What a Reunification of Science and Religion (including Astrology) Might Look Like — part 2, Education and Politics
“So profound is the human intuition of the material world as a dance encoding the Will of God that it informs all the great religious traditions of our planet”¹.
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This is part of my unpublished book on Astrology, the fifth chapter of part 3. While taking a break from writing new material (see this article), I am using the opportunity to try to complete this project. (For what has preceded please see this list.) Part 3 is not so much about Astrology itself, rather the implications if there is any truth in it. In simple terms this means that we need to adopt a worldview completely different from the current dominant scientific paradigm. My suggestion is that we need to return to the pre-Enlightenment worldview which served humanity very well for thousands of years. (The term ‘Enlightenment’ to describe what has happened in the last 300 years I find somewhat ironic.)
Therefore in the first chapter of part 3 I associated Astrology with what is known as the Perennial Philosophy. I continued on that theme in the following article. Then in two articles (click here and here) I explored the thinking of ancient and indigenous peoples, showing that they had highly sophisticated spiritual and religious worldviews, contrary to what the modern ‘scientific’ worldview founded on reason would have us believe. In the next article I suggested that the future of humanity might in some sense be a return to these worldviews of the past, but at a higher turn of the spiral.
Because the original version of this chapter was so long, not wanting to discourage potential readers, for Medium I decided to break it up into three parts. In the previous article (the first part of my original chapter) I discussed some areas in which Astrology could be applied in modern times, without needing a completely new spiritual worldview: economic predictions, medicine, therapy and counselling, careers and marriage guidance. In this second one I’ll continue with the main thread of my argument from previous articles, which is my real interest.
chapter 24: WHAT REUNIFICATION WOULD LOOK LIKE (part 2 in Medium)
Turning now to my real question, how society would be different if QMAP (Quantum Physics + Analytical Psychology, a theory as to how Astrology might work, as developed in part 1) and the Perennial Philosophy were its underlying worldview, the ideas on which I want to focus are the following:
- There is a cosmic purpose hidden behind the apparent meaninglessness of the universe, to which we can attune ourselves.
2. Within this overall purpose, each individual personality is created for a reason, which is not immediately apparent. There is therefore a spiritual meaning to our lives.
Astrology can be used to help penetrate these mysteries.
Someone would be present at every delivery with the express purpose of recording the exact birth-time, which is usually considered to be the first breath, within a few seconds of the cutting of the umbilical cord. (Not all astrologers are in agreement that this is the best moment upon which to base a horoscope, so alternatives may have to be considered.) Armed with this information parents, guided by astrologers, could get to know their child before he or she develops, identify talents and weaknesses, problems that will have to be negotiated. They would then be better prepared for situations that arise. Later on teachers would be brought into the process. Thus a kind of committee of wise people would be created, taking responsibility for the spiritual growth of the child.
Astrologer Stephen Arroyo says: “A knowledge of astrology is especially useful in dealing with children, either as a parent or as a professional in some field. Very few children have sufficient awareness, perspective, or strength of ego to enable them to face completely the painful experiences of childhood. Therefore, like most adults, children tend to ignore, deny, or repress their painful feelings, thus postponing until later life the need to confront those emotions. And, since most adults tend to dismiss children’s feelings as rather unimportant, a child is often given the advice: ‘Don’t worry, it’s just a phase you’re going through. When you’re older, you’ll see that this really didn’t matter’. But the fact is that, for the child, it does matter right now! And if the parent, counsellor, teacher, or relative has the aid of astrology, he or she will be able to penetrate into the child’s inner experience and thus begin to relate to it more sensitively. Many of childhood’s painful experiences could be ameliorated if only the child had someone to talk with who really understood what was going on!”².
(Jung’s) Analytical Psychology describes the individuation process throughout various phases from birth to death. If our education system were based upon this idea, we would see education as continuing for the whole of life. The current separation between school and adulthood would therefore become more blurred, since the same ideas would underpin both. In the school phase, however, there would be:
1) a focus upon the psychological development of each individual, rather than teaching identical material to large classes. Stephen Arroyo again: “No amount of technical knowledge can outweigh the need for individual psychological and emotional growth”. “This very distinctness of individual persons is a factor relevant to education that is almost entirely neglected in teacher-training programs”³.
