THE POLARIZATION EFFECT IN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASTROLOGY - CASE STUDIES

We tend to believe that the show-biz superstars are some lucky beggars whose life is a never ending party! Well, it might be an ever ending inferno too, as in Britney Spears case. Most of us know the ordeal she has been through. Although young, rich and famous she does not seem to be very happy, going through continuous stages of psychological breakdowns, addictive behaviour etc. Allegedly she suffers from Bipolar Disorder, which is a major mental disorder, sending the patient to extremes ranging from (depressive) immobility and mutism to (manic) over-mobility and garrulity. Apparently Britney is having difficulty in getting a grip on life and finding herself. She got married twice and divorced, she gave birth to 2 children but lost the custody of both, plus she lost - by a juridical decision - the control of her assets!

A fundamental astrological axiom claims that the chart should reflect its owner's reality. So, with all these heavy conditions that Britney Spears is facing in her life it would be natural to presume that she has a "heavy" chart. We might speculate i.e. discordant aspects on her Luminaries (Sun, Moon), a pivotal Neptune, an 8th or 12th House emphasis etc. Nope, not at all! Britney Spears chart is one of the less "heavy", one of the "smoothest" I have ever encountered! You can see it for yourself (born 2 December 1981, 1:30 am, McComb Mississipi):


Her Sun is in "lucky" Sagittarius and receives no major hard aspects at all. Her Moon in Aquarius not only does not receive any hard aspects but even forms an harmonic aspect to Saturn. In addition, her Sun and Moon are in Sextile (60 degrees apart, a positive in astrology angle). Not to mention that her Moon is in the warm, vivacious, "solid" and powerfully self-asserting Fifth House. This chart seems to belong to a happy person, having a rather easy life. But it does not reflect Britney Spears' tormented life. Apparently we are missing something!

Astrology cannot be wrong, of course. The way we approach it might be, though! Because all we have to do is pay attention to certain elements - which we usually overlook as details - and apply the right branch of Astrology, in this case the Psychological Astrology! So, if we pay enough attention to details we will realize that Britney's chart is not that "merry-go-around" after all. And this because in her chart we can indeed spot some hard aspects. First of all, she has a Libra Ascendant (which apparently makes part of the "easy going" scheme). The planet ruling her Ascendant is Venus. And as we Astrologers know, the planet ruling our Ascendant is ruling our whole chart too! So, if we pay some attention we will see her chart's ruler (Venus, in 25 degrees Capricorn) forming a perfect square aspect to Pluto (in 25 degrees Libra). Pluto is well known in Astrology for causing huge existential crises, frequent psychological breakdowns, extreme events in life, loss of assets and any kind of ordeals. And in Britney's case Pluto is pivotal, both because it is in her First House (conjuncting the neighboring Saturn) and because it forms an aspect to her Sun.

And there are other configurations which we did not notice from the beginning, because they are considered "secondary" ones (not to mention difficult to spot by the eye). We are talking about her two characteristic semi-square aspects (a semi-square is a 45 degrees angle formed between 2 planets in the chart). Actually, Britney's Sun stands in the very middle of her Venus - Pluto aforementioned square (right on her Venus/Pluto midpoint - to use the proper astrological term). In plain English, her Sun forms a perfect semi-square aspect to her Pluto, while at the same time forms a perfect semi-square to her Venus. There is some strange geometry going on here, as all these planets (Pluto, Sun, Venus) are positioned in perfect angular distances in the zodiac cycle. That is why - although the semi-square aspect is considered a secondary one - we have to pay particular attention to it here. Because semi-squares are considered difficult ascpects, bringing conflict and stress to people.

So, this rare delineation partially explains Britney's ordeal in life. Add to it her 12th House Mars in square to her Neptune. As Mars is the ruler of her Seventh house, we can see her dismal relations clearly depicted in this "double whammy" aspect (Mars in the 12th House and at the same time in square to her Neptune, the ruler of the 12th House). Pile up too the crucial transits going on in the last years of the planet Neptune upon Britney's natal Aquarius Moon and of Saturn in her Twelfth House - in square to her Sagittarius Sun. But still something is missing here! If we thoroughly study any given person's chart we might find similar or even heavier planetary configurations. But the average person seems to cope far better with such an aspects than Britney Spears does, not getting immersed in such a gloomy and unhappy situation, not leading such a precariously balanced life style. Definitely there must be some other element in her chart bringing forth major personility disorders. And indeed there is one!

