A Student’s Abridgment of the

AGELESS WISDOM

Volume V - “Esoteric Astrology”

EXTRACT OF A STATEMENT BY THE TIBETAN

I am a brother of yours, who has traveled a little longer upon the Path than has the average student, and has therefore incurred greater responsibilities.  I am one who has wrestled and fought his way into a greater measure of light than has the aspirant who will read this, and I must therefore act as a transmitter of the light.  My work is to teach and spread the knowledge of the Ageless Wisdom wherever I can find a response, and I also seek to help the Masters M. and the Master K.H. whenever opportunity offers.    

If a teaching can bring forth a response from the illumined mind,

a flashing forth of the intuition, then let that teaching be accepted, but not otherwise.
The Tibetan

INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR

This abridgment is dedicated to the Tibetan and Alice A. Bailey,

and to all engaged with the work of uplifting the consciousness of humanity.

The work accomplished by Alice A. Bailey and the Tibetan, since revealed as the Master of Wisdom known by the name of Djwhal Khul, can hardly be given too much praise for in the Blue Books they succeeded in delivering a great deal of the Ageless Wisdom to the world.  Their seven core books, each masterfully presented with the clarity and order of a textbook, represent the essential current of Truth that runs through the sciences, religions and philosophies of Man, and unites them all under cosmic law.  Within their body of work are found the laws and processes that underlie the love of the Christ and the wisdom of the Buddha.  Herein are found answers to the true nature of God, the Cosmos, Spiritual and Solar Fire, the not-self and the true Self.

I demonstrate my gratitude for their service by attempting to apply the essential teachings in my life, and this abridgment is just such an attempt.  I am confident that the work was overseen not only by my Higher Self, but by both DK and AAB, for I felt their presences throughout the process.  The sutratma that they created between themselves and their body of work is strong and alive with vibrancy, and it was their discrimination that I relied upon when selecting text for inclusion.  Yet, the karma for errors and omissions between the Treatise and this humble abridgment, must necessarily rest upon my shoulders.  I freely offer this abridgment to the world in the spirit of love and intelligent service, and I believe it will, as a thought-form rightfully conceived and constructed, succeed in its purpose.

The purpose of this abridgment is threefold:

1.  To coalesce a condensed form of the Ageless Wisdom, and this for three reasons:

1. To assimilate the data and develop an efficient method of studying the essential teachings.
2. To circulate, teach and learn the Ageless Wisdom with friends and family.  To create a study guide and teaching aid.

3. To transmit the essential teachings to those Seekers who may not take the time to read the full Treatise, with the goal of transmitting 70% of the essential teachings with only 30% of the study.

2. To promote awareness of the Ageless Wisdom within studious occult circles, such as the Hermetic Qabalists, Christian Mystics, Ceremonial Magicians and Astrologers.  Some within these groups suffer heavily under dogma and misunderstood tradition, and will benefit greatly by the study of Cosmic Law.

3. To quantify, demystify and promote awareness of the Ageless Wisdom in the global population. This has in mind the following four aspects:

1. General psychology and self-improvement:  Through a greater perspective of one’s microcosmic self, as well as Man’s position within the planetary scheme, individuals will be able to respond to life’s challenges with greater mobility and intelligence.

2. Unification of science, religion and philosophy:  Through an understanding of the Law of Analogy, the scientist who studies the Ageless Wisdom stands to gain much when he considers the living atom of matter.  The orthodox Christian may find illumination as to the nature of God, the Father and the Son, while philosophers will discover the occult reason behind that warmth, which is felt as individual, brotherly and group love; all will benefit through knowledge of the concrete processes and abstract interactions that occur in, and actually create of their own essence, the seen and unseen worlds around us.

3. Harmlessness, through right thought and speech:  Through a proper comprehension of the power of thought-forms, individuals will come to control the lower impulses, to seek harmlessness in all that they do, and to eventually radiate only the true essence of their Egoic Ray.

4. Intelligent individual and group activity:  Societal reforms based on the Ageless Wisdom will promote enhanced unity within the human collective, and the intelligent organization and activity that will result is the natural flow of evolution, for the Divine Plan works toward the greatest good of all.

In Unity, Love and Light,

Patrick Westfall    

CHAPTER I

The Zodiac and the Rays

What I have to say first on this subject is entirely of a preliminary nature. I seek to lay the ground for a somewhat new approach—a far more esoteric approach—to the science of astrology. Certain things I may say will probably be regarded by the academic and uninspired astrologer as revolutionary, or as erroneous, as improbable or unprovable. As yet, however, astrology has not really proved itself to the world of thought and science, in spite of many definitely demonstrable successes.

I would ask all of you, therefore, who read and study this section of A Treatise on the Seven Rays to bear in mind the above comments and to preserve a willingness to consider hypotheses and to make an effort to weigh a theory or suggestion and to test out conclusions over the course of a few years. If you can do this, there may come to you an awakening of the intuition which will translate modern astrology into something of real moment and significance to the world. It is intuitional astrology which must eventually supersede what is today called astrology, thus bringing about a return to the knowledge of that ancient science which related the constellations and our solar system, drew attention to the nature of the zodiac and informed humanity as to the basic interrelations which govern and control the phenomenal and subjective worlds.

47. 1. Three Basic Statements

The statement is frequently made that astrology is an exact science but that is far from correct in spite of the many mathematical computations. Astrology is based, curiously enough, upon illusion for, as well you know, the zodiac is naught but the imaginary path of the sun through the heavens, and this as it appears from the standpoint of our totally insignificant planet. The sun is not, as stated, in any sign of the zodiac. It simply appears to be so as it passes between our little sphere, the Earth, and the constellations at any particular time or season.

In ancient days it was believed that the earth was the centre of the solar system and that around it revolved the sun and all the other planets. This was the exoteric knowledge and position, though not the esoteric understanding. Later, when further discoveries brought more light to the human mind, our planet was decentralised and the truth was more clearly seen, though much remains as yet to be discovered and may even be of as revolutionary a nature.

From certain astrological angles, a similar process of decentralisation must take place and the solar system must no longer be regarded as a point around which the zodiac revolves or through which the sun passes in its great cycle of approximately 25,000 years. Astrologers with insight may deny that this is the commonly accepted attitude. Yet—for purposes of clarity and in connection with the general public—the inference is permitted and accepted by the ignorant. Upon this theory anent the zodiac rests very largely what we call the Great Illusion, and I would have you bear this in mind as you study with me the newer approaches of this greatest and oldest of all the sciences. Astrology is a science which must be restored to its original beauty and truth before the world can gain a truer perspective and a more just and accurate appreciation of the divine Plan, as it is expressed at this time through the Wisdom of the Ages.

The second statement which I would make is that astrology is essentially the purest presentation of occult truth in the world at this time, because it is the science which deals with those conditioning and governing energies and forces which play through and upon the whole field of space and all that is found within that field. When this fact is grasped and the sources of those energies are better comprehended and the nature of the field of space is correctly understood, we shall then see a far wider and at the same time a more closely related horizon; the relationships between individual, planetary, systemic and cosmic entities will be grasped, and we shall then begin to live scientifically. It is this scientific living which it is the immediate purpose of astrology to bring about.

At present, the position of the average believer in astrology is that he is an individual of importance (at least to himself), that he is living on that important planet, the Earth (important to humanity), and that, through astrology, he can discover his destiny and know what he ought to do. In making this comment, I do not refer to those few astrologers who possess real esoteric knowledge. They are few in number indeed, and only a handful of them are to be found practising at this time. The modern investigator likes to believe that on him impinge and through him flow all those energies which come from the sign in which the sun "finds" itself at the time of his birth. He regards himself also as responsive to the forces of the various planets as they govern the houses in his horoscope and he believes that his life trends and circumstances are thus determined. This makes him feel himself to be a factor of isolated importance. Modern interpretations fail to emphasise the importance of the rising sign (the ascendant) and this has been due to the fact that few have been as yet ready to function as souls; small allowance has been made for the energies which play upon our planet all the time from other constellations or from the many "hidden" planets. Of these, the Ageless Wisdom claims that there are around seventy in our solar system.

I desire to give you a truer and more accurate picture. This has now become possible because group awareness, group relations and group integrity are coming to the fore in the human consciousness. As this takes place, the personality which is individual, separative and self-centred will recede increasingly into the background, and the soul, non-separative, group conscious and inclusive, will come more and more to the fore. Interest, therefore, in the individual horoscope will gradually die out, and increasingly the planetary, the systemic and the universal picture will stand out in the awareness of the individual; he will then regard himself only as an integral part of a far more important whole and his world group will interest him far more than himself, as an individual.

I shall not, therefore, deal with the subject of esoteric astrology from the standpoint of the horoscope at all. Universal relationships, the interplay of energies, the nature of what lies behind the Great Illusion, the deluding "Appearances of things as they are," and the destiny of our planet, of the kingdoms in nature and of humanity as a whole—these will constitute the major part of our theme.

It is immaterial to me whether modern astrologers accept or reject these presented ideas. I will endeavour to give you certain facts as the Hierarchy recognises them; I will indicate, if I can, the subjective realities of which the outer illusion is but the phenomenal appearance, conditioned by men's thoughts throughout the ages; I will emphasise the fact of the livingness of the Sources from which all the energies and forces which play upon our planet flow and emanate; I will endeavour, above all else, to demonstrate to you that all-pervading unity and that underlying synthesis which is the basis of all religions and of all the many transmitted forces; I will seek to remove you, as individuals, from out of the centre of your own stage and consciousness and—without depriving you of individuality and of self-identity—yet show you how you are part of a greater whole of which you can become consciously aware when you can function as souls, but of which you are today unconscious, or at least only registering and sensing the inner reality in which you live and move and have your being.

This brings me to the third statement, which is so basic and fundamental that I would ask you to pause and contemplate it, even though you grasp not its full implications as yet. The Ancient Wisdom teaches that "space is an entity." It is with the life of this entity and with the forces and energies, the impulses and the rhythms, the cycles and the times and seasons that esoteric astrology deals. H.P.B. stated this in The Secret Doctrine. I would remind you that there is an astrological key to The Secret Doctrine which cannot yet be given in completeness. I can, however, give you some hints and suggest some lines of approach, and these, if carried in the consciousness of the illumined astrologers, may enable one of them at a later date to discover that key and then—turning it on behalf of humanity—reveal the fourth great fundamental of the Ageless Wisdom of which three are already given in the proem of The Secret Doctrine.

Space is an entity and the entire "vault of heaven" (as it has been poetically called) is the phenomenal appearance of that entity. You will note that I did not say the material appearance, but the phenomenal appearance. Speculation about the nature, the history and identity of that entity is useless and of no value. Some dim idea, providing analogy even when eluding specifications, might be gained if you will endeavour to think of the human family, the fourth kingdom in nature, as an entity, as constituting a single unit, expressing itself through the many diversified forms of man. You, as an individual, are an integral part of humanity, yet you lead your own life, you react to your own impressions, you respond to exterior influences and impacts, and in your turn you emanate influences, send forth some form of character radiation and express some quality or qualities. You thereby, and in some measure, affect your environment and those whom you contact. Yet all the while you remain part of a phenomenal entity to which we give the name of humanity. Now extend this idea to a greater phenomenal entity, the solar system. This entity is itself an integral part of a still greater life which is expressing Itself through seven solar systems, of which ours is one. If you can grasp this idea, a vague picture of a great underlying esoteric truth will emerge into your consciousness. It is the life and the influence, the radiations and emanations of this entity, and their united effect on our planetary life, the kingdoms in nature and the unfolding human civilizations, which we shall have briefly to consider.

The subject is so vast that I have been faced with the problem of the best method whereby to handle it. I decided on brevity, the concise statement of facts (facts to those of us who are working on the inner side of life, but which must rightly be only hypotheses to you) and the avoidance of detail and of detailed discussion. We will endeavour to work from the universal to the particular and from the general to the specific, but our emphasis will always be on the universal and the general, and not upon the particular and specific. It will rest with those of you who are students of astrology to make due application of the truth to the specific. It is definitely in this connection that modern astrology has gone astray. It has reversed the true and right procedure and has laid the emphasis upon the specific and particular, upon the personal horoscope and the individual destiny, and has not laid the emphasis upon the great energies and their Source. These sources are ultimately responsible for the manifestation of the specific. This position and presentation of truth must be altered.

In esoteric astrology we are, therefore, dealing with the Life and Lives which inform the "points of light" within the universal Life. Constellations, solar systems, planets, kingdoms in nature and microscopic man are all of them the result of the activity and the manifestation of energy of certain Lives whose cycle of expression and whose infinite purposes lie outside the comprehension of the most advanced and illumined minds on our planet.

The next point for each of you to grasp is the fact that the ether of space is the field in and through which the energies from the many originating Sources play. We are, therefore, concerned with the etheric body of the planet, of the solar system, and of the seven solar systems of which our system is one, as well as with the general and vaster etheric body of the universe in which we are located. I employ the word "located" here with deliberation and because of the inferences to which it leads. This vaster field, as well as the smaller and more localised fields, provides the medium of transmission for all the energies which play upon and through our solar system, our planetary spheres and all forms of life upon those spheres. It forms one unbroken field of activity in constant ceaseless motion—an eternal medium for the exchange and transmission of energies.

In connection with this, and in order more correctly to understand, it will be useful to study individual man; in this way we can arrive at a faint comprehension of the basic and underlying truth. Students should never forget the Law of Analogy as an interpretive agency. Esotericism teaches (and modern science is rapidly arriving at the same conclusion) that underlying the physical body and its comprehensive and intricate system of nerves is a vital or etheric body which is the counterpart and the true form of the outer and tangible phenomenal aspect. It is likewise the medium for the transmission of force to all parts of the human frame and the agent of the indwelling life and consciousness. It determines and conditions the physical body, for it is itself the repository and the transmitter of energy from the various subjective aspects of man and also from the environment in which man (both inner and outer man) finds himself.

Two other points should here be added:

First: the individual etheric body is not an isolated and separated human vehicle but is, in a peculiar sense, an integral part of the etheric body of that entity which we have called the human family; this kingdom in nature, through its etheric body, is an integral part of the planetary etheric body; the planetary etheric body is not separated off from the etheric bodies of other planets but all of them in their totality, along with the etheric body of the sun constitute the etheric body of the solar system. This is related to the etheric bodies of the six solar systems which, with ours, form a cosmic unity and into these pour energies and forces from certain great constellations. The field of space is etheric in nature and its vital body is composed of the totality of etheric bodies of all constellations, solar systems and planets which are found therein.

Throughout this cosmic golden web there is a constant circulation of energies and forces and this constitutes the scientific basis of the astrological theories. Just as the forces of the planet and of the inner spiritual man (to mention only one factor among many) pour through the etheric body of the individual man upon the physical plane, and condition his outer expression, activities, and qualities, so do the varying forces of the universe pour through every part of the etheric body of that entity we call space and condition and determine the outer expression, the activities and qualities of every form found within the cosmic periphery.

The second point I would make is that within the human etheric body there are to be found seven major force centres which are in the nature of distributing agencies and electrical batteries, providing dynamic force and qualitative energy to the man; they produce definite effects upon his outer physical manifestation. Through their constant activity his quality appears, his ray tendencies begin to emerge and his point in evolution is clearly indicated.

This "control of form through a septenate of energies" is an unalterable rule in the inner government of our universe and of our particular solar system, as well as in the case of individual man. There are, for instance, in our solar system, seven sacred planets which correspond to the seven individual force centres in man, the seven solar systems, of which our solar system is one, and in their turn the seven energy centres of the One to Whom I have referred in my other books as the One About Whom Naught Can Be Said.

Much has been given in the occult books of which the average astrologer remains profoundly unaware. It is essential that he learns to think in larger Wholes and to be more deeply concerned with the emanating Sources and with the eternal persistent Causes than with the effects of these Sources upon that ephemeral creation, a human being and his temporary existence upon a most unimportant planet. As he seeks to do this, he will discover for himself the signs of the essential divinity of man—a divinity which is to be found in the infinite grasp of man's consciousness when illumined by the light of the soul and in his power to project his thought into the consciousness of those manifold Lives Whose "energetic movements" he must perforce share because his small modicum of energy is an integral part of Theirs.

There is one aspect of energy for which the modern astrologer makes very little allowance, and yet it is of paramount importance. This is the energy which emanates from or radiates from the Earth itself. Living as all human beings do upon the surface of the Earth and being, therefore, projected into the etheric body of the planet (for the reason that "man stands erect") man's body is at all times bathed in the emanations and the radiations of our Earth and in the integral quality of our planetary Logos as He sends forth and transmits energy within His planetary environment. Astrologers have always emphasised the incoming influences and energies as they beat upon and play through our little planet, but they have omitted to take into adequate consideration the emanating qualities and forces which are the contribution of our Earth's etheric body to the larger whole.

Another point which should here be noted is that the influence of the moon is purely symbolic in nature and in effect and is simply the result of ancient thought and teaching (descended to us from Lemurian times) and is not based upon any true radiation or influence. In those far off times, antedating even Lemuria and constituting in Lemurian days simply an ancient tradition, the moon appeared to be a living vital entity. But I would have you bear definitely in mind that today the moon is nothing more than a dead form. It has no emanation and no radiation of any kind and, therefore, has no effect of any kind. The moon, from the angle of the esoteric knower, is simply an obstruction in space—an undesirable form which must some day disappear.

In esoteric astrology, the effect of the moon is noted as a thought effect and as the result of a powerful and most ancient thoughtform; nevertheless, the moon has no quality of her own and can transmit nothing to the Earth. Let me reiterate: The moon is a dead form; it has no emanation at all. That is why the moon is spoken of in the ancient teaching as "veiling either Vulcan or Uranus." This hint or inference has always been here and astrologers would do well to experiment with this suggestion I have made anent the moon and (instead of working with the moon) let them work with Vulcan when dealing with the undeveloped or average man and with Uranus when considering the highly developed man. They would find some interesting and convincing results eventuate.

Students would also do well to remember that the twelve constellations which constitute our particular zodiac are themselves the recipients of many streams of energy coming to them from many sources.

These blend and fuse with the energy of any particular constellation and—transmuted and "occultly refined"—eventually find their way into our solar system.

I would like to call attention, at this point, to some comments I made in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire

which are apposite and helpful. I am somewhat paraphrasing:

"Astrology is concerned with the effect produced in the substance of the sheaths by the influences, vibrations, etc., of the various planets. These are, esoterically, the influences of the solar centres. The forces, emanating from the solar centres, play upon the planetary centres.... This is hidden in the karma of the Heavenly Man. When true esoteric astrology comes into being, more anent this will be given. Astrological students are today only learning the ABC of this stupendous subject and are occupied with the exoteric fringes of that great veil which has been thrown wisely over planetary lore." (A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 1051)

The following is a list—incomplete but adequate for our purposes—of the major influences which find their way from far distant Sources into our planetary life and produce definite effects upon individual man and humanity as a whole. We thus have a ninefold energy impact. This is a major chart but it should be remembered that there are other impacts of relative insignificance.

1. The constellation of the Great Bear.
2. The Seven Sisters of the Pleiades.
3. Sirius, the Dog Star.
4. The seven solar systems of which ours is one.
5. The seven sacred planets of which ours is not one.
6. The five non-sacred planets or "hidden" planets.
7. The seven planetary centres.
8. The seven centres of force in the human etheric body.
9. The twelve zodiacal constellations.

To these would be added other streams of energy which definitely play upon and affect our planetary life, such as those coming from that great star, Betelgeuse, or from Antares and other stupendous suns and solar systems which are related to the constellations of the zodiac and whose force reaches us through these constellations and not directly. Besides these, it should be remembered that technically we should also add the radiatory influence which comes direct to us from the planet, the Earth, upon which we live. Then, and only then, can you have a fairly complete analysis and picture of the energies to which the etheric body of man (conditioning the physical body which is pre-eminently automatic and negative in its reactions) must and does ever respond.

An understanding of that response and the conscious intelligent control of individual reactions are supremely necessary to man but only become possible at a fairly advanced stage of development and as he nears the Path (technically understood). Man learns first of all to control his reactions to the planets as they rule and direct his personality affairs from their different "stations" in the twelve houses of his horoscope.

There are two ways in which this is done:

First: By having the horoscope duly cast and then taking steps to determine what should be done to negate the planetary influences where it is deemed desirable to control the personality reactions. This has to be done by the applied power of thought. This necessitates complete confidence in the understanding and interpretation of the astrologer and the recognition of the exact moment of birth. One wonders if these conditions of the exact moment and the completely wise astrologer are ever to be found as yet.

Second: By consciously assuming the position of the spiritual Observer, and by cultivating the power to respond to the Soul. Then, from the angle of that Soul, the man must learn to control circumstance and the attendant reactions of the personality.

The following attitudes and positions taken by the esoteric astrologer should also be noted:

1. That the planetary influences indicate the trend of the outer life circumstances. When correctly interpreted for the average man and for the unevolved man, they can and do indicate the personality destiny and fate; they do condition and completely control the man who has no conscious soul experience. The moment that a man becomes aware of his own soul and is endeavouring to control his own "path in life," the influence of the planets, per se, definitely weakens and steadily becomes less and less; his personality chart appears inconclusive and often most inaccurate. It is the force flowing through the planets and not the force of the planets themselves which then governs and controls. The man then becomes receptive to the subtler and higher energies of the solar system and of the twelve governing constellations.

2. That the Sun sign, as it is called, indicates the nature of the man, physical, mental and spiritual. It holds the secret of the personality ray and of the man's responsiveness or lack of responsiveness to the Soul, the real man. It indicates also the integration already achieved and the present point of unfoldment of the soul qualities, of the present available equipment, of the present life quality and of the immediately possible group relations. It indicates, from the angle of the Ageless Wisdom, nothing more. This is a reversal of the usual astrological position. The reason that I proffer this is that humanity is enough evolved so that the astrology of the soul will become possible before long; it constitutes—from many points of view—a reversal of normal procedure. This is both wise and necessary, and also inevitable. Astrologers will eventually be divided into two classes: the exoteric astrologers who will be occupied with the horoscope of the personality, and the esoteric astrologers who will be occupied with the purposes of the soul.

3. That the rising sign indicates the remoter possibilities, and the spiritual goal and purpose of the immediate incarnation and of the immediate succeeding incarnations. This sign concerns itself with the struggle of the spiritual man "to carry on" from the point achieved so that when the life energy is temporarily exhausted and the "death of the personality" takes place, the man finds himself "nearer the centre of his life, closer to the centre of his group and approaching the centre of divine life," as the Ageless Wisdom expresses it. This particular phrase "death of the personality" has two definite connotations:

1. It may mean the death of the physical body, which is inevitably followed by the two stages of the death of the emotional vehicle and the subsequent dissipation of the temporary and ever-changing form which the quota of mental energy has assumed during incarnation.

2. The subjective and mystical "death of the personality." This is a phrase indicating the transfer of the focus for the distribution of energy from the personality (a definite centre of force) to the soul (another definite centre).

I realise that these concepts are not in line with the usual astrological postulates. However, astrology would not be wasting time if it experimented with these ideas for a while. Astrologers might discover some most interesting and arresting problems and perhaps arrive at an accuracy which is at present unknown. It might be of some service if I enlarged somewhat upon this point.

In connection with the sun sign, the rising sign and the effect of the thoughtform relating to the moon, the position of esoteric astrology is as follows:

1. The Sun Sign.—This sign indicates the present problem of the man; it sets the pace or the established tempo of his personality life; it is related to quality, temperament and the life tendencies which are seeking expression during this particular incarnation, and it is suggestive of the rajasic or the activity aspect of the innate man. Fundamentally, the forces here found are indicative of the line of least resistance.

2. The Ascendant or Rising Sign indicates the intended life or immediate soul purpose for this incarnation. It holds the secret of the future and presents the force which, rightly used, will lead the man to success. It represents the sattvic or harmony aspect of life and can produce right relationship between soul and personality in any one incarnation. It thus points the way to the recognition of the force of the soul.

3. The Moon.—This type of force (coming from certain planets and not from the moon) indicates that which is past. It, therefore, summarises limitation and the present handicaps. It governs the physical body and shows where the prison of the soul is to be found.

The next statement which I would like to make, and which grows normally out of the above, is that the zodiacal, the systemic and the planetary energies act either as hindering or as stimulating forces, according to the type of vehicle or body upon which they play; the nature of these vehicles and their capacity to attract, to respond, to reject, to absorb and to transmute is entirely dependent upon the point in evolution attained and also upon the general planetary condition and psychology to be found in the human family at any given time. An instance of the latter can be seen today in the world where the forces, beating in an almost violent and somewhat new measure and tempo upon our planetary life, are evoking a greatly intensified response from the world thinkers, thus stimulating them to earnest effort along ideological lines and, at the same time, are drawing forth from the masses and the little evolved people nothing but terror, a miserable fatalism, widespread physical depletion and many other undesirable reactions from the form nature. An understanding of these hindering or stimulating effects can be easily grasped by those who can comprehend the nature of the activities of the planet, Saturn. This is the planet which conditions primarily the point in evolution where choice definitely becomes possible, where rejection of opportunity or its acceptance can consciously be undertaken, and the shouldering of personal responsibility becomes a recognised fact in a planned and ordered life.

This point in the human evolutionary process is spoken of in the Old Commentary in the following symbolic phrases:

"Amid the whirling forces, I stand confused. I know them not, for, during all my past, they swept me up and down the land wherein I moved, blinded and unaware. From place to place and point to point, they drove me up and down the land and nowhere was there rest.

I know them now and here I stand and will not move until I know the Law which governs all this movement up and down the land. I may revolve and turning face the many different ways; I face some wide horizons and yet today I stand. I will determine for myself the way to go. Then onward I will move. I will not travel up and down the land nor turn in space. But onward I will move."

There is another revolutionary idea which the esoteric science of astrology brings to its modern and exoteric aspect: In the greater cycle of man's many incarnations, he—as is well recognised—passes through the zodiacal circle from Pisces to Aries, thus retrograding through the signs as he follows the sweep or path of the Sun's retrogression. This phrase has always disturbed me, but the apparent retrogression, based upon the precession of the equinoxes, is all an integral part of the Great Illusion.

The moment a man begins to emerge out of that illusion and is no longer subject to the glamour and to the effect of the world maya, that moment the motion of the great Wheel of Life is reversed and he then begins (slowly and laboriously) to work in the opposite direction. He then passes through the signs from Aries to Pisces. He begins patiently and consciously to function as a soul struggling towards the light until finally he emerges at the end of the Path in Pisces as a world Victor and a world Saviour. He then knows the significance of the triumph over death because he has surmounted and overcome desire.

This reversal of the way a man travels through the signs of the zodiac will necessitate a readjustment of the method employed by astrologers when they are casting a horoscope of senior aspirants, of disciples and of initiates.

According, therefore, to an individual's point of evolution upon the Path or (in other words) the individual's place upon the wheel of life, the practising astrologer will arrange the interpretation of the horoscope. It will require the work and the thought of the intuitive astrologer, dependent upon soul contact and much meditation, to determine the processes of astrological interpretation for those who are active and living souls at some one or other of the final stages upon the Path. The casting of the horoscope of the average man or the undeveloped man presents no such difficulties.

It might be added in addition that the signs of the zodiac are concerned primarily with the life expression of the Heavenly Man (as far as our planet is concerned) and therefore with the destiny and life of the planetary Logos. They are also concerned with the great man of the heavens, the solar Logos. I refer in this last instance to their effect as it makes itself felt in the solar system as a whole and with this effect there are few astrologers at this time fit to deal. I would remind you that to the lives who inform these great constellations and whose radiation —dynamic and magnetic—reaches our Earth, this effect is incidental and unnoticed.

The primary effect that they have is upon our planetary Logos and this effect reaches us through Him, pouring through that great planetary centre to which we have given the name of Shamballa. It is, therefore, capable of evoking the major response from the monads, and these monads express themselves through the kingdom of souls and through the human kingdom; it consequently expresses itself through the Hierarchy and through humanity as a whole. This is a point of real importance and should be noted and connected with all the teaching you have had upon this most interesting theme of the three major planetary centres. It is the work of the zodiacal influences to evoke the emergence of the will aspect of the Heavenly Man and of all monads, souls and personalities who constitute the planetary body of expression. This statement means but little to you today but it will mean much to those students who, in a few decades, will study what I am here saying. Properly understood, it accounts for much that is happening in the world at this time.

As these influences pour through our planet and thence to the centres of force upon the planet, they produce a dual effect:

1. They produce an effect upon advanced man, galvanising the centres above the diaphragm into activity and enabling him to respond to the radiation and the activity of the Hierarchy.

2. They produce an effect upon unevolved man, enabling him to function as an ordinary, unenlightened human being.

It should be noted here, however, that all the energies—zodiacal, systemic, and planetary—have a definite effect upon all the lives in all forms in all kingdoms of nature. Nothing can escape these radiatory and magnetic influences. The goal of evolution for humanity is to become consciously and livingly aware of the nature of these energies and begin to know them and to use them. This is the field of occultism as the Hierarchy has always told men. It might be stated that the disciple has to become consciously aware of the planetary influences and begin to use them for the carrying out of soul purpose. The initiate has to be aware of the zodiacal influences which emanate from outside of the solar system altogether.

These can be recognised as:

1. A vibration, registered in one or other of the seven centres.
2. A revelation of a particular type of light, conveying a specific colour to the initiate.
3. A peculiar note.
4. A directional sound.

The whole story of the zodiac can be picturesquely yet accurately summed up in the following statement: There are three books which the three types of human beings study and from which they learn:

1. The Book of Life—Initiates—the 12 constellations.
2. The Book of Wisdom—Disciples—the 12 planets.
3. The Book of Form or of Manifestation—Humanity—the 12 Creative Hierarchies.

In summation, it might be said that:

1. The zodiacal signs affect primarily the man who lives below the diaphragm. This is the ordinary average man. These signs thus condition four of the centres:

1. The base of the spine.
2. The sacral centre.
3. The solar plexus centre.
4. The spleen.

2. The inner group of solar systems, working in conjunction with the zodiacal signs, affect primarily those who live above the diaphragm. They, therefore, condition:

1. The heart centre.
2. The throat centre.
3. The ajna centre.
4. The head centre.

3. Three of the energies work through the head centre but only after the third initiation.

There are one or two other points which might be noted here also. I note them for your enlightenment. Out of all the many energies which impinge upon, pass through and produce effects upon our planet, esoteric astrology emphasises the following four types of force because they affect what might be called the personality of our Earth:

1. The quality of our solar system. God is a consuming fire but God is also love. This is the teaching of both esoteric and exoteric truth.

2. The quality of the Logos of our planet as it pours through the chains, the rounds, the races, and the kingdoms of nature.

3. The quality of the Earth's complementary planet, which is the Earth's polar opposite, esoterically considered. This planet is Venus.

4. The quality of the attraction of the three planets which produce an esoteric triangle of force.

I have several times used the phrase "pass through" the centres and forms. This concept necessitates the idea of distributing centres to which the incoming energies may go and from which they may pass out again as radiation. Some idea of this might be grasped if I gave you the new proposition (new to you though old to esotericists) of the centres in the human etheric body. The four centres above the diaphragm—the heart, throat, ajna and head centres—are basically and primarily receiving centres.

The centres below the diaphragm—the base of the spine, the sacral, solar plexus and spleen centres—are galvanised into activity by the four higher receiving centres. This, when accomplished, demonstrates as personality and physical magnetism and influence until the time comes when there is a reversal in the way of passing—as a soul—around the zodiac. This is symbolised as the revolution of the sun around the zodiac from Aries to Pisces instead of the reverse movement, from Aries to Taurus. This is repeated in the human frame and the four lower centres eventually return that which has come to them. They thus reverse the process normally followed and the centres above the diaphragm become radio-active, dynamic and magnetic. This is an intricate occult study and is concerned with the response of the etheric body to the incoming energies. It relates finally the lowest centre at the base of the spine to the highest centre, the head centre. This is a correspondence to the relation of the Earth to the Sun. Think this out.

As we work and study over these matters, let us bear in mind always the fact that we are considering the seven rays and their inter-relations in the cosmic process. We are concerned esoterically with:

1. The seven rays and the twelve signs of the zodiac.
2. The seven rays and the twelve Creative Hierarchies.
3. The seven rays and the planets as they govern the twelve houses of expression.

As we ponder and think and as we correlate the various aspects of the teaching, we shall find three propositions emerging which govern the inflow of life to the planet and to the individual man. These have been laid down earlier in A Treatise on the Seven Rays but it might profit us to state them here:

Proposition One: Every ray life is an expression of a solar life and every planet is therefore:

1. Linked with every other planetary life.
2. Animated by energy pouring into it from the seven solar systems, of which ours is one.
3. Actuated by three streams of force:

1. Coming from solar systems other than our own.
2. Our own solar system.
3. Our own planetary life.

Proposition Two: Each one of the ray lives is the recipient and the custodian of energies coming from:

1. The seven solar systems.

2. The twelve constellations.

Proposition Three: It is the quality of a ray life—manifesting in time and space—which determines the  phenomenal appearance.

Before we penetrate further into the consideration of our theme, I would like to emphasise two points:

First of all, that we are considering esoteric influences and not astrology, per se. Our subject is the seven rays and their relationship to the zodiacal constellations or—in other words—the interaction of the seven great Lives which inform our solar system with the twelve constellations which compose our zodiac.

Secondly, that we have necessarily to study these energies and their interplay from the angle of their effect upon the planet, and incidentally, their effect upon the forms in the various kingdoms of nature and particularly in connection with the fourth kingdom, the human, and with individual man—average man, the disciple and the initiate.

We shall enter into no definitions in connection with technical astrology, nor shall I use the many technical terms. If, in the presentation of this vast subject, and in the process of indicating the attitude of the Ageless Wisdom to this new and coming (yet very ancient) "science of effective energies," as it has been called, I may present a new approach, or point out an unsuspected relation and from the standpoint of the Ageless Wisdom correct what are deemed errors by the Teachers on the inner side of life, I am hoping that some astrologers may be found who will be sensitive to that which is new. I am believing that there are investigators along astrological lines who will be open-minded enough to recognise possible hypotheses and then to make fair experiment with them. May I repeat: I am not writing a treatise upon astrology, but one upon the seven rays and their equivalent and corresponding energies, upon the effects of ray energy and the interplay of these energies with, and their effect upon, the various planetary forces, particularly those of the Earth. I am looking for these fair-minded astrologers to make due experiment with the factors and suggestions which I may indicate. With this in mind, let us proceed.

I have pointed out that these energies fall into three groups:

1. Those coming from certain great constellations which are to be found active in relation to our solar system and which, from the most ancient days, have always been related in myth and legend to our system. To these constellations, ours is related in a peculiar way.
2. Those coming from the twelve zodiacal constellations. These are recognised as having a definite effect upon our system and our planetary life.
3. Those coming from the planets found within the periphery of the Sun's sphere of influence.

From a certain point of view, one can generalise largely and say that these are the correspondences in the solar system to the three great centres of force which produce and control manifestation and evolutionary progress in the human being:

1. The great exterior, yet controlling, constellations are analogous to that centre of force which we call the Monad and to its universal will-to-power which is distinctive of the first divine aspect.

2. The twelve constellations might be regarded as embodying the soul aspect and, for the present, their effect upon the individual must be regarded and should be studied in terms of consciousness and of the development of the life of the soul. This is in essence the will-to-love.

3. The planets, twelve in number (seven sacred planets and five non-sacred), are effective (using the word in a technical sense) in relation to the external life, environment and circumstances of the individual. Their force contacts should be interpreted largely in terms of the human personality, the third divine aspect. They thus exemplify the will-to-know.

I would have you remember that I am talking entirely in terms of consciousness and of the responses and reactions of the individual to the forces which impinge upon him. The effect of the emanation of our planet, the Earth, is a correspondence to the effect of that aggregate of atoms and molecules which we call the dense physical body and of its response to the pull and the attraction of any or all of the subtler bodies.

As regards the influence of the seven solar systems, I should suggest that they are linked up astrologically with the constellations, the Great Bear, the Pleiades, and Sirius. They are intimately related to them, but their exact effect is a transmitted one and cannot be noted as producing noticeable results, as yet, upon humanity and the other kingdoms in nature. The effect of the three great constellations also cannot be noted by individual man until such time as he becomes conscious of the monadic vibration, after the third initiation. There are many potent influences playing upon our solar system and the planet all the time but—as far as man is concerned—his response apparatus and his mechanism of reaction remain what is called "occultly unresponsive," for they are not yet of a quality which will permit any noticeable recognition, either in the dense or subtler vehicles or even by the soul.

Later in the evolutionary process, recognition and response will come, but for all astrological purposes and recognisable produced effects, they may be regarded today as non-existent except as they react upon the fourth kingdom of nature as it constitutes a living unit in the body of the planetary Logos. As little conscious effect is produced by these forces as the effect of a high moment of contact in your morning meditation produces an effect upon the atom or cell in the little finger upon one of your hands. There may be a general response and stimulation throughout the entire body, but the intelligent atom makes no conscious response. The vibration is of too high a character.

Speculation along these lines is profitless. A vast system of interlocking energies is in active and rapid circulation throughout the whole cosmic etheric body—of which our systemic etheric body is an integral part—but speculative research along the indicated lines and the following of obscure trails are utterly futile until the main highway of approach has been constructed and followed. The general outline of the astrological way is all that is possible today, until the time when man can think in larger wholes and has a more synthetic capacity. We shall confine ourselves to the vast field of energies which I have outlined for your consideration and shall consider only the major forces which are in circulation. This will suffice for our day and generation. We are concerned with energies which can and do evoke response and of which man can be aware and, in many cases, is today aware.

It might be useful here to comment in a wide and general way, and with many necessary reservations, upon the broad sweep of some of these responses:

1. Undeveloped humanity is primarily conditioned in its life and circumstances by the influence of the lesser zodiac and thus by the position of the planets in the twelve houses.

2. Average intelligent humanity and those nearing the Path of Discipleship and upon the Probationary Path respond consciously to:

1. The planets, affecting their personalities.

2. The Sun sign, as indicating life trends which are already established and which constitute the line of least resistance.

3. The rising sign in a small measure. This indicates the life goal for that particular life cycle or

     else over period of seven lives. The last two constitute the Greater Zodiac.

3. Disciples and initiates can begin consciously to respond to all the above influences, handling them constructively, plus those potent yet infinitely subtle forces which pour into our solar system from the three major constellations referred to above. In the early stages, the response is in the subtler bodies and the brain fails to register them, but after the third initiation, there is a recognition of them upon the physical plane.

Bringing the theme back to the subject of this treatise, which is that of the seven rays, I would point out that these rays have a close connection with the seven stars of the Great Bear (again always the four and the three as a secondary differentiation) and to the seven Sisters, the Pleiades. The first constellation is the agent of positive force to the planetary Logos and the other the relayer of the negative aspect. There is, therefore, a direct interchange of energies between the lives of the seven planetary Logoi and the stupendous and unfathomable Lives Who inform these major constellations.

Great interlocking triangles of force can be found existing between the seven planets and these two groups of seven stars each. It will eventually be discovered that the innermost secret of astrological deduction in the planetary sense is connected with these "sacred triangles," and they are—in their turn—represented by the triangles (shifting and changing) which can be constructed in connection with the seven centres.

In casting the horoscope of the planet (which will some day be possible) it will be found that the line of these forces and of our planetary response to them is of a more potent effect than is the influence of the zodiacal constellations upon the human unit. This is due to the immeasurably advanced point in evolution of the planetary Spirits Who have (in Their individual lives) largely transcended the influence of the twelve constellations and are becoming rapidly responsive to the higher vibrations of their great Prototypes, the "three intimate constellations," as they have esoterically been called.

This is a correspondence in the lives of these great Entities to the manner in which an advanced individual can offset the influence of the planets and thus so dominate his personality life that prediction and certainty, as to activity and circumstance, are no longer possible. The soul is dominating, and the planets cease to condition the life. So it is with the constellations and the planetary Logoi. They can offset the lower influences as They awaken to and respond to the infinitely higher vibrations of the three major constellations.

48. 2. The Creative Hierarchies

It might here be appropriate if I interpolated a chart or a tabulation which may be found suggestive of some of these interlocking energies which play through, traverse, return, stimulate and energise every part of our solar system. They only evoke conscious response where the vehicle of expression and of response is adequate to the impact, and this statement is true of the solar Logos, the planetary Logoi, and of all forms in all the kingdoms upon our planet. Unconscious reaction will of course exist, but it will be on a general or mass scale, and much of it pours through to us from these distant constellations, via the fifth Creative Hierarchy.

This Hierarchy, being on the verge of liberation, is to be found on the intellectual level of consciousness and can, therefore, be used as a focal point and a transmitter of the higher energies to our solar system and to the planet. If you make a careful study of the chart of the twelve Creative Hierarchies, you will note that this Hierarchy is influencing, and is influenced by, the seventh Ray of Magical Order and of Ceremonial Organisation. The basic function of this ray is to relate spirit and matter and produce the manifested form. The sign of the zodiac with which it is closely connected is that of Cancer, the Crab, which is a mass sign and one of the "gates" into manifested life.

I might here remind you that the seven planes of our solar system are the seven subplanes of the cosmic physical plane. The four Creative Hierarchies which have achieved liberation are now to be found focussed upon the cosmic astral plane; hence their potency even when out of manifestation. The fifth Creative Hierarchy exists on the highest etheric level and will join the other four Hierarchies when the sixth Creative Hierarchy has measured up to cosmic opportunity and is itself nearing liberation. The following is a tabulation showing some of the astrological relationships in connection with:

1. The constellation of the Great Bear.

2. The Pleiades or the Seven Sisters.

3. The sun Sirius.

4. The seven solar systems.

51. TABULATIONS I AND II

THE SEVEN CREATIVE HIERARCHIES IN ACTIVE PLANETARY EXPRESSION

1. The Hierarchy of Creative Powers is divided esoterically into seven (4 and 3) within the Twelve Great Orders.

2. Three Hierarchies are—in this greater cycle—of profound significance, the fourth or human Creative Hierarchy and the two deva Hierarchies, the fifth and the sixth.

3. The fourth Creative Hierarchy is in reality the ninth and that is why it is called the Hierarchy of Initiates. This can be seen by referring to the chart.

4. We are told in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire that in the ninth, tenth and eleventh Hierarchies (counting from the bottom upwards) lies the clue to the nature of Agni, the Lord of Fire, the sum total of systemic vitality.

5. Much light can come to the earnest student through a study of the numbers connected with these Hierarchies.

1. The first 5 are regarded as pure abstractions.
2. Hierarchy One has the numbers—6.1.7. Hierarchy Two has the numbers—7.2.6. Hierarchy Three has the numbers—8.3.5. Hierarchy Four has the numbers—9.4.4. Hierarchy Five has the numbers—10.5.3. Hierarchy Six has the numbers—11.6.2. Hierarchy Seven has the numbers—12.7.1. It is necessary to take note of this as in The Secret Doctrine reference will be found to the Hierarchies under different numbers. This serves to conceal, but it will also confuse the student.

6. The first four Hierarchies achieved liberation in the first solar system. Their influence reached our Earth through the medium of the fifth Creative Hierarchy.

7. These are, therefore, related to the four rays which work as minor rays of Attribute under the great major third Ray of Active Intelligence.

8. Pisces is seen at the head of the list of zodiacal signs because it is governing the present great astrological world cycle of 25,000 years. It was also one of the dominant signs, influencing our planet at the time of individualisation when the human kingdom came into being. It is basically related to the first or highest Creative Hierarchy which is, in its turn, related to the third Ray of Active Intelligence. It was the product of the first solar system. The development of illumination through an awakened intelligence is the first goal of humanity.

