The Planets, the Virtues, and the Seven Deadly Sins

For today, something a little different. I think most of you know that I'm an astrologer. I blog (sporadically) about Mundane Astrology here. My main work is in natal astrology; you can see the services I offer here. 

Today I want to talk about how I integrate the insights of astrology and traditional Christianity. 

Astrology and Karma 

 

The popular yogi Sadhguru wrote in his recent book on Karma,

Traditionally, families in India turned to horoscopes [that is, natal charts] because these would indicate a person's tendencies, karmic substance, possible directions their life might take. Based on this reading, a person would turn to a spiritual practice that enabled them to transcend these tendencies.

 

For some time I've been following an approach to the natal chart similar to the one Sadhguru describes here, but rooting it in a (mostly) Christian approach for my (mostly) Christian clients.

 

The natal chart is a complex mandala, and every component of it has an impact on a person's life, including their spiritual life. So there isn't space to discuss every aspect of it without writing a book. But I want to talk about two ways to look at the natal chart in order to establish a spiritual practice--

1. The Planets Themselves and

2. The 9th and 3rd Houses

 

The Planets

The traditional seven planets correspond to the 7 Christian Virtues and to the 7 Deadly Sins.

 
It's important to take a moment and talk about the meaning of the word "virtue." In Greek it's "arete," meaning "excellence." The study of the virtues is the business of Ethics. "Ethics" itself is derived from "ethike," which means "habits." The virtues, then are *habits* of *excellence.* In Christianity, there are 7 virtues set above all others-- 4 temporal, and 3 spiritual. We develop these 7 virtues in order to become good, which is to say, to become more like God. As God Himself is THE SOURCE of goodness, we cannot become good without actually uniting ourselves to him. The fact that the virtues correspond to the planets shows us that the development of the virtues is a ladder of Ascent to God, who resides beyond the heavens.
 

According to Eliphas Levi, the 7 Virtues and the 7 Sins correspond to the planets thusly:

 
Faith - Pride - Sun;

Hope - Greed - Moon;

Charity - Lust - Venus;

Courage - Wrath - Mars;

Prudence - Sloth - Mercury;

Temperance - Gluttony - Saturn;

Justice - Envy - Jupiter

 

Notice that the 3 heavenly virtues correspond to the 3 brightest objects in the sky. The other four virtues are called the "Cardinal Virtues"; these are shared with the pre-Christian Greeks and are much discussed in the writings of Plato and his successors

 

Sin, as many know, comes from the word "hamartia," which means "to miss the target." Insofar as the target is God, Sin is that which leads us away from God. God, remember, is Goodness Itself. According to the Platonic tradition (see Proclus's Elements of Theology), the good is the same as the One. The One is the source of all being, and the source of all *unity.* In Christianity, we know the one as God-- sometimes God the Father; sometimes the ineffable Godhead out of which the Trinity emerges; opinions differ. In any case, God is the source of unity, in the universe as a whole and also in each individual human soul. That's important, because it means that, to the extent to which the Seven Deadly Sins (or any other sin) are operative within a soul, that soul is dis-united.

 

Notice that each sin is an extreme form of a passion which has a proper expression. Ordinary sexual desire is not the sin of lust. The sin of lust is what happens when sexual desire overcomes the will and leads to self-destructive behavior. In the same way, ordinary anger at injustice is not the sin of wrath, ordinary enjoyment of a meal (or an adult beverage) is not the sin of gluttony, ordinary rest or sleep is not the sin of sloth. This is important because it further points to the nature of virtue and sin. Virtue leads us toward God, and it also and by the same process leads us to self-possession: By becoming virtuous, we become one united being, not a mess of warring passions. By becoming sinful, we also become chaotic. We also become increasingly unconscious, degraded, ruled by every stimulus that comes into our soul from the outside.

 
Okay, that was a long digression, but a necessary one, I believe, because people often use words like "good," "virtue," "sin," and "vice" without understanding what they mean.

