"The horoscope, in its entirety, is a composite of the
person's consciousness of cosmic principles — on his particular evolutionary
level. Therefore it follows that two planets square to each other in a given
chart are not 'bad planets;' it simply means that the person is in a
consciousness stage of relative unawareness of principle."
The first three volumes of this series of astrological
interpretations have been received with such a warm welcome by so many
astrology students that we are pleased to present Volume IV.
Mr. Bacher's profound knowledge of and devotion to the
stellar science, along with an uncanny understanding of human nature, made it
possible for him to present material which undoubtedly places him among the
best of modern esoteric astrologers. As the truth and value of his spiritual
interpretation of astrology become more and more generally accepted, his
presentations will serve increasingly to help people know themselves and
fulfill their highest destiny.
Before passing in the early 1950's Mr. Bacher
expressed a keen desire to have us publish his articles in book form, and
although we deeply regret that he did not live to see his publications made
available to the public, we are happy in knowing that his wish is being
fulfilled.
Introduction
To the Rosicrucian student astrology is a phase of
religion, basically a spiritual science. More than any other study it reveals
man to himself. No other science is so sublime, so profound, and so all-
embracing. It portrays the relation between God, the macrocosm, and man, the
microcosm, showing them to be fundamentally one.
Esoteric science, investigating the subtler forces that
impinge upon man, the Spirit, and his vehicles, has charted their effects with
no less definiteness than has academic science the reactions of sea and soil,
plant and animal to the solar and lunar rays.
With this knowledge we may determine the astrological
pattern of each individual and know the relative strength and weakness of the
various forces operating in each life. To the degree that we are in possession
of such knowledge we can begin systematic, scientific character building — and
character is destiny! We note times and seasons cosmically advantageous to
unfolding undeveloped qualities, correcting faulty traits, and eliminating
destructive propensities.
The divine science of astrology reveals the hidden
causes at work in our lives. It counsels the adult in regard to vocation, the
parent in the guidance of children, the teacher in management of pupils, the
physician in diagnosing disease, thus lending aid to each and all in whatever
position they may find themselves.
No other subject within the range of human knowledge
appears to hold for this day and age the possibilities open to astrologers for
helping people to their own dignity as gods-in-the-making, to a greater grasp
of universal law, and to a realization that we are eternally secure within the
caressing fold of Infinite Life and Boundless Being.
The "Bad" Aspects
Time was when the writer shared with many
astrological students the understanding that "square" and "opposition," being
"bad" aspects meant the same thing; also that "good" aspects, the trine and
sextile, were thought of as being the same. Time came when the writer realized
that if "square" meant the same as "opposition," and "sextile" the same as
"trine," the same symbol would be used for both pairs of aspects. It must be
established in the minds of students that every symbol utilized in astrology
has its own particular, unique significance and that no two symbols can really
mean the same thing. There would be no point to such an approach. These
symbols are picturings of profound spiritual realizations which were given to
Humanity by the Great Ones ages ago.
If the progress through the wheel from Ascendant to
the twelfth house pictures cyclic evolution, the placement of the planets by
sign and house, the focalizations of consciousness for expression during
incarnation, then the aspects picture the mechanism of the Spirit in action —
the how of this endless expressing. The mechanical sciences require a
knowledge of weights, leverages, balances and counterbalances, gravity,
propulsion, and so on; in other words, the principles of how the mechanism
functions to achieve a certain result. A horoscope, evolved from geometrical
design, contains picturings of principles as they manifest in human
incarnation as expressions of consciousness, and every symbol that is used in
this particular science pictures an essence or a function of that essence.
The dynamic approach to human psychology has proved
that a "switch in viewpoint" often makes possible an immediate clarification
of the cause of a problem and reveals the needed directive. We, as
astrological students, have tended to crystallize our viewpoint of the square
and opposition aspects and to settle, mentally, into the picture that they are
the bad aspects. The words "bad" and "evil" have been a part of our mental
picturing ever since we were able to interpret anything; if we are going to
evolve a constructive approach to psychological astrology we must switch our
viewpoint of, and attitude toward, the meanings of these particular symbols of
energy expressions.
