Astrological Alphabet by Zip Dobyns

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The Astrological Alphabet

Astrology offers us a language to conceive of and to describe life. It has an alphabet which is equivalent to the letters of an alphabet offering a model of life composed of twelve basic desires or drives. Letters can be capitalized or written lower case, or turned into monograms with curls, but an "A" is recognized as carrying the same basic meaning as an "a." In astrology, we have planets, signs of the zodiac, houses of the horoscope, and other variations such as the nodes of all the planets and the dwads in all the signs which symbolize the same twelve basic life desires. This does not mean that the planets and signs and houses are themselves the "same," but they symbolize the same psychological principles.

The planets are the most important, like a verb in a sentence. Everything else is metaphorically like adverbs which qualify verbs. We can think of astrology's model of life as a series of stages of growth from initial self-absorption to final oneness with the Whole.

We start with the drive to just be ourselves, to act immediately and spontaneously on personal impulses with Letter One: Mars, Aries, and the first house. Then that fire urge to be and do is directed at a target, seeking pleasure in the physical world, our first "earth" side of life.

We may make or spend money, indulge appetites, collect and enjoy possessions, create beauty, etc., with Letter Two: Venus, Taurus, and the second house.

Then we try to understand what is happening by developing the conscious side of the mind, the intellect. Curiosity drives us to investigate the world around us and we discover that other people are part of it. We learn to learn, to communicate, to be an equal by sharing the world with peer relationships such as siblings and neighbors. Letter three introduces us to air with Mercury, Gemini, and the third house.

Letter four completes the first cycle of the four elements. Water symbolizes the subconscious side of the mind where we absorb and assimilate the results of our experiences with the other three elements. Habits live here, and most people operate on automatic pilot most of the time. The subconscious manages the body. It digests our food, repairs damage to the body, keeps us breathing while we sleep, stores information acquired in the past, etc. Habits are great labor savors. Once we learn to do something, it takes less attention and effort to do it again, so we can satisfy the fire urge to break new ground.

Fire asks "What will I experience if I follow this impulse and do what I want to? I'll try it and find out." Earth is basically practical. This can include the ability to be logical, but the primary earth question is "Will this work? What will happen in the physical world if I do this? Do it and see." Air is basically logical, creating abstract conceptual systems, maps and models of ideas. Of course, what is considered logical depends on one's premises, so unless these are initially grounded in the practical earth, we can create castles in the air. Air asks "Is this design internally consistent and how can I communicate it?" Fire and air want to express and they normally possess a sense of humor. Earth and water want to protect, so they are normally more serious. Earth may save for practical reasons, because something could be useful. Water wants emotional security. It asks "How can I protect and preserve what is important to me?" This may simply be personal security or may include others. The water instinct is to hold on and to hold in. Fire and air want to move on. At the water or subconscious level, life is connected, so water is a key to psychic ability. When water factors are combined with fire or earth factors, individuals tend to act on the inner psychic awareness, but they may not be conscious of why they are doing what they are doing and often the action is just carrying out personal habits. Water and air combinations connect the conscious and subconscious potentials of the mind. Individuals with an air-water emphasis can more readily become conscious of the knowledge stored in or accessible to the subconscious. They may or may not do anything with the information other than register it mentally and perhaps talk about it. Air is a spectator and commentator. Water may just feel deeply. Fire and earth are the action elements which impact the world. At the same time, there is a natural, inherent potential for conflict between fire and earth, between the urge to keep changing and the desire for solid results in the world. The fire drive to try something new is also inherently in conflict with the water instinct to cling to the familiar past. Air can be easily combined with the other three elements and can be helpful to all of them. It provides the detachment of a broad perspective which can moderate the emotional intensity of fire and water. It offers the ability to learn vicariously through the observation of others or through visualizing possible consequences without having to knock one's own head actually doing something. It symbolizes the valuable ability to "take things lightly."

Obviously, everyone possesses all the elements and life is a complex mixture. Everything is always potentially present but the emphasis is constantly changing. Conflicts need not be a problem, but we do have to find a way to satisfy all of our basic drives. Any part of our nature which is totally denied will make trouble for us. Usually, compromise works best, but we can also alternate when we want to do more of some parts of life. And, just as conflicting desires need attention but can be handled successfully, the consequences of harmonious desires are not always pleasant. Harmony can lead to excesses which create problems. It is not always true that if some is good, more will be better. The tragedy of astrology is that so much of it is presented as if it was inevitably "positive" or "negative." Every astrological principle, every one of our basic drives/desires, can be manifested in "pleasant" or "painful" ways, in an infinite variety of details which depend on how we try to satisfy the desires. There are always "choices" but most of the time we are not conscious of them because habits are running the show. Remember, habits live in the subconscious side of the mind which is represented by water in astrology.

Letter four of our astrological model of life is water and is symbolized by the Moon, Cancer, and the fourth house. This includes the baby/mother relationship, the home and family, our need to be nurtured and our ability to nurture others. We may care for children or pets or talk to our plants, and no matter what our age, we always retain a little of our "baby" need to feel sheltered. Properly handled, Letter Four is unconditional love. A baby is protected because it needs it, not because it has earned it.

With Letter Five, the Sun, Leo, and the fifth house, we move into fire again. With our initial fire, with Letter One, we simply want to be let alone to do what we please. With Letter Five, we want to do bigger things and we want an audience. We want to pour our unique, creative power out into the world and to have it acknowledged. The Sun is a star, and Letter Five needs to shine. This can include loving and being loved, procreating children, selling, promoting, or otherwise persuading others to follow our lead, investing, speculating or gambling hoping for a bigger return, etc.

