This is the ninth sign, and it embodies what we might call the ninth house influences. Sagittarius is depicted as an archer, a centaur; and when man reaches the stage pictured in this symbol, he may be conceived of as coming out of the lower nature and aiming his bow of aspiration at the stars. Therefore, Sagittarius is the sign of the idealist, the sign of our noblest impulses. But as the Sagittarius aims so high, it is no wonder that he falls short of the ideal which he sets for himself. Nevertheless, in spite of failure he should realize that there is no failure except in ceasing to aspire, and he should endeavor to do better.
Like the other common signs, Sagittarius is dual. Gemini, the Twins, represents two; Virgo, has the mother and the babe; the sign of the fishes, Pisces, has two figures; and Sagittarius has both man and animal. The chief characteristic of these signs is vacillation, of which Sagittarius has less than any of other others, for it is a fiery sign. It is endued with a certain unquenchable ardor. Aided by good aspects the Sagittarian shows considerable zeal for the uplift of humanity, but when afflicted the other side of the picture is seen. Then he is apt to indulge the lower nature, the animal side, to an almost unbelievable degree. This is particularly true, strange as it may seem, if the affliction comes from Venus.
As Sagittarius is the ninth sign, the sign of the dreamer and the idealist, so the ninth house is the house of dreams and idealism according to the planets which are posted in this house. The moon in conjunction with Neptune in the ninth house is the particular signature of a fruitful and visionary imagination. The horse, which forms part of Sagittarius, is a beast of travel, and the ninth house is also the house of travel. The configuration of Neptune conjunction moon will make a person very restless, not only in mind but in body, always imagining things are better somewhere else, always searching for something which is never found. The Sagittarian must learn to realize his ideals within instead of seeking them without. We are in this school of experience for the purpose of overcoming, and it is not by running from one place to another that we gain experience. By staying in one place, by doing our very best to attain our ideals where we are, we make our dreams come true.
Saturn in the ninth house, particularly if in Sagittarius and well aspected, is in about the best place possible to have him, for Saturn lends depth and penetration to the mind, reduces the roving tendency, and helps one most wonderfully. There can be no favorable augur for the attainment of the higher life, even if Sagittarius is not in the ninth house. The ideal configuration for a philanthropist or a high spiritual teacher would be Saturn in the ninth house in Sagittarius with trine from Jupiter, the planet of idealism, in Leo. That would overcome all the lower tendencies of Sagittarius and give a wonderful zest and persistence to the will of the man thus fortunately endowed. It would give him the insight to use his means to the very best advantage. He would never be led by false sentimentality, but would have the necessary foresight to know where his charities would be best placed. He would also have the necessary fortitude of mind to deny application from the unworthy, for we should always realize that not infrequently we do people a great deal of harm by giving alms.
Jupiter in the ninth house makes the mind cheerful and optimistic; it inclines a person to benevolence if well aspected. On the contrary, if there happens to be a square to Saturn, that will throw away all the good qualities and render the evil qualities more apparent, for Saturn obstructs, and will give a gloomier view of life than any other planet. Then we may have a person who will be a scoffer at religion, and who will use his oratorical powers (for such the Jupiterian has) for the purpose of turning people against religion. Ingersoll was a good example of the malefic influence of Saturn. Although he was by nature a kindly and well meaning man, the very thought of religion turned him into a sarcastic destructionist for the time being.
The Sun in Sagittarius and in the ninth house makes the mind lively and active, and gives a brightness and a sunny temperament which are uplifting to those with whom the person comes in contact. This is particularly the case if Mercury, which is usually very close to the sun, goes before the Heavenly Light. Such persons are versatile in the extreme, and readily obtain a superficial knowledge of everything. They seem to grasp a point the moment it is presented.
Mars in Sagittarius or in the ninth house is really the most dangerous of all the planets in these positions. There is perhaps no place where he may do as much harm as in this house, particularly, of course, if he has an evil aspect, for the dynamic energy of Mars seeks expression in whatever sphere he is located. He is impulsive, and as Sagittarius is also fiery, they agree in this aspect of their nature. Mars in Sagittarius, therefore, adds fire to fire, and should there be a bad aspect, this energy will be used in a manner very destructive. From such a configuration we might expect a labor agitator, an anarchist — anyone who would seek to right a wrong by committing violence, anyone who would avenge fancied or real wrongs to himself or his fellow creatures by using dynamite or other violent agencies upon those whom he believes have perpetrated an outrage. Mars square Mercury from Sagittarius or the ninth house would be particularly dangerous in this respect. The man would undoubtedly be a criminal, although, of course we must always remember that one aspect like this may be offset by another aspect which modifies it.
