Review
by Robin Heath
Astrological
Journal 1998
This
is a wonderful book and holds together extremely well. It's origins,
like the other titles in the CPA armoury, stem from CPA seminar sessions
held at Regent's College. London. The Venus material (Part One: Venus
Aphrodite - Dual Goddess) - was delivered on 27th February 1994, whilst
the Jupiter session (Part Two: The Justice of Zeus and the Astrological
Jupiter)took place on 13th June 1993. If the title of this latest
CPA press offering suggests a saccharin and sickly look at the two
great benefics, then the reader is due for a huge and pleasant surprise.
Erin
Sullivan is one of our foremost astrologers, a woman of real depth
and decades of experience as a practising astrologer. Although she
is often jaunty and humorous in her approach, she always has access
to a great depth of astrological wisdom and an often astonishing insight.
She delivered a punchy and well received Charles Carter Memorial Lecture
at the 1997 AA Conference together with workshop sessions. At this
same conference one could pick up a background opinion of the view
that psychological astrology had 'peaked' and now it was time to get
back to the traditional astrology - the material of Messrs Zoller,
Hand and company. Erin's book shows this viewpoint to be entirely
myopic, showing that the two are irrevocably linked and always have
been; beginning her treatment of these two planets with one of the
best presentations of their ancient mythic pedigrees I have yet had
the pleasure to read. For those astrologers who think the mythic material
boring or irrelevant to astrology, I strongly commend this short,
punchy treatment by Erin Sullivan. It grounds the history of astrology
from its mythic roots of ancient Babylon, calling at all stations
west via Troy and Greece.
Venus
and Jupiter are the largest visible objects in the sky, after the
two luminaries, and, surprisingly, they have never been paired
in quite the way Erin treats their astrology. More normally, Mars
and Venus are wheeled out as the 'sexy' duad whilst Jupiter gets
a rather dull blind date with Saturn. Erin begins with the 'monomyth'
of Venus and immediately connects her readers with the magic of
astrology in enabling a student to "become privy to information that is not readily
available through any other medium". So, right on page two, we are
made aware of astrology's value as a tool to understanding human
mythology, philosophy and the roots of culture. The author takes
us through a journey of exploration with Venus's history - Chaos,
Eros, Gaia, Ouranos, Aphrodite Urania and Aphrodite Pandemos. Erin
equates this route as taking humans from the ideal to the specific;
making valuable connections with the whole misunderstood process
of creativity. Dotted within we get the nuggets of audience participation,
where their providing of context information acts as the perfect
foil for Erin's experience of how the astrological symbols behave
in mundane lives.
And
so this book begins its main thrust, involving the reader in a true
educational process which is also fun. Erin's humour bursts out regularly
in interactions with her audience, and this movbes the book along
nicely and presents the heavy clogging 'religious' quality of many
astrological texts. This reviewer found the treatment enchanting at
times.
Venus
does have something to do with our relationships, of course, and Erin
takes this directly from the dual symbols of love as both healing
and destructive. Erotic madness, erotomania and the direct consequences
of possession by Eros are brought right within the modern stage as
Erin looks at the manifestation of 'stalking' and the manner we deal
with 'possession' by 'the other' with all its risks, dangers and sublime
possibilities. A section on Love and Strife takes the reader right
into the primordial scission and the big polarities of Heaven and
Earth, Spirit and Matter. The modern portrayal of Eros as the wimpy
anorak Cupid is used to demonstrate how far our modern culture is
divorced from the depth inherent in Venus as a symbol.
From
page 70 to page 125, planetary aspects to Venus are covered in depth.
The astrological meat in the sandwich is generous and, once again,
the audience's rapport with the author makes for solid examples and
remarkable insights. No cook-book listing can ever embrace the depth
found here and this reviewer wouldn't change a single word of Erin's
account of Uranus-Venus as an aspect - having lived it out for half
a century.
Page
128 begins a look at Jupiter - the Great Benefic. Erin presents a
soul-bearing aperatif by way of introduction to Jupiter/9th house
issues. She then cites 500 BC as the time when the separation of nature
and culture led to our present world and the need for the gods to
change form, from which she sees conscience and moral order becoming
linked to Zeus and Jupiter, the 'moral arbiter'. She effectively mops
up any confusion between shame and guilt during this run up to a potted
history of Frued, Jung and the myriad souls who have contributed to
our understanding of social and personal morality through myth.
Now
the reader is entreated to an insightful look at the Zeus/Jupiter
myths. The dionysian side of Jupiter is wheeled out via a shamanistic
look at altered consciousness and transcendence. The moral hypocrisy
angle is vividly pportrayed with examples of US presidents (surely
not?), then Erin deals with the travelling and exploring side, followed
by Jupiter as saviour with the examples, Jim Jones, David Koresh and
David Icke. It would have been nice to have included the charts (or
at least footnoted the birth-data) along the way here in order to
allow readers to weigh Jupiter against other factors.
