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Apprentice

The Apprentice's bias is towards sound traditional practice. All postal submissions should be accompanied by an SAE. It's Over Barbie splits from ken, and we hunt for the second spouse in the natal chan.

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169 views48 pages

Apprentice

The Apprentice's bias is towards sound traditional practice. All postal submissions should be accompanied by an SAE. It's Over Barbie splits from ken, and we hunt for the second spouse in the natal chan.

Uploaded by

Anonymous JAJAWt41s
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THE ASTROLOGER’S APPRENTICE THE TRADITION. AS IT LIVES ps Issue 22. ON THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE SOUL Edited by John Frawley THE ASTROLOGER’S APPRENTICE Prospective contributors are advised to write first with an outline of their projected article. They should bear in mind that The Apprentice’s bias is towards sound traditional practice, Some charts have a crystalline beauty all their own; we would generally, however, prefer 10 see charts that illustrate or elucidate some particular point of technique, All postal submissions should accompanied by an SAE. While due care will be taken, we cannot guarantee their return, Articles are submitted gratuitously * The Astrologer’s Apprentice is edited by John Frawley Write to: 85, Steeds Road, London N10 1JB Phone: 020.8365.2553 |: j@[Link] * ADVERTISE IN THE ASTROLOGER'S APPRENTICE Ful page: £120 Quarter page: £50 Half page: £80 VAT free Four issues forthe price of three. Payment with order © Jahn Frawiey, 2008. Copyright of signed articles remains with ther individual authors. Some of the woodcuts inthis issue come from the excellent resource and mine of Pleasure that is [Link] com Printed by POC, 29, Fore St, Lonson N19 272 0208807 9797 Contents It’s Over Barbie splits from Ken, and we hunt for the second ‘spouse in the natal chart High Noon (L.M.T.) The difference between will and desire: exploring the Table of Dignities with traditional psychology On the Architecture of the Soul Searching for the individual's essenc and the chart within the chart We are Delighted The importance of primary motion in horary Star Qualities A sounder understanding of the fixed stars: royal stars in action and Algol as a good guy Book Reviews Astrologer’s nativities, a library on CD and the Apprentice plays live Pluto to the Rescue Mickey's friend takes Liverpool to Champions’ League success rabian Parts 12 15 32 35 4B IT’S OVER! So snugly does this sequestered vale fold our workshop into its gently breathing bosom, that barely an echo of the world’s harsh din intrudes upon our studious silence, a silence broken only by old Harry Stolle snoring before the fire, an apprentice or two passing a rare hour of idleness by tossing pebbles into the stream that twinkles past the yard gate, and the occasional bellow from one of the bestial signs. Dynasties rise and fall, empires ebb and flow. without disturbing us. Yet even here the peace was shattered by boisterous trumpets proclaiming that startling news: as of February 13th, 2004 Barbie and Ken are an item no more! Was it long dissatisfaction at his anatomical limitations that turned her heart away? No! For even as this news was noised abroad came confirmation that Barbie was learning to smile again, wrapped in the arms of sun-bleached surf-dude, Blaine. Apprentice fans of long, standing will recall our examination of Barbie's birthchart in issue 17. There we traced her career, love-Life, surgery and siblings. We would expect to find these astonishing recent developments similarly shown, The progressed chart is startling in its clarity, with the Ascendant hitting a tight opposition of Mars and Saturn, Looking at the natal placements, we can see that Mars will progress to oppose Saturn. That, at this very point, the Ascendant reaches the opposition marks this as a Barbie Barbie March 91959." [Link] EST Progressions for Feb 13. 2004 "New York - the date spit with Ken was announced major event in the life. As she had! been dating Ken since 1961, this| must have been no small decision for Barbie. Not only does this show the} break-up, but the Moon applies} immediately to tine the Mars that} is now sitting on the progressed] Ascendant, with powerful mutual reception. Mars is the natal Lord 7: esa 17 et meeting with Blaine. Note the sign H#v® YOu heard about Barbe and Ken? Mars is in: Cancer. What sort of Lord 7 is this? A wet sort: he is a surfer. ‘That Barbie's progressed Moon is in the fertile sign of Scorpio in the progressed Sth house suggests that Ken's physical limitations may indeed have been instrumental in turning her heart elsewhere. Born in 1959, that biological clock must be ticking! “The progressed Ascendant has just left the term of Mars and entered that of Jupiter. Relate this back to the natal chart: Mars is natal lord 7; Jupiter is in the 7th house, at the beginning of the next sign - the new boyfriend in waiting. Jupiter is also Lord of the Geniture (beating Saturn by virtue of its greater accidental strength) and disposits both the lights. It seems that Barbie has made a wise choice here. One of the beauties of Return charts, whether solar or Iunar, is the way they carry themes. Itis reminiscent of soap operas: the saga goes on, and different story-lines come to the fore for a few episodes. The Return charts show this, with successive charts picking up the same points, until that story is done and a new one takes centre-stage. So in Returns, where ‘we will find the same degrees running round the angles for a while, or the same planet now on the Ascendant, now on the Descendant, now back to the Ascendant again, as the story’ unfolds. Even after a lapse of many years, if the same story in the life is revived, the Returns will pick it up, highlighting the same points or planets in a