Archetypes: A Hero’s Journey

“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.”
–Joseph Campbell

Long, long ago in a city by the sea I went away to school to become a psychologist. I never did finish, perhaps someday I will, but in the course of my studies I became caught up in philosophy, symbolism, myth, and was introduced to the concept of archetypal energy.

An archetype is a cohesive energy boiled down to its simplest form. This energy as a pure form of “type” in personality is common to all humanity. Each culture has its own name and own set of stories set down in explanation of universal energies common to us all. Each culture has its “fairy tales.” Our first encounter with these paradigms, these pure models of what it is to be human, is usually through bedtime stories, but not always, and even if we were raised apart from such things they are within us. Part of the commonality of being human is our universal connectedness to these models. We explore these stories because they help us understand what is already within us. They enable us to learn our path more quickly, to not “reinvent the wheel” in other words.

Astrological concepts are purely archetypal. As we learn the energies of the signs and the planets we are learning the astrological expression of pure human archetypes. Once we begin to grasp these concepts the chart becomes a story all its own, our own personal fairy tale! Neptune, Jupiter, the Moon, Venus, they’re all characters!

Joseph Campbell was a well-known mythologist and taught for decades at Sarah Lawrence College. He influenced many with his writings on mythology and the celebration of learning about archetypes as a model of how to live an authentic life. George Lucas credits Campbell and his book “The Hero With a Thousand Faces” for giving him the focus for his Star Wars story. One of Campbell’s central concepts was that each of us is the hero of our own story, that each of our lives is an individual quest, an adventure.

Though we are all the archetypal hero in our own story, each story is different as evidenced in our unique map of a natal chart. When one starts out in astrology it is usually with the sun! The sun is the archetypal embodiment of our hero nature! Then we branch out from there.

We are all unique in our hero-ness, yet we are all the same in our hero-ness. We are all on the same archetypal journey but we all have a different map!

Can you identify your “hero” nature with the sun in your chart? If so, what astrological relationships to your sun color your own hero’s journey?

 

15 thoughts on “Archetypes: A Hero’s Journey”

  1. Sun-Pluto Square: Self-Transformation & Self Mastery; an intense hunger to develop self-understanding.

    Sun Opposing Moon: Integration of my masculine/feminine natures. Becoming whole.

  2. satori this is awesome, thanks! I love myths and archtypes.

    I do see the hero nature in my Sun.

    It’s in my 5th House, sq. Saturn in Leo/8th House. Opposed Uranus. I want to feel free to be me, in every way. I get manhandled by Saturn sometimes, though…5th House most definitely identifies most strongly with the act of creation.

  3. 8th house Sun. Shine in crisis. Square Pluto. Inner resolve, confronting inner demons so I can stay the course. Enormous compassion.

    I like this exercise, thank you Satori. A beautiful piece.

  4. Sun conjunct Merc Mars
    Sun sextile Saturn
    Sun sextile Moon

    Sun in Cancer in 11th sextile 9th/Taurus and 1st/Virgo

    I dunno. Can never analyze myself too well –

    But I’d say she sounds like a nice person, if a little formal at times 🙂

  5. sun sextile mars (12th), jupiter (8th) and asc

    sun conjunct midheaven and south node

    The story of the lady with the corpses in her house made me realize how valuable my faith and finding the good in every situation has been (and will be haha).

  6. Interesting and a new way to look at charts! Joseph Campbell was a genius! Thanks Satori for this blog post!

  7. Sun conjunct Mars(6th)
    Sun opposite Uranus and Jupiter.
    ~Reminds me of a Muhammad Ali quote

    “I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.”

  8. I love the timing of this post. With my unaspected Aires Sun at 5 degrees enjoying the Uranus/Jupiter conjunction I am hoping to find answers to this question. Even now, as Uranus is pulling away during this retro period, my Sun is beginning to feel the isolation again. Since I have Uranus/Jupiter conjunct in the 12th within close to my 29 degree ascendent, when the pair showed up in Aires, it felt like they were finally getting a chance to speak in the world. So I suspect 2011 will be just marvelous for me. I am also about to experience the July 11 solar eclipse on my 19 degree Jupiter in Cancer. Wow!

  9. Oh, I forgot to add something that I find interesting. With all the activity in my chart, what is really feeling the pressure is Pluto at 27 degrees Leo in my second. This is part of my infamous fixed grand cross. I suspect the issue here is the issue of security brought about by the Cancer eclipse. Double wows all around.

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