Cancer 2017: Home. Family. Grenfell. London, Britain & Democracy. William Blake.

The Creation of Eve. (William Blake.)

Cancer Keynote
“I build a lighted house and therein dwell.”
(Full moon: July 9, 2017. 5.06 am GMT)

Cancer: The Home and the Human Family
Cancer: The Cry of Mother Earth
London’s Burning: Crisis in Democracy
London: Planetary Throat Centre
Cancer Rising William Blake: Mystic, Artist and Poet
Jan Dietrich, astrologer and co-worker
Annual Call for Donations

Cancer: The Home and the Human Family
Cancer is embodied by the archetype of Eve, the first woman who gave birth to Humanity at Individualisation – hence, her symbol of the moon, the builder of the form nature. Eve is also the mind, complementing the third ray of active intelligence which passes through Cancer:

“Eve is the symbol of the mental nature, and of the mind of man attracted by the lure of knowledge to be gained through the experience of incarnation. Eve, therefore, took the apple of knowledge from the serpent of matter and started the long human undertaking of experiment, experience and expression.”1

Eve is the “first aspect” of the goddess trinity – Eve (1), Isis (2) and Mary (3) – representing the three levels of the personality: mental, emotional and physical. More commonly, Cancer-Eve is the mother, home and family, emphasising nurturing, protection and emotional sensitivity. The home or living space is the foundation or base from where life is conducted, providing an anchored stability to pursue life goals of parenting, family, career, creativity and interaction with the rest of the community.

Teenagers from Afghanistan, Belgrade, 2017.

Cancer is the cosy and comfortable home fire, the hearth. Yet for others, home is simply a state of mind, when the external trappings of having an abode, are not a priority. Home for some may be a simple, nomadic lifestyle where the prospect of mind-expanding, spontaneous experiences outweigh the banality and accumulations that everyday life can sometimes bring.

Home may be living in a foreign nation to one’s birthplace, that holds an exotic allure, or simply somewhere where one “feels at home.” Some find planet earth so foreign, that they might rather inhabit another planet or star system – indeed, a few even believe that they hail from these worlds!

Many people have no say about where they can live, being forced by poverty and circumstance to live on the streets or in their cars – an increasing phenomenon in the “rich” Western nations. Others are from countries caught up in war, forced to take refuge in other nations – to be refugees, without a home, life essentials, the security of shelter, food and family. This has been a persistent theme in recent years and has been covered in other newsletters: Homeless USA (2012), European Refugee Crisis (2015) and Refuge and Refugee (2016).

Refugees have also featured in the Grenfell Tower fire in London recently, where the majority of tenants and victims were immigrants or refugees. During the sun’s current passage through Cancer, many efforts are being made to re-house these displaced people. (See later section on Grenfell.)

There is nothing more Cancerian than a dome home, a half egg, with its exquisite matrix-like geometry.

Indeed, displacement is a very unnerving word for Cancer, it can bring chaos to what could be otherwise a stable and structured world. Rays 3 and 7 pass through Cancer, providing that stability and structure that contributes to this sign as a good custodian of resources.

The third ray of Active-Intelligence is the mother, the matrix – ruled paradoxically by Saturn the father, giving the ability to generate, organise and structure ideas and thought, into forms – a thought-form, a lifestyle, a vegetable garden or a house in which to live.

The Seventh Ray of Ceremonial Order, gives just that, the ability to order, organise, plan and design, to bring spirit into matter – “God Geometrises.” Both rays 3 & 7 are an excellent combination for working with the prana known as money, complementing Cancer’s ability to manage all kinds of resources; similarly with polar opposite Capricorn and Libra, signs that also channel rays 3 & 7.

When considering Neptune, the esoteric ruler of Cancer, it conjures imagination, fantasy and visionary experience. For developing children, fantasy invites the creative imagination into play, providing the emotional nature with a constructive outlet. In its lower expression Neptune is the Cancerian addiction for food or substances, “feeding the hungry heart.” It is also the kind of fantasy that is the “vague and dreamy” Cancerian. Cancer builds the container – whether it is a handbag, a bathtub, a city or geometrical form in which to house the vision. A great example of using this combination of Cancer, rays 3, 7 and Neptune is the artist William Blake, profiled later in this newsletter.

Cancer is concerned with these basic necessities of life, hence TV shows related to cooking, house renovation and building are very popular. One such program is the British Grand Designs, hosted by Kevin McCloud. The program was conceived in Taurus, which is related to Cancer through the moon’s exaltation and rulership of these two signs respectively. (Britain is also a Taurus personality.)

Contrary to the spirit of economy and the third ray, many projects on the program are exercises in excess (Taurus in its lower expression), with owners going beyond their means to build something that is a monument to the ego and social prestige.

Taurus represents earth and stability, and is another “feminine” sign like Cancer, sharing much in common. McCloud also has sun-moon in Taurus, with Venus in Gemini, adept at connecting with many different people. (Perhaps he is Cancer rising?) Interestingly, in the aforementioned spirit of being on the road or living in a foreign nation, he created another program, Escape to the Wild, following families who have dispensed with their urban lives for a new one in remote destinations around the world.

Northern lights over Norway.

This roaming behaviour is in the spirit of restless Gemini (ruling Britain’s soul), ever seeking new experiences, represented by Sagittarius polar opposite. Sagittarius is quite contrary to Cancer (fire and water) – these two signs are easily in conflict. Cancer can be conservative and stay-at-home, cautious about venturing beyond the immediate community, whilst Sagittarius wants to ravish the beyond!

