great webinar for you.

So on that note, I will also turn you on to one more thing. Under in-person events, you can see we have a spring equinox gathering coming up. It is free to attend on Saturday, March 8, from 6 to 8:30 at the Grapevine Collective New City Center in Minneapolis. Just click RSVP to let us know you're coming so we bring enough herbal tea and cookies, and we're going to hang out. We're going to do a little movement, a little meditation on the equinox, and then have a little bit of time to hang out together as a community. It's obviously free to attend. We're meeting a little bit prior to the equinox. That is, again, because I'm going to be traveling.

Under the Events page, click on the speaker series. You'll also see that the speaker series is coming up on the 15th, 16th of March, and the 23rd. We have a series of talks that are free for you, and you can register for those. Those are made possible through the Kickstarter. Also, go to the book of reading tab, and need-based astrology readings are there. I'm trying to make sure people know about this service, which you also helped us build through the Kickstarter. We have course directors, tutors from our programs, and talented alumni from our programs who are offering readings at different price points so that we make sure that people out there who have different financial needs or resources available have a price point that meets your budget. Hopefully, that makes astrology a little bit more accessible, which is a big part of my goal.

So on that note, what I'd like to do now is turn our attention to the real-time clock, and let's refresh on all that is happening in the sign of Aries. All right, so first of all, we're in the midst of a Venus retrograde in the sign of Aries here on Wednesday, March 5. There is a coming Mercury retrograde in the middle of this month, also in the sign of Aries. We will then have a solar eclipse in the sign of Aries later in the month, and a couple of cazimis with Venus and the Sun. And then that solar eclipse in Aries comes around March 29, and on the 30th, Neptune enters Aries. Then by the end of May, Saturn will enter Aries.

So with all of that focus on the sign of Aries, I wanted to dedicate a little time to one of the most famous psychological topics in Jungian astrology: individuation and the way that it has been commonly linked to the sign of Aries in modern psychological astrology. Now, what I want to do is give you five things that you might want to know about individuation, and I'm presenting these through the way that I've understood the topic by reading a lot of Jung and Hillman and other archetypal psychologists and astrologers and presenting these things to you because I think they're really profound, and I think that they may offer us some depth when it comes to thinking about the sign of Aries and how it's being activated right now.

So the first thing to know, in my humble opinion, and these are really in no particular order, but the first thing on my list is: a symptom of individuation is simplicity. Now, most of the time when people hear the word individuation, they think of individualizing. That means something like, I'm going to become myself. It's a funny thing to talk about becoming oneself, as if you could be anything other than yourself, right? But what individuation refers to, very broadly, is the idea that although there is a way in which we come into life and we're consciously aware of various aspects of our identity, our personality, our character, our behavior, our psychology, and we're just consciously aware of them, that there are elements of who we are that we are not consciously aware of that are unconscious, relatively speaking, that we can't quite see about ourselves, that often we do see through relationships.

For example, through relationships, we individuate because people allow us to see parts of ourselves that we couldn't see, and then we have to have meaningful contact with those parts of ourselves and figure out how they fit and integrate into a sense of wholeness, especially when they're difficult things we don't, you know, we might have to face or meet aspects of the unconscious that we might call shadow material. Shadow material might be those things that are difficult to look at, but that you have to in order to be whole. You have to figure out. So, like, one of the ways I like to think about it is that, you know, there's really no part left behind. You know, it's like whatever the military, no man left behind. It's like no part left behind. But you may have to repurpose things that you discover about yourself or slightly reorient them so that there is a kind of harmony that exists among parts.

So individuation can be tough because we sometimes have to look at parts of ourselves that aren't always easy to look at and that can't come up in any other way through experience and relationships and things like that. So it's not just as simple as, you know, go and find yourself. That's part of it, but it's also discover what things you can't see about yourself. Also, there are things about ourselves that we know but are afraid to admit or show or share. We feel conflict internally about or among the different parts of ourselves. So individuation can refer to the process of interrelationship between parts. I think a lot of internal family systems as a sort of like a psychological offshoot of some of what Jung made very clear about the process of individuation, and I'll say more about that later. But not that I'm a big expert in IFS, I think that's how they say it. But anyway, so just to say that the process of individuation is not as simple as, like, just travel abroad and go find yourself, you know, it's a lifelong process, and it often includes looking at or finding out that there are things in the unconscious, some of which is shadow material, some of which is gold that we didn't even know was there.

