This post offers an abbreviated discussion of how the Sabian Symbols have influenced astrology, why I chose the name Seed Work for this site, and an example of how these concepts or philosophical ideas can be integrated into a reading.
I chose the term Seed Work for two reasons. The most obvious being that the seed is a symbol of beginnings, of a concentration of power held within a tiny germ. Not only does it hold the genetic material that has the potential for life, it represents the cycle of birth death and renewal. Living to our fullest potential is what so many want out of life, but to be truly fulfilled we also need to learn to accept life for what it is and embrace the difficult with the easy. We are shaped by events and situations that can thwart us on our path, or make us stronger. The idea is that life is a journey
The overarching reason for the term Seed Work is that it speaks to the way humanistic astrology approaches the chart, as a symbol of a cyclic process of growth. It honors the potential for autonomy as well as the innate potential inherent within, that which we bring with us from the past. Astrology is a language of symbols that human beings have been learning since the ancient Sumerians. The natal chart, like a seed, unfolds.
The concept of person-centered or humanistic astrology was re-introduced by Dane Rudyar and Marc Edmond Jones in the early part of the 20th century. Jones brought to life the work of harmonics through the channeling of the Sabian symbols- a symbol for each degree of the zodiac - by the clairvoyant Elsie Wheeler. Jones believed that he and Elsie had tapped into the well of ancient Sumerian culture and wisdom by establishing a rapport with the ancestral spirits or seed men and women. It was the Sumerians that first perfected the science and art of astrology. The symbols, like the I Ching, provide profound insight into the cyclic character of human experience.
In Dane Rudyar's An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformations and its 360 Symbolic Phases he writes that the symbols are meant to arouse in the student a realization of the power of his own creative spirit . . to inspire us to live our lives instead of being lived by the events of our lives. To access our power, instead of being swayed by natural forces, to live from the creative spirit within. "The symbol is the key to the adjustment between the individual act, problem or situation and a universal frame of reference."
My approach is also what I believe to be transcendental, and at times have used that term to describe my work because it speaks to the process of developing meta-awareness with regard to our lives, our choices and crisis. Transcending the confusion through structure, through compassionate acceptance of ourselves. Transcendence does not mean avoidance, side stepping our role in life's drama, nor does it mean passively passing through it without giving it the sense of meaning required to master the lesson and move on; the process of expanding consciousness.
There are times when it seems that other words or terms would be a better fit, as this one, Transcendental, has developed an elastic quality that could easily be stretched beyond recognition. Dane Rudyar waxes on about his reasons for choosing Transpersonal as the frame word for his school of astrology. Transpersonal implies that we are all a part of a greater cosmic plan, or at least that we affect and are affected by the ebb and flow of all life, that we are have the choice to react, instinctively to what comes our way, resisting in our attempt to alter it, or, be like the sieve, allowing the experience to flow through us, through the framework of our personality, but without reacting negatively in our attempt to alter the experience that it might better align with our assumptions of ourselves and of the world.
I would love to know your thoughts.:-)
