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It is wonderful to contemplate how the planetary forces balance each other so perfectly that universal equilibrium is maintained despite the disturbances of the billions who inhabit the earth alone, not to speak of other spheres. Every moment of time, our actions, individually and collectively, interfere with terrestrial equipoise, and were not this instantly restored, the earth would leave its orbit, fly off at a tangent, and be destroyed. Nor are physical disturbances most potent in disturbing or restoring balance. It is a fallacy to confound solidity and rigidity with strength (as is most thoroughly explained in our Lecture No. 19, "The Coming Force"). A train has no strength itself, but must be solid because it is operated upon by an invisible gas called steam. There is no force in a rigid hammer, but when driven by a column of flexible liquid, like water, backed by an elastic cushion of compressed air, the force stored in the air drives the powerful hydraulic ram irresistibly through whatever comes before it. Likewise subtle, invisible stellar rays are the factors which maintain our ponderous planet in its path and spiritual disturbances generated by mankind are naturally the most subtle force which interfere with the earth's equipoise.
Therefore each planet has its opposite, and every time we radiate the quality of one planet, we call forth a countercurrent of corresponding force, and by the action and reaction of those forces in and upon us and our environment we learn the lessons of life. If we vibrate to the love ray of Venus, instantly Mars comes to tempt, and tries to turn love to lust, but it depends upon us whether we remain steadfast in virtue or yield to vice. If we court the ideal of Jupiter, if we aim to elevate the standards of church or state, instantly the saturnine forces invite to self-aggrandizement and appeal to the passion for power. With us it lies, to remain true to the ideal and reap laurels that last through eternity, or yield to the promise of present gain of worthless gold which we repay in sorrow when Saturn turns and becomes the chastiser. Each horoscope shows the tendencies in even the humblest life, and opportunity continually knocks. May we all be prepared to meet it as spiritual astrologers should.
Having learned to "cast" a horoscope, our next concern is to "read" its message. In a systematic course on reading, the first step is to familiarize oneself with the intrinsic nature of the signs, houses, planets, and the aspects. This will form the subject of the present and several future Astrology Independent Study Modules. The student is expected to thoroughly memorize our different classifications, for when reading the horoscope there is no time to look them up, any more than we would refer to the alphabet for name and sound of a letter when reading a book. The alphabet must be memorized to such a degree of proficiency that there is no tax on the consciousness when reading, for this is the basis of the art of reading; and the nature of the signs, houses, planets, and aspects which are the alphabet of the heavens, must be mastered as fully and completely before it is possible to read the mystic message, the scroll of life, which we call the horoscope.
Destiny may be divided into three kinds. In one kind we sow and reap from day to day, or from year to year with little delay between the action and its reaction, and with the thread of fate clearly linking cause and effect. Liabilities incurred and liquidated under this "pay as you go" system of fate are particularly indicated by planets in cardinal signs and angles. The cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. These signs are called "cardinal," because when the Sun is in any one of them he is in one of the four corners of the heavens; at a turning point, where he is forced to take another direction. In Aries he is as far east as he can go. Cancer is the tropical point of the north where he gives the most perpendicular ray at the summer solstice, and consequently the greatest heat. Libra is the extreme western point of his path where he turns away from the Northern Hemisphere.
In midwinter, at Christmas, he is in Capricorn at the farthest point south, where his horizontal ray leaves the people of the North in winter's icy grip. The nature of the "angles," and the effect of the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses, is similar to the effect of the cardinal signs because these houses are at the east, north, west, and south points of the horoscope. The nature and effect of cardinal signs and angles may be summed up in the words, "action" and "initiative" though each acts differently from the others. Planets placed in cardinal signs and angles give zest to life according to the nature of the particular planet, sign and angle. For instance, the intrinsic nature of the Sun is "life"; the cardinal sign Aries is aggressive, forceful and "self-assertive." Therefore, when the Sun is in Aries in the spring, nature bubbles over with life; there is such a super-abundance of vital force that all creation is impelled to procreate itself in order to use the surplus. In the human horoscope the solar life is similarly intensified when expressed through the cardinal sign Aries or when it is in the eastern angle (the first house), which corresponds to Aries. This position makes for greater vitality, so great in fact that it frequently runs amuck, overheats the blood, and sends it racing through the veins. Therefore we find people with the Sun in Aries subject to fevers, but it is also a fact, not generally known to physicians, that in the Sun-in-Aries people the temperature may rise far above the ordinary extreme danger point, remain there for hours, burn every hair of the patient's head, and yet produce no fatality, because the spark of life is too strong to be extinguished even when it has burned the body to a cinder.
While Aries gives "self-esteem," Capricorn, or the 10th house, (the southern angle), which corresponds to Capricorn, brings "social honor," that is to say, the esteem of others, and good planets in Capricorn or the 10th house will certainly bring preferment. Take, as usual, the keyword of a planet, combine it with the keyword of the sign and you have the interpretation. For instance, the keyword of the Sun is life, of Capricorn, social honor. Therefore the Sun in Capricorn or the 10th house will promote a lively social esteem for one with that configuration, and as a matter of fact, people who rise to high and responsible positions generally have the Sun so placed and well aspected, for aspects have to be taken into consideration also in judgment, but one thing at a time. The keyword of Saturn is "obstruction," of Capricorn "social honor," of Aries "self-esteem." If Saturn is in Aries he will tend to obstruct self-esteem, crush the spirit, and make a man timid and shrinking. If Saturn is afflicted in Capricorn or the 10th house, the man may strive to rise, but obstructions will pile mountain high to bar his way to social honor. If he persists and does attain, down-fall awaits him anyway. Napoleon is said to have had this configuration.
