Interview with Sol W. Jonassen

EA Interview series, part 6

Biography

Sol W Jonassen has been working professionally with astrology since 1999 and during this time she has presented at most of the major conferences like OPA, UAC; Norwac, AA in England, ISAR in Serbia, in India, River of Stars in Hawaii, Costa Rica, Europe and Turkey. She also hosted Polaris Astrology in the years between 2012-2017 and has worked internationally as a teacher for many years. 

She writes for a magazine in Norway and sees clients either through Zoom or in her office in Bergen, Norway.  

Additionally she has a SoulFlow degree, a transpersonal approach to therapy, and she is a certified Mindfullness teacher. As an avid yogini you will find her most of the time on her way to some yoga class.  

Her website is www.sol-with.com and you can also find her at Polarisatrology on IG.

Interview questions and answers

You write on your website that you were born into an astrology family and first learnt the art through your father. At a later stage, you studied evolutionary astrology with Maurice Fernandez and to this day you call yourself an evolutionary astrologer. So what is evolutionary astrology to you? Or, to put it differently, what changed when you became an evolutionary astrologer rather than just an astrologer? 

My search having always been centered around finding the truth, and the truth is that we evolve constantly, also when it comes to our consciousness and awareness. Material scientism doesn’t make sense to me (thus, fatalistic astrology doesn’t make sense to me), as it doesn’t include Soul or Higher Self. So, on this search for truth about what is a human, I ran into important questions around death and rebirth as I evolved as an astrologer. Evolutionary astrology makes sense to me because it takes the inherent evolution in every sentient being seriously. If you are born with a chart, this chart is not random. Not to you. It is you. And there is an evolutionary “before” in a birth chart, just like there will be an “after” for the death chart. Life keeps moving, cycles are beginning and ending. It is always moving. So, when a human incarnates at a certain time, it is evident to me that it is a continuation of a journey rather than the beginning of one. The chart reveals that there are cycles in a chart that is culminating, others that are beginning, and the individual is that creation. You see the same evolution in the death chart. There is a journey from the natal chart to the death chart. A lot is revealed there that could work as proof for us having multiple lives, trying to evolve and grow every time.  

Nothing changed when I became an evolutionary astrologer. I was always an evolutionary astrologer. But I wasn’t aware of that until I read the Pluto book back in the 90’s. I wanted to find material on the lunar nodes and I wasn’t happy with the offers that were out there until I stumbled upon EA. And came home.  

I would like to ask how you work karmically with a client. Where do you see karmic signatures in a chart – in Pluto, Saturn, the South Node, all planetary south nodes? And how do you work with karmic patterns in a way that is helpful to the client? 

Oh, huge question. The whole chart is karmic. All the planets carry karma. They are impregnated with experience, past life and this life, and thus form habits and expressions. We need to work with all the planets in order to make the chart work. Some flow easily, others are tense with trauma and negative impressions. Habit is karma. As for seeing the red thread, as I like to call it, I examine the nodes, their rulers, South Node/Moon/Pluto, and for the conscious, creative path, Dharma if you like, the Ascendant, the Sun and the North Node. The lunar nodes-rule is not a clean-cut formula. There could be planets squaring the nodes or the North Node is having multiple conjunctions, and then the balancing between the lunar nodes becomes the path.  

It is always a balancing act and Saturn, being the teacher of true responsibility, teach us where we need to put in extra focus and grow up, accepting our fates. So, I try to help people become aware of these dynamics. South Node/Pluto/Moon territory is unconscious, compulsive, habitual. To wake up here is essential in order to become conscious and creative and in this way avoid creating from the unconscious and being “lost in life”.  

I see that you have worked quite a bit with Ceres. How would you describe her? Does she have an affinity with a particular archetype? And could you tell us about your work on the Pluto-Ceres connection? 

I recognize Ceres as a Dwarf Planet, same as Pluto. Additionally, they are linked through mythology. She becomes a part of the lunar realm where we face a deep seated need for control in order to prevent pain, loss, hunger, anxiety or disaster. Pluto is the one who knocks on people’s doors and pull them into a realm where they get to know their inner motivations, like fear, greed, hatred, revenge, etc, and Ceres acts as a restistance towards this. Ceres wants Status Quo.  

She and her daugher, Prosepina, symbolizes union of the feminine in its sanctuary. The Mother and the Daughter, the daughter being all that the mother needs; her purity, her innocence, her belief that the world is good. The Mother providing control and safety to the daughter. Pluto reveals a much darker truth in life, one that goes on underground and that is often hidden, and it does so in order for us to accept death, literal and symblical, as that is also life. However, this is not what Ceres wants. Still, life is life and there is loss of innocence. It is unavoidable, just like Pluto. The daugher is being abducted/leaves home/becomes an adult and then Ceres abandons her identity and has to go through the loss, descent and ascent process. It is a journey many people have to go through when they face lifes many cycles. She is a Mother of the inner trust and safety we need to find when change comes around. She is the process that gets us back to life after the pain. Albeit, a bit reluctant due to the attachment to the often idealized past. Changes forces us to find ourselves on an even deeper level, liberated from the roles we play for others. We become more, we morph and we change.  

