The Sabian Symbols - Gemini 1-15

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SCENE FIVE: DISCOVERY

Dane Rudhyar

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(Gemini 1° to Gemini 15°)

FIRST LEVEL: ACTIONAL

PHASE 61 (GEMINI 1°): A GLASS-BOTTOMED BOAT REVEALS UNDERSEA WONDERS.

KEYNOTE: The revelation of unconscious energies and submerged psychic structures.

Within the relative security of a "boat," an individual person can learn to be aware of the as yet hidden contents of man's collective Unconscious — provided this boat (that is to say, his ego that separates him from the collective planetary psyche of mankind) has been given a glass bottom. The conscious mind must have become, in part at least, translucent. This translucency is not direct openness. The window of the mind remains closed, but through it the individual can become aware of the outside — here "outside" means the psychic depths below the normal level of consciousness.

At this first stage of the "discovery" process one can only speak of vision, not identification. The feeling is one of wonder. "I did not know this could exist! How beautiful)" or "How exciting!" A NEW DIMENSION OF REALITY is perceived by the earnest inquirer.

PHASE 62 (GEMINI 2°): SANTA CLAUS FURTIVELY FILLING STOCKINGS HANGING IN FRONT OF THE FIREPLACE.

KEYNOTE: A rewarded faith in spiritual blessings.

The popular allegory refers to the spiritual blessings which come to the "pure in heart," whose consciousness is likened to that of a little child. Polarized by eager expectation and faith in the existence of celestial Powers, the pure consciousness as yet un-solidified by ego and rationalistic arguments experiences the concrete manifestation of what it had imagined. In this symbol, Santa Claus acts "furtively." The gifts from an imagined and intensely believed in spiritual world must not be examined closely or at length by the reasoning intellect. The would-be clairvoyant is told not to look straight and intently at what he begins to "see"; instead he should cast sideways glances at it, since the sharply focused mind would make the apparition vanish.

At this second stage of the thirteenth five-fold sequence we have once more a symbol in contrast to the one for the first stage. In order to discover the wonders of the normally unconscious depths of the collective psyche, the individual has to build the proper kind of vehicle (a glass-bottomed boat); but the reception of new blessings from the spiritual realm above (the superconscious) requires mostly faith and purity of heart, and a common type of understanding (stockings) — thus a state of INNOCENCE.

PHASE 63 (GEMINI 3°): THE GARDEN OF THE TUILERIES IN PARIS.

KEYNOTE: The formalization of collective ideals through the application of reason and order to newly discovered aspects of nature.

The gardens of the Tuileries and Versailles are typical representations of the classical spirit and its need for order and symmetry. The reign of the French king, Louis XIV, followed the Renaissance, which was filled with the excitement of a new spirit of discovery and a period of internal troubles. A reaction had to come to consolidate the gains made by the collective mind of European man. Such a consolidation usually leads to another extreme, i.e. formalism and often the narrow intellectual crystallization of dualistic concepts.

At this third stage of the thirteenth five-fold sequence of cyclic phases we see the contents of the first and second stages brought to the state of clear and lucid, but also formalized, conceptualization. The heavenly gift-bearing Santa Claus has become the paternalistic autocrat, king by "divine right." The warm family circle celebrating the birth of the Deliverer from wintry darkness is now the Court of the king ruled by rigid rituals. There is clarity, but there is also ego-centralization and the worship of FORMALISM.

PHASE 64 (GEMINI 4°): HOLLY AND MISTLETOE REAWAKEN OLD MEMORIES OF CHRISTMAS.

KEYNOTE: A longing for the pre-intellectual state of consciousness.

The intellect ruled by the ego has taken all that had been seen by the translucent mind (the "glass-bottomed boat") and has given it a logical, rational form. Yet old memories of childhood and its naive faith sometimes make their way into the consciousness. They are aroused by what remains of the ancestral images that once had great vitality and power (mistletoe was sacred to the Druids). The holly with its brilliant contrast of red and green recalls a more primitive and magical sense of color, as exemplified in Tibetan art. A nostalgia for more natural and feeling-oriented values tends to lead to a movement of protest — thus, to the intensification of the emotions in the individual personality, or to the Romantic Movement after the post-classical and post-rationalistic European period.

