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Gemini, the third sign, is the sign of the Twins, brothers. The third house is similarly concerned with our brothers and sisters. According to the position of Mercury, the ruler of Gemini, the aspects he receives, the house occupied by Gemini, the planets in that sign, and the planets in the third house, will be our attitude toward our brothers and sisters and their attitude toward us. Thus, if Mars is in the third house, he will give a tendency to quarrel with sisters and brothers, but if in the same horoscope Gemini occupies the 11th house, signifying friendship, and Venus is there, the effect of Mars in the third house would be counterbalanced, and friendship would prevail. Please bear this in mind that whatever department of a horoscope you may be studying, no single testimony will give a safe basis for judgment. To be sure of our ground it is absolutely necessary to examine all factors and see if the first configuration noted is corroborated or contradicted. Conflicting testimonies must then be balanced against each other. Thus only can we form a correct judgment which will be sustained by events.
If Saturn is in the third house, we would judge that the person involved is unpopular with his brothers or sisters. He may be a chronic scold whom all will shun, that is, if an aggressive sign like Aries, Scorpio, or Cancer is on the cusp of the third house at the same time. If a negative sign like Pisces or even Libra or Cancer is on the third house, Saturn will signify that the person is the butt and scapegoat for his brothers and sisters. The sun or Jupiter in Gemini and elevated would modify either of these augurs. The subduing influence of Saturn would then be exercised in a benevolent manner for the good of all involved. But if the sun or Jupiter is in the third house with Saturn elevated in Gemini, let the brothers and sisters beware, for Saturn's influence is sinister.
Gemini rising gives a tall, slender body with long arms and fingers. The sun and Jupiter make the figure more portly if they are on the Ascendant; Uranus and Mercury make it taller. The moon and Venus shorten and also add plumpness but Mars rising in Gemini makes one muscular without adding flesh.This position, therefore, makes a certain athletic type, such as that of sprinters for short distances, but they cannot endure the strain long, as Gemini is a common and airy sign.
Mercury was chosen messenger of the gods because of his winged feet, which made him swift as thought. Gemini, one of the two signs he rules, is therefore the focus of the mind as we express it through the brain. We well know the instability of the lower mind, and as that is an expression of Gemini, the third house also expresses this characteristic.
In the Saturn Period those exalted beings whom we know as Lords of Mind were human. The world globe on which they lived was formed of mind stuff, and they learned to shape it and build thought forms of that subtle material as we are now learning to build houses, bridges, machinery, and a multitude of other objects with the solid physical matter of which our earth is composed. Thus they became experts in handling the subtle mind stuff. As Saturn among our present day planets expresses in a measure the characteristics of that ancient period which we speak of as the Saturn Period, his ray is conducive to one-pointedness and control of mind when he is posited in Gemini or the third house, both of which focus the lower mind; also when he is in Sagittarius or the ninth house, for these deal with the higher mind. We shall study them in another self-study module. In the third house, Saturn makes the mind methodical and orderly, because he obstructs its flightiness, but it will of course depend upon the nature of his aspects whether this faculty is exercised for a beneficent purpose or the reverse. Aries trine or sextile to Mercury will give a splendid mind which may be used to good purpose in the world's work; but if these planets are in square or opposition, we may have a schemer of the dangerous type, one whom it is well to watch. This applies no matter where in the horoscope Saturn and Mercury are found, but if one of the others is in Gemini or the third house, the potency of the aspect for good or ill is much intensified. In fact, as Mercury rules Gemini, his aspects to any planet affect the mind most potently, according to the inherent nature of that planet as expressed in its keyword. Mars for in-stance, is dynamic energy; therefore he will lend force to the mind if aspecting Mercury, and the direction in which this is used depends on the aspect. A good configuration will make a keen, penetrative mind, quick and correct in its conclusions. An adverse aspect will make a man impulsively jump at conclusions, foolhardy, headstrong, and not amenable to reason. Venus or Jupiter in good aspect to Mercury makes people philanthropic, benevolent, and therefore beloved of all who are fortunate enough to come in contact with them. The adverse aspects make them self-indulgent to a high degree; they use a winning, ingratiating way to gain their despicable ends, but they are treacherous and ready to sell out their benefactors for a favor from another. They have no scruples whatever, and are always ready to cast aside, "the old love for the new" whenever it suits their convenience.
Mercury is never so far removed from the Sun as seen from our planet that it can form an aspect of importance with this Great Light. Also, its aspects with the moon are of no significance, for our satellite has no basic nature of its own, but, as signified by its keyword "fecundation," it only fertilizes that which it is configurated so that that may be brought into manifestation. As said before, when speaking of Saturn's aspects to Mercury, if Mercury or the planet it aspects is in Gemini or the third house, the effect on the mind is much intensified.
The keyword of Gemini is "changeability," and Mercury, its ruler, the fleet-footed messenger of the gods, is the patron of travelers (who are changing their environment), also of merchants (who are professional exchangers of goods or money, and who were wont to travel from place to place in ancient times.) Therefore Gemini and the third house denote traveling salesmen, agents, messengers, letters and writings. Again, the planets aspecting Mercury and the planets in Gemini and the third house tell if a person has ability to write, if he is fitted to be an agent or salesman, and whether he will meet with pleasant experiences or be liable to accidents while on short journeys. (The ninth house deals with extended travel.)
Saturn in aspect to Mercury, or in Gemini or the third house, does not favor writing, but if the aspect is good, it may nevertheless produce a philosophical writer of great depth and penetration on a most exact and painstaking scientific investigator. The writings of such a person will never be many, nor will his investigations cover a wide range. He will, however, be very thorough in covering a limited field,; but though by dint of the hardest and most painstaking work such people may be able to express themselves lucidly on paper, they will have difficulty in public speaking.
