Greetings Everyone, from Adelaide, South Australia!
The shifting of the seasons always puts me in a nostalgic sort of mood. There is something about certain types of weather, the angle of the Sun and the qualities of light that projects my mind and emotions into other realms and gives me over to strange inner sensations and misplaced memories. I have recently been taken back to the vague remembrance of Sunday afternoons as a wee lad when my parents would take me down to the rail yard after church and let me climb around on the big diesel locomotives in my Sunday best. Then one of them would get on a train with me at the station while the other one would race across town to greet us at our destination. Those were happy days, and I have had a fascination with trains, science and big machinery ever since I can remember. My parents still like to remind me of those stories when I see them, and I will have to say that I always recall them with fondness. It is a librating feeling to be on the “road”, whether by rail, plane or car and to know that we are being transported out of our usual circumstance to a place of our desiring rather than the everyday places to which we become so accustomed. Often as I travel I give thought to the effort, inventiveness and daring of the human spirit that has enabled us to live in the world that we know today with all its modern conveniences and liberating technologies. And, we have but little notion of what our inventiveness and innate genius has in store for us even in the next 50 years, given the pace at which technology has advanced.
In astrology there are certain aspects and configurations that presage and confer such human potential and which speak of the genius of the human Soul in all its multidimensional splendour. We have just entered into one such aspect in the last two weeks and in less than two more weeks we are about to witness a rare alignment of planets in the heavens, and one that speaks par excellence to and of the indwelling human Soul—the Grand Quintile. More than that, we will experience two of these configurations within a lunar month.The first one occurs on October first and the second one occurs on the 28th of October. And, to top it all off, they coincide with the full moon periods of Libra and Scorpio—the Scorpio full moon being also a partial lunar eclipse over the Atlantic. I spoke of these Grand Quintiles in a previous letter and of the qualities that the quintile brings through, but we will look at all this in much more depth in this letter. I have also long associated the quintile with the planet Venus in terms of the energies it expresses. Hopefully we will see by the end of this letter that these two Grand Quintiles will somewhat form the capstone, so-to-speak, of the recent Venus transit and will go a long way toward distributing the energies brought onto our planet by that transit.
We need to go back over what we know about quintiles before we launch into an exploration of the nuts and bolts of the upcoming configuration. As we go through all of this we need to keep in mind that, though this is a rare sort of alignment, it is not felt particularly strongly in the outer affairs of people. That in no way diminishes its importance or potency. But, the quintile is an esoteric aspect and functions more in the mental realms, hence its effect is not seen physically until later because it takes some time for changes in the mind to work out into physical manifestation. There is also another thing to keep in mind because of the rarity of the alignment: Just because it is rare and beautiful does not mean the Heavens will open and many of our problems will be solved. On the contrary, as we will shortly see, this particular alignment can initially bring circumstances with it that are seen as anything but spiritual and high-minded to most people, even though the benefits eventually brought by those circumstances invariably lead to a better state of affairs for humanity as a whole in the long run.
So, let us begin to unravel what is about to be bestowed upon us in the coming lunar festivals through these Grand Quintiles. As I have stated in an earlier letter, a quintile is an aspect of 72 degrees that is associated with unique aspects of mind. The circle divided into 5 (72 degrees) carries with it the energy of the 5th creative Archetype, or Ray. This energy has been called the Ray of Concrete Knowledge, or Science. This is only its lower expression, though. The higher expression of this Ray or Quality is what we might call “esoteric psychology”—the relation of the human being to the greater Whole in which we all have our being. This 5th Ray is the Light of Knowledge itself and its Regent has been called “the Lord Who is Knowledge itself”. So, a quintile can confer this type of energy when it is found in a person’s or event’s chart. How that manifests will depend upon the planets involved and their placements within the chart, as well as the spiritual development of the individual. This Ray has a specific rulership over the mental plane or density and it links the three types of mind in all human beings—concrete (reasoning), higher (symbolic), and abstract (beyond all form). Hence, when quintiles are activated in a chart they bring with them the possibility that, by a linking of these three mental qualities, the Light of the Soul (which exists primarily beyond all mind) can pour forth in a much greater measure into the outer realms than has hitherto been the case. The preceding is the esoteric framework which underlies the operation of this aspect.
