Everything Flows; Everything has Tides
The fifth Hermetic principle is the Principle of Rhythm. This principle says that everything in life flows in and out, just as the tides do. Related to history and politics, Hegel described this as a pendulum in which an incident occurs, there is a reaction, then opposite reaction, and ultimately synthesis of those two toward progress and evolution. At the point of synthesis, the flow becomes assumed and no longer reactionary because we have integrated the growth.
In astrology, the most salient space in which this shows up is related to the moon. Because the moon cycles the most quickly of the planets around the zodiac (as it does around the earth) the ebbs and flows on earth created by the moon’s cycles are the most immediately noticeable.
Each of the planets, not just the moon, is constantly traveling through the zodiac, each with their own influence on each other, us, and our environments, and so much of astrology is the study of the correlation of the ebbs and flows of the astrological cycles to the ebbs and flows on earth.
In law, the ebbs and flows of progress and regress are something that have enormous impact on each of our lives, even if we do not see them right away. Some believe that if you set realistic, but small, expectations for progress, you will get more traction and establish a better foundation for future progress. This was the theory Ruth Bader Ginsberg had when she advocated for gender equality using the disadvantage to men as her focus. Others believe a “blitzkrieg” of extreme action is more effective, believing that the more extreme the action, the less opportunity there is to counteract it. This is the theory behind the implementation of Project 2025.
There is also an increasingly large gap between what the general public in the United States understands to be the state of progress and regress and what legal professionals understand it to be.
For example, when COVID vaccines first came out, I received quite a few calls from conservative people who wanted to avoid getting vaccines where they were mandatory, based on conservative religious views. When I told them about their limited options, they explained to me that they understood their right to work with their medical doctors for healthcare to be absolute. Of course, those rights have been undermined by conservative advocates who are against women receiving reproductive healthcare. But, the conservative people I talked to were very surprised to hear that.
That raises the question as to whether the Principle of Rhythm applies to understanding and ignorance just as it does to other topics. We may have general moments of clarity and inspiration as flow points and moments of misunderstanding and ignorance as ebb points.
The best resources I have found for tracking this and understanding our own ebbs and flows in life is to watch the moons through the astrological chart. In generally tracking the moons for years, I have found that when the moon is in hard aspect to Pluto, and when there is a full moon, I have very low and agitated energy. While this is a work in progress, I have started taking those days off, knowing that they are ebb times. They are better for reflection, emotional processing, and introspection than attempting to create and influence the world.
My theory is that the more we study our own ebbs and flows and allow them to happen, the more effective we can be in influencing the ebbs and flows of our communities and the better we can reduce frustration.