DANE RUDHYAR AN ASTROLOGICAL M AND ALA: THE CYCLE OF TRANSFORMATIONS AND ITS 360 SYMBOLIC PHASES A reinterpretation of the Sabian symbols, present• ing them as a contemporary American I CHING ASTROLOGY Some three decades ago, in an attempt to • produce a series of symbols that would be relevant to contemporary students of astrology, Marc Edmund Jones and a clairvoyant friend formulated the so-called Sabian symbols. Now Dane Rudhyar has taken these symbols and reinterpreted them to emphasize their character as a cyclic and structured series which formalizes and reveals the archetypal meaning of 360 basic phases of human experience. Rudhyar also demonstrates how the Sabian symbols can be used for divination. Like Tarot cards and the I Ching, they provide clues to the best way to face anxieties, or suggest what alternative courses of action might mean in one's life. In the form of pictures that are easily recognizable to people today, these symbols can be said to constitute a contemporary, American I Ching, a series of symbols that goes to the very root of planetary significance for our present era. "Dane Rudhyar's Astrological Mandala is invalu• able not only for the student of astrology but for every person seriously interested in symbols as a medium for achieving the kind of transformation necessary to bring about the 'new age.' That this book is primarily practical as well as informative only underlines the real significance of this most unusual gift from a man rare in any age." —Jose A. Arguelles, Director, Shambhala-Tollan Foundation, and author of The Transformative Vision and Mandala. 51200> 9 780394"719924 U.S. $12.00 ISBN D-3^-?mE-l Can. $16.95 Dane Rudhyar AN ASTROLOGICAL MANDALA TheCycle of Transformations and Its 360 Symbolic Phases ® Vintage Books A Division of Random House New York VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, May 1974 Copyright © 1973 by Dane Rudhyar All rights reserved under International and Fan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published by Random House, Inc., in 1973 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Rudhyar, Dane, 1895- An astrological mandala. 1. Astrology. I. Title. [BF1708.1.R835 1974] 133*5 73-14736 ISBN 0-394-71992-1 Manufactured in the United States of America B9 To SAM BERCHOLZ in grateful appreciation and friendship D.R. Contents Introduction 3 PART ONE: THE INTERPRETATION OF LIFE CYCLES AS A CLOSED SERIES OF ARCHETYPAL PHASES L Symbols and the Cyclic Character of Human Experience g 2. The Sabian Symbols: Their Origin and Internal Structure 35 3. The Positive and Negative Approaches to Individual Experience 35 PART TWO: A REFORMULATION IN DEPTH OF THE SABIAN SYMBOLS First Hémicycle: The Process of Individualization 49 Act I: Differentiation 49 SCENE ONE: DESIRE (ARIES 1-15*) 49 SCENE TWO: POTENCY (ARIES 16-30*) 62 SCENE THREE: SUBSTANTIATION (TAURUS l-lgfl 72 x CONTENTS SCENE FOUR: CONFIRMATION (TAURUS 16-30*) 80 SCENE FIVE: DISCOVERY (GEMINI 1-15") 89 SCENE SIX: EXTERIORIZATION (GEMINI 16-30*) 100 Act II: Stabilization 110 SCENE SEVEN: DECISION (CANCER 1-15*) UO SCENE EIGHT: CONSOLIDATION (CANCER 16-30*) 120 SCENE NINE: COMBUSTION (LEO 1-15*) 131 SCENE TEN: RELEASE (LEO 16-30*) 141 SCENE ELEVEN: CHARACTERIZATION (VIRGO 1-15*) 150 SCENE TWELVE: EDUCATION (VIRGO 16-30*) 160 Second Hemicycle: The Process of Collectivization 270 Act III: Group-Integration 170 SCENE THIRTEEN: TRANSFIGURATION (LIBRA I-15*) VfO SCENE FOURTEEN: RECONSTRUCTION (LIBRA 16-30*) 182 SCENE FIFTEEN: COMMUNION (SCORPIO 1-15*) 1Q2 SCENE SIXTEEN: FAITH (SCORPIO 16-30*) 201 SCENE SEVENTEEN: ABSTRACTION (SAGITTARIUS 1-15") 210 SCENE EIGHTEEN: TRANSFERENCE (SAGITTARIUS 16-30*) 21Q Act IV: Capitalization 229 SCENE NINETEEN: CRYSTALLIZATION (CAPRICORN 1-15*) 229 SCENE TWENTY: GROUP-PERFORMANCE (CAPRICORN 16-30*) SCENE TWENTY-ONE: CONTRIBUTION (AQUARIUS 1-15*) 248 SCENE TWENTY-TWO: MANAGEMENT (AQUARIUS 16-30*) 258 SCENE TWENTY-THREE: FEDERATION (PISCES 1-15*) 268 SCENE TWENTY-FOUR: PERPETUATION (PISCES 16-30*) 278 CONTENTS xi PART THREE: THE NUMERICAL STRUCTURE OF THE ZODIACAL SERIES h Binary Relationships between Zodiacal Signs 291 2. The Cross and the Star 314 3. The Four Elements in Zodiacal Symbolism 328 PART FOUR: THE ORACULAR AND ASTROLOGICAL USE OF THE SYMBOLS 1* Why Modern Individuals Seek Answers from "Oracles** 341 2. How to Use the Sabian Symbols as Oracles 352 3. The Use of Degree Symbols in the Interpretation of a Birth Chart 361 4. The Symbolic Life 379 Appendix: An Exchange of Letters with Marc Edmund Jones 387 AN ASTROLOGICAL MANDALA The Cycle of Transformations and KS360 Symbolic Phases Introduction ® AFTER I MET MARC EDMUND JONES IN LOS ANGELES IN 1930, he was generous enough to mail me copies of the mimeo­ graphed courses on astrology he was then sending to the mem¬ bers of the Sabian Assembly which he had founded.