Studies in Astrology
by
Elman Bacher
Volume III
Chapter IX
Planetary Retrogradation
Planetary retrogradation, as studied in astrology, is
a periodic, rhythmic action which illustrates the great evolutionary principle
of recapitulation.
In ordinary mundane usage, retrogradation is
considered to be synonymous with retrogression, which implies a process of
decline, degeneration, going toward inertia, devolution, or counter-to-
evolution. However, this interpretation is wrongly used when applied to life
within form or to the orbital movement of the planets. It is true that
when a vehicle of manifestation has fulfilled the purpose for which it was
created, its substance, form, and organic function do enter upon a process of
retrogression; the withdrawing of the Life-forces initiates a process of
disintegration of the vehicle. But the Life-essence, which cannot die or
disintegrate, awaits a suitable new vehicle for its further evolutionary
expression and experience.
When we observe and thoroughly consider the great
principle of recapitulation we recognize that it is a pattern or mode
by which Nature insures the thoroughness of evolutionary processes.
That which was accomplished on one round of a given cycle is recapitulated or
reviewed at the resumption of the new activity in order that the complete
integrity of organic powers may be established. When recapitulation is
undergone, that which was established is made the base of that which is
to be established; the evolutionary program of the organism or entity is
thereby made continuous, without holes or breaks. This principle
is Nature's great safeguard for completeness and thoroughness of evolutionary
processes. On the plane of human mentality, this principle is revealed in the
faculty of memory; on the plane of organic functioning it is revealed
in the cyclic pattern of birth, growth, maturity, and transition which is
undergone by every evolving entity in each incarnation or cycle of
manifestation. Max Heindel gives a most wonderful exposition of this principle
in his writings concerning the great periods which mark the involution and
evolution of our planet and the life it nurtures. With the inception of each
new period, the previous period is recapitulated in order that
integrity of function may be established.
In prayer-activity, the principle of recapitulation is
advocated by many spiritual schools. To review in memory the thoughts, words,
and actions of the previous day does not mean that the aspirant goes
back or retrogresses; he makes his honest review of his experiences in
thought, word and action in order to distill spiritual value therefrom.
He analyzes, compares, and evaluates not only his thoughts, words, and actions
but his motives; when he realizes a motive to have been impure, he ejects
that motive from his consciousness by realization; the clarity of the
realization will alchemically become a strength of Spirit by which he will, in
future, avoid entertaining and acting upon that particular motivation. Has he
gone backward in making his spiritual review? On the contrary, in making a
constructive thing of the review, he has gone forward, even though the
recapitulation may have included a scrutinizing of something very unpleasant--
even abhorrent--to his finer sensibilities. The word "recognition" means "to
know again" and recognition could well be identified as the basic purpose
of all processes of recapitulation. Recognition, by recapitulation, is
insured by Nature for all planes, modes, and degrees of evolving
consciousness.
One point must be made clear at the outset. Astrology
does not teach that the planets of our system sometimes go backward.
The retrograde action of the planets is a periodic apparent motion due
to the axial and orbital rotation of the Earth--it is not actual. However,
because of the relative observational changes--relative in the sense that the
planets in geocentric astrology are zodiacally observed from the Earth rather
than from the Sun--each one of the planets seems periodically to retrace a
portion of its zodiacal travel, remain stationary for a period and then move
forward again over the retraced area and forward into a new area.
Since the Earth and each planet has its own orbital
speed and distance around the Sun, these retrograde and stationary periods
follow a rhythmic plan of regular sequence not unlike, for illustration, the
human's periods of conscious activity when awake and subconscious activity
when asleep, or the rhythmic plan of seasonal changes through the sequence of
years. We must remember that every principle which is illustrated by astrology
has its correspondences in the life of the universe because the universe is
the creation of Consciousness and astrology is the symbolized study of
Consciousness. The picture of every factor in a human's natal horoscope is a
picture of Principle, or Law, revealed; if further incarnation is
necessary for the evolution of a human, then incarnation is made subject to
the laws apprehended as Space and Time. A timing and placing of
incarnation which includes the registration of a "retrograde" planet in the
natal horoscope tells the reader something about that person's evolution-of-
consciousness just as does his Sun-sign, Moon-sign, Ascendant, or any
planetary aspect.
