Kabbalistic Astrology Part 2 – ZODIAC SIGNS Part 7

Chapter 10 CAPRICORN
Synthetic channel from the mental body to the causal body
Wrinkles often appear not from old age, but from sad thoughts about its approach. To understand the action of the Capricorn channel, one must clearly imagine the causal body and the flow, which is not easy since they have a more subtle nature than even mental structures and energies—what could seem more elusive than thought? What we consider an event is actually an imprint in our consciousness of some causal movement or change, and this imprint is usually very rough and approximate. No wonder comparing court testimonies is a difficult and highly informal task. The tension of the causal flow can be judged by indirect signs, such as the level of internal engagement, attention, and responsibility it demands from a person, as well as the density of subjective time. The average density of the causal flow is largely determined by national tradition. Most Russians believe the favorite American saying is: “Time is money,” and indeed, the density of the causal flow (more precisely, its social projection) in peacetime is significantly higher among Americans than among Russians (during wartime and crises, it is likely the opposite).

The causal body is the highest of the three that make up the social, and therefore people who can navigate and control the causal flow well find themselves in leading positions of societal management—various bosses, bankers, and manufacturers.Directors, ministers, academics, and presidents. The unit of causal flow in social refraction is the “matter”; thus, the phrase “business person” can be interpreted as “a master of social-causal energies.” However, the event of an event differs; for example, a lunar eclipse two or three thousand years ago (or even two or three centuries ago) was a great event—yet who, besides astrologers and astronomers, notices it today? There are many reasons for such unfortunate inattention to the surrounding Cosmos, and indeed to terrestrial nature, but one is directly related to the topic of this section. It lies in a certain feature of the mentality of the current century, namely, in the absolutization of the principle of “objectivity” as cognition and existence in general.

However, the collective, as is well known, is not always right; more precisely, its truth may prove to be evolutionarily significantly inferior to the truth of its individual representatives. The democracy of the Age of Aquarius, beginning already in the 21st century, will apparently differ sharply from the democracy of the Age of Pisces, especially in the understanding of the 20th century—in the direction of assuming much greater individual freedom and the right to one’s own worldview.

One of the main dogmas of modern civilization is that a cultured person must view themselves objectively; otherwise, they lose self-criticism and, in general, become antisocial. The unpleasantness, however, lies in the fact that the possibilities of such “objective” examination are extremely limited, its frameworks narrow, and its descriptive language abstract to the point of complete vagueness. That is why, for the sake of self-knowledge, it is much better to read fiction than specialized works—psychological or, God forbid, philosophical.

But the direct harm arising from attempts at “objectification” and the inevitably accompanying standardization of thinking—that is, habituating it to adhere to well-worn social stereotypes—is felt not so much on the mental body as, first and foremost, on the causal body. No one will argue that each person’s life, in terms of the sequence of events, is unique and special: one, for example, may consist of a general’s position with all the pleasant consequences that follow, another in a non-commissioned officer’s role, and a third in a pre-conscription status. It is clear that such diverse causal flows should, in theory, correspond to mental flows that differ just as much, yet social subconsciousness imposes significant restrictions.

In its mental body (says the social egregore), a person is free… too free, and like a motorcyclist on rough terrain, may be thrown from the saddle; therefore, it is better to strap them in tighter—if they fall, let them fall with the motorcycle, and then straight to the psychiatric hospital. Thus, their thinking, especially that serving daily needs, is mostly hidden even from themselves, let alone others, since it more closely resembles shamanic tricks than logically flawless chains of reasoning.

“Thinking must be logical and ‘objective’—an axiom no less fundamental than ‘Health is our greatest wealth’—yet in real life, the first statement is disproven by deeds no less frequently than the second. The reasons for this sad circumstance, however, lie not in the low quality of Aristotelian logic and ‘left-hemispheric’ thinking in general, but in the low effectiveness, and sometimes complete inapplicability, of the mental tools currently available in culture for describing and shaping the flow of events. That is why, to achieve anything at all, a person must resort to the ways of thinking that the average social individual naturally and carelessly employs without noticing.”

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The difficulty of predicting the future lies in the nature of things—causal matter and energy are so subtle and delicate that they are either imperceptible and invisible or so distorted in observation that the latter loses any informational value. Managing the causal flow is, above all, an extremely delicate situation, even though the events a person seeks may appear clear and distinct in their mental reflection: passing exams, buying food, seducing a woman, catching a train. However, public opinion, both conscious and subconscious, is deeply convinced that the flow of events is entirely controllable by human will—if one is disciplined enough, purposeful, and not prone to random passions (and connections).

In this view, the primary role in event management is assigned to the flow of Capricorn in its most primitive sense: first, I meticulously plan my actions, and then events unfold accordingly. If they do not unfold as planned, or at all, it means I did not think it through, overlooked something, or simply had bad luck. Such a perspective suffers from several essential flaws, the most significant of which is that it completely ignores the influence of the channel of Taurus on the causal flow. Meanwhile, it is Taurus that transmits the main contours of causal programs into the causal body, for their primary source lies in the buddhic body, not the mental one!

The fruits of our mental meditations are transformed by Capricorn not into causal trees but, alas, only into the soil, the material from which the latter grow—and the plan, the blueprint, so to speak, of the future causal narrative is embedded in the seed carried by the causal body through the flow of Taurus. In other words, the events that happen to us are linked into unified chains as elements of programs that facilitate the attainment of our life values (conscious or unconscious), and not at all as programs for achieving mentally formulated goals—and this must be clearly understood, however unpleasant it may sound to the self-esteem of a thinking person.

The complexity, however, lies in the fact that the mentality of modern culture poorly distinguishes between the buddhic and mental bodies, and they are not even adjacent! Yet wisdom is not a variety of intellect, and value is not the same as a high rating. However, bodies that follow the natural order, so to speak, skipping one (in this case, the mental and buddhic), are closely connected—particularly because they are both synthetic or analytical—and thus transmissions from one to the other are often experienced by a person as continuous on the intermediate body (in this case, the causal). Sometimes, indeed, such transmissions occur as first-class miracles, but far more often, a person simply does not notice the reaction of the intermediate body and its specific meditation, and then it seems to them, for example, that the results of their reflections directly become life positions or values, which are then easily comprehended.

More often, however, it happens differently—much more slowly, yet more reliably: the fruits of reflection become the soil on which events unfold, and when certain lines of these events are completed, the fruits ripen to become the foundation of the overall existential worldview; and conversely, life values give rise to chains of events, analyzing the dead ends and stops of which a person gains some, albeit indirect, yet genuine understanding of their mostly subconscious attitudes, values, and emphases.

A similar misunderstanding, by the way, occurs in the analysis of the connections between the astral and causal bodies: a person believes that their emotions directly create the impulse for action or deed, and events evoke a direct emotional response. This, however, is most often incorrect: in both cases, a mental meditation arises in between, significantly influencing the nature of both transmissions.

Yet while the average person can distinguish between the astral and causal bodies, the difference between the mental and buddhic is not so obvious. If one considers the buddhic body a part of the mental, then the flow of Taurus becomes part of Capricorn’s, and the illusion arises of the causal flow being fully subordinate to Capricorn.

not only at the level of individuals but also of entire collectives and nations: “Give us an enlightened monarch who will form a good government, which will implement wise measures — and we, as one person, will immediately and luxuriantly prosper, thrive, and even turn to true faith.” In reality, however, everything does not go as smoothly: the mental plane is certainly important because it creates a certain foundation on which events unfold — but their form is determined by the movement of existential values, that is, by the shifting emphasis of buddhic energetic patterns, which few can clearly see or anticipate. Yet people who clearly feel that the flow of events is governed not only by the mental (and, of course, by its own laws of development

The causal body is often attributed to an additional, or rather primary, governance not by the buddhic body but by the atmic body, i.e., God, fate, or some unfathomable and uncontrollable force. Here, we again observe the omission of the intermediate (buddhic) body between the atmic and causal bodies, leading to unfounded fatalism. At first glance, and by structure and subjective perception, the atmic body seems closer to the causal body than the buddhic: both the atmic and causal bodies are synthetic. If I have one (main!) ideal or God, then He should naturally determine the course of my life—obviously, the entire life, including all its events. Otherwise, how can His omnipresence or the universality of the ideal be reconciled?

In reality, however, direct transmissions from the atmic body to the causal body are rare. Typically, the movement of the ideal shapes current values, which then synthesize into a unified stream of events. Thus, the mental-voluntarist approach to events is linked to identifying the buddhic body with part of the mental body, and consequently, viewing the Taurus channel as part of Capricorn. Meanwhile, the fatalistic approach makes the buddhic body part of the atmic body, resulting in the channels of Aries and Taurus seemingly merging into one (the Arian sound).

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How is the action of Capricorn subjectively experienced? First, it is essential to distinguish between the conscious and unconscious fruits of mental meditations—the latter are far more numerous and often more significant than the former. For example, a skier descending a steep, rugged mountain engages in intense mental meditation, coordinating the movements of the physical body with information received through the eyes and feet. Yet only a small fraction of what occurs in the mental body is reflected in consciousness. Even finer processes take place during ordinary digestion, in which the mental body actively participates in regulation. All these mental meditations, through Capricorn, bear their fruits into the causal body, becoming its foundation.

A strong, fertile causal foundation gives a person a sense of an influx of energy, which can be expended on intensely experiencing or managing the flow of events. This fundamental causal energy is especially acutely felt in social situations: people with a strong causal body attract attention like magnets, while a weak causal foundation leaves a person feeling unnecessary, insignificant, and out of place.

Images of the Beautiful Woman, the Significant or Responsible Person, the Meaningful Individual, the Patron, the Influential Critic, and many others arise from a sufficiently powerful causal “substrate,” upon which only the appropriate form needs to be cultivated. The secret of correct behavior within the causal flow largely lies in not programming desired events too precisely—either it won’t work out, or it will overburden the causal body, requiring a long recovery of equilibrium. Forced success or achievement often proves unnecessary.

