Introduction [to True Lunar Nodes, 1850-2000]

by Anthony J. Damiani

Paper V09P

3-LETTER CODE: ASL

TOPIC: Astrology

SUBJECT: Theory

SUBSUBJECT: True Lunar Nodes

ORIGINAL LOCATION & FILE NAME (of PDF used for typing): ASL AD Intro to True Lunar Nodes book, Digicomp. pp. iii-vi.PDF

CONTENTS:

Universe's flowing structure; cosmic order as substance of our being

Soul and natal horoscope

Concept of soul; composite picture for astrology; reference to diagram

Glimpse into laws; Archimedean point; potential for transcendental psychology

Symbol as vehicle for the formless; importance of symbols in understanding the world; multivalent nature of symbols

Astrology based on operational knowledge of symbols

Importance of precision in Zodiacal degrees

Lunar nodes; meaning of Dragon's Head and Tail; need for accuracy in node degrees

Hindu myth of lunar nodes' origin

DIAGRAM:

• FIGURE Intro-Nodes-1. Table correlating Planets, Subtle Bodies, Form (Exaltations) and Matter (Rulerships); Tree Diagram of Exaltations.

AD HANDWRITING: Typewriter typed, no AD edits

COMPLETENESS: Full Paper

PUBLISHABILITY: No, already published

RETYPED, REFORMATTED, AND PROOFREAD by JF, HP, IT 2022

NOTES:

• RETYPED AD PAPER (V09P).

• Copyright Digicomp Research Corporation, Ithaca, NY, 1975.

• Note from Jeff Cox: Digicomp Research in Ithaca, developed the DR-70 Astrological Computer with a dot matrix printer in the late 70s. Home computers were just beginning to appear but their memory and ability to handle the formulas for planetary motion was very limited and inaccurate. The DR-70 was basically a fancy calculator dedicated to astrology and met the needs of professional and amateur astrologers who wanted accurate charts. Up to the advent of the DR-70, the Lunar Nodes computations were averaged and their motion was indicated to be a slow but steady backward movement through the Zodiac. The DR-70 was able to produce the exact positions of the True Lunar Nodes for the first time. A small book showing the positions was published for people who did not have a DR-70, and Anthony Damiani wrote the informative introduction describing the meaning and importance of the Nodes for astrological understanding.

• For more on the DR-70, go to https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102746921.

[File ASL AD Intro to True Lunar Nodes book, Digicomp. pp. iii-vi.PDF Begins]

Introduction

That the universe has a structure, a flowing one, is a modern scientific 'fact'. And that there is 'something' that flows may be included in that notion. Consequently the reality that we live in, and that we are ─ thinking, feeling, willing ─ and all that perception reveals, is also part of that whole. We are of that very substance which includes all possible arrangements of itself ─ even denial. This cosmic order is equivalent to what the ancients called Intellect; and further, we as its offspring, are directly related to it, as the warp and woof of our very being…physical, emotional, mental…

Is there a soul? Does the natal horoscope symbolize it? The attempt to answer these questions here is tentative, for the explanation of the framework used must be minimal. The intent is simply to show what the necessity is for precision in our calculations.

Let us agree to the first question, and allow ourselves the use of the term soul in the sense of mind, or 'self', which Jung defined as the totality of all psychic processes. In Indian thought, the term antahkarana, or internal organ, may be considered a rough equivalent ─ with certain reservations that will be discussed at another time. Thus, for astrology, a somewhat composite picture of the soul must be drawn, one which remains filled with the richness of possibility and is itself suggestive of the profound universal. The accompanying diagram contains these ideas in a compressed form…and we must refer our readers to the vast accumulation of mystic and theosophical lore that is already available.

If this hypothesis of the soul is granted, then it follows that there is the possibility that some specific knowledge of that structure may permit us to get a glimpse into those laws and how they function. Of course it is true that, being in part instants of these laws, we cannot entirely avoid interference in our efforts to see them; but still, allowance can be made for that…and such a glimpse would give psychology that Archimedean point Jung couldn't find. A study of this level of astrology could proceed even further and lay the ground for a transcendental psychology of the soul. Such an investigation will re-open the entire psychological, epistemological, and cosmological framework that we operate with. [Note: Please see end of paper for diagram which originally broke up this paragraph in the printed essay.]

The activity of the formless can be grasped by and through symbolism. An insight into this activity is necessary when one is trying to gain some understanding of man in the actual existential situation that he finds himself in. Again, the world reveals itself to man through symbols; symbols, in turn, tend to be related in a religious way to the underlying structure of the world. All symbols which are truly symbols are multivalent. If one considers all the myths and rituals of the sun, for example, it becomes clear that all that has been said couldn't possibly be the product of the rational intellect. This multiplicity of meanings is just because the symbol is a vehicle for the formless ─ no explanations of a symbol could possibly exhaust its cause.

Astrology is based on an operational knowledge of symbols, and is itself an art which may help us garner a glimpse into that formless activity. Herein lies the need for precision in Zodiacal degrees, for these degrees are in a sense the equivalent of the scale of perception used to understand the understood. Through symbolism, a 'particularization' of a universal could be related back to that universal. That is to say, through a study of native horoscopy, we may come to see how we are an extension of that mode of reality. Such a vision is a sacralization of our being, and within reflective consciousness that being becomes objectified.

Within the symbolism of astrology the lunar nodes present a particular difficulty, for their interpretation requires an understanding based on the form that all the Chaldean planets give us. That is, once given what the basic 'form' of the soul is, the significance of the Dragon's Tail and Head is more available. The meaning of the Tail involves attachment to some personal or psychological content from the past, while the Head indicates how that meaning might be transformed into a future goal ─ the process of vikalpa. It is here that the past is transformed by and through the imagination into a possible real, which lies in the future. The need for accuracy in the degree of these nodes is evident; without the appropriate symbol a glimpse of that modalization cannot be gotten.

Let us close this brief introduction with a traditional Hindu myth about the origin of the nodes: At one of the dawns of time, there was a battle between the gods and the demons. The fighting was so furious that an elixir of immortality was churned out of the frothing ocean. When all was over, the gods, having defeated their darker counterparts, divided all the spoils amongst themselves. As they were passing around a cup filled with the elixir garnered from the ocean, a demon named Rahu snuck in amongst them and, before anyone realized what was happening, he took a mouthful of the potion. Before Rahu could swallow, Siva recognized him, and sliced off his head. Thus it was that the head of Rahu, or the north node, became one of the immortals. Ever since that day, he has chased after the moon (which is the elixir's vessel), trying to get another sip. Occasionally he catches up, and we have an eclipse. But, having no body connected to his head, the recaptured elixir soon passes out of his mouth, and he must chase after it again. Meanwhile, his body, or Ketu, tags along after him, and beats up anyone who doubts the divinity of its head.

Wisdom's Golden Rod

Anthony J. Damiani

Valois, New York

[File ASL AD Intro to True Lunar Nodes book, Digicomp. pp. iii-vi.PDF Ends]

FIGURE Intro-Nodes-1. Table correlating Planets, Subtle Bodies, Form (Exaltations) and Matter (Rulerships); Tree Diagram of Exaltations. Facsimile scan from Introduction to True Lunar Nodes, 1850-2000, p. iv.

Top:

1st column: Planets and Subtle bodies

2nd column: Form / Exaltations

3rd column: Matter / Rulerships

Bottom:

Tree diagram of Exaltations