The Sun, Venus, or Jupiter in good aspect to Mercury, or in Gemini or the third house, facilitate vocal expression, writing, art and music. The philosophical discourses engendered by the ray of Jupiter can never compare with those of saturnine origin in depth and erudition but they are sure to take the soul to lofty heights of sublimity altogether undreamed of by those under the sinister Saturn. The oratory of the Jupiterian is the voice of the soul speaking directly to the soul. It carries conviction and rouses its hearers as the cold, clear argument of a saturnine speaker never can. The unfavorable Mars-Mercury aspects may inspire an agitator to incite to rebellion, bloodshed, and destruction of homes in what he considers a righteous cause; but the Mercurial air modulated in the Venus voice of a Patti may breathe the sentiment of "Home, Sweet Home," with the effect of touching the heartstrings, drawing a person close to the hearth and promoting "On earth peace, good will toward men."
In respect to travel, Saturn delays and hinders when aspected to Mercury and when he is in Gemini or the third house, for it is his nature to obstruct wherever he is; but the moon and Mercury in aspect or in Gemini or the third house have the reverse effect, for they are of a restless and changeable nature, and will cause a person in whose horoscope they are posited as above to wander from place to place all through life. Saturn in Gemini or the third house and adversely aspected gives liability to accidents while the person is traveling. So do Mars and Uranus, but there is a difference in the nature of the hurt sustained. Saturn causes bruises and crushing. Mars causes cuts, burns, and scaldings, and lays the person liable to attacks from robbers or to be taken prisoner by the military authorities if in a country where there is war. Under such conditions Saturn in Gemini or the third house would make the person a secret agent, a spy, and adverse aspects would cause capture or even death by hanging. Jupiter or Venus in the third house or Gemini would of course make travel pleasant for the person fortunate enough to have them well-aspected, but if afflicted it would be best for the person not to travel.
Gemini is an airy sign. It rules the lungs, which to a great extent supply the body with the important element air. Mercury, the ruler of Gemini, governs the air which passes through the trachea and bronchial tubes. The ebblike and floodlike inflation and deflation of the lungs are another example of the duality and changeability of Gemini. Saturn hardens and encrusts, and when he has evil aspects and is in Gemini, he is one of the causes of tuberculosis. Mars in Gemini gives a tendency to hemorrhages of the lungs, and Uranus, being spasmodic in its action, produces the involuntary movements of the lungs which we call cough.
It should be constantly remembered by pupils, however, that though the horoscope at birth shows the lines of least resistance, and though we find it easy to drift along those lines, we as spirits are in life's school to assert our own individuality and thereby overcome obstacles placed in our path. Every time we conquer an aspect we have lived up to our divine nature. As the Good Book says, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."
(You are welcome to e-mail your answers and/or comments to us. Please be sure to include the 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. Please answer the following question: What effect would Saturn in Gemini on the Ascendant, square the Moon, in Virgo, have on the health of a person?
The forces working through the Cardinal signs impinge upon the vital forces that stir the physical body into action.
The forces working through the Fixed signs arouse the desire nature giving stamina and persistence in action.
The forces working through the Mutable or Common signs relate to the mental and spiritual nature giving purpose to action and incentive to nobility of life.
The vocation most suitable to common signs are agents, promoters, peddlers, middlemen who go between the producer and the consumer, literary and clerical workers, lecturers and similar occupations win which the mind is a principal factor.
The key words of the Mutable signs are:
It is interesting to note the correlation of Neptune, ruler of Pisces, with the other two signs of the water triplicity. Cancer, cardinal and ruled by the Moon, is water as a generator of power-rivers, streams, waterfall, and rain; Scorpio, fixed, is ice — compressed and static — symbolizing resource of power; Pisces, mutable, is water as an enveloping agency — fog, mists, miasmas, and above all the mighty ocean which encircles all bodies of land.
Cancer is the maternal body which generates sustenance for the new incarnation. Scorpio, ruled by Pluto, is the "collective unconscious" — the vast ocean of astral forces which surrounds the body of humanity. Pisces is the "Great Overshadowing" — the Divine Life in which we move and have our being. Neptune represents our capacity to "open up" or to "tune in" to the recognition of the Higher Agencies and to unfold our awareness of the divinity of Life. Through the "instrumentation faculty" of Neptune we can, depending on our states of consciousness, contact the sources of exalted inspiration or we can open the door to Pluto's realm and walk in the caverns of our unregenerate states.
This "overshadowing" of Neptune has been treated previously by interpretations of the patterns involving the twelfth house — the overshadowing of our own past incarnation which must be redeemed, to a degree, in the present one. However, your own personal variation of Neptune's direct influence is shown by the house of your chart that has Pisces on the cusp — or Pisces intercepted — and the house which Neptune itself occupies. The former shows where illusion and disillusionment are concentrated; the channel of experience that indicates your need for developing Faith; if Neptune is afflicted, the Pisces house indicates where and how, in the past, you betrayed Faith and now need realignment with Principle. The Pisces house can indicate a relationship-pattern of deep spiritual value or one that is masked and veiled — its inner reality is not outwardly recognized by others. It is well to realize that the Pisces house of your chart is the one which you, yourself, may understand the least clearly — its realities are more "esoteric" than objective in quality and significance. It is where you can mislead yourself because it shows how, in the past, you may have misled others. In the extremities of your difficulties the Pisces house will show what, most likely, will impel you to seek Divine Assistance; seeing that chapter of your life through dark glasses you are moved to ask for guidance from Him who sees clearly.
The house containing your Neptune is your direct expression of spiritual consciousness, the department of life in which you can be qualified to lead others to establish Faith, the focal point of your idealism, your capacity for establishing Heaven-on-Earth. Through your Neptune house the Divine says: "Be ye the voice for my words and the hands for my work." It is where and how you express your understanding of "Thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heaven."
Because of Neptune's affinity with the element of water, the fourth, eighth, and twelfth houses may be understood to be the most "congenial" for its placement. They represent the emotional and astral levels of consciousness and, placed therein, Neptune's sensitivity is more definitely emphasized. The signs Pisces and Cancer are considered Neptune's two "best signs" because of their fluidic, emotional quality. Furthermore, since the Moon and Neptune are "personal mother" and "universal mother," respectively, the Moon's sign corresponds to the Neptune quality more than does any other, except Pisces. Therefore Cancer is considered the "exaltation sign" of Neptune — the dynamic, cardinal quality of the sign amplifies the sensitive mutability of Pisces. Neptune in this sign expresses with more "force" than it does in its dignity.