related way. ‘The Solar Return chart for 1961, when Barbie met Ken, had Venus, Lord 1, just inside the 7th house: a typical indication of new love or marriage. With their relationship deteriorating, the 2003 Return had Saturn in exactly this place (mundane conjunction), lighting the 7th house by its presence - but more than that, stamping firmly on the romantic promise of those heady days of “61. The Return Ascendant is the natal 8th cusp: something is dying. Indeed, with natal Lords 1 and 8 applying immediately to opposition, the careless astrologer might have expected Barbie herself to die, But the ale Solar Return 2003, progressions do not support this. ‘The 2004 Return has the Moon in the place of last year’s Saturn and ‘61's Venus. New love! Saturn now - and what a nasty Saturn it is, being in its detriment - conjuncts Mars, Lord 7, as it was in the ‘61 return. Ken is history. With the Part of Fortune on benevolent Spica, Barbie's immediate future looks rosy. Barbie's emotional crisis raises that perennial astrological puzzle, where is the second spouse in the chart? Or, for our colonial readers, where is the fifth, sixth or seventh spouse? We can immediately dismiss ‘two common suggestions. IfI wish to distinguish among my brothers, I can take the 3rd house for the elder and the 3rd from that (the radical 5th) as a second brother: 3rd from the 3rd is my brother's brother. This does not mean that the 3rd from the x is another of the same type as x. The 3rd from the 7th is my wife's sister; unless I live in Louisiana, it is not my second wife. Nor is the 7th from the 7th. Again, the xth from the x does not give us another of the same kind. This too is a false extrapolation from the 3rd from the 3rd being my brother's brother. The 7th from the 7th is the 1st: true only if my first wife is so awful that I lose hope of a better and marry myself, William Lilly identified his three wives by taking Lord 7 for the first, and the two planets in his 7th house for the others. When he first came to Barbie tia ty Sola Hoty 2008 May 11 1602 204 am LMT London he worked as a servant. His elderly master, widowed, had married a younger woman and then died himself. Lilly tells that: My mistress, who had been tvice married to old men, was now resolved to be couzened no more: she was of a brown ruddy complexion, corpulent, of but mean stature, plain, no education, yet a very provident person, and of good condition: she had many suitors, old men, whom she declined; some gentlemen of decayed fortunes, whom she liked not, for she was covetous and sparing: by my fellow-servant she was observed frequently to say, she cared not if she married a man that would love her, so that he had never a penny This good housewife would seem well enough described by Lord 7 of his, chart: Mercury in station in Taurus on his second, her eighth, cusp. With his second wife there was no love lost. He gladly seized upon the shrewish Mars in Virgo in the 7th to describe her. Yet this Mars Virgo in the 7th is part of his chart: Lilly’s written and verbal (Mercury sign) assaults (Mars) upon his enemies (7th house) brought him no end of wouble. Nor can we believe he was the soul of anguillity at home. Astrology shows that they who live by the (s)word do indeed die by it. Wife 3, with whom at last he too learned to smile again, and who was by general consent sweetness itself, he (ok to be his 7th-house Jupiter. But with dignity only by term, and retrograde, can this really signify her? AL the workshop, we think not. Unfortunately, we have no nativity for Ruth Needham, his third wife.’ Although our Master was present at the wedding and, as Lilly’s companion through the early miles of the journey to astrological proficiency, a frequent guest in those quiet evenings when age had withered the urge to retread the wandering paths of youth, now either the foggy hand of Time or a sense of discretion for we know not what prevents him sharing her birthchart with us. Lilly, it seems, can be convicted of special pleading, The arrangement of planets in his 7th house happened to give a plausible enough view of his marital ups and downs. But there is an obvious problem: what of those who have more than one spouse, but no planets in their 7th? And no, dear reader, a proliferation of planets in your 7th does not mean you must have successive marriages. We must first remember, when hunting spouses, that everyone in ‘our world will be shown by one or other of the planets in our natal chart. That is all we have: it is the celestial castlist for our own particular drama. If the face that launched a thousand ships is not in the cast, she will not suddenly appear on stage. Phrase this, if you will, in the terms of what the moderns call psychology: this person that we meet may not be one of the planets in our nativity, but we will project one or other of these planets upon them so they will assume that role in our life. Whatever the explanation, the fact is the same. So where do we find Wife 2? The first possibility is that we take the easy way out by marrying Lord 7 over and over again, in the fond hope that next time we bang our hhead against this wall it will not hurt so much. We see this triumph of ‘hope over experience in many serial marriers. As an alternative, we can grab any easily accessible planet in our chart and marry that. Lilly seems to have done this with his Wife 2. Placed in an angle, his Mars is certainly accessible. ‘There comes a time, however, when the native may begin to sense that the usual way isn’t working. After sometimes several marriages, after sometimes only one, after sometimes none at all, there is the realisation that the obvious choice is not the best. Nagging away somewhere in the consciousness is the knowledge that there is better. This better will be shown by the Lord of the Geniture. ‘The Lord of the Geniture is the planet with most essential dignity, with the rider that a planet with less may be favoured if that with most is, accidentally debilitated. All that is available to us in the life, other than the action of Grace, is shown by our planets. That's our lot: the only cards in our hand. The Lord of the Geniture is the best of these. We have it, so we should play it. We are advised to engage the Lord of the Geniture as much James Harvey's valuable series of Nativitas quotes Coley, Lilly's amanuensis, but is uncertain about even the date of her birth. (Vol il, Sao Paulo 1997, pages ‘nnumbered.) as we can, to give it a position above other planets, as ‘the pilot of the Soul’ Although we are advised to do this, tis Something which we tend to do, sooner of later, without such advice, Sooner of later the realisation dawns that we should play to our strengths, A common way of engaging the Lord of the Geniture, of getting it working and giving it due influence inthe life, fs by marrying it € on choosing a career. Lilly suggests that we take whichever is the stronger from Mars, Venus and Mercury and use that, qualifying it by other testimonies. We do not need to limit ‘ourselves to these three planets: we can use {Jf fn. In choosing the strongest we come down again to choosing the Lord of the Geniture. Itis our best card, 30 play 1t- get itengaged in one way of another What i Lilly's Lord of the Geniture? He would have chosen Jupiter. It is only moderately dignified, but he would have dismissed” the strongly dignified Venus lO because it is combust. The debate on Ly calbrates ne mamage whether a planet combust whilst in its own were nornr't sign is deniltated by the combustion is an ancient one. In the workshop wwe disagree with Lilly on this. Mr Culpeper’s close companions, Dr Reason and Dr Experience, argue against him, Ifa planet is combust in its own sign (or other major dignity) it is under the power of the Sun because of the combustion, and the Sun is under that planet’s power by disposition, This creates a situation so similar to mutual reception that it can be treated as if it were such, Lily’s Venus, then, is not afflicted by its combustion and is the Lord of his Geniture ~and the signifiator of the angelic third wite, for whose description the lukewarm testimony’ of Jupiter would never suffice. When treating a planet combust while in its own major dignity as I it were in mutual reception, other effects of combustion are nonetheless true, ifrelevant to the context of the investigation, In a horary chart, for example, a planet combust in its ovin sign may well not be seen, or not be able to see. As with any mutual reception, we must pay attention to the dignities. Lily's Venus combust in Taurus would be a far poorer thing were it Venus combust in Libra. There it would still rule the Sun by disposition, but the Sun that dominated it by combustion would be a debilitated Kind of Sun, because it would bein its fal There is a contrast to this in another chart we have discussed: that of Charles 1. There too we see a planet combust, but this is Mercury, combust in Sagittarius, the sign of its detriment. What we’ see here is Mercury dominated by the Sun, which hates or harms Mercury, as shown by being in Mercury's detriment. Meanwhile the Sun is afflicted by its conjunction with a planet in its detriment - Mercury. The Sun has a specific role in Charles nativity, because it is Lord 1: ‘me’. Mercury is Lord L1, the friends. Also, as the 11th is 2nd from the 10th, the advisors to the job. In Apprentice 18 we considered this Charles! Gur iM (reference to the “mutually Nov 29 1600. 10.02 pm harmful friendship of Charles and asec Strafford. But no testimony in the nativity will be limited to one person: these indications delineate a life, with various people dropping into the roles they assign. Well though this combustion describes the relationship with Strafford, better does it describe that of Charles with the Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham had been the favourite of Charles’ father, James, who in his infatuation showered him with riches and honours. He became the one person, apart from his wife and children, with whom Charles was ever close, a friendship consolidated during the disastrous and sometimes farcical journey to woo the Infanta of Spain. For several years Buckingham all but ran the country. He was widely hated for the honours which James had so freely bestowed upon him, hated the more as his foreign policy under Charles bounced from failure to failure, largely for reasons of finance over which he had no control. Here is the negative ‘mutual reception’ of a planet combust in the sign of its detriment. Charles was harmed (conjunct a debilitated and therefore malefic planet) by his association with Buckingham, being blamed for not dismissing him. Buckingham was harmed (combustion), to the extent of his eventual assassination, by his closeness to Charles. In June 1628, John Lambe, an astrologer whom Buckingham consulted regularly on matters both personal and public, was hacked to death by a mob. This was between Lilly's first marriage, which afforded him leisure, and his decision to use that leisure to study astrology, so the career which he chose was hardly risk-free. It might be thought that if a man in such a position of power as Buckingham consulted an astrologer on the nature and timing of his decisions, this would be of interest to history; so great is their distaste for astrology that historians, alas, disagree. There is an important work waiting to be written by someone of academic bent with the time and patience to trawl through Buckingham’s copious surviving correspondence to unearth the details of these consultations. This might also redeem poor Lambe’s reputation, as those historians who do deign to mention him are content to take as truth one scurrilous pamphlet celebrating his death. It is unfortunate that so many find academic scruples nothing but