"The divine science of astrology reveals the hidden causes at work in our lives. It counsels the adult in regard to vocation, the
parent in the guidance of children, the teacher in management of pupils, the
physician in diagnosing disease, thus lending aid to each and all in whatever
position they may find themselves."
The seven prior volumes of this series of astrological
interpretations have been received with such an enthusiastic welcome by so
many astrology students everywhere that we are pleased to add No. 8 to the
series.
Elman Bacher's profound knowledge of and devotion to
the spiritual aspect of the stellar science, along with an uncanny
understanding of human nature, made it possible for him to present
illuminating astrological treatises which undoubtedly place him among the best
of modern esoteric astrologers. As the truth and value of his spiritual
interpretation of astrology become more and more generally accepted, his
presentations will serve increasingly to help people know themselves and
fulfill their highest destiny.
Before passing into the higher realms in the early
1950s, Mr. Bather expressed a keen desire to have us publish his articles in
book form, and although we deeply regret that he did not live to see his
articles made available to the public in this convenient form, we are happy in
knowing that his wish is being fulfilled.
Introduction
To the Rosicrucian student astrology is a phase of
religion, basically a spiritual science. More than any other study it reveals
man to himself. No other science is so sublime, so profound, and so all-
embracing. It portrays the relation between God, the macrocosm, and man, the
microcosm, showing them to be fundamentally one.
Esoteric science, investigating the subtler forces that
impinge upon man, the Spirit, and his vehicles, has charted their effects with
no less definiteness than has academic science the reactions of sea and soil,
plant and animal to the solar and lunar rays.
With this knowledge we may determine the astrological
pattern of each individual and know the relative strength and weakness of the
various forces operating in each life. To the degree that we are in possession
of such knowledge we can begin systematic, scientific character building — and
character is destiny! We note times and seasons cosmically advantageous to
unfolding undeveloped qualities, correcting faulty traits, and eliminating
destructive propensities.
The divine science of astrology reveals the hidden
causes at work in our lives. It counsels the adult in regard to vocation, the
parent in the guidance of children, the teacher in management of pupils, the
physician in diagnosing disease, thus lending aid to each and all in whatever
position they may find themselves.
No other subject within the range of human knowledge
appears to hold for this day and age the possibilities open to astrologers for
helping people to their own dignity as gods-in-the-making, to a greater grasp
of universal law, and to a realization that we are eternally secure within the
caressing fold of Infinite Life and Boundless Being.
The Wedding Chart
This discourse on wedding charts is offered as an
attempt to clarify to astrological students the processes and meanings of the
togetherness of two persons who are united for mutual experience in marriage.
It has been felt by the author for some time that to do a chart for the time
that the wedding is scheduled to start is not really valid. Herein is
presented a little food for thought as to the valid timing of a wedding chart.
From what esoteric philosophy has to say about human
evolution through the processes of re-incarnation, to "be born" really means
to "re-appear in the flesh." Since we have all been involved in the re-
incarnative process for quite some time now, "to be married" really means "to
be married again." It is extremely unlikely that any person now incarnate has
never before been committed to the marital estate. We have all done the
equivalent of saying "I do" in various languages, countries, and epochs — and
in voices either loud or soft. Since "husband-wife" is a specialized identity
of "man-woman," the twofold "I do" and the final pronouncements of the
officiant (or their equivalents) is really a variation of "I Am;" in other
words, as far as this incarnation is concerned, the birth of a new identity.
There is a remarkable parallel between the "birth of husband-wife" and that of
the individual as a physical expression. Let us consult the Great Mandala:
A circle with the vertical and horizontal diameters;
the symbols of the cardinal signs (Aries, Capricorn, Libra, Cancer) at the
left point, upper point, right point, and lower point, respectively (the cusps
of the Ascendant, tenth, seventh, and fourth houses); from the midpoint of the
Cancer-line through the midpoints of Libra-Capricorn and down to the midpoint
of Aries, draw a curved line, resulting in three-quarters of a circle;
connect, by drawing a straight line, the cusp-points of Aries-Cancer (the
points where the cusp-lines strike the circle.)
