Astropsychology and Projection
(an ongoing  body, mind and soul dialogue)
by Gwynne Mayer

Recently I have been thinking of the way we retraumatize ourselves over and over again by feeding our complexes....I am thinking this as I read charts and see that the symbols represent real archetypes and real people in our lives, the aspects to those symbols tell us how we have experienced those real people, mother/father/siblings/friends/lovers...... It is a major accomplishment when doing readings/consultations with people as well in my own chart (I must have read my own chart over 1000 times during the years) to clear up, having to define what was 'really' going on in the past, seeing without the filters of the 'projected delusion' or 'coloring' of what we thought surrounded that projection.  I recently wrote this on the Jung Forum and want to share with you all because projection of our own chart symbology represents many of the ways we see others in our lives and  can often be the seed of complexes that have prevented us from living a full life. (www.kaleidoscope-forum.org/talk/)  We find ways of keeping these projections in place sort of as a false altar to justify the complexes we have.

I picked up a book in my little home library the other day entitled Reflections of The Soul --- projection and re-collection in jungian psychology by Marie-Louise von Franz.  She always writes her Jung thoughts in language that I understand without having to reinterpret.  What the book brought home to me is that projection lies deeply in the reformulation of the way we saw things as a child, and continues to color the 'real life' with that coloring from childhood...we cling to our projections and put them on others so that we don't have to become clear about who or what that person really 'was' or 'is'.

In this statement Von Franz speaks about the trauma caused from delving into the projection rather than seeing it as an 'error in thinking'.

"The difference between projection and common error is that an error can be corrected, without difficulty, by better information and then dissolve like morning fog in the sunlight.  In the case of projection, on the other hand, the subject doing the projecting defends himself in most cases strenously against correction, or, if he accepts correction, he then falls into a depression.  He consequently appears to be diminished or disillusioned because the psychic energy that was invested in the projection has not flowed back to the subject but has been cut off."

Our complexes are made up of various projections and when we are counseled or individuating to understand the nature of our projections, we often defend them with irrational containment, refusing to give over the energies that protect that projection so that we don't have to change our outer lives, keeping on attracting the same kinds of people to further our complexes and cement them in place.

"Jung defined projection as an unconscious, that is, unperceived and unintentional transfer of subjective psychic elements (makes up a complex) onto an outer object.  One sees in this object something that is not there, or, if there, only to a small degree.  Seldom if ever, is nothing of what is projected present in the object." 

Reader: dear Gwynne, what good reflections that that you've here. this is somehow i've felt about our own complexes. i think we rely on projections to keep a sense of self being valid enough to go on in life. even though it would turn out to be an illusion people prefer the illusions than feeling inadequate. after all many peple never get out of the depressions because they've not learned to draw a sense from the depression.

GM: The key to getting 'out' of the depression, is to 'sink' into the depression with intention of finding/journaling what is within that deep dark well of unconscious gold that surrounds our projections. That usually means that we have to perform psychic surgery on what we find and it can only be seen in symbolic representation until it makes sense in our 'outer world'....before it can ever be integrated...von Franz says this about that:

"What is known as integration in modern psychology is thus a remarkable and complicated process, in which a hitherto unconscious psychic content is brought repeatedly into the view of the conscious ego and recognized as belonging to its own personality.  In the process this content is changed in its functioning and effects."

Reader: maybe traumatizing oneself again and again is an archetypal act. i think of people with Saturn square the nodes. i think of the myth of Sisyphus. i think the way that the SELF arrange our lives, i think of the myths interwoven among people that we encounter. all this is too complicated. maybe we project because we need to experience them as part of our own myth.

GM: Right on!! One of the more difficult aspects of psychic surgery is Plutonian....and in every way a Pluto aspect.  Those who have Pluto conjunctions usually can have the strength and fortitude to withstand the onslaught of unconscious material coming to them full force in dreams/fantasies and from the outer world.

Another response:
Gwynne,
This is why i constantly sound like a broken record when it comes to projections.   The main key is to recognize a projection i'm in the midst of.  What are the criteria to grasping MYSELF when it is in the midst of a projection?  It is totally different in the east.  They have a 100% different approach to projections. 

In the west here is my list for catching my projections:

1)  On a scale of 0-10 how YANKED do i feel?  What is my gut doing?  Is it feeling yanked like a dog on a chain?  If so is it 5 or more?

GM: Yes...I can see how that works and I trust my gut brain at all costs.  I doubt if many tune in to that part of themselves, but instead take it all in as 'truth' therefore impaling themselves on the truth sword.

Reader: 2)  If someone points out to me that i'm projecting, what is my reaction on a scale of 0-10?  Is it 5 or more?  If it's 5 or more i know i'm in trouble and i have to really get to work.

GM: You bet! that is how it works around here as well, when someone becomes very defensive and offensive....it is somehow wound around their ownership of the projection......of course only that person will know the truth of this statement.

Reader: 3)  The PULL of a projection, when caught quickly is the greatest tool going.  To train oneself to notice and grasp and rate the PULL of a projection---regardless of whether or not it is pleasant or unpleasant---is a great tool.  The only way to do this is to be able to WITNESS my thoughts/speech/actions.

So how to become a credible witness to one's own thoughts/speech/actions....it is the root of finding one's best road toward individuation.  It is a dead givaway to therapists to watch this interaction. To not be able to have the space to witness my thoughts--speech--actions is a great disadvantage when dealing w/ projections.  It is the mind that brings about liberation.  That mind when it goes out thru the senses brings about bondage.  The same mind when turned inward towards the self brings about liberation. 

GM: I have to add here that the mind may be somewhat liberated but I have found in the last twenty years, after studying intensely the nature of body work and emotional content within the cellular structure that projections bound us to a physical prison and often cause dis ease.....that which we do not own with our body, mind and soul stays put in the background.