So saying that briefly to introduce the subject, a symptom of individuation is simplicity. Now, one of the etymological meanings of the word simplicity, and there are ironically many, but one of the meanings is without conflict. Now, that does not mean that conflict is bad or that you're not going to have it, or that it's not a part of the process, but one of the things that happens when we're individuating is because we've had, often this is tied to the sign of Aries, the sign of Mars, which is about conflict, in a way, because we have had to face challenges and conflict internally, and we have learned to resolve or mediate those conflicts internally, a symptom of in the process of individuation, which has like many stages and layers. So I'm just saying like, you know, you're in an individuation moment or stage of life when suddenly there is a kind of simplicity, a way in which you feel without conflict about various parts of yourself that maybe at one point felt conflicted, but now you feel at peace with them.

And this is a symptom of aging sometimes too, not for everyone, but a lot of the ways that people have talked about aging, and I've read a lot about this in archetypal psychology as well. One of the features of aging is the lack of conflict that we feel. Just this is such a stupid simple example, but I remember my grandfather on my mom's side. It was my step-grandfather. My grandfather died before I was born, but my grandma remarried, and he would walk around in his slippers and robe in the morning just tooting away, just like ripping ass. He was without conflict about it. He did not care. And he would say, he would jokingly say, I'm too old to care anymore.

And I joke about that, right? But that is kind of a symptom of aging. The ways that we've worked through and, oh, we've done so much battle within ourselves that there's a way in which we become sort of simple. Simple, not as in lacking complexity, because that can be one definition of simple, but simple as in without conflict. There may be many different parts, but we're just tooting away. So one of the things that can be really interesting about all these transits in Aries is that the conflicts that come up weirdly can actually lead to this kind of ease or simplicity, like I've made peace with the conflicts that exist within my parts, and there's a simplicity that comes with that, just an ease and a simpleness.

And have you ever been around someone with strong Aries characteristics? It is easily my favorite quality about being around Aries. My wife has three planets in Aries. One of the things I was initially attracted to her so much right away, she just said what she meant. And she meant what she said, there was no guile, there was no deception. It was just, this is what's present. This is what I am. This is what I'm saying. This is what I'm doing, this is what I'm thinking. There was such an immediacy and a lack of conflict. And initially, I thought to myself, I don't, does this make her simple, as in, unsophisticated? But I discovered right away, no, she was super smart as well. So like, one of the beautiful gifts about Aries is that it's an evolutionary signature of someone of simplicity, but not simplicity as in lacking complexity, simplicity as in without conflict. And it's amazing how a sign that is associated with conflict and the God of War can actually be one of the most peaceful, easy-going, direct, no bullshit signs, simple. Isn't that fantastic? Just that connection is amazing. Work with Mars, you get to a place of simplicity, and in a way, it's a kind of confidence too, not a bravado, but just like where there is a lack of conflict, there's also often an ease.

So the one thing I, one of the things, that I would compare it to. This is, you know, maybe this analogy like only works for me, I don't know, but when I go and I lift weights and I do my cardio, and I'm just covered in sweat, and I take a sauna, and I take a shower, and then, like the rest of my day, everything feels simple. The complex things are going to come up. And I don't deny that they're complex, but the feeling in me is an ease and a simplicity, as in, I am without conflict, because I just worked all that conflict out. Right? So there's a weird way in which people have always noted, like Venus and Mars are like, always in bed with each other. You know, Peace and Conflict, their ease, simplicity, conflict and intensity, they morph in and out of each other constantly. And so one of the very interesting things that can come through strong placements in Aries is a kind of simplicity.

Number two, a symptom of individuation is feeling allergic to conformity, but not staying allergic to the conformity. Okay, so let me try to explain this. I wasn't sure how to word it, so it's the closest I could get. Wonderful, by the way, that we have this connection between Neptune and Pluto in Aries and Aquarius, because there's one of the signs that is most prone to conformity and also most prone to resist conformity, weirdly, like a weird duality, is Aquarius. This is a sign that was talked about in this way, by the way, because of its rulership from Saturn by ancient astrologers, in really fascinating ways. I've talked about at length in other videos, but the Aries and kind of Aquarius combination that's in the sky. Let's just call it that. It can bring up the feeling that I do not tidily or neatly fit into one bin.

