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| Simplified Scientific Christianity |
Dear Friend,
Let us reiterate that though we are now considering the facts of a certain planet, Neptune, the method of judgment is identical for the other planets, and that when we know how to combine the effects of aspect, house, and intrinsic nature of one planet, we may readily apply the same system of combination to the other planets. To convey in one word all that is included in the sphere of influence of a planet is difficult; but if you will meditate upon the keywords given in this self-study module, you will receive more illumination concerning the inherent nature of planetary vibrations than you can ever obtain by reading of other people's ideas, for the divine spark which is you, by this earnest striving after spiritual understanding draws directly from the fountainhead of information, namely, the planetary Spirit of the particular heavenly body upon whose nature you are meditating.
In order to impress upon the student's mind how perfectly reasonable this idea is and to give a better understanding of the method whereby this inner illumination may be obtained, let us illustrate: In a machinery hall giant wheels are revolving; the friction of the belts, humming of electric dynamos, etc., blend in a noise which is deafening and confusing to the inexperienced; a chaos of sound. But to the trained ear of the engineer there is no chaos; he hears a variety of well ordered sounds, each bringing to him intelligence regarding the condition and work of the particular machine whence it emanates. Each variation from the standard sound has its meaning, which the trained man comprehends as readily as if the engine were endowed with speech. Study of the internal construction of each machine has given him his knowledge and the ability to act quickly in emergencies to avert imminent disaster before the uninitiated would have realized that anything unusual was taking place.
Similarly, we are living in a world flooded with sound; the Harmony of the Spheres is about our ears though we hear it not, and each vibration carries with it certain intelligence. If our ears are deaf we are the losers, as are the blind who miss the beauty of the flower, the glory of the sunset. But if we train ourselves to understand the heavenly symphony recorded upon the page of the horoscope, we shall know things that must ever remain secret from the unlearned, and thus we may become co-workers with God in a most intimate matter.
After years of close study and meditation we use the following keywords for the intrinsic nature of the planets:
If you meditate on each planet by itself or with its opposite or with its affinities for a few days or weeks at the time you devote to this study, you will gain a wonderful insight into their natures and effects; for instance: The Sun is life absolute, manifest or unmanifest; but Mars represents the dynamic energy which is manifestation of life. This, Saturn seeks to obstruct, and when he succeeds death ensues; the Sun gives the germ of life, the Moon furthers fecundation, and thus a body is produced; Jupiter gives the germinal idea, Mercury fecundates the mind so that ideas take definite form as thought, and the dynamic energy of Mars brings them into manifestation so that thoughts become things.
(You are welcome to e-mail your answers and/or comments to us. Please be sure to include your e-mail address, full name, course name and Independent Study Module number in your e-mail to us. Or, you are also welcome to use the answer form below. You will find the answers to the questions below in the next Astrology Independent Study Module.)
1. What is the connection between Venus and Uranus?
If Neptune had been in the 7th house, squared by the progressed MC, the native would have been subject to temptations and deceptions from all 7th house affairs: the public in general, competitors, partners, opponents in litigation, and rivals.
The composition of music is the manifestation of archetypes by formalized, rhythmic arrangement of tone. It is the representation of that which is perceived by inner hearing, it is the language by which the intuition of the artist communicates itself to the intuitions of humanity. By correspondence, we might say that prose is to poetry what poetry is to music — three "octaves" of communicative art. Music is "language transcendentalized;" if words are sound-symbols of identities, tones are the archetypes of sounds, and their artistic manifestation in pattern and structure by composite of melody, harmony, rhythm, and tempo is a "speech that transcends, in power, the language of words. " Word-language is a relatively limited communication; its comprehension depends on a specialized exercise of the intellect. Tone-language, essentially archetypal, depends on exercise of intuition and emotion-responsiveness; its appeal is to the instinctual urge of humans to realize ideality. The magic — and it is one of the greatest of all magics of melody and harmony transcends the separativeness of nationalistic consciousness, from which is derived the separate variety of word-language. To respond to music is to hear ideality, and the specialized faculties of the manifestive and interpretative musicians of the world are "channelings" by which messages of great beauty and truth are communicated to the soul- consciousness of humanity.
