The Sun enters Scorpio tomorrow at 2:09 am EDT, emphasizing the tone initiated by Mercury’s station retrograde in that sign yesterday. Eric focused on the potential for this astrology to get us to look at the ways we are in denial, and to begin bringing those situations into better integrity. Today, the denial theme is joined astrologically by the idea of codependence — and the role alcohol plays in our ability to perpetuate those cycles.
Consider for a moment the psychological drama triangle first described by Stephen Karpman (often called “the Karpman triangle”) and used in transactional analysis. The triangle consists of a Persecutor, a Victim and a Rescuer. The model describes situations in which people tend to take on these roles (and can switch roles) to perpetuate unhealthy dynamics that in some way feed unspoken (or unconscious) wishes and needs.
The Karpman triangle does not describe actual emergencies where someone genuinely needs saving from harm (such as a firefighter saving someone from a burning building set on fire by an arsonist). In this case, “… the Victim is not really as helpless as he feels, the Rescuer is not really helping, and the Persecutor does not really have a valid complaint,” according to transactional analyst Claude Steiner.
The magical glue holding together the people playing these three roles is denial. At some level, Persecutors have convinced themselves they are right to do what they do to the Victim and refuse to see their actions as abusive or manipulative. Victims do not see themselves as to blame for how they ‘always end up in this situation’ and give away their power. Rescuers tell themselves they ‘are just trying to help’ and are ‘good people’, when really they get something out of keeping Victims helpless. The underlying objective is to justify the feelings they get to feel — rather than fostering healthy relationships or healing for oneself.