Gemini, Sagittarius, Virgo, and Pisces are called the common signs; their intrinsic nature is best expressed by the keyword, Flexibility.
The forces working through the cardinal signs impinge upon the dense body and stir it into action.
The influences of the fixed signs rouse the desire nature, giving stamina and persistence in action.
The power of the common signs is mental and spiritual; it gives purpose to action and incentive to nobility of life.
Therefore people influenced by stellar forces focused principally through cardinal signs are the workers of the world; not the toilers, but executives, who accomplish things industrially and who ring into concrete existence great schemes, or small, of value in the world's work.
People ruled by the forces of fixed signs have the insight to plan improvements, also the patience and persistence to work them out in detail.They are therefore inventors who originate the ideas later practically applied by people of cardinal signs.
People of the fixed class lack ability to make their inventions commercially usable, a task for which the cardinal class is eminently fitted. Thus these two classes work hand in hand, and between them they have transformed the wilderness of the world to a condition of comparative comfort. Their efforts toward improvement are continually carried on, and in time the primitive desert will be made to bloom like a rose.
As material success depends on ability to cope with material conditions, the cardinal class is particularly fortunate, for it is the chief executive factor in the world's work and reaps a ready reward thereby. The fixed class is not so prominently before the public. It labors in laboratories and works experimentally to complete the processes and perfect the models which are later used in manufacture. Therefore its members also are potent factors in life, and share the material and financial success of the cardinal class.
The common class is a sharp contrast. Forces focused through common signs are mental; therefore people ruled by them are averse to strenuous physical action which is the forte of the cardinal class. They labor only when lashed by the whip of necessity. They are also incapable of the slow, but sustained effort put forth by the fixed class and are easily discouraged by obstacles. Thus they are leaners and not lifters. Toilers who do the bidding of the inventive and executive classes are recruited from people ruled by common signs. There is one sphere, however, where they shine, according to their ability to think. Being averse to work they have created a vantage ground where they may reap the benefits of the toil of others, and of their inventive faculties and executive skill. To do this they become promoters who bring inventor and manufacturer together, agents who mediate between buyer and seller, peddlers, vendors and all other middlemen who go between producer and consumer and live on a commission; also literary men who devote their talent to purposeless fiction belong to the class actuated by the lower phases of the force in the common signs.
The cardinal class is active, the common is restless; the fixed class is rigid, the common is flexible. Unstable as reeds, those of the common class are swayed hither and thither; nothing appeals to them permanently; they desire nothing as much as change. No matter how well placed, they can seldom resist the lure of an opening in another city, the farther away the better. Therefore the old maxim, "A rolling stone gathers no moss," applies particularly to this class, for their roving habits usually keep them poor. They spend as fast as they earn, or faster. Thus these people drift upon the sea of life, propelled by the currents of circumstances. Outside conditions dominate them, as they lack stamina to assert their own individuality.
The foregoing is true of the great majority who are under the rule and influence of common signs. They respond to the lower phase simply because the higher side is too high for all but a very few at our present stage of development. Those who make a success in the world because prodded by the cardinal and fixed influences often sneer at these unfortunates, call them indolent and good-for-nothing; but were they bereft of the cardinal or fixed energy which goads them to action and placed under the common ray, they would soon realize its lack of power and learn compassion for those who must so live all their lives. What, then, is the lesson these people have to learn?
Zodiac means "a circle of animals." The symbols of three of the cardinal signs are animalistic: Aries, the Ram; Cancer, the Crab; and Capricorn, the Goat. The fourth represents the ideal towards which this class must strive, namely Libra, the Scales. None need poise so much as those under the impulsive influence of the cardinal ray; therefore the Balance was set in heaven to direct their aspirations.
Three symbols of the fixed signs are also bestial, violent, and virulent: Taurus, the Bull; Leo, the Lion, and Scorpio, the Scorpion. The human figure of Aquarius, the Water bearer, shows us the ideal towards which this class must strive. Instead of fighting, preying upon, or poisoning others in the struggle for existence they must learn to become humane, to be friends instead of foes to all.
In contradistinction to the cardinal or fixed signs, the common signs are all double. Two of them are human: Gemini the Twins, and Virgo the Virgin; the third, Sagittarius the Centaur, is partly human; and only the fourth symbol, Pisces, the Fishes, is taken from the lower kingdom. None are violent, however, but intensely moral, intellectual, and spiritual symbols.
