Dane Rudhyar and Humanistic Astrology

Dane Rudhyar (1895 - 1985) created a sensation with another generation of astrologers in the late 1970's. They were my immediate predecessors. They published the last of his books - which are all we have now. Rudhyar died the year before I got seriously involved in astrology. Dane Rudhyar matured in the hell of the First World War, which marked him & his entire generation. One need only read Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August, or any of the novels by Erich-Maria Remarque (All Quiet on the Western Front, The Road Back etc.) to realize how deeply scarred these men were.

Rudhyar pioneered an new approach to astrology (holistic, psychological/spiritual) in reaction to the horror of the trenches. And though the trauma of the war affected all areas of society, Rudhyar was one of the few astrologers/spiritual leaders to show any reaction to the war at all.

Rudhyar was a friend of Alice Bailey, who was herself the heir to H.P. Blavatsky & the Theosophists. It is difficult to fully understand Rudhyar's writings without some Theosphical knowledge. Since we've read a lot of Bailey's books, we can attest to their great difficulty (among contemporary astrologers, Alan Oken is almost alone in his efforts to seriously comprehend Bailey's material). Since Rudhyar's passing, his ideas have been copied by a number of lesser writers with generally unsatisfying results. As time passes and his imitators fade, Rudhyar continues to grow in stature & influence.

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	THE GALACTIC DIMENSION OF ASTROLOGY: The Sun is Also a Star - Dane Rudhyar, $17.95 Contents: Part 1: 1. Introduction to the galactic level of consciousness; 2. When the Sun is seen as a star: a) A galactic approach to the solar system, b) Planets of organic functioning, c) Planets of transformation & transcendence; 3. The Uranus/Neptune polarity; 4. Pluto & the experience of depth, void & recentering. Part 2: 5. The trans-Saturnian planets in zodiacal signs; 6. The interpenetrating cycles of Uranus, Neptune & Pluto. Part 3: 7. A transphysical approach to the galaxy; 8. Transpersonal relationships & the galactic community; 9. The challenge of galacticity in humanistic astrology. Epilogue, index. Comment: From the introduction: ...It does mean nevertheless that the breach between man & the universe has to be healed - for it was truly a "dis-ease", intended as it may have been to rouse man to a feverish pitch & force him to overcome the inertia of the old tribal forms of social existence. Communication must be reestablished between the universe & man. This can only happen when man feels himself a fuctional part of the universe & no longer a stranger in it; when man's experience of, first, life - then, consciousness, and intelligence - is understood to be not merely a chance accident in a meaningless universe in which material masses speed aimlessly at inconceivable speeds, but a basic constituent of the cosmos. In this cosmos matter, life, mind, and a supermental substance-energy which we vaguely call spirit, are to be considered and (eventually) directly experienced as different "levels of organization" of reality. (From pg. 16. Emphasis in original.) Earlier he made the remark that materialism started when heliocentric astronomy dethroned the central place of the earth. Rudhyar remarks that a sun-centered universe reduced the world to big lumps of rock flying through empty space at unimaginable speeds. In the beginning of the book, the publisher has inserted a page with a long list of Rudhyar titles, most of which are out of print. As the publisher was one of his last associates, it may be that she plans to reprint a number of them. Aurora Press, 217 pages.

	PERSON CENTERED ASTROLOGY - Dane Rudhyar, $14.00 Six essays covering: Astrology in new age guidance; Astrology as karma yoga; Planetary & lunar nodes; The moment of interpretation; Event vs: Person centered; Planetary patterns; Aspect patterns; Birth charts as wholes. Case histories show Rudhyar's holistic approach. 384 pages. Aurora Press, paper.

	THE ASTROLOGY OF PERSONALITY: A Re-formulation of Astrological Concepts & Ideals, in Terms of Contemporary Psychology & Philosophy - Dane Rudhyar, $21.95 Contents: Preface; Prologue; Prelude to a history of astrology; First section: 1. Astrology faces modern thought; 2. Astrology & analytical psychology; 3. Individual, collective, creative & the cyclic process; 4. A key to astrological symbolism; 5. A classification of astrological viewpoints. Second section: 6. The dial of houses; 7. The signs of the zodiac; 8. Planets & personality; 9. Planetary interweavings; 10. Degrees of the zodiac & the Sabian Symbols; 11. Form & the pattern of planetary aspects; 12. The birth chart & the progressions; 13. The technique of progressions, directions & transits; 14. Principles of astrological interpretations; Epilogue: The use of astrology in the process of individuation & civilization. Comment: In this famous guidebook for the advanced humanist astrologer, Rudhyar speaks of a crisis in astrology caused by the vast growth of interest in this ancient science. Astrology is not about predicting events, but to bring order out of chaos. As a bonus, those looking for his Astrological Mandala will find an abbreviated version of his take on the Sabian Symbols in chapter 10. 341 pages including author profile. Aurora Press, paper.

	AN ASTROLOGICAL TRIPTYCH: The Illumined Road - Dane Rudhyar, $14.00 Contains Gifts of the Spirit (12 gifts); The Way Through (12 tests) & The Illumined Road (Planetary stations on the way to the Star). Originally published in American Astrology between 1945-49, revised 1978. 296 pages. Aurora Press, paper.

