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Esoteric Astrology, page 1

In case you were wondering what the difference was between Karmic astrology & Esoteric astrology, Esoteric astrology is the stuff that requires real study & doesn't relate so much to individuals and their problems. It can be quite abstract, consequently, good books are few & far between:

Esoteric Astrology, page 2

Indicates a book on our Top Ten list. If you would like to find more books like it, click on the star.

ESOTERIC ASTROLOGY, Volume 3 of A Treatise on the Seven Rays - Alice A. Bailey, $30.00
Contents: 1. The zodiac & the rays: Three basic statements, The creative hierarchies, the great wheel

2. The nature of esoteric astrology: Introduction, Centers & triangles of force, The crosses & the signs, Spiritual effects of the zodiac

3. The science of triangles: Introductory, Triangles of energy, Triangles of force, Triangles & the centres, Conclusions

4. The sacred & non-sacred planets: The centres, rays & signs; The races, rays & signs; Planetary & systemic centres

5. Three major constellations: Leo, Capricorn & Pisces; Major planetary influences
6. The three croses: The cross of the hidden Christ, The cross of the crucified Christ, The cross of the risen Christ

7. The rays, constellations & planets: The nature of the will, Various aspects of the will, The keynotes of the seven rays, Cosmic energies & transformation

Appendix; Index.

Comment: This is the finest of all the books on esoteric astrology & by far the most demanding. To start, it is one of five books written as A Treatise on the Seven Rays & of those five, this is the most difficult (I've read them all). It is one of 24 books "written" by Alice A. Bailey. Most of the books under her name (though not all) were actually penned by a Tibetan monk & transmitted to AAB through clairvoyant means, from about 1917 to 1947. In their turn, these books are an essential subset to the larger Theosophical outpouring, from 1875 to about 1930. (Alice Bailey herself was a life-long member of the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society.) To fully grasp these 742 pages, it helps not only to be well-read in the larger literature, but also in other metaphyiscal doctrines, that of Ouspensky/Gurdjieff among them. Finally, esoteric studies aren't, in general, for the young. It helps to have weathered a stormy life & aquired a bit of seasoning. It also helps to realize that although AAB was an Englishwoman who spent many years in America, the Tibetan who wrote this book was, presumably, reasonably familiar with Indian society. In other words, this may be an advanced treatise on Vedic astrology, not the more familiar western stuff.

As befits a very abstract text, this is a book about groups, collectives & associations. There is virtually nothing here about individual natal charts. Also, the book specifically discredits all attempts to reduce signs to rays. The oft cited, "Aquarius is a 7th ray sign" immediately breaks down on analysis. Aquarius, the external side of it at any rate, is quite definitely 6th ray. (You want the 7th ray sign? That's Virgo.)

Lucis Trust, 742 pages, paper.


SOUL-CENTERED ASTROLOGY - Alan Oken, $22.95
Contents:
Part 1: Soul-centered astrology: A key to your expanding self: 1. Why a soul-centered astrology?; 2. The soul, the personality, and the rainbow bridge; 3. The evolution of consciousness in the New Age; 4. The laws & principles of the New Age; 5. Ten postulates of the Ancient Wisdom teachings.

Part 2: A soul-centered alphabet: The astrological building blocks: 6. The nature & influence of the seven rays; 7. The path of incarnation & the three crosses; 8. An initial view of the chakras; 9. The twelve astrological signs & their soul-centered planetary rulers; 10. The esoteric significance of the planets in the signs; 11. The mansions of the soul - the houses of the natal chart; 12. Soul-centered planetary relationships, the rays & the aspects.

Part 3: A guide to soul-centered delineation of the natal chart: 13. Points to ponder; 14. The delineation of the soul-centerd horoscope of Mahatma Gandhi; Bibliography; Index; Index of diagrams; Index of tabulations; Index of horoscope charts; Mantra & invocations.

Comment: First published in 1990, and now back in print, the best (almost the only) commentary on Bailey's Esoteric Astrology (above). Alan Oken has worked out some amazing details from Alice Bailey's original framework. I sat next to him one evening at a meeting of the Santa Fe Astrology Forum, back in 1998. Heather, the host, asked him a question about the health of her son, then around 20 years old. I had not recognized him (he doesn't much resemble the pictures on the back of his books). At first I thought he was crazy, but as he continued, (and as I realized who he was) I was astounded. He has done what I thought not possible: Made Alice Bailey's esoteric astrology relevant to individual natal charts, to great effect. I'm not sure that's in this book, but the thinking that eventually got him there is. This book was the result of 20 years study, which, for Oken, is ongoing. Alan! Please write us another book.

Crossing Press, 429 pages.



Ashcroft-Nowiki


Norris

THE DOOR UNLOCKED - An Astrological Insight into Initiation - Delores Ashcroft-Nowiki and Stephanie V. Norris, $17.95

Contents:

Acknowledgments
Foreward, by Herbie Brennan

Introduction
Initiation: Its meaning, effect & promise (DAN)
Initiation: The moment of rebirth (SVN)

Chapter 1: The first degree:
The candidates (SVN)
The red cord (DAN)
The chosen road (SVN)

Chapter 2: The second degree:
The candidates (SVN)
The silver cord (DAN)
The chosen road (SVN)

Chapter 3: The third degree:
The candidates (SVN)
The violet cord (DAN)
The chosen road (SVN)

Chapter 4: The initiator (SVN)

Notes
Bibliography
Appendix, the grades
Astrological glossary
Contacts, esoteric schools
Astrological schools

Comment:

As my remarks on this book will be surprising, I start with a detailed synopsis:

Brennan's Foreword says that those born in the Amazon basin who are destined to become shamans (the word is Siberian, by the way. "Medicine doctor" would be a preferable term) cannot escape their fate, try though they may. The reason for this, which Brennan does not know, but I do, is that in his previous life the individual dabbled in casual magic, and was sloppy about his work. The astral entities the magician created in that previous life, which were still roaming free at his death, came back to haunt him in his next life. That is all. This is but another demonstration of Newton's Law of Cause & Effect. Or why it's not such a good idea to take up magic, or become a nadi reader in India, but I digress.

The Introduction.
Delores, as she calls herself, cautions us to avoid the cheap & gaudy vendors who hawk "initiation" from street corners. Sage advice, which, to my regret, neither author observes. She then says initiation is stage-managed by unseen guides for your own benefit, and is exclusively the province of those who are "spiritual". The process takes three lives, the end result is a subtle physical transformation, though as she never deals with any other than the present life, it must be that all her candidates have already got two lifetimes experience already. She mentions "SOL", which is short for Servants of the Light, which is an organization which she, and Norris, run. SOL is mentioned frequently in the book. This book may well be an extended advertisement for it.

Stephanie's Introduction starts with her memory of a dream that Delores gave her on April 1, 2003. In the dream, Delores said that Stephanie was a candidate in good standing for eventual initiation. A few months later the two were on the phone, when Stephanie asked Delores if there were any books on initiation. Delores said, "NO!!!" Which is untrue. There are many such books, but, believing otherwise, the two women set about to write this one.

