This must-read article was published in Considerations VII:3 in
1992.
The author, a frequent contributor to this
magazine,
alternates his time between astrology,
farming and channeling
in rural Guatemala.
His latest book is the highly recommended
Primary Directions: A Primer of
Calculation.
It's a
general rule of thumb in astrology that nothing is better than something.
For example, it is best for the affairs symbolized by a given
house in the natal horoscope if there are no planets in that house. Even
benefic planets well aspected in a house cause complications, excesses
(if not conflicts), etc; whereas an empty house is quiescent. It may not
bring opportunities, but neither does it bring problems.
In the same way, it is better for a natal planet to be unaspected
than for it to participate in even benefic aspects. This is because the
principle represented by that planet is then at its freest; lack of
aspects symbolizes the purest expression of a planetary energy, untainted by
any admixture of doubt, ulterior motive, or conscious purpose and design.
All of the aspects—whether harmonious or inharmonious—symbolize
ways of looking up to society's wheel of rewards and punishments. An
aspect symbolizes some kind of sweat or stew, some area of concern,
something to be grasped or avoided, some point to be made
or defended—in short, something pending in the life: some part of
the personality which is not at peace within itself.
The parallels of declination at least direct the combination of
planetary energies towards some species of self-validation; but the
zodiacal aspects direct it towards seeking, seeking, seeking, something or
someone "out there" to fill in whatever piece of themselves they
think is missing.
By contrast, unaspected planets are solitary wanderers.
They are more directly attuned to the Spirit (are less influenced by
society's static) than are aspected planets. It is not so much a
question of self-validation (which is symbolized by the parallels) as
it is a true detachment from and indifference to social sanctions and rewards.
The unaspected planet, therefore, is the social performer par excellence,
because it does not have to fake anything (put on some mask, as the aspected
planets do) in order to solicit some stock reaction from other people.
In the part of his personality ruled by the unaspected planet, the
native is truly relaxed with other people (since he does not submit himself to them
for approval or rejection of his acts), and therefore other people are
able to relax with him. The unaspected planet in a chart is like the eye
of a hurricane—a place of repose and tranquility in the midst
of a hurried, agitated rush.
Natives who lack unaspected planets have no such refuge (point of
conflict with the outside world in a spirit of harmony and peace).
To have every planet in aspect is to be completely caught up in society's game
plan of success or failure, acceptance or rejection, power or powerlessness, glory
or shame, etc. It means there is no natural respite from the necessity of
impressing people, hiding from people, faking it with people, etc.
By contrast, the unaspected planet in a
horoscope (and with 6º orbs for the major aspects roughly half of
all charts will possess at least one unaspected planet) symbolizes
a light and delicate touch with others (instead
of a tug to jerk them and oneself about).
The reason why the unaspected planet is unmoved by worldly glory
is because it symbolizes an acute awareness of death. It is like
a cosmic chill up the spine (which aspected planets can't
feel since they blot out the sensation with clamor and busyness). The
unaspected planet is a symbol of profound isolation, cosmic anguish, which
comes across to others as a feeling of sadness.
We can say that all of the aspects (except for the parallel)
symbolize some form or another of self-pity. The unaspected
planet does not dull the feeling of cosmic anguish (separateness) with self-pity,
but rather feels it directly as sadness. The sadness of the
unaspected planet is not a protection or a defense against hurt; it
doesn't withdraw into itself as a tactic of avoidance. Rather, it is a
symbol of the true understanding that we are alone in this life, and
that any assumption to the contrary is an illusion.
Because it feels itself to be isolated and vulnerable (but in no sense
helpless), the unaspected planet exhibits a reverence and
gentleness with life and other people which the aspects tend to take for
granted or overlook in their machinations
and manipulations. The unaspected planet has a strong sense of
personal space—its own, and that of other people. It knows how not to overstep
itself, not intrude itself upon others, nor presume too much.
The unaspected planet is operating at that planet's highest
potential. The planetary energy is neither impeded (as it is by
inharmonious aspects) nor biased (as it is by harmonious aspects),
but is in its freest and most creative state of being. Thus, a lack of aspects
must be considered to be the greatest benefic aspect of all.
PREPONDERANCE
OF UNASPECTED PLANETS (three or more using 6º orbs): You possess a great personal
dignity and integrity—a directness, simplicity, and lack of guile which
is the outward hallmark of self-acceptance and inner
peace. Albeit stubborn and determined when your principles are on
the line, you are not out to prove or defend yourself, and you greet life
with a feeling of openness and live-and-let-live toleration. You are
isolated from others (cut off from their rat race of eagerness or turmoil)
without being callous or closed-hearted to them. On the contrary, you are
respectful, tender, and mild. You have an air of ineffability—a sense of the
Angst and pain of the human condition—that is in no way morbid or
self-pitying, but rather is optimistic, hopeful, and encouraging to others.
Your wisdom and compassion are a refuge and support for other people.
