This series covers events from 01/10/1983 - 09/12/1983

This series of classes develops an interpretation of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s natal chart as an example of authentic philosophic consciousness, using a chart with the Sun in the 9th house, Mercury at 25° Gemini in the 10th house, and the Moon at 4° Leo in the 11th house.

The January seminar compares Jung’s and Emerson’s planets in dignity (planets in rulership, exaltation, detriment, or fall) and correlates the eight bhavas (functions) of buddhi with the functioning of planets in dignity. His famous journal entry that begins "life is a game between God and man” correlates precisely with transiting aspects to these planets in dignity.

The July 11 and 18 sessions analyze Emerson’s septile configurations, where a septile is understood as a fixed idea, or standard of judgment, a person uses to understand their psyche. His Mercury bi-septile Uranus fuses a responsibility to shape his experience according to his way of thinking (Mercury) with an innate awareness of the I-principle (Uranus), which results in a constant revelation of things, people, and events from a transcendent viewpoint. Moon septile Jupiter manifests as the imperative to impress upon the totality of samskaras constituting Emerson's body the meaning of manhood through a conscious appeal to the Divine. In the Venus tri-septile Neptune, the Neptune degree is universalizing the anima function (Venus), and in the Mars bi-septile Neptune, the Neptune degree is universalizing the drive of the Mars toward individual action and revolution, revealing that true independence is grounded in the World-Idea.

The July 25 session introduces quintiles as intermediate between septiles, which are concerned with the ordering of the predetermining factors of our thinking, and regular aspects, which are concerned with the ordering of the sensible—that is, quintiles have to do with the facility and ease with which the various psychic functions interrelate. Significantly, Emerson has only one quintile—Moon bi-quintile Pluto—which reveals one of his most characteristic traits: the will's eagerness to implement morality immediately. The Bulwer-Lytton comparison (born four hours from Emerson, lacking this quintile) provides an empirical confirmation.

The September class establishes three levels of meaning present in each degree (philosophic, psychic, and bodily) and correlates these with aspect types (septile, quintile, and regular aspects, respectively). Using 4° Leo as a degree found in the charts of Jung (Sun), Emerson (Moon), and Wagner (Jupiter), the class demonstrates how the first sentence of Jones’s interpretation of the degree reveals a philosophic level of meaning (a capacity to assert self and affect the world), the middle sentences describe a psychic process (a magical ordering of the automatisms), and the positive/negative keywords indicate bodily manifestation (the capacity for winning the esteem of men/ dependence on applause). Thus in Emerson’s Moon Jupiter septile, Emerson’s self-reliance (Jupiter) is expressed through the Moon, which manifests as an aggressive practicality in applying morality.

This triadic framework—aspects organizing subjectivity at bodily, psychic, and philosophic levels—provides an interpretive key for understanding how natal planets image not only the functioning of the psychosomatic organism but also traces of the rational soul and the intellection of the inerratic sphere within the ego structure itself.

Classes and documents available in this series