Presented at the 1994 ISAR Conference in Chicago
I would like to give you an example of a trip I took to Greece in order to share the difference between the esoteric dynamics of astrology and the exoteric ones. We were going from Rhodes to Crete. I got to the airport in Rhodes and there were two doors with Greek lettering on them. Although I don’t speak Greek, I am familiar with the alphabet. On one door it said Esoteriki and on the other door it said Exoteriki. I said: “Gosh, I must be in the right place…so, which door should I use?” I thought about that and said to myself, Esoteriki means inside and exoteriki means that which is outside. The esoteric dynamics of life are involved with the internal movements of energy or that which is deepest. That must be the mystic’s life because it is inside the country. Exoteriki is outside, that which is more easily discernible. So Exoteriki must be international flights. Since I was staying within Greece and I was in the mood for more esoteric orientation, I went through the Esoteriki door and got to Crete.
I would like to apply esoteric and exoteric in another sense in that there is a movement within so many of us to create proper tension which does not drain us of energy. Proper tension is that which increases and renews energy. I am speaking about the proper tension which is between the Higher and lower Self. If we can consciously create a bridge (which in esoteric terms is called the Antakarana or the Rainbow Bridge) between our inner and outer lives, if we are working to become objective to our subjective reality, then we are working esoterically. All of us are working as healers, and all of us are working in healing. The word, “heal”, is related to the word, “whole” which also is really related to the word “wealth”. As we move in our wholeness, in our healing, we move on all levels towards our wealth.
Many of us have reached the place where we are bored and exhausted by the tensions of the exoteric life. That life which is rooted and ruled by the Moon, which has to do with: it’s Mommy’s or it’s Daddy’s fault, it’s the environmental fault, it’s my husband’s fault and it is my fault that I am feeling so lousy today. Many of us are finding that to be ridiculous and it drains us. The more we try to deal with challenges on physical levels, on the emotional levels and on the mental levels, the more confused we become. You cannot resolve a situation in a total focus of refined synthesis on the level on which it is happening. We have to find another level of identification with which to deal with our lives. As we identify ourselves, as we say we are, we are. If I say I am a child of God, then that is what I am. If I say that I am a fool, then that is what I am as well. What we say to ourselves about ourselves is definitely the divine word of expression to ourselves. It is just the way it works.
For me, astrology has served the purpose of its orginination. In the esoteric sense, astrology is the vehicle for the development of consciousness. I treat it as the vehicle for the development of consciousness and specifically for the development of the intuitive body. What we are dealing with are archetypal relationships. As we attune to the archetypal dynamics of astrology, we grow. We begin to see some impersonal dynamic, the transpersonal nature of life’s influences and then we can administer them personally and incorporate them into our life.
I have been an astrologer for 27 years. Astrology has shown me that I am a soul with a body, not a body with a soul. The more I identify from that level, not the more I am in some white tower being oh so spiritual, the more I am here on the planet with greater love, power, force and the ability to effectuate transformation for the betterment of my own and other people’s lives. At least, I choose to believe that. At its root astrology is esoteric. It unfolds the nature of life through its symbolic language. That language is material, but the ability to perceive the energy within the form of a given situation has much more to do with Pluto, Neptune and Uranus. It has much more to do with transpersonal influences and a transpersonal perspective.
At this time I would like to share with you a slightly different perspective of viewing planets from their rulership of the signs. This perspective is that of the Ancient Wisdom Teachings. When viewed from the level of the soul another dynamic occurs. When we are functioning esoterically from the soul, we are not centered in our navels. The tragedy of the world comes from a universal disease called: me, my, mineitous. Whether we have collective or individual me, my, mineitous, we have a disease. The Age of Aquarius insists on a collectivization of orientation without losing the individual self-expression. As consciousness unfolds, the more individualized we become, it becomes more universal. The more I am myself, the more I am you. This dynamic of individualized collectivity is the underlining paradigm of the New Age.
If we are functioning astrologically, horoscopically, on an esoteric level, we are functioning much more with collective inferences; so that the ruler of Aries ceases to become Mars and becomes Mercury because the soul-centered Aries, whether rising sign or sun sign, is initiating an idea from the Mind of God, from the universal source. That Aries individual is able to infuse Mercury, the originating idea coming from a durthing of an archetypal awareness into the collective and thus purify with the fire of mind.
When Taurus is working esoterically the planet, Vulcan, becomes the ruler. Whether Vulcan is a physical or metaphysical planet doesn’t matter. It is an archetype in the collective consciousness. Vulcan was the blacksmith of the Gods. The gods would bring all their tools because they could not perform miracles any more at a certain level. The tools had to be re-empowered. The Taurean rising sign or sun sign person on the path, is dealing with the ability to impregnate matter with greater possibilities. In order to do that you have to see through the eye of the bull, which is the third eye. You have to see true value within the form and release that true value, not for your own purpose but for the collective well-being.
