What is "rulership" exactly? Down the rabbit hole
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| Art by Brittany Trute https://www.instagram.com/lore_n_truth/ |
I tried to write about Venus in Taurus but I fell down a rabbit hole.
Venus rules Taurus. Does that mean that Venus is like Taurus? But Venus also rules Libra. Does that mean that Taurus is like Libra? But no, they aren’t!
A good enough compromise is to think of Venus as being two faced. Her best profile is like Taurus and her other best profile is like Libra. Same for Mars, half Aries, half Scorpio. It makes sense if we attribute common significations to ruling planets and signs.
Traditionally, the planets have two domiciles, a diurnal and a nocturnal one. Fire and Air signs are diurnal, Earth and Water signs are nocturnal.
But, according to tradition, planets themselves are diurnal or nocturnal. Sun, Jupiter and Saturn are diurnal, the Moon, Venus and Mars are nocturnal. Mercury is of a dual nature.
So Venus is nocturnal and rules over Libra, a diurnal sign. Mars is nocturnal and rules over Aries, a diurnal sign; apart from the luminaries, all planets rule over two signs, one of the same and one of the opposite nature.
Let’s put this aside for now.
Traditionally, planets and signs are also masculine or feminine.
Fire and Air signs are masculine (and diurnal), Earth and Water signs are feminine (and nocturnal). It seems that diurnal and masculine are pretty much the same thing? Wait!
The Sun, Jupiter and Saturn are masculine and diurnal. The Moon and Venus are feminine and nocturnal. Mercury is dual again.
Mars is annoyingly masculine and nocturnal…
Fire and Air signs are masculine (and diurnal), Earth and Water signs are feminine (and nocturnal). It seems that diurnal and masculine are pretty much the same thing? Wait!
The Sun, Jupiter and Saturn are masculine and diurnal. The Moon and Venus are feminine and nocturnal. Mercury is dual again.
Mars is annoyingly masculine and nocturnal…
Let's keep exploring.
Signs and planets are also related to the elements, Fire, Earth, Air and Water and the elemental qualities: Hot, Dry, Cold and Wet - or Moist.
Mars is said to be hot and dry, like Fire.
Reading Andre Barbault (his manual of astrology's copyright takes us back to 1961) I read that Aries is of Martian essence. Using the word “essence” means that at the core, they are the same.
So Aries is diurnal, of Martian essence, hot and dry like Mars, but Mars is nocturnal, like the other sign it rules, Scorpio. However, Scorpio's element: Water, is definitely not dry and hot. Water is cold. (And wet). Let’s scratch our heads together.
Venus is feminine, nocturnal like Taurus, so far so good, but Taurus, as an Earth sign, is dry, and Venus is moist. According to Lilly, Venus is temperately cold and moist. Andre Barbault says that Venus' element is Air, and Air, as you know, is hot…
How frustrating to try to make square pegs fit in round holes!
In the light of what precedes, "Rulership" definitely doesn’t imply similarity all the way down. The ruling planet governs the sign, feels most at home in it, has a special relationship with it, so they can only have a few things in common, but there is an element of irreducible mystery.
I am still a modern astrologer. I consider that there are similar meanings to be found when connecting a sign, its ruling planet and the associated house. This approach is especially useful when looking at birth charts with a psychological approach: when I see trouble in Gemini plus trouble in the third house plus trouble with Mercury for instance, I have no doubt about the kind of trouble we need to try to communicate about.
We all know what Venn diagrams are. Let visualise three circles, one for a ruling planet, one for its sign, and one for the naturally associated house, for instance, Jupiter, Sagittarius and the Ninth House.
We can use a Venn diagram to focus on what is common, or look primarily at the areas that don't overlap, and be right whatever we chose to pay attention to.
What has been called the “Astrological Alphabet” is a focus on the overlapping parts. The circles of the Venn diagrams do overlap significantly. As far as it goes, it's a good tool.
Now, as I am trying to understand where the Ancients came from, I’ll put aside my possibly oversimplified understanding of Venus as nothing but a compound of Taurus and Libra, and of the associated second and seventh houses as nothing but concrete manifestations of these energies. God is a trickster. It may not be that simple.
A key word to explain rulership is “affinity”. A central concept in Hermetic philosophy (and our astrology has big roots in it) is Sympatheia, or cosmic sympathy.
I am still a modern astrologer. I consider that there are similar meanings to be found when connecting a sign, its ruling planet and the associated house. This approach is especially useful when looking at birth charts with a psychological approach: when I see trouble in Gemini plus trouble in the third house plus trouble with Mercury for instance, I have no doubt about the kind of trouble we need to try to communicate about.
We all know what Venn diagrams are. Let visualise three circles, one for a ruling planet, one for its sign, and one for the naturally associated house, for instance, Jupiter, Sagittarius and the Ninth House.
We can use a Venn diagram to focus on what is common, or look primarily at the areas that don't overlap, and be right whatever we chose to pay attention to.
What has been called the “Astrological Alphabet” is a focus on the overlapping parts. The circles of the Venn diagrams do overlap significantly. As far as it goes, it's a good tool.
