W. Reich, discoverer of orgone energy, is certainly one of more controversial personalities of the 20th century. His work made him (in)famous as both a genius and a madman and through his life’s work he contributed to many scientific areas: psychoanalysis, biology, health, meteorology. Born in present day Ukraine, then Austro – Hungarian Empire, he later moved to Vienna, lived in Berlin for some time, lived throughout Scandinavia and finally settled in the USA where he died imprisoned in 1957.
Presenting his main ideas would took too much space (besides I don’t feel competent enough to describe them, Reich himself was very much afraid of the distortion of his own ideas, thanks to his Mercury T square, an apprehension I respect) so I would advise the interested reader to do his own research of these interesting topics. Apart from Reich’s own writings, this essay or a documentary video would make a fine start.
Reich’s biography, written by his student M. Sharaf, Fury on earth, is a fascinating read, and since it appears to be a fairly objective presentation of his life and work I have used it as primary source of information in connecting descriptions of Reich’s life events and character with his natal chart.
The title itself (fury) describes a fiery personality: uncompromising, determined, fierce and convinced of his mission. Reich’s Sun is in fiery Aries, receiving a tight square from his dispositor Mars, while the Moon and ruler of AC, Saturn, are in fiery Sagittarius.
Lets start from the beginning and most obvious. The readers familiar with (and sympathetic to) Reich can make a symbolic connection of his rising sign (Capricorn) with a „scapegoat“ theme – we see a person who, because of his unconventional ideas, must pay the price of his courage, or craziness, by being rejected and punished by a hypocrite society.
The ruler of AC (Saturn) is taking him high – conjuncting the point of MC, (point of career, public opinion and external goals, life mission in a sense), and from early on Reich had felt that he had some special mission, some special destiny. These goals (10th house) were connected with both science and ideology (Sagittarius) and Reich pursued a medical career, was politically active, and we can surmise all of his life’s (many sided) work under one basic theory / concept (Sagittarius) – that of orgone energy.
Condition of the MC very explicitly describes „what he was famous for“, and „how the public perceived him“: Uranus is conjuncting both himself (Saturn, Ruler of AC) and MC, indicating a man known (personally and publicly) for his Uranian qualities; genius, discoveries, differentness, radicalism, controversiality, insanity . „Thanks to“ Uranus on MC Reich has been accused of being psychotic, schizophrenic both by his colleagues and the press, rejected by communists, Nazis and psychoanalysts alike, since Uranus is a troublemaker and an outsider . He was too „sexed“ for the Freudians, too radical for the leftists, and of course, too Jewish for the Nazis.
On the other hand, he is famous (MC) for his original (Uranus) ideas and ground breaking experiments; those of character armor, orgastic potency, bion experiments, cancer biopathy, orgone energy, orgone accumulators & cloud busters.
Its a fine line between a genius and a madman, both sides can live in the same person and it is up to our generation to see where Reich was right, and where he was mistaking in his ideas and experiments.
By itself, the point of MC in the last (critical) degree of Scorpio shows how he was famous for:
-taboo breaking (developing a form of psychotherapy which involves touching patients and them being in underwear, goal being the perception and dissolving of their muscular armor)
-for willfully & fanatically sticking to his mission and goals (demanding from Viennese analysts that they take a firm political stand, not giving in to outside pressures etc.)
-for sexual themes of his work (orgastic potency as an indication of mental health, orgone energy as Freud’s concept of libido made measurable, )
-and in the end, he was a psychoanalyst, which falls under Scorpionic umbrella of deep psychology, exploring the psyche and dealing with intense emotions.
Saturn had brought him to prominence (Ruler of AC on MC) in the psychoanalytic community: young Reich made an important contribution to psychoanalytic theory and practice, published some valuable and well received analytical works and was perceived as „Freud’s pet“, which made his colleagues somewhat jealous. Although Reich was an authority in his field, same Saturn on MC frequently brings a „fall from position“ that is, career difficulties, and Reich’s glory did not last long.
