Chapter XX. A Comprenpium oF PLANETARY Positions AND ASPEcTs *（续 15）

PLANETARY POSITIONS AND ASPECTS: MERCURY 245

continuity, mental conservatism and mental energy are shown. New and unfamiliar modes of thought are apt to be rejected, misunderstood, or entirely overlooked simply because they are new; but if some relation to familiar methods is perceived they are slowly accepted and then very exhaustively examined and held. Some degree of mental dignity or pride is shown, some considerable appreciation of the sublime or the dramatic.

When this type is due to the close conjunction with the Sun, there is practically no danger of mental instability (unless congenital) and the mind remains active and powerful to extreme old age. When it arises from the position of Mercury in Leo, much depends upon aspect. At its best, the mind may exert much control over the body and influence it beneficially in illness.

8 and 2. This may be taken as a tendency on the part of the mind to combine with the emotions, to be influenced and modified by them, and to harmonise and co-ordinate them in its turn. It lends itself to a variety of uses of all degrees of superficiality or profundity, according to circumstances. Mental buoyancy and hopefulness are generally shown ; social qualities are called out and manifested ; and the mind has the power to adapt itself to other minds, whether in thelimits of family life, or in society, or the world at large. This blend of intellect and feeling may be taken as a type of what, when perfected, becomes the genius of the poet, musician, or artist. At its best, it means that the reason is responsive to impulses superior to reason, as in flashes of genius or the ecstatic vision of the seer. In ordinary humanity it shows companionability and sympathy. This combination lifts the mind higher than any other towards the heaven world.

% and). There is much less continuity and firmness than with the Sun, but more plasticity, variety, change and adaptability. The mind responds more readily to new ideas; mental habits are less firmly fixed and ingrained; there is a tendency to change opinions, perhaps several times during the life, or even to entertain apparently contradictory ones. Imagination and intuition are increased, also mental sympathy and receptivity.

Due allowance should be made for ‘minor’ aspects since they have not the same strength and power as the major aspects, which are the opposition, square, trine, and sextile.

Where necessary, it will be needful to make allowance for the contradictions that are sure to occur in the different planetary positions. If unable to blend these, reference should be made to The Art of Synthesis, which forms the succeeding volume of this series.

This ‘blending’ is really the most important as well as the most difficult part of the work of judging a nativity, and calls for natural ability as well as wide experience. But until the analytical judgment of the horoscope, the study of which this book is designed to facilitate, has been thoroughly mastered, any attempt at synthesis would be altogether unavailing. In all arts a thorough mastery of the means to be employed—of ‘colour values,’ as a painter would say—must be gained before any hope of success in achieving a good ‘ general effect’ can be entertained. And the synthesising of a horoscope is essentially an art.