I'd recommend reading him, as he was a big influence on the development of modern astrology, construed as a discipline for self-transformation. Enlightenment by the signs and houses.
My assessment? At first I thought this was pretty heady stuff.
Now I think it's cotton candy for the soul.
Have you read works by Dane Rudhyar? Did you like what he said? What are his best works? I'm thinking about reading his work.
App, on the Rudhyar website you'll find some good and useful articles.
His book on The Houses is a good one. I had it until it was stolen.
Here's the story on that...
I was living in Las Cruces, N.M., but was going to move back down to old Mexico. I packed my astrological library into two large suitcases and put them on the back seat of my car, then drove down to Juarez to enjoy a big bowl of pozole. I parked almost directly across the street from the busy 24-hour restaurant, under a street light on the main street in town and went in to enjoy my meal.
When I came back out and got in my car the window wing was broken out and the suitcases gone. Lost my whole collection of astrology books.
I have always wanted to see the look on that thief's face when, after he lugged those very heavy suitcases into some nearby alley, he opened them to find nothing but astrology books...all in English.
"Que la chin....!?!"
Also, Rudhyar's work was often pretty sexist. Yes, he was a man of his times (1895-1985) but I really didn't need to read this stuff.
Also, Rudhyar's work was often pretty sexist. Yes, he was a man of his times (1895-1985) but I really didn't need to read this stuff.
AppLeo, our house renos are nearly over but I still have most of my astro books packed up in boxes, or I would give you more excerpts. I did manage to surface his An Astrological Tryptych.
Rudhyar's style was somewhat typical for a man of his generation, in using the proper noun "Man" to stand in for humanity. Fair enough, but Rudhyar uses "Man" A Lot, and at many points Rudhyar clearly uses "Man" to mean guys-- the folks with xy chromosomes. Astrology to Rudhyar is a gendered pursuit. For example, p. 103 on the first house:
"...man realizes and enacts his manhood by liberating the plus factor, which ever creates a more, a future."
He starts this chapter with the old Man Against Nature trope, to which an earth gendered as female ("Nature is the... mother-image") is the opposite, downward pull against which Man has to liberate himself. p. 104. "Nature is everything that man must overcome in order to be more than only man."
This is the millennia-old trope of "man is to culture as woman is to nature." It doesn't wear too well today, when we are all too aware of serious human impacts on the environment.
Women show up only briefly in houses 4 and 7 and then not as subjects in their own right, but as aids to the masculine quest for enlightenment. Meanwhile, the 7th house isn't conventionally about marriage, but about the love of Christ.
Petosiris-- It's a problem. I note that traditional western astrology today has some senior female authors and practitioners, Presumably they got their heads around it, and recognized different standards for bygone periods. Isn't this how you interpret it?
Ur renovating your house? But I see.. that is much sexist. Just pretend he refers to both men and women.
Lool i do think by way of symbology the masculine aspect is the one on the quest while the feminine represents the Other - all that which supports and negates the Man on a quest. Just thinking of Man when it comes up in literature as a reference to that aspect may help.
Yeah-- we finally have our new floors in, but the kitchen will take another month. Meanwhile, the wall in the study where I kept my astrology books was knocked down, so they're still in boxes while we start to put furniture back and try to keep up with the sawdust.
I see no reason to "pretend" anything about Rudhyar. Have you read him yet?