Getting the Ball Rolling

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

Ready? Well, then fire up your cutting wheel, and cut off the two triangles first, and then also cut the remaining wire away from the Sun’s circle. You should end up with three separate objects: two planetary triangles, and the Sun.

(If you don’t happen to have a cutting wheel which is large enough to work on planets, I’m afraid you’ll have to make do with your pliers. It might take a bit of effort to sever the wire in these places, though… 😉 )

Of course, we won’t leave the planets like this. They belong together, in a very intricately balanced way, and simply cutting them apart will take away much of what we can learn from them!

Thus let’s get creative, and reassemble our three pieces again.

Hm, I wonder what we could do with them? How about a star of sorts?

Put your Sun into the middle of your workspace. Then place one of the triangles around it. Turn the other triangle on its head, and overlay it over the first. Then take some extra wire and wrap it tightly around the contact points to secure them.

(If you happen to have a soldering iron and know how to use it, that would do the trick, too!)

Your result should look something like this:

Pretty, isn’t it? But apart from its decorative qualities, what is the purpose of this hexagonal exercise? What do we gain from arranging the planets in yet another shape?

The Sun is in a special spot yet again, but this time not enthroned over all the others, but right in their middle – the focus point.

And the new arrangement of the triangles subtly stresses different aspects of the planetary relationships. For example, Venus and Mars are now diametrally opposed, as are the Moon and Saturn, and Jupiter and Mercury.

In some ways, this hexagon is a middle ground between the planetary folding ladder and the scales – but in other ways, it’s quite different.

I’ll leave it you to discover the other aspects and implications of this planetary arrangement. One thing you could do, for example, is to walk around the hexagon: Jump from Saturn to Mercury, from there to Mars, and so on.

Can you also find other ways in which the planets are connected, opposed, separated, tied together, …?

Ideally, all of this shouldn’t just be an intellectual exercise, though. (Although it certainly can be a lot of fun just for its own sake!) Instead, these exercises should further your own inner work, and you should creatively use them for this purpose.

For example, if you’re having some issues with your own Jupiter coins, how could neighbouring Venus and Moon help you deal with them productively? Or how could Mars and Saturn, who share the triangle with Jupiter? In your own life, how does the Sun tie together some of the ways the planets express themselves? And so on.

Get creative. Find ways to apply the planetary shapes to your issues, your questions, your problems – to the things you’d like to change in yourself and in your life.

As you can imagine, this isn’t a five-minute exercise. Rather, it’s fodder for thought for a long time.

(A bit further below, we’ll also talk about a technique of inner work which is particularly well suited for this kind of exercise.)

And if you should ever run out of ideas on how to apply these planetary shapes and forms to your life… well, there are other shapes to explore, too. 😉

For example, so far we’ve heavily stressed the special position of the Sun, and have left the other planets more or less in their initial order, albeit with some bending and re-forming.

But you could just as well get creative with the order of the planets. For example, who says that the first three have to share a triangle in the hexagon? Or that Mars and Venus always have to be opposites?

The possibilities here are endless (well, not quite, but there are a lot of them…), in particular as you could consider other shapes and forms besides ladders, scales and hexagons.

There is also an individual element here: Some arrangements might be more instructive to you than others, and what sheds light on some of your issues might not do much for somebody else.

Thus the best way forward for you is to get creative yourself. Keep your toolbox and work gloves handy, and don’t be afraid to play with the planets and their arrangements whenever you want to shed some light on yourself and your life!

As for the special status of the Sun, of course you could simply put any of the planets into the middle of the hexagon, or at the top of the scales or the folding ladder. And we’ve already talked about the importance of the Moon and of Saturn as the sphere closest to earth and closest to the fixed stars.

But there is one other planet in particular which plays a special role in Hermeticism…

In order to figure out which planet I’m talking about, you’ll need some basic knowledge about the Greek and Roman pantheons, and about the very liberal ways in which people back in the day dealt with deities from other cultures.

Back then, it wasn’t uncommon for deities from some place to be revered elsewhere. Oftentimes, this led to some form of amalgamation – two formerly different deities were fused into one, or into different aspects of one deity.

On top of that, what consituted as deity, or a higher or divine being, was somewhat fluent in itself.

Heroes, mythical figures, and all sorts of non-human beings like nymphs occupied a vast and varied spiritual landscape, and the borders between one category of higher beings and the next were fluent and malleable, if any borders existed at all.

This also shows in the figure of Hermes Trismegistus himself.

As you might remember from the very beginning of this essay series, he was sometimes portrayed as a real or a mythical person, for example a king or spiritual teacher, and sometimes as a deity or divine being of sorts (and, these things being fluent, sometimes as a combination thereof).

Whether a real person ever existed who had been the basis for the legendary figure has been lost in the mists of history.

We can assume, though, that the name “Hermes Trismegistus” wasn’t picked by chance. Instead, it’s a reference to the Graeco-Egyptian god Thoth-Hermes, who himself is an amalgamation of the Greek deity Hermes and the Egyptian deity Thoth.

