A Short Definition of the Possible Uses of Astrology

Edith Vernon-Mann Simonds

Astrology is one of the oldest if not the oldest science in the world. It goes back of myth and legend, and is the foundation of all the old religions and superstitions. There are Astrological charts in existence which are from five to ten thousand years old, and during all of that time, Astrologers have tabulated certain things, and have found through these records, that certain aspects, conjunctions, and relations in the Sun, Moon and stars, bring about definite reactions in human beings as regards character, experience, illness, accidents etc. People born under a certain set of aspects have similar characteristics, illnesses, and often similar experiences. The vibratory theory of the universe accounts logically for this. We know that everything from the smallest atom to the greatest sphere, is in perpetual motion, and that all of these vibrations react differently upon the sensory nervous system of man according as their rate of motion is slow or rapid. Heat, cold, light, darkness, electricity, color, sound, music, thought, both constructive and destructive, are merely the results of a higher or lower rate of vibration acting from within or without, and playing upon the mind and senses of man, who has been taught to call them all by different names, and has almost forgotten to recognize them as merely different expressions of the same force.

As there must be some premise upon which to work in a discussion of any theory or religion, so before going any deeper, I should like to say that all of the foregoing and following statements are founded upon a belief in the continuity of existence,—deny this and any further elucidation becomes futile,— admit it, and it must also be admitted that we are surrounded by and open to, spiritual influences. We know that these influences exist, but we do not know the exact central which transmits them, and we call it by many names,—spirit, soul, mind, instinct, intuition, conscience, even education,—but what the exact thing is that enables us to distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil, ugliness and beauty, we do not know, unless indeed it be the growing inner receptivity to a higher and higher set of vibrations. That the possible development of this is infinite, is beyond question,—we sense it in the discovery of the infra-red and the ultra-violet, and the many musical tones above and beyond those which we know, the ability to perceive and register which lies dormant and undeveloped in the human ear. Astrologers say that there are centers of influence surrounding us, both physical and spiritual, emanating from certain points of light which we call stars, and which have been found to produce definite reactions in human beings. These, reactions having been tabulated through many thousand of years seem to prove that when a man is born under certain aspects certain results ensue. That no aspect is duplicated in twenty-five thousand years, lends infinite variety to the possibilities of these results, and if they can be reduced to an exact scientific and mathematical basis, predicted from the horoscope at birth, definite benefits must ensue, in the study of character, medicine, and in the treatment of difficult and abnormal children.

The mystic ring of the Zodiac which surrounds our earth like a protecting circle, and through which all Astral influences must pass before reaching us, is a marvellous thing. The esoteric meaning of each of the twelve signs, has been handed down to us from time immemorial, and they are a faithful, pictorial history of the evolution of this earth, which came into conscious existence under the fire and heat of the first sign Aries, and is now about to be born again under the eleventh sign Aquarius. Just as man passes in his different incarnations, through the influences of the twelve signs, and accumulates little by little the results of the experiences and possibilities of each, so the Earth spirit in its own way passes through evolution, incarnation and development. Mere man cannot conceive of the greatness of the marvellous Mind that wrote the history of the earth, and of each tiny atom on it, and placed the record where all nations and races might see and read, and where no ruthless hand might add to or take from its truth,— writing it in a universal language which shall exist when all other tongues and languages shall have passed away.

The exact position of a child at birth is like the position of a little ship on a vast ocean. By very much the same mathematical calculations whereby we obtain the position of the ship at sea, so do we obtain the position of the child in relation to the sea of the universe, and as every Farmers’ Almanac is able to predict certain physical conditions of the earth from Astrological aspects, so are scientists able to forsee physical and mental conditions in the human being, contingent upon these same aspects under which the Body, Mind, and Spirit of the individual are born. This Body Mind and Spirit of man is in no wise different from the physical body of the earth,—it is composed of the same atoms of earth, air, fire, and water, a little further evolved in their possibilities of expression.