Sagittarius, the Centaur, shows us man rising above the animal stage, audaciously aiming at the stars, and the opposite symbol of the heavenly Twins tells its story of universal brotherhood.
The band between the Fishes shows us the unity of life in even the lowest species; and the celestial Virgin, clasping the immaculately conceived babe to her breast is a type of purity, love, and service equaled nowhere else
The principle fault of the common signs is restlessness. The double nature revealed in their symbols impels them hither and thither; therefore the third and ninth signs, Gemini and Sagittarius, are correlated to that most unstable and restless element of the human constitution, the mind, which also wants to travel. The symbol of the twelfth sign, the Fishes, is likewise an apt type of aimless wandering, and as this is contrary to the law of life, it brings the penalty of sorrow and suffering ascribed in the twelfth house.
The ideal towards which the class ruled by the common ray must strive is, therefore, expressed by the sixth sign, Divine Parenthood, and the sixth house, Service. Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friends, said Christ. He also felt that yearning, parental love when He stretched out His arms over Jerusalem and said: Oh, how oft would I have gathered you to my bosom as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings! Love grows by voluntary service, and the more we aim to serve others, the more readily we shall cultivate the highest of all human qualities.
Upon observation it will be found that there are two distinct subclasses ruled by the common ray. One, composed of younger souls, has not yet found its bearing in the world; they drift about upon the sea of life without energy or ambition, and are buffeted by the waves of adversity for the purpose of awakening them to a sense of responsibility and forcing them to take part in the world's work. In time they will graduate into the cardinal and fixed classes, driven by inner ambition instead of by outside coercion.
The other subclass has graduated from the industrial school of material life, and is preparing itself for spiritual work. It is thus in a transition stage, out of tune with the finite and not yet in tune with the Infinite. We may realize their plight in a measure when we observe youth in the years between boyhood and manhood; awkward, a laughing stock for boys and men alike, every word he utters provokes a sneer or a patronizing smile because of the changing voice. His ideas are too great for the acceptance of younger companions, too visionary for older heads; he is an anomaly, and his nature becomes hypersensitive on account of the attitude of those around him. Likewise the child-man who is about to graduate from the material world to work in the spiritual realms is out of place under the policy of our common life. He aims the bow of Sagittarius at the stars, but is weighted down to earth by the animal nature. The might of mind is great if we use it practically. Edison earned a crown of spiritual glory by lighting our streets and thus preventing crime. Morse and Marconi and Bell have soothed the sorrowing souls of thousands suffering thousands of miles away. Once they dreamed of these things, but they did not stop at dreaming; they worked to realize their dreams.
The class ruled by the common signs is too prone to talk of "luck"; but as Lucifer says to Faust:
Astrology ought to impress the older subclass with the fact that merit is the basis of success in any line, material or spiritual; that study and dreams alone condition; but that when by service we lift others, we also elevate our own status in life and evolution.
(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. What do the forces working through the fixed signs accomplish: Through the cardinal signs? Through the common signs?
2. What are the vocations most suitable for the common sign natives?
3. What do you think are the individual keywords of the common signs?
Saturn in Aquarius when well aspected gives a humane outlook upon life, a sympathetic and friendly disposition, very distinct and deliberate speech and a seriousness in all affairs of life. Therefore, these people make friends among the aged, the wealthy and the intellectual who are able to help them rise in life. But when Saturn is afflicted in Aquarius, it makes the disposition shrewd, cunning and alert to prey upon others by gaining their confidence and friendship and such people therefore sink to the lower levels of society. This position also carries with it a tendency to heart trouble and varicose veins.
Thy will be done. It is by this phrase, or one of its many equivalents, that the human being recognizes that he is an instrument in the hands of the Over-all Forces, either White or Black. In an attitude of adoration or consecration, he surrenders his personal will in order to serve his concept of the purposes of those Forces. Also, those who are qualified to act as agencies for the releasing of Power are driven by irresistible urges to do so, even though they may not be conscious of their instrumentality.
