"In a horoscope that has no intercepted signs the
symmetrical parallel of signs with houses is everywhere evident. The three
structure-crosses: cardinal, fixed, and mutable, and the four generic trines:
fire, earth, air, and water, appear in regular sequence and in geometrical
formation; the six structural diameters parallel the six vibrational
polarities, the house-quadrants parallel the zodiacal quadrants and the
outline of planetary rulership of the twelve houses is concise and clear."
Astrology, at its simplest, is complexity piled upon
complexity. In the minds of many students, however, the problems of
interceptions proves to be a complication of back-breaking quality. This
material is offered as food for thought in an attempt to clarify the purpose
and meaning of signs and planets being placed in such a way that their
vibratory "area" does not touch house-cusps. "Interceptions" can mean "woe is
us" until we perceive the possibility of a philosophical meaning behind this
particular pattern. When we do, we are well on our way to achieving an
organized approach to its interpretation.
First a break-down of horoscopical
structure. Use
a twelve-housed wheel; connect by straight lines the pairs of cusps as
follows:
Four horizontals — parallel to the horizontal
diameter: cusps of 11th-9th, 12th-8th, 2nd-6th and 3rd-5th.
Four verticals — parallel lo the vertical diameter:
cusps of 12th-2nd, 11th-3rd, 9th-5th and 8th-6th.
The mandala as it now appears symbolizes the
symmetry of astrological structure. These lines connect points of the
circumference of the wheel that are equidistant from the arch-structure lines
of the horizontal and vertical diameters. These, in turn, form the composite
of the lines of force that are basic to the contents of the wheel. These two
diameters symbolize the cross of incarnation. Now create a symmetrical square
by connecting these "cardinal points" by straight lines. This square is the
abstraction of relationship-structure, our "field of experiences" by which we
unfold our potentials in incarnation. Create another symmetrical square by
connecting the mid-points of the 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 11th houses. This forms
the symbol of the static square — the arch-symbol of congestion of spiritual
potentials. This congestion is decrystallized by the symbol comprised of the
diameters of 1st-7th, 3rd-9th, and 5th-11th. This symbol — the sextile aspect —
is a symmetrical open symbol representing the "lines of force" inherent in the
composite of two closed equilateral triangles; these two triangles are formed
by straight lines connecting (1) cusps of the 1st, 5th, and 9th and (2) 7th,
11th, and 3rd.
All of these designs are balanced, symmetrical
figures inherent in the interior essence of the wheel. Since they are
structure designs they apply to all horoscopes, because the structure of any
horoscope is a twelvefold division of the wheel's interior into equal
sections — "houses" — of thirty degrees each. The composite of these designs
illustrates, by symmetry, the equal importance of all houses. No one house is
more important than another; every house is a channeling for the releasement
of potentials and the unfoldment of consciousness toward the realization of
ideals in incarnation. It also serves, by its symmetry, to illustrate the
equi-importance of both sexes since the symmetry of these figures is
continually evident no matter which of the four cardinal-house
structure-points is placed at the Ascendant.
To complete the "symmetricalness" we now add the
symbols of the zodiacal signs outside the wheel, starting with Aries on the
cusp of the first house and continuing around the wheel in regular sequence.
The result is the Great Astrological Mandala — the abstraction from which all
horoscopes are derived. This addition of the zodiacal signs integrates
vibration with structure. We now recognize that the application of thirty
degrees of each sign to the thirty degrees of each house represents a charging
of structure with vibratory life just as a house becomes a home when it is
used as a habitation by people and a violin becomes a musical instrument when
it is played.
In a horoscope that has no intercepted signs the
symmetrical parallel of signs with houses is everywhere evident. The three
structure-crosses: cardinal, fixed, and mutable, and the four generic trines:
fire, earth, air, and water, appear in regular sequence and in geometrical
formation; the six structural diameters parallel the six vibrational
polarities, the house-quadrants parallel the zodiacal quadrants and the
outline of planetary rulership of the twelve houses is concise and clear. The
trine-pattern represented by the vibrational generic element covering the
cusps of the 1st, 5th, and 9th houses represents the arch-resource of creative
spiritualization for this incarnation. The "structure-sign-pattern"
represented by the sign-vibrations covering the cusps of the 1st, 4th, 7th,
and 10th cusps represent the arch-resource of Relationship-Consciousness and
Relationship-Experience-Interpretation.
Before we go into a detailed approach to
intercepted patterns, we will consider the pattern of the twelfth house — in
relationship by sequence — of any house in a horoscope.
