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Astrology
by Hand Week 19
Language
and Nature, Magic and Astrology
In the last
weeks I have been showing how language seems to be inherent in consciousness,
and how we also see signs of language in nature. Now, in connection with
this, let me refer again to natural magic, which I discussed several weeks
ago. In that
column, I said that natural magic, the “study of the magical
effects of natural things,” was perhaps not supernatural.
While I stand
by what I said there, natural magic could be a manifestation of a language
of nature. By this I mean that the occult properties, or virtues, of natural
objects such as stones and minerals, plants and other natural objects,
are not so much physical properties like mass, density, color, size, etc.
as they are vehicles through which something is communicated to us by
nature, whatever nature may be. (This is in fact one of the issues that
I am working on here, what nature is.)
And here
is the kicker. Insofar as astrology is only the reading of the virtues
of the planets as they are combined in a natal chart (and astrology properly
done is more than that), astrology can be considered a form of natural
magic. And when one goes beyhond simply “reading” and works with the virtues
of the planets in the chart, and the soul of the individual whose chart
is being read, one may be considered as moving from something that is
purely natural magic to something that is more like magic in general,
the art of bringing about changes in consciousness in conformity with
the will.
Language,
Active and Passive
In language,
we have two ways of being involved: we can receive (read or listen) and
we can transmit (write or speak). Usually it’s a mix. Often, astrology
is used merely to receive or listen: “What do the planets say?” Again,
when we delineate a natal chart or simply read a horary chart, we are
reading-receiving. When magic is performed, the practitioner not only
to some extent reads or listens, he or she speaks or writes. The practitioner
in some manner transmits virtues in a language of some kind and attempts
to bring about change through the transmission.
This difference
between active transmission and passive reception is one of the apparent
differences between magic and astrology. But is it? Is astrology purely
a passive reading? We have already seen that it isn’t. We give our clients
advice on how to deal with the circumstances that astrology signifies
in their lives. We may give them advice on timing to make things work
out in the best possible manner, and we may give advice on what persons
to associate with, or not, that will best bring out a growth-oriented
experience of the times. And we may even suggest changes in the client’s
awareness that will cause him or her to experience the situation very
differently than he or she might otherwise, and in a manner calculated
to bring about growth and self-realization. Is this not bringing about
change both in consciousness and in conformity with the will?
How is this,
in the best sense of the term magic, different from magic? Astrology may
even be abused like magic. Several times in the history of astrology astrologers
have been persecuted, not because what they did was considered charlatanry,
but because they gave people advice on how to overthrow a king, emperor,
pope, etc. by the use of astrological timing. It was a crime against the
state for unauthorized persons to cast charts of a Roman emperor.
Astrology’s
Survival and Magic’s Downfall
This heading
is of course a bit bogus because schools of magic are alive and well,
but it is true that astrology has survived much more nearly intact, and
as a continuous tradition, than most schools of magic. Perhaps it is because
astrology managed to create for itself the illusion that it was different
from magic and purely a passive receiver of the information that was read
in the chart. If this is true, which I think it is (but that is another
argument for another time), then the modern practice of assisting the
client to become more self-determining through the use of astrological
timing and understanding may actually be a return to the combination of
astrology and magic that was so much more the case in olden times.
If the reader
objects that psychology is being used and not magic, I ask the reader
to consider again Dion Fortune’s definition of magic. Except for the crudest
and most mechanistic types of psychology, such as behaviorism, the connections
between psychology and traditional forms of magic and occult practice
have long been noted, especially by Jung. And, yes, I do know that there
are differences between psychology and traditional forms of magic, but
I would like the reader to entertain the similarities for the moment.
There are two most important ones: Magic and psychology are both methods
for changing consciousness in conformity with the will, and they have
both explored and come to similar conclusions about symbolism and how
different things are connected through symbolism. This is especially apparent
in Jung.
Next week,
we will examine some of the differences between astrology and magic.
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