27

THE EFFECTS IN THE PRESENT OF THE UNIVERSAL SUPERPHYSICAL FORCES OF THE COSMOS UPON THE PLANETARY CONFIGURATION

IMPRESSED AROUND THE HUMAN BEING AT THE MOMENT OF BIRTH I mentioned earlier that my repeated observations over some years also lend evidence to the hypothesis that certain planets were the "rulers" of particular archetypal regions. I would now like to explore this question further. This exploration will lead us into a more detailed understanding of the previously quoted words of Dr. Elizabeth Vreede, a student of Rudolf Steiner's*, whose studies were concerned with attaining a deeper understanding of man's evolving relation to the world of the stars. "And he lives on Earth in a spiritual sense in conjunction with the forces that are continually streaming in, that do not remain the same... " It is aspects of these forces which we have explored in-the first Volume and which we have thus far looked at in relation to the human being's experience of the moon in this Volume. These are the so-called "universal forces" or "universal currents of influence". Further: "The forces that are at birth remain the same, and when a a horoscope is rightly set, one can read from it what re lates to the forces that man brings with him from the spiritual world in accordance with his Karma." Dr. Elizabeth Vreede (The World of Stars and Human Destiny)

These are the forces that I have referred to as "impressed around the human being at the moment of birth", the "particular body of forces".

Having looked into something of the universal forces, in

* Dr. Elizabeth Vreede was appointed by Rudolf Steiner as the first head of the mathematical-astronomical section of the High School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. ** Using the expression "remains the same,, may be slightly misleading. My impressions gained over years of research has led me to see that there are subtle, qualitative changes in this body of forces which are sensitive to years of work Opon and into them. These qualitative changes suggest that, for example, someone born with the sun standing in relation to the Virgo region at the moment of birth will always have a Virgo archetype impressed around the more external heart center. Nevertheless, the quality of this Virgo archetype

28 respect of this idea of Dr. Vreede's we can ask: What does selfobservation tell us of these particular forces which remain the same"** (see note beginning on previous page) from the time of birth? Following I will discuss certain aspects of what I have discovered during the last ten years of investigation in relation to this question. ( This discussion will only take the first step in considering the planetary placements at the moment of birth in relation to the sidereal and tropical zodiacs, when either zodiac is involved. Later in the book I will explore the question of the further factors of the houses and the cusps of the houses in which the respective planets are standing at the moment of birth.) Let me, by way of example, start with my experience of the moon moving before a Capricorn ( ) region, (Capricorn; Taurus-Capricorn; Virgo-Capricorn). When the moon moves through any of the Capricorn regions in the sidereal zodiac (constellation), I experience in my more inward superphysical nature a stimulation of the currents of force related to my sense of sight, my thinking about the world as a spiritist and the moral dynamic of envy standing as the excess to courage b. redemptive power and the lack, timidity. The inner currents work as a kind of column of uprightness deeply related to my inner feeling sense of the bony structure, with a particular concentration on my knees and elbows. These experiences come to a ** Note from previous page Continued… as, for example, in relation to the virtue of courtesy b. tact of the heart standing between carelessness and fornication will undergo modifications during a life-whether of improvement or decline. Further it should be understood that five different individuals who stand with the sun in a Virgo region at the moment of birth, although all having a relation in the heart center to the Virgo region will each, nevertheless, have a particular qualitative expression of these forces surrounding them. The difference in qualitative refinement of each of their respective Virgo forces might be seen as one aspect of their "karma" in relation to this particular sphere of formative influence. That is to say I am using the concept "karma" here to indicate what kind of relation the respective individuals may have developed to the Virgo forces in the past; what they have made of them. Consequently, each individual, although participating in the universal currents of Virgo, would have Virgo forces in varying degrees of qualitative refinement- in varying degrees of consonance with the ideal of "courtesy becoming tactfulness of the heart."

29

center of focalization at the top of the head or center high on the forehead (crown). Thus far I am still in the sphere of the inner universal currents of the present moment. This center of force focalized at the top of the head, as it were, then radiates through currents of force which I have described as present in my more external superphysical nature. The pattern of the flowing of these currents of force located at the top of the head is "pictured" in the birth chart by the placement of Saturn in a particular sign of the tropical zodiac. In a birth configuration with Saturn standing in Leo, the radiation coming from inside out, (due to the moon's presence in a Capricorn region), works through the center at the top of the head (the "Saturn center"), and then sympathetically stimulates the currents of the heart and blood circulation due to the Saturn in Leo placement at the moment of birth.

Looking next at the experience of the Moon's motion through a region of Sagittarius (Sagittarius; Aries-Sagittarius; Leo-Sagittarius), in the more inwards superphysical nature there is a stimulation of the various Sagittarian qualities. This radiation then moves through the center at the brow (6) and stimulates those currents in the more outwards superphysical nature "pictured" in the placement of Jupiter in a particular sign at the moment of birth.

In either the experience of the Moon's motion through a Scorpio or Aries ruled region a similar dynamic occurs as those described above, but the radiation comes to a focalization at the throat center (5) and stimulates the Mars placement at the moment of birth. The Mars at birth placement is, as it were, impressed around the throat center, and is stimulated when the currents of the inner Aries, Scorpio regions (Mars ruled) moves through it from inside out.

As the Moon moves through a Leo related region (Leo; Sagittarius-Leo; Aries-Leo) the inner Leo characteristics are stimulated and the focalization at the heart center (4) sets in motion the sun placement at the moment of birth. If at birth the Sun stood in the sign of Virgo whenever the Leo region (Sun ruled) is stimulated, the heart center in the more outwards superphysical nature would be sympathetically set in motion, thereby setting in motion the related Virgo ruled solar plexus (3) center. The inner,

30 universal quality of compassion b. freedom would be blended with the particular, heart center quality of courtesy b. tactfulness of heart. Although the Moon would move in and out of Leo ruled regions, whenever it passes through one of them, it would stimulate the more permanent imprint from the moment of birth- in this example, the Sun in Virgo, in the more outward superphysical nature, from inside out. When the Moon moves through a Gemini or Virgo ruled region it sets in motion the focalization at the solar plexus and then radiates out through the Mercury position impressed there from the moment of birth. When the Moon moves through a Taurus or Libra ruled region one can experience an inner gesturing focalized at the second center of the kidneys, bladder, hips and colon area. This inner focalization then stimulates the Venus position from the moment of birth which can be found to be focalized at that region and center. Finally, if we consider the Moon itself, I have found a certain variation. When the Moon moves through a Moon ruled region in the present moment, it would not stimulate the Moon's placement in relation to the circle of the signs, but would stimulate the Moon's placement in relation to the circle of the constellations from the moment of birth. That is to say if at birth the Moon stood in a constellation sector ruled by Leo when, in the present, the Moon moved through a Cancer ruled region (Moon ruled) it would radiate into the first center, but sympathetically stimulate the inner center at the heart region (Moon in Leo at birth). This, given the weight of tradition which in the West speaks almost exclusively of the Moon working through the circle of the signs, (the tropical zodiac), still remains a riddle to me, but it is the most faithful account I can presently give of this particular dynamic which I have explored for about ten years. I have saved my consideration of Aquarius and Pisces for last. When the Moon stands in relation to an Aquarius ruled region 1 am, with some uncertainty, inclined to suggest that the Uranus position at the moment of birth is stimulated. When the Moon moves through * The reader should understand that although I am speaking of the more "universal qualities" of the prsent working of the stars, different human being's individual relation to these forces, as they work into the more inward, superphysical nature, testify to their qualitative differences, just as the qualitative differences are in evidence in the more external, superphysical nature. See footnote on pages 27-28.

31 a Pisces ruled region the Neptune position in the more external superphysical structure seems to be stimulated. This is also said with some tentativeness. I cannot yet, in these two regions, speak of centers of focalization with any honest confidence. Nevertheless, my growing impression that Aquarius regions stimulate the Uranus placement at birth and Pisces regions the Neptune placement from birth lead me to think that those modern schools of thought which see Aquarius and Pisces respectively under the rulership of Uranus and Neptune may be correct. I am far from certain about this at the present time.

From this account the reader will understand that my agreement with the prevailing idea of the various planetary rulerships of the 12 archetypal regions has also been based on inner empiricism, not on speculation. Given that at the time of influence of the various regions they have revealed themselves to me to stimulate, in turn, the planetary placements at the moment of birth classically thought of as their respective rulers, focalized at the seven centers of the human form, this, for myself, further lends empirical confirmation to the accuracy of the theory. That is to say that Aries-Scorpio stimulating the Mars placement, center and currents from the moment of birth (5); Leo the Sun placement and related center (4) and currents; Cancer the moon placement, etc: lends evidence to the accuracy of the classically understood system of rulerships. I am not trying to argue that this evidence is conclusive, but simply to give further examples of why and how I have found working with the conception of the planetary rulerships helpful in further trying to characterize something of the qualities of the living dynamics within which the human being lives. Having made these observations, let us now move on to some further considerations built somewhat on the idea of the planetary rulers and their relationship with the various centers of focalization.

From this point on in the text in my discussion of the effects of the various superphysical influences upon the more permanent structure impressed around a human being by virtue of the birth planetary positions, I will use a hypothetical birth chart drawn up for January 8th, 1984 at 9:00 PM for a locality of 43 0 N. latitude. Nine PM should be considered the time arrived at after the correction for local time. On the following page is the chart.

33

If we look at the configuration above solely in relation to the position of the

"planets" in the circle of the signs (with the exception of the Moon in relation to the constellations) we find the following:

NEPTUNE at the moment of birth at 290 was in { (Sag. -Leo) URANUS at the moment of birth at 11 0 was in w (Sag.-Aries) SATURN at the moment of birth at 140 ~ was in ~‚ (Scorpio-Pisces) JUPITER at the moment of birth at 270 was in { (Sag.-Leo) MARS at the moment of birth at 280 } was in }y (Libra-Gemini) SUN at the moment of birth at 180 was in x(Capricorn-Taurus) MERCURY at the moment of birth at 10 . was in (Capricorn) VENUS at the moment of birth at 90 was in (Sagittarius) MOON at the moment of birth at 25 0 | was in | (const,Virgo)

Putting this particular birth configuration together with the descriptions given

earlier of the effects of the Moon's motion through the twelve archetypal regions in relation to the planetary rulerships one would find pictorially the following. (See following three pages).

In this particular example, when the Moon moves into a Capricorn region (next page) the experiences of deep contemplation, the bony structure, knees and elbows, sense of sight, world picture of spiritism are all stimulated in the more inwards superphysical nature. (From this the reader should understand that when I speak of parts of the body I am indicating areas of the human form, not necessarily the physical body, although these influences can be felt to work into the physical body.) As one moves from this more inward superphysical nature through the center of focalization of Capricorn-the crown center- the Saturn in Scorpio-Pisces birth placement (currents) would be set in motion. This means that there is a kind of blending of these more inward related Saturn currents with the Saturn currents tying into the Pisces currents in the more outward superphysical nature. Hence, whenever the Saturn currents are inwardly stimulating this center at the top of the head, the Pisces related formative currents working around the hands and. the feet, the sense of hearing, world view of psychism and the moral struggle between the excess: fraud, the balance of generosity

37 b. love and the lack: insularity would be set in motion in the more outward superphysical nature.

This dynamic -moving from the universal currents in the more inward superphysical nature to the more individualized currents in the more outward superphysical nature- holds for each of the planets and their centers of focalization as stated earlier. For the reader interested in working with these ideas in self-observation he would need a basic knowledge of the placement of the planets in the circle of the signs at the moment of birth (with the exception of the Moon considered in relation to the constellations.) 1 think for him to not be misled in where he directs his attention, he would have to consider these placements in relation to the 36 regions of experience of the tropical and sidereal zodiacs (presented in the previous book) rather than the division of twelve. He would then need to familiarize himself with the motion of the Moon through the 36 archetypal regions and perhaps first try to discern their distinct, universal inward qualities. In doing this he could gradually experience the relation of each of these archetypal, universal regions to the particular centers of focalization. Having clarified these to his self-observation, he could then begin to discover how these centers of focalization mediating their nine planetary ruled forces, stimulate respectively the particular placement of the planets at the moment of birth.

He could also observe, when humanly appropriate, the effects of these dynamics upon other individuals. With knowledge of various archetypes -for example, Saturn in Leo and Saturn in Capricorn at the moment of' birth, he could grow into the experience of a certain similarity in the mood of the more inward characters of these two individuals when the Moon was passing before a Capricorn (Saturn) ruled region, but experience the contrast in their more external structure, between the concentration at the heart center of the individual with Saturn in Leo and the strong feeling of concentration and stonelike stillness in the entire form of the individual with Saturn in Capricorn at birth.

These are only some preliminary suggestions to how an individual interested in gaining a clearer understanding of the relationship between the more universal and particular superphysical forces could proceed in observing some of the inner phenomena related to

38 the motion of the Moon through the thirty six regions of the sidereal zodiac. Being inclined to agree with Rudolf Steiner's statement that: ',the generalized human being, the abstract man, does not exist" I am glad that we have now begun to find our way to a deeper exploration of the relation between the changing, universal currents in the present moment and the more enduring particular currents impressed around the human being at the moment of birth and pictured in his natal planetary placements.*

THE UNIVERSAL FORCES OF THE SPIRITUAL EARTH, THEIR

PLANETARY RULERS AND THEIR EFFECTS UPON THE PARTICULAR PLANETARY CONFIGURATION AT THE MOMENT OF BIRTH

Next I would like to explore the relation between the previously discussed (see Volume 1, Chapter V)

forces of the spiritual earth in its motion through the 36 regions of the sidereal and tropical zodiacs and the "particular" configuration of forces impressed around the human being at the moment of birth.

First let me say that it has been my experience that the motion of the earth through the 36 regions of the sidereal (constellation) zodiac, (mediating its forces into the more inward superphysical nature), does not have any obvious relation to the planetary forces of a more permanent nature which are imprinted around the human being at birth.

* For readers of the foregoing who are students of astrology I need to add a few more remarks. The idea of

various progressions might affect the validity of some of my observations. Although I have not given a great deal of concentrated attention to the idea of progressions in relation to the natal horoscope, I can say with confidence that my years of intensive self-observation and observation of others has led me to the conviction that the planetary placements at birth have that degree of "permanence" in the more external, superphysical structure spoken of earlier. Consequently it has raised some doubts in me about the theory of progressions-as, for example, a day for a year. On the other hand in the last four years or so I have come to the conviction that the motion of the Sun through the circle of houses each year does have a definite reality. Also I am growing convinced that the motion of Saturn through the birth circle of houses has also an effect in one's "destiny" experiences. I have not yet had any clear sense of the significance of these ongoing motions in relation to other planets. I have had different impressions of "transits" which I will briefly explore later. I hope to address this entire question in a later book, after I have given more concentrated attention to it. (see DeVore: Encyclopedia of Astrology, p. 121ff.; directions: p315; progressions)

39

Though, for example, when the earth is moving through a Mercury ruled region of Gemini, the forces can be felt to radiate up into the inner solar plexus (3) Mercury center, I do not have the impression that they directly radiate through this center as is the case with the working of the Moon. More of this will be discussed later.

On the other hand if one participates wakefully with the effects of the motion of the Earth through the 36 regions of the tropical zodiac, one can experience that these radiations coming from outside in or from the periphery towards the external superphysical nature, stimulate these forces as they blend with them, setting them in motion with a certain pattern, the "living logic" of which 1 will now try to elaborate.

If, for example, the Earth is moving through the tropical zodiac into a Gemini region, (which we have suggested is ruled by the planet Mercury), this radiation moves from below and around and stimulates the Mercury (3) center in the particular individual's more external body of forces. This would mean, using our example above, (see previous hypothetical chart), that whenever the Earth is moving through a Mercury ruled region the currents of Mercury in Capricorn would be set in motion through this radiation. Viewed pictorially we would find something like this:

//////// universal stimulation ……… particular stimulation * This pictorialization of the stimulations (universal and particular) indicates directions and not formative gestures of the currents being depicted.

40

The stimulation of the Mercury-ruled solar plexus center would sympathetically set in motion the Mercury in Capricorn currents focalized at this center because of Mercury's placement in Capricorn at the moment of birth.

When the Earth is moving through a Sun-ruled region of Leo, the radiation from below and around (outside-in) would stimulate the heart center which is a focus of this radiation. In the above example each time this stimulation took place there would be a blending with the Sun's Capricorn-Taurus qualities because the Sun stood in relation to these currents at the moment of birth. One could say for such a person that their heart and colon or kidney radiation, their sense of life and thought, their relation to sensualism and rationalism had an intimate tie, almost like two colors blending to bring forth a third.

Following is a table elaborating this dynamic (considered universally) throughout the course of the year: the 36 archetypal changes called forth because of the motion of the Earth through the 36 regions of the tropical zodiac. (Next page)

Going back to our hypothetical chart, for such an individual whose more external superphysical forces are there pictured, we would find the following. From Sept. 19-29, when the Earth is moving in front of the Aries (Mars-ruled) region his Mars in Libra-Gemini would be stimulated. The more universal currents focalized at the throat related to the word sense and the world picture of idealism would in this case blend with the external formative currents of Gemini, the third center; sense for the ego, philosophic mathematism, etc:.

As the Earth moves during Sept. 29-Oct. 9 through the Sun ruled region of Leo, the universal stimulation coming from below mediated through the Earth's motion in the tropical-zodiac would stimulate center (4) at the heart; the sense for life, and the way of thinking about the world termed sensualism. This universal current would set in motion the individualized structure in our example blending with the Capricorn-Taurus region in which the Sun, focalized at the heart, stood at the moment of birth. From Oct. 9- 19 the universal current present, stimulates the Jupiter-ruled brow center because of the Earth's motion through the tropical Sagittarius region. The universal character of philosophic

41

DATES FOR THE MOVEMENT OF THE SUN IN RELATION TO THE TROPICAL EARTH POSITION MOVING OPPOSITE IN

CONNECTION TO STIMULATION OF THE FORCES RESULTING FROM PLANETARY POSITIONS AT THE MOMENT OF BIRTH*

EARTH PLANETARY IN SIGNS RULER DATES CENTER SENSE WORLD VIEW w Sept. 19-29 (5) Throat Word Idealism w{ a Sept. 29-Oct. 9 (4) Heart Life Sensationalism w f Oct. 9-19 (6) Brow Taste Monadism x d Oct. 19-30 (2) Colon Thought Rationalism x| c Oct. 30-Nov. 9 (3) Sol. Plexus Movement Phenomenalism x g Nov. 9-19 (7) Crown Sight Spiritism y c Nov. 19-30 (3) Sol. Plexus Ego Mathematism y} d Nov. 30-Dec. 10 (2) Kidneys Balance Realism y h Dec. 10-21 ? All Centers Warmth Pneumatism z b Dec. 21-31 (1) Reproduct- Touch Materialism

ive z~ e Dec. 31-Jan. 11 (5) Throat Smell Dynamism z‚ i Jan. 11-21 ? Uncertain Hearing Psychism

0 { a Jan. 21-Feb. 1 (4) Heart Life Sensationalism { f Feb. 1-11 (6) Brow Taste Monadism {w e Feb. 11-22 (5) Throat Word Idealism | c Feb. 22-Mar. 4 (3) Sol. Plexus Movement Phenomenalism | g Mar. 4-14 (7) Crown Sight Spiritism |x d Mar. 114-211 (2) Colon Thought Rationalism } d Mar. 24-Apr. 3 (2) Kidneys Balance Realism } h Apr. 3-14 ? All Centers Warmth Pneumatism }y c Apr. 14-24 (3) Sol. Plexus Ego Mathematism ~ e Apr. 24-May 4 (5) Throat Smell Dynamism ~‚ i May 4-14 ? Uncertain Hearing Psychism ~z b May 14-24 (1) Reproduct- Touch Materialism

ive f May 24-June 3 (6) Brow Taste Monadism w e June 3-12 (5) Throat Word Idealism { a June 12-22 (4) Heart Life Sensualism g June 22-July 2 (7) Crown Sight Spiritism x d July 2-12 (2) Colon Thought Rationalism | c July 12-22 (3) Sol. Plexus Movement Phenomenalism h July 22-31 ? All Centers Warmth Pneumatism y c July 31-Aug. 10 (3) Sol. Plexus Ego Mathematism

42

DATES FOR THE MOVEMENT OF THE SUN IN RELATION TO THE TROPICAL EARTH POSITION MOVING OPPOSITE IN CONNECTION TO STIMULATION OF THE FORCES RESULTING FROM PLANETARY POSITIONS AT THE MOMENT OF BIRTH

EARTH PLANETARY IN SIGNS RULER DATES CENTER SENSE WORLD VIEW } d Aug. 10-20 (2) Kidneys Balance Realism ‚ i Aug. 20-30 ? Uncertain Hearing Psychism ‚z b Aug. 30-Sept. 9 (1) Reproduct- Touch Materialism ive ‚~ e Sept. 9-19 (5) Throat Smell Dynamism *see chart on pages 234-235 of Volume 1: for corresponding moral dynamics

43 monadism, and the sense of taste would blend- in this particular casewith Jupiter standing in the Sag.-Leo region with the related Leo archetypes. Monadism would blend with sensualism and the sense of taste with the sense of life, as the formative currents focalized at the brow center would blend with those focalized at the heart center.

This pattern of the Earth stimulating those centers of focalization formed by the same influences through which it is presently moving: Mercury-ruled Gemini into the Mercury, solar-plexus center; Venus-ruled Libra into the Venus, kidney center; Sun-ruled Leo into the Sun, heart center, etc: would follow as is pictured for the year in the above Table(s).

The interested reader should be able to move from the Tables and the examples given as a guide to his own observation of how the universal currents stimulated by the Earth's motion through the 36 regions of the tropical zodiac in the course of the year, work into his respective centers of focalization, formed by virtue of the planetary placements at the moment of birth. (I will say more about this later in the book).

THE UNIVERSAL FORCES OF THE SPIRITUAL SUN, THEIR PLANETARY RULERS AND THEIR EFFECTS UPON THE PARTICULARIZED PLANETARY CONFIGURATION PRESENT AT BIRTH

Now let us briefly look at the relation between the previously discussed (see Volume I, chap. 3) forces of

the superphysical Sun in its motion through the 36 regions of the sidereal and tropical zodiacs and the configuration of forces impressed around the human being at the moment of birth. As with the motion of the Earth, the Sun's motion through the sidereal zodiac,. stimulating the more inward superphysical nature of man does not have a direct effect upon the outer body of superphysical forces related to the planetary placements at the moment of birth.* (see footnote on following page).

For some reason still unknown to me, it has been much simpler for me to observe and understand the dynamic of the Earth moving through the tropical zodiac than that of the sun moving through the same zodiac.

What one would expect to find, for example, is that as the Sun moves

44 through the Mercury ruled, Gemini region, it stimulates the Gemini (Mercury ruled), 3rd center of the human form. This in turn would stimulate the particular Mercury placement from the moment of birth focalized at that center. When the Gemini Sun passes into the region of the Gemini-Libra Sun, the more external Libra characteristics are stimulated: realism, sense of balance, etc:. These in turn set in motion the particular Venus (2nd center) placement imprinted at that center at the moment of birth. This pattern would follow throughout, as the Sun moves through the tropical zodiac, stimulating from outside and around into the more permanent external, superphysical body of forces "pictured" in the planetary positions at the moment of birth. These observations are a little more tentative than the previous ones concerning the Earth's dynamic, which I am quite certain I have faithfully observed, understood and named. The following table is meant to serve as a guide to the reader's observations of this sphere of living phenomena. I look forward to hearing what others may discover in relation to this region of experience. * Within the last two years or so I have increasingly felt, that although, as mentioned earlier in relation to the effect of the motion of the Earth through the circle of the constellations, that there does not appear to be a direct stimulation of those external currents (as one finds with the Earth's motion through the tropical zodiac), there is a kind of stimulation from inside out based on the effects upon the inner centers of focalization themselves, in proximity to the external currents. That is to say when, for example, the Sun is moving through the constellation region of the Lion, through the flowing of the inner, inwardly stimulated heart center outward, there is somewhat of a stimulation of the outer heart center, as if one stream from inside hits up against the outer heart center's currents. The distinction of these currents being affected from that of the Moon working also from the inside out and the Sun and the Earth working through the signs from outside in, is that in those cases there is a clear blending and sympathetic stimulation of the two respective streams. With the inner Earth and Sun one experiences more of a kind of pressing from inside against the outer archetypes without an actual flowing through them. This "pressing up against" does bring about a certain stimulation, of the outer currents, but not an actual confluence of the two respective streams.

45

DATES FOR THE MOVEMENT OF THE SUN THROUGH THE TROPICAL Z001AC IN RELATION TO STIMULATION OF THE FORCES RESULTING

FROM THE PLANETARY POSITIONS AT THE MOMENT OF BIRTH EARTH PLANETARY IN SIGNS RULER DATES CENTER SENSE WORLD VIEW w e Mar. 20~30 (5) Throat Word Idealism w{ a Mar. 30-Apr.10 (4) Heart Life Sensualism w f Apr. 10-20 (6) Brow Taste Monadism x d Apr. 20-30 (2) Colon Thought Rationalism x| c Apr. 30-May 10 (3) Sol. Plexus Movement Phenomenalism x g May 10-21 (7) Crown Sight Spiritism y c May 21-31 (3) Sol. Plexus Ego Mathematism y} d May 31-June 11 (2) Kidneys Balance Realism y h June 11-21 All centers Warmth Pneumatism z b June 21-July 2 (1) Reproduct~ Touch Materialism

ive z~ e July 2-12 (5) Throat Smell Dynamism z‚ i July 12-22 M Uncertain Hearing Psychism { a July 22-Aug. 2 (4) Heart Life Sensualism { f Aug. 2-12 (6) Brow Taste Monadism {w e Aug. 12-23 (5) Throat Word Idealism | c Aug. 23-Sept.2 (3) Sol. Plexus Movement Phenomenalism | g Sept. 2-12 (7) Crown Sight Spiritism |x d Sept. 12-23 (2) Colon lhought Rationalism } d Sept. 23-Oct.3 (2) kidneys Balance Realism } h Oct. 3-13 (?) All centers Warmth Pneumatism }y c Oct. 13-23 (3) Sol. Plexus Ego Mathematism ~ e Oct. 23-Nov. 2 (5) Throat Smell Dynamism ~‚ i Nov. 2-12 (?) Uncertain Hearing Psychism ~z b Nov. 12-22 (1) Reproduct- Touch Materialism ive f Nov. 22-Dec. 2 (6) Brow Taste Monadism e Dec. 2-12 (5) Throat Word Idealism { a Dec. 12-22 (4) Heart Life Sensualism , g Dec. 22-31 (7) crown Sight Spiritism x d Dec. 31-Jan.10 (2) Colon Thought Rationalism ~ c Jan. 10-20 (3) Sol. Plexus Movement Phenomenalism h Jan. 20-30 All centers Warmth Pneumatism

116

DATES FOR THE MOVEMENT OF THE SUN THROUGH THE TROPICAL ZODIAC IN RELATION TO STIMULATION OF THE FORCES RESULTING

FROM THE PLANETARY POSITIONS AT THE MOMENT OF BIRTH EARTH PLANETARY IN SIGNS RULER DATES CENTER SENSE WORLD VIEW y c Jan. 30-Feb. 8 (3) Sol. Plexus Ego Mathematism } d Feb. 8-18 (2) Kidneys Balance Realism ‚ i Feb. 18-28 Uncertain Hearing Psychism ‚z b Feb. 28-Mar. 10 (1) Reproduct- Touch materialism ive ‚~ e Mar. 10-20 (5) Throat Smell Dynamism

47

Using the preceding table and a basic knowledge of one's own planetary configuration at the moment of birth it should now be possible for the interested reader to make observations about the effects of the yearly movement of the Sun through the tropical (sign) zodiac upon his more external, superphysical structure. These effects can be observed as working from above and around as compared with the effects of the influence of the tropical Earth which can be experienced as working more from below and around, but also upon his more external superphysical nature.

In concluding this chapter let us review the ground we have thus far covered,

particularly concentrating on the question of the varying temporal rhythms we have considered. This will lead us into the following chapters devoted to exploring the planets themselves and their relation to shorter rhythms of the "qualities of time".

In the first Volume we looked at the "universal" rhythms of the Sun, Moon and Earth moving through the inner (sidereal, constellation) and outer (tropical, sign) zodiacs. We found the following:

48 1 The outer solar rhythm of every ten days moving through the 36

decanate regions of the tropical zodiac works from above and around, from outside-in to the more external superphysical nature.

2 The inner solar rhythm of approx. ten days (8-12) moving through the

36 regions of the sidereal (constellation) zodiac works from above and around, radiating from inside-out through the more inward super physical nature.

3 The outer earthly rhythm of every ten days moving through the 36

decanate regions of the tropical zodiac works from below and around, from outside-in to the more external superphysical nature.

4 The inner earthly rhythm of approx. 10 days (8-12) moving through the 36 regions of the sidereal (constellation) zodiac works from below and around, radiating from inside-out through the more inward super physical nature. 5 The outer lunar rhythm of approx. 20 hours moving through the 36 decanate regions of the tropical zodiac has no discernible effect. 6 The inner lunar rhythm of approx. 20 hours moving through the 36 regions of the sidereal zodiac works from above and around, radiat ing from inside-out through the more inward superphysical nature.

In the present Volume we are exploring how the universal rhythms discussed in the first book effect the particularized body of forces imprinted upon the more external superphysical living structure of a human being, by virtue of his or her planetary placements at the moment of birth. In respect of the Moon, Earth and Sun's relationship to this body of forces we observed the following: As the Moon moves through the 36 regions of the sidereal zodiac it stimulates forces in the inward superphysical nature. These forces focalize at various centers in the inner and outer human being. The living logic of these stimulations of different centers of focalization has to do with the discoverable experience of the different planetary rulerships of the 12 fundamental archetypal regions through which the Moon is moving.

1 When the Moon moves through a Mars ruled region it stimulates forces in the more inward nature, which

then focalize at the Mars center of the throat. Or, when the Moon moves through a Sun ruled region, this dynamic takes place with the forces being stimulated at the region of the heart.

This radiation can then be seen/experienced to stimulate in the the more external nature the planetary placement in particular signs from the moment of birth. (Except for in the case of the Moon which at birth appears to work through the constellation regions and continues to do so throughout the entire life.)

49

An example of this is when the Moon moves through an Aries or Scorpio (Mars) ruled region during the month it stimulates these qualities in the more inward superphysical nature. This radiation comes to a focalization at the center at the throat. It then moves from the inner throat center (in a manner of speaking) through the more external throat center. If at a particular individual's birth, Mars stood in Libra-Gemini (as in our example), when the more external throat center is stimulated there would be a blending of the qualities of Mars focalized at the throat center and Mercury focalized at the solar plexus or Gemini ruling center. In this example we see how the more universal currents stimulated in the inner nature then stimulate the more external, individualized structure formed at the moment of birth by virtue of the planetary placements.

2 I have not had the experience that the movement of the Moon has any direct relation to the more

external structure in its course through the 36 regions of the tropical zodiac.* 3- If one participates within the universal currents called forth by the motion of the Earth through the 36

regions of the sidereal zodiac, one can feel in the more inward nature the stimulation of the center cor responding to the planetary ruler ruling that regions through which the Earth is then moving. This radiation can be felt to be coming from below and moving through the inward superphysical nature from inside-out. When the Earth moves through the Mercury ruled region of Gemini it stimulates the Mercury ruled region of the solar plexus in the inner man. When the Earth moves through the Venus-ruled region of Gemini-Libra, it stimulates the Venus ruled region of the kidney, bladder area. Though there is a stimulation of these inner centers of focalization my impression is that there is not any direct effect upon the more permanent external centers pictured in the planetary placements from the moment of birth (See previous footnote).

4- As the Earth moves through the 36 regions of the tropical zodiac one can feel in the more external

nature the stimulation of the center corresponding to the planetary ruler ruling that region through which the earth is then moving. These radiations can be felt to be coming from below and outside, moving from the periphery towards the center (this center experienced as one's own form and forces). For example, when the tropical Earth moves through a Mercury ruled region of Gemini it stimulates the Mercury ruled region of the solar plexus. As in our example, each time this blending of stimulation occurs, the accompanying currents around the knees, elbows, the sense of sight and the world picture of spiritism, etc: would be stimulated. When the tropical (sign) Earth moves through a Gemini-Libra, Venus ruled region, it will stimulate the Venus-kidney (2) currents impressed there from the moment of birth. In our example given this would stimulate the blending with the Sagittarius currents, in that Venus stood in Sag. at birth.

* The exception to this statement is that when the Mow is moving across (transitting) one of the planetary placements from the moment of birth one can feel a subtle stimulation of the planetary energy being transitted.

50 5 As the Sun moves through the circle of the inner-sidereal ( constellation) zodiac through its 36

sectors during the course of the year one can experience in the more inward superphysical nature (working from above and around and inside-out) the stimulation of the center corresponding to the planetary ruler ruling that region through which the Sun is then moving. For example, when the inner Sun moves through a Mercury ruled region of Gemini, it stimulates the Mercury ruled region of the solar plexus. When the inner Sun moves through a Venus ruled region of Gemini-Libra it stimulates the Venus ruled region (in the inner nature) of the kidney, bladder area. Though there is a stimulation of these inner centers of focalization my impression is that there is not any direct effect upon the more permanent external centers pictured in the planetary placements from the moment of birth.

6 When one participates within the universal currents called forth by virtue of the motion of the Sun

through the thirty six regions of the tropical zodiac one can feel in the more external nature the stimulation of the center corresponding to the planetary ruler ruling that region through which the Sun is then moving. These radiations can be felt to be coming from above and round, moving from the periphery to the center. This center is experienced as one's own form and forces. For example, when the tropical Sun moves through a Mercury ruled region of Gemini, it stimulates the Mercury ruled region of the solar plexus. As in our example, each time this blending or stimulation occurs the birth placement of Mercury in Capricorn with the accompanying currents around the knees, elbows, the sense of sight and world picture of spiritism (living currents which bring forth in the conscious life that way of thinking about the world called spiritism), etc: would be stimulated. When the tropical (sign) Sun moves through a Gemini Libra Venus ruled region it will stimulate the Venus-kidney (2) currents impressed there from the moment of birth. In our example this would stimulate the blending with the Sagittarius currents, in that Venus stood in Sagittarius at the moment of birth.

