Año base

It is possible to use astrology to gain foreknowledge of the effects of a soulmerge. And also, if necessary, to confirm and clarify those effects which your intuition feels but your conscious mind still suspects and is unsure of. Astrology though should be used but as a guide and a confirmation. Your opinions and assessments are still best based upon your intuition, your meditative internal experience and your external life experience. Rather than on any given external ideas or theories. Finally, unlike the rest of this book which is entirely self-contained, the

astrological methods covered in this section cannot really be effectively understood or applied without some additional knowledge and

experience. See the annotated bibliography at the back of this book for some recommendations on astrological texts.

The Sun / Moon effect

The most obvious effect of the soulmerge is that the man will take on the woman’s external nature whilst the woman will take on the man’s internal nature. This happens anyway after about three months or so of a couple continually sharing the same bed whilst they sleep, whether they have deep sex, or indeed any sex at all really, during this time. The key factors with the soulmerge is that it does so faster and also, importantly,

more consciously. You are aware of what you are doing and of the effects it produces. Also you can, if you wish, control the process to some degree.

To see this effect astrologically if you are a man, take your partner’s natal Sun and all aspects to that natal Sun and just place it in your natal chart as you would any other planet. That is to say it is not just her Sun in 15˚ Libra which you are placing in your own chart but her Sun in 15˚ Libra which is, for example, trine her Neptune and contraparallel her Mars. You see, all aspects to a planet will affect that planet’s nature at least as much as that planet’s sign placement, usually more. And a Sun which is trined to Neptune is as different to a Sun which is unaspected or trined to Pluto as a Sun in Aries is to a Sun in Pisces (more so in fact). At any rate, once you have placed your partner’s natal Sun (bearing in mind all aspects to that natal Sun) within your own chart then simply see how that Sun “sits” within your own natal chart i.e. what aspects it forms to your own natal planets. Then notice how the transiting planets aspect this new Sun within your chart, and what effects these bring into your life, your emotional state and your mental state. Compare this to the effects of the planets transiting your own natal Sun. Also bear in mind that the nature of the Sun in a chart affects the nature of all the other planets in the chart, in terms primarily of their external, out-in-the-world effect.

Dg. III-83: The Sun effect on a man’s natal chart: Humphrey Bogart

(born on 23/1/1899) and Lauren Bacall (born on 16/9/1924)

Likewise if you are a woman and you want to see this effect

astrologically then simply take your partner’s natal Moon, and all aspects to that natal Moon, and just place it in your natal chart as you would any other planet. Then see how it sits within your own natal chart i.e. what aspects it makes to your own natal planets.

The fact that it is the external nature of his partner that a man will take on, whilst it is the internal nature of her partner that a woman will take on, may help to explain why men tend to be more concerned with the more external qualities of prospective partners whilst women tend to be more concerned with the more internal qualities of prospective partners. For it is these aspects of their partner’s being that will affect them each the most. Of course, most people will tend to consider both sides of the equation, as indeed it is best to do, but the aforementioned bias will still remain.

Finally, there remains the question of which will be the stronger, your own Sun/Moon or the Sun/Moon of your partner which you have placed in your chart? The best way to answer this question is of course to pay attention to the effects of both your own Sun/Moon and of your

partner’s Sun/Moon which you have placed in your chart; and then come to your own conclusions on the basis of that. Ordinarily, the effect of your partner’s Sun/Moon will tend only to exert a degree of influence wihin your own natal chart, not even coming close to overpowering the effect of your own natal Sun/Moon. This does, however, depend. If for example your natal Moon is unaspected whilst his natal Moon has three squares and four trines to it and is conjunct a midpoint then it is unlikely that your Moon will have the force necessary to dominate more than his Moon. So the best answer remains to try it and see for yourself.

The wider effects

When you soulmerge with your partner you take on at least a part of the nature of his or her chakras. This will produce tangible and noticeable effects in your life, both internally and externally. To see these effects astrologically simply take all of your partner’s natal planets, as they correspond to the chakras of the same name12, and place them in your own natal chart alongside your own natal planets. Alternatively, if you are using a computer programme, you can just get it to draw up a synastry chart. Then see how these planets “sit” within your natal chart: most importantly that means seeing what aspects they form to your own natal planets. Analyzing the effects of the soulmerge in this way can help you to very quickly see what extra characteristics and abilitities you will have acquired as a result of that soulmerge. Also, because twice the number of planets are involved (and so many more planetary aspects are created than you have when it is only your own natal planets that are a consideration), an important insight is revealed: soulmerging with a partner allows you both each to be more than either one of you could be on his or her own.