As Capricorn or the 10th house, gives our status in the world, the human family, so the opposite cardinal sign, Cancer, or its correspondent, the 4th house, (the northern angle), determines our "home life." Take a horoscope with Venus there, another with Mars, and a third with Saturn. What is the meaning of the stellar script in each? Again the keywords afford easy reading, for Venus is "coalition," the force that binds and attracts and smooths out all unpleasantness. When she is in Cancer or the 4th house, love will brighten the hearth and house. There may be a hard battle with the world, but peace will reign by the fireside. Mars is "dynamic energy"; he rides roughshod over everything and everybody. In Cancer or the 4th house he is a tartar, and tyrant in the home, and it is strange how dual we may be, for the man who is such a bear at home, may have Venus in the west and be an angel in public. Nor should we call him a hypocrite; it is simply that in one department of life he feels the influence of the martial ray, and the Venusian dominates another. It should excite our compassion, and show the way to overcome by knowledge, if we can reach and teach him the stellar science. The keynote of Saturn is obstruction, and it is easy to see what he would do in Cancer, or the 4th house.
Faust, though most of us think of it as written by Goethe, is not a human creation. The plot is found in one of the ancient myths and though our modern stage rendering makes it seem only the story of an ordinary seduction, the myth itself, and even Goethe's rendering brings out much of the esoteric truth. Among other pearls is Satan's description of himself. When asked by Faust, "Who art thou?" he says:
That fits Saturn. I know that all in God's world work for ultimate good, and that physical resistance develops physical muscle-that spiritual obstruction is necessary to grind away the rough edges from the soul and polish it to diamond brightness.
Saturn is chief of the lapidaries. Knowing that he hurts to help, we must try to be patient. When even the stone in being ground gives sounds of seeming suffering, who shall blame us if we wail at the time when the hand of Saturn is heavy or applied in a particularly sensitive place? Although I thank him for benefit received from chastisements, and recognize the benefit of his restraining influence at times when he makes me feel like a dog on the leash, I cannot help thinking of him as a cold, clammy hand of huge pro- portions, ready to wet blanket all ambition, self-assertion, and other martial characteristics. "The spirit of negation" — no bit ever fretted a spirited horse as much as the curb of Saturn, which says: "Don't, Don't, Don't." Saturn can fret and worry a martial spirit bubbling over with energy and ambition, and as a planet is always most evil, so-called, in the sign where it is weakest, Saturn in Cancer or the 4th house is particularly severe. Children whose parents have Saturn in Cancer or the 4th house may or may not be kicked and cuffed physically; that depends upon other factors. But there Saturn has them cornered; they are helpless children, they cannot run away from the parental home, no matter how they feel, and the saturnine don't, don't, don't will wet-blanket their spirits, quench their ambition, and make it a thousand times more difficult for them to fight the battle of life. Oh! that we could realize our wrong when we unthinkingly betray the trust of the little ones who come to us for protection and a home until they are able to fight their own battle in the world. If we could only see how the saturnine ray in the home hampers our mate, and how much better it would be for him, or her, if we would cease to restrain and throw cold water, if we would give encouragement instead of always having don't on the tip of the tongue.
Aries being the fountainhead of egoism (the force which aims to center everything on the individual regardless of all others), it is reasonable that the opposite sign must have the opposite qualities, and signify what we share with others or have in community with others. "Partnership" may therefore be said to be the keyword of Libra, its corresponding western angle the 7th house. As marriage is the most important partnership of life, capable of making or marring it as no other relation can, the configurations in this sign and angle are particularly vital in that respect.
The Sun is positive and masculine in its nature and signifies, therefore, the marriage partner in the horoscope of a woman, and the negative, feminine Moon indicates the partner for a man, that is generally speaking, but planets in Libra and the 7th house gives particular testimony in this respect. The Sun thus placed gives life, and zest here as elsewhere, regardless of sex. Saturn obstructs successful intercourse with our fellows; Mars gives dynamic energy, makes us aggressive; we put down our rivals though we may also ruin ourselves by so doing.
You have now the method and must learn to apply it so that you may read the stellar scrip as you read a book. There is no time like the present, so I will give you a problem which you must answer without looking up any books other than the letters and self-study modules furnished in this course.
The keyword of Jupiter is "benevolence." Do you know the "jovial" fellow, with the big heart and the broad smile, who shakes your hand till the ligaments of your arm are almost sprained? He is "hail fellow well met" with everybody, always ready to give anything or anybody a boost and never gets angry on his own account, but may be moved to righteous indignation by the wrongs of others. Yet even though he is terrible in his wrath, he is never cruel to the aggressor or oppressor, but shows mercy and kindness as soon as the foe is vanquished. Do you know him? He is scarcely breeding absolute purity, but is Jupiter personified.
(You are welcome to e-mail your answers and/or comments to us. Please be sure to include the course name and Independent Study Module number in your e-mail to us. Or, you are also welcome to use the answer form below. You will find the answers to the questions below in the next Astrology Independent Study Module.)
1. Now, write what you think the effect would be of Jupiter in each of the four cardinal signs, their corresponding angle and house. I want four nice short paragraphs, one for each sign. Put as much time as you can spare in making each description as full and as consistent with brevity. The astrologer should not obscure his meaning with many words. Try to be both clear and concise.
The Keywords give the essential nature of the Planets and Signs.
To the Rosicrucian student astrology is a phase of religion, basically a spiritual science. More than any other study it reveals man to himself. No other science is so sublime, so profound, and so all-embracing. It portrays the relation between God, the macrocosm, and man, the microcosm, showing them to be fundamentally one.
Esoteric science, investigating the subtler forces that impinge upon man, the Spirit, and his vehicles, has charted their effects with no less definiteness than has academic science the reactions of sea and soil, plant and animal to the solar and lunar rays.
With this knowledge we may determine the astrological pattern of each individual and know the relative strength and weakness of the various forces operating in each life. To the degree that we are in possession of such knowledge we can begin systematic, scientific character building — and character is destiny! We note times and seasons cosmically advantageous to unfolding undeveloped qualities, correcting faulty traits, and eliminating destructive propensities.
The divine science of astrology reveals the hidden causes at work in our lives. It counsels the adult in regard to vocation, the parent in the guidance of children, the teacher in management of pupils, the physician in diagnosing diseases, thus lending aid to each and all in whatever position they may find themselves.
No other subject within the range of human knowledge appears to hold for this day and age the possibilities open to astrologers for helping people to their own dignity as gods-in-the-making, to a greater grasp of universal law, and to a realization that we are eternally secure within the caressing fold of Infinite and Boundless Being.
