The Testament of Astrology · Introduction to Astrology as an Esoteric Science First Sequence: General Foundation of Astrology Seven Esoteric Lectures by Dr. Oskar Adler June 4, 1875

The Testament of Astrology - © 2002, All Rights Reserved

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The Testament of Astrology

Introduction to Astrology as an Esoteric Science

First Sequence:General Foundation of Astrology

Seven Esoteric Lecturesby

Dr. Oskar Adler

� June 4, 1875 – May 15, 1955 �

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The Testament of AstrologyIntroduction to Astrology as an Esoteric ScienceFirst Sequence: General Foundation of Astrology

First Electronic Edition, 2002

Copyright © 2002, Amy ShapiroAll Rights Reserved

ISBN: Pending

Produced in the United States of America byONLINE College of AstrologyE-Publishing DivisionP.O. Box 85Basye, Virginia 22810http://www.astrocollege.com/

Translated from original German by Zdenka Orenstein

Desktop publishing production and illustrations by Tuxedo Cat Enterprises,Las Vegas, NV

Copyediting by Amy Shapiro



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Table of Contents

Foreword .................................................................................. 06

Author’s Introduction ................................................................ 10

First Lecture ............................................................................. 14

General Idea of “Astrology as Esoteric Knowledge”

What is Esoteric Knowledge?

Natural Science and Esoteric Doctrine

Man and the Universe

The Human Body and Number as a Bridge to the Cosmos

Astronomy and Astrology

The “Self” as Key to Esoteric Knowledge

Second Lecture ......................................................................... 26

Living Community Between Man and Universe

Macrocosmos and Microcosmos

One-ness and the Number One

Suffering and Sorrow as a Further Link to the Cosmos

The Idea of Fate

Natural Law and Moral Law

Third Lecture ........................................................................... 40

The Enigma of Evolution in the Light of Esoteric Wisdom

The Zodiac

Fourth Lecture .......................................................................... 50

Evolution and Alchemy

The Four Elements

Their Relationship to Inner Life and to the Road of Man’s Development

The Riddle of the Sphinx


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Sixth Lecture ............................................................................ 77

The Three Cosmic Perspectives

The Cosmic Importance of the Moment of Birth

Heredity and Self-Development

The “Second Birth”

Seventh Lecture ........................................................................ 91

Zodiac-segments and Zodiac-symbols

The Precession of the Vernal Point

Eternity and Temporality

The Road to the “Neighbor”

Table of Contentscontinued

Fifth Lecture ............................................................................ 60

Cosmic Numbers and Human Development

The Numbers 4, 7 and 12

Zodiac and Planets

Periodicity and the Law of Rhythm

Planetary Symbols and Digit-Symbols

Appendix................................................................................. 104


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Foreword

This publication of The Testament of Astrology is dedicated to Mrs. Zdenka Orenstein for hertireless and selfless translation in a ten year long labor of love, for which her sole rewardswere spiritual in nature. Dr. Oskar Adler’s work in English would not exist without herdevotion and steadfast attention to each detail. It is further dedicated to Oskar Adler’s wife,Paula, who served in every respect as Oskar’s “angel.”

In the 25 years since Dr. Adler came into my life in 1977, my desire to publish hismonumental treastise and my faith in this mission have steadily guided me forward, alongwith Dr. Adler’s bright Spirit at each turn in this jouney. Mrs. Orenstein transferred legalrights to this work to me in 1984, four years before her death. Zdenka wrote that, to Dr.Adler’s students in Vienna, his teachings “constituted a unique spiritual experience. Nobodyleft one of them without feeling uplifted and purified.” She viewed her translation efforts asthe greatest blessing of her life. The following excerpts are from hundreds of Zdenka’sletters to me from 1978 to 1988. They express how she saw her role as Dr. Adler’stranslator, her reverence for his teachings, her hopes for me and for my students atCape Ann School of Astrology, to whom I taught Dr. Adler’s lectures. I offer herhumble comments as a voice from beyond, to inspire new students as you embark upona wonderful adventure of learning, which promises to expand new horizons for you.

[1980] I have no regrets: the 10 years I worked on this translation may wellhave been the best in my life... I have never become an astrologer, but histeachings supported me in the greatest obstacles-----to this day. In our modernlanguage, you would have called him our guru.

[1981] Your description of your classes has lifted a weight of anxiety fromme. You proceed very much like Dr. Adler himself did; he too started hisclasses with a group of more or less handpicked students, in his own home.Everyone felt privileged to attend those classes. Some of us were also invitedto attend a regular Saturday afternoon chamber music program, where Dr.Adler played the first violin-----another highlight in our existence at that time.We did not quite realize how fortunate we were! Although we felt that certainlift after each meeting, as if you had been breathing in a pure, rarified atmosphere


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with a cleansing spiritual result. Since then, great changes in my life, including theHitler episode, which tore our circle apart, in many continents, to our great grief,taught me to realize how much I owed to Dr. Adler’s teachings. It gave mestrength to cope with many difficulties-----and I am forever grateful. This realiza-tion, and this gratitude, and maybe, an impulse from the beyond, from Dr.Adler’s spirit, caused me to start the translation. I had hoped that somebody else,somebody better qualified, would make the attempt. But since nobody seemedwilling, I started, I don’t remember when, but it must have been around 1959 orso. My husband was still alive, and rather skeptical. ‘You’ll never finish this’ washis opinion. I only interrupted when he became fatally ill, in 1961, when I spentmy days in the hospital with him, and for some time after his final release. Butthe work on it was a wonderful experience, and I truly consider the time I spentwith it the most valuable and rewarding time of my long life. I hope you willexperience something similar! No money can buy anything like it.

