Pretty much every time I mention these categories of 4-sided things, I use a particular order which is informed by a Qabalistic description of a necessary hierarchy or sequence to the elements:
Fire/Wands Water/Chalices Air/Swords Earth/Pentacles - or Disks This order is meant to be a description of the mechanistic manner by which things existent only in Spirit, or in concept, or in a kind of Platonic world of Forms may become manifest, become heavier, become reality. This order is meant to be a description of the mechanistic manner by which things existent only in Spirit, or in concept, or in a kind of Platonic world of Forms may become manifest, become heavier, become reality. The order is also reversible, describing how our brains incorporate information Fire is Spirit, Consciousness/Creativity or Will Water is Emotionality, Sense Data or Community Air is Intellectualization or Society Earth is Reality, Actions, Consequences/Time or Pain/Pleasure Fire being Hot and Dry contrasts directly to Water which is Cold and Wet - these are a good, almost direct analogue for Cohesive and Adhesive, respectively. Water is both, Fire is neither. Wet things touch other things and say hi and stick to them, Cold things stick to themselves Fire, then, pushes forever and always outwards - against the air, against it's fuel, against itself, it pushes out and up and away and it takes everything it can to be incorporated into and used by itself, it burns things, it rises, it carries, it animates, it energizes. Water is alternatively the universal solvent, it will pull everything up into itself to be dissolved and dissolute into the all-encompassing pool, the dissolution of the other into the self. Water also holds its shape, it falls into a space, it is defined by its confines. Air is Hot and Wet - it hates sticking to itself, it will become infinitely thinner to fill out a space, it wants to bounce off of and say hi to all the edges of a thing, in all directions - and then it bounces off itself, communicating to itself where those edges are. Earth is Cold and Dry - it holds shape, better than anything else, it'll do it without another container - it is it's own container, it's the universal container. Or really that's gravity and we'll talk about that later, but Earth holds shape to push against Water and Air. Earth is Cold and Dry - it holds shape, better than anything else, it'll do it without another container - it is it's own container, it's the universal container. Or really that's gravity and we'll talk about that later, but Earth holds shape to push against Water and Air. It helps if we look at the elements as planets First Mars/Solis/Fire determines a Will, a need, a declaration of individuated manifestation within the Universe - but it is still only intention and consciousness. Then Venus/Luna/Water experiences the subjectivity of feeling desire. Next, Jupiter/Air conceptualizes of a framework and theory of the want, the brain describes the want to itself with words and concrete concepts, it devises a plan of execution. And finally Saturn/Earth is the material execution of the intention. Fire>Water>Air>Earth The Hermetic I am, I think it'd be effective to borrow a metaphor from astrophysics. Or maybe I'm just describing the same Universe they are, lol. Either way, there's a relativistic description of spacetime and Information that I think is very illuminating. Relativity implies that one can look at the background radiation at the edge of the observable Universe, record that information of where there was energy and where there wasn't, calculate how long ago that was - and then one should theoretically be able to predict all of time. How is this possible? Well it's not - you'd need a computer with more processing power than the entire Universe, which would necessarily require more total energy - and you would need a way to calculate perfectly your seed data. Relativity implies time is deterministic - Quantum Mechanics does throw a few wrenches in the gears, but from what I've been exposed to as a layman, it's mostly to do with the universe anticipating human observation, and as an occultist and astrologer, I don't see this as a contradiction of determinism. In Relativity, the property of -Information- can never be destroyed. We can never access the precise relationship of forces on the quantum scale within an experiment setting due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, but I'd argue that data is there. The reason we can't know it is because observing things always affects them, you're always waiting for radiation to bounce off of a thing, waiting for it to respond to other energy before we can measure that response - but on that