Anthony Damiani, author of Astronoesis: Philosophy's Empirical Context, Astrology's Transcendental Ground, founder of the Wisdom's Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies, used various methods using astrology to symbolize metaphysical and cosmological principles. He was always doing something new—and moving on. In the latter part of 1981 through the early 1982, as part of his exploration of the System of Nature and 12th house cosmology, he explored "grid" schemata, planets in signs as dignities and non-dignities, and the Arabic parts. He abruptly dropped this line of research only to begin, in early 1982, some of his last and most fruitful work—on Astronoesis, and series of classes on astrology and the posthumous notes of Paul Brunton. While the extant material on gnostic and fabricative planets is sketchy and sometimes speculative, it seems that there are a number of insights that may bear fruit with further astrological and symbological research.

What follows is from transcripts and papers in the library at Wisdom's Goldenrod and my own class notes. One should consult Astronoesis and the transcripts and papers for further details.

Here, refer to Fig. Gnostic-Fabricative-2 in main part of this paper for a clean, redrawn illustration of the grid in the context of the Soul ring and the 12th house; it is an artistic redrawing of the hand-drawn diagrams in the original class notes, especially Oct 28, 1981.

In the schema of the 12th house (Fig. Gnostic-Fabricative-2), the Nature Mercury is the final planet of the Soul ring, and the grid represents the intersection of the gnostic functions coming from the Soul ring through the Sun in Aquarius (cosmic soul) and the 12th house cosmic structure with its life-motion or force fields, intellection, reasoning (grid), and sublunary earth-world on which we live. The fabricative planets are usually shown as being derived or suspended from the stars. (Concerning this intersection, see Astronoesis, Figs. 90 and 115 and their accompanying text.)

The soma/psyche conjunction is described by Plotinus in I.1.7: "From the organized body and something else, let us say a light, which the Soul gives forth from itself, it forms a distinct principle, the Animate…"

In the 12th house (see also Astronoesis, pp. 69, 245-51):

—the Jupiter in Pisces is the organized life matter, the qualitied or directionalized space, the "background as unknown 'x'". (10/28/81)

—the Venus in Pisces, the stars of the sidereal zodiac, the Sun's image of intelligence, and is "determined by the plane of the Sun." (10/28/81)

—the Mercury in Pisces Nature is the planet-based image of the signs (tropical zodiac) combined with the 7 planets or categories of the imagination. This is the grid, the psyche element: note that Mercury Pisces Nature is the last planet in the soul ring. "The tropical zodiac is associated indissolubly with the…Earth's participation in the Cosmic Soul's functioning. Without bringing in the intelligence of the Earth, the Earth's axis, the tropical and sidereal zodiacs would be the same." (10/28/81)

—Mercury in Pisces Body is the soma, the realm of the four elements.

In the 1981 transcripts and notes, the Venus and double Mercury in Pisces are all drawn as being the cosmos of the Sun in Aquarius.

On Saturn and Jupiter in the 4th and 3rd quadrants (from Oct. 30, '81): "Why does the Soul need matter, why does its activity take place in the 4th quadrant rather than the 3rd? Saturn as the matter principle [cf. Astronoesis, p. 341] separates doing and knowing. Separation occurs only in the 4th quadrant. [Note: Saturn rules the 4th quadrant, see Astronoesis, pp. 320-1, Figs. 141-142.] In the 3rd quadrant, the structure of the external forces and the internal knowing are not separated. The principle of difference is the principle in which the physical universe and the knowing processes have common ground. … In the myth, Jupiter swallows Saturn, so he has Saturn within himself." Anthony (10/30/81): "Jupiter swallowing Saturn is the principle of difference participating in the principle of Jupiter. The matter must conform to the inwardness of his mind."

Dignities	Non-Dignities
gnostic	fabricative
function	substance
psyche	soma
light of soul	organized body
Soul	World-Idea
solar	lunar
indirect (inverted) part	direct part

[FIGURE Gnostic-Fabricative-3. Table of Dignities, Non-Dignities Keywords.]

Both gnostic and fabricative combine in the "psychosomatic organism."

In terms of a combination of soul powers (planets) and the World-Idea (reason-principles, 360 degrees), a gnostic planet signifies the soul power is purified with the power of the degree reflecting the Nous, while a fabricative planet signifies that the degree meaning is being incorporated into the imagination as a content of Nous.

SOLAR AND LUNAR

[FIGURE Gnostic-Fabricative-4. Hand-drawn Gnostic/Fabricative by Quadrants—from transcript 11/9/81a). The gnostic planets are tentatively correlated with the Solar and the fabricative with the Lunar.]

See Fig. Gnostic-Fabricative-4 above. Note that the gnostic planets are listed by quadrants rather than by rings as in Fig. Gnostic-Fabricative-2, which is the way the grid was usually drawn. Also note that the total number of planets for each quadrant's gnostic column is 9 (counting the double Mercuries as one each); the total of planets for each quadrant's fabricative column is 12. In a seminar dated 11/9/81a, there was an attempt to line up the 27 lunar houses with the 12 signs. The ratio is 27 lunar to 12 solar, or 9/4 or 2 1/4.

The ratio 9/12 or 3/4 is also significant. (See Astronoesis, p. 312.) Furthermore, 3 x 4 = 12, 3 + 4 = 7. Anthony identifies the fourfold quadrant division of the metaphysical chart with the One-Reality, and the threefold (or 12-fold) division with the Intellectual-Principle (see Astronoesis, Fig. 140).

