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This is the twenteeth part of my essay series “Inner Work with the Planets”. If you haven’t read the earlier parts yet, I suggest you start with part 1 to get the most out of this essay.

Last time, we took a detour through a most interesting question: Why is this Hermetic inner work with the planets even worth doing? (I hope I made a convincing case for it, btw! 😉 )

Today, we’ll dive right into the practical end of things – I trust you’ve got your pliers and working gloves ready to go, and yep, a cutting wheel wouldn’t hurt either… 😉

Four weeks ago, we spent some fun time together on a crafting project. Back then, our last project looked like a pair of scales, or something to this effect: Two smaller planetary triangles, suspended from the Sun.

While we’ve so far restriced our crafting efforts to mere bending and reshaping, today we’ll get a bit more adventurous and creative

[Read more…] about Getting the Ball Rolling

This is the ninteenth part of my essay series “Inner Work with the Planets”. If you haven’t read the earlier parts yet, I suggest you start with part 1 to get the most out of this essay.

So… have you started inventoring your own planetary coins yet, as I suggested last time? 🙂

(If you haven’t, there’s still time to start. Right now, for example, would be a great opportunity, before we contemplate the planetary vices and virtues some more further below… 😉 )

But before we talk about the planetary vices and virtues, we’ll continue right where we left off last time: with planetary order(s) and their shapes.

In the past couple of essays, you might have been wondering what we’ve been up to, with all this re-shaping of the planetary ladder. Granted, bending it by hand has been a nice workout. But still…

Why do we keep trying on new planetary orders and shapes for size?

I mean, the spheres were just fine, and very Hermetic. The ladder, too, especially with regard to our existence before, between and after material incarnations. Plus it gave us a lot to contemplate and to reflect on for our inner work, and for improving our lives.

But planetary folding ladders and scales are not just somewhat unconventional, they also aren’t part of the classic Hermetic way of thinking. So why bother with them at all?

In order to answer this question, we have to take a step back and consider what the purpose of this essay series is in the first place…

[Read more…] about The Flip Side of the Coin

This is the eighteenth part of my essay series “Inner Work with the Planets”. If you haven’t read the earlier parts yet, I suggest you start with part 1 to get the most out of this essay.

As you will remember, last time we got all hands-on. Grabbing our pliers and safety goggles, we bent the planetary ladder into a new shape: a folding ladder, hinging on and turning around the Sun in the highest spot.

One thing we learned from this effort was that the planets aren’t exactly lightweights when it comes to moving them around. But I hope your sore muscles have recovered by now, as a bit further down, we will again do some crafting work on our planetary order.

Before we do that, though, let’s quickly hop back to where we left off last time…

[Read more…] about Like Putty In Our Hands

This is the seventeenth part of my essay series “Inner Work with the Planets”. If you haven’t read the earlier parts yet, I suggest you start with part 1 to get the most out of this essay.

Last time, we (finally! 😉 ) answered a question you might have been grappling with ever since this series started: What will you get out of this? Why is it worth doing this kind of inner work with the planets?

And I hope I not just answered this question to your satisfaction, but also whetted your appetite and, hopefully, encouraged you to actually do the work.

(If you haven’t yet, don’t despair – today is the very best day to get started! 🙂 )

Anyway. Some of you might have some trouble identifying their own planetary coins, their vices and virtues. This is just human, after all. We’re all somewhat blind when it comes to ourselves, aren’t we?

So let’s quickly discuss a few options, just in case you should indeed have some trouble figuring out yourself… [Read more…] about With Pliers and Safety Goggles

This is the sixteenth part of my essay series “Inner Work with the Planets”. If you haven’t read the earlier parts yet, I suggest you start with part 1 to get the most out of this essay.

The last essay ended with us wondering what you could get out of doing this kind of inner work, based on the Hermetic understanding of the planets. Or rather, I suppose it’s something you might be wondering about, and you might be relieved to hear it’s one of the things we’ll be talking about in this essay. 😉

But there’s also something else we’ve never really discussed, and instead have always taken for granted somehow… and that’s the order of the planets.

At some point a while back, I might have mumbled something vague about the planets appearing in the same order as they are in the solar system, or something to that effect. Which is, of course, technically true – if we only talk about what modern astronomy considers to be planets, i.e. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

(As astute reader, you will have noticed that these five appear in exactly the same order as e.g. in the mnemonic “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos”…)

But what about the Moon and the Sun? Why is the Moon’s sphere closest to the earth, and why is the Sun’s smack in the middle of the planetary onion?

Well, we’ll talk about the significance of the Sun and the Moon somewhat more next time. For today, though, let’s first focus on another, no less interesting question: Is the Hermetic order of the planets only determined by their astronomical order? Or does it have some other, more hidden layers to it as well?

[Read more…] about Putting Things in Order