Henri Coton-dit ‘Alvart’,

collection particulière,

Editions Le Mercure Dauphinois.

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Today’s sharing from the Blue House of Via-HYGEIA is another excerpt from Henri Coton-Alvart’s posthumous collection of writings, ‘Astrology, as a Natural Science‘, here excerted from ‘Fragments d’Hermétisme’ (Hermetic Gleans), published by his friend and disciple Henri La Croix-Haute in his ‘Propos sur les ”Deux Lumières” de Henri Coton-Alvart‘ (from ‘Considerations upon Henri Coton-Alvart’s “The Two Lights”), published by Le Mercure Dauphinois in 2001. From page 215 to 223. English translation by Via-HYGEIA from the original French.

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Introduction by

Henri La Croix-Haute

The article, ‘Astrology, as a Natural Science‘, published in 1935, in issue XVII of the French Astrological Society Magazine, reminds us that the prediction of the behavior of an individual or of the events the individual will encounter throughout his existence must be linked to cosmic factors that go along with it.

(Note: Herodotus (c.484-c. 425), in the V century B.C. tells us in his ‘History‘, chapter II, paragraph 82, that the Egyptian priests through their omens could predict terrestrial fate according to the day of birth:

‘82. Besides these things the Egyptians have found out also to what god each month and each day belongs, and what fortunes a man will meet with who is born on any particular day, and how he will die, and what kind of a man he will be: and these inventions were taken up by those of the Hellenes who occupied themselves about poesy. Omens (portents, signs,  prophetic indications, that foreshadow a coming event) too have been found out by them more than by all other men besides; for when a omen has happened, they observe and write down the event which comes of it, and if ever afterwards anything resembling this happens, they believe that the event which comes of it will be similar.’ (The History of Herodotus, parallel English/Greek, tr. G. C. Macaulay, [1890], at sacred-texts dot com).

‘The Book of Henoch‘, chapter VIII-verse 3, also says that the Watchers taught humanity divination by the Sun, the Moon, and the stars throughout all the signs of the Heavens:

‘Baraqijal, (taught) astrology, Kokabel the constellations, Ezeqeel the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiel the signs of the earth, Shamsiel the signs of the sun, and Sariel the course of the moon.’ Translation Oesterley-1912-end of note).

These celestial influxes, noticed by Basil Valentinus in his 1414 ‘Twelve Keys‘, we have translated some time ago, are found in the formation of metals and also interferes in the evolution of living beings. The child  gathers in him all the potentialities that life will erode or confirm according to his receptivity to the currents of cosmic forces that will constantly challenge him. We immediately see how much the original gifts of Will & Intuition will help him in his growth and also we can understand the importance of education, of the social environment and the epoch in which he will evolve. Hence, the astrological analysis receives its necessary foundation, but also the notion of its relativity. We must consider, in all the interpretations, the potentialities infused into the being according to the horoscope, the  evolution of the planetary transits in aspect with the theme, but also the events emanating from external forces that bring luck or misfortune and this echoes in Kepler’s saying in his 1602 ‘De Fundamentis Astrologiae Certioribus’ : ‘The map of the sky shapes human condition.’

It is very surprising to notice the tendencies of a character, the success and failures of endeavors in the family or at the community level, the determinism of favorable and unfavorable periods. On the medical level, the picture of the sky at the time of the birth reveals potentialities, strong and weak points of the organism and the risks that may  occur, according to time, place and action.

Even though any human interpretation is of a relative nature, as it appears clearly in Henri Coton-Alvart’s study, ‘Upon the Cell’, that astrology confirms through the horoscope the nature and the evolution of a person. It indicates the continuous interactions of his journey under the influence of the stars-also ruled by the Spiritus- and the signs of the cosmo-biology that steers every living being on Earth, invited through a conscious labor to fulfill the tasks it was assigned. But, only if we receive such highlight, it is not given to the astrologer to know more than what is allowed.

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Astrology,

as a Natural Science

(1935)

Astrology is not just a conjectural science. Its importance, its length, far exceed the prediction of events.

We ought to even say that prediction is but one of the many  applications of the science of cosmic influences; it is the best known, because it answers a curiosity very much spread through-out the ages. And indeed, most specialized books, labelled under the generic name of ‘astrology’, mainly deal with prediction, therefore contributing in highlighting this particularly narrow aspect of it than the others, equally legitimate.

In order to go beyond the tree hiding the forest and discover astrology’s more lengthy aspects, we ought to go way back to the Ancient, who conceived it in the manner we should apprehend it today, if we want to benefit from the light it can shed upon many domains. The cosmic factor is embedded within the phenomenon we can witness; it intervenes in a preeminent part in the determination of qualities. The spagyrists that who rely upon experience as much as theory, have incorporated the cosmic factor in both and have found it so useful and efficient that they cannot work without it anymore.

