"If you are at all philosophically or psychologically inclined (and of course
you are or you wouldn't be reading this), you will recognize that you and only
you are the determining factor of your relationship-experiences. Philosophers do not,
as a rule, plough blindly through their incarnations making the same old mistakes in the same old way,
over and over; they seek enlightenment toward improving their inner conditions
and thereby learn how to improve the quality of their expressions.
Philosophers do not spend their time in blame or accusation of others because
they know that it is not people but their own negative reactions which cause
their pain."
The eight prior volumes of this series of
astrological interpretations have been received with such an enthusiastic
welcome by so many astrology students everywhere that we are pleased to add
No. 9, the final one, to the series.
Elman Bacher's profound knowledge of and
devotion to the spiritual aspect of the stellar science, along with an uncanny
understanding of human nature, made it possible for him to present
illuminating astrological treatises which undoubtedly place 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 into the higher realms 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
articles made available to the public in this convenient form, 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 diseases, 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.
Chapter I
Complementation
"Complementation" is the most important single
word in the study of human relationships because it is a word-symbol of the
archetype of the vibratory exchanges that make relationship what it is. Its
life is polarity; its two basic macrocosms are masculine and feminine. All
basic human relationship patterns (marital, fraternal, parent-child, etc.)
represent a specific pattern of complementation in action as "ignitions" of
human vibratory consciousness.
The person whose vibratory qualities do not
contain anything that we respond to, in our subconscious feelings, is the
person to whom we are indifferent; in such casual contacts we meet such a
person only in the dimension of time-space. The absence of mutual vibratory
ignition takes everything from the contact that could result in relationship.
Ignition by one person on the vibratory body of another causes the person who
is "ignited" to react with subconscious feeling; he, by his reactions,
subconsciously identifies the contact by some sort of relationship-word.
Lacking mutuality, the "relationship-quality" exists only in his own feeling.
However, when we meditate on the subject of our
subconscious reaction-faculty, we recognize a remarkable thing: we, as
"reacting mechanisms," do react to some degree to almost every other human
being. Walking down a busy city-street, we pass, and are passed by,
innumerable people; unless we are intensely preoccupied with some focused
mental picture, we fleetingly react to impressions of faces, features, bodies,
clothes, walks, deformities, beauties, and actions of others; even a deep
preoccupation can be jolted when we come into the vibratory field of someone
who coincides with one of our inner relationship pictures in a marked way — our
attention "snaps into awareness" of such a person and we experience a feeling-
reaction. That feeling-reaction is relationship-awareness because one of our
subconscious relationship-pictures has been, for a moment, at least, "ignited."
That person — an otherwise perfect stranger whom we may never see again — is an
outpicturing of a facet of our subconscious relationship-resource, and as such
is related to us in a vibratory way. This "relationship" will be pleasant or
otherwise depending on the basic quality of our "inner picture."
We become so accustomed to our basic
relationship-patterns that we seldom recognize their true source or quality.
We just react and react and react. The Art of Human Relationship — the greatest
of all arts — is the harmonization of our reactions toward people so that we
bring ourselves into a clearer and clearer perception of the ideal which is
the archetype of each person. It is truth that the reality of any person — to
you, at any point in your evolutionary timing — is the quality of your reaction
to the person; change your reaction and you change the quality of the
relationship, for better or for worse.
This is not just a theory; prove it for
yourself by mentally rehearsing your own changes of reaction-quality toward
people who have figured in a significant way in your experience during this
incarnation. Did you ever love someone deeply and then find your reaction
changing into a feeling of dislike or aversion? Did you ever fear someone
and then, with clarified understanding, come to regard him as a valued friend?
Have you ever experienced a congestion-disintegration by becoming more
appreciative and loving toward one of your parents? or toward a brother or
sister? Did you ever hate someone so deeply that you felt a desire to
destroy him or to hurt him in some drastic way and then experience so marked a
change of heart (significant phrase!) that you "came into" a feeling of deep
respect and admiration? Were you ever apparently quite indifferent to someone
who figured in your experience for a long time and then underwent such a
change of feeling that you fell in love and married the person? All of these
types of inner changes represent the realities of relationship-transformation
by "modulation into different octaves and keys " — and into different patterns.
Love-Wisdom nurtures the archetype reality of all relationships between
people.
In this discussion of "complementation" we are
not concerned with the houses of the horoscope, primarily; the houses are the
spatial (physical) description of experiences and relationships. We are
concerned with the vibratory qualities, generic qualities, focalization of
generic qualities by the planets and the generic patterns represented by the
planetary aspects. Try an elasticization to prepare your mind for this study:
make a copy of your natal chart without the house-cusps; simply place the
planets in their (relatively) accurate positions in the wheel by sign and
degree-position. This is so you can keep in mind the aspects made by your
planets to each other.) Now make a list of the planetary rulerships of the
twelve signs; suggest: Mars for Aries, Venus for Taurus-Libra, Mercury for
Gemini-Virgo, Moon for Cancer, Sun for Leo, Pluto for Scorpio, Jupiter for
Sagittarius, Saturn for Capricorn, Uranus for Aquarius, and Neptune for
Pisces. Learn this listing so that you are perfectly familiar with it. It is
the planetary rulership of the zodiac. Also learn the planetary
dispositorship of the zodiac: all planets in Aries are disposited by Mars, all
in Taurus-Libra are disposited by Venus, all in Gemini-Virgo are disposited by
Mercury, all in Cancer are disposited by the Moon, etc. In other words,
planets in a given sign are disposited by the ruler of that sign; the
planetary ruler of a given sign disposits all planets in that sign. Acquire
fluency on these points.
