THE
LIFE AS LEARNING
Introduction. General plan of ancient astral religions.
The life as school, the existence as learning.
Beyond the common experience: karma
and genetics. Notes.
Recommended readings. Commented
readings.
Besides to explain the
character and destiny of the individual, Astrology has gone always further on,
because of its condition several times millenarian, coming from the epochs in
which Science, Religion and Philosophy constituted an unique corpus of human
knowledge and experience. In spite
of jewellery astrological commercial of present times and to the prattlers that
always have taken advantage of it, Astrology has conserved some essences of
symbolic and mystical character, which survived to fashions and ephemeral
tendencies of diverse historical moments; here
we are one of its specialties, Karmic Astrology, dealing with previous
existences. We really enter here in a slippery realm and we must be cautious,
but there is no doubt it is attractive and interesting.
Astrology constitutes the
only branch of human knowledge that is had bold to approach the problem of our
destiny, as much individual as collective, in a rational way; further on
opinions, failures and errors, Astrology is the only made attempt to clarify
this problem, that there is no doubt interests and can be useful to everybody.
When dealing with the terms
of human life, we have to return to make some questions that already we have
been made previously: which is the
object of the man existence? And
the classic ones of whom we are? From where come we? To where we go? To solve
these enigmas already were applied the philosophers of Plato’s Academy, whom
motto was “know you yourself”.
In spite of passed
centuries humankind follows asking ourselves same questions; to solve them is a
personal option that nobody can do for others nor communicate the answer in
objective terms, if we find the solution. So
in this article we will glance to the astral character of ancient religions and
to its scatology, intimately bound to astrological cosmology; finally we will
approach the problem of why we are here, and how Astrology is a powerful tool
that contributes to orient us in the labyrinth of the life, the interpretation
of the astral chart of birth and its directions.
General plan of ancient
astral religions
Between 5000 b.C. and the
beginning of ours Era arose (mainly in
Western Europe,
Which was its function?
Religious, scatological, astronomical? Much has been speculated on it,
growing the imagination of some authors. The
advances of modern Arqueoastronomy allow us to step on a more surely ground than
some years ago. About
Since in many of these
structures have been found rest of interments, we could suppose that the funeral
use was one of the reasons for its construction.
But also there are interments in most of old Christian churches, and they
were not only built for this aim. The
religious element had to be another motivation, but the evidences also suggest
astronomical factors. It does not
have to be so strange after stating that religion and observation of the sky are
intermingled in certain stages of human cultural development.
Juan Antonio Belmonte and
an interdisciplinary team of astronomers and archaeologists has studied recently
the orientation of more than 300 dolmens in
.. with very little
exceptions (only
When the scholars analyze
with more detail the subject find a statistical distribution of orientations,
but almost always within the rank of sunrises and moonrises. Some watch with
approach enough the equinox, others to the summer solstice, others to the one of
winter. Were they elevated thus only by astronomical reasons?
One notable dolmen that has
conserved is the one of Newgrange, in
The sense of these
orientations can be clarified if we glance towards the ancient religious
doctrines as metempsicose or the transmigration of souls. We found in the
The platonic story alludes
to the Milky Way as the great stellar river which must cross the souls in his
transit of the Earth to the Sky and vice versa:
After each one of these
souls had passed seven days in this prairie, they left to the eighth, and in
four days of journey they arrived at a point from which a light was seen that
crossed the sky and the Earth, straight line like a column and resemblance to
Iris, but more purer and brilliant [ the Milky Way ]. They arrived at this light
after another day of journey. They saw there that the extremities of the sky
came to stop to the center of this light, that served to him as bow and embraced
all the circumference of the sky, more or less like those wood pieces which they
fit the flanks of the galleys and they maintain all the armour.
Of these extremities is hung the bobbin of the Necessity, which gave
impulse to all celestial revolutions (3)
The Milky Way, in fact our
Galaxy, crosses the sky through and cuts the ecliptic - the annual trajectory of
the Sun - by the constellation of Sagitarius in one of its ends, and between
Orion and Gemini by the other, near the constellation of Cancer.
In ancient cosmologies the world renews with the multiple conjunction of
planets in Cancer (destruction by the fire) or in Capricorn (deluge).
