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Chapter 2 'Then again, the pictures coming across the monitors speak directly to the imagination. Not fiery, chaotic and psychedelic like those of Jupiter, they look cool, ethereal and from a distance orderly enough to have been drawn with a celestial compass' A REMARKABLE VINDICATION of the Hermetic maxim, "As above, so below" has been appearing in data supplied by interplanetary reconnaissance craft - an unexpected source, maybe. From their graphic images, over the last two decades, each planet has been portrayed in a different and distinct manner. The astronomer has thereby acquired all sorts of gee-whiz data, but he is hard put to say what it means. The person holding the keys of meaning is, I suggest, the much-derided astrologer. It would appear that there is a relation between the being or essence of a planetary sphere, and the empirical data that satellites have gathered. A scientist might well view this as unwarranted dreaming or reverie, beyond the 'hard facts' established by his discipline. Here, we try to develop a more right-brain approach to the phenomena. Today's science, which has taught people to seek fate in the coils of a molecule, views Venus for example as signifying a rock-strewn planet a-swirl with sulphuric acid vapour, and that is all. If the astrologer claims that this sphere does somehow symbolise a love-goddess, then she is liable to be cast as not living in the real world, or unable to look facts straight in the face, or burdened with an outdated belief, and having her symbolic meanings (whatever symbolic means) separated by an impassable abyss from physical reality. The problem here is that scientists are not adequately using their imaginations. To try and express the meaning of that statement, I searched through books on philosophy, but found nothing to the purpose. Eventually I found a remark in an alchemical text of the sixteenth century, which says what I mean: 'Let thy imagination be guided wholly by nature...And imagine this with a true and not with fantastical imagination.'1 This (anonymous) text further added that 'Nature performeth her operations gradually; and indeed I would have thee do the same,' so we should not hurry in forming these real and proper imaginations. Jung, commenting on this text, explained that the latin word imaginatio is to be contrasted with phantasia which meant a mere conceit in the sense of insubstantial thought. We now review some pertinent facts about our solar system, seeking to use what the alchemist called a true and not fantastical imagination. The Voyager II spacecraft was launched in 1977, reaching Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in '81, Uranus in '86 and Neptune in '89, after which epic journey, it became evident that the resemblance between character as traditionally conceived by astrologers and function as observed by pilotless space vehicles could no longer be regarded as coincidental. The vivid 'National Geographic' accounts of these discoveries may be recommended, as they emphasise the visual images, and capture what the persons monitoring the flights actually felt while it was happening, instead of the mere abstract 'facts' of an astronomy textbook. Sol: Heart-Centre of the Solar System
Patrick Moore described Sol as 'in some ways a variable star.' It is the fiery, pulsating heart-centre of the solar system, which is something more than the burnt-out 'yellow dwarf' as astronomers regard it. Just as cardiac fibre has a periodic contraction built into it, so likewise the Sun's surface has a self-reversing magnetic field within it, which flips every eleven years. The word 'plasma' refers both to the fluid of the bloodstream, and to the solar matter which streams out along with the solar wind, bathing the Earth.
Elusive Mercury
Mercury zips about - 'like a demented bee' in Bernard Eccles' phrase, alluding to one of Joachim Schultz's diagrams. These show Mercury's apparent movement with respect to the Sun, during a year. Just imagine, if you could only see the tips of those erratic curves, as was the case a few centuries ago.