Now, for further clarification, enclose by a
circle all planets in each particular sign in the "cuspless" wheel you've
made. This gives your eye a chance to group your planets by sign-position,
regardless of their house-position; list your planets by sign-position and
bracket each group by the planetary dispositor; this listing is the vibratory
grouping of your horoscope — you should learn it thoroughly. Now, in the
cuspless wheel, draw a diameter: the starting-point will be the planetary
ruler of your natal horoscope; the sign which contains the opposite point is
your complementation sign; its ruler (whatever planet it is) focalizes that
vibration and thus is your essential complementary vibration. Thus we see
that the dispositor of your Ascendant-ruler and the ruler of the sign opposite
to the one which contains your Ascendant ruler are the two basic points of
your complementation patterns in this incarnation. The sign which contains
your "complement planet" and its ruler will be the chief qualifying vibration
of your complement. Study your Ascendant-ruler-dispositor and its planetary
complement from every conceivable standpoint; in them is found the inner
secrets of your relationship-consciousnessin this incarnation; they represent
the focalized vibrations or inner picture of "yourself " and the inner picture
of your "other self."
Now to create the first of your two "generic
charts." This one is derived directly from your natal Ascendant. Make a copy
of your natal horoscope, correct in every detail, using, as Ascendant, the
cusp carrying the sign which contains your Ascendant-ruler; do not change
anything in the wheel. The sign that now appears as Ascendant (containing,
either in twelfth or first house, your natal ruler) is your vibratory
Ascendant. The planet that rules this sign is your vibratory ruler and its
position by sign, elemental trine (fire, earth, air, water), structural cross
(cardinal, fixed, mutable), and planetary aspects gives the picture of your
inner recognition of yourself; your natal ruler is the "outward" of you-how
you think of yourself consciously and how you most directly appear to other
people. Remember that the ruler of your natal Ascendant is projected into the
wheel from the Ascendant and by its house-position it indicates your
self-recognitions in terms of space/time and activity. The vibratory ruler,
however, is projected from the sign that it rules and its relationship to the
body of the wheel is in terms of extension from its own sign of dignity. If
the vibratory ruler is in the same element as is the sign it rules (the
vibratory Ascendant-sign) then it is the Power or Love or Wisdom expression of
your inner nature which is focalized to indicate your basic spiritual power.
If the vibratory ruler is in a sign which refers to the same structural cross
pertaining to the sign it rules, then it is "square" or "opposition "its sign
of dignity and this represents an evolutionary turning point — analogous to the
"turning points" of the cardinal, fixed, and mutable squares (or "crosses") of
the Great (or Abstract) Mandala.
Your chart, as it now stands (with the
vibratory Ascendant) is the basic generic variation of your natal chart. The
generic quality of the vibratory ruler, the sign it's in, and the quality of
its dispositor will serve to identify the basic generic quality of your natal
chart, since this variation is derived from the sign-position of the ruler of
the natal Ascendant. Synthesize carefully by reference to generic spectrum
and remember that this variation is not a picture of your Being as "male" or
"female;" it is the basic masculinity or basic femininity of your inner
nature. Since this variation is derived directly from the natal horoscope,
consider this thought: What house, in your natal chart, contains your
vibratory ruler? This house, whatever it is, will picture the physical, or
"space-time" focus of this particular vibratory flowering. In other words,
the "where-and-when in your incarnation you will find perfection of this basic
inner quality of your nature." What does your chart show concerning this?
If you are at all philosophically or
psychologically inclined (and of course you are or you wouldn't be reading
this), you will recognize that you and only you are the determining factor of
your relationship-experiences. Philosophers do not, as a rule, plough blindly
through their incarnations making the same old mistakes in the same old way,
over and over; they seek enlightenment toward improving their inner conditions
and thereby learn how to improve the quality of their expressions.
Philosophers do not spend their time in blame or accusation of others because
they know that it is not people but their own negative reactions which cause
their pain. So now, as philosophers, we will enjoy a study of the basic
generic chart as it serves to picture the "inner" of our
relationship-consciousness. Another variation.
From the chart as it now appears as "basic
generic," turn it (or make another copy) so that the sign opposite to the one
containing the natal ruler appears as the Ascendant. This is — or we shall
call it — your "complementation Ascendant;" its planetary ruler is your
"complementation ruler."
Now this planet, whatever it is, is the
distillation of your complementary relationship-consciousness — way
down deep.
