Manifold

Conventionally accepted model of the nine planets in the solar system. It does not show Ρluto which would be on the outermost ring beyond Neptune, even though there are periods when Ρluto comes in closer than Neptune, thus crossing its orbit.

Although Celestics is soundly based on astronomy, there is precious little astronomy to learn. Novices can readily master the concepts of the ecliptic rim and celestial longitude. With your eyes on the Rimsite, these concepts are visually obvious and you don’t have to work them out mentally. When it comes to the planets, the first thing to learn is that the Rimsite shows more than planets. It is a graphic display of a range of systemic data.

Table of Systemic Data

Systemic refers to the overall structure and activity of the solar system. It covers astrophysical structure within the boundaries of the Sun-centered planetary system where Earth is located. Here is the total compilation of data relevant to Celestics. It contains all you need to now about the astronomy of the solar system. It also provides some introductory parameters for using the Sampler.

SET 1 The Primaries: Adventure and Purpose

1 Sun, a star, central body of the solar system :: to venture, strive
2 Earth, the home planet :: to find purpose, contribute, consummate

SET 2 The Fivefold Lunar Implex: The Emergent Self, Adaptation and Maladaptation

3 Moon, satellite orbiting Earth :: to belong, adapt
4 the north lunar node, where the Moon crosses the ecliptic moving north :: seeking impact on others
5 the south lunar node, where the Moon crosses the ecliptic moving south :: seeking empathy from others
6 the lunar apogee, point of the Moon’s orbit most distant from Earth :: to detect patterns
7 the lunar perigee, point of the Moon’s orbit closest to Earth :: to define essentials

SET 3 Inner Planets: Interpersonal Dynamics

8 Mercury, inner planet closest to the Sun :: to communicate, learn, inform
9 Venus, inner planet closest to Earth :: to appreciate, share, please and be pleased

SET 4 The Outer Planets: Character and Social Presence

10 Mars, first outer planet beyond Earth’s orbit :: to test, prove, challenge
11 Jupiter, second outer planet beyond Earth’s orbit :: to comprehend, educate, guide
12 Saturn, third outer planet defining the boundary of the solar system :: to resolve, reconcile

SET 5 Outermost Planets: Generational Issues

13 Uranus, discovered in 1871, first of the outermost planets beyond Saturn, called trans-saturnian :: to originate
14 Neptune, discovered in 1846, second outermost planet :: to enchant
15 Pluto, discovered in 1930, third outermost planet :: to regenerate

SET 6 Accessories: Historic Conscience, Self-Image, Reputation

16 Seshat, a cometary body that orbits between Uranus and Saturn :: to review and revise
ASC, rising sign or ascendant, where the Sun rises due east :: emergence of a enduring self-image
MC, midheaven, highest point in the sky over the birthplace :: mark of achievement in the social order

Sixteen entries can look like a lot of information at first sight. Celestics breaks down the systemic data into six sets. It handles the systemic data into manageable doses. The Sampler contains the Rimsite as well as two tabular features that list what it shows: the location table and the application table. The full layout of data is called the manifold because it contains a diversity of items, not only planets.

This is a section of the application table for Marilyn Monroe showing Set 1, called the Primaries. Needless to say, what’s primary in the solar system is the duo of Sun and Earth. This selection of data is where everyone starts with the Sampler. You locate Sun and Earth in the constellations by the ecliptic data in the left-hand column. It gives the exact degrees of location in decimal that can be rounded off: 72.6 on the ecliptic grid is 73°, or 12 Gemini in the signframe. Here, as always, you use the measure on the signframe for locational purposes, not interpretive purposes. (Tutorials provides more explanation of this technique of converting sign degrees to ecliptic longitudes for locational purposes.)

Scanning across the location table, you see the prescription for each of the systemic entries. The prescription is the shorthand for the function of each entry, also called an asset. Next, you see the thumbnail of the constellation locale, and then the application which explains how the asset can be developed, expressed, and tested in the frame of the constellation where it stands. Set 1, The Primaries, is unique for reasons already noted. Unlike the other 14 entries in the manifold, it features the special language of the Quest and Mastery lines. These lines are generic formulas common to everyone although each individual lives them out in a unique way. The solar locale describes a quest, and the terrestrial locale describes what can be mastered by undertaking that quest.

The dyadic formula of the Primaries follows the Rule of Psyche: “The beauty of the myth you love (Earth) matches, and engenders, the power to live it (Sun).” You do not merely live due to the opportunity to live. You live through the passion you feel about being alive. It inspires and informs your particular quest to make something from your life. The myth that you love is like the lodestone of a compass. Its beauty draws you constantly to the mastery of your innate gifts. From this mastery, you make a unique contribution, giving back to life more than what you get from it.

Selfex and Bad Faith

Guidelines and instructions for the Sampler explain how to read the six Sets, each on its own terms. Forensic astronomy uses this hard-core systemic data to investigate how the biographical narrative of an individual determines and drives his or her behavior. You live according to the story you tell yourself about living. If that story is a mere fiction or even a lie, you cannot ultimately give back anything to life. The way you compose, interpret, and enact that story, your life-narrative, stands entirely distinct from whatever you might learn through psychological self-scrutiny.

