Capricorn 02°: Three rose windows in a Gothic church, one damaged by war.

20:35, 12/24/2014, Capricorn 02°

p. 230     AN ASTROLOGICAL MANDALA, by Dane Rudhyar

PHASE 272 (CAPRICORN 02°): THREE ROSE WINDOWS IN A GOTHIC CHURCH, ONE DAMAGED BY WAR.

KEYNOTE: The necessary realization by any individual making a violent use of collective power that  it will lead to the inevitable destruction of some of the values ensuring group-integration.

It seems obvious that the interpretation of this symbol should refer to the disruptive consequences of war. The "chief" who claimed power from his tribe in order to lead or save it must reckon with the consequences of a too-impulsive use of this power in terms of violence. The integration he seeks to maintain or enhance may be partially destroyed if in his ambition he yearns to be the victorious war leader glorified by his people. A "rose window" is not absolutely essential to a cathedral, yet it symbolizes that through which the "light of the Spirit" enters into the edifice. Man's soul is said to be three-fold. Which part of man's inner trinity of principles tends to be destroyed by the use of violence? Evidently the principle of love and compassion.

The second stage symbol is in contrast to the preceding one because it opposes the power to destroy to the power to build. The "capital" of group-energies is partially squandered in armaments and death. WASTE is the opposite of group-integration.

Girlcapsule's Response:

These images feature an Amanita muscaria (a.k.a. fly agaric, or fly amanita) that I discovered fruiting in a local graveyard. I found the patch of fly agarics on the day of winter solstice (December 21). Isn't it beautiful?

This is the third time I've come across fly agaric fruiting in the wild. The first time was on the order of a life-changing synchronicity. I had just been reading a book on Shamanic practices that talked about the Shamanic belief that entities that choose us as human allies will show themselves four consecutive times in order to demonstrate a request for our attention.

Winter solstice fly agaric—as seen through a lens of a fly agaric wooden prism-toy

I happened to be walking in a favorite park of mine, a well-kept secret and hidden jewel in the Kensington hills, here in the East Bay facing the breath-taking views of the city and the Golden Gate. There are three routes I can take from this garden back to the house that is currently my home. I took a moment to ask myself which way should I go? Adopting a Jungian-style symbolic attitude I began to look around. My attention was drawn to a fallen leaf on the path in front of me, which immediately suggested the middle-path with arrow-like precision. I acknowledged this and took the path. Along this way I was shocked to discover four fly agaric mushrooms growing at the roadside junction of a church, a Montessori school, a library, and another public park. I thought immediately of the Shamanic ally's means of self-introduction, and consciously accepted the symbol of this form as one of my planetary siblings, close and very meaningful to me. It felt like an affirmation and a blessing in fruiting form.

I chose to respond to today's Sabian Symbol with a kind of cross-comparison, so I opened the Taschen book Alchemy & Mysticism to page 230 (the same page as today's symbol in its own book). The image above shows what were popularly called "Laterna Magica"—a kind of early slide and film projector. I felt a jolt of joy at seeing this, because it allows me to bring up something similar that has been haunting me—the "camera obscura". I've linked the term to a 2-1/2 minute video that explains the term/phenomenon and shows how to create one of your own.

The magic of a projected image can also be experienced from the light of a stained glass window. There are many examples of this if you google search "stained glass projections". With a camera obscura the image is inverted (upside-down). The human eye works in the same way as a camera obscura—in fact, our vision is inverted when we are first born. Eventually our brain kicks in to turn the image right-side up to correspond with the body's experience of what feels up versus down. If you are very brave you can experience your original vision here's a 4-1/2 minute video by BBC: BBC about upside down goggles.