Seneca transmits the doctrine in Natural
Questions:
Beroso, the interpreter
of Belo, attributes to planets the cause of these imbalances. And also dares to assign the date of the conflagration and
the universal deluge. Everything
what is earthy, continues Beroso, will be burnt when the stars, whom follow
different ways now, all of them meet in the sign of Cancer and placed in
straight line [ conjunction]... The
deluge will also take place when these same planets arrive at the sign of
Capricorn (4)
We see in addition the
origin to these doctrines, Beroso, the figure that incarnated the transmission
of the Chaldean scientific knowledge to the Greeks.
But if this intersection between the Zodiac and the Milky Way is
important in the cycles of the terrestrial world, it is not less in relation to
spiritual cosmology. The great
celestial river of light and stars was considered by ancient mythologies (all of
them of astral origin) as one of its main symbols (Chinese, Japanese, Nordic,
Greek, Egyptian, etc.). Acheron is
the great river that cross the souls; Macrobius, like Plato, thinks that these
come from the Milky Way and to it they return after the physical death (5)
The
Christian transference of these beliefs is the Way of Santiago as terrestrial
pilgrimage, projection of the celestial pilgrimage of the souls in the Great
Beyond ("Way of Santiago " is the Spanish popular astronomical term of
the Milky Way).
In the intersection of the
great star river with the trajectory of the Sun, Moon and planets, we found the
guardians who watch the transit of the souls;
in one of its ends, both celestial Dogs, Canis
Maior (Sirius) and Canis Minor (Procyon).
We have other similar guardians dogs in the equinoctial points and the beginning
and end of the day: Ortros (sunrise-Aries)
and Kerberos (sunset and the sign of Libra).
In the other end of the
Milky Way we will see Sagitarius, the centaur that sends its arrow, sometimes
forwards (the future), or backwards (the past).
Its christianized version is Santiago Horseman and perhaps Saint Georges;
both go in aid of the Christians during some critical moments (appearances in
Clavijo and
The belief in the survival
of some part of the man after the death is general in all religions; and
therefore in a dynamic principle which hides itself to the senses and is the
more essential part of the being (ba
and ka of the Egyptians, psiqué and nous between
the Greeks, " soul " and " spirit " for the Christianity,
etc.). But also in the astral
religions of the Antiquity (all of they were it at that time) there was a common
plan for that human part that he survives to the body:
its natural place of existence is in the Heavens.
From them it comes before being born and to them it returns after dying.
On the exit and front doors
by which the souls in their passage of the Earth to the Sky journey and vice
versa, let see what says on the matter Réné Guenon in Symbols
of Sacred Science:
Since we have said, the
two zodiacal doors, of entrance and exit of the " cosmic cavern ",
that certain traditions designate as the " door of the men " and the
" door of the Gods " must correspond to both solstices. We must point out now that the first corresponds to the
summer solstice, that is to say, to the sign of Cancer, and the second a the
winter solstice, that is, to the sign of Capricorn.
In order to understand why, is necessary to consider the division of the
annual cycle in two halves, the one " ascending " and the other "
descendent ": the first is the period of the course of the Sun towards the
north (uttarâyana), that goes from the winter solstice to the one of summer;
the second is the way of the Sun towards the south (dakshinâyana), that goes
from the summer solstice to the one of winter.
In the Hindu tradition, the " ascending phase " is in relation
to dêva-yâna and " the descendent " phase with pitri-yâna. This fit
perfectly with the denominations that we have just remembered:
the "door of the men" is the one that comes into the pitri-yâna
and the " door of the Gods " is the one that comes into the dêva-yâna...
.. According to the
correspondence of the temporary symbolism with the space symbolism of the
cardinal points, the winter solstice is in certain way the North Pole of the
year, and the solstice of summer its South Pole, whereas both equinoxes, the one
of spring and the one of autumn, correspond respectively, and of analogous way,
to the East and the West. In the
Vedaic symbolism, nevertheless, the door of dêva-loka is located to the
northeast, and the one of pitri-loka to the southwest.
(6)
We see clearly indicated
the sign of Capricorn as dêva-loka (place or dwelled of Gods) in the Hindu
religion. Through that door the
souls raised towards skies after the death, whereas in the sign of Cancer is the
door through they lowered to the Earth (pitri-loka, place or dwelled of men).
