Monday, December 14th, 1981

SEMINARS at Wisdom's Goldenrod, Hector, NY

with Anthony Damiani (AD)

December 14-30, 1981

ASTROLOGY; THEORY; PARTS (Arabic Parts)

with Appendix: "What are the Parts?" by Greg Kramer.

TOPIC: Astrology

SUBJECT: Theory

SUBSUBJECTS: Parts (Arabic Parts), Ascendant, Gnostic and Fabricative

CONTENTS:

The ascendant and its significance

Primal point of incarnation into physical body; self-identity reference to body; persona; more primary than Sun sign in Hindu astrology

Point where light of soul conjoined to individual psyche; individual point of perception

Defined by intersection of horizon's great circle with zodiac belt; body's location on Earth determined by horizon

Ninety possible combinations of angles/major parts; can be direct or indirect; always relate to ascendant

Sidereal time more connected to midheaven; midheaven axis connects Earth with zodiac

Light of soul enters through pole/top of spine's axial system; mind goes out through ascendant

Ascendant possibly links individual and Earth breathing

Image precipitation through parts

Soul powers know modifications in the animate

Part as form taken by mental mode

Ascendant viewed as: 1) where things move from psychical realm into your world; 2) most conscious point in your chart

Parts chart; precipitates all meanings soul is working with

Part as manifestation of reason-principle; actual imaging within psyche

Direct and indirect parts; gnostic and fabricative

Ascendant degree required to extract meaning; point of senses as entrances and exits

Three realms from Cosmic Soul: inerratic, planetary, elemental; three levels in each level

Fate and Providence

Reason-principles manifest as physical body; plan precedes body organization; essences distributed throughout body and compressed into formula in sperm

Higher and lower soul

Second soul only knows product of tropical zodiac

All stages of evolution recapitulated in bodily structure

Second soul understands inerratic and combines tropes on Earth into living organism

Arithmetization of the ideas; example of composition; structure already includes meaning

Venus as example of unity; parts of Venus unify twelve degrees; mundane gods unify meanings

Individual participation in Earth chart through parts

Appendix: "What are the Parts?" by Greg Kramer

Introduction to Arabic parts

Definition; measurement

Direct and inverse expressions

Day-birth vs. night-birth distinction

Purpose and components of parts; shows psychic complex for more intricate personality portrayal

Versatility of parts construction; unlimited number of parts possible

Effective use of parts a fine art; must be used selectively and with skill

Part of Fortune

BOOKS READ FROM OR REFERENCED:

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

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

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

PLOTINUS QUOTES READ OR REFERENCED: I.1.7

DIAGRAM embedded in this transcript:

• FIGURE 1981 1214-30-1. Mathematical Definition of Part, with Example of Part of Fortune.

RETYPED AND REFORMATTED by IT 2021

NOTES:

• RETYPED PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT (hence V10). From 1981 1214-06R06.PDF; originally typed by jf. THERE ARE NO AUDIO CASSETTE TAPES EXTANT.

• For more on Arabic Parts, see WG Seminars 1981 1129 & 30, 1981 1220 & 21, 1982 0107 & 08 and WG Classes 1981 0711, 1981 1218, 1982 0102, and 1982 0109.

• The author of the appendix is a direct student of Anthony Damiani (AD).

• All spelling and punctuation errors have been corrected, most numbers spelled out, all abbreviations spelled out except for MC and FEAW, where I have put the meaning in square brackets.

1981 12/14-12/30 SEMINARS at Wisdom's Goldenrod

Astrology; Theory; Parts

[File 1981 1214-06R06.PDF Begins]

SEMINARS, Dec. 14-30, 1981

THE PARTS AND THE ASCENDANT

[FIGURE 1981 1214-30-1. Mathematical Definition of Part, with Example of Part of Fortune. Asc. = Ascendant. Computer generated by NT from 1981 1214-06R06.PDF.]

