Thursday, November 5th, 1981

SEMINAR at Wisdom's Goldenrod, Hector, NY

with Anthony Damiani (AD)

November 5a, 1981

PLOTINUS: NATURE

TOPIC: Plotinus

SUBJECT: Nature

SUBSUBJECTS: Gnostic Functions, Liberated Order, Tropical Zodiac, Samkhya, Astrology, Part of Fortune

CONTENTS:

Comparison of heliocentric and geocentric views

Individual psyche participates in Earth's psyche; natal chart as imaginary antahkarana

Earth's astral soul as entity in its own right; what seems to know

Earth's four gnostic functions: sensing, believing, appropriating (reason), certitude

Individual participates through rulerships, exaltations, detriments, falls

Sidereal astrology: what Earth's gnostic functions are doing

Tropical astrology: individual's participation in Earth's gnostic functions

Individual's gnostic function includes soul power and vehicle

All individual entities on Earth participate in a given aspect; medium of your knowledge is a participation in Earth's psyche

Two problems: 1) how does individual soul get the right chart; 2) how is chart a sufficient vehicle for soul to operate through and how is it an instantiation of sidereal factors

Instantiation of ideas ordered in the Earth

Medium of psyche akin to Earth soul; Greeks insisted on development of reason to escape this realm

Two paths beyond Earth-centered view: 1) identity with astral soul of world, penetration into objective realm; 2) penetration into subjective

Purusha and prakriti linked through buddhi

Zodiac as source of Ideas' instantiation in individual psyche; subjective soul interprets functioning of psyche

Distinguishing between cosmic psyche and soul in natal chart: birth moment as instantiation of reason-principles; fixed nature of natal chart relative to transits; continuity of "I" comes from subjective soul; soul's interpretation varies with soul's grade

Natal chart determined by first breath; seal of body and soul powers; animate

Jung's archetypes exist in Earth's psyche; not real archetypes, not in soul

Two interpretative approaches: 1) extroverted (fabricative); 2) introverted (gnostic)

Individual psyche contains image of soul's powers

Extroverted: astral soul's relation to external; relation of sidereal forces to psyche

Introverted: individual psyche's relation to whole; concerned with understanding what's going on within psyche

Dignity and non-dignity only meaningful with respect to Earth soul

Liberated Order supplies reason-principles

Four gnostic functions in eleventh house vesica circumscribed by twelve gods (Nature)

Pure bhavas in eleventh house; impure bhavas in twelfth house; relationship to tropical and sidereal zodiacs

Mars and Venus as buddhi linga and buddhi bhava; Venus and five Empties as differentiations of buddhi linga

Liberated Order organization: twelve heterogeneous reason-principles; six forces within each of the twelve; reciprocal relation with soul powers

Four levels of gods in Liberated Order correlated with four gnostic functions

Seven powers from Soul ring; four gnostic functions from System of Nature

Key factors in chart interpretation: 1) Pars Fortuna; 2) Ruler of ascendant

Pars Fortuna as doorway to Earth consciousness

BOOKS READ FROM OR REFERENCED:

• Jeff Mayo, The Astrologer's Astronomical Handbook

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

• Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya, Studies in Philosophy, Vol. 1, "Studies in Sankhya Philosophy"

PLOTINUS QUOTES READ OR REFERENCED: I.1.7, II.3

DIAGRAMS embedded in this transcript:

• FIGURE 1981 1105a-1. Diagram of Combined Heliocentric and Geocentric Views, within Sun in Aquarius.

• FIGURE 1981 1105a-2. Four Gnostic Functions correlated with Astrological Dignities and Samkhya Terms.

• FIGURE 1981 1105a-3. 11th House Vesica around Sun in Aquarius, with first three Gods.

• FIGURE 1981 1105a-4. Four Levels of First House.

