Elbert Benjamine
In the olden days, before any of the upper-octave planets had been discovered, it was customary to attribute to Saturn any grave affliction that otherwise could not be understood.
And there is no doubt that Saturn does cause more trouble than any of the other planets.
This is because Saturn rules the drive for self preservation, which when not properly balanced by the social and cooperative desires, turns the mind so strongly toward self that proper relations with the rest of the world are inhibited.
Fear is an emotion arising from the desire to escape a danger that might cause injury to the self, and worry is merely the recurrent fear that some situation will not be met to best advantage, or has not been met to best advantage in the past.
Grief is the sense of inadequacy to meet the future because of a loss.
These negative emotions and negative thoughts which picture conditions unfavorable to the self are ruled by Saturn.
They keep the mind turned in toward the effect upon the self, rather than toward images that lead to positive and effective actions.
And in some such manner practically all the effects of the planet Saturn can be traced to introspection and to self-centeredness.
But there is another planet which when its influence is also prominent in the birth chart, tends to greatly augment the influence of Saturn.
Neptune, like Saturn, is a negative planet.
And whatever it views it tends to exaggerate.
When prominent in a birth chart it leads to so great sensitivity that all the things pertaining to the department of life it rules are given an importance they do not merit.
And when the chart displays a strong tendency to fear, selfishness or the other negative emotions and traits of Saturn, it lends its energy to them, so that they dominate the inner life.
Neptune and sensitivity
This unusual sensitivity that Neptune confers when prominent and afflicted affects the endocrine glands in a manner that depresses those glands that are responsible for eliminating or neutralizing poison from the system.
And the thought-cells in the astral body mapped by such an afflicted Neptune seem to have the power to attract the individual to the very conditions which lead to the invasion of the system either by some psychic force or by some substance which is poisonous to the body.
We have made a rather comprehensive study of the birth charts of those who have been poisoned in various ways.
Neptune and poisoning
You’re likely to think that the astrological positions for rattlesnake bite, spider bite, drinking impure Jamaica ginger or denatured alcohol, eating spoiled food, eating toxic canned food, getting the wrong medicine from the shelf in the dark, monoxide poisoning from starting a car in a closed garage, having poison administered by an enemy, and forming the dope habit, would vary widely.
But our research reveals that Neptune is prominent in the birth charts of those poisoned in any of these ways; and that at the time they were poisoned, except through the violent types of infection, that there is always a progressed aspect within one degree of perfect to the planet Neptune.
We were not surprised to find this because Neptune in the natural chart rules the twelfth house, the compartment of the astral body having to do with secret enemies and secret things.
And these forces, whether psychic or material poisons, which invade the system under the influence of a prominent and afflicted Neptune, do not do so openly.
For years people sometimes wonder what ails them.
Finally an X-ray of the teeth reveals a pocket of pus which all this time has been distributing poison through the system.
Belonging to the natural twelfth house, Neptune is even more subtle than Saturn when he turns to mischief.
The negativeness he produces invites invasion, and is powerless to repel it when at last it is discovered.
Blood poisoning and infectious diseases, which are due to the invasion of the system by bacteria or protozoa which quickly give rise to a fever, are under the rule of Mars, and a progressed aspect to Mars is present when they attack.
But all other types of poisoning, in so far as we have had opportunity to examine, are chiefly due to a Neptune affliction.
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
