Mary Poppins Astrological Aspects 3

The arts and sciences also partook of this amazing Promethean-Dionysian (Uranus-Pluto) energy:

As with the spectacular burst of creativity and cultural influence sustained by the Beatles and Bob Dylan between 1962 and 1970, joined by scores of other suddenly creatively empowered musicians, it was as if all the arts and sciences during the 1960s seemed to have been given a kind of rocket boost of creative shakti, paralleling the titanic technological, social, and political explosion of the decade—a creative power capable, as it were, of hurtling human beings around the Earth and into space, within and without. (Tarnas, 2006, p. 197)

Lévi-Strauss’s championing of structuralism in 1962, with The Savage Mind, and his four volumes Mythologiques produced throughout the decade, is also an expression of the Saturn opposite Uranus-Pluto dynamic, as it played out. Bricolage was born in 1962 with Structuralist (Saturn) Lévi-Strauss's The Savage Mind. Derrida used Lévi-Strauss's own bricoleur to explode the bricoleur/engineer binary in “Structure Sign and Play” in 1966, launching deconstruction (Uranus-Pluto).

We see the Saturn opposite Uranus-Pluto dynamic in the dynamics between the counterculture and the establishment, with the counterculture’s embrace of a “new ‘consciousness,' open to mystery and mysticism, spontaneity and fun, sensuality . . . The Civil Rights mvoemnt had already established the power of cameraderie in the interest of change." (Jennings & Brewster, 1998, p. 392), reflecting the Uranus-Pluto planetary archetypal complex. The counterculture was often at odds and battling the Establishment which had a more Saturnian, conservative focus, and embraced the status quo and tradition. The establishment often reacted out of fear and repression, which only served to further inflame the Promethean-Dionysian youth. All of this was heightened by the already tense Cold War climate.

Tarnas (2006) in discussing the Saturnian interaction with the Uranus-Pluto planetary archetypal complex, explains:

The more revolutionary, rebellious, innovative impulse associated with Uranus in various compromise formations with the more limiting, contracting, and controlling impulse associated with Saturn, with both of these in turn empowered, often violently by the principle associated with Pluto, in mutual antagonism or synthesis . . . . alignments involving these three planets in hard aspect were consistently associated with periods of intensified emancipatory and revolutionary activity as well as intensified efforts at control, conservative reaction, and repression, all combining to produce a state of extreme tension and crisis. (p. 221)

The unmistakable cultural ambience which pervaded the decade of the Sixties, a Zeitgeist whose prevailing quality combined a mass awakening of emancipatory and creative impulses with a titanic eruption of elemental and libidinal forces, was talked about, celebrated, criticized, feared. Attempts were made to suppress it, attempts were made to sustain it indefinitely. It dominated people's experience at the time, just as it now dominates retrospective views of that era. (pp. 167-168)

The 1960s was also a time of Dionysian awakening (Uranus—>Pluto) of most memorable the sexual revolution, with the erotically charged music of groups and artists like The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin filling the hearts and minds of the youth of the times. Tarnas (2006) associates the Dionysus-Pluto archetype to “the great Indian mythic figures of Kali and Shakti, goddesses of erotic power and elemental transformation, death and rebirth, destruction and creation” (p. 167). The 1960s was the decade of the “Summer of Love” in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969. Eastern religions and fashions also made their way West. Tarnas cites as examples of this awakening of sexuality: “the ‘free love’ of the hippies and flower children, the countless Dionysian festivals of music and dance, the mass 'happenings' and 'Acid Tests'” (p. 167). He also notes that there was another darker side to the Dionysian energy:

For the same decade was characterized by an equally powerful eruption of the volcanic, violent, and destructive elemental energies associated with the Dionysian-Plutonic-Kali principle . . . . combination of the Promethean and Dionysian principles often seemed to express itself not only through the intensification, empowerment, and violent eruption of the Promethean, but also through the destruction of the Promethean, burning itself out as it were in the flames of its own intensity, in the exigencies of its own archetypal drama. This potential outcome reflects the deep ambiguity of the Dionysian-Plutonic-Kali principle, at once empowering and intensifying, violent and destructive, transformative and regenerative. (Tarnas, 2006, p. 200)

The negative side of this Dionysian-Promethean dynamic can be seen in the tremendous violence of the period, from the assassinations of the Kennedys and Dr. King, to the massive escalation of the Vietnam war, to the often violent antiwar demonstrations, and widespread violence in major cities, along with the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and civil rights marches during which peaceful protesters were the objects of violence. These archetypal activities were not limited to United States. There was also the Soviet intrusion on Prague Spring of 1968, and the massacre of demonstrators in Mexico the same year.