	THE LUNATION CYCLE: A Key to the Understanding of Personality - Dane Rudhyar, $17.95 Here, Rudhyar formulates & describes 8 Soli-Lunar types of personalities & the importance of the new moon before birth & the progressed new moon chart. Includes the Part of Fortune, as an index of personality, through the signs & houses & in relation to planets. Also includes The Lunation Process in Astrological Guidance, by Leyla Rael Rudhyar, his last wife. 196 pages. Aurora Press, paper.

	ASTROLOGICAL INSIGHTS INTO THE SPIRITUAL LIFE - Dane Rudhyar, $12.95 Using astrological signs & houses, this is a poetic insight into the 12 qualities necessary for a spiritual life. Brief essays on a number of universal topics ("Selfhood is destiny"), ideal for meditation. Includes Rudhyar's artistic drawings for each sign. On the cover is his drawing of Capricorn. 151 pages including author profile. Aurora Press, paper.

	AN ASTROLOGICAL MANDALA: The Cycle of Transformation & Its 360 Symbolic Phases - Dane Rudhyar, $12.00 This is Rudhyar's reinterpretation of Marc Edmund Jones's Sabian Symbols. Starting with the same material, Rudhyar amplifies & clarifies the Symbols. He explains the concepts behind them, shows how they link to a 360 symbol set & organizes them into hemicycles, acts, scenes, levels & phases. He also shows the numerical structure of the zodiacal series & explains their use as oracles. In the process, Rudhyar greatly improves on Jones's original concept. Includes notes on how Jones created the original symbols in San Diego in 1925. 392 pages. Vintage/Random House, paper.

	NEW MANSIONS FOR NEW MEN - Dane Rudhyar, $7.95 Mansions of the Self: To Breathe; To Own; To Know; To Establish; To Release; To Improve; To Relate; To Renew; To Understand; To Achieve; To Transfigure; To Transcend. Music of the Spheres: The Song of Light; The Song of Life; Saturn: Lord of Boundaries; Jupiter: Organizer of Functions; Mercury: Weaver of the Threads of Life; Mars: He-who-goes-forth; Venus: Queen of the Celestial Bees; Uranus: Master of Transformation; Neptune: Master of Ecstasy; Pluto: Sower of Celestial Seed; Asteroids & Comets; Constellations & the Milky Way. Meditations at the Gates of Light: At the Southern Gate; At the Eastern Gate; At the Northern Gate; At the Western Gate; The City of Light. 273 pages. Hunter House, paper.

	THE PLANETARIZATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS - Dane Rudhyar, $22.95 Contents: The release of seed-ideas; Man's primary experience of existence and time; The experience of "I": self and ego; Selfhood and relatedness; Foundations for a metaphysics of wholeness; The cyclic process: from beginning to end to rebeginning; Soul-field, mind and reincarnation; Knowledge through cosmic attunement; Symbols and values; The ethics of wholeness and the plenary society; Planetarization and plenitude. 312 pages. Aurora Press, paper.

	THE ASTROLOGY OF TRANSFORMATION: A Multilevel Approach - Dane Rudhyar, $14.00 Contents: The two basic ways of meeting life's confrontations - yin and yang; The two faces of astrology - information and understanding/meaning; Four levels of interpreting human experience and astrological data - biological, sociocultural, individual, transpersonal; The planets' meanings at the sociocultural level; Nodes, eclipses and the trans-Saturnian planets; The birthchart and the planets in a mandala-type of interpretation; The practice of astrology at the transpersonal level; The birthchart as a symbol of individual karma; The transmutation of karma into dharma; A transpersonal interpretation of sun, moon and planets; Aspects and gestalt; Angles: root-factors in personality and their transformation; Personality as an unfolding process; "solar" progressions; Progressed lunation cycle; The transits of the planets. 205 pages including index. Quest Books/Aurora Press, paper.

	ASTROLOGICAL ASPECTS: A Process Oriented Approach - Leyla Rael & Dane Rudhyar, $18.95 Contents: Preface; 1. A process-oriented approach to astrology, chart interpretation & aspects 2. Familiar aspects: involution/devolution. I. Growth through spontaneous activity. II. Growth through letting go. 3. Less familiar aspects: Evolution. Growth through meaning & conscious process. The opposition & the quincunx, the trine, the square, the quintile, the sextile, the septile, the octile or the semi-square & the sesquiquadrate, the sesquiquadrate or tri-octile, the novile, the decile or semi-quintile, the semi-sextile, the smaller angular values 4. Special conjunctions& oppositions: retrogradation, a time for reorientation 5. Rectangular & triangular patterns in the horoscope 6. Intuition & interpretation: On putting it all together & "how to" Appendices: 1. Example horoscopes; 2. Suggested reading by subject. Index. Comment: From the preface: I have always taken the approach that no aspect between two celestial bodies moving at different speeds - as they all do - could be truly understood unless it was considered as particular phase of the cyclic process established by successive conjunctions of the two bodies. The prototype of such cycles of relationship is the lunation cycle extending from new moon to new moon; but any two planets considered as a pair produce such a kind of cycle. The actual meaning of the cyclic series of aspects, from conjunction to conjunction, depends on the character of the two related planets, but the basic pattern of all such cycles has the same abstract, or rather 'archetypal' character. If we understand the archetypal pattern of the cycle - that is, of any cycle of relationship between two interacting entities - we have in mind an instrument of universal validity. (pgs. i-ii) Aurora Press, 244 pages.

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