In strictly human terms, though, quintiles work in one of two ways with people. In a person who is spiritually focused it indicates an acute linkage between imagination and hard mentality. Therefore, this indicates a person who has more than the average ability for working with symbolism, for making the imaginative faculty usable in the mundane world, for seeing things in any given situation in a way that is lost on other people, for getting at the very essence of knowledge and for being able to synthesize and/or organize hard data (concrete knowledge) in truly unique ways. It can be and often is an aspect that indicates pure and true genius. Much of what is passed off as genius is actually simply reorganization of already existent knowledge. True, there is a thing we could call organizational genius, but it has not the true spark of originality in it. It is this originality that the quintile confers or indicates. On the other hand, for the person who is materially focused quintiles often go unnoticed, primarily because their minds do not reach up into the realms of true imagination. They are “earth-bound”, for lack of a better term. However, when the quintile is activated and these people are given a glimpse of the higher realms, what they see is often misinterpreted and misappropriated and the Light the quintile bears is often de-stabilizing to such an individual. In this we see activated the phrase: “There is often a fine line between genius and madness.” Activated in a negative manner, then, the quintile will often bring with it uncontrollable compulsions and destructive behavior as the mind then becomes “the slayer of the real”. It is also often implicated in sexual aberrations, the energetics of which would take to long to go into here.
As a result of the factors outlined in the preceding paragraph, quintiles are found prominently in the charts of true creative geniuses, especially in science and the arts. There is a long litany of famously creative people who have quintiles to their Sun, prominent planets or in strong configuration with other planets. I will name but a few here so the picture becomes clearer. With artists, we have: al Biruni, Gauguin, Rockwell Kent, Henri Matisse, Michelangelo and Picasso. Among musicians, we have: Mozart, John Lennon, Liberace, Nat King Cole and “Cannonball” Adderly. Among actors, we have: Shelley Winters, Richard Pryor, Peter Ustinov, Peter Fonda, Julie Andrews, Jean Harlowe, Marilyn Monroe (also a famous victim), Jack Nicholson, Bruce Lee, Bob Crane, Bo Derek, Barbara Streisand, Audrey Hepburn, Jane Mansfield, Judy Garland and Liza Minelli, and Francis Ford Coppola. Among statesmen, despots and revolutionaries, we have: Martin Luther King, Dennis Kucinich, Oliver Cromwell, Douglass Haig, Conrad Adenaur, Bismarck, Hitler and Robespierre. Among scientists, we have: Einstein, Steve Wozniac, Alexander Fleming, and Galileo. And, I have only just barely scratched the surface with these people. I have only had limited lists from which to choose. Of these people, with some their particular genius might be called into question. Some of them—in fact a great many—were/are quite compulsive. A few were certainly unstable or even mad and a few were more victims than actually being able to consciously create through their process. All of these people were chosen at random from lists primarily to show the variety of ways in which quintiles can operate, for anyone who knows about these people’s lives.
But, perhaps one of the more revealing lists in terms of quintiles comes from a collection of poets and writers. As is well known, writers are one of the more reflective groups of people in terms of creative process and they deal with symbolism in ways that most of the other groups do not. This is not to say they are any more creative or “mentally endowed”. Rather, they are able to bring the energy of quintiles down into manifested form in a different manner than some of the other groups, both in terms of process and of technique. Artists of all types work with symbolism as a matter of course, and all of them have their ways of bringing symbols into physical form. Writers simply do it with letters as symbols for thoughts. Of the writers and poets, we have: Emile Zola, Yeats, Jaqueline Susann, Percy B. Shelley, Jean Paul Sartre, Anais Nin, Jack Kerouac, Washington Irving, Victor Hugo, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickenson, Stephen Crane, William Blake, Lewis Carroll, Pearl S. Buck and Louisa May Alcott. Of course, this list would not be complete for most of you without adding the following names: Alice A. Bailey, Annie Besant, Helena Blavatsky and Helena Roerich, the authors and then some of the ABCs of occultism as we know it in the West. I should add here that, with all the people listed in the last two paragraphs, their charts were chosen because of an emphasis of what the astrologer would call “10th Harmonic aspects”—deciles (semi-quintiles—36 degrees), quintiles, tredeciles (108 degrees, or 3 semi-quintiles) and biquintiles (144 degrees). All of these aspects express the quintile paradigm in some form or another.