9. The fifth Creative Hierarchy (also numbered 8) is on the verge of liberation. It is peculiarly connected with the tenth Creative Hierarchy, with the constellation Capricorn and with the human personality which veils and temporarily hides the Christ principle behind both form and mind. Eight is, under some numerical systems, regarded as the number of the Christ.

10. The Greater Builders and the Lesser Builders, working on the second and third planes of our solar system, have their activities reflected in the work of the Lunar Lords and the elemental lives.

11. You will note that the human Hierarchy (on chart 9-IV-4) is assigned no particular element as it has to fuse and synthesise them all. This is part of the great tests of initiation under Scorpio.

12. This chart is drawn up in relation only to the fourth Creative Hierarchy, the human. It is not drawn in relation to the other planetary manifestations.

Each of the seven Hierarchies of Beings, found within the Twelve, Who are the Builders or the Attractive Agents are (in their degree) intermediaries; all embody one of the types of force emanating from the seven constellations. Their intermediary work, therefore, is dual:

1. They are the mediators between Spirit and matter.

2. They are the transmitters of force from sources extraneous to the solar system to forms within the solar system.

Each of these groups of beings is likewise septenary in nature, and the forty-nine fires of Brahma are the lowest manifestation of their fiery nature. Each group also may be regarded as "fallen" in the cosmic sense, because involved in the building process, or the occupiers of forms of some degree of density or another.

Hierarchy I: The first great Hierarchy is emanated from the Heart of the central Spiritual Sun. It is the Son of God Himself, the First Born in a cosmic sense, even as the Christ was the "Eldest in a vast family of brothers," and the "first flower on the human plant." The symbol of this Hierarchy is the Golden Lotus with its twelve petals folded.

It should be remembered that this Hierarchy is literally the sixth, for five hierarchies have passed on, being the product of the earlier system, that wherein Intelligence or Manas was the goal. The five liberated Hierarchies are in their totality the sum total of manas. It is the Hierarchy which is the fifth in order, and which we are told is in process of achieving final liberation, or taking its fourth Initiation, which is the cause of certain phenomena upon our planet which has merited our planet being called the "Star of Suffering." There is a karmic link between the animal kingdom and the fifth Creative Hierarchy of the earlier system which makes itself felt in man in the necessary crucifixion of the animal physical nature, particularly along sex lines. We must remember that the Hierarchies work under the Law of Attraction; it is the law of the Builders.

This first (sixth) Hierarchy has for its type of energy the first aspect of the sixth type of cosmic electricity, and wields special power, therefore, in conjunction with the lowest fire, or "fire by friction," as it makes itself felt on the sixth plane. These lives are called "the burning Sons of Desire" and were the Sons of Necessity. It is said of them in the Old Commentary: "They burned to know. They rushed into the spheres. They are the longing of the Father for the Mother. Hence do they suffer, burn, and long through the sixth sphere of sense."

Hierarchy II: The second Hierarchy is closely allied with the Great Bear. We are told that They entered through the second ventricle within the Sacred Heart, and are (as we are told in The Secret Doctrine) the prototypes of the Monads. They are the source of monadic life, but They are not the Monads; They are far higher.

This Hierarchy, which is literally the seventh, is the influx into our system of those Lives who in the first solar system remained on their own plane, being too sinless and holy to find opportunity in that very material and intellectual evolution. Even in this, they will find it impossible to do more than influence the incarnating Jivas, imparting to them ability to realise the nature of group consciousness, the quality of the seven Heavenly Men, but not being able to express themselves fully. Some clues to this mystery will come if the student carefully bears in mind that in our solar system and our seven planes, we have only the physical body of the Logos, and that that physical body is a limitation of the expression of His threefold nature. The first (sixth) Hierarchy might be viewed as endeavouring to express the mental vibration of the solar Logos and the second, His emotional, or cosmic astral, nature.

This second (seventh) Hierarchy has for its type of force the second aspect of the seventh type of force from out of the many. Some idea of the relative point in evolution of the solar Logos may be gained by study of the varying aspects of force which He is demonstrating in this particular incarnation. It is this energy which drives the Monads through into physical incarnation, for it makes itself felt on the seventh plane. The energies which are functioning are those which the Logos has unfolded, and are the gain of previous incarnations. Gaps necessarily occur, and certain types of force are lacking because He has as yet much cosmically to gain. It is the energy of this Hierarchy which results in the manifestation of the Divine Androgyne, and in the 7 centres of force, the 7 Spiritual Energies.

Hierarchy III: The third Creative Hierarchy (or the eighth) is a peculiarly interesting one. They are called "the Triads" for They hold in themselves the potencies of triple evolution, mental, psychical, and spiritual. These Triads of Life are inherently the three Persons of the Trinity and the flower of the earlier system from a certain angle. From another angle, when studied as the "flower of the earlier Eight," They are the eightfold points awaiting opportunity to flame forth. They are the devas who are ready for service, which is to give to another Hierarchy certain qualities which are lacking. This Hierarchy is regarded as the great donors of immortality whilst Themselves "standing aloof from incarnation." Lords of Sacrifice and Love are They, but They cannot pass out of the logoic etheric body into the dense physical vehicle.

This third Hierarchy wields the third aspect of electric force of the first type of cosmic energy. They stand for a recurrent cycle of that first type symbolised by the number 8. The formulae for these electrical energies are too complicated to be given here, but the student should bear in mind that these Hierarchies express:

1. Septenary cosmic energy.

2. Cosmic prana.

3. Solar energy or electric fire, solar fire and fire by friction.

Each Hierarchy manifests a triple energy or an aspect of each of the above, and that necessitates a ninefold differentiation, for the two first are triple, as is the third. It is the rejection of the Triadal lives by units in the fourth Hierarchy, that of the human Monads, which precipitates a man eventually into the eighth sphere. He refuses to become a Christ, a Saviour and remains self-centred.

We have dealt with the first three Hierarchies which are regarded as ever "seeing the Face of the Ruler of the Deep," or as being so pure and holy that Their forces are in realised contact with Their emanating source. We now take up for brief consideration two Hierarchies which closely concern ourselves, the human self-conscious entities. These two groups are literally three, as the fifth Hierarchy is a dual one, and it is this which has led to some confusion and is the occult significance behind the ill-omened number thirteen. They are the "Seekers of satisfaction" and the cause of the second fall into generation, the fact behind the taking of a lower nature by the Ego. The fourth and the fifth Hierarchies are the ninth and tenth, or the "Initiates" and the "Perfect Ones." All human beings, or "Imperishable Jivas," are those who evolve through a graded series of initiations, either self-induced or brought about on our planet with extraneous aid. They achieve through a "marriage" with the order next to them, the fifth. They are then completed or perfected, and it is owing to this occult fact that the fourth Hierarchy is regarded as masculine and the fifth as feminine.

Hierarchy IV: The fourth Creative Hierarchy is the group wherein the highest aspect of man, his "Father in Heaven" finds place. These lives are the points of fire who must become the flame; this they do through the agency of the fifth Hierarchy and the four wicks, or the two dual lower hierarchies. Thus it can be seen that where man is concerned, the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh Hierarchies are, during the cycle of incarnation, his very self. They are the "Lords of Sacrifice" and "Lords of Love," the flower of Atma-Buddhi.

In studying these Hierarchies, one of the most valuable lessons to be learned is the place and importance of man in the scheme. The Hierarchy, for instance, which is the essence of the intangible Life of Spirit, the principle of Buddhi, is the esoteric cause of the cosmic marriage of spirit and matter, based on the love and desire of the Logos, but each Hierarchy also expresses itself through one particular manifestation which comes to be regarded by the finite mind of man as the Hierarchy itself. This is not so, and care must be taken to distinguish between these Hierarchies.

They are latent germs of force centres and manifest subjectively; they warm and vitalise groups of forms; they flower forth and express themselves through the medium of a form, or another Hierarchy. These Hierarchies are all interrelated and are negative or positive to each other, as the case may be.

This Hierarchy is the nursery for the incarnating Jivas; and it carried in it the germs of the Lives which achieved the human stage in another solar system, but were not able to proceed beyond that owing to the coming in of pralaya, which projected them into a state of latency. The condition of the Hierarchy is similar, only on a cosmic scale, to the condition of the seeds of human life held in a state of obscuration during an interchain period. The three other Hierarchies dealt with (first, second and third) were those who have (in previous kalpas of logoic manifestation) passed beyond the human stage altogether. They are, therefore, the arupa or formless groups, as the remaining are the rupa groups or those having forms.

The fourth Creative Hierarchy, or the ninth, must ever be regarded in this solar system as occupying what might be considered as the third place:

1. First, the Lives or the three Persons of the Trinity.
2. Second, the Prototypes of man, the seven Spirits.
3. Third, man or the lowest manifestation of the self-conscious Spirit aspect.

This needs to be carefully considered and has no reference to the form aspect but solely to the nature of the Lives expressing themselves through other lives who are also self-conscious, or fully intelligent. This, certain of the Hierarchies are not.

The four lower Hierarchies are all concerned with manifestation in the three worlds, or in the dense physical body of the solar Logos. They are Those who can discard or pass through the etheric body of the solar Logos and take forms composed of either gaseous, liquid, or dense substance. The others cannot. They cannot fall into physical generation.

Students must bear in mind that from the standpoint of the Logos, the solar Angels on the mental plane (the fifth subplane of the cosmic physical plane) are in physical incarnation, and what is called the "second fall" applies to this. The first fall has reference to the taking of a form of cosmic etheric matter, such as is the case with the Heavenly Men, the prototypes of the human jivas. In this latter case the bodies used are called "formless" from our standpoint, and are "vital bodies," animated by cosmic prana. In the case of ourselves and the remaining groups, the forms are composed of substance of the three lower planes (that which the Logos does not regard as a principle) and, therefore, matter responding still to the vibration of the earlier system. This means that the four lower Hierarchies are links between the life of the past and of the future. They are the present. They had not finished their contacts with the active intelligent principle of the preceding kalpa, and so must continue such contacts in this. They will work out of it in this system, the four will become the three and they will then be the three higher arupa Hierarchies of the next system.

Before continuing our consideration of the particular Hierarchies, it is necessary to point out that in these Hierarchies, certain of them are termed "dominant hierarchies" and others "subsidiary hierarchies." By this is meant that certain of them are expressing themselves in this solar system more fully than the others, and this necessarily entails the consequence that their vibration is more to be felt than that of the subsidiary groups. The dominant groups are the second, fourth and fifth, and this because:

1. The second is the great expression of duality, of the Son as He vitalises the Sun.

2. The fourth is the Hierarchy of human Monads who are the mediators or the synthesisers; they express the gain of System 1 and the goal of System 2.

3. The fifth or tenth is closely linked with the five liberated Hierarchies, and is an expression of their synthesised life. It might, therefore, be said that the fifth Hierarchy serves as the representative of the five liberated groups, and the fourth is the representative group in this system, whilst the second represents (for man, or these two groups united) that which is the Spirit aspect, the Father, the Unknown.

Hierarchy V: The fifth Creative Hierarchy is a most mysterious one. This mystery is incident upon the relation of the fifth Hierarchy to the five liberated groups. This relation, in connection with our particular planet, which is not a sacred planet, can be somewhat understood if the history of the Buddha, and His work is contemplated. This is hinted at in the third volume of The Secret Doctrine.

The relation of the fifth Hierarchy to a certain constellation has also a bearing upon this mystery. This is hidden in the karma of the solar Logos, and concerns His relationship to another solar Logos, and the interplay of force between Them in a great mahakalpa. This is the true "secret of the Dragon," and it was the dragon-influence or the "serpent energy" which caused the influx of manasic or mind energy into the solar system. Entangled closely with the karma of these two cosmic Entities, was that of the lesser cosmic Entity Who is the Life of our planet, the planetary Logos. It was this triple karma which brought in the "serpent religion" and the "Serpents or Dragons of Wisdom," in Lemurian days. It had to do with solar and planetary Kundalini, or Serpent fire. A hint lies in the fact that the constellation of the Dragon has the same relation to the ONE greater than our Logos as the centre at the base of the spine has to a human being. It concerns stimulation, and vitalisation with a consequent co-ordination of the manifesting fires.

A clue to the mystery lies also in the relation of this fifth group to the two contracting poles. They are the five-fold Links, the "Benign Uniters" and "the Producers of the Atonement." Esoterically, they are the "Saviours of the Race" and from Them emanates that principle which—in conjunction with the highest aspect—lifts the lower aspect up to Heaven.

When these mysteries are carefully studied, and due application made to the lives of the greatest exponents of the at-one-ing principle, it will become apparent how great and all-important is their place in the scheme. It is for this reason that the units of the fifth Hierarchy are called "The Hearts of Fiery Love"; They save through love, and in Their turn these lives are peculiarly close to the great Heart of Love of the solar Logos. These great redeeming Angels, Who are the Sons of Men on their own true plane, the mental, are ever, therefore, pictured as taking the form of twelve-petalled lotuses—this symbology linking them up with "the Son of Divine Love," the manifested solar system, which is said to be a cosmic twelve-petalled lotus, and with the logoic causal lotus, equally of a twelve-petalled nature.

We have, therefore, a direct stream of energy flowing through:

1. The logoic twelve-petalled egoic lotus, cosmic mental plane.
2. The solar twelve-petalled lotus.
3. The planetary logoic heart, also a twelve-petalled lotus.
4. The twelve-petalled human egoic lotus on the mental plane.
5. The twelve-petalled heart centre in a human being.

Or, to word it otherwise, energy flows direct from:

1. The solar Logos, via three great cosmic centres:

1. The central spiritual Sun.
2. The heart of the Sun.
3. The physical Sun.

2. The heart centre of the planetary Logos, situated on the fourth cosmic etheric plane

                (our  buddhic plane).

3. The egoic lotus of a human being on the mental plane, which is literally a correspondence to the "heart of the Sun." The monadic point is a reflection in the human system of the "central spiritual Sun."

4. The heart centre of a man on the etheric plane of the physical plane, which is in its turn a correspondence to the physical Sun. Thus the tiny atom is linked with the great central Life of the solar system.

This fifth Hierarchy is equally, under the law, a distributor of energy to the fifth subplane of each plane in the system, only it must be borne in mind that, in the three worlds, it is the fifth subplane counting from above downwards, whilst in the worlds of superhuman evolution, it is the fifth counting from below upwards. This Hierarchy wields, as we know, the dual aspects of manas, one in the three worlds and one which makes itself felt in higher spheres.

It is necessary to bear in mind that all these groups are (even when termed "formless") the true forms of all that persists, for all are in the etheric body of the solar Logos or planetary Logos. This is a point requiring careful emphasis; students have for too long regarded the form as being the dense physical body, whereas to the occultist the physical body is not the form, but a gross maya, or illusion, and the true form is the body of vitality. Therefore, these Hierarchies are the sum total of the vital lives and the substratum or the substance of all that is. We might regard the subject as follows:

1. The four superior groups are the Hierarchies expressing themselves through the three cosmic ethers, the second, third and fourth.

2. The two lowest groups are the lives which are found functioning as the involutionary matter (organised and unorganised) of the logoic dense physical body, the liquid and gaseous, with the living substance of the four higher subplanes of the systemic dense physical body.

3. The fifth Hierarchy has an interesting position as the "mediating" body between the higher four and those which are found on the lower three subplanes. There is a vital and significant correspondence to be found between the seven head centres and the seven groups of egos on the mental plane, and there is an occult analogy between the three head centres (pineal gland, pituitary body, and the alta major centre) and the expression of these seven groups of egos in the three worlds. This is a most esoteric fact, and all students meditating upon the laws of at-one-ment must take this analogy into consideration.

It is useful to remember the place of these Hierarchies in the scheme, and to realise that upon the sum total of these vital bodies is gradually gathered the dense manifestation which we regard as the evolutionary matter. The forms are built (from the form of all atoms to the body of the ego, from the form of a flower to the vast planetary or solar lotus) because the Hierarchies exist as the aggregate of germ lives, giving the impulse, providing the model, and procuring, through their very existence, the entire raison d'être of all that is seen on all planes.

Hierarchies VI and VII: These sixth and seventh Hierarchies which provide the substance forms of the three worlds have a vital use and a most interesting place. From the logoic standpoint, they are not regarded as providing principles, but from the standpoint of man they do provide him with His lowest principles. They hold the same relation to the Logos as the dense physical body does to man, and all that concerns the evolution of man must (in this particular place) be studied as going on within the physical, logoic vehicle. They deal with the display of physical energy; with the working out in the physical vehicle of all divine purposes, and with the physical organisation of a certain great cosmic Life.

Particularly is this so when we view the two Hierarchies under consideration. They are the lowest residue of the previous system, and the energy of that matter (liquid, gaseous and dense) which the vibration of the logoic permanent atom (on the plane adi) attracts to itself in the building of the divine form. For purposes of clarification and of generalisation, it might be noted that the seventh Hierarchy is the life or energy found at the heart of every atom, its positive aspect, and the sixth Hierarchy is the life of the forms of all the etheric bodies of every tangible object.

The function of this Hierarchy is well described in the words of the Old Commentary:

"The devas hear the word go forth.

They sacrifice themselves and out of their own substance they build the form desired.

They draw life and the material from themselves, and yield themselves to the divine impulse."

52. TABULATION III

I. DYNAMIC ENERGY .................................................. Electric Fire

The Cardinal Cross

| Cancer

1. Sirius...................... | Saturn........................................Fifth Creative Hierarchy

                                        | Capricorn        (the 8th) Unknown

The Cardinal Cross

2. The Great                  | Aries

Bear............................| Sun, veiling Vulcan.....................Second Creative Hierarchy

                                        | Libra        (the 11th) Unknown

The Mutable Cross

| Gemini

3. Pleiades.................  | Mercury......................................Fourth Creative Hierarchy

                                         | Sagittarius        (the 9th) Unknown

All the above energies are called into play as far as man is concerned during the major initiations and upon the Path of Initiation.

II. MAGNETIC ENERGY....................................................Solar Fire

The Fixed Cross

4. The 7 solar                 | Taurus

systems....................... | Mars............................................. Third Creative Hierarchy

                                         | Scorpio        (the 10th) Unknown

All the above energy is called into play as far as man is concerned whilst he is in training as a disciple and upon the Path of Discipleship. Note: It is not revealed through which signs of the zodiac the first or twelfth Creative Hierarchy pours forth its energy. Before continuing with the analysis of the tabulations and showing the inter-relations existing in this particular zodiacal cycle between the twelve signs of the zodiac and the twelve planets, there are certain things which I would like to point out here in connection with these zodiacal constellations. They are in the nature of generalisations, but the specific and the particular can be deduced from them.

First of all, I would point out that the twelve planets, governing the twelve houses, concern primarily the physical plane expression of the man; they affect potently the personality aspect; their influence, plus inherited karmic conditions, produces those environing states and those circumstances which give opportunity for the development and eventually the control of the form side of life.

Secondly, the twelve constellations are concerned primarily with the stimulation of the soul within the form, producing subjective activity which, in its turn, causes changes in the outer expression, through the fusion of the energy of the constellation with the energy of the planets. The effect produced falls into two stages:

1. The first stage wherein the sun sign dominates the man and he is gradually fitted to respond to the soul. His latent possibilities for this life are unfolded. The effect of the sun sign is sometimes called "the potency of the Sun of Probability."

2. The second stage wherein there is increasing response to the energies, concealed by the rising sign. They evoke the unexpected and produce the hastening of the evolutionary process and the unfoldment of the inner life. The rising sign is termed in the language of esotericism "the Sun of Possibility."

Through the effect of the energy flowing from the zodiacal signs the man is prepared for the "crisis of orientation" wherein he slowly and gradually reverses his mode of progress upon the wheel of life and begins consciously to travel back to his source. He then goes from Aries to Pisces, via Taurus, Scorpio and Capricorn, instead of moving from Aries to Taurus via Sagittarius, Leo and Cancer. The triplicity of constellations mentioned in these two great routes around the zodiac have a definite and momentous effect and are called "paramount signs of influence." During this process the mental principle, the discriminating mind, is developed and in this specific connection (not in a general connection) the emphasis is laid upon the influence of Aries, Gemini and Libra. Under that influence the man learns to overcome desire through experiment with and experience of every kind of desire and selfish impulse. Thus gradually, and with infinite pain, the human soul learns to function first as a member of the human family, and, secondly as a spiritual entity, the divine soul.

You will see from the above that certain positions taken by the esoteric astrologer reverse the position of the orthodox astrology of today. The reason for this is that in the descent of ideas from the plane of ideas, they become "reversed" upon the astral plane and subject to the great illusion; astrology must eventually free itself from this reversal.

A right understanding of the effect of the various energies and forces will make it apparent that, when the conditioning planetary forces, the expanding energies of the sun sign and the driving energy of the rising sign are all being controlled and directed by the illumined spiritual man, you will then have a soul upon the very verge of liberation.

Eventually the energies of the twelve constellations and—at a final stage of experience and development—of the three great constellations which condition the solar Logos are blended with the innate energies of the seven rays or of the seven planetary Logoi. This marks a point of perfection. These extraneous energies (I refer here to those of the major constellations) are relayed to the Earth via the seven sacred planets and the five non-sacred planets, and when there is the complete fusion of the related energies and, therefore, full expression, a great world period comes to an end. For a long time during this cycle of reincarnations and periods of manifestation, the human being is conditioned almost entirely by the activity of the non-sacred planets. These, as you know, are five in number: The Sun (veiling a planet), the Moon (veiling a planet), the Earth itself, plus Mars and Pluto.

Man—speaking symbolically—is the "five-pointed star and, at the fiery points, the forces of the man pour out and upon each fiery point appears a centre of reception." This is of course pictorially expressed, but the meaning is clear. However, as man nears the Path of Discipleship the influence of the sacred planets becomes increasingly effective, until after the final and fifth initiation the non-sacred planets have no effect, though the initiate wields their energies potently as they pour into and through his vehicles of reception, of response and of expression, for all three activities and purposes must be noted.

The energies of the twelve constellations are blended with those of the twelve planets, but their power to evoke response, and to be consciously received, recognised and employed, is dependent entirely upon the type of response mechanism of the planetary Life and of the individual man. It has been rightly said that consciousness is dependent upon the vehicles of consciousness, upon their point of development and upon the ability of the individual to identify himself with the energies and impulses which are reaching him, and is not dependent only upon that which is already a recognised part or aspect of himself. It might be said that the higher response to the realities and qualities revealed and made possible by the impact of energy from the zodiacal signs is somewhat dependent upon the waning influence of the planets to hold down the consciousness aspect of the man. Ponder upon this, for it embodies a deep esoteric truth.

Thus, two potent streams of energy—cosmic and systemic—reach man via the conditioning planetary centres of force (the seven planetary schemes in the solar system and their corresponding seven centres in the planet on which we live) and pour into the symbolic "twelve houses" through their medium. It is for this reason that our solar system is spoken of as one of "intrinsic duality" (love-wisdom) and that the major task of man is the "regulation of the pairs of opposites."

The theme of duality runs through the whole story of man's development. Upon all the three planes of human unfoldment the reconciliation goes forward.

1. Upon the physical plane we find the merging of the dense and the etheric forces. This is consummated upon the Path of Purification.

2. Upon the astral plane there must come the resolution of the pairs of opposites. This is consummated upon the Path of Discipleship.

3. Upon the mental plane the Angel of the Presence and the Dweller on the Threshold are brought face to face. Their synthesis is brought about upon the Path of Initiation.

What is true of man in this connection is true also of humanity as a whole, of the planetary Logos of the Earth, as of all planetary Logoi, and of a solar Logos. The analogy between the fusion of the pairs of opposites, for instance, upon the physical plane can be seen in the conscious and directed fusion of the planetary forces with the energy of any specific planet or group of planets. The analogy, involving discrimination to regulate and offset the force of the pairs of opposites upon the astral plane, can be seen when the energies of the sun sign and of the planets are perfectly directed and adjusted. The analogy can also be carried forward onto the mental plane and when the energies of the sun sign and the rising sign are coherently blended and expressed (in the case of both the individual or a planetary Life) there comes a point of crisis wherein the soul and the personality are brought face to face. The Angel of the Presence, distributing solar fire and holding focussed electric fire, and the Dweller on the Threshold, expressing and utilising fire by friction, know each other "with intimate occult knowledge." The door then stands open wide through which the life and light of the three major constellations can—after the third initiation—be occultly available to the initiate, be he a liberated human being or a planetary Logos.

When astrologers understand the true significance of the constellation Gemini, the Twins, and the dual forces which pour through this sign (the "forces in conflict" as they are sometimes called or "the quarrelling brothers") and beat upon our planetary life, then the true method of resolving the dualities will be known.

It is interesting to note also that seven of the symbols which express the twelve signs of the zodiac are dual in their nature, and duality can be inferred from them.

1. The two horns of the Ram in Aries.
2. The two horns of the Bull in Taurus.
3. The figures of the Twins in Gemini (two lines).
4. The two claws of the Crab in Cancer.
5. The two scales of the Balance in Libra.
6. The two Parallel Lines of force in Aquarius.
7. The two Fishes in Pisces.

These seven constellations are, therefore, closely related to six of the seven sacred planets and to one non-sacred planet. There are two signs which are simple figures and have no significance of duality. They embody the idea of isolated separation and one-pointed desire. They are:

8. The symbol for Leo, which is simply the Lion's tail.
9. The arrow in the symbol depicting Sagittarius.

Two signs are definitely triple in construction and this has a clear meaning to the esotericist.

10. Virgo is a triple sign.
11. Scorpio is also a triple sign, closely resembling the symbol of Virgo.

These two signs are crucial in the experience of the human being, indicating as they do the function of the triple form and the liberation of the man imprisoned in the form, through the tests in Scorpio wherein he proves to himself and to the world the reality of that which Virgo has veiled or hidden.

12. The symbol for the sign Capricorn is most mysterious. It conceals the mystery of the Crocodiles, or Makara. It is constructed in an inaccurate and definitely misleading manner and should be regarded as a mystery and therefore not to be defined.

To sum up: Man will, therefore, have to be studied as a threefold entity, a composite individual, expressing (in the three worlds):

1. The spiritual soul, reflecting the Monad.

2. The human soul, reflecting the divine soul.

3. The form nature, which should be the revealer of the two higher.

Three Creative Hierarchies condition the man in incarnation, the 4th (or 9th) the 5th (or 10th) and the 6th. These, in collaboration, create man and, at the same time, constitute the field of his expression. Man is consequently a blend of electric fire, being a divine Flame, and becomes eventually responsive to the three major controlling influences; he is also solar fire, being a solar Angel in manifestation. He then becomes increasingly responsive to the influences of the twelve constellations. He is likewise fire by friction and comes under the influence of the planets. The tabulation below may make this somewhat clearer:

1. Electric Fire.—Path of Initiation

4th Hierarchy; full soul expression; monadic life.

Goal: Identification with the Monad.

Produces responsiveness to the three constellations.

2. Solar Fire.—Path of Discipleship

5th Hierarchy; full life experience; soul life.

Goal: Identification with the Soul.

Produces responsiveness to the twelve zodiacal constellations.

3. Fire by Friction.—Path of Evolution

6th Hierarchy; life experiment; human life.

Goal: Identification with the Personality.

Produces responsiveness to the planetary influences.

53. 3. The Great Wheel and Spiritual Unfoldment

55. Before I give you the remaining part of the chart which deals with the constellations as conductors of cosmic energies or as transmitters of their own energy, I would like to remark that much that I shall say will be based upon:

1. The wheel of life and the path of man, the human being, as he passes through the signs according to the mode recognised by orthodox astrology. He, as well as the planets, apparently retrogrades through the signs and appears to pass through the constellations from Aries to Taurus. But this is all part of the Great Illusion.

2. The wheel of life and the path of man, the divine or spiritual soul, as he passes through the signs of the zodiac according to the mode studied by the esoteric astrologer. This is the Path of Reality as the other is the Path of Illusion. This carries the disciple around the path from commencement in Aries to consummation in Pisces.

The present method is based upon the temporary truth that ordinary man is subject to the illusory nature of manifestation and "as he thinks, so is he." When, however, he becomes Hercules, the Sun God (or solar Angel), he begins to reverse the process (again only apparently) and a definite reorientation takes place. The Teachers on the inner side, therefore, study the horoscope only in its relation to the following three entities:

1. The horoscope of the planet itself as the expression of the life of the planetary Logos. This involves the studying of the horoscope of the spirit of the planet as well as of the informing Life and their joint relationship and interplay. The spirit of the Earth is to the planetary Logos of the Earth, for instance, what the personality (or form nature) is to the soul of man. The two horoscopes are superimposed and the "planetary pattern" then emerges.

2. The horoscope of the human family, of the fourth kingdom in nature, regarding it as an entity, which it essentially is. This is in reality the study of two horoscopes, as in the above case; the horoscope of the kingdom of souls, of the divine sons of God upon the mental plane, and the study of the entity which is the coherent life of the form side of the fourth kingdom in nature. This is again done by superimposing the two charts. These charts are drawn on a large scale and on a transparent material of which humanity knows nothing. Upon these charts are noted the pattern which emerges when "soul and personality are brought together" and present conditions, possible developments and relationships, and the immediate future objective appear with clarity.

3. The horoscopes of disciples. The Masters do not study the charts of ordinary undeveloped man. There is no profit in so doing. This involves again the study of the two horoscopes of the disciple under inspection—one of the soul and the other of the personality. Again the process of superimposition is utilised. In one horoscope, the new orientation and the embryonic reorganised inner life will be noted and studied, and in the other the outer life and its conformity or non-conformity to inner conditions will be the subject of attention. Thus the life pattern will emerge, possibilities will be indicated, problems will disappear, and the immediate next step will clearly show forth.

It thus becomes apparent again to what an extent the "principle of duality" enters into everything. It is a shifting dualism, according to where the emphasis may be placed, but this dualism is present until the last and final initiation—present in the later stages of the evolutionary process, in the adjustment of form relations but not present in the consciousness of the disciple of advanced degree. That is the major point to be grasped.

A third point must here be made, following upon the two earlier emphasised. A great part of our study will be occupied with the relation of the six constellations in the upper half of the zodiacal wheel to the six which are found in the lower half; we shall consider the energy which is a human being (note that phrasing) as it travels from Aries to Taurus and then—reversing the process—travels from Aries to Pisces. We will consider the dualities provided by one of these constellations and its opposite; we will study, therefore, the great qualities provided by a constellation and its opposite sign. We will take up these points in the following manner:

1. From the standpoint of commencement in Aries until the man—through many turnings of the wheel of life—reaches the point of reversal and reorientation. The man progresses from the point where, in Cancer, he forms a part of the mass with the mass consciousness, inchoate and unfocussed, and with no recognition of objective (except the satisfaction of instinctual desire) until in Scorpio he becomes the triumphant disciple, having found himself in Leo. Then comes the Crisis of Reorientation which may take a long time and constitute an interlude of many lives of struggle.

2. From the standpoint of the man upon the probationary path, seeking the light, struggling through

        the signs:

"He turns from right to left, and then again from left to right.

He revolves in giddy fashion upon an axis of desire.

He knows not where to go or what to do. The sky turns black."

At this point, the sign Gemini begins potently to play its part in the life of the disciples, with Sagittarius gradually "piercing the heart with his arrows, and then upon the flight of the arrow, the man reaches Capricorn." Then comes the Crisis of Renunciation.

3. From the standpoint of the pledged disciple and initiate who traverses again the Path of the Sun and finds that that which he has discovered himself to be in Leo finds its crown in Aquarius. The separative individual consciousness becomes the group consciousness in Aquarius, and he begins to comprehend the significance of that basic combination of signs, that "triangle in the consciousness" of humanity:

Then, from the standpoint of achievement in Capricorn, he works for several lives around the zodiacal path, descending into the sea of the mass consciousness to become what is called in the ancient books "the Crab, who clears the ocean of matter which flows around the soul of man," and eventually to become a functioning world saviour in Pisces. He descends into the world of men to save mankind and to further the plan. He is then "the fish who swims free in the ocean of matter."

The initiate has always to express, in each sign of the zodiac, the consummation and the spiritual fruit of earlier life experience, world experiment and soul achievement. Selfishness has ever to be translated into living active service, and desire has to demonstrate its transmutation in the purity of spiritual aspiration for identification with the will of God.

There are one or two points which must be dealt with in order to enable you to study with certain definite ideas clearly formulated in your minds. I have hinted at them in some of my earlier books but it will be of service to refer to them again and to expand the ideas somewhat. I would have you carry them in your minds as you read and study.

I have frequently referred to the fact that the entire science of astrology is based upon a non-existent condition. It has no basis in material fact and yet is eternally based on truth. The zodiac is, as you well know, the imaginary path of the Sun in the heavens. It is therefore largely an illusion, from the exoteric point of view. But at the same time the constellations exist, and the streams of energy which pass and repass, intermingle and interlock throughout the body of space are by no means illusions but definitely express eternal relationships. It is the misuse of the various energies which has created the illusion.

This illusory path is consequently as much a reality to humanity today as are the personality illusions of any individual. These illusions are due to the polarisation of the individual upon the astral plane. It is interesting also to note in this connection that—due to the precession of the equinoxes—a fourth type of force is brought to bear upon the planet and man, but one which is seldom recognised and given due place in the horoscope. The month and the sign, or the place of the Sun in the heavens, do not really coincide. When we state, for instance, that the Sun is "in Aries" it conveys an esoteric truth but not an exoteric fact. The Sun was in Aries at the beginning of this great cycle, but it is not in exactly the same position today when it is "found" in that sign.

Also it should be remembered that as it is necessary to know the moment of birth and the place of birth in casting the horoscope of the individual, so in order to have a perfectly correct understanding and accurate deductions in connection with the constellation, the planets and our Earth there should be a fixed time from which to reckon. That fixed time is as yet unknown in exoteric astrology, though the Hierarchy possesses the needed information and it will be made available when the right time comes. It is the knowledge of this inner information which constitutes the basis of the statements which I have made or will make which will seem revolutionary to the orthodox investigator. There has to be a constant rectification of the earlier conclusions of humanity and of this the outstanding instance is the statement in the Bible that the prime date of creation is 4004 B.C. This is recognised as an error by modern science but is still believed by many.

I earlier gave a hint upon which definite astrological computation could be based when I gave the time of the "Great Approach" of the Hierarchy to our planetary manifestation when individualisation took place and the fourth kingdom in nature appeared. I placed that stupendous event as happening 21,688,345 years ago. At that time the Sun was in Leo. The process then initiated upon the physical plane and producing outer physical events took approximately 5,000 years to mature and the Sun was in Gemini when the final crisis of individualisation took place and the door was then closed upon the animal kingdom.

It has been stated that Sagittarius governs human evolution, as the Sun was in that sign when the Hierarchy began its Approach in order to stimulate the forms of life upon our planet. Sagittarius, however, governed the period of the subjective approach.

The Sun was in Leo when physical plane individualisation took place as a result of the applied stimulation.

The Sun was in Gemini when this Approach was consummated by the founding of the Hierarchy upon the Earth. This is one of the great secrets which the Masonic Rituals typify, for the symbol of the sign, Gemini, is the source of the concept of the two pillars, so familiar to Masons. It might therefore be stated that, symbolically speaking:

1. Leo governs the E∴ A∴ degree.

2. Gemini governs the F∴ C∴ degree.

3. Sagittarius governs the degree of M∴ M∴ up to the episode of the raising of the Master

4. Capricorn governs the final part of the ceremony and the H∴ R∴ A∴

It is always confusing to the beginner who has not yet a developed and trained intuition to reconcile the seeming discrepancies and apparent contradictions which appear in the teaching of the Ageless Wisdom. This same difficulty will be met with in the science of astrology and some reference to the matter is in order at this point. I would remind you of the occult truism which states that interpretation and right understanding are based upon the stage of the development of the individual.

H.P.B. remarked in The Secret Doctrine that for some people the highest principle of which they can be consciously aware might be a very low one for another person. The constellations and the planets which govern them may, and do, have one effect upon the mass and another upon the average individual man, and still a third effect upon the disciple or the initiate. As the various energies and forces circulate throughout the etheric body of our solar system, their reception and effect will depend upon the state of the planetary centres and upon the point of unfoldment of the centres in individual man. That is why the various charts and tabulations can differ so widely and different planets can appear as ruling the constellations. There seems to be no fixed rule and the student gets bewildered.

Orthodox astrology posits one set of planetary rulers, and they are correct as far as the mass of humanity is concerned. But the disciple, who lives above the diaphragm, responds to another combination and it is with these that I shall principally deal. That is why the three charts here given do not appear to coincide.

They are drawn up to express the situation in regard to three groups:

1. The mass of people who conform to orthodox and recognised astrological conclusions.

2. Disciples and advanced individuals, conforming to the conclusions of esoteric astrology.

3. The Creative Hierarchies, giving the interim situation in this world cycle.

57. TABULATION IV. THE ORTHODOX ASTROLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP

CONSTELLATIONS AND PLANETARY RULERS IN CONNECTION WITH ORDINARY MAN

Constellation                Ruler                                 Ray              Related to:

1. Aries                 Mars                         6th ray         Scorpio

2. Taurus                 Venus                         5th ray         Libra

3. Gemini                      Mercury                          4th ray              Virgo

4. Cancer                 Moon                        4th  ray         none

5. Leo                        The Sun                 2nd ray        none

6. Virgo                          Mercury                         4th ray              Gemini

7. Libra                           Venus                             5th ray              Taurus

8. Scorpio                      Mars                               6th ray              Aries

9. Sagittarius                Jupiter                            2nd ray             Pisces

10.  Capricorn                Saturn                         3rd ray         none

11.  Aquarius                Uranus                 7th ray         none

12. Pisces                       Jupiter                            2nd ray            Sagittarius

*The non-sacred planets are italicised. All the rays are represented except the first.

This is interesting, as the mass of the people move within their horoscopes and the will aspect is latent but unexpressed.

58. TABULATION V. THE UNORTHODOX ASTROLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP

CONSTELLATIONS AND PLANETARY RULERS

IN CONNECTION WITH DISCIPLES AND INITIATES

*In charts connected with the PATH, progress is from Aries to Pisces through Taurus, etc.

Constellation        Ruler        Ray                         Related to:

1. Aries                 Mercury                 4th ray                  Virgo

2. Taurus                        Vulcan                           1st ray                         Pisces

3. Gemini                 Venus                         5th ray                  none

4. Cancer                       Neptune                         6th ray                        Scorpio

5. Leo                             The Sun                          2nd ray                       Aquarius

6. Virgo                          The Moon                      4th ray                        Aries

7. Libra                 Uranus                 7th ray                  none

8. Scorpio                      Mars                               6th ray                        Cancer

9. Sagittarius                The Earth                      3rd ray                        Capricorn

10. Capricorn                Saturn                            3rd ray                        Sagittarius

11.  Aquarius                 Jupiter                            2nd ray                       Leo

12. Pisces                       Pluto                               1st ray                         Taurus

*In connection with disciples and the zodiacal signs, Gemini and Libra

are two constellations which—through their rulers—express 5th and 7th ray energy.

For some occult reason, they remain unrelated to any other of the signs.

The relation between the other constellations through the planets, as expressing the rays, is as follows:

1. Taurus and Pisces, through Vulcan and Pluto, are related to Ray 1. Transmutation of desire into

        sacrifice and of the individual will into the divine will. The World Saviour

2. Leo and Aquarius, through the Sun and Jupiter, are related to Ray 2. Development of the individual consciousness into world consciousness. Thus a man becomes a world server. The World Server

3. Sagittarius and Capricorn, through the Earth and Saturn, are related to Ray 3. The one-pointed         disciple becomes the initiate. The Initiate

4. Aries and Virgo, through Mercury and the Moon, are related to Ray 4. Harmonising the cosmos         and the individual through conflict, producing unity and beauty. The birth pangs of the second birth. The Cosmic and Individual Christ

5. Cancer and Scorpio, through Neptune and Mars, are related to Ray 6. Transformation of the mass consciousness into the inclusive consciousness of the disciple. The Triumphant Disciple

I would call attention to the fact that in Tabulation IV, the relationship is between the planets which rule, and in Tabulation V the emphasis is laid upon the conditioning ray.

59. TABULATION VI.  PLANETARY RULERS IN 3 TABULATIONS

Constellation             Orthodox              Disciple       Hierarchies

1. Aries                 Mars                          Mercury         Uranus

2. Taurus                 Venus                         Vulcan         Vulcan

3. Gemini                Mercury                 Venus                 The Earth

4. Cancer                 The Moon                Neptune        Neptune

5. Leo                        The Sun                 The Sun         The Sun

6. Virgo                 Mercury                 The Moon          Jupiter

7. Libra                 Venus                         Uranus         Saturn

8. Scorpio                 Mars                         Mars                 Mercury

9. Sagittarius                Jupiter                        The Earth        Mars

10. Capricorn                Saturn                         Saturn                Venus

11. Aquarius                Uranus                 Jupiter         The Moon

12. Pisces                 Jupiter                        Pluto                 Pluto

61. TABULATION VII. UNORTHODOX  CONSTELLATIONS,

62. RULERS AND  RAYS IN CONNECTION WITH THE HIERARCHIES

Constellation                 Ruler        Ray                     Related to:

1. Aries                 Uranus                 7th ray           none

2. Taurus                 Vulcan                 1st ray                  Pisces

3. Gemini                      The Earth                      3rd ray               Libra

4. Cancer                       Neptune                        6th ray                Sagittarius

5. Leo                             The Sun                         2nd ray               Virgo

6. Virgo                          Jupiter                           2nd ray               Leo

7. Libra                       Saturn                               3rd ray                Gemini

8. Scorpio                     Mercury                          4th ray               Aquarius

9. Sagittarius                Mars                               6th ray               Cancer

10. Capricorn                Venus                             5th ray                none

11. Aquarius                  The Moon                      4th ray                Scorpio

12. Pisces                       Pluto                               lst ray                  Taurus

Aries and Capricorn in conjunction with 7th and 5th ray energy stand alone. The other constellations and rays are related in every case:

1. Ray 1—Taurus and Pisces, through Vulcan and Pluto.
2. Ray 2—Leo and Virgo, through the Sun and Jupiter.
3. Ray 3—Gemini and Libra, through the Earth and Saturn.
4. Ray 4—Scorpio and Aquarius, through Mercury and Moon.
5. Ray 6—Cancer and Sagittarius, through Neptune and Mars.

In view of all the above, and starting with the basic fact of the Great Illusion it should be remembered that the accuracy of astrological prediction and interpretation will be based upon three factors:

1. The potency of the thoughtforms which have been built up in connection with the twelve signs. These thoughtforms were originally constructed or anchored upon the mental plane by the Hierarchy in Atlantean days and they have steadily gained in power ever since. They serve as focal points for certain forces and enable the individual, for instance, to be in touch with great reservoirs of energy which then definitely condition him.

2. The intuition of the astrologer. The casting of the horoscope serves to put the astrologer en rapport with the individual, but this is of small service to either party unless the intuition and sensitivity of the astrologer is actively present.

3. The capacity of the astrologer in any specific period to respond to the changes which are all the time taking place, such as the gradual shifting and changing brought about by the precession of the equinoxes, or the slow shift of the pole of the planet. To this should be added that—as man evolves—the mechanism of response or the vehicles of consciousness likewise steadily improve. His reactions, therefore, to the planetary influence and to the energy of the various constellations change with equal steadiness and allowance must be made for this. It is consequently essential that the modern astrologer begin to study the point in evolution of the subject, prior to casting his horoscope. He must ascertain his approximate place upon the path of evolution. To this end, the study of the rays is most necessary through an investigation as to quality and characteristics and life objectives.

