Dear Friend,

   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.

   Contradiction 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 conjunct 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 contradiction. 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 rectitude, 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 irresistibly 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.

Yours in Fellowship,
  Max Heindel

  The word "Love" has been used so often to designate that which is really passion that we therefore avoid use of the term wherever possible, and shall use the keyword Affection to express the most salient characteristics of the sign Leo which is ruled by the life-giving Sun. Fraternal, filial, and parental feelings generated under the Taurean ray are cold compared to the ardent affection radiated through the fifth sign, Leo, the sign which has dominion over the heart.

   It has been well said that "of the fullness of the heart, the mouth overfloweth," and the terrestrial counterpart of the fifth sign, the fifth house, rules the avenues through which we express the things we love. Our pleasures, avocation, courtships, and the children we bear beneath our hearts, figuratively or actually, are therefore designated by this house. Please note carefully, however, that the ability to write, teach, paint, or do anything else depends upon other factors, but from the fifth house, the sign which occupies it and the planets posited therein come the love and enthusiasm which impel expression along various lines according to the sign and planets found there at the time of birth. The love of a father and mother for a certain child may be equal, but if the fifth house of the father is well fortified and thus gives him the faculty of expression, while afflictions of the fifth house of the mother deny her the ability to voice her love, the child will grow up in the belief that its mother loves it not a whit. The misunderstood mother may then grieve and break her heart in consequence. Should the child learn Astrology, it would be able to see the hidden reason for the seeming coldness of the parent; compassion in the child would draw from the mother the secret of her love, both would be richer and the child by such use of the science of Astrology would lay up much treasure in heaven. Take another suppositious case, of two young men in love with the same girl. We look to the Sun, as the significator of mental affinity because it is the particular expression of God in our solar system. Mars and Venus, being the planets of passion and the brand of love associated with personality (not the love of soul for soul, which is Uranian), signify moral affinity and the Moon and Ascendant show what physical harmony exists between people intending marriage. Let us now suppose one of these young men to be mentally and morally harmonious to the lady, but not physically attuned, and further hampered by having Saturn, the planet of obstruction in the fifth house. He would then be unable to plead his cause, no matter how deep his affection. If the other young man were physically in accord with the lady and if Venus were in his fifth house at birth, he would be an eloquent and probably successful wooer, while the denial of expression caused by Saturn in the case of his rival might break the latter's heart. Later the lack of mental and moral affinity between the successful lover and the lady is sure to manifest to the sorrow of both; had all known the science of Astrology and been guided by their knowledge, these heartaches might have been avoided.

   As already said: Venus in the fifth sign or house facilitates the expression of love and thus makes the ardent and affectionate wooer, but when the dynamic energy of Mars is poured forth from this angle it produces the fierce, masterful lover who claims the affection of others as a right. The wandering Moon is the vehicle of fecundation; in Leo she makes the heart fickle and fond of flitting from flower to flower. From each she sucks the sweets and leaves it barren. The keyword of Mercury is Reason, and as the ways of the heart are beyond reason and incapable of intellectual elucidation or analysis, Mercury in Leo makes the libertine and cynic who plays with hearts as with marbles. Saturn in Leo or the fifth house obstructs expression of affection, no matter how deep and sincere the feeling, and thus it causes much suffering in consequence.

   Sagittarius is pictured upon the vault of heaven as a centaur (half man and half horse), in the act of shooting an arrow from a drawn bow. Jupiter, the ruler, partakes of the dual nature expressed by the sign. In his highest phase he is idealistic in the extreme. He aims the bow of aspiration so high that few, if any, measure up to his standard. Therefore, when in Leo or the fifth house, he not infrequently misses the real, while vainly seeking the ideal of his affection, but if his search is successful there is an ideal union, a marriage truly "made in heaven." The lower nature of Jupiter accentuates the animalistic phase of Sagittarius, and when that is expressed through the sign Leo or the 5th house the ideals expressed by the higher phase are forgotten, the man goes to the other extreme and becomes a depraved beast. Therefore Jupiter in Leo afflicted is worse than any of the so-called malefic planets; its evil influence is perhaps most nearly approached by Venus when similarly placed, for both tend then to indulgence of the vilest nature.