Chapter 1: The First Degree.
Stephanie leads off with the stories of Monica & Stephen, two individuals she met, befriended, and persuaded to join the SOL. Stephen's treatment is more detailed. SOL requires candidates to study the dead king Osiris (quoted from page 18), as well as submit to 42 assessors. As a result, Stephen became ill with meningitis, he split up with his then wife; he became homeless & had to live with friends; he got a new job, and took up homosexuality (pg. 19). Which is to say that esoteric orders, of whatever legitimacy, are nothing to mess with. The section ends with a note on Monica. She was scheduled to be initiated in September, 2001, but the events of the 11th day of that month delayed matters for a year.

In her section, entitled The Red Cord, Delores talks about those who have been called to be initiators, i.e., those who make the event happen. She then describes a typical (first) initiation, which involves a preparatory period of contemplation, before the candidate is blindfolded & given a series of tests (questions & answers, I think) after which the blindfold is removed & the candidate stands before the initiator, for a ceremony that sounds remarkably like a fundamentalist faith healing, as commonly seen in tent revivals. Whereupon the new initiate is presented with a red cord and a "magical ring" is placed on a "finger" (not specified) indicating that he is now "married" to his spiritual order. He is then to behave himself, attempt to learn things that had previously baffled him, and be an initiator for his lessers. Do first initiations ever go wrong? According to Ashcroft-Nowicki, when things go wrong, the blame rests with the initiator, and the problem was the ritual was premature, or the candidate was inappropriate.

Stephanie ends the first section by noting that Stephen had one initiation in 1991, followed by a second in 2004. Stephen experienced "emotional clearing" as a result of these two experiences & now is a Neuro-Linguistic Pratitioner & clears the emotional blockages of others. For her part, Monica says she now remembers parts of her previous lives & now finds life more peaceful. She is now busy with her own lodge, whatever that may be. (Amway, anyone?)

2. The Second Degree:
Stephanie introduces us to Paul. Paul had taken his first initiation 3.5 years before & was now a candidate for the second degree. She gives us Paul's chart, but not his actual birth data. I don't know why authors suppress the data, as charts are easily worked out. Paul was born around February 15, 1962. A moment's work & I could have the precise date, time & location. Paul was in fact born about ten days after Jeanne Dixon's famous prophesy of the birth of the Anti-Christ on the 5th. Norris does a bad job of delineating the chart, which, with a massive stellium in Aquarius & the 5th house, is mostly about group sex, or would be, if Saturn would let him. But instead Paul took up Neuro Linguistics. He then had his Saturn return (which, given his stellium, was not the most pleasant), met Delores, decided upon his fate, and took up Hawaiian magic. Which, given that the 5th is children, and that children can be seen as magical events, fits. (Sex magic, or so I would presume.) Stephanie seems dimly aware of this, as on page 43 she quotes Paul as saying his current girlfriend wasn't his proper magical partner. She also unwittingly calls him a barefaced liar, in these words: Paul has a unique ability to compartmentalize and systematise information, and thus to maintain and sustain many different kinds of relationships at many different levels simultaneously. (pg. 43) This is the very definition of a liar, and of no one and no thing else.

For his second initiation, Paul is to consecrate his very own temple. In the process the Lords of Light were moving him around quite ruthlessly to achieve their aims, or so said Delores. Paul's second initiation involved play acting Lancelot with a Gavin, as Galahad, in other words, as "father & son". The preliminary rites may have included ritualistic sex with an associated female, the text is deliberately murky. Having introduced homosexuality with Stephen, we are looking for it between Paul & Gavin, and the text is, again, murky.

Stephanie then take up Erica, a 60 something survivor. She is immediately paired up with Yolanda & again I am left wondering about the sexual overtones. It is odd to see candidates paired off in this fashion. In the run-up to her second initiation, Erica spends time in spirit communication. She also has a notable psychic experience, which Stephanie explains as Uranus transiting two degrees away from her natal Mercury. (The astrology in the book is no better than this.) Yolanda turns out to be a member of Erica's lodge whom Erica has given some personal attention. Erica's second initiation is not described. It might be the exciting psychic events which led up to it were more interesting.

For her part, Delores, in The Siver Cord, gives details. The powers granted to a second degree initiate are under the control of the initiate & can be freely varied according to whim. Delores says, Once an initiate, always and forever an initiate, life after life. Which, given the program she's pushing, I personally find unlikely. Unlike the first initiation, which was given on demand, the second is given on the whim of the initiator. Afterwards, we learn that With the acceptance of the silver cord you give the responsibility for your actions, words & deeds back to the Savior of the Age! (pg. 64) Which sounds a lot like a karmic Get Out of Jail Free card, but actually means that all your subsequent misdeeds become part of the karmic liability of the planet as a whole (as if they weren't already?). Delores then asks, Do you still think being an initiate is fun? Well, yes, frankly, as nothing, so far, has been the least bit challenging. What is a second degree initiate expected to do with himself? To submit to possession by the order's spirit guide. What happens if the second initiation goes wrong? That's too horrible to describe, according to Ashcroft-Nowicki.

Stephanie writes up the Chosen Road for the 2nd degree initiate. As Delores had previously stated, second degree initiates concern themselves exclusively with magic & occultism. Which I think means that if you want to be the next Aleister Crowley, this is the sort of path you should follow. (Or Dion Fortune, who is frequently mentioned in this book.) Which makes The Servants of the Light essentially a trade school. Both authors tell us constantly that the purpose of initiation is so that we can better serve, but the only service on offer is propagation of more lodges. Which reminds me, again, of Amway.

The Third Degree:
In The Candidates, Stephanie starts off talking about herself & her road to the third. Lots of changes were necessary. Only a few candidates are deemed worthy. Of the "thousands" of members of the "many" SOL lodges, scattered throughout the world, there are only two dozen Thirds. Which makes me think, not of Amway, but of a 33rd degree Mason. The Third requires a vow of Unreserved Dedication, and if it wasn't already clear that SOL is a cult, it should be by now. We meet Ariane, who goes from her second to to the third in two years. In the process her life becomes one of ritual magic. In addition to her magical work, Ariane took up psychotherapy. The third initiation is a twelve hour ordeal, about which nothing can be said, although since candidates live through the process, there is nothing all that fearsome about it. (It is described as a "death experience", but no twelve hour process can truly be said to be deathly.)

In the Violet Cord, Ashcroft-Nowicki talks of the various colors of cords & robes & cassocks. Which sounds a lot like the various belts in Judo. As with the second initiation, the powers conferred at the third are a tweaking of that which were given at the first - which means that Ashcroft-Nowicki has only one Rod of Initiation & can use it in only one way. A third degree initiate is enabled to perform initiations of the 1st & 2nd degree, but only with the permission of some mysterious higher up. If this is an actual person, that person is presumably Delores Ashcroft-Nowicki, but if not, it is the unseen guide or discarnate inner plane master who runs the Servants of Light itself. That there is such a disembodied entity I have no doubt. That any living person should follow its direction frankly horrifies me.