Of the former group, Jeanne d'Arc, the warrior-saint of France, is a good example. Through her devotion to her "voices" she became an instrument in the hands of those spiritual agencies which were concerned with the development of the French nation. An extraordinary example of conscious instrumentation was Isadora Duncan, the American dancer; her inspirational responsiveness made possible a dynamic liberation to the concept of the art of Dance in modern times. Among the many people in recent years who demonstrated instrumentation we may consider Bernadette Soubirous, the French peasant girl, through whom the establishment of the healing-grotto at Lourdes was made possible; Max Heindel, the late Father Flannagan, and Mother Frances Cabrini were "instruments" for the establishment of institutions for instruction, human regeneration, and healing.
Of the second group, humanitarians who work along the more secular lines of government, science, economics, etc., are good examples. Of these we might mention Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Albert Schweitzer.
The exoteric symbol of Neptune is the "trident," or forked spear, of the ocean-god. Esoterically, however, the symbol represents the upturned cup, open to receive the inflow of inspirational or astral energies. Furthermore, we are told Neptune is not, really, a member of our solar system but is functioning as a "transmitter of galactic energies" to our system. In this function of galactic transmission, Neptune is seen to parallel, on a vast, transcendent scale, the functions of our Moon, which "works locally" between the Earth and the Sun.
Combining the above factors, we see that Neptune is a feminine vibration, impressionable, sensitive, reflective, fluidic, and receptive. As the Moon is "mother" in a personal sense, with reference to relationship, home, and nation, so Neptune is "mother" in universal sense. "Mother Church," all-embracing, all-forgiving, all-redeeming, is Neptune; the ocean, harboring in its depths the evolution of millions of forms, is Neptune; the virtue of compassion, which is understanding-love, recognizes no barriers to its expression — it reaches all because it has experienced all — its universality is a perfect representation of Neptune. The magic of Art is Neptune; by attunement to this transcendent vibration Man gives expression to the highest impulses of his consciousness through poetry, drama, dance, music, painting, and sculpture. Through these agencies Man, from his beginnings, has sought to give "body" to his idealities through the direction of technique by Will, fired by inspiration. "Religion" and "Art" are two ways of saying "Man's expression, of his recognition of Divinity." Through these two forms of expression, Man proves himself to be "an instrument in the Divine Hands." Through the exercise of his Neptune potentials, he manifests as a microcosmic "transmitter of super-dimensional forces" in his capacities as artist, healer, teacher, and philanthropist.
While Venus represents Man's faculty of "response to Beauty" through his inner sensitivities and cultivations, Neptune represents his faculty to "contrive Beauty" or "express Beauty" by means of exercising his artistic talents and abilities; he uses his materials as instruments to manifest his concepts, but he in turn, through response to inspiration, is an instrument through which great Intelligences speak to humanity. The two arts which most specifically represent the "instrumentation" of Neptune are Music and Drama.
Neptune is the transcendent planet of the mental triad — Mercury and the Moon being the other two. Since the language, or "the word" of the inner plane is tone (rhythmic sound vibration), the musician "speaks to us in melody and tonal harmony." The interpretive musician acts as an instrument to manifest the concepts of the creative musician who, in turn, acts as an instrument for inner-plane voices. The trained improviser, by his sensitive response to musical inspiration and the obedience with which his physical equipment reacts to that inspiration, is an immediate and direct channel for artistic utterance. In the exercise of his talent, his body, his musical instrument, his musical intelligence and responsiveness are all fused into one composite instrument through which the inner-plane voices speak to us.
The actor, from his inner knowledge of human nature and experience, which is accumulated through many incarnations of intense emotional experience, symbolizes in each characterization a certain vibratory pattern, or level, of the soul body of mankind. Through his inspiration he transmits the playwright's concept of humanity and temporarily assumes the reality of a certain type of person. The greatest acting requires, of course, technique of timing, reading, and movement, but the quality of spiritual greatness that moves the members of an audience to rapture and exaltation is that which is derived from the actor's transmission of his own inner memory (the superconscious) of experience. He "out-pictures" a facet of the inner memory of each person moved by his performance.
The Drama of Life is reflected, microcosmically, by the drama of the theater. Human problems, relationships, joys, loves, sufferings, defeats, and triumphs are all mirrored by the projection of the playwright and the instrumental interpretation of the actor. When we, as individuals, choose to make ourselves "instruments of the Divine" we play a role on our own Stage of Life that is ennobling, inspiring, beautiful, and triumphant.