[1983] Dr. Adler insisted that we spend our lives as if in class, proceedingfrom lesson to lesson, and if we did not pass one of them, we had to repeat,until we finally solved our problem. That is why I consider it much moreprofitable to have to pass several severe tests than to lead a seemingly “happy”life which gives us no chance to advance spiritually. That my life seems tohave been rich in such tests makes me feel sort of proud. I hoped I haveworked off a lot of bad karma! Dr. Adler truly was an inspired person,although he never called himself initiated.

[1984] As I look back over my long life, I find the ONE thing meritorious I did wasthe Adler preservation attempt. But it remains an unfinished labor without YOURefforts. Thus we are truly intertwined in one of the most important matters-----thecontinued efforts to rescue Dr. Adler’s wisdom from becoming lost, con-taminated or diluted. I can’t imagine a closer tie than this effort. I am awarethat it means placing a heavy burden on you-----the responsibility towards theauthor is a demanding task. I have felt it strongly, and I believe, you too aresensible to it. Please, even when it should become truly burdensome, don’tdesert it! Even in difficult circumstances! I firmly believe that your role in thisdid not come about by accident, that you are CHOSEN for this work-----yourdedication has deep roots somewhere----maybe in Dr. Adler’s spirit? As Ibelieve I was pushed and upheld in my long labor by inspirations from thebeyond. I consider myself a mere tool, like the chisel in the sculptor’s hand.Something beyond my insignificant self has driven and sustained me throughthe years of my devoted efforts. The only reward I had hopes for was generouslygiven me through your recognition of the special importance of Dr. Adler’swisdom and your willingness to prevent it from falling into oblivion, to keep italive and available to deserving students. If there will be a publication in bookform or otherwise it will be due to your efficient efforts. It must have been Dr.Adler’s spirit who led to our thus meeting, and who inspired you, as I was inspired.


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[1987] Although I did not seem to profit by Dr. Adler’s lectures, never did Ileave one of them without feeling a spiritual uplift. And I did not realize howdeeply his teachings have influenced and developed me. Only many yearslater, was I able to recognize that. Owing to the political events our lives hadto pass many severe tests; that we managed unharmed was due-----at least toa great part, to Dr. Adler’s teaching. Many times I felt a higher guidance indecisive moments. I hope you and your students will be spared such severetests, but it may well be that you too are going to have such experiences, addI hope that you too will have the moral and spiritual strength gained by HISteachings. It is not just astrology that is revealed in them, it is a guidance andsupport-----at least that is how I experienced it. I see them as a sort of moralarmor against any evil influence.

[1988] Looking back on these long years, I am sure that the one thing to mycredit is the translation of Dr. Adler’s lectures. That was a gift bestowed onme-----I was only the vehicle, honored by this choice. I have been blessedwith higher guidance several times-----always in precarious situations. For thisI am deeply grateful. To you, dear Amy, my deepest gratitude! It is a greatcomfort to know Dr. Adler’s message is in your competent hands. I trust thatyou will finally succeed in your goal of publishing the MS; it may take longerthan you wish, but be patient and don’t lose courage. A firm conviction thatyou will finally succeed may be a help. ...thanks again for your great helpand affection. We may meet again in the future, don’t you think?

After countless rejections in the next thirteen years, all hopes of finding a publisher had died.In 2001, I began the new century with renewed purpose, determined to self-publish theselectures and fulfill my promise to Zdenka. Within weeks of embarking on this mission, EnaStanley of Online College of Astrology phoned by complete surprise and offered to publishthis work. With gratitude and awe, I accepted. The larger story of this multifaceted journeyis chronicled in my biography of Dr. Adler, Dr. Oskar Adler: A Complete Man 1875 -- 1955.

Amy Shapiro, M.Ed.

May these remarks from the original German book jacket flaps of The Testament of Astrology,translated by Zdenka Orenstein, serve to prepare you for your journey:

The entire secret of astrology’s role in ancient times, and of the path leadingto it, lies in these words of one of the Hermetic Fragments (“The DivinePymander”):

Listen to your innermost core, and lift your eyes to the immensity of time and space;


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then you will hear the song of the stars, the voice of numbers and the harmony ofthe spheres. Each sun is a thought of God, and each planet a special expression ofthis thought. To perceive the divine thought, oh ye souls, did you descend, and withsufferings and pains do you regain the path of the seven planets and their sevenheavens. What is the message of the stars, what do the numbers tell us, and whatthe circling spheres? Oh ye lost and ye saved souls! They talk, they sing, theycircle----they weave your fate.

This book originated in the longing to follow this path, to rediscover theinterior in the exterior, and the exterior in the interior. For this reason the“staff of Hermes” (Caduceus), with the two intertwining ascending anddescending ways, and the pentacle-pentagram with the mystery of reflection ofthe exterior in the interior, and vice versa, have been chosen to symbolize thepath of the human soul, reaching for clarity in all humility.

The author who speaks of himself as a seeker, attempts in the work herepresentedwhich will comprise of 115 lectures-----to contribute, step by step,to the gaining of insight into the knowledge which was once an all-embracingwisdom, including not only the miracles of the universe, but also thoseof man.

Starting from the general premise, traditionally inherent in the humanmentality, Oskar Adler seeks to lead us on a path toward apperception,on which he is benignly accompanied by philosophers, poets, scientists andresearchers of all periods. Drawing the circles forever closer around man andhis close affinity to cosmic relations, he follows the artist’s and the scientist’spath. This route leads thorugh all the high and low points of the human soul,but also through the long history of exertions to gain spiritual insights, and ofall the moral and psychological problems, as well as the evolution of thesingle individual and of humanity.