Stephanie writes of the Chosen Road of the 3rd degree initiate. It brings chaos (which is true of any initiation), but a manageable sort. Seventeen months later, Ariane was through the worst of it. (I've known people who had worse cases of culture shock.) Ariane's marriage required a "new understanding", which I think means No More Sex (that old canard!). Thirds take direction from the inner plane master(s), as if they were imbeciles, in my opinion, because that direction seems only to involve creating new lodges & gaining new adherents. What a waste!

In the closing chapter, The Initiator, Stephanie gives us Ashcroft-Nowicki's chart. For someone in her position, publishing a chart is a stupid thing to do. I have worked out the birth, which was in England in June of 1929. I will suppress the other details, but, as I mentioned, when you have a chart, working out the exact date & time is simple enough.

* * *

If you want to join a magical order, that is no concern of mine. Servants of Light is but one of many. Will you become a Better Person because of it? Well, yes. Whatever you do, whatever sincere & honest efforts you make in life, will forever make you a better person.

But is this Initiation, as the term is generally understood? A change that will immediately & forever mark you as some sort of Advanced Being?

NO.

The goal of initiation is not to teach you magic. Nor to encourage you to found copy-cat schools, nor to put you in contact with Exalted Inner Beings. All of which is navel-gazing, at best.

The goal of initiation is to free you from the wheel of incarnation, to liberate you from the toils of the earth, to remove you from its karma, to restore you to your rightful place in Heaven, with the full awareness & knowledge you have earned, for yourself and by yourself, through an eternity of toils, trials & striving while on earth. That, and nothing more.

When Ashcroft-Nowicki said there were no books on initiation, she mispoke. Initially I thought worse of her, but I think she had a reason. So far as what she said, and what Norris wrote (the ink on paper that has been published) they are both wrong. There are dozens of books on initiation. If she knowingly lied, she's not a spiritual leader that I want anything to do with. If she had some other meaning in mind, then I still don't want anything to do with her, because I'm just not bright enough to figure it all out. (I like things simple.) Of the many books on initiation, these are certainly known to her:

Initiation, Human & Solar, by Alice Bailey
Discipleship in the New Age, volumes 1 & 2, by Alice Bailey
Krishnamurti The Years of Awakening, by Mary Lutyens.

These are well-known to all in Ashcroft-Nowicki's field.

There was a crush of people looking to get "initiated" in the first half of the 20th century. The Theosophists had their Esoteric Order. Alice Bailey, herself a member of the Theosophical Esoteric Order, founded Lucis Trust which had its own esoteric school. Students in that school, candidates for initiation all, were for a time given direct instruction by Bailey's Tibetan contact. These instructions were compiled & published as Discipleship in the New Age, vols. 1 & 2. These are still in print. The names of the various individuals are given only as random initials. It is said that Dane Rudhyar was among them. And there were the Steiner people, the Moriya people, the Gurdjieff people, the CC Zain people, the Order of the Golden Dawn people, Crowley's group, Dion Fortune's group & literally a dozen others. Go Google & you will find even more.

The shabby side of initiation can be read in Mary Lutyen's book. From 1920 to July of 1929, Jiddhu Krishnamurti was put forward as the New Christ. Which, for a time, he was. He was unable, however, to surround himself with qualified people. Instead, charlatans sold "initiations" in his name, to whomever had the money, or the influence. Krishnamurti struggled in vain to control it, but gave up in disgust in 1929, disbanding his Order of the Star. Which was one of the turning points of the 20th century, though few know it.

So what is "initiation"? Initiation is a process that involves DEATH. Not metaphorical death. Not "gee I just escaped death" death. Not some sort of fancy psychic experience, regardless of intensity or duration. DEATH. By the end of the ceremony, the candidate is physically dead. Initiation is not for the squeamish. You get nothing for nothing. What will you give for this precious thing? Will you give your life? No? Then what did you expect?

I am broadly in agreement with Bailey's five initiations, and I am broadly in agreement with Benjamin Creme's list of initiates, their ray structures & Points of Evolution, which I have extensively studied. These are people from all walks of life, because, in reality, initiation in no way restricts one's free will. (Creme is a tragic figure. His great project has failed, the forces behind it - the "inner plane masters" were false. I am hopeful something can be salvaged from his work.)

It seems to me the first initiation can take a great many forms. Of an actual esoteric order, I once heard of an initiation that went like this:

The candidate was placed in a small room, alone with a very poisonous snake. He was told that to be successful & become "initiate", he had to hypnotize the snake, render it harmless, whereupon he could leave the room. But, alas, he was given neither training, nor preparation, for this feat, and the usual result was tragic: He died by snakebite. Because, in fact, had he hypnotized the snake, he would have failed. Only by dying of snakebite could the candidate complete the process & emerge, in his next life, as an initiate. Was the school murdering its candidates, knowingly, deliberately murdering them, murder in the first degree? Yes. It was. That was the whole point. Now do you see why I scoffed at this book & its trivial "initiations" ?

There is yet another form of first degree initiation, one handed out lavishly in many states & countries. It is the Death Penalty. This has been raised to a particularly high art in America, where "lucky candidates" often spend a decade or more on Death Row, enduring an almost (almost!) endless series of appeals and stays, hopes that are raised and then crushed. This cruel inhuman process concentrates the mind to a wonderful degree, but it also brings up a serious problem:

Once the candidate has been rendered dead, his soul & spirit are free to draw whatever lessons from the experience they wish. Will he have "learned his lesson", will he be a good & holy man in his next life? Or will he be filled with feelings of the most horrible anger & vengence? The executioner / initiator has no way of knowing! It is for this reason alone that the Death Penalty is such a monstrous, evil act. Let people find their own way to initiation! There is no reason the state should be blundering about!

Because initiation, the first, in particular, does not make you "good". It does not make you "holy". By mastering death you become more powerful. That is all. This is why candidate selection is so very critical. To some extent, every life we live, every death we endure, are all minor initiatory experiences. But when death is raised to ritual (and executions are always ritual) the power of death to transform becomes overwhelming.

The newly minted first degree initiate, in his next life, knows that he is different, knows that something horrific has befallen him, but does not know what. He spends many years, sometimes entire lifetimes, struggling to make sense of himself. He eventually realizes he is the master of the world, that it is his servant. At this point he styles himself as "The Greatest" - often using those exact words to describe himself. This is a moment of pure ego, and it has its expected result: The Greatest is quickly entangled in the toils of the world & settles down to actual work. As a religious cleric, if that is his choice. As a ritualistic magician, if he desires. As a thespian, if that is his wish. As a loving husband & father. As a ruthless warrior or even sadistic killer, if that is his bent. As a writer, a poet, a musician, a composer, an artist, a scientist, or a politician. It is his choice. All US Presidents, for example, were & are initiates. There is no possible way any lesser a person could ever attain the post. (Yes, even the wicked & stupid ones were initiate.) Whatever his occupation, he will be among the leaders of his field - in company with his fellow initiates, in fact. Initiation in no way limits free will, but rather, expands it. Which is why the last thoughts the candidate has before he undergoes his ordeal are so critically important.

