Capricorn 19°: A five-year-old child carrying a bag filled with groceries.

23:18, 01.10.2015, Capricorn 19°

pp. 240-241     AN ASTROLOGICAL MANDALA, by Dane Rudhyar

PHASE 289 (CAPRICORN 19°): A FIVE-YEAR-OLD CHILD CARRYING A BAG FILLED WITH GROCERIES.

KEYNOTE: Rising to the occasion when asked to assume social responsibilities ahead of one's normal development.

What seems to be implied at this stage of the cyclic process is the value of early conditioning in teaching one how to fulfill the responsibilities of everyday life in our modern society. This twentieth scene of the complete process has been entitled "Group performance," and today it is evident that children at an early age are expected to assume a family role which at times will strain their natural capacities. This is part of the accelerating pace of our technological society.

This fourth stage symbol evokes the possibility of meeting a certain type of social opportunity which normally may seem premature. A pattern of ACCELERATED GROWTH can thus be established, with both positive and negative aspects. Rushing ahead of one's natural development may be damaging; yet we are living in a particularly dynamic period of man's evolution.

Capricorn 18°: The Union Jack flies from a British warship.

19:15, 01.09.2015, Capricorn 18°

p. 240     AN ASTROLOGICAL MANDALA, by Dane Rudhyar (1973)

PHASE 288 (CAPRICORN 18°): THE UNION JACK FLIES FROM A BRITISH WARSHIP.

KEYNOTE: The protection afforded to individuals and groups by powerful institutions in charge of maintaining order.

This symbol reflects conditions prevailing in the past when Great Britain's fleet was policing the seas under the international principle of the freedom of the seas. Times have changed, but the concept remains valid. Power is required to maintain social order and relatively peaceful interpersonal as well as international relationships. Alas, this power can easily be misused under the pretext of preserving "law and order." Justice and compassion must balance social power, and especially the power of privileged groups. Where this symbol appears, the need for protection may be in evidence—or it may be a warning against using power for selfish advantage.

This is the third symbol in the fifty-eighth five-fold sequence. It brings to us a realization of the ambivalence of POLITICAL POWER, its value and its dangers.

Capricorn 17°: A repressed woman finds a psychological release in nudism.

22:31, 01.08.2015, Capricorn 17°

pp. 239-240     AN ASTROLOGICAL MANDALA, by Dane Rudhyar (1973)

PHASE 287 (CAPRICORN 17°): A REPRESSED WOMAN FINDS A PSYCHOLOGICAL RELEASE IN NUDISM.

KEYNOTE: The escape from bondage to social inhibitions and a reliance upon the wisdom of the body.

Under the pressure of religions that have created a sharp and unwholesome division between soul and body, society has produced strict codes of values regarding the play of natural instincts, and has glorified them under the name of "decency" and "modesty." The growing trend toward nudism—which of course has nothing to do with the "pornographic" display of one's body—is a welcome protest against the depressing and neurosis-generating puritanism of the past. Men and woman are demanding a psychologically as well as physically healthful freedom of the body as a means of overcoming the hypocrisy and constrictions of social behavior.

In this second stage symbol we see how our society has been able to repress and distort the natural activity of the human body and its sensitivity to the elements. Thus a contrast is established between healthy youth at play and the neurotic subservience to a socio-religious tradition. This symbol is a call for RELEASE FROM INHIBITIONS.

Capricorn 16°: School grounds filled with boys and girls in gymnasium suits.

09:58, 01.07.2015, Capricorn 16°

p. 239     AN ASTROLOGICAL MANDALA

by Dane Rudhyar (1973)

SCENE TWENTY:
GROUP-PERFORMANCE
(Capricorn 16°—Capricorn 30°)

FIRST LEVEL: ACTIONAL

PHASE 286 (CAPRICORN 16°):
SCHOOL GROUNDS FILLED WITH BOYS AND GIRLS IN GYMNASIUM SUITS.

KEYNOTE: The need for physical activity and play, especially in adolescence.