His Saturn (representing both himself as a Ruler of AC and depicting his career on MC ) is retrograde, therefore prone to question, review, redefine scientific „dogmas“of his field (Sagittarius). He feels constrained by current consensus and needs freedom (Sagittarius) in his research & experiments, which in the end makes him „alone“in these ventures.
Uranian energy makes this position of Saturn pretty unstable & every once in a while Uranus shakes and disturbs Saturn’s permanence and security in a significant way. The greatest problems with Reich’s reputation and with public in general were manifested in periods when this natal conjunction was activated:
~ The years of 1926 /27 were some of his personally most difficult year: His brother, the last member of his family, died. Freud, whom Reich saw as a father figure, reacted „coldly“ to his newest publication, (The function of the orgasm) dedicated to Freud personally, and rejected Reich’s request to be analyzed by him. (naturally, every psychoanalyst of that time wanted to be in therapy with Freud himself ). Reich’s marriage was under serious stress, almost ending in divorce and he got seriously ill with tuberculosis, requiring a few months of recovery.
In this period, Reich was going through his first Saturn Return, a time when transiting Saturn is coming back to his natal position and is manifesting his natal significations. Reich’s Saturn is a ruler of AC so Saturn Return had to have a serious impact, while his second rulership, that of 12th house, brought him to hospital (of course, there were other astrological factors in play, but I will ignore them for the purpose of my point) and natal Saturn is not very favorably conditioned – he is retrograde, in conjunction with Uranus and square with his dispositor Jupiter, in trine with the Sun in the sign of his debilitation. Square with Jupiter brought marital problems, since Jupiter is in the 7th house, and by natural signification Jupiter’s square diminished his capacity for optimism and happiness, which probably had an effect on his immunity, while Saturn’s conjunction with Uranus signified a „break“ of Freud’s public support ( MC) of his work.
People close to Reich say that he had „changed“ after 1926 – „became psychotic“ or „found out who he was“, depending if we ask his first wife or older daughter. In any case, his character crystallized, some aspects of his personality (determination, sense of destiny, radicalism) became more prominent after the difficult period of Saturn Return, his astrological „maturity“
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~ In 1934, after years of criticism and professional backbiting, Reich was kicked out of the International Psychoanalytic Association without notice. His students and colleagues from Vienna and Berlin have not been supportive in this matter so naturally, Reich felt abandoned and said how it was “the hardest blow in his scientific career”. That same year, he finally broke up with his first wife and moved to Oslo.
In this period, transiting Saturn was squaring his Uranus (and by default Uranus Saturn conjunction on MC) and activating the natal potential for breakups (Uranus) in both personal and professional arena, since Uranus breaks every concrete thing Saturn builds.
~ In 1937, while living in Oslo, as a reaction to his unconventional therapeutic practices and controversial experiments*, a vicious newspaper campaign broke out against him, with requests that he be expelled from the country. Throughout his live, Reach suffered a number of public attacks, but the ones in 1937 / 38 and later 1947 in America, were especially devastating.
At that time, transiting Saturn was conjuncting his Sun, while making a trine to his natal Saturn Uranus conjunction. Saturn conjunct Sun is by itself a difficult transit when delays, oppositions and other Saturnian themes can be experienced. The trine only activated the natal potential of MC conjunction, that for bad reputation, him being labeled as an eccentric, a madman, a persona non grata.
~ In December of 1941 while he was living in the US for two years already , by a strange bureaucratic mistake Reich was identified as an “enemy alien „ by the authorities, got arrested in his home in the middle of the night and transported to Ellis Island. It appears they have mistaken him for another person by the same name, since Reich had no Nazi affiliations. They released him after three weeks , only after he threatened to go on a hunger strike.
Transiting Uranus was making an opposition to his Uranus Saturn conjuction on the MC, activating problems with the authorities.
