Astrology
Astronomy for Astrologers
The Rosicrucian Conception
of Astrology
Astrology is a phase of the Mystic Religion, as sublime as the stars with which
it deals and not to be confused with fortune telling. As the tides are measured by the motion of
sun and moon, so also are the eventualities of life measured by the
circling stars, which may therefore be called the "Clock of Destiny." A knowledge of their import is an immense power, for to the competent astrologer a horoscope reveals every secret of life.
Astronomy for Astrologers
by Scorpio
(This is the fifth
article in this
series. — Editor)
Comets
I have ridden the wind,
I have ridden the sea,
I have ridden the moon and stars;
I have set my feet in the stirrup seat
of a comet coursing Mars.
Thus sings Cale Young Rice in
"The Mystic," But there are no
comets "coursing Mars." In this
solar system of ours the sun holds undisputed reign; comets course the sun. As we venture forth into the fathomless
abyss of space, we are bound to meet
sooner or later one of these strange
celestial phenomena known as comets.
The occult investigator regards them as
cosmic miscarriages, the origin and ultimate destiny of which are veiled in
deepest mystery.
The astrologer, though he senses their
more or less disturbing influence, has
so far not been able to definitely state
and tabulate their place and power.
The astronomer with indefatigable
diligence subjects them to the scrutiny
of his 200-inch eye, calculates volume,
speed, orbit, only to be baffled again and
again by the seeming disobedience to all
known laws on the part of these celestial
vagabonds.
Nevertheless it is to the comets and
their elliptic orbits that we owe the impetus to and opportunity of demonstration which led Kepler to discover some of
the great mathematical laws providing
us with the very basis of all our astronomical data, It is to the comets also
that we owe a periodic revival of public
interest in astronomical subjects, though
as often as not such interest is inspired
by fear and superstition.
Of all the fascinating phenomena
which we observe in the starry heavens
comets show the greatest variety and
greatest apparent inconstancy. Those
which have been visible to the naked eye
consisted of a star-like nucleus enveloped
in a large, more or less spherical, so-called coma of a substance so rare and
transparent that the stars which it passed
were in no wise obscured, and followed
by a reflectingly luminous tail, sometimes
millions of miles in length. The telescope, however, reveals that the majority of comets have no tail but only
a "head," i.e., nucleus and coma. The
size of these heads varies from about
18,000 miles in diameter to that of the
great comet of 1811 which was calculated
to be larger in volume than the sun.
Both Encke's and Halley's comets have
diameters which exceed that of the
moon's orbit around the earth. Tails
have been observed which were more
than 100 million miles in length. In
spite of these gigantic dimensions their
almost etheric rarity of substance excludes any noticeable gravitational influenee. This was most satisfactorily
proven when the earth passed bodily
through the tail of the great comet of
1861 on June 30th of that year without
changing our planet's time of revolution by a single second.
On the other hand it has been observed that the course
of comets is often decidedly changed by
the gravitational influence of the larger
planets.
The original orbits of comets have
been, and with the great majority still
are, narrow elongated ellipses with the
sun at one of the foci. Consequently
while at perihelion they are mostly intra-
Mercurial, and one actually has been observed to pass within 500,000 miles of
the sun, "brushing the corona," only to
reappear on the opposite side and withdraw toward outermost darkness, reaching aphelion somewhere in the dim distance of millions of miles beyond the orbit of Neptune. In the course of ages,
however, it so happened that one or another of the comets passed near one of
the great planets and was captured, as it
were, by the gravitational influence of
this planet. Its orbit was changed and
shortened and brought into systematic
relation with the orbit of the planet. This
was not an event of a day or two but a
gradual, pendulum-like process lasting
for ages and still going on. Not fewer
than thirty comets have been captured
by Jupiter, and are now known to astronomers as "Jupiter's family."
Now, to use the fanciful picture of the
poet, with our "feet in the stirrup seat
of a comet" we will extend our mental
excursion into the wondrous world of the
most gigantic and most powerful of all
the planets in our solar system.
Jupiter
A world within worlds, a system
within a system, in size and structure
the nearest approach to the sun, the
grandeur of Jupiter and its nine satellites is overwhelming. Though in volume
only one thousandth that of the sun, it
is nevertheless one thousand three hundred times as large as our earth. It is
still in a superhot and semi-fluid state,
certain parts of its surface showing a
dull glow of self-luminosity, not sufficient to prevent the eclipsing of its
satellites, but sufficient to color temporarily the dense clouds of vapor surrounding it. The extraordinarily rapid
shifting of these clouds tells us of cyclonic storms a thousand times more
furious than the fiercest typhoons
known on earth, and of electric outbursts
sufficient to destroy all physical life in
the twinkling of an eye. Life on Jupiter, however, is not of a physical but of a spiritual nature. Its mighty exalted
beings compare with us mere earthlings
as the grand and glorious body of Jupiter compares with the dense, dark, and
dwarfish body of the earth.
