CHAPTER XXII.

PROGRESSION OF THE HOROSCOPE
Fate or Freewill

WHEN a chain is subjected to strain, imperfec-
tions in any of its links become manifest, and
the weakest link will break first. Similarly, in the
case of the body, there are certain inherent weak
points and these are indicated in the horoscope. Frem
the moment of birth we subject the body to a constant
strain, and in time the weakness of the various points
become manifest as disease. The movement of the
planets after birth measures the time when any par-
ticular link is liable to break. This motion of the
planets in the horoscope is called "Progression."
Study and practice of medical Astrology requires
knowledge of how to progress the planets in the horo-
scope, and we shall therefore take up that subject in
connection with the message of the stars relative to
disease.

When the Sun rises in the East the day is young
and the labors allotted to each are still before
us. Gradually the Sun progresses across the arched
vault of the heavens, and marks the time set for the
performance of our various duties, for keeping our
appointments, for taking nourishment, rest and recre-
462

PROGRESSION OF THE HOROSCOPE 463

ation ; and when it has run its course through the day
and has ceased to illuminate our sphere of action, its
absence invites sleep until the dawn of a new day
shall present opportunities for continuation of the
activities left in abeyance from the previous day. If
the Sun remained stationary in any certain point of
the sky it would not serve as a time marker but as it
is, all events of our lives are fixed by its progression.

The horoscope is a chart of the heavens for the
time when the mystic Sun and Life rises and awakes
us from the long sleep between two lives ; then we are
born in the physical world, to continue the labors of
a previous life, to keep the appointment there made
with friend or foe ; to reap the joy or bear the sorrow
which is the fruitage of our former existence on earth,
and as the progression of the Sun marks the changing
time of day and year, as it ushers in season after
season in orderly sequence and changes the appear-
ance of the Great World, the Macrocosm, so progres-
sion of the horoscope, a veritable ' Clock of Destiny, '
registers accurately when the tendencies, shown by
the natal horoscope will culminate in events; it
measures the periods of prosperity and adversity; it
warns of impending temptation and tells from what
quarter it will come, thus aiding us to escape if we
will but listen to its warning. The natal horoscope
shows unerringly weak points in our character or con-
stitution, but the progressed horoscope indicates
when previous indulgence of harmful habits is sched-
uled to bring sorrow or sickness; it tells truthfully

464 THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

when crises culminate ; thus it warns us to be on the
alert at critical moments, and fortifies us in the dark-
est hour of calamity, with hope of surcease of sorrow
and sickness at a definite time, hence the importance
of knowing how to progress the horoscope.

But, some may say, if all is thus foreshown, it
argues an inexorable destiny decreed by divine ca-
price, what use is there then of striving, or knowing ;
let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
If we were born into this life on earth for the first and
only time, to live here for a while and then pass away
from this sphere never to return, fate and favoritism,
independent of justice would seem to rule. Such can-
not be the case, in a world where everything else is
governed by law, human existence must also be reduc-
ible to a system, and we hold that a reasonable solu-
tion of the mystery of life is given by the Twin Laws
of Being: the Law of Rebirth and the Law of Caus-
ation.

That which has a beginning must have an end,
and conversely, that which is without ending can
never have had a beginning. If the human spirit is
immortal and cannot die, neither can it be born; if
it will live to all eternity, it must have lived from
eternity, there is no escape from this truth ; p re-exist-
ence 'must be accepted if immortality is a fact in
nature.

In this world there is no law more plainly observ-
able than the law of alternating cycles, which decrees
succession of >• ebb and flow, day and night, summer

PROGRESSION OF THE HOROSCOPE 465

and winter, waking and sleeping. Under the same law
man's life is lived alternately in the physical world
where he sows seeds of action and gains experiences
according to his horoscope. These, the fruits of ex-
istence here, are later assimilated as soul powers in
the spiritual world, birth and death are thus nothing
more than gateways from one phase of man's life to
another, and the life we now live is but one of a series.
The differences of character, nobility or brutality,
moral strength or weakness, possession of high ideals
or low instincts, etc., are certain signatures of soul
power or soul poverty. Finer faculties are the glo-
rious garments of gentle souls wrought through many
lives in the crucible of concrete existence by trial
and temptation. They shine with a luster which illu-
minates the way and makes it easier for others to
follow. Coarseness of calibre proclaims the young
in Life's School, but repeated existences here will in
due time smoothe the rough corners, mellow and
make them soulful also.

The horoscope shows this difference in the texture
of the soul and the aspects indicate how the soul is
ripened by the kaleidoscopic configurations of planets
in progression, which fan the fires in the furnace of
affliction to cleanse and purify the soul of blemish,
or brighten the crown of virtue when victory is won,
but though the planets show the tendencies most ac-
curately there is one indeterminable factor which is
not shown, a veritable astrological "x," — the will-
power of the man, and upon that rock astrological

466 THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

predictions are ever liable to founder; that, at times,
is the Waterloo of even the most careful and compe-
tent astrologer, yet the very failure of wellfounded
predictions is the blessed assurance that we are not
fated to do thus and so because our horoscope shows
that at a certain time the stellar rays impel us in a
given direction. In the final analysis we are the arbi-
ters of our destiny, and it is significant, that while it
is possible to predict for the great majority of man-
kind with absolute certainty that the prediction will
be vindicated, because they drift along the, sea of life
directed by the current of circumstance, predictions
for the striving idealist fail in proportion to his spir-
itual attainment of will power which rouses him to
self assertion and resistance of wrong.

A beautiful little poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
gives the idea in a most pleasing form :

"One ship sails East and another sails West,
With the selfsame winds that blow;

'Tis the set of the sail

And not the gale
That determines the way they go.

"Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate,
As we voyage along through Life;

'Tis the act of the soul

That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife."