Sunday, November 29th, 1981

SEMINARS at Wisdom's Goldenrod, Hector, NY

with Anthony Damiani (AD)

November 29 & 30, 1981

ASTROLOGY; THEORY;

MANDALA; PARTS (Arabic Parts)

TOPIC: Astrology

SUBJECT: Theory

SUBSUBJECTS: Mandala, Parts (Arabic Parts), Inspiration, Each Life as a Work of Art

CONTENTS:

Mandala: definition and basic concept

Astrological chart as mandala

360 degrees as collective unconscious

Each life a work of art, an actualization of psychical essences (degrees)

Soul's interpretation of aspects, two levels

Soul's thinking

Soul's incarnation into body

Creation of art and soul's role: 1) psyche as material in which soul works; 2) transmission of higher soul through art; 3) inspiration as soul's felt vision of higher possibilities

Sabian symbols as matter of psyche through which soul functions

Introduction to Arabian parts

Definition and calculation method; Part of Fortune as example

Parts as images in the psyche

Soul, not psyche, reads off the parts

Part relates Earth's psyche to individual soul

144 rays of the subjective soul; represent imposition of individual into cosmos

Animate

BOOKS READ FROM OR REFERENCED:

• Giuseppe Tucci, The Theory and Practice of the Mandala

• C.G. Jung, CW 9, Part I, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, "Concerning Mandala Symbolism"

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

• Robert Zoller, Guido Bonatti, The Lost Key to Prediction: The Arabic Parts in Astrology (Inner Traditions, 1980)

• Marc Edmund Jones, Lecture Notes, Arabian Astrology, Lessons 1070-1076 (1933), pp. 39-52

• John Gadbury, Doctrine of Nativities

• Ivy M Goldstein-Jacobson, Astrological Essays

• Rene Guenon, Symbolism of the Cross

PLOTINUS QUOTES READ OR REFERENCED: IV.4.23

RETYPED AND REFORMATTED by IT 2022

NOTES:

• RETYPED PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT (hence V10). From 1981 1129-30S1-04R14.PDF. THERE ARE NO AUDIO CASSETTE TAPES EXTANT.

• For more on Arabic Parts, see WG Seminars 1981 1214 to 30, 1981 1220 & 21, 1982 0107 & 08, and WG Classes 1981 0711, 1981 1218, 1982 0102, and 1982 0109. See also Appendix to 1981 1214 to 30 for an introduction to the Parts.

• All spelling has been corrected, most astrological glyphs and some numbers spelled out.

1981 11/29 & 30 SEMINARS at Wisdom's Goldenrod

Astrology; Theory; Mandala; Parts (Arabic Parts)

[File 1981 1129-30S1-04R14.PDF Begins]

NOV. 29 & 30, 1981

THE MANDALA, EACH LIFE AS A WORK OF ART, & ARABIAN PARTS

References (Mandalas):

Tucci, The Theory and Practice of the Mandala

Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, "Mandala Symbolism", p. 357.

* According to Jung, the Sanskrit word "mandala" means "circle". All mandalas are based on the squaring of the circle. The center point is within the psyche, around which everything is arranged. The center is not the ego, but the Self. The center refers to the center of personality within the psyche; the center point is some kind of energy. [AD handwritten addition from partial transcript: meaning of center refer to Guenon] [Note: Probably a reference to Rene Guenon, Symbolism of the Cross.]

* Does the mandala refer to the 4 gnostic faculties or do the 4 cardinal points refer to the spatialization of an image?

The individual's center would be the center of the chart. The MC-Nadir axis refers to local space (longitude). The Ascendant-Descendant axis is connected with the belt of the zodiac (requires latitude and time). The intersection of the two lines refers to a specific time and a specific place, and is the point through which consciousness operates in that being.

Those 360° would be the collective unconscious. The degrees are common to all mankind, but some are within the scope of the individual personality. These refer to the ones with planets sitting on them, which here means an inner compulsion to work that (degree) out.

* "Each life is a work of art." In an individual's life each degree is getting actualized gradually, so that this person's life is a living symbol of his psychical essence.

The meaning (not the image) has to be lived out literally. Within the context of the planets etc. in the chart, you have to create a work of art.

