Astro-Kinetic Contemplation: Listening for God by Looking to the Furthest Reaches of the Cosmos
Astro-Kinetic Contemplation
Listening for God by Looking to the Furthest Reaches of the Cosmos
Introduction
Astro-Kinetic Contemplation: Theory, Use, and Applications
History and Theory of Astro-Kinetic Contemplation
Astro-Kinetic Contemplation as a Tool of Evangelization
Astro-Kinetic Contemplation: Basic Application
The Astro-Kinetic Contemplative Chart: Elements and Attributes
Twelve Houses: The Face of the Cosmic Clock
The Planetary Bodies: The Wanderers on the Chart
Liturgical Rhythm, Contemplative Exercise, and Practical Objectives
Astro-Kinetic Contemplation: Daily Methodology and Profound Elicitation
Astro-Kinetic Contemplation and The Cosmological Office
Astro-Kinetic Contemplation and Profound Elicitation
Astro-Kinesis and Prayer: Contemplation, Integration, and Experience
Conclusion
Transversal Theology: Technical Glossary
Introduction
On Monday, April 26, 2021 at 4:45 in the morning I walked out my back door into the darkness. I was just about to begin the second half of my morning exercise routine. This routine takes place in the shed behind my house where the heavy bag and weights are. This particular morning I opened the door to the shed and was greeted by Padre Pio bathed in luminous light. This was not an ecstatic vision. My shed is small and has no light, so in it I’ve placed a series of shrines and altars, lit by electric candles. To me, exercise is one form of prayer, so my environment is important. Pio is one of three small statues situated by the door, so his presence was not unusual, but the luminous light was. Pio doesn't usually reveal himself until I have lit the candles.
I turned around to see where the light was coming from and setting over the house was a “Super Moon” taking up a space in the sky comparable to the size of my house channeling light from the unseen Sun on the opposite end of the planet to Saint Padre Pio, who reflected that same light to me. Conveying the full impact of the experience is to do with words. The Moon and all the celestial bodies have a peculiar effect on the human psycho-spiritual makeup. The effect is beyond a “scientific wow factor”. Rather it is something deep and existential. But the modern Christian has a fear of all things “astrological” that has kept us from developing this inclination into anything more than a vague emotive experience that is helpful but best undefined.
The purpose of this treatise is to expansively develop Christian use of our primal draw to the celestial motions by a process we will call astro-kinetic contemplation. We will apply Saint Paul’s principle to the practice of astrology, “test everything, keep what is good and refrain from every kind of evil”. By this metric, we will use the methodologies of astrology to construct focal techniques for contemplation as an approach to God. By the end, the reader should have a plethora of tools available to experience the vault with awe, and then channel that awe into a meaningful prayerful experience.
In the first section, we will begin by calling to mind the sacramental nature of creation. We will use this to draw attention to how humanity has from time immemorial gazed upon the celestial bodies to both make predictions about their environment and find meaning in life. From there we will trace a thumbnail history of astrology and contrasted this with our goal to create a current Christian compatible approach to astro-kinetic contemplation. Next we will comment on how such a technique could be a valuable evangelical tool given the current interest in astrology. Lastly, we will lay out the basic process of astro-kinetic contemplation wherein one charts, contemplates, integrates, and experiences.
In the second section, we will offer the basic breakdown of how to create a chart to engage in astro-kinetic contemplation. We will discuss the twelve houses of the Zodiac, and offer meanings resonant with astrological significance, but presenting Christan symbols and mysteries. We will proceed to do the same with the planetary bodies and show how to relate the two by “tabling out” these meanings in order to begin contemplation. We will then add the overlay of the liturgical year and the three sources that give it it’s rhythm, the readings of the Liturgy of the Word, the Office of Readings, and the Hagiographies of the Saints. Lastly, we will remind the reader that contemplation is not absorption. The wealth of information produced is subsidiary to relating to God and investing in life. We will therefore offer the last two steps of astro-kinetic contemplation, integration, and experience, to avoid distraction and keep the practitioner on task.
In the last section, we will seek to construct two practical frameworks for the exercise of astro-kinetic contemplation. First we will comment on the possible practice of The Cosmological Office. Modeled off the Divine Office, The Cosmological Office offers a rhythm of meditations during the day that is ordered according to the seven planetary bodies and the intuitive lessons and integrations garnered from astro-kinetic contemplation. Next we will discuss the skills of profound elicitation, a deep dive analysis which could be occasionally useful. We will describe two types of profound elicitation, transient, which simply uses the chart of the day, and coordinated, which aligns the daily transient chart with a fixed chart from a date relevant to the contemplation in order to study transit aspects. We will finish by commenting on the deeper prayer of the process, contemplation, integration, and experience. We will attempted to show how contemplation moves one from intellect to intuition. This last part should take us into the mystical experience of prayer and integration. The final realization will be a multicentric cosmology that in turn helps us integrate all our vital rhythms into a whole; the cosmic rhythms, the seasonal rhythms of our planet, the liturgical rhythms of the Church and the rhythms of one’s own moral and spiritual journey.
Astro-Kinetic Contemplation: Theory, Use, and Applications
Transversal Theology: Technical Glossary
In this first section we will construct the basic foundations of astro-kinetic contemplation before moving on to its general practice in section two and some advanced applications in section three.
History and Theory of Astro-Kinetic Contemplation
The supreme goal of this work is to develop a tool and methodology for helping a contemplative come into relationship with God. Our tool will operate according to the via affirmative. This spirituality seeks to define God and seek him through that definition. This is a limited way, in as much as we finite humans can never perfectly define God. But any method of approaching divinity that relies only on human effort is doomed to fail. Thus the reader will find much room in this methodology for the operation of inspiration and the operation of grace.
The definition we will be working with is extremely commonplace. God is an artist. One way you get to know an artist is to contemplate their handiwork, in this case, creation itself. In the treatise Sacramental Cosmology, we spent a lot of time discussing how the natural world is constructed to convey the love and grace of God.
A sacramental cosmology simply means that God created the reality as a communication system of love and all of it is geared toward that end. Thus physical reality works in conjunction with spiritual reality to convey the grace of God and draw one specific part of that creation, the human, in a life of shared love with God. … In the first creation story creation springs from the power of God’s Words. This implies that the thing made is a vast communication system. It speaks to a receiver of that communication built into the system itself, humans. Every aspect of this creation is built to communicate God’s love to a receiver of that communication and draw that receiver into a loving relationship with God. Every facet of our being as humans is constructed to receive the communication and activate the sanctifying grace by which the loving relationship becomes possible.
In developing techniques for astro-kinetic contemplation we are seeking to offer a small way to engage the beauty of creation in order to center one’s self by using one of the great inspirations of creations, the heavenly bodies.
For longer than history, humanity has been inspired by and found meaning in the operations of the vault. Our modern world has alienated us from this deep relationship with the heavens in three ways. First, we have a light pollution problem that renders the vast majority of celestial activity unobservable to most people. In the major urban area, where I live, on any given clear night, I may be lucky enough to see fifteen celestial objects. Second, with precision clocks and calendars developed over the past millennia has alienated humanity from any practical need to observe and invest in celestial motion. This has been exacerbated by movement away from the analog clock, which mimics the movement of the heavens, to the digital clocks, which doesn’t. Lastly, our scientific concept of a heliocentric solar system has divorced our culture from investment in the vault of the heavens as we observe them. The shift in point of view away from a geocentric system has placed the operation of the heavens beyond our common grasp. Not only are there vast amounts of objects we don’t observe, the very center of the way the heavens work is not attainable from our point of view. This has had a demoralizing effect. Once the story of the sky is written in terms beyond our observation, why look at fiction? Today, it is not unreasonable to assume that a large number of people have little to no connection to the movements and meanings of the stars, planets, Moon, and Sun.
This is a great tragedy. As we noted in Sacramental Cosmology, “God created the reality as a communication system of love and all of it is geared toward that end. Thus physical reality works in conjunction with spiritual reality to convey the grace of God and draw one specific part of that creation, the human, in a life of shared love with God.” The Heavens and their motions seem to be an integral part of this communication, taking up an entire day of creation.
Then God said: Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the seasons, the days and the years, and serve as lights in the dome of the sky, to illuminate the earth. And so it happened: God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night, and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky, to illuminate the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. Evening came, and morning followed—the fourth day.
The Sun, Moon, Planets, and Stars are the “governors” of the night and the day. The night and day are created far before the luminaries. According to the narrative, their function is not simply to bring light to the land. The light was created on the first day. But, they do bring order to the light and the darkness. They give key information concerning the motion of time and space. At one level this is “physics”, which we can mark the passage of metrics such as days [Sun], months [Moon], Years [the vault of the stars]. This communication helps us connect to our finitude and appreciate the development, cycles, and progress of our lives, individually and collectively. The rhythms of these bodies is one of the few examples of certitude in the primitive past. Immersed in a microcosmic chaos, the actions of the heavens is the one place where order reigns. This beauty and order is what calls to humanity to see that “heaven” is a place of peace and order for those who are immersed in a world of constant vigilance, stress and chaos. “... thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.”
The beauty of the order of the celestial bodies also radiates some sense of order here on the terrestrial plane. The passage and marking of time is one way the celestial bodies communicate. They are “predictive”. They allow us to know when the weather changes, when the plants grow, when the (possibly synchronized) menstrual cycles manifest for fertility or lack thereof, and when herds leave and return. This predictability allowed for the ability to notice the order of this plane, and humanity began to understand by the synchronicity that Heaven orders the Earth. The operation of the heavens is intimately connected to the operation of all that is fundamental to human life. This growth in understanding is a process that develops into how we are able to find meaning in the stars even today. The natural commerce between the perfectly ordered heavens and our rhythmic but imprecise order here on Earth helped us understand the relationship of “perfection” in heaven, a spiritual place, as penetrating and radiating into this world, but only in certain respects, and not perfectly. Somehow in all this they show us something that is fundamental to life itself.
Humanity began to connect the heavenly bodies with cycles of life and death, line and rhythm, complementarity, beauty and meaning, and a host of deeper mysteries that face humanity. The ancients made an intense connection between the celestial bodies and how they relate to us here on Earth. Through a long process of watching, listening, and openness, we have come to understand that the celestial bodies give us an awareness beyond simple survival. The simplest observations relate the Sun to life and the Moon to rhythms. The vault marks the seasons and years, but then there are the wanderers, the planets. Their motion and ability to move outside the normal motion hints at a freedom beyond the meticulously ordered [determined] cosmos , though that freedom itself has an order.