The central aim would be to uncover the spiritual meaning of children’s existence, and to prepare them psychologically for achieving it. This could involve ideas derived from tribal societies, for example the Vision Quest, and initiation ceremonies. Once the life-task has been discovered, this would become a project specific to the individual, with guidance from teachers and parents. Here are the views of an astrologer and a therapist on this point:
A.T. Mann: “One object of initiation was to force the initiate to realize that it is essential to accept a higher purpose (i.e., the survival of the whole tribe) which transcends personal value in life. Strength lies in the whole life or whole tribe or whole culture, and not just in one part, an idea which would be helpful today… Initiation provided a direction and purpose to life which was lacking in the unconsciousness of childhood”⁴.
Thomas Moore: “In this area (of caring for the psychological needs of children) people we call primitive are far advanced, providing their children with important and efficacious rites of passage”⁵.
Such an approach would seriously address the problems associated with identity crisis in adolescence. We are microcosms of The One. It is not surprising therefore that at some level we experience ourselves as a totality, as the whole world, especially in infancy when there is no ego-Self separation. The negative consequence of this can be extreme egocentric attitudes, treating everyone and everything outside as if it existed solely to serve the individual. This is an infantile attitude which is often carried forward into adulthood. As is obvious from the above it is based upon an illusion; the reality is that, yes we are each a microcosm of the Divine, but we are also a microcosm of the planet, which is a microcosm of the Divine at a higher level. (We are a hologram of a hologram etc.) The logic of understanding the true situation is to realize that we are each one small part of the system which is the planet; we each have some specific role therein, and our task is to discover that role, and seek to fulfil it. The needs of society, of the planet take precedence over the needs of the individual ego therefore. As astrologer Dennis Elwell says: “The (cosmic viewpoint) gives us a backdrop against which everything assumes a new and far more momentous significance. It places our individual development as human beings into the context of the evolution of the race as a whole, which in turn may belong to the evolution of the universe itself, or at any rate our corner of it”⁶.
2) an appreciation of the need for balance in children’s lives. As Stephen Arroyo says: “Today, many people are seeking a more unified and comprehensive view of life than is available in the over-specialized disciplines commonly taught in traditional colleges and universities. There is a growing demand for a whole and satisfying participation with the cycles of life, and astrology can provide just that”. “The only psychic function that most ‘educators’ seem to be interested in is the intellect”. He also points out that “a study of astrology will show the teacher that there are indeed different kinds of intelligence and talents”⁷.
The arts and sport would therefore become much more important than at present. Our souls have great need for music, painting, creative writing. Sport keeps us healthy, develops physical skills, is character-building, gives an appreciation of working in a team. Yet so little importance is attached to them. Music lessons are something of a luxury, may have to be paid for, or are the first thing to disappear when the school budget needs to be tightened. In Britain there was an appalling policy in the 1980s of selling off school playing fields. Sport and the health benefits that it brings were of such little importance to the government.
With a psychological orientation to education, more emphasis could be placed on self-knowledge, and on interpersonal skills. In particular a basic understanding of the mind and its tendencies towards illusion and self-deception would be incredibly helpful in preparing teenagers for adult life, thus avoiding the type of problems I discussed in chapter 19 in relation to scientists. I would suggest that these areas are more important than detailed knowledge about geography, chemistry, and foreign languages etc. This is not to say that these subjects should not be taught of course, and if they were part of a pupil’s vocation, that would be a different matter; he or she would be helped in that direction, without needing to force the subject-matter on a whole class, if most of them had no interest in it.
Another aim of this revised education system would be to try to provide children, thus a new generation of adults, with a more accurate world-view, as outlined in chapter 19. (If the best science available to us is quantum physics, the best psychology Analytical Psychology, and the best religion/ spirituality the Perennial Philosophy, we can see how far we have gone astray in the West.)
