The Cosmic Influence For 1960

The sermon for today is entitled, The Cosmic Influences for 1960.

Now, of course, to be perfectly honest, the actual predictions of cosmic influences for each individual isn't really possible without number one having a full and correct astrological chart number two Two, having an ability to tune in to the interrelated forces which exist in relation to the cosmos and the individual. Number three, having a training in both the exoteric and esoteric aspects of what is called astrology and actually what we might call the esoteric psychology of the ancients. And then also, accurate prediction is not really possible for human beings who have evolved beyond the mass mind level. This is something that is very little known or understood. It is true that in general there are certain influences which individuals will have playing upon them without any question in accordance with what their force pattern might have been at birth. Because this remember if you don't already know it this is actually the relationship we are born with the relationship between ourselves and life the relationship we have developed between the many aspects of our being. So it is possible to tell what particular forces are going to play upon certain aspects of the individual, but not upon all of them unless we have an accurate and complete chart. You see, the mistake that's made is that we all usually think of ourselves as being the sign of the zodiac that we're born under. And this is not an accurate estimate of what we are.

In occultism, and particularly in the Qabalistic training, it is well known, very well known indeed, that we are, after all, the microcosm. And as the microcosm of the macrocosm we are the entire zodiac in astrology it is said for instance that aries rules the head well whether we have our sun in aries or not we all surely have a head haven't we though there are some who claim that there isn't too much to be said about what's in it but on the other hand we all have the same potentials and that's the important thing though at times it can be a little disheartening and in as much as we all for instance have a digestive system that it is said that Virgo rules at least certain parts of the digestive system therefore we all have Virgo attributes in other words we all have all the attributes and therefore the responses we make to what we call the cosmic influences are in terms of a wholeness and not in terms of the particular place where our sun happens to be at birth. The placing of the sun at birth does give a certain intensification, a tendency towards response to life, which is a little more highlighted in terms of the various meanings of that particular sign in which our sun happens to be.

That is why it is usually not too wise to pour over the astrology magazines and to say, now let's see, what is it they say is going to come to me for this particular period? I happen to be a Taurean or a Scorpian or an Aquarian or a this. And to take in what is said, because a little knowledge is indeed a dangerous thing.

And those who have the little knowledge without thinking too much sit down and very slap happily perhaps start to prognosticate all over the place start to analyze in terms of exoteric astrology what a particular individual is or is not and this forms a basis for more prejudice it forms a basis for erroneous evaluation, and it's a little bit more that's going to have to be transmuted out of the system eventually.

Now, of course, remember, we are not saying that there's nothing in astrology. As a matter of fact, the well-trained Qabalist, the well-trained occultist, knows that there is indeed not something but everything in astrology, but not astrology as it is generally known and understood and utilized by, shall we say, astrologers in general.

Now then perhaps to show you a little of some of the strange interrelationships that exist in astrology I'll tell you a little story and this is a true one a very true story indeed I've been accused from time to time by near and dear ones of embellishing my stories in order to make them entertaining the dramatist in me this isn't really quite correct I don't have to embellish most of the stories they are fantastic in themselves and it just seems as though I do though at times of course we do put a little tassel or a frill in order to make it more dramatic you know teaching in parables is considered about the best way to teach really well this is a very very true story it happened and a few of you may have heard it but it will give you an idea of the intricacies involved in astrology and then we'll go on to analyze a little more the cosmic play of influence with our response and what we need to learn to do and understand about it at least at this point the very first time I attended Dr. Case's class where we met and had this explosion of mutual recognition between us. This was not the only explosion that occurred to me that particular evening. During the intermission, a very dignified, well-dressed, reserved-looking woman walked up to me and she didn't ask me. Now before I go on with the rest of the story I'd like to point out to you that at that time I still or let's say at that time I knew a great deal more than I do now and therefore at that time I had no use for astrology because I was quite sure it was a lot of nonsense and at that time I had no use for symbolism I was quite sure it was meant for immature minds and I had no use for ritual I I was quite sure it was just for children who liked to play.

I knew a great deal at that time when I first walked in to Dr. Case's class. And of course, as time has gone on, I have come to know less and less, and God knows where we're going to end up if this continues. Nevertheless in as much as I knew that astrology was certainly a lot of nonsense and in as much as I also knew that those who believed in astrology were very non-compass very lacking in proper reasoning faculties and so on, I was quite startled during Dr. Case's lecture to discover that he was using astrological attributions as he spoke about the tarot symbolism.