This concludes the summary of the ground we have thus far covered in considering both the universal

and particular currents of the Sun, Moon and Earth in relation to the 12 archetypal regions, the 9 planetary rulerships and their corresponding centers of focalization. Let us look at an example of one day in the life of our hypothetical individual to further clarify the simultaneous working of these various factors. The individual's birth chart was as follows:

Below is pictured his external body of forces in respect to his planetary placements in the circle of the

signs at birth:

52

I will take today, June 17, 1986 as an example. What would we discover in attentively observing this particular person on this day?:

1 We could find that the inner Sun, working through the sidereal zodiac region of Taurus-Capricorn would be stimulating the Saturn currents in in the more inward superphysical nature. The accompanying qualities of the moral dynamic envy, courage b. redemptive power, timidity; the sense of sight, world picture of spiritism, etc: would all be highlighted in this region of the individual.

2 Standing opposite, the inner earth working through the circle of the constellations from below and

around, inside out, from Scorpio-Cancer would be stimulating the Moon currents in the more inward superphysical nature. The accompanying qualities would be highlighted at this time in this region of the individual.

3 The external Sun standing in the tropical region of Gemini-Aquarius would be stimulating from

above and around the Uranus currents in the more outward superphysical nature. This would in the particular example considered stimulate Uranus blending with Sag.-Aries: the Aries currents with the accompanying qualities of Aries being stimulated.

4 The external earth standing in the tropical region of Sag. Leo would be stimulating from below and

around (outside-in) the Sun currents in the more outward superphysical nature. This would, in this particular example, stimulate the Sun blending with Capricorn-Taurus; the Taurus currents, with the accompanying qualities of Taurus being stimulated. In this case one could observe the sympathetic stimulation of the 4th and 2nd or heart and kidney centers through the blending of the Sun and Taurus from the moment of birth.

5 The motion of the Moon through the 36 regions of the tropical zodiac does not seem to have any

discernible effect upon the universal or particular forces with the exception of the case of transits over birth planets. Late in the day the Moon crossing 28 Libra, the individual could experience a consciousness of the Mars placement from the moment of birth being stimulated.

53 6 The moon standing at 22 0 Libra - 40 Scorpio (approx.) during this 24 hour period would - in the more inward superphysical nature - mediate the forces of Venus ruled Libra with its accompanying qualities. This radiation would focalize at the inner kidney, bladder region and radiate through the external Venus currents. With Venus standing at birth in Sagittarius, the Sagittarius currents would be sympathetically stimulated by this radiation. Perhaps one could say our individual would in this region feel a hunger for running, swimming, bicycle riding or horseback riding (all activities which plastically take hold of the Sagittarius currents shaping the thigh area) at this time. These kind of pictures will be elaborated later in the book.

I hope this example for one day in relation to the hypothetical person under consideration will aid 'the reader interested in taking the next step in his own self-exploration: adding observation of his particular, more individualized and permanent body of forces to the more universal currents of forces working into this individualized structure through the course of his life.

54

"... Then when they had reached this point, they were introduced to the planetary system. They learnt how with the knowledge of the planetary system there arises at the same time the knowledge of the human soul. "Learn to know how the wandering stars hold sway in the heavens, and thou shalt know how thine own soul works and weaves and lives within thee ... "

Rudolf Steiner

(Karmic Rel., Vol. 3, The School of Chartres)

55

CHAPTER II: CHARACTERIZATIONS OF THE PLANETS

In this chapter I would like to present brief explorations of the seven/nine planetary spheres. Given that we have seen in the last chapter some evidence for the validity of the classical theory of planetary rulerships: Aries Mars Scorpio Taurus Venus Libra Gemini Mercury Virgo Cancer Moon Leo Sun Sagittarius Jupiter Pisces(?) Capricorn Saturn Aquarius (?) Aquarius Uranus? Pisces Neptune? through considering them in self-observation in relation to the 12 archetypal regions I would suggest that one way to gain some impression of the characters of the 7/9 planets would be to work with the contemplations of those 12 regions given in Volume I.

Through working with the Cancer contemplation one could gain some impression of the Moon sphere. Also through either working with this contemplation at the time when these forces are present, or simply through giving oneself over to observation of one's own Cancer related processes and thinking through them, one can deepen one's experience and understanding of the Moon itself.

Working with the Taurus and Libra contemplations, or with the guide to when and where these processes can be experienced in oneself can help to give the interested reader a direct experience of the Venus (occult Mercury) qualities.

Working with the Gemini and Virgo contemplations, or with the guide to when and where these processes can be experienced can help to give the interested reader a direct experience of the Mercury (occult Venus) qualities.

Working with the Scorpio and Aries contemplations or with the guide to when and where these processes can be experienced can help

56 help to give the interested reader a direct experience of the Mars qualities.

Working with the Leo contemplation, or with the guide to when and where these processes can be experienced can help to give a direct experience of the Sun qualities.

Working with the Sagittarius contemplation, or with the guide to when and where these processes can be experienced can help to give a direct experience of the Jupiter qualities.

Working with the Capricorn contemplation, or with the guide to when and where these processes can be experienced can help to give a direct experience of the Saturn qualities.

Working with the Aquarius contemplation, or with the guide to when and where these processes can be experienced can help to give a direct experience of the Uranus qualities. (?)

Working with the Pisces contemplation, or with the guide to when and where these processes can be experienced can help to give the interested reader a direct experience of the Neptune qualities?

This is one pathway into a deeper experiential appreciation of the different planetary regions. I hope another will be the following characterizations which should be considered contributions towards guiding the attention of the reader to some aspects of the planetary processes which we are considering in this particular Volume. Since on my own path of investigation my attention has been much more focussed upon the 12 archetypal regions rather than upon the planetary processes themselves I have begun by suggesting that one could discover- as I havesomething of the characters of the planets through the fact (?) that they are respectively rulers of the 12 archetypal regions and come to the regions of focalization as discussed above. As previously mentioned I am avoiding going any more deeply into the question of the chakras (centers), beyond the schematic presentation thus far used, largely because I think such a deeper exploration will distract our attention from the course of development of the material being presented. In time I hope to address the question of the relation between the signs (constellations), planets and the chakras (centers of focalization) more fully. There are many varying conceptions concerning the chakra system. The sketchy suggestions I am making are drawn solely from my own

57 intensive self-observation and observation of others over the last ten years. The only "theory" of the chakra (center) system that I have given any serious attention to is that presented by Rudolf Steiner (see especially Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment) in various of his writings. Evidence of this will be apparent to the reader familiar with these writings relevant to this theme. Nevertheless, in this regard, as I have said earlier, 1 have made my own explorations and what agreement (or disagreement) there is between my own findings and those of others is due to the fact that we have independently come up with the same or varying conclusions.

Further I should say that given that my experience of the planetary processes has been gained either indirectly through exploring the idea of the classical rulerships of the 12 archetypal regions in relation to them, or through their influence in relation to the circle of the signs in the 6 hourly progression of planetary rulers (see following), and not in isolation from these other influences this should be kept in mind. This method of investigation has largely brought me to experiences of the planetary processes in relation to the circles of signs/constellations with their corresponding virtues/vices, senses, philosophies and formative currents. In the following characterizations the implicit relationship between ~ for example -Saturn as the discovered ruler of Capricorn, and the Capricorn related sense of sight, world view of spiritism, formative currents of the backbone, top of head, etc: will be assumed. What I am offering is the fruit of my own exploration of the planetary processes in relation to the twelve archetypal characteristics of signs/constellations. I leave the reader to his own judgement and initiative to determine whether my suggestions seem accurate and helpful. I would be grateful to hear from anyone who has explored the planetary processes in other ways.

In order to bring more richness of content to these discussions of the planetary characters I will also introduce some examples from a series of lives I will consider in the following Volume of this series. In these instances I will take those periods when one of the 12 constellation regions is being

58 stimulated- and accepting the idea of the classical rulership we have suggested- see what is reflected of the ruling planet's character at each of these times. That is to say in considering the character of Saturn we will look to those phenomena which are strongly in evidence during Capricorn related periods in the lives of the personalities to be considered in that (already written) later Volume. Of course, as is there suggested, the reader must assume that the "law" to be demonstrated in that book is true, and my suggested attributes chosen from the different biographies discussed is not arbitrary in character. I can only ask the reader for a passing "willfull suspension of disbelief" and leave the testing of these suggestions to himself.

Beyond our consideration of these elements related to the planetary processes which have already been introduced in Volume I: virtues, senses, etc: I will also discuss two new considerations of them in the following. The first is what Rudolf Steiner has called the "seven philosophical moods" (see Human and Cosmic Thought, R. Steiner). These "moods, as the previously explored world outlooks, were introduced to me as concepts through my reading the above book some years ago. Although I have little doubt that I would not have been able to name them as Rudolf Steiner has done, I hope that what I will share of their relation to the seven planetary regions may be helpful in further clarifying some of their characteristics. There is some disagreement amongst students of Rudolf Steiner as to the respective attributions of mood to planet -particularly in relation to Venus and Mercury (see App. V). I think this may be due to the question of the change of the names of these planets with each other. My contributions which come out of my own direct explorations are, at best, preliminary observations. I hope to elaborate upon them in a later book.

Finally I will consider the seven planetary centers and processes in relation to the seven main Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. What I am presenting is the fruit of years of my own consideration, but I will also introduce some of Valentin Tomberg's reflections on the Beatitudes drawn from his Anthroposophical Studies of the New Testament, and some of Rudolf Steiner's considerations taken from his Gospel of St. Matthew lectures. Both

59 Mr. Tomberg and Rudolf Steiner look at the Beatitudes in the light of Rudolf Steiner's conceptions about the various "members', of man's being. I have considered the Beatitudes in relation to my own experiences of the seven centers and planetary processes. The question of their relation to the "members of man" enters in at times due to my use of quotes from Mr. Tomberg and Rudolf Steiner about the characters of the various Beatitudes in relation to them. Hence what can arise in the mind of the reader through putting all of these elements together is a scheme: planet, Beatitude, member. Neither Rudolf Steiner nor Mr. Tomberg in their remarks make any reference to planets as such. Further, as the reader will see in the appendix (see App. V) the correlation between the various members and the planets (when it is made) is not universally agreed upon. This has caused me much consternation for although I have held fast to my gesture of empiricism I am troubled by disagreement between my own explorations and the findings of others whose credibility I consider high. (Nevertheless I remind myself that I need to keep in mind when considering "living" spheres that there is a greater flexibility and mobility of understanding assumed and needed to sometimes do justice to the overall logic of the isolated presentation of the same phenomena from different points of view. Further I should say that I have not made a thorough search through the body of writings of Rudolf Steiner to see the various ways in which he may have spoken about the planets, members of man and Beatitudes. So if others more knowledgeable than myself about his writings can reconcile the apparent inconsistencies which my presentation implicitly entails please forgive me my oversight and send me page references for further material!)

Given that I too have, repeatedly, felt greater flexibility and alternative possibilities of relating the various Beatitudes to different planetary centers and members of man than was the case with the 12 fundamental Virtues/Vices, etc: which I feel confident are accurately named and placed (with much debate about the senses in the tradition as well), the reader should consider these following explorations of the seven/nine planetary processes in relation to the Beatitudes as provisional in character. I include them after seven or-so years of consideration with confidence

60 that my suggestions have been, at the least, ensouled. I hope that a consideration of the moral possibilities of the seven planetary processes seen in the light of the Beatitudes will help to give us further aid in completing the rudiments of a kind of new languagea language inspired by the possibilities of man's future becoming with which to consider and to read in the book of human character and destiny.

I have brought these considerations to a provisional completion so that they could be made available to those individuals with an expressed, practical interest in working with them. I hope that the depth of interest on the part of these small number of readers will redeem the lack of refinement present in this Volume. Finally, I hope that the following reflections on the planets, despite all of my disclaimers, will for now adequately serve their purpose of helping the reader to more effectively use the practical guide in the second portion of this book in his own explorations of "living into the planetary processes."

63

THE MOON (CANCER)

The reader may remember from the first Volume the relation between the forces of Cancer and the center of focalization (1) in the region of the reproductive organs. Traditionally Cancer is considered as ruled by the Moon ( b). (See pgs.30,32, Vol. I) It is interesting to consider the experienceable fact that the moon related Cancer forces, focalized at the so-called lowest center (reproductive or basic-base of spine) can also be felt to enclose the entire human form in a kind of garment, a subtle skin which seems to work in relation to the forming of the physical skin as well. These forces are further focalized at the chest or breast region and can be experienced to be related to the sense of touch. Here we feel something of the mysteries of the will for repetitive creation of separate individualized "copies" of bodies composed from the "raw materials" of "mother nature". The quality of protection and enclosure which characterizes the rib cage (curling up in one's shell) is one that is strongly felt while participating in these processes. The skin's intimate relation to the sense of touch, the gesture of cleaning and washing ("washing of the feet*) so intimately bound with the task of motherhood, the relation to physical purification and emotional catharsis - a kind of inner cleansing or washing - can also be felt/ found in this sphere.

As mentioned in the first book, when the moon ruled Cancer forces are stimulated one finds one's thought processes concerned with that world outlook called materialism. Through observation of impulses stimulated under the influence of the moon (Cancer), one can find that the world of matter, as the mother sustaining ground and substance of the human body, the mysteries of nutrition, and the nurturing care of the body, are all also found focalized at this moon center related to the reproductive processes. If one livingly contemplates the relation between the nourishing breast and womb, (out of which a newly formed body is separated off from its enfolding life sustaining home) , the sense of touch (and the skin as the organ for this sense of touch) in the light of the mysteries of matter, materialism, the "substantial" world ("vast

64 maternity" of nature in Henry Adam's phrase), one can marvel at the experienceable reality that these concerns and processes are all to be found focalized at that center which is closest to the earth itself, when considered in relation to the human form. From one point of view it could be suggested that the moon processes are related to all that which is concerned with the body, and the activities involved in building and sustaining the body as a garment, house, tabernacle in which the human soul can dwell throughout earthly life. Whether it is the clothing buyer feeling (touching) the "material" to test its quality (how it feels against his skin); a fond friend hugging his breast to that of his companion, or a smitten mother soothing the soft, warm skin of her tiny infant, the living, life sustaining lunar forces can be found as present. The mood present is often that of the seclusion one feels is appropriate with a mother and her newborn child. In the purer expression of these forces one can feel the "closeness" or innocence of being "touched" by the "kingdom of heaven" (whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.")

When one considers the moral quality spoken of as selflessness/ purification becoming catharsis as a balance between the excess: murder, a hardened, self-enclosed, over-materialized, frozen insensitivity, and the lack: dependence; an amorphous, shapeless dissolution without self-defining boundaries (skin), one can see the rightness of this living logic. The task of the motherializing, materializing moon is the washing, cleansing, nurturing of that material or body which is the skin, home environment for the being itself. The care of the substance of the earth, the selfless, cathartic feeling of the mother, the tender longing for union of the lover with his beloved can all be found in this region so intimately bound with the feeling touch, the touching feeling of paradisal innocence.

While living within this lunar sphere one further has the impression of a strong quality of "imitativeness" present. This quality can be observed both in little children as well as in the forces of early childhood in oneself. In a sense we can see the soul quality of "imitativeness" as a reflection of the bodily processes of "modelling" which take place in hereditary development. In relation to this it is interesting to note that in observing the working of the-moon it is more strongly colored by

65 whatever constellation region within which it is moving than seems to be the case with other planets. This is why I have earlier suggested that although the moon forces seem focalized at the root center they actually feel as if they were moving into different centers with fairly rapid changes during the course of the month as they move through different constellation regions. Nevertheless when the moon stands in the constellation of Cancer or when the moon ruled Cancer region is otherwise stimulated, one can experience the focalization of the Cancer (b ) related processes in the center (1) connected with the reproductive and base of the spine regions.

Perhaps one could say that in the moon sphere its quality of imitativeness is somewhat like that of a mirror wherein it reflects whatever may be presently irradiating it. The soul quality of selflessness, the ability to mirror back or reflect another, without distortion - in a sense to allow the other's form to mold and alter one's own without losing (as a mature individual) one's selfconsciousness in this alteration is linked to the imitative quality inherent in this sphere. As with the moon in the heavens its changeability of form is reflected in the extreme changeability of the lunar related forces in the human being. If one is sensitive to the many changes in the weather outside one can gain some sense of this quality of changeability, as can anyone who has ever had responsibility of caring for an infant or an exceptionally moody person. The old saying: "The fool changes like the moon, the wise man like the sun,, - although perhaps misrepresenting some of the inherent potentials of the moon, neverthless calls to light the fact that it is the most plastic and changeable of the various planetary regions. Just think of the immense plasticity of soul involved in moods of tenderness, vulnerability, impressionability.

Rudolf Steiner has suggested that at the time of the spring equinox during the age which he suggests had its flowering of civilization amongst the Indian peoples, the sun stood in the region of Cancer. It has been my impression that this has left a kind of lasting imprint linking the Cancer-moon forces with the Indian culture. This can be seen in the relation of yoga to Indian practices and purification of the body as well as the will for thorough mastery of the body. The relation of a child to his

66 father in certain ways seems to reflect the relation of a disciple to his master, still so strongly in evidence in Indian spiritual traditions. The gesture of the cloistered life of the ashram with its emphasis on purity, sexual abstinence, vegetarianism or mastery of the reproductive forces (as in certain forms of tantra yoga) all highlight the relation of yoga to the mysteries of matter or the human body. It has been interesting for me to observe in the lives we will look at shortly, how frequently interest was drawn to the Indian civilization (Bhagavad-Gita, Hinduism, etc:) or some of its descendants? (Pythagorianism) at those times when these individuals stood in relation to these spheres of lunar (Cancer) related experience.

From one point of view it could be suggested that these moon influences focalized at the root center related to the reproductive processes, etc: have to do with ',the will for incarnation altogether". They are, in one sense, the most compelling processes if one imagines sexual appetite, or a physical wound, to have the character of a compelling need. Another way of expressing something of the essential "longing" of this region, when healthy, is that there is a deep concern that the earthly body will be a fit instrument for the incarnating soul to carry out its purposes on earth. If, when, out of this incarnational will the lunar forces try to image or impress the spiritual archetypes of the constellations upon the substance of the more fixed, external form imprinted around the human being at the moment of birth, there has been a de-formation of this birth "garment" there can be an experience of discomfort in the meeting of the two. This experience of discomfort could be characterized as "mourning". (More about this shortly)

When the soul follows these lunar currents through its sheathes out into the external world, there is a kind of hidden sensibility which longs to experience the concealed qualities surrounding the sense world through the subtle skin and subtle sense of touch. This mood does not rest content with the gross aspect of hitting up against the objective world, but, as Rudolf Steiner has suggested, considers the sense world maya (as do many Indian philosophies). Rather it longs to "live into" a more intimate communion with the countless impressions made upon its sensitive skin. The attempt to make conscious these impressions

67 this spiritual sense of touch feels and the mood accompanying it, I am suggesting can be called "occultism"..

"..one may experience red or blue, or this or that sound, ever so intensely; nothing of this expresses the hidden being of the thing. My perception never makes contact with this hidden being. Anyone who speaks in this way speaks very much as we do when we take the standpoint that in external sense-appearance, in Maya, the essential nature of things does not find expression ... We say, this world is Maya, and one must seek the inner being of things in another way then through external sense perception and the ordinary means of cognition." Occultism: The psychic mood of Occultism! R. Steiner (Human and Cosmic Thought, pp. 43-9)

In a sense, both the child susceptible to hidden disturbances and the materialistic biologist looking

through his microscope to find the "hidden" springs of life both give testimony to the mood of occultism, which seeks behind the material of the sense world for life's reality. Between the dependent, dissolution of the unconscious child and the hardened, atomizing frigidity of the onesidely, indurated materialistic! scientist lies the balance, where the consciously trained "sensitive scientist" can, at will, plunge into the living streams of reality using his spiritualized faculty of touch. Without fear of losing himself through a kind of selfdirected going out of himself he can feel his way into the living realities which surround him and form the world of so-called "maya". One is reminded of the words of Carl Jung quoted in the previous Volume:

"Nature seemed to me full of wonders, and I wanted to steep myself into them. Every stone, every plant, every single thing seemed alive and indescribably marvellous. I immersed myself in nature, crawled, as it were, into the very essence of nature and away from the whole human world."

Or Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"The physiologist concedes that no chemistry, no mechanics can account for the facts; but a mysterious principle of life must be assumed, which not only inhabits the organ but makes the organ."

This principle of life is that which the "occultist" in his experience of the world is with varying degrees

of clear wakefulness aware. This awareness of the creative forces of life can also give the sensitive human soul, the tender, impressionable human soul, the experience of the weight or heaviness, density or

68 deformation of different "atmospheres"; of the qualities of those bodies in which he or other human souls may be living. (This is true of other living kingdoms of nature as well). The inner experience of the "fallen", heavy condition of these "skins" in which living beings dwell, which are composed of living beings, can lead one to the mood of sorrow, mourning. The relation of the moon, mother sphere of touch-tender, vulnerable protective motherhood and the archetypal expression of sorrow or mourning (that of the Pieta or Mater Dolorosa; that of any mother mourning the death or sorrow of her child) is clearly related to the remedy for her bewailing and bereavement, that of comforting. soothing. The sorrowing child is comforted by the touch of his mother; the sorrowing soul by the tender touch of his beloved. The God-forsaken soul can experience in the catharsis, the inner cleansing through being "touched" by drama, etc: a comfort to the life of feeling, as in the mental life the sorrowing separated mother-child, lover, etc. can be comforted by the remembrance of an image of scenes from the life of his son or friend or beloved, or their actual, photographic reproduction captured by the imitatibe sensibility, the silvery world of light and shade of the camera.

The man or woman sorrowing through inner recognition of their condition of spiritual isolation, through inner recognition of the Fallen condition of their spiritual skin - or that of other souls, animals or damaged nature - longs in a sorrowing mood to regain the purity and innocence of childhood. Having regained this innocence he can once again experience the maternal comforting touch of the angelic sphere, the tender love of those beings concerned with protecting the earthly environment and the human body, so that they remain fit habitations for human souls.

These living experiences in the moon focalized Cancer region (1) lead me to feel that it may be true to suggest that the words of the Beatitude: "Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted" are spoken out of the moon related sphere, focalized at first center. I suggest the reader explore this further for himself. (I think, with some justification, it could be argued that the experiences I have tried to characterize could also lend evidence to the thought that the Beatitude: "Blessed are the beggars for the spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" is being spoken

69 out of this region. Considering all the Beatitudes in relation to the seven planetary regions I would rather see the parallel as I have suggested it, although, as I expressed earlier, I do have doubts at times. I mention this to encourage the reader not to think of this as a scheme, but to livingly explore my suggestions.)

Following are some pictures drawn from the lives of various personalities while they stood in their life concerns in relation to the moon ruled, first center (materialism, touch, etc:), Cancer region.

It is my impression that in the life of Ralph Waldo Emerson between the ages of 26-28 he partly (this will be explained in the later book in this series) stood in relation to the Cancer (moon) region of experience. His biographer describes some of Emerson's concerns at this time in his life.(Gay Wilson Allen, Waldo Emerson)

He was pondering the question of sexual love. "Emerson's girl-wife thawed his emotion and expanded his human sympathies". He was so absorbed in his domestic life that he could spare little time for the needs of his younger brother at the time. Waldo urged William to "bundle him up warm, and send him there immediately for mother and Ellen to nurse him."

All of these concerns, that of sexual love, emotional catharsis, domestic life, and the comforting care of mother and sister for their son and brother can be discovered to stream out of the Cancer moon related currents focalized at the first center (1).

Ten years of so later when Emerson once again stood in relation to the Cancer moon forces we find some of the following observations and concerns.

In a letter written to him at this time Caroline Sturgis says: "When her soul in it's childish agony of prayer stretched out its arms to you as a father - did you not see what was meant by the crying for the moon?" Clearly she is accusing Emerson of insensivity, at least from her own experience of the situation. In his reflections on modern literature at the time he says: "The very child in the nursery prattles mysticism, and doubts and philosophizes."

His biographer writes that Emerson was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with his own domestic life and frequently meditated self-reform. Emerson laments: " The bird and the fox can get

70 their food and house without degradation, without domestic servants and without lies, and why not we?"

He reproached himself for allowing "the old circumstances of mother, wife, children and brother to overpower my wish to right myself with nature."

Further: "It is the unsophisticated mind ('the idiot, the Indian, the child, the unschooled farmer's boy') which stands nearer to the light by which nature is to be read." Might I suggest these words of Emerson's come out of that mood of longing and mourning, one remedy for which lies in the words of the Gospel: "Unless ye become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of Heaven". Unless ye become, not return. Finally we are told that he had a strong religious desire to purify and spiritualize his body.

I think all of these concerns can be considered in the light of Emerson's relation to the Moon (Cancer) forces at this time in his life. I am sharing these examples to aid the reader in his own exploration of the Moon (z) related forces of the first center.

Next let us look at some of the life pictures of Emerson's friend, Henry David Thoreau, to see how the Cancer (b) related processes in close individuals, though both clearly reflective of the universal concerns related to this sphere of "occultism", this impressionable sensibility, these mysteries of mother and matter, are given an individual stamp.

At the age of 26 - Thoreau stayed at Emerson's house. He read Oriental literature there. (The reader may remember that I have repeatedly observed in the lives of individuals when the Cancer (b) processes are strongly stimulated there can be a deep interest in Indian, Oriental concerns).

He goes to Staten Island as a tutor in the house of Emerson's brother's family (Blood relation, heredity).

He finds himself homesick and longs for Concord.

He speaks of the home in which he is living as:

"Hollow, glazed like a painted floor. Such life as only there is in the shells on the mantlepiece. The very children cry with less inwardness and depth than they do in the cottage. There they do not live, it is there they reside."

Might we imagine that Thoreau is "mourning" the loss of life,

71 through what was then already a hardening, materializing tendency of this living steam of reality: "The very children mourn with less inwardness and depth than they do in the cottage".

Fifteen years later, once again, under a (b) basic center (materialism, sense of touch, reproduction) related region we find Thoreau!

We see him discussing toads and frogs with the Librarian. He takes his last trip to Cape Cod, helps Alcott terrace his new home in Concord and builds a fence around his father's property.

He studies ova of fish and amphibians, brings eggs home in bottles, discovers a duck that had just hatched a nest of eggs.

He is called upon to nurse his father during his illness. His mother says of this time: "If it hadn't been for my husband's illness I should never have known what a tender heart Henry had."

At the end of his life his biographer says (still under Cancer) that he had no wish to live except for the sake of his mother and sister. "He wished his bed were in the form of a shell so that he might curl up in it".

I think these pictures and feelings from this time in Thoreau's life further "flesh out" our characterization of some of the aspects of the Moon ruled lst center. It is interesting to compare these aspects of both Emerson's and Thoreaus's lives in relation to each other.

In the region of the Moon related first center, we have found a strong sense of its life woven into the concerns of a mother and her child; of the mother earth and child humanity, of the mysteries of matter. Whether it is the cry of the ecologists, the moans of starving children, the sorrow of their parents, the sadness of the souls still sensitive to the deadening consequences of the plasticizing of their living environments, or embattled scientists pondering the consequences of genetic engineering - here we live in a region ensouled by the mood of mourning, longing for a touch of comfort, contact, once again with "life" itself.

This comforting touch can be found, this mother love of God, through a path of inner purification and renewed innocence: ''Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein". (Luke 18:17)

Through the purified raiment of One's own living sheaths one can find passage inside of the skin of the otherwise opaque "World

72 of Maya". Then shall the mourning of the loss of one's spiritual homeland be answered, through the communion with the external, incarnate world experienced in its, true reality, as the living garment of the Heavens.

"Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted."

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VENUS (OCCULT MERCURY)

TAURUS AND LIBRA

"Where there is life, the unharmonized contrast is active, and life itself is the continuous overcoming, but also the recreation of the contrasts." Rudolf Steiner

In the first Moon ruled center we found the quality of intimacy with one's environment through the

direct contact of touch, the living within another (as an embryo its' mother), or a person in his own skin: the most immediate immersion in the needs and concerns of the body. In the second center, which feelingly can be experienced in relation to the hips area, colon and kidney-bladder processes, and which through its relation to the discoverable Venus d (c) rulership of Taurus can also be found to radiate up around the neck region, we feel somehow as if there is a kind of hungering for harmony between oneself and one's somewhat wider environment. On the one hand there can inwardly arise a sense of longing that one's soul would set/sit or live properly in the currents of the body (b), but also that it would have a free relation to the more light filled, wakeful quality of the center at the solar plexus c (d) ). In a certain sense this equanimity of the second center, this longing for balance, harmony, healing, inner mobility, flexibility, mercurialness can be experienced as a longing to bring the more compelling need and hunger of the "red" of burning desires of the center related to sexuality and the "basic" needs of life together with the "yellow" mental light of the third, Mercury (occult Venus) center. We find a kind of blending between the more substantial element of the red and the more light filled airy element of the yellow in this second center's "orange". (This is intended to be one "picture" of this region offered as an aid to the reader's self-investigation. This can also be seen from other points of view.)

In this region of the Venus d (c) related Taurus and Libra processes one feels a strong desire to take hold of the body and in a sense -lift the substantial element of the body into light: to refine, reform, transform the raw materials of life inspired by this inner will to beautify, harmonize, en-lighten.

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The soul while living in this region is always struggling to find the right balance between the substantial element and the light element; a right relation to the demands it would make upon its environment and its capacity to transform that environment which it hungers to take in. In Volume I we spoke of this dynamic tension as expressed in the following words of Confucius:

"When substance overbalances refinement, crudeness results. When refinement overbalances substance, there is superficiality. When refinement and substance are balanced one has a Great man." (Analects 6:16)

What one discovers in inwardly exploring this region is that the related Taurus and Libra struggles can

here be clearly felt. We spoke earlier of the challenge to maintain the quality of liveliness, agility, inner flexibility in this second, Mercurial (ast. Venus) region. Here one needs to constantly strive to maintain (find and refind) a just or righteous balance between what one consumes of the world and what one can assimilate. Otherwise one, in Taurus, can be lead through the imbalance of covetousness to moods of apathy, inertia, boredom and indifference. In the physical body this can also manifest in problems with the colon and kidneys which can become overloaded with the weight of intemperance, leaving the soul often desperately trying to transform all of the "accumulation,' or stopping altogether from any progress forward. In the emotional world this can lead to a laziness in speech; an inner instability which is often called "irrationalism". In the mental life the Taurus related world picture of "rationalism" - the steady step by step progress in thinking,- is upset and the human soul is jeopardized through its lack of that sense which it holds "in common" with its fellow men, his community of men (mankind): that is "common sense" thinking. All of these "effects" can be felt to be the consequence of a wrong relation to the 2nd center's inherent relation to balance - whether physical, emotional or mental. Often in such cases there is a dis-proportionate relationship between a person's recompense. for his "livelihood", his consequent "life-style" and the necessary balance of enlivening radiation from this center whose task it is to transsubstantiate the world (one's life-style) through its inner will for en-lightening and en-livening. The longing for stability, settledness, steadiness, the healthy sense of step by step progress, based on a physical, emotional and mental balance

75 in doing, feeling and thinking is a longing of the human soul for a "right, just, moral" relation to its surrounding environment, to its enlivening livelihood.

Something of this struggle which I think is addressed in the Beatitude: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled", is well described in the following words from Valentin Tomberg's, Studies on the New Testament:

"A similar polarity is also present in the experience of the human soul. It consists on the one hand of impressions flowing into the soul from the outer world ~ the environmentand filling it with sensations and images; whereas on the other hand this current is met from within by the current of spiritual demands which the soul from within itself makes on the world. If the impressions with which the world supplies the soul are unsatisfying, the inner flame of desire will be the more keenly felt because of the lack of satisfaction, and then we may speak of a "thirst" of the soul. If, on the other hand, the world brings to the soul no new impressions exciting desire so that the life of desire finds ever less to long for in the world and therefore concentrates on the inner life of the soul itself, then a "hungering" of the soul ensues. But when deeper moral claims, expectations and yearnings of the soul are in question, such a soul experiences the equilibrium between its spiritual claim on the world and the inflowing current from outside as righteousness. If the organisation of the soul is preeminently moral, then the relationship between the inner impulse and the outer reality becomes for it the life-question of right~ eousness. Thus the persistently alternating "hunger" and "thirst" of the soul, becomes a "hungering" and "thirsting" after righteousness ... ... the soul-being dwelling in impressions of perceptions from without and expressions of longing from within- is morally just as dependent on righteousness as the body is on food and drink.."

Finally ,

" The measure of righteousness which a man -not so much demands of the world, as -himself expresses in his relation to the world, is the criterion, not indeed of what the man wishes morally to become, but certainly of what he already is... "

This, I think, is a wonderful description of that region of the life of the human being which I am

suggesting can be experienced as standing in relation to the mercury sphere (ast. Venus) center (2), where both Taurean -rationalism and Libran realism; Taurean, balance b. progress and Libran, contentment b. equanimity can be

76 found. If we consider some of the above thoughts in relation to the region of Libra, much can be brought to light. In Libra the human being experiences the hip region and pelvic area. In a sense, the left-right weiging process going on in the organism in the Libra region can be seen as an expression of the influence of the macrocosmic Scales or Balance upon the human being. The balance of the body depends on this process of left-right weighing, (see-saw). Through this region of the form the soul is physically called to enter into relation to the outer world by virtue of the necessity to repeatedly be maintaining one's balance amidst the changing circumstances of the environment. This demands the inner flexibility and adaptability, liveliness, inherent in this region. The gesture in this region of bringing one's soul into relation with another finds an expression in dance; in the will of two people trying to move in harmony with each other. The will for community and communion experienced when the life of this sphere radiates into human feeling leads to that emotional life which weaves between two human beings and is largely expressed through the activity, the dialogue, the dance of human speech. This quality is clearly seen in the archetypal gesture towards community of life, based on love, devotion and a harmonious feeling together that is marriage.

Entering into some of these aspects of the second center we can also see why the Libran quality of realism, the quality of emotional balancing between excessive temperamentality, tempestuousness, restlessness and overly comfortable, self-satisfied, accustomability needs always to be sought here. Without the underlying longing for a just balance in exchange, the hunger and thirst of love and enthusiasm is upset and a gray mood of self-satisfaction can set in- inner and outer indolence- a distorted and weakened expression of Mercury's (ast. Venus) will to enliven. Conversely, when such moods set in, the soul's capacity for "hungering and thirsting for righteousness is undermined". In this region of experience the human soul always strives to maintain its clarity and sympathetic warmth, an expression of a righteous and balanced exchange with natural, human or spiritual environments.

