In this lecture, Roderick Kidston explores the combined influence of the asteroids Iris and Flora in the horoscope. Flora aids the growth and, at best, the perfection of anything, and Iris brings light wherever she goes. The flow of the evolution of consciousness and the cyclic processes of increasing the growth and perfection of human understanding: these great gifts are amongst the highest offerings of these two goddesses, and of their sublimely beautiful planetary numina (or archetypes). The Iris-Flora synergy is a vehicle for some of the greatest gifts that lie in any horoscope, waiting for the right moment to unfurl their sweet petals of revelation and shine their light of illumination.
Together they create the potential for a huge lift in culture and in the individual. Some of the most important spiritual exemplars and great thinkers in world history have been born with close Iris-Flora aspects. The conjunctions are especially important in this regard, yielding a group as diverse as Joan of Arc, Isaac Newton and the timing of the publication of his seminal studies of the nature of light, a grab bag of top 20th Century scientists, Martin Luther King, and Sri Aurobindo.