With all of these complex interrelations, every culture began associating the heavenly bodies with deeper aspects of existence, beyond simple survival. The specific attributes may not line up perfectly across human civilization, but “that there are attributes” does. The interrelation of the Sun, Moon, Planets [individually] and the Vault and the celestial bodies have always been a place to store the collective myth of a culture, and as those myths, loaded with concepts and meanings, move and interrelate, the careful observer can begin to draw lessons from their interrelationships.
What we can see developing is the emergence of two types of use of the stars. One that predicts physical relationships between the heavenly bodies and the events of Earth. And one that uses the interrelationships of the heavenly bodies to find meaning on Earth. Now add to that the powerful effect of narrative appropriation. Narrative appropriation indicates how we as creatures find our meaning, individually and collectively, is by stories and narratives. We appropriate the characters and stories into our personality (or culture on the collective level). This could be a conscious skill or an unconscious programming. Once these three factors align, rhythmic stars that are ordered and “free”, that they affect our lives, that they are assigned meaning through narrative, we have the conditions for practices such as astrology. In typical astrology, the celestial bodies are known to be physically predictive and that predictability is aligned in complex ways with the rhythms of mythic history and an assumption of cosmically invested archetypes (narrative appropriation). Free will is mitigated by this, though most likely not destroyed. The mythic archetypes repeat like the rhythms of the stars, and those born in relation to these interchange of the stars and celestial bodies have these meanings in the same manner that the plants grow and the herds return.
Classical astrology in the west takes a chart of the sky at one’s birth and compares it to the sky as the celestial bodies are now and seeks relationships by compare and contrast. The deterministic nature of astrology may not be the most accurate cosmology. It certainly is not in keeping with the teachings of the Church if one’s belief completely mitigates free will. We discussed the ruin of such deterministic cosmologies in Mythic History and Contemplative Prediction. It is especially saddening when people use fear or anxiety together with an assumption of determinism to exploit people. These are the aspects of astrology that are roundly and correctly condemned by the church.
But, condemnations by the church are not nearly as sweeping as one may suppose. In terms of what most people consider “astrology”, even as predictive, the condemnations of the church are few and hyper specific. The earliest bans of Sixtus V and Urban VIII prohibit judicial astrology concerning predicting the deaths of sovereigns and prelates. Pope Saint John Paul II seemed to align with Saint Augustine and was strictly against Astrology, believing that it necessarily set a deterministic cosmos against free will. On the other side, Albert the Great, Doctor of the Church, was a major proponent of astrology proper, believing that it did not limit free will, but fulfilled it. His text Speculum Astronomiae became the standard textbook for astrological study for the next four centuries. His student, Thomas Aquinas, also saw astrology as useful in that is was predictive of natural phenomena. But Albert the Great’s assertion in Speculum Astronomiae is that divine influence descends from the Empyrean through the spheres of the celestial bodies, each affecting this influence in its own way. As the influence cascades through the spheres they act as a buffer altering the influence according to their nature and shaping it as a force to be cooperated with according to knowledge and will. Also, Albert believed that astrological influence was not exclusive. There were many other elements of influence in a complex array of cosmic effect on human life. But that life itself is not determined. Rather it is constructed to learn of these influences and cooperate with them by that knowledge.
Albert the Great’s hyper specific understanding of cascading divine influence is beautiful, but his physical understanding of the cosmos is radically different than ours. His cosmology is the same as the one we discussed in A User Guide to the Medieval Cosmology of Mantegna-Tarocchi,
The medievals followed a cosmology that believed that all the stars were fixed on a crystalline sphere and as this sphere moved the stars moved. The planets and other heavenly bodies worked their way in toward the Earth in proper order, each on their own sphere which turned at its due speed. This is why the planets, Sun, and Moon move at different speeds than the stars or each other. The Primo Mobile is the axis on which all these spheres moved and gave animation to the heavens. God dwelled above in the highest heavens.
Physical design aside, it is the same sacramental cosmology which allows Alber Magus to conceive of his astrological influence that gives the church the beautiful contemplation of natural law and also allows for many various ways to approach nature for understanding and relationship with God. Such approaches do need to be calibrated to the truth revealed through Christ. But they can become fruitful tools of contemplation if approached properly.
The image of the vault has been displayed constantly throughout the history of Christianity. The elements of the sky have often drawn ancient Christians to consider heaven as a spiritual reality beyond simply the sky. In this new age, the cosmology of empirical science has robbed us of this vision in two ways. First the “myths'', that is the meaning, of empiricism have been employed to assert the cosmological view of empiricism. This view sees the universe as a vast mechanism. Thus the celestial bodies have been robbed of any sense of meaning beyond their empirical facts. These facts are “wowing” in their demonstration of size and force. Their job is to make us feel small in a vast empty otherwise dead universe. To make matters worse, those of us in urban settings are not even afforded the impact of staring at the vast majority of the glorious vault. Inadvertently scientific progress has dimmed the night sky through light pollution. This seems like a small tragedy, but access to this glorious vision has been open to humanity and shaping our consciousness since we have had what can be called consciousness. Now, large populations of the planet are bereft of this vision for the first time in history. The impact of this is a lack of any sense of true awe at the cosmos. Now our relationship of awe is mostly factual, which puts those in charge of such facts at an advantage. Since we cannot solve the problem of light pollution and anxious over taxation that prohibits modern people from contemplating the stars, at least we can give them an exercise to engage, while we work on these deeper issues.
The method of astro-kinetic contemplation begins with a chart that acts as a sort of mandala for Christian contemplation. If all of the mixing of esoteric new age terms and tools seems off, it should not. The stars are God’s communication, not the property of scientists or pagans. Any contemplative practice that helps one access God is a good use of God’s creation. Perhaps it would be easier to shift the names and symbols of the celestial bodies in order to make it easier to absorb for pious ears. But that would seriously mitigate a secondary goal of the formation of astro-kinetic contemplation. The process has serious evangelical advantages in our current climate in the west.
Astro-Kinetic Contemplation as a Tool of Evangelization
“What is your sign?” is a campy cheesy way to start or continue a conversation with an acquaintance. But it opens a door for a host of complex conversational topics. The issue of personal investment in the cosmos is only one. It opens us up to discussing one’s perception of their own personality, the conflict between determinism and will, and even such issues of divine providence versus cosmic law. It also opens us up to the heavens (the sky) and heaven (the Kingdom of God) and how much effect we believe that which is “higher” has on that which is below. When a person casually asks, what is your sign, it is a plea for meaning. It is a desperate need to assert, against the narrative of empirical science, that in this vastness there is connection and even personal significance. This is not a trivial urge. It is a longing placed in us as part and parcel of our creation, an urge which drives us toward transcendence.
At its most “trivial” the casual topic of astrology connects to this deeper meaning in life. But once past this there are a myriad of spiritual traps that await one who haphazardly approaches the topic. The first and most perilous is the same existential bifurcation brought about by a hyper empirical application of predictive analytics. In the treatise Mythic History and Contemplative Prediction we discussed the inability to live in the present as it is particularly fostered by modern scientific empiricism. The empirical view fosters a constant need to look to the past to predict the future at the expense of the present moment. Astrology can foster the same anxiety, but instead of looking back one is looking up. In each case, the desire to relieve anxiety through predictive certainty ends up creating just as much if not more anxiety. The presence of this suffering is the direct result of an unhealthy relationship with the cosmos that mitigates Chrsitan joy.
The second great danger is the inflammation of pride. When one reads Speculum Astronomiae one gets a sense of how much cognitive labor went into conceiving the structure of the cosmos, the interrelationship of that structure and divinity, and how that structure is “sacramental”, that is it is a sign of deep divine mysteries, and how humans have a profound role in the cosmos of the receptors of and cooperators with divine influence. But this entire cosmology has collapsed in the modern era. Now the universe is a mechanism and no one sees the sacramental nature of reality. The latter is sad, but the former is simply facts. The cosmos is not composed of nine spheres that chime when they rub together. The pride that such knowledge can create is not just foolish because it turned out to be wrong physically. An empirical cosmology is likely closer to the physical truth of the cosmos, but far further from the teleological or existential truth than Saint Albert. Pride itself is destructive even when one is correct on the facts. In this case it instills a sense of strong in spirit self reliance that works directly against beatitude. Pride makes such knowledge, right or wrong, a bludgeon to puff one’s self up and oppress others, demeaning them as lesser because they are not knowledgeable. This lack of charity facilitates spiritual havoc.
The last destructive consequence of a disordered use of astrology is an exploitative application. Again, even if one’s practice of such arts was accurate, to extort money in order to (most likely ineffectively) mitigate anxiety is not the action of Christian charity. It is unhealthy for both people in the relationship, inflaming pride and anxiety all in a medium of exchange of mammon which turns pride into avarice. When this manifests it is the worst case scenario of the practice of astrology and it begs just condemnation.
But the urges to transcendence and the desire to commune with creation in a meaningful way are not corrupt or disordered. Thus the development of astro-kinetic contemplation can be used as a medium of conversation with those who are not well disposed to “organized religion” but are “spiritually minded”. These are the stereotypes of those who may be drawn to astrology. Once astrology is a topic of discussion, the methods and meanings of astro-kinetic contemplation can be brought to bear and the slow progress toward the freedom and truth of the gospel can begin. As methods, symbols, and meanings are translated from predictive anxiety to immersion in Christian ministry and life, the clever evangelizer can guide their conversation toward the fruitful life of the church and a healthy practice of contemplation that engages their environment with respect and devotion.