Let me give you an example. A lot of people use the phrase I'm spiritual, but not religious, as basically, as a way of saying, I can't fit into just one religious bin. There's a part of me that fits in this bin, there's another part of me that fits in this bin, and there's another part of me that fits in the atheist bin. And we're more open, I think, now, to the idea that we contain multitudes, that there are many facets or parts of us. There's a kind of agnostic part of me, there's a kind of Christ Consciousness part of me, because I've been exposed to different things, and I've had different experiences, and my heart has many loves, you know? And so it's like, Well, anyhow, one of the things that happens is along the process of individuation. And this is something, again, Jung talked about. Other archetypal psychologists have talked about, we get allergic to feeling like I can only be in one bin.

I think this is really apparent right now, not that I ever like to talk very much about current events or politics. One thing that I observe, archetypally, on a broad level, pertaining to the entire, you know, sort of Western, or at least US political system, is it's like, Well, are you in this bin or are you in that bin? It's like a duopoly. And I think that probably a lot of people, I suspect, I don't know this, and I'm I don't know. I can only speak for myself. I don't always feel like I fit into one tidy bin in any area of life. I have some views that I would say fit in this bin, and I have some ideological tendencies that go in that bin. I have some religious or philosophical or moral perspectives that go over here, and I have some that go over there. And I am I there, yes, there have been some conflicts within me, and I'm sure within all of you about the different places that you put your beliefs, your convictions, your views, your religious, spiritual, political ideas, or your social, cultural affiliations, you know, and you know, it's like on the level of culture, for example, most of us don't feel like it's a it's a conflict to feel like you have multiple different cultures that you feel you belong to, musical, entertainment, fashion, you know, we got sports, you got all these different cultures that you fit into. But the truth is that we're really like that on all levels, religious, philosophical, ideological, moral, sociological, we often are people who have, there's a multiplicity.

And so if we're being honest, all of us have to go through this struggle of how much of that is safe to share how much of the complexity and even some of the contradictions or conflicts that exist within me among my parts are safe to share. And a good symptom of individuation is feeling allergic to having to fit into too few bins. If you feel like I can't, not all of me can fit in that bin, culturally or religiously or morally or sexually or whatever the case may be. Right there, there's this multiplicity in us that, you know is a valuable part of the process of individuation. And you know it's at work when you start feeling like I can't, not all of me can fit into this. Just one thing I've seen, of course, I've worked with many clients who deal with this in terms of relationships. Maybe they, in order to try to deal with that, they have an open relationship for a period of time or or they try on different, you know, relationship styles are different. They date different kinds of people. So I just, I there's not one area of life that I haven't observed myself and other people that I've counseled in astrology, doing this in and one thing that I noticed, it always seems to be a pretty good thing when someone's feeling irritated by the fact that I can't, I can't give all of me to just one thing, or to one bin, and yet, you know, here's another thing. Sometimes I've also observed, and I'm sure, you know, I think of myself when I was like, I don't know junior high and high school where it became like, Well, I'm gonna put, I can put all of myself into the bin that resists bins. You know what? I mean? It's like, what bin do you fit in? I'm in the one that's against bins. Oh, me too. You know you have to be careful of that as well. I think what I've taken from some of my favorite archetypal psychologists is that that feeling of being allergic to fitting into just one or too few bins is a good thing, because it means that individuation is occurring, and individuation means honoring our internal conflicts and complexities what seems like contradictions or paradoxes within us have to be allowed for somehow, and so being irritated with feeling like you have to conform, politically in any level, is generally a good sign from this standpoint, right?

But also it can go too far, where you can try to develop a like the feeling that I have to conform somehow because it's the safest thing to do, can backfire. We can overcompensate, and then we can say, Well, I'm gonna put everything into the bin that resists bins. I think that's also, from what I've seen, what I've experienced in myself and my clients, that can also be really problematic. It's about letting the allergic reaction guide us into being more okay with the complexities that exist within us. All right. Number three, I hope I didn't labor that one too long. Maybe I did. Oh, well, a symptom of individuation is willingly exploring the shadow or unconscious.

Here's the thing is that nowadays, more than ever, it is being like going to therapy is being normalized. And the thing that I appreciate about this is the reason that it's being normalized is because people are. Talking about it as a beneficial, proactive thing to do. It is not a you're going to therapy because you're broken. You're going to therapy because something's wrong, because who wants to go into a place you know, to to receive help or guidance, when the premise is that I'm going because there is something wrong with me. So of course, there's been stigma around going to therapy when therapy is only seen as curing problems, fixing illnesses, blah, blah, blah.

No, the process of individuation is happens across a lifetime, and it involves willingly taking interest in the complexity in the different parts of ourselves and and exploring it with a curiosity and a humility and an excitement and, yeah, a little bit of fear, you know, a little bit of worry. That's normal. There's shadows in there. But it's the willingness that is one of the great symptoms of an individuation process that is rising or peaking or flowering at a stage in life, and it happens in many stages of life.

