Least Aspected Planet

Source of Great Inner Strength

How would you describe the nature of the Transcendental energy?

The Primary Transcendental represents a source of great inner strength and meaning. It is “Transcendental” because it represents a transcendence of the dualism (or the block) between the conscious and the unconscious; between the ego and the higher Self. It represents a specific form of spiritual yearning and the existential direction we will explore throughout life.
Least aspected or Transcendental planets represent focal points of psychic strength. They symbolize who and what we are at a core level. Conversely, most aspected or Leading Planets often represent primitive, outmoded patterns of behavior. Certain behaviors, although unproductive, remain habitual and lead us to one-sidedness or to a lack of emotional balance......Rob Couteau

Pure Energy

What makes such energies special is that, when under aspected, the planetary principle is unfettered. It is pure, so to speak; it is its own master. It can express itself without being tied down, through aspect, to other planetary focal points.

Spiritual Yearning

Under aspected planets symbolize not only our spiritual yearning but also a tal­ent, force, and power with which we have been gifted: an enor­mously fecund source of vitality, energy, and strength.

Return to Center

Most importantly, they describe something within us of crucial import: a point, a center, a spark, toward which all psychic factors must eventually turn, i.e., the numinous entity symbolized by the Primary Transcendental.

Task to completed in this Lifetime.

The Least Aspected Planet symbolizes the task that we have been called upon to complete in this lifetime.

Chart Core

The Least Aspected Planet is the central focal point of the birth chart. It portrays the larger archetypal pattern we are dealing with at the core of the chart.

Relocation & Focus

Relocation to the region of these key Tran­scendentals will enhance the planetary principles in question and help the native to focus on his goals.

Secondary and Third Least Aspected Planet

Secondary and Third Least Aspected Planets are Auxiliaries or helpers which should help us move us forward if operating properly.

Most Aspected Planet

Hyper-conscious

Most Aspected planet, (MAP) Hypo of hyper-conscious tendencies and habitual responses. Do not represent a deeper, more transcendental mission. Should be placed in service to the Least Aspected Planet (LAP). Must be directed to central spiritual goal.

Zones of Intensity

When the lines of the most- and least aspected planets intersect (or are found in proximity), this is called a “Zone of Intensity.” Such zones symbolize challenging locations where the question of integrating most- and least aspected energies becomes paramount.

Ascendant, Mid-heaven, Descendant, Imum Coeli

“Lords of the Four Quarters”

When the least aspected planet is in proximity to the “Lords of the Four Quarters”–the four cardinal angles within a horoscope–we find it operating in an especially powerful, meaningful fashion.

Transcendental Houses

The role of the Transcendental House is usually of great symbolic significance.

Progressions, Transits,

Solar Returns

The role of the Least Aspected Planet should always be considered when analyzing dynamic symbols, such as transits, solar returns, and progressions, as well as the more static factors in the horoscope.

Masculine – Yang

Female - Yin

Someone with Least Aspected Planet of Primary Sun, Second­ary Mars, and Tertiary Saturn is, thematically speaking, focused on the spectrum of yang (or masculine) planets:

Someone with entirely yin (or feminine) planets, as there Least Aspected Planets, would be more focused on the soulful, “merging” aspect of psychic energy.

Transcendental

Mid Point Field

Ttwo or three of these least aspected planets planetary lines may form a pattern (of wedge-shaped or parallel lines) in proximity to each other, indicating that the area between them is highly charged (and therefore, is filled with positive potential). This is a Transcendental Midpoint Field

Location, Location,

Location

Best location may thus be in the Transcendental Midpoint-Field (TMF), especially near its narrowest. The additional presence of a Tertiary Tran­scendental moving through the TMF may further narrow the choice, as would the addition of other underaspected planets (rated 130 or less) that pass through a TMF.

North Node

and Life of Native

North Node may indicate locations where important personal meetings have occurred; it may also point to the birthplace of people who have played an important role in the life of the native. Transcendental Node regions* are especially important when they coincide with the vicinity of the Primary or Secondary Planet or with the Transcendental Midpoint-Field formed between them.