My work on this has been more a journey than anything else, stretching back to early 2000’s. To try to control existential anxiety can take the form of eating disorders and other addictions, and I had a period in my life when I was young where I had this pattern. It led me to explore Ceres , the nurturer, and there is still much exploration to be done. I am a huge fan of reflecting upon mythology and it is there that the link between Pluto and Ceres becomes evident. It is the inner and outer metamorphoses, feeding and nourishing each other. Wildly fascinating if you ask me.

This being my sixth and final interview for what I call my EA Interview Series, I would like to ask for your help as I attempt to draw some conclusions around the whole subject. I have repeatedly found, when I say that I am going to create an interview series or a presentation around EA, that a variety of people respond something like “Oh, but I also practice evolutionary astrology!” despite perhaps not even having picked up the first Pluto book by Jeffrey Green. And it seems to me that the landscape that has emerged is one dotted by various strongly guarded “EA” lineages on the hand, all going back to Jeffrey Green, as opposed to a more open-ended “evolutionary astrology” landscape on the other hand, where people don’t worry so much about who their teachers were, which “school” they follow or which methods they use. I have always counted myself to the former, but I also feel that there is a danger of elitism in the “EA” crowd as opposed to the more democratic landscape of “evolutionary astrology”, and I sometimes think we should try to bridge the divide between these two worlds (when and where it is possible - I don’t recommend mixing house systems!). What are your thoughts on this matter? You do seem like an astrologer who moves rather effortlessly between the two worlds!  

Astrology is an empirical science. It is always changing. Even though Wolf heralded a lot of what is now known as EA, other people have taken his teachings and refined and expanded on them. I like that. Personally, I find a lot of value in esoteric lore and archetypal astrology, and I follow the basic theorems in EA, like the Sun-Moon-SN-NN, the Pluto PP and the evolutionary levels (This is perhaps the best gift EA brought to the world of astrology). I also allow myself to incorporate my own observations and I think that there is a need for a deeper refinement around the concept of Soul. And also in regards to Pluto. I have been going back and forth with the idea of Pluto being the Soul. I think not, but I am not sure of course. The Soul is not to be seen in the chart as it is beyond the persona. Evolution is seen though. Pluto works with the Soul as an agent of change/purifier. He “kills” that which stands in the way of the Dharmic expression, the soul. That is how I see it. It takes nothing away from the teachings of Wolf, I think it rather adds to it all. EA is the middle ground between Esoteric Astrology and traditional astrology in my opinion and works as an important tool for people who are really on the path of growth and healing. It is grounded in what I see is what people need, which is to talk about the real issues one faces in life. The deep, intuitive and subconscious stuff. We need to identify the essences and the EA method is gold for that.

Any final thoughts on how you would like to see evolutionary astrology develop in the future? 

As we evolve as species, astrology needs to evolve too. EA is unique in that sense that it brings in a transpersonal perspective, one that includes Soul, so it is hugely important in a disenchanted world. I would love it if this bled into other realms of astrology and I see that it is beginning to do so. But I don’t have to have others agree with me. There are many ways to get to Rome.  

I was never a part of a club, a cult or a school. I think astrology is perfect because we are free to explore and research outside of established paradigms. I wish all the other sciences had this type of freedom to explore the intuitive realms. I am therefore not a big fan of excluding, or as you mention, the elite thinking. I think in many ways that it is perfect the way it is. Some people need this, others need that. I follow a basic rule that came from the thinker Ken Wilber: “Transcend and include”. This all-inclusive mind set is where I hope we are moving towards, as a species and as astrologers.

Final words

This concludes my EA Interview Series. I hope you have found it interesting and that it has given you a clearer understanding of the many-faceted world of Evolutionary Astrology today.

Perhaps you wonder why I did not interview your favorite evolutionary astrologer. In that case, let me reveal to you that there were several potential interview subjects who either declined or could not be reached. In the end, I am very happy with the six people I got.

I might do more interviews in the future with other astrologers, evolutionary or not. I think the activity of asking questions has always appealed to my Mars in 3H Pisces - communication (3H) through the clearing out of confusion (Pisces), communication around the unknown (Pisces). My Mars in Pisces is not weak or debilitated, mind you - no doubt it has created trouble sometimes, but in this case I believe it is doing exactly what it was meant to do. As my erstwhile teacher Mr. De Baker would have said: The soul put it there for a reason!