One of the danger's found in this region, that of excessive enthusiasm and inflammation, exaggeration within human relationships, and the calming, clarifying call to dispassionate realism

77 needed to heal this excess is well described in the following words of Ralph Waldo Emerson in which he speaks about one of his brothers views of his wife:

"Talent becomes genius: inoffensiveness, benevolence, willfulness, character and even stupidity, simplicity. Poor dear human nature: leave magnifying and caricaturing her. She would be more admirable Waldo thought if accepted as she actually was, with all her faults and virtues mingled."

Perhaps I could suggest that Emerson is calling for a fair judgement (a righteous judgement) on the part

of his brother. Let us, for a moment, look at some of the various senses of the word (idea) fair. I think it will help to further clarify characteristics of this Venus (Mercury) related region.

"Fair" can relate to the physical expression: beautiful, attractive in appearance, pleasant to view, handsome, comely. One might say that this sense of the experience of fairness has to do with a quality wherein the light of the human soul has found a temperate ("thou art more temperate and fair"), righteous relationship to the environment of the body. In such a case the light of the soul pours through the second center enlightening the body and brightening it, bringing forth an expression of beauty, deeply related to the right balance between the soul's light and the body's substance.

In the world of nature we speak of a "fair day" as one in which the light of the sun can shine through the widths of space, free from rain, snow, hail and darkening.

The human feeling life experiences fairness of exchange as a sense of satisfaction (justice is done); a sense of ful-fillment of that moral longing of hunger and thirst for a righteous balancing.

When one speaks of someone being "fair-minded one is speaking of a mind which is free from prejudice or favoritism, impartial, unbiased, dispassionate. Perhaps we could see a "fair-minded" person as a realist in the best sense of the word. He strikes the balance between the demands of the spirit and the dangers of the untempered soul and body. His disposition is to think and act objectively and unemotionally (balanced emotionally). The interesting fact that can be experienced is that the soul living in the region of the second center, the region of longing for true rationalism and realism, can be led to a sense of the background of the medieval

78 philosophical view of "realism": the view that "universals exist prior to things". I would suggest that rationalism's longing to find the universal thoughts (concepts) which unite the discrete phenomena, and realism's longing to bring the soul's adaptability into relation to the changing "forms" of day to day living (one thinks of the Chinese book of Changes and the path of Taoism) -to be in a harmonious, yet living balance with the changing "realities" (the universals behind the world of appearances), leads one to an experience of that mood of soul which Rudolf Steiner has related to the Mercury region: transcendentalism.

"..In this mood, a person presupposes that outside his soul, and beyond anything his soul can experience, the essential being of things lie hidden; but he does not suppose that this essential nature of things can flow into his soul, as does the Mystic. A person who takes this standpoint is a Transcendentalist -perhaps that is the best word for it. He accepts that the essence of a thing is transcendent, but that it does not enter into the soul-hence Transcendentalism. The Transcendentalist has the feeling: 'When I perceive things, their nature approaches me; but I do not perceive it. It hides behind, but it approaches me." Rudolf Steiner (Human and Cosmic Thought)

I would suggest that in this description by Rudolf Steiner one has a characterisation of something of the

mood of realism and rationalism; even something related to the medieval philosophical idea of "universals". The mood of soul in the 2nd region, the mood of the transcendentalist is the hungering and thirsting to unite his soul with the environment. That is to say, through the exercise of his soul light to find his way to the living, universal ideas behind the distinct, changing living realities which approach him in his perceptions. The dynamic of this tension needs to be understood in that in this sphere the human soul experiences itself in the ongoing flow of life itself ("the dance of life"). Only one whose pace is in perfect rhythmic, flexible step with life can maintain a balanced, healing, healthy relation; a contented, progressing, reasonable, realistic relation with it. But life keeps moving, so must he. The longing of the transcendentalist is to bring his soul light into relation with that which "hides behind the nature of things" and only "approaches him". Through the temperate condition of this region: neither too light and restless, silly, giddy, hasty, nor too heavy and inert, complaining and

79 covetous -the human soul meets the "particulars" of the world "half way" and enlightens them through the exercise of its realistic and rational thought processes.

As it says in the Bhagavad Gita: "He who holds equal blame and praise, who is silent (restrained in speech), content with anything that comes, who has no fixed abode, and is firm in mind, that man who is devoted is dear to me."

Hungering and thirsting for righteousness, emotional stability, holds "equal blame and praise". "Control

of speech" reflects control over one's emotional life. "Contentment with anything that comes" is an expression of being equal to, in balance with life itself. Only such a person can live, "has no fixed abode", as Gandhi expressed it, "like nature, from day to day." Finally the quality of being "firm in mind" 1 would suggest is, in this context, an expression of realism and rationalism in their healthier expressions. Here we find from the ancient wisdom a very apt description of some of the qualities which, when present, reflect mastery over the Venus (c) related 2nd center.

Next let us give some brief consideration to examples drawn from the biographies to be explored in the next Volume to see some of the concerns of those individuals when they stood in relation to the Taurus and Libra, Venus related, center.

Looking at the life of Mahatma Gandhi at different times when he stood in relation to the forces of Libra we find first at the ages of 26-27 the following:

He established a household. In his writing he used more moderate language. He found himself having a stronger relation to social functions and concerned himself with the question of marr

He had the help of all the parties in a dispute he was adjudicating and tried to remain free from exaggeration ... Here we find the attempt to maintain a temperate and fair relation to judgement and justice. This is partly gained through the refining of the elemental quality of hungering and thirsting; overcoming the anger that can accompany a sense of injustice, which can often be telling, but can also obstruct the attempt to gain a fair, complete picture of a situation.

He also speaks of the success of this stance as "winning justice by rendering justice". He further reflects on marriage and his impulse to serve the community and his trust in "their sense

80 of fairness".

Then he speaks of his "apparently contradictory actions": an accusation often brought against the Libran, mercurial flexibility which tries to move with life itself and confirms the words that "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds". He speaks of his being different in similiar situations; is once again conscious of the problem of "exaggeration in relation to justice", and is concerned with "calmness and realism".

Perhaps one could put together some of these concerns and say that only a calm realism can overcome the heat of hungering and thirsting in order to come to a truly balanced sense of justice, without exaggeration or diminishment, so that the genuine hunger and thirst will meet an equitable satisfaction (ful-filling).

In the life of Marie Curie we find an interesting relation to this sphere of experience which I will discuss at a later time from a hygienic point of view. Her daughter Eve writes in her biography of her mother that from the ages of 17-19 (when from my point of view Marie stood in relation to the Libra region of experience):

"It was her year of intoxication of idleness. Reading absurd and harmless novels during her year of laziness. She learned to dance and attended balls". "A breeze of innocent madness stirred all summer long over the beautiful house." "In September, still giddy from a whole year's roaming ... "

Clearly we see evidence of the influence of the Venus (Mercury) related center (2) of liveliness. Footloose and fancy free, beautiful dances and dreams:

Interestingly Marie also worked as a tutor where she developed a relationship with social and political movements of her day. Here Marie's longing for righteousness entered into the wider social context.

She gave lessons to women of the poor classes and wished to reform the social order. Later when she had a position as a governess in a family of lawyers Eve writes of her mood of soul at that time: "How naive and full of illusions was Manya."

One can see in all of these concerns something of the relation which Marie Curie had to some of the questions arising out of the second center (planet Venus) at that time in her life.

Probably one of the most deliberate and interesting "responses" to the challenge presented by the Taurus region (covetousness, apathy, balance b. progress) is seen in the life of Henry

81 David Thoreau. At about the age of 27 he is involved in his immortalized experiment at Walden Pond. At that time he had a relation to the Taurus region. He says: "He who lives in the closest accord with nature is in the completest harmony with all the laws of God. (Is this another expression of transcendentalism?)

He begins building his cabin at Walden Pond.

He tells us that he went to Walden "because he wished to live deliberately (could we replace rationally for deliberately?), to front only the essential facts of life .... (is this what righteous livelihood or a hungering and thirsting for it would do?).

His whole gesture speaks of the fascination with finding the most temperate relation to his needs at Walden.

"He ate simply and plainly while he lived at the pond".

He tells us in summation some fair, temperate wisdom gained from trying to find a just relation to life itself:

"I learned from the experiment of both years that if one would live simply and eat only the crop he raised and raise no more than he ate, and not exchange it for an insufficient quantity of more luxurious and expensive things, he would need to cultivate only a few rods of ground." (my emphasis)

Perhaps a fitting picture to end our consideration of the Taurus-Mercury-Libra related second center. A centered, equilibrium, a balanced progress, a realistic, rational assessment. A common sensical view on the question of right livelihood. One is reminded of Rudolf Steiner's words for Wednesday in his Guidance in Esoteric Training:

WEDNESDAY: The Ordering of Life To live in accordance with Nature and Spirit. Not to be swamped by the external trivialities of life. To avoid all that brings unrest and haste into life. To hurry over nothing but also not to be indolent. To look at life as a means for working towards higher development and to behave accordingly. One speaks in this connection of RIGHT STANDPOINT. (Livelihood, standpoint in relation to life's changes. My addition)

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MERCURY (OCCULT VENUS) VIRGO AND GEMINI

"At that time true knowledge, the manifestation of the spiritual in art, and the moral will in man, united for me as members of a single whole. I could not but recognize in the human personality (my emphasis) a central point of which this personality is conjoined in the most immediate unity to the Primordial Being of the world. It is from this central point that the will takes its rise. If the clearlight of the spirit is effective at this central point the will is free."

Rudolf Steiner

We move from the first center related most immediately to concerns of the body, family and intimate natural surroundings, to the second center where the human soul stands in a feeling relation to a somewhat wider environment -one deeply linked to a kind of sympathetic-antipathetic, aesthetic response to this environment, on to the third center focalized at the pit of the stomach and related to the planet Mercury (Venus). (Hereafter I will not repeat the alternative designations for Mercury and Venus but assume that they will be implicitly understood by the reader). This center is the region where we find the focal point of the human personality whose concerns can find a relation to the wider environment of consciousness or thought in respect of its time in history and its place in the course of historical development altogether.

Through Virgo's focalization here, one can discover physically its relation to the musculature, stomach and small intestine. This center of human will power and "presence of mind" is in modern vernacular spoken of as "guts". (One's gut reaction; a gutsy person; can't stomach it, etc.). When this radiation moves into the sphere of feeling it inspires in the human soul an appreciation for the quality of graciousness or courtesy which becomes tactfulness of heart: a feeling response for how someone carries himself, moves through the course of development of his life, shapes the development of his life. It is a sense of this "carriage", mastery of

83 this region which is one of the ways of assessing the "maturity,, of someone. Maturity can be seen as a reflection of the human being's cultivation and control over the Mercury ruled center of the personality. When this radiation moves into the conscious life it calls forth a world picture of phenomenalism; a grasping of the sense of maturation and development, the unfolding of the phenomena of nature. Here one feels a sense for the "flowering" of hidden, inherent potentials in the course of time.

Though from one point of view one could say that the musculature is the center of will power, when this radiation working formatively upon the musculature moves into the conscious life it brings forth the phenomenon of "strong-mindedness" or "weak-mindedness": the will for the cultivation and unfolding of a "mind of one's own". The sense of mobility brought forth through the musculature, in moving into the conscious sphere brings forth a mobility of mental capacity, one which can grasp into the ongoing course of time and events. As one feels oneself into this center at the solar plexus one can experience that in it lies all of the range of possibilities of the human personality standing in relation to its potential or already actualized gifts, talents, etc. Enhance the processes in this region and you have the possibility of egoism growing toward the extreme of megalomania. Refine and cultivate the potentials in this region of gracious, self-expression and you have the potential "genius". Some of the possible distortions here are well characterized in Ruskin's pithy saying: "Industry without art is brutality". Let us imagine the character of Vulcan in Greek mythology and take away his art. Is it hard to imagine us being left with the degeneration of the "muscle-man" into brutality? On the other hand if this center of personality is not unfolded sufficiently, if it is damaged, one finds the struggle with handicaps, disabilities -be it physical, emotional or mental. Here the basis for true integration of the personality in becoming fruitful, creative and resourceful in shaping the substantial world can be impaired. In such a case it can be difficult for someone to "stand on his own feet".

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If one enters into this region of self-determining will and intelligence, so deeply connected with a sense of one's "rights and personal freedoms", where one's potential inner and outer "mobility" can long for expression, and explores some of the struggles inherently present here, it seems to me possible to discover the relation of this center to the Beatitude: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." In this region of motion and emotion, of explosive pressures of "time and money", of powerful personal drives and ''motivations'' (motorvations), Christ is suggesting that mastery of the potential excesses here can be seen as coming to expression in the quality of "meekness". One can observe an interesting dynamic in regard to that region (3rd center, solar plexus) which many aspirants on spiritual paths speak of as "ego". That is that the very phenomena of the world (the detailed world of "facts") is one of the ways in which willful subjectivity or careless inconsiderateness in this domain is constantly being educated. The monks at Cluny had an expression: "If you can't be good be careful!" This sphere of the popular (though unpopular) "ego" is pointed toward (this is my own interpretation) in the following remarks by Valentin Tomberg as "astral body", whereas what he is calling "Ego" I would rather consider to be related to the center to be next discussed -that of the human heart. Hence one could read, "mastery of the astral body" as mastery of the solar plexus region: one's emotions, motivations, impulses of movement, etc. out of the human heart (Ego). This is what he writes:

"The force necessary to bring to a standstill (my emphasis) the impulses peculiar to the astral body is developed on the path of Spiritual Science by practicing in the first place to direct the impulses of the astral body from within the Ego. (The 3rd, Virgo and Gemini centers from the 4th, Leo center). The acquiring of the capacity to determine the movements of the astral body from within the Ego precedes the suspension of its impulses. Now the strongest impulse of the astral body is that which includes everything of the nature of anger. Indeed, the force of the impulse of anger in the astral body is so strong that we may regard the control, or lack of control, of these impulses as the measure of the control of the astral body as a whole. For the man who possesses the inner force to overcome anger when it is there, and to evoke anger when he has no personal cause for it and would rather remain in comfortable calm, possesses precisely thereby, the force necessary to control the whole astral body. For

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this reason, a man who can command his astral body from within his Ego is called a "controller of anger". Another name for controllers of anger -expressing the same idea -is the "meek".

From this juncture on, for the sake of those readers unfamiliar with concepts drawn from Rudolf

Steiner's, Spiritual Science, 1 will be paraphrasing and altering some of the words - 1 hope not the sense - of Mr. Tomberg. (The original is to be found in his Anthroposophical Studies of the New Testament. Ch. IV, pp. 9-11).

" The most important point in the discipline which the human consciousness has to undergo in the astral body is that it should come to an understanding with the impulses of egoism and self-will, self-love and the purpose of the understanding is the spiritual conversion of self will and self love into that which may be called "meekness". For anger arises from the pride of opposition to the cosmic order, and the overcoming of it is the goal of the Christianized human soul working in the region of self-assertion, the astral body".

One could suggest that a true devotion to phenomena (to the "facts of life"), a sober, gracious and mature

power of observation, thought and craftsmanship bespeaks a certain "meekness" in the Mercury region. The use of the faculties of resourcefulness and intelligence for selfish, self-interested ends, the many forms of fornication (muscling in) - be it in the intellectual, religious or business life - the ungracious relation to these spheres bespeaks the soul still given over to self-love and opposition, to what is here spoke of as "the cosmic order". It is in this region of the personal soul life, the sphere most subjectively inward in the life of the soul, where one finds the unconscious mood of feeling the pressure of personal responsibility for its' deeds in the world, that one is led to those struggles of the religious of all faiths for overcoming self-will and becoming a "good man". ("Peace on earth to men of good will"). Could we 'suggest that a man of good will would through the Ego's mastery, maintain meekness and strive to serve the earth, inheriting from his Father what is possible for him to graciously and faithfully cultivate ?

So we can see that the struggle of the human being's mastery over the possibilities inherent in the solar plexus region, the

86 struggle with the temptation to egotistically use one's "personal power and intelligence", is a struggle with one's motivations, where one finds "that central point of which the personality is conjoined in the most immediate unity to the Primordial Being of the world".

The experience of these qualities in this region lead me to suggest (with certain reservations) that the philosophic mood of the third center Mercury (sphere of Venus) at the solar plexus is mysticism; mysticism which leads the human personality deep into itself where it seeks to find its relation to the "Primordial Being of the world". Rudolf Steiner has this to say about the mood of mysticism:

Man is placed in the world; in his soul he experiences something about the world that he cannot experience externally; only there in that inner realm does the world unveil it's secrets ... "Of what help to me is the Gnosis that takes pains to struggle up to a kind of vision (see my later discussion of Saturn). The things of the external world that one can look upon they cannot show one the truth ... It merely leads us away from looking into the depths of our own soul, and into those depths one does not look when the soul wills, but on the contrary, just by surrendering itself, it is without will. (Is this not the quality of meekness of which Mr. Tomberg is speaking? It is the force necessary to bring to a stand-still the impulses peculiar to the astral body?')" " .... When the soul has become quiet and seeks inwardly for the divine Light, this soul mood can be called Mysticism ... "

Are these thoughts not perhaps related to the words quoted at the beginning of this chapter: "If the clear

light of the spirit is effective at this central point the will is free"?

The mystic plunging into the subjective processes of the Mercury (Virgo, Gemini) related regions of his solar plexus center strives to bring them to a "standstill". The divine Light penetrating the processes of his own motivations can lead him into ever greater depths of insight as to the foundation of his impulses of will, his subjective bias or way of looking at the world (his thinking)*. Through this struggle to bring the clear light of the spirit (of consciousness) into these processes, the mystical mood would seek to align the currents of its' own will with God's will

87 working and moving there. Through the mastery of the center of motivations, of pressures the will can stand freely in choosing to follow the light of the spirit.

Much can be gained of knowledge of this sphere of experience through considering what - through an investigation of the living currents and moods of this region - seems to me to be a "fact", that the vocation of the business man, and the religious man - the struggle for inner and outer mobility -as expressions of "freedom of will" can both be found here. I think this is the basis for -particularly in America- the alliance between business and the religious life: a religious life which in it's mood and approach can at times feel perhaps too much like a business, and a mood of business which can be approached with the energy, if not the assumed reverence, of religion. Worshipping the "almighty dollar!" Whether the aspirant in the religious life or the business man, or the business man like religious is serving the Father who will give the meek that portion of the earth which is his due, is something which each human being out of his solar plexus (his "gut reaction") - should have the "right" to determine for himself. Perhaps one guideline in making this determination, or in seeing where one stands in relation to having a healthy organ for making it, is pointed towards by Mr. Tomberg in the following words (I am altering them somewhat):

"A man's ability to bring his solar plexus to calm surrender depends absolutely upon whether or not he has the courage to look the truth straight in the face". This trial is actually a trial of the courage by which a man honestly desires and is able to endure the sight of unvarnished truth about himself (and also about other people)". *

Much more could be said of Virgo's relation to the Mercury quality focalized at the solar plexus, but I

think what has been offered should be sufficient to guide the reader in his own self observation. Let me now look at some examples drawn from the lives

* I would suggest that the reader might look at the following remarks as I think they make some valuable contributions to this entire question. (Tomberg, op. cit. pp. 12-14)

88 we are considering to see what we can find reflected from those times when different individuals stood in relation to the Virgo sphere. Then I will look at the Gemini relation to the solar plexus region.

Something of the remarkable link between mastery of the solar plexus center and the quality of manners (courtesy) or social grace ("finishing school"), questions of money and the religious life come out in the life of Gandhi at about the age of 18, when he stood in relation to this region of experience.

He was then occupied with "raising money for his trip to England". One of his concerns was a "fear of being unable to keep his religious beliefs." On arriving in England he was given some lessons in European etiquette and spoke of the questions of courtesy and manners.

He read Bentham's Theory of Utility and spoke of being affronted by ungraciousness. At this junture in his autobiography he also remarks on the character of the English gentleman (gentle man, meek man?).

He took dancing lessons, concerned himself with economics and questions of hygiene.

At this time in Gandhi's life we can see from the phenomena an interesting picture of Gandhi's preoccupation with a number of life concerns which self-examination can reveal as all arising out of the Virgo (Mercury ruled) center (3) of the solar plexus.

Between the ages of 34-35, Gandhi once again stood in relation to this sphere. This is what we can discover in looking at one of the essential lines of his concern at this time.

Once again he is occupied with the question of money and the quality of resourcefulness. He is aware of the "burden of supporting a family". Also, as before, this concern with having the strength and talents to carry forward one's personal responsibilities in time, (his concern with questions of money) is accompanied by interest in religious questions. He comes into contact with the Theosophical Society and enters into discussions on religion. His struggle with his own will -the demands of meeting his own personal responsibilities - and his will for service to a wider community bring him to considerations of "brotherhood". (See also following discussion of Gemini). He determines to use his future savings

89 for the benefit of the community and struggles not to exceed limits in respect of money.

He works as a nurse for plague victims and becomes their banker, advising them what to do with their money. His struggle with the question of resourcefulness and I think an unconscious relation to his own musculature leads him to the feeling that he should work with his hands. He concerns himself with household economy and engages in grinding his own flour. He struggles (conflict of interests) at this time with his various wills of service to his family and his desire for service to the larger community.* In his struggle for mastery over his own will he takes final vows of Bramacharya (chastity) and imposes on himself greater restraints in relation to food. I think these pictures can be helpful in leading the attention of the reader to some of those life concerns which he could discover take their rise from the solar plexus center.

Next let us look at some of those periods in the life of Ralph Waldo Emerson when he stood in relation to the Virgo region (courtesy b. tact of heart, sense of movement, world view of phenomenalism). At the age of 24 Emerson found himself burdened with concerns of monetary responsibilities for his family. In a wonderfully telling remark written (I would suggest) out of the solar plexus region, he says:

"Tis a queer life, and the only humour proper to it seems quiet astonishment (meekness? My thought). Others laugh, weep, sell, or proselyte. I admire."

At this time in his life he was the chief means of support for his mother and two brothers. He crosses the

path of a book by Sampson Reed: "Observations on the Growth of the Mind', which one could see as a meditation on Mercury and the development of the solar plexus.

"Every man has a form of mind peculiar to himself. The mind of the infant contains within itself the first rudiments of all that will be hereafter, and needs nothing but expansion, as the leaves and branches and fruit of a tree are said to exist in the seed from which it springs.." Further: 'The spirit of God is as necessary to the development of the mind as the sun is to growth of vegetables."

The reader should keep in mind that although I am trying to present something of the more universal characters and concerns of the planets and the centers, when we speak of individuals-as will become clearer later, there is the essential individualizing factor which must be considered. The next book will be more fully devoted to this question.

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At this time Emerson travelled to the South. His biographer tells us that what most impressed him in Charleston was the cordiality of the people. Manners, he decided "belong more to the body than the soul, (I would suggest, in a sense, that they belong to an individual's mastery of his musculature system), and so come under the influence of the sun. Here everyone was more polite and ceremonious than in Boston. There is a grace and perfection too about these courtesies which could not be imitated by a northern laborer were he designed to be extremely civil."

Emerson speaks of his activity of preaching at this time:

"When we need the stimulus of a great occasion and many observers to excite our virtue, what is it in effect but to say that we fear man more than God and respect men more than we respect ourselves."

I think this statement of Emerson's may reflect something of the degree to which he can be said to have

attained true "meekness" in his personal intelligence and will at this time in his life. Not self-love or the needs of the modern "small ego", rather a dedication to the objective requirements of a given situation are demanded.

1 hope these examples taken from the lives of Gandhi and Emerson will help to enliven the indications 1 have given of something of the character of the struggle within this center of will and intelligence: the struggle with self-love overcome and transformed into a true gesture of becoming a "public servant" in a spirit of meek, self-possessed, courageous, presence of mind.

Having said so much of the Virgo related Mercury quality let me be more brief in relation to the Mercury related Gemini quality. As I pointed out in the first Volume the Gemini region can be experienced as coming to its center of focalization at the solar plexus, but working in relation to forces which flow around the lungs, shoulders, arms and hands. This relation to the shoulders and lungs is connected with the struggle to repeatedly attain the quality of perseverance or endurance which develops into true fidelity. One sees the word confidence in this connection. The sense of the ego of another man and, in a certain sense, an experience of one's own capacities, is deeply linked to this sphere. Finally here we find the world view of mathematism. Let us consider this in relation to what we have thus far examined of the Mercury ruled solar plexus center in relation to the struggle with egoism and incapacity.

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The inner experience of the breathing organisation, shoulders, arms and hands, is deeply related to the soul's feeling for the passage of time. We say that a man's days are numbered, or breaths are numbered. Without mathematical thinking our entire way of time reckoning would be different. Of course I am arguing for the inevitable relation between the two so it is difficult to imagine one without the other. In a sense our experience of the passage of time and our reckoning of it are linked to our sense of the possibility of maintaining "presence of mind", right recollection, which also lives in our soul's experience in this region. With Gemini and Virgo we find ourselves strongly conscious of being placed in historical time, where there was once a beginning and will someday be an end. The experience of historical time in the solar plexus and breathing region, as compared to the more cyclical experience of natural or seasonal time of the Venus related 2nd center, also leads the human soul here to an unconscious experience of the inevitability of an end to its earthly life. The intimate question of the future destiny of the soul and the sense of "personal" responsibility for how it uses time, what it can develop and unfold, grasp and learn from experience in the course of time, through its discoverable inherent living logic, can also be found in this sphere as well. The stirring of many of these questions and qualities seem to come at the time of puberty when it is as if the human soul enters into a different kind of relation to that region (the solar plexus) of its superphysical organism where the sense of. maturation towards adulthood begins to take root. From a certain point of view one could say that prior to puberty there is a sense (often instinctive) that a human being is not yet truly capable of being responsible for his actions. In a way only an "adult" can be considered responsible for succumbing to temptations of Gemini's weakness: "adultery". For only at a certain age (usually 21 from a legal point of view but something that, interestingly, is being debated in relation to drinking, etc. at the present time) 'is it felt that that region of the life of the soul- the personal force of the soul-ispresent within reach of the growing strength of the Ego's potential mastery of it. In, I think, a faithful characterisation of some of the Mercury struggles in man,

92 awakening at the time of puberty, but continuing for most human beings (to the measure that they have not striven to cultivate "meekness") through the course of their lives, Beredene Jocelyn has written:

"..There is a veneer of self-confidence, carelessness, irresponsibility, impoliteness, disinterest, rudeness, insolence."

She suggests that behind this,

"is a longing for comradeship and heroic idealism. Elders should give love, patience, humor and tactful support. The "power" of love is born". (I would add, sometimes unhappily, also the 'love of power' or longing for it) ... 'This love should be refined to a love of knowledge, love for all humanity, brotherliness and honored cooperation. This love prepares for fraternity later on."

Beredene Jocelyn (Citizens of the Cosmos)

These words very aptly describe the struggles of that which occurs at adolescence and is akin to adolescence in the human soul, the struggle in the Mercury ruled solar plexus center. One might suggest that these struggles find their dynamic resolution in the courage of meekness, of gracious and faithful meekness, not weakness! This brings the counterbalance to the danger of egoism in this sphere of self-love leading to the dark side of the will for human rights and personal cultivation - the war of all against all, or every man for himself.

A further clarification of this sphere is reflected in these words of Valentin Tomberg taken from the previously quoted article

"The Trial by Fire is, actually, trial of the courage by which a man honestly desires and is able to endure the sight of unvarnished truth about himself (and also about other people). That which a man experiences in this trial might -if the force of courage were lackingboth plunge him into despair about himself and also arouse resentment against human nature. But that is the very point; not to lose confidence in oneself and in mankind. The Trial by Fire is a trial of faith; by it, faith in mankind must be not only preserved, but strengthened- in spite of, and owing to, the destruction of illusion in the fire of perceptive knowledge. A tolerance, a "meekness", towards human nature must be born of it; without this it would be hardly possible to go on enduring human beings. ... In a world wherein freedom is to be realized, it is not only knowledge, but especially confidence which is

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important. For the human will's relation to freedom can only fulfill its vocation if it believes in freedom in the positive sense - if it believes that Good will result from the use made of freedom." V. Tomberg (Studies of the New Testament, Ch. IV)

The implicit questions raised in the above, of the cultivation of the human personality, the development

of freedom of the will and the problem of human rights are intimately related. The problem in a capitalistic society of special interests and economic egoism, every man for himself, survival of the fittest! mentality is clear enough. Yet would human evolution not be lacking confidence in the possibility of men were not a society formed where human souls were able to exercise good will out of freedom?

The mathematical "line" in the mental life is a reflection of the "line" of a man's style in his will. His grasp, dexterity, capability, effectiveness, economy of energy ("not wasting his breath") are all connected with his cultivation of personality. "Meekness" would guide the unfolding talents of the human will along the ,lines" of brotherhood, where the development of the ego of the other man becomes of comparable importance to that of one's own. Without this - the "division of labor" would not "add up" to cooperation in a common intent - but would continue indivisibly until each 1 stood solely for his part in the struggle for existence (the human equivalency of the egotism of mathematism).

Let us now see what we can find by looking at the Gemini (Mercury) ruled periods in some of the lives we have been considering .

Mahatma Gandhi between the ages of 32-34, when under this influence, tells us that he was "engaged in clerical work". The work was not beyond his "capacity". He was delighted with the "confidence" given to him. He had a strong aversion to "wasting time" and was aware of those who had "little regard for economy of energy". He spoke of his various meetings with other personalities and his "never wasting a minute". Finally in relation to a difficult situation he spoke of the impression that "the thread of his life was in the hands of God. God saved his honor. which led his belief in God to remain unaltered to this day."

The solar plexus Mercury threads are clear at this time in

94 Gandhi's life. The confidence given him; his strong sense of developing presence of mind; his acute sensitivity to the passage of time, etc:

Let us now look at Emerson's life between the ages of 19-21. He had a position teaching young ladies at his brother's school. He was disturbed because "the will of the students was stronger than the will of the teacher". "His discouragement undermined his self confidence. He lacked intimate friends (sense of ego of others) except his brothers. He was unable to take initiative in meeting other young people" .... This relation to friendship bespeaks one of the struggles of the Mercury (Gemini) region, deeply linked to a true sense of fraternity, human fidelity and mutual confidence.

In his mental life at that time he wrestled with questions about the nature of God, the necessity of evil, and the origin of men's moral sense. These concerns remind us of Steiner's thought introduced at the beginning of these considerations: "I could not but recognize in the human personality a central point of which this personality is conjoined in the most immediate unity to the Primordial Being of the world. It is from this central point that the will takes its rise .... 11

He struggled to develop a personal theological view. He could not believe in the goodness of God. He felt a sense of greatness, a sense of his own destiny (a sense of his own ego?). Approaching 21 he wrote: "In a month I shall be legally a man. And I deliberately dedicate my time, my talents and my hopes to the Church." (My emphasis). He is perhaps telling us here what he wills to do out of that measure of free will he is then experiencing in his center of adulthood, of personality.

Let us next look at Henry Adams at the age of 24 when he stood in relation to the Mercury related Gemini sphere of sense for the ego.

He speaks of his meeting different personalities and the question in certain conversations being not one of fault, but of intent. He says: 'lone was twenty five years of age, and quite ready to assert it. One began to dream the sensation of wielding unmeasured power." (One is a little concerned with Adams' relation to "meekness" here). Further he tells us that he "had a chance to measure the motive forces of men; their qualities of

95 character; their foresight; their tenacity of purpose". (Their solar plexus I would suggest). In relation to the need to come to a personal decision based on one's individual integrity he speaks of a situation where the person involved: "stood alone as was his nature. Like Gladstone he had thought himself right." Further the relation of the Mercury center to the mind, economy and mathematism (a way of thinking which uses the mind with the greatest economy) is beautifully expressed in these remarks of Adams: "From the old world point of view, the American had no mind; he had an economic thinking machine which could only work on a fixed line."

Here we find the danger of a mind that works like a machine in which the humanly moral element is lost, where the question of effectiveness completely overshadows any concern for right or wrong, good or evil.

This same struggle is lamented by the young H.D. Thoreau when he is approaching the legal age of manhood. He says:

"We are to look chiefly for the origin of the commercial spirit, and the power that still cherishes and sustains it, in the blind unmanly love of wealth .... We become selfish in our patriotism, selfish in our domestic relations; selfish in our religion."

I think these reflections from the Gemini related regions can speak for themselves. The struggle of the

solar plexus, of the astronomical Mercury (occ. Venus) sphere is the struggle of the human will for goodness and true gracious and faithful, brotherly love. It finds its apotheosis in the deed of Good Friday.

One thinks of Rudolf Steiner's words for Friday (Vendredi, Venus day in an occult sense):

"The endeavour to learn as much as possible from life. Nothing goes by without giving us the chance to gain experiences that are useful for life. If one has done something wrongly or imperfectly that becomes a motive for doing it rightly or more perfectly, later on. If one sees others doing something, one observes them with like end in view (yet not coldly or heartlessly). And one does nothing without looking back to past experiences, which can be of assistance in one's decisions and achievements. One can learn from everyone - even from children if one is attentive. This exercise is called

RIGHT MEMORY (Remembering what has been learned from experience)

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Let us end these considerations of some of the characteristics of the Mercury ruled center (3) at the solar plexus with some words from Valentin Tomberg:

"For will in itself is not fee and consciousness in itself lacks deeds ~ it is the "faith without works is dead". Strength of will must be added to clear consciousness making the dark and hence unfree will, bright - that is, free by the light of consciousness." Valentin Tomberg (Studies on the Foundation Stone, Volume I, p. 23-4)

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THE SUN (LEO)

In considering the Sun, one finds oneself centered in the region of the human heart. When Leo related

(Sun ruled) regions are stimulated the radiation works into the heart center. Nevertheless, one can also experience the relation of the heart center to the entire pulsing of the blood. That is to say that as the Sun itself moves through the various constellation divisions and sign divisions (see Vol. I), the human soul can experience the focus of energy flowing through (around) different parts of the human form. For example, when the Sun moves through the constellation of Leo the inner radiation working from inside out can be felt in relation to the heart center itself. When the sun moves into the Virgo region this inner radiation can be experienced to focalize itself in the solar plexus center. This variation continues through the course of the year with the Sun working from inside out as it moves through the circle of the constellations and outside in as it moves through the circle of the signs. That is to say the solar stimulation is working in two different ways simultaneously: a sidereal stimulation and a tropical stimulation. When Rudolf Steiner remarks that the "Sun molds the human form into the image of the ego" one might understand this somewhat abstract saying in the following way. As the Sun, in the course of the year, moves through the circles of the signs and constellations, it is moving through 2x12 (x3) regions of creative, formative forces which work to shape the human form

From a certain point of view when one looks at the human form one can see the cumulative effects

(over the duration of the life) of the molding and shaping activity of the Sun as it has moved into relation, macrocosmically and microcosmically, to the different regions of the human form by virtue of its yearly course.