To consider the existence
of front doors between the Heaven and the Earth can be strange to us, and more
even now than the man has stepped on the Moon and arrived with his space probes
at some bodies of the Solar System. But
we can see other many doors in the sky, even many windows, in the Book of Henoc:
This is the first commandment of
the luminaries: The Sun is a luminary whose egress is an opening of heaven,
whichi is (located) in the direction of the east, and whose ingress is (another)
opening of heaven, (located) in the west. I saw six openings through which the
sun rises and six openings through which it sets. The Moon also rises and sets
through the same openings, and they are guided by the stars; together with those
whom they lead, they are six in the west heaven. All of them (are arranged) one
after another in a constant order. There are many windows (both) to the left and
the right of these openings…
By this forth gate through which the Sun rises during the first month
there are twelve open windows from which a flame flows, when they are opened at
the appropriate time… (7)
So that there is a correspondence between those doors and the 12 signs of
the Zodiac, and in a similar way, the 12 windows of each door (sign) are the
" dodecatemories " of Greek Astrology (division of each sign in 12
equal parts). But the term "
door " and " window " goes further on;
it indicates a transit, a separation. It was assumed that the stars, when
rising by the East, ascended of the inferior world (night, death, symbolically)
and recovered their light, and therefore its power; when setting by the West
they returned to lose its light happening to the inferior world. From there the
analogies of the day with the active-masculine-heat-conscience-life and of the
night with the passive-feminine-cold-unconscious-death;
of the dawn and the Eastern horizon with the birth, the spring and Aries,
first sign of the Zodiac; of the
evening twilight and the western horizon with the death, the autumn and the
zodiacal sign of Libra.
The apses of Christian
temples are always oriented towards the East, in accordance with this symbolic
criterion. We can see the
explanation by Origins, in the Treaty of
the Oration:
Since there are four
cardinal points, the north, the noon, the West and the east, who would not
recognize immediately that the east shows evidently that we must pray towards
that side, which is symbol of the soul watching towards the appearance of the
true Light? (8)
We can see the relation of
the West with the death and Libra in the same symbol of the zodiacal sign, the
balance with which Anubis, the God jackal headed, weighs the souls of dead in
the Egyptian religion, in presence of Thot, that writes down the result. Scene
that will see christianized in the figure of Saint Michael, that next to Satan
disputes the souls of the deads to lead it to the Sky or Hell. Saint Michael, we do not forget, is celebrated it in
September 29th, just when the Sun has got to the sign of Libra.
Therefore, in the
cosmologies of the Antiquity we have the inferior world, the Earth, where the
souls incarnated live in their material bodies for a time.
Encircle it, they are concentric and transparent spheres (skies or
planetary cars) that drag with it the corresponding wandering star (planet); in
the hermeticism this system is called Hebdomada, governed each one by the
corresponding Arconts. The nearest
to the Earth sphere is the one of the Moon, and the most moved away that of
Saturn. The most external sphere is
the one of fixed stars, with the Zodiac as main influential band (Ogdoada),
where are located the choir of the Gods surrounded by the souls, divinities and
angels. The Eneada constitutes the
extraworld, a power superior to all the rest. When the human body dies the soul
returns to his natural place, the world of the immutable Gods (the most external
sphere, Empyreal Sky), if it has deserved it his behavior in the terrestrial
transit. In the opposite case they come down to the Hell, a terrible place.
Those that they raise to the Sky must cross the planetary spheres and experience
in this transit a previous purification, washing themselves of all passions that
have adhered to them in their terrestrial existence.
We can see this transit
through the 7 spheres in the Egyptian Book
of dead, in the Chapter of the Doors (Arits), that are 7, each one with its
guardian and his herald. We know
that the initial text was not work of Libyan, neither of Semite nor African
center; we must look for its origin in Asia, maybe in
We find the description of
the passage of the souls through the 7 planetary spheres in Plato’s Republic, at the end of Book X, in the latest and elaborated astral
religion than was the Gnosticism, and also in the hermeticism. These flows of
thought influenced remarkably in the development of Christian theology, for that
reason we find parchments of the centuries X and XI in which it can be seen the
souls travelling through the planetary spheres in their way towards Jesus-Christ,
who presides over the cosmological scheme in the more elevated zone.
By mystic-intuitive way Santa Teresa de Ávila had to arrive at that same
knowledge, because she also bases in seven the number of "dwelled" of
the human soul (inner castle).
