Aletheia

ASTROLOGY IN THE NEW AEON

FOR THELEMITES
 CONTENTS

Introduction vii

I. Foundations 1
II. Our Daimon and Kundalini 24

m. The Three Fates, the Lot of Fortune and the Nodes 37

IV. The Tree of Life is Constantly Growing 52

V. The Twelve Houses and the Tree of Life 73

VI. Interpreting the Houses 83

VF. The Planets 101
VIII. The Mystery of Chiron, Ceres and the Asteroid Belt 108

IX. The First Four Houses and the Man ofEarth 112
X. Aspects 121
XI. Conclusion 126
Appendix 130

The Tree ofLife 135

Astrological Birth Chart 136
Personal Notes 137
 INTRODUCTION

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

-LiberALvel Legis, 1:40

"We arc boni at a given moment in a given place and like

vintage years of wine we bave the qualifies of the year and
of the season in which we arc bom. Astrology does not lay
claim to anything else."
-Cari Gustav Jung

How the mind can torture itself in its quest to under-

stand the travels of the soul from life, through death,
to life again. Tormented, the mystic asks: "What is the
purpose of it ail?", "Why was I born?", "From whence
have I come, and to where will I go when I have shed
my frail earthly form?" But the answers prove elusive.
Instead of certainty the mystic finds only spéculation
and surmise. Baffled, he struggles to recover memo-
ries of a life before birth, in the hopes that these might
shed light on what transpires after death.
Yet here again he is stymied, for like ail others who
move from one rebirth to the next, the mystic had first
to dally in the land of the dead. There he was forced
to slake his thirst from the River of Forgetfulness,
dissolving ail memories ofhis previous lives, before
viii Aletheia

lie was free to stumble blindly towards bis next in-

carnation.
This cleansing of their past goes unnoticed by
most people, however, something deep within the
mystic is left unsettled. He finds that bis thoughts
and dreams arc disturbed, as if by glimpses of some
long-forsaken ambition, a memory of which hovers
just unseen on the very edge ofhis vision. In truth,
the mystic did not draw as deeply from the River of
Forgetfulness as his less contemplative fellows, and
some distant memory goads him into joining that
age-old quest for meaning.
The ancient Greeks realized that active self-re-
flection was something intégral to understanding the
mysteries ofbirth, life and death which would allow
a person to find his appropriate place in the eternal
processes of the Gods.
"Life is shrouded in a mystery; this is the fun-
damental fact which confronts us. We live in a cave
with our backs to the light, and, as Plato said, our
knowledge is nothing more than the shadows which
play upon its walls."
The Greeks became preoccupied with this "Inner
Light" that cast shadows into our reality. They
summed up their quest for it with the axiom "Know

1. J. F. C. Fuller, The Secret Wisdom ofThe Qabalah (London:

Rider & Co.), p. xi.
 INTRODUCTION IX

Thyself (y (1) i oeamo ) inscribed on the Temple of

Apollo at Delphi. They believed that mankind could
never flilly comprehend or know the human spirit,
so this axiom actually suggests learning about and
controlling personal behavior in the here now so that
a person might rise to understand his or her Fate or
incarnation and in efFect, find unity with the Gods.
Similar délibérations on matters of birth, life,
death and reincarnation have taken place in most oth-
er societies and cultures. In India the ideas solidified
and became the Foundation upon which the varions
forms ofyoga are based. The Sanskrit word "yoga" is
derived from the root "yp/Mnch means "to control"
or "unité" and thus the word yoga is often translated
as simply meaning the "Art of Union."
Cari Gustav Jung (1875-1961), the founder of
modem analytical psychology, acknowledged the im-
portance of studying yoga but he also cautioned that
the practice may not be suitable for the western mind.
He believed the yogic tendency to seek spiritual tran-
scendence by ignoring the material side of the world
was misguided, and that the purpose of incarnation
was actually to gain a more intimate understanding
of existence. As he wrote:

"There are many différent kinds of yoga and

Europeans often become hypnotized by it, but it is
essentially Eastern, no European has the necessary
 X Aletheia

patience and it is not right for him ... The more we

study yoga, the more we realize how fa- it is from us;
a European can only imitate it and what he acquires
by this is of no real interest." '
Jung continued: "... in the course pf the centuries
the West will produce its own yoga." Although I am
not completely in accord with Jung's assessment that
Europeans have no "patience," and disagree with the
assertion that we get nothing of any "interest" ont
of doing this type of practice, he did make a valid
point when he proposed that a new approach to the
Art of Union is necessary for our Western archétype.
He seems to suggest that psychology could play that
rôle, but to me there is a difficulty here. In an echo of
yoga we find modem psychology preoccupied with
bringing the unconscious mind to conscious aware-
ness whilst either downplaying the rôle of the body
or treating it merely as a cumbersome appendage that
must be mastered. To me the core premise of Western
magick is that we incarnate into our body in order to
gain an experience, not transcend it, and that we must
examine the whole process equally. This holistic ap-

onu
2. Shamdasani (Editor), jize Psychology qfKundalini Yogqr
Notes 0J the Seminar Given in 1932 by C. G. Jung (Princeton-
Princeton University Press. Bollingen Sériés XCIX 1 1996) T n
XXX.
3. Ibid.
 INTRODUCTION xi
proach is surely far healthier than a fragmented one,
and it is indeed the direction in which psychology has
been creeping for some time.
Besides being a Jungian psychologist, Dane
Rudhyar (1895-1985) was one of the most thoughtM
practitioners of modem astrology. Reflecting on such
matters he observed that:
"Ancient Hindu yoga was based on this realiza-
tion of the meaning and power of the breath; and so
also, in another sense, was astrology. Astrology was
the means to relate the first moment of the individual-
ized freedom (the first breath) to the eternal cosmic
process. Astrology was therefore, and can be today, a
method to take the individual ont of his isolation and
to incorporate him in the eternal process."
It is my intention to ofifer a fresh approach to this
subject of Union, through the study of astrology.
As mortals we have been given dues as to how to
manipulate our lower ego so that we may surrender
self without losing the over-all ego, which is the driv-
ing factor we require to appreciate the experience
for which we incarnated. Astrology blends together
mind, body and our reality, revealing each as an in-
tégral part of the other and in so doing it underscores

4. Dane Rudhyar, Astrology and the Modem Psyché (Washington:

CRCS Publications, 1976), p. 32.
 Xll Aletheia

the relationship between what yoga refers to as the

Anja and the Muladhara Chakras; this being a con-
cept that Caïd Jung was starting to explore as far back
as 1932. This will be discussed later in the book.
At this point I should make clcar that this book is
not about predicting the future or consulting the stars
in order to see what the Gods might have in store for
us. To me the rigidity of traditional astrology does
not présent an individual with the possibility of self
discovery or growth whereby, to quote Jung, we eau
"acknowledge one's self for what one by nature is, in
contrast to that which one would like to be."'*
Still, this does not negate the bulk of what as-
trologers have written. Rather, I am simply trying to
infonn the wcary traveler, whose life is but a sojourn
in this strange land, that there arc many divergent
teachings which hold spécifie pièces to the puzzle of
self exploration. No single ait contains it ail; modem
astrology included.
We know that humanity unconsciously taps into
a vast collective unconscious or réservoir of ail the
knowledge and expériences of our species. This infor-
mation is disseminated and interpreted in a multitude
of ways; depending upon the philosophy, science,
culture, language, history, location and even climate

5. Ihid, pp. 17-18.

6. Ihid, p. 31.
 INTRODUCTION Xlll

ofthe particular people who are attempting to create

a foundation for their Gods and religions. Ironically,
irrespective of where they may be situated, most cul-
tures are saying the same thing, if from a différent
point-of-view. It is easy to déterminé that whilst in
one situation a particular belief might be twisted into
something négative by local circumstance, in a dif-
férent context the same problematic conviction will
be expounded with clarity and grâce.
Astrological teachings are also rooted in the col-
lective unconscious of humanity, and dépendent upon
the school of thought to which the astrologer adhères
and are also filled with the accmed contradictions of
centuries of interprétations.
It is not my intention either to question or to dé-
fend the beliefs of the ancient cultures that portrayed
the stars and planets as actual Gods who mled over
the various processes of Nature, as a mundane King
might mie over his subjects. My sympathies in that
regard are firmly with Aleister Crowley (1875-1947),
who—when pondering the possible influences of
the Gods on occult matters—observed: "It is im-
material whether these exist or not. By doing certain
things certain results will follow; students are most
earnestly warned against attributing objective reality
or philosophie validity to any ofthem."7 I believe

7. Aleister Crowley, Magick in Theory & Practice (NY: Castle

Books, ND), p. 375.
XIV Aletheia

strongly that this rule of thumb should be appbed not

only to magick but also to astrology, and suspect that
Jung, too, would concur.
Of course Jung clearly did not consider planetary
forces to be actual living entities. He wrote that: "As-
trology, like the collective unconscious with which
psychology is concemed, consists of symbobc con-
figurations: the planets are the gods, symbols of the
power ofthe unconscious." ''In other words, he saw
the Gods of ancient astrological mythologies repre-
senting influences behind archétypes originating in
our collective unconscious. To explain, Jung wrote:
"The collective unconscious appears to consist of
mythological motifs or primordial images, for which
reason the myths of ail nations are its real exponents.
In fact the whole of mythology could be taken as a
sort of projection of the collective unconscious. We
can see this most clearly if we look at the heavenly
constellations, whose originally chaotic forms are
organized through the projection of images. This

8. Variations of this quote are oflen cited in secondary literature

relating to Jung, although I have been unable to trace the origi-
nal source. The quote, as cited, appears in an article excerpted
ftom "AstroTherapy; An Outline of Theory & Practice," being
a chapter ftom the book titled Essays In Psychological Astrol-
ogy by Glenn Perry, Ph.D. (Online at http://www.aaperrv.com/
index.asp?pgid=20).
 INTRODUCTION XV

explains the influence of the stars as asserted by

astrologers. These influences are nothing but un-
conscious introspective perceptions of the collective
unconscious."
Even though the names might change and the
myths may differ slightly, Jung firmly believed that
the archetypal principles remained the same on ac-
count of their universality. In the course ofthis book
I plan to draw upon numerous ancient myths and
beliefs in the hope that some of might shed a light of
understanding on the foundations of the rather dif-
ficult topic ofastrology.
In their discussions of astrology members of the
scientific community often deride the art and deny
the possibility of a planet or other celestial object hav-
ing any affect upon the life-pattern of an individual.
Some astrologers on the other hand maintain that you
cannot scientifically analyze the invisible astral pull
which celestial objects have upon us because they are
too subtle. In this instance, the scientific community
is probably doser to the truth; the planets have little
or no influence upon us, although many astrologers,
not really knowing the fundamentals of their own art,
like to babble a seemingly un-provable defense.

9. C J. Jung, Letters; Volume II., Edited by G. Adler and A.

Jaffe: R.F.C. Hull, trans. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul
1976).
xvi Aletheia

To darify, let me remind the reader that, for ex-

ample, when a magician or Qabalist discusses, the
sphere of Geburah (mira) on the Tree of Life which is
ruled by the planet Mars, we tacitly acknowledge that
he is not referring to the actual planet in the Heavens
but rather the quality of Mars that is found within
ourselves. It is clcar from Cari Jung's théories on ar-
chétypes that he, too, grasped this concept firmly.
Aleister Crowley has given us a profound piece of
wisdom concerning the next step to the correct com-
préhension of astrology when he wrote: "A proper
understanding of the planets, and indeed of the
Universe itself, is only to be obtained by a knowledge
of the doctrine of correspondence between the micro-
cosm and the macrocosm." To appreciate what he
suggests we must return to one of the more unlikely
of sources, the ancient mystical tradition known as
Qabalah. One of its most well-known symbols is the
Otz Chiim (D,,nn yv), or the Tree of Life. It is iden-
tical to the Tree of "Knowledge" of both "Good &
Evil" and by eating its frait we can obtain Gnosis or
Hidden Knowledge of the Universe and, more impor-
tantly, ourselves. This symbol represents everything,
both above and below, both externally and internally.
In modem times it has become a very favorable filing

10. Aleister Crowley, Astrology Liber DXXXV1, edited and anno-

tated by Stephen Skinner (NY: Samuel Weiser. 1974), p. 51.
 INTRODUCTION

System for the expectations of magicians.

At first Judaic lore did not have a spécifie diagram
of the Tree of Life. Early Qabalistsplaced ail spiritual
référencés, like the ten spheres or Sephiroth (niTSD),
upon the hack-side image of a giant heavenly man
whom they referred to as Adam Kadmon. Originally
there were no paths uniting these "Spheres." This
hack-side image ofAdam Kadmon not only referred
to God, whose face was thought so powerful that no
mortal could hehold it and live, but was also the pri-
mordial man or the image behind the germ of ail cré-
ation. A second or identical image was drawn upon
the lesser Adam or the first human being created in
the image of God.
The ancient Greeks referred to these two concepts
in a more fluid undefined fashion as the microcosm
and macrocosm. The term macrocosm is from the
Greek phrase makros kosmos (Maicpo KÔopoç) or
"greater world." This can be read as referring to the
Tree ofLife as symbol ofour Universe, the Heavens
above and the entirety of God's Kingdom. It is the
objective universe and those things outside our body
and, in a sense, it is the primordial Adam. The word
microcosm is from the Greek mikros kosmos (Mucpo
Koofjoç) or "little world" which can be interpreted as
referring to the Tree of Life symbolically found in
each one ofus. This Tree not only reflects our mun-
xviii ALETHEIA

dane body and ail its functions but is also a map of

our human consciousness and spirituality. This is the
image of the lesser Adam.
Both Trees are identical or mirror images of
each other. It is said that God used the exact same
blueprint to create everything from the most exalted
to the most insignificant, and that to study any part
thereof on one Tree will reveal, simply by analogy,
an identical fundamental principle on the other Tree.
In other words, what is found on one Tree must be
found on the other and to know one Tree is to know
both; thus the fundamental principle of ail magick:
"As Above, So Below." Realizing this, astrologers
must stop refening to actual heavenly objects as the
source of influence rather than universal movements
that are a "reflection" of what is occumng internally
within our own Universe, or around our inner Sun.
Dane Rudhyar is of similar opinion, and further
comments:
"It is not that the planets 'influence' directly any
particular person by flashing a spécial kind of a ray
which will make the person happy or cause him to
break his leg. The cycles of the planets and their
relationship represent to man reality in an ordered
state and in référencé to the 'greater whole' which
we know as the solar system. Men are 'lesser wholes'
within this 'greater whole.' Men can only fmd peace
 INTRODUCTION xix

and lasting intégration as they relate themselves in

consciousness to the 'greater whole.'"
In other words; a true astrologer sees universal
movements and knowing that we were made in the
image of God, will understand that any and ail move-
ments of celestial objects are mimicked within our
subtle anatomy or psyché.
It is equally important to realize that even if you
are a lowly turtle fimctioning off the lowest Qabalistic
sphere of Malkuth (itdVd) or Earth (i.e. our human
body), the entire Tree of Life is still found within
your self and it must manifest "ail" of its qualities
in varying degrees every day in a continuai struggle
called Life. Yet arguably, as shown by our astrology
chart, not every part of the Tree can manifest through
this shell that we call the human body. Contrary to
what some magickal fratemities might bave you be-
lieve, everyone does not bave the same capabilities to
traverse the internai Tree sphere by sphere.
The importance of our Birth Chart is that it indi-
cates both our strong points and the pitfalls that await
us upon the Tree of Life. It shows us the first step
that is required in the voyage of self discovery and it
teaches us an important lesson as to the rôle our body

11. Dane Rudhyar, The Puise of Life. New Dynamics in Astrology

(Berkeley & London: Shambhala Publications, 1970), p. 19.
 Aletheia

plays in determining our life and our self-discoveries.

It reveals our potentials to us, but before exploring
these it is important to discover how the Birth Chart
correlates with the Tree ofLife. Once this is under-
stood it is easy to grasp the différences between your
own Tree and everyone else's. No two Trees are com-
pletely alike. Within the center of everyone's Tree
is Tiphereth, a sphere which mies the Sun. Around
this Star swirls our Solar System who's Laws are dis-
tinctly our own. How? Studyyour Birth Chart.
In this light I have named my book ALETHEIA
(a?Li] srct) after the Greek Goddess of Tnrth; the
daughter of Zens. Etymologically Aletheia's name is
derived from the Greek word alethus ( fXAJ| 0r| ç) which
means "tme" or"not concealing." The name Aletheia
signifies many things. For instance, the letter "A"
when added in front of a Greek word as a prefrx can
dénoté "not" or "non" while the next frve letters of her
name spell ont Lethe (A.f|0rj); Lethe being the name
of the mythological River of Forgetfulness which the
dead must pass before reincarnating. Greek schol-
ars have always acknowledged that Aletheia is the
Goddess who helps us undo the forgetfulness of Lethe;
which is why her name is often translates simply as
"remembering." She is often depicted as a beautiftrl
young virgin dressed in white but the ancients also
acknowledged that Tmth can be vety elusive. The
 INTRODUCTION xxi

Greeks believed that she hides in a Sacred Well, and

can be found if only one knows where to look.
This book is the distillation of a lifetime of reflec-
tion on a very complicated subject. Some may see
it as provocative in that unlike many "conventional"
works on astrology it présupposés an acceptance of
reincarnation; that is that our Spirits are engaged in a
continuing cycle of birth, life and death as they move
from one incarnation to the next in order to gain the
expériences they need. We are ail wandering heirs to
a lost inheritance and our astrological Birth Chart can
give us dues as to why we incarnated in our présent
forms. This book is designed to help you find and
interpret those dues.
It is not, however, a book that will spell every-
thing ont for you. While it should serve as a guide, it
also requires your own effort and input. To this end
the volume has been made deliberately small, so that
it can be readily to hand for quick and easy reference.
I hope that it serves you well.

Love is the law, love under will.

- Liber AL vel Legis, 1:57

J. Edward Cornélius
 I
FOUNDATIONS

THE original theory behind the art of astrology begins

with a premise: everyone's Spirit réincarnâtes into a
body at a spécifie time and place, and if the heavens
could be frozen at the exact moment and location of
birth it would be apparent that they arc unique to that
person and that the time of his or her birth was not a
mere coincidence but a synchronicity of objects which,
if understood, reveal a great deal about that particular
individual. In early times the idea of a spirit being
reborn again and again played a much greater rôle
in society than it does today. In fact, during the first
five hundred years after the death of Christ rc incarna-
tion was a well-respected pari of Christian faith but
around 550 AD this behef, along with that of astrology
itself, fell ont of favor with Christianity. Those who
disagreed with the Church's new viewpoint soon
found themselves labeled heretics. Then, after a few
hundred more years, Christians become accustomed
to accepting as truc that they had but one life to live,
and that when this was over they were destined either
to Heaven or a Hell. This belief greatly influenced the
way in which people interpreted the ait of astrology
as it slowly reemerged back into society during the
Middle Ages.
i
2 ALETHEIA

Greek astrological thought had a great influence on

early Christian beliefs on reincarnation. In Book 8 of bis
Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers Diogenes
Laërtius (c. 3rl Century) states that "Pythagoras was
reported to have been the first of the Greeks to teach
the doctrine that the spirit passing through the "circle
of necessity" was bound at varions times to varions
living bodies." Pythagoras died in 572 bc. The Greek
philosopher Plato (427 bc-347 bc) would later discuss
the "circle of necessity" and reincarnation in bis classic
work The Republic. There he referred to the heavens
as a giant spindle of eight "whorls" or rings; the outer
ofwhich was believed to be that ofthe "Fixed Stars,"
followed by Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus,
the Sun and finally the Moon.
Plato used bis understanding of cosmology and as-
tronomy to create the concept of a heavenly "spindle"
as a means of explaining how known celestial bodies
revolved around the Earth or the central hub. Plato
termed this image "The Spindle of Necessity." It is
named after Ananke (A ayKrj), the ancient Goddess
of Necessity. She was born of no parents, self-formed,
having existed since the very beginning of time. Her
outstretched arms encompassed the breadth of the
entire universe. It was on her knees that the giant
spindle rested.
 FOUNDATIONS 3

