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THE DIVINITY OF DIFFERENCE
"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself," confesses Henry Thoreau in Walden, "than be crowded on a velvet cushion." In his remark he gives voice to the dominantly recalcitrant spirit of man. This is the divinity in humankind, although people are inclined to see it with horns, or to repudiate it as satanic, whenever they encounter it too directly or with any end result in personal disadvantage. Everyone is well aware that his situation is framed in a milieu of circumstances, on the one hand the everyday reality charted, in astrology, by the equatorial houses and that his lot is determined for better or worse, on the other hand, by its roots in his character the more personal reality mapped in its initial facets by the triplicities, among the zodiacal groupings but he will kick over the traces at the slightest encouragement.
What this may cost him, in loss or inconvenience, does not matter much. It is a necessity of his existence. His wants, as an infant, have been entirely anticipated. As a child, a youth and an adult, he has learned that his desires must be other than those met in advance, to a varying degree, by agencies exterior to himself. To become and remain an individual he must sit upon a private pumpkin, at least part of the time. If he accepts any real definition of himself from life as a whole, without somehow giving it a twist in the process, he is apt to sink back into cosmic order. Then he will disappear as anything other than a clump of protoplasmic substance. He learns this by very hard experience.
The nature of an individual's self-realization, through his instinctive rebelliousness, is shown astrologically by the signs of the zodiac. These are the same ones which delineate the convenient interaction of simple character with the general matrix it integrates in connection with itself. The measurement is through a further zodiacal distinction, however, revealing the traits of human nature on a more dynamic level of functioning. Here is something quite aside from the relatively static aggregation of characteristics in the four psychological genera. The linking together of three signs in a triplicity, to map the alchemy of a native's self-refinement, shows the basic type of his experience in an entirely social sense. His potentials of recalcitrance make it possible for him to enter or leave any given situation in a far more organic fashion that is, in any one of several different ways and this possibility constitutes the dynamics of function.
In each of the threefold groupings of the zodiacal mansions there is one which is focal in the equinoctial or solstitial relationship, and in consequence there are four signs which thereby have a special correspondence with each other by this very different criterion. They chart function on the level of direct or immediate response, presenting the zodiac at its points of closest dependence upon the equator, and constitute the first of three QUADRATURES in astrological practice. They are somewhat analogous to the angular houses, and the other two quadratures have a similar correspondence to the succdent and cadent distinctions in the equator.(1)
(1)They are the qualities of the signs, in the technical language of horoscopy as the triplicity distinctions are the elements but there is a considerable tendency to use both words loosely, the former to indicate any special characteristics indicated by a zodiacal sign, and the latter to comprise the triplicities, the quadratures and the distinctions of angular, succedent and cadent houses in the equatorial circle.
Individual difference are important because they provide the variety upon which experience builds, or through which character becomes possible, not because of what any one of them may be in any absolute way. While it is true that a person of one sort may be handicapped over another in a given set of circumstances as a tall man in a low basement, or a little woman in a kitchen with high shelves these factors are of little ultimate importance. The lengthy gentleman can stoop. The diminutive lady may acquire a folding ladder, which in passing can be quite ornamental. What must be
understood is that conditions are never worse nor better than each other in any metaphysical sense, but are merely less or more useful, and that what they are, on their own account, is quite incidental in this connection. Thus the excellence of Jim Bolger's baseball arm was virtually meaningless.The origin of individual difference is in a deviation from a norm within a given complex of constants. The static factors in these human characteristics have their fundamental correspondence with the seasons or cyclic repetitions of experience which, in astrological symbolism, are charted through the triplicities. Hence the four zodiacal elements are of primary importance in horoscopic delineation, even above the circumstantial indication of the houses, because they reveal the special ground of total reality against which the highly self-willed personality is outlined. What the quadratures bring to the foreground of analysis, by contrast, is the wholly individualistic way in which the given person stands up to experience in being himself, or the level upon which he characteristically enters upon or leaves a particular milieu of relationship, as suggested. The cardinal, common and fixed groupings of the signs in their geometrical correspondence to the angular, cadent and succedent houses in that order reveal the fundamentally dynamic recalcitrance of temperament, through the rather simple distinction between those men and women who (1) find the things at hand most interesting, (2) approach experience in mutual act or response with other people, and (3) meet the issues of their existence by following their own inner leading.
