IN SEARCH OF TRUTH AND WISDOM - The Non-Dimensional Reality

Immanuel Kant's tombstone reads:

‘Two things fill the mind with always new and ever-increasing admiration and awe, the more often and more intensely the thinking is occupied with it - the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.'

The conclusion of the first part of this series proposed that astrology was a ‘Language of God’ because it validated actions and by doing so, guided the individual along a pathway of self discovery.

The second part of the Search for Truth and Wisdom elaborated on the personal influences of Moon, Venus, Mercury and Mars; with a person’s primary energy being presented by the qualities of the Sun. Next to the importance of the Sun the most influential of the personal planets is the Moon which contains a store of emotional experiences handed down through familial lines over many generations of selection and breeding.

In discussing Mercury, meditation was regarded as a passive and positive adjunct for assessing reality since it has a moderating affect on personal opinions that may be influenced by emotional backgrounds.

Venus has the effect of uniting everything and defining personal affinities, while Mars was seen as an energy addition to ego which inspires regardless of its correctness and creates a desire to be better than one is.

Interconnectivity and Coincidence

In 1781, three years after Pluto’s last transformative transit through Capricorn (1762 to 1778), William Herschel ‘discovered’ Uranus, the astrological symbol of ‘awakening’ which defines periods in time when Saturnine reality is challenged by altered perspectives. Not surprisingly this was the year that Immanuel Kant published Critique of Pure Reason.

Kant championed the unique nature of the individual while at the same time believing that moral laws proceed from pure rational reasoning without any consideration of ‘the better good’. Kant believed that even though each of us is unique - truth is absolute , which is much along the lines of Aristotle’s‘Deductive Reasoning’ and is the basis of C.S Lewis’s understanding of Universal Morality.


At the time that Uranus was discovered the industrial revolution was in full swing, America had just drawn up its first constitution , and the rumbles of revolution were sweeping Europe much in the same way that mythology depicts Uranus’s idealistic attempts to change material structures as represented by his materially sensible son Saturn (Kronos). Saturn, in reply, cuts his father’s gonads out so as to end Uranus’s creative chaos and disrespect for the laws of the land.

Since Kant’s beliefs are very Aquarian in nature it’s not surprising to see his Uranus intensely expressed in Scorpio close to the Descendant of reflected self while Jupiter sits in Aquarius in the 11th house exactly trine a Geminian Venus in the 2nd house of material reality. His idealistic desire to change the way he projects himself into his surrounding environment is further emphasised by his Sun being conjunct a Taurian Ascendant, ruling the 5th and in opposition to Uranus. The stirrings of subconscious assertiveness are indicated by his Arian 12th house Moon and Mercury square Mars in the foundation 4th house and biseptile Uranus.

All of this could denote rabble rousing but the veracity of Kant’s thought processes are indicated by his profound ability to delve into daily life as indicated by his Virgoan Pluto in the 6th house trine his North Node and Neptune in the 1st; along with a need for a responsible and authoritative public expression as shown by Saturn being close to his Capricorn MC, square his imaginative and emotive Moon. Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason took less than five months to write but was the end result of twelve years of thinking.
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Immanuel Kant died on February 12th 1804 and five years later on February 12th 1809, English naturalist Charles Darwin was born and he:

‘…outlined the theory of evolution and proposed that evolution could be explained in part through natural and sexual selection.’

Darwin’s thinking was greatly influenced by one of his teachers - noted academic and natural philosopher John Herschel - who perchance was the son of William Herschel the discoverer of Uranus. In Origin of the Species (1859) Darwin proclaimed:

‘Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relations to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring.’

Charles Darwin’s natal chart has his Uranus conjunct his North Node and as Stephanie Johnson’s Solar Fire interpretations would have it:

‘…destiny is linked with the discovery of new and exciting thoughts and concepts…You are being challenged to make a contribution to humanity.’