Thus the author arrives at a poetical presentation of the astrological world-picture, which tries to satisfy the demands of logical and scientific, but also ofartistic thinking. But beyond this, something more exalted results, whichshall here only be hinted at in the words of Goethe:

“He who has science and art,He also has religion.”

��


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These lectures were first given in Vienna during the years 1930 -- 1938 to an intimate circle ofinterested people. As they are about to be presented to a wider public in sevensequences, this introduction is meant to prepare you, my friendly reader, for whatto expect when you become engaged in the study of this “Testament of Astrology.” It is thework of a searcher, and is intended for all who are likewise searchers, who are filled with apressing desire for knowledge regarding the meaning of their existence within theimmeasurable and unimaginable greatness of this universe. Overawed by a sense ofour own inessentiality and by our short-termed existence on this grain of sand, “Earth,” assearchers we are nevertheless elated at the thought of being witnesses of the eternal riddle.It may be that in this conflict we experience the nucleus of all that has guided the humanspirit since the light of Reason was first kindled within.

Perhaps the words of the Eighth Psalm express this conflict within heart and soul mostclearly:

When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers,the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained:What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?For Thou hast made him little lower than the angels,and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

Out of such sentiments and thoughts may have been born the attempt to find access to thevery ancient wisdom, long in human possession. Fragments of this knowledge, embracingthe inner relationships between world and humankind, have been passed on to us todayunder the name of “astrology.” Established in a variety of theories, these fragments ofknowledge are presented as old wisdom, yet also claiming acceptance as a modern science.

It is not my intention in this introduction to anticipate the contents of the following studies.The first sequence, “General Foundation,” shall clarify the kind of “knowledge” we areseeking. Let me caution all those who are about to delve into this “Testament of Astrology”to leave both friendly and hostile prejudices behind, and to remember that those who are

Author’s Introduction Author’s Introduction


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willing to plunge deeply into very ancient wisdom must first fulfill two conditions.

The first condition is reverence for the thinkers of former times and for their pure search fortruth. The second is to understand that the words in which these thinkers expressed theirwisdom cannot be interpreted as by today’s standards. This difference in word usage mustbe borne in mind to avoid misjudging them as nonsensical, or as errors due to pastignorance.

As an example, according to tradition, Thales of Milet, (625 -- 548 BC), taught that everythingoriginated in water. But Anaximenes, 6th century, put the origin of everything into air;Anaximander spoke of the “apeiron,” i.e., the uncognizable, out of which the cognizable isformed: Hieraclitus spoke of fire, the eternal flame, as basis of all world occurrences.

This is the old tenet of the four elements! In the opinion of modern chemistry, that would bepure nonsense since we know that neither “earth,” nor “fire,” nor “water,” nor “air” is an“element.” But the significance of the word “element” in those days was completelydifferent from its meaning in today’s chemistry.

The Bible offers another example. Light was created on the first day of creation, yet the sunwas not created until the fourth day. If we believe that the biblical expression “AUR”actually stands for “light” by today’s physics, it becomes difficult for us to understand whatwas meant. A similar problem applies to the use of the words “day” and “night.” We shallgo into this in more detail in the course of the following lectures.

Physical science’s recent history ought to alert us to not think of the current state ofknowledge as being so much truer than that of preceding eras. Scientific theories changefrom generation to generation. As an example:

According to Aristotle, colors originated from a mixture of light and dark, or white andblack, but according to Newton, all colors are contained in the white sunlight, emergingfrom it by splitting. From there, the difference in theories continued: Goethe, Schopenhauer,Hering and Helmholtz all indicated the road of ever-changing tests to get to the core of theproblem, while each successive attempt at a solution fought against its predecessor’sattempts as erroneous.

There are thousands of examples that mark the road of human struggle for truth liketombstones, whether in physics, medicine, philosophy or theology. According toSchopenhauer, each doctrine considers its primary duty to behead all rivals, like theAfrican despots, including their families.

If the fate of all those striving for truth should be to err again and again, to leave a legacy forno other future use than to learn its futility, and if all progress were nothing but substitutionof new errors for old ones, must not reason despair of its own power? Would it not be tragicto have to realize over and over again that we cannot know anything? In addition, is it not


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miraculous that we do not despair in spite of this? Is there perhaps alive in all of us theincomprehensible but imperishable hope, that a spark of that light of the first day of creationis lighting our path, and that that light radiates through our inner core as well as through theuniverse? Perhaps the thought of seeing the history of human knowledge as nothing morethan a chain of consecutive errors is in itself a great error. Perhaps hidden in all of thoseerrors is the germ of an eternal truth, which we must first rediscover in order to understandhow those who lived before us walked the same path of learning and bequeathed its fruit tous in their own language.

If so, then there is really only one wisdom. That wisdom is simultaneously the one truth, onephilosophy, one religion, and the one “knowledge” in which all errors and contradictions aredissolved. All sciences and philosophies with their continuous changes, all religions andmoral systems, even all arts, are but broken and diffused rays of color of the original light,and the human ego is but a sound in the great world symphony, though essential to its veryexistence.

By becoming ever more conscious of this, and by keeping ever alert to this consciousness,those who live in this conviction may secure a place in the testament of ancient wisdom,known today by the badly abused name of astrology.

May these lectures now find a wider audience. I thank my friends, without whose help thiscould not have happened. First, it was the farsightedness of my friend Ernst Orenstein, nowdoing valuable work in the field of music in Honolulu, who, while we were all gathered inVienna, insisted that my lectures be taken down, and so preserved. I am further grateful toa kind destiny, granting me the happiness to be active in three fields, which in their reciprocalsupplementation prepared the soil from which my development grew: I was physician,musician, and teacher.

