Jupiter in all His Phases: Handwritten book for Lawrence Durrell (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798986081236)

In the late 1930's Henry Miller decided to hand write special books for his friends. He illustrated them with watercolors. Jupiter in All His Phases was written in 1938 and 1939 for Lawrence Durrell. Miller challenges Durrell to embrace his Jupiterian attributes and tells Larry about his quest for enlightenment. Included are quotes that influenced Miller with notes on his travels.
Lawrence Durrell was born at 1:00 am on February 27, 1912 in Jalandhar India. Jupiter is his dominant planet in a Sagittarian 1st house. He knew of Jupiter's influence on him from an early age. Conrad Moricand's horoscope, that Miller commissioned of Durrell, amplified what Miller felt about him. Durrell cherished that reading. He later wrote: "Rising Jupiter means luck in Springtime says the horoscope which the great astrologer Moricand once cast for me in Paris." [Notes on Travel by Durrell]
What Moricand saw was a complex man, capable of deception and intrigue, but good-natured-blessed with good fortune, sympathetic and attractive. As a Piscean, he saw him as subject to extremes-one who searches for the ideal. Jupiter endows him with good fortune and also makes him a creature of metamorphosis, a Proteus, who penetrates all things-a man of great style, intellectual, deeply intuitive-with great critical and analytical powers. He draws people to him with words. [The Big Supposer by Durrell]
Moricand's themes are repeated in the text of Jupiter in All His Phases with much advice for "Larry me Lad." There are quotes and insight into Miller's metaphysical journey. Henry wanted to attain satori, passing through the mouth of Draco into the Heaven Beyond Heaven as Lao-tsé had done. There is Miller's appreciation of Zen, the Occult, Astrology and Mysticism. He quotes from works by D. T. Suzuki, Éliphas Lévi, and Max Heindel. He notes the impact of Balzac's Séraphîta and Louis Lambert. Worried about the upcoming war, he believes astrology shows that Hitler will not prevail. He is looking forward to the age of Aquarius. Miller thought his horoscope predicted that he would achieve enlightenment on the spring equinox in 1942. He was going to tell his journey in Draco and the Ecliptic. When that did not happen, he felt that purging all his angst in the Rosy Crucifixion books would get him there.
As in the other five handwritten books that Miller wrote for his friends, his thoughts flow. There is little editing, great insights....
Very few people have read the manuscript which is at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. It is now available thanks to the Henry Miller Estate.