Basil Valentinus, in his ‘Twelve Keys‘, writes: ‘Whereas the seminal virtue of the metals, I am eager that you also know it; the celestial influence descends, by the will and command of God, from above and mixes with the virtues and properties of the stars; among this blending, the liking of a ‘third-being’ forms. This is how the principle of our semen is created.’

Therefore, we see that Basil Valentine admits as a forming principle of the metals, a triple factor:

1. Zodiacal, that names the terrestrial influence.
2. Astral, designated by the virtues and the properties of the stars.
3. Terrestrial, responding to the orientation of the Earth in relationship to the sky (domification). All these elements are those we use in the elaboration of an horoscope.

The ‘Gloria Mundi’, explaining about the nature of the mercurial matter, principle of the metals, says: ‘It is not the crude mercury, but the result the stars in the sky compose on earth, bound in one body.’ The author takes up here Basil Valentine’s idea.

We believe that the principle of the metals is thus clearly defined: a certain complex cosmic emission falls on earth, condenses after a blending into the form of a substance that will be able to undergo transformation through maturation; an evolution the observation of living things will make apparent.

This very evolution of this initial cosmic substance is reported by Eirenaeus Philalethes in his ‘Fons Chemicae’ and we learn from him that, what he names Mercury is the mercury that the Sun spreads everywhere in the month of March; and this influx, called in the Antiquity, celestial manna, May dew-it has many other names-will demonstrate in a series of successive sequences its potentialities and finally, it will find its maturity in October.

We could very well continue to quote the old Masters telling us about the nature and the origin of this living and evolving substance. It is useless for the moment to insist upon this, as we will come back to this subject another day with a proper article. But, what we ought to remember now, is that it is the process of condensation of a substance extremely subtle and rarified-or an ‘energy‘ if we want another name-coming from celestial space, varying in time, under the attentive watch of the heavens upon the Earth, which is happening into the three realms, mineral, plant & animal-all subject to composition, evolution and decomposition. This is the very origin of the subtle qualities that we recognize in complex beings, but it is also-and we ought not to forget this-the origin of terrestrial matter.

Whatever is the theory that we accept related to the conglomeration of our planet’s matter, we cannot make it originate from elsewhere than the celestial realm in which it gravitates.

And this matter continuously flows under a form that we haven’t examined yet closely, but the way was shown to us by the experimenters that had positive reasons to focus on it: In its native state, so to say, this substance embodies all elementary quantities, in various chaotic blends, and is gifted of all potentialities; we can also add that these potentialities will manifest during the maturation & evolution of all beings composed of this substance, at different times.

If we transpose this theory into genethliac astrology, we could say that the child embodies in him all of his biological and physiological life, and that all these modes are from birth in a sensitive & reactive mode; the journey of life will then consist into translating these latencies in contact with others factors, sensations, events, state of health or disease, etc…

Furthermore, a being is not once and for all constituted at birth; his future will be modified by the continuous import of the totality of the cosmic forces. There are constant modification, reactions to the initial pack of constitutive qualities, towards the present state of these cosmic forces operating at every moment of his life, in a variable, but regulated manner.

Therefore, we are inclined to consider astrology, as a general biology. Genethliac astrology is integrated into this general biology, but constitutes only but a part of it; it is possible to apply this guiding notion to all realms, to every level of observation & experimentation. Genethliac astrology deals with the most complex of beings, Man, considered in all of his potentialities; it reveals itself to be the most complicated part of astrology; we strongly advise to consider it only after being familiar with all its others parts. Elementary astral influences will then be easier to identify in the inferior realms and therefore will be better determined.

Any cosmo-biology is to be built and we will necessarily need to reach out to meteorology, mineralogy, chemistry, biology, plant physics, physiology, etc. The path has already been opened for some of the research: the Ancients worked on it. We ought to appropriate it again for ourselves, but with today’s method & form.

For instance, medical observation may constitute an important field of application, because it allows to establish relationships between the picture of the sky and pathological phenomenon. We will soon indicate, in a coming article, which experiment to work out in order to extend our knowledge of the astral influx into the simpler realms.

Astrology is much more than just a predictive science; without wishing to call into question the importance & usefulness of genethliac astrology, we believe more important to contribute to the development of the natural sciences with this introduction of this cosmic factor we mentioned above, than to predict domestic or financial hardships, that we, ironically, probably couldn’t even avoid…

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Source

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Coming soon: Henri Cotton-Alvart:

From ‘Fragments d’Hermétisme’ (Hermetic Gleans)-

The Principles of Alchemy.

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