As a member of the board of directors of the “Wiener Volksbildungshaus” and “Volksheim”(institutes for adult education), I found opportunity to develop the basic elements of myphilosophy in my lectures. These were concerned with the boundary line between musicand philosophy, which I put forth in a book entitled The Critique of Pure Music,1

completed in 1918. It was the Baroness Hamar who interested me in the study ofastrology before and during World War I, a study that I began at first as a cautiousskeptic. Wishing to attain a clear understanding of the foundations of this doctrine, I soonwent my own way. Thus I learned to explore the esoteric side of this study, of whichastrology is a part. Without this esoteric foundation, it remains unsatisfactory. This esotericfoundation was the topic of a series of lectures, “Introduction to Esoteric Thinking,”concurrent with the ones you are about to read.

_________________________________________________________________________1 Translator’s note: Analogous to Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Editor’s note: Kritik... was due to be published in Austriain 1999, but financial, editorial and political problems halted the project. It is now being translated into English for futurepublication.


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I wish to wholeheartedly thank all those who have faithfully contributed to the publicationof this work. First of all, Olga Novakovic, a lady, and a great artist, who loyally fortified mein the belief that I was on the right path. She no longer inhabits this earth, and to her puresoul, the “First Sequence” shall be dedicated.

The whole work is dedicated to all the members of our circle, who since 1938 have beenscattered throughout the world. Some stayed at home, many, I among them, emigrated-----toEngland, America, Australia, South Africa, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark,Sweden...

Of those remaining in Austria, my special thanks go to Mr. Ernst Forster and ProfessorErwin Ratz, who took upon themselves the final proofreading of this work, to Mr. FelixDeutsch, now in New York, who critically reviewed the first sequences and made some ofthe drawings, and to the young artist Helene Grunwald, for her drawings. I remember withgratitude the aid of Professor Franz Strunz, court-councilor, and Mrs. Schmidt, widow of thelate and revered Master Franz Schmidt, with whom I was privileged to spend never-to-be-repeated hours of bliss in playing quartet together.

And now another word to the reader...

This work does not contain technical instructions for calculating or constructing ahoroscope. This was not necessary since there are already many excellent works onthe subject in existence to which the reader may refer.

London, September 1949


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First Lecture

Were not the eye akin to Sun,The Sun it never could perceive.

~ Goethe, “Plotin”

We have come together to study one of humankind’s oldest sciences. Since the most remoteof times, astrology has been surrounded by a halo of holiness. This is largely because thisall-embracing subject emerged into being as revelation, and through experiment andcareful observation. The nature of astrology’s suppositions were of a much more intimatenature than anything we today call scientific observation. As such, I must emphasize to thebeginner that you are about to enter a realm whose essence is entirely founded in esotericwisdom.

To make this clear, let us first define “astrology.” Astrology is the doctrine of the absoluteand inviolable cohesion of all occurrences on Earth, and especially the human occurrence.It is not only concerned with humanity in general, and the history of our development, butalso with each individual’s existence and entire history. This includes external events as wellas subjective experiences with pain and joy, fear and hope, love and hate, error andperception, with sickness and death-----in short-----with one’s fate!

This tentative definition already indicates that the science of astrology cannot follow thepath of today’s exact science, nor could it have originated in our time. For modern sciencefollows the opposite path, stemming from single phenomena and individual observation,rather than from the concept of a general cosmic cohesion. It proceeds from the particularto the general, and verifies its results by experiments whenever possible. Today’s scienceseeks to prove the validity of its “insights,” gained by observation, of artificial material thathas been arbitrarily freed from outside influence, as a substitute for the natural existingmaterial of experience. Since its detailed and diversified research never comes to an end,we can understand why such a science could never concur with the basic idea of astrologyas explained above; the experiment would encounter insurmountable obstacles.

Ironically, however, we are confronted now with the odd fact that, today, this exact scienceshows an interest in the teachings of astrology. Exact researchers, filled with the spirit ofmodern science, are turning to this old doctrine, and include it in their circle of physical


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knowledge. Thus, we are witnessing at present the evolution of a “scientific” astrologywhich would absolutely deny its origin in sources of esoteric wisdom, and whichconsequently leads a sort of bastard existence within the science of our time. It canneither be fit into the framework of modern science nor in that of the old sacred teachings.The hitherto hostile attitude of strict and exact scientific research could only be shaken byoverwhelming reasons.

Actually exact natural science is currently finding itself in a critical stage of its development,one that I refer to as the causality crisis. As is well known, the catalyst to this crisis came fromthe English philosopher David Hume, who pointed out that causality, or the cause-effectrelationship, could only be conjectured, but never recognized by objective observation.What we perceive are simply sequences of phenomena, never causal connections. It is wewho add causal connections to the sequence of phenomena. Are we justified in maintainingthat causal connections actually exist?

This difficult philosophical problem originally only concerned philosophers. Nowadays ithas found its way into natural science as well, and is the basis of what scientists proudly term“exactitude,” chiefly based on the total renunciation of causality. Yet, this very renunciationis responsible for creating that critical state.

The ingenious expositions of Frenchman August Comte show what led to this critical state.According to Comte, the development of natural sciences occurred in three stages. The firstor “theological” stage has its roots in childhood beliefs. Here people imagined that invisiblespirits or demons, which reveal themselves through natural events, create all naturalphenomena. Jupiter throws lightening; Jupiter “tonans” thunders; Jupiter “pluvius” rains;river deities move the waters; dryads cause life and tree growth; Aeolus blows the air;Vulcan forges ores in earth fires.