RETYPED AND REFORMATTED by IT 2022

NOTES:

• RETYPED PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT (hence V10). From 1981 1105S1-Plo Nature 11R14.PDF. Original typing and diagrams by JF. THERE ARE NO AUDIO CASSETTE TAPES EXTANT.

• This was a THURSDAY Afternoon; 1982 1105b was the Evening class (or Seminar), on similar themes, but with more an emphasis on Cosmology and the Demiurge.

• 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.

• Editing by AS incorporated into this transcript, in most cases without any additional notes.

• Anthony is Anthony Damiani (AD) and Avery is Avery Solomon (AS).

• All spelling, capitalization, and some punctuation corrected, all astrological glyphs, most abbreviations, and some numbers spelled out.

1981 11/05a SEMINAR at Wisdom's Goldenrod

Plotinus: Nature

[File 1981 1105S1-Plo Nature 11R14.PDF Begins]

SEMINAR, THURSDAY AFTERNOON, NOV. 5, 1981

THE GNOSTIC FUNCTIONS & THE LIBERATED ORDER

* DIAGRAM OF COMBINED HELIOCENTRIC & GEOCENTRIC VIEWS -- adapted from a diagram on p. 12 of Jeff Mayo's Astrologer's Astronomical Handbook.

[FIGURE 1981 1105a-1. Diagram of Combined Heliocentric and Geocentric Views, within Sun in Aquarius. Facsimile scan from 1981 1105S1-Plo Nature 11R14.PDF.]

From this diagram we can see that the aspects, when viewed from the Earth are different than when viewed from the Sun. The wedges of the heavens swept out by the zodiac are comparatively larger or smaller in the two views.

Also, from the Earth's point of view, Mercury and Venus are tied to the Sun.

Using the diagram, even the sidereal zodiac is viewed from the Earth. However, the discrepancy in the stars' positions, from the helio-and-geocentric views is very small since the stars are so far away.

The geocentric view is a picture of the Earth's psyche. Our individual psyches are participating in the lower soul or psycho-somatic organism of the Earth. Whenever transits are going on for the Earth psyche, they are affecting all the individuals on Earth.

The natal chart, fixed from the first breath of the individual, or first moment, is imprinting the light of subjective Soul. The whole psycho-somatic organism is infused with the quality of that moment. The individual will interpret the Earth's experience of that moment.

The individual psyche is participating in the Earth psyche. The mediums are similar, and it's this medium through which the subjective Soul gets knowledge.

* Questions: How does the individual psyche form a link between the Earth psyche and the individual soul inhabiting it? How does it determine the correct psyche for the Soul to express its own function?

* Perhaps a discussion of the gnostic functions will help clarify these problems.

*

[FIGURE 1981 1105a-2. Four Gnostic Functions correlated with Astrological Dignities and Samkhya Terms. Computer generated by IT from 1981 1105S1-Plo Nature 11R14.PDF.]

Samkhya says each of the gnostic functions is accompanied by a certain modification (or "aspects") of the organ. The aspects are creating certain modifications in the Earth's organism.

* Those 4 functions belong to the Earth. The aspects in the sky are an indication of the Earth's gnostic functions.

Take Mars in Capricorn as viewed from the Earth. This represents the Earth's reason.

Our participation in that (Earth's psyche), from our natal chart, represents our imaginary antahkarana, just as the Earth's tropical division is imaginary in relation to the whole solar system.

Anthony: It's imaginary because the relation is not permanent. It's imaginary in the sense that you participate in it; it isn't your antahkarana.

* What would be the consequences of this?

1) What is meant by the Soul of the Earth?

2) What is meant when Plotinus says the planets signify but don't cause? [Note: See Plotinus, II.3, "Are the Stars Causes?".]

If these are the gnostic functions of the Earth, could we speak of the astral soul of the Earth as an entity in its own right, as the astral soul of the Earth?

This entity is what seems to know.

"Soul" here means what Samkhya calls the mental body.

Our own second soul, the lower soul, is our participation in the astral soul of the world.