GNOSTIC AND FABRICATIVE: THE ARABIC PARTS

Anthony referenced the work of Marc Edmund Jones for the Arabian Parts (cf. Lecture Notes, Arabian Astrology, Lessons 1070-1076 (1933), pp. 39-52. Note that Jones's [and Anthony's] interpretations of the parts don't take into consideration day vs. night birth times; all the Parts are calculated assuming a day birth). Anthony claimed that Jones (cf. Jones, p. 46) identified the fabricative (sensuous content) with the "direct" part (slower moving planet to faster moving planet) and the gnostic (inner meaning) with the "indirect part" (transcript Dec. 14-30, 1981).

From a transcript, 1/7-8/82: "An aspect generates both of the parts, which are a differentiation of this aspect. The individual angle pattern is placed in the houses, and it's an individual's potential which the parts unfold. … One part indicates a modification of the organized body; the other represents the light of the soul; each is a specific part of the couplement. Or the direct and indirect parts are the fabricative series and gnostic series, substance and function…"

SUMMARIES

In a transcript dated 4/26/82, Anthony said: "The basic problem of gnostic and fabricative can be traced all the way back to the way the Intelligibles manifest the Idea. It's either an emphasis on the Intelligible or the Idea. The Intelligible is concerned with the gnostic, the subjective ideation and the fabricative is concerned with the Idea. This almost gives the fabricative a superior value. … The planets are concerned with knowing in dignity; in non-dignity it's concerned with the fabricative. Take Saturn which is represented within the categories of the imagination by the archetype of senex. In your chart, you see not Saturn but its representation. Saturn is moving; in Aries, it's primarily self-apperception through sensing, in Taurus, it's something being assimilated into that archetype."

From a transcript 4/26/82, on gnostic and fabricative/planets and degrees: "So with a dignity the degree meaning is what is real evident at first, and the function only gradually emerges; while for the non-dignity the function is more apparent and the degree is what takes time to be incorporated."

SUMMARY TRANSCRIPT/PAPER by Anthony dated 5/7/82a; below is the entire text of paper. This paper includes a figure very similar to Fig. 169 in Astronoesis).

"Our problem concerns the method for discriminating the wisdom which lies buried in each natal horoscope, masked in layers of the Earth's vasanas—the entity we call Dragon—and veiled from true discernment by soul powers which have become obscured by an imaginative-reflective apparatus no longer able to receive the truth.

"In the experience of any individual there is a bifurcation of subject and object, a specious knowing of a vast world content within the field of imagination. We assume however, that prior to this split, each soul contains within it the intelligence of the Nous as its own wisdom-ground, and further, that the soul, albeit the seeming center or focus of that wisdom, is really a tissue of powers which reveals and amplifies the knowledge of the Nous, but which in fact surrenders to the Nous as the true Knowledge-Being. In the astrological horoscope these principles are confused and we are no longer able to delineate"who" knows "what"; but we assume that the purpose of the life and of the horoscope (with its natal planets, degrees, transits, progressions), is, through purification of the imagination, to arrive at an understanding of the reason-principles within us, with vehicles no longer colored by the imaginative complexes. It seems that most attempts to understand the psyche arrive either at a monotheistic view aimed at perfecting and integrating the categories of imagination in order to reach the unity of all the soul powers; or a polytheistic view, focused on the attainment of the real ideas or reason-principles which constitute a vast plurality. We have found no view which synthesizes or appreciates the soul as a one-[and-]many: a unit comprising the vast number of ideas as its own true being and lord-guide of its wanderings; for we believe that all the soul could know is in and of itself.

"The diagram points out the planets as manifesting the contents of reason-principles as the contents are manifesting the planetary functions. The insight which distinguishes the planet from the content cannot be gotten from within the imagination. As the reason-principles become more clear, so the functioning of the soul will become more objective. Within the life experience, each planetary function undergoes a 12-fold alchemical process (which may perhaps be symbolized by the parts), a development organized by the degree meanings which themselves are revealed by the functioning.

"With this framework as our base, it was possible to speculate into the nature of the planets as dignities and non-dignities of the horoscope. The planet in dignity position (whether rulership, exaltation, detriment, fall) through the power of the degree meaning as reflecting the Nous, will be brought to purify and know itself as a power of the soul beyond the imaginative realm. This development could be said to occur through the certain archetypes which it represents. The non-dignity planet will be operating more fabricatively; that is, its operation will be more to incorporate the degree meaning into the being or constitution of the imagination. In one case, the struggle is to achieve the realization of the soul power as purified and eventually as unified in its contemplation of Nous (Saturn in Leo); in the other, the assimilation of meaning will achieve the realization of soul as constituted of reason principles and ultimately as a content of the Nous.

"We must keep in mind in this analysis that at all times simultaneously both systems are at work. The powers are being attenuated through the incorporation of greater understanding of the Nous' wisdom. The psychosomatic organism is a complicated matrix of possibilities, functioning as a unit and symbolized by the vast system of interrelated aspects in the horoscope. This system as representing a unit operates as a"defiled" knower and experiencer who undergoes the events of his life, and assimilating more and more into himself of himself in order that he become a purer and purer soul vehicle for the wisdom-knowledge of the Intellectual-Principle."