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Letters to Students of Spiritual Astrology

  


  

LETTER NUMBER ELEVEN

   Jupiter focuses the most benevolent rays through which the more lasting joys and achievements of our lives come. He travels around the Sun in about 11 years, and aspects every planet from all angles during that time, while Saturn requires 29 years to obstruct us from similar positions. Thus what we call "good" predominates overwhelmingly over the so-called "evil", and the realization of this fact should be ever with us to inculcate and cultivate an optimistic frame of mind. Present trouble is not so hard to bear when we can see "the turn of the lane," and as the student of Astrology has a sure foundation for his hope of better things he should be the most contented person in the world, even when in the midst of a period of trouble. An aspect of Jupiter is always about to form, and whatever department of life he is in (shown by the house), will be the avenue through which opportunity will come to you. One of the easiest methods a young student may use to predict events is by these TRANSITS, as we call the ephemeral passage of planets in the heavens. All that is required is an ephemeris for the current year and your own figure. The ephemeris show's Jupiter's position at a glance. a look at your own figure tells what house he is traversing and gives the key to his influence. You know the nature of the cardinal signs; in the answer to your last lesson you gave a description of Jupiter's influence in these positions, and if you are not fortunate enough to have him thus well placed, maybe you wished such good fortune had been yours. But cheer up, though you may have not have the life-lasting benefit of a well placed Jupiter, he traverses the cardinal signs and the angles 4 to 8 times in an average human life; each time he comes to one of the important places in your horoscope, opportunity knocks at your door and offers you preferment and the realization of the dreams of your life in one direction or another. Be on the watch, however, for you must do your share and grasp the proffered hand of Dame Fortune or she will pass on. But even if you miss some of your chances, keep cheerful, attune yourself to the Jupiter ray, try to spread sunshine in other lives, and some day you will learn to live yourself into all the aspects of his benevolence; some life you will be born with Jupiter as the most prominent planet in your figure.

LETTER NUMBER TWELVE

   It may be well to take up the subject of Synthesis at the very start of our study of the meaning of the stellar script, for lack of this knowledge often causes much confusion to young students.

   Contradiciton is a fact which early impresses itself upon the minds of young astrologers, and the brighter the mind, the keener the feeling of distress and helplessness arising from this source. Sometimes beginners become cynical and skeptical because unable to reconcile one influence tabulated in a horoscope with another of a diametrically opposite import. Suppose, for instance, that we find the Sun conjunction Venus in Leo and Saturn in the fifth house. According to the configuration of the Sun and Venus the person would have an ardent love nature and attract the affections of the opposite sex, but according to the placement of Saturn in the fifth house he would meet disappointment in courtship. At first sight this seems a bald contridiction. When Venus, fortified by a trine from Uranus, designates a person as an angel of purity, it is disconcerting to find that a square from Mars brands him as sensual to a degree. But philosophy shows us the reason of these contradictory omens and the art of Synthesis teaches us how to balance them and extract the kernel of truth from horoscopic symbolism.

   In the first place, if it were possible to find a horoscope without contradictory testimonies, that would mean that the person born under such stellar influences would pursue a certain course through life either wholly good or thoroughly bad. It would be absolutely impossible for him to swerve. If his stars pointed towards the path of rectitutde, his integrity would be so impregnable that never for a moment could temptation to wrongdoing find harborage in his consciousness; were his face set downwards, no ray of aspiration in the direction of higher things could ever enter his dark soul. Truly, the horrors of the dreadful theory of election and predestination pale by comparison with such a condition; were this condition a fact, soul growth would be an impossibility, for the man who cannot be tempted to do wrong acquires no merit by goodness, any more than the man irresiitibly impelled to evil deserves censure. Choice is the prime essential in soul growth and that comes from the contradictory influences registered in the horoscope; thanks to that puzzling factor and the WILL, which is above the horoscope, there is hope in even the most afflicted chart; the good is always there to grapple with the bad. And temptations overcome give added merit to the good. Thus the square of Venus to Mars impels to wrongdoing, but the trine of Uranus to Venus gives power to overcome passion and acquire purity. May we use the squares we dread to rise to the trines we prize.

   --Max Heindel (circa 1912)


   This article was adapted from the Astrology Correspondence Course, offered by The Rosicrucian Fellowship.

  



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