Vertical Axis

The vertical axis emerges across the depth-psychology corpus as a structuring metaphor of considerable range and interpretive density. In astrological psychology, Rudhyar identifies it with the meridian—the horizon’s complement—as one of the two foundational axes constituting what he terms the ‘cross of incarnation,’ the spatial grammar of the natal chart. Sasportas extends this concern, noting that neglect of the vertical meridian axis distorts the entire symbolic architecture of house division. John Beebe imports the geometry directly into typological theory, naming the superior-to-inferior function axis the ‘spine’ of consciousness: a vertical orientation that defines personal standpoint before the horizontal ‘arms’ engage the world. Jodorowsky, reading Tarot spatially, treats vertical columns of cards as connective ladders linking the mundane to the cosmic, with specific cards in vertical alignment revealing mediatory tensions between upper and lower registers. Edinger and Campbell ground the figure archetypally in the axis mundi—the pillar, the cross, the Djed column—as the connective tissue between chthonic depth and celestial height. McGilchrist approaches the axis from evolutionary neuroscience, mapping the development of vertical cortical integration as the neural substrate enabling complex perceptual awareness. The consistent tension across these fields concerns the relationship between height and depth, spirit and matter, consciousness and its unconscious ground.

In the library 13 passages

a vertical axis (between the superior function and inferior function), which I think of as the ‘spine’ of consciousness defining the person’s conscious standpoint, and a horizontal axis (between the auxiliary and tertiary functions)

Beebe defines the vertical axis as the foundational ‘spine’ of typological consciousness, running between the superior and inferior functions and establishing the individual’s core psychological standpoint.

Beebe, John, Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type: The Reservoir of Consciousness, 2017thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

starting with a vertical straight line, which we can label at its top intuition and at its bottom sensation and next by crossing it with a horizontal line to define an axis at right angles to this spine

Beebe demonstrates the vertical axis concretely by mapping his own typological profile, labeling the vertical pole with opposing irrational functions (intuition above, sensation below) to construct a cross-diagram of consciousness.

Beebe, John, Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type: The Reservoir of Consciousness, 2017thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

the significance of the horizontal and vertical axes of the birth-chart—horizon and meridian… The two axes mentioned above represent the structure of space, of the particular space of the newborn entity. They form his cross of incarnation.

Rudhyar identifies the vertical axis as the meridian of the birth-chart, constituting with the horizon the ‘cross of incarnation’ that spatially structures the new entity’s relationship to subjective depth and objective height.

Dane Rudhyar, The Astrology of Personality: A Re-formulation of Astrological Concepts and Ideals in Terms of Contemporary Psychology and Philosophy, 1936thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

we shall also be making connections on the vertical axis between these Trumps and those directly above them on the map… the three cards in each vertical row are connected with one another in a significant way

Nichols employs the vertical axis as a structural principle in Tarot mapping, revealing archetypal relationships between cards stacked vertically—mediatory figures positioned between upper and lower polarities.

Nichols, Sallie, Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey, 1980supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

the whole purpose of the elaboration of the vertical axis… the development of the vertical axis, for superior sensory mapping of the world, necessarily required strengthening the lateral axis

McGilchrist frames the vertical axis as the primary evolutionary achievement of mammalian neurology—cortical integration running from lower brain regions upward—whose very success necessitated a complementary horizontal (lateral) integration.

McGilchrist, Iain, The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World, 2021supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

the whole purpose of the elaboration of the vertical axis… the development of the vertical axis, for superior sensory mapping of the world, necessarily required strengthening the lateral axis

A parallel passage confirms that the evolutionary elaboration of the vertical axis—hierarchical cortical integration—is the neural precondition for complex awareness and simultaneously drives the development of interhemispheric connectivity.

McGilchrist, Iain, The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World, 2021supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

At either end of a vertical axis, two other cups are displaying love of the Earth (the bottom cup) and love of Heaven (the top cup)… activity toward the Earth and receptivity toward the Heavens

Jodorowsky reads the vertical axis in the Eight of Cups as a cosmological polarity—earthward activity below and heavenward receptivity above—encoding a directional theology of energy within the card’s iconography.

Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, 2004supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

It represents—the phallic, striving, vertical thrust towards the upper spirit realm. It may signify the axis mundi which is the connection between the human world and the trans-personal divine world.

Edinger grounds the vertical axis in the symbolism of the pillar and axis mundi, interpreting upward vertical thrust as both phallic vitality and the archetypal channel through which divine and human worlds communicate.

Edinger, Edward F., Ego and Archetype: Individuation and the Religious Function of the Psyche, 1972supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

the ram, significantly enough, directly beneath the sun-door, on the very vertical of the axis, fixed to its tree as was Jesus to his Cross

Campbell locates the sacrificial victim on the literal vertical of the cosmic axis, reading the Cross of Christ and the Akedah as mythic instances of the axis mundi’s intersection between temporal and eternal dimensions.

Campbell, Joseph, The Mythic Image, 1974supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

Differentiation along this axis is usually well established, given that in utero growth of the fetal nervous system occurs from bottom to top… Vertical integration makes this reality a part of conscious experience.

Siegel maps ‘vertical integration’ onto the neuroanatomical axis running from brainstem through limbic regions to prefrontal cortex, arguing that conscious experience requires integration along this bottom-to-top developmental gradient.

Siegel, Daniel J., The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, 2020supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

after a few minutes a sudden change occurs: the walls, the man walking about the room, and the line in which the cardboard falls become vertical

Merleau-Ponty uses perceptual experiments with mirror-distorted rooms to argue that verticality is not merely given by sensation but is actively constituted through embodied spatial orientation.

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Phenomenology of Perception, 1962aside

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

Related terms