Each of the above-mentioned people has expressed something unique to the world in their own way. They have taken the mundane and ordinary and added something original to it. They have worked consciously with symbolism and expressed that to the world in an original manner, or they have stood as symbols themselves. They have stood outside the normal order of humanity and shown that “something extra” that noone else had quite been able to do. In short, they had been a link in some manner between the Mind of God and humanity, either rightly or wrongly, and have added to the richness of human experience as a result. In another way of looking at it, they did their bit in one way or another to shift the paradigms of human thought. Now, with some of the people listed it may be a bit hard to see how that might be so, or even hard to swallow, but no matter what we might feel about them personally, they have all made their mark on the culture of human thought—and some, like Einstein, Mozart, Martin Luther King and even Hitler—have changed the course of human history by what they have brought through from the higher realms. It may be difficult to see how an artist might change the course of history sometimes, but inspiration is a thing never lost on the human heart. Art moves humanity sometimes—I would even say often--more effectively than brute force, as witnessed by the effect of the media upon human thought and public opinion. “The pen is mightier than the sword.”
All this brings us to a very important consideration of what quintiles actually mean before we move into a consideration of the Grand Quintiles. It was stated previously that the 5th Ray in its higher modus operandi expresses esoteric psychology. The phrases: “Yesterday’s science fiction is today’s science fact.” and “God geometrizes.” may seem to be unrelated, but they do, in fact, say a lot about how quintiles operate and what the true nature of science and mind really is. I have spoken many times about how outer life is but a symbolic expression of inner realities in the life of the Soul. It is the nature of the human mind to enquire and to aspire to greater things. Restless beings, are we, and our lot in life is divine discontent. No matter how much we know there is always something else that would make our lives better and more manageable, and it is this very dynamic that has given rise to science. Every time we pierce through the veils of ignorance and illusion we wrest another piece of God’s puzzle from the Grand Design and make it our own. We thus come a little closer to understanding the Mind of God in our own way. That which we have dreamt for ourselves and our ken becomes reality for all when we know how to manifest them. The symbolism of the divine becomes “cold, hard fact”. It will come as no surprise, then, that science is but occultism made everyday reality and concrete to the average person. Our dreams (science fiction) become reality (science fact). And, guess what—the basis of all science is mathematics, and numbers are one of the ultimate sets of symbols for us.
Einstein gave us Relativity theory and the proof that matter and energy are one. The basis of that is the simplest of equations: E=mc squared. Mozart gave us some of the most divine and perfect music the world has heard. Yet, music is numbers in motion, for all vibration has a periodicity and cyclical nature that is described by numbers. It is the same with all shapes and colors. And, it is the same with the human voice and all forms. All art and science has its basis in mathematics, as does all symbolic language. And, quintiles allow us to access those symbols and ultimately the mathematics behind them, though we may not (and most often do not) recognize that a symbol is, after all, God geometrizing. There are many who would feel offense at art and science being lumped together and that art could be reduced to numbers, but our art is more and more digitalized every day. There is actually no separation between art and science. Mathematics is as exquisite an expression of the divine as the greatest painting, music or poetry. We only make it different in our own minds.
Quintiles bring us newness and greater connectedness with God. They show us the way to a better understanding of the universe and of the beauty of creation. By putting us in touch with the greater Archetypes we are empowered to be more than we were and to stand apart from the status quo and show our uniqueness as human beings. But we can only do this if we have even only a tenuous link with the higher Self. If a person has quintiles in his or her chart, then such a connection, if existent, becomes a channel for the voice of the Soul to pour forth into the lives of all around them. Having quintiles in a chart is no guarantee of such a connection, however. True genius is only ever of the Soul, but a fuller measure of contact with the Soul usually only comes at a cost to the persona, for the persona most often resists anything new, as it is the status quo within our own energy fields. This brings us to the last point in this discussion—quintiles are usually only activated after a personal struggle unless the Soul-force is already strong within the individual. A study of the lives of the previously-listed individuals will more than likely reveal that their genius was only released after some personal upheaval. All this makes the quintile sound more like a Uranian type of influence, but the quintile does not bring on the crises. It is only active after the fact. We usually only understand a crisis in hindsight. Wisdom has 20-20 rear-view vision, we could say. However, quintiles can also operate as support in the midst of a crisis if the link to the Soul is already established. There is a lot more that can be said about all this, but we need to move on.
