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readoldthings) wrote2021-05-03 09:08 am
readoldthings) wrote2021-05-03 09:08 am
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Daily Reflection 5.3.21
Chapter 9 of The Art of War continues to give us more details regarding the reading of terrain and its application to warfare, including:
While most of us are unlikely to find ourselves in the position of watching for signs of advancing chariotry, we can understand the basic principles here as understanding and making use of terrain and watching for signs of the enemy.
Let's consider these ideas from the perspectives of Heaven and Earth. By Heaven, of course, I mean Astrology, and by Earth I mean the astral reflection of the physical environment. When it branches out in different directions, it shows that parties have been sent out to collect firewood. A few clouds of dust moving to and for signify that the army is encamping.
First, the Heavens. Here is an astrological chart taken for my current location at the time that I'm writing this blog:
If you don't know how to read charts like these, now is a good time to learn. The main event, dominating the Heavens, is currently the square between Saturn and Uranus, representing (broadly) the conflict between Order and Chaos. At this moment, the Sun is conjunct Uranus, while the Moon is conjunct Saturn. This is not an especially good day for activities involving any of those planets-- or much else, for that matter. On the other hand, Jupiter and Mercury are both about to move into signs which they rule, which will lend considerable strength to both planets.
More important than the details of this specific chart itself are the ways that it relates to your own natal chart-- and if you don't have a copy of that, now is a good time to get one. You can find any number of astrological programs online that will give you your chart if you input your time, date, and location of birth. Most will come with interpretations of your planets. I do NOT recommend paying much attention to these; just get the image of your chart. Then look at how it relates to the chart above. If Uranus or Saturn is impacting any planet in your chart by an opposition, square, or conjunction, that means trouble for activities related to that planet and to whatever house that planet rules in your chart. If, for example, your natal Venus is placed at 11 degree of Taurus and is the ruler of your 10th House, you can expect serious challenges to both your love life and your career over the next year or so. (And they probably began some time last year.)
And then there's Earth, which I defined above as the astral reflection of the physical environment.
Astral reflection? The simplest way to understand that is that the astral reflection of a place literally is the way that it feels to be in a place. Have you ever walked into a church or a deep forest and felt a sense of abiding peace that stayed with you after you left? That was an astral experience. Have you ever driven past a graveyard and felt a sense of creepiness and nausea? That was a different kind of astral experience.
Learning to open up and then rely on the astral senses is a key component and fruit of every system of magical training. Many people are born with strong astral senses, too, and there are other things, from drugs to yoga, that can open them. There's also a bit of a danger, because to be able to sense astral phenomena is to be affected by them-- it's very hard for a lot of sensitive people to both detect the presence of astral filth and to remain unaffected by it. This is why traditional magical systems teach protective rituals right away-- when you start becoming sensitive to the astral environment, you need to be able transform it and stop it from impacting you in a negative way.
If you aren't able to see or feel what's going on in the astral, it can and will still affect you. Learning to read physical terrain is very helpful. I've been using the term "astral reflection" to describe the astral environment, but that isn't really correct. It's really the physical that's the reflection of the astral environment. We can therefore read the astral environment to a certain by paying attention to the physical. A broken down dive bar reeking of cigarettes and old booze is the reflection of a particular type of astral environment-- even if you can't see the spirits that hang around there, you can know what they are just by looking at the place, and avoid it, as Sun Tzu's army avoids an ambush in tall grass.
Country in which there are precipitous cliffs with torrents running between, deep natural hollows, confined places, tangled thickets, quagmires and crevasses should be left with speed and not approached.
While we keep away from such places, we should get the enemy to approach them; while we face them, we should let the enemy have them on his rear.
If in the neighborhood of your camp there should be any hilly country, ponds surrounded by aquatic grass, hollow basins filled with reeds, or woods with thick undergrowth, they must be carefully routed out and searched; for these are places where men in ambush or insidious spies are likely to be lurking.
Movement amongst the trees of a forest shows that the enemy is advancing. The appearance of a number of screens in the midst of thick grass means that the enemy wants to make us suspicious.
