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Logical Foundations of Rulerships
Astral Matrix II
by Patrice Guinard

6. Planetary regents : Dignities and Debilities
7. Zodiacal distribution of planetary operators
8. Semantical justification of the domiciles

Equipotence and Harmony of Structures (Astral Matrix I)
Matrix Geometry (Astral Matrix III)



This text covers the chapters 50 and 51 of my PhD thesis (1993), largely reworked. Like the Manifesto and the Dominion, it is a heavier and older stone which I am throwing in the water of astrologers. Taking into account the conformist predisposition of the field in general, I only expect hostile responses, and I prepare myself to them - with indifference.



6. PLANETARY REGENTS : DIGNITIES AND DEBILITIES

"Saturn gets Capricorn - cold and dry - but what has he to do with Aquarius - warm and moist ? What has Venus to do with him who likewise has to deal with such a pair ?
Poor Jupiter must guard fire and water, Sagittarius and Pisces, so that he gets well-tempered. But what is well-tempered about Mars, who also rules such a pair ?
If the signs are ascribed to the planets to which one attributes them, then they have these qualities ; if they have these qualities, then they certainly must have other rulers, or none at all..."
(Kepler, Response to the Discourse of Dr. Röslin, 1609 ; tr. Ken Negus, 1987 ; CURA, 2001)

I think like Kepler : the so-called classical theory is wobbly, illogical and absurd. Either we build a model of Harmony, or we forget about the whole thing (that is the choice of the rossards). I have always been concerned, even obsessed by the matter of the "Rulers", i.e. the adequacy of the planetary and zodiacal frames of reference, since I came across astrology, and I haven't stopped scribbling entire notebooks of correspondences between signs and planets, not only inspired by the supposed meanings of these various cyclical operators throughout accumulated literature, and by their formal, geometrical, even aesthetic relationships, but also by the distribution of mythological and religious values and invariants in the main cultural areas (of the past) and by their geographical distribution. But it was by meditating on Dumézil on the Indo-European gods, the orientalists, and the historians of the decimated South-American civilisations, that I acquired the certainty about the distribution of planets on the first zodiacal quarts : in the (solar) spring the Indo-Europeans Mars Uranus Jupiter; in the summer the planetary equivalents of the American gods, the Sun, the Moon, and Venus; in the autumnal quart, protean India and the most distant planets; in the winter quart, China and the Far East and Mercury and Saturn (see below, astral Geoculturology). A first model of my theory was published in 1985 in the journal Astralis (Lyon), and was badly received by the conditionalist rossards, and a second model was published in 1993 in my Sorbonne thesis.

What is Mars? What is Aries? Wat are their relationships? The matter of the "Rulers" is nothing else than the issue of the harmony of spheres which Kepler has constantly dealt with. Because astrology is about potentiation of states of comprehension of reality, totalisation of perspectives and perceptions, whichever the nature of reality may be. And the zodiac forms a whole which can chart it, as well as the set of planets which I call Planetary. How can these two sets, planetary signs, signals, or symbols on the one hand, zodiacal signs, signals, or symbols on the other hand, each having the purpose of totalising, delineating, closing the sum of possibilities in all their variations, how can these two sets exist together and which are their relationships? In this issue of Rulers, the idea of a Matrix arises: a single Matrix for two structures, the Zodiac being a relatively stable model of one structure, and the Planetary a very unstable one (since the discovery of Uranus) of the other structure. And of course there are as many approaches of 'the' Zodiac and of 'the' Planetary, as there are competent and original astrologers. Each has his model(s), narrowly defined, of each structure. And their adequacy, their harmonisation, their equinumerosity, is the subject of the Rulers, and the resolution of what I called the astral Matrix.

Because there is only a single astral Matrix, broadened to two other structures, and therefore composed of at least four frames of reference being the Zodiac, the Planetary, the Dominion which is related to the Houses (the Octotope with eight equal houses of which four are centred on the orthogonal angles, is the technical correlate which I have recommended since several years) and the Aspects, Figures and planetary Transits. For each of these frames of reference, many competing models exist.

Three rules of balance define the attribution of planets to the zodiac signs and the equinumerosity of planetary and zodiacal structures, in other words the distribution of the "Dignities" (Domiciles and Exaltations) and "Debilities" (Detriments and Falls). I keep these figurative and somewhat archaic terms to name what are simply zones or moments of intensification.



7. ZODIACAL DISTRIBUTION OF PLANETARY OPERATORS

Some preliminary definitions and postulates :

"Positive" signs, traditionally "masculine" (excitation) : Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius.
"Negative" signs, traditionally "feminine" (inhibition) : Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces.

Reminder : the spring quart (including Taurus) is overall masculine, the summer quart (including Leo) is overall feminine, the autumn quart overall androgynous or hermaphrodite, and the winter quart overall asexual (cf. my Avatars of the Astrological Zodiac , CURA, 2003). The feminine and androgynous are attracted to each other, as are the masculine and the asexual!

Active, "positive" planets : every second planet (following the order of their distance from the Sun) after the Sun Mercury pair : Mars, Jupiter, Chiron, Neptune.
Passive, "negative" planets : every second planet (following the order of their distance from the Sun) after the Venus Moon pair : Ceres, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto.
Note that this distribution does not exactly correspond with the common representation for Uranus and Neptune (see my previous article : Equipotence and Harmony of Structures, CURA, 2015).