One could say (generally speaking) that in considering the head and uprightness of the spinal column

one is looking at the shaping activity of the human Ego in April. In looking at the colon/kidney, neck process, the shaping ability of the Ego in May. In looking at the formation of the lungs, shoulders, arms and hands, the shaping power of the Sun related, human Ego in June, etc. In the 30 year old, the 30 Junes or Sun's motion

98 30x through the June (Gemini) processes, have worked formatively to bring about the present condition of the shoulders, arms, hands, etc. In a sense, the 7.0 Junes (or a temporal process) have become the formation of the lungs, arms, hands, etc. (viewed spatially). Of course the Sun does not work in isolation, but 1 think this way of considering the question of the Sun's relation to the human ego and the Sun's molding the human form into an image of the ego, can be thought about and considered in light of the characterization above.

My impression - as I have tried to develop it in the first Volume -is that the Sun works inside out in relation to the constellations, outside in in relation to the signs. Whether there is a correlation here to that which is pointed towards in Rudolf Steiner's work as astral (inside out) and etheric (outside in) still remains an unanswered riddle to me. Though the center of the Sun can be experienced as the human heart, which stands between the freer, more conscious, thought or spiritully inclined spheres above (Upper Centers 5-6-7) and the warm, metabolic, destiny compelling spheres below (Lower Centers 1-2-3), in it's relation to the sense for life it is the organ which can make conscious the condition of one's living form and forces through the course of the year: "above" and "below". What I mean is that although one can suggest that through the heart one can have a direct living impression of the condition of vitality/ shape, etc. of living beings and forms, nevertheless, it seems that it is also somewhat accurate to suggest that the heart as an organ for the sense of life is variable in that the focus of it's sensing moves through the constellations and signs during the course of the year. That is to say that the clear and awakened heart which has united itself with the Sun-heart of the World, participates in its solar plexus, stomach, musculature as the macrocosmic heart moves through the Virgo region of the Universe. The sense for life is during the September season focalized in those related regions and particularly, potentially conscious of their condition at that time. This I think is one explanation of the seasonal quality of some ailments or the periodic awareness of certain ailments. The sense that many people can

99 have in a semi-conscious way that April is a difficult month for them, June a good one, etc. One of the explanations for these experiences is that the individual's Sun-heart sense for life is dreamily sensing the condition of the various regions of their life form which is being stimulated at the corresponding times during the course of the year.

One of the "illusions" of medical diagnosis which does not take such living rhythms into account is the fact that the person conscious of a difficulty in the heart region in August - when the Sun (inner or outer) is moving through a heart related region - is not better in September when he tells the doctor that the problem has gone away or no longer bothers him; rather he has left (in his consciousness and sense for life) the area of the problem!

If one experiences the virtue of the heart related processes as compassion leading to freedom one can perhaps come, in light of the above remarks, to imagine the following. As the human "I" participates in the variable centers of focus in the blood circulation and life organization through the course of the year, there are three pathways open to it. The first is to participate in the respective regions focalized with overpowering vigor and energy. That is to say that the immersion of the blood-shaping ego bearing quality in, for example, the Taurus forces can lead to an inflammation, an exaggeration, an expression of the ego "overpowering" the particular region in question. In a sense one could say that here there is a gesture of the blood, heart-related ego bearing processes overpowering the already formed and forming currents which have shaped and are shaping the colon, kidney and neck region. On the other side, when the cosmic Ego would conjure the human Ego into the colon region and the human Ego would lack strength to work energetically on those processes, but would, for example, rather draw those life forces into other domains, neglecting a whole-hearted penetration of the Taurus region, this can be understood as an expression of a kind of theft on the part of the blood circulation in relation to the Taurus, colon related time of the year/region of the human form.

In this sense, one could imagine that for the human ego to work "compassionately" upon its own human form it would need to stand "freely" in relation to those shaping processes into

100 Which it is working at any time of the year. This is affirmed through finding the balance between overpowering, inflammatory wilfullness and ascetic, timid, draining, thievery. Through the conscious sensing/willing creative molding of each region in turn the heart Sun related organ of the sense for life can be guided to work to shape its own human form into a self-conscious expression of the ego's form giving power.

If we consider the relation of this center to the life of feeling and vitality, the way of experiencing the world designated earlier as "sensationalism", we find that "sensationalism":

"a doctrine in philosophy that postulates the origin of all our knowledge in sensation or sense perceptions; the view that all knowledge is made up of sense elements"

can be understood to stand in relation to the Sun related processes of the human heart. Whereas in the distant, withdrawn, abstracted world of gnosis . seeking spiritism, one is not concerned with a direct experience of lifegiving, circulating vital reality, in the world of the sensualist, the human heart, related to the passage of the Sun through the heavens, experiences these sensations which are mediated through the different life currents of the form of the body, as connected to different portions of the exterior reality. That is to say that there can be thought to be a differentiated quality to sensationalism as well as to the life sense during the year. In August the human heart may joyfully respond to the sweetness of the rose. In November the human sensing sensationalism living in relation to the formative currents of Scorpio would be drawn in its sensing of nature to the gnarled oak and the eagle in flight; two life region predominantly enlivened and shaped by the same currents presently being stimulated in the Scorpio forces of the human form.

In this way we could say that there is a differentiation at the basis of philosophical sensationalism, as there is a differentiation at the basis of the life sense itself.

Making these sensations conscious can lead one to an understanding experience of the planetary mood of the heart related Sun (center 4) processes, that is empiricism :

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"I will incorporate into my world conception whatever I meet with in the world, whatever shows itself to me externally ... A man who has this mood will not trouble himself to seek for a special connection behind the phenomena; he lets things approach him and waits for whatever comes from them. Empiricism signifies a soul mood which simply accepts whatever experience may offer.." (Rudolf Steiner, Human and Cosmic Thought)

The dictionary describes empiricism in one way in the following words:

',the practice of emphasizing experience especially of the senses or the practice or method of relying upon observation, experimentation or induction rather than upon intuition, speculation, deduction, dialectic, or other rationalistic means in the pursuit of knowledge."

Here we find an expression of that quality which lives in the center at the human heart and stands

between the more subjective elements of the centers below and the more abstract, speculative, distant perspectives of the centers above. The empiricist who allows the warmth forces from below the heart to overly influence his experience falls from the true posture of pure empiricism - which is compassion - into a gesture of subjective overpowering. On the other side the empiricist can also falsify his relation to direct wholehearted experience if he lacks full-bodiedness through a movement in the direction of the more abstract "theoretical" regions above the heart. In a somewhat mysterious way one can be led to feel that compassion, the fairest companion of the human heart, is the true basis for a mood of empiricism consistent with its principles. The man who through subjective longing or need enters into experiences does not stand freely in relation to them. Also the man who is constantly seeking to use his experiences - "paint what you see (feel), not what you know is there" - to demonstrate his preconceptions falsifies his free relation to that experience in which he would participate through the fear that further, direct exploration may not prove his theories correct. Only a posture of firmhearted dedication to compassionate experience will protect the would-be empiricist from not standing freely in relation to that which he hopes to explore.

Here one is reminded of the thought of Rudolf Steiner in

102 relation to this Sun-heart center of the human soul, which stands as a mediator between the necessities of the regions below and the more abstract freedoms of the regions above: 'We are only human to the measure that we are free'. In light of our earlier discussion 1 would say that we are only human to the measure that the mood of true empiricism, of a compassionate heart, of a healthy sense for life, is able to permeate all of the other processes and centers we have been exploring out of the free will initiative of the human individual living within each and all of them.

And paradoxical as it may sound to a modern consciousness, I would suggest that my attempted characterization of the relation between the human soul, human blood and heart and the macrocosmic orbit of the Sun through the course of the year (see Volume I of The Qualities of Time) is an expression of the purest empiricism. It is an expression of the longing of the human heart for a wakeful communion with the living, creative heart of the world itself. Such a wakeful human heart can carry on that exploration which 1 called in the first book "participatory observation". But in order to achieve this one must stand in a relation of compassionate love with that within which one is observing livingly, livingly observing. The creation of this center for the compassionate love of the heart is the fruit of a longing which is expressed - I think - in the words of the first Beatitude: "Blessed are the beggars for the spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven", or as Rudolf Steiner has expressed it: "Blessed are the beggars for the spirit, for when the way is opened for them by Christ there flows into their Ego what we may call the "Kingdom of Heaven".

What I am going to tentatively suggest - and I ask the reader to ponder it in that spirit - is the fruit of a consideration still in progress. For the sake of completeness I am sharing it at this time. This may be imprudent so I simply wanted to preface it with these remarks.

In the foreword of the first Volume, I spoke of how a very depressed young man, without any conscious preparation or expectation, was lifted into a sphere of experience which had hitherto been unknown to him. In Valentin Tomberg's study of the first Beatitude he makes the important point of suggesting that ',the

103 fundamental condition" of the human soul entering on that path, the fulfillment of which is characterized in the Beatitudes, is that of an exercise or mood of spiritual beggary, a recognition of one's inner spiritual poverty. He speaks of the character of this condition of spiritual beggary with an example of Goethe's, Faust:

" ... For the path of Faust, after he had turned away from abstraction, led him by way of the experience of guilt (Part I) to the perception of need, under the guise of Money and the Classical Past to bring him blinded by care through death up to the realms of Heavenly Love ...

He shortly thereafter goes on to say of the words from Faust:

"Whoever striving ceaseless toils, him may we well redeem", only repeat the words of the First Beatitude: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven'. For a "toiler ever striving" in the realm of guilt, need, care and death describes exactly such a "beggar poor in spirit" as the Gospel means. And that such a one may be "redeemed", that is, may become a makarios (blessed) is shown both by the first sentence of the Sermon on the Mount, and also by the whole life work of Goethe."

When I consider these characterizations in relation to the experiences passed through by the young man

of the foreward of the previous book I see the following. It seemed that the soul of the young man passed through the condition of Faust intensively during the time preceding those experiences which were seminal in inaugurating a new step on his life's path. Guilt, need, care and a kind of inner death well name his moods of soul at that time. This then brought about a fundamental disposition of heart which was that of a complete feeling of inner emptiness and worth~ lessness in relation to all that which had filled and sustained him previously. in fact I think it true to say, given his relatively complete lack of conceptions about Christianity, that all which seemed to stand before him at that time almost as a kind of relief from his mood of soul was the thought of death.

In answer to his condition he instead experienced a complete change of heart, freeing him from much that had bewildered and oppressed him. As previously mentioned, within the experience of being "freed", he could "hear" the words sounding: "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."

This "preparation" on his part was completely unconscious. Consequently his experience of "salvation" was all the more

104 unanticipated and appreciated.

Nevertheless as I have also noted this "freeing" was accompanied by a great enhancement of his conscience. This aspect of his condition is expressed in the words of Mr. Tomberg:

"For only he who is conscious of the range of human guilt and the human need resulting from it can develop that humility in the presence of the Spiritual World which is a necessary condition of acceptance by that world, and security against rejection as a moral alien."

Also:

"Consciousness of guilt before the Spiritual World, Humanity and Nature is the first condition for contact with the reality of the Christ impulse".

Though he experienced this "freeing", perhaps because of the complications of his soul condition and the

unanticipated severe change of consciousness, it took him some time - before (beneath the weight of feeling guilt before the Spiritual World and Humanity), he could gradually grow into a feeling of acceptance by the Spiritual World, with a certain increasing measure of security against feeling a rejection by it as a "moral alien".

Gradually through his conscious struggles and striving to ever more fully align his own heart with the heart of the world, the fulfillment of the promise of the First Beatitude: "Blessed are the beggars for the spirit , for when the way is opened for them by Christ, there flows into their Ego (their blood and heart? author's addition) what we may call the "Kingdom of Heaven"; became a clearly wide awake experienced reality for him. "Blessed are the beggars for the Spirit, for through themselves, through their own Ego, they shall find the "Kingdom of Heaven". (Rudolf Steiner.) It is some of the fruits of that ongoing reality, maintained by his fidelity to the fundamental condition of spiritual beggary, an overlying mood of the heart and soul which keeps opened the space whereby the Kingdom of Heaven can find entrance, through his conscious ego, into the world, that I tried to share in the First Volume of these studies:

"Makarie knew about the constellations on high because she bore them in her own being because her being could afford space to the cosmic world, because it was not filled with experiences which had so long resisted cosmic revelations

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that the whole personality was full of egoistic joys and pains." (An. S. of N.T. Chap. III p.5 V. Tomberg)

Our continuing exploration in these studies is intending to lead us further on that path which throws some light on the mysterious relation of the First Beatitude: "Blessed are the beggars for the spirit, for theirs s the Kingdom of Heaven the first words of the Lord's Prayer "Or Father who art in Heaven (the Heavens) and the thought of Rudolf Steiner:

"Christ would have to say in the present: "IF you were formerly bidden to look up to the realms of the Divine Father - Source of existence and wait until His radiance streamed upon you, it may henceforward be said that not only does His radiance stream down to you, but whatsoever is willed on high must penetrate into the deepest core of the human Ego and be willed there also. (R. Steiner, Gospel of St. Matthew. p.184, Lecture IX)

It is my hope, through our consideration of the ideal potentialities of the twelve archetypal regions of the

"Heavens" and the ideal possibilities (the Beatitudes) of the seven (nine) planetary processes, to come to a deeper understanding of how the Father's radiance streams down into the deepest core of the human Ego and how the human Ego in full self-conscious freedom can choose to will there what the Father wills in the Heavens. it is for this reason that I have chosen to speak - once again a little more personally about those experiences which form the heart and prerequisite for the contributions I am trying to make in these studies. It is these experiences which I think truly name the fundamental existential character of the human heart or Ego before it meets the Christ Impulse: "Blessed are the beggars for the spirit", and those experiences and attempts of understanding and describing them which come as a fulfillment of Christ's promise of redemption to the human Ego "who ever striving ceaseless toils, "for within themselves, through themselves, through their own Ego, they shall find the Kingdom of Heaven".

106 "If we are able to conceive not only the sun-body, but also the Sun-Spirit we find that this spiritual part is the love that streams down upon the Earth. Human beings exist in order that they may take into themselves the warm love of the Divine, develop it and return it again to the Divine. But they can only do this by becoming self-conscious ego-beings." Rudolf Steiner quoted in B. Nesfield-Cookson's book, Rudolf Steiner's Vision of Love).

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MARS ARIES-SCORPIO

As I pointed out in the previous Volume, self-observation can clearly reveal the

focalization of the Mars ruled Aries and Scorpio regions at the center of the human throat (5). This experience can be brought together with a sense of the appropriateness of Rudolf Steiner's attribution of the quality of "speech" to this process. "Mars may be called the great 'talker' in the planetary system. Mars blurts out to souls in his sphere what is accessible to him, which is not everything (my emphasis). Mars does little thinking". One is reminded of Or. Karl Koenig's observation that the "Greeks were thinkers and the Romans talkers." Further from Steiner: "Mars is always on watch for what is happening in the universe, then talks about it with great zest and ferver." In reading these descriptions of Rudolf Steiner's one is immediately reminded of the spate of modern "talkers" in the world today: the newspaper "reporter", T.V. and radio commentator, etc. Do the words: "Mars is always on the watch for what is happening in the universe, then talks about it with great zest and fervor" not seem to characterize something of the mood of these spheres of modern life? Is this perhaps one of the reasons why this modern "talk" stream may seem so one-sidedly directed to speaking about terrorism, death, destruction, intrigue, wars, etc.- all of which we will come to see also bear the mark of the influence of Mars? I remember telling someone close to me that I had the strong impression that his pessimistic world picture and his consequently resigned mood of soul had been strongly formed by his fifty years of reading the one-sidedly, emphasized newspaper accounts of world events. Is not the "thrust" of the newspaper, radio and TV commentators vocation to be aware, awake to the most dramatic events in the physical world at any time and largely report, relate these events through the power of the written or spoken word to their readers and listeners? I wonder whether the world of printing, the reproduction of words, must not inevitably have this relation to the sphere of Mars, this quality of awakening, warning, alarming

108 through making the soul aware (sounding off) of conflict, struggle and resistance? Is not the human voice one great means of protection from danger through which one can alert others?

We discovered earlier that the Aries forces run up and down the spine and work at shaping the head region of the human form (one sees a hammer or mallet held upright), coming to a focalization at the center of the throat. The world picture of philosophic idealism, the sense for the word and speech, and the moral struggle for the virtue: devotion b. force of sacrifice, won between the excess: malice and the weakness: defencelessness, can all be found to come to a focalization at this center.

With Scorpio we found the formative currents to work in the excretory, buttock region and the throat and nose areas of the head. The world picture of dynamism; the sense of smell, and the moral struggle for the virtue: patience/humility b. insight - a kind of dynamic tension between action and contemplation - standing between the lack: mean-spiritedness and excessive forbearance, and the excesses of impatience, wrath, pride, vengeance. jealousy and suspicion., can all be found focalized at center (5), though related to the overall currents of the Scorpio processes themselves. Having enumerated some of these characteristics let us now try to make a contribution towards understanding something of the living logic of these mars related regions of experience.

If we look at the construction of the larynx and the vocal cords in the body we see the wind from the lungs blowing through the larynx bringing forth sounds from the cords of the larynx somewhat in the manner of a harp. The variations in the tension of the strings is an important factor in what sound, and what creative effect will arise from the sound which is projected out into the environment. As Dr. Bernard Livegoed has expressed one aspect of the region of Mars: "force and resistance struggle with each other, and the string begins to sound" (as in the example of a violin bow and the strings of the violin). In a sense one can see this occurring each time we speak. Further the force or quality/character of the "sounding string" ("endowed with sounding Mars, lifestirring hymns", from a verse of Rudolf Steiner's) will in turn

109 bring about subtle effects upon the living organisation of oneself and others. "Life-stirring hymns" can be understood quite literally. Everyone has probably experienced being "rubbed the wrong way" by someone else's speech; or the effects upon one's inner life of a screeching sound or a dripping faucet or a snoring person, especially when one strongly desires to go to sleep! Rather these life-stirring hymns can have the insistent effect of waking us up, keeping us awake. Only when there is a rightly tuned relation between the flowing water and the resistance of the faucet, or the breathing person and his nasal passages is the sounding that results not disposed to "rub one the wrong way". (Of course depending upon our own particular "tuning" as well). For one person may be "highstrung" and react at the "drop of a hat", another "low-keyed" and be relatively oblivious to these intrusions from the environment.

Returning to the throat we can see it as occupying an interesting position in the human form when considered in the light of our studies of the planets and their respective centers of focalization. In a sense all of the centers up to the heart are in varying degrees susceptible to the influences of the ''environment'' from the need of physical sustenance of the (1) basic center to the need, one could say, of vital sustenance (from the life forces of the sun) of the human vitality focalized at the heart. Through them the human soul can feel more directly bound to the living realities of the world and cosmos, and be somewhat carried in a personal way by them. (With whatever degree of consciousness it may have attained in regard to them).

One can feel in the throat, and the Aries-Scorpio currents related to it, a kind of transitional stage which is a kind of borderland for the meeting of life and death. Here "death" can be seen as a means of growing somewhat more independent and awake, selfaware in relation to the previous processes of "life,, in which the human soul (centers 1-4) generally lives in a condition more akin to dreaming or sleeping. If one considers that the Aries time of the year inaugurates a new beginning, a new thrusting out into physical expression of that which has been prepared invisibly, ideally, spiritually for the previous six months or so we can see here the Mars related current of trying to express that which was

110 contained above, in a sense, as the spiritual archetype. Here the process is from above to below or from the immaterial, universal into the physical, individualized, particularized expression. On the other side of the year we find the opposite gesture in the Scorpio related Mars processes: the spiritualizing of the physical through the dying, decomposing, and decaying occurring then. Here, in a sense, the individualized physical expressions of the more universalized, invisible life processes, are fading away into the invisible: partly as evidence of the ebbing of the life processes themselves at this time of the year. Here we see the processes of Mars the scavenger, editor, chastener, clearing the remains of the old to make way for the new, just as at the opposite time of the year the Mars impulsive energy would give the plant the strength to conquer space, to win new ground, to "come out of hiding". Dr. Livegoed speaks of the forces of Mars in this way: "Mars represents the force whereby the spiritual archetype of the plant pierces through to, penetrates into the physical, and which also pushes it out again into the world. (The expression of philosophic idealism in the world of plants?)

This gesture of the Aries and Scorpio will in April and November, focalized at the throat, can give us some feeling for the curious blending of life and death, visibility and invisibility, which takes place in these processes. Not yet fully independent of life, not fully immersed in it. This experience I think (my tentative opinion) leads us to some of the characteristics which Rudolf Steiner gives of that region of the life of the soul which he calls: "rationalsoul, mind-soul, intellectual-soul, feeling-soul, or as Mr. Tomberg puts it: "sounding soul". Steiner writes that:

"..man becomes a self-dependent being in the Intellectual or Mind-Soul. Here the ego flashes up and is active. Whatever evolves in the Intellectual or Mind-soul will be an essentially human attribute when it develops the Christ quality. When a man begins to be conscious of the working of the Intellectual Soul, this makes him less and less dependent upon the divine-spiritual Powers around him. When he takes the Christ-power into himself he can unfold in the Intellectual or Mind-Soul those qualities which pass from like to like; which are not besought from Heaven but which go forth from and return to the same being. We must therefore feel that something streams from the qualities of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul and that something of a like character streams back again ... "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." What streams forth streams back again.." Rudolf Steiner (Gospel of St. Matt., Lect. IX, p. 63)

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Let us consider these words for a minute in connection with the Scorpio-Aries, Mars related processes. Most immediately one is reminded of the words: "He who lives by the sword, shall die by the sword," or, "whatsoever a man sows, that also shall he reap", or finally, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." We can also remember the words of Buddha quoted in Volume I:

"Do not speak anything harsh. Those who are spoken to will answer you (in the same way), since angry talk is painful, retaliation will touch you."

Here we have a remarkable expression of this region of experience. Speech. Harshness. Like returning

like. ("will answer you in the same way,'). Angry talk (Arian malice or Scorpionic wrath) is painful (the sword of Mars wounding and awakening), retaliation (Scorpio's vengeance) will touch you. Perhaps it should say: will pierce you.

The fifth Beatitude offers the remedy to these tendencies: mercy born of true humility and devotion which disarms and defuses a conflict. One thinks of the life of Mahatma Gandhi.

One sees the relation of so many warring parties in the world, enhanced by the iron pride of technological warfare - be it the Arabs and the Israelis, the Russians and the Afghans, etc. and one hears From countless human souls fighting and defending themselves for a little more ground, some ancient vendetta, hate-filled rhetoric or stony interpretation of God's word (the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life), the plea: mercy, mercy, mercy! Considering these pictures and the inevitable appropriateness of this response to these circumstances lends forces evidence to the hypothesized relation of this Beatitude: "Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy", to the warring Mars spirits. Of course, Mars, in true Roman Scorpionic fashion, rather than take in the Christ impulse, would often inspire his children to prefer to die to the man instead of ever admitting defeat, ever cry "mercy", ever render "mercy". Mars would often inspire betrayal and destruction, sarcasm and cynicism, in what one cannot help but feel is sometimes a kind of desperate attempt to deny the inevitability of death itself to victor and vanquished alike. One thinks of the modern medical profession and its sometimes questionable attempts, through the use of Mars's iron technological offspring, to keep dying patients alive. Mercy the human soul cries, mercy!

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But as we remember Rudolf Steiner somewhat wryly pointing out earlier: "Mars blurts out to souls in his sphere what is accessible to him, which is not everything." One wonders whether our warrior Mars, who doesn't always see beyond the end of his oftentimes proud nose, has this difficult struggle with wanting to ceaselessly act "without seeing everything" partly because it is his particular task to render the human being more independent, separate, even opposed to the cosmic guidance than would otherwise be possible? Thereby he can "wake up", make "self-aware, the human being. "Something has been done to me but I hold myself erect and confront it." (R. Steiner, from Eurthmy as Visible Speech). The danger here is that this necessary self-awareness and resistance to opposition can harden into malice, cruelty, pride, vengeance, etc. One thinks of the strength of iron. One imagines a human body being hit by an automobile. Is it a great wonder that the human soul has grown so tightly wound up as a means of self-defense? I will say more of this later. Let us try to approach the problem of Mars from some other points of view. Let us try to attack the problem of Mars from some other points of view.

Through the throat, in one sense, we make audible/visible through speech, to the "outer-world" something of what the soul is experiencing in the more personal regions below. This could be considered a kind of November process in the inner life, where the Scavenger spirits of November prune away all the excess life and spiritualize it, as well as bring forth in much greater relief and distinctness, separateness what remains. Here is the great analyser, divider. Through this analysis and separation, greater distinctness and clarity is gained. Processes are more definitely described and named. Yet one inevitably has the feeling that the process of naming is intimately bound to a kind of separating, dying, in relation to what is being named. A dying and waking up. One can almost feel that there is always a subtle, potential element of "cruelty", of pain, in this gesture. Already life has become a little "abstract" in this region of the throat, a little too "literal", too hardened in relation to its warm, feeling communion with the world. One's sense of independence, uprightness, self

113 determination is born at the expense of a growing sense of human isolation

The more personal, more individualized (less individualized?) qualities below (the flesh?), cross the bridge of the throat center, the borderland between visible and invisible, life and death. Moving to the upper two centers one feels more the quality and character of universal, objective truths - the more distant, detached, clear light of the spirit. From above to below the throat would seem a focal point for the incarnation of the ideas drawn from the world of thought and memory (deep contemplation): bringing the light of the idea (archetype) into expression in the human, earthly world. From below moving upwards to the throat center (5) we feel a gradual process of waking up taking place. Here the compelling character of the impulses and feelings from below are brought to a certain degree of wakefulness through the inherent tension of the Mars center which strives to maintain a vigilant, self-defending, protecting stance within its environment. Here we can understand the activity of "naming" as a kind of gesture of self-defense, just as speech can be used in self-defense. Naming is a spiritual expression of that gesture spoken of earlier: "Something has been done to me but I hold myself erect and confront it." One can well understand why an impulsive or weak "namer" may instinctively succumb to malice as a kind of reckless attempt at self-protection.

It is remarkable to consider how through the nasal passages, mouth, throat and the reproductive, excretory processes, one can enter into a more direct and immediate physical relation to what is outside one. The necessity for vigilant self-protection is clearly evident in these processes. One thinks of germs, food poisoning, etc. It could be suggested that here we are open more to this direct physical interaction with the environment, whereas, for example, in the heart we have more of the feeling' of a soul relation to the outer environment. The curious thing is that each time we speak there is an alteration and relaxation of the vocal cords, as each time we swallow the protective gesture of the epiglottis is activated. In the excretory-reproductive processes we see this strong relation to consciousness being awakened through tension and friction. (These are all obvious areas of focalization for

114 these forces in the body. Whereever comparable gestures take place we might suspect the influence of the same Mars forces). One can experience through self-observation that each time we speak, swallow, or exercise any of these related processes we - through the stretching and straining involved - can be aware of waking up more than we normally would do in the previously explored regions.

Let us view some of mars' characteristics from some other points of view and then try to bring some of these separate aspects into a more complete picture.

Mars throughout history has been connected with war. Mars, the Roman God of War. The dictionary tells us the following about "war'.

"Confusion, strife, quarrel, conflict between rivals, hostility, opposition, antagonism. (Then it ends with some interesting words): 'antagonism between mental, physical social or other forces.' (My emphasis) ..a struggle of any degree of intensity carried on between opposing forces in a particular field." (Webster's Third International Dictionary)

Tradition, and modern spiritual scientific investigation also suggests that the planet Mars is related to the

gall bladder in the body. Let us take this as a working hypothesis. (I have never directly explored it myself). The genius of language tells us some things about gall:

"something bitter to endure; brazen boldness with impudent assurance and rankling insolence (my emphasis); something that irritates and causes exasperation"

Let us now for a moment think about the world picture of Aries (Mars ruled): philosophic idealism. We

will concentrate on the question of practical idealism although in considering Aries related processes in nature we can get some impression how out of an invisible ideal (archetypal) world, the visible can be incarnated. One thinks of the many idea(l) pictures that have been voiced through various "word streams" throughout history. The ideals of the Virtues presented in Volume I of this series; the ideals or Beatitudes as ideals for the 7 planetary processes we are presently exploring. We consider the archetypal dilemma of our young man of the first Volume. His painful awareness of his condition seen against those ideals he has chosen for it. The willingness of his spirit, the weakness of his flesh.

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"All self-observation, which is the first step to transformation, must be connected to self-inquiry, in turn connected to the confrontation with pain and sorrow. You cannot take sorrow away. This is a despicable perversion of monasticism. You must bring sorrow into a clearer focus; the monastery should be a school of sorrow, the sorrow of life without the inner Kingdom." Jacob Needleman (from Lost Christianity, p. 164)

But if the human soul resists the pain of inner battle, where does he find himself?

"I have long exercised an honest introspection, the exquisitely painful approach to wisdom. Self-scrutiny, relentless observation of one's thoughts is a stark and shattering experience. It pulverizes the stoutest ego.. Man can understand no eternal verity until he has freed himself from pretensions. The human mind bared (my emphasis) to a centuried slime is teeming with the repulsive life of countless world-delusions. Struggles on the battlefield pale into significance here, when man first contends with inner enemies! No mortal foes these to be overcome by a harrowing array of might! Omnipresent, unresting, pursuing man even in sleep subtly equipped with miasmic weapons, these soldiers of ignorant lusts seek to slay us all. Thoughtless is the man who buries his ideals (my emp.), surrendering to the common fate. May he seem other than impotent, wooden, ignominious?" Yogananada (Autobiography of A Yogi)

Here we find a trenchant expression from an Indian yogi of that which St. Paul also tells us:

"I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of Cod after the inward man (in my ideals, my add.); But I see another law in my members, warring against (my. emp.) the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." (Paul's Letter to the Romans, VII: 21-23)

So here we find eloquently expressed the archetypal condition of any "working idealist,' with, a courage

for self-knowledge and selfconquest: it is war!!

Is not all idealism and the energy which fuels it somehow mysteriously connected with a "struggle of any degree of intensity carried on between opposing forces in a particular field?" Here the field is the human soul and the struggle of opposing forces: the willing spirit and the weak flesh. We think of Rudolf Steiner's characterization of the philosophic mood of Mars: Voluntarism.

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"Schopenhauer lays hold of everything in the soul that pertains to the character of will: the world of reality is a manifestation of will."

The willing (quite literally?) spirit.

Is it not the mark of "gall" on the part of the human spirit that with "brazen boldness and impudent

assurance and rankling insolence", it would even venture the enterprise of self-conquest in attempting to overcome some of the resistance so eloquently stated by Yogananda and St. Paul? That it should not simply relent in the battle for self-improvement - "thoughtless the man who buries his ideals, surrendering to the common fate. May he seem other than impotent, wooden, ignominious?" - and allow its nature to win the day ("nature unaided fails")?

Looking down the corridors of history, one sees in often brazen and impudently, defiant letters the undeniable relation between philosophic idealism, ideologies (with all their merciless excesses) and the activity of Mars - war itself. Whether the ideals, ideology of capitalism or communism; the ideals of Christianity or Islam; the ideals of the present day Israelis and Arabs, one cannot but often wonder whether those souls inspired by the war god Mars would not, under banners of other ideals and other ideologies, fight just as fervently? The intimate relation between the human word, oratory and rhetoric (dynamic idealism!), philosophic idealism and shades or shafts of malice, vengefulness, arrogance, etc. is clearly "visible" in the living 'Logic of this region. Mercy, the Christianized soul cries, mercy!

Let us next consider some aspects of the Mars related Scorpio region of experience. We earlier saw the relation between Scorpio and what we called (after Rudolf Steiner) philosophic "dynamism". What does the Mars book, the dictionary, tell us about "dynamism", 'dynamics', "dynamic", ("mechanics")?

Dynamism- "a theory or doctrine that explains the universe in terms of forces and their interplay"..'a theory that considers change, motion or energy as fundamental to the constitution of the universe."

Dynamic- "relating to physical force and energy, related to forces producing motion,

action, characterized by continuous movement, advance; continuous alteration."

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Dynamics- " a branch of mechanics that deals with forces and their relation primarily to the motion, but also sometimes to the equilibrium of bodies of matter."

(Webster's Third International Dictionary)

Have you ever tried to so to sleep near a sounding, speaking machine after having lived in relative quiet? It seems to want to keep one awake. Considering the above descriptions one inevitably thinks of an internal combustion engine which brings about "continuous movement, advance, continuous alteration" through repeated "explosions" (Scorpio's wrath?) Dynamite? Dynamos? Dinosaurs? Forgive me. A scaly exterior and fire breathing interior. These pictures could be multiplied many times over. The word "explosion" is related to ',the action of driving from the stage by noisy disapproval"; a violent expansion or bursting that is accompanied by noise and is caused by a sudden release of energy from a very rapid chemical reaction; from a nuclear reaction or from an escape of oases or vapors under pressure (as in a steam boiler)." (Webster's Dictionary.) The human parallel is "an outburst of temper manifested by excited language or action". Mars, clanging, iron armor and violent temper sounding off again. How about an alarm clock? Wake Up!

I put the question to the reader.(I hope I am not "banging my head against the wall") is it false to see this fire breathing, scaly exterior world of human and mechanical militancy, dynamics, mechanics, stresses and strains - the will for change and motion as expressions of WAR ("hostility conflict, opposition, antagonism between mental, physical, social or other forces")?

Is it not a form of gall, of "brazen boldness" on the part of the human being who places the spark and the gasoline together, so that they repeatedly explode, enabling himself to move through space at a speed far beyond his own human capacities? Are we not here also in the world of Mars, the iron ridden world of the "militaryindustrial complex"? Would it be wrong to say that Mars' will is to keep things moving through stresses arid strains, clamor and clatter, mechanical and human explosions: whether blowing one's nose, shouting, or processes taking place in the lower part of the organism? mars likes to stir things up, to alter conditions. It

118 expresses the April Aries impulse ("April is the cruelest month": from T.S. Eliot's, The Wasteland) to make visible the invisible, manifest the hidden, incarnate the idea, break through what is fixed and settled and without motion. It expresses the November, Scorpio impulse of spiritualizing what is dying: analyzing, decomposing, separating the living from the lifeless. In this accelerated process in the world of dynamism, mechanics - the impatient wrath of Scorpio's corrosive will for rust - we find each machine with its own very distinctive roar or whine or whir; its own particular industrial waste pollutions: the fruit of the "complex" interaction of its very mobile and movable parts, explosions, etc.

