
Many of those who take up the study of astrology complain of the great obscurity of the books of study, of the many technical terms, incomprehensible to the laity, and especially of the difficulties of the calculations, which latter are unsurmountable for those who have no knowledge of mathematics and cosmology.
I will, therefore, try to remove these obstacles, by using foreign names as little as possible, and by simplifying the calculations in such a manner that any one of average intellect and with a knowledge of ordinary arithmetic, may be able to follow this study without much difficulty.
Further, I will try to be as brief and clear as possible, omitting all superfluous digressions, and yet giving a fairly complete survey of that branch of Astrology which is called Genethliacal Astrology, that which applies to nativity or birth.
This branch is by far the most important and therefore counts most students.
Astrology has the advantage over other occult sciences in that it asks no “belief” of the student, but only investigation. Any one who takes up the study of his own birth horoscope, with some assiduity, will be able to demonstrate by numerous facts, looked up by himself, that Astrology is true, is founded on facts in nature.
To this end it is positively necessary to know the exact time of one’s birth, and as, for the last half century, the hour of birth had to be filled in at the registry , one might go there for inquiry.
Next you will have to obtain an ephemeris for the year in which you were born; you may then cast your own horoscope and study it. You will find how extremely interesting this study is!
Those who know by research and experience, how much our life, our doings and dealings, our moods, in fact, all that happens in the world, is influenced by the powers that work in the Cosmos, often wonder how it is possible that a science such as astrology, which comprises the study of those cosmic powers, has relatively so few students and so many opponents. It is strange, for it is easy to show the truth of astrology practically, to any one who wishes it.
One reason of astrology being discredited is surely to be found in the rubbish brought into the market under the name of astrology and planetlore, but having nothing whatever to do with it in reality. In every branch of science, however, fraud and charlatanism are to be found.
But the principal causes are the dogmatism of modern religions and the rapid development during the last centuries of materialism, which has brought man to accept only that which he can observe with his three-dimensional senses and explain through well-known physical laws, regardless of the cause, the foundation of these phenomena. We need not accept anything supernatural in astrology, according to this doctrine also everything happens along natural and unchangeable laws; but also it teaches us that in the Universe laws operate of which we still know very little; we see them in their outward results, but so far we can only guess how they work. For this reason astrology is for the greater part an empirical science, it is founded on observations which have been made for centuries.
Astrology begins to gradually draw the attention of the public, of late. In the United States there is already a University of Astrology, where one may graduate in this science, and the time is coming when the elements of astrology will be taught in schools as a part of cosmology, and for England as well, that time will come, however conservative the English may be. Is it not far more useful for a child to understand something of life in the Cosmos, than to be able to give the exact date of the settling of Flemish weavers in Pembrokeshire, or to know on which day for the first time the eldest son of the English sovereign was called Prince of Wales?
What great a part astrology might play in the sphere of education, in self-education as well as in the hands of parents and teachers! By going carefully through the children’s horoscopes, they would get to understand their pupils better and realise that under certain planetary influences they could scarcely help acting in an unusual manner and thus many an unjustly inflicted punishment will be left aside.
Every child bears at his birth his own characteristics in him, and these will never change, they are inseparable of his individuality and this the pedagogue has to take into account, if he wants to make of a child what can be made of him. And for this,
accurate knowledge of his characteristics and talents, on which his horoscope throws light, must show the way. As things often are now, failures are made of them; – ignorant of the laws, they try to lead the child in a direction not meant for him, and the natural talent gets suffocated. Yet, it will assert itself later, but only after much disappoinment and failure.
The material sciences, however far advanced, are still far from being complete, and moreover deal with the outer side only; to the Foundation of things the real Cause they do no penetrate and they are not as yet sufficiently advanced to set themselves with some ground up as competent judges of the occult sciences.
We may respect the great progress of the material sciences, and apply ourselves to them with the greatest interest, if we still bear in mind that they are far from being omniscient and that to a high degree it is narrow and conceited and in the true sense of the word “unscientific” that a great thinker like e.g. Hackel, the German “Darwin” puts his professoral veto on theological, cosmological, teleological and ethnological proofs of immortality. Not everything can be reduced to a palpable scientific ground.”
Though the astrological influences do not fall beyond the sphere of natural laws, they do fall beyond the circle in which our sciences of nature move and therefore material scientists are incompetent to put their veto on them. How often are the material scientists compelled to change their theories and hypotheses, in order to accept in the end that which, centuries ago, was acknowledged to be true by the occult science? We need only point to the atom-theory which has been altered repeatedly and the theory of vibrations. And likewise it will happen with chemistry, the great number of elements will melt together into the one Ur-element that Occultism has, and of which the other elements are only vibration-proportions. Occult Science has always been some centuries in advance of the material sciences; it is the mother of those sciences and the mother of religions as well; for it contains the esoteric, the inner side of all religions. And astrology is a part of the occult sciences.
All religions are based on the esoteric doctrine and are the different, outer (exoteric) expressions of it. However much they differ, they are all necessary; for all men have not evolved in the same direction, each differs in his conception of truth. His present conception serves him as long as it is needful to his evolution. After that he searches, guided by intuition in another direction.
Change of conception in religion should not always be ascribed to inconstancy; it is often the consequence of moral and intellectual growth.
All religions are views upon the great castle of truth, seen from different angles and through a more or less dense veil of dust. All reveal to us one side of the Universal Truth, but in proportion to the veil, more or less hazy and twisted. They are all, however, useful and needful to their followers.
The occult sciences, which give us the key to many mysteries of life and evolution, were wrapped in a shape, comprehensible to initiates only, and this is to a sense the case with our Bible as well. This is not only for the reason that humanity as a whole was not yet ripe to understand the truths which they contain, but also because the initiates were officially forbidden to speak of them, during the long time of persecutions to which they were exposed. So they kept their wisdom for humanity in this way.
Author: C. Aq. Libra
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