Millions of words, both printed and verbal, have been used in argument as to whether or not astrology is "accurate" and "scientific." The anti-astrology group (the non-students, the uninformed, the exoterically religious and mentally unadventurous) hold forth with arguments that serve, in the long run, only as disparaging reflections on the personal abilities of those who "read horoscopes." They argue that, if astrology is scientifically accurate, it should be proved so by the perfect agreement of all astrologers on any given point of the subject. All such argument is spurious and a waste of time since it does not pertain to the basic essence of the subject at all.
(A brief pause to inquire of these "antis" if all Christians agree as to the meaning of their Teacher's message; all musicians as to the "correct" interpretation of a Brahms symphony; all doctors as to the "right" treatment of infantile paralysis; all parents as to the "perfect" way of raising children.)
Every protagonist of astrology varies in ability to interpret a horoscope from every other astrologer. Each differs from his colleagues in "approach," in ability to comprehend symbology, in exactitude of mathematical calculation, in ability to sense the dynamic essence of the horoscope, in ability to understand the psychological problems represented and their potentials for solution. This is the "human variant."
Astrology is an exact science because: Every factor in a correctly calculated horoscope is a symbolic representation of an exact and impartial effect of a specific cause. It represents the cosmic and immutable law of cause and effect operating in the conditions and experiences of a human being on his progress of many incarnations.
Nothing in a correctly calculated horoscope is there by chance, accident, heredity, or whim of blind fate. Every planetary position and aspect is one factor of the subject's soul body, one phase of his consciousness, one milestone on his spiritual path.
To the degree that the astrologer identifies his horoscopical findings with the law of "as ye sow, so shall ye reap" will he be able to synthesize correctly the chart in its entirety, will he be able to reduce past causes of present conditions, will he be able to determine the potential solutions of difficulties.
The term astro-dynamics is used to indicate the study of a horoscope from the standpoint of the planetary influences being diminished or intensified by the native's reactions to his experiences during a given incarnation. The cyclic functions of life forces create a periodic emphasis on each planetary influence and aspect and to the degree that each emphasis is utilized constructively is the alchemical transmutation made. To the degree that the negatives are expressed will the positives be depleted and made less effectual for growth. This is easily understood when we consider that no human being is ever "cut off" from any part of his horoscope. There is no such thing as a "stoppage" of planetary influence. Even the inhibitive and restrictive ray of a heavily afflicted Saturn is still "expressing" in the consciousness of the person who is expiating such a form of karma.
A practical application of astro-dynamics may be stated thus: any person who consults an astropsychologist does so because he is "in trouble." He is in trouble because he has been "living with his negatives." Without a dynamic approach to interpretation, the reader can easily fall into confusion if he interprets the trines and sextiles of his client's chart as "statically good." A trine or sextile is "good" only if it is put into concrete expression as a counteractive to that which is destructive or retrogressive in the person's nature. Poverty, sickness, unfulfilled or distorted love-impulses, fears, and the like are evidences that the client has not applied the urge to fulfill the promises of his sextiles or the benefits of his trines, but has expressed his energies in terms of his squares and oppositions, thus depleting his possibilities for good as life goes on. A continual expression of negatives will result in depletion of the regenerative urges and a tighter bondage to the Wheel of Life is created.
In musical parlance, the term "modulation" is used to indicate a chord or passage which serves as a bridge from one section to another in a different key or tonality. This term may also be used, in the astro-dynamic terminology, to describe the purposes of the sextile and opposition aspects. These aspects, in a given chart, may be considered the "points of transmutation" when the two planets of an opposition receive the trine and sextile from a third planet, and when one planet of a sextile is squared by a third planet. In either of these cases, the planet making the good aspect to the affliction represents the agency by which the person finds his "redemption from evil." Thus, through the exercise of that planetary energy transmutation is made and the power of the square and opposition to express discord is diminished and neutralized.
The aspects described above represent the "easiest" form of alchemy. However, others must be considered: In all probability, the transmutation of an unrelieved square is more difficult than any other experience in life. This term indicates two planets in square aspect to each other with no trines or sextiles to other planets. Superficially it represents an aspect of "heavy karma," indicative of a serious problem through which the native must learn a much needed lesson. Since each of the two planets concerned will be activated from time to time by favorable aspects of lunations and progressed Moon, etc., there is a certain amount of "assistance" assured. But, because such an aspect indicates the possibility of great sorrow or difficulty, the native must be instructed as to the basic, positive qualities of both planets. When the aspect is activated recognizably, the native must do his utmost to express, to some degree at least, the positive expression of the two planets, or at least the one that is most directly being expressed. Since the two planets of the square are continually "hand-in-hand" they are constantly affecting each other — the negatives of one intensify the negatives of the other, and the resultant evil breeds more evil in the future. However if, by spiritual discipline and/or corrective psychology the native allows only a constructive vibration of each planet to be expressed, then the good of each stimulates the other, transmutation is made and, in time, destiny is transcended.
Much the same approach can be made to the unrelieved opposition, with the exception that the function of fusing the two at once would apply more practically and more possibly than in the case of the square. There is such an element of "seesaw" about the opposition aspect that if one planet is emphasized at the expense of the other, a condition of lopsidedness could result — hardly a manifestation of harmony or balance! In other words, the alchemical transmutation demanded by this type of aspect is "expressing the affairs of each in terms of the other" or "in cooperation with the other."
The most important thing for the astro-psychologist to bear in mind with reference to adult clients is that, in most cases, negative aspects have been expressed and experienced for many years of life, and that many people are not really aware of the best good that they are capable of expressing and realizing. Humanity becomes so accustomed to its troubles, fears, bad habits, frustrations, and sordidness that the majority become reconciled to the attitude, "That's the way I am and I can't do anything about it." All of which is very foolish and wrong. There is a solution to be found for every human problem, in so far as a "problem" is only the result of some form of misdirected energy. But, with the horoscope as the way-shower, the agencies of solution can be found in all of the benefic aspects of the chart.