Earth follows fire, and with Letter Six we need to function effectively in a job and in our physical bodies. Virgo and the sixth house symbolize the drive to do something practical and to do it well, to cope with the material world. Mercury traditionally is the planetary key to Letter Six, and two of the asteroids, the little planets which are mostly between Mars and Jupiter, also seem to carry similar connotations. Ceres is the nurturing side of Virgo with a strong maternal instinct. Work is seen as a way to help people, and Ceres is usually a key to our original mother-figure and to our ability to mother others. Vesta marks the need to do a good job for the sake of doing a good job! Individuals who have a prominent Vesta but who lack empathy can be so intent on the immediate goal that they ignore the effect they are having on others. When the subconscious which manages the body is overloaded with negative emotions that are being mostly ignored, it can produce bodily ailments to get our attention. Job frustrations are a common source of illness or accidents. They let us escape the job or other obligations without feeling guilty.

Once we have learned to work effectively and to maintain our health, we are ready to form lasting, adult, peer relationships with Letters Seven and Eight. Libra and the seventh house represent the air side of partnership which seeks pleasure with others but is less emotionally intense than Scorpio and the eighth house where we learn to share sensuality, possessions, and passion driven by the water urge toward fusion. Venus is the traditional ruler of Letter Seven but the asteroid Pallas also carries Libra meanings. Often, this includes potential skill in the graphic arts. Mars is the traditional ruler of Scorpio and remains a coruler, but Pluto is now recognized by most astrologers as the primary ruler. Another of the asteroids, Juno, provides the same message, joining the other significators of Letter Eight. Letters Seven and Eight are polar partners of Letters One and Two. For many people, their primary challenge involves finding a balance between their own rights and pleasures and the rights and pleasures of others. The relationships may be cooperative or competitive as long as each side can win some of the time to maintain the game and, hopefully, there is mutual pleasure. When healthy competition, which is facilitating increased abilities on both sides, turns into war and mutual destruction, it has been carried too far.

With Letter Nine we leave the interpersonal part of life and enter the transpersonal. Letters One and Two focus on purely personal rights and needs. Letter Three is starting to become socialized to recognize the rights of others. With Letter Four we start as a baby but become an adult able to nurture others, so from three through eight we are dealing with face-to-face interactions with others. As usual, each element cycle ends with water to mark closure. Letter Eight seeks to probe the subconscious depths, to gain self-knowledge and self-mastery. We learn self-knowledge partly through the mirror of a mate and we achieve self-mastery partly through respect for the rights of the mate. The transpersonal Letters (Nine through Twelve) deal with social issues, humanity, abstract knowledge, laws, faith; with issues which involve masses of people and universal principles. Letter Nine marks our search for Truth with a capital "T". As usual, the new element cycle starts with fire, the urge to break new ground, to explore new potentials. Jupiter, Sagittarius, and the ninth house are all part of the picture describing where and how we search for the meaning of life, for the nature of reality, for something to trust, for a way to set up a value hierarchy to make choices. Letter Nine is a primary key to our ultimate goals in life, determining where we end in our life. The small planet Chiron (which might be a comet) carries the potentials of both sides of Jupiter which is also a co-ruler of Pisces.

Saturn, Capricorn and the tenth house show our capacity to deal with the Law. Letter Ten describes the "Rules of the Game," including "natural laws" like gravity and time, as well as the cultural rules of human societies. It is also a key to the authority figures who enforce the laws and to our inner authority, the conscience and guilt. In current patterns, Letter Ten marks the times when we get the consequences of how we have been handling the laws. It is the ultimate earth side of life, bringing us down to earth if we mishandle gravity (practicality and responsibility). Metaphorically, any overreach or attempt to avoid our share of the responsibility can result in some type of failure or falling short. Ignorance does not excuse us. Karma is just consequences which can be positive or painful. The proper handling of power brings success. We get an "A" on the report card.

Letter Eleven with Uranus, Aquarius, and the eleventh house shows the drive to go beyond the laws, to resist any limits. As an air side of life, we may expand knowledge by inventing new technology. We may support democracy, equality, freedom, and human rights in general. If we have properly internalized our conscience so that we know and voluntarily accept the necessary limits, then we can be free to do what we please with Letter Eleven and we normally support the same freedom for everyone else.

Neptune, Pisces and the twelfth house symbolize Letter Twelve, the mystical search for infinite love and beauty and oneness with the Whole. In an infinite variety of ways we may be artists, saviors or victims. The latter is the person who shares a beautiful dream with the artists and saviors but has not found an effective way to move toward the vision, to make the world more ideal. Jupiter remains a co-ruler of Pisces and Chiron can also show where we may play the role of either healer or victim.

Every chart includes all the twelve principles yet each chart is a unique combination. There are many forms of the astrological alphabet, many ways to "say the same thing." Important features in the nature will be shown by repeated themes in the horoscope. Since the planets are the most intense form of the desire, the conjunction of two planets is the most intense form of the issue, but all combinations describe the same drives and all can be manifested in a variety of ways. Nothing in astrology is inevitably positive or negative. Every combination can be expressed in both pleasurable and painful ways. There are always choices. Even if our current habits have been producing painful results, the potential for change is present if we are willing to make the effort to replace the old habits with new ones. Astrology, or any other form of self-knowledge, helps us understand our desires. Then it is up to us if we want to change our habits.

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The Astrological Alphabet