Astro-Kinetic Contemplation: Basic Application
With a goal of Christian prayer and tactical evangelization, we can now begin to discuss the basic operations of astro-kinetic contemplation. Astro-kinetic contemplation is a maneuver that both recognizes the communicative aspect of a sacramental cosmology and facilitates practice of the three tiered integration of the self through visual contemplation of creation to the macrocosmic order. As we discussed in the treatise The Three Tiered Integration of Self, when seeking integration, one perceives the divide in the three tiered field of experience. The first tier is the sense of the “interior self”, the psyche. But the interior self does not seem to exist as part of the physical world. Thus the second tier is the sense of the self as bodily, this is one’s “self” as it abides in the physical world. This relates to the third tier of experience, which is the sense of the “external world”; that is the physical world beyond the body. Seeking integration one can use the body as the auxiliary self. This exercise frames the body as both intimate self, but also “other” because it is part of the material world. The term hints at how the body itself can be used as the bridge between the inner self and the exterior world. We surmised in The Three Tiered Integration of Self that the senses are means by which one can seek to collapse one’s experience of the psycho spiritual self with the exterior world in an facilitate proper operation of the sacramental cosmology.
The particular skill required for astro-kinetic contemplation is the visual aspect of audio visual cognitive integration. Audio visual cognitive integration speaks to the back and forth interplay between audio and visual stimulus of the external world, which is the most “far-reaching” sensory detection, and the imaging of that data as the medium of cognition as well as the dream world. This back and forth reminds one that one is integrated into one’s deepest self to the furthest reaches of the external world. When practicing astro-kinetic contemplation one is going to reach as far out as the senses allow, as far out into the cosmos as one can. One is going to use this sense data to orient oneself physically and spiritually by using the senses and by assigning meaning to these cosmic phenomena as a focal technique.
The process involves four steps; charting, contemplating, integrating, and experiencing. The method takes symbols and meanings of the heavenly bodies and relates them to each other and to other facets of liturgical rhythms in order to intuitively and contemplatively engage in prayer through the signs of creation. The basic operation would involve a chart that shows the basic situation of the heavens on a given day and assigning meaning to the elements of the chart in order to allow the practitioner to consider how the truths on the chart interrelate. The chart will be from the geocentric point of view because the phenomenological experience of the cosmos is geocentric. The chart, in effect, is a map of celestial objects, stars, and planetary bodies, as one can observe them from the world.
This chart is used to inspire meditative focus that can in turn be used in a variety of ways, for example, to intuit a spiritual focus, skills to work on, or s virtue to grow. The active element is the “integration”. That is to say, one has integrated the operation of the stars into one’s life and one is now actively using the lessons as part of one’s self. The purpose of this treatise is not to nail down one particular way to use such a chart in contemplation. Our purpose is simply to lay out the simplest elements of how one could go about using such a chart in order to access fodder for prayer through contemplation of, and engagement with creation. In this way, we can learn about the artist, God, through the art.
If one is familiar with the mechanics of astrology much of our endeavor will be familiar, especially in terms of the construction of the chart and the mathematical tools one employs to use it. We will be constructing our chart based on northern hemisphere and the elements of classical astrology associated with it in order to acquire maximal evangelical effect. The frame of the chart is a circle divided into twelve “pie slices”. The circle is the dome of the sky as it progresses through the 24 hour rotation on its axis.
Each slice is known as a “house”. These houses are numbers one through twelve. What they represent is a synchronicity between the solar year (a year measured by the time it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun) and the Lunar year, that is, the year of twelve lunar cycles. The ancients assigned each house a constellation. The constellations are the “signs” of astrology. The simplest way one determines one’s personal “sign” in astrology is by what house the Sun is in when it rises on the day of one’s birth. As the Earth moves in orbit the sun will appear to move month by month from house to house as the stars change across the year. Meanwhile, the moon and visible planets are also moving about in the various houses, according to their orbits and speeds. This complex dance is what gives the chart its transient form.
The location of the Sun and/or Moon is how the ancients would predict environmental factors such as plant growth, the coming season, and the migration of animals. The Church’s liturgical year is deeply connected to this exact motion, and the elements it inspires. Thus, in the northern hemisphere, where Christianity began, Christmas is put in the darkest time of the year, just when the days begin to grow again to symbolize the incarnation and the entrance of light into the world. Easter is placed in the brightest time of the year, for maximal revelation and new life as the Earth renews.
Again, to use the chart in contemplation, one would assign meanings to the various houses and celestial bodies. Then one would draw up the location of the celestial bodies and look for meaning and interrelationship, just as in classical astrology, but with an eye on Christan Mystery. But given the deep seated nature of astro-orientation, one will begin to see basic connections to many facts of the liturgy, such as the readings of the day, the saints presented on the calendar, and the liturgical season. These harmonies are not meant to be like a clockwork mechanism. They are an intuition about the state of the environment, the state of our liturgical expression, and the deep mysteries of our faith.
After creating the chart one would engage in contemplation by analyzing it for meaning and relationship. Then one would integrate that meaning into one’s life by relating it to one’s life as a meditation, a virtuous skill, or a pious engagement and asking for the strength and fortitude of application. This places one in the cosmos as an active participant and harmonizes the macro (the heavens) with the micro (the body) because the macro is present in the psycho-spiritual. After integrating, the practitioner moves to the “experience”. Because of this, I would also urge the practitioner to engage in astro-kinetic contemplation during the dark hours (I prefer pre dawn). At this point, the practitioner should go out and look up at the stars. Again, this is the point of awe where the contemplative sees the art and knows the artist. The rest of the process runs from learning the art, to internalizing its meaning and acting on that internalization. But the experience of the art is beyond all of this. It is the fundamental relationship to the artist.
In my location, an urban environment, I can still see some of the major bodies, and on a clear night even a few more. Absent that I use an app on my phone that allows me to see the stars in the sky wherever I point the phone. It is a poor substitute but gives me a little investment. Standing under the vault seems like an invaluable experiential aspect of the meditation. This is especially true if one of our goals is to facilitate integration of the three tiered field of experience. But it is more so if one’s goal is to learn about the artist by means of the art. Reading a book and thinking about the ideas in the art piece is no comparison to seeing the art itself. Our primary goal here is to approach the artist through the art. Thus, though most of the paper will focus on charting, contemplating, and integrating, the experience, which is beyond explanation or “analysis”, is at the most profound level of the exercise.
In this section, we began by remembering the sacramental nature of creation. We used this to draw attention to how humanity has from time immemorial gazed upon the celestial bodies to both make predictions about their environment and find meaning in life. From there we traced a thumbnail history of astrology and contrasted this with our goal to create a current Christian compatible approach to astro-kinetic contemplation. Next, we noted that such a technique could be a valuable evangelical tool given the current interest in astrology. Lastly, we laid out the basic process of astro-kinetic contemplation wherein one charts, contemplates, integrates, and experiences. In the next section we will offer the basic breakdown of how to create a chart to engage in astro-kinetic contemplation. Discuss the last two steps of astro-kinetic contemplation, integration and experience, to avoid distraction and keep the practitioner on task.
In the last section, we will seek to construct two practical frameworks for the exercise of astro-kinetic contemplation. First, we will comment on the possible practice of The Cosmological Office. Modeled off the Divine Office, The Cosmological Office offers a rhythm of meditations during the day that are ordered according to the seven planetary bodies and the intuitive lessons and integrations garnered from astro-kinetic contemplation. Next we will discuss the skills of profound elicitation, a deep dive analysis which could be occasionally useful. We will describe two types of profound elicitation, transient, which simply uses the chart of the day, and coordinated, which aligns the daily transient chart with a fixed chart from a date relevant to the contemplation in order to study transit aspects. We will finish by commenting on the deeper prayer of the process, contemplation, integration, and experience. We will attempt to show how contemplation moves one from intellect to intuition. This last part should take us into the mystical experience of prayer and integration. The final realization will be a multicentric cosmology that in turn helps us integrate all our vital rhythms into a whole; the cosmic rhythms, the seasonal rhythms of our planet, the liturgical rhythms of the Church and the rhythms of one’s own moral and spiritual journey.
The Astro-Kinetic Contemplative Chart: Elements and Attributes
Transversal Theology: Technical Glossary
In the last section, we constructed the basic foundations of astro-kinetic contemplation. In this section, we will offer the basic breakdown of how to create a chart to engage in astro-kinetic contemplation. We will discuss the twelve houses of the Zodiac, and offered meanings resonant with astrological significance, but presenting Christan symbols and mysteries. We will proceed to do the same with the planetary bodies and show how to relate the two by “tabling out” these meanings in order to begin contemplation. We will then add the overlay of the liturgical year and the three sources that give it its rhythm, the readings of the Liturgy of the Word, the Office of Readings, and the hagiographies of the Saints. Lastly, we will remind the reader that contemplation is not absorption. The wealth of information produced is subsidiary to relating to God and investing in life. We will therefore offer the last two steps of astro-kinetic contemplation, integration, and experience, to avoid distraction and keep the practitioner on task. In the next section, we will seek to construct two practical frameworks for the exercise of astro-kinetic contemplation.
The Twelve Houses: The Face of the Cosmic Clock
We can now turn to the details of constructing a template for the chart itself. Anyone familiar with the Zodiac chart will be familiar with much of what we are discussing. This should not be off putting. The stars are not owned by the pagan gods or the fates. They are owned by God himself and used by him to guide the Magi to the Christ.
As stated above the chart is divided into twelve sections. Each section houses a constellation which is the zodiac “sign”. The houses form pie slices that center on the axis mundi, on which the world turns.
Again, for the ancients, this was simply a given about the nature of the world. Their integral knowledge of the connection between the heavens and the Earth brought them to understand and convey deeper mysteries by using the knowledge they received from their observation of the world. That is not to say they simply used horoscopes to work out the anxiety of an uncertain future. Rather, they used the symbols and signs of the heavens to appropriate meaning and order their lives. For example, there are twelve houses in Israel. The beginning of the book of Numbers explains in great detail how the Israelite camp is laid out.
The Israelites shall camp, each in their own divisions, under the ensigns of their ancestral houses. They shall camp at some distance all around the tent of meeting. Encamped on the east side, toward the sunrise, shall be the divisional camp of Judah, arranged in companies.
One will first notice that it aligned Judah, whose sign is the lion, with the sunrise. From there the text lays out house by house divisions that circle the great meeting tent. This mosaic found in the streets of Jerusalem shows how the camp was laid out.
Even a periphery glance will demonstrate resonance with the standard zodiac. One can see Leo as the Lion of Judah, and quickly identify signets corresponding to Aries, Virgo, and Libra. When the Israelites camped, and moved in formation, they moved according to the configuration of the vault. This is not to say that the ancient Israelites practice astrology in any way like it is practiced today. Rather it is to point out the ancients intuitively aligned with celestial events as part and parcel of their spirituality. The array of the camp reflects the heavens because the nation is an instrument of God and has a pivotal part to play in salvation history. We already noted how the ancients have connected the operation of the heavens with all that is important to human life. As we said, they allow us to know when the weather changes, when the plants grow, when the (possibly synchronized) menstrual cycles manifest for fertility or lack thereof, when herds leave and return.