But here it is again, and I'm willingly excited to dive in and figure out what's in the shadow, what's in the unconscious, what can't I see? What? What other guidance or insight can I get into this thing called me? And of course, like, you know, we can become self obsessed in all of this. And I would, I would say that's not healthy, but a willingness to explore and dive in. I heard, like, you know, a lot of people that get into ayahuasca, I get into ayahuasca, and that, you know, maybe, like, a couple of years into it, and they're like, yeah, there's, I'm just getting to the bottom of all of it. And I'll never forget, you know, there's a, there's a ceremony that I had. I don't know maybe it was a, it was three, four or five years in the same thing that I was experiencing where I was, like, I just, there's so many layers to this onion, and I'm just trying to get to the bottom of it, you know, just do the healing work, you know.

And it's like, well, I was still unconsciously operating under the assumption that something and very unconsciously, because I really would have told you I didn't even believe in this, but I was unconsciously operating under the assumption that I could get down to the bottom of original sin, you know, it's like, like, there's, I can be healed, you know? And it's like, no healing is like, it's like going sledding. It's something, it's like something you can do. It's, it's an activity that is one of many available activities for an eternal being who needs no saving, but can do this thing called Healing, which is a beautiful and interesting thing to do, and a thing that we're all here in part to do.

But it's not, there is no end, right? Like I, my personal trainer said this to me, I was really stressing about some of you know, some of the miles benchmarks I'm trying to hit, some of the goals I'm trying to hit. And he was like, what I want you to do is just think about what you're really doing as something you're going to be doing for the rest of your life. There is no end to this. If you get out of the thinking about the goals, they'll happen a lot more easily, because your head will get in the way and create more stress for you and slow the process down, and you'll be measuring things that take a long time to measure in a daily way which isn't effective. It's like you'll look at the change from year to year.

Don't look at the change day to day, those kinds of things. Well, you know, you have to be willing to stop thinking about healing and self exploration as something that you accomplish and finish and then you never have to do it again. It's more like healing work, exploring ourselves. You know it's it is exactly what Heraclitus said, The soul is a mystery, explored to a depth beyond report. This is something we do just as much as we go to the well and draw water every day, or we go to sleep every night.

We go inwardly and we look and find things, and when we see it that way, and then we willingly incorporate this kind of self exploration, this investigation of the unconscious, of dreams, of omens and signs, of conversations with the gods, of therapy, of healing, of yoga, whatever it is, or your workouts, or whatever takes you in and you just you go there, because it is an interesting, valuable thing to do, in and of itself, that that willingness is a symptom of a soul that is individuating. And there's the thing is, is that the more you do the work of individuation, according to Jung, the more you realize it is an eternal process. It is. It is life itself, consciously aware of itself, and it's part of how we create that lit fire within us to willingly do this kind of work.

Now, it's not even always work. It's creativity, it's exploration, it's dance, whatever else we want to call it so but the the distinction is really important, because life will have a way, events will have a way. Of conspiring to force us to look at these things as well. And so how much easier is it when you're tracking astrology, you know? How much easier is it when you're going to therapy? When you're doing you have modalities in your life that are creative or take you inward. You're painting, you're writing, you're singing. When we do these things, when we go inward, we explore the rich tapestry of our soul, then when life conspires to drag us into certain spaces that are like we didn't necessarily choose, we know where we are.

Ah, I'm inside. I'm you know, because we that place is common to us. So the willingness is an important symptom of how we grow. I can't tell you how many times over the years I have heard people come to me, and I really think that this is this makes me really sad for for men out there. And I have a lot of really, I have had an abundance of very positive male figures in my life and good male friends who care about their inner life. But when I'm at the gym, for example, sometimes and I hear men talking in the locker room, and some of that's superficial. So who knows? I don't mean to be judgmental, but I know, but I know this to be true as well from all the clients I've talked to over the years, mostly women who complain that their spouses aren't willing to go to therapy with them, aren't willing to go to therapy themselves, not because there's anything wrong, but just because maybe this would be interesting, and sometimes because there are things wrong. But makes me sad, you know, I'm like, um, there's some kind of narrative that's been told to us, men in particular, I think, but maybe all of us, in some way that it, you know, it would be an indication that there's something wrong with you, or that you have a problem, or that you're not strong.