Since the parts are determined from the ascendant, what does the ascendant mean?

According to one astrologer in the group, the ascendant is the primal point of incarnation into the physical body. Once the Soul is incarnated, the ascendant is the self-identity in reference to the body, the way the person sees himself, in the physical world. It is the way a person appears or presents himself in a superficial way (the persona).

The Hindus consider the ascendant more primary than the Sun sign.

Perhaps the ascendant is the point where the light of the Soul is conjoined to the individual psyche. Maybe the light of the Soul makes perception possible. The ascendant seems to be the individual point of perception.

The ascendant is defined by the intersection of the great circle of the person's horizon with the belt of the zodiac. The body's location on the Earth is determined by the horizon, is the actual intersection of two circles. By definition a person's horizon means the limits of his knowledge.

There are 90 possible combinations of angles or major parts (10x9 planets). These can be taken two ways, as direct or indirect parts. The angles are what's important, and they always relate to the ascendant. (Though there are other parts, like to the descendent, house cusps, part of Fortune, other parts.)

One speculation is that sidereal time seems to be more connected with the MC [midheaven], because it moves evenly with respect to the turning of the Earth. The MC axis connects the Earth with the zodiac, because the pole goes through the Earth. The Earth's axis is relatively fixed.

Maybe the spirit comes in through the pole, and the ascendant is where the psyche comes in. Since the Earth's axis is relatively fixed, perhaps that's where the relatively fixed nature of the Soul comes in.

The light of the Soul comes in through the top of the axial system of the spine. What would be the ascendant? The ascendant is where the light goes out through the orifices and the perceptions take place. The mind goes out through the ascendant. But the Soul is connected with the mind's functioning through the MC/Nadir axis.

Perhaps the ascendant links the individual's breathing to the Earth's breathing, since the individual's breath takes approximately four seconds, and the Earth's breath takes four minutes. It is very possible each one of the breaths we take culminates in a drop. We're speaking of how the seed thought is organized, activated, and forced from the heart into the head.

Perhaps the epistemological explanation of the part is how a determinate perception gets determined out of an indeterminate perception. For all of a sudden an image gets precipitated out of an aspect (through the image of the part).

The ascendant is the point of reference. The image comes from the individual who is having the experience, i.e. from the person who is perceiving, cognizing or knowing. The ascendant is the "What am I?". It is where the mind goes forth and takes the form of the objective meaning (the part).

Is it the psychical self-identity that's having the perceptions, or is it the Soul?

What knows is the Soul powers, but they know the modifications in the animate.

Another alternative is that the ascendant marks the point in time that organizes for us symbolically the structure of the chart, since the ascendant is a reference point. Then to speak of a part is that the Soul understands. Or like the part is like the form that the mental mode takes. The natal chart is the objective and the subjective flows into it.

The ascendant can be viewed as 1) psychical, an inbreathing or storing of images at birth, and is where things move from a psychical realm into your world, or 2) the most conscious point in your chart, since the Soul has all these images.

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The idea behind the parts chart is that if a planet, say Venus, is put on the ascendant, the other planets (that it aspects), will fall on their respective parts. The structure (angular relation of the planets) is the same, but the degree symbols are different. In this way all the meanings the Soul structure is working with are precipitated out. The 7-fold structure tells how you will assimilate meaning. A part is some kind of manifestation of Reason Principles that will be imaged when a planet goes over it. The degrees of the parts seem literal because that's the actual imaging within the psyche. It will take an entire lifetime to unfold the structure of that life.

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According to Jones, the direct part (faster moving planet to slower) actually happens -- fabricative, and the indirect part has a more inner or profound meaning.

However, the Arabians have a complex system of division into direct and indirect parts, according to above or below the horizon, women, men, etc.

The same aspect or angular relationship between two planets (say a square) gives the same part.

One planet is gnostic (understanding); the other is fabricative (sensuous content). The part, a product of the two, is equivalent to the symbolic meaning. The degree at the ascendant assimilates that or perceives that (peculiar to the degree symbol). Or the degree at the ascendant assimilates the meaning peculiar to it.