William Blake was Cancer rising with a Sagittarius sun (as is the city Washington), no doubt reconciling those forces through his extraordinary creative output, traveling in consciousness beyond his home in London. (Coincidentally, the Sun at this Cancer full moon will be conjunct Blake’s ascendant at 18 degrees Cancer.)

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …”

Everyone has different needs and lessons over the cycle of incarnations, but the one constant home that cannot be denied is the soul. “Home is where the heart is,” reflects Cancer’s keynote, “I build a lighted house and therein dwell.” This must be the keynote for each individual and for Mother Earth as a whole:

“You are in process of incarnation; you are following your chosen way. Is the house you are building yet lit? Is it a lighted house, or is it a dark prison? If it is a lighted house, you will attract to its light and warmth all who are around you and the magnetic pull of your soul, whose nature is light and love, will save many.

If you are still an isolated soul, you will have to pass through the horrors of a more complete isolation and loneliness, treading alone the dark way of the soul. Yet this isolation, this loneliness and this separation in the dark night are all part of the Great Illusion.”2

Cancer is also the ruler of two capitals of the USA, Washington and New York. People from all over the world have made this nation their home. (See other newsletters about these themes: Cancer in the USA: Washington and New York City and Born on the 4th of July: United States of America.

On the way to a crop circle, Britain, 2014. (See previous report on crop circles. Author’s photo.)

Cancer: The Cry of Mother Earth
Cancer is Mother Earth, ruling over the beauty and bounty of this planet, especially at this time of the year in the northern hemisphere when the golden wheat is ripening – a period full of hope, optimism and re-creation. There are many exhilarating beauty spots on this planet that provide nurture and inspiration for humans, but they are rapidly diminishing or being spoiled through lack of care.

These idyllic areas are often taken for granted, without a realisation of the perilous situation upon this ravaged planet. Most of us are aware of the endless list of environmental problems that are result of human greed, ignorance and apathy; the lack of connection between humans and the environment:

Earth

Polluted soils through toxic agricultural practices, industrial pesticides and fertilisers.
Denatured and toxic food products as a result of the practices above. The consequent lack of nutritional content and etheric vitality in food, compounded by various preservation methods.
The monopolising and patenting of seed stocks to create GMO foods that maximise profit but weaken the human constitution.
Excessive use of sugar, food additives and harmful substances in a wide range of foods. Many pharmaceuticals.
Oil and mining companies that still operate without environmental safeguards. Fracking to squeeze every last drop of oil out of the ground.

Water

Polluted rivers that feed into oceans all around the world.
Lack of clean drinking water and/or having to travel miles to get it and carry it home by hand.
The consequent creation of plastic bottles of water because local water is unsafe or over-fluoridated. The resultant pollution of empty plastic bottles – a never-ending cycle.
Lack of proper sanitation and sewerage facilities – dumping in rivers and oceans. Same for industrial waste.
Red algae tides created by agricultural fertiliser run-off into the ocean.
Continent-size cess-pools of plastic floating in various oceans.
Garbage and waste oils discharged by ships at sea.
Dwindling fish stocks polluted by chemicals, mercury and PCB’s. Fish farms that feed fish with animal products, creating more harmful food resources.
All creatures in the seafood chain that are affected, from birds to humans. Birds, dolphins and whales starved to death by eating plastic.
Super trawlers that “mine” the sea, taking everything in their path, leaving untold damage to the sea floor.

Air

Factories and power plants that spew billions of tons of toxic gases into the atmosphere – which, like the oceans, are distributed all around the planet.
Traffic – billions of cars burning billions of barrels of fuel, discharged into the atmosphere.
Chem trails – Controversial spraying by aircraft, geo-engineering weather, soil contamination, human behaviour etc. (Many videos here by researchers and scientists.)
Climate change and global warming, “greenhouse gases” – as a result of much of the foregoing but also naturally occurring long term cycles.
Thoughtless disposal of waste, ignorance of recycling methods, particularly in developing countries but also in many so-called “developed” nations. Humans estranged from their environment.
Obnoxious and toxic odours that invade many environments, not simply confined to industrial areas.
Noise pollution: As a result of all of the above, the roar of traffic, industry, machinery, amplified music, war, competition and a race for resources, all seriously impact Earth’s nervous system with many discordant sounds.

Etheric

Invisible magnetic pollution from microwave transmitters, power line towers, mobile phones, wifi, antennae, x-rays, nuclear waste leakages etc.
HAARP: Low and high frequency waves interfering with Earth’s electrical field – to effect weather control, create “natural” disasters, military weapon applications, electro-magnetic mind control etc.

These are just a few factors that come immediately to mind, there are probably plenty more! As a physician, considering all these planetary factors, as one would the human body, it’s a miracle that Earth, the “patient” – is still alive. Is the diagnosis terminal or can the nearly dead be raised back to life?

Can Humanity regenerate the planet in time to, as singer Patti Smith rages, “wrestle the earth from fools”? Many initiatives are of course being generated and this is encouraging, but will changes be effected in time to avoid a planetary calamity? Some major nations are now taking two steps back through their ignorant and self-serving environmental policies; financial decisions that maximise short term profit with no long term plan. In so doing, they will reap the karma and become victims of what they have failed to halt – become engulfed by environmental catastrophe.

London’s Burning: Crisis in Democracy
This analysis of recent events in London is simply an overview of an existing political bias that has led to these tragic events unfolding. Much of this next section is non astrological or esoteric, but it lays a foundation for the following section on London and Britain.

The esoteric teachings always exhort us to rise above these kind of dualities, inherent in the second ray of Love-Wisdom democratic ideal – that the world is still only approximating, in the face of the rising power of oligarchies. We are enjoined to not level criticism toward those who bear responsibility and add to the toxic pool of thought-forms that swirl around such events.

