Depression viewed through the lens of astrology : help and advice

Who does not experience depression in their lifetime ? It’s a universal experience, archetypal, that everyone may live through—and almost certainly will live through—at some point in life.

Though sometimes just a passing episode, it may also be experienced chronically and endogenously, and most often it’s treated medically, in particular through the use of antidepressants. Too often, we forget to think of it in the larger context of the process of Individuation, where it also has its place.

I hope that this in-depth article will be able to help certain people to find avenues to help them understand themselves better, appreciate themselves more, and possibly find meaning in what today appears to be chaotic.
I leave this search for meaning to you, so that you may use your own intellectual abilities and discretion.

• What is depression?
• The process of depression
• Depression in society
• What does astrology have to tell us that could be useful for depression ?
• Are there astrological aspects to depression ?
• The planets and depression
• Saturn and Pluto : the big bad wolves
• Jupiter : finding meaning
• Uranus : metaphysical revelation
• Mars : a source of help
• Help for depression using techniques of predictive astrology
• Depression : how can we avoid it ? Overcome it ? And leave it behind us ?
• Holding out hope : there is life after depression
• References : for further exploration

“If an essential core of the person is denied or suppressed, we get sick sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes immediately, sometimes later…
Every crime against one’s own nature, every evil act, every one without exception records itself in our unconscious and makes us despise ourselves.”
Abraham Maslow, one of the fathers of humanistic psychology who inspired many people, including the astrologer Dane Rudhyar.

The term depression is a generic term that brings together a wide variety of mental disorders that are characterized by different symptoms which may occur simultaneously : apathy, general indifference (towards people, activities, and also oneself : a person may stop washing themselves, cleaning the house, changing clothes, or making themselves look nice), loss of libido (see Love, psychology, and astrology), lethargy, despair, an overall decrease in energy, chronic fatigue, loneliness, difficulty concentrating, panic attacks and phobias, hyperventilation, insomnia or disturbed and reduced sleep, a change in diet tending towards anorexia or bulimia, obsessive thoughts and destructive feelings, OCD, loss of self-esteem or motivation, etc.

We have lost our vitality; we think that life is not worth living. Our greatly reduced level of consciousness may result in “dissociation” : in the feeling that we are “living in a dream” or that what we are experiencing is actually happening to someone else. We may have an inaccurate view of our body or even temporary paralysis.

Often these problems are accompanied by drinking, drugs, and medications, and in extreme cases people lose contact with reality and society, and they are unable to take care of their day-to-day responsibilities (work, family, friends, etc.) : denial has gotten the best of them.

Depression itself is often unconscious, so it’s more often the physiological symptoms of fatigue and the diverse “somatizations” (physical flare-ups of psychological conditions) that lead many people to go see a doctor.

Most automatic defense mechanisms against depression are purely mental : we attempt to rationalize everything through intellectualization, and in general the more pronounced this intellectual aspect is in someone, the more their depression manifests itself through physical problems and various somatizations. In fact, we could say that every illness has a clear psychological component, where the unconscious rises to the surface and influences the duality of the mind/body.

Depression is thus a nose-dive into dark, negative, primal feelings that lead to an invalidating effect that gets in the way of one’s life, creating the need for antidepressants and a doctor’s intervention.
When in the midst of depression, decline is easy and the abyss is always open beneath our feet, while tracing our steps backwards, climbing back up the hill, and breathing again are the most difficult parts of the ordeal.

Sometimes, and most often, depression is a passing episode resulting from some external circumstance in our life : the death of a loved one or some other event involving a “loss”, a break-up, etc. In fact, often it’s fundamentally about a sudden realization, a truly deep awakening, having to do with the fickleness or the impermanence of life.
The human mind circles endlessly back to this idea of impermanence : losing what we have, not getting what we want, and even feeling frustrated and anticipating future losses and frustrations (read Karma and astrology for an exploration of why it’s in our best interest to live in the present).

This type of depression is especially significant because it’s the result of repressed feelings of pain, unrecognized at first, and thus unexpressed, such as anger or injustice, which prevent the process of mourning or “separation” from occurring normally.

In manic depression, the manic pole reacts to the depressive pole, creating a cyclothymic alternation where the manic pole tries to “sublimate” the Shadow. But we cannot eliminate our shadow simply by identifying with the light, because the two are interdependent. The shadow is necessary : it’s created by the light and the light needs it for contrast. Integration of the manic pole occurs as a result of understanding and accepting the depressive pole.

