Transitional Astrology

‘The twelve subdivide into seven sacred and five non-sacred planets. We have met the seven and the five before. When the twelve is divided esoterically, the five serve the seven. The Sun and the Moon are not counted in this tally of twelve planets. Technically, the Sun is a star and not a planet, and the Moon has special status, being the satellite of the Earth and a 'dead' planet. Both luminaries, however, are made to stand in as substitutes for hidden planets. Hidden planets are planets which exist in etheric matter only, and humanity is not yet able to respond fully to their energies. The majority of the 70 planets which influence our system are hidden planets. Of the hidden planets, the most important is Vulcan which is both named and located. It orbits between the Sun and Mercury. The planets transmit all the celestial influences to which we are capable of responding. This remains the case up until a human being has in his sphere of awareness the Buddhic plane (i.e. after the Third Initiation). Then, with a foot in World Five, he is able to receive the influences coming from World Three, the Zodiacal constellations and the Suns of the Milky Way. Each planet is a threefold being, having a spiritual nature, a personality and a body. We are told that the planets experience the same kind of conflict between their higher and lower principles as we ourselves do, and that the physical body of the planet is a very low grade entity on the involutionary arc. As a group, the planets represent chakras in the body of 'our' Solar Logos. The non­ sacred planets form the lower chakras and the sacred planets the higher… All the planets are under the dominion of the Sun, the one resolver.’