Let us remember that every house is the twelfth
house of the house which follows it; every sign is the twelfth sign of the
sign which follows it; in horoscopes, signs are correlated to houses so (for
example):
Leo on the twelfth cusp is the twelfth house-sign
of the Virgo Ascendant; Gemini on the eighth cusp is the twelfth house-sign of
Cancer on the ninth cusp, etc.
Twelfth house is "that from which something
emanates." The Ascendant itself "emanates" from the twelfth house as the
diameter of Ascendant-7th cusp emanates from the diameter of 4th cusp-10th cusp
or as the trine of Aries-Leo emanates from the trine of Sagittarius-Aries or
as the quadrant of Libra-Capricorn emanates from the quadrant of Cancer-Libra.
And so on. In the Great mandala, the fire trine of Aries-Leo-Sagittarius,
initiated by the cardinal Aries, emanates from the water-trine
Pisces-Cancer-Scorpio; the latter trine is initiated in the past by the cardinal Cancer
"root" of the vertical line of "vibrational heredity." This vertical
diameter — abstractly Cancer-Capricorn — out of which Aries-Libra is emanated — is
astrology's symbolic picturing of what most people call "heredity."
The processes of Life as evolution are a
continual emergence from that which was (the past) into that which now is (the
present) and thence into that which is to be (the future). Nothing "just
appears;" that which was conditioned that which is; that which is is
conditioning that which is to be. The sequence of houses correlated with the
sequence of signs is astrology's way of picturing the sequence of life's
ever-becomingness as continual releasement of potentials. In other words the
horoscope is a static symbol of the eternally rhythmic (the symmetry of time)
emergence of potentials from octave to octave in perpetual unfoldingness.
Therefore, when the unfoldingness of an
individual human is thrown out of rhythmic timing a defect results in the
synchronization of sign with house. For whatever karmic reason or
consciousness-conditioning, the emphasis of one level of unfoldment at the
expense of another has the effect of intercepted signs appearing in the natal
horoscope as a picturing of structural-vibratory defect.
To illustrate: use any chart you have available
that has an intercepted diameter. Apply the approach explained in the
foregoing by connecting the "points" that represent the structure of the
crosses and trines. Somewhere along the line you will see a defect in the
symmetry of these designs because somewhere a cross-point or a trine-point
will not coincide with a house-cusp. Thus the vibrational-content of the wheel
is thrown out of symmetry and the sequence-content of the wheel is thrown out
of rhythm. There are varying degrees of complexity and difficulty in
interpreting "intercepted charts" as in anything else. Let us see if we can
organize an outline of approach, starting with the easiest:
Type 1-A: The horoscope has the cusps of the
first, fourth, seventh, and tenth houses covered by a perfect vibrational
cross — cardinal, fixed or mutable. In this pattern the composite "generator"
(fourth-tenth) and the composite "generated" (first-seventh) coincide with
four quadrants of the zodiac and the clarity of basic relationship-structure
is pictured.
Type 1-B: The above requirements are depicted in
the Basic Generic Chart. This is a variation of the natal chart by which the
sign containing the natal planetary ruler is used as Ascendant. This variation
focuses the power of the vibratory ruler of the chart — the planet that rules
that sign.
Type 2 — three possibilities: A — a perfect generic
trine covers the cusps of the first, fifth, and ninth houses; B — a perfect
generic trine covers the cusps of the seventh, eleventh, and third houses; C —
a perfect generic trine focused structurally at either the cusp of the fourth
house or the cusp of the tenth. In all of these classifications, the problem
of intercepted signs is comparatively minimized because the arch-symbols of
cross and/or trine are synchronized with the basic structure-points of the
wheel. When the placement of intercepted signs "creates a disturbance" in the
relationship of sign-sequence with house-sequence of the structure-points, the
interpretation problem becomes more complex. Study your intercepted-sign
charts with an eye as to the relationship of a complete cross or a complete
trine by sequence from the Ascendant. In other words, find out how close the
intercepted-sign chart comes to fulfilling the requirements of symmetrical
design; in so doing, you mentally reduce to a minimum the "hazards" presented
by the complexities of "irregularity" in the wheel.