This is true, but we must also not plunge our heads in the sand and ignore the core issues at stake, or the human suffering; to be politically pro-active and hold leaders to account; to assess and analyse world events even-handedly, without allowing emotional bias or belief to distort our world view. It’s never an easy task and is always a “work in progress,” straddling the inner world of meaning and the outer world of illusion.

People from diverse ethnic origins react to the Grenfell fire.

The tragic fire at Grenfell tower in London cannot be separated from the recent string of terrorist and political events in Britain. All these incidents have occurred mainly as a result of government foreign policy and a selfish culture that characterises a large proportion of the population – a reflection of Western and Eastern nations in general. And London-Britain is a melting pot of practically every race and nation on earth.

History may well look back on this time as a defining moment when the tide finally started to turn back to more humanist ideals – a rejection of lying corporate media and propaganda, draconian political policies and an avaricious, tax-avoiding business paradigm.

This terrifying fire followed closely some of the most despicable and cruel terrorism in Manchester and London. The stark horror of helpless people having their throats slashed and being stabbed repeatedly around London Bridge, was matched at Grenfell by trapped tenants cruelly burnt alive. As of this writing – 79 dead, but probably a lot more. It has been speculated that the true figures may have been suppressed, as a political move to prevent widespread rioting.

The building had gained notoriety in recent years for lack of fire safety features, complained forcefully by a tenant committee and ignored contemptuously by local councils, private business and government. Cheaper non-fire proof materials had been used because the main motivation for the building’s recent £10 million renovation was to make it look a little more presentable in the up-market area around Kensington.

It has been revealed how bosses running the companies responsible for maintaining Grenfell Tower “on the cheap” have been living luxurious lifestyles, whilst caught up in accusations of tax avoidance, shoddy work and mismanagement. It has also emerged that Kensington council had stockpiled £274 million of usable reserves following years of chronic under-spending. A small fraction of that money could have been spent at Grenfell Tower to make it many times safer.

Hence, corners were cut and money saved in creating a new outer façade, a good metaphor for the businessmen, local councillors and politicians who sat on various reports and ignored the pleas of residents in the last few years. (One company in a string of companies involved with Grenfell’s renovation, is called Harley Facades!)

Britain was once a pioneer and champion of workers rights, but like many other Western nations, has lost much ground in recent decades.

Façade is also an appropriate word for describing some of the unimaginative cardboard cut-out leaders who take power and act out hollow charades for their shadowy masters. This façade, like that of propaganda media, is now being more widely seen through – and, like the Berlin Wall, is in the process of being torn down.

One should not make political mileage from such a tragedy, but the facts are there to see – this tragedy is extremely political as it cuts to the heart of what is wrong in modern Britain and the class divide, also prominent in other Western nations. The fire occurred very soon after the British elections which returned the Tories to a tentative power. The symbolism could not be more stark.

What the tragedy revealed was that basic working or middle class were discriminated against in the most pernicious and careless way. In January 2017, the Labour Party, to their credit, introduced an amended bill to “make homes fit for human habitation”; it was voted down by Tory MP’s, including the Fire Minister who, like 71 other ministers, happen to be residential landlords in and around London.

This is no doubt why Jeremy Corbyn was fuming with anger after Grenfell, suggesting symbolically that the 1,300 odd homes left vacant in Kensington and Chelsea by overseas investors, be “requisitioned” in order to rehouse those left homeless due to the Grenfell Tower fire.

Tricky Boris Johnson, sharing a Gemini sun with fellow Gemini Donald Trump. Both of them have been criticised as, “erratic, obnoxious and reckless.”

Another factor that hindered the blaze being fought was lack of staff and fire stations, many of them having been closed by another Tory cost-cutting measure, championed by none other than ex-Lord Mayor of London, Boris Johnson; in line with the Tories cutting police and emergency services, already strained to the limit.

Johnson implemented these cuts in 2014, closing ten fire stations, with the loss of 552 firefighters’ jobs and 14 fire engines. When the cuts were implemented in 2014, firefighters wept and embraced each other outside stations which closed – including Britain’s oldest, in Clerkenwell.3

Johnson overruled the London Fire Brigade and used legal action to create £29 million in cuts. By the time he stepped down as Mayor of London he created a further £100 million in cuts. When challenged by a committee on fire safety on how cutting the fire service would not increase deaths, he replied “get stuffed.” This littered trail of negligent acts over the last few years built up to the perfect storm that was Grenfell Tower, symptomatic of a more deeply rooted long term negligence:

“The negligence is a wholly broader matter of British governments’ systematic anti-democratic governance towards their citizens. This is typical of all Western countries which have succumbed to the neoliberal capitalist scam of enriching the few at the expense of the majority.

Margaret Thatcher and her so-called “pro-business revolution” – have pushed a neo-liberal capitalist economy which views public spending as an obstacle to enriching the elite in society. Private profit has become the sole basis of British governance. Labour governments under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were also besotted with this betrayal of working people in favor of the rich.”4

If the conscience of those governing forces have not been heavily pricked, then the nation is in a sad state. Polly Toynbee from The Guardian nails it deftly:

“… the Tory MPs who mockingly rejected housing regulation; the cuts to funding to councils responsible for retro-fitting fire suppressants; the disregard of coroner’s instructions after the 2009 Lakanal House tragedy; and even the plan to opt out of EU safety regulations. Conservative Kensington and Chelsea council allegedly blocking its ears to tenants’ well-founded anxiety is just the immediate scandal. But this event reaches far deeper, to the very sinews of its party’s policy.

