74 SIMPLIFIED SCIENTIFIC ASTROLOGY
fluence which a planet exerts, for it is the angle of the ray which determines the influence of a planet. The planets are foci which transmit and intensify the properties of fixed stars so that they affect us in a much greater degree than when not focussed upon the point of observation—the birthplace.
Let us now suppose that at the time a child is born we look at Saturn and beyond him, right along our line of observation, we see the fixed star Antares which is in about 8 degrees of Sagittarius; the child is then getting a tendency to eye trouble which is sufficiently severe even if the planet is traveling “direct” in its orbit as is generally the case, for then Antares gradually goes out of focus, and Saturn will not return to the conjunction until it has completed its circle journey around the Sun (which takes about 29 years). If, on the other hand, we find that on the day after birth Saturn has retrograded somewhat, and still more the next day, and so on for a week or two, then that also brings Antares out of focus, but there is this important difference, that instead of taking 29 years to form the next conjunction Saturn may become “direct,” and form tho second conjunction with Antares in a few weeks after birth, and this repeated evil ray may aggravate the natal defect to such an extent that the child becomes blind. Thus we reiterate, that while the retrograde motion of a planet is only seeming, its influence on human affairs is very real.