   As Leo and the fifth house signify the things we love to share with others, this also applies to knowledge, and therefore the fifth sign and the fifth house signify the ability to teach. People with Jupiter there, well fortified, have high ideals and are born teachers of law, philosophy and humanitarian principles. Knowledge of these subjects may be acquired without having Jupiter in Leo or the fifth house, but there is a difference between having the knowledge and the ability to impart it to others; this faculty is given or denied by the fifth house and the planets therein or the rulers thereof. These also indicate the nature of the subjects, if any, a person is best fitted to teach.

   The keyword of Saturn being Obstruction he naturally seeks to squelch ambition to teach when in the fifth sign, Leo or the fifth house. We know people with that affliction having deep and thorough knowledge of vital interest to humanity; one shrinks from the duty and limits herself; one ensouled by a deep desire to impart his knowledge to others becomes ill at every attempt. Leo rules the spinal cord and Saturn in Leo draws this poor man's nerves into knots, as it were, thus literally choking expression. Hard as it may be for such people to overcome the limitation, there is one certainty, however, that if they do, they will be very thorough, particularly when instructing adults in deep subjects. Mars, Mercury, or the Moon in Leo or the fifth house would make indifferent teachers, impatient and superficial.

   Leo and the fifth house are also concerned with publications for books, newspapers, and periodicals are media through which authors share with the public whatever knowledge they have gained along specific lines. Please observe, Leo and the fifth house do not give the ability to write or speak; that comes from Gemini, Mercury and other factors, but the fifth sign and house indicate our success in publishing our knowledge. Some people are able writers and speakers, but Saturn in Leo or the fifth house, or a sign ruled by Saturn on the fifth house obstructs access to publicity, and many splendid teachers and authors are never heard of outside the small circle of friends on account of this limiting influence. On the other hand, when Mercury, Gemini, Leo and the fifth house are well fortified there is ability to write and success in getting the ear of the world by publications. You will understand that my motive is not self-laudation when I cite my own configuration as illustration of this point. I have Venus in the mercurial sign Gemini, sextile to Mercury (in Leo), also to his higher octave, Neptune. The Sun, Moon, and Mercury are in Leo, the fifth sign, and Mercury is also trine to Jupiter in the fifth house, occupied by the idealistic sign Sagittarius. Saturn in Libra, the sign of his exaltation, is sextile to Mercury in the fifth sign and Jupiter in the fifth house. Thus all the stellar forces have combined to give me facility in writing and success in publishing. You know the phenomenal growth of The Rosicrucian Fellowship justifies the augur of the stars, and that they have told the truth. But this brings up another point; had anyone presumed to predict these things five years ago, even my friends and well-wishers might have doubted, for these faculties were largely dormant then; it takes many years to acquire the fundamental knowledge and experience in the school of life without which any writing sounds hollow. Necessarily my innate ability did not show on the surface during that time, yet the stars told the truth; it was latent, and at the proper time became manifest. In this fact lies one of the most important lessons to be learned by the young astrologer. It is this: Believe in the stars; whatever they say is absolutely reliable, no matter how much appearances may be to the contrary, no matter whether they show a fault or a faculty; if the stars say it is there you may depend that their testimony is true regardless of whether the person knows it or not, and in this very fact we have one of the greatest opportunities for the efficient and benevolent use of Astrology. In the next lesson we shall take up this study in connection with the fifth house, Leo and children.

   The Moon's North Node: the Nodes are points in the orbit of a planet where it crosses the ecliptic, or Sun's path. The one where it crosses from south to north is called its ascending or North node; the other point where it crosses from north to south is called its descending or South node.

   When the Sun is in the East and crosses the celestial equator from the south to the north, it enters its martial exaltation sign Aries as a conquering king at the vernal equinox, and all nature wakens to the life, love and labor of another year. Therefore the point where the lesser Light crosses into the north declination is also subject to a benign life-giving influence, such as that ascribed to the Dragon's Head. It fosters and promotes all matters within its influence.