"Instrumentation" is a focalized releasing of power. When used by persons centered by the higher dimensions of consciousness great service of beauty, healing, and realignment are made possible in all phases of life — human and sub-human. However, power is no respecter of persons or things; it just operates as it is directed. (Consequently, when it is released through an unregenerate or unspiritualized consciousness, instrumentation becomes a process by which indescribable negatives may be exposed. Egotism that is self-centered and self-glorifying makes of instrumentation a thing of evil because through it Power is released for the fulfillment of ends that are limiting and destructive. In this reference the vibratory effects of Neptune must be understood in the study of horoscopes of criminals, delinquents, and psychopaths. These sick people are disorganized, intensity of desire capacities over-balancing Will and/or intelligence, intensity of Purpose coupled with perversion of Ideality — and all maladjusted conditions tend to develop responsiveness to destructive astral forces. Putting these impulses into action is "black instrumentation." The person whose intense, but undirected, sexuality leads him to perpetrate murder and cruelty as an "outlet" is a tool of Blackness; the religious fanatic who, in the name of his gentle, loving Masters abuses, imprisons, tortures, and enslaves his fellow man "for the glory of God and his Church" may be perfectly sincere in his motives, but in such treatment of others he proves himself to be on a low vibratory rate.
The Spanish Inquisition may be studied briefly at this point since the organization was an "instrument" of "Mother Church." There were, doubtless, many members of the Inquisition who zealously and sincerely perpetrated outrages against "heretics," being motivated by idealistic efforts to express "glory to God" as their church interpreted it. Acts of heroism, self-sacrifice and loyalty which they committed point to an unshakable faith in their concept of spiritual rightness. The means used will have to be answered for in subsequent incarnations, but there is no doubt that sincere devotion to an ideal builds in Whiteness in the inner planes.
It is the ultimate perversion of the vibration of Neptune when a pretense of ideality is utilized deliberately for self- aggrandizement, self-glory, and domination over the mind and body of another person. This is illusion masking illusion, corruption of corruption, a lie lying to itself.
When the regeneration has been commenced and the Neptune-patterns from the past are ready for redemption people are "pulled into the most impossible-to-control situations." They are subtly influenced into habits which destroy them; they ask for bread — they get stones; they lovingly assume a responsibility — it becomes a back-breaking burden from which they never find release in this life; they seek spiritual enlightenment — they get a species of black magic which wrecks them; they have intense creative urges and their efforts toward self-expression are frustrated at every turn; they are endowed with unusual physical attractions — they never find the fulfillment of love which they seek above all other things. In each of these cases, the realization of the Ideal forever eludes the suffering person with the accompanying temptation to sink into negative levels of cynicism, rage, and hopeless fury against Life which they begin to think of as something they can no longer endure but must escape from. Negative Neptune is the "flight from reality" through drink, drugs, indolence, perversion, and suicide. The "flight from reality" is the attempt to escape the pressure of the Inner Voice, which is the person's Reality; he cannot face his past failures to live spiritually.
Neptune afflicted in the horoscope should be studied as a karmic indication of Principle having been perverted in the past. People who attempt, in one way or another, to escape their problems do so only because they are not aware of the principle which is working for their development. They have, in the past, blinded themselves to "Principle- awareness" by deliberately masking their own truth. Objectively or subjectively in these instances Neptune walks hand-in-hand with Cause and Effect: clouding the lives of people with illusions because of Illusion having been perpetrated.
Since everyone's Neptune is activated in some way periodically it is of value to the astro-analyst to learn something of the person's experience and reactions in those times. A person who, to a degree, "lives with his Neptune" will recall moments of intense inspiration and exaltation; he will refer to a highly developed, spiritually-minded person whose acquaintance he made or an experience of artistic illumination. Persons who are not well acquainted with Neptune may recall experiences that caused them considerable distress. They misplaced and lost things; material affairs appeared chaotic and confused; things happened and things were said, the sources of which could not be determined; relationships took on a bizarre aspect and unsuspected things were revealed. On the more subtle planes of experience strange, disturbing emotions were aroused, complex desires and peculiar ecstasies may have been felt; will power and purpose seemed to dissolve into unaccustomed feelings of lassitude and indifference; trance-like imaginings and weird dreams may have been experienced. Persons whose charts carry a heavy emphasis on the element of Earth or the vibration of Saturn can experience in their Neptune-activations something really frightening: the material expression of life seems to become fluidic and perspectives appear all out of focus. This is Neptune reminding them of impermanence of the physical plane; it may appear like a temporary aberration but it is really just a momentary shift of consciousness onto a more subtle plane.
