In astrology, there really isn’t any notion of death. All is cyclical and even the eighth house which “rules” death along with sleep and sex, encompasses all of these under the umbrella notion of regeneration. The Sight Of An Autumn Leaf Brings To A Pilgrim The Sudden Revelation Of The Mystery of Life And Death is the Sabian symbol for Libra 25°, and it points to our ability to see in every experience a transcendent, cosmic meaning. In my simple superimposition of a twelve-fold sequence, this image is ruled by Aries, the first sign of the Zodiac, which governs the advent of birth.

Like Newton’s apple, the leaf falls and inspires revelation, if the aspirant is open to the wonders of natural process and understands the cosmic resonance it carries. In the falling leaf we see, as we approach the end of Libra and the start of Scorpio that, externally, we perceive an ending, a death, while in fact the energy (of the tree) is being reverted to its unseen root level. Libra rules the world of appearances (consciousness) and Scorpio the unseen (subconciousness), that sign’s planet Pluto being named for the god of death who wears a cloak of invisibility. Yes, there was a cloak of invisibility long before that lady in Edinburgh made it such a fashion statement. The leaf falling is just one move in the grand choreography of the great cosmic dance. If we don’t perceive the all in the small then we are constantly seeking; but we must remember the message of the great Libran lady, Glinda, who reminded us that the power was within us all the time to find the answer, the solution we seek.

The falling leaf is an omen of the budding leaves of spring, so to we might perceive our own deaths or those of our loved ones as portents of new life—however you interpret that is most definitely up to you. Seeing through the small to the all is the true meaning of the world clairvoyance. Dane Rudhyar puts it thusly: “This world is illusion only to the individual who cannot see through its phenomena and fails to apprehend the reality these phenomena reveal even as they conceal it.”

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