~In 1956 he was going through his second Saturn Return which yet again brought Saturnian problems with reputation and authorities while activating the MC conjunction: after a decade of FDA investigation, (trials and tribulations, courts order that all of his orgone accumulators and literature mentioning orgone energy are to be destroyed and banned, ) during the summer of 1956 he was forced to destroy accumulators and his books were burned. He said that he did not expect his books to be burned in the US, like they were in Nazi Germany. Also, he was sentenced to prison because his accumulators have been shipped interstate, in spite of the courts injunction. He went to prison in the spring of the following year.
As we have seen, natal Saturn rules not only his 1st hose but his 12th house also, and while this rulership brought him a difficult illness during the first return, this time Saturn took him to the worst house of the horoscope – to prison, where he died in the end of 195, just a week before his parole hearing.
So much for his Ruler of AC, we are turning to his Moon, and childhood experiences of 4th house.
Reich’s childhood and youth were fairly traumatic, his first major encounter with taboo breaking was sometime in 1909 / 1910 when he found out that his mother was having an affair with his tutor. This event triggered a number of reactions and conflicts in young Reich, including the oedipal complex, which ended with Reich half intentionally suggesting what he knew to his father. Father subsequently „dug out“ the whole story out of Reich (Pluto in the 4th house of father) and poured all his anger out on his young adulterous wife.
Reich’s Moon (mother) in opposition to Pluto (violence, anger) apart from describing hear breaking the taboo of marital fidelity, describes his parent’s relationship in general: marriage where there was a lot of fighting, jealousy from his fathers side, physical violence and the like. After the affair was discovered, his mother could no longer tolerate her husband’s Plutonic behavior, nor (probably) her own guilt and soon after decided to end her own life.
Naturally, till the end of his life, Reich felt he was responsible for his mothers suicide and suffered much guilt from those events.
His father too died by his own hand, by purposefully contracting pneumonia so that his sons would collect insurance money after his death – he did so in vain, since after he died from the consequences of the illness, Reich and his brother did not get any money.
After these two tragedies, as if the malefic symbolism of Pluto in 4th had not yet manifested all of its potential, Reich suffered another stroke of destiny- although he managed to run the family property while at the same time finishing school, in 1915 his home Bukovina was invaded by the Russian army, and once a wealthy inheritor of family lands and properties lost everything: his homeland, his house, his lands. After that he enlisted into army and fought in WW1.
While Pluto in 4th house depicts his father, as an authoritarian, violent and strict personality, & the tragedies in his family, it also describes Reich’s own repressed negative energy. Energy which he did not „work through“ during his short psychoanalytic therapy, and which erupted from time to time, creating him problems in personal relationships. In many instances, he perpetuated the behavior he had seen from his father.
Also, Pluto opposition Moon gave him the interest for psychotherapy, interest in the workings of human psyche, for deeply rooted emotional problems, since Pluto rules all things connected with the unconscious, psychology & transformation, and the Moon is our feeling mind, while the 4th house – our personal subconscious, the root of our psyche.
Pluto (outcast) in 4th house of home(land) often feels as an outsider, and Reich certainly was an outsider, considering how many times he had moved from country to country while being attacked for his work and ideas.
Beside with Pluto, Moon is in opposition with Neptune too, and this combination contributed to his overall suspiciousness, lack of trust, fear of distortion, persecution ideas („Red fascists“) & conspiracy theories based on scant evidence. This is a tricky area because although Reich was definitely a great discoverer and a good analyst, some of his perceptions were in fact wrong.
It is tempting to interpret this Pluto, Neptune, Moon combination as evidence that he was in fact suffering from paranoid (Pluto) schizophrenia (Neptune), a diagnosis made by the prison psychiatrist in 1957… but I am reminded of Joseph Hellers just because you re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. Well, the AIR force probably did not fly over his house just to make sure he is ok, Eishenhower wasn’t his secret friend and who knows if UFOs caused DOR or not, but- recent evidence confirms some of his suspicions and is suggesting that the communists were after him.
