He found that the experiences of Grof's clients under the influence of the four perinatal matrices closely reflected the classic descriptions of these four planetary archetypes, found in the astrological literature. Furthermore, Tarnas discovered that the unfolding of the birth chart over time revealed when a specific perinatal matrix was more

Wilber writes that our deepest inner yearnings are to reconnect with divine consciousness, and if we do not have access to genuine transcendent states, we will have an automatic tendency to fill the void with material and social substitutes. He calls this drive for wholeness the Atman project.8

In industrial cultures such as ours, the purposeful and achievement-oriented qualities associated with the Sun tend to be over-valued, which has created serious and damaging imbalances in the modern world. The outpouring radiance of the Sun archetype can shrivel and scorch gentle earthly life if the Moon's reflective soul does not have equal time

The Moon's energy flowing in a healthy way helps to create in people feelings of rootedness, connection, and trust. Planets aligning with the Moon reveal how their emotional and family lives will be supported, stimulated, or challenged by other influences.

Of course, what usually happens is that the intense perinatal emotions that would ideally be faced in a condensed form during a single holotropic session will, in everyday life, be spread out and experienced in a diluted way over the course of weeks, months, or years. Instead of experiencing the BPM II feelings of compression, entrapment, and

The next layer of experiences that people encounter in deep self-exploration Grof termed the perinatal layer (from peri, meaning “surrounding” and natalis, meaning “birth”). Perinatal experiences are based around the memories of birth labor and delivery, combined with dramatic encounters with dying and impermanence in human life. As Grof's patients

Whether the ingestion of a psychedelic substance ultimately becomes a positive or a negative experience depends on several major factors. The most important of these is the level of trust between journeyers and the people around them—their friends, guides, and sitters.

Later, in adulthood, Pluto also governs the process that pushes this unresolved material up into awareness where it can be finally worked through and completed. Pluto's driving energies must be faced on an emotional level to be released. When left buried inside, the ego must consume enormous amounts of energy to suppress them, squandering the

Over hundreds of centuries, astrologers have observed that the activation of these universal forms in human life occur in systematic and meaningful coincidence with geometrically formed alignments between the Sun, Moon, and planets in the solar system. For example, the way in which the impulses toward freedom, breakthroughs, and rebirth manifest in