THE AMBITIOUS TEMPERAMENT
Ambition has its disappointments to sour us,
but never the good fortune to satisfy us.BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, On True Happiness
The four CARDINAL or movable signs of the zodiac Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn are those established at the equinoctial and solstitial points, there giving definition in each case to one particular triplicity. Because of the consistently close relationship here with the house circle, these divisions of the ecliptic indicate the facets in character which are most fundamentally aligned with immediate and passing reality, or which have the simplest or most direct pattern in the organization of the self's normal functioning. This means self-assertion through a most practical and everyday interest, with the greatest possible balance of awareness or interaction between the inner integration of character and the outer alignment of the personality in a practical world. The native's dependence is upon the crises of life as the agencies by which he may best know himself, and so it is through these signs, in every horoscope, that characteristics tend to embody themselves in circumstances, and that the zodiacal distinctions are apt to lose themselves in the houses. Ambition is indicated as the effort of human nature to put itself on trial and thus gain a continual refinement in experience. Hence the cardinal mansions indicate an individual's most unconditioned reaction to simple situation. They give a special clue, in every chart, to any particular capacity and desire to work with the general potentials of growth and achievement. Also they, in all cases, are the functions which are emphasized by the organism as it does so.
The Cardinal-Sign people
The cardinal-sign people, or those whose astrological maps have a predominant emphasis in this quadrature, are the ones who quicken primarily to the definite, tangible and most immediate situations of objective experience. They like a position of prominence, and they ask to be excused from any particular responsibility in maintaining it. They are inclined to accept trouble, almost to enjoy difficulty, no matter to what degree they feel they must protest against their own circumstantial involvements. They are ambitious in the sense of wishing to become increasingly free to act without need for supervision on the part of anyone else. This is the one temperament best equipped to meet emergencies, and those who have it are inclined to invite upset, or even create turmoil, as their most obvious justification for being. They are at once superb in rising to a crisis, and vicious in stirring up inharmony of no value to anyone but themselves. Their prodigal energy furthers growth, and encourages progress as well as wrangling, but in their occasional over-fondness for excitement, their obsession with problems, these people defeat as well as accomplish their ends.
THE HUMANISTIC TEMPERAMENT
For I remember stopping by the way
To watch a Potter thumbing his wet Clay:
And with its all-obliterated Tongue
It murmured"Gently, Brother, gently, pray!"OMAH KHAYYAM, Rubaiyat (FITZGERALD)
The four COMMON or mutable signs of the zodiac Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces are those lying next to the cardinal ones clockwise, or those which, from the point of view established in the houses, back up to the equinoctial and solstitial points. They represent a direction of initiative in exact reverse to whatever seems the usual trend, and reveal the facets of character of basic recalcitrance which seek, primarily, to run counter to ordinary expectation. Here is self-assertion by reversal, contradiction and a curious form of positive negation (arising, in the geometrical symbolism, from the fact that individuality, in the swirl from its own center, here tends contrariwise to the counterclockwise twist natural, because of gravitation, in northern hemispheres). More than anything else the quadrature shows a fellow or proxy activity, since this direction of act cannot maintain itself. A consistent attempt is made, when it is emphasized, to delegate responsibility, to enlist others in whatever is essayed, and even to exploit people. It reveals, in every chart, the tendencies of self to lean upon particular good nature and upon mankind in general as well. In contrast with the frontal and ambitious attack on the potentials of life through the cardinal group, these mansions disclose the facets of any native's personal interest, such as his desire for the welfare of others, in addition to any determination that the efforts on their part shall be a contribution to his own well-being. Here the horoscope charts any effective self-mobilization for normal personal contacts.