To digress for just a moment to explain the symbolism
of the straight Aries-Cancer line: until you arrive at the half-way point when
you walk or drive through a tunnel you are entering the interior of the
mountain or hill; the half-way point marks the change of your relationship
with the interior and as you continue on from the interior toward the exit; as
you pass through the exit you leave the interior. On the inner planes, between
incarnated states, there is a "turning point" which is determined by your
fitness to reincarnate. The vibratory gravitational pull of your unfulfilled
ideals then goes into effect and your preparations for reincarnation begin to
be activated. In other words, from that point you are leaving the interior of
subjectivity — the "exit" of which is your first contact with your
vehicle-to-be at conception.
While you are still in the subjective state but are
preparing for reincarnation, things are happening on the objective plane. For
example: those who are to be your parents may have recently met each other,
recognized the mutual love-attraction and desire for union, prepared for their
wedding-ceremony, established their home, effected the intimacy of their
union, etc. Or, if another child or other children preceded you into the
family, this outer preparation may simply be the mutual decision of your
parents-to-be to fulfill their urge for further parental experience and, in
response to that urge, they effect the emotional and physical synchronization
which results in the conception of your vehicle. Whatever it may be,
preparation is synchronized in both the inner and outer states. At the timing
that is exactly right for your requirements, the seed of your body is ignited
into expression and your vehicle commences its individualization. At the end
of the prenatal period you are "born" — which simply means "physically
individualized." Your body is, at one and the same time, the chemicalized
expression of a desire-object upon which your parents are to exercise their
individual and mutual Love-Wisdom resources and your desire to evolve through
new expressions of your potentials.
The quadrant in the mandala represented by "Aries-to-Cancer" is the subjective preparation of your incarnation; Cancer is
conception; Libra is the objectification of physical sex-to-be and
subjectification of complementation-to-be; Capricorn is the solidification of
the organism; Pisces, if it were to be shown at the twelfth cusp, is the
condensed symbol of the unfulfilled residues of the three crosses; Aries, at
the end of the three crosses; Aries at the end of the three pre-natal
quadrants, is the symbol of your re-appearance, at birth, in physical
individuality — the re-objectification of your "I Am" on this plane. From then
on, until transition back to subjectivity, your "I Am" unfolds its potentials
through your various relationship-exchanges with other human beings. Give this
much thought and reflection — it is the "human picturing" of a
cosmic pattern.
With this analogy in mind and keeping the mandala at
hand, we will now translate this pattern into terms of the subject at hand —
the significance of the wedding ceremony as the establishment of a new
identity of two human beings.
The "subjective turning-point" is the time when each
person acts on a thought, a feeling, or an opportunity in such a way that
their meeting is the inevitable outcome. Examples: they each accept an
invitation (1) to dinner at the home of a mutual friend tomorrow evening; (2)
to enjoy a camping trip with mutual friends next month; (3) to attend an
exhibition of Chinese art on a certain day next January, or if they are both
astrologers — bless their hearts; (4) to speak at a convention of "Star-lit
Stargazers, Inc." at West Blubber, Greenland, in 1968. The receipt of the
invitation marks the turning-point; the acceptance is the action which draws
them, day by day, from the "subjectivity of bachelorhood-spinsterhood" toward
the "objectivity of new identity as husband-wife." The time element is, of
course, an individual variable, some couples must wait a long time before they
meet while others meet and enjoy attraction to each other in sudden and (most
delightfully) unexpected ways. The "mutual friends" — or the Board of Directors
of "Star-lit Stargazers, Inc." — are chemicalized agencies of the one magnetic
Love-power that is instrumental in effecting the contact of the two persons
with each other.
The first meeting of the two persons ends the
"subjective" phase and this "point in time" is analogous to the
"conception-point" of the mandate. Now their togetherness is physically established and the vibratory exchange is, consciously or unconsciously, inaugurated.