SUN
UNASPECTED:
You have a truly sunny disposition, a magnanimous
and inviting manner, and a positive outlook on yourself
and other people. You make direct eye contact, and you have a
pixie-like twinkle that disarms people and puts them at their ease.
Albeit democratic and egalitarian in your approach to people, you
possess tremendous personal pride, a noble bearing, and a regal
self-assurance born of a true sense of divine right (touch with the
Spirit). Your pride is not a superiority to other people (based
on comparing yourself to them), but rather it is a sure
knowledge that inside yourself there is good, and that all is as it should be
in the world. You don't hold yourself apart from others, you just are
apart from them, on a solitary track in life. Thus, you are able to immediately
get on a personal basis with everyone you meet without entangling yourself in
their webs of self-importance. It's not that you are so humble (you aren't),
but rather that at the deepest strata of your being you have made your peace with the universe.
Without trying, intending or even caring for the role, you find that other
people look quite naturally up to you as a paradigm of right attitude and
comportment.
MOON
UNASPECTED: Although
you are sociable, gregarious, and voluble, the social and interactive part of
you is but the tip of an iceberg. In fact, you are basically a very
private individual who finds life's greatest rewards in solitude. You are
emotionally attuned to a deep pulse of life, and so are not distracted by all
the clamor and bustle of everyday existence in the world. You are always able
to take time out within yourself—to tune in to how you really feel. This
is not a self-pampering but on the contrary it's an assertion of your own
sense of personal fitness and belonging to the universe. Since you have no need
to make apologies or excuses for yourself, your
behavior is relatively free of the sorts of activities for which
apologies and excuses are needed. You are clean and aboveboard
in your relations with other people because you basically just want to
feel good (about yourself and with them). This is not to imply that you are a
patsy or pushover; you can be blunt and curt in resisting encroachment when the
occasion requires it. You are a steadying and reassuring influence on other
people because you are able to keep yourself on an even emotional keel no
matter what is happening outside of you.
MERCURY
UNASPECTED: You
are zestful about life and relationships, and at
the same time unpretentious and unassuming. Albeit animated and sociable,
you are generally more interested in interacting with other people—in
examining and understanding their points of view and exchanging ideas with
them—than you are in impressing them with your virtuosity.
You learn a little something new about human
nature from everybody you meet. You are frank (even shocking at times in
your outspokenness), but this is the product of a spirit of
camaraderie rather than designed to get a rise out of people.
Because you are so upfront and nonjudgmental about yourself, you can
afford to be nonjudgmental with others. Although you do have your
preferences and prejudices in the abstract, you never hold them against
the flesh-and-blood people you deal with in the here and now. The fact
that you may be embroiled in a conflict with someone doesn't prevent you
from seeing the situation from his side of the fence, or event from
sympathizing with him (up to a point). You have a brightness, and unflagging
optimism and sobriety, an ability to stop and look at things and other people, to
appreciate what's going on, rather than to brush past life in some blind,
oblivious rush.
VENUS UNASPECTED: You are cheerful, prepossessing, and primarily
attuned to that which is pure, lovely, and of
good report. You possess a childlike artlessness and naturalness, not
because you are naive about what life is "really like,"
but because you have an uncompromising determination to enjoy yourself and
to keep your spirits high, come what may. You know in your heart that
life's rewards and pleasures are right there for the taking; you
don't put a morass of complications (like feelings of guilt, shame, or lack of
worth) in the path of your desires, but rather reach out unabashedly to take
whatever you want from life without any need for coyness or pretense.
You are open to receive from others (rather than impelled by a need to grab
from them, as aspected Venus is) because you are moved by a genuine
playfulness. You don't bog yourself down in tricky power manipulations since
your only interest in other people is to feel good. If something isn't fun, or
can't be made to be fun, then you don't much bother with it.
MARS
UNASPECTED: You
are daring, brash, cocky, and possess
a hearty, devil-may-care personal manner. You are
your own best friend—you have a genuine liking and enthusiasm for yourself—and the
camaraderie between the two of you infects and excites other people as well.
They find you charming and compelling precisely because you make no effort to attract
notice or win them over, but rather you just fly with
your impulses regardless of where you might land. You are able to exercise bold
decision because (although you may strut and swagger as much as any aspected
Mars) you are fundamentally self-starting and self-motivated rather
than tangled up in the strings of social approval, security, worldly
success, etc., which either hold people back by making them timid, or
else trip them up by making them overbearing and overreaching.
Although you are dynamic and vigorous, you are also steady and light of
touch, since there is really no emotional encouragement that you need from
other people in order to proceed. You are a model of true
abandonment—trust in the Spirit to catch you when you leap.
