JOURNEY IN THE STARRY FIELD

par Alain Roussel

15 novembre 2020

This article appeared in the journal Signe ascendant (Fabrice Pascaud) number 1, autumn 2010

I became acquainted with astrology in 1965. I had just turned seventeen. I was living in Boulogne-sur-Mer, my hometown. I often went to the municipal library, directed at the time by Louis Seguin, whom many film enthusiasts know thanks to his collaboration, over many years, with the journal "Positif". It was quite an exceptional library, for its quality and diversity. Passionate about Eastern spiritualities and esotericism, I diligently searched through the files, under the suspicious and visibly annoyed eye of the clerk who had to regularly go to the "reserve" to fetch me all these books with a sulfurous smell that decidedly were "not for my age". I no longer remember the first book I borrowed concerning astrology. But it was at that time that the desire to know more led me to a small bookstore where I could order books by Julevno, Max Heindel, Georges Muchery, Robert Ambelain and a few others.

Thus, using the so-called "Raphael" ephemerides, I began, ardently and patiently, to construct astral charts. In the naivety of my youth, I believed that I would know everything about the psychology of my "clients" and that the Future would open its doors to me, with the same arithmetical rigor with which I had drawn up the sky maps, just reward for my labor. I had to quickly become disillusioned. I nevertheless persevered in the following years, broadening my knowledge through reading André Barbault, Hadès, Choisnard, Rolt-Wheeler, Volguine, the Cahiers Astrologiques of which I still possess a collection. I also studied it in the close relationships it maintained with Magic, religions and especially Alchemy, whose operations take place under certain celestial configurations as the spagyrist Armand Barbault, André's brother and moreover an excellent astrologer, has shown very well in "L'or du millième matin".

Poetry and writing taking up my time, I have sometimes neglected, over time, this "very great lady, very beautiful and come from so far away", as André Breton once said in an interview with Jean Carteret. But I regularly return to visit her. She holds certain forgotten keys to symbolism. In her company, I exercise to the best of my ability this faculty of analogy that contemporary modes of reasoning have so often undermined. Regulated by Number and Rhythm, it introduces order into chaos and initiates me, despite the dissonances, to a kind of universal harmony. In a word, astrology brings me Meaning and gives me the impression, in my place of space and time, however restricted it may be, of being part of a whole. If I consider it as a language, I must admit that it has, like any language, its share of arbitrariness, at least conventional. But this share is not at the same level. In language, the signified is "the psychic representation of the thing". It is constructed by the senses from things, and therefore presents a kind of objective, I would say natural representation. It is the link between the signifier and the signified which, in language, is arbitrary. In astrology, it is often the opposite. For example, the planetary signifier ♄ evokes quite precisely its signified, the Greco-Roman mythological god, Saturn, who is represented holding a scythe in his hand. This time, unlike language, it is the link between the signified and the thing that is arbitrary: Saturn, as a mythical god, has nothing to do with the planet Saturn as Astronomy describes it.

I do not completely exclude a real influence of the planets which, in any case, is undeniable for the luminaries, sun and moon. This possibility has been defended by eminent astrologers, including among the most ancient, including the famous and enigmatic Ptolemy. But I find it more stimulating to put into play, in interpretation, one of the most fundamental mechanisms of the mind: analogical functioning. To name is to call into existence. By giving the name of mythological deities to the planets, we confer upon them the same power. They are no longer planets, but gods who act, with their alliances, their affinities, their discords. They reign over certain places in the zodiac, but can also be in disgrace. It is therefore necessary to know mythology well to interpret a chart.

Thus Mercury is the protector of travelers, merchants and, also in a certain way, of thieves. He is moreover the god of eloquence who, in a chart, can make orators, and a messenger by his attributes: his winged sandal allows him symbolically to travel between heaven and earth, and the caduceus is a key with which he opens the door of the Underworld, that is to say the subterranean world.

Saturn is only too often considered under its negative aspect of "old man with the scythe", which would be linked to the inexorable aspects of time and death. This is forgetting that, chased from Olympus by his son Jupiter, he came to take refuge on earth and settled, welcomed by Janus, on the Capitoline, at the site of future Rome. His reign was that of a veritable golden age. He gave laws to the men who lived in this place and taught them agriculture. It is even, moreover, for this reason, too often ignored, that the scythe figures among his attributes. In astrology, this civilizing side of Saturn, dispenser of happiness, must not be occulted. Moreover, it is interesting to note that, in mythology, Saturn is the friend of Janus who presides, as his name indicates, over the month of January, marking the beginning of the new year. Janus indeed wears a double face: one turned towards the past year, the other towards the coming year. This same month is also, for a large part, that of Capricorn, domicile of Saturn. In symbolism, such a "coincidence" cannot be gratuitous. The same logic almost naturally associates Aquarius with the month of February which comes from the Latin februarius, "purification".

These are only a few examples. They have the value of incitement to a vaster research. I am certain that astrologers will find advantage in drawing from this mythological material at the source of their art. It has not been sufficiently exploited or, if it has been, it is only too often through clichés. Everything begins with the name. By conferring the name of gods upon the planets, man has given them soul, in the non-religious sense, and this soul is indissolubly linked with our most hidden representation of the world, with our unconscious in its individual and cosmic dimensions. It is in this sense that astrology can become a sacred science again.

Alain Roussel (June 2010)