Because, you see, there was no question that this was a most brilliant man. He certainly showed he was a great scholar in the way he spoke, and I was quite bewildered to think and to hear that an individual who apparently had a very extraordinary mentality was using astrological attributions in relation to the speech. He was talking about intuition and mentioning that that particular sign, it was the fifth tarot card he was speaking on that night, that that particular Tarot key and Hebrew letter were assigned to the zodiacal sign of Taurus and giving esoteric explanations of this so I was quite bewildered indeed then I said during the intermission this very dignified well-dressed refined woman walked up to me remember this was my first time there and she didn't ask me she told me she said you are a scorpion I looked at her and surprised I said why yes now I happen to know a little about my chart and my daughter's chart for one reason only I had a friend who chattered astrology at me by the hour and in as much as I loved her I let her chatter so just by osmosis more or less I knew that a certain planets in my chart were in certain signs and also with my daughter because she took the trouble to have them drawn up therefore I did know a bit of the language without believing in it of course and certainly without without any real interest in it at that time.

So this dignified woman said to me, you are a scorpion. I said, why, yes.

And then she said to me, born in, and she mentioned the year.

And I was quite startled. I said, why, yes.

She said, and you're an early scorpion, aren't you? I said, why, yes, so I am. She said the moment I saw you I knew this she said you see dear when I was carrying my son I knew I had twins a girl and a boy and after my son was born it just about spoiled my joy I couldn't have the proper responses because I was so worried and shocked due to the fact that my daughter had not also arrived with him I knew I was supposed to have twins a girl and a boy and she said I worried a great deal about this because it was so deep-seated in my heart and then as you walked in this evening the moment I saw you I said there is my long-lost daughter she got waylaid someplace well Well, now, imagine, here I was, knowing so much, full of knowledge and in my own mind, wisdom.

Knowing what nonsense this type of thing was.

And I am confronted by this kind of remark. Well, actually, to be perfectly honest with you, I became very embarrassed. And in my mind I thought well this woman is of course slightly cracked and then I wondered even why I had used the word slightly in my thinking it was very apparent to me that there was something wrong with her mentally and I thought I'd better be wary you know suppose somebody walked up to you and said you are my long lost daughter or son who got waylaid someplace how would you feel a perfect stranger so I wanted to be polite I thought I would change the subject so I said well I said you have a son you know I have a daughter she said do you my dear how wonderful what is her son sign I said she is an Aries and she shook her head wisely and said so am I and And she said, tell me, where is her moon?

I said, her moon is in Scorpio. And she shook her head as though this were the most natural thing in the world. She said, yes, of course, that's where my moon is.

Then she asked me, she said, tell me, dear, where is Mars, the ruler of her sun sign? And I thought a moment. I said, why, it's in Sagittarius. Proud of myself that I remembered this word.

And she said yes that's about what I would expect that's where my Mars is you see it's a grandmother grandchild chart well by this time I was licked and fortunately for me the intermission was over because my mind was in a whirl I sat there the last part of the class Dr. Case was giving, listening to this brilliance and wisdom, these pearls pouring and dripping in profusion, along with the astrological attributions. I went home, and that night I did not sleep. I pondered, and I meditated, and I questioned, and finally I said to myself, well there's no way to get out of this there's apparently something there in astrology and I'm gonna have to find out what it is and of course I did have the reputation of being a holy terror when I decided to find out about anything very one-pointed so in as much as also at the same time Dr. Case and I arranged to meet and we never left each other as you know. I stayed with him from then on until he passed on until he had me fully trained for this work. Nevertheless, I decided that one of the first things I must do was to investigate astrology because something very strange had occurred here and I had to know I always had to know I thought I'd die so I went out and I got a bunch of books in astrology and of course at the same time I loaded myself with everything I could in relation to dr. Cases work with the Tarot and this is where I was fortunate I did not study astrology as others have studied it by itself. I had Tarot and Qabalah right with it and I had Dr. Case keeping a very stern finger on me.

