Mersenne's Miscelleny

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Mersenne's Miscelleny

Post by Mersenne »

While the academic term continues, free time to indulge my astrological interests is impossibly tight. In order to maintain a presence until Summer, I have decided to release some of the material I've accumulated over the years. Connecting threads will be few- and twisted.

The following first submission is pretty representative of the kind of material I have in mind; I hope it will interest the Forum.

ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC SPELLS

In a conversation with a colleague about R. E. Howard’s Conan stories, a criticism of Howard’s very sketchy ideas about magic in the “Hyperborean era” came up. As a reader and admirer of Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea books, which present a consistent and delightful “mechanism” for magic, I set myself the intellectual challenge of answering the question “how might magic work if it were based on the astrological model?”
Lacking an ancient grimoire to consult, we may nevertheless attribute the following types of magic user, and associated spell, with the zodiacal signs.

AR: The Asker. Spells of destroying, breaking, cutting, wounding, fire, of challenging and the asking of questions: initiative, and the divination of the nature of an initiative or threat.
TA: The Gatherer. Spells of love, sex, fertility, luxury, pleasure, material gain, wealth, accumulation, and divination of the affairs of producers and suppliers.
GE: The Messenger (or the Hand). Spells of motion, transportation, communication, entertainment, tricks, mischief: magic words and writings, and divination of the affairs of siblings.
CA: The Source. Spells of quickening, refreshing, nourishing, protection, water, return: spells regarding women and mothers, children and families, mobs and packs: divination of origins, the past, ongoing circumstances and prevailing conditions, attitudes.
LE : The Maker. Spells of creation, light and enlightenment, exaltations, the conferring of power and authority, magnifications, divination of the true nature of things, and of the intent of the powerful.
VI: The Healer. Spells of healing and making whole, bonesetting, soothing, purification, digestion, organization, definition, clarification, crystallization, repair, maintenance: divination of the intent of colleagues.
LI: The Answerer. Spells of calming, peace-making, co-operation, beautification, reward, reciprocation, answering, the turning of attacks and curses: divination of the intent of art and artisans.
SC: The Changer. Spells of change, transformation, metempsychosis, hiding, disguising: the divination of things hidden, disguised and stolen.
SG: The Summoner. Spells of blessings, gain, advancement, growth, summoning, justice, air: divination of meanings, of the truth and of the future.
CP: The Binder. Spells of limiting, separating, shrinking and imprisoning, the taboo, cursing, inhibition, forbidding, banishing, exclusion, exorcism: divination of the intent of the dead (necromancy).
AQ: The Sender. Spells of anomaly, anachronism, teleportation and translocation, lightening, wonders, and prodigies: magic per se, and divination of the intent of peers, magicians and philosophers.
PI: The Enchanter. Spells of glamour, enchantment, dreams, illusions, confusion, dissolution, merging, loss, forgetting, palliatives, the alleviation of pain: the divination of the meaning of dreams and visions.

The above being so, we can naturally associate the different angles with the parts of a spell:

ASC The spell itself and the person casting it.
DSC The object on which, or the person on whom, the spell is cast.
IC The origin of the spell, the stuff of which it is formed.
MC The reason for the spell.

We may therefore interpret, say, ASC in GE, MC in PI, as “a spell of mischief cast on a University lecturer (DSC in SG), employing some means of administration (IC in VI), for purposes of causing confusion”. The lecturer in question might well find important files muddled or confused, examination papers misprinted.

In this degenerate age, in which magical energies are clearly exhausted, the above is merely a curiosity, a control panel without an engine; but it certainly was fun to do!
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Re: Mersenne's Miscelleny

Post by Mersenne »

The following is something I've not found commented on in any of the literature, but which I should like to bring to the attention of the Forum.

