Hudson Valley Astrologer

“But in a game where a number of individuals are involved, then the child taking one role must be ready to take the role of everyone else. If he gets in a ball nine he must have the responses of each position involved in his own position. He must know what everyone else is going to do in order to carry out his own play. He has to take all of these roles. They do not all have to be present in consciousness at the same time, but at some moments he has to have three or four individuals present in his own attitude, such as the one who is going to throw the ball, the one who is going to catch it and so on. These responses must be, in some degree, present in his own make-up. In the game, then, there is a set of responses of such others so organized that the attitude of one calls out the appropriate attitudes of the other.”

~ George Herbert Mead

Astrology is my passion and the outer planetary aspects—those involving Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto— are especially intriguing because they correspond closely with sweeping economic and political shifts that shape society as a whole. These slow-moving planets are often called “generational planets” because their transits mark whole eras of development, influencing social cohorts in society that represent collective movements as well as the sociological forces that mold families, communities, and ultimately, individual personalities.

I’m passionate about astrology and the planetary cycles that create the backdrop for social change, affecting everything from government policies to economic trends, all of which, as just mentioned, shape the dynamics within families and social groups—often having as much, if not more, impact on a person’s sense of self than the inner planetary aspects within the birth chart.

My view is that astrology is a bridge to understanding, and to borrow the phrase from Richard Tarnas, between Cosmos and Psyche. Undeniably, individuality is continually shaped by the larger forces at play in the world. Astrology, like a mosaic in time, helps piece the story together.

Holistic astrology presumes a natural synergy between the parts, meaning the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. The sociologist George Herbert Mead from the University of Chicago likened how children incorporate an abstract understanding of society, that is an understanding of others into comprehending the self, to the game of baseball. His baseball analogy represents the third stage in his theory of childhood socialization. The nine players, perhaps analogous to the nine planets in astrology, combine their roles to make up the game of baseball. We cannot have a “game” with just a pitcher and a catcher (or astrology with just the Sun and the Moon). The specific role of each player (planet) intersects (aspects) with others. Viewed from this wider lens we see a network of social roles in baseball because the individual assignments in the game of baseball make up a social system. Therefore a player needs to master their individual assignments, but simultaneously understand how their role interacts with the roles of others.

A fascinating extension of this discussion leads Mead to the concept of “the generalized other — the abstract composite of social roles and social expectation.” 1 He elaborated between two dimensions of self: “the ‘I’ and the ‘me.’ The ‘I’ is the unique individual personality, the active, creative, self defining part.” (In astrology this is the Ascendant and the second house of self-worth) “The ‘me’ is the passive,conforming self, the part that reacts to others.” (In Astrology this is the seventh house and the eight house of ‘others’ self-worth).

In baseball, if the pitcher and catcher can be thought of as analogous to the Sun and Moon, then the “infield” might correspond to the inner planets plus Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The outfield then could be related to the outer triad—Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. I had considered this analogy until I learned about Mead’s work in Sociology: The Essentials by Andersen and Taylor.

HVA

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1. Andersen, M. L., & Taylor, H. F. (2020). Sociology: The essentials (10th ed.). Cengage