There can be no doubt, if we consider the forms of life lower than human, that the desire for offspring was the origin of social contacts. No protracted friendship accrues in some instances, for the mating season is very brief, but in others we find a lifelong companionship results.
Illustrations abound in plant life. The meadows and parks in England during the spring season are indeed a picture. Masses of bluebells, scarlet poppies, yellow buttercups and white daisies cover neglected fields, much as do the wild flowers of California at this time of year.
You’re probably familiar with the phrases herd of cattle, flock of sheep, school of fish, swarm of bees, etc. These creatures have a common interest in living together, either for protection from enemies, or for provision in living and perpetuating their kind.
Royal Dixon*, author of The Human Side of Animals speaks of Prof. Garner**, ‘who points out that, gorillas have a very happy and harmonious home life, the father being highly domestic and delighting in the company of his wife and children’ and that ‘it is not uncommon to find five or six generations in a certain district of the jungle.’ Dixon says that tribes of monkeys and apes in Central Africa have musical centers where they congregate regularly for concerts.
Prof. Garner describes the performances of chimpanzees who descend from trees, to a patch of dry leaves with their hands, slowly at first, gradually increasing in tempo and volume until the climax is reached. The music stops suddenly as if under a leader’s direction.
In regard to frogs ‘myriads of them gather from miles around’ and ‘in the great chorus are voices from the lowest base of the croaking bull frog to the myriads of tiny green tree tenors.’
He says that ‘the greatest of the musical festivals directly precedes the mating season and is a dramatic instance of manifestation of an inner rhythm which corresponds to an external periodicity.’
These naturalist and scientists would probably not agree with our explanations of the phenomena they observed, but to us it is clear that through experiences of this nature the social thought-elements are built into the finer astral body.
You will find them mapped by the planet Venus in your birth chart, and they will express as affection, friendship, mirthfulness, conjugality, and inhabitiveness.
Those who have artistic talents and express them well, have these social thought-elements outstanding in their astral make-up.
When you think of about such things as love and friendship you will attract into your life whatever fortune or misfortune they may bring.
Diseases that can develop by continuing unhappy thoughts of love and companionship involve the kidneys, blood stream, thyroid gland, internal sex organs, female troubles, and those known as social diseases. But aggressive thought-elements also play some part in these complaints.
*Royal Dixon (1885-1962) was an American animal rights activist who thought that animals should enjoy basic rights and better treatment by humans. He published The Human Side of Animals in 1918 as a sequel to The Human Side of Plants (1914) and The Human Side of Birds (1917). In 1921 he launched the
First Church of Animal Rights.
**Professor Richard L. Garner (1848-1920) was an American anthropologist who for twenty years studied apes and chimpanzees. He claimed that apes could distinguish between color and form and that a chimpanzee could distinguish between red, white and blue and could tell the difference between half a dozen shades of red, a sphere, cube and cylinder and that it has a language of its own, consisting of a vocabulary of about twenty words. In 1900 he published Apes and Monkeys: Their Life and Language.
In October 1910, after spending seven years in a bamboo hut in the African jungle, he returned to New York with ‘Susie’, a 10-month-old ape who could talk and understand English. Garner’s work contributed to our understanding of primate communication and challenged the prevailing notion that only humans possessed language abilities.
The Human Side of Animals and Apes and Monkeys: Their Life and Language can be read online at the Gutenberg Project or Internet Archive.
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