Astrologers will eventually be able to cast the horoscope of the soul, which is sensitive to different combinations of forces to those controlling the personality life. The disciple and the initiate respond distinctively to the incoming influences and their response differs from that of the undeveloped man or the self-centred person. This will have to be recognised. Those who "live below the diaphragm" and who react to the incoming energies through the medium of the lower centres will have a very different type of chart to that of the disciple and initiate. It will require a different mode of interpretation. I have referred to this before and would remind you of some of the points which I made.

1. Disciples upon the Path of Discipleship are strongly influenced by Mercury and Saturn—one bringing illumination and the other offering opportunity.

2. At the various initiations, the influence of the planets affects the candidate in a totally different manner than earlier. Cyclically the energies from the constellations pour through the planetary centres.

1. At the first initiation, the disciple has to contend with the crystallising and destroying forces of Vulcan and Pluto. The influence of Vulcan reaches to the very depths of his nature, whilst Pluto drags to the surface and destroys all that hinders in these lower regions.

2. At the second initiation, the candidate comes under the influence of three planets—Neptune, Venus and Jupiter. The three centres—solar plexus, heart and throat—are actively involved.

3. At the third initiation, the Moon (veiling a hidden planet) and Mars bring about a fearful conflict, but at the end the man is released from personality control.

4. At the fourth initiation, Mercury and Saturn again bring about great changes and unique revelation, but their effect is very different to the earlier experience.

5. At the fifth and final initiation, Uranus and Jupiter appear and produce a "beneficent organisation" of the totality of energies found in the initiate's equipment. When this reorganisation is complete, the initiate can then "escape from off the wheel and then can truly live."

All this time the energy of the sun (veiling a sacred planet, hitherto unknown) is steadily and persistently reaching the man via the solar angel.

CHAPTER II

The Nature of Esoteric Astrology

Introductory Remarks

It will be apparent to you after studying the foregoing that one of the results which should emerge under the impression of this new approach to astrological diagnosis (as far as the individual is concerned) will be the more correct casting of the horoscope of advanced human beings—disciples and initiates. This has not hitherto been accurately possible. It will only come about, however, if there is wise and right experiment and investigation.

I have posited two sets of rulers for two types of people:

1. The orthodox and generally accepted series of planetary rulers for the undeveloped/average man.

2. A new combination of rulers and constellations for those upon the Path.

It will be necessary to remember nevertheless that there are an infinite number of permutations possible, of complexities and relationships, due to the vast number of possible combinations existing in the path of life of the individual and dependent upon his stage of evolutionary unfoldment. These might be divided into three groups through a broad, but necessarily inadequate, generalisation:

1. Average and undeveloped man, living below the diaphragm and with the emphasis of the incoming energies and forces focussed either in the solar plexus or in the sacral centre.

2. A large number of people who are in an interim stage, with the energies and forces focussed mainly in the lower centre but at the same time playing quite frequently through the throat centre and evoking a faint response from the heart and the ajna centres.

3. People upon one or other of the final stages of the Path, with the emphasis passing rapidly away from the lower centres into the higher triad and with the highest head centre in process of awakening. These people also fall into two major groups:

1. Those who are using the solar plexus centre as a vast clearing house for the incoming

        energies and who are beginning to work through the throat and the heart centres, with

        the goal of completely awakening the ajna centre.

2. Those who are using all these centres, but in whom the heart centre is fully awakened

        and the triangle of force in the head (from the ajna centre to the head centre and from

        the head centre to the centre found in the medulla oblongata) is beginning to function.

When these centres are all awakening, their simplest combinations are the following triangles. The Science of Triangles underlies all astrological deduction as well as the centres in the human body. This you know, but the four triplicities of orthodox astrology are only the rudiments of this true science, which lies behind the orthodox interpretations.

| 1. Base of the spine

1.  | 2. Sacral Centre

| 3. Solar Plexus Centre

| 1. Throat Centre

2. | 2. Heart Centre

| 3. Ajna Centre

| 1. Ajna Centre

           | 2. Head Centre

| 3. Centre in the medulla oblongata

Unfortunately the organising principle is not as simple as the above tabulation would make it appear, for the emphasis, the focus and the mode of arranging and of vitalisation, and the appearance of these esoteric triangles vary with the ray type. This Science of Triangles of Energy underlies the new esoteric science both in astrology and in the science of laya-yoga or the science of the centres. Both this ancient yoga and the still more ancient astrological science have now to be studied upon a higher turn of the spiral. Up till the present time, the teaching about the centres has been inherited from Atlantean times and couched in the old forms and formulas which are basically unsuited to our present greatly advanced stage of development. The same can be said of orthodox or exoteric astrology. Both these sciences must be reoriented and rearranged, and astrology must be based upon a deeper understanding of the relation of the planets—sacred and non-sacred—to the centres and to certain prominent "cycles of polarisation" emerging as the fore-ordained results of "periods of crisis." This last sentence embodies a basic and important statement of truth.

63. 1. Centres and Triangles of Force

There are, as you well know, five non-sacred planets, and seven which are regarded as sacred. These twelve planetary lives (with their own cycles, points of crisis and moments of polarisation) are closely related to the seven centres. The five centres up the spine are related to the five non-sacred planets, but in unevolved or average man, are focussed almost entirely upon the astral plane and in the astral body. It should be noted that:

1. Two of the non-sacred planets (the Earth itself and the Moon) are connected with two centres which in the highly evolved man are not of dominating importance:

1. The spleen receiving pranic emanations from the planet on which we live and concerned with the etheric and physical bodies and their physical relation.

2. A centre in the chest related to the thymus gland. This centre becomes inactive in the advanced man but has a connection with the vagus nerve, prior to the awakening of the heart centre.

2. Two of the other non-sacred planets—Mars and Pluto—function in connection with the sacral centre (Mars) and the solar plexus (Pluto). This latter planet becomes active in the life of the man who is "becoming alive in the higher sense, his lower nature passes into the smoke and darkness of Pluto, who governs the lesser burning ground, in order that the man may live in truth in the higher land of light."

3. The Sun (standing here for Vulcan, which is a sacred planet) governs a centre in the front of the throat which is related to the para-thyroids and not to the thyroid gland, which is related to the throat centre. This centre in the front of the throat falls into disuse as the creative period of throat activity begins. It acts as a "mediator" between the higher and the lower creative organs (between the sacral and the throat centres) and leads eventually to that creative activity which is consciously that of the functioning soul. Vulcan was one of the first creative workers among men. He was also related to "Cain who killed his brother." The symbolism underlying these ancient myths will be easily interpreted by the intuitive student.

Some of the tasks which I propose to undertake in this section of our Treatise on the Seven Rays are as follows:

1. Consider why five of the seven rays express themselves through two sets of planets—sacred and non-sacred—and also which centres these two groups of rays govern. Thus we shall relate:

1. The seven centres in man's etheric body.
2. The seven centres of the fourth Creative Hierarchy of which the seven races are the expression.
3. The seven planetary centres.
4. The seven and the five planets which are the centres of energy in the solar system, responsive to the energy of the twelve zodiacal constellations.

These planetary centres will be studied from two angles:

1. From the orthodox angle.
2. From the angle of discipleship and initiation.

2. Consider the energies of the three major constellations as they each pour through three of the zodiacal constellations, thus forming great interlocking triangles of force. Thus nine of the zodiacal constellations are involved, and these in their turn fuse and blend their energies into three major streams of force upon the Path of Initiation.

These three streams of force pour through:

Leo, Capricorn and Pisces to:

Saturn, Mercury and Uranus (the Moon) to:

The head, ajna and heart centres to:

The throat, the solar plexus and the base of the spine.

It should be remembered that the sacral centre and the spleen are primarily connected with the planetary emanation of the Earth itself.

3. Consider the three great cosmic Crosses and the relation of these three Crosses to the twelve planets and the general sweep of the soul in incarnation:

The Cardinal Cross        The Fixed Cross                The Mutable Cross

1. Initiation                 Discipleship                 Evolution
2. The Planetary Logos        Humanity                  Kingdoms in Nature
3. Cosmic Initiation        Solar Initiation        Planetary Initiation
4. Spirit                        Soul                         Body

e.    Life                        Consciousness                Form

f.     Monad                         Ego                         Personality

g.    Three Initiations                Two Initiations        Ordinary man        

          (Initiates)                               (Disciples)

4. Elaborate the subject of the interplay between the three groups of ruling planets as given in Tabulation VI. These, in the totality of their effects, are the agencies through which the purposes of God are wrought out.

Before proceeding with the more technical aspects of our subject, I would like to elaborate this theme of the zodiac, its story and symbolism from the more philosophical and spiritual angle, giving you the subjective picture of man's progress as he passes on "the sweep of the sun along the path of life." This is a technical phrase and refers to the activity of a sun, a planet, a hierarchy or a man, after there has been a "moment of crisis," resulting in a "period of polarisation," leading inevitably to a fresh surge and sweep onwards. These three words—crisis, polarisation and sweep—are the basis of cyclic law and govern the evolutionary process. From the point of view of humanity, the passage of the Sun around the zodiac is apparently a slow and laborious process, taking approximately (on the plane of time) 25,000 years. From the angle of the inner vision, it is a sweep around the Path of Life, taking only a moment of time and "obliterating past, present and future in the radiant glory of the work accomplished."

64. 2. The Crosses and the Signs

We will follow man from sign to sign as he—in travail and pain—forges the equipment and develops painfully the mechanism which will enable him to arrive at a major moment of crisis in his cyclic life wherein he will begin to free himself from the path of the great illusion along which he has travelled for aeons from Aries to Taurus, via Pisces and—reversing himself—will begin to travel the path of light from Aries to Pisces, via Taurus. This changing experience is expressed for us most beautifully in the sixth section of the Old Commentary:

"The Cross of many changes (the Mutable Cross. A.A.B.) continues with its whirling, carrying crucified thereon the form of a man in whom is found the seed of all illusion. But, from the Cross whereon he has been slain—e'en though he knew it not—the man climbs down and feels his way (with pain and many tears) on to another Cross—a Cross of blinding light, of fiery pain, of bitter woe, and yet the Cross of liberation. It is a stationary Cross, fixed in the Heavens, and guarded by the Angel.

Behind the Cross, another Cross appears, but that he may not reach (the Angel guards the way!) until the Bull has rent and torn the man, and then—the light shines forth; until the Serpent dread has wrestled with the man and brought him to his knees, and then—the lifting up into the light; until the Lion has been tamed, the secret of the Sphinx revealed, and then—the revelation of the inner light; until the man has lifted up his water-pot and joined the ranks of those who are the Water-bearers, and then the flowing of the stream of life will fill his water-pot and drain the rancid pool and cleanse its source and thus reveal the hidden way which leads unto the innermost light, hid by the final Cross. Then, from the Cross of man, the initiate finds his way, passes the Angel and leaves behind the inner torn veil, mounts the major Cross and passes into day, the final day. The wheel for him stands still. The sun and stars, for him, fade out. A great light is seen and..."

The three crosses on Mount Golgotha were Biblical symbols of these three astrological crosses, the Common or Mutable Cross, the Fixed Cross and the Cardinal Cross.

I would ask you to remember that though I shall trace the progress of the man from sign to sign around the zodiacal way, yet there is not necessarily this ordered sequence of travel or the smooth passage from sign to sign as I may portray it. All souls come into incarnation in the sign Cancer. By this I mean that the very first human incarnation was always taken in this sign which has been recognised down the ages as "the doorway into life of those who must know death," just as the constellation Capricorn is ever regarded as another door and is called esoterically the "doorway into life of those who know not death." As the ages slip away, the man passes into and out of all the signs, the particular sign being determined by the nature of the personality ray which itself changes, as you know, from life to life. In those signs he learns the needed lessons, broadens his horizon, integrates his personality, begins to sense the conditioning soul, and thus discovers his essential duality.

When he is upon the Path of Discipleship (and here I include the Path of Initiation) occult rumour says that he then becomes conditioned by the tireless Watcher, the soul, and is subjected (during the final stages of the path) to exactly twelve incarnations, passing one in each of the twelve signs. In them he has to prove himself, attaining great moments of crisis in each of the constellations of the Fixed Cross in particular. From point to point, stage to stage, and finally Cross to Cross, he fights for his spiritual life, in all the twelve houses and all the twelve constellations, subjected to countless combinations of forces and energies—ray, planetary, zodiacal and cosmic—until he is "made anew," becomes the "new man," is sensitive to the entire range of spiritual vibrations in our solar system and has achieved that detachment which will enable him to escape from the wheel of rebirth. He has accomplished this by mounting the three Crosses—the cross of the Personality or the changing form, the Cross of the Disciple or the eternal soul, and the Cross of the Spirit. This really means that he has passed through three momentous crises in his life cycle.

1. The Crisis of Incarnation . . . . .The Mutable Cross

         The Mounting of the Wheel . . . . . . .Personality and form life

         The Cycle of Rebirth in Form . . . . ..Experience

         Manifestation of Manhood

II.    The Crisis of Reorientation . . . The Fixed Cross

        The Changing to the 2nd Cross . . .  The life of the soul

        Preparation for the 2nd Birth . . . . . Consciousness

        Manifestation of Christhood

III.   The Crisis of Initiation . . . . . . .The Cardinal Cross

         The Transfiguration . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Life of the Spirit

         Manifestation of Divinity

In our study of the interlocking system of energies, in so far as they affect and condition a human being, the theme of the Three Crosses is of profound and practical interest, especially as they provide those points of crisis wherein a man steps off the ordinary path of evolution and treads the path of discipleship or—after the third initiation mounts a third Cross. It will underlie our thought and all that I have to say. A steady recollection of the twelve basic energies (five major and seven minor which are in reality, and apart from astral reversion due to the Great Illusion, seven major and five minor) will be of value. These work out into human expression via the Lords of the twelve signs and the twelve planetary Rulers. These twelve basic energies emanate from the seven stars of the Great Bear (transmitted through seven stars of the Little Bear); two of them come from Sirius and three from the Pleiades.

This set-up (if I may use such an unorthodox term) will be the condition of the major solar sphere of influence at the end of the Great Age of Brahma, as it is esoterically called. In the "interim or interlude of evolution" (which is the inadequate translation of an occult phrase given to a world cycle in the Masters' Archives) these energies are stepped down into forces and are literally sixteen all told—from the angle of manifestation, I would remind you—and make literally: 7+7+2=16=7. In these numbers the mystery of our evolutionary process lies hid. Always, however, the emphasis must be laid upon the Rays of Energy and Quality as they pour through the zodiacal constellations and the planets. The new astrology therefore is necessarily based upon an understanding of the rays. The following tabulation is fundamental in its implications in this connection and upon it all that I have to say will be based.

Seven stars of the Great Bear are the originating Sources of the seven rays of our solar system. The seven Rishis (as They are called) of the Great Bear express Themselves through the medium of the seven planetary Logoi Who are Their Representatives and to Whom They stand in the relation of prototype. The seven Planetary Spirits manifest through the medium of the seven sacred planets.

Each of these seven Rays, coming from the Great Bear, are transmitted into our solar system through the medium of three constellations and their ruling planets. The following tabulation makes this clear but must be interpreted only in terms of this present turn of the Great Zodiacal Wheel (25,000 years):

65. TABULATION VIII

Ray        Constellations        Planets        Planets

(Orthodox)        (Esoteric)

                                                      Aries, The Ram-----------------Mars -----------Mercury

I. Will or Power----------------Leo, the Lion--------------------Sun -------------Sun

Capricorn, the Goat -----------Saturn----------Saturn

Gemini, the Twins -------------Mercury -------Venus

2. Love-Wisdom -----------Virgo, the Virgin -------------- Mercury --------Moon (veiling a planet)

                                        Pisces, the Fishes---------------Jupiter ---------Pluto

Cancer, the Crab ----------------Moon --------- Neptune

3. Active-Intelligence -----Libra, the Scales -----------------Venus ---------Uranus

Capricorn, the Goat -------------Saturn-------- Saturn

Taurus, the Bull -----------------Venus ---------Vulcan

4. Harmony through-------Scorpio, the Scorpion ----------Mars ---------- Mars

           Conflict        Sagittarius, the Archer----------Jupiter -------- Earth

Leo, the Lion --------------------Sun ------------ Sun

5. Concrete Science -------Sagittarius, the Archer ---------Jupiter -------- Earth

Aquarius, the Watercarrier----Uranus -------- Jupiter

Virgo, the Virgin ----------------Mercury ------ Moon

6. Idealism. Devotion -----Sagittarius, the Archer ---------Jupiter --------Earth

Pisces, the Fishes----------------Jupiter --------Pluto

Aries, the Ram-------------------Mars ---------- Mercury

7. Ceremonial Order ----- Cancer, the Crab-----------------Moon --------- Neptune

Capricorn, the Goat -------------Saturn--------- Saturn

It will be obvious to you how much correlating work and how much readjustment of ideas will be needed as the new astrology is worked out into practical usefulness and eventually substituted for that now holding sway. This new astrology really embodies five sciences:

1. The Science of the Rays.
2. The Science of Esoteric Interpretation which is carried out through:
3. The Science of Triangles.
4. The Science of the Centres.
5. The Science of Destiny.

This latter science will be based upon the four previous ones and will constitute an interpretation of the future which will be founded on a correct understanding of the rays—personal and egoic—of the influence of the triangles—zodiacal, planetary, racial and human. These latter triangles are arrived at by a study of the individual human centres. When all this has been ascertained and worked out in the new style of horoscope which will be later developed, then the Science of Destiny will be applied and the future indications discovered. Of this, the personal progressed horoscope is the embryonic seed.

Some indication of relative values can be gained by a consideration of the human triangles as given in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, which suggested the following:

"It would repay the student to contemplate the interesting succession of triangles that are to be found and the way in which they must be linked by the progression of the fire before that fire can perfectly vivify them, and thence pass on to other transmutations.

We might enumerate some of these triangles, bearing always in mind that, according to the ray, so will proceed the geometric rising of the fire, and according to the ray, so will the points be touched in ordered sequence. Herein lies one of the secrets of initiation, and herein are found some of the dangers entailed in a too quick publication of information concerning the rays.

1. The pranic triangle.

1. The shoulder centre.
2. The centre near the diaphragm.
3. The spleen.

2. Man controlled from the astral plane.

1. The base of spine.
2. The solar plexus.
3. The heart.

3. Man controlled from the mental plane.

1. The base of spine.
2. The heart.
3. The throat.

4. Man partially controlled by the Ego, advanced man.

1. The heart.
2. The throat.
3. The head, i.e., the four lesser centres and their synthesis, the ajna centre.

5. Spiritual man to the third Initiation.

1. The heart.
2. The throat.
3. The seven head centres.

6. Spiritual man to the fifth Initiation.

1. The heart.
2. The seven head centres.
3. The two many-petalled lotuses.

All these different periods show different triangular radiations. We must not infer from this that when the fire is centred in one triangle it is not demonstrating in others. Once the fire has free passage along any triangle it flames continuously, but always there is one triangle more radiant and luminous than the others, and it is from these glowing triangles of light, issuing from wheels and vortices of fire, that the clairvoyant and the teachers of the race can appraise a man's position in the scheme of things, and judge of his attainment.

At the culmination of life experience, and when man has reached his goal, each triangle is a radiant path of fire, and each centre a wheel of living fiery force rotating at terrific speed; the centre at this stage not only rotates in a specific direction, but literally turns upon itself, forming a living flaming iridescent globe of pure fire, and holding within it a certain geometrical shape, yet withal vibrating so rapidly that the eye can scarcely follow it. Above all, at the top of the head will be seen a fiery display that seems to put all the other centres into insignificance; from the heart of this many- petalled lotus issues a flame of fire with the basic hue of a man's ray. This flame mounts upward and seems to attract downward a sheet of electric light, which is the downflow from the spirit on the highest plane. This marks the blending of the fires and the deliverance of man from the trammels of matter."  A Treatise on Cosmic Fire

At present, charts are set up on the basis of the personality condition or of the personality ray, if the astrologer is fortunate enough to know or to guess it accurately; if, however, the subject is an advanced person, then the chart will be frequently wrong as the planets which govern in the case of ordinary or undeveloped man have ceased to influence the spiritual man and the disciple. Average man is primarily conditioned in the events of his physical plane life by the position of the planets in the twelve houses and they are, in their turn, conditioned by certain karmic influences which the advanced man has overcome, or is overcoming. The horoscope will be cast eventually on the basis of the soul ray, and then the zodiacal signs which govern the activities and the influence of the present group of planetary Rulers will be considerably lessened. New planetary potencies (conveying zodiacal energies) will control and take precedence of the old ones, thus putting the man in touch with different forces. Finally the time will come when he will be sensitive to the whole range of vibrations; charts will then be set up which will be called "charts of the crosses" and not simply indications of planetary influences in the twelve houses. I question whether there is any living astrologer capable of doing this as yet.

These are the kind of charts by which the Masters gauge Their disciples and they are most interesting; I touched upon them somewhat earlier in this treatise. These "charts of the crosses" are the ones that are prepared prior to the third initiation, at which time the man begins his "approach" to the Cardinal Cross of the heavens. I would here remind you, e'en though it is a piece of useless information, that the fifth major initiation of our planet is the first cosmic initiation, just as the third initiation is the first systemic. The two first initiations are planetary in their implications. The above statement has deep and esoteric astrological significance.

66. 3. Spiritual Effects of the Zodiacal Constellations

I am now going to outline to you the spiritual effect of the passage of a soul around the wheel of experience. We will attempt to consider, in the case of each constellation, the general effect upon a soul—undergoing the experience—from the orthodox angle as he travels from Aries to Taurus, via Pisces, and then—as the disciple, coming under other influences—travels from Aries to Pisces, via Taurus. Thus the usual process is reversed and the man reorients himself and "faces the East," as it is esoterically called. He expresses then in the highest possible manner the qualities of his soul ray as, in the first case, he expressed the quality of the personality ray.

It is not possible for me to be more specific. I seek only to give certain spiritual implications and hints and to convey a general idea of the effect of the great illusion upon resultant conditions and, secondly, the result of the great tests which every disciple eventually undergoes as he reverses the wheel of life.

ARIES, THE RAM

Strictly speaking, what I have to say now concerns the pure first ray type because Aries is the zodiacal sign through which the first Ray of Will or Power reaches our planetary life. Such pure types are rare indeed and at this period of evolution well-nigh unknown. Most people are governed by their personality ray and as the present first ray types are expressing themselves through personalities which are on all the rays, I would simply ask you to consider what I have to say from the angle of character effects, of problems presented and of quality unfolded. It is well-nigh impossible to be more explicit until such time as the Science of the Rays has been further developed; the astrologer must ascertain the ray type before he will be able to cast the adequate horoscope of the soul. My remarks are therefore general and not specific and are universal and not particular. I impose no doctrine. I indicate phases of speculation which might prove illuminating and fruitful.

Aries is one of the constellations of the Cardinal Cross of the heavens. This is the cross of God, the Father, and, therefore, of the incarnating monad. It is the expression of will or power as it expresses itself through the great creative process. When the initiate (as we shall later see) transfers himself on to the Cardinal Cross from which he descended when coming into incarnation and mounted in its place the Common or Mutable Cross, he no longer identifies himself with form or even with soul, but with the will of divinity and with the eternal plan and purpose. It becomes his plan and purpose. He knows no other in a sense which is unknown even to an initiate of the third degree. He then enters into the council chamber of God; he becomes a part of the conclave at Shamballa; he functions no longer simply as a member of the Hierarchy upon the mental plane. He can now function through all the three world centres—Humanity, the Hierarchy and Shamballa.

Aries initiates the cycle of manifestation. All souls, as individual entities, come into human incarnation for the first time in the sign of Cancer, emerging as mental entities in the sign Aries, as emotional- desire entities in the sign Taurus and as vital entities in the sign Gemini, taking then physical form in Cancer. This is an involutionary, subjective cycle. Thus they emerge into the ocean of physical plane existence, into the world of matter. Yet the first impulse is awakened in Aries, for Aries is the place where the initial idea to institute activity takes form. It is the birthplace of ideas, and a true idea is in reality a spiritual impulse taking form—subjective and objective. There originates the response of the soul to the highest aspect or quality of deity because there appears the "will to incarnate." The first ray aspect of the Monad, responding to the first aspect of deity, evokes response from the first ray aspect of the soul and the first step towards incarnation is taken on that plane in the system which is the mental plane. Aries "awakens the will to reach the lowest and there control, to know the uttermost and thus to face all experience"—thus runs an ancient statement.

The keynotes of the sign Aries are four in number, all conveying the same idea. They can be expressed in the following four injunctions which are given, symbolically, to the incarnating soul:

1. Express the will to be and do.
2. Unfold the power to manifest.
3. Enter into battle for the Lord.
4. Arrive at unity through effort.

Creation—Being—Activity—Strife—Synthesis, these are the nature of the Lord of the first constellation and enable Him to influence our planet to these results. And thus the great cycle of struggle towards expression starts and the foundational words of The Secret Doctrine, with which you are all so familiar, expresses the goal and the purpose of the first sign of the Cardinal Cross:

"Matter is the vehicle for the manifestation of soul on this plane of existence, and soul is the vehicle on a higher plane for the manifestation of spirit, and these three are a trinity synthesised by life which pervades them all."

What appears in Aries as spiritual energy enters into the soul stage in Cancer, in which sign the soul incarnates for the first time in form, reaches a point of equilibrium in Libra, in which sign soul and personality achieve a balance of cooperation and, in Capricorn, the will nature arrives at fulfilment and a visioned goal is reached. In Capricorn, the man reaches either the height of personal ambition or he becomes the initiate, attaining his spiritual objective. The difference between these two goals depends upon the mode of progression around the wheel of life. It should be remembered—generalising again and speaking symbolically—that the Crosses also turn, being the spokes of the great wheel. The undeveloped man goes from Aries to Capricorn and to Libra and Cancer, whilst the developed man reverses the process. We could, for the sake of clarity, consider the great experience of life as taking place upon the three wheels within the wheel of Life, viewing it from three angles:

1. The Wheel of Incarnation.
2. The cycle of ordinary evolution.
3. The period of captivity, wherein the man is bound upon the wheel.
4. The fourfold influence of the Mutable Cross.
5. Life in the three worlds.
6. The development of personality.

1. The Wheel adjusted or reversed.
2. The cycle of discipleship.
3. The period of emergence, wherein the man alters the revolution of the wheel.
4. The fourfold influence of the Fixed Cross.
5. Life in the five worlds of superhuman evolution.
6. The unfoldment of soul through the personality.

1. The wheel controlled or dominated.
2. The cycle of initiation.
3. The period of liberation from the work of the Great Wheel.
4. The fourfold influence of the Cardinal Cross.
5. Life in the seven worlds of our seven planes.
6. Fusion of spirit, soul and personality.

Aries, therefore, starts the process of the "most ancient initiation" which all the human family has already undergone and will undergo. The first great cosmic initiation (as far as humanity is concerned) is initiation into incarnation—the initiation of individualisation. This process culminates aeons later in the reversing of the wheel and the attaining of a definite goal in Capricorn. It culminates in the achievement of transference from off the Fixed Cross on to the Cardinal Cross, which is, in its turn, the logical sequence of the transference from off the Mutable or Common Cross on to the Fixed Cross. Therefore, in its lowest manifestation, Aries is the creator of those activities, conditions and processes which lead to the manifestation of soul through the medium of form, and later of those higher creative undertakings which lead in due time to the manifestation of spirit through the soul.

These processes eventually demonstrate the true nature of the triplicity to which I introduced you in the earlier pages of this treatise: Life—Quality—Appearance.

Aries is also the purveyor to our solar system of Fire (Electric Fire) and of the dynamic nature of God which has in it the qualities of fostering and nourishing heat and also of the fire which burns and destroys. From the standpoint of esoteric astrology, there are three major signs in which the "three deaths" are undergone:

1. Aries, which at different points along the Path of Life forces the soul on to the burning ground and subjects it to a purifying process during incarnation. Through the lesser fire of mind, the "jungles of experience are set on fire and dissolve in flames and then the Path stands clear and unobstructed vision is achieved."

Through the fiery processes of war and strife, brought to the individual through the influence of the planetary ruler, Mars, the God of War, a needed purification takes place. The same purification, but this time through vision, comes to the developed man through the activity of the subjective ruler of the planet, Mercury, who is the illuminating principle which releases the mind, directs the way of man through life and enables him to become aware of the divine Plan which underlies all his fiery experience.

2. Scorpio, which brings about eventually the death of the personality and with which we shall later deal when we come to consider that sign. Esoterically as well as exoterically, Scorpio is the sign of death and burial in the earth, of descent into the depths in order to be lifted again on to the heights (the mountain top in Capricorn). It is stated in some of the most ancient books that "the heat of the earth, the mother, and the sting of the scorpion are the beneficent gifts which the turning of the wheel gives to the man at the beginning and the end." These gifts, when accepted and used, bring a man to liberation and eventually from the control and pain of the Fixed Cross.

3. Pisces sees the relinquishing or the death of all the influences which hold the man to the wheel of birth and his release from the control of the Common or Mutable Cross. It is interesting to note that each of these three signs of death is to be found in a different cross:

1. Aries . . . . . The cardinal cross
2. Scorpio . . . The fixed cross
3. Pisces . . . . The mutable cross

It is the influence of these three which brings about the "three needed and determined deaths" in the life of the human being. I am here referring to the signs, independently of their planetary rulers. There is something in the energy which pours in through these signs which predetermines a crystallising process and the eventual destruction of some type of form control. The Old Commentary expresses these ideas in the following terms:

"The fire blazed forth and through that fire I died to life and so was born to death. And then again I died to form (Aries).

The heat of earth, the fiery temper of the mother, destroyed the form, released the soul and so the lesser self was killed (Scorpio).

The waters drowned the man. The fish was made to disappear. It then appeared again only to die or else to die and bring salvation" (Pisces).

Thus there are symbolically the death through fire, the death through earth and the death through water—burning, suffocation and drowning—but, in this world cycle, the death through air is not either known or understood. There are not therefore four deaths, as the goal of our system during manifestation is "initiation or release into the air," so that the bird of life out of time and space can fly free. The concept which the Law of Correspondence brings of the final death is covered by the words liberation, relinquishment and final initiation, and means little to humanity, for it concerns the planetary Logos and His life cycle. The three deaths which do overtake man, the individual and the human family as a whole, release the soul into three great planetary centres:

1. The death by drowning or by water in Pisces releases man again into that great centre which we call Humanity, and there experience is gained. Herein lies the mystery of the fish-goddesses of this sign "who spawn their young again and yet again."

2. The death by suffocation in Scorpio releases man into the planetary centre which we call the Hierarchy.

3. The death by fire or burning in Aries releases man into another centre to which we give the name Shamballa.

There is much to work out, is there not, in these ideas which I offer to you as suggestive considerations and as hints related to the Science of Triangles, which is the esoteric basis of astrology, just as the doctrine of the trinity (microcosmic and macrocosmic) is the esoteric basis of occultism. Death is, therefore, of three kinds. This Science of Divine Dying underlies the well-known phrase "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," and when the relationship between Aries, Scorpio and Pisces is properly understood (as the linking and merging of the three crosses) a new light will be thrown upon all subsidiary sciences—exoteric and esoteric. The teaching in The Secret Doctrine about the reincarnating monads who are called the divine Sacrifices, Lords of Knowledge, Will and Sacrifice, will be clarified. These monads, who are ourselves, are Lords of Persevering Ceaseless Devotion —devotion even unto death.

It is interesting here to note also that through the ruling planet, Mars, the average man born in this sign is related to Scorpio, and thus the Cardinal Cross is related to the Fixed Cross. Points of crisis can thus be noted when the horoscope is considered from this angle. At the same time, Aries is related to birth, through Mercury who rules Aries esoterically, and also Virgo, of which Mercury is the exoteric ruler.

Through Uranus also, Aries is related to Aquarius, the sign of world service, leading to death and liberation in Pisces. Uranus is the planet through which zodiacal energy flows, in connection with the Creative Hierarchies upon our planet, from one of the stars of the Great Bear. It is these relationships with which esoteric astrology deals, and from them the universal can be grasped and the particular understood. The human being in his eventual recognised group relationships is of more importance than appears in his individual life, which the orthodox horoscope seeks to elucidate. It only determines his little destiny and unimportant fate. Esoteric astrology indicates his group usefulness and the scope of his potential consciousness.

I would remind you here that frequently when the ruler of a sign is given as the Sun or the Moon I shall speak of one of the hidden planets, Uranus or Vulcan. These are interchangeable in their use and it is difficult to tell to which the esoteric planet refers unless you have been told. Hence my above reference to Uranus.

In connection with Aries, which expresses or is the agent primarily of the first Ray of Will or Power, the ray of the destroyer, it should be stated that first ray energy comes from the divine Prototype in the Great Bear, that it becomes transmuted into the force and activity of the planetary Logos of the first ray, and works out as His triple activity under the guidance of the three ruling planets—Mars, Mercury and Uranus.

Mars embodies sixth ray force which leads to idealism, destructive fanaticism frequently, struggle, strife, war, effort and evolution. God's idea in Aries becomes the concrete plan in Capricorn whether that objective is the full flower of the planetary life in all its forms, the ambition of a personality working out its own ideas and ambitious worldly projects or the spiritual aspiration (worldly ambition transmuted into its higher aspect) of the initiate, who seeks to work out God's plans and make them his own. In every case, Mars leads to the battle ground of Scorpio.

Mercury, embodying the energy of the fourth ray, eventually carries the man around the wheel of life and through the medium of conflict enables him to achieve harmony. Mercury illumines the mind and mediates between the soul and the personality, being the Messenger of the Gods. This mediatorship, in the first instance, produces an inevitable opposition between the pairs of opposites and a long drawn out conflict. This conflict finally works out into victory and the dispelling of illusion through the illumination of the lower mind. Mercury and the Sun are one, we are frequently told in the occult literature. The Sun is the symbol of the Son of God, Who is the mediator between Father-Spirit and Mother-Matter. Mercury, therefore, leads Aries to Virgo (again speaking symbolically) where the idea or Word of God begins to take form, and consequently the latent life in Aries comes to the "crisis of the birth hour," prior to the birth of the Christ, cosmically considered, though the birth of the individual Christ takes place in Capricorn, at the close of the needed gestation period.

Uranus embodies the energy of the seventh ray and its work is analogous to that of Mercury, for the seventh ray is the ray which relates spirit and matter and brings together electric fire and fire by friction, thus producing manifestation. Uranus leads the soul to the burning ground during the final stages of the Path, when the fire of Aries and the fires engendered through the potency of Uranus produce the flaming heat of the final burning ground. Through this burning ground, the initiate has finally to pass. Uranus rules the occult Way and is, in an esoteric sense, connected with the Hierophant of the Mysteries of Initiation.

Therefore, we have in relation to Aries and the life of the soul, which there comes into subjective manifestation, certain related signs wherein the soul, in objective manifestation, passes through peculiar and definite crises:

1. The crises of the battle field, leading to the culminating battle in Scorpio and the liberation into life in Capricorn, the place of the higher initiations, after the reversal of the wheel.

2. The crisis of the birth place in Virgo, brought about through the activity of Mercury, leading through Leo to the birth of the Christ in Capricorn. The self-conscious individual in Leo becomes the Christ- conscious Initiate in Capricorn.

3. The crisis of the burning ground, which is brought about through the activity of Uranus. This is entered through the free choice of the initiate who makes his choice in Libra, the point of balance where—usually—the moment for the reversal of the wheel takes place. There the man has to decide whether to proceed as usual and according to custom or, reversing the wheel, to pass through the burning ground to liberation. Libra is the polar opposite to Aries and therefore closely related.

You will note that the rays which are related to or expressing themselves through Aries are curiously balanced, Rays 1 and 7 are the highest and the lowest, and therefore demand a point of balance upon the wheel which is provided in Libra. Rays 6 and 4 bring to this balancing process the energy of the second ray, the major building ray which enables the man to build anew and provide himself with a spiritual body of manifestation.

I would also call your attention to the fact that through Uranus, Aries is related to Aquarius. The vague beginnings in Aries, the faint emergence of the latent embodied ideas have—after the turning of the wheel in two directions—brought release in Capricorn and produced the world server in Aquarius, who voluntarily stays upon the great wheel (using the Cardinal Cross as his conditioning signs) and thus staying within the sphere of influence in order to help humanity to find liberation from the Fixed Cross.

In the sweep of the zodiac there are four signs which are signs of birth, of beginning and of renewed cyclic realisation:

1. Aries, the "birthplace of divine Ideas," whether these ideas are souls brought into incarnation and controlled by Mars until they reach the point of reorientation and become sensitive to the influence of Mercury, or whether they are the birth of the ideas of God in the form of the hierarchical plans to which the initiate becomes sensitive.

2. Cancer, the "birthplace into the life of form," the door into physical incarnation. This is the sign in which humanity, as a whole integrated unit, is born, the scene of the emergence of the fourth kingdom in nature. Humanity has "emerged from rock and water and brings its habitation with it" (as the Old Commentary expresses it) and mass instinctual consciousness comes into being. Note that phrase.

3. Leo, the "birthplace of the individual," the coming into form of individual self-conscious man who emerges out of the mass and herd in Cancer, substituting, for instinctual consciousness, self-awareness and a sense of responsibility of an individual kind.

4. Capricorn, the "birthplace of the Christ," the place of the "second birth" and the scene for the emergence of the fifth kingdom in nature when the right time comes. In this sign, the initiate comes into a spiritual awareness which demonstrates later in Aquarius and in Pisces as man, the world worker, and man, the world saviour—both of them with a universal mission.

It is from hints such as these that the astrologer of the future will determine the type of horoscope which should be cast. Two questions will then arise, requiring reasoned answers:

1. Is the subject a personality, progressing around and around the wheel, perfecting self-consciousness and developing a rounded out personality through experience and the working of the Law of Karma, subject to the Great Illusion and arriving eventually at the height of personality ambition in Capricorn?

2. Or, is this person beginning to manifest as a soul, pouring light through dense fogs of illusion, and preparing for the major tests in Scorpio, to be followed by initiation in Capricorn?

Subsidiary questions would, for instance be: For which death is the man preparing? Is there an imminent crisis at hand which indicates a birth into some new state of consciousness?

The crucial question, however, to be determined in every case, is the direction in which the man is progressing around the wheel of life. The orthodox horoscope concerns the personality life and the form is bound upon the "wheel of life as it turns from right to left" (from Aries to Taurus via Pisces). But the soul is bound to the wheel as it turns from left to right, going from Aries to Pisces, via Taurus.

It is this antagonistic movement of the wheel "turning upon itself" (as it is expressed in the Bible) which leads to the conflict carried on in the individual life, in the life of humanity and in the life of the planet. In the early stages of evolution and upon the Mutable Cross, the consciousness is entirely identified with life in form and with the life of self-consciousness, self-preservation and self-enrichment. Then comes an interlude wherein the consciousness begins to shift into that of the group and becomes identified with the soul and with soul purpose. The experience of the Fixed Cross covers this period.

It might here be noted that the experience of the three crosses has a Masonic significance and can be connected with the Blue Lodge:

1. The Common Cross . . . The E∴ A∴ Degree
2. The Fixed Cross . . . . . . The F∴ C∴ Degree
3. The Cardinal Cross . . . . The M∴ M∴ Degree

Much will come to light in Masonry when its astrological implications are studied and understood. Much also will be revealed anent individual life and purpose when the fate of certain planets (when in the various zodiacal signs) is properly investigated and grasped and their symbolic significances interpreted. For instance, it is well known theoretically and mathematically that,

1. The Sun is exalted in Aries. Here the Sun stands for the life of the spirit which comes to full expression as the result of the great evolutionary process, initiated in Aries. The life of God which in this sign is "swung into activity" eventually achieves consummation. Latency becomes potency and midnight merges into midday. God, the Father, rules.

2. The power of Venus is lessened in this sign. It is a detrimental sign to Venus. The reason for this is that when the Sun is exalted and blazes forth in all its glory, the other lesser luminaries fade out. Just as the personality is lost sight of in the light of the soul, the solar Angel, so the soul itself disappears and its power and radiance fade out when the Presence, which it has hitherto veiled, appears and dominates the scene at the end of the greater world cycle. We are told that the incarnating Minds, human beings, the solar Angels, came originally from Venus, but they in turn give place to the monad, the One. Mind gives place to intuition and reason to pure perception.

3. Saturn "falls" in Aries. This has two meanings, for this is a dual sign. First: Saturn is the Lord of Karma, the imposer of retribution and the one who demands full payment of all debts and who therefore condemns us to the struggle for existence, both from the form side and from the soul side. Saturn, therefore, "fell" when man fell into generation. He "followed the sons of men down into their low place." Second: Saturn's power is completely ended and his work accomplished when man (the spiritual man) has freed himself from Karma and from the power of the two Crosses—the Common and the Fixed. Esoterically, Saturn cannot follow man on to the Cardinal Cross.

The decanates can also be dealt with in two ways, according to the direction in which man is travelling upon the wheel and therefore entering the sign, speaking in symbols. If he enters Aries when on the Common Cross he will come under the influence of Mars, the Sun and Jupiter, according to Sepharial. This means conflict, revelation and the successful satisfaction of desire and ambition as the aeons pass away. When he reorients himself and mounts the Fixed Cross, he comes under the influence of Jupiter, the Sun and Mars, for the initiate and the disciple culminates his career in any of the signs with a final and dominant struggle and fight.

I would remark here that Alan Leo had a glimpse of the inner significance of the decanates when he assigned Mars, the Sun and Venus to the three decanates. He touched the truth of the inner subjective reversal upon the wheel which brings in other energies and influences when he substituted Venus for Jupiter. Mind and heart must be coordinated and brought into play when the great reversal takes place.

We have seen that Aries is the sign of beginnings—the beginning of the creative process, the first step of the soul (the microcosm of the already initiated Macrocosm) towards incarnation, the beginning of recurring and constant cycles of experience, the beginning of the period wherein the soul changes its direction, its purpose and its method, and finally enters upon that definitely defined process which we call spiritual regeneration and initiation.

There are four words of vital importance upon which we shall ring the changes, as we study the path of evolution, or the progress of the soul around the great wheel, both as a personality and as a disciple, headed towards the final liberating process. These four words express the subjective impulses and motives and, in reality, introduce four different cycles of progress upon the Path in its various stages of individualisation to initiation. They are:

1. Re-creation in which the influence of Cancer, combined with that of Aries, produces the pull into incarnation upon the physical plane.

2. Regeneration in which the growing influence of the Fixed Cross, playing upon the Mutable Cross, produces those interior changes which eventually lead to

3. Reorientation or the great cycle of repolarisation which takes place through the influence of Libra (the Cardinal Cross) and the "swerving of the Bull in mid-career," as it is called in the ancient books. This process of reorientation leads to a passage around the wheel in which, steadily and persistently, the inner subjective man comes into outer manifested expression and the personality recedes into the background. Finally, there come twelve lives within the final stage as:

4. Renunciation is experienced and the disciple or initiate renounces all for the love of humanity and its service, and lays himself upon the altar of sacrifice. He achieves, as a result, the final liberation.

This liberation is, in reality, twelve-fold in nature, for liberation, victory and triumph have to be experienced in every sign, just as captivity, defeat and failure have been experienced in all the signs of the zodiac, whilst the man is functioning as a personality. It is these four words and their significance which will underlie all that I have to say to you anent the dual experience upon the great wheel of life. I would ask you to bear this definitely in mind.