In general, events as such—their external form—are determined by the existential values of a person, aiding in their attainment. The fruits of mental efforts are meant to prepare the ground for the ripening of events—but this, of course, is no small matter. It is important, however, to understand that Capricorn transformation involves structural deformation and a colossal depersonalization of even the finest fruits of our reflections, however pleasant or unpleasant this may be. At the same time, this circumstance frees a person, starting from the third level of Capricorn processing, from much that is painful and unnecessary.

To better grasp the paradoxical and incomplete nature of modern culture, it is worth considering why some subtle bodies are described almost exclusively in terms of their manifestations in a person’s external life, while others are described only in terms of the internal. Existing languages for describing emotions and thoughts are purely introspective, whereas the flow of events—apart from poets—is described almost solely from the perspective of the external world. Thus, the action of the Capricorn flow is perceived as some kind of mystification, even though it is no less real than any other zodiacal flow.

But truly, how can my mental meditation—a fragment of inner life—affect my causal flow, i.e., external life events? If the reader is at such a high evolutionary level that they clearly see the direct connections between the inner and outer worlds of a person, this question will not trouble them. However, they likely won’t need this book. If these connections are not obvious, understanding the action of Capricorn becomes not so easy.

Therefore, the author must remind that the concept of the causal body and the flow of events is primarily subjective. An event is what is perceived as such—consciously or unconsciously—by the person themselves. Thus, the level of fundamental causal energy and the richness of the causal foundation indicate, above all, a person’s inner readiness and ability to perceive events and manage their flow—and it is this readiness and ability that the Capricorn flow shapes.

What will grow from a dry or, conversely, well-tilled causal foundation depends on the seeds provided by Taurus.

Here, the author feels the need to make a brief digression and provide some illustrations of the concept of an inner event.

What constitutes an external event is clear to everyone. For example, waking up and opening one’s eyes—this is already an event, sometimes pleasant, sometimes, if the mood is low and the day promises unpleasantness, unpleasant or even very unpleasant. But what is an inner event?

Writers, these engineers of human souls, indulge us with descriptions of this kind: *”She vaguely felt that something very important and significant was happening inside her, but she couldn’t understand herself.”* Of course, she couldn’t—if the writer himself couldn’t, and if he could, he would certainly have written it, sparing no detail for the grateful reader.

An inner event is what occurs in a person’s inner world, and one should not assume that the inner world is a luxury or the exclusive domain of especially creative or artistically gifted natures—it exists in everyone, though not everyone reflects on it. Such is the power of societal subconscious stereotypes, which create a distorted picture of both external and internal reality with astonishing perception and instability.

The starting point that any person seeking to study their organism and understand themselves must assimilate is that they do not live in the external world but primarily in the inner world, which bears little resemblance to the “objective” one.

Here are some examples. Is Pushkin (Shakespeare, Dante) a great poet? Do not rush to answer. Instead, consider how many of his verses you know by heart and how long it has been since you last reread them—then you will form an idea of the greatness or more modest place of the classic in your inner reality.

Who is the greater thinker: Arthur Schopenhauer or your neighbor who has seen visions? Again, do not rush to answer, but recall whose advice and aphorisms you use more often.

But let’s move closer to home: what remains in our memory after watching a film, and, more importantly, how does it participate in our subsequent life? The work that the director and their team may have spent a year creating cannot be perceived in two hours, let alone reduced to the meager remnants of memories about the film that will remain in a person a year later. Thus, the film, “in itself” or “objectively,” is not entirely what it seems.

An even simpler and more instructive example is a dwelling. How does my room appear in my inner world? Very uniquely, but one thing is certain: it bears no resemblance to its color photograph. The issue here is not that I am not an artist and do not remember all the geometric shapes, color shades, and transitions, the shadows, halftones, and highlights that make up the photograph.The main point is that objects in a room are perceived by me quite differently depending on their role in my inner life: one helps me live, another clearly hinders me, a third presents a problem from which there is no escape, a fourth loves me but has become unbearably tedious, the fifth I love but it does not correspond to the dwelling as part of my inner world. It is not yellow-brown or ochre, nor smooth and fluffy, though tactile and olfactory sensations are often more intimate and personal than color. In my inner world, there is no wallpaper pattern, no shape of vinyl records, no external appearance of a turntable—only two buttons, a tonearm, and three keys, plus the ability to reproduce sounds from a standard set that is replenished in a music shop. I do not know the exact name of this shop, nor do I care, but I remember how to get there—more precisely, three main turns and a stately tree opposite the entrance (I have no idea what species it is).

Even stranger and more bizarre in the inner world are the familiar faces and relatives of a person. The outlines of faces and figures are sometimes completely blurred, and in places very sharp and equally lifeless—rigid, motionless masks with minimal allowable variations in expression. When it comes to subtle bodies, their images in the inner world are often quite primitive and boil down to common clichés: “a weakling,” “a neurotic,” “a trickster,” “a sly one,” and so on; the buddhic body is represented by traits such as “decent,” “reliable,” “vile,” and the like. Of course, these images are difficult to express in words and are indeed somewhat broader than described above, yet as a rule they remain very poor and schematic.

However, this is not all. First, the inner world carries a subjective coloring, sometimes quite bizarre, to all such “objectively” existing phenomena as dwellings or relatives. Second, it contains independent objects that have no prototypes in the external world. Third—and this is also very important—the inner world has an extensive system of connections (logical and associative) between its elements, and it is largely these connections that determine the causal level of a person’s energy. Now it becomes clearer what an inner event is: a change in the inner world, for example, the appearance of new objects or the disappearance of old ones, a shift in emphasis (inner illumination) of certain areas, a restructuring of the system of connections, and so on.

The path from an “objective” event—that is, some change in the external world and its circumstances—to an inner event, that is, a change in the inner world, is very long and involves numerous filters that distort and obscure the informational-energetic flow coming to a person from outside. A casually witnessed catastrophe remains inside as a slight emotional imbalance and quickly stabilizes; terrifying events from detective novels are perceived as light and entertaining diversions, and so on. Yet the higher the evolutionary level of a person and the broader their consciousness, the more subtly they respond to the external world, reacting to events that go unnoticed by people standing slightly lower on the evolutionary ladder. In the course of evolutionary development, the very concept of an event is also transformed.as externally, and internally, but that is a different topic. To what extent an external event becomes internal can be judged by a very simple sign — how much and in what detail it is remembered. But why does it happen that some facts and events a person remembers immediately and forever, while others, no matter how often repeated, are instantly erased from memory, leaving no trace in the inner world? This largely depends on the specifics of the causal ground in the place where the Taurus seed tries to take root or where the mental plantlet, shrub, or even a full-grown tree with roots, carried by the wind from the causal plane, attempts to take hold. If the soil is rich and suitable for the plant, it will take root and grow; if not, it will quickly wither and travel down the channel of Gemini into the mental body. Thus, the conclusion is inevitable: prepare the soil in advance if you want to achieve good growth and fruition in your causal fields. How is this done? Here are some typical examples.

A court case. To establish social truth and deliver a just verdict — an event in the lives not only of the defendant but also of the judge, lawyer, prosecutor, and jurors — requires preparing certain soil, which is created by the Capricorn of the judicial egregore based on the fruits of mental meditations by witnesses, plaintiffs, and the prosecution. The judge’s role, in theory, is to ensure the purity of the Capricorn channel and carefully cultivate the tree of a balanced, unbiased decision that grows on the causal plane.

Learning foreign languages. Memorizing and assimilating each new word, phrase, syntactic structure, or even the sounds of a foreign language is an event in inner life, and it can only occur if the appropriate effort is applied — effort that falls on fertile ground. Everyone who has tried to learn a language knows what these efforts are, but few realize how crucial the causal ground is here — its quality determines the effectiveness of learning, i.e., the result per unit of effort. Subjectively, good soil feels like a living interest in the language, love for its words and images, enthusiasm that helps arrange words into sentences and even compels a person to pore over dictionaries or simply read them in their free time. Part of this enthusiasm comes from the Taurus current if studying the language is a particularly important value for the person, but this is what might be called general enthusiasm. The specific tender or passionate feelings toward the learning material are conditioned precisely by the good causal subsoil created by the Capricorn current from the fruits of language.

The author does not mean empty dreams like, “How good it will be when I finally learn it,” but concrete reflections, analysis, and associative chains built on already learned words, phrases, syntax, etc. If done correctly, a strong desire naturally arises in the person to read a new text, learn words from it, or master a new construction — this means the soil for causal meditation regarding the assimilation of the next fragment of the language is ready.

Administrative management. For a director of an institute, factory manager, minister, or president, every decision requires a certain causal meditation; as officials say, a document must “ripen,” meaning it cannot be signed immediately. This is not only due to the parasitic nature of the bureaucratic apparatus but also, to some extent, to the structure of the world itself: an event (in this case, a decree, order, or directive) must mature over time. For it to thrive and grow, the appropriate soil is needed — and it is abundantly (or sparsely) supplied by the Capricorn channel based on the thoughts, summaries, and brief reports of assistants, advisors, and consultants. A good leader carefully tends to the causal body of the egregore of their organization and timely updates their team of assistants and consultants, but they make responsible decisions themselves, carefully nurturing the seeds sown in the prepared causal soil by their superiors through mental effort.

In all the described examples, one common circumstance stands out: mental preparation never determines the nature of future events, though it strongly influences their character. For instance, an assistant does not know exactly what decision the boss will make, though they certainly notice their influence on it. Thus, direct mental programming of events often fails, while methodical preparation of a certain general style or character of their unfolding usually succeeds — at least, when the Capricorn channel is properly worked through, making the topic the subject of the next discussion.

