Many people will say that they discovered serious astrology at a time in their lives when their consciousness was changing.

It is probably because of this change in consciousness that they were exposed to astrology in this way.

They may have been open to many other different but related philosophies and ideas as well.

One that I came across round about the same time as I was introduced to astrology was the work of fellow Sun/Moon Capricorn George Gurdjieff

Gurdjieff’s worldview and his life’s work was all about levels. He stated that everything in the Universe including human beings operated on different levels. 

Level One was a simple animalistic experience, Two was an emotional one and Three was the intellectual realm. The vast majority of human beings function exclusively on these levels, moving between them but generally preferring one over the other. 

Followers of astrology would recognise in these three realms the influence of Mars, the Moon and Mercury.

One big problem is that people can only perceive what happens on their own level or the ones beneath it.

This is particularly true of level three, the intellectual one associated with Mercury.

Beings that exist here according to Gurdjieff believe in their innate superiority over those that function on levels one and two.

They also see this as the highest level available and that any possible further growth would occur through acquiring more information and developing the themes that already exist on this level.

Gurdjieff insisted however that these three levels were the most superficial of many and that no real human should be content with a life that functioned under such narrow limitations.

There are in fact many higher levels but to reach them, people functioning on level three would need to have experienced deep dissatisfaction with it and would have to do significant work on themselves and their understanding in order to make the jump to Level Four.

Once that jump had been made, movement onto understanding and existing on Level 5 and 6 becomes possible.

There is still level 7 which contains full comprehension of everything but this requires another quantum jump that very few beings are able or willing to make. 

There is a correlation between Gurdjieff’s system and that of the 7 chakras where most people’s energy would be centred around the three lower ones, the root, sacral and solar plexus chakras. 

To open the heart chakra followed by the throat and third eye requires a considerable jump in intention and concentration.

The final opening of the crown chakra would be associated with enlightenment.

According to Gurdjieff it is impossible to make any statements about any subject without a reference to the level being referred to. 

So in Music for example, Level One could conceivably be the kind of loud repetitive rap music whose lyrics are mainly centred on advice about beating up your bitch. 

Level Two could be inane love songs and so on all the way up to the kind of objective Art of Level Seven in the works of J S Bach.

But of course, all of these would be called music. 

The same would apply to Art, Science and even Religion where Level One would be the kind of indoctrination that makes people go out and kill their enemies, Level Two would cover much of what happens in Churches around the world. Level Three would be the kind of stuff discussed in theological seminaries, but real Religion could only be glimpsed by beings operating on level 4 upwards.

Gudjieff’s levels can be easily applied to the subject of astrology.

Level One would be that of Sun signs. The understanding of the subject at this level has its own truth for the people residing there.

This level of course holds the vast majority of people who have been exposed to astrology, whether they believe it or not and a whole massive media industry is there to support this level of belief but also to keep people functioning down there.

The horoscope column with the implied notion that 1/12th of the world’s population will be having the same psychological experience would be viewed as simplistic by beings functioning on astrology Level Two, as banal for those on Level Three and as absurd for those functioning on Level Four or above.

Level Two would be an extension of One but it would introduce other placements like the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Ascendant.

On level Two the focus would still be exclusively on signs but these additions would provide an added layer of emotional complexity.

Level Three would be the Houses.

Astrology here begins to have a clearer relevance because we can see its application in the specific areas of our lives. We can begin to see that how the way we might behave and the themes that we face with our parents might be different from those of our marriage and our careers and so on.

This is where the subject acquires a degree of intellectual complexity and respectability. Those people that are engaged with the subject at this level will treat it like an intellectual discipline.

There is a great deal of study around what astrologers in the past have thought about houses and the systems that have been based on this division of the chart wheel.

We get arguments about which house system to use and a desire to extend this level to a complete understanding of the subject of astrology.

Methods like profection and zodiacal releasing together with Vedic style assessments of life periods come from this desire to expand Level Three to make it complete.

