Kabbalah and Astrology
Zev ben Shimon Halevi
By the same author:
Adam and the Kabbalistic Trees
A Kabbalistic Universe
The Way of Kabbalah
Introduction to the World of Kabbalah
The Kabbalist at Work
Kabbalah and Exodus
Kabbalah: School of the Soul
Psychology and Kabbalah
The Kabbalistic Tree of Life
The Anointed a Kabbalistic Novel
The Anatomy of Fate
The Path of a Kabbalist
A Kabbalistic View of History
By OtherPublishers:
KabbalahThe Divine Plan ( HarperCollins )
Kabbalah, Tradition of Hidden Knowledge ( Thames & Hudson )
Astrology The Celestial Mirror ( Thames & Hudson )
As Above So Below ( Stuart & Watkins )
Publication Information
Bet El Trust
Registered Charity No. 288712
www.kabbalahsociety.org
First published in 2000 by Urania Trust
Revised Edition in 2009 by Kabbalah Society
Kindle Edition in 2017 by Kabbalah Society
Copyright Zev ben Shimon Halevi 1977, 2007
Figure 33 is reproduced by kind permission of Dover Publications Inc.
Every effort has been made to obtain permission to reproduce copyright material but there may be cases where we have been unable to trace the copyright holder. The publisher will be happy to correct any omissions in future printings.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-909171-25-1
Kindle format by Affinity Systems, Inc.
For Solomon Ibn Gabirol
Maggid and Friend
Contents
Figures
Figure 1Kabbalistic Astrology
Information is one thing but real knowledge is quite another. One may have all the data for a birth chart and yet not perceive its essence. Astrology is an art, not a science. This means that the horoscope is seen as an image that contains the persons being. This comes only from great experience or a metaphysical and symbolic foundation of an esoteric tradition, such as Kabbalah. In this picture, an astrologer with spiritual knowledge perceives the principals behind the physical universe. (Woodcut, 16th century.)
Preface
Every life has an individual pattern. Some lives are full of incident and some are quiet, while others seem graced by good fortune or cursed by ill luck. Why is this? And what, many ask, is it that pre-determines the flow of events and precipitates the crises that occur in our path through life? Astrologers often describe in great detail the effects of this or that celestial configuration but rarely define the causes or the mechanism of how these actually influence us. The answers are to be found in the ancient teachings behind astrology which add a spiritual dimension and indicate the Divine purpose of the anatomy of fate.
Figure 2System
Astrology is the result of millennia of study. It is a composite of thousands of celestial observations that seemed to relate to patterns of human behaviour and character. What is shown here are the various systems and symbols that interact. On the edge are the twelve psychological types of the zodiac. Inside this are the mundane Houses, through which those types manifest in the everyday world. Within this circle come the triads of the four elements of temperament and the celestial rulers of each sign in their negative and positive modes. At the centre are the classical gods, metals, ages and sefirot associated with the Solar system. (Cosmic Clock, Halevi.)
Introduction
A birth chart is more than the positions and angles of the celestial bodies in the heavens. It is a progress report on the result of karma. This universal law, known in Kabbalah as measure for measure, was recognised by Sir Isaac Newton, the 17th century physicist. He showed that no action was without a reaction. This is not just a cosmic rule within the physical world but a real factor in the psychological and spiritual realms. No life, good or bad, is without its consequences. This is set out in the horoscope.
According to many spiritual traditions including Kabbalah, the Jewish esoteric teaching, reincarnation is the norm. An individual soul passes through many lives. In each, the sum of its successes and failures will manifest at the moment of birth to set out the course of the next fate. The horoscope also indicates all the lessons designed to aid and educate that souls development on the path of self-realisation, if one knows how to discern them.
This book brings together two ancient disciplines, astrology and Kabbalah, in the light of modern psychology so that a greater insight may be achieved when considering the anatomy of fate.
Figure 3Kabbalah
Although known by this name only since medieval times, the Tradition dates back to ancient Mesopotamia where the image of a sacred tree was used to symbolise Existence and its laws. Here within the zodiac is the kabbalistic Tree of Life. It is a metaphysical version of what had been transmitted in myth, fable and symbol for centuries. With the advent of philosophy in the Middle Ages, it was decided to present esoteric ideas in diagrammatic form. This was applied later to astrology, so as to deepen the understanding of the way fate and destiny worked. (Cordoveros Tree of Life, 16th century.)
1. Knowledge
The first premise to be accepted is that the universe is not a chaos but governed by a set of laws. While everything appears to be in motion and, at times, seems disordered and disjointed, in fact Existence is a very precisely organised entity. If it were not so, then chaos would rule and there would be no process of birth, growth and death, evolution or resolution. An understanding of the regulation and aim of Existence is the purpose of the pursuit of knowledge.
This began when the first human beings on Earth started to examine their environment. Initially they were bound by instinct, that inherent body of experience gained by the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms which was passed on in the chemistry, cells and organic intelligence of their bodies. As such, the earliest human reactions to terrestrial conditions were little more than natural reflexes, just like those of their ape cousins. But a human being is more than a highly evolved physical organism. Men and women have a mind that considers more than the immediate environment. It can speculate about the past, present and future and come to conclusions.