This is not a mere matter of philosophical correctness. Ultimately, in that atheistic materialism is an open invitation to avoid personal responsibility (although of course many atheists are decent, moral people), our survival may depend upon it:
“It remains an article of faith of scientific positivism that consciousness arises from matter, a by-product of innumerable synaptic archings, refined into a survival strategy by Our Lady of Natural Selection. It is under this myth, and in this world, that… wisdom is understood as the codification of material laws. This worldview is dangerous in a time of crisis, because it suggests to ordinary people that our own inner resources, our consciousness, is a hall of mirrors. If theorists such as James Lovelock are correct in arguing the existence of great fields of intelligence within which human consciousness also participates, then scientific determinism is promoting — albeit unconsciously — a supremely misguided and dangerous fall-back position: that in the end, because consciousness arises from chance events in matter, consciousness itself is not significant, and we are alone. This is an invitation to the Big Sleep”⁸.
This would in no sense be an attempt to brainwash children with ideology, as in some countries and religious institutions, rather to provide opportunities for them to explore the world and come to their own conclusions. If they end up with a world-view different from their teachers, so be it. I think that I have shown, however, (in previous chapters) that all original peoples, when left alone to form their own ideas based upon their experience, come up with something close to, if not identical with QMAP. It would not be surprising therefore if children did the same.
Regarding QMAP, it would be impossible to teach the mathematical abstractions of quantum physics to the vast majority of teenagers, and reading Jung would be too hard for many, but it would not be difficult to give them direct experiences of these ways of thinking. The key points are:
(from the Quantum Mechanics side)
1) the interconnectedness of all people and things, and the inadequacy of popular conceptions of time and space.
It is probably important for young children not to be too aware that they are part of an interconnected universe. Psychologists say that babies do not experience themselves as separate beings. It is therefore an essential stage in their development that they go beyond this phase of identification with the mother, and become separate. While they are still young, however, there would seem to be no harm in letting them participate in psi experiments which clearly demonstrate these ideas. Telepathy, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis all give the appearance of magic, which is always a source of fascination for children, who often are naturally psychic.
2) the universe being alive.
It is not quite so obvious how to give children this experience. Psi experiments are easily organised, and many people have had parapsychological experiences; it is just that our society does not in general attach much importance to these areas. Very few adults would claim to have a direct experience of the world and matter being alive, however.
Yet this was the view of the original societies that I was studying earlier: Vedantists, Pagans, the Native Americans, the Aborigines, the Maya, the Greeks, the Egyptians, etc. A study of their societies and culture might therefore be profitable, to see if we can adopt any practices which would help us reconnect to their original experience of the world. (I shall discuss this point at greater length in chapter 26.)
(from the Analytical Psychology side)
3) the psyche and its needs would become the central focus of education.
Thus Thomas Moore says: “Parents are concerned and vocal these days about the training their children are getting in reading, spelling, and arithmetic; and the government is quite concerned about school lunch programs. But what about the psyche of the child? Attention is given to social adjustment, when problems appear, but at this point it seems a futuristic fantasy to imagine an educational system staffed with experts on the processes of the soul and structured to care for the profound psychological needs of children”⁹.
I believe that it is psychologically unhealthy to lose touch with the mysterious and irrational aspects of our nature. The materialist bias of our society tends to distance us from the magical world of childhood. In one sense, this is necessary and desirable, because the ego does have to separate from the state of undifferentiated identification with the Self. Does the price of this, however, have to be sceptical materialism, atheism, alienation, depression, and the various philosophies derived from them? Practically this would mean:
a) stressing the importance of dreams. Children would be encouraged to tell them to their parents. They are therefore paying attention to and trying to understand them. If they can, so much the better. If they cannot, then perhaps their parents and educators will understand, and behind the scenes try to guide children in the direction suggested by their dreams. At the very least children would be able to draw the images and symbols that they receive, thus maintaining a strong relationship with the dreamworld. They could also be encouraged to act out their dreams in role-play at school. (I am suggesting a lifestyle similar to that of the Senoi tribe — see Creative Dreaming by Patricia Garfield, especially chapter 5. Also, in a series of audiocassettes called Care of the Soul Thomas Moore asks the question: what would it be like if we put soul as the primary factor in the design of a school? The first thing he says, therefore the top priority, is “time for people to tell their dreams… What a good way to start the day”.)