Going through the great cycle from Aries to Taurus, the man reenters the sign Aries again under the potent impression of Taurus, which at this stage of development feeds his ardent desire for the many material advantages of physical incarnation and of constant worldly undertakings; thus after a period of re-creation, he passes out into incarnation in Pisces and begins again the great round of manifested life, for Pisces is the ocean wherein he is "the fish," controlled by the laws of substance or material existence. In the second great stage, he passes from Aries to Taurus, because desire has at last been transmuted into aspiration. After proving his steadfastness to the ideal of the spiritual life in the intervening signs, he passes again into Pisces, from the opposite direction to his usual procedure, having earned the right to mount the Cardinal Cross of the Heavens, the power to take a final planetary initiation and the privilege of passing on to one of the seven paths to which I have made reference in my other books; these eventually give him "the freedom of the seven solar systems," as it is called in contradistinction to "the freedom of the seven planetary spheres," which the experience of initiation has guaranteed him, after a process of intensive training in one or other of the planetary schools (according to his ray type) and the path of service chosen.

You will see, therefore, the significance of the two keywords of the sign Aries:

1. The Man:  "And the Word said: Let form again be sought." 
2. The Initiate:  "I come forth and from the plane of mind, I rule." 

Experience leads to rulership and in this sign the man who is embodied first ray force develops the power of organisation, of control over forces, particularly over the energy of death, over the power of destruction applied with love, of dominance over multitudes, of cooperation with the plan and the practice of the Will in rightly and correctly guiding and directing planetary affairs.

Before we take up the remaining eleven signs of the zodiac, and in order to give you a clear framework upon which to build the new astrology by means of which you can grasp the dual procedure of the soul around the great wheel, I would point out that what I have given you on Aries will be dealt with also as we consider the other signs.

You will find that I have indicated significances and pointed out some of the truths which can be found in connection with:

1. The keynote of the signs. These express the underlying effect upon the man as he progresses in one of two directions.

2. The Nature of the Cross upon which the man is crucified at any one time.

3. The influence of the planetary Rulers—orthodox or esoteric.

4. The Rays which primarily express themselves through a particular sign; the clue to which sign it         may be is found in the orthodox planetary ruler where the personality ray is concerned and the esoteric planetary ruler where the soul is concerned.

5. The Qualities of the sign and of the man who has come forth in a particular sign.

6. The interplay between a sign and its polar opposite.

7. The planets which are exalted, in detriment, or which fall in any particular sign, for a study of these will indicate the three phases of the Path—with its involutionary cycle of becoming increasingly involved in matter, or life upon the Mutable Cross, the interlude of readjustment or struggle for liberation which leads to the mounting of the Fixed Cross, and the period of liberation with the final mounting of the Cardinal Cross.

8. The significance of the key words for the modes of progress through the signs.

9. The underlying theme of any specific zodiacal sign, covered by the ideas of re-creation, regeneration, reorientation and renunciation.

Before taking up these matters in connection with Pisces, there are one or two points upon which I would like to touch. I have to take up certain problems as they may arise in the consciousness of the enquirers and the students, because it is impossible to handle them all at once in the introductory remarks. The confusion would then be well nigh insuperable in the mind of the enquirer. Little by little, we will deal with the various debatable points, and if you will have patience and hold back partisan conclusions, the picture of the new astrology will begin to emerge more clearly in your minds. At present, the readjustment of your ideas leads to inevitable temporary bewilderment.

One of the questions which normally arises might be expressed as follows, and was so expressed by an interested astrological student. It involved the following inquiry: Granted the inevitability of a man eventually reversing the mode of his passage through the twelve signs, at what time and in which sign does the Sun reverse? At what point in the swing of the zodiac can this reversal in the Sun itself be seen taking place?

Unless you have some grasp of the nature of the great illusion of the constitution of the Sun, it will be hard for you to understand the significance of my reply. The sun to which you are referring is the physical Sun and its apparent path in the heavens. This "appearance" will not outwardly change and—here is the statement of importance—the real Sun under which our planetary life will eventually function and to which response will be made is the Heart of the Sun. When that is controlling, the spiritual man will then live a dual life simultaneously (which is ever the problem of the man who is illumined by the soul as well as by the light of day) and this dual life will consist of our apparent experience and situations and our inner spiritual soul awareness.

The personality will still respond to influences coming to it from the physical Sun but the motivated life activity and the subjective experience of the inner man will be conditioned by energies coming to him from the "Heart of the Sun."

I would here recall to your minds the teaching of the Ageless Wisdom as given in The Secret Doctrine and elaborated by me in my later books, that the Sun has to be discovered and known in its triple nature which is threefold as is the Trinity.

The tabulation below may serve to make this idea somewhat clearer:

1. Physical Sun                 Form                 Personality                 Mutable Cross
2. Heart of the Sun                 Soul                 Consciousness                Fixed Cross
3. Central Spiritual Sun         Life                                         Cardinal Cross

By the word "influencing" I here refer to the energies pouring from these three aspects of the Sun through the three Crosses to our planet. Ponder on this and remember also that our Sun is travelling through space (carrying our solar system along in its sphere of influence) around our own central and conditioning star which it has been rightly presumed exists in the constellation Taurus, the Bull, being found in the Pleiades. At the same time it appears, from the standpoint of our planet, to be passing through the twelve signs of the zodiac; this is a symbol macrocosmically considered, of the dramatic centralised point of view of the individual human being, the microcosm. It is interesting to compare the symbolism and the underlying truth connected with the lesser and the greater zodiacs and with their twelve month and their 25,000 year cycles. They bear out much that I have given you anent the soul, influenced by the esoteric planets eventually, and the personality, influenced by the orthodox planets. The greater zodiac is symbolic of the soul and the lesser of the personality. In the personality cycle, the lesser zodiac conditions the personality career and the twelve planetary houses are of dominant importance. Later the influence of the twelve signs supersedes the influence of the planets.

I would like also to emphasise—perhaps unnecessarily—that Sirius, the Great Bear and the Pleiades work through the medium of the twelve constellations, pouring their influences through nine of them in particular, but that these major constellations are not part of the zodiac with which we are concerned. They, with the seven solar systems of which ours is one, are the ten constellations connected with a still greater zodiac which is not conditioned by the numerical significance of the number twelve. Hence ten is regarded as the number of perfection. There is confusion in the minds of some of the less learned students (astrologically considered) on this point.

It is rather difficult for you also to grasp that the involutionary process for all the kingdoms of nature is related to the passage of the soul (this time the anima mundi or world soul) from Aries to Pisces, via Taurus and not vice versa. The anima mundi on the involutionary arc proceeds this way and not as the personality proceeds. The anima mundi passes to Pisces at the close of every great cycle and not to Taurus. It emerges into outer manifestation in Cancer, the sign of mass or group life, of mass or group activity; its diffused consciousness has not yet been individualised as has the consciousness of man.

When the world soul after having progressed around the Great Wheel, reached Cancer and the time came for the fourth Creative Hierarchy to manifest through the fourth kingdom in nature, a reversal took place and then proceeded as now. It should be remembered with emphatic care that it is only man, individualised man whose progress we are studying, plus his reactions to zodiacal and planetary influences; we are dealing with his reactions, mental and emotional, to the great illusion and to spiritual reality as these two work in his life, objective and subjective. We have, in the larger issue, to consider the influence of the zodiac and the planets upon:

1. The spirit of the Earth, the embodiment of the physical planet and the sum total of the form life in  all the kingdoms of nature. These are the expression of the anima mundi or of the world soul.

2. Humanity, the individualised and finally initiated man. This is the embodiment of the human soul or ego, a differentiation of the world soul, which expresses itself as a personality (a correspondence to the spirit of the planet) and finally as a spiritual soul (a correspondence to the planetary Logos).

3. The Lord of the Planet, one of the great Lives or Sons of God, at present regarded as "an imperfect God" as far as our planet is concerned and yet, from the angle of humanity, perfect indeed.

The preceding triple division expresses the three major aspects of the ancient and esoteric science of astrology and its three divisions as the Hierarchy today studies them. Humanity, having lost the consciousness which permits contact with the spirit of the planet (sub-human consciousness, and which was the basis of animism) and having not yet developed the consciousness which permits him to enter into the Life and Mind of the planetary Logos, has dealt only with the second division and that in its lowest aspect.

Exoteric astrology has said and it is widely accepted that Vulcan, Uranus, Pluto and Neptune do not govern signs but only have affinity with them. I am touching upon this here because we are going to consider the planet Pluto in relation to Pisces. This affinity has only stated a partial truth and is only temporarily true from the standpoint of the modern astrologer. Their existence has only been inferred or discovered within the last two or three centuries though it has always been known to the Hierarchy.

I have indicated to you the signs of which they are the rulers and the astrology of the future will accept my statement and work with these planets. Much earlier in human history, they had to accept the fact of Mars and Mercury as rulers of zodiacal signs in a hypothetical manner, and then start to prove the accuracy of the hypothesis. Ancient astrology was obviously incomplete but until man became patently responsive to the influences which come to him from Uranus or Pluto, for instance, which affect the soul life far more than they do the personality life, they remained undiscovered except by trained esotericists. Today, humanity is rapidly responding to the higher spiritual influences and, therefore, we can look for the discovery of increasingly subtle forces.

PISCES, THE FISHES

This sign is also dual. In Aries we have the duality which is attached to the bringing together of spirit and matter in the great creative activity of manifestation at the beginning of the evolutionary cycle, whilst in Pisces we have the fusion or blending of soul and form as far as man is concerned, producing the manifestation of the Incarnated Christ, the perfected individual soul, the completed manifestation of the microcosm. Thus the greater and the lesser polar opposites—the human being and God, the microcosm and the Macrocosm—are brought to their destined expression and manifestation. Until man is nearing the goal, these words mean but little though a study of the sign Pisces in the two ways intended may reveal much that is significant and suggestive.

The goal of Deity, the emergence of God's plan and the nature of His eternal purpose is for us only a subject of interested speculation. There is a possibility that this plan and purpose may be vastly different to our surmise which is based upon our formulation of a Deity who is the product of our mental processes and of devoted idealism (two of the three aspects of the personality nature), and the attempt to interpret His infinite purposes in terms of our own finiteness. Let us always remember this. The mechanism for divine perception has not yet been developed in the human family on any large scale and is only achieving some measure of usefulness in the initiate of the third degree.

This duality of Pisces must be studied in relation to its three keynotes which are:

1. Bondage or captivity.
2. Renunciation or detachment.
3. Sacrifice and death.

In the first cycle of experience upon the wheel, the soul itself is in captivity to substance; it has come down into the prison house of matter and linked itself to form. Hence the symbol of Pisces, of the two fishes linked together by a band. One fish stands for the soul and the other for the personality or form nature, and between them is to be found the "thread or sutratma," the silver cord which keeps them bound to each other throughout the cycle of manifested life. Later on, upon the reversed wheel, the personality is brought into captivity by the soul, but for long aeons the situation is reversed and the soul is the prisoner of the personality. This dual bondage is brought to an end by what is called the final death, when the complete release of the life aspect from the life of form takes place.

It should be borne in mind also that the soul itself is of the nature of form from the standpoint of the Monad, though it is a form far subtler than any that we know in the three worlds of human evolution. There is also a dual renunciation referred to in these key words, for first of all the soul renounces the life and light of the Monad, its source (symbolized by the words "the Father's home"), and descends into the ocean of matter; then, reversing itself, the soul renounces the life of form, the personality centre. The soul detaches itself (in consciousness) from the Monad, the One, and functions from its own centre, making its own new and material attachments. Then, upon the reversal of the wheel, it proceeds to detach itself from the personality and re-attach itself in consciousness to the One Who sent it forth. Such is the climaxing story of Pisces.

The Lords of Will and Sacrifice come down into manifestation, sacrificing their high position and opportunities upon the higher planes of manifestation in order to redeem matter and raise the lives by which it is informed (the lower Creative Hierarchies) to the status of Themselves in so far as They constitute the fourth Creative Hierarchy. This is the subjective purpose, underlying the sacrifice of these divine Lives Who are ourselves essentially, Who are qualified by knowledge, love and will, and animated by ceaseless persevering devotion. They seek to bring about the death of the form in its occult significance and the consequent release of the indwelling lives into a higher state of consciousness. Of this process, all the world Saviours—past, present and to come—are the manifested symbols and the eternal guarantees. It is in such recognitions as these that the mainspring to the life of service must be sought. People born in this sign are frequently to be found serving the race and ministering to its needs upon some level of consciousness. Thus they are prepared for the final sacrifice in Pisces which "absorbs them back into their originating Motive," as the Old Commentary expresses it. It is for this reason that the life of service and the directed intention to serve constitute a scientific mode of achieving release. In Aquarius, the sign of world service, the lesson is finally learned which produces the world Saviour in Pisces. Hence my constant emphasis upon service.

When the individual man enters upon his cycle of incarnations, and emerges in the sign Cancer, which is found in the Cardinal Cross, he metaphorically mounts the Mutable Cross and his long term of imprisonment in form begins and the lessons of servitude must be learned. He goes on learning until he has transformed servitude into service. He alternates between the pairs of opposites, both from the astral, emotional angle and from the point of view of the four arms of the Mutable Cross. The fluid, sensitive temperament in Pisces—mediumistic and psychically polarised—must be stabilised in Virgo, in which sign mental introspection and critical analysis become possible and serve to arrest the fluidity of Pisces. These two signs balance each other. We might study the dual process taking place upon the wheel through the medium of the Mutable Cross of which Pisces forms a part in the following manner:

1. Pisces: Here the beginner upon the way of life starts with a material receptivity which will enable him to respond to all contacts in the cycle of manifestation. He is, at this stage, negative, fluid and endowed with an instinctual consciousness which contains within itself the potentiality of the intuition. But the seed of the intuition is dormant. The mind which is the instrument of reception from the intuition is, at this stage, unawakened.

2. Sagittarius: Here the ordinary man begins to demonstrate a tendency to become more focussed and the fluidity and negativity of Pisces become concentrated upon the attainment of that which is desired. The man demonstrates one-pointed selfish instincts and though he may be, for instance, friendly and kind, it is through a desire for popularity. This is a good expression of the individual Sagittarian subject and shows also the tendency of the soul to turn all evil eventually into good. The lessons of life are being learned and experiment is going on.

3. Virgo: In Virgo, the man who was fluid in Pisces and emotionally selfish and full of desire in Sagittarius, begins to focus still more intently and to reason and think. The latent soul is becoming interiorly active; a germination process is proceeding; the hidden man is making his presence felt. The intellect is awakening and instinct—after passing through the emotional stage—is being transmuted into intellect.

4. Gemini: In the undeveloped man or the average man, the experiences undergone on three arms of the Mutable Cross have brought him to the stage where the "dream of life" can be changed into the recognition of the reality, and the Great Illusion can be seen as undesirable and untrue. The sense of duality is, at this stage, instinctual but becoming increasingly real and steadily more complex. The man begins to dream of stability, of ordered changes and of union with that which he senses to be the most real part of himself. The mystical vision emerges into his consciousness and he becomes aware of the higher self through the first faint flickerings of the intuition.

The experience upon the Mutable Cross lasts a long time, and carries the man always back again and again into the sphere of influence of Aries which, through the ruling activity of the first ray, both strengthens the will of the man (no matter what his ray) and ends cycle after cycle with the "word of destruction." Again and again, he enters into the sign Pisces and finds his way around the great wheel until the experience of change and of mutability and the establishing of the transmutation process carry his consciousness from the instinctual and intellectual stages to the faint beginnings of the intuitive processes in Gemini. Then comes a great process of polarisation and a moment of transference, after which the influence of the Fixed Cross causes reversal and the lessons gained upon the Mutable Cross have to be worked out and the effects demonstrated upon the Fixed Cross. It must not be thought that, in the early stages of unfoldment, experience is gained only through the Mutable Cross. The man lives in and experiences in all the signs, but the influences pouring through the Mutable Cross have a more potent effect upon him than those pouring in the early stages through the Fixed Cross. It is only when the soul is becoming more alive within the form and the man is aware of his duality that the energies of the Fixed Cross supersede in effectiveness those of the Mutable Cross, just as after the third initiation the energies of the Cardinal Cross begin to control the man and are of more insistent incentive than those of the other two crosses.

When the soul is becoming more active, the effect of the Fixed Cross will be seen working out in the four signs along with the effects of forces of the Mutable Cross for "that which is dominated and relinquished is held firmly and transformed."

Gemini: The man upon the reversing wheel in Gemini becomes increasingly aware of the intuition and increasingly under the influence of "the Brothers who live in the Light," as the Twins are sometimes called. The light of the personality dims and the light of the soul waxes. The fluidity of Pisces and the undeveloped Gemini gives place to the responsiveness of the personality to soul impression and consequent stabilising of the life on the physical plane.

Virgo: The mind, under the influence of Virgo, which has been analytical and critical, changes to that quality of mind which is best described by the words, illumination and revelation. The Christ to whom the Virgin must eventually give birth is recognised as present in the womb, though not yet born. Life is recognised. The process of the revelation of the Christ consciousness is carried intelligently forward and the selfish aspirations and experiments of the undeveloped man give place to the selflessness of the illumined and intuitive disciple.

Sagittarius: This is now the sign of the one-pointed disciple. The life of fluid response to matter becomes that of the focussed response to spirit and preparation for initiation in Capricorn. The arrow of the mind is projected unerringly towards the goal.

Pisces: Here, at the final stage, Pisces stands for the death of the personality and the release of the soul from captivity and its return into the task of the world Saviour. The great achievement is finished and the final death is undergone. "There is no more sea" says the ancient book, which means inevitably the "death of the fishes" and the release of the imprisoned life into new forms or new cycles of the divine Adventure.

This Mutable Cross, of which Pisces is one of the arms, is predominantly the Cross of "repeated incarnations," of varied experiments under the various signs and orthodox rulers, and of those many experiences which lead to successive and continuous expansions of consciousness. It is therefore the cross of the Son of God, the incarnating Christ, though it is, in relation to this Cross, the Cross of the planetary Christ, just as the Fixed Cross is that of the individual Christ in each human being, and the Cardinal Cross is that of the cosmic Christ. It might here be noted that the Cross with which we are here concerned is that of the mass, and that the consciousness which it exemplifies is that of the instinctual consciousness and its merging into the intellectual consciousness; it is the Cross of the anima mundi and of the human soul before the consciousness of duality is clear in the mind of the man and before transfer is made on to the Fixed Cross. It is consequently more closely allied to the Cardinal Cross of the Heavens, for the mass consciousness, which is the significant consciousness of the Mutable Cross, becomes the group consciousness or the synthetic consciousness of divinity, after passing through the interim period or the "vital interlude" of the intense self-consciousness of the man upon the Fixed Cross.

This human interlude is in the nature of a cross section in the development of consciousness, but the main emphasis is the unfoldment of the mass consciousness of all the kingdoms in nature into the group consciousness of the three highest kingdoms through the mediatorship of the human kingdom which, through its peculiar and specific type of awareness, can relate the higher and the lower expressions of divinity. It is here and in this connection that the sign Pisces is of much importance, as it is the sign of mediatorship. Mediumship in its true meaning is expressive of the mass consciousness—impressibility, negativity and receptivity. These points will become clearer as we study the signs and their many inter-relations. The thought I wish to convey to you here is that at this stage the influence of Pisces on the involutionary arc, and as the Sun retrogrades through the signs, is felt largely in the anima mundi and in the hidden, incarnated and imprisoned Christ; the germ of the Christ life is psychically impressed, becoming constantly more sensitive to these psychical impressions, swept by desire which ever changes, constantly aware of all impinging contacts, but unable as yet to interpret them correctly, for the mind has not been awakened adequately in Virgo. This hidden Christ is unable to free itself from "contact with the Water."

That point is eventually reached and is being reached with great rapidity in the present human stage where another and major change is deemed desirable and this is the result of the many lesser changes. Change is ever needed but the method changes itself from the constant variability and mutability of the Mutable Cross to certain changes of a major kind which are brought about by a more permanent and directed life tendency.

The man at this stage has within him the potencies and the characteristics of the indwelling Christ, but they are not manifesting and are only latent possibilities for he is as yet entirely controlled by his form nature (the prison) and his environment. The hidden powers of the soul are negative and the powers of the form nature are positive and beginning to find increasingly potent expression. The natural spiritual tendencies of man are inhibited (for Pisces is often a sign of inhibition and hindrances) and the natural animal and personality powers—particularly the emotional—are the obvious and visible qualities of the man. A good deal of symbolism connected with the latent Christ and the outer expressive personality can be seen if a study is made of the Biblical story of Jonah and the whale. I have not time to enlarge upon it here, but it is a parable concerned with the Piscean stage of consciousness and the awakening of the Christ consciousness with the consequent dispute which that entails. Jonah stands for the hidden imprisoned Christ, alive to the perils of the situation, and the whale of large size stands for the bondage of incarnation and for the personality.

It is in this dual sign that the imprisoned soul and the personality enter upon that process which transmutes:

1. The lower nature into the higher manifestation.

2. The lower psychical powers into the higher spiritual faculties:

1. Negativity into positive soul control.
2. Mediumship into mediatorship.
3. Clairvoyance into spiritual perception.
4. Clairaudience into mental telepathy and finally inspiration.
5. Instinct into intellect.
6. Selfishness into divine selflessness.
7. Acquisitiveness into renunciation.
8. Self-preservation into selfless world service.
9. Self-pity into compassion, sympathy and divine understanding.

3. Spiritual and mental inhibition into soul expression and mental sensitivity.

4. Devotion to the needs of the self into developed devotion and response to the needs of humanity.

5. Attachment to environment and to personality conditions (identification with form) into detachment from form and ability to identify with the soul.

The ordinary low-grade medium is the outstanding example of the worst aspects of Pisces—negativity, impressionability, animal and emotional sensitivity with complete undevelopment of the mental principle. It would be of interest to find out two things scientifically:

1. Whether the majority of the lowest kind of medium (trance mediums in particular) have Pisces dominant in some powerful manner in their charts.

2. Whether those mediums who are becoming more positive and more self-controlled and who are beginning to get a glimpse of the higher correspondences in their work—mediatorship and interpretive activity—have not got Virgo appearing somewhere with real potency and activity. This might indicate the awakening of the mind, in the first instance, and eventually that there was a shift in the influence controlling them, from the orthodox planetary rulership to that of the more esoteric planets. It might be added that spiritualism and the work of the spiritualistic movement are under the influence of Pisces with Cancer rising, or in some stages with the reverse—Cancer with Pisces rising.

As regards the rays which express themselves through the planetary rulers and which absorb or collaborate with the influences of the sign Pisces and thus influence our planet and humanity, we find a most interesting situation. Two major rays express themselves through the rulers of Pisces, orthodox and esoteric: The first Ray of Will or Power, focussed through Pluto, and the second Ray of Love- Wisdom. It is the interplay of these dual potencies which:

1. Produces the duality of this sign.

2. Brings about the major problem of Pisces—psychic sensitivity.

3. Causes the lure of the Path, in the first instance the path of evolution and later the lure of the probationary path with the consequence that transference to the Fixed Cross (which is all that we can intelligently comprehend) begins really in Pisces; though impulsed (if I may use such a word) in Aries it begins and ends in Pisces.

4. Precipitates the process of transmutation and eventual escape through death.

5. Unfolds the significance, activity and beauty of death and of the work of the destroyer.

From this it will be apparent how important and powerful is this sign. Through its orthodox ruler, Jupiter, that force is brought to bear which "brings all together" and—in this case—relates the two fishes and binds them together in a functioning relationship. It is the activity consequently of the second ray force which relates soul and form and brings the two together, and this magnetic potency is peculiarly descriptive of the activity of Pisces. From another angle and in a dual sign, this can also be seen working out in Gemini. In Pisces, there is demonstrated the captivity angle of relationship and the two fishes are unable to escape from each other; in Gemini there is also a definite relationship between the two brothers but there is no connecting band, and in that relationship is latent free choice and free determination. In connection with a lesser duality found in every human being, that of head and heart, of mind and love, and of will and wisdom, the work of Jupiter is to develop these two qualities and bring them into synthetic interplay.

Eventually there has to be the complete fusion of love and mind before a world saviour can manifest and function efficiently, and this is pre-eminently the final result of the forces of the Mutable Cross, as they work out the qualities released by the planets active in Pisces, Sagittarius, Virgo and Gemini.

These planets are:

• Orthodox: Jupiter and Mercury.

• Esoteric: Pluto, the Earth, the Moon (hiding Vulcan) and Venus.

As you know, Pluto stands for death or the region of death; the Earth stands for the sphere of experience; the Moon or Vulcan stands for the glorification of matter, through purification and detachment, and Venus stands for the emergence of the love principle through the directing power of the mind. Students will find it interesting to work out the implications for themselves. Orthodox astrology assigns only two planets to these four signs, which in itself indicates a definite interplay. Jupiter and its influences indicate that the way of incarnation is the "beneficent" method of evolutionary unfoldment and that the way of love-wisdom (2nd ray) is the way for humanity to go.

Mercury indicates that the line of least resistance for humanity is harmony through conflict, for Mercury expresses the fourth ray energy which is buddhic, intuitional and expressive of the Christ, as Mercury and the Sun are one. But the esoteric planets are more explicit in their inferences and man appears, when ready for their influence, to be responsive in a fourfold way which he is not in the earlier stages. They embody the recognitions and the reactions which condition man's consciousness when he is preparing to transfer off the Mutable Cross and mount the Fixed Cross. He comes, therefore:

1. Through Venus—under the power of mind, transmuted into wisdom through the instrumentality of love.

2. Through the Moon—under the bondage of form in order through form experience to achieve release and the "uplift of matter" in Vulcan.

3. Through the Earth—under the influence of planetary experience (which is different to individual experience) in order to transmute his personal consciousness into group awareness.

4. Through Pluto—under the destroying power of death—death of desire, death of the personality and of all which holds him between the pairs of opposites, in order to achieve the final liberation. Pluto or death never destroys the consciousness aspect.

Six planets, therefore, govern the Mutable Cross as far as humanity is concerned and this in itself is significant, for six is the number of the great work of the period of manifestation, is the number of "the Beast," which is the lower nature as far as man is concerned, and is all that which seeks to destroy the higher life, but also that which can be controlled and directed finally by the soul. The significance of numbers enters into this science of esoteric astrology, and numerology, as it is, per se, a branch of esoteric astrology. Love—Mind—Experience—Form—Human Understanding—Death: these are the keynotes of the fourth Creative Hierarchy, the human kingdom and they are embodied in the planetary influences which pour through these planets from their allied signs. Through the activity of these forces which work at this stage through the Mutable Cross, man is brought to a great Crisis of Polarisation and to a point of basic change for which all the earlier and many changes have prepared him.

It is these words also which, from a different angle, govern the processes undergone upon the Path of Discipleship and of Probation. The task of the disciple is to understand their significance in a practical and effective manner and to deal with the energies which these planets release, subordinating them to the energies released by the Fixed Cross upon which he stands, and thus increase their potency through occult combination. It is by achieving intelligent and active response to the energies released and earlier mastered through the experience of the Mutable Cross, and by relating them to the potencies let loose upon him whilst crucified upon the Fixed Cross, that he learns to prepare himself for the twelve great tests in all the twelve signs for which the experience of the two Crosses prepares him.

Pisces governs the feet and hence the whole thought of progress, of attaining the goal, and the treading of the Path of Return has been the underlying spiritual revelation of the great cycle through which we are passing; also, in the Piscean Age, the lesser cycle out of which we are at this time moving, it has been the origin of all the teaching given by the world religions anent the various stages of the Path of Return. Some astrologers hold also that Pisces governs the generative processes. They are essentially correct because once a man is nearing or upon the Path he should become increasingly creative in the higher sense and the physical generative processes should give place esoterically to regeneration and to creation upon the mental plane instead of only upon the physical plane. This higher creative functioning becomes possible under the influence of aspiration and intuition. This begins to take place when the four esoteric rulers supplement the activity of the two orthodox rulers. It is interesting to note that the astrologer, Alan Leo, suggests Neptune as an alternative to Jupiter. He sensed and touched upon a mystery of initiation though he did not realise the magnitude of his discovery. Neptune focusses the influence of Pisces as it concerns humanity as a whole and not just the individual man, but this only takes place towards the final stages of the Path of Discipleship. Today humanity is moving rapidly towards the position of the World Disciple, and intuiting this, he suggests Neptune as an alternative to Jupiter.

Esoterically, the reason that Venus is exalted in Pisces is connected with the relation of Pisces to the sign Gemini, of which Venus is the esoteric ruler, and also in relation to the fact that Venus is the Earth's alter ego and is closely related to the human kingdom. This subject is too vast and complicated to be elaborated here, but the point should be remembered. The Fishes in Pisces are bound together, as we have seen, and this is a symbol of the captivity of the soul in form, prior to the experience upon the Fixed Cross. The Twins in Gemini are symbols of the same basic duality, but the experience of the many changing incarnations has done its work, and the Band (uniting the two fishes) is in process of dissolution, for part of the work of Pluto is to "cut the thread which binds the two opposing lives together." It is the task of Venus to "reunite the severed lives but with no binding thread." Therefore, Venus is exalted in Pisces and at the end of the greater cycle, the Sons of God who are the Sons of Mind are raised up into glory through experience and crucifixion because they have learned to love and truly reason. The influence of Pisces, Gemini and Virgo is eventually fused and blended (symbolically the Cross must always become the line and then the point). Sagittarius, which is governed esoterically by Mother Earth, produces those conditions whereby the Path itself achieves glorification.

Consequently, you have at the end of the age (I refer here to a greater round of the zodiac and to no shorter cycle), the glorification of Venus, of Virgo, the Virgin, and of Mother Earth—two planets and one constellation—and all these are potencies which produce definite changes in the solar system. They represent the three divine potencies of matter and of substance, plus the force of Sagittarius driving them on to a still greater consummation.

There is a wide and interesting field of research to be found in the relation of:

1. The planet Venus—ruler of the constellation Gemini.
2. The Earth on which we live, called often "Mother Earth."
3. The Fish-goddesses of the sign Pisces.
4. Virgo, the Virgin.

Gemini and Sagittarius are connected through their ruling planets (because the Earth is more closely related to Venus than to any other planet) and thus again you have the six potencies which produce release from the bondage of form, entered into in Cancer as far as the mass of humanity is concerned (by this I mean the birth of the human kingdom) and in Pisces as far as the individual is considered.

In pointing out the significance of the above facts, I am not considering the orthodox astrological reasons for the exaltation and the fall of certain planets in certain signs, I am concerned with the effect of the waxing and the waning influence upon the subject, man. Bear this in mind and—at the same time—remember that we are occupied with the Great Illusion which it is the major task of man in this particular world cycle to master and dissipate, and so to inaugurate the reign of the Real. It is the revelation of the Real which is the task all initiates undertake after the final experience of the twelve final tests in the twelve signs. Therefore, when we find that the power of Mercury is lessened in Pisces and that it finally "falls" in that sign, what is the esoteric and spiritual meaning? Simply, that after the stage of initiation in Capricorn, as the result of the reversal of the wheel and the consequent experiences, and after the triumph of Scorpio, the power of the mind lessens steadily till finally (like other aspects of form life in the three worlds) it comes to an end and its meaning and illuminating aspects between soul and physical brain are no longer required. The man, coming definitely into full soul consciousness, requires now no mediator but deals directly himself with his emanating source.

Mercury is then met with again under another name, this time as the Sun, mediating between the higher aspects—soul and spirit—for Mercury and the Sun are One. Through Mercury, the mind is illumined and relation is established between personality and the soul. As Mercury, the Sun—the mediator—shifts to a still higher plane and is no longer mediator between two different stages in consciousness but between life and consciousness itself; this is a very different matter and effects the higher understanding. This will necessarily be incomprehensible to you at present for it is not a mediatorship between differences but a fusion of what is already related.

The same symbolic mode of interpretation must govern also our understanding of the three decanates. Both Leo and Sepharial give a list of the decanates and between them there is much resemblance but there is, however, an important difference. Leo approaches the closer to the esoteric interpretation of astrology whilst Sepharial is purely exoteric. According to Sepharial, the three decanates are governed by Saturn—Jupiter—Mars, presenting opportunity to work off karma and to be successful in so doing and indicating the method employed, that of conflict and of war. Leo gives us Jupiter, the Moon and Mars. He indicates, therefore, the success which is incident to proved discipleship and consequent readiness for initiation, the seeing of the vision with which Jupiter rewards the disciple, and the experience which Vulcan confers. Vulcan has been hitherto hidden, but its influence has steadily superseded all lunar control, for the personality or form side of life is lost to sight in the radiance of the Sun, the soul. The light of Vulcan and the light of the Sun are one light and these three—Mercury, Vulcan and the Sun—stand for a synthesis and a radiance which eventually dims the light of Mercury and it "falls" into the background and Vulcan too becomes invisible and only the Sun remains. We have consequently a vision of the Sun, the experience of the personality and effort, which is the mode of attainment governed by Mars.

The keywords of this sign are obvious in their implications. Where the personality is concerned and the wheel rotates in the normal manner for the ordinary average or undeveloped person, the Word is "And the Word said, Go forth into matter." The command of the soul to its instrument during the earlier stages of evolution goes forth and the response comes immediately from the one who "blinds the soul to truth, holding it in durance vile." These words you are amply able to interpret for yourselves and from your own standpoint which is the only standpoint of service to you, indicating to you what lies behind upon the path of evolution, the point upon the Path where you now stand and the immediate step, vision, experience and effort which lie ahead.

In closing what I have to say about the constellation Pisces, I would, at this point, make one practical suggestion which will save students much trouble in the long run. Gather together, as you read, the statements I make anent any particular sign, planet or major constellation. You will then have right under your eye the information needed on any specific point and can study successfully this complicated transitional astrology. And yet, is it any more complicated to the beginner than a textbook on physics or chemistry?

AQUARIUS, THE WATER CARRIER

This constellation is one of supreme importance to our solar system at this time, for it is the sign into which our Sun is rapidly moving and its influence is gaining in momentum and added potency with each vanishing decade. It is, therefore, largely responsible for the changes now being effected in our planetary life in all the kingdoms of nature, and, because it is an air sign, its influence is all pervasive and inter-penetrating. To many types of mind, this influence is intangible and must, therefore, be unable to produce the desired results; yet the fact is that these intangible pervasive results are of far greater potency and are far more extensive in their effects than the more concrete and spectacular happenings.

The keynotes of this sign are three in number and very easy to understand, though when they make their note felt on the reversing wheel, most difficult to demonstrate. They are:

1. The service of the personality, the lower self, which eventually transmutes itself into the service of humanity.

2. Superficial and selfish activity which changes into a deep and active intention to be active on behalf of the Hierarchy.

3. Self-conscious living which changes finally into a sensitive humanitarian awareness.

The quality of these keynotes changes from a petty and superficial nature to one of deep purpose and profound conviction. The low grade and undeveloped Aquarian upon the Mutable Cross manifests through a superficial self-awareness. This matures in Leo and becomes a deep-seated self- consciousness and a profound interest in self and its need and wishes. As the interplay goes on between Leo and Aquarius (for they are polar opposites) there comes a deepening of all qualities and the superficialities disappear until—upon the reversed wheel—the intensive self-consciousness of Leo expands into the group awareness of Aquarius. The individual becomes the universal. Man, alone and separative, becomes mankind in his reactions and awareness and yet, at the same time, preserves his individuality; he is no longer just a human being, individually self-centred and separative, but becomes humanity itself, losing his personal identity in the good of the whole yet retaining his spiritual Identity. From self-service, he proceeds to world service and yet is always the individualised Son of God until after the third initiation.

As one studies these twelve signs, it is interesting to trace the relation of consciousness to the preceding sign and to the succeeding sign. It is peculiarly so in connection with the sign Aquarius. The material, earthly quality of Capricorn becomes "dissolved into the air" in Aquarius. The individual "fish" of the other sign becomes eventually the soul, and soul quality emerges, and on the reversed wheel it demonstrates as the pervasiveness of wisdom (Pisces) and the universal love of the truly developed Aquarian. On the wheel as it "rolls onward into illusion," the wheel of the personality, the superficiality and the airy nature of the undeveloped Aquarian deepens gradually into the concrete and rocky material nature of the Capricornian. The average man in Aquarius puts all his wares into the window, and often in the room behind the window there is little to be found. Esoterically, the developed Aquarian puts all he has into his water pot, storing it there for service and giving it freely on demand to meet a need.

The sign Aquarius is also a dual sign and signifies two vibrations. It is here that its relation to Pisces emerges, for just as Pisces on the wheel of illusion, the Mutable Cross, stands for substance and bondage, in Aquarius, substance and the anima mundi or imprisoned soul begin to work in mutual tolerance, and in the higher Aquarian individual, soul and spirit are expressing themselves through substance. There is consequently an astrological relation between the band of stars in the constellation Pisces, which unites the two fishes, and the quality and nature of Aquarius which relates and binds together into one working and synthetic whole. The Aquarian recognises the bond which holds all together subjectively and in truth, whilst in Pisces the energy of relationship constitutes an imprisoning band which confines and holds captive. Think this out.

It is an error to consider the margin of contact between two signs in the passage of the Sun to be in the nature of hard and fast frontiers or set boundary lines. Such is not the case. There are no rigid lines of demarcation separating two entirely different areas of experience and consciousness upon the solar path. It only appears to be so and this itself is part of the Great Illusion.

The rulers of Aquarius are of a peculiar interest. They constitute an effective group of planets and bring in the influences of the seventh, second and fourth rays. These are pre-eminently the rays which determine the final stages of man's progress as well as the initial stages, being more potent at the beginning of the involutionary path and the end of the evolutionary path than they are in the middle period. They determine the final stages and happenings of the Path of Initiation. The seventh ray brings into expression upon the physical plane the major pairs of opposites—spirit and matter—and relates them to each other, producing eventually one functioning whole. The second ray gives soul expression and spiritual consciousness and also she power to pour out love and wisdom upon earth whilst the fourth ray indicates the field of service and the mode of attaining the goal. This mode or method is that of conflict and struggle in order to reach harmony and thus express all truly human characteristics, for the fourth ray and the fourth Creative Hierarchy constitute essentially one expression of truth.

Some astrologers assign Saturn as one of the rulers. Alan Leo does so, but I would point out that in this case he is dealing entirely with the progress of the ordinary man upon the wheel of life, and the Saturn which he senses as ruling Aquarius is the Saturnian influence of Capricorn, in which sign Saturn governs in two fields. On the reversed wheel, the Saturnian influence exhausts itself in Capricorn and the man is then free from karma and needs no presentation of opportunity for he stands a free initiate, a true Master Mason and can then proceed with world service undeterred and held back by no thought of self or selfish desire. He comes then under the influence of Uranus, that mysterious and occult planet. His will is focussed and developed by the Uranian influences and he develops into a leader. He brings about desired changes and produces those new conditions which will help the soul of humanity to express itself more freely.

Water being the symbol of substance and of material expression plus emotional motivation, Aquarius is consequently dual in its activity, and the third ray expresses itself powerfully through this sign, reaching our planet through Uranus and the Moon which hides or veils Uranus symbolically in this case. There is, therefore, to be found the double influence of Uranus, expressing the quality and bringing in the energies of the seventh ray, in one case, and the third ray in the other. The seventh ray is, in the last analysis, the focussed differentiated energy of Ray One as it expresses the will of the first aspect of divinity on earth through the power to relate and bring into objective manifestation—by an act of the will—both spirit and matter. This it brings about through the activity of Ray Three, expressing itself through humanity and its individual units, though combining with the energy of the three rays which are released through the ruling planets:

1. Uranus: Ray Seven—The will to be and to know simultaneously on all planes of manifestation.

2. Jupiter: Ray Two—The fusion of heart and mind, which is the subjective purpose of manifestation. This is brought about through the third and the seventh ray activity on the exoteric wheel.

3. The Moon: Ray Four—The will to be and to know plus the fusion of heart and mind is the result of the work carried forward in the fourth Creative Hierarchy under the influence of that energy which produces harmony through conflict.

I would here call your attention to the fact that in connection with the Moon, as it is related here to one of the Creative Hierarchies, you have in the Moon itself the exoteric influences of the ordinary mode of procedure upon the wheel of life, and in the planet which it veils and hides (in this case the planet Uranus) you have the esoteric energy which brings this Hierarchy to subjective realisation.

Uranus gives innate spontaneous activity and this produces evolutionary development—both natural and spiritual. It is the urge to better conditions.

Jupiter gives an inherent tendency to fusion which nothing can arrest. The achievement of ultimate synthesis is inevitable, and this Jupiter promotes.

The Moon brings about the inclination to create these conditions which lead to the great and critical transformations of instinct into intellect. This the moon brings about, but Uranus causes the great transference in the human consciousness from intellectual perception to intuitive knowledge. Bear in mind that the esoteric forces combine with the forces of the exoteric or orthodox planets and that they do not negate their influence. They only supplement and dominate them. The man is thereby enriched and his experience is extended and his consciousness expanded by the new energies, but all the time the effects and conditioning achieved and attained under the old influences are not altered. They have "determined" his nature and fixed his qualities and, therefore, remain persistent and energetic, but the new and deeper influences and potencies are those which in the future upon the Fixed Cross will condition and motivate gradually and steadily all his activities.

In the future, instead of speaking of the orthodox planets when dealing with the planetary influences we will speak of the exoteric and the esoteric planets and so bring our vocabulary and definitive words more into line with the inner teaching. In astrology, we are dealing all the time with the energies which produce movement and subjective and outer activity; we are concerned with the impact of many forces upon the human, the planetary and the systemic expression of life and purpose, and with the resultant effects. When these effects and activities are purely objective (and under that word I place all events and happenings going on in the three worlds of human experience—the physical, astral and mental planes) you have personality demonstration. When they are consciously related to the world of causes and are the result of "right and conscious direction" of the emanating centre, the soul, then the personality forces become subject to the diffusion of the soul energies and the personality or form nature becomes magnetic in a different manner, and so attracts to itself energies of a higher and more dynamic plane to the ones with which the man has been concerned hitherto and which he has learned to control and use; in other cases, the soul energies intensify certain of the personality forces and the effect of the exoteric planets is supplemented by an increasingly steady inflow of the energies of the esoteric planets, and these begin to have a dominantly esoteric effect.

In Capricorn, for instance, the influence of Saturn is both exoteric and esoteric; in Taurus, Vulcan has both an esoteric and hierarchical effect, whilst in Leo the Sun rules all three—the exoteric, the esoteric and the hierarchical life. This we will study somewhat later in this section and when we come to the consideration of the constellation Leo. Planetary influences are unusually potent in Aquarius during this world cycle because it is, in a peculiar way, a culminating sign for the majority of people who proceed from Aries to Pisces upon the Fixed Cross.

A rare few consummate the experience of life upon the three Crosses in the sign Pisces, and so become world saviours. They know then, and only then, the highest aspect of the first ray as it expresses itself through the activity of Death. The bulk, however, of the world initiates climax their experience in Aquarius and become liberated world servers. They turn their backs upon all further progress for themselves in this cycle and on all satisfaction of their own spiritual aspiration and become carriers of the water of life to humanity, joining thus the ranks of the Hierarchy. Those who achieve in Pisces and make the higher and further grade in their development pass into that centre to which we have given the name of Shamballa, but the bulk of the initiates and disciples remain attached to the second centre, that of the Hierarchy of Service.

Aquarius is pre-eminently a sign of constant movement, of changing activity and recurrent mutations, and the symbol for the sign is expressive of this state of activity. It is, therefore, a sign in which the significance of cycles is mastered and understood by the initiate. The results of the valley experience (to use the well-known language of the mystics of all ages) and of the mountain top with its vision and light, are very vividly depicted by the sign. The Aquarian can experience the depths of depression and of self-depreciation or he can know and pass through the exaltation of the soul and the sense of spiritual power which soul control gives, and know them to be the interplay and the action and reaction which are necessary for growth and comprehension. The law of such action and reaction is the law with which he works.