I realize that this proposition may be problematic upon first encounter. After all, how can you construct and follow a life-narrative without the benefit of psychological insight? Back in the day when I was reading birth charts and teaching astrology, I coined the term selfex. That is short for self-explanation. In the course of composing the narrative of your behavior, both short-term and long-term, you will inevitably tend to explain to yourself how you are behaving. You will explain what you do or seek to do or fail to do. This exercise of rationalization is common to everyone. It is a great tactic to legitimate and/or excuse your behavior. In existential psychology, this plea for self-legitimation is called mauvais foi, “bad faith.” Jean-Paul Sartre’s writings, especially his novels and plays, present many illustrations of bad faith. Basically, it is the disingenuous habit of making up reasons after the fact for what you knew you were doing wrong in the first place.

Selfex covers how you interpret what you do, it does not determine the course of what you do. Selfex is not dynamic and more often than not it can land you in a wallow of therapeutic speculation. I cannot over-emphasize the difference between narrative tracking, the method of Celestics, and the self-explanatory digressions of selfex. This difference goes to the essence of the art and method of forensic astronomy. It is at the core of the breakthrough that led me to invent it in the first place. Be assured that all kinds of psychological insights can emerge in the practice of Celestics. But such flashes of self-knowledge are merely by-products of the method, not the objective. Celestics fosters the acumen that allows you to know when you are engaging in selfex rather than narrative description, and snap out of it! The ability to make that distinction is the mark of a genuine, honest, and self-aware individual.

That being said, you may wonder how anyone can avoid psychological concepts and terms when using Celestics. The truth is, you can’t. What you can do is avoid long-form exposition of psychological syndromes and complexes. You may have noted the double colon :: in the syntax of the five Sets. It signals a unique tool of Celestics.

Semantic Equivalence

I hinted above that there is a special tool in forensic astronomy that allows the user to avoid long-form interpretation. You will have noticed the notation of the double colon :: in the table of systemic data that generates the projections in the Rimsite. For example, you see Moon :: to bond and belong, Mars :: to dare, test, challenge, Neptune :: to enchant or deceive. The colons indicate semantic equivalence. This is a shorthand cueing device that eliminates the necessity of elaborate exposition.

Nowhere in Celestics do find a long exposition of why Mars :: defiance, or how it came to be so. Instead, you see Mercury :: to communicate, learn, inform and Venus :: to appreciate, to enjoy, to please and be pleased. The infinitive follows the :: to indicate action, something intended to be done or being done. Additional to the infinitives, nouns can occur: Mercury :: discernment, Venus :: appreciation, Mars :: probity. Occasionally, you see longer expressions, but never too long, and they do not even go to complete sentences. The interpretive language is always succinct, compressed into shorthand notations. Look again at the primaries with semantic equivalence in infinitive and nominal forms:

1 Sun, a star, central body of the solar system :: to venture, strive; passion for life, love of adventure
2 Earth, the home planet :: to find purpose, contribute, consummate; contribution, ultimate goal

Instructions in this platform provide some examples of semantic equivalence for the planets, but they are not exhaustive. Free association comes into play as you investigate the manifold. You come up with the cue-words that fit your narrative and work for you. You also learn how to use self-cueing to test the way you are running your narrative.

This innovation is an outrageous advance, not only on the interpretive techniques of astrology, but also on its objectives. The purpose of astrology is to read character and deliver an accurate psychological profile. Celestics is a biographical method, not a psychological procedure. It makes you the “auteur” who scripts, directs, and acts in the movie of your living dream. It frees you from reliance on someone else to explain your attitudes and behavior. Acting as the scribe of your own destiny, you do not need a consulting astrologer, a therapist, a spiritual guru, or a life coach. No one can be a better life coach for you than yourself. No one can chart the optimal success that you attain when you can define and enact your passion for life (Sun), and determine the trajectory that leads to fulfilment of your purpose (Earth).

You investigate your manifold and compose your life-narrative by the method of cueing. Actors shooting a film often do that same. They read from cue-cards held by an assistant off-camera. The cues remind them of the dialogue written already, and they can also play off the cueing to improvise. They are free to perform and recite dialogue according to their talents for acting and memorization. The cue-cards only prompt them to what they can perform and say, not how they do it. ZODIAC, TUTORIALS and the basic instructions that are delivered with the SAMPLER provide a selection of starter cues for the themes and plot-lines of the 16 constellations.

I have explained how Celestics uses the term engram interchangeably with constellation. The tool of semantic equivalence takes you to a third trope. It goes to the heart of the method where you learn to actually, existentially work out the directions encoded in the manifold. The third trope is scripting template. Each engram/constellation is a scripting template that cues you to the optimal expression of an entry in the manifold. In Jung’s manifold, for instance, you see Jupiter :: spiritual comprehension, higher knowledge, located at the knees of the Virgin :: devotion to the Divine Feminine. One of Jung’s prominent archetypes was the Great Mother. Also, according to a famous line, Freud replaced religion by psychology, and Jung turned psychology into a religion. You are doing Celestics skilfully when it brings you sudden, keen, and apt insights like this. Then you know how you are matching your manifold to your narrative.

And that’s it, that’s how we roll in Celestics. Among the many ways that this system is a simplification of astrology, semantic equivalence is outstanding:

Rimsite with constellations named. This version does not show the two minor constellations and the six marginal zones but you can see the empty region (Great Void) above the read body of the Archer and stretching toward the Goatfish.

All you have to do once you see the optics of forensic astronomy is “learn to code.” For that step, go directly to SOURCE CODE.