At the first level of working with Capricorn, a person has vague ideas about the operation of this channel and tense relations with it. Such people fall into two categories: extreme voluntarists and equally extreme fatalists. The first (voluntarists) believe they are the complete masters of their fate (in the sense of the sequence of specific events that happen to them), which they meticulously plan in their minds. If these plans fail, they always find a specific person (an enemy, villain, or antagonist) who, with their evil will, obstructed the correct and pre-programmed course of events, and the next time, this villain must be eliminated or accounted for in their calculations — and then everything will be fine. The second (fatalists), on the other hand, absolutely do not believe in the possibility of any influence of thought on the flow of events. They believe everything is determined on the spot and depends on a person’s actions, circumstances, and the will of fate (God, an abstract and incomprehensible destiny). Thus, any reflection on the future, construction of plans, etc., is nothing but self-deception and a waste of time.

Both categories share a lack of any sense of Capricorn currents, though this does not mean the channel is inactive in them — it simply operates entirely in the subconscious. As a result, the person does not understand why some of their affairs succeed while others regularly fail, and most importantly, they are practically unable to influence the stability and fertility of their causal programs. The main curse at this level is a complete lack of understanding of what the fruits of mental meditations sent into the causal body should be like and what function they serve.

If a person chronically fails at something they desperately need (say, earning a certain amount of money), they will inevitably try to recognize their mistakes and mentally construct a plan for the right course of action. Where should they stop in building this plan? A person at the first level either immediately abandons any serious reflection and indulges in pure fantasies, sending barren rock into the causal body — completely non-energetic and often unhealthy soil — or tries to develop a detailed plan of behavior with all possible details and options — and also quickly drifts into the realm of mental fantasies. In both cases, the fruits entering Capricorn turn out to be small and dry, so the causal soil ultimately becomes impoverished and withers. The purely external impression of such a person is that they cannot transition from words to action in a timely manner — either they hastily rush in without seeing the target, or they ramble endlessly without realizing it is time to stop and do something.

Take, for example, the brothers of Ivan the Fool, who carelessly treat the information they receive and do not transform it through Capricorn into an inner state of intense attention before their first encounter with the enemy. Instead, they doze off before his appearance. Of course, the evil sorcerer must know how to avert eyes and cast sleepy spells, but the hero’s resistance in the fairy tale is based on a strong causal body with good soil that allows him to remain alert and vigilant even before dawn — and this soil is precisely what the lazy and unsuccessful brothers lack.However, an event is not merely a confrontation with the dragon or defending a dissertation; for example, an event can be any difficult action a person must prepare for in advance: pull-ups on a horizontal bar, jumping over a puddle in the street, or even climbing over a dinner table in some cases. In all these situations, a person experiences a rapid mental meditation that provides energy for the causal body, which uses it to coordinate muscle and ligament work and other internal organs involved in the movement. If a person poorly controls Capricorn, they feel extremely insecure even during mental meditation: instead of clearly imagining what they are about to do and then, gathering their courage (here it is—the activation of Capricorn!), doing it, they start imagining all the possible mishaps that could occur along the way, how they might slip off the bar, knock over a chair while standing up… Even if none of this actually happens, the movement will still come out clumsy and awkward: the causal foundation is insufficient for precise coordination of muscles, as Capricorn transmits either poisoned or insufficient fruits of mental meditation, and these cannot be purified or strengthened through Capricorn’s transformative process.

At the second level of Capricorn processing, a person realizes that their events somehow depend on their mental efforts—but only in a vague, indirect way, making it difficult to pinpoint the exact nature of this dependence. Generally, this is the level of people capable of learning something and, once learned, teaching others. They understand that you cannot simply pull a fish out of a pond without effort, and here, labor is primarily mental: memorization, comparison, verification, coordination, and so on—similar to how mathematical articles look, considering equalities (7) and (9), we derive the following relation based on (11)… Mental work involves verifying what has been said, meaning a diligent reader takes a sheet of paper and substitutes the given expression into the required formula to ultimately confirm that the author wrote everything correctly. Why do this? It is completely unclear, but the result is a “Method.” If you simply skim through definitions and theorem formulations, you end up with a kind of scientific impotence: you know everything in theory, but somehow cannot do anything new.

This applies not only to representatives of the humanities and exact sciences but to all professions. If a wife does not like how her husband eats, she can deliver a reasoned speech about the benefits of good manners and the social necessity of developing the habit of chewing with a closed mouth, or she can simply say: “You’re crunching like a crocodile—pieces of meat, pieces of meat, pieces of meat!” A successful mental image will work more effectively than a logical chain, though in both cases, the general scheme is the same: the fruits of mental effort, passing through the Capricorn channel, prepare the ground for the desired event… but what exactly it will be, the wife still does not know. Will her husband snap back (“You must have a loose ass!”), obediently close his mouth, or open it even wider in shock, or suddenly rush off to the zoo’s terrarium to watch how large reptiles feed? In any case, this person understands the value of mental meditations and, moreover, realizes that their substantial fruits may turn out to be much smaller than the effort expended—but the more energy a person invests in cultivating them, the more valuable and impactful (causally) they become.

Processing experimental results can take years, and the conclusions may consist of just a few lines—but the weight of these lines is determined not by the number of words but by the years of mental labor spent. At the second level of Capricorn processing, a person often falls into euphoria from the sense of their potential—both internally and sometimes externally, their motto becomes: “I can do everything, just not all at once.” Unfortunately, this is not the case, and sometimes, after long and careful preparation of the causal ground, entirely alien plants—or even weeds with thistles—sprout. This is especially unpleasant in professions where the causal ground must be cultivated for a long time and meticulously, yet the results appear and take shape almost instantly. This is typical of sprinters, pole vaulters, acrobats, jugglers, paratroopers, surgeons, poets, and practicing astrologers—the reader can usefully continue this list themselves.

At this level, a person sees that their mental efforts are not everything, but they usually cannot control the rest; moreover, it is unclear whether they can increase the effectiveness of their mental meditations and, if so, how. At the third level of Capricorn processing, a person navigates the situation and mostly correctly understands the possibilities and functions of the channel. They sense when mental meditation is sufficient to ensure planned events—to the extent they are capable of ensuring them—and otherwise do not attempt to leap beyond their abilities, predict precise plot twists, or plan their reactions in advance. One of the key skills a person masters at this level of Capricorn processing is patiently waiting and gradually preparing the ground for the most difficult and capricious events, whose realization is often perceived by others as unexpected good fortune that has fallen into their lap—and only they know how much effort went into it.

At this level, a person begins to grasp Capricorn’s synthetic nature and understands that the flow of events is unified, prepared by all their mental meditations—both conscious and unconscious. In other words, you cannot prepare the ground for the realization of a specific chain of events without simultaneously influencing the adjacent ones. Thus, the entire event flow begins to be felt and perceived by the person as a single whole—this revelation of the causal body’s interconnectedness sheds light on many of its dark corners. A person sees how the connection of times is restored, and no circumstances now seem meaningless or isolated to them—even if an event in itself means little, it always symbolizes something, meaning it can be seen as an important link connecting different spheres of life.

If Taurus is also processed to the third level, a person may sometimes experience a moving synthesis of Taurus and Capricorn influences in specific events, where the path to achieving their life values unfolds through the steps laid out by their reflections. If Taurus is weak, there is no strength to move forward; if Capricorn is weak, there are no steps, and the person constantly stumbles and falls. But if the channels of Taurus and Capricorn are processed to the third level, the person often succeeds in harmonizing their transmissions—adapting the ascent to the nature of the climb—and, moreover, maintaining both decently shaped legs (Taurus enthusiasm) and steps (especially those not naturally suited to climbing), so that the ascent proceeds even on the steepest sections. Here, processing Gemini proves very helpful, as it provides feedback from events to awareness and proper self-criticism.

At the third level of Capricorn processing, a person learns to clearly distinguish the material meant for them (the fruits of mental meditations) from the material meant for Cancer (the waste of mental meditations), and, in particular, to send Cancer overripe or rotten fruits of reflection—just as diligent writers edit their manuscripts, reluctantly crossing out passages. Speaking of writing, we can classify genres according to certain Kabbalistic zodiac signs: if Taurus governs philosophical prose and ideologized emotions like Tolstoy’s, Gemini governs newspaper journalism, Cancer governs short stories and poetry, and Sagittarius governs hymns and folk-rooted literature (Proverbs are ruled by Aquarius). The ability to structure a scene and dialogue so that every line spoken by the characters feels like an event—at least to an attentive viewer—is primarily linked to proper Capricorn processing: first by the playwright, then by the director, and finally by the actors and the audience. However, it must be so—the turning point, and even a mere line from a minor character, must carry weight.A person with the third level of processing in Capricorn can, when necessary, stage something akin to a one-person show, and if they really need to, they can prepare a decent performance from the material of everyday life with a specific ending and epilogue in mind, while the participants may not even suspect who the main director was.

At the fourth level of processing in Capricorn, further awareness, detailing, and learning to control the phenomena and effects that the person previously perceived only passively and often vaguely take place. First and foremost, a qualitative restructuring of the mental worldview and thought patterns occurs, since Capricorn now demands a more refined product than, for example, logical conclusions based on everyday concepts. The person begins to seek mental languages and symbolic systems more suited to their new, synthetic vision of the causal flow, and their thinking changes: it becomes more abstract, synthetic, and at first glance arbitrary (alogical)—yet it gains an inner coherence that compensates for its lack in many places. When a person sees the connections between all or many plotlines of the causal flow, they develop a distinct sense that many of them are merely different manifestations of the same underlying narrative hidden in personal or collective subconsciousness, and they strive to reveal this narrative and, in one way or another, modify, overcome, or completely dismantle it. At this point, they feel the need for a symbolic language capable of describing such a narrative and the ways it manifests in various situations and areas of life. Once they find or create such a language, they realize that thinking in it is far more effective in terms of the quality and quantity of the causal ground emerging after processing the fruits of mental meditations by Capricorn: now the flow of events changes so that their interconnections—the structure of the flow—become much clearer than before. The level of perception and understanding of what is happening, as well as the ability to manage the flow of events, increases sharply—but this does not make life any less interesting, since the degree of creativity in the causal flow grows. Admittedly, it is difficult for this person to explain their behavior to others, as their vision, ways of comprehending, and regulating their life will seem utterly strange to them, for this person sees much that is still inaccessible to others—first and foremost, the connections between events in different spheres of life, and their behavior may appear somewhat eccentric or irrational. They carefully refine certain techniques and peculiarities of their thought language. Yet this person is effective—so much so that they may become a great leader (for example, a minister), and those around them will struggle to comprehend their practical mindset, even if it yields brilliant, obvious results.