That tower is austerity in ruins. Symbolism is everything in politics and nothing better signifies the May-Cameron-Osborne era that stripped bare the state and its social and physical protection of citizens. The horror of poor people burned alive within feet of the country’s grandest mansions, many of them empty, moth-balled investments, perfectly captures the politics of the last seven years. The Cameron, Osborne, Gove, Notting Hill set live just up the road.

Ruined house on Bishops Ave, Kensington (billionaire’s row).

From the 40% cuts to local councils, to the bedroom tax and the housing benefit cap banishing people hundreds of miles from family and schools, the people spilling out on to the street, sheltered by churches and mosques, are the unwilling emblems of deliberate Conservative attacks.

… Together with their poisonous press, they hardened public hearts against those struggling and working hard on low incomes … Here’s the moment public hearts soften and the idea of social security regains its meaning.

What a contrast was Jeremy Corbyn’s visit, hugging and embracing victims, promising to guarantee that never happens. No one could have devised a better parable to convey the difference between the two parties than those two leaders’ visits.”5

Contrasting approaches by political leaders.

The microcosm of the British situation is represented by the residents of Grenfell – black, white, Asian, African, Middle Eastern, European – predominantly immigrants it has been revealed. (It was bitterly ironic that the identity of the first victim announced was a refugee from war-torn Syria.)

Hence, Britain’s success at instilling fairer values and creating a new paradigm in the next few years will be an essential contribution to planetary recovery. It is also why Corbyn and the Labour Party’s newly won influence is critical during this change of the tides. But in the interim, there will be much more strife and turbulence in the next few years – as the old paradigm is regenerated.

Corbyn rocks Glastonbury with a rousing speech, finishing with a quote from Shelley: “Rise like lions after slumber, in unvanquishable number! Shake your chains to earth like dew, which in sleep had fallen on you: ye are many – they are few!” (From “The Masque of Anarchy”.)

The Tories are flailing and failing on many fronts (“That tower is austerity in ruins”), squirming under the weighty realisation that the values and lifestyle they once had are now up for serious revision:

“It has taken a long time for the greater British public to wake up to the anti-democratic scam that passes for government. For many years, a largely right-wing, pro-Tory news media have helped to bamboozle people about the real nature of the capitalist scam of ransacking society for the enrichment of the few. But things seem to be changing now in fundamental ways. A great awakening is underway.

People can increasingly see how communities and public services are being neglected and consigned to crumby social conditions. British governments can find billions of pounds to spend on overseas wars killing innocent men, women and children in far-off countries; these governments have no problem finding vast sums of money for building nuclear weapons and expanding NATO forces across Europe to threaten Russia with at the risk of world peace.

Austerity rioters Madrid, Spain.

But when it comes to providing ordinary working people with decent jobs, wages, housing, education and health, well, suddenly, all the official talk turns piously to “balancing budgets” and the need for “austerity” to “prudently” manage the public finances.”6

Or, the Tories £1 billion “bribe” to their new coalition partners, the Irish DUP. Austerity, as its name suggests, is a very Saturnian fiscal discipline, devoid of compassion, favouring the moneyed elite whilst making the lower classes pay. The Violence of Austerity book argues that austerity is a form of systematic violence, that years of cuts have led to a dismantling of the social systems that operated as a buffer against economic hardship:

“Tenants are being told they will be rehoused as far away as Preston and threatened with being declared “intentionally homeless” if they refuse – meaning that Kensington and Chelsea council will have no duty to house them. That’s the latest symbol from Grenfell of how social housing, and the tenants who need it, are seen: a problem to be hidden from sight.

Sao Paulo, Brazil – the great divide is universal. The favela on the left is ironically called Paraisópolis (Paradise city).

It would be easy to convince ourselves the events of last week were purely a sign of this country’s housing failures. But housing inequality doesn’t exist in a vacuum – a dark spot on an otherwise humane society. Rather, it’s one part of a pervasive system of inequality – a widespread abandonment of Britain’s poorest.

As the smoke was still clearing from the black skeleton of Grenfell Tower, the United Nations released a major report stating that the UK has some of the highest levels of hunger and deprivation among the world’s richest nations. One in three children in the country is in what Unicef calls “multi-dimensional poverty”: that’s deprivation in housing but also in clothes, social activities and food. This is the reality told by countless organisations on the ground: social workers, nurses, welfare rights advisers and debt charities.”7

According to some surveys and through current political ineptitude, the housing crisis and home shortages in Britain will only get worse, reflecting the fact that Grenfell is just the tip of the iceberg:

“More than 1 million households living in private rented accommodation are at risk of becoming homeless by 2020 because of rising rents, benefit freezes and a lack of social housing, new research from Shelter has found.

The University of Oxford has published the biggest nationwide study on food banks to date – a spotlight on poverty through Britain’s food parcels. It found that four in five Trussell Trust food bank users are severely food insecure: that means skipping meals and going without eating – sometimes for days at a time. Over half couldn’t afford heating or toiletries. One in five had slept rough in the last year. The Trussell Trust calls this “multiple forms of destitution”: where a person can’t afford deodorant, a hot meal, or the rent.”8

The 16-petal throat centre, or Vishuddha chakra. Seat of the mental body in a human, nation or planetary centre.

London: Planetary Throat Centre – The Esoteric View
As London is one of the five planetary centres (throat) for the Fifth Rootrace, an urgent rescue of democratic principles – in the city that founded democracy, will have a powerful effect upon Western nations.

Looking at this subject as apolitically as possible, the Labour Party’s extraordinary performance through Jeremy Corbyn, is having a ripple effect in the USA. The Tories by comparison, have been running a dictatorial government made all the more unpalatable by unfair, inhumane policies and cold, dry “austerity measures.”