It is a debatable point — this reference to "bad"
aspects. Can people who are astrologically uninformed, and in the throes of a
personal problem, really be helped, way down deep, if their minds and feelings
are impressed by references to the "bad" aspects in their charts? There is no
getting around it — we all have a sub-conscious, instinctive reaction to words
like "bad;" they ignite our inner picturings — or memories — of ugly,
distressing, frightful, and difficult experience patterns. The astrologer who
says, "Oh, this is very serious — you have a bad aspect between your Saturn and
Mars," risks putting his client down about five notches. There is something so
ominous about such a statement that, in simple kindness and mercy, we cannot
present such interpretations to people who have come to us for guidance.
Astrologers who have become fixated in the "badness"
of the square and opposition aspects are those who have not inquired into the
real meaning of these symbols. By "real meaning" is meant spiritual or
philosophical significance. Since we must identify these symbols in some way
in order to transmit our thoughts let us switch our word-approach into
something toward which the client may react more favorably.
It is suggested that the word "frictional" be
substituted for "bad." Everyone understands that "friction" means
"resistance," but people are not so inclined to feel disturbed by that word.
Also, as in the case of a match being frictionally rubbed, the result is an
ignition which provides light and warmth. So it is with us, inside ourselves,
and our square and opposition aspects. Certain levels of our consciousness
"rub against" other levels; the result is an ignition of awareness through
pain-reaction, which serves to point out a necessity for redirection of
consciousness. Since all the planetary patterns of a horoscope are enclosed
within the wheel, the picture is shown that mankind interprets experience from
within — in consciousness — not from without. In other words, the source of our
experience-interpretations is not in the experiences themselves but in our
own center of awareness and reaction.
Let us consider the square and opposition aspect
symbols in terms of their essential, abstract picturing. Use a blank,
twelve-housed wheel for each. For the square, connect the midpoints of the fixed
houses — second, fifth, eighth, and eleventh — by straight lines; the result is
a square resting on a horizontal base which starts, cyclically, in the second
house. This is the symbol we used for the "square aspect" between any two
planets in a horoscope.
The houses involved in this picturing are the "houses of resource," the well-springs of intense desire, feeling, love, and capacity.
These four houses — and their abstractly related signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio,
and Aquarius) — include our deepest reaction-potentials. All astrological
students know that there are two other squares; we call them the "cardinal"
and "mutable" squares; but it is the fixed-house square that is used to
portray this abstraction of "badness" — troubles and pains, sorrows,
limitations, and all manner of negativism. This symbol tells us, when it
relates any planets in any two signs or houses of a chart, that the present
need for regeneration at those points is very great. Notice that in the
square-design, when we come to the end of the lower horizontal — in the fifth
house — we make a right angle, not diagonally to right or left but straight up,
in order to progress further on the evolutionary path. So it is with other
turnings — right angles at each corner. Thus the square aspect is seen to be
uncompromising in its demands upon the consciousness; for this reason the
square aspect is referred to as being the "most difficult," the "worst" or the
"most evil" of planetary relationships. We are taxed most severely in our
development at these points. Why?
The horoscope, in its entirety, is a composite of the
person's consciousness of cosmic principles — on his particular evolutionary
level. Therefore it follows that two planets square to each other in a given
chart are not "bad planets;" it simply means that the person is in a
consciousness stage of relative unawareness of principle. An individual's
unawareness may be very varied and this variety is shown by multiple
frictional aspects to any planet in his chart: the planet may be squared by
Mars and opposed by Moon, but trined by Venus and sextiled by Pluto. We are
destined to experience reaction-patterns to every planet in relationship to
every other planet in order to fulfill our vibrational destiny as human
beings. Anything less than that would not be fulfillment.