Once the initiate settles down to work, he inevitably becomes enmeshed into the affairs of men. Whatever he eventually decides to do with himself makes him a leader among men. Attracts the attention of the masses. Eventually their love. And no matter how shocking, how tragic, the means of his prior initiation, adulation eventually rescues his hardened heart, softens it, and brings him around. This may take a number of lives (upwards of ten, or so I've been told.) Eventually he loves the attention. Ultimately he cannot live without it. Which inevitably leads him to the second of the five great initiations:

The death that creates a second degree initiate is one of selfless love. The candidate sacrifices his life for the good of another. It is the soldier who throws himself unhesitatingly on the live grenade, thereby sparring his friends at the cost of his own life. Given that the circumstances of the second initiation are fundamentally different, recovery from the event is much more rapid. Given that recovery is more rapid, the advance towards the third initiation is much faster. Those whose first initiation was of anger & rage must somehow sublimate their emotions before they can advance further. If they do not, they can, of course, re-experience the horrors of the first initiation over & over again.

Having sacrificed himself for love, the newly reincarnate 2nd degree initiate finds love flowing back to him. And while some part of that is sexual, the primary quality of love is an unquestioning openness. Not just among the people he lives among, but in all possible ways. Suddenly all doors are open. All secrets are shown. He is like a small boy in a candy shop. His eyes get big and round and he excitedly grabs at everything he can. He doesn't know anything, he doesn't understand anything, but there are so many new toys to play with! So many new places to explore! As an example, if, as a first degree initiate, he had eventually settled on a life in music, he would have ended up a pretty good tunesmith. A songwriter. A John Lennon, or a Rossini.

Now, with a lot more to play with, he expands his horizons. He takes up symphonies. He becomes a Dvorak, or a Bruckner. Mere songs are no longer a challenge. He wants symphonic complexity. And in the process something very interesting happens. When he was a first degree songwriter, he had mass appeal. Most of his fans were hardly the sort of people he'd want as friends, but there were millions of them. Now, as a "serious composer", he has the adulation of the elite, but is shunned by the masses. His horizons have narrowed, without his being quite aware.

Of course, the ultimate challenge, the one the 2nd degree initiate will always rise to, is to understand death. To make it a structured event. He will sense it coming, he will puzzle out its methods, and, one way or another, when the time comes, he will make a conscious exit. It will be his ultimate challenge. Such was how Yogananda died. Or he may die in a rage, saying to the world, Enough! I quit! Which is how Beethoven died. In the next life he expects to return as the all-conquering hero. Was not death the ultimate challenge?

Surprisingly, life takes an abrupt turn. Having conquered everything that was of interest, he has run out of things to do. So, he no longer has goals. He no longer has a clear purpose. Talent drips off his fingertips, but he is unable to make use of it. Many times thirds are employed as private secretaries (factotums) in their youth, to men who are their inferiors. Lacking clear direction, he may well take up his employer's profession, but if he does, he will most likely be branded a mere copy-cat. There is an interesting reason. A third is highly sensitive to the astral currents around him. As a result, he easily, and often unwittingly, picks up the thoughts & ideas of those around him. Which, having a perfectly formed mind (if you can figure out death, you can figure out most anything) he makes better use of, but still, it wasn't his own idea. Thirds are just as likely to be unwitting telepaths, verbalizing aloud the secret thoughts of their friends, which means that few will quite trust them. Fourth degree initiates have the same problems, only more so.

In an effort to regain the popularity the third degree initiate dimly remembers from his days as a first degree initiate, he may pander to the masses. Make orchestral settings of pop tunes, for example, or wander the countryside as an itinerent preacher / healer, as Jesus did. No one understands him, no one knows what to do with him. If he achieves success, he also becomes a target. Many will envy him. Many others will fear him (fears based on their own ideas of what someone of his talents could do, rather than anything that he might actually do). Much to his surprise, the more he tries to please, the more he is shunned. What he does next is of interest.

Read Matthew with a critical eye & you will see the rabbi Jesus fell into this trap. (In other words, stop looking at him as God Incarnate & instead imagine yourself in his place.) He can heal the sick, he can perform miracles, he is wise and solemn. He entertains people as a moralizing storyteller. Why doesn't the world want him? Why is he forced to wander from town to town, unable to make a home? Unable to find a wife? Have a family? He becomes enormously frustrated. Finally he is seized with the idea that he can lead the miserable rabble to a better life, and throws the money changers out of the temple. But as soon as he flings the first one, he knows he has signed his own death warrant. Throwing the money changers out of the temple was exactly the sort of event the authorities had long feared. They moved swiftly.

The fourth initiation, known to Bailey as the Crucifixion, is when the initiate, whose life has become an enormous failure, commits suicide. This is what Jesus inadvertently willed for himself when he cleaned out the temple. Jesus failed. He died in an enormous rage, as was proven by the storm that brewed over his head. As soon as he was free of the cross, he raced back to the temple, intending to demolish it. But, lacking physical hands, the best he could do was to rip the curtain from top to bottom. Which, even so, was no mean feat. He then raced back into life as Apollonius of Tyna (such is the legend), where he was stunned to find that no one wanted him. The body he left behind, as Jesus, was, according to legend, reanimated three days later by the Christ himself. Reading the New Testament closely, you will discover that none of Jesus's followers recognized this new stranger in their midst. Which is typical of bodies that are reanimated by another entity. (Christians make such hash of their Bibles!)

The fourth initiation is suicide. It could be nothing else. The candidate, rejected by the world, in his turn rejects it. Turns his back on it. If the first initiation is a defining moment, this is a second. In all subsequent lives, he will never again be a part of the world. Which means there is no longer any point in rebirth, in a physical life.

Having been rejected by all, by the very earth itself, the fourth degree initiate comes back to life in a state of shock. He no longer sees any future. He becomes consumed in a quest to find out what had happened to him. As a child the memories are vivid. Sorting it all out, finding the WHY, even for a man of his considerable talents, can take the better part of a lifetime. This may have been Jiddhu Krishnamurti's sole defect, a desire to go back to happier days, when he was a celebrated savant, rather than progress on to his own proper fate. Once the 4th degree initiate resigns himself to his fate, he sets about constructing his new home in astral matter, such that when he eventually dies, he enters a transitory period of readjustment in his new abode. Krishnamurti did this publicly, as his "process". Which is the fifth, and for this series, the final initiation.

Such is initiation. Bailey's book, Initiation, Human & Solar, merely dances around the edge of all this. You must know how to read it. There is nothing, in any of this, that is ordained by inner guides. They do not move your here or there. You are not part of any school or lodge, except from your own foolish blundering. You are not, so far as I am aware, actually initiated by anyone into anything. You are, yourself, your own initiator. No one else. You are to succeed, or fail, on your own. The gifts you give to the world as a result, are yours alone.