Three decades ago, Mercury startled astronomers by having a rotation on its own axis, independent of the Sun. According to the accepted theories, it should have become locked into having the same side constantly facing the Sun, on account of the intense gravity pull. If it were once semi-molten, as is assumed, then an independent rotation should have generated huge tides on its surface, until it became locked into facing ever sunwards. It turned out not to be phase-locked, as our Moon is towards Earth - nor, on the other hand, to have an independent rotation, but something curiously in-between. Its day is two years! An observer on Mercury would see the Sun go round once in the sky, while it goes twice round the zodiac. Rephrasing that, it spins on its axis twice for every three rotations around the Sun. This is a subtle and elusive matter! The periods here are 58.6 days and 88 days, so: Astronomers had erroneously believed for nearly a century that Mercury had no day of its own distinct from its 'year', mainly it seems because they noted that the same surface markings returned to the sunlit side every two orbital revolutions. 'Thus, astronomers could have been fooled, because looking at Mercury after two of its orbital periods they would see the same markings on the sunlit side and would find no disagreement with the 88 day period ... Thus, half the telescopic observations that led to the 88-day interval were actually correct, but many of the conflicting observations were ignored or missed.'4 What new tricks, we can only wonder, will Mercury have up its sleeve? Tempestuous Mars
The two satellites are called Phobos and Diemos (fear and terror) named after the section in Homer's Iliad where Mars is preparing to emerge onto the battlefield: And he ordered Phobos and Diemos to harness his horses, Phobos, due to its low orbit, is destined to disintegrate, doomed to destruction, calculated to crash. Whilst negotiating the descent of the Viking spacecraft onto the sands of Mars in 1976, Carl Sagan and his team in Pasadena were frustrated by a duststorm enduring for several weeks, prohibiting the gathering of any data from the probe. They noted that surface temperatures decreased somewhat, owing to the obscuration of sunlight by the duststorms. From this cooling effect on Mars came Sagan's 'nuclear winter' theory of the icy cold which would follow a nuclear exchange, after dust swirling in the upper atmosphere obscured the light of the Sun. Thus arose a final Martial warning - from Mars. Jupiter, Wielder of Thunderbolts Whirling round at a great speed, once per ten hours, Jupiter generates an immense magnetic field. So vast is it that Saturn enters into the tail of its magnetosphere each time it comes into conjunction with Jupiter. The astrologers' archetypal 'expansion' image is borne by a planet larger than all the others put together. In 1955, radio interference due to a Jupiter magnetic storm was first detected, it was first assumed that this was due to a nearby car motor, as it seemed impossible for such powerful radiation to come from a million miles away. Jupiter's radio energy normally occurs in a series of short bursts: "to many radio astronomers, it almost sounds like the kind of radio noise made by lightning storms on earth"5.
Jovian storms are related to the small inner satellite, Io. When Io is in a direct line between Sun and Jupiter, emissions are five times weaker than when Io is 90° off the Sun-Jupiter line6. Storms maximise at Sun-Io square! How little Io does this remains a mystery. The Voyager I spacecraft set off in 1977 and reached Jupiter in 1979. It was constructed to be able to function perfectly well within the enormous magnetic and high-energy electric fields of Jupiter, and would even "...be able to detect bursts of radio waves from single lightning strokes in the Jovian atmosphere."7 The Voyager data on Jupiter came in, majestic and beyond expectation:
'Windswept clouds churn and seethe in Jupiter's colourful atmosphere. Huge storms larger than the Earth in size swirl across Jupiter, while giant cyclones create continent-sized spots. Smaller spots chase each other, whirling and rolling about, and even devouring each other. Zones and belts race around the huge planet, driven by hurricane-speed winds. Lightning bolts illuminate the Jovian night sky with enough energy to vaporise a city. Everywhere there is stormy weather as clouds billow, churn and surge above a vast sea of hydrogen. The colourful spots, zones and belts are weather patterns. In fact, nearly everything we see on this awesome planet is a storm cloud.8 Jove's brilliant colouration came from continuous lightning discharges in the atmosphere: "The dark side of Jupiter also revealed intense lightning storms all over the place... these may be responsible for Jupiter's fantastic colouring"9 The storms block out radio function on Earth, and volcanoes erupt on Io from the stresses and strains of its role. The data collected surpassed everyone's expectations, indeed it had been some time since anything made astronomers feel so jovial. Stern Saturn
The Saturn images by contrast were of measure and precision. Saturn is a grey planet. One report spoke of its 'translucent, marble-like surface graced with diaphanous rings.' Its rings formed exact circles, the only such in the solar system. They were level as though held on a glass plate, and detached from one another. Multi-hued, they all seemed to know their places, and some were 'plaited' together. The rings turned out to be made of thin, separate lines: 'when the Voyager cameras zoomed in on the main rings, they appeared to break up into countless rings - almost without limit. Thousands of tiny ringlets appeared...some of them making a complete circle around Saturn'10. The overall thickness of the rings could be just a few metres deep. In the immensity of space, what established these rings, so ordered and symmetrical, and what sustains them? What astronomers call 'Shepherd moons' were noted, which somehow helped the rings to stay in place, but even so the astronomers were baffled. 'Spokes' of light and dark rays passed through the different ring layers, even though they were moving round at different speeds. The magnetic axis was the same as its axis or rotation (a problem because the magnetic field of a planet is supposed to be generated by the angle between the two), emphasising the strong right angle between this axis and the rings lying on the equatorial plane. Eccentric Uranus In 1986, Voyager arrived at Uranus, obtaining pictures of this eccentric and mysterious sphere, with its surface glowing ultra-violet, and nine dark rings surrounding it. It rotates in a retrograde direction, lolling on its side as if it had never heard of the ecliptic plane. Its magnetic axis protrudes at about latitude 40°, and does not even pass through the planet's centre.
