About P. James Clark

Into the Domain of Matter I

Posted on February 23, 2015 by P. James Clark

JOHN CHAPTER 1

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

² The same was in the beginning with God.

³ All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

⁴ In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

⁵ And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

In these lines we find a wisdom that informs us of the divine source and nature of Creation. The essence or spirit of this understanding was at one time almost universally understood. Some of the words varied of course. A Neo-Platonist, Greek or not, is more likely to refer to the logos as it is in the Greek original. In some societies, God might have been referred to as Divine Spirit, Great Spirit or simply The Creator. In all cases we’re expressing the divine origin of creation. In the most simple terms that which is above gives form, life and meaning to that which is below. Indeed, ultimately above and below are the same. Meaning of origins informs us of the meaning of life and, indeed, the afterlife.

Dreamtime Sisters by Colleen Wallace Nungari – Australian Indigenous art

Allowing for what would be mostly semantics, the people of the Middle East, Europe, South Asia, South East Asia and the Far East would all be in agreement with this simple axiom. The indigenous people of the Americas would also recognize it and the earliest artistic remains from the Paleolithic period indicates that life was sacred and full of meaning for the earliest humans.

The idea that there is no more than a physical material realm, with no notion of the Spirit world, the Afterlife or Re-incarnation would have seemed not only very odd, but also disturbing. Life would have no higher purpose or meaning. Although the opening lines of the Gospel of John are of course written within the context of Christianity, shown by the simple fact that they were included in the New Testament, Nevertheless their significance is universal.

Marx in 1875

In our present age, the term sacred is not taken particularly seriously or is used as a marketing tool or simply patronised ; and the idea of inherent meaning is considered naive. The intellectual framework for the Aquarian Age came from a few sources in the 19th Century. Theses sources have created a new world order that have rendered this world all but unrecognizable to those who came before us. To understand the importance of the impact, I’ll take a short survey.

The works and influence of Karl Marx cannot be underestimated. When combined with what I call ‘fundamentalist’ evolutionary theory and a bit of help from Sigmund Freud, mankind is utterly redefined. Fortunately, we have the ability to dispel this Grand Delusion, using the same tools that constructed it the first place. A cornerstone of Marx’s ideology is the idea that societies are “conditioned” by the mode of production.

Marx presents us with a world in which any belief in anything other than capital and class struggle is considered foolish. Religion is the “opiate of the people” but he is referring to any form of belief that seeks or allegedly finds a higher purpose. The dogma of Marx is rooted in an intransigent materialism. More than that, its adherents claim it to be the only possible reality for sane adults. What could be more Saturnine?

Das Kapital was also a call to revolution, for its own kind of New World Order. Essentially, it was a critical analysis of political economy, meant to show the economic patterns underscoring the capitalist mode of production. A history has shown, the revolution was very good for bankers

The workers of the world needed to rise up against their overlords in order to establish a workers Utopia. Of course this rallying cry has a gaping flaw. Marx thought the Revolution would begin in England because there he saw the possibilities of Industrial organization He also felt the English would have a small amount of education. The Russian peasantry on the other hand was a dark horse. The shear size of Russia was daunting and an almost entirely illiterate, agricultural population would make ‘working as one” a problem.

Nevertheless, the Revolution really broke in Russia with the agency of the Bolsheviks. The Czar and his family were slaughtered. No time was wasted in securing the Revolution via an iron fist and death squads. Atheism was the State ‘religion’ and no other faith was permitted. Churches were desecrated, some used for the distribution of pornography. All that had been sacred had to be desecrated and degraded. The state went to extraordinary lengths to do this.

Totalitarian societies demand secular gods

Before too long, the USSR had developed the Gulag camps and all intellectuals were suspect and many arrested, only to ‘disappear”. So now we have the ultimate Totalitarian state. Under the Czar, an absolute monarch, the population were subservient to him, but intelligence and spirituality, including the powerful Russian Orthodox Church were accepted as a part of the realm.

The illegalization of all religion and war on artists and intellectuals has been the case in all twentieth century Totalitarian regimes. Marxism then spread from the largest country in the world to China, by far the largest population. The same policies of state atheism and fear of intellectuals were as pronounced in China as in Russia. Upon the invasion of Tibet, Mao Tse Tung told the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, that “religion is poison.” Mao had no doubts of the source of his philosophy: “The force at the core leading our cause forward is the Chinese Communist Party. The theoretical basis guiding our thinking is Marxism-Leninism. [Opening address at the First Session of the First National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China] (September 15, 1954).

If there has to be a ‘greatest tragedy’ it is the immediate usurpation of any “power of the people” by twisted and psychotic megalomaniacs who made absolute monarchy look fairly decent. What drives them is an empty dogma that promises a perfect material world if all competing ideologies can be destroyed. Yet what would one reasonably expect of a political system based, more than anything else, on economic theory and some platitudes thrown in for good measure. The leaders help themselves, leaving workers in navy blue pajamas that looked more like prison garb – and were absolutely mandatory – leaving them looking like, and with all the rights, of prisoners.

The worst crime would be to think you were of divine origin and that creation had meaning far beyond the constricts and inanity of a pretend religion based on the illusion of equality. Such ideas are dangerous in a state where the only value is a materialist dogma that keeps the workers poor while enriching the corrupt power brokers at the top.

Of course all of these qualities can be fairly attributed to Aquarius and Saturn. The fixed ideologue who cannot change his mind no matter what, soon becomes a despot. An idea is worth a revolution, but always on Saturn’s terms.

The glyph of Saturn gives us a dominant Cross of Matter over the Crescent of Spirit. The shadow of Communism is Plutocratic Capitalism, often simply referred to as Corporatism. In either case, when all is said and done, the core value is in money and power for its own sake. It glorifies money and wealth to the exclusion of all else.

Playing into this, is the poorly understood Theory of Natural Selection – usually referred to simply as Evolutionary Theory. Some of the most vocal proponents of this theory, like Richard Dawkins, remind me of religious fundamentalists because they appear to believe they have the whole and only truth when it comes to our origins.

Dawkins is well known for his book, appropriately titled “The God Delusion.” I’m personally interested in all branches of science and am familiar enough with true scientific principals to know when I smell a rat. That is not to say that Dawkins and his ilk are without knowledge but they are without first principles and a rigorous scientific method that is capable of questioning itself. which I find very odd.

We live in a culture where a scientist can talk about the origins of life without being able to define what life is or provide us with any scientifically proven way in which life came from inanimate and unconscious matter. I should have thought that would interest an inquiring mind. Moreover, if we dare to invoke the beliefs and cosmologies that we lived with for tens of thousands of years, we are ridiculed.

The fact that scientists don’t know what life is, is strange enough, and in fact precludes any absolute certainty of what is truly happening in the process of so-called evolution. The OED defines scientific naturalism as “The philosophical belief that everything arises from natural properties and causes, and supernatural or spiritual explanations are excluded or discounted.”

