Natures of the Stars

The Cosmic Hierarchy

Something we need to stress is the cosmic hierarchy:

1. The images or signs
2. The bounds (also known as “terms”)
3. The stars

Yes, everyone, including us, often speak of the stars as “ruling” a particular sign but technically a star does not rule its domiciles (houses and exaltation) nor does it rule its confines.

Tell your home – whatever that might be: a house, condo, apartment/flat or mobile home – to do the dishes, take out the garbage, vacuum the floors, feed the dog and let the cat out. Wouldn’t matter if it was 4 hours, 4 days, 4 months or 4 years because your home isn’t going to do any of those things. You can’t boss your home around but you can boss around the people in your home. And, of course, when you’re in your home alone you can do whatever you want. Sometimes you can even do whatever you want when other people are there.

So it is with the stars. They don’t rule the houses but they do rule the stars in their houses and when we address bounds you’ll see the stars don’t rule the bounds but they do rule the stars in their bounds.

Instead of bombarding you with a laundry list of significations for each of the stars, we want you to observe the assignment of the stars to their respective houses because that shows us the basis for the respective meanings of each star. We are grateful for Robert Schmidt’s work ferreting out the underlying meanings, and also to Chris Brennan for elucidating Schmidt’s scheme. We use a combination of those with a slight modification:

Consider the following (attributed to Antiochus but more likely it’s Rhetorius talking):

“Why is it that the houses of Sun and Moon are contrary to the houses of Saturn? We say that it is because Sun and Moon are the Lights of the Cosmos, while Saturn is the master of darkness. Light is always contrary to darkness, and darkness to light.

Again, why is it that the houses of Mercury are contrary to the houses of Jupiter, and the houses of Jupiter to the houses of Mercury? We say that it is because Jupiter is the overseer of possessions and abundance, while Mercury is always the master of arguments. The intellectual faculty is always contrary to, and looks down upon, the desire for possessions. Abundance is contrary to what is intellectual.

Then again, why is it that the houses of Mars are contrary to the houses of Venus? We say that it is because Venus is the overseer of every desire and delight and pleasure, while Mars is the overseer of every fear and war and passion. The delightful and desirous and pleasurable is contrary to the terrible and passionate and polemical.”

If you’re looking for a laundry list of significations for the stars, you won’t find it here.

In our experience, if we give people a list of five significations, the blinders instantly go up and they straight-jacked themselves with only those five significations while ignoring all other possible meanings. If we gave them fifteen (15) significations, then those are the only meanings they’ll use.

We want you to actually learn the art of astrology, and get it right, instead of using cookie-cutter delineations which will always lead to very bad interpretations. To help you think about that, we’ll give you a few considerations to ponder.

Applying the primary actions of each star, look at them in the context you’re interpreting:

 We want you to start thinking along those lines because that is what the art of astrology is all about.