Could I suggest that the awakening that comes about from conflict and tension is Mars' means of keeping things moving in the human sphere?, of preventing human beings from getting "rusty". ("Characterized by ineptitude or slowness ususally through lack of practice or old age; stiff in action as if clogged with rust"). Are not the life and death situations in the human world - whether in warfare or the practice of surgery, etc. - the times when the human soul is called to strain to the utmost to maintain greatest vigilance in relation to the physical circumstances?

Would the human soul be inspired to devote its will to the attainment of ideals if somehow there was not the accompanying ache and pain in the soul which kept it self-aware, awake and active in relation to its condition and future possibilities? Where would we be without the repeated proverbial "kicks in the behind":

"But if the rational soul itself absorbs the Christ impulse, then something enters into the act of judgement whereby the Ego manifests itself so much the more, as the rational soul is more akin to the revelation of the Ego-activity than is the sentient soul. Then some~ thing enters into the judging which transcends justice (or righteousness). For a merely just judgement is one which is formed on the basis of the past and the present, it is formed on what he who is under judgement has become. (The flesh. My add.) But kindness -mercy - soars above righteousness in the sense that it is not only just to the past and the present of him who is to be judged, but also to his future. (The spirit is willing. My add.) For it judges, not only on the basis of what has been, but also in reliance on positive future possibilities. Kindness takes these also into consideration in her judgement. In this sense, kindness-mercy is more righteous than mere righteousness, for she is righteous with regard to the future also.

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..He who judges men not only as having become, but also as becoming, creates a reason why he likewise should be so judged by men." V. Tomberg (Anthr. St. of the New Testament, Ch. V, p. 4-6)

Here we have a picture of how the Christ impulse working into relation to the Mars ruled throat center

(this is solely my impression) brings about the redemption of its erratic energy and sharp judgement, which can decline into maliciousness and ironic speech or thought, arrogant and cruel, hard-hearted mocking, intellectual criticism, etc. Loving kindness, kind mercy fights for another, not with or against him, using "idealism" as a means of rightly conceiving of future possibilities and dynamism as a means of inspiring the human soul with the energy and initiative to pursue and attain them. This power would turn the sword of Mars from malice to sacrficial devotion, from arrogant and impatient wrath, to humble, yet penetrating insight.

Without Mars, human souls would lack "the courage to overcome difficulties on earth". (Adam Bittleston) Without Mars' will for meeting "resistance", its self-awakening gesture of crossing, hitting up against opposition, we would not have the insistent urge "of every pain and discomfort pressing towards an answer" (Adam Bittleston). In pain we respond. Rubbed the wrong way we react. When the gasoline is rubbed the wrong way (the right way?) by the spark it explodes. How to use this inner combustive willing spirit for true advancement in human development and not be used by it is one of the great battles to be waged in this sphere. As Bernard Livegoed expressed it: "The ego must offer strong resistance to Mar's continuous creative urge, that urge which is unable to preserve what has been created and would destroy what has been created and rebuild anew .... Mars does not yield to soft measures! (My paraphrase)

I think these observations should serve their purpose of guiding the reader's attention to some of the characteristic struggles discoverable in the Mars (Aries-Scorpio) region of experience. In the words of Mars' sometime defiant, strong challenge to the human soul, exaggerated a hundredfold in present world conditions: "damned if we do and damned if we don't".

Is not mercy one of the antidotes for self-damnation through overweening pride and insistent, reckless motion?

"BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL, FOR THEY SHALL OBTAIN MERCY".

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JUPITER* (SAGITTARIUS-PISCES?)

The well-known center at the brow (the third eye) seems to be the center of focalization for the ruling

planet of Sagittarius (Pisces?)that is Jupiter. With its rhythm of 12 years during which time it circles through the 12 regions of the zodiac(s) (spending approximately 1 year in each region) it gives one the impression of a comprehensive, well-rounded, balanced completeness. It stands in contrast to Mars' erratic two yearly motion (center 5) and the distant, slow ponderous movement of the planet outside of it - Saturn - with its 2912 year motion through the circle of the zodiacs. Perhaps we could say that between the prayerful mood of Saturn's devoutness (the center of the crown, 7) and the vocal, active, attack and retreat impulsiveness of Mars', creative sounding (the center at the throat, 5) stands "royal Jupiter's all wiseness" (R. Steiner) at the brow (6), contemplating, thinking about life. Between the distant, ponderous sometimes inflexible Sabbath peace of Saturn, the great conservative in the universe, always living in remembrances of the past, in impulses based on feelings of responsibility and duty; whose eyes gaze out at a distance into the world out of the self-enclosed bony skull; and the impulsive agitator Mars, who shoots himself forward into the world each time he speaks and retreats from the world each time he "shuts up" or "shuts down", stands the region of Jupiter related Sagittarius. It's virtue of "control of the tongue becoming a feeling for truth" might be seen as a balance of the tension between moving too much in the direction of Mars' "shooting off one's mouth" in gossip and slander, a precipitous will for manifesting one's judgments in the physical world and too little:the conservative, reserved gesture of Saturn. There a kind of greater distance between the universalizing tendency of Jupiter's thinking activity and the world, can lead to a lack of the individualizing element in thought, a lack of character and strength of concentration becoming avuncular moralizing

*I feel that I must forewarn the reader that I think this consideration the least satisfactory of the seven.

Neverthless, I hope it may serve its purpose and not prove misleading.

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and weak subjectivity of taste and opinion.

Perhaps I could suggest that in one sense Jupiter stands between the tension and will for physical expression towards the future which lives in Mars' dynamic idealism and impulsiveness and the deep, inward consideration which can lead one to feel that one is entering into relation to the more timeless, eternal realms in the region of Saturn. This balance might be understood as Jupiter's wisdom being related to life, Mars' impulsiveness more to the quality of mobility characteristic of the animals, and Saturn's distant, stillness akin to the world of the minerals, as we find more in the bony structure of the body. If one considers these three regions in relation to Saturn's cycle of about 30 years, Jupiter's of 12 and Mars' of 2 years, one can have the feeling (through their respective rate of change) of Saturn's kinship with the mineral world; Jupiter's with the world of plants, and Mars' the world of animals. (From one point of view. There are other ways of considering it.) This picture could also be looked at solely in relation to the development of the plant where the pollination process, the projecting outwards can be felt to have a Martial quality, the formation of the harmonious spherical tending fruit a Jupiterian quality, and the staying power and apparent deep sleep (prayer) of the seed as more reminiscent of the Saturn processes. If one considers the sense of sight as related to the more mineral like seed process, the sense of taste to the plant like fruit process, and the sense of word and smell to the entire process of pollination, one can gain some further impressions of the relationships between these three spheres.

Another way of looking at it could see in the spherical formation of the fruit a clear relation to the

entire surrounding environment (balanced and complete). Could this be seen as a kind of higher octave of the gesture of the heart and the 2nd colon related Venus (occ. mercury) centers. In all three of these spheres one can feel the quality, with special strength, of living in the light. In exploring some of the qualities of

-one's experiences at the region of the brow one discovers an orientation of trying to consider the order or living

interrelationships of an entire organism which is created out of a

122 wisdom filled, light weaving. As one sees in the tendency to spherical completeness of the head, the spherical tendency of the fruit, and the molded, well-formed quality of the human musculature ("well-proportioned body"), in Jupiter's relation to living, logical thought and wisdom there is a longing for truthfulness in the sense of completeness and comprehensive understanding of a situation, person, etc: based on its laws of organic, living reality and development. Something of the character of well-roundedness, broadness and flexibility is also found in the region (2) of astronomical Venus where the longing for righteousness tries to view a situation from many points of view or "standpoints" to come to a just judgement. Jupiter's relation to the struggle of the Sagittarian "sense of truth" is well expressed in the previously quoted remarks of the philosopher Schelling:

"First and above all, an explanation must do justice to the thing that is to be explained, must not devalue it, interpret it away, belittle it or garble it, in order to make it easier to understand. The question is not 'At what view of the phenomena must we arrive in order to explain it in accordance with one or another philosophy? but precisely the reverse, 'What philosophy is requisite if we are to live up to the subject, be on a level with it?' The question is not how the phenomena must be turned, twisted, narrowed, crippled so as to be explicable, at all costs, upon principles we have once and for all resolved not to go beyond. The question is 'To what point must we enlarge our thought so that it shall be in proportion with the phenomenon.' .... The path that leadeth on is lighted by one fire, the light of daring, burning in the heart ... "

In the sense of Goethe's thought: that the eye was created by the light to be an organ for the light, one could say that Jupiter's brow center was created by the living, creative thought streams of the universe to be an organ for perceiving how these living thought streams weave in the world of life itself. A friend of mine suggested that within the Jupiter experience one discovers something of the character described by Valentin Tomberg in the following way:

"Wisdom is the power that streams out from the interior of a being in many directions. It is that which dwells, and is actively present in the interior of the being itself and comprehends its surroundings, not in a one-sided way, but in a many sided way." V. Tomberg (Inner Development Lectures, p. 37)

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Her picture is that at the brow the human soul's relation to wisdom is like a miner's lamp. It can enlighten that which it shines upon. The more powerful and concentrated the beam the more clear and comprehensive the illumination. Let there be light. Is this one expression of the working of the Holy Spirit? When one's concentrated attention is directed to something, it lights up. It is almost as if the concentrated light-attention, lights something up from within. With a true philosopher, logician or seer, one can experience those regions of the world towards which they turn their attention as being "lit up". She went on to illustrate this by saying that the whole world of Nature would have remained dark to her understanding (,,an open secret") if it hadn't been lit up for her through seeing it through the light Rudolf Steiner shed upon it. He lit up the world of Nature for her. (I have shared these remarks at length because I think they very aptly portray some of the experienceable characteristics of the Jupiter-brow related region (6) ).

The quality or inclination towards "logicism", philosophy, wisdom, can clearly be experienced while exploring the tendencies inherent in the life of the soul when focalized at the brow (6) center. Rudolf Steiner describes the world picture of logicism (f) in the following way:

"The special mark of logicism consists in its enabling the soul to connect thoughts, concepts and ideas with one another. As when looking at an organism one comes from the eyes to the nose and the mouth and regards them as all belonging to each other, so Hegel arranges all the concepts that he can lay hold of into a great concept organism - a logical, concept organism..Logicism! Rudolf Steiner (Human and Cosmic Thought)

Let us now briefly turn our attention to some of the concerns which occupied a few of the personalities

we have been considering during those times in their lives when they stood in relation to the Jupiter ruled Sagittarius region of "logicism". This will lead us into further reflections which I hope will contribute towards helping the reader in his practical work with the guide at the end of the book. They are, at best, sketchy indications, but I hope sufficient to help the reader to identify the working of the Jupiter sphere when he is participating within it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson between the ages of 17-19 stood in relation

124 to the Jupiterian, wisdom radiating Sagittarian spirits. His biographer tells us of some of his concerns during this period in his life. "Emerson saw a parallel between the daimon of Socrates and inspiration in the prophets of God's revealed religion.'' (The relation of logicism to the power of seership and prophecy will be considered in a moment). "He studied the philosophy of nature and took a course in moral philosophy, studying Paleys: Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy and Stewart's, Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers of Man. His biographer even calls this time in Emerson's life his "philosophical period". Perhaps we could suggest that it was his Jupiter period when he worked to develop his potentials for logicism through his studies at this time in his life. (The reader should understand that I suggest this as his Jupiter period in the light of the rhythm I had spoken of earlier which will be the subject of my next book. It is not to be confused with Rudolf Steiner's idea of the various seven year periods in human biography.) One further interesting remark drawn from a later period when Emerson again stood in relation to these Jupiter influences (ages 29-31) is the description of him at this time: "Emerson set out to study a particular truth. He read upon it, walked to think upon it. Talked of it.."

In an interesting contrast, reflecting on the question of the relation between logical thinking and spiritual vision, or a different kind of relation to the "wisdom" stream, we find in the life of the Indian yogi, Yogananda, also under the Sagittarius influence, his teacher Sri Yukteswar, mildly reprimanding him for ignoring "his textbook assignments in philosophy". Yogananda tells us that he preferred "the study of 'wisdom' with his master Sri Yukteswar. The question of the relation between formal philosophic study or logicism to spiritual vision or wisdom arises again. Let us now consider it as I think it can help to throw more light on some of the experienceable characteristics of Jupiter and the brow center.

in the contemplation for Sagittarius in the first Volume I suggested that the intensification of concentration at the region of the third eye (brow center 6) can lead to the development of a capacity for seership. Following are some observations drawn from Rudolf Steiner's book, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its

125 Attainment, which I think will help to clarify this question further

" A simple start is made with a view to the deepening of the logical activity of the mind and the producing of an inward intensification of thought. Thought is thereby made free and independent of all sense impressions and experiences; it is concentrated in one point which is held entirely under control. Thus a preliminary center is formed for the currents of the etheric body.* This center is not yet in the region of the heart but in the head, and it appears to the clairvoyant as the point of departure for movements and currents. No esoteric training can be successful which does not first create this center. If the latter were first formed in the region of the heart the aspiring clairvoyant would doubtless obtain glimpses of the higher worlds, but would lack all true insight into the connection between these higher worlds and the world of our senses. This, however, is an unconditional necessity for man at the present stage of evolution. The clairvoyant must not become a visionary; he must retain a firm footing upon the earth." (pp. 167-168)

In the context of our exploration perhaps we can understand these remarks of Rudolf Steiner as

suggesting the necessity for developing, on the one hand, mastery of the center which is intimately bound to clear and logical thinking through exercises in the intensification of one's thought force. Viewed from the other point of view one can see the danger of prematurely awakening centers -the experiences through which may lead to imbalances based on the soul's incapacity to rightly understand them - without having cultivated the center where the soul lives within the potential clear light of understanding. Reading further we find:

" as a further development, these currents branch out and ramify in the most delicate manner and become, as it were, a kind of web which then encompasses the entire etheric body as though with a network. Whereas hitherto the etheric body was not closed to the outer world, so that the life currents from the universal ocean of life flowed freely in and out, these currents now have to pass through this membrane. Thus the individual becomes sensitive to these external streams, they become perceptible to him." (pp. 168-169)

* That body which, from a certain point of view, can be seen as related to what I have called "the more external superphysical body of forces." * In one sense I think it may be true to suggest that one of the fruits of working with the practical guide at the end of this book could be an aid to the reader's discrimination of some of the life currents flowing within the universal ocean of life. Of course he must judge for himself when working with the practical guide would facilitate this exploration.

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The description of this communion between the individualized etheric body and the etheric "ocean", perceived through the creation of a center focalized at the brow, once again gives us a picture of the relation between the brow and the streams of "living wisdom".

Further:

" ... This is the moment when the two petalled lotus in the regions of the eyes is required. If it now begins to stir, the student finds it possible to bring his higher ego in contact with higher spiritual beings. The currents from this lotus flower flow towards the higher realities in such a way that the movements in question are fully apparent to the individual. Just as the light renders the physical objects visible, so too, these currents disclose spiritual beings of higher worlds. Through inward application to the fundamental truths derived from spiritual science the student learns to set in motion and then to direct the currents proceeding from the lotus flower between the eyes. It is at this stage of development especially that the value of sound judgement and a training in clear and logical thought comes to the fore. The higher self, which hitherto slumbered unconsciously in an embryonic state, is now born into conscious existence. This is not a figurative but a positive birth in the spiritual world, and the being now born, the higher self, must enter that world with all the necessary organs and aptitude if it is to be capable of life.. These laws governing the development of the higher spiritual organs are none other than the laws of sound reason and morality in the physical world."

Once again we see the strong emphasis on the necessity for developing absolutely clear and sound

thinking (logicism) as a basis at the region of the brow for its healthy development towards vision. Further:

"..Just as the embryonic child in its incipient feeling for life learns to-appreciate what is offered to it, so can the non-seer appreciate the truth of the teachings of spiritual science. An insight into these teachings based on a deeply rooted feeling for truth, and a clear, sound. all-round critical and reasoning faculty are possible even before things are actually perceived. (My emphasis). The esoteric knowledge must first be studied, so that the study becomes .a preparation for clairvoyance. A person attaining clairvoyance without such preparation would resemble a child born with eyes and ears but without a brain. The entire world of sound and color would display itself before him, but he would be helpless in it.." Rudolf Steiner (Knowledge of the Higher Worlds .... p. 185)

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1 have quoted these passages from Rudolf Steiner at great length because I think they speak clearly of some of the characteristic experiences discoverable at the brow center (6)* . The necessity for "a deeply rooted feeling for truth" and "a clear, sound, all-round critical and reasoning faculty,' stands, I think, in relation to Jupiter's logicism and Sagittarius' virtue of "a feeling for truth". This need has repeatedly come to my attention through experiences with various friends possessing different forms of clairvoyant faculties. The problem of a lack of thorough self-knowledge to help one distinguish between those experiences which are arising from one's own unseen-through nature, and the objective spiritual realities: rich experiences which can lack a proper foundation in true judgements about them, can be increasingly encountered in those circles cultivating the meditative life. Nevertheless, I must also acknowledge that as in my own, earlier indicated experiences, for certain individuals it may be that in the unfolding of their forces certain faculties develop, which can lead them to experiences which they have not been prepared to understand. Yet, in a sense, is this not a common condition of human beings? Would it necessarily be wrong to suggest that from this point they must work to strengthen their powers of sound thinking and judgement whereby they can develop the capacity to understand some of the experiences which have now entered the field of their widened perception? It was, I think one of Rudolf Steiner's intentions in giving so many indications about the changing nature of human consciousness in our time, to aid those individuals who were having experiences for which they had no adequate concepts. I make these observations so that the reader does not feel I have some definite conclusion as to how to address the question of faculties which develop by virtue of destiny. The significance of a solid foundation in cultivating the potentials of clear thinking for a consciously undertaken spiritual training should have been made very clear through the lengthy quotes from Rudolf Steiner.

* I have quoted these thoughts of Rudolf Steiner which deal more specifically with intimate aspects of the path he presents of spiritual development only to illuminate certain aspects of the experiences that can be gained at the brow center where I am suggesting the planet Jupiter is focalized. I think they illuminate this question more adequately than I could do myself. Nevertheless it is important for the reader to understand that any consideration of the descriptions of the cultivation of these higher organs of perception is extraneous to the express intention of this work.

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Having come to this point I fear my logic inadequate to an apparently illogical aspect of my consideration of the relation between the Beatitudes and the seven planetary processes. My miner's lamp does not seem powerful enough to truly help the reader - as logician - on his way. Nevertheless, I will try to shed what light I can on some riddles which I feel are, at best, very little seen through by me to the present time. Perhaps one of the reader's may be able to illumine some of these questions further.

Throughout these considerations of the planets I have tried to suggest that each, in turn, has a particular relation to one of the Beatitudes. I have done this through trying -in a sense to understand the living logic of the Beatitudes in relation to the seven planetary moods and their corresponding centers of focalization. Ironically perhaps, that Beatitude which I will suggest relates to Jupiter's center of logic (as the organism of the Beatitudes would have a logic) seems, at least at face value, the least "logically" appropriate of the seven. Now I hope in the following I will not be violating Schelling's thoughts and "stretching a point" a little too much.

The Beatitude which, from a certain point of view, could most reasonably be experienced in relation to the Jupiter center (6) would be: "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." Here we see a relationship between the purification of the heart and the fulfillment of that purification of the heart: seeing God. We earlier suggested that the heart region might be understood/ experienced in relation to the primary Beatitude: "Blessed are the beggars for the spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." If we consider some of the above mentioned remarks of Rudolf Steiner on the organisation of the etheric body, starting with forming an organ at the brow (Jupiter), then lowering it to the throat (mars), then to the heart (Sun), and the apparent relation between the heart and the brow centers as linked in the flowing of the life currents of the etheric body (in Roman days men believed that the liver [Jupiter related] was the very center of life, where one thought and felt and where the blood came from) perhaps this illogical relation between "purification of the heart" and the brow center would make a little more sense. In the Gospel of St. Matthew lectures Rudolf Steiner suggests the following:

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"With the sixth Beatitude, relating to the spiritual soul, we come to that principle in man in which the real nature of the 1, the ego comes fully to expression.. ..In the spiritual or consciousness soul his "I" unfolds to the full extent and now ascends into the spiritual world. " (p. 164)

We remember the earlier quoted words in relation to the brow center: "The higher self, which hitherto

slumbered unconsciously in an embryonic state, is now born into conscious existence." Is this not perhaps related to the fulfillment of the promise of the Sixth Beatitude: "for they shall see God."?

Rudolf Steiner goes on to say:

"A man who takes the Christ-power into himself will find the way to his God when he pours his "I" into the spiritual soul."

One wonders here whether one might not suggest that when the purified "I" in the heart's blood is poured

into the brow center (Jupiter) the possibility of finding the way to God is opened?

"..In experiencing Christ in his Ego at the level of the spiritual soul, he will find his God - Now it has been said that the expression of the Ego in the physical body is the blood: the blood has its center in the heart. Therefore the Sixth Beatitude will have to indicate that through the quality imparted to the blood and the heart, the Ego can experience God."

Once again considering the thought taken from Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, I ask myself whether

one does not see the moral purification of the heart and blood, brought into relation with the center of the brow, as the necessary prerequisite for "seeing God"? Of course the sense of the words: seeing God needs to be clarified. Let us consider some of Valentin Tomberg's thoughts on this question to see if they might clarify it further:

"..Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God", is not a question of seeing the Cosmic Father-God but of seeing the Divine Archetype of humanity who is visible in the elemental universe as the hope of the resurrection of Nature during the age of the consciousness soul. He will be visible, however, only to those whose conscience is enlarged to include, not merely individual, not merely human concerns, but also the kingdoms of Nature. This enlargement will awake the new, natural clairvoyance, the "etheric" clairvoyance: of which Rudolf Steiner spoke; the light which will render visible the elemental universe, the shamballa" of Eastern sages, is the light of the conscience of the "katharoi te kardia" (pure in heart)." V. Tomberg (Anthro. St. of the N. Testament, Ch. V. p6-7)

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Could I suggest that without the emptying ("Blessed are the beggars for the spirit..") and purifying of the heart, as the center of the Ego's blood-life streams in man, the cultivation and opening of the brow center may lead to visionary faculties - but faculties built on a distorted relation to the necessary objectivity and refined feeling for truth inherent in the healthy exercise of this region of the human soul's experience. The "motel' and "beam" radiating out from this unpurified region of radiating, illumining wisdom, may only reveal in the wider world what is impure or fallen, distorting the "true" nature of living reality. If instead of the pure, objective character of vision (as in the physical sense process of the human eye's perception of the sensible world), a projection ('land why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye", Matt. 7:3) of the self, flowing into this third eye center as unpurified, untransformed subjectivities in the living blood, can lead to distorted, "slanderous", "slanted" view of "living reality". On the other hand, with a thin-blooded influx into this center, the world of life, could appear pale and abstract, leading one to a colorless, relativistic perception - an empty, but so-called "objective" tolerance of all views (not exactly the true Jupiterian, broad, well-rounded view!)

Through the struggle to achieve a "feeling for truth" whereby Clone can truly see the spirit of things which comes to birth in cognition" (Herbert Witzenmann), 'lone's prejudices can be recognized as distortions of the mirror of consciousness and through selfinvestigation can be removed, one by one". (Richard Seddon)

Then when the warmth and purity, life and light of the heart and brow centers are harmoniously interweaving, can one hope to attain the capacity to truly "see God: the interweaving of the formative power of life and the illuminating power of light in all of the World - that archetypal, logical structuring, living logical creating Logos Being, "through whom all things were made".

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SATURN CAPRICORN-AQUARIUS

Many of the characteristics which will come forward in my consideration of Saturn were highlighted in

the Capricorn (Saturn ruled region) contemplation in the first Volume.

In participating in the mood of Saturn one feels oneself in a still, deeply inwards, profound region of experience. Rudolf Steiner uses terms like: profundity, absorption, deep contemplation, as indications to some of the qualities in this region of experience. In his Easter verse: The ' Mysteries of Ephesus, he writes: "that ghostly Saturn's old world-memoried devoutness". The mood of prayer, standing in awe before God as a Father can be strongly experienced in these processes. The quality of isolation and self-containment (one thinks of a hermit or a monk whose habit itself helps to accentuate this mood, encouraging the turning inwards of the life of the soul. One also experiences the special protection and containment of the crown center at the top of the head which we have suggested is related to the influence and working of Saturn) is perhaps reflected by the fact of the planet Saturn being selfenclosed within its rings.

This inner mood of the classically most distant planet, reflects its character as the "limit, boundary or border" between the planetary regions and the fixed stars. One could imagine that in the slowness of its orbital motion through the zodiac taking 29 1/2 years, Saturn is approaching to a far greater degree the character of relative fixity of the fixed stars in comparison to the more rapid movements of the other planets. Just as it is the most distant planet, so, in a sense can it be felt to be related to the most distant center in the human form, focalized at the top of the head (7) .

These facts, viewed flexibly, can contribute to an understanding of its relation to the philosophic mood designated by Rudolf Steiner as Gnosticism:

"A man is a gnostic when his disposition is such that he gets to know the things of the world not through the senses, but through certain cognitional forces in the soul itself." Rudolf Steiner (Human and Cosmic Thought)

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It is interesting to explore the inwardly experienceable reality that the center and formative currents and soul mood in which one can experience the quality of Gnosticism leads one in a feeling way to the sense of sight, which gazes out into the world, as it were, with unfocussed eyes. One can experience a similar mood in some of the statues of the Egyptian pharoahs which can give the impression that their attention is actually turned inward (almost as if through the crown center the heavenly forces are guiding them From outside). It is the world of spirit which is, in turn, guiding their sense of sight, orienting it to that which it will fall upon as an expression of the will of the eternal. The mood of Gnosticism seems also to have a relation to the inner soul currents of memory and conscience, two qualities which are deeply linked with Saturn's mythological attributes as Chronos or Father Time - the keeper of the book of life wherein all that has happened in personal destiny and history is recorded.

Let us by way of comparison look at Saturn in contrast to the Lunar processes. As pictures we could imagine the Saturn forces strongly active in an old person. He is sitting stiff and straight in his chair, gazing out/in with unfocussed eyes on what is past, with inner warmth trying to bring alive this past for all those around him. Perhaps he is lamenting these "modern developments" for "when he was a boy". His physical needs are slowly being pared down to what is of life necessity to him. His inner warmth. a warmth of benediction, can radiate through him and almost magically inspire the archetypal, paternal gesture in him of placing his hand on the top of someone's head, the crown (7) center. Peace be with you. Whereas externally there may be coolness, dryness, stillness, stiffness, concentrated angular shapedness, the bony structure more and more in evidence.

One of the life pictures which could arise from considering the working of the opposite processes of the Moon would be that of a new born baby, still unable to sit or stand erect ("stand up straight"), cushioned by softness and comfort, warm, shapeless, in need of external support (crib), containment from outside. Acutely sensitive and susceptible to the influence of the environment, more changeable than the weather, desiring intimacy and union, absorbed

134 in physical, organic needs. (The reader should understand that 1 am portraying "ideal polarities". In reality, for various reasons, contemporary older people can often have characteristics of the child's needs, not only physically - particularly if up to the time of their "old age" they have never developed a relation to the Saturn spirits which could lead them to a certain independence in relation to their external bodily condition).

Going farther one could suggest that in Saturn there can be a sense of isolation from the environment, "a becoming independent versus the chemistry of the surroundings" (from G. Wachsmuth, Cosmic Aspects of Birth and Death, p. 38). It could be suggested that this becoming independent of the surroundings is also related to some of the effects of deep contemplation upon the soul life and bodily natures. Here, through these exercises of "contemplation" the spiritual self is, as it were, crystallized out from the variegated currents of the soul and bodily life. Then through the intensely self-conscious wakefulness of this region (the will of the Father the Gnostic mood) being brought into the life of the soul, the soul is more and more awakened by it. The growing uniting with that region which is an expression of the Father's will, with the mood of peace and deep contemplation, leads the fundamental disposition of the soul to become that of a "peacemaker". Just as an earthly Father - expressive of deepest justice and a true foundation of conscience - or a "justice of the peace": both representatives of Saturn's influence in these aspects of their lives, would strive to be a peacemaker based on true understanding into conscience filled judging, the soul living in the Saturn processes can feel their intimate relation to their Christianized expression: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God." The more the Christened mood and will of Saturn prayer permeates all the other soul, life and bodily processes, the more the insistent question can live in the life of the soul: how can I justly, without envy or false authority, be as representative of the will of the Father, a peacemaker in all of these regions of the soul, life and destiny which 1 crow to recognize are children of God? That is to say, are the offspring, the consequences, the life expression of God's will, His plan, His conception of those events

135 which are the consequence of what is contained in my own historical conscience, of what is contained in the world's historical conscience, and my upright sense of responsibility for them.

One feels permeating the peacemaking mood of the remembering Father the question of karma and destiny. What are the antecedent causes for these events? The judge's task is to try to clarify in all domains the actual course of events, just as the earthly father is often called to serve as an inspirer to truthful and accurate remembering without which no just judgement can be rendered. A Christened peacemaker who would fill his position without envy or timidity is always confronted with the question: what is God's will in this matter, and in what way can my judgement be brought into relation with His, so that His will is done?

In these gestures we can find a mood of greatest distance and detachment in relation to events - the mood of "professionalism". First the actual facts of the "record" of events need to be gotten "straight". The forces of memory are strengthened and refined through this repeated exercise. Through meeting justice and disciplinary action from outside those souls who do not find in themselves, or who have not yet found, their relation to their own conscience forces can find them in the meeting with "outside". This is also implicitly being encouraged whenever limits are put on an individual's actions so he "can think a little more about what he is doing". In countless ways the process of RIGHT EXAMINATION is encouraged by life itself (by representatitives of the Father's will: be it review boards of professional men, any standards, rules and regulations set, legal justice, or one's own developing forces of conscience. Of course, the reader should understand that I do not mean to imply that these various examples of representatives of the working of the Saturn forces in the world at large are faultless expressions of the uprightness which is called forth through the meeting with, and working of these forces. This is an ideal picture. Each example may stand in a very individual relation to how truly he - in his judgement, etc: approaches the ideal of this particular region of experience).

"To turn one's gaze inwards from time to time, even if only for five minutes daily at the same time. In so doing one should sink down into oneself (gnosticism? my addition), carefully take counsel with oneself, test and form one's principles of life, run through in thought one's knowledge - or lack of it - weigh up one's duties.

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think over the contents and true purpose of life, feel genuinely pained by one's own errors and imperfections. In a word: labour to discover the essential, the enduring, and earnestly aim at goals in accord with it, for instance, virtues to be acquired. (Not to fall into the mistake of thinking that one has done something well, but to strive ever further towards the highest standards)." Rudolf Steiner (Guidance in Esoteric Training, p. 23)

This exercise, clearly related to isolation from one's environment -inner and outer - ("go into your closet

and pray to your Father in secret and he will answer you in secret,') stands in stark contrast to the qualities of the Moon, with the accompanying complete or partial interdependence of the human soul, either on the mother herself or with mother earth, for meeting the needs of its body focalized at the reproductive center (1).

This contrast is further highlighted in the inner experience of the Saturn process working in the formation of the skeletal system and bony structure - the most separated, isolated, crystallized, formed parts of the organism. In comparison the Lunar processes work in the nurturing, nourishing, rounding, reproductive, skin and breast area through which one stays physically and emotionally in touch, comes into touch, makes contact most directly, materially Aiith others. Perhaps we could say that the sense of touch is the sense in which two human beings or an individual and the world are closest physically and the sense of sight the sense in which one is most distant from another human being (or the world). (This could be looked at in other ways but I think my point - in this contextshould be clear.)

Viewed macrocosmically we have the picture of the relative fixity (Saturn's 29 1/2 years through the circle of the constellations) of the Saturn (Capricorn-Aquarius?) related sense of sight - the eyes encased in the bony structure of the head, capable of gazing at objects at a great distance and remembering events at a great distance in time. On the other hand we see the immense plasticity (the Moon taking 27 113 days to move from fixed star back to the same star) of the skin, breasts, reproductive processes and the inner, emotional life so intimately bound to the moment to moment changes in the susceptibility of the little child, whose needs must be attended to* with immediate contact.

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The polarity of the related world pictures of spiritism for distant Saturn (Capricorn) and materialism for the close Moon (Cancer) are also very interesting to consider. The mood of the spiritist (Gnostic) is distant, withdrawn, his gaze fixed on eternity, long term "plans", and enduring granite hewn principles. The mood of the mother is that of the arch materialist! in the best sense of the term (ideally speaking), whose tender solicitude ("Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted") cannot be sensitive enough to the mysterious "occult" influences affecting her infant's immense changeability, which demands a great flexibility on her part where whatever rhythm or plan or schedule she may be trying to maintain can be upset at a moment's notice by the completely un-selfconscious cries of her child.

Let us look further, from a different point of view, at this polarity between the distant planet Saturn as expressive of the spiritual will of the Father and the closest planet of the Moon, expressive of the soul's relation to the bodily creating and sustaining will of the Mother. Perhaps we could say that this is the polarity between greatest self-enclosure and independent isolation and most complete interdependence and union with the environment. (As was previously pointed out.) Looking at the morally related struggles of Saturn (Capricorn) and the Moon (Cancer), we could suggest that timidity, knee jerk reactions, spinelessness, are reflections of a weakness in the spiritual individualizaing processes of Saturn leading to a lack of inner "definiteness and boundaries": structure, discipline and personal uprightness - conscience. This is a weakness which comes to a focalization at the crown center (7) of Saturn (short sightedness on many levels). Comparable to this in the Moon related first center is a quality (in the mature person; its appropriateness in an infant is another question) of physical or emotional dependence, dissolution - a kind of losing oneself through going out of oneself into the environment - a lack of inner or outer contours through a failure to properly form one's skin.

Saturn (7), crown: lack of spiritual individualization, timidity.

The Moon (1), basic: lack of physical, emotional individualization, dependence.

A lack of thinking for oneself, a dependence on principles, rules, regulations set down by, others is a Saturn struggle. With the Moon

138 there is a kind of living or physical dependence, an over attachment and lack of definition in relation to the forces of one's family, geographical environment, or one's bodily organism.

