Dykes Traditional

7/23/2019 Dykes Traditional

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3. Questions - the astrloger casts a chart to analyze problems of the moment posed to him at a specific hour (hence "horary)

There were originally two sides to this branch(a) the interpretation of thought using special signific

ators (including the prediction of outcomes) and(b) answering specific questions

4. Mundane - covers politics, history, weather (including disasters) and commodity prices

Chapter 2: A few schools of thought. Boring, skimmed.

Chapter 3:In a sense, modern astrology is more subjective, traditional astrology is more objective.In modern astrology, the chart is taken as a picture of your mind.In traditional astrology, the chart is taken as a picture of your place in the whole world, only part of which is your mind.Thus the 11th house is the house of friends and experiences of friendship, not just attitudes/feelings towards friendsA key difference between Modern and Traditional astrology is that in the latterwe don't assume that the things signified by the house are all about the native's mental state.

To repeat, as per Traditional Astrology, most things in your chart are not in yo

ur mind. They are part of your life and you experience them but they are not you.Seventh House is (about) your partners and spouse, not your feelings about them.Eleventh House is about your friends and friendships, not your feelings about them. And so on.

This leads to something that is traditional but common sensical. We can be objective about people's subjective lives.When a friend asks us for advice she is often seeking an objective perspective about a subjective life experience.It is then irresponsible to tell her that nothing is good or bad and every apparently negative thing is really a positive experience.We can *treat* a bad thing as a learning experience, but first we should recogni

ze a bad thing for what it is.

There is another problem with treating a chart as a chart of the mind. since a mind is something we carry around with us,we can interpret a problem in the 11th house as a constant problem with friendships(say), because it is a feature of your mind.But, traditionally this 11th house problem will manifest only at certain times,which can be predicted. (by transits etc)

Technical term: Two planets are in reception when they are in aspect (by degreeand not sign) and one is in the domicile or exaltation of the other.e.g: if Mars is aspected by Mercury and Mars is in Virgo (which is Mercury's domicile/exaltation) then Mars is received by Mercury and some of his normal martia

l qualities would be tamed and civilized.

B.D's client had a chart in which every planet was in detriment, but also aspecting each other to bring about reception.Interpretation: The native's life would be full of events and affairs in which he would be successful (because of reception) but things did not last very long or were full of changes (because of detriments)Advice: (1) Work hard to overcome this tendency towards change and disintegration or (2) Embrace it and see it as a chance to get varied experience and do many different things.



In either case do not blame character etc. (Trad Ast's focus on objective vs subjective)

concept of 'critical distance' - the ability to distance ourselves from emotionally from the chart and question our assumptions.

With cd, we avoid situations where we see a difficult situation in a chart, butwe talk only about evolutionary potential etc instead of pointing out somethingobjectively difficult.Likewise when we interpret an event chart without letting our political biases get in the way.

Chapter 4: Values - Good and Bad in Traditional Astrology.

Traditional astrologers speak of specific parts of charts indicating good and bad or planets being benefic or malefic, which turn off modern astrologers.'good' and 'evil' deal with important philosophical and ethical concepts.

Questions:1. What is the nature of good and evil?2. Are some 'goods' and 'evils' only apparent?3. Do some 'true' goods/evils affect our ability to be happy?4. How do we apply these notions in a counselling context?

In this chapter two broad approaches to think about good/evil, benefic/malefic

I. 'Functionally good' == something functions *well*, need not be morally good.Any functionally good dynamic or person will be

1. Knowledgeable2. Unified/coherent3. Consistent4. Present (?)5. Balanced

A functionally bad dynamic/person will manifest the opposing qualities. - ignorant/incoherent/inconsistent/absent?/imbalanced etc

Thus we look to see if a planet is in good or bad *functional* condition. Theseshow whether the people and events (remember objective, not subjective) events they indicate will be consistent, smooth and helpful, or unruly, full of extremes and so on.

Thus astrological factors and what they indicate in terms of planetary functioning.

