The Moment of Interpretation

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THE MOMENT OF INTERPRETATION

Dane Rudhyar

Focalization in Time

The birth-chart, considered as the seed-pattern of of the human being just being born within the Earth-environment, is a focalized expression of the state of the universe in terms of this precise moment and location; this seed-pattern outlines the particular set of potentialities which should be actualized in the life of the individual person if environmental pressures at the socio-cultural level do not interfere. There is, however, another moment, or category of moments, in the life of this person which has or may have a profound significance. This is the moment when this person, either by himself or through the intermediary of an astrologer, becomes conscious of his birthchart and interprets it, or has it interpreted for him.

This "moment of interpretation" may be repeated any number of times. Yet, however often it recurs it has a definite character, the meaning and implications of which are usually not clearly understood. A person who, at this moment, has developed both a more or less individual consciousness, and personal needs, life-attitudes, expectations or complexes, comes face to face with his relationship to the universe. He faces this relationship at two levels: the "archetypal" level of his first moment of individualized existence what he potentially "is" and is meant to be as an individualized human being - and the "existential" level of his development as an evolving personality. This development in a specific geomorphic and social-cultural environment almost inevitably gives rise to various problems or at least questions. There may be internal problems of growth referring to the need to understand better his nature at the threshold of some decision-making or during a crisis; there may be more specifically problems of interpersonal relationships. But, in the broadest sense of the term, they are problems which somehow have intruded upon the consciousness and which therefore demand to be met and know what an astrologer could tell by studying one's birth-chart is the manifestation of a problem - a socio-cultural problem; i.e., how to evaluate the possibility that astrology might be a significant and valuable tool for man, and not a superstition.

Here, I would like to deal primarily with the case in which a person, who has but the most superficial knowledge of what astrology is about and who does not know at all his birth-chart, comes to an astrologer asking for a "reading." This evidently the most common situation and is much more sharply defined than the case in which a person painstakingly tries to calculate his birth-chart from textbooks and ephemerides and to interpret it. Thus, in the situation which I am now to discuss, a client in some phase of his personal development and presumably with some general or precise problems, comes to a professional astrologer. He gives him or her his birth-data; and let us take for granted that they are precise and accurate. What is implied in such a situation, and what is the astrologer's best way to approach it?

Again let me state that there are two factors to be considered: the birth-chart and the time at which the client has come. The birth-chart has to be seen and understood as a whole. It has form in space. It establishes a definite set of planetary relationships to which the "native" is oriented in a certain way (the four angles of the chart), and these should reveal, or at least suggest, an existential process according to which this birthpotential can most adequately be actualized. A process. At which stage of this process of unfoldment is the native, as he comes to have his chart read? This is a most important question. It is essential for the astrologer to find the answer as a basis for his interpretation. What the astrologer is to tell his client concerning the birthchart and the potentialities it reveals should depend on the stage of life-unfoldment of the native.

In broader terms, knowledge should be given to the knower in terms of his capacity to use it constructively. Knowledge has value only in relation to the knower. You cannot throw knowledge at a person's mind regardless of where this person stands in his development, and expect valid results. Knowledge can destroy as well as heal or illumine the personality - or a whole society. The timing of the giving of knowledge is all important.

This is undoubtedly an area of thought in which discrimination can be crucial. It is indeed a dangerous area socially speaking; but to ignore the problem can have much worse results than to give it a not completely wholesome or risky solution. One of the basic causes of our present world-chaos is Western man's refusal to meet such a problem in the area of science and technology. Any psychiatrist faces such an issue in dealing with his confused or disturbed patients; and so does the astrologer who is at all aware of his psychological or moral responsibility. Whoever gives knowledge is to some extent responsible for the use to which it is put, especially if the use is most readily predictable in view of the character of the person (or the collectivity) to which it is given and of the circumstances in which the disclosure is made.

The psychiatrist aware of the state of mind and feelings of his patient can, to some extent at least, foresee what will be the reaction of the patient to the interpretation of an important dream or of some characteristic form of behavior. The astrologer, who should be also a good psychologist, has moreover other means for evaluating the probable response of his client to his interpretation of the birth-chart. These means come under two headings, progressions and transits; and transits can be studied not only in relation to the client's birth-chart, but also in a special way related to "horary" astrology, that is, to the time of the consultation.

In other words, when a client enters an astrologer's office, or writes him for a written horoscope, this astrologer should always ask himself: Why did this person come to me at this particular stage in his life - what prompted him to want to have his chart interpreted - and how does he fit the particular character of this moment; i.e., is the relationship between the enquirer and the moment of enquiry.

*Another question would also be worth answering: "How are we related in terms of contacts between our birth-charts and am I fit at this moment to take on the responsibility of interpreting my client's chart?"

I feel that such questions are not only valid but that they must be answered in the mind of the astrologer, if not as a result of astrological calculations and through the erection of special charts, at least intuitively and in full realizaton of their importance. The astrologer does not deal only with the archetypal set of potentialities symbolized by the client's birth-chart, but as well with a feeling, thinking and perhaps anxious and disturbed person, possibly at a moment of crisis. He does not deal with a chart on paper, a mandala or formula; in front of him is a living person who needs an answer to his problem, even if the problem is only that of realizing why he is here - here on earth and here in the astrologer's office. This fact can never be too strongly emphasized to anyone ready to study and to practice astrology; and studying one's own birth-chart is to practice astrology upon oneself - and thus indirectly to affect all those to whom one is closely related.