There is a short-cut, if you want it. And it is pain free. Death free: Two thousand years ago Christ established the sacrament of Communion for the express purpose of assisting all to advance along their own, unique evolutionary paths. The Church permits you to take of this marvelous elixir once a day, starting at the age of 7. Should you do this, each & every day of a long life, the result will be that in your next life you will have moved ahead of your peers in the evolutionary scheme of things. You will be a leader. Should you do this for two or three lifetimes, you will be among the greatest beings on the planet. If you are serious, you will take ordination as a priest, or vows as a nun. If the Catholic Church is not to your liking, then any of its branches, which have retained direct Apostolic Succession, will do as well (among them, Lutherans & Anglicans). In fact, there are many among us who have already finished a series of such lives and are now, not Church fanatics, but leaders in their fields. Leaders in all fields. Am I proselytizing for the Church? If you wish. I am merely reciting what I know to be true. I am fully aware the Church is not acceptable to many. Not acceptable to me, alas. Or rather, I am not acceptable to it.

I want to be perfectly clear. For every successful initiation, there are a dozen failures. Perhaps a hundred. Each one, a life lost. A life cut short. A life wasted. Fated to reincarnate only to start all over again from the beginning, having gained nothing and lost all. Murder is murder. Groups that murder candidates do not write books, they are not found in towns & cities, they do not place ads of any sort. If, despite my ghastly story, you are willing & eager to sacrifice yourself & seek them out, you will never find them. They are hidden away in poor, sparsely populated countries, tucked away on lonely mountaintops, living in old & dilapidated buildings, where there are no roads, no nearby towns of any sort. They are not to be found in any guidebook. Whenever these groups come to the attention of the authorities, they are promptly broken up. So they hide.

As for achievement via suicide, know that even fourth degree initiates come to regret the deed. Suicides always destroy the friends & family they leave behind. In many cases, the suicide posthumously causes the actual deaths of his family & friends, one way or another. And even if he thinks he is prepared, thinks he has thought it through, thinks that he has perfectly hidden it from the world, the process is so strange, the energies so powerfully uncontrolled, that he will likely create only pain & suffering, for himself & for many others.

If you wish this boon, this greatest of all gifts, the one safe route, open to virtually all, is the Church. Regardless what you think of it, regardless of your own experiences, regardless of what you may have heard. Grit your teeth, smile nicely at the priest, and early every morning, jog over to your parish church & let him put the host on your tongue. You don't have to like him & he doesn't have to like you. You can, and I think, should, ignore everything he & his Pope says from their pulpits, as they often are, in fact, as mean and as petty and as stupid as they come. Remember you're not coming for them or their sermons. You're coming for the host itself. Establish a direct relationship with it, and be patient, and be happy. Ultimate liberation is a long, slow process. Perhaps someday the Church will not be the ultimate Yin-Yang.

Back to the book at hand. I did not expect it to be very good, but I was disappointed it was merely a shill for an existing esoteric school. No, that's wrong. The Servants of the Light is not esoteric, but magical. The degrees of initiation offered are not of the cosmic, eternal level, but merely stages in the formation of a magician. One with a distinct sexual slant, same-sex, if I'm not mistaken. As such, the authors are correct in saying their degrees of initiation are elective, optional, at the discretion of the candidate, or of the initiator. Ashcroft-Nowicki may be telling the truth in saying there has never been a book quite like this before. (Crowley might have done it, but I am unfamiliar with most of his work. Ashcroft-Nowicki & Norris both studiously avoid all mention of him.) Viewed in this light, you can practice Ashcroft-Nowicki's magic, or Crowley's magic, or Dion Fortune's magic, or that of a number of other schools.

And if you go down that route, you will, in your next life, learn the fate of reincarnate magicians. To be cannibalized by one's own, long forgotten spells & enchantments. To be compelled to again be the town shaman, or the nadi reader, or the magus. Over & over again.

Why would anyone do this? Want to be initiate? Because he wants to be a big shot & has heard this is the way to go. If he only knew the path ahead of him, either magical or cosmic, he might not be so cocky. The final question: Does an initiate know he's initiate? With almost no exceptions, an initiate can pass through all four stages and not have a single clue. This is actually a mercy.

I've heard said that the Tibetans teach that if you make a good death, you are immediately liberated from the endless cycle of death & rebirth. Which is initiation, no more, no less. Myself, I have long been curious about these strange creatures, these initiates, hence my lavish notes.

Wessex Astrologer, 113 pages.


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TURNING THE SOLOMON KEY: George Washington, the Bright Morning Star & the Secrets of Masonic Astrology - Robert Lomas, $18.95
Contents:

Acknowledgments
Foreword
Introduction: In pursuit of a mystery: Washington, DC, by Katherine Neville
Prologue: George Washington: A most famous Freemason

1. The secrets of the Solomon Key
2. Ritual keys & Bright Morning Stars
3. The layout of Solomon's Key
4. Washington & the streets of London
5. Achievement & Masonic astrology
6. Following in Newton's footsteps
7. Lies, damned lies, and astrology
8. The journey from single cell to complex genius
9. Powering the enchanted loom
10. Tides, telephones & the phase of the moon
11. A mirror in the sky
12. The predictions of Masonic astrology
13. Further predictions of Masonic astrology
14. Understanding the Solomon Key

Appendices: 1. Gravatational pull of the sun & planets on the earth; 2. Effect of height on free electron density; 3. Free electron density above Washington DC, over a day; 4. Relationship between Gauquelin's high-achiever births & changes in ionospheric free electron activity; 5. How the ionosphere splits into layers at different seasons; 6. Density of the electron clouds above the earth; 7. The spectrum of radio noise; 8. Gravitational effects on a free electron; 9. Modeling a planet close to the sun in the sky, appearing as a Bright Morning Star; 10. Economic activity & latitude.

Bibliography
Footnotes
Index

Comment: The introduction begins:

George Washington, the first president of the United States, was a Freemason. This book is the story of my personal quest to understand George Washington and the Masonic sources of his inspiration. It is a journey through unexpected and seemingly unrelated aspects of superstition, the human condition, and modern science. But tying the whole quest together are the unlikely linkages of Freemasonic ideas. (pg. 13)
"Superstition" is a red rag to this bull, but on the other hand, Lomas couples it with "the human condition", which is surely a phrase lacking all meaning. We should say at the outset that while many of America's Revolutionary leaders were Freemasons (Franklin, et al), they were first of all successful men. Washington was an executive & military commander, far more than he was a Freemason. After the war ended, he WENT HOME to resume a life of farming. And would have STAYED THERE, but for the failure of the initial Confederation, which forced him back to public life. There was no diabolical plot to turn the Declaration of Independence into some sort of Masonic country. Since we are reasonably certain Masons did have a hand in laying out what eventually became the United States as we know it, it can only be because they felt the need to rescue a rapidly failing state. These facts need to be kept in mind.

