Defense mechanisms - oppositions in the horoscope
How do oppositions really work in the horoscope? Generally they are perceived as showing a split between the energy of two planets, a difficulty in finding a balance or middle way between two opposing parts of the psyche, or the needs they represent. The personal planets shows personal needs, whilst the outer planets show the challenges that our needs encounter. Certainly the opposition represents a polarity which sparks a constant process of negotiation within the person.
It is very difficult for the person to feel or express both planets at the same time - there is an inner division or divide. This is in all likelihood because one of the needs (the one planet) has been difficult for the person to relate to or even access whilst growing up. An unfulfilled need takes up a lot of space, and when grown up the person must resort to projecting this need onto others, and is dependent on another person to express the need (the planetary principle) to be able to feel whole.
Projection is a defense mechanism to avoid feeling an emotion or a need that has historically been dangerous or forbidden to satisfy. If this defense mechanism could speak, it would say: "you must under no circumstances feel, think or act in this way". The projection or opposition works also in a way that other people are ascribed feelings, acts and thoughts, which in fact belong to the person. The target person or group does not have anything to do with it. This happens because owning these feelings or needs is such a threat to the identity that it has become a habit to project them. So other people are made wrong whenever a "dangerous" feeling related to the need begins to be felt.
An example
Take for example a person with a Venus/Pluto opposition. There will perhaps have been an experience of abandonment or loss of love, which was a threat to the identity, resulting is a deep longing to be valued, loved and have contact early in life. The person has a residual anxiety about losing, and love is equated with survival. To feel that one really needs another person is forbidden, and furthermore the person may not express love tangibly enough, developing a shell of self-sufficiency.
The Pluto principle is projected onto the partner: "you are a threat to me, you will probably abandon me, I will suppress my jealousy and strive to manipulate you and control you, so you will not leave me". The partner is made to be wrong, is criticized or is threatened so that the unbearable feeling of being powerless disappears.
It is possible to work with the two planets in an empathic and therapeutic way when the bond between therapist and client is secure. A classic technique is working with two chairs, when the client feels both needs in turn. Firstly the Venus principle - a need for affection and recognition, to love and be loved. Subsequently the Pluto defense, which is activated when the inner anxiety or emotional level becomes too strong. The motivation of the Pluto projection onto a partner could for example be: "I must dominate you and threaten to leave you, because you will surely leave me. You have to feel like I do, or be of the same opinion, otherwise you are not going to be close enough to me".
Moving from one chair to another can start a negotiation between the needs, so that the dilemma softens up. It is an exercise in feeling what is normally so dangerous to feel. This work demands a safe therapeutic relationship which has been developed over time, and a willingness to experiment and feel the self. Being able to express the emotions that come to the surface in this way gives an experience of being whole and complete. Therapy takes time and the development of complete trust takes time. In group work this is only possible when the participants meet regularly in an experiential psychological astrology framework. Bonding and security are the foundation blocks for making this work, and a group can be just the place where empathy is strong and transformation can take place.
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