As above, so below: As the throat centre is the seat of the mental body for a human being, so there are throat centres within nations and a throat centre for the Fifth Rootrace as a whole. (New York – Ajna. Geneva – Heart. Tokyo – Solar Plexus. Darjeeling – Head. London – Throat.) As discussed in this article, there is good reason to speculate that London is the throat centre, the seat of the mental body for Western nations – in this Fifth Rootrace, Anglo-Saxon branchrace 5.5.5.

All ideas and thought-forms become polluted and crystallised eventually, requiring them to be broken up and purged. Britain has been in a process of purification since these horrific events have broken through the surface of its political complacency. In the broader and longer term view, this purification has been occurring for the Fifth Rootrace as a whole since the world wars of last century; the planet is now going through a third and hopefully final phase of that conflict.

The foulest terrorist attacks have been committed, yet there has also been a savagery of government policy, an inequity and iniquity of big business, a constant scheming and craving for power; major media sources promoting appalling propaganda headline banners, riding roughshod over the thinking of the common people. Hence, the current ongoing crisis for London-Britain is so utterly crucial for the world as a whole.

The ruling elite certainly has a gross lack of understanding about the law of cause and effect – karma. The fact that terrorists do not just come out of nowhere, they are created by the injustices and manipulation of Western governments and colonialism, compounded by the Jihadists’ own religious extremism; they make themselves easy scapegoats.

Vulcan, the divine smithy and ruler of the first ray of will-power. (Spectre over Los from Blake’s Jerusalem.)

It is said that the first ray personality of Britain works through London, in its “building aspect,” not the destructive side of the first ray. Here, Vulcan the divine smithy, hammers out and tempers new ideas (through the people and parliament) within the mental body of the West; he modifies old forms within his fiery furnace and shapes them anew. Commenting upon the first ray and Britain’s role as a world leader in WWII, we are told:

“It is the service of the whole which is being attempted and at great cost, and the effort is to express the Law of Synthesis which is the new emphasis pouring through from Shamballa. Hence the fact that the governments of many nations found asylum in Great Britain during the war.

… if the Forces of Light triumph because of the cooperation of mankind, the energy expressing itself through this powerful empire will be potent in establishing a world order of intelligent justice and a fair economic distribution. The keynote of this force is “I serve.””9

Written about seventy years ago, with high hopes no doubt, from the Master. “Intelligent justice and a fair economic distribution” concern the sign of Libra, the personality expression of London, also expressive of the great democratic ideal/experiment working through that nation.

“Intelligent justice” has been notably expressed since those words were written – and “fair economic distribution” might have worked for a while. Currently however, it seems that the lower side of Libra expresses through the dominance of a manipulative and unfair financial system that is based in London, the world’s largest financial centre. Gains by workers’ unions have been slowly eroded away these past few decades and this an universal trend.

Aftermath of a German bombing raid in London. Give a Brit a nice cuppa tea and they will get through anything!

London has a Leo soul which represents a monarchy that still has a high profile – and a very high £374 million bill for the restoration of Buckingham Palace! Leo represents world leadership which Britain has admirably performed in the past, but currently is expressing in its lower and most distorted form, through dictatorial and tyrannical government and business.

The first ray personality of Britain (upholding the principles of freedom and democracy) has given it a tenacious staying power when it was bombed night after night for two years during WWII. In fact, the British blitz (from “blitzkrieg” – lightning) was a fiery attack by Germany (also a first ray personality), upon London, the throat centre of Western nations. This is most ironic, as Germany is the Saxon portion of the Anglo-Saxon twins which express the highest aspect of the development of mind in the Fifth Rootrace.

But due to Germany’s mediumistic Pisces personality, it became possessed by the powers of darkness. On behalf of those forces, it attempted to drag Britain down from the throat centre to that of the planetary sacral centre – pure materialism. The German lesson then should sound a dire warning to other nations now – just as capable of losing their way, their purpose within the family (Cancer) of nations.

Fifth Rootrace Subraces Integration
In this third phase of our planetary conflict, a Democratic phoenix must eventually arise from the ashes of destruction. As the author has discussed elsewhere, this current period also represents an integration of the subraces of the Fifth Rootrace, in particular the third Semitic subrace (5.3) with the fourth (5.4) Celtic-Latin and fifth (5.5) Teutonic-Nordic subraces of the Fifth Rootrace. The fifth Anglo-Saxon branchrace belongs to the fifth subrace, hence its 5.5.5 quintessential status. (Germany is currently the most powerful nation in Europe – at least economically.)

Never before in human history have these mass migrations occurred, hence the particular problem integrating Middle Eastern and northern African nations who belong to the Semitic subrace 5.3 – composed of Arabs, modern Egyptians, Moors, Afghans and Jews. There has been ancient enmity toward this third subrace by the fourth and fifth subraces for aeons, more noticeably expressed in recent centuries as persecution of Jews.

In particular, in the last few years, these mass migrations have been as a result of Western interference in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria; to Western meddling can be added Arab (Saudi) and Jewish (Zionist Israel) scheming and collaboration. Hence, it is important to see the large view of history and the fact that before too many more decades and generations elapse, there will be greater harmony and integration. That is, if the current world crisis is met and resolved over the next few years.

Today, with so many geopolitical changes and wars, there has been an acceleration of refugees and immigrants from these nations. It has compounded existing problems created around Europe in the past fifty years, which on the whole has been a successful integration. Of course there are those who would vehemently disagree with this view, but usually they are not considering the longer term cycles, tending to be blinded by the myopia of immediate short term problems that tend to distort the true picture.

