Monday, November 2nd, 1981

SEMINAR at Wisdom's Goldenrod, Hector, NY

with Anthony Damiani (AD)

November 2b, 1981

PLOTINUS; NATURE; DRAGON

TOPIC: Plotinus

SUBJECT: Nature

SUBSUBJECTS: Dragon, Tropical Zodiac, Sidereal Zodiac, Gnostic and Fabricative, Nidana Chain

CONTENTS:

Tropical zodiac: related to gnostic functions; concerned with productive imagination; represents knowledge available to a soul

Sidereal zodiac: related to fabricative functions; intellect of soul

Planetary spheres as intermediary between sidereal and tropical zodiacs

Dragon: result of force fields depositing their radiation on Earth through intermediary of planetary spheres; represented by twelve signs of tropical zodiac; life within you

Dragon has one goal: survival and continuation

Dragon as intruder that foists itself around the soul; filters understanding of what's beyond tropical zodiac

Real forces exist outside Saturn sphere; tropical zodiac resides inside Moon sphere

Etheric formative forces associated with tropical zodiac, extend to Moon

Biotic force (Evola): permeates every cell; soul gets associated with this entity of craving on coming into generation

Sidereal awareness is transcendental awareness

Desiring something is the will of the Dragon

Earth at level of Kama Rupa

Dragon as hydra-headed beast; referred to as evil by Gnostics

We permit identity of soul's life with biotic force

Aspects affect individual's knowledge though producing modifications in his vehicles

Individual's chart participates in tropical zodiac; this is not knowledge

Soul as gnostic is reading the bodily modifications

Biotic force highly organized but doesn't know it

Nidana chain directly connected with biotic force; tropical zodiac a representation

Sidereal forces act upon planetary spheres, which combine Earth elements into living entities; these leave behind traces of their operation; this memory is the Earth's aura

Memory of all animals in your body; organism through which you know, but also a restriction on what you know

Higher level soul must have higher level body to function through

Varying cultural interpretations of Dragon; Chinese view of beneficent dragon

Soul comprehends biotic force, is not deluded by it

BOOKS READ FROM OR REFERENCED:

• Guenther Wachsmuth, The Etheric Formative Forces in Cosmos, Earth and Man: A Path of Investigating Into the World of the Living

• Julius Evola, The Doctrine of Awakening

• C.G. Jung, CW 14, Mysterium Coniunctionis, "The Journey through the Planetary Houses" (in Chapter III)

• Pistis Sophia (not Mead)

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

PLOTINUS QUOTES READ OR REFERENCED: II.1.5, II.9.18, VI.4.12, VI.4.14

DIAGRAM embedded in this transcript:

• FIGURE 1981 1102b-1. Sidereal, Planetary, Tropical.

RETYPED AND REFORMATTED by IT 2022

NOTES:

• RETYPED PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT (hence V10). From 1981 1102S1-06R14.PDF. Transcript with diagram originally typed by JF. THERE ARE NO AUDIO CASSETTE TAPES EXTANT.

• This was a Monday Evening Seminar, the 1981 1102b event. A paper on Hindu Astrology by Avery S. was presented at an afternoon seminar on this date; see WG Seminar 1981 1102a Astrology; Theory; Hindu Astrology.

• 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.

• Anthony is Anthony Damiani (AD).

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

1981 11/02b SEMINAR at Wisdom's Goldenrod

Plotinus; Nature; Dragon (Monday Evening Seminar)

[File 1981 1102S1-06R14.PDF Begins]

SEMINAR, MONDAY, NOV. 2, 1981

ON THE TROPICAL ZODIAC, THE "DRAGON".

*References:

Evola, The Doctrine of Awakening

Michael Maier's Journey Through the Planetary Houses

Pistis Sophia (not Mead)

Plotinus on the "alien" that forces itself upon the Soul, II.1.5, II.9.18, VI.4.12, VI.4.14.

The gnostic functions are more related to the tropical zodiac than to the sidereal. The tropical zodiac is concerned with the productive imagination, or what's built up by the productive imagination.

The knowledge that becomes available to us is based on the Earth's need. The flow of knowledge in a given Soul is based on the tropical zodiac. That knowledge of itself is being delivered by the sidereal force. The sidereal forces, in their totality, constitute something like the intellect of the Soul, delivered every day piecemeal. But that tropical knowledge for the creatures on the Earth is an excerpt of the sidereal.

There's a correlation of gnostic with the tropical (the knowledge that is available) and the fabricative with the sidereal (the fabricative aspects of the planets are also building up that vehicle).

* To speak of the modification of knowledge in the body, we have to speak of what knowledge is available to interpret it (in terms of the Earth's vasanas).

Anthony: The planetary spheres are the intermediary between the sidereal and tropical zodiacs. The force fields depositing their radiation on Earth, through the intermediary of the planetary spheres, eventually elicited out of the Earth these various life forms which in their totality constituted one animal. That animal is the life within you, and the 12 signs of the tropical represent that total animal. That animal within you claims to know what's going on. That animal has one goal--to live and to go on living.

This is the notion of the animal, the dragon. It's the "intruder" or "entity of craving" that foists itself around the Soul. Anything we understand of what's beyond the tropical is through that animal.

(The "sidereal personality" has a possibility of going beyond this.)

* As in the myth of Proteus, the tropical zodiac appears to you in various forms (in conformity with your past history).