A strong Capricorn endows a person with abilities that are not particularly flashy but highly valued in society “in the grand scheme of things”—at a family gathering, they may not stand out, but they are quite capable of setting a Guinness World Record, for instance, by walking on their hands from Moscow to Odessa without ever reacting to the remarks of those around them. Where this person finds the patience to prepare their plans remains unclear to others; though the person themselves may well feel that it is not nearly enough. As a rule, they have a strong causal body, or rather, its ground, but exactly what events unfold within it depends not only on the thoroughness of their preparation—something this person may long fail to understand, especially if they have a weak Taurus. The temptation of their life is manipulation and efforts applied unjustly, but in a uniquely complex Capricornian variant. This person has great talent for weaving intrigues and creating convoluted situations that, as they see it, should push the actors in their comedy (tragedy, workdays, or domestic life) toward entirely specific actions—but the actors’ responses do not always fit into the framework they anticipated, and the person may struggle to understand why, whether due to insufficient prior preparation or the failure to account for certain possible factors.

As for the efforts applied, the person usually does not stint them and does not value the work of their Capricorn, for which the channel may hold a strong grudge. The fact is that the energy of the causal body is what people pay for, sometimes quite handsomely, yet a fine causal sapling can sometimes grow very quickly—thanks to the ground having been carefully prepared for many years—and the person must learn to correctly assess not only its financial worth but also its personal importance. A strong Capricorn matures slowly, but it can yield wonderful fruits if the person exercises patience and maintains a proper self-criticism, avoiding the cultivation of delicate plants until the causal ground proves capable of supporting their growth.

Depending on the level of processing in Capricorn, this person may be anyone from a minor troublemaker to a great expert in their field, but in any case, they will have a desire to do something only after thorough preparation, and they should not resist this urge, even if they appear to others as a bore or a fussbudget. Far more important for them is aligning their mental efforts with genuine, not sham, values, for without this, plans painstakingly nurtured for decades can collapse instantly, and recovering from such a shock will be difficult even with multiple sextiles from Capricorn to Scorpio.

A weak Capricorn creates problems for the person related to the low effectiveness of their pursuits, which seem meaningful, as well as any preparation and construction of plans. Even with a strong Taurus, their causal body is usually capable only of great exertion—that is, the person may sometimes engage in feverish activity—but they never manage to carry out any serious long-term programs without prolonged prior preparation: such plans inevitably fall apart, either because the person loses interest in them, or luck abandons them outright, or insurmountable obstacles arise, and so on. This does not mean that a weak Capricorn lives poorly or feels like a failure in life; they may well be content with themselves and their life, openly preferring to be a frivolous, quick-witted butterfly rather than a hardworking, dull, and stingy ant.

A weak Capricorn struggles with true learning—that is, the actual assimilation of knowledge and skills that form a causal ground sufficient for effective future work. This is especially noticeable with strong Gemini, where the mental reflection of reality comes easily and effortlessly—but somehow nothing good comes of it, entirely in keeping with Daniil Kharms’ famous dialogue:

Mathematics: No, I’m smart and know a lot!
Andrey Semyonovich: A lot, but it’s all nonsense!

Here, processing is complicated, as strong Gemini creates a multitude of temptations and illusions; the mental body operates intensely, yet the fruits of its meditations reach the causal body as if through a thin capillary, and the latter can become severely depleted and ailing: the person loses faith in themselves and their abilities, and sometimes even interest in life altogether. The only solution is not to ignore Capricorn but to diligently work on it by studying the individual peculiarities of this channel. For example, if the person has issues related to poor memory, they can first improve it in many ways, and second, they may not actually need to actively remember everything they would like to—many things do not stick because the buddhic body blocks them, so the question arises: can they do without it?A harmonious Capricorn gives a person the rare talent of natural mental preparation for future events: he thinks about them no more than necessary, but also no less, which is evident even in his speech in situations where words are deeds, i.e., directly influence the causal flow. He knows how to make an exclamation at the right time, and sometimes, on the contrary, to respond with a protest, being prepared to the necessary degree. If this person wants something from you, you will somehow find yourself in a position where there is only one way out: to do what he needs; you may not even realize that you are fulfilling his will or desire, let alone the fact that he may express it aloud. This skill creates a strong temptation to manipulate others, and the manipulation is quite subtle in nature: it is not the straightforward Taurean pressure-coercion with a direct appeal to values, a sense of duty, etc., but a very peculiar, often indirect game where the victim is brought to the brink of their own choice, though not without benefit for the harmonious Capricorn.

His mastery at the mid-social level is demonstrated by popular books by D. Carnegie with recommendations such as: smile; explain to your partner (business or marital) how your proposal benefits them; talk to them about their life and difficulties; frequently address the person by name and make them feel important. All these and many other tips essentially aim to create a favorable mental image of oneself in the partner, which is the first step toward forming fertile causal soil in them for concluding the desired agreement or contract.

If a harmonious Capricorn degenerates, he becomes a petty manipulator with very unpleasant manners, and his intentions are more than clear to those around him, who strive to get rid of him like a poisonous tick—but they succeed only at the cost of greater effort, especially if you are bound to him by family ties. Then, finding himself in a dependent position or declaring himself as such, a harmonious Capricorn, especially as he ages, may spend hours (or years) trying to make you feel guilty by talking about how he always loved and tolerated you despite your stubbornness, bad temper, and general ingratitude—traits, by the way, characteristic of your entire generation as a whole; and he, for his part, wants nothing from you except perhaps a bowl of soup in his old age… And though all this may sound harmless, such speeches can poison your causal body so much that all your affairs will fall apart, and you will only want one thing: to end your days six feet under.

Work on oneself gives excellent abilities to prepare for any serious event so that it goes remarkably smoothly; it is unlikely that a harmonious Capricorn will become the chief designer of space rockets (this is too risky a project for him), but the position of a school principal may suit him perfectly.

An afflicted Capricorn may begin life by adopting the aphorism of K. Prutkov: “Moved by fate, yet do not despair,” because this person’s life plans most often turn out quite differently from what they initially intended—or fail altogether, and the reasons for such a strange and frankly unpleasant state of affairs will long remain incomprehensible to them, buried very deep indeed. The problem in this case lies in significant distortions in the transmission of the fruits of reflection, no matter how high-quality these reflections may be. In doing so, the causal soil becomes poisoned as if without the person’s fault, and from the best Taurean seeds, stunted or monstrous plants grow: it is as if a curse hangs over the person’s event flow, the roots of which will reveal tense aspects of Capricorn.

A closer examination, however, shows that the issue is not some irrational “guilt” stemming from past incarnations or even from Adam’s original sin, but in much more prosaic circumstances, the main one being that an afflicted Capricorn must under no circumstances precisely program their own (or someone else’s) happiness—or misfortune, for that matter.”—But who would consciously plan misfortune for themselves? Yet, if, driven to the brink by their failures, this person begins to invite misfortune upon themselves, their chaotic demon, firmly entrenched in Capricorn, will happily assist, so that driving out one demon with another does not work in this case.

Work on an afflicted Capricorn proceeds along three main lines: working with the causal body, working with the mental body, and, after studying the channel’s features, purifying and expanding it. Working with the causal body involves, in particular, the person carefully examining their soil, i.e., the fundamental, deep meaning of the events that happen to them—as if the original molecules from which they are composed—and trying to understand what kind of distorted thought-forms are characteristic of them and, most importantly, what kind of chain they form.

Working with the mental body requires identifying which types of conclusions from reasoning and conversations lead to the most poisonous causal consequences and which turn into difficult but at least manageable and potentially fruitful causal soils.

Finally, working with the Capricorn channel itself involves improving the quality of its transformations—but this topic is revealed individually to each person and deserves separate consideration, some aspects of which the author intends to touch upon in the following books of this treatise.

In any case, an afflicted Capricorn does not put a cross over a person’s achievements—rather, he forces the person to choose: either take responsibility for their affairs and learn to bear their cross along with a large chunk of the surrounding world’s karma with relative ease and naturalness, or shift the blame for their failures onto the outside world, and then gradually grow bitter and fall under the destructive power of a harsh egregore, becoming its obedient puppet, joyfully destroying any causal soil within reach: such are the Pushkinian demon, the Gauthierian Mephistopheles, and many revolutionary figures of a fundamentally nihilistic bent.

Chapter 11. Aquarius
The analytical channel from the causal body to the Buddhic

Wisdom makes the transparent walls of the labyrinth of destinies visible.

The very existence of the Aquarius flow is questioned by skeptics: can one really draw serious conclusions from the ever-changing, fleeting life? “History teaches only that nothing is learned,” says the Grey King, “and centuries of experience show that it is useless”—but this is not true. Even if we consider the level of collective consciousness, it is easy to see that it changes, develops, and loses many illusions from age to age—though much more slowly than the most radical and progressive social elite would like.

As for individuals, they certainly do draw conclusions from what happens to them and change significantly, though these changes are never the result of mental effort alone and often run counter to those efforts. For example, the so-called “broken vase” syndrome, which has a distinctly Aquarian nature, clearly cannot be explained by mere mental meditation.

