Chapter III. WERE You BORN UNDER A LUCKY STAR?

HAVE you ever looked through a kaleidoscope at the patterns formed there by the many little pieces of varicolored glass, and noticed how the slightest disturbance of the position changes the pattern? Also, do you realize that it will be impossible, or almost so, to duplicate any pattern, no matter how much you were to turn; there is such a variety of effect. Similarly when you look into the heavens night after night you will notice changes among the planets, in fact such is the variety of changes that occur among them that it would be impossible to duplicate the position which they hold relatively to one another while you are reading, for almost twenty-six thousand years. Thus in the planetary kaleidoscope there is, we might say, an infinity of patterns. When we realize that human beings are entering the world constantly and that each being is stamped at the first complete breath with the planetary pattern then in the sky, everyone must necessarily be different from everybody else. Nor should this statement of the stellar influence create doubt when we consider that wireless waves of different lengths and different pitch sent out from a

tiny man-made contrivance can make themselves felt and register by mechanical operations involving expenditure of energy many thousands of miles from their source. The planetary vibrations from those great orbs in the heavens make themselves felt millions of miles as surely, as easily, and with equal certainty. We know that the angle of the solar ray determines whether it is winter or summer. We also know the effect of the Moon upon the waters, and it is within the experience of all that we feel more buoyant when the atmosphere is clear and dry than when it is moist and murky. And what determines these atmospheric conditions but the planets, the circling stars?

When we look up at this planetary kaleidoscope from time to time we see in the heavens various configurations which are pronounced lucky or unlucky according to whether they are formed between socalled benefics alone, such as Venus, Jupiter and the Sun, or planets said to be malefic such as Saturn, Mars or Uranus. When Jupiter and Venus are in close conjunction near the midheaven, it is a foregone conclusion that those who come into the world under this configuration will enjoy a measure of good fortune far above the average, and such persons would therefore be considered "lucky" in the extreme. On the other hand there are times when Saturn and Mars occupy the zenith position for souls that are born to suffer.

But why should one suffer and another be born

under a lucky star? Why do the stars give good fortune to one and misfortune to others, and if we are born to "luck," whether good or bad, what is the use or where is the incentive to individual effort? If there is a law of nature which is established beyond doubt it is surely the law of Cause and Effect. Every cause must produce an adequate effect and nothing which we see as an effect can be without a pre-existent cause. Moreover, if this is a universal law it must apply to the conditions of birth as well as to subsequent life. Following up this idea the next question is: If our birth under a lucky or unlucky star is the effect of some prior cause, what may that be, or where and how was that cause generated? To that there can be only one answer; that we must have made the causes in some previous existence which now result in our birth under a lucky or an unlucky star. Thus by induction a belief hi Astrology requires also a belief in a previous existence as well as in future lives, for while we are now reaping in our horoscopes the effects of our past lives we are also by our acts laying the foundations for a new horoscope which can only be worked out in a future life..

"How closely luck is linked to merit Does never to the fool occur; Had he the wise man's stone, I swear it, The stone had no philosopher,"

said Mephisto sarcastically in "Faust" and it is

true. If we are born under a lucky star it shows that we have earned the good fortune thereby Indicated, by forethought, kindness, and our other virtues expressed in previous lives, for we cannot have friends unless we are friendly ourselves. If we happen to have Saturn and Mars instead of Yenus and Jupiter near the zenith, it shows that in the past we ourselves have not been kindly and friendly or we could not now express the opposite traits. But this is just the point where the study of Astrology should help us. It shows our limitations for the present and it points out the obvious remedies and how to 'build for the future. Can the leopard change its skin1? No. Can the lion cease to prey? Absolutely impossible. Can the flower cease to bloom or the mineral to crystallize ? Certainly not ; because they are under laws which are unchangeable as the laws of the Medes and Persians. They have neither choice nor prerogative but must obey the dictates of the group spirit which guides them along their path of evolution. But in this respect we differ radically from those lower kingdoms, we have both choice and prerogative. We may do whatsoever we ivill and that is a factor which is never shown in the horoscope, a factor that may be made to play an all important role in every life. It is not enough to be born under a lucky star to have a lucky life, for the horoscope shows only the tendencies and the person who is so well endowed will without question have an abundance of opportunities to make his life fortunate in

the very highest degree. But only insofar as he exerts himself to grasp opportunity on the wing, will that which is foreshadowed in his horoscope come to pass. And similarily with the person who is afflicted by the conjunction of two malefics in the midheaven or anywhere else in the horoscope. By his will, and the exercise of choice, which are his divine birthrights, he may rule his stars and make of the unlucky horoscope a fruitful life from a far higher standpoint than the other. The bark that has been tossed by the tempest harbors a joy when the haven of safety is reached that is not equaled on the ship that has always sailed on smiling seas.

"Who never ate his bread in sorrow, Who never passed the midnight hours Weeping, waiting for the morrow, He knows not yet ye heavenly powers."

From the higher standpoint those who are living in the lap of luxury are to be pitied when their lucky stars give them all the good things of this world and cause them to forget that they are stewards and that the day is coming when their souls shall be required of them with an account of their stewardship. They shall then be forced to confess that they have failed to use the substance entrusted to them in the proper manner; while others under the strain and stress of life, expressed by the horoscopical squares and oppositions, have wrung from their unlucky stars a measure of victory.

What wonder then if the king's messengers, the circling stars, take from the unfaithful steward that which he had and give to the other, changing their adversity to prosperity in later lives. Thus the pendulum of luck and loss, success and failure changes through many lives till we learn to make our own "luck" by ruling our stars.

"A god can love without cessation, But under laws of alteration We mortals need, in changing measure, Our share of pain as well as pleasure."

And it is this necessity for change that is ministered unto us by the circling stars which form configurations that we call good or evil, though they are neither from a higher standpoint, for no matter how good the horoscope ; by progression of the stars evil configurations are sure to come and no matter how evil, there are always new opportunities for good given by aspects of the Sun, Venus and Jupiter to our planets at birth. All that we have to do is to grasp the opportunity, help our stars, that our stars may help us.

AMULETS, BIRTH-STONES AND PLANETARY COLORS

In the windows of jewelers, and in the cheap, ready made horoscopes one may often read that it is 'lucky' for people born in a certain month to wear a particular stone or color. It means business