The hermetic texts tell
about explicitly:
.. in the first place,
when the material body dies, it deliveries to alteration;
the figure that you have returns invisible and you trust to the demon
your inert dwelled. On the other hand, the sensorial faculties of the body,
return again to their sources, becoming parts and restoring themselves for their
activities. Whereas the wrath and
the desire move away towards the irrational nature.
And thus, the rest, rises
towards the heights, happening through the armour of the spheres:
In the first belt it leaves
the activity to increase or to diminish.
In the second, the
machination of badness, ineffective deceit.
In the third, the already
inactive fraud of desire.
In the quarter, the
manifestation of the anxiety for the power, already lacking of ambition.
In the fifth, the impious
boldness and the recklessness of shamelessness.
In the sixth, the squalid
resources of acquisition of wealth, already useless.
In the seventh belt,
the lie that tends traps.
It arrives then at the
ogdoadic nature, undressed of the effects of the armour, and therefore only with
his own power. And, with all the
beings, it sings hymns to the father and everybody rejoice with their coming.
It hears then, already equal to his companions, to certain powers over
the ogdoadic nature, that sing hymns to God with sweet voice. They come to the
point, with arrangement, to presence of the father, trust to themselves to the
powers and, becoming powers, they are in God.
So it is the happy consumation of that they have knowledge, being
divinized (9)
The same was affirmed in
the Gnosticism, although we only have notice about it by means of its Christian
detractors:
In his journey from the
Pleroma to the inferior world and return, the Son of the Man crosses seven
planetary skies and, in agreement with the gnóstico subject, it is not
recognized by the arconts that governs each sky, as either by men (10)
The christianization of the
pagan cosmological scheme only consisted of putting Christ in substitution of
the gnostic Pleroma or Anima mundi of
Plato and the cabbalists (the most moved away part of the Earth, the most
spiritual).
In Against
Celsum Origins speaks of the " password " that the soul must give
to the arcont guardian of each sphere so that this one lets it pass to the
following one (11) This
more or less long transition of the soul through the planetary spheres will
happen to catholic orthodoxy with the name of Purgatory.
The children are a separate case, because they have not still completed
his evolution in the world, have not still updated all the inner planetary
levels (inner skies).
According to these
doctrines, if the soul of the adult is purified or belongs to an " initiate
" does not tune the levels of the planetary spheres;
it has sublimated the earthy passions and it passes off through in his
transit towards the superior sky, towards the Pleroma.
For some gnostics sects Christ never came to the Earth, it is a spiritual
entity not subjected to the government of the planetary spheres, and that is the
goal that must gain the disciple.
The basic aim of these
astral religions was to kill the dragoon,
that is, to break the subjection to the cycles (objective world) and to escape
to the resonance with the planetary spheres (passions) and to elude the
succession of ascents and descents of the Sky to the Earth, remaining definitely
in the former. This is equivalent to the astrological idea that " the wise
person can dominate the stars " and escape to its action, while the fool
remains wandering to the hazardous fate that he deserves.
From here the necessity for everybody to know the personal horoscope and
the usefulness of its interpretation in the eurasiatic traditional cultures.
We can see the concept
symbolized in the legend of Saint Georges, the Christian hero who is able to
kill the dragoon (dragoon=Moon=cycle, to kill the slavery of the cycles, to
escape of them and to gain the sky, the eternity, the spiritual world).
Returning to the
orientations of the megaliths mentioned previously:
if the interpretation that we have given is correct, the relation between
Religion and Astronomy would come from much more back in the time that the one
of the astral cults of the
In the beginning of the Age
of Bronze, at the end of III millenium b.C., there was a change in the
orientation of megalithics constructions towards the SW. (12)
This
is the case of the Romeral’s cave, in Antequera (Malaga), with the more long
corridor of Europe. If we realize
that is at this point where sets the Sun when comes the winter solstice, we have
the same explanation that in the previous cases, only that here is reinforced
the analogy with the eschatological subject (sunset, fade away of the light,
death).
From about 2500 b.C.
flourished one of the older protourbans civilizations of Europe, the one of Los
Millares, with its main site in the
A creative and constructive
action was attributed therefore to the stars (cosmological), for that reason in
Astrology this action has tried to be explained itself (planetary aspects)
relating the planet positions in the circle and the concrete proportions that
determine on it with the notes of the musical scale (harmony in physical-mathematician
sense).
