Like Putty In Our Hands

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…

The last essay ended right after we were done with our bending and re-shaping, and before we could talk about what this all might mean. I did suggest for you to contemplate this new planetary order in the meantime, between essays, but this was it – and I imagine you might have been standing there somewhat baffled with your new planetary folding ladder, scratching your head and wondering how to store it in the basement or the attic… 😉

Kidding aside, what is the purpose of this other planetary order? Since it’s clearly not to ascend to the Divine, or to descend back to earth, why would we even go to all this trouble in the first place, and risk pulling a muscle by pushing a heavyweight like Jupiter around?

After all, this new shape of the planetary order isn’t strictly “hermetic”. It doesn’t show up in the old hermetics’ treatises, and it isn’t supported by their worldview or their spiritual beliefs.

But this is exactly the point: The new folding ladder shape is different. Not much, granted – but just enough to highlight some of the interesting features and traits of the “straight” Hermetic planetary ladder, through its subtle differences.

As we discussed last time, one of the things our crafting project highlights is the importance of the Sun. Both in the solar system, and consequently (as above, so below!) also his importance for us and our personality in material incarnation.

But the planetary folding ladder has more things to teach us.

You might remember that in an earlier essay, aptly named “Putting Things in Order”, we talked about why the seven classical planets are not just an intricately balanced system representing all aspects of material life (which probably didn’t come as a surprise to you, after we talked at length about how life in material incarnation is ruled by the planets in Hermetic thought!), but also why their order matters. In short, they aren’t placed at random, but in a well-balanced sequence with deep meaning.

So what does this have to do with our little DIY project from last time?

Well, if you have followed my advice last time (which I hope you have! 😉 ) and have spent some time contemplating the planetary folding ladder, you will have noticed how even such seemingly small changes in form have subtle and interesting effects. It’s not only the sequence of the planets which matters, but also the shape in which they are considered and reflected upon.

For example, at the beginning of this series, we considered the planetary spheres as an onion, nested into each other. I then clandestinely shifted from the image of the onion to the image of the ladder – based on the Hermetic idea of the descent and ascent, of course, and thus well founded.

(As an aside, have you ever compared these two images in comtemplation, and considered their similarities, their differences, and their respective implications? Just askin’… 😉 )

But now we don’t have a ladder anymore, with seven distinct rungs at different levels. Instead, we’ve got a folding ladder:

Still seven rungs (or rather, three rungs to the left, three to the right, and the solar platform in the middle on top). Which means that there are only four levels left. The Sun has his own level at the top – but on each other level, there are now two planets. The Moon contrasts with Saturn, Mercury with Jupiter, Venus with Mars.

But do they really contrast? Or do they rather complement one another? Or maybe both?

And since this is a course in inner work, let’s not forget the most important question: How does all of this relate to your own life? What can you learn from it? How could it influence your life, and help you make any improvements which are important to you?

(Just in case I shouldn’t have been clear enough, yes, these would all be splendid themes for your contemplation and reflection!)

But as you will have noticed earlier, there are not just doubly occupied levels on this planetary folding ladder. We now also have two legs to stand on, metaphorically speaking: A left leg of the inner planets, and a right leg of the outer planets.

(Note that I use the terms “inner” and “outer” somewhat losely here! Both in astronomy and in astrology, Mars is considered to be one of the so-called “inner planets”. In astronomy, due to some of his material features. And in astrology, due to his speed with which he moves through the zodiac.)

Again, there are lessons in there for you and your own life – if you are willing to explore them, that is… 😉

Thus one important lesson from our crafting project is that yes, the order of the planets matters and has a great deal to teach us – but so does the shape in which they are represented.

And of course, any insights you might gain from the planetary folding ladder also reflect back on the original, Hermetic planetary ladder – why is it different, and what are the implications of these differences?

In order to make the most of our new-found insight that shape matters, we’ll have some more practical fun with our toolbox and safety gloves further down and then again in the next essay. But there is something else we should dive into first, something we’ve neglected up until now…

All throughout this essay series, I’ve been talking about “planetary coins”, and about their “vices and virtues”. I have done so rather informally, trusting that you’d have a pretty good idea what I mean, just by a good hard look at your own life, and at some people around you. 😉

For what it’s worth, I’m fairly sure this worked well, and you did immediately have some of your own personal coins in mind once I introduced the concept!