The planetary triad of "communication" is that of Moon, Mercury, and Neptune. These three planets represent the three octaves of mentation: the subconscious mind of instinct and feeling, the conscious mind of intellect, and the super-conscious mind of archetype-perception, respectively. All humans, however primitive, partake of the first two of these octaves because all are capable of organizing opinion (the Moon) by subconscious feeling and all who can talk have the faculty of intellect- exercise (Mercury). Only those who are capable of perceiving and expressing archetypes are those who function consciously and constructively on the third octave of Neptune as "focalizer" of the vibration of Pisces, the mutable sign of the water-trine initiated by the Moon through Cancer, polarity of Mercury's Virgo, and tenth-house sign of Mercury's Gemini. In its regenerate, spiritualized qualities, it symbolizes the most transcendental faculties of human consciousness — that of communicativeness with the Higher Self and the aware-ness of the existence of the archetype. Let us study the astrological symbol for Neptune:
Exoterically, this symbol pictures the trident of the ocean-god; as such, it carries out the literal, personalized representation by which life-principles were taught to the uninitiated, literal-minded people of ancient times. Esoterically, it is not a trident at all; the up-turned semi-circle is "chalice" or the upraised arms of the horizontal diameter of the cardinal cross of the Great Mandala — the "male- female begotten" of humanity. The vertical line is the same as is that of the Great Mandala — the generative line of parentage, human or divine. The little circle at the bottom of the symbol is the "seed" of the soul body of humanity which is "stimulated into new life" by divine powers. This little circle is analogous to the "Cancer-point" of the Great Mandala and in this symbol it is the "seed" of all perfected realizations, the matrix of the "Golden Wedding Garment." This symbol is truly one of the most beautiful in astrology. It is symmetrical, and its verticality is counterbalanced by the loveliness of the open, up-reaching arms of the semi-circle like a tree with its branches lifted or a human with his arms lifted in an ecstasy of reverence or aspiration or joy. Now to correspond this symbol with that of Venus whose exaltation is in Pisces:
The cross at the bottom of Venus's symbol is closed (rounded out) into the perfect circle of "soul-consciousness;" the circle of Venus's symbol is opened into the chalice which receives the divine. In this "opening of Venus" we see the secret of Neptune's transcendental nature: the beauty of perfect manifestation that Venus symbolizes is actually the formalization of the essential beauty of Neptune. If Venus is the beauty of symmetry, design, and rhythm in art, Neptune is the beauty of cosmic symmetry, design, and rhythm; if Venus is the beauty of perfect manifestation, Neptune is the beauty of archetype; if Venus is the altar or shrine, Neptune is the god to whom the shrine is dedicated; if Venus is the exoteric myth which is created to convey a spiritual allegory, Neptune is the life-principle personified by the myth; if Venus is the melody which moves the heart, Neptune is the archetypal memory-of-experience which is stimulated by the melody; if Venus is the beautiful gesture or movement of the dancer, Neptune is the essence of the emotional or spiritual realization expressed by the gesture; if Venus is the harmonious progression of colors which is the "life" of the painting, Neptune is the inner vision of the painter; if Venus is the composite beauty of melody, harmony, rhythm, and text of a perfectly wrought song, Neptune is that which is transmitted as spiritual stimulus through the composer, thence through the singer, to the audience.