Sometimes depression sets in chronically and endogenously and continues as a result of a person’s overall environment, misinformed views of the world, society and the person’s immediate surroundings, and feelings that may turn into deep existential distress.
The feeling that the human condition is absurd and the sense of a serious lack of meaning in life are real poisons for the mind, and both of them are unfortunately very common in our day and age.

When we analyze the “process of depression”, we realize that knowing what “event” or circumstances led to the condition is actually of little importance. This is because anything and everything can lead to a state of depression, paradoxically even success, good fortune, or achievements that one would expect to lead to happiness (birth, marriage, professional promotions, retirement, etc.). Sometimes, even something unimportant can cause a completely disproportionate bout of depression.
The depressive state is latent in every person, at least in part, and may be activated in 1001 different ways, but the most important thing is to figure out based on a person’s behavior what their individual reactions to different events are : that’s what will make all the difference.

Why does the death of a loved one or a separation lead to a brief episode of depression lasting just a few months for one person, while for another it leads to a serious nervous depression lasting several years, or even decades ?

When it comes down to it, everything brings us back to the individual : everything is a matter of perception, like the famous “glass half full / half empty”.
For one person, an experience may be seen as a challenge and it may be overcome with optimism, while for another the same experience may be seen as a failure and an insurmountable loss.
A single person might even show strength during one painful episode and then fall to pieces a few months later when faced with the next problem : an example of “the straw that breaks the camel’s back”.
There lies the mystery of our subjective reactions.
Astrology can give us precious bits of information, both through the study of a Birth chart and predictive techniques such as Transits, Progressions, solar and lunar Returns, etc.

The process of depression is in some ways a “signal” indicating that the person’s psyche needs to experience “something”, and that some changes need to occur.
Depression is a phase in this process which, despite this downward spiral, serves fundamentally to promote the emergence of consciousness, strength, and creativity in the person. When we enter into depression, the “persona”, the mask that we wear, becomes harder to bear and gives way to the profound underlying reality, a truer, more authentic reality, without pretense.

Nevertheless, as much as possible it’s better to make sure that the depression “plays out smoothly”, because not all depressive states, especially if they are complicated or difficult, for instance those involving psychotic episodes and hallucinations, are “wonderful periods of growth” or “necessary suffering”; in essence, no one should suffer unjustly. But the human psyche does nothing just by chance, and these episodes, as difficult as they may be, have a deep meaning that we need to uncover and channel, a metaphysical significance.
We are not talking about destruction for the sake of destruction. Depression is a process of development and fulfillment, destruction that leads to reconstruction. It initiates and punctuates the path of Individuation as it plays out, and a conscious participation in the individuation process can significantly enhance and strengthen the path.
As sad as depression may seem, it’s also a type of psychological wisdom that is inherent to and necessary in life.

Individuation is a bit like “waking up to oneself”, and it’s often accompanied by some sort of mourning of what we were in our prior phases of development, which are inevitably more “childish”. It’s our nostalgia for the “chrysalis” that we leave behind, the emergence of melancholy, and the sadness of understanding that nothing will ever be the same.

“It’s no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti

The astrologer Dane Rudhyar also had a good handle on this problem when he declared in his book “Astrology and the Modern Psyche” :

“Our living conditions in modern civilization lead to abnormal tensions and unexpected needs for adaptation, and the line between mental illness and good psychological health has become very hazy.
Emotionally and mentally unstable people populate the countryside just as much as cities.
Pathologically, they are not truly sick, but they are not able to cope in a healthy, positive way. Their ability to behave normally is tainted, impeded, or crippled by mental and emotional pressures that blind them or exhaust them, so much so that they are incapable of adapting energetically and fully to new situations.
When they face their life and other people, it’s as a fraction of themselves, uncertain, frustrated, compulsive, and unable to find meaning.
We could say that these people are “neurotic”, or more precisely that they have lost faith in themselves, in humanity, and in life, because they have lost their inner sense of security and their sense that the universe is organized, principled, and governed by divine intelligence and love.”

It’s often the case that psychiatry and modern medicine do not have much to offer these people who are not truly sick but have “just” completely lost their sense that things have deep meaning.
Since they are not actually in good health either, these people are tired; their energy is “sucked out of them” by the black hole of depression and they cannot find a way out. In this middle ground, they carry on as best they can.

We have a tendency in today’s society to always consider depression to be a flaw that we need to eliminate as quickly as possible, without actually asking ourselves how it might be useful or meaningful when thought of as a phase of psychological (and cyclic) development, a phase that is itself part of a much larger process that might easily take a lifetime to complete, and that Jung described for us : Individuation.