The dynamic approach to astrological interpretation finds its master-work as a guide for children. The newly incarnated Ego, boy or girl, comes to parents who have undertaken the sacred responsibility of guidance. They may have preconceived ideas of what they would like their child to be, but if they wish to be real parents, they will guide that child along the lines that are best for him. Such guidance includes much more than vocational guidance, important as that is. It means that they themselves must act as neutralizing agencies for the negatives indicated in the child's chart. No woman whose child has Mars afflicting Moon should allow herself to indulge in "temper" in the child's presence. Why? Because every time she does, she emphasizes that discordant vibration in the child's subconscious, his instinctive irritability becomes intensified, and a "picture of cruelty" is etched more deeply into the child's vibration-pattern. However, because a little child reacts to everything that goes on around it, every manifestation of calmness, poise, kindness and consideration neutralizes, to a small degree, the harsh impulse of Mars square Moon and makes it possible for the child to deal with those impulses much more easily as he grows up. In other words, the mother, in right conduct, emphasizes something that is harmonious and constructive in the child. She then represents something that is good, not evil, in its chart — and in its life.
This material is presented for the consideration of advanced students and astrological practitioners. It correlates the dynamic factors of alchemical transmutation with the mathematical calculation and tabulation of progressed aspects.
The title derives from the approach that at no time does a horoscope "stop functioning." Nature, they tell us, abhors a vacuum; there is no such thing as "nothing" in manifestation. Correspondingly, there is no such thing as "nothing," "emptiness," or "cessation of activity" in a horoscope. There are, to be sure, periods of apparent quiescence, routine activity, and a general smoothness or monotony of function. These, however, in their own good time, build to peaks of climax, intense experience, drastic change fulfillments, and/or seeming descents.
It is the purpose of the astro-dynamic approach to study the progressed aspects, or cycles, from the standpoint of their representing a stimulation of not just one planet at a time, but of an entire "area" of the horoscope.
The nature of planetary vibration allows a "field of extension" which we call the "orb." This extension of either side of a planet's exact position allows it to "reach out and take hands" with the other planets that it aspects. Thus, the "life" of the horoscope is activated.
Ordinarily, in the preparation of an astro-analysis we list the progressed aspects in order for the current year or two for the purpose of determining the principal sources of experience in the person's life at the present time. In astro-dynamics we do the same, except that we list the progressed aspects by "groups" or "areas." It is this approach which most clearly indicates the possibilities for alchemical processes. We contrast the positives and the negatives that are being stimulated simultaneously or in sequence and thereby determine which factors are available for regeneration of emotion and redirection of reactions.
Whatever extra mathematical calculations may be involved for this kind of "treatment" is more than compensated for in the vivid and vitalized presentation of the progressed aspects concerned. The whole horoscope takes on added "dimension" — from a picture on a flat piece of paper it becomes a galvanic representation of a living thing. Attention!
A man requests your assistance concerning a marital problem. You calculate both his and his wife's charts, tabulate the aspects pertaining to each and pay particular attention to the mutual conjunctions. These mutual conjunctions form the basis for your problem-analysis.
In his chart you find Pisces on the Ascendant; Mercury, ruler of the seventh, is in 9 Aquarius, in the eleventh house. Mars is in 12 Scorpio, eighth house, square Mercury. You find one mutual conjunction uniting the two charts. Her Mars is in 10 Aquarius — conjunct his Mercury — square Moon in Taurus, which is opposition his Mars in Scorpio. The conjunction of her Mars to his seventh house ruler is the key to a difficult marital situation, characterized by the vibration of unregenerate Mars. His alchemical agency is his unafflicted Venus sextile to Mercury. (Get the picture by putting these positions on a blank chart.)
In tabulating his current progressions, you find that from the previous Adjusted Calculation Date to the next Adjusted Calculation Date the Moon travels 13 degrees 38 minutes. By division of twelve the monthly travel of the progressed Moon is shown to be one degree and eight minutes. The ACD is the fifteenth of the month. There are thirty-four minutes of Moon- travel each half month.
Tabulating the monthly positions of the progressed Moon for this year-period — from the fifteenth of each month — reveals that during the last two weeks of March, 1947, the progressed Moon makes the exact conjunction of his Mercury. In early June it makes the exact square of his Mars. In early August it makes the exact sextile of his Venus. (On the outside of your practice chart indicate these Moon positions. Tabulate these aspects and dates, at the bottom of the page. Bracket them so as to impress your mind with the fact that you are dealing with a "field of stimulation.")
The Mercury-Mars square shows that from late March to early June the marital problem is going to be stimulated in a very decided way. (Since you are, in this hypothetical case, dealing only with the man, it is not particularly necessary to concentrate further on the wife's chart. It is his reactions that you are concerned with. Whatever the wife may do during those months will tie in with his aspect.) However, with the conjunction to Mercury, the sextile to Venus begins to vibrate simultaneously with the square to Mars, because Venus is in orb of sextile in the native chart. Therefore, Venus is the alchemical agency for this man to use during this period of a little over four months. He must counteract the Mars vibration (which in Scorpio is very strong) with the principle of the Venus vibration It is his panacea at this time. Using it persistently during this troublesome time will result in great soul growth and as his marital experience progresses he will be much better able to direct his part constructively.
A short elaboration on the above: Suppose that both the man and his wife consult you jointly. Both are eager to learn more clearly how to harmonize their marriage experience. You then combine the factors of both charts and find that she has Saturn unafflicted in Gemini trine to her Aquarius Mars and sextile to his unafflicted Venus. In this case, tabulate her progressed aspects — by "area" for the same months. Each person provides a negative stimulation of Mars for the other. But each one has an alchemical agency to work with. In mutual understanding that each must use a certain constructive vibration to neutralize and harmonize discord they then can face the coming period with greater assurance of mutual help and consequently greater marital happiness. She must counteract a violent disposition (Mars square Moon) with the patience and poise of Saturn in Gemini He must transmute the tendency to mental discord through ever deepening affection and outpouring of love. Each has his own pattern to deal with, but, since they are, together, a partnership, mutuality of growth and alchemy can be achieved.