The FDA story is also pretty strange. Their point was that “there is no such thing as orgone energy”, Reich was deceiving the people, the accumulators have no value, BUT they are dangerous and must be destroyed. Along with all mentioning of orgone energy in his literature. (How can something which does nothing be dangerous?) During their investigation they haven’t been able to find a single unsatisfied customer, that is, a patient using the accumulator, only satisfied ones. Further, the injunction against using and transporting orgone accumulators through the US was directed to Reich personally, his current wife and the Wilhelm Reich Foundation- other orgonomists (medical doctors) were allowed to use accumulators if they were not cooperating with Reich and his foundation. It appears the FDA had something “personal” against Reich and his research.
We can’t forget the strange coincidence of his imprisonment in 1941, an act of mistaken identity, nor the fact that his former lawyer joined the prosecution during the FDA trials etc.
So although we have examples where Reich’s natal Pluto Neptune Moon combination manifested from the inside (his paranoid and unrealistic ideas) we can find plenty of examples where subversive and conspiratory actions against him were an objective fact and where his fear and suspicions would be justifiable reactions.
Sun in Aries describes him as a pioneer, an explorer of new vistas, one who is not afraid to step out of the boundaries of his “profession” (trips to politics, biology, meteorology) if research demands it. He started as a psychoanalyst, ended up busting clouds and making rain in deserts – common denominator – Freud’s libido, bio-electric energy, orgone energy – the same idea becoming more sophisticated over the years, and requiring the involvement of several scientific fields in order to be “proven”.
Second house, containing his Sun, deals with the concrete, the practical. He once said how he is aware that mankind had known about orgone energy for ages, his aim was to study it scientifically and to make it practically useful ( he thought orgone could be used against radioactive energy, that it could help fight cancer etc.)
Second house Sun made him sensitive to Taurean: natural, visible, tactile phenomena, thus he observed his patient’s physical properties – their breathing, color of their skin, changes in their body posture during therapy, something verbally oriented psychoanalysts neglected. He was looking at the sky and atmosphere and seeing orgone energy, looking at decaying matter under the microscope and observing the internal motion of bions.
Fire (Aries) is a visual type, while second house is concrete (painfully obvious) and practical in its orientation. (He grew up on a farm, and people who knew him remarked how he had a peasant-like manner of approach).
Mercury in his second house has similar tendencies, he too deals with the obvious, and in the sign of its debilitation he has his flaws, but also an ability to connect apparently dissimilar things in a poetical way, (orgone energy in human body= orgone energy in the world around us, deserts made by DOR = emotional desert in a man with lots of DOR energy).
Mercury in Pisces has latent artistic tendencies and in his later years Reich actually took up painting (after the failed experiment resulting in DOR energy that made people sick, he remarked how DOR is making him paint, as if painting is a bad thing 😛 ) But this artistic perception, which notices color and shape, found its use primarily in his scientific work, in sensitiveness to color of a patient’s body, changes in the atmosphere etc.
Mercury’s debility, amplified by a square from Neptune and the Moon, made him susceptible to wrong perception and faulty evaluation of people and situations. Very often he made poor judgment considering “who is with him and who is against him” both in personal relationships and in professional contacts. For example, he interpreted a polite “thank you note” from a government agency as a serious interest in his work, fantasized that Eisenhower was his personal friend. Sometimes he believed he was more protected than he really was; while at other times saw a conspiracy where there was none.
At first I was confused by seeing such a hazy Mercury in a chart of a genius (and he indeed was one) but while reading his bio it all started to make sense. Apart from the above mentioned, his debilitated T squared Mercury manifested in the way he named (Mercury) things – in a confusing (Pisces, Neptune) way: the American edition of The function of the Orgasm written in the forties is NOT the same Function of the Orgasm Reich wrote in 1926 for psychoanalysts and dedicated to Freud. He liked the title so he gave it to the second book also, even though it could confuse the readers (as it still does today.)
In 1945. he renamed his psycho therapy from “character-analytic vegetotherapy” to “psychiatric orgone therapy” although the word “orgone” brings to mind his orgone accumulator (which had different applications ) and implies all kinds of associations the press used and accused him of “curing mental illnesses with a sex box”.