scale, it's a devastating amount of energy. It's not that there isn't Information there, it's just that we can't turn up the gain any further without corrupting the signal. All of spacetime is just the communication of confounding waveforms cascading out from the antimatter annihilation at the dawn of time. At the end of time, in the Heat Death, when all of Spacetime becomes a temperature non-gradient, all those packets of energy will remember their journeys. The exact pattern of emanation and radiation and coalescence and gravity and evaporation and dissolution carried them there. Therefore, if one could catch a snapshot at any given time, they could theoretically extrapolate to any other time. History is not random, it's narrativistic, because one moment always meaningfully follows the previous. If one were a photon, they'd be moving at lightspeed, and then spacetime is infinitely compressed or them - and functionally they are above time, perpendicular to time. This is a very Hermetic thing to be able to see: the continuous, eternal, working Universe. We can see the real truth about time: that all things really are just interactions of light, just cascading, confounding waveforms. Gravity is just a bunch of light falling into itself for a while - life is just light deciding to act like a mechanism for a while. Consciousness is just a harmony of cascading waveforms temporarily and tenuously agreeing to think. Society is merely a waveform of these waveforms. Political parties and kittens and electronics and human people are all just extremely complicated machines made of light. Really though - it's wackier than that - because the whole thing is just one big thinking machine made of light. Alan Watts once said something about this concept which really stuck with me - 'In much the same way we might call a tree fruiting, this is a Universe that peoples.' And though you can see the pattern in microcosm a million times, it's there in macro as well. Explosion>Gravity>Thinking Universe/Human Society>Heat Death. Fire>Water>Air>Earth This descension also maps directly onto the Hegelian process of Spirit - an intolerable status quo inspires need among the oppressed and this fosters within them first a subjectively felt disquiet, then intellectual theory of resistance, finally mutual aid. Fire>Water>Air>Earth As for how the process reverses itself, the best metaphorical tool I have is something I was talking in a creative writing class - that the brain doesn't understand all information at the same speed. You might feel a gun in your back before having time to think words. Then even as our brain summons words like 'I don't want to die,' or 'What about the cat,' or 'I deserve this' - these kinds of thoughts betray predispositions of mood, but they precede the subjectively felt associated emotion. Only then would the intention to do something hit. Which is the reverse order to translate something physical, like the threat of a gun - into something entirely of the mental, numinous, Platonic realm - the realm of light. Then to actually properly do something, the whole process runs back down from the brain to the nerves.
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Solis is the things we call ourselves.
Luna is the things we materially do. The Rising, the 1HS is the synthetic point at which these concepts are internalized. The Setting, the 7HS is the synthetic point at which these concepts are externalized. The Setting Place describes all the most other things, and specifically the blending of material life and idealistic life in the other. This is of contracts, business arrangements, committed relationships, lawsuits, scandals, visible rivalries. The Mc, the Midheaven is the most aspirational, Spiritous place from which we chase after an idealized sense of self. The Ic, the Underworld is the most terrestrial, Fortunate place from which we embody all the characteristics of our being within the time and place we exist. Mercury Rejoices in the 1HS because they are the interdialectical planet. Really they make almost as much sense in the 7th because they describe all meditation between self and other, but also of diurnality and nocturnality. All these though are mediated by personalized concepts. Luna Rejoices in the 3HS of familiarity, periodicity, locality, siblings and communication because she is slightly more individual, being focused on introspection and internality as well as being of effectivity, materiality and Fortune. Solis Rejoices in the 9HS of novelty, scholarship, philosophy, faith and travel because he's slightly more extroverted, he projects outwards and illuminates such to incorporate, as well as being of legacy, idealism and