Ananke was the mate ofthe God Chronos (Time)

and like him, she is said to be serpentine, twisting her
snake-like body around the whole of création. She
had three daughters or Fates who sit upon Thrones
and oversee each "Thread of Life" or new incarna-
tion which their mother spins. They watch on as
their mother turns the wheels to and fro, aligning the
planets perfectly to fit our new incarnation. It was
believed that these Fates then eut the thread at the
précisé moment in "time" when we are ready to be
born, which stops the spindle. Examining the spindle
gives us our Birth Chart of the heavens; which is little
more than a personal road map of where we came
from, where we're going and of our stops in-between.
The Greeks referred to this as our Lot in Life.
The term "zodiac" is most likely derived from the
Greek phrase zodiakos kyklos or ^roôtaKÔç kdkLoç
which means a "circle of animais." This might seem
confusing since classical astrology clearly portrays
some signs like Aquarius, Libra, Virgo and Gemini,
in human form. However, modem man tends to for-
get that human beings are also animais. Be that as it
may the Greek word for animais (zodiakos) in Latin
became zodiacus which in turn became the English
word "zodiac."
One's birth map of the zodiac is properly known
as a "horoscope." This is essentially nothing more
4 ALETHEIA

than a scientifically determined chart that records the

location of astronomical objects within certain con-
stellations at the moment of your birth. It is calculated
by a mathematical process rather than the cléments of
chance or divination. The word "horoscope" itself is
derived from the Latin word Horoscopus which orig-
inated from the Greek djpooKOTtoç which ifbroken
down gives us cbpa which can mean either "season,
time of day or hour" and okotcoç which dénotes an
"observer." Thus Horoscopus literally implies an
"observer of the time" of one's birth; being one single
moment frozen in time.
Our Horoscope or birth cart is almost always
drawn in a circular fashion similar to a mandala, a
Sanskrit word which is loosely translated as a "cir-
cle." It is important to understand the significance of
both images. Marie-Louise van Franz once wrote that
a mandala "represents an ultimate oneness of inner
and outer reality," suggesting that it is a model for
the organizational unity of both the microcosm and
the macrocosm." Meditating on the sacred space of
a mandala we corne to realize that, as with our Birth
Charts, the mandala is a cosmic diagram meant to jog
our memories of our relationship with the Universe,

12. Marie-Louise van Franz, On Divination and Synchronicity,

The Psychology of Meaningful Chance (Canada: Inner City
Books, 1980), p. 98.
 FOUNDATIONS 5

that which extends both beyond us, as well as that

which is within our bodies and our minds. Cari Jung
clearly understood this and repeatedly identified the
image of a mandala as representing our unconscious
or hidden self that is reminiscent of one's Birth
Chart.
The art and science known as "astrology" is that
of learning to interpret the influences that these as-
tronomical objects have on one another in order to
understand a life so chosen. The word is derived
from the Greek Astron (datpo ) or "star"; and Logos
( koyoç) "Word" which implies that astrology is the
spécifie teachings ofthe "Word ofthe Stars." In an-
cient times astronomy and astrology were not consid-
ered as separate arts. Only when astronomy emerged
as a "scientific" study of astronomical objects did it
begin distancing itself from that which it saw as mere
spéculation of the same phenomena but, in truth, both
methods consist of collecting data through observa-
tion and then formulating a hypothesis.
In the course of this exploration of the art of as-
trology I will often make reference to the works of
Aleister Edward Crowley. In 1898, at the âge of23,
Crowley joined the magickal fraternity in London
known as The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn;
and took the magickal motto of Perdurabo—"IShall
Endure." He studied and practicedcérémonial magick
6 ALETHEIA

and astrology ail his life; the press dubbed him the
"wickedest man in the world" but lie preferred his own
titles of the "Master Therion, the Great Beast 666."
There is no certainty as to who instigated the
process, but in 1916 Crowley began "ghost-writing"
some works for Evangeline Adams on the subject of
astrology. Evangeline Adams (1868-1932), was one
of the best known astrologers of her day. Her work
went on to become a foundation stone for many
modem astrologers, yet few outside Thelemic circles
realize that her well-known texts, Astrology, Your
Place In The Sun (1927) and Astrology, Your Place
Among The Stars (1930), were for the most part writ-
ten by Aleister Crowley.
One of Crowley's most brilliant studies of astrol-
ogy appears in Adams' first book Astrology, Your
Place In The Sun. The essay is titled "Free Will
13
Versus Destiny." In this essay Crowley utters three
13. Evangeline Adams. Astrology, Your Place In The Sun
(London: Frederick Muller Ltd.. 1971). p. 335 et seq.
Interestingly the critical édition of the Adams/Crowley
work edited by Hymenaeus Beta. The General Principles
of Astrology by Aleister Crowley with Evangeline Adams
(Boston/York Beach; Weiser Books 2002) omits the essay
"Free Will Versus Destiny" on the grounds that it is not by
Aleister Crowley. In a section entitled "Omitted Material" it
is stated — "Also omitted is a brief essay on fate and free will
which first appeared in Sun, and is much more représentative
of "Adams' Philosophy (as she termed it) than Crowley's
 FOUNDATIONS 7
classic words; "Character is Destiny." These words
were originally written by Heraclitus (535-475 bc) in
ancient Greece—"EthosAnthropoi Daimon" (H oç
A poiTtCO Aaipo) ). Scholars have spent centuries
trying to perfect a translation of the phrase, which
is most frequently given as; "Man's Character is his
Fate." In other words; who we are is predetermined
by the type of character in which we chose to incar-
nate.
Yet I must point ont; astrology clearly informs
us that our travels in this body are not carved in
stone; nor are they delegated by Fate and the stars.
We have "Free Will" and if you fail to understand
this principle then astrology will make little sense. In
this respect Crowley further explains, "It should be

Thelema" (p. 553). I do not agree with this assumption.

Although little seems to have been recorded conceming
Adams' early éducation, we do know that she left her "sec-
retarialjob" to ptirstte astrology flill time and seems tmlikely
to have had anywhere near the breadth of knowledge of
the Cambridge-educated Aleister Crowley. The author of
"Free Will Versus Destiny" quotes the Greek philosopher
Fleraclitus; then the poem "Invictus" by the British poet
William Flenley (1849-1903), William Shakespeare's Julius
Caesar, Charles Fleischer's "Essay on Fluman Nature," and
even John Dryden's (1631-1700) classic poem "Tyrannick
Love." Surely of the two individuals, Crowley was the one
most likely to have been familiar with these sources, and is
therefore the author of the piece.
8 ALETHEIA

cleaiiy understood that the stars only indicate what

will come to pass if intelligence and Free Will are
not used to change the natural course ofevents." In
other words; our astrological Birth Chart offers us a
glimpse at the foundation stones of our incarnation
or the basic character on which our life is to be built.
We eau look at our chart and see our body type, our
health, ail our potentials for family, friends, wealth
and our capabilities to succeed and even our limita-
tions. However, as Crowley cicarly states in the same
paper: "... how far we shah develop the désirable
traits and overcome those which arc undesirable,
dépends upon the exercise of Free Will."
Author and mystic Manly Palmer Hall (1901-
1990) elaborated upon this theme when he wrote,
"Philosophically speaking, that man who does not
rule himself is ruled by fate, even as a ship without a
helmsman is at the mercy of the se a. Put simply, if
you walk up to a soaring cliff andjump you'll plum-
met downward to your doom, but up to the moment
when you leaped you still had free choice. After
you've jumped we eau assume it to be your Fate; or
as Manly Palmer Hall puts it—"Free-will leaves off

14. Evangeline Adams. Op. Cit, p. 337.

15. Manly Palmer Hall. The Story ofAstrology, (Philadelphia:
David McKay, 1943), p. 114.
 FOUNDATIONS 9

where foolishness begins." We must Icarn to con-

trol the circumstances of our daily activities or we'II
simply go with the "flow" of the astrological energies
at every given moment; whether they arc good or bad
for us.
Free Will is the foremost reason why astrology is
a difficult science to pin-point. If you get five people
who were bom on the same day, even the same time
and place, they can be as différent as night and day
depending upon which persons arc still pawns to the
powers that be; or metaphorically which ones arc still
slaves in contrast to those who exercise Free Will. This
détermination is based on the foundation that we were
given by différent circumstances at birth. Knowing
this, do scientists care to study astrology correctly?
No. Most would rather point out one spécifie incident
of an astrologer's recklessness as an example of fraud
for the entirety of the science rather than using their
skills to analyze the ait properly. Crowley makes a
very keen observation when he writes:

"'Astrologers sometime make mistakes. From this

feet, which even they are scarccly sufficiently brazen
to dispute, it follows with mathematical certainty
that astrology is not a science but a sham, a quackery
and a fraud. Contrast its shameful uncertainty with

!6. Manly Palmer Hall. Op. Cil. p. 115.

10 ALETHEIA

medicine, where no doctor ever lost a patient; with

law where no lawyer ever lost a case, or even with
17
arms. where no soldier ever lost a battle!"
Yes, we ail make mistakes, but some people arc
decidedly less forgiving of others doing the same.
Early Greek philosophers understood this folly
because one of the most important questions that
preoccupied them was whether humans arc endowed
with Free Will, or arc instead subject to a preordained
order of events in each new incarnation. Most be-
lieved that the answer was woven around what we
term Fate, an obligatory decree given to us by God
that prédéterminés the course of our life; the guiding
rules of which are depicted in our Birth Chart. But
the ideas behind Fate should not be seen as an expia-
nation of why certain things happen, or if something
happened, or why it had to be. Instead this decree of
Fate, which in the modem "magickal" sense is called
our True Will, is merely the underlying reason behind
the desired experience of an incarnation. However,
fulfilling this mandatory pronouncement, like the
ideas behind Fate itself, is not something carvcd into
stone.
The ancients recognized this problem and at-
tempted to influence their guardian spirits through a

17. Aleister Crowley, Astrology. Liber DXXXVI, Op. Cit., p.

xvii.
 FOUNDATIONS 11

sériés of rites and sacrifices in their Temples in order

for these spirits to help them fiilfiU their destiny. They
also believed that we had free choice to pick and
choose whether or not to perform the rites, or even
to do them well or poorly. This was the paradox of
Fate or destiny. On the one hand life was said to be
predetermined. On the other hand, by our own feeble
actions, we could clearly influence our incarnation to
either occur as planned, or curse ourselves for ail eter-
nity for the blunders we invoked through free choice.
Greek philosophers believed that the Gods them-
selves realized this dilemma. Plato wrote about this
subject in "The Myth of Er," which concludes his
book The Republic. The story begins with a warrior
named Er, who had died in battle. Ten days after his
death, when ail the bodies were being collected, Er's
body was found unaffected by decay and later he
actually awoke on his funeral-pyre. He then recounts
the saga ofhis journey through the afterlife and what
he had seen in the other world.
In the course of a complex story, he recounts that
while in the land of the dead he observed Spirits
choosing their next incarnation. After making their
choice they marched through the land of the dead
m a scorching beat to the plain of Forgetfulness,
which was a barren waste destitute of trees and
verdure. Towards evening they made camp by the
12 ALETHEIA

River of Lethe, which literally means the River of

Forgetfulness. In the story some of the Spirits felt
compelled to satisfy their thirst more than others and
the more they drank, the deeper they slept and it was
in this slumber that they forgot their divine héritage.
In the middle of the night there was a great thun-
derstorm and a mighty earthquake, and in an instant
the sleeping Spirits were driven upwards to their birth,
like shooting stars. The Gods also knew that once a
Spirit had attached itself to a new body it would be-
come difficult, if not impossible, for it to remember
why it had chosen a particular Fate let alone to fulfill
its given decree or True Will. As Plato wrote, "... we
arc imprisoned in the body, as in an oyster-shell," and
once so confined, the waters of Lethe indiscriminately
wash clean "ail" memories.
To alleviate this dilemma of forgetfulness the
Gods gave ail mankind two priceless gifts. According
to Plato the first gift is that our Spirit was allowed a
leisurely preview of "samples of lives," referred to
as "lots." In a modem sense the term "lot" can best
be understood by the phrase "it is your lot in life" as
if Fate or luck made it so. The Latin word for "Lot"
is Sors which is also the name for the Roman God of
Luck. The Greeks believed that every possible type

18. Plato. Symposium and Phaedrus (NY: Dover Publications.

1993), p. 65.
 FOUNDATIONS 13
of life was offered to the Spirit and it had to look over
these samples and déterminé which life, or "calling,"
might best, make it able to learn and discern between
good and evil. In other words, it was believed that re-
incarnation was meant to temper our Ego-personality
in an Alchemical fumace in order to bring our Soul to
a greater realization of good through ail expériences,
19
including evil: "anima inter bona et mala si ta."
This idea evolved into a far more intricate System
in later neo-Platonist thought. Instead of the Spirit
merely reviewing a multitude of pre-determined lives,
it actually took the responsibility of preparing a suit-
able foundation at birth which would enable it to un-
20
consciously live the decree of the Gods. The Greeks
believed that the Spirit had to select everything from
19. "Anima inter bona et mata sita" that is "Soul placed be-
tween good and evil." Cari Jung. Mysterium Coniunctionis
(Princeton: Princeton University Press. Bollingen Sériés,
Volume 14. 1977), p. 6.
20. Another myth to consider is that found in The Tibetan Book
oflhe Dead, whose actual title is "The Great Liberation upon
Hearing in the Intermediate State or Bardo Thodol." Many
believe this work is that of the legendary Padma Sambhava
who lived in the 8th century A.D. In brief; the book acts as a
guide for the dead in the underworld. In the third stage known
as Sid-Pa Bardo the spirit observes hundreds of couples
copulating whom it is to consider as future parents. The soul
is counseled to choose a "womb" which will optimize its
chances to fulfillits desired experience in a new incarnation.
14 ALETHEIA

basics such as its sex, race and nationality, through

to the type of schooling and religion that would best
suit its purpose. It also chose the détails of its family
and early life: whether or not it would bave siblings,
whether it would be born into wealth or poverty, or
into a loving or cruel environment. Everything, from
the most to the least important détail, was predeter-
mined. Crucially, the Spirit also picked the type of
parents that it would need, in accordance with their
Personal astrological influences or Birth Charts, as
these would play a major rôle in shaping its personal-
ity prior to puberty. When it reached this time of life it
was believed that, to borrow a phrase from Crowley,
the Spirit was to be given the free choice to "Do what
thou wilt."
Once the Spirit had reviewed its previous incarna-
tion. and had also chosen a desired "lot" that would
enable it to leam from past mistakes while gaining
insights from new experience, it was then able to Se-
lect the perfect time and location on Earth that would
best make it ail possible. Put differently: the Spirit
was ready to choose its Birth Chart. Then, even if it
drank gluttonously from the River of Forgetfulness,
the dues to its new incarnation would never be lost
due to the fact that they were recorded in the Stars.
At this point the Spirit is brought before the first
of three Fates to receive the Second Gift. These Fates
 FOUN DATIONS 15
are known as the Moirae (Moipai) or "apportion-
ers" and they control the "Thread of Life" which
was spun by their mother, the Goddess Necessity.
The first fate is the white-robed Lachesis (Aâ^sotç)
which means "allotter" or "she who is the drawer of
lots." After looking over the life or lot that we have
chosen, Lachesis took hold of the inner and outer
wheels (from the Stars to the Moon) of the Spindle
of Necessity, first with one hand and then with the
other and spun them to reveal the appropriate Birth
Chart. Reviewing the Birth Chart in the Spindle
she then présents a Second Gift, because the Gods,
who initially gave us our True Will in the form of a
mandatory decree, admittedly do not have the time to
interfère in our affairs in order to help us fulfillit.
This Second Gift is called the daimon (ôarpov)
and it is akin to a personal "guardian spirit." It is
what some religions call the Holy Guardian Ange 1. It
was considered neither human nor divine; almost el-
emental in form. In regards to each individual, Plato
informs us that this entity was to be "a guardian of
their lives and the fulfïller ofthe choice;" the choice
21
being the incarnation so chosen. One of the earli-
est mentions of the daimon is found in The Golden
Verses of Pythagoras. These verses are the central
part of Pythagoras' life which he preached at Croton.
ZI. Plato, The Repubhc (NY'. Charles Scribner, 1928), p. 425.
 ALETHEIA

Although there are numerous translations, consider

this popular version of one verse—"Father Zens, O
free them ail from sufTerings so great, or show unto
22
each the daimon, who is their guide." The philoso-
pher Epictetus (55ad-135ad) élucidâtes this topic
flirther in his Dissertations, where he observes that;
"Zens lias placed by every man a guardian, every
man a daimon, to whom he has committed the care
of the mapy a guardian who never sleeps, is never
deceived."
There are dozens upon dozens of référencés to
this entity in ancient Greek literature, yet as simple as
the above descriptions might sound, the etymology
of the word "daimon" is uncertain and its meaning
has changed and evolved over a thousand years from
simply denoting any invisible deity, to being used to
refer to a variety of différent types of spirits. Thus
it was originally a generic term of reference for any
entity within the "middle région" (Metaxu), which
actually translates as a bridge, or an intermediate
realm. The actual location of this région has always
been hotly debated but, in tmth, it is neither our
conscious world of perceptions nor is it the deep

22. Phil Meade, "On The Daemon," in Theandros, an Onhne

Journal of Oithodox Christian Theohgy and Phihsophy,
Vol.l No.3 Spring 2004.
23. Ibid.
 FOUNDATIONS 17

internai Spiritual realm of which we are oblivious; it

lies "somewhere" between the two. It is said that the
daimon functions within this realm in order to act as
an intermediary between the Gods and mankind. It
is everyone's internai voice, the tenuous something
which chatters inside our head, which does not ap-
pear to anyone else, but only to the thinker himself.
Although the daimon can be malefic, it is not neces-
sarily so, nor is it essentially a wicked or an evil inhu-
man entity. In truth, the daimon is considered neutral.
It is neither maie, nor female but both at the same
time; pure energy, it is the seed of Ail possibilities.
Lachesis had summoned a daimon in order for it
to assume the responsibility in helping the Spirit to
understand and accomplish the type of incarnation
which it had selected. Whether or not such a calling
or life was to be bathed in a reality "good or bad" is
immaterial to the daimon. The daimon's job is simply
to bring our Spirit to the accomplishment of its True
Will, meaning the type of "experience" that it had
chosen prior to birth. In doing this, it should give us
the ability to leam and discem between good and
evil.
The philosopher Socrates (470 bc-399 bc) admit-
ted to having such guidance in a form of a voice
which often whispered to him "no" when he was
about to commit some folly. To further appreciate
18 ALETHEIA

the function of a daimon, consider that Plato wrote in

The Symposium that the daimon communicates to the
Gods the prayers ofhumans, and reveals to humans
the commands of the Gods. Plato further adds that
daimons are:
.the envoys and interpreters that ply between
heaven and carth. flying upward with our worship
and our prayers, and descending with the heavenly
answers and commandments, and since they arc be-
tween the two estâtes they weld both sides together
and merge them into one great whole. They form the
médium of the prophétie arts, of the priestly rites of
sacrifice, initiation, and incantation, of divination
and of sorcery, for the divine will not mingle directly
with the human, and it is only through the médiation
of the spirit world that man can have any intercourse,
whether waking or sleeping, with the gods. And the
man who is versed in such matters is said to have
spiritual powers, as opposed to the mechanical pow-
ers of the man who is expert in the more mundane
arts."24
Astrologically, the origin and nature of our dai-
mon is determined by the "Sun behind our Sun"
or the central star in the constellation that we have

24. Roger Lipsey. Have you been to Delphi?, Taies oflhe Ancient
Oracle for Modem Minds (Ithaca. State University of New
York Press, 2001), p. 57.
 FOUNDATIONS 19
chosen to be born under. In other words, Lachesis
summons our guardian spirit from our chosen Zodiac
sign and then brings it through the Sun in our own
Solar System downward into our bodies. Because of
this Lachesis is the Fate which is said to rule the Sun
in our Birth Chart.
Neo-Platonist philosophers like lamblichus (245
AD -325 AD) later defined the daimon as an Augoeides
(AuyosiSeç). The word is a combination of two Greek
words; auge, meaning a bright light and eidos, which
implies the light of a given Star- has taken form or
shape. The Greeks described the Augoeides as be-
ing celestial light clothed in the essential form of its
host. Originally it was believed that this entity never
entered into the human body but remained nearby
on a spiritual plane in order to shed its "radiance"
as a guide for the inner man. However, the concept
evolved into the belief that the Augoeides not only
takes on the essential form of our own mortal body
but it is so attached to us, or wrapped around our body
like a suit of clothes, that it is forced to mimic our
every movement while whispering in our ears. This
is why the daimon requires a symbiotic relationship
with our Zodiac birth sign in order for it not to be in
conflict with our chosen incarnation.
Once we arc given a daimon it, in turn, leads our
Spirit to the second and youngest of the three Fates
20 ALETHEIA

known as Klotho (KXco do). Her name means "spin-

ner." It is she who reviews our astrological Birth
Chart and is in charge of "ratifying the destiny of
each" individual. However, I must again remind
you, the précisé actions of our incarnation are never
carved in stone; only the fact that we have chosen
a "spécifie incarnation" or life linked to a particular
Birth Chart, and according to Klotho it is now ours
to flilfill and no one else's. She is the Fate who mies
the Moon in our Birth Chart. This orb has no light of
its own but reflects that of the Sun; or the incarnation
that we have chosen. In other words, Klotho créâtes
a foundation in which our Spirit shall perceive the
world and she calls this foundation our Soul.
The concepts of both Spirit and Soul have become
entwined throughout the centuries and it is often dif-
ficult to distinguish the rôle of each but if we take
away ail the religions clutter the two aspects become
relatively easy to understand. Our Soul is the lowest
quality—tethered to the human body — of that divine
spark known as the "Spirit." In other words, both are
rooted deep within; they are one and the same and
inséparable.
The terms can, in theory, be interchangeable,
however, they can also function differently and thus
the confusion. The word Spirit cornes from the Latin