But actually, it takes this amazing courage and willingness and curiosity and openness to go inward and explore. So a symptom of individuation. Number four is a transition from goals to interests. I thought about this a lot very recently, because I did an Instagram Q and A session. I like doing these once in a while, and someone asked me, you've accomplished a lot. What are your What goals do you have now for yourself? And it was interesting, because isn't the first time I've had this realization, but I can honestly say I'm not a person without goals. I have had goals in my life, but I'm not. I'm not making this up. When I say my I have been someone who has been very passionate about things I am interested in, and what looks to someone else like an achievement, like the way that people often around me, extended family or friends or students or whatever, people on social media go, Oh, you've accomplished this or this or that.

And I go, Yeah, I wasn't trying to. I whatever, any small little things I've accomplished in my life. You know, however other people look at them, I can almost promise you that in anything I've quote, unquote achieved, it's been nothing other than just passionately pursuing things I'm interested in.

And in fact, I would say that the times in my life when I have passionately pursued interests, things that fascinate me, that draw me in, that I am attracted to, there's been so much more wonderful things realized or achieved, you know, then when I've set goals for myself, those the reaching of goals has happened in my life. I've reached goals I've set out for myself. I have some right now. It's not like I think they're bad or anything, but I would say that generally, setting goals for me and realizing them has been far less effective overall than pursuing interests with just tons of passion. I mean, I'll just say that I have received a lot more from following my interests than setting goals.

Yeah, it's not that I haven't said any but yeah, so how about you? Do you feel the same way? What do you think about goals? I think that's really interesting that my so I see a Jungian therapist, and my therapist one time said to me, this was several years ago now, he said a symptom of individuation is that we become more passionate about our interests and less stuck on setting goals. And I just when I thought about that, and I reflected upon it, I thought about my life, I was like that is true.

Goals have served me, but my interests are where all of the gold has been, you know. So the reason that this is associated with individuation, as I understand it in Jungian psychology, is that a setting of a goal is often informed by oughts and shoulds about who we are or what parts ought to be most celebrated or are most important, whereas interests and the pursuit of interests often have less contrivance, there's less Guile, there's less potential for self deception. Agree, disagree. What do you guys think? I think that's a fascinating idea, but I'll leave that one maybe a little bit more open to debate. Number. Five is number five. I love this one.

So for Carl Jung one of the images that he used to describe the process of individuation is a mandala. Now I want to just say, in Jungian psychology, here's a few definitions the process of a person developing a unique and integrated self by consciously integrating aspects of the unconscious mind in both personal and collective unconscious material lead to a deeper understanding and relationship with oneself and a sense of wholeness unconscious and conscious contact in the psyche coming together individuation. And interestingly, he you a graphical representation of the self that we are in the process of discovering. You might say, through the journey of individuation. Is the mandala. It has a center, but it has so many different parts that are all woven together, that may have kinds of tensions or conflicts but still exist cohesively. What I love about the sign of Aries, on a psychological level, and this gives me hope for all of the transits that we're about to go through, is that the sign offers us the opportunity to see to take complex things that often have conflict within us and to transmute them into a sense of wholeness that takes us from goals to interests and passions that willingly we are bravely exploring ourselves and our unconscious material not because there's something wrong with us, but because it's joyful to do so that we can't stay conformed to different things. We have to take some risks and Oh, my God, what might people think if I don't just fit into one tidy bin? And the more we do these things, the easier it gets, and the simpler the complexities within us become in terms of the ease with which we express them. Just ever and again. You ever been around someone with a bunch of Aries energy? Oh, my God, the the lack of Guile, you know, the simple, easy, direct, present, just this is what it is.

One of the phrases that's often used to refer to the sign of Aries in modern psychological astrology is I am right. Kind of like just that I am does not mean I am one, as in I lack many. It is, I am one, and I have, I am someone who goes into and works into and through the conflicts of the many. And then there's just this ease, a confidence that's not, that's not like jocular, you know? It's just an easy, simple confident. It feels like a child. And it's funny, because, you know, Jesus said that, you know, if you if you want to understand the kingdom of heaven, look at children. You know, just simple.

There's no like, hang around with a five year old, you know, they'll tell you exactly what they think. You know, there's sometimes they'll deceive you, but mostly you just get something really simple. So anyhow, I hope that this was a useful reflection for all of you. I'm gonna try to keep coming up with unique ways of looking at everything that's happening, because I think it's helpful to have multiple different perspectives to look at when facing this huge tide of you know, planetary events in the sign of Aries. So that's it for today. I hope you're having a good one. Bye.