Serial Lesson 47
From Course II, Astrological Signatures, Chapter 3
Original Copyright 1926, Elbert Benjamine (a.k.a. C. C. Zain)
Copyright 2010, The Church of
Serial Lesson 47
From Course II, Astrological Signatures, Chapter 3
Original Copyright 1926, Elbert Benjamine (a.k.a. C. C. Zain)
Copyright 2010, The Church of Light
Illustrations: Departments of Life Ruled by the Houses How the Houses are Divided Expression of Planets Through the Houses
PLANETARY vibrations not only must have a point of departure, but also, if they are effective, must have a place of reception. A tone reverberating from the sounding board of one of the zodiacal signs must reach the earth in order to affect the destiny of the inhabitants of the earth. To do this it must penetrate the astral field associated with the earth. The direction from which such a planetary vibration reaches a given spot on the earth determines the relative direction of movement of the astral field penetrated, and also the amount of astral field through which it must pass. These two factors, it has been ascertained by observation, determine the department of life which the vibrations will influence. To ascertain the volume of planetary vibrations reaching the earth from given directions, and the departments of life they influence, is our object in the study of Mundane Houses.
In preceding lessons I have compared the planetary vibrations to musical tones. In fact, I know of no better designation for them than planetary tones. Each planet sounds its own tone. The zodiacal signs I have compared to sounding boards from which these tones resound. The tone is modified, not in its essential vibratory rate, but in tone quality, by the sounding board, or zodiacal sign, from which it reverberates. Furthermore, musical tones and planetary tones have both a point of departure and a place of reception; and the place of reception of planetary tones, so far as we are concerned, is the earth, acting as a grand auditorium.
In most auditoriums, due to distances from the instruments, to obstructions that may intervene, and to other acoustic factors, tones are not heard in the same volume and with the same precision throughout all its sections. The earth as an auditorium is unique; for the various musical instruments, the zodiacal signs, are ranged completely around the outside of it. Nevertheless, as in most auditoriums, the relation of a particular point in it to the positions where tones are being sounded, modifies the tones at the place of reception. That is, tones coming from one direction are stronger and clearer than tones coming from another direction, because they have less of the astral field of the earth to penetrate, and are less interfered with by its rotation due to the turning of the earth on its axis.
It will thus be seen that persons occupying different portions of the terrestrial auditorium—situated at different stations on the face of the earth—will not hear the tones from the celestial instruments with the same clarity. At any given time some may be more favorably located than others for the reception of certain tones.
Because in the case of the earthly auditorium it seems to be the thickness or thinness of the astral field of the earth at a given point, together with its movement, that determines the ease with which planetary tones reach a given point, we may compare the terrestrial auditorium to a building the walls of which are of varying thickness. At certain intervals there are doors, and at other intervals there are windows. Thus the musical instruments ranged around the outside easily find access for their tones through the wide-open doors; find access with less ease through the windows; and reach the interior only with great difficulty through the denser portions of the walls.
It is to map these sections of varying resistance that we have recourse to a diagram of the Mundane Houses.
Thus to map the amount of wall thickness, and the tone modifications due to earth rotation, at any given spot on the surface of the earth; that spot is taken as the center, about which, from west to east, is circumscribed a circle. This circle, commencing at the eastern horizon, is then divided into twelve equal segments. Mundane means pertaining to the earth. A house is a dwelling place. A Mundane House, then, is the dwelling place of a celestial influence at any moment of time, considered solely from the point on the earth where the influence is received. Each of the twelve equal segments of the circle about the earth from west to east is a Mundane House.
A clearer conception of the Mundane Houses may be had by facing the south and imagining one’s self the hub of