Father’s Day and the Inner Father

In many parts of the world today, the archetype of ‘father’ is at the forefront individually and in the collective, as we celebrate ‘Father’s Day’. For those of us whose Dads are no longer here or who had fathers who were neglectful or abusive, this yearly ‘celebration’ can be particularly poignant! Although we can use it to consider our relationship with our birth father, we may wish to use today to explore our relationship with our inner ‘father’. The two of course are related, as our early experiences with our birth father (or significant adult/s who supported our projection of our inner 'father'), either role-modeled a helpful inner ‘father’, or set us off on a rich journey to discover an inner father figure that felt more nurturing and loving.

Our birth chart is particularly helpful in this regard, as our natal Sun and aspects to it clearly outline what the most helpful experience of ‘fathering’ means to each of us. Progressions to our Sun describe some of the experiences required to help us integrate our inner father. What is not described, is the exact manifestations of these experiences, although the nature of the aspecting planets and the actual aspects themselves, offer us clues as to what the experience is likely to have felt like to the individual. For example natal Sun at 4’ Cancer, opposite Pluto at 6’ Capricorn indicates a Plutonian experience for the individual via their father at age 2. This could have been the result of many things, including a loss for the father which reverberated with the child, or a misuse of power by the father, or the father may have saved someone’s life…What matters for the individual is that they need to include a Plutonian element to their inner father archetype. These qualities include: inner strength, perseverance, courage, empowerment…

Astrologically the role of ‘father’ associated with the seed we were conceived with, is often assigned to the 4th house in our chart and its ruler. This house and planets in the 4th can add more information to what our inner father requirements are.

An interesting exercise today might be to make a list of what you consider to be the best qualities for the ‘perfect father’. Beside this list, note how many of these qualities you have already internalized and ways in which you might develop any remaining ones within yourself.

Happy Inner Father’s Day! – MG June 2017