Now Israel is seen as a living icon of the heavens manifest in the earth as an instrument of God’s working in history. We tend to see this as “secret knowledge” to be decoded by scripture scholars. But coordination such as this only seems shocking because of our particularly modern alienation from God’s gift of creation. But with the first person perspective of the cosmos, of sees oneself as “situated” in the center of a glorious rhythm, which one is drawn to emulate. In as much as the heavens glorify God we then seek to emulate them. In his encyclical, Laudato Si’ Pope Francis seeks to reestablish our relationship with creation in just this way. He reminds us in paragraph 72,
The Psalms frequently exhort us to praise God the Creator, “who spread out the earth on the waters, for his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 136:6). They also invite other creatures to join us in this praise: “Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created” (Ps 148:3-5). We do not only exist by God’s mighty power; we also live with him and beside him. This is why we adore him.
Each house of Israel has characteristics, each apostle, chosen for a house, has a character. These types of “alignments” are the best kind of fodder for creating a way to use the chart for contemplation. It takes a great knowledge of the Bible to begin integration of these elements. Such learning and practice is one of the great benefits of astro-kinetic contemplation.
Each House can serve as general fields of meditation. On the chart, they remain fixed as the other bodies move through and interact with them and each other. Given that part of this paper is to apply an evangelical application, we are going to stick with the most common and recognizable imagery of astrology, but Christianize the elements by means of correlation. Thus, we can add to the pie chart the astrological signs as houses, and thus they can keep their basic meaning, while we line those meanings up with relevant Christan typologies and spiritual disciplines and practices. The resonance is what would allow for recognizability and conversation in a situation of discussing astro-kinetic contemplation with a person enamored with astrology. So thus far our chart looks like this:
This chart has the classic houses of the Zodiac as well as color indicators of the elements that are associated with each sign. The recognizability will keep the chart in position to be a useful evangelical tool and give it a grounding from which we can branch out into specifically Christian applications. But it bears pointing out that such an application is specific. The attributes of the zodiac are not “anti-christian”. They only cause theological trouble if one believes they are mechanically predictive or deterministic. One can misuse the Bible in exactly the same way if one is poorly invested in “bibliomancy”.
Below we have constructed a table that contains each house, its sign, and its element/season. On the right hand side of this table are what we are calling “Cosmological Attributes”. These are the most general associations that astrology would palace with the “sign”. Classic astrology associates these as personality types, but we are framing them more as cosmological concepts which may be personal, active in one’s life, or active in the lives of others. We have also shaped them to be more theologically geared even at this most general level so as to facilitate ease of association. In the middle of the table, there are our two specifically Christian associations, the Typology, and the Spiritual Discipline or Practice.
Each sign is assigned two typologies. One is from the Hebrew Scriptures and the other from the New Testament. These are two people that we have in some way associate to what the sign stands for as a type in classical astrology. So, for example, Virgo has both Ruth and Mary Magdalene. Ruth is the classic Virgo. Her assertiveness and reliability saves Naomi and her story is a story of Grain and life. Her very sustenance on the land connects to the most primal nature of Virgo as an earth sign. Similarly, Mary Magdalene was steadfast to Christ, never abandoning him as the other apostles did. She relates to the Earth because she is the first witness of new life coming from the Earth, the empty tomb. The Spiritual Discipline or Practice column is present to help the contemplative put their prayer into action and facilitate integration. So, for example, if the fourth house (Cancer) becomes pivotal in their engagement, the contemplative may want to seek to foster Awe of God in their life for the duration of Cancer’s prominence.
Table 1: The Twelve Houses
One will notice that the Liturgical seasons also show up in the Element/Season column of the table. This is because we will discuss ways that the rhythm of liturgy in the Church also reflects the rhythms of the heavens. So there is a natural affinity to how the liturgical season relates to the Vault. On the Chart, we added a liturgical Season for each House. By calendar date, they may not line up perfectly, because Advent and Easter are determined by lunar, not solar events, thus their dates are in motion. But generally, the seasons fall according to how we ascribed them here and the casual observer will see a slight interrelatedness, especially concerning the white and purple seasons.
The Season of Advent aligns with the old ritual system of sacrificial lambs, the Capricorn. Then Christmas is the celebration of the new order or reality and takes place in Aquarius, resonating with baptism and new life. When one enters Aries, one is in a situation of upheaval and the need to control through discipline in Lent. There one is struggling in spirituality. Finally one enters the Easter season at the new sacrifice, the Bull, and the resurrection that bring life to all people. The bull is an animal of sacrifice that the ancients connected with the disappearance and return of the herds, indicating new life and whose blood sanctifies the Israelites, when the covenant is made at the foot of Mount Sinai. These themes resonate well with Easter, resurrection and new life in the Church.
One may wonder, why typologies AND disciplines? Why not one or the other? Here we will remind the reader that this is not a puzzle, it is contemplation. The chart can be used in any number of ways. One can conceive of all kinds of categories to put on the table, and multiple more examples of people and disciplines to put for each sign. Some of the examples here may not resonate well with the reader. That’s okay. Anyone can create a table for one’s own contemplation. That said, it is true that the houses and signs have some long standing implications and meanings. I tend to stay in the ball park of those, because they are traditional and because the resonance helps with evangelization. But I do not see it as necessary. It could be conceivable, for example, to create such a table with columns of the houses of Israel and the Apostles simply based on biblical, legendary, and historical information. The process is meant to engage the contemplative in the connection between the heavens and the earth that leads to acts and dispositions more suited to the Christian life and relationship to God through creation. To focus solely on the “correct way” to associate the two robs something from the contemplative process as well as mires the practitioner in a gnostic stagnation.
The Planetary Bodies: The Wanderers on the Chart
Above we discussed how in A User Guide to the Medieval Cosmology of Mantegna-Tarocchi we described the spheres of the heavens. The majority of these spheres are wandering bodies, known as the planets. These elements, which move independently of the vault, are what will add flux to the relationship of the chart and alter the meaning as the heavens rotate. It is through these spheres that Albert Magus believed the influence of God cascaded through, and their motion wandering at differing speeds, sometimes even in retrograde, as they affect the character of this influence.
The process of astro-kinetic contemplation runs: chart, contemplate, integrate, and experience. The chart starts with the twelve houses of the last part. But one fills in this chart with the planetary bodies. This process is the first step. Not too long ago this exercise would have required observing the night sky patiently, and then a lot of math in order to figure out where everything belongs. Now the observation is limited, as we have discussed, due to light pollution. But the charts are immediately available online and through various apps. This availability has made access to astrology as a predictive “science” much more widespread. This easy access makes the need for healthy alternatives all the more urgent.
To make the chart one simply adds the location of the planets. For evangelical purposes, I use the old symbols from astrology.
The Sun and the Moon are usually not considered “planets” by modern people because we have defined planets as certain types of objects that orbit the Sun. But to the ancients, the planets were the wanderers, the celestial bodies that move independent of the vault. Since the last aspect of astro-kinetic contemplation is “experience”, meaning star gazing and an experience of the cosmos, we are sticking to the seven planetary bodies that are viewable to the naked eye. These are the planetary bodies that were accessible to humanity all the way back into human history. These shine against the vault and stand out as the signifiers that catalyze interpretation. It is unusual in astrological interpretation to in any way find meaning or significance “house to house” until planets are present. It is the presence of a planet that begins to generate meaning. For example, the most basic way a person is ascribed an astrological sign is that the Sun is located in (rising in) that house when they are born.
Once planetary bodies are placed on the chart, one can begin to relate them to the houses that they reside in and how they relate to each other. This can be done simply by downloading an “astrology” app and transposing the seven visible planetary bodies onto one’s new chart in order to begin one’s work of contemplation. If we worked up the planetary schematic for the day I am typing these words April 30, 2021, the result should look something like this:
Below we will offer more advanced examples of how to interrelate the planetary bodies. But for now, we are working on the most basic techniques of interpretation. Thus, for example, one can see on this chart that the houses of Taurus and Aquarius are quite full, while Pisces and Sagittarius are also active. One can refer to Table one above, cross reference Table 2 here, and begin to intuitively make connections.
Table 2: The Planetary Bodies
Again, the planets have long held associations. It is good, in my opinion, to keep these associations and fulfill them through resonant Christian themes. For Table 2 again, the reader will see the planets are assigned cosmological attributes that are theologically inclined but align with the classic attributes of that particular body. Then we have added columns for typology, connecting the planetary body with a person for the scriptures and a “Gospel” column, connecting the planet with a principle or teaching from the gospel in particular. Lastly, we have associated each planet with theological attributes that resonate with its common meaning.
After working up a chart, it may help the beginner to “table out the chart”. That is to say, one may want to learn the basics by reorganizing the tables and arranging them by house and planet to facilitate contemplation. First, note the rank of each of the active houses in Table 1. Then, copy the rank of the planetary bodies from Table 2 to their respective houses. This process can help the beginner to see connections between themes and practices that may spark interest or inspiration in thier life at present. For example, we can table out the chart above like this:
Tabeling out a chart helps one become accustomed to the meanings assigned through practice. As one progresses in skill, the need to table out the chart every time becomes less and less. As we shall see, if one is contemplating a chart daily, or even weekly, the table will not change very drastically from time to time.