Each of the planets has its own 2-fold Soul. It has a lower soul or mental body (not the Purusha) made up out of "matter", i.e., whatever forces are being used to organize that whole system.

* If these gnostic functions belong to the Earth or the astral soul of the world, what would they be concerned with in terms of knowing?

SENSING -- Sensing is simply the modification of the organ. There's an input taking place, in the astral soul of the world. The reception of the impulse from the planets is sensing.

BELIEVING -- The mind making something, and believing in what it makes, is belief in the existence of something. "Something there" is belief. The Earth's belief is in the actual impulse that is being communicated or radiated from the planets--knowing there's something there (from the senses).

APPROPRIATING -- Appropriating or reason is "belonging to" the mind. The Earth Soul has appropriation, insofar as its astral soul gets an impulse and believes in the existence of that impulse. The astral soul then combines it according to certain Reason-Principles within itself, and gives a meaning to its experience, applying the Reason-Principles to it.

CERTITUDE -- Insofar as the Reason-Principles construct the entity, we now have certitude.

Our participation in these 4 would be the rulerships exaltations, detriments, falls. For instance, our participation in rulership would be certitude about why you're somewhere.

* All 4 of these gnostic functions are about the influences or that input which are coming from the planets. They are the Earth's attempt to grasp that input.

Avery: The impulse itself has these 4 levels, determined by the sidereal input. Sidereal astrology is the Earth's interpretation of these functions, is what the Earth's gnostic functions are doing.

Anthony: Think of the radiation coming from the real (sidereal) zodiac. As in circumstantial Eastern astrology, sidereal astrology is through the Earth's interpretation of these functions.

Tropical astrology is from the individual's interpretation of these functions--the individual's participation in the Earth's gnostic functions.

* How do we participate in the functions of the Earth's astral soul?

Our gnostic functions mean not our Soul powers only, but that the vehicle that the Soul is using is the medium of its knowledge.

The human's gnostic functions, insofar as the lower part of the soul participates in those, would be an excerpt from a participation or the knowing in terms of the astral soul of the Earth.

* The meaning of "participation" is crucial here.

1) This knowledge of the Earth is of Reason-Principles--all individual entities on the Earth participate in a given aspect.

2) This medium of your knowledge is participation in the Earth psyche. Your psyche is part of its (Earth's) psyche.

'The "psychic-animated" organism is a unity.'

* If the Unities only extend down to the cosmocrators, and don't go below that, each person's knowledge would vary according to his aspects to that, and the level the soul is at is at the level of those unities.

* There are two problems here:

1) The individual Soul's powers interpretation (allowing for difference here).

2) What each individual's natal chart's relation is to the Earth's psyche (the individual's psyche also allows for individuality, but that's imaginary, and will dissolve).

Anthony: The first problem is how the natal chart that we receive seems to be the type of psycho-somatic organization that the individual subjective Soul must have. The second problem is how the individual natal chart, which is a psychic organism, is a sufficient enough vehicle to be a medium through which the subjective Soul can operate and reason about what's happening to it, and on the other hand, how that same natal chart can be the instantiation of sidereal factors.

Those two problems are justification right down to Valois--we need to work on the participation paper.

The one problem is how the psycho-somatic organism is adequate to the needs of the individual Soul--that's how it's related to the house structure. The other problem about how it's a medium brings in the relation of transits.

Anthony: The instantiation of the ideas takes place in your psyche (the transformation of image after image in an ordered way in the real world). The images we perceive which constituted your world are ordered in your psyche. That means the instantiation of the ideas[,] which takes place primarily in the psyche of the Earth, is ordered in the Earth. Our psyche, insofar as it participates in the Earth psyche, is participating in the instantiation of the ideas that is taking place in them.

* The whole natal chart is given to you. Your personality (as your natal chart) is participation in the Earth entity.

When the Earth is going through these modifications (of various aspects), so are you.

The medium of the psyche is akin to the Earth Soul.