JUPITER
UNASPECTED: You
are relaxed and at your ease—just yourself—at all
times. Although you are assertive and possess a strong sense
of rightful place in the scheme of things, you are in no way aggressive,
pushy, or inclined to elbow people out of your way. You have an
innate sense that how you get there is more important than where you are going;
you have no need to demonstrate that you are accomplishing anything in
particular. You are not indolent—in fact, you burn inside with a driving
enthusiasm and high energy—but you prefer to strike an easy, relaxed pace
in life, to savor your experience like a fine wine. Even when you're zipping
about you're never in a hurry, nor too busy to stop for other people and
take their needs into account. You have a buoyant peppiness that inspires
others with its can-do spunk. You also possess a nobility of
spirit, an indomitable rectitude, which awes other people and commands
their respect. As you trust in the Spirit for your sustenance, you are able to
sustain other people with your forbearance and positive attitude.
SATURN
UNASPECTED:
You are staunch, dogged, and are usually to
be found off on some tangent of your own.
You march to the brave music of a distant drum, and you possess a cheerful
abstractedness and unvarnished forthrightness in your approach to other
people. As stubborn and inflexible as they come, your combat is not
with the world around you, but with the despised and weak parts of your
own personality. The central motif of your life is a burning drive
to push your limits and to exceed your own expectations of yourself. This
is not a competition with others (measuring yourself against them) but
rather it is a recognition of inner work to be done and a willingness to
get on with it. Of all the unaspected planets, Saturn is the loneliest
since you deny yourself all reliance upon other people (refuse all
support) in order to find a sense of emotional reliance within yourself.
You possess a true spirit of self-limitation and
self-denial; although in most cases you are far from being a saint,
nonetheless the potential is there. You are an example for others of
resoluteness, persistence, and faith in the power of your own instincts.
URANUS
UNASPECTED: You are freethinking
and rebellious; not in the sense of rebelling against, but in the sense
of feeling free to experiment and to fly with new ideas. You are blithely
indifferent to what other people think about you, not as a pose (a cushion for
their rejection) but rather as a springboard to taking risks and to
truly enjoy yourself. You are probably no more eccentric than anyone
else, but you are inhibited about letting it all hang out.
You have an air of conspiratorial mischief, of a kid up to no good, which
appeals to other people and inclines them to indulge you in your quirks
(as you indulge them in theirs). The crotchety, curt, impatient side
of Uranus is softened by a distaste for bogging yourself down in other
people's turmoil. Albeit volatile and no shrinking violet, you
don't permit yourself to hold a grudge or to let people pin you down or hold
you back. You have true grit, a mettle that carries the day with its sheer
audacity and cool determination.
NEPTUNE
UNASPECTED:
Since Neptune has been in sextile aspect to Pluto since
1943, these planets have not been unaspected for almost
fifty years. You are poised, confident, and dignified, and you possess an
other-worldliness which operates 100% in the here and now. That is to
say, you take pride in your adroitness, proficiency, and personal
authority, but you act with the intuition that everyday life is just a
dream, and therefore you can be emotionally removed from it. While you
are anything but woolly or flaky—indeed you are an acute
observer of the everyday scene and miss none of life's nuances or fine details—you
nonetheless stand apart with a mood of preoccupation, indwelling, and
rumination. This abstractedness is not a refusal to take responsibility
for the world (as it is with an aspected Neptune), but rather it's a
true spirit of calm consideration, disinterestedness, professionalism,
or art for art's sake. People gravitate naturally towards you
because of your air of competence and command, which results from your
ability to tune out static and listen to your own inner voice.
PLUTO
UNASPECTED: You
have a dominating intensity, and you come on strong and sure
of yourself; yet you also have a light touch and
a good sense of humor. The cool, detached, Machiavellian analysis
and calculation of Pluto is employed not for self-aggrandizement or power over
others (as it is when Pluto is aspected), but is rather used for
pure enjoyment. You have an oblique slant on the world, and you possess a gift for
wry, sardonic, and sassy banter. Precisely because you are so mentally clear and
capable of spotting everyone's ego games and power moves, you tend to
regard dog-eat-dog society as being too much of a hassle to get
involved with, and you decline to participate in it in any capacity except
for that of the droll commentator on the sidelines. You are not lazy—in
fact you fairly buzz with a high-wire energy—but you have so little
worldly ambition that you put your intellect to work mocking society's norms
(of sedateness, reserve, and seriousness) with your own nonchalance, rather
than use it to advance in the world. You are a good
example for others of how to keep things in perspective, how to avoid
feeling offended by life and other people, and how to truly enjoy the ironies
of existence.
ASCENDANT
RULER UNASPECTED: You are plain-spoken and plain-dealing,
with a down-home, "aw shucks" kind
of style. While no one is going to call you
self-effacing (indeed you are regarded as quite a character),
nevertheless your self-promotion is sufficiently laid-back and
low-key that other people find your presence soothing and refreshing
(rather than stimulating or jarring, as with aspected Ascendant-rulers). Thus,
you are able to manage other people smoothly and deftly,
adapting yourself to them, or being ruthless to them
(as need be), without having to feel that you are being forced, put upon,
or bent out of shape. You know when it is time to call a spade a spade, and you
also know when to set aside the postures and attitudinizing in order
to tune into a wavelength of understanding and compassion.