Spirit. The Nocturnal planets, Luna, Venus and Mars Rejoice in the Noctunal Hemisphere, 3,5,6 respectively. They are focused all on more material, earthly and interpersonal things. The 5th is Succedent to the 4th and the 6th is Cadent to the 7th. Venus Rejoices in the 5HS of flirtation, creative output, and working with children because such things are all material, physical actions in the world which promote social behaviors and interpersonal engagement. Mars Rejoices in the 6HS of illness, exploitation, routine and pets because such things are terrestrial forces which are distinctly out of our agency, and which normally come from competition with other entities, be they co-workers, bosses, parasites, or pets. Also Nocturnal are the 4HS and the 2HS, which is Succedent to the 1HS. The 4HS is of heritage, household, social margainalities, private matters and sense of security because it borrows significations from the Underworld. The 2HS is of moveable possessions, sense of value, sense of self, these are things that we're possessive over, yes our money, but also the things we need to use on a daily basis, our concepts that we hold onto to describe ourselves, it's of projected consciousness into objects. The Diurnal planets, Solis, Jupiter and Saturn Rejoice in the Diurnal Hemisphere, 9,11,12 respectively. They are focused all on more idealistic, conceptual, societal things. The 11th is Succedent to the 10th and the 12th is Cadent to the 1st. Jupiter Rejoices in the 11HS of dreams, wishes, luck, allies, and social wellness because such things are metaphysical phenomena which only exist in the way we interpret the world and in how it reacts to us and our actions, but which nonetheless respect our agency. Saturn Rejoices in the 12HS of isolation, exile, self-sabotage, neurodiversity, meditative practice and state oppression because these are the metaphysical forces which defy our agency, and which shape our experience without our knowing. Also Diurnal are the 10HS, and the 8HS, which is Succedent to the 7HS. The 10HS of reputation, vocation, vision, social mobility, public matters and sense of self-direction because it borrows significations from the Midheaven. The 8HS is of debts, dependancies, inheritances, losses and unconsciousness because it describes all the points at which we confront the phenomena of the other, including the limitations of our own bodies, this idealistic, external dark house is the place of minimal agency. Another way, the 12th shapes the 1st which wields the 2nd which describes the 3rd which builds the 4th which generates the 5th which pushes the 6th which fuels the 7th which becomes the 8th which informs the 9th which drives the 10th which engages the 11th which forms the 12th. I have a hot take:
The modern insistence that Uranus rules Aquarius reveals indeed that Uranus and Saturn describe a cocreative dialectical, mutually self-containing relationship of shock and stagnation, or collapse and stability. Or a Chokmah/Hudit to balance our Binah/Nuit. Binah is the sphere on the tree of life that is assigned to Saturn, per the Golden Dawn tree of life diagram, this sphere describes the limits of the universe, is all the worlds that weren't, or the laws, bounds and dimensions of spacetime. Chokmah is across from Binah on the tree of life, and both are directly underneath Keter, the manifestation of all spacetime and possibility and things that are possible to imagine collapsed in on a single point of non-duality, and Chokmah is then the expansive principle. In Qabalah, a sphere being below another on the tree of life is a denotation that it is contained fully in the higher world, and to be across from another sphere is to be half of a dialectic whole, for instance the 'halves' of Jupiter and Mars form the Sun, just below. And the Sun is a synthesis point quite on purpose, it's on the middle pillar of Air, or Mutability, or oneness - just like Keter, it's the first reflection of universal oneness, although in the submanifest realm of a lower triad - but that's a bit off-topic. The point being, the ancients defined Keter as the 'Prime Mover', which is an Aristotelian concept which means 'something from nothing,' and Chokmah as the Wheel of the Zodiac, and I believe those concepts are certainly contained in those spheres - but we can stack significations. I would argue in favor of Crowley's (I think first of two, please don't shout at me, lol) model(s) that the invisible planets ought to map as follows: Uranus to Chokmah Neptune to Keter Pluto to Daath And I feel this can be used as a supporting argument for corulerships. Uranus, I think can be seen to describe a balance to Saturnine impulses to avoid risk, and engage