This is commonness as the level of action where men most consistently and habitually collect the experience of their fellows into the fiber of self.
The Common-Sign PeopleThe common-sign people are described effectively as those whose interests are centered in direct and highly personal relations with others. They like the places in life which have been recommended to them, and they welcome situations which they know to possess a special merit. These natives are often obsessed with matters of personality. They seek unusually intimate relationships, although not necessarily covert ones, and they have a tendency to center all reality of the moment in some definite individual. They are inclined to view the world around them as activated by definite purpose or animus of one sort or another, and to believe themselves somehow concerned in everything that happens. The humanistic type is highly sensitive to group evaluation of any sort, and in consequence he carries the whole weight of his own being around with him, wherever he goes. Indeed, he will interrupt the process of almost anything until he can, so to speak, pile his own baggage aboard. He is the great joiner and follower in life, always desiring to be a definite part of things. Whereas the cardinal tendency is to recognize an issue, solve it, and then forget it, the common-sign mode of function is to make everything in life as personal as possible, and to keep experience in a state of flux, or pliability of the sort that calls for continued attention, as long as interest holds.
THE TENACIOUS TEMPERAMENT
Endure and persist,
this pain will turn to your good by and byOVID, Amores
The four FIXED or foundation signs of the zodiac Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius are those lying between the cardinal and common ones. Hence this is the one of the three groups with no touch, either at the cusp or other side of each segment, with the equinoctial or solstitial points. Its mansions reveal, most importantly, the greatest possible degree of social detachment in self-stirring or conscious self-activity. Any temperamental emphasis here, in its freedom from direct limitation by the equatorial circumstances, is the zodiacal generalization of true perspective, that is, a form of subjective function which is primarily self-consistent, and fundamentally concerned with ideas, values and norms as the materials for a creative sustainment of self. Here is man's ultimate divinity of difference in a simple capacity to learn from doing or from a resolution of outer to inner reality and so his gift for ordering his effective relations in life through a conscious and uninhibited judgment. The four signs are badly named when fixity is taken as implying superficial inertness. They are fixing or establishing, and so foundational or uncompromising. They indicate a depth of personal reference rather than any blind resistance to change. They show a width of realization, and a purposed rather than instinctive stubbornness. Thus these mansions reveal, in any horoscope, the degree to which the native may develop his interior approach to life, thereby quickening the self-confidence by which he is able to move to the greatest ultimate advantage in any given situation.
The Fixed-Sign People
The fixed sign people for the major part are absorbed in plans, projects, reasons, abstract evaluations and the general or over-all patterns of life. Consequently they are the most difficult of the three groups to understand or describe. The basic motives leading them to action are seldom obvious, and they do not willingly reveal these. Their life is far more internal then in the other two cases. So much of their reaction is subjective that it frequently goes unnoticed, even by themselves at the moment. Their stand on everyday or practical things is firm, and their presence in any situation is far from shrinking. Because their struggle in a persistent self-evolution is not always recognized by others on normal contact, they may appear lazy or dull, and therefore uninteresting. When not analyzed in the light of the ideas they hold, they may seem extraordinarily stubborn in a superficial way, but they are fundamentally open-minded because they are uninfluenced by other than their own judgments, and are able to change their point of view with complete opportunism when it pleases them to do so. Ultimately the most self-consistent of the three types, they are hardly ever understood, unless unusually articulate in some individual case. By contrast with the facility by which common-sign natives will take everyone into their own private universe on all occasions, the tenacious temperament finds mere people unimportant. Compared with the capacity of cardinal-sign individuals for rising to every issue, and for watching the world at large with a zealous interest, the fixed type is inclined to stand apart in a reality of its own and hence, perhaps unwittingly, seeming to be inhuman or unfeeling. These people do not bother to make many close ties, and they miss out on many an adventure, but they cling tightly to the selected few individuals or groups who become the embodiment of their ideas, and they usually find very concentrated and fascinating outlets for their talents.
Astrology, How and Why it Works