Yet one way or another, a person’s values and life attitudes change, and it would be extremely naive to believe that the causal flow does not influence them. Of course, I am not a product of circumstances—but they do something to me, subtly undermining or even overturning some of my life positions and strengthening others, and what was once a cornerstone of my existential worldview in youth may crumble to dust in maturity, while theAs for the material that enters the Aquarius channel, these are the fruits of causal meditations, and there is absolutely no desire to discuss them. Instead, there arises a wish to preserve them as a special inner value, not to squander or dissipate them on trifles, but to assimilate them in the form of mature wisdom, more precise life guidance. Aquarius leads us beyond the boundaries of the social body—upward, into the mountain spaces of the Buddhic and Atmic, or, speaking in Russian, the soul. The expression “to speak to the soul” means a shared meditation on the Buddhic plane, that isAt the value level regarding objects representing the main interests of the interlocutors’ lives; this requires great mutual trust and focus on the subject under discussion, making it practically impossible in broad social situations—and, as a rule, taboo in secular etiquette, which strictly limits group meditations to the social body. Therefore, Aquarian flows usually occur after a reception or party, while secular communication itself is oriented toward Gemini: this is storytelling, impressions, interpretations, and subsequent mental discussion. However, the most significant are still Aquarian transmissions, which often occur somewhat later, already at home, when a couple, returning from guests, exchanges remarks whose meaning is most often clear only to them. And if the marriage is successful and their life values and programs are aligned, no interpretations (i.e., mental understanding) are needed at all. Moreover, if paired meditation proceeds under Aquarius, it most often takes the form of a sequence of short phrases—half-hints, half-indications—alternating with long pauses, the purpose of which is to allow the partner to grasp the value significance of what was said, for example, to strengthen their positions or receive confirmation of the correctness of their values. Such remarks always carry great causal weight with a causal subtext that Aquarius transforms into the buddhic ground.

In good plays, Aquarian dialogues usually appear in the final scenes, preparing the characters (and the audience) for catharsis, when the characters’ slips of the tongue and hints have a fully comprehensible meaning for the audience and bear abundant causal fruits in the buddhic body, resulting in a vivid emotional, value-based, and worldview reaction: on the prepared buddhic ground, a lush tree grows—and usually a parallel one. Thus, important signs of Aquarius’ activation include the strengthening (or weakening) of inner strength and the absence of interpretations: a person feels no need for them, as events, so to speak, speak for themselves. Furthermore, when the Aquarius channel is engaged, it seems to block the Gemini one, and any comments or remarks feel extraneous, unnecessary, and even destructive—as they indeed are.

Aquarian genres include parables, aphorisms, maxims, and short wisdom that appeal to a person’s life experience and help them convert it into inner strength. That is why aphorisms are often accused of futility: after all, only those who already have the life experience confirming the given judgment understand it, and the aphorism is unnecessary for them, while those who do not understand it will not grasp it upon reading—at least, they will not be able to integrate it into their existential system. This, in the author’s view, is unjust, though of course the Aquarian style is nothing like the Jupiterian-Gemini one, where your most intimate struggles are dissected from all sides, chewed over, laid out on the shelves of all available symbolic systems, and placed in the mental mouth.

A typical Aquarian question sounds like this: Can you learn from others’ mistakes? Or at least from your own? Huh? If you haven’t learned yet, don’t be upset: Aquarius is guided by practical and patient Saturn, and Grandma Karma has enough patience to wait until you absorb her lessons—but no one guarantees that her tactics won’t change.

***

The author has already noted that in modern culture and language, there is no clear distinction between the buddhic and mental bodies, which often leads to confusion that comes at a high price for both individuals and collectives. The buddhic body manifests through existential values, serious life programs, psychological traits, talents, senses of duty and conscience, stable habits, abilities and inabilities, and inner inclinations and aversions—and all of this is felt by a person as deeply intimate and intrinsic to them. The mental body, in turn, somehow reflects the entire organism of a person—both their inner and outer life—in its symbolic systems, including the aforementioned buddhic manifestations: values, abilities, etc. However, the buddhic body and its reflection in the mental are entirely different things, differing not only in vibrational level but also, so to speak, in content: for example, many of a person’s own virtues and talents are not recognized as such and are thus devalued, while their ideas about what is truly important to them often prove erroneous or severely distorted.

Every causal meditation yields “fruits at the exit” and fallen leaves, and it is important not to confuse them—that is, to send the berries into the Aquarius channel and the withered leaves to Gemini, and not the other way around. Aquarius governs the summing-up of life, even preliminary ones, and the results of its work are profound changes within a person: the buddhic ground shifts, followed by the buddhic flora—traits of character, habits, value emphases; the main life narratives turn in a different direction, and some of them die off entirely, partially replaced by new ones. Naturally, the mental worldview also changes, meaning a person draws certain mental conclusions, but this is not the main point and does not exhaust the changes that have occurred within them. Who among us has not arrived at serious conclusions about themselves and their life, only to find themselves utterly unable to put them into practice? Yet the Aquarius flow brings precisely what is necessary for this: it builds a reserve of inner strength that can be expended on long-term programs for developing talents, changing character, or achieving external values, such as professional growth.

Another equally important function of the Aquarius flow is that it confirms a person in their life positions—or sometimes undermines them, after which a need arises, after some time, to adjust and partially replace them. The total disillusionment of humanity in itself and its capabilities—even doubts about the ability to prevent the global ecological catastrophe we ourselves have caused—is, not least, linked to the tradition of speculatively replacing Aquarius with Gemini, where the ripening fruit of unpleasant causal meditation is sent to Gemini in order to “comprehend” it, while in fact devaluing the significance of what has occurred.

This tradition has existed for a long time but became especially popular in the last three centuries of unchallenged solemnity of human reason, which was officially granted divine status, and God himself, it seems, was declared nonexistent to eliminate a competitor. As a result, it has come to seem that the buddhic body is part of the mental one, and thus the Aquarius channel is part of the Gemini one; this has confirmed the entirely incorrect thesis that the main significance of experience lies in its comprehension.

“Not at all!” says Aquarius. “The main significance of experience—and of any completed chain of events—lies in the fact that as a result, ripe fruits mature, which I transform into the ground on which a person’s values and abilities grow, endowing them with the potential for great future deeds and achievements, and even substantial inner transformation—shaping character, abandoning persistent bad habits, and expanding essential consciousness (the latter, in everyday language, is called overcoming egoism).”

So how does one distinguish the fruits of meditation from its waste—fallen leaves and deadwood? This question arises not only on the causal level but also across all subtle bodies and is more or less satisfactorily resolved by a person at approximately the third level of processing the ascending and descending channels. The difficulty lies in the fact that fruits and waste are byproducts of the body’s biocenosis and are to some extent interchangeable; in principle, one could send the former into the descending channel and the latter into the ascending one, but this leads to clogging of the channels and poisoning of the lower and higher bodies. Therefore, careful differentiation and separation—picking ripe apples from rotten leaves of the apple tree, and in a more refined version, extracting the kernels from cedar nuts—must be consciously felt and experienced as metaphors of inner life at the level of each subtle body, and this is the most important element of the body’s inner hygiene.The particularly challenging operation of separating the fruits and waste at the level of the subtle sheaths of the causal body is complicated by the fact that awareness (the creation of a mental model) inevitably leads to coarsening and significantly increases the likelihood of confusion. Another reason for the difficulty lies in the fact that the bodies situated above the mental level are so subtle that they are most often perceived through their projections onto denser bodies—the mental, astral, and etheric—which results in peculiar zodiacal adhesions, further complicating proper differentiation and the correct selection of material for the ascending and descending channels.

Let us briefly examine the specific challenges faced by a mentally, astrally, or etherically oriented individual attempting to discern the fruits and waste of the causal biocenosis.

A mentally oriented person perceives events through their mental images (not all, of course, but those that most interest them). Hence, they often exhibit reactions that seem metallic and sluggish, akin to conversing with a robot living on the Moon, from which information is relayed. For such a person, the causal body adheres to the mental body, as if becoming part of it, and the Aquarius channel merges with the Capricornian, creating the impression that firm mental conclusions instantly become life positions—provided they are made meticulously and conscientiously. However, this illusion comes at a high price, yielding no real results. This individual must understand that firm convictions and positions arise from practice, not reasoning—no matter how intelligent or well-founded—and learn to distinguish between the fruits of contemplation and the fruits of lived experience. The latter are experienced internally with far greater depth and significance, while the former are always marked by a certain frivolity that no mental effort can compensate for. Only practical verification can provide clarity.

An astrally oriented person perceives events through their personal-emotional lens, so the causal body is felt as part of the astral body, and the Aquarius channel seems to merge with Sagittarius. This creates a dynamic in which mental conclusions and reflections on emotional experiences (Sagittarius) fuse with life experience and the formation of life positions based on it. Often, the person mistakes the former for the latter, and after some time, they are perplexed to find that changes in life’s narratives do not occur—yet, as they say, there’s no point in complaining, and somehow, they keep stumbling over the same issues, as if from a clear blue sky.

In such cases, there is also an unconscious identification of the mental body with the buddhic body, making it extremely difficult for the person to recognize their situation and extricate themselves from it. Even when they feel deeply distressed and strive to understand their mistakes and improve, their buddhic efforts unknowingly degrade into mental efforts, and Aquarian wisdom is reduced to an attempt to forcefully alter entrenched parasitic causal narratives that materialize distorted or entirely fabricated buddhic values. Existential problems cannot be resolved on the astral or mental levels, yet this is precisely what an astrally oriented person finds hardest to grasp.

An etherically oriented person perceives the causal flow through its bioenergetic lens, primarily from the standpoint of physical well-being and a full (or empty) stomach. In this context, the Aquarius channel is perceived as part of Scorpio, giving rise to a gastronomic conditioning of values and life positions—a trait characteristic not only of many individuals but also of entire collectives and even nations. However, Scorpio and Aquarius stand in a symbolic square, and such an identification rarely ends well, though an etherically oriented person finds it difficult to acknowledge this. Consider: do you have values or an organization in your life that feeds you? No wonder the image of a stern but nurturing Motherland, preparing its sons and daughters for sacrifice, is so typical of totalitarian regimes and rigid state egregores.

The difficulty in describing Aquarian transmissions lies in their practical elusiveness to consciousness: a person senses that something is happening (or has already happened) with them, yet struggles to articulate what exactly. The soul has gained a certain experience and now must find a way to utilize it—whether by cultivating new values on the buddhic body, transplanting some, or uprooting others as unpromising.