Symmetrical signs (according to the axis of the equinoxes) : Aries Pisces, Taurus Aquarius, Gemini Capricorn, Cancer Sagittarius, Leo Scorpio, Virgo Libra.
Symmetrical planets : SUN (identification) PLUTO (over-differentiation), MERCURY (dispersion) URANUS (unification), MARS (confrontation) CERES (potentiation), JUPITER (simplification) SATURN (complexification), NEPTUNE (association) VENUS (dissociation), CHIRON (integration) MOON (indifferentiation). Regarding these symmetries, see Equipotence and Harmony of Structures, CURA, 2015.

POSTULATE 1. A planet linked to excitation ("masculine", "active", "extravert", "positive") is in Domicile and Exaltation in the signs linked to excitation, in Detriment and Fall in signs linked to inhibition. A planet linked to inhibition ("feminine", "passive", "introvert", "negative") is in Domicile and Exaltation in the signs linked to inhibition, in Detriment and Fall in signs linked to excitation. To my knowledge the only distributions respecting this postulate, before the modern model of Domiciles was drowned into a soft normative consensus (without reflexion or interrogation), are those of Burgoyne 1892, Merton 1899 and Rigg 1959 (see below).

POSTULATE 2. A planet in Domicile (or in Exaltation) in a given zodiac sign, admits its symmetrical planet in Detriment (or in Fall) in the same sign.
For instance the Moon, in Domicile in Cancer, implies the Detriment of Chiron in Cancer, and being in Exaltation in Taurus implies the Fall of Chiron in Taurus.

POSTULATE 3. A planet in Domicile (and in Detriment, Exaltation, Fall) in a zodiac sign admits its symmetrical planet in Domicile (and in Detriment, Exaltation, Fall) in its symmetrical sign. For instance Saturn in Domicile in Capricorn implies Jupiter in Domicile in Gemini, and the Sun in Exaltation in Aries implies Pluto in Exaltation in Pisces. This postulate results from zodiacal pairs and from the adequacy of zodiacal and planetary symmetries.

In the following table, the 12 pink attributions depend on the 12 white attributions (according to postulate 2) and the 24 purple attributions depend on the 24 white and pink attributions (according to postulate 3). In other words, with the twelve white attributions one can unveil the entire system.

Sign
Domicile
Exaltation
Detriment
Fall
Aries
MAR
SUN
CER
PLU
Taurus
URA
MOO
MER
CHI
Gemini
JUP
MER
SAT
URA
Cancer
MOO
VEN
CHI
NEP
Leo
SUN
JUP
PLU
SAT
Virgo
VEN
CER
NEP
MAR
Libra
NEP
MAR
VEN
CER
Scorpio
PLU
SAT
SUN
JUP
Sagittarius
CHI
NEP
MOO
VEN
Capricorn
SAT
URA
JUP
MER
Aquarius
MER
CHI
URA
MOO
Pisces
CER
PLU
MAR
SUN


The planets in detriment are opposite to the planets in domicile according to the axis of the equinoxes, which I chose to orient vertically (contrary to the usual representation). The North is related to spring-winter, rather masculine and rational, Yang. The South is related to the winter-fall, rather feminine, less rational. This archetype is abvious to me.

Planetary Domiciles in zodiacal Signs, PG, CURA, 1985-2015 Planetary Detriments in zodiacal Signs, PG, CURA, 1985-2015 Domiciles (Ceres, Moon, Chiron), PG, CURA, 2015

The planets in fall are opposite to the planets in exaltation along the same axis of the equinoxes. And a planet in Exaltation is in sextile or in trine to its position in Domicile, except for the Mars-Ceres pair situated on either side of the axis of the equinoxes, time of zodiacal inversion.

Planetary Exaltations in zodiacal Signs, PG, CURA, 2015 Planetary Falls in zodiacal Signs, PG, CURA, 2015
Sign
Domicile
Exaltation
Detriment
Fall
Aries




Taurus




Gemini




Cancer




Leo




Virgo




Libra




Scorpio




Sagittarius




Capricorn




Aquarius




Pisces





The distribution of the planets in exaltation follows the order of the zodiac according to their period (starting with the Sun, then the Moon, and the planets ordered according to their sidereal period), with two inversions Leo Libra and Sagittarius Aquarius:

zodiacal order of planetary exaltations

The inconsistencies of the classic Rulers doctrine has been criticised by a few astrologers, especially during the first half of the 20th Century, until most astrologers (who use the Rulers) returned to the consensual practice. Return to the 'tradition', regression, abdication of the research spirit, or abandonment of all critical mind? The current conformist and normalised mush rules... for a few retarded petosirisians ! (see my CURA's Charts and CurAstro4 Analysis, CURA, 2016). At the end of the 19th Century, astronomers are looking for the planet (pre-baptised Pluto) which would explain the irregularities of Neptune's orbit. After them, the theosophist Thomas Burgoyne (1855-1894), secretary of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor and dissident of Helena Blavatsky, confirms, as of 1895, the existence of a 'missing planet' in addition to the nine existing ones, completing a series of ten in analogical correspondence with the ten Sephiroth of the Kabbalah (in The Light of Egypt, London, George Redway, 1889 ; La lumière d'Égypte, trad. fr. René Philipon, Paris, Chamuel, 1895 ; Chacornac, 1899, p.219).

