Fate vs Free Will – Do the Planets Actually “Make Anything Happen?”

by Robert Wilkinson

Over at Astrotabletalk, friend of the site Dharmaruci raises some interesting points about planetary influence, fate, and how the Western mind is obsessed with a “rationality” that is not rational and very one-sided.

I’m only going to quote a few small pieces of the article, since it covers some very interesting ground and I really wholeheartedly recommend you going over there to read the whole piece. There’s a link at the end of this article that will take you there.

In his post, Dharmaruci states the premise that “… in ancient times the planets really were powers, and I think as astrologers we feel that too, that is why we are astrologers. We feel the powers of the planets just as the ancients did, and it is therefore not quite right for us to say that the planets do not cause events.”

To paraphrase some key elements, later in the article he clarifies the dance we as astrologers do between the planets within and the planets without, and how the planets may not “make things happen,” even when they do in a curious way that defies our current irrational “rationality.” I also always enjoy a good William Blake poem, and found his take on the “three Fates” of the Greeks and “three Norns” of the Scandanavians an interesting parallel.

Anyway, the first paragraph really got my attention:

In one of the ancient Greek Creation Myths, Eurynome, the Goddess of All Things, created the seven planetary powers, and set a Titan and Titaness over each.

That jumped out because to put it another way, “Divine Mother,” or the 3rd Aspect of Divinity corresponding to the “Holy Spirit” from which all forms come and to which all forms return, created the “7 Sacred Planets” of antiquity, and each had a male and female form of expression. That gets us beyond the concept of the planetary dualities, since if Divine Mother created something that had two forms of expression, those “Titan and Titaness” energies could not be dysfunctional in any way, being of the Goddess.

That would imply that beyond the functional and dysfunctional expressions of the planets in our personality life, there is a Higher expression to each of the 7 Sacred Planets. We could term these dual expressions “masculine and feminine,” “active and passive,” “form and function,” “doing and Being,” “acting and experiencing,” or any other appropriate duality to the 7 Sacred Lights within us all. Remember too that being a “creation myth” of the 4th subrace of this 5th Root Race, this is probably significant source material.

This part sounds like it’s straight out of Professor Robert’s playbook:

But a planet is only a lump of rock when viewed through our Earth and Air faculties: the Earth faculty only sees physical evidence, discernible through the 5 physical senses. And the Air faculty then creates theories based on that evidence. Where does that leave Fire and Water, our ability to know and feel the power of the planets?

I think it is important we do not make concessions to modern ‘rationality’, which is not rationality at all. Rationality comes from the word ratio, and is connected to ration. It is about proportionality, seeing things in a balanced way, every element having its say. Modern ‘rationality’, which often considers only Earth and Air to be means of knowledge, is not balanced at all. It is for naïve people who take the world at face value, who believe that only what comes in through the 5 senses is real, that there is not a deeper less obvious dimension which is actually the source of everything we experience.

What called to me in this section was the idea that we try to judge reality through the “Earth and Air” faculty while ignoring the “Fire and Water” faculty. As I’ve pointed out in many articles, Earth and Air are “cool” elements, while Fire and Water are “hot” elements. The former are stable unless acted upon, whereas the latter are both volatile, and thus movement incarnate.

I believe this relates to what is beginning to emerge in the larger energetic field since the last Winter Solstice. I have noted that whether trained or untrained in perceiving accurately, people are beginning to open to feeling as being an “equally valid” measuring stick to our experience of our larger multilevel reality.

We are no longer only receiving and measuring the world of the 5 senses and the mind through the cool “rationality” of our Earth (practical) and Air (ideological) functions. We now are receiving information about the world of the 5 senses and the mind through the hot “volatility” of our Water (feelings) and Fire (inspiration) functions.

Anyway, please go check it out for yourself, since I have no doubt that perceptive readers will find a rich treasure trove of ideas that will open you to a broader vista. As Dharmaruci is an Aquarian, that doesn’t surprise me! For your consideration,

Fate, Free Will and The Planetary Powers

© Copyright 2013 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[jo garceau]

Would it be too simple to consider the current relationship of Neptune and Pluto (the grand irrationality you frequently remind us about)as bringing forth the powers of feeling? Since we in this culture think of ourselves as so rational, emphasis on the water elements feels irrational!

Eurynome is an answer to a question I've had about the Cosmic Mother. Thanks.

[Robert]

Hi jo - Yes, water and fire are not "rational" elements. I actually am formulating a work on what I believe the "shift phenomenon" was all about. I don't associate this directly with The Grand Irrationality, which first precipitated events related to Pluto in Sag and Neptune in Aquarius, then Pluto in Cap and Neptune in Aquarius, and now Pluto in Cap and Neptune in Pisces. We prepared much of the current ground during the time Jupiter conjuncted Uranus in late Pisces.

I conceive of the shift as being humanity's awakening to a "feeling-knowing" that we've had since the beginning of the species but has been on the back burner since the Age of Reason. Now the pendulum has swung the other way, and we're again rediscovering feeling as a way of receiving and processing information. However, as I noted in a recent article, the trick is in figuring out what in us "knows" what it believes it knows. For those with unevolved feelings, it's showing as some pretty "out there" behavior. For those with evolved feelings, it's showing as true intuition, bypassing the rational mind which still accurately focused.