(Or maybe, Hermes being involved, the name might indeed have been picked by throwing the dice, who knows… 😀 )

Thus, as you might have guessed by now, the planet which plays a special role in some of the Hermetica is Mercury – the Roman god corresponding to the Greek god Mercury.

(Yes, this is getting rather convoluted. You thought your personal family history was weird and confusing, and that’s even without looking too closely at the murky relationship between great-aunt Hilda and step uncle Bob? Well, the Graeco-Roman-Egyptian pantheons have you beat by miles!)

And Hermes as the deity (and planet) of knowledge, communication and learning is a very fitting patron for Hermes the Thrice-Greatest, isn’t he?

But I promised you some practical advice today on how you can apply these things in your own inner work, and we’ve already racked up quite a few words. Thus I won’t spell out all the possibilities for you, and instead drop some homework into your lap:

Sit down with pen and paper (and a beverage of your choice), and create at least one meaningful planetary arrangement which stresses Mercury instead of the Sun. This could be a hexagon or folding ladder, or some other shape.

When working on your new planetary shape, consider where to put each planet, and why – and don’t neglect their relationships with each other either!

If there are different ways of laying out the planets (as there will inevitably be), then what do these different arrangements have to teach you? How do they differ? Which ones are more relevant to certain situations in your life than others?

I’ll stop here and leave it to you to have fun with this exercise. 🙂

But before you do so, let’s first finish today’s essay together. After all, I still owe you some more ideas on how to apply all this stuff practically in your own inner work, don’t I?

(Although if you’ve seriously followed along with this essay series, you should already have quite a few ideas on how to apply these concepts to “improve” yourself and your life!)

The particular method I’d like to warmly recommend to you today is called “discursive meditation”.

At this point, I can hear the groans of some readers who already practice discursive meditation and who really, really were hoping for some shiny new technique here. Something exciting, cutting-edgy – and something which doesn’t require any work… 😉

Sorry, folks – but I promise you won’t regret the exercise!

We’ll go into specific ways to use discursive meditation for our purpose in a second, but first, for those of you who don’t know what we’re talking about:

Discursive meditation is a Western system of meditation which doesn’t focus on emptying your mind, but on directing and laser-focusing it onto a specific topic of your choice. It’s contemplation and reflection on steroids – which makes it eminently well suited as a tool for our planetary inner work.

Putting it simply, discursive meditation is meditation during which you focus your mind on a topic of your choice, not more, but also not less.

Sitting in an upright posture, you do some breathing and relaxing first, and then start contemplating your topic of choice. This could be a general topic, a sentence or passage of text, an emotion, an idea, an image, or anything else which lends itself to be contemplated and reflected on.

The trick is to make sure your focus stays on this topic. Well, as much as humanly possible. 😉

Then after a set amount of time, you wrap up your session and return to the world around you. That’s is – this is all. But once you apply this method to the planets and to their influence in your life…

The rest of this essay will contain suggestions on how to constructively use discursive meditation for your inner work with the planets, and is thus relevant to all readers, no matter your level of discursive meditation experience.

But let’s first get the newbies up to speed with a few helpful links:

There is a very well explained introduction to discursive meditation by John Michael Greer, which you can find in five posts on his Dreamwidth blog (Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, Phase 4, and Useful Tips). In his post on Phase 4, John suggests how to choose topics, but this is also something we’ll go into in depth for our specific purpose in a second.

For the rest of this essay, I’m going to assume that you have a rough idea of how discursive mediation works, and that you can (with the help of John’s instructions, if necessary) at least meditate your way out of a paper bag. 😉

Well then, let’s figure out how to make the most of the Hermetic planets, meditatively speaking…

For discursive meditation, it’s best to pick bit-sized topics. Even a topic like “the Moon” or “Saturn” is vast – although this shouldn’t hold you back from meditating on the planets themselves, quite the contrary! Just be prepared to spend more than one session on each planet.

Another worthwhile topic are the relationships and connections between the planets, of course.

For example, you could spend one (or more) meditation session on the relationship between the Moon and Mercury. The next one(s) on the relationship bewteen the Moon and Venus. And so on, all the way up through all the planets.

And, as you surely have guessed by now, all the work we’ve put into our DIY crafting projects can also be put to good use during your meditation sessions.

For example, you could compare the role of a specific planet in different planetary arrangements. Or the arrangements themselves: What does the planetary folding ladder suggest about the planets? And what about the hexagon?

This essay series also covers a lot of Hermetic ideas and thought, in various bits and pieces. You could thus scroll back through the previous essays, and meditate your way through them.

If done with even a bit of dedication, these suggestions will keep you busy meditating for months, if not more. Of course, you can pick and choose, mix and match – whether you focus on the relationships between the planets first, or do a deep dive into Hermetic thought for starters, is entirely up to you.

