Augustine of Hippo (November 13, 354 AD – August 28, 430 AD)

It’s a long road that brings me to this important Roman Catholic Church Doctor. It was triggered by the title of Bob Dylan’s song, which came to me when I was writing my earlier post about death and dying.

His first insight into the nature of sin occurred when he and a number of friends stole fruit they did not want from a neighborhood garden. He tells this story in his autobiography, The Confessions. He remembers he stole the fruit, not because he was hungry, but because “it was not permitted.” His very nature, he says, was flawed. ‘It was foul, and I loved it. I loved my own error—not that for which I erred, but the error itself.” From this incident he concluded the human person is naturally inclined to sin, and in need of the grace of Christ.

Wikipedia

This was a man who understood about man’s inherit nature to rebel against authority, even God’s.

This chart is rectified to show his conversion (Pluto) to Christianity at the age of 32. There are four inconjuncts.

Sun Inconjunct Uranus

There is a side of your personality that is very restless and impatient with rules, even when you know they are for your own good. You want very much to go your own way and do your own thing, even when you aren’t entirely sure that it is the right direction for you. So you rebel in subtle ways by having hidden fits of obstinacy and moods of feeling very contrary, especially to your parents or other authority figures.

Moon Inconjunct Mars

Until you learn to handle your feelings, you are likely to get angry easily, have temper tantrums and be touchy about what is yours and what is not. You may feel you want to defend yourself against imagined threats. The problem here is that you are likely to become too emotionally involved with ideas, opinions and even objects without knowing it until someone threatens them. Then you react as if you were being personally threatened or attacked. You have to realize that it is possible to change your opinions and attitudes without damaging your worth as a person.

Moon Inconjunct Jupiter

This aspect indicates that you have a positive, optimistic outlook on life, and you enjoy socializing with good friends. However, there are some dangers with this aspect. First, it can be a sign that you are self-indulgent and possibly even selfish, although this is not likely to happen if you have a good, strong relationship with your mother. You have a great need to be cared for and supported, to be accepted for what you are with no strings attached. If this need is fulfilled, the positive side of this aspect will flourish. But if your mother does not support your needs fully, you will feel insecure and will look elsewhere for support and fulfillment. In this case your concern will be totally for yourself with little thought for other people’s needs.

Mercury Inconjunct Uranus

Your mind moves quickly from topic to topic, often without pausing long enough for you to understand what you have learned. And if there is a lot of excitement or activity around you, your mind may race so fast to keep up with it all that you work yourself into a state of nervous energy. Under these circumstances it is almost impossible for you to concentrate or do any useful mental work.

St. Augustine was the man who added the words “and from the Son” to designate that the Holy Spirit does not proceed directly (or only) from the Father. This caused a great schism between the Orthodox Christian community in the East and the Roman Catholics in the West. He may have been wrong…

Augustine’s contemporaries often believed astrology to be an exact and genuine science. Its practitioners were regarded as true men of learning and called mathemathici. Astrology played a prominent part in Manichaean doctrine, and Augustine himself was attracted by their books in his youth, being particularly fascinated by those who claimed to foretell the future. Later, as a bishop, he warned that one should avoid astrologers who combine science and horoscopes. (Augustine’s term “mathematici”, meaning “astrologers”, is sometimes mistranslated as “mathematicians”.) According to Augustine, they were not genuine students of Hipparchus or Eratosthenes but “common swindlers”

Astrology (from Wikipedia)

I wrote a similar warning in my poem Today. Maybe he and I have already had this conversation.

Amen.