With that, let us move on to a consideration of the Grand Quintiles to come. Both of them last for roughly 6 hours. The first one begins at 6:45 PM ACST (9:15 AM GMT 30 Sept.) on 1 Oct 2004. It reaches its peak at app. 9:30 PM ACST (noon GMT) and finally ends at 1:20 AM ACST (3:50 PM GMT), depending upon the orb used. The 2nd one begins at 2:30 AM ACST on 29 Oct 2004 (5:00 PM 28 Oct GMT), peaks at around 5:30 AM (8:00 PM GMT) and ends at 11:00 AM ACST (1:30 AM GMT 29 Oct). As with any of the more complex alignments in the heavens, there is a key aspect that configures the entire alignment and sets the key measure for it. In the case of these two alignments that aspect is a quintile between Uranus and Pluto, both of which form the base of what we would call a 10th harmonic yod with Saturn as the apex planet. This yod has been in effect since September 3rd. Saturn has been biquintile to Pluto since the 23rd of August. What will be of interest here is that fact that these planets—Saturn/Uranus/Pluto—are the three planets that develop and confer will upon humanity, and they do so through invoking crisis and struggle in a person’s life so that the will must be used to bring about resolution. We could say that we learn to be resolute through these planets. Uranus and Pluto are the two planets that govern the path of occultism, and in this yod we see a very potent and powerful symbol for the creative release of karma, the establishment of a new order along more humanistic lines, the ability to set new paradigms for leadership and a new social order in place, the genius of manipulation of forces for right or materialistic ends, the compulsion to find new ways of releasing old patterns, the impulse to consciously work with the forces of evolution for the betterment of humanity and the ability and necessity for the old to bring surprising and revelatory spiritual impulses to the mass of humanity. In summary, this is one of the more consciously liberating, or consciousness-liberating, aspects that has been seen for some time. The last time this yod was even close to being formed was in Dec. 1063. At that time Saturn was bi-quintile to both Uranus and Pluto, but the latter were not close enough to be quintile to eachother.
The base of the just-described yod gives the dynamic of the things to be brought through with this alignment. There is another thought that I need to add in the light of what has just been said. Throughout all of this and with what comes after the alignment the following point will ring out and will become more and more clear: He who does not learn from history will be doomed to repeat it. But there is no turning back after this. A quick look at the world stage will show us why. There are elections coming up in the US and Australia just after these alignments. The outcome of the US elections will set the course of history in the West for some time to come. The forces of materialism are strong on all sides and seek ascendancy and supremacy in certain sectors of the world. But, the forces for freedom are stronger, so long as we are vigilant. Conscious choice is the key here, along with a firm adherence to one’s connection with one’s higher Self. There will be ongoing struggle, but the Soul of humanity is being more and more evoked every day. Through this alignment we will see how far we have come. Expect an increase in insanity from certain factions. Expect also examples of true genius and astounding Light to step forward and to shine through.
The quintile and biquintile aspects between Uranus and Pluto occur roughly every 20-24 years. They are marked by certain discoveries coming to light and by certain urges to the liberation of humanity from the bondage of ignorance and oppression. I will list some of the ones from modern history along with their results to give some idea of what is brought through. The dates are when the aspect occurred. The events occurred in that year or shortly thereafter.
March 1803: Switzerland gained independence, the Louisiana Purchase from the French in the US, Britain and France went to war, Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor (1804), the first periodic table of the elements was put forward, the first steam train was tested, complex number equations developed, the electric battery.
