Astrology and the Language of the Body

In Hamlet, Shakespeare wrote "What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason", and Leonardo da Vinci made his now-famous drawing of a man with arms wide-spread, inside a circle and a square. Both are celebrations of the human body, and of the potential the body offers in terms of experiencing the environment and the world around us.

We can turn to astrological psychology and the natal chart to help understand the body, and its need for health and well-being. Saturn is the planet which gives us a sense of ourselves through the body - Saturn is matter, the physical, with structures and systems at work in the body such as the skeletal system, the digestive system, the respiratory system and so on. These are all organised into a cohesive whole with each system interdependent. When these systems are functioning healthily, we are healthy.

The House Axes

Chart with tension on 4/10 axis

Using the House axes in the chart we can identify problems which can arise in the body, on the physical level. Tension in the natal chart is created by oppositions aspects or by a stellium of planets in a house. On the vertical 4/10 Individuality house axis this tension can give information about, for example, back and postural problems. On the horizontal 1/7 Encounter axis and the 6/12 Existence axis, tensions here can tell us about potential problems with the immune system. Bruno Huber studied and researched this in depth, lecturing and writing about medical astrology and how to use it alongside astrological psychology.

The attribution of the 5 senses is made to planets Mars, Venus, Saturn, Mercury and Jupiter. Saturn is related to our tactile function; Jupiter is vision and sight, Mars our sense of smell.

You can find out much more about this in the Pisces Book of the Month, Astrology 2: Family, Relationships and Health, which includes an article by Bruno Huber on The Language of the Body. His Results of 20 years Research into Medical Astrology is covered in the Astrological Seminars Vol. 1 booklet available only from the APA Bookshop