Those people functioning on Astrology Level Three are convinced that real truth is to be found there, it is simply a matter of more work to refine these methods.

They would be dismissive of anyone suggesting that there might be more levels to the subject that require a jump in comprehension. They would believe that these people are intellectually inferior and are probably beings that actually belong on Level Two who are being pretentious and getting above themselves.

The problem for these beings who insist on sticking with Astrology Level Three is that there are other higher ones.

The jump to Level Four requires a recognition of the limits of houses to really describe what actually happens in life.

Astrology Level Four is the realm of Planetary Aspects.

These angular patterns of the planets relative to the Earth are in fact the only things that do really exist in astrology. The house and sign divisions are actually man made.

A Full Moon is a verifiable fact. Where it occurs by house or sign are arbitrary divisions of the sky that humans have decided upon and different systems will argue that theirs is more appropriate.

No one could argue about the aspect though.

Once a student makes the quantum jump to Level Four and sees how important aspects are, there is a natural downgrading of the emphasis on houses and signs.

These simply become the where and the how these great planetary themes are channeling themselves.

We begin to see that the angles between planets are not simply an add on that is found at the tail end of some astrology books. Even the word “aspects” implies that this is a study that is not fundamental to the subject, it suggests that you can look into these if you can be bothered while the rest of us focus on the really important stuff in Levels One to Three.

But then again, most astrology books are generally written by beings that are quite happy to stay on Level Three.

Maybe we should call aspects something that sounds more important like “core connections”.

To make the jump to Level Four one has to see that it is not the individual placements but the connective patterns made between the planets that are the real drivers of life on Earth.

This jump can only be made by someone who has tested the methods of Levels One to Three in a detached, objective fashion and found that they are missing something essential.

Study on Level Four opens up a whole new realm of possibilities. We start to look at the relative intensity of these angular patterns through their orbs and recognise that the tighter they are, the more powerful the human drama.

Other related areas of astrology like Synastry (the comparison of charts of people in relationship) are taken to a whole new level.

On Level One it is I am an Aries so I will get on with other Fire signs.

Level Two will say I would be particularly attracted to people with Venus in Sagittarius.

Level Three will say her Venus in Sagittarius in my 7th house so we were made for each other.

Level Four will say yes but her Venus is exactly conjunct Pluto and opposite my Saturn in the 2nd house so she will divorce me and take most of my money with her.

Each level has its own version of transits.

On Level One this is the daily horoscope column.

Level Three’s versions would be planets transiting through houses and methods like profections.

But it’s on Level Four where we really see the true nature of transits in operation, because now we are dealing with specific connections of transiting planets to natal placements.

If for example you have an exact square natal aspect between Uranus on your Ascendant and your 4th house Moon, the midlife Uranus half return (around the age of 42) to oppose itself and form the opposing square with that Moon will likely see the break up of your marriage and family.

Gurdjieff’s view was that our job as human beings was not to stay stuck at the entry level but to ascend through these various levels as a result our own conscious effort and understanding.

I feel this is very appropriate for our astrological understanding and that we have a responsibility to do this ourselves but also to encourage others to do so as well.

Every person that comes to astrology will have their own trajectory not least because they have their own chart and consequent life experience.

So the type of stimulus that would be required to convince them to move up from one level to another and the timing of such a movement can be very different from one student to another.

I was fortunate enough to be able to largely avoid levels One and Two.

When I first discovered serious astrology by reading the Alan Oken trilogy at the age of 20, I hadn’t even connected with the fact that I am a Capricorn, so I was effectively parachuted straight onto Level Three.

I was content to study on that level for the first 5 years, but increasingly felt the power of aspects and the exactness of transits to them. This experience coincided with an understanding that the limitations of Level Three were no longer able to explain the key patterns and moments in someone’s life.

This acknowledgment was all that was required to push me up onto Level Four.