The 1960s is still with us, Tarnas (2006) remarks continuing to “exert its titanic effects—emancipatory, revolutionary, violent, creative, erotic, disruptive, destabilizing, driving ineluctably towards the future, awakening to the new” (p. 199). And this not only true with respect to culture at large, but it is also true right here in the dissertation, Mary Poppins, as we will see is responsible for the form of this dissertation, and the movie deals with our same reiterating archetypal theme. The twin creative geniuses of Doug Engelbart and Walt Disney have very much influenced cosmicplay.net, so let us see how the Uranian idea of genius figures into the equation before we discuss these archetypal principles at work in depth psychology.

The 1960s was a time of genius, too. Walt Disney introduced Mary Poppins audioanimatronics, “It’s a Small World,” and the beginnings of EPCOT center and DisneyWorld. Doug Engelbart and others gave us the beginning of the personal computer and the Internet. Both of these men were geniuses, and both had the Uranus-Pluto archetypal complexes in their birthcharts. Walt Disney was born in 1901 under the turn-of-the- century Uranus opposite Pluto-Neptune conjunction, and we see Disney's genius in the realm of the imagination; his masterpiece Mary Poppins shows his technoloical and imaginative (Uranus-Neptune) genius showcasing and illuminating the death-rebirth (Pluto) theme. Doug Engelbart was born on January 30, 1925 and with a grand trine (120°): Saturn in Scorpio trine Uranus in Pisces trine Pluto in Cancer. Pluto is also opposite Jupiter in Capricorn. Saturn, Pluto, and Uranus are in a harmonious aspect (trine) in Engelbart's chart, leading to his creating revolutionalry new technology in the service of existing structures.

Doug is an Aquarius, which is ruled by Uranus and Doug’s initial vision for a way to augment human intelligence through the use of electronic technology (Uranus) was spurred by a humanitarian impulse (Neptune). These powerful energies of transformation (Pluto) have had the effect of leveling the informational playing field in ways that no one could have imagined, as Thomas Friedman (2005) has shown in The World is Flat. Lawrence Hillman (1999, online), in discussing Uranus notes:

numerous inventions that changed the world, often connected to electricity. The telegraph, electric lights, then the phonograph, the telephone, satellite communication, cell phones, and perhaps the greatest revolution since the steam engine: the advent of the Internet in the past few years. The Internet has changed just about every facet of our life as we know it. Uranus is a great equalizer, giving essentially everybody the same access to information.

Both of these men, who have so transformed our lives, were geniuses, which is a Uranian quality, and since both have Uranus and Pluto aspecting each other, we can see the tremendous empowerment on a massive scale [Pluto] of genius, and innovation [Uranus]. In Prometheus The Awakener, Tarnas (1995) in a footnote quotes a Newsweek article, “The Puzzle of Genius: New Insights into Great Minds” that listed several characteristic qualities of geniuses:

qualities that suggest why we find the planet Uranus and the archetype of Prometheus so regularly associated with the term “genius”: (1) Creative geniuses do not simply solve existing problems, they identify new ones. (2) They form more novel combinations of thought elements and are alert to chance permutations of ideas and images spontaneously combining in novel ways; they possess an ability to make juxtapositions that elude others, to connect the unconnected, to see relationships to which others are blind, to cross frames of reference—an ability linked to an imaginative faculty set in motion by the reconceptualizing power of metaphor, (3) They have an interest in multiple unrelated fields, making novel combinations more likely. In addition, they have (4) a tolerance for ambiguity, a patience with unpredictable avenues of thought; (5) a tendency toward iconoclasm; (6) an impulse for taking risks; and (7) a childlike delight in what they do. To these are added two qualities suggesting the importance of Saturn. First creative geniuses work obsessively, producing much that is great as well as much that is not. And second, they combine a certain balance of youth and maturity—an innovative impulse on the one hand and time and experience on the other. Individuals in whom one or the other polarity is dominant tend not to produce significant revolutions (Sharon Begley, Newsweek 28 June 1993, 46-51). (Tarnas, 1995, pp. 148-149)

The same kind of genius in another medium, during the 1960s is found in the music of Ray Charles. Charles combined previously unconnected genres to form his own new kind of music, which also profoundly influenced our culture. Mary Poppins and Bert exhibit many of these Uranian qualities of genius in the movie, and not surprisingly, these qualities also relate to play and bricolage!