But there are some aspects of the planetary coins which we’ve never really shone a light on, and by now, it’s high time we did.

For the most part of this essay series, we’ve looked at the planets and their coins individually. We spent an essay on each planet, discussing their vices and virtues in depth. And we’ve kept referring to this coin of Mercury, or this or that vice or virtue of the Moon, and so on.

I.e. through large parts of our essays, the planets have stood on their own.

With the planetary folding ladder, this has shifted – suddenly, we’re contrasting or teaming up two planets on the same level of the ladder, or comparing one leg of three planets with the other. And some of our future crafting projects will emphasize such contrasts and connections even more.

So how does this match with our earlier approach, where we mainly considered the planets as separate entities with distinct coins? Have we gone about this the wrong way before, by leaving out these important connections between the planets?

You might be relieved to hear that the answer is “nope, what we did before was just fine”. 😉

While it’s very much worthwhile to explore the potential connections and relations between the planets, as we are doing now in this second half of the series, it’s also very much worthwhile to explore each planet on his or her own, with their very specific vices and virtues.

In fact, knowing the particular coins of each planet, and especially the ones which have any meaning for your own life, is an important basis for the subsequent comparison.

If you don’t know everything Mars stands for, any comparison between him and Venus will necessarily run aground in the very shallow waters of modern thinking, e.g on the reefs of “male and female archetypes”. On the other hand, once you have explored the depth of each planet, you are well equipped to sail into deeper (and more meaningful) seas.

But of course, each approach also has its own merits.

Working through the planets separately, one by one, keeps things simple and manageable. It is an invaluable tool, both for your own introspection, but also to disentangle complex situations.

Poking and prodding at an experience while looking at it first through the lens of the Moon, then of Mercury, then of Venus, and so on, will help you to tease out aspects which you might have missed otherwise.

It will also keep you as a person, and your contemplation and reflections, balanced, as the combination of the seven planets will by their very nature ensure that you always contemplate the full gamut of all things human and material.

Contemplating the planets in their various relations, in contrast, does not only help you to work out the distinct coins of each planet through the comparison with other planets. It will also help you to make more sense of complex situations.

For in real life, Saturn rarely manifests in his pure form, and neither do Mercury or Jupiter. There is always a mix of different planets and of different planetary coins present. And yep, this includes you and your own life and traits. 😉

Considering the planets in contrast will thus allow you to get a better grasp of your real life experiences, and of your own life.

It’s important to note, though, that the point of this exercise is not to suppress one planet in favour of another!

At the contrary, all of the planets play a role in your life, and in material life in general – and an important role to boot.

(Saturn and Mars are considered to be the Greater and Lesser Malefic, but how far would you get without the Martian drive and power, and without Saturnian thoroughness and attention to detail?)

And all of the planets have their good and their bad sides, as we saw at length in earlier essays.

(Jupiter and Venus are considered to be the Greater and Lesser Benefic, but left solely to them, your life would consist of the pursuit of pleasure and generous overspending, and not much else.)

Thus it’s not wise at all to try to suppress any one planet. In fact, if you should try, I’m fairly sure this planet would find a way to manifest in your life nonetheless – and it very likely would be a way which you wouldn’t appreciate at all… 😉

Just as it’s not wise to suppress specific planets, it’s also not wise to suppress specific planetary coins.

You picked up these coins on your descent down the planetary spheres, on your way to this current incarnation, some coins from each planet.

For better or worse, they are in your soul’s pockets now, at least for the duration of this incarnation.

Of course, you could try to suppress the ones you don’t particularly appreciate, or whose effects in your life you don’t particularly appreciate. To keep them somewhere in the deepest depths of your pockets, under all the other odds and ends which accumulate over the course of a lifetime, safely hidden beneath used handkerchiefs, empty gum wrappers, rundown batteries and that one sock which always gets lost in the washing machine.

But you’d still be stuck with them, deep down. And again, they would find a way to slip out of your pockets – and this would very likely happen at the most inconvenient of times…

For example, you can suppress rage and aggression for a good long while. But at some point, something will trigger you, and this particular coin will explode from the bottom of the pile right into the open.

(And it would be a shame if this happened while the head of the company you work for is around, right? Or the person you recently fell in love with. Or … 😉 )

Luckily, if you aren’t happy with how some of your planetary coins have been manifesting in your life, suppressing them deep in your soul’s pockets isn’t the only option you have.

