Point Four

THE ROOTS OF INTEGRITY

Man comes from the womb, and through all his subsequent days he must be in a position to retreat to it in any real emergency. Otherwise he has no chance for genuine self-adjustment. He remains hopelessly ambivalent at root, ever seeking his freedom and a completeness of self-expression and yet always clinging to all the conditions of bondage in which he can feel secure. Thus the youngster comes running to mother in a crisis, no matter how much at other times he may thrash against her control. The timid soul gains a sense of reassurance in bed, especially if he can keep his head under the covers whenever life seems to reach for him in a way he does not understand. Through all the ages the human individual has struggled to the death to keep his home, or to retain possession of his share of the soil or to preserve the familiarities through which he is accustomed to recognize himself. Even as the Israelites in the wilderness cried out to return to their pots of flesh in Egypt, there is seldom a person who does not derive much of his strength through factors in his experience that from some other point of view may be destroying him. The horoscope in consequence must provide every clue to the regressive as well as the projective recourses of the NATIVE, and what now must be DELINEATED astrologically is the retreat into self for self-regeneration. [347]

If the naïve or uninhibited and uninvolved self-projection of man in terms of ACTIVITY is revealed by the sun, the complementary and essentially inhibited and continually involved relation with the world as comprising all the animate and inanimate elements that make it up is indicated by the moon. But this is the LESSER LIGHT in a much broader role than the charting of mere individual FEELING, and in consequence the horoscopic technique must take a new turn. Now the whole complex of FEELING and emotion, as such can be seen in persistent and sustaining equipoise with the simple and uninhibited will-to-be, is to be recognized as the great recourse or womb of man rather than as a superficial and panoramic phase of his self-expression. Indicated here is the general complementation for the activating purpose and projects of personal reality through the great subconscious sea or reservoir of self, and indeed of all selves and all existence collectively. It is revealed astrologically by the moon's orbit or more immediately by (1) the dragon's head, or the north or ascending lunar node as identifying the support of individuality as it seeks to preserve or re-establish a measure of its original and womblike status or accentuate the roots of its integrity, and (2) the dragon's tail, or the south or descending node as indicating a basic encouragement for the human spirit whenever it breaks out into the utterly ramifying reaches of experience with what usually is a total disregard of consequences and often is a thorough self-undoing. These two points are taken as SIGNIFICATORS of PROTECTION and BETRAYAL, respectively. As the plane of the zodiac established by the earth shows the conditions of individuality, so this plane of the moon's orbit shows what in a sense [348] are the conditions of nonindividuality or the essentially gestative factors in everyday affairs identified by the dragon points. This technique in making use of orbits other than the earth's has considerable further application when all the PLANETS are taken into account, and its particular potentialities are examined in the author's companion volume, Parts and Nodes in Astrology.

For a practical or everyday understanding of the roots of integrity in the case of Prince Charles it may be noted that his dragon's head lies in the HOUSE of HONOR, the SIGN of INTEGRATION and a degree symbolized by the rainbow's pot of gold. In the reduction of this horoscopic formula to a statement that is both accurate insight and simple explanation, in the framework of the over-all perspective, the astrologer may observe that in matters of ultimate self-recourse this native will tend to rely with confidence on (1) whatever in CIRCUMSTANCES may be at hand to protect the dignity of his social position, (2) whatever in FUNCTION moves to strengthen rather than challenge his self-expression, and (3) whatever in the passing or recurrent focus of the moment pays tribute to the utterly natural simplicity and worthiness of himself at core. All this can be summarized by saying that the young prince has an uncompromising spiritual courage against which little of adverse nature is likely to prevail.

It is important to realize that nodes, PARTS and CUSPS of HOUSES do not form ASPECTS but merely identify points of astrological significance in the zodiac. Since they are not bodies with mass like the PLANETS, they cannot sustain the various species of stress characterizing the closed system of energy to which the earth belongs. They are [349] symbolical relations in every respect, and in consequence they measure potentials of poise or equilibrium in a context of reality that takes form in the mind and that has no existence apart from the rational process. Differing from the PARTS as factors in the horoscope, the nodes are as much astronomical actualities as the equinoxes, but that fact does not endow them with space-occupying substance or the power to exercise gravity any more than the horizon, the midheaven meridian or any of the rest of the strictly mathematical furniture. Thus, in the chart of the prince, the moon alone carries the pattern stresses of the wheel to their point of particular emphasis in the midheaven.

In terms of CIRCUMSTANCES the identification of the continuing womb or fundamental matrix of self-consciousness is through the FOURTH HOUSE in the practical form of HOME, or the self's reservoir of deeper and enduring spiritual strength as in contrast with its fluid and more superficial resources. This underlying stability of the individual has its common manifestation in vested property of quite tangible sort, but it also comprises every form of estate that involves relatively immutable rights or that in any fashion secures an unchallenged position in society. In consequence these rights in the complicated structures of a modern culture may be altogether psychological. Even in very primitive groups the family tradition or inherited rank may constitute a vital part of man's sustaining matrix, and more and more the whole body of subconscious assumptions and ingrained prejudices is coming to be the inalienable framework chosen by many an individual for the basic reality from which to give expression of himself. [350]

In the horoscope of Prince Charles the FOURTH HOUSE contains more PLANETS than any other, and in consequence it may be seen that the psychological matrix or womb in which his life is lived will be of greater importance than any other area of CIRCUMSTANCES. The fact that it contains its own LORD shows this chrysalis of his experience to be all the stronger, and the further fact that this ruler of the HOUSE is Venus, and forms the QUINTILE with Jupiter, adds to the emphasis of inwardness in his make-up. Thus there is valuable confirmation of what has become evident in establishing the over-all perspective. The prince's purely physical or practical cradling has been provided through his birth as heir to the throne and the issues of his conscious being, that are most likely to center here under general HOUSE stress, will probably involve the details of shaping the role he is apt to play pretty much according to his own very private self-discovery and self-refinement. It may be observed that the FOURTH CUSP is in the SIGN of EQUIVALENCE and a degree symbolized by a noon siesta. Thus the intensity of his completely personal response to events, and his exceptional centering of himself in the immediateness of his own being, are supported by an ingrained and exceptional sense of balance or proportion. In somewhat literalistic interpretation he is able to take a nap in the midst of a crisis and lose not one finger's touch in whatever control he may decide to exert over eventualities. It would seem, in summary and in respect to every practical manifestation of himself, that he will tend to end up a very cool customer.

The FOURTH HOUSE usually indicates the father, or the remote-linked parent as the more idealized and less [351] questioned representative and custodian of the family and racial heritage. By contrast the mother, as generally the most responsible for the care and discipline of the child and so the close-linked parent, is shown correspondingly by the TENTH HOUSE. The rulerships may be reversed in some cases, with the father playing the close-linked role charted at the TENTH, but such a reversal always will have certification in the light of actual conditions. In the present case the INDICATION is obviously the normal pattern. Prince Philip is described by the HOUSE with its Libra CUSP and containing its own LORD among the four PLANETS, and Queen Elizabeth by the HOUSE with the Aries CUSP that contains the all-important HIGH-FOCUS moon to accentuate the succession. The father is revealed as much more significant than the mother in the NATIVE'S ultimate cradling and self-discovery.

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