Due to this cosmological
attribution, as much the fixed stars as the wanderers (planets) were considered
Gods and they were worshipped at the ample sabea period. This influenced
markedly the later religions, including Christianity, an influence that has
arrived until the present world.
We find a support to these
affirmations in linguistics: an
Indo-European root exists, * dy, that means " to shine ". From this
root come several Greek, Latin and sanscrits words. From this root comes, among
others, the Latin dies (the " day
", when the light shines); Iuppiter
(father of light, dieu-pater), and
mainly deus (* deyvo-s, the " God").
Therefore Deus (God) comes from the verb " to shine ".
After all, in the ancient mentality, the Gods are the lights that shine
in the sky; to its light and its
heat will be attributed the influence that the stars exert on the Earth in the
astrological doctrine of all the times (14)
The life as school, the
existence as learning
We have already dealt about
the limitations of the scientific method previously,
and we asked ourselves the question of which is the aim of the human life?
Here we are something that present Medicine has not asked nor it thinks
necessary to do it, since it has decided to limit in the last centuries to give
functional solutions to functional troubles and to work exclusively in the body
of the man. But, we claim it again,
the individual is not formed only by his body, but that is made up at least by
three levels clearly differentiated, which work mutually integrated and
influencing themselves (since they form an individualized unit):
the accessible to the senses and the experimentation physical part, the
emotional part (psychic,), deeper and not yet accessible to science, and the
mental part (spiritual), the more elevated and internal of three planes. Each superior plane rules the inferior, although an event in
anyone of them repels immediately on the others automatically and inmediatelly.
The tripartite division of the human being is already founded in
Man is not simply a set
formed by chemical compounds, and he cannot exclusively be treated as that;
their actions go further more of Chemistry and Mechanics. He lives, he feels, he
thinks, he enjoys and he suffers, he has a plan life that must discover and to
obey, which determines drastically what happens in the " ground floor
" of the human building, made up by the physical body (balance health-disease).
This reality is taken in a
more and more ample way in " alternative medicines ", as it is the
case of many homeopaths, floral therapists and others.
On the other hand, the sciences of Antiquity (Astrology, Alchemy) go
further on and affirm that each planetary sphere has generated its corresponding
replica in the alive beings, mainly in the man, the most complete of all of them.
In this vision the body (physical part) has been given by the Earth, the
soul by the planetary spheres and the spirit by the fixed stars (longer cycles).
Materialistic science
cannot answer to the question of which it is the objective of our passage by the
Earth, since the reason is not in the matter.
And nevertheless this is a question that all individual is called to be
made sometimes in his life; under
the point of view of some medical schools it has a crucial importance to
interpret the binomial health-disease.
Homeopathic doctors
interpret that, when the symptoms go from " outside " towards "
inside ", the patient is making worse his situation;
for example, if eczema is suppressed with pomade, after a few days it can
appear an allergic or asthmatic problem, and therefore health conditions are
backing down. If however the
process goes from " inside " towards " outside ", although
it can be annoying, homeopathic doctors consider that the patient is improving
his health; after a could (mucous) chickenpox can happen, that is revealed at
skin level. Although colloquially
we speak of disease, the homeopath will interpret that the patient is evolving
towards the total healing.
Physical diseases carry on
disturbances in the character and behaviour, they even can come accompanied of
alterations in the mental state, since, as we say, the human being works in a
integrated way. At the same time that religion moves back in Western world, we
see in parallel an increasing tendency on the part of some medical schools or of
many professionals of the Medicine and Psychology to consider the life like a
school in which a long learning must be made;
under this point of view the alterations of the health, symptoms and
diseases can and must be interpreted as a key that takes us to know the error
that we are committing in our daily actions.
It is not a new discovery, because we already see in the New Testament a
constant reference to the relation between the sin (error in life) and disease.
One of the people whom
dealt more clearly in century XX with the subject was Edward Bach (1886-1936),
Medicine and Philosophy doctor, as well as licensed in Sciences and creator of a
therapeutic system known popularly as "Bach flowers ":
The disease, with the
present materialistic methods, will not be eradicated nor never cured, for the
simple reason that the disease is not material in its origin.
What we know as disease is the last result produced in the body, the end
product of deep and lasting forces, and although the material treatment is
apparently effective, only is a mere temporary relief if the real cause is not
suppressed...
The disease is in essence
the result of a conflict between the Soul and the Mind, and it will not
eradicate without a spiritual and
mental effort. These efforts, if
they are carried out suitably, with understanding, can cure and avoid the
disease when eliminating those basic factors that are their primary cause.
