The Astrological Menagerie - Expanding astrological interpretation using dream images
by Simão Cortês
When I was a young child I had a dream that set the tone of much of what one day I would consider my vocation. I dreamed that the Moon was trying to kidnap a close family male friend and I was desperately trying to convince her not to. Seeing that she was unmoved by my efforts, I called upon the Sun who eventually convinced the Moon to allow the man to stay. When I told my mother this dream the next morning, she was aghast. That friend had had had a heart attack that same night and spent most of it in the emergency room until he finally was out of danger.
Unfortunately, I do not remember this dream at all but the episode was magnified into one of those family legends that everyone shares in family gatherings. I was too young to have heard of astrology then, or to imagine I would be doing my PhD on dreams two decades later, but the imagery arose nonetheless.
Dreams and astrology have very deep common roots. Brian Clark compares them, too, pointing out that while astrology has a logos that gives it structure, a sort of conscious part, it still evokes the same type of unbound, unconscious imagery. (1) Interestingly enough, they are both born of our relationship with the night. An astrologer might be so bold as to say that both are born from our relationship with the night sky, since it is at night that we dream (the Moon being the ruler of dreams) and that we can see the stars most clearly. Astrology and dreams, as Brian Clark says, are the daughters of the night sky. (2)
The relationship between dreams and astrology emerges occasionally in the dark corners of our community. I have already mentioned Brian Clark’s use of dream symbolism in his astrological work. In his Horary Textbook, John Frawley gives some pointers on how to explore dreams through horary charts. (3) And in an article published in Astrology Quarterly, Gordon Watson expands to astrology ‘the theory of takes’ which emerged in a dream sharing group. (4) Work with dreams and work with astrology are profoundly similar since they are both disciplines of the imagination. They rely on images and on the belief that we can relate them meaningfully to our lives and narratives.
My interest in bringing both subjects together was kindled while I was participating in dream groups. Gradually I noticed – to cite one instance – that the woman who dreamt that she had saved children from a catastrophic snow storm had natal Moon conjunct Saturn in Aquarius. In another instance, a man dreamt that he fell in love with a Snow White-like dead woman – he had Moon in Scorpio in the 5th house. My own dreams of a beautiful and sad winged monkey stuck in a cage had a clear relationship to my Mercury in the 12th house. I realised something beautiful was happening: the images in the chart were suddenly becoming embodied and visceral in ways that were extremely hard to achieve when simply discussing astrological configurations.
I started developing my own idea of an astrological menagerie: a collection of strange figures (animals, humans, inanimate objects) that visit us during our dreams and that relate profoundly to our natal configurations. In Soul, Symbol and Imagination Brian Clark discusses how the use of active imagination is a wonderful way to relate to the chart. He advises the astrologer to try and discover human faces for the planets in the chart, in an attempt to deepen the relationship with these configurations. The astrological menagerie idea is similar, but it uses dreams as the source material for the exercise, rather than the more conscious work with active imagination.
The astrological menagerie deepens our relationship with our horoscope and allows us to gain new insights. I started taking notes of dream images that related to my natal configurations and I slowly found creatures and characters for most planets. These images help me in moments of doubt or during tough transits because they allow me to think in embodied rather than abstract terms. For example, if I find myself going through a phase where writing seems particularly challenging and becomes a source of great anxiety, it is helpful to think of my Cancer Mercury in the 12th. However, if I think about the depressed and old winged monkey in the cage, I might try and imagine what the monkey would like me to do to help. Maybe opening the cage? Maybe visualise him as younger because of its position in Cancer? Maybe putting him in a solitary but fertile place near the water rather than alone in a small enclosure?