From Cancer to Libra in the mandala is the
time-element between the meeting of the two persons and their love-recognition of
each other. When that takes place (the "maturing of the polarity-awareness of
adolescence"), the subjectivity of gender, which coincided with the
objectivity of sex in the actual pre-natal period, is mutually ignited by the
action of sympathetic vibration; each sees the other as the ideal chemicalized
symbol of the subjectified generic qualities — or "complementation" on all
planes. They do not "fall" (awful word!) in love; they lift each other in
consciousness by the mutual fusion of the best of their qualities. This
"mutual fusion of vibration" is the archetype of that which is chemically
expressed in the action we call sexual intercourse. Both of these "fusions"
are releasements of tremendous resources and they are attended by
"more-intense-than-ever-before" realizations of ideal, emotional, mental, and
spiritual being-ness. The vibratory fusion organizes the conscious
recognition, by each of "need for each other." In mutuality, this eventually
leads — according to personal inclination — to the decision to marry; also,
according to personal inclination, this is followed by announcement of the
intention. The decision and the announcement are symbolized in the mandala by
Capricorn at the uppermost point of the wheel — the symbol of concreteness,
organization, and condensation — polarity of Cancer.
The emotional state objectified by the announcement
establishes the identity of "betrothed" and it should be added that, in this
"prenatal" explanation, the sign Leo and the fifth house — following Cancer —
would symbolize the individualized love of each of the persons for the other.
Leo is love-radiation — an individualized matter; it is not love-exchange, and
all of the "identity-points" of the cardinal mandala are such because they
refer to "relationships-by-complementation;" a "mother" is such in
relationship to "child" and a "brother" is such in relationship to another
brother or to a sister; the Capricorn of this symbol is the objectified
identity of individual and mutual, Leo-Libra, "loving and being loved"-ness.
In our tradition a ring is given by the man to the woman as a "dramatization"
of his uplifted awareness of ideality, the power of which is symbolized by the
brilliant beauty of the jewel — usually a diamond, which is the jewel-symbol of
the Sun. This ring and the one — sometimes two — used in the wedding ceremony is
never, as some have thought, a symbol of woman's bondage to, or enslavement
by, man; it is always, because it is a circle, the symbol of the
perfect-fulfillment of perfect exchange in perfect union. Mutual decision,
presentation, and acceptance of the ring, the formal announcement and the
first plan for time and place of the wedding ceremony are summed up in the
Capricorn-point. The Aquarius of this fourth quadrant from Aries would
symbolize the radiation of invitations to persons who love, and are loved and
appreciated by, the betrothed couple; the love-extension to family-members and
friends; the parents may feel that they are "losing their children" but
actually they are, by the fraternity of Aquarius, gaining a "younger brother
and sister." The young couple, at marriage, become members of the fraternity
of husbands and wives, and, subsequently, that of fathers and mothers — of
which their own parents are "senior members."
The last phase of this "pre-natal" period of the
marriage would be the sign Pisces in its regenerate meaning — symbol of faith
and ideality. To marry is to signify an affirmation of one's realization of
life's good and beauty and also to signify a willingness to contribute to Life
of one's resources of Good and Beauty. The Pisces of the mandala symbolizes
the wedding-ceremony as a dramatized symbol of the deepest and most heartfelt
realizations of human joy, inspiration, and loveliness. The artistry of gowns
and formal dress, flowers, and music symbolize Humanity's urge to reach and
express realizations of eternal beauty — perfected manifestation. In our
tradition, the ceremony usually starts with the first note of the musical
prelude or of the wedding-march itself. The ceremony progresses, as we "travel
through" Pisces, in points of prayer, meditation, music, and recitation of
spiritual thoughts concerning the inner meaning of marriage. The officiant
symbolizes in his person the intermediary between the personality and the
reality of each of the two people. When he says "I now pronounce you husband
and wife," the movement through Pisces — as the symbolic ceremony — is
terminated at Aries and the emergence into Aries symbolizes the new identity
of the couple as "husband and wife" in relationship to each other and in
relationship, as individuals, to their individual life-pattern. Great bursts
of music — and this music should be radiant and ecstatic in quality — and the couple walk together for the first time in their new identity. And — God bless them all — always.
