The Scope of Astrological Symbolism

greybeard

Well-known member
In recent thread on “slavery” (originated by JupiterAsc), Dr. Farr says this: “To me, it [slavery] can mean persons in bondage: legal, financial, marital, fettered by chronic disease, debts, etc; also “wage slaves” locked into jobs they dislike but from which they cannot free themselves; to me it can also mean bondage to habits/compulsions/obsessions, from which it is not easy to free oneself.

Bondage (a 12th House matter) means “being bound by or subjected to some external power or control,”
and includes actual slavery, imprisonment, illness, addiction mental or physical... in short, anything which holds us in its grip and over which we have no control. Bondage is generally negative, is self-destructive or self-defeating, and more often than not has its roots in some form of personal weakness, also shown by the 12th House.

Astrological symbolism displays this quality of universal application, or breadth of meaning, throughout. This has significance for the student of astrology in two ways. First, it means we must broaden our understanding of the descriptive terms used for the symbols. Second, it means that by learning and understanding a few key words, our minds will embrace the idea behind the symbol and allow us to effectively apply the significance of the symbol to any sort of situation.

Neptune is said to “rule” anesthesia. Normally, when we hear the word anesthesia, we think of Novocain, morphine, a spinal block. But the word really means a general (or local) insensitivity to sensation, such as pain, cold, suffering. This leads us to apathy and insensitivity in all forms. It can mean meeting life without sensation or feeling, physical or emotional. It can show states of indifference, unresponsiveness, limbo and oblivion. All of these meanings (and applications to our lives) can conveniently be captured by anesthesia, or “insensitivity.” Notice also that Neptune is said to be hypersensitive; all astrological symbols embrace the two poles of a continuum. Neptune is said to symbolize escape (a meaning associated with the 12th House, where Neptune has affinity). When a person suffers prolonged pain, and it becomes unbearable, there is often a resort to substances that anesthetize, alleviating the pain and offering an escape from it. But such substances often create an addiction or other form of dependency, which is a form of slavery or bondage. Some part of the self (freedom, self-governance) is sacrificed (Neptune is self-sacrifice, martyrdom) for a supposed benefit or advantage, quite often in the name of “doing good.”

All of the symbols of astrology have this same characteristic of universal signification. By selecting a few key words, then expanding and amplifying (Jupiter) the scope of their meanings, our mind comes to embrace the symbol for what it is; the emblem...the lord...of a realm of meanings, energies, states, events and behaviors that are all bound by a common thread.
 
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