Should I Attend The Men’s Rites of Passage?
This question was posed by a man who was unsure whether to attend a men’s rites of passage retreat that he had signed up for. He felt a deep resonance with the theme and really wanted to do it. The retreat has been designed by Richard Rohr, a Franciscan monk who has been involved in men’s work and the process of initiation for many years. Rohr speaks about the ‘two halves of life’ and how the first half of life is about personal achievement or gain in the world and the second half is about letting that go and embarking on the deeply personal inner quest. The man was at a critical juncture in his life, where he felt he had felt there was nothing more to be gained in the world. He was involved in a deepening of his personal spiritual path and feeling a greater urge to surrender to something bigger than himself, as well as connect with deeper aspects of himself he had so far been unable to access.
Yet, despite the urge to attend the retreat, and the feeling it was perfectly fitting for where he was at in life, he had been dealing with chronic illness for some time and was feeling exhausted. He could ‘push through’ and do the retreat, but all his body really wanted to do was rest and stay at home.
Very deeply repressed anxiety had been surfacing and he was feeling hypersensitive. He said he felt calm in his mind, but that his body was anxious. Being in a large group for several days felt like it might be more stressful than helpful. And yet the retreat only happens once a year and he didn’t want to miss something that could be very beneficial.
So, as always with horary, we first need to find the quesited (that which is being asked about). There are 3 potential options here for a question about a spiritual retreat – 9th, 11th or 12th. 12th house could be fitting if it were a solitary retreat, but doesn’t fit the group aspect. Whether it is 9th or 11th really comes down to what the chart suggests. Here we have Mars in Leo as ruler of 11th, and Saturn in Pisces ruling 9th.
Saturn is clearly the appropriate symbol and hence the chart is indicating it is a 9th house question. Saturn rules the 9th and is in the 9th. Saturn (austere, discipline) in Pisces (spirituality) is like the monk, as well as the retreat itself. Saturn delimits, i.e. symbolises a boundary between one thing and another, and hence can show an initiation or rite of passage, especially since it is a spiritual one (Pisces) and is about moving into greater self-responsibility and manhood (Saturn), and the surrender to something higher (Pisces).
The querent is shown by the Moon (ruler of the Ascendant), which is in detriment in Capricorn right on the Descendant. The Moon’s most recent past aspect was a sextile to Saturn, so the two significators are moving away from each other. This is a clear indication that going on the retreat is not the right thing for the man to do.
As another testament to this, the Moon’s next aspect is a square to Chiron. Now while many traditional astrology purists would not pay attention to Chiron, the reality for myself and my teachers has been that often it has something to say and wants to get involved. And if the symbolism fits we use it. (I should say that I don’t use any other asteroids in my practice. Sometimes I have seen charts with 10 or more asteroids on them, which basically makes the chart unreadable. My first teacher called them ‘gravel’.)
Chiron is relevant here because it is in Aries (men) on the cusp of the 11th (group). And so the square to it confirms that joining the men’s group will not be beneficial. (Very often a good horary will show the same answer in more than one way.)
So using the technical craft of horary, it is easy to answer this question posed. So we could stop here.
But, as so often with horary, there is more shown in the chart. The spirits of astrology have an important message to impart to the man.
Cancer rising denotes the theme of home that the man wrote about, and he is in detriment (Moon in Capricorn). This is a sign of weakness in relation to the question at hand (essential dignities of significators – rulership, exaltation, detriment and fall – give so much information in a horary question).
The Moon’s ruling, or home, sign is Cancer. Capricorn is the opposite sign, indicating that the querent is ‘far from home’. The Moon is in the exact same degree as the Descendant (13 Capricorn), so is exactly 180 degrees from the Ascendant. He literally could not be further from home. The ancient Greeks likened a planet in detriment to being a traveller in a foreign country, far from home, where he doesn’t know anybody and where he doesn’t have any rights.
So the querent in this case is far away from himself. On the Descendant showing that looking to other people, or a spiritual retreat (Saturn, ruler on 7th is in 9th) leaves him far away from himself. And what he actually needs is to go deeply with, to come home to himself.
After Chiron, the Moon goes to trine first Uranus and then Mercury in 11th. The 11th is the house of the ‘good daemon’ or ‘good spirit’. It is a house of good fortune. This horary carries some resemblance to a horary of William Lilly – the 17th century English astrologer who was single-handedly responsible for bringing back this ancient art (he also, by the way, predicted the Great Fire of London). Lilly received a question about a lost ship, and the Moon was shown to be in Taurus in 11th. A fixed, earthy sign in a fortune house, from which Lilly correctly deduced that the ship was in a safe harbour.
So in this question, there is a ‘safe harbour’ where the querent can anchor himself to assist his going within. This is his existing community of friends (11th).
Another detail here is the querent mentioned feeling calm in his mind, but anxious in his body. In a deeper sense, the two cannot really be separated. Using universal significators, the Moon here can be descriptive of the body and Mercury the mind. With Uranus being the split. The Moon trines first Uranus and then Mercury, indicating this inner journey can help to bring these two split parts of the self back together.
Also very telling was a ‘slip of the pen’ by the querent in his message. Instead of saying ‘I feel like staying home right now’, he actually wrote ‘I feel like staying home write now’.
Write now!
A message from his unconscious quite literally telling him to write, now. As a tool for accessing the deeper parts of himself that are still exiled and disconnected (Uranus). This can also be the meaning of the Moon moving on to a trine to Mercury (the natural ruler of writing and all forms of communication). And with Mercury ruler of 12th, it can also point to undertaking a solitary writing retreat to assist this process further.
A further play on words here is that the question is about a ‘rite of passage’. While the astrology is pointing to a solitary ‘write of passage’!
