CHAPTER EIGHT

1.I wish now to consider an astrological phenomenon vital to the practice of Stellar magic which is neither planetary nor Zodiacal but a condition in space. It at first appears to be one of those bits of Astrological impedimenta that has come down to us from the mists of antiquity with seemingly little purpose or meaning; and yet as is often the case with Occult symbols, the apparently unimportant conceals a great mystery, this was never more true than with the Pars Fortuna.

2.Its symbol is a cross in a circle. It is a factor in astrological work that has been neglected by modern astrologers as its function is not obvious in Natal Astrology. It is a magical concept and belongs in ritual Astrology. Indeed it is one of the most important factors in Magical Astrology. It is generated by adding the longitude of the Ascendant to the longitude of the Moon and subtracting the longitude of the Sun.

3.The concept concealed behind the arithmetic equation Asc + Moon - Sun is a curious one. Why would an imaginary point in the Stars hold the key to wealth and prosperity, what is one actually doing when one adds the long. of the Ascendant to the long. of the Moon and then subtracts the long. of the Sun.? The Ascendant is the ego, it is the part of the chart that reveals itself to the world. The moon is the personality derived from unconscious sources that reflect the light of individuality that is the Sun. These symbols combine to give an ego that is unconsciously directed. To remove the power of The Sun from this symbol would render it an empty container.

4.Without the Sun the Ascendant and the Moon become empty vessels, without power and energy. The Ascendant and Moon combined give an empty vessel. They become unfulfilled desire, a concept not met with in the planetary scheme. This symbol appears banal and unimportant and yet it is one of the most potent symbols in the whole mystery of Magic. A container so negative that it would almost be a black hole in space, consuming all that came near it, changing its plane of existence from the macrocosmic plane of the stars to the microcosmic plane of the world, and individual existence. A supreme negativity that could only be described in ideographic terms as a Goddess. She who takes all from the Stars and gives all to the world. The cup ready to be filled, the waiting earth, the receptacle of the power of the stars. She who devours the blood of The Stars and goes on doing so for all eternity. The ancient lost Goddess, she who gives all. Her symbol, the cross of harmony within the circle of the essence of woman’s femininity. Her Glyph is to be found in many symbols almost concealed. The final perfection of Venus which is a cross surmounted by a circle, where the cross at last harmonises the circle. The symbol of the Earth, the unfertilised seed that is the living Goddess. She who by her power gives at all times wherever she is found. The Part of Fortune is the cup the grail or the Magdalene. She who contains the essence of divinity the mysterious traveller. She who has contained the essence of The Sun and is now emptied and bereft. It is Isis going on her search around the Zodiac for the dismembered body of Osiris. The moon, personified as ego the Ascendant searching finally for the Solar phallus of Osiris.

5.The Part of Fortune is the Goddess in her eternal unsatisfied search. She who gives all. She who is all illusion, partakes of the nature of Christ, who by his kiss accepts her superior nature. She has been mistaken as a Solar emblem, because she is the woman who is ‘‘clothed with the Sun’’. He is not inside her but can only radiate his power upon her. The great winged disk of the Goddess traverses eternity, drinking the blood of The Stars to feed the children of Earth. She can contain the power of The Sun, but as a cup. He can never be truly within her. She is virgin and yet ravished by the light. She goes on and on, each meeting with a star is an orgasm of delight, the light of which fills her like the lamp of Venus is filled by the light of the Stars.

6.Easter sees her ancient symbol consumed as a blessing, an ancient celebration of the true cross. The Cathars put The Goddess and Child upon the cross. The ancient Celtic cross, the cross of the wise to be found around the hills and valleys of Celtic countries - all these things resume the same hidden and ancient mystery of the Goddess of the Stars. The symbol and its ramifications would be more aptly named Isis. The origins of The Goddess Isis were already unknown to the Egyptians who worshipped her. Her origins go back beyond the bounds of prehistory yet her nature is the same as the Pars Fortuna - Isis the great mother, the ultimate mother. The terrestrial mother takes the power from man and uses that power to feed her children. The Part of Fortune or Isis takes the power of the stars and gives it to the earth.

7.The Goddess has been in exile for many thousands of years. An exile that has been caused in part by the inability of Adepts to place her astronomically. Her characteristics cannot be found among the natures of the female planets Venus, Saturn and the moon or even the Earth; although the Earth most nearly encompasses her nature, that is why they both share the same symbol. The Earth feeds her Children in the same way our Part of Fortune or Isis feeds the Earth, but the Earth is the secondary source of sustenance, the primary source is Isis. The Goddess who has been lost for thousands of years can now be reinstated as the great benefic, greater even than Jupiter because Isis gives the benefits from whatever she touches. She is the only astrological phenomenon that cannot afflict. It is hardly surprising that she was considered supreme by all the great Stellar civilisations who worshipped her, and continued to worship her even though her source had been lost.