Neptune's slow travel indicates it to be of great value from the standpoint of cyclic research. Millions of incarnations are made during Neptune's position in any sign; each group is like a miniature "life-wave" attuned to certain expressions of cosmic consciousness. The correlation of Uranus with Neptune in this respect is of particular value. Consider:
During the later years of the eighteenth century occurred a stellar event of primary magnitude — the conjunction of Uranus with Neptune in the sign Sagittarius. New concepts were born, new ideals, new visions, and new prophecies of a liberated mankind were projected into the human scheme of things. Revolutions occurred, the old was shattered by blows of disintegrative effect. This conjunction carried over into Capricorn in the early 1800s. Metaphysical teachings were released, new concepts of art and morality were promulgated.
This activation by Uranus and Neptune was in the nature of a "cosmic lunation" — the dynamic Uranus and the spiritualizing Neptune provided a "new birth" for the entire human race. The "full moon" of this "lunation" was the opposition of Uranus in Sagittarius-Capricorn to Neptune in Gemini-Cancer during the early years of the twentieth century. A world war of devastating significance brought out into the open the levels of unrest and change which had been "gestating" all during the last century. In other words, Uranus had returned to the "lunation point" and Neptune, like the full moon after a Sun-Moon lunation, had reached its halfway point. Persons who incarnate during a major planetary opposition do so for greater awareness of certain soul principles; Uranus-opposition-Neptune is awareness for the entire human family — a critical point in our evolution.
Those persons who incarnated while Neptune was in Aries were of the generation of visionary pioneers, particularly those who had Neptune in Aries and Uranus in Cancer — tumultuous souls who busied themselves in establishing the "new look" in human affairs: metaphysical teachings, woman's suffrage, birth control and all the other agencies of freeing humanity from outworn and crystallized concepts. We who incarnated during the opposition of the two planetary giants came into a world full of unrest and disturbance. We, by inner development and understanding, can take our rightful place in the scheme of things and make our contribution to the New Age, or, by inner undevelopment we can live — or try to live — by approaches that pertain to a bygone age and so find ourselves "out of line" with the changing aspect of things. Study Neptune in charts to determine how the persons concerned can be considered of this age, not just in it. Study the twelfth house conditions, the Saturn conditions and the afflictions to Neptune or to Neptune-Uranus, and get some sort of picture of how — or how not — the person is cyclicly "at home with this age."
Neptune by position in the fourth, eighth, and twelfth houses conveys a certain natural sensitivity even if it is unaspected — this pattern holds promise that sometime during the incarnation esoteric experiences are to be met and dealt with. It naturally follows that afflicted aspects to Neptune when in these houses are particularly acute.
Neptune unaspected, like any other unaspected planet, is, on a given cycle, a "traveler starting out on a journey." If a traveler is not properly guided or instructed he easily risks taking the wrong roads, thus making many detours and delays before he arrives at his destination. Since Neptune is the transcendent expression of the "mental triad" (Moon, Mercury, and Neptune being the "triad of transmission" — the start of its new journey must be prepared for by (1) discipline and transmutation of subconscious feelings and redirection of feminine reaction-patterns — symbolized by the Moon — and (2) knowledge by acquisition of facts pertaining to spiritual life — as an expression of the intellectual faculties, symbolized by Mercury. Neptune, misdirected, can result in perversion of understanding which can bring the person into contact with the forces of black magic; such experiences result in various forms of disintegration and loss of "inner plane awareness." This in turn brings many difficult experiences — during later lives — by which realignment with Truth must be made. Study carefully the house position and house rulership of an unaspected Neptune to determine, as clearly as possible, what direction Neptune should take for its immediate unfoldment.
Since Neptune is a fluidic, feminine, and impressionable vibration give careful study to the planet which disposits it (Venus for Taurus and Libra, Mercury for Gemini and Virgo, Moon for Cancer, and Sun for Leo) — because the conditions of the dispositor will indicate the essence of "what comes through Neptune." For example, if Neptune is in Cancer — where it is particularly sensitive anyway — and the Moon carries an afflicted Mars vibration, the indication is that the sex urge and the potential for destruction can be strongly stimulated by the activities of Neptune by lunations, progressed Moon, etc. If Neptune is in Taurus and Venus is unafflicted then the person can be a focal point for a very spiritual love- radiation, as well as an artistic agency. Synthesize the dispositor of Neptune very carefully and, in your assistance to another, plan your "road map" so that the person will know ahead of time when certain subconscious tendencies will be activated and he can prepare his inner defenses. Help him to understand the subtlety of Neptune's expressions — people who appear on the scene when his Neptune is activated negatively simply objectify his own inner subconscious levels. They may "tempt" him, try to mislead him for their own selfish purposes, or give him false instructions. Therefore he must, for best results, "cleanse his thoughts and reactions" and establish awareness of what he really is, why he is, and what he can become.
The above observations also apply to Neptune with sextiles, trines, and no afflicted aspects. These patterns promise certain realization of spiritual states in this incarnation, but still the Moon, Mercury, and the dispositor must be studied. During the years of childhood and adolescence many subconscious negatives can be intensified by repeated reaction and the full expression of a trine to Neptune may not be realized until later in life. Neptune "floats on the waves of feeling and thought" — if the mental faculties and capacities are undisciplined and unregenerate subconscious reactions have been intensified, a state of consciousness may prevail that obscures the full realization of the Neptune-potential. We cannot, in justice to those we seek to assist, take sextiles and trines to Neptune for granted since they are the flowerings of redirected consciousness.
Neptune, wherever placed and however aspected, throws a decided influence toward the feminine, or passive, tendencies of the chart. If there is a "plus" of the earth and water elements and Moon and Venus are more in evidence than the Sun and Mars, then the whole chart carries a "hyper- feminine" quality. Neptune does not, of itself, act dynamically; it is we, as patterns of consciousness, who "act through Neptune;" if our channels are clear and clean we open up to inspirational and spiritualizing impulses; if they are not we bring through the opposite.