In France, abbot Paul Lacuria (1806-1890) and astrologer Charles Nicoullaud alias Fomalhaut (1854-1925) introduce Pluto into the planetary pantheon, and in 1911 the Scottish Isabelle Pagan (1867-1960) states that Pluto must rule over Scorpio (From Pioneer To Poet, or the Twelve Great Gates, London, Theosophical Society, 1911, p.208 et p.245). Various attempts of reorganisation of the planetary rulers have been analysed by Geoffrey Dean (and. al.) in the compilation Recent Advances in Natal Astrology (Perth, Subiaco (Australia), Analogic, 1977, p.208-212) : Alfred Witte in Germany, Theodor Ram in The Netherlands, Lorne Edward Johndro in the United States, J. Halbronn, etc. Not very convincing! Especially as many other, more interesting ones, exist, but which the team of compilers (like the Anglo-American astrologers who do not know their own literature) does not mention, such as, among many others:

- Thomas Henry Burgoyne, The Language of the Stars, Denver, The Astro-Philosophical Publishing Co., 1892 ; trad. fr. Julevno, Le langage des étoiles, in Le Voile d'Isis, 1912
- Fomalhaut, Manuel d'astrologie sphérique et judiciaire, Paris, Vigot, 1897 ; 2e éd, 1933, p.316-317
- Holmes Merton (Yarmo Vedra), Heliocentric astrology, or Essentials of Astronomy and Solar Mentality, Philadelphia, David McKay, 1899, p.38-41
- Jean Mavéric, La réforme des bases de l'Astrologie traditionnelle, Paris, Alfred Leclerc, 1912
- Don Néroman, Traité d'astrologie rationnelle, Paris, Sous le Ciel, 1943
- Winifred Pace Rigg, Astrology of the Mysteries, London, Theosophical Publishing House, 1959, p.141
- Jacques Vanaise, Traité d'anthropocosmologie, Bruxelles, 1978

The attributions of Burgoyne (in the chapter about the strength and weakness of the planets according to the author's experience, p 169), of Merton, and especially of Rigg, are the only ones relatively close to my distribution. The following table groups my Domiciles and Exaltations, those of the inconsistent Hellenistic model, the intuitions of Burgoyne, and only for the domiciles the models of Merton, Rigg, and the normalised current distribution. In white, the least agreed on distributions; in red, those which contradict my postulate.

Sign
Dom. PGExa. PG
Dom. Greeks
Exa. Greeks
Burgoyne
Merton
Rigg
xxx
Aries
MAR
SUN
MAR
SUN
SUN
NEP
SUN
MAR
Taurus
URA
LUN
VEN
LUN
LUN, SAT

LUN
CER ?
Gemini
JUP
MER
MER


MER
JUP
MER
Cancer
LUN
VEN
LUN
JUP

VEN
URA
LUN
Leo
SUN
JUP
SUN

JUP, MAR, MER
SUN
MER
SUN
Virgo
VEN
CER
MER
MER
VEN, SAT
URA
VEN
CHI ?
Libra
NEP
MAR
VEN
SAT

JUP
NEP
VEN
Scorpio
PLU
SAT
MAR


CER
SAT
PLU
Sagittarius
CHI
NEP
JUP

SUN, MAR
MAR
MAR
JUP
Capricorn
SAT
URA
SAT
MAR

SAT

SAT
Aquarius
MER
CHI
SAT

MER


URA
Pisces
CER
PLU
JUP
VEN
LUN, VEN
LUN

NEP

As mentioned in the beginning of this paper, my inspiration about the zodiacal distribution of the planets (domiciles) originates from a reflexion on the mentalities and the organisation of myths in the various cultural areas, and the succession of domiciles from Mars to Pluto has been certain for me since 1984-1985. The following tables group the evolution of my understanding on this matter : clear on the Domiciles, more erratic on the Exaltations.


PG DOMICILES (1985-2015)

Sign
Domiciles
1985
Domiciles
1992-93
Domiciles
1996
Domiciles
2009
Domiciles
2015
Aries
MAR
MAR
MAR
MAR
MAR
Taurus
URA
URA
URA
URA
URA
Gemini
JUP
JUP
JUP
JUP
JUP
Cancer
MOO
MOO
MOO
MOO
MOO
Leo
SUN
SUN
SUN
SUN
SUN
Virgo
VEN
VEN
VEN
VEN
VEN
Libra
NEP
NEP
NEP
NEP
NEP
Scorpio
PLU
PLU
PLU
PLU
PLU
Sagittarius
MAR MAR MAR X
CHI
Capricorn
SAT
SAT
SAT
SAT
SAT
Aquarius
MER
MER
MER
MER
MER
Pisces
MOOMOOMOOCER
CER
Domiciles and Exaltations, PG, 1985


PG EXALTATIONS (1985-2015)

