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The Language of the Stars Lesson I

This is the first of a series of fifteen lessons which get progressively more technical as we proceed. Only the first three will be shared as blog posts. The first lesson is shared here as a text document, but the second and lessons include astrological symbols best viewed as images of scanned pages. The full text is available at Iapsop.com.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE STARS, LESSON I. PLANETARY INFLUENCES.

That there are immutable laws in nature no man of common sense will deny. Principles are laws. Equally self-evident must be the fact that such natural law is administered through some agency, and that such agencies or instruments, obeying the attractive and repulsive forces dominating them, can only transmit their powers and fulfill the behests of creative and evolutionary law, by means of the sympathies and antipathies, which we find constituting the basis of all life, growth, death and decay. So it is with everything which has so far been submitted to the keen investigation of the human mind; the attraction of a sun for its planets, for instance; of a mother to her offspring; or of a man toward his help-mate—woman—are based upon the same eternal principle. They constitute the unchangeable analogies of nature, which we can neither ignore nor dispute.

Therefore, in this brief attempt to elucidate the nature and source of planetary influence, we are compelled, for want of space, to assume without further argument, that the sun, moon and planets are no exception to the general order of nature; but that they have a force, power and influence, each peculiar to itself, upon each other upon our earth and everything existing thereon. The fact that the tides of the ocean are ever obedient to the attractions of the moon in her orbit; that the gorgeous Helianthus, on the contrary, ever turns its golden head toward the sun, are but single straws that catch the student’s eye to indicate the trend of the great current of life. The stars and planets are the instruments by which the seven creative principles manifest themselves. They influence externally by their attractive sympathies and repulsive antipathies the cosmic life forces, which, in the realm of spirit, are controlled by their celestial rulers. By this we mean that the various physical orbs called planets, etc., act as so many magnetic centers. They are magnetic by solar induction, the sun itself being positively electric, and this mighty electrical force acts upon the physical planet precisely as an electric current acts upon a piece of soft iron.

The sum total of those powers, then, which are termed planetary influences is contained within the potentiality of the solar ray. But when so emitted as a cosmic force, the action of this solar ray upon the human organism and its material destiny is neutral. To become potential in special directions it is necessary to become refracted into active attributes. This is precisely the ministerial office of the planets. They each receive and absorb some one principle of the solar light and reflect such energy upon other bodies under a different polarity. This energy so transmitted is the planetary influence, whose laws and results constitute the language and science of the stars. That sound, motion, force and color have a distinct relationship is an admitted fact of science. The different intensity of the various vibrations produced by the mutual interaction of the planets of our solar system are productive of different colors, all of which are resolvable into each other in their natural order, and all ultimately into the pure white light from which they originally sprang. This is seen in the grandest of all solar spectrums, the rainbow. There are seven colors, three primary and four complementary, corresponding to the seven creative principles and the musical scale.

So likewise there are seven planetary forces known to astrologers as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon. Saturn absorbs the attribute which expresses itself as coldness, hence isolation and reserve. It is the blue ray in action. Jupiter absorbs the attribute expressive of generous warmth, hence a sanguine cheerfulness, which corresponds to the purple ray. Mars absorbs an energy, the polar opposite of Saturn, which expresses itself as fiery, aggressive; hence destruction, which is the red ray. The Sun retains and transmits an electrical, commanding force, which expresses dignity and self-reliance; it is the orange ray. Venus absorbs the attribute which expresses itself as love and ideality- this corresponds to the yellow ray. Mercury absorbs the attribute which expresses itself as mental energy; hence restlessness and invention, and is the violet ray. The Moon absorbs our earth’s influx, which is purely negative in its action, and corresponds to the green ray. These are the seven, and when these are complete in their mental actions upon the human organism, termed planetary for convenience or designation, and nature desires to continue her musical play, she ascends to a higher octave. Only two bodies are at present either visible or influential; they are as high as human evolution in the present cycle has reached. These orbs are Uranus and Neptune. The former the octave expression of Mercury and the latter of Venus. Further details will be given in succeeding lessons.