It seems to me that the houses represent the progression of an individual’s sense of ‘reality’ through a series of ‘spheres’ of increasing size. That is, each succeeding house represents a ‘growth’ from the preceding house, and each is, to the individual, a larger ‘environment’ than the preceding one. We may extend this reasoning to the signs as the natural houses of the chart.

The progression moves from the first/Aries, Self, which is no larger than the native’s own body, through the second/Taurus, which comprises only what can be carried, to the third which rules everything within arms’ reach, and so on until the twelfth/Pisces which is concerned with the eternal and the infinite.

AR/HS1: own self, personal appearance and character, self-esteem, birth.

TA/HS2: the immediate environment, comprising all the native can carry and wear, possessions, including money (therefore his financial situation) and personal knowledge.

GE/HS3: the mediate environment, that within arm's reach; tools and skills with which the Native relates to his environment, including language and the ability to communicate, learning and ability to learn, manual skills, mobility.

CA/HS4: the domestic environment, the house and family, the mother or mother-figure as encapsulating this, safe places in early and late life, therefore his circumstances of retirement.

LE/HS5: the local environment, the intimate overlap of personal space with others, hence friends and casual lovers; the creative effect on the environment, therefore arts, crafts, hobbies, sports and recreations.

VI/HS6: the work environment, involving the deliberate suspension of personal space in order to get things done; consequences of this, including relationships with employees, debtors, clients, and rivals, and illnesses and worries

LI/HS7: the social environment, especially as the sphere in which a partner is found, hence the partner, those with whom we deal, trade, converse, socialise, litigate etc.

SC/HS8: the greater social environment, that of common resources and obligations, of taxes, dues, death and the dead, their legacies and institutions.

SG/HS9: the trans-social environment, that of other peoples and cultures, travel to and dealings with these; hence broader ideas and philosophies, religion, gurus and teachers, higher education

CP/HS10: the temporal environment, the zeitgeist, temporal politics and authorities, the prevailing viewpoint, figures of authority as encapsulating this; hence the fame or notoriety sought for, public work, the career (as distinct from the job), the father, father-figure or idol encapsulating and inspiring this.

AQ/HS11: the greater temporal environment, that of the elements and natural forces; hence acts of the gods, means of dealing with these such as science and shared interests, and concepts of evolution.

PI/HS12: the numinous environment, that of mystery, infinity and eternity, losses and separations which force him to confront these mysteries, and places where this takes place, such as hermitages, hospitals, prisons.

Does the forum have any views on the validity of this idea?
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Re: Mersenne's Miscelleny

Post by Mersenne »

ASTROLOGY AND ALCHEMY

In reviewing material suitable for the miscellany, I came across the following which ties in nicely with the "magic" submission.

I studied Rennaisance thought with the Open University back in the '80s, and became acquainted with alchemy. The medieval alchemists used all sorts of materials we should hardly regard as "chemicals" today; for instance, Henning Brand first discovered phosphorus by heating urine with sand. The alchemists of course attributed different substances to astrological phenomena, but there didn't seem to be any consistency amongst the texts I encountered (except with regard to metals). I therefore took it on myself to attempt a classification of alchemical (or, more accurately, psuedo-chemical) terms, and substances in general, along astrological lines. The result is of little hisorical relevance, but I think it holds together on its own merits, and is certainly as internally consistent as the classes of "magic-workers" I gave. Please treat it as an intellectual exercise in the same spirit: I should be very surprised if anyone turned lead into gold by employing the following!

