The Astrological Keys to the Myth of Icarus

The keys

In an astrological chart, the myth of Icarus is placed on the Gemini-Sagittarius axis. With several planets in these two signs and/or with the ruler of the Ascendant or even the Black Moon, but we'll leave the Black Moon aside for the moment.

There must be the I (“Identity”) factors in Sagittarius and Gemini, Sun-Moon, Mercury or the ruler of the Ascendant or, for example, a Sagittarius Ascendant with a Moon in Gemini. The 3rd and 9th house axis is also a sign of the Icarus myth in our chart. With this house axis, we often see people who are interested in aviation, because they enter the realm of experience and, in fact, they act out the myth. The ideal is also to have a dominant or important Mars in our chart because in this myth Mars corresponds to the dynamism of elevation, to the force of ascent. So, if we have a Gemini-Sagittarius rising or, a rising in the 3rd-9th houses and, an important Mars, we have an Icarus myth in our natal chart.

Of course, there are variations: if there is more Gemini, it will be more Daedalus; if there is more Sagittarius, it will be more Icarus; and there may also be Taurus, in which case it will be more Minos.

With the black moon

If, for example, we have a Black Moon in Sagittarius, we inevitably have a Priape in Gemini and we have an Icarus myth, but our Icarus myth is ontological, which is the reading plane of the Black Moon unicorn. This means that we have an Icarus myth but that we repress it, that it is the structure of our soul but that there are layers of anguish that prevent its realisation for the moment. We then need to see how it fits into the cross of the black moon to see how it can be unlocked. This is generally true: if we have a Black Moon in Cancer, we have a repressed, rejected Narcissus myth, unless of course the Moon is ruler of the ascendant in Cancer and forms a set with the Black Moon. But in general, the myth corresponding to the sign of our Black Moon is both fascinating and forbidden. So it's not the I, the subject, that will carry the myth, but the Self. For many reasons, it will be difficult to access, but on the other hand, it will be more fundamental than any other myth we might have in our chart, precisely because it is carried by the Self. This means that it is more essential and that it will be the sign that brings us the most jubilation when we start to touch it.

Icarus and the zodiac

The trin, Lion and Aries

To read the myth of Icarus on the zodiac, we'll start with the Gemini-Sagittarius axis. As we have seen, Taurus will be Minos, Gemini will be the labyrinth and Icarus' flight will be Sagittarius. The Sagittarius-Lion trine will be the quest for the Sun, and the other trine with Aries will be enthusiasm, the upward force. The two keys to accomplishing the great journey are therefore Leo, the awareness of the Sun, i.e. awareness that a better world is possible and the Aries, to make it happen. To do this, the Icarian in Sagittarius will have to be wary of the labyrinth of the Gemini opposition by selecting his knowledge, in the sense that all liberal arts-type knowledge will enable him to free himself from the pea that the myth conveys, whereas all knowledge of the accumulation of information type will be a trap.

The square, Virgo-Pisces

The squares are breaks in patterns that allow the myth to take a decisive turn. With Pisces, Icarus drowns; paradoxically, it's the fall that allows him to take the decisive turn. In other words, all these periods of depression and disillusionment for Icarus are the means that allow him to enrich his experience, to strengthen himself, to understand why he knows how to deceive, in short, to have more honey (Neptune) to climb back towards the sun.

A brief interlude

We live in a world whose heart is the stock market. The stock market is Icarian because we count on it when it rises and are disappointed when it falls, so we live on a system of imaginary exaltation when it rises and despair when it falls. The author talks about the pathological nature of the stock market when it is based solely on speculation. Normally, the stock market is there to finance companies, but when it becomes speculative, we see a yo-yo movement, up and down, up and down, up and down, which is exactly the rise and fall of Icarus. In psychological terms, Icarus' pathology is manic depression, with moments of exaltation and moments of collapse: when things go up, you're happy, and when they go down, you fall into depression. The heart of our system is based on manic depression. The financial system that organises our economic life is located in a place called Wall Street, which is in a constant state of manic depression. We can see the extent to which the myth of Icarus has been incarnated in our reality.

The Pisces represents honey, Glaukos. What will break the Gemini-Sagittarius pattern is honey, awareness of the sacred and contact with the shamanic worlds. Because once you see the sacred and/or the worlds of mystery, you can't go back and resume your life as before. What you have to leave behind is Virgo's rationality. This is the descending square to Sagittarius which represents a pattern that must be left behind, Virgo, and the ascending square to Sagittarius will create a metamorphosis, Pisces.

Sextiles, Libra-Verseau.

