                                 ASTROLOGY:

                       Goethe, The Great Initiate Poet


    Thus Max Heindel described him. Esotericist Nicholas Roerich called him 
"a world spirit."2 He has been compared to Beethoven and Da Vinci.3 Renown 
philosopher George Santayana hailed him as "the wisest of mankind."4 One 
edition of his works consists of 143 octavo volumes, for he "never stopped 
writing, from his childhood,"5 which began when, as he noted, "at noon on 
the 28th of August, on the stroke of twelve, I came into the world at 
Frankfurt-am-Main,"6 and also; "The Sun stood in the sign of the virgin, and 
had culminated for the day; Jupiter and Venus had a friendly aspect, Mercury 
not an adverse one; Saturn and Mars were neutral; only the Moon, which was 
just full, exercised her counteracting power."7 

    In view of the aforesaid, it would be easy to call Goethe a Virgo. But 
the Moon had not been in the virgin's sign since the previous New Moon, 
hence the solar-lunar "wedding" had not taken place and the Sun also partook 
of Leo's nature.8 We also note that Leo is an intercepted sign, weakening 
its assertiveness, confirmed by the fact that "this man, so humble by 
nature, could not endure hero worship."9 His diffident deportment despite 
imperial insolence in his October 2, 1808, interview with Napoleon also was 
non-Leonian.10 What sign does he "belong" to? Could it be that being a 
"world spirit," rising above narrow nationalism, he "mystically" also rose 
above "signs"? His Sun's degree is "A merry-go-round."11 No boundaries; is 
there a better way to limn a "world spirit"? 

    We note the strength of the New Age planets in his natus, indicative of 
much soul experience."12 Uranus is in its own sign, in dignity. Neptune in 
Cancer is exalted, in its own decan in a critical degree, and by dint of its 
location in the 9th house emitting "a higher vibration."13 It is part of a 
grand trine in water with Saturn and Jupiter and in a ring with no less than 
seven planets Ä all but Uranus and Venus. 

    After all, can one really be a poet or lyricist without a strong 
Neptune? Music was in his soul: "I can always work better after I have been 
listening to music."14 He also "was most sensitive. He could not tolerate 
din; street noises were a torture to him; he had an aversion to the barking 
of dogs; he avoided. . . blare."15 

    That Pluto of his! Located and powerfully ruling the 1st house, it urged 
him on to his prodigious productivity. It is compulsive; has even been 
called obsessive.16 We glibly say, the stars impel, they don't compel. Some 
Ä a great deal Ä of the time this is true; not always. On earth all things 
are limited. In Goethe's dynamic deposition, is Pluto's push to productivity 
really resistable? "There was never a man in whose life the work to be done 
played a more dominant part."17 

    That sets him apart and one thus described certainly is "exclusive."18 
That's Plutonian! Goethe declared, "Our safest course  is to convert all 
that is in us and of us into action, leaving the rest of the world to 
discuss this action according to their ability and powers."19 With three 
planets close to his I.C., he could rise above the constraints of public 
opinion. 

    Lives of great men all remind us 
    We can make our lives sublime 
    And departing, leave behind us 
    Footprints in the sands of time. 

    Can there be a better reason for studying the lives of earth's great? As 
we strive to emulate Goethe, a seemingly small fact about the man may be a 
key to his "success." He disliked all things trivial.20 If we wish to 
pattern our lives after his, there's no better way to begin than by leaving 
off the frivolous, Health-conscious newscaster Paul Harvey has repeatedly 
intoned, the easiest way to lengthen life is by cutting out the habits that 
shorten it. Similarly, if one seeks to grow in pursuit of "the highest and 
the best,"21 one can start in no better way than to eliminate the 
nonessential. "Eliminate," incidentally, is a basic keyword of Pluto.22 
Pluto excels because it can eliminate that which detracts from excellence, 
it's basically that simple. 

    If all the unimportant is eliminated from the life, it will just 
naturally be filled with the vital, the important, for "nature abhors a 
vacuum and will rush to compensate for any loss.."23 It worked for Goethe; 
Cosmic Law being impartial, it will work for all.24	p 

1. The Rosicrucian Christianity Lectures, Max Heindel, p. 60. "Pietism had 
the power of appealing to his sensibility." Goethe, Jean Ancelet-Hustache,. 
p. 35. This, of course, was Christian mysticism. 
2. Goethe, D. G. Runes, p. XV. 
3. Frederick B. Robinson and Romaine Rolland, quoted in D. G. Runes,. op. 
cit., pp. 17, 28. 
4. D. G. Runes, op. cit., p. 61. 
5. Jean Ancelet-Hustache, op. cit., p. 5. 
6. Jean Ancelet-Hustache, op. cit., p. 11. 
7. The Life and Work of Goethe, J. G. Robertson, p. 5.
8. Astrology: A Cosmic Science, Isabel M. Hickey, p. 205.
9. D. G. Runes, op. cit., p. 21.
10. D. G. Runes, op. cit., p. 40; J. G. Robertson, op. cit., p. 228.
11. The Sabian Symbols, Marc Edmund Jones, p. 304.
12. Isabel M. Hickey, op. cit., p. 130.
13. Isabel M. Hickey, op. cit., p. 196.
14. William Ellery Leonard, quoted in D. G. Runes, op. cit., p. 6.
15. William Ellery Leonard, quoted in D. G. Runes, op. cit., p. 40
16. The Essentials of Astrological Analysis, Marc Edmund Jones, p. 414.
17. Jean Ancelet-Hustache, op. cit., p. 5.
18. Vocatianal Guidance by Astrology, Charles E. Luntz, p. 205.
19. D. G. Runes, op. cit., p. 20.
20. D. G. Runes. op. cit., p. 40.
21. Philippians 1:10, Phillips Modern English.
22. The Modern Textbook of Astrology, Margaret E. Hone, p. 35.
23. Astrology, The Divine Science, Moore and Douglas, p. 474. 
24. "The greatest genius is he who offers fewest obstacles to the 
illumination from above." Emerson, Lillian A. Maulsby, p. 14. 

