by Robert Wilkinson
Each of the “Seven Sacred Planets” has healthy functions, as well as unhealthy ones. Our task is to learn to transmute our planetary malfunctions and dysfunctions into healthy worldly and spiritual expressions.
I last gave these to you about 4 years ago, though I have referenced this article numerous times since then and incorporated the core material in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. I figured it was time to offer it to you again, with rewrites and some edits for readability. Here’s where the original article began:
Within the great dualistic field we all live, arising from what is called Maya, or Spirit, we humans are given our five senses and minds to learn how to be fully “divine” in our human-ness through ever-changing conditions. This implies that beyond dualistic frames like “good and bad,” “right and wrong,” there is a place for forms of both harmonious and disharmonious experiences at points in our evolution.
These dualities all serve to assist us to learn how to BE our highest aspiration of self-expression. Over time, as we learn ever more perfect forms of self-expression, we bring forth more refined and worthy fruits of our various labors in this world. As we understand and master the dualisms of existence, we have the power to overcome all forms of suffering, and find a joyous enthusiasm of living, knowing we are moving toward a better, more integrated future.
In an earlier version of this article I offered the Sage of China’s ancient counsel that “Times change, and with them their changing demands.” As we journey through life, we find that some actions, feelings, and ideas which once worked for us no longer do, or are no longer applicable to our present situation. We bounce through both pleasurable and painful experiences in order to learn how to response in a conscious way rather than perpetuate unconscious responses which often lead our lives into proverbial ditches.
Along the way we learn to adapt, both our understanding and our responses. As we journey through changing times and conditions, we find that our old skills are no longer sufficient, or useful for what we’re dealing with, and old attitudes are out of place. These create dynamic situations where we must consciously choose, sooner or later, whether we want to stay stuck in attachment, aversion, delusion, or pessimism enslaving the imagination, or are willing to try new ways of doing our Being.
Throughout our lives, we are forced to face and deal with these afflictions of the mind, since they generate all the suffering we experience as human beings. The quicker we are willing to face our problems and understand the antidotes for our unhelpful behaviors, the quicker we orient ourselves toward something better than we had before. Sometimes we must dismantle or even tear down old structures of doing and being to create space for our new self to do its thing. This is where we learn which planet we need to use constructively, usually through seeing its dysfunctional side.
Any time we confront a dysfunctional part of us, another person, or a situation, it shows us which of the “planetary lights” needs to change manifestation. Each of the planets has two expressions, constructive and destructive.
When functioning in a healthy way, the planets show us personality strengths giving us power to bring forth health, wealth, love, and perfect self-expression for ourselves and others. When a planet is dysfunctional, it shows as behaviors that create suffering for us and others. By understanding the planetary dualities, we can recognize when a dysfunction is happening and how to transmute it.
Many decades ago I found a remarkable book titled The Tarot – A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, by the venerable western Arhat Paul Foster Case. While these appeared in the context of the Major Arcana and their planetary associations, there are dimensions of understanding that can open simply by seeing how each planet manifests these dual qualities.
Having set the table, it’s time for the feast!
Moon - Peace/Strife. This is the aspect of consciousness describing how subconsciousness responds to the immediacy of our experience.
By our Lunar function we fall into fear, dependency, or backward-looking insecurity, and thus come to know how to provide for the need of the moment in a mature and sensitive way, protecting what is valuable and nurturing that which needs care.
Mercury - Life/Death. This is the aspect of consciousness that can as easily create as destroy.
By our Mercury function we create chaos and disorganized scattered conditions through ambivalence, and thus come to see how to use discernment to coordinate various functions to bring forth perfect knowing how to do whatever needs to be done.
Venus - Wisdom/Folly. This is the aspect of consciousness describing our subconscious response to self-consciousness, affecting our "mental offspring."
By our Venus function we live our vanities, selfishness, or narcissistic ways of relating, and thus come to know how to capture at just the right times more beautiful forms of our inner picture of a higher, refined, elegant life and relationships.
Sun - Fruitfulness/Sterility. This is the aspect of consciousness describing our making of growth or deserts in our life and the lives of others.
By our Solar function we shine forth our pride, inflexibility, sense of entitlement or inability to bless others, and thus come to know how to be the living light at the center of our purpose and integrity, bringing forth life and abundance for self and others.
Mars - Grace/Sin. This is the aspect of consciousness that shows whether our responses are manifesting error or truth, maladjustment or beauty.
By our Martian function we force things before their time or confront abrasive, aggressive, or hostile energies in ourselves and others, and thus we learn how to sever what must be severed, and further what must be furthered, quickly and directly.