The above is a very simple, direct illustration of this approach. However, the procedure is the same for any complexity of progressed aspects. The principles of alchemy and transmutation demand that we look for the solution of the problem, but if we consider each progressed aspect as "a thing in itself" the solutions may not be so evident. Tie up the areas in your tabulations and causes. Effects and solutions will be so much more "livingly" manifested.
The identity of relationships through the study of a horoscope is one of the most subtle and difficult problems with which the psychological astrologer has to deal. The difficulty lies in the fact that the reality of a relationship between two people is not a thing of flesh or man- made law, but of the essence of feeling of the two people for each other. This "essence of mutual feeling," in the cases of intense attractions or enmities, is a holdover from contacts made in past incarnations and can manifest distinctly regardless of age, sex, or worldly relationship. The esotericist knows that a deep bond between two people cannot spring into being at the very first contact of the persons concerned. The first contact was made in the past, and the relationship, whether of love or hatred, is being continued in this life as though there had never been an interruption.
There is only one possible end for any relationship between two people — and that is fulfillment. No bond of hatred is ever left "hanging in the wind." Such a thing would refute the Law of Love. Hatred is "love in reverse" — it is consciousness of contact with the universe, through another person, turned in on "self." Until the consciousness reinterprets that expression of energy in terms of the higher self, it can only express that which is negative, destructive, and unredeemed.
The following are some hypothetical examples of relationships and experiences, which from a karmic standpoint represent sources of hatred, fear, and envy. They are found in the lives of men and women the world over and in all ages.
The creative original individualist, in any field of endeavor, represents a threat to the crystallized orthodox person. These prototypes may be described as, or symbolized by, Uranus and Saturn, respectively. Uranus may fear and hate Saturn because the latter stifles and frustrates his freedom; Saturn may fear Uranus as a threat to undermine the "status quo." Hatred results when Uranus loses freedom, or when the security of Saturn is destroyed. Until each can learn something of value from the other the conflict remains.
The conflicting phases of feminine nature are illustrated by the "maternal woman" and the "sweetheart woman." The age-old tug of war, with the male of the species as the harried and bewildered object of conquest! Mrs. Moon-Jupiter-Saturn develops an implacable hatred for that hussy, Miss Venus-Uranus, and sees in her a threat to the peace of home and respectable living. The latter regards her hardworking, dowdy sister as a pitiful fuddy-duddy who has forgotten the meaning of romance.
A tragic problem — and there are many such — is represented by parental interference. A person who, in the past, neglected his opportunities may be karmically drawn to a parent who is very egoistic and possessive. The parent, with no regard for the child's intrinsic urges, seeks to make him over into a replica of an admired relative — or himself. The child's whole life-experience then becomes a distortion which results in frustration. This, in turn, results in bitter hatred and resentment toward the parent. The possessive egoism of the parent feeds on himself to the degree that the child becomes enslaved; the parent's life becomes more and more "fixated" on its vicarious fulfillment through the child. Other sources of experience are ignored, friendships become more and more meaningless; spiritual, mental, and psychological atrophy result. Affection, companionship, and mutual understanding are experience and what could have been a source of inspiration, warmth, and fulfillment turns into a deadly horror. Both are wrong. The child is wrong in permitting another to live his life for him. The parent is wrong in using power with the urge to domination as the chief motive. As the negative and painful emotions take more and more hold of these people, they incapacitate themselves for good in every other expression in life. And — what they take with them into their next experience had better be left unsaid.
In so far as the validity, reality, or importance of an experience depends on the reactions to the event of the person concerned, and since our experiences come to us as objectifications of what is indicated in our horoscopes through our "interchange" with other people, is it not logical to interpret the aspects of the chart as people? In the soul-vibration of another person is found a correspondence with something in your own nature which is indicated in your chart.
If the aspect should be a negative one (square or opposition), your contact with that person stirs into being a negative or destructive reaction. You call that reaction "fear" or "jealousy" or "hatred." You say, "I fear that man," or "I envy that man," or "I hate that man." That is what you say, but in the light of astrology, that is not what you really mean. What you mean actually is: " That man served to remind me of something negative in my nature. I feel that he might do a wrong to me that I remember having done to another. My feeling is fear. I know that he has achieved something that I should have achieved, but did not. My feeling is envy. His wrong to another reminds me of my own past wrong-doing. My feeling is hatred."
The man or woman you describe as your worst enemy is the person whose horoscope, in some way, corresponds with your worst aspect. That person might be anyone: father, mother, sister, brother, child, husband, wife, lover, or employer. As one tuning fork causes another of the same pitch to vibrate with it, so the negative state of your "enemy" stimulates your negative and brings it into your consciousness with pain. Use that painful reaction as a barometer of your own spiritual state. It is indicating to you a very important lesson. It serves to point out the need for you to undertake a very important step in development. Your "enemy" is not your enemy. He or she is your teacher. Learn through that person, of yourself.
But don't stop there. In identifying your "enemies" by means of your reactions toward and experiences with them, you attain a detached perspective of yourself as a factor in your circle of relationships and see how you make of yourself an "enemy" to others by the expression of your own negatives. The next step is to make of yourself a "friend" to all people. As you, to a greater and greater degree express the positive possibilities indicated in your chart, you make of yourself a magnet to draw into expression the good that is latent in others.
As you cause, by your constant efforts toward regeneration, the stimulation of the good in others they are automatically made aware of their own good. They like you. They admire you. They are comfortable and happy when in your company. They feel at their best: more courteous, more considerate, more courageous, stronger. They say that they love you, that you are their friend. That doesn't quite convey what they really mean. What they mean is that their higher self is brought to their consciousness through their contact with you. They do not really "love you." They are simply made more aware of their own God-Self, through which they express harmonious and constructive reactions.
Your reactions to any person constitute the only factor that determines your relationship with him. Use your "positives," transmute your "negatives," and defeat your "enemies" by eliminating the "enemy" within yourself.