with caution, and trust nothing because things so often fail to meet sufficiency Uranus is the natural antipode, constantly calling for new status quo - I read them as an earthquake. Like Saturn is this tension that builds and builds, and yes although Saturn prefers the domicile of Aquarius, this is said to be because it's tempering and I do believe Saturn prefers to look backwards Uranus is that moment of resolution to friction, the collapse, the revolution. And I think that if we look at various postrevolutionary states, we can see a similar scramble to implement new ideas, even when it's Naomi Klein Argentinian Fascist-style shock doctrine instating totalitarianism after a collapse. Or a terrorist attack. There's this Uranian needing to write new laws, and hopefully they'll be effective. If we're to look at the most Uranian thing - the French Revolution, a few things jump out to me: it eventually fell into what I'd call a protofascism under Napoleon, and the metric calendar. Like there was a hard impulse towards conservatism again once violence as an open political norm inspired new risk-adversity (Saturn) and there was an impulse to try and instate a cult of reason by which all problems may be approached in a sober manner. (Aquarius) And then why was there a revolution in the first place? Because looking backwards (Saturn) on the part of the peasants (Saturn) revealed a political stagnation (Saturn) and austerity (Saturn) alongside opulent authorities (Saturn) - all of that inspired public unrest. (Uranus) I think it's quite a logical mirror, the two forces necessitate each other logically. As for Neptune and Pluto being Keter and Daath, in this model, I mostly agree with these placements based on overlapping significations, but there are a couple interesting folds, I think. Keter overlapping with Neptune, I think it's easy to justify, it's a very kind of ecstatic, revelatory, divine, dilatory, broad unifying oneness, which is course includes fictions and hallucinations as well. All very Neptunian, and it carries the straight Chaldean Order. Pluto as Daath, however, I have to justify that reordering, I think it's okay because Pluto isn't really a planet and Daath isn't really a Sphere. Also because I think in this regard, Pluto can be described as a false luminary, being in the same column. As a false luminary, Pluto is descriptive of the principle of invisibility, I think, and that's maybe why we see this sphere in between Jupiter and Saturn - that's how fast the nodes move, faster than Jupiter but slower than Saturn, and the Nodes too exist here among false things. Daath being descriptive itself normally of unimaginable things which nonetheless exist, like irrational numbers, or the grand unity of the universe - but that's why this isn't a sphere, it's more like a class of spheres, it's the principle of invisibility, and it's the Abyss. 'Abyss' just being Qabalah jargon for 'the untraveled Gulf between existing within subjective disunity with the wholeness of the universe and realizing the illusion of existence,' basically. It's an impossible thing to hold on our brains even if we can talk about it. And yeah, Daath is basically a placeholder in the diagram which represents all the things above itself collectively because they're a special kind of object we simply can't interface with directly. Funny then I think how many significations Saturn has 'lost' to the outers. One way of looking at it is that Saturn was only ever time insofar as it mechanistically exists, and we just didn't have other planets to assign concepts like the edge of time, or the narrative of time from above. Saturn was the only corner of the triangle we could see. As for planets I've assigned to the luminary pillar corresponding to the side pillars, I don't have quite so many solid answers, but I do like that Keter at top casts down to 4, Chesed, Jupiter, a higher sphere than Daath casting to 5, Gevurah, Mars. Perhaps Eris casts to Solis? Another weird thought I have, admittedly with pure vibes-based correlation is that Ceres is Malkuth, you know as well as Earth being Malkuth - and then the other major asteroids are the other three elements: Pallas - Air Juno - Water Vesta - Fire Maybe. Pure speculation. Another correspondence I play with is assigning them to the angles as follows: Pallas - Rising Juno - Setting Vesta - Midheaven Ceres - Underworld One more couple things - I think it makes sense to correspond Neptune with Jupiter and Pluto with Mars for reasons beyond convention, I think at least bordering on logical essentiality - I look at it in terms of one very particular set of significations here. Chesed, Jupiter here is descriptive of a state of