We are essentially our celestial selves

[Jim Eshelman]

Some factors in a horoscope are purely celestial. That is, they are based upon the cosmos as it concentrates on planet Earth independent of where on Earth someone is located.

Some factors in a horoscope are purely mundane - we might call them terrestrial - because they are distinctive to ONLY the location on Earth where one is located.

In essence, we are our celestial selves. Those celestial selves then express themselves - incarnate, so to speak - through specific earthly positions.

One practical consequence of this mathematical, astronomical distinction is that the celestial factors in our horoscope go with us no matter where we move on Earth. The terrestrial (mundane) factors do not.

I've hinted at this point of view several times in passing comments on other topics, but it's not a peripheral or minor distinction. It's basic to traditional Tropical astrology and to Sidereal astrology. It informs much of my thinking (usually in the back of my mind - it's so deeply built into my wiring by now). I thought this morning that I should write something specific on it.

What are these terrestrial things? The really big one is something often considered a first tier fundamental of Sidereal astrology: the angles! These are overwhelmingly important. Please note, though, that - by this celestial vs. terrestrial distinction - the angles (and your angular planets) are not fundamental to who you are. They are an expression of where you are. They regulate the expressiveness of the various sides of your being, but those various sides of your being are not themselves place-linked. This understanding is critical in correctly interpreting angular planets! It may outwardly seem that a person with Jupiter on Midheaven is a great example of a Jupiter personality, but it's not a measurement of who they fundamentally are. Rather, it's the part of themselves with which they most interface with the world.

A favorite example: Sidereal astrologer Anna-Kria King had Sun, Moon, and two other planets in Scorpio and a partile Mars-Uranus square with Uranus stationary. Yet she had Jupiter on Midheaven closely square Venus. She always spoke (privately) of how the Venus-Jupiter was what made her palatable to others, her secret weapon in moving through her life and succeeding with others. She was fundamentally a super-Scorpio with a partile Mars-Uranus square but most people saw her and responded to her as a soft, gracious, lovely, generous Venus-Jupiter. Her angles let this aspect have unusually strong outward expression and it became her primary image. Understandably, she could be (and was) regarded as a Jupiter personality.

Angles are the most important terrestrial components of the chart, but not the only ones. All terrestrial factors deal with the interface to the outer world and seem more event-related. Even with angularity, we tend to (rightly) think, "That's where the events happen." In children, it's even easier to interpret their angular planets as what their environment is like before responding to that environment gives them the chance to develop personality patterns for their interface to the world.

The second terrestrial factor is mundane aspects. These have been found to be overwhelmingly important - as important as ecliptical aspects. However, they do seem to have characteristics discernibly different from ecliptical aspects. In another thread, I discussed how looking at the mundoscope alone seems to show in eventish ways. (President Biden is my favorite example.) Again, all terrestrial (mundane) factors deal with the extrusion of a being into an environment - they are the environment - and mundane aspects, while also stirring responsive character development, primarily (totally?) exist only in that interface of a being with an environment - in the material world. (I'm not even persuaded that even natal mundane aspects survive relocation, except in the way that they have built character patterns that persist on their own.)

Another way to look at these layers of being and experience is through various occult models of the layered nature of reality. I'm most comfortable with the Qabbalistic model of the "four worlds," but other traditional Eastern and Western philosophical models exist that serve similarly. Using the "four worlds" approach for a moment, the planets themselves are Atziluthic (we even call them gods!), i.e., fundamental primal forces unconditioned. Signs (astrological constellations) are Briatic, i.e., archetypal: They are pools from which individual symbols arise of a common theme. Aspects are Yetziratic, i.e., dynamic interweavings of multiple factors, dancing geometrics and structural dynamics of the psyche.

This leaves only the fourth plane of existence, Assiyah, which is essentially the physical universe as we know it, our sensory reality in which our primal nature (Atziluth), archetypal roots (Briyah), and psychologically formative dynamics (Yetzirah) are incarnate. The three just mentioned (planets, signs, aspects) comprise our celestial nature, which, by our incarnation (literally, "we're in the meat") takes on terrestrial experiences.

The third terrestrial expression is houses, about which Siderealism has always had ambivalent thoughts. They are, however, the best example of the doctrine I'm discussing, since houses are historically about events and other personal relationship to things outside of oneself. That is, they are historically discussed as referring to all the stuff in our lives outside of ourselves - even the 1st house (self) being more about our relationship to the world and outward expression of a role or identity-expression. Whether houses exist quite the way the have historically been described and employed, they are the best example of this terrestrial layer of a horoscope interfacing with an environment - the space around us - more than describing who we are.

[Jim Eshelman]

Is there a practical use of this? Yes, there is.

Besides the (also practical) side of increasing your understanding of exactly how the various chart factors operate, how we develop from birth in terms of the matrix of our chart, there is a practical exercise that I recommend.

Redraw your chart without angles, without houses, without any mundane (terrestrial) colorations - perhaps using solar houses or a 0° Aries or Libra starting point, or on a 360° circle that has no such distinctions. Study yourself in terms of that alone. Don't allow any considerations of angles, mundane aspects, or houses enter the picture. This exposes your inherently celestial nature.

Then add the terrestrial elements back in. This will anchor you in your practical life, your extrusion into material reality, your expression in the world. But, in doing this, don't lose sight of the distinction that your celestial nature has become present in the physical location (has taken a place in the world). It just might give you different understanding of who you are and what you're about.

And, I guess, at the end of it all, this perspective is a reminder that (contrary to popular opinion) we are not primarily physical beings with occasional spiritual experiences. Rather, we are primarily spiritual beings with occasional physical experiences.

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