The artist in man has, for ages past, sought to interpret in verse, songs, and pictures, his concept of life as a Great Battle. Every scripture has told the story, in symbol and allegory, of the onslaughts of the Forces of Darkness against the Stronghold of Light, the contention of the Devil with God for the soul of man, the ceaseless friction between Evil and Good, the Tempter eternally seeking to undermine that which is aspiring in the human heart.
Sorties, skirmishes, and battles-to-the-death — all phases of this Conflict — are shown in each horoscope. The aspirant contains within himself the field upon which the claims of destiny contend with everything in his nature that urges him forward and upward. He must, if he would triumph, attain as clear an understanding as possible of the nature of the enemy that abides in his subconscious. This enemy has aides-de-camp in the form of the squares and oppositions, but his headquarters is the 12th house. It is there that the plans are made, the traps are set, the shackles are forged and the nets of illusion are woven. The light of day seldom penetrates to this cave, for the enemy and his minions prefer darkness for their labors. The aspirant can dispel the shadow only with the light of "self-knowledge."
Since each experience represents a triumph or (temporary) defeat in the battle, and since each experience is brought about by contact with another person — or persons, those people whose planetary energies serve to stimulate the afflicted ruler or occupant of the aspirant's 12th house must be viewed and studied by him with the attitude that they objectify his innermost possibilities for self-defeat. And — those people can be anyone; a parent, a child, a friend, a love, wife, or husband can fulfill that pattern. The aspirant is such because he has taken steps toward the Impersonal, and in using his horoscope as a "map" on the Path of Life it behooves him to understand that he must study his relationships from the standpoint of his subconscious reaction to them, not from the worldly name they have. As he transmutes his reactions, so he improves the quality of his relationship.
The following method is suggested: The aspirant makes a detailed study of his twelfth house conditions from the standpoint of malefic conjunctions, squares and oppositions. He then relates as far as possible the charts of those persons who have had a deleterious influence in his life. He studies particularly those charts which have any planet or ascendant conjunct the afflicted ruler or occupant of his twelfth house; he makes a mental summary of his experiences with these persons and thereby makes himself aware of the negatives in his nature which were stimulated by contact with them. Regardless of the severity and painfulness of the experiences, he will release all hatred. He will realize that each and every one of these persons served to objectify a phase of his own negative subconscious and he will no longer think of them as "perpetrators of evil" against him, but as object lessons for his instruction and enlightenment.
Afflicted Sun rules 12th: Power is the key to this karmic lesson. The aspirant has misused power in the past, and in this incarnation he suffers abuse and injustice from those in authority. He has used his position and influence to enslave another, in some degree, and he must learn that power must be expressed in terms of justice and mercy. The father, or an older brother, may be the instrument used during the aspirant's childhood to reflect the past wrong. In later life the employers, since they exercise authority over him, may bring to his attention this needed lesson. Power as it expresses in physical vitality may be indicated, in reverse, in a weak and ineffectual body, karmically attracted to a father who is much subject to illness and physical debility.
Afflicted Moon rules the 12th: Womanhood is the key to this karmic problem. It represents for this incarnation, a time for adjusting all unredeemed destiny that originated when the aspirant used a female body, unredeemed destiny that concerns domestic experience, the opportunity to develop, through feelings, an increased faculty of sympathy and tenderness. The Moon symbolizes the feminine polarity of the human psyche and whether the aspirant is male or female, this karmic aspect, indicates disorders and insufficiencies of this faculty. "Trouble through the mother" is the classic interpretation of afflictions to the Moon. In this sense, the aspirant's mother is seen as his "enemy." Such being the case, he will realize that her influence on his life parallels his own on someone else — in a past life. His heavy responsibility to her in this incarnation fulfills what he left undone — in the past. His affection for her is never adequately returned and he learns what the withholding of love means. He is tied to home conditions now, for he sought to escape them — in the past. Women baffle him, he never seems to gain a clear understanding of them. He never tried to be a "real-woman" — in the past. Or he treated women with indifference — in the past. The aspirant will realize that women are not his "enemies." He must, however, cultivate a deeper understanding of and sympathy for the basic elements of "woman-nature" if he is to redeem this karmic state.
Afflicted Saturn rules the 12th: The karma is repression. The "enemy" is Crystallization. Persons who represent this position are a seeming blight on the life of the aspirant. They stimulate his feelings of insecurity; they lead him into paths of suppression and denial; they (apparently) block up the flow of Life. Through his relationships with them he receives his severest disciplining; through them he fulfills his deepest and longest-overdue responsibilities. They serve to remind him of everything in his nature that is impractical; they hold him to earth while he yearns for freedom.
He is an individualist while they are hidebound; he is mystically inclined, they are orthodox and observant of forms; he attaches no particular significance to money, they interpret everything in life in financial terms. His instinctive tendency and desire is to free himself from them and escape the fetters of their influence. The tendency will remain until he realizes that he cannot escape his rightful responsibilities; that he must learn to utilize intelligently the things of earth; that money, though it has no power of its own, still is a medium of exchange among people, and he must learn its proper use. The philosophical aspirant will realize that he is not tied to difficult and disappointing relationships that are not of his own making, but will seek to give of his best to these conditions and learn whatever there is for him to learn from the others involved with him.
Afflicted Neptune rules the 12th: The Enemy is deception. This "enemy," because of its subtlety, is a difficult one to defeat. Treachery, betrayal, mental confusion, and perversion, constitute its armor. The opponents of the aspirant who has this position are underhanded and sneaky — they "don't play fair." Well, the aspirant himself didn't play fair in the past, and now he must learn what it means to be the recipient of such treatment. He professed one thing and did another; he solicited the trust of others and betrayed that trust; he used spirituality — or a claim of it — as a smoke screen for power or gain; he trafficked — not wisely but too well — with astral forces; he misrepresented and misled. The aspects made to this afflicted Neptune represent the types of people through whom this karmic return will be made. One person may influence him into a destructive habit; another may share a wrong-doing with him — and leave him "holding the sack;" his faith and deepest love may be expressed toward someone who proves unworthy of anyone's high regard. The aspirant's two best weapons in dealing with this particular "enemy" are faith in spiritual principles and knowledge. With knowledge he can bring himself into a more perfect alignment with spiritual honesty — the finest corrective for that form of subconscious conditioning which results in illusion and deception.