timelessness, or really of bidirectional, mathematical, pure mechanistic spacetime, it's a description of interacting forces. Gevurah, Mars is self-differentiation from the other, and consciousness and experience of linear time. Therefore Keter reflects itself in Chesed, in terms of echoing that grand unifying principle, and Daath's invisibility principle is echoed in the incapacity of an individual to see past their own differentiation from the broader universe. Therefore Pluto-Mars and Neptune-Jupiter. Ultimately, however, I use the term 'corulership,' but I don't exactly use the outers as rulers exactly, more like a thought experiment. I find that planets in Scorpio, Aquarius and Pisces simply answer to the conditions of Mars, Saturn and Jupiter in ways they don't to Pluto, Uranus and Neptune. Aries and Libra - Diurnal Mars and Venus:
War is Diplomacy - Diplomacy is War Conflict is Commerce - Commerce is Conflict Activism is Alliance - Alliance is Activism Taurus and Scorpio - Nocturnal Mars and Venus: Beauty is Pain - Pain is Beauty Stability is Stagnation - Stagnation is Stability Status is Power - Power is Status Gemini and Sagittarius - Diurnal Mercury and Jupiter: Data is Statistics - Statistics is Data Communication is Culture - Culture is Communication Magick is Philosophy - Philosophy is Magick Cancer and Capricorn - Nocturnal Luna and Saturn: Ritual is Order - Order is Ritual Reflection is Discipline - Discipline is Reflection Experience is Actuality - Actuality is Experience Leo and Aquarius - Diurnal Solis and Saturn: Egoism is Altruism - Altruism is Egoism Personhood is Community - Community is Personhood Expression is Establishment - Establishment is Expression Virgo and Pisces - Nocturnal Mercury and Jupiter: Functionality is Fate - Fate is Functionality Engineering is Nature - Nature is Engineering Observation is Divination - Divination is Observation I think the alphabet schema is - not terrible, as a mnemonic.
I think it is, however, entirely arbitrary. You could put 1HS in any sign and build a mnemonic around it, Hellenistic Astrologers do this a lot with the Thema Mundi. What's really important is memorizing the houses directly. I think the easiest method for this is examining the angles as four poles of high-agency action surrounding the self, other, private and public - 1, 7, 4, 10, and the surrounding houses as cadent and succedent of those concepts, along with derived houses for pulling out more detail. But as far as mnemonics go, the alphabet is not my least favorite thing in the world, and it has led me to some closer nuances of some houses that love to elude me. I just think it's bad to take any mnemonic in isolation without engaging with the underlying astrological theory. The literal only reason I think this is bad is because knowing how to derive significations from the angles and joy schema acts as a sanity check, it tells you what exactly the mnemonic is trying to convey because not all the information there is necessarily relevant, no matter how cleanly some of them just line up circumstantially. 'There is no light, there is no light, there is no light!!!' - me thinking about the nodes earlier today (at the time of posting originally to my Twitter).
Eclipses and nodes are associated with suddenness and incorrect predictions, poorly-fated ventures and devastation of human life. This is because they steal the light. The outers too demonstrate this phenomenon - they describe things we cannot see. There is no light, there is no information and warmth, the sight and life is removed from the concept. Uranus is chaotic unpredictability. Neptune is narcotic confusion. Pluto is desolate devastation. The nodes being digital points are the most invisible things, so they carry all these significations, especially given their natures as thieves of light. This is how they can be associated with collective unconscious, it is a thing that cannot directly be seen. Returning to the planets for a moment, I think the 'release of friction' significations can be seen as reflective of the short time during the Uranus-Solis opposition when it is technically visible unaided It waits, hidden, tectonically for long periods of time before shattering. Neptune's discovery circumstances of having been at first mathematically predicted, but then discovered in a manner which disproves the math to me describes Neptunian significations of revelatory confusion and narcotic/hallucinatory influence. Pluto being a dwarf planet which is terrestrial, made of water ice, and which was reclassified - this describes to me our notions of social construct and a postmodern attitude towards definitions and frameworks as they relate to power structures. |