“Astrological data can only convey the basic elements of the psyche, our primal energies that form the deep values of our unconscious (instincts) and from which our psychological tendencies emerge into consciousness.”
André Barbault, From psychoanalysis to astrology

Astrological data are a form of starting energy, “root mechanisms”, or rather seedlings of potential, as astrologer Dane Rudhyar liked to call them : he often used the term “seeds”. Knowing these mechanisms, we can thus better identify a person’s tendencies.

It’s difficult or even impossible to escape our destiny. In astrology, destiny is expressed through archetypal patterns in a person’s Birth chart, which determine their underlying potential and basic tendencies. If we extrapolate a bit, this really means we are talking about the meaning of the person’s life.

André Barbault continues :
“Character and destiny are two sides of the same naturally determined coin; we cannot separate a person from their destiny. One’s deepest tendencies are not distinct from one’s existence.”

As an important psychological process, one that we could even consider to be of extreme significance, depression often involves at least one of the three main astrological components : the Sun, the Moon, the Ascendant, and their Rulerships.

We know that some of the solutions for depression and neurotic issues involve some sort of “break” with those patterns that tend to be repetitive (these pattern eventually give rise to what we in psychoanalysis call “transference” and lead to “psychological complexes”).
This may sometimes feel like asking a shark to become vegetarian or a gazelle to learn to fight a lion : it’s not an easy task ! Especially when, for example, we have lived a large part of our life filled with aggression or fear.

Astrologically, we are not talking about starting everything over from scratch, but rather making use of the existing hubs of activity in our birth chart and also making conscious sacrifices to improve ourselves and make moves towards Individuation.
Even if we try to consciously develop those parts of ourselves that are weaker in our Birth chart by working fervently to change ourselves, they will always remain more limited for us, inexorably.

These dimensions of our personality (or Sub-personalities) are poorly adapted to certain experiences in life, which is both normal and valid for everyone; we are not all equal in terms of our strengths and weaknesses, and this may for instance translate into great abundances or deficiencies of certain Astrological Elements (which are often unconscious).
It may not be easy for some kinds of adaptation to occur at the same time depending on whether certain antagonistic differences between the elements are present : for example, adapting to everyday life vs. adapting to the theoretical world, adapting to feelings vs. adapting in a practical manner to reality, etc.
It’s important to distinguish what is conscious from what is unconscious. Depression often puts a person face to face with their Shadow (see Visualization techniques for sub-personalities), and Transits may reactivate the unconscious.

Water is the element that is most correlated with depression; tied up with feelings and emotions, it favors introspection, especially if one’s birth chart is lacking in the more dynamic influences, for example in Cardinal Signs, Rulerships, etc.
Suffering from Fire may result in emotional instability and limited intuition. Earth has a tendency to slow and even stop our psychological mechanisms; it deeply stabilizes all mental states and accelerates their solidification.
A lack of Air or an afflicted (or Retrograde) Mercury may lead to relationships problems, issues with communication and adaptation, or even a lack of rationality and logic.
Etc…

Of course, it’s not as simple as just finding the single astrological aspect of a birth chart that will explain everything !
When analyzing a chart, we always need to ask ourselves, “What is the meaning of this Square, this Trine, etc ? What are they trying to tell us ?” Everything in a birth chart has meaning, and everything gives us information about the discoveries that we need to make and what we need to accomplish.

Read the articles devoted to aspects : Conjunction, Square, Opposition, etc. Aspects, which can involve the luminaries, the Sun and the Moon, the Ascendant, Saturn, Pluto, the Black moon, the Lunar Nodes, etc, are equally important clues to explore.

That said, even the planets that we think of as being “beneficial” such as Jupiter or Venus naturally form negative aspects. When there is an aspect between one of these planets and Saturn, the latter may give some part of its Shadow to them and spoil some of their potential benefits :

• when in an aspect with Venus, Saturn directly impacts our system of validation, namely the love that we have for ourselves and for others. It’s a sign of a lack of affection, and potentially of a search for a father figure who can serve as an emotional substitute.
  It also affects the Anima : in a man’s birth chart it may affect his relationship with women, and in a woman’s birth chart it may weigh on her femininity.
• when in an aspect with Jupiter, Saturn has an impact on sociability, beliefs, morals, higher education, luck, children, etc. Its repercussions may affect both materialistic, socio-professional development and the development of one’s spiritual consciousness.
  It may also affect the Animus in this case : when in a man’s birth chart his Jovian side will be tainted by severity, and in a woman’s birth chart her relationships with men may be affected.