The person who incarnates with Neptune on the Ascendent has evidently invited a difficult experience. Even with the best of aspects the physical body is sensitive to an extreme degree; susceptible to all manner of thought forms, atmospheres, and emotional vibrations. This position of Neptune is the arch-symbol of the "instrumentalist;" the vehicle can be used, beautifully, by the White Forces or disastrously by those of Blackness. Such a chart must be approached with great care; it is advisable to find out a few things about the person to acquire a perspective on the "Neptune-picture." A highly developed Ego can be represented by this position, and the planetary afflictions to Neptune could represent the difficulties he may have in "keeping his feet on the ground" in adjusting to the practical phases of life. These aspects can tell a story karmically, of the phases of human life which the person can regenerate by his own spirituality. Since "planets are people," each square or opposition to the Ascendent-Neptune can symbolize persons who need the spiritualizing influence or persons who serve as "testers" for the Neptune person. This person, to neutralize the negative effects of unregenerate influences must keep himself "inwardly alive" by repeated spiritual recharging. Particularly difficult is the pattern of Ascendant-Neptune being squared or opposed by the ruler of the chart, whatever that planet might be. The Ascendant and its ruler are the "newness" of the personality — its focal point of expression for this incarnation. This pattern presents a picture of the physical body itself being particularly sensitive to Black Forces and the indication is clearly shown that psychic training of only the most spiritual kind can be dealt with. This person needs continual alignment with White Forces through dedicated service, prayer, physical purity, and inspirational agencies such as music. If he chooses to walk a spiritual path, in his life activities, his motives and purposes must be immaculate, and he must acquire conscious understanding of the psychic nature of the human organism — he must come into an understanding of his own sensitivity and the responsibility that he has to those around him to "be a Light." Without understanding of his own nature and potentials he could be misdirected into negative expressions and eventually find himself on the downward grade.
Neptune conjunction Moon is the arch-symbol of psychic sensitivity — particularly when found in the charts of women. Women with this position would do well, if circumstances permit at some time during their lives, to transcend the purely personal phases of woman-experience by "reaching out with hands and heart" to express motherhood in terms of welfare of those not connected with them by blood relationship. This position intensifies the maternal urge and the qualities of sympathy and tenderness are very deep and strong. Concentrated on the comparatively narrow sphere of home circle it can be very confined. Such women have come to a starting point in impersonal living and "all those who need nurture can be their children." Fortified by strong aspects, this Neptune-Moon conjunction can indicate the "born medium" — the faculty of living consciously in the higher dimensions of realization through clairvoyance or clairaudience. But, as noted before, solid groundwork must be established — such a sensitive person cannot risk attunement with that which is false and misleading.
Neptune-Saturn combinations are very important — and very interesting. These two planets represent the "extremes" of the feminine polarity; Saturn is the most condensed vibration of the planetary spectrum; gravitational in function, it symbolizes the vibration of earth. Neptune, however, is the most sensitive, the most ethereal and "un-earthy" in the spectrum. The square and opposition aspects of these two to each other must first be analyzed by determining which one is the stronger by position, sign, and scope of influence in the chart. Also a comparison must be made from the standpoint of which is the more "afflicted" by other planets. Whichever one of the two is otherwise unafflicted is the key to the solution of the square or opposition "problem" since, being a free agent, it serves to counteract the negatives of the other. Too much Neptune, undirected and undisciplined, is "clear out of this world" — impractical, irresponsible, perhaps inspired but probably just a little too "precious;" too much Saturn, laying on with a heavy hand, "obscures the starlight," the consciousness is trapped in the world of forms and effects, idealism is strangled by the heaviness of burdens to be borne and responsibilities to be fulfilled. The opposition aspect of Saturn- Neptune is very significant — it indicates that this incarnation provides opportunities for the spiritualizing of attitudes toward responsibility — fulfillments by Faith and Idealism and the demonstration of spiritual consciousness as a redemption of responsibility-karma. Both vibrations must be used to establish equilibrium between these two forces — by living a synchronized expression of both, the best of both can be utilized. Saturn in favorable aspect to an otherwise afflicted Neptune is a marvelous antidote to the swamping of astral conditions; also this pattern promises a relationship — or relationships — with people who objectify the fine Saturn quality; they will be persons who act as "steadying-agencies" in the subject's life, through whom he will — or can — become alerted to the maturity of responsibility-fulfillment. They will vibrate harmoniously with serious aspects of his nature and through association with them the finer qualities of his character can take on added depth and significance of expression.
An unafflicted Neptune in favorable aspect to "heavy" Saturn is like fresh water on a parched garden. The persons represented by the Neptune will be a source of inspiration and spiritual refreshment to the subject, who, by the afflictions from Saturn, may find life quite a drudgery through responsibilities and his own "limitation consciousness." If such a chart is heavily characterized by the earth vibration and Uranus is not much in evidence the subject may feel that his Neptune friends are rather a strange lot — he may not be able to understand them very well, but he will recognize his needs for their "lifting touch" in his life. He needs their realization of the inner life-his own is so preoccupied with the outer — and the aspect basically promises that through them he may take steps in this life to free his consciousness from the heavy chains of form.
Neptune is the cry of the human consciousness for "Shangri-la — the place of Peace, the source of Life-giving waters." Peace is established in the human heart when living is done through adherence to thebest, the finest, and the most perfect realizations. The perfected state is first dreamed about, then visualized, then approached through processes of transmutation, and when the pull of Earth consciousness has been transcended the gates of true realization are open to Beauty, Inner Peace, and Knowledge of Truth.
This material is presented in the hope that it will assist those astrological students who are sincerely interested in psychology to clarify their approach to patterns pertaining to the desire-aspects of human consciousness. We fail our task as "enlighteners" unless we make inner agreement to search for solutions to those complex and devious emotionalities that result from confusions and frustrations of the sexual consciousness of people. Evolution is generation and regeneration; phobia, psychosis, fixation, and the like are terms used to indicate levels of emotional consciousness which, because of lack of constructive releasement, have been permitted to stagnate, crystallize, congest, and "back track."
In the application of astrological interpretations to the findings of modern psychology there is no single symbol more significant than the sign Scorpio in its placement as vibratory significator of the eighth house of the abstract wheel.