ALCHEMY IN GENERAL

AR/HS1: the substance, its essential qualities
TA/HS2: incidental properties of the substance, its state, purity, completeness
GE/HS3: media of the substance, its solvents, intermediate stages
CA/HS4: the primitive state of the substance, its ores, its unrefined condition
LE/HS5: unchanging aspects of the substance
VI/HS6: subordinate substances, that which the initial substamce changes, catalyses, or uses in an intermediate stage of the reaction, what is nuetralised
LI/HS7: the reagent, that with which the substance reacts, what the substance becomes or changes into, what it enters into equilibrium with
SC/HS8: that which purifies the substance, or that which destroys and neutralises it
SG/HS9: the catalyst, that which changes the substance without itself being changed
CP/HS10: the end product, the refined form of the substance, its concentrate
AQ/HS11: phase changes, changes of state
PI/HS12: solvents, waste substances, filtrates, by-products

SUBSTANCES IN GENERAL (MOSTLY MINERAL)

AR/HS1: fire; flint; iron, steel; acids; explosives
TA/HS2: aggregate stones; brick, adobe; cement, mortar
GE/HS3: air and gases in general; mercury
CA/HS4: water; silver; salts
LE/HS5: sand; hydrogen; helium and the nobel gases; gold
VI/HS6: clays; naphtha and chmical waxes; sands; aluminium
LI/HS7: glass; neutral chemicals; sugars; antimony
SC/HS8: ice; brass; bases, alkaline chemicals
SG/HS9: tin; glass; inflammable gases; colloids and emulsions
CP/HS10: mineral materials in general; stone, ore; coal; zinc; ashes
AQ/HS11: metals in general; crystals; lead
PI/HS12: chemicals in general; dyes, pigments; pitch; oil, petrol; plastic; nickel; solvents, soaps; alcohol; waste gases

MATERIALS (VEGETABLE)

AR/HS1: fibre, oakum, hemp, string
TA/HS2: hay, straw, fodder
GE/HS3: paper
CA/HS4: sap, syrup
LE/HS5: hardwood timber; charcoal; amber
VI/HS6: vegetable materials in general: wicker, lath, wattle
LI/HS7: cotton, linen, hemp
SC/HS8: vegetable poisons
SG/HS9: softwood timber
CP/HS10: cork
AQ/HS11: reeds, bamboo
PI/HS12: rubber, resin; compost

MATERIALS (ANIMAL)

AR/HS1: hair, fur, bristle, wool; horn
TA/HS2: leather; glue
GE/HS3: parchment, vellum
CA/HS4: shell, pearl
LE/HS5: gelatine, marrowbone; bone charcoal
VI/HS6: gut, catgut; soap; wax, beeswax
LI/HS7: verdigris
SC/HS8: animal materials in general; musks, venom; urine
SG/HS9: bezoar, animal stone; hoof
CP/HS10: bone, ivory
AQ/HS11: tubes, sausage-skins
PI/HS12: fats, oils; isinglass; dung, manure
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Re: Mersenne's Miscelleny

Post by James Strom »

"It seems to me that the houses represent the progression of an individual’s sense of ‘reality’ through a series of ‘spheres’ of increasing size. That is, each succeeding house represents a ‘growth’ from the preceding house, and each is, to the individual, a larger ‘environment’ than the preceding one. We may extend this reasoning to the signs as the natural houses of the chart."

That certainly makes sense. From the fifth house onwards the planets associated with the signs are at an ever increasing distance from the Sun, stopping only at Pisces and Neptune; the twelth house and the farthest of all the planets.

If we enter a new age, the Age of Aquarius, for example, will the properties you've given to the signs change? The first house could very well become Pisces. What happens then?

Have you seen my exercise in astrological alchemy yet?

viewtopic.php?f=77&t=1201

Imagine combining this with your rules of magic!
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Re: Mersenne's Miscelleny

Post by Mersenne »

Thank you for the kind response.
James Strom wrote: Have you seen my exercise in astrological alchemy yet?... Imagine combining this with your rules of magic!
I have indeed- very impressive. It reminds me of Collin's work, though much more comprehensive. But please bear in mind that my own work is intended only as an intellectual exercise; in particular the "rules of magic" are a literary device. However, it is possible that the new perspective gained by combining the two would suggest useful approaches in, shall we say, "speculative chemistry".
James Strom wrote: If we enter a new age, the Age of Aquarius, for example, will the properties you've given to the signs change? The first house could very well become Pisces. What happens then?
I'm a devotee of the moving tropical zodiac, on the grounds that the zodiac is essentially a terrestrial phenomenon linked to the seasons. That is, the zodiac is a phenomenon created by the orientation of the Earth and Sun, and doesn't actually extend to the fixed stars, which are only convenient markers for the fields so created. So, we're stuck with the definitions I've given. I appreciate that this causes some difficulty in the Southern Hemisphere; I'm working on a possible SH "reconciliation zodiac" at the moment.