These problems which are very deep in terms of poisonous religious ideologies, must be given perspective to the long term integration, which may take several more decades and generations to effect. Nothing can stop this integration from occurring, it is part of the Planetary Plan.

The reader will note also the correspondence to this third subrace and the number 3, the ray of Active-Intelligence or Adaptability that Britain possesses in its ray make-up. This may explain why London/Britain has such a strong attraction for people from the Arab world. The third ray is ruled by Saturn (the Law) and the Earth:

“Here you have a clue as to why the British Empire covers the Earth, for there is a close connection between the Earth, as a whole, and Great Britain.”10

Crop circles/glyphs have also played an important role and currently it is the peak of the crop circle season. It has been speculated that Britain is like the “ear of the world” – just as acupuncturists treat points on the ear for the whole body, so the analogy holds for the annual crop circle “acupuncture” – upon ancient power spots and earth meridians – that are connected to every other part of the planet.

The circles are beautiful and complex geometrical shapes, corresponding to the seventh ray of ceremonial magic, the personality ray of London. Thus the glyphs/circles fall within the aura of London (mainly in the Wiltshire region), but have been reported around its entire circumference over the years.

Cancer Rising William Blake: Mystic, Artist and Poet (1757-1827)
In the esoteric writings of the poet and artist William Blake (Cancer rising), the character of Los is the first ray ruler Vulcan. Los is frequently depicted in Blake’s art with a hammer at his forge (see earlier picture above), symbolic of the beating of the human heart, whilst the bellows are the human lungs.

Blake was a Londoner who lived in Lambeth. His character Los (the “eternal prophet”), creates the visionary city of Golgonooza, a city of the imagination, the “spiritual four-fold London,” a vision which is linked to the New Jerusalem – Blake’s “great city of art and science,” complementing the 5^th ray soul of this city.

The fifth ray of science and the fifth sign Leo influence the soul of London, hence its “mental jurisdiction” over the Fifth Rootrace. Blake used anagrams and Los is no exception, being “Sol,” the sun, ruler of Leo, the sign where his esoteric ruler is placed. Sol also affirms that esoterically the “Sun and Vulcan are one.”11 Golgonooza is surrounded by a moat of fire and walled against “Satan and his wars, the city extending its influence over the whole nation:

“From Golgonooza the spiritual Four-fold London eternal
In immense labours & sorrows, ever building, ever falling,
Thro Albions four Forests which overspread all the Earth …
(From Milton 6:1-7.)

Six years ago, the author wrote a profile of William Blake from the perspective of his Sagittarian sun.12 Blake was one of the greatest visionary artists and romantic poets that ever emerged from Britain, spanning the 18th and 19th centuries. He was so far ahead of his time that he was considered mad by some of his contemporaries.

Pity.

There were several mystical influences in his life, from Swedenborg to Jacob Boehme. He was a devout Christian and scholar of the Bible but abhorred organised religion. His artistic renderings of the Bible are highly esoteric. Blake was inspired by the American and French revolutions that took place during his life, when Uranus, ruler of revolution and the seventh ray of magic, was discovered in 1781.

Uranus dominates Blake’s horoscope, sitting on the midheaven (career/dharma), giving him originality and innovation, and inspiring him to be a revolutionary in his chosen field. His Uranus, no doubt attracted the “mad” or “eccentric” labels from the conservative status quo. Blake was born at the beginning of the 500-year cuspal period of the ages of Neptune-ruled Pisces and Uranus-ruled Aquarius.

Uranus rules the seventh ray and, combined with the fourth ray of art and beauty, makes the outstanding artist who can give form to colour:

“… [the fourth ray] … is pre-eminently the ray of colour, of the artist whose colour is always great … The combination of four with seven would make the very highest type of artist, form and colour being both in excelsis. [Nicholas Roerich is another good example of this kind of artist.]

The literary work of the seventh ray man would be remarkable for its ultra-polished style, and such a writer would think far more of the manner than of the matter in his work, but would always be fluent both in writing and speech.”13

William Blake
(Other birth times show later degrees of Cancer rising.)

Blake has been characterised as a “glorious luminary” and by modern critics as, “far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced.” Sagittarius is the visionary, who through great devotion and aspiration, grasps the inner vision and wrestles it from the mind of God.

Neptune is also the visionary and is Cancer’s soul ruler, this planet ruling the sixth ray of devotion and idealism. Though the sixth ray is passing out of incarnation, in this particular cycle, its strongest expression through Sagittarius. Given Blake’s unwavering devotion, it is possible that he was a sixth ray soul with a sixth ray emotional body – working within a greater sixth ray cycle that spanned the age of Pisces.

Keats, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Blake.

The Broader Context of Romanticism
The era of Romanticism (1800-1850) arose as a reaction to the Industrial Age. Blake was part of a “band of brothers,” members of a group of advanced souls, “sent into incarnation” to help offset the dangerous side-effects of the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840), and the cycle of the fifth ray of science that began in 1775.

This fifth ray cycle emerged as a sub-cycle of the longer cycle of the sixth ray of Idealism. Blake envisaged a synthesis of these two rays, in his mythical “Golgonooza” a city of “art and science” – a veil for his home town of London – which is a fifth ray soul. Yet, probably through witnessing the horrors of the Industrial Revolution, he later made comments indicating his struggle with scientific materialism, criticising individuals who were initiates of those disciplines:

“Art is the Tree of Life. Science is the Tree of Death,” the visionary Blake wrote. He condemned the scientific trio of Isaac Newton, John Locke and Francis Bacon as sterile and materialist.”14

Coalbrookdale by Night. (Philip Jacques De Loutherbourg.)