Venus in Sagittarius or the ninth house would render a person devotional in nature, if well aspected. The aspects of Jupiter in Sagittarius or the ninth house would make one inclined to follow along philosophical and intellectual lines rather than along the purely devotional. In this respect Venus differs, for the person with Venus there might have very little intellect as that is conceived of today, but would have that lovely devotional phase of character which we find in the very noblest souls. On the other hand, if Venus were in Sagittarius or the ninth house and square to Mars, then we should have a person who would be anything but moral, provided, of course, that there were no redeeming aspects to offset this.
Uranus or Neptune in Sagittarius or the ninth house renders the mind what is usually called progressive and unique. A person with either of these positions, if it is well aspected, will take up some work along the line of the Mysteries. He will probably study astrology, psychology, and kindred subjects.
In accordance with the symbology of the sign Sagittarians are very fond of animals, particularly horses and dogs, and a good aspect of Jupiter in Sagittarius to Mars will usually make a horse racing man or one fond of following games of chance or gambling of any nature.
Thus from varied configurations with the different planets, good or bad, in Sagittarius or the ninth house we obtain all the varied shades of mind imaginable. In this matter the aspects and configurations of planets in Gemini, which governs what is called the lower mind, have a great significance. But as planets in the ninth house are elevated, they are naturally much more powerful in this respect than the planets under the earth in the third house. The aspirations of the soul, the ideals which make man man, which are bringing him onward on the path to the superhuman stage, are found in this house and sign.
The Moon in Sagittarius, no matter whether that sign is on the ninth house or not, has the same effect as if it were there, for it brings a restlessness into the nature which always causes a person to wander. He often becomes what we may call a globe trotter. Saturn, on the other hand, prevents and delays traveling, for it is his nature to obstruct, no matter where in the figure he is placed. Jupiter and Venus have the effect of making travel pleasant when placed in Sagittarius or the ninth house.
Mars, conversely, renders one liable to all sorts of inconveniences when traveling, and may cause accidents which result in wounds. Saturn evilly configurated causes bruises. Sagittarius rules the thighs, and therefore, naturally, adverse configuration in this sign may cause accidents to the thighs. It is a notable fact that Sagittarians are very liable to broken bones under circumstances where people with other signs seldom meet injury.
In the eighth degree of Sagittarius we have the fixed star Antares, which has a very evil effect upon the sight. Two other nebulous spots in the zodiac have a similar influence. One is the Ascelli in Leo 6, the other the Pleiades in Taurus 29. The sun or moon in one of these places and adversely configurated with one of the malefics — Saturn, Mars, Uranus, or Neptune — gives trouble with the eyes according to the nature of the aspect. Vice versa, if Saturn, Mars, Uranus or Neptune is in one of the nebulous spots adversely configurated with the sun or moon, a similar trouble will be experienced. Should a planet like one of the last named be in retrograde motion, the aspect is much worse, for when the planet has ceased to retrograde and goes direct in the zodiac again, it will pass over the nebulous spot which it is close to a second time, and thereby cause added damage. There may be, however, a compensating side to this aspect, for it sometimes happens that while an evil configuration with one of these nebulous spots (Antares is the worst) deprives a person of his sight, a benevolent configuration develops in him a second sight which will compensate for the loss to a degree which only those who have that sight can appreciate.
The keyword of Sagittarius may be conceived of as aspiration.
(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. What will be the influence of Uranus in Sagittarius, square to the moon in the sixth house, and trine to the sun in the first house?
Saturn in Gemini on ASC, square Moon in Virgo, would give a tendency toward lung trouble, pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, rheumatism, inflammation of the pericardium, and by reflex action in Sagittarius, sciatica and hip disease. Here should be a liability to accidents, falls, bruises, etc. and manifesting through the Virgo region, there would also be a tendency toward constipation, bowel disorders, appendicitis, malnutrition, etc.
In women, this configuration would be obstructive of the female functions. In men, it would tend to deny marriage or indicate the death of the marriage partner.