25. Plato, llie Republic, Op. Cit., p. 425.

 FOUNDATIONS 21

word spiritus which means breath, symbolic of the

vital principle within ail living beings. The Spirit is
pure and beyond définition. The Soul, on the other
hand, is the conscious or animating force of our Spirit
which utilizes the human body in order to gain an
experience through incarnation and it is also our
unconsciousness, our dream world and ail other
areas where the fine line of reality is not so clearly
defined. In many respects we can say that our Soul is
the "point-of-view" of our Spirit rather than an actual
independent quality; it is merely the tool of "percep-
tion" which allows the Spirit to be reflective of its
surroundings in order to function.
According to the ancient Greeks, it is possible to
lose our Soul through the exercise of our free will;
thereby losing our way and meaning that we are no
longer able partake of the expériences that we had
chosen as necessary for our incarnation.
At last the Spirit is brought before Atropos
(AxpoTtoç), whose name literally means "inexorable,
inévitable or unturning." She is the final and oldest
ofthe Fates. It is she who, with her left hand touch-
ing and guiding the inner ones or wheels (the Moon
and our Earth) of the spindle, "seals" our Life's
calling, making it absolute and irréversible. Atropos
is the Fate who rules the Rising Sign in our Birth
Chart as if to imply that at the moment of birth with
22 ALETHEIA

our first breath, there is no going back. The Rising

Sign is linked forever to how people see us and for
this reason it is often called the "Gateway to our
Personality." Atropos is also linked to mortality be-
cause everything that is bom must follow the course
of the Sun through birth, life and inevitably death. It
is Atropos who not only chooses the manner of our
death but when. She does this by looking over the
thread of life or incarnation that we have chosen and
cutting it at an appropriate length with "her abhorred
shears" thus giving us our horoscope which in theory
is the sum total of our incarnation from beginning to
end.
It is extremely important to understand the legacy
of this mythology regarding the Fates. It not only
explains our Birth Chart but it also plays an impor-
tant rôle in understanding modem magickal theory in
regards to our Spirit's travels through birth, life and
death. For instance; we know that our Sun—which is
central in our Birth Chart—is said to portray the hu-
man Spirit as it follows a course laid out from morning
to midnight; birth to death. Most religious adorations
to the Sun begin in the morning facing east toward
the rising Sun as if to imply birth. With the second
adoration one faces south at noon, at the zénith of the
Sun's life. The third adoration is performed toward
the west at Sunset, as if to imply death as the Sun sets
 FOUNDATIONS 23
beneath the horizon. The final adoration always oc-
curs at midnight facing the north which is said to be
the realm of the dead. In many ways the travels of the
Sun mimic Er's journey into the afterlife and what
lie sees there. In the myth, while in the land of the
dead (North), Er is brought to Lachesis (residing in
the East) who teaches him "what lias been" and helps
him chose a new Birth. After that lie is then brought
before Klotho (in the South) who shows him "what
is" and ratifies the Life so chosen and finally, in com-
pleting the cycle, Er is then brought before Atropos
(West) who unfolds "what shall be" while also repre-
senting our Death. We can say that Er's journey in the
afterlife is paît of our collective unconscious, which
is also known as a réservoir of the expériences of our
species, in that this myth, like those told around the
world, forces us to reflect upon our past, présent and
future while teaching us the process of birth, life and
death and inevitably rebirth. Since Er did not drink
of the River of Forgetfulness, the myth continues to
survive.
 n
OUR DAIMON AND KUNDALINI

THE belief that we ai-e given a guardian spirit who as-

sists us in discerning between good and evil is found
in many cultures throughout the world. Whether it is
a psychic élément within each individual, an aspect
of our libido that acts as a binding and animating fac-
tor between body and Spirit, or an actual independent
and objective entity, is a debate that will probably
never be adequately resolved; although magicians
tend to believe that it is a little of each.
In India the guardian spirit has often been equated
with Kundalini, which is essentially energy, although
it is frequently presented as an actual internai and
independent Goddess (Devi) or Sakti. Kundalini
is a Sanskrit word literally meaning "that which is
coiled." She is féminine, and is portrayed in painting
and drawings as a Serpent coiled three times, biting
her own tail as she sleeps at the base of our spine.
Each coil is called a Guna or "tendency" which refers
to the positive, négative or neutral qualifies found in
every single particle of nature. The highest coil refers
to a neutral quality known as Sattva, or purity, and
literally implies existence. This coil equates with the
Fate Lachesis and a spiritual person whom is known
as an sâttvika individual, like the Sun itself, has the
24
 OUR DAIMON AND KUNDALINI 25

desire to work unselfishly toward the welfare and

growth of humanity above Self by giving its Light
freely into the world.
The middle coil is the "tendency" known as Rajas,
which is a "positive" fiery, active force. It détails the
Foundation of our outer life as "we" sec it or desire it
to be, often devoid of others. This coil is ruled by the
Fate Klotho. It refers to our Life so chosen as seen
by others.
The lowest coil is Tamas which is energy that is
often perceived as being "négative," promoting inac-
tivity, a death-like quality of inertia. It is the heavi-
est, slowest, and dullest of ail types of energy and
because of this quality it can be likened to the Fate
Atropos who binds our Spirit into our body. At this
juncture it is relevant to make the point that in ancient
Greece the human body was considered a tomb that
could easily ensnare our Soul if we were not careful.
Within the spine there is a subtle, invisible chan-
nel known as a Nadv, which translates as a "tube"
but more usefully can be described as a "flow" of
energy rather than the object wherein the energy
flows. Nadis are found throughout our body. The
most important is called the Sushumna. It lies within
our spinal column. The Serpent Kundalini is said to
remain dormant at the base of this channel until she is
awakened, and then slowly moves upward. Along the
26 ALETHEIA

way she embraces subtle centers known as Chakras,

a word which translates as a "Wheel," and is broadly
similar to the Judaic beliefs of the Sephiroth (JTlTDD)
on the Tree of Life.
The lowest Chakra of seven is known as the
Muladhara or Root Chakra. It is said to be located at
the base of the spine in the vicinity of the coccygeal
plexus beneath the sacrum. The "lotus" or flower of
this Chakra has four blood-red petals and within the
center of the petals is a yellow square. Metaphorically
the "division of four" refers to many things; like the
four elemental forces of air (Vayu), fire (Tejas), water
(Apas) and earth (Prithivi); earth being the most dy-
namic within this particular Chakra.
The petals also represent four psychological states
ofgreatjoy which correspond to the bliss ofrealizing
Godhood in our physical body; the Qabalistic Union
with Kether (iro). This is the 181 sphere on the Tree of
Life often referred to as the Crown. The actual nature
of these four spiritual states varies dépendent upon
the school ofthought, but most agree that the higher
states referto spiritual longing, the next psychic long-
ing, then physical longing and finally, the longing for
spiritual libération. On the lowest level, when a per-
son flmctions solely ont of the 10lh sphere known as
Malkuth (JTlZJbû) or in his or her body, the four states
refer to their survival instincts and their ability to
 OUR DA1MON AND KUNDAL1N1 27

fonction in the immédiate physical or earthly world.

Here then the four petals relate to our personality and
body, our possessions, our communication with oth-
ers, and our home life and immédiate environment.
Within the sacred yellow square or four-petal
lotus of the Muladhara is a "Hidden Sun" which
is often depicted as an inverted red triangle with
an éléphant in the center. This alludes to the belief
that the Chakra is the subtle abode or doorway for
the elephant-headed God Ganesha, the son of Lord
Shiva. Like Kundalini, when Ganesha moves he is
known as the Lord of Beginnings, he is the Initiator,
or one who begins.
The inverted Red Triangle is also a sacred symbol
found within the Second Degree of Aleister Crowley's
Ordo Templi Orientis but prior to obtaining this degree
a candidate must first undergo two primary initiations;
Minerval (0°) and First Degree (1°). Minerval initia-
tion is named aller the Roman Goddess ofWisdom
or Minerva. The initiation occurs in the 2"' Qabalistic
sphere on the Tree of Life called Chokmah (nDDn);
which means Wisdom. In this initiation, according
to Aleister Crowley, both the Muladhara Chakra and
Anja are activated simultaneously in order to préparé
our Spirit to descend into the Flesh. Cari Jung made
reference to the "interchange" of these two chakras in
his musings on Kundalini yoga as far back as 1932.
28 ALETHEIA

In Tantric teachings our Spirit is not that hard to

understand. It is referred to as the Goddess Sakti. In
a Qabalistic sense She is a "féminine" quality in ail
ofus which lies above the Abyss on the Tree ofLife.
As She incarnates downward She créâtes différent
states; the first being Vishudha (Spirit), the second
Anahata (Air), then Manipura (Pire), Svadhisthana
(Water) and finally ... "When Sakti has entered the
last and grossest Tattva ("Earth")—that is, solid
matter—there is nothing flirther for Her to do. Her
creativity then ceases, and She rests. She rests in Her
last émanation, the "earth" principle. She coils and
sleeps. She in now Kundalini-Sakti, whose abode in
the human body is the Earth centre or Muladhara-
Cakra." Often you'll read in Tantric writings that
above, in the Infinity before création, Sakti split
Herself into "two states" which are often referred
to as "mind and body." The mind remains above
the Abyss (in the Anja) while the body inevitably
becomes at rest in Malkuth/Yesod. This is the reason
why the Minerval initiation of o.t.o. activâtes these
two states, or Chakras: the Anja and the Muladhara.
The Qabalistic sphere of Chokmah (ncnn) also
rules the sphere of 'Fixed Stars' while Malkuth
(niDba) along withYesod (TiD"1) mies our body and the

26. Arthur Avalon [Sir John Woodroffe] The Serpent Power (NY:
Dover Publications, 1974), p. 41.
 OUR DAIMON AND KUNDALINI 19

foundation that we've chosen for our incarnation. It is

within the Minerval initiation that the unborn choos-
es his or lier next incarnation, having been given a
"Word" from the initiator depicting this new Life (i.e.
Sun). A Minerval initiale originally spent nine months
in this degree before taking another initiation. The
time spent is symbolic of the Spirit marching through
"the land ofthe dead." Then, in préparation for First
Degree which occurs in Binah ("PD), a candidate
symbolically encamps "by the River ofLethe which
literally means the River of Forgetfulness." In the ac-
tual initiation rites of First Degree o.t.o. the River of
Lethe, like the four-sided square depicted in glyphs
of the Muladhara, is symbolized by a Sacred Well.
This Well also represents the human womb through
which a candidate is prepared for birth and through
which he or she is born into the world.
The Muladhara Chakra is identified with the 9"
Qabalistic sphere known as Yesod (TID1). This is the
Dark Mother, or the Moon on the Tree of Life. While
the Sun's significance with our Spirit is well known,
the Moon's importance with our Soul is rarely un-
derstood. The Moon represents the nine months of
gestation which it takes for a child to form within its
mother's womb.
Within the First Degree initiation rites of o.t.o. a
candidate is taken around a Sacred Well three times
30 ALETHEIA

in what is called the "travels of the Moon." Each of

these three stages is symbolic of one of the three coils
of the serpent Kundalini.
Initially the candidate, like Er, starts off in the
land of the dead in the North, and then approaches
the initiator (i.e. Saladin) who sits in the East. The
initiator tells the candidate, "This is the pathway to
27
the Knowledge ofThyself. Be true toward thyself."
The candidate is then taken three times around the
Well. After completion the initiator infonns the can-
didate that the next travels arc called "the Pathway
to the Perfection ofThyself. Conquer thyself." The
candidate is then taken three more times around the
Sacred Well. After the completion of these travels the
candidate is again hrought hefore the initiator who
infonns him or her that the final three circles arc
"the Pathway to the Truth. Seek Beauty. In Beauty is
eternal Truth revealed." The initiator then sends the
candidate on the final three travels around the Sacred
Well. Upon completion of the nine moons (3x3)
or nine months of gestation, the candidate is then
placed within the Sacred Well with a noose around

27. [Aleister Crowley. Theodor Reuss. et al], The Secret Rituals

of The O.T.O, Edited and Introduced by Francis King (NY:
Samuel Weiser. 1973). p. 59.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
 OUR DAIMON AND KUNDALINI 31
their neck; symbolic ofan umbilical cord. But most
candidates drink too heartily from the sacred waters
of forgetflilness within the Sacred Well and few if
any know how to look forAletheia, or Truth. Most,
thinking themselves now a First Degree initiale, will
ignore the lessons of the Minerval in order to focus
on where they now stand and hence the "forgetflil-
ness" ofTruth begins.
One is also reminded of the primeval Goddess
Ananke (A rryKi]); who is saidto be serpentine, twist-
ing her snake-like body around the whole of création
as her three daughters or Fates; Lachesis, Klotho and
Atropos sit upon Thrones (coils). Each of these Fates
oversee a "Thread of Life" which their mother spins
for the Soul's new incarnation while it is walking
around the Sacred Well. Symbolically on the Tree of
Life our Spirit begins by entering through the Sun and
it descends downward through the Middle Pillar. It is
Lachesis who rules our Sun Sign. In Qabalah the Sun
is ruled by the sphere known as Tiphereth (mxan)
the 6'' Sephiroth which means Beauty and here we
must inevitably learn to seek the Laws of our Star for
in Beauty is eternal Truth revealed. Klotho rules our
Moon sign, Qabalistically ruled by the sphere known
as Yesod (TD1), the 9" Sephiroth. Klotho rules the
pathway of Perfection where we must learn to con-
quer or put under control our outer personality (i.e.
32 ALETHEIA

ego) in order to fuit il I our desired experience. The

third fate Atropos mies the Rising Sign or birth onto
Malkuth (nij n), the 10th Sephiroth and She brings us
Knowledge if only we have ears to listen in order to
"be trae to ourselves" as to why we are incarnating;
this being our True Will.
There are many misconceptions about the
Kundalini; the most common of which is that she
always sleeps and that only a spiritual person can
awaken lier. In trath, the Kundalini stirs daily, mov-
ing serpentine up and down the spine as she assists
us in embracing our Chakras or Sephiroth; which can
either be a positive or négative experience. She awak-
ens irrespective of whether a person is spiritual or
not; for the Serpent, also known as "Enlightenment,"
wakes daily seeking to snare its prey. In many re-
spects Kundalini is not so much a part of us as She is
an entity reminiscent of that which the Greeks called
our daimon; She is a pure elemental force given to
us by the Gods to assist us in our incarnation and our
spiritual growth.
As an objective entity She will leave us upon death
and go back to lier birth Star. When studying the
Qabalah there are similar views about the activation
of the Sephiroth. It teaches us that in order to fonction
daily we require spécifie types of energy which each
sphere contains, but rarely is the experience more
 OUR DAIMON AND KUNDALINI 33
than "fleeting" as the energy quickly moves from one
sphere to another. However, the Qabalah reveals that
every now and then, due to a great spiritual or emo-
tional upheaval in our lives, and often in deep moods
of self reflection, "Enlightenment" strikes and we
obtain an epiphany, or dare we say that the Serpent
has bitten its prey in a spécifie Chakra.
Magicians attempt to fully utilize each sphere
consciously in quest of this Enlightenment. This is
often difficult and can take years of practice but there
is grave danger in doing this without proper training.
If the Kundalini is incorrectly "forced" into a given
Chakra without a proper foundation, physical or
mental disabilities can easily afflict an individual and
often the feeble-minded will be plagued by manie and
psychotic épisodes as the pendulum swings from one
extreme to another. It is not uncommon to find such
individuals suffering from periods of great dation or
bliss to extreme anxiety and fear; often hallucinatory
bordering on schizophrcnia. Let's look at a simple
analogy. If y our psychic system were similar to twen-
ty-two gauge wire, how much current could you draw
before the wires burned out? Could it draw 100 amps?
Of course not; a burnout would be inévitable. Without
carcful training through magick, yoga, or similar
methods, most psychic Systems will be ill prepared
for any influx or surge ofpure "life current."
34 ALETHEIA

George Arundale (1878-1945), the English the-

osophist and once président of the Theosophical
Society wrote, "The path of occultism, it is said, is
strewn with wrecks. I venture to think that the path
of the arousing of kundalini, even if only in the first
stages, is strewn with even more wrecks." Caïd
Jung would agree. In his Introduction to The Tibetan
Book of the Dead he writes, "One often hears and
reads about the dangers ofYoga, particularly ofthe
ill-reputed Kundalini Yoga. The deliberately induced
psychotic state, which in certain unstable individuals
might easily lead to a real psychosis, is a danger that
needs to be taken very seriously indeed. These things
really arc dangerous and ought not to be meddled
with in our typically Western way. It is a meddling
with Fate, which strikes at the very roots ofhuman
existence and can let loose a flood of sufferings of
which no sane person ever dreamed."1
The problems occur when forcing the arousal of
the Kundalini because of the possibility that some
Chakras may have blockages which can hamper the
flow of energy if ignored. The results arc much like

30. G. S. Arundale. Kundalini, An Occult Expérience (Adyar.

Madras. The Theosophical Publishing House. 1938). p. 29.
31. From Cari G. Jung. Introduction to: The Tibetan Book of The
Dead, W. Y. Evans-Wentz (Editer). (NY: Oxford University
Press. 1960).
 OUR DAIMON AND KUNDALINI 35

trying to force too much blood down a blocked ar-

tery. Most writers on the subject of Kundalini Yoga
misinfonn their readers by planting the notion that
everyone's Chakras arc automatically pure and per-
fect. Although true in one sense this idea is very mis-
leading. AU Chakras arc "pure" but our Birth Chart
gives us an indication whether or not ail Chakras arc
easily embraced due to the body that we've chosen in
our présent incarnation.
Learning where our difficulties lie enables us to
focus on the internai problems which might seem
unfavorable and stressful; yet such blockages always
occur due to an inharmonious aspect with another
sphere's pull on the Tree of Life. Never is the sole re-
sponsibility of one's success or failure based on one
single sphere. It is important for the individual to fo-
cus upon these "opposites" in an attempt to reconcile
the two forces which appear to be pulling in différent
directions or at cross-purposes and which arc hinder-
ing us. Overcoming these obstacles can bring about
spiritual growth but avoiding them shows where on
the Tree ofLife dangers lies for the individual. Our
Birth Chart also shows us where forces (Sephiroths or
Planets) arc working together to reinforce each other;
often portraying where a person's créative talents lie
... but whether or not we make use ofthem is up to
each ofus.
36 ALETHEIA

Aleister Crowley bas mentioned that at least seven

out of every eight students in magick never achieve
adéquate attainment of the upper spheres of the Tfee
of Life, and most fall by the wayside long before they
ever accompbsh Malkuth-10. Occult schools often
blâme the student; suggesting that he or she was
not yet ready to achieve spiritual heights, but if the
teacher had known how to correlate their student's
Birth Chart to the Tfee of Life they would have seen
a road map of their student's personal microcosm.
They'd know where the student has easy access and
which areas will possess difficulty and become prob-
lematic. Then, rather than giving out the same blind
study course to ail students, the teacher could direct
the individual student to areas where further work is
required before he or she should attempt to traverse
the Tree of Life.
 III
THE THREE FATES, THE LOT OF FORTUNE
AND THE NODES

fart ter I mentioned that prier to reaching puberty

our Spirit is still engaged in molding a foundation
for oui" life, the shape of which is determined by the
circumstances of its birth. In fact, our childhood is
like a lump of clay of undetermined shape or pur-
pose; oui of nothing we came and from everything
we are being formed. However at puberty we bave
just enough shape to be able to use the free choice to
"Do what thou wilt."
In Alchemy this child-like lump of clay is a sub-
stance often called "prima materia." Some refer to
the prima materia as a stone (px) on which ail things
are built; including the Temple of God; which is sym-
bolized by a "square." Throughout the centuries there
have been hundreds of interprétations of what this
primary matter constitutes of with no one définition
considered prominent. Alchemists have always had
a tendency to make their définition of prima materia
more personal rather than towing a generic line.
To understand the process by which the pri-
mai matter is first molded one should consider the
Ouroboros (OnpoPôpoç) which is a name derived

37
 38 ALETHEIA

from oupoPopoç oqnç which means "tail-devouring

snake." As a symbol, the Ouroboros bas multiple
meanings interwoven into a single symbol of a snake
eating its own tail in order to sustain its life. Those
who are more perceptive recognize that the symbol
actually implies self-reflection of "opposites" in
order to produce change. It is the eternal cycle of re-
newal found in the primordial Nature of the Universe.
The Ouroboros in a sense is something constantly
re-creating itself; création out of destruction, life
out of death. Cari Jung realized that the Ouroboros
represented the classic pre-ego state of a child when
the persona mask is first being formed; which is the
fundamental mask that we'll wear for the rest of our
life. It is clear to the more astute strident that the al-
chemists had discovered that the prima materia was
man himself.
In an astrological sense our Birth Chart represents
the "possibilities" of the prima materia (or ourselves)
as a lump of clay and the Ouroboros is the means by
which our ego is being formed. To flirther understand
these two qualities we must review our Lot of Fortune
along with the Nodes in our Birth Chart.
Thanks to the popularization of modem astrol-
ogy—which has persuaded many people that asking
"What sign are you?" is a serions form of astrologi-
cal inquiry—we've come to complacently accept
 THE THREE FATES, THE LOT OF FORTUNE & THE NODES 39

that our Sun Sign is the most important aspect of

our Birth Chart. After ail, the Sun is the "center" of
our Universe and it is also our "outer" personality or
mask which we présent to others. It is so that the Sun
is our creative self-expression whose Light animâtes
everything that we embrace in our life, and as such
it is our identity. But this identity is not, and very
rarely is, the convenient, concise, snapshot of our
over-all incarnation that many feel it to be. The part
of our astrological chart to focus upon in this regard
is known as our "Lot of Fortune." Unfortunately this
is not qui te so easily donc, for of ail the astrological
symbols shown in our Birth Chart none is more con-
fusing than the "Lot of Fortune" whose symbol is ®.
The noted astrologer Martin Schulman has writ-
ten: "One of the most intriguing aspects of Astrology,
as well as the most mystifying, is the Part of Fortune.
While many définitions of this very spécial point in
the horoscope have been put forth, no work has yet
been able to clearly pinpoint the exact meaning of
32
this most important area in the natal chart." The
difficulty ariscs in understanding the Part of Fortune
because it is not as straightforward as a singular point
of référencé like a planet. Although I dont disagree
with ail the modem astrological interprétations of the
32. Martin §c\\Vi\man, KarmicAstrology Vol. III. Joy and the Part
of Fortune (York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1985), p. 5.
 40 ALETHEIA