As a fixed water sign, it may be likened to ice, compressed and immobile. As an emotional significator it is feeling in its most intense form. It is the great ocean of desire-power from which al1 humanity derives its emotional pabulum, to be transmuted through love for the regeneration of Life. (Physiologically, Scorpio represents all excretory functions of the body — the releasements of materials, in fluidic states, which for health must be "let out" so that the body's regenerative and transmutative processes may be carried on.)
The above reference to Love might be better clarified if we use a design to illustrate. On a blank wheel put Aries on the cusp of the first house, Taurus on the cusp of the second house. This is the picture of "I am" — the statement of conscious being — and "I have" — the recognition of relationship with the things of Life through the consciousness of possession. Taurus — Venusian, earthy, and fruitful — symbolizes the maintenance and sustenance of physical life; it is our "roots in Earth" by which we, through the sense of having, maintain our hold in life-experience. In primitive levels the second house does not — nor need not — necessarily imply the consciousness of relationship with another person; but it is a state of "feeling" or "emotion" of ownership by which we carve our destiny according to our consciousness of "evaluating the things of Earth."
To this design we now add Libra on the cusp of the seventh house. The "I am" of first-house Aries now finds its fulfillment, or transcendence, in the "we are" of partnership, marriage, or relationship of any kind. The isolative awareness of the first house is amplified through the mutuality of experience in "togetherness."
The seventh house is the first house of the upper hemisphere, the initiation into soul-consciousness levels by the experience of love-recognition or love-distillation through the mechanics of relationship. The maintenance or sustenance of the seventh house is found in the eighth house, the "soul-consciousness polarity" of the second house. It is, as has been said, the "desire-resource," the "fires of polarity-exchange."
We now place the symbol of Scorpio on the cusp of the eighth house, thus completing the picture of the individual thrust into the evolutionary levels of experience through the power of love for the transmutation and regeneration of his consciousness. (Suggest that all astrological students meditate on this design; it is the symbolic picture of the biblical account of the Garden of Eden, the birth of sex consciousness and the initiation of marriage. The perverted interpretation of this allegory, through ages of human experience, has been the cause of more tragedy and suffering than can be ascribed to any other one factor. "Eve" is the soul- consciousness, or the upper half of the wheel. "She" is derived from the need of each individual to transcend the states of the first house — isolative self- maintenance, innocence and/or ignorance. Each human being is a vibratory composite of "Adam and Eve;" physical sex is merely a specialization of polarity expressed in physical terms during a given incarnation for specific generative and evolutionary needs. There can be no such thing as superiority of the male over the female — we are all, in consciousness and subconsciousness, inherently both. Astrologers must understand this.)
We will now create another design in our study of the sign Scorpio.
In a blank wheel connect the mid-points of the fixed houses — second, fifth, eighth, and eleventh — by straight lines. The result is the perfect geometric form of a "static square" resting on its base. (This is the symbol we use for the "square aspect" — a relationship between two planets that are within orb of ninety degrees from each other.) Since the vibratory significators of these houses are all signs of emotional power we must study the polarity-relationship of these signs by pairs. We connect the midpoint of the second with the midpoint of the eighth and the midpoint of the fifth with the midpoint of the eleventh. The Leo-Aquarius polarity is the power of personal creative love, expressed in relationship of parent to child, being spiritually fulfilled in the Aquarian vibration of impersonal love-power which includes all relationship patterns as they are fulfilled in friendship or brotherhood. These two signs are love-power as radiations. The Taurus-Scorpio pattern represents resources of love-power through the evolutionary agencies of "desire for possession of things" and "desire for possession of love- experience."
The "static square" here depicted gives us the clue to the real meaning of the "square aspect" that we use in astrology. Frictional patterns shown in a horoscope symbolize potentials for suffering — "problems" — due to the frustrations and/or unspiritualized expressions of desire-power. To explain:
Our problems are ignited in our consciousness — as pain — by the contact we make with other people and through our vibratory reaction to their patterns of consciousness. This can be possible only through the experiences delineated by the seventh and eighth house sector of the wheel, which is the sector of "vibrational exchange." Our states of unregenerate consciousness, unexpressed or unfulfilled desires, synchronize with a complementary pattern of the other person and our relationship- experience is objectified. Since this phase of life is brought to us through the other fellow, let us consider the design of the static square as starting with Scorpio.
The wheel, as we know, is an abstract picturing of evolutionary processes through successive incarnations. Physical birth is symbolized in each incarnation by the ascendant, the cusp of the first house. However, in each incarnation, a "second birth" is initiated by the first reaction to sex-awareness: the recognition of one's complement, one's "other self," one's living symbol of desired and needed fulfillment. So, we may think of the wheel as having started its revolutions from the moment that humanity — in the abstract (Adam and Eve) — became aware of the desire for fulfillment through the processes of polarity-exchange, starting with the vibratory exchange of physical sex experience on through all stages of development on mental and creative exchanges and in biological and unbiological relationships.
Scorpio, then, is seen as the vibratory resource of desire-power for that entity we call humanity, and from which all living things derive their creative expression and perpetuation. Because we are backed up by many, many incarnations of having expressed this power in certain ways we may think of each human being as resembling, symbolically, an iceberg which shows above the surface only a small fraction of its entire bulk. Each one of us has a "great area" of submerged or unrecognized desire-potentials which stem directly from our affiliation to this resource. Thus mutual affiliation has been referred to by many thinkers as the "collective unconscious." Every human being, at any given moment of any stage of his evolution, vibrates to a certain level of this "elective desire body." (Similar — or shall we say analogous — to the relationship of any specific vibration of color to the entire spectrum, or to that of any tone to the "body of tonal vibration.")