This would be a very difficult configuration to handle, and the native should early be taught to guard his health by correct eating, plenty of open air exercise, and constructive thinking. He should free himself from prejudices of all kinds.....as Saturn tends to crystallization and in this case (Saturn is in Gemini square Moon) the crystallized mental attitude would result in physical debility.
The astrologer belongs to one of those many groups of people who, motivated by impersonal love, seek to add to the betterment of human conditions. He has come to a point in his development when his inner resources, distilled from past incarnations, are of such quality and scope that they "must out;" in other words, a part of his consciousness can no longer find satisfaction in the purely personal — or biological — levels of experience. (Of course, his impersonal service is an expression of his development and experience as a human being, but its purposes are for the world of human beings at large.)
Let us consider the astrologer in the light of "astrological designs:"
In a blank circle draw the horizontal and vertical diameters. The cross made by these two lines symbolizes the human-beingness of the Astrologer: a man — or woman — incarnated for the purposes of development, dealing with problems, trials, and temptations as anyone else does; perhaps subject to one or many forms of testing-through-suffering. All this pertains to the personal part of him, but when we add the cusp of the ninth house to this "cross pattern" we see the astrologer emerge from the limitedness of a mere human. Placing the symbol for Jupiter in the ninth house of this design pictures his essential identity: he is "elder brother" and teacher.
In his human-beingness on this plane he is brother to all people who come to him for guidance. He recognizes that he walks the same essential paths that all people do, but the thing that differentiates him from others is the composite of his impersonal love quality, his range of understanding of human conditions and his abstract mental faculties. This composite lifts his consciousness to a level that transcends the basic biological motivations of thought and feeling, he sees through the concepts of race, group-religion, caste, family moldings, physical relationship patterns, and even of sex itself. His approach to his "younger brothers and sisters" is from the basis of studying and understanding their vibratory patterns — in other words, their consciousness.
His fundamental study is that of the vibratory nature of the entity we call humanity in its myriad expressions and variations, manifested by subconscious impressions and feelings, emotional tastes, physical attributes and conditions, and reaction patterns to all the departments of experience and relationship common to all human beings in their evolutionary progress. Mankind is not only one family — it is one thing, one particular pattern of life-expression.
The astrologer is, of course, a facet of the one thing; but, by perception and understanding, he is in relationship to most of the other facets of the one thing as a person on a mountaintop is to those who are climbing the same mountain or to those who have still remained in the valley below. He has, at his particular evolutionary level, already distilled something of what the climbers on the mountain slope and the people in the valley are in the process of distilling: awareness of universal principles and its expression through the processes of human life. He, in his turn, still has mountains ahead, and there are those who have attained "look-out points" that are higher than that which he now occupies. But the impersonal consciousness is the common denominator of them all. That is the essence of the fraternity which relates him to those still climbing and to those ahead of him. To the former he is elder brother; to those ahead he is younger brother. But all of them are elder brothers to those who remain in the valleys of purely biological and materialistic consciousness.
In our design, the ninth house symbolizes the knowledge or wisdom aspect of the astrologer; his love aspect is designated by the eleventh house. To our design let us add Aquarius on the cusp of the eleventh house and place the symbol for Uranus in that house; shade in the ninth and eleventh houses so that they stand out from the rest of the wheel; "ground" these two houses by adding the cusp lines of the third and fifth houses, thus designating a composite of two polarity-patterns: (1) knowledge raised to its transcendent expression of wisdom, distilled from experience; (2) personal love, as a creative expression, raised to its spiritualized level of boundless impersonal love for humanity — regardless of the latter's levels of manifestation or development.
The love aspect of the astrologer's consciousness — designated by the eleventh house and the vibratory essence of Uranus — is the culmination of all the houses of relationship and the most spiritualized expression of the air signs. The eleventh house is Human Relationship in its most protean expression. It is the distillation of all relationship patterns — the power of love in its expression as the "waters of Life," the panacea of all emotional experience, the ultimate goal of all human loving. We call this state "Friendship" — the essence of the best that may be derived from the togetherness of people, no matter who, or what, they may be as individuals.
This love aspect is, by its very nature, the fused essence of the love aspects of both sexes — or polarities. The astrologer, through his intensified experience in past incarnations, has distilled, to a degree, the understanding of the emotional characteristics pertaining to the masculine and feminine attributes. He must, to fulfill his service, be able to see into the problems of both men and women and to perceive the directions of regeneration and correction.