Sextiles between Libra and Aquarius can help Icarus. The sign of Libra is fascinating. Why did Icarus fall? Quite simply because of his lack of balance, which affected the functioning of his ears. The ears ensure the body's balance, which is why our wings act as ears. So what helps us? For flight, ensuring that we are in harmony means checking that we are in tune with our life. The centre of harmony is found in the heart, which beats in a regular rhythm like systole-diastole/systole-diastole, and links heaven and earth. The scales also symbolise bodily balance, representing the kidneys and reminding us to check that our wings are aligned to avoid falling. Depending on how we perceive ourselves, we can balance the left and right sides of our brain, as well as our masculine and feminine natures. However, it is important to ensure that these opposing forces are in harmony and communicate with each other, which is the role of the balance. Another guide on Icarus' journey is Aquarius, who represents the freedom we gain by not always respecting our father's word. For Aquarius, disobeying the father represents a transgression of the law.

Quincunxes, Cancer Taurus

The concept of a quincunx can be difficult to grasp. In the case of the Taurus, we see the enemy of Minos with Daedalus and Icarus. This confirms the logic of quincunxes. On the other hand, Cancer does not feature prominently in the myth, which indicates that the signs of the quincunxes are either virtually absent or difficult to integrate.

Bees in the myth of Icarus

In fact, the bee plays an important role in the myth. It appears with Minos, symbolically with the wax from Icarus' wings, and accompanies Glaukos, showing the three ways out of the labyrinth. The bee's appearance is characterised by its yellow and black stripes. Originally, they lived in caves and during the day performed the sun dance to indicate the location of pollen-rich flowers. It is linked to light and shade by its morphology and behaviour, alternating between life in the cave and in the sun. The myth links gold and black, peat and the yearning for light, as well as the quest for truth and the exploration of shadows. The bee helps us to understand the myth, by illustrating the alliance between the quest for the sublime and the descent into the depths, into the cave, into its darkness.

Icarus only went in search of the sublime by trying to reach the sun, Daedalus stayed in the mundane in the name of his intellectual game of having fun answering any ridiculous question, and Glaukos also drowned in the light.

The ancient Greeks believed that bees were born from the intestines of sacrificed animals. One story has it that bees were born by a kind of spontaneous generation from the decomposing intestines of animals sacrificed to the gods. The bee was born from the labyrinth of intestines. As a reminder, the bee was the emblem of the Merovingians. It represents the soul, the essential part of consciousness that is born from the experience of the gut, i.e. experience in the world, and which is a mixture of darkness and clarity. The bee has learned to draw something vital from its experiences, good or bad, to feed its soul with honey or, in simpler terms, MEANING.

The disappearance of the bee is no longer just an ecological problem but also a symbolic one; the soul of our world is suffering because of a society that aims too high and risks falling like Icarus.

Astrological example of the myth of Icarus

The author gives a few examples of famous people.

What are the clues to the myth of Icarus in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's chart?

The Gemini-Sagittarius axis is enhanced because there is a Jupiter-Uranus North Node in Sagittarius and a Mars-Neptune-Pluto South Node in Gemini. Moreover, Antoine de SE also had a Narcissus myth with the Moon-Mercury conjunction, ruler of the Virgo Ascendant, and the Sun in Cancer. Another important point is his dominant Mars on the cusp of the Midheaven, which gives ascension strength.

The question is, what are the clues to the myth in Saint-Exupéry's life? His father died when Antoine was a child, although this is not always the case. The disappearance of a father, which can be the absence of the father for several reasons, or the fact that the child left the family environment at an early age, is one of the clues to the myth of Icarus. As a result, Saint-Exupéry remained very close to his mother, who is linked in his horoscope to the myth of Narcissus, and he corresponded with her throughout his life. With Mercury ruling the Virgo ascendant, he communicated with his mother through writing, with whom he identified psychologically. Another reference to the myth of Icarus can be found in the first part of the presentation, when he meets an aviator who offers him a first flight. When the aviator asks Antoine if his parents agree, he lies and takes his first flight in an aeroplane. So it is by lying that he fulfils his destiny.

He did his military service in order to be close to planes and was initially recruited as a mechanic. We can see that the Virgo ascendant works and that it is an aid to Icarus that will allow Saint-Exupéry to fulfil his destiny, just like the lie. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry had a dozen falls during his career as an aviator, the last of which was fatal, and you know the story: he fell in a nose dive into the Mediterranean, exactly repeating the myth of Icarus. By dominating March, he embodied the myth on an eventual level, so that the processes of ascent and fall were repeated a dozen times. On one of his first solo flights, he barely landed because the plane was on fire, a fine illustration of the Icarus myth: he had burnt his wings. This serious incident enabled him to reveal his composure and mastery, as he would later say: "Flying is not a goal, but a means of building myself. It was through his repeated falls that he consolidated his courage and built his personality. In 1921, he was offered the chance to join the air force, but he gave up in the face of opposition from his fiancée's family and became a lorry salesman. This, of course, was no consolation for him. We can see what happened here: he stayed in his mother's womb for a while, in the sense that his fiancée's family prevented him from fulfilling his destiny, and so it was the protective social pressure that prevented him from fulfilling his destiny. This is very important for an Icarian, because social pressure, in the interests of our well-being and security, will lead us to a state of depression. On the other hand, Saint Exupéry travelled a lot with his Sagittarius-Gemini axis, and whenever he was forced to stop because of injuries, he started writing, bringing out his Virgo ascendant. While Sagittarius wanted to travel to the five corners of the world, life forced him to return to his Virgo ascendant. In 1944, he re-enlisted in the army, but his superiors imposed a limit of 5 missions. Despite their orders, he decided to carry out 9 missions, ignoring the word of his father (his superiors). During his ninth mission, he was shot down over the Mediterranean.

