Wheel of Significance by Dane Rudhyar anyone?

miquar

Well-known member
Hi. I'm trying to find a copy of The Wheel of Significance, by Dane Rudhyar. I know that he didn't want it published because he preferred An Astrological Mandala, which came later. But in this later title he doesn't explicitly say much about the five-stage pattern which unfolds during each five-degree stage, and I'm wondering if he said anything more in the earlier title. Just a quote of his comments on this 'pentarhythmic' pattern would do.

Many thanks. Best wishes

Miquar
 

Phoenix Venus

Well-known member
Hi.

I'm assuming you read "the cross and the star" chapter of "An astrological Mandala" which does get into this subject.

You can order The Wheel of Significance off amazon.
 

Phoenix Venus

Well-known member
I see now that it says unavailable on Amazon.

I think he explained it quite sufficiently and with detail in the cross and the star chapter.
 

Phoenix Venus

Well-known member
He also talks a lot about the pentagram pattern in his book "astrological aspects: a process oriented approach which can be read online.
 

Phoenix Venus

Well-known member
Quite informative, a bit of the text from the cross and the star chapter..

1. The symbol for the first degree of the five-fold sequence suggests an evolutionary purpose or the essential character of a new phase of activity. I will discuss here the sequence which begins with Cancer 16° (cf. p. 120) because it is one that is not easy to interpret. In Cancer 1° we saw the individual opting for a change of allegiance, which implied a new set of values. At the second half of the zodiacal sign such a decision requires implementation. "Decision" (seventh scene) requires the "Consolidation" (eighth scene) of the position taken. Fundamentally all reliable forms of consolidation are internal: the individual himself must become stable and well integrated — thus the mandala symbol of Cancer 16°.

2. Then the "God-seed" within (the mandala of individual selfhood) germinates. Action follows meditation. The energy that was inwardly oriented in the first step is now directed outward. This is the Principle of Contrast. The second degree of all five-fold sequences presents in some way a contrast with the first. This is not, however, to say that it expresses the "antithesis" to a stated "thesis," as we find in the usual dialectical process, which contain three stages. We are here dealing with a different type of dialectic, which operates in five stages — a type which, according to Count von Durkheim, has a definite place in Zen Buddhism.*

*l outlined the concept of a pentarhythmic type of process in terms of socio-political organization in a memorandum sent in 1026 to Colonel Wetherill, then president of the Philadelphia Art Alliance. While in Paris in 1962, I heard Durkheim give a splendid lecture on Zen, in which he mentioned "la dialectique & cinq temps."

3. The symbol for the third degree of the sequence refers to the need to "feed" any germinal activity. In a sense it means relating what has been started to its environment, or to some larger frame of reference. For instance, the Aries 3° symbol relates the emergent individual (Aries 1°) to a wider field which he visualizes in his own image — a micro- to macrocosm relationship, or the imaging of God in man's image. In another sense, it suggests a kind of reconciliation between the two contrasting phases that came before. The subjective factor is now becoming involved in the objective world, and this leads to specific results, which of course take different forms in every sequence. One could speak here of the Principle of Sustainment, which implies some sort of interaction between the new development and what can support it in the greater Whole of which it has become a part.

4. The fourth stage always defines or at least evokes a certain type of method, procedure or technique which can be used to make the process work effectively. In this sequence the symbol for Cancer 19° picturesA priest performing a marriage ceremony.Meditating on a mandala should reveal the possibility of integrating two polarized forces; in the mandala of the year (the zodiac), the Day-force and Night-force are constantly active, one waxing in strength as the other wanes. The consciousness seeking integration and the consolidation of its individualized character must be ready to perform a mystic marriage which will provide a field for the relatively permanent interpenetration of the polarized life energies. We see the beginning of such a process in the symbol for Aries 4°. In Taurus 4° the rainbow symbolizes a way of uniting the sky and the Earth. In the Cancer 4° symbol we find another way of dealing with the outcome of one's acts — the method of "rationalization." The Cancer 9° symbol presents a variation on the theme of union between the self and some other attractive element of experience (i.e. the desire to possess and assimilate knowledge). Cancer 14° introduces a more transcendent approach: the consciousness seeks, beyond the relativity of ever-elusive truths, the absoluteness of a wisdom that has forgotten what it knew, as it faces the ever-hidden Source of all knowing.

What is at work at this fourth stage of the five-fold sequence is the Principle of Effective Self-expression — but here "self" can mean any form of integration, from the most possessive ego to the universal Self. In many instances a technique is suggested that will enable the mind to deal constructively with the new issues implied in the first stage.

5. Theoretically this phase brings to a new dimension, potency or level of consciousness the developments related to the four preceding stages. It usually suggests the workings of a Principle of Transformation, and here we witness the prelude to a new cycle or level of activity. In the symbol for Cancer 20°,the serenading gondoliers*represent the ritualization of a social process of integration of two human polarities. The pattern of a particular culture — and Venice, built on the sea, is quite significant — brings social solidity and effectiveness to the search for integrating action. We shall see the same type of symbol, but more socialized and ritualized, as we reach the "emotional-cultural" level (Cancer 21°) —*the operatic prima donna. In some instances, transformation requires the exaggeration of certain traits, which by compensation leads to a new level of experience.

*

Every five-fold sequence of degree symbols could be analyzed in a similar manner.*
 

miquar

Well-known member
Thank you very much Phoenix Venus. That's much appreciated and very useful. For some reason the copy of An Astrological Mandala I have doesn't have that included.

Best wishes

Miquar
 
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