The most glaring fly in the ointments is that one is committed to denying any spiritual dimension in creation. If one were say a ‘soft core’ naturalist, you might pay lip service to spiritual ways of “seeing into the life of things,” as Wordsworth put it. However any such ‘knowledge’ would have no place in this Brave New World – just gimme the facts, ma’am ! I also wonder if some degree of cognitive dissonance is necessary in order to permit the validity of pure mathematics, a symbolic language describing things nobody has yet seen.

Dawkins was asked “can you give a single example of a genetic mutation that results in an increase in information to the genetic evolutionary process” ? There was an uncomfortably long silence and no answer was given. The interview was posted to YouTube and Dawkins himself tells us the video was not in any way manipulated. I do not wish to discredit Dawkins unduly, but when you decide to go through life with an unremitting smirk of condescension, while strutting and pontificating through a megaphone, you are bound to attract attention and it won’t all be positive.

Darwin fist talked about varieties of pidgins. He is perfectly aware that he is talking about domesticated birds. In other words they have been bred to improve their usefulness. Nobody would think twice about that fact that one dog looks like an Alsatian while another looks like a Great Pyrenees. But clearly this has precious little to do with evolution, The intellectual agenda of contemporary evolutionary theory appears to be summed up by Dawkins himself:

“Humans have always wondered about the meaning of life…life has no higher purpose than to perpetuate the survival of DNA…life has no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference.^{” (}Scheff, Liam. 2007. The Dawkins Delusion. Salvo, 2:94.)’

From inanimate sludge, we are told, a one cell creature arrives on the scene. Given enough time, that first mysterious spark of life will not only explain the existence of all species. alive or extinct, but also the differences within species. However, it has no meaning and any values we put on it are our own. From a traditional point of view, this is a kind of poverty of Spirit – connection with life itself is somehow skewed.

Darwin was in fact reluctant to apply his theory to human beings, which indicates some sort of crack in the theory as understood by the majority of modern biologists. Could it be that evolutionary theory is predicated on a philosophical commitment to to naturalism first and foremost which can only accept evidence that supports the “naturalist” bias, filtering out any evidence or questions that might shake the chosen philosophical bent? What is meant by “naturalism” is the dogmatic belief that only a material reality, as experienced by the senses can be true.

We know that given enough time a species can change dramatically, But how would we trace the connections between a cat and an elephant without resorting to speculation.

Considering too the theory of the Big Bang in astrophysics, the physicist is confronted with what aught to be a serious dilemma – how can we be sure if we don’t know what preceded the Big Bang. The current Dalai Lama has said that’s he’s fine with the Big Bang as long as their is an infinite number of them, because there is no beginning.

Finally, let’s take a look at Freud. His best know achievements are the discovery of the unconscious, which is a bitter oxymoron indeed. He is also famous for dividing the psyche into Ego, Id and Superego. This is pseudo science at its finest. The problem with speculating on what is and isn’t conscious is that he had no scientific way to measure this. In fact, he couldn’t give a scientific definition of the origin of consciousness.

The fact that Freud found no way to prove his theories but it didn’t matter because it was lapped up by people who either thirsted for an explanation for their unhappiness or rather liked the idea of having this new psycho language. Freud also believed that not only can a cigar sometimes be just a cigar, but that ultimately all out motivations, fears etc. were sexual – hence the Oedipus and Electra Complexes among others. This last point is where Jung broke with Freud:

“In November 1912, Jung and Freud met in Munich for a meeting among prominent colleagues to discuss psychoanalytical journals. At a talk about a new psychoanalytic essay on Amenhotep IV, Jung expressed his views on how it related to actual conflicts in the psychoanalytic movement. While Jung spoke, Freud suddenly fainted and Jung carried him to a couch” (see Jones, Ernest, ed. Lionel Trilling and Steven Marcus. The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, 1963.) Jung’s idea of a collective unconscious was deeply upsetting to him for reasons we can only speculate upon.

The language of Freud has entered our languages and still influences the way we think about the human mind. There can be no sacred connection to a creator or other creatures for that matter, when the mind is driven by unconscious forces that mostly have to do with sex and violence. I make a clear distinction between the subconscious and the unconscious mind.

Forgive me if I given anyone short shrift, but again I’m painting with a large brush t show how all of these highly influential theories and materialist and dis-empower human beings. They are forms of slavery in the guise of messiahs. Marxism militantly tried to destroy person and public spiritual and religious life. We all other values are snuffed, then money fills the vacuum. Even science becomes devoted to wealth at the top.

The claim that there cannot be any Creator, nor can we in any meaningful way possess divinity and that Science will answer all our needs and questions is ultimately empty. It is vain. According to modern science we are made of stardust but cannot originate in or return to a higher place.

Freud with his eternal cigar

Freudian Psychoanalysis was the beginning of an entire industry, but the single most pernicious element in Freudianism is that humans are driven by completely unconscious desire, fears and motivations. The alienation inherent in this idea is horrendous. The psychiatrist is the new priest, Yet is has been reported for several decades that almost nobody gets any better, even after up to thirty years of therapy. If you cannot change the Unconscious, then how could therapy work. After twenty years of analysis, Dudley Moore said “six more months and I go to Lourdes.”

When you look at all this materialist dogma we realize that esteemed scientists and economists have hoodwinked us They have become modern orthodoxy with no room for a deep spiritual connection They have worked exceedingly well, but as I mentioned, any construct can be dismantled with the tools by which it was built. Seeing through the Aquarian promise of an earthly Utopia is the first step to being free of it.

The problem is that these seriously flawed ideologies are still with us. Modern so-called democracies are looking for ways to achieve total control with the help of advanced technocrats. Naomi Wolf asked that this be spread far and wide. According to her source, Scott Wells who has looked over the new 1198 page immigration Bill:

“The Bill gives the Secretary of Homeland Security unlimited power to imprison anyone without charge or trial. She will have total and complete authority over the United States with the power to ignore the US Supreme Court…, the US Secretary of State, the US Attorney General, the Secretary of Defence, etc. and rule by decree in any matter anywhere in the United States. Jurisdiction is removed from the US Supreme Court to even decide the Constitutionality of this Act. In short; the Act turns the United States into a tyrannical dictatorship ruled by an unelected bureaucrat.” The velvet part of this particular act of Fascism is that the Bill is promoted as a wonderful thing. And how many will take the time to read nigh on 1200 pages?

At the top of the page, we have William Blake’s “The Ancient of Days.” This was the frontispiece to Europe: A Prophecy. The Ancient of Days is referred to as Urizen, one of the dozens of characters invented by Blake the visionary. Blake’s system is both eccentric and highly complex. After all, this is the man who wrote “I must create my own system or be enslaved by someone else’s.”

Plate b3 From There is No Natural Religion, a series of philosophical aphorisms by William Blake, written in 1788.

