https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82055426067?pwd=vV0LEeN9qsTxz5GaCNKoIT2eWCdUp6.1
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820 5542 6067
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511894
Embedded within the coherence of Western Astrology are a series of fundamental relationships to the great circles, the elements, the luminaries, the planets, the signs, the stars, and the houses. These relationships are not exclusive to, but perhaps best approached foremost, through their arrangement in polarities.
Polarity, in a strict astrological sense, refers to the division of the twelve zodiacal signs into two groups, positive/odd/masculine/finite and negative/even/feminine/infinite, with roots in Pythagorean philosophy. However, we can approach the term in a broader way metaphysically to involve duality and the interplay of seemingly opposing forces.
By way of introduction we will focus on the wiliest of forms, Mercury. For it to be most fully understood astrologically, we can relate it to the polarity of which it is a part, that of the Mercurial-Jupiterian. Wherever we find Mercury we, too, find Jupiter. Considering the Mercurial and its associated impulses within this pairing offers a fuller spectrum of expression to clearly describe this necessarily ambiguous force. I will then venture further into exploring the implied relationships of the remaining seven classical lights to flesh out the paradoxa luminaria alongside suggestions of how to apply these concepts both practically through reflection and in a natal analysis.
While it may be easy to assume that these connections are allotted, fastened to their associations and like oil and water, never mix, this goes against the coherence implied within these relationships. For even prior to the sources of Hermetism, Heraclitus reminds us, “everything flows”, and, equally, “the way up and the way down are one and the same.” These fundamental relationships are paradoxical in nature—constantly pushing us to go beyond the polarities out of which they are made—and as such they are decidedly generative in effect, much like the cosmos from which they are based. It is these productive paradoxes, attesting and giving rise to plurality, that we will seek to explore.
John-David (JD) Kelley is a professional astrologer and astral magician with a background in anthropology and education. He is the chairperson of the Scottish Astrological Association, organiser of the International Association of Astral Magic, and principle organiser for Astro Magia, a transdisciplinary conference focused on astral magic and its contents.