The femininity of Neptune is portrayed by the up- turned semi-circle. A horizontal line is abstractly feminine as the essence of "that which is affected by a cause" but this semi-circle focuses a much more intense feeling of "receptivity." To geometrize: if we enclose the structure of the Neptune-symbol in a circle of which the center-point is the jointure of the semi-circle and the vertical, and if we use the entire vertical of the circle as the vertical of the Neptune-symbol, it is interesting, and illuminating, to note that the two arms of the semi-circle cut the outer circle at the points corresponding to Scorpio and Pisces of the astrological mandala. These two signs plus the "Cancer-point" of the little circle at the bottom of the Neptune-symbol comprise the triad of the water- signs — the feminine — female principle of the zodiac and the triune faculty of sympathetic responsiveness of which the Pisces vibration represents the most impressionable and hypersensitive octave. So we have the aspiration of man- woman opening to the down-pouring of inspirational powers to ignite the "seed" of the soul-consciousness. This, in short, is the picture of inspiration in action; it is the picture of that subtle factor in human nature by which the human instrument becomes a vehicle of the divine (consciously) through spiritualized processes. Neptune, then, is the principle of instrumentation and its power is to make instruments of all artists by whom archetypal communications may be effected.*
All manifestive (creative) artists are priests in so far as they are all "mediators" between the divine and the mortal in mankind. And in no other art does the interpreter more deeply fulfill the role of acolyte than does the singer or the instrumental musician. The fusion of musical value with word-value that is inherent in the art of song is the composite of the abstraction of music with the concreteness of language. The words of poetic sentences and the notes of musical phrases are blended into a strange magical alchemy by which the poetic word is intensified and the musical idea is "concreted." Since tone is the archetype of sound and words are sequences of composited art of song is then seen to be the archetype of the art of poetic reading. The great song-manifestor is one who perceives intuitionally the musical value inherent in the literary text and by the exercise of a fusion of aesthetic perceptions, the singer amalgamates these factors into the completed presentation of blended literary and musical art. The instrumental soloist and orchestral conductor fulfill a similar "acolyte- hood" in the realms of more purely abstract music; the orchestra, under direction, is a composite of many "acolytes" who (each in his own way) contribute to the total musical perfection. What, you ask, has all this to do with astrology? Where and how is music to be found in a horoscope? Let us see.
A musical score (lines and spaces grouped in measures) could be written in a circular form, the notes all having vertical stems pointing to the center of the circle. The lowest note of the score would be analogous to the circumference of the astrological circle, the highest note would be analogous to a circle close to the center of the wheel. In the treble and base staves of the ordinary musical lines we have five lines to each staff plus the median line of "middle C" — eleven lines in all. Create a circle big enough to contain ten concentric circles and subdivide into twelve sections just as the astrological mandala is sectioned into the twelve houses. Here we have the "low G " of the bass staff corresponding to the astrological circumference as the "emanation" of the Ascendant — point — the physical attribute, the densest vibration. The "high F" of the treble staff is the innermost of the enclosed circles and it might be taken to correspond, symbolically, to the most spiritual vibration of human consciousness — analogous to the vibration of Pisces in the Great Mandala.
The upper half of this diagram — a semi-circle enclosing ten other semi-circles is a symbolic picture of rainbow — the natural color-spectrum which has red, the densest color-vibration, as the "outside" of the arc, and purple, the fastest vibration, on the inside — closest to (what would be) the "center of the circle of which the rainbow is a major arc." Here we have color-spectrum, tone-spectrum, and the astrological spectrum of consciousness of humanity, all in one drawing. Draw this picture and think about it as "gradation of color," "gradation of tone" and" gradation of consciousness."
Straightening out the Aries-radius into a vertical and unfolding the composite circle into a straight horizontal picture gives us the tonal spectrum on a specified section of the "great musical scale." (Change the clef-signs and substitute one zodiacal sign and you have the astrological Ascendant which "determines" the personality-type of an individual just as the key-signature and metric signature "determine" the "personality" of the musical composition. Further analogy: the two staves of music might be considered symbolic of all tones that are used in our musical tradition; they might also be considered, symbolically, as the entire tonal range of all audible vibration, just as each specified color of the rainbow has its myriads of gradations, blending imperceptibly into each other by sequence of light-refraction. Astrologically this picture shows the gradation of human evolution, individually or as an archetype, from the densest vibration of utmost primitivity (separative, physical consciousness) to the utmost of spiritualized consciousness in masterhood. The primitive state is red and its tone is the lowest on what-ever symbol you are using; the masterhood-state is purple in color and its tone is the highest on whatever tonal scale you use for symbolic illustration. If you know how to write simple notation, try a simple example of "astro — musicianship:" a circle enclosing four other concentric circles; subdivide into four quadrants (measures); at the point corresponding to the astrological Ascendant, indicate, outside the wheel, a treble cleff, a key signature and " three-four rhythm.
Each of the three signs of each quadrant is, of course, one "count." Using only the treble staff for simplicity, write in the notes of a melody in three-four rhythm — for example, the first four measures of "Missouri Waltz;" each four measures represents a complete "tour" of the circle. Let us further pretend that the diagram is really spiralic. When you finish the first four measures, in imagination, you write the next four measures on (what would be) the next "rung" of the spiral, and so on through the entire song. Another illustration: subdivide the four quadrants into three, creating the twelve astrological houses, or twelve measures of music; intensify the cusps of the first, fifth, and ninth houses, creating three phases of four measures (Fire, Earth, Air, Water) each; indicate "four-four" rhythm. And soon. You can vary your patterns in many ways — the point is this: Astrological symbology, music symbology, and color spectrum are designed in essentially the same way. A circle big enough to enclose several staves could, theoretically, be used to compose a vocal solo with piano-accompaniment or an instrumental combination.