1824: The RSPCA was established, the Erie Canal was opened, there were wars for independence in Greece and South America, the first wire suspension bridge was tested, the first steam passenger train was put in operation (1825), the Derringer pistol was put on the market, the rum ration was halved on British ships, non-Euclidean geometry, the electromagnet.
1851: the first free trade act was enacted in Britain, the Tai Ping rebellion in China, the Pinkerton Detective Agency was established, Reuter’s News Agency was established, the French Aeronautical Society was founded (the first of its kind), Otis Elevators was founded, the first Australian gold rush took place, the Crimean War started (1854), Benjamin Franklin shows that lightning is electricity
1871: German unification, the Mendeleev periodic table of the elements, France capitulates to Germany in a humiliating defeat, France Commune ends in blood and violence (over 20,000 Parisians lose their lives on the barricades), Dr. Livingstone is found at lake Tanganyika(he wasn’t lost after all), Barnum’s Circus opens in New York, the Chicago fires raged for 3 days, Yellowstone National Park was created –inspiration for wilderness protection the world over(1872), RCMP formed (’73), Spanish Republic proclaimed (’73), first exhibition of impressionist artin Paris (’74). The Theosophical Society was founded by Blavatsky and H.S. Olcott. In 1873 there was the first US postcard, the first illustrated daily newspaper (New york), the first color photographs, the QWERTY typewriter keyboard, and Maxwell published his theories on radio waves. The telegraph, the light bulb, the automobile and the telephone were all invented directly after this. Impressionism was given birth.
Feb 1891: The world’s first old-age pensions in Germany, baseball was invented, first female suffrage in the world (New Zealand, ‘92), Standard Oil monopoly was busted in the US(’92), The motion picture camera invented in Edison’s lab, motion picture studios developed (’92), 4-color rotary printing presses are developed, the telephoto lens is developed, the automatic telephone switchboard, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was published (’92), X-Rays discovered (’95) (the discovery that presaged the atomic age). This decade was when major advances were made in the infant science of nuclear physics. The atomic age had its conception here. Radio broadcasting came about shortly after (’94, telegraphy), box-making machines are invented (the packaging industry is born), antitoxins discovered
Sep 1915: world is at flash point prior to WWI (certain parts of Europe are already in conflict), Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (’17), the bohr model of atomic structure and the electron shell modl of chemical bonding, Germany is the first country to use aircraft militarily (air warfare is born), the kinetic theory of gases is put forward, the electric loudspeaker developed, radios get tuners (the radio industry becomes possible), the first regular airmail service, photocomposition begins, short-wave radio invented (’19), the flip-flop circuit is invented (the birth of binary electronics), the world erupts into war, penicillin discovered, Goddard is developing modern rocketry, sonar.
Sep 1939: the world is sinking into war again (the decisive blow is being delivered to materialism), the first regular TV broadcast takes place in the US, Kirlian photography is developed, America gets stereo sound (“Fantasia”, the movie), the first digital computer (’42), nuclear fission developed in Germany, the Manhattan Project (’42), radar developed, German rockets developed that later become the models for modern space-flight rockets, the true Atomic Age is born.
I looked through many lists in compiling the above and picked out those items that most closely coincided with the dates or those that were just after by a few years. The last decade of the 1800s was an exception, because there was a great impulse toward liberation given during that time and thus quite a lot of work was done with matter and radioactivity during that decade. Certain things stand out from the preceding listing. 1) Certain secrets of the atom and of electricity were given out at each time. 2) The media was given unique and potent strides forward at each time. 3) Certain of the mathematics of the time/space continuum were evolved around those times. 4) Photography as a technology was given a great boost. 5) There were major developments in transport technology. 6) There were great movements and crises in the realm of human independence and freedom.7) The boundaries of humanity were expanded. 8) There were great strides made in communications technology.