So it is with the other planets: Uranus (unbalance), Jupiter (extravagance and greed), Venus (possession), Mercury (thought), and Mars (manhood and sex.) Each one, as afflicted ruler or occupant of the twelfth, indicates a certain group of people who serve, however unconsciously, as one's most valued teachers.
The mechanics of relationship provide the esoteric student with a perfect "field of research" for the study of alchemy. The interchange of reactions of two people who are "close to each other" is the pabulum which either one, or both, may utilize in the "weaving of the golden wedding garment." From the base metal of a subconscious mixture of attractions and repulsions, each person may distill, by his own transmutations, the essence which is called love. The Great Teacher has instructed us — "Love your enemies, and do good to those who persecute you." Why? Because He knew that a reaction of hatred or vengeance creates a bond between the recipient and the perpetrator of an evil deed, and only when that reaction is neutralized by good will the bondage be dissolved.
How true it is that we so often, though unwittingly, cause pain to those we profess to love, mislead those we would help, and injure those toward whom we have the "best intentions!" There are so many relationships in which we can just as easily express our negative aspects as we can our positives. The relationships are, generally, our most intimate ones — those in which other people contact and stimulate various phases of our natures. The comparison-study of the horoscopes of two persons who are "close to each other" will reveal the significance of the relationship to each of the persons concerned — the mutual harmonies, the mutual problems, and the mutual agencies for alchemical transmutation. In this application the stellar science indeed offers a key for the unraveling of mysteries. No phase of life is more illusionary than relationship; nowhere is the keen eye of detachment more needed to "see through" the fogs of desire, fear, enmity, and conflict.
In attaining a detached and impersonal viewpoint of a relationship, we realize that terms sued as "husband-wife," "parent-child," "brother-sister," and "lover-beloved" are as garments to be worn for identification on the physical plane. The essence of these relationships is found superphysically, on the mental, emotional, and spiritual planes.
This essence, its purpose, and its reality are found in the mutual conjunctions of the two horoscopes. Two agencies of Spirit find their expression through the same degree (approximately) and the horoscopes are thereby riveted together like two boards — each mutual conjunction being a nail. A perfect classical example of "alchemy through relationship" is found when each planet so involved has one square and one sextile. Each person stimulates a latent disharmony in the other, but each person contains within himself the means of transmuting that disharmony. The house in which the conjunction falls in each chart will indicate, of course, the department of that person's life through which the relationship will be expressed and which will be most directly affected by it. The complete "picture of disharmony" is found by combining the square aspects in each chart with their position in the other person's chart. Then the effect of each person, for evil or unhappiness, on the other is seen in completion.
The "alchemical picture" is found in the same way, with reference to the planets making the sextile aspects in each chart, and the position and effect in the chart of the other. When the sextile is "used," the square in each chart is transmuted to a degree, the sextile in the other chart is sympathetically stimulated, the houses involved are favorably stimulated; the relationship, as a whole, is improved in quality and the possibilities for mutual harm are thereby lessened. By continual application of this process, the relationship becomes, more and more, one of love — since each person concerned assists the other in attaining awareness of his Higher Self.
An astro-alchemical function of a more difficult and intense nature is created when only one of the two persons "uses his sextile." When this happens, the "evil" that is continually expressed by the other, under stimulation of the mutual conjunction, is "met constructively" by the alchemist in his expression of his sextile aspect. The "evildoer" intensifies his negative tendency by the repeated expression of his square aspect and the result is depletion of the capacity to do good. To paraphrase a medical term, this condition might be described as "sextile-anemia." A tragedy — no less. It is tragic for the evil-doer and doom for the relationship. There will come a time when the negative person can no longer respond to his sextile possibilities and the relationship, as an exchange between two persons, can live no longer. The relationship is dissolved, each comes to a parting of the ways. The alchemist goes on to an upward expression of living — the other must face the results of his wrong-doing.
To the degree that a relationship is complicated by a variety of mutual aspects will it be complicated in its expressions. There may be two or three mutual conjunctions, one of which may be afflicted, one benefic and one mixed. It is such relationships as these that go on for years and years — or lives and lives. Further, since no life contains only one significant relationship, each one of these aspects in one chart represents relationships with yet other people. The person who has to deal with a complex relationship with one person may, for greater understanding, study his "exchange" with the other people represented by his various aspects. He can learn from every one of them — and should — if he would make that one relationship a thing of fulfilled harmony. The people represented by benefic mutual conjunctions are those through whom he "tunes in" on his best self, and through them he understands more and more clearly what he can contribute to the relationship that contains many mixed conditions. His trines symbolize expressions of his Higher Self — the people who reflect his trines show him his best contribution to any relationship.
It is interesting to note that the odd-numbered houses of the horoscope, culminating in the eleventh, are designated as the "houses of relationships," and the eleventh itself as the "house of friends." From the first house through the ninth we express the "personal," "fraternal," "parental," "marital," and "pedagogic" relationships. Then the cultivated, distilled essence of all relationships is shown by our capacities through expression of the eleventh.
Love without passion, affection without possessiveness, intimacy without smothering, assistance and encouragement without over-indulgence, cooperation without domination and subservience, fruitful joys without pleasure-madness, sympathy without negative sentimentality, mutual exchange without any loss of mutual freedom of thought and action — such are the attributes of all harmoniously fulfilled relationships. The essence of these attributes we call Friendship, the urge toward universal Brotherhood.
Because the eleventh house represents our most highly spiritualized impulses in reference to relationship, it may be studied as one of the "spiritual barometers" of the horoscope. To the degree that the eleventh house is "benefic" may every other relationship problem be assisted. Every brother-sister, parent-child, and husband-wife problem can be "unknotted," to a degree, by application of the harmoniously expressed urges of the eleventh house.
Friendship, then, may be said to be the panacea for the "wounds of relationship."