Sign
Exaltations
1985
Exaltations
1992-93
Exaltations
1996
Exaltations
2009
Exaltations
2015
Aries
JUP, NEP
NEPSUN
SUN
SUN
Taurus
PLU VENVENMOO
MOO
Gemini
MER
MER
MER
MER
MER
Cancer
VEN, SAT
SATVEN
VEN
VEN
Leo
MER
JUPJUPMAR
JUP
Virgo
PLU PLUSATSAT
CER
Libra
SUN SUNJUPJUP
MAR
Scorpio
URA SAT
SAT
CER
SAT
Sagittarius
NEP, JUP
JUPNEP
NEP
NEP
Capricorn
URA
URA
URA
URA
URA
Aquarius
SUN NEPNEPX
CHI
Pisces
VEN, SAT
VENPLUPLU
PLU
Domiciles and Exaltations, 3rd and 2nd outer circles, PG, end 1992 ; D.TH. 1993



8. SEMANTICAL JUSTIFICATION OF THE DOMICILES

"In each of the four triads composing the twelve upper workshops, we create a ring. (...) Then the four rings are put together, and their assembly forms a firm and rigid frame. We then make a falcon like you prisoner, and drop unto you this coat of mail." (Sohravardî, L'archange empourpré, éd.-trad. Henry Corbin, Paris, Fayard, 1976, p.210)

The Rulers are the source of the hermeneutic tradition of zodiac signs, and in this sense they pre-exist the zodiac. For the Mesopotamian astrologers, the constellations were merely points of reference for the localisation of planets, before figuring as amplification or attenuation modes of the planetary powers. Even so, for Ptolemaeus, it is not a matter of specific zodiacal determination, or of influence of the zodiac signs independently from the planetary forces. The limited descriptions of the Signs are about their meteorological dimension (Tetrabiblos, II 12). Kepler shows no interest in the zodiac and only relies on the planets. Even so Daniel Verney states in his work in 1987 : due to the dichotomy between "symbols related to the beings of the astronomical world : Sun, Moon, planets" and the " symbols related to the forms of astronomical space-time : the zodiac system and its derived or associated symbols ("houses", "aspects"), in other words due to the assimilation of the three conditional media (space, time, structure) under a same mode (the structural "forms" of space-time), he finally keeps in his theorised corpus only the planets (the energetic frame of reference), through an extreme reduction comparable to a return to origins, to the time when the Mesopotamians evaluated the influence of the mere errant heavenly bodies on the destinies in the city (in L'astrologie et la science future du psychisme, Monaco, Le Rocher, 1987, p.162).

But since the planetary attributions to the Signs were put in place, only very few astrologers have really comprehended the nature of a zodiac sign without its planetary partner. Not even Jean-Pierre Nicola who denies the reality of the Rulers (see his polemic with A. Volguine regarding the attribution of Pluto to Scorpio, in Cahiers Astrologiques, 57, Nice, 1955), - in this way relinquishing any possibility to unify the various structures of the astral matrix - and stating the autonomy of the Zodiac on a so-called "photo-periodical" and "reflexological" basis, paradoxically describes the zodiac signs while thinking of the planets : "Saturn, according to the Tradition, governs Capricorn (...) Uranus, ruler of the sign [of Aquarius] ... the caduceus, symbol of Mercury (...) rules Gemini and Virgo" (in La condition solaire, Paris, éd. Traditionnelles, 1965, pp.181, 196, 105, etc.). In other words, one gets rid of the Rulers, and reintroduces them implicitly in the zodiac portraits. The often enlightening intuitions of his descriptions, which are broadly inspired from those of the Psychologie zodiacale of Robert Dax (Vichy, imprimerie Wallon, 1950), are altered by the intrusion of "unmastered" correlations - and partly obsolete : about Gemini, and in the conditionalist jargon one has to assimilate : "the natural totalisation (...) resorbs the duality in a single sum" - which would correspond to Jupiter, defined as the "passage from 2 to 1 = simplification", but certainly not to Mercury, defined by the "passage from 1 to 4" and "loss of the dominating unity through dispersion in the multiple." (Nicola, ibid., pp.105, 254, 255).

The theory of the Rulers implies an isomorphy between the Zodiac and the Planetary and the assimilation of the zodiac sign to its planetary regents : firstly the domiciled planet which expresses the essential tendencies of the Sign, then the exalted planet which expresses its complementary tendencies. Each astrologer is a judge of his sudden feelings and of his inner impressions and experience. No exteriority is defining, imperious or judicatory in relation to one or the other value of the astral corpus : neither the explanation by astronomical reality, nor the interpretation through mythology, nor the subordination to some idolum (specus, tribus, fori, and especially theatri) of Francis Bacon. Every theory builds a more or less operative model of the astral matrix, and precisely more or less, according to the resources, the experience, the intellectual probity, the spiritual level and finally the viewpoint and the intelligence of the astrologer. Because neither the understanding of astral matters nor any activity of the spirit can escape subjectivity.

If a relative agreement exists between astrologers on the planetary semantics, what we propose here is a reinterpretation of the zodiac signs (namely Taurus, Gemini, Virgo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius and Pisces), taking into account the proposed house system. The Venusian interpretation of Taurus (passive quietness, carnal enjoyment, taste for pleasures) conceals the individuation and domination will of the most ambitious sign of the zodiac. One only needs to think of these 'masters' and keepers of conscience, all Taurus through the sun (Leonardo, Machiavel, Kant, Marx, Freud) in the artistic and thinking fields, or of these 'tyrants' in the field of action (Cromwell, Catherine II, Robespierre, Lenin, Hitler, Saddam Hussein). The Mercurian interpretation of Gemini, joker, juggler or showman, confuses the mask (persona) with the person : behind his apparent joviality, a manipulator of consciences aspiring to all honours and gratifications is hiding.