Again the question remains, which effect will dominate: that of your own chakric energies or those acquired from your partner? Again, much depends on the specific natures of the individual partners, of their individual chakras and chakric energies, and how these energies “fit into” each partner’s soul. Astrologically, this is revealed by the condition of the natal planets within your partner’s chart and then how they sit within your own natal chart. In practice, if you and your partner are strongly complementary to each other, are very right for each other, then

everything will work out well and you don’t need the astrology to tell you this. Bear in mind that while astrology will give you some insight into the relative strengths and qualities of your respective chakras, it does not account for the greatly increased force within the soul which comes about

as a result of esoteric development. Consequently, if one of the partners is very developed in this way it will easily outweigh any astrological indications of relative strengths. On the other hand, if this sort of inequality exists between the partners it is unlikely that the relationship will be rewarding for either partner or that it will occur in the first place. All the more reason to ensure that you are involved with an equal to whom you can truly give and from which you can truly receive. Finally, you will have noticed that when you placed your partner’s planets in your natal chart, it became a lot fuller and the whole picture became a lot more complicated. In theory it would be possible to go around soulmerging with several or more partners leading to a natal chart, not to mention a life and personality, so full of different qualities, forces and

interrelationships that it would be very hard to maintain any sort of

consistency, direction or order to it all. In practice, however, this is never the case. The chances are that in your entire life you will probably only meet with one or two, or at the outside possibly up to 3 or 4, people with whom you are willing to soulmerge, with whom it is even possible for you to effectively soulmerge. And all of these will be in some way strongly complementary to your essential nature and your life path and will have valuable things to teach you. There is, after all, an order and a purpose to life and the universe. Further, after about a year of separation from a partner all direct influences from their chakras and energies will tend to have faded. All that will be left are the memories and the

experiences gained and any deep changes within your soul which you have decided to keep and make a part of you. And is this not after all part of the process of life itself and the ways in which we grow?

Balancing your chakras and the softening of the natal chart

Essentially what the natal chart will show are potentialities. One of the key factors affecting whether these potentialities will be harmonious or inharmonious (in other words, whether, in actuality, they will be felt as being positive or negative) is the relationship which exists between the chakras. Astrologically, this is revealed by the aspects which the planets form to each other. Now, the more you balance, the more you master, your chakras, the more harmonious will the relationship between them be. And consequently the more harmoniously will all your psychological urges and all the various areas of your life fit together. Astrology can be used to give you very clear and precise indications, conceptually, of what needs to be worked on. The way to do this is to realize that certain of the astrological aspects essentially reflect the natures of the planets which correspond to the main chakras. For example, the square has the essential nature of the planet Mars. Consequently, if you increase the extent to

which your Mars chakra is balanced, if you master more fully the areas of life governed by the Mars chakra, then all of the squares in your chart will automatically soften to reflect this change.

An example might be helpful. Let us say that in your natal chart Jupiter is tightly squared Saturn.

Dg. III-84: Natal chart with Jupiter tightly squared Saturn: Angelina

Jolie, born 4th June 1975, 9:09 am, Los Angeles, USA.

For simplicity’s sake we’ll assume that your Jupiter chakra is very balanced whilst your Mars and Saturn chakras still need a lot of work; also we’ll ignore any considerations of sign or house placement. Now Saturn squaring your Jupiter will tend to make you feel as if rules and restrictions are actively, aggressively limiting you in a very hostile sort of way, as if they are personally against you. This form of limitation will apply especially to your desires and attempts to enjoy life, to be

exuberantly optimistic about it all, and to live in the moment. And indeed, more externally, your life will reflect this internal patterning and you will have problems with people in authority who use that authority to limit others such as judges, civil servants, perhaps some bosses, some schoolteachers, some policemen, etc. On the other hand, with Jupiter squaring your Saturn your inclination to expansively enjoy life and always looking on the bright side of things will lead to you being

hostilely opposed to undertaking any sort of ordered, systematic work and your tending not to have sufficient patience or sufficient of an eye to the future to undertake this sort of work.