It is a simple fact of life that we can only see things that correspond with our own level or below.

Anyone attempting to explain a higher level to us would appear to be talking nonsense unless we were ready to receive it and had doubts about the level we were functioning on.

We tend to fill in any gaps by believing that it’s just a matter of more research to be done on that level.

I was happy enough to remain on Level Four and researched it thoroughly for 40 years.

Then the biggest event in my life occurred, something that I had not foreseen in the slightest and was completely unexplainable from the perspective of Astrology Level Four.

But from the perspective of Astrology Level Five, it was obvious.

Astrology on Level Four is a science, but it is a mechanistic one.

The Astrology of Level Five is quantum.

Methods and techniques that had been in operation even on Levels Three and Four take on a dramatically different quality.

For me the entry into Level Five came through Secondary Progressions, but not in the way that I had been taught about them on those other levels.

I came to realise that these were essentially about connections with other members of our soul group.

Transits by and large belong to the horizontal plain and describe the development of our lives with a logical step by step pattern (even the unexpected ones).

Progressions are vertical in the sense that there are other souls involved who can be parachuted into our lives at times that have little to do with our transits but they do seem to be the product of agreements that we made with them before we were born.

Level Five of astrology opens up a whole new way of conceiving the Universe, our charts and ourselves. It is literally a quantum jump in our perception of life.

From the perspective of Level Five, every understanding that was acquired on the other levels operates in a different way.

Our natal charts take on a extra quality because there is now the possibility of seeing that rather than being the subject (and maybe even the victim) of them, we start to see that we are actually something that is independent of them and that essential self has chosen them and therefore chosen to have the experiences that we have to live and learn through.

Level Five changes many techniques that we would have come across on the lower levels.

The study of Synastry becomes soul contracts.

Horary acquires a quantum quality, this discipline now becomes a means of understanding our connection with the collective unconscious and what is beyond this life.

Level Five may be a quantum jump from Four but it gives us a platform to make another one to Level Six.

Level Six gives us the potential to access to our own Past Life history in great detail and the possibility of understanding why we have chosen our current charts and life patterns.

There may be many different ways to make the journey from Level Five to Six but for me this came through an extension of the same process that took me from Four to Five.

Secondary Progressions clearly indicated the arrival in my life of my own soulmate and this suggested to me the possibility that the same method in reverse could show when we last met in a previous lifetime.

This new quantum jump opened up the possibility of using all of the methods associated with the lower astrology levels (horary, solar returns, synastry, transits etc) to reveal in great and exact detail the science of our past lives and the development of and the reasons for the themes that we have to experience this time round, both for ourselves and in our relationships with other members of our soul family.

Since I discovered Levels Five and Six, my understanding of the astrological techniques that I learnt on the lower levels has been transformed and acquired new meaning.

Researches on these new levels gives new sophistication to the astrology of those lower ones.

It is important to note that we can all receive information about these different levels at any time but we will only understand and live by that information relative to the level that we ourselves are functioning on.

So people functioning on Astrology Levels One to Four might have heard theories like that indicated above but can only process and understand them on their own level.

Even people operating on astrology Level One might believe they have met their soulmate because he or she is a Sun Pisces and they are a Sun Cancer.

On Level Three there might be a reference to Past Lives due to someone having their South Node in their 2nd house so there is a karmic theme of lessons to be learnt around money.

This is not right or wrong, it is simply a reflection of that Level and an appropriate understanding for someone operating on it.

On Level Six the astrology available could describe exactly the circumstances of the specific past life or lives that have contributed to this theme (or any other one), the time, date and place of the events, the other people involved at the time and what roles they are playing in their current life, their birthchart in that previous life and as much information about it as they wish to explore.

It is interesting that the 6th chakra level is the place of the Third Eye and the insights that can be gained from Astrology Level Six are probably comparable to other experiences that might be gained through exploration of that chakra.