Lot of Fortune l'd like to discuss it from a différent

point of view; or of that which relates to magick and
the Qabalistic Tree ofLife.
The Lot of Fortune is often referred to as an
"Arabie Part" which has come to imply any imagi-
nary point in one's Birth Chart which is computed
through the addition and subtraction of three or more
spécifie points. However, the term "Arabie Paît" it-
self is misleading and, as Dane Rudhyar has pointed
out, "The Exact origin of the system of Arabian Parts
does not appear to be very well known. The system
was presumably developed during the Middle Ages
by the Arabs whose great culture was then emphasiz-
ing mathematical concepts and geometrical arts." It
was John Gadbury (1627-1704) an English astrologer
and a prolific writer of almanacs who most readily
wrote on these Arabie Parts and established much of
the foundation that we know on this topic. However,
although the Arabs possessed an extraordinary ca-
pacity for the arts, the actual concept for "Lots' used
in astrology can actually be traced back to Ancient
Greece; even possibly as far back as Babylon and
Egypt. After the décliné of the Hellenistic "Greek"
culture médiéval Arab astrologers inherited the long-
established tradition of astrology which they did

33. Dane Rudhyar. The Lunation Cycle (Berkeley: Shambala

Publications. 1971), p. 57.
 THE THREE FATES, THE LOT OF FORTUNE & THE NODES 41
much to refine and develop through the influence of
Muslim thought. Astrology later mutated with other
cultural influences.
Over time the term "Lot of Fortune" became more
commonly referred to as a "Part of Fortune" in Birth
Charts. This made understanding the original concept
difficult if not impossible for modem astrologers to
understand but once you realize the Lot of Fortune's
connection with the three Fates mentioned in Plato's
"The Myth of Er" it becomes fairly easy to appreciate
what this symbol ® implies. As already discussed,
there are three critical factors in every Birth Chart
which détermine our over-all incarnation. They are
our Sun Sign, our Moon Sign and our Rising Sign.
These three points refer to the Moirae or Fates;
Lachesis (ruling our Sun Sign), KIotho (our Moon)
and Atropos (our Rising Sign). It was these three
Fates who ratified our chosen life after reviewing ail
the facts regarding our past, présent and future; of
birth, life, death and equally important, rebirth. When
we mathematically correlate these three Fates or our
Sun, Moon and Rising Sign into one single point we
ohtain our "Part of Fortune" or "Lot of Fortune." The
sign and astrological House into which the Lot of
Fortune falls could he totally différent from that of
the Sun Sign but its importance should not be over-
looked. It can help explain why six people who are
42 ALETHEIA

bom at the same moment and place in time may have

a totally différent "mask" webbed around the charac-
teristic of their Sun Sign. Each person bas a différ-
ent lot in life and if it is understood they will have a
better grasp of their "foundation stone" in childhood.
Equally important; it will give them an indication of
what and how they shall make use of those things that
have been given to them at birth. In other words, this
is "your over-all lot in life."
Some modem astrologers simply refer to the "Lot
of Fortune" as our Karma but this concept is very
misleading because too often people mistakenly
equate this term with "penitence" or something that
we pay dues for regarding our past sins. Rather; aller
our Spirit has reviewed its past life it then picks a
new incarnation in order to gain a new experience
and to fulfill those things left unfinished in the previ-
ous. It is true, we have ail donc certain things, for
better or worse, whose affects we are now feeling
in our présent incarnation but Karma is not "paying
back something bad" as much as fulfilling everything
that we had previously set in motion; for better or
worse. It is simply cause and effect. To summarize:
if you were to take your Birth Chart, depicting every
planet and the sign in which it falls, as well as the
houses; and every conjunction, square, trine or plan-
etary aspect, and then mixed it ail in a bowl, stirred
it up and poured it ont you will understand your "Lot
of Fortune." This is the over-all "experience" that
you desired in this incarnation, from a perfectly bal-
anced and positive point-of-view. Martin Schulman
wrote: "The Part of Fortune symbolizes that place
in the horoscope through which the Sun, Moon, and
Ascendant arc in the best harmonie relationship to
each other and are easily expressed to the greatest
advantage for the individual." It is the one point
in your entire astrological chart which must not be
ignored or compromised. It is the "hub of the spindle
of Necessity."
On the same subject, Dane Rudhyar wrote that the
Lot of Fortune can be defined as "the focal point for
the expression of the power generated by the soli-lu-
nar relationship." Although most astrologers agree
with this statement, they ail have différent opinions
as to what is meant by a balance between the Sun and
the Moon, as well as on how both factors relate to
the Rising Sign, which is their fulcrum. There are, of
course, many ways to use your astrological chart and
ail methods are true, although each contains but a few
pièces of the puzzle of your incarnation. Some meth-
ods, like those used by followers of Aleister Crowley,

34. Martin Schulman. Karmic Astrology Vol. III. Joy and the Part
of Fortune, Op. Cit.. p. 12.
35. Dane Rudhyar. TheLunation Cycle: Op. Cit. p. 66.
44 ALETHEIA

look at the Tree of Life and their Birth Charts as a

road map of their inner psyché and magickal anat-
omy. With that in mind, rather than being a pawn of
powers that are affecting their daily lives they take an
active rôle in seeking a more balanced and positive
approach to the energies in play. This is where ritual
magick is important
Once we establish where our Lot in Life lies, or
our Tme Will, we can then set about doing rituals
which are designed to tap into our Solar Current,
which involves working with the Moirae or Fate
Lachesis (who mies our Sun Sign) in order for her
to help us receive guidance from the daimon (or
Holy Guardian Angel) which she has given to us. To
achieve this on the Qabalistic Tree of Life you must
utilize éléments of The Middle Pillar. Our Sun mies
a Sephiroth (nlTDD) known as 6-Tiphereth (mKSn)
while our Moon mies 9-Yesod ("no ■) which lies
directly underneath it. Below Yesod on the Middle
Pillar is 10-Malkuth (mD a). When you examine the
symbol for the Lot of Fortune 0 it is similar to that of
our planet Earth . Both symbols refer to the same
four-fold qualities.
A major ritual performed by magicians on
Malkuth which enables them tap into their inner
Sun is Crowley's "Liber Resh vel Helios, Sub figura
CC. " The concept of this ritual is that its continuai
 THE THREE FATES, THE LOT OF FORTUNE & THE NODES 45
performance will gradually take the New or "dark"
Moon (Yesod) and make it Full as it begins to receive
the Light ofthe Sun. The ritual of "Liber Resh" has
four adorations that are to be said four times daily
at sunrise, noon, sunset and midnight. Not only do
they correspond to the cycle of birth, life, death and
rebirth but they also tap into the four elemental tides
or Tattwas of air, tire, water and earth which stream
forth from our Sun at given times during each day. In
greeting the Sun in the morning toward the east, one
says, "Hailunto Thee who art Ra in Thy rising, even
unto Thee who art Ra in Thy Strength, who travellest
over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Uprising of the
Sun. Tahuti standeth in His splendeur at the prow, and
Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. Hall unto Thee from
the Abodes ofNight!" A similar adoration is given
to Ahathoor at noon in the south, to Turn at sunset
in the west and to Khephra at midnight, facing the
north. It is important to understand the basic symbol-
ism behind this ritual. Resh is a Hebrew letter whose
numerical value is that of 200. This is what the "sub
figura CC" implies since C in Latin is the number 100
and thus CC is numerically 200. Of course Helios
is Greek for the Sun. If you are familiar with Tarot
Cards you will know that each of the 22 major tmmps
is mled by one of twenty-two major Hebrew letters.
The letter Resh mies the card known as "The Sun,"
46 ALETHEIA

and astrologically this card is also ruled by the Sun

itself. One should also know that the word Liber is
Latin for book, thus "Liber Resh" is often referred to
as "The Book of the Sun."
Aleister Crowley gives a brief breakdown of a
few of the most obvions layers of this ritual when
he writes: "The Object of this practice is firstly to
remind the aspirant at regular intervais of the Great
Work; secondly, to bring him into conscious personal
relation with the centre of our system; and thirdly; for
advanced students, to make actual magical contact
with the spiritual energy of the sun and thus draw
actual force for him." ^
In other words; the magician is trying to fnlfill
his Lot of Fortune by making the body (Malkuth)
and Soul (Yesod) a vehicle for the Sun (Tiphereth).
Remember, the Muladhara is rooted in the sphere
of Yesod, and that a "Hidden Sun" is said to dwell
between its four petals which continually exudes a
dangerous poison. This poison is known as the sun-
fluid of mortality because he who eats of this nec-
tar- will surely die. It is Yesod, the sphere between
Malkuth and Tiphereth, where our "Will" and Want"
first becomes pivotai.

36. Aleister Crowley, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, ed.

John Symonds and Kenneth Grant (London: Jonathan Cape,
1969), p. 674.
 THE THREE FATES, THE LOT OF FORTUNE & THE NODES 47

It is important never to forget that with ail our

planning there was is no guarantee that our Soul will
ever fulfill its desired incarnation because "Do what
thon wilt" is a double-edged sword. On the one hand it
implies that we have been given the license to pursue
our Earthly experience as we choose, but the danger
of over-exercising this freedom is that our mercurial
Soul, having passed the River of Forgetfulness, could
easily focus ail its attention towards Earthly "do what
thon wants" that may unwittingly steer it away from
the reason why it incarnated in the first place. Put
differently, we have the choice either to embrace the
Light of our Star- in Tiphereth or droop down our head
toward Malkuth and indulge in our "wants."
True magicians do not take the ritual of Resh non-
chalantly because they understand what Crowley has
stated that the third reason for its practice is to allow
"advanced students" to "make actual magical contact
with the spiritual energy of the sun and thus draw
actual force" into themselves; i.e. their True Will.
This is why Crowley warns us—"Neglect never the
fourfold Adorations of the Sun in his four stations,
for thereby thou dost affirm thy Place in Nature and
her Harmonies." '

37. Aleister Crowley, Liber Aleph, The Book ofWisdom or Folly

(San Francisco: Level Press, 1974), pg. 16.
48 ALETHEIA

Ifwe accept that our général Birth Chart illustrâtes

the incarnation that our Spirit chooses in order to gain
a spécifie experience; we also need to understand that
it is the North (Q) and South (t3) Nodes that tell
us specifically in what direction we must go, and of
the problems that we left unfinished in our previous
incarnation as well as those of our childhood that
may affect us as adults. In truth, your Birth Chart has
little meaning if not seen within a larger context of
the past, présent and the future.
The Nodes are points at which the Moon's path
around the Sun intersects the path of the Sun. They
are respectively referred to as the "Dragon's Head"
and "Dragon's Tail." The Dragon in Alchemy is a
complex symbol. It has wings, as if to suggest the
spirituality of the prima materia, and in most al-
chemical texts it appears both at the beginning and
the end of the experiment. It is in affect, the same
as the Ouroboros or the serpent which bites its tail
uniting the opposites into a circle in order to produce
change. Since the Nodes are always opposite each
other on the body of the Dragon, logic dictâtes that
they'll always be opposite each other in your Birth
Chart. On that note; trying to understand one without
reflecting upon the other is simply silly.
They are Yin and Yang; inséparable. Both Nodes
are always rétrogradé m which implies "mov-
 THE THREE FATES, THE LOT OF FORTUNE & THE NODES 49

ing backwards." We tend to think that ail our natal

planets and energies arc directed toward outward
expression, but rarely do astrologers examine what it
implies magickally when something within our chart
is rétrogradé. This means that part of the energy is
now directed inward, away from the world; hence the
frequently usedterm "backwards." Such qualifies eau
give us a deeper sensitivity in regards to the planet
and the house in which it faits. The Nodes offer us a
glimpse or insight into what type of Karma we have
accrued from our past life and of possibilities toward
our future.
Q North Node—Dragon's Head, or Cap ut
Draconis in Latin, is when the Moon crosses the
Sun's path from south to north in an ascending man-
ner. It is considered positive, helpful and refers to
one's présent path or the Lot of Fortune that should
be followed and carefullydeveloped in order to fulfill
one's future. It holds the possibility of good Karma
that can be accrued in this life if inner balance is
achieved. It is for this reason that some astrologers
will tell you that the North Node is symbolic of your
future but this is misleading and too broad. In truth,
the North Node enables us to see the "direction" our
Spirit wants to go and it informs us where we must
strive.
50 ALETHEIA

In fact, the Head of the Dragon makes it dear

where we literally wanted to "head" in this incarnation
in order to achieve our "Lot of Fortune," although the
path may be made diffieult by ail the challenges and
obstacles that we must face and overcome as depicted
by our général Birth Chart. However; although we ail
have destinations, they can never be reached, for no
matter how much we strive for betterment, there is
always more to accomplish. To grasp the fundamen-
tals of the North Node remember; it is in a spécifie
sign and house. It has aspects that if understood will
be your personal guiding North Star which only you
should follow. It is the light at the end of the tunnel
of your incarnation.
Ç3 SouthNode—Dragon'sTail, or CaudaDraconis
in Latin, is when the Moon crosses the Sun's path
from north to south in a descending manner. This
Node is considered négative and it is often seen as
being unfortunate and hindering, although this is not
an especially constructive way to consider it. Really,
it just refers to the past and to the karma that we have
accrued from our previous life, as well as those less
positive things that have been carricd over from our
childhood (up to puberty) and into the présent. If you
mixed these négative factors together, your South
Node is what you get. It can highlight the most im-
portant of the undeveloped characteristic traits and
 THE THREE FATES, THE LOT OF FORTUNE & THE NODES 51
accumulated undesirable habits that you bave left
unfmished, which in turn can undermine your présent
incarnation. This can easily be something that gets in
the way of having the kind of relationship or life that
you want to experience. Your South Node is the "af-
fect" that you arc now experiencing because of past
actions. The tail of the Dragon therefore represents
the undesirable accumulated things which can thwart
the head from moving forward by slowing the whole
body down. If not addressed in this life, the folly of
the tail will only be worsened in the next.
In conclusion it can be said that the Dragon has
many meanings interwoven into a single symbol of
a créature in quest to bite its own tail, hence the two
Nodes. They both require reflection on each other in
order to produce change, and unless they unité into
a circle—wherein lies the X which implies comple-
tion—their dualistic énergies cannot become one
(Tao). In other words; if the Dragon bites its tail
and holds on, ail the différent aspects of our Birth
Chart start working and merging together in a fusion
suggestive of the attainment of what the alchemists
called the Philosopher's Stone.
 IV
THE TREE OF LIFE
Is CONSTANTLY GROWING

THE occult sciences, like ail sciences, arc ever-

evolving as we push the threshold of our spiritual
understanding toward new depths. Everything must
be explored and expanded, including much that bas
previously been ignored or taken for granted. For
instance, if one accepts that the Tree of Life repre-
sents ail — above andbelow, externally and internal-
ly—and that every sacred art and science can be laid
upon that glyph, then how does our Birth Chart fit
onto it? This topic is rarely discussed, but if the Tree
is a road map of everything that concerns our human
selves, and our astrology chart indicates the heavens
at the moment our Spirit entered therein, then there
must be a corrélation. But what is it?
The symbol of the Tree of Life bas evolved greatly
over the centuries, and a quick glance at the critical
points of its development may help clarify the matter.
Many people mistakenly think that the image that is
found in most Qabalistic books is an ancient Jewish
glyph but it is not. Althoughthe Tree'stheoretical ori-
gins are webbed deep in Judaic lore, the design as we
now know it was actually conceived in the mind of a
Christian, the German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher who

52
 THE TREE OF LlFE IS CONSTANTLY GROWING 53

was born in 1601. Kircher attended the Jesuit Collège

in Rome where he devoted himself to collecting in-
formation from many différent religions, observing
the Universe, analyzing, synthesizing, interpreting
and publishing what he believed to be other people's
religions Truths. His books are filled with beautiful
illustrations designed to make his points clearer.
In one work, Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652), he drew
a glyph of the "Sephirothic System" on a Tree of Life
as he had ascertained it to be from the Hebrews. His
drawing clearly shows three columns, made up of ten
spheres, which he then connected to one-another us-
ing twenty-two paths of his own devising. To each of
these Connecting paths he attributed a Hebrew letter.
Later Hebrew Qabalists embraced Kircher's design
as being an accurate portrayal of God's Will, and
over a period of time it has become an acceptable
part of Judaic Mysticism. But most historians agree,
it is Kircher's design that is the earliest rendition of
the Tree of Life most readily used today. Prior to
Kircher there were numerous designs of the Tree of
Life showing a diverse number of paths and spheres;
Kircher was responsible for developing the 22 Path
system based on the 22 Hebrew Letters.
It was during a resurgence of interest in the occult
in the late 1700s that a most important foundation
linking the Qabalah with the Tarot was established.
54 ALETHEIA

It began with such men as Antoine Court de Gébelin

(7-1784), who published nine volumes between 1773
and 1782. He put forward the proposition that the
earlier Tarot de Marseille, which was then simply
being used as a card game, was in fact an arcane
repository of timeless esoteric wisdom. He carcfully
laid ont these théories in the eighth volume of his
works, titled Monde primitif analysé et comparé
avec le monde moderne (1781). In the same book
he also published an article written by the Comte
de Mellet which makes the first known connection
between the cards of the Tarot, the Hebrew letters,
and the Qabalah. Like Gébelin, the Comte de Mellet
used the tenu "The Book ofThom" when referring
to the Tarot; in récognition of his belief that the Tarot
cards had a secret origin going back into they initia-
tion chambers of ancient Egypt.
The next major historical change to the Tree of
Life took place thanks to a Frenchman named Jean
Baptiste Alliette (1738-1791), more commonly
known by the pseudonym, Etteilla. Some claim that
Etteilla—who is said to have reversed the spelling
ofhis real name, Alliette, because it sounded more
"mysterious"—is the man directly responsible for
making the T arot and the Qabalah household words.
In 1788 he published the first T arot Deck designed
specifically for esoteric purposes, which was com-
 THE TREE OF LIFE IS CONSTANTLY GROW1NG 55
posed of22 cards ofthe Major Arcana and 56 ofthe
Minor Arcana. In the same year he also founded the
"Society of Interpreters of the Book of Thoth," which
is the very first organization that is known to have
been exclusively devoted to the study of Tarot.
Etteilla's legacy is a mixed one, and many ofthe
symbols he used have become unpopular in occult
teachings and have been abandoned. Still, Etteilla
was the first person to publish a book with a method-
ology for Tarot, titled Manière de se récréer avec le
jeu de cartes nomées Tarots ( 1785) and his later Cour
théorique et pratique du Livre du Thot (1790) sparked
the popularization and the ilirther study of the Tarot
by other occultists. In the end, whether you agree with
his teachings or not, he was still tmly a pioneer in
occult teachings and practices and one ofhis major
claims to famé is that he was the first to assign the
zodiacal signs and Four Eléments to selected cards.
It could he said that the next major development in
the area aller Etteilla's work was that doue by Eliphas
Lévi (1810-1875), who reinforced the connection
between the Tarot and the Qabalah by drawing public
attention to the link between the cards and the let-
ters of the Hebrew alphabet. Although many other
significant authors emerged during this period, it was
arguably Lévi's work that cemented the association
of the Tarot in occult study and which became the
56 ALETHEIA

main model for the development and interprétation

of the Tarot. Inevitably, considering that Kircher's
Tree of Life had 22 paths which correlated to the 22
Hebrew letters, it was only a matter of time before
the 22 major Arcanum of the Tarot, which now had
Hebrew letters assigned to them, would become as-
sociated to each path on the Tree of Life.
While many astrologers are undoubtedly quite
well versed in their trade, a number give no indica-
tion of having an adéquate understanding of their art
in relationship to the Qabalistic Tree ofLife. Most
will simply point ont that there are twelve particular
Tarot cards of the twenty-two major Arcanum that
have astrological attributions and then they'll usually
give them as follows:

The Emperor Aries T3 (Mars)