This fifth ray of science (pouring through London) was a great stimulus for the Industrial Revolution but its shadow expression was mind separated from love and ignoring the by-products of the European industrial revolution: human degradation, pollution and greed; hence the phrase from one of Blake’s poems, “dark satanic mills.”

“Jerusalem [poem] is the symbolic residence of a humanity freed of the inter-related chains of commerce, British imperialism, and war. Blake’s “mental fight” is directed against these chains. In his Blake: Prophet Against Empire … Blake’s “dark, Satanic Mills” are “mills that produce dark metal, iron and steel, for diabolic purposes . . . London . . . was a war arsenal and the hub of the machinery of war, and Blake uses the symbol in that sense.”15

From the perspective of the “chains of commerce,” weapons manufacturing and war, it seems not much has changed when assessing this nation today – just a greater sophistication!

The Ancient of Days. (Esoterically, Melchizedek or Sanat Kumara.)

The souls who entered incarnation at that time were the poets of Romanticism – a literary, artistic and philosophical period that began in the mid to late 1700’s. Poets such as Blake (b.1757), Keats (b.1795), Shelley (b.1792) (writer Mary Shelley b.1797), Byron (b.1788), Coleridge (b.1772) and Wordsworth (b.1770) were all part of this coterie – and knew each other or were aware of each other’s work.

The Romantics preferred a more passionate and imaginative expression (sixth ray), compared to the Age of Enlightenment – that was more about pragmatic reason (fifth ray). Romanticism was expressed through literature and the arts, aiming toward a broader outlook that recognised human passion and emotion, in which the intellectual, critical mind was to be counter-balanced by the spirit of imagination; and intellectual wit replaced by humour and pathos.16

These poets were most likely sixth or fourth ray souls (on the “even” second ray line) who incarnated on a sixth ray sub-cycle that began before the fifth ray sub-cycle; they were also hosted by a second ray soul nation, Britain. Paralleling these “poets of emotion” was the incarnation of various souls on the line of religion, also a province of the sixth ray:

John Wesley.

“ … the religious revival under [John] Wesley (1703-1791) and Whitfield in England was under the sixth subray … the rise of Molinos [1628-1696] and the Quietists in Spain and Central Europe, and of St. Martin [1743-1803] and his band of spiritual philosophers in France and elsewhere, may have also marked the progress of the same period, during which the Ray of Devotion was accentuated by its own sixth sub-ray.”17

Ultimately however, the Romanticism initiative was regarded by the Masters as a failure because of Humanity’s overall lack of response. Hence the ongoing imbalance created, leading to a withdrawal of the fifth ray force, “by special and unique arrangement,” culminating around 1999. It was deemed that, “the impetus given to the human spirit of discovery had served its purpose.”18

Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing.

Blake’s Cancer Rising Soul Purpose
Blake was a visionary, as a result of having united the mystical, scientific and occult factors within himself, represented by Uranus and Neptune; he was not only a Sagittarian visionary but a deeply Neptunian one.

“Each state or field of the mind, each field of knowledge … which is reached by mental and emotional energies, is a psychical state, just as the mind picture of a stage with the actors on it, is a psychical state or field.

When the pure vision, as of the poet, the philosopher, the saint, fills the whole field, all lesser views and visions are crowded out. This high consciousness displaces all lesser consciousness. Yet, in a certain sense, that which is viewed as part, even by the vision of a sage, has still an element of illusion, a thin psychical veil, however pure and luminous that veil may be. It is the last and highest psychic state.”19

This mystical vision and “highest psychic state” is presided over esoterically by the planet Neptune. Blake had Neptune-ruled Moon in Cancer, and Cancer rising, a sign of great psychic sensitivity. Cancer-Moon-Neptune are all connected to mass consciousness.

Our Lady with the Infant Jesus Riding on a Lamb with Saint John.

Cancer is a water sign, symbol of the watery astral nature. Neptune is the God of the Waters and the soul ruler of this sign. As the rising sign represents soul purpose, Blake’s was to inspire and challenge mass consciousness through his visionary art and imagination. His Cancerian nature also enabled a deep empathy and sympathy for the less fortunate of humanity – similar to fellow writer Charles Dickens (Aquarius, 1812).

Cancer is a sign of birth and the two rays that pour through this sign, the third and seventh, are complementary to Cancer’s materialising skill. Blake birthed many inspirational ideas as they impressed him from the higher intuitive or buddhic realms:

“No man begins to co-ordinate the buddhic vehicles until he comes under Neptunian influence in some life or another. When this is the case, his personality horoscope will show Neptunian influence dominating somewhere … It is Neptunian influence likewise which presides over and makes possible the second Initiation, wherein the initiate produces results in the astral body.”20

Adam and Eve.

One of the sub-sciences of Esoteric Astrology (“the science of all sciences”) is the Science of Initiation. Blake may have incarnated as a second degree initiate and taken the third degree in that life. (See further in text.) He had many visions, as his art and poetry attest, starting early in life:

“From a young age, William Blake claimed to have seen visions. The first of these visions occurred as early as the age of four when, according to one anecdote, the young artist “saw God” when God “put his head to the window,” causing Blake to break into screaming.

At the age of eight or ten in Peckham Rye, London, Blake claimed to have seen “a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars.” According to Blake’s Victorian biographer Gilchrist, he returned home and reported this vision, and he only escaped being thrashed by his father for telling a lie through the intervention of his mother.”21

At the age of 17, Blake experienced visions in Westminster Abbey where he spent a lot of time drawing. He claimed that he saw Christ and his Apostles and a great procession of monks and priests – and heard their chanting.22

Elohim Creating Adam.