It is the essential vibratory portrait of your "other self" and, inversely,
it is the portrait of the enemy you carry around inside of yourself; this
"enmity" is, of course, qualified by the regenerate aspects made by this
planet, but its congestions (squares and oppositions) are, in the opinion of
the author, more important to understand than any other factor of your
astrological make-up because each one of these congestions is the "mote in
your own eye" by which you see evil in another.
Each congestion to this
complementation-ruler
represents, actually, a deep, dark ignorance of a specific Life-principle.
Stimulations of these congestions will cause "other people to hurt you the
most intensely " — your reactions to them, by this stimulation, at different
timings, is what you feel when Life, in her Wisdom, uses a knife to do a
little surgery on your congested, crystallized inner conditions. As long as
you live these patterns reactively you will suffer through your reactions to
the persons represented by the aspects; but when you enlighten your
consciousness as to the nature of the principle represented by this particular
planet you will recognize that you must consciously align yourself to make
this principle a constructive expression in your life; to the degree that you
do this, you will "take hands with the enemy inside and make him your friend."
The Great Teacher said: "Resist not evil;" did He mean: "I get up on this
fretting and stewing about what other people do — spend your time in
straightening your own consciousness and live accordingly?" It is
suggested — because this particular point is of urgent importance — that you
make as detailed a study of this "complement-ruler" as you can. Study its
placement and meaning in relationship to the Great Mandala; study its generic
meaning, its relationship meaning. What does it represent as a spiritual
principle and, from a karmic standpoint? What did you do in the past to
create the present congested aspects? How many people (whose charts you have)
have "points" that synchronize with this planet in your pattern? What has
been their influence and effect on you and your life? What has been your
influence on them, please? Do you tend to blame them for "doing things to
you" and then turn right around and do those same things to others? It is
felt that in no other astrological factor does the student need to get his
thoughts, feelings, and reactions out in the open, honestly and squarely, than
in those matters pertaining to this particular planet.
Charts, of course, vary considerably as far as
vibrational quality is concerned. Perhaps this "complementation ruler" in
your chart has no congestions — just sextiles and trines; then it is suggested
that you compare this planet with your "vibrational ruler." Which one gives
you the most "advantage," which one represents the free-est expression of
Power as Love-Wisdom, which one acts most effectively as a "decrystallizer of
congestions," which one represents a principle that you are the most clearly
aware of in your conscious being, which one represents the more clearly an
ideal that you see outpictured in others, or an ideal that you, yourself,
outpicture to others? There are many questions you can ask of your Higher Self
pertaining to these things but they must be asked honestly — excuses,
self-justifications, and blamings have no place in this kind of analysis. The
"complementation ruler" can, of course be studied from an additional factor:
the quality of the planet that disposits it — that planet might be very
congested even if the complementation ruler itself is not; if such is the
case, then learn from your relationships (the good outpicturing of other
people) how to deal with that particular congestion. You will see something
wonderful in other people that you wish you had yourself; try to determine
what this principle is and put it to work in your daily living. This is what
"life-learning" really means.
So now we have the natal horoscope and its two basic generic variations. (Suggest complete copies of all three for
reference). The cardinal signs focalize the vibratory relationship-structure,
and this focalization is represented by the sign-positions and aspects of the
structural planets: Mars, Moon, Venus, and Saturn. The generic grouping of
the planets will serve to determine which of the two "variations" is the
"masculine generic chart" and which is the "feminine generic chart" and from
this synthesis you can determine the generic qualitv of your basic
relationship-patterns. Which relationships focalize your masculine
expressions and which focalize your feminine expressions; which focalize your
reaction-patterns; what kind of relationship-pattern serves to bring to you
your most needed spiritual lessons; to which one — or two — do you naturally contribute your best in love and wisdom?
One comes into a realization of astrological
values through much study, meditation, observation, and experience; it is
impossible for all these subtle factors to be "put in words" at a single
sitting. But when a student of astrology is also a philosopher who keeps his
mind open to new octaves of realization he "ignites" his Inner Wisdom bit by
bit until deep levels of realization are lifted to the surface of
consciousness for practical application. We have come into awareness that it
is useless to center our attention on people as being only "male and female"
— the "repolarization process" has been in effect for too long a time to make
this approach essentially valid. We are realizing that the truth of human
relationships is cosmic polarity. Masculinity and femininity — "expression
and reflection" — are expressed by all people, regardless of their physical
bodies and their generative purposes and capacities.
So, in more clearly alerting ourselves to the
symbolic values of Mars, Moon, Venus, Saturn, and the other planetary bodies
that focalize the generic value of the zodiacal signs, we see in every
horoscope the manhood/womanhood of every human being. We must learn — it is
our principal purpose here — the ways to express and reflect the Generic
Principles of Life; our "school" is Humanity; our "classrooms" are the
sum-total of all of our relationship-experiences, as male and female, in all of
our incarnations. Nothing less than this could provide pabulum for complete
realization of the human ideal.
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