Any directed effort towards the
body can do something more than to repair superficially the damage, and there is
no healing in it, since the cause continues being operative and at any time it
can return to demonstrate its presence in another form.
In fact, in many cases, an apparent improvement is detrimental, when
hiding to the patient the authentic cause of the annoyance, and with the
satisfaction of a health apparently improved, the real factor, not discovered,
can acquire renewed forces (15) ..
Other authors have claimed
against the general opinion expressing themselves in similar terms:
Here we are the
difference between fighting the disease and transmute the disease. The healing is produced exclusively from a disease transmuted,
never from a defeated symptom...
... Only in this context the academic medicine can be criticized.
The academic medicine speech of healing without taking into consideration
this plane, only in which the healing is possible... Medicine is limited to
adopt purely functional measures that are neither good nor bad, but viable
interventions in the material plane. In
this plane Medicine can be, even, amazingly good; their whole methods cannot be
condemned; perhaps for oneself, never for others (16) ..
Let us return to Edward
Bach, that expresses with simplicity and clarity on the subject:
In order to understand
the nature of the disease it is necessary to know certain truths fundamental.
First, the man has a Soul
that is his real being; a Divine,
Powerful Being, Son of the Creator of everything, of which the body, although
earthy temple of that Soul, is not more than a tiny reflection...
The second principle is
that we, so and as know ourselves in the world, are personalities that we are
here for obtaining all the knowledge and experience that can be managed
throughout the earthy existence, to develop the virtues that we need and to
erase of us all the bad, advancing in that way towards the improvement of our
natures. The Soul knows what
ambience and what circumstances will allow us to obtain it better, and therefore
he locates to us in that branch of life the most appropriate for our goal.
Thirdly, we must realize
in our brief passage by the Earth, which we know like life, is not more than a
little while in the course of our evolution, as a day in the school is it for
all the life, and although at the moment just we understand and we see that only
day, our intuition says to us that our birth was infinitely far from our
principle and that our death is infinitely far from our end...
... a fourth principle, that while our Soul and our personality are in
good harmony, everything is peace and joy, happiness and health.
When our personalities are turned aside of the way outlined by the soul,
or by our worldly desires or the persuasion of others, the conflict arises.
That conflict is the root, cause of disease and unhappiness...
... The following great
principle is the understanding of the Unit of all the things:
the Creator of all the things is Love, and all that of which we become
aware is in its infinite number of forms a manifestation of that love...
..
Therefore, we see that there are two possible fundamental errors:
the dissosciation between our soul and our personality, and the cruelty
or badly as opposed to the other people, because that one is a sin against the
Unit. Anyone of these two things gives rise to a conflict, that ends
at the disease. Understanding where we are committing the error that frequently
we can see and an authentic will to correct the lack will take us not only to a
life of peace and joy, but also to the health (17)
Being a doctor, Bach uses
an almost religious language, aligning itself in the more classic doctrine than
we can imagine; as bacteriologist and scientist dedicated to research he knew
what any colleague contemporary, but he could realize the insufficiencies of the
academic teaching. He spoke about
Astrology when relating some of his remedies to the positions of the Moon in the
Zodiac during the birth, although he did not wrote too much on this subject; for
that reason it does not have to be strange to us that as causes fundamental of
the disease Bach indicates acting against the " Unit " (Chapter III of
Health yourself), expressed in seven facets: pride, cruelty, hatred, selfishness,
ignorance, instability and covet.
This remembers the "
seven capital sins " of Christian Catechism, and immediately the emotional
dominions of the seven planetary spheres. Instability is related to the Moon (variability,
faster planet, hormones); ignorance
with Mercury (learning, discrimination); hatred
with Venus (love, harmony with the others;
in married separations " love " is usually transmuted in hatred);
pride with the Sun (center, exclusiveness, power); cruelty with Mars (aggressiveness,
territory, fight); selfishness with Jupiter (symbol of the altruism, its
opposite), and avarice with Saturn (planet of detachment).