In Leo, a man's centre and point of consciousness is himself; he turns upon himself and revolves entirely upon his own axis and in respect and relation to himself, and is all the time the self-centred individual, consecrating all thought, time and service to his own well being and personal interests. But in Aquarius, the polar opposite of Leo and its sign of consummation, he becomes outgoing; there is no centre or circle of circumscribed influence but only two outgoing lines of energy, pouring from him into the world of men. The self-conscious individual in Leo becomes the conscious server in Aquarius, and this is well expressed for us in the symbols of these two signs. The Aquarian is consecrated to group service and to the welfare of humanity. The average Aquarian upon the Mutable Cross will be, for instance, a faithful employee, the adherent and worker in some firm or business within whose limits all his interests are confined and to whose welfare all he has is consecrated. Upon the Fixed Cross this consecration to others becomes world service.

Aquarius, we are told, governs the blood system and its circulation. By means of the blood, the life force is distributed throughout the entire human body. It is, therefore, symbolic of the task of the liberated Aquarian who dispenses spiritual life throughout the fourth kingdom in nature. The Aquarian influences are felt also as life-giving in other forms of planetary life and other kingdoms in nature but with these we will not deal as we are confining our attention to humanity.

Aquarius, as you know, is one of the arms of the Fixed Cross. This Cross is outstandingly the Cross of Discipleship and of the three major initiations in connection with which it might be pointed out that:

1. In Taurus—Desire is transmuted into aspiration, darkness gives place to light and illumination, the eye of the Bull is opened which is the spiritual third eye, or the "single eye" of the New Testament. "If thine eye be single," said the Christ, "thy whole body shall be full of light." This single eye takes the place of the two eyes of the personal self. The attention of the man becomes focussed upon spiritual attainment. He treads the Path of Discipleship.

2. In Leo—The self-centred man becomes eventually the soul in life expression and focussed on the achievement of the spiritual goal of selflessness. In this sign, he undergoes preparation for the first initiation and takes it also in this sign, or under this sign when it is the rising sign, becoming "the Lion who seeks his prey," that is the personality who becomes the captive of the soul.

3. In Scorpio—In this sign, the disciple undergoes those tests which will enable him to take the second initiation and demonstrate that the desire nature is subdued and conquered and that the lower nature is (by being lifted up in the air, i.e. into heaven) capable of reaching the goal for this world period, and that from the earthy foundations of Scorpio the personality can be so tested that it shows fitness for the world service demanded in Aquarius. This is beautifully expressed for us in the legend of Hercules, the Sun-God who overcomes the nine-headed Hydra or serpent of desire by being forced to his knees and from that position of humility lifts up the serpent into the air, and then deliverance comes.

4. In Aquarius—In this sign, the long effort of the soul is consummated and concludes the experience of the disciple upon the Fixed Cross. The man then takes the third initiation and becomes free from personality control, taking the next two initiations upon the Cardinal Cross.

I might here give you the following names for the three crosses taken from the ancient archives and therefore difficult to translate:

1. The Mutable Cross: The Cross of changing and absorbed Experience. This is the place of action      and of reaction, of karmic control and of response to impacts leading to the awakening of consciousness to the nature of the goal ahead.

2. The Fixed Cross: The Cross of Transmutation. Desire becomes aspiration, and selfishness is transformed into selflessness.

3. The Cardinal Cross: The Cross of Transcendence. Personality life and form life and planetary life no longer control. The man stands free.

Substance, the ocean of life, water, the symbol of desire and the impulse to incarnate are transmuted into soul light and light substance and the urge to tread consciously the path of return, plus the longing to serve. Desire is developed and focussed in Taurus when the man is upon the Mutable Cross and progressing around the zodiac. It is reoriented and repolarised in Taurus when the man has mounted the Fixed Cross and is eventually relinquished in that sign. In the polar opposite of Taurus, Scorpio, the personality is humbled and brought to grips with the soul; in that sign the personality is "occultly killed and then resurrected into air and light," in order to become from that moment the servant of the soul. In Leo, the individual awakens to his own identity, concentrates his purpose, learns the lessons and uses of selfishness (for that is one of the best ways to learn and to discover that it is contrary to the laws of the soul) and is eventually so cornered by the life processes that he becomes aware of the futility of self- interest. In Aquarius, the man awakens to the beauty of group life, group interest and his individual responsibility towards the group and begins to live his life and to spend himself in the service of humanity.

In connection with the question of consciousness, students would find it illuminating to study the subject along the following lines:

1. Subjective latent consciousness --- In Aries
2. The consciousness of duality ------ In Gemini
3. Mass consciousness ---------------- In Cancer
4. Individual self-consciousness ----- In Leo
5. Equilibrised consciousness -------- In Libra
6. Group consciousness --------------- In Aquarius

The distinction between exoteric and esoteric astrology lies in just such recognitions as listed above. Exoteric astrology deals with the characteristics and qualities of the personality and of the form aspects, and also with the events, happenings, circumstances and the conditioning environment which appear in the personal horoscope, indicative of planetary control and not of solar control. Esoteric astrology concerns itself primarily with the unfoldment of consciousness, with the impacts which awaken it to the peculiar "gifts" of any particular sign and ray endowment and with the reaction of the man and his consequent enrichment through his response to the influence of a sign, working through the esoteric planets from the angle of humanitarian awareness, of discipleship and of initiation. This deals basically with his experiences from the angle of the three Crosses, which involves first, mutation, then direction, and finally initiation. Increasingly, these three Crosses will take a prominent place in astrological delineation.

We come now to a very interesting point in connection with Aquarius. There is apparently no planet which is either exalted or "falls" in this sign. The only planet affected is the Sun, whose power is lessened. What is the symbolic significance of this? It consists in the relation of Aquarius to Capricorn and of the Fixed Cross to the Cardinal Cross and of the third initiation to those succeeding it, of the point of balance reached between Pisces and Capricorn, which focus in Aquarius. I am not here considering the orthodox mathematical or astronomical reasons, for they are, in reality, dependent upon the subjective and spiritual reasons, and it is with these that we are concerned. One of the facts which will emerge in our consciousness as we study along these esoteric lines is that all the outer indications do not indicate truth but only point the way to the subjective realities of which the outer facts are but the illusory symbols. Ponder upon this and keep an open mind.

No planet is exalted in Aquarius and no planet falls in this sign because the true Aquarian—after due experience upon the Mutable Cross and the Fixed Cross—has reached a point of balance. He is held by none of the pairs of opposites but uses them both for spiritual ends. He is hindered neither by earth nor water (Capricorn and Pisces); he has surmounted the tests of both the processes of incarnation and initiation and so stands free, distributing energy and life, symbolised by the two wavy lines.

It is interesting to bear in mind that in the progress of the soul, as far as humanity is concerned, one of the four signs of each Cross is of more importance than the others. Each sign of each of the three Crosses is related to one of the four kingdoms in nature and the preponderance of the ray influence pours through the sign to the kingdom under consideration.

In connection with humanity, the sign of importance on the three Crosses is as follows:

1. The Mutable Cross--------- Pisces
2. The Fixed Cross------------ Scorpio
3. The Cardinal Cross -------- Capricorn

In Aquarius, the initiate consummates all that has been achieved in Leo through the influence of the Sun, for in Leo there is an almost unique condition where humanity is concerned as the Sun governs all expressions—exoteric, esoteric and hierarchical. It rules the personality, the soul and the fourth Creative Hierarchy. Hence the Sun (the physical Sun) is lessened in its power in Aquarius. The third initiation has been undergone and the light of the personality has been "put out" or dimmed by the light of the subjective Sun, influencing the soul. There is much to think out here but little more can be directly indicated, as the curious fact of this triple control by a planet constitutes one of the mysteries of initiation. It is tied up with the relation between Leo and Aquarius, for Leo is unusual in having all its ruling influences concentrated through the medium of one planet. Leo indicates the height of achievement of the human soul.

We are apt to think that initiation and liberation are the achievement of the human kingdom and the attainment of humanity. This is not the case. Initiation is an achievement and an attained success of the soul which has at last succeeded in dominating the personality and in manifesting its true nature and character, in spite of the personality and the antagonism of the human being intent upon his own purposes. It is literally the attainment of certain desired objectives, towards which the units of the fifth kingdom in nature have been working for aeons, and expresses the end of the enforced task and sacrifice and planetary service. This achievement reaches its goal at the third initiation and from that time on man, liberated and free, serves from free choice and as a soul, conscious of intent and purpose upon the physical plane.

The decanates in Aquarius are governed (according to Alan Leo) by Saturn, Mercury and Venus, and the effect that they will produce upon human affairs and world conditions is already beginning to appear. Saturn is the planet of discipleship and of opportunity; it is exceedingly active today, presenting to the world disciple those difficult situations and crises which will involve free choice, discriminative pioneering, wise response and correct decision, thus bringing about the destruction of that which hinders without the relinquishing of any true values of which humanity may be aware. The individual disciple has always been faced with these conditioning and releasing circumstances, and today humanity itself is in the same position. We stand at the gateway of the new world, of the new age and its new civilizations, ideals and culture.

Saturn, having offered opportunity and proffered us a choice to bring about the needed changes and to destroy that which holds back the free expression of the soul, eventually stands aside in order to let His great Brother, Mercury, spread the light of the soul—intuitive and illuminating—upon the situation, to interpret for us, through our own illumined minds, the significance of events and to relate the old and the new, the past and the future through the light of the present. Hence, the subjective usefulness of the present general trend towards meditation processes which bring about the capacity to be "impressed from on high" (technically understood) and to be illumined by the light of the soul.

When the task of Saturn and of Mercury has been accomplished, then during the third decanate, Venus, which is the union of heart and mind, will usher in the long hoped for era of love-wisdom, of brotherhood and of expressed brotherly relationships. Opportunity—Illumination—Brotherhood: these are the gifts that Shamballa is planning to confer upon mankind during the Aquarian Age, if man will but prepare for them, accept them, and use them. Only the future will make clear man's reaction.

According to other astrologers, the three decanates are governed by Venus, Mercury and the Moon. You can here see the relation of astrology to the normal or to the reversed wheel of life. The Moon which here takes the place of Saturn hides the planet Uranus. In this case Uranus, the occult planet, stands for exoteric science which penetrates into the hidden side of form life, and thus we have the period wherein man is not alert enough or conscious enough to seize upon opportunity and turn it to esoteric or soul ends, but can identify himself with the more advanced aspects of form. The energy which produces opportunity, illumination, and brotherly love as expressed and attained upon the Fixed Cross, demonstrates upon the Mutable or Common Cross as difficulty, the versatile and volatile mind (unstable and dark) and as sex.

This appears clearly in the words spoken to the man upon the Mutable Cross as he passes through an Aquarian cycle. The words are: "And the Word said, Let desire in form be ruler," for desire becomes gained knowledge and the knowledge of that which is hidden at any stage upon the path of evolution relates the individual to Uranus. When the man is upon the Fixed Cross, the words come forth: "Water of life am I, poured forth for thirsty men." The implications are so clear that there is no need for me to be more explicit or to elaborate the theme.

We shall next consider Capricorn at some length. These three studies of Pisces, Aquarius and Capricorn will be slightly longer than the succeeding ones as I have been laying the foundation of what I have to say under our fifth point: The Three Crosses. We shall have brought out certain considerations in connection with them that will be of value; Pisces is part of the Mutable Cross, Aquarius of the Fixed Cross, and Capricorn of the Cardinal Cross, and there will, therefore, be no need to repeat in such detail what I have here said when we are dealing with the other signs. These three signs are beginning signs or final signs, according to the state of the wheel of life. They also sum up or initiate the activities of the other nine signs which are fundamentally strictly human signs and synthesise the results of experience upon the three Crosses.

We shall be able now to cover our present thesis anent the philosophical implications of the Great Wheel of the Zodiac far more rapidly, as I can now leave what else remains to be said in connection with the three Crosses until I come to that part of our Section VI. There I shall have much of interest to point out.

I have dealt with these three Crosses at some length whilst we were covering these first three signs of the zodiacal wheel as it revolves from Aries, through Pisces, to Taurus. Each of these three is found on one of the Crosses and thus in themselves and in their relationship they constitute a complete unit. It is interesting to note how these three signs are either those of commencement (upon the Mutable Cross) or of consummation (upon the Fixed Cross).

In the case where they stand for beginning we have:

Aries. . . . . . 1st Aspect. . . . . . . . . Movement outward into incarnation. The Will latent to manifest. Experience upon the Cardinal Cross.

Pisces. . . . . .2nd Aspect. . . . . . . . Desire for form existence. The Love or desire latent for material things.  Constant mutation. Experience upon the Mutable or Common Cross.

Aquarius. . . . 3rd Aspect. . . . . . . .Consecration to the service of the lower self. Latent selfishness.  Experience upon the fixed Cross.

When these three signs form the end of the cycle of expression upon the reversed wheel,

then you have:

Aquarius. . . .3rd Aspect. . . . . . . .Consecration to the service of the Whole. The expressed death or negation of all personality selfishness. Culmination of experience upon the Fixed Cross.

Pisces. . . . . .2nd Aspect. . . . .  . . .Emergence of a world saviour. Death of all expressed. Separative desire and love, spiritual longing and aspiration. Culmination of experience upon the Mutable Cross.

Aries. . . . . . 1st Aspect. . . . . . . . . .Appearance of the will to cooperate with the expressed plan. The death of Self-will. Culmination of experience on the Cardinal Cross.

The same basic mode of considering the three Crosses can be carried out with Gemini, Taurus, Aries or the reverse: Aries, Taurus and Gemini, remembering always that the Mutable Cross governs the wheel in ordinary progress and the Fixed Cross governs it on the reversed progress during discipleship. The Cardinal Cross in reality governs both processes but this is only understood when initiation has taken place.

1. Aries—Governs the Path of Discipleship. The Will to return to the Source. Determination to achieve liberation. The emanating cause of the changes upon the Mutable and Fixed Crosses.

2. Taurus—The desire to overcome desire. The longing for liberation. Transmutation of desire into Love.

3. Gemini—The fusion of the opposites; the intelligent work of at-one-ment; synthesis.

Upon the ordinary wheel, these signs bring about:

1. Gemini—Experience of the pairs of opposites. Pronounced and separative duality. The interplay between the Twins: Soul and form natures.

2. Taurus—The refocussing of the lower desires prior to another circling of the Great Wheel in search of personality satisfaction. The Prodigal Son journeys into a far country.

3. Aries—Again the beginning as well as the end.

It should be remembered that Aries is definitely that divine manifestation to which Christ referred when He said "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." The significance of this can, however, only be grasped when the experiences of the Mutable Cross and of the Fixed Cross have been transcended and the Cardinal Cross has been consciously mounted after the third initiation. This is the "wheel which turns upon itself and rolls from north to south and then from east to west as it progresses onward and, in one moment of time, this it does."

This is a symbolic way of expressing the united activity of all the states of consciousness, achieved upon the first two wheels, and which life experience, in many rounds of the zodiac, has brought to the initiate; it means likewise that type of awareness which transcends even that of the Christ Himself and for which He and the Buddha are undergoing preparation. The experience of the Cardinal Cross (concerning as it does cosmic unfoldment) transcends all possible awareness, gained upon the other two Crosses and for which they have prepared the initiate.

It might be stated that:

1. The Mutable Cross, in due time and when its lessons are assimilated, brings about planetary awareness.

2. The Fixed Cross brings about systemic awareness.

3. The Cardinal Cross brings about cosmic awareness.

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1. CAPRICORN, THE GOAT

This is one of the most difficult signs about which to write, for it, as you know, is the most mysterious sign of all the twelve. It is the sign of the Goat which seeks its sustenance in the most rocky and arid of the world's places and it, therefore, relates man to the mineral kingdom; it is also the sign of the Crocodiles which live half in the water and half on dry land; it is spiritually the sign of the Unicorn which is the "fighting and triumphant creature" of the ancient myths. Under the symbolism of the above creatures, this sign gives us a rather complete picture of man with his feet upon the earth, yet running free and climbing to the heights of worldly ambition or of spiritual aspiration in search of what he realises (at any particular time) to be his major need. As the Goat, he is man, the earthly, human, greedy seeker after the satisfaction of desire, or man, the equally selfish aspirant hunting for the satisfaction of his aspiration. This sign portrays to us man, an ambitious animal in two senses of the word: in the early stage upon the Mutable Cross, man, the blend of desire (water) and the animal nature (earth), and upon the reversed wheel, man, the blend of soul and form. It gives us the picture also of the triumphant initiate, the "unicorn of God," the symbol of the unicorn, with its one horn out-thrust like a single spear upon his brow instead of the two horns of the scavenging goat.

It is interesting to study the three signs in which the animals have horns: Aries, the downturned horns of the ram, signifying the coming into manifestation, the involutionary cycle and the experience of the Cardinal Cross as it expresses the Will-to-manifest of God. Taurus, the up-turned horns of the Bull with the circle below, depicting the push of man, the Bull of God, towards the goal of illumination and the emergence of the soul from bondage with the two horns (duality) protecting the "eye of light" in the centre of the Bull's forehead; this is "the single eye" of the New Testament which makes the "whole body to be full of light." Then Capricorn, the Goat, related particularly and closely to Aries, but hiding (as an esoteric blind) the symbolism of the Unicorn in which the two horns and the single eye are blended and depicted by the long straight horn of the unicorn in the centre of the forehead.

Behind all the above lies the dual mystery of Leo, for Leo is—as far as humanity is concerned—the key or clue to the entire zodiac and around the constellation Leo two great mysteries are found:

1. The mystery of the Sphinx, connected with the relation of Leo and Virgo, and tied up with the secret of the solar Angels. This is not the mystery of soul and form, but the mystery of the higher and the lower mind and their relation to each other.

2. The Mystery of the Lion and the Unicorn. This secret is preserved for us in the ancient nursery rhyme about the "lion and the unicorn going up to town," and contains in a peculiar way the secret of initiation and the "going up" of the human being to the portal of admittance into the Hierarchy as well as the "mystic raising" of which Masonry holds the key. This deals with the emergence of the consciousness of the initiate (white and one-pointed) and the defeat of the king of beasts (the personality) leading to the triumph of group and world consciousness, of selflessness and illumination over self-consciousness and selfishness. In the true rendition of this ancient myth the king of beasts is blinded and killed by the piercing of his eye and heart by the long horn of the unicorn.

The symbol of this sign is indecipherable and intentionally so. It is sometimes called the "signature of God." I must not attempt to interpret it for you, partly because it has never yet been correctly drawn and partly because its correct delineation and the ability of the initiate to depict it produces an inflow of force which would not be desirable, except after due preparation and understanding. It is far more potent than the pentagon and leaves the initiate "unprotected."

In an ancient astrological treatise which has never yet seen the light of day but which will be some day discovered when the right time has arrived, the relation between the horned animals of the zodiac is thus described:

"The Ram, the Scapegoat and the sacred Goat are Three in One and One in Three. The Ram becomes the second and the second is the third. The Ram that breeds and fertilises all; the Scapegoat, in the wilderness, redeems that all; the sacred Goat that merges in the Unicorn and lifts impaled upon his golden horn the vanquished form—in these the mystery lies hid."

It here becomes apparent that three mysteries are hidden in the three horned signs:

1. The mystery of God the Father---------Creation

2. The mystery of God the Son------------Redemption

3. The mystery of God the Holy Spirit ---Liberation

It might also be pointed out here that it is the will of the Father aspect, manifesting through Aries, that governs Shamballa; the loving desire of the Son which attracts to the Hierarchy; and the permeating, intelligent activity of the Holy Spirit which animates that centre of divine life which we call humanity. Therefore we have:

Shamballa-----Hierarchy----- Humanity

Will------------Love ---------- Intelligence

Aries-----------Taurus -------- Capricorn

In both their higher and their lower aspects these signs hold the secret of the "horns of strife and the horn of plenty subjected to and guarded by the horn of life." Again, an ancient proverb runs: "The Ram—when it has become the Scapegoat, has sought illumination as the Bull of God and has climbed the mountain top in the semblance of the Goat—changes its shape into the Unicorn. Great is the hidden key." If the symbolism is carried a little further, it might be stated that:

1. The Ram leads us into the creative life of Earth and into the darkness of matter. This is the blue of midnight.

2. The Bull leads into the places of desire in search of "wrathful satisfaction." This is the red of greed and anger, changing eventually into the golden light of illumination.

3. The Goat leads us into arid ways in search of food and water. This is the "need for green," but the Goat is equal also to climbing to the mountain top.

This is the experience of the Mutable Cross in connection with these three signs. Upon the Fixed Cross:

1. Eventually the Ram becomes the Scapegoat and the will of God in love and salvage is demonstrated.

2. The Bull becomes the bestower of light, and the darkness of the earlier cycle is lightened by the Bull.

3. The Goat becomes the Unicorn, and leads to victory. The Crocodile, the Goat and the Unicorn depict three stages of man's unfoldment.

Aries, Taurus, and Capricorn are the great transformers under the great creative plan. They are in the nature of catalysts. Each of them opens a door into one of the three divine centres of expression which are the symbols in the body of the planetary Logos of the three higher centres in man: the head, the heart and the throat.

Aries opens the door into Shamballa, when the experience of Taurus and Capricorn has been undergone.

Taurus opens the door into the Hierarchy when the significance of Gemini and Leo is understood and the first two initiations can therefore he taken.

Capricorn opens the door into the Hierarchy in a higher aspect when the last three initiations can be undergone and the significance of Scorpio and of Virgo is understood.

In these signs and their relationship upon the Fixed Cross lies hid the mystery of Makara and of the Crocodiles.

The keynotes of this sign are all indicative of a crystallisation process. This concretising faculty of Capricorn can be considered in several ways. First of all, Capricorn is an earth sign, and in it we have expressed the densest point of concrete materialisation of which the human soul is capable. Man is then "of the earth, earthy" and is what the New Testament calls "the first Adam." In this sense, Capricorn holds in itself the seeds of death and finality—the death which takes place finally and eventually in Pisces. Ponder on this. When crystallisation has reached a certain degree of density and so-called "hardness," it is easily shattered and destroyed and man, born in Capricorn, then brings about his own destruction; this is due to his fundamentally materialistic nature, plus the "blows of fate" which are the enactments of the law of karma. Again and again, a certain measure of concreteness is achieved, only again to undergo destruction, prior to the release of the life and the rebuilding of the form.

Secondly, Capricorn is ever the sign of conclusion, and of this the mountain top is frequently (though not always) the symbol, for it marks the point beyond which further ascent in any particular life cycle is not possible. Capricorn is, therefore, the sign of what has been called esoterically "periodic arresting." Progress becomes impossible under the existing forms, and there has to be the descent into the valley of pain, despair and death before a fresh attempt to scale the heights takes place. The attempt today to climb Mount Everest is amazingly symbolic, and it is being watched with much interest by the Hierarchy, for in this effort we see the attempt of humanity to achieve the top of the mountain whose height has hitherto defeated all efforts. But—and this is the matter of moment and of interest—when humanity emerges into the light and relative glory of the new civilisation, they will at the same time conquer this last remaining summit. That which is of the densest materiality and which is the consummation of earthly grandeur will remain—but it will be beneath the feet of humanity.

Thirdly, Capricorn is, as a consequence of all the above, the sign in which is inaugurated a new cycle of effort, whether this effort is in connection with the individual man or with the initiate. Effort, strain, struggle, the fight with the forces native to the underworld, or the strenuous conditions entailed by the tests of discipleship or initiation—these are distinctive of experience in Capricorn.

In ancient days, as you may perchance have heard, there were only ten signs, and—at that time—Capricorn marked the end of the zodiacal wheel, and not Pisces as is at this time the case. The two signs of Aquarius and Pisces were not incorporated in the signs for the simple and sufficient reason that humanity could not respond to their peculiar influences; the vehicles of contact and the mechanisms for responses were not adequately developed. Originally, there were eight signs; then there were ten and now twelve.

1. In Lemurian days, during the early period of animal man and before humanity appeared on earth, in the interim period of development, eight signs influenced the planet and the kingdoms of nature found upon it. There was no response to the influences of Leo and Virgo. The mystery of the Sphinx did not exist and these two signs were not then part of the zodiacal wheel. Then individualisation took place and the seed of Christhood was planted in man and these two signs began to influence humanity, and gradually that influence was recognised and the zodiac was then known to have ten signs. The Mutable Cross dominated, but it was then the Tau, for Pisces was lacking and only Gemini, Virgo and Sagittarius were evidenced. Aries to Capricorn marked the circle of experience.

2. In Atlantean days, man had become so responsive to the planetary and solar influence that the door of initiation into hierarchical experience was opened and two more signs were added. These two signs were the higher correspondences of Leo and Virgo and were the polar opposites of these two: Aquarius and Pisces. Their influence became active and effective and thus they formed part of the zodiacal wheel because man began to respond to their potencies. It then became possible for the Fixed Cross to function esoterically in the life of humanity, and the first reversals of the wheel in the life of the advanced men of the period took place. It was this reversal which was the true cause of the great contest or battle between the Lords of the Dark Face and the Lords of Light—a contest which is today persisting. Certain men then reached the stage of discipleship wherein they could consciously mount the Fixed Cross and be prepared for a major initiation. This the Forces of Materiality and of Obstruction fought and the battle was fought out and conditioned in the sign Scorpio.

3. Today, in Aryan times, a similar conflict upon a higher turn of the spiral is taking place. The reason is that certain world disciples and initiates have reached the point in their unfoldment wherein they are ready to mount the Cardinal Cross and take some of the higher initiations. So the conflict is on between humanity (under the control of the Lords of Materiality) and the Hierarchy (under the control of the Forces of Light and Love), and right before our eyes the battle is being waged. The influences of the twelve signs of the zodiac (particularly of seven of the signs) are being engaged, for today men of all types and rays are responsive to their influences and are implicated in some form or another in the affair.

You will note, therefore, that if the concentrated forces of the Cardinal Cross are definitely potent at this time (as they are) the battle is terrific, because:

1. Humanity, as a whole, is in a state of turmoil, prior to a great step forward in self-conscious unfoldment, and in the expression of the sense of responsibility which is the first flower and fruit of self-conscious awareness. This fact is responsible for sweeping into the conflict in a peculiar and pronounced manner, the forces of Cancer (involutionary in nature), of Leo (concerned with individualisation), and of Gemini (expressive of man's essential duality). You find, therefore, today, the activity of the mass consciousness of Cancer which is indicative of the activity of the Cardinal Cross in the involutionary stage; the self-consciousness of man as indicated by Leo, the most human sign of all, and indicative of the Fixed Cross; and Gemini, which gives the sense of the dual nature of man —human and divine—which is the goal of the consciousness of experience upon the Mutable Cross. You consequently have a sign in each of the three Crosses particularly active today in influencing the masses of men everywhere.  

2. The disciples of the world today and advanced humanity are equally in a state of turmoil. They are being tested and tried, prior to taking a major step forward—in some cases this will be the taking of the first initiation and in others the second. This is brought about by, and brings in, the forces of Taurus, Leo and Scorpio, plus a general pervasive influence coming from Gemini. You have here three signs found in the Fixed Cross and one in the Mutable Cross conditioning and affecting the world disciples, and all of them of terrific importance and potency today, owing to the stage of development and the sensitivity of the disciples and world initiates.

3. The initiates, in their turn, are being subjected to the impact of energies from Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces—an inflow of force from each of the three Crosses. These three forces enable the initiates to take the third initiation.

It will interest you to note that average humanity is, therefore, subjected to the influences of three major signs at this time and conditioned by potencies coming from each of the three Crosses. These present men with the responsibility of choice, evoking their free will, their trend towards self- determination and their established decision at this time of world crisis. You will note that the world disciples are related to the mass of men through their responsiveness to influences emanating from Gemini, and to each other through Scorpio. This produces in them the capacity to respond to test, to a sense of the vision (through the illumined eye of Taurus) and to use their power of individuality through a developed personality and through the potency of Leo. Initiates are brought into relation to the world disciples through the constellation Scorpio, to the hierarchical centre through Capricorn, and to the mass through Pisces, the sign of all world saviours.

Seven constellations are, therefore, predominantly brought into a close combination at the present moment of crisis and are responsible for world affairs as they are found today:

        |

Cancer                | The Cardinal Cross.                     "Both Gates stand wide."

Capricorn        |

Taurus        |

Leo        | The Fixed Cross.                "The Disciples dominate the world."

Scorpio        |

        |

Gemini                | The Mutable Cross.                        "World salvation is possible today."

Pisces        |

The exoteric and the esoteric planetary rulers of Capricorn are the same, and Saturn rules the career of the man in this sign, no matter whether he is on the ordinary or the reversed wheel, or whether he is on the Mutable or the Fixed Cross. When he has taken the third initiation and can consciously mount the Cardinal Cross, he is then released from the ruling of Saturn and comes under the influence of Venus, who is governor or ruler of the Hierarchy which is that of the Crocodiles. A reference to the tabulation heretofore given will show this. It is only when a man is upon the Cardinal Cross that the significance, purpose and potencies of the Creative Hierarchies become clear to him and the "doors of entrance" into all of them stand wide open. On the Mutable Cross and on the Fixed Cross we have the so-called green ray, controlling not only the daily life of karmic liability upon the path of evolution, but also controlling the experiences and processes of evolution. The reason for this is that Capricorn is an earth sign and because the third and fifth rays work pre-eminently through this sign, embodying the third major aspect of divinity, active intelligence plus that of its subsidiary power, the fifth Ray of Mind.  These pour through Capricorn to Saturn and to Venus and so reach our planet, the Earth.

Saturn is one of the most potent of the four Lords of Karma and forces man to face up to the past, and in the present to prepare for the future. Such is the intention and purpose of karmic opportunity. From certain angles, Saturn can be regarded as the planetary Dweller on the Threshold, for humanity as a whole has to face that Dweller as well as the Angel of the Presence, and in so doing discover that both the Dweller and the Angel are that complex duality which is the human family. Saturn, in a peculiar relation to the sign Gemini, makes this possible. Individual man makes this discovery and faces the two extremes whilst in the sign Capricorn; the fourth and fifth Creative Hierarchies do the same thing in Libra.

Through Saturn and Venus, therefore, Capricorn is connected with Libra and also with Gemini and Taurus, and these four constellations—Taurus, Gemini, Libra and Capricorn—constitute a potent quaternary of energies and between them produce those conditions and situations which will enable the initiate to demonstrate his readiness and capacity for initiation. They are called the "Guardians of the Four Secrets."

1. Taurus: Guards the secret of light and confers illumination upon the initiate.

2. Gemini: Guards the mystery or secret of duality and presents the initiate with a word which leads to the fusion of the greater pairs of opposite.

3. Libra: Guards the secret of balance, of equilibrium and finally speaks the word which releases the initiate from the power of the Lords of Karma.

4. Capricorn: Guards the secret of the soul itself and this it reveals to the initiate at the time of the third initiation. This is sometimes called the "secret of the hidden glory."

Through certain other of the planetary rulers, through the medium of which the third and fifth rays work, Capricorn is connected with other constellations besides the four above mentioned, but these four are for our purposes the most important. Students can work out the remaining interlocking energies for themselves, if they so desire, by relating the rays, planetary rulers and constellations through reference to the tabulations already given. The subject is, however, definitely confusing to the beginner, and it is for this reason that I am dealing here with the philosophy and symbolism of the signs first of all, so as to familiarise the student with the general scheme and the universal broad interlocking.

The third and fifth rays are peculiarly active upon the Path of Discipleship, just as the sixth and fourth are dominant upon the Path of Evolution and the first and seventh upon the Path of Initiation. The second ray controls and dominates all the other rays, as you well know.

Path                  Rays                     Planets                                       Constellations

Evolution                 6 and 4        Mars. Mercury.         Aries. Gemini. Cancer. Virgo. Scorpio.

Discipleship                 3 and 5                Venus. Saturn.                Gemini. Sagittarius. Capricorn.

Initiation                 1 and 7                Vulcan. Uranus        Taurus. Libra. Pisces. Pluto.

You will notice from the above tabulation one or two interesting points. These should be carefully considered by all astrologers after determining the approximate place of the subject upon the evolutionary path in one or other of its three divisions.

First, that the constellation Gemini appears twice on account of its close connection with the fourth Creative Hierarchy.

Second, that during the period of the Mutable Cross five constellations are concerned with the experience of man upon the path of daily life, of constant rebirths and of karmic difficulty. Four of them lead to Scorpio, in which sign comes the point of the reversal of the Wheel.

Third, that on the Path of Discipleship three constellations control and lead up to the activity of Capricorn, at which time initiation becomes possible.

Fourth, on the Path of Initiation the activity of all the three Crosses is felt simultaneously through the medium of the "released powers" of Taurus, Libra and Pisces. You will note also that the first ray influence, expressing through Pluto and Vulcan, is only felt in a positive manner upon the Path of Discipleship. This first ray potency has only lately been experienced by humanity as a whole as it neared the stage of being the world disciple, and vast numbers relatively stood upon the Path of Discipleship and Probation. Hence the recent discovery of Pluto and the sensed power of Vulcan, veiled by the potency of Mercury and hidden behind the planet.

Second ray influences and potencies are abidingly present and pour into our planetary sphere and life, via the Sun (veiling a hidden planet) and Jupiter. These sweep the forces of Leo, Sagittarius, Pisces, Aquarius and Virgo into and through our entire planet and all its kingdoms in nature.

From the above few points, hints can be gathered together as to the interlocking forces of all the twelve constellations, as they pour into and through all the kingdoms in nature, carrying with them also not only their own individual potencies but also those of the seven rays, focussed through the sacred and non-sacred planets—the discovered and undiscovered planetary Lives. It has been occultly said that a vision of these powers and their many weaving lines (seen as rivers and streams of light) is given to the initiate from the mountain top of Capricorn, once that summit has been reached. It is at the Transfiguration initiation that this vision appears before the eyes of the astounded disciple. The great experiences upon the various mountain tops as related in the Bible have all to do with Capricorn.

Moses, the Lawgiver on Mount Sinai, is Saturn in Capricorn imposing the law of karma upon the people. A clue to the significance of the Jewish people as a karmic clearing house can be found here. Ponder on those words "a karmic clearing house." The Mount of Transfiguration in the New Testament is Venus in Capricorn when love and mind and will meet in the person of the Christ, and "He was transfigured" before all men. At the same time, He received the vision of the Father and of what He had to do as He "went up to Jerusalem," the place of death and likewise the city of peace. This Jerusalem is Pisces. In Aquarius, Christ put His disciples in touch with the "man bearing a pitcher of water," Aquarius, and in the upper room introduced them to union and unity under the symbolism of the communion feast. For that feast, humanity is today preparing, as we saw when studying the last constellation. The astrological significance of the New Testament is as yet little understood. Christ was born in Capricorn, fulfilled the law under Saturn, initiated the era of intelligent brotherhood under Venus and is the perfect example of the Capricornian initiate who becomes the world Server in Aquarius, and the world Saviour in Pisces, thus completing the round of the zodiac and able to say triumphantly in Pisces "It is finished."

The polar opposite to Capricorn is Cancer and, as you have been taught, these two signs are the two great Gates of the zodiac—one opening the door into incarnation, into mass life, and into human experience, whilst the other opens the door into the life of the spirit, into the life of the Kingdom of God, the life and purposes of the Hierarchy of our planet. Cancer admits the soul into the world centre which we call Humanity. Capricorn admits the soul into conscious participation in the life of that world centre which we call the Hierarchy. Libra admits the soul into the world centre which we call Shamballa, for it is the polar opposite of Aries which is the place of beginnings. Libra demonstrates the perfect balance of spirit and matter which first came together in Aries. This balance and this relation of the great opposites, spirit and matter, is symbolised for us in the personality situation of balancing the pairs of opposites on the astral plane, and finding between them the "narrow razor-edged path" which leads the man into the kingdom of the soul.

As man passes around and around the zodiac in the ordinary manner, he continually and consciously enters into life in Cancer, the constellation under which the Law of Rebirth is applied and administered. But it is only on the reversed zodiac that the man learns to pass with equally conscious purpose through the gate of Capricorn. Five times he has to pass through that Gate in full waking consciousness and these five happenings are frequently called the five major initiations.

Viewing the fourth Creative Hierarchy as a whole, the appearance and experiences of the life of the planetary Logos through the medium of the five races—two past, one present, the Aryan, and two to come—are planetary correspondences to the five initiations. This is peculiarly interesting to study because at the time that any particular race comes into being both the doors in Cancer and Capricorn stand wide open, being then occultly aligned.

A study of the characteristics and qualities of the man who is born in the sign Capricorn will reveal a great deal anent the human family because the Capricornian can express all the worst of which a man is capable and all the best. It is a sign of extremes, and this because at the time there were only ten signs, Capricorn was the first on the ordinary wheel and the last on the reversed wheel. Esoterically, all world Saviours and Sun Gods are born in Capricorn but also the very worst type of man—hard, materialistic, cruel, proud, selfishly ambitious and egoistic. The head rules the heart in such cases, whereas in the perfect example of the influences of Capricorn, head and heart are perfectly balanced.

Capricorn rules the knees and this is symbolically true, for only when the Capricornian subject learns to kneel in all humility and with his knees upon the rocky mountain top to offer his heart and life to the soul and to human service, can he be permitted to pass through the door of initiation and be entrusted with the secrets of life. Only on his knees can he go through that door. As long as he arrogantly stands where he has not earned the right to stand, he can never safely be given the information which is imparted to all true initiates. The ancient mode of pilgrimage in India, by which the devotee passed or progressed from one holy place to another upon his knees, is indicative of this deep need of the Capricornian for humility. India is ruled by Capricorn and India knows this truth. Though India has permitted the physical act to usurp the place of a spiritual attitude, yet the symbolic meaning is eternally true. When the man born in Capricorn can kneel in spirit and in truth, he is then ready for the initiatory process upon the mountain top.

The symbolism underlying the astrological fact that Mars is exalted in Capricorn, whilst the power of the Moon is lessened in that sign, and Jupiter and Neptune both fall, is significantly beautiful and instructive. Mars is the God of War, the Producer of conflicts, and in this earthly sign Mars triumphs in the early stages of the evolution of the fourth Creative Hierarchy and in the life history of the undeveloped and average man. Materialism, the fight for the satisfaction of personal ambitions, and the conflict with higher spiritual tendencies goes steadily forward, and this most material of all the signs is the battleground of the old established order and habits and the new and higher inclinations and tendencies. India, governed by Capricorn, has been a battlefield right down the ages; Port Said, ruled by this sign, is synonymous with the satisfaction of all the earthly and animal desires of the baser sort and is one of the wickedest cities in the world—a meeting place for the evil of three continents.

But as evolution proceeds, the power of the Moon, which is the symbol and ruler of form, grows less and less, and the man upon the reversed wheel is steadily freeing himself from the control of matter. The attractive lure of that which is material wanes increasingly. Jupiter, which has been the ruler of Pisces and also of Aquarius, falls in this sign. This fall must be studied from two angles, for Jupiter in its lowest aspect gives the fulfilment of desire and satisfied demand, whilst in its highest Jupiter is the outgoing expression of love, which attracts magnetically to itself that which is desired—this time the good of the whole. In Capricorn, therefore, Jupiter reaches its lowest point of expression in the densest material aspect, and then—as love and selflessness triumph—this lowest aspect vanishes and disappears.

It is to the "fall" of the highest aspect that the symbolism refers, and then later to the fall or disappearance of all that is base and low. Love is fallen and blinded when desire is rampant; desire vanishes when love triumphs. Neptune is often spoken of as falling in this sign and for the same reasons. Neptune is the God of the waters, and is esoterically related to Pisces. It should be noted that both Neptune and Jupiter are exalted in Cancer, the great sign wherein the desire for incarnation finds its fulfilment; the power of both is lessened in Virgo, wherein the first signs of the Christ consciousness are felt; both fall in Capricorn, when the Christ life and consciousness come to full fruition. There is much, as you can see, to be worked out along these three lines and the above suggestions will indicate how a comparative study and a philosophical research can be fruitfully made.

In Capricorn we have the triumph of matter; it reaches its densest and most concrete expression; but this triumph is followed by that of spirit. There is full expression of the earthly nature in Capricorn but also immense spiritual possibilities. India, for instance, expresses a widespread degradation, but at the same time the heights of spiritual attainment; a study of India—her history, characteristics and spiritual qualities—will reveal much anent the influences and possibilities of this sign.

The triplicity into which each sign is divided and which we call the decanates is of particular interest in the case of Capricorn. As is the case in all correspondence, this triplicity can be related to the three aspects of God and man—spirit, soul and body. The central decanate is therefore of peculiar moment in our world period as it is concerned with the effect of the planetary influences, the solar rays and the energy of the constellations upon the soul or the consciousness aspect. This is the case whether we are considering man on the ordinary wheel or man upon the reversed wheel. From the standpoint of astrological interpretation and in the case where the astrologer is not sure which way the wheel is turning, it is the only decanate with its ruler of which he can be sure. The influence of the ruler is, therefore, inevitable. This is strikingly the case in connection with the sign Aquarius into which sign our sun is now entering, its three decanates, Saturn, Mercury and Venus, bringing inevitably difficulty, illumination and brotherly love. On the ordinary wheel, in all outer affairs, Saturn controls, and we consequently find ourselves today in a state of chaos and trouble, but as far as the consciousness of the race is concerned, Mercury is becoming increasingly active. A steady illumination is taking place and light is being thrown on all problems—light on government and politics through experiments and the study of great and basic ideologies; light on the material nature of the world through all the many branches of science; light on humanity itself through education, philosophy and psychology. This light is spreading down to the very darkest places in our planet and its many forms of life.

Two sets of rulers for the three decanates are available. According to Alan Leo, we have Saturn, Venus and Mercury. According to Sepharial we have Jupiter, Mars and the Sun. Of these two, the first is the more correct and the more esoteric. The true rulers are Saturn, Venus and the Sun. I would remind you that Mercury and the Sun are interchangeable but that in this case the Sun stands exoterically for Mercury and esoterically for a hidden planet.

Saturn relates Capricorn to the previous sign Aquarius, upon the ordinary wheel, and Jupiter, exoterically understood, relates Capricorn to Sagittarius upon the reversing wheel. It will be obvious to all esotericists that the Sun is the obvious ruler of the third decanate, veiling as it does a hidden and deeply significant planet and being that which reveals divinity at the time of the third initiation. You will note how, in this great sign of initiation, Saturn reveals the nature of the third aspect of divinity, the nature of intelligent substance; Venus reveals the nature of the second aspect, which is consciousness or intelligent love, whilst the Sun—the physical Sun and the heart of the Sun together—reveals the synthesis of these two.

The key words upon the ordinary wheel are "And the Word said: Let ambition rule and let the door stand wide." Here we have the key to the evolutionary urge, to the secret of rebirth, and of that word which reverberates from Cancer to Capricorn. The door of initiation stands ever open, but for aeons of time man prefers the open door in Cancer. Ambition urges him on from life to life until he has discovered the worthlessness of all earthly gratification. Gradually then spiritual ambition and a desire for liberation take the place of worldly ambition, and become an impelling impulse, until finally the moment arrives when a true sense of reality supersedes both earthly and spiritual ambition. The man can then say with truth "Lost am I in light supernal,yet on that light I turn my back." For him there remains now no goal but service. He therefore passes back through the gate of Cancer, but with his consciousness held steadily in the sign Aquarius. From being the world initiate in Capricorn he becomes an incarnated world server in Aquarius, and later a world saviour in Pisces.

