READING FOR ANDREA (I)

First – here are your chart and your aspects:

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The overall pattern formed by the grouping of your planets in your chart is a See-saw; here there is one group of planets clearly balanced against another group. And philosophically, this process balances different pairs of opposite – hot cold, love hate, rich poor, success failure. Such a process is, of course, dear to the hearts of all Alchemists and Astrologers. One might call ‘equilibrium’ and ‘balance’ the very heart of our art.

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The See-saw pattern can also be found in the charts of Richard Nixon and Krishnamurti. Nixon, with a Capricorn Sun, saw Life as a balancing of political forces – set up, of course, for his personal exploitation. Wherein lay the heart of his personal downfall.

Krishnamurti, as those familiar with his writings know, was able to introduce to Westerners a view where ‘conflict’ was no more than a selfish ego-drive; he also advised meditation as a technique for empowering the mind by viewing the beautiful harmony that exists in Nature. And, not to keep you in suspense Andrea, your See-saw more closely resembles that of Krishnamurti.

Technically (by splitting hairs) one might include your Moon with the left-hand side of your See-saw, but a closer look at your chart (see earlier illustration) suggests that your Moon actually serves as a fulcrum or balance point; it can do this because it is mid-point between the opposition between Neptune and Venus. (In fact, your Rising Rising Sign is actually in opposition to both Venus and Mercury).

Either way, the opposition becomes the spine of your T-square, and the Moon at the midpoint becomes the release.

And later, when we examine how few aspects your Sun has, we begin to see your Moon a major point of self integration. It does not represent a power which can stand alone while doing this task. The Moon can only reflect the Light or Consciousness of the Sun. So, you do have an interesting life to look forward to! Especially since all astrologers seem to agree that a T-=Square gives a native back bone; by which they mean you have a personality that somehow ATTRACTS challenges.

Personal vs Social Planets

When we take a closer look at your chart we discover that ALL of your personal planets – the Sun, Venus and Mercury are on the right-hand side of your chart – with two social planets (Saturn and Mars). And on the left-hand side of your chart are the remaining social planet (Jupiter) plus the three slow moving planets – Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. These last three are the clocks for the slow evolution of all humans.

We now have another way to look at the role that your Moon plays in your chart.

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Mercury and Venus, as viewed from the earth, and being inside the earth’s orbit are never seen far from the Sun – hence the name personal planets. {The principles of Thought and Love are never far from the principle of self-integration).

The orbits of the social planets – Mars, Jupiter and Saturn lie outside the earth’s orbit, and thus symbolize our growth from a self-centered individual (infant and child) into a social creature. And – obviously, the Moon as it orbits the earth then acts as the intermediary between our individual self and our social self. And it is clear why the Moon rules Cancer, the sign of home, family and domesticity. And is it not interesting that your chart is set up to EMPHASIZE THE ROLE OF THE MOON? I refer, of course, to your SEE-SAW.

The outer most planets, then, expand our consciousness into realms that ‘transcend’ the personal (the social and individual). ‘Transcendental’, then, means not the divine but rather a movement toward transcending the limitations of the little ego. The ancients called this movement a ‘rebirth’, since the new self would be quite different that the old self. We are told, by the ancients, that the very cells in our bodies begin to change when we develop a higher and more evolved sense of ‘self’.

The Ancient View

IT ALWAYS SURPRIZES me how many ‘modern’ astrologers suffer from a malady I can only term: ‘looking at the planets as creating problems’. It reminds me of Ostanes, who (in an old Alchemical treatise) pleaded as follows:

‘Save me, O my God, for I stand between two exalted brilliancies noted for their wickedness, and between to dim lights; each of them has reached me and I know not how to save myself from them.’ -- Abul-Qasim

As Carl Jung remarks, the two ‘malefic’ are Mars and Saturn, and the two dim lights’ are the Moon and Venus. He identifies these because they represent the quaternio that begin the four seasons – Mars (Aries), Moon (Cancer), Venus (Libra) and Saturn (Capricorn).

But perhaps Andrea will receive some solace from the following remarks by the Thrice Great Hermes, madke while he was addressing the Sun:

‘I cause to come out to thee the spirits of thy brethren (the planets), O Sun, and I make them for thee a crown, the like of which was never seen; and I cause thee and them to be within me, and I will make thy kingdom vigorous.’

This passage, quoted by Carl Jung in his last book on Alchemy, suggests that the planets really represent powers that lie within us, but which move synchronously with the planets in the sky. And further, if we properly understand the role of our inner planets, we can then become masters of our own destiny.

In our next post we shall address Andrea’s Sun in Taurus, and seek help from several of the Tarot Keys, because their symbolism is directly keyed to Astrology, and they thus can add great depth to our interpretation. Oddly enough, we will find that the Key that represents Taurus also points directly to the Moon and its role in our charts.

Does this mean that Andrea knows something the rest of us have yet to discover?

Shantana

P.S. Andera: please feel free to ask questions as we go along.

Awesome reading Shantana, I checked out your MSN group also, very nice

I second that Raven.

Hi raven and blonde eagle, and I thank you both for your complements.

Incidentally, b. eagle, did you say your parents were both Leo's? I was wondering how that worked out for you, but then I decided that Scorpio Rising could hold its ground with anyone, right?

shantana

p.s. your application to join astro cabala has been approved, and since you are the only other member, I appointed you an asst. manager.