Because our experiences are, in the final analysis,
ignited by our contacts with other people and because we project ourselves
into relationships according to our consciousness it follows that unregenerate
projection creates patterns of destiny that come back to us in the form of
experiences of a painful or "bad" quality. We suffer through these alertings
because we are made to perceive, by our reactions to other people and
experiences, our own unregeneracy. The Higher Self "screams" at us: "Study
this and learn from it; don't do this to another person, you've done it too
often in the past; I insist that you redirect your reaction to this particular
relationship or experience, because if you don't you will continue to
misdirect your energy and darken your consciousness more than ever." So the
pattern which registers in the horoscope as a square aspect between two
planets pictures the necessity, in this incarnation, for a drastic revision of
consciousness. The word "frictional" proves its value here because the fires
of consciousness are ignited most intensely at these points and through
pain-reaction — the brightest light is directed into the darkest corners. The Higher
Self is seeking to re-establish harmonious synchronization within your
consciousness by making it possible for you to realize undesirable results
from the continued misdirections of your energies, and showing you the
necessity for making a new turn on your path.
The square and opposition aspects have a fascinating
"common denominator." Apply the opposition symbol to the second blank wheel by
using the cusps of the second and eighth houses as diameters; draw circles
around these diameters which, of course, will be tangent to each other at the
wheel's center. The diameters of the two small circles form, together, a
diameter of the wheel itself and this diameter connects the midpoints of the
second and eighth; cyclically speaking, the starting point of this symbol is
the same as the starting point of the fixed square. The desire-resource of the
second and eighth houses is common to both symbols, and the fundamental
spiritual or esoteric process implied is regeneration.
A peculiarity of the opposition aspect is that it
"polarizes" the wheel. The lower point of the symbol is in the
"individualistic" quadrant of the lower hemisphere; the higher point, in the
eighth house, is the "extension" of the lower. The second house is "material
on-going;" this is raised into its higher octave through transmutation of the
desire-nature in relationship with people: the Power of Love to effect
redemption of the consciousness. There must be some very important reason for
the two small circles involved in this symbol to be connected by a forty-five
degree diagonal rather than by a horizontal or a vertical. A horizontal is all
right-and-left; a vertical is all up-and-down. However, the diagonal of this
symbol is upward-and-onward — a composite of the vertical and the horizontal,
the essential concept of all evolutionary processes and purposes.
The consensus of opinion is that the opposition
aspect implies a need to select one thing or the other. Some astrologers
interpret this to mean that we should choose one planet to work on, even at
the expense of the other. Others say we should — or must — make the effort to
utilize both of the planetary vibrations at once, as best we can. The first of
these approaches is plainly untenable; we cannot drop any of our astrological
factors — we live with, and express, all of them through the entire course of
an incarnation. The second of these approaches comes much nearer to the actual
requirements of the aspect because it instructs us to utilize both planetary
factors. However, the Higher Self speaks to us through the very meaning of the
aspect. Are you going to express these two planets unregeneratively or
regeneratively? The point is not which of the two planets but which
of the two octaves of consciousness are you going to express — that which
you have been in, tend to remain in, and, by now, should be emerging from, or
that to which you are evolving — that which is inturning or that which
is outgoing? That which is self-keeping or that which is
self-evolving? That which results in the cutting-off of
realization or that which opens the doors of your consciousness to
awareness of beauty, truth, and goodness? This is the esoteric meaning of
the opposition aspect and by it we can understand why the key-word
awareness is used to identify its purposes.
As above, so below. When the Sun and Moon come to the
conjunction each 28 days a new "breath" is taken in the vibrational body of
Humanity; two weeks later this "breath" is "exhaled" at the Full Moon. This
action is the great rhythmic, tidal life of our esoteric existence and the
pattern — conception and expression — is experienced by all of our vibrational
organs in relationship not only to the other planets but — and this is
important — also to the signs of their dignity. Just as every organ of our
physical bodies has its oven pattern for growth, function, and fulfillment, so
has each planet in relationship to the overall body of consciousness.