The traditional Russian question, *What does your little soul desire?* is usually posed and understood on the etheric or, at best, the astral level (a possible answer: *”Oh, just another onion pie, and may it be tender”*), but in reality, it should pertain to Aquarius, one of whose meanings can be conveyed by the concept of *”moral support through action.”*

What does this mean? If I live correctly, the events of my life should unfold in a way that naturally supports my values—without any effort on my part to interpret them. For example, if my value is higher education, causal support might manifest as good grades, praise from teachers, an increased stipend, parental respect for my pursuits, and their tangible efforts to assist me. All these causal details may occasionally ease my path through life—for instance, my father might procure a rare textbook I need—but this is not the main point. The essence is that my capacity for academic inspiration increases, meaning the inner strength I devote to learning, and it is precisely here that the influence of Aquarius is revealed.

Conversely, if things go poorly on the causal plane—constant setbacks and mishaps, consistently unlucky exam questions, examiners in foul moods, domestic troubles intensifying during critical academic periods, and even good grades going unnoticed—then Aquarius transmits its influence into the buddhic body, distorting or fabricating values that no longer serve as genuine guides.

a toxic, informational-energetic flow that undermines my faith in myself, drains my inner strength and enthusiasm — and this is a sign indicating a buddhic imbalance, a disruption, or even illness caused by the misalignment of values in my subconscious (and sometimes in my conscious mind). What conclusions should be drawn from this is an extremely subtle and decisive question, especially considering the Arian transmissions, i.e., the atmanic sanction of values. However, the author draws the reader’s attention to the following crucial point: it is precisely through Aquarius that the feedback from the higher body (the soul) to the lower subtle bodies is realized. Thus, if through Taurus the higher body transmits its will downward into the causal body and the subsequent ones, through Aquarius, to a certain extent, a report on the work done is conveyed: some things were accomplished better, others worse, and value accents, often imperceptibly to the person themselves, are formed in accordance with those causal programs, twisting the necks of the most stubborn.

A strong Aquarius activation leaves a profound impression on a person: they feel that a significant eventful narrative has concluded and something has changed within them. These sensations are often mixed: a sense of liberation, relief, and fulfillment, alongside grief for what has passed, and a feeling of continuous, yet not entirely absolute, imperceptibility.

What once felt like a potential but unrealized possibility — whether due to oversight, neglect, seeming insignificance, doubt, or simply procrastination — can leave a lingering impression. If the causal chain unfolds in a generally satisfactory manner (from the atmic perspective), the person experiences a strengthening of fundamental buddhic energy: they can now handle even more complex tasks. But if the causal narrative ends in a general “unfulfilled” outcome, the soul is filled with unpleasant sensations of emptiness, impurity, even filth, self-disgust, and a peculiar sense of inner betrayal. The poisoning of the buddhic foundation is a dangerous and unpleasant phenomenon that promises the person and their environment a multitude of poisonous plants, both on the buddhic level and in the denser bodies. Therefore, the Aquarian currents must be approached with great care and responsibility, and one should not shift this burden onto nearby sages, spiritual mentors, or simply well-meaning advisors.

Aquarian transmissions are characterized by existential depth and absolute conviction — no proofs are needed, everything is evident without them, and any mental constructs seem weak and unconvincing. A typical example is the situation of divorce, when a long-standing love suddenly ends, despite seeming eternal and inexhaustible. For the first time in twenty years, he sees his wife with cold eyes and clearly feels that her belated repentance before the threat of further loneliness, along with any words she utters, leaves him completely unmoved: the buddhic poison accumulated over years of her poor treatment has finally infected the mighty tree of his love, and it has withered completely — she is no longer of value to him, and any attempt to clarify the relationship is futile: zero.

A forced severance of causal chains not only causes mental and emotional stress but also supplies immature causal fruits into the Aquarian channel, clogging and poisoning the buddhic foundation. Below, the author provides two characteristic examples, though the reader will certainly be able to expand this list based on their own life experience.

Quasi-learning. This is especially painful for children, but even in adulthood, when used as a psychological game, it can deeply frustrate (disappoint) a student if they are not a skilled manipulator who employs the quasi-learning scenario to battle their “teachers.” Parents solemnly announce to their beloved child: “We will teach you!” And so they hire a music teacher, enroll the child in a sports section, or begin speaking to them in a foreign language. But once the first barrier of resistance is overcome and the child becomes engaged and starts making progress, the learning suddenly stops — sometimes without explanation, sometimes under some plausible pretext or another. The child experiences greater or lesser stress (the causal rupture descends into denser bodies), and while this may not be the main harm, the primary damage lies in the fact that immature fruits of causal meditation through Aquarius enter the buddhic body and poison its foundation: the child’s soul becomes filled with self-doubt, a desire to end any developmental scenario as soon as possible, because sooner or later it will lead to painful disappointment, along with other nihilistic life positions and values.

If parents live by the script of failures and raise their child under the general motto, “Let them learn everything we couldn’t master and achieve what we failed to,” this quasi-learning can take very harsh forms, with an exaggerated assignment of blame for failures onto the child itself. Then, in adulthood, the person seeks psychological compensation and often continues the childhood script in reverse — regularly enrolling in courses, clearly not expecting any success, but with the sole purpose of proving to the next teacher, “You’re absolutely useless and won’t teach me a thing!” This is a very unpleasant client variant for any instructor, coach, or psychotherapist; the only true antithesis here is to charge a fee so high that even a well-fed buddhic crocodile would choke on it.

The game “I beg you — thank you, no need.” In its typical form, this game unfolds between people who are fairly familiar with each other. The player (Victim of Circumstances) portrays their situation as dire and asks an acquaintance (Volunteer Helper) for assistance in the form of certain free services. The acquaintance empathizes and makes corresponding efforts, only to abruptly cut them off midway, declaring them unnecessary. The essence of the game is for the Volunteer Helper to invest enough causal energy so that the success of their endeavor becomes meaningful to them, yet at the same time, the program of assistance must never be completed (or is completely devalued) — thus putting them “in their place.” The ruined causal meditation, as in the first example, not only causes mental and then astral shock but, most importantly, sends through Aquarius immature causal fruits that poison the buddhic foundation, in this case undermining the Volunteer Helper’s self-esteem and confidence.

It must be said that this is a very common and sometimes very harsh game — see, for example, the short story “The Crippled Shall Enter First” by Flannery O’Connor.

Aquarius provides feedback when implementing programs inspired by Taurus, and its problems are often linked to a person’s insufficient inner honesty, though the latter may long remain unaware: a) of what this means, and b) why it is necessary. Below, the author attempts to answer these questions.

As long as the ascending currents are not taken into account, a person’s life, at least within the subtle shell, seems quite comprehensible to them: first, they seek their ideal, then, refracting it through various spheres of life, they form a system of values, and finally, through concrete efforts, they achieve them. Such nuances as the auxiliary nature of tasks for each body relative to the one above initially go unnoticed. However, as evolutionary development progresses, strange effects emerge that clearly do not fit into this scheme. For example, concrete causal goals and efforts, when viewed from the buddhic level (say, through a value-based perspective over sufficient time), turn out to be far less important and essential than something deeper and often invisible that stands behind them.

For instance, the goal of musical education is not to master a specific set of piano pieces but to connect to the musical egregore, which manifests as a certain transformation of the person’s buddhic body — one that now possesses musical culture, resonating with vibrations inaudible to those not burdened by this culture. There is a talent for listening to music, just as there is for reading poetry and literature, and both develop better if the person at least minimally engages in amateur guitar accompaniment or writes greeting poems for family holidays — though both may be weak professionally. Here, we see a striking example of how, to put it mildly, unconvincing causal chains (a dozen learned chords or two hundred rhymed lines on assigned topics) lead to very significant buddhic results: the person’s musical and poetic hearing opens fully, so that music and poetry enter their evolutionary level, for example, from manipura to anahata.

Buddhic meditations sometimes flow effortlessly, encountering almost no obstacles and producing little waste, barely manifesting on the causal plane — and then small causal efforts can have a tremendous buddhic effect, clearing fine sand from the bearings of an electric locomotive. But sometimes the opposite occurs: buddhic life barely flickers while causal activity surges — and yet it is almost entirely meaningless, though it is difficult for a person to admit this even to themselves.

Aquarius is precisely concerned with peeling away causal husks and lifting into the buddhic body the energy and information it needs as building material for the continuation of its meditations.In other words, Taurus transmits into the causal body the problems that arise during their resolution, producing wisdom, resilience, steadfastness, and other virtues and talents necessary for a person to continue their buddhic, or soul development, directly linked to fulfilling their mission. However, if Taurus orients a person toward specific activities, creating challenges and inspiring their resolution, Aquarius, on the contrary, devalues practical results, rejecting most of them outright and transforming the rest into something more ephemeral for the majority—virtues, developed abilities, and stable channels to higher egregores. It does happen, of course, that all this receives socially recognized external expression, such as a million-dollar bank account, the position of company president, the title of People’s Artist, or the role of Chief Dissident, but this is by no means obligatory and can even be considered atypical. The buddhic and even more so the atmic body do not seek to publicize their achievements, especially since there is still no adequate language for them.

“I’ve worked a lot on myself recently and have become much kinder and more forgiving toward people, especially those close to me”—such a phrase can be spoken in an intimate setting to an old friend, but not at a press conference, though a similar admission from, say, the head of a nuclear state would mean a great deal for their people and the world at large. But perhaps the main thing Aquarius does is support or, conversely, weaken the core programs of a person’s external and internal development—by either providing the necessary foundation or depriving it. Accepting the latter can be very difficult; it is much easier to pretend everything is fine and continue along the same path. The outcome is often dire: a value becomes illusory, and after some time, the corresponding buddhic tree withers completely, after which Taurus transforms it into seeds and energies that trigger a major causal crisis. A person’s affairs and projects, even those only indirectly related to the withered value, suddenly collapse.

