Astrology

Astrology and the Spheres in the World of Darkness

Mage: The Ascension notes that there are Realms dedicated to the nine Spheres of magick and that these realms correspond to the nine planets. Their Book of Worlds offers one view on the planets and their respective suggested spheres of influence. This article simply offers another view of the placement of the Spheres and their connected Planets. You are certainly in no way required to use it, it is merely being offered as an alternate Paradigm to consider.

Having offered to post his views, I asked a friend of mine, who wished to be credited online as "The Hermit" and who is a student of astrology, what spheres he would assign to the nine planets. It must be remembered that I do not personally believe in astrology, and thus did not feel that I possessed more than a smattering of knowledge about it with which to make decisions. It must also be remembered that "The Hermit" does not personally believe in roleplaying, and that these are merely his opinions after having read the brief descriptions of the nine spheres of magick. The list of attributed spheres is his, and the notes within quotes on astrology are from him. The extraneous roleplaying notes interspersed throughout the article are mine.

First of all, here is his list of planets and their attributed spheres:

Forces--Mars, Matter--Saturn, Life--Venus, Correspondence--Uranus, Entropy--Pluto, Time--Jupiter, Prime--Neptune, Mind--Mercury, Spirit--Moon

He noted the following things about the planets and their attributes as well, and they are things that I found interesting given the spheres he assigned to the planets and their game rules and connotations. Saturn has long had a deceptive similarity to Pluto in the aspects which it rules, and Neptune has long had a deceptive similarity to Pluto as well. Because of the fact that the circle of creation and destruction begins with Prime and ends with Entropy, I found it interesting to discover that Neptune, which he assigned to Prime, and Pluto, which he assigned to Entropy, have "deceptive similarity". This is further accented by the fact that Neptune and Pluto literally cross paths during their orbits of the sun, and there is a period of time during which Pluto is closer to the sun than Neptune, another picture of the cycle. This is also interesting to note about Saturn, ruler of Matter magick, as well. It is noteworthy that the early effects of entropy magick are upon matter, and that the breakdown of matter that can be achieved by either sphere is virtually indistinguishable to others.

The other odd relationships that he noted involve planets being considered "higher octaves" of other planets. Uranus is considered a higher octave of Mercury. I think it possible that before the discovery of Uranus, that Mercury could have been the link to the realm of Correspondence as well as Mind. It is also possible, though, that the similarities between the two different octaves could have been the mystical reason for the inability of man to discover Uranus. He further noted the belief by astrologers that Uranus can be sighted by the naked eye in areas with very clear air, such as that of certain deserts or mountains. This could coincidentally explain the mastery of Correspondence by the Ali-a-Batin. Pluto is a higher octave of Mars. Certainly the planetary symbolism can be easily connected: War and Death. The magicak relationship exists slightly in the 3rd level power of Entropy over Forces. Finally, Neptune is a higher octave of Venus. This is certainly represented by the fact that the Prime is the element most vital to Life. Prime flows through Life continuously and yet is more pure, a higher essence.

Another relationship, one that I noticed myself, is that created by the reassignment of ruling planets of various astrological signs as the newly discovered planets were found. Uranus assumed rulership of Aquarius which had been ruled by Saturn. This closes the circle "from the inside out" in a way, as the Uranus of Correspondence now has strange links with both the innermost planet, Mercury, and the original outermost, to ancients, Saturn. Aquarius is an air sign as well, and it must be reiterated that the clearness of air is reputed to allow some to view Uranus with the naked eye. Neptune assumed rulership of Pisces, once ruled by Jupiter. The symbolism of the fishes is obvious. The planet Jupiter was long viewed as being connected with the role of religion in daily life, when man still thought there were seven moving heavenly bodies. The obvious links between Prime and the Celestial Chorus and religion can be seen here represented. Pluto assumed the rulership of Scorpio which had been ruled by Mars, further strengthening the ties between those two realms.

Further interesting game notes can support the internal consistency of this choice of planetary setup. Werewolf: The Apocalypse reports on many occasions that the Moon rules the Near Umbra and the Penumbra. It is only fitting that the Moon rule the Sphere of Spirit given its rulership over all of the nearest reaches of Earth's spirit world.

The Hermit wrote: "Some comments on which planet is most appropriate for ruling the category Time. Your source attributing it to Saturn was not surprising--the image of Saturn holding the sickle with which he castrated Uranus has often been equated (or confused) with the image of Father Time with his scythe. There is also the similarity of the Greek name for Saturn--Cronus--to the Greek word fo Time--Chronus. I thought of this when we were talking and also remembered reading in Robert Graves' Greek Myths that this was an incorrect etymology assumed by Greeks of the late classical period. However, I could not remember the correct etymology and the conversation changed course before I got around to mentioning it.