It is also likely that a 7th level exists in Astrology that would encompass all of the others and be an equivalent to the Crown chakra and enlightenment.

I have no conception of what that could possibly look like or even any desire to look for it.

Everyone engaged with astrology has a level that they are most comfortable operating on but will likely make occasional forays into other levels both above and below it.

I am completely content to exist on Levels Four and Five and feel grateful and privileged to be able to receive frequent insights and inspirations from Level Six.

With this privilege comes a responsibility to continue presenting evidence of these levels to others to encourage them on their own journey. I have no choice but to do it. I have realised that if I don’t pass it on, then I become less able to receive it myself.

Whether this evidence is acknowledged by others or not has nothing to do with me, it is entirely down to the experience and receptivity of the receiver.

What in simple terms can be learnt about Levels Four to Six?

The key as I now see it is that planetary aspects are invisible cords that tie us to our life experience and to each other.

These cords go beyond this life and connect with experiences from past ones and soul contracts made as a result.

The tighter the aspects, the stronger the cords and the more dynamic the life themes that exist between us.

These cords, although invisible, are so strong that they can exert a powerful magnetic attraction demanding that people connected by them are drawn together at the right time, even if they are born 10,000 miles and 13 years apart, which is what happened to me.

These moments are astrologically predictable if we are using the right quantum methods.

We can also understand the type and nature of the connection.

Six months ago, I was privileged to discover that if the birthchart of one person was progressed or regressed to the moment of the birth of another, this would describe the connection between these souls.

I wrote several articles on this, the first being The Instantaneous Acceleration Of X And Y

In it I described the soulmate connection between King Charles and his mother Queen Elizabeth.

The discovery linked back to a previous lifetime in the 18th century when Charles was Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and Elizabeth was his daughter Maria Theresa who succeeded him as Emperor due to a change in the law that he had created to allow female succession.

To give some background explanation about Charles and Elizabeth’s shared astrological themes I will quote from that article.

“I have written about the astrology of King Charles many times but now I was able to see it in a new light.

Charles’ Sun is part of a 4th house stellium, so family themes are the main focus of his life.

His chart is dominated by the 10th house Moon. 

The Moon rules the mother. Charles Moon is at 0.25 Taurus.

His Mum’s Sun is at 0.12 Taurus. The odds against that kind of synastry occurring by chance are over 800/1 against.

This is stunningly simple kindergarten astrology.

Charles’ Moon is in the 10th house of career.

Elizabeth dominates his life and stands in the way of his career goal, so much that he wouldn’t even get a job until he was 74 years old.

When Charles did finally get to be crowned, after her death, transit Pluto had stationed at 0.22 Aquarius, exactly square to his Moon and her Sun.

Elizabeth also has a planet at the top of her chart that dominates the rest. This is Saturn conjunct her Midheaven at the apex of a T square.

So her career is dominated by her sense of duty and responsibility. 

Saturn is the principle of limitation. At 24 Scorpio, Elizabeth’s apex Saturn falls right on Charles’ Sun at 22 Scorpio.

You could see Elizabeth’s 70 year reign being driven by a strong desire to stop Charles from getting the job.

Clearly these two had some issues.

This is all documented and I have written about it many times. But what I have just discovered is the extent to which this relationship is karmically driven.

If we progress Elizabeth’s chart to the moment when her son was born.”

When Charles was born, Elizabeth’s progressed Sun was at 22.05 Taurus, exactly (1/3 degree orb) opposite Charles own Sun, a chance occurrence of over 500/1 against.”

It has to be emphasised that this was the only time in her life that Elizabeth’s progressed Sun could make an aspect to her own T square, the most important progression of her life.

And it is a seriously challenging one, an exact Grand Cross.

The connecting aspect cords are as thick as they come.

The square from the Sun to Neptune has an orb of a mere 4 minutes, the opposition to Saturn has 45 minutes.