Hierophant Taurus 8 (Venus)
Lovers Gemini H (Mercury)
The Chariot Cancer S (Moon)
Strength Léo S} (Sun)
The Hermit Virgo (Mercury)
Justice Libra — (Venus)
Death Scorpio (Mars and Pluto)
Tempérance Sagittarius ** (Jupiter)
The Devil Capricom V5 (Satum)
The Star Aquarius ^ (Uranus)
The Moon Pisces K (Neptune)
 THE TREE OF LIFE 1S CONSTANTLY GROW1NG 57

The problem with looking at just the above astro-

logical corrélations on The Tree of Life is that it tends
to ignore the obvions questions about the remaining
ten Tarot tmmps. These traditionally have the plan-
etary attributions that follow;

The Pool - Uranus S

The Magus - Mercury 5
The High Priestess - Moon î
The Empress - Venus 9
The Wheel of Fortune - Jupiter ^
The Hanged Man - Neptune V
The Tower - Mars (5
The Sun - Sun O
Judgment - Pluto
The World - Satum h

The greater question is how do these ten major

"planetary" Arcanum correlate to the ten Sephiroth
(niTDO), but before continuing I must remind the
reader that most ancient Systems placed the Earth at
the very center of the Universe and these models are
therefore "geocentric," and many would therefore
suggest fundamentally fiawed. I would not, however,
be too hasty to discard them. In the Qabalah we stand
on Malkuth the 10' Sephiroth and look upward into
The Tree ofLife. As far as we are concerned from a
58 ALETHEIA

microcosmic point-of-view Malkuth or Earth is the

center of "our" Universe. With that in mind; here are
the planetary attributes to the Sephiroth with Earth
being the hub of Plato's Spindle of Necessity with
the eight "whorls" or rings moving outward toward
Chokmah, the Qabalistic sphere of'Fixed Stars";

10th Sphere Malkuth Earth 0

,h
9 Sphere Yesod Moon î
8°' Sphere Hod Mercury ?
T' Sphere Netzach Venus 9
,!
6 ' Sphere Tiphereth Sun O
1
S ' Sphere Geburah Mars c5
th
4 Sphere Chesed Jupiter y
Daath
rJ
3 Sphere Binah Satura "b
nJ
2 Sphere Chokmah [Fixed Stars]
st
l Sphere Kether

We can agree with most Qabalists that the attributes to

spheres number 10 through 3 are pretty much beyond
question, but sphere No. 2 known as Chokmah (nbbn)
which means "Wisdom," and No. 1 called Kether
 THE TREE OF LIFE IS CONSTANTLY GROW1NG 59
("iro) or the "Crown" and the mysterious sphere of
Daath (nin) known as "Knowledge," are disputed.
The only three planetary Tarot cards not correlated
to a given Sephiroth, to which these spheres might be
attributed are;

The Pool - Uranus Aleph-Air

The Hanged Man - Neptune Mem-Water
Judgment - Pluto Shin-Fire

Aleister Crowley was one of the first modem as-

trologers to assign attributes to the top three disputed
spheres, but regardless of bis stature it is important
to test these to déterminé if he was correct. As I see
it, ail apparent tmths are merely the statement of a
hypothesis which clearly appeared satisfactory at a
spécifie moment in time, but which should never be
preserved as an article of faith for perpetuity. Sadly,
some of bis followers think him an undisputed author-
ity incapable of error, but this has proven not to be
the case, with bis astrological théories regarding the
upper spheres as classic examples of bis fallibility.
Let us begin briefly by reviewing what we know
about a few of the spheres on the Tree of Life as they
reach upward toward the top. The fifth sphere is known
as Geburah (m"m)or "Strength," the fourth sphere is
called Chesed (ton) or "Mercy" and the third sphere is
60 ALETHEIA

known as Binah (nra) which means "Understanding."

It is generally agreed that these three sphères mie the
planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn; this is not in dis-
pute. These three sphères mimic our known Universe
in that they, like the planets they mie, fall exactly in
the same order stretching outward from our Sun to-
ward the darkness of space. The conflict arises when
we take the next three planets found beyond Satum
in our Solar System, which are Uranus, Neptune and
Pluto and try to place them upon the Tree. We cannot
dispute the astronomical order of these planets, but
the confusion amongst Qabalists concerns which of
the sphères after Binah-3 they mie.

There are two possibilities:

1-Kether (Pluto)
2-Chokmah (Neptune)
Daath (Uranus)
3-Binah (Satum)

Daath (Pluto)
1-Kether (Neptune)
2-Chokmah (Uranus)
3-Binah (Satum)

Aleister Crowley accepted the first arrangement

as correct, but it is important to keep in mind that
 THE TREE OF LIFE IS CONSTANTLY OROWINO 61

when he began composing his astrological théories

with regard to these outer planets (circa 1916) the
information available on them was very limited. A
re-examination is therefore called for, and a sensible
place to start would be Crowley's assessment oftheir
Qabalistic attributes.
First and foremost, the simple application of re-
verse logic when studying The Tree ofLife makes it
apparent that Daath cannot come before the sphere
of Chokmah. In the Qabalah we learn that the Tree
evolves downward ont of God or Nothingness and
that the first sphere is Kether (The Crown) or more
properly; Knowledge un-manifested. The next sphere
to emerge within Création is known as Chokmah. It
is a maie phallic-oriented "Father" sphere and it is re-
ferred to as the "Knower" or he who extends himself
ont of the darkness in the quest to know things. The
next sphere to be created was Binah; the "Mother"
sphere whom Qabalists refer to as the "Known;"
thus the origins of the phrase that "1 knew" the
woman in a Biblical sense. Next, when the Father
and Mother—being Chokmah (naDH) "Wisdom"
and Binah (nm) "Understanding"—"know" each
otherthey produce a child. This is basic Qabalah. The
child is called "Knowledge" manifested (below the
Abyss) or Daath and therefore logic asks the question
in regards to Crowley's assumptions, "How could a
62 ALETHEIA

child exist before either parent is fully formed in or-

der to create it?" Obviously Crowley is wrong in bis
hypothesis that after Binah-Saturn (Mother) cornes
Daath-Uranus (Child), simply because the Father is
nowhere to be found in the équation to assist with the
création ofhis Child.
To further understand the problem we must scru-
tinize both Daath and Uranus to déterminé if they arc
reflective of Crowley's hypothesis that they arc one
and the same.
The God Uranus, also known as Ouranos
(Obpavôç), was the embodiment of the heavens
which were imagined by the eaiiy Greeks to be a
solid dome of brass decorated with stars whose edges
descend to rest upon the outermost limits of a fiât
carth. Uranus is therefore known as the Sky God; the
father of the Goddess Urania. Most ancient Greeks
considered him to be primordial (protogenos) and
they assigned no parentage to him, but simply refer
to him as having emerged ont of darkness. Of course,
like ail the Gods of Greek mythology, the character
and features ascribed to him evolved over time, but
we must discover if the most significant of these arc
best matched to either Daath or Chokmah.
To begin with Chokmah is known Qabalistically
as "The Sphere of the Fixed Stars," which some refer
to as the Zodiac but which more correctly refers to
 THE TREE OF LIFE IS CONSTANTLY GROW1NG 63

ail Stars; or the heavens to which the God Uranus

mies. This sphere is also associated with our Spirit
prior to birth; especially as portrayed in the Minerval
initiation of o.t.o. This Degree obtains its title from
Minerva; the goddess of Wisdom attributed to the
sphere of Chokmah. It is said that this sphere gives
us intuitive insights, like streaks of flashing lightning
or epiphanies twinkling in our consciousness like
stars in the heavens. This sphere reminds us of the
outer ring of the "Spindle ofNecessity" which lies
just beyond Saturn. In Plato's The Republic this ring,
like Chokmah itself, is said to mie "fixed Stars," and
therefore by logical extension it would seem that this
Qabalistic sphere must mie the planet Uranus, and
not Neptune, as Crowley assumed.
The actual discovery of Uranus was announced
by Sir William Herschel on Mardi 13th 1781.
Initially it had no name but the astronomer Jerome
Lalande proposed in 1784 that the planet should be
named Herschel in honor of its discoverer and he
also suggested its astronomical symbol should be
"un globe surmonté par la première lettre de votre
nom" ("a globe surmounted by the first letter of
your name") which looks like S. It was the German
astronomer Johann Elert Bode (1747-1826) who
argued that just as Saturn was the father of Jupiter,
the new planet should be named aller the father of
64 ALETHEIA

Saturn, or Uranus. It seemed to fit rather nicely into

the scheme of the Greek panthéon but the earliest
officiai use of the name Uranus would not appear
until after Herschel's death.
Ironically another indication that Uranus is
Chokmah and not Daath can be found in the writ-
ings of Aleister Crowley himself. In 1909 he pub-
lished a brilliant Qabalistic collection with the title
Liber 777 Vel Proie go ma Symbolica Ad Systemam
Sceptico-Mysticae Viae Explicande, Fundamentum
Hieroglyphicum Sanctissimorum Scientiae Summae,
based on material from the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn. The numerous tables within it are still
considered today to be one of the best guides to the hid-
den interrelationship between ail things and concepts
from a Qabalistic perspective. Curiously—givenhis
later stance—Crowley lists Uranus under the sphere
of Chokmah in the listing of "Some Greek Gods" in
38
Columm No. XXIV Why he decided several years
later that this was no longer valid astrologically lias
never been explained, but in so doing he erred. Simply,
both in our Solar System and also on the Tree of Life,
Saturn (Binah-3) cornes after Uranus (Chokmah-2),
it is quite straightforward; Mother and Father.

38. Aleister Crowley, 777 Revised in The Qabalah of Aleister

Crowley, Introduction by Israël Regardie (NY: Samuel
Weiser, 1973). p. 8.
 THE TREE OF LIFE IS CONSTANTLY GROWING 65
This would seem to suggest that if one follows the
proper order up the Tree of Life, then the next sphere,
that of Kether, should reflect the planet Neptune and
not, as Crowley later speculated, the planet Pluto.
The existence of Neptune was officially confirmed on
September 23, 1846 by the French astronomer Urbain
Le Verrier. Originally the planet was simply referred
to as "the planet exterior to Uranus" or as "Le Vemer's
planet" and Verrier, claiming the right to name his
discovery, wanted to name it after himself, as Uranus
originally had been named after Herschel. However
officialdom was inclined towards keeping with the
mythological names of the other planets, and the name
Neptune was certified for it in December 1846.
Neptune was an Olympian God of the primordial
océans and seas. He is often depicted as an old man
with a long flowing white beard. Like many Gods
he underwent a transformation in character over the
centuries. The planets astronomical symbol became
W which is merely a stylized version of the trident
that the God Neptune was reputed to always carry.
The only problem with naming this planet Neptune
was that it ignored the convenient précédent of giv-
ing a new planet the name of the mythological parent
of its predecessor, as had happened with Saturn and
Jupiter. The father of Uranus was NOT Neptune, the
latter being the son of Cronus or Saturn. But although
66 ALETHEIA

the seemingly comfortable match of the planets with

the Greek panthéon had gone off-track, it nonetheless
seems as if somewhere deep within our psyché we
understood it had to be so.
Oddly, the understanding of these two planets set
ont in Crowley's astrological writings is quite accu-
rate if applied to Chokmah and Kether instead of the
spheres that he assumed they mie. It is as if he un-
derstood the microcosmic qualities that are found in
the lesserAdam, or within us, but intellectually went
astray when looking at the macrocosmic Universe.
There remains now that most mysterious of the
Qabalistic spheres; Daath (nsn) or "Knowledge."
More myths have accmed about Daath than about the
entirety of the Tree of Life, with the study of the earli-
est Qabalistic texts relating to the sphere revealing that
many modem writers are guilty of "conflising oranges
with apples" in their explorations of the subject.
Astrologers, like magicians, should never forget
that they are scientists. They must continually be
on their guard against writers who have watched
too many monster movies or read too much fic-
tion and who want us ail to mn otf and fight wind-
mills. Aleister Crowley warns us in "De Natura
Deorum"—"Ofall our enemies those are most to be
39
feared, who make false gods of their imagination."
39. [Aleister Crowley, Theodor Reuss, et al], The Secret Rituals
of the O. T. O, Op. Cit,p. 177.
 THE TREE OF LIFE IS CONSTANTE Y GROWING 67

Many writers forget that Daath is not an "evil"

doorway to the back-side ofthe Tree; this is purely a
modem myth spawned ont of feeble imaginations. In
some ways we bave to thank The Hermetie Order of
the Golden Dawn for fostering the roots of this mis-
conception. This Victorian fratemity, rooted deeply
in Christianity, saw Daath simply as a False Crown
or Head of a Serpent whose tail is in Malkuth while
trying to claim divine héritage in the Heavens. The
fratemity virtually never wrote about this sphere's
dual aspect, bathed in good and evil, and it could be
said that their spéculations reveal more about them-
selves than the sphere they ponder.
First, let us consider that Daath is the child
born through the Sacred Union of Chokmah and
Binah. According to Verse No. 40 of "The Book of
Concealed Mystery" ofThe Zohar,"... through Daath,
or knowledge, whereby wisdom is combined with the
understanding, and the beautiful path with his bride
40
the queen" and "Daath is itselfthe beautiful path."
Further on in "The Fesser Holy Assembly regarding
Daath," Verse No. 297 states: "And since He is called
41
first-born, therefore it implieth dual offspring."

40. S. L. MacGregor Mathers (Translates), The Kabbalah Un-

veiled (NY: Samuel Weiser, 1970) p. 60.
41. S. L. MacGregor Mathers (Translates), The Kabbalah Un-
veiled, Op. cit., p. 289.
68 ALETHEIA

Daath may have divine héritage, but it is extreme-

ly important to be aware that the Qabalistic tradition
informs us that everything that is birthed below the
Abyss is bathed in duality, and Daath is no excep-
tion. The Abyss is an imaginary desert of sand which
lies across the top of the Tree of Life dividing the
top three spheres from those below; it lies between
Chesed (Jupiter-4) and Binah (Saturn-3). Knowledge,
being bathed in duality as a child born below the
Abyss, can refer either to divine Gnosis (yvcooiq) or
it can be a false Crown that is merely the spawn of
Malkuthian thinking. As an example; if the magickal
"Oath of the Abyss" is taken for egotistical reasons
it is unjustifiable and it will no longer fnlfill the True
Will but the desires and Wants of the individual, and
thus forces the magician to fait back to Malkuth. AU
his knowledge (Daath) then becomes "false."
We do know that Daath is a doorway into the un-
derworld but modem psychologists, like Cari Jung,
were quick to point out that in the microcosm this
realm is merely our subconscious. The question to
ponder is not whether or not Daath is an entranceway
to good or evil, but rather whether it is something
simply being perceived from the point of view of the
proclivities of the person viewing it from below the
Abyss on Malkuth.
Let us examine the planet Pluto and the Roman
 THE TREE OF LIFE IS CONSTANTLY GROWING 69
God whose name it bares, since by process of élimi-
nation this planet should rule the sphere of Daath.
As a God, Pluto is well known as the Lord of the
Underworld. His name is derived from the Greek
Plutous (IlÀonxoç) which means "wealth" and it is
believed that the Romans named him thus because
metals, jewels and other riches lie in the underworld
within the Earth. Some mythologies have Pluto be-
ing the Son of Cronus or Saturn, which Qabalistically
makes perfect sense.
In the 1840s Verrier was able to predict the posi-
tion of the then undiscovered planet Neptune after
mathematically analyzing perturbations in the orbit of
Uranus, which was presumably being affected by the
pull of another body somewhere in the Solar System.
Subséquent observations of Neptune caused astrono-
mers to speculate that Uranus' orbit was also being
disturbed by another planet—which became known
as "Planet X." The task ofuncovering the détails of
Planet X was given to a 23 year old American astron-
omer name Clyde William Tombaugh (1906-1997)
working out ofLowell Observatory, who pinpointed
the planet in February 1930. The right to name the
new planet was allotted to Lowell Observatory, who
on March 24,h, 1930, ofBciallyproclaimed it "Pluto."
Its original symbol was a combination of the letters
P and L intended to reflect the initiais ofthe founder
70 ALETHEIA

ofLowell Observatory being Percival Lowell (1855-

1916) as well as the name Pluto itself. In time, most
astronomers abandoned this symbol and began using
Y which resembles Neptune with the central point
being replaced by a circle.
Irrespective of other factors, the planet's orbit is
a good reason to associate Pluto with Daath. First, it
is said that Daath doesn't really exist on the Tree of
Life which has only ten "Sephiroth" and that Daath
only cornes into play when Binah and Chokmah unité
to create this mysterions "Eleventh Sphere." To il-
lustrate this, it might be useflil to envisage a Tree of
Life turned on its side. Then enlarge the sixth sphere
ofTiphereth (mKDh), paint it in its proper Qabalistic
color ofbright yellow to reflect its Solar attribute and
you'll clearly see our Sun with the Universe swirling
around; mimicking the Above.
Pluto is the only "wild card" in our Universe with
an orbit which is markedly différent from that of the
other planets. Ail the planets orbit the Sun close to a
flat référencé plane which is called the ecliptic and
they have semi-circular orbits; similar to viewing the
Tree of Life on its side. Pluto, on the other hand, is
moving at an incline at over 17° relative to the eclip-
tic orbits of the rest of our Solar System. Its orbit is
referred to as being highly eccentric or elliptical. In
other words, it doesn't normally orbit with the rest of
 THE TREE OF LIFE 1S CONSTANTE Y GROWINO 71
the flat Universe and like Daath, Pluto appcars not to
be connected.
I think that we can conclude that since our under-
standing of the Universe bas evolved then the proper
attributes for the "Sephiroth" have likewise grown to
reflect:
72

Daath (Knowledge) Pluto

1 Kether (The Crown) Neptune

2 Chockman (Wisdom) , Uranus

3 Binah (Understanding) Saturn

4 Chesed (Mercy) Jupiter

5 Geburah (Strength) Mars

6 Tiphereth (Beauty) Sun

7 Netzach (Victory) Venus

8 Hod (Splendeur) Mercury

9 Yesod (Foundation) Moon

10 Malkuth (The Kingdom) Eaith

 V
THE TWELVE HOUSES
AND THE TREE OF LIFE

EVERYONE, whether versed in astrology or not, knows

that the foremost components in a Birth Chart arc the
Zodiac signs, the planets and the houses. Each planet
has a spécifie importance depending upon which of
the twelve houses it is located in at the time of your
birth. However, the désignation of the houses and
house Systems seem to have taken a long and obscure
evolutionary road since the time of early Classical
Astrologers. Still, there is a consensus amongst
modem astrologers that each House represents a spé-
cifie function occurring throughout ones life and the
overall chart describes the humanjourney from birth
to death. Cari Jung has noted: "The journey through
the planctary houses, like the crossing of the great
halls in the Egyptian underworld ... signifies the
overcoming of a psychic obstacle, or of an autono-
mous complex, suitably represented by a planetary
god or démon. Anyone who has passed through ail
the planetary spheres is free from compulsion; he has
won the crown of victory and becomes like a god.
... In our psychological language today we express
ourselves more modestly: the journey through the

73
74 ALETHEIA

planetary houses boils down to becoming conscious

of the good and the bad qualities in our character,
and the apotheosis means no more than maximum
consciousness, which amounts to maximal freedoin
of the will."42
The houses are listed counter clock-wise fiom
the position of the Eastem horizon; one thru six are
found below the horizon and seven through twelve
are seen above the horizon. Those houses above the
horizon are refemed to as Yang while those below
are called Yin. Some astrologers foolhardily say that
these houses dictate positive and négative qualities
that are reflective of one's life but it is important to
understand, although Yin imphes the négation of ail
positive qualities, it is not harmful as much as simply
the exalted féminine which pervades ail things; to
compliment the Masculine Yang. They are the Sun
and Moon; light and darkness. Other astrologers
will tell you that the six houses below the horizon
rule your unconsciousness, while those above rule
our conscious thoughts but this is too simplistic. In
truth, those houses below the horizon are simply
more personal to us while those above the horizon