Jupiter - Wealth/Poverty. This is the aspect of consciousness showing how we are grasping circumstances with abundance or neediness.
By our Jupiterian function we waste time, energy, or money, or are merciful in ways others can mistake for weakness, teaching us to understand the eternal abundance of the Universe in giving us what we need when we need it, and accept it.
Saturn - Dominion/Slavery. This is the aspect of consciousness demonstrating whether we are limited or limiting others in helpful or hurtful ways.
By our Saturnian function we are slavers or enslaved, controllers or oppressed, and through these come to a patient and mature conscious participation in the Great Work, actively accepting our higher responsibilities and higher work to help our world.
As an aside, the outer quartet of invisible planets, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and TransPluto do not have a dual quality, since they symbolize transpersonal energies that work together and synergistically on global levels. The first three each symbolize different aspects of the three-fold Divine Energy Force, and the last represents a new 21st century emerging global understanding of “God as Divine Mother.”
As each “outer invisible” was discovered in successive centuries, it corresponded to the great leaps in humanity’s collective understanding of the nature of “God” as an evolutionary force. They each represent a “Higher Octave” which finds expression through its corresponding “lower octave” visible planet, both in the social-cultural realms as well as our individual lives.
While the outer invisibles are beyond individual control, we always have the power to change how we express our responses associated with our planets. The outers represent “spiritual energy,” while the inners are the “lower octave” of the “Higher Octave” expression. Again, I explore these octave relationships in Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend so if you’re interested, please check it out.
By understanding the dual functions of the 7 visible “Sacred” planets, we can more easily assess what's up in our own lives, as well as the lives of others. Any time a trait representing one of these shows itself as a problem, we can antidote and transmute the situation through applying the appropriate planetary solution to the dysfunctional behavior. For example, if we are with someone enslaved by a delusion or fear (Saturn), then we may achieve dominion (Saturn) over the situation by demonstrating the Saturn virtues of knowing right limits, correct boundaries, finding a mature understanding, and knowing which duties or responsibilities must be accepted or rejected to achieve the greatest good possible.
In another example, if we find ourselves impoverished, it is a Solar issue, since the problem is fruitfulness not coming forth. Find a way beyond the sterility of the approach, how you’re life giving or not, through seeing what’s wrong in the field or function. Then as you “shine your Light,” you will begin to restore fruitfulness to your efforts.
By changing our mental state, or Mercury function, we come out of perceptions and opinions that create patterns of activity leading to decay or death, and come into recognizing how to see life-affirming approaches that open possibilities rather than denying the potential. As Mercury is “the Guide of Souls,” when functioning in a healthy way we can see the operation of our personality as opportunities to bring forth our Soul qualities, and become the “Soul-ful” Life we seek.
It’s easy to see how these solutions could be applied to problems of interpersonal living and communication. If you're trying to have a discussion with someone and what they’re saying is a huge downer to your hopes, dreams, truth or experience, then affirm the life and light in your experience, truth, hopes and dreams. Refuse to give power to the destructive idea, and claim your Mercury function in ways so you feel stronger, clearer, and more life-affirming. This way you don’t allow the decaying toxic Mercury behavior of the other to be accepted as any form of truth.
This is why it is useful NOT to agree with another's toxic point of view simply to be polite. To agree with a toxic idea affirms what we really don’t want to affirm.
We don’t want to attack their view, since using Mars interpersonally is seldom the best approach, often resulting in as much “sin” and error as truth. However, if we find an appropriate higher way of expressing Venus, it usually will lead us to wisdom rather than folly. That way we find desired beneficial outcomes helping us overcome many difficulties in human relations, both by avoiding certain traps and capturing forms of beauty.
On a related note, in Medical Astrology there are two ways posited to deal with planetary dysfunction. One applies opposite planet or sign antidotes to counter the problem. The other applies more of the same planetary energy, substituting the higher positive function for the lower. "Fighting fire with fire" is only one way of describing the second approach. Which of these is needed is usually determined by whether something is in excess or deficiency, and whether diminishment or “jumpstarting” is appropriate. That is how we learn and teach all we know.
If you can begin to contemplate how the qualities listed above are related to each other, as well as to the various planets, you’ll find a vaster understanding of what the planetary qualities are, and how to use the right energy at the right time to turn dysfunction into healthy functioning in any situation you confront.
(All text in bold or italix is from The Tarot – A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, by the venerable Paul Foster Case. This article was originally posted 16 August 2005)
© Copyright 2018 Robert Wilkinson
You are really in your genius here, Robert, thanks so much!
Posted by: kathryn p. davison | December 11, 2018 at 09:36 PM