Masonic Astrology, the subject of this book, seems to center around the rising of the planet Venus, the Bright Morning Star. Associated with this are supposed "bright conjunctions of Mercury & Venus" in the east every 480 years, when they appear to form a single star. There's a problem with this as an omen, aside from its obvious rarity. Mercury is never more than 30 degrees from the sun, meaning the sun's glare is already apparent behind the planetary occultation as it rises. Another is that Lomas seems to be unaware that he is also describing the Star of Bethlehem, in the east, with three wise men in tow.

He gives years, though no specific dates, in which these occultations were said to have taken place. One was 1434 (pg. 107). So I went looking for it. By longitude, there were three Mercury / Venus conjunctions that year, two of them ahead of the sun (ie, as "rising stars"). None of them coincided with a conjunction in declination or latitude. The closest of the three was March 14, 1434 (NS). At sunrise the pair were 26 degrees ahead of the sun. They were 3' apart in longitude, 45' apart in latitude. Saturn rose 11 degrees ahead of them. Lomas's claim that Jupiter & Mars rose with them is false. Any of you with an astrological program can prove this for yourself. Yes, Mercury & Venus were breathtakingly close, but they were not one and the same. Unlike modern scientists, the ancients were not blind.

The book gradually descends into a long anti-astrology diatribe. On the one hand, Lomas is impressed with George Washington as an individual, on the other, he is repulsed by Washington having anything to do with astrology, even if as a Freemason. Lomas consults astrologers Robin Heath & Colin Wilson & is sympathetic, but in the end sides with Richard Dawkins. Like most everyone who starts with hostility to the subject, Lomas mangles his research. Among other things, he manages to equate the luminosity of Mars & Saturn as equal to that of Venus (pg. 132)

After a lot of huffing & puffing, Lomas gradually decides that Gauquelin's sensitive degree areas must be what George had in mind when he designed Pennsylvania Avenue to align with a mid-August sunrise. Lomas prints Gauquelin's famous diagram on pg. 149, but notably reverses it. On pg. 261, he writes:

Nothing I have found about Masonic astrology makes the casting of an individual horoscope plausible. Masonic astrology can predict only when a greater proportion of the children born will grow up to be high-achievers.
In this, he is describing Gauquelin, as viewed through a filter of planetary conjunctions with the sun or moon, which are claimed to result in exceptional individuals. As astrologers, we merely note the well-known effect of stelliums.

So far as Masons not casting horoscopes, he is presumably unaware of Manly Hall, 1901-1990, a 33rd degree Mason who wrote astrology books. So the Masons are a broad church. (Did Mr. Lomas do any research, I wonder?)

To show how far Lomas drifts from the 18th century Washington, on pg. 263, he follows with:

I believe there are two possible general questions that Masonic astrology might be able to answer:
1. What proportion of a group of people will be stimulated to act in a certain way by chains of ionospheric radio pulses?
2. In what times & places will these pulses have their greatest effect?
On page 256, Lomas declares that "Masonic astrology" (whatever it is) can be used to make two predictions: First, the further you are from the equator, the more economic activity there is. Which, if true, means that Europe, not the US, is the world's economic powerhouse, and that the great civilizations of Central America & India never existed. Also, that dogs in the southern hemisphere bark more at the new moon than they do at full. Any of my Brazilian & South African readers want to comment? Do dogs at the equator never stop barking, or do they bark at all?

I was hoping for a book on Masonry & astrology & Washington, DC. This the book fails to deliver. There is no analysis of the city itself. Aside from the Capitol building on the cover, there is only one small map of the city in the book, which is otherwise ignored. Lomas goes on & on about George Washington's habit of taking pages from the Virginia Almanac & pasting them in to his diary but never once realizes that Washington, when he was not at the head of armies, did so because he was a farmer & needed to know when to plant his crops.

If I had to guess, I'd say the book came about this way: Lomas had written earlier books on the Masons. George Washington was a Mason. Lomas wanted to write a book about Washington. Washington laid out the city named for him. He insisted on a precise alignment between the Capitol & the President's Palace (eventually to be known as the White House) according to the rising of the sun in mid-August. Washington was an annual subscriber to the local almanac, so therefore his alignment of Pennsylvania Avenue could only be explained by astrology. Astrology, as we all know, is bogus, and so therefore some "scientific" astrology must be found. Michel Gauquelin's work was the only one to fit the bill, and so that, combined with some messing around with contemporary theories about brain function, became Lomas's solution. If I'm right, I expect this book will date rapidly. Guesswork like this always does.

As for the famous alignment of Pennsylvania Avenue, my thoughts: In mid-August, the Sun is in late Leo. Leo is the sign of powerful countries, as well as their powerful rulers. When Washington insisted on this alignment, the US was barely a nation at all. It was unknown if it would survive, or dissolve into 13 competing statelets, or be reconquered, all or in part, by one or more powerful European countries (England, France, Spain, perhaps even the Netherlands). Washington did not want the great sacrifice of the Revolution to be lost (by the time of the Constitutional Convention this must have seemed a distinct possibility), hence the alignment of streets, among many other fussy details. But nor did he want to see cheap despotic rule. If we theorize a secret architectural astrology (and why not? there seems to be an astrology for everything) then we also theorize that the date of the alignment relates to a particular degree of the zodiac, and further theorize that early degrees of a sign indicates infancy, youth & inexperience, late degree old age, senility & decrepitude, and that a degree towards the middle of the August would symbolize a wise experienced ruler, a wise & experienced country. In a brand-new city in a brand-new nation, a degree towards the end of Leo would represent an outcome the nation would aspire to. So how are we doing, some 200 years later? I'd say we're still in the process of gaining needed experience. -- I offer this as a sketch of a new, or, up-to-now unknown, branch of astrology. Aligments of various other buildings, European cathedrals among them, may give further clues.

The various appendices in the book hint that my own personal theory, that astrology is a form of resonance, not radiation, may actually be correct. Pity that Lomas's hostility did not permit him to reach that conclusion on his own. As for my theory, you can read it here. As I say in my notes, the Greeks knew, which might be the most surprising thing of all.

On the back cover, the author is described as,

....a physicist, an expert on computer information systems, and a Freemason who lectures at Bradford University School of Management in West Yorkshire, one of the U.K.'s leading business schools.

Fair Winds Press, 336 pages.


CYCLES OF OPPORTUNITY - Carole Beckham, $19.95
Contents: Preface;

1. Life in the universe: The law of correspondences; The spiral of evolution; Spirituality, an evolutionary impulse; Unity, omnipresence & telepathy; Thoughtforms & creative work.

2. Levels of consciousness: Streams of energy; Planes of manifestation; The effects of energy upon consciousness; The concept of initiation.

3. Mind and telepathy: Components of mind; The metaphysical basis for telepathy; The scientific basis for telepathy; Types of telepathy & communication; The communication channels; The messages; Developing psychic powers.

