Professional Documents
Culture Documents
dedkenesfritnlptpy
Introduction to Astrology
Part of Fortune
Post-Modern Astrology
Astrology by Hand
A column by Robert Hand
Robert Hand - first published by StarIQ in November 2000 / re-published on astro.com June
2015
Last week, I introduced the Sepher Yetzirah, which has been described by Aryeh Kaplan (The
Sefer Yetzirah, Samuel Weiser, York Beach, Maine, 1990, where Sepher is spelled Sefer) as an
extremely old text of astrology. A passage in this work presents a system of dimensions that is a
bit mind-blowing given the date of this work. Here is the passage in question:
A depth of beginning/ A depth of end/ A depth of good/ A depth of evil/ A depth of above/ A
depth of below/ A depth of east/ A depth of west/ A depth of north/ A depth of south. [Kaplan, p.
44]
The dimensions here are presented as pairs of opposite directions. The first of these, beginningend, is obviously time. Above-below, east-west and north-south are the three dimensions of
ordinary space. Taken together, these four constitute the four dimensions of the Einstein timespace continuum. Not bad for an ancient work! But what is the second pair listed in the passage,
good-evil? How do we think of this as a dimension?
Now we come to the level that may be the most important for astrology. Nous contemplates the
One, and the two of them, as a system, begin movement and life, or soul. While motion is made
possible in Nous, it is manifested in the realm of Soul. And Soul also precedes matter. What
comes into being is the World Soul, which is, according to tradition, the source of all magical and
occult effects.
All individual things that will come into being in the material world are prefigured in Soul. Not
just every category, but every individual thing that will manifest in the physical world. Therefore,
the planets in the material Cosmos are pre-figured by planets in Soul.