In short, our understanding of time and space, our concepts of human interchange, communication, expression and freedom and the fixing of images and sounds in the ether of space are all unfolded under the impulse of the quintile/biquintile aspects between Uranus and Pluto. Every passage of that quintile in recent history has left something quite unique for humanity, has changed the paradigms of our thinking, has given us ever-greater freedom and liberty, has interconnected us in a world brotherhood to an ever-greater extent and has shown us in hindsight that, indeed, the limits of what we can do is bounded only by our imagination. The fact that wars have raged around us during those times has only spurred us onward and wiped away those restricting social structures and regimes that have held us back from the realization of our dreams. The war years have been times that have tested the limits of human endurance and imagination, but they have also evoked the human Soul. Truly, necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes, and warfare has advanced science in a way that nothing else quite can. But, there are many things besides warfare that fire the imagination, too. As has been said, there is nothing like a good crisis to really grab our attention, to bring the will to bear on a situation and to push for solutions to problems. We find ourselves in a world crisis once again. This quintile will last until the end of March 2005. Let us be certain to avail ourselves of its profound gifts to all of us.
Saturn at the apex of the yod (which will last until Dec 16th) points to the necessity of bringing the imagination to bear, of firmly grounding in outer circumstance what we are given, of adapting every twist and turn of circumstance toward the liberating influences pouring through and—perhaps most especially—in the creative use of time and form in this current unfolding of the Plan and thus our understanding of the workings of the divine. I had stated before that the same yod almost came to pass in 1063. As an example of how important the Uranus/Pluto quintile is to unlocking the energy of the yod, and due to the fact that quintile was not present then, there were no great discoveries or liberating impulses exhibited at that time. Biquintiles are an aspect that shows awareness of creative technique, but unless they are aided by other aspects that lead to manifestation of the sensed ideals then they often come to naught. All the awareness in the world is of no use if it cannot be utilized. But, in a true Grand Quintile all the biquintiles are linked to the base quintiles. Creative potential is allied with creative technique, and if there are manifesting aspects (squares and oppositions) present as well, then the scene is set for the unleashing of tremendous creative gifts and the introduction of much that is new and strikingly original onto the planet. With that, let us look at our present Grand Quintiles.
The October 1st alignment is completed by the Moon. It is composed of the Moon, Saturn, a Mercury/Sun conjunction—conjunct Mars and Jupiter, Pluto and Uranus in order around the chart wheel. Each point of the quintile is also biquintile the two plants in the figure furthest opposite that point. In all, every planet is involved except for Venus and Neptune. It is a most astounding configuration. The fact that almost all the planets are involved points to how potent a figure it is, though it lasts but only a few hours. The thing that makes it even more interesting, though, is the two planets outside of the alignment, because they are poised as the planets that release the potential of the figure. Venus is in a wide opposition to Uranus and the Moon is square to Neptune. Under orthodox interpretation these would not seem to be aspects that would particularly lead to great manifestations of creative impulses, but we need to keep in mind that this configuration works largely from the realm of mind. When seen in that regard then the releasing aspects take on a new light.
Venus has been called the most occult and mysterious planet in the solar system. Neptune can be seen in the same light to a degree. The opposition between Venus and Uranus brings about a great independence in matters of the heart, a tendency to form odd alliances, disappointment through misplaced affections, detachment, idealism in love and a general eccentricity. In all, I would say this aspect fits the Grand Quintile quite well. The Moon/Neptune square gives a generally unrealistic outlook, daydreaming, naïve charm, a love of mysticism and an impractical outlook on life—just the sort of thing one would need to let the imagination run loose. If there is a true note of hardness in this chart, it comes from the Saturn opposition to Chiron. A general outlook on the chart indicates that it will not be a particularly kind period emotionally, but that may be just the sort of thing that is needed to unlock some of the potential in the figure.
It might be of interest to note that the Magi Society of astrologers based in Hong Kong have found that Chiron is as much associated with love and marriage as is Venus and that one’s sense of emotional well-being is mapped by aspects to Chiron to a large degree. They see it as more than a mere planetoid and afford it larger status than do most astrologers. One point they make rather clearly is that Saturn in opposition or square to Chiron is a marriage-busting transit, and that marriages that take place during that transit often end in failure and heartbreak. What is not generally known about the Magi Society is that it was founded under the impulse of a Grand Quintile—the alignment of October1618. At the time of the alignment a Shaolin monk from China was in Europe studying Western astrology with Johannes Kepler, one of the great astronomer/astrologers—and the father of the quintile. After he had completed his studies he returned to China and began to marry the eastern and western systems of astrology, and the Magi Society was born. Now they are making their findings known to the West and a contingent has settled in the States. I have not discussed the other Grand Quintiles because I have wanted to stay true to the measure of this one. But, a few points about what has been called the “power” grand Quintiles are in order.