a burden when travelling in the realms of astrology. THE HORARY TEXTBOOK by JOHN FRAWLEY Clear, simple and comprehensive. A modern work, firmly rooted in the Tradition. the indispensable text for the contemporary horary astrologer. Frawley’s prowess as a horary astrologer is awesome. - The Mountain Astrologer. ‘The book made me think ‘I want to do that!” but also more importantly “1 COULD do that! This is the hallmark of a good teacher. - FAI Journal on The Real Astrology Signed copies are available from Apprentice Towers: address on back cover. £22.00 plus £3.00 postage within Europe, £6.00 postage elsewhere. £4.00 reduction for subseribers to this magazine. HIGH NOON (L.M.T.) His iron jaw framed against the autumn sunlight streaming through the window of the sheriff's office, William Lilly buckled on his six-guns. “Them pesky asteroids are making it so decent folks can't live in this town no more,’ he exclaimed. ‘Since Dark Moon Lilith starting singing in that saloon they've been a-whooping and a-hollering day and night” “But Bill,’ she pleaded, tears sparkling in her eyes like the Pleiades in the desert night, ‘There's so many of them. What can even you do against so many?" As he gazed down on her he had to admit he'd grown kinda fond of this school ma'am, despite her insistence on using whole-sign houses. ‘Tknow the odds are hopeless. But if 1 can take even a few of them asteroids with me, my life won't have been in vain.’ So saying he placed his hand upon the door- latch; she fell to the floor, arms clenched light around his knees, the rising waters of her tears threatening to to engulf them both. Wes the plot_of a thousand @, movies: a man’s gotta do what a man’s, gotta do, but he’s not so sure he wants, to go do it. That it is the plot of so ‘many movies is only because we cannot but recognise it as a portrayal of our internal conflicts. Or, because we are astrologers, we recognise in ita disquisition upon the table of dignities. “Fine philosophers distinguished between two levels of volition within us: will and desire. The will, the deeper level, that which our essence ‘wants, cannot but be towards the good. The desire, however, at the level of the self, has its own agenda, developing ideas of what is ‘good! that are often unhelpful. This we see with our sheriff: his will is to go do sheriff stuff; his desire is to stay with the lovely school-ma'am. However fine an {dea that in itself might be, it would prevent him doing what his sheriff- stuff essence has gotta do. We see the distinction in horary judgement. The desire asks the question, ‘I want xyz, will it happen?” What the will usually wants is not the desired outcome of the question, but the shambles that remains at the end, the shattering of the illusions created by desire. The desire is convinced it wants to be with the glamorous Fifi; the will wants only the salutary breaking of this illusion, The distinction is clear if we consider a dog. A dog will behave ina doggy way: as Chesterton observed, we might clap a man on the back and exhort him to be a man, but we do not need to clap a crocodile on the back and exhort him to be a crocodile. He cannot be otherwise. When we say that Fido is a good dog or a bad dog, this has nothing to do with how doggy he is being. When we call him a bad dog he is usually being more doggy than ever; we just don’t like it. We attempt to alter his will by creating in him a desire nature: his desire for a choc-drop is greater than his will to be doggy. So it is with the planets. The table of dignities shows how closely their desires accord with their will. As we have previously discussed, there is no such thing as a malefic planet: all are created good. But their operations can be malefic, because they act against their own true (and therefore good) nature. Even if they act according to their own nature, we may not like it. This is an important point in any judgement: the immediate context may render even the most dignified of planets malefic For example, Jupiter in Pisces is in principle as benefic as benefic gets. But if my horary question is ‘What will the weather be on my holiday? I will not regard the torrent of life-giving, redeeming sweet water that Jupiter in Pisces pours down on us as benefic. A planet’s will is to be what it is. To be its essence. To be the essentially good thing that it is. Mars wants to be Marsy; Venus to be Venusy, just as Fido wants to be Fido. Its receptions, however, show its desires in the here and now of the chart. These desires may or may not be congruent with its will. Consider Mars. The essential nature of Mars is for right action: doing what is right above the petty calls of the ego. From the farmer who eats bread in the sweat upon his brow to the soldier who goes over the top to his death, this is Mars. When Wild Bill Lilly straps on his six-guns he is Mars doing Mars stuff. Suppose Mars is in Aries. Mars is in a sign ruled by Mars. What do Mars’ desires value? Mars, Great! Let’s go do it. Don't think once, it’s all right, It exalts the Sun, so it values Sun-stuff most highly. Wild. Bill wouldn't go do what he's gotta do if he didn’t have truth on his side, It is in the detriment of Venus, whose principle is conciliation, to reach out and embrace. So Mars spurns the love offered him by the school-ma’am as he strides out to face the asteroids. Mars in Libra, however, is quite different. Its will, as always, is still to do Mars stuff, but its desire, as shown by the receptions, is for Venus things. Mars is in Libra, ruled by Venus. What does it value? Venus. In this case our hero is no longer heroic. ‘Don’t go out there my darling.” “OK, L love you too much. Ill stay home.’ Mars in Cancer, the sign of generation and corruption, Mars here is in both its triplicity and its fall. Its triplicity, in that generation aids our hero: ‘I'm gonna rid this town of asteroids to make it a safe place for Bill Junior to grow up in’. Its fall in that Bill Junior clinging to his daddy's knees is even more powerful a dissuasion from the noble cause than his momma doing the same. Consider Venus itself, whose will is to conciliate and embrace. As her exaltation in Pisces shows, this will is much favoured when her desire is turned to the expansiveness of Jupiter: ‘Wow, I love you all! Skin up another one, man.’ Compare this to how she shrivels when in Virgo, with her desire dominated by the urge to reason and articulate that is Mercury ‘Come to my arms, my darling! Ob, look at that blackhead on the end of your nose, And look, there’s another one...” We could atomize all seven planets in all their various placements, ‘but with these tools the reader does not need our assistance for this. The root is the way that planet’s desire facilitates or hinders the expression of the innate goodness that is its will. But while a planet is hindered when dominated by a desire contrary to its own nature, as is seen by its being in detriment or fall, the planets would not dwell in happy harmony even if all were in signs of their own major dignities. The lion might be a good lion, the lamb a good lamb; they would still have a fatal difference of opinion. Mars and Venus might sublimate their differences in the shared desire for Jupiter (both dignified in Pisces), but in this desire for expansion they would inevitably disdain nit-picking Mercury. Even that hypothetical nativity with all planets in their major dignities would not produce a life without conflict. That cannot be found by any balancing of the planets, ‘ut only by dwelling in God and transcending the whole squabbling bunch of them. DAY WORKSHOP THE APPRENTICE'S ANNUAL WORKSHOP IN DEN BOSCH 18 ON OCTOBER 1st. Subjects for 2005: Myth, Constellavions & Fixed Stars; Elerional serology Details from Oscar Hof oshofman@xsqallnt +31.(0)183.649405 ON THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE SOUL Which of us on hearing the police description of a wanted criminal has ever thought, ‘I've seen that man! It can be he and no other’? And which of us, on reading even the most detailed unnamed character- reading from a birthchart, would recognise with certainty our closest friend? I suspect none, no matter how skilled the astrologer or how laborious the techniques that might be used. ‘The natal reading ever resembles those five blind men investigating, an elephant, one feeling its leg and judging it the pillar of a mighty building, another holding its ear and thinking he holds the leaf of an enormous shrub, not one among them able to combine their perceptions to identify the beast. For all that even the most popular of Sunsign manuals can tell us our ears are giant leaves in so seductive a way that we gladly find ourselves reflected therein, even the most competent of personal readings presents us with a list of disparate characteristics, none specific to ourselves, with no hint of the elephant of which they each form a part. So where within the horoscope is the elephant? How do we catch it? How do we find that beast that is uniquely ‘me’? This is the search for the soul within the chart. As ever, if we are searching for something it is helpful to know what itis. ‘Soul’ is hardly a concept current within this determinedly secular world, for all that the astrologer is so often asked to locate a mate for it. In myth and scripture the soul is often pictured as a city. It is as such quite distinct from the countryside. This is not a peaceful spot in the landscape, or a place where we may feel relaxed or mildly euphoric: it is walled about and set apart. IL in, but not of, the surrounding landscape, the landscape that is the self. A city now rarely visited. The vital point for our present purpose is the distinction between this city and the countryside, between the soul and the self - a distinction which is most important to our astrology and to which we shall return below. For all that, my soul is what is truly ‘Me’, it is utterly distinct from all that 1 customarily regard as Me. It is one of the bizarre contradictions of the contemporary world that nurturing the soul is so often regarded, as is seen in any MBS bookshop, as ‘self-help’. From the soul’s point of view, helping the self is like selling ammunition to the enemy. The Children of Israel were instructed to annihilate the enemy tribes, not to teach them Vai chi, ‘The soul is something that we tend to find only in those precious moments of desolation, and we tend to leap away from it as quickly as we find it. The smart hotels all booked, we end up in the stable; yet we do all we can to wangle a room in the hotel. Our text on the formation of the soul is the Pentateuch. It describes the creation of the soul and gives the blueprint for its relationship with the self and the world.’ As we have so often stressed, those who limit their astrological study to books overtly on astrology will learn little beyond tricks of technique. Such books may teach us how to hold a spanner; they do not teach us how an engine works and therefore why we might wish to wield that spanner. For that information we must look elsewhere. ‘The book of Numbers gives a description of the camp of the Children of Israel, In the centre of the camp is the tabernacle, the place of communion with God, which tabernacle is served by the priests - the tribe of Levi. The four main tribes are camped one on each side of the tabernacle, Judah to the east, Reuben to the south, Dan to the north, Ephraim to the west. Each of these tribes is flanked by two other tribes. ‘The scriptures are silent on which of these tribes camps on which flank of its main tribe; perhaps non-scriptural tradition remembers, but this is not important for our present discussion. The camp thus has the arrangement with which we astrologers are so familiar. The Levites, in the central block, have no inheritance in the land: they are set apart as the channel between Man and Divine. This is the station of the soul, half in and half out of this world, with never an inheritance therein.’ ‘This is our clue. The trap in which we may catch this elephant is that bbox in the middle of the chart. But in the way we find charts handed down to us, that box has become no more than a convenient space to write the data on which the chart is set. If we want to catch an elephant in this pit, we do best not to clutter it with such lumber. So what should go in there? I this is the place of the soul, having but emptiness there is no help to us. If the arrangement of the tribes of Israel is our chart, there is a chart within the chart, for the scriptures tell of a further camping arrangement within that central space.* There is, as it were, a ‘soul-chart’ within the ‘usual chart. Within it, but not - it must be stressed - of it. This soul-chart is quite separate from the outer camp, from the chart as we know What is in this inner chart? William Lilly gives us the clue, When Lilly judges a Solar Return he treats Fortuna differently to modern practice. Rather than calculating the position of Fortuna (Asc+Moon-Sun) from the TA a CAE a TT to srptne ae not ute ooo mean to sgt tht hs 2 Mumbers 2. Sesto René Gufnon's dlscusson of this in his Fundamental Symbol, Quinta Esvemia, Cambridge, nds chap. Numbers 34-98 Return chart, he takes the arc of Fortuna in the nativity (anticlockwise distance from Sun to Moon) and extends this from the Ascendant of the Return chart. So if Fortuna in the nativity is 12 degrees anticlockwise from. Ascendant, Fortuna in the Return chart will be 12 degrees anticlockwise of the Return Ascendant.” ‘This does mean that Fortuna will always be in more or less the same place in each Return chart. No longer do we have it leaping around the chart from year to year. This might seem restrictive, limiting its scope. But no: as so often in astrology, less is more. Keep Fortuna within these tight bounds and it will speak eloquently on those rare occasions when something of true significance is happening in the life, as we can see by exact hits ‘onto house cusps and important aspects. What is not of tue significance ned not concern ws. The gm a. eae i ee ying to label Fortuna is Fi houres re eth like trying to catch the wind. We are dealing with a fish dwelling at a depth where a net spun only from words is of no use. One thing is clear: it has something to do with the soul level of the being. Ficino discusses it, albeit without mentioning it, describing it as Love, whose mother is Poverty and whose father is Plenty." Plenty is the Sun, who pours out endlessly his sustaining love towards us. Poverty is the Moon, who spends her life craving the light of the Sun, her poverty visible in that chunk missing from her full disc. Even when for but an instant she is replete, at Full, her poverty instantly returns. Fortuna, made from the Sun and the Moon, is this Love. That is why it is seen as the “weasure’ within the chart: that pearl of great price for which a man sells, all that he has. The current formulation within our workshop, by which we attempt to weave a net sturdy enough to catch her, but never shall, is that Fortuna in a nativity is where the native believes the springs of living water flow. He may be wrong, and will be forever disappointed as he drinks there and quickly thirsts again. Or perhaps that is the nature of the soul, forever © See Civisvian Astrology, pp, 783-829, The germ ofthis article came in a conversation with Dave Roe, whose new editon of Christian Astrology a wel a hat of ther clase texts much To be commended. Available from wor. astroamertesom Commentary on Plato's Symposum, Speech banging its head against a particularly sensitive spot in our make-up. However poor may be our attempts to describe Fortuna, the important fact for this discussion is that, in being determined by a matrix, of points within the chart, it is clearly not in that chart in the same way as those points, the planets, from which its position is ascertained. It is easy, but too simple, to say that Fortuna is ‘the soul within the chart. This formulation has something of truth in it, but Fortuna is not the soul itself: itis the doorway that leads us to the soul. But if we want a quick snapshot of what the soul is, Fortuna will do. As such, Lilly’s method of taking the arc of natal Fortuna (= the soul) and projecting this from the Return Ascendant (= the reality of this time and place) is asking ‘What is this soul going to experience in the reality of this year?’ Usually the answer will be, ‘Not much’. The Return Fortuna, as cast from the natal arc, is not closely involved in any celestial action. Much as our clients may resent it, in their craving for life in the fast lane, the usual answer to ‘What will happen next year?” is inevitably ‘Not much’ But when something of true significance does arise, we will usually find that this natal arc Fortuna is emphasised within the Return chart. Let us now call the natal Sun/Moon arc, as applied to the Return chart, Natal Arc Fortuna, which can be abbreviated to “NA Fortuna’. We shall be dealing with other such Parts below, and shall refer to them as the NA Part of xyz. Lilly's method was not without its critics. Gadbury, for one, disagrees with him, and we do not suggest that Lilly invented the idea. But he has given us the vital clue. The idea that there is something that remains constant from year to year, with the events of the life playing upon it, and that this something is of a different, deeper, level suggests that this, something might be of profounder importance than the planets that play about it. ‘This gives the hint to what is contained within the empty box in the centre of the chart, this place of no inheritance in the land. We calculate Arabian Parts from the planets, and therefore assume that the Parts are derived