Blavastky on astrology 1

Quite a few theosophists have contributed to the modern resurgence of astrology, such as Sepharial, Alan Leo, Marc Edmund Jones and Dane Rudhyar. Blavatsky made some significant efforts to rehabilitate astrology as well, both eastern and western. She might not have been favorable to the more commercial ‘career, money, romance’ aspect of contemporary popular astrology, as she stressed the spiritual and  philosophical aspects, which should ideally be pursued in the pure spirit of the discipline of initiation that this sacred science originally pertained to.

 “If all that is said in the article be true, it only confirms what has been stated often in these columns, that although the science of astrology is based upon mathematical calculations, it is impossible that the precise results of each of the innumerable combinations which may occur could be calculated and written down by any mortal man, and that, therefore, in order that his astrological predictions may be correct, the astrologer must be versed not only in the science of astrology, but also in its art, that is to say, by purity of life, thought and deed he must develop his clairvoyant perceptions so far as to be able to take note of the minutest combinations possible in every individual case, and the effects they produce on one another.” [The Theosophist, Vol. VI, No. 6(66), March, 1885, p. 131]

“In short, true Astrology is a mathematical science, which teaches us what particular causes will produce what particular combinations, and thus, understood in its real significance, gives us the means of obtaining the knowledge how to guide our future births. True, such astrologers there are but few: but are we justified in condemning the science of electricity because there may be very few real electricians? We must not at the same time lose sight of the fact that although there are numberless combinations that must be determined by the psychic vision of the astrologer, there are yet a very large number of them that have been determined and put on record by the ancient sages. It is these cases which baffle us when we find that some astrological calculations prove correct while others are quite beside the mark.” [The Theosophist, Vol. V, #9, June, 1884]

“Most certainly chance is ‘impossible’. There is no ‘chance’ in Nature, wherein everything is mathematically co-ordinate and mutually related in its units. “Chance,” says Coleridge, “is but the pseudonym of God (or Nature), for those particular cases which He does not choose to subscribe openly with His sign manual.” Replace the word “God” by that of Karma and it will become an Eastern axiom. Therefore, the sidereal “prophecies” of the zodiac, as they are called by Christian mystics, never point to any one particular event, however solemn and sacred it may be for some one portion of humanity, but to ever-recurrent, periodical laws in nature, understood but by the Initiates of the sidereal gods themselves.” [Blavatsky Collected Writings, Volume 14 Page 344]

See also, the entries ‘Astrology’, ‘Astronomos’, and ‘Zodiac’ in the Theosophical Glossary:
http://theosophy.org/Blavatsky/Theosophical%20Glossary/Thegloss.htm

‘The Zodiac and its Antiquity’ in the Secret Doctrine:
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-3-17.htm

T. Subba Row’s Twelve Signs of the Zodiac:
http://hpb.narod.ru/TwelveSignsZodiac.htm

Henk Spierenburg’s Astrology of the Living Universe:
http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/spierastrology.htm