As a matter of fact I rather upset him. He was afraid I was going to become a fanatic because he had once had very close relationship with someone who wouldn't move or turn around without looking up the aspects first and when he saw how I jumped in perhaps where angels fears tread he was a little disturbed for fear I'd become a fanatic in relation to astrology not yet understanding that this was a drive to test and try and not for the usual reasons to learn reality so I surrounded myself with a straw with astrology books I surrounded myself with my chart my daughter's chart my sister's chart and the chart of everyone I knew whose life I knew intimately and I just spent day and night and night and day studying and testing to see what there was in it and when I got through I didn't stop for three solid months day or night or night or day except to sleep and eat and of course though three months is not enough to learn anything perhaps when you're spending something like 15 hours a day doing nothing else but nothing else you absorb it much more rapidly and this at least was the way I did and of course as time went on you know I have a friend these things deepen the understanding and knowledge deepened in me but at least that was the framework at any rate when I got through I knew there was something in astrology and furthermore I didn't like it it seemed a little bit fatalistic to me because I still didn't understand the deeper principles behind it that took time this understanding came as I stopped knowing so much and of course that takes quite a long time when one has been as deep-rooted in certain attitudes as I was as a youngster.

But what I found out was not what is usually discovered because I did have the value of this interrelationship.

Tarot, though few people realize it, is actually the esoteric astrology. Astrology. Qabalah, though few people realize it, is the esoteric astrology. And that is why a complete understanding is really impossible without the occult training. So I therefore worked at analyzing, knowing, understanding, and this is what I finally, but it took years for the deeper insight to come. Many years indeed.

This is what I discovered in relation to astrology, basically.

And of course, it cannot be expressed clearly because you know the true experiences are really incommunicable in words.

All one can do is try to use the words to make a bridge so that the wordless realization or insight can come to form as it were a relationship on another and deeper level between ourselves so that the gates can be readied or made open for you this is the most we really do the words do not give the actual insight at least not very much but But what I discovered finally, after many inner experiences and insights, was basically this. First of all, one can very definitely and accurately prognosticate for human beings who are still residing in the mass mind. In other words the average human being who is conditioned by and responds to the training the conditioning the thinking and the feeling of its culture this human being is not completely individualized still a very young embryo we have different embryonic ages apparently in humanity and therefore if one has the gift of prognostication if one knows how to read and analyze the interrelationships between the cosmos and the individual in this particular instance under those conditions one can accurately prognosticate it's almost as much as being able to very accurately prognosticate that at a certain hour your dog or your cat's going to come and start fussing for its dinner I can tell almost by the minute when my little creatures are going to start persecuting me until I get up and tend to their needs at least this is what I like to call it because it amuses me so So when a human being is conditioned, he's going to automatically respond to the flow of cosmic forces as they play in certain ways, as seen by the indications or the leanings of the particular individual's chart.

There you can prognosticate quite well. However to the degree that a human being has worked on the transmutations of their own subconsciousness to the degree that a human being is free from the man-made codes and morals the the man-made laws, the man-made goods and bads, and instead responds to the God-made laws, which are the laws of the spirit and of the heart and of the cosmic beingness. To that degree, one cannot accurately prognosticate for this individual, except to be able to say, this type of influence will play upon you. But that really isn't saying too much, is it?

Because, in a sense, certain types of influences play upon us all the time anyway, and a slight intensification isn't so very startling, though at times we have major cycles where it is a little more startling or noticeable than others. This is true.

True. And that is why those human beings who are in occultism, who are truly, truly working with the techniques as given, would do well not to go to or lean upon another individual's prognostication for this reason remember the subconsciousness receives suggestion now suppose somebody who is and let us say even a very good prognosticator on the whole says to you well now this year uh saturn is going to square your sun or your venus and therefore you better watch out you're going to have disappointments and so on and you have received into your subconsciousness a suggestion and something in you when it receives a suggestion goes to work to make it come true this is not freedom this is abject slavery to the suggestions of others and this we should free ourselves from we must free ourselves from this in time because we must learn to receive no suggestion except that which comes from the higher teachings and this we can do and it isn't that we say that these influences do not play merely that we want to be careful to learn how to free ourselves from the usual thinking feeling responses that exist now then just what is a person's chart in accordance with esoteric thinking really well remember we live in the heavens we like to think of the heavens as something separate or different from us but is it isn't this planet this earth a heavenly body whirling about the sun and the sun with its planets whirling about in the nebula around another center and so on we live in the heavens along with everything else we are heavenly creatures of course usually it's only when someone loves us they say you're heavenly but if we learn to see we're heavenly all the time we abide in heaven in the skies therefore as creatures of the cosmos we are of course in continuous relationship with it and at birth when we take our first breath actually the interrelated beingness of what we are at that stage of our evolution makes its tune in contact with the rest of the cosmos for whatever the soul has decided it needs for its growth in that particular incarnation and remember when we're born all the stars are in the heavens they are coming at the earth on specific slant the part part of the earth where we are whether when we're born whether it be in ohio or new york or europe or africa I mean there's a certain slant of the reflection from planets of the light as it makes an impact at that point every one of us are the center of the universe for us don't you see because because you just think in your own consciousness.