The Soul's interpretation and understanding of the aspects determines what kind of life is experienced. The Soul as a guide interprets the aspects according to certain principles

1) from the higher phase of the Soul,

2) or from the lower Soul.

When the Soul thinks, what are the products of that thinking? The thought of the Soul is the actual person and the world you're living in.

Where is the Soul found in the chart?

The Soul's thinking is interpreting its contact with the Cosmic Circuit. Plotinus points out that the Soul is incarnated into a body, a certain spatial and temporal point.

The Mandala is trying to portray something from that inner realm. It means the way the Soul is understanding and interpreting the space-time continuum, the way we are constituted psychologically, the way that is projected into the world in our daily life.

* The artist's personality unfolds his inner aspiration. He's experiencing something (transcendent) to his psychical essence.

The Transcendent or the Soul propagating itself through those psychical essences is making your life an art work. The psyche is the material in which the Soul works and turns into a work of art.

Who creates the 5th Symphony--the psyche or the Soul? In every work of art something of the higher Soul is transmitted, so there is something of that higher Soul in that work of art,

Through the aspects, the psychical essences, degrees, the technique of the artists, the Soul transmits something. Therefore, Beethoven is transmitting something of the Soul through his psychical essences, techniques, etc.

The Soul identifies with that vehicle of the body, and then when it thinks that it is that person it has to look inside for inspiration which is none other than its own Soul. That inspiration is of the Soul's vision of its higher possibilities, and is a felt vision--it's not a number of concepts lined up to form an outline.

The source of the inspiration would be the Soul itself.

* The subjective meaning of the Soul is coming in through the Reason Principles or degree symbols. The Sabian symbols are the matter of the psyche that the Soul functions through, but the Soul has chosen those particular Sabian symbols. What makes a person unique is not that manifestation but what is expressed through that manifestation. According to Plotinus, the Soul can't have experience of this world except through the medium of a vehicle, but the Soul is manipulating this medium and is revealing itself through that manipulation. [Note: See Plotinus, IV.4.23.]

* * * * * * *

References (the Parts):

Bonatti [Robert Zoller, Guido Bonatti, The Lost Key to Prediction: The Arabic Parts in Astrology (Inner Traditions, 1980). Second section of the book includes a translation of the 13th century Latin text on the parts composed by Bonatti.]

Jones--clearest [Note: Marc Edmund Jones, Lecture Notes, Arabian Astrology, Lessons 1070-1076 (1933), pp. 39-52.]

Gadbury [Note: John Gadbury, Doctrine of Nativities.]

Jacobson--Astrological Essays [Note: Ivy M Goldstein-Jacobson, Astrological Essays]

* The Arabian Parts are determined from taking the distance between any two planets and laying it off from the Ascendant, in the order of the planets. Each part is time-specific for anyone on the Earth at that time, but the Ascendant and houses would vary by the place of birth.

With an equal-house system, and sometimes with the Placidus system, the house of the part will always be known so anyone with that birth time will have that part in it.

The Part of Fortune is the distance from Sun to the Moon. The Part of Fortune represents the appearance in the animate of the Sun Moon aspect.

Are the parts an image in the psyche? When the planets are aspected, the image-part is crystallized. For instance, when Neptune conjunct Jupiter occurs, the part of Neptune Jupiter is imaged.

Our life is the image of the Soul's functioning, so that the entire panorama we're presented with is an image.

It is the Soul (not the psyche) that is reading off the parts. Even your conceptualizing or thinking is included in that presentation. The part does indicate something getting precipitated out of us. The image that arises will indicate something very specific of the day, time, etc.

Since the 360 Sabian symbols are in the tropical zodiac, the images evoked by the parts come off the Earth, and refer to the perception of the Earth.

The meaning gets triggered off in the Soul by that image. The part relates the Earth's psyche to the individual Soul.

There are 144 rays of the subjective Soul, i.e., the 144 Arabian parts. Those rays represent the imposition of the individual into the cosmos, but the degrees are still images in the tropical zodiac. If all the degrees are the organized body, the rays are given off by it. The animate is the light of the two conjoined.

[File 1981 1129-30S1-04R14.PDF Ends]