> It has been conclusively established that Gardnerian practice,
> at least, is largely founded upon the Stoic/astrological physics
Indeed, but if we were to follow the Stocis we should have to move
clockwise always and label the movement as being from Fire to Air to
Water to Earth, which does not fit with the astrological model we have.
I wonder if Marcus Aurelius would have still thought that, "all things
act with one movement" if he had come to the Southern Hemisphere. What
would seeing the Sun (and the Moon and the planets) move 'backwards'
have done to his philosophical position? We shall never know. It remains
that we have inherited the Stoic concept that the universe is a monad.
This fact is evident in that we seek to ask this question about moving
clockwise or anticlockwise. Do we align ourselves with the physical
universe as we see it manifest around us? We have new questions because
we have new information that the esteemed Aurelius did not have. And
this causes us to reflect and to develop our practice. As Dion Fortune
said "How much more, for instance, does the Sephirah Yesod, wherein work
the forces of growth and reproduction, mean to the biologist than to the
ancient rabbi?"
Moreover knowing that we base our conceptions on the ideas of ancient
authorities does not mean we must be slaves to their ways. We can not
take all their lessons as immutable, for if truth corresponds to our
impressions of things, as the Stoics say, then perception is reality.
Our perceptions are certainly not the same as theirs. The least example
of which is that they never came to the Southern Hemisphere and saw the
Sun move anti clockwise.
An insight into learning astrology in the Southern Hemisphere. I failed
to grok astrology for many years. It remained in my head as a blurred
tangle of circles within circles that had no cogent whole. Until... I
came across astrological software that enabled me to put the ascendent
at the east on the right of the chart and have the whole wheel turn anti
clockwise. Until the charts before me matched the reality above me in
the skies I was expending too much effort in making the transition from
what I saw in the sky to how it was displayed on the chart. At that time
I experienced a sudden grasp of the system which enabled me to progress
my understanding of that system.
Regards,
Morgan Leigh
PhD Candidate
School of Sociology and Social Work
University of Tasmania
On 17/05/2012 4:33 AM, Khem Caigan wrote:
> On 5/15/2012 12:54 AM, Morgan Leigh doth schreibble :
>>
>> I still don't think we have got to the why of this question.
>> Why should we proceed in the order of the zodiac, the seasons,
>> the Coriolis force or the winds? Why should we follow, or not,
>> the direction of the sun?
>
> It has been conclusively established that Gardnerian practice,
> at least, is largely founded upon the Stoic/astrological physics
> of the grimoires (the *Key of Solomon* in particular), along with
> other procedures drawn from the same Hellenic/Stoic/Ptolemaic
> stream (such as the "Four Watchtowers", by way of the Hermetic
> Order of the Golden Dawn).
>
> See, for example, Aidan Kelly's *Crafting the Art of Magic, Book I:
> A History of Modern Witchcraft, 1939-1964*, his *Inventing Witchcraft:
> A Case Study in the Creation of a New Religion*, and Henrik Bogdan's
> *From Darkness to Light: Western Esoteric Rituals of Initiation*.
>
> There is a wealth of material available for those Wiccans (and other
> inheritors of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn) who wish to explore
> the foundational frame that underlies what they perform, in the event
> that they don't know /why/ they do what they do.
>
> I still find it remarkable, at this late date, that so many "Hermetic"
> magicians know so little of astrology and its history, and vice-versa.
>
> Cors in Manu Domine,
>
>
> ~ Khem Caigan
> <[log in to unmask]>
>
> "Heat and Moisture are Active to Generation;
> Cold and Dryness are Passive, in and to each thing;
> Fire and Air, Active by Elementation;
> Water and Earth, Passive to Generation."
>
> 'Of the Division of Chaos'
> -Dr. Simon Forman
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