Relationships between antagonistic planets or sister planets are also important to look out for, such as couplings of Mars/Venus, Venus/Neptune, Mars/Pluto, Mercury/Uranus, etc.
In terms of Rulerships, planets in dignity or in debility (in its home, in fall, in detriment, or in exaltation) may also give bits of information, for example about the places where one’s frustration may have come from, or where one’s personality might be split. They highlight the strengths and weaknesses of our personality.

The study of Houses in the context of depression has an important part to play as well : the 4th House, and especially the 8th House and 12th House, as water houses, if they are “weighed down” or afflicted, are signs of sensitive “nodes” of a person’s personality.
The 8th and 12th houses are complex houses which are very often tied to depression, especially chronic, endogenous depression, and they must be carefully analyzed (in the context of introspection, psychological crises, hardship, and processes involving transformation).
The 6th House may also affect a person’s emotional state, day-to-day perceptions, health, crises of personal growth, and process of Individuation.
That said, a house that is particularly afflicted, no matter which one it is, is important to analyze in the context of depression.

“The planets express certain tendencies and take on various aspects of the different signs of the zodiac. Actually, a planet in a particular sign expresses an array of consistent tendencies.
These tendencies are linked to each other (through aspects between planets) to form different complexes. Certain groupings of tendencies are similar, while others are very different from each other.
A complex constitutes an ensemble of possible reactions that lead to a particular behavior, which is structured and repeats itself in a particular pattern.”
André Barbault, From psychoanalysis to astrology

The Aspects between the Planets are thus part of what make up our Complexes. These complexes are large consumers of psychological energy, which may have been activated during our childhood. They can be incapacitating parts of our personality, but they are also sources of evolution and creativity. They may influence certain activities without us knowing; they are driving forces filled with emotion.

As evoked above, depression also has a creative side, which is often represented by planets and astrological aspects that are also known to be creative and sensitive in nature : the Moon, Venus, Neptune, Water, the passive female energies (the Solutio in alchemy), etc. The sensitivity that these astrological energies manifest is a risk factor for depression, and a core mechanism of depression.
We know, for example, that the creative process is often accompanied by tension and writer’s block. To make something spring out of this whirlwind, we first need to suffer and experience internal emptiness.

But we also need to remember that any planet could be an indicator or an agent of depression. Here, I address only the main planets that are generally implicated in the mechanisms that trigger depression.

Saturn is the “Great Malefic” of traditional astrology. The ego is vulnerable wherever Saturn finds itself, and as a result we try to protect ourselves. It’s found in the Shadow of Jungian psychology. It represents the energies of Earth (the coagulatio in alchemy) and rules over Capricorn, a sign that is a bit “old for its age” : these people may be sad, serious, meticulous, introverted, practical, and even stern, and these attributes can easily be symptoms of depression. People with this sign are known for their tendency to fall naturally into “perpetual bouts of depression”.

Several different statistical studies have established that depressive episodes have an average length of approximately two years, and this length coincides with Saturn’s transit through a sign (two and a half years).
Depression represents a deep psychological need; it’s a period of self-exploration, introspection, and reassessment of fundamental ideas that often takes time, which is the reason for its connection to Saturn’s cycle and the cycles of the other slow-moving planets.

Saturn completes its passage through the personal section of the zodiac in about 30 years (its sidereal period), so its cycle has a deep impact on people’s lives.
This planet leads to confrontations with reality and with the limits of our world. It encourages self-control, structure, and facing ourselves and our limits. It forces us to look after ourselves and break away from the stage of childhood, and it also represents our fear of abandonment, inferiority complex, guilt, loneliness, frustration, etc. Does any of that remind you of the process of going through depression ?

Saturn is similar to the process of letting something “simmer”, or of galvanization. Without depression, which often accompanies Saturn’s transits, some of the developmental phases of Individuation cannot take place, and transcendence cannot be achieved.
Avoiding these Saturnian states is useless : they will always come back, through the window if necessary. Our process of development and growth is dependent upon having a good understanding of depression.

Saturn is the “superego”, the inner policeman, and we have to make sure not to confuse it with consciousness or the self.
Consciousness represents the idea of individuality, as well as how this idea is expressed. When on the outer edge of consciousness, we head towards the “higher self”, a connection with absolute unity. The superego and consciousness may have very different aims, and the Saturnian superego is often completely at odds with the process of Individuation.

Before discovering the self, we first need to reinforce and give structure to the ego, and this is where the Saturnian superego steps in.
We need to make sure that we do not mix up the superego and the “higher self”; the superego has a guilt-laden side which is almost dictatorial, while the “higher self” is a sort of guide, is more fraternal in its approach, and leads us to make changes that may bring about suffering and make us confront out weaknesses, but which are necessary for our growth. This is something like an act of faith in God.