 

In the natal chart, then, we can look at the planets, note the virtue and the sin associated with them, and then see whether each planet is afflicted, dignified, mixed, or neither. If a planet is well-dignified, it suggests that the native will have the corresponding virtue naturally, or find it easy to develop. A person with a dignified Sun will find that Faith comes naturally to them, while those with a dignified Mars will be naturally Courageous. If a planet is afflicted-- especially if it's in its Fall or aspecting a malefic-- the native will tend toward the sin in question. (Notice, though, that Mars and Saturn each has his proper Virtue, and Jupiter and Venus have their corresponding sins.) Meanwhile, those planets which are weak in the natal chart-- peregrine or in cadent Houses, and so on-- will express their virtues weakly. In this last case, the native may not be inclined toward the planetary sin, but they won't have the virtue developed either.

 

From this, we can begin to apply remedies-- and it's best to think of this that way. The Church itself is said to be a hospital for sinners. The consequence of sin is loss of health-- a word which itself relates to "wholeness," which is to say, unity; which is to say, the presence of God. If that's the case, then the natal chart points to areas of natural disharmony and inclination toward disease/sin, as well as natural strength and health. Each planetary Sin can be remedied by the practice and development of the corresponding planetary Virtue. And we can use traditional spiritual practices to aid in the development of the Virtues.

 

2. The 9th and 3rd Houses

 

The 9th House is the natural ruler of spirituality. Borrowing a technique from Christopher Warnock, I use the 3rd house as well-- in a nativity, I see the 9th House as ruling orthodox, mainstream, or God-centered spirituality, and the 3rd House as ruling heterodox, alternative, or Goddess-centered spirituality. Using these two Houses, I make recommendations for spiritual practices. (I also pay attention to the 8th House as ruling specifically magical practice and the 12th House as the ruler of "occult investigations, but let's leave that aside for now. Again, it would take a book to go over every possibility!) If the 9th House or its ruler is strong, I'll recommend a more orthodox or mainstream approach; if the 3rd House, something more radical; if both Houses are strong, a mix of both. In every case, I draw from the specific signs on the House Cusp, its ruler, and any planets in or involved with the House. Capricorn on the 9th with a dignified Saturn suggests a strong tendency toward traditional religion, for example. If both of those are the case and Venus or the Moon is also there in the 9th House, that suggests a traditional religion but with an emphasis on its feminine aspects.

 

From there, we can make recommendations to specifically target the Sins indicated in the birth chart. Let's suppose the preceding scenario combined with an afflicted Mercury in Pisces. If that's the case, the native probably has a problem with Sloth. Given their natural religious inclinations, we could then direct them toward a spiritual practice intended to overcome that Vice and replace it with its Virtue. A good one might be following Louis de Montfort's 33 Day Total Consecration to the Virgin Mary. This requires a fair bit of reading and study, which develops the virtue of Prudence (Wisdom); it requires daily practice, which develops the habit of activity and so overcomes Sloth; and it is oriented toward a spirituality indicated by their 9th House.
 

 

Critically, this is *always culturally specific.* What it means to have an orthodox spirituality will mean very different things in very different places! If you want to apply these techniques to your own natal chart or-- especially, to another person's chart-- always be careful, and draw on whatever outside knowledge you have to aid your practice. For example, I once had a client with a Polish last name and a birthplace in a small town in Western Pennsylvania. From those details, I was able to know that a particular Mars placement almost certainly meant "Army veteran" and not "history of violence." But I could also have made other guesses with regard to the topic at hand. Both his ethnic background and his birthplace suggest "Catholic." That means that a strong 9th House with feminine planets present points toward a devotion to the Virgin Mary or another important female saint. If I had a similar client with just a few different details to their background-- a birth place in West Virginia, say, and a Scottish-derived last name-- I would assume a Protestant background, and make very different suggestions.

 

Two Final Notes
 

First, each of the Virtues can be defined in particular ways, and we shouldn't be vague or abstract about this, either. That said, there are multiple definitions of each virtue available. The later Platonists actually talked about a series of 5 levels of virtue, with each specific virtue taking on a different meaning as one progresses in the spiritual life. I strongly recommend doing some reading on this topic. I personally enjoy the discussion of the virtues in Plato's Republic and Phaedo, in Plotinus, and in the Nichomachaean Ethics; I also recommend Alistair McIntyre's After Virtue as an introduction to Virtue Ethics as a whole, from a modern perspective. 

 

Second, Levi's assignment of the Vices and Virtues to the planets isn't the only possible one. If you plan on working with this system, I strongly recommend careful consideration of actual birth charts, starting with your own, rather than assuming that "Levi said it, therefore it's true"!