CHARACTER AND ENVIRONMENT
SIR FRANCIS GALTON in his _Enquiry into Human Faculty_ has laid it down
as an axiom for the study of Eugenists that “Nature is stronger than
Nurture.” His researches and tabulated statistics undoubtedly point this
conclusion. We have therefore to regard life in terms of this fact.
In the making of destiny Character is the prime factor, and the
modifying factor is Environment. Reform that has an eye only to
externals will never be finally effective. Only that which makes for the
upbuilding of individual character will secure permanent results.
Without doubt character demands for its full expression the most
effective instrument that can be placed at its disposal, and this is the
whole case for Eugenics. How that efficiency of instrument is to be
secured for the majority is another matter. Certainly it will never be
found along the lines of stock. We have before us hundreds of examples
of thoroughly fit persons of both sexes whose children are weaklings or
mentally defective. I have cited two cases of women simultaneously
bearing children in the same hospital. One child dies and the other
lives. Why? They were born under the same stellar conditions. They had
equal care from their births onwards. The reason is that in one instance
the mother’s horoscope shows success in progeny from the presence of
Jupiter in the 5th House, and the other shows no success at all from the
presence of Saturn in that part of the heavens. Both mothers were
perfectly fit in themselves and in the same station of life. Obviously
there is here imported a factor that is of immense importance to those
who have a mind for improving the race. Seed, Season and Soil are all
essential to the production of healthy offspring. Our Eugenists leave
out of consideration the factor of Season. They imagine that, given
healthy parents, you are bound to have healthy children. Nothing is
further from the truth, if we regard children as composite beings and
not merely as animals. We may frankly admit that the personality
determines the final _expression_ of character as the coloured glass
through which the ray of intelligence finally strikes upon us, but to
confound character with environment—and there is no environment which
presses a man more nearly than his physical body—would be to negative
the whole effort of reform. Character is inherent and is imported to the
physical environment. It is not derived from it. It is no by-product,
but a thing as essential to Soul as shape is to matter. Beyond the fact
of physical heredity, which counts for a great deal where bodies are
concerned, there is the yet more important factor of psychic tradition.
The importation of this factor into the problem is of the utmost
significance, and I venture to say that apart from a thorough sounding
of modern Psychology and Occultism, and a due consideration of all the
factors that go to the making of a man, there will be no satisfactory
solution of the problem modern Eugenists have before them.
In the analysis of personal efficiency we find three factors in
co-operation: faculty, function and instrument. All faculty is
strengthened and increased by use or function. Function it is that
adapts environment to its needs, as a force pressing towards expression
in matter. For the expression of faculty, therefore, we need functional
integrity, adaptation of environment, and efficiency of instrument. It
has been said that, given an instrument that is out of tune there would
not be much difference in expression of faculty between an impresario
and a man entirely ignorant of music. This is true only in time and as
regards the immediate effort of each. But one can very well see that
there are essential differences which will very soon be made manifest.
The musician would know that the instrument was defective, while the
other would not. In a short while the musician would get that instrument
into tune so that he could express his faculty. The man ignorant of
music could not attempt the business. Character counts for more than
environment, and faculty than instrument.
Now in our Occultism we distinguish between that which is incidental, as
faculty and character; and that which is accidental, as instrument and
environment. It is recognized that the horoscope of birth is accidental
in this sense, and represents the cosmical and mundane environment in
which the character is required to express itself. It represents a
composite of cosmic forces energizing through two great streams of
heredity. But it is not essential to the man, as is character. It is not
going to damn him for ever or confer on him the guerdon of a blessed
immortality. It is merely an environment, and that but a temporary one.
Astrologers classify characters into three primary groups, representing
stability, flexibility and incisiveness, or again, originality and
independence, adaptability, and executiveness. These answer to the
grouping of the planets in the several signs of the zodiac, namely, the
Fixed, Common and Cardinal signs, otherwise known as the grave,
circumflex and acute. These may be tabularized in the following manner—
_Sign._ _Character._ _Faculty._
Aries, Libra, Incisive. Executiveness.
Capricorn, Cancer.
Cardinal or Acute.
Taurus, Scorpio,
Leo, Aquarius. Stable. Originality.
Fixed or Grave.
Gemini, Sagittary,
Virgo, Pisces. Flexible. Adaptability.
Common or
Circumflex.
From this grouping we know at once what is the predominant mould of
character and hence what environment is most suitable for the exercise
and expression of that character. And as applied to eugenics, we are
able thereby to make selection of suitable partners in life, setting off
the stability of the one by the flexibility of the other, and so on.
Take, for instance, the man who shows a predominant flexibility of
character, wide sympathies, versatility, prolixity and diffuseness. He
is apt to become a dabbler, never thorough, and _aliquid in omnibus_.
Obviously his ambitions need pointing, his faculties concentrating, and
his natural powers conserving. Bring him into relations with a woman who
has a majority of the planets in cardinal signs, and he will find one
who can be of the greatest use to him in the shaping of character and
the directing of his ambitions and powers.
We might ring the changes and derive from these three types seven
distinct characters, all mutually interdependent and capable of
fulfilling some special function in the economy of life, but never
wholly of service when working alone. It is from the interplay of human
character in the ordinary course of life that the main purpose of human
evolution is served.
It has already been shown that the lunar sphere is the last of those
through which the incarnating entity passes when it proceeds towards
mundane existence. It has been shown also that the Moon exercises a most
important influence in human generation. It is to the Moon, therefore,
that we look for the final determination of that personal colouring
which is the prime environment of the Soul. Accordingly we find that the
Moon’s position in a horoscope of birth is of the greatest importance.
