From Psychologist to Cleric ? – Dr. Jordan B. Peterson
According to his own website – “Dr. Jordan B. Peterson is an author, psychologist, online educator, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto. The Jordan B Peterson podcast frequently tops the charts in the Education category. He has written three books, Maps of Meaning, an academic work, presenting a new scientifically-grounded theory of religious and political belief, and the bestselling 12 Rules for Life, and Beyond Order, which have sold more than seven million copies. With his wife, Tammy, Dr. Peterson’s international lecture tour has sold out more than 400 venues, providing live insight into the structure of mythology and narrative to hundreds of thousands of people…. “
I have listened to numerous hours of his podcast and interviews. Like many others of his listeners, I appreciate the combination of his perspective of the world, his psychological and general knowledge that he combines with an exploration of the mythological realm, which he can eloquently defend and explain, even in front of large audiences. For many Canadians he is known for criticizing the Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (Bill C-16), which was passed by the Canadian Parliament to introduce “gender identity and expression” as prohibited grounds for discrimination.[b] He claimed that the bill would make use of gender pronouns, “compelled speech“. He related his argument to a general critique of political correctness and identity politics. Almost overnight his outspoken critic made him famous and until now his increasing listenership has certainly breached national boundaries, which enabled him to host a sold out lecture world tour.
What particularly compels me to have a closer look into his chart is the transition from University professor to a self employed, independent podcaster, speaker, internet celebrity and public phenomenon. It is certainly not a path many people in a comparable position would choose – exchanging a “secure” position with a more entrepreneurial, more “uncertain” life.
Looking up his name and trying to find his birth time and place was surprisingly easy. I have chosen to interpret his chart with W.Doebereiners latest interpretation technique. Peterson is born in the star sign of Gemini – the mundan group of star signs that applies for him are Aries / Taurus / Gemini.
First step – the Basis – Aries is rooted in Hs.12 and from here the group is stretching right into Hs.2, where it ends with Gemini. The resulting movement (Aries to Gemini) tells us that something from the realm of the invisible (Q.4 / Hs.12) ought to come or will be delivered into the appearance.
The basis of the movement is Aries, which is enclosed in Hs.12 – subsequently his starting point is in the unconscious. Since Mars (planet of Aries) is aslo in Hs.12 we can establish that a certain energetic potential is trying to expel content from the house of the invisible / the unconscious. His Mars seems to aim for (or gets agitated by) Venus in Hs.4 – the source of the execution of communal issues – (Saturn-Venus) is refining that kind of notion to forms of communal executions that have excluded their determination and subsequently have lost their origin. For that reason, and as an example, he often refers to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn work. His work and life apparently captured a lot of his attention and inspired many of his thought processes and works.
Second step – the Level of Execution – Taurus with Venus in 4. Right off the bat, Venus is aspected with Mercury in Hs.1, Pluto in Hs.5 and Jupiter in Hs.10 – a lot to put together. Venus in 4., as mentioned before, sits right at the source of life, the soul, and in his case it really is about the soul. Since Hs.4 is reigned by Cancer, which arches Hs.3 and 4. – articulating and depicting Hs.4, the soul, so his choice of electing a field of work that deals with the soul was almost inevitable and to a degree understandable, the chosen profession of a psychologist not so much, but I will get to that in a moment.
Venus is aspected with Pluto in 5. Venus-Pluto, the State in a State constellation – indicating that his Venus has been or is subjected to the choking dealings of a group. The whole constellation gets more graphic, when I tell you that he is just transiting this particular Pluto-Venus this year. It is exactly the moment the College of Psychologist of Ontario is disciplining Peterson to a mandatory coaching program and suspending his license – activating his Venus-Pluto, and since Pluto is aspected with Mercury, we can see that he rightfully claims to be muzzle by the College (Venus-Pluto).
Third step – The Result – leads us to the last of the three star signs of the group, which happens to be the star sign he is born under – Gemini. In his case, depicting the execution of the formation of communal processes. Since Mercury is in Hs.1, it clearly demonstrates how he conquers space – with his intellectual approach and his refined language. The Martian imprint of Hs.1 can be detected by how he “dissects” certain topics which always seem to have an inquisitorial, very direct undercurrent. He certainly is a man of words and subjects that can be provoking; but that is what his listeners and reader appreciate, after all he delivers (or can deliver) repressed content of the fourth quadrant and brings it into the world of the phenomenon. An aspected Jupiter in Hs.11 contributes favorably to his worldwide recognition.