* The tropical zodiac appears to be projected up through the planetary spheres, but is an imaginary projection. It's actual place of residence is the Earth, and is the "tropisms" or "entity of craving".

Outside of the Saturn sphere are the real forces. Inside the Moon sphere is the tropical zodiac.

Wachsmuth's "etheric formative forces"--F E A W [Fire Earth Air Water]--go with the tropical zodiac, and extend to the Moon. [Note: See Guenther Wachsmuth, The Etheric Formative Forces in Cosmos, Earth and Man: A Path of Investigating Into the World of the Living.]

* We read from Evola, The Doctrine of Awakening, pp. 68-70. "This force…functions of physical life…parasitically…establishing itself in a thousand forms."

That entity is what the Soul gets associated with when it comes into generation.

Evola refers to the "biotic force". In Evola every cell in the body is permeated with those forces so that it desires its life.

* Sidereal awareness is transcendental awareness, compared to the awareness of the entity of craving.

Evola, p. 171. "…by following such a path a man naturally transforms himself into a kind of living statue made up of awareness, into a figure pervaded by composedness, decorum and dignity…"

How is this awareness distinguished from the biotic force?

Evola, p. 172. "…Whereas, before, every movement and every action of the individual was motivated by an irrational vital force or samsaric element, now this element is replaced by pure awareness…"

* Anthony: Most people speak of desire as their will. Desiring something is actually its will.

* At what level (of the 7 lokas in the 11th House) would our Earth be at? It would be at the level of Kama Rupa--at the level of animal life, the evolution of forms in the tropical zodiac.

* In Samkhya, the bhava functions are Prakriti taking itself to be the Purusha.

* Anthony: This is what the Gnostics say as Evil. This is also the Hydra-headed beast, with anger, etc. from Leo → Scorpio.

Anthony: We permit the identity of the Soul's own life with the biotic force.

* An aspect, say Saturn trine Jupiter, would affect the Earth. This good aspect must work through the tropical zodiac.

How would that reach the individual on the Earth, that is participating in the Earth? How would it affect the individual's knowledge, i.e., how do the meanings come in? It would work through the fabricative, and would produce modifications in its vehicles.

Anthony: It happens in the body--the impulse is given to the body. (For instance Venus rules the kidney system, and Venus aspects may produce kidney stones.) These thing[s] happen at a physiological level--somehow they become concepts.

* The fabricative force comes through the planetary spheres.

[FIGURE 1981 1102b-1. Sidereal, Planetary, Tropical. Fab. = Fabricative. Facsimile scan from 1981 1102S1-06R14.PDF.]

The planets take in the sidereal forms. They bring to birth the animals in the Earth. Then through the functioning of the planetary spheres, they produce an animal, as the traces of life left behind. This eventually produces the belt of life around the Earth, the tropical zodiac.

* The Soul of the Earth is being constantly agitated by aspects (all the aspects) but the individual is affected only by some aspects.

But the individual's chart participates in the tropical zodiac, so his participating in those aspects is his participating in the astral belt of the world. -- This is not knowledge.

So far we've been only considering the cosmocrators, transferring the sidereal forces.

The powers of the Soul relating the dignities of the planets is gnostic. The liberated order participates in the gnostic aspects and that's what is reading those modifications.

The connection is that the planets are transmitting the sidereal forces into a body. The Soul powers mediate that knowledge. All this intelligence is used to build up the biotic force, but the biotic force doesn't know it. The Soul can only know an organization of Reason Principles. This biotic force (leaving out the subjective force) is highly organized.

* The Nidana Chain is directly connected with the biotic force. The tropical zodiac is a representation of the Nidana Chain.

Avidya, Samskara, etc, would be the biotic force and the Soul's reaction to that. Avidya is the first act of the Soul identifying with the biotic force.

* Where is the origination of the biotic force, this animal?

Anthony: Imagine at some time the Earth was void and barren. The planetary spheres started to elicit life from the planet Earth, and the continuous manifestation of life on the Earth left behind a residue, memory traces.

Life is traced ultimately from the sidereal. The actual sidereal stars are force fields, and the planetary spheres are acted upon by that force field. The action of the planetary spheres combines elements on Earth into certain structuralized forms that are living. These living entities populated the Earth and left behind traces of their operation. This process went on for a very long time.

Then this memory is that animal--this animal would include the total variety of species that ever existed. This memory would be the Earth's aura, and is equivalent to the animal spoken of as "the Ouroboros" or the "dragon".

Consequently insofar as you are constituted by the biotic force, all the memory of all the animals that ever lived are involved in the constitution of your body. It is through this organism that you will know anything, but it is also a restriction of what you know. It is highly colored by the life that has been lived.

This is a building up of the Earth's astral soul, just like the variety of your experiences builds up your astral soul. The astral and the causal are gradually built up through the variety of these experiences that will trail behind.

That would be your subtle body and this would be the Earth's subtle body.

* The problem of higher and lower Souls is reflected in the body. A higher level Soul must have a higher level body through which it must work.

* A lot of myths have a motion [Note: Typist thinks 'notion'.] of a dragon. There are varying cultural interpretations. For instance the Chinese have a beneficent dragon, since the Chinese are practical, and are interested in using the Earth's resources.

* From Evola, the Soul comprehends the biotic force and is not deluded by it.

[File 1981 1102S1-06R14.PDF Ends]