How to Use Sabian Symbols |
Beginners' Guide Video |
Videos: Further Guides to Sabian Symbols
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Deepening Your Character
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Character depends upon having a clear identity, which in turn requires a subtle and profound sense of self. Self-understanding is one of the most important aspects of our life experience; in one sense it is the purpose of life. As we study the Sabian Symbols, more and more of the details of our unique nature are revealed and confirmed, and we clarify who we are. This inevitably develops gravitas and wins respect and influence.
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Secondary Progressions
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"Secondary Progressions" is used as a name to describe the idea that each day after your birth symbolically reflects a year of your life. If we see the natal chart as a seed whose cycle unfolds during the lifetime of a person, then the progressed chart today shows where we are today on that evolutionary cycle. The examination of the Sabian Symbols for the progressed chart therefore shows very clearly what current life issues are presenting.
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Deepening Intuition
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The text for the Sabian Symbols is somewhat ill-defined, the interpretations are rather obscure and require careful study, the images themselves are often counter-intuitive or mysterious. In order therefore to understand them we need to employ both left-brain and right-brain thinking, the rational and the non-rational aspects of intelligence. That which connects the two sides of the brain is the pineal gland; as this is stimulated we open up a new, deeper and more subtle aspect of awareness that esotericists call the third eye.
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Opening the Heart
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Compassion is what opens the heart. It is when we feel another's pain and have a deep empathy that we engage the secret of the heart centre. This cannot even begin until we have some degree of understanding of what they are going through, and it is only by coming to realise that all of us experience life quite differently that we can open ourselves to another's sense of reality, and the problems they are having coping with it. The Sabian Symbols collectively report on 360 separate versions of reality and its life-lessons, and nobody has the same set as anyone else ever has had. This appreciation of diversity is the foundation principle of compassionate awareness.
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Overcoming Emotional Blocks
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Each of us has been parented in a way that caused us pain and the inevitable resultant emotional blocks. Until these are cleared we cannot know freedom or true joy. The Sabians give very clear messages about the likely blocks we have and, if properly understood, the necessary shift in perception that will aid the process of clearing. All of our problems arise because we misunderstand the nature of reality and therefore the true nature of who we are and what we can do.
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Vision Quest
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Until we engage with a compelling life goal we do not strain towards self-optimisation. Only when we push ourselves to the limit will we encounter the deepest shadow and the highest potential within us. We must experience both of these if we are to expand and become fully realised beings. The ultimate quest must surely be self-realisation, and the Sabians offer an uncanny and unrivalled insight into what exact path we are walking towards that goal. This life path is described in rich and mysterious detail and there is no other system of self-knowledge that offers such specific guidance.
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Self-Awakening
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There is but one rule that we need to understand in order to grasp the meaning of life; it is called the Golden Rule. It is reflexive self-consciousness - being aware of ourselves from the other point of view. It is very difficult to see ourselves objectively, and the Sabians are where we can start to get a much deeper grasp on this all-important aspect of the spiritual life. Whereas Astrology leads us to the gateway, the Sabians take us through into another reality. The world of Sabian Symbols is a mysterious field of enquiry into Self that exposes secrets and asks ultimate questions. Each aspect of life is examined and honestly dealt with.
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Divination
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The future is comprised of only two aspects - what must be and what may be. We cannot ever know what may occur; but assuredly we can know what must occur, and we can substantively influence our experience of what must occur. Using the Sabian images we can unlock dormant aspects of our awareness and get a much keener sense of what energies are currently flowing around us. We can then easily sharpen our attitude of observation and see the clues in everyday life that tell us what is happening and then we can take early action to optimise our position.
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How to Study
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Because of our limitations, in both subtlety of language and the mind’s ability to grasp the whole picture in a way that can be expressed symbolically, we need to study the path to realisation sequentially. But it is not a well-defined, sequential process at all. It has no beginning or end; God is Alpha and Omega, all else is an eternal work-in-progress.
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Fog clearing not ladder climbingIt seems intuitively obvious that the first lessons to attend are the degrees shown by planetary placements in our horoscope. The best time to study them is whenever a transiting planet crosses a Sabian degree, especially one of our own.
It is not like ascending a ladder, nor does it pyramid up, stone upon stone from foundation to peak, although the mountain climb is often used metaphorically to depict the struggles of a seeker. It is true of course that the spiritual journey is an arduous struggle at times, yet there are other times when we receive our rewards, and these feel just like an oppressive fog of ignorance and confusion has gently lifted and given way to the bright and uplifting light of the Sun’s rays. |
72 lessons with 5 aspects eachAccording to Jones and Rudhyar, there are 72 basic lessons to understand. The 72 are divided into 12 Zodiac signs each with a fundamental thrust and counterthrust. The first thrust of Aries is Desire (Aries 1-15) whose counterthrust is Potency (Aries 16-30). Each of these 24 ‘spans’ has 3 aspects – action, feeling, and understanding, so:
Action (degrees 1-5 and 16 to 20) Feeling (degrees 6-10 and 21 to 25) Understanding (degrees 11-15 and 26 to 30) Each of the 72 has 5 aspects, simultaneously.
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Sabian Origins
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The Sabian line of transmission seems to have been present some 12,900 years ago. Recent archaeological evidence in southern Turkey supports this idea.
Also it has connection with John the Baptist. He was the key figure in the Sabian line until his beheading after Salome’s dance. I welcome any input about his assassination; I suspect it was not as we have been told. Sabian as a word probably relates to water; the Sabians expressed devotion through baptism. |
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Sabians as a Language
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We can see each of the expressions of the 360 Symbols as short-hand for what it really means, what it points towards. The meaning of a Sabian degree is not made known to us except by a deep and subtle process of familiarity. The received images of Wheeler and the words of Jones and Rudhyar are pointing us towards an attitude of study and we tiptoe into strange fields of awareness when we attempt to grasp their wisdom. It is clear that Ruby Fumizki's images are also received.
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