Saturday, January 2nd, 1982

CLASS at Wisdom's Goldenrod, Hector, NY

with Anthony Damiani (AD)

January 2, 1982

ASTROLOGY; THEORY; PARTS (Arabic Parts)

with Appendix: Classnotes AB 1982 0102.

TOPIC: Astrology

SUBJECT: Theory

SUBSUBJECTS: Parts (Arabic Parts), Divided Line, Alchemy

CONTENTS:

Divided line: soul looking downward (lower half) vs. upward (upper half)

Lower half: perception and belief in what is perceived; ruled by sensible Sun

Upper half: reason and intuition; ruled by Intelligible Sun

Divided line can't be fragmented; continuity of soul's powers

Lower Sophia involved in production of every living creature, is evolving through mineral, vegetative, animal forms; eventually reaches human stage

World-Soul gets differentiated through the vehicles it is evolving; individualization of soul through increasingly complex vehicles

Grid involved in production of seven principles; these principles reflected in human being

Individual soul comes more into manifestation when World-Soul starts evolving higher reason and intellect

Our chart a participation in Earth Soul's chart

Metempsychosis: individual soul presides over evolution of mineral, vegetative, animal bodies without completely incarnating in them

Bodhicitta is the 'who' that is evolving; higher soul has faculties latently but World-Soul provides medium for their development and actualization

Buddha in center of eight-fold wheel as Cosmic Christ or achieved Sage; seven reach the eight which becomes a one = all seven vehicles fully manifest and perfected

At level of reason, individual takes over from World-Soul responsibility for his development

Earth is our Mother, deserves reverence and gratitude; soul powers being developed by Earth's reason-principles

Plotinus: understanding reconciles inner and outer

Individual extracts meaning from parts and thereby gets individuated

Earth's parts in sidereal zodiac; individual's parts in tropical zodiac; conformity between Sage's thinking and Earth's thinking

Twelve parts of each planet correlated with twelve alchemical stages; process can start anywhere, calcination not necessarily the beginning; may not be twelvefold in a given lifetime

Seven principles perfected through alchemical process result in Buddhahood/Ogdoad/Completed Man

Aspects as relation of Earth Soul to sidereal zodiac, guidance by Nous; parts as individual soul's reconciliation of inner meanings and outer experiences, differentiation of soul powers

If you function at the highest level of your parts, then you would be directly functioning with just the aspects

House position remains same for sidereal and tropical zodiacs

Parts trying to lead soul back to knowledge of Nous

Three possible meanings of direct and indirect parts

Direct parts as Earth Soul's access to Nous; indirect parts as modifications in tropical zodiac; soul as being guided by Nous or by events in sense world

Each part could be direct or indirect

Saturn Sun example; in both cases Saturn is soul power, but in one case relation is to vehicle and in the other relation is to World-Soul

Appendix: AB class notes

BOOKS READ FROM OR REFERENCED:

• Plato, Republic

• 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.1.9

DIAGRAMS embedded in and appended to this transcript:

• FIGURE 1982 0102-1. Divided Line and Cosmos. (embedded)

• FIGURE 1982 0102-2. Buddhist Eightfold Wheel. (embedded)

• FIGURE 1982 0102-3-AB. Divided Line and Cosmos. (appended)

• FIGURE 1982 0102-4-AB. First Three Houses correlated with Alchemical Processes. (appended)

• FIGURE 1982 0102-5-AB. Direct and Indirect Parts of Saturn. (appended)

• FIGURE 1982 0102-6-AB. Saturn: Aspects and Parts (Inner/Outer). (appended)

RETYPED AND REFORMATTED by IT 2021

NOTES:

• RETYPED PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT (hence V10). From 1982 0102 ASL Divided Line F14.PDF. THERE ARE NO AUDIO CASSETTE TAPES EXTANT. Original transcript typed by JF, but diagrams by someone else, possibly CdA.

• We have two duplicate scans for this class, 1982 0102 ASL Divided Line F14.PDF and 1982 0102 ASL Divided Line 14P.PDF.

• For more on Arabic Parts, see WG Seminars 1981 1129 & 30, 1981 1214 to 30, 1981 1220 & 21, 1982 0107 & 08 and WG Classes 1981 0711, 1981 1218, and 1982 0109. See also Appendix to 1981 1214 to 30 for an introduction to the Parts.

• AB Classnotes have been appended because they contain information and diagrams that the partial transcript does not have and thus help round out the class. Retyped from Classnotes AB 1982 0101 to 1982 0207.PDF. All spelling, capitalization, and punctuation corrected, abbreviations, astrological glyphs, and some numbers spelled out in AB Classnotes.