Following this childhood stage (which Tyler called “animism”) was the second, adolescent,stage. August Comte termed this second stage in the development of natural scientificthought the “metaphysical” stage. Here, demons disappeared from the scene and werereplaced by the “forces of nature.”

However, what essentially had been gained by this? Only the names were changed; warmth,light, sound, electricity, magnetism, gravity, etc, are merely other names for what wereformerly referred to as demons, and they remain equally as invisible. Thus, we carried ourchildhood faith into adolescence. However, for science to believe in such “forces” was stillhidden theology, prohibited metaphysics. It took courage to sacrifice this last vestige ofmetaphysics as well.

Thus, finally, humanity reached its third and most mature stage-----that of positive or exactscience. This positive science with its highly esteemed claim to exactitude is characterizedby the complete renunciation of all kinds of metaphysics, or of any remnant ofanthropomorphism. Ideally, if we could only eliminate the observer, then we would


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achieve complete objectivity.

Be that as it may, exact natural science is now concerned with “describing naturalphenomena as simply and completely as possible” (Kirchhoff, Mach), and has thusbecome reduced to quantifying and classifying natural phenomena as statistics. All resultanttheories, born out of the desire for cohesion of the statistical material, simply satisfy thesuppressed need for causality and are valuable only as techniques of rote memory, for thesole purpose of mastering statistical material more easily. What we call natural law is athought economizing concentration of the most numerous chains of phenomena possibleby formulas of memory.

It is the fate of all such statistics to never be really complete! We thus witness the oddspectacle, that natural science which regards astrology’s esoteric wisdom withcondescension, will automatically accept astrology providing it relinquishes allclaims of being anything more than pure statistics of cosmic events and their coincidencewith earthy and human affairs.

Nevertheless, the goal of our gatherings is not to study such astrology. Real astrology hasnever been a matter of statistics! What is close to our hearts, the penetration into the truecosmic cohesion with earthly events, can only be attained esoterically.

What then is this “esoteric doctrine?” What does it signify and what can it offer us? “Esotericdoctrines” do not derive their names solely from the fact that their contents were keptstrictly secret, to be revealed only to chosen people. It is the source of revelation that makesthis knowledge esoteric-----for it can only emerge from where it lies deeply hidden in themystery of the human core. Only when one succeeds in disclosing this source and indiscovering its secret approach can such knowledge be perceived, step-by-step, revealingthe truth of the one-ness of all beings.

Thus, the essence of esoteric knowledge remains secret, since it is always immediate andincommunicable, and since as-“sur”-ance of this knowledge can only be obtained by onewho can reproduce it out of one’s own source. Once communicated, esoteric teachingscease being esoteric.

But can such knowledge, derived from the pure innermost core, claim to be scientific?What criterion could determine if esoteric teachings are pure “imag”-ination?

Let us consider the essence and value of natural science and its method. According to ErnstMach, scientific perception does not essentially differ from ordinary everyday perception,except that scientific perceptions are more highly systematized. Natural science is preciselyarranged experience. In this respect, it is similar to esoteric wisdom. It too differs from anordinary everyday occult knowledge, which is just as important, as universal and belongsas much to everyone as do ordinary sense perceptions. This common everyday esotericknowledge is the revelation of the “self,” and can only rise out of the depth of our most


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intimate and secret inner core. Like all esoteric knowledge, this knowledge of the fact of our“person”-ality is direct and incommunicable! Everyone’s self, with all that moves and fills it,is one’s own secret!

In contrast, and forever strange to this self within us, is the objective world, discernible onlyfrom the outside. Moreover, in it the “thou” too is forever strange and separated, without apossible entrance to our inner life.

Into the core of nature no created spirit penetrates!Blessed is he to whom she merely shows her gates.

teaches Albert Von Haller.

Yet, if we could penetrate into the core of nature, as into our own “self,” then we wouldhave an inner, esoteric knowledge of the outside as we have of ourselves. This has been thedesire of all who sought the light since the beginning of time, the great longing of Goethe’sFaust:

So that I may perceive whatever holdsThe world together in its inmost folds,See all its seeds, its working power,And cease word-threshing from this hour.

Is there really no bridge between the inside and the outside? Is all esoteric wisdom butimagination? There is a bridge, a bridge whose nature is such that it is ever available foreach of us in the same manner in which only our self is given us-----the human body.

I see my body outside as one among many other bodies, obeying all the physical laws asrevealed to natural scientists. Yet, at the same time, my body is ego-bound. While naturalscience is limited in knowing the body only as something contained outside, I know itfurther as something within, as something that lives in me emotionally and mentally.Therefore, I know my body in an esoteric way.

If I could enlarge this body such that all of the strange things outside become part of myinwardly experienced body, then I would have the same secret knowledge of all the strangethings outside, as I know myself; an esoteric knowledge that can be systematized as scientificknowledge. I would then be in possession of cosmic esoteric knowledge!

Upon closer examination, this thought loses much of its initial fantastic quality. We see thistransition in abundance in everyday life. Our common sensory perception is already full ofthis secret of how an outside becomes an inside and how an inside can show itself as anoutside.

As an example, consider the “thunderstorm fright.” Thunderstorm fear is not fear of the


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lightening and fire of the thunderstorm itself. The revolt in nature is concurrent with anemotional revolt within us, of the same elementary power. The thunderstorm is inside andoutside simultaneously.