The degree at the ascendant is required to extract the meaning from that symbol. For example, two people have the same degree symbol for the Mars/Venus part, but a different ascendant, so the meaning would be different.

The ascendant is where the presentation of the perception is, i.e. the understanding of the sensuous content. The ascendant is that point of the senses as entrances and exits. It is the point of the pseudo-experience of the pseudo-center (if the whole chart is the Soul).

The part is a symbol of the meaning of a relationship.

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Plotinus speaks of the propagation from the Cosmic Soul of these three realms, the inerratic, planetary and elemental (FEAW) [Fire Earth Air Water] spheres. At the same time he speaks of the planetary spheres as embodying the powers of the Soul.

The inerratic sphere represents the intellectual part.

The form (intellectual) is from the inerratic -- supermundane gods.

The function is from the planets -- liberated order.

The substances come from the Earth (elements represented by the mundane gods).

There are three levels in each level, like the inerratic has an intellect, soul and an elemental aspect. Likewise on the Earth, there's an elemental aspect, a soul aspect, and an intellectual aspect.

Iamblichus' Soul subject to Fate is the planetary spheres. The Soul powers per se are the Soul subject to Providence.

There is the planet, and all the parts to it. The planet represents the unity, so it has to have all these distinct parts within it. These angles seem to be the very structure of the Soul; they pick out the images.

What comes first, meaning or structure?

The imaging forth of these Reason Principles is our physical body (why Venus aspects relate to the kidneys). The images are what fabricates, the kidneys are the fabricated image.

In order for the body to get organized the way it does, there must be some sort of plan prior to the organization of the body. The astral belt of the Earth is where the plan takes place. The essences are distributed throughout the human body and these essences are compressed into some sort of formula in the sperm.

I.1.7 There is the higher unembodied Soul, Sun in Aquarius, etc. There is also the lower Soul, constituted by the planetary spheres, which is kept separate from the higher Soul (with which we communicate in silence). At the proper time the higher unembodied Soul will reveal knowledge to you.

You are a symbol for the Soul, in the same way that to think of something you have to make a symbol (image) for yourself.

The idea is from the inerratic. The transmitter of that idea is the planetary, which accounts for variation in that idea. Included in that unity is a functioning system of knowledge.

We have an organized body. This body has a unitary functioning. When the ascendant comes in a person is born. Now that body perceives an object. How does this body have knowledge -- is the knowledge from the first or second Soul? The second Soul can only know what the vehicle of knowledge has incorporated within it. All that the secondary Soul could know is the product of the tropical zodiac. The secondary Soul is adequate for cognition of the environment. In the bank of meanings inherent in the vehicle, the second Soul can get lit up.

The phylo-and-onto genetic development of a human being recapitulates all the stages of evolution into its bodily structure. This is the meaning of structure as opposed to the structure of meaning.

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We have the arithmetization of the ideas, and also a living thing. Think of the Soul powers as the second Soul (planetary spheres represent them). This second Soul will understand the inerratic, and will extract from the Earth the combination of all those tropes into a living organism.

Example: When a composer puts together notes there's an arithmetization of ideas, combined to produce a whole composition. As the arithmetization of the ideas is organized into the meaning of a structure -- the structure already includes meaning. The Numbers go into the relation of the notes to each other. The Tones are like the tropes. The Numbers (notes) include the structure of meaning.

The unity of the parts of Venus, for example, is the unity of a human being; the Soul unifies them.

The parts of Venus would unify its 12 degrees that goes into fabricating a human being, which is not properly speaking a unity (no unities below the mundane gods).

These mundane gods would unify the meanings into a melodic phrase. The individual participates in the Earth chart through the parts, the Venus provides the unity the individual needs.

Another way to look at it is the Venus is the monad or the thread stringing together the parts or beads.

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