Elbert Benjamine knew that Hermetic astrology presented a challenge.
The popular simplistic perception of astrology involves zodiac signs and fortune-telling by the stars and he knew that those with an interest in astrology would inevitably be influenced by this popularly held notion.
With no guardrails to protect the public from mis- and disinformation the undisciplined marketplace was jampacked with false, misguided teachings and serious students were none the wiser.
In 1934 Elbert wrote: ‘The recurrent plaint of Church of Light teachers from Miami to Seattle, and from New York to Los Angeles, is that their students are so muddled with a variety of systems that even when they think they are using the Hermetic System, in reality they are clouding their judgement with other factors which, however worthy in their own domain, have no place in this method.’ And in 2026 nothing has changed. His observation is equally relevant.
(During the 1940s he led a campaign to develop a standard system of astrology and to educate the public about the facts of astrology. It was aimed at ridding astrology of the quacks and fortune-tellers and separating the positive science of astrology from methods of divination and fortune-telling.)
By 1934 the Church of Light Astrological Research Department was developing clearer concepts of the mechanisms and processes of natal astrology. The statistical analysis of thousands of timed birth charts revolutionized the understanding of the birth chart and how astrological energies transmitted by the planets influenced human behavior. The terms ‘thought-cells’ and ‘thought-cell organizations’ were first used in 1934 and ‘thought-cell activity’ followed in 1937.
The calculation of the birth chart was always the great restraining force but with Aquarian Age technology eliminating this problem in the late 1970s Hermetic astrology was in a position to reach its full potential as a self-science.
You could use it to acquire self-understanding, correct character flaws and utilize astrological energies to attain personal best mental, emotional and spiritual development and writing in the August, 1941 issue of The Rising Star Elbert Benjamine suggested that you shift your attention from the planets in your chart and focus on your thought-cell activity. He wrote:
‘Even those who understand and practice Hermetic astrology tend to encourage the impression that birth chart and progressed aspects portray events that are inevitable. I believe this is due to placing the emphasis on the astrological forces involved and not on the activity of the inner-plane (unconscious) structure (which the birth chart maps) where it belongs.
Astrological forces do not determine your behavior, nor do they determine the events attracted into your life. Both what you do, and the events and situations that come into your life are determined by the thought-cell activity taking place in your unconscious mind, or soul. So, if your behavior and the events that come into your life are the result of your soul’s thought-cell activity, why place the chief emphasis on the planets?
In looking at your chart you will have a far clearer picture if you consider it a map of the mental activity taking place within your soul or unconscious mind.
Your birth chart is a map of your inner-plane (unconscious) thought-cell activity. The chart indicates the normal state of activity of these thought-cells, their harmony and discord, and their associations with various departments of life (the houses) and with each other (the aspects).
Now, when a progressed aspect releases planetary energy of a specific type the thought-cells mapped by the planets involved in the aspect have more energy to work with and therefore become more active.
The planets involved in the aspect indicate the type of energy and the aspect indicates the kind of harmony or discord. And this activity influences both your behavior and the external environmental conditions including the events that come into your life.
But neither your behavior nor the event is a direct response to the planetary energies. They are the result of thought-cell activity. And just what that activity may be is determined not only by their activity as shown at birth in your birth chart, but also by habits of responding with alacrity, and of expressing more freely, through one kind of event rather than another that you have formed and developed since your birth.
When assessing your current situation, you must consider your birth chart, the current progressed aspects, and the previous conditioning of the thought-cells now given unusual activity by a progressed aspect.
Even when there is more than one alternative event involved, you’re appraising what your thought-cells desire and how energetically they can work to get it.
This reveals their potential to work from the inner-plane to induce a particular type of behavior and to bring a certain type of event into your life. So, when you’re thinking about astrological energies, place the emphasis on your thought-cell activity.
But even then, you cannot appraise how important, how harmonious, or the particulars of your behavior and the event; for your thought-cell activity can only demonstrate these things through acting upon your local environment.
To get the best possible picture of what is going to happen you must first appraise from your birth chart as precisely as you can, taking into consideration your conditioning and the progressed aspects, what the thought-cells of your soul will desire and how hard they will work to get it.
And then you must appraise your personal environmental circumstance in order to estimate the following three factors.
- The power of your physical environment to resist the efforts of your thought-cells
- The power of your environment to divert your thought-cell activity into some other planet-specific event ruled by a house governed by one of the planets involved in the progressed aspect where the facilities for expression are easier and
- Your power and capacity – if you’re astrologically enlightened – to influence the desires of your thought-cells and afford facility for their more productive and beneficial expression.
I believe if you get into the habit of looking at your birth chart and its progressed aspects chiefly in terms of thought-cell activity which is given its more specific trends through the desires of the thought-cells – not the planets – you would divorce astrology from the false assumption of inevitability and know that you have considerable control over your life and behavior.’
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