SAGITTARIUS, THE ARCHER

This sign is, as you know, a peculiarly human sign and is connected in a definite manner with the appearance of humanity upon our Earth. There are three of the zodiacal signs which are more closely connected with man than are any of the others. These are: Leo, Sagittarius and Aquarius. In one peculiar (but not yet provable) manner, they are related to the three aspects of body, soul and spirit.

The following tabulation or concise statement of rather momentous implications may serve to make this clearer:

Leo                                        Sagittarius                                  Aquarius                  

The Lion                 The Centaur                         The Water-Carrier

The Man                 The Archer                         The Server

Self-consciousness        Focussed consciousness         Group consciousness

Physical nature         Emotional nature                 Lower mental nature

Integrated man         Aspiring man                         Intuitive mental man

Human soul                Spiritual human soul                 Spiritual soul

Individualisation         Discipleship                         Initiation

Personality                Egoic focus                        Monadic focus

The Fixed Cross        The Mutable Cross                 The Fixed Cross

Centralisation                Orientation                         Decentralisation

Individual unity         Sensed duality                 Universal unity

Fire                         Fire                                Air

Selfishness                 Struggle                        Service

Evolution                 The final path                         Liberation

I could continue to summarise the qualities and characteristics of these three and their peculiar inter-relation but the above will suffice amply to demonstrate the connection between them and their progressive effect upon the subject passing under their influence periodically and cyclically. They are frequently referred to as the signs which—when studied—will reveal divine intent in man, will mark the points of crisis in his progress and will (when the three influences which they express have done their work) carry the man "from door to door, for Leo is the next sign to Cancer, and Sagittarius is the sign which precedes Capricorn." I am quoting from an ancient book on the signs.

Sagittarius is sometimes depicted as an archer on a white horse and a study of the meaning of this symbolism will reveal a great deal of inner teaching. This is one of the later ways of portraying this constellation. Earlier, in Atlantean days (from which period we have inherited what we know about astrology), the sign was frequently depicted by the Centaur—the fabulous animal which was half a man and half a horse. The horse symbolism dominated Atlantean myths and symbols, just as the ram and the lamb are prominently to be found in our modern presentations. This earlier sign of the Centaur stood for the evolution and the development of the human soul, with its human objectives, its selfishness, its identification with form, its desire and its aspirations. The Archer on the white horse, which is the more strictly Aryan symbol for this sign, signifies the orientation of the man towards a definite goal. The man is then not part of the horse but is freed from identification with it and is the controlling factor.

The definite goal of the Centaur, which is the satisfaction of desire and animal incentives, becomes in the later stages the goal of initiation, which meets with satisfaction in Capricorn, after the preliminary work has been done in Sagittarius. The keynote of the Centaur is ambition. The keynote of the Archer is aspiration and direction, and both are expressions of human goals but one is of the personality and the other of the soul. From ambition to aspiration, from selfishness to an intense desire for selflessness, from individual one-pointed self-interest in Leo to the one-pointedness of the disciple in Sagittarius and thence to initiation in Capricorn. It is interesting to note that the astrological symbol for this sign currently used is simply the arrow with a fragment of the bow depicted. The Archer as well as the Centaur have dropped out of the picture and this is largely because the emphasis or focus of human living today is not based upon the objective outer facts of life upon the physical plane but upon some form of inner focus or emphasis, which varies from the many stages of astral and emotional ambition to spiritual aspiration, and from the activities of the lower mind bent upon selfish interest to the illumination of the same mind through focus upon the soul.

An ancient catechism which all disciples have to master, asks the following questions and supplies the needed answers:

"Where is the animal, O Lanoo? and where the Man?”

Fused into one, O Master of my Life. The two are one. But both have disappeared and naught remains but the deep fire of my desire.

“Where is the horse, the white horse of the soul? Where is the rider of that horse, O Lanoo?”

Gone towards the gate, O Master of my Life. But something speeds ahead between the pillars of an open door—something that I myself have loosed.

“And what remains to thee, O wise Lanoo,

now that the horses of two kinds have left thee and the rider, unattached, stands free?”

Naught but my bow and arrow, O Master of my Life, but they suffice, and, when the right time comes, I, thy Lanoo, will follow fast upon the shaft I sent. The horses I will leave upon this side of the door, for them I have no further need. I enter free, regain the arrow which I sent and speed upon my way, passing from door to door, and each time the arrow speeds ahead.

It is for this reason that the keynotes of Sagittarius are five in number:

1. Attached or fused duality—the Centaur. Unattached duality—the Archer.

2. Freedom or one-pointedness—the Bow and Arrow.

3. Human ambition leading eventually to spiritual aspiration.

4. A clear shaft of light which is the intuitive and focussed attitude of the pledged disciple.

5. The "returning arrow of the intuition," as it is sometimes called. For it is the shaft of the arrow of aspiration which returns to the sender as the arrow of the intuition. Sagittarius is one of the intuitive signs, for only the intuition will suffice to carry a man to the foot of the mountain of initiation in Capricorn.

A study of the charts of the human family at all the different stages, from the time of the Mutable Cross experience wherein the personality is built up, constructed, developed and integrated, to the final crucifixion of the personality upon the Fixed Cross of the Heavens, will reveal that every time the man finds himself under the influence of Sagittarius it is with the objective of orienting himself to some new and higher objective, with the task of refocussing himself towards a higher goal and with the unfoldment of some basic and directing purpose. These developing purposes may range all the way from purely animal desire, through selfish human ambition, to the struggle of the aspiring disciple or initiate in order to achieve the needed liberation towards which the entire evolutionary process has impelled him.

It is interesting, in this connection, to trace the unfolding of the human consciousness through the influence of the energies let loose through the various zodiacal signs:

1. Instinct, governing desire—Cancer. Mass unevolved consciousness.

2. I desire.

3. Intellect, governing ambition—Leo. Individual consciousness.

4. I know.

5. Intuition, governing aspiration—Sagittarius. Soul consciousness in early stages. Initiations 1 & 2.

6. I vision.

7. Illumination, governing intuition—Capricorn. Soul consciousness in later stages. I realise.

8. Inspiration, governing service—Aquarius. Group consciousness.

9. I go forth.

10. Identification, governing liberation—Pisces.

11. Divine consciousness. I and the Father are one.

In these signs—Cancer, Leo, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces—you have the six signs which constitute the six pointed star of the human or fourth Creative Hierarchy; Cancer and Pisces marking the two extremes. The Crab symbolises imprisonment (the hard shell and the rocks under which the Crab ever takes shelter), and the Fish signifies freedom. In between—in Leo, Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius—come the four stages of personality development, struggle with the pairs of opposites, and finally release into full spiritual service. In connection with the development of the intellect into the intuition and its consummation as the divine aspiration of the personality ("inspired from on high," as this stage is technically called), the following ideas may be found useful; I am simply hinting at them and am leaving the student to work out the various implications for himself.

We have seen that Cancer is the sign of instinctual life, and that in Leo the intellect or mind became part of the individual man's equipment. This intellectual awareness is the result of a slow evolution of the instinctual nature which, when it has reached a certain stage of development, came under the direct influence of the Hierarchy of the planet in a new way, and then—under the stimulation of energies from the planet Venus—a fusion took place which resulted in the emergence of individual self- conscious man. Gradually, as the aeons have slipped away, the instinctual nature has receded steadily into the background or below the threshold of consciousness, whilst the intellect has become more and more dominant and an increasingly potent factor. In Scorpio the mind is released into full governing activity.

This release takes place in two stages:

Stage 1: Wherein the intellect becomes dominant and powerful and controls eventually the emotional nature.

Stage 2: Wherein the intellect is illumined by the light of the soul.

In dealing with probationary disciples and with ordinary humanity, the servers of humanity would do well to remember these two stages and not confuse them as they attempt to aid those who are in one or other of them. The emphasis is laid upon the struggle of the personality to release itself from the grip of lower desire in the first case, and in the second to release itself from surrounding world glamour which is revealed when soul light is thrown into it, via the reflecting and illumined mind. In stage 1, the power of the trained reasoning and rationalising mind is called into activity by the soul; in the other, the illumination of the soul must pour into the mind and is then reflected, like a searchlight, onto the astral plane. This takes place upon the Probationary Path and is called the experience of the disciple in the depths or the valleys.

In Sagittarius, the intellect which has been developed, used and finally illumined, becomes sensitive to a still higher type of mental experience and to this we give the name of intuitive perception. There come flashes of light upon problems; a distant yet possible vision of attainment is seen; the man begins to climb out of the depths to which he has descended in Scorpio and sees ahead of him the mountain in Capricorn which he knows he must eventually climb. He walks no longer in the dark, for he sees what he has to do and he therefore makes rapid progress and travels "fast upon the Way." He "flies from point to point, searching for the arrows which he has discharged." He has, figuratively speaking, to dismount constantly from his white horse (the developed and purified personality) and find where the arrows of intuitional aspiration will take him; he travels upon the "wings of the soul" (note the relationship to the winged feet of Mercury, the messenger of the Gods) and becomes, in his own personality, himself the winged God: Mercury, as you know, governs Gemini, the polar opposite of Sagittarius. This he does until he has established a balanced relationship between the personality and the soul and can function as either at any desired moment with equal facility.

This takes place upon the Path of Discipleship and is called the experience of the disciple upon the plains of Earth, for the path between the pairs of opposites runs straight and level, leaving the depths of personality experience and the heights of soul experience (at this point of development) on either side.

In Capricorn, the initiate learns to realise the meaning of the growing light which greets his progress as he climbs upward to the mountain top. The flashes of intuition with which he is becoming familiar change into the blazing and constant light of the soul, irradiating the mind and providing that point of fusion which must ever be the "fusion of the two lights, the greater and the lesser light" to which I referred in A Treatise on White Magic. The light of the personality and the light of the soul blend. Upon this I need not enlarge, as nothing I could say would be more than it now is—the theory of initiation.

This takes place upon the Path of Initiation and is called the experience of the mountain top. All are needed; the depths, the plains and the mountain top.

As you know, Sagittarius is one of the four arms of the Mutable Cross. An idea of the general symbology of this Cross, from the quality angle, can be gained if we give the two sets of characteristics which distinguish the man upon this Cross—both unevolved man and the aspirant to divinity. We might list these as follows, finding for each arm a distinctive phrase :

Unevolved man:

Gemini—Changeableness. Instability. Interplay.

Sagittarius—Ambitious desire. Direction. Orientation.

Virgo—Material life. The cherishing of an idea.

Pisces—Sensation. Mediumship. Fluidity.

Evolved man:

Gemini—Recognition of soul and form. Soul interplay.

Sagittarius—One-pointed spiritual aspiration. Disciples.

Virgo—The mother of the Christ Child. Gestation.

Pisces—The world Saviour. Mediatorship.

In connection with the above, it is interesting to note that the Twins set apart and unattached in Gemini become the Centaur, the man-beast, in Sagittarius, whilst Virgo, the Virgin, becomes the Fish goddess in the polar opposite, Pisces. A treatise could be written on the subject of the relation of the opposites in the zodiacal circle for they express spirit and matter and their inter-relation, plus the play of qualitative energies; they bear witness at the same time to the fact that these two are one and are simply the expression of great mutable, and yet fixed and initiated spiritual Lives. It is for this reason that the constellation Libra occupies a unique place in the Great Wheel, for it is the energy coming from this constellation which controls what we might call (for lack of a more suitable word) the "hub of the wheel." This is that point in intermediate space where the twelve zodiacal energies meet and cross.

Libra, therefore, controls the "moment of reversal of the wheel" in the life of every aspirant, for there comes a moment in the cycle of lives wherein a point of balance is reached and a relative equilibrium is attained, and over this event Libra presides. Some day it will be of interest to make a scientific research and investigation into the power of balance which Libra wields and a consequent analysis of the effect of Libra in an individual life. It might then be possible to discover whether the particular life in which a man carries forward the process of reversal may not perhaps be one in which the sun is in Leo, with Libra rising. Such statistical studies have not yet been made, but there is much to be done along these lines; I only make suggestions, but it will, I think, be found that this is the case.

A proper investigation likewise into the life history of spiritualism and of the mediums associated with it may prove that the majority of the mediums in the world who are of a low grade type or purely trance mediums—negative and usually unintelligent—are born in Cancer with Pisces rising, or in Pisces with Cancer rising. Such studies would necessarily have to deal with hundreds of cases and be carried forward over a long period of time in order to prove the point which I seek to make. It would also be interesting to make an analysis of those particular incarnations and their horoscopes wherein the polar opposites both appear in relation to each other—one as the sun sign and the other as the ascendant, for these lives usually express some degree of either equilibrium or of consummation; they will not in any case be negative lives or lacking in direction, event or purpose. This is particularly the case upon the Fixed Cross of the Heavens.

You will note that my purpose in this section of our treatise is to evoke interest and enquiry and to incite students to scientific, statistical and analytical investigation. Only in this way will my basic premises be proven and eventually substituted for the present unsatisfactory methods—methods which most astrologers who have any real capacity and insight regard as deplorable and unsatisfactory.

The ruler of Sagittarius from the orthodox angle is Jupiter, and from the standpoint of the path of discipleship it is the Earth itself. Mars governs this sign from the standpoint of the Hierarchies involved. The most interesting fact which emerges as we study the Mutable Cross as a whole is connected with the rulers of all the four signs. From the point of view of orthodox astrology, only two planets rule or govern all the four signs; these are Jupiter and Mercury. Mercury governs Gemini and Virgo, whilst Jupiter governs Sagittarius and Pisces. The reason for this is obvious if you study the nature of the rays which express themselves through these signs. Mercury is the agent or the messenger of the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict, whilst Jupiter is the medium for expression of the second Ray of Love-wisdom.

These two rays govern the mass of men upon the Mutable Cross and are closely concerned with the mass incarnation of the fourth Creative Hierarchy. Their function is to fuse and blend into one cooperative whole the great dualities expressing themselves through the fourth kingdom in nature. The significance of this will be obvious. It is easily apparent how, through the influences of Mercury and Jupiter, material desire can be transmuted into divine love, and the conflict which is the distinguishing characteristic of the human family can be instrumental in resolving dissonance into harmony. The definite pattern and direction of this process has to take form upon the Mutable Cross before the energies of the Fixed Cross can change the ambitious selfish man into the selfless disciple. All this has perforce to be initiated upon the Mutable Cross which is essentially and significantly the Cross of the mutable, fluidic, restless mind and it is on this Cross that the mind nature is finally developed and begins its integrating control of the personality. When this process is proceeding, the Mutable Cross experience is over and the Cross of Discipleship begins to play its part.

The case is quite different in connection with the subjective side of unfoldment, and esoterically the disciple who finds himself in incarnation under the influence of the Mutable Cross in his personality life whilst he, as a soul, is upon the Fixed Cross, comes under the directed energy of four planets, three of which are non-sacred planets. Usually these four supersede or rather begin to dominate the influence of Mercury and Jupiter, giving greater facility of expression and exerting that influence which will bring the personality into right relation to the soul, for that is essentially the task of the Fixed Cross and the goal of the disciple.

It is in connection with the planets governing Sagittarius, exoterically and esoterically, that an idea can easily be gained of the complexity of the forces with which every disciple has to contend and the significance of the ray forces which pour into and through him. Take for example the constellation which we are now considering, and remember that the same basic streams of energy will have to be noted in connection with every other sign in which a man may take incarnation. We find that we shall have to consider:

1. The Sun Sign: In this case Sagittarius conditions circumstances, indicating inheritance and forcing the environment to be declarative in connection with the subject.

2. The Rising Sign: The ascendant can be one of the other eleven signs.

3. The Mutable Cross: The four energies which meet "at the midway point" and have a united and definite effect upon the subject. The same statement applies to the other two Crosses.

4. The Orthodox Planets: These condition the personality. In this case we have Mercury and Jupiter. The twelve houses governed by the planets are likewise of prime importance from the angle of the transmitted energy.

5. The Esoteric Planets: These bring in renewed or increased planetary energy and ray energy in a more dynamic manner. In the case of Sagittarius these energies are Venus, the Moon, the Earth and Pluto.

6. The Planetary Ruler of a Hierarchy: In this particular case, this planet is Mars, ruling the sixth Creative Hierarchy, the lunar Lords (the elementals of the threefold personality) who have to be brought under the control of the solar Lord.

I cannot here enter into a detailed analysis of the many energies which pour through the disciple as he arrives at the final stages upon the Mutable Cross, and in Sagittarius achieves the determination to "direct his steps into another way of life and with ardour firm to mount another Cross," as the Old Commentary puts it. I can only point out that the following ray forces pour onto the man through the medium of the following planets:

Exoteric        Mercury—4th Ray—Harmony through Conflict.

Jupiter—2nd Ray—Love-wisdom.

Esoteric        Venus—5th Ray—Concrete Science. Mind.

The Moon—4th Ray—Harmony through Conflict.

The Earth—3rd Ray—Active Intelligence.

Pluto-1st Ray—Destructive aspect.

Hierarchical: Mars—6th Ray—Devotion. War to the death of the personality or form.

An analysis of this will show that the "forces of conflict" are powerful in this sign, primarily in the life of the disciple. Harmony through Conflict is ceaselessly active and appears in both the orthodox and the esoteric assignments. The destructive power of the first ray, focussed in Pluto, brings change, darkness and death. To this intensity and potency of Pluto must be added the forceful and dynamic energy of the planet Mars. This brings the entire human family, as well as the individual, under the law of strife, based this time upon sixth ray devotion to an ideal, high or low. All these play upon the individual born in the sign of Sagittarius, as well as upon the fourth Creative Hierarchy as a whole.

This, you can see for yourself, brings in a terrific situation, and the forces playing upon the disciple are of a momentous nature—provided that the mechanism of awareness is adequate to respond. These forces in all the signs are ever present, but responsiveness and sensitivity to their impact is dependent upon the nature of the response apparatus. Ponder upon this thought, for it is this sensitivity which marks the difference between the disciple and the average man.

These planetary influences are distinctive of the Sons of Mind, of Venusian origin; they are characteristic of the Lords of Sacrifice and Will functioning in time and space as the fourth Creative Hierarchy. The form life is ruled by the Moon, veiling a hidden planet; these Sons of Mind live on the Earth and thus within the body of the planetary Logos, and are of a definitely intelligent nature, making them Lords of Knowledge, achieving their goal through the light of the mind and through the method of conflict, for they are also Lords of Ceaseless and Persevering Devotion. All the above names which are related to the planets governing Sagittarius will be remembered by students of The Secret Doctrine. They are the "quality names" of the Divine Manasaputras, the Agnishvattas who are ourselves.

A consideration of the above paragraph will indicate to you the importance of the sign Sagittarius in the life of the incarnating Sons of God.

I would point out also that, through Jupiter and its influences, Sagittarius is related to three other great constellations:

1. Pisces: Exoterically, indicating the final goal for man.

2. Aquarius: Esoterically, indicating the purpose of all material evolution and the objective of all incarnating processes.

3. Virgo: Hierarchically, indicating the purpose of the Cosmic Christ.

Both the Earth and Saturn (one a non-sacred and one a sacred planet) are exponents or expressions of the third Ray of Active Intelligence, and this ray relationship serves to bring the influences of Capricorn into relationship with Sagittarius, thus providing a field of energy wherein the one-pointed disciple can finally become the initiate. This is the set goal of the subject born in Sagittarius—whether it is the set goal of initiation into some form of sensuous experience or of spiritual undertaking and consciousness. The result of all experience in any sign of the zodiac should definitely work out as an expansion of consciousness and, no matter what form this experience may take, it consummates in an initiation of some kind or another. Students would do well to regard initiation as a determining process in life, and should endeavour that every life experience or cycle of life experiences should work out as an initiation into a wider field of awareness, of expression and of resultant contact.

There is little more that I need say and little else upon which I need at this stage of study to comment. The man who is nearing the path of discipleship or who is already a disciple—pledged or under observation—will profit much from a deep and systematic study of this sign. I would suggest that the student bear in mind the position of this sign. Scorpio stands midway between two signs of balance or of equilibrium—Sagittarius and Libra. Libra marks an interlude or a notable point of balance before the strenuous testing and trial of Scorpio. Sagittarius marks another point of balance which follows after that testing, for the Archer has to acquire and hold a steady eye, hand and stance prior to firing the arrow which, when rightly directed and correctly followed, will carry him through the portal of initiation.

In studying Sagittarius, it becomes obvious that one of the major underlying themes is that of Direction. The Archer is guiding his horse towards some one specific objective; he is sending or directing his arrow towards a desired point; he is aiming at some specific goal. This sense of direction or guidance is characteristic of the enlightened man, of the aspirant and disciple, and this is a growing recognition; when this faculty of sensitive direction is rightly developed it becomes, in the early stages, an effort to identify all soul and personality activity with God's Plan, and this is, in the last analysis, the ordered direction of God's thought. There is no true direction apart from thought, and I would have you remember that thought is power. This is a statement upon which all disciples should ponder, for they can achieve no real comprehension of the direction of God's Plan unless they work with a phase in their own lives which is subject to their own mental direction. Then and only then, can they understand.

Upon the ordinary wheel of life, the man who is born in this sign or with this sign in the ascendant will be influenced by what the ancient Hindu Scriptures call kama-manas, which is inadequately translated by the words, desire-mind. This dual force controls and influences the life; in the early stages of unfoldment its focus is upon desire and the satisfaction of that desire and, in the later stages of purely personality development, the focus is upon the control of desire by the mind; the major objective is, at this time, the intelligent use of all powers to bring about adequate satisfaction of desire, which is, in this case, very frequently simply ambition to achieve some goal or attain some objective. This process of personality satisfaction takes place upon the ordinary wheel. Upon the reversed wheel, the goal is the expression of love-wisdom and this is ever selflessly developed and always consecrated to the good of the whole and not to the satisfaction of the individual.

We are told that Sagittarius governs the thighs, which are the main centre of physical power and protective strength, and also the sacral centre which provides the energy for the use of the creative powers of the physical life. This is also symbolically true. In Sagittarius, the disciple has two things to discover within himself; these are the power to make progress upon the path and to walk the Way, and also the ability to create in the higher and spiritual sense. This concerns the relationship between the sacral and the throat centres. These powers (the higher powers) are as yet embryonic in the earlier Sagittarian experience of the disciple, but they become more developed and potent as he cyclically returns to life experience in this sign.

It is interesting to note that no planet is exalted in Sagittarius and that no planet falls in this sign. Only one thing happens and that is that the power of Mercury is greatly lessened. For this reason Sagittarius is esoterically regarded as a sign of balance and of no extremes; there is no great fall and no exaltation. This fact indicates that the disciple has to walk an even way between the pairs of opposites, uninfluenced by either the "power of exaltation or the potency of that which falls." Neither the valley nor the heights produces any demonstrable effect.

Mercury, which is the expression of the fourth ray and also the God of the mental processes, has his power definitely lessened in this sign and this for two reasons, esoterically speaking:

First, the disciple has definitely to cease identifying himself with either his own human personality and processes or with the human kingdom, prior to taking initiation. His emphasis is, for the future, to be upon the spiritual soul and the fifth kingdom in nature; in Sagittarius he begins to express this first stage. This involves a complete withdrawal, in the personality sense, from the form side of life. This again entails (at a certain point of crisis) a point of balance.

Secondly, the power of the mind, having been developed, tested and found true in the sign Scorpio, begins to wane in its activity and the intuition begins to take its place. This is essential before the sign Capricorn is entered by the disciple and preparation for initiation begins.

As regards the three decanates of Sagittarius, Sepharial gives us the three governing planets as Mercury, the Moon and the Sun, whilst Alan Leo gives us Jupiter, Mars and the Sun, emphasising as he always does the way of the esotericists. He usually tunes in on the esoteric significances but not always. Jupiter gives expansion, superseding Mercury, for the mercurial mind is ever a limitation even if only a temporary one. The Moon gives place to Mars, which confers the quality of devotion and the capacity to fight for an ideal. This idealistic concept and method of work is always the characteristic of discipleship during the early stages of unfoldment upon the Path. The Sun, typifying the solar Angel remains constant both through the exoteric and the esoteric processes and therefore astrology recognises it as a constant pressure and presence. This fact in itself indicates a significant truth. The soul remains eternally present—in the past, in the present and on into the future.

In closing, I will simply quote to you the two keywords of this sign, both as it proceeds upon the ordinary wheel and upon the reversed wheel. Their meaning and significance are so obvious that there is no need for elucidation.

The injunction to the man upon the orthodox wheel is as follows:

And the Word said, "Let food be sought."

To the man upon the reversed wheel the Word goes forth:

"I see the goal. I reach that goal and then I see another."

SCORPIO, THE SCORPION

We come now to the consideration of a sign which is of paramount importance in the life of evolving man. Certain of the signs are in very close relation—through the inflow and the outflow of energy—with certain of the major constellations. These major constellations are, in a few instances, peculiarly connected with the signs of the zodiac. There are four of the zodiacal signs which are mysteriously concerned with what one might call the "personality expression" of the solar Logos Himself, or with the Divine Quaternary, the fourfold manifestation of Deity.

These four signs are Aries—Leo—Scorpio—Aquarius, and they involve the expression of the energy of one Cardinal sign and of three signs which form part of the Fixed Cross of the heavens. We could express this truth in another manner: God the Father, the Will to manifest, initiates the creative process which is worked out through the activity of God the Son, the cosmic Christ, crucified upon the Fixed Cross in the heavens. The activity of God the Holy Spirit, implicit in the Mutable Cross, is closely allied to the previous solar system, and the energy of that divine aspect is practically entirely occupied with manipulating the forces inherited from that system and inherent in the very nature of substance itself. This divine aspect is to the whole general divine manifestation what the lower nature (form life or personality in the three worlds of human evolution) is to the soul where an individual human being is concerned.

As regards these three Persons of the divine Trinity, we might say that:

1. Aries is the focal point of the expression of the first aspect of divinity, the will aspect.

2. Leo is the focal point for the expression of the second aspect, the love-wisdom or consciousness aspect. This, primarily where humanity is concerned.

3. Virgo is the focal point for the expression of the third aspect, that of active intelligence. In that sign the highest function of matter is symbolised.

4. The four signs—Aries, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius—are related to the following stars which are not numbered in the twelve signs of the zodiac; they constitute another field of relationships:

• Aries to one of the two stars, found in the constellation, the Great Bear, which are called the two Pointers.
• Leo to Polaris, the Pole Star, found in the Little Bear.
• Scorpio to Sirius, the Dog Star.
• Aquarius to Alcyone, one of the seven Pleiades.

Aries is, as might be expected, closely connected with the Great Bear but peculiarly so with one of the stars called The Pointers; these point to the Pole star which is at this time a major "star of direction." Direction, will, purpose and plan are all connected with the solar Logos and with His evolutionary undertakings in connection with the many lives manifesting in the vehicle of expression which we call the solar system. All these respond to the influences of the first ray which is, to all intents and purposes, the energy of divine embodied will, which has been esoterically described as "unavoidable directed purpose." Within our solar system, Vulcan and Pluto are expressions or custodians of this first ray energy and are, as I have told you, esoteric planets. The first indication of the true spiritual will only begins to manifest upon the Path of Discipleship—hence the late discovery of these two planets (late in point of time and from the angle of human knowledge) for it is only in this Aryan race period that humanity is to any large extent beginning to manifest evidence (and as yet it is no more) of a reaction or a response to the spiritual will of deity as it comes to our planet and hence to us via Aries, Vulcan and Pluto. You have, therefore, the following direct line of will energy:

1. The Pointer furthest from the Pole Star in the constellation of the Great Bear. This is, esoterically speaking, a great reservoir or focal point for divine energy, carrying out God's purpose. The Pointer nearest to the Pole Star is expressive of a lower aspect of the will, which—in speaking of humanity—we call self-will.

2. Aries, in which the will to create or to manifest makes its appearance and the great divine experiment is initiated.

3. Vulcan and Pluto are related to the two Pointers and are only now beginning, in any definite and clear manner, to affect human response. Their effect has been planetary in its nature up to date and has not hitherto been at all effective in either the fourth or the second kingdoms in nature.

4. Shamballa, the Custodian of the Plan for our planet.

Leo is the sign wherein the consciousness of individuality is developed, utilised and finally consecrated to divine purpose. It is related to Polaris, the Pole Star (found in the Little Bear) and it is also peculiarly susceptible to the influence of that Pointer in the Great Bear which is the nearest to the Pole Star. Esoterically speaking, the Pole Star is regarded as the "star of re-orientation" whereby the art of "refacing and recovering that which is lost" is developed. This eventually brings a man back to his originating source. It might, therefore, be correctly inferred that this Pointer and the energy emanating from it guides humanity upon the involutionary path, and is constantly active in its influence upon the man who is still upon the Mutable Cross.

Then the energy of the Pointer furthest from the Pole Star begins to make its presence felt and a sense of right direction or guidance is registered by the disciple upon the Path, and such guidance (when followed) leads man nearer to the Hierarchy. It is here that the divine necessity of achieving alignment is portrayed for us in the symbolism of the sky and when it has been achieved then there is a direct inflow of divine energy and man is linked up in a new and creative manner to sources of divine supply. Astrologers will do well (in connection with the horoscopes of disciples and particularly of initiates) to consider the two Pointers and the Pole Star. They are mysteriously connected with the three aspects of incarnated man—Spirit, soul and body. More than this it is not permitted to me to convey to you. I may, however, give you another hint. These three stars are embodiments of the three aspects of divine will. It is the three aspects of all expressions of divinity in manifestation which underlie the Science of Triangles. This I will later elaborate.

Another triangle of energy also appears: Aries, Leo and Polaris, and they are doubly connected through the medium of the Pointers.

Scorpio is under the influence or inflowing energy of Sirius. This is the great star of initiation because our Hierarchy (an expression of the second aspect of divinity) is under the supervision or spiritual magnetic control of the Hierarchy of Sirius. These are the major controlling influences whereby the cosmic Christ works upon the Christ principle in the solar system, in the planet, in man and in the lower forms of life expression. It is esoterically called the "brilliant star of sensitivity." You have therefore:

Polaris: The Star of Direction—governing Shamballa. Later, another Pole Star will take the place of Polaris, owing to the interplay of forces in the universe and the general shift and movement. But the name and quality of this star will only be revealed at initiation.

Sirius: The Star of Sensitivity—governing the Hierarchy. Alcyone—The Star of the Individual—governing humanity.

You can see from the above how the entire plan of this Treatise is gradually unfolding. It was necessary for me to indicate to you the nature and the purpose of the three divine centres—Shamballa, the Hierarchy, and Humanity—before I could make this part of the teaching clear to you, or before I could point out the nature of the energies pouring from distant constellations and zodiacal signs into our planetary scheme.

Scorpio is the great constellation which influences the turning point both in the life of humanity and the life of the individual human being. For the first time in the history of both mankind and disciples the energy of Sirius, pouring into the seven groups which form our planetary Hierarchy evokes a response. I would remind you of a basic fact in the evolutionary process which astrology will eventually prove scientifically and past all controversy. This is the fact that energies and forces are pouring upon our system and our planetary lives ceaselessly, potently and cyclically. Yet they are only regarded today as existing when definite response is evoked. They come from all kinds of sources, extraneous to our system and planetary schemes, but until man responds and registers them both scientists and astrologers fail to recognise them and they are as if they were not. This is a point to bear in mind as I continue to teach you, for I may indicate some sources of active energy which may as yet be unknown to you as playing upon our system and its contents. The difficulty will not be because of my inaccuracies but will be owing to the lack of sensitivity in the mechanism of response which mankind and disciples are at present utilising.

You have consequently in connection with the path of discipleship the following lines of "influential energy":

1. Sirius—Working in a sevenfold manner through the seven rays and their seven groups as these        constitute the active Hierarchy.

2. The Fixed Cross—A fusion of four major energies, pouring into our solar system, on to our planet and through humanity.

3. Scorpio—An aspect of the Fixed Cross, of peculiar and specialised potency upon the Path of  Discipleship and preparing, with its tests and trials:

• The process of re-orientation, whereby a man mounts the Fixed Cross and leaves the Mutable Cross.

• The disciple for the first, second and third initiations. After the third initiation, its peculiar testing potency is no longer felt.

4. The Hierarchy—The distributing agency to the various kingdoms in nature.

5. Mars and Saturn—Both these planets are exceedingly potent in connection with initiation into the life of the Hierarchy; Mars is potent in relation to Scorpio and Saturn in relation to Capricorn. This involves the intensified activity of the 6th and the 3rd rays and their energies, and when these are rightly employed there comes liberation from form control and the release of the conscious individual.

Aquarius relates humanity to the Pleiades and therefore to Taurus in an unusual manner. The key to this relation is to be found in the word desire, leading, through the transmutative processes of life experience, to aspiration and finally the relinquishing of desire in Scorpio. Aquarius, Alcyone and Humanity constitute a most interesting triangle of force. Alcyone is one of the seven Pleiades and is called the "star of the Individual" and sometimes the "star of intelligence." It was potently active during the previous solar system wherein the Third Person of the Trinity was peculiarly omnipotent and active, just as today the cosmic Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, is peculiarly active in this solar system. The energies coming from Alcyone impregnated the substance of the universe with the quality of mind. As a consequence of this most ancient activity, the same force was present at the time of individualisation in this solar system, for it is in this system, and primarily upon our planet, the Earth, that the major results of that early activity have made themselves felt. Two of our planets, the Earth (non-sacred) and Uranus (sacred), are directly the product of this third ray activity. This is of great importance to remember. I would also ask you to link this thought with the teaching that through the divine centre of intelligent activity which we call humanity, the fourth kingdom in nature will eventually act as the mediating principle to all the three lower kingdoms. Humanity is the divine Messenger to the world of form; it is essentially Mercury, bringing light and life to other divine manifestations and of this all divine world Saviours are the eternal symbols.

This coming process of planetary service through the third divine centre is only truly effective when Aquarius rules and when our sun is passing through that sign of the zodiac. Hence the immense importance of the next 2000 years. Therefore, only when a man is a world server and becoming group conscious can this desired objective of manifestation begin to demonstrate. It is beginning to happen today for the first time in planetary history. It is one of the first fruits of initiation and only in the next root race to our present Aryan race will we begin really to understand the significance of the process and the true nature of the energies to be released through the medium of humanity upon the planet. It is for this reason that Jupiter and Uranus (expressions of the second and the seventh rays) are the exoteric and esoteric rulers of Aquarius.

You have, therefore, the following line of force to study:

1. Alcyone—in the Pleiades, the mothers of the seven aspects of form life and the "wives of the seven Rishis of the Great Bear." They are connected with the Mother aspect which nurtures the infant Christ.

2. Aquarius—the World Server, the transmitter of energy which evokes magnetic response.

3. Jupiter and Uranus—planets of beneficent consummation. The second ray of love and the seventh ray which fuses spirit and matter "to the ultimate glory" of the solar Logos are in the fullest eventual cooperation.

4. Humanity—the focal point for all these energies and the divine distributor of them to individual man and later to the lower three kingdoms in nature.

Thus you see, that from a generalisation of the exterior constellations (exterior to the zodiac and the solar system itself) we are becoming more specific, showing how certain stars in these constellations are definitely related by direct lines of energy to our planet; these lines of force usually reach us via one of the zodiacal signs and—in rare cases—directly to a planet. The latter case is, however, exceedingly rare. We have also brought into relation to our solar system another constellation, called the Little Bear which is a reflection of or a corollary to the major energies of its greater prototype, Ursa Major, the Great Bear. These facts contain a great mystery connected with the inter-relation of Ursa Major, Ursa Minor and the Pleiades; they constitute one of the greatest and more important of the triplicities to be found in the heavens as far as we have astronomically ascertained the nature of our immediate universe.

In order the better to understand the nature of discipleship and the processes of stabilisation and right direction, we must precede the Capricornian experience of initiation with a careful study of the spiritual implications of the sign Scorpio and of its function in providing "points of crisis" and "moments of reorientation," as this will be of the utmost value to the earnest student. Even though I am endeavouring to lay the foundation for the new astrology and to provide some measure of technical information from the point of view of the Hierarchy, my underlying motive is ever the same: to indicate the way of living process and to stimulate that divine curiosity and that sense of outgoing spiritual adventure and eager aspiration for progress which is latent in all disciples and which, when stimulated, will enable them to proceed more serenely and sanely upon the Path of Return.

Otherwise the practical value of that which I seek to impart is of no real importance at all; I shall be understood and the new astrology will come into being according to the esoteric capacity of those who read and ponder my words. I am exceedingly anxious that in these days wherein the influence of Scorpio and of the planet Mars is so strongly felt in world affairs that true insight may be cultivated, optimism and understanding developed and the nature of the tests to which the world disciple, humanity, is today being subjected may be estimated at their true value and thus light be shed upon the way of man. Only through understanding will solution come and rectification of error be achieved.

The tests of Scorpio are necessarily three in nature as they concern intimately the readiness of the threefold personality:

1. To reorient itself to the life of the soul and later

2. To evidence readiness for initiation.

3. To demonstrate sensitivity to the Plan thus becoming the one-pointed disciple in Sagittarius.

The three major tests are again divided into three stages, and upon the Path of Discipleship the man may find himself passing into this sign for testing and experience nine times. The fact of the three tests each existing in their three stages may convey a hint to esoteric astrologers as to the purpose of the three decanates into which each sign is divided—a point upon which I shall hope to touch when we come to our study of the Science of Triangles. Each test (and therefore each decanate) concerns the three aspects which in this Treatise on the Seven Rays we have called: life, quality and appearance.

Thus the three great tests in Scorpio are in reality nine tests and hence the nine-headed Hydra or Serpent which is ever associated with Scorpio and hence also the nature of the stupendous victory achieved by Hercules, the Sun-God, in this sign.

It is interesting to note that each of the great Sons of God Whose names are pre-eminent in the minds of men—Hercules, the Buddha and the Christ—are associated in the archives of the Great White Lodge with three special signs of the zodiac (which in a peculiar manner constitute the "zodiacal decanate") in each of which They passed from test to victory.

In Scorpio—Hercules became the triumphant disciple.

In Taurus—The Buddha achieved victory over desire and arrived at illumination.

In Pisces—The Christ overcame death and became the world saviour.

These three constellations, therefore, form a triangle of initiation of profound importance because it provides those conditions and that energy which will test and perfect the three aspects of the personality so that they are true reflections of the three divine aspects; they concern soul and body primarily and therefore their expression is through the Mutable Cross and the Fixed Cross but not the Cardinal Cross. We might add to the above the following:

1. Scorpio carries the test right down into the physical plane life, and then, when it is faced and handled there, the life of the man is carried up into heaven, and the problem which the test involved is solved by the use of the reasoning mind.

2. Taurus governs desire and carries the test into the emotional or astral plane, and carries desire- sensitivity up from the form side of life into that world of sensitive perception which we call the intuitional plane.

3. Pisces carries the test into the region of the mental processes, which is the reflection of the will aspect of divinity; the problem of the initiate in this sign is voiced by Christ in the words, "Father, not my will but Thine be done." The tests carry the self-will of the personality up into the region of the divine will and the result is inspiration and the emergence of a world saviour.

Ponder upon the above and learn the lessons of appetite, of desire and of self-will for they are many and useful.

The three tests in Scorpio also concern the three aspects of the human being as they fuse and blend upon the physical plane. They are, first of all, the test of appetite. This appetite is the natural predilections and tendencies which are inherent in the animal nature and these are mainly three: Sex, physical comfort, and money, as concretised energy. They are, secondly, the tests connected with desire and the astral plane. These are subtler in nature, producing automatic effects upon the physical plane; they are not inherent in the animal nature but are imposed by the desire nature and are again three in number: Fear, hatred and ambition or desire for power. Then there are, thirdly, the tests of the lower critical mind which are: Pride, separativeness and cruelty. Remember that the worst kind of cruelty is not of a physical nature but is more mental in character. When these faults are realised and are overcome, the result is twofold: the establishing of right relations with the soul and also with the environment. These two results are the goal of all tests in Scorpio.

The keynotes of this sign are, therefore, test, trial and triumph. They can also be called struggle, strength and Sagittarian attitudes. Another angle of the experience in Scorpio can be covered by two words : re-capitulation and re-orientation. In Scorpio, two most occult factors emerge from the past and begin to engross the attention of the disciple. One is memory and the other is, as a consequence of the memory, the Dweller on the Threshold. Memory in the sense here involved is not simply just a faculty of the mind, as is so oft supposed, but it is essentially a creative power. It is basically an aspect of thought and—coupled with imagination—is a creative agent because thoughts are things, as well you know. From ancient recesses of the memory, from a deeply rooted past which is definitely recalled, and from the racial and the individual subconscious (or founded and established thought reservoirs and desires, inherited and inherent) there emerges from individual past lives and experience that which is the sum total of all instinctual tendencies, of all inherited glamours and of all phases of wrong mental attitudes; to these (as they constitute a blended whole) we give the name of the Dweller on the Threshold.

This Dweller is the sum total of all the personality characteristics which have remained unconquered and unsubdued and which must be finally overcome before initiation can be taken. Each life sees some progress made; some personality defects straightened out and some real advance effected. But the unconquered residue and the ancient liabilities are numerous and excessively potent and—when soul contact is adequately established—there eventuates a life wherein the highly developed and powerful personality becomes, in itself, the Dweller on the Threshold. Then the Angel of the Presence and the Dweller stand face to face and something must then be done. Eventually, the light of the personal self fades out and wanes in the blaze of glory which emanates from the Angel.

Then the greater glory obliterates the lesser. This is, however, only possible when the personality eagerly enters into this relation with the Angel, recognises itself as the Dweller and—as a disciple—begins the battle between the pairs of opposites and enters into the tests of Scorpio. These tests and trials are ever self-initiated; the disciple puts himself into the positive or conditioning environment wherein the trials and the discipline are unavoidable and inevitable. When the mind has reached a relatively high stage of development, the memory aspect is evoked in a new and conscious manner and then every latent pre-disposition, every racial and national instinct, every unconquered situation and every controlling fault rises to the surface of consciousness and then—the fight is on. The keynote of Scorpio is, however, Triumph. This is its major expression upon the physical plane. As a result of struggle and of victory, the whole divine man—not yet perfectly expressing himself, if I might word the situation thus—is anchored upon the physical plane with such accuracy and clarity that there is no escape from the environing conclusions of the disciple's family, friends and group that he is a disciple. From that angle he is meticulously watched; he learns the meaning of the word "example"; he is pilloried by those who are onlookers and the first conscious stages toward group awareness and group response, plus group service, are now taken. Such is the outcome and the reward of the experience in Scorpio.

It is in this sign that the prodigal son comes to himself, and having eaten of the husks of life and having exhausted the resources of worldly desire and ambition—he says, "I will arise and go to my Father." 

There are two such major crises in the life of the aspirant:

1. When the intelligent man of the world comes to himself and then re-orients himself to the soul and its requirements. This leads to the tests in Scorpio.

2. When the initiate of the third degree—upon a higher turn of the spiral—re-orients himself to the Monad and passes through most subtle tests to certain undefinable and spiritual recognitions. Upon these we need not enlarge.

There is little for me to add here in connection with the fact that Scorpio is upon one of the four arms of the Fixed Cross. In the study of previous signs, much anent the Fixed Cross has already been covered and there is no need for me to repeat the information here. Desire in Taurus becomes spiritual aspiration in Scorpio. The darkness of the experience in Scorpio becomes illumination in Taurus, for it must never be forgotten that where the pairs of opposites are concerned they gain and profit from each other, for there is a direct line of force and of contact between the two. This is a fact which is seldom recognised.

