All Things Are in All

[sdi]

Porphyry says, "all things are in all, but each in a manner consonant with the essence of each." I was considering this today, and think it would be a worthy exercise to take a symbol from a given system and consider its reflection in every other symbol, since these do not exist in isolation.

As an example, consider "love" in the context of astrology. Normally, we would consider this to be the domain of Venus, but that is too simplistic, I think; each planet is capable of ruling the fifth house (pleasure, children) or sixth house (employees) or seventh house (spouse) or eleventh house (friends), and so the nature of one's love for the things of a given house can vary depending on the ruler. I don't pretend to be an expert in astrology, but considering love through the lens of each planet, I might suggest each as follows:

• Moon: lust
• Mercury: mutual understanding
• Venus: romance
• Sun: compassion
• Mars: protection
• Jupiter: provision
• Saturn: duty

All of these things are parts of love, but none of them are the whole of love. I think if one is attempting to really master a symbolic system, it is worth taking the time to consider each of these facets for each of the symbols in the system...