As each musical instrument has its own particular tonal range and tonal quality, so does each planet have its essential quality as a focalizer of one of the twelve zodiacal signs. The "octaves" of a planet are the levels of consciousness that the person has toward the specific life- principle on succeeding evolutionary cycles, just as there are seven "C's" on the piano-keyboard.
If, in imagination, we might say that every human being evolves through seven major development cycles, these would be analogous to the seven octaves starting on the lowest "C" of the piano-keyboard; the twelve half-steps of each octave would be analogous to the twelve zodiacal signs. The planetary ruler of each sign could be analogous to the major triad of each of the twelve keys — Venus and Mercury ruling two each.
You can experiment with this idea in many ways; by a little exercise of your imagination you can analogize several musical and astrological factors. For example: musical discord and square aspect; the modulation from discord to harmony and sextile aspect (modulation from discord to harmony is alchemy expressed in music); the major triad based on a specific tone and the grand Trine based on a specific sign; the root-note of a major triad and a planet in dignity overtones of two notes played together and orbs of two planets in aspect to each, other; the soloist of a musical performance and the planetary ruler of a chart; instrumental or other accompaniment to a soloist and all the other planets beside the ruler of the chart. There is a wealth of imaginative research in making up titles of musical compositions by study of planetary groupings by house-position and sign- position, particularly those of the chart-ruler, as "key-note" of the horoscope. Such analogies can he very fascinating. Your interest in both arts will be intensified and your perceptions of the values of both can be greatly revivified as the result of such practice.
Now, the astrologer as "musician:"
As the great singer or instrumentalist interprets through tonal media the inspired archetypal concepts of the musical manifestor, so does the astrologer, by the power of the word, present his interpretations of archetypes — life principles — when he talks to a client or to a group of astrological students. As the musician develops his physical vehicle by technical exercise, so does the astrologer develop his mental vehicle in the exactitude of calculations and study of astrological technicalities. The "composition" that the astrologer interprets is always the vibratory being (the Consciousness) of humanity. The client is the " composer" of a specified astrological arrangement and the astrologer is the "acolyte" who serves the latent priesthood of the client. The musical manifestor and interpreter exercise their knowledge of esthetic (tonal and rhythmic) media to objectify their concepts of archetypes; the astrologer exercises his knowledge of human-life media as they specialize cosmic principles. The astrologer reflects the essence of what is in the client 's horoscope just as the singer or instrumentalist reflects that which is perceived in the score of the manifestor.
Astrologers "compose" when they devise new symbols and new approaches to astrological interpretation. For the most part, however they — and the interpretative musicians — communicate that which has already been manifested, in horoscopes or in musical scores. As the work of the manifestive and interpretative musician ignites the intuitional hearing of humanity, so does that of the astrologer by speech. The "artistry " of astrological service depends on the clarity with which such ignition can be made. This, in essence, is the purpose of his "star-song" as is the purpose of the others in their "tone-song." Both touch, as perhaps no other two arts can do, the immediacy of the abiding spirit. Both are consecrated to the service of "touching the Spirit" by sound in the most beautiful, efficacious, and inspiring ways possible.
*The above is in full recognition of the fact that "the ray of Neptune carries what esotericists know as the Father Fire, the light and life of the Divine Spirit, which expresses itself as will." Like all other planets, Neptune has its "reflective" as well as its "expressive" octave. The feminine polarity of Neptune's quality is that of our capacity to respond to higher-octave stimuli through inspirational attunement. Neptune, in this respect, is the archetypal symbol of our mystic qualities. A great actor or musician projects (dynamically) by his acting or playing or composing. That represents his "dynamic" Neptune. The attunement to archetypes and response to inspirational impulses from the Higher is the feminine polarity of that functioning.