The fullest significance of the Principle of
Recapitulation may be gleaned from considering the evolution of consciousness
to be represented as a spiralic process. Change is the one constant
thing to be seen throughout life and the spiral represents the composite of
the "upward, onward and always" that characterizes all life-processes.
Involution, which is the necessary preparatory phase, is as much a part of the
onward as evolution is--just as studies and lessons and practice are the
preparatory phase of fulfilling an artistic or professional talent. In any
line of endeavor, or expression of organic life, the involutionary and
evolutionary programs and objectives always contain periodic areas of
recapitulation, but the start of the first recapitulation is always an
extension from the initial point and every succeeding recapitulation is an
extension from previous corresponding ones. Thus the linkages are formed and
integrated; the spiral forms with unbroken continuity as individualized
consciousness gains increasing awareness of its Self through organic
experience.
A question might be raised on this point: what about
stragglers--are they not retrogressing to inertia? The phenomena of
individualized consciousness unable to keep step with the fellows of their
life-wave must be considered also from a relative standpoint. These entities
have delayed or postponed their evolutionary program for a tremendous period
of time but because they were once individualized, they must some day make
their return, in consciousness, to source. Since their individualization with
others of their life-wave, they did proceed for a time on the evolutionary
program--they have had some evolutionary experience. Therefore, when they
start again, their initial recapitulation will move them forward faster
than they moved in their first attempt. These entities are not "lost forever;"
they are channels for their Creator's Light and Life as all others are; they
are retrogressing only in relation to the progress of their evolving
brothers. They are having the experience that is right for them to
have and will have their repeated individualization, recapitulations, and
progressive steps in due course. Remember: in organic function and in
consciousness, retrogression or retrogradation is relative, not
absolute.
From the standpoint of geocentric observation, the Sun
and Moon are always observed to be in "direct" motion; neither of them ever
make the periodic retrogradation that characterizes the apparent action of the
planets. The Sun transits the zodiac once a year and recapitulates its natal
position on each birthday of the individual; the Moon, by transit,
recapitulates its natal position every twenty-seven and a third days; by
progression, every (approximately) twenty-seven and a third years. Moving
forward from its natal position at the end of its first progressed tour of the
zodiac, it enters the second cycle and recapitulates therein all the aspects
to the natal combined with the additional factors of a different "set-up" of
progressed planetary aspects, major transits and solar eclipses.
Solar and lunar recapitulation is also revealed in
patterns formed by solar eclipses and Full Moons in this way: for example,
solar eclipse, August 1952, in 28 Leo; Full Moon, February, 1954, in 28 Leo.
This pattern spanned eighteen months of time and the Full Moon
recapitulated the eclipse. The aspects made to the natal chart by the
eclipse in such a case will key-note the experience of the person during that
subsequent span of many months, and at the time of the recapitulating Full
Moon, the spiritually-minded astrologer will do well to make an evaluation-
review of his experience, distill constructive value therefrom and
build his soul body thereby. The periods which are characterized by the
recapitulation of a solar eclipse by a Full Moon are usually found to cover
eighteen or twenty-four months of time; the solar eclipse of Cancer, in July,
1953, was recapitulated by the Full Moon in Cancer, January, 1955.
The Sun and Moon reveal a constant backward
movement in these ways: the Sun, by precession, moves backward through
the zodiac and the sequences of eclipses, New Moons, and Full Moons will be
observed to occur in "counter-zodiac" positions. Only the planets reveal the
periodic "backward-stationary-forward" movement.
We have all seen instances of students being demoted
in school, due to what appeared to be insurmountable difficulty with a certain
subject or phase of a subject. The necessity for such a demotion did not
indicate that the child was basically stupid, sub-normal, or "bad." It did
indicate that he was not yet equipped successfully to fulfill the requirement
of that grade for that particular subject. Therefore, since he
was required to gain that specific learning, it was necessary to let him
recapitulate by going back to the preceding phase of the subject, restudy, and
re-digest that material and thereby qualify, by having equipped
himself, to progress.