The alignment of 1618 was particularly powerful and productive of results. It lasted for two full days. It was the time of the golden age of theater in France, England and Spain. It was also a time noted for great literary achievement, and the likes of Francis Bacon, Hobbes, Richelieu, Galileo and Descartes were all living then and producing some of their greatest works. The English language had its strongest stimulus during that time. Shakespeare had passed on just a few years prior. The 30-years War had just started and the Pilgrims landed in America a couple of years later (Yes, Uranus and Pluto were in a 10th harmonic aspect). In science we saw the introduction of the slide rule, the discovery of the circulation of blood, the discovery of sunspots, the discovery of electrical charges, the equal-temperament system of tuning musical instruments, the vernier scale (still used today in precision measurements of sizes), the philosophical basis for the scientific method, the micrometer, the birth of hydrodynamics and the birth of integral calculus (which made modern physics and physical sciences possible). It also saw the investigation of light-wave interference patterns, the moons of Jupiter, projective geometry, and the introduction of logarithms—which made all modern astrological calculations possible. I could go on and on. It all gets matter-of-fact after a while. Suffice it to say that Grand Quintile carried a particular magic with it, as these two will as well. I am not saying they are the be-all-end-all of mental aspects and alignments. But, if one studies these carefully enough, one will find that certain key discoveries for certain disciplines are made during each of these alignments or as a result of them.
There are two others Grand Quintiles particularly worthy of note. Those were in April of 190 and in 952. The alignment of 190 gave us a calculation of pi (the basis of all circular, cyclic and rotational calculations) to 5 decimal places, derived by Liu Hui in China, and the introduction of Mahayana Buddhism into India. The alignment of 952 brought the introduction of Hindu-Arabic numerals into the West and the eventual use of zero as a factor in mathematical calculations. It was not known prior to that. Europe was still in the throes of the Dark Ages at that time, so there was very little in the way of intellectual development. But, the alignment of 952 lasted for several days. The fact that it did not produce much goes back to what was said earlier regarding the fact that quintiles are only efficacious if people have the Soul contact and mental equipment necessary to be able to access them.
Returning to the 2004 alignments, in the first one we see a particularly mystical/mental bias. There are no hard, driving aspects that tend toward materialization, such as squares or oppositions to Saturn, Uranus or Pluto. I would call this first one a preparatory alignment. It will set the imagination on fire. It will bring about internal struggle through the emotional conflicts it will no doubt engender. People will have dreams of a better life. It will, in the end, cause people to make certain decisions about their lives, since the Sun is in Libra. The releasing planets (Venus, Neptune and Chiron to a degree) point to the dynamic of self-forgetfulness and self-sacrifice as a catalyst for change in one’s life. They emphasize the need for a more creative service to our fellow travelers. The conjunction of Sun/Mercury/Mars/Jupiter will create a veritable foment of ideas and the forcing of choice, and perhaps because of it, since it occurs in Libra. Venus and Chiron are biquintile eachother, and that points to an awareness of the creative techniques within relationships, especially close ones. Chiron is tredecile Mars and Jupiter. The tredecile has been called an aspect of creative introversion by Dane Rudhyar. It is an opposition minus a quintile and, as such, points to the need for conscious withdrawal in order for originality to become inspired. It is a very reflective and ponderous aspect and indicates where people can work well alone with their thoughts. With the tredecile just mentioned, all healing and sacrificial modes of working (Chiron) will do best when there is great energy brought to bear in the solution to some quandary. It indicates that insight would come best when, say, exercising alone or in doing moving meditation. Relationship problems might best find their most elegant solutions when one goes for a long walk or even a run, for instance.