We come now to a consideration of the Rulers which govern the sign, Scorpio. Their influence is potent in the lives of the average or undeveloped man who responds more easily to the planetary influences in the twelve houses of his personality horoscope than does the more advanced man who is coming under the direct influence of the zodiacal signs. Through these Rulers, two rays are brought into a potent controlling position in Scorpio; they are the sixth Ray of Devotion and the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict, the latter having a peculiar relation to the mode of human development and the former to the methods of the Piscean age which is just passing. Mars and Mercury control and Mars is particularly active, owing to the fact that Mars is both the orthodox planet controlling the personality in Scorpio and also the esoteric planet conditioning the unfoldment of the disciple. Mars is the dominating factor in the tests and trials of the disciple, prior to the experience in Sagittarius and the initiation in Capricorn, and this for the following reasons:

First, Mars is definitely the planet which rules and controls the physical vehicle. Mars appears first of all as the orthodox ruler in Aries, the sign in which the first move is made towards bringing about objective manifestation, or physical incarnation. In Scorpio, the result of all the struggles carried forward during the seemingly endless pilgrimage around the zodiac or wheel of life is brought to a point of climax, again through the activity of Mars which has not appeared actively in the intervening signs between Aries and Scorpio as far as the reversed wheel is concerned. The disciple has now to demonstrate the strength, character and quality which he has unfolded and developed within himself during his long pilgrimage. He started in Aries with Mars ruling, and the great war between the dualities which constitute the man began. The pairs of opposites were thus brought into relation with each other. In Scorpio, with the same planet ruling his interior life, the war is on and in this case Mars rules not only the physical body but the entire form vehicle, which we call the personality in the three worlds. All aspects of the lower nature are involved in this crisis, for Mars is the esoteric ruler in Scorpio and the tests applied involve the form nature—gross and subtle, integrated and potent. Mars, therefore, rules Aries from the orthodox angle and Scorpio esoterically, and does not again appear in the life of the individual except as that individual responds to mass vibration in Sagittarius, where Mars appears as ruling the sixth Creative Hierarchy, the lunar lords of the form nature who must eventually be sacrificed to the higher spiritual aspect and brought under the control of the solar Angel. The effect of Mars is, therefore, largely mass effect and group results, producing great struggles but leading finally to great revelation.

In Aries, it is the final revelation of the nature of knowledge and the purpose of incarnation; in Scorpio, it is the revelation of the vision of liberation and service; in Sagittarius, it is the revelation of the purpose of soul control over the lower kingdoms in nature, via the human centre of energy. It must consequently never be forgotten that Mars establishes relations between the opposites and is a beneficent and not a malefic factor, as is so often supposed. When we come to study the Hierarchies and their relation to the signs, certain points which are at present obscure will be clarified. This we shall do when dealing with our final point in this section upon astrology and the rays. We shall then find that Scorpio rules and governs the fourth Creative Hierarchy, the human from the angle of the soul and not from the angle of the lower nature. The final struggle in Scorpio only takes place when the point of balance between soul and body has been reached in Libra and it is in Scorpio that the preponderance of the spiritual energy is imposed upon the lower personal forces. Scorpio governs "the initiates," which is the true esoteric name of man, and through its hierarchical planetary ruler, the Sons of Mind, the Messengers of Deity are revealed, but it is through Mars and the Martian activity that the revelation comes about.

Secondly, Mars is closely related to sex, which is an aspect of the pairs of opposites, and its effect is also definitely to vitalise the blood stream; it vitalises, purifies and stimulates all aspects and organisms in the body, via the blood stream. It will be obvious to you, therefore, how the tests in Scorpio and the activity of Mars are potent to arouse the entire lower nature and bring about its final rebellion and the last stand, so to speak, of the personality against the soul. It is Mars who brings the world Arjuna into the active fight. The whole man is then engaged and the "quarrel of the sexes" is resolved in its highest aspect through the battle between the highly developed personality or form nature and the soul which seeks to be the ultimate controlling factor.

The colour assigned to Mars is, as you know, red and this is a correspondence to the colour of the blood stream and hence also the association of Mars with passion, with anger and a sense of general opposition. The sense of duality is exceedingly powerful. Hence also the necessity for the entire life of man (for the blood is the life in this sense) to be swung into the conflict, leaving no side of human nature uninvolved; hence again the need for the disciple to carry his physical nature, his emotional or desire nature and his mental processes up into heaven. This takes place as a consequence of overcoming the "serpent of evil" (the form nature with its promptings and demands) by the means of the "serpent of wisdom," which is the esoteric name oft given to the soul.

In connection with the symbolic connection between Mars and the blood, producing the resultant conflict between life and death (for Scorpio is one of the signs of death), it is interesting to note that Christianity is governed by Mars. One is apt to recognise with ease that the sixth ray, working through Mars, rules Christianity. It is a religion of devotion, fanaticism, of high courage, of idealism, of the spiritual emphasis upon the individual and his worth and problem, of conflict and of death. All those characteristics are familiar to us in the presentation of Christian theology. It is however pre-eminently a religion which has waged a cruel and oft illogical war upon sex and its implications; it has emphasised a militant celibacy (militant where women and their rights and natures are concerned); it has regarded the sex relation as one of the primary evils in the world and has laid the emphasis upon the inviolable nature of the marriage bond when endorsed by the Church. This has all been the result of the beneficent or the malefic effect of the impact of sixth ray force upon the form nature. Little emphasis has been laid nevertheless upon the influence of Mars upon Christianity, making it a definitely militant religion, oft cruel and sadistic (as witness the murders and tortures carried out in the name of Christ, who was the outstanding Representative of God's love).

Throughout the teaching of Christian theology, the theme of blood runs ceaselessly and the source of salvation is laid upon the blood relationship and not upon the life aspect which the blood veils and symbolises. It is the creed of a crucified and dead Christ which rules Christianity and not that of the risen Master. One of the reasons for this travesty of the truth has been that St. Paul, that great initiate, prior to taking the third initiation which he did at the time he was functioning as related in The Acts of the Apostles, was potently under Martian influence and was born in Scorpio; a study of his horoscope would demonstrate this were you in a position to study as can we who are connected with the Hierarchy. It was he who gave the Scorpio-Mars slant to the interpretation and exposition of the Christian teaching and deflected its energy into channels of teaching which its Founder had never intended. Such is often the undesirable effect of the activities of well-meaning disciples upon the work which they undertake to carry on after the originator of some work for the Hierarchy passes over to the other side through death or relinquishes his task in order to take up other duties.

The blood theme and the death theme, the suffering and the dire testing of the disciple, the value of the individual conflict and the consciousness of the misery of existence are basically due to the combined influences of Scorpio and of Mars which have ruled Christianity for so long and which are only now beginning somewhat to lose their influence.

A study of the processes of death as the sign Scorpio conditions them and the processes of death as we see them working out in the sign Pisces would be of very real value. Death through the influences of Pluto and death through the influences of Mars are widely different. Death in Pisces through the energy of Pluto is transformation—a transformation so vital and so basic that the

"... Ancient One is no longer seen. He sinks to the depth of the ocean of life; he descends into hell, but the gates of hell hold him not. He, the new and living One leaves below that which has held him down throughout the ages and rises from the depths unto the heights, close to the throne of God."

The connection of these words with Christ, the present world Saviour, is obvious in their implications, and yet they were written in our archives over seven thousand years ago. Death in Scorpio is of a different nature and is also described in the same ancient writing in the following words:

"... Ancient One dies by drowning. Such is the test. The waters envelop him and there is no escape. He drowns. The fires of passion are then quenched. The life of desire ceases its appeal and to the bottom of the lake he now descends. Later, he re-ascends to Earth where the white horse waits his coming. And this he mounts, proceeding towards the second death" (that is, towards Pisces).

The reference here to Sagittarius is clear. The disciple—after the death of the personality and after the killing out of desire—goes on towards Pisces where again he dies "unto an eternal resurrection." In Scorpio there is the death of the personality, with its longings, desires, ambitions and pride. In Pisces there is the death of all attachments and the liberation of the soul for service upon an universal scale. Christ, in Pisces, exemplified the substitution of love for attachment. Christianity exemplifies the death of the personality, with individual and not universal implications; love has been conspicuously lacking and the controlling colour of Christianity has indeed been red. It is not Christ's expression but the Scorpio-Mars presentation of St. Paul.

Mars has ruled Christianity because St. Paul misinterpreted the esoteric significances of the New Testament message and he misinterpreted because the truth—like all truths as they reach humanity—had to pass through the filter of his personality mind and brain; it was then unavoidably given a personal slant and twist and this is responsible for the sorry historical story of Christianity and the dire plight of the nations today—ostensibly Christian nations yet swept by hate, ruled by fear and at the same time by idealism, governed by a fanatical adherence to their national destiny as they interpret it and "out for blood" as the piling up of armaments discloses. All these are sixth ray characteristics, emphasised by Scorpio and conditioned by Mars which ever rules the path of the individual disciple, and today the world disciple, humanity as a whole, stands at the very portal of the Path. The entire west is at this time under Martian influence but this will end during the next five years.

Thirdly, Mars governs the senses which are five in number. These senses are the basis of all human knowledge where that which is tangible and objective is concerned or inferred. Mars, therefore, rules science and hence the reason in this present era for the fundamental but not permanent materiality of science—a materiality which is rapidly lessening as Mars nears the end of its present cycle of influence. Already, the trend of modern science is shifting into the realm of the intangible and into the world of the non-material. Hence also the fact that the opposition to occultism is waning and its day of power approaching. These subtler senses will supersede the physical senses over which Mars has so long had a successful control, and hence again the growth in the world today of the psychic senses and the appearance on every hand of the subtler and more esoteric powers of clair-voyance and clair-audience. This development is inevitable as the influence of Scorpio and of Mars begins to lessen, as is the case today. The year 1945 saw this influence almost completely vanish, particularly from the astral plane. Astrologers would do well to remember that the influence of the constellations, signs and planets, work out upon three levels of awareness—three descending levels—and are felt first of all upon the mental plane, then upon the astral plane and finally upon the physical plane. But it is with this last plane that astrologers are primarily concerned, emphasising happenings and events and not their conditioning causes. At present, astrology deals with effects and not with that which is causing them.

There is much confusion over this matter and the horoscopes of the three levels are often much distorted. A horoscope which could be interpreted purely upon the mental plane is given a physical interpretation, and thus happenings which are entirely mental are portrayed as physical occurrences. A clue to this triple interpretation which astrology must eventually recognise can be found in the relation of the orthodox, the esoteric and the hierarchical planets and the rays of which they are the expression.

You will see from this how important are the functions of Scorpio and Mars upon our planet at this time, and you will note also how brief a time remains in which humanity can (rightly or wrongly) handle its tests. You will realise also the pressure under which the Hierarchy at this time struggles now that Martian energy is expressing itself upon the astral plane. Will the world Hercules lift this problem up into heaven and "elevate the Hydra" of passion and hate, of greed and aggression, and of selfishness and ambition up into the region of the soul? Or will it carry the whole matter down on to the physical plane with the inevitable corollary of world disaster, world war and death? Such are the problems with which the guiding Hierarchy is faced.

Scorpio is also most interestingly connected with the constellation, Cancer, through the influences of the sixth ray, for it should be remembered that that ray is also expressing itself through Neptune, but in a spiritual and esoteric manner. Neptune governs Cancer esoterically. The significance is therefore clear, for Cancer is the sign of birth; it is the door into incarnation and the sign of generation. Scorpio is the sign of sex and of regeneration, and birth is ever the intended result of the sex relation. Father-spirit and Mother-matter when brought together produce the Son. The tests and difficulties and pains of this era are symptoms or indications of the "entering into manifestation" of the new civilisation and culture. They portend the birth of the new era for which the entire world waits. This will happen if—speaking esoterically—the sixth ray energy of Mars is transmuted into the sixth ray energy of Neptune, for the one is "objective and full of blood" and the other is "subjective and full of life."

A great mystery is veiled and hidden in the above relationship, for Cancer-Neptune is expressive of the seventh ray which rules and controls the eighth Creative Hierarchy. This is one of the five Hierarchies whose names are unknown to us and this particular one stands upon the verge of liberation. At the same time it is closely connected with the mind principle as it works out through the solar Angels or through the human hierarchy. It is related to the birth of the fourth Creative Hierarchy in a sense not to be understood by anyone below the stage of the fourth initiation, but it is an interesting fact to remember for it is in the connection between the sixth and seventh rays that that potent "desire for incarnation" was aroused which resulted in the fall of the angels in primordial times. This sixth ray influence coming from three angles—orthodox, esoteric and hierarchical—and hence involving both Neptune and Mars—predisposes the race and individual man as well to become one-pointed disciples in Sagittarius. This latter constellation is ruled by Mars, bringing the man into control or closer touch with the lunar lords, the sixth Creative Hierarchy.

Students should study their charts with care, remembering to differentiate between the five Hierarchies which are the non-manifesting Hierarchies, and the seven Hierarchies which are in expression now, and of which the sixth Creative Hierarchy is a part. This Hierarchy, from the larger angle of the entire twelve hierarchies and not simply the seven manifesting hierarchies, is the eleventh or the second. The sixth Ray of Devotion is consequently most powerful in this age or cycle and hence the expression in every land today of its best and its worst features, of which the intense devotion to material things and the intense devotion to spiritual values are dramatic instances.

Scorpio and Aquarius are also in a peculiar relation to each other through the planet Mercury which governs the human family (being the hierarchical planet in Scorpio), and through Neptune which rules Cancer, thus governing expression upon the physical plane. In this connection the Moon is given as the orthodox ruler and the hierarchical rule of Aquarius.

I would here remind you that the Moon is usually regarded as "veiling" or "hiding" some planet and of these there are three which the Moon may be veiling. Here the intuition of the astrologer and of the esoteric student must be called out. These planets are Vulcan, Neptune or Uranus. These three create and influence certain aspects of the Mother principle, which nourish and feed the life of the inner divine reality until the time comes when the Christ child is brought to the birth. They determine or condition the physical, astral and mental natures, thus creating the personality. They form a triangle of immense creative potency, upon which theme I will later enlarge when dealing with the Science of Triangles. The point which I am here making is that through the influence of Mercury and Neptune the group consciousness of the individual is developed, so that through the tests in Scorpio and the experience in Aquarius the disciple emerges on the physical plane into the position of a world server; all world servers are decentralised workers and are governed by the need and the reactions of the mass or group.

That is one of the reasons why, when in training, disciples are absorbed into a Master's group which is integrally a collection of individuals who are imbued with the group idea and are learning increasingly to react to it. In this world period and in a peculiar manner, as far as the race (Aryan) to which the Western world belongs, Neptune is known esoterically as the Initiator. In certain ancient formulas, the great Teacher of the West and the present world Initiator, Christ, is spoken of as Neptune, Who rules the ocean, whose trident and astrological symbol signifies the Trinity in manifestation and Who is the ruler of the Piscean Age. The formula runs as follows, speaking esoterically: "... the fish goddesses who have leapt from earth (Virgo) to water (Pisces) unitedly give birth to the Fish God (Christ) who introduces the water of life into the ocean of substance and thus brings light to the world. Thus does Neptune work." This is, however, a great mystery, revealed only at the time of the second initiation in which the control of the fluidic astral plane is demonstrated.

Cancer, being the door to incarnation, has a close relation to Scorpio through Neptune and Mars, both of whom are expressions of the sixth ray energy. In Cancer, you have the devotion of the soul, developed to such an extent that the urge to manifest overcomes all other urges, and the processes of incarnation impose themselves upon the soul. In Scorpio, that same spirit of devotion (which is based on the sense of duality and the need to go out towards that which is not the Self) is turned in the reverse direction and the urge towards liberation and the desire to tread the Path of Return becomes so strong that the disciple submits to tests, reverses—at tremendous cost and pain—his position upon the wheel of life and assumes the attitude of the Observer in contradistinction to that of the Experiencer. Old identifications cease; new trends toward higher, subtler and more spiritual identifications begin to appear and then Neptune and Mars begin to play their part.

A close study of all the above relations will reveal the fact that four signs of the zodiac play a dominant part, therefore, in the life of the man who is working whilst in incarnation with his Sun in Scorpio or with Scorpio rising. These are:

1. Aries--------Cardinal Cross -------- Initiating impulse -----Life
2. Cancer------Cardinal Cross -------- Focussed impulse -----Incarnation
3. Scorpio -----Fixed Cross ----------- Reversing impulse ----Return
4. Aquarius ---Fixed Cross -----------Group impulse --------Service

These are signs 1-4-8-11. These numbers in themselves are most significant for they are the signs of will-desire, of human expression, of the Christ principle and of initiation. There is no need for me to enlarge upon this fourfold theme and the truth of its implied teaching, for it is obvious and clear and the history of the soul is sealed up in these numbers.

I would like to touch upon another interesting point which will serve to demonstrate the potency of Scorpio and its energies in the life of the disciple. Scorpio is one of the four arms of the Fixed Cross of the heavens, as you well know. Upon that Cross, the correctly poised man stands right at the centre where the four arms meet and, therefore, at the point where the energy of all the four signs and of their ruling planets can pour through him and evoke the needed reactions, produce the conditions wherein test is possible and so bring about the necessary reversal of the life currents in the man's nature and place him upon the reversed wheel.

The planets which will rule and condition him in some aspect or other of his nature are:

         Planet                      Sign                   Ray              School

1. Venus----------- Taurus--------- 5th--------- Orthodox
2. Vulcan---------- Taurus--------- 1st --------- Hierarchical. Esoteric
3. The Sun -------- Leo -------------2nd --------All three
4. Mars ------------ Scorpio-------- 6th ---------Orthodox and Esoteric
5. Mercury -------- Scorpio-------- 4th--------- Hierarchical
6. Uranus---------- Aquarius ------ 7th--------- Orthodox
7. Jupiter ----------Aquarius ------2nd ---------Esoteric
8. The Moon------ Aquarius ------  4th---------  Hierarchical

From this tabulation, it will appear that the influence of only one ray, that of the third Ray of Active Intelligence, is missing. All the other rays pour through, vertically and horizontally, into the man's nature and his environment. Life, quality and appearance are all tested, but as the entire experience has to be fought out subjectively and lifted "up into the air" finally and raised into the world of spiritual values where all problems must be solved in the light of the intuition and by the soul, the stimulation of the intellect and the focussing of the disciple's attention upon the physical plane (the world of material values) is not desirable. Therefore, the influence of the third ray is omitted or "occultly deflected," as it is called, except in so far that the substance of the brain is automatically conditioned by the third ray which is the subconscious ruler of matter. This pouring in of six potencies is that which provides the setting and conditions of the tests; all these ray energies express themselves as the active sub-rays of the ray upon which the soul of the disciple is found; hence the necessity to ascertain the ray of the soul, prior to casting the horoscope and setting up the chart.

This brings me to two points about which I would like to speak a word. In dealing with the horoscope of the personality and with the average non-aspiring man, the astrologer should endeavour to discover the personality ray from a study of character, of the physical indications, of the emotional qualities, of the type of mind and the nature of the environment. He will then be able to lay out a far more useful chart with the orthodox planets ruling the life. In the case of the horoscope of a disciple, he should do the same, endeavouring to discover the ray of the soul. The soul ray only sets its mark and emphasises its quality and nature in the case of advanced people, and when that emerges clearly, the man is obviously a disciple and the esoteric planets will then govern his chart. Having determined the ray of the man undergoing tests in Scorpio, the astrologer can then place the other rays in relation to him and his probable experience.

The other point to which I sought to refer is the constant use of the word "relation" or "relationship" and analogous phrases. This is unavoidable for the reason that the entire Science of Astrology is, in the last analysis, the Science of Relations and there is consequently no use in avoiding the term, especially when there is no other which seems to meet the requirements as adequately. Inter-relation, inter-dependence, inter-communication, interplay—these are words governing the scientific basis of astrology, and they are beginning to be words in general use today in connection with human affairs and human conduct. This will be increasingly the case. The preparatory stages for world fusion, blending and synthesis are present at this time, and in this fact lies the hope of the world and the surety of the ultimate solution of the world problem along right lines.

In connection with the vertical and the horizontal life of the Fixed Cross, it is instructive to note that the vertical life of the man upon that Cross (no matter in what sign his sun may temporarily find position), is ever Aquarius-Leo. This indicates that the self-centred individual in Leo learns the lesson of the Cross and becomes decentralised, group conscious, and given to service. The horizontal arm is Taurus-Scorpio, indicating that desire for materiality is finally superseded by desire for the spiritual values, and this is demonstrated through the tests in Scorpio. Earth and water (Taurus and Scorpio) must be blended and related and it is this truth connected with these two signs of the zodiac which lies behind all teaching upon baptism and purification.

The earthly material desires of Taurus must in due time be brought under the influence of the purifying water in Scorpio. Baptism by water (a name for the second initiation) needs a preparatory period of testing and purification, and this the experience in Scorpio is intended to give. Likewise, fire and air (Aquarius and Leo) must also be blended and thus the four elements as well as six out of the seven rays must all play their part in conditioning the man in Scorpio for the final stages of the Path.

The place of the planets in this sign is also most revealing, and in line also with the general purpose of the experience in Scorpio, as outlined above. Uranus is exalted in Scorpio; the power of Venus is lessened in this sign, whilst the Moon falls. What do these facts symbolically portray? Let me see if I can make the beauty of these implications clear to you.

Uranus is the planet whose characteristics are the scientific mind, which, at this stage of the disciple's career, means that he can begin to live the occult life and the way of divine knowledge can take the place of the mystic way of feeling. It means also that knowledge can be transmuted into the way of wisdom and of light. This necessarily brings in the will aspect or the influence of the first ray (Vulcan) blended with the seventh ray (Uranus) producing the desired manifestation upon the physical plane.

Uranus, therefore, initiates a new order of life and conditions and this—when developed in the life of the disciple—in its turn produces an understanding of the causes of things as they are, and the desire to change the old order and the old orientation into the new. This produces the reversal of the wheel. This can be seen happening today most clearly in connection with humanity and with world processes. Carried forward to its logical conclusion, the influence of Uranus finally produces an unfolded spiritual consciousness in contradistinction to the human; for this reason, Uranus is exalted in this sign and assumes a position of power and of directed influence.

Venus, the intelligent mind, has its power lessened in this sign because the intellect—having been developed and used—must now be subordinated to a higher power of the soul, the spiritual intuition. The Son of Mind, the solar Angel, must now manifest as a Son of God. This solar Angel, when in control, must give place eventually to the Presence. This it has hitherto veiled or hidden. Venus must wane and the Sun—as a symbol of Deity—must wax in influence and finally take its place. Such are the symbolic and esoteric significances.

The Moon is here regarded as functioning in its true nature and, therefore, as expressing symbolically that which is dead. The Moon here stands for the personality and, in the final victory in Scorpio, the personality is entirely vanquished and defeated. Desire is killed, for it is through expressed desire of some kind that personality demonstrates life, quality, appearance. Ponder upon this, for in Scorpio the Moon falls and its influence fades out.

Extremes ever meet in the disciple who stands at this midway point or at the centre of the Fixed Cross in Scorpio. The spiritual imagination, which is the factor of greatest service to man, begins to take the place of the ancient glamour by means of which we have fabricated the untrue world in which we appear to live and move and have our being. The self-indulgence which was initiated in Taurus gives way in Scorpio to the selfless attitude of the disciple; ambition gives place to the executive activity of the soul, whilst attachment to personality desires, likes and dislikes is transmuted into the tenacity of soul purpose. The hidden powers of the soul nature—secret and misused because misunderstood and misapplied and, therefore, misdirected—are superseded by the mysteries of initiation, and the practical understanding of the energies thereby conferred upon the recipient. Such are some of the great transformations which take place in the life of the disciple who submits intelligently to the tests and difficulties in Scorpio.

The three decanates and their rulers are given very differently by various astrologers. One group posits Mars, the Sun and Venus as ruling the decanates of Scorpio whilst another regards Mars, Jupiter and the Moon as the three rulers. Perhaps the truth lies in both conclusions, if we view them from the esoteric standpoint or from that of the undeveloped man. This will be an interesting point for astrologers to investigate and study. Some day they will arrive at a clear decision as to the position of the five planets suggested as ruling the decanates (they agree on one); I cannot indicate to you the essential truth because a new planet is arising in this sign and it is for man to discover and rightly place it within the circumference of the Great Wheel.

The keywords of this sign are significant and illuminating. Deception and triumph—control by Maya and control by the soul—conflict and peace—such are the hidden secrets of this sign and these are summed up for all disciples in the two keywords. Upon the ordinary wheel, whereon the soul is found, blind and apparently helpless, the Word goes forth in the following terms: "And the Word said, Let Maya flourish and let deception rule"; upon the reversed wheel, the soul chants or sings the words: "Warrior I am and from the battle I emerge triumphant."

LIBRA, THE BALANCE

The sign Libra is one of peculiar interest, but in a most paradoxical manner, for much of its interest is based upon the fact that it lacks spectacular interest of any kind—except in the case of disciples or those nearing the Path. It is a sign of balancing, of careful weighing of values, and of achieving the right equilibrium between the pairs of opposites. It might be regarded as the sign in which the first real vision of the Path appears and of the goal towards which the disciple must ultimately direct his steps. This Path is the narrow razor-edged Path which runs between the pairs of opposites and which—if it is to be safely trodden—requires the development of a sense of values and the power to utilise rightly the balancing, analytical faculty of the mind. It is also the sign of intuitive perception and, on the ordinary way of progression around the zodiac, it comes after the normally drastic experience of the man in Scorpio; this is usually of such a nature that the instinct to self-preservation has been aroused to such an extent that in the dire need of the man (not the disciple, at this time) a call to the soul has gone forth and has evoked response.

The first few faint flashes of the intuition have been sensed and vaguely recognised. Then follows the experience in Libra wherein a life is spent in quiet, thoughtful reflection or in a condition of static unresponsiveness; it may be a life of balancing, of weighing this and that, and of determining which way the scales shall fall so that in the next sign certain designed results will occur. The following Virgo life will be either one of a personality, materialistic nature, lived under the influence of the material aspect of Virgo, the Mother, or there will be evidenced a slowly emerging  soul vibration, indicating that hidden spiritual life of which the Virgin Mother is the fore-ordained custodian. As progress is made, recurrently or cyclically, around the wheel of life, these experiences and vibratory activities intensify in character until the time comes when the reversal of the wheel takes place. Then Libra leads on to Scorpio and the active soul life (active through the medium of the personality nature and not simply on its own plane) is registered, recorded and noted in Virgo, and balanced and assessed in Libra, eventually bringing about the tests and trials between the soul and the personality, which latter fights with power and determination to preserve the status quo of the balanced expression of these two where the preponderance of the personality influence is not possible. I would here remind you that, though initiation is taken in Capricorn, the man is an initiate before he is initiated. This is the true secret of initiation.

Libra can also be spoken of in terms of the meditation process as taught both in East and West. It can, therefore, be regarded as the "interlude between two activities," which is the explanation given to that stage in meditation which we call contemplation. In the five stages of meditation (as usually taught) you have the following: Concentration, meditation, contemplation, illumination and inspiration. These five stages are paralleled in the five strictly human signs of the zodiac:

1. Leo: Concentration—Soul life focussed in form. Individualisation. Self-consciousness. Undeveloped and average man. Human experience.

2. Virgo: Meditation—Soul life, as sensed in man, the gestation period. The stage of the hidden Christ. Intelligent man. Personality, as hiding the Christ life.

3. Libra: Contemplation—Life of soul and form is balanced. Neither dominates. Equilibrium. An interlude wherein the soul organises itself for battle and the personality waits. This is the probationary path. Duality known.

4. Scorpio: Illumination—The soul triumphs. Experience in Taurus consummated. Astral glamour dissipated. Soul light pours in. The Path of Discipleship. The Disciple.

5. Sagittarius: Inspiration—Preparation for initiation. Soul inspires personality life. Soul expresses itself through personality. The Initiate.

You have, therefore, the activity wherein the personality grows and develops, and yet at the same time it veils and hides the hidden "man of the heart," which is the Christ, within each human form. You have then the interlude wherein the point of balance is reached between these two and neither is dominant. The "scales tip back and forth" in either direction or—as it is sometimes expressed—man swings between the pairs of opposites. Hence the importance of this sign in the life expression of the man and hence also its peculiar difficulty; it provides the curious see-saw experience which proves so distressingly bewildering first to the man who seeks to be entirely human but finds within himself impediments and urges which drive him on to something which is higher than the human and, secondly, to the aspirant or the disciple. His focus of interest and his aim is soul life, yet he finds within himself that which seeks ever to draw him back to the old ways, the old habits and the old desires.

This sign is sometimes called "the place of judgment" for it is here that the decision is made and the die is cast which separate the "sheep from the goats" or those constellations ruled by Aries (the Ram or Lamb) and those ruled by Capricorn, the Goat. It really marks the distinction between the ordinary wheel of life and the reversed wheel. In the days before Leo-Virgo were divided into two signs, Libra was literally the midway point.  The situation was then as follows:

Aries. Taurus. Gemini. Cancer. Leo-Virgo.

LIBRA

Scorpio. Sagittarius. Capricorn.  Aquarius. Pisces.

In this round of the zodiac (as far as humanity is concerned) you have depicted the entire history of the race. This involves its mental beginnings in Aries (the will to manifest) and the start of the outgoing life; you have its directed desire in Taurus, producing manifestation; then emerges its dual consciousness in Gemini or the soul-body realisation; the processes of physical incarnation go forward in Cancer, followed by the dual development of the soul-body, or the subjective and objective consciousness, and the God-man in Leo-Virgo. Next comes Libra, wherein the point of balance is eventually reached between spiritual man and personal man and the stage is laid for the final fivefold process which is, in reality, the subjective correspondence to the outer externalisation upon the Path of Outgoing and which is carried forward upon the Path of Ingoing, or the Path of Return. Then takes place the reversal of the wheel and the beginning of the new orientation and of discipleship in Scorpio, the directed, controlled life of the disciple in Sagittarius, initiation in Capricorn, followed by service in Aquarius and the work of a world saviour in Pisces and final liberation.

In this world period we have the division of the sign of the Sphinx into two signs (the Lion and the Virgin, soul and form) because the state of human evolution and conscious realisation is that of a recognised duality; it is only at what is called the "final judgment" that another fusion will take place and Virgo-Libra will form one sign, for then man's sense of antagonistic dualism will be ended and the scales will have been turned finally in favour of that which the Virgin-Mother has hidden from expression for aeons.

This final judgment, as far as this planetary cycle is concerned, will take place in the next great world cycle and by that time two-thirds of the human race will have unfolded the Christ principle in one or other of the various stages of unfoldment and be upon one of the final stages of the path of evolution; they will be either probationary or accepted disciples or upon the Path of Initiation. Eventually, in some mysterious way, there will be only ten signs of the zodiac again; Aries and Pisces will form one sign, for "the end is as the beginning." This dual and blended sign is called in some of the ancient books "the sign of the Fish with the head of the Ram."

We shall then have:

1. Aries-Pisces                6. Virgo-Libra
2. Taurus                        7. Scorpio
3. Gemini                        8. Sagittarius
4. Cancer                        9. Capricorn
5. Leo                                         10. Aquarius

Fire and water will then blend, veiling the past which has gone instead of the future as is now the case. Earth and air will then fuse and in this way the old prophecy, repeated in the Bible, that "there shall be no more sea" will be proved correct. Air (heaven) will then have "come down to Earth" and fusion will be established.

In the cosmic sense then and not in the individual sense, the unfoldment of the cosmic Christ will be manifested for which "the whole creation waits"; thus will come the consummation of desire as a result of dedicated aspiration. Then, and only then, will the "Desire of all nations come" and He for Whom all men wait will appear.

The history of desire is to be found in the four signs of Taurus, Libra, Scorpio and Pisces:

1. Taurus—the Bull of Desire.—Material desire rules. (Life.)

2. Libra—the balancing of desire.—The opposite objective to desire is the scales or balances. (Balance.)

3. Scorpio—the victory of spiritual desire.—The soul triumphant. (Quality.)

4. Pisces—consummation of divine desire.—The "Desire of all nations." The Cosmic Christ. (Appearance.)

There is therefore the individual experience in Libra of the balanced life wherein experiment is made and the consequent tipping of the Scales in one direction or another until either desire or spiritual aspiration weighs the balances down sufficiently so as to indicate the way that the man must go at the time. There is the experience of humanity in Libra in which the same adjustments and experiments are being made, but this time the entire race of men is involved and not just an individual. This group experience, carried out upon the mental plane, will only happen when all men are polarised mentally and will take place and constitute the Judgment day, referred to above. Of this, the "point of crisis" in Libra and the present world situation and needed adjustment is the forerunner; this time the balancing is, however, upon the astral plane and the desires of men are predominantly in a position of casting the deciding factor, whereas in the next great cycle it will be the minds of men which will do the deciding. Today, the foremost men of the age—disciples, aspirants and the intelligentsia—are being tested under the Scorpio experience whilst the masses are in the Scales; the weight of mass desire will turn them either up towards spiritual decision or down towards material and selfish ends.

It is because of this balancing quality in Libra that this constellation can be associated more specifically with the problem of sex than can any of the others. Sex is usually connected in the mind of the average astrological student with the signs Taurus and Scorpio. This is probably due to the fact that the Bull is so frequently regarded as the symbol of the mad urges of the uncontrolled sex principle and because in Scorpio fundamental tests are applied. For most aspirants in the early stages, sex does constitute a fundamental problem. Esoterically, however, it is in Libra that the whole question comes up and will increasingly come up for answering, and it is in Libra that the balancing of the pairs of opposites must take place and reach solution through the activity of the judicial mind and the establishing of a point of equilibrium between the male and the female principles. This again (for it is a piece of recurrent symbology) is the problem existing basically between the Sheep and the Goats, between negative and positive, and between those who blindly follow either instinct or custom and those who climb freely where they choose and are self-directed in conduct and attitude. This self-direction may lead them in either direction upon the wheel of life, following either selfish desire or spiritual aspiration, but the point to have in mind is that, judicially and with intent and after due reflection and balancing of the various ways, they then do as they will and as seems to them right and desirable. This is of itself of a basic usefulness and thereby they learn; for all action produces results and the judicial mind weighs cause and effect more correctly than any other.

Libra, as you know, governs the legal profession and holds the balances between so-called right and wrong, between negative and positive and also between East and West. This last point of adjustment may seem to you to be a meaningless phrase, but when the true and right relationship is established between the orient and the occident (which is not yet the case) it will come about through the activity of Libra and the work of the legal profession.

Libra has been the "sponsor of the law." Legislation has hitherto been engrossed with the enforcing of those negations and those attitudes of fear which have been preserved for us in the Mosaic code and imposed through the medium of punishment for infringement. This has been a probably necessary stage for child races and for the preservation of a "nursery regime" for men. But mankind is reaching maturity and a different interpretation of the purposes and intents of Libra through the medium of law is now required. The law must become the custodian of a positive righteousness and not simply the instrument of enforcement.

A certain relationship or configuration of stars—of which one is the star Regulus, in Leo—will bring about a situation wherein the re-orientation of the attitude of the legal profession will take place; its functions and duties will be centralised for the purpose of world usefulness, and in this process legislation for children will assume great importance and be the motivating power. This legal step will be primarily advocated by Russia and endorsed by the United States of America. Before 2035 A.D. such legislation will be universal in its sphere of influence and control.

All this will come about because Libra rules the present interlude and might be regarded as "the master of no-man's land," as one of the Masters of the Wisdom called it lately.

A study of The Bhagavad Gita and of Arjuna's problem when he sat down in despair between the two opposing armies will be found most illuminating in connection with Libra. The great battle which is related in that ancient scripture of India really took place in the first instance in mid-Atlantean days and in the sign Libra. The major conflict of this present, Aryan period is being waged upon a higher turn of the spiral and is under the influence of Scorpio. That in the past prepared the world probationary disciple, humanity, for the path of true discipleship. That in the present is preparing the world disciple to take initiation. During the vast interim between the Atlantean decisive happening and the present time, a great re-orientation upon the wheel of life has taken place; since then, several million men have passed from Scorpio into Libra (symbolically speaking) and there have been "weighed in the balances" and have afterwards refocussed their desire life towards spiritual aspiration and reinforced their determination to move forward and thus have returned into Scorpio upon the reversing wheel. Ponder upon this thought, for this constitutes the real problem for the masses of intelligent men at this time.

As you already know, Libra is one of the four arms of the Cardinal Cross. This accounts for our difficulty in understanding the real nature of its influence. The significance of the energies working out into our solar system through the medium of the four arms of this Cross, or from the four constellations, Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, can be summed up in the four words: Creation, Manifestation, Legislation and Initiation. Having given you these words, their very scope and meaning make it hard for you to understand.

Cosmically, they mean the activity of Deity when spirit and matter are brought into a definite relationship and, under divine purpose, produce that fusion of living energies which will be adequately potent in time and space to bring that purpose to its desired consummation. This is Creation, or Aries in activity. They mean also the objective appearing of the thoughtform which God has thus created and in which is embodied His desire, His will, His purpose and His plan. This is Manifestation, or Cancer in activity. They mean again the working out of the plan under spiritual and natural law which is evolutionary in expression; this is the goal of evolution and its expression and is steadily revealing the nature of God, for the laws under which this solar system of ours is governed are expressions of God's quality and character. This is Legislation, or Libra in activity. They mean, finally, the processes of initiation wherein, step by step and stage by stage, under law and through the method of gained experience whilst in manifestation, the creative plan is realised in consciousness. The unfoldment of the plan is thus carried forward through a progressed series of beginnings, of manifestations, and of consummations—all relative in nature but leading to an absolute consummation. This is Initiation, or activity in Capricorn. All this is on a somewhat vast and incomprehensible scale as far as the human understanding is concerned.

Consciousness and understanding of the larger purpose which lies behind the more exoteric intent of the unfoldment of the consciousness in this solar system, in the planet and in man, has to be grasped eventually towards the final stages of the evolutionary process. When this understanding unfolds, then man becomes an initiate, vacates his position upon the Fixed Cross and begins the relatively slow process of mounting the Cardinal Cross. Then he becomes a cooperator in the great creative process and purpose. He begins to create his own body of expression upon the Cardinal Cross and the impulse of Aries begins to appear to him. As yet he understands it not. He manifests consciously in the world that which he intends to carry forward and Cancer then reveals to him its secret. He becomes his own legislator, ruling his conduct wisely, controlling his impulses intellectually and then Libra enables him to balance the material and the spiritual law. When he has done all this, he discovers himself ready to enter into new and deeper experiments (should I call them experiences?) and as a participator in the divine plan and as a cooperator in the divine purpose, he then becomes his own initiator and is thus ready to take initiation. Such are the paradoxes of the spiritual life. But the secret of the Cardinal Cross is revealed only to the man who has mounted the Fixed Cross and gone through its fourfold experience. It is not possible to say more than what I have said.

Libra is an air sign; there are three air signs in the zodiac and their inter-relation makes a most interesting study and well worth the close investigation of the student as are all these major triplicities. Each of these signs is to be found in one or other of the three Crosses:

1. Gemini, the Twins ------------------ Mutable Cross---- Duality
2. Libra, the Balances ----------------- Cardinal Cross --- Equilibrium
3. Aquarius, the Water-Carrier -------Fixed Cross-------  Initiation

These three, therefore, stand for duality—sensed, overcome and resolved into the synthesis of the great World Server, identified with the Heavenly Man and bringing his contribution, wrested in his experience upon the wheel of life from the sum total of energy, to the service of the Whole. Forget not that initiation is but another name for synthesis and fusion.

From another angle, you have:

1. Gemini, the Twins ------------------ Mind---------------Cause of duality
2. Libra, the Balances ----------------- Supermind ------- Cause of synthesis
3. Aquarius, the Water-Carrier -------Universal Mind -- Soul

These three signs are pre-eminently signs of the Mind of God as it expresses itself through man; the lower mind dominates at first, causing the recognition of the Self and the Not-Self, or the essential dualism which underlies all manifestation; the higher mind, however, steadily increases its power and control, producing the balancing of the pairs of opposites through the illumination which it brings to the lower mind, and then the Soul, the eternal Son of Mind, becomes the ultimate synthesis, focussing and relating the universal mind to the two lower aspects of the Mind of God.

These hints should serve to show you one of the great inter-relations which exist between the three Crosses. It is interesting that in the note to Tabulation V both Libra and Gemini are omitted from the list. This is not an oversight but a point of true significance and an omission warranting recognition. This omission is based on two facts:

First, that there was a time, as you have heard, when there were only ten signs, and in those ancient days as in the present time, there was a divergence of opinion among the astrological scientists; they differed as to which the ten signs might be and in this connection there were several schools of thought, but mainly two of importance. One group fused or made one sign out of Leo-Virgo and perpetuated their belief in the Sphinx; the other omitted Gemini and Libra altogether. They were of an earlier date than the latter who in reality had a zodiac of eleven signs. This is a fact of importance to you today.

The other point of note and of a relative importance is that Gemini and Libra are the two strictly human signs; they are the signs of the ordinary man. Gemini upon the Mutable Cross stands for man's humanity, whilst Libra upon the Cardinal Cross rules man's subjective and spiritual life. The emphasis, however, on Gemini and Libra as far as humanity is concerned is on human attainment and achieving the point of balance before the other attainments become possible. The other signs in their consummation carry man beyond the stage of ordinary humanity and produce the following states of consciousness:

1. Aries and Virgo.—The Cosmic Christ. Universal and individual.
2. Taurus and Pisces.—The world Saviours; i.e., Buddha and Christ.
3. Leo and Aquarius.—The world Servers; i.e., Hercules.
4. Sagittarius and Capricorn.—The world Initiates; i.e., Masters.
5. Cancer and Scorpio.—The triumphant Disciples.

It is also peculiarly instructive to study the rulers of this sign. From the angle of orthodox astrology, Venus rules Libra, whilst—esoterically speaking—Uranus rules. Saturn is the ruler in this sign of that stupendous Creative Hierarchy which is one of the three major groups of Builders, forming part of the third aspect of divinity; Their goal is the giving of form to the Sons of Mind and thereby offering opportunity for sacrifice and service. A study of the relation of this Hierarchy to that of the human egos, the fourth Creative Hierarchy, will prove most illuminating and is handled somewhat in my earlier Treatise on Cosmic Fire. The nature and purpose of the three rulers will emerge with clarity if this is done.

This sign is consequently closely connected with the third aspect of the Godhead and hence it is a governing sign and a major conditioning factor where Law, Sex and Money are concerned. Ponder on this. All the three divine aspects in themselves are triune and manifest in three manners or through three lesser aspects and this third aspect is no exception to this rule underlying all the triplicities which condition the processes of evolution and manifestation. It is through a study of Libra that light upon the third aspect will come. The first aspect of will or power expresses itself in this sign as Law, as legislation, legality, justice; the second aspect manifests as the relation between the pairs of opposites (of which the scales are the symbol) and upon the physical plane shows itself as Sex; the third aspect demonstrates as concretised energy and this we call Money. It is literally gold and this is the externalised symbol of that which is created by the bringing together of spirit and matter upon the physical plane. The third aspect is, as you know, the creator aspect and the energy which produces the outer tangible plane of manifestation—the form side of life.

If students will, therefore, make a careful study of these three—law, sex and money—as they express themselves today and as they can express themselves in the future, they will have a picture of physical human achievement and of future spiritual expression which will be instructive and most worthwhile. The whole process is accounted for by the activity of the three rulers of Libra: Venus, Uranus and Saturn.