   The Dragon's Head is regarded as a benefic, its influence being analogous to that of the Sun in Aries, and Jupiterian in effect.

   But in the Fall, Saturn, Satan, or the adversary, stands in his exaltation-sign Libra ready to vanquish with his cold clammy hand the life-giving Sun and usher it across its descending node, leaving the Northern Hemisphere to mourn and die. Therefore the Moon's South Node called the Dragon's Tail, is deemed to be saturnine in its effect and obstructs all things wherewith it is connected.

   The position of the Dragon's Head, (N) or Moon's Node, and the Dragon's Tail, (n) have now to be found. The longitude of the Dragon's Head, the noon nearest to the G.M.T., is found in the ephemeris. The Dragon's Tail occupies the opposite point. These points are to be entered in the horoscope.

   The Dragon's Head (N), and the Dragon's Tail (n) exert an influence in the horoscope only when in conjunction with a planet or the Ascendant. An orb of only two degrees or at most three degrees is allowed.

   As retrograde planets are (apparently) traveling backward in the zodiac, to obtain the travel in 24 hours, subtract the coming noon position from the previous noon position. The result will be the travel in 24 hours..

   Find the logarithm for this travel and then add to it the permanent logarithm (or logarithm of interval). The sum of these two logarithms will give the travel during interval.

   If the G.M.T. is A.M., add the travel during interval to the coming noon position of the planet.

   If the G.M.T. is P.M. subtract the travel during interval from the previous noon position of the planet.

   This is an imaginary point calculated from the longitude of the Sun, Moon and Ascendent. The philosophy is, that the human body is produced by the lunar forces. At the time of conception the Moon may be mathematically demonstrated to have been in the degree which is the Ascendant at birth--at birth it has a different longitude. In one of these positions the Moon may be said to have magnetized the positive pole, in the other the negative pole of the seed atom which as a magnet draws to itself the chemical substance that builds the dense body. The solar forces vitalize the body and as it is constantly decaying, a pabulum is necessary to repair waste. That nutriment and all material possessions, are therefore, astrologically speaking, derived through the combined influences of the Sun and the before-mentioned two positions of the Moon. When the planetary aspects to this Part of Fortune are favorable material success and prosperity follow. When adverse influences center upon it, reverses are met. The nature of the aspecting planet, the sign and house it is in tell the sources whence we may expect one or the other, and thus show us where to direct our energy or what to avoid.

  --Add to the longitude of the Ascendant: sign, degree and minute, the longitude of the Moon: sign, degree and minute.

  --From that sum subtract the longitude of the Sun: sign, degree and minute.

  --The remainder is the longitude: sign, degree and minute of the Part of Fortune.

  The Part of Fortune in the horoscope will be Sagittarius 0°27' (9th Sign)

Junior Astrology Lesson Information Sources:
Rosicrucian Fellowship Course Curricula	Online Astrology Library	Information for Astrology Course	Read the Cosmo!
Order Astrology Course Materials & Books	Preliminary Philosophy Course Lesson No. 1	Our Courses: Information & Enrollment	Index of Natal & Medical Astrology
Cosmo Index		Pictorial Study Guide

  [Note: If you prefer to work offline, you are welcome to e-mail your answers and/or comments to us. Please be sure to include your e-mail address, full name, course name and lesson number in your e-mail to us.]

  1] In Lesson No. 9, I asked you to calculate the signs on the cusps of a horoscope for 4 P.M. Standard Time, August 10th, 1912, at New York. Please figure now the places of the planets, insert them in the horoscope and send it to me, that I may see if you remember how to do this work. [Please click the "Information for Astrology Course" icon above for help with this assignment.]

• Click here to view Horoscope Data Sheet - Front Side.
  
  
• Click here to view Horoscope Data Sheet - Rear Side.

Note: Please do not fail to read and reread the pages in which you find the answers to these questions. After carefully studying the subject matter, strive to condense your answer as much as possible, taking into consideration the principal points.