Urizen is a play on words and means ‘horizon.’ Blake was a Cockney so it can also be ‘you eyes on.” In the first instance we are given the limitation implied by horizon – the limit of vision. In the second instance, Blake has said elsewhere that we should see through and not *with* the eyes. Essentially he means spiritual vision. The bearded Ancient of Days is measuring the deeps. He is prescribing existence. This is at the hear of Blake’s system: For Blake the monster was the loss of Spiritual Vision. Blake was also very clear on the fact there “is no Natural religions, by which he means one that must involve more than the limitations of the senses.

Hanging in the Balance

Posted on February 15, 2015 by P. James Clark

I think that by now the vision of an Aquarian Utopia populated by highly evolved, spiritualized beings devoted solely to the perfection of humanity has very little currency outside the lunatic fringe. At least I wish that were the case. The fact is, the idea has been marketed very successfully. If you can get a population to believe such things, they are very easy to control.

The illusion of progress makes real progress all but impossible to achieve. If you don’t realize there is a problem, there is no motivation to solve it. There are of course highly evolved and spiritualized beings here on Earth. There always has been. Humanity didn’t need to wait for Saturn.

This is likely to be the last article in a series regarding the nature of the Aquarian Age. The series of articles have been in large part a response to Robert Zoller whose views are notably dystopian. I’m accepting Zoller on his own terms and methodology for this project. Although I’ve added many of my own thoughts, I find myself in general agreement with Zoller.

When we are talking about an Age, we paint with a very broad brush. This makes most astrologers understandably uneasy (or it ought to) but this is the right tool for the occasion. However, we do need to be careful of using the correct terms. For example, the word “fascist” have become so overworked that it’s oftentimes used in ways that are cliche and not helpful at all.

When the courtyard attendant asks someone not to smoke within nine meters of the door, he might be called a Nazi in an absurd attempt to link the enforcement of rules designed to protect asthmatics and non smokers to Nazi atrocities during the Third Reich. This sort of trivial use or misuse of the term makes it a bit more difficult to recognize when we see the real thing.

Chart showing the angles to which Zoller is referring

Zoller suggests that “In the Age of Aquarius, religion will be humanistic love of fairness and justice. While feeding the people with Libran platitudes, the Scorpionic rulers will work tirelessly toward the realization of their goal – absolute power over others, as Leo is seen in position on the 7^th house.” (The Use of Archetypes in Prediction .)

In this we can find either hope or despair. Venus is nicely placed in the Ninth House which informs the Tenth. Libra, however, is the Fall of the Sun. Venus will tickle the ear, but lack authenticity that comes with a stronger sense of self. But the placement itself is benign, even if misguided. Optimism is a wonderful thing but that doesn’t mean the pessimist has nothing to be concerned about.

There are no goose stepping soldiers in Montreal, London, Berlin or Manhattan, but the police forces in many Western countries have become increasingly militarized, to the point that someone from a previous era wouldn’t recognize them as police at all. The right to even peaceful protest has been greatly diminished. The implications that what used to be called citizens are now the *enemy.* The term used most often to refer to the population is “consumers.” They are guilty if the powers that be say that they are.

Again, the implication is that this world is in the hands of a small, but inestimably rich plutocracy. According to Oxfam less than 1% of people in the world have more than half of the wealth (The Guardian).

Even these figures distort the reality because the Plutocracy is a tiny fraction of that 1%. It has become virtually common knowledge that this wealth contributes in no small way to foreign and domestic policies in all of the most powerful countries. It’s called lobbying but in many cases it’s rewarding what is demanded and implied threats of consequences if the donor fails to get what he or she want. .

The International Monetary Fund which we are lead to believe is a benevolent institution devoted to the development of the third countries sound very humanitarian. However the IMF loans amounts the country cannot afford to pay back as the interest compounds. The recipient then has to offer its resources in lieu of payment. This keeps the third world in thrall while making the *humanitarian* bankers richer than ever. There is nothing new about greed and injustice; but packaging these things as benign acts of altruism and humanitarianism soars to a new level of cynicism, which is decidedly Saturnine.

r-SOMALIA-FAMINE-WAR-CORRUPTION-large570w

Somalia – Famine, war and corruption – only one case of a failing state resulting in massive refugee populations.

I also concur with Zoller: “As the Aquarian dream of humanistic science and universal brotherhood is a vision of the world to come in Pisces, and realized in Aquarius, so too, the Aquarian avant-garde will look forward to an Aquarian Golden Age on the one hand, while the Aquarian technocrats will look for a world corporation to fossilize society into a rigid caste system run technologically.” The Use of Archetypes in Prediction

The key problem is that the proponents of an Aquarian Golden Age are blinded by unfounded optimism. Ironically perhaps, if they were more realistic they would see that the agenda of the Aquarian technocrats must be curbed, not just for a better world, but for our survival as a species.

The Aquarian technocrats require powerful militaries and endless wars which are justified as necessary for the security of the nation. For “our own good” we give up freedom and human rights,

With Mars on the MC the Scorpionic “overlords” will have no scruples about using whatever force they deem necessary to put down the perceived enemies of complete global domination. In the spirit of Aquarian egalitarianism, a one world government sounds like a good idea. Just as George Orwell wrote in 1948, the world is divided into larger and larger sections, such as East Asian (“we have always been at war with East Asia”). Those not complying with the agenda are called terrorists – Orwell showed how the masses can be convinced that lies are true and visa versa.

1Aquarius - Delv - Kova by al-Sufi 'Book of Fixed Stars'1

Aquarius – From al-Sufi ‘Book of Fixed Stars’

Neither will their domestic critics be spared. This is all out fascism, largely concealed by the velvet glove. Wars are no longer fought for the nation state in the West, They are fought mostly to further the interests of corporations and to make the very wealthy even wealthier.

Some will argue that there have always been wars and tyrants to send good people to fight them. However, the level and scope of what have become endless wars since the Age began, with the dominance shifting from Naval Power to Air Power, is truly unprecedented. To a very real way we have the technology to have wars that don’t end but become their own reason for being.

Predator drones are controlled from the other side of the world with impunity; but the target is people who are often unarmed ,with no chance of self defense They are destroyed without warning.. Arbitrary extrajudicial executions, carried out at the press of a button from CIA locations in California or Virginia, require no transparency or accountability. They operations are secret and above and beyond even international law.

The current President of the United States has insisted on his right to kill anyone, anywhere in the world, including the US, simply on the basis of alleged suspicion, This comes from a Democratic President with a Peace Prize. There is no trial and often no specific charge at all, All youths 16 or older can be considered enemy combatants. Almost 200 children have been killed by drones in Pakistan and Yemen alone on his watch. This mechanical, high tech form of slaughtering people is particularly ghoulish. The victims are often innocent and remain anonymous in our media. The globalism so commonly espoused in the Western world is often blind to who it kills, except of course for those who ordered the strike.

The astrological Saturn, by Hans Sebald Behamd 1539

Many scientists, political commenters, environmentalists and others now consider nuclear war the most likely existential threat to the human race and thousands of other species, even if the exchange were limited to India and Pakistan. A nuclear winter would ensue and it would be difficult to imagine a more Saturnine fate. Rapid climate change, accelerated by the burning of fossil fuel is a threat as well. An accidental or deliberate leak of biological agents having the affect of a rapidly spreading plague of pandemic proportions is often cited as close to the top of the list of doomsday scenarios. These are created, exacerbated or potentially ameliorated by human beings.