"So, I checked in Graves' and found these things that might interest you. Cronus is apparently a contraction of Coronus--crow. Images of Cronus usually depicted him with a crow and in this sense is representative of the oracular function (the crow being an oracular bird) of the male priesthood of oracle sites that had usurped the role of the earlier oracular goddess Coronis, who was an aspect of the earth goddess. Both Cronus and the earth goddess, of course, ruled agriculture. Also, Cronus' wife, Rhea, is an earth goddess.

"Deriving the functionof the planets from the myths surrounding the corresponding deities can be tricky because some myths relate to power struggles between the priests of various cults, so one god's or goddess's functions are constantly being usurped by another. However, since Saturn rules Elysium (near Hades'--Pluto's--dominions, but forming no part of them)--a happy land of perpetual day--he does not seem a suitable ruler of Time.

"It seems helpful to go back to the pre-Olympian deities.

"In the beginning, Eurynome, the Goddess of All Things, rose naked from Chaos..." After first creating the world serpent, Ophion, she mated with him. Then, assuming the form of a dove, she laid the world egg. From this hatched the sun, moon, planets, stars, earth and living creatures... Then she created the 7 planetary powers and set a Titaness and Titan over each one.

"The Titan and Titaness ruling Saturn were Cronus and Rhea. The myths surrounding them relate to the earth, places beneath the earth, and the separation of the earth from the sky (Uranus). Their priesthood also was originally in charge of funerary rites--appropriate to the rulership of Matter.

"So, what about the rulership of Jupiter over Time? The Titaness and Titan ruling Jupiter were Themis and Eurymedon. "Themis was the Goddess who ordered the year into 13 months, divided by the summer and winter solstices into two seasons." (Themis means "order".) After Zeus (Jupiter) overthrew Cronus, he fathered the seasons and the three Fates on the Titaness Themis. Of course the claim of having fathered the Fates does not accord with other accounts in which they are far older than he and even he is subject to them. It is an allegorical way of saying that to the degree that men's fates are subject to the control of the rules of society they were under the control fo the priests of Jupiter, i.e. they assigned the appropriate times for marriage and other social activity.

"A final comment that accords with both Myth and Astrology. In the court of Saturn the guiding principle is "tradition". In the court of Jupiter, the guiding principle is "justice".

"Actually, one other comment. In the Tarot, Jupiter corresponds to X: The Wheel of Fortune. In some early decks this was depicted by the goddess Fortuna. She is a Roman combination of two Greek deities: Tyche--a daughter of Zeus who personifies the fickleness/uncertainty of men's fortunes, and Nemesis--a much older Nymph-goddess whose rites related to the calendar cycle. She was a daughter of Oceanus. It was on her that Zeus sired Helen. (Hmmm.....!)

"The multiple relationships of Jupiter (Zeus) to the calendar seems to support the attribution to him of Time, although I originally arrived at that merely by default after making the other decisions.

"By the way, Eurynome, the creatrix, was a title of the Great Goddess as Lunar Goddess. Without going into the complexities of that deep subject I thought you might find it interesting that in Sumeria she was known as Iahu, exalted dove. Things got garbled after patriarchal societies replaced the Goddess with a male creator, but the Sumerian name is still obvious in the Hebrew myth of Jehova--and even they hesitated to eliminate all references to the creatrix: the "spirit of the Lord brooding on the face of the waters" is feminine. (Eve is clearly a jumble of Great Goddess and later patriarchal myths--Pandora, for example--as well as garbled stories relating to the Goddesses priestesses as oracles inspired by serpents, and mother of rival twins myths.) The justification of Moon as Spirit lies in the myths best preserved in Northern Europe--Graves' White Goddess would be a good source. Even relatively late European fairy tales contain references to the Moon as the place to which the spirits of the dead go.

"The whole image of the dead in Hades is different--the Shades of the dead seem related to Entropy--few return from Pluto's realm. Those who do nearly always require the intervention of another God--usually either Jupiter or Athena. Athena is related mythically to the Moon, but also to Mercury (her mother was Metis--the Titaness who ruled the planet Mercury). The Roman Mercury passed freely from the realm of Pluto as did Greek Hermes. A full treatment of Hermes/Mercury would have to also include the various "trickster" myths--the best preserved ones being North American stories of (depending on region) Coyote, Raven, and Hare/Rabbit (alias Br'er Rabbit, alias Bugs Bunny, really)."