8.Christ when he was on the cross, said ‘Father Father Why hast thou forsaken me?’

9.He is the symbol of Ascendant + Moon - Sun, he is without the Sun of Spiritual light and he is inadequate without it. Christ upon the cross is a symbol of The Part of Fortune, and the Part of Fortune is a symbol of the crucified Christ. Each is waiting to be contained with light just as the desire nature in man is seeking to be fulfilled. All these symbols resume the same formula and each is capable, by pursuit or emulation, of teaching one the great mysteries of life.

10.Spiritual wealth however may be all very fine but it does not pay the bills, and I’m sure there aren’t many people around today who are prepared to live by the axiom ‘The Lord will provide’ without any proof that the lord exists.

The part of Fortune shows the existence of ‘The Lord’. Invoke this power in ritual and it will give you what you need. Invoke it when it is conjunct Jupiter and it will give you material and spiritual benefits, invoke it when it is conjunct Venus, and it will give you love, physical and mystical.

11.The Part of Fortune is a cup into which ‘the streams of blessing’ are poured by the planets. The symbol is found in Waite’s Ace of Cups being held suspended over the Cup by a dove (Venus). This symbolism is resumed in the Glyph of the O.T.O.

12.The symbolism of the Ace of Cups gives the formula completely. When Venus (The Dove) is conjunct Pars Fortuna it pours blessing into the emotional nature (water). It is an Astronomical symbol of The Holy Grail. It represents the nature of the Grail in man at any given time. It is not really possible to pursue the Grail unless this symbol is prominent in directions or the natal chart. The Ascendant + Moon - Sun is an empty container. It represents the state of man’s soul when it is unenlightened. It is this state of unenlightenment which makes it a vehicle for any force it meets in its search for energy. It is a symbol of earth which takes up all the forces that are directed to it by the cosmos. It is non discriminating it takes up all the forces as the Part of Fortune takes up all the forces. The Grail or Part of Fortune itself transmutes the power as the earth transmutes the power of the cosmos into energies to sustain itself. So the Pars Fortuna takes the energies from the cosmos to sustain the individual. On the lower level it takes material wealth in that the Part of Fortune indicates where this is in a chart, or on a higher level as the grail it takes spiritual energy. As material wealth should be used to worship the Gods as in the Stellar civilisation, so the Spiritual Energy should sustain the individual soul and bring it to its essential nature, that of the Gods. It is the removal of the Solar Power that is the Key to its mystery. The Grail is darkened by the loss of the Sun, just as the soul is darkened by its loss of the Spiritual light. There is a choice, it can choose.

13. Humanity feels this loss of Spirit, it feels inadequate but instead of going on the search, it seeks the easy way out and seeks the pale reflection of Spiritual wealth - material wealth. Of course when material wealth is gained it sustains the body but the soul is still empty, and unsatisfied. The search goes on - life after life until the soul realises its true destiny and begins the search for what it already has - The Grail. The postulant goes on the search for the Grail, but in fact the search is for the spiritual light of the Sun that illuminates the Grail, so that the postulant can at last see it for what it is. It is the desire nature in man. The desire nature in man is the Holy Grail. It is never fulfilled by material gain, no matter how great that gain is. One continues to desire, until through anguish and pain the wealth of the Spirit is realised. The desire nature is represented in the chart by the Pars Fortuna. It is that imaginary point at which wealth will pour into the individual’s life. It is that point where spiritual wealth pours into an individual’s life. Just as the desire nature is not a physical reality the Part of Fortune is not a physical reality.

14.The connection with Jupiter and the Wheel of Fortune is resumed in the idea of wealth and prosperity. Both ideas of a Grail Cup and a Wheel contain the same symbol - they are female sexual symbols. As the female must be filled with light or life so the Grail must be filled with light and the Part of Fortune fulfilled by the power it meets. All these symbols vibrate with the same power in different forms: Life, material wealth spirituality and the Sun. All represent the same energy on different levels. This is why magical and spiritual work is conducted at dawn.