What then is the astrologer to do? As soon as he has calculated the client's birth-chart, he should quickly establish - before saying anything to the client - at least the solar and lunar progressions, and become aware of any arc separating planets, the value of which would mea. sure up to the number of years of the client at the time. (I use the one degree per year symbolical measure.) He should place the main transiting planets outside of the chart, and see if the client is affected by particularly significant transits. All this should enable him to speak to the person consulting him as this person is on that day.

This is required for any truly humanistic and existential approach to the interpretation. The interpretation must be focused first of all on the "here and now" of the existential and strictly personal situation of the client. The astrologer is meeting the client at this particular moment; and the character of this moment is all-important. This is why some astrologers, following Evangeline Adams' example, cast an exact chart for the time and place of the consultation; and insert in this chart the natal planets of the client. The House positions of these planets in such a horary type of chart can be especially revealing. They may show how the basic individuality of the client (i.e., his natal planetary gestalt) fits into the cosmic situation of the moment, thus why the client - unconsciously to be sure - chose this moment to come to the interview. Perhaps the choice was made by the secretary of the astrologer or in terms of apparently fortuitous circumstances; yet nothing is fortuitous to the astrologer. It is the evolving relationship between the client and his universe which established, in some irrational yet, just the same, very significant way, the "moment of interpretation," that is, a confrontation between the growing, enquiring, curious or anxious individual and his fundamental "truth of being" (dharma) - his birth-chart.

This confrontation - except in the case of a student of astrology erecting his own birth-chart - is mediated by the astrologer. He (or she) is the intermediary between the universe and the man or woman whose birth focalized what the universe needed at that birth moment. Now, at the "moment of interpretation," the client is facing again the universe which speaks through the astrologer. The "birth-moment" occurred in unconsciousness; the "moment of interpretation occurs in consciousness. Astrology is indeed "the conscious way," to the realization of the basic "truth" of one's being as a particular person or, at least, this is what astrology should be. And it is indeed very distressing to see how deeply it has become estranged from its original and archetypal significance.

Of course, originally astrology did not deal with "individuals," for there were no really individualized persons in archaic tribes; but astrology dealt with the Earth, or let us say the environmentas-a-whole. The Earth and not an individual person was the microcosm. The Earth, or Nature as a whole, was fashioned by celestial Hierarchies and planetary gods; and this fashioning process was unceasing. The concept of a birth-chart must have come only at a somewhat later stage, when religious and state organizations had acquired a formal and stable power, and great events related to such organizations were singled out as memorable and endowed with an "individualized" significance.

Today astrology, in current practice, deals essentially with individualized organisms: individual persons or social "persons" (nations, business firms, etc); and its main purpose is to discover the fundamental character and destiny of these persons. Humanistic astrology, however, is basically concerned with individual human beings and their personal unfoldment and fulfillment; and in a very real sense it implies the relationship between three factors: the client, the astrologer and the patterns made by celestial bodies (i.e., the state of the universe). Astrological interpretation involves these three factors; for even if a person is asking his own chart for an answer to his questions, a certain part of his total being (his objective ego-consciousness) then acts as the astrologer.

The branch of astrology called "horary astrology" deals most specifically with the attempt to find a specific answer to a strictly defined and particular question - paralleling the type of practice consisting in throwing the I Ching sticks. But whenever a person asks from an astrologer help in making a decision, or in elucidating the meaning and trend of a particular situation, the same basic process takes place. At a certain moment of time a relationship is established between the client, the astrologer and the universe.

This moment is the 'moment of interpretation"; and its character differs from that of the "moment of birth." The birth-moment focused the universe into the structural pattern of the being of a human organism. The moment of interpretation focuses the relationship of the universe to the individual person in terms of the conscious meaning of his existence.

The distinction between these two moments may not be evident to many people, and they may dismiss it by saying that, of course the birth-chart is different from the progressions and transits. But the difference goes much deeper than technical means. The birth-chart is archetypal, the moment of interpretation deals with existential issues. Whoever interprets a birth-chart translates an archetypal Form into the concrete actuality of an existential situation, and the moment at which this "translation" (one could use the word, incarnation) occurs has a unique character. It is this unique character that the astrologer should intuitively sense.

If an astrologer should interpret the birthchart of a person in exactly the same way when the person comes to see him at age 20 and at age 50, then he fails in his function. He has not understood that the moment of interpretation relates him as he is now, to the client as he is now; and that the interpretation will be deeply of value only in terms of this moment in which he and his client come together.

This situation, of course, exists even more in the field of psychiatry, or of "counseling" in general. It exists in the relationship between guru and chela. All knowledge has value only in terms of the moment it is imparted by a particular person to another particular person. This is why I speak of a "person-centered" astrology. Everything in life should be person-centered, if one understands the real meaning of "the person" and not a superficially interpreted etymological meaning. Spirit deals only with persons, with unique cases and particular "nows." God incarnates only in individuals, for God is the One; and there can only be interaction between this One and a one - as the need of the moment requires.

Person Centered Astrology