Darwin’s different turn of mind towards material structures is shown by his Sun in Aquarius in the 2nd energized and balanced in its original thinking by being trine a Libran Mars in the public 10th house. Darwin’s Piscean stellium of Mercury, Pluto and Jupiter in the 3rd trine his Uranus North Node conjunction indicates ability for innovative, penetrating, idealistic and expansive thought as emphasised by Neptune being conjunct the Ascendant trine Venus on the IC.

The coincidental interconnectiveness of William Hershel, John Hershel, Immanuel Kant and Charles Darwin is shown in a composite chart of these four individuals.

Note the mental emphasis of the stellium of Sun/Mercury/Jupiter in Aquarius sextile Pluto opposite Mars and the strong Kite formation involving Neptune/Uranus/Moon and Chiron, with the material planets Saturn and Venus relatively unattached apart from Saturn’s spiritually oriented septile aspect to Chiron and the Venus semisquare to Chiron.

Karl Marx had a liking for Darwin’s work and in 1861 he wrote:

‘Darwin’s work is most important and suits my purpose in that it provides a basis in natural science for the historical class struggle.’

Marx’s most famous work ‘Communist Manifesto’ had its beginnings in 1845 and was first published on the 21st February 1848 (on Marx’s Saturn return ). This work is recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts with its most famous quote being:

‘The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles’

On the 24th September 1846, during the creation of Marx’s Manifesto, Neptune the planet of universal oneness was ‘discovered’ and its foundation chart has Neptune exactly conjunct Saturn in Aquarius in the 8th House sextile Pluto in the 10th ,with 10th House Uranus semi square, all of which emphasises a transformative and idealistic effect on the understanding of material associations (Saturn).

The astrological significance of the outer planets is in their connection to the ‘collective’ whole. In the individuals birth chart aspects to the outer planets connect us with the mass movements and ideologies of the time.

Marx’s birth chart is heavily influenced by the outer planets with his assertion of a new egalitarian material order indicated by his Taurean stellium of Sun, Moon and Lunar node in the 2nd house trine Jupiter in the 11th. His Piscean Pluto conjunct Chiron square to Neptune heralds the last quarter of the profound Pluto Neptune cycle which commenced around 1400AD and includes the expansive global developments that were to follow. Again Uranus and Saturn are tussling for projection – Uranus in Sagittarius in the 10th ruling the Ascendant and wanting to bring a new way to the world, while Saturn is resisting change (square Uranus) and instinctually providing the necessary material mechanisms (Piscean 1st house placement sextile Sun and Moon trine Mars on the 6th cusp). The assertion of Mars on the 6th cusp is to work mentally to change current structures (quincunx Uranus in the 10th, semisquare Mercury in the 3rd) and to bring about social changes (in Cancer) that are stable and lasting (trine Saturn).

A composite chart of Neptune’s discovery, Karl Marx’s birth time - and the date of the Manifesto’s publication indicates the connection in space and time of these three events:

The composite Sun in Gemini is trine Neptune while being square Saturn and Uranus indicating a change in structure towards something which is an ideal with a transformative mental approach indicated by a Geminian Mercury sextile Pluto which is trine Chiron.

After reading a copy of Das Kapital sent to him by Marx, Darwin (1873) wrote:

‘Though our studies have been so different, I believe that we both earnestly desire the extension of Knowledge, & that this is in the long run sure to add to the happiness of mankind.’

From Kant to William Hershel to John Hershel to Darwin to Marx there is an interconnectivity of planetary positions that parallel the evolution of human thought along a ‘line of continuity’, with astrological arrangements seeming to coalesce thought around particular planetary frameworks – a concept which has a parallel in the occult tradition of Seven Rays. A visual geocentric view of the sky recognises seven planets after which the days in the week are named; and it is most probable that the plethora of ‘sevens’ that appear in theosophical writings have their origins in the geocentric study of seven observable ‘planets’. (Further information on The Seven Rays by Ernest Wood.)

(June 18th - Sept 6th, 2013)