Optimists are becoming less numerous regarding outlooks for the future. As Zoller stated, the two malefics on the angles lacks the optimism and idealism of a Piscean Jupiter. Steven Hawking, one of our most brilliant and best loved physicists, has said many times that the only chance of human survival is for us to leave this planet. We have the technology to do real harm to the environment on an epic scale. In the meantime, famine, so often a result of war is obscenely commonplace considering the tools we have at our disposal,

Just as Libra in the Ninth is good at whispering sweet nothings into the ears of the rich and powerful, so it is an opportunity for renewed moral balance of a spiritual nature. Libra is after all the Exaltation of Saturn and the higher impulse is for true justice. We live in very dangerous times, If we can invoke the positive collective qualifies, we have an opportunity to take back what is ours. The real enemy is stealthy and the fist looks so much nicer in a velvet glove. Certainly denying or trivializing our powers of destruction will yield nothing but more of the same.

Saturn is the Reaper and what we reap is what we sow. Saturn is all about consequences and revealing limitations, often in very challenging ways. It’s said that the path of good intentions leads to Hell. When humanism becomes a rallying cry for the availability of every human whim, it becomes something very different. The most poignant irony is that humanism, always attributed to Aquarius, spells the end of truly human life.

Clearly, this is no longer seen in an entirely negative light. For some, it’s the only solution. Why not have a humanoid that’s “Forever Twenty One” to do all the work and be able to function in the most extreme conditions, should they occur. Japan would prefer robots to immigrants in a rapidly aging society. And of course, the humanoid has perfect manners and can teach Japanese in Viet Nam.

The Aquarius / Leo axis has brought a culture of conspicuous consumption, unparalleled technological innovation, the rewarding of selfishness and celebrity for its own sake (one can now be famous for being famous) as well as opportunities to defeat the most miserable illnesses, illiteracy and some forms of inequality. The scales offer us a choice and until we make that choice we will be ever hanging in the balance waiting for “Godot” the Aquarian messiah or the end of everything that matters.

Light of Thoth – The Transmission of Hermetica

Posted on February 14, 2015 by P. James Clark

The Bull of Heaven I

Posted on February 6, 2015 by P. James Clark

It’s becoming increasingly apparent, even among previous skeptics, that religions and whole societies have oriented themselves in accordance with the heavens in ways we are are only now discovering. Astrological interpretation lies at the heart of our ancient civilizations’ telling us where we came from and where we are going. The integrity of these traditions is extraordinary. This begins a series of articles in which I will examine the history mythology and astronomy underlying the culture of our forbears, from paleolithic cave paintings to the current era.

To begin, we will concentrate on the Sumerian civilization in general and the goddess Inanna in particular to better explain the significance of the constellation and it’s relationship to the Sumerian “Venus” the ruler of Taurus. The Sumerians and indeed modern Iraqis are wonderful storytellers and have left us the earliest epic poem, describing in amazing detail their cosmological beliefs and observations.. The shouldn’t merely be considered a lesson in history, because the core beliefs and values are just as relevant today. In fact we need to recover what has been lost. We are like a man sitting on a trunk full of unimaginable treasure but without the key to open it

Various species of wild bulls were found throughout Europe, the Near East, Central Asia, North Africa and bull Sumer. In fact the progenitors of the cow had pastured on the plains and grasslands of central Mesopotamia since ancient times. Of course, there is huge gulf between wild animals and their domestication. The Age of Taurus saw the beginnings of agriculture on a hitherto unknown scale by harnessing the power of the bull.

Isis – Lunar horns with Solar disk

The wild bull was a massive creature, standing over 180 cm at the shoulder. Whenever reference in writings or visual art, the bull was venerated as an embodiment of supernatural strength, virility and ferocity, The constellation Taurus was rising at the Vernal Equinox approximately 4300 BC and 2150 BC. King Gilgamesh is thought to have reigned at some time between 2800 and 2500 BC. This falls within the Age of Taurus, the bull of heaven.

The significance of the Bull if Heaven is enormous and existed in multiple layers of meaning, across an extraordinary number of cultures and reaches back at least as far in time as the Paleolithic period. Taurus is a large and prominent constellation in the northern hemisphere’s winter sky. It is one of the oldest described constellations, dating back to at least the Early Bronze Age when it marked the location of the Sun during the spring equinox.

The image at the top of the page shows the Sun rising in the East, in the constellation Taurus, represented by the white calf. The Bull became leader of the signs, rising with the Sun at the Spring Equinox, from approximately 4300 to 1580 BC, Taurus came to symbolize the bull in the mythologies of Ancient Babylon, Egypt, India, Minos, and Greece. The “sacred cows” and bovine deities became virtually ubiquitous.

The essential significance of the Bull is found not only in the Torah via the Golden Calf and other references but in the Hebrew language itself. It is the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet, almost certainly adopted from the Phoenicians and gives us the word alphabet when combined with the second letter of the Greek alphabet, Beta.

Aleph means Ox. In literal terms, of course, this would refer to a castrated bull, but the deeper significance is the harnessing of a very powerful energy which can then be used in a directed way. With the domestication of bulls and cows, agricultural tasks, hitherto all but impossible, such as plowing the soil, creating a new agricultural society, massively increasing the ability to produce food for burgeoning populations. . It was a pivotal moment in the history of civilizations.

What is above is below. Those familiar with the Tarot will know that The Fool card is Aleph. The portrayal differs from one deck to another, but the core images are virtually universal. The Fool is the beginning and also zero. He is perfect potentiality, goaded by a dog (presumably representing animal natural ) What he is carrying over his shoulder is metaphorically phallic and seminal – what we call potency. It will remain as potentiality until the energy finds the ways and means to be realized.

The Sumerians had an advanced civilization with a fully developed stellar religion, complete with an astrological pantheon of twelve gods in Sumerian Religion, archetypal figures that would be adopted by many other cultures, usually under a fairly thin disguise. There were five creator gods and under theses deities were the seven gods who “decree the fates.” These were An, Enlil, Enki, Ninhursag, Nanna, Utu, and Inanna. All the gods have essentially human form,

Inanna is of primary interest to us here. She is Queen of Heaven, the universal Venus, but in her original guise as Inanna the goddess of love and war is complex and multifaceted. She embodies distinctly ambitious, conniving, and heartless tendencies as well as fertility and sexual love. She is courageous, often has a very bad temper. She isn’t idealized anymore than is Aphrodite/

Her attributes take into account the phases o Venus, among these are oriental and occidental She is also the goddess of the Underworld. Like all planets Venus has phases and hers are particularly interesting. At the superior conjunction, Venus is on the far side of the Sun, with the Sun standing exactly between the Earth and Venus. This was seen as her descent in to the underworld, from which she was resurrected as the Morning Star. This is rich with significance, First of all, Venus is the ruler of Taurus. Moreover, Taurus is the nocturnal expression of Venus. Libra is the exaltation of Saturn. In the fourth house, this becomes the journey to the underworld where Inanna soul is ‘weighed.’ The horns of the bull seen in the constellation itself, relation to the exaltation of the Moon in Taurus

There are two stories which are immediately germane to the nature of Venus and Taurus.