from the planets. This is false logic. Consider: we find bloodstains and we find fingerprints. From this we deduce who dunnit. This does not ‘mean that the bloodstains and the fingerprints created the murderer. The murderer created the bloodstains and the fingerprints. So our calculation of Arabian Parts from the formula planet A + planet B does not mean that planets A and B create that Part We have got this the wrong way round. I suggest that the reality is the reverse of our assumption: it is the Arabian Parts that create the positions of the planets. The planets derive from the Parts, not the Parts from the planets. ‘This means that within the central box of the chart we have an arrangement of Arabian Parts. This arrangement is, as it were, the chart of the soul itself. This soul-chart then creates the external chart with which we are so familiar. Being the chart of the soul which is born into the life, this pattern remains static throughout the life, with the unfolding arrangements of planets in Return charts and progressions playing upon it. ‘This is entirely congruent with that crucial astrological statement, Plato's ‘Myth of Er. In the myth the soul waiting to be born selects a life. It then carries this life to the Fates, who check their ephemeris to find the time and place at which the celestial spheres are aligned in the way that will produce the personality necessary for the living of that chosen life, and then check the Returns and progressions to confirm that the life will unfold as ordered. In our terms, the soul has its own chart (the life its nature has led it to choose) and is born at the one time and place that will enable it to live out that life (the positions of the birthchart therefore deriving from its own inner chart). This is why the arrangement of Parts remains static through all the return charts: the soul remains as it is, with, the life unfolding around it and impacting upon it. ‘The distinction between the inner chart (Parts) and the outer chart (planets) is of the utmost importance. We tend to assume the boundary of ‘me’ is more or less the same as the boundary of my body. That is where ‘me’ ends and the world begins. This boundary is, for ‘me’, the most important boundary there is. But this is not so. The important boundary is, the one between the inner and the outer chart - the boundary between ‘my. soul’ and everything else in the world, including most or all of what I usually regard as ‘me’, On the one side we have the soul, on the other we have the self and everything in the world. From the soul’s point of view, the self and the world are the same. This is why we can read both the nature of the self and the events of the life, including the other people and. external occasions in that life, from the birthchart. It would be a most useful addition to astrological software to be able to incorporate this inner chart, especially in Return charts. If we wish to construct this central chart, the starting point is the seven key Parts, ‘the Fortunes of the Seven Planets’ as given by al-Biruni: Fortune: Asc + Moon - Sun. Spirit: Ase + Sun - Moon Love: Asc + Spirit - Fortune Despair: Ase + Fortune - Spirit Captivity Asc + Fortune - Saturn Victory Asc + Jupiter - Spirit Blom of the Art of Astro, pases 476-979. Valour: Asc + Fortune - Mars Neither reason nor experience supports the common practice of reversing the formula for Fortuna in night charts; our reader is urged not to do this. If Fortuna is not to be reversed, nor should any of the Parts that derive from it. Seven Parts: one per planet. But although Venus and Mercury have Parts associated with them - Love, of course, for Venus and Despair for Mercury (the connection of Mercury and despair is discussed below) - neither planet appears in the list of formulae. Paul of Alexandria gives alternative formulae for these Parts: Love: Ase + Venus- Spirit Necessity (Despair): Asc + Fortune - Mercury ‘These will henceforth be referred to as ‘Paul Parts’, Although this produces, ‘a pleasing sense of conformity in the list, it is more important that the meaning of the Part is conveyed than that we provide each planet with a useful task. Experience so far is that the Paul Parts are well worth noting, but seem not quite so important as al-Biruni’s. Note that the benefic planets are associated with the Part of Spirit in these formulae, the malefics, among whom we must include Mercury, with Fortuna. Other Parts can be included as necessary, depending upon the nature of the investigation. Al-Biruni grumbles that more Parts are being invented every day. He gives a select list of the 97 most commonly in use. This selection, however, seems far too extensive, many of these Parts being of the most dubious validit ‘The connection between inner and outer charts is not as simple as ‘Part of Courage creates Mars’, by a simple reversal of the equation from Asc + Fortuna - Mars = Part of Courage to Asc + Fortuna - PoC = Mars, We are complex creatures, so this is a complex web. The Parts may be likened to the pins around which lace is made: examine the pattern of the lace (the arrangement of the planets in the chart) and you can see where the pins must have been in order to produce that pattern. The significance of Fortuna has been discussed above. Digressing briefly, we can point the importance of the Part of Vocation: same formula as Fortuna, but extended from the MC rather than the Ascendant. The MC ‘being the place of action, this tells us how the soul is called to act. Paul of Alexandria gives this as the Part of Kingship, with the sense of the king being called to his position. The Part of Spirit is the reverse arc to that of Fortuna: the clockwise distance from Sun to Moon as Fortuna is the anticlockwise. Between the two of them, these arcs complete the circle, giving an astrological statement of the divine marriage of spirit and soul, of Christ and His Church. That