Society has learned that a balanced combination of intellectual study and physical activity is necessary for the harmonious development of the human personality. Adults often forget this under the pressure of money-making and other duties, and this symbol reminds us of it.

This is the first stage of the fifty-eighth five sequence which begins Scene Twenty of the cyclic ritual. It shows how we normally depend upon physical stimulation and EXERCISE for the maintenance of our health, and therefore of an equally healthy society.

Capricorn 15°: In a hospital, the children's ward is filled with toys.

17:20, 01.06.2015, Capricorn 15°

Boulder Opal

p. 238     AN ASTROLOGICAL MANDALA, by Dane Rudhyar (1973)

PHASE 285 (CAPRICORN 15°): IN A HOSPITAL, THE CHILDREN'S WARD IS FILLED WITH TOYS.

KEYNOTE: The responsibility of society to ensure the welfare and total health of the new generation.

The sociocultural process must look to the future as well as to the past. It has created conditions which may harm the children who will carry forward its work, and it must try to repair these negative conditions through love as well as through physical care. In personal life, the individual should take great care of his fresh intuitions and his dreams of future growth. They are often fragile developments which the pressures of everyday life can easily distort or destroy.

This is the last stage of Scene Nineteen, which began with a powerful claim for socio-political power. The exercise of such a power can indeed produce social conditions which endanger the healthy and spiritual unfoldment of a community, and especially of its children. There is therefore constant need for TENDER CARE as well as skill to neutralize the destructive tensions of social living.

Capricorn 14°: An ancient bas-relief carved in granite remains a witness to a long-forgotten culture.

17:29, 01.05.2015, Capricorn 14°

pp. 237-238     AN ASTROLOGICAL MANDALA,  by Dane Rudhyar (1973)

PHASE 284 (CAPRICORN 14°): AN ANCIENT BAS-RELIEF CARVED IN GRANITE REMAINS A WITNESS TO A LONG-FORGOTTEN CULTURE.

KEYNOTE: The will to unearth, in our culture as well as in any culture, what has permanent value, and to let go of nonessentials.

At a time when in nearly every land men are questioning and challenging the validity of traditional beliefs and customary attitudes, it becomes necessary to separate permanent values and great principles or symbols from the many individual habits and the socio-political developments which more often than not have perverted or even negated the original ideals of the culture. We must strive to free these ideals from the wild growth of personal and class selfishness, from the greed and ambition so prevalent in human nature, and learn to appreciate the excellence of what is the immortal seed-foundation, as well as the spiritual harvest, of any culture—and by extension of every sustained and complete work produced by a man's indomitable effort to achieve creative perfection.

In this fourth stage symbol we are shown the procedure which enables us to gain a deep and thorough appreciation of sociocultural processes in their most enduring forms. What is needed is a penetrating and courageous insight founded upon a valid HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE. This applies to the past of an individual's life as well as to the history of a nation or a group.

Capricorn 13°: A fire worshiper meditates on the ultimate realities of existence.

16:53, 01.05.2015, Capricorn 13°

p. 238     AN ASTROLOGICAL MANDALA, by Dane Rudhyar (1973)

PHASE 283 (CAPRICORN 13°): A FIRE WORSHIPER MEDITATES ON THE ULTIMATE REALITIES OF EXISTENCE.

KEYNOTE: The subjective quest for ultimates beyond the interplay of life and death processes.

Beyond cultural enjoyment and the passion for accumulation of often-unusable data of sense knowledge stands the willful and determined "adventure in consciousness" of the occultist, the yogi, the mystic. The mystery of fire has always captured man's imagination because it is the mystery of all transformations wrapped in the enigma of death. In times when collective, perhaps total, death could be in store for mankind, the process of subjective meditation is fascinating an ever-greater number of people.

This is  the third symbol in the fifty-seventh sequence. It brings us to a stage beyond life itself. Are we ready to take this step which the masters of yoga claim to have taken: to experience death and return to the same body? Are we ready to demonstrate man's WILL TO TRANSCENDENCE?