Everything in, on, or about Jupiter
is built on a scale far beyond human
comprehension and imagination. We
stand amazed before the bare facts. A
distance of 483 million miles from the
sun, it travels along its orbit at a speed
of eight miles per second (a speed at
which one could go around the earth in
less than one hour) accompanied by nine
small globes, which in turn revolve
around their parent body. Its orbit, however, is designed so as to meet these proportions, and in spite of its extraordinary speed, it takes 12 earth years to
make one revolution around the sun. At
the same time this giant brother planet
rotates on its axis in a little less than ten
hours, and inasmuch as its equatorial circumference measures 278,800 miles,
every point of its equator travels 28,000
miles per hour. The result of this fast
rotation is a very obvious and considerable outward bend at the equator and a flattening in the region of the poles, its
equatorial diameter being more than
5000 miles greater than the polar diameter.
Jupiter's satellite system consists of
five small and four large moons. Of the
latter, one is slightly smaller and one
slightly larger than our own moon, while
the two largest exceed even Mercury in
volume. The nearest is only about 70,000 miles, the farthest approximately
16 million miles from the planet's surface. A noteworthy feature, perplexing
to the scientist and interesting to the occult investigator, consists in the factthat while the first seven move about
Jupiter in the same direction as the
planets move about the sun, the outermost two move in the opposite direction
and in orbits greatly inclined to. the
plane of the planet's equator. The explanation of this strange exception to
the rule is simple, though not provable
to materialistic science: The two outermost bodies are not true moons at all,
but asteroids which were captured by
Jupiter's gravitational influence, and
by a sideward movement were forced
into their present orbit.
It is not generally known that the
satellites of Jupiter were the cause of a
great scientific discovery for us inhabitants of the earth. They furnished us with the first evidence that light requires an
appreciable time to pass from one point
to another. The Danish astronomer
Roemer, who lived in the 17th century,
made a special study of the eclipses
which occur when these satellites enter
the shadow of Jupiter. He carefully
calculated and tabulated the times when
eclipses were to occur, only to find that
they actually took place from 1 to 16
minutes later. The difference was greater
the nearer Jupiter happened to be to a
conjunction with the sun. It then occurred to him that at the time of Jupiter's conjunction with the sun, the earth
was 186 million miles (diameter of
earth's orbit) farther away from Jupiter
than at opposition time and that the
light rays were traveling the additional
distance in 16 minutes. At the time this
was regarded as a doubtful hypothesis,
and only many years after Roemer's
death was he given credit for actually.
discovering what is now known as the
velocity of light.
Before we take our next dip into space
we will give free rein to our imagination
and alight on the nearest of Jupiter's,
large satellites. We find a world of its
own, not so very much different from
the earth. It has air, water, clouds, and
a temperature similar to that of our
polar regions. It is inhabited by intelligent beings, stragglers who could not follow the rapid pace of evolution on
Jupiter. As they were given conditions
similar to those on earth, we may presume that their evolutionary status is in
some respects similar to our own. But
one feature we find on this little faraway world which is radically, different
from anything ever perceived by human
eyes. We look in vain for the familiar
sight of the starry heavens. The sky is
brilliantly lit up by the soft mellow
light of a heavenly body fourteen hundred times the size of our terrestrial
full moon. It is Jupiter, seen in close
proximity and appearing to the inhabitants of this satellite as a moon. This
large luminous-disk presents a fascinating spectacle of grotesque figures, ever changing in color and form, with dark
lines with.a reddish glow on each side of
and parallel to the equator, clearly betraying the red-hot interior, and still
transmitting a small degree of warmth
and light. Periodically the red regions
increase and decrease as if the giant
were breathing.
There are eight other moons of various
sizes and various hues, rising and setting,
often eclipsing one another, two of them
moving in a direction opposite to that
of the, others. And there is the sun, reduced to a rather small disk, only one twenty-fifth of its size as seen from the
earth. . There are also meteors, i.e.
"shooting stars," in great numbers, for
Jupiter exerts a powerful attraction, and
ever and again there appears a frisky
white, changeable comet. And somewhere amid this dazzling display of
light and color is a tiny speck, visible
the naked eye only as a very faint little
point, the earth. Such is the skyscape
seen from a satellite of giant Jupiter.
— Rays from the Rose Cross Magazine, February, 1931, p. 90-96
This web page has been edited and/or excerpted from reference material, has been modified from it's original version, and is in conformance with the web host's Members Terms & Conditions. This website is offered to the public by students of The Rosicrucian Teachings, and has no official affiliation with any organization.