So feel free to invite some E-mail friends to join you, and set up whatever you want. I will probably post some lessons on Cabalistic Astrology -- when I figure out what it means.

Her Personal, Social and Transcendantal Planets

http://groups.msn.com/astrolcabala/andrea.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=12
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These two illustrations, from Part ,I show the different roles played by our inner planets and role played by the Moon in Andrea’s See-Saw pattern. We cabn now emphasize some important points::

* All of the outer or transcendental planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) are on the left hand side of Andrea’s See-Saw. In the language of symbolism, then, her entire personal and social life (on the right hand side) is to be balanced by the Way or manner in which she seeks to transcend the limitations of her current personality.

* Her Moon is the actual fulcrum of the See-Saw, so it must plays a leading role in her life. Fortunately, her Moon will work beautifully with her Sun in Taurus, since Taurus is ruled by Venus (a sister planet to the Moon); further, the Moon is exalted in Taurus which means the Moon works best in (or WITH) that sign.

* The one social planet on the left hand side is Jupiter, in Scorpio, which immediately calls our attention to her Rising Sign, Scorpio. We all know that Scorpio represents sex, reproduction, regeneration and the urge to ‘transcend’ our present limitations. Creative tension, of course, IS the awareness of Duality (Yin and Yang), and its furthest push is to dissolve boundaries and then merge with others in an organic whole.

This description of Scorpio matches Carl Jung’s own definition of the process of Individuation. Jupiter it happens is in Scorpio and in the eleventh House; this suggests that Andrea will (eventually, if not now) attempt to expand her role into the social realm found in large organizations and/or groups that do international work of some type. .

* The real Key to Andrea’s evolution, now falls on her Rising Sign, Scorpio, which represents how she will project herself into Life, how others will ‘see’ her, and how she will ‘see’ (or discover) her true Self. Mars is the co-ruler of Scorpio, and thus becomes the co-ruler of her entire chart; the significance here is this: the Rising Sign determines the signs on the cusp of every House, and in this manner the SCORPIO influence will actually permeate every corner of Andrea’s existence.

The Polarity of the See Saw

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On the left I have placed Mars, the co-ruler of Scorpio, and on the right I have placed Venus, the ruler of Taurus. I have done this so we can examine the forces involved in the See-Saw between the Sun in Taurus and the Rising in Scorpio. In a Tarot Key, the central figure almost always represents the Essential Core You – or some distortion of it. Ken Wilber, an American Philosopher, has stated that the One identification of WHO this is can be found in the ‘message of the Mystics’:

‘And the first is: God is. (and) at the very core of your being, you are God.’ – Grace and Grit.

I forget who it was (perhaps St. Augustine) that we can doubt all things, since they may be illusions, but we cannot doubt that we doubt. Modern thinkers would rephrase this: YOU are Conscious and you Exist. And that, in all spiritual systems, defines what they call 'God'.

Key 3, Venus, represents some aspect of your essential Being. The waterfall behind her represents the tension between Yin and Yang (male and female), a tension used by Venus to create the manifest world (the wheat at her feet). She is Creative Imagination – but the seeds all come to her from the Masculine side of Life, which is Consciousness. Creative imagination carries Consciousness, but is not the source of Consciousness. So -- this aspect of yourself is a CARRIER of your essential Consciousness.

And we note the crown of 12 stars on her head (the 12 signs of the Zodiac) and the necklace of seven (7) pearls on her neck. These are represent the seven planetary powers which -- we remember, Hermes told the Sun he would learn to rule. We also note that the shield of Venus is love.

Mars on the left, the co-ruler of Scorpio, is represented by a Tower. This Tower is everything our minds create, so it also represents our ego and – like the Tower of Babal, we have tried to raise this above the landscape, as if we and our subconscious and self-conscious modes of being are the real rulers of all that we see.

The Mars force, reapresented by the Lightning bolt, destroys this ‘image’ so energy can be released for further growth. In more practical words, we can all remember losses of our hopes or dreams which, at the time, seemed great calamities; later, however, many proved to be among the best things that ever happened to us.

Andrea’s Sun in Taurus

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Our physical sun is obviously the source of all our energy, our will and our vitality. That also is a given. BUT, the Sun in your chart, Andrea, is a symbol of your ability to exercise your powers of leadership, and specifically a symbol of your ability to integrate all of the other planetary powers into one harmonious and unified Whole. A psychologist might say: the Sun, then, represents the principles which – if you understand them, help you to ‘actualize’ yourself, which is to say: how will you eventually express yourself and then that expression will allow you to fulfill your quest for WHO you really are.

Key 5 of the Tarot, the Hierophant, represents the sign of Taurus, Fixed Earth, and the power of Intuition. The Hierophant represents our Inner Teacher, and because he occupies the center portion of the card, we immediately know he is also an aspect of the One Self (or, if you prefer, of yourself as God). This is the inner aspect of yourself that guides you in all things, and (slowly) yokes you to reality.

The ‘yokes’ (Yogi) behind his ears emphasize that Taurus rules the sense of Hearing. He wears feminine garb, and the two ministers who kneel at his feet (so are subject to him) represent Desire (the roses) and Knowledge (the lilies). As a wise Cabalistic friend once told me, ‘Intuition kicks in AFTER we have exhausted Reason’.

(Part III shall begin with the Sun, Key 19 of the Tarot)

Shantana