Or, think of the fragrance of the rose! That which lives within the blossom of the rosebecomes a fragrance experience within me. I have only to become deeply absorbed in this soulexperience in order to experience the rose blossom’s essence. Or, think of commiseration, alienmisery, which becomes our own-----the esoteric knowledge of another’s sorrow!

One of the most impressive parables ever applied to the problem of perception comes fromthe Indian sage Rama Krishna. It carries this thought farther to a possible esotericknowledge of the universe.

Rama Krishna likens the esoteric process of perception to what happens when one throws asalt doll into water, in contrast to what happens when a stone is thrown into water. Waterwashes around the stone, touching only its surface. Unable to penetrate it, the water mustremain foreign and outside of the stone; the stone cannot unite with it. This is a simile fornatural science’s exact perception of outward matter.

The salt doll dissolves in the water. It weds it, penetrating the water to its farthest extremes.Even if the whole ocean were involved, the salt doll would penetrate it completely, becomingone with it, so that it would be impossible to say whether the salt had been dissolved in thewater, or the water in the salt. This wedding act is a simile for esoteric perception, where-upon the self has been wedded to the universe; it has been so widened that it now lives inthe cosmos, as if in its own body. We then perceive this universe-body in the same manneras we perceive our body in everyday life, when inwardly we feel it as the emotional andmental fulfillment of our self.

Let us clarify this concept using the geometrical figure (see Figure 1 on page 18) of thepentagram, also called the Druid’s foot. This is a very ancient mystical figure, built byextending the sides of a regular five-angled figure (pentagon), until they touch. When thesepoints of juncture are connected by straight lines, a new five-angled figure is formed in anenlarged measure. This procedure can be continued indefinitely: the five-pointed star(Pentagram) grows towards the outside. The same procedure can be reversed toward theinside: drawing the diagonals in the original five-angled figure gives us a diminished five-pointed star, which again encloses a five-angled figure where the diagonals can be drawnagain, and so forth, ad infinitum.


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Figure 1

The five-pointed star has the remarkable faculty of growing toward the outside as well as theinside, according to its own laws. It mirrors the outward growth in its interior.

Let us now imagine that the original five-angled figure is our ordinary, everyday self. If itwere possible to draw within us all that is spread around us by a mysterious act of openingour ego, as the salt doll in the simile of Rama Krishna allowed the water to enter into it, thenwe need merely to look into ourselves to find the immeasurably diminished image of theoutside in ourselves. Or, to use the phrase of the ancients: the macrocosm in the microcosm,the great world outside in the inside world.

Once the barriers that hold it imprisoned are broken, the self becomes the primary sourceof all esoteric perception. For this reason were these words inscribed above the entrance ofthe temple of Apollon in Delphi: “Know Thyself”-------and in the inner temple (readable only tothose allowed to enter there, after fulfillment of the above commandment), thecontinuation of the sentence: “And Thou wilt know God!”2

Some of you will interpret this as poetic imagination, or as eastern mysticism. Consider thethoughts of Gustav Theodor Fechner, a German philosopher who was also an eminentrepresentative of the exact sciences. The main doctrines of his philosophy are containedin two works, the larger, more comprehensive of which is titled “Zend-Avesta,”----livingword-----living perception-----the smaller one: “The Day View as Opposed to the Night View.” In

________________________________________________________________________________2 Leadbeater


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titling his main work, Zend-Avesta, he implies that he does not want to deal with “deadwords” and notions, but to find knowledge in the immediate experience. Fechner startsfrom the fact that our body is composed of millions of tiny living beings known as cells.Each of these cells leads a comparatively independent life, experiencing all the lifeprocesses of digestion, food intake, elimination, growth, propagation and finally death.Moreover, connected with all these outward criteria of life we must imagine some kind ofinward life, perhaps in the form of a vague feeling of consciousness, such as the primitiveemotions of attraction and repulsion. No single cell in itself can have a clear perception ofthe life content of another cell in the same human body. Yet, we as human beings, in whosebody all these cells are integral parts, have in our life experience the life experience of allour body’s cells----not as each separate cell, but as the sum of the life experience of all cellsjoined together. This sum is not merely the total of separate experiences, but of their higherunity: their concentration on a higher level, which is as much higher as the humanconsciousness is above the cell consciousness. The consciousness of all the cells iscontained in the consciousness of the human being as a higher unit. The constantreplacement of dying cells by their successors does not mean a rift in the consciousnessof the entire human being; in the continuity of our emotional vitality, there is room for thevitality of all the millions of cells. Likewise, every change of vitality of the total rulingorganism will, in reverse, somehow find its way to those individual cells. This includes ourevery upset or thought as it happens by contact with our surroundings, every mood ofsentiment or mind: joy, anger, sorrow, love, contentment or restlessness, calmcontemplation, healthy or sick feelings; in short, everything that human consciousness onits level, in a human manner, experiences. This will be expressed in the cell consciousnessas a dimly felt alteration of the cell’s vitality-----as an increase of this vitality in the case ofelevated human consciousness, as a lessening, if depressive emotions of the human beingare involved.

Now let us assume that such a cell had the critical thinking faculty of the human being ofwhose total organism it is only an infinitely small part. It would nevertheless have noconception of the entire human body, either its outward appearance, which it could neversee, or its “interior.” It would also have no idea where its own vitality changes really camefrom. It could believe nothing else but that the cause of these variations should lie in itself,or result from contact with its immediate cell-neighbors. The conception that it is physically,emotionally and mentally contained within a higher organism together with millions ofother cells would have to appear fantastic and unacceptable, as incompatible with its ownexact thinking. What it had heretofore understood as its independent, individual life, wasonly a small part, owing existence and purpose only to its being built into a higher organismout of which, unknown to itself, all the impulses and energies of its supposedly independentlife flow.