The role of the least aspected or Transcendental Planet highlighted by

•Birth under or near the line of Primary Transcendental Planet.
•Relocation (or temporary travel) near the Primary or Secondary Transcen­dental. A temporary relocation often results in a “Transcendental experience”: a meaningful event that marks one’s psychic development.
•Through insight and emotional development, often initially expressed as a spiritual yearning. Remarkable natures learn to unite the ego-will with the unconscious Will. What the unconscious has in store, in the deepest sense, is often symbolized by the least aspected planet.1 .....Rob Couteau

Jung's

Mysterium Tremen-dum Mysterium Fascinans

With the inherent limits of our ego-bound perceptual processes, we can only chip off a tiny piece of the godhead, and that piece will serve as a guiding stone: like a magnetized compass that points to the unknown and that beckons us to follow, no matter the trepidation, fear, or horror (mysterium tremen­dum); no matter the bliss, intoxication, or joy (mysterium fascinans). That is the nature of the numinous. The underaspected planet sym­bolizes this. It represents a crucial aspect of the future Self: an expression of the higher Will, of the unknowable spirit that attempts to lead us toward meaning. .....Rob Couteau

Leeast Aspected Planet (LAP), Jung and The Transcendental Function

The Least Aspected Planet's free, unfettered energy symbolizes something positioned at a crossroads between the conscious and the unconscious realms. Historically, the closest analogy to such a “numinous connection” or “numinous consciousness” is reflected in Jung’s definition of a transcendent function: the function that links and unites each realm. Jung has described it as a bridge that links the opposites and creates a new or “third” thing.

Jung's – Hegel

&

Numinous Consciousness

As Jung has demonstrated in his studies, the creation of a numinous con­sciousness is assisted by the transcendent function. This is a term I assume he borrowed from Hegel, which he defines as a “uniting function that transcends [the] tension of opposites.” Therefore, the transcendent function is a “psychic function that arises from the tension between con­sciousness and the unconscious and supports their union.”9
Since the least aspected planet is portrayed as an isolated energy (due to lack of aspect interaction), it symbolizes an energy that is less reflective of such conflicts of opposites. In that sense, the LAP serves the same role as the transcendent function. Therefore, its numinous quality is probably not coinciden­tal. The LAP serves as a focal point through which several antithetical views (or energetic tensions) come into parity–since it stands not only aside from them but, also, above them, transcending their dualism. As such, it is the ter­tium non datur or “reconciling third.” “[Nature] acts symbolically in the truest sense of the word, doing something that expresses both sides, just as a waterfall visibly mediates between above and below.”10 .....Rob Couteau

Origin of Mythological or

Spiritual Experiences

1. It was in this sense that Jung spoke of “autonomous movements of the unconscious”: eruptions of archetypal material, but minus any causal connection to external personal experience: “It requires a very close contact with the unconscious, and an understanding of it, for a man to realize that the origin of his mythological or spiritual experiences is within himself, and that whatever forms these experiences may appear to take, they do not in fact come from the external world.” Analytical Psychology, p. 132.

Approach to the Numinous

2. “The main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neurosis but rather with the approach to the numinous. But the fact is that the approach to the numinous is the real therapy and inasmuch as you attain to the numinous experiences you are released from the curse of pathology.” Carl Jung, C. G. Jung Letters, vol. 1, letter to P. W. Martin, p. 377. (Special thanks to Douglas Boyd of Galaxy: Archetypal Astrol­ogy (online) for reminding me of this fine quote.)

Primary and

Secondary Transcendentals

reflect complimentary

For example, the pairing of Sun / Moon describes the most personal or individual development of “self” (Sun) and “soul” (Moon) experience.

Mars / Venus continue this devel­opment into the interpersonal level of relationship, with complimentary qualities such as “desire” (Mars) and “harmony” (Venus).

Jupiter / Sat­urn symbolize social-collective issues, such as “social organization” (Saturn) and “collective representations of the soul” (Jupiter).

Neptune / Pluto emphasize trans-personal dimensions of being, including experiences that reflect a “transcendence of personal identity” (Pluto) and a “merging of the personal soul with the anima mundi or world soul” (Neptune).

With Mercury and Uranus–planetary energies that either combine (Mer­cury) or transcend (Uranus) yin and yang categories–we have the formation of “cognition and communication” (Mercury) combined with a “divinely inspired, intu­itively reformed consciousness” (Uranus).

The Uranus / Mercury Transcendental pairing unites “knowledge of what we are” (Mercury) with the gnosis of “what we are meant to be” (Uranus). As illustrated in our biographies, these represent several possible planetary pairings.

Planets near

Four Cardinal Points

Michel Gauquelin claimed that notable achievers were born with a higher percentage of certain planets near the four cardinal points, yet the rising and culminating angles hosted the greatest number of significant planets. The orb around the rising angle was the largest, the culminating the second largest, the setting the third, and the apparent midnight position the smallest.

Female Evolution

The Moon, Venus, and Jupiter, Neptune represent successive stages in the Yin or Female evolution of consciousness ..

Male Evolution

The Sun, Mars, Saturn and Pluto represent the Yang or masculine evolution of consciousness.