b) They might also be encouraged to notice examples of bizarre coincidences, and tell them to their class, thus enabling them to appreciate synchronicity. We could thus encourage them not to adopt the attitude of many adults, who sometimes say “Something really odd happened to me, but I didn’t tell anyone in case they thought I was crazy”.
c) A belief in ESP should be encouraged, as mentioned above.
d) Stories from mythology could be another ingredient in a process which would help keep the child in touch with the strange world which simmers gently beneath our conscious awareness.
e) Astrology could be taught to older children, maybe from age 16. A.T. Mann says: “During the Renaissance, astrology was one of the arts and sciences which all educated individuals studied”¹⁰. That is possibly too much to hope for, but perhaps not in the long term. Although I would not expect it to become as important on the national curriculum as English (or other native tongue) and arithmetic, Astrology could be taught as an option for those interested, and qualifications gained in it¹¹.
There would be no need to go into theoretical discussions, for example about the archetypes, unless groups of children showed an interest and requested it. Direct experience would be the overriding aim. If this could be achieved in the areas just listed, it would begin to open their minds to an appreciation of the levels of existence beyond the world we know, the hidden organising intelligence, the meaning of their own lives, and of the universe and its evolution.
In their art and culture original societies had an approach whereby they tried:
1) to manifest other-worldly realities on earth. One way they achieved this was by incorporating archetypal symbols into their art, their architecture, and their fashion. For example:
a) “The lives the Native Americans lived were contained by the spirit world. Their dwellings were more than functional or beautiful; they spoke, symbolically, of a deeper reality. The designs on their clothing, the construction of their artefacts, their ways of relating — all reminded them of the unseen world. When the people of Turtle Island built a Sweat Lodge, they saw beyond the elements used in its construction, to the metaphysical energies these elements embodied”¹².
b) “The Egyptians believed that the laws of the universe had been written into man; that if he understood himself well enough, he would understand the universe. The temples of Egypt, and all sacred Egyptian art, were intended to embody and translate this understanding into human terms; they were designed, down to the minutest detail, to convey a wisdom at once deeply spiritual and rigorously scientific… The Temple of Luxor was created as an embodiment of the laws pertaining to the birth and growth of man. And all other Egyptian temples were designed with similar deliberation each to express the cosmic functions and laws decreed proper for the particular time and place”¹³.
Also, Marsilio Ficino (of the Renaissance in Italy) recommended painting on the ceiling of one’s bedroom the image of the planets in the position they were in at the moment of birth, not something like a horoscope, portraits of the actual gods and goddesses represented by the planets. That would be the first thing you saw when you woke up. Everything you did that day would be done with that in mind. How about that as a way of connecting to one’s life purpose?¹⁴
2) to live in tune with the cosmos through dance and ritual, which is in accord with the old traditions: “All the ancient dances were in imitation of the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, and were used in religious worship. Such were the circular dances of the Druids — the slower and statelier movements of the Greek strophe — the dances of the Cabiri or Phoenicean priests, the devotional dances of the Turkish dervishes, the Hindoo Raas Jattra or dance-of-the-circle, and the war dances of the American and other savage (sic! apologies) nations round their camp-fires, lodges, or triumphal poles”¹⁵.
Such practices must have served as a daily reminder of spiritual realities, a bridge between the separated ego and the interconnected universe. Adopting them would surely be beneficial therefore for modern society.
The aim of government would be to try to align the country with the Divine Will, to be in tune with the cosmos, to bring about, in Stephen Arroyo’s words “an active alignment with the timing of God”¹⁶. This would be instead of trying to impose the ideology of its party on an unwilling majority, which is the normal situation in Great Britain, where no party has ever received the support of half of the population. We would thus be aspiring to have the same level of attunement, the same supreme confidence in the Divine Will that the Incas showed in chapter 21, although we would of course hope that we were not put to that ultimate test.