Instead, you could take them out in a quiet moment, very deliberately, and have a close look at them – from both sides.

For example, Saturn’s pettiness, applied in a productive way, turns into thoroughness. Jupiter’s penchant for overspending is the other side of generosity. And so on.

If you haven’t already done so, make an inventory of your personal planetary coins, listed by planet. Yes, you’ll own some for each planet, even if they shouldn’t be obvious at first glance! 😉

If you get stuck, you can re-read the earlier essays in this series to spark some ideas.

Once you’re done with the inventory, look at each of your particular coins from both sides:

How can it be a vice?

How can it be a virtue?

You might remember how, a little while back, we talked about two different worldviews: optimistic monism and pessimistic dualism.

Back then (or rather, in the very next essay), I connected these worldviews with two different approaches to inner work. One of them focuses on your vices, and the other one on your virtues.

As I explained back then, both of these approaches have their merits and their pitfalls. The most productive path forward, then, is to combine them and make the most of both of them. Or, in other words:

Don’t just focus on your vices, on how bad you are, and on everything you need to “improve” about yourself or your life. Instead, also give your virtues some fair consideration, the things you already do well, and how you could strengthen them even more.

Don’t also just focus on your virtues, on how divinely perfect you are, and on everything you’re doing well. Instead, also give your vices some fair consideration, the things you are struggling with, and how you could turn them into virtues.

If you should be struggling with this, feel free to flip back to earlier essays for inspiration. And don’t forget that you can also contrast two or more planets in order to work out the coins of any of them more clearly!

One last question remains before we tackle today’s crafts project, though:

Do all planetary coins have two sides, a vice and a virtue attached to them? Or, in other words: Is there a vice to every virtue (and vice versa)?

The short answer to this question is “yes”.

(Which, for your inner work, means: Each of your negative character traits also has positive aspects, and can be applied productively and to your advantage. And each of your positive character traits also has negative aspects, and can be applied unproductively and to your disadvantage.)

However, there is also a longer and more complex answer to this question, to which we’ll get in the next essay…

Before we wrap up for today, though, let’s reshape our planetary folding ladder one more time, shall we?

So don your safety gear and grab the pliers again! This time, we will bend the two legs of the upside-down V into two smaller triangles, like this:

First, let’s grab the ladder on both sides of Mercury, and add another sharp bend right at the spot where Mercury sits. The Moon is moving to the right, towards the middle of the ladder, and bending upwards, until she has reached the same height as Mercury.

That was the easy part, though, as the Moon is the absolute lightweight among the seven classical planets. Saturn is a bit of a heavier lift, but if we work together, this shouldn’t be too hard either.

Ready? Grab the right leg then, just to the right and left of Jupiter. Bend Saturn inwards, until he sits at Jupiter’s height, and you now have another sharp bend right at Jupiter’s spot. The result should look like my (rough 😉 ) sketch above.

After grabbing a sip of water and descretely massaging our aching fingers, we take a step back to admire the result of our effort.

The Sun is still in his top spot above everybody else. But below him, on both sides, are no longer two legs of a folding ladder, but two well-balanced triangles.

Hm, I wonder what this new shape might be…

A pair of scales, maybe? Or a roof? Some kind of artistic balancing act? Something else? Or all of the aforementioned?

Well, whatever it is, at least it’s a bit easier to store than the folding ladder!

As you might have guessed by now, this new shape of the planetary order is, again, a supreme candidate for contemplation and reflection. 😉

And of course, I strongly suggest that you use it just for this purpose:

Figure out what this shape represents (bonus points if you can come up with more than one thing which could be true at the same time!). And even more importantly, figure out what you can learn from this shape about the planets, about their relationships – and about their aspects in your personal life.

Next time, we’ll dive into the vices and virtues some more. We’ll also need our toolboxes yet again, as we’ll continue to re-craft the planetary order into a completely new shape. And we’ll give the poor Sun a short break (constantly being the one who is supposed to shine and rule over everything has to be pretty exhausting, hasn’t it?) and put somebody else into the prominent spot – strictly according to Hermetic thought, of course! 😉

I’ll see you back in two weeks, on Sunday October 5th, 2025. And until then, I look forward to your comments, thoughts, and questions below. 🙂

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Image: Julietta Watson on Unsplash