Now we can see how any
type of disease that we can to suffer will take us to discover the defect that
lies under our affliction. For
example, the pride, that is arrogance and rigidity of the mind, will give rise
to those diseases that causes rigidity and stiffness of the body. The pain is the result of cruelty, whereas the patient learns
with his personal suffering not to inflict it to the others, from a physical or
mental point of view. The
punishments of hatred are the solitude, the violent and uncontrollable
annoyances, mental torments and hysteria. The
diseases of the introspection - neurosis, neurasthenia and similar conditions -,
that deprive to the life of as much
joy, are caused by an excessive love to itself, selfishness.
The ignorance and the lack of wisdom bring their own difficulties to the
daily life, and in addition, if a persistence in refusing to see the truth
occurs when the opportunity offers us, the consequence is myopia, bad vision and
defective hearing. The instability
of the mind must take in the body the same quality, with all those disorders
that affect to the movement and coordination.
The result of the greed and dominion of others are those diseases that
will do of who suffers a slave of his own body, with desires and ambitions
restrained by the disease.
On the other hand, the
concrete zone of the affected body is not accidental, but agrees with the law of
cause and effect, and once again it will be a guide to help us (18)
..
We return to the doctrine
of the unit and inseparability of parts in nature, and for that reason we are
totally in agreement with Bach and other authors who have worked in the same
direction; but we have here to add that, under the point of view of astrological
cosmology, the horoscopic tool just does not give us a precise, removable
information by means of interpretation of the signs and symptoms showed by the
individual. The astrological
directions provide in addition the coordinate " time ", the planets
involved in the crisis and the intensity of this one (numerical value,
astrodines), extending our knowledge of which it happens to the individual and
increasing the possibilities of stopping his problems.
Life is a labyrinth in
which we move permanently, so that everything what it takes us to understand
where we are and to find its solutions have an enormous utility. This labyrinth begins in the Earth with the birth and ends
with the death, although something insinuates that it comes from more back and
continues further on; in as much we
are on this border of the world, the astrological tool is the ideal thread of
Ariadna to move along this world and not to lose the connection with the true
being that lives within us.
Beyond of horoscopes of
health, love and money, Astrology provides the guide that the traveller has to
carry out here in the Earth. The
interpretation of symptoms and diseases is also useful, because these are the
signals sent to the " outside " of which something is wrong in the
inner being, after all more real and lasting than the body; but astrological
science goes further on and it allows us to understand and to stop each
situation, each stage of the life. It
announces what and when it is going to happen to us (always in terms of
probabilities), what lessons we have to learn and how to make to surpass them.
Of course, the individual
is free to choose between the diverse possibilities that life offers him along
the years, and has a certain chance of shape his fate; any astrological
determinism exist, since, if we could foretell the future with exactitude,
always we would have opportunity to modify it in advance.
Therefore, every astrological prognosis must be always made in terms of
probabilities (and, of course, generally speaking, with all scientific
prediction).
The experience demonstrates
that when the life tests are not surpassed, we must repeat the same situations;
psychological complexes and diseases appear then, but always there is something
to learn. Every day that dawns is a
new opportunity to advance; when we refuse them, it comes the warning, the signs
and symptoms. The Bible tells about the salt statue in
Happiness, affirmed Goethe,
does not consist of doing what you like, but in enjoy ourselves what we do,
independently of the profession or the social class to which we belong; to
occupy the place that corresponds us and to follow the plan that we have
assigned (the inner being knows it very well, it is only necessary to know how
to listen it) is the greater source of joy and well-being.
In order to carry out it is enough to be persuaded by the heart, relaxing
the habitual controls of the mind, to which also it is necessary to let express
itself (and here we are a difficult balance to get).
Before finalizing this
point we want to remember that, many of the people who faced serious diseases
and surpassed them, gave from then a radical upset in their lives (we are
thinking about catalan tenor Josep Carreras by his great popularity, after his
leukemia); their vision of the existence and the scale of values in which they
were handled underwent a complete turn, which is tuning with we said previously.
Beyond the common
experience: karma and genetics
The term karma is of Indian
origin and it has become very popular in the Western world;
it means the Action and Reaction Law, that is, the linking of causes and
effects that has all natural action, and, of course, the human interventions.
But the most known of karma is the application that has been made to
interpret the repercussions of the actions of a life in the next; it connects
with the doctrine of reincarnation, that Astrology, in as much stays as
objective science, cannot accept nor deny.
Under this point of view,
some births of defective or defective beings, bad inheritances or lives marked
from their beginning, in apparently innocent children, would find some
explanation.