Therefore, inner honesty can be described as the ability not to block or suppress Aquarian transmissions into the unconscious, even if they are unpleasant or seem insignificant. In reality, causal (or rather, Aquarian) support is needed by every person in every program they undertake, even if their Aries is very strong—for no seed can grow on bare rock. While sometimes it is necessary to grow a buddhic tree in a mountain gorge, one must also constantly monitor the current composition of the soil. This is difficult primarily because the role of conscious awareness in studying and controlling the subtle bodies of the causal level is often purely auxiliary. Mental models and interpretations here are often too crude and approximate, and one must learn to perceive without perceiving—to see the subtle bodies and their manifestations without relying on mental recognition or commentary, which is extremely challenging for a modern person with their highly developed mental “crocodile.”

Yet Aquarian effects are so convincing that they speak for themselves; all that is required is not to obstruct their perception, for they are fundamentally non-mental but essential. A person clearly feels whether their affairs are progressing—whether they are approaching a buddhic value of connection to a higher egregore, for example—or whether they discover a talent as a performing musician. Mental speculations may distort their judgment on this matter, but not their intimate buddhic sense, which is a form of inner “this is so.” This sense can also have a negative character: despite visible success and praise from teachers, a person may clearly feel that professional music is not their value.

Virtues and ministerial portfolios do not grow out of nothing. If Aries shows which soul qualities and directions of activity align with a person’s mission, Aquarius forms the soil on which talents grow and social advancement occurs. The development of the latter channel depends directly on how seriously a person is inclined to draw meaningful conclusions from these experiences. (Here, the author draws the reader’s attention to a philological distinction: while simple conclusions relate more to the processing of Gemini transmissions—i.e., the comprehension of events happening to a person—serious conclusions signify essential changes occurring in the soul, primarily in the buddhic body, following an Aquarian transmission.)

At the first level of Aquarius processing, a person usually ignores the existence of this channel, doing so quite consistently. It seems to them that their affairs and circumstances do not affect their inner essence or soul in any way, as they are merely external to it. How internal and external circumstances turn out—one must live somehow, scrape by here, calculate there, and sometimes take advantage of others—why dwell on such trifles afterward? Let’s forget and move on. Such a person understands causal support in a straightforward manner, asking: “What exactly does this event give me to achieve my goals?” The ideas of inner (buddhic) preparation, as well as egregorial blessing for the fulfillment of their projects, are alien to them. The very thought of a feedback loop that strengthens the soul and the channel to the egregore through actions and deeds seems absurd to them.

Aquarius reaps the fruits, or in a sense, the indirect results of causal meditations, while this person is interested only in their direct outcomes. Therefore, the initial material entering the channel is uninteresting to them and usually goes unnoticed. Such people are often marked by a paradoxical mix of cunning and astonishing naivety, stemming from a poor vision of the buddhic plane. An Aquarius at the first level may skillfully pursue causal programs while remaining at the mental and causal levels, but any Taurus transmission catches them completely off guard—it appears as irrational bad luck, fundamentally unpredictable manifestations of the poor or capricious character of business or romantic partners. The fact that this “irrationality” is the consequence of their own incorrect causal behavior never occurs to them, nor can it.

They do not notice how such “trifles” as lateness, unfulfilled promises, false positions, missed deadlines, and much more—absences that in external reality constitute the very culture of purifying the soul—weigh heavily on their own buddhic body, which is not only an essential part of their soul but also governs all their life programs.

The author emphasizes that this is not about the mental evaluation a person makes of their causal improprieties—such an evaluation may well be negative—but about their buddhic reactions to them, as illustrated in the following test. Do you feel guilt, and how much time and mental energy do you spend trying to atone for a fault expressed in the following situations?

– You were ten minutes late to a meeting;
– You forgot to make a phone call;
– You interrupted someone’s important monologue;
– You promised to fulfill someone else’s errand but failed due to objective reasons;
– You gave a promise you fulfilled with a decent delay;
– You accidentally disrupted someone else’s plans;
– You accidentally caused a major misunderstanding;
– You made someone ask you for something longer than objectively necessary;
– You manipulated others with the best intentions but poor results;
– You told a minor lie?

If your answer to all points is: “No, not at all, and I don’t feel any serious guilt in such situations,” then you are at the first level of Aquarius processing—or have already become a Buddha.

At the second level of Aquarius processing, a person begins to sense the impact of causal disharmony on their buddhic body, though the feeling remains vague and does not reach clear consciousness. Nevertheless, instinctively, as if from a sense of subtle (causal) disgust, they avoid lies, dishonest people, and false positions, try not to be late, and offer informal apologies if they break their word.All this a person does, as it seems to them, guided by absolutely rational causal reasoning: dealing with a reliable and polite person who respects others’ time and lifestyle is easier and more pleasant, so if you want to achieve success, do not be rude, do not let partners down, etc. However, experience shows that such moral principles, passed down from generation to generation both orally and in writing, never achieve their goal if one relies exclusively on the causal plane. A person of the second level explains their behavior to themselves more quickly, but their true motives are quite different: they feel that otherwise their soul would become tainted, and they themselves, essentially, are not yet serious enough—so unacceptable—that they must purify themselves spiritually to gain peace. Yet, as we repeat, all this is not clearly realized and is kept by the person as a secret, like a certain character weakness that cannot be compensated, much like the Miser Knight in Pushkin laments: “Or my son will say that my heart has grown mossy, that I knew no desires, that I am a beast.”

At the second level, a person feels the need for Aquarian support for any serious endeavor, but first, they understand it quite literally, and second, they do not give it due importance. This is because they have not yet realized the true distribution of roles between the buddhic and causal bodies, and often do not even perceive the former as something that truly exists. It seems to them that there are certain objective laws of the causal flow, partially moral in nature, which are better to follow than to violate. However, any of their serious (and frivolous) plans must be fully prepared internally by them personally; otherwise, it will seem frivolous to them. Therefore, Aquarian support (or hindrance) is perceived by this person quite pragmatically: as some luck, a fortunate turn of events, or a coincidence of circumstances that helps them manage their affairs. This, of course, supports them morally, and that is important, but it is not the main thing, because a serious person, once they take on a task (external or internal), will see it through to the end, despite obstacles—both situational and emotional.

When faced with persistent, even destructively causal resistance, this person eventually gives up their position after some time, usually with a significant delay, having already partially poisoned the buddhic soil, spoiling their character and lowering their self-esteem, or finding a small private complex of inferiority. “From now on, I will never start any business on a Thursday or enter into any contact with owners of long-haired dogs.” However, the deep causes of failure remain unclear to them, and the conclusions they draw are usually of a mental-pragmatic nature and do not hold up in the future; the true value of life’s failures (as well as successes) remains hidden from them.

At the third level of processing Aquarius, a person mostly separates the buddhic body from the causal one and becomes less literal in their understanding of causal support. They see that obstacles on the path to realizing their values do not always hinder progress toward them; sometimes, they even add enthusiasm, and they conclude that the main condition for success is precisely this (buddhic) enthusiasm, not just strong causal skill. At this level, a person can become a good leader of a creative team, creating various situations that support its spirit and work ethic. Conversely, they can subtly manipulate to destroy both, and it will not be easy to understand that they themselves are the true cause of the team’s collapse.

At this level, a person arrives at a partially vague but fundamentally important concept of “potential” or “level of giftedness,” which each individual possesses and which characterizes their ability to carry out serious programs of action—essentially, the energy that the buddhic body can emit. A person can apply this energy “above” any internal or external constructive program, whether it is learning a foreign language, managing house construction, or training a husband to be orderly. However, among virtues, they still prefer those whose benefit for external activity is obvious (diligence, conscientiousness, neatness, consistency, etc.), and they develop abilities primarily those that society pays for or at least recognizes as valuable. At the third level, the theme of seeking Aquarian support in the individual distribution of value priorities in the worldview only begins to manifest, and talent is seen as necessarily socially significant.

On the other hand, there is a significant internalization of the concept of Aquarian support, meaning the person begins to value more the influence that the flow of events has on their inner world and their values. They react more quickly to negative causal signs, as they are more concerned with the purity of the buddhic body and better sense the ecological state of its soil. For example, after a month or two in a strict karate or psycho-training group, they may leave because they feel brutality growing within them—and this will not be a formal pretext.

At the third level, many features of the Aquarius channel are understood and used correctly, mostly intuitively. The person cannot fully explain why they act one way or another but can often refer to a proverb, aphorism, or wise saying that, in their view, accurately characterizes the situation. They know how to learn from others’ mistakes and try to do so, collecting in their Aquarius channel the fruits of causal meditations of the surrounding world that no one else has claimed. This gives them much greater inner strength than others, though they are not inclined to boast about it.

One of the main skills acquired at this level of processing the Aquarius channel is the careful selection of the fruits of life experience, regardless of whether it brought joy or suffering. The person notices that the inner fruits of failures, if properly transformed, can provide an even more favorable inner soil than the results of joyful victories, which must be handled with great care to prevent the buddhic soil from becoming overgrown with the luxuriant burdocks of pride or the thistles of cynical nihilism.

At this level, the person also becomes aware of Aquarius’ analytical nature—that is, the ability to support (or poison) all their values at once with the fruits of their life experience—but they have not yet learned to use this skill properly, often falling into Gemini-like interpretations and further mental analysis.

At the fourth level of processing Aquarius, a person finally separates the buddhic body from the causal one and understands their relative roles, especially if Taurus has also been processed to the fourth or at least the third level. They know how to carefully select and purify the fruits of causal meditations, sending rotten and unripe ones into the Gemini channel, thereby ensuring the purity of the buddhic body’s soil. At the same time, they monitor not only its purity but also the correspondence of its composition to the trees, shrubs, and grasses growing on it. If inconsistencies arise, they change not only the modes of soil formation but also the types of cultivated crops—that is, the systems of values and lines of development—while carefully maintaining the balance of Aquarius and Taurus flows under the general governance of Aries.