I do not like the dark picture of Saturn that we sometimes paint : it’s excessively pessimistic and dramatic. We of course need to recognize that Saturn, through its restrictive, limiting nature, may sometimes have a severe impact on a person’s psyche, with devastating effects. But we should also avoid blaming everything on Saturn to avoid facing our own responsibilities.
It is all about the difference between using astrology as an “excuse for everything” and using astrology to deepen our understanding of ourselves and to integrate our life experiences : if the fundamental problem with ourselves is not dealt with, it will come back during every transit (this is true for Saturn or even for other planets that are involved).

“Going beyond Saturn” means de facto entering into the realm of the long transits of the transpersonal planets : Uranus, Neptune, and in particular Pluto. This does not mean, however, that we need to sink for an eternity into apathy and drowsiness or live in a dream world (these are the dominant tendencies of Neptune).

Pluto is a powerful agent of transformation, and this evolution may be either cataclysmic and unforeseen or more gradual. Its instinctive, primitive energies can be traced back to early childhood and have a profound impact on the psyche. Pluto is the breaker of taboos, for better or for worse.
In the worst case scenario, during a depressive episode this planet is an agent of fear, anger, jealousy, possessiveness, suspicion, distrust, manipulation, obsession, and revenge. The two dark sides of Pluto are compulsion and guilt, which act as two driving forces that respond to each other.
But there is also the positive side of Pluto : its will to power, its ability to change readily, the rebirth that it offers, a renewal from our ashes, and ultimately a renaissance. It offers us the powerful ability to motivate ourselves to break with our inertia.

The time that it takes for these cycles to come to completion must be experienced fully and honestly. Certain people need to sink into suffering and linger there for an indeterminate amount of time before being reborn from the ashes.
The sign of Scorpio is very much like this, and the same goes for any people for whom Pluto is a dominant feature in their birth chart. Scorpios try to search the depths of their psyche and human nature, and they like to coexist with their suffering and their darkness, or at least to spend some time with these aspects of themselves on a daily basis in one way or another. This is where they find their happy medium (and this is also the meaning of a highly emphasized 8th House).

Finding meaning and some sort of purpose in the events in our lives is one of the keys to surviving the trials of life : understanding the meaning of things gives us reasons to live. The search for meaning is a critical motivator that gives us hope.
It is helpful to be aware of the existence of something larger than ourselves, which some people call God, and to know that there is some greater, intelligent being that presides over the chaos of the world and that guarantees divine justice.
Finding meaning means asking ourselves, what does God want us to understand, discover, and accomplish ?
The entire universe is meaningful for those who know how to look around themselves through the lens of God’s many manifestations, but each and every one of us can develop our own motivations to keep on living.
It’s crucial to understand what we are experiencing rather than simply judging that experience. What does your Birth chart mean ? What does it teach you about yourself, about your psyche, and about your potential ?

“It’s in the moment when we become aware of what shapes us that we take the greatest step towards freedom.
From the moment when I am able to analyze it as I would any other object, from the moment when I manage to take this technical system apart piece by piece, that is when my freedom begins.
The search for meaning cannot be a purely intellectual affair; rather, it involves a radical calling into question of contemporary life. To make sense of the world we need to question that which does not make sense ! We are surrounded by objects that are of course very efficient, but that do not have any meaning.
We find ourselves faced with the duty of rediscovering fundamental truths that technique is erasing, or what we might call important “values” that are necessary for people to feel that life is worth living.
When a person is confronted with the danger of inevitability, when things run the risk of developing according to a particular destiny, that’s the moment when they must rise up and refuse to accept this as their destiny.”
Jacques Ellul, philosopher, theologian, and theorist of the notion of technique

Psychiatrist Fritz Künkel envisioned the search for God as being at the center of human development. For him, Individuation and the search for the self were enabled by the “We”, society, groups, and socialization, and Jupiter has an important role to play in this journey !

Jupiter, the 9th House, and Sagittarius may have power over all of the other Planets or Aspects in the fight against depression. Jupiter represents a broad viewpoint, philosophy, wisdom, idealism, and metaphysical knowledge, all of which may lead us to have faith in God.
In the Jungian view, these aspirations form a primordial instinct that is like all biological instincts; it’s not simply about the sublimation of sexual urges like Freud believed.

Jupiter is the force that drives us to search for meaning in our lives. It’s this planet that leads us to analyze symbolism and analogies (and thus astrology), and it’s thanks to Jupiter that we can integrate our experiences. It’s an agent of meaning, and it thus inspires us to explore new paths that help us to break with our psychological inertia.