The quality of "hyper-passivity" clearly describes Neptune's "personality" and as such emphasizes in a pronounced manner the receptive, feminine potentials of the chart. The sign of Neptune's rulership, Pisces, is of the water element and the mutable cross — the most purely impressionable of the entire zodiac.
Since Neptune's function is "channel-ship" we must give careful study to the unregenerate patterns of the planets which aspect Neptune in the chart even if Neptune itself is unafflicted. This is important because though the "channel" may be efficient in function we should understand the quality of "what comes through." A person naturally endowed with psychic sensitivity or a high potential for idealism and devotion can, in his unregenerate expressions, open up to all manner of perverse or destructive influences. Thus, inundated by waves of inflow from the astral planes he can submit his heart, mind, and consciousness to agencies which are neither worthy nor health-giving. Neptune itself unafflicted in the chart is a potential for transmutation through Ideality — i.e. through the exercise of prayer, living devotion to high ideals which are expressions of life-giving Principle, purification of the entire organism through regeneration of physical health and responsiveness to the therapeutic power of music or art in general.
Neptune is the ruler of the twelfth house of the "natural" or "cosmic" horoscope; its vibrations convey a twelfth house condition of some sort or another to the house that has Pisces on the cusp — or is principally influenced by that sign. Planets in Pisces — disposited by Neptune — are "potentials for the unfoldment of Cosmic Consciousness through the redemption of karma by Idealism;" frictional aspects to Piscean planets indicate the required "soul adjustments."
The house containing Neptune contains the secret of how you express cosmic consciousness and, particularly through which experience-patterns; toward what ends are you used by spiritual or astral forces; the source of your awareness of "heaven on earth;" the principal environmental source of your inspiration; the point where you most easily surrender to (your concept of) God's will; your transcendence of separateness and instrumentality for truth.
The twelfth house of the horoscope forms the essential experience-pattern of Neptune's vibration and function. As we consider a blank wheel we see that this house is placed at the end of a cycle of development; it also, since Life is a continuous process by incarnations, "sits on the back of the first house." (The first house, of course, is the first breath of the next phase, or cycle, of on-going.) In this "sitting" the twelfth house may be taken to symbolize the "burden of sin" which the traveler must carry, for a time, as he continues his journey on the Path. It is the redemption of this "sin" which impels the person to incarnate again for a new cycle of experience. The twelfth house is the astrological symbol for the biblical phrase "original sin;" each person brings his own memory of sin — or unregeneration — from his previous embodiment. In relationship to the wheel as a whole, the twelfth house stands as the "accumulated residue" of a cycle of experience; in relationship to the first house it represents the essence of what is still to he regenerated by adjustment of the individual consciousness to the Cosmic — through succeeding experience.
During any particular incarnation we use the planetary vibrations as "tools" for our development. Frictional planetary aspects represent our needed lessons in the use of our faculties — they are Life's way of "alerting us" to development-needs. The twelfth house indicates, essentially, what we were as personalities in the past. It tells the story of the way we looked at life last time and to what degree we subconsciously tend to live this incarnation in terms of what we were in the past. This picture, in the case of the twelfth house being tenanted or its ruler being "bound" by frictional or gravitational aspects, can be taken as an explanatory clue for the way many people tend to live in "back-going terms." They go through the progressive physical phases of childhood, adolescence, and maturity as everyone does, but the strong memory pictures of the past make it almost impossible for them to express themselves or to understand their experiences in terms of what is represented by their Ascendant sign — the present. Let us consider the different types of twelfth- house Ascendant patterns from this standpoint for application to different horoscopes.
