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A corresponding essay can be found here: http://premieretat.com/taking-back-the-helm-classical-and-contemporary-views-of-the-ascendant-in-western-astrology/
In this video I contrast classical and contemporary views of the Ascendant in Western Astrology. Whereas Hellenistic Astrologers such as Valens, Paulus, and Rhetorius conceived of the ascendant as the helm, the place from which a life is navigated and hence, the place of responsible action, modern astrologers associate it with the persona, something that stands in the way of expressing one's "Authentic Self". This contrast is even seen in planets each group associates with the first house. Classical astrologers said it was the place in which Mercury, the god of reason and mediation, found his joy. Yet modern astrologers associate it with Mars and his domicile of Aries as it's so called "natural ruler."
I then explain this distinction by grounding it in a dramatic shift in worldview in regard to society and metaphysics. The Hellenistic conception of the first house makes sense in a world permeated by Spirit, and the modern in a disenchanted one. I use the example of Aeneas's exhortation from his father in the underworld regarding Rome's destiny, to show the extent of this contrast. I also show how it correlates with Novalis's observations in his essay "Christendom or Europa".
Finally, I note that these two accounts turn on two opposing concepts of the Absolute. In the classical account, Absolute reality is thought to be rational and determinate. This can be seen in Plato in his account of the form of Beauty and the ascent to it through Diotima's ladder. And this account was retained in Christianity through a conception of God worked out in the ontological argument, e.g. as stated by Anselm and Descartes. Here God is said to be a supremely perfect being or that of which none greater can be conceived. Jung's account of the absolute stands in stark contrast to this picture. He equates the absolute with the collective unconscious. Something indeterminate, irrational, and immoral. Because the collective unconscious could thus never be brought to determinacy, the persona proves to be necessarily falsifying. I argue that the contrasting conceptions of the first house, thus turn on a much more substantial contrast in worldviews. The choice between astrological systems, then, must involve the age old task of discerning between spirits.
The picture of Michelangelo's dying slave was taken by Jörg Bittner Unna, is under a creative commons license and can found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%27Dying_Slave%27_Michelangelo_JBU001.jpg
