Page:The message of the stars - an esoteric exposition of medical and natal astrology explaining the arts of prediction and diagnosis of disease (IA messageofstarses00heiniala).pdf/92

88 “houses,” the “signs” and the “planets.” There are also three factors which play a specially important part in the individual horoscope, namely the Sun, the Moon and the Ascendant, which may be said to represent the spirit, the soul and the body.

Properly viewed the Sun, Moon and Ascendant are not really three separate horoscopical principles but represent two composite parts which when united constitute the human being. The “rising sign” and the “first house” together form an avenue for the fecundating influences of the Moon which there crystallize and form the etheric matrix that moulds the physical particles from the maternal body into a new vehicle, hence the astrological maxim that the ascendant at birth (or its opposite) is the Moon’s place at conception, This composite body is the part of the human being which is born and dies after a relatively evanescent period of existence.

The other and immortal part of composite man which consists of the Ego and its finer vehicles is represented in the horoscope by the Sun and the Moon. The specific influence of these planets will be described when we have considered the rising sign.

As taught in “Simplified Scientific Astrology” it is the angle of the stellar ray which determines in what department of life it will be most prominently active, and it has been found by observation that the sign rising or ascending on the eastern horizon when