1. Configured (= aspected?) = in communication, able to manage and be seen(opp) aversion = out of communication, being invisible

2. Angular or succedent = being prominent or strongCadent = Being obscure or weak

3. Aspected by benefics - encountering balanced and growth bearing influencesAspected by malefics - Often encountering extremes

4. Domiciled - in a state of unity, competence and controlDetriment = In a state of disintegration and disunity

5. Exaltation - being prominent and confidentFall - Being obscured, ignored , fading away



6. Free of the Sun - being able to work on its own, visibleCombustion = being overwhelmed, destroyed

7. In any dignity = In a place of belonging, being able to depend on its own resourcesPeregrine = Not belonging, dependent on external influences

8. Direct = Moving forward, consistent, openRetrograde = Repetition, detours, hiding motives

The idea is that every planet is trying to do its thing well - rule a house, stand out and be prominent, have a sense of competence and ownershig, advance its agenda and so on.But if it is in a functionally bad situation, it is somehow hindered.

Most of the time, conventionally bad placements result in conventionally bad events, or they prevent good events.

In life we consider it good if we are confident, visible, well known, can move forward etc.And we consider it bad if we are sick, unknown, weak, incompetent, insecure, badly resourced etc.

The functional condition of the planets is meant to reflect this intuition.

Benefic planets are those whose natures normally show patience, kindness, helpfullness, balance, growth, fun and things that are easyMalefic planets are those whose natures tend towards extremes and functionallydifficult things - hindrances, pushiness, imbalances, extremes, burdens, serious things, threats

Of course a malefic planet in a good condition can perform well , show leadership and authorityA benefic planet in bad condition can be lazy and erratic and so on.The point is that this vocabulary enables us to link chart conditions to life conditions.

Chapter 5 Happiness and Astrological Counselling

Essentially two important philosophies of happiness that can be used to understand a chart and help clients.

Very important. Happiness is not primarily a mood or emotion, though it involves moods and emotions.Rather happiness is a state of affairs in which a person is able to flourish: living well and doing wellIrrespective of the possession of conventional goods - wealth, children etc - you need an excellent *state of character* to be happy, in which we demonstrate certain psychological skills as humans and in society.

The meanings of houses show some conventional goods and evils - wealth, sickness etc.As per Aristotle, we must maximize the goods and minimize the evils to be happy. Homeless, anonymous, sick people are less likely to be happy than people with a home,status and wealth.But we don't have complete control on whether we can acquire the goods and minimize the evils, since we are subject to fortune.

When we look at the chart in this spirit, we can see the extent to which the chart exhibits these conventional goods and evils.



e.g: Does the chart show many good friends?Are there disruptions in the home?

We can also look at the lords of the houses. If the lord of a typically good house is in a poor condition it can show a problematic area of life.e.g: the Lord of the 10th (a conventionally good house) is in the sixth (a conventionally evil house and thus in somewhat poor condition)

A possible interpretation: The native will have a stable career, but it will come about through obscurity, labor and little recognition.

Step 2:Aristotle makes it clear that possession of goods and avoidance of evils is notsufficient to make a person happy.An additional factor - the quality of character - is also important. Happiness results from managing choices and emotions about the possesion or absence of these goods.

Thus, a rich person maybe unhappy because her character is chaotic and immature, while a relatively poor person with a strong character can be happy.

A key Aristotelean notion is "mean" , a state of balance between extremes == wemust (ideally) , when confronted by a good/evil and emotions about them,(1) use rational judgement to reach

(2) an appropriate mean (aka virtue) in our emotions(3) and (key) do so *habitually*. It is not enough to occasionally make a good choice or feel appropriate emotions.

The best state of mind wrt some emotion or situation is called a 'virtue'. Thus there are virtues concerned with money, pleasures, anger etc

E.g: Drinking with friends. Considering another drink.1. Having fun when drinking with friends can be considered a good, which is being confronted.2. Balance pleasure and pain = You must not be pained (excessively) if you can't have the additional drink, and you must not be swept away be the pleasure of having it.

3. Choice of Drinking or not drinking should take place in a rational context - if you are driving tomorrow don't. if you are sleeping in at a once-in-a-year resort stay, do.The combination of not being swept by pleasure and pain and situating the decision in rationality gives rise to the virtue of temperance, which indicates a 'mean' that is ideally hit wrt issues of dealing with sensual pleasures and pains.