Something is often done in wedding ceremonies that is
really not in keeping with the symbolism of the ceremony; that is for the
officiant to pronounce the couple — at the conclusion of the service — "man and wife." A "man" is an adult, male human being; as such, before he can even
consider marriage he must, of necessity, function for a few days, weeks,
months, or years as "an adult male human being." The identity that is newly
established is "husband," and with the assumption of that identity the man
"incarnates" into a new octave of his "I AM" awareness as a symbol of his
capacity and willingness to unfold and to express new levels of consciousness,
resources, and powers.
With the saying of the word "wife" in the above
pronouncement, the statement of new identity is complete and integrated; the
"pre-natal period" is finished and the material relationship is incarnated. It
is the sincere and long-thought-of conviction of the author that the time of
the officiants saying "wife" is the time that should be used for the
wedding-chart. Regardless of plans, schedules, and announcements, the marriage is not
"fully-born" until that pronouncement is complete. The child's birth-cry and
the pronouncement of the wedding-officiant are both expressions of the power
of the word — the living vibratory stamp of a new identity; from then on, the
new-born child and the new-born husband-wife team are individualized
"things-in-themselves;" they are, as it were, "on their own."
If you have the charts of the bride and groom,
identify their planetary rulers with the wedding-chart to determine which
factor in the chart is "personalized" by each. A wedding-chart is not a
"composite of two people;" it is the astrological pattern of a specialized
experience. Follow this out by correlating, as much as possible, each
planetary pattern of the individuals with the wedding chart for study of
vibratory groupings. Then apply to each person's chart the planetary ruler and
positions of the wedding chart; this is to study the essential meanings — to
each individual — of the experience as a most important factor in the sequence
of life-experiences. Having either or both of the individual charts complete
would, of course, impose the requirement of studying the progressed aspects —
particularly those of the Moon — to study the individualized chart-action. If
you do not have the birth time you will not have the complete charts but you
can still group the planetary positions by crosses (cardinal, fixed, mutable)
and generic (Fire, Earth, Air, Water) trines and compare them with the
planet-groupings of the wedding chart. In either case, since any event occurs between
two junctions, apply the previous solar eclipse to the individual's charts
(not to the wedding chart because the wedding was not yet "born" when the
eclipse fell) and list the aspects that it, and its resultant Full Moon made.
If the wedding occurred after an eclipse-month then note also the effects of
the lunation preceding the wedding on the individual's charts. Note the
effects — on all three charts — of the solar eclipse which first falls after the
wedding; pay particular attention to the "point," if there is such, that this
eclipse stimulates in all three charts and note the extent of time between it
and the next eclipse. This eclipse-pattern stimulating all three charts opens
up the first major testing of the people by marriage and of the marriage
itself from a certain composite of weaknesses of the two people, as
individuals and as a couple. Also, for basic reading, list all
"points-in-common" in the three charts; all such planets in the persons' charts that are
squared or opposed tell you that — because of synchronization with a planet in
the wedding chart — the marital experience brings to the persons an "apex
opportunity" to perceive congestions in consciousness; conversely, all such
planets that are sextiled will urge the exercise of self-directed
transmutation; all that are trined will represent the "marriage's ability" to
"bless the people" and through which they will experience hyper-realizations
of their ideality. In other words, all of those patterns are experiences that
are especially focalized in the marriage. The "uniqueness" of the wedding
chart focalizes the individual and mutual uniqueness of the persons.
When you study a wedding chart, pay much more
attention to diameters than to separate house-cusps. Marriage is objectified
human polarity and the diameters picture the foundations of the
"two-in-one-ness" of all human experiences; in other words, the polarity foundations.
Finance-stewardship is second-house — eighth-house; children are fifth-house —
eleventh-house, etc. The seventh house of a wedding chart, in its squares and
oppositions, sums up the vibratory power that challenges the integrity of the
union.
All this is an excellent exercise of your
synthesizing ability as an interpreter, an important phase of your service and
a delightful stimulus to everything in your nature that makes you love
astrology.
One more suggestion; try reading your own natal
horoscope as a "Marriage chart;" philosophically speaking — you figure this
out — that's exactly what it is!
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