The consciousness of the astrologer, in reference to this love aspect, might be more clearly delineated by another design. (The one we have been considering refers more particularly to the evolutionary directions or paths that must be traversed by one who seeks to render service through astrological interpretation.) The flowering of the love consciousness of the astrologer is shown by a blank wheel in which the cusps of the third, seventh, and eleventh houses are connected by straight lines, forming an equilateral triangle. Interestingly enough, one point of this triangle — the third cusp — is in the lower, or ego consciousness, hemisphere; the seventh cusp marks a point of equilibrium, being opposite to the Ascendant; the eleventh cusp, representing the highest peak of relationship consciousness, is in the upper, or soul consciousness hemisphere. There is an element — a common denominator — of "fraternity," linking these three houses to each other. The third house, on biological levels, is "brothers and sisters;" on a more impersonal expression it is "kindred and neighbors;" still more impersonal it is "fellow students" — people of whatever age or condition who are learning from the same source of knowledge, or who are being spiritualized by the same religious or philosophical interpretation. The seventh house is the fraternal relationship of one person — or consciousness — to a complementary expression — either sexual or vibrational. The "fraternity of marriage" might be described in this way: one man and one woman serves, in togetherness, the on-goingness of life in love experience and procreation. Husband and wife, in this life service, are truly brother and sister as an expression of the third house consciousness intensified by the composite powers of desire attraction and love releasement. The eleventh house, in the soul consciousness hemisphere, is the transcendence of the former two, since it is the love consciousness expressed toward the entire entity which we call humanity, and it is not limited in its expression by being confined to only one part — or selected parts — of that entity as its object.
So, the spiritually motivated astrologer must stand as a living symbol of that love which recognizes no barriers or limitations — of any kind — to its expression.
We will now consider a design which could be taken to represent a symbolic portrait of the astrologer in his composite factors of human consciousness and spiritual consciousness. Using a wheel with houses on white paper fill in the first six houses with a dark color — brown or blue, etc.; fill in the seventh and eighth houses with red — symbolizing the "fires" of relationship and regeneration; the remaining four houses will remain white- -symbol of the spiritualized consciousness. The portrait which results is that of a human being whose vibratory and environmental elements are essentially those of any other person; he has experienced much development through transmutation of his lower vibrations by the spiritualizing powers of idealism, love, service, sacrifice, self-discipline, and responsibility fulfillment. He has been many things — as a worker; he has fulfilled most of the patterns of experience in love relationship — both as male and as female; he is — or has been — something of an artist because his mental perceptions include an understanding of the symbolic and of the abstract. He is aware of the drama of life and he is sensitive to the nuances of human thoughts and feelings as they are presented in the problems that he studies. He knows evil but his mind and heart are set on good. He studies problems to fulfill the purpose of finding solutions. His motivation being one of love, he radiates encouragement, neutralizes fear, illumines the consciousness of his brothers and sisters by alerting them to their strength and powers. He is — and realizes that he is — an "open door" through which all who so desire may walk from the darkness of their unregenerate patterns into the light of self-knowing. He neither approves nor disapproves of anything he sees in any chart — he keeps personal feeling out of the picture — because he recognizes that each chart is a picturing of good in its becoming.
In relationship to the client who requests his assistance we see him portrayed by this design: an otherwise blank wheel with the first six houses colored or shaded, the upper six houses remaining white. In this design, the lower shaded houses represent the client with his problem; the white houses represent the astrologer and his spiritualized consciousness. All human problems are rooted in unregenerate expressions of the first six houses; they are brought into their most intense focus throughout the composite action of the seventh and eighth houses and the solutions are found in the regenerating powers of the last four houses. In this design the astrologer reflects the regenerate potentials of the client. He is thus portrayed as the client's other, or higher, self. The magnetic action of love power attracted the client to the astrologer, who waits to assist all who need him, and by the distilled powers of his regenerate consciousness, he is able to study the client's chart and to throw a beam of light into the dark corners and perceive the needed spiritual corrective for the client's consciousness toward his problem.