In terms of conventional, orthodox viewpoint we may say that Scorpio represents or symbolizes the "source of evil." The devil is the eternal tempter, the eternal push-in-the-wrong-direction, the eternal trap for the unwary, the arch-destroyer, the enemy of good, the foe of Man and a "stench in the nostrils of the Most High." We do not quarrel with orthodoxy but these phrases represent the attitudes of people who see life — and its chapters — as "black or white," "essentially good or essentially evil," the "high or the low," "day or night," and so on. These levels of concept have been — and still are — necessary because they serve as guideposts for the conduct of evolving humanity. There must be molds of some kind into which man pours his expressions of himself, else all evolving life would be chaotic and pointless. Desire, itself, would have no evolutionary purposes to assist beyond the satisfaction of the most primitive needs.
However, an alchemical process works throughout the evolution of any individual or pair or group of individuals by the spiritualization of the love-consciousness and the development and expression of intelligence. Self-love becomes love of mate and progeny; self-protection becomes devotion to family, tribe, and state; the forces of sexuality are raised in vibratory quality to extend into levels of creativity and mental power. Through it all the consciousness of the individual ripens and matures into desire for improvement, expansion into wider and wider acquaintance with the universe of other people and, ultimately, for wisdom and realization of ideals. Thus Scorpio, through the eighth house patterns, makes possible the extension of experience into the transcendent expressions of the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth houses. Scorpio is evil only to the mind that sees evil as a "static entity." However, from the approaches made by dynamic realization, Scorpio is the source of all love, all aspiration, and, through the fulfillment of relationship-experience, the source of all wisdom.
Since Scorpio is a fixed sign of great potential power, planetary placements or patterns involving its vibration may be interpreted as being backed up by intense resource, the result of a "long- time-compression" of desire force at that point. Scorpio patterns — and Scorpio types — are never superficial or insignificant. Give careful attention to any natal aspects pertaining to this sign because its potentials are very great for "great good or great ungood." Desire is concentrated there and its constructive releasement and expression is a "must" in this incarnation. Failing, painful destiny is assured for the future. No emotional inhibition can compare with Saturn in Scorpio for intensity of fear or fixation; no purpose-potential is more unwavering than Sun in Scorpio. Mars in Scorpio may represent sex desire at its most shrill need for expression. Mercury in Scorpio must watch its expressions — backed up by unregenerate impulses of jealousy, frustration, fear, etc. its words can have a devastating effect on the minds and feelings of other people. Moon and Venus in Scorpio intensify to a high degree those patterns which pertain specifically to the levels of feminine consciousness of anyone, male or female. There is, or can be, a certain implacability, ruthlessness, or tendencies to "express through domination" when these factors are not satisfactorily released. All of these planetary positions demand transmuted expression through releasements made possible by the love-consciousness of mutuality in relationship, satisfactory sex-exchange and fruitful generation or, on impersonal levels, in loving work- service or creativity of some kind. These are fires which cannot, indefinitely, remain in a state of suppressed shouldering; they must be allowed to "blaze with the Fires of Living."
Since we are searching for understanding there is a psychological factor involved in the Scorpio vibration which we must consider, unpleasant though it is. That factor, and it is an individual and collective emotional state, is the essential result of the failure to release constructively those necessarily intense desire urges. Because the physical body is an outer expression of the inner let us consider how this problem manifests on the physical plane.
As we said before, Scorpio represents all excretory functions of the physical body. Failure to make these needed releasements insures the condition of congestion with all its attendant possibilities of physical inharmony.
In comparison then, how much more difficult it is to remedy the congestion of the desire nature. Any student can, by a few moments of reflection, recognize conditions of desire congestion in himself or in the natures of those he knows well. These congestions take very tragic forms sometimes and we must learn to recognize them.
The essential basic tragedy of unreleased Scorpio is the frustration of the generative urge. From this particular congestion stems a myriad of emotional, nervous, and mental ills that may afflict humanity in almost every phase of development. True that there are a few persons in incarnation at any time who do not require this particular form of releasement but these people are few and far between. It is natural and healthy that people, generally speaking, experience the fulfillment of the mating urge in the companionship of love-relationship. Failing this fulfillment, when its need is deeply felt, there is presented a horrible picture of suffering and perpetuation of wrongs on others. Unfulfilled Scorpio — wherever it is placed in the chart — gives us a picture of possibility that the person may yield to expression of cruelty, dishonesty, murder, and all manner of destruction as a substitute satisfaction for this thing which, in his desire nature, screams for gratification.
As the physical body may erupt with boils due to unreleased toxic conditions, so the consciousness may erupt with all kinds of black urges to get some form of releasement. The history of humanity's development as a sexual organism is riddled with chapters of fear, perversion, disease, and madness because so many human beings "agreed" to live, emotionally, by standards completely removed from the processes of natural experience and healthy, loving fulfillments.
Marriage, which should be a natural response of two people to each other in terms of emotional rapport, has been made a tool to serve family interests, property acquisition, fortune, temporal power, dynasty, and heaven knows what else. An entire religious form was based on the attitude that man, being a worm and fit for nothing but eternal punishment, had no right to spontaneous enjoyment and fulfillment of his urges and his life. This "philosophy" has tainted the minds and emotions of millions of people for many hundreds of years. We are, in these times, beginning to get at the roots of these emotional diseases and, in studying them, we are forced to the conclusion that life cannot be well lived unless it is based on a philosophy of healthy, constructive, loving, and happy releasements.
Some of the results of having been instrumental in deflecting the emotional life and happiness of others:
People whose lives seem to be consecrated to suffering because of the lack of love experience; marriages which seem to be an eternal friction between the partners concerned — old enmity; children brought in who are sources of continual anxiety and care because of illness of mind or body — or deficient in essential character; women who are persuaded to marry men who keep them in continual enslavement to their desire urges without fruitful results; men who cannot free themselves from psycho-emotional bondage to their mothers; children who come in to parents who cannot — who will not — treat them with reasonable affection or consideration; people who live an entire incarnation in fear of their own sexuality and shame at the thought of trying to "do anything about it."
So it goes — the torment, pain, fear, inferiority feelings, cruelty, domination, enslavement, self-destruction, and madness — evidences of the congestion of the desire nature. The remedy is found in enlightened, spiritualized education plus the vitalized determination to live healthily, expressively, beautifully, and lovingly in relationship with oneself and with other people. Thus the desire resource is transmuted and expressed in terms that make for evolution, as well as the redemption of karmic patterns into spiritualized consciousness.