This is the fourth stage in the thirteenth series. It recalls the fourth stage in the eighth sequence (Phase 39, Taurus 9") symbolized by "a fully decorated Christmas tree." But the vivid experience of childhood now has become only an obsessive or nostalgic memory. It heralds a resurgence of deeper values and aspirations which had been forced back into the collective unconscious. What is stressed here is the value of tradition-based archetypes during the process of "discovery," a RETURN TO THE SOURCE. The contact with archetypes may nevertheless lead to explosive situations.

PHASE 65 (GEMINI 5°): A REVOLUTIONARY MAGAZINE ASKING FOR ACTION.

KEYNOTE: The explosive tendency of repressed feelings and root emotions.

Every movement overstressing one direction calls forth in time an equally extreme movement in the opposite direction. This is particularly true at the level of the dualistic mind symbolized in the zodiac by Gemini. What is rigidly bound in form and convention tends to explode into formlessness. It may do so violently if socially oppressed — through revolution — or at the psychological level in psychosis; or it may withdraw inwardly into the mystical state in which one identifies with an unformulatable Reality.

This fifth stage is related to the first, for it is the experience of a world of being so far unperceived by the everyday consciousness which starts the process. In the same sense a psychedelic experience may momentarily make the mind transparent to a non-ego-structured realm of consciousness, and may lead to a sustained attempt at understanding what has been revealed of a transcendent Reality. Whether the revolutionary action is violent or peaceful, bitterly resentful or loving, the one desire is TO REACH BEYOND ESTABLISHED FORMS.

SECOND LEVEL: EMOTIONAL/CULTURAL

PHASE 66 (GEMINI 6°): WORKMEN DRILLING FOR OIL.

KEYNOTE: The avidity for that knowledge which ensures wealth and power.

This symbol superficially considered can be referred to the insatiable drive of modern man for power and wealth, his readiness to accept the risk of failure. But it has a deeper meaning, especially if related to the next symbol. Oil is the end result of the decay of living materials. Drilling for oil may represent the attempt to penetrate to the deep layers of the collective Unconscious and to reawaken the powers of the archaic psyche which once flourished — for instance in the true ceremonial magic of the tribal world, perhaps among the adepts of the fabled Atlantis, or even among the shamans and witch doctors of more recent times. The archaic powers may be "refined" for modern situations, but the almost inevitable result is the release of noxious waste products, "pollution." And there is a pollution of consciousness as well as of the atmosphere man breathes.

The zodiacal sign Gemini has basically the meaning of insatiable curiosity and avidity for knowledge; it is logically a "human" sign (the Twins). One of the Twins tends to seek power and knowledge from the ancient past, the other to discover a living source of strength and wisdom which is forever being replenished by the celestial downpour of Spiritual Consciousness and love (cf. the next symbol). It is man's nature, alas, to begin with potentially negative emotions and desires.

This is the first stage of the fourteenth five-fold sequence of cyclic phases. It deals with the emotional and, at the present-day level of evolution, socially prized reaction of most human beings to the attainment of new forms of knowledge, i.e. AMBITION.

PHASE 67 (GEMINI 7°): A WELL WITH BUCKET AND ROPE UNDER THE SHADE OF MAJESTIC TREES.

KEYNOTE: Man's primordial faith in the hidden sustaining power of life.

In contrast with the ambitious drive of modern man for power and wealth we now have the image of the eternal search for that which is at the root of all living processes, i.e. water. This search also demands some effort — raising the water-filled bucket — but it is a simple natural effort under the shade of trees which attest to the presence of the life-giving fluid. This presence depends on the cooperation of sky (rain) and earth (the geological formation able to hold the water), and man must develop the intuitive sense which enables him to feel this presence and to make it effectual in his daily life. He must sense the hidden reality which preserves for the use of all living organisms this gift of the "sky," the bounteous rain.

At this second stage of the fourteenth five-fold sequence of symbols, the power of the collective and bio-spiritual energies which sustain all earth-rooted cultures is stressed, in contrast to whatever the technological mind of man can make available to increase his personal comfort and mastery over matter. The symbol implies A FUNDAMENTAL TRUST IN AND COOPERATION WITH LIFE.

PHASE 68 (GEMINI 8°): AROUSED STRIKERS SURROUND A FACTORY.