The astrologer, in contact with the client, has the responsibility of putting aside all patterns of personal disturbance while he undertakes the task of reading the client's chart. He must be the white hemisphere, and in the event that he is dealing with a deep personal disturbance it would appear a better policy to defer the reading until he can establish his inner poise. In recognizing the impersonal quality of his service he knows that he is an instrument by which the client's good is brought out into the open and he has, really no right to impose on the already disturbed or apprehensive client his own inner frictions. His responsibility is to reflect light — clearly, strongly, and unwaveringly.
Since all forms of service entail certain characteristic patterns of testing for those who are aspiring, it might be well to consider a few of the principal tests which are, sooner or later, to be faced by all astrologers.
The great responsibility of the astrologer is to keep his viewpoint free from all false claims of pride and power-lust. These temptations are very subtle and can be very difficult to detect consciously. To be able to read a horoscope sensitively does place in the astrologer's hand a certain power over the mind or emotions of his client; the latter, being to a degree dependent on the astrologer, may tend to feel and express a certain reverence toward the astrologer, which can be very flattering to his human consciousness. The astrologer must keep a respect for his own instrumentation; if he does so he will not fall into the trap of letting his ability become a source of pandering to latent vanities; he will, instead, let it remain a "candle burning brightly on the altar of spiritual service."
The astrologer serves best if he can keep his service output free from all limiting claims of financial remuneration. If he can make his living in another way and do his astrological work as a creative expression he stands a much better chance of keeping his channels open and free-flowing. The client has a perfect right to make compensation if he wishes to — since he wants to establish equilibrium in relationship to the astrologer by what he considers right exchange and to express his appreciation. However, financial remuneration cannot be allowed to become a static factor to the astrologer if he is to keep himself a symbol of universal giving. The moment he establishes a policy of specific charge for his service he risks cutting himself off from many people who may need his assistance but who cannot ask for it because they cannot afford it. In short, the astrologer who keeps his service channels open and free is the one who serves best, most completely, most happily, and most spiritually.
A mandala is an abstract design which is used as a focus for concentration and meditation by a creative artist. The mandala depicts the essence of an artistic concept; by meditation on it the artist concentrates his inspirational faculties which are subsequently released into form through painting, sculpture, or whatever medium the artist uses for his expression.
The astrologer is an interpretive artist whose essential mandala is the design commonly known as the natural chart. On a wheel, place the symbols of the zodiacal signs on the cusps in regular sequence, starting with Aries on the cusp of the Ascendant, Taurus on the second, etc. Then the symbols of the Sun, Moon, and planets are placed in the signs and houses of their dignity: Mars in Aries, first house; Venus in Taurus and Libra second and seventh houses; Mercury in Gemini and Virgo, third and sixth houses; Moon in Cancer, fourth house; Sun in Leo, fifth house; Pluto in Scorpio, eighth house; Jupiter in Sagittarius, ninth house; Saturn in Capricorn, tenth house; Uranus in Aquarius, eleventh house; Neptune in Pisces, twelfth house.
The design resulting from placing these symbols around, and in, a circle containing twelve equal sections is considered by the writer to be the greatest mandala created by the mind of man. It is the composite symbol of the vibratory nature of the entity we call humanity. The horoscope calculated for the incarnation of any human being is a variation of this mandala; the same essential elements are found in all horoscopes of human beings, qualified in calculations only by the specializations of date, time, and place of birth.
This "Great Mandala," as we shall call it, is a composite symbol of such magnitude and complexity that the imagination reels in contemplation of it. It might be well to create the mandala, step by step, from its beginning:
Use a sheet of blank paper, calculate the exact center and place there a dot. This dot is the symbol of the Consciousness which makes possible the manifestation of a galaxy, a solar system, or the incarnation of a human being. It is the essential symbol of "being-ness" on all planes.
Through the dot, lightly draw a vertical line the entire length of the paper; this line represents the dynamic, energizing principle of Nature — the symbol of cosmic generation, "being-ness" in the process of taking form, the essential symbol of male sex. Now draw, lightly, a horizontal line through the dot across the entire width of the paper; this line is the subjective aspect of "being-ness," the essential symbol of Form itself, the female principle of Nature — that which is energized or acted upon. The picture thus far represents a radiation from a central point — Consciousness, a composite of the dynamic and subjective principles, the essential lines of force by which manifestation is made, the cross-pattern which stands as the eternal symbol of "being-ness objectified." This much of the design — a geometric abstract — can be called the basic mandala and can be utilized for meditation by all astrologers. It is the skeleton of all horoscopical structure, the picturing of the Fatherhood-Motherhood of God and the essential symbol of cosmic sex which results in physical manifestation.
