Student: Could you please explain about the events that come into my life?
Elbert Benjamine: The great value of knowing the event or events that are most probable during the period a progressed aspect is operative lies in the opportunity to take appropriate steps before it happens to make the event that actually occurs more favorable than otherwise would have been the case.
The events that come into your life are not the result of chance.
They are the product of your soul’s past experiences and your inner-world and outer-world environment at the time they happen.
Your soul’s past experiences are organized in your finer (astral) form as thought-cells and thought-structures, each possessing the desires developed by the experiences which built them. Their desires are not immutable, but are modified by conditions later encountered in both the inner-plane astrological environment and your outer-plane physical environment.
The process by which the thought-cells acquired their desires when they were first formed, through which these desires are modified by unsolicited experiences since human birth, and through which the desires are changed by deliberate planning, is known as conditioning.
But the conditioned desires of the thought-cells are not the only important factor in determining what event will occur. The amount of desire energy which can be mobilized and the amount of opposition – or resistance – to the event must also be considered.
Thus, when estimating the event most likely to occur under a given progressed aspect the resistance of environment to certain kinds of events and the facilities the environment affords to other kinds of events must always be appraised and considered.
The degree of thought-cell activity must receive careful consideration. It indicates the amount of energy the thought-cell group can utilize to bring pressure upon your physical environment to attain the results it desires.
The degree of thought-cell activity depends upon the volume of experiences before human birth of the thought-cells involved, as mapped by their ruling planet in your birth chart, relative to (1) your evolutionary level, (2) your conditioning since birth, and (3) the volume of energy delivered to the thought-cell group by all the progressed aspects in operation at the time that stimulate its desires.
Now, as the specific event depends upon the desires of the thought-cells, the amount of energy they can acquire at the time, and the resistance or facility of the environment in reference to that event, if the environment is changed the event will be different. And as it is often possible to plan your environment in regard to an approaching progressed aspect it is possible to change the event in a manner you select.
Student: I understand that a progressed aspect formed by any two planets can affect my life in six different ways. How can I determine which one of these six ways will have the most marked influence?
Elbert: As soon as you move away from the three ways in which each planet involved in a progressed aspect can influence your life you’re confronted with alternatives which not only depend upon the planets making the progressed aspect but also on: (1) your birth chart thought-cell activity; (2) how this has developed habit-systems of expression due to events and conditions since your birth up to the present time; (3) how other progressed aspects at the time are influencing your thought-cell activity; and (4) the current facilities and resistance offered by your outer physical environment to specific events and conditions
For example, in any aspect involving the Sun you may expect your vitality, significance and authority to be affected. But often only one of these is affected in an outstanding manner.
If you have a prominent Sun in your birth chart indicating an ample level of vitality you will hardly notice the influence of a progressed aspect of the Sun on your vitality. But if the Sun is weak indicating low vitality and difficulty maintaining vitality you will notice that practically every progressed aspect involving the Sun will have an effect on your vitality – either giving it a boost or causing it to lower.
And if your environment since birth has encouraged the cultivation of a Sun thought-cell habit system that expresses in terms of authority, and at the time you have reached the head of some enterprise or attained a political position, the probabilities are high that the progressed aspect involving the Sun will markedly affect your authority. But if you are not working for someone who has authority over you, such as an employer or boss, you may find the effect of authority negligible.
Student: How can I ascertain which of the twelve departments of life a progressed aspect in my chart will chiefly influence?
Elbert: The department of life chiefly influenced will be one of those mapped by the houses ruled by the two aspecting planets. But again you are faced with alternatives; for usually more than one house is indicated, and sometimes there are several.
The houses actually occupied by the planets making the aspect represent the thought-cells which are given the most planetary energy. But this is of less significance than either your conditioning since birth or your outer-world environment.
There is no sure way of knowing from the progressed aspect alone which department of your life will be chiefly influenced. Instead, you must appraise your birth chart’s tendencies, carefully assess and examine what you have done in the past, assess your current circumstances, and appraise the bearing of other progressed aspects as influencing the trend of events indicated by the one under consideration.
A knowledge of all these factors allows you to foretell which department of your life will be chiefly affected with a high degree of probability.
Student: How can I determine how important the event will be?
Elbert: The importance of the event is only relative to other events in your life. It is not relative to events experienced by other people.
It is measured by the amount of thought-cell activity which is indicated by your birth chart and conditioning since birth as well as the influence of this and other progressed aspects as modified by the resistance of your environment to the particular planetary types of thought-cell activity in operation.
You cannot gauge from the power of a progressed aspect by itself the importance of the events it will attract.
At times you may have gotten yourself into a rut, so thoroughly conditioned to be fixed in certain respects of your life, and only the most powerful progressed aspects can give a boost to your thought-cell activity to blast you out.
On the other hand, you may have become conditioned to be in a constant state of flux relative to one or more departments of your life, and almost any progressed aspect gives enough thought-cell activity to bring an event of some importance relating to these matters.
Student: How can I determine how fortunate or unfortunate the event will be?
Elbert: The habit-systems formed for expressing thought-cell activities of a given planetary type powerfully influence how much good fortune or misfortune you will experience under a given progressed aspect.
While birth chart thought-cell harmony must be used as a starting point, conditioning is fully as effective as the progressed aspect in determining how fortunate or unfortunate the event will be, and the environment also has a powerful influence. And if there’s another heavier progressed aspect in operation, it may have more power to determine the fortune or misfortune of the event.
If the progressed aspect is discordant you may have a difficult time but overcome the difficulty and gain in some way through the experience or suffer permanent loss.
Student: After I have determined the probable department of life to be affected, as indicated by one of the houses in my birth chart, and decided something as to the importance of the event and its harmony or discord, how do I pinpoint the outstanding specific event during the timeframe of a given progressed aspect?
Elbert: Each house rules several alternative events, and each planet may express through any one of a number of specific events.
Your birth chart may incline strongly towards events of a certain kind; and other progressed aspects may contribute to the solution of this problem. But more often than not your conditioning by past experience and your present environmental circumstances will allow you to select the outstanding event that is most probable.
Student: Could you explain a little more about the appraisal of the environment?
Elbert: While a progressed aspect involving a given planet tends to affect your life in three ways it also (1) affects your behavior through stimulating thoughts about certain things and (2) influences your life through certain environmental factors.
There are a number of alternate things under each planet’s influence, one or more of which may engage your thoughts; and a number of environmental factors, one or more of which may help bring an important event into your life.
The planets and houses involved and the harmony or discord of the progressed aspect alone permit a large variety of events. But in judging, the attempt is made to eliminate as many of these alternatives as possible, and narrow them down to a few likely alternatives, or if possible to the most probable specific event.
The conditions and events which your birth chart shows to be improbable will enable you to eliminate some of the many alternatives indicated by the factors influenced by the aspecting planets and houses involved.
An assessment of past experiences will indicate the habit-systems which your thought-cells have formed for their usual expression, and this will enable you to eliminate other alternatives which depart too markedly from these habit-systems.
And knowledge of your current environment will indicate if there are facilities for some of the alternative events and great resistance to others, which will enable you to eliminate those for which the environment affords little or no opportunity.
The keyword of the most powerful birth chart aspect to one of the planets involved, as modified or dominated by the keyword of the progressed aspect, will indicate something of the nature of the event and will permit still more elimination to be made, until you have a specific event or events that are (1) characteristic of one or more of the planets involved in the aspect, (2) belong to one of the houses these planets rule, and (3) whose nature is further described by the keyword of the aspect.
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