This all means that during a depressive episode Jupiter is a powerful asset that can create change. It pushes us to look beyond our reserved little ego.
The transpersonal planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto also play a part in this metaphysical quest, and so do their associated Houses and Signs : Aquarius, Pisces, Scorpio, the 11th House, the 12th House, and the 8th House.

Along with Jupiter, Uranus takes part in the “Sublimatio” process of alchemy. Uranus’ energy is extremely creative and dynamic, and in the context of depression it holds the power necessary to provide the impetus to break free. It activates our feeling of individuality and self-affirmation, as well as the need for freedom (and even for sublimation and transcendence). This planet acts at least in part through our unconscious, but we need to try to take advantage of it consciously by looking for its influences.
As with all feelings, one’s qualities of transcendence may also be repressed, shifted, projected, or sublimated : it all depends on the environmental and societal pressures that are present.

A Uranian crisis involves an explosion of emotion and tremendous pressure, both spiritual and psychological. During the resulting emancipation the ego may dissolve and then the most basic elements of the personality may recrystallize (there is generally a combination of influences involved, including those of Neptune and Pluto, Saturn “the individualizer”, Jupiter the “socializer”, etc.).

This type of crisis usually comes on suddenly, meaning and significance appear in a “visionary flash of lightning”, and then it all subsides in an equally unexpected way.
The worst thing would be to experience a Uranian crisis, and the suffering that comes with it, without it leading to anything new, as this would open up the gates for the next inevitable crisis.

Dane Rudhyar, in “Astrology and the Modern Psyche”, gave this warning :
“We have suffered, everything has fallen to pieces around us, we have been on the verge of madness, our personality has been crushed, the architecture of our ego has been shaken, and to what end ? Nothing, no growth, no renaissance, just the panicked or self-satisfied rebuilding of the same ego with the same structure, and, somewhere, the terrible feeling—though invisible and subconscious—that it was all for nothing.
Today all of humanity is poisoned by this collective feeling that is a mix of guilt, despair, and deep inner weariness.”

The hardest part of a Uranian crisis is ensuring the longevity of the results. To this end, the energies of the Earth, Saturn, or the fixed Signs are very useful. One must be capable of discriminating between a spiritual altered state of consciousness that verges on transcendence and one’s everyday reality. We need to understand and accept that transcendence is nothing but a transitory state meant to steer a person onto the right path and give them a glimpse of what lies “beyond”, but this is not everyday life : we should not seek to get lost in these states, make them linger on, or constantly recreate them. We need to learn how to get our feet back on the ground in the concrete reality of our daily lives.

Many things may persuade us to restrict our full self-expression and our full spiritual consciousness; we often favor the consensus of society at the expense of our Individuation.
Modern medicine—driven by our societal values—has a tendency to quickly fight off any spiritual experience, altered state of consciousness, “supraconsciousness”, or Kundalini awakening that falls under the jurisdiction of medicalized psychiatric pathology. Regrettably, even if it’s clear that certain people need help in working through these phases, it’s unfortunate that we close the door of the transpersonal so quickly and abruptly.

Any depressive episode involves, on some level, the usage of, or at least a trend towards, Martian energy (which prevents us from truly being a catalyst). It’s important not to underestimate the consequences of repressing our Martian energy. In our modern, urban, overcrowded society, we have a tendency to fall into a permanent state of anger and aggressiveness which inevitably has repercussions for our daily life and our view of the world.

Mars’ considerable energy may scare us or throw us off balance, and some people who are either not used to it or consider it taboo prefer to ignore it, suppress it, or curb it; but if you deny Mars its place, not only will you create a psychological “void” that will lead to “excessive” stress, but you are cutting yourself off from the main source of affirmation of your individuality !

Mars can be a good counterweight to use when reactivating the psyche. As an agent of dynamism and a fast-moving planet, it gives off its energy all throughout one’s birth chart. It can also balance out excessive introversion by bringing a touch of extroversion to the table.
Mars’ energy is of the utmost importance in our lives : its Fire gives us momentum and sharpens our volition, and along with Pluto it initiates and carries out the step of “calcinatio” in alchemy.
We also should not forget that Mars is exalted in Capricorn (thus in Saturn’s domicile). Bringing together determination and action, Mars, when used intelligently, allows us to take prudent, measured, and deliberate action.

Rejecting Mars out of fear of your impulsiveness or violence leads you to also reject all positive forms of aggression, weakening your capacity for self-affirmation and your abilities to defend yourself and make choices.
The repression of Mars is often caused by Saturn and its overdeveloped superego and may lead this powerful energy to turn against itself internally, resulting in illness, somatization, self-destruction, and depression.