Some of the means which might be used would be Astrology, dreams, the I Ching, and possibly the Tarot. It is probably inevitable that even if this type of government were elected, in the early days at least, not all the population would be in sympathy with it, so from the outside the situation might look the same. There would be this important difference, however, that the government would aspire to be the agent of a higher power, namely the hidden intelligence of the Cosmic Self. In that sense, government figures might to some extent appear like spiritual teachers, and the distinction between politics and the spiritual life of the nation would become blurred. (Compare West and Toonder: “The revival of astrology will depend upon the re-establishment of genuine civilization; that is to say, an aristocracy in the true sense of the word; which is rule by the best”. “To resuscitate and apply astrology, there must be a legitimate hierarchy, at whose pinnacle there are men capable of understanding both the cosmic symbolism of astrology and the mundane needs of the society in which that astrology is to be used” (as footnote 2, p247, p248). (Anything resembling elitism should of course be avoided.)
I remember a quotation that I heard many years ago. It goes something like: “Get the inner right, and the outer will take care of itself”. I believe that it was Goethe who said it but I cannot be sure, and unfortunately I cannot remember my source. (If that is true, it has subsequently been adopted by Eckhart Tolle.) I mention it anyway because it so important to the ideas I am developing here. The overall aim of this psychologically oriented society that I am describing would be to get the inner right. Every day on news bulletins we hear about politicians’ attempts to tinker with the outer, a little bit of extra funding here, a little bit there. Huge importance is attached to whether we have a couple of hundred extra police officers more or less since the last election, whether there are 30 or 32 children in a classroom, whether our vegetables are weighed in pounds and ounces or kilogrammes.
“We spend too much time discussing personalities, let’s concentrate on policies” is a popular complaint during election campaigns (most usually uttered by politicians with unappealing personalities). So personality is obviously completely unimportant; any old robot would be O.K. as long as it is implementing the right policies! I am reminded of another quotation that I no longer remember exactly. It was told to me by a Jungian analyst, and was described by her as an old Chinese proverb. The original was far more pithy but its message is something like:
There are right persons, and there are right policies. The right policy together with the wrong person will be unsuccessful. The right person together with the wrong policy will be unsuccessful. Only the right person together with the right policy can be successful.
A modern expression of this sentiment would be the words of the poet Rilke: “And the future will be nothing less than the flowering of our inwardness”. I imagine that most of our politicians would not have a clue what was being talked about here. The issue being addressed by Goethe (if it was him), the Chinese sage, and Rilke is of profound importance. It is perfectly in line with the findings of quantum physics, Hinduism and Buddhism — the external world is a projection of the psyche. Every problem that we see in the outside world is a problem of human nature, therefore of our own nature. To think that it is possible to change the imperfections of the world by the type of policies so favoured by politicians is an illusion. As every person who has set out on the road to self-awareness knows: if you want to change the world you must begin by changing yourself. How about making that the focus of education and government?
This is a suitable point to re-introduce the astrology of Dennis Elwell, since he offers a contrasting viewpoint to the one I have just been expressing. Although he does refer at length to what Astrology can achieve for the individual, he nevertheless has reservations about the trend towards psychological astrology, since he is concerned that it will distract people from what he perceives to be a deeper, true Astrology, the purpose of which is to interpret the Cosmic Mind as it influences, and comments upon human affairs: “Through astrology we can indeed achieve a ‘cosmic vision’, move out from our blinkered human viewpoint and, looking directly into the heart of the crucible, grasp the universal processes in a more immediate and comprehensive way” (as footnote 15, p4). I do not intend to discuss in detail his theories about how Astrology works (see however footnote 17), since his world-view is, so far as I can tell, the same as mine.
