Student: You have spoken as if the event attracted by the thought-cell activity set in motion by a given progressed aspect may happen at any time during the period the progressed aspect is within one degree of perfect. This means an aspect involving the progressed Sun would be in operation for at least two years. Is there any way I can determine more precisely the probable time of the indicated event?
Elbert Benjamine: Usually it can be determined within much narrower limits. But in judging when the indicated event will take place you are still dealing with the primary factors that permit the event to occur.
You’re dealing with thought-cell activity that’s exerting pressure on your physical environment, and the resistance of your environment to such thought-cell pressure, or the facilities it affords for encouraging the event to occur.
You cannot judge what will happen and when it will happen from an independent assessment of inner-world energies or the outer-world environment. You need to consider the probable event as being the result of their interaction.
Astrologically, aside from the conditioning of a certain group of thought-cells since birth to make them more active or less active than your birth chart indicates them to be, you can get a very good picture of their activity at any particular time by considering their birth chart activity in connection with major progressed aspects and minor progressed aspects.
The general rule is that a minor progressed aspect to one of the planets involved in a major progressed aspect accelerates the thought-cell activity set in motion by the major progressed aspect.
Therefore, at various periods during the time a major progressed aspect is in operation – due to the reinforcement influence of a minor progressed aspect – there are several peaks of thought-cell activity of the type indicated by the aspect. And if thought-cell activity were all that had to be considered it would be possible to select the period of greatest thought-cell activity, and proclaim that the indicated event would transpire on that day.
But the facts of our problem involve two different worlds: your inner-world astrological environment and your outer-world physical environment.
They involve not only determining during the time a major progressed aspect is in operation when, due to accessory planetary energy provided by a minor progressed aspect, the thought-cell activity rises to high levels, but the amount of environmental resistance to the indicated event at the times these high levels of thought-cell activity are present.
All you can do astrologically is to ascertain the times when the cumulative influence of planetary energy of certain types indicates the high points of thought-cell activity relative to the planets or the houses chiefly involved in the anticipated event.
And in this you will usually find that there’s a minor progressed aspect of some consequence also adding energy to the thought-cells involved in the event. Minor progressed aspects are many times more powerful than transit aspects (which have a trigger effect timing events.)
Many events can only take place during certain definite periods when the outer-world environment favors them happening. You could have your hands or feet frozen in the winter months when a minor progressed aspect stimulates a prominent high-discord Saturn progression but no amount of cumulative thought-cell activity indicated by minor progressed aspects in the summer would be likely to bring the event about.
There is often, for many workers, a fixed period of the year for vacations. And an event that the vacation favors might occur during this restricted period, even though, in the time of year when no vacations were permitted, heavier minor progressed aspects were operative, and the major progressed aspect was nearer to its peak.
Some people go duck shooting at definite times of the year. If during the duck shooting season a gunshot accident was indicated, any minor progressed stimulation might give the thought-cells sufficient activity to attract the accident at that time even though a more powerful set of minor progressed aspects may have occurred several months prior to the duck shooting season.
And some people go to farm sales at definite times of the year. During the stock selling season, any minor progressed stimulation might give the thought-cells sufficient activity to attract a sale, even though a more powerful set of minor progressed aspects may occur several months after the time of the sale.
Student: It seems to be the exception rather than the rule for a single major progressed aspect to be operative during a given period. So, what happens to the timing of an event indicated by a given progressed aspect when another major progressed aspect of considerable power reaches its peak influence some six months before, or after, the one under consideration reaches its peak influence?
Elbert: If you respond by thinking the thoughts and feelings of both progressed aspects, the electrical energies flowing over your nerves provide a conductor through which the energies of both aspects will reach and accentuate the thought-cell activity they map.
This may cause the thought-cell activity to be higher after the first progressed aspect has been completed. In this particular situation the peak influence of thought-cell activity may be shifted due to the additional progressed aspect, and the time of the event shifted accordingly.
Student: If I understand it correctly minor progressed aspects are important as adding accessory energy to my thought-cells. They give them more power with which to work than that afforded by the major progressed aspect by itself.
Elbert: Yes, that’s right. Minor progressed aspects are calculated to the birth chart planets, ascendant and Midheaven, and the major progressed planets, ascendant and Midheaven. They are not calculated to other minor progressed planets.
Student: If I’ve got it right major-life events are astrologically indicated by major progressed aspects and only take place when the major progressed aspect mapping the event is simulated by minor progression.
Elbert: Yes. At the time a major-life event occurs there is a minor progressed aspect adding energy to the planets or house involved in the event.
Just remember that the important events in your life are all indicated and influenced by appropriate major progressed aspects. But as forming high points of thought-cell activity, you will find that an event can be moved, either months forward, or back, from the major progressed aspect’s peak date, by the additional sub-peak of a minor progressed aspect.
Student: Thank you for explaining how to judge progressed aspects.
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