Our incarnated experience is evolutionary
schooling. Just as we cannot assimilate all the material on a given
subject in one term, so we cannot enter into all phases of human experience in
one life Everything else aside, the fact that we are organically polarized as
males and females would make total experience impossible. Yet, by a long
sequence of incarnations during which we can incarnate, according to
evolutionary need and karmic requirement, as male or female, we have the
opportunity to fulfill all phases of experience pertaining to gender. Since
concentration of thought and effort is necessary for success and fulfillment
of our talents and professional endeavors, we use each incarnation to
specialize in order to focus our consciousness and so derive the maximum
benefit and development from what we do in work, or other activities and
endeavors. However, just as individualization of consciousness demands
eventual evolutionary fulfillment, so does any acceptance of experience demand
fulfillment. And, very often, the Principle of Recapitulation must be utilized
when, after accepting and living a certain phase of experience, we leave it
for a while to focus our attention on other phases. That which was left in
suspension was not forgotten; it was allowed, rather, to remain dormant,
waiting future assumption and resolution. Herein is found a philosophic clue
to the interpretive study of planetary retrogradation.
Natal retrograde, staying retrograde by progression
throughout life:
The conditions indicated by the house ruled by this
planet are indicated to be of secondary importance to the fulfillment of the
present life-assignment; however, since all planetary factors have
spiritual and evolutionary purpose and must be used by the entity, it appears
that some form of vicarious fulfillment is indicated by this type of
retrograde; in a future life, the fullness of expression represented by this
planet will mark a major factor of the life-assignment--in the present life,
the experience-factor represented by the planet and the house it rules is held
in relative abeyance, so that those factors which comprise the major
evolutionary assignment for this life may be concentrated upon.
Natal retrograde, stationary by progression at end of
life:
Indication that the assignment of active
recapitulation will be assumed in the next life; the period of abeyance
ends in this life and the next life will find the person qualified to
resume, by recapitulation, those factors of experience which have been held in
abeyance for perhaps several lives; this type of progression indicates that
the person will assume a new factor of major significance in the next
life-assignment, being one which he started and then turned from some time in
a past life; it will contain considerable karmic content, residual from the
long past, and perhaps several lives may be necessary to fulfill this
assignment.
Natal retrograde, progresses stationary and then
direct in this life:
Indication that the assignment of active
recapitulation is to be assumed in the present life; the period of
abeyance is finished and the experience represented by the planet becomes a
major evolutionary factor of the present life's assignment when the
planet moves forward into direct motion from the stationary period. The
astrological reader will give very careful attention to the timing of the
progressed direct motion, relating it to the current progressed planetary
aspects, current solar-eclipse cycle and the progressed Moon quadrant. This
type of planetary progression is one of the most important, from an
evolutionary standpoint, because it marks the second attempt of the
person in matters relating to the house ruled by the planet, and what is done
in the remaining years of this life in regard to it will create much
obstructive or regenerative karma to be utilized in future. This type of
progression marks a major evolutionary turning-point in the cyclic
history of the individualized consciousness.
Natal retrograde, progresses stationary, direct and
then conjunct the natal position:
The end of the period of abeyance and subjective
recapitulation, the flowering of active recapitulation and actual, direct,
creative expression of the planetary power; direct participation in the
relationship-pattern and experience-factors represented by the planet, its
house of rulership and house of occupancy. The particular aspect or phase of
the soul-consciousness "comes into its own" and every natal aspect of
regenerative quality--sextile or trine--indicated by the planet promises an
upsurgence of great joy. The natal squares or oppositions indicated by
the planet will bring testings at that time of life but, in terms of the
person's greater ability to handle them, bringing to bear all the
resources of spiritual power for the necessary resolutions. When a planet is
natally direct but turns, and stays, retrograde by progression the indication
is that this life sees a "withdrawing" from the factors represented by the
planet; this action seems to indicate that the person is going to focus his
attention, evolutionarily speaking, on other factors. If this planet, by
progression retrograde, reaches the conjunction of its natal position in the
present life, the indication is completely given that the special planetary
factors will not be of major importance in the next life.