We could find another
explanatory way, equally valid, in the coexistence of order and chaos in nature;
we see that everything in the world is ruled by laws and principles, which do
not exclude natural errors. Mutations in the alive beings are taking place
continuously, but do not survive all of them, only the viable ones. Today we
would speak of questions related to Genetics and would be settled the subject;
but, once again, things are not as simple as they pretend.
The ancients considered
these subjects long before, and perhaps also had much more time to dedicate
themselves to look for answers; " the monstrous " births were related
with significant alterations of the ambience, and for that reason the ancients
considered them of bad augury. But
also they found correlations with the positions of the stars, this can be stated
in the works of Astrology that have arrived until us.
The children born during
certain eclipses of Sun and Moon, or with certain planetary aspects (the Sun to
82° of
Saturn, for example) had until few centuries little life expectancies. The
technical advances of Medicine have given to this a substantial turn, but, even
so, genetic tares continue having well defined astronomical markers, and we can
say the same of some types of behaviours that also find explanation in Genetics.
Can we remain in the simple
physical plane and explain everything by means of a more or less complicated
molecule sequence, in which the chance has produced some modifications respect
to a general pattern?
The question is exciting
and much more the answer, there is no doubt; although we have many reasons to
suspect that chance does not exist (!), the answer is difficult to get. We will
show some interesting examples later, which will take us to the answer that
Astrology can contribute at the moment.
Notes
1. -
Juan Antonio Belmonte. The
sky laws. Ancient
astronomy and civilizations Ediciones Temas de Hoy, S.A. Madrid, 1999.
Page. 61.
2. -
To see in this respect Book X.
3. -
Plato. The Republic Espasa-Calpe,
S.A.
4. -
Séneca Natural
questions Book XXX, 29.
5. -
See Commentary on the dream of Escipio CAP XII and XV. Present
English edition exists: Commentary on the dream of Scipio, by Macrobius Translated
with an Introduction and Notes William Harris Stahl.
6. -
Réné Guenon. Fundamental
symbols of Sacred Science Paidós
Ibérica Ediciones.
7. - The
Book of Enoch. Book III, 72. In
The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Apocaliptic Literature and Testaments. Edited
by Charlesworth.
8. -
Quoted by Jean Hani in The symbolism of the Christian temple, pages.
41-42.
Jose J. de Olañeta, Publisher. Palma
de Mallorca, 2000. Until Vatican Council II (1963) the priest said
the mass backs to the faithfuls, and that was not a inconsiderateness, but so
that everybody watched towards the rising Sun (the mass was said to the dawn -
solar rite -, in the same way that the rosary is a evening prayer, given its
lunar nature, since the Moon " is born " at the beginning of its month
after sunset).
9. -
Poimandres. Corpus
Hermeticum (attributed to
Hermes Trimegist). In Hermetic Texts. Introduction,
translation and notes of Xavier Renau Nebot. Editorial Gredos.
10. -
Hipólito of
11. -
Origins, in Against Celsum VI , 24.38.
12.
- Juan Antonio Belmonte.
The sky laws.
Ancient astronomy and
civilizations Ediciones
Temas de Hoy, S.A. Madrid, 1999. Page.
62.
13. -
Ídem, page. 53.
14. -
Personal communication of Josefa Sanchis.
15. - Dr Edward Bach. Health
yourself. An explanation of the real cause and the treatment of the disease. Editorial
Edaf.
16. -
Thorwald Dethlefsen and R5udiger Dahlke. The disease like way.
An interpretation different from the Medicine. Plaza &
17. -
Dr Edward Bach, mentioned work, Chapter II.
18. -
Ídem builds previous, Chapter III
Recommended readings
Hermetic texts Introduction,
translation and notes by Xavier Renau Nebot.
Gredos Editorial.
In diverse treaties is
scattered the doctrine of the descent and the ascent of souls by the planetary
spheres, as well as other interesting considerations about the origin of the man
and the aim of his Earth existence.
The gnostics Introduction,
translation and notes of Jose Montserrat Torrents.
Gredos Editorial. Madrid, 1991.
Astrology and Gnosticism
Demetrio Santos. Barath Editorial. Madrid,
1986. It
exists reedición of author, 2004.
The treatment by the
flowers. Dr Edward Bach. Editorial Edaf.
The disease as a way.
A different interpretation from the Medicine Thorwald
Dethlefsen and R5udiger Dahlke. Plaza
&