These cords demonstrate the power of Elizabeth and Charles’ past life soul connections and the importance of the themes that they have to work through together this time round.

It is perhaps understandable that there would be such strong connections between a ruler and her heir, but the fact that they are principally oppositions and squares is a testament to the challenging themes that they have to experience in this life between them.

Secondary Progression is the quantum method that links one life to our previous ones. They will identify when members of a soul group will meet in a lifetime.

Transits are strictly to do with this life only, they will identify what events and experiences these people have to share during the current life.

The one big transit that triggered all these powerful cord connections was Pluto.

Pluto was conjunct Charles’ Sun and therefore Elizabeth’s Saturn and in the rest of her T square in 1992.

Elizabeth herself described 1992 as her “annus horribilis” with the separation of Charles and Diana.

Interestingly it wasn’t just them. In the same year Elizabeth’s 2nd son Andrew split from Fergie.

Andrew also has intense synastry with both Elizabeth and Charles.

He has the Moon at 25 Scorpio.

Like Elizabeth’s Saturn, Andrew’s Moon is the apex planet of a T square.

Like Charles’ Scorpio Sun, Andrew’s Moon is in the 4th house of family.

This Moon is a mere degree from Elizabeth’s apex Saturn at the Midheaven.

So you could make a case for Andrew causing even more problems for Elizabeth than Charles.

Andrew was born over 11 years after Charles.

Progressed movements are very slow, but the fascinating thing is that when we progress Elizabeth’s chart to the moment of Andrew’s birth another planet has reached the same point to fill in the Grand Cross box.

For Elizabeth’s meeting with this other important member of her soul group, her progressed Mercury had moved into the Grand Cross and was forming those powerful cords again.

Aspects show the powerful connecting cords that exist both within and between people.

Progressions or regressions will show us when these connections are being brought into play in our lives.

This is the quantum astrology of Levels Five and Six.

When we are exposed to this quantum level of astrology, it does something to us. It pushes us to question everything that we have been taught about ourselves and our Universe.

We have to change our behaviour and even our conception of life to accommodate it. If the astrology of Level Six is to be accepted we have to transform ourselves.

This is why it is such a challenge. Not everyone who hears this information is ready or able to make such a change in their conception. But it is difficult to ignore it. You can’t just be neutral on these issues. You have to be either open to it or closed to it.

Gurdjieff’s books came not with an introduction, but with a warning.

The reader was told in advance that their whole way of conceiving existence would be severely challenged and if they felt that they were not ready for such provocation it would be better to stop at the beginning.

He even sold the books with all bar the first hundred pages bound, so if the reader wished to go no further, they could return it to the seller and get a refund.

Our understanding of astrology is not simply a thing in itself. It is a reflection of how we are functioning on a being level.

I now realise that it wasn’t just my astrology that was functioning on level Four. It was my whole life. 

The information pertaining to Level Six was there all the time. I wasn’t able to receive it because I was too attached to my old ways of thinking and living. 

Our conditioning, our fixed modes of thinking, our habits of mind and body get in the way and make it difficult for us to receive this information.

If we can just find some way to put all this aside, the information can come flooding through because it is only us that is stopping it.

But we are all creatures of habit and will be reluctant to give them up until we are forced to. 

It was only when transit Pluto came to conjunct my Moon and what I called my life up to that point was destroyed, that there came the possibility of an upgrade to Level Five. 

Pluto did its job by destroying everything in its path, but within a couple of years of it departing from my Moon, my progressed Venus reached my Ascendant and T square.

As I made that giant step to the other side of the world to be with my soulmate who had just appeared, my understanding of astrology took that upgrade with me. 

We mustn’t be afraid of difficult transits. They may be destroying everything on this level but that’s because they are offering us the possibility to ascend to the next one. 

In the meantime we should all totally enjoy the level we are living on. We might also just try and stay open to any information that might be trying to get through from a higher one.

Posted on 27 March 2026

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