When we move into an esoterically led life in Gemini, we no longer have the duality and multiplicity of Mercury. The ruler of Gemini then becomes Venus, who is attracting opposites to create greater symphonies of harmony. Venus is bringing people and ideas together for transpersonal purposes, creating those dynamics of relatedness in order to bring about a greater harmony. Venus physically brings about the furtherance of what we call the Law of Right Human Relations. That Law is the underlying Law of the Age of Aquarius. Another important Law is the Law of Circulation.
When we move into a Cancerian incarnation that is being esoterically focussed it is no longer “my mommy, my house and my food”. The influence of the Moon is replaced by Neptune. Neptune is the universal source of supply. In the ocean you have gold, diamonds. The Neptunian-Cancerian individual is working to create supply for the whole human family. He is working to create a field of service which allows him to act on an impersonal level. He becomes more impersonal to the personal life and personal to the impersonal life.
When we come to Leo, the sun is still the ruler, but it is not the body of the sun, the sun that casts a shadow, so that a very strong Leo person drains you of energy because his personality shines so brightly. But it is the heart of the sun, the light which casts no shadow. A light which does not shine, but radiates. Its radiation instills, creates and supports life.
When we move into Virgo, we don’t have Mercury again, saying, “Oh my God, what should I do with my researches, what kind of job should I have, etc. We have the Moon ruling Virgo. We have the Mother. There is a marvelous dilemma for Virgo. That Virgo is always pregnant and never gives birth…always being able to harness resources for the Christ Child, for its Virgo-Pisces. That Virgo is constantly aware of the dynamics of nurturance of the inner Christ and is able to survive that kind of nurturance of other people in a very practical way.
When we move to Libra, we are no longer in the game of you versus me…let us compete for what is going on here…let us create some ideal relative to my personal conception of what a relationship is supposed to be about. Instead we move to the impersonal dynamics of relationship and Uranus becomes the ruler of Libra. Venus as the ruler works on the personality level. Uranus is working on the soul level. You have another form of higher and lower octave of planetary energies. What you have is Venus, the attraction power, the magnetic power of bringing people together but it is for Uranian purposes, for group dynamics.
When we move to Scorpio, Mars also rules Scorpio on the soul level. It is not, “I’m going to get you because I want your energy,” the lower level of Scorpio; but we have instead, Mars, which is death, leading to resurrection. The purpose of killing off the physical form, killing off desire, is not just to annihilate them, but to release the latent powers, the spirit within, for regenerative purposes not just to the individual but to all who come in contact with that Scorpio type person.
When we move to Sagittarius, the esoteric ruler becomes the Earth. It is no longer the Jupiter idealism of “I shot an arrow into the air. It fell to earth and I know not where and I really don’t care, because I don’t want responsibility for it.” The Earth becomes the orientation of Sagittarius because the purpose of a Sagittarian incarnation is to become the one-pointed disciple on the Path and to show with the arrow what the Path is. That path is an earthly path. We give ourselves to the earth. The purpose of the higher Sagittarian nature is to impregnate the earth with the opportunity to become a sacred planet. We have seven sacred planets in this solar system and the Earth ain’t one of them yet. Our job as the collective Sagittarian impulse is to bring that one-pointed direction so that we lose the duality of lower self-higher self and fuse the lower and higher self. Then the Star of David takes shape in the consciousness. The lower and the higher triangles come together and we externalize as the one-pointed self and the one-pointed humanity.
In Capricorn, Saturn also is a double ruler. But instead of having, “Oh my life is limited”, or “I am going to control so that I make sure I get what I need,” in the lower Saturnian nature, we have Saturn as smashing through the “ring pass not”…reaching through the boundaries of consciousness to expand the possibilities that is available for the right use of resources. What we have is no longer Saturn being the vehicle of psychological, biologically focused karma, but opening up more to a planetary karma, to really show the right responsibility and not responsibility that is created from non-generative, emotional, mental or physical habit patterns.
When we move into Aquarius, something wonderful takes place. Standing behind the Aquarius energy is the planet Jupiter. Jupiter becomes the Lord of the Age of Aquarius through Uranus. On the exoteric level we are going to be very Uranian and have all these inventions, etc. Science will be the vehicle through which humanity will come into its own divine expression, but Jupiter which we call the Lord of the 2nd Ray is a Lord of Love, the Lord of abundance. On esoteric levels each of us can have a vision as, “Oh my goodness, here we are on the Moon, and I am seeing that it is one planet.” If we can all have that perspective then the abundance of love is there for all of us to share in that collective Aquarian Age perspective.
Finally we come to Pisces. Rather than there be self-destruction, and self-annihilation, with new vision of the Higher Self and its meaning, Pluto becomes the ruler of Pisces because that indicates the redemption of the lower self and its resurrection as the phoenix. Sacrifice comes from two Latin words, sacra, which is holy, and fice comes from ficare, which means to make. Sacrifice means to make holy. We are made whole through Pluto, by the progressive series of deaths that we take in order to resurrect into a greater life.
When we come to look at the planets and the signs through that perspective, we come into an awareness of our possibility and the gift that astrology gives us as an initiatic science. Thank you very much.