4. Astrology, the science of relations: The astrological year; Relationships between astronomy & esoteric astrology; Relationships between traditional & esoteric astrology; Foundations of esoteric astrology.

5. The seven rays: 1. Will & power; 2. Love-wisdom; 3. Active intelligence & adaptability; 4. Harmony, beauty & art; 5. Concrete knowledge & science; 6. Devotion & idealism; 7. Ceremonial order, magic & organization; Ray energies, keywords & relationships; Major ray cycles.

6. The zodiacal constellations.
7. Solar and planetary energy.

8. Earth energy: The mind of the world (Shamballa); The heart of the world (Hierarchy); The creative center of the world (Humanity).

9. Timing, relationships, and karmic opportunity: Timing & cycles; Geometric forms & aspects; Karmic opportunities.

10. What energies are available now? Planetary & zodiacal influences; Sidereal vs: tropical?; What to look for at the full moon; Example configurations; Tables of glyphs.

11. Meditation: Group telepathic alignment; Meditations; Full moon approaches; Spiritual festivals.

12. The living commitment.

Appendices: A. Full moon ephemeris, 1998 - 2007 (inclusive); B. Fixed star locations (Sirius, Great Bear, Pleiades); Glossary; Notes & references; Bibliography; Resources; Index.

Comment: In the main, this is a fine, Alice Bailey inspired treatise. It is rather abstract.

Source Publications, 365 pages.


COSMIC ASTROLOGY - June Wakefield, $13.95

Contents:

Introduction

1. What astrology is and is not
2. History of astrology
3. The spiritual nature of astrology
4. Man: The ultimate creation
5. The secondary suns
6. The nature of the planets
7. The nature of the signs
8. The houses and the aspects
9. Some afterthoughts

Comment:

Originally published in 1968, this was reprinted in 2012 by the AFA. This is Blavatsky-ian esoteric astrology, stripped of all the fancy bits (no rounds or cycles or lifewaves, etc.). As is typical of such books, the author has added little of her own, prefering to recite what she has received. As there is no bibliography, the only way to know that is if you are well-read.

Each chapter is summarized. The summary at the end of the first chapter is a useful overview of the book as a whole.

Chapter 1: What Astrology is and is not:

Summary
1. Astrology is a study of the heavens, the movement of heavenly bodies and the influences they exert upon the lives and affairs of humanity.
2. The higher use of astrology was never that of predicting the future.
3. Everything in the entire universe, including man, is governed by exact and perfect laws.
4. Realization comes to us via these studies that we are not victims of a capricious fate, but meet in this life the results of past lives, and that we forge our future lives by the way we live this one.
5. Astrology does not give us an alibi for our shortcomings. The planetary vibrations are an influence to which we respond according to our individual plane of development. When we cooperate, our path is easier and our progress - spiritual, mental, and material - is hastened.
6. Our horoscope is the blueprint of our own soul and a map of our assignments for this life. The soul-pattern of the individual is the life seed, and unfolds what has been infolded in the seed.
7. Our lives are not foreordained except in a general trend. We have free will to err but must pay the price of our willful ways.
8. There can be no evil from the heavens. Whatever evil there be in our lives is a result of our own actions and crated within ourselves, not sent from above. (pg. 7)

Note the exact and perfect laws, the free will for the infolded seeds and the promise of rewards if we behave ourselves and do what we're told. This is not much different from Catholic catechism class. These are tell-tale signs, not of a would-be authoritarian, but of lazy thinking in general.

Along the way there is at least one good howler. From Chapter 7, The Nature of the Signs:

Constellations are groups of stars outside out solar system but still within our galaxy, the Milky Way. They are separated from our solar system by the vast distance of four light years. When we stop to consider how fast light travels, it dawns on us that a light year is a tremendous amount of time and distance. . . . (pg. 61)

It would take light from a constellation four light years to reach the earth, but the vibrations being unhampered by time and distance, reach us immediately and their influence is constantly with us. (pg. 63)

This is actually two howlers. One, the four light years refers to the star closest to the earth, Alpha/Proxima Centauri, which, as the name implies, is in the constellation of the Centaur, which is located in Libra/Scorpio, but 30 to 70 degrees south of the celestial equator. In other words, not a zodiacal constellation at all. All other stars, without exception, are futher away, most of them much, much further away. Wakefield was confused the same way my 8th grade teacher was confused with early manned spacecraft. My teacher thought gravity ended 100 miles above the earth, because astronauts in orbit were weightless. When, of course, astronauts were weightless because they were in orbit. The distance made no difference. Wakefield, having half-absorbed basic astronomy, has the same sort of problem, only with light years.

And, of course, there is no such thing as "instantaneous vibrations" from distant stars, regardless of light years. My revised theory, that zodiacal energies are produced by the earth, is a great leap forward (scroll to second page). Pity it took me this long to figure it out.

The book is an interesting historical relic.

AFA, 86 pages.


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INITIATIONS OF KRISHNAMURTI: An Astrological Biography - Philip Lindsay, $20.00
Contents: Dedication; Preface; Acknowledgements; Biography; Introduction; Introductiory note.

1. Initiation; 2. Krishnamurti's ray structure & character; Chapters 3, 4 & 5: Guidelines of esoteric interpretation parts 1, 2 & 3; 6. Planets in signs; 7. Guidelines of esoteric interpretation, part 4; 8. Early life & 1st imitation; 9. Second initiation; 10. Between 2nd & 3rd initiation;

11. 3rd initiation; 12. Between 3rd & 4th initiations: Krishnamurti's "process"; 13. 4th initiation & Wesak 1925; 14. Growing discontent & Nitya's death; 15. Severing of ties; 16. Life after the Theosophical Society; 17. Resumption of the "process"; 18: Last years.

Appendices: 1. Introduction to esoteric astrology & the seven rays; 2. Superimposition; 3. Decanates; 4. Ray & sign rulerships; 5. Planets in signs; 6. The initiations; Glossary; End notes, Bibliography; Index.

Comment: An earnest, fascinating look at K (as he termed himself), especially of interest to those already familiar with his life. The climatic event of his life, his dissolution of the Order of the Star, on August 3, 1929, is as badly misunderstood in this book as in all the other biographies & commentaries, but to be fair, that event is worthy of a book in itself. The ray structure given in chapter 2 (2-4-1-2-7, omitting the proposed Monadic ray of 3) is speculative, the author seems not to have read Benjamin Creme's proposed ray structure in Maitreya's Mission (second edition, 1990) (K's rays, according to Creme: 2-2-4-6-7). This is not to say that one is right & the other wrong, but that I wished these folks read each other's books. The astrological analysis of K's life is based around secondary progressions & transiting planets. A useful example of how these two forecasting methods show life events.

Apollo Publishing, 236 pages.


THE LABOURS OF HERCULES - Alice A. Bailey, $15.00
Contents: The zodiac; Foreword: The purpose of this study; Hercules the disciple - the myth.

