AstroLog II

AstroLog II

Family, Relationships & Health

by Louise Huber et al

There is now a substantial body of experience in the use of the ‘Huber Method’ in the German-speaking world. This is the second volume of articles to be translated from the German-language magazine AstroLog and published in English, following on from Astrolog I: Life and Meaning. The articles are by a variety of authors, many professionals in various psychological disciples and astrological psychology, including Bruno and Louise Huber.

The book is in four parts, each containing articles relating astrological psychology to a specific theme:

1: The Family – related to developmental psychology and family counselling.

2. Children and Upbringing – use of the horoscope in upbringing.

3. Relationships – psychology of relationships, particularly mother-daughter, ‘click’ horoscopes, etc.

4. Health and Therapies – keeping healthy, diabetes, Bach Flowers and Tarot.

Availability

Paperback, 316 pages. Translated from the German by Heather Ross. First published 2009.
ISBN: 978-0-9558339-0-8

Extract

• Contents List

Review by Sue Lewis

This second volume of articles, edited and introduced by Barry Hopewell and translated by Heather Ross, covers four areas of major importance to all of us – the family, children, relationships and health – and there are useful cross-references to other Huber/HopeWell publications covering those topics.

The first article by Wolfhard König – a psychotherapist practising in Münich who gave a workshop in the UK in 2001 on Fear, Phobias and Panic– addresses contemporary issues relating to our interpretation of the family model. He cites the distinction made by modern depth psychology between the symbiotic mother and the separation-or-reality-mother, relating the early symbiotic-merging experience of the child to the Moon and the maternal bond providing stability and setting boundaries to Saturn. König also tackles those key questions of changing parental roles and breakdown of the nuclear family. Clear delineations of the parts played by father (Sun) and mother (Saturn) are too inflexible to interpret adequately the multiple experiences of good and bad mothering and fathering that some children undergo, so we need to understand these role models from an archetypal rather than a literal perspective.

Harald Zittlau and Birgit Braun explore family histories. Zittlau relates the experience of the Fonda family to show how a family secret, such as Henry Fonda’s suppression of his wife’s breakdown and suicide, can have an adverse impact on the whole family. His article concludes by listing six starting points to unravelling family heritage in chart interpretation. Of particular interest is his observation that linear figures tend to act out family secrets, consciously or unconsciously. Braun looks at the recurring themes in a dysfunctional family of five, showing how they manifest in radix charts, nodal charts and clicks.

Angelika Kraft-Boehm recounts the issues of a family of four to demonstrate how, helped by astrological counselling, a family with a problem child can develop a more fl exible pattern of operation that will accommodate the emotional and independence needs of all its members. Kraft-Boehm gives us full information on the family’s radix and moon node charts and, in her penultimate paragraph where she writes “Laura’s development goes from loosely connected Saturn to a Saturn/Moon trine, to a substantial and direct maternal bond” she is demonstrating beneficial adaptation to the environment by working with the house chart.

Rainer Bauer revisits the house horoscope in his article on Children’s Horoscopes, where he describes how the adapted child must “often painstakingly – learn how to find his way back to himself, in order to re-establish his own, original structures (aspect pattern in radix). For only in the radix can the person experience his own authenticity, self-love and finally his destiny. Only then will the patterns learned in the HH be available to him on a higher developmental level as alternatives and more enriching opportunities for his being.” There’s a lot to think about.

Children need to develop themselves within a loving and safe family environment unburdened by expectations of success, whether they come from the parental wish list or an astrologer’s interpretation of great potential. Louise Huber makes this clear in The Child’s Horoscope as an Aid to Upbringing where she specifically states that “Premature choice of a child’s future profession by the parents [or based on the horoscope] is unwise, as it leads to certain abilities being emphasised and encouraged by the parents at the expense of others that are neglected or repressed”. Her article concentrates on Saturn, Moon and Sun, both as the family model and as indicators of the child’s developing ego – physically, emotionally and mentally.

Other articles focus largely on ways of identifying a child’s temperament and motivation so as to give him-or-her the right amounts of nurture and stimulus to foster self-development, and the section ends with a look at the horoscopes of gifted or “Indigo” children.

Whereas the articles on families and children start from the family model they also demonstrate the need to work with radix, nodal and house charts to get to the bottom of and find solutions for difficult issues. One author draws attention to the importance of the Ascendant in the early years and another one uses clicks between members of a family. The use of clicks is described in some detail in Louise Huber’s insightful article on the passage of a marital relationship over a period of twenty-two years.

Apart from Louise’s article and some thoughts on relationship counselling by Harald Zittlau, the section on relationships continues to place emphasis on the family with three articles on mother-daughter relationships. There’s a touching description of the bond that grows between a mother and her disabled daughter and two intriguing versions of the story of Snow White, one focusing on the theme of Moon-Pluto manipulation and the other on the Moon-Saturn guilt trip.

Many Huber astrologers are interested in using astrology to better understand health problems and alongside alternative therapies, and the last six articles in this new publication are devoted to those important topics.

Bruno Huber outlines a language of the body based on the axes of the houses. Louise Huber takes us through a transformation process to heal sickness of the soul, paying particular attention to house position of the Moon’s North Node. Agnes Hauser gives us the case history and astrological chart of a vulnerable boy who suffers from psychosomatic illness. Birgit Braun introduces the charts of five diabetics and concludes that the common factor is a connection between the Venus principle and the Neptune principle.

Then there is a fascinating article The Tarot and Astrological Psychology by Ruth Schmidhauser. As well as applying the usual correspondences to elements or temperaments and suits, she relates the Pages to the mutable cross, the Queens to the fixed cross and the Kings to the cardinal cross. Her definitions of the court cards connect to the esoteric rulers and make interesting reading. The Knights, on horses symbolising inner drives, ride back and forth processing old emotional patterns.

Finally, Christian U. Vogel matches the seven Bach flower groups to the twelve astrological houses. In a comprehensive introduction that includes a paragraph on the meaning of each of the flowers, he explains how Bach flower therapy and astrological psychology can combine to alleviate suffering and assist self-healing.

AstroLog II is ideal additional reading for students and develops many themes of interest to experienced astrologers. It is well worth £15 and deserves a place on every bookshelf. Posthumous thanks to Agnes Shellens for financing such an excellent publication.

Sue Lewis, Conjunction 47, 2009