In recent years I've come to appreciate that the fixed "Eastern Astrology" zodiac has validity. I suspect, but cannot prove, that it represents a "baseline" zodiac linked to the "great year", i.e. that it has the same relationship to the yearly tropical zodiac that the tropical zodiac has to the daily houses. Eastern Astrology employs the fixed zodiac mostly to establish rulership relations between planets and houses, which would make sense in this context.
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Re: Mersenne's Miscelleny

Post by James Strom »

I think both have validity. The tropical zodiac works for the qualities of cardinal, fixed, and mutable while the sidereal does for the elemental, at least in my opinion. Thus, when the Age of Aquarius occurs, Pisces will still be a water sign but shall become cardinal instead of mutable. And it would be in the first house (Mar 20-Apr 19). Then the Sun really will be Pisces if you were born then. I like to think that we go through "time zones" as the ages pass.
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Re: Mersenne's Miscelleny

Post by admin »

Hi James,
I think both have validity. The tropical zodiac works for the qualities of cardinal, fixed, and mutable while the sidereal does for the elemental, at least in my opinion. Thus, when the Age of Aquarius occurs, Pisces will still be a water sign but shall become cardinal instead of mutable. And it would be in the first house (Mar 20-Apr 19). Then the Sun really will be Pisces if you were born then. I like to think that we go through "time zones" as the ages pass.


But, the actual change from ‘Age of Pisces’ to ‘Age of Aquarius’ is indeterminate ?

Question: How will the Sun ‘really be in Pisces’ if the ‘tropical’ zodiac is used? Surely the actual positions will always relate to the ‘sidereal’ zodiac? How will they coincide ? (Uh ohhh...probably shouldn’t have asked, and may well have missed the point).

Would also ask what you mean by
“I like to think that we go through "time zones" as the ages pass.”.


Would appreciate a bit more about this if you have...’time’.

Thanks.

Admin.
"Don't let the illusions of your past or future rob you of the infiniteness of your present." [Unknown]
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Re: Mersenne's Miscelleny

Post by James Strom »

The time of transition from one age to another may be hard, if not impossible to predict, but that doesn't mean it cannot occur rather swiftly at some point. And just like when travelling through a time zone the 'clock' is reset immediately. All the signs move by one. What was once Aries becomes Pisces and so on.
I assume that for elemental purposes a sidereal zodiac makes more sense but a tropical one does for the qualities of cardinality, etc.
Ptolemy gave properties to the very stars in the signs of the zodiac. This clearly indicates that he viewed astrology in a sidereal fashion. But he also described it tropically when stating that a season starts with a cardinal sign, becomes set with a fixed sign, and changes into the next season with a mutable sign.
But it was easier for him. His wrote shortly after the start of the Age of Pisces. At that time the sidereal and tropical zodiacs were indistinguishable. Over two millenia, however, the Sun shifted by about one sign, creating the division between the sidereal and tropical zodiacs that we have today. Many people feel forced to choose one or the other.
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Re: Mersenne's Miscelleny

Post by Mersenne »

Zodiacs

What is a zodiac, after all? Let's define it as a set of well-defined, non-overlapping zones each of which has a particular meaning. The Chinese Zodiac is a procession of twelve years, much as the week is a procession of seven days, and so it isn't a zodiac in this sense.