Wrt the virtue of courage in fighting.If you can balance fear and bravery, and fight on (in spite of fear) and retreat (in spite of blood lust) as rationally appropriate, you have the virtue of "courage", which is demonstrated by *acting skillfully* in spite of emotions pulling you this way or that.

There are two contrasting conditions in which you do not hit the correct mean wrt emotion and action.1. You consistently hit one extreme. This is a 'vice'.

e.g: The soldier who is consistently foolhardy and always fights on. The soldier who is consistently fearful and always runs away.

2. You wildly and inappropriately oscillate between one extreme and the other,a real inconsistency, a lack of self control.Thus occasionally you throw caution to the winds and drink more ( in spite of ha



ving good reasons not to) and pay the price the next day.Someone who wildly swings between fear and foolhardiness is an example.

So in Aristotle's philosophy, we have stable means - virtues, stable extremes -vices, and unstable oscillations.

Stoics believe1. The Universe *is* the Divine Mind.2. All things are connected by the Divine Mind and everything that happens is an expression of the DM.3. Everything happens inevitably as a result of it expressing its inner nature.There is nothing that happens that is "not supposed to happen"4. (key) The Universe is set up that different things expressing themselves create clashes. The cloud pours forth rain. You desire not to get wet. Clash. (but maybe you can carry an umbrella)5. In the human case, these clashes are particularly stark, because humans usually have mental distortions about who they really are and what they are trying to do.6. Therefore the Stoic's 'way to happiness' == live in alignment with who we truly are, and with the Universe, without getting upset with what happens when other things act according to their natures.

Contrast between Aristotelean and Stoic p.o.v1. Aristotles says that things like wealth are goods, and we should strive to ma

ximise it, though he also says that happiness actually derives from our abilityto manage wealth (and our emotions about it) well.Stoics take a stricter view and say *only the state of your mind and emotions is responsible for happiness* and that external things - like wealth - are not good or evil.I.e they don't have moral value. But they do have selectional value in that in normal circumstances, you *select* wealth, and in some circumstances, you deselect wealth.

How it works in practiseIf you think Wealth is good (vs the Stoic position of 'wealth is neither good nor evil')then you are making the possession of it a pre requisite for your happiness.

You want and desire it, and when you get wealth you are pleased, and when you lose it or don't have it, you despair.In either case, you are assigning moral value ( ie good/evil) to things that are not you and don't really belong to you. You become emotionally invested in them and act as if they should belong to you.This, besides being a false view of what belongs to you, puts you on an emotional roller coaster where you have to balance opposing emotions - here happiness and despair - which brings you to the Aristotelean 'mean' approcah to managing emotions.

So if you deprive wealth of moral value and assign it only selectional value, you feel more calm and centred, both when you get wealth, and when you lose it.

Beloved car as something good + discover dent in it example.An aristotelean approach is to try to balance anger with the importance of the car. The car is a good, but not a supremely important one. Likewise the dent is an evil, but a minor one. So he keeps his anger and sadness to minimal levels.For a Stoic, the Aristotelean has allowed an inanimate object to control his mind. The Stoic 'selects' to do what he can to keep his car safe, but does not believe this is ultimately in his power, or his success or failure to do so shouldcontrol his state of mind.

Unlike most people, Stoics don't believe that there are fully pre given emotions



like anger,fear and lust. Instead all emotions derive from value judgements.Behind every emotion is some value judgement that makes us go for something, avoid it, or react in our soul when we either have it or lack it.But since value judgements can be true or false, emotions can be true or false.Any value judgement hinging on the possession of something external to self is false.Therefore, find sources of happiness in yourself, assign selective values to other things, embrace your life as something integrated with the cosmos. Thus you spiritually rise above conventional valuesDetaching from things not in your control allows you to be confident and engaged in the world, having sympathy and generosity for other people, and not gettingthrown by what life presents.A Stoic embraces *and tries to improve* the world we live in, selecting certainthings, while deselecting others, even if these might not be what conventional people consider good or bad.