Pattern I: Same sign on twelfth cusp and Ascendant; succeeding sign on second cusp. This is analogous to being held back a grade in school. It means the person is continuing, in this incarnation, a phase of experience directly connected with his viewpoint in the past; it suggests that the person was out of incarnation for a relatively short time — he comes right back to what he was; to the degree that the ruler of the chart is afflicted the person becomes his own secret enemy — since that planet also rules his twelfth house; by this pattern Life says to the person: "I shall give you one more chance to make good."
Pattern II: The same as Pattern I except that the succeeding sign is intercepted in the first house: this suggests that the person has been out of incarnation for a longer-than-usual time; he needs to establish his link with past conditions by living part of this incarnation in terms of the past so that, by objective experience, he may be made aware of his potentials for self-undoing and, so, recognize his need for regeneration and redirection; the sign intercepted in the first house is the traveling companion who has gone ahead but who waits quietly by the roadside for the Ascendant person to catch up. When the experiences which reflect past-life consciousness have been undergone and the person has been brought to a seeming stop in his development, the awareness of the intercepted sign is brought to the attention of the person to alert him to on-going; the intercepted sign calls out: "Hello there-I'm glad you finally found me; take my hand and let's get going." If a planet is found in the intercepted sign study it carefully by quality and aspect; since "planets are people" this planet will describe the type of people who will reflect the on-going qualities of the person. This pattern promises progress in this incarnation — the "pull of the past" can be transcended; if the intercepted sign is not occupied, its ruler, by position and aspects, will serve to describe the "companion waiting ahead."
Pattern III: Twelfth house containing an intercepted sign: a very complex combination of "memories;" planets in either of the twelfth house signs will objectify the past conditions; to the degree that they are frictionally or gravitationally aspected will the person by pain- experience, face his "flowers of evil" — the seeds of which may have been planted even previous to the last incarnation. This pattern is "payment long overdue;" it is in the nature of a "notice of eviction" — unredeemed in this incarnation the bill will have to be adjusted in a future cycle of experience.
Pattern IV: The same sign on the eleventh and twelfth cusps: this, on whatever "level of the spiral," links the potential for secret self-undoing with the unredeemed areas of consciousness pertaining to relationships in general. The eleventh house, in relationship to a cycle, is the culminating point of relationship-consciousness; we call it the "house of friends" because friendship is the essence of Love that has distilled through fulfillment of all relationship-experience on a given cycle. The unregenerate aspects to the planetary ruler of these houses — or if unafflicted, to its planetary dispositor — will indicate how the person tends to "block himself" in relationship-consciousness; careful study of fraternal, parental, and marital relationship-patterns will reveal the type of experience which the person needs most to "work on" to fulfill his cycle by Love. This pattern is also in the nature of "pay-up day" since the eleventh house is a culminating point on the cycle.
Pattern V: Afflicting aspect to twelfth house ruler — no interceptions: the indication of why, what, how, and through whom the person expresses his unregenerate past in terms of the on-going of this incarnation; this is a "reminder of the past" and strong, critical stimulation of the planet may "pull the person into his subconscious," but the regeneration of the pattern by constructive elements in the chart assures direct on-going.
Pattern VI: Planet in the twelfth house, but in the Ascendant-sign: This is the most purely on-going of all the twelfth house patterns. There is a "secrecy" about the environmental expression of this planet but because of its position in the Ascendant-Sign the person automatically tends to express the vibration in terms of his consciousness of present personality. Unregenerate forces acting on or through this planet may, of course, be redirected in terms of the planet's own essential good; another agency of redirection is assured by the regenerate quality or aspects of the ruler of the chart as it disposits the twelfth house planet and is the focus for personality-expression and personality-fulfillment in this incarnation. Afflicted aspects of the twelfth house planet and/or patterns of afflictions pertaining to the house that it rules will indicate conditions and relationships that the person subconsciously tends to think of as "enemies" because, focused through his Ascendant-sign, they "challenge his on-going;" he has to use the vibratory powers of his present ASC to redeem or transmute those conditions.