There is an indefiniteness about the appearance of the basic mandala described above; the lines from the central dot can extend off the paper indefinitely — thus an impression of chaos or formlessness is conveyed. Since manifestation (incarnation) serves the purpose of evolution, and evolutionary forces always require specific forms as their instruments, we now take the next step to create, in our basic mandala, a field for evolutionary purposes.
With the point of a compass on the dot describe a circle, the circumference of which will, of course, twice intersect the dynamic-vertical and horizontal-subjective lines. Since all points on the circumference of a circle are equally distant from the center we now have created, symbolically, a perfect field designating an instrument for evolutionary forces; each of the four sectors of the circle are equal to each other in area, as are the lower and upper hemispheres to each other and the two lateral — or vertical — hemispheres to each other.
Now erase the light lines outside the circle, intensify the circumference of the circle and the vertical and horizontal lines within. The result may be called the "Mandala of Incarnation." Its form is definite — an enclosed thing in which certain specializations of evolutionary forces can work. This Mandala of Incarnation may be used as a focal-point for meditation from two standpoints: (1) from within-out; and (2) from without-in. The astrologer must so elasticize his interpretative ability that he never loses sight of the spiritual significance of any chart he studies.
(1) From within-out: The creative Will of God expressing through a specific manifestation for evolutionary purposes; the essential spirituality of all manifestation; the God-spark inherent in the consciousness of each and every human being radiating into every factor of the individual's experience.
(2) From without-in: Divine Love and Wisdom overshadowing and interpenetrating every point of manifestation; manifestation being "enclosed within the Divine Arms and always in sight of the Divine Eyes;" the human being looks into his consciousness to find the source of his conditions and the channels for his best expressions; he turns in to become aware of his powers and potentials; his consciousness is reflected by his outer condition — the radiations from the Center — but the Center remains eternally the source of all that he experiences. The "Life" of a horoscope is within the circumference, not outside of it; so we do not find our essential solutions outside of ourselves but in our particular expression of the Eternal Consciousness and our ever-growing awareness of it.
Simple though it appears, the circle with its division into quadrants by two straight lines is a mandala of enormous complexity. If we consider that the circle itself is activated in being bisected by the horizontal line, the two hemispheres which result from this bisection are themselves undifferentiated and unactivated; their activation is made possible by the vertical line.
Each bisection symbolizes the Cosmic Principle of Duality — two-in-one-ness. "Dynamic" and "Subjective" are found to be inherent attributes of any part of any manifestation. As such these two words, in composite, are expressed by the word "sex" when made in reference to Life incarnated. Sex, activated, is generation and regeneration — the "on-goingness" of Life. Either of the two pairs of hemispheres, in juxtaposition, result in the composite One; neither of whom can represent Life functioning creatively without the frictional ignition of the other pair. For meditation, sketch circles in which are represented these bisections individually; each pair of hemispheres can be taken to represent an expression of cosmic generation.
The flat, two-dimensional representation of the quadrated circle is now to be given, abstractly, additional dimension.
The Mandala of Incarnation is an essential matrix; but incarnation implies expression of that matrix in physical form. The terms length, height, and depth are usually thought of as three different expressions of physical dimension. When we consider that all physical manifestation is three dimensional we realize that length, height, and depth are three attributes of one essential dimension — the dimension of physical manifestation. Each of the four quadrants of the Mandala of Incarnation is a specialized level of Consciousness and, correspondingly, of experiences. Since experience is reflected in the dimension of physical manifestation and interpreted by consciousness, we will apply the principle of three dimensions in one to the Mandala of Incarnation.
From the center of the circle, or by four more polarity diameters, subdivide each quadrant into three equal sections. This action is the twelve-fold division of the wheel which we use as the environmental houses of the horoscope. The three dimensions of each sector are not length, height, and depth, but are in terms of signs, dimensions of consciousness reflected by the houses as dimensions of experience.
The dimension of the first house of each quadrant (first, fourth, seventh, and tenth houses) is the statement of Being — the "I am": first house, I am an individual; fourth house, I am an individual aspect of an entity called family group or family consciousness; seventh house, I am one of the two factors of an intensely focused emotional relationship pattern; tenth house, I am an individual aspect of the entity called humanity.