The
aspects of Jupiter to other planets on the natal chart completes this
major work. Again, I wouldn't change a word of Erin's account of Jupiter-Mars
or Jupiter-Uranus, aspects strong on my own natal chart, and each
of these fifty pages contains material of considerable worth.
The
older texts on Venus and Jupiter often treat their combination as
an excessive, sickly affair. Such a judgement cannot be placed on
Erin's latest feast, which has to be essential reading for any serious
student of astrology. This reviewer hasn't had so much fun with an
astrology book, nor gleaned so much for many a year.
© Copyright 1998 The
Astrological Association of Great Britain
Review
by Mary Plumb
The Mountain
Astrologer 1998
During
her early mid-life years Erin Sullivan immersed herself in a study
of classical myth, revivifying her thinking and her gifts to astrology.
In this book she describes how her study was inspired by parallels
she recognized between 5th century BCE Athens and our own time: "The
culture at that time was separating so acutely from the gods of the
times, and was so stressful, that there was then, as there is now,
a renewed interest in the mythological past." If you have relegated The Iliad or Virgil to some frozen pocket of your high school
brain, treat yourself to Erin's ideas on the ancient tales of Zeus
and Aphrodite (the Greek names that became Venus and Jupiter to the
Romans). The book is transcribed from two seminars - Venus Aphrodite:
The Dual Goddess and The Justice of Zeus and the Astrological
Jupiter - and she explores and brings back jewels of interpretation
and relevance to the astrological glyphs.
A
theme that also weaves throughout the present work is Erin's interest
in the way we think and the kinds of concerns that occupy our minds.
Since the classical mind has formed the back bone of Western thinking,
her understanding of the period allows her to capture the dichotomies
and duality's inherent in Western thought. She appreciates the
necessity for "splitting" and has a question about contemporary ideas of "wholeness
and integration", which she feels is a nearly impossible-to-achieve
ideal, and that the "horoscope shows us there might be some validity
to being split off, or compartmentalized, or living out segments
of the life at certain times because we can only be so many things
at once."
According
to the early creation myth in Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite
was born of the severed genitals of Ouranos and the Sea of Cyprus,
midwifed by Kronos (Saturn), after the split between Heaven (Ouranos)
and Earth (Gaia). This is Aphrodite Urania. In a later story Aphrodite
is described as the divine daughter of Zeus and Dione; she is known
as Aphrodite Pandemos ("of the people"). Thus her dual archetypes
- the heavenly and the earthly.
Along
with telling facets of many versions of the myths, Erin reflects
on the parallels between conflict and creativity, and between conflict
and love - the domains of Eris (strife) and Eros (love). She considers
Aphrodite's relationship to Eros, a state where we experience "waiting
to be quickened by Eros and facilitated to birth by Aphrodite." The
astrological Venus becomes "the primary conduit for the erotic impulse
to live, to be something of value and worth." Erin speaks of depression,
inspiration, projection of the ideal and incubation of the creative
seed (and much more) before describing Venus in aspect to the other
planets. Here she excels at capturing a feeling for the planetary
pairing; i.e., the passion and strife inherent in Venus/Mars aspects
- Eris (strife) is Ares's sister. In her discussion on the relationship
between the Moon and Venus and she writes: "Mothering and seducing
are really one - they are two sides of the same experience.....the
dual aspect of the feminine function." The split in Venus's function
is a theme throughout, the Uranian ideal and the Pandemic reality,
each with a voice and need.
In
the section on Jupiter, Erin has opened an appropriately grand window
into Zeus's world with a view of the strengths, paradoxes and subtleties
therein. There are 60 pages on the background of mythology in the
first section, including a synopsis of various ways that myths have
been understood over time, leading into Mircea Eliade and Joseph Campbell's
ideas as myth as rites of passage, "reawakening individuals
to their own power, sense of timing, and place in the world." Freud
and the myth of Oedipus; Zeus's birth and reign, his fathering of
Dionysos, his guardianship of travellers and states of transition
(temenos) are subjects in Erin's dialogue. She also investigates
wisdom/dogma, shame/guilt, charisma and Zeus's ability to confuse
one with the state of at) before beginning the section on Jupiter
in aspect to the other planets. Erin's engagement with the Jupiter
archetype is vivid in this workshop, and I (in the midst of a Jupiter
return!) found it irresistible and wise.
Throughout
the book, Erin offers Greek words and their etymology eg Chaos
literally means "a gap, a 'yawn,' implying that there is something
unbounded and open..." - and she dips in and out of many classical
references. Audience participation is somewhat minimal, though always
of interest as specific astrological comments are brought in. She
easily moves from the abstract into chart configurations and questions
from the participants.
I
loved this book; it is wonderfully educational about questions of
life, love and meaning and I highly recommend it to those curious
about further insights into the nature of the benefics.
© Copyright 1998 The
Mountain Astrologer
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