Wednesday – in French Mercre-di – the day of Mercury
Thursday – in French Jeu-di – the day of Jove or Jupiter
Friday – in French Vendre-di – the day of Venus
Saturday – the day of Saturn
The English names are the Teutonic equivalents of the same gods.
The birth chart appears to be a static ‘thing’ that endures for a lifetime, but the cycles of the planets unfold the chart’s potential. A planet returns to its original position at birth when it completes a cycle, although the planets complete their journey around the zodiac in different periods of time. Jupiter’s cycle, which unfolds our search for meaning and expansion, is about 12 years long. Saturn’s cycle takes about 29 years to complete. The famous Saturn Return is a time of growing up, taking responsibility, and making commitments. The second Saturn Return, which occurs at the age of 58, takes us into the last chapter of life when we must examine what our life has achieved and when we must face the inevitability of our death. The Uranus cycle is 84 years long. During the half-way point of this planet’s journey around the zodiac, at the age of about 40 (give or take a few years due to orbital eccentricity), people have their mid-life crisis when repressed desires erupt to bring either a chaotic or newly creative period. In a very dramatic way, life may never seem the same after the Uranus opposition.
In a sense, life is never the same after any of the planets complete their cycles, and this is because the chart has unfolded more of its potentialities, during which time choices have been made, directions have been taken, doors have been opened – and closed.
LEVELS OF EXPRESSION
It is important to recognize that the planetary archetypes express themselves in different ways throughout all levels of cosmic and human life. To take an example, the planet Mars will express its assertive, potent, territorial, separative, propelling nature:
in the physical world as heat, energy, fire, explosions;
in the plant world as thorns, poisons, acids, stinging species such as nettles;
in the animal kingdom as territoriality, predatory activity, the mating instinct;
in the body as the immune system, and also in the occurrence of accidents, cuts, bruises, inflammation, and fever in the body which harm – and which activate the immune system;
at an emotional level as anger, retaliation – saying ‘no’
at the level of will as self-assertion, competitiveness, the will to win, courage;
at the level of intellect as singularity, cutting out superfluous thought, emphasizing, and decisive communication;
at the mystical level as the sword of truth.
These principles, gods, archetypes and myths show and express themselves at every level. In the physical world they can be detected at work in the ever-changing climate and the occurrence of storms, floods, earthquakes, natural disasters. In the individual, they can be observed in life themes and in the output of one’s work. For example, Queen Elizabeth, with Saturn exactly conjunct the uppermost point of her chart (status, public responsibility), has stood for tradition and the supreme rule of monarchy. The comedian Spike Milligan’s life, with Uranus exactly rising in Aquarius, has expressed the opposite: eccentricity, anarchic humour, poking fun at the class system, rules and bogus certainty. As you become more familiar with the planetary archetypes, you can begin to see the body of the cosmos and the body of man alive and expressing the interplay of all these energies, as in a great mythological drama.
NUMBER
The ancients spoke of the Creator as the Great Geometrician. This is because the greatest minds in all the ancient cultures observed that all living entities developed, or emerged from potential into manifestation, through an ordered, logical and numerical process. Pythagoras was the first to develop the science of number to a sophisticated level. He and his followers learned to think in numbers, to reflect upon realities in their progressive states. And to these progressive states they gave the names of numbers.
The Pythagoreans believed that the first 10 numbers contained the secret of all things, and that each of the first decade of numbers was a primary creative principle in the Cosmos, indeed a God.
Number in the deepest sense relates to the creative processes of the cosmos. With regards to the birth, flowering, and death of any entity, number describes the archetypal relationship between part and whole.
Archetypal number is at the heart of astrology. We come to understand ‘two-ness’ in the two-fold division of positive and negative signs, in the ascendant (self) – descendant (other) axis, which divides the chart into an upper horizon section (more extrovert) and lower horizon section (more introvert). We grapple with ‘three-ness’ in the three modes of expression – cardinal, fixed and mutable; and with ‘four-ness’ in the four elements – fire, earth, air, water – and also in the four angles of the chart, ascendant (east), descendant (west), midheaven (south), and immum coeli (north). The 12 signs of the zodiac are made up of the three modes and four elements. And the unfolding cycles of the planets express themselves through number in the aspects. The study of astrology is the study of the rhythms of the universe as they relate to the individual, and rhythm is number. From this point of view, astrology connects us to the inner reality of things, if we are sufficiently sensitive to perceive the mystery unfolding before our very eyes.
FATE
Astrology has always had a reputation for encouraging a sense of determinism and predestination. People often express apprehension about looking into astrology, for they are frightened they will learn what fate awaits them. The I Ching tells us that the destinies of men are subject to immutable laws that must fulfil themselves, but that man has the power to shape his fate ‘according as his behaviour exposes him to the influence of benevolent or destructive forces’. But notice our emphasis of the word ‘behaviour’. We can use the knowledge of ourselves we gain from astrology, and simply from our experience of life, to act in accord with a more desirable outcome. To benefit from astrological insights, one must exert effort. That is where the real free will lies. (As Schopenhauer said, ‘We may have free will, but not the will to use it.’) A person having Saturn transit their Sun will know that it is not a time to take risks or to try to expand in adventurous directions, but rather a time to consolidate one’s material and professional position, a time to carry current responsibilities successfully.
Certain parameters are fixed in life. That is the nature of reality, for man cannot live in a vacuum. The contract with time and space is signed and sealed at birth; the parents and family we were born to and the society and historical period in which we gain our identity cannot be changed; the life drama we have chosen is ready to be played. But within the matrix of our given life parameters, we have the freedom to make choices. It is the unique combination of fate and free will that provides the psychic soil out of which we grow and live our lives. That same psychic soil grows heroes and heroines. In fact, man is free only in his mind, his inner attitude. Changes in fate are made according to inner attitude – that is what determines the wisdom of our choices, and ultimately our fate.
Astrology is Astronomy brought down to earth and applied to the affairs of man.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Astrology is best known for its power to describe character and for its ability to ‘look into the future’. These are certainly two important applications. However, the basic principles of astrology can be applied to almost every area of life. In this chapter we will look at what to expect when consulting an astrologer