During the court processes he often assumed (Mercury..) wrongly. For example, he wrote a letter to the court, explaining his reason for not intending to appear before the court in person. He got no response from the court and assumed that the lack of reply implied the court’s acceptance of his intentions. He was mistaken and had to face the consequences.
During the FDA investigation when the agents (for a few months) stopped visiting his patients and making inquiries, Reich thought that they had “dropped the matter”. There was an element of wishful thinking and avoidance of reality in his character.
Reich’s South Node, a point of past life identities, is in Leo and in seventh house. Throughout his life he was displaying Leonian characteristics: confidence, dignity and pride – pride being one of his qualities that contributed to his imprisonment. He took a firm stand that a court of law has no “jurisdiction “over science and that it is not competent to judge his scientific experiments. That much is true, but a more compromising attitude could have saved him from the loss of freedom. Also, he did not want to be ridiculed and embarrassed in court, neither Leo nor Capricorn respond well to a possibility of a public loss of dignity.
South node in Leo wants attention and recognition, in close relations (7th house), especially from his lovers and Reich demanded full immersion & commitment to his ideas and work, the same enthusiasm and dedication he himself had in pursuing those matters. Practically all of his important love relationships would end once the partner no longer displayed such high interest and dedication to his work.
Leo is “king”, autocrat, he demands much, expects submission and Reich did not tolerate criticism and questioning from the people close to him, or a mild attitude to his work. Although he thought of himself as “me against the world” (North Node in 1st house and Aquarius) he did need relationships, interaction, emotional support from others, their understanding. He was pretty demanding in relationships, one colleague remarked that “Reich wanted your soul – everything”.
North Node in 1st house provided that “me against the world” feeling, mixed with Aquarian revolutionary energy. During his Vienna period (1920s ) he was actively participating in politics, supporting communist programs (believing they would bring more sexual freedom needed to prevent neurosis) which is an Aquarian theme. But at the same time the Leo in him put much pressure on close relationships, that they too must follow his political ideas. For example, he made his young daughter join communist march, he pressured psychoanalysts to publicly support the leftist parties. Colleagues from his youth say that he always needed to be the leader (Leo South Node, Sun in Aries square Mars) of the group (north in Aquarian) and how he liked being the center of attention (Leo).
Venus, as a planet squaring the nodal axis and thus obstructing the free flow of energy, describes his major life issue – his path was from a kind of selfishness and domination in relationships (South) to focusing on himself, his ideas, developing a more impersonal form of love (North). To this path of following his ideals, he wanted to take (pull?) others (7th ) too because:
Apart from squaring the nodes, Venus in Taurus & 3rd house is making no major aspect to other planets and is considered un aspected – which amplified her energy: in relationships Reich needed sharing (Venus) of ideas (3k) and was very stubborn (Taurus) about it, whoever did not share his ideas or was not especially useful to his work, would soon be removed from his heart and mind. He didn’t have time for relationships that weren’t conductive to his mission (North Node).
Venus in Taurus is also very passionate & possessive, and although Reich allowed himself the right to have extramarital affairs, he would react very violently at the prospect of his partner cheating on him, making jealous scenes, attacking and accusing them (whether they were or weren’t actually cheating on him).
Jealousy and possessiveness are shown by his passionate Arian Sun in a possessive 2nd house – squared by an aggressive planet Mars. Mars is emotionally possessive, vulnerable and somewhat childish, that is emotionally immature, in the sign of Cancer. So Reich had an explosive temper & would often lose his nerve (especially in times of public pressure, he would vent on people close to him and accuse his women of infidelity.). But after the reaction, he would apologize and feel bad, in a typical Arian style (explosive but short lived anger) .
Although Mars in 5th house perceives sex as a „sport“ and „fun“, Cancer needs emotional connection with the partner, needs emotional security, needs protection, support & closeness, so Reich had his own share of sexual conflicts, as we all do.