Depression is always expressed “against” something, and this thing that it’s expressed against may take on various conscious and unconscious forms, possibly another person, or oneself. But in any case, this contrary form of depression is expressed angrily.

An unexpressed Mars is similar to a fire that lies in incubation : the temperature rises, and given the slightest gust of wind the process of combustion begins and there is an explosion.
We need to express this Fire, this anger, among the other Astrological Elements; this immense energy must be consciously taken into consideration and used to face life in a concrete way and overcome depression. Using one’s anger is more useful than wallowing in grief and feeling powerless. We should take this energy and transform it into acts of positivity.

Mars may also simply be somehow weakened in a birth chart (in detriment or fall, for example, afflicted by “bad” Aspects, or retrograde), prompting a feeling of chronic dejection, a bout of depression, laziness, difficulty asserting oneself, and a general feeling that one’s potential is limited, along with a feeling of guilt. It may thus be useful to identify the Transits and Progressions that are activating it so that it’s possible to consciously work with this energy. Synchronicity and Projections may also allow you to meet someone for whom Synastry reveals an activation of your Mars : the presence and energy of this person will activate this energy in you.

You may also consciously make contact with Mars’ energy by examining both the house that it’s in in your birth chart and the cusps of Aries and Scorpio : in theory, there are always “embers” in these locations, and a conscious little breath of air could give your mental state a fresh start. For example, if Mars is in the 4th House in your birth chart, spice up your life at home, or if the cusp of Aries is in the 10th House, get more active in your socioprofessional life.

In the same vein, it may be helpful to get in touch with the rest of the Fire in your chart : Sagittarius, Leo, and the 1st House, 5th House, and 9th House. Take any ember you find ! You can also tap into the antagonistic energy of a Square or even a dynamic planet in its domicile.

Transits and Progressions exist in order to help us to understand things and learn. They punctuate our process of self-fulfillment.

Depression often puts a person face to face with their Shadow. It’s important to distinguish what is conscious from what is unconscious (see Visualization techniques for sub-personalities) : transits may reactivate the unconscious.

Through transits and progressions (specifically the ones that implicate hubs of activity in our chart), we realize that the death of a loved one, a break from an existing reality, the sudden understanding of our impermanence, disillusionment, and an awakening to Maya (who represents illusion in Hinduism) are all conditions that simply lead to the beginning, the activation, of a latent state of depression that’s already present in the astrological potential of one’s birth chart. Even chronic, endogenous depression has to have started somewhere. It has to have begun its life as nothing but a seedling rooted somewhere in the chart, and then it got stuck in one of the phases of depression for some unknown reason (possibly a “pessimistic” predisposition, Saturn or another slow-moving planet, the passive characteristics of Water dominating the chart, etc.).

The truth is that no matter which “bad” planets are in transit, they are actually nothing but the trigger for our depression : they activate a planet that has been repressed in our personality, and they touch this part of our lives that has been left “unlived” (or only partially experienced) and which has its roots in our childhood, full of unexpressed emotions which crystallize in our mind and then sap the energy of our adulthood until we fall into depression. But every transit, including those of Saturn, Pluto, or other “bad planets”, is also a driving force of fulfillment.

André Barbault in his book “From psychoanalysis to astrology” pointed out the following about transits :
“In practice, the object of a transit escapes us; we are able to retain the action, the verb, and subsequently the dispositions and feelings that result, but the object escapes us. We can think of the object of a transit as a possibility, that is to say the quality that we would most reasonably expect a particular event to have.
For example, a Venusian configuration in one’s early youth usually communicates the blossoming of a passionate love, especially if there is no dissonance. However, if this does occur, this tendency is still susceptible to change, deviation, repression, or sublimation. Thus, this long-awaited passionate love ultimately shows itself to be a passion for music and a feverish desire to go to night clubs, an infatuation with some new purchase, or simply access to inner peace.
In the event that the person is introverted, inhibited, or schizoid, this same configuration may not lead to any particular “event” or external act of destiny : the person’s soul seems to be happy with a state of consciousness that makes them feel fulfilled in the same way that an external event would. In this case, we have a novel with no object.
But we know that we always need to make our predictions in the context of the deeper, internal feelings that the person is feeling.”

Transits and progressions are forces and signs to aid us in understanding external events, above all but represent how we experience these events internally.

In any case, in the fight against depression, it’s important for the depressed person to respect the structure and limits of their temperament. Psychotherapy is a practice that one should not be ashamed of.
We also need to put the accent on the relationship between mind and body, as the two are linked like the two sides of a coin, the body often showing the signs of depression before we even become aware of the psychological issue.