Now, as I am trying to understand where the Ancients came from, I’ll put aside my possibly oversimplified understanding of Venus as nothing but a compound of Taurus and Libra, and of the associated second and seventh houses as nothing but concrete manifestations of these energies. God is a trickster. It may not be that simple.
A key word to explain rulership is “affinity”. A central concept in Hermetic philosophy (and our astrology has big roots in it) is Sympatheia, or cosmic sympathy.
“All things are mutually woven together and therefore have an affinity for each other” said Marcus Aurelius.
This concept is known as a tenet of Stoic philosophy. The philosophical ideas in Hermeticism are a blend of Platonism and Stoicism. At the time of writing, just after talking about cosmic sympathy, I came across a newly released video by Dr Justin Sledge on Esoterica, about the Stoic origins of Western occultism: Sympatheia is one of the three big things.
But what is it exactly? It’s difficult to define. The world being one thing, all things are pervaded and interconnected by the Pneuma, or Divine breath. To understand this interconnectedness, we need to look for signs in nature, and in particular… in the stars! It’s just Divine Reason expressing itself.
This concept is known as a tenet of Stoic philosophy. The philosophical ideas in Hermeticism are a blend of Platonism and Stoicism. At the time of writing, just after talking about cosmic sympathy, I came across a newly released video by Dr Justin Sledge on Esoterica, about the Stoic origins of Western occultism: Sympatheia is one of the three big things.
But what is it exactly? It’s difficult to define. The world being one thing, all things are pervaded and interconnected by the Pneuma, or Divine breath. To understand this interconnectedness, we need to look for signs in nature, and in particular… in the stars! It’s just Divine Reason expressing itself.
Don’t you feel we’re a little bit going round in circles?
I’ve opened randomly The Corpus Hermeticum, hoping for a more precise answer to what Sympatheia might on earth be, and I just got a piece of advice, from Hermes Trismegistus to Tat, about keeping still, shutting down the senses and opening to Nous, the Divine Mind. That’s how we can understand everything, indeed.
Astrology is not, and will never be, a discipline that can be grasped by purely intellectual means, unless we satisfy ourselves with repeating what some visionary mystics have once seen and said, like church people do. Anyway…
That’s because of Sympatheia that Venus rules not only Taurus and Libra, but all kinds of things: according to William Lilly, her fish is the dolphin, among her birds are the dove, the sparrow, the nightingale…
Her trees are, among others, the olive tree and the white sycamore, among her stones is the lapis lazuli, she rules over lilies and daffodils, thyme, gardens, fountains, beds, the south wind, copper…
Other people or other traditions will disagree with some of these associations. We shouldn’t think of Tradition as a monolith, all coherent and flawless.
I have rejected the dogmas of the Catholic Church, I am not going to revere the Hellenistic Scriptures instead. Trying to understand what I can the best I can is the most respectful attitude I have to offer.
Those who happened to see the mystic bonds between things may not have seen everything, they may have seen things that were valid from a certain angle, at a certain time, they may not have understood perfectly and once people repeat what others have said, it becomes Chinese whispers…
Sympatheia, or affinity, is being on the same wavelength, so to speak.
Venus rules the sparrows. Venus and the sparrows move together, along with whatever is signified by Taurus and Libra.
We may be able to see, if we have enough knowledge and a poetic mindset.
For a clearer vision I’ll keep training to silence my mind and keep still, in case the Great Spirit decides to add something to my understanding.
Jean-Marc
https://www.jeanmarcpierson.com/
I’ve opened randomly The Corpus Hermeticum, hoping for a more precise answer to what Sympatheia might on earth be, and I just got a piece of advice, from Hermes Trismegistus to Tat, about keeping still, shutting down the senses and opening to Nous, the Divine Mind. That’s how we can understand everything, indeed.
Astrology is not, and will never be, a discipline that can be grasped by purely intellectual means, unless we satisfy ourselves with repeating what some visionary mystics have once seen and said, like church people do. Anyway…
That’s because of Sympatheia that Venus rules not only Taurus and Libra, but all kinds of things: according to William Lilly, her fish is the dolphin, among her birds are the dove, the sparrow, the nightingale…
Her trees are, among others, the olive tree and the white sycamore, among her stones is the lapis lazuli, she rules over lilies and daffodils, thyme, gardens, fountains, beds, the south wind, copper…
Other people or other traditions will disagree with some of these associations. We shouldn’t think of Tradition as a monolith, all coherent and flawless.
I have rejected the dogmas of the Catholic Church, I am not going to revere the Hellenistic Scriptures instead. Trying to understand what I can the best I can is the most respectful attitude I have to offer.
Those who happened to see the mystic bonds between things may not have seen everything, they may have seen things that were valid from a certain angle, at a certain time, they may not have understood perfectly and once people repeat what others have said, it becomes Chinese whispers…
Sympatheia, or affinity, is being on the same wavelength, so to speak.
Venus rules the sparrows. Venus and the sparrows move together, along with whatever is signified by Taurus and Libra.
We may be able to see, if we have enough knowledge and a poetic mindset.
For a clearer vision I’ll keep training to silence my mind and keep still, in case the Great Spirit decides to add something to my understanding.
Jean-Marc
https://www.jeanmarcpierson.com/
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