On Sunday, September 19th I was invited by my friend Giorgio Tarditi Spagnoli to join him in his annual path of anthroposophical meetings called “Vivente Antroposofia” (Living Anthroposophy) to talk about the Archangel Michael (who’s now ascended to the spheres of the Archai, the Spirits of Time). The event was hosted on Opera Omnia Online, a project by Antonio Passarelli.
While Giorgio introduced us to the rich symbolical meanings of the sword and the scale, walking us through the Mysteries of Mithras and the Myth of Perseus, I focused more on the Astrosophical perspective.
In this article I’m going to briefly describing my contribute to the session we led together, which in my opinion turned out to be a beautiful tribute to the forces of this high spiritual being.
Raffaello, 1506
Michaelmas 2021, Choosing the right moment
What we want to do in this article is take a look to the chart of the festival of Michael, which falls on September 29th (today!). So in order to have a chart to work on, we had to choose the very moment in which Michael’s day begins. As you may know, astrology is an Art of Time, and the moment an event begins (whatever it is) describes its whole potential.
So we decided to take the very beginning of the day, but understood from an esoteric perspective. Traditionally, this moment corresponds to the sunset of the previous day. That is September 28th at 18:57, Rome (Italy).
September 28th at 18:57, Rome (Italy)
CHART FROM ASTRO.COM
Please note that this chart should remain more or less the same, with no evident variation, according to your location, adjusting it to the moment of sunset. In other words, it should be valid for almost any location on Earth (I checked from New York to Tokyo and it should work).
Since the chart of this moment describes a spiritual event, following the impulse of the Three Zodiacs I’ve decided to represent all three levels of manifestation:
- The Constellations of the Sidereal Zodiac — The Spiritual World
- The Zodiac Signs of the Tropical Zodiac — The Soul World
- The Astrological Houses — The Physical World
Please note that this is a relatively new impulse which I’m trying to bring to this blog. So far, looking at all three levels of manifestation is not something I came across very often. So please consider this as an attempt to describe the descent of a spiritual impulse, passing through the Soul World to reach the Earth.
Michael with the Drawn Sword
In this type of chart (the sunset of September 28th), we’re always going to find the Sun setting in Libra (on the descendant, at the right) filtering the cosmic impulse of the constellation of the Virgin, in the background. This is a reference to the tight bond between Michael and the cosmic impulse of the Virgin Sophia, the Divine Wisdom.
But what’s peculiar in this year chart, is the Mars-Sun conjunction. The warrior impulse coming from Mars, joins the solar powers of the Archangel of the Sun. We also know from Steiner’s lectures that the sphere of Mars is the place where the “Battle in Heavens” took place during the Ancient Moon. Simply put, Mars is the archetypical sphere of any conflict.
With good reason we can picture Michael with the sword drawn, challenging the Dragon more intensely than usual. Please note that Michael is “the face of the Christ”, so the type of conflict it brings consists in overwhelming our inferior nature—and not raging war against other people.
This intention is also pointed out by the conjunction of the Sun with the star Zaniah, of the constellation of the Virgin. We don’t have a coherent tradition when we refer to the fixed stars. But Ptolemy attributed it the nature of Mercury and Venus, and it refers to the impulse of negotiating peace.
The Wet Nature of the Dragon
As you can see in the chart above, I’ve put only the seven classical planets. The only planet below the horizon is the Moon, entering its third quarter phase. Uranus is below the horizon as well, but for this chart I’ve decided to stick to the seven classical planets only.
The Moon is waning, bringing more and more darkness in the night, challenging the Sun and Mars with a square thrown through the Earth, from below (the crescent, in the lower part of the chart) .
When a planet is below the horizon, its impulse filters through the Earth and can be grasped by telluric powers. The relationship between the Moon and the Dragon is particularly evident in the lunar nodes (the head and tail of the Dragon). But in anthroposophical terms, we usually talk about the “sclerotic” (hardening) powers of the lunar forces leading to an Ahrimanic effect.
It’s very interesting noticing that this Moon has just entered the constellation of the Twins, and acts through the tropical sign of Cancer. The Twins carries a spiritual impulse that’s a request to awaken the forces of the I. This can be accomplished also by confronting the Doppelgänger, the Double, the “mortal twin”, our shadow.
The Moon in Mundane Astrology always represents the people. People scared from the Dragon, looking for protection in Cancer elements such as nationalism, or the forces of soul groups in general.
This means that this fall the Ahrimanic temptation will consist in inducing us to adhere mainly to group perspectives, instead of evaluating situations according to our own individuality.
The forces of the Dragon, rising from the ground, bear this wet nature of the Moon (Cancer) which, diminishing its light more and more, challenges the Sun forces. The Sun-Michael impulse wants to bring peace and balance, and through this balance allowing us to develop forces of the I.
In Conclusion
This fall has begun with Mercury retrograde in Libra closing the Triangle of Air, which brings misunderstandings in the relationships with others. And we also know that this fall another wave of the Saturn-Uranus Square is going to show up.
Reading the heavenly writing on Michaelmas allows us to get a spiritual insight on this situation. We are going to be tempted to polarize our opinion about the current situation. Black or white—no middle ground (the Sun in Libra ground) will be allowed. This for our own good, for our own protection (Moon in Cancer). The strength of the group becomes a tempting muse.
But an impulse that tends towards the individuality of the I judges situations according to specific and real conditions, and not according to a collective, general feeling. What do you think—and feel—is the right thing to do, for you? Not in general, but for your specific situation. In a balanced perspective, forces of individuality can manifest.
Thanks for reading, as always if you enjoyed this article please subscribe to the Astronomicon Newsletter with the bar at the top of the website to receive weekly updates and not to miss future posts about the main festivals of the year. Thanks again and have a good week.
I consider myself a free researcher in western spiritual disciplines, in particular Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy and the Neoplatonic Hermetic tradition. I have a three-year training in Astrology at the CIDA delegation of Trieste, the Italian Center for Astrological Disciplines. I graduated in Computer Engineering from the University of Trieste.
