I really appreciate contemplating the idea that even the most abstract of concepts — such as good and evil — have bases in even the most fundamental layers of reality itself.
The idea that “positive” and “negative” and “male” and “female” show up not just in the most microcosmic of ways — for example, the proton and electron — and not just in the most macrocosmic of ways — Sun and Moon — but also in the realm of seemingly-subjective emotional/life experiences, such as in “good” and “evil” astounds me. It inspires awe at the beautiful patterning of all that is. So often, I find beauty in chaos and disorder — like a turbulent sea — but to bear witness to the ordering power of the creative intelligence humbles me. It is like a formula or blueprint of life itself. So often I consider all things formulaic as being confining and restrictive — but this, rather, feels freeing.
I digress. This, to me, is one of the infinite ways in which the principles of Hermeticism display themselves. “As above, so below — as within, so without.” The pattern of the bedrock of our reality upon which all is built repeats itself and expresses itself in every which possible way. One seed that sprouts ever higher into intelligent infinity.
This is to me why astrology works. Consider the example of the proton and electron, and how the makeup of physical matter itself reflects the dynamics of our subjective reality. Objective existence and subjective existence reflect each other, shedding questions on just how clear the border they seem to share is. Are they really separate?
This, too, pertains to astrology. Crude physical matter, even when in contemplation of the grandeur of the heavenly bodies and planets in our solar system, lacks any intrinsic potency in relation to the subjective realm through the lens of modern science.
Let me make it clear, though: I am not saying that this does not serve us. Sometimes we must omit other halves of any given polarity in order to give whatever our area of focus may be the attention it deserves. Perhaps modern science discarding the realm of the subjective is extremely important for us to truly map out the functionings of the objective realm.
If ancient humanity was full of adepts at traversing the inner realms of the soul, it certainly lacked those who truly understood the outer realms of the natural world. Perhaps inner knowledge of the subtle, intangible, and spiritual dimension could have been significantly stronger in a pre-scientific society; however, consider what they lacked in terms of holding any sort of reign over the outer forces of the world as modern man does (even if we are using that power horribly).
So, even if the looking glass of our modern sciences is blind to the spiritual dimension, the acuity with which it perceives the external dimension of natural law is important for us regardless. Of course, the ideal is always to reconcile both wholly, fully, and totally, a theme that will continue to be mentioned time and time and time again in this blog of mine that is always latent with the ideas of alchemical marriage and unity of the opposites.
However, it is an extraordinarily rare thing to fully reconcile the opposites in such a way. How can we do so? The cycle of samsara demands that we continue to shed light only on one spoke of the wheel of the Whole continuously until we can reunite with the center that holds all possibilities at once. Humanity will be swinging around on the pendulum of duality until we can reconcile it all — you can be sure that this age of supposed reason and scientific Enlightenment precedes an era of intuition, feeling, and using the inner eye of spiritual perception, likely at the expense of the critical eye of the scientist. Whether this appears as regression or progression is relative, entirely up to you. To me, it is both and neither.
And, to me, utilizing both the eye of spirit and science at once, reconciling them into a unified third eye, is the highest and greatest ideal to strive for.
THE CLOSET MYSTIC 