The rising of birds in their flight is the sign of an ambuscade. Startled beasts indicate that a sudden attack is coming.
When there is dust rising in a high column, it is the sign of chariots advancing; when the dust is low, but spread over a wide area, it betokens the approach of infantry.
While we keep away from such places, we should get the enemy to approach them; while we face them, we should let the enemy have them on his rear.
If in the neighborhood of your camp there should be any hilly country, ponds surrounded by aquatic grass, hollow basins filled with reeds, or woods with thick undergrowth, they must be carefully routed out and searched; for these are places where men in ambush or insidious spies are likely to be lurking.
Movement amongst the trees of a forest shows that the enemy is advancing. The appearance of a number of screens in the midst of thick grass means that the enemy wants to make us suspicious.
The rising of birds in their flight is the sign of an ambuscade. Startled beasts indicate that a sudden attack is coming.
When there is dust rising in a high column, it is the sign of chariots advancing; when the dust is low, but spread over a wide area, it betokens the approach of infantry.
While most of us are unlikely to find ourselves in the position of watching for signs of advancing chariotry, we can understand the basic principles here as understanding and making use of terrain and watching for signs of the enemy.
Let's consider these ideas from the perspectives of Heaven and Earth. By Heaven, of course, I mean Astrology, and by Earth I mean the astral reflection of the physical environment. When it branches out in different directions, it shows that parties have been sent out to collect firewood. A few clouds of dust moving to and for signify that the army is encamping.
First, the Heavens. Here is an astrological chart taken for my current location at the time that I'm writing this blog:
If you don't know how to read charts like these, now is a good time to learn. The main event, dominating the Heavens, is currently the square between Saturn and Uranus, representing (broadly) the conflict between Order and Chaos. At this moment, the Sun is conjunct Uranus, while the Moon is conjunct Saturn. This is not an especially good day for activities involving any of those planets-- or much else, for that matter. On the other hand, Jupiter and Mercury are both about to move into signs which they rule, which will lend considerable strength to both planets.
More important than the details of this specific chart itself are the ways that it relates to your own natal chart-- and if you don't have a copy of that, now is a good time to get one. You can find any number of astrological programs online that will give you your chart if you input your time, date, and location of birth. Most will come with interpretations of your planets. I do NOT recommend paying much attention to these; just get the image of your chart. Then look at how it relates to the chart above. If Uranus or Saturn is impacting any planet in your chart by an opposition, square, or conjunction, that means trouble for activities related to that planet and to whatever house that planet rules in your chart. If, for example, your natal Venus is placed at 11 degree of Taurus and is the ruler of your 10th House, you can expect serious challenges to both your love life and your career over the next year or so. (And they probably began some time last year.)
And then there's Earth, which I defined above as the astral reflection of the physical environment.
Astral reflection? The simplest way to understand that is that the astral reflection of a place literally is the way that it feels to be in a place. Have you ever walked into a church or a deep forest and felt a sense of abiding peace that stayed with you after you left? That was an astral experience. Have you ever driven past a graveyard and felt a sense of creepiness and nausea? That was a different kind of astral experience.
Learning to open up and then rely on the astral senses is a key component and fruit of every system of magical training. Many people are born with strong astral senses, too, and there are other things, from drugs to yoga, that can open them. There's also a bit of a danger, because to be able to sense astral phenomena is to be affected by them-- it's very hard for a lot of sensitive people to both detect the presence of astral filth and to remain unaffected by it. This is why traditional magical systems teach protective rituals right away-- when you start becoming sensitive to the astral environment, you need to be able transform it and stop it from impacting you in a negative way.
If you aren't able to see or feel what's going on in the astral, it can and will still affect you. Learning to read physical terrain is very helpful. I've been using the term "astral reflection" to describe the astral environment, but that isn't really correct. It's really the physical that's the reflection of the astral environment. We can therefore read the astral environment to a certain by paying attention to the physical. A broken down dive bar reeking of cigarettes and old booze is the reflection of a particular type of astral environment-- even if you can't see the spirits that hang around there, you can know what they are just by looking at the place, and avoid it, as Sun Tzu's army avoids an ambush in tall grass.