The world is a great school, the ultimate aim of which is physical, mental, and spiritual education, and there are many teachers, just as in the schools with which we are more familiar. Some of these we see and hear with our physical eyes and ears, because most of us are not sufficiently developed to receive instruction in any other way, but there are others, and they it is who have laid out the vast plan, and the perfect system, whereby all are given every opportunity possible to acquire the necessary education, without which none may progress to a higher class. There are also rules which none may disregard without paying the penalty, and it is these debts or penalties, called by some Karma, which accumulate from life to life, and for which we are all paying in sickness, misery, and unhappiness. After perpetually breaking the Laws and perpetually paying, we at last begin to ask ourselves what the laws are, and the moment we really want to know, that moment we have begun to be able to find out. None may avoid the penalty because of ignorance,—no one has a right to be ignorant,—the Law is there unchanging and eternal, all that is necessary is for us to have the Will to Learn.

The age of a soul and the age of its evolution, is judged by the knowledge it has acquired,—if in the horoscope there are inharmonious relations of the forces which govern the evolution of the individual, these indicate inherent defects either in the Mind, Body, or Spirit,—conditions which have not been overcome in past lives, and are yet hampering and clogging the machinery.

It seems to me therefore that if it could be accurately shown why a man or a woman is a failure, or sick, or unhappy, and if they had the honesty and the will to set about correcting the mistakes, which have brought about the condition, their advance would be more rapid, there would be less unhappiness, and fewer debts accumulating to be paid. Because there is one thing besides death that no man may avoid, and this is the Law of Consequence, the ultimate reason for all things. If you cause unhappiness, you will get unhappiness, if you deny the rights of others, your rights will be denied, if you allow circumstances to conquer you, you will be conquered by circumstances, if you are not willing to fight for freedom, you will be a prisoner forever held and restricted, if you hurt and hamper another, you in your turn will be hurt and hampered,—and so it goes, until at last misery and failure will force the knowledge of the existence of a law upon you.

And so it is that every soul comes into a new incarnation with the horoscope or history of what it has done and what it has not done, written on its own special page of the book of the Universe, and this chart should be an accurate means of selfcriticism and therefore self-help.

There are two other histories besides the birth chart, more deeply hidden under the secret wisdom of the All-Wise. These are the two Prenatal charts,—one of the position of the Moon at the moment when the new expression of the individual started on its long journey within the body of the mother, representing the attributes of the coming Mind,—and the other, the position of the Sun at the moment when the Permanent Atom, or divine Principle, which persists through all incarnations, descended into the body of the father,—representing the Eternal Spirit of the coming man. It would be impossible for me to go into the laws which govern human generation, many unknown and only dimly perceived, even though they have a very wonderful and important bearing upon the whole of this subject, but nothing ever happens by chance, and the great law of sex,—polarity, attraction, repulsion and cohesion of atoms,—call it what you will, is at the bottom of the entire scheme of things in the chemical as well as in the physical world. If you analyse anything in life, or destiny, motive or action, down to the very bottom, sex or hunger is the first and last thing,—and hunger is only another name for the desire of one atom for another. It has been found that there are certain areas of sex in the influences which surround us, and that the sex of a child is governed by the relation of these areas to the position of the Moon and the sign of the Zodiac ascending, under which a child is conceived. This position can be calculated, and it then becomes the Prenatal Lunar chart, from the study of which can be determined the physical, mental, and moral tendencies, and the reason for deformities, abnormalities, and other afflictions for which neither medicine nor surgery has yet accounted.

The Solar Prenatal chart, being spiritual is more involved, and less well understood, but I doubt not that from a study of it, it would be possible to diagnose all Astral and Psychic disturbances and shortcomings, as well as the summing up of all that has been accomplished by the Spirit, in the long, long ages of the past, whereby every man would become his own Judge and Jury.

Each living atom is destined to become through evolution, a God worthy to sit at the feet of the Highest,—or else,—des¬ tined to sink back and back through inherent and unconquered defects,—back into the silence of the Cosmic Night and the Fire-mist, to re-emerge and begin again the long hard climb towards the goal of Perfection. Turn to the stars spread in the heaven above you. On this page of the great Book of Life “he who runs may read” the secrets of each heart— nothing can be concealed in this register of the Eternal Verities. “Know thyself” and “the truth shall make thee free.”

(AZOTH 1920)