In a fit of blind rage, and in tears, she appeals to her grandfather to avenge Gilgamesh because he had insulted her by resisting her attempted seduction. Hell hath no fury like a goddess scorned . Inanna,’s anger and desire for vengeance only increased and she demands Anu to give her Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven, to have revenge on Gilgamesh. She threatens that if she isn’t given what she wants, she will wreak such havoc on Earth as well as the Underwold, the doors of which she will break and open, creating massive confusion among people and the denizens of the Underworld,

eight pointed star of Inanna – Venus

She gets her way and unleashes Gugalanna who becomes an epic version of the bull in a china shop. The Bull is subsequently slain by Gligamesh Unwilling to die, the bull ascended to the stars to claim the constellation Taurus. This might seem a great contradiction, but many ancient cultures believed that at least some of its population would become stars. This is also the beginning of another connected theme : Inanna’s descent into the Underworld.

Her clothing is removed as she enters the underworld, This is a ritual in which she is symbolically stripped of all her powers and is turned into a corpse. Enlil and Nanna will not help, claiming that she brought this fate upon herself – suggesting she wanted to usurp her sister’s power. However, Enki agrees to bring her back to life, sending Kurgarru and Kalaturru to revive her with nourishment and the water of life.

Inanna is in fact resuscitated but she is to leave a sacrificial substitute in her place. It is not a difficult decision. Her husband Dumuzi is chosen because he hadn’t mourned her absence as much as he ought to have, In an interestingly Venusian detail, she rejects the idea of her hairdresser taking his place.

The descent into the Underworld is referring to the period of Venus being invisible – below. When she reappears she does so as the Morning star she Lucifer, the Bringer of Light. She is therefore ahead of the Sun and the cycle will repeat itself.

ishtar inanna – queen of the night

As I have mentioned elsewhere, the Venus cycle corresponds to the gestation period and underscores her role as bringer of life.n Babylonian tradition she was a “star” in a trinity with the Moon and Sun. She was at one time personified as the Great Goddess who gave birth to the Sun, and at other times known as Lucifer, the light.

The image of Inanna on the right was believed for some time to be of Lilith, said to be the first wife of Adam. She does share some attributes, such as the nocturnal birds and animals with her. She is also winged, associating her with the heavens. Like Lilith she has no interest in the advice of men, for the most part

The deities associated with Venus in the Ancient Near East were proactive initiators, often very warlike ones. for they brought in the day, awakening solar vitality. One thinks not only of Inanna, but of Bodica and other warrior queens When she rises before the Sun. As the gentle and loving Evening Star, known as Zib, Hesperus and Shalem among other names was said to speak the Word of Peace nightly to the Sun, giving the Hebrew and Arabic word for peace, shalom and salaam. As Evening Star, Venus returns to the lunar world of nurturance and fecundity. Rivers & Gillespie make some fascinating comments on this is in Knot of Time pp. 79-82

The eight pointed star of Venus, the Moon and Solar disk with its four axes and four intercalated solar rays,

The Bull of Heaven II

Posted on February 5, 2015 by P. James Clark

I make no pretense of being an expert in Egyptology, but there are some fundamental elements of that culture which allow us to see Taurus in a different way, in part by the relationship of the Bull of Heaven to Osiris

The region of the heavens occupied by the constellation Taurus is home to several powerful fixed stars from Algol (above left) the Pleiades, the Hyades and Aldebaran, the red eye of the bull – Watcher of the East and one of the Royal Stars of Persia. Babylonian astrologers would also be very interested in the stars associated with the horns – unsurprisingly they tend to be of the nature of Mars. However, as an entity we can see the essential nature of Taurus is Lunar and Venusian.

The cultural interpretation of a constellation surely says something about the culture itself. The ravaging bull in eternal conflict with Orion the Hunter is a very good case in point. It takes more than simple imagination to see Orion as a brutal hunter wielding a spiked club at Taurus and to see Taurus as a determined wild bull bent on Orion’s destruction. Orion is just as often portrayed as an archer, aiming at the Bull’s eye! This is a rather violent view. Of course nothing is wrong just because it’s violent, but in this case we have what I believe is a far more convincing and satisfying interpretation.

Stele dedicated to Apis-Louvre

Looking once again at the image at the top of part I, the white calf rising with the Sun is Apis. He is the Ka of Osiris:

“In ancient Egyptian religion, with the ba and the akh, a principal aspect of the soul of a human being or of a god. The exact significance of the ka remains a matter of controversy, chiefly for lack of an Egyptian definition; the usual translation, “double,” is incorrect. Written by a hieroglyph of uplifted arms, it seemed originally to have designated the protecting divine spirit of a person. The ka survived the death of the body and could reside in a picture or statue of a person” Britannica

The Egyptian hieroglyph for the Venus cycle from Morning to Evening Star in the shape of a perfect pentagram as viewed from Earth.

When we change the name and perception from Orion to Osiris, the idea of the god Osiris, the consort of Isis, charging to deal a deathly blow to his own life force is as silly as it’s poignant. In Egypt as in so many ancient cultures, the motif of bull’s horns with solar disks are all but universal. We find them shown even in the depiction of pre-Islamic Arabian deities.

In the sky map to the left,Sirius, the brightest star in the sky from our viewpoint, follows Osiris closely and is associated with Isis. The rising of Sirius signaled the inundation of Egyptian farm land by the Nile. The association doesn’t end there, though. The Egyptians considered the Milk Way to be the “real Nile” just as many Hindus consider the Milk Way as the “true Ganges.” as even so called inanimate objects have soul in the Egyptian view, the relationship of Earth to the Heavens was divine and inexorable. We could say that they mirrored each other. Other articles related to Sirius

Egyptian religion wasn’t particular dogmatic and did in fact differ from one time and region to another to some extent. However, the primacy of Isis as the Queen of Heaven and of life itself, her brother Osiris the Lord or King of the dead, thier son Horus, god the Sun, Sky and Kingship, was widely understood.

Gwen Parker: tells us that when an Apis bull died “the body was embalmed and entombed with the great ceremony that would be afforded royalty. A Memphis temple housing large alabaster slabs was the place in which the bulls were embalmed.

Osiris holding crook and flail

After preparation of the body and internal organs, the crouching bull was intricately bandaged, artificial eyes were inserted, its horns and face were either gilded or covered with a gold leaf mask, and it was covered with a shroud. The Apis mummy was carried to the Serapeum (a catacomb preceded by an avenue of sphinxes), amid the formalities due a deity, for burial in a massive stone sarcophagus weighing over 60 tons. A papyrus from the 26th Dynasty explains the technique used to embalm an Apis bull.”