I have been teaching Psychological Astrology for the last 20 years. I am not a psychologer though (I just took a psychology course in the University) and thus I am not entitled to diagnose psychological problems in people (and I apologise if I somehow did). But I have thorouhly studied the books and notices of the clinic psychologer - astrologer Liz Greene's, as well as the ones of Karen Hamaker-Zondag, Dane Rudhyar's "An Astrological Study of Psychological Complexes", Noel Tyl's psychological approach to the horoscope and others. Plus, I think I acquired much knowledge on the subject through every single client's chart I studied in the last 25 years (my 12th House Moon is very sensitive to psychological issues).

One of the first things I have been telling my Psychological Astrology class students is to look for a predominant configuration in a chart which I call the "polarization effect"! The term might sound intimidating, but actually describes a very simple condition: a planet in a given sign being simultaneously in the "opposite" House. Of course there isn't such a thing as a House opposite to a sign. For the sake of simplicity though, by the term "a House opposite to a sign" we mean here "the House that corresponds to the diametrically opposite sign of the one we are referring to"! To give you an example, if somebody has his/her Sun in Aries and simultaneously in his/her Seventh House (the Seventh House corresponds to Libra, the sign diametrically opposite to Aries in the zodiac cycle), then in his/her case we get a "polarized" Sun!

There is a particular Ascendant that causes the strongest "polarization effect" in a chart: Libra! Mysteriously, the sign of balancies causes - when it is the Ascendant of the individual - the strongest imbalancies. Chances are that an Aries with a Libra Ascendant will have his/her Sun in the Seventh House, a Taurus will have his/her Sun in the Eight House, a Gemini in the Ninth and so on! The Sun would be then in a House "opposite" to the sign it is in. This I call "polarization". And when somebody has a Libra Ascendant not only his/her Sun but most of his/her planets probably will be "polarized".

The fact is that we might have an Aries individual with a Libra Ascendant whose Sun lies in the Sixth House instead of the Seventh and this of course does not make his/her Sun polarized. On the other hand, an Aries with a Virgo Ascendant might have his/her Sun in his Seventh House. Thus, not ALL Libra Ascendants produce a strong "polarization effect" while some Virgo Ascendants might produce one. It always depends on the interaction between the House cusps and the specific degrees each planet is in.

All these years I have been studying people's charts I realized that this "polarization effect" is CRUCIAL and it can actually produce huge tensions, inner conflicts, imbalances, confusion and mental disorders to individuals otherwise having strong and balanced charts, eventually leading them to some sort of existential "paralysis".

I remember that it all started some 20 years ago, with a client I was about to receive. All his personal planets were forming a stellium in Leo and his Moon was in Aries, so I was anticipating a person with a brilliant, strong, self asserting personality. When the door bell rang, I was expecting to see a sort of "Alexander the Great" stepping into my office! And in fact he had the "Al Pacino" type of face (distinct, with "angles"). To my utter amazement though, I realized as the consultation was going on that he was rather insecure and fragile! Surely he was receiving by then some hard planetary aspects, but by no means were these aspects that disruptive to justify his actual state. His case puzzled me profoundly and when he left I immediately started analyzing his chart again, trying to figure out where I was wrong - as the reality of my coustomer did not match his chart. When it suddenly hit me! All his Leo planets were in his Eleventh House and his Aries Lunar energy in his Seventh House! His strong Leonian energies were struggling to cope with the absolutely opposite Aquarian - Eleventh House ones (and his Aries energies the ones of his Seventh House). His everyday reality is somehow contrasting the very Universal archetypes in him! Thus, a huge amount of his abundant fiery energies is consumed and “dissipated”, as this person is constantly struggling to bridge in himself two very different, opposed worlds!

If we now apply the same method to Britney's case we will be astonished of the many "polarization effects" we will get in her chart! Her Sun is in Sagittarius but in the "opposite" Third House! Her Moon is in Aquarius but in the “opposite” Fifth House. Her Mercury is in Sagittarius but in the Third House. Her Venus is in Capricorn but in the "opposite" Fourth House. Her Mars is in Virgo but in the "opposite" Twelfth House. And the same goes for her Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto! In fact the whole chart of Britney Spears is "polarized". This amazingly rare configuration produces a huge split in her personality and explains very satisfactorily Britney's behavior, life style and general ordeal. And it does that so effectively that no other method comes even close to it!