Not only does the Sign occupied by the Moon give to the character a
special colouring, but the decanate and even the degree that is held by
it play their part in the final determination of the personal colouring.
But inasmuch as there is an adaptation of means to end and of character
to environment, we may go further and infer character as indicated by
the lunar position. In this way the whole phenomenal world may be
regarded as the reflex of the noumenal. The person, as phenomenon,
assumes a cosmic and spiritual significance. He is one of the divine
symbols.
To take a concrete instance. The Kaiser Wilhelm II was born with the
Moon in the 28th degree of the sign Scorpio, which is ruled by the Sun,
the sign being under the dominion of the planet Mars. The Moon is
opposed by Uranus, which disposes to a wayward and autocratic
disposition, some degree of eccentricity, a nature subject to impulses
and precipitate actions. The Moon therefore takes the prime colouring of
the planet Mars, because it is in the sign of Mars, Scorpio, and we
accordingly find that Mars is a very prominent planet in the horoscope,
being in the Mid-heaven and near the conjunction with Neptune. It is
not, therefore, surprising that the Kaiser Wilhelm has received the name
of “War Lord.” He represents the fighting principle which makes for
conquest and freedom. Zeal, courage, enthusiasm, enterprise and
frankness are among the martial attributes. To these attributes, the
solar degrees held by the Moon will contribute a degree of pride, love
of fame, glory and display.
Take another instance. Napoleon I was born with the Moon in the 28th
degree of the sign Capricornus. The sign is ruled by Saturn, and we find
Saturn in the most prominent position in the horoscope, being in the
Mid-heaven in opposition to the Moon. Saturn is in the sign Cancer, and
he died from the disease associated with this sign. The degree is ruled
by the Sun. Here we have the Moon in the cardinal sign Capricorn, ruled
by Saturn, the most powerful planet in the horoscope. It is altogether
suitable to the “Man of Destiny.” The degree held by the Moon is ruled
by the Sun, and this gives the desire for fame, honour, glory and
rulership. The decanate of the sign occupied by the Moon is related to
the sign Aries ruled by Mars, and here we have the military instinct.
But the presiding influence in the horoscope is undoubtedly that of the
planet Saturn, in whose sign the Moon is found at the moment of birth.
Saturn had an ancient reputation of devouring his own children, which
means that those whom he raises in the world he eventually despoils. It
was thus in the case of Napoleons I and III, both of whom had the planet
in the Mid-heaven of their horoscopes. But the tally of its victims is a
lengthy one, and includes all grades of life. What sphere is likely to
be occupied by the subject of this or any other horoscopical influence
coming through the Moon, depends most of all upon the position of the
planet governing the Moon-sign, that is, the Sign in which the Moon is
placed at the birth. Thus I find that Rudyard Kipling has the Moon in
Gemini, and this is ruled by Mercury, who is in the sign Sagittarius in
conjunction with Venus. Mercury is pre-eminently the representative of
literature and Venus that of poesy. But the Moon is also in the degree
of Gemini that is ruled by Venus, and in that part of the sign which
reflects the sign Aries, so that we have direct evidence of the military
associations of his poetical genius. The poet Shelley was born with the
Moon in Pisces, which is ruled by Jupiter, a powerful planet in his
horoscope, and, conjoined with the planets Mars and Neptune, denoting
the fearless and zealous nature allied to mysticism and inspiration. The
Moon being in a degree that is ruled by itself, denotes that love of
change and that restless inconsequence which characterized his life,
while the Moon, being in the decanate which reflects the sign Cancer,
adds that abiding love of maritime pursuits which eventually brought
about his death, and once more accentuated the import of the phrase:
“the ruling passion strong in death!”
Nelson was born with the Sun in the sign Leo, and the Sun, its ruler, in
elevation. Shakespeare was born with the Moon in Taurus, with Venus its
ruler in elevation. Thus we see that all those who have distinguished
themselves in their sphere of life have the ruler of the Moon-sign in a
prominent position in their horoscopes, and further that the exact
position of the Moon as to decanate and degree gives us the particular
setting of the character and the special faculty by which they are
distinguished.
Yet while the study of character and environment from the point of view
of Astrology is in every way satisfactory to those who take it seriously
in hand, it does not in itself afford that degree of evidence that is
looked for by people newly acquainted with its claims and teachings. For
human character is a very complex thing, and universally shows the
admixture of elements that are common to all in a greater or less
degree. It is rather in the specialization of some one characteristic
that persons become distinguished. It is sometimes in the suppression of
some prevailing characteristic that others attain distinction. Thus we
see that the selfless devotion of one man to the needs of others draws
him away from the mass of commonly selfish people. Accentuation and
abnegation may thus both claim their hold upon the public esteem, yet
always it is thoroughness that makes its mark in the world, and by that
I mean the steadfast adherence to a plan of life which wins its way
through in the end. So then, we see that the evolution of the unit from
the mass, the specialization of faculty in the individual, is the law of
Nature, and it hardly needed the philosophy of Nietzsche or the cult of
the Superman to enforce the fact upon our minds. And yet, after all,
there is no individual evolution possible for man apart from the race to
which he belongs, and when all is done that self-effort can accomplish,
when we have specialized and perfected to the highest possible degree,
what remains but that we must perforce acknowledge our indebtedness to
the world and find our whole destiny to consist in the service of
mankind. Thus Bulwer Lytton makes Zanoni to say: After all I perceive
that the common lot of mankind is its greatest and its sweetest
blessing! Astrology at all events has no higher doctrine than this:
Study how best to serve.