psychedelic, therapy, astrology, LSD, mescaline, ecstasy, MDMA, psylocibin

Psychedelic Therapy and Astrology

I’ve recently been reading James Fadiman’s excellent book, The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide, where he revisits a concept that Stanislav Grof and others have talked about before, high dose versus low dose psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Briefly, it shakes out like this:

High doses are great for helping people to see a much larger picture, for relativizing the value of ego and recognizing one’s identity with a larger cosmic process. Low doses are great for helping people gain insight into the dynamics of their personality, and particularly with shadow work.

Astrologically, I think we could relate this to the Saturn boundary. Low doses are within the bounds of Saturn (hence we hear about shadow work!), facilitating different ways of seeing the same issues and problems with which people have been struggling. In other words, low doses can take a person on a tour of their chart.

On the other hand, high doses are trans-Saturnian, transporting people into the realms of Uranus, Neptune, and (gulp!) Pluto, for a look at a much broader picture. To the extent that the experience relates to one’s particular life story, it tends to be liberating and reorienting towards the transpersonal (once again, the role of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in the chart).

Just a musing for Mercury’s entry into Pisces...