To study another case now, the "Nirvana" suicidal (and allegedly bipolar) singer Kurt Cobain has a largely polarized chart too (his Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars and Pluto are all polarized):

There is a certain "gradation" to this polarization effect. The strongest polarization occurs when both the Luminaries and and a certain number of planets are polarized. If only one Luminary and some planets are polarized then we have a relatively minor polarization - but still we are worried about the polarized Luminary. When none of the Luminaries is polarized then the individual might not suffer a total "disruption" in his life but only in certain areas of his life. And the trully minor polarization occurs when only a couple of planets (and no Luminary) are polarized.

In an interesting article entitled "Astrological research on Schizophrenia", the Italian astrologer Ciro Discepolo shows us what he considers to be a typical chart of a person suffering from a schizophrenic disorder. Although Discepolo describes accurately all the significant aspects on the chart of this patient apparently he misses the "Polarization pattern" which is rather evident in it! You can read his article - in English - here:
[Μόνο οι διαχειριστές επιτρέπεται να δουν αυτόν το σύνδεσμο.]

The chart of the schizophrenic patient:

[Μόνο οι διαχειριστές επιτρέπεται να δουν αυτόν το σύνδεσμο.]

We have a strong polarization effect here as both his Luminaries and all the other planets (except Mercury and Jupiter) are polarized. In addition, his Sun is "double-whammy" polarized, being in Taurus but at the same time in the "opposite" to Taurus Eight House and in a partile conjunction to Uranus, a planet totally alien to Taurus and related (by the Argentinian school of Psychological Astrology) to schizophrenia!

IMPORTANT: If you - or someone you know - has a strong "Polarization Effect" in his/her chart it does not necessarily mean that s/he is going to get suicidal or schizophrenic. It rather means that s/he has to skillfuly bridge two opposite forces in himself/herself. And this process in the end might transform him totally and enrich him/her enormously!

Keeping now in mind this "polarization effect" it gets easier to explain charts that do not make sense otherwise. Take the case of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco for example. We couldn't otherwise understand why a benevolent Sagittarius with an incospicuous Moon in Gemini and a Virgo Ascendant became such a cruel dictator (Pluto is aspecting his "Lights" alright but that's not an element good enough). As soon as we realize though that his chart is highly polarized everything becomes much clearer to us.

From my experience, I can tell you that we encounter rather often this "polarization effect" in the charts of people with mental disorders. It seems that when someone is bounded in his/her life by many aggravating factors then this configuration somehow takes a hold on him/her. Then the task of "transmuting" this configuration might get beyond the individual's means. In such a cases the polarization effect manifests its most corrosive to the personality and disintegrating aspects.

Sometimes I encounter this "effect" under a slightly different form. In Hitler's case i.e. I noticed that his Capricorn Moon is tightly conjuncting his natal Jupiter. But this Saturnian - Jupiterian "coniunctio" is a polarization too (Jupiter’s and Saturn’s energies are considered opposite). Thus, while almost everybody else saw Hitler as an utterly cruel person he probably perceived himself as a rather "nice guy"! This is the weird effect of a "polarization"). And in general, the “polarization effect” acts in a very powerful and disruptive ways in a chart. After studying it for many years I came to the conclusion that it matches the other known "personality disrupting agent", the Sun - Moon tight square. Such a square we encounter i.e. in Amy’s Winehouse chart. Pop idol Winehouse is somehow considered Britney’s twin case, as the lives of the two bear striking similarities. But while Amy’s ordeal was rather easily identifiable in her chart, Britney’s chart seemed to be pretty much ordinary. But if we apply the “polarization effect” method to Britney’s chart it immediately becomes extra-ordinary! Thus, I firmly believe that we Astrologers should place this "polarization effect" method among our main interpretation tools!

Thomas Gazis


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an original article written by Thomas Gazis and published in 2008. Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis. If you wish to republish parts or all of it please contact the author at: [Μόνο οι διαχειριστές επιτρέπεται να δουν αυτόν το σύνδεσμο.]