The excess, hardening of the Moon processes leads to "murder" in many forms: physically, emotional insensitivity ("thick-skinned") and mentally hardened materialism. over materialization and isolation are cause and consequence here. A rigidity, frigidity of body, soul and mind are some of the excesses we find here.

In parallel the forces of Saturn can lead to dogmatism in the mental/spiritual life, opportunism in the emotional life (people and situations viewed as means to ends) and sclerosis in the physical life.

Having looked at some of these polarities as a means of highlighting the question of Saturn let us now look at some lives during those periods when the Saturn (Capricorn) processes were strongly in evidence. These lives were briefly considered in the previous book in the Capricorn contemplation and will be more fully looked at in the following book.

One finds some remarkable pictures emerging in Carl Jung's autobiography in relation to this region of experience. At the age of 10, his interest in stones grew. The idea of God began to interest him. He took to praying to God who he imagined a very powerful old man. School (g) came to bore him. He was taken out of school and remarks on the doctors (g) opinions about his ailments. He tells us after realising how his being taken from school was affecting his parents that "from that moment on he became a serious child." Do we see here the hand of Saturn's conscientiousness (a serious child) working at this time in the life of Jung?

He dreams of walking home and passing a beautiful cathedral (House of God). He sees God sitting on the throne, plunging himself into hell. Did he not come into the world the way God made him (pushing his memory back to the beginning). His thoughts go all the way back to God. He speaks of fear of eternal damnation and the power of God.

Here I would suggest we find a very rich picture of Jung's relation to the Saturn region at this time in his life. This region was spoken of by Willi Sucher as "where the guarantors of the will of the Divine Father World are to be found, those beings who

139 witnessed evolution from the beginning; who are concerned with memory, conscience, the law of destiny and reincarnation". (Willi Sucher, Isis-Sophia: An Outline of a New Star Wisdom, pp. 106-108. 1 would highly recommend Mr. Sucher's considerations of the planets on pp. 106-133 of this book). Although Jung is only about 10-12 at this time, in considering his struggles with the question of his relation to God, "a powerful old man", we are reminded of the Beatitude: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God". Of course this is on a different more instinctual level a relation to that sphere which we will see arises again later in his life.

Between the ages of 21-23, 1 would suggest he once again stands in relation to the Saturn spirits. He is engaged in a study of the Church Fathers and the History of Dogma. From the -library of a classmate's father he finds a book on spiritualistic phenomena. He says of this period in his life: "Hitherto I encountered only a brick wall of traditional views and the inability to admit unconcentional views." (Emphasis all mine.)

Moving from the record of the memory stream -the gnosticism of the religious life - we find in his studies of science at this time him working as a junior assistant in anatomy and making a study of evolutionary theory (creation or evolution: the archetypal historical gesture of tracing the beginnings inspired by the soul's relation to those beings who "hold the threads of evolution from the past to present").

Fourteen years later at the age of 37 Carl Jung has other dreams of significance to him. It is interesting to consider that he is once again in those archetypal regions where he stood at the age of 10. He has a dream of a "magnified Italian loggia. There are pillars, marble floors and a marble balustrade. He was sitting on a gold Renaissance chair, in front of him was a table of rare beauty. The loggia was set high up in the tower of a castle."

He goes on to tell us that there was something dead present but it was also still alive. "It was in a region like the Alyscamps near Arles. There they have a lane of Sarcophagi which go back to Merovingian times. In the dream I was coming from the city, and saw before me a similar lane with a long row of tombs. They reminded me

140 of old Church burial vaults."

Once again in these various pictures Jung has presented to us, we see evidence of the influence of the Saturn spirits. Next he tells us that he felt the need in his inner life to look back (g) over his entire life, back to his childhood. What is remarkable to consider is the fact that his attention is directed to those years when he previously stood in relation to the same Saturn ( ) archetype - at about 10-12 years of age.

He further tells us of dreams of imagining a deep descent into the land of the dead where he meets two figures he calls Elijah and Salome -an old man and a young girl. Philemon, who was to him what the Indians call Guru was another figure at this time in his inner life.

In these events in Jung's life at this time I would suggest we see further evidence of his relation to the sphere of Saturn. I leave the reader to contemplate these further and to consider them in relation to what he is able to discover at comparable times in his own life during the course of the year. In the next book I hope to aid him in exploring his movement through the different archetypal regions throughout his life.

Let us next turn our attention to the life of Ralph Waldo Emerson to see if we can discover any evidence of the character of the Saturn region working in it.

We are told by one of Emerson's biographers that between the ages of 26 and 28 he "turned to praying". He was called by "an ancient and respectable Church to be its pastor". (All emphasis is mine). Of this Emerson said: "I recognize in these events the hand of my heavenly Father". He only asked: "free reign in carrying out his duties according to his conscience." Prayer, an ancient and respectable Church, the hand of the Heavenly Father in these events; carrying out his duties according to his conscience." Here we find many clear indications of Emerson's relation the Saturn sphere at this time in his life: "that ghostly Saturn's old world-memoried devoutness."

In his 27th year he studied the "Scriptures in order to explain God's laws." He tells us that "thought is being. We are what we know. 'Scriptures; God's law, thought knowledge. (Gnosticism)

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Further: "the government of God is not a plan - that would be destiny. It is extempore-the omniscient eye..hence the efficacy of prayer." Here we have Emerson wrestling with the difficult Saturn question of pre-determination (destiny) and freedom. As his young wife is ailing we are told of his resignation to God's will during the last weeks of her illness." Finally we hear Emerson saying that the "Christian faith keeps duty; the soul's everlasting object uppermost".

Here we can get a feeling for something of the mood that lived in the early 19th century in Emerson's soul as a young man in relation to the Saturn sphere of experience.

Finally let us look at the life of Henry Adams as he has portrayed it in his autobiography: The Education of Henry Adams. Perhaps one could say that Adams' relation to conscientiousness, to representing the Father's sphere (g) was in the domain of politics and his responsibilities as a professor. I will say more of the individualized relation of different personalities to the sphere of Saturn in a moment.

At the age of 32 Henry Adams tells us of his recognition that "moral principles and old political systems had broken down. Politicians had totally given up the political machine as often as it is broken down." .."Yet the sum of political life was, or should have been, the attainment of a working political system. Later on he gives us a wonderful picture of the representatives of the Father in the U.S. government in the expression: "the vast paternity of the United States Senate." Further he tells us that "he would have kept the Pope in the Vatican and the Queen at Windsor Castle as historical monuments.

He received a letter from President Eliot of Harvard College inviting him to take the Assistant Professorship of History. He tells us that he exhausted all of his strength in trying to keep one day ahead of his duties ... His sense of responsibility and his refreshing honesty in light of the sense of responsibility inherent in the Saturn region leads him to say: "a teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.." Finally he says that a "teacher must either treat history as a catalogue or a record..No doubt a teacher might make some use of these writers or their theories, but Adams could fit them into no theory of his own".

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I would suggest in a number of Adams' life concerns at this time, the historical record, the question of intellectual tradition and various theories held by different authorities we have evidence of the presence of Saturn and its related philosophic mood of gnosticism:

"..a man is a gnostic when his disposition is such that he gets to know the things of the world not through the senses but through certain cognitional forces in the soul itself." Rudolf Steiner Human and Cosmic Thought

In introducing these various pictures from the lives of Jung, Emerson and Henry Adams I am trying to

give further indications which will help the reader in his own exploration of the sphere of Saturn, related to the center at the top of the head (7). It can be seen - in a sense - that the words of the Beatitude: "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the Children of God', need to be understood in relation to this current in the life of the human soul in a broad sense. It could be suggested that whether in Jung's explorations of his inner life, Emerson's relationship to his vocation as a pastor and the theological climate in which he moved in the early 19th century, or Adams' concern with the political and educational life of the later periods of the 19th century, in each case the gesture of the individual's considered was to find their way to answers concerning questions involving fundamental principles -principles which could be seen in the context of various historical, cognitive streams: whether theological, scientific or political-pedagogical. In each case, each man - in his particular domain, under his particular, individual archetypes, strove to find a relation to a bedrock of certainty, of enduring verity, in fundamental and profound considerations. This reflects the fact that each person, in whatever domain of responsibility he may stand, will in the course of his life come into relation to one or more varied lines of tradition (as well as his own history as an individual), of memory and knowledge streams which preserves the past and is met in the present. This can be through a body of scientific knowledge, legal tradition, or in the religious life, etc. The way in which he stands within this tradition -where the passing moment finds its relation to the eternal in the course of history - seems to be intimately bound to the kind of relation he as an individual has found or formed with those beings who stand behind the various tradition streams, as representatives of the Father's will and work

143 throughout historical unfolding. Viewed in the context of our previous discussion of the various planetary regions, their relation to the human being and the ideal possibilities inherent in each region when worked upon by the Christianized human soul - the Beatitudes let us end this consideration of the seven classical planetary spheres with some final observations.

It has been one purpose of these studies to continue an exploration of the fruit of the process inaugurated by the recognition of one's inner poverty and need: "Blessed are the beggars for the spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." That process once inaugurated in the human heart through the activity of the Spiritual Sun of the world would make of the Moon (Cancer), reproductive related Ist center: "a mourner who will be comforted"; of the Venus (Taurus-Libra) related 2nd center bring "satisfaction to one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness,,; of the Mercury (VirgoGemini) related solar plexus center (3), bring forth one of "the meek who shall inherit the earth". Of the throat related Mars (5) (Aries-Scorpio) center it promises mercy to those regions of the life of the soul it has helped to attain mercy. To the brow related Jupiter (6) (Sagittarius-Pisces?) center of wisdom it promises, through the attainment of purity of heart which it helps to bring about, the seeing of God or the seeing of the working of God in the world of life - the beholding of the Divine Image of Man. Finally to the crown center, the human soul united with the Son (sun) Heart of the World, who experiences the Kingdom of Heaven flowing into his Ego, is led to ponder the words of the Lord's Prayer: "Our Father who art in the Heavens." The more he experiences his life in the Kingdom of Heaven the more the meaning of the words of Rudolf Steiner may light up for him:

"Christ would have to say in the present: 'If you were formerly bidden to look up to the realms of the Divine Father Source of existence and wait until His radiance streamed upon you, it may henceforward be said that not only does His radiance stream down to you, but whatsoever is willed on high must penetrate into the deepest core of the human ego and be willed there also" (My emphasis)

He can perhaps then grow to understand that as the will of the Father in the Heavens flows into that place in his heart kept open through his mood of "spiritual beggary" for the inflowing of the Kingdom of Heaven, the more the peace of God, the light of the higher

144 part of his being will irradiate him. Then the more he will become a bearer of peace, as he grows in the knowledge of the need of the Earth, of the six kingdoms of the planets below, within him: that knowledge that they too are the "children", the offspring, the consequence and responsibility of that portion of his being where he is united with the will of the Father. Then the rhythms of the planets within him can become hallowed through the light of the Father's will shining into them and that pathway will be opened even further for answering some of those unanswerable questions due to apparent "boundaries of knowledge,'. Here in the most wakeful region of the human soul, the patient, steady, enduring will of our deepest and highest morality, can chasten and hallow all the ways of our life if we but have the courage to maintain ourselves wakefully within them.

Blessed are the courageous redeemers, for through their wide awake courage for peace, their will for the "conscious experience of destiny", they will testify of their sonship to God the Father in the Heavens and in the deepest regions of their own souls.

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URANUS (AQUARIUS?), NEPTUNE (PISCES) AND PLUTO (SCORPIO?)

As the reader will have repeatedly seen through these first two books I am still in uncertainty about

various aspects of Aquarius and Pisces. The actual centers of focalization for these two planets have remained riddles to me. As I stated earlier, inasmuch as I have not experienced them to be focalized where Capricorn (Saturn) and Sagittarius (Jupiter) are focalized, I have been led to wonder whether the classical ascription of Aquarius to Saturn and Pisces to Jupiter is accurate or whether the more modern interpretation of Aquarius being ruled by Uranus and Neptune being the ruler of Pisces is accurate.

Nevertheless, the experience of Capricorn - so different from Aquarius in many ways - also has certain obvious similarities. One could suggest that both of these regions have a kind of relation to the warmth processes in the human being. With Capricorn one can feel a kind of innermost kernel of warmth, as one finds in the seed or the inner warmth of an old person. Aquarius has a clearly experienceable relation to the sense of warmth but, in comparison, Capricorn's warmth can be experienced as more concentrated and contained. It is almost as if Capricorn's relation to the earth works to contain its warmth in a kind of garment of immobility, although behind this garment of immobility is present the inner core of warmth. Aquarius' quality of warmth seems more influenced by the element of air, so it is more diffuse in its expression. Perhaps one could say that Capricorn's warmth is like a column or pillar, like a concentrated be-am, whereas Aquarius' warmth is more like a shower or all enfolding, encompassing mantle. This characteristic of both of these regions could lead the student of Rudolf Steiner's, Occult Science, to wonder whether these warmth characteristics spoken of here have some relation to the warmth environment in what he describes' as the ancient Saturn stage of evolution? This seems possible although problematic because other regions certainly have their particular relation to warmth as well -Leo, for example.

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Perhaps one could say that one of the distinguishing characteristics of the warmth of Capricorn and Aquarius is that it is a "spiritual warmth", both having a relation to the meditative, inner life. One can feel that the experience of those thought streams which lead one to views of the world of spiritism and pneumatism, though different, have a definite kinship in their relation to the spiritual life. If 1 had repeatedly found a similar center of focalization for Capricorn and Aquarius I may well have been led to think that they shared a Saturn rulership, for in their differences from each other I don't know that they are necessarily more dissimilar than -for example- Virgo from Gemini; Taurus from Libra or Scorpio from Aries: all of which 1 have experienced to have common rulerships. (See remarks on Scorpio-Pluto following). Nevertheless, for whatever reason, still unclear to me, the Aquarius focalization does not seem to have a direct link with one of the seven classical planets and centers, but rather seems to bring together these centers (in the experience of them) in relation to each other - as if bringing about a kind of harmonisation amongst them all. This feeling of the gesture of harmonisation could logically lead the student of Rudolf Steiner's characterizations of the Spiritual Hierarchies in the direction of wondering about the relation between the region of Aquarius and the Cherubim or Spirits of Harmony. This seems a possibility but I am unable to say anything more definite about it for the present.

In respect of the question of the relation between Pisces and Sagittarius - both classically thought to be ruled by Jupiter - certain questions arise from direct self-observation. Here also, as with Capricorn and Aquarius, I cannot experience that these two radiations both work through the Jupiter placement from the moment of birth. 1 have no doubt that Sagittarius regions do work through this placement, but I have little doubt that Pisces regions do not. Nevertheless, in both the case of Aquarius and of Pisces - for some reason still unseen through by me - I am not completely certain that they stimulate respectively the Uranus and Neptune positions from the moment of birth, when these regions are being passed through by any of the wandering, planetary bodies (spheres). My observations of these two have not been clear enough, nor my findings consistent enough for me to feel that I can - as yet -say anything definite about them.

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Nevertheless, to indicate something of the nature of my consideration of this problem I could say that it is interesting to observe in the Pisces region its clear relation to the sense of hearing and its relation to the world of music. This relation I have repeatedly observed. On the other hand one can also find in the Sagittarius region a certain relation to the world of music. Both of these are traditionally thought to be ruled by Jupiter which Rudolf Steiner has related to the processes of the liver, which in turn he has related to musical capacity.

It is not difficult to see in the rich, interweaving of musical composition an expression of Jupiter (the thinker) in the universe, whose thought-weaving can be found to be related to the creative, living thought weaving of the life world itself. In a sense, these preceding studies have been an attempt to show something of the rich tapestry of interweaving life streams in which the human soul participates day by day through the course of the year. When I think of that study which seems to lie close to that which I am more abstractly or scientifically trying to present I am inevitably led to the world of music. A human destiny and character might be read as a score of music, whose rich tapestry of interweaving currents and motifs ("a living thought organism) can be explored in some of the ways I am trying to suggest. (The reader should understand this analogy as applicable up to a point. I am not suggesting an identity between these two studies.)

These impressions lead me to recognize a clear, inherent relation between Sagittarius and Pisces: the liver, the processes of living thought weaving, streaming music, hearing (one thinks of the symphonic sounding of the ocean of life and sees the picture of putting a shell to one's hear to hear its music). This lends weight to the thought of their sharing a common rulership. If I had repeatedly experienced an obvious common stimulation of the Jupiter birth placement by these two spheres I would probably have been inclined to suggest that they shared a common ruler. Having not had this clear experience I am left in doubt. Here too - as with Aquarius and Uranus - I am not certain of the Neptune region being stimulated when one of the planets transit the Pisces region although I feel that my own observations bear out that hypothesis more than they do that of Jupiter. Nevertheless, the evidence is

148 still inconclusive to me.

For the reader interested in exploring this question further he could make observations of the qualities of Uranus and Neptune or Saturn and Jupiter in relation to the Aquarius and Pisces, eleventh and twelfth houses. (See discussion on the houses in chapter IV following). Also a consideration of the living logic in the relation between Sagittarius' sense of taste and philosophic monadism and Pisces, sense of hearing and philosophic psychism would be another means of comparison and contrast of the two in relation to the question of their respective rulerships. Comparably, one could look at Capricorn's sense of sight and world picture of spiritism in relation to Aquarius' sense of warmth and world picture of pneumatism. One could also try to consider the relation between the moral struggle of Sagittarius to control one's speech developing into a feeling for truth and the Pisces struggle to develop a true, wise generosity which leads to deeds of love. Comparably one could compare the Capricorn struggle for courage to develop into redemptive power with the Aquarius labor of cultivating silence which will develop into meditative power.

These are all suggestions as to how the reader can further clarify this question of the relation between these respective regions and their planetary rulers. I would be grateful to hear of anyone else's experiences and observations in connection with this question. For the present I would like to leave this consideration of Uranus and Neptune as the possible, respective rulers of Aquarius and Pisces as an open question. Given that I have learned most about the planets through their relation to the planetary centers which I have come to feel they rule, and I have not had definite, conclusive impressions of the center's of focalization for Uranus and Neptune it is wrong for me to say anything more definite at present. I have tried to avoid speculation in these studies so I will not say more about this question at present, but rather try to turn my attention more directly to these riddles later and then see if I can remedy this ommission when I have a more substantial, experiential basis out of which to speak.

Finally I should say a few words about Pluto. Throughout these studies I have omitted a consideration of the planet, Pluto, inasmuch as I have - through mainly observing the planets in light

149 of their purported rulerships - not had the direct impression that Pluto works in relation to Scorpio. Rather 1 have experienced that the classical rulership of Scorpio by Mars seems to be accurate. Although it certainly seems possible to me that they both have a relationship with Scorpio and I simply don't have access to an experience of Pluto's working. If one reads accounts of the planet Pluto one certainly finds characteristics reminiscent of a number of aspects of my Scorpio meditation given in the preceding book. Nevertheless I am still not completely sure whether some of these characteristics which are actually present in the Scorpio region are not equally explicable as expressions of Mars, rather than Pluto. Given that I have, as yet, not been able to isolate the working of the Pluto forces in the ongoing, everyday reality, I cannot really say that Pluto has this or that characteristic.

Still I think it fair enough to simply suggest that those readers who stand more convinced of the working of Pluto in relation to Scorpio could - during those periods which I have suggested find the influence of Scorpio present - turn their attention to these forces to see whether they feel that the discernible characteristics are more faithfully considered or understood through Pluto rather than Mars. Given the mythology of Pluto I can also see it somewhat of an open question whether these November, Mars processes might not be implicated in some of its' (Pluto's) characteristics. Nevertheless, I must once again say that given the main intention of this book is to share what I have discovered and understood from my direct explorations all I can say is that I have repeatedly observed the focus of concentration for the Scorpio forces to be that of the throat center, where also the Aries forces can be found to have a focus of concentration. If one considers those impressions of the Mars-Scorpio-Aries regions which led to my characterisations of Scorpio and Aries in the first book and Mars in this one I think it could be understood why I am not thoroughly convinced that Mars may not be the ruler of both Aries and Scorpio. I leave it to the reader's own exploration to see what he can discover for himself about this question. I look forward to hearing from others about their own discoveries.

For the sake of completeness and clarification about my difficulties in respect of understanding certain aspects of Pisces and

150 Aquarius I thought it might be helpful to discuss briefly some of my unresolved questions about the working of the newer planets in relation to certain of the archetypal regions. From a certain point of view, both in the preceding book and this one I have felt a little ill at ease attempting to more creatively characterize my impressions of the twelve archetypal regions and the seven (nine) planetary processes. In a sense I would have preferred simply to have given both scientifically my findings and practically a guide to the reader's own exploration. 1 have hoped that by attempting to give brief sketches of the various regions that the reader would be aided in his own attempts at identifying them as he moved through them. It is probably clear to the reader that some of the regions of experience seem a little less familiar to me than others. This is certainly true. 1 have tried to share as much as I could out of my own years of observation and living within these various regions and when a little uncertain (as in the case of my Jupiter consideration) I introduced more material from other sources which I felt helped to bring to light some of the region's characteristics more clearly than I felt I could do at present. 1 hope these attempts will not discourage the reader from taking up the scientific and practical portions of this work where I feel 1 am able to make a much more significant contribution through my capacity to name some of the many cosmic rhythms in which the human soul participates in a very detailed and precise manner. In the following chapters I will try to look at some shorter, temporal rhythms in which these various planetary processes can be found.

150 a

"To understand correctly the meaning of the words alchemy and astrology, it is necessary to understand and to realize the intimate relationship and the identity of the Microcosm and Macrocosm, and their mutual interaction. All the powers of the universe are potentially contained in man and man's physical body, and all his organs are nothing else but products and representatives of the powers of Nature-If I have 'manna' in my constitution, I can attract 'manna' from heaven. 'Saturn' is not only in the sky, but also deep in the earth and in the ocean. What is 'Venus' but the 'Artemisia" that grows in your garden? What is 'iron' but 'Mars'? That is to say, Venus and Artemisia are both the products of the same essence, and mars and iron are both the manifestation of the same cause. What is the human body but a constellation of the same powers that formed the stars in the sky? He who knows what iron is, knows the attribute of Mars. He who knows Mars, knows the qualities of iron. What would become of your heart if there were no Sun in the universe? What would be the use of your 'vasa spermatica' if there were no Venus? To grasp the invisible elements, to attract them by their mutual correspondences, to control, purify, and transform them by the living power of the Spirit - this is true alchemy." Franz Hartmann (Parcelsus, pp. 287-288)

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CHAPTER III: THE PLANETARY HOURS OF SOLOMON *

Let us now return to our considerations of various cosmic rhythms in which the human soul participates. Having considered the approximately ten day rhythms of the Sun and the Earth as they move through the thirty six regions of the tropical and sidereal zodiacs, and the approximately twenty hour rhythm of the moon's passage through the sidereal zodiac's thirty six sectors I would now like to consider a shorter, six hourly rhythm known as the "planetary hours" or the "hours of Solomon".

As the reader may remember 1 described in the introduction to the first Volume how as a student I had - through a condition which had developed in the region of my heart - unfolded a posture of careful self-observation, attending to various factors which seemed to alter and influence that condition. Over the course of some months I discovered that on certain days of the week, at certain times of the day, definite patterns in my experience of the pain in the heart region, began to emerge. One evening while in a course on the "stars" my teacher spoke of a letter which Rudolf Steiner had written to Marie Steiner suggesting that Monday evenings were a good time for artistic activity because they were under the influence of the sphere of Venus. (I will suggest the planet Mercury). My teacher went on to tell us that there was an old theory of the "planetary hours" which suggested that different days of the week were under the influence of different planets and further that every six hours were under the influence of a different planetary ruler. He then went on to share with us (as my memory fifteen years later sees it. 1 may have understood this later, as I have seen this argument a number of times since then) the fact that in the names of the days of the week we have indications of the various planetary rulers of each day. Monday (given to the Moon); Tuesday, Mardi in French, Martes in Spanish (given to mars); Wednesday, Mercredi in French, Miercoles in Spanish (given to Mercury); Thursday, Jeudi in French, Jueves in Spanish (given to Jupiter); Friday, Vendredi in French, etc. (given to Venus); Saturday (given to Saturn), and Sunday (given to the Sun).

* For the reader interested in a good historical account of the days of the week 1 recommend, The Seven Day Circle, by Zerubavel Eviatar (see bibliography).

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He then went on to suggest that if one divided each day into four, six hourly periods, one would find a planetary progression during the course of the week which was in harmony with astronomical phenomena and with the given names of the days of the week. This progression is pictured in the Table on the following page.

As the reader can see following this progression each first six hourly period on any given day corresponds to a planetary rulership which is in harmony with the respective names of the days of the week. As I earlier recounted when I first heard of this theory I felt that it may have truly "explained" my ongoing observations over the previous months and was one of the first satisfactions for my growing progress in ',scientific", dispassionate, self-observation. It is evident that one might arrive, by deduction, from the names of the days of the week to the four, six hourly periods, but for myself, having first simply observed the living phenomena without carrying in my consciousness the conception or theory which I later felt somewhat explained them, it was not a matter of mathematical thinking or making the names of the days of the week fit into a system, but rather of direct observation of life phenomena themselves. After ten years of observation I have never had occasion to doubt that this theory truly names (characterizes) one sphere of life in which the human being participates * through the course of the year. (Elaboration on this rhythm will shortly follow.)

The table pictured on the following page is also known as the Hours of Solomon. I am unfamiliar with the actual background of this name other than (I assume) it having some connection with King Solomon. I have seen tables of Solomon in which each hour of each day is given to a different planetary ruler. I would not deny the possibility of this but, thus far, after ten years of observation I have never had the impression that this is true to the living reality. ** * The one exception to this rhythm takes place during the Holy Nights period from December 24 to January 5. I will say more about this later. ** A friend of mine has worked with trying to enter into the moods of each of the days of the week through immersing himself in the phenomena of nature around sunrise on these different days. After some years of this activity he felt that he could definitely discern a different mood for each day through his contemplative activity. I mention this to suggest that although I feel quite certain of the reality of the 6 hourly rhythm of the planetary spheres I do not mean to suggest it is the only rhythm which might be discernible to a contemplative activity of living into aspects of the qualities of the different days of the week.

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It is certainly possible that my perception of these phenomena is not refined enough to experience this finer rhythm but I would also suggest that it is possible that someone at some time may have met the above conception and then schematically (in the spirit of mathematism) worked out a system through intellectual deduction without testing its fidelity to the objective, living reality. I look forward to hearing what any interested reader may make of this particular sphere of living phenomena.

At first, simply noting the fluctuations during the course of the week, I was only aware of changes of mood. I could feel, for example, a stillness on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon I often felt a kind of difficulty in my feeling comfortable in my body. On Saturday evenings I felt more lively and mercurial. This is an example of some of the differences of which I first became aware. As I had mentioned earlier I did not initially have any concepts for the different qualities of the planets. These were gradually being introduced to me in some of my classes but my earliest experiences were not considered in light of them. Gradually, I came to feel that it would be true to suggest that something of the characters of the various planets as they have been indirectly indicated in the first Volume and more directly so in the preceding pages could be experienced during those temporal periods which the theory of the Hours of Solomon suggested that they ruled. Yes I could say to myself, there is something of deep contemplation on the Sabbath morning, something of prayer. There is an energetic meeting the world on Tuesday morning; a contemplative, wisdom seeking and expressing quality on Thursday morning; a steady, sunny, joyous quality on Sunday morning. I could begin to more wakefully experience these qualitative changes of mood during the course of the week but as I continued to turn my attention to these phenomena I had the developing sense that the theory was not completely adequate for explaining the more subtle aspects of my experience.

As I had grown to have a clearer experience of my own centers of focalization in relation to the planetary rulerships of the 12 archetypal regions 1 naturally expected that when I was moving through a Saturn region of experience the center of focalization would be at the crown; a Jupiter region of experience (Thursday

155 morning, Sunday evening, etc.) the center of focalization would be at the brow. In clearer self-observation of this dynamic I came to feel that this was not quite how I experienced the effects of moving through seven planetary regions, four times during the course of the week. Through continuing this self-observation I came to an understanding of another factor working in relation to the planetary hours which I needed to take into account more fully in order to more accurately understand some of the effects of the six hourly rhythm of the planetary rulerships upon myself and others. 1 discovered that the generalized planetary rhythm repeating itself four times each through the seven planetary spheres weekly was more particularized because of the changing planetary placements moving through different signs in the tropical zodiac. That is to say that if Saturn was standing in the sign of Sagittarius in the present moment during one of the Saturn periods I would experience the effects of Saturn in Sagittarius upon me, not simply Saturn. If Jupiter moving through Pisces-Scorpio at the present time, during a Jupiter ruled period 1 would feel the effects of Jupiter in Pisces-Scorpio upon me, not solely Jupiter. This followed for each of the planetary regions. I needed to take into account the present placement of the planet in the circle of the signs to understand the more specific quality of influence which I was experiencing while moving through a particular, planetary ruled period. The exception to this I could experience as I stood in a Sun or Moon ruled region. In a Sun ruled region I could feel the working of the Sun through both the sign and constellation sectors. In a Moon ruled period 1 could experience the working of the Moon through the constellation sectors only. Of course 1 also experienced that simultaneous to my experience of the ruling planetary energies, I could always locate the independent and ongoing working of the Sun and Moon forces. Consequently it seems accurate to say that during the Sun and Moon periods respectively these forces were simply emphasized through their more exclusive working. This is the pattern I have discovered after about ten years.

The idea of the SIX HOURLY PLANETARY progression during the course of the WEEK, further particularized by virtue of the PRESENT,

156 respective positions of the PLANETS in the TROPICAL ZODIAC (the Sun in both the SIDEREAL and TROPICAL zodiacs and the Moon in relation solely to the SIDEREAL ZODIAC) truly names one of the rhythms in the qualities of time in which the human being participates during the course of the year.

THE PLANETARY HOURS, MORAL DYNAMICS, SENSES,

PHILOSOPHIES AND FORMATIVE CURRENTS

If one more closely explores some of the experiences of the planetary hours which attentive self-observation can lead one to have, one can find the following. (For these examples and the pages following I will take the period from January 1, 1985 to the end of February, 1985).* On Tuesday, Jan. 1, 1985, one can experience the mood and quality of Mars from 6AM until noon blending with the quality of Pisces. From noon until 6 PM one can experience the mood and character of Jupiter blending with the quality of Virgo (Capricorn-Virgo). From 6PM until midnight one can experience the mood and quality of Saturn blending with the quality of Cancer (scorpio-Cancer). Thus far all of these experiences which can be felt as streaming from outside in are still being considered universally, or independently of the particular structure of forces impressed around different individuals by virtue of the planetary positions from birth.

On the following morning, Wed., Jan. 2, 1985, one can experience the quality of Mercury (ast. Venus, see App.IV) blending with the quality of Libra (Aquarius-Libra). On Wed. afternoon from noon until 6 PM one can experience the quality of Venus blending with the quality of Aries (Sag.-Aries), etc. What in living reality this means considered in the light of the material we have already explored is that on Tues. morning, the energetic, active, merciful, quality of Mars blends with the formative currents shaping the hands and the feet (the little children are kicking at each other!). One

* Strictly speaking this is inaccurate in that these example days fall during the Holy Night period when other cosmic conditions are present. Nevertheless, the principle as given is accurate for the rest of the year outside the Holy Night period and should be viewed accordingly. The exceptional circumstances of the Holy-Nights will be discussed later.

157 can discover this Martial blending of action and energy with the Pisces related struggle for the moral balance between the lack of narrowness, the excess of fraud and deceit and the virtue of generosity becoming love. (one understands why the children are "moved" to kick each other and tries to redirect the energized feet to different objects!). One is generous in one's speech, or perhaps energetically narrow and misleading. One may also experience the blending of the Martial character of energy and experience of oneself through meeting the resistance of another, in relation to the Pisces sense of hearing. It is almost as if there is an enhanced sense of being pulled together, awake in one's sense of hearing. (Didn't you hear what I said, children, let's run to the end of the block and back. 1 had a teacher who used to pull my ears when I was kicking other children. Perhaps she knew what she was doing.) In following this current into the world view one can experience the quality of Mars' wilfulness or voluntarism in relation to Pisces' orientation of psychism.

In the afternoon the Jupiter quality of objectivity, serene wisdom, purity of heart - looking at a question from a rounded, almost spherical perspective with the attention focussed at the brow (the center of logical thinking), comes into relationship with the formative region of the solar plexus and musculature, linked with the sign in which it then stands -that of Capricorn-Virgo. The consciousness enhancing, objective processes called forth in the Jupiter sphere find a relation to the moral struggle in the region of the Virgin, where the excess: fornication, and the lack: carelessness, find their virtuous balance in the quality of courtesy developing into tactfulness of heart. This sphere of contemplation enters also into relation to the sense of movement (Virgo) and the way of looking at the world spoken of earlier as phenomenalism (Virgo).

This pattern of blending between the character of the ruling planetary hour and the particular tropical region in which the planet is standing in the present moment - calling forth its particular stimulations of formative currents, moral dynamics, senses and philosophies, continues in this pattern. When I move through a sphere ruled by the Moon I experience the blending between the qualities of the Moon and the particular constellation region through which the Moon is then moving. For example, in the early morning of Jan. 2, 1985, when the Moon is moving through a Leo or Sun ruled region in the constellation circle, I experience an emphasis (through its rulership) on this region, although its characteristics remain the same as those previously given in relation to the Moon's motion through the circle of the constellations.

While moving through a Sun ruled period, as, for example, on Wed. evening, Jan. 2, 1985, I can experience both the constellation quality in the background

158 and the sign quality in the foreground or more external, superphysical nature. This is the same as the dynamic 1 have previous discussed but it is emphasized through its period of rulership.

To give the reader a clearer picture of this dynamic of the blending of the ruling planetary influence with the various archetypal regions 1 have presented in the following pages tables for the planetary rulers in relation to these archetypes: the planetary rulers; the planetary rulers in relation to the moral dynamics; the planetary rulers in relation to the senses and the planetary rulers in relation to the world pictures. I have done this for each sphere for the two month period from Jan. 1 to the end of Feb. 1985. (And with characteristic impatience failed to realize that the period from Jan. lst to Jan, 5th should be overlooked in this regard for the present). Looking at these and at an ephemeris the reader should have a clear enough picture of how he could draw up similar charts as aids to his own self-exploration, for any period of time.

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What I have thus far presented is a characterization of the experience of the more universal dynamic of the planetary rulerships with only the qualifying factor of the present placement of the planets in relation to the signs and/or constellations modifying the essential pattern of planetary rulership.