But if this single cell could break through the limits of its cell-consciousness and rise to thehigher human consciousness, then from this newly won perspective, it would learn tounderstand the law, which determines its cohesion with the totality of the person. Thisthought may be further enlarged. Humanity, too, is but a cell in a higher organism. As the


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single cells have been built into the human body, participating in our higher life in their ownmanner, we too are built into a higher organism. We participate in a human way in a higherlife, even though we may never be able to see it or to recognize it.3

Where is this mighty organism, this higher being, in which we each represent merely a tinycell? A single, perishable cell of its giant body! This giant organism, which comprises allhumankind as part of its being, in which all thoughts, emotions, experiences, perceptions-----indeed in which the complete physical, emotional and mental life of all people on earthare contained-----is the Earth. Human life is contained in Earth not as a mere sum total, butas a higher unit of all these life contents. Earth’s level of consciousness supersedes that ofhumankind as our own consciousness supersedes the dull consciousness of our cells.

Earth is an enormous living being, which not only contains all people, but also all fauna, allflora, all the mineral substances, the water, air and fire-----in short, everything we see aroundus. All this lives as an integral and organic part in Earth’s body, participating in its immenselife. Inside Earth’s life, every person, with all thought and feeling, is just a fleeting thought,which burgeons in an incomprehensibly higher connection. All human wisdom and artinside of this life is but a letter in a higher word, which only Earth can think.

We can extend this thought of the one great, united life, still further. Earth, to whom Fechnerascribes the rank of an archangel, is also only a cell in a still greater body. Together withother similar “cells”-----the other planets of our solar system-----Earth is built into the solarsystem from which all the planets with their moons receive the laws and meaning of theirlives.

And further...! All these millions of sun-worlds are again united in a highest being, in whoseconsciousness each single sun world is but a letter of the universal word, which has beensince the beginning. Thus, we are all members of an immense organism, of the universe, or,if you want, of “GOD,” within whom we live, reciprocally. It is, therefore, a knowledge fromthe inside-----or, as we said, an esoteric knowledge of all which is outside-----possible onlybecause it is an immersion in the knowledge of God. Full of such thoughts, the old mysticsays:

Were not the eye akin to Sun,The Sun it never could perceive;If not God’s power lived in us,How could the Divine delight us so?

~ Goethe, “Plotin”

_________________________________________________________________________3 Editor’s note: Whereas this text predates the “Space Age” and “New Age,” it is interesting to pause at the thought of howour relatively new-found capacity to witness the Earth from beyond her physical limits is concomitant with our capcity togo beyond the boundaries of our limiting ego-separated selves. In this ideas, as in many others, Dr. Adler was well aheadof his time.


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To summarize, we have used Rama Krishna’s simile of the salt doll and the figure of thefive-pointed star to indicate how the human body can be considered a bridge between thehere and the beyond. Thus, we have an important starting point for the foundation ofesoteric knowledge in general, and especially for astrology.

This human body, which we now know as a physical link between the profane and theesoteric doctrines, is not the only bridge. There is still another bridge between the here andthe beyond, one purely intellectual in nature. It too is a form of “knowledge” that iscommonplace in one sense, but which, when perfected into a science, is considered theultimate exactitude. This science, which in a way shows a double face-----a “secret” one,turned inward, and a “profane” one, turned outward-----is mathematics. Mathematics actuallypossesses all the criteria of secret wisdom since in complete purity, all its findings can onlybe inwardly won. Therefore, mathematical knowledge is immediate, not based on out-ward experience. Its truth is immediately witnessed by anyone in whose mind its findingsare repeatedly reproduced autonomously. Like the fact of our self, mathematical perceptionsneed no outward proof.

Now someone could get the idea that mathematical perceptions, in spite of their close innerconnections, are mere products of the imagination. Nevertheless, we are faced with the factthat the results of this “imagination,” miraculous as it appears, can be applied not only tothis strange outside world; they also disclose to us the lawfulness of exterior occurrences.These derive their scientific value through the quality of being expressible in mathematicalformula. This fact gives to mathematics its merit as a bridge between the interior and theexterior. For, just as the crystal forms of the cube, tetrahedron, octahedron, etc. meet us inthe outer world as natural forms, grown through exterior influence, so grow the geometricalidea forms on which the crystals are based, through a mental process by purely intellectualmeans in ourselves. Thereby, they indicate the secret connection between the outside andthe inside, as by a common source. Mathematics is the living revelation of the secret life ofnumbers. All parts grown out of the oneness-----“partes”-----are born as the cell grows, throughpartition (partus = birth) out of the one. In this sense Lao-Tzu says of numbers: “The onebegets the two, those two engender the three, and the three all the other numbers.”

All mathematical perception is uniform living esoteric wisdom, born out of the One. Withinthe limits of this secret number knowledge, these numbers present themselves, not asmeasures of space and time, but as the natural system of the living organic cohesionbetween the original one and the parts grown from it, into which it is inwardly divided.What is thus lived inwardly through number is the consciousness of the harmony betweenthe universe as the large, and the ego as the small, unit: the general form of the absolutecosmic connection, of which we spoke at the beginning: of the one and its parts. For thisexperience too there exists an everyday example, a semi profane earthly echo of thatcosmic harmony: music. Music is the immediate inner experience of number. It is a messageof the inner connection of the universe. In this sense the ancient sages spoke of the harmonyof the spheres, and Goethe through the mouth of Raphael in “Faust”:


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The Sun intones, in ancient tourney,With brother spheres, a rival song.

