Cosmic symbolism

by Sepharial

However, to come to the practical side of the argument for and against the subject, I may deal with some of the more weighty objections which have been lodged against it.

First, there is the argument of coincidence which is used to explain away the fact of successful prediction. This in cool logic is no argument at all, for the only coincidence that is shown is that of the prediction and the subsequent course of events. Now if there were a single prediction which in human judgment could not have been otherwise foretold but by the application of some commonly-called “occult” knowledge, this would suffice to confirm the claim that foreknowledge is scientifically possible. But what do we mean by coincidence. If apples falling from a tree pursued different directions, some falling direct to the earth and some in the contrary direction towards the sky, while others went off at a tangent, it may be called a coincidence that one should fall in the direction previously determined upon and named. But if all the apples tend in the same direction and fall along the lines of the earth’s radial magnetism direct towards its centre, then we may posit a law of attraction.

Now if we can show a definite direction of all planetary influence—that is to say, show that the same planet always maintains the same significance in the astrological scheme, that its effects are always of the same general character, and that these effects synchronize with the arc by which the planet is separated from the position of any of the prescribed Significators, then we may claim to have established the law of planetary influence—or, if you will, of cosmic symbolism. We are not now concerned with the question of the causative or symbolic relations of our greater environment. This connection between planet and event we can certainly show.

Another argument is that the discovery of the heliocentric system by Copernicus invalidated the conclusions of the astrologers which were based on the geocentric positions of the planets. We cannot allow this for the following reasons. The Suryasiddhanta of India antedates the system of Copernicus by many hundreds of years and it is heliocentric. India is nevertheless the schoolhouse if not the nursery of Astrology, and planetary influence in human life is practically an article of faith with the Hindus. The conclusions of Copernicus were confirmed and demonstrated by Tycho and Kepler. Tycho practised astrology while Kepler confirmed its principles and added to its credentials by successful prediction. In a universe of relativity, every planet is the centre of its own system, as every man is the centre of his own world, and the Astrologer who studies the action of the planets on this earth and its inhabitants, rightly regards the latter as the passive centre of such action. As the fortunes of a country centre in its Ruler, so those of the individual centre in himself.

A further argument urged against the Science is that the discovery of the planets Neptune and Uranus must vitiate conclusions drawn from an incomplete cosmical system. The argument has really very little value. The discovery of Argon as a constituent of the earth’s atmosphere does not involve any change in our ideas about oxygen, hydrogen, or nitrogen. What was argued in regard to the nature of Saturn a thousand years ago is maintained by all modern Astrologers. It is the same with all the other planets. Only we have the added knowledge of the nature and influence of the two planets Neptune and Uranus to supplement what the ancients knew about the rest of the solar system. In former days when they could not discover adequate reasons for death, a man was said to have died by “the visitation of God.” To-day with our extended knowledge of the solar system it is found that Uranus or Neptune has been the agent of the Lord of Life and Death.

Another objection raised against the idea of planetary influence is that the bodies are so remote and insignificant as to be incapable of producing any marked effects in mundane affairs. The objection is grounded in ignorance. The distance of the planets bears no relation to their influence or power to affect us. This will be obvious to those who have reflected on the fact that etheric vibration becomes “light” only when it impinges on the earth’s atmosphere, and the fact also that the attraction of gravitation operates irrespective of distance and maintains the solidarity of the system. Planetary perturbations due to the mutual attraction of the several bodies is an adequate reply to the objection of Cicero. Sir David Brewster argues that if light could reach us from the distant stars and planets, other influences may also reach us from the same sources. Cicero, on the other hand, while possessed of magnificent ideas of the solar system and fully admitting its solidarity, asks with evident lack of argument, “What contagion can reach us from the planets whose distances are almost infinite?” We have gone beyond the “infinite” of Cicero since that question was asked, and modern astronomers are able to demonstrate the fact that the Sun, while acting as the centre of attraction in its own system, is answering to the gravitational pull of some star in the confines of space, and that it has a proper motion of its own in a vast orbit about that centre. I have already expressed the view that Plato knew of this and that it was the basis of his Great Year. What hinders that our Sun may receive influences from its own lode-star, and that these may be transmitted to us in common with the other planets of our system? There is no harm in using the scientific imagination providing that we have some fact from which to proceed.

In connection with the teachings of astrology there is the scientific fact of natural selection to be considered. What is it that determines birth under particular astral conditions. We say that it is innate tendency. Locke, who in his Human Understanding argued for “no innate ideas” had a faulty perspective. He failed to account for genius through sense-impressions, as others have later failed to account for it through cumulative heredity. We have instances before us where it is obvious that there was nothing to accumulate so far as special forms of genius were concerned.

If, on the other hand, we accept the human being as an evolving Monad passing through a succession of incarnations for the purposes of experience and ultimate specialization of faculty, we shall at once understand how it is that certain persons are endowed with precocious tendencies of a definite order from infancy, and indeed birth. Given the time necessary to get into touch with the physical instrument and to “tune up,” as it were, the appearance of unusual faculty can in no way be hindered, because it is innate. In this connection Astrology affirms that persons are born with particular horoscopes because when the heavens are so disposed as to admit of, and indeed to favour, the expression of certain forms of genius and faculty, the Soul requiring those conditions is borne into earth-life. The doctrine involves the suggestion that there is a purpose in human existence and that such purpose is neither begun nor fulfilled in any one incarnation. Then, as there is a Spiritual Law in the Natural World, and a supra-cosmic law of planetary action, we can see how the line of least resistance is determined by innate tendency. In the Wisdom of Solomon it is said: “I am not good because I was born into an undefiled body, but being good I was born into a body undefiled.” There is therefore an ancient belief in the determination of birth conditions to innate character.

Colourless and purposeless individuals are found to be responsive to general or group influences and to be moved by the feelings and thoughts that animate the crowd. They have not yet attained that power of self-direction which characterizes the highly evolved Monad. Accentuated and purposeful characters, on the other hand, require specific influences under which to be born, and these influences must be conformable to the purpose in view. What that purpose is may be seen from their life and actions, and indeed it is written all over them for those who understand the physiognomy of Nature. Occasionally we have the incarnation of special Messengers who are responsive to the collective spirit of the superior world. These are found to voice the needs of the soul rather than of the body of man and their minds answer to a higher law than that which controls the average individual.

Very many factors conspire to the production of those astral conditions which favour the expression of individual character of a high order. Much depends on the sphere of life in which the purpose of evolution requires that they shall function. We have such examples of marked men in all spheres of life. But wherever they appear they are easily discernible by their horoscopes. Nature is not so profligate as some people imagine, for in the long run it is seen that her ways and means are those which invariably secure the end in view. If she is apparently careless of the mass she is at all events jealously careful in regard to such as have specialized, and we find by practical experience that she adapts environment to purpose with infinite care and foresight.