We find meditation on a sign or a planet as it relates to the "abstract horoscope" to be a reliable foundation for all study of interpretative astrological science. By "abstract horoscope" is meant a wheel with Aries on the cusp of the first house, Taurus on the second cusp, and so on around the wheel. This applies the thirty degrees of each sign to its related house. The placement of the planets in the signs and houses of their dignity complete the picture.
In Part I of this series we considered the sign Scorpio in its "square relationship" to the other three fixed signs — the signs of "resource of emotional power," which are the sustenance of the cardinal signs preceding them.
Now we must consider Scorpio in its relationship to the other two signs of its element — water. Our design will be a blank wheel with Cancer on the cusp of the fourth house, Scorpio on the cusp of the eighth, and Pisces on the cusp of the twelfth. These cusps are connected by straight lines forming an equilateral triangle. Of the three water signs and houses, one — the fourth — is in the lower, or "ego-consciousness," hemisphere; the other two are in the "soul-consciousness" hemisphere. To consider the fourth:
This is the second aspect of cardinal "I am" consciousness; it is the "I am" in terms of the Ego's relationship with heritage, family background, racial consciousness, and identification with the streams of Life. Cancer, cardinal-water, is generative in the sense that it is our "home-building" consciousness; it is our base (the lowest point of the wheel) from which we rise up through the succeeding evolutionary patterns.
Scorpio and the eighth house sustain the seventh house, which is our focal point of most intensified relationship consciousness in marriage (love) or in enmity (unfulfilled love). Consequently the intense, concentrated emotional power of Scorpio — through sex-impulse and its derivations — is needed here. Scorpio is generation and its spiritualizations through regeneration in love.
Pisces and the twelfth house symbolize water as an enveloping agency. Abstractly considered it is the essence of the past brought over into the present. All the mutable signs and houses are "modulations" from one vibrational or environmental quadrant to the one following. The twelfth house is the modulation from one incarnation to the next — or, considered conversely, it is the essential key to understanding what, in the past, impelled the present incarnation. It symbolizes the emotionality of the water signs in its most transcendent and impersonal aspects of universality of Love, Sympathy, and Compassion-Understanding. Cancer is emotional identification with family; Scorpio is emotional identification in partnership; Pisces is emotional identification with world causes, universal welfare, and evolutionary progress as expressions of the most spiritualized faculties and consciousness.
The water signs in composite, symbolize our faculties as "sounding-boards;" our "vibrational responsiveness to other people's vibrational patterns;" "subconscious instinctive family feelings;" "sub- conscious desire-impulses;" and "subconscious memories from past incarnations."
Since the foundation of all astrological interpretation is "Know Thyself," suggest acquaintance with the water-sign pattern by turning the design we have created so that your Ascendant sign falls on the cusp of the first house. Even if your natal chart has intercepted signs, this turning of the wheel will give you a picture of how, in general, the water-sign consciousness applies to your individual astrological variation. Study it carefully, with emphasis on the cusp carrying Scorpio, for pursuance of this discussion. Approach it in this way: "Scorpio indicates the concentration of my desire-consciousness in such-and-such house in such-and- such quadrant of my chart." Meditate retrospectively on your past experiences pertaining to this pattern. Apply this technique by placing Scorpio on all cusps of an otherwise blank wheel. Elasticize your mental approach by applying the water-sign trine and the fixed-sign square to the twelve possible abstract positions.
Our next consideration of the sign Scorpio will be in its relationship to Libra, the cardinal sign preceding it. On a blank wheel put Libra on the seventh cusp and Scorpio on the eighth. From the center of the wheel darken the lines representing the seventh and eight cusps and then shade in the seventh and eighth houses so that they stand out from the other houses. This is for the purpose of alerting you to the intense emotional signification of this two-house and two-sign sector of the wheel.
Libra, cardinal-air, is the vibratory correspondence of the first house of the soul-consciousness hemisphere; it initiates the third sector of the wheel by the dynamic action of the magnetic attraction of two people to each other. The egotistic individualistic "I am" — Adam — of the first house extended into "I am a unit in family relationship" of the fourth house, becomes, in the seventh, "I am one of the two complementary factors of an intensely focused emotional experience pattern." Venus, as ruler of Libra, is the abstract symbol of the " Eve-consciousness" of every human being, the agency of redemption for the isolative egoism inherent in all of us and the essential channel by which we all find the source of our cultivations and refinements through exchanges in mutuality — in all phases and levels.
Scorpio, succeeding Libra, is the desire-food by which this redemptive experience is sustained and the eighth house is the process of generation, regeneration, renewal, and transmutation by which is distilled Understanding — leading from the eighth house into the transcendencies of the remaining four houses of the wheel. Add to our design a straight line from the ninth cusp to the Ascendant, enclosing the last four houses. This four-house sector is consciousness resulting from transmuted expressions of the desire nature; spiritualizations made possible by love. Apply this design to your own chart in meditation. Elasticize by studying it as it applies to the twelve possible positions in the abstract wheel. Utilize the basic key word approach to the sectors and to the individual houses, keeping in mind that Scorpio conveys the intensity of the desire nature; the focal point of sex consciousness; the chapter of experience which requires the utmost of your regenerative and transmutative powers; the levels of your emotional awareness that demand the improvement of vibratory quality by love; and the improvement of expression by constructive action.
The viewpoint is maintained here that Pluto is the ruler of Scorpio; Mars is the co-ruler as the active expression of Pluto. And for these reasons:
The essential qualities of a planet's "spiritual nature" must coincide with the essential qualities of the sign it rules. Mars is not only the Principle of Energy but it is the expression of that energy in action. Its sign is Aries — the initial step of the wheel, the " new life," the consciousness of Being and Doing. Its essence is dynamic in every way: thrusting, energizing, impregnating, stimulating, and vitalizing. It is the abstraction of individual selfhood contending with Life and its component parts as things to be overcome through the urges of self-maintenance and self- expression.