KEYNOTE: The disruptive power of the ambitious mind upon the organic wholeness of human relationship.

We are dealing in this sequence of symbols with man's discovery of the new powers residing in his special contribution to the total organism of this planet Earth — his consciousness and aggressive mind. The first stage (Phase 66) dealt with oil, the typical form of energy which the modern mind has made available. (These symbols were revealed before atomic energy was even thought of as a practical possibility.) Now we see in this new symbol a pictorial indication of what the use of this intellect-generated energy inevitably leads to: industrial unrest and violence. As man manages to rape the earth in order to demonstrate his power and intensify his pleasures and his sense of proud mastery, conflicts and disruptive processes are inevitably initiated.

The arousal is presented to us here in its collective social form because we have reached the emotional-cultural level. The type of power generated by the analytical intellectual faculties is essentially disruptive; it is based on the destruction of matter, and invites egocentric hoarding and spoliation — and, in general, privileges of one kind or another. This leads to a REVOLT AGAINST PRIVILEGES.

PHASE 69 (GEMINI 9°): A QUIVER FILLED WITH ARROWS.

KEYNOTE: Man's aggressive relationship to natural life, as a basis for survival and conquest.

The bow and arrows represent symbolically man's ability to extend the scope of his conquest of nature and to kill enemies in order to build a larger base for the collective development of a culture and an organized society. Implied in the symbol of the arrow is the piercing of a target. The mind of man is essentially a trans-piercing power; it goes through the object toward which it is aimed. It seeks to go through and beyond the obstacles on its path, and this usually implies the destruction of the obstacle. At a higher level — as in the Zen practice of archery — the obstacle is the ego.

At this fourth stage of the fourteenth five-fold sequence of phases in the cyclic process of human existence we are shown the archetypal symbol of Man, the Conqueror. It may be a conquest of outer nature, or that of instinctual drives and of the limiting power of the ego. It is always CONQUEST.

PHASE 70 (GEMINI 10°): AN AIRPLANE PERFORMING A NOSE DIVE.

KEYNOTE: A superior ability to challenge nature and play with danger.

Through the controlled use of mental powers man is able to challenge the most basic force in nature: gravitation. He enjoys playing with it as a lion tamer with his violent animals. But what he challenges is within himself as well as outside. Gravitation is the universal binding force of the material world. By challenging it man prepares himself to pierce beyond the physical and to reach higher realms of existence. He may lose the struggle, but that prospect makes the effort more exciting. He might gain "immortality."

This is the final stage of the fourteenth sequence. The symbol for it has a strong sense of finality. No possibility of half measures exist. Man is committed irrevocably to success or failure — at least as a conscious and self-reliant mind. The alternatives are clear-cut. One may describe it as MIND vs. MATTER, or as Man's will against the fate that gravitation so aptly symbolizes.

THIRD LEVEL: INDIVIDUAL/MENTAL

PHASE 71 (GEMINI 11°): NEWLY OPENED LANDS OFFER THE PIONEER NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR EXPERIENCE.

KEYNOTE: The power and joy of new beginnings.

These "newly opened lands" can refer to any as yet unexperienced field of potential activity at any level — material, emotional, mental or supermental. We are now dealing with the third level of experience, at which individuality — or at least the ego character — operates more definitely. While in the preceding phases much was said concerning the powers of the mind, this mind was essentially based on the collective patterns of a culture and a society. Now, at this third level, we find the human being essentially engaged in his personal and particular struggle for full and effective individualization. And the initial realization he has to experience is that he has reached a potentially virgin field of consciousness and activity. He is facing the unfamiliar. Anything could happen.

This is the first stage of the fifteenth five-fold sequence of symbols. Having conquered, at least to some extent, the collective and material energies of nature and society, man has become relatively "separate" from the past. He faces the future. Every step ahead should show him RISING TO THE OCCASION.

PHASE 72 (GEMINI 12°): A NEGRO GIRL FIGHTS FOR HER INDEPENDENCE IN THE CITY.

KEYNOTE: Liberation from the ghosts of the past.

