ASTROLOGY:

Goethe, The Great Initiate Poet Thus Max Heindel described him.

 

 
                

Esotericist Nicholas Roerich called him "a world spirit."2 He has been compared to Beethoven and Da Vinci.3 Renown philosopher George Santayana hailed him as "the wisest of mankind."4 One edition of his works consists of 143 octavo volumes, for he "never stopped writing, from his childhood,"5 which began when, as he noted, "at noon on the 28th of August, on the stroke of twelve, I came into the world at Frankfurt-am-Main,"6 and also; "The Sun stood in the sign of the virgin, and had culminated for the day; Jupiter and Venus had a friendly aspect, Mercury not an adverse one; Saturn and Mars were neutral; only the Moon, which was just full, exercised her counteracting power."7

In view of the aforesaid, it would be easy to call Goethe a Virgo. But the Moon had not been in the virgin's sign since the previous New Moon, hence the solar-lunar "wedding" had not taken place and the Sun also partook of Leo's nature.8 We also note that Leo is an intercepted sign, weakening its assertiveness, confirmed by the fact that "this man, so humble by nature, could not endure hero worship."9 His diffident deportment despite imperial insolence in his October 2, 1808, interview with Napoleon also was non-Leonian.10 What sign does he "belong" to? Could it be that being a "world spirit," rising above narrow nationalism, he "mystically" also rose above "signs"? His Sun's degree is "A merry-go-round."11 No boundaries; is there a better way to limn a "world spirit"?

We note the strength of the New Age planets in his natus, indicative of much soul experience."12 Uranus is in its own sign, in dignity. Neptune in Cancer is exalted, in its own decan in a critical degree, and by dint of its location in the 9th house emitting "a higher vibration."13 It is part of a grand trine in water with Saturn and Jupiter and in a ring with no less than seven planets Ä all but Uranus and Venus.

After all, can one really be a poet or lyricist without a strong Neptune? Music was in his soul: "I can always work better after I have been listening to music."14 He also "was most sensitive. He could not tolerate din; street noises were a torture to him; he had an aversion to the barking of dogs; he avoided. . . blare."15

That Pluto of his! Located and powerfully ruling the 1st house, it urged him on to his prodigious productivity. It is compulsive; has even been called obsessive.16 We glibly say, the stars impel, they don't compel. Some Ä a great deal Ä of the time this is true; not always. On earth all things are limited. In Goethe's dynamic deposition, is Pluto's push to productivity really resistable? "There was never a man in whose life the work to be done played a more dominant part."17

That sets him apart and one thus described certainly is "exclusive."18 That's Plutonian! Goethe declared, "Our safest course is to convert all that is in us and of us into action, leaving the rest of the world to discuss this action according to their ability and powers."19 With three planets close to his I.C., he could rise above the constraints of public opinion.

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime

And departing, leave behind us

Footprints in the sands of time.

Can there be a better reason for studying the lives of earth's great? As we strive to emulate Goethe, a seemingly small fact about the man may be a key to his "success." He disliked all things trivial.20 If we wish to pattern our lives after his, there's no better way to begin than by leaving off the frivolous, Health-conscious newscaster Paul Harvey has repeatedly intoned, the easiest way to lengthen life is by cutting out the habits that shorten it. Similarly, if one seeks to grow in pursuit of "the highest and the best,"21 one can start in no better way than to eliminate the nonessential. "Eliminate," incidentally, is a basic keyword of Pluto.22 Pluto excels because it can eliminate that which detracts from excellence, it's basically that simple.

If all the unimportant is eliminated from the life, it will just naturally be filled with the vital, the important, for "nature abhors a vacuum and will rush to compensate for any loss.."23 It worked for Goethe; Cosmic Law being impartial, it will work for all.24 p

 

1. The Rosicrucian Christianity Lectures, Max Heindel, p. 60. "Pietism had the power of appealing to his sensibility." Goethe, Jean Ancelet-Hustache,. p. 35. This, of course, was Christian mysticism.

2. Goethe, D. G. Runes, p. XV.

3. Frederick B. Robinson and Romaine Rolland, quoted in D. G. Runes,. op. cit., pp. 17, 28.

4. D. G. Runes, op. cit., p. 61.

5. Jean Ancelet-Hustache, op. cit., p. 5.

6. Jean Ancelet-Hustache, op. cit., p. 11.

7. The Life and Work of Goethe, J. G. Robertson, p. 5.

8. Astrology: A Cosmic Science, Isabel M. Hickey, p. 205.

9. D. G. Runes, op. cit., p. 21.

10. D. G. Runes, op. cit., p. 40; J. G. Robertson, op. cit., p. 228.

11. The Sabian Symbols, Marc Edmund Jones, p. 304.

12. Isabel M. Hickey, op. cit., p. 130.

13. Isabel M. Hickey, op. cit., p. 196.

14. William Ellery Leonard, quoted in D. G. Runes, op. cit., p. 6.

15. William Ellery Leonard, quoted in D. G. Runes, op. cit., p. 40

16. The Essentials of Astrological Analysis, Marc Edmund Jones, p. 414.

17. Jean Ancelet-Hustache, op. cit., p. 5.

18. Vocatianal Guidance by Astrology, Charles E. Luntz, p. 205.

19. D. G. Runes, op. cit., p. 20.

20. D. G. Runes. op. cit., p. 40.

21. Philippians 1:10, Phillips Modern English.

22. The Modern Textbook of Astrology, Margaret E. Hone, p. 35.

23. Astrology, The Divine Science, Moore and Douglas, p. 474.

24. "The greatest genius is he who offers fewest obstacles to the illumination from above." Emerson, Lillian A. Maulsby, p. 14.

 

- From Rays from the Rose Cross

ROSE CROSS

 

A Quarterly Rosicrucian Online Magazine

 

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