• All spelling has been corrected, most numbers and all planetary glyphs spelled out, abbreviations and abbreviated names spelled out.

• Anthony is Anthony Damiani (AD).

1982 01/02 at Wisdom's Goldenrod

Astrology; Theory; Parts

[File 1982 0102 ASL Divided Line F14.PDF Begins]

Sat. 1/2/82 Divided Line -- Parts

There is a passage in Plato which says that when the Soul looks downward into generation it loses itself, but if it looks upwards to the Ideas it is guided by the Nous. [Note: See Plato, Republic, Book VI, 508d.] If the powers of the Soul are employed in the lower half of the divided line, we are talking of the images that arise, the modifications of the bodily apparatus that take place, the consequent perception with an inherent belief in what is being perceived as existing. So that the inherent belief has to be of something existing, the sensible archetype. This would be the image that is produced within us. Plato referred to this as the visible and he put the sensible Sun ruling over this domain.

[FIGURE 1982 0102-1. Divided Line and Cosmos. Computer generated by NT from 1982 0102 ASL Divided Line F14.PDF.]

If we take this realm as embodied Soul, and the planets represent the powers, it is from here the Soul looks either downward to the objects on the Earth and you have the two lower forms of knowledge. If the Soul looks upward to be guided by the reason principles or the Ideas (Inerratic sphere), the Soul is preoccupied with its own understanding. The problem is that there seems to be a division of this divided line. (The animal doesn't have the two higher faculties.) Both Plato and Plotinus are very explicit that these are the powers that belong to the Soul and therefore the divided line or the four gnostic functions cannot be fragmented; there has to be a continuum of powers, and that the lowest power is also included in the Soul. (It goes without saying that the Soul is one substance with many functions.)

So on the one hand we have this almost axiomatic statement of the Platonists that the Soul's powers are a continuum, and on the other hand our own thinking has brought us to the point where we can see the material body fabricated to a point where it can have sensation and belief.

We are in the twelfth house realm, and speaking about the fabrication of creatures on the surface of the Earth, and these creatures are brought about by the activity of the gnostic and fabricative planets. Insofar that the creature is fabricated, we can see the evolution that is taking place, from perception to belief. A dog perceives a hen and wants to chase it. It's not going to chase it if it doesn't believe it can get a dinner out of it. Therefore it has belief inherent in it. But it certainly cannot reason nor have an intuition of the Ideas. So again, there seems to be a division in the gnostic powers of the Soul. In the case of the human being there is reason and intuition. What happened?

The lower Sophia which is involved in the production of every living entity and is the source of powers behind each creature, is pushing, so to speak, the evolution -- evolving through these various forms, mineral, vegetative, and animal forms. This presiding intelligence is the life of every creature. As it proceeds in evolution (or the manifestation of Ideas) and these creatures become more and more specialized, that something is happening to the World Soul. Can we foresee that there is a split taking place? That is, the more highly organized the animal body becomes the more highly organized is the intelligence behind each of those individual creatures. So there has taken place a further and graded descent of the World Soul into the creature. As this progresses onward and there is further differentiation, specification of that World Soul's intelligence, it reaches the human kingdom and now it is possible for further differentiation and specification to take place.

We don't mean that individual Souls are part of the World Soul, rather that the World Soul as it gets differentiated through the products of its own creative activity, it also gets specialized and differentiated through those vehicles that it is evolving. Those very vehicles are becoming the means by which Souls are getting individualized. So that the progress of an unembodied Soul is through this system. As it descends into the system and [Typist thinks: 'it', not 'and'] starts out at the lowest level, and at this level we can't think of it as individual Soul, but as World Soul presiding over the animal kingdom.

The first product of the World Soul would have to be the body of flesh. Immediately after would have to be the prana or breath. The third principle has to be reflected in these vehicles -- a body of perception. Then we would have to bring in some sort of animal intelligence, what is referred to as the Kama Rupa. Then mind or manas, then intellect or buddhi, and then so to speak, the Atma presiding over all that. These vehicles can be correlated with the planets, and would be the archetypal principles which the planets themselves represent. If we take off the last three, you have an animal. If we put them back in -- what we're saying is that it seems this whole grid is involved in the production of all these principles, and that all these principles would be reflected in the human being. (I don't think they can be separated from one another.) So this would become the principle of typology. In other words, when later on you evolve notions like Saturn represents self-apperception, Jupiter the libidinal energy, etc., you are speaking of the way these principles are being reflected into a human person. So we are speaking of seven aspects a person has, but which are together a metaphysical compound. If we imagine this World Soul as further differentiating itself through these principles, the more of itself can come out through those organisms. So finally when it starts evolving the higher reasoning mind and the intellect, what was in a way undifferentiated in the World Soul starts getting differentiated and individual Souls come more and more into manifestation.

