In just similar manner as the solar conditions act upon the Earth so they act upon the physical constitution of man. For if at his birth the Sun is affected by the rays of negative planets there will be less vitality and force, while positive heat-producing planets, such as Jupiter and Mars, will give great vitality, strong muscular development, a great fund of energy and a sound constitution.
The Sun represents the organic constitution in the same way that the Moon represents the functional powers. Hence it is that the Sun, when afflicted by malefic aspects of the planets at a birth, gives warning of organic disorders of an inherent or hereditary nature, while the Moon similarly afflicted denotes functional disorders of an acquired nature. For many reasons we may regard man as in the same relations with his cosmic environment as is the Earth itself. Compounded as he is of cosmic elements, he responds at all points to changes that are continually taking place in the system. But he does so in terms of his radical constitution or root nature, which, of course, varies as the individual concerned. For all sidereal and planetary forces, while possessing their respective properties and expressing their own several natures, are differently received and transmuted according to the constitution of the recipient body. Hence the planets only affect us in terms of ourselves. The same white solar ray falling upon an emerald and a ruby will be differently reflected by each of them, appearing as green in the one case and red in the other. So it is with men. They each reflect the Wisdom and Love of the Universal Being in a variety of forms of knowledge and affection, expressed in speech and action, which is the common life. This fact should save us all from the error of bigotry and dogmatism. It is only the Diamond Heart that can reflect the pure ray of the Divine. It is comforting to know that the diamond is the mature carbo-hydrate. Given the conditions and the time, the soul that is as black as coal can become, by evolutional processes, as clear and pellucid as the diamond. We begin as fragments of gross earth and end as suns in the galaxy of heaven.
It is customary for astrologers to refer to the various planets as good, evil and neutral. Thus Saturn, Uranus and Mars are regarded as malefic, while Jupiter and Venus are called Benefics. This is not the truth, however convenient it may be to retain these ascriptions for purposes of delineation. Every planet has two aspects, and these aspects are referred to the higher and lower natures of our being. Mars, for instance, is merely Energy, the focussed or specialized vitality of the Sun. It answers to the red ray. Operating in a person of low mental and moral calibre, it will produce a Free-thinker, a Firebrand and Anarchist, and a man of violence and lawlessness. The same planet, when expressing itself through a highly evolved nature, will manifest as zeal, fervour, intensity, enthusiasm, enterprise, ambition and moral courage. Venus in the same way may indicate self-indulgence, idleness, pleasure-seeking, vanity, frailty and licence in a person of low nature, while in one of greater moral fibre and higher standard of life, the same planet will manifest as gentleness, kindness, charity, pure affection, orderliness and refinement. There is a whole cycle of evolution between the sordid, money-grubbing propensities of “the man with the muck-rake” and the provident carefulness and circumspection of the man who is under the influence of the higher Saturnine ray. It is all a question of personal colouring. It is not that the planets rule us and compel us to be that which we are, but that we transmute and corrupt the natures of the planets and abuse the energies and powers which they confer on us. We can never hope to be lords of the Universe, but we can be rulers of ourselves. Self-government is at the root of the matter. We attain to it through experience and suffering. It is not born with any man, but there are those among us who remember their lessons well and speedily get themselves into touch with their environment, and their faculties and powers under control. It is not altogether a truth that “The wise man rules his stars and the fool obeys them.” It is rather the fact that the wise man rules himself, all else the stars compel. True, a number of oppositions and squares in a horoscope of birth will certainly give a man a full share of experience, but the uses of adversity are sweet. Evolution does not wholly consist in getting all we can out of life, but also of reading into it as much as we can. We all know how much we are affected by our environment. Our business is to find out how much our environment can be affected by us. And by environment we have to include that which presses us most nearly in the form of our own personality. To get this under our control is very largely to annihilate the adverse aspects of the planets.
All this is possible, because all planetary influences are modes of the One life, and that which animates the physical body is the solar ray, while that which animates the mind of man is the Spiritual Sun.
Life has no qualities of its own, it gets them by use or function. The same energy that is expended in rioting and bloodshed could as readily be used for purposes of constructive enterprise. Extravagance is only a morbid generosity, a philanthropy gone astray. The Sun that shines alike on the just and the unjust cannot be credited with all the abuses to which we submit our vital powers. Why, then, should we ascribe to the planets all those evil influences which in truth have no existence except in ourselves, who are both receivers and transmitters of their influence? This truth has been finally stated by the great Interpreter, who said: The good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth that which is evil.
So far as their cosmic functions are concerned the planets are organic interpreters, the Sun being the source of Vitality or Life. The Sun, therefore, holds chief place in the consideration of astrologers and is the foundation principle of the horoscope, all calculations and all measures of time having regard to the Sun’s position and to its postnatal motion.
No wonder that the ancients gave to the Sun a place in Cosmic Symbolism which embraced a whole mythology and gave rise to the use of its symbol in all religious services, seeing that it is the source of all physical life and illumination. The ancient Aryans and the Persians regarded it as the physical presentation of the Supreme Being, and even at this day it is retained as a divine symbol in the ordinances of the Catholic Church. Some idea of the divine attributes ascribed to the Day-star may be gathered from the Vedic Hymns, one of which I have endeavoured to represent in the following lines—
Invocation to the Vernal Sun.
O quickening Fount of life,
Sun-soul supernal;