Hudson Valley Astrologer

Aries Ingress

My Notes on The Magical Carousel by Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, first chapter, Aries.

The flaming eyes of the hunter in The Magical Carousel represent the act of creation. In her book, Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, also known as “Thea,” explains that this act is really an act of seeing which she describes as “the progressive unfolding of a vision of the Supreme.” The story introduces the main characters of the play as being near the transcendent force and participating in the act of creation not merely observers. She suggests that the individualized ‘eye of consciousness’ is unveiled in this way, gradually, in the lived experience. The seed of the supreme consciousness unfolds therefore over time within life, in the Manifestation. Individual consciousness perceives a grand, ever-increasing harmony that attunes itself to nature and limitations of consciousness fall away when wholeness is perceived, and harmony is realized despite maintaining individualized consciousness within the play of Supreme Consciousness, which suggests a contradiction in terms, but is not.

Great Hunter sheds tears that extinguish the “flaming eye of the fire of spirit,” which represents a withdrawal, or a disconnection from the Creator. The Creator can no longer See himself through the human eye of consciousness. But the individual’s blindness is temporary. The purpose of the journey or the story being told is to enable the process of unfoldment to continue, for “a more all-inclusive harmony,” to eventually take hold. That time is now but I am getting ahead of myself. We are only at the very first chapter.

In the Eddie Vedder song by Pearl Jam called Tremor Christ, Vedder sings, “the smallest ocean still gets big, big waves,” in a heart wrenching screech of a lost man in the wild. He personifies the Great Hunter and Thea’s commentary on the Great Hunter’s tears reminds me of this line. In Aries, Thea discusses the “recondite” introduction of a greater fall that is to come in a later chapter, in the next Cardinal Sign, Cancer. But here we have tears, constituted with the same stuff of the ocean and a “fusion” of fire and water. It may be significant that she does not mention fire and water mixing. Later in her work Thea insists on the importance of not mixing, which was a baffling comment when I read it. Of course, it is quite clear in this context since Fire and Water do not mix.  

PNB comments that “here the scope is in atomic proportions, — minute particles of energy” that in a way foreshadow a larger movement in the organic life of the cell when the action arrives at Cancer.

Thea’s discussion regarding the absence of religious and pseudo spiritual and sanctimonious symbolism reveals an inference to the introduction of something more profound than our traditional views on the subjects. “Thus, there is no stern Creator initiating the wheel of evolution to the eye of my consciousness,” she wrote. Instead, it is the ‘act of seeing’ which places the Initiator “intimately in creation.” The Supreme Consciousness “Sees Himself” in the progression unfolding. The Zohar, which is a part of the Kabbalah in Judaism, alludes to this concept of God within, but the “keys” are hidden and obscure, not explicit in the Gnostic terms Thea presents.   

In the beginning, the energy represented by the Great Hunter reveals that he is an object of his own shortcomings. The victimization experienced is brought on by a disillusionment when his progress is blocked, slowed, and brought to a stop. His eyes generate tears which help him “objectify” himself to himself as Thea puts it. A lack of consciousness is the very shortcoming of his being that keeps him stunted and developmentally raw.

Primitive. Powerful. Little refinement. A thrust of energy gushing forth, in great bursts that explode in fits and starts describes this season, as well as the Age of Aries. The RAM is the embodiment of this archetypal force. But there are two sides to this nature. One is rambunctious, the other side is docile. Another contradiction in terms, and signals how such a riotous and rowdy drive can be distracted and sidetracked by insignificant things. Without the Soul’s involvement the Spirit runs roughshod through the wilderness, aimless, shooting beyond the trees right in front of him. The Great Hunter does not see the forest. Without this ‘involvement’ he stays trapped or lost within a vision fraught with limitation.

At this point in the story, the children demonstrate another level of the narrative which is the beginnings of a ‘fusion’ between Spirit and Soul, a glimmer of an ember whose presence reveals the way out of this limited view, through immersion. The fusion is in its embryonic state in Aries, a primordial form. Thea suggests we are dealing with First Principles in the first three signs, “three aspects of primordial conditions of Manifestation,” and the sense builds immediately that a wider, deeper, and much more significant expanse of time than I’ve ever imagined is a part of “the entire play.”

In Aries, spirit enters Matter like a Seed to take root and evolves through its involution with life, to come to know, remember and realize, its own connection with the Divine.

The Sun is in its exaltation in Aries but is not seen in the first chapter. As the symbol of Divine Consciousness, it is yet hidden, but still the power that upholds everything, “the entire play.”

The first three signs in natal astrology represent the beginning of things and sometimes depict a good place to start analysis. The Ascendant represents Sunrise in the natural wheel. In the cosmology of the Gnostic Circle, Aries is the Cosmic Sunset and the beginning of the journey down into the belly of the Crab at Cancer, Midnight. A superficial seeing would expect the movement to move toward Cosmic Midday, but that is not the case here. I remember first reading this and having the experience of my head spinning around. I already had several years studying Astrology under my belt, but this was something entirely new, and extraordinary.

The head of the movement, leads the way with the first sign, and therefore Aries rules the Head, but we take the movement in three… including Taurus and Gemini. The first Trinity of the zodiacal movement is foundational to understanding the flow of twelve as being carried out in four groups of three. Thea explains this movement in the notes regarding the correspondence to the Hindu Triads that she points out as being Creation, Preservation, Destruction — or Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.

Grab a copy of The Magical Carousel for yourself, and better yet get a copy to read aloud together with your children. You will not only introduce them to an entertaining and powerful way to access the meaning of Astrology, but you will treat yourself to a more significant telling of the story than has ever been told. And like children, this is especially true for practitioners who are of the opinion that they’ve figured out the cosmic script according to whatever school of thought they belong. You can get a copy on the Aeon Center of Cosmology Website or pick up your version on Amazon.

Norelli-Bachelet, P. (2017). The Magical Carousel and Commentaries: A Zodiacal Odyssey (2017th ed.). Notion Press, Inc.