He believes in the interconnectedness of all things, the human being as the microcosm of the Divine, the universe as a living being permeated with consciousness, the doctrine ‘as above, so below’, a teleological evolutionary process guided by a Cosmic Will. He accepts the findings of quantum physics as a likely explanation for astrological effects, and even offers practical examples of how quantum thinking may be manifested in Astrology. (For example, he discusses “the widely held belief among astrologers that the discovery of a new planet… is accompanied by changes in world affairs typical of the planet’s astrological significance” [p124], and suggests that this may be attributed to the quantum idea of the impossibility of detached observation, replaced by participatory consciousness [p126].)
He thinks, however, that Astrology’s world-view goes even further: “Everything we learn about the connection between ourselves and the heavens points to a universe which is far stranger in its operations than even the theoretical physics of our day — itself light years ahead of the common sense of the fabled man on the Clapham omnibus — would ever suspect”.
“The data presented by astrology, if taken in its entirety and not piecemeal, cannot be accommodated to any view of the world currently regarded as tenable, and that fact automatically defines its role in the new millennium” (both quotes p243).
So what is this extraordinary astrology according to Elwell? (As I mentioned earlier he believes “that Astrology is not even what many astrologers think it is”.) One way of looking at it is to see it as drawing together all the weird coincidences and patterns that I described in chapters 12 and 14 into a meaningful whole. When these occur they may seem to be bizarre one-offs; Elwell, however, suggests that they are all part of a vast, interconnected Cosmic Loom…:
“To raise awareness of a universe in which meaning is embodied even in trivialities will at least gradually form the conviction that the big events — in personal lives, as well as in the world at large — are capable of being understood, and that God, as Einstein said, does not play dice” (p276).
…and furthermore that there is a strong organising element behind this: “There seems here to be an extra dimension, over and above the individual charts of the actors in the drama, as if they have all been assembled for a purpose which is bigger than any of them. Is it not unlike the way the brain organises a number of cells towards the same end?” (p167).
In the following passage, in that he manages to distance himself from the low-level fortune-telling type of astrology, predetermination, and the psychological tendency, Elwell clearly defines his personal niche in modern Astrology. He is explaining his view that a limited prediction is possible, preferring to call it “intelligent anticipation”: “(An over-emphasis on prediction) is as misleading as the position taken by some modern astrologers, who have turned away from concrete events, insisting that astrology is an exclusively psychological language, and all the rest superstition… But, as will become clear, it is possible to take advantage of the fascinating symbolical correlations between the stars and the objective, factual, side of life, without risking a charge of fortune telling, and without acquiescing in the notion that because the signature of the heavens can be traced in outer events, those events must be ‘fated’. Within well-defined limits, intelligent anticipation is possible through astrology, making this neglected science a powerful tool in many walks of life” (p84).
It is not hard to see in Elwell’s approach many allusions to the mind of God, although clearly not in the same sense that Stephen Hawking and Paul Davies (as discussed in an earlier chapter) would understand. The task of the astrologer is therefore to gain insight into the Divine Will, the cosmic evolutionary plan:
“Perhaps the more important — and neglected — function of astrology is interpretation, its power to reveal what is at work unsuspected behind the veil of events” (p84).
“Understanding the world around us depends on our power to perceive these patterns of meaning, to make the right connections, recognise what belongs with what… With the help of astrology we can see the design as it is meant to be (p88).
“As the shuttle of the cosmic loom ceaselessly weaves its intricate designs, astrologers have the responsibility, or rather the awesome privilege, to work towards restoring to humanity the sense of high meaning it has all but lost” (p281).
Astrology can thus educate us all about the will of ‘God’ for the world, and about the role that we are each meant to be playing:
“The question always has to be, not what is this person up to — consciously or unconsciously — nor what is mankind collectively up to, but what is the cosmos itself up to, in this person, or in mankind?” (p145).
“We are really subserving a process infinitely bigger than we are, in which we are contained” (p144).
“The system invites us to become co-creators with the powers behind the manifest world” (p36).
“It is a sound approach in astrological interpretation, whether dealing with configurations in a world context, or in the individual horoscope, to ask ‘How might this serve life?’ ” (p137).