As the “grand finale” – Hs.10 – the unintended consequence or we could say determination that he achieves – Capricorn with Saturn in Hs.10 – ruler from 10. in 10. the determination gets time-defining. In his it certainly illuminates why his words and opinions are heard and read around the world. For some of his followers it almost seems that his judgment is perceived as almost as “the standard”. His proclivity to teach and lecture also originates from here, in addition to his excellent sense for the structure of language. In that context the title of one of his books – “12 Rules for Live – an antidote to Chaos” could not have been chosen any better, since it is Capricorn that makes up rules. To a degree the title of the book almost mirrors his chart – from Hs.12 (Chaos) to the world of Capricorn, order and rules, completing his personal astrological “picture” in a short formula right on his book cover – “well done”.
Getting back to my initial interest and what makes his character so compelling for me is the change from professor to media celebrity. Why does he recently enjoy such a stellar rise in popularity and why is he increasingly affiliated with and outspoken about (the Chritstian) faith?
As laid out, he certainly is an individual that is able and destined to extract content from the realm of the unconscious into the phenomenon, mark it and deliver it into the world. By societal norms the chosen pathway of being a psychologist kind of checks that box, but not really. Psychology was formed and developed at a time when the loss of the Gestalt manifested itself. Like W. Doebereiner once said, “Psychology is the monstrous creature of the industry that has morphed itself into an industry, with the only aim to transform man into the appearance of an idea.”
As a result man will be transformed into the appearance of the state, being solely the appearance of a “technical being”. As such, psychologists are servants to the industrial state/apparatus, ensuring that the changeability of one is solely to adapt to the process of change of the circumstances created by the system. Psychology is an accomplice to the system. And as we can see in Jordan Peterson’s example by gaining consciousness subsequently changing course, freeing himself from the shackles of the system, and, God forbid, now even daring to criticize the system automatically gives you a pariah status.
Dr. Peterson experienced this first hand, when he was questioning the language of the legal system. It made him an enemy of the state and as an accomplice to state and system, the College revoked his license only granting him the license back if he would agree to a public act of subjugation by undertaking a re-education training, which apparently in modern lingo is called coaching. Dr. Peterson’s life is exemplary for people that do not align with the system. In his case, like in the many other cases, particularly over the last years (Covid), when professionals with the needed expertise were kept in line by threatening their licenses.
It is a system that shadows the inquisition of the medieval ages, dwarfs it in its dimensions and impact, and creates what Peterson is so fascinated with and quite vocal about – a system that is run and ruled by a group of spineless apparatchiks. A system (by the way, like all systems) that has lost its forms of communal executions that have excluded their determination and subsequently have lost their origin (excuse the repeat). At the core of these systems, past or present, there never seems to be a shortage of willing Block-Wardens and accomplices to execute the will of the herd. As such, Peterson, as a representation of the content of the fourth quadrant, did not fit into the body of the University nor the College of his profession anymore, and was shunned and outlawed by the system and its media minions. Clearly he needed to decide which side he was on. This time he quite obviously decided to defend fourth quadrant content against an increasing pervasive system.
Personally, I believe he did the best move to leave the apparatchiks to themselves and to be independent. Listening to interviews with him and some of his podcasts I have noticed that he increasingly gravitates to explore questions of the Christian faith; in some podcasts he almost does a better job selling Christianity than the professional clerics. What is so compelling, the more he seems to distance himself from the system – extracting Hs.12 content – the more he tends to examine questions of (the Christian) faith.
Even if I only partially agree with some of his mythological interpretations and findings (commented earlier about him and Jonathan Pageau – see article), in particular his affection for Disney stories (see earlier Disney article), I believe that as long as he remains independent he will be worth paying attention to. After all, he is able to herald valuable content of the fourth quadrant to us, which is about transcendental content, and that is in days the apparatchiks are conducting a purge on anyone that questions their system and is an independent mind – a courageous undertaking.
P.S.: Below you find a YouTube link about a documentary about Dr. Peterson. I watched the docu after I had written the above text, just to avoid having the temptation to interpret things into the chart that do not align. I believe his chart does a pretty good job of laying out what the person, Jordan Peterson, is occupied with and what his deeper calling is.
These days it is rare to find someone that is brave enough to execute and fulfill what is laid out for them and for that reason he receives the attention he is getting right now.
Copyright 2023 by Dirk Heinicke
The next two articles will be about Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung – most likely the two most famous “Grandfathers” of modern psychology – and we will compare their charts and find out how each of them relates to the subject of psychology.