But Mars on this position inspired him to a brilliant idea, that of muscular armor, that is character armor. Mars (sexual energy) in the 5th house of creativity, self expression, and sex, and in the sign of encrusted protective Cancer symbolically describes his insight and experience that our life energy / sexual energy (Mars) is blocked by a character armor (crabs shell) which inhibits our free expression (5th house) of emotions, sexuality, aliveness. His therapy had focused on dissolving that armor, allowing the energy to flow freely. (Although, this process required that the repressed reaction be felt and experienced – for Mars- childish anger and hurt to come to the surface. Therapy welcomed the expression of negative martial emotions in order to work with them.)
Sun Mars square describes the authoritarian side of his personality, and in combination with Capricorn Ascendent, fierce Pluto in 4th house (which when opposing the Moon is prone to pressuring those close to him, demanding a lot, ) and the South in Leo who demands authority and respect – we see his inner struggle. On one side he is perpetuating South Node tendencies of needing to be in charge, on the other we have a free spirit, a freethinker, emotionally cooler and ready to face solitude as a price for his ideals (North in Aquarius, Moon in Sagittarius.) and who really wants to help humanity, no matter the cost.
Freud one scorned him that he (Reich) is „trying to change the world“ (North in Aquarius, reforms, politics, love for people) „trying to save humanity“ (Moon opposition Neptune – savior complex) something which psychoanalysts are not even thinking of doing (!) They were satisfied with curing symptoms of particular people.
Although Reich had many elevated ideals and was sincerely trying to present some important and valuable ideas and discoveries to humanity, himself sacrificing much for that goal, it is also true that in personal life he often erred on the side of intolerance and selfish behavior.
As for marriage, Reich called it „compulsive monogamy“ and thanks to Jupiter in 7th house he approached the concept of marital monogamy in a relaxed manner (Jupiter in 7th does that, „expansion“ and“freedom“in marriage, that is – affairs.) Truth be told, both his legal marriages were not motivated by an emotional need for legalization but by some practical purposes. He married his first wife Annie because her family was pressuring them since living together unmarried would threat their reputation in Viennese society of the 1920s. Second wife Ulse and him got married in order to get a permanent US citizenship more easily and their original plan was to get a divorce right after they get the citizenship. For one reason or another, they changed their minds and got divorced only after 6 years of marriage.
Jupiter in the 7th house of marriage, squaring both Saturn (Reich) and Uranus (significator for divorce) ended both of his marriages, and the Moon (Ruler of DC) in opposition with Pluto (Ruler of MC) shows the pattern where marriage ends when the partner loses interest in his work and mission, (starts to oppose it) as well as it shows intensive emotions during the marriage, and a psychological war with his first wife after their divorce .
Neptune in 5th house describes Reich suffering during the time he was separated from his children (also – Neptune opposition Moon, children) as well as the suffering of own his daughters since her parents were in conflict. (Mars in 5th too shows problems involving children)
Metaphorically, all that we create is, in a way, our child, our ideas are mental creations, mental progeny, and Reich certainly suffered (Neptune) much for his „creations“ and for expressing his viewpoints, his life style (5th house).
Neptune in opposition to Moon and squaring his Mercury made him very cautious and afraid that his ideas will somehow be distorted. (Neptune, Pisces) Right before he went to prison he tried to prevent this by sealing all of his unpublished work for 50 years. In that way, after the (political?) fog (Neptune) lifts up, future researches would have an opportunity to continue his work, to follow his line of thought and find practical applications for his main concept of orgone energy. Those papers are available for a few years now, and some new developments of Reich’s ideas are present, for example orgonite devices.
Considering the fact that Reich’s work did have an impact on future science and psychotherapy, we can say that Reich did accomplish (at least the outward part of) his North Node „mission“- that of presenting his original and revolutionary ideas to humanity, no matter the cost. The rest is up to us.
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* Because he was working on patient’s muscular armor, that is energy blockages, therapy involved touching the body of patients and them being in underwear. Experiments that measured bioelectric potency of the skin during perception of pleasure, which were a way of scientifically measuring Freud’s“libido“, consisted of naked couples kissing. His biological experiments and the discovery of bions, vesicles on the verge of living and non living matter, attracted much a priori opposition from scientific circles.
Shaktii Astrology 