Depth Psychology’s Archetypal Agreement

In 1909, Freud and Jung traveled to the United States together for the Clark lectures, which was the beginning of the end of their relationship. In 1912, Jung (1912/1976) published Symbols of Transformation, the book that caused their split. After that, Jung began his confrontation with the unconscious and experienced the reality of Philomen and other autonomous imaginal figures. During this time, Jung played with the things of his childhood. In his autobiography, Jung (1961/1989) noted that his experiences at this time sowed the seeds for all of his future work.

In 1908, van Gennep wrote Rites de Passage, although it was not translated into English until 1960. In 1909, Rank wrote the Myth Of The Birth Of The Hero. During the 1960s, Victor Turner wrote an article about liminality, the transition phase in rites of passage, and followed with his book The Ritual Process: Structure And Antistructure, in 1964 and 1969 respectively. Jung’s Man And His Symbols was published posthumously in 1964. This book brought Jung’s work to a more popular audience, and contained over 500 pictures in addition to the text. Man and His Symbols would be Jung's last project, since he completed his own article and edited the other chapters only ten days before his death in June of 1961.

Tarnas (2006) notes that both Archetypal Psychology and Transpersonal Psychology were born during this period. Grof was working on the cartography of the psyche in the mid-1960s and Hillman wrote Suicide and the Soul in 1964. Tarnas explicates that the Uranus-Pluto planetary archetypal complex was also evident in the major psychological theories and therapies at the time:

The major innovative psychological theories and therapies that emerged during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the 1960s were especially concerned with the cathartic release of repressed instinctual and emotional material: the breakdown of somatic armoring, the discharge of aggression, and the achievement of orgasmic potency and erotic freedom were regarded as crucial for the attainment of psychological health . . . . The psychological milieu of the Sixties was pervaded by the concepts and practices of such figures as Wilhelm Reich, Fritz Perls, R. D. Laing, Norman O. Brown, Herbert Marcuse, Albert Ellis, Ida Rolf, Will Schutz, and Arthur Janov. The characteristic innovative modalities of the era were bioenergetic release, emotionally intensive encounter groups and gestalt therapy, physically intensive rolfing and other forms of somatic intervention, the primal scream, nude marathons—all distinctly reflective of the Promethean-Dionysian archetypal complex. (pp. 445-446)

Grof was born during the Depression “T-square” when Saturn and Pluto were in opposition and Uranus was square to both. During 1964-1967, Saturn was opposite to the Uranus-Pluto conjunction: these same archetypal players were involved both in Grof’s birth chart and were world transits at the time that Grof was formulating his cartography. [link to Grof's chart] Here again, there is another instance of the phenomenon of doubling that von Franz (1977) notes is a signal that something is trying to come into consciousness. This major death-rebirth theme (Saturn-Pluto) being illuminated (Uranus) was coming to consciousness during this time. Grof came to the United States in 1967 to conduct further LSD research and to test his cartography, and found that the Saturnian climate of fear and restriction had all but shut down work in this area.

In 1910, the time that the movie Mary Poppins portrays, these planetary archetypal players were not aspecting each other in this particular way, but other dynamics in the Mary Poppins portrayal chart reflect this same death-rebirth pattern. [link to Mary Poppins portrayal chart] Cancer and Capricorn are known as the "gates of the sun," the constellations in which the solstices occcur, and they represent the death and rebirth of the king (Sun). In 1910, Neptune was in Cancer and Uranus was in the opposite sign of Capricorn. The theme of death-rebirth (gates of the sun) was being illuminated (Uranus) through mythology and religious rites (Neptune). We see this in the above mentioned works by Jung, Rank, and van Gennep. Rank’s The Myth of the Birth of the Hero and Jung’s Symbols of Transformation involved this mythological motif, while van Gennep found this same death-rebirth pattern in rites of passage. Jung's own confrontation with the unconscious around this time also reflected this dynamic.

Lastly, in 1964, I was turning six years old, when I first saw Mary Poppins. I have Pluto in Virgo and the Uranus-Pluto conjunction was transiting my natal Pluto at this time. [link to my transit chart in 1964] Thus, I had my first exposure during this archetypally appropriate time to the theme of my dissertation. 1964 was also the year when the classic children's Christmas special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Rankin & Bass, 1964) premiered, and as previously mentioned, this story is where I first noticed the cosmic play, death-rebirth pattern. Now that we’ve seen how the archetypal stage is set for Mary Poppins, we will continue to see how these themes play out in the culture of the 1960s, and then in the movie itself.

End of section, continue to Rebellious 60s Retrospective