This is mundane astrology on a very grand scale, the type which must have inspired the ancient cultures, and upon which they built their civilisations. Could we use the skill of astrologers like Elwell to guide the destiny of our society today? As he says: “The real experts know the cosmos is playing a game of its own” (p123).
Finally, if Astrology is going to become part of the dominant view in society, we would obviously need a lot more astrologers. In case any alarm-bells are going off, this does not mean consulting the opinions of any Tom, Dick or Harry claiming some astrological knowledge and who is trying to make a quick buck. Only people of integrity with a proven track-record would be suitable.
In general, contrary to one common belief that all astrologers must be charlatans by definition, serious astrologers are on the whole people of integrity who are very concerned about their reputation. For example Louis MacNeice, writing in the 1960s, said: “The London Faculty of Astrological Studies has a printed code of ethics that is largely intended to counteract any hint of charlatanism attaching to its name”¹⁷.
Stephen Arroyo discusses the possibility of some kind of licensing system, being understandably wary of handing the process over to governments: “Who is to judge? How can they figure out anything?” (as footnote 20, p78). He quotes Dane Rudhyar who is concerned that factors like the astrologer’s personality, the quality of the client-astrologer relationship, and feeling responses “cannot be standardized and even less subject to legislation”. If, however, a government were sympathetic to Astrology, and were willing to let these factors be taken into account, and trusted the astrologers themselves, backed up by references from satisfied clients, to make decisions about qualifications and suitability, surely that would be a different matter.
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Footnotes:
- William Sullivan, The Secret of the Incas, Three Rivers Press, 1996, p244
- Astrology, Karma and Transformation, CRCS, 1992, p206
- Astrology, Psychology, and the Four Elements, CRCS, 1975, p58, p61
- as footnote 10, p49
- The Planets Within, Lindisfarne Press, 1990, p78
- The Cosmic Loom, Urania Trust, 1999, p62
- as footnote 12, Pxiv, p61
- as footnote 1, p342
- as footnote 14, p78
- as footnote 3, p93
- Stephen Arroyo would like to go further. He says: ‘We do have to speak English, unfortunately… It would be such an advantage if we could grow up using the astrological language and thereby learn it instantly and naturally. It wouldn’t then require so many stages of translation in our own minds before we understood it. As things are, we have to learn so much, and then unlearn it’. (The Practice and Profession of Astrology, CRCS, 1984, p156)
- Principles of Native American Spirituality, Timothy Freke and Wa’Na’Nee’Che’ (Dennis Renault), Thorsons, 1996, p106. See also Hunbatz Men, Secrets of Mayan Science/Religion, Bear & Co., 1990, chapter 1
- as footnote 2, p41. They are discussing the work of R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz and his wife.
- source: Thomas Moore, audiocassette Care of the Soul.
- John Matthews, The Druid Source Book, Brockhampton Press, 1998, p195
- as footnote 12, p54
- I will just mention in passing a few points in his thinking that he considers to be at variance with the majority of other astrologers:
a) The popular assumption is that the birthchart reveals the people as they are. Elwell believes that it reveals them as they were meant to be. He therefore concludes: “We must expect to find people — and we do — who seem different from their horoscope, and whose life takes a different path from the one their chart suggests” (p190).
b) The assumption is normally that the chart is meaningful to the outside observer. Elwell considers that the chart is more meaningful to the person concerned looking out (see p180 et seq.).
c) He believes that there is a two-way traffic between the heavens and the earth; it is not merely a question of the heavens influencing the earth (see p76).
d) He thinks that the same chart can produce widely different personalities and life histories. This is because they are viewed from the point of view of our everyday consciousness. “However, from the more elevated cosmic viewpoint — translating those personalities and biographies into the language of the heavens — what each owes to that chart will become apparent” (p186).
e) “The horoscope is able to symbolise events that happened before birth, and which are therefore known to the person only as a kind of ‘inner theatre’… (This) knocks on the head the idea that astrological effects come about because some sort of imprinting takes place at birth” (p140).
18. Astrology, Aldus, 1964, p228