Claustrophobia is the morbid fear of enclosed spaces, the irrational fear of “choking for breath” even if the places are spacious but underground or without windows.
The confidence that they will be able to open a door allows the sufferer from claustrophobia to remain in an enclosed space, but with their hand on the door knob, just as they are able to sit in a completely closed automobile as long as they know that, at any moment, they will be able to open a window or a door, but if they have to get into the rear of a car without rear doors or windows that can be opened, the problem reasserts itself, and that is the fact that they do not have access to “fresh air”.
Another example: when the car enters a tunnel, especially if it is long and dark, the claustrophobic driver will either become mute with eyes fixed, searching for the end of the long tube, or they will start talking very quickly to prevent themselves thinking they are in an enclosed space. But their eyes will remain ever searching for the exit and their hand will be nervously trying to undo the top button of their shirt.
Agoraphobia, conversely, is the morbid fear of the street, the square and of open spaces.
But, beyond the apparent differences, we find many analogies: in the second instance, we also have the feeling that personal space is restricted although one is outside, the same need to have an escape route from the open square, the feeling of being “short of breath” although one is in the open air.
In both cases, we are dealing with “phobias”, by definition, uncontrolled and uncontrollable fear triggered by a danger that reason tells us is not real. That is to say, confronted with phobias, reason and will have no power.
I have examined in detail many charts of people affected by claustrophobia, expecting to find the prevailing influence of Cancer or Pisces, with significant lunar influence and marked tendencies towards irrationality and weakness.
Instead, I found myself confronted with Saturn’s influence with the Sun or Ascendant in Capricorn or Libra, and Saturn very often housed, often also with the Moon in Capricorn. It seems that it is not the lack of logical rigour that gives rise to these phobic fears. On the contrary, an implacable logic triggers and sustains the influences in these charts.
In fact, an interesting dynamic of weakness is noteworthy; and that is a Sun falling or Ascending in Libra, the Moon in Capricorn or in Virgo, above all in women’s charts. In those of men, the Moon seems to prefer Scorpio, or other positions that could not be described as “lunar”.
And, as we will see, other positions are also emphasised.
Further study of the charts reveals a remarkable situation: the sign of Leo or the fifth House are very prominent and are aligned with Scorpio or the eighth House.
Meanings here proliferate: alignment between the house of life and that of death, not to mention the alignment between the degrees of exaltation of Y and the degrees of exaltation of Mercury, an important alignment for anyone who has trouble “breathing”, of finding “air”, when they find themselves in a confined space (or where they are denied their personal space).
I would add to all this the wounds of Taurus, above all in the degrees of Jupiter, allied to a god himself wounded. Taurus-Scorpio: once again, a dynamic of opposition rich in significance in this context.
Beyond the problems linked to spatial matters (territory – Taurus – second house) it should be noted that darkness is another problem for the claustrophobic, who when finding himself in the dark is unable, note this, to breath. For him, the gloom recalls the plutonic essence of Scorpio, it makes him feel as if he is underground. For him, the darkness if not something intangible, but like a wall that imprisons him.
In profound darkness, the claustrophobic feels constrained to extend his arms in search of space and with it, air.
The terror of the claustrophobic is also the fear of being buried alive: to wake up underground and be unable to breath.
The fear of suffocation causes him anxiety not only because of the influence of Scorpio but also because of the symbolism associated with Taurus; he cannot bear high collars, stiff collars or necklaces. He is forever touching the base of his neck to ensure it is free of impediment.
The Taurus-Scorpio influence is also behind these people’s refusal to allow themselves to be cured or even treated by psychoanalysts, psychologists or neurologists. The phrase that is always heard is: “My affairs are secret, and even if I’m not aware of them, they’ll never know them.”
This Taurus-Scorpio dynamic (with the addition of alignment with Leo and to the fifth) makes one think – as in fact psychoanalysts maintain – that one is dealing here with sexual problems.
But to say that is to generalise, while the problem here is very much specific and quite complicated. I wanted to get to the bottom of it and this is what I found: those subjects questioned obviously at first denied – and vehemently – the existence of any sexual problem - on the contrary, many gave me examples of their notable “activities” in that area. Then, going on a bit further, a disassociation between the sex act and being in love came to the surface: even going through incredible hoops, these people never succeeded in going to bed with those they loved, and never fell in love with those with whom they went to bed.
This brings to mind the great influence of Saturn and Capricorn: it seems almost as if these people believe that affection might harm either their autonomy or their prestige.
They remain imprisoned in platonic relationships, or, at least, they succeed in avoiding love relationships as a guaranteed defence of the autonomy of their ego, for the same reason the space around them must always seem clear, allowing them an escape route.
Isn’t it said that “he who loves” puts a collar round his neck?
In confirmation of this, we often find in relationship the two master planets of Capricorn, Uranus and Mars, and the fact that this relationship is predominately one of conflict (alignment, opposition, conjunction) leads us to believe the people in question do indeed feel their autonomy to be undermined, and, since one of the points of conflict is presented by Mars, it brings us back once again to Scorpio.
The appearance of the Moon here, undermining the capacity to recover from abandonment, completes the whole.
The same argument is valid for the fallen Moon in Virgo and it is not surprising to find Uranus here too. The conflicting relations between Uranus and Mercury should also be well noted: sparring between the two master planets of Virgo. And one of the protagonists of that conflict, Mercury, takes us once again back to Scorpio.
Setting one next to the other, we can see that beyond the fear of abandoning the body (one never knows, one can always be short of breath and one can die), we find the fear of others, like an anonymous host that may crush the life out of us.
I emphasise that many people who are severely claustrophobic associate the culmination of sexual intercourse with the fear of dying, and it is perhaps here that we may find the explanation for the disassociation between sex and sentiment that they make: to find both love and sexual gratification with one person would be too much, it would be death.
I further emphasise that the underlying causes are the same, whether the claustrophobia begins with the vivid imagination of childhood, or in response to some major problems later in life.
The only difference encountered is in the greater influence of Pluto when the problem is so to speak “from birth” and in the greater influence of Neptune when the problem arises later in life.
To conclude, I reiterate that there is a certain logical rigour in the resolute defence of the autonomy of the ego - and that that is part of the problem, I would like here to cite an “illogical” solution to the problem of agoraphobia.
The example is dealt with in “Change” by Paul Watzlawck ed Astrolabe, page 91:

The subject is a man in middle age, who was living a rather isolated existence because he was afflicted with a form of agoraphobia. This anxiety over open spaces was progressively imprisoning him. In the end, he reached the point where not only could he not go to work, he couldn’t even go to the nearby shop to buy food and other necessities. Desperate, he decided to kill himself. He got in his car and drove towards the summit of hill, about 80 km from his home, convinced that, before he had driven very far, the anxiety or a heart attack would without doubt have sent him to a better life. The reader can guess how the story ends: not only did he arrive safe and sound at his destination, but for the first time in many years, he didn’t feel the oppressive anxiety of his agoraphobia. One can well understand how the experience was so earth shattering for this man that it induced him to divulge it to others, in order that other people afflicted with the same problem might benefit. In the end he found a psychiatrist who was interested in the phenomenon of spontaneous cures, and who took him seriously. The psychiatrist stayed in contact with him for more than five years and was thus able to verify that not only did the subject not experience relapses, but that he was also able to help numerous agoraphobics afflicted with similar problems.

Unfortunately, I do not have this man’s chart: but what shall we make of his decision to kill himself by driving his car – a noted object associated with Mars – towards the summit of a hill (Virgo), thinking he would be struck by cardiac arrest (Sun –Y)?