FOREWORD
CULTIVATING THE INNER PATH
JOHN D. GROVE
I met Jennifer at a signing event for her first book, The Science of Planetary Signatures in Medicine, where she wrote “Thank you for supporting my work. May you be inspired by what you read and trust in life's process. All is well.” A few weeks later, we met at a local café to further explore our common passion for astrology, psychology, and planetary symbolism. I shared the thesis of my book Dreams and Astrological Psychology (2014), and my background in the Huber method for which I received an advanced diploma from the Huber-affiliated Astrological Psychology Association. During our meeting, Jennifer agreed to an analysis of her natal chart using the Huber method. As our conversation progressed, I felt as though I was sitting across from a “Mediatrix,” a facilitator of planetary vibrations at the subatomic level for the purpose of reconstructing psychic-soma balance. On the day she came for her reading, I explained that with the Huber method each chart pattern evokes intuitive images, and her chart reminded me of “a radar receiver in space anchored to a satellite far away from the Earth.” At that moment, it struck me that Jennifer is an ambassador of intergalactic intelligence with a mission to bring forth cosmic wisdom and healing.
As we continued to collaborate and hold discussions regarding astrology and its relevance to clinical psychology, we discussed the parallels between Sedna's discovery chart and Jennifer's own natal chart, each having a pronounced Scorpio-Leo dynamic. In Jennifer's chart, there is a Scorpio stellium (Neptune, Venus, Mercury, Sun) in the first house, which has to do with identity, behavior, and appearance. Astrologically speaking, this describes an individual with an intense capacity to focus on the deeper issues and psychological insights (Scorpio) regarding spirituality (Neptune), relationships and resources (Venus), communication and education (Mercury), all of which she embodies and expresses (Sun). With her North Node, Moon, and Mars in Leo at the top of the chart in the ninth and tenth houses respectively, her mission is that of pulling the mysterious and “occult” information (Scorpio) into the light of conscious, creative, joyful expression (Leo) in the houses related to career and publishing or broadcasting. In Sedna's chart, the Leo Ascendant combined with the South Node and Sun in Scorpio also corresponds to transforming darkness into light, a notably shamanic process. With the planetary rulers of the nodes (Venus and Pluto) conjunct in Sedna's fifth house, the natural domain for Leo, we see the invitation to unite past (South Node) and future (North Node) experiences through creative expression in the present that wants to celebrate life. More importantly, the fifth house energy is one of being able to “trust in life's process.”
Jennifer's natal chart.
It is clear from Jennifer's chart as well as Sedna's that emotional pain and trauma has been a necessary rite of passage so that experiences may be transformed and reborn into the light and expressed without blame or shame. This is the heart of Sedna's message: to see the value in all experiences and to allow the emotions they evoke, however painful, to be acknowledged and expressed for the purpose of transcending victim-persecutor consciousness. The opposition in Sedna's discovery chart between Sedna in the tenth house and the Sun in the fourth house describes Sedna's difficulty in being able to express her truth as an authority figure and establish her home in the world. Jennifer's life has paralleled this experience of the Sedna myth and journey as communities steeped in empirical traditions are unable to honor the principle of synchronicity.
In Jennifer's natal chart Sedna sits in the sixth house and forms a quincunx to her Sun in the first house. This aspect between the Sun and Sedna suggests the inevitability and necessity for advanced soul level work around issues of emotional abandonment, betrayal, and feeling unseen and unheard. With the placement of Sedna in her sixth house, Jennifer has had to endure many hardships with regard to establishing herself and her particular brand of service in the material world. The Huber method describes sixth house psychological processes as those related to “coping and establishing existence, professional crisis, and defensive life situations.” As an astrologer, colleague, and friend, I have witnessed her resilience and resolution in continuing to broadcast her truth and put service above financial reward.
In The Science of Planetary Signatures in Medicine, Jennifer points out that in mathematics (upon which science relies for statistics) we have both rational and irrational numbers. Rational numbers can be duplicated whereas irrational numbers, such as pi and phi, duplicate a “process” whereby numbers continue into infinity. Both rational and irrational numbers serve a purpose within mathematics and, as Jennifer illustrates, teach us something about life. On the one hand, we have rationality that depends upon repetition as a way to determine an outcome. On the other, we have “irrationality” that uses a process to discover something new.
Conventional science seeks the repetition of an outcome as the means for determining the validity of something. However, this method excludes the other side of “all reality”—that which is infinitely creative and unknowable. The Italian psychiatrist and founder of psychosynthesis, Roberto Assagioli (1888–1974), stated that the scientific community “has a reluctance to admit the existence of non-rational reality and values. It confuses the super-rational with the irrational or even antirational.”1 It is this denial of the non-rational side of reality that has created a culture where many, especially women, have been ridiculed for trusting their intuitive perceptions.
It is fitting that Jennifer's new book The Return of Planet Sedna coincides with the “Me Too Movement,” for there needs to be support reflected by the example of a myth like Sedna's journey to balance the male-dominated culture of today. Jennifer's quest to bring Sedna to consciousness can provide a path of validation and inspiration for women who seek a level playing field. More importantly, Sedna's return holds the message for both men and women to create a new vision of society in which both genders, regardless of sexual orientation, have work to do around respecting each other as equals.
We all have been conditioned to neglect inner work and abandon the qualities of intuition and nurturing. Our economic system, founded upon competition, aggression, and material “success,” has led to an attitude of extreme entitlement and ownership. Jennifer's work frees both men and women from the archaic patterns of relating to one another in which dominance and submission play a major role. Instead, all humans benefit from cultivating the inner path of self-discovery that leads to an attitude of stewardship, sharing, and respect for all life and earth's resources.
Whereas historical patriarchal dominance in society created a scientific bias in the search for truth, the transpersonal inspiration that comes from Jennifer's voice speaks to the collective consciousness of a new generation. She has taken Sedna from her long-time home in the darkness and neglect of subterranean realms and projected her myth into the twenty-first century, resulting in the potential of Universal Love for all sentient beings. Jennifer's explanation of Sedna mythology deserves its rightful place as an equal among the stories of Prometheus and others from the Greco-Roman tradition. She has vivified the symbolic feminine nurturer who has been demonized for centuries. Rather than replacing a patriarchal myth, Sedna blends the masculine energy of visible action with the mystery and hidden potential governed by the feminine principle.
In familiarizing ourselves with Sedna's message and identifying those parts that have been “left for dead,” abandoned and betrayed both in self and society, we can create new pathways of understanding for all. There is hope in Sedna's message that will not only inspire readers with a new sense of self-discovery, it will bring forth much needed healing and connectivity for our planet.
John D. Grove holds an advanced diploma from the Astrological Psychology Association and is a licensed psychotherapist and astrological psychology practitioner who has a private practice in Altoona, Pennsylvania. In addition to astrological psychology, his areas of expertise in mental health counseling include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, couples and family counseling, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality analysis, and dream analysis. In addition to a master's degree in human development from Fairleigh-Dickinson University, he also holds a master of social work degree from the University of Pittsburgh and is recently retired from the Department of Veterans' Affairs where he was chief of social work. He is the author of two books, Dreams and Astrological Psychology: The Way through the Maze of the Unconscious (2014) and Life Passages: When Age Point Aspects and Dreams Coincide (2017).