42 Cari G. Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, an Inquiry into the

' Séparation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy,
The Collected Works: Vol. .Y/C(London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul. 1963), p. 231.
 THE TWELVE HOUSES AND THE TREE OF LIFE 75
arc directed more toward external affairs. Still, if
one must label the Houses as being either internai or
external it might be best to understand that the twelve
Astrologieal signs arc each divided into a mascu-
line or féminine category. The Masculine signs arc
Aries, Gemini, Léo, Libra, Sagittarius and Aquarius
while the Féminine signs arc Taurus, Cancer, Virgo,
Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces. Cari Jung saw the bi-
polar division of the signs in a différent light than
the average astrologer and he labeled them as reflec-
tions of an "extroverted" (positive) and "introverted"
(négative) quality as seen in our archétype.
The dividing line between one house and another
is called the cusp. Although it may seem like a simple
360° circle can be divided equally by twelve and
interpreted accordingly, there arc, in fact, over fifty
Systems of house division and quite a bit of contro-
versy exists among astrologers as to which method
"works" the best—or if, indeed, any of them work
at ail. Some astrologers ignore house system com-
pletely on the grounds that most arc too tainted by
uncertainty to be used effectively. These astrologers
follow the tradition of Claudius Ptolemy, the "Father
of Classical Astrology," who in his séminal work
titled Tetrabiblos, appears to ignore the houses. Yes,
it is certainly true that houses arc purely a symbolic
description of the over-all heavens, whereas the po-
76 ALETHEIA

sitions of the stars and the planets are measurable

concrète things. Be that as it may, most astrologers
accept the importance of a house system.
It is believed that the Equal House system is the
oldest of the house Systems, and dates from the first
century bc. In this system, each house is exactly 30
degrees, starting with the Ascendant as the cusp of the
first house. Many astrologers in the United Kingdom
and India use this house system, partly because as-
trological schools in those countries have promoted
this system. The most popular house system amongst
astrologers is known as Placidus. It is named after an
Italian monk named Placidus de Tito, a 17th century
mathematician who because of his mathematical pro-
clivities created one of the most complex astrological
Systems ever known to man. It is said to have first
been mentioned around the 13th century in Arabie
literature but the first confirmed publication of the
system occurred in 1602, when Giovanni Antonii
Magini (1555-1617) published it in his book Tabulae
Primi Mobilis, quas Directionem Vulgo Dicunt. This
system gained popularity in the 19th century due to
its use in Raphael's ephemeris which first appeared
in 1821. However, the most popular book available
of "house divisions" in the 20t|1 century was Joseph
G. Dalton's Tables of Houses (originally published as
The Spherical Basis of Astwlogy, 1893) which sup-
 THE TWELVE HOUSES AND THE TREE OF LIFE 77

posedly used the Placidus system. In fact, it bas be-

come the définitive method with which most astrolo-
gers arc familial- but the mathematics that it uses to
calculate the houses is bathed in folly because Dalton
took liberties by simplifying the entire mathematical
system. Arguably, tins means that most people today
arc not really using the original Placidus system, re-
gardlcss of what they might think.
The best way to understand Placidus is to rec-
ognize the fact that, as a mathematician, Placidus
devised an intricate system dividing the time it takes
the Ascendant to reach the MidHeaven (MC) which
is the point indicating the degree that is highest in
the sky above the horizon at the place of birth, the
cusp of the Tenth House. Some will argue that tins is
the natural approach to life; showing the Ascendant
moving through time as the person is boni, grows and
develops and thus it explains the popularity of the
Placidus system today.
Another popular method is the Koch house Sys-
tem (pronounced "coke")- It was developed by Dr.
Walter Koch in coopération with H. Specht and oth-
ers in the carly 1960s and was published in 1971, a
year after Koch's death. He died on Fcbruary 251,1
1970. During his lifetime Koch was a noted teacher,
psychic, traditional astrologer, Tarot card reader
and author. He was born on September 18, 1895 at
78 ALETHEIA

6:25am in Esslingen, Wiirttemberg, Germany. He

studied at the University ofTiïbingen (Ph.D., 1920),
was scientific adviser to the Association of German
Astrologers and leader of the investigative circle of
the Cosmohiosophical Association in Hamhurg. He
served in the German army during World Wai" I but
was arrested by the Nazis in 1941 and spent three
years in différent prisons, including the infamous
Dachau concentration camp.
The Koch system, often referred to as the "Birth
Place House System," also uses the notion of time but
instead of starting its calculations from the Ascendant
as does the Placidus, its calculations begin from the
MidHeaven (MC) and sweep downward clockwise.
Arguably the main différence in the two Systems is
that the Ascendant is more important in the Placidus
system while the MidHeaven is Key in the Koch. The
way to understand and define the interpretational dif-
férences of Koch's system is to realize that magick-
ally the human ego is dual in nature; rooted in the
Qabalistic sphere known as Tiphereth (Sun) on the
Tree of Life and is bathed in the Above and Below.
Many astrologers will tell you that the Ascendant or
First House rules one's Ego but, in truth, it rules only
the Ego (and images) as presented by the person out-
wardly into the world: or magickally from the point
ofthe Lower Self or personality in the lower half of
 THE TWELVE HOUSES AND THE TREE OF LIFE 79

Tiphereth. The MidHeaven, on the other hand, is also

linked to the Ego; in this case it not only signifies the
image that one présents to the world but what inter-
nally drives us forward in our incarnation. It is our
ambitions, goals and the direction we take along the
path of life that we often conceal from others. It em-
phasizes aperson's quest for freedom to do their will,
or in the magickal sense, it's their True Will which is
the purpose behind their incarnation. For this reason
the MidHeaven is seen from the point of the Higher
Self found within the upper half of Tiphereth.
In brief, the Placidus System gives us insights into
the inner workings of a person's mind in relationship
to their personality while emphasizing its affect on
outer things in their life; it is very shallow or lower
self and outwardly oriented. Its interprétations of a
person's chart always begin with the Ascendant. The
Koch system, in contrast, interprets a person's chart
starting from the MidHeaven, sweeping downward
clockwise in an attempt to understand a person's
childhood or foundation stones. For this reason it
is very popular in the United States amongst astro-
psychologists. It is also believed, from a magickal
point-of-view, that ifyou are reviewing the chart of
someone who is lucky enough to know who and what
they want to be, the Koch system would be eminently
more suitable for understanding why. In truth, both
80 ALETHEIA

Systems should be carefully used when interpreting

one's chart.
Another important point to recognize is the ma-
jor distinction between the modem Placidus bouse
System and Koch, thanks to Dalton's streamlining
Placidus, which means that certain planets which arc
found near or on a cusp in a Placidus chart could very
well be in the wrong house. Mathematically, Koch
saw this error and his system corrects the problem
and places ail planets where they properly belong,
leaving some astrologers now to argue that even if
you want to interpret the chart from the Ascendant,
you should use the Koch system to figure it ont.

Since we now have an understanding of the planctary

attributes according to the Qabalistic sphères on the
Tree ofLife it will become obvions as to how these
sphères also relate to the 12 Houses ofthe Zodiac.

Starting in reverse order: the 12th House rules the

sign ofPisces. The ruling planet of this Zodiac sign
is Neptune. We've established that the Qabalistic
sphere ruling the planet Neptune is the 1st sephiroth
or Kether, the Crown.
 THE TWELVE HOUSES AND THE TREE OF LlFE 81

The llth House rules the sign of Aquarius: whose

ruling planet we've established is Uranus. The
nJ
Qabalistic sphere ruling Uranus is the 2 sephiroth
or Chokmah, Wisdom.

The 1 Oth House rules the sign of Capricorn: whose

ruling planet is Satum. The Qabalistic sphere ruling
Saturn is the 3 sephiroth or Binah, Understanding.

The Cusp ofTenth House / MidHeaven - and also

the ABYSS

The 9th House rules the sign of Sagittarius: whose

ruling planet is Jupiter. The Qabalistic sphere ruling
Jupiter is the 4l 1 sephiroth or Chesed, Mercy.

The 8th House mies the sign of Scorpio: which

rules two planets; Mars and Pluto. The Qabalistic
sphere which rules Mars is the 5": sephiroth or
Geburah, Power. Pluto rules the mysterious Gateway
to the Underworld known as the sphere of Daath,
Knowledge.

The 7th House mies the sign ofLibra: whose ruling

planet is Venus. The Qabalistic sphere ruling Venus is
the 7' sephiroth or Netzach, Vie tory.
82 ALETHEIA

The 6th House rules the sign ofVirgo: whose rul-

ing planet is Mercury. The Qabalistic sphere ruling
Mercury is the 8"' sephiroth or Hod, Splendeur.

The 5th House rules the sign of Léo: which rules the
Sun. The Qabalistic sphere which rules the Sun is the
ô^sephiroth known as Tiphereth, Beauty.

Planet Q Ç 9 d * 8 ¥ t
House 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Sphere 6 8 7 5 4 3 2 1 Daath

It is easy to see the "Planetary" order from our Sun

outward, from Mercury to Pluto. However, you'll no-
tice that the Earth and oui" Moon aie not shown in the
above order between the 1" House & the 8' House,
nor do we see the first foui" Houses of the Zodiac. In
truth, the Earth and Moon, plus these Houses aie the
Foundation Stones of our incarnation. They aie the
hub of the Spindle of Necessity, and will be reviewed
separately in a later chapter.
 VI
INTERPRETING
THE HOUSES

regardless of which House System is used, every

astrologer interprets charts differently depending
upon the astrological window from which his or her
own Soul views the world. Whether a chart is sim-
ply interpreted from an astrological point-of-view
or whether the interprétation is bathed in Qabalistic
and magickal training, it is safe to say that no two
astrologers will ever be alike. A good astrologer is
one who realizes this problem and then develops
their own intuitive beliefs. Here is a basic breakdown
ofthe houses:

First House - Aries HP (Mars)

Arics is the first sign to emerge or extend itself

in the Zodiacal circle. It is the house which dictâtes
the "beginning" of ail things that arc manifesting.
Crowley refers to this house as describing "the
individual and tempérament" and their "physical
condition and appearance," their primitive or most
basic animalistic image which is unique to them
which they présent to the world throughout their life.
In other words this house déterminés our body-type

S3
S4 ALETHEIA

or the shell that we have chosen for our incarnation.

Plato said it best when he wrote, "We arc imprisoned
43
in the body like an oyster in its shell." Some astrolo-
gers will tell you that the First House is the house of
the Ego; driven by selfishness known as Tm first"
and "the world owes me" mentality, as ifit were their
right to get anything that they "want." Magickally,
this house places more importance on "Do what thon
Want" above True Will as dictated by "Do what thon
Wilt." Both "Will and Want" arc two aspects of our
ego; the justifiable and the false. This house refers to
the false ego because it is rooted in the "Lower Self
which is more commonly called our "Personality"
or the image of our self as seen and interpreted by
others, not ncccssarily the real person as understood
by the^individual themselves which is concealed in
the 10' House. It is Mars, the God of war. who rules
the sign of Aries and he bathes this house in an often
aggressive primai force which fuels a person's need
to pursue new things, and frequently at the expense
of not completing previous projects and ventures.

43. Benjamin Walker. Beyond The Body, The Human Double and
the Astral Planes (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul). 1977.
p. 20.
 INTERPRETING THE HOUSES 85

Second House - Taums & (Venus)

This house represents things that we attempt to

accumulate: money, cherished possessions, values,
and ail those talents and priorities that are sought
after in this world and which we try to cultivate and
retain for our security. In many ways it refers to the
type of incarnation that a person has chosen. It also
symbolizes the Moon as it reflects the light of our
inner Star or subconscious as it seeks outward Self
gratification in mundane things. The First House's
selfishness known as "Fm first" and "the world owes
me mentality," is being defined in the world. However,
Aleister Crowley is quick to point ont that this house
"does not include gain or inheritance or legacy, nor
does it refer to bis aptitude for business." It is more
of a personal quest rather than something received
from others. Taums, being a "fixed" sign, implies that
change does not corne easy to the Bull-Headed ones
once self-assurance is achieved. A Taums is often
slow to start on most projects but once it becomes
bathed in enthusiasm this tliels its ability to stop at
nothing to get what it wants. However, stubbornness
if moved to inertia can easily get the better of the
Taums as they accomplishing very little outside of
their security point. This house, mled by the Goddess
Venus, implies a love of lavishness, fine art, good
food and clean homes and it describes the nature of
the passion which drives the need for possessions.
86 ALETHEIA

Third House - Gemini H (Mercury)

As a conséquence of its Mercurial nature this house

represents communication, travel, and relationships
with your siblings, your neighbors and ail the every-
day challenges that you will face trying to organize
your personal expériences in order to formulate your
own unique picture of the world and in the process
learning how to communicate this perception to oth-
ers. In some schools, this house represents in a broad
sense—éducation. Crowley adds that this house dé-
tails "every kind of médium" through which a person
"interprets his personality to his fellows." The First
House is beginning to reach out toward others both
close and abroad. However, Gemini is referred to as
the Twins. In classical mythology the twins are Castor
and Pollux; collectively known as the Dioscuri. They
are opposite extremes of our personality as seen from
the point-of-view of mortality and immortality, of in-
ner and outer things, and of positive and négatives,
Yin and Yang. A due in understanding this "mu-
table" or changing sign is to consider that Mercury
is primarily a toxic métal. You must learn to hold it
correctly, and since Mercury has no shape, if you try
to hold onto it from either extreme too tightly, it will
flow between your fingers.
 INTERPRETING THE HOUSES

Fourth House - Cancer 5fl(Moon)

According to Aleister Crowley this house "de-

scribes the birthplace and the home" of a person along
with their environment, their fertile imagination, nur-
turing qualifies and their inherited traits. This is also
the House of unconditional love in relationships, pri-
marily with one's mother. On the one hand this is said
to be the sign of Oedipus, on the other, due to Cancer
being mled by the Moon, it is also governed by the
youngest of the Fates, or Klotho (KXor ro), who has
ratified the web oflife that we have just chosen. But
it is important to always remember that the intimate
actions of our incarnation are ne ver carved in stone;
only the fact that we have chosen a spécifie incarna-
tion or life and that it is ours to fhlfill and no one
else's. The Moon has no light ofits own but reflects
that of the Sun in order to create the foundation of
how we perceive the world around us. In most cases
our mundane world, whether secure or not, is seen
only fleetingly in this house as the sign of Cancer is
as unstable as water flowing under a bridge, easily
appearing restless, but conversely if the water is still,
it dangerously becomes dank and moody. The First
House selfishness is beginning to face the challenges
required to develop the capacity for emotional close-
ness, and find a sense of security in its surroundings
88 ALETHEIA
as weighed in the balance of opposite extremes.
Often, in self reflection due to our Oedipus, this house
infonns us of the effects that our early childhood ex-
périence had upon us and for this reason the best way
to understand this house is to consider that Cancer
is the sign ofthe Crab: often appearing hard shelled
and insensitive on the outside but inside it is soft and
vulnérable; the extremes of childhood and adulthood.
Although seemingly filled with pitfalls, consider this
house with one word—resourcefiilness. Crowley
also adds that this house régulâtes—"the latter years
of life, the place of death and the end of the matter
in général."

Fifth House - Léo (Sun)

This house represents création and procréation,

love affairs and children, as well as a quest for amuse-
ment and pleasure. It is the house where you arc chal-
lenged to develop your creativity, self-esteem and to
find enthusiasm and joy in living a life so chosen
in your new incarnation. The Sun rules Léo, which
Crowley refers to as the "giver of life." It is the center
of the Universe. This is the house of the Sun God and
anyone making a study of such Gods will find the
extremes of "royal and tragic" arc often discussed.
This is because the Sun rules outer expansion and
growth as sun-light not only warms but nourishes,
 INTERPRETING THE HOUSES 89
bringing to birth life, it naturally fuels outward kind-
ness, creativity and generosity. But if afflicted it can
manifest stubbornness, conceit and intolérance as it
vomits a dogma of self grandeur as if implying "my"
Sun is the only light you should follow," which turns
everyone away from one's own Light. Since this is
a House ruled by a fiery fixed sign, in many cases it
characterizes sex for personal enjoyment rather than
any sort of a deep meaningtul relationship. From a
psychological and magickal point-of-view this house
helps us to interpret how you express yourself prop-
erly, as if your inner Sun is extending its Light, in
a personal if not creative outpouring. This House is
ruled by the b'^Çabalistic sphere of Tiphereth (mNDn)
the Sun. Tiphereth means Beauty and here we must
inevitably learn to seek the Laws of our Star for in
Beauty is eternal Tmth revealed.

Sixth House - Virgo (Mercury)

This house represents those things which chal-

lenge you to seek competency, to function efîiciently,
in your physical body, your life and in your work.
Due to the nature of Mercury being intellectual, this
house gives us the ability to analyze things, not nec-
essarily of a spiritual or internai nature, as much as
those things in the outer world. For this reason this
house fuels our drive to serve others: from employ-
90 ALETHEIA

ers to employées to one's entire job. It is the house

of habits, patterns and duties. Being a mutable carth
sign, Virgo gives this house its flexibility, versatility
and more important, its adaptability and it does so
in order to mutate to every mundane circumstance
because its quest for work has an insatiable need to
feel useful in order to fix, repair, improve or maintain
things. If this house is afflicted, Virgos can drive
everyone crazy with their fastidious behavior and
in extreme cases, those traits which give them the
ability to make excellent choices as an employée can
easily turn dark and bathe them in lies, deceit and
thievery. Due to its Mercurial nature Aleister Crowley
notes that this house has "a very secret and peculiar
référencé to the occult development of the ego."
He also refers to this as the house of one's "health"
and others things "connected with the body, such as
his food and clothing." This House is ruled by the
8"' Qabalistic sphere of Hod (lin) or Mercury. Hod
means Splendeur, although many books will simply
translate this word as meaning "Glory," which is not
entirely accurate.

Seventh House - Libra — (Venus)

This house represents one's de s ire and ability to

establish personal relationships with others, more
so with spouses, partners and levers. It is the house
 INTERPRETING THE HOUSES 91
which dictâtes the expectations that you have in
everyone around you and what you are looking for
in each. For this reason it is often seen as the house
of marriage, and sometimes of establishing business
partnerships and friendships. On the flip side, this
house also reveals enemies. Love and hate are two
extremes of the same pôle. In ail cases, in this house a
person quests for a balance between these extremes.
This house is mled primarily by Venus the Goddess
ofLove and Beauty. However since this is a mascu-
line sign, sitting on the opposite side of the scales
and hidden under the surface lies the négative energy
of Saturn, more so in the House of Scorpio. If the
scales are tipped in this direction the house can eas-
ily become bathed in dishonesty, intense scheming
and déception and inevitably unscmpulous behavior
emerges toward others, especially your mate. Yes,
in many ways, this is truly the house of love. This
House is mled by the 71' Qabalistic sphere of Netzach
(nsi) or Venus. Netzach means Victory.

Eight House - Scorpio ÏÏl, (Mars and Pluto)

This house represents the challenges that one

faces when wrestling the powers of your psyché from
the deep, dark underworld, and your ability to focus
this energy with mthless intensity on the process
of breaking down your reality stmcture into little
92 ALETHEIA

pièces, then reassembling ail the pièces into a new

whole; either justifiable or false. This house is bathed
in a fixed sign, ruled by Mars and Pluto, making its
energy often unmovable in its quest. It is the house
of secrets, stubbornness, suspicions and resentment,
where personal taboos, as well as those of society,
arc often addressed and where you dig into your own
internai garbage in order to find the hidden treasure
which can prove that your views and personal quests
arc justifiable. Think of Scorpio as a compost heap
where ail the bits of decaying food break down
and eventually tum into fertilizer to nourish a new
growth, of course this is Scorpio in its positive stage.
In its négative stage the Scorpion will sting itself to
death rallier than be cornered or wrong. This house
dictâtes a person's ability to share and make com-
mitments but if afflicted, it could indicate whether or
not one will be able to abide by agreements given
to others and if not, these négative aspects can eas-
ily undermine everything from business ventures, to
relationships and mamage. This is the house of death
and régénération, of transformation, of beginnings
and endings, both from a positive point-of-view and
that of a négative. It is often seen as the house of
occult and psychic matters. Crowley writes that this
house "indicates the probable length of life and the
manner of its termination." This House is ruled by
 INTERPRETING THE HOUSES 93

the 5h Qabalistic sphere of Geburah (HTOl) or Mars.

Geburah means Strength.

Ninth House - Sagittarius f (Jupiter)

This house represents the challenges that you face

to broaden your philosophical perspectives in order
to realize your highest potentials, involving éduca-
tion or those things which expand one's experience
toward freedom. Crowley refers to this as the house
of "science and religion." Symbolically Sagittarius,
who is a centaur, always shoots his arrow toward
great heights. This house also represents your in-laws
and your grandchildren, foreign travel and the quest
to experience other cultures. Also, Crowley adds that
this house describes a person's "aspirations in the
manner of spiritual advancement and will indicate
the nature ofhis religions teacher." This House is
mled by the 4'' Qabalistic sphere ofChesed (ion) or
Jupiter. Chesed means Mercy.