These "wounds" are the frustrations of those essential qualities that are peculiar to each type of relationship. The fraternal, or brother-sister, relationship is experienced during childhood and the formative years, and represents the first step toward the fulfillments of the eleventh house. In the intimacy of home life under the guidance of parents, boys and girls learn cooperation, sharing, and the enjoyment of group pleasures. The reactions of brothers and sisters to each other and to their parents constitute the basic elements of their relationship tendencies. Naturally, when the fraternal relationship is fraught with discord, fear, and hatred, the later fulfillments in mature life are often inhibited and distorted.
Many a man or woman has experienced misery and inharmony in marriage due to subconscious negatives that are traceable to the fraternal relationships in childhood. Competition for the parents' favor, rivalry in talents and accomplishments, aversions, and resentments, and all other forms of conflict, if untransmuted, can very easily be, and usually are carried over into the marital and parental patterns and cause relationship- defeat in later life.
Of course conditions vary as charts vary. A man may have a "difficult third house" and a "fortunate seventh house." In other words, his experiences in early life with brothers and/or sisters may contain much that is unhappy, and his marriage-partner may be the greatest blessing of his life. However, to the degree that he carries his dark reactions, into his marriage, later on, will he be unresponsive to the assistance that his wife can give to him.
Another man may have companionship of the most harmonious and fruitful kind with his brothers and sisters and yet, through marriage, face his greatest tests. Nevertheless, because of the harmonious relationships during his childhood, he knows much more of the meaning of living. His relationship-pictures are painted with Joyfulness, Companionship, Give-and-Take, Mutual Trust, and the like, and through the expression of these spiritual powers he can deal with his marital problems.
No student of astrology need endure pain and suffering for years and years because of an unhappy relationship with a brother or sister. The unhappiness is the result of only one thing — continual expression of a negative phase of the third house. As that negative phase is transmuted the relationship is improved and the pain neutralized. The fraternal relationship is, of all relationships, the one that can most directly be redirected into Friendship. Since it usually does not involve the possessive elements of parenthood, and never involves the sexual exchange of marriage, it contains much more of the element of freedom.
In one respect, the fraternal relationship is particularly important, from a psychological standpoint. That is in reference to an experience of karmic responsibility of a person for a younger, or less- evolved, brother or sister. In this instance, on the inner planes the relationship becomes that of parent and child, and the negative reactions of the older person may be transmuted more effectively through the expression of his, or her, parental urges — rather than those of the eleventh house. In other words, the parental impulses constitute the "way of transcendence," or the "redemption of karma." A serious lesson in parenthood is indicated by such a condition — its fulfillment will free the person to a much more successful expression of actual parenthood. Because of its subtle and illusionary quality, this kind of "karmic parenthood" usually contains much that is painful in its working out, but its fulfillment brings a rich reward in wisdom and spiritual strength — all of which is to the person's advantage in his relationship with his own children.
The downfall and failure of parent-child relationships, either actual or esoteric, is due more to the parent's egoism and possessiveness than to anything else, and in no relationship in life is the impersonal viewpoint more vitally necessary. No mother or father can be a "good parent" — in the spiritual sense — unless the attributes of friendship are expressed in the relationship. There must be recognition of the child's intrinsic worth and tendencies. There must be discipline and guidance — but in terms of the child's requirements. No mother or father is a good parent who makes the child's life a vicarious fulfillment of her or his own frustrations. The parent who is a friend guides his child into the best expression of the child's own pattern of life.
Look to your eleventh house and find your "Friendship-key." This is the planet which is either the unafflicted ruler of the eleventh — or the planet that makes the best aspect to the ruler. Planets in the eleventh indicate conditions that are interpreted through friendship, but the ruler is the key to the expression of friendship and brotherhood.
The ruler of the eleventh house may have several aspects, both harmonious and otherwise. However, if an unafflicted planet makes a benefic aspect to the ruler in this case, that planet represents a pure channel of "relationship-transmutation." It is the planet that can, if applied, unloose the snags and snarls of any relationship problem. It represents the best you have to offer in your spiritual exchange with other people.
Combine the vibration of this planet with that of the sign on the eleventh house cusp and the vibration of the ruler itself. This is the foundation of your "house of Friendship." It shows a composite of how you love your friends, what you wish to do for them, what you can do for them, and the best that they see in you.
Persons who are identified, by mutual aspects, with the trines in your eleventh house conditions are those who stimulate your deepest capacity for loving. It is through them that you contact your own best self and express your finest for all relationships. It is through them that you find your clearest recognition of Universal Brotherhood.
Persons who are identified, by mutual aspects, with the squares to the eleventh house ruler are " enemies of utmost importance." They externalize or objectify your reactions that defeat or destroy friendship. Because of the transcendent urges of the eleventh house, the malefic aspects (representing frustrations and difficulties) can manifest as deep hatreds, fears, and conflicts. Every relationship in your life is tainted or warped to the degree that these afflictions remain untransmuted. No esoteric or astrological student can afford to ignore these "warnings" in the horoscope.
In conclusion, here is presented an example that illustrates the inter-relationship of Astrodynamics with "Planets Are People." For clarity's sake, this example is in a simple form.
Two persons meet in the mature years of life, and friendship is immediate, deep, and happy. Each has one square and one sextile to the ruler of the eleventh, and the contact is represented by progressed Moon trine one person's eleventh house ruler, which is conjunct any one planet in the other person's eleventh house "pattern." In other words, the relationship "flowers under the best of conditions."
Each person has reacted, over a period of many years, to every phase of his eleventh house pattern, and the comparative strength, at that time of life, of the sextile and square influences have, in this friendship, a perfect testing. To the degree that the negative of one is expressed, will the other be given an opportunity to transmute; to the degree that both respond to the square, will the friendship be spoiled and disrupted; to the degree that each person transmutes, will the other be "lifted" spiritually.
This type of relationship represents a perfect opportunity for the practice of alchemy. That which is negatively inclined in the relationship can be neutralized by the highest expressions of both persons who are lovingly united.
What more perfect expression of friendship is there?
— Supplemental Student Material Reference: Studies in Astrology, Elman Bacher
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