Often astrologers interpret Leo as an ambitious predator, a voluntary individualist. This is a 'western' interpretation (biased by western idiosyncrasy) of his need to seduce, to amuse, to be taken into account, and finally to exist through other people's eyes. In the Buddhist spiritual zodiac, Leo figures as an empty house or sometimes as the 'mask that an actor wears to represent a character above him (according to Volguine, L'Ésotérisme de l'astrologie, Dangles, 1953, p.27 ; CURA, 2003).

Virgo, twice mercurised (Domicile and Exaltation), is represented as a sterile analyst, a mediocre formalist, a narrow conceptualist, a neurotic person remaining at the 'anal stage' (Barbault using Freudian jargon) or moving in a 'Lilliputian paranoia' (Nicola) - symptom shared by a modernity which understands neither femininity (which is intellectualised) nor virility (which is infantilised to Aries). Virgo, symbol of fecundity, appears in the Buddhist zodiac as an 'embracing couple' (Volguine, op. cité, p.140 ; CURA, 2003). Virgo is the divine courtesan of the Babylonians. The Ishtar (Venus) goddess was represented as a virgin. One reads in chapter 105 of the Akkadian presage collection iqqur îpuš (which contains one of the first models of the 'Rulers' and which is approximately 1000 years older than the Greek one) : "the month Elul [August-September] is the month of Ištar, lady of the countries." (in René Labat, Un calendrier babylonien des travaux, des signes et des mois, Paris, Champion, 1965, p.105).

The Jupiterian interpretation of Sagittarius is a mistake about the meaning of 'morality' which is an ethical requirement before becoming a social code and institution. One had to wait until 1977 for Sagittarius to find its pilot, the minuscule Chiro, drawn by astrologers as a healer, shaman, clairvoyant or prophet, in other words an intermediary between humans and natural law, a medium likely to glimpse the necessity of reality.

A series of superficial analogies is the source of the factitious attribution of Uranus to Aquarius, which are opposed in many ways. The fortuitous discovery of Uranus at the eve of the French revolution transformed Aquarius into a revolutionary liberator. In this way, although he is altruist and sceptical, he ended up taking up the Uranian egocentrism and becoming the carrier of the most extravagant hopes (see the alleged 'Age of Aquarius').

The astrologers often consider Pisces as a dreamer, a lover or a mystic : occasional masks of integral negation, of radical scepticism. Assimilating Neptune to Pisces due to trivial mythological analogies only complicates matters and causes misunderstanding of this Sign. Capricorn is still attached to a purist rationalisation of the Universe, but nothing escapes the absolute relativism of Pisces. If the world can dissolve, it means that it is finished. Pisces is implicitly the Egg of the World, but it precedes the Big Bang (in Aries)!

The table below groups my texts on the zodiac signs and the planets, established independently from each other (see 1 et 2). The comparison of the zodiac and planetary processes throws light on their respective virtual meaning.


ARIES
I want (I will)
Natural excitement
Spending of energy
Immediate and polarised reactivity
The Shock (opposition energy)

Aries shows off brute strength without mediation. He propulses himself into existence, armed against any potential misfortune, and reacts to 'anything which moves'. He is only conscious of his deeds at the moment of action. Reflex action, instantaneous reaction to stimulation, spontaneous and impulsive action, spurt in self-affirmation and in voluntary definition. He seeks to master the existential situation and takes a determined antagonising viewpoint against any potential source of conflict. The use of available force and realisation occur immediately. His practical intelligence adapts to the slightest energy variation. Aries lives 'one day at a time'. He commands an undifferentiated energy potential, without preliminary objective, always available and renewed (pugnacity, optimism, innocence, sense of sacrifice, enthusiasm, eternal youth...)
MARS
Confrontation
permanence of the dual
implication of the strong level and maintenance of the average level of excitability
vital dynamism
acting, combating, undertaking, realizing, seizing, resisting, affirming.

The evidence of existence presses closely and imperatively. The real is born from a tangible, manifest resistance to consciousness. Spontaneously forms move, acts take shape, forces fluctuate. Existence rises up in all its apparent power, in its naked truth. The Martian affirms itself through affirming the world. It takes on the form of matter, but this union is tenuous, dynamic, shot through with conflict, because it brings together internal and external enemies. Every situation is a virtual field of confrontation, collision, telescoping, violent shocks, shouting antagonisms, and induces immediate, imminent, permanent conflict. Little matter what comes of it as a result!
TAURUS
I found
Natural inhibition
Concentrated excitement
Conservation and stability
The Bomb (assimilation energy)

The possessive power results from an accumulation of forces, from an exclusive reorientation of energy, from a strict regulation of needs, from a specialisation of activity. Taurus organises himself efficiently and utilises his environment for the purpose of a specific objective which matches his interest. This demanding and perseverant worker masters the existential contingencies and overcomes resistance and obstacles (firmness, single-mindedness, carefulness, control, discipline...). Thus all source of energy dwindles with time : existence is a 'shagreen' with limited resources, which he can manage sparingly and give away parsimoniously.
URANUS
Unification
transformation of the multiple into the unique
a drastic rise of excitability (and depression at the periphery)
individualized emergence
centering, orienting, discovering, bursting forth, jutting forth, bowling over, radicalizing, surging forth.

The real appears as an ensemble of disperse elements that demand imperatively to be put into order. The phenomenal diversity is organized and focused under the aegis of an abstract principle. It is seized in its totality and reduced to its lines of force, to its essential nature. All concrete experience is subjected to the imperative of unification. Forces concentrate themselves and the resources of the will mobilize in view of an objective or a project that subsumes them. Egocentric consciousness gathers together the ensemble of its potentialities in a unilateral orientation, with a view toward radical transformation. The Uranian knows how to recognize and cultivate with single-mindedness that which properly belongs to it. Legitimate power belongs to the one who knows how to attract and regulate the indefinite variations that arise from the tendencies of the world.
GEMINI
I can
Natural excitement
Conditional spending
Thoughtful activity
The Flow (generalisation energy)

Gemini shows off a diffuse, overflowing energy in all directions, in purpose of a varied, broad, intentional and pragmatic activity. The preliminary acceptance of collective norms and social conventions conditions the efficient integration and the plastic adaptation to fluctuations in the environment (availability, improvisation, persuasion, diplomacy, intuition...). Gemini evolves within a rather vast normalised field which allows the development of his tactical plans. He can make compromises and can seize the opportunities of a situation, making good use of his alliances and aides by persuading them to go by his views. It is in the general interest to follow the way in which he engages his responsibility, which often feeds of other's.
JUPITER
Simplification
transformation of the dual into the unique
a raise in the average level of excitability
practical efficacy
spreading forth, observing, schematizing, normalizing, codifying, legislating, popularizing.

The real presents itself in a mediated form: the object makes its sign and the word calls forth the act. The verbal efficacity and performance show themselves in disuasion and in the capacity to formulate laws and to codify the concrete. Existence demands an effective clarification: phenomena are schematized, events are analyzed, situations are reduced to their structural outlines. Significant choices give direction to an activity that inscribes itself on the rules of the social game one seeks to master. Experience orients itself toward diversified objectives that nonetheless converge, that favor and accumulate the power of action and the enjoyment of the things of this world. The Jovian presents itself as the guarantor of relations between human beings, of their proper functioning, such as in the necessary moral authority without which the road leads to mistrust, jealousy and suspicion that divide and break down the social fabric.
CANCER
I imagine
Protective inhibition
Plastic adaptation
Diffuse receptivity
The Earth (sedimentation space)

Cancer acquires his balance by symbiosis with an environment which he assumes to be built to his measure and which he shapes according to his wishes. He patiently weaves his net around him, by juxtaposition of successive layers and by concretion of external contributions, in a personal and protected space. Maintaining his vital balance requires a mainly vegetative existence, developing away from any competition, sheltered in a world where the imaginary often takes precedence over reality, in a universe to his measure, which can invigorate him and give him confidence (passivity, dependence, daily routine, memory, affectivity..). Inducements extend into himself. He lingers in reviving the past, to the extent that he feeds of his own matter and is moved by his own emotions. The progressive impregnation of disparate reality shapes his punctual, vague, varying affective ties. He finds his balance in this apparent weakness. A little of everything as it comes.
MOON
Undifferentiation
permanence of the unique in the emergence of the dual
implication of the average and maintenance of the strong level of excitation
informal gestation
limiting, enfolding, confusing, bringing together, cohabiting, attending.

The real, perceived in a diffused manner, appears in its global nature and its internal homogeneity. Entities are confused one with the others, rather than demarcated. The world is a continuum. An informal balance is established through the lack of distinction between the levels, through the annexation of what is exterior, through the interpenetration of worlds, through the equivalence between realities of various tenors, through the ambivalence and the reciprocity of the "real" and the imaginary. Everything becomes intermingled and dissipated through this cohabitation. The Lunar lives in a fluid world, receptive to all manifestations, in permanent gestation, in a perpetual state of waiting for the actualization of its virtualities, for it carries this world within itself.
LEO
I create
Trace excitement
Concentrated protection
Spatial radiation
The Temple (fusion space)

The concentration of inhibition creates a hollow centre in consciousness, a space which is open to the presence of sacred, and favours the origination of faith. The reason why Leo attempts to distinguish himself is that he needs to free himself from the evidence of this vacuum. Relatively insensitive to the fluctuation of the psyche, immune for reconsidering himself, he masters his behaviour and his emotions. Mundane life, passions and multiple existential intrigues fill his desire without satisfying it. He feigns authority more than he wants to seize it (integrity, loyalty, generosity, magnanimity...). Leo is a king who does not seek power, but who redistributes his powers. He multiplies the masks of his personality and takes on successive and varying roles according to the hazard of his encounters, because he only knows how to exist through the recognition by others of the ideal image he has of himself. He can change himself, become actor of himself, because he has surmounted otherness, because he his other while being himself.
SUN
Identification
permanence of the unique
maintenance of a strong state of excitability
radiating imagination
outward radiating, vitalizing, exalting, dreaming, perpetuating, reproducing, imitating.

