"Those houses which do contain the planetary
points represent the exterior patterning in terms of relationships and
places of the life-activities. Part of the 'over-all evolutionary
assignment' of all humans is to learn to relate the self wisely to
environment so that environment be rightly understood and
rightly used as a 'tool,' but is never allowed to become a bondage to
the person or an impediment to unfoldment."
The verb to assign is defined as "to mark out,"
"to point out specifically," "to set apart, as for a special person or
purpose." These definitions imply that "to assign" is an action of selectivity
by which a "something" is indicated to be appropriate or necessary for someone
to undertake, to work with, to work on, or to fulfill. The act of assignment
is made by someone for someone else or it is self-assumed; in either case,
that which is to be dealt with is cognized or recognized to be a legitimate
factor of endeavor or experience, a necessary part of an over-all plan or
objective.
Whether imposed or assumed, the acceptance of
assignment is always a decision to move from a state of relative
inertia or relative equilibrium. This acceptance proceeds from a cognition or
a recognition that something more or something new, actual or
recapitulative, is to be done. All action or "doing" is an extension from that
which already has been done or achieved. The evolution of a human during the
span of an incarnation is externalized as a sequence of actions proceeding
from decisions qualified by reactions to the effects of previous decisions and
consequent actions. The regeneration of residual reaction brought into
the present life from the past is the basic assignment of any human for
any life. The archetypal assignment for all individualized beings
through the entire span of sequential incarnations is the conscious
reattainment of perfect equilibrium, the state from which we were sent
forth, or creatively projected, as innocent Spirits. This projection was made
possible by a creative decision of God — in Him we move and have our
Being, through us He moves and has Externalization; we are filled-full of Him.
He fulfills through us.
Macrocosm is externalized by myriads of microcosms
which have correspondent similarity to it. This truth of creativity and
manifestation is conveyed by the Hermetic axiom "as above, so below; as
below, so above." In geometry this axiom is illustrated by such figures as
circles, squares, and equilateral triangles. The size of corresponding figures
may very infinitely but their nature, general appearance, and plan of
construction are identical. Circles, squares, and equilateral triangles are
graphic microcosms of the macrocosmic structural ideas circle, square, and
equilateral triangle, respectively.
All assignments are microcosms of the essential, or
macrocosmic, idea assignment, which refers basically to the acceptance,
by cognition or recognition, of that which is necessary to be done for
complete fulfillment. Human life-assignments are revealed and perceived in
an infinite variety of relative significance, in terms of immediate need,
immediate objective, relationship-factors, ideals, etc. However, there is
a two-fold equation which applies to all: degree of difficulty in
fulfillment is directly proportionate to degree of needed regeneracy; degree
of ease in fulfillment is directly proportionate to degree of consciously-
attained equilibrium. To the degree that a human is removed from
equilibrium is he removed from the consciousness of capacity to fulfill
his assignments with efficiency, inspiration, and enjoyment; to the degree
that he is aware of equilibrium within himself is he able to enforce or
recharge his endeavors with the powers of his Spirit. The re-charging
by Spirit-power brings about the revealment of equilibrium in body,
mind, emotion, relationship, and endeavors. Since a human is a composite of
many faculties, bodies, inclinations, abilities, and objectives it is
necessary, through a given incarnation, that he or she specialize on
that phase, or on those phases, of unfoldment that are most directly
consistent with karmic requirements; incarnation is made by vibratory law
in terms of time, place, parentage, and environment that are appropriate to
the inception of self-imposed, self-assumed assignments.
Planetary aspects alone do not picture "life-
assignment." Each aspect pictures an inter-relationship between basic
qualities and powers of consciousness and thus portrays a mode by which
assignments are to be fulfilled. The tabulation of aspects in a given chart
gives a summary of how the person has used the powers of consciousness in the
past, how he tends to use them in this life and how he may tend to use them in
future. The fulfillment of an assignment necessitates equipment as well
as objective and, in the incarnated state, environment is as
inevitable and as important a factor of equipment as is consciousness. All
environmental and relationship factors correspond to individual human
experience as the Earth itself corresponds to the evolution of Humanity.
Therefore, the co-relation of the house-position of aspects with the vibratory
factors represented by the planets and signs is necessary to the evaluation of
life-activities as "assignments."