Again, the particular references on the table are ones that we created by resonances we noticed between the categories and some of the original characteristics attributed to the astrological signs. For example, at a brief glance, one can see here that both Jupiter and Saturn are in the house of Aquarius. Multiple planets in the same house are a good place to start simple and look for resonance. When there are three or more planets in a house it is called a “stellium”. In general astrology, it means the house’s effect is “strengthened”. For astro-kinetic contemplation, it simply gives a cohesive lens to the multiple interpretative variables offered by those planetary bodies. So in this case, on our table, we have related Aquarius with direct action through filial love. Jupiter is the usurper of Saturn in ancient mythology. Saturn is the deep and forgotten past and Jupiter is the immediate effective image of cosmic order. Together they form the opposite of filial love. But we have Christianized these elements, and now they present the progression from Adam to Abraham. In this sense, we get a progression, but also a united sense of the incomplete nature of our working relationships. The gospel connection for Saturn is Luke’s lineage, which goes all the way back to Adam. Jesus is the fulfillment of Adam, the true first man. Abraham is the “first man” of Israel. Using these first man topologies together we can contemplate how there is a newness that is in transition, not complete. We have this newness in a house that begs social action and engagement in the community. All of this is in the context of a house (Aquarius) not totally disconnected from baptism (water) and rebirth/new life (Christmas). But Aquarius is an air sign, so this new birth is generally seen as cognitive. The relationship between the planetary bodies reminds us that however we use this contemplation, it both builds upon and is built upon. Our own spiritual growth is part of a process of greater spiritual growth for humanity.
The basic methodology of comparing the planetary body and the house can be brought to clarity by studying the chart and “playing” with the characteristics. Probably the easiest method for getting a quick intuitive read is to shift typologies and spiritualities or attributes. So one would take the typology of the house and compare it with one of the attributes of the body (theological or cosmological). Then one may flip flop and take the typology or gospel of the planetary body and compare it with the spiritual practice and disciplines or cosmological attributes of the house. So one may line up Samuel or Zaccues as typologies of the house of Taurus. To compare them with the theological attribute of a sacramental cosmology in Mercury could give one a good focal point of noticing how one uses one’s physical property in sacrificial ways. Then one can flip the focus and see that Mercury as Elijah gives a similar resonance, having called fire down from heaven onto his sacrifice on Mount Carmel, and Taurus’ Theological Attribute of Ritual. This double resonance gives one good fodder for contemplation and focus over the time that Mercury is in the house. Or one may look elsewhere and see that Venus as a typology of Sarah also resonates with Taurus’ Theological attribute of Physical charity much like Zacheus. She is the one who makes the bread for the three visitors. So which is it? How does one know what to focus on with all this information? This is the point where intuition and discernment skills will serve one well so one can proceed to integration and apply the focus to one’s life as a means of glorifying God.
One may also take into consideration if a planetary body is in retrograde. This happens when a planet appears to “move against the current” of the heavens. Astrologically, this has an oppositional interpretive effect. It is an opportunity to consider the oppositional quality that the body usually ellicites or how such a quality in the extreme or taken in exclusivity can be unhealthy.
So for example, a common turn of phrase when things are going poorly to say “Mercury is in retrograde”. The reason for this is that mercury is the planetary body that symbolizes communication, so when one invests in classic astrology and it appears to flow contrary in the heavens, all manner of communication is seen as going awry. In the practice of astro-kinetic contemplation one is not using the heavens in a predictive sense, but to find meaning or inspiration. So to consider that Mercury in retrograde is actually causing these problems is not our practice. Rather, we would use it as an inspirant for noticing that such things are happening or being intentional about our communication with an awareness that vagary, rashness, or poor intention in communication causes problems. The heavens are regarded as a focal tool rather than an instrument of determinism.
As one begins to navigate these skills comfortably, one will be well placed to practice astro-kinetic contemplation at its most basic. But, this starting point takes only the motion of the sky into account. It may help to add the wisdom of the Church’s reflection on the process of the year. With that in mind, we will add a few more details for contemplation. Before we discuss the process of contemplation and possible objectives.
Liturgical Rhythm, Contemplative Exercise, and Practical Objectives
The regular construction of a simple astro-kinetic contemplative chart will not offer much variance day to day. The previous meditation on Saturn and Jupiter in the House of Aquarius will be applicable for close to a month of charting. If one wishes to make a more regular engagement with the cosmos we will need to add a little more information. We can begin cosmically. One will find the moon the most rapidly moving object as it circles the houses. It also adds variation by waxing and waning, a phenomenon it uniquely holds. First, if the contemplative is female or married, the phase of the moon can resonate with the presence of life and rhythms of emotion tied to menstruation. This is a key spiritual insight to help one gauge how one may react or engage with to other interpretations of the chart. Or the lunar phases can be considered as growing and lessoning spiritual strength or cooperation with grace. Also, the phases could imply rhythms of the cycle of sin or awareness of God’s presence, which comes and goes in our lives. The phase of the moon, its growth, and decrepitation, its death and resurrection, can very much add helpful data for one seeking contemplation through astro-kinesis.
Another possibility for more regular variance comes from the wisdom of the institutional church. Through its long history, the Church has sculpted liturgy according to annual seasonal and lunar cycles. Already we have incorporated one such rhythm by adding the colors of the liturgical year according to each house at the center of the chart. We can also make the background of the chart suited to the current liturgical season to give another data point for contemplation.
On the peripheries, we can add three more liturgical elements that shift by the day and align with the motion of the year, and thus the motion of the heavens. The sources are the readings from the Liturgy of the Word, the Office of Readings, and the lives of the saints. These three calendars are conformed and develop along the narrative arch of salvation history as it is presented in the church’s liturgical year. This will directly and objectively invest the chart in the life of the rhythmic church. Thus far we have made only vague intuitive connections between the heavenly bodies and Christan life. These connections are not meaningless and have been being made throughout Christian history. But by applying the church calendar to the cosmic calendar, we are calibrating our tool with precision beyond personal haphazardness.
The readings from the Office of Readings are taken from the Liturgy of the Hours and offer a source from scripture and a source from tradition. The readings for the Liturgy of the Word take place over a three year cycle and provide daily variance longer term. Any standard missile will have these readings available.
There is no “official” promulgated hagiography, but there is a calendar of Saints. At times one can find saints specifically placed on the calendar in order to line up with the liturgical and cosmic season. For example, Saint Nicholas is the bringer of gifts and goodness in dark times of Advent like Christ is the bringer of grace and life through the incarnation of Christmas. Saint Patrick is the green saint of spring, who uses the new emergence of plant life to glorify the Trinity. More often their feast is placed on a date relevant to their life without much of a thematic connection to the seasons. This is not a bad thing. The presence of the seemingly disconnected events of their life can often present serendipitous connections between astro-kinetic activity, the contemplative’s life, and the saint’s life. In these spaces, we can unite relationships with celestial humans to our experience of “the heavens” in extremely effective ways for the betterment of our lives.
To do this research, one can attain the four volume set of the Liturgy of the Hours, (organized by liturgical season) or a simplified version that would contain only the Office of Readings. Next one would need a missile to find the daily readings. Many catholic publishing companies also print simple booklets with the 3 cycles of readings if one wanted to obtain a set. Again, there is no “official” hagiographic compendium. But one can obtain butler’s lives of the saints or any of a number of books of saints. Pious volumes are often organized by calendar date. One can now see that even two decades ago, to practice astro-kinetic contemplation would take a small library and advanced abilities in mathematics and astronomy. Now all one needs is a scrap of paper to draw a chart and a smartphone. For the digitally inclined there are a host of apps that give the contemplative one stop shopping for all three of these sources. I personally use the Laudate app because I find it user friendly. It offers both sets of liturgical readings and access to the saint of the day from catholicsaints.info, which has the most complete listing of saints and hagiographies. I add to the Laudate, Astro Future and Monad to help me chart and Night Sky to help me experience. With tools like these, it takes little to no skill is astronomy or navigation of complex liturgical texts. All the information is immediately present on a given day. All the contemplative needs to do is organize it for their purpose.
Adding these elements we can now construct a template for the astro-kinetic contemplative chart. I have mine constructed in Google Drawing format and make copies in order to chart out each day. It looks something like this:
Each planetary body can be dragged to its house, the phase of the moon entered, and the relevant source information organized in text boxes circling the astro-kinetic contemplative chart. To the right one can see the backgrounds available for liturgical color. Once one is finished this process, it should look something like this:
With the chart complete one can begin to synchronize the astro-kinetic information that we tables out above with they rhythms of the liturgical year in our three sources. So we started with a contemplation on Jupiter and Saturn in a house, and came to a general understanding of new beginnings. NoW we have a letter from Clement telling us of the many ways on the one path. This harmonizes well with a meditation and investment on new beginnings, because it allows for change and flux, while reminding us of the stability Christ offers. This balance keeps us grounded as we proceed. If this is a continuing meditation through the presence of these planets in Aquarius, this daily reading is a good beacon to help us remember that variance, change, and adaptability are not meant to be haphazard. They are ordered to a greater purpose.
The first step in astro-kinetic contemplation, to chart the heavens, is no small task at the beginning. It involves noting the position of the planetary bodies and the quality of the moon. Then the contemplative may benefit from tabling the chart to determine resonances. Lastly, the contemplative will need to read three sets of sources; the Liturgy of the Word, the Office of Readings, and the hagiographies of the day. The entire charting process, done well, would take well over an hour before one even began to contemplate and integrate. But it is the foundation for the contemplation and integration and these, in turn, build upon each other to facilitate the experience of awe in star gazing itself, where one comes into deepest contact with the artist by means of the art.
If one has read this far, one has the basic framework to begin the practice of astro-kinetic contemplation. By the process of charting, contemplating, integrating, and experiencing one can make a simple discipline out of engaging with God’s creation in a way akin to the ancients but imbued with a sense of Christian mystery. The remainder of this treatise will expand and fill out details that may or may not be helpful to any given practitioner before finally commenting on the prayerful aspects of contemplation, integration and experience. Again, there is no set way, rubric, or mechanism. The only way is the via affirmative a way of looking outward to find God.
In the first section, we began by remembering the sacramental nature of creation. We used this to draw attention to how humanity has from time immemorial gazed upon the celestial bodies to both make predictions about their environment and find meaning in life. From there we traced a thumbnail history of astrology and contrasted this with our goal to create a current Christian compatible approach to astro-kinetic contemplation. Next we noted that such a technique could be a valuable evangelical tool given the current interest in astrology. Lastly, we laid out the basic process of astro-kinetic contemplation wherein one charts, contemplates, integrates, and experiences.
