In This Article:
- How does astrology serve as a gateway to other dimensions?
- What are the symbolic and energetic roles of the planets?
- Discover ancient wisdom about planetary influences and spiritual paths.
- How do celestial forces connect to healing and earthly rhythms?
- Explore the Renaissance perspective on planetary dimensions.
Planetary Gateways: The Ancient Wisdom of Astrology
by Lisa Fazio.
Astrology was one of the earliest codified explorations of consciousness and has always been an integral aspect of healing. The first plant-medicine people synthesized multiple methods of cultural and spiritual life into their healing systems and technologies.
Indigenous and folk healers didn’t fall into specialized categories such as “herbalist,” “astrologer,” “doctor,” “bodyworker,” and so on. Instead, they had a wide scope of skills that included attunement with the celestial forces.
Astrology As A Symbolic Language
Astrology can be used as a tool to discern the energetic background from which past, present, and future events may be made manifest but, in its essence, it is more of a symbolic language that describes and defines the holographic resonance that exists between the earthly and heavenly bodies.
The concurrent motion of the planets and their influence on universal activities and functions have been studied, observed, and documented by some of human history’s greatest scholars, philosophers, and scientists, with ongoing experiments being conducted based on numerous hypotheses regarding the reflection of astral light, electromagnetic resonance, and medical/physical correspondence.
Much of this information was categorized and thereby specified during the Renaissance when “scholarly” and mechanistic perspectives were valued over the more “primitive” folk traditions of the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, and Asia.
Plants amd their Astrological “Rulers”
Following the motion of the planets and the way they move with the fixed stars, the twelve signs and houses of the zodiac along with the luminaries (the Sun and the Moon) influence the agricultural cycle, crop outcomes, harvesting times, weather patterns, and all aspects of plant-based culture.
Each plant is thought to be “ruled” by a planet and zodiac sign that correspond to its elemental properties and the organ systems of the body that it affects. “Ruled” in this sense doesn’t mean in a hierarchical manner but in resonance with each other. In other words, the plant is an earthly version of the same energetic imprint as is held in the planets, stars, and heavens.
Renaissance Philosophy
We look at Dante and the way he described the understanding of the universe during this time period. The philosophers and astrologers of the Renaissance period had a fundamental understanding of the planets that was astronomically inaccurate but was still a valid framework for visualizing how the energetic dimensions of life were influencing and interacting with the Earth and its people.
Renaissance philosophy, which was an accumulation of the knowledge of the eons in that particular region of the world, envisioned the principles of ascension and descension or manifestation and liberation. The manifest world was created by the descension of the archetypal or preform, prematerial, essence of the universe. These archetypal energies descended through the heavens via the magnetic orbits of the known planets. And in turn, for liberation or ascension to occur, the planets must be climbed in reverse.
The process or journey of the soul taken to either descend or ascend was considered a spiritual devotion and practice that required a level of skill and initiation to undergo. If the initiate was not prepared for the ordeal of traversing the universe, they would not be lucid or cognizant and therefore not “awake” to the journey and would miss the gates or thresholds to the planets that would lead them toward either liberation or manifestation.
There were various practices and disciplines available to develop the necessary focus and skill for a successful journey, including meditation and prayer. Each planet was considered a threshold to another dimension or world in the progression of ascension or descension and as such were called gateways.*
*The following sections on the planetary gateways was derived, in part, from Wolf-Dieter Storl’s The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners.
The Gateway of the Moon
The Moon is the first gateway from Earth. It’s the last gateway we pass through before birth and the first one we pass through after death on our way to the less-dense dimensions. We also move into the realm of the Moon during sleep, trance, and altered states of consciousness.
The Gateway of Mercury
The second gateway from Earth, Mercury, is associated with the god Hermes who enables divine communication. Mercury rules our ability to shapeshift and respond to changes with resilience and sensitivity.
Hermes, considered to be androgynous (part of their shapeshifting capacity), is the god of healing and associated with Asclepius, technology, all forms of currency, and the state of semiconsciousness. When we pass through this gateway toward Earth, we begin to become self-aware or lucid, and our involuntary functions, such as breathing, begin.
The Gateway of Venus
The gateway of Venus is where our passion and creativity emerge. This is where we are in contact with the divine muses as well as unconditional love. It is also the realm of longing and Eros that provokes our desires, including our desire to follow the path of soul.
The Gateway of the Sun
The Sun is where we gain or lose our etheric body and vital force. The etheric body, or soul, is not the spirit but is an invisible, ethereal part of the physical body that is the container or mycelium of the material, visible, physical body. It is sometimes known as the “etheric double.”
Spirit and soul are different, although they are often used interchangeably. The spirit is the nonmaterial source of life, the body is the material, and the soul is the intermediary or synthesizer between them.
The Sun is also the gateway from which all earthly rhythm emerges into day and night, the seasons, our heartbeat, circadian rhythms, and physical order. This gateway is midway between the planets and therefore is where the above and below energies are synthesized.
