Friday, October 16th, 1981

CLASS at Wisdom's Goldenrod, Hector, NY

with Anthony Damiani (AD)

October 16b, 1981

PLOTINUS; NATURE; ASTROLOGY

TOPIC: Plotinus

SUBJECT: Nature

SUBSUBJECTS: Astrology, Individual Soul-Earth Soul-Cosmic Soul, Gnostic and Fabricative

CONTENTS:

Plotinus' use of astrological concepts to explain philosophic principles

Symbolic-concepts: combination of sensible representation and philosophic concept

Cosmic soul and individual soul; origin in Intellectual-Principle; parallel powers and relation to the cosmos/body

Psychosomatic organism as compromise total (II.3.9)

Body as compound of living systems; mind as infusion of soul powers into body

Temperament; Necessity

Soul's tendencies determine its choice of vehicle (IV.3.13)

Body as microcosm; via media between soul and cosmic circuit through which soul will actualize its powers

Gnostic and fabricative functions: cosmic soul, individual soul

Does dignity in natal chart refer to participation in cosmic soul's gnostic functions?

Each cosmocrator a soul; our participation is most directly in Earth Soul

Aligning with the cosmic soul means aligning with the Earth Soul

Locating ourselves on Earth; Earth as World-Mind

BOOKS READ FROM OR REFERENCED:

• Plotinus, The Enneads (MacKenna translation, 4th ed.)

PLOTINUS QUOTES READ OR REFERENCED: II.1.5, II.3.9, II.9.18, III.4.6, IV.3.7, 12, 13, IV.4.35

DIAGRAM embedded in this transcript:

• FIGURE 1981 1016b-1. Heliocentric and Geocentric Planets.

RETYPED AND REFORMATTED by IT 2022

NOTES:

• RETYPED PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT (hence V10). From 1981 1016S2-nature 04R14.PDF. Originally typed by CdA. THERE ARE NO AUDIO CASSETTE TAPES EXTANT.

• This class 1981 1016b was the Friday evening class; it is on Plotinus; Nature; Astrology; its scan is 1981 1016S2-nature 04R14.PDF. The daytime seminar is 1981 1016a; it is on Plotinus; Soul; Individual and World Soul; Gnostic and Fabricative; its scan is 1981 1016S1-soul 04R14.PDF.

• This event is among those in later 1981/early 1982 when Anthony was exploring Astrology/the Zodiacs, Cosmology, Physics, Astronomy, Soul, Nature, and The Grid: Gnostic and Fabricative.

• For more on The Grid: Gnostic and Fabricative, please see the Appendix to WG Seminar 1981 1016a.

• All spelling, capitalization, and punctuation corrected, astrological glyphs spelled out.

1981 10/16b at Wisdom's Goldenrod

Plotinus; Nature; Astrology

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Plotinus' Astrology 10/16/81

Quotations show the implications for philosophy in the symbolic concept that Plotinus is working with. There is a use of concepts which are actual in astrology to explain certain philosophic concepts. For instance, the planetary spheres are the symbols of certain principles which if we could trace back we would get to the powers of the Soul itself. So we are using the sensible representation as a symbolic-concept. It is not a pure concept nor a pure symbol, but a combination. Astrology actualizes those symbolic-concepts to get further understanding of what is going on.

III.4.6 The Cosmic Soul and the individual Soul having their origin in the Intellectual-Principle, have a vision of the Intellectual Cosmos and thus each contain an Intellectual Cosmos there. But the Cosmic Soul here has also the subordination of various forms -- the inerratic sphere would be an image of the Intellectual Cosmos, a subordinate form to the vision in the Intellectual. The planetary spheres would be the image of its graded powers. At the same time, they apply to the powers of an individual Soul inserted into the solar system and participating in it.

II.3.9 Somatic = the powers of the World-Soul which organize the matter into a body. Psychical = the individual Soul with its graded powers which are reflected in the somatic. Compromise total = psycho-somatic organism, Earth.

The Cosmic Soul is distinguished from the individual Soul primarily in terms of the relation to the cosmos, the body. In essence they are the same, and they have parallel powers. The Cosmic Soul has an effect upon, and is producing only these vehicles, it does not effect the pure Soul powers.

Our body is the product of their function, and is concomitant with their function. (Body is the agent and the vehicle.) This body must be thought of as a compound of various living systems. The functioning of this body does not result in a mind. An organized system of reactions to an environment is not a mind, but rather a psychology. The mind is something that will be superimposed upon this and interpret those reactions. The Buddhists are wrong when they say the conceptual mind is demonic and destructive. That is not what we're talking about. They're talking about this, the result of the living systems organization into a body and its reaction. The mind is rather an infusion of the powers of the Soul into that organization. The temperament is the way the living systems are organized; thus the cosmocrators "shape that nature to impressions." When we permit identification with the bodily organism we will be dragged through that circuit accordingly. Any alteration there produces a corresponding alteration in the body, and there is no way around that. Even the Sage is subject to that. You cannot rule out the prevalence of necessity.

"In the Intellectual Realm every soul is near to its image." [Note: See Plotinus, Enneads, IV.3.13.] The determination of what vehicles the soul will use are by the soul's own internal tendencies, but determined not in the sense that it produces the vehicle. (At conception, the individual soul enters, and then it has something to say about the organization of the body.)

The body is important as the via media between the subjective Soul and cosmic circuit. It represents the microcosm for the individual Soul, for all the powers of the macrocosm are involved in the production of that body. Therefore the individual Soul can assimilate something of those powers which in turn will precipitate and actualize the powers within itself. It can, in that sense, by actualizing its powers, get to know something of the World-Soul's powers.

II.1.5

II.9.18

IV.3.7, 12, 13

IV.4.35

***************

Is our participation in the Soul of the Earth's gnostic functions, or is it of our own? From an Earth-centered view we are participating most directly in the Earth Soul's functioning.

The grid shows the individual Soul participating in the Cosmic Soul's functioning through its embodiment. But it is through the light of the Soul that the Soul knows and interprets the modifications of the body.

At the same time the Cosmic Soul fabricates, it also has a knowledge of what it is doing. Its knowing must be included in the very doing. Whereas in terms of the subjective Soul, there is a knowing, and knowing includes doing. The doing here is the imagery which is superimposed or projected out from within itself.

The cosmocrators are both gnostic and fabricative, and this refers to the Cosmic Soul. Does the individual Soul participate in these gnostic functions of the Cosmic Soul? Does a dignity in a natal chart refer to participation in objective gnostic functions, or rather to the subjective, or both? Could it be that in the human body both are represented? The cerebral-spinal nervous system representing the subjective Soul and the sympathetic nervous system representing the objective Soul? The question remains.

[FIGURE 1981 1016b-1. Heliocentric (left) and Geocentric (right) Planets. Facsimile scan from 1981 1016S2-nature 04R14.PDF.]

This chart shows the geocentric and heliocentric views combined. Each of these cosmocrators are themselves Souls. So our Earth (Moon) would also have a representation of all these powers. We are directly participating in the system of our Earth Soul. In other words, the dignities in our chart could be from the point of view of our Earth Soul's participation in the Cosmic Soul, and we are participating in the Earth Soul. This implies that getting in conformity with the Cosmic Soul would mean conformity with the Earth Soul. The Earth Soul would itself be in conformity, for as the chart shows, it is one of the powers of the Cosmic Soul.

What we are aiming at is to locate ourselves on the Earth and speak about the Soul of the Earth, the Being of the Earth, and the Intellect or the Unity of the Earth, which would be the World-Mind you are referring to and not something outside our solar system.

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