Chapter V. The THree Centres. Sun, Moon, anp ASCENDANT

Tue THree Centres. Sun, Moon, anp ASCENDANT

REFERENCE has already been made to the importance of the Sun, Moon, and Ascendant, three centres representing three vital points not only in the body or outer man, but also in the character and inner man. They are equalising and balancing powers, which adjust the ebb and flow or contraction and expansion in every horoscope. They have also other correspondences in religious philosophy, but here we need not follow them at present: for this side of the subject the reader is referred to The ‘Reason Why’ in Astrology, by Mr H. S. Green, which forms No. VI. of the Shilling Series of Astrological Manuals.

- (1) The first of these centres is THE Sun, taken according to the zodiacal sign in which it was placed at birth. It represents the Individuality, or the soul of the man, divested of all outer ephemeral phases and moods. It corresponds in its highest interpretation to the very basis of the nature, the very sense of existence itself, upon which is. built up that idea of J am I which is the root of individuality. To the character it gives power, authority, dignity, will, resolution, self-reliance. In the body it corresponds to the heart and its associated blood-vessels. It is the source of all vital energy, no matter whether coming directly from the Sun or indirectly through the Moon or the Ascendant. It is the centre of the being, both in body and soul. It corresponds to the Fixed Signs. em Among the planets Mercury is the messenger of the Sun, transmitting its influence outwards. In the character Mercury therefore represents the mind, which is the first outer garment of the individuality. In the body, vital energy is transmitted along the nerves: and Mercury stands for the cerebro-spinal nervous system mainly, along with such

organs as the hands and tongue, which are concerned with the outward

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expression of intelligence. Two further degrees are seen in Venus and Mars. Mars represents an expanding force, rushing from the centre, awakening desire and the outgoing energies. It may be said to represent the will of the Sun definitely directed outwards; and this in the average undeveloped humanity is desire, a reaching forth after something attractive: but in the more developed and harmoniously balanced man it becomes will power, an enormous force when properly controlled and guided by intelligence and wisdom. Venus harmonises and balances, and gives the longing for harmony and balance. This shows outwardly as the love between the sexes, which in unbalanced and irregularly developed humanity is capable of many distortions; but in a higher degree of evolution will transcend sex completely and become universal love, pity, and sympathy—the keynote of the Saviours of the race. The most matter-of-fact influences attributed to Venus in the books may be interpreted in this way; for the love of pleasure is only the wish to remove discords; and a fondness for society and for all beautiful and attractive things that are sources of happiness, is but the same striving after harmony, though often mistaken and ill-judged in its methods. Venus thus acts as a kind of representative of the Sun; what the planet balances and harmonises (=) is gathered up and passed inward (8) to the solar centre, there to become a permanent possession of the soul, its own for all eternity. Venus thus not only stands for love, peace, and harmony, but even acquires a signification in connection with property, which is seen in its rulership of Taurus, the second zodiacal sign ; its other associated sign, Libra, representing harmony and balance.

(2) The second of the three centres is THE Moon, which has to be judged partly by the sign in which it is placed and partly by its distance from the Sun. The Moon signifies all things intermediate, and hence the Personality (which is the intermediary between the Ego and the physical earth of which it desires experience); the shifting and fluctuating personality in general, with its feelings emotions passions, pleasures and pains, and the life of the senses. In the body, it corresponds to all glandular structures and soft tissues, to the physiological life, to the power of growth, renewal, reproduction.

Looking upon the body as built up of materials obtained from all the sub-divisions of the physical plane, the Moon stands for the etheric double of the physical body, or that counterpart of the body which is built up of the ethers of the physical plane. This double it is that forms

a channel for the inflowing vital currents, signified by and derived from the first centre, the Sun; and this explains the part the Moon’plays in matters of health and the hyleg. The double is in close touch with the nervous system, the Moon’s influence over which is well-known astrologically, although it has probably a closer correspondence with the sympathetic than with the cerebro-spinal system. The Moon plays an important part in matters of mediumship, for the double represents the missing link between the living and the dead; we live in our physical material body, and the dead on the astral or psychic plane; and the double is a kind of link or bridge between the two. Just as the Moon never leaves the neighbourhood of the earth, so the double can never go far from the body; and its separation at all is to be deprecated; such separation is generally indicated by the prominence of the Moon, Saturn, and Neptune in a horoscope. The double has a mechanical activity of its own in sleep, as it is a kind of receiver for all sorts of telepathic thought-currents, which register themselves automatically in the brain of the sleeper and so disturb and confuse the true experiences that might otherwise come through from the soul. It has been found that remarkable dreams are most usually experienced when the Moon is rising, culminating, or setting; but sometimes Uranus or Neptune may be found in these positions.

The Moon corresponds in a general way to the mutable or intermediate signs, and may be regarded as a mean between the contraction of Saturn and the expansion of Jupiter, the two extremes already explained in Chapter III. The Moon lends itself to either of these influences. When in conjunction with Jupiter, there is the extreme of growth, fertility, and expansion, whether in terms of body, emotions, or mind; but the conjunction with Saturn, if taken alone, produces just the contrary effect, limiting the flow of the vital current in all three departments of the being. A good aspect from Saturn to the Moon, however, is of very great benefit; for the good aspects, as we have seen, signify harmony, and in this case Saturn, instead of merely limiting or suppressing, regulates and controls, and reduces that which is under its control to law and order.

(3) The third of the three centres is the Ascenpant. It gathers up the influences of the twelve mundane houses into one, and stands for the body in general and for the head and brain in particular as the controlling centre of the body. Mind cannot manifest itself on this plane without a

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physical vehicle, a brain and body; and even then it can only express what that vehicle allows it to express. There may be and often are important parts of the character that are shut out by limitations of the physical brain, and which consequently are never manifested. The brain does not make the mind, but it does limit and condition its manifestation. This vehicle, built up and handed on to the child by its parents, is represented by the twelve houses in general and the Ascendant in particular. It is the centre of inherited traits of character, inborn disposition, and parentally derived tendencies. The inner man has to take it as it is given him—for he does not fashion it for himself—and make the best use he can of it. The Ascendant thus stamps itself upon the man very distinctly. It can always be recognised very clearly in early life; but if the man breaks away from ancestral tendencies, developes self-reliance and the knowledge and power to mould his own future and to act for himself, the influence of this centre may be modified, may yield itself, so to speak, more and more, and become blended first with that of the Moon and afterwards with that of the Sun; if either luminary should be rising the ‘blend’ will be particularly strong.