While "newly opened lands" theoretically offer virgin fields for experience, in fact those men and women who reach them find themselves conditioned by their own past. They carry the ghosts of their former lives and the memories of collective social patterns with which they had identified their egos. Every new beginning is surrounded with ghosts (or personal and social karma). The racial struggle for equality of opportunity must go on, even if this equality is officially guaranteed by the Law. The struggle is within and takes many forms. The Puritans brought to the theoretically "New World" the fears, the fanaticism and the aggressiveness of their European existence, and these often grew more virulent under the conditions found in the New World. But no field of activity is ever totally "virgin." It has its inhabitants, and they cling to their possessions or privileges. Whoever seeks to be truly an individual must be liberated from the past.

Here at this second stage we have the usual contrasting type of symbol. The new lands are opened, but they are filled with lives, and the pioneer's mind filled with ghosts, preconceptions, and prejudices or expectations. What is needed is a total LIQUIDATION of the past; virgin minds for virgin fields.

PHASE 73 (GEMINI 13°): A FAMOUS PIANIST GIVING A CONCERT PERFORMANCE.

KEYNOTE: Individual fulfillment in the performing of a social function to which some prestige is attached.

Having entered upon the path of individualized experience that brings him in touch with broader or higher realms of superpersonal inspiration, the individual person is able to become himself a source of inspiration, an agent for Man and the formative Powers guiding human evolution. His role is to mobilize emotions, to present to others an image of what for most people is beyond their mediocre and lukewarm responses to the challenge of becoming "more-than-man" — to experience more intensely and to see farther. This is the role of the true and ideal "virtuoso" (vir meaning strength, manliness; thus "virtue") and, in a far-reaching sense, of the Avatar whose example fascinates human beings, leading them to leave behind their past and to venture forth into new realms of experience.

At this third stage we see the meanings of the two preceding symbols, synthesized. One moves into new realms and successfully challenges the fears, the insecurity and the lack of self-confidence of the past in oneself —- all negative attitudes which, while conditioned by the social environment, have become engraved upon the unconscious. Having achieved this liberation, one can bring to the environment the power generated by self-discipline, skill and self-confidence. One has become an at least potential SOURCE OF INSPIRATION.

PHASE 14 (GEMINI 14°): BRIDGING PHYSICAL SPACE AND SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS, TWO MEN COMMUNICATE TELEPATHICALLY.

KEYNOTE: The capacity to transcend the limitations of bodily existence.

In order to function in the world of material entities man needs to focus the energies of life in a limited organism and an ego-mind that is formed by the pressures of a particular culture and family background. Yet a time comes when the individual can still transcend the limiting boundaries of culture and ego. An effort should then be made to enter a realm of consciousness in which the communication from mind to mind can take a more direct form, because the minds then operate within the One Mind of humanity. It is then as if two cells in a human body were communicating to each other, perhaps through some kind of invisible nerve channels, or, as it were, from nucleus to nucleus by means of vibratory resonance. At this fourth stage of the five-fold sequence we see the potentiality of a new technique to be used in the "newly opened lands" confronting the pioneers in human evolution. It is a TECHNIQUE OF TRANSCENDENCE. It evidently can also bring confusion and many failures, as well as illusory claims and self-deceit.

PHASE 75 (GEMINI 15°): TWO DUTCH CHILDREN TALKING TO EACH OTHER, EXCHANGING THEIR KNOWLEDGE.

KEYNOTE: The need to clarify one's experiences through actual contacts with like-minded individuals.

This symbol adds something vital to the preceding one. Transcendent experiences and supernormal faculties must be tested and clarified through the use of normal and collectively tested means of communication — which may mean through scientific procedures. The "Dutch children" seem to have been introduced by the subconscious mind of the formulator of the symbol because of an association with neatness and the open spirit of discussion which has prevailed in Holland. They are "children" because the new experiences are still very fresh and require certification; this demands a "clean" and open mind eager to test what is experienced in an exchange of views with one's peers.

This is the last stage of the fifteenth five-fold sequence of symbols. It closes the scene of "Discovery." All discoveries must be checked and their validity tested. In old tribal cultures a man's "great dreams" were accepted as valid and acted upon only if another tribesman also had a similar dream. The need for OBJECTIVITY has to be met; and this implies the confirmation of any subjective realization by some similar experience. It implies also the type of dualism inherent in all mental experiences as well as in mental concepts.

An Astrological Mandala