Pattern VII: First house unoccupied, ruler of the chart in the twelfth house and the twelfth house sign: afflicted aspects to the ruler in this pattern represent karmic adjustments to be made through limiting and confining environmental conditions; regenerate aspects show the potentials for flowering of personality-qualities in work or activities connected with the sick or confined or "generally unfortunate;" it is a clinging to the past — the person is not quite ready to establish an on-going expression of personality; such a person seems to be born "in back of his contemporaries" — he is not "modern" in his viewpoint. Certain elaborations of this pattern can indicate that the person, being very gifted in some way, expresses in the modern world "something wonderful from a past age" — he lives in the world of "now" but he symbolizes the world of "then."
Pattern VIII: Ruler of the twelfth house in the Ascendant-sign, first house, or intercepted in the first house: "This is astrology's answer of "no!" to the teaching that early environmental conditions are the basic cause of later difficulties. By this position of the twelfth house ruler the early environment-influences are seen as effects from the unregenerate past. The person incarnates through certain parents, in a certain place and lives under certain conditions in his childhood because an unregenerate area of his consciousness needs that kind of a start for his on-going in this incarnation. The "bad memories" are immediately objectified in the early part of life; analyzing the chart by application of "cause and effect" will give a clue as to the person's inner reason for incarnating under those particular circumstances. This pattern is "secrets brought out into the clear light of day" — if the twelfth house is unoccupied the secret karma is out-pictured in the person's childhood, by the combined effects of early home- life, surroundings, and associates. Harmful influences which have the appearance of "deviating the person" are simply the objectifications of his surface-subconscious; this pattern may point to an attitude of deliberate wrong-doing in the past — of such a nature that the person is "pulled into" the same kind of picture so early in this incarnation that he hasn't the power or intelligence to combat the wrong influence — he just "falls right into it."
Pattern IX: (cyclic): Any two adjacent houses covered by the same sign, hence ruled by the same planet: Wherever placed in the chart, this pattern carries out the principle of " present-in-terms-of-past." Any Sign of the Zodiac can be twelfth house; any sign can be Ascendant. The cyclic pattern of twelfth house in relationship to Ascendant may be described as: that area of consciousness, unregenerate, which impels reincarnation; the cyclic pattern of Ascendant in relationship to twelfth house may be described as: The progressive means by which unregenerate karma is redeemed by reincarnation. As a compound pattern of Cosmic symbol, the above phrases can be applied to any part of the chart which shows a linking of past to present.
In reference to Pattern IX we may say that the house with the higher degree on the cusp represents the department of life to be fulfilled by that particular planetary vibration in this incarnation; the lower degree house (the previous) represents an experience or relationship which still waits fulfillment or regeneration. Since the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh houses are the houses of progressive- relationship-patterns (the fourth and tenth being the houses of parentage) we can determine — in Pattern IX — what, in the past, has impelled the present relationship or how their relationship established in the past is to be fulfilled in this incarnation. Mercury, Venus, and Mars normally rule two signs each; involved in Pattern IX they, of course, extend their influence to a third house which serves to "complete their picture;" the other planets, normally ruling one house, can, in Pattern IX, rule two.
Pattern X: (cyclic) Planet in the house it rules, but in the following Sign: in this pattern we see the "twelfth house relationship to Ascendant" expressed in terms of the planet's own vibration, not by house position. If the planet has an afflicted aspect the indication is that continual expression of its cusp-sign vibration "holds the person to the afflicted past" and assures depletion of constructive or regenerate expression. The environmental indication or mode of expression is the same now as it was in the past, but this incarnation demands expression through progressive planetary vibration; the latter of course, refers to the planet which disposits the one concerned. This pattern is, potentially, very on-going since the person, from past experience, is accustomed to expressing the planet in that particular house. It also can indicate a strong possibility that the early environment or parental influence may tend to emphasize the cusp-sign expression; the parents, in this instance, would represent the "pull of the past." The pattern demands of the person that he exert the expression of his own personality and integrity to "forge ahead on his own" in that department of his life.
All of the patterns are variations of the statement: "-and He took upon Himself the likeness of a man;" the "redemption of the world" (unregenerate consciousness to be redeemed by experience-in- incarnation) by the Spirit (those levels of consciousness which have been aligned to Truth). Let us study our horoscopes with the renewed awareness that each stellar design shows us the picture — on all phases of our lives — of why we were born and how, by regeneration, we can attain the "second birth" which is the transcendence of the past.
Supplemental Student
Material Reference:
Studies in Astrology,
Elman Bacher