You then spend some time in meditation and succeed in very significantly changing the way in which your Mars chakra is held, making it far more balanced. As a consequence you will no longer feel that rules, restrictions and the corresponding sorts of people limit and restrict you in a hostile, aggressive way. You will no longer feel that they are against you, are opposed to you. Or to your way of living

exuberantly, expansively, optimistically and in the moment. And indeed in your external life they won’t oppose you in this way anymore, though they might still restrict you in a more detached, routine sort of way. Still, this is much easier to cope with than focused opposition and aggression. And, on the other hand, you will no longer be hostilely opposed to hard, systematic work. Indeed, you might even undertake it in an energetic, dynamic sort of way, enjoying it as you do so and being optimistic about the results. You might even get to the stage where you realize that the best and most useful expression of the Jupiter squared Saturn natal aspect is to work in precisely such an ordered, systematic, optimistic way

overcome, remove and perhaps even destroy all restrictions which have been placed upon you or which life and others attempt to place upon you. So you see, balancing your Mars chakra will have made your personality a lot less jagged, a lot more flowing, and the experiences which come into your life a lot easier to cope with. Or perhaps, depending upon the degree to which you’ve balanced and developed your Mars chakra, those

experiences could even be actively enjoyable and pleasant in a very forcefully substantial sort of way. As a consequence, you will be a

happier, more tranquil, more satisfied person. And all from the balancing of one single chakra. Imagine what would happen if you worked on balancing them all! To help you foresee, astrologically, some of the effects that this would have, here is a list of the planets as equated to the aspects which reflect their nature.

Chakra Aspect Degrees

Admeitus Conjunct 0˚ Mercury Semisextile 30˚ Venus Sextile 60˚ Mars Square 90˚ Jupiter Trine 120˚ Saturn Quicunx 150˚ Erechtheus Opposition 180˚

Do note that, except for the conjunction and the opposition which are seperated as shown above, all other aspects can express the nature of either or both of the lighter and the deeper of the chakric levels of the chakra to which they correspond. Hence the square, for example, can embody / express the Mars and / or the Pluto lesson of existence. For more on the deeper chakric levels see the section “The deeper chakric levels” in Scroll IV on p “…”.

Bear in mind that astrologers’ classification of aspects as

“harmonious” or “inharmonious” are general rules and so do not always specifically hold – at least in terms of your natal chart where it is your own degree of internal balance that determines a specific aspect’s effect. In terms of transits-to-transits, transits-to-natal, electional astrology and the like it is the degree of mastery over life’s 12 lessons attained by consciousness on the Earth as a whole that determines specific aspects specific effects; and in this case traditional astrology’s classifications do, in most cases, tend to have more validity. For example, in terms of natal astrology, the trine is normally classed as the most harmonious of aspects, yet if your Jupiter chakra is in a very bad state, you probably wouldn’t think so to notice the effects of the trines within your natal chart on your

life. This is because, while in any aspectual relationship between two planets one planet will reveal what is done and the other planet will reveal the field in which it is done (and vice versa also) it will be the aspect between the planets which will determine the way in which that which is done is done. And the way in which you do things is very central to how pleasant or enjoyable the experience is for you. Generally though aspects which correspond to the “enjoyable” chakras of Jupiter, Venus and Admeitus / Erechtheus will be felt as far more pleasant than aspects which correspond to the “hard work” chakras of Saturn, Mars and Mercury. And indeed in most people the “pleasant”chakras are more balanced than the “unpleasant” ones. Although for some people the very drastic, direct workings of the Erechtheus chakra, and so too of the

oppositions within their natal charts, will not be something they are comfortable with or can appreciate and enjoy due to the strong desire for ease, consistency and lack of change which they maintain in their lives.

At any rate the natal chart can be used to go through the various planets and clearly see the relationship between them and so between the corresponding chakras and areas of your life/personality. And then you can use this clarity to help you know which chakras to direct focused attention to in order to balance them most swiftly. Thereby leading you to being able to enter the soulmerge process in a far more balanced, developed state. Whatever traditional astrological theory may say.

What it is important to realize is that that which is set is the

geometric relationship between the forces operating in your natal chart, in your personality, in your life (i.e. the planets’ aspectual relationships to each other). That which can be quite easily changed is the degree of refinement of the forces operating within the context of this

relationship13. (Or to put it more accurately, and much more mystically, the exact nature of your expression of the forces, of the way in which you access them, can be quite easily changed.) These forces are not, of

themselves, negative or positive. It is only the degree of mastery

contained within your attitude towards them that makes you experience them as negative or positive with negative or positive effects. Due to your meditation on your chakras at the level of The Foundation Practices it should by now be experientially clear to you that there is no such thing as a chakra which is essentially, of itself, negative producing negative effects. That depends on how it is held and your specific attitudes to the area that it governs. On the basis of this, the conclusion that there is no such thing as an essentially negative planet follows. The same holds true