In this section, we offered the basic break down of how to create a chart to engage in astro-kinetic contemplation. We discussed the twelve houses of the Zodiac, and offered meanings resonant with astrological significance, but presenting Christan symbols and mysteries. We proceeded to do the same with the planetary bodies and show how to relate the two and table out these meanings in order to begin contemplation. We then added the overlay of the liturgical year and the three sources that give it it’s rhythm, the readings of the Liturgy of the Word, the Office of Readings, and the Hagiographies of the Saints. Lastly, we reminded the reader that contemplation is not absorption. The wealth of information produced is subsidiary to relating to God and investing in life. We offered the last two steps of astro-kinetic contemplation, integration, and experience, to avoid distraction and keep the practitioner on task.
In the last section, we will seek to construct two practical frameworks for the exercise of astro-kinetic contemplation. First we will comment on the possibile practice of The Cosmological Office. Modeled off the Divine Office, The Cosmological Office offers a rhythm of meditations during the day that are ordered according to the seven planetary bodies and the intuitive lessons and integrations garnered from astro-kinetic contemplation. Next, we will discuss the skills of profound elicitation, a deep dive analysis which could be occasionally useful. We will describe two types of profound elicitation, transient, which simply uses the chart of the day, and coordinated, which aligns the daily transient chart with a fixed chart from a date relevant to the contemplation in order to study transit aspects. We will finish by commenting on the deeper prayer of the process, contemplation, integration, and experience. We will attempt to show how contemplation moves one from intellect to intuition. This last part will take us into the mystical experience of prayer and integration. The final realization will be a multicentric cosmology that in turn helps us integrate all our vital rhythms into a whole; the cosmic rhythms, the seasonal rhythms of our planet, the liturgical rhythms of the Church and the rhythms of one’s own moral and spiritual journey.
Astro-Kinetic Contemplation: Daily Methodology and Profound Elicitation
Transversal Theology: Technical Glossary
In the first section, we constructed the foundation for a Christina engagement with astro-kinetic contemplation. In the last section we covered the rudimentary operation of such a contemplation. In this last section we will develop some practical frameworks for the regular and occasional practices of astro-kinetic contemplation and discuss its prayerful engagement
Astro-Kinetic Contemplation and the Cosmological Office
By the end of last section we had reached a point at which we could peacefully contemplate the stars and seek meaning and focus in our lives. In this section we are covering a few advanced skills that relate to the rhythm of how one engages with the chart. How often and with what regularity should one engage in astro-kinetic contemplation? Like most of our questions the answer is going to depend on the contemplative and their relationship with the method. We are here going to offer two approaches that will give the contemplative skills for regular, daily, use and a rarer method for more sporadic or contextualized use.
Astro-kinetic contemplation is a discipline of patients and fortitude. It takes time to craft a chart and contemplatively engage with it. Once the basic work is done, then one will notice, as we said above, the chart itself will not change dramatically over the coming days. Save the lunar aspects, most planetary bodies will mostly remain in their houses day to day. Once one has a sense of the rhythm of the heavens, it may be easier to simply read the three sources and engage on that level with an occasional check in, weekly or even monthly, once one is accustomed to the motion of the stars and bodies.
The stars are patient and steadfast, and so should we be. Just because one is not charting, does not mean that one is not engaging the cosmic signs. By continuing to keep a foot of the three sources, the liturgies and hagiographies, one can engage the day to day flux, while keeping the chart, it’s lessons and engagements, in mind. With a little practice one can see great changes in the chart coming down the road and know when to begin the larger shifts in focus the starts and planets may protend. That said, it can be profitable to continually contemplate the chart visually, because the complexity coupled with personal investment in flux can yield surprising new insights at unexpected times.
If one did want to engage in a daily manner we can suggest one methodology we will call “The Cosmological Office”. Like the Divine Office, this is a meditation that works according to a daily temporal rhythm. But unlike the Divine Office, there is not a rubric for specific forms of prayers. Rather, the rubric of engagements is set by the motion of the heavens. The Cosmological Office also takes seven spaces of prayer a day to pray. One may want to use the same seven place holders as the Divine Office, morning, mid-morning, midday, mid afternoon, evening, eight, and the Office of Readings (mobile). One could even consider the Cosmological Office as a practice working concurrently with one’s practice of the Divine Office.
Instead of the rubrics of the Divine Office, one has prepared for the Cosmological Office by contemplating the astro-kinetic contemplative chart and has seven heavenly bodies arrayed in seven houses. By a simple comparison and contrast between typologies and attributes of the heavenly bodies and the disciplines and practices of the spheres, one can call to mind a focal intention, meditation, or inspiration for various times of the day.
Once one has a good sense of some basic interpretations of the spheres and houses, one would probably not even need any tools to perform this meditation. Most of the heavenly bodies move rather slowly, so the meditation would be fairly stable, slowly changing as the bodies move from house to house. The most rapidly moving body, the moon, would stand in for the office of readings, the variable time, in keeping with its nature. A simple construction of The Cosmological Office would run thusly:
Table 3: The Cosmological Office
Of course, the categories of comparison do not need to be the same as here. One may flip flop typologies and attributes, decide to take the phase of the moon into account, or find ways to invest any of the other data offered thus far on the charts and tables.
With this chart, one would simply fill in the houses and disciplines to begin a regular meditation, then update it as the heavens change. One can see how the chart divides between gender duality (Mars and Venus) and the dynamic of flux and stasis (Saturn and Jupiter). These principles are anchored with Christ in the center as the cosmic order (the Logos) which appears at the greatest point of light in the day. The day ends with Mercury as a meditation on the communion or relationship between these dualities, and their union in Christ. Lastly, there is the variable prayer, the Moon or Mary who appears where needed to offer a dynamic and peculiar insight. As one brings these to mind one can bounce these concepts off what is happening in one’s day now, what has happened during the day, what one expects to happen for the rest of the day.
The Cosmological Office facilitates regular connection between the inner self and the outer cosmos. It is a constant check-in to focus the contemplative on their spiritual life by use of the cosmic order. This attunes the contemplative to extension. That is to say, it attunes the contemplative to the fact that they move inwardly, but to the order of the outer, that is, the transcendent God. The concept of “the outer” can be lost on the contemplative who “goes within” to find a relation to the divine. Astro-kinetic contemplation and the Cosmological Office maneuver the contemplative to an experience of the three tiered integration of the self by means of their practice. Otherwise, there may be a risk of solipsism or self validation. The imposed order of the heavens is a good check on such self reliance. In fact, an excellent added mediation is during the “experience phase” of astro-kinetic contemplation. There are events that can be seen, and events that are taken on faith, because the sun shines while they happen. Empirically, these events cannot be validated by the senses, only by math. This reminds the contemplative that human knowledge and experience are extremely limited. Sometimes divine light hides these realities from us for our own protection and we can only guess at their existence.
Astro-Kinetic Contemplation and Profound Elicitation
At times it may help to take a deep dive into mediation on a situation or one’s regard for one’s life. Again, here we are not talking about divination or fortune telling, but a focal technique that helps one organize one’s thought by the order of the cosmos. One familiar with astrology will be familiar with the concept of aspects on a chart. Aspects are the angles between the planetary bodies that come to have significance as astrologers apply their craft. This becomes technical and convoluted in the actual practice of astrology. Our aim here is to take the basic awareness of aspects and transits and open them up to the contemplative process of astro-kinetics that we have been discussing. We will call this technique “profound elicitation”.
Profound elicitation is not something one would do every day. More likely it is a practice reserved for when one is moved to ponder deep mysteries such as a retreat, or one feels a particularly intense need to inspire spiritual contemplation, such as a doldrum of existential angst. The operation of profound elicitation begins with grasping a basic understanding of the “aspects” of astrology and how we can use them according to our methods of astro-kinetic contemplation. We will discuss two types of aspects, the intuitive aspects (conjunctions and oppositions) and aspects whose meaning requires a basic understanding of elemental symbology. This process is an analysis that takes a little time but offers a little more stimulation than the wealth already offered by the standard chart.
The first two aspects are the most simple and easiest to intuit meaning from. They are the conjunction and the opposition. A conjunction is when two planetary bodies align exactly in the same house at 0°. Generally, when conjunctions occur it is seen as an opportunity to consider confluential traits. So for example, if Venus and the Moon end up in conjunction, it can be an invitation to focus on femininity as an inspirant for contemplation and integration. Whereas, upon a conjunction of Venus and Mars, one may perceive an opportunity to consider personal gender dynamics as an inspirant for contemplation and integration. And, of course, one can consider the house where the opposition occurs in order to add insight by the house's peculiar influence on the situation.
An opposition is when two planetary bodies align in houses on the opposite ends of the chart at 180°. When oppositions occur it is seen as an opportunity to consider polarity. So to use the same examples as above, should one find Venus and the Moon in opposition, one may consider the difference between femininity as it personally manifests and femininity as “cosmic yin”, or one may consider Mary as humble and faithful, verses Sarah who takes charge and is assertive. Again, if one were to find Mars and Venus in opposition their diametric qualities are to be considered. Contemplation on the differences between masculinity and femininity, how these realities, as present in one’s life, are affecting one topic of contemplation, how they are varying inspirations, and how the two, as opposed, are working in harmony in one’s life. An opposition is an excellent inspirant for contemplating cross-spectral mutual pedagogy.
The three other most common aspects, which align elementally, are the trine, the square, and the sextile. The trine is a line of 120° and thus could be used to form an equilateral triangle in the circle of the vault, either between the two planets and the axis or three planets in a “grand trine”. The easiest way to look for trines is to realize that they will occupy houses three full houses in between them.
Plants in trine will appear in houses with the same elemental significance. We have not much discussed the four elements regarding symbols and meaning, but they were widely regarded as having particular associations in the classical world, including in Christian cultures. The classic implications of those elements can be inspirationally brought to bear in contemplation if one constructs a framework out of classic Greek through Renaissance thought concerning what they could imply for one’s life. Because of the elemental alignment of trine, the generally astrological meaning is one of harmony. With a trine, one is presented with an opportunity to contemplate elements of the bodies and how they complement each other. This could be by relating any qualities from the charts above while taking into consideration the element and the specific houses involved.
So, for example, if one had a trine between Mercury in Capricorn and Venus in Virgo, one has a fascinating trine inspiring reflection on varieties of sacrifice. We linked Mercury to Elijah and Mercury to Sarah. Elijah sacrifices a bull on Mount Carmel and Sarah makes bread for the three angelic visitors. Both animal and cereal offerings are offered in houses that bolster those prospective sacrifices. In this case, we can use the scriptures and the celestial motions to contemplate an aligning compatibility between offering to God in various ways and for various motivations as a harmonious communication system that helps humanity relate to divinity.