Another quote from Saint-Exupéry: "The aeroplane is not a goal, it is the tool that enables us to discover the essential foundation, the bedrock of rock, sand and salt where life sometimes blossoms. It allows us to better understand our limits and to better define our strengths.So it was through aviation that he built wings of flesh.

Another image to consider comes from his many journeys during which he tried to domesticate wild animals, inviting them aboard his plane for a first flight. This is interesting because he sought to elevate the animals, thus expressing a symbolic quest to elevate humanity towards greater consciousness and light.

The question that Icarus asked himself, and that Sait-Exupery asked himself, was how to build man by emancipating himself from the ancestral lineage, at the risk of falling, to get out of the labyrinth?

Rudyard Kipling

Kipling's Icarus myth is found in the Moon in midheaven in Gemini and Mercury, ruler of the ascendant, in a planetary cluster in which Mars is one of the dominants, since it is the slowest in the cluster in Sagittarius. Like Saint-Exupéry, Kipling had a Virgo ascendant and was a writer.

Kipling's downfall was his social recognition. In other words, he was recognised for his books, which were works that spoke of British colonisation, glorifying colonialism, patriotism, and so on.

So it's obvious that when those systems collapsed, so did he.

A few biographical details about Kipling

Kipling was born on 30 December 1865 in India and was sent to a British boarding school where he was mistreated. He said this: if you interrogate a child of 7 or 8 about his activities during the day, especially when he falls asleep, he will contradict himself quite satisfactorily. If every contradiction is pinpointed as a lie and reported at breakfast, life is not easy. I had to endure quite a bit of bullying, but it was deliberate torture, religiously and scientifically, but it forced me to be very careful about the lies I was soon forced to concoct, and this, I suppose, is a good basis for a literary career. As was the case with Saint-Exupéry, lies were at the root of his career. His first novel was entitled La lumière qui s'éteint (The light that goes out), which you can't make up when you have an Icarus myth. The three major themes that made his literature so successful were patriotism, England's imperialist destiny and the duty of the English towards the countries they had colonised. We can imagine that after the war, this colonialism was a bad omen, and his entire literary career and reputation collapsed because of this change in collective mentality. Kipling wrote The Jungle Book, in the first book Mowgli returns to the city and in the second he decides to return to the animals. It's a great illustration of what the author said above about Saint Exupéry, how to bring instincts back to human consciousness and how that was a failure, elevation-fall.

Some quotes from Kipling

You must always take the maximum risk with the maximum precession.

As soon as you see that you know how to do something, attack something you don't yet know how to do. See the myth of Icarus?

What else can I do? This simple formulation is the foundation of all construction.

If you can see your life's work destroyed and without saying a word set about rebuilding it, you'll be a man, my son.

You can never pay too much for the privilege of being your own master.

Kipling had a son and was determined that he should join the army. The army refused, but he used his influence to negotiate with the soldiers and get them to accept his son. The son died in 1915, during the war. The father killed the son, just as Daedalus built wings and gave them to Icarus, he kill his son. When the author says "kill", he means that this is part of his mythological scheme.

The author suggests we read a famous poem by Rudyard Kipling which, he believes, represents the synthesis of the myth of Icarus: "You will be a man, my son". Or, If.

We have Daedalus, the builder, the architect.

The story of Pasiphae in its light version.

We enter into the theme of lies.

The representation of humility, the ant and the bee.

From elevation to utopia.

The allusion to Mars in the theme.

The synthesis of the myth of Icarus reveals that we merely express the myth we carry, but that some individuals manage to transform it into a work of art. Ultimately, this is what it means to realise one's existence, to embrace the founding myth that we carry. Proust embodied Narcissus, Kipling and Saint-Exupéry embodied Icarus. Working with myths is intriguing because they provide us with exemplary models of existence. The term 'exemplary' refers to exemplarity, not example, of course.

Translated and adapted from Luc Bigé'shttps://reenchanterlemonde.com/mythologie/by @SatyamAstro/Nicolas Roessli and supported by DeepL.com

To go further, a book in French has been written by Luc Bigé and translated into English by Google, ICARUS, THE PASSION OF THE SUN.https://reenchanterlemonde-com.translate.goog/produit/icare-la-passion-du-soleil/?_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=fr