The sidereal zodiac starts from the beginning of the constellation (group of actual stars) Aries. The twelve signs made counting 30 degrees on from this have distinct rulerships, by which Eastern astrologers determine the rulership of cusp points contained within them. These sidereal signs do not influence or modify the meaning of any planet within them. Their significance belongs to the same tradition that allows attributes to be given to individual fixed stars.

The tropical zodiac starts from the point at which the eliptic meets the equator. It is, think, best considered to be generated by the harmonics of the yearly interplay between Sun and Earth. It is this zodiac which has the strongest and mst intimate impact on both individual and society. In particular, it has and always will have seasonal significance; it is quartered by the Sun's position at the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes and the Summer and Winter Solstices. While the atual seasons flip over in the Southern Hemisphere, these points still delineate the major parts of the Sun's progress through the year. These signs have distinct rulerships which seem capable of adapting to the discovery of "new" planets, and can both attribute house-cusp rulership and adapt the influence of any planet within them.

These are not the only two zodiacs in use. The Draconic or Lunar Zodiac is measured from the Moon's North Node, and apparently has significance in relating the past to the prsent. Martin Seymour Smith points out (in The New Astrologer) that all the planets have ecliptic nodes from which a similar zodiac can be measured.

The tropical zodiac moves against the background of fixed stars, in the sense that the position of the Sun on the Spring Equinox is a little further back every year. This is a local phenomenon dependent on the relative positions of the Sun and the tilt of the Earth, so the Tropical is slipping backwards against the Sidereal. The seasons move with it; the tropical zodiac is a living, moving thing that retains seasonal significance. The circuit is completed once every 25,800 years or so.

I suspect, and would like to suggest, the following. The tropical zodiac is the primary one, and that, 4000 years ago when this coincided with the sidereal, the fixed stars were employed as handy (but, as it turned out) temporary markers of the tropical signs. Tropical astrology may predate this, as a product of the invention of agriculture, which gave new significance the seasons. The primary, tropical signs "rule" the constellations which were once used to mark them, in the same way that they rule terrestrial phenomena. Taurus the sign rules money, the throat, copper and so on, and it also rules the constellaton of the Bull; Venus rules Taurus the sign and so it rules the constellation of the Bull. The association of the tropical signs' meanings with groups of stars was continued in a divergent school which became Eastern astrology, which, by changing its emphases to rulerships and the aspect relationships, achieved a profound significance of its own; it "recalibrated" its techniques to the divergent zodiac.

Ages

Some 4000 years ago the sidereal and tropical zodiacs coincided; the start of the tropical zodiac (sign of Aries) lay on the beginning of the sidereal zodiac (constellaton of the Ram) and so this was the "Age of Aries".

I haven't found any conclusive evidence that significance can be attributed to the ages. It is sometimes noted, for instance, that Christianity's early symbol was the fish, and that Jesus' life coincided with the start of the "Age of Pisces". However, the fish as "vesica pisces" was before this attributed to the Mother Goddess, and this throughout the majority of prehistory. Spirituality didn't just happen with the incursion of the Spring Equinox into Pisces, and it won't dissappear when it leaves.

The upcoming "Age of Aquarius" is taken to be one of technological progress, but clearly such progress began with the introduction of agriculture, and so has progressed through the "Piscean Age". And what of the previous such Aquarian age 26000 years ago? The Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) extends from the earliest known use of stone tools 2.6 million years ago to around 8,000 BC, with no significant technological leaps of any kind. The immanent "technological singularity" has been a long time coming, and sufficient economic chaos may yet delay it.

It's hard to believe that there is absolutely no significance to the relationship, but I don't think it relates to human development. It may be no more than a matter of dominant symbolism; for instance, the imagery of the Book of Ezekiel seems to belong to a "Taurean age" (not coinciding with its date of composition, but preserving an earlier tradition).
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Re: Mersenne's Miscelleny

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In a recent conversation with Admin, the work of Howard T. dum was mentioned. Odum, an influential ecologist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_T._Odum
showed that any description of the behaviour of energetic systems is general; that the same rules and relationships can be observed in systems that are superficially very different.