A square is when two planets align at 90°. At 90°, if we had a grand square of four planets (also known as a grand cross, each of which would have the four 90° angles), the planets creating them would occupy signs of each element. In simple terms, if one goes around the houses, one skips two houses and in the “third house away” one is moving into “square” territory. The square (as the four corners of the Earth) and the four elements (of which the Earth is made) are two attributes that connect the number four to the concept of “the world” in numerology. In this case, the planetary bodies are aligning in contrary ways and generally in astrology a square impies conflictual relationships. For the purposes of astro-kinetic contemplation, one can use the square to accentuate diametric elements in planetary bodies similar to an opposition, but in this case, the two qualities one is interpreting are in tension or off balance instead of being in harmony or operating as a compatibility.
So, let’s take the same example of Mercury and Venus as having sacrificial qualities based on the typologies. With Mercury Elijah in the House of Taurus, we can retain our sense of ritual sacrifice as a communication with divinity. In this case especially, ritual is a regular steady engagement that follows rules and is invested in by how it is defined. But if we move Venus as Sara into a square in the house of Cancer, we can draw out the intuitive element of sacrifice. Her sacrifice is done as an act of hospitality to travelers, not out of any sense of duty or by any defined ritual rubrics. The two are in tension, each offering good things, but as the contemplative engages, one may resonate more than the other and the other may be causing problems that are solved by the one. So, for example, if one is veering to an extreme in spirituality, one way or another, the focus on the tension may help bring one back in alignment.
The last aspect we will discuss is the sextile. A sextile is when two planets align at a 60° angle. In this case, to work across the chart, one would skip one house and end up in the next. To follow this pattern, one will see that in a grand sextile, six planetary bodies alining at 60° each, all three of the houses each of two elements would be occupied. This shows a complete elemental cooperation. And opens the opportunity for an extremely profound and complex set of interpretations of the inter-relations of these bodies. But short of a grand sextile, a single alignment indicates a “lesser cooperation” between the two.
In summery, a conjunction is confluence (commit together: like making a child), an opposition is polarity (standing apart and regarding one another). A Trine is harmonious (working and edifying each other's strengths). A Square is conflict (weakening each other's strengths or accenting each other's weaknesses). And now we have a sextile which is “flow”; a focus on the back and forth relationship between the two houses and how they operate in what is symbolized by the bodies. Sextiles work such that fire elements flow with air and earth elements flow with water, which makes sense in every way. Physically fire and air need each other and are ethereal, where earth and water are mass elements that soak and blend. Fire and air are traditionally masculine and earth and water are traditionally feminine and their “meanings” as elements in esoteric thought generally align as such.
One last time we will take Mercury and Venus as Elijah and Sarah interpreted as varying forms of sacrifice. Let’s keep Mercury Elijah as the sign of ritual sacrifice in the house of Taurus. We will place Venus as Sarah in Pisces in a sextile with Mercury. Now we have in Pisces as a deep investment in reflective intuition and contemplative prayer and the femininity of Venus and Sarah as the Matriarch of Israel are accentuated. The two signs are water and earth so they speak to intuition in service of corporeal and physical engagement. The “flow” of this sextile brings to mind how one is using ritual life as a deep connection to the divine and not simply an operation of a rubric. Ritual is exterior, but the connection sought is spiritual. There is a danger of over focusing on ritual action and law to the detriment of the actual goal, a connection with transcendence. With this sextile, one can be inspired to focus on the back and forth it takes between the physical and the intuitive connection to transcendence needed to achieve a fully balanced and functioning ritual life.
How and when would a contemplative need to engage in such a detailed analysis of an astro-kinetic contemplative chart? First, profound elicitation, being as it is “profound”, does not need to be done often. It is easy to get wrapped up in the performance of mental gymnastics of interpretation in order to impress one’s self. To avoid this, profound elicitation should be saved for times when one is in need of applying any lessons one may garner. Examples would be a deeper sense of spiritual need, or an event such as a retreat or important date or feast.
One can approach profound elicitation in two ways, the first way, which we will call transient profound elicitation, simply uses the chart of the day and lines out the angles of the aspects. If one were going on a week long retreat one may chart out the week. From contemplating this one could get a sense of the prevalent themes of the week and any large celestial motions and relationships that may take place. Then one precedes from contemplation to integration of any of these new insights or practices that may augment the retreat.
The second type of profound elicitation we are calling coordinated profound elicitation. This mimics the basic method of classical astrology. In classical astrology, the guiding principle in one’s life is the natal chart, that is, the chart of the day one was born. When one overlays the natal chart with a chart of what is happening at present this configuration is called the “transit” chart. Classical astrology operated by analyzing the aspects between the transit planetary bodies and the fixed position of the planetary bodies at birth. Astro-kinetic contemplation is not classical astrology. It does not use the chart to predict or calculate determination. But the reader will by now know that we are using all of the techniques of astrology to a contemplative end. Our freedom, though chaotic if not operating in the Holy Spirit, allows us to choose our fixed date. So, one may use one’s birthday as a regular meditation to calibrate transit aspects. Or in our freedom, we could use the same methodology to contemplate otherwise. Astro-kinetics is so perfectly ordered that computers can calculate the geo-centric chart of any precise date. One can choose any significant date as the calibrator for coordinated profound elicitation.
So, for example, if one were going into Christmas, one could easily get the chart of December 25 1AD. Of course, this is not the exact date Christ was born, but the reader will remember that astro-kinetic contemplation is a focal technique, not an objective predictor or discovery tool of determinants. With that chart in hand, one can go into the Christmas season to do a coordinated profound elicitation between Christmas as it was, fixed in 1AD and Christmas now could yield interesting fodder for meditation. The goal is contemplation, which is a mental experience, but also integration, which is seeking ways to engage the holiday based on spiritual practices or discipline relevant to the interpretation. Lastly, we cannot forget “experience”. After contemplation and considering integration, one should walk out Christmas eve, morning or evening, and stargaze. This experiential connects one to the event because stars and planets we see are the same that Mary and Joseph saw, that Jesus saw and that the magi saw. The awe of such realization is increased after the process of contemplation and integration. The tools are there to evoke a mystical experience of relating to Christ and in the Spirit, moving through him to the Father.
One could perform coordinated profound elicitation for any holiday of feast day. One could use it going into Easter as easy as going into Christmas. One could use it for a Saintly feast day that one is particularly invested in. One could use it for events in one’s own life, such as baptism and the renewal of baptismal vows on becoming a Godparent. Astro-kinetic contemplation has a host of applications, even beyond what we have discussed here. Transient and coordinated profound elicitation are deep dive methods for focus investment and experience. The Cosmological Office is a tool of regular stable anchoring of existential meaning, spiritual discipline and practices. But these are only two possibilities. Astro-kinetic contemplation is not one practice or another. At its base, it is a recognition that we are part of this creation, which speaks to us of the glory of God. It is a means of listening. But that means takes into account that the message is received in the Spirit and thus is heard differently by different people.
Astro-Kinesis and Prayer: Contemplation, Integration, and Experience
Having spent so much time on methods for organizing, researching, learning, and “connecting” we must take a small amount of time, here at the end, to remind the reader that this is a process of prayer. The prayer of astro-kinetic contemplation takes place in the last three portions of the process, contemplation, integration and experience. The goal of this last part is to move from cognition to awe of God and an experience of integration in God’s plan and his creation. The contemplation takes place after one has organized one’s astro-kinetic contemplative chart. In this prayer, contemplation forms a bridge between cognition and intuition. Once all the organizing, learning and thinking is done, contemplation transitions to an intuitive search for connective meaning and/or application. Astro-kinetic contemplation is not a simple absorption of material. One may make several connections by analytical cognition and form a grand synthesis of self-referential meaning for the chart. But, what is it for? How does it lead one to God? How is one using this to relate to God?
When one begins the practice of astro-kinetic contemplation it can be overwhelming. This chart provides one with a deluge of information to take in. The process of tabling out the chart and reading the various sources is meant to prime the brain and the soul for inspiration. However, when it comes to the actual contemplation and integration, the entire process may be gone through in order to glean only a small part of that information for use. One will notice the panoramic amount of information in the complete chart we presented above, compared to how our previous example all came down to the simple fact that Saturn and Jupiter coexist at present in the house of Aquarius. If one finds a good inspiration or application for this in one’s life by contemplation, then a great success has been achieved. Contemplation is not concerned with efficiency, nor does it have a metric for it. The fodder gone unused today, may surface, even unconsciously, three weeks from now as an inspirant. Or it may have been a ladder to some other insight. Or it simply may not be important for how God is seeking to relate to the contemplative. One cannot fret about waste when engaging in contemplation. In this type of contemplation, process is equal to or superior to product, because the process, in large part, is the product.
One effect of astro-kinetic contemplation is to let us know that we have meaning and value in the cosmos, but it is also doubly diminutive. This first diminution happens in contemplation when we let go. The knowledge we acquired is true and good. But can we let all of that go in order to reach a useful meaning the suits our particular condition? Or will we be tantalized by ever increasing knowledge and become trapped in our own cognitive abilities? As John the Baptists said, “He must increase, I must decrease.” This glimpse into the collective grandeur of the church’s tradition and the cosmic order calibrates us to our own smallness. If we grasp at an ever increasing posture of acquiring knowledge, our contemplation has failed. At this point one must leave behind the totality, grateful that God is in control and there are many aspects of creation beautifully operating in harmony that we are unaware of. We must now focus on our own extremely small part.
We will not set out here, nor likely anywhere, to compile a rubric for how to engage in this contemplation that will reach “objective” ends mechanically. This contemplation sets conditions for observation then utilizes intuitive connections. It is the intuition that is open to the operation of the spirit. That is to say, it depends profoundly on one’s relationship with God. If one feels anxiety about needing to incorporate the whole chart, or this or that aspect, that anxiety should indicate a need to leave that part alone, at least for now. True contemplation should bring consolation and joy, not anxiety or grasping. Once the foundational cerebral work is done the intuitive work begins.
