Stage II: Intermediate
Astrology and Cosmic Order
To read the heavens as an ordered cosmos in which the human being takes part, rather than as a catalogue of predictions.
“God invented and gave us sight to the end that we might behold the courses of intelligence in the heaven, and apply them to the courses of our own intelligence which are akin to them.”
- Stations
- 6
- 5 marked chapters · 1 book
- Episodes
- 5
- Each opened at its chapter
- Of marked passages
- 15 min
- Where each station opens; listen on as long as you like
The route
6 stations, walked in order
Astrology as the ancient world understood it: the observational art of priest-astronomers, a cosmology written into the birth chart of the world, a doctrine of celestial virtues and signatures, a discipline of timing and, in the theurgic tradition, a map for the soul's ascent.
Keep each station as you finish it
Your place is kept in this browser alone.
Station IWatch· Kept
Start with the priest-astronomers
Episode 20The Magi and the Pre-Socratics — Occult Roots of PhilosophyLands on Priest-Astronomers & Early Astrology Watch from 14:112 min chapterThe astrology of Mesopotamia, practised thousands of years ago, was omen-based, mundane and electional: a matter for priests concerned with the affairs of the state and the sovereign, not for people in the street. The conversation goes on to the Magi as a priestly class and, later, to astrology as observation rather than horoscope.
Sit with this
When the sky was read for the city rather than for the self, what kind of question was it being asked?
Station IIWatch· Kept
Draw the birth chart of the world
Episode 37Wind, Forms, The Aether, Anamnesis, and th Heptagram WithinLands on The Thema Mundi and Planetary Rulerships Watch from 0:494 min chapterWhy does Jupiter rule Sagittarius and the Sun rule Leo? The answer begins with the Thema Mundi, the birth chart of the world, a teaching device transmitted by the fourth-century astrologer Firmicus Maternus to explain planetary rulerships and the doctrine of aspects. The explanation continues with the luminaries set in the east and the planets placed in Chaldean order by distance and speed.
Sit with this
Draw the Thema Mundi from memory after listening. Which rulership surprised you, and does its logic now hold?
Station IIIListen· Kept
Connect planets to virtues
Episode 13Enochian, Golden Dawn Insights, and AgrippaLands on Planetary keys, signatures, and magical correspondences Listen from 52:103 min chapterThrough Agrippa, the world is described in three registers, terrestrial, celestial and supercelestial, and the work likened to playing in a musical key. To work in the key of Saturn one begins from a material root note, an elm switch or a black tourmaline, finds the signature each thing bears of its celestial influence and the virtue imparted by the celestial rays, and climbs the ladder of virtues beyond the material and beyond the celestial.
Sit with this
Choose one planet. What would be its root note in your world, as the elm switch is for Saturn, and which virtue would you hope to climb to from it?
Station IVListen· Kept
Keep the proper time
Episode 11QABALISTICA PT 2 : Secret Names, Sacred Vibration, and the Architecture of BecomingLands on Magical timing and spirit work Listen from 27:272 min chapterA question about timing an invocation leads to kairos, the proper time, glossed as the astrological weather of an operation. The discussion then distinguishes the uses of the two zodiacs, sidereal positions for magical operations and tropical for birth charts, and insists that ritual work be specific rather than haphazard.
Sit with this
Think of an action you took at the wrong moment. Was the fault in the act, or in the time?
Station VWatch· Kept
Use the chart as a map
Episode 22Neoplatonism, Theurgy, Christian Mysticism & the Philosopher-MagicianLands on Theurgic Astrology & Natal Charts Watch from 58:446 min chapterAnswering a listener's question about theurgic astrology, the conversation holds that theurgy in its beginning stages must be predicated on astrology. In the Neoplatonic view the arrangement of the heavens is causal and influential; the aim is to find the arrangement of those influences that gives the soul an upward trajectory, and finally to transcend causal mechanism, with the birth chart used as a working map.
Sit with this
On the Hermetic route the soul hands back a vice at each planetary zone. If your chart is a map rather than a verdict, where on it does that ascent begin?
Station VIRead· Kept
Read Agrippa on the planets
Read alongside
Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Agrippa's Renaissance synthesis of natural, celestial and ceremonial magic, discussed at length in the archive. The first book, on natural magic, sets out which things fall under each planet and the seals and characters that natural things bear; the second, on celestial magic, turns to number, harmony, the planetary tables and the celestial images.
Sit with this
Read the chapters of the first book that set out what falls under each planet (I.23–29), choose one planet, and write out its correspondences. Which of them could you test by observation?
End of the route · its last question goes with you