Its moons were found to have a strangely patched-up appearance. The moon Miranda reflected as one scientist said, 'all the strange places of the solar system rolled into one.' It looked like 'a pile of spare parts', and then, 'If Miranda was bizarre, the other large moons of Uranus upheld the family's eccentricity and lack of harmony.' The head of Voyager's imaging team Brad Smith concluded, 'To create a historical scenario for what Voyager saw at Uranus, we need more miracles than any thinking person will accept.'11 After managing so well their precision hardware for the Voyager mission, the astrophysicists ought now turn to the astrologer, and she would be able to help them appreciate what it all means. Otherwise, they will merely be left with a lot of gee-whiz data that cannot be pieced together - and which the public will soon forget. Neptune the Dreamer
The next sphere out is entirely different in quality: Neptune, the 'divine dreamer'. When Urbain Le Verrier proposed the name of 'Neptune' and its symbol the Trident, on September 30th, 1846, several days after its discovery, no-one had any inkling of its colour. Through all the heated debates over its name that year and the next, no-one ever suggested that it seemed to be a blue or sea-green hue! How did astrologers infer the qualities which they regard as so distinctive, and how did an astronomer confer upon it a name which astrologers regard as so appropriate? The use of anaesthesia from ether synchronised within days of Neptune's discovery, which is relevant to the first of these questions. The viewpoint of astronomers is that their theories 'suggest that a deep sea of liquid water makes up the bulk of the planet's interior,' so that in hindsight its name was quite appropriate12. What did Voyager find after sojourning through the depths of space? It arrived at a glorious clear blue sphere, across which there scudded small white clouds. Neptune has one large moon, Titan, covered with pink snow, with white geyser-fountains that erupt periodically...Questions of chemical composition should be secondary compared to the images conveyed by this data. Pluto's Shrinking Act Estimates of Pluto's size kept shrinking throughout the 1970s, to the extent that the prospect of its total disappearance became a standing joke amongst astronomers. The circumstances of its discovery from the perturbation of the orbit of Neptune had to be dismissed as a mere computation error. Its mass was far too small to have caused any such disturbance. It was on the verge of being dismissed as a mere lost moon of Neptune, when in 1978, as it entered the orbit of Neptune, it appeared with a suspiciously large moon, one half of its own diameter. As Neptune's discovery was a powerful vindication of the law of gravity, having its position exactly predicted thereby, Pluto's discovery was hailed in the same terms: 'The Orbit, now that we know it, is found to be so similar to that which Lowell predicted from his calculations fifteen years ago, that it is quite incredible that the agreement can be due to accident,' intoned the Scientific American (December 1930). Such would indeed be incredible, as Lowell's predicted orbit was within five degrees of zodiac longitude, and three degrees for perihelion position! Also, he had predicted a steep inclination of the orbit to the ecliptic, though not quite as steep as was actually found. Subsequent events showed the prediction as rather a celestial mockery of the rigorous deductive process that had been claimed. Percival Lowell, who set up the observatory that discovered Pluto, had become famous for his espousal of the canals on Mars he claimed to have seen, and described in great detail as showing intelligent life there. His reputation collapsed as these evaporated, and his quest for Pluto was the attempt to restore his reputation. All his detailed predictions of Pluto's position turned out to be just as baseless as his Mars canals, the single difference being, that in the latter case he was right. Instead of demonstrating the power of deductive logic, its discovery demonstrated equally profoundly the Jungian concept of synchronicity, which Jung described as 'an acausal connecting principle.' With its steep inclination to the ecliptic, Pluto only comes close to it for a comparatively short period. It crossed the ecliptic in September of 1930, that being the only period in which the Flagstaff Observatory's quest could have been successful. It was in the one part of its orbit when it was amenable to being discovered by the methods then used, ie it was discovered at its node. In mythology, Pluto was the underworld god who could wear a helmet of invisibilty. We are reminded of this be the way in which, at the position in space where one says that Pluto is located, there is nothing present, just empty space. The planet and its extra-large moon are both orbiting continually around this central point, which is their centre of gravity. References
1)'Rosarium philosophorum, Secunda pars alchimiae de lapide philosophico vero modo praeperando...' Frankfurt 1550, quoted in C.G.Jung, Psychology and Alchemy 1953, 1993, p.167
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