The stars were once the province of gods and ancestral spirits, but with the advent of astronomy and astrophysics humans have had to revise that particular map. It is my belief that ‘alien’ experiences are often attempts on the part of our psyche to integrate dissociated potentials into the inner circle of our ego. That is, rather than finding herself abandoned in my bedroom, my ET was actually coming home!

I also believe that it is possible that movements in the collective psyche are manifesting through individuals—and possibly groups as well—as abduction phenomena. Every group has to struggle with the advent of new ideas; we are all aware of the disruption that comes when a whole new way of seeing a thing is introduced. This is why, in those tarot decks where the suit of swords represents the function of thinking, so many of these cards bode stress and the outbreak of conflict.

Uranus

In astrology, the planet Uranus could be said to represent that aspect of the personality which ‘downloads’ new ideas on behalf of the collective, at the same time as it blithely disregards the effects of this revolutionary input on the individual or their group. Saturn, on the other hand, is symbolic of that which tries valiantly to maintain the status quo while seeking to contribute something of enduring value.

Saturn

We all have both planets somewhere in our chart, but depending on the placements and aspects to our personal planets, we will usually welcome the experience of one of these archetypal energies more than the other. Perhaps this might explain why some people are so traumatised by ‘alien’ encounters, whereas others have found them enriching.

This is not to diminish the role played by those—often sinister—figures of modern folklore, the ‘men in black’, whose sole function seems to be to eradicate all evidence of alien encounter. This is where the astrological Saturn comes into action, and I’m not out to denigrate the intra-psychic function symbolised by this figure. Try to step back and see the symbolic significance of these reported experiences. Society could not function if, every time a new idea came along, the board was swept clean and we all had to start over. On an individual level we dream of intruders (exiled sides of our psyche now demanding inclusion) versus the police (that which maintains order and ‘arrests’ any such change); collectively we have an epidemic of reported abduction experiences and a fervent belief that the ‘government’ is masterminding a cover-up.

None of us can really know where the evolutionary forces in the universe are leading us, although looking at the planets transiting through the signs we astrologers like to think we could hazard a guess. And it would be great if all our experiences of the ‘other’ could be as wondrous as portrayed in the films Starman, ET and Close Encounters.

But there are also times when our egos—collective and individual—are too fragile, when to expand beyond our bounds would lead us to disaster. It is then we need to protect ourselves; at a time like this, I think I’d be awfully glad for a visit from the mysterious men in black.

Nora Leonard, 1999