And from your own center of consciousness, you can think out into a radius, really, of infinity.

Every one of us are the center of the universe, for our center of consciousness.

Therefore, that which we are as an individual, as an aspect of God, with the growth process, When we are born, that center has from all around the circumference, the sphere we should say, of the universal forces, that relationship towards us as a center is established for that particular time. And therefore the person who knows how and has had the training can take a chart and properly analyze the psychological qualities of any individual if they know how they can say this one has a tendency to get angry this one is very patient this one is an exhibitionist this one One likes to withdraw from any acts of attention from the outside. All these things definitely can be seen by one who knows how to look. But in order to know how to look, one has to have been trained to experience the wholeness of that pattern of the individual simultaneously.

Otherwise, you miss some factors, and you only give the partial truth. It reminds me of the story Dr. Case used to tell of someone he knew very very well in New York who thought she had the proper birth data and she always spoke about the fact that she had Taurus rising well she started to get she had a beautiful figure at the time he met her he knew her through many years and as time went on she got fatter and fatter and fatter and she would say well you see I can't help it I have torius rising and this is the predisposition of my vehicle she got more and more fixated and stubborn and she said well this after all is because I have torius rising I stick to things and I it's hard for me to let go taurus the bull well a very interesting thing occurred her mother's sister who had lived with them at the time of her birth came from a long distance and in as much as this woman had been the only child and this had been a very unusual occurrence for the family the and other things occurring the sister remembered accurately to the minute at the time that this woman was born.

She had been there.

And it turned out that her birth time would have made her a Gemini rising, not a Taurus rising. And as a Gemini rising, she'd have been full of activity like a bird going from tree to tree, flitting, curious, quick, and slender.

But you see what we mean about accepting into ourselves certain things you see what we mean about a little knowledge is a dangerous thing here this woman took the suggestion she knew astrology well she took the suggestion of what a taurian ascendant is supposed to be like and made herself that way that's another reason we need need to be careful and therefore we actually do not communicate so we have we do have this pattern of reaction to the life processes when we come into birth it is true nevertheless we also have the growth process and here's another thing that is not understood no one but no one except a master of wisdom knows on what vibratory level what evolutionary level each individual is in relation to their own chart remember there's such a thing as saying there are high scorpions and low scorpions you know astrologers in the whole have a very great tendency to look down on the low scorpion more than any other sign of the zodiac but they always try to show how broad they are by saying but of course the high scorpion is another thing entirely nevertheless when they say it it would seem to indicate they don't believe there can be very many of them that is the high scorpion the reason for this is incidentally because it's good to understand the conditionings that really injure us the reason for this is that in the astrological attribution Scorpio rules reproductive organs and you know the unhappy conditioning that humanity at large has to anything that deals with this function in life this is although naturally it is not understood by those who respond in that way just to give you a little insight as to how we can react and unwisely so only a master of wisdom them knows on what particular level any individual is responding one human being with a similar aspect who has done a great deal of spiritual work and self transmutation can react to a cosmic influence exactly opposite to another human being who will have the same influence the ones playing upon them who has not gone through the self-transmutational and growing and disciplinary processes.