This process allows for the matter to be addressed at the level of soul, rather than on a literal level. It is hard to provide literal advice based on these images, but their deep emotional effect is in itself part of the resolution of the configuration. I find this process so rewarding that I have experimented with it when working with other people. One powerful example is the following dream, told by a young woman and reproduced here with her permission
I am in a restaurant and the owner gives me some money as a gift. Immediately after that, a pregnant woman and a beggar start following me, trying to get the money back, accusing me of stealing it. I feel very distressed and run looking for help, but they keep pursuing me. I eventually find a foreign soldier who tries to help me, but the pregnant woman and the beggar are relentless. They eventually attempt to hinder the soldier's sympathy by demanding my ID and a number of other bureaucratic things and I don't know what to do.
When she told me this dream I was already well acquainted with her chart. The symbolism was so striking that it is quite hard to believe the dream wasn't simply made up to fit in it. The pregnant woman and the beggar are perfectly represented by the Moon-Saturn conjunction in Pisces in the 3rd house. The 3rd house is also signifying their desperate attempt to curb the soldier's sympathy, since they make use of paperwork and bureaucracy. The helpful foreign soldier is Mars in Leo in the 9th house, closely trine the Ascendant. We have found our dramatis personae, but how does this help us in the greater scheme of the natal chart? (5)
The chart has Sagittarius rising which is usually regarded as a sign of good luck and fortune. The native receives the blessings of Jupiter (powerful in the 10th house). But this Ascendant has to navigate a stark contrast with the very melancholic conjunction between Moon and Saturn in Pisces. The native feels quite often that she is stuck in a cycle of poverty and hardship that curbs her creative endeavours. This has created a defense mechanism where good luck is often regarded with suspicion.
The extreme good luck of randomly being given money and the helpful behaviour of the soldier are met with so much suspicion by the Moon (the pregnant woman) and Saturn (the beggar) that there is only one possible conclusion: the money must have been stolen. The insight here is of great importance because it drags the question of luck into the realm of morality – if you find yourself in a fortunate situation, this must mean that you have done something deeply wrong. Here we realise the power of Saturn over the Moon: he is being quite protective, he doesn't want the native to find herself enchanted by the siren songs of a Sagittarius rising or a Moon in Pisces, so he violently castrates them using any means at his disposal.
So the dream has now allowed us to turn the chart discussion in a completely different direction. Not only have the planets gained a face and a particular demeanour, we can also wonder as to what extent the experience of hardship has gained a moral status for the native. While this is not itself a solution in any literalist terms, it opens up a number of questions that are helpful for the deepening of experience. How can the Saturn-Moon's moral scandal be addressed? How can the pride derived from surviving hardship, an often necessary process during hard times, not crystallise into the need to be in hardship in order to feel valuable? How can the mythical conflict between Saturn and Jupiter be honoured in the tight parameters of everyday life? These are hard questions, but they are fundamental for this native and they were given to us by the dream.
I hope this short article has done justice to the endless possibilities of interplay between dream and astrological images. By exploring both together, we may be able to build our own astrological menageries, meet our planets in more intimate spaces, and further honour the night sky.
Endnotes:
1. Clark, Brian (2019), Soul, Symbol and Imagination - The Artistry of Astrology, Astro*Synthesis.
2. Op.cit. p. 56.
3. Frawley, John (2014), The Horary Textbook – Revised Edition, Apprentice Books.
4. Watson, Gordon (1983) ‘“Takes” and Astrological Interpretation’, Astrology Quarterly, Winter, vol.57 no.4.
5. The data is 10/06/1993, 17:35, São Paulo, Brazil.
Published by: The Astrological Journal, Nov/Dec 2022
Author:
Simão Cortês is an astrologer, academic and a dream researcher. He has been exploring symbolic and divinatory techniques since 2012. In 2018 he concluded his Master’s in Myth Cosmology and the Sacred where he developed a Creative Project focused on dreams. He is now pursuing a PhD about the relationship between dreaming and education. His main interests are dreams, astrology, ancient philosophy and the intersection of animism and social justice issues. His ‘Dream and the Sacred’ course can be purchased at this website: mythcosmologysacred.com. His own website is: http://simaocortes.uk/
© Simão Cortês, Astrological Journal, 2022/23