At this level, a person practically never experiences acute disappointment, resentment, irritation, or other unpleasant emotions that arise from life’s failures, because they know how to turn the fruits of any experience—constructive or destructive—into fundamental energy for the buddhic body and matter. Moreover, they learn to regulate its influx into areas of the buddhic body that need it most, so they depend little on specific life circumstances in which they find themselves.Nevertheless, when placed in a specific situation that allows for the effective cultivation of a rare useful quality or the strengthening of a connection with a hard-to-reach egregore, he will undoubtedly take advantage of the opportunity, even if it means delaying the fulfillment of current causal programs—provided this does not come at someone else’s expense. However, maintaining personal ethical balance becomes increasingly difficult the higher the evolutionary level of the person and the egregores he serves. At the fourth level of processing Aquarius, there are still enough challenges, though they are far subtler than those encountered at earlier stages.

This person knows how to find joy in difficulties, as he perceives them as opportunities to connect with one or another high egregore. Typically, he even senses which one it is, and as a result, his life within the causal flow becomes far more meaningful than at lower levels of Aquarius processing. The efficiency of his channel is also significantly higher—for example, he can learn (transforming fundamentally) from a single experience, whereas another person might require a decade of painful repetitions of essentially the same scenario.

A new awareness emerges at the fourth level: the realization of the connection between Aquarius channels and Libra, which the person begins to acknowledge and use correctly, though he is still only taking his first steps in this direction—such as mastering the culinary aspects of diplomatic protocol.

A strong Aquarius endows a person with many talents, yet it is difficult to predict in advance what their outcome will be—whether a Nobel Prize or the gallows. Much depends on the person’s initial evolutionary level and their desire to understand themselves, their soul, and their mission.

A strong Aquarius inevitably draws interim conclusions about their activities far more frequently—and, if one may put it this way—energetically than the average person, though they are not always consciously aware of this. Within their soul, a constant movement unfolds, akin to the shifting of geological strata in a region of intense mountain formation. Yet the values that ultimately take root in this abundant buddhic soil depend primarily on the Aries current, and in the final analysis, they are shaped by the twists and turns of their mission.

However, this person possesses an abundance of such values and inner strength, and they must seriously address three key issues: the quality of the soil, the nature of the values, and the paths to their realization. As for the soil cultivated by a strong Aquarius, they should not deceive themselves on one point: can its low quality be compensated by quantity? Clearly not. The person must learn this the hard way through bitter experience, as even minor causal inaccuracies or disruptions in meditation quickly clutter their buddhic body, allowing weeds, wild shrubs, and unforeseen vines to overgrow the cultivated plants. Core life programs tied to their mission are pushed aside as irrelevant.

Unfortunately, this becomes clear only with time. Understanding why even minor dishonesty or tardiness is absolutely unacceptable for them proves extremely difficult for a strong Aquarius, especially since their innate charm and personal magnetism—rivaling that of Scorpio—make it all too easy to gloss over their mistakes with fervent, sincere enthusiasm, of which they usually have an excess.

A strong Aquarius often becomes an unconscious—and compared to Scorpio, subtle—manipulator. For example, by withdrawing their goodwill from someone they know, they inflict such a deep moral wound that the other person involuntarily begins to grovel and search for their own guilt, which may not even exist. The Aquarius simply allowed another powerful but wild vine to wither, temporarily captivated by new acquaintances while setting aside the old ones—where else would they go?

The challenge of refining their values and realizing the programs to achieve them, particularly the cultivation of Taurus, is highly relevant for a strong Aquarius. Yet they often refuse to admit this, suppressing the issue into the subconscious, which heavily pollutes their soul and makes delayed processing extremely difficult—if not impossible. Compare the end of Oscar Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray.”

This person must remember that neither charm nor even wisdom can replace inner honesty. Cultivation grants the ability to respond to the most serious questions of their time, implementing organizational programs and sometimes even fostering the cultural development of entire ethnic groups.

A weak Aquarius creates difficulties for a person in nurturing their values: the soil for them will be relatively meager. Their warmth and friendliness are unlikely to extend to everyone indiscriminately, but they are far less inclined than a strong Aquarius to manipulate their goodwill. Thus, maintaining balanced relationships with them is often easier. Their core experiences, even after turbulent events, may remain quite limited, and they may undervalue or entirely overlook the vital causal support provided for their existential worldview—much to their detriment and the detriment of their relationships with the friend who offered it.

If Taurus is also weak, the connection between the higher self and the social sphere may feel insignificant or nonexistent to the person, often leading to the modern phenomenon of duality: both their own and others’ social programs hold little value for them, while hobbies and amateur pursuits—activities “for the soul”—are undervalued in society. This is the fate of the inner Taurus, and ignoring these channels only allows them to grow wild, operating in a rough, nearly uncontrollable impulsive mode. Misfortunes, as well as severe emotional states, may strike without warning or visible cause.

With a strong Taurus, the situation is easier, but one must grow accustomed to the gradual, capillary-like infusion of Aquarian support for their values and continue striving to achieve or adjust them, guided by subtle, almost imperceptible causal signs.

A harmonious Aquarius tends to draw overly simplistic internal conclusions from life experience; externally, this may appear as an easygoing nature, but prolonged interaction with such a person gives rise to an unpleasant sense that they are indifferent at their core. This explains their lack of malice, openness, friendliness, and resilience. (Of course, one must also consider other areas of the horoscope: for example, a planetary square from Scorpio to Leo may trigger outbursts of anger even in a harmonious Aquarius, though the latter will suppress and weaken them significantly.)

Naturally, this person, like anyone else, is not entirely indifferent, but they somehow instinctively manage to overlook malicious jabs and avoid losing their temper when faced with the unreliability and irresponsibility of their friends—who, in fact, make up nearly all their acquaintances. Enemies, if they exist at all, remain unknown to them.

They often enjoy good fortune with people, especially those who support their projects—but if they begin to feel burdened by them, they withdraw their attention and goodwill, only to be met with mournful glances and groans (“Why?”) that they ignore entirely.

Their motto: “I love everyone, but especially those who are with me now”—and this elitism in their social circles is never concealed, though it can deeply wound former close friends.

If they are a manipulator, they are at least not crude; they skillfully and effortlessly extract moral benefit from others’ efforts, sometimes becoming masters of psychological games rooted in practical life and activity. Dealing with them then becomes exceedingly difficult: they always manage to subtly shift the situation so that everything ends up in their favor, and those around them bitterly realize that all their life experience has served merely to bolster the Aquarius’ own positions.

Their favorite game: “I told you so!”—but in a major key, for example: that your child will certainly finish school (recover, marry, come to their senses, repay their debts, retire).

They are not malicious, but they are not above using others’ experiences to their advantage.The main danger lurking for the harmonious Aquarius lies not in causal and buddhic vampires clinging to him, but in the constant temptation of self-deception, expressed in the fact that a person does not notice in time that his causal flow ceases to support his values—that is, that he is not doing quite what he thinks he is doing, or not doing it at all, or not intending to do it at all. Otherwise, the buddhic ground becomes loose, amorphous, and grows weeds in abundance, and then the person expends his partially withered charm only on the immediate surroundings: farmers, toadies, and sycophants. However, the first alarm signals often come from the causal flow losing its structure: the person finds it difficult to fulfill obligations, has to lie and justify himself, overusing his charm and general warmth. Trying to get off dry, he risks, however, getting thoroughly soaked.

Working through this gives great organizational abilities, an entrepreneur’s nose, and the intuition of a scientific experimenter, along with general optimism and generosity of spirit—what more could you want? An afflicted Aquarius often signifies an impossible character and difficulties with social adaptation, compensated by great and original abilities in the areas indicated by Aquarius’ aspects. However, developing these abilities into talents and realizing them in constructive activity is difficult for the person, and the obstacles are largely internal in nature.

Everything this person does, and everything life does to him, often does not satisfy him—not intellectually or logically, but emotionally. In particular, he always feels that what is happening around him contradicts or discredits his values, undermining his faith in himself, current authorities, specific abilities, and his general capacity to see anything through to the end. In the perception of an afflicted Aquarius, the meaning implied between the lines of any text addressed to him, as well as his intended moral, is most often destructive. Compliments and praise for work he has done are usually taken as mockery, and any success is seen as a miracle or exception that only confirms the rule of his general hopelessness.

What has been said above pertains to the inner world of the afflicted Aquarius, but it is not a given that he will admit this to anyone—or even to himself. As compensation and overcompensation, various inferiority complexes arise (personal, familial, professional, sexual, political…), along with excessive external arrogance and a tendency to interpret everything that happens around him in his own favor. Character usually suffers as a result, but a peculiar charm and talent attract all sorts of people to this individual, most of whom do not endure communication with him and leave (for better or worse), while a smaller number remain as constant friends with whom he can be surprisingly kind, tolerant, and selflessly expend much emotional energy. Yet he remains inconstant, and if he does not work on himself, he risks ending up completely alone, consumed by a spiritual cancer and a rigid egregore.

Working through this is quite complex, as the person must learn to constantly change internally, adjusting the system of values in indirect correspondence with life experience, but in no case doing so straightforwardly. Conclusions like, “If it didn’t work once, that means I took on the wrong task,” or “If someone once let me down, they’ll do it again, so I shouldn’t deal with them at all,” do not work for him. To achieve true inner satisfaction, prolonged and non-obvious work with ups and downs will be required.

Help comes from attention to Aries transmissions and cultivating respect for reality, especially the causal flow: if it flows this way and not that, then that is God’s will, and it is not for me, with my feeble intellect, to judge how adequate I am within it. Working through begins with mastering the basic rules of behavior in the causal flow (see the test in the description of the first level of Aquarius processing), because violating them quickly leads to dire consequences. With proper diligence and persistence, the person begins to understand the individual features of their buddhic development programs, and through them gains the keys to fulfilling their mission; here, planets in Aquarius and Pisces and their aspects will say much.