The Gateway of Mars
This gateway is pure heat and energy. Mars as the red planet is the force of discernment, differentiation, and defense. Mars is where our survival instinct emerges and animates the channels of the body and being, through which the light of the Sun will flow. This realm is unconscious and forms our impulses and reflexes.
The Gateway of Jupiter
Jupiter is the gateway of wisdom, pure spirit, and clear perception of reality. Jupiter is where all that we have gained through our lifetimes culminates into joy and abundance. It is where the trials and tribulations of having a body become one with universal love and source. This is where we deepen into the inner (or upper) realms and become more universal and undifferentiated.
The Gateway of Saturn
This is the farthest gateway from the Earth and the threshold to prima mobile, or what we might call God. The realm of Saturn is where the first notions of form and reality emerge.
This is a realm of complete unconsciousness except for the initiated who have mastered staying conscious through the realms of birth and death. The realm of Saturn is where the archetypes begin and where space, time, motion, concepts, and ideas are born.
The Realm of the Fixed Stars and the Prima Mobile
After passing through all of the spherical realms there is the realm of the fixed stars and then the prima mobile. In Renaissance terms the primum mobile would be called the holy trinity.
Below is a list of the basic corresponding characteristics of each of the planets.
Basic Characteristics of the Planetary Spheres
Moon: Physicality and increase
Mercury: Thought, speech, and interpretation
Venus: Passion and longing
Sun: Sense perception and imagination
Mars: Bold spirit
Jupiter: Power to act
Saturn: Reason, understanding, and the contemplative state
Geocentric, Heliocentric, and Holographic Views
The astronomers of the Renaissance held a geocentric view of the universe, meaning that they believed the Earth was at the center of the universe. The heliocentric view, or the theory that the Sun is at the center of the universe, was first written about by ancient Greek philosophers.
It didn’t become the dominant cosmology of Western civilization until the sixteenth century when it was proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus. It was later discovered that the Sun is the center of our solar system and our galaxy but not the center of the universe and that the Sun itself is moving in orbit around the center of the Milky Way.
Present estimates indicate that the sun is between 25,000 to 30,000 light years from the Milky Way’s center. The sun revolves around this center with an orbital velocity of about 155 mi/sec (250 km/sec). One revolution around the Milky Way’s center takes about 200,000,000 years. The sun is only one star among 100,000,000,000 or more other ordinary stars that revolve around the Milky Way’s center. (encyclopedia.com)
Although the planets and stars are located in the sky, they have corresponding placements on Earth based on the holographic view of the universe. This idea is also a form of collectivism whereby our basic nature is not separate from the basic nature of the universe. All of the elements that form the stars and planets are the same elements that have formed everything on Earth. As the saying goes, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
The characteristics of the human body and plants, respectively, echo the signs and planets and vice versa. Ultimately, we are not separate but are living from the same source from different realms and in different combinations.
©2024 Healing Arts Press. Adapted with permission
from the publisher Inner Traditions International.
Article Source: Della Medicina
Della Medicina: The Tradition of Italian-American Folk Healing
by Lisa Fazio.
Building upon the in-depth folk wisdom she learned from her immigrant grandparents as well as from local healers in Southern Italy, second-generation Italian-American and experienced herbalist Lisa Fazio shares herbal traditions and practices from the Italian diaspora and reveals how working with traditional plant medicines can help us connect to ancestral traditions for deep inner healing.
Sharing valuable and nearly forgotten teachings from the Southern Italian herbal tradition, the author also shows how her journey to reconnect with her family’s healing practices offers guidance for anyone seeking to reconnect with their ancestors.
Click here for more info and/or to order this paperback book. Also available as a Kindle edition.
About the Author
Lisa Fazio is a clinical herbalist, plant spirit medicine practitioner, flower essence practitioner, and the founder of “The Root Circle,” a plant medicine educational center. Trained in traditional Western herbalism, Western astrology, and the folk ways of her Italian immigrant family, she has apprenticed with herbalists Kate Gilday, Matthew Wood, and Pam Montgomery. She has an academic background in psychology and ethnobotany and has also done master’s level studies in chemistry, botany, and environmental history. https://therootcircle.com/
Article Recap:
Astrology has long been a tool to explore the connection between celestial forces and earthly experiences. The planets, viewed as gateways, symbolize dimensions of consciousness and spiritual progression. From the Moon’s physical realm to Saturn’s archetypal origins, each planetary sphere offers unique lessons and influences. These insights, rooted in ancient and Renaissance philosophy, reveal astrology’s enduring role in bridging the physical and metaphysical realms, fostering deeper understanding and spiritual growth.
#Astrology #PlanetaryGateways #SpiritualDimensions #CelestialWisdom #HealingWithAstrology #RenaissanceAstrology #AstrologicalSymbolism
