The physical basis of the old astrology was the physical interferences of these fields of solar energy; and what it depended on mainly in its work was the position of the six hidden planets, or laya centers, which was shown by the position of the planet with reference to the earth.  That the planets themselves affected any one or anything on this earth, no real astrologer ever believed; that their position in the heavens indicated certain changes and modifications of the flow of solar energy to the earth, they knew from their knowledge of physics.  “The twelve houses are in the sun,” says Hermes, “six in the north and six in the south.”  Connect them with the zodiac, and the position of the planets shows the interferences of the solar currents.

The one objection to this ancient theory is that it does not present enough difficulties.  The present value to science of the many theories in relation to the sun is the impossibility of reconciling any two of them, and the fact that no two theorists can unite to pummel a third.  This ancient theory does not call for any great amount of heat, light, or energy in any condition to keep the Cosmos in order—­not even enough for two persons to quarrel over.  It merely turns the sun into a large dynamo connected with smaller dynamos, and these with one another with return currents by which “there is nothing lost.”  In its details, it accounts for all facts—­neatly, simply, and without exclamation points.  It is so simple and homespun, so lacking in the gaudiness that makes (for example) our light and heat less than the billionth part wasted on space always at absolute zero, that we may have to wait many centuries to have it “verified” and “confirmed” by our Western Science.  That it will be “verified” in time, even as the first stumbling-block has been removed at the end of the nineteenth century, its students may at least hope.

The lesson, if there is one, is that the Western student of Eastern physics does not ride an auto along asphalted roads.  He must own himself and not be owned by another man, or even by “Modern Science.”