Next let us look at how these more universal currents affect the particularized structures impressed in the more external, superphysical nature of a human being by virtue of his or her planetary placements at the moment of birth. Going back to our example of Tuesday, Jan. 1, 1985, at 6AM we would find the following. In the morning, the Mars quality blending with that of Pisces would activate the Pisces currents at birth which are focalized around the Neptune placement at that time? In the afternoon the Jupiter quality blending with the Virgo region would stimulate the Mercury ruled, solar plexus center, and the Mercury placement there from the moment of birth (Mercury being the ruler of Virgo). Going to Wednesday, between 6AM and noon the Venus planetary placement would blend with the Venus ruled Libra currents, stimulating the 2nd center: Venus, kidney, hip area. This would in turn stimulate the particular Venus placement which was focalized at that center from the moment of birth. In the afternoon the planet Mercury (Venus quality) would blend with the Aries (Sag.-Aries) Mars ruled quality, stimulating the Mars ruled center at the throat and thereby sympathetically stimulating the currents from the Mars placement at the moment of birth.

Looked at in terms of the example of our hypothetical moment of birth with our hypothetical individual surrounded by those forces pictured there, we would see/experience the following:

On Tuesday morning the Mars quality, blending with the Neptune ruled Pisces (which we will provisionally hold for the present) would in turn stimulate the Neptune in Sag.-Leo placement at the moment of birth. One could experience the blending of the formative currents shaping the hands and the feet with those focalized at the heart center. The energetic, active relation to the sense of hearing would blend with the sense of life focalized at the heart center.

In the afternoon the more universal quality of wisdom bearing Jupiter blending with the solar-plexus, Mercury ruled Virgo would stimulate the solar plexus center, expanding it somewhat through the influence of Jupiter. In the example of our individual, the

168 wisdom stream blending with philosophic phenomenalism and the sense of movement would stimulate his Mercury placement in the Capricorn region from the moment of birth. His experience of his sense of sight would be emphasized as well as his experience of the moral dynamic of the weakness: timidity, the excess: envy, finding their healthy balance in the quality of courage becoming redemptive power.

From 6PM until midnight the deeply inward, conscience filled mood of Saturn would blend with the qualities of the motherly sense of touch related sphere of Cancer. This universal characteristic would stimulate in our individual his Virgo forces by virtue of the fact that the Moon stood in the constellation of Virgo at his time of birth. For him the question of conscientiousness (Saturn) in regards to questions of early childhood or birth could be awakened through Saturn in Cancer. Because of the stimulation of his birth Moon position in the region of Virgo, he might be concerned with the problem of rights (Virgo-Mercury) and responsibilities (Saturn) in relation to the problem of abortion (moon).

From these examples we can see that the planetary ruler first sets the overlying mood or quality of a particular six, hourly period. This mood is then modified by virtue of where it stands in the 36 (12) archetypal regions. This modified, universal gesture then stimulates the individual structure impressed around the human being from the moment of birth. The logic of this final stimulation (as clearly as I have been thus far able to see and understand it) is that the planetary ruler of the sign (the const. for Sun and Moon) through which the planet is moving, sympathetically stimulates the formative currents of the sign region coming to a focalization at a particular planetary center. This then sets in motion the currents of the planet which rules the same center from birth. I will say more about this is the second part of the book when we look more extensively at the application of this observation in particular cases.

Let me make a few concluding observations before moving on to a discussion of the next, shorter rhythm. As I had earlier stated 1 have lived with this particular rhythm of the planetary hours for over ten years. At times I must confess that the intricacies of the movements of the currents in their relation to each other have been somewhat maddening for me to "pin down". What I have thus far characterized is an attempt to share what I have come to after this

169 period of observation. Although I have no doubt about the rhythms of the ruling planetary spheres through the signs and constellations (when applicable) moving in the present moment, thereby determining the more universal character of these six hourly periods, 1 do not feel that my further exploration and characterization of their effects upon the individualized structures formed at the moment of birth is necessarily complete in its fidelity to the precise character of the dynamics of sympathetic stimulation. Nevertheless, I think that as far as I have stated, it is accurate, if not complete. I offer these observations now to aid the reader on his own path of selfinvestigation and welcome hearing what other investigators of this dynamic may discover.

There are certain aspects of the effects of the planetary hours upon man which remain stark paradoxes to me. One of these is the following. It has been my experience during these ten years that the present influence of the Sun and Earth working both through the signs and constellations, the Moon, solely through the constellations, is always accompanied with a ruling planetary energy moving in the dynamic of six hourly changes. In addition to the Sun, Moon and Earth, I have experienced only one ruling planetary mood or quality of energy to be present during each 6 hourly period. 1 am suggesting that when I participate in the Saturn sphere the quality of Saturn is not emphasized in relation to the other planets, but it is exclusively present, along with the influences of Sun, Moon and Earth. In a Sun or Moon ruled period during the planetary hour rhythms (6 hourly rhythms) those factors are highlighted through the absence of another planetary ruling energies presence. So far, so good!

Now I am also confronted with another fact of observation.

It has been one of the main intentions of this book to share some of my observations over the years which have led me to the conclusion of the significance of the moment of birth for the imprinting in the more external, superphysical body of forces the gestures of the planetary placements present at that moment. Over the years of observation I have concluded that the Saturn placement at birth is focalized at the crown center, the Jupiter placement at the brow center, the Mars placement at the throat center, the Sun placement at the heart center, etc. That is to say that when I observe the present working of the energies of the planets through the structures

170 pictured in the birth configuration, 1 find them livingly present in the pattern described above. Nevertheless, when 1 turn my attention to the present cosmic moment 1 can experience only one planetary quality (with Sun, Moon and Earth as well) working exclusively of the others. Given that "birth charts" are pictures of planets present at the moment of birth and these charts picture all the planetary spheres which 1 can experience surrounding a person in the living logic of the birth chart, why is it that when I turn my attention to the planetary mood working in the present 1 only experience the working of one planetary quality exclusive of the others? This, even to a questionable "logician" as myself is a blatant contradiction between two spheres of my investigation's observations. Given that in each case I am 95% confident that my observations are faithful to the living reality I am left deeply perplexed. Any help explorers of this paradox can offer to me I would deeply appreciate.

Finally I would like to say something about the relevance of these findings to the idea of the planetary rulerships viewed in relation to the concept of transits in the world of astrology. I have not over the years ever given intensive attention to this question. Nevertheless, the reader familar with the concept of transits will have recognized that my research could have some implications in respect to it. For example, it could be argued and I will do so later on in the context of a deeper exploration of the relevance of some of these findings to questions of the dynamics of the working of destiny or karma - that each time the Moon stands in a Saturn ruled constellation region, through the stimulation of the Saturn placement at birth, there is a kind of effect similar to that of a transit. Or that the Earth, by setting in motion certain centers through its moving across regions of the zodiac ruled by the same planet as those centers (as, for example, the Gemini region ruled by Mercury would stimulate the solar plexus center, also ruled by Mercury) is working in a similar way to a transit of a birth planet by virtue of the ongoing motion of the planets. Further, that given my experience (although the solution to the above paradox might explain this as well) of the exclusive rulership by a planetary energy each six hours (inclusive if Sun, Moon and Earth) I would suggest that for transits

171 to be livingly operative they would have to take place during the planetary period when the planet making the transit was ruling. This is a deductive" theory' based on my research thus far. I have not yet had time to investigate it systematically, although recently I had one experience which could be explained by this theory. Not long ago my car slid off the road and ran into a tree. Considering the various factors present at the moment this occurred left me initially without any "cosmic" explanation. Then I realized (alas, a little too late) that there was an almost exact transit by the planetary ruler during the time when it took place of a configuration in my birth chart (in my living body of forces) which is traditionally related to accidents (eighth house). This explanation of this one case seemed the most satisfactory one. It led me to further wonder whether one need modify the idea of the possible effects of transits in light of whether the transits are occurring in relation to the planetary rulers of different time periods. If this factor is taken into account certain transits would not actually be operative because their proximity would occur during periods when they were not ruling and by the time their rulership returned they would have passed beyond the range of the transits (of course this would be mostly true for the inner planets up to the Sun for each planet would rule about once in two days. Due to their more rapid motion they could pass beyond the range of an aspect which could be considered effective).

1 mention this now because of the relevance of these findings to the concept of transits. It is beyond the intentions of these studies to explore such questions in greater depth. I hope to go into this problem more deeply at a later time.

Having now explored the ten day rhythms of the Sun and the Earth, the twenty hourly rhythm of the Moon and the six hourly rhythm of the planets, let us now turn our attention in the next chapter to the two hourly rhythm of the circle of houses. (see Appendix II).

172 "My life teaches, further, as it seems to me, that man can learn to know himself only by the experimental method; and only by allowing life to experiment with him, e.g. by submitting fearlessly to all its influences, can he grow out of his original state" ... "Thus initiative is the only road to salvation. A man must be objective in his attitude towards his own nature as the chemist is towards the chemicals whose properties he studies. And, like him, one should see in one's personal qualities the elements which can be combined into a new and higher synthesis." Hermann Keyserling (Autobiographical Sketch)

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CHAPTER IV: THE TWO HOURLY HOUSE RHYTHM

Some years into my exploration of the rhythm of the planetary rulers and my discovery of their relation to the region of the tropical zodiac through which they were moving in the present moment, I began to wonder about the classical theory of the circle of houses. I said to myself: given that I have discovered through repeated experience the exclusive rulership of any six hourly period by one of the planets would it not be true to see that in the course of these six hourly periods, due to the daily rotation of the earth, the present ruling planet was moving through about three houses. The obvious accompanying question was, of course: is there any living reality corresponding to the idea of the circle of houses?

My way of proceeding was as follows. I took a Table of Ascendants for the days of my observations and used the Rosicrucian Fellowship Simplified Scientific Table of Houses as a guide to the House Divisions *. I then tried to observe within my own forces and those of the people around me any evidence of the six hourly planetary rhythm being modified by a factor of shorter duration. Before very long I came to feel that this factor was definitely present. I then, at the beginning of each day, would write out the approximate picture of the Ascendants for each hour of the day (see pictures on the next page). In this example let us start with the same days we considered previously: Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, 1985.** For the morning period (6AM-Noon) I would look to the Mars position in relation to its placement in the tropical zodiac, and for the after noon the Jupiter position and its placement in the same zodiac on that day. Then I would place the respective Mars position and

* There are quite a few different house systems: Placidus, Campanus, Koch, etc. I, for no apparent reason, picked up the Rosicrucian Fellowship Table of Houses as a guide to my observations. Without having turned my attention to the question of the exact house divisions I have come to feel through considering people's archetypal gestures in relation to the various centers, etc. that the Placidean system I happened upon seems reasonably accurate. 1 must make a more careful study of this question before I can say more about it. For the present this will be the "system" I am using in my examples. ** Once again the reader must excuse my carelessness in that -for the sake of consistency -1 am still using the example of early Jan. though it falls in the Holy Night period when other conditions are present. Nevertheless, the example holds good throughout the year other than during the period from Dec. 24-Jan. 5. See Ch. VI for a further consideration of this question.

175 Jupiter position in the charts composed of the present moments in relation to the respective house in which it would be moving during the course of the day. This is illustrated in pictorial form on the preceding page.

I would note the phenomena mentally and in notebooks 1 had kept for this purpose - having from Jan. 1, 1981 to Jan. 1, 1982 - noted phenomena hourly for each day through the entire year. Included in these observations were the influence of the Sun, Moon and Earth, the planetary sphere and its motion through the houses. (More will be said of this shortly).

Before long I came to feel that the motion of the various ruling planets through the circle of the houses clearly reflected a motion through twelve distinct regions of further experience. With refinement of my observation I came to feel (and seven years of further investigation continues to confirm this) that as the ruling planet moved through that house traditionally known as the 12th house I was in a world of experience qualitatively similar to that world of experience through which I move when I am moving in a Pisces ruled region. Moving through the llth house I have found that I am in a world of experience qualitatively similar to that through which I move when I am moving through an Aquarius ruled region. Moving through the 10th house I am in a world of experience qualitatively similar to that world of experience through which I move when

176 I am moving through a Capricorn ruled region. This follows the pattern given on the previous page following the arrow counter-clockwise. In regard to the question of the circle of houses my own direct observation/experience has convinced me after seven years that the traditional conception as I have given it above does correspond to an experienceable, living superphysical reality.

This is to say, that taking the example given of Jan. lst, 1985 between 9AM and 10:30 AM an. individual sensitive to the character of the six hourly rulership can discover the mood of Mars blending with the quality of Pisces also blending with the qualities present in the first house of Aries. In the course of the next hour he can experience at a definite time (with careful enough attention) that the quality of Mars in Pisces blending with the first house character of Aries changes into a quality of Mars in Pisces blending with the twelfth house character of Pisces. Between 11AM and noon continued observation would reveal that the experience of the blending of the Mars quality with the Pisces quality would move from the denser atmosphere of the Piscean twelfth house to the airier quality of the Aquarian llth house

At noon, a definite change of mood can be experienced, as the rulership of Mars gives way to that of Jupiter. (The period of five minutes or so before the transition to 5 minutes or so after is a good time to - through the contrast ~ experience these transitions,) The starkness of the contrast will, of course, also depend on the contrasting natures of the signs and the houses through which the respective planetary rulers may then be moving. To move, for example, from Mars in Aries to Jupiter in Cancer, has a greater contrast of feeling than to move from Mars in Aries to Jupiter in Sagittarius. To move from Mars in the first house to Jupiter in the fourth would have a character of greater contrast than to, for example, move from Mars in the first house to Jupiter in the first house.

Going back to our illustration we find that at noon the wisdom related gesture of Jupiter blends with the gracious courtesy of the Virgin, first standing in the Father's house of Capricorn (10th house). Thought of discipline may arise at this time or a present contemplation of the phenomena of traditions from the past. At one PM, Jupiter in Capricorn-Virgo will have moved into the house of

177 Sagittarius which - as we saw earlier - is ruled by the planet Jupiter (more of this will be explained shortly). The mood of deep contemplation through Capricorn will give way to the more buoyant, spirited, expansive mood of the ninth house. One hour later Jupiter in Capricorn-Virgo will leave the home of Sagittarius and enter the region of the eighth house of Scorpio. Scorpio related concerns whether questions of death, research, etc. - will now be met by the wisdom radiating phenomenalism of this Jupiter in Capricorn-Virgo. Finally towards the end of the afternoon Jupiter in Capricorn-Virqo will enter the seventh house of Libra and bring its logism into relation to the "phenomenal' (Virgo) of human relationships or the mystery of the polarity of male-female, man and society, etc. (Libra).

This, in principle, would follow for each of the planets moving through the circle of the houses during their respective planetary rulerships. The Moon would work during its rulership through its position in the constellations; the Sun through both the sign and constellation. Both nevertheless would also come into relation with (blend with) the respective regions through which they are moving during their periodic rulerships. (Regions of the houses).

For those readers interested in working practically in their own self-observation with this rhythm 1 could suggest the following. He or she could observe the motion of the Sun on Sunday morning to try to grow into an experience of the Sun's moving through the 12, 11 and 10 houses of Pisces, Aquarius and Capricorn. Observing the motion of the Sun on Friday afternoon he could experience the qualities of the Sun's moving through houses 9, 8 and 7 or Sagittarius, Scorpio and Libra. Next he could observe the movement of the Sun on Wednesday evening as it moves through the houses 6, 5 and 4 or Virgo, Leo and Cancer. Finally he could observe the motion of the Sun on Monday night, from midnight until 6AM to experience the Sun moving through houses 3, 2 and 1 or Gemini, Taurus and Aries. (Of course this varies somewhat depending on the time of the year but for the most part this pattern is accurate.)

In respect of this motion of the Sun through its four, six hourly periods during the course of the week, there is an opportunity each week to observe the sun's motion through the respective

178 twelve houses, as a starting point for developing a sense of the qualities of the respective houses.

Having made these remarks let me go forward to a further characterization of some of the more universal dynamics of the motion of the ruling planetary spheres as they progress through the circle of the houses. It has been my experience that just as the tropical divisions and the sidereal divisions of the respective zodiacs have definite characteristics in relation to the qualitative moral dynamic, the formative currents, senses and world pictures so do the circle of houses. That is to say when one of the ruling planetary regions - as in our example, Mars in Pisces, moves through the first house of Aries, it moves through a region which works more universally in shaping currents experienceable as a column of uprightness running up and down the spinal column, culminating in a shaping gesture around the head and brow. In this region one can feel a stimulation of one's sense for the word, one's way of viewing the world as an idealist and the moral struggle to develop the capacity of devotion into a force of sacrifice, balancing the tendencies towards the weakness: defencelessness and the excess: malice. That is to say at 9AM, Jan. 1, 1985 the attentive self-observer could experience that the qualities of Mars blending with the qualities of Pisces would enter into relation to a region of experience (first house) having all the above named characteristics. An hour or so later these named characteristics would no longer be discoverable and would have given way to an experience of the Piscean qualities of stimulation of the hands and -feet, sense of hearing, looking out at the world through the view of psychism and trying to find a balance between insularity and vague and misleading deceitfulness, to attain true generosity, leading to wise deeds of love. The dynamic for the various spheres of experience and the circle of houses is pictured in the following charts. (See next pages).

There is probably a logical reader who has anticipated the following observations. Someone may be thinking about the question which inevitably arose within my own mind during these investigations. If there are 36 sidereal sectors and 36 tropical sectors, might it also be reasonable to suspect that there are also 36 regions in the circle of houses? More than reasonable to ask the question and less than reasonable for me to say that thus far it has not been my

183 experience that this is so. Why not still remains a riddle to me?

Having shared these observations of my experience of the more universal currents of the planets moving through the circle of houses during their respective rulerships, their overall influence and character being, during those times, modified thereby, I would now like to address the question of the relation between the planetary placements at the moment of birth, the individualized body of forces formed at the moment of birth, and the circle of houses.

THE CIRCLE OF HOUSES AND THE MOMENT OF BIRTH

In considering this question we are brought back to the same paradox 1 described earlier in relation to the fact that although 1 can only experience one planetary energy working at the time of its rulership exclusive of any other, nevertheless all the planets seem to leave their impress from the moment of birth in what I have called the "more external, superphysical body of forces". In observing the archetypes of the different planetary spheres in relation to the tropical or sidereal zodiac positions at birth the attentive self-observer or observer of others can discover that there is evidence of other factors beyond the two stated above. Experiencing the quality of one of these additional factors leads one gradually to the conclusion that its explanation lies in understanding the planetary placement from birth as it stands in relation to the circle of houses at that time. Taking the example we have used throughout -our hypothetical individual -or another with the sensitivity to make such observations would discern the following.

When, for example, the Moon was moving through a Moon ruled region, thereby stimulating the Moon placement in the body of forces resulting from the planetary positions from the moment of birth, one could observe the awakening of the maternal, nurturing forces of the Moon, focalized at the center (1) of the reproductive region stimulated, thereby also stimulating the region of the stomach, ruled by Virgo (Mercury) where the Moon stood in the sidereal (constellation) zodiac at birth. These currents could also be seen to tie into the formative currents, sense, etc. of the Aries region. My

184

explanation for this Is that this Is so because the Moon stood at the moment of birth In the first house of Aries. This fact left as a permanent Imprint - In relation to the particular center and streams of force ruled by the Moon - the constellation region and house In which the Moon stood at birth.

When the Moon moves before a Venus ruled region one could observe the stimulating of the center

(2), the kidney-colon, hip area. These processes are linked sympathetically with the formative currents shaping the thighs and upper arms, etc. by virtue of the fact that Venus stood In relation to the Sagittarius forces at the moment of birth. Careful observation would lead one to the conviction that this does not exhaust the question of the character of these related currents. For this Individual's Venus forces could be seen to further tie Into the reproductive processes, the breast area, skin, etc. The explanation to which one would be led to account for this repeated experience Is that, by virtue of Venus's placement In the 4th house of Cancer at the moment or birth, these lunar forces (ruling Cancer) are also sympathetically Involved In the Venus center or archetype. A complete picture of this further dynamic could be Imagined as follows, In respect to the hypothetical Individual being discussed. (See next page).

Let me briefly look at the question of the relation between the more universal archetypal currents of

the two hourly motion of the ruling planetary spheres moving through the circle of the houses to the more Individual currents, now considering the further factor of the houses In which the planets stood at the moment of birth. let us assume that It Is Jan. 1, 1985 In the afternoon and our Individual Is being influenced by the motion of Jupiter In 21 Capricorn (capricorn-VIrgo) moving through the circle of houses during the course

of the day. First of all, Jupiter's presence In the Mercury ruled region of Virgo, focalized at the solar plexus will stimulate the, Mercury placement from the moment of birth In this particular Individual. That is to say that mercury, In the sign of Capricorn, would have stimulated the Capricorn related currents. Its presence In the 4th house of Cancer would also have the Jupiter In Capricorn-Virgo ruling planetary energy stimulate the Moon (1) related center Its currents and concerns as well. This stimulation would be further modified during the afternoon by vIrtue of Jupiter's motion through

186 the l0th, 9th, 8th and 7th houses. When it moves through the loth house of Capricorn, ruled by Saturn, the Saturn center from the moment of birth impressed in the more external, superphysical body would be stimulated (in this case Saturn in Scorpio-Pisces in the house of Gemini). Moving through the ninth house of Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter it would stimulate the Jupiter focalized currents at the brow. In this case Jupiter in Sagittarius-Leo in the house of Cancer. Moving through the eighth house of Scorpio it would stimulate the Scorpio related Mars ruled currents focalized at the region of the throat. This would in turn stimulate the Mars in Libra-Gemini currents involving the Taurus currents of the second house where Mars stood at birth.

1 think enough has now been said of this particular dynamic to give the interested reader an essential picture of something of the flowing, living interweaving of the more universal forces with the more individualized, particularized ones. He should understand that the stimulations spoken of earlier - by virtue of the motion of the tropical Earth and Sun during the course of the year through the 36 ruled archetypal regions - whenever stimulating a particular center of focalization would also stimulate qualities related to the houses in which the respective planets are standing as well. This dynamic will be further illustrated in the second, practical part of this book.

Before I leave this consideration of the effects of the two hourly rhythm of the varying planetary rulers through the circle of the houses and the presence at birth of all the planetary placements in relation to particular houses, I feel I must speak of one final factor in relation to this dynamic, without which the interested reader might be somewhat misled in his self-exploration in relation to this particular sphere of phenomena.

THE HOUSE CUSPS

There is a theory in traditional astrology suggesting that the degree and sign which stands at the transitional point from one house to the next (called the cusp) also has a significant part to play in affecting the character of the particular quality of the house itself. The actual transitional points are dependent on the system

187 of houses which one uses to determine where at any given time, one house may end and another begin. As stated earlier, there are quite a few different systems of houses. Although there was no obvious reason why I picked up a Rosicrucian Fellowship Book of Houses (using the placidian system), 1 have come to feel over the years that it seems relatively accurate to the experienceable, living reality. That is to say that after observing my own forces for some years and doing many birth charts against which I have had the repeated opportunity to observe other's forces in relation to these birth charts, I have come to these tentative conclusions. There is a reality to the significance of the sign and degree on the cusps of the various houses and the Placidian system seems reasonably accurate in depicting this further influence. I use the term "reasonably" so that it is understood that I have never made a direct, thorough, systematic study focused on the question of the house cusps so I cannot speak definitively about it. Nevertheless, within the limits of my experience of this sphere of phenomena - about seven years of self-observation of my experience of moving through the houses in relation to my own birth configuration (my body of living forces pictured in my birth configuration) and that of others - this "system" has fairly accurately named the experienceable phenomena. Consequently it is the one 1 will use in the following discussion.

If we look at the hypothetical birth chart we have been considering, one theory in relation to the house cusps would suggest that by virtue of Virgo (| ) standing on the cusp of the first house this would bring about a kind of blending of the Mercury (c) ruled Virgo influence and the Aries (w) Mars (e )influence of the first house itself. Given that the Moon is standing in the first house the theory would suggest that we would expect to find the influence of the Virgo, Mercury ruled cusp somehow also influencing the Moon. In this case it would be difficult to ascertain whether this theory was accurate in that here the Moon is also related to the Virgo, Mercury sphere of influence through its placement in the constellation of Virgo at birth. Looking at, for example, the placement of the Sun in the fifth house at birth we would experience through its position in the Capricorn-Taurus, Venus ruled sector a stimulation of the (2) kidney center accompanying the

188 stimulation of the Sun ruled heart center. One can also discover in such a case that the Capricorn (Saturn ruled center) is at this time also stimulated along with the heart (4). After repeated observations it has been my experience that this further current of influence (confirming the theory of the cusps) focalized at the various centers can be understood through considering the placement of the sign on the cusps of the respective houses, as well as the planetary ruler of that sign. I will not say more about this at the present time. It becomes easy to get "carried away" with, what can be a kind of "mathematical" consideration which I feel at times may have occurred in some of those traditions handed down to us. Nevertheless, given that all I have written about has been the fruit of a painstaking process of direct observation/experience I can but only wonder gratefully about those explorers and pioneers who may have accurately described some of these dynamics through direct observation. (Of course the question of the kind of consciousness used for some of these explorations in earlier times needs to be considered, but it is for the present, beyond the scope of these studies to go into this further). I hope that a continued dedication to a living exploration of the superphysical basis of many of these traditions will gradually help to separate those theories which - were one to follow their lead - would prove to guide one faithfully into living spheres of reality, from those which may have been the fruit of more abstract, intellectual speculations and mathematical systematizing.

For the sake of completeness, without leading onto even more complicated observations let me conclude with the following. The classical concept of the cusps would further suggest that given that Aries is the character of the first house and that Mars rules Aries, the ruling planet of the first house cusp would also be involved in the Mars processes. in this case, for example, when the planetary rulers may have passed before the first house one would expect both a stimulation of the throat center through the rulership of Mars as well as the solar plexus center through Mercury's rulership of Virgo (| ) on the cusp. (of course, in this case, by

189 virtue of Mars being in Libra-Gemini (}y) at birth, there can be confusion as to which Mercury ruled sphere is responsible for this). Further, that whenever the Mars centers are stimulated, as for example, when the Moon is passing through a Mars ruled region of Scorpio or Aries, not only the Mars in Libra-Gemini (Mars in the sign) in the second house of Taurus with Libra on the cusp would be stimulated, but further the two Mars ruled houses - lst and 8th (Aries and Scorpio) would also be involved, stimulating the signs on their respective cusps. In this case Virgo (for the first house) and Aries (for the eighth house). This further "complication" seems to be born out through careful observation although at this juncture of fineness of distinction I repeatedly ask myself if I am not trying to fit my experience into my theories. I will leave the reader with one final picture of the various influences of the 9 archetypal planetary centers we have been exploring. I leave it to your discretion to determine on your own path of careful self observation when your Virgoan, phenomenalistic love of detail may have gone far enough!

191 "We have yet another mystery. Man has gathered himself together, incarnated in a physical body to which he comes by way of his parents. He has journeyed so far during his expansion in cosmic space that he has recorded his particular characteristics there. As we gaze from the earth upward to the heavens there are not only stars, but also our characteristics from previous incarnations. If, for instance, we were ambitious in previous earth lives then this ambition is recorded in the starry world. It is recorded in the Akasha Chronicle and when you are here on earth at a particular spot, this ambition comes to you with the corresponding planet in a certain position and makes its influence felt. That accounts for the fact that astrologers do not merely consider the stars and their motions, but will tell you that here is your vanity, there is your ambition, your moral failing, your indolence; something you have in~ scribed in the stars is now working out of the starry worlds unto the earth and determining your destiny. What lives in our souls is recorded in the vastness of space and it works back from space during our life on earth as we journey here between birth and death. If we truly understand them, these matters touch us closely and they enable us to explain many things." Rudolf Steiner (Life Between Death and Rebirth, p. 141)

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CHAPTER V: THE ASCENDANT* RHYTHM, SAMPLE DIARIES,

MISCELLANEOUS CONSIDERATIONS

Having looked at the two hourly rhythm of the motion of the ruling planetary sphere through the circle of the twelve houses, let us now look at one final, shorter rhythm to which I have given my attention for seven or so years. My clear impression has been that the earlier introduced concept of the 36 decanate divisions for the tropical zodiac holds for the ascendant in its daily motion. Consequently, approximately every 45 minutes the attentive observer can notice a different change of mood in respect of the forces mediated by the changing ascendant position. Further it has been my impression that the influence of the ascendant works through the 36 regions of the tropical zodiac **, not the sidereal zodiac and that the particular decanate division that is ascending at any given moment is the one operative at that time.

For example, one can experience that when the ascendant is moving between 0-10 degrees of Leo a stimulation of the region of the heart with the accompanying solar or Leonine qualities can be experienced. As it continues in its progress between 10-20 degrees of Leo one can experience the Jupiter ruled Sagittarius qualities stimulated. Moving through 20-30 degrees Leo (Leo-Aries) one can experience the Mars ruled Aries qualities, formative currents, etc. stimulated. As was the case earlier this more universal radiation

* Ascendant- the degree of the zodiac (tropical) which appears on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth. I have followed this phenomena through using Ascendant tables. My observations have led me to a general confirmation of this theory but have not been precise enough to allow me to speak about the problem of reckoning the exact ascendant at any given moment. ** Another disclaimer to my categorical statements. About 14 years ago during a period of intensive meditative activity I developed the feeling experience of the radiation working through the ascending constellation regions. This capacity lasted for about six months at which time certain events took me from this intensive inner discipline which seemed to prepare the ground for these experiences. In the last seven years I have consistently experienced the working of the signs through the changing degrees of the ascendant, not the working of the constellations. Another riddle!?

193 would work into the individualized structure of forces formed at the time of birth. In the example given, when 0-10 0 Leo was ascending, there would be a stimulation of the heart center with the accompanying Sun in Capricorn-Taurus in the fifth house, with Capricorn on the fifth house cusp, being sympathetically stimulated through the heart's focalization.

As the Sun moves from 10 0 Leo to 200 (Leo-Sag), the Jupiter ruled center at the brow is stimulated. In this case it sympathetically affects the heart (Sag.-Leo), the brow (Sag. on the cusp) and the reproductive center through Jupiter's placement in the Moon ruled fourth house of Cancer (1) at birth. In the next 45 minute period as Leo-Aries (20-30 Leo) moves across the ascendant, the Mars ruled center is stimulated through its rulership of the Aries ascendant. In the case of our individual the throat center (5) would link in with the solar-plexus (3) center through Mars being placed in Libra-Gemini (3) at birth, and into the kidney (2), colon and hip region through Mars standing in the second house of Taurus with Libra on the cusp of that house from the moment of birth. This, in principle, would hold as some of the effects I have thus far been able to observe of the working of the ascendant both into the more universal living sphere and its effects upon the more individualized structure impressed around the human being by virtue of the birth planetary placements in relation to signs, houses and cusps of houses. There are many views about the actual significance of the ascendant: whether for physical appearance; a basic gesture in meeting the world; the life of the soul, etc. It is beyond the scope of these studies to enter into this question. I hope to address it later on when I try to enter into investigations of a number of actual biographies showing how the characters and destinies of the individuals considered illustrate some of the fundamental principles it has been the intention of these studies to first present.

Having briefly looked at this shortest rhythm let us review the steps we have taken before entering into a consideration of how interested readers can work practically with this material.

194 10 Day Rhythms: We found in Volume I that due to the presence of 36 distinct sectors of the tropical

and sidereal zodiacs that approximately every 10 days the tropical and sidereal Sun and Earth moved into relation to different archetypal regions. The 10 day rhythm was also seen to work into the more permanent structure of forces imprinted around the human being at the moment of birth. This was seen to be so through the motion of the sun and the earth through the tropical zodiacal regions. These regions, qualitatively under the rulership of different planetary life currents stimulated corresponding planetary centers and life-currents surrounding the human being.

20 Hour Rhythms: We discovered that each 20 hours or so, as the Moon moves through the 36 regions

of the sidereal (constellation) zodiac, it mediates forces into the more inward superphysical structure of the human being. These forces are focalized at those centers corresponding to the planetary rulers of those regions through which the Moon is then moving. This more inward radiation moves through the more inward

center of concentration and radiates through the more outer structure, stimulating those currents related to the particular planetary archetype focalized at that center.

6 Hourly Rhythm: We then discovered that every 6 hours during the course of the week a different

planetary ruler was evident. We went on to say that the influence of this planetary ruler blended with the particular tropical (sign) region in which it was presently standing. The exception to this was the Moon which we have suggested to be working through the constellations and the Sun which we found to be working through both the signs and constellations. We then suggested that the effects of the ruling planetary qualities standing in relation to the signs stimulated the more external superphysical body of forces of the human being somewhat as follows: If Saturn stood in Leo (Sun), the more universal Saturn quality would blend with the related Leo qualities. Leo being ruled by the Sun would draw this Saturn in Leo configuration into relation with the Sun ruled canter of the human heart. This would in turn stimulated the archetypes which were focalized at the heart center at the moment of birth.

195 2 Hourly Rhythm: We then went on to discuss our experience of the fact that the tradition of the

circle of houses can be verified through direct, living experience. This brought the six hourly rhythm of the ruling, planetary hours into relation to the 12 houses, thereby giving us an approximately 2 hourly rhythm due to the motion of the ruling planetary quality through approximately 3 houses during the period of its rulership. We discovered that the qualities of the houses further modified the character of the planetary placement in relation to the signs. This was seen to also be a factor in relation to the archetypes impressed around the human being by virtue of the planetary placements at the moment of birth.

45 Minute Rhythm: Last we explored the shorter rhythm of approx. 45 minutes, during which time the

ascendant moves from one of the 36 sectors of the tropical zodiac to the next. We found this rhythm to correspond to a discoverable living reality.

DIARY

Taking the example we have thus far been working with 1 would now like to introduce some

suggestions as to how the reader could work with a diary form which 1 had kept intensively during a one year period. Of course, each one must determine the best step by step process for becoming familiar with these various regions of' experience we have thus far explored and how best to work with the following suggestions, if it may seem profitable to try to do so.

Let us first look at the cosmic environment for our individual on Tuesday, January lst, 1985 at Noon. We would find the following.