The instinct to act is as primordial to human nature as is any other instinct. Consider the natural tendency of all people to emphasize or intensify communication-by-speech with gestures and facial expressions. This natural emphasis is that which is cultivated by intensive training in dramatic art, just as the natural beauty of the speaking voice is cultivated in the art of singing. To dramatize, means to intensify — in whatever form or through whatever medium. Consequently, dramatization is one of the archetypal attributes of all the arts — the organized expression of a specialized "point" of emotional reaction, thought, or realization. Even the playing of two or three octaves of a scale on the piano (usually not thought of as being particularly beautiful) can be dramatized by use of tonal dynamics in such ways that its mechanistic identity as a "scale" is transformed into a "point" of expressive musicality. Technical skill can, and sometimes does, serve to produce art-work that is universally designated as mediocre. Artistic mediocrity is, essentially, art produced un-inspirationally. Inspiration in whatever form — and there are many ways by which it can be experienced — is the most highly dramatized form of human experience in no other way do we experience reaction and realization with greater intensity. As Mars and Moon are "lower-octave" impregnation and receptivity, so Sun and Neptune are "upper-octave" impregnation and receptivity. The chalice of Neptune receives the down-pouring of solar power into the "soul-seed" (the little circle at the bottom of the Neptune-symbol), the symbol of spiritual or psychic impregnation which, in any form, is inspiration; and inspiration is always a designation of response to solar love-power — the sign Leo, of the Great Mandala. The Pisces of Neptune is the upper-octave of the water-trine, initiated by the cardinal Cancer, which is the triune principle of sympathetic vibrational responsiveness. Sun and Neptune are (in composite) the planetary identity of Father-Mother God-hood of humanity.
Dramatic art had its inception in ceremony; ceremony, in turn, was man's way of personalizing, by action-symbols, his spiritual realizations. Ceremony and myth are two ways of saying the same thing: exotericising, by action and story, that which represents humanity's concepts of life-principles Man's truth is "Life's truth seen in a mirror;" the mirror is the evolutionary status of the emotional consciousness of the evolving being. The art of acting is the most completely personalized of all the forms of interpretative art-using as instruments the voice of the singer and the body of the dancer. The dancer moves in specialized rhythms, the singer "speaks " in specialized tones, the actor (by movement and speech) has something of both. The great actor fuses two highly specialized talents; that of panto-mime, which is "literalized dancing," and that of line-reading, which is " literalized singing." Great acting formalizes certain aesthetic principles just as great prose-writing does; the movements of the dancer and the vocal expression of the singer correspond to acting as poetry does to great prose- writing.
Keeping in mind that "to dramatize," means "to intensify," let us now consider the significance of the diameter Leo-Aquarius, fifth house signs of Aries-Libra, as the archetypal symbol of the principle of dramatic expression. This diameter is the polarization of that which is essentially symbolized by the fifth house or the Great Mandala — the individualized radiation of emotional powers. Leo, fixed fire, is the initiating sign of the fixed cross, analogous to Aries and Sagittarius of the cardinal and mutable Crosses, respectively. It is the love aspect of the archetypal I AM and because of sequence-position, it is the releasement of that which is established in the fourth house. Its keyword is I release and it is pabulum for not only the other three signs of the fixed cross but for the active expression of the Sun in the horoscope.