I believe that, first of all, it’s important for the person not to consider their depression only as a sickness to the point of identifying only as a “depressed person” (with all of the pejorative connotations that this may have in our society, given its cult-like obsession with success), but rather to also see this trial as a developmental process that encourages them, for a time, to be in better contact with their feelings.

Strength of will is of course a good precondition, but it’s not always sufficient; depression has a strong influence on our personality, and the force of the unconscious is superior and can impose on our strength of will. Depression is what dictates our actions, or rather our inaction, and the afflicted person just has to suffer through it, which is why it’s hard for someone who is depressed to seek out help : they are not even in touch with the reality of their condition ! When someone is depressed, the ego breaks down, and so it needs to be reinforced to help the person face life more confidently.

Friedrich Nietzsche said : “He who has a ‘why’ to live for can bear almost any ‘how’.”

Finding meaning in a depressive episode is one of the keys to integrating this hardship and overcoming it : someone who is able to find and experience meaning in their life can tolerate any difficulty, almost as though they were galvanized.
We can never succeed without a motivation, or without a compelling reason (for this we should examine Pluto and the other slow-moving planets, as well as the Lunar Nodes and the Black moon). These motivations may in extreme cases be pleasure or fear, and psychological complexes are also powerful driving forces. The pain that they cause us forces us to change the momentum of our personality.
The steps of re-evaluating, wanting to get out of your situation, and accepting change form a series of phases that are important to go through.

Psychotherapy may help a person to openly show their unhappiness. It’s very important to verbalize certain thoughts, because verbalizing them means giving them a concrete reality; they come out from the Shadow of the unconscious and surface in the conscious. Only once we are faced with this reality can we help it to evolve.
Anger is a powerful feeling : it must be fully felt and faced to be understood. It’s more helpful to us than despair, as it forces us to move and to stimulate our creative side.
Using sports as a release of tension can help to dissipate some of our anger, because often sleep is not enough to purge our excess anger that has accumulated. Likewise, altered states of consciousness, like those achieved through meditation, are more effective and work on a deeper level. Meditation can dissolve various feelings even after they have solidified (Mars, Neptune, Pluto, etc.) in cases where sleep is insufficient.
It’s also important to know that these negative feelings can be projected and surface in the context of our social relationships (see Synastry).

In addition to verbalization, painting and writing can help to externalize these energies, which may sometimes be unconscious, as can certain Visualization techniques.

The content of our dreams is also an important factor to take in to account ! I will not get into the details of dream interpretation here, as this would require many pages, but I recommend writing down your dreams and analyzing them, even though they may seem absurd. It’s important to reflect on their meaning and on the feelings that they give rise to within us; they often indicate a changing phase in a complex psychological process.

Frequently, depressed individuals feel absolutely nothing, and paradoxically it’s when they start to feel bad that their depression evolves and that their newfound awareness may lead them to pull themselves together.
The critical moment of transition in this process is coming out of one’s depression; a psychological whirlwind forms with feelings that are extremely intense and often completely contradictory : the joy of seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, the guilt of bad moments in one’s past, a new beginning in life mixed with the retention of inner conflicts that linger on.
Coming out of depression occurs as a result of socialization in some form; Individuation always involves some form of active, conscious participation in society.

It’s important for those close to a person suffering from depression not to think that this person is taking pleasure from their hardship. On the contrary, these people should arm themselves with patience, tolerance, and understanding.
If the afflicted person’s ego is not sufficiently separated and well-structured, they will not really be aware of the impact that they have on those around them, and neither will they take responsibility for their actions. They may feel guilty—and beat themselves up—but not feel true remorse : as long as they do not understand, trying to point fingers at them is often not the best technique.

We can hope that when our depression is over, the underlying possibilities shown by our birth chart that have been activated will have been fully integrated into our personality, consciously and effectively, in our daily lives.
If the person has gained true understanding and if their process of depression has come to a close (keep an eye on Pluto), then they must have developed new paths of thought that allow them to bypass old, repetitive processes that are obsolete. They no longer see death, separation, or solitude from the same perspective: their perception has changed.

There is undoubtedly a difference between a one-time depressive episode and chronic endogenous depression. The latter is much more deeply rooted in the conscious psyche and the unconscious; its energies are always present, but with time we can also learn to divert them into more positive channels that agree with our north node (see Lunar Nodes).

The return of one’s self-confidence, the enjoyment of freedom, faith in the future, and sometimes faith in God are just a few of the benefits that accompany the end of one’s depression. It’s important not to worry : the sun always comes out after a rainstorm !