The universal archetypes are as follows: Tuesday Afternoon:

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Looking at the phenomena pictured on the previous page we find, in relation to the various rhythms we

have explored, the following : 10 Day Rhythm: The outer sign Sun (a) is in x Outer sign Earth is in z~

The inner const. Sun (a ) is in w Inner const. Earth is in y} 20 Hour Rhythm: The Moon (b) is in the sign of 80 Taurus (x) constellation of Aries-Leo (w} ) 6 Hour Rhythm: The ruling planet is Jupiter (f) in 21 0 Capricorn, Capricorn-Virgo (|). 2 [lour Rhythm: The house through which the ruling planet is moving, Jupiter, is the 10th house of

Capricorn () 45 Minute Rhythm: The ascendant is 18 0 Aries, Aries-Leo (w{ ). It emphasizes I the Sun ( a ) ruled heart

region.

If we look at this more mathematical description of the present factors working through the different rhythms of time and replace them with some of the corresponding processes which we found earlier we would discover the following: 10 Day Rhythm: The outer sign Sun (a) in Capricorn-Taurus (x ) calls forth the moral struggle to

attain balance which becomes progress. One works to overcome the lack: apathy, and the excess: covetousness. The formative currents of the colon area, kidney and neck will be stimulated through this placement, as would the sense of thought, and the world view of ' rationalism.

The inner constellation Sun (a) in Sag.-Aries (w ) calls forth the moral struggle to attain devotion

which can be become a force of sacrifice. One works to overcome the lack: defencelessness and the excess: malice. The formative currents shaping the head and brow region, the experience of living within a current of a column of uprightness is stimulated. Also the sense for the word and the way of looking at the world of idealismcan be located as coming from above and around into one's more inward superphysical nature.

197 The outer Earth in Cancer-Scorpio (z~) would be stimulated calling forth the moral struggle to attain true patience which can lead to insight, balancing the tendencies of the excess: pride, wrath, jealousy and the lack: mean-spiritedness. The accompanying qualities to this archetype could also be experienced as radiating from below, around and outside in in relation to one's individual structure of forces.

The inner Earth in Gemini-Libra (y}) would stimulate all of its accompanying archetypal regions and qualities working from below, around and inside out. 20 Hour Rhythm: The Moon (b ) standing at 8 0 Taurus (x) in the tropical zodaic is passing through

the constellation region of Aries-Leo. (w}) It would be mediating forces into the more inward superphysical nature at the center of the heart (related to Sun ruled Leo) through which they would radiate stimulating the Sun (a) placement from the moment of birth. In approx. 4 0 or 8 hours the Moon (b) would leave the Aries-Leo (w{) constellation sector and move into the Aries-Saq. (w ) region. During that period the lunar radiation, mediated into the more inwards superphysical nature at the center of the brow (ruled by Jupiter, Sagittarius) would radiate through that center stimulating the Jupiter (f) placement focalized there from the moment of birth.

Initially the Moon's placement in the Aries-Leo region would call forth in the more inward superphysical nature the Leo ({) related struggle to develop compassion which can lead to freedom and balance the inclination towards the excess: overpowering and the lack: theft. The more inward processes of the blood circulation and the heart would be stimulated, as would the accompanying sense for life and the world outlook of sensualism. Eight or so hours later the qualities of Leo would give way to the qualities of Sagittarius (taste, monadism, etc.) experienced purely in the more inward superphysical nature before it radiates through the Jupiter birth archetype.

6 Hour Rhythm: The wisdom radiating, serene and generous Jupiter, standng in relation to the quality

of Virgo (|) at 21 Capricorn (|) would be blending these two processes for the period considered universally. Jupiter's wisdom would be coming into relation with Virgo's struggle to develop courtesy which becomes tact of the heart, balancing the tendencies towards fornication and carelessness. The wisdom of Jupiter would be

198 brought into relation with the sense of movement and the world outlook of phenomenalism. 2 Hour Rhythm: This 6 hourly rhythm will begin with the wisdom bestowing quality of Jupiter

blending with Virgo's grace and sense of movement, moving through the mood of deep contemplation one can feel in the Saturn ruled house of Capricorn (10th house). The courtesy of the Virgin, the sense of movement, would for this 2 hourly period blend with the struggle in Capricorn to attain the quality of courage which can lead to redemptive power, balancing the excess: envy, ambition (false ambition), and the lack: timidity. The sense of sight and the world outlook of spiritism would also be stimulated at this time. Next the Jupiter placement in Capricorn-Virgo would move into the ninth house of Sagittarius with the related Sagittarian currents being stimulated.

45 Minute Rhythm: Finally the ascendant at 18 Aries (w{), Aries-Leo would stimulate the heart center,

the struggle for compassion which can lead to freedom. The sense of life and philosophic sensualism would alsobe stimulated. When the ascendant moved in about ten minutes to Aries-Saq. (w, 20-29 w ) , the brow center, philosophic monadism and the sense of taste would be stimulated.

Above I have given a brief characterisation of the more universal archetypes which were present on

Tuesday, Jan. 1, 1985 at about Noon. Next let us briefly consider how these universal archetypes would be affecting the more particularized birth structure of the individual we have been taking as our example: 10 Day Rhythm: The outer, sign sun (a) in Capricorn-Taurus (x ) would stimulate the Venus (d)

related regions in the individual. The center of focalization of Taurus (2) we have found to stand in relation to the planet Venus (?-). we would see that from outside and around, working outside in the individual's Venus in Sagittarius ( ) in the 4th house of Cancer (z) would be stimulated. (Its position at birth). The quality of balance becoming progress would blend with the qualities () of control of speech becoming a feeling for truth and ({), selflessness leading to catharsis. Philosophic rationalism would meet philosophic monadism and materialism, all being irradiated by Venus, the sphere of "hungering and thirsting for righteousness".

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The outer Earth in Cancer-Scorpio (~ ) would stimulate the Mars related regions from below and around and outside in. The center of focalization at the throat for Mars would be stimulated and the more universal character of Scorpio's relation to patience becoming insight would come together with the individual's Mars in Libra-Gemini, in the house of Taurus, cusp of Libra (} ) from the moment of birth. Patience becoming insight would mee Gemini's perseverance, Taurus' balance and Libra's calmness, at this center.

The inner Sun (a) in Sag.-Aries ( w ) would stimulate from above and around, inside out, the Mars (e ) ruled center (5) at the throat region. There would not be a direct stimulation of the external sphere of Mars forces. The inner Earth in Gemini-Libra would stimulate from below and around, inside out the Venus (d)ruled center (2) at the hips and kidney region. There would not be a direct stimulation of the external sphere of Venus forces. 20 Hour Moon Rhythm: The Moon (b) standing at 80 Taurus in the sign is passing through the

Aries-Leo (w} ) constellation region. The inward Leo radiation focalized at the Sun, heart center, stimulating the qualities leading to the unfolding of compassion which can lead to freedom, wouldradiate out through the heart center stimulating the more external solar archetype of our hypothetical individual. The quality of Leo would blend with the balance of Taurus (sign: Capr.-Taurus), the compassion of Leo (fifth house) and the courage of Capricorn ( ) coming from its presence on the cusp of the fifth house from birth. There would be a blending of the sense of life, sight and thought; the center at the heart (4), crown (7) and kidneys, hips (2).

6 Hour Rhythm: The wisdom sphere of Jupiter irradiating the gracious Virgin (Mercury ruled)

would stimulate the Mercury position at the solar plexus from outside in. The individual's Mercury in Capricorn (), the relation of his personal intelligence and belief would be stimulated ("Blessed are the meek"), in relation to the virtue: courage becomes redemptive power. These would further blend with the nurturing, comforting qualities of the Moon ruled house of Cancer, where Mercury stood at birth and the Saggitarian relation to truth coming from its placement on the cusp of the house where Mercury stood at birth.

200 2 Hourly Rhythm: The motion of Jupiter through the tenth house in Capricorn-Virgo (| ) would

stimulate the Saturn region's relation to courage, the sense of sight, philosophic spiritism. These would stimulate the individual's Saturn in Scorpio-Pisces (~‚) from birth and bring forth a blending with the qualities of generosity, as a balance between the problem of deceit or insularity. Further Gemini's placement on the cusp of the tenth house at birth would also be stimulated by virtue of Jupiter's moving through that house during the time of its rulership. The qualities of perseverance becoming fidelity would blend in the individual with his birth Mercury qualities of the potential for the development of courage becoming redemptive power.

45 Minute Rhythm: Finally the ascendant at 18 Aries (w{ ) would stimulate the heart ruled (a)

region from birth, involving the Capricorn-Taurus (x) archetype, Leo ({) archetype and Capricorn archetype.

Having given this description of what one could attend to in a particular moment of time, both universally

and in relation to the effects of the universal currents upon the more individualized structure of forces impressed around the human being by virtue of the planetary positions at birth, let us now look at an example of a diary that could be kept for a portion of a day. First let us look at such a diary concentrating more on the mathematical, astronomical phenomena; then, a comparable one including the moral dynamic, senses and philosophies. (See following pages).

What we see on the first chart is a more detailed picture of the phenomena of the day. The signs, constellations for the Sun and the Earth, are listed at the top, as is some indications of how these present positions would stimulate the corresponding spheres in the birth configuration. Below we find the ruling planets Mars (e) at 5 0 Pisces (‚) moving through the 2nd house of Taurus into the first of Aries and finishing its period of rulership in the 12th house of Pisces:

Next the Jupiter rulership in Capricorn-Virgo (Virgo) of the afternoon moves from the 10th house of Capricorn to the 9th of Sagttarius, the 8th of Scorpio and finishes its period of rulership in the 7th house of Libra.

201

Finally we see Saturn in Scorpio-Cancer ruling Tuesday evening moving from the fifth house of Leo, through the fourth house of Cancer, the third of Gemini, and finishing its rulership in the second house of Taurus.

On the following page we find the same diary but giving indications for the moral dynamic, senses, world pictures and formative regions.

The Mars rulership ("Blessed are the merciful": mercifulness, kindness) stands in relation to the quality of generosity becoming love (hands and feet). It moves through the house of balance b. progress, devotion b. force of sacrifice and generosity b. love with the corresponding senses of thought, word and hearing and the world views of rationalism, idealism and psychism being stimulated.

In the afternoon the "Blessed are the pure in heart", truth seeking, serene, wisdom filled sphere of Jupiter stands in relation to the Virgin's graciousness b. tactfulness of the heart. It moves from the 10th, Capricorn house of courage, through the 9th, Sagittarian house of a feeling for truth, through the Mars-ruled 8th house of Scorpio's insight and finishes its period of rulership in the seventh, Libran house of equanimity.

In the evening the deep contemplation and peacemaking gesture Of Saturn stands in relation to the selflessness of Cancer, also blending with the sense of touch and the mysteries of matter, philosophic materialism. It begins in the fifth house of the Lion, the heart's compassion becoming freedom, moving through the fourth house of Cancer, emphasizing the sphere of the Moon, into the third house of Gemini, where the lungs, arms and hands and the moral development of perseverance leading to a true capacity for fidelity are stimulated.

I think at this juncture in our studies it should be unnecessary for me to say much in the columns for observations. From the practical guide in the first Volume and the examples given in this one the interested reader should have a sufficient foundation to take such a diary, or whichever one might be most helpful to him and work with it in relation to these further rhythms ("qualities of time") which we have thus far explored.

I would now like to make some concluding observations and then turn to the second portion of this work, which will give a much more detailed portrayal of how to work with the preceding material in a practical way through the course of the year.

204-205

"The spiritual world surrounds us always and is always behind that which the senses perceive. Before man can enter this world, however, he must strengthen his ego, his I. He therefore must learn above all else to know himself so that when he is able to confront a spiritual outer world in the same way as he confronts an objective being he can distinguish himself from what is truth. If he does not learn to delimit himself in this way, he will always confuse what is only his subjective experience, with the spiritual world picture; he can never arrive at a real grasp of spiritual reality." Rudolf Steiner (Errors in Spiritual Research, P. 10)

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CHAPTER VI: THE HOLY NIGHT PERIOD, THE PROBLEM OF FREEDOM AND DETERMINISM, SOME CONCLUDING REMARKS

Having described some of the lawful dynamics of various streams in the living world in which the

human being participates during the ongoing course of time, I am reminded of the words of John G. Bennett: "Any system can appear plausible if those elements which have no place in it are ignored." I introduce these words now as a means of first offering some further observations of phenomena which disturb the complete lawfulness of what I have thus far presented as well as leading towards considering the question of what some of the implications of the findings shared thus far might be in relation to the question of freedom and determinism when viewed in the light of man's relationship to the forces of the universe. 1 will only go as far as seems presently necessary in discussing these questions in this Volume to prevent possible misunderstanding of what I have thus far introduced. 1 hope to, in a later Volume, after further introductory ground is laid, give a much more painstaking consideration to this question of what intensive self-observation has to say about the perennial problem of free will and determinism (whether cosmic or otherwise).

First let me say something about some implausible elements which would tend to somewhat shake up the compactness of the "system" that might be built on the previously introduced data, if, in fact, enough investigators, independently of myself, come up with the same findings and conclusions. As I had mentioned earlier, although I have discovered the "lawfulness" of the 10 day, 20 hour, 6 hour, 2 hour, and 45 minute rhythms throughout the course of year there is a period of twelve days when this "lawfulness" is upset. This is the period known in Christian tradition as the "Holy Nights" from December 24th until January 5th. The theory which was first introduced to me about fifteen years ago suggests that during the Holy Night period the lunar forces are not present and the Earth participates in purely solar forces at this time. Further ideas brought to me at that time was that each day or night during this period corresponded to one of the following months of the year, the

207 events of each day, somewhat in seed form, foreshadowing the character of the coming, corresponding month. Finally, that the weather during each of the twelve days will foreshadow the weather for the coming, respective twelve months of the year.

For the first 2-3 years during which time I turned my attention to some of these theories all 1 could discover was the reality of the fact that at a certain time on the 24th of December there was a definite change of mood in the entire atmosphere of the various planetary currents in which I was more and more consciously living. This change of mood lasted until some time on the fifth of January when, so to speak, in the cosmos the lawfulness of the rest of the year appeared to resume. 1 gradually came to attribute this different quality to the fact that the lunar forces were not experienceable during this period. Thirteen years of further exploration has never given me any evidence to doubt that this is true.

Nevertheless this recognition did not seem to account completely for the difference in my experiences during this period. I explored more deeply the tradition which suggests that Christmas Eve until Christmas Day (Dec. 24-Dec. 25) was given over to the Virgin, Virgo; the evening of the 25th into the evening of the 26th to St. Stephen in church tradition given over to Libra; the evening of the 26th until the evening of the 27th, St. John the Evangelist's day given over to Scorpio, etc.

After about five years or so 1 came to feel that this tradition also seemed accurate but not completely so. 1 could gradually experience that as of 2PM on December 24th the "leaving " of the lunar forces and the presence of the Virgo region of experience was clearly felt. Nevertheless, somewhere late in the evening at first, later 1 came to feel that it was clearly at 10PM, 1 was no longer in the Virgo region of experience. The quality of deep contemplation and silence seemed greatly enhanced and the truth of the words of the traditional Christmas song: "Silent night, holy night" seemed to be clearly experienceable at that time. I gradually came to understand that as of 10PM on December 24th the mood had changed from the graciousness of the Virgin to the holiness of the Father's sphere of Capricorn. The next morning as of about 6AM I grew to feel there was another change of mood, moving from the earnestness of the preceding period to a quality of mercurialness and liveliness

208 in this one. In time I came to relate this experience to my participation in the Taurus region of experience on Christmas morning. I gradually discovered that although there was the absence of the influences of the Moon and the six hourly rulers, from 2PM on December 24 to 2 PM on January 5th another rhythm was present. I found that I moved through 36 regions of experience, the essential pattern of which was the same as that during the course of the year. Following is a chart depicting this pattern for the thirty six changes occur ring during the 12 holy days. (next day) HOLY DAYS (NIGHTS) 2PM-10PM 10PM-6AM .6AM-2PM

It should be noted that although there is this "exception" to the apparent lawfulness of certain cosmic rhythms during the rest of the year, when the lunar forces and the planetary hours are "silenced", the normal solar archetypes can be experienced to remain, simultaneously present with the above given rhythm. This is all I wish to say about the phenomena of the Holy Night period itself at the present time. The pattern of the eight hourly changes of the prevailing influence, with the accompanying stimulation of the formative currents, virtues, senses, and world pictures could, I think, be experienced in time through that path of purification and self-attentiveness pointed to in the introduction to the first Volume of this series.

The fact that one of the exceptions to the apparent "lawfulness"

December 24-25 25-26 26-27 27-28 28-29 29-30 30-31 January 1-2 2-3 3-4

4-5

209 of the phenomena we have thus far explored occurs during a period of time in the year's course which has a deep relation to the mysteries of Christianity I think is of significance. By way of a conclusion to the work I have thus far presented let us try to clarify a little further some of the essential questions which have been implicitly raised in the preceding studies. *

Following is a quote from the book: Meditations on the Tarot, which can lead us into this exploration.

"Thus, Christian Hermeticism of today has not remained behind in the great spiritual events which have changed factors of the first order in the domain of astrology - which events now play the role of "the thunderbolt which blasts the tower of astrology". What 1 have in mind here is that the planetary influence and the days and hours of these influences have given way to a power of a higher order. It is true that the day Sunday is the day of the sun with respect to the human psycho-physical organism, but nowadays it is the day of the resurrection, with respect to man's psycho-spiritual life. Saturday is still the day of Saturn but it is so only with regard to the natural, lower part of the human being. For the soul which turns towards the spirit and for the human spirit itself, Saturday is the day of the Holy Virgin. And the influence of Venus has given way to Calvary, to Christ Crucified - Friday. Tuesday is no longer the day of Mars - for the soul that aspires to the spirit, or for spiritual personages it is the day of the Archistrategist Michael. Similarly, with respect to the soul turned towards the spirit and the lives of spiritual personages, Monday is the day of the Holy Trinity, instead of being that of the Moon. Wednesday is the day of the human pastors of mankind, instead of Mercury and Thursday is the day of the Holy Spirit, instead of Jupiter.

* It will be clear to the reader on the basis of the preceding description of the exceptional circumstances present during the Holy Night period why it was such an error on my part to take as my example for illustrating aspects of the Moon, planetary hours and houses, a day which fell in that period. For sheerly practical reasons I have chosen not to rectify that error at the present time. Nevertheless, given that the examples offered are for the past and were solely meant to indicate the various influences working at any given moment during the course of the year I do not think the examples given should cause any exceptional difficulties. One must simply keep in mind that the examples given are accurate for the entire year except for the period from 2PM, December 24 until 2PM on January 5th. From the examples given comparable charts can be drawn up for any time in the future, as a means of aiding the reader in his own exploration of some of the rhythms discussed in this book.

210

Consequently, sacred magic of the present day uses formulae and signs which correspond to the supernatural power of the day, and not to the natural planetary influence of the day, although, I repeat, the latter remains valid in a restricted domain - more restricted than in the past - and remains of practical value in this domain. Therefore, one invokes and unites oneself with the Holy Spirit on Thursday, instead of invoking the "genius of Jupiter", etc.. The priority of supernatural power with regard to the astral influence of days, hours and years -this is the ''thunderbolt'' which has "blasted" the tower of astrology and specialised astrological magic." Here is an example of this "thunderbold" in action: a horoscope indicates a baleful configuration, a conjunction of Saturn and Mars in the eighth house (that of death), predicting a violent death - however, it happens that it is not Saturn and Mars which act, but rather the Holy Virgin and the Archangel Michael, and instead of the predicted death a spiritual illumination takes place." Anonymous Author (Meditations on the Tarot, p. 414)

Looked at from a certain point of view this thought of the anonymous author of these Meditations might

serve as a "thunderbolt" to blast any attempts to build a "system" based on the work we have thus far explored. If the reader will remember back to the introduction of the first Volume he will recall that I intimated that through a great enhancement of conscience brought about through an experience which seemed to be pointed towards in Valentin Tomberg's description of some ways in which Christ would work in the "etheric" world (see Appendix 1, The Qualities of Time, Vol. I) I was led on a path of intensive self-investigation and transformation. Although I cannot, out of my own experience, confirm or disprove the anonymous author's assertions about the individual characters of each day of the week in relation to the spiritual life, I think he points to a critical issue - one which 1 have touched upon in different ways during the course of these studies. In the words of St. Paul: 'the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak', perhaps we can see summed up one distinction the author is making between the appropriateness for the psycho-physical organism, for example, of considering that Tuesday is the day of Mars, etc., but for the psychospiritual organism the day of St. Michael. (Of course he is saying far more than this but I think it might not be unjust to suggest that contained in the implications of what he is saying may be that towards which 1 am pointing). 1 would even say that the entire thrust of my presentation in these two books has had an essential similarity to the anonymous author's thoughts given above. Let us

211 look at this for a moment.

It has been my aim to describe some of the rhythms in which the human being participates, whether in his more inwards or outwards superphysical natures, during the course of the year. These rhythms, it could be argued, have been charted through the ages with varying degrees of accuracy, and just as they may have previously worked in and around man so they can be discovered to also do so in the present. Nevertheless, viewed morally, many of the qualities of these various streams in which the self-attentive human being may find himself living can be seen, even in the course of a lifetime, to undergo a development of improvement or decline. Were these streams, seen both scientifically and morally, to be compelling factors to the individual, his destiny would be determined and his lot and that of mankind would appear bleak. I have tried to recount something of my experience that the human soul can find help offered to it within its inner being "oriented towards the spirit." ("Blessed are the beggars for the spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven"). This inner help, the more one participates within it, and becomes awake to its working, seems to lead the human soul to the experience that the factors viewed in the preceding pages as lawful rhythms in which it participates need not be compelling factors ("the flesh is weak"), nor need they lead to inevitable results, as a deterministic astrology or any system looking for hard and fast laws would have it.

To give an example of what I mean I could say that were it not for the awakening of my "conscience" I perhaps would not have been inclined to change those aspects of my "natures" which as compulsions were leading me down difficult pathways of destiny. With only the awakening of my conscience I may have ended up in a kind of state of shock or inner paralysis if 1 was only offered light about my condition but not accompanying strength to do something about it. Through the experience of the development and strengthening of a kind of inner sun, an inner moral center of my being, not only could I more and more illumine my nature, but I grew stronger each day in the confidence that the strength I needed in my struggle to transform "my flesh", through the power of my "spirit" would also be given to me if 1 continued to be open to receive it.

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It was out of my forces of "conscience" that I sought to discover the ideal possibility of my Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, etc. natures. It was out of the force of my conscience that I strove to discover the ideal potentiality for my Moon nature, my Venus nature, my Mercury nature, etc. If I had built my pictures of my possibilities out of my already existing nature, my willing spirit would have been misled by my weak flesh, and astrological or other determinism would have prevailed in my life. Self-fulfilling prophecies. In this respect I think some other words from the Meditations on the Tarot might be helpful in clarifying my experience further:

"Whether it is a matter of an astrological horoscope or of a characterological formula is not important, there is always an X-factor upon the use of which astrological or characterological data depends. It is the factor of free will which underlies the traditional astrological rule. Astra inclinant, non necessitant) ("the stars incline, they do not compel"). The same rule is valuable for "microcosmic astrology" or characterology. There also free will is the indeterminable factor which does not allow the part that a man with a well determined character will take in some circumstances or other to be predicted with certainty. For it is not the character which is the source of judgement and conscious choice, but rather this force in us which weighs and judges by means of the balance of Justice. Freedom is a fact which one experiences when someone judges not by his temperament (''etheric body") or by his character ("astral body") but rather by the balance of Justice - or by his own conscience. The word conscience ("con-science") contains the idea of balance, for it implies "simultaneous knowing", i.e. knowledge of the facts of the two scales suspended at the extremities of the beam of the balance. Conscience is neither a product nor a function of character It is above it. And it is here - and only here that there begins and there is found the domain of freedom. One is not at all free when one judges and acts according to character or temperament; but one certainly is when one judges and acts according to the balance of Justice, or conscience. But Justice, the practice of the balance, is only the beginning of a long path of the development of conscience - and therefore of the growth of freedom." Anonymous Author (Meditations on the Tarot, p. 180-181)

At first acting out of the forces of my awakened "conscience" was just a seed in me, as the measure to

which I could call myself "free" of my characterological disposition or the forces of my particular, astrological horoscope was also just a seed in me. Out of this seed of conscience the will was awakened within me to clearly and soberly assess my condition, and clearly and soberly determine

213 what ideal possibilities might be for each of my presently, very "real" superphysical streams in which I found myself living with varying degrees of freedom or bondage. For me to say that 1 always acted or act out of my "conscience" and in "freedom" would be as much an exaggeration as for me to suggest that 1 never do so, but am exclusively determined by my "astrological horoscope". For me to suggest that the planetary rulership of Tuesday does not, at times, call forth aggressive, unkind, malicious or resentful moods in me would be as much an exagerration and misrepresentation of my present reality (my weak flesh) as for me to say that I am always determined by those aspects of my present "reality,' and not, in the Tuesday periods, by more ideal spheres to which I can reach with my willing spirit towards attaining some of the ideals I have discovered as realizable possibilities for that particular sphere of my being.

That "Justice", the practice of the balance, is only the beginning of a long path of development of conscience - and therefore the "growth of freedom" has seemed to me to be a true naming of the present reality for most human souls. Those people who argue out of abstractions or distant ideals, that in this age we are meant to become free of these "compelling factors" of the various ways in which we are woven into the forces of the universe, have my sympathy and support for their idealism, but my exasperation with their sometimes apparent lack of realism! This seems, at times, no better to me than to tell someone that I am a Christian because my soul's aspiration is in that direction, or because the fundamental "change of heart" necessary for becoming a Christian has taken place within me. Between carrying "out" the ideal of the attainment of freedom from the compelling character of my nature or the carrying "out" of the ideal (making flesh) of the realization of becoming a Christian (two ideals deeply linked), and my present condition, lies a long, hard path. The reader would be seriously misunderstanding my intentions in this work which I have thus far presented if he felt that I Was - in any way - lending support to a picture of man's destiny suggesting cosmic or other forms of determinism. But the reader would also be seriously misunderstanding my intention in this work 1 have thus far presented if he felt that I was in any

214 way lending support to a picture of man's destiny suggesting that through "enlightenment" or even a growing, inner self-mastery one could quickly attain "freedom" from the various spheres we have thus far been considering. Either of these interpretations of this work would be violating its fundamental intention. Rather it has been my aim to suggest that between the willing spirit and the weak flesh, or the exercise of justice, the development of conscience, the growth of freedom, and the struggle with one's "characterological disposition" or "astrological horoscope',, lies the realm of choice for each human soul struggling to chart his own course towards the future.

"In other words, the human being must become conscious of the cosmic and earthly forces working in him, as well as the substantial processes working within him, for the very purpose that, through thus becoming conscious, he may develop in ever increasing freedom into the master over the inner and outer dynamics, the forces and substances of Nature, and his own organization. With regard to these facts, we do not become free by denying them or by simply establishing them, but only through a knowledge which enables us to acquire a conscious control of them." Dr. Guenther Wachsmuth (Reincarnation as a Phenomenon of Metamorphosis, pp. 154-155)

As we hear in the apocryphal Gospel of St. Thomas the purported words of Christ: "I took my stand

amidst the cosmos", 1 have tried, in these preceding pages, to make a contribution to furthering an understanding of what the developing human spirit or "I" can experience the more it wills to take "its stand" amidst some of those realities in which it can gradually, clearly learn to recognize it lives. That the "I" or the conscience can develop the power to stand erect and self-possessed amidst the cosmos I think can be one of the fruits of the path I have tried to portray in the previous pages. That it still stands amidst the cosmos remains a reality which does not necessarily "limit" its growing freedom, but can give it a field of activity wherein it can wisely and lovingly exercise it.

These remarks lead to areas which must be more deeply and exhaustively explored. I hope to be able to do this in a later Volume. I felt it was important to introduce these brief remarks at this juncture so that there would not be any misunderstanding of what my own experiences have led me - through my attempts at understanding them - to think about the question of freedom and determinism in relation to the fruits of self-investigation and potential

215 self-transformation.

If the self-observing human being simply focuses his attention upon the many regions in which he lives he can grow into a comprehensive knowledge some of which I have tried to introduce in the preceding pages of the relationship of various aspects of his superphysical nature's to the superphysical forces of the cosmos. But this increasing knowledge approached one-sidely can lead in the direction of determinism, and as 1 stated earlier, self-fulfilling prophecies.

On the other hand if he solely turns his attention to his growing power of self-determination he may do violence to himself and others in arbitrarily trying to alter conditions, the true nature of which he may not yet understand.

Either of these dangers might develop through the practical work I have suggested in the previous pages (and those following). However, given that my emphasis has been primarily on self-examination and less explicitly on definite exercises at inner strengthening beyond the fundamental necessity of cultivating that mood, characterized in different ways as "becoming a beggar for the spirit", probably the greater danger would be that of determinism. Before having moved on to a further explication of how the interested reader can work at his self-exploration to discover how the more universal forces explored in Volume I work into his more particularized body of forces - the object of attention in this Volume - 1 thought it best to try to further clarify questions which are implicit in these studies. I will leave this clarification at this stage and hope it will have served its purpose. If we have taken a further step in laying the preliminary ground which can gradually be led to a more particular consideration of how some of the factors thus far explored can be seen in human destiny in a very concrete manner, my purpose will have been served.

Let us now move on to the second part of this book which hopes to be a practical guide to aid the reader in his own exploration of some of the rhythms of the "qualities of time" explored in the preceding pages.

215 a " My dear friends, there is something in the depths of man's heart that speaks of nothing else than of what is purely human and dissolves all differences. And it is just within these depths that we find the Christ. And there is a wisdom which extends far beyond all that can be discovered concerning single spheres of world existence, a wisdom that is able to grasp the world in its unity, even in space and time. And this again is the star-wisdom that leads to Christ." Rudolf Steiner

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PART 11:

Practical Guide to Observation of the Effects of the Universal Forces upon the Particularized Forces Impressed Around the Individual by Virtue of the Planetary Configuration at the Time of Birth

"Hypotheses are like scaffolding in front of a building, to be dismantled when the building is completed. To the worker the scaffolding is indispensable, but he must not confuse it with the building itself." Goethe

217

Introduction to Practical Guide/Charts

In this second part of Volume II of the Qualities of Time I will present different series of diagrams. The first sets are related to various rhythms we have discussed and their effects upon the more universal currents of "everyman" through the course of the year. Some of these will approach - in a somewhat different manner - the rhythms explored in the "practical guide" given in Volume I. The remainder intend to suggest how the interested reader can work with some of the further, shorter rhythms explored in the present book.

The second portion of these charts will try to present indications of how the universal currents work into

the particularized currents impressed around the human being by virtue of the planetary positions at the moment of birth. To illustrate this we will go from the universal currents to the individual, sample chart (individual) we have used throughout the text. The reader should then - I hope - not find it too difficult, with a basic knowledge of his own birth configurationto * go from these examples to observations of how the more universal currents of the rhythms thus far explored work into his or her particular configuration of forces throughout the course of the year. * A knowledge of the planetary positions at birth in the tropical zodiac (the moon in the sidereal zodiac) which takes into account my suggestion about the necessity of considering these positions in relation to the 36 decans and knowledge of the planetary positions in relation to the 12 houses is all that would be necessary to carry on these observations. many individuals have this basic knowledge of how to calculate these positions and there are presently a number of computer service companies which will inexpensively calculate this for someone. Neil Michelson's, Astro-Computing Service, Inc. PO Box 16430, San Diego, California 92116-0430 is one.

On the following pages are diagrams depicting the working of the tropical Sun through the 36 regions of

the sign (tropical) zodiac during the course of the year. As was suggested earlier these forces can be experienced as working from above and around, as well as from outside in (from the periphery to the center). As can be seen in the above diagram, above the encircled figure is the date. Below the date is written the sign with the particular decanate region of the sign emphasized by being underlined. In parenthesis following is the name of the planetary region ruling the present sign/decanate region through which the Sun is then moving. On the left/right center top portion of the respective charts is the symbol for the region presently stimulated.

The circle surrounding the figure contains the 36 sectors through which the Sun moves during the course of the year (counter-clockwise). I have depicted them without the repeated signs (Aries w , Aries-Leo w{, Aries-Sagittarius w) because as I had suggested in the first Volume it has been my impression that this is truer to the reality, although given the undeniable significance of the time of the year in relation to the quality of the forces the reader should take into account the date and sign given above.

By depicting the circle in this manner and shading the influence of the presently working region through which the Sun in 10 day intervals is moving I have hoped to give a more living impression of the Sun's motion through these 36 regions during the course of the year. Thus the reader can see - simply following the enclosing circles - that first the Sun is working through the emphasized region of Aries, then during the next 10 day period, through Aries-Leo, then through Aries-Sagittarius, then Taurus, Taurus-Virqo, etc. This I hope will help to suggest something of the livingness of the sun's influence through the year's course.

Next this is brought into relation with the effects of the Sun's movement through the 36 sectors of the tropical zodiac upon the human form - emphasizing the planetary centers of focalization. One can see, for example, that when the Sun is moving through the Mars (e ) ruled, region of Aries (w), the radiation working from above and around is focalized at the Mars ruled center of the throat (the planetary centers of focalization will be emphasized in the pictures). The

219 formative currents up and down the backbone working to shape the head and brow region are also drawn, as are the corresponding radiations, indicative of the formative gestures will also be drawn in the following pictures. The shading of different "tones" on the various charts were due to them being copied from original prototypes which were done in color. Although the colors did add another dimension to a visual experience of the interweaving of these forces it was with some disappointment that we discovered that the cost and quality of color photocopying made including color charts impossible. We have included the chart on page 287 in color so as to indicate something of the nature of the originals. Following is a color guide for those who might want to color the charts for themselves. Although the coloring was not arbitary in character, the choice of colors should be taken as one possible approach, not necessarily the only one.

(tropical or sidereal) SUN forces ...................Gold (tropical or sidereal) MOON forces ...............Violet EARTH forces ..............Green

VENUS (occ. Merc.)-Green

MERCURY (occ. Venj.Yellow

MARS .........................Red JUPITER .....................Orange SATURN ....................Blue URANUS(?) ................Yellow NEPTUNE(?) ..............Blue

ELEMENTS

FIRE (Aries, Saggitarius, Leo) .......................................... Red AIR (Libra, Aquarius, Gemini) ......................................... Yellow WATER (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) .................................... Blue EARTH (Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo) .................................. Green

Immediately below the top arc of the circle is written the Virtue for the 10 day period related to

the region then stimulated.

In the middle of the figure on the left and right sides are the respective weaknesses (lack) and (excess) corresponding to the region presently stimulated.

Between the legs in small letters is the related sense stimulated and in LARGE LETTERS the world outlook or view stimulated during the 10 day period. The progression of figures move from above, left-right, then below, left-right.