Stargram
Week of May 3
Dear Friends,
Another glorious week is before us, as the wandering stars—our classical planets—bring to life the memory-tableau of the life of Christ. Like an orchestra of seven within a great cosmic lyre—one with 360 perfectly tuned strings!—the planets (on any given day) create a ‘chord’ that bears the memories of various events within the Christ chronicle.
Mars (23° Pisces) kicks things off on Sunday, when it will recall its zodiacal degree at the second conversion of Mary Magdalene (26/Dec/30). Indeed, Mars-in-Pisces offers a beautiful expression of what occurred at this event—the elevation of Magdalene’s desire nature to spiritual heights.
How can we doubt the merciful nature of the Christ? For it was Magdalene—a reformed sinner—who was destined to become the anointer of Christ on Holy Wednesday.
Tuesday the 5th marks the peak of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, one of the two ‘children’ of the comet Halley. Not only is this a shower that is more easily viewed from the hemisphere in which few of us live (the southern), but, as we are only four days past the Full Moon, moonlight will make the viewing quite difficult. For those who, during the wee hours, find themselves awake and full of hope, the shower—which appears to radiate from the Waterman’s urn, whence cosmic life forces pour forth upon humanity—will rise into view in the east around 0200. By dawn, the constellation of Aquarius will be near the top of the zodiacal arc.
When Mars reaches 25° Pisces on Tuesday, our cosmic warrior will simultaneously form a square aspect to Jupiter—a planetary relationship that was present at the conception of the Nathan Jesus—and recall his zodiacal position on 22/Jun/32, when Jesus uttered the words in Matthew 10:34–36:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have come not to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of his own household.”
Anne Catherine reported that the disciples were confused by this utterance, but Jesus explained to them that he referred to the renunciation of evil. What is the purpose of the sword of Jesus? It was not a means of violence (which is consistently rebuked by Jesus), but one of separation: between those who follow Christ and those who do not; between associations of blood ties and those of karmic (i.e., spiritual) ties.
For those among us who might seek umbrage in the fifth commandment (“Honor your mother and your father”), Tomberg offered a different interpretation thereof: to honor our parents as representatives of the archetype of divine Mother and divine Father, and to uphold the moral traditions of the blood family.
When in square aspect to Jupiter, Mars can receive the forces of our planetary ‘emperor’ as an expansion of our desire nature, or as its purification by way of the renunciation of purely personal concerns. Today Jupiter (25° Gemini) recalls its degree at the Ascension. Judith von Halle wrote of the significance of the ten-day period between Ascension and Pentecost:
Why do exactly ten days go by between Ascension and Whitsun? One occult reason is that the ten days are the days of the Christ impulse, in the same way the Ten Commandments are the Ten Commandments of Moses. We are reminded of what we said previously: Shavu’ot [which occurs seven weeks—49 days—after Passover] is also the festival of the tablets of the law, the honoring of the Ten Commandments. Now, however, in these ten days and up to the ancient Shavu’ot festival, the development of the disciples had to completely move away from the laws of Moses, and away from that which bound them as members of an ethnic group to this law: the bloodline. Otherwise, they would not have been able to apply consciously the freedom they had won at Easter to receiving the spirit. The old covenant created dependency and had to be overcome. This does not affect the integrity of the Ten Commandments. It is only that, after Christ, the individual self ought not to relinquish its individual moral responsibility to a law. [And If He Had Not Been Raised, pp. 158–59]
A second astrological aspect will occur on Tuesday: a square between Mercury (10° Aries) and Pluto (10° Capricorn, now retrograde until October). When the Mercury-Pluto square holds sway, subearthly forces might attempt to draw our thoughts downward, into the realm of darkness and negativity. Alternatively, this aspect can signify the ability to shine light into that darkness, as exemplified by Mother Teresa and Goethe, both born under this astral signature. In the case of Mother Teresa, she and her spiritual sisters were themselves ‘light’ to the suffering in their care; Goethe, on the other hand, brought spiritual light to lifeless scientific thinking.
This week, three planets will recall their zodiacal degrees at the Transfiguration: Mercury on Tuesday; Venus at the midnight cusp between Thursday and Friday; and the Last Quarter Moon on Saturday. From Judith von Halle:
[At the Transfiguration, the] spiritual being of Moses appeared to the disciples as a preparer for Christ in so far as he spread the first truth concerning Yahveh, concerning the I am. Later on, as John went through the major initiation which enabled him to write the Apocalypse (the book of the future), he now perceived the whole significance of the Moses Being. In this occult vision, this being stood as a pillar supporting Christ in the watery element, the expression of the forces of the Moon out of which the human being had emerged. . . . [Also appearing to the disciples was] the being of Elijah, whose name already expressed his mission: the way to God. . . . Elijah revitalized the old self through the new self, by helping people to understand that the invisible, inner God was not responsible for the outer circumstances of life, that he was no longer a God of nature. Elijah, the preparer of Christ, was just as alone as the voice in the wilderness: John the Baptist. . . . John, the writer of the Apocalypse, perceived Elijah as a pillar supporting Christ that was standing on solid ground.
The image appeared to the initiate as the symbol of the pillars of Jachin and Boaz: Jachin/Moses—the pillar of wisdom; and Boaz/Elijah—the pillar of strength. Together with the Sun of Christ, who leads mankind to eternal life, they form a unity. In this unity Rudolf Steiner discovered the saying of Christ: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (CW 54, 1 February 1906). The Latin language retains the actual sequence: lux, via, vita / Moses, Elijah, Christ. The disciples participated passively in this spiritual dialogue by feeling the love and compassion of both prophets for the future fate of the Lamb. They were witnesses to this exchange. [Ibid., pp. 101–02]
Blessings on the week ahead!
~ Julie H.
Image courtesy of W. Moora