"Who seeks for heaven alone, to save his soul,
May keep the law, yet will not reach the goal.
Who walks in love may sometimes wander far;
Yet God will bring him where the blessed are."
These are lines by an unknown poet, but they ring absolutely true to the
teachings of Christ in regard to the rich young man, and also to the teachings
given in Paul's inimitable 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians. Love is the source
of life; love alone makes life worth living, and therefore I feel that in a
course of astrology from the Mystic's viewpoint the planet of love, Venus, has
first claim on our consideration.
You know that each house represents a certain department of life, and when
you learn the intrinsic value of the planets you will be able to read a
message from the stars independently of books and authorities. By exercising
your own divine power of reason to combine the simple basic factors, you may
become an astrologer (the name means reasoner concerning the stars); any
brainless poll parrot can babble about what the books say. It is easy to read
and recite; but it requires thought to reach an independent conclusion and
give an adequate interpretation of the stellar script. That effort, however,
is productive of wonderful soul growth, so I hope that you will read little
but think much; then you will develop a deeper and more reliable knowledge
than the most erudite authorities can impart and a soul-power of inestimable
value, namely, intuition.
Letter Number Four
The intrinsic nature of Venus may be summed up in the ideas of Harmony and
Rhythm; therefore, she has the tendency to draw together all who are in
accord, to unite mankind in pleasant companionships of varying degrees which
we call friendship and love. The department of our lives in which she will
exercise her beneficent office is, course, indicated by the house, and the
quality or degree by her configurations with other planets. If well placed in
the third house, which signifies brothers and sisters, we may conclude that we
have earned the love of our relatives by devotion in a former life, and that
their affection for us will brighten this earthly existence. From the angle of
the 7th house she may draw to us a soul companion whose conjugal love would
make this Earth seem heaven-like, for true marriage, marriage of souls, is a
song of ecstatic joy, a paean of praise by kindred spirits. It is taught by
the angels in heaven to the tuneful accompaniment of the Song of the Spheres,
and whoever succeeds in bringing even the faintest chord of that celestial
harmony to Earth has a song of joy in his heart, a source of gladness which no
sorrow can diminish.
From the 11th house Venus will attract kind friends whose affections we have
won before — for the horoscope shows what we have earned-joy or sorrow. We have
made our "lick"; the stars only mark the time to reap, as the Sun calls the
harvest man. The kindness of friends today was enlisted yesterlife by our
helpful acts. Nor can we keep friends, life partners, relatives, in bonds of
love unless we keep feeding the fires of love. We must continue brotherly and
sisterly to retain affection from such relatives. It requires a friend to hold
friendship, and we must act as lovers to merit continued conjugal affection,
or the love light will wane no matter how well Venus is placed. The planets
show only the trend of things; we have made the tendencies given by a well
placed Venus and we can also mar them. If we do, an afflicted Venus in the
horoscope of our next life will make it difficult for us to attract love. Let
us so build that the Venus ray may be the brightest of all.
Letter Number Five
Mars is the exact opposite of Venus, and if we study him now while the
characteristics of Venus are fresh in mind, we may learn more of his nature.
The first great contrast I wish to point out is that the higher the status of
a person in the scale of evolution, the better Venus is placed in the
horoscope, and the younger the soul, the more it is dominated by the
discordant martial ray. The animals are wholly under the sway of Mars, for as
Venus nourishes the love nature, so Mars fosters the passions. An illustration
will make the difference clear.
Suppose Venus is Ruler and situated in the 7th House, (representing the
public), sextile to Jupiter in the 9th, (Religion), trine to the Moon in the
11th, (Friends). It is then easy to see that here we have a person well
disposed toward the public, (Venus in 7th); Jupiter is benevolence, and his
being placed in the 9th House shows his work to be along religious lines; the
Moon signifies the people, and is in the house of friends; in short, good
planets in good aspect describe him as a benefactor of mankind, much esteemed
for his benevolence.
Now take an opposite case, where Mars is Ruler, placed in the 10th House,
denoting social status, square to Uranus, (whose keynote may be called
Ingenuity), in the 7th House, which is the public. These are so-called evil
planets and aspects, signifying that this person uses his ingenuity as a
menace to the public; and if Mars is also square Saturn, the planet which
binds and restricts, and Saturn is placed in the 12th House, (sorrow, trouble,
and imprisonment), we may conclude that his depredations will bring him into
jail as a public enemy.
But let us now suppose that the potential public enemy comes as a child
under the influence of the developed benefactor, that his horoscope is read,
the latent tendencies to evil detected, and pains taken to eradicate them ere
they get a chance to flower. Saturn in the 12th House will always make him a
recluse; very few are ever strong enough to break the bonds of Saturn, but the
power of Mars may be turned to construction, and Uranus may bring ingenious
inventions from his laboratory to the public. No matter how evil a horoscope
seems, it also has good points, and if we as parents can find and bring them
out, great will be our treasure in heaven.
— Max Heindel
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