Pluto, remote and slow moving, is the abstracted essence of the fixed, congealed, and compressed nature of Scorpio — the most rigid of all the signs (Leo, fixed-fire, glows with power and radiance; Taurus, fixed-earth, is fruitful and expressive; Aquarius, fixed-air, is a vibration of genius — transcendent and inventive; of the water signs, Cancer is responsive and moody; Pisces is extremely impressionable and subtle). Scorpio, smouldering with the compression of its inner fires of intense feelings, expresses its utmost infrequently, but then with great and telling effect. Volcano-like, these expressions are made when the urge to express exceeds the capacity to withhold and the energy-releases are made for far-reaching effects and results. Let us refer again to the design of Libra-Scorpio with the line drawn from the ninth cusp to the Ascendant. What does this design essentially convey?
In periodic recurrence — revolution after revolution of the wheel — it symbolizes the need for reincarnation for the greater spiritualizations of the consciousness due to failures or unfulfillments of the partnership-regeneration patterns of the previous incarnation or cycle of incarnations. The Ascendant carries on its back the whole sector of four houses which include the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth. Pluto, as ruler of Scorpio, stands at the portal of spiritual life — on any phase — from relationship to relationship and — and this is significant — the relationship- essence of the past to the present and from the present into the future. The last four houses of the wheel represent the "Wine of Spirit" distilled from all fulfilled relationships.
Now if, at the commencement of incarnation, the Ego is unable to say "I am," of what use is incarnation? The fact that incarnation is made is proof that the Spark of eternal, indestructible Consciousness is seeking further spiritualizing, no matter how limited the capacity for self- expression may be. The congenitally crippled, the blind, the mentally deficient, and all such defective persons are personifications of the expression of the lower hemisphere of the wheel — consider this carefully — loveless releasements of the generative and regenerative factors. The on-going of life is regeneration; those lives that seem to be back-going are themselves objects of devotion, sacrifice, and love for parents, or others, who need extreme measures to release their resources of knowledge, compassion, and sympathy; thus the processes of improvement and regeneration are maintained and perpetuated. The ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth houses not only represent people who live in spiritualized consciousness, but they also represent the patterns of work or service that are extended to those who personify evil destiny in their afflictions of suffering and ignorance. In other words, those who have learned the lessons of the eighth house distill, for service to all, those spiritualized powers by which afflictions and suffering can be, and are, redeemed. Therefore, enlightened people regard every incarnation as significant and of value; their viewpoint extends beyond the superficial and transitory; they perceive the Laws of Life in expressions and recognize that there is the possibility for the regeneration of any and all phases of human existence.
The approach made by modern corrective psychology — let us refer again to our design — is to help the person who is physically, emotionally, or mentally-psychically afflicted to re-establish his ability to say "I am" in terms of (1) physical healing and improvement of the physical capacities; (2) the understanding of his emotional patterns of fixation, fear, frustrations, or inhibitions, so that the inner complexes and compressions may be released and an upsurgence of self-confidence, sexual-emotional health, relationship realignment, optimism, joy, and love be established; (3) disciplines and directives for stronger and more efficient mental awareness so that the person may bring himself into clearer alignment with things and people around him. All of these factors point directly to a higher level of "I AM" consciousness. There is no other basis for living life in constructive and fruitful terms.
Now we must consider that from incarnation to incarnation an inner life starts with each emergence into sex awareness and the recognition of partnership experience. More destiny can be created from the pattern of one marital experience than from any other single factor in human development. All of the essential factors are involved: sexual exchange, rearing of children, economic problems, relationship entanglements, etc., making a composite of very complex emotional reaction patterns. Since we all are individuals, regardless of how close or bound we may feel to our partners, we cannot, ultimately, and should not try to, get away from the consciousness of "I am." Even to try to effect this inner cleavage is to ensure, to a degree, the wreckage of integrity, the undermining of self-confidence, and the depletion of ability-expressions. The "I am" of Mars-Aries should be — and eventually must be — a thing of honest self-awareness, integrity, and emotional health. Until this springboard is made the basis of our "leap into life" we risk floundering in swamps of indecision, falsity, and all manner of tragic complications. Pluto, as ruler of our intense desire-capacity, is released through Mars either as an agency of destruction, domination, greed, crime, perversion, and disease, or it is an expression of courage, self-reliance, constructive activity and work, the ardency of true love-impulse, the health of rewarding sexual-mutuality, and the luminous spark by which life is expressed with warmth and light, joy, and progress.
When your life seems to reach a point of stagnation and, through a feeling of inertia or depletion, you feel unaware of new directions and new paths of growth, but you do want to continue progressively, look to your chart and point your attention at the cusp carrying Scorpio to alert yourself to your resources. Then by consideration of the house carrying Aries and the potential indicated by your Mars, find out how you can say "I AM" in bigger and better terms than ever before. This is the process on the inner planes:
You are aware of a strong desire to move ahead with your life in some way. Desire, unreleased and unexpressed, banks up until congestion sets in; this congestion results in envies and jealousies of others, self-pities and a diminishing of self-respect and self-confidence. Futilities and superficialities are resorted to in order to fill up the "aching void" and your life goes wandering off into all kinds of (really unwanted) byways and detours.
So — you know you must do something with yourself from your own center of awareness. Your start of anything is made with your Aries and/or first house consciousness; an enlarged or extended consciousness of your Aries-Mars potential is the key for greater releasement of your desire for on-going. Not what someone else thinks you might do, should or should not do, but what your horoscope says is your pattern for progress.
Without reneging on legitimate responsibilities or trampling unjustly on anyone you will respond to the first opportunity that synchronizes with your progressive purpose. Your response will be in terms of "good Mars" — eagerly, enthusiastically, courageously, and positively. You say, in effect, "I wish to release something of the best that I have to offer to my own life and to my relations with other people — something from the deep, hidden resources of my consciousness and abilities. I am determined to make this a worthy and constructive contribution to be expressed and fulfilled with honesty, integrity, and courage."
By such an attitude, and inner feeling, the resources of Pluto, the collective desire body, are released into life through you and serve to feed the spiritual vibrations and consciousness of all who contact you. This, in short, is the redemption of relationship, the essence of love- experience.
— Supplemental Student Material Reference: Studies in Astrology, Elman Bacher
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