The MidHeaven

The Cusp of the Tenth House is known as our

MidHeaven, or the Abyss on the Tree of Life. The
MidHeaven, or "the middle of the skies," in one's
Birth Chart is known in Latin as médium coeli which
is often simply written as b. The Greeks referred to
94 ALETHEIA

this point as the praxis (Tlpàçiç) or "work," but this is

more of a sexual nature than anything mundane due
to the fact that Praxis is another name for the Goddess
Aphrodite as the Celestial Venus the daughter of the
"sky and light." According to the ancient Greeks
Aphrodite is a dual goddess; one young and beauti-
flil, the other much older and wiser and known by the
name Urania (Oupa ia) which means "heavenly."
Urania is depicted dressed in a cloak embroidered with
stars, holding a globe in her left hand with her foot on
a turtle, which is the ancient symbol of silence. Her
gaze is always focused towards the Heavens and it is
she who teaches mankind how to foretell the friture
by the position of the stars. Catullus informs us in
Verse 61 ofhis poem "Carmen" that it is Urania who
gave birth to a child named Hymenaeus, the brother
of Priapus.
Astrologically, if you use the Placidus or Koch
Systems, the MidHeaven will always be the cusp
between the 9th and lOth house but in the "Equal
House" System the MC can be found anywhere
between the 9th, lOth or llth house. Ail in ail, the
MidHeaven is the highest point in your chart and it
is said to represent authority or the pinnacle of one's
life as seen in the public eye and thus it represent our
social standing, accomplishments and réputation.
The Tenth House is also mled by Capricorn, the sign
 INTERPRETING THE HOUSES 95

of the goat, the animal who stands on the mountain

top overseeing his world or life below, or more
appropriately reviewing the life that has lead him to
the snmmit.
In the Qabalah we could infer that the dual na-
ture of Aphrodite is the same as the Greater and
Lesser Mother. As the Greater Mother she is Binah,
or Saturn which rules Capricorn. Saturn is often
called the Devil and magickally to pass beyond the
MidHeaven, or the Abyss on the Tree of Life and into
the Tenth House of Capricorn (Binah) one must face
the ultimate guardian known as Choronzon which
represents everyone's personal démon. If you can
conquer your Démon and put him behind you, then as
a Goat, you'll sit on the mountain top; which like the
MidHeaven is the highest and the most visible point.
It is here on the mountain top that you'll achieve
the real power which cornes from being able to
view your surroundings from the highest vantage
point. For this reason the MidHeaven represents our
greatest potential and our best achievements that we
can focus downward off the mountain and into our
reality. Basically, oui- Ninth House represents learn-
ing and our aspirations while our Tenth House is the
actualization of those dreams. However, magicians
have long known that standing on a mountain top,
like being within the magickal Abyss, implies that
the slightest misstep is magnified many times over;
96 ALETHEIA

the higher the attainment the more dangerous the fall

or in a mundane sense we can say "the bigger they
are, the harder they fall." It is important to always
remember that everything which descends below
the Abyss, from our Tenth House, becomes bathed
in duality, this includes the Higher Self. Magickally,
if a person attempts to cross the Abyss for egotisti-
cal or unjustifiable reasons, the Ego will no longer
strive to fnlfill the Will of God but instead it seeks
the desires and Wants found within the First House.
The First House aspect of the Ego is false because
it is rooted in the Fower Self, or one's personality
as seen and interpreted by others. It is neither real
nor is it necessarily a reflection of the "inner person"
as it is understood and concealed by the individual
themselves while they stand on the mountain top in
the Tenth House.

Tenth House - Capricorn Y5 (Saturn)

This house represents the challenges that you will

face trying to earn respect and récognition as you
evolve outward into the world in which you have
incarnated. It is the house of aims, ambitions and the
direction your life takes, whether positive or néga-
tive, based on the choices you've made throughout
the course of your life. It is a house of your status in
society; of your personal réputation; career. Crowley
 INTERPRETING THE HOUSES 97

states "Upon this house his famé dépends, as also

his rank and honor among his fellows." The Tenth
House also shows the foundation and limits that have
been placed upon you in your childhood by your
parents regarding what the Greeks called the "First
Gift" given by the Gods, the "choice of incarnation."
Although many astrologers point out that the First
House raies the Ego, others point out that the Ego
is also raled by the Tenth House. This is because the
Ego, rooted in the Sun, is bathed in an inner and outer
duality that vacillâtes between justifiable and false,
our Higher Self (MC-Tenth House) and our Lower
Self (First House); or "Do what thou Wilt" and "Do
what thou Want."
The First House aspect of the Ego is often referred
to as false because it is rooted in the "Lower Self
which is more commonly called your "Personality"
or the image that is seen and interpreted by others,
not necessarily a reflection of the "inner person" as
understood and concealed by the individual them-
selves in their Tenth House. This House is raled by
the 3rd Qabalistic sphere ofBinah (nPD) or Satura.
Binah means "Understanding."

Eleventh House - Aquarius ^(Uranus)

This house represents the needs and challenges

that we face throughout our life as we try to establish
98 ALETHEIA

a "detached relationship." Astrologers often miss

this point because they're not Thelemites, but to a
magician, a "detached relationship" is not necessar-
ily something "separated in a mundane sense" but
something internai that we need to face in regards to
ail extemal objects. We must learn to place no impor-
tance on one thing over another and we should never
"sell our soul" because to do so implies deviating off
the path that we have chosen for our incarnation in
order to embrace a mundane distraction.
Still, this house lias an insatiable thirst for knowl-
edge. The problem is that it easily accepts advice,
often gleefully listening, but rarely does it act upon
this, even if it considers the advice to be valid. The
reason being is that this house acts like a scientist.
It takes everything in but learns more by expérience
than intellect. There is nothing wrong with this un-
less a person keeps blowing up glass test-tubes trying
to repeat the same experiment in order to sec where
they've gone wrong. Sooner or later the Aquarian
has to act "rashly," and as Crowley states, "rash and
even foolish action is really wiser than the wisdom of
délibération." In other words, the beaker is broken,
pick up the pièces and move on, because to analyze it
endlessly implies you're standing still. Crowley adds:
"The habit of délibération, which is right, may easily
become the habit of temporizing, which is wrong."
 INTERPRETING THE HOUSES 99
In others words, conforming to one's apparent cir-
cumstances is procrastination and dangerous for the
Aquarius.
This house, mled by an Air sign, can easily keep
one's head in the clouds and because of such; you'll
walk off the clifl] This house teaches us to pay atten-
tion to our surroundings, and learn the Laws of our
Star, so that we don't make the same mistake over
and over again. Traditionally this is the house that is
associated with humanitarian organizations; groups,
clubs and organizations, of hopes, wishes and shared
ideals. Crowley sums this up as being the house of
"friends." This House is mled by the 2"'' Qabalistic
sphere of Chokmah (riDDh) or Uranus. Chokmah
means Wisdom.

Twelfth House - Pisces K (Neptune)

This house represents the challenges that a person

faces as they explore their inner depths of solitude
and silence; especially regarding those things related
to mysticism, the occult and psychic matters. It is
the house that represents a person's ability to discern
between illumination and illusion, between spiritual
growth and escapism but it is also a house wrought
with difficulties. The sign of Pisces portrays two
fish swimming in opposite directions, often lacking
concentration and directness depending upon the
100 ALETHEIA
"clutter" within their life, below the Abyss. Too many
"wants" will engulf a Pisces and only when they fo-
cus on "One" thing will they overcome the tendency
to scatter their energy. Often this is due to the fact
that mundane actions bathed in cause and efFect is
often fleeting, morally undefined and unimportant
in this house, this is the house where we leam the
Laws of Karma. It is also the house of secrets and
secret enemies. The greatest lesson to leam before
you can transcend the twelfth and final house is that
you must be willing to let go of ail things that are
tmly unimportant, to solidify the material, focusing
internally in quest of the source of being; it is said to
be the house of IAM. This House is mled by the 1 st
Qabalistic sphere of Kether ("iro) or Neptune. Kether
is often referred to as the Crown.
 VII
THE PLANEES

WHEN an astrologer refers to a certain planet being in

a certain house; although it is a literal interprétation
of an actual fact, the implication are that the planet
and the House offer each other a certain type of influ-
ence which subtly changes both, and it is important
for us to review both qualities and think about how
they are entwined.

Sun - "Every man and every woman is a star."

(Liber AL vel Legis 1:3) The Sun represents the
"center" of our Universe. It rules our incarnation and
our expériences. It dictâtes not only our purpose in
life but our personality as it relates to our persona or
mask, being our outer manifested ego which we prés-
ent to others. It is also our creative self-expression
and its Light animâtes ail that we know in our life. It
is our identity. Just as the Sun in the heavens leaves it
mark on our planet Earth, so our internai Sun dictâtes
the same to us as it animâtes life in our body. The
Sun is a maie symbol only in respect to it referring
to manifested qualities in both genders. The ancients
believed that our personal Holy Guardian Angel de-
scends from the natal constellation of each individual.

101
102 ALETHEIA

The 6" Qabalistic sphere ofTiphereth (niKDn) rules

the Sun. Here we must learn to seek its Laws for in
Beauty is eternal Truth revealed.

J) Moon - This orb has no light of its own but reflects

that of the Sun. It takes our Solar Light and créâtes
the foundation of how we perceive the world around
us. It contains the knowledge of ail incarnations past
and présent and it is our personal réservoir of life
experience from a deeper emotional level rather than
cold hard facts. The Moon rules our Soul and it is the
bridge between our Spirit and our body. The Moon
is a féminine symbol only in respect to it referring to
internai qualities in both genders. The 9'" Qabalistic
sphere of Yesod (nD1) rules the Moon. Here the
Pathway is toward the Perfection of Thyself; you
must learn to conquer yourself.

? Mercury - This planet mies our intellect and how

we are able to utilize the Solarthings which are stored
within the Moon. It dictâtes our ability to perceive
our reality and how we relate to everything from in-
animate objects to people around us. In this regard it
mies communication, language and symbols but not
necessarily from an emotional level but in a much
more cold matter-of-fact way as a bridge between
our Sun and others. Mercury, like the Greek daimon,
 THE PLANETS 103
is the messenger of the Gods. Plato notes that the
daimons serve as "the envoys and interpreters that
ply between heaven and earth, flying upward with
our worship and our prayers, and descending with
the heavenly answers and commandments, and since
they are between the two estâtes they weld both sides
together and merge them into one great whole." The
S'^Gabalistic sphere of Hod (Tin) rules Mercury.

9 Venus - This planet is associated with love and the

"affairs of the heart." Venus rules féminine virtues;
it is graceflil and tactful. It is an internai barometer
or thermostat which gives us feedback about what is
or isn't comfortable and désirable to our Sun. It is
a powerful indicator of what a person values and it
reveals our inclinations toward romance, marriage
and partnership in général. Venus is the quality which
takes the Sun's light and warmth and allows growth
to happen in our life. Since Venus is the Goddess of
"Beauty" she dénotés our appréciation for aestheti-
cally pleasing things which enhance our sense of in-
ternai harmony. The 7' Qabalistic sphere of Netzach
(nS3) rules Venus.

d Mars - This planet's fu net ion is pure sexuality in

its most animalistic and aggressive state as the heart
beats faster and faster, with blood racing, with a need
104 ALETHEIA

to act on the desires epitomized by Venus in our chart.

In many ways Mars mies our survival instinct. It is
our Sun or ego in action. It gives us our courage and
represents our stmggle with others. Although often
depicted as a masculine mler of men, Mars is really
that quality of déliant, feisty and impulsive power
which manifests in both sexes. In the chart it is said
that where Mars is, there is trouble because it implies
ail challenges we must face and our ability to bravely
meet them head on. In doing such it Iliels our sense
of séparation from internai spirituality in order to
generate self-expression. It is the Iliel which drives
our Tme Will. The S* Qabalistic sphere of Geburah
(nTOJ) mies Mars.

"k Jupiter - As Mars quests for Venus, Jupiter quests

for Mercury. It symbolizes the force behind expansion
and growth; our desire to learn new things and how
we integrate ourselves into our environment through
the use of the information that we've obtained.
Jupiter is benevolent, générons and the seat of mercy
and as Mars is quick to destroy, Jupiter is quick to
build, increase and enhance. And as Mars is a blind
driving spontaneous energy, Jupiter is calculating,
cautions, a stickler for minute détails and offers us
the ability to recognize opportunities as they become
available. The 4,J| Qabalistic sphere of Chesed (ton)
mies Jupiter.
 THE PLANETS 105

Z) Saturn - This planet déterminés the Laws behind

the manifestations ofyour Sun and more commonly
those mies that people self-impose upon themselves
which can create serions obstacles, external limita-
tions and restrictions. Although some consider Saturn
a malefic or evil force, especially considering that it
eats its children, in many other ways it is a required
fonction necessary for the growth of individual
consciousness in its quest for confidence, discipline
and stability. But the flip side of life cornes as death;
Saturn can bring hard work, coldness, shyness, lone-
liness, repression and ail things related to decay. It
mies death. Saturn shows where in one's chart the
greatest challenges and limitations are to be found,
and the hardest lessons learned. Saturn is a force
which will absorb much ofyour time, yet rather than
avoiding it and considering it evil, you will be forced
by circumstances to overcome your fears in relation-
ship to where Saturn lies in your chart by becoming
an expert in the field indicated. The 3rd Qabalistic
sphere ofBinah (hrh) mies Saturn.

5 Uranus - This planet's influence is difficult to ap-

preciate. It mies Universal Freedom and it is the seed
ofour True Will yet to be born and having little to do
with mundane Wants. In many ways these "Wants"
restrict us, and our "True Will" sometimes requires
106 ALETHEIA

a gentle push to let go of unneeded baggage. Uranus

is the force that shakes our tree and knocks unwanted
fruit from our branches but most of its influence
occurs internally. It often refers to something in a
person's life like a conscious euphorie shock which
acts as a breakthrough to an awakening of a new
level of understanding or consciousness. This can
be caused by a sudden psychological or emotional
breakthrough, an unexpected event, or even a drastic
departure from one's set patterns; being something
that "over-throws" that which lias outlived its useful-
ness to us in our personal internai Universe. The 7^
Qabalistic sphere of Chokmah (nDlin) rules Uranus.

Neptune - This planet's rôle is dissolving boundar-

ies and bringing about a sense of oneness or spiritual
enlightenment concerning the universe, either raising
us up to mystical expériences, or pulling us down into
chaos and confusion. A person who truly understands
what this implies can stand on the shore of the Great
Sea, look upward at the stars and say with confidence,
"I Am" but not in any material sense where matter
or our ego is involved. Neptune rules a much higher
octave of love than the personal love which is de-
picted by Venus. Astrologers often refer to this planet
as being deceptive but in truth Neptune is the master
of disguise whose rôle it is to cloud issues with il lu-
 THE PLANETS 107
sion, mystery and idealism, the flip side being that of
self-delusion in reality. It is a mediumistic planet of
visionaries, charismatic individuals, psychics, mys-
tics, of dreams, hallucinations and internai phantoms
spawned in our subconscious mind. In other words: it
mies ail that is subtle, mysterious, ill-defined and not
material. The 1 st Qabalistic sphere of Kether ("iro)
mies Neptune.

T Pluto-Thisplanet isthe Gateway to the Underworld

and as such its influence is seen more on our collec-
tive unconsciousness over a long period of time rather
than in our personal daily lives. It acts as an over haul
of the psyche/Soul or transformer of archetypal im-
ages; often with rather catastrophic conséquences as
it can drag unfathomable psychological issues up ont
of our unconscious in an attempt to purge them in the
light of day while recreating the images into a new,
workable motif Pluto brings death and re-birth, and
in the final stage before transformation is achieved
it often bathes an individual in déniai that change or
New Beginnings are necessary. Pluto, being a higher
octave ofMars, reveals the most intense psychologi-
cal drives in our personality, both good and bad, also
power and its misuse and it reveals areas of our per-
sonality where we will be at our most magnetic and
dominating. The sphere of Daath (JIYT) mies Pluto.
 VIII
THE MYSTERY OF
CHIRON, CERFS AND THE ASTEROID BELT

6
this symbol, often seen in modem astrology charts,
refers to a cornet by the name of Chiron which wasn't
discovered until 1977. It bas a strange, very erratic,
and often mysterious orbit. It crosses the orbits of
both Saturn and Uranus without being pulled into the
gravitational pull of either of these planets.
This cornet is named after the centaur in Greek
Mythology who had the gift of teaching and healing,
with the exception that the only person he couldn't
heal, was himself. Hence his title — "The Wounded
Healer." In our Birth Chart, Chiron represents an
area where we have the greatest affmity to teach but
often it is an area where we can instruct others to do
something better than we have the ability to do it our-
selves. Because of this ability it is said that we have
healing powers as the resuit of our own deep spiritual
wounds. Some astrologers believe the "wound" is
often rooted in our childhood, in areas where we have
low self-worth with the feeling of inadequacy. Once
identified, we must leam to rise above this, even over-
108
 THE MYSTERY OF CHIRON, CERES & THE ASTEROID BELT 109

compensating if necessary, but anything rooted in our

childhood implies that the wound goes deep, and it is
something we must work hard to overcome.
Qabalistically, Chiron is a mystery on the Tree of
Life simply because it has no représentation. If the
Law "As Above, So Below" is correct and God used
the same blueprint to create everything from the most
exalted to the infinitésimal, by studying any part on
one Tree should reveal, simply by analogy, its reflec-
tion on the other ... but where is Chiron located on
the Tree of Life? Naturally it should lie somewhere
between Binah-3 (Saturn) and Chokmah-2 (Uranus)
but nothing is there. Some Qabalists believe that
Chiron is not necessarily a "new" sphere as much as
it is part of the path between Binah and Chokmah
which unités them, this being the Tarot card of The
Empress. Regardless if this is true or not, a new, more
acceptable map is needed as the exploration of our
consciousness continues into the higher branches of
the Tree ofLife.

9
■
This symbol represents the largest object in the as-
teroid belt, which is another anomaly. The belt exists
between Mars and Jupiter. Some astronomers believe
110 ALETHEIA

that this belt was either a planet which was destroyed,

or one that was simply ill-formed. Interestingly,
Johann Elert Bode in 1768 predicted that a planet
should be found exactly where we now see the as-
teroid belt and on January Ist 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi,
following Bode's mathematical formula, discovered
the largest of ail the asteroids which lie named Ceres
after the Roman Goddess; the great mother ofuncon-
ditional love and fertility. It is the only officiai "dwarf
planet" in the asteroid belt and it is so large that it
contains over a third of the belt's entire mass. Ceres
proper astrological symbol is that of a sickle.
The général consensus amongst astrologers is that
this particular asteroid describes the development of
féminine influences both externally and internally in
both men and women. One is reminded of the myths
of Ceres, the daughter of Saturn and sister to Jupiter.
It was her daughter Persephone who represents the
cyclic rhythms of nature and the deeper mysteries of
birth, life, death and résurrection. Persephone was
abducted by Pluto, the Lord of the Underworld, and
Ceres, refusing to give up her up, made a deal where-
by her daughter would spend half of the year above
the Earth which brought fertility to the land, and the
other half in the netherworld which brought winter.
Astrologers arc quick to point ont that the placement
of Ceres in one's Birth Chart is clearly a harbinger
 THE MYSTERY OF CHIRON, CERFS & THE ASTEROID BELT 1 11

of loss although it always holds out the promise of

return, or recovery.
Like Chiron, the asteroid belt is a mystery on the
Tree ofLife since it has no représentation. It should
naturally lie somewhere between Geburah-5 (Mars)
and Chesed-4 (Jupiter) but nothing is there and un-
bke Chiron which is a mere cornet, Ceres is an actual
dwarf planet, as such it should be given a Sephiroth.
But where is it found on the Tree?
I will not be so presumptuous as to say that I know
the answers to the questions that arc presented in this
section. I am simply perplexed, as are others, to their
rôle on The Tree ofLife and for now I only wanted
to bring them up as anomalies. I hope l've made it
clcar in this book that our views regarding The Tree
ofLife arc constantly growing as our consciousness
and knowledge of the Universe grows. Never be so
narrow minded as to think that what has been writ-
ten is to be believed unquestioningly throughout the
centuries.
 IX
THE FIRST FOUR HOUSES
AND THE MAN OF EARTH

WhocallsusThelemites will dono wrong, ifhelookbutclose

into the word. For there are therein Three Grades, the
Hermit, and the Lover, and the man of Earth.
- Liber ALvel Legis, 1:40

WE have now reached a point where we must reflect

upon our Earth and Moon not only as the Foundation
Stones of our incarnation but also in relationship to
the first four Houses of the Zodiac. It is here where
everyone must first focus in their quest to Know
Thyself. The most sacred book of Aleister Crowley's
Thelemic creed is known as Liber AL vel Legis. In
this book it states that being a Thelemite, or a seeker
after one's True Will, encompasses only "three
grades" and not the ten upon which many fraternities
are based. These grades are known as "the Hermit,
and the Lover, and the man of Earth." Regarding this
initiatory system, similar to the coils of Kundalini,
we are also informed: "Behold! there are three or-
deals in one, and it may be given in three ways. The
gross must pass through fire; let the fine be tried in
intellect, and the lofty chosen ones in the highest."