A planet in the sign of its dignity has "returned to
home base" after a tour through the zodiac; its accumulated essence, distilled
from your experiences through many past incarnations, is now in full force and
it is ready to start another cycle from its — and your — present evolutionary
base. A planet in what we call the sign of its "detriment" is not a "bad"
planet; it is half way around its own evolutionary orbit and makes the
opposition aspect to the sign of its dignity — as far away from "home" as it
can get. A chart containing even one planet placed in the sign of its
"detriment" reveals that the person, in consciousness, is on that one point in
a critical step on his present evolutionary cycle, and any frictional
planetary aspects to that planet represent a taxing to the utmost of
regenerative potentialities. This incarnation, with planets in detriment, is
very significant because the person is going to be made aware of his inner
deficiencies in a very acute way.
If a planet in detriment registers in the present
horoscope as the ruler of the chart (ruler of the sign on the Ascendant) then
the criticalness of this incarnation is intensified. The ruler of the chart is
our planetary symbol of I AM consciousness: in the sign of detriment —
opposite to its own dignity — the chart can really tell a story of great
spiritual conflict since the frictional aspects to a "detrimented" ruler can
make it possible for the person to identify himself with darkness. He may tend
to interpret his own personality-potentials through his unregenerate
consciousness and living in that way, he can risk a marked "back-turning" in
his evolution. The regenerate aspects made by the chart ruler so placed serve
to make him unconsciously turn "toward the Light" and in living by those
patterns he insures an upward turning in his development, not only for this
incarnation but for all that follow.
Just as the physical birth is the result of
conception and the Full Moon is the result of the lunation previous to it, so
an opposition aspect between two planets is the awareness which results from a
conjunction of these two planets at some time in the past incarnations of the
person. There are no effects without causes and since Cosmic Pattern manifests
on all planes we must realize in studying the opposition aspect that in this
incarnation the person is being made aware of these two particular vibrational
powers, or qualities, in his own nature in a very important and significant
way. Recognize that inner tensions can be very great with even one opposition-
aspect in the chart. The experience-patterns represented by the planets
concerned — either by rulership or by occupancy — demand and urge the
regenerate, spiritualized expression of the person's nature. Repeating the
unregenerate frictional qualities will keep the person in "darkness" not only
for this incarnation but perhaps for several "chapters" to come — and the
testings will, in future be more and more severe.
The criticalness of this aspect is clearly
demonstrated when the opposition aspect is ignited by eclipses, progressed
Moon, or progressed planetary aspects making the simultaneous square to both
planets. In such a stimulation of the aspect the unregenerate residue in the
person's consciousness — whatever his age may be — "comes out of the woodwork"
and he experiences a testing of his regenerate capacities that can be very
severe. On the other hand, when the opposition is activated by one planet
being trined and the other sextiled, then whatever of regeneracy has been
established can be drawn on to deal with the experience that is manifested. A
"favorable" activation of the opposition aspect always implies, to a degree, a
testing but "more of the best of consciousness" is more immediately available.
In the foregoing is seen the reason why the
opposition aspect is universally considered "not as bad" as the square because
even if the two planets concerned have no other aspects, the pattern as a
whole is activated four times by the combination of trine-sextile to the two
times it is squared. Much more "elasticity" is enjoyed and the impulses to
regenerate are much more numerous, in the long run.
A happy ending: even the square or opposition aspects
can be "life-savers" of great benefit when they are made by an otherwise
unaspected Saturn in a chart having nothing in earth. The person in such a
chart needs ballast, he needs controlling and direction, he needs channelings
for his outgoing energies. Such a Saturn simply says — and this proves that the
square and opposition are not essentially bad — "I will see to it that you keep
your feet on the ground so that your life may be lived purposefully and
constructively; you will have responsibilities to fulfill, ambitions to
achieve, and qualities to regenerate and redirect; my vibration, even though
it may seem to hold you down at times, is really your greatest blessing
because it will keep you aligned to the streams of unfolding experience."
Life does not punish us through our squares and
oppositions; it teaches us our most needed lessons through them if we wish to
learn to become aware of our needed regenerations.
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