Our chart is a participation in the Earth Soul's chart; in the same way, a lower organism is a participation in its chart. The World Soul is thus the means by which the individual Soul is going to get differentiated out and develop its powers. In the meantime, it's riding on the World Soul. If we say the World Soul has these powers and they are highly evolved and differentiated you can see how the younger Souls learn through its functioning and evolve through that. So that in the development of the lower aspects the World Soul seems to be providing the possibility for the experience of any Soul to come through.

Question: Would you say that before the human stage is reached in terms of the body's development, that the human Souls can preside over the whole evolution of a certain animal body?

Answer: Exactly -- the interesting thing about the theory of evolution is that they don't tell you who is evolving. What is evolving is the Soul going through those forms and getting differentiated. The individual Soul gets differentiated out of the Universal Soul through a process, this process being what the grid provides, making it aware of the powers that are in the individual Cognitive Isness. They are only there in a potential state, they have to become actual.

You will see how rich and how deep this philosophy of symbolic forms is, instead of saying symbolic forms use the World Idea. They are ideation forms, the idea evolved through the forms. This will tie in beautifully with what the Buddhists talk about and confuse us with -- Bodhicitta. It is this Bodhicitta that is going to evolve through this whole process and which contains within itself the possibilities of becoming a Buddha. So when we're saying that the grid provides the possibility for this differentiation of individual Souls from the World Soul, those individual Souls are what they're referring to as Bodhicitta. That Bodhicitta that is included in the World Soul and takes its stance in the world and evolves through it. The steps of the higher evolution of that Bodhicitta are more or less laid down in many of the traditions. The mistake that people make is to think there is only one way and Philosophy says No, there are many ways.

[FIGURE 1982 0102-2. Buddhist Eightfold Wheel. Computer generated by NT from 1982 0102 ASL Divided Line F14.PDF.]

They usually represent the Buddha at the center of an 8-fold wheel. This would be the achieved Cosmic Christ or Buddha. That means the seven reach the eight -- which becomes a one. The eight would mean that you have brought all the seven vehicles fully manifest and perfected. In order to perfect these -- I think you'll be able to see, that this is what the parts are about.

At the level of reason, the individual has to take in hand his own conscious evolution. You've been given enough material to work out your own salvation and you have to do it. This is as far as it will take you. Until you reach this level this is impossible, so he is guided by the World Soul. The Gurdjieff school actually believes that if you do not take your individuality seriously and use reason to evolve it, there is nothing but going back. Nature will not let you stand still.

The next step is to try to transpose those seven principles to the chart. It becomes more and more obvious how the Earth is the mother of us all and that a certain reverence and gratitude is due to her. If we take that point of view we begin to see that we are participating in the Earth's chart and learning from her, then we would be able to see that those powers of the Soul are being developed by the reason principles that the Earth itself is using.

Plotinus has many quotes where he says the function of reason and understanding is to reconcile and assimilate the inner with the outer, and that rational perception is the result of the reconciliation of the outer image with the inner ideas. [Note: See Plotinus, I.1.9: "For Understanding, the true, is the Act of the Intellections: in many of its manifestations it is the assimilation and reconciliation of the outer to the inner."]

Tim: Could you say the parts are that process of extracting specific reason principles and the interrelation of those vehicles?

Anthony: I would assume that the parts would provide us with an image of the ideas or meaning of the ideas. So the parts are where the meaning has to be extracted from. If a planet is on a part and something of the meaning of that is manifested in the circumstances and events, the meaning comes into you. Evidently, if you did the job of extracting the meaning contained, that is the process or the means of growth, of individuation. But this process is only potential, the actualization would be the individual responsibility.

The parts for the Earth are the degrees of the Sidereal Zodiac; for an individual they are from the Tropical Zodiac. When we reason, we would be able to get closer in harmony with the reason principles that govern the Earth. There would be a conformity between the Sage's thinking and the Earth's thinking.

So when the Soul thinks upon itself it stands a chance of following the right way.

The degrees seem to have something to do with the refinement of these principles. If we took the Alchemical process, calcination, etc., [FIGURE 1982 0102-4-AB] and these were equated with the signs of the Tropical Zodiac, these seven principles will be put through this process.

Tim: Each of these principles will be associated with a planet, so when you speak of these processes they only come into activity as a particular planet participates in that process. Therefore the process would only be meaningful as the planet cycles through them.

