209Before we enter into an explanation of the nature
and the working of planets, it is necessary to estimate the
place of planets in Astrology. Every solar system is a
separate unit by itself. The Sun is the centre of the solar
system and the planets go round it. But to us the earth
forms the centre of the earth-zodiac. Hence, the rotation
of the planets, along the earth-zodiac is only an apparent
effect of the true motion of the planets along the zodiac of
the Sun. The path of the planets around the Sun gives the
genuine secrets of the allegories of the zodiac. In our study
of astrology, we can read the reflected effects of the
planetary revolutions which are the ‘substituted secrets’.
Man can know the genuine secrets through
initiations. So also, man can transcend the apparent effect
of the planets in the various houses from his ascendant
and the various signs of the earth-zodiac. Through
initiations, he can experience the planetary effects of the
Sun’s zodiac. At this stage, he enters into the soul-
consciousness of the solar systems. This forms the first of
the greater mysteries of initiations. After this, man attunes
himself with the zodiac of a central Sun of a larger ‘solar
system’. (The solar system in which we live is but one of
twelve such others revolving around the central Sun).
Thus one enters into the cosmic path and in the next step,
he can attune himself with the revolution around the
geometrical centre of this Universe that is our space-globe