Since there are twelve houses which indicate
the environmental patterning for the aspects made by the ten planetary
points (Sun, Moon, and planets) there will be, in every chart, some
unoccupied houses. The houses symbolize the externalization of the
signs, just as the planetary points represent the focalization of the
signs as expressive powers. Those houses which do contain the planetary
points represent the exterior patterning in terms of relationships and
places of the life-activities. Part of the "over-all evolutionary
assignment" of all humans is to learn to relate the self wisely to
environment so that environment be rightly understood and
rightly used as a "tool," but is never allowed to become a bondage to
the person or an impediment to unfoldment. Each relationship and environment
externalizes particular principles of consciousness and spiritual
responsibility and the objective to be gained by experience in a relationship
or environment is the apperception of a Truth of Life. All factors of
Principle, Powers, and Externalization must be co-related for evaluation.
Since regenerative transcendence of the past is the
assignment assumed by each human for each incarnation, it is a practical idea
to begin your study of the planetary aspect of a chart by relative
evaluation. This is done by tabulating the various types of aspects and
computing the orb of each, starting with the one that is closest to ninety
degrees by orb. Avoid concentrating on this aspect as being "the most
evil aspect in the chart." Rather, study it from the standpoint of what it
tells about the person's consciousness and tendencies: it is the pattern that
indicates the greatest need for regeneration of consciousness, it
indicates the point of minimum internal equilibrium and maximum tendency to
resist evolution. Therefore, it pictures those experiences — or that
general type of experience — in which the person will have to make his
maximum internal effort to learn his spiritual and evolutionary lesson.
Your enlightening the person regarding the meaning and
significance of his closest-to-exact square aspect is a paramount service,
because to the degree that he understands how to handle the stimulations to
the aspect will he realize power and wisdom to handle the other "less
constricted" aspects in his chart. Your study of the aspect requires
concentrated meditation because it is necessary for you to realize
the evolutionary implications of it as representing phases of power,
love, and truth yet-to-be-admitted into the person's consciousness.
A square or opposition of wider orb will be activated for a relatively longer
time, but the timing of the wider orb permits alleviating conditions (trines
and sextiles to the natal made by transits, new Moons, etc.) to act at the
same time. The timing of stimulus to a close-to-exact square focalizes and
concentrates the "pain-potential" as well as the timing element. The pain
we experience through stimulus of our squares is proportionate to an
inherent tendency to resist evolutionary requirements. Remember always
that a square aspect in a horoscope is evidence of the person's consciousness
being grounded in a specialized way in this life in order to learn
an urgent lesson; it is evidence of neglect of that lesson, or mis-used
opportunity, in the past and it pictures the present opportunity to
remedy that neglect in this life.
All manifestation is projected from ordered
plan or pattern and since all human life-assignments, in degree of
fulfillment, manifest evolution of consciousness and refinement of
nature it is necessary to give special attention to certain other factors
that have many important things to tell the reader and the subject of the
chart. One of these is the Moon, symbol of the instinctual
nature. The Moon-aspects and position in a chart give us the most
direct clues to that which, in consciousness, is brought into this life
from the past experiences. It indicates the most pronounced habit-
tendencies from the past which, when emphasized in the present life,
externalize chaotic conditions. The faculty of feeling-reaction
(which represents an aspect of the feminine polarity of consciousness)
is forever seeking to deliver to our conscious awareness those modes
and qualities of thought which we have planted in it. In this way the
instinctual mind is recognized to be a production mechanism and a
reproduction mechanism. If, by recognition, we do not like what
the instinctual mind produces through our faculty of feeling-reaction
— to events, environments, and people — then we have to change the quality of
our reaction-faculty; this can be done only by improving and refining
the quality of our reactions. This process makes use of the
regenerative or spiritual essences of all the planetary points, and
especially those which are "unregeneratively" aspected to the Moon in the
natal chart. As we regenerate those "planetary essences" we plant in the
instinctual mind an improved vibratory quality, more ordered and refined.