Avery: I think this is similar. If you associate with the signs in the Tropical Zodiac and say as a planet goes around, the process of individuation is happening simultaneously.

Anthony: It can start off anywhere. We don't have to think of calcination as the beginning of the process.

The twelve parts to each planet would be your alchemical process, insofar as the parts represent a certain time process. A general view would be that beginning with your natal Saturn, as it transits the chart in 28 years, it will hit all the Saturn parts, so instead of associating these with the signs per se, associate the process with the twelve parts [FIGURE 1982 0102-5-AB].

I would say the planet going on a part some meaning is brought to bear on the Soul. I won't say inner or outer for it can be either. If this process is brought to maturity and completion with each and every one of the planets which symbolizes one of those principles, the body, prana, etc., so that these seven principles are brought to perfection through that process, then the ultimate result should be Buddhahood. That would be equivalent to the 8. In other words, the whole process culminates in the Ogdoad, the completed Man.

Avery: In reference to this alchemical process, you have the entire presentation and implicit in the presentation are certain meanings. This process could refer to making explicit certain meanings which are embedded in the alchehist.

Anthony: So we are heading towards seeing each of the parts associated with one phase of the alchemical process. This process may not be twelve-fold in any given lifetime; there is no such uniformity of the development of the Soul powers.

Avery: Another possibility is that it might refer back to the houses. Say you have certain parts in a given house -- it may indicate that aspect of the alchemical process is being emphasized or worked out by those planets.

Anthony: Since the signs can be anywhere in your chart there is no need to conceive of Aries starting off the process. Primarily we will associate the signs with the process -- as you read for example 6 degrees Libra, it has to have the Libra to mean anything.

Avery: One conception we had was -- you have a pair of parts -- Saturn Jupiter and Jupiter Saturn. Can both of those come off of this one Saturn Jupiter aspect? That Saturn Jupiter aspect is part of the Earth Soul relating to the Sidereal Zodiac. Take the whole pattern of all the Earth Soul functions as related to the Sidereal Zodiac and that is going to be what is individuating the individual Soul function. So this aspect pattern is part of the Earth Soul relating to its meanings in the Sidereal, and now impose that on any of the individual soul powers and you get a picture of how his Soul function is going to be individuated. So the original aspect pattern determines the process. Whereas the parts are going to be how the Cosmic Soul's imposition is differentiating or individuating the individual Soul powers, or the possibility of that.

Anthony: You're saying that the direct parts are the relationship of the Earth to the Zodiac and the indirect parts are the reverse?

Avery: No, I was trying to say the natal angles are the guidance of the Nous through the Cosmic Soul [FIGURE 1982 0102-6-AB] and each pair is a unity there, the way the guidance is going to be filtered to the individual.

Tim: Would you say the middle, the aspect, is the Soul looking at itself?

Avery: I was trying to work off the quote where Plotinus says the Soul reconciles the inner to the outer. Then one of these would be the reconciliation to the inner, and the other the reconciliation to the outer. Whereas somehow each aspect is determining both of those. Maybe even in one the Soul is pulling its meaning out of or being guided by the Cosmos, and the other the meaning is coming from within itself.

Tim: The point we were speaking of earlier, when reason begins to operate within the individual, one of these would refer to the way the individual's reason is brought into manifestation, and the other is the way that individual is trying to extract meaning from the Cosmos.

Avery: In that sense, the middle one would be more like the Nous. The middle one is just supposed to be the natal aspects. The aspects are just related to the Earth Soul, not to the ascendant. In the one case then the Soul would be guided by the objective cosmos, and in the other case, the Soul would bring out meanings from within itself. It's almost like what we once did with the threefold chart. The Idea in the Nous had two aspects, the inner psychical and the outer which was the relation to the cosmos. The actual aspect pattern is determining both sides, the six direct and the six indirect. The aspects are almost like the guidance from the Nous, in this case through the World Soul; but in one case the Soul was reconciling the outer impressions to itself, and in the other case it was reconciling the inner meanings to the outer. I was trying to look at those as the direct and the indirect. In this theory, both of these should be structured by the original aspect or angle between the planets.

Anthony: Would you say these symbols have to do with the direct connection between the Earth Soul and the spheres?

Avery: I would add that since your Soul is also conjoined with the World Soul, they might say something of the essence of your Soul also.

Anthony: This could be why P.B. spoke about having two charts.