Generation is Scorpio-eighth-house as individualized releasement is Leo-fifth-house, polarized spiritually and by genius through Aquarius-eleventh-house. We must keep in mind that power, as the Sun Principle, serves no purpose unless, and until, it is released and radiated. All the love in the human heart, all the creative endowment, all the inspired manifestive or interpretative genius are relatively meaningless if they are not expressed, and it is through Leo-Aquarius and Sun-Uranus that we express creatively, as far as humans can be creative. It is through the love attribute of Leo that we contribute emotional vitalization to relationships and to our work. Through it we find the resource of that which is focused complementation, is Scorpio-generation-and regeneration. Leo is the arch-symbol of natural, spontaneous joyousness, the dynamic attribute of which the passive and transitory realization is called "happiness." Only through joyousness do we truly love, truthfully manifest or interpret, and sincerely serve. Even in "blood, sweat, and tears," joyousness is an inevitable factor in the consciousness of the artist; to be "un-joy-ful" is to be un-loving and un-radiative, in the creative sense of the word. The sorrows of Leo-Sun are rooted in the lack-of opportunity or congestion-of-ability to exercise love-radiation to other people or to work. The agonies of Aquarius- Uranus are rooted in inability to meet the gravitational challenges of Moon- Saturn and in the "birth-pangs" of bi-polar manifestivity. Unindividualized human consciousness is represented by the sequence of the first four zodiacal signs — Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer. The radiativity of this octave of primitive awareness is in the sign Scorpio, fifth house sign of Moon's Cancer- -the instinct to generate forms as a releasement of desire resources. With individualization, however, the person moves in evolutionary sequence one step ahead to the Leo-Aquarius diameter and his desire-radiation is transformed into at least a primitive aspect of love-consciousness and individualized power-consciousness. Individualized power-consciousness is the first "must" in the development and fulfillment of manifestive or interpretative artistry. So, the artist of whatever kind must know that he is a power, and personal integration must be effected before that power-consciousness can be expressed. Now, to the playwright and the actor:
The playwright is a specialization of (either one or both) prose-writer and poetry-writer. However, by the specializations of his art, he is more essentially the writer of poetry than prose, even if he doesn't (and most playwrights don't) write specifically in verse. The writing of plays involves not only an instinctive at-tunement to the principle of rhythm but also to the inherent musicality of vocal values. He must, because acting is pantomime and action as well as speech, know something of the movement-values that are inherent in dance. A sense of "time-proportion" is as necessary to his work as is a sense of "space-proportion" to the painter or "tone-proportion " to the composer. Time-consciousness is what we call the consciousness of sequence of reaction and realization. "Human reactions and realizations" are what the playwright presents in esthetically organized "dramatized" form. Actually, the "doing" that is represented on the stage is the objectification of sequences of individualized reactions and realizations. On the stage or in real living, this "doing" is always an outpicturing of inner states. And the protean mentality or understanding of the playwright makes it possible for him to construct the action of his play in accordance with a deep "inner knowing" of individualized time-consciousness. The playwright may or may not seek to present a message in his work; but what he does present, either as "message"or "pure drama," is the organization of his concept of archetypes reflected through individual or composite human consciousness. Read any play worthy of being designated as dramatic art and you will find, somewhere, an "emotional point" that is the archetype of the whole play, however complex in structure it may be. The art of manifestive drama (playwrighting) is the harmonious and expressive organization of elements which are focalized, as the tree is focalized in its seed, on this emotional point.
The Great Astrological Mandala with Aries Ascendant, cardinal structure-points connected in a square, the water-signs connected in a triangle, is the symbolic picture of that which all art seeks to interpret. Here is the human family — the male and female of "parent and child," male and female in immature and mature states, and the fourfold interchange of physical, generic, and evolutionary polarity. The trine of water-signs is the principle of sympathetic vibration by which manifestors and interpreters "tune in" on archetypes to be expressed through individualized concepts in aesthetic media.
The second presentation of the Great Mandala has the fixed signs at the structure-points, Leo as Ascendant, Scorpio as base. This is the mandala of all manifestive (creative) artists, radiating from their resources of creative power, polarized by the genius of Aquarius, to fulfill a karmic inspirational redemption of the group-subconscious of humanity. The position of Cancer as twelfth house sign of this mandala shows us that the radiative potential of the Leo-Ascendant is derived from a deep resource of sympathy, of which "parenthood" is the archetype. No truly great playwright does his finest and most inspired work basically impelled by a desire to make millions in money or to attain this and that of fame or applause. He does it because he can't refrain from it and live, any more than truly mature people can live (in the real sense of the word) without contributing to life. The playwright or other manifestive artist, is a spiritual parent, an "epigenitor" of his archetype. The Scorpio base of this mandala points to the psychological base of intense regenerative desire-power. No great artist of any kind is a "psychological milk-sop;" there is deep perception, profound understanding, strong sexuality, intense emotions and, consciously or unconsciously, a blazing aspiration, in all of them.
The third basic presentation of the Great Mandala has Sagittarius on the Ascendant, mutable signs at the structure-points, and Pisces as base. This is the mandate of the interpretative artist who at-tunes himself to the concept of the manifestor and makes of himself a vehicle for the embodiment of that concept). It might be called, as abstract portrait of interpretative artist, the "mandala of individualized instrumentation." The interpretative artist disciplines, develops, and organizes his abilities and faculties in order that he may qualify for inspirational exercise. There have been a number of artists in the fields of drama, dance, and music who have qualified for designation as both manifestor and interpreter. Of the interpretative artists there are two basic types:
One type is that of the archetypal personality of which there are — and have been — several noteworthy examples in the field of motion-picture acting. Representatives of this type, in silent and sound movies, are such as: Rudolph Valentino, Theda Bara, Mary Pickford (as "America's Sweetheart" of years ago), Douglas Fairbanks, senior, Mae West, Clark Gable, and others. The outstanding example of the archetypal personality in today 's movies is "Bing" Crosby — the "world's troubadour." (1951).