Wearing the crown. with the Royal insignia of the flail and crook on his hands, Osiris looks more like a shepherd king than a hunter. His best known epithets are “eternally good” or “eternally incorruptible” and his relationship with the Bull of Heaven is both essential and benign, and offers profound insight to the nature of the Bull.

Isis and Hathor share various feminine qualities, with Hathor being more of a Luna deity and Isis being the Queen and Guardian of the path of the planets.

It’s easy to mistake one for the other, particular if Isis is not shown with wings. At the end of the day, we still have the Moon exalted in Taurus and Venus Isis ruling both Libra and Taurus. The Ankh carried by Isis is a slightly modified glyph for Venus, with the circle of Spirit and Cross of Matter. The cross differs from the modern glyph only slightly. The cross is further up towards the centre of the whole symbol, suggesting a greater level of relationship with Spirit perhaps.

Isis offering-Key of Life Ankh to her son Horus

We now know that the Bull of Heaven held a very important position in both Sumerian and Egyptian culture, possessing mystical qualities. Taurus, the Moon and Venus are all feminine and I cannot help but wonder how this came to be seen as something to be clubbed or shot. I might suggest this has something to do with the denial of the Divine Feminine. Even Paleolithic paintings of Orion, crafted by hunter gathers do not associate him with a hunter. He is a Shaman. See the Stars of Orion.

The extraordinary astronomical knowledge and skill of these ancients is staggering. Mapping the Venus Pentagram alone shows uncommon skill and all these things should give us pause when interpreting Venus or the Bull of Heaven.

Quest for the Lost civilization – Graham Hancock

Posted on January 30, 2015 by P. James Clark

Venus Exalted in Pisces

Posted on January 30, 2015 by P. James Clark

One of the most tortured and misunderstood concepts in astrology is that of Exaltation. There are two main reasons why this is the case. First of all, modern astrologers are either unaware that a mystical system exists that permeates and underlies all astrology or fail to see its relevance. Worse perhaps, is that there is awareness of this system, but the modern practitioner takes for granted that it can be changed to suit ‘modern sensibilities’ or ignored altogether.

If you can’t see why the system is the way it is, then what’s the harm in throwing a few extra planets or asteroids in for good measure? Who cares if there are enough asteroids to provide over a hundred of them for every degree of the zodiac? While we’re at it, why not add some new aspects because, you know, our subtle energies vibrate to a New Age to which the ancients had no awareness. They only used the seven planets and the five aspects because they didn’t know any better. Somebody ought to channel Pythagoras and let him know.

So when the question arises as to why a planet is exalted in a sign, those sufficiently divorced from the tradition, might attempt to understand it using, let’s say, psychological criteria that become increasingly exotic and usually highly subjective. In the case of Venus in Pisces, we are told that only Pisces can give unconditional and Universal love whereas Venus in other signs is presumably incapable. Universal love or agape isn’t what Venus is about. She is associated with Eros, music, seduction, sweets and so on. Recently I read that Venus is exalted in Pisces because Venus was born from the sea, more accurately sea foam, which sounds good until you realize that Pisces is not the ocean. That belongs to Cancer.

A brief search on the internet will provide several other stock explanations that make little sense when examined in the light of reason or by simple reference to the system that brought about exaltations in the first place.

The most direct technical answer to the question. ‘why is Venus exalted in Pisces.’ is to note that it’s opposite the Fall of Venus in Virgo. Exaltations are always in the opposite sign of their Fall Let’s begin with the Domicile of the Signs: below is the list of domiciles for each planet and luminary. With the exception of the Sun and Moon, all planets have two domiciles. One is Masculine or Diurnal and the other Feminine or Nocturnal.

The system is a perfect symmetry, but may not appear to be at first glance.. If we take the Sun and Moon as the centre, then the rulerships follow the Chaldean order of planets. So for example, Mercury takes Gemini and Virgo as domicile – that is to say the sign before and the sign after the Luminaries. Next will come Venus in Taurus and Libra Finally Saturn is left with Capricorn and Aquarius. See the diagram below.

In summary:

The Moon has only one Domicile, Cancer – Nocturnal Feminine

Mercury has his Domicile in Gemini and Virgo – Diurnal Masculine and Nocturnal Feminine

Venus has her Domicile in Taurus and Libra Nocturnal Feminine and Diurnal Masculine

The Sun has only one Domicile, Leo – Diurnal Masculine

Mars finds his domicile in Aries and Scorpio – Diurnal Masculine and Nocturnal Feminine.

Jupiter has his Domicile in Sagittarius and Pisces. Diurnal Masculine and Nocturnal Feminine

Saturn has his Domicile in Capricorn and Aquarius – Nocturnal and Feminine and Diurnal Masculine.

These Saturnine signs oppose the Luminaries: Capricorn is the detriment of the Moon and Aquarius the Detriment of the Sun. Saturn is the greater malefic. The domiciles of Mars, Aries and Scorpio, oppose both domiciles of Venus, Libra and Taurus respectively. Jupiter the greater benefic has Sagittarius and Pisces for his domicile. Diurnal Jupiter trines the Sun and is Exalted in the domicile of the Moon. From this alone, it is easy to see why Saturn is the greater malefic and Jupiter the greater benefic.

Mercury appears to upset the balance by having his Domicile and Exaltation in Virgo, while he takes both detriment and Fall in Pisces. Venus then takes her fall in Virgo and exaltation in Pisces. This is because Jupiter opposes both domiciles of Mercury and vice versa.

Returning to Pisces, we find nocturnal Jupiter opposing Virgo, which is trine nocturnal Venus – thus Venus is exalted in Pisces. The system is simple once one knows how to read it. Remember this is only one way of measuring planetary strength. Domicile is considered to be of greater dignity than Exaltation.

My sole intention in writing this article is to explain the nature of exaltations and because Venus is exalted in Pisces at the time of writing. With this in mind, it’s neither the time or place to debate possible archetypal meanings. However, there is no doubt that Venus is very happy in the sign of the Fishes, but the happiness is more sensual than mystical in the ordinary sense of that word. After all, we have the greater benefic with the lesser benefic Venus in the House of Jupiter will not auger restriction. In the words of Mae West ““Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.”

The final analysis will look to the phases of Venus. She is known as Phosphorus as the evening and Lucifer as the Morning Star, but that is for another article.

Detail – Horoscope of Prince Iskandar Grandson of Tamerlane – showing Venus in Pisces

Brian Jones – Eminence & Alienation

Posted on January 24, 2015 by P. James Clark

Most have heard of Brian Jones, if only as one of rock’s most unhinged, dissipated casualties who died in his own swimming pool as the result of an overdose at the age of 27. The fact that he had recently purchased the mansion that had previously belonged to A.A. Milne, the creator of Winnie the Pooh, made for a bizarre background of whimsy to a life of debauchery.