Those factors of the life-assignment which concern
the Saturn-vibration are those which have as their evolutionary goal the
consciousness of true security. Saturn is the principle of
responsibility-fulfillment and it is only by the fulfillment of all
assigned assignments and responsibilities that the form of equilibrium we
identify as "security" is realized. It is very important, due to the influence
which the astrologer's words and interpretations have on the client's
consciousness, that a constructive philosophical-psychological
understanding of Saturn be attained. Saturn is the symbol of dense form
which serves as the vehicle for evolving consciousness; it is the
tendency by which humans identify "security" as being a certain kind of
material state — without which the human experiences what he identifies as
"fear," "insecurity," and "uncertainty." If Saturn — in the cosmic sense —
symbolizes dense form, then its correspondence in evolving human consciousness
is either "trouble and sorrow from having wrongly used form in the past" or
"the realization of true inner security from having rightly and fulfillingly
used form as a tool or vehicle of the Spirit." Saturn is the cosmic Principle
of Gravity; its vibration in our consciousness tends to "bring us down to
the root and essence of our as-yet-unfulfilled states" in order that our
evolutionary ascent may be made thorough and complete. Some charts register
Saturn in several square and opposition aspects — what some readers call
"terribly afflicted charts." If there is, in truth, any "affliction"
represented it is only by the indication that the person in this life needs
to recapitulate a great deal from the past, redeem, and fulfill it with
Love and Intelligence before he can progress. The aspects themselves are
not "evil" — they are simply astrological indications of a certain kind
of evolutionary need. The Spirit-ual qualities implied by the Saturn
vibration are thoroughness, accuracy, patience (the use of Time as a
building-substance), and concentrated devotion to right action
(Saturn's sign Capricorn is the exaltation-sign of Mars, the principle of
energy and action).
It is becoming increasingly evident that the life-assignments of progressively-minded, aspiring people include degrees of
participation in those measures having to do with the establishment of the New
Age. As a humanity, we are being synthesized in this age more than ever
before in our history, and those persons who are welcoming
opportunities in study, activity, work, and recreation to expand their
fraternal recognition of fellow-humans are signifying their spiritual and
evolutionary alignment with the principles of the New Age. This evolutionary
tendency is astrologically indicated by the planet Uranus, ruler of Aquarius
and planetary polarization of the Sun's sign Leo. The establishment of
the New Age is an inevitable result of spiritual progression in Human —
individual or collective — consciousness; the study and intuitive
realization of the Uranus-factor in charts has become a vital portion of
the astrological reader's service. Many people in this age are finding
their greatest difficulties in adjusting to the rapid expansion of thought,
knowledge, and understanding which is now being promulgated. The internal
resistance to that which is new or as-yet-not-understood can be an
indication of much residual fear, inflexibility of mind, prejudice, or
tendency-to-inertia. Some people cannot seem to "forgive Life" for "shaking
them up," "taking things away from them," "upsetting their routines," or
"making them so uncertain" and the astrological reader is often called upon to
help these persons by spiritual and philosophical enlightenment.
Regeneration of consciousness is made possible only through
decrystallization and redistribution of internal energies, and adjustability
of mind is the key to all expanding comprehension. As a reader, you will
seek to understand the Uranus-factor in a chart to help the person concerned
make a better fulfillment of his this-life's assignments through clearer
understanding of the great evolutionary currents now prevailing and their
reason for being. Uranus acts always to shatter and decrystallize the
no-longer-needed so that the fullness of progress on all planes may be
revealed and realized.
Every living thing is composed of a hierarchy
of parts and functions by which the organic experience of the thing is
perpetuated. A human horoscope is a picture of a living consciousness,
and all of its parts (signs, planetary points, houses, positions, aspects,
activations by transit and progression) comprise a hierarchy of
indications pertaining to the life-assignment. If one factor is to
be designated as the most important in any chart or in all charts, that
factor is certainly the Sun and its co-relative sign Leo. We are
told that the Sun, by precession, was in Leo at the time of the inception of
the present manifestation; as a planetary point the Sun represents pure
creativity and pure apperception of the divine will, to which the
"personal will" of the individual must eventually be brought in alignment.
Therefore, any and all "separate life-assignments" are parts of a Hierarchy
of evolutionary assignments, the apex of which, indicated by the Sun,
is the conscious attainment of realization of divine will, love, and
wisdom, conscious attainment of complete equilibrium, and conscious attainment
of realized unity with divine source.
In the study of any horoscope regarding "determining the life-assignment" remember that "know thy self" is the inherent
objective throughout. The Sun as a planetary factor can be squared or
opposed by all other points, except Mercury and Venus; but, as a planetary
factor, the Sun represents the individual's relative non-attainment or
relative attainment of realized spiritual identity, purpose, and function.
Aspects involving the planetary Sun indicate relative inability or ability to
externalize autonomy (self-rule); in the fullest sense, and as the apex
of hierarchy of evolutionary assignments, the Sun represents, by conscious
alignment with and realization of the Divine, the "rule of self by
self." The self of a human is his divine essence and it
is by ascending degrees, through evolution, of exercising the realization
of divine nature that most effectively fulfills each "life-assignment" and
the life assignment.
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