Sabian Symbols: A man muffled up with a rakish silk hat

A man muffled up with a rakish silk hat

This universal idea is best expressed through planets in

Taurus 15 (14°- 15°)

COPING WITH ADVERSITY
​There are implications to our pushing towards improvements which force us to develop in character
"Pushing against obstacles towards self-improvement"

Anyone who has cultivated a mature ability to integrate with society, and who can carry responsibilities and maintain a healthy approach to play and relaxation, needs then to face up willingly to a few difficulties, cope well with crises and not fall down. This is the stuff of a truly trustworthy person who has depth and substance.

Rudhyar:
HEAD COVERED WITH A RAKISH SILK HAT, MUFFLED AGAINST THE COLD, A MAN BRAVES A STORM

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Head covered with a rakish silk hat, muffled against the cold, a man braves the storm

Sophistication

​A man muffled up with a rakish silk hat

In dramatising the true inner self, we do not identify with appearances 

No matter what degree of sophistication we employ – dressing up in the latest expensive fashions and so on – the absolute integrity of the self will shine through. Our costumes and manners may describe us, but they do not define us. It is said ‘manners maketh man’ – this is false; it is the man that makes manners.

We all have our roles to play in life, and it is entirely appropriate for us to be fully aware of what that role is and how best to enact it. Yet all we are ever doing is dramatising the true inner self.

There is always a risk that we over-identify with the drama and, by surrendering to the image, lose sensibility of our deeper impulses. Then we mistake pleasure for joy and glister for gold.
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Yet the risk is worthwhile because, when acting out an imaginary persona, we can uncover a new and authentic aspect of character. Through experimentation, a constant rediscovery of the greater powers latent in selfhood supports superb self-confidence.

Confidence is power

Through this expansion of selfhood we learn that the human spirit has supremacy over all possible limitations or embarrassments. No scenario arises that is beyond our ability to find an appropriate role for.

Society will put pressure on us to dictate the limits of our scope. Yet the developed individual is unwilling to be truly constrained, and becomes able to use all their experience to produce a creative persona that elegantly responds to the needs of the moment, for an unbounded range of possibilities.

We remember that is it only a persona – the surface dressing of something so profound, so mysterious, so undiscovered, that most of the time we can only ever show the merest clue to our deepest character through what clothes we wear and what mannerisms we adopt.

Commentary from Mara
Regardless of status or wealth we all stand even when it comes to a test of inner strength and truth.

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Advanced Level: Elven Star Analysis

​Although we can find relevance in some way to all 360 degrees, each degree resonates particularly, and mysteriously, with the 6 other points of its Elven Star and clues, from the 7 Words System, and the Sabian Journey, are shown in the text below. This fifth degree of the Expression "Application" is the Progression principle.

The scope of Taurus 15 is "Pushing against obstacles towards self-improvement", and its means of expansion is Libra 19, "Participation in collective new understandings". Its preferred path, Pisces 23, "Notice how people suffer and live in confusion", leads to its principle challenge, found in Leo 27, "Being renewed moment by moment".

Awareness of its spiritual purpose is described in Aquarius 2, "Submission to unforeseen and uncontrollable forces", which generates the feedback found in Cancer 6, "Potentials expanded through ruthless self-honesty" and thus the evolutionary gateway offered by Sagittarius 10, "Listening to criticism and clues". 

​(This list will differ slightly from your Elven Star points unless your degree is exact, such as Taurus 15:00 not Taurus 15:39)