The two main differences between Aristotelean and Stoic emotions are that the former consider emotions irrational and pre given, the latter believe emotions arise from value judgements, and also where Aristotle focuses on managing and balancing emotions, Stoics focus on transforming them.

Both aristotilean and stoic ethical systems are compatible with astrological prediction.

Both are able to see the same events and feelings in an astrological figure.BUTtheir understanding of human nature, values and happiness, causes them to see those events on a different moral plane, and so the kind of counsel offers differs.Both (a) offer paths of action to clients (b) help clients prepare for events but each do so in a different way, and with different expectations of how the clients will fare.

Aristoteleans identify things that are cruical to our happiness and counsel balancing of related emotions.Stoics counsel the transformation of our values and wise selection or deselectio

n of the same things.

Dykes suggests(1) Evaluate conventional goods and evils using normal interpretation techniquese.g: What is the clients' social status? How will the clients children fare? How will his relationships fare?This includes doing electional charts for important events, so as to maximise conventional goods.

(2) Evaluate typical mental and emotional abilities.NB: Both traditional and modern astrology have techniques for this, usually involving the ascendant, ascendant lord, Mercury and moon.(aristotelean) what balance exists between the clients emotions and appetites an

d his rational facilities?(Stoic) What values does the client have and how do his or her beliefs trigger emotional reactions and affect his or her abilities to cope with life?

(key) Here we identify the default emotional and rational responses to life andcounsel a moderation in goods and emotions (aristotelean) or switching to selective values or emotional transformations (Stoic)

We NEVER counsel passivity and claims of victimhood. We encourage clients to make conscious choices about things, owning and strenthening their power with respe



ct to emotions, and their sense of confidence and self integrity.

Part 2.Techniques and other concepts.

Chapter 6.Basically some old schemes of planetary assignments for politics etc. Skipped.Dykes advises use of Uranus + planets and asteroids only when they are conjunctkey points. Otherwise use traditional planets.

Chapter 7. SignsDifferences in treatments of signs between traditional and modern astrology.1. Signs are not treated in psychological terms2. There is an expanded and rich array of categories for signs, for use in certain circumstances.

Extensive list of Capricorn signified things.

In traditional astrology, signs are primarily background structures for planetsand houses i.e it refers to the style of energy in light of which the planets and houses operate.But sometimes they also indicate a physical place - useful in horary and mundane astrology.

Dykes thinks there are 4 major traditional ways of approaching the signs

1. They act as places of dignity for certain planets2. They indicate external qualities (fire thru Earth) and styles of those energies (Cardinal thru Movable). These *can*, but need not be translated into psychological characteristics in certain situations3. They have specialized indications which are relevant only for specific circumstances, - being four footed, royal, prolific etc4. How they rise and set provides a structure for certain predictive techniquessuch as ascensional times and primary directions

e.g:A planet in Capricorn may or may not be in one of its dignitiesIn a horary chart for a conflict it may be important that Capricorn is a cardinal sign

For a (chart for a ) lost object that it is an Earthy sign and it indicates certain locationsFor interpreting an eclipse or comet, Capricorn's relationship to certain partsof the worldWhen Capricorn is the ascendant, it resonates with personality traits

Ancient astrologers rarely used the elements, but did use the modes.Cardinal/Active = "Movable" because they show quick changes and movementFixed/Stable = "Fixed" because "(planets in) fixed signs shows the firmness andstability of matters concerning the question"Mutable/Reactive = "Changeable" because the signs show a sharing of two qualities held together in common by the sign

Ptolemy explains these via the seasons.The first month of a season shows a dramatic change (hence Cardinal)The second month of the season shows a solidification and intensification of the season's weather and temperaturesThe third month wobbles back and forth between indications of this season and the next one

So the quadruplicities were used to show a structural kind of energy within each element and for each planet.This was used by traditional astrologers to delineate whether the native's life



implies more changes, stability or wavering.e.g if the primary planets of a chart (luminaries, ascendant, ascendant lord, and perhaps angular planets) were in mutable signs this shows someone whose life encounters a lot of repetition, going back and forth, indecisiveness (perhaps because they can see more than one perspective) etc

Chapter 8: Using Dignities

Dykes Traditional

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