From these descriptions it seems that Blake came into incarnation with awakened vision and higher clairvoyance. The factor in the horoscope that points to this is his Cancer Moon (the past), in the twelfth house (the subtle realms).

Neptune is in turn, opposite Saturn in Aquarius, strongly aiding the materialisation of the vision. Aquarius is ruled by Uranus, placed right on the midheaven (public, career) – in Neptune-ruled Pisces, another watery sign of the imagination. Blake once said, “The imagination . . . is the Human Existence itself.”

Uranus and Pisces are deeply aligned with Sirius, the Christ consciousness and the heart of a disciple – of which Blake was obviously an advanced exponent. (Trace the descent of these forces in the middle column of the diagram below.)

Cosmic influences through the signs and planets.23

The Moon in Cancer also opposes Venus, the goddess of beauty and art. Venus is in Capricorn blending form with beauty, stimulating Blake’s awareness of the deeply hidden meaning of Capricorn – which is the Mystery of Makara, of the lunar and solar angels – profusely depicted throughout his artistic and poetic labours.

As a “double Cancer” Blake was a classic Cancerian, living in London for most of his life, only moving away once for three years. He lived in near poverty with his wife Catherine – Cancer is thrifty and can survive on very little! Blake’s priority was to complete as much creative work as possible:

Dante running from the three beasts.

“I must create a system or be enslaved by another man’s. I will not Reason and Compare, my business is to Create. In both his life and his art, Blake provided a powerful example of creativity at any cost—in the face of misunderstanding, neglect, loneliness, poverty, even accusations of insanity.”24

Most of Blake’s paintings unveil the activities of the inner human worlds, as well as their co-habitants, the deva or faery realm – and the greater archangels. He has created many definitely weird, puzzling and inexplicable paintings – one wonders from what far-off worlds gave him inspiration!

Whether Blake was a fourth or sixth ray soul, his astral body may also have been on the same ray, or ray line (2,4,6). This would have rendered his emotional body as the main receptor of the higher impressions that emanated from the buddhic plane.

Good and Evil Angels Struggling for the Possession of a Child.

There are plenty of factors in Blake’s horoscope that contribute to a strong expression of the second ray line of love-wisdom. Sagittarius is ruled by second ray ruler, Jupiter. Jupiter is in the first degree of Sagittarius conjunct his Sun, powerfully accentuating his Sagittarian personality. Due to the nature of the consciousness-expansive Jupiter here, Sagittarius gives a penchant for story-telling through painting and poetry.

Soul ruler Neptune is in the sign of Leo, conjunct the other ruler of the sixth ray, Mars. Warlike Mars conjunct pacific, mystical Neptune, makes a minor aspect to Uranus on the midheaven; hence the radical boldness of Blake’s art, in the face of a strait-laced British society and his chafing at the authority of the church.

Blake’s Sagittarian Sun rules the second house (spiritual resources) where the chart soul ruler is placed, creating a potent link between personality (Sagittarius) and soul (Neptune). The Sun and Jupiter tenant the fifth house of the chart, known esoterically as the “mansion of the soul.” Mercury in Scorpio is also another potent factor:

“Its true significance will not be understood until the consciousness of individual man is also planetary in its scope and grasp, which is never the case until after the third initiation.”25

Joseph of Arimathea preaching to the inhabitants of Britain.

Perhaps Blake had reached this exalted stage of consciousness, as a “brother of the third degree”? Mercury represents the way one thinks and communicates; in Scorpio, with great depth, insight and at times, very cutting and ruthless, as exemplified by his criticism of his one time teacher, scientist and psychic – Emmanuel Swedenborg.

This speculation of a third degree initiate is also supported by the potency of Sirius in his horoscope. His Cancer Moon (11° 32’) is closely conjunct the fixed star Sirius (10° 44’) – “The Star of Sensitivity.” Cancer’s esoteric ruler Neptune is placed in Leo, the month of the “Dog-star” Sirius, thus connecting Cancer to Leo.

“The influence of Sirius is not consciously felt until after the third initiation when the true nature of the spirit aspect begins to dawn upon the liberated, intuitive perception of the initiate. For the advanced initiate in this sign, and after the third initiation, Sirius becomes a major life factor.”26

Visions of the Daughters of Albion. (Albion is the old name for Britain.)

With Mars in Virgo in mutual reception to Mercury in Scorpio, there is added passion, idealism and loyalty in Mercury’s expression. All these factors come together in Blake’s epic and very esoteric poem Milton where,

“John Milton returns from Heaven and unites with Blake to explore the relationship between living writers and their predecessors, and to undergo a mystical journey to correct his own spiritual errors.”27

Milton was inspired by the story of a young Jesus who accompanied his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea to visit the Glastonbury of old. It is also connected to an ideal of establishing a “New Jerusalem” of which Jerusalem is the prelude, evolving into the stirring British anthem. (Video: Proms version. Billy Brag version.)

This is just a brief vignette into the life of this remarkable soul. Blake left a particularly indelible mark that will live on and continue to inspire countless generations, evoking a sense of mystery and the potentials of the creative imagination.

Jan Dietrich, astrologer and co-worker
This newsletter is dedicated to our friend Jan Detrich who passed on the Gemini full moon recently, after a short illness. Jan had the sun in Scorpio and a Pisces moon, giving her a depth of understanding and a spirit of generous loving-kindness that was an inspiration to her family, students and co-workers. She fulfilled her Aquarius rising soul purpose admirably through her co-operation with various group endeavours, her profession as an astrologer and as a dedicated student of the ageless wisdom. For those of you unfamiliar with her work and astrological writings, here is her website. She will be sorely missed! Peace, Jan.

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