Good morning and thank you as always.

Does the “feminine” aspect of Geburah create practical differences in workings with it as opposed to the “masculine” aspect of Mars?

Not the OP

"Second, suffering is necessary to shake us awake to higher levels of awareness. The only way to learn is to fail, and the only way to realize that we've failed is to suffer for it."

To what extend can this be overcome by conscious effort? I meditated a lot on the life of family members and their suffering, for example. What I can say that at some point a certain realization was reached which also opened up an emotional component as well as a few events of highly relevant synchronicity. At that point I am unable to say whether my efforts linked my own - at the moment consciously unremembered - memories with the fate of my relatives or if there was genuine empathy at work - probably both. But judging from the experience I dare to hypothesize: If an individual has reached a certain amount of actual experience it might be possibly to generalize this to a certain extent and learn from corresponding emotions stirred up in meditation instead of learning by "big drama"? Which would, if correct, imply that said individual would need to reach a minimum level of development on the mental plain as it would require rather abstract principles (the generalization of the emotions of others) to create and guide astral experience (the emotions the individual experiences during meditation)?

Greetings,
Nachtgurke

I've picked up running over the last few months as a means to get into better physical shape. I've noticed it seems to have a decent amount of possible overlap with occultism. First, there's a lot of willpower required to do it, especially with longer or faster runs. There's also self-knowledge: most runners eventually learn certain foods cause problems if eaten shortly before a run, for example; while the most common way to get an injury from running is running too far, too fast, or too much, so a knowledge of how much you can run is essential.

Then there are the energy centres. Running gets the heart beating, and extended over longer periods of time, it seems to cause sensations similar to the ones I get when I do the Middle Pillar Ritual, or another that works heavily with that centre. It takes far longer, but my sister, who runs marathons, but has zero occult practice, was able to confirm this occurs even in runners who have not done anything to activate the heart centre. The side stitch is also a very interesting phenomena in light of body energy centres: runners who push to hard will often get a pain at the solar plexus; this can be avoided by learning to breath properly, which given the role of the solar plexus and breathing in bringing etheric energy in seems like a fascinating connection. This also means that runners often have to work on breath control, which is another overlap with occultism.

In A Magical Education, you said that there are certain "auxiliary arts" (forgive me if that's the wrong term, I do not have access to the book right now) that mesh well with occultism, and if I remember correctly provided martial arts as an example. Do you know if anyone has explored running as a possible auxiliary art for occultists?

In learning to read my natal chart, I took a look to see what it says about religion and spirituality, and I now see how much Saturn plays a role in my chart in these areas.

I’ve read that, for religion and spirituality, I need to look at the 3rd and 9th houses in my chart. There are no planets in either house. My 3rd house in Cancer is ruled by the Moon, and my 9th house is in Capricorn and so ruled by Saturn. The Moon is in the 8th house, also ruled by Capricorn, which means she’s in detriment. And Saturn is in rough shape, conjunct Mars and in detriment in Leo.

So that appears to mean that both houses of religion and spirituality are not exactly optimal in my chart, and the Moon, herself in detriment, is in a house ruled by Saturn, who is also in detriment, which looks like a sort of ‘double affliction’ (*). The only favourable thing for religion and spirituality in my chart, from what I’ve read, is the position of Jupiter, who is exalted in Cancer in the 2nd house and conjunct Venus.

I know the rest of the chart makes a difference, and overall there is a mix of positive and negative aspects which I’m learning to untangle. Jupiter/Venus and the Moon are in opposition.

So my interpretation is that it appears I face pretty strong headwinds when it comes to my own spiritual practice; particularly when it relates to discipline (Saturn) and emotions (Moon), and sometimes the two conjunct benefics will help, but sometimes they will cause problems with excess when imbalanced.

1) Because spiritual practice is important to me, I'm wondering what could help. Maybe planetary charity to Saturn and the Moon? And/or to Jupiter?

2) And is the 'double affliction' situation I described actually a legitimate thing in astrology, in which an affliction is intensified by another affliction?

Thanks in advance!

Learning astrology is fascinating; all these relationships in a chart end up forming these chains of interconnected influences which can sometimes circle back around on each other.

* - ‘Double Affliction’ would be a great title for a movie involving a murder mystery in which astrology plays a role! I can picture the byline on the poster for the movie franchise now: “Double Affliction part II: This time, it’s personal - because Mars is in the 7th!”