The real is limpid and transparent. It is what it appears to be: a dream that perpetuates itself through the evidence of appearance. Things are what they are: it is useless and futile to attempt to transform them, to realize them, or to demonstrate them. An unshakeable faith directs action and animates consciousness. The Solar adheres to customs, conventions and collective patterns through respect for norms and social values, and also through an affective evaluation of appropriateness. It loves to play the role of the motive agent within a community and endorses the function of the radiating center without seeking to impose anything on anyone that would be contrary to his nature, for it instinctively recognizes the invariability of human nature.
VIRGO
I choose
Protective inhibition
Defensive limitation
Selective receptivity
The Mirror (reciprocity space)

Virgo sharply perceives his latent affinities and hostilities, as well as the limits of his capability. His affective space narrows around a chosen focus. The slightest detail related to it draws his interest because it is the encouraging indication of the proximity of the desired being. Werther. Virgo is sentimental, susceptible for the most passionate attachments, although 'cold', indifferent and apparently critical (self-restraint, discretion, reserve, devotion, fidelity...) The exchange materialises through affective, almost permanent ties. Virgo is the only one who is capable of loving and giving everything without condition. His receptivity to others is so strong that he picks up his words, gestures, states and desires through some kind of unconscious mimicry.
VENUS
Dissociation
transformation of the unique into the dual
reduction of the strong level of excitability
affective preference
loving (and hating), desiring (and fearing), attracting (and repelling), doubling the self, coupling, agreeing, sharing.

The unique doubles itself; the apparent takes on color; the visible becomes tangible. Images give life to the object of desire, which agrees with the feeling it calls forth. The real is a tableau of figures more or less conspicuous, bright or dark, luminous or sombre, limpid or opaque. The permanent presence of desire implies affective estimation of acceptance or refusal, pleasure or distaste, attraction or repulsion. Attachment is exclusive, visceral. The Venusian exists only through the regard of the other, of its double, of its complement, be it tangible, ideal or imaginary. It lives with that double in a confiding complicity. It gives of itself because it knows how to share itself.
LIBRA
I feel
Temporal excitement
Intensive association
Careful coordination
The Come-Back (time of balance)

The psychic plasticity and the acute attention to fluctuations of the living imply supple and fluctuating relationships with the environment. A deed increases in weight with the consideration of all the potential, and is only accomplished with regret for everything which it leaves aside. The difficulty for taking a stand results from a heightened sensitivity for the diversity of consciences. Indecision results from receptivity to various solicitations and from respect for the integrity of beings and of their successive states (authenticity, delicacy, subtlety, refinement, tolerance, charm...) Libra does not have fixed, polarised or definitive feelings or habits : his attachments are undefined, variable, ethereal, vivified by the presence of what can potentially animate them.
NEPTUNE
Association
transformation of the multiple into the dual
rise in the weak level of excitability
contemplative participation
communing, fusing, gathering together, sensitizing, dissolving, incarnating, precognizing, waiting, pacifying.

The real is a field of correspondances, where things answer one another, resonate, communicate, interact sympathetically. Sensibility results from active contemplation, an opening to the multiplicity of life. What is barely perceptible is felt, what fluctuates imperceptibly is experienced, relished. There is a profundity that goes beyond the immediate data, a halo that envelops what is manifest, an atmosphere that interrelates the most dissimilar realities, an ambience beyond time that joins the here and the beyond. The indefinite presence of the world to itself shapes consciousness. Life is a promise, for the real is without limit.
SCORPIO
I live
Differential inhibition
Concentrated attention
Selective distinction
The Moment (time of dosing)

The sharp discernment allows the apprehension for the appropriate object, for the favourable location, for the sensitive point, for the crucial moment, for the eternal moment (perspicacity, critical sense, demystification, marginality...) Scorpio singles himself out by underlining his differences. He only has relative certainties. The essential part of his being, his vital core, cannot be determined or rationalised, because the 'power' is hidden in the elusive. Impervious to any illusion, refractory to established values, rebel against any enrolment, irreducible for any identification, but sensitive for the rejected, despised, cast-off, he evolves towards dispossession and self-regeneration.
PLUTO
Over-differentiation
permanence of the multiple
maintenance of a weak state of excitability
intuitive irreducibility
destabilizing, decompiling, demystifying, regenerating, criticizing, upsetting, subverting, relativizing.

The extremes of complexity are maintained. The real is chaotic, secret, eternally mysterious, inaccessible, unfathomable, impenetrable. It manifests itself in the depths of consciousness through indefinite states, never really identifiable, pressing and ineffable. The Plutonian ferociously defends its integrity despite the reversability of its states of consciousness and the indeterminate state of its desire. It lives in the disorderly flux of inextricable realities. It perceives the evanescent, the ineffable, the improbable, what lies beyond appearances or trivialities. It maintains within itself a multiplicity of points of orientation in the infinite variability of Being and beings. Disorder is its law, its order, and until the final hour, everything is always possible.
SAGITTARIUS
I see
Temporal excitement
Extensive association
Evolution
The Spiral (time of harmonisation)

Openness to universality results from the anxiousness to take into account all points of view and to assemble them in a synthetic inspired vision. Sagittarius only takes into account the least egocentric aspirations (solidarity, fairness, cooperation, fraternization, compassion...). No matter the decorum : no one else has such a fervour to go beyond the limits, to contend for the limits, to fight against alienations, to fight against unfairness and vulgarity in all their forms, even to dare utopia and to challenge it beyond measure. Force obeys duty. Wisdom forms through reality's hardship. No matter the lack of comfort and the annoyance for someone who simultaneously possesses the courage to live and to act.
CHIRON
Integration
permanence of the multiple and the dual
implication of the average level and maintenance of the weak level of excitability
moral necessity
intervening, engaging, cooperating, organizing, adaptating, valuing.