And because of that, it is very dangerous to try to evaluate, unless one has developed that gift of insight and perhaps the ability to speak with the angels in the proper tuning. In and don't forget there really are angels they truly are they are the messengers of god they exist and they help and they do give messages but it takes a lot of training to be able to tune into and receive these messages to be able to tune into the deeper parts of the individual and know how to evaluate and therefore to say that a taurian is stubborn for instance or that a cancer hangs on and it's difficult to get along with you know to for that reason because they won't let go of anything too possessive and so on and so on is nonsense sense a taurian who has not worked on the qualities of these inner stars because these are inner stars might react with stubbornness but a taurian who has worked on the deeper processes won't be stubborn at all just persevering in the right places there's a big difference and the same way with any one of the signs of the zodiac they have their positive qualities and their negative qualities, all of them and who is to say how much self-transmutation has taken place so that one will know whether the response to influences is going to be from the positive or the negative side of that particular individual's development or maybe a mixture of both which also occurs depending on the rest of the influences Again then, you can see why to really prognosticate and to say that such and such is going to happen to this sign and such and such to that sign.

This is not true. It is inaccurate and utterly misleading. Furthermore, again, why should we want to know what is going to happen tomorrow, really, when you think about it a little more profoundly?

If you go to a movie and you know the end of the movie, how much fun are you going to have at the beginning and in the middle and through it when you already know the ending are you going to have that sense of adventure of wondering if you're reading a whodunit those of you who like to read it or some other type of story that is full of suspense if you know what is going to happen aren't you going to miss the fun and the drama of the suspense and yet we want to know we always want the end of the story or didn't want to know what the end of the book and thereby we lose our livingness of the now the fun of the sense of adventure astrology is a wonderful thing if one understands it esoterically to help us understand ourselves and humanity and our relationship to each other and to god and indeed in the final analysis it's something we will need to learn sooner or later wonderful indeed it is but to be used in order to see my gosh uh will he give me the job or not or will that person come through or not or will I get this man or this woman or not oh dear the suspense the adventure the livingness and therefore the depth that develops from being able to be here and now is lost sooner or later we'll have to learn to so love now to be so aware of our relationship with the cosmos which is after all God that we wouldn't dream of doing doing anything but rejoicing at the interplay and the miracle that's existing and occurring now, now, now. And we'll stop looking for the tomorrow and the tomorrow. He who looks to tomorrow as to what's going to happen then is not with God.

So whenever you find your mind is all centered on tomorrow remember you've removed your mind from where it belongs thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy might and thy neighbor is thyself of course and thou shalt have no thou shalt have have no other gods before me.

This is the secret of really controlling your stars, incidentally, because the cosmic influences play on us now.

Our response, the way we react to what's happening now, makes our tomorrow.

And therefore, what's making our tomorrow, as the influences play on us tomorrow again.

Our response to that will become ever more that of the individual who just for a while is lower than the angels. Remember, just for a while.

Because God so made man that only man can be as God eventually.

And in order to be that man must become individuated away from the mass conscious mass mind consciousness reaction and in order to get away from that we have to stop hunting for the predictions and the prognostications of tomorrow although it is wise it is useful under certain conditions for example and when we start anything new we always we're always careful to see that the moon is on the increase because we want the major aspects of helpfulness existing between what we are starting and the cosmos and it is known that this opens wider the gates of of the angelic light and help and productiveness in ways like this. In other words, one has to know in what way to use astrology and in what ways to utilize some prognosticative abilities and in what ways to avoid it, like the plague.

And in order to know it, as we've told you before, we will say it again, in order to know that, we need to make up our minds to study to learn to become familiar with the attributions to meditate and to work because man evolves only through effort and the effort as he makes it develops ever deepening insight the deepening insight makes man recognize that in order to have the the relationship with the cosmos, that is the cosmic influences, the planetary influences, you can call them, they're really all pretty much the same thing. In order to have that, we need to learn what they actually are.

And in the esoteric parts of the work we come to know, not to believe, not to think, but to actually know what they are. The cosmic influences are nothing but aspects of the consciousness of God unfolding its creation taking place within us in miniature and microcosm and the microcosm cousin without us in the macro cousin and remember the seven holy planets exist inside of us although they have what the outside side correlation and as we get our own seven holy planet centers called chakras in the eastern philosophy into correlation and harmony this automatically will put us into certain harmonious relationships with those forces that flow down at us all the time day and night and night and day and yesterday and today and tomorrow and forever the miracle of unfolding life and so we hope you're not disappointed that we didn't take each sign and say this is what you may look forward to for the year it perhaps was a dirty trick wasn't it not to do that we could have but you would not have gained as much as this little talk which gives at least a little bit of insight into the principles of esoteric astrology and perhaps one day soon we may give another class on it to try to help you utilize it more effectively in your own growth