However, he was happier than he had been for some time. His untimely and in many ways implausible death has been examined in many ways, but the ultimate cause of his death is mysterious. He had not imbibed in heavy drugs and was a very strong swimmer. There was a great deal more to Jones than is commonly known To a large extent this is intentional. He had many enemies.

It is surprisingly challenging to find an accurate, credible chart for Jones. Perhaps the most often referred to source for natal information has a chart with Virgo Ascending. I found a brief article elsewhere that used the Scorpio Ascending, although the original source was not given and the timing of 12.07 given without mentioning whether it is AM or PM. I find no reason to doubt this chart. The one with Virgo Ascending is frankly impossible.

Jones was the founder of the Rolling Stones and gave it their distinctive sound. Initially, the sound was an emulation of American blues musicians, all of them black and none appreciated much by whites in their own country. It has been claimed that Jones was the only real slide guitarist in England when the group was formed. He was a major player in the introduction of American Blues in England.

He was their articulate and charming spokesperson. He could play anything with strings, from guitars, lute, dulcimer, sitar, a variety of North African instruments, mostly from Morocco. He was an excellent keyboard player – from piano to harpsichord. He played a wide variety of ethnic instruments, including the marimba on “Under my Thumb.” However, he didn’t write any songs than anyone can remember and for such a famously flamboyant dresser, he could seem quite wooden alongside Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

It is this confluence of flamboyance and alienation that I want to explore using Traditional Astrology. Usually, readings of anyone, and particularly the likes of rock stars, rely heavily on exotic interpretations of the outer planets which could just as easily apply to legions of people born in a broad time frame. They do this very often at the expense of the original seven planets and luminaries.

Model,Anita Pallenberg – Jones’ girlfriend – 1965 – 67

We begin with Saturn as Almuten Figuris, This is the abiding spirit of the chart. The Moon is the Lady of the Nativity. She is free, Occidental and in halb. In the Tenth House she indicates, among other things, that Eminence manifests as a Lunar Leo. This is associated with flamboyancy, vanity but also great sensitivity, The Moon in Leo by itself generally augers well for musical talent which Jones had in abundance, despite the fact that the Moon is Peregrine in Leo. This Leo 10th House is of course what the public sees most. The Lord or Lady of the Nativity is like the ambassador or emissary so this Lunar – Solar Self was what was seen first and foremost by his *public,*

The combination of the Feminine Moon with the Masculine Sun brings a certain flare and an androgynous sensibility. Jones was an icon of the British Mod scene, pushing the limits of gender identification in fashion. Unsurprising, Anita Pallenberg, with whom he lived and loved with for two years, was herself a model. His father said she was the only woman he really loved and that he never really recovered when she defected to Keith Richards.

Further support for this Eminence is that the Lord of the Arabic Part for Kings and Sultans on Jone’s Nativity is also the Moon. So we have Moon on the angles, tenth house and free of malefics in a Nocturnal chart. The Moon is in an applying opposition to Venus and Mercury in Aquarius. The conjunction of the latter contribute to his musical abilities, This is given in rich abundance. Procyon on the MC, however, reminds us that there are great opportunities that are short lived.

Moreover, the Lot of Exaltation is in the Tenth House in Leo, the Domicile of the Sun, in the Decan and Trigon of Jupiter. The Lot of Spirit is in the Sixth House in the Exaltation of the Sun.

Finally, we consider the Ascendant for more on Eminence. This is where the cracks begin to show. Eminence can only be attained and maintained if the Nativity as a whole can support it. The Lord of the Ascendant is Mars in Taurus, in tight Opposition to the Ascendant. Saturn is in a 3° conjunction with Mars. So we have both malefics, in an angular house. Although Taurus is the Exaltation of the Moon, this does little to ameliorate the deleterious effects on the life force embodied by the Ascendant. The Lot of Jupiter is conjunct the Ascendant, but this wouldn’t be enough to change the prognosis to any great extent..

We can now look at the Sun in Pisces in the Fifth House. This is a strong indicator of a great artist, particular considering he is the Lord of the Tenth House and the Moon. There is a square between the Sun in the Fifth and Jupiter in the Eighth. This is quite deadly because Jupiter is the ruler of Pisces. The darker side of Jupiter is excess and in this case particularly excess inebriants, made all the more enticing because of the house placement and all the more deadly for the Eight House Jupiter. This could be interpreted as a *death wish* scenario. This ‘wish’ is all the more likely to be realized by the placement of the Nodes and their square to Jupiter. With the S. Node in the Fifth House we are given yet another indicator of the means to the end – entertainment, pleasure, sex and drugs will be the nemesis of the native.

Jone’s Temperament was strongly Choleric – highly driven and sometimes abrasive, a poor mix with his Jupiterean Sun — accentuating his Scorpio Ascendant. Alcohol ss very attractive to Choleric types. It would seem to be a cooling balance to the dry heat, but alcohol is known as fire water for good reason. It makes everything much worse in this case.

The obvious brilliance of Brian Jones was not supported by the Eleventh House, where we find the Lot of Saturn and Mars. In the end, he was kicked out of his own band after years of drug and alcohol abuse. But the difficulties began with his alienation. One wouldn’t expect someone with this chart to be what is now called a “team player” if that meant he had to play a subordinate role in the band he created. There was in fact some degree of paranoia, but this became a self perpetuating dynamic. The more he felt himself relegated to the side-lines, the more introverted he became. Beggar’s Banquet was the last album he played on as part of the band., but he is also on “You can’t always get what you want” and “Midnight Rambler” on Let it Bleed. You won’t find him in the credits.

Re. Brian Jones From Crossfire Hurricane Documentary

Persepolis Recreated

Posted on January 5, 2015 by P. James Clark

This is an admirable attempt to recreate all manner of customs, technology and aesthetics of ancient Persepolis. It should be of interest to anyone curious about ancient astronomy and its relationship to virtually all other forms of culture, It also shows the routes of trade between Persia, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia Minor and the Indian subcontinent in ancient times.

Legends of the Fall & the Ascent of the Soul

Posted on January 3, 2015 by P. James Clark

Lucas Cranach – Der Garten Eden

There was a comment left by one of my readers remarking on the fact that phenomena such as eclipses and comets are invariably seen as negative events or even evil ones. There is a reason for this, and for good or bad, it is something with which every traditional astrologer needs to make their peace. The topic could easily fill many volumes (and does) but it can also be told quite simply for our immediate purposes. This article is likely to pose as many questions as it answers, but I have tried to show various avenues of inquiry for further research.

Since Eve ate apples, the stars have been far less friendly. John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost provides us with more than one passage about how the stars were turned, but the followed encapsulates it all very well. The post lapsarian cosmology comes into being immediately after the apple incident:

While the Creator, calling forth by name
His mighty Angels, gave them several charge,
As sorted best with present things. The Sun
Had first his precept so to move, so shine,
As might affect the Earth with cold and heat
Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call
Decrepit winter, from the south to bring
Solstitial summer’s heat. To the blanc Moon
Her office they prescribed; to the other five
Their planetary motions and aspects,
In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite,
Of noxious efficacy, and when to join
In synod unbenign; and taught the fixed
Their influence malignant when to shower—
Which of them, rising with the Sun or falling,
Should prove tempestuous. To the winds they set
Their corners, when with bluster to confound
Sea, air, and shore; the thunder when to roll
With terror through the dark aerial hall.

