Today, having created the instruments which made a new image of the universe possible, we have reached a stage at which we are in dire need of integrating the capacities which we have recently developed with the complementary faculties which we had to downgrade (and even reject) in order to concentrate on building our new powers of analysis, interpretation, and generalization. The direct results of the technology that enabled us to build instruments increasing a thousand-fold our perceptive capability, is compelling us to challenge the exclusive validity of the intellectual and social approach that made the creation of such instruments possible. The technology is an outstanding success, but the next generation might die from its relentless application unless it reconsiders and thoroughly revises the premises on which our Western civilization based its classical image of the universe and of man's relationship to this universe. The recent scientific discoveries have not yet actually erased this image from the collective consciousness of most people, including the great majority of political and religious leaders and educators.

This does not mean that we should return to an archaic and naively "vitalistic" picture of the universe; and, in astrology, to a locality-centered type of interpretation of the sky filled with hierarchies of gods. It does mean nevertheless that the breach between man and the universe has to be healed — for it was truly a "dis-ease," intended as it may have been to rouse us to a feverish pitch and force us to overcome the inertia of the old tribal forms of social existence. Communication must be reestablished between the universe and humanity.

This can only happen when we feel ourselves a functional part of the universe and no longer a stranger in it; when our experience of, first, life — then, consciousness, and intelligence is understood to be not merely a chance accident in a meaningless universe in which material masses speed aimlessly at inconceivable speeds, but a basic constituent of the cosmos. In this cosmos matter, life, mind, and a supermental substance-energy which we vaguely call spirit, are to be considered and (eventually) directly experienced as different "levels of organization" of reality. This multilevel reality pervades the whole of space and is active throughout infinite duration. It operates cyclically, because it is dual or bipolar in nature, and what we call and experience as existence results from the unceasing interplay of two cosmic forces — an interplay that produces a rhythmic sequence of cosmic manifestations in limited space-time fields of activity — which periodically return to a metacosmic state of infinite potentiality.

The essential metaphysical features of such a world-picture are not new, but the picture as a whole has to be radically reformulated, so that it may better answer the needs of a humanity having developed a new type of mind and of interpersonal relationship.

A new formulation implies new symbols, or more accurately a new level of symbolization; and it assuredly is not easy to reach a higher because more inclusive level of conceptualization and symbolization. Nevertheless, it should be done and the elements already are available, being provided by the new discoveries in nuclear physics and galactic astronomy. The problem, I repeat, is how to use these new elements without reducing them to conceptual patterns belonging to the intellectualistic and mechanistic level of classical astronomy. It is a problem of interpretation — interpretation on the basis of a new dimension of consciousness, giving a new character to all the basic realities of human existence. The word I have already used, interpenetration, seems to be the best available to define this character.

From the point of view of an astrology free from the ghost of even the most sophisticated and "scientific" type of fortune-telling, this new four-dimensional approach to existence and human consciousness can best be symbolized by referring to the Galaxy — just as the classical European type of approach could significantly be referred to the Copernican and Newtonian picture of the solar system. Thus I am speaking of a "galactic dimension of astrology." It can also introduce us to a "galactic" concept of society and humanity, according to which our spiral Galaxy symbolizes the slowly emerging "Universal Community of Man."

- Dane Rudhyar

The forgoing is exercpted from, Introduction to the Galactic Level of Consciousness, Chapter One of Rudhyar's book, The Sun is Also a star - The Galactic Dimension of Astrology.

Everyone is familiar with the image and meaning of a finger pointing towards the Moon. I think of the Mindfire website and astrology in general, as pointing a finger towards the Moon. Hopefully, a Full Moon - one providing much light and understanding!

Presently, I am working with individuals who feel they may have reached a point in their own "process" where a philosophical approach to astrology may be of help. It is surely not for everyone, but the relentless pressures of life (and death) in the 21st century leave many people in need of guidance. Feel free to contact me at the email below.

A short bio is available upon request.

- Leon Nar

mavinar@gmail.com