Dear Friend:

   For some time I have suspected that many students receiving the Senior Lessons know little of aspects, Standard Time, retrogradation, and kindred matters. Those who are well versed in these subjects are not caught in the trap which has snared so many Senior students attempting to answer Senior Lesson No.10. I would advise those not well grounded in the beginnings of science to review the lessons of the Junior Course. If you start systematically from the beginning, you will lay a sure foundation, and will not overlook the important points involved in retrogradation of planets. Saturn and Uranus are retrograde and a curious case results. To make the matter clear I refer to Junior Lesson No. 8. When you have studied retrogradation there, you will see by examination of the positions given in the ephermeris for the 12th, 13th, and 14th of September that both Saturn and Uranus are retrograding at the rate of one minute per day; thus they maintain the same distance from each other, and therefore they are neither applying nor separating.

   As I believe homeopathic doses are best for beginners, I did not explain to the Junior Class that because of retrogradation a slow-moving planet may apply to one which is more swift. Thus in the present case, had Saturn been direct and Uranus retrograde both would have been applying. When that is the case their rays are most powerfully focused, and the mind effect is greatest. It is well worthwhile to keep these points in mind, and to be sure, when inserting the planets in a horoscope, to designate with appropriate marks those that are retrograde, for when not thus marked, astrologers assume that all are direct, and a reading based on such a misconception must necessarily be misleading.

   In the present case, for instance, the uniform retrogradation of both planets weakens their influence for good, and increases so-called "evil" tendencies. Saturn in the 11th house obstructs the boy's hopes and wishes; his friends fail him, and the retrogradation of Uranus makes it difficult for him to guard against these mishaps, although the trine between Saturn and Uranus will mitigate this to a considerable extent. Were both Saturn and Uranus direct, Saturn would apply to the trine of Uranus, and the intuitive faculty of the latter planet would impart more wisdom and forestall to a greater degree the saturnine tendencies. During a period in any horoscope when Saturn is direct and meets a retrograde Uranus by progression in a good aspect they bring out the very highest of their respective virtues potential in the native; but if they meet thus in an evil configuration, they inevitably force any hidden evil to the surface, for remember, the planets inaugurate neither good nor ill, they only stir into activity tendencies which are latent within.

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1]  You will notice that during boyhood Mercury is R, but later becomes direct, and about nineteen years after birth it forms a trine with Saturn. Tell me what will be the result, but briefly, please, for as an astrologer you should cultivate conciseness. Too many words are confusing to those for whom you read.

Yours in fellowship,
   Max Heindel

A] In the horoscope Saturn is neither applying to nor separating from Uranus. Both Planets are retrograde at the rate of one minute per day. Thus they maintain the same distance from each other.

   As the month progresses note the retrograding movement of Uranus begins to slow down in comparison with Saturn which begins to speed up. Consequently Saturn begins to separate from the trine with Uranus.

B] Mercury rises after the Sun. (Cancer rises before Leo)