Labour 1: The capture of the man-eating mares.
Labour 2: The capture of the Cretan bull.
Labour 3: The Golden Apples of the Hesperides, parts 1 & 2.
Labour 4: The capture of the Doe or Hind, parts 1 & 2.
Labour 5: The slaying of the Nemean Lion.
Labour 6: Seizing the Girdle of Hippolyte.
Labour 7. The capture of the Erymanthian Boar.
Labour 8. Destroying the Lernaean Hydra.
Labour 9: Killing the Stymphalian Birds.
Labour 10: The slaying of Cerberus, Guardian of Hades.
Labour 11: Cleansing the Augean Stables.
Labour 12: The capture of the Red Cattle of Geryon.

The purpose of the study of the Hercules myth; Summary of lessons learned in each zodiacal sign; The path of the soul through the zodiac; Journey through the signs.

Comment: From the back cover:

The story of the dramatic experiences of the great and ancient Son of God, Hercules or Herakles, will give us a synthetic picture of the progress of the soul from ignorance to wisdom, from material desire to spiritual achievement....We shall trace the story of Hercules as he passed through the twelve signs of the zodiac....In each of the signs we shall find him surmounting his natural tendencies, controlling and governing his destiny, and demonstrating the fact that the stars incline, but do not control.

The underlying idea is that each sign of the zodiac presents its own unique challenges en route to enlightenment. To use Bailey's own terminology, the labours of Hercules represent the twelve "dwellers on the threshold", each of whom must be surmounted. This is a reprint of articles that first appeared in Beacon magazine between February 1957 & August 1957. (The magazine of Lucis Trust.)

229 pages. Lucis Trust, paper.


CABALAH OF ASTROLOGY, The Language of Number - William Eisen, $23.95
Contents: Introduction; Part 1: Basic Principles:

1. The essence of the Cabalah: A brief review: The Hebrew Cabalah, The book of tarot, The English Cabalah, How to read a number, The three disciplines, The two fundamental glyphs of Cabalah

2. The magical Alphabets: A brief journey through the digits, The major arcana of the tarot, Picture symbols of the Hebrew alphabet, Tarot symbols of the English alphabet, Basic English: The key to god consciousness, The divine proportion, The English pi/phi wheel, The Hebrew pi/phi wheel, The tarot pi/phi wheel, A lesson from the Romans, The complete tarot/Hebrew/English wheel of the One Life.

Part 2: Sacred Geometry: The canon of universal law:

3. Sacred Geometry: The basic geometrical shapes, Stone circles & astro-archaeology, The pyramids at Giza, Stonehenge & Glastonbury, The New Jerusalem: The City of Revelation, The mysteries of light

4. The Great Pyramid Tree of Life: The apex of the series & the phi mean, The golden right triangle, The Lucas & Fibonacci numbers, The pyramid of yin-yang, Positive & negative existence

5. The Sephirothic tree of the knowledge of good & evil: The traditional Sephirothic tree, The numerical pattern of the Sephiroth, The three spheres of Ain, Ain Soph & Ain Soph Aur, The Sephirothic tree of the tarot, The head of the serpent of wisdom

6. A Walk Through Time & Space: Largeness & smallness, Travel in consciousness, The four dimensions of space-time, footsteps on the path of life, Your stairway to the stars, Alternate methods of analysis

7. The Four Fundamental Constants: A Pi(e) Phi"i": Pi, the complete cycle from the beginning to the end, The mysterious constant "e" (the base of natural logarithms), Phi, the universal principle of the life-force, The negatively existent "i" (the square root of -1), The amazing mathematical proof of the unity of the four constants, The great pyramid at Giza: A true Pi(e) Phi"i"

8. The Pulse of the Vibration: The golden apex, The first revolution of the searchlight as it sweeps across the four faces of the pyramid, Other revolutions of the searchlight, The mathematical principles of the laws of vibration, The oneness of the soul consciousness

Part 3: The Cabalah of Astrology:

9. The Earth on Which We Live: Its vital statistics, The celestial sphere of the earth, The fundamental principle, The four seasons, Circles of latitude & meridians of time

10. The Zodiac: The Circle of Holy Animals: The twelve signs of the zodiac, The zodiacal pole of the ecliptic, English symbols of the zodiac of space, Tarot symbols for the clock of time, The precession of the equinoxes & the Platonic year

11. The Solar System & Its Planets: Kepler's laws of planetary motion, The orbits of the planets around the sun, That strange strong string of gravity, A geocentric view of the celestial sphere, The great saga of the Titans, A heliocentric view of the open spiral, An egocentric view of the closed circle, The twelve planetary systems

12. The Houses of the Earth: Geographic vs: zodiacal directions, The equal house system, The square horoscope of triangular houses, The houses of the northern & southern hemispheres, Local mean time (LMT), Solar houses of time, The grand horoscope of space & time

13. The Vibration Pattern of the Name & the Date: Your names be our names, The end effect of the name & date, The great pyramid of the name & the date, The area method of analysis, The linear method of analysis, The rectified chart for any vibration of the name & date, The grand method of the name, date, time & place

Comment: From the back cover:

The fundamental relationships of the planets, the houses of the Earth & the twelve signs of the zodiac have remained rather constant down through the centuries. A horoscope was constructed according to the positions of the planets at the date of birth & then progressed through the lifetime of the entity, thus reflecting the help or hindrances of the planets, as the case may be. But how about the name of the individual? Have you ever wondered why some non-identical twins, born within only a minute or so of each other, and not only on the same day but also at the same place on the planet, can sometimes have such completely different destinies? The answer may well be because the names are different, thus setting up an entirely different vibrational pattern on the Tree of Life....

The English Cabalah is used to prove that the one specific vibration that is tailor-made to fit each and every living person is not only based on his date of birth, but also on the name that appears on his birth certificate. Thus by following the simple instructions contained herein, you will be able to erect your own individual Triangle of Light & by so doing greatly enhance the rather limited information about yourself that can be obtained from a study of the natal horoscope alone.

DeVorss, 429 pages, paper.


REFLECTIONS & MEDITATIONS ON THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC - Louise Huber, $14.00
Contents:

Symbols; Preface;

The earth & the zodiac
Signs - meditation

Aries, meditation
Taurus, meditation
Gemini, meditation
Cancer, meditation
Leo, meditation
Virgo, meditation
Libra, meditation
Scorpio, meditation
Sagittarius, meditation
Capricorn, meditation
Aquarius, meditation
Pisces, meditation

The seed thoughts & the ascendant signs
The Great Invocation
Bibliography

Comment: This is a book of twelve meditations, based on Alice Bailey's idea of monthy group meditations on the full moon. For each sign there are several pages introductory material designed to be read (perhaps aloud) before the meditation. There follows the guided meditation for the month. It is all very, very abstract.

I was deeply into this stuff back in the 1980's. It is good stuff. Much of the book seems like it was taken directly from Bailey, or from Lucis Trust materials. If you've not seen that stuff (and I suppose few have), this book will be of interest. I would have hoped to have sensed Louise Huber herself in this book.

AFA, 235 pages.


Esoteric Astrology, page 2


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