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Astrology by Hand Week 26
The
Dialogue Between Heaven and Earth Continued
Last
week, I mentioned the curious historical parallels between
the images of the constellations as set forth by Ptolemy and the other
Greeks, and events in history as the solstitial and equinoctial points
passed through them. I am sure that a devout skeptic would try with considerable
effort to shoot this whole idea full of holes, but, as I said last week,
there are many of these correlations. And the remarkable fact is that
the timing has been so good. In most astrological phenomena, we are happy
if we have events correlating with astrological indications within a degree
or so. These historical correlations have coincided with the solstitial
and equinoctial passes within 5 minutes of arc or less. We have to remember
that the rate of precession is 50.25 seconds of arc per year, so a difference
of ten years or less, corresponds to an arc of about 8 minutes or less.
Okay! But
this may seem to be no more extraordinary than any other astrological
correlation, more or less reasonable to students of astrology, and completely
incredible to skeptics! But let’s look at this again. Planets are clearly
not human creations. The zodiac, it can be argued, may reflect in some
stylized way the changes of the Earth and biosphere as it goes around
the Sun. But the constellations are clearly human creations. Each culture
has its own images, and the ancients were very much aware that the Egyptians
and Babylonians had different ones than the Greeks, although the three
cultures merged their constellational systems somewhat into the one described
by Ptolemy.
There are
some constellational patterns that can be found common to many cultures.
These are the patterns that are very suggestive to the eye. But most of
the constellations vary considerably from culture to culture. Yet these
creations of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern cultures seem in turn
to have “influenced,” or at least correlated with, the history of these
cultures. Something very strange is going on here.
The
Creation of Languages of Nature
I do not
have the space here to work out all of the logic of what I am about to
say, but it seems to go something like this: 1) The human mind operating
collectively at the cultural level strains to see or to read something
in nature. 2) In so doing, it sends out something like a signal to what
I will refer to as a “cosmic mind” (nous). What it sends is the understanding
of what it needs to see or read in order to arrive at understanding. 3)
The human mind and the cosmic mind enter into a dialogue, and together
create a language of symbols that the human mind can understand and that
are formulated in terms of appearances in nature. This process takes place
at an unconscious level. 4) This symbolic language then becomes the vehicle
by which the human mind reaches its understanding about nature and its
position within it.
A key point!
Such a “language” is not an objectively “real” entity. It exists only
within the dialogue of humanity and nature in a specific cultural and
historical context. Different cultures and different times will create
different languages, and these languages will vary in terms of what they
can convey and how well. There raises an interesting question. Is the
very mathematics that lies at the heart of our sciences such a language?
Quite possibly, although it is clearly one of the more effective ones.
Languages
of Nature as Magic
So what we
have here is a colossal magical act. At least the constellations of ancient
astrology are a creation of the human mind that have in turn become capable
of affecting, or at least symbolizing, human history. Is the rest of astrology
and all of the divinatory arts any different in this respect? Probably
not! We and the universe together create these elaborate systems, and
they gain a kind of reality, one that can have considerable impact upon
our lives. These systems have no reality apart from the mind, and yet
at the same time are “real.” They are also not arbitrary. This is not
an “anything goes” situation. Every system of this kind has to have support
and resonance both within the human mind and within nature. There can
be many such systems, and many variations within each, but it is not true
that any arbitrary creation will work.
What makes
such a system work? I believe that the evidence shows that the most effective
systems grow very slowly over time. And they have strong roots within
a culture. Any system that is too divorced from the basic beliefs of a
culture will not work for that culture. We do not just look at nature
and let it impress us with its truths. We are active co-creators with
nature, and we create languages in cooperation with nature that then become
powerful forces in our lives and civilizations. Therefore, astrology and
its kindred studies are not only related to magic, they are the result
of the most powerful kind of magic that can be produced, the magic of
an entire culture. This is much more powerful than any magic an individual
can perform.
Next week
I will start a new series of articles on astrology and its traditions.
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