* "Symbolical Astrology" was written in 1931, and it listed and interpreted symbols for each degree of the zodiac. I became very much interested in these symbols which, for various rea­ sons that I will presently state, I found far superior to previously published sets of degree symbols; and when urged by my friend Alice Bailey, I decided to write my book The Astrology of Per• sonality (summer 1934 to spring 1936) I asked Marc Jones for permission to include in it a condensed version of the symbols and their interpretations. This permission was readily granted. While I saw the original index cards on which brief descrip­ tions of the symbols were written as received in 1925 through the intermediary of Elsie Wheeler—under circumstances •In order to answer questions which have occasionally been asked of me, may I state that I never have been a member of the Sabian Assembly, nor have I enrolled in any of Marc Jones's classes. 4 AN ASTROLOGICAL MANDALA which I shall describe in Chapter 2—I had not sufficiently stud­ ied and meditated upon these original descriptions to realize how different they were from what was written in the mimeo­ graphed course, which came some six years later. Thus I was content to follow the statements and interpretations of the course. I had, however, to condense them; and I introduced here and there remarks which had reference to depth psychol­ ogy, for in 19331 had become deeply interested in Carl Jung's writing. I had first studied astrology in 1920, but at that time I was mainly occupied with musical composition and the study of Hindu philosophy and theosophy. It took the combination of Marc Jones's approach and of Jung's psychology, and of various personal changes and opportunities, to make me realize the possibility of using astrology as a practical application of a cos­ mic, holistic and cyclic philosophy of existence. As I came more and more to use the 360 Sabian symbols I grew dissatisfied with many of their formulations and interpre­ tations, even though I was ever more amazed by the inner structure of the entire series, especially considering the totally aleatory manner in which the symbols were obtained. As a re­ sult I started to write a long series of articles, entitled The Wheel of Significance, which were published serially in American As• trology magazine between October 1944 and December 1945. In 1953 Marc Jones published his book The Sabian Symbols in Astrology, in which he used the brief original descriptions of the symbols obtained in 1925 in San Diego. He added to these descriptions completely new and different interpretations which were conditioned by his special social psychology and abstract philosophy, and which pointed to a relationship be­ tween opposite zodiacal degrees. And in 1954 and 1955 Ameri• can Astrology printed four articles I had written presenting some new ideas about the symbols and particularly about the possibility of making them serve a purpose similar to that which people today seek to satisfy through the use of the symbols of the I Ching. I shall discuss the validity and the limits of such a use of the Sabian symbols in the last chapter of this book. Part Two, the largest section of this volume, is consecrated to a reformulation INTRODUCTION 5 and complete reinterpretation of the entire series of symbols, considered as a cyclic and structured series which formalizes and reveals the archetypal meaning of 360 basic phases of hu­ man experience. Part One introduces the whole subject and discusses the meaning of symbols when used in such a cyclic frame of reference and in relation to a structured process of growth in consciousness. Part Three discusses in greater detail the different ways in which this factor of structured unfbldment can be analyzed and the quite extraordinary results which can be produced by such an analysis. The book ends with considerations of the use to which this series of Sabian symbols can be put for what might be called, somewhat inaccurately, the purpose of "divination." The study of what is involved in divinatory practices in itself could take up an entire volume, especially as it challenges Western man's concept of time. Here I can only touch upon a few basic points and present a simple way in which the Sabian symbols can be used to answer basic questions which baffle the ordinary con­ scious mind. In Marc Jones's version of the symbolic series, particularly in the book published in 1953, the fact that each symbol refers to one degree of the zodiac has been emphasized. It should be clear, however, that the concept of symbolization of a cyclic series of basic individual experiences within the context of our modern society is not to be limited to the study of the meaning of zodiacal degrees.