"Past evil impelling the present incarnation" is
pictured abstractly by a mandala as follows: a twelve-housed wheel with Aries
on the Ascendant; the symbols for the mutable signs are placed appropriately
on the cusps of the mutable houses. In other words the modulation for further
regeneration is shown by the square of the mutable houses focalized by the
most mutable of those four signs-Pisces — as the "end of the previous cycle"
out of which the present one emanates. Apply this thought to any horoscope:
which cross appears as the composite of modulations from each quadrant of the
wheel into the next quadrant? This cross has much to say about the needed
redemptions required for the quadrants initiated by the cardinal houses — as
the entire horoscope is initiated from the twelfth house into the first house.
Each mutable house is the karmic background for the ensuing quadrant; the
signs covering these cusps represent the four-fold congestion of consciousness
which is focalized in the chart by the planets ruling those signs.
As a result of an intercepted diameter in a chart
there will be two pairs of houses covered by the same diameter. Wherever this
"phenomenon" occurs, you will know that the houses concerned in this
"duplication" represent experience-patterns on which the person concerned is
"making up for past defaults;" in other words the two houses having the lower
degree of the sign of their cusps will portray the past; the two houses having
the higher degree on the cusps will portray the unfulfilled past projected
into the present. Such a pattern tells us also that the influence of the
planets ruling the intercepted signs is to a degree, "held in abeyance" until
a certain degree of redemption has been made. The planets ruling the
duplicated cusps are, correspondingly "made to work overtime;" in the ease of
Venus and Mercury — each of whom normally rules two signs — their influence can
extend to three houses and their significance in the sum-total of the wheel is
increased. Just as — in human terms — if Johnny "flunks an exam" in school,
he has to study with added application to make up his work in that subject.
It is very interesting to study charts that have
the same sign on twelfth as is on the Ascendant. These charts have two
principal classifications: (1) those with the succeeding sign intercepted in
the first house; (2) those with the succeeding sign on the second cusp. The
first classification tells us that the person may have been out of incarnation
for an unusually long time; he has to "tie in" with his past in this
incarnation, recapitulate something of his past mistakes — if the ruler of the
twelfth house and Ascendant is congested, learn from his mistakes, apply more
constructive measures and then move in sequence to the progressive vibration
represented by the sign intercepted in the first house. This pattern promises
progress in this incarnation but it also promises that the person,
subconsciously tending to live this incarnation in terms of his past, will
bring himself to a "blank wall" — the power of congestion representing that the
resources from the past have become depleted; his natural urge to progress
will be timed for awareness to the potentials represented by the intercepted
sign in the first house, and, tuning in with this vibration will represent a
"new life" in consciousness. He then, largely, will feel the urge to "leave
the past" and throw in his lot with the "vibratory companion" represented by
the planetary influence of the intercepted sign in the first house. This
pattern also qualifies his marital consciousness since the first house
interception has its complement intercepted in the seventh. It is a twofold
awareness of new life and his complementary-relationship consciousness must
unfold and progress if he is really to transcend the gravitational or
congested pull of past negatives. If the second cusp is covered by the next
sign in sequence, then we know that the person is destined in this incarnation
to express a higher octave of quality of his past, and if the interception in
his chart indicates that the cusp of his fourth or tenth house is in the same
generic trine that his Ascendant-sign is in, we know that that parent —
father or mother — represents an outpicturing of the best of the person's past
as a contribution to the best of his development in this incarnation. No one
ever exactly repeats a level from one incarnation to the next — upwardness is
always a factor to be considered in karmic interpretation.
From a practical standpoint, there is not much
more that can be said here as interpretation of the various possible
placements of intercepted diameters. You as an astrological student, thinker,
and philosopher must exercise the capacity of your own awareness of structure
principles in application to the charts you analyze.
Structure-structure-structure is your key to
finding the significance of intercepted signs and the planets they contain.
Find as many "regularities" and "symmetries" as you can in each chart of this
type — by reference to patterns of cross and trine — and then study sequence so
that you can determine the possibilities of why one diameter may represent a
"holding back" or a "promise of future development" in this incarnation. The
duplicated diameters — when they are lined up with structure-sequence — will
indicate which pair of houses represents a condition from the past that must
be repeated — for complete fulfillment — in the present.
Elasticize your awareness of horoscopical
structure. You will — or can — be thrilled by this stimulus of your intellect
and your resource of esthetic sensitivity and understanding. The rhythm,
sequence, design and drama that are pictured in the Astrological Mandala are
archetypal of all artistic principles; and in a more specific philosophical
sense, they picture the magnificent flow of Life-Principles as it outpictures
the great Universal laws of Cause and Effect, Polarity, and Divine Harmony.
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