Lastly with the first alignment, Venus is in its high Lucifer phase now, so the greatest measure of light will come through the first alignment. Dispensation comes most clearly through the Lucifer phase. And, with the opposition to Uranus, it will come in sudden flashes of insight and maybe as a result of emotional shocks. Venus will have already started its slow decline toward the Sun by that time, but it is still near its highest angle away from the Sun. Therefore, this alignment will act more like a herald than the second one. The choices made in the first one will find application through the second one.
The second Grand Quintile on Oct. 28th occurs just after the full moon and eclipse of Scorpio. This will bring a much more powerful urge to manifest what was sensed in the first alignment. But, much can be gleaned through this one as well. The quintile between Uranus and Pluto is extant the entire time, so Light will steadily stream through. The active quintile points in that figure are Saturn, Jupiter, Pluto, Uranus and the Moon. The Sun is a releasing/distributing point in this figure, indicating a very individual expression or release of the gifts coming through the alignment. As well, Neptune, Mercury and Chiron are additional releasing points. Venus conjoins Jupiter here, so the emotional energies will flow much more freely, but Scorpio always has a stinger in it somewhere. I will discuss the energies of each of these full moons in their respective papers. This alignment will not have the tremendous mental stimulation in it that the first one does, but it will be much more level-headed, which will be needed right before an election, and it will bring through that beloved Scorpio ability to see through people’s veneers and to really sense the undercurrents of any situation, much to the consternation of people who have something to hide. Let us hope we all see the issues truly and clearly in the lead up to that time. Interestingly, Mars is unaspected in the 2nd alignment, pointing to difficulty in integrating the physical energy of any circumstance into the psyche. But, at the same time it might act to cool what might otherwise become explosive situations. If Mars is conjoined to angles in the location chart, as it is here at that time, then we might see some very “interesting” things come to pass.
I could write letter after letter on these Grand Quintiles and associated aspects, but time is limited and I really wanted chiefly to give an overview and a taste of things to come. I have given only scant analysis of the alignments themselves. What is important in them is the key measure as outlined in the discussion of the Uranus/Pluto quintile. The rest is icing on the cake, really, so transitory is the remainder of the configurations. As I said, I shall be giving out more information about them in a discussion of the full moon periods associated with each of these, for these alignments go hand-in-hand with those full moons and add quite a profound and unique accent to them. I also hopefully wanted to show the ultimate and immanent practicality of esoteric astrology as it goes toward explaining the meaning behind the more mundane aspects of astrology. Quintiles form a good bridging forum in that regard. So, I will let this rest at that.
In the coming months may our imaginations fly free and may we know ourselves to be limitless and profound beings, co-creators with Nature. May we truly come to realize that the only thing that stands between our wildest dreams and the status quo is the limits that we put on ourselves. This is no time to be small-minded or bound to routine. All routine is but the framework that gives our dreams a base from which to fly. The textbooks of heaven and the archives of the schools of occultism are opened now for those who have the eye to see. And, may we all see our greatest imaginations written in those august volumes, the promise for the generations to come. The Soul gives rise to the artistry of life in the potency of every focused moment, and as tension gives way to our exquisite focus upon the necessities at hand let us realize that we are liberators, that we are revolutionary in our outlook and that by standing out from the crowd with our fellow travelers we set the examples that those who come after us will follow. I still climb on the trains from my youth, but now I ride them to places far and wide in the realms of my imagination toward the destinations of dreams realized, truths uncovered and loves that beckon me ever-closer to the heart of God. May the secrets we uncover in the coming months make the mundane bloom anew and bless this world with greater Light, Love and Hope.
Many “Eureka!” moments to you all!
Malvin.
21 Sep 2004
Malvin Artley has been a practicing astrologer for the past 10 years and is an accredited member of the American Federation of Astrologers. The author of "Bodies of Fire: An Exploration of the Lesser Chakra System", he has authored numerous articles and was a member of the faculty of the University of the Seven Rays, a non-profit organization dedicated to the teaching of the Trans-Himalayan tradition as expressed through the books of Alice Bailey, Helena Blavatsky and others. His primary focus over the past 25 years has been on the sciences as they express occultism and with bridging work between the two. His special interests are the human subtle energy system and all the chakras, or energy centres, physics and technology, astronomy and all aspects of Chinese occultism. He now lives in Adelaide, South Australia.