* This psychic organism is the realm of the psyche that you're participating in here. That's why the Greeks insisted on the development of reason, in order to escape that realm or to know that realm.

* There are two possible journeys in getting out of the Earth-centered view.

1) You can identity with the psyche of the astral soul of the world, and penetrate into the objective realm.

2) To penetrate into the subjective.

The answers to "the what and the who" would then be required for a complete philosophy.

* Samkhya says the link of Purusha and Prakriti must be in Buddhi, which is certitude and also the unity of the 4 gnostic functions of the mental body.

* Anthony: Insofar as the zodiac is the source of the instantiation of the Ideas, which is taking place ultimately in the individual psyche, the interpretation and the understanding of that would seem to come from the subjective Soul.

The subjective Soul has to understand the functioning of our psyche.

* The problem is in the natal chart, where we must distinguish cosmic psyche from Soul.

The moment you're born is ultimately an instantiation of Reason-Principles coming through the aspects from the Earth's consciousness which is objective, and your Soul will inhabit that.--Through that it gets metamorphized.

The natal chart has to remain relatively fixed in relation to the transformations that are going on. The continuity of the "I" comes from the subjective Soul, not these modifications.

The Soul's interpretation varies with the Soul's grade--a lower grade soul gets immersed--a higher grade soul will understand, and won't identify with the aspects, even though they're producing bodily modifications.

The natal chart is determined by the moment of the first breath. The whole psycho-somatic organism is infused with the quality of that moment of time, and the individual is interpreting the Earth's experience of that instant.

At that point of contact there's a seal of the body and the Soul powers.

"From the organized body and the light it forms the animate." [Note: See Plotinus, I.1.7.]

* In the astral realm, in the psyche of the Earth, are Jung's archetypes, the traces of life left behind. They have nothing to do with the real archetypes; they are not in the Soul.

* Perhaps there are two ways of interpreting the diagram on p. 1.

1) extroverted--looks outwards.

2) introverted--looks inwards.

The 4 gnostic functions, I R B S [Intuition Reason Belief Sense], could be applied either way (as the pure and impure bhavas of buddhi).

What is the relation of the subjective Soul powers then to

1) fabricative functions as extroverted,

2) gnostic functions as introverted?

* The question of the relation of the subjective Soul's psyche to the Earth's psyche is how one participates in the other. In the way that the whole Cosmic Circuit is an image of the World Soul, then the subjective Soul will work through its own individual psyche.

* That individual psyche that is built up by this cosmic function, or participation in the Earth psyche, has within itself an image of the Soul's powers. The identity with the subjective Soul is through those 7 powers.

* As extroverted--The astral soul of the Earth or individual Soul is concerned with what's outside of it. This fabricative function is the relation of sidereal forces to the psyche.

As introverted--it could be:

1) The individual psyche's relations to the whole psyche,

2) The relation of all things occurring on Earth to each other. This gnostic function is concerned with the understanding of what's going on within that psyche.

* But it could work both ways.

We don't know the fabricative planets or the gnostic planets except though the medium of the Earth soul. Dignity and non-dignity only have meaning with respect to the Earth soul.

(But -- each knowing function = conjunction of psycho-somatic modification and the knowing power of Soul.)

* How are the gnostic functions connected to the liberated order? The liberated order, rather than the Soul powers, supplies all the Reason-Principles, in a certain organization of Reason-Principles.

11th HOUSE DIAGRAM

[FIGURE 1981 1105a-3. 11th House Vesica around Sun in Aquarius, with first three Gods. Facsimile scan from 1981 1105S1-Plo Nature 11R14.PDF.]

Put the 4 gnostic functions in the vesica. They are circumscribed by the 12 gods, Nature.

I R B S are the bhavas of buddhi, pure and impure. Each of the 7 powers has all 4 functions. The pure bhavas are in the 11th House. The impure bhavas are in the 12th House.

