In some esoteric circles, the MC/IC (Mid-heaven/Imum Coeli) axis depicts your spiritual descent down the ladder from the stars and into bodily incarnation.[1]
The idea is that before birth, you were given a daemon that selects the pattern that you are to live out on earth. [2]
Soul, then, is the mediating consciousness between body and spirit and, at the IC (Latin for ‘bottom of the sky’) soul picks up an emotional charge from your parents such that their hopes, fears, and fantasies become your own.
This is not really ‘you’, however. In order to incarnate, you had to create a ‘false self’ through which to adapt to the world via your ASC/DSC (Ascendant/ Descendant) axis of relationship. Through desire, attachment, crisis, and struggle, soul transmutes this ‘false’ self, allowing the real ‘you’ to return up that ladder back to the stars.
In this context, the IC, is both about death and rebirth. It is also about going into the dark to reconnect with your passion for life. Most certainly, the IC is about the container (body, family, society) to which you have attached. It is also about how you relate with your career (MC). In this sense, the MC is about more than just career, however. It describes not only how well you relate to the material world in general but also how well you relate to authority. You might think of your MC as informing you about that which your parents didn’t achieve for themselves and expect you to achieve for them.
As you might expect, this often leaves you in quite a dilemma:
| MC/IC Axis | Dilemma |
| Aries/Libra | Struggle between whether to compete/lead as pushed to do by parents or stay behind and remain in ‘harmony’ with them – wouldn’t be the first time any child got a double message. |
| Taurus / Scorpio | Home environment is one of immense need and intensity and the child is caught in the middle of his/her parents’ power trips. The child tries to become referee of parents that are terrified of being abandoned and hence, are very needy. |
| Gemini/Sagittarius | The parental dynamic is damaged and the child takes up his/her identity whilst trying to heal it (i.e. I need my books in order to heal the rift between my parents and so my books are my life). |
| Cancer/Capricorn | The family dynamic is about tradition and togetherness – the world ‘out’ there is bleak and hostile, but we’ll be fine as long as we ‘stay’ together. The child not only adopts the view that the world is unsafe but also suspects that his/her parents don’t love him/her – or at least they won’t do if he/she refuses to toe their party line. |
| Leo/Aquarius | Here the child is basically used by his/her parents so that they can realise their own ambitions. The child becomes almost like a treasured ‘pet’ – so much does he/she need to always ‘shine’ in the eyes of his/her parents. |
| Virgo/Pisces | Here the primary issue is control and lack thereof – boundaries are hazy, unclear. The parental dynamic is one of service and sacrifice – an imbalance of power between the parents results in hidden passion and anger. The child is drawn into this dynamic and has trouble escaping. Control over his/her own life is overridden by need to sacrifice ‘self’ in order to remain in service to his parent(s). |
If soul gets too wrapped up in the concerns of the MC/IC axis, then it might well forget the whole purpose for which it incarnated. Transits to the MC/IC axis will provoke a ‘spiritual crisis’ to get soul back on track:
| Neptune | Transits to the MC/IC axis confuse you as to the direction you’re going. Soul is trying to reconnect with its original intention of incarnation and you’re forced to wait in the fog until soul gains the necessary clarity of purpose. |
| Pluto | Transits to the MC/IC axis strip you of your outmoded ‘adaptations’ to the material world. You lose your old power base in order to create space for the new. Usually the experiences of this transit involve something taboo and forbidden. |
| Uranus | Transits to the MC/IC can bring sudden and expected changes often seen as being completely out of your control. Equally, however, you might decide to cut loose from your family and/or career and do your ‘own thing’. |
| Saturn | Transits to the MC/IC can bring rewards for hard-work. Equally, they may force you to work harder. |
| Nodal Axis | Transits to the MC/IC can bring helpers to assist you in leaving what needs to be left behind. |
| Jupiter | Transits to the MC/IC can bring restlessness. Equally, however, it can bring faith and understanding so as to make it easier for you to move forward to new and better things. |
[1] For an interesting take on this theme, read the classic children’s book, The Little Prince. The little prince has a celestial journey and meets a king, conceited man, drinker, business, lamplighter, geographer. Each one has a problem meant to teach the prince about something to avoid. Finally, the little prince descends to earth where he meets the snake – the colour of moonlight. The snake (key to the story) says the prince is purer than the snake because he comes from a star – so the prince is not contaminated by descent from earth – i.e. he is not fully incarnated although he layers on his experiences little by little. At the end of the story, he goes back to his star and wonders – how should a person find his or her ‘own star’?
[2] James Hillman, The Soul’s Code, Random House, NY (1996), p 7 – discussing Plato’s Myth of Er.
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