this is Pars Solis, the Part of the Sun, shows, the Moon shining only by the Sun’s light, that this, the spirit, creates the soul, although from our perspective it seems and it is true to say that spirit is engendered in and born of the soul. It is also the Part of Abundance in the House, the Sun being the Lord of Life, abundantly sustaining. ‘The Part of Love is the Venus Part, although Venus appears only in Paul's version of the formula. It is the anticlockwise arc from Fortuna to Spirit. It is Love because the two wish to be united, so the distance between them produces the desire for conciliation. The clockwise arc gives the Part of Despair. Making between them a full circle, these arcs xive different views of the same experience. Anticlockwise, moving in the direction of the signs, the gap between soul and spirit produces love, the desire to bridge that gap, with hope and faith that it can be bridged. The clockwise arc, moving in the direction of the primary motion which is the product of the Earth’s rotation on its axis, produces the Earth-bound emotion of despair, which cannot believe that the distance between soul and spirit is bridgeable. This is the soul’s weeping at being trapped within the world. The two arcs can also be seen as the soul’s dual nature: one side longing to return to the Divine, the other eager for the experiences of incarnation. This is why Despair is the Mercury Part, called by Paul ‘Necessity" and also known as ‘Buying and Selling’. It is the chafing against the inevitable limitations of incarnation, especially the constant need for choice. Eager though the soul may be for the experiences of incarnation, it finds them insupportable. I love my cow, but I love your money more. So I will sell, you my cow, What I really want is both my cow and your money, but within this mortal coil I cannot have both. This constant weighing, this ‘compromise of the ideal, is Mercury That this Part of Love does not include Venus in its formulation - remembering that this formula is only our attempt to retrace the path - is, ‘no omission. For it is not in the happy games of astrological Snap that we call synastry, but in the space between soul and spirit that love dwells. Captivity is the Saturn Part, its nature much like that of the twelfth house. Despair is the necessary anguish of life; Captivity is the anguish we bring upon ourselves by our own foolishness. Sin. This Part is called Nemesis: the just retribution for bad actions, hence ‘captivity’, The internal captivity to sin being of more significance than the external captivity from it. But itis also Escape from Captivity: the doorway into sin opens both way’. Another name for this Part is Those Who Rise in Station, a the rising in station being the material reflection of being lifted out of the mire Victory is the Jupiter Part. This has little if anything, though, to do with who wins battles, football matches or court cases. The Part of Success (Asc+Jupiter-Fortuna) is for that. The Part of Victory involves Spirit rather than Fortuna, giving us a profounder victory: this is where grace drops into our life. Courage is the Mars Part. This is concerned with the capacity for right action, eschewing the petty demands of ego, of greatness of soul. Doing what should be done whether it serves one’s immediate interests or not. These Parts, and perhaps others, make up the architecture of the soul. One level of meaning within the story of Israel's entry to the Promised Land is the soul’s entry into life, this land of milk and honey which we inhabit. The Promised Land is held by seven tribes - and as astrologers whenever we hear the number 7 our ears prick up: there is only one 7 as there is only one 12 - all 7s refer us to the planets, the 3 of Divinity and the 4 of matter in extension. Israe! is forbidden to dally with these tribes, but must gradually defeat them and drive them out in order to possess the land itself. This cannot be done at one fell swoop: God explains that if the tribes were evicted before Israel was strong enough to take over, the land would become a wilderness, inhabited only by wild beasts.’ The soul must be gradually strengthened to fit it for the task. This gives usa very different picture of what we consider to be our birthchart. These planets, no matter how nice they may appear to be, are now a challenge and no longer the ‘Aren't I fascinating?’ with which we are so familiar.” So much for the theory, Does the idea work? None of the astrological methods used in our workshop is tested on animals, so, fortified only by a glass of old Seth’s parsnip wine, I fearlessly volunteered to be the guinea-pig. The application of this method to my chart was surprisingly painless and produced excellent results, with no noticeable side-effects, Return charts for years of major significance highlighted the pertinent NA Parts (natal arc Parts cast from Return Ascendant) There will be objections from those of ‘None of our methods statistical bent. By casting these NA Parts ina Return [[Link] animals ‘Faahs,aga990 ‘Sohn Cassian, whom Aquinas found so ineshaustbly valuable, is interesting on this See Conference V. hapter 16. This can be found om www osb or/lects/castan chart we are introducing numerous additional points, Perhaps we are suffering from asteroid fever - that delirium which throws 3000 points at a chart and finds significance when one or two of them hit a planet. No. First, the Parts that are highlighted are exactly those we should expect to bbe highlighted. Second, the number of NA Parts is the same as the number of Parts in the nativity and as the number of Parts cast for the Return chart itself. When there is a major event in the life, the NA Parts are hit significantly more than either the natal positions or the Return’s own, Parts. Remembering that casting these NA Parts in a Return chart is asking,

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