The pure bhavas of the liberated order lead out of manifestation. The impure bhavas in the 12th lead towards manifestation.

The pure and impure are all karana bhavas. The 11th House bhavas are outside the tropical. The impure 12th House bhavas are inside the tropical zodiac. (Or the pure ones are in the 11th, and the impure ones are outside the tropical in the sidereal. Inside the tropical are S, B, R, I, which are functions of antahkarana. As soon as you bring in that entity, you have to bring in an ahamkara, an antahkarana.)

* Maybe K W F S [Knowing Willing Feeling Sensing] are in terms of the intellect. Any one of the Soul powers would operate through K W F S, for maybe they are getting differentiated through the liberated order.

* Mars and Venus are the buddhi linga and buddhi bhavas.

"Buddhi is twofold--there is buddhi linga as the substantial aspect, and buddhi bhavas as the functional." [Note: This is a paraphrase. See Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya, Studies in Philosophy, Vol. 1, "Studies in Sankhya Philosophy," chapter IV, stanza 48.]

Venus and the 5 Empties are differentiations of buddhi linga.

The 11th House Empties represent those processes. The bhavas of buddhi represent a unification of the mental body. They become the life forces which unify the physical body.

* The differentiation of the understanding is from these 4 different categories. The subjective Soul will work through these, and the organization and differentiation will be given by the liberated order.

In the 11th House, Sun is the Cosmic Soul that elaborates the cosmos. The 6 (or 7) orbits around the Sun represent the powers.

Each of the liberated order has 6 forces. 12 x 6 = 72 (Names of God).

They have the 6-fold (of B L I S N B ) [Being Life Intellect Soul Nature Body]. [Note: Sentence bracketed by AS with ? at end.]

* In the 4 rings, there are 2 rulerships and 2 detriments each. But each house only has 4 rings. For instance, the 1st House has:

[FIGURE 1981 1105a-4. Four Levels of First House. Int. = Intellect. Facsimile scan from 1981 1105S1-Plo Nature 11R14.PDF.]

but doesn't have Life or Nature.

Each of the liberated order have the 6 powers, those powers organize the Reason-Principles, through which the 7 subjective Soul powers function. [Note: Entire section beginning with asterisk bracketed by AS.]

* We must try to understand the 4 or the 7 orbits around the Sun. The 4 refers to the differentiation of the buddhi lingas and buddhi bhavas, and the 7 refers to the Soul powers.

These are 12 heterogeneous Reason-Principles. Within each of the 12 are 6 forces. The Soul powers are going to manifest those Reason-Principles, but on the other hand, the image of the 7 Soul powers is organized by the liberated order. It's a reciprocal relation.

* Extroverted refers to the Demiurgic Intellect, Nature, the production of the universe as the Soul's powers manifesting those Reason-Principles.

Introverted refers to the understanding of that.

* As a possibility, the 4 levels of gods in the liberated order refers to the gnostic functions as specifications of buddhi.

Perhaps Harmonic refers to Reason-Principles.

Vivific -- Sensation.

Fabricative -- Intuition of essence.

Guardian -- Belief.

* The model of the 7 powers of the Soul is from the subjective Soul ring.

The 4 gnostic functions are from the System of Nature.

Any one of the 7 powers should function through any of the 4 levels. For instance, Saturn has a certain Ruler, Exaltation, Detriment, Fall.

The individual participates in the antahkarana of the Earth through the dignities of the Earth Soul.

* In terms of the natal horoscope, what function (of K W F S) would be predominant in the operation of that person?--What would symbolize those functions in the chart?

According to Tim, the most important factor, after the Pars Fortuna, is the Ruler of the Ascendant. The Pars Fortuna and the Earth have the same symbol, so perhaps the Part of Fortune is the doorway to participation in the Earth's consciousness.

Discussion in evening on this point. [handwritten by AS at end of transcript]

[File 1981 1105S1-Plo Nature 11R14.PDF Ends]