The dimension of the second house of each quadrant (second, fifth, eighth, and eleventh houses) is possession of emotional resource by which the life of the previous, cardinal, house is sustained. Second house: My physical life is materially sustained by the exercise of my consciousness of possession or stewardship and by exchange with other people; fifth house: my family consciousness is sustained by releasements from my resource of creative love; eighth house: my relationship consciousness is sustained by transmutation of my desire forces through the exercise of my love consciousness in emotional exchange with my complements; eleventh house: my identity as an aspect of the universal entity, humanity, is sustained through the exercise of my spiritualized, impersonal love consciousness.
The dimension of the third house of each quadrant (the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth houses) is the impersonal distillation of the previous two houses. Third house: intellectual faculties by which I identify the world of forms; sixth house: my creativity expressed as service to life through my best as a worker; ninth house: wisdom — spiritual understanding — distilled from the regeneration of desire through love relationship; twelfth house: my consciousness of serving universally, my needed redemptions from the past incarnation which have impelled the present one, degree of cosmic consciousness distilled from the perfect fulfillment of all responsibilities through spiritualized love.
The triune dimension is expressed in reference to the wheel as a whole by the "grand trines" — the equilateral triangles formed by connecting the cusps of (1) the first, fifth, and ninth houses; (2) the second, sixth and tenth houses; (3) the third, seventh and eleventh houses and (4) the fourth, eighth and twelfth houses. These trines pertain, respectively, to the four elements: (1) Fire: Spirit; (2) Earth: Consciousness of evaluation of forms; (3) Air: Identification and relationship consciousness; (4) Water: emotional responsiveness — the principle of sympathetic vibration.
Here are suggested a few basic mandala patterns:
(1) Twelve wheels, each of which has the signs on the cusps in sequence, each with a different ascendant; each of these mandalas may be utilized for meditation on the cardinal, fixed, and mutable crosses, the fire, earth, air, and water trines, the fire-air and the earth-water sextiles.
(2) Planetary environmental mandala — a planetary principle expressing through a particular house — can be found in ten groups of twelve wheels each: each group pertains to the placement of each of the ten planets (Sun, Moon, and eight planets) in each of the twelve houses, leaving out the placement of the signs.
(3) Planetary vibrational mandalas can be created by wheels with the signs on the cusps — placing the planet under consideration in each of the twelve signs and studied regardless of house position.
(4) Synthesis of groups 2 and 3: mandalas for meditation on Ascendant rulership: twelve wheels, with signs in sequence, for each of the ten planets as ruler of the ascendant — the ruler to be placed in each of the twelve houses.
(5) Elaboration of number 4 in terms of meditation on the Ascendant ruler by its placement by sector: (1) houses 1, 2, and 3; (2) houses 4, 5 and 6; (3) houses 7, 8 and 9; (4) houses 10, 11 and 12.
Simple and complex mandalas can be abstracted from any natal horoscope. Here are a few suggestions by which the student may concentrate his synthesizing ability:
(1) From a given chart, abstract all dignified planets into a wheel with the natal sign positions on the cusps; meditate on the placement of these concentrated vibratory essences in terms of their house rulership, house placement, and sector or quadrant placement.
(2) From a given natal chart, abstract any specific square or opposition and any one of its regenerative agencies (a planet making a trine or sextile to either one of the afflicted planets); meditate on this mandala from every possible standpoint that will open your consciousness to the clues of alleviation for the afflicted pattern.
(3) Suggest abstracting the Saturn mandala from every natal chart that is studied by placing Saturn and all the planets which aspect it in a wheel with the natal signs on the cusps. Interpret Saturn as the principle of responsibility fulfillment, and meditate on its significance in the chart from all approaches.
(4) The most important of all mandalas abstracted from a natal horoscope are those which pertain to the twelfth house. In composite, these give the clues to the whys and wherefores of the present incarnation. Suggest a mandala to be applied to a natal sign cusp wheel for every single factor pertaining to the twelfth house of the natal horoscope: sign, house, and sector placement of the ruler; vibrational and environmental placement of each planet aspecting the ruler; each condition pertaining to any planet in the twelfth house, and, last of all, a mandala composed of the signs on the twelfth cusp and the ascendant and the placement of their planetary rulers.
Supplemental Student
Material Reference:
Studies in Astrology,
Elman Bacher