Avery: That's what is coming up now. If you did just the natal planets with the aspects, you might want to do the Hindu chart. Whereas if you wanted to read a set of symbols for the parts, you would have to bring in the Tropical. I would say that if you really function at the highest level of your parts, it is only then you would be directly functioning just with the aspects. This 15' aspect [Typist's note: Not clear who or what this is referring to.] of Saturn-Sun is almost like the ultimate pitch that your Soul function could work with. But it takes all of these parts, if I say the parts are the potential of individuation, but more specifically what are they trying to build up to? It would be almost saying that this aspect in the World Soul that I'm trying to get into conformity with through all these natal parts. If I could operate correctly with the meanings of those parts, what I'd directly be getting at is the meaning of this Saturn Sun angle, the Saturn Sun relationship as it is for the World Soul. (Tim had mentioned that P.B. referred to dealing mainly with the angles in the chart.)

Tim: That would be the one thing consistent between the two Zodiacs. If you said the aspect is the perfection of the Soul, that would be stable whether or not you're looking at the way in which the cosmic circuit was evolving the vehicles, or if you were looking at the Tropical Zodiac, the psychological manifestation of that Soul. The aspects are inflexible in either context. The signs, the degrees change. The houses also remain the same. If you cast my chart for the Sidereal Zodiac, the house position will remain identical; the signs of the planets and the parts would change.

Avery: The way you spoke about the functions in the Earth Soul, the function of the Earth Soul is primarily to deliver the knowledge of the Nous, even if it is the twelfth house embodied Nous.

Anthony: We have identified the planets with the World Soul, they have certain aspects. We're saying if the embodied powers of the Soul are looking up, it's being guided from the Nous. If they are looking down, they are being guided by sensation and belief. Now go on.

Avery: It seems the World Soul's planetary functions are being guided by the Nous (Inerratic Sphere). If you look at just the aspect patterns, it is being determined by the World Soul's functions. In a natal chart the angles of the planets, their relative positions, are determined by the World Soul. Ideally I would like to conform to that knowledge, but in order to conform the Soul has to first learn from the cosmic circuit. It can't work directly off the Nous at first, but has to derive the meanings that will bring it to that point, i.e., the parts. The parts are then in some way differentiations or symbols of those World Soul aspects, but what they symbolize is the World Soul functions dealing with the Nous. They are trying to lead my Soul back to the knowledge of the Nous. So the direct part would be the World Soul's view, and the indirect part the psychological recipient's view of that aspect.

OR: both referring to the individual Soul. One would be the Soul's relation to the Cosmic Soul and the other its relation to the images.

OR: Direct, the relationship of the planets in the Tropical Zodiac, and the indirect, the relationship of the psychological subject to the Tropical Zodiac.

I was seeing that it was the aspect itself was what reserved for the relation of the Inerratic to the World Soul. And these would represent the relation of the individual Soul either to the actual embodiment or to the…

Anthony: Then there is another alternative -- direct and indirect have to do with the relation of the subject within the Earth Soul and the relationship of the Earth Soul to itself. The second alternative would be thinking of the Earth Soul in relation to the Inerratic sphere and in relation to itself.

OR: Saturn's relation to the Sun as the inner meaning, the Earth Soul's access to the Nous. The other the actual embodiment, the modifications in the Tropical Zodiac. The first direct and the second indirect. Both would be referring to an individual reasoning Soul, and he can refer these meanings to the inner, the Nous, or he has to work off the vehicles. This implies each part could be both direct and indirect. So in one case he is guided by events in the sense world and in the other case he is guided by meanings from the Nous.

Using for an example the Saturn Sun part: the individual Soul's function is guided by the arrangement of the sensible content.

Tim: That way, you are looking at the sphere of Saturn, you've conjoined the body of the sphere with the embodiment of the individual (the point of origin of the embodiment, the ascendant). You are taking the point of view of the planetary spheres and how one of them perceives the order of the other bodies. That would seem to be the view of looking down towards manifestation.

Avery: When we speak of the Sun of Saturn, are you saying that the Sun here would represent one of the vehicles and the Saturn the Soul power getting differentiated? So if you do Saturn-Sun, Saturn-Moon, etc., [FIGURE 1982 0102-5-AB] you're talking about all these other vehicles…through Saturn's association with all the other vehicles, it's getting differentiated. So in some way this is how the outer -- the vehicle -- is getting assimilated or reconciled to the Soul power.

In the indirect part the second planet is the Saturn -- can the Jupiter, Mars, Venus, etc. represent the World Soul's function, where the meaning is coming from? It is almost like the Saturn is the geometric mean between the outer and the inner. In both cases Saturn is the Soul power, but in one case the relation is to the vehicle and in the other case the relation is to the World Soul.

[File 1982 0102 ASL Divided Line F14.PDF Ends]