112
 THE FIRST FOUR HOUSES AND THE MAN OF EARTH 113

{Liber AL. 1:50) These three concepts arc utilized by

Aleister Crowley as the structure of his Order known
as the A.".A... He clearly states—"Our system of
initiation is to be triune. For the outer, tests of labour,
pain, etc. For the inner, intellectual tests. For the elect
44
-
of the A. .A. ., spiritual tests." The concept of a
three-fold initiatory system originates in Gnosticism
but more so in northern Egypt in the ancient town
of Alexandria. This arc a spawned what has become
known as Alexandrian Gnosticism. Its followers ad-
hered to the teachings of Basilides, who lived during
the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (76-138 AD).
Basilides broke his entire system down into three
"grades" which encompassed what was called the
"Material, Intellectual and Spiritual." The end resuit
of these grades being the descent of Gnosis, or true
Knowledge. It is the lowest of these three degrees
that concerns us here, or that of the man of Earth.
At this point we must examine Paroketh which is
not strictly speaking a part of the Tree of Life but is
rather a mythical "Veil ofthe Temple" that everyone
encounters while journeying upward on the Tree.
Where exactly the veil rests has often been the sub-
ject of much debate, but most agree that it is simply
a "Portai Degree" or bridge which must be crossed

44. Aleister Crowley, The Equinox, Vol. I No.7, (NY: Samuel

Weiser), p. 392.
114 ALETHEIA

between the First and Second (Inner) Order of most

magickal Fraternities. In The Hennetic Order of
The Golden Dawn as in early A.'.A.", the veil was
placed between the Qabalistic sphere ofNetzach-7
and Tiphereth-6 but this is not something carved in
stone to which we must ail adhéré. Many of the eaiiy
Fraternities simply placed the "veil" here to signify
an individual embracing Christ or solar conscious-
ness rather than anything more reasonable. But this
division does not logically fit the scheme of the Tree
of Life.
In theory the division between the First and
Second Orders should be placed between our Ruach
and what is called the Nephesch or our animalistic
soul on the Tree of Life. What complicates this for
modem magicians who try to wade through a wealth
of material on this subject is that Theosophical and
Golden Dawn schools state that our "animalistic
soul" works out of Malkuth while the Ruach works
ont of the six sphères from Yesod-9 to Chesed-4.
However, later Qabalists like Aleister Crowley, Israël
Regardie, Dion Fortune, Paul Poster Case and many
others have come to believe that this is utterly wrong.
The sphere of Yesod, or the Moon, is the real seat of
our animal instincts, while the Ruach works out of
only five spheres, from Hod to Chesed and not six.
 THE FIRST FOUR HOUSES AND THE MAN OF EARTH 115
Aleister Crowley noted in Little Essays Toward
Truth that the "Ruach is a closely-knitted group of
Five Moral and Intellectual principles, concentrated
on their core, Tiphareth, the Principle of Hannony,
the Human Consciousness and Will of which the four
45
other Sephiroth arc (so to speak) the feelers." Israël
Regardie explores this same concept further in his
book The Middle Pillar; where he observes that the
Ruach rules the five central spheres on the Tree of Life
known as Hod^, Netzach-7, Tiphereth-6, Geburah-5
and Chesed-4. The central sphere of this complex
being Tiphereth which is your Sun, your inner Star.
"Every man and every woman is a star." (Liber AL,
1:3) If you turn the entire Tree of Life on its side you
clcarly see a Solar System with the Sun in the center
and the planets swirling around it. You must learn the
Laws of this Solar System. The Light of this central
sphere is what animâtes us and our Universe. In one
respect we need our persona or ego because it is the
driving factor defining who we are on Malkuth, or
who we are in our incarnation. On another level the
ego must be conquered, not destroyed, because if it
remains outside our control it corrupts ail that lays
below on the Tree ofLife.
45. Aleister Crowley, Little Essays Toward Truth (Malton, Cana-
da: Dove Press, [1970]), pp. 5-6.
46. Israël Regardie, The Middle Pillar; (MN: Llewellyn, 1970),
p. 58.
116 ALETHEIA

In many ways, since the Temple lies within each

and every one of us, the "veil" is merely a state of
mind which divides the Below from the Above, or
the man of Earth grade from that of the Lover grade
within A .'.A.", schools. To understand what lies be-
low the Veil we must examine the first four Houses
in our Birth Chart and their relationship with the two
spheres of Malkuth and Yesod along with three par-
ticular paths on the Tree of Life.
The Earth itself is the IO1'' Qabalistic sphere on
the Tree o f Life known a s Malkuth (JTOD). 11 has a
symbol like ; which represents the four-fold elemen-
tal structure ofThe Kingdom: this being Lire, Earth,
Air and Water. Our human bodies are, in affect, the
"Earth" but only so far as being a "shell" and not its
contents.
The Moon is the 9f Qabalistic sphere and is
known as Yesod ("PD''), or the "Loundation." It is the
satellite of our planet and as Earth is the shell, our
Moon represents the Soul or the aspect of our Spirit
which uses the body in order to gain experience on
Malkuth.
In a way, although the Yesod is the seat of the
Kundalini, or the Muladhara Chakra, it requires the
use of a body or Malkuth in a symbiotic relationship.
ist House - mies Aries, whose mling planet is
Mars. This house mies both the Qabalistic sphere of
 THE FIRST FOUR HOUSES AND THE MAN OF EARTH 117

Malkuth (Earth) the 10'11 sphere and Yesod (Moon)

the 9" collectively because our Soul is tethered to
our human body and both arc one and the same and
inséparable. A body without a Soul is simply a lump
of clay. Crowley refers to this bouse as deseribing
"the individual and tempérament" and their "physieal
condition and appearance," their primitive or most
basic animalistic image and urges which arc unique
to themselves and which they présent to the world
throughout their life. This house not only déterminés
but reveals the body-type or shell that we have cho-
sen for our incarnation and being the first House to
emerge after our Rising Sign it is also directly con-
nected to the Fate Atropos. Qabalistically, Malkuth
and Yesod encompass what is referred to as Malkus
and Nephesch, or our conscious thoughts and our
animalistic nature as y et defined by life.

"There is a word to say about the Hierophantic task.

Behold! there arc thrcc ordeals in one, and it may be
given in thrcc ways. The gross must pass through fire;
let the fine be tried in intellect, and the lofty chosen
ones in the highest. Thus ye have star- & star-, system
& system; let not one know well the other!"

- Liber AL vel Le gis, 1:50

118 ALETHEIA

The lowest Hierophantic ordeal, or the task facing

the man of Earth especially within the first Houses in
our Birth Chart, is that the "gross must pass through
fire." The first House is ruled by a Pire Sign. Crowley
believes these are the "outer labours." This is what
Basilides would call the "material" stage of an indi-
vidual's personal development. On a broader scale,
regarding the passing through tire, Aleister Crowley
believed our world itself met its destmction by this
element in 1904 when Horus took bis rôle in the East
as the Hierophant, thus beginning the New Aeon of
Aquarius. Crowley claims that ail soûls would pass
through this spiritual tire simply by accepting the
Law of Thelema.

2nd House - rules the Zodiac sign of Taums, which

rules the planet Venus. It refers to the 29' path of The
Moon which extends from Malkuth (Earth) the 10lh
sphere to Netzach the T Qabalistic sphere also mled
by Venus. On an outward level this house represents
those things that we attempt to accumulate: money,
cherished possessions, values, talents and priorities
sought after in the world that we hold onto for secu-
rity. The key phrase for Tarot card of The Moon is
known as "Bodily Consciousness."
 THE FIRST FOUR HOUSES AND THE MAN OF EARTH 119
3rd House -rules the Zodiac sign of Gemini, which
rules the planet Mercury. It refers to the 3 lst path of
Judgment which extends from Malkuth (Earth) the
l(f sphere to Hod which is the 8th Qabalistic sphere
also ruling Mercury. This house, due to its Mercurial
nature, represents communication, travel, relation-
ships with your siblings, your neighbors and ail the
everyday challenges that you will face trying to orga-
nize your personal expériences in order to formulate
your own unique picture of the world and the process
of learning how to communicate this perception to
others. Hod is the sphere of the Intellect and the
path of Judgment leading to it refers to our human
consciousness on the verge ofblending with univer-
sal consciousness: hence "Résurrection." Crowley
changed the name of this card in his deck to The
Aeon.

4th House - rules the Zodiac sign of Cancer,

which rules the Moon. It refers to the 32"'* path of
The World which extends from Malkuth (Earth)
the 10°' sphere to Yesod which is the 9"' Qabalistic
sphere ruled by the Moon. According to Crowley,
this house "describes the birthplace and the home"
of a person along with their environment, their fertile
imagination, nurturing qualifies, inherited traits and
of unconditional love in relationships, primarily with
120 ALETHEIA

one's mother. The path ofThe World is important in

that it tethers our Soul to our Body; our birthplace.
On an inward level, this house refers to the over-all
mundane type of incarnation that a person has cho-
sen. In many ways it symbolizes the Fate Klotho who
mies our Moon Sign.
The three aspects ofthe man ofEarth with regard
to the paths are also rooted above the Abyss as seeds
yet unborn. For instance, the card ofThe World mies
Saturn, which is exalted in Capricorn the 10"1 House
in Binah. The card of Judgment mies Shin (Pire)
which détails the New Aeon mled by Aquarius the
1111 House whose mling planet is Uranus or Chokmah
and finally, the card ofThe Moon mies Pisces, which
is the 121'' House mled by the planet Neptune in
Kether.

ne ih
2 House Taurus The Moon/Pisces 12 House ^
rd -.h
3 House Gemini Judgment/Fire 11 House g
T'1 House Cancer The World /Satum KT House F,
 X
ASPECTS

IF you desire to ascend the Tree ofLife, using your

astrological Birth Chart as a road map, your primary
goal should be to focus upon studying the first four
Houses of your Birth Chart. It should not be the pur-
pose of those who desire to elimb into the branches of
the Tree ofLife to immerse themselves in an attempt
to understand their entire Birth Chart ail at once. Yes,
an over-view is important, just as it is required when
studying the Qabalah and the Tree ofLife because
you must know the basics of any mystical art before
putting it to use. However, when endeavoring to tra-
verse the Tree ofLife you always start at its base and
slowly ascend, sphere by sphere, while attempting to
accomplish the spiritual and material aspects of each
Sephiroth and Connecting paths. If you've understood
what has been taught in this book you now have a
valuable tool for discovering self, your astrological
Birth Chart.
We know that the first four astrological Houses of
the man of Fart h. arc represented by the four-sides
of the Sacred Well and that the square within is the
Muladhara Chakra, as well as being the two lowest
spheres on the Tree of Life: Malkuth and Yesod.

121
 122 ALETHEIA

These two spheres must be fully accomplished on

ail levais before you attempt to traverse higher. Now
look at your Birth Chart and you'II see that planets
naturally exist at varions angles to each other which
astrologers refer to as "aspects" or interaction of two
forces. These aspects are:

■Afer-
This symbol refers to a sextile which occurs
between two objects at 60° apart from each other. It
is similar to a trine in that it implies harmonious tics
between two planets but it is less significant in that
it often implies the possibility or opportunity rather
than an actuality; it requires focused effort from a
person in order to gain its benefits.

• - This symbol refers to a square and it occurs

between two objects at 90° apart from each other. A
square is usually viewed as being unfavorable and
stressful; the planets involved often seemed to be
"blocked." It is important for the individual to focus
upon these in an attempt to reconcile the two forces
which appear to being pulling in opposite direc-
tions at cross-purposes. Overcoming these obstacles
can bring about growth but avoiding dealing with a
square will continually bring about tension, frustra-
tion, inhibition and inner conflict which can easily
détermine arcas on the Tree of Life which might be
 ASPECTS 123

unattainable. Superior planets (those farther from the

Sun and beyond Earth) in opposition to each other,
as with inferior planets (between Earth & Sun) in op-
position to each other, often causes a see-saw affect,
teetering up and down. However, a superior planet
opposing an inferior planet means the superior tends
to dominate.

A- This symbol refers to a trine and it occurs

between two objects at 120° from each other. The
symbol of the trine indicates a point of harmony in a
chart as if the two forces arc working together and re-
inforcing each other. It often shows where a person's
créative talents lie, although whether or not we make
use of these is up to each of us. However, a trine eau
also be a "line of least résistance" bringing about
complacency in a person of weak character; this is
especially indicated where there arc too many trines
in a chart. Such people often stand still, accomplish
little and simply exist day to day without any form of
growth, feeling no need for personal development or
growth.

cP - This symbol refers to an opposition and it oc-

curs between two objects at 180° away from each
other. This is the second most powerful aspect in a
person's chart; the square being the first. The polarity
 124 ALETHEIA

of the two éléments involved indicates the type of

tension or basic disharmonious energies. The symbol
is like a balance and when one force is used to tip the
scales over the other then conflict, confrontation and
stress ariscs. If the energies are consciously balanced,
working together then the opposition which créâtes
tension does so with a positive resuit, often with a
motivating and energizing effect where mountains
can be moved. The Sun and Moon arc naturally in op-
position to each other monthly during a Full Moon.

d - This symbol refers to a conjunction and it occurs

between two objects at the same degree of longitude
to each other. The essential characteristic of a con-
junction is that a planet will bring a characteristic that
is in accord with its own nature out of the other planet,
often in a harmonious way, while causing each planet
involved forfeiting some of its primai"y charactcris-
tics. Whether or not the union of these two forces is
to be regarded as positive or négative dépends solely
upon what planets are involved.

•x - This symbol refers to an apparent rétrogradé

motion of a planet in your astrological chart at the
time of your birth. We tend to think that ail our natal
planet's energies are always directed toward outward
expression but rarely do astrologers examine what it
 ASPECTS 125
implies when the planet is rétrogradé which means
that part of the energy is now directed inward, away
from the world. Such qualifies often give us a deeper
sensitivity with regard to the planet and the house in
which it faits. Some astrologers believe that a rét-
rogradé implies a form of unconscious Karma that
cornes forward from childhood or from a previous
incarnation as if to imply unfinished business requir-
ing that we focus inward in order to résolve these
issues. But more often, than not, karmic astrologers
consider these "past circumstances" as unfinished
"négatives" rather than a "positive" foundation that
our présent incarnation can use as a springboard to
achieve our goals. Everything that manifests below
the Abyss is balanced in duality, both Yin and Yang,
which includes rétrogrades.
 XI
CONCLUSION

WE can say with ail certainty that our Birth Chart rep-
resents everything Above and Below, both externally
and internally and like the Otz Chiim (D"',,nn fy), or
the Tree of Life, it bas become a favorable flling Sys-
tem for the expectations of magicians. However, the
nature ofboth being simplicity, while encompassing
everything, implies that it is impossible to really lully
know either. At best, you might grasp brief epipha-
nies or "aspects" but examining both together will
enable a magician to déterminé whether or not they
bave the ability to spiritually climb the Tree of Life.
Basically, knowing the corrélation between our Birth
Chart and the Tree can either be bénéficiai toward the
accomplishment of a given Sephiroth or it can reveal
stumbling blocks which could inevitably lead to pos-
sible failure if one is not careful. Interpreting this can
take a lifetime. So, where do we start?
Most individuals begin by studying the basics of
the entire of Tree of Life, but once the affirmation bas
been made to climb into its branches from a purely
spiritual point-of-view a person will focus primarily
on the lowest Qabalistic sphere ofMalkuth (mDbû)
the Earth and their human body. This is step one.

126
 CONCLUSION 127

Upon completing ail the obligations of this Sephiroth

they will assume the next Sephiroth and so forth,
slowly ascending into the Tree of Life. This could
easily take a lifetime and there is no guarantee of suc-
cess. However, if you also begin by focusing upon
just the first foui- Houses in your Birth Chart you get
a personal window into what makes your Tree of Life
différent than others in the arc a ofMalkuth-10 and
Yesod-9.
If there are planets found within the first four
Houses they must automatically have aspects to other
Houses—study these, meditate upon them and try to
figure out how they have affected your incarnation
since childhood both from a positive point of view
and a négative. Remember, anyone eau "intellectu-
ally" review and study each Sephiroth but if you have
planets and aspects that arc associated with these
spheres or Houses then you have spécifie tessons
to learn which others do not require. If there arc no
planets or aspects in any given House do not consider
this unimportant, you must still accomplish the tes-
sons dealing with these Houses or Sephiroth. Having
nothing within a House in your Birth Chart merely
implies that the given Sephiroth may not have any
stumbling blocks or that it may not have assistance
from other arcas which could help you in achieving
the Sephiroth. Yes, an empty House could imply
128 ALETHEIA

smooth sailing but sometimes areas where you think

you arc at your very safest arc the ones where you'II
hit a rock. The bottom line, if no planets or aspects
arc found within a given House it does not negate the
fact that the Sephiroth or Chakra doesn't exist.
In regards to the man ofEarth grade {Liber AL.
1:40) you must also ne ver forget that the Foundation
you're establishing, especially in Yesod (TO1), car-
ries its lesson concerning the Pathway toward the
Perfection of Thyself upward into the branches of
The Tree of Life. AU magick must work out of Yesod
(Kundalini) despite which sphere you arc presently
attempting to achieve. You need the activation ofthe
Muladhara chakra in Yesod in order for you to func-
tion on the Tree of life. Never focus so hard on where
you stand, forgetting the trunk of the Tree or you'II
lose your footing. Most magicians faU from the Tree
not from where they arc focused but rather from the
Foundation that they have built for their footing.
Finally, your personal Tree of Life and Birth Chart
arc so complicated that no individual could ever be
familial" with everything that is or has occurred dur-
ing the course of one's life. It is an endless quest.
Remember what I wrote in the Introduction about the
Temple of Apollo at Delphi and how the Greeks be-
lieved that mankind could never fully comprehend or
know the human spirit, so they looked at the Delphic
 CONCLUSION 129

axiom to imply learning about and controlling Per-

sonal behavior in the here and now so that a person
might inevitably understand their Fate or incarnation
and in effect, unité with the Gods.

That axiom - "Know Thyself."

 APPENDIX

THE twelve signs of the Zodiac arc also divided into

three groups containing foui- signs each whose quali-
ties arc referred to as Cardinal. Fixed, and Mutable.

Cardinal signs - Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.

These signs arc enterprising and outgoing and arc the
initiators of the Zodiac.

Fixed signs - Taurus, Feo, Scorpio and Aquarius.

These signs arc ones who most résistant change; they
arc the perfectors and finishers rather than origina-
tors.

Mutable signs - Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and

Pisces. These signs arc flexible, versatile, and adapt-
able. They arc able to adjust and mutate to differing
circumstances.

The twelve Astrological signs of the Zodiac can also

be divided into masculine-feminine but it would
be more easily understood if you considered them
simply as positive-negative or active-passive; refer-
ring more to a "quality" of Yin and Yang rather than
anything mundane.

130
 APPENDIX 131

Masculine signs - T5, n, (P, —,and"^

Féminine signs - fc>, S, TCp, ÏÏl.,. 5 and X

The twelve signs are also categorized under one of

the four éléments often referred to as fire, earth, air
and water and although everyone has ail of these
inherited qualifies within, one is always dominant or
the fundamental mling force while the others may or
may not be strongly emphasized.

Fire Signs - People who are born under one of the

three Fire signs, ofAries, Léo or Sagittarius, are
often motivâted by their immédiate goals and ide-
als, exuding a great deal of inspiration, warmth,
and energy. They tend to be active, self-sustaining
and they usually have enthusiasm for life but they
are often impractical and sometimes insensitive to
others due to their lacking a dependable relation-
ship with their bodies and émotions.

Earth Signs - People who are born under one of the

three Earth signs, of Capricorn, Taurus or Virgo,
are driven to explore the world around them as if
beckoned by the earth itself, of course this may
or may not be anything more than their backyard.
Earth signs can utilize the material world easily
and are often more concerned with concrète de-
132 ALETHEIA

tails and immédiate results. These signs arc much

attuned to their physical bodies, being rational,
often disciplined while finding it difficult to relate
to the ethereal realm of ideals and dreams.
Air Signs - People who are born under one of
the three Air signs, of Libra, Aquarius or Gemini,
seemingly fimction best when making personal
connections with others, both in a social outward
setting and internally in abstract worlds. This is
due in part to the fact that they often live primarily
in a world of dreams. A strong airy type, with a
rich inner life, has no difficulty being verbally ex-
pressive with endlessly curiosity in both realm s.
Unfortunately, often with their heads in the clouds,
air types have trouble translating their inner world
into tangible accomplishments in the outer world.

Water Signs - People who arc born under one of

the three Water signs, of Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces,
flow and ebb by emotional currents and often re-
spond better to what is going on beneath the sur-
face than anything in a concrète material world.
This makes a water type very réceptive, sensitive
and very accepting of other personal realities that
drift by in the currents. However, since they arc
often bathed in what lies beneath the surface of
their inner waters they can be motivated by deep
 APPEND1X 133

unconscious fears that are usually ignored by other

signs and with their intense emotional drive they
can easily become moody and irrational. If this
occurs, a water sign can easily find itself lacking
outer vitality or objectivity about their personal
life and their relationships.

Here is a simple breakdown of the ten Sephiroth (JI1

TDD) on the Qabalistic Tree ofLife and their corréla-
tion with the seven Chakras. You'll notice that the
Anahata Chakra raies more than one Sephiroth; this
is our Higher Self.

10's Sphere Malkuth the Kingdom (Human Body)

9* Sphere Yesod the Foundation Muladhara Chakra
8"' Sphere Hod or Splendeur Svadhisthana Chakra
y1'1 Sphere of Netzach or Victory Manipura Chakra
f)''Sphere of Tiphereth or Beauty
5* Sphere of Geburah or Power Anahata Chakra
^"Sphere of Chesed or Mercy
Sphere of Daath or Knowledge
rJ
3 Sphere of Binah or Undcrstanding Visuddha Chakia
2"* Sphere of Chokman or Wisdom Anja Chakra
134 ALETHEIA

Understanding how our Spirit incarnated on the

"Middle Pillai " and into our body in order to expéri-
ence a new incarnation is as follows:

1 -Kether (Spirit)

Abyss - 10" House Cusp

Daath - Door

6-Tiphereth the Sun Lachesis (Sun Sign-daimon)

9-Yesod the Moon Klotho (Moon Sign-Soul)

10-Malkuththe Earth Atropos (Rising Sign-body)

 APPENDIX 135

The Tnee of Ufe (Otz Chiim)