Structure and Movement

We live in a world of constant change. Nothing stands still but everything is in motion. "We cannot step into the same river twice."

Yet, paradoxically, we also live in a world of form and structure. Everything has its shape, its structure. The form or structure is necessary as it provides continuity and preservation. 

Movement and structure - how can they coexist?

The recently completed opposition between Uranus (movement, change) and Saturn (structure, shape) points to this contradiction. And certainly during the past couple of years we have all witnessed many an old structure that has been forced to adjust and make changes. 

If we observe nature and the cosmos, we easily become aware that movement and change also in themselves have their own structure. Everything moves in cycles. Days and nights and seasons follow each other in an orderly manner.

We will also find that the forms and structures of nature are flexible. They have a built-in ability to move, grow and change!

So there is movement in structure and structure in movement! There is some yang in yin and some yin in yang. And so continues the ever-changing dance of our reality. The only invariant is change itself...

Even the gondola - the traditional Venetian boat type - has changed its design over time to meet new circumstances. Unlike its predecessors, today´s gondola is designed to offer tourists in Venice a romantic boat ride on the city´s waterways. It is designed so that the port side is somewhat broader than the the starboard side. This asymmetrical design compensates for drift and gives the craft a straight course and perfect balance with the gondolier standing on the port side, rowing with the single oar attached to the starboard side. This gives to the gondola its particular elegance and beauty of movement under the starlit skies of Venice...

Your Galactic Gondolier

Astrology and Kabbalah

Could it be that the opposition between Uranus and Saturn is the prime and most fundamental polarity there is?

In the Kabbalah this polarity is shown by the way the two planets are positioned on the "Tree of Life". Anyone familiar with the Kabbalah knows that the planets of Astrology - even the newly discovered outer planets - have their allotted places on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. It appears that Uranus and Saturn occupy the opposite positions two and three among the Tree´s ten (plus one) "Sefirot". This means that they are opposite each other, each one heading one of the two outer pillars. Uranus is at the top of the "pillar of energy" (to the right in the diagram below) and Saturn is at the top of the "pillar of structure" (to the left in the diagram). And this is in full compliance with their astrological significances. The diagram shows the Astrological Tree of Life in its entirety.

Now, if the opposition between Uranus ("heaven") and Saturn ("earth") is an expression of the ultimate polarity of life, you soon realize that there must be something to bridge, combine and integrate these two opposites and to bring them to collaborate in a creative and life-sustaining way.

And there is! In a lofty view, opposites always appear to be different sides of the same thing, contrasting forces in a synergistic whole. Summer and winter may seem wide apart but seen in another perspective they make up a year. And so on.

The same of course goes for the opposites of heaven and earth and of spirit and matter. Our whole life is made possible by the integration of these two opposites. But what is it that makes them work together? What is it that overcomes the contradiction?

In the Kabbalah it is shown that it is the middle pillar - the "pillar of consciousness" - that holds together and unites the two extreme players - the pillar of energy/movement/expansion (to the right in the diagram) as opposed to the pillar of structure/matter/incarceration (to the left in the diagram).

In the Astrological Tree of Life, Neptune in the treetop represents the higher union of the opposites. Further down the middle pillar at the very heart of the Tree shines the Sun - another expression of the unity from which the yin and yang world takes shape.

So Kabbalah shows that it is consciousness itself that bridges the opposite poles - represented by movement (energy) and matter (structure) - and have them interact in the alchemical dance of life that we all take part in.

It is fascinating to see how Astrology and Kabbalah - the two ancient knowledge systems - can be reconciled in this wonderful way.

Your Galactic Gondolier