(From Paradise Lost Book 10.).

Uriel with Sword of Fire by Walter Huacac Santa Cruz

The Fall changed all of creation, not just humanity After Adam and Eve were forced out of Paradise, an angel with a flaming sword guards the east and the Tree of Life with a flaming sword. This of course mirrors the new celestial restrictions. Adam and Eve. cannot return to the Garden – they must move forward into the world. The stars can still guide them in more ways than one, but they are now, as it were, the flaming swords protecting access to the Empireum.

After the Fall, humanity is in the Sub lunary Sphere and the seven spheres are bounded by the greater malefic. It is no coincidence that Saturn is associated with obstacles and limitations. Beyond Saturn are the Fixed Stars. He will not allow an easy passage. Existence in the the Sub – lunary sphere is subject to corruption, generation and delusions of all kinds The sphere is comprised of the four classical elements.

Buddhists would refer to this state of consciousness as Avidyā, symbolized by a person who is blind or wearing a blindfold. It is ignore – ance in its true senseIn this state, we are unaware of our true nature. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave where the cave dwellers believe the shadow play before them to be the real thing and in fact all there is. The one who unchains himself to turn toward the light of the Sun, outside of the cave. Essentially, you will remain in a state of illusion until you cast off the mind forged manacles.

There are many traditions that seek to win the Celestial Garden, such as Cabala, Hermeticism, Neo-Platonism and of course the Christian and Jewish faiths themselves, At the risk of over simplifying, these paths all strive for enlightenment and the Buddha tells us that the Enlightened don’t need astrology because they are no longer subject to cause and effect. All major religions and a good many philosophies subscribe to the belief, either stated or employed. Plato’s Doctrine of the Forms is very illuminating and will perhaps make a good starting point in understanding the traditional cosmology.

Ptolemaic cosmology diagram, showing stars as 8th sphere, and transcendent prime mover as 9th

Islam rejects the notion of a Fall in the sense of original sin, but a Celestial Garden is the reward of the pious amd Adam and Eve lived in the Garden if Eden; the departure from the other Abrahamic religions in that Islam inteprets Adam as a prophet.

Stars play more than one role in Islam. Allah is referred to as “He Who is the Lord of Sirius, “(Qur’an, 53: 49) while the Kaaba is oriented with Canopus and has a meteorite that is the stuff of pilgrimage. Modern Muslims tend to think that the reading of stars is shirk (attributing a partner to God,) by considering that the planets and luminaries compel us to act. Essentially the same complaint was made by many Christians and for the same reason.

The history of Islam and its impact on traditional Western astrology is immense and the art is supported by the Qu’ran according to Muslims with whom I have spoken. There are two surahs that come to mind, but there are many more: “It is He Who maketh the stars (as beacons) for you, that ye may guide yourselves, with their help, through the dark spaces of land and sea: We detail Our signs for people who know. (Surah Al-Anam, 97) ” This can be read to mean guidance of many types, including astrological.

Four Guardian Angels -Islamic

The second is this one : “He has made subject to you the Night and the Day; the sun and the moon; and the stars are in subjection by His Command: verily in this are Signs for men who are wise. (Surah An-Nahl, 12)” It is important to note that not only did Islamic scholars serve as conduits of Greek thought, including Hellenistic, but Middle Eastern traditions as well, such as Pre-Islamic Arabian and Persian, Almost all the star names we use are either Arabic or Persian. It is almost certain that Islamic astrologers were also exposed to Indian astrology. Our astrological roots are very deep, various and rich.

Furthermore, in all of these traditions there is a strong sense of having lost, or not yet attained, Paradise. Spiritual progress requires work ever since the Fall however one sees that and to whatever metaphorical degree of understanding. The core trope is ubiquitous.

Finally the Yusuf Ali translation of 67:5 in the Qu’ran. we read: “And we have, (from of old), adorned the lowest heaven with Lamps, and We have made such (Lamps) (as) missiles to drive away the Evil Ones, and have prepared for them the Penalty of the Blazing Fire.” The evil ones are usually referred to as Jinn or “shaytans” in the plural. The former can be good or evil and are spirits of smokeless fire. They are invisible unless they chose to be and live thousands of years. The “missiles” are commonly regarded as meteorites or comets, but also associated with the stars themselves who serve as guides and guardians.

Whether we look to Platonic myth of the Creation and Fall, the Mythos of the ‘people of the Book,’ and all major religions and most minor ones as well, there is the same theme: Creation in an ideal state which (ironically) cannot be sustained, a ‘fall from grace’ which includes all of creation and the promise of something far better than Eden. But it is conditional. Even the stars protect the inner sanctum, as it were, as well as the corresponding celestial realms – the microcosm and the macrocosm.

Islamic Eden

We could well argue that the mythos described is not literally true at all – perhaps even childish – but it has endured cross culturally for thousands of years. This may say something about the human mind or the nature of reality. Perhaps they are the same thing. After all, cosmologies are a way to make things make sense and they remain more or less intact even before our experiences reinforce them,

Of all the Fixed Stars used in astrology, only a handful promise good fortune. Among these are Spica, Canopus and others, but discernment is required to fully realize the benefits. It also makes a great deal of difference whether the star is ascending, culminating, setting and other considerations.

The Royal Stars of Persia, the guardians of the directions, are all powerful, but their great benefits can only be realized by meeting certain conditions. If these are not met, they can become harbingers of very bad tidings indeed. If one is going to enjoy the blessings of Regulus, for example, one must avoid revenge or any of the lower impulses. One’s character must be equal to the task of nobility.

The Royal Stars each have an angel assigned to them as protectors of the directions . Regulus is associated with the healing Archangel Raphael, the watcher of the North. Fomalhaut, is identified with the Archangel Gabriel, the watcher of the South. Aldebaran is assigned the Archangel Michael, the watcher of the East.; to Antares, the Archangel Oriel, the watcher of the West.

This merely an expansion or extrapolation of the archetypal myth of creation, its fall and the goal of realization after traversing the spheres. Just like the conditional nature of the Royal Stars, the ascent causes the malefic to lose their power thus elevation us to a much higher version of the Garden.

The simple point, easily missed, is that we cannot ignore the cosmology that lead to the astrology we practise. It is not crucial to understand it literally at all, but neither can we neglect such a powerful archetypal system.

The stars can be guides to us, but we must not lose sight of the ultimate goal. The Neo Pythagorean schema below provides a heightened knowledge of the spheres insofar as it offers ways in which we can actively participate in the harmonies of the spheres.

The Music of the Spheres. Shown in this engraving from Renaissance Italy are Apollo, the Muses, the planetary spheres and musical ratios.

The Classical Astrologer

Ancient & Traditional Astrology

Author Archives: P. James Clark