One may be looking for particular insight, or one may let the chart and intuition guide one to a significance of import. There are many types of insight one could attain. One could land on a thematic resonance for the day, something to recall and focus on over the course of a month (if for example, the resonance is a planetary body in a house). One could intuit a theological or spiritual skill or discipline that one may need to use in a certain aspect of one’s life based on relationships on the chart. Such an insight is not predictive nor is it the stars “giving advice” as sentient beings or necessarily auspicious signs for the auguries. They are simply concepts that are of universal importance (archetypes, typologies, and common experiences) doing a dance. Their interrelationships are noticed because our life aligns with these universal profound meanings, methods, and typologies. But these meanings are profound because God made us such that they are integral to how we live our lives in search of communion with him and with each other. So they are not to be ignored. Astro-kinetic contemplation as a focal methodology is inspiritive of such common meanings so that we can open ourselves up to God’s will and respond to it by means of our will. This practice assumes a relationship with God, who is the center of the contemplative life.
Then cognition and intuition synthesize to meet pragmatic application, a resolve toward spiritual discipline or acts of charity appropriate to one’s insight. By saying that contemplation should lead to an integration, we most simply mean that it should affect one’s life outside of the strict practice of charting, contemplation, and experiencing. Most of the techniques and examples we used drew on spiritual practices and disciplines. These are present in order to extend astro-kinetic contemplation beyond the borders of itself as a discipline. How is one using the practice of astro-kinetic contemplation to be a better Christian? The contemplation leads one to seek what God is calling one to do in one’s life. One can use the stars to “realize” any number of amazing connections between one’s life and God or one’s neighbor. But if one is not using this knowledge to practice expressing love, then the entire contemplation has been a mental exercise that will die the participant. One can use the stars to “realize” any number of amazing self discoveries concerning the lack or merit of the spiritual life. But if one does not use these discoveries to improve their prayer life and spiritual disciplines, then, again, all the work has been in vain, literal vanity. Astro-kinetic contemplation is work that begets work, but the work brings joy and peace and should affect the life of the practitioner. A good Christian will have certainly already considered this by other means and have pre existing views. Astro-kinetic contemplation is simply one more tool of prayer to help with discernment.
The last aspect of integration we mentioned at the opening of the treatise, the integration of self into the cosmic order. There we noted how the visual aspect of audio-visual cognitive integration connects one to the furthest reaches of the cosmos, and places those elements into the interio aspects of one’s beings. This concept sounds technical, mystical, interesting, and useless. But it is not meant to be such. The regular rhythm of investment is meant to give one a sense of the “entirety” of the cosmos against the current empirical narrative that the cosmos are “too vast, and oriented beyond your grasp”. These facts may be ultimately true, but we know this because along with the via affirmative, there is the via negative. We are now reaching out to find God as he and we exist in our phenomenological experience of the world. By that our last exercise is one of experience.
If we have become enamored with our intellectual prowess when making cognitive and intuitive connections in contemplation, all of this should melt away for a moment as one gazes at the actual vault. It is in this moment that all of these self impressive machinations become, for lack of a better word, small. Staring at the actual glory of creation should awake in us awe and humility. When we, at the end, stargaze, we are reminded of how small a part of God’s creation we are. This is the second great diminution of astro-kinetic contemplation. First we let go of knowledge we attained. Now we are shrunken by our place in the cosmos. But, if scripture is any indication, when one truly sacrifices, God ultimately returns more so, maybe not in the way one expects, but there is return.
Once one is calibrated to their small state, they can then take in the order. One can look at a circle in the sky delving below the skyline and back up the other side. The houses one has been contemplating “in theory” are all there rung around the observer, with various planets wandering to and fro. One, through awe, can situation one’s self in the center of the cosmic order, again, in direct defiance of a more modern empirical cosmology. Modern “astronomy” seeks only to understand the motion. It has been obsessed with removing the personal relationship of the human to the cosmos, first by a heliocentric alienation, then by a galactocentric alienation. The world does not “revolve around you”. But, when we gaze at the stars, it seems clear that everything revolves around our point of view. Astrology seeks not just fact force and motion, but meaning and relationship. We do live in a vast universe, but we also live in a creation created by a God who personally cares for us. He orders all of creation and lets us see it in two ways. First we see it as order around us, such that we know we are loves. Then we see it ordered as transcendent so that we can love back in humility. Brought low, now we are lifted up, only to be brought low again, because our point of view is not the only point of view. Christianty is a religion where persons, as interpersonal beings relate to other persons. In our experience of stargazing we should realize with humility that each person sees the same as we do. Each person can be the axis upon which the entire cosmos revolves.
When one encounters a friend, an enemy, an honorable person, a disreputable person, each of these is a person. Each of these persons are beings who can look out and be ringed by meaning and find glory in the vault. Each of these people will have a different experience that me or the reader. All the information we jettisoned in the sacrifice of contemplation they may give them keen investment. Beyond that, we have not even touched upon what these meditation could symbolize in the Southern Hemisphere, much less another planet. Then the expansion of information in our pathetic chart comes crashing down upon the experient. All of these complex meanings we did not even take into account are there for all humanity, were only a small part. The entire cosmos swirls from billions of points of view.
Through humility we can come to grasp a true multicentric cosmology. The Universe is galactocentric, heliocentric, geocentric, and anthropocentric because in the final analysis it is theo-centric and God abides in and loves all of his creation. And we come lastly to God’s ineffable point of view. He sees all points of view and all meanings and how all interrelate. Our job at this point is to stop gazing and begin the interrelation that God desires. Can we find the pieces that fit with our contemplation and synchronize meaning like so many planets and stars or so many converging rings of the zodiac. Can we integrate our contemplation into our lives?
At this point we have moved far beyond cognition and into a mystical space. This makes writing difficult, because mystical experience is beyond rational thought. But we can bring this experience of cosmic integration and interpersonal union back into a very familiar framework. That framework is the church, as a body that is invested in and lives by liturgy. The communion of the mythical body pulsates and gyrates according to liturgical rhythm based on the seasons and stars. This is why the three sources of the astro-kinetic contemplative chart, the readings of the Liturgy of the Word, the Office of Readings, and the lives of the saints, is so integral to astro-kinetic contemplation. As one practices from day to day, month to month, year to year, one will begin to intuitively synchronize these rhythms together and feel a grand harmony between the cosmic order, the seasonal order of our planet, the liturgical order of the Church and the order of one’s own moral and spiritual journey. This is the true integration we are seeking through astro-kinetic contemplation. Awe and humility are the highest virtues connecting us to God. With these as gifts we can then turn to God’s creation and through the Church exercise discipline and charity with a renewed sense of cooperative grace over simple self reliance.
In this section, we sought to construct two practical frameworks for the exercise of astro-kinetic contemplation. First, we commented on the possible practice of The Cosmological Office. Modeled off the Divine Office, The Cosmological Office offers a rhythm of meditations during the day that are ordered according to the seven planetary bodies and the intuitive lessons and integrations garnered from astro-kinetic contemplation. Next, we discussed the skills of profound elicitation, a deep dive analysis which would be occasionally useful. We described two types of profound elicitation, transient, which simply uses the chart of the day and coordinated, which aligned the daily transient chart with a fixed chart from a date relevant to the contemplation in order to study transit aspects. We finished by commenting on the deeper prayer of the process, contemplation, integration, and experience. This last part took us into the mystical experience of prayer and integration. The final realization was a multicentric cosmology that in turn helps us integrate all our vital rhythms into a whole; the cosmic rhythms, the seasonal rhythms of our planet, the liturgical rhythms of the Church, and the rhythms of one’s own moral and spiritual journey.
Transversal Theology: Technical Glossary
Conclusion
In the first section, we began by remembering the sacramental nature of creation. We used this to draw attention to how humanity has from time immemorial gazed upon the celestial bodies to both make predictions about their environment and find meaning in life. From there we traced a thumbnail history of astrology and contrasted this with our goal to create a current Christian compatible approach to astro-kinetic contemplation. Next, we noted that such a technique could be a valuable evangelical tool given the current interest in astrology. Lastly, we laid out the basic process of astro-kinetic contemplation wherein one charts, contemplates, integrates, and experiences.
In the second section, we offered the basic breakdown of how to create a chart to engage in astro-kinetic contemplation. We discussed the twelve houses of the Zodiac, and offered meanings resonant with astrological significance, but presenting Christan symbols and mysteries. We proceeded to do the same with the planetary bodies and show how to relate the two by “tabling out” these meanings in order to begin contemplation. We then added the overlay of the liturgical year and the three sources that give it its rhythm, the readings of the Liturgy of the Word, the Office of Readings, and the Hagiographies of the Saints. Lastly, we reminded the reader that contemplation is not absorption. The wealth of information produced is subsidiary to relating to God and investing in life. We offered the last two steps of astro-kinetic contemplation, integration, and experience, to avoid distraction and keep the practitioner on task.
In the last section, we sought to construct two practical frameworks for the exercise of astro-kinetic contemplation. First, we commented on the possible practice of The Cosmological Office. Modeled off the Divine Office, The Cosmological Office offers a rhythm of meditations during the day that is ordered according to the seven planetary bodies and the intuitive lessons and integrations garnered from astro-kinetic contemplation. Next, we discussed the skills of profound elicitation, a deep dive analysis which would be occasionally useful. We described two types of profound elicitation, transient, which simply uses the chart of the day and coordinated, which aligned the daily transient chart with a fixed chart from a date relevant to the contemplation in order to study transit aspects. We finished by commenting on the deeper prayer of the process, contemplation, integration, and experience. We attempted to show how contemplation moves one from intellect to intuition. This last part took us into the mystical experience of prayer and integration. The final realization of a multicentric cosmology that in turn helps us integrate all our vital rhythms into a whole; the cosmic rhythms, the seasonal rhythms of our planet, the liturgical rhythms of the Church, and the rhythms of one’s own moral and spiritual journey.
The skills in this treatise are meant to enliven and make use of a deep and ingrained urge toward finding meaning in the celestial bodies. In modern times finding that meaning is considered foolish by the empiricist and branded demonic by the pious Christian. But for most of human history, it has been seen as neither of these. Rather the vault and the planetary bodies have been a place to look for meaning and signs. This treatise has sought to consider a way of approaching these same goals, but for this present time. The approach is dynamic and would need to be systematized by the practitioner for their life and their experience. But the hope is we have opened the door for the use of astro-kinetic observation as a place to turn for intuitive inspiration and focus when seeking a relationship with God.
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