(Although my recommendation is to meditate your way through the planets themselves at least once, potentially with more than one session per planet, to strengthen your basic understanding of them, before you tackle any of the other meditation topics.)

However, there are three other very fruitful approaches to applying discursive mediation to your inner work with the Hermetic planets. Again, they can all be combined with the topic ideas above in whichever way you see fit.

The first is to meditate upon whatever issues come up in your own life. Problems, difficult situations, emotions, memories… whatever is bothering you would be worth meditating about.

Since this is a course on inner work with the planets, I’d recommend you actually make use of said planets in your meditation sessions. I.e. don’t just meditate about the argument you had with your partner or coworker, but instead try to connect it to the planets.

For example, you could spend a session reflecting on the issue. Then another session meditation on how it connects to the Moon, how the Moon might have handled it, how your Moon vices and virtues might have contributed to the situation, etc. Then another session on Mercury in the same way, etc.

After these eight meditation sessions (or more, if you want), you’ll have a much more solid grasp on the problem. And you’ll also have approached it from seven different angles, and have tried on seven different viewpoints and potential solutions.

Among other benefits, the next time you are in a similar situation, you are going to have a much broader range of options in dealing with it…

The second approach doesn’t start from your everyday life and experiences, but from the planets themselves:

Again, meditate your way through the planets one by one. But not through the planets in an abstract sense (as you hopefully have done at the very beginning), but through the planets with a focus on your particular planetary coins.

For example, how does Venus express herself in your life? How are you acting out Jupiter, both in the good and in the bad? What are your Solar vices and virtues? And so on.

Again, spend as many sessions on each planet as you feel is helpful – and don’t be shy about going back to some planet again later on.

If these first two approaches seem familiar to you, it’s because we’ve talked about them before, when I laid them out as options for your contemplation and reflection. Thus I won’t go into much more detail here again, in order to not bore you to tears. 😉

The third approach to discursively meditate on the planets is a bit different, though. Remember when above, I said that choosing bite-sized topics is best, and that even meditating on just one planet is essentially way too much for any one session?

Thus, instead of just going through the planets in general, you can meditate through them by theme.

For this, you pick a (somewhat abstract) theme which is of interest to you. Say, “limits”. Or “connections”. Or “power”. Or “change”. Or… Well, you get the idea.

Then spend (at least) one meditation session on each planet, with a focus on how the respective planet relates to this theme.

What does the planet teach and tell you about this topic? How does he or she express it, and how not – both constructively and destructively? Which of his or her planetary coins, vices and virtues relates to this topic, and how? How would he or she approach it? And so on.

As an example, let’s take the topic of “limits”. How does each of the planets relate to limits?

Here are some quick ideas, just to give you a starting point – but note that there is much more to explore, and you shouldn’t get stuck on what I mention here, but instead explore this on your own, and come up with your own ideas:

The Moon flows within the limits of the river bed, but to her advantage. Mercury is the planet both of setting limits, and of pushing them. Venus is willing to ditch limits if this promises more pleasure. The Sun is the one to set the rules and thus limits for the others. Mars will fight against limits if necessary. Jupiter is all about expanding limits. And Saturn embodies limits and restrictions.

Now, after coming up with these ideas (and hopefully quite a few more!!) and exploring them in as many meditation sessions as necessary, you could then do a second round. In this second round of meditations, you’d explore the same topic again, planet by planet, but this time relate it to your own life:

How do limits affect you? Where are you unduly limited? Where are you crossing limits, or respecting them? Where would you need or want more limits, for yourself or for others?

And most importantly, what does each of the planets teach you about these limits?

Again, the list of potential topics is almost endless, and highly individual – what is of interest to me might be completely irrelevant to you.

Which is great, btw, because it means you can pick whatever tickles your fancy and relate it to the planets! And no matter what it is, you’re guaranteed to get something out of it.

Approached in this way, discursive meditation is a natural extension of the contemplation and reflection I already suggested to you in earlier essays.

(Okay, I admit it – it’s the same, but more intense. I simply didn’t want to scare you with the technicalities right at the beginning… 😉 )

And I hope you will give discursive meditation a try – at least for the next few weeks.

But even if you should decide against it, and simply stick with the more informal contemplation and reflexion we’ve done before, you will notice the benefits over time…

That’s it for today. We are, slowly but surely, approaching the end of this essay series. I’ve still got a few interesting things lined up for you, though – among other things some fascinating background stuff about the vices and virtues, and also some more insights into Hermetic thought. Oh, and some quick detour into an Eastern thought system, just for fun.. 😉

In one way or another, I’m also going to turn this series into a publication. Potentially a book, or maybe some form of online course or… I haven’t quite made up my mind yet.

(Your thoughts in the comments are appreciated, if you happen to have any on this!)

I’ll see you again in two weeks, when we’re going to approach the practical work with the planets from a completely different angle.

Until then, have fun meditating and exploring, and I’m looking forward to your thoughts and comments below! 🙂

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Image: Denise Jans on Unsplash