The real resists consciousness by reason of its immanent complexity. It engages, it demands participation with a view to its transformation. The action is accomplished no longer in the immediacy and for the benefit of the agent ("Springtime" Mars), but rather due to a necessity that goes beyond. The imperative of accomplishing what is just, equitable, leaving aside consideration of any personal interests. The will becomes the obligatory support of sensibility, within the purpose of encouraging authenticity in all its forms.
CAPRICORN
I think
Extinctive Inhibition
Active and generalised systematisation
The Cristal (structure of crystallisation)

Capricorn rids himself of the insufficient, of the superfluous, of the artificial, of the random, of the futile which covers each phenomenon in its manifestation, to retain only the strictly necessary (detachment, exactingness, sobriety, austerity, exactness, probity....). He aspires to perfection. His anxiousness for objectivity and his search for the 'truth', the absolute, imply the definition of invariant, of constant properties and permanent elements, beyond the existential circumstantial conditioning factors. The reasoned construction of the natural and social environment is the design of an uninterested intelligence, serving an abstract ideal without concession. One needs to be serious about the necessary, beyond illusory appearances, and order it in accordance with the purest principles.
SATURN
Complexification
transformation of the dual into the multiple
reduction of the average level of excitability
abstract investigation
objectifying, purifying, detaching the self, renouncing, sanitizing, putting at distance, structuring, theorizing.

The real, of an extreme complexity, demands the explanations - never definitive - that lie at the root of the postulates one has always interrogated. The analysis of the factual implies the capacity of anticipating the circumstantial and of structuring one's experience. From the muddle of the phenomenal world emerges in its outlines a skeleton, an underlying pattern, determined by abstract laws. Everything is articulated within a network of connections in which each entity tends to lose its individual characteristics. Investigation leads to greater and greater distance from the concrete. The rationality of the world is an octave below the indefinite complexity of the mind.
AQUARIUS
I know (French : 'je connais')
Re-creative excitement
Concentrated extinction
The Code (structure of conciliation)

Aquarius is open to everything that gets lost and disappears; he rehabilitates abandoned ideas and updates forgotten values. No prejudice commands this restoration of the past, this assembly of renovated elements (independence, curiosity, cleverness, originality...). The organism no longer has a centre of gravity : he transforms himself according to the solicitations of the moment. Every reality is indirectly in keeping with the environment. Beyond the old and the new, the essential and the incidental, the deep and the superficial, transcending fashions and routines, Aquarius takes pleasure in the abstract exchange without a priori, in the suspension of ego. Nothing is unbecoming, because only the fluctuations of the context of the intellectual game are relevant.
MERCURY
Dispersion
transformation of the unique into the multiple
drastic reduction of excitability (and diffusion to the periphery)
intellectual mobility
transmitting, communicating, translating, diversifying, diffusing, emitting, disseminating, informing.

The real manifests itself through the diverse implications of the most visible signals: the proliferation of effects, interpretation of data, diversification of consequences. The most divergent realities communicate with one another: combination of signs, exchange of data, diffusion of images and ideas, the play of language, multiplication of relations, transformation of perspectives, circulation, transcription, translation, transposition. Everything brings information. The world is the unlimited reflection of the mental, a game the mind plays with itself. The intellect is present to the bursting forth of consciousness: it is this consciousness as it has burst forth.
PISCES
I know (French : 'je sais')
Extinctive inhibition
Global structuring
The Matrix (structure of neutrality)

Most incitements are rejected, relativized, disintegrated. Pisces escapes any control and any subservience because he only reacts to essential signals. Warned in advance and notified against the unforeseen, he creeps, navigates and lives through situations and environments while blending with them. His mental plasticity protects him against fluctuations of the moment and keeps him at a distance from the variables conditioning factors which he neutralises (disengagement, relinquishment, asceticism, placidity...). He seems all the more impersonal, indifferent, dissolved, 'extinguished' since he does not assimilate anything, does not identify with anything, does not hold to anything. His 'contradictions' are explained by the ease with which he constantly changes his reference point.
CERES
Potentiation
permanence of the unicity and multiplicity
implication of the weak level and maintenance of the average level of excitability
logical formalization
preserving, ordering, systematizing, pre-structuring, distributing.

The real is perceived globally, but rigorously. An apriorist logic guides reasoning and distributes entities while preserving their latent possibilities and their modes of articulation. The undifferentiated virtualities of the "summertime" Moon are now given boundaries and systematized. The elements compare within a pre-established structure that contains and directs them, or better: it is the structure that defines the elements. The skeleton no longer need be built, since it has been pre-constituted, pre-posited. The result is an "innate" consciousness, without need for apprenticeship. All manifestations are inducted by a pre-existing formal organization. Variations and nuances insert themselves into this definitive order. The "wintertime" Lunar has no need of waymarkers, because it has already incorporated them through the process of mastery.


Astral Matrix II : Logical Foundations of Rulerships
http://cura.free.fr/2015/1704matrix2.html
Translation of 'Fondements logiques des Maîtrises'
French version : http://cura.free.fr/2015/1512matrice2.html
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Centre Universitaire de Recherche en Astrologie
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