Astro Update - Issue #16

Welcome to Llewellyn's astro e-newsletter. We often make much to-do about the problems and challenges present in our lives. We may have a shortage of time, a difficult spouse or partner, a blended family, a pushy neighbor, or insufficient bank funds. And then there are the social, political, and economic problems, which are endless.

All of this attention to problems is often followed by the desperate refrain: "There has to be more to life than this!" Well, there is. We just tend to focus on what is wrong or difficult and not so much on what is right with us and with our world. "Easy" aspects, the trines and sextiles, are frequently overlooked or regarded with suspicion.

Trines are "harmonious" by contemporary definition. They indicate gifts and talents in our lives, and their benefits are available even without effort from us. But you've probably heard that a person with too much ease (i.e., trines) tends to be lazy. (Oops, that's another problem!)

Sextiles are "opportunities," but, as we know, an opportunity passes by if something isn't done--effort made--to take advantage of it. Perhaps astrologers chose the sextile symbol, an asterisk, instead of the hexagon because an asterisk has six "handles" for us to grab hold of as an opportunity rolls past.

I started thinking about sextiles after getting stung twice a couple of weeks ago. At first I thought bees had stung me, but they turned out to be angry hornets from the nest I disturbed when I took a hedge trimmer to the dwarf lilac bushes in my yard. (I'll add that my progressed Sun just moved into Virgo and my preoccupation with a detail, like the sextile, may be motivated by an unconscious desire on my part to explore the details and discern some kind of meaning from the event.) If you're feeling a little lost in my free association, it went something like this: bees-bee hives-honeycomb-hexagon-hexagram-six-sided-sextile-opportunity--and so on. That it was hornets and not bees that stung me is probably significant, too, but that's for another article.

I Googled "hexagon" and other words from my free association list, and found an amazing assortment of information. The more I read, the more I questioned our understanding of a sextile. Many astrologers believe the sextile is a "weak" aspect because it requires activation, and that at a fundamental level, sextiles represent inertia. I think we may have grabbed hold of just one handle, and that we're missing so much more.

For example, in the early 1900s and before, many astrological texts were published as booklets or small pamphlets. Authors and publishers used typewriters, which did not have astrological glyph keys, so the glyphs were drawn in by hand. Sometimes the sextile was drawn as an X with a horizontal bisecting line, and other times as an X with a vertical bisecting line. I began to wonder if the orientation of the bisecting line has significance.

To illustrate my point, imagine a sextile superimposed over a chart and thereby dividing the chart into six 60-degree segments. A horizontal bisecting line will connect the Ascendant and Descendant, while a vertical bisecting line (if we used it, which we don't) would connect the Midheaven and Imum Coeli (the MC and IC). The horizontal line illuminates ego and the material plane, while the vertical line draws together spirit and the place in the chart that represents our deepest, most hidden self--the underworld.

The arms of the "X" extend through the center of the second, fifth, eighth, and eleventh houses of the chart. These "succedent" houses are where we find our personal desires, values, self-expression, hopes, and wishes. While it's possible to find ways (implies looking outside ourselves) to meet these needs through the ego and material world (the Ascendant/Descendant axis), fulfillment is more apt to occur when we combine spirit with self (the MC/IC axis).

I feel that our current definition of a sextile is two-dimensional in light of my exploration of the symbol, which included a variety of non-astrological sources. It intrigues me to consider what the presence of a sextile in a chart may really mean. But I'll leave you on your own to ponder the significance of a hexagon and the way we draw a sextile. Maybe there is none. But symbols do have meaning, and the more we understand about them, the better we may come to understand ourselves.

Click for a complete list of sale items

Houses
By Gwyneth Bryan
ISBN: 0-7387-0868-2
Price: ~~$14.95~~ $10.47

Mythic Astrology
By Ariel Guttman and Kenneth Johnson
ISBN: 0-87542-248-9
Price: ~~$24.95~~ $17.47

Visions of the Virgin Mary
By Courtney Roberts
ISBN: 0-7387-0503-9
Price: ~~$14.95~~ $10.47

Pluto: The Evolutionary Journey of the Soul
By Jeff Green
ISBN: 0-87542-296-9
Price: ~~$15.00~~ $10.50

Horary Astrology: Plain and Simple
By Anthony Louis
ISBN: 1-56718-401-4
Price: ~~$19.95~~ $13.97

Goddess Signs
By Angelica Danton
ISBN: 0-7387-0469-5
Price: ~~$14.95~~ $10.47

Some scholars say the name alchemy comes from the Greek cheo, meaning I pour or I cast, since much of alchemy has to do with the working of metals. But many believe the word comes from the Egyptian Khem, meaning the black land (land with black earth), and see that as indicating Egypt as alchemy's place of origin. The Arabic article al was added to Khem to give alchemy. Later, as the science (some call it a pseudoscience) progressed, the article was again dropped, to become chemistry. Alchemy certainly is the early history of chemistry.

There was an early Egyptian alchemist whose name was Chemes. He wrote a book, called Chema, about his experiments trying to turn base metal into gold. Some few believe that the word alchemist comes from his name.

Whatever the origin of the word, it seems certain that the practice of alchemy had its beginnings in the Hellenistic culture of Alexandria, Egypt, which was the center of the world of learning at that time. In fact alchemy is a blending of Egyptian technology, Greek philosophy, and Middle Eastern mysticism. The first alchemists were the metallurgical workers who prepared precious metals for the nobles but also produced cheap substitutes for the less affluent. These cheaper substitutes were often disguised to look like the more precious metals. It didn't take long for the idea to develop that it might be possible to actually produce the precious metals themselves. This idea, in fact, was backed by Aristotle's theory that there was a prime matter that was the basis for all substances. Astrology added the concept that the greater outer world of planets and stars reflected the inner world of humankind: a macrocosm and a microcosm. It was believed that under the proper astrological influences, it should be possible to change one metal into another; for example, lead into gold. In the same way that humankind perfected, going through death and rebirth, so might metals perfect and grow from one base form to another higher form.

Meet Anne Windsor, author of Mapping Your Soul's Purpose, as she signs copies of her new book at several locations in Utah this summer!

Date: August 12, 2006 Time: 1 to 3 PM
Event Location: Barnes and Noble Bountiful, 340 South 500 West, West Bountiful, UT 84087. 801-299-8255.

Date: August 17, 2006 Time: 7 to 9 PM
Event Location: Borders Books, 4801 N. University Ave., Provo, UT 84606. 801-224-2720.

Date: August 19, 2006 Time: 2 to 4 PM
Event Location: Borders Books, 1050 N. Main Street, Logan, UT 84321. 435-787-0678.

Gwyneth Bryan will sign copies of her debut astrology book, Houses: A Contemporary Guide at the following bookstores.

Date: August 16, 2006 Time: 7:30 to 9:30 PM
Event Location: Borders, 601 Nassau Park, Princeton, NJ 08540. 609-514-0040.

Date: September 8, 2006 Time: 7:30 to 9:30 PM
Event Location: Barnes & Noble, 200 W. Route 70, Marlton, NJ 08053. 856-596-7058.