The second type is that of the true dramatic interpreter, the actor or actress whose personality and personal equipment is pabulum for at-tunement to the concept of the manifestor. All great dramatic artists are of this type and they, in their persons and by their influence, are among the most conspicuous "inspirators" of the human race. The Sagittarius Ascendant of the "interpreter-mandala" portrays the esoteric (or psychological) priesthood of all dramatic representation. By the power of the actor, the essence of human personality-vibrations is represented in the roles he plays; these personality-vibration patterns are condensations of life- principles expressing through the human archetype. The inspirational projection of the actor fused with the skill and knowledge of the playwright contributes a vitalization of humanity's awareness of its own experience and identity as a life-expression. Man ever seeks to realize the truths of his archetype and, more than does any other art, drama has the power to "ignite" points of this realization. We do not really see our (individual) selves in the performances of great actors; we see "points of the self" outpictured. Our response to the impact of a great performance of tragic drama has the effect of lifting our consciousness from the "localized pain of our personal sorrows" into a vast participation of the sorrows and suffering of evolving humanity. The actor and actress are intermediaries between our consciousness of separative self and our consciousness of identity with the self-hood of our archetype, humanity. Give a little thought to your responses to performances of great acting. Do you recall the sense of "expansion into a larger self " by stimulus to your sympathy, your courage, your faith, your love, and your inspirations?
Mention might be made here of one who, in her day, was considered by most to be greatest in the field of dramatic artistry and whose fulfillment of artistic endowment represented one of the greatest developments of theatrical art: Mme. Sarah Bernhardt. The career of this great French actress (she was a native of Paris and also of Scorpio) on the stages of the world covered a span of something like sixty years and, from a standpoint of sheer "quantity of expression," as well as of quality, it was a phenomenon of staggering proportions. She not only interpreted major roles from the classical, melodramatic, and lyric repertoires, but so great was the power of her vibration that she inspired the writing of a great number of the finest plays of her time — by such authors as Francois Coppée, Victor Hugo, Edmond Rostand, and many others. This woman was truly a priestess of dramatic art, consecrated with every fiber of her being to the fulfillment of an endowment that was truly a gesture of the divine to those on this plane. Read a good biography of her life. It will recharge your consciousness with a renewed faith in the power of beauty resident in the human archetype.
In application to astrological reading, the symbolic essence of dramatic ability is Venus, Jupiter, and Neptune, the signs Pisces and Leo, and the fifth house. "Dramatic career" will involve certain favorable configurations with the Moon (as the symbol of the public) and also of the sixth and tenth houses. (The prodigious achievements of Mme. Bernhardt are shown by Sun in Scorpio in combination with a conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus; it is possible that she had both Moon and Neptune in Pisces — Twelfth House — with Aries Ascendant.
Does the astrologer act? If so, what is his theater and whose lines does he read? A factor in the ethics of astrological service demands that the consultant astrologer submerge his personal feelings, thereby avoiding an infliction of negative vibrations on his troubled client, and that clarity of at-tunement to the horoscope may be effected. In this respect, he does exactly what the actor has to do. The astrologer, in his person and vibration, must dramatize serenity, friendliness, enlightenment, encouragement, and love. This is not "hypocrisy," though the word "hypocrite" does essentially mean "one who plays a part." The hypocrite misrepresents through a falsity of nature; the astrologer represents through the truths of human nature.
The astrologer "reads the lines" of human nature as an explanation of life-principles functioning through a particular archetype. His stage is any place where he presents astrological truths for the enlightenment of the consciousness of other people, privately or publicly. The astrologer serves to dramatize the essential good of the person for whom he reads and, in this function, he proves his identity as brother-in-spirit to the dramatic artist.
— Supplemental Student Material Reference: Studies in Astrology, Elman Bacher
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Contemporary Mystic Christianity |
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