Now it is not surprising that the great Johannes Kepler arrived at a similar line of thought. Inhis main work, “Harmonices Mundi” (Harmony in the Universe), he, like Fechner, soughtto demonstrate that the Earth is a huge, living being, with digestion, elimination, etc. LikeEarth, the other planets are also living beings, with whom Earth is in continuous mutualrelation, like each person to another within our environment. When, in a certain moment, achild is born on Earth, delivered out of the Earth’s womb, it then bears as a dowry thefundamental mood that permeated the planetary world in this moment. Whatever thoughtthe Earth at this moment held in the dialogue with her cosmic surroundings is now carriedwithin the newborn as the law that governs his or her future life. It is thus the permanentkeynote of one’s life-----an expression of the law, according to which we each enter it.

As on the day that gave thee to the world,The Sun did stand in greeting to the planets,Hast thou immediately and ever more been thriving,According to the law, obeying which thou started.

~ Goethe, “Orphisch”

The above is presented to give a general conception of the basic idea of astrology as anesoteric doctrine. Now let us compare this with the attitude of exact natural science inrelation to the cosmic world picture.

Here again we may refer to Fechner. Without knowing it, in his Zend Avesta, this ingeniousthinker disclosed to us the meaning of Rama Krishna’s parable of the salt doll. He alsodisclosed the simile of the stone in another main work: “The Day View as Opposed to theNight View.” As “day view,” Fechner understands the above-developed fundamental viewof universal life, of which every single life is an organically integrated part, partaking in thetotality of light that radiates through the cosmos and shines both outside and inside of us.

The night-view conception of the world maintains that the total outside world can only beproperly understood if its “appearance” is freed from all contributions of human experience(consciously or unconsciously applied). These contributions of our individuality-----with all thatbelongs to emotion, to joy and sorrow-----attempt to transform the apparent into “reality.” Alsoincluded in this individuality are the sense qualities, as functional expressions ofthe sense organs: light, sound, and heat, smell and taste.

What then remains of this formerly so well known world? Nothing but the specter of anightly world, freed of all individuality, in which we ourselves no longer exist. This world isdark and mute, without soul or spirit; no bridge leads to this dead world but illusion. Trulya world not worth living in, if it were not wisdom’s last comforting conclusion (resultingfrom this view of the world) that our own thoughts and feelings are but vain illusions-----


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unimportant, superfluous additions to the only real fact of a soulless occurrence ofvibrations-----the eternal dance of atoms.

There is then an antithesis between a purely objective, dark, soulless world, in which weourselves are merely automatically swinging atom complexes, and the live world, which isflooded by warmth and light, of which we ourselves, with all that moves our innermostbeings, are organically united parts. The abyss between this “night view” of materialism,which truly won an “objective” world but thereby lost its soul, and the esoteric world-pictureappears as grotesque as the contrast between the astronomy of our day and astrology as anesoteric doctrine. A writer of popular science wrote the following sentences to demonstratethe triumph of modern thinking: “Formerly it was believed that the Sun was a divine being, butnow we know that it is a glowing ball of gas.” Could not one say just as well: In former timesit was believed that Beethoven’s symphonies were noble works of art, now we know that theyare merely vibrating masses of air. Or: once I believed that you, writer, were a thinking being,but now I know that you are merely a chemical combination of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon,nitrogen, and some other mineral salts!

The grotesqueness of such science (which, as Goethe puts it, holds the parts in its hands, butlacks the courage to search their spiritual connections) goes even further: Look at this book!We follow here an example used by the occult writer Papus. In what does its essence consistand how would you investigate it? It has so and so many ounces; it contains so and so manyletters of this or that size; the paper consists of so and so much carbon, oxygen, etc. Isn’t thatwonderful science? Does this knowledge satisfy you? Now you know about this book? Haveyou never felt the urge to read this book? You have omitted this, because you took its contentsto be metaphysical imagination. Take heart, try it, and you will experience something strange-----the dead book will talk to you as speaks one mind to another mind.

Astronomy also teaches nothing more than the outward measurements of a giant book,which it defines most accurately. It knows the measurements of all planets and their coursesalong with the period of their revolutions, the substances of which the remotest suns arebuilt. Is that science not wonderful? But, does this knowledge of the universe satisfy you?Do you know this universe now? Have you never had the desire to seek the meaningbeyond all these measurements and numbers, the meaning by which astronomy becameastrology so long ago? To reveal this meaning, we must have the courage to learn how touse the secret code key to this giant book, which we carry inside of us, never to be lost. It hasbeen offered to us in two ways: as our human body, and as numbers.

Out of these two fundamental elements, the sacred old wisdom of astrology may be rebuilt.Helped by these two auxiliary means, we shall seek to reconquer a knowledge which inancient times was alive in human hearts as the knowledge “Kat’exochen”-----the knowledgeof the vast cosmic interrelationships in which each of us in included. We are everlastingmembers of the immeasurable universe.

Let Goethe’s answer to Albert von Haller, (who thought the road into “the core of nature”


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closed) accompany and encourage us:

Nature has neither seed nor skin,She is everything at once.Examine thou thyself severely,Whether thou be seed or merely skin.

and further:

You follow the wrong trail,Don’t think we joke!Is not the core of natureIn the heart of men?

With this, we will close for today. Take with you as a fundamental mood the idea of thegreat living ONE (whose witness is everyone’s “ego,” immediate and forever united) as aguide to humanity’s oldest science-----astrology.

Documents

The Testament of Astrology · Introduction to Astrology as an Esoteric Science First Sequence: General Foundation of Astrology Seven Esoteric Lectures by Dr. Oskar Adler June 4, 1875