As an example, he showed that an electric circuit could serve as a good analogy of ecosystems, assemblies of interdependent living things. Think of electricity as a kind of fluid, charge. Voltage V drives charge through a resistance R making an electric current I, V=IR. So the more voltage, the more current, the more resistance, the less current.

In ecology, the analogy of charge is a kind of “life energy” or “life substance” called “biomass”. Voltage becomes “ecoforce” which drives this life energy through matter, as a kind of “life current” which resists it (matter doesn’t want to live, it wants to lie there). By making this analogy, Odum was able to make generalisation and categorizations that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. In particular, the different organisms in an ecosystem act like the components in a circuit; a plant is a capacitor (stores and accumulates biomass), herbivores are diodes (they make the flow of biomass one-way, from Sun to waste products), and so on. So you can model ecologies using electric circuits.

Of course, it’s no surprise to an astrologer that an analogy from one system can lead to insights in another. We maintain that “system” is general; if “as above, so below”, then “as in one whole, so in another”. The Sun is the heart in the body, the king in the state, the Ego in the psyche, so why not the generator in the electric circuit? But we do have to ante up and show that we can make the claim in modern terms. What is the astrology of systems in general? I make the following suggestion for a general scheme;

FIR generation
EAR storage
AIR distribution
WAT transformation
CAR form
FIX power
MUT information

These combine very naturally in the signs. I'll break up the ususal order to display this.

AR generation of form; the seed, the bud, the tip of growth
CA transformation of form; the womb, maturation
LI distribution of form; symmetry, function, response
CP storage of form; structure, skeleton, skin

LE generation of power; the heart, the power-plant
SC transformation of power; sublimation, transduction
AQ distribution of power; veins, cables
TA storage of power; fat, power cells

SG generation of information; perception, transduction
PI transformation of information; encoding, decoding, entropy
GE distribution of information; copying, sending, transmission
VI storage of information; classification, memory

The planets retain their rulerships; for instance, the Moon as much as Cancer is involved with the transformation of form. But we may also make the following attribtions.
SU creation
MO cyclicity
ME communication, selection
VE response, ingestion, attraction
MA initiation, penetration, repulsion
JU inclusion, expansion, variety, homogeneity
SA exclusion, contraction, limit, heterogeneity

For the fun of it, let’s consider specifically electrical correspondences. Bear in mind that the following correspondences are highly speculative.

SU voltage
MO current
JU conduction, transmission, analog electronics
SA resistance, insulation
MA induction, magnetism, transduction
VE capacitance, tuning
ME connection, switching, digital electronics
UR electricity and electronics in general, charge, semiconduction, rectification, diodes, transistors
NE grounding, short-circuiting
PL transformation

AR/HS1: induction, induction coils, electromagnets, motors, transduction, transducers
TA/HS2: capacitance, capacitors
GE/HS3: connection, switching, switches, relays, reed switches, digital electronics
CA/HS4: current sources, generators
LE/HS5: voltage sources, batteries
VI/HS6: rheostats, dimmer switches, volume controls, voltage dividers
LI/HS7: tuning, tuned circuits, variable capacitors
SC/HS8: transformation, transformers, power rectifiers
SG/HS9: conduction, wires, analog electronics
CP/HS10: resistance, resistors
AQ/HS11: electricity and electronics in general, charge, semiconduction, signal rectifiers, diodes, transistors
PI/HS12: grounding, short circuits, transient currents

An interesting project would be the construction of a circuit based on an individual’s horoscope. I naturally leave such to those good with a soldering iron. However, we may not that even a very simple circuit, such as a crystal radio set, may be symbolically interpreted as a connection (the tuner) between sky arial) and earth (ground connection).
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