15.Each day at dawn the Moon is conjunct Pars Fortuna. This means that at dawn the personality (which is ruled by the Moon) is a chalice for the stellar influences. This explains the strange feeling of oneness with the universe that is experienced by mystics and others at this time, and is the reason for the emphasis on performing their invocations at that time. The personality is flooded with the Divine Will at dawn and this is felt by anyone who can stand still and open their awareness at that time. It is the time of The Grail. Even the most ignorant of men cannot fail to be moved by The Dawn, even his soul will be stirred by the rising Sun. Even the grail in his empty heart is temporarily illuminated as the emptiness of the celestial Grail is temporarily filled by the light, but then unlike the spiritual Sun, the temporal Sun moves on and the magic moment of the Grail is lost and the man moves on, conscious that he has seen something beautiful, but he can’t really say what. The mystery is that he has had a fleeting glimpse of the Grail. The spiritual man worshipping at dawn has his cup of spirituality filled by the Celestial Grail.

16.Arise at dawn, and look toward the East.

17.Be still and quiet, and without strain become aware of the Sky, relax your mind, let it be free to ‘be’. Know that as the Part of Fortune is conjunct the moon so your personality has become a chalice for the Spirit of the cosmos. Allow yourself to become that chalice, raise your arms in the form of a ‘V’ toward the rising Sun so that the Grail may be completed by its light. Stand with your arms raised towards the rising Sun and feel the power of the Completed Grail entering your personality; and invoke

‘‘I adore thee, thou light of the world. I adore thee thou Light of the Grail, I ask nothing from thee for I am become thee. I and thee are one in the perfection of The Grail mystery of our life.’’

(Look at the different colours of The Dawn and let them enter your being by contemplation they may speak to your intuition so that you may partake of their mystery.)

18.That aspect of Stellar lore that was once known as the Grail is now simply the Part of Fortune. That which once contained the light, is now merely the container of material wealth, but the symbol has always remained the same, as a beacon to the wise, and an illusion to the ignorant. Just as the great Lord Jupiter begins by giving a feeling of happiness and ends by showing you he is the image of the great beneficent God, so the Part of Fortune begins by showing where wealth is to be found and ends by revealing the Grail. The Container of the Spiritual truth, the inheritor of Karma the secret of the universe - The Holy Grail.

19.’’My own experience was an almost Helter skelter shift in orientation from the hum drum to the sublime in a very short time. Everything starts to ‘go right’. Life becomes delightful as the events in one’s life become influenced by the good offices of ‘The Gods’. Everything runs smoothly. The harmony with the universe provokes harmony from the world. For the first time one is living in Harmony with the Cosmos. There is very much a feeling of ‘The battle is over’ as the world begins to be on your side, instead of fighting you every step of the way. You have allied yourself with The Powers that control the Earth. The PERPETUAL sense of conflict disappears. A new consciousness dawns, like awakening from sleep to a beautiful day, but the day can last for the rest of your life and become more beautiful and real as your participation with the LIVING cosmos grows.’’

20.The Part of Fortune conceals the Holy Grail. Go on your search for it, not through suffering and travail as of old, there is no need to suffer until one’s intuition is honed down and purified to such an extent that one perceives this celestial mystery. No, the mystery is revealed at the end of this Solar Aeon. A new age is beginning - the Golden Age of The Star Goddess. We need no longer blunder around in the dark. The light of the Stars guide us and will sustain us in the age to come.

21.The Part of Fortune conjuncts all the planets every day. The Stellar magician usually invokes Venus and Jupiter EACH day with a simple ritual of invocation involving the burning of incense. It is not a chore, as with other systems as these divinities, once contacted, act directly and beneficially on the consciousness. The continuous invocation of Venus maintains magician in contact with The Love of The Universe, this love pervades all his experience. It is not really possible to explain the effect of the shift in consciousness that the invocation and worship of these deities bring. There is no need for faith, there is a knock at the door and the stellar powers always answer.

22.A simple daily Venus invocation may be performed as follows:

‘‘I invoke thee thou great and beauteous Goddess. I invoke thee Jehovah Tzabaoth come thou forth Hanael. Venus Aphrodite great and victorious Goddess bring thy beauty and wonder into the lives of men. I burn the incense to thee. I invoke thy most glorious name - ISIS beauteous Goddess of The Stars. Come thou forth and bless us with thy radiant light, make all the spirits subject to thy wondrous love, so that every spirit of the firmament and of the ether, upon the earth and under the earth, on dry land and in the water shall be conquered by thy beauty, that they may be made whole by thine eternal light (Love).’’

Take an incense stick and make the Venus Hexagrams to the four Quarters, then above and

below thus invoking Venus into every aspect of experience.

End this simple invocation with ‘So mote it be - Amen’.