Venus rules in Taurus, Libra and Capricorn, and is the source of the intelligent mind, acting either through desire (in the early stages) or love (in the later stages). In Taurus, this means the mind expressing itself through intelligent desire, for that is the goal of knowledge for ordinary man. In Libra, the point of balance or equilibrium is attained between material personal desire and intelligent spiritual love, for the two qualities of cosmic desire are brought to the fore in the consciousness in Libra and balanced one against the other. In Capricorn, it stands for spiritual love, expressing itself perfectly when the work in Taurus and Libra has been accomplished. Thus can the golden thread of evolutionary progress be traced throughout the zodiacal path from sign to sign, and thus the history of humanity can he seen and its goal visioned. At some later date, the same golden thread can be traced in connection with the other kingdoms in nature, but the time is not yet and such a theme would prove profitless and unimportant.

When, however, the consciousness of man is opened up in such a manner that it can register that which is proceeding and taking place in the three lower kingdoms in nature, then further light and information will be given. This will take place in a period of human history when Libra is dominant and the three divine aspects of the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the Creator—law, sex and money—will give the clue to the three lower kingdoms. Law, natural law (the externalisation of the subjective spiritual law) will give the clue to the animal kingdom; sex or the consciousness of affinity will reveal the mystery of the vegetable kingdom; money will unveil the secret of the mineral kingdom and all this will come about through the activity of Venus and when this activity in the three signs of Taurus, Libra and Capricorn is better understood. Suffice it to say here that each of these three signs is related to one of these three aspects of divine life:

1. Taurus: Animal kingdom—law—natural law.
2. Libra: Vegetable kingdom—sex—natural affinity.
3. Capricorn—mineral kingdom—money—concrete expression of the Law of Supply, and all these form a triangle with Libra at the apex and dominating.

Uranus is the esoteric ruler and is of supreme importance in this sign for the seventh ray works through this planet and is the embodiment of the principle of concretion and the materialising of that which is in need of objective manifestation, through the bringing together of spirit and matter. It is here that the whole mystery of money lies hid and the creation and production of money. I would like here to point out to you that it is with the third aspect of divinity and the third aspect alone that the creative process is concerned. It is through the relation of the three aspects of the third divine manifestation—law, affinity and concretised energy—that money is created.

It is here that many mystics and world servers prove futile. They work from far too high a level and from the standpoint of spiritual incentive. They normally and naturally (because that is where their focus of consciousness is placed) work from the standpoint of the second aspect, whereas it is the third aspect (equally divine and equally important) which must be invoked and evoked. Ponder upon these words. It is not the bringing together of spirit and matter as occultism understands those terms but the relating of physical need and physical supply and the bringing together of two tangibles through the power of the creative imagination. It is for this reason that so many schools of thought prove so successful in materialising that which is required and why other schools of thought so signally fail. They work from too high a plane and have not the ability to carry through. I have here given you hints which can be fruitful of result if interpreted correctly and acted upon from right motive, in group formation and with selfless purpose.

Through this planet, Uranus, Libra is related also to Aries and Aquarius and it is through Uranus that the great pair of opposites, Aries-Libra, are brought into touch with each other in a very deep sense. Through its activity, an intense interplay takes place, making for the attainment of equilibrium in Libra of that which had its beginning in Aries. Aries, Libra and Aquarius constitute therefore another triangle of power which must later be considered; these triangles will, as I have earlier hinted, dominate the new astrology in a most interesting manner and condition the charts of those whose horoscopes are being considered.

Libra is related, therefore, to five signs of the zodiac—Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Capricorn and Aquarius.

1. Aries--------Beginning ---- Creation------- Evolution
2. Taurus -----Desire---------  Incentive------ Progress
3. Gemini -----Duality-------- Condition ----- Interplay
4. Capricorn --Synthesis ----- Initiation ------Attainment
5. Aquarius ---Objective ----- Inclusion-------Service

This relation is established by the three rulers: Venus, Uranus and Saturn. These five, with Libra at the point of balance, create one of the six-pointed stars of evolution and also bring into relation with them three planets which are peculiarly concerned with the expression of the Christ consciousness in the world.

These three planets are (through the rays of which they are the medium) all to be found upon the first major line of force, the line of will or power and of purpose and visioned goal.

1. Uranus:  7th Ray of Ceremonial Magic. God the Father. He who relates. The Source of Duality.              He who perceives the end from the beginning. Spiritual consciousness. Intuition to Inspiration.

2. Venus:    5th Ray of Mind. God the Son. The Son of Mind. He who includes. Egoic consciousness. Intellect to Intuition.

3. Saturn:   3rd Ray of Intelligence. God the Holy Spirit. He who knows. Mind. Human Consciousness. Instinct to Intellect.

It is for this basic reason—founded upon the above triple relationship—that Libra is the "point of balance" in the zodiac. In most of the other constellations, at some stage or other, there comes a "point of crisis" wherein the effect of the energy pouring through the sign (via the ruling planets) to man is at its highest point of effectiveness. This in time precipitates the crisis which is required to release the man from the planetary influences which condition his personality and bring him more definitely and consciously under the influence of the sign of the zodiac. But in Libra there is no such point of crisis any more than there is in Aries. There is only the interlude of balance as a prelude to a more effective and sensitive progress upon the path. It is the same in Aries. As it is esoterically said: "Before creation, silence and the stillness of a focussed point." This applies to both Aries and Libra—the one in a cosmic and creative sense and the other in an individual and progressive evolutionary sense.

The following planets and their rays govern the Cardinal Cross of which Libra is one of the points:

1. Mars --------6th Ray ------- Idealism---Devotion—Struggle

2. Mercury ----4th Ray ------- Harmony through Conflict

3. Uranus------7th Ray ------- Ceremonial Order, Law or Magic

4. Venus-------5th Ray ------- Concrete Knowledge or Science

5. Saturn ------3rd Ray ------- Active Intelligence

6. Neptune ----6th Ray ------- Idealism---Devotion--Struggle

Here we have six planets and five rays of energy and the expression of the two lines of spiritual energy; Love-Wisdom in two of the rays and planets, and three of the rays and planets upon the first major stream of energy, will or power. You will note how three of these rays definitely predispose the Libran subject to concrete understanding, to intelligent will and to knowledge: the first ray (functioning through the 3rd and 5th rays) the fifth ray and the third ray. Hence the effectiveness of Libra upon the physical plane and the power of the developed Libran to project the inner spiritual purpose or intended will into physical expression. An instance of a person, equipped to do this, can be seen in H. P. Blavatsky.

In this sign, Saturn is exalted for—at the point of balance—opportunity comes and a situation is staged which makes a choice and a determination inevitable. It is a choice which has to be made intelligently and upon the physical plane, in the waking brain consciousness. It is only now that the full purpose and the work of Saturn for humanity can reach a point of group usefulness, for it is only now that humanity has reached a point of general and widespread intelligence which can make any choice a definite conscious act, entailing responsibility. Prior to the present time, only a few pioneering disciples and a handful of intelligent people could be regarded as freely choosing at the "point of balance" the way that they intend "to tip the scales."

Today, there are countless numbers and hence the intense activity of Saturn as we enter into the first decan of Aquarius and hence the same activity because humanity itself now stands upon the probationary path. This, Libra governs and controls, therefore the path of choices, of deliberately applied purificatory measures and the turning point before Scorpio, which governs the path of discipleship, can properly play its part.

The power of Mars is lessened in Libra; this is the sign of interlude and Mars is temporarily quiescent, prior to gathering his forces for a renewed effort in Scorpio or for the "quickening" of the spiritual life in Virgo, according to which way the wheel is turning for the man.

The Sun "falls" in this sign because again neither the personality nor the soul dominates in the man who is a pure Libran; a balance is achieved and thus they esoterically "tune each other out." Neither the voice of the personality nor of the soul is heard particularly but, as the Old Commentary puts it, "a gentle oscillation now proceeds. No strident note is heard; no violent colouring of the life affects and no upsetting of the chariot of the soul." The significance of the place of the planets in this sign will emerge clearly in your consciousness when you study them with care and the meaning of Libra will become definitely formulated in your mind. The characteristics of this sign are not easy to define or comprehend because they are in reality the synthesis of all past qualities and achievements and any clear presentation of the pairs of opposites is difficult to get. As regards man upon the probationary path or upon the verge of treading it, it might be said that his characteristics and qualities in this sign are:

Balance of the Opposites in Libra

Fickleness and variability------------- A secure and settled position

Imbalance------------------------------- Balance

Bias. Prejudice ------------------------- Justice, Judgment

Dull stupidity--------------------------- Enthusiastic wisdom

Untrue, showy outer form life-------- True correct expression

Intrigue---------------------------------- Straightforward conduct

Materialistic attitudes ----------------- Spiritual attitudes

It is the balancing between the pairs of opposites which makes the man in Libra sometimes difficult to understand; he appears to vacillate but never for long and often unnoticeably, for there is always the final balancing of the qualities with which he is equipped.

The rulers of the decanates in this sign are again dual in their presentation by different schools of astrologers. Sepharial gives us the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter, whilst Alan Leo posits the controlling planets as Venus, Saturn and Mercury. In this case, as in some others, the truth lies between the two or in a combination of both. The true rulers of the decanates in Libra are Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury. I need not enlarge upon their effect except to point out that the result of the Jupiterian influence is to "open the door of the womb" in Virgo—a planet which we shall consider when we study that sign of the zodiac, which is our next undertaking.

The words or keynotes of this sign are so clear and plain that any elucidation of mine would serve but to confuse the issue. They speak straight to the heart and without obscurity.

To the average man with no developed spiritual consciousness, the word goes forth again and again throughout the aeons: "And the Word said: Let choice be made."

The response eventually comes back as a result of the evolutionary process and from the soul:

"I choose the way which leads between the two great lines of force."

VIRGO, THE VIRGIN

The sign Virgo is one of the most significant in the zodiac for its symbology concerns the whole goal of the evolutionary process which is to shield, nurture and finally reveal the hidden spiritual reality. This every form veils, but the human form is equipped and fitted to manifest it in a manner different to any other expression of divinity and so make tangible and objective that for which the whole creative process was intended. Gemini and Virgo are closely related but Gemini presents the pairs of opposites—soul and body—as two separate entities whereas in Virgo, they are blended and of great and supreme importance to each other; the mother protects the germ of the Christ life; matter guards, cherishes and nurtures the hidden soul. The keynote which embodies the truth as to the mission of Virgo most accurately is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." There is no clearer or more adequate definition of this sign than that; I would have you bear it in mind throughout our discussion upon this sixth sign of the zodiac (or the seventh if one is not considering the reversed wheel).

In all the great world religions, the Virgin Mother appears and this a study of any book upon comparative religion would prove. I cannot trace for you at length this universal recognition of the task of Virgo; it is needless for me to do so as it has been adequately done by many research scholars. I would, however, point out that four of the names whereby the Virgin is called are familiar to all of us, and tell us much as a whole concerning the form nature of which the Virgin is the symbol. The word Virgo itself is a descendant of and a corruption of an ancient Atlantean root name which was applied to the mother principle in those far off times.

This Virgin was the founder of the matriarchate which then dominated civilisation and to which various myths and legends bear evidence and which have come down to us concerning Lilith, the last of the Virgin Goddesses of Atlantean times; the same thought is also to be found in the traditionary accounts of the ancient Amazons, whose queen Hercules defeated, wresting from her what he sought. This is an allegory, teaching the emergence of the spiritual man from the control of matter. Three of these goddesses are Eve, Isis, and Mary. They are of peculiar and significant importance where our civilisation is concerned for they embody in themselves the symbology of the entire form nature, which, when integrated and functioning as a whole person, we call the personality. This personality is (as far as humanity is concerned) the developed and qualified expression of the third aspect of divinity, that of God the Holy Spirit, the active intelligent and nurturing principle of the universe. This aspect we shall study in Leo and see there the unfoldment of that self-conscious entity and personality which in Virgo becomes the mother of the Christ child.

Eve is the symbol of the mental nature, and of the mind of man attracted by the lure of knowledge to be gained through the experience of incarnation. Eve, therefore, took the apple of knowledge from the serpent of matter and started the long human undertaking of experiment, experience and expression which was initiated—from the mental angle—in our Aryan times.

Isis stands for this same expression down on to the emotional or astral plane. Eve has no child in her arms; the germ of the Christ life is as yet too small to make its presence felt; the involutionary process is yet too close; but in Isis the midway point is reached; the quickening of that which is desired (the Desire of all nations, as it is called in the Bible) has taken place and Isis consequently stands in the ancient zodiacs for fertility, for motherhood and as the guardian of the child.

Mary carries the process down to the plane or place of incarnation, the physical plane, and there gives birth to the Christ child. In these three Virgins and these three Mothers of the Christ, you have the history of the formation and the function of the three aspects of the personality through which the Christ must find expression. The sign of Virgo itself stands for a synthesis of these three feminine aspects—Eve, Isis and Mary. She is the Virgin Mother, providing that which is needed for the mental, emotional and physical expression of the hidden but ever present divinity. These three expressions are brought to the needed perfection in Leo, the sign of the individual, developed self-consciousness and personality unfoldment.

Virgo is, therefore, the opposite pole of spirit and stands for the relation of these two after they have been brought together originally in Aries and have produced a recognised duality in Gemini.

I would here remind you of something which may at first serve to add to the possible confusion already existing in your minds but which lies behind all that I have given you. We have talked of the two ways of proceeding around the zodiac:—the ordinary way from Aries to Taurus, via Pisces, and the esoteric way from Aries to Pisces, via Taurus. These refer to human evolution, which is the only one which we are considering in this treatise. But in the major involutionary cycle which concerns the mass movement of spirit-matter, and not the individualised progress of man, the movement is from Aries to Pisces, via Taurus. The secret of the original sin of man is hidden in this truth, for a wrong orientation took place at one stage in human history and the human family went—as a whole—against the normal zodiacal current, so to speak, and it is only upon the path of discipleship that right orientation is achieved and humanity swings into the correct rhythm of progress.

I would ask you, therefore, to differentiate between the involutionary process which affects the great Creative Hierarchies and the evolutionary processes which affect the fourth Creative Hierarchy, the human. This, however, we are not really in a position to study, because when the evolutionary cycle is upon us, we ourselves are too closely identified with the process to be able to distinguish clearly between the cosmic Self and Not- self; we are only as yet learning to distinguish the Self and the Not-self on a tiny scale in connection with our own unfoldment. It is only when we are identified with the Hierarchy of our planet and with that centre of spiritual force which it is the immediate objective of those upon the path of discipleship to contact that it becomes possible for us to grasp—on the evolutionary arc—those broad outlines and those major sweeps of divine energy which are present upon the involutionary arc. It is for this reason that a study of the zodiac in connection with the subhuman kingdoms of nature is not as yet possible.

Virgo is, therefore, the cosmic mother because she represents cosmically the negative pole to positive spirit; she is the receptive agent where the Father aspect is concerned. In a previous solar system, this matter aspect was the supreme controlling factor, just as in this solar system it is the soul or the Christ principle which is of paramount importance. Virgo is, from certain angles, quite the oldest of all the signs, which is a statement I am quite unable to prove to you. In that first system, the faint symptoms (if I may use such a word) of the duality which is a proven fact in this system are to be found, and this truth is preserved for us in the words that "the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary." The life of the third divine aspect played then upon the ocean of quiescent matter and prepared that substance (over untold aeons) for its work in this solar system. It is in this system that the Christ Child, the expression of the divine consciousness and the result of the relationship of Father-Spirit and Mother- Matter, must he brought to the birth.

Another sign of the zodiac which is also closely related to the previous solar system is Cancer; it might be said that Cancer is an expression (in the stage of great advancement) of the first half of the life cycle in solar system one, whilst Virgo is an equally advanced expression of the second half. In an effort to grasp the situation, it should he remembered that the consciousness aspect, as we understand the ability to be aware, was lacking entirely except in such an embryonic manner that the whole process resembled the stage of the embryo in the womb, prior to the quickening at the middle point of the gestation process. It will, however, do none of you any harm to exert the imaginative faculty and thus get a vague and faint idea of the synthesis of the great evolutionary scheme which, in a cosmic sense, concerns the threefold personality of Deity. With this I attempted to deal in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire.

This is the sixth sign and of it the six-pointed star is the ancient symbol, portraying as it does the process of involution, and also that of evolution, carried to the point of balance, expressed for us in the relationship of Virgo to Libra.

You will note, if you consult the dictionary, that astronomically Virgo is regarded as occupying the place in the heavens where Libra is to be found. This is all part of the great illusion which astrology finds hard to grasp. There is a constant moving and shifting in space; the precession of the equinoxes is both a fact and an illusion. The whole process and its interpretation is dependent upon the intellectual point in evolution of the race; the responsiveness of man to the planetary forces and to the influence of the zodiacal signs is dependent upon man's vehicles of response and upon the mechanism of reception with which he enters into incarnation.

The heavens, the constellations, signs and planets mean one thing to the Hierarchy and another thing to the astronomers and still another thing to the astrologers, whilst they are simply bewildering galaxies of light to the average citizen. I feel the need to remind you of this and to point out to you that astronomical facts are only relative as regards the true and factual nature of that about which scientific pronouncement is made; they are declarative of life and potency but not as science and the average man understand them. From the standpoint of esoteric truth, they are simply embodied Lives and the expression of the life, the quality, the purpose and the intent of the Beings Who have brought them into manifestation.

As you well know, Virgo is one of the four arms of the Mutable Cross, and—as you also know—the four energies which constitute this Cross (for the three Crosses are crossed streams of energy) are expressive of the whole goal of man in four definite stages. This Mutable Cross is sometimes called "the Cross of Rebirth," emphasising the constant mutation of which it is the symbol and also the "Cross of Changing Lives." It pictorially represents the four critical points or movements in the span of existence of the soul in manifestation:

1. Gemini

1. Essential unrelated duality. The Twins.
2. Sensed and recognised duality through

a. Mass fusion in Cancer.

b. Individual consciousness in Leo. The stage of Humanity.

2. Virgo

1. The period of the hidden germ of spiritual life.
2. The period of the active germ of spiritual life.

a. Gestation in the early stages.

b. The stage of quickened life.

c. The stage of Probation or Awakening.

3. Sagittarius

1. Sense of duality ended. Fusion attained.
2. The one-pointed direct life. The stage of Discipleship.

4. Pisces

1. Duality linked in synthesis. Compare symbols for Gemini and Pisces.
2. The emergence of the World Saviour. The stage of Initiation.

Throughout this relation and as a result of the steady unfoldment of the soul principle runs the theme of service. In Gemini, the relation between the great duality of soul and body emerges in which, at this stage, the body or form serves the soul. In Virgo, matter or substance exchange or interchange their service and each serves the other. In Sagittarius, we find emerging the service of the One Life in terms of the service of the Hierarchy, the planetary expression of the idea of service, whilst in Pisces, there appears—as a result of the entire evolutionary process—the dedicated, trained and tested world Server or Saviour. It has been said that Virgo "involves the service of the immediately present" or in other words that God immanent evokes reaction from the form side and is thereby served.

Virgo belongs to the earthy triplicity and an understanding of this triplicity will also be found illuminating. The three earth signs are Taurus-Virgo-Capricorn and they are related to each other in a peculiar way in connection with the non-sacred planet, our Earth. The relation with which we are concerned is that of the meeting and fusion of the energies of these three signs upon the Earth and their effect upon the kingdoms in nature which our Earth manifests. It might be said that:

1. Taurus:  Incentive behind evolution (Impulse). Desire for experience, for satisfaction. The Light of Knowledge

2. Virgo:  Incentive behind discipleship (Goal). Desire for expression, spiritual desire. The Hidden Light of God

3. Capricorn:  Incentive behind initiation (Service). Desire for liberation. Service desire. The Light of Life

All these express desire as it merges into aspiration and in the process brings light and life to man. In Virgo, the purpose for which form life exists begins to be realised and the desire for personality satisfaction begins to change and the desire of man for interior recognition of the indwelling Christ begins to assume increasing control until the inner spiritual reality is eventually released from the thralldom of matter and becomes manifest in its own true nature in the world. Putting the same thought in other terms, the light of knowledge of which Taurus is the custodian gives place to the light of wisdom of which Virgo is the guardian, and yields finally to the light of initiation in Capricorn. All this, however, takes place and must take place upon what is esoterically called "the radiant surface of the earth," the plane of form; the assumption or glorification of the Virgin has not yet taken place and the raising up of substance is not yet realised. It is interesting to note that Scorpio establishes the inevitability of this final assumption of matter into heaven in Capricorn, and this is previsioned for us in the story of Hercules in Scorpio when he raises the Hydra high above his head into the air.

Virgo symbolises depths, darkness, quiet and warmth; it is the valley of deep experience wherein secrets are discovered and eventually "brought to light"; it is the place of slow, gentle and yet powerful crises and periodic developments which take place in the dark and yet which lead to light. It is the "blinded stage" which is found in Masonic rituals and which ever precedes the gift of light. Virgo stands for the "womb of time" wherein God's plan (the mystery and the secret of the ages) is slowly matured and—with pain and discomfort and through struggle and conflict—brought into manifestation at the end of the appointed time. Today it would seem (curiously and convincingly) that we are entering into the eighth month of the gestation period; this is almost literally the case where humanity is concerned for—counting from Virgo to Aquarius, the sign into which we are now entering—we find that there are just eight signs: Virgo, Leo, Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, Aries, Pisces and Aquarius, and this is surely the guarantee that the birth of the new age, of the new consciousness and the new civilisation and culture is inevitable and sure.

I would like to pause here and make one point somewhat clearer in connection with the passage of human life around the zodiac. This progress or passage falls into three major divisions:

1. The passage or progress of humanity around and around the zodiac from Aries to Pisces, via Taurus, until in Virgo-Leo (for these two signs are regarded esoterically as inseparable) the mass movement releases the individual to a life of self-conscious progress and a changed mode of progression around the wheel of life. This lies far in the past.

2. The passage or progress of the individual man which runs counter to the mass advance; the individual at this stage proceeds clockwise from Aries to Taurus, via Pisces. His life is then and for long ages predominantly anti-social in the spiritual sense; he is selfish and self-centred. His efforts are for himself and for his own satisfaction and personality enterprises, and this becomes steadily stronger and stronger. This is the present situation for the masses.

3. The passage or progress of the re-oriented man from Aries to Pisces, via Taurus. In this final stage, he returns to the same directed method, rhythm and measure of the earlier mass movement but this time with changed and changing attitudes of selfless service, a personality dedicated to the service of humanity and with a voluntary re-orientation of his energies so that they are directed towards the production of synthesis and understanding. This will be the situation in the future for the masses.

The astrologer of the future will have to bear these three modes of progression carefully in mind. Such is God's plan as we at present can sense it. In this plan Virgo, the Virgin, stands for the womb of time and passes the personality-soul (Leo-Virgo) through the three above stages or cycles. She stands also for the womb of form and for the nurturing mother, guarding the Christ principle within her own material substance until in "the fullness of time" she can give birth to the Christ child.

There are three principal signs connected with the Christ principle in this world period:

1. Virgo:  Gestation—governing nine signs from Virgo to Capricorn, including Virgo.
2. Capricorn:  Labour—three signs from Capricorn to Pisces, until the third initiation, including Capricorn.
3. Pisces:  Birth—appearance of the world Saviour.

In the consideration of these points, another problem for astrology emerges upon which I have scarcely touched but which is determining in its results. There must be distinction made between the horoscope of the form and the horoscope of the inner, living Christ-principle. This will condition the new astrology but will be developed as astrologers work with the hypotheses which I have presented. Ponder on these facts connected with the Christ life; they are familiar to you theoretically but their implications and their esoteric meaning are abstruse and oft difficult to those who have been reared under the old order and with the old ideas and approaches to truth. They signify far more than has hitherto been grasped.

The rulers of this sign are three in number:

1. Mercury: This is the orthodox ruler. It signifies the versatile energy of the Son of Mind, the soul. It is interchangeable for the Sun (Son) and stands for the Mediator or intermediary, between the Father and the Mother, between Spirit and Matter, and yet is the result of the union of these two.

2. The Moon: (Vulcan) This is the esoteric ruler. The significance of this is similar to that of the orthodox ruler. The Moon (or fourth ray energy) is here seen as an expression of first ray energy, manifesting through Vulcan. The Moon rules the form and it is the will of God to manifest through the medium of form.

3. Jupiter: This is the hierarchical ruler and rules the second Creative Hierarchy, that of the Divine Builders of our planetary manifestation. (See the tabulation re the Hierarchies.) This is the seventh Creative Hierarchy as well as the second, if the five unmanifesting Hierarchies are counted; in the significance of two and seven much of the mystery underlying these Hierarchies will be revealed.

Through these three planetary rulers the energies of the fourth ray pour, governing the mind through Mercury and the physical form through the Moon; the energies of the first ray, expressive of the will of God, begin their control of the self-conscious man (unfolded in Leo) and the energies of the second ray, embodying the love of God, pour through into manifestation.

Will, love and harmony through conflict—such are the controlling forces which make man what he is and such are the governing and directing energies which use the mind (Mercury), the emotional nature, love (in Jupiter) and the physical body (the Moon, or esoteric will) for purposes of divine expression and manifestation. It will be obvious to you that the task of Mercury in connection with humanity has gone forward most satisfactorily and has brought humanity to its present point of evolution upon the probationary path; that the energy of Vulcan is potently making its presence felt, and hence the struggles going on upon the planet between the men of will—selfish and ambitious—and the men of good-will who are desirous of the good of the whole. When the human Hierarchy is fully awakened to spiritual and not simply material possibilities, then the work of Jupiter will immediately intensify and this beneficent ruler will lead the human family into the ways of peace and progress.

Virgo is definitely related, through the medium of the various planetary rulers, to eight other signs of the zodiac and it is, therefore, with these eight signs that we are concerned because they produce an inter-related synthesis of nine signs (including Virgo). In this inter-related numerical synthesis and fruitful inter-relation lies hid the entire history of human progress and the secret of the process of divine manifestation. It is of value here to remember certain points which are:

1. Nine is the number of man. The fourth Creative Hierarchy is in reality the ninth, if the five unmanifested Hierarchies are included in our enumeration. The human Hierarchy is only the fourth among the seven which are in active or manifested expression.

2. Nine is the number of initiation as far as humanity is concerned. There are:

1. Five major planetary initiations which a man can take.
2. Three systemic initiations of which Christ has two.
3. One cosmic initiation which relates a man to Sirius.

The relation of Virgo to eight signs has, therefore, a definite bearing on these matters and the nine united potencies play their part in developing the Christ life in the individual and in the mass of men. From this group of signs and their attendant constellations, three are omitted. These are Leo, Libra and Capricorn. These three signs are all signs of crisis and indicate the progressive influence of the other nine and the situations which evolve out of their activity. They are the testing points in the process of the play of energies from the other nine signs as these energies affect individual aspirants.

They are:

1. Leo: The Crisis of Individualisation. This shows itself in two stages as:

1. Diffused inchoate power.
2. Personality integration.

It signifies the emergence of personality and preparation for the Christ experience. It is self-consciousness and the lower synthesis.

2. Libra: The Crisis of Balance. The emergence of the sense of self-direction and equilibrium. It is the point of equilibrium between soul and form. It signifies the emergence of free choice. It is consciousness of duality and the effort to balance the two.

3. Capricorn: The Crisis of Initiation. This exists in five stages and signifies the emergence of the dominating Christ life. It means the higher synthesis and the control of the Christ consciousness which is group consciousness.

There are, therefore, nine signs through which potencies pour which are creative in their effect and which produce changes which are needed in the progress of the soul towards divine expression. You have also three signs of crisis whereby the point in evolution is determined. In this connection it should be noted that:

1. Leo-Libra-Capricorn: Constitute the triangle of the father or will aspect; they mark points of attainment, through crisis met and triumphant achievement.

2. Cancer-Virgo-Pisces: Constitute the triangle of the Mother or matter aspect, conditioned by  intelligent activity. They indicate points of opportunity of an inner kind where consciousness is concerned, and therefore you have the recognition of mass, individual and group consciousness.

A close study of the above ideas will prove fruitful in establishing methods and relationships; they should also indicate the key which astrologers can use when seeking to work with mass horoscopes.

As we have studied these various constellations, it will have become apparent to you that the main function of the planets is to be distributing agents for the energies emanating from the zodiac as they converge within our solar system and become attracted to our planet. Students need to understand more thoroughly than they do that the basis of the astrological sciences is the emanation, transmission and reception of energies and their transmutation into forces by the receiving entity. The energies of the various signs are attracted by the different planets according to their stage of development and by what is esoterically called "ancient relationship" between the informing entities of the planets and of the constellations. This relation exists between beings and is founded on a Law of Affinity. It is this law of affinity which produces the magnetic pull and the dynamic response between constellations and planets within the solar system and between some particular planet and the forms of life upon another planet and the "impending energies," as they are called, which are being received from some major source.

The capacity to receive and profit by the planetary energies (themselves received as emanated from some constellation) is dependent upon the point in evolution which determines the receptivity and the responsiveness of the mechanism of reception. This constitutes an unalterable law and accounts for the power of certain planets which may have hitherto remained undiscovered and which have therefore had little to do with evolution up to the present, owing to the unresponsiveness of the forms of reception.

The planets, the energies and forces have existed all the time but have remained ineffective and consequently undiscovered owing to the non-existence of the needed instruments of response. They will, therefore, have no effect upon the life and history of an individual and only become potent and "magnetically informing" when a man has reached a certain point of development and is becoming sensitive to higher influences and is in preparation for the treading of the path. This readiness indicates that his response apparatus (the threefold personality) is more sensitive than is the case with the average person, and can respond to a higher range of vibrations than would otherwise be possible.

Herein also lies the distinction between the sacred and the non-sacred planets. The Lords of the planets (the ray Lives or planetary Logoi) are also, on Their own level, unequally developed and some of them are further advanced upon the cosmic path of spiritual unfoldment than are others; Those Who are definitely upon the Cosmic Path of Discipleship are regarded as informing sacred planets, whilst Those Who are upon the Cosmic Probationary Path are expressing Themselves through non-sacred planets. The point I seek to make here is that it is all a question of developed reception and sensitivity.

Upon the reversed wheel, through the medium of the planetary rulers (orthodox and esoteric unitedly active), the man upon the path finds himself responsive to a very wide number of energies, coming to him from many angles and directions, and hence the difficulties of the man upon the Path of Discipleship. When he becomes an initiate, this range of vibrations is rapidly increased and he becomes receptive to those energies which we have tabulated under the term hierarchical and which have reference to the twelve Creative Hierarchies. The forces of these Hierarchies (neither planetary nor systemic), then sweep into and through the initiate and awaken those major group responses which eventually give him systemic consciousness and make him a world server in Aquarius and a world saviour in Pisces.

A hint is here conveyed to you anent the world period into which we are now entering and it will be increasingly apparent to you why we are progressing into a sign wherein the ranks of initiates will be greatly augmented. In the stage of initiation, the energies of the signs and their constellations (shall I say attendant constellations—it expresses the situation more accurately than the usual mode of saying it) come through in a purer form and in a more direct line than upon the Path of Discipleship and the earlier stages of evolutionary development. The initiate is responsive to planetary, systemic and certain cosmic influences and becomes—if I might so express it—a lens through which "the many lights which are energy itself" can stream and thus be focussed upon our planet. To these energies, the initiate tunes his consciousness and thus becomes a planetary server.

The other point upon which I might here touch is that certain of the rays express themselves through two planets. For instance, the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict reaches us both through the Moon and through Mercury, whilst the first Ray of Will or Power reaches us through Vulcan and through Pluto. The real reason for this is one of the secrets of initiation and is hidden in the destiny of the fourth Creative Hierarchy and in the will-to-manifest of the Lord of our Earth, Who is Himself upon the third Ray of Active Intelligence; of Him it is said that "when the third great energy is related to the fourth Creative Hierarchy, the mystery of the perfected Seven will be understood."

One of the more obvious of the significances of this statement is to be found in the unfoldment of intelligence and love in the initiate, at which time of manifested expression and at the last major initiation, he will be responsive to the synthesis of energies which emanate from the "seven spirits before the throne of God." These are the representatives of the seven Rishis of the Great Bear and Their other pole, the seven Sisters of the Pleiades, symbolically recognised as the seven wives of the Rishis of the Great Bear. Here again, in relation to our solar system, do we find another great triangle of energies, of which the focal points on our Earth are the seven Spirits before the Throne. With this triangle we shall later deal; I simply want to refer to it here:

1. The seven Spirits responsive to the seven sacred planets. They are:

1. Expressions of divine life upon the Earth.

2. Focal points for the Lords of the seven rays.

3. Rulers of the seven planes of consciousness and manifestation.

4. Representatives because responsive to:

2. The seven Rishis of the Great Bear Who are:

1. Expressions of the life of the One About whom Naught May Be Said.
2. The positive focal points for the seven major cosmic energies.
3. Rulers of the seven Creative Hierarchies.
4. Related as positive poles to:
5. The seven Sisters or the seven Pleiades who:
6. Are expressions of the dualism of manifestation in their relation to the seven Rishis.
7. Provide the negative pole to the positive aspect of the seven Rishis.
8. Fuse with the positive energies of the Great Bear and, unitedly, work through seven of the zodiacal signs.

Here again the complexity of the forces playing upon our planet and increasing in their number and their potency as the vehicles of response upon our planet become more highly developed and sensitive and are, therefore, capable of a truer reaction and a more rapid response to the many forces impinging upon our planetary forms of life. It has been remarked by a profound astrological expert Who works with the Masters of the Great White Lodge that "when humanity comprehends the distinction between the signs and the constellations, understands the nature of the polarity of energies and responds to the three cosmic Realities, the twelve cosmic Energies and the seven planetary Impacts and the interplay of the twelve Creative Hierarchies, then and not till then, will a radiant light be seen and the destiny of our solar Logos be finally determined." Behind this statement are to be found three meanings: one for average intelligent man, another for disciples, and a third one for initiates above the third degree.

As I earlier pointed out to you, the sign Virgo is related to nine constellations and in this fact lies both prophecy and guarantee. That which this sign veils and hides is potentially responsive to nine streams of energy which—playing upon the life within the form and evoking response from the soul—produce those "points of crisis" and those "moments of demonstrated development" to which we have referred in speaking of Leo-Libra-Capricorn.

Through Mercury, Virgo comes into close relation to three constellations—Aries, Gemini, and Scorpio. Here again is a triangle of energies of great importance in the life of the Christ-child which Virgo guards and nourishes and hides within herself. Through Aries and Scorpio, the Christ-life and manifestation is integrated with that of the fourth Creative Hierarchy; herein lies a great mystery which is concerned with the dual manifestation of the Christ principle both in form and—upon its own plane—through spiritual manifestation; it is here also that the true significance of the words found in The Bhagavad Gita appears when Krishna (the Christ principle) says to Arjuna (the world disciple, or developed form aspect): "Having pervaded the entire universe with a fragment of myself, I remain."

There is here an esoteric reference to the essential identity of Son with the Father, the "undying One," and with the eternal Mother; that is, with spirit and matter. This is the fundamental mystery of Virgo and will be revealed when the energies pouring into Virgo from Gemini, via the planet Mercury, have done their destined work; for Gemini is an expression of the fourth unmanifested Creative Hierarchy—one of the higher group of Lives which stand just beyond the seven Who condition our systemic lives. These Lives have achieved Their goal, but Their energies are still directed towards and focussed upon our planet. They are not unmanifested in the case where such developed planets as Uranus, Jupiter or Saturn are concerned.

In this triple relation of three major constellations, one clear understanding characteristic can be noted, and that is their essential duality—the effect of which is obvious and so dramatically present in Virgo. Aries sees the beginning or initiation of the relationship between spirit and matter. Gemini is definitely a sign of duality and signifies the relation of these two major energies in the human or fourth Creative Hierarchy; this dualism is emphasised in a still more intimate and comprehensible manner in Scorpio, in which the note of the evolutionary cycle which it dominates is "the Word made Flesh." It is the sign wherein the Christ demonstrates His control over matter in the guise of the triumphant disciple. Spirit and matter (Aries ), soul and body (Gemini), the mother and the child (Virgo), the Word and the Flesh (Scorpio)—here are the four signs of creative dualism and inter-related evolution presented and descriptive of the potency and objectives of the fourth Creative Hierarchy.

When Mercury, the divine Messenger, the principle of illusion and the expression of the active higher mind, has performed his mission and "led humanity into the light" and the Christ-child out of the womb of time and of the flesh into the light of day and of manifestation, then the task of that great centre we call humanity will be accomplished. Ponder on this for the significance of esoteric astrology will emerge more clearly in your minds if you can understand this fourfold activity of Mercury and the inter-relation of these four signs of the zodiac—connected as they are with the logoic Quaternary.

It is in this sign also that the Moon in its own right of antiquity and of ancient thoughtform control, and also as veiling both Vulcan and Neptune, connects the force of Virgo with the energies of Taurus, of Cancer and of Aquarius. This is of peculiar importance for it relates the form building aspect with the consciousness aspect which, at a high stage of development, produces the manifestation of the Christ principle or Christ-child. It has been said esoterically that four of the names by which the Christ Avatar is ever called are:

1. The Desire of All Nations                         Taurus                Fixed Cross
2. He Whom the masses sense or anticipate         Cancer                Cardinal Cross
3. He Who is, for Her, the purpose of existence         Virgo                Mutable Cross
4. He Who shows the light and gives the water         Aquarius         Fixed Cross

All these signs indicate forms of consciousness, which are conditioned and manifested by the energies of these signs, performing cyclically and ceaselessly their appointed task. They, therefore, are primarily concerned with the stage of discipleship and the manifestation of a solar disciple. Hence the two energies which come from the Fixed Cross. This is consequently one of the intermediate crosses which relate the major three and there are many such.

Virgo is related to Taurus through Vulcan which brings in what might be called the endurance aspect of the will-to-be which carries the incarnated Son of God through the experiences of the dark time wherein the personality becomes the Mother in the stage of gestation, through the period of infancy upon the physical plane and through the stage of adolescence until the initiate attains full maturity. This necessitates persistence, endurance and continuity of effort and is one of the characteristics imparted or stimulated by energies pouring from Vulcan. You can realise that these are first ray attributes and are the reverse side of those usually emphasised, namely, death or the activity of the Destroyer aspect. Taurus is an expression of the third unmanifested Hierarchy and of this Hierarchy we know nothing beyond the fact that it is concerned with the light which liberates from death.

Therefore, you have:

Taurus: Illumination.

Vulcan: First ray or endurance.

Third Creative Hierarchy: Liberating Light.

Virgo: The Christ-life, latent and unexpressed (as is the 3rd Creative Hierarchy).

The Moon: The form nature, the substance of the flame which lights the way.

Neptune is as you know, the God of the waters, and the term "water" covers many angles of the esoteric wisdom, such as:

1. The whole concept of matter—universal and itemised.
2. The "waters of substance."
3. The ocean of life.
4. The world of astral glamour and reaction.
5. The astral plane as a whole.
6. The desire and the emotional nature.
7. The world of focussed incarnation for the masses.
8. Mass existence, as in Cancer.

Of all these attributes or conditions of the feminine pole in existence (the material aspect), the constellation Cancer is outstandingly symbolic. It precedes Leo, the sign of individuality and of self- conscious effort, and is concerned with the slow rhythm of mass life—either instinctually active or the reactions of an imposed consciousness which is a result of chosen experience after initiation.

It connotes mass life, leading to group life after the experience of initiation, for which its polar opposite, Capricorn, stands and which finds full expression in Aquarius which completes the experience of Leo and fuses it with that of Cancer and Capricorn.

Cancer--------- Leo ----------- Virgo

Capricorn -----Aquarius------ Pisces

These six signs form another six-pointed star of profound significance which is the subjective counterpart of the six- pointed star (the interlaced triangles) which we call King Solomon's seal. This interlacing of the two above triangles constitutes what is called a triangle of humanity and—under the theories of the Science of Triangles—it concerns the relation of the individual to the mass of humanity and of the disciple to the group. These triangles warrant most careful study.

It is the planet Neptune which is predominantly active in bringing about such an activity in Cancer that adequate momentum can be set up which will produce progress (through the intervening signs) to Aquarius.

I would like here to add something more to the teaching about the wheel of life and its reversed motion which occurs at a particular stage of evolution. I want to call your attention to the fact that the difficulty of the problem and the intensification of the life of conscious duality which marks the earlier stages of the Path of Discipleship, up to and immediately preceding the third initiation, is based upon the wheel of the zodiac contributing its influences to the life of the form nature in a normal manner; the myriads of lives which constitute the form are conditioned by the signs of the zodiac proceeding in its normal manner—clockwise, due to the precession of the equinoxes, whilst the life of the disciple, focussed in the soul consciousness, is governed (or should I remark, should be governed?) by the wheel, proceeding anti-clockwise. Both motions are in potent opposition and, symbolically speaking, produce eventually that "tearing asunder" which always precedes initiation and illumination and which is testified to by all the mystics and initiates. This is in reality that which produces the destruction of the veil of illusion and is symbolically referred to in The New Testament as "the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom." This constitutes the result of the dual activity of the Great Wheel. It precedes the dark night of the soul wherein the man stands pendant between heaven and earth and then cries:

"Where is the one God who has forsaken me? He is nowhere to be seen and all other gods have gone. I stand alone, bereft yet unafraid. I see the dark of form; I see the dark of distant spirit. And all the light of soul seems gone." Then comes the cry triumphant: "I know I am the Light of God. There is naught else."

Through the Moon and also through Jupiter, Virgo is brought into relationship with Aquarius which means, in this case, with the seventh Creative Hierarchy, or with the atomic substance out of which the dense body of manifestation has to be constructed if the Christ life (which the Virgin nurtures) is to be brought to successful manifestation. The cause of manifestation is, esoterically speaking, the stimulation of the "dead lives" (the so-called inorganic substance) into activity and into usefulness to the positive Christ life, which is the agent of the stimulation. Hence the Moon is the symbol of the response of the dead lives to the outer spiritual impact. The central idea of occultism that even the smallest atom of substance has in it the germ of that which can respond to spiritual energy is preserved for us in the teaching anent the influence of Jupiter, the second ray agent of the Christ spirit.

In connection with Jupiter, as might be expected from a study of the rays, Virgo is related both to Sagittarius and to Pisces. This is an exoteric impact but produces a constant stimulation of the life of the indwelling Christ. Sagittarius rules or conditions (for that is what the word means) the activity of the lunar lords who build the body of man out of their own substance. It will, therefore, be obvious to you why, when a man begins the one-pointed activity of Sagittarius and becomes the earnest disciple, it is possible for him to rule his personality and to govern it so that eventually it becomes the vehicle of the soul. It accounts also for the reaction of the personality against this control. It is because of facts such as these that astrology is bound to become one of the major sciences of the future, and when this is so the control of the personality will be scientifically carried forward; full use will be made of the planetary influences and the energies coming from the signs as they cyclically make their appearance, and special effort will be made, for instance, to gain certain aspects of control during the month in which the Sun is in the sign Sagittarius.

The relation existing between Virgo and Pisces (between the Virgin Mother and the Fish Goddesses) is well known, for they are polar opposites and their functions are interchangeable in a peculiar manner. In the revolution of the ordinary wheel, Aries and Scorpio mark the beginning and the end, and consummate in the rounded out and equipped personality. They are, exoterically, Alpha and Omega.

In the life of the disciple, Virgo and Pisces stand in the same relation. Pisces consummates the work carried forward in this major world cycle. Some idea of the creative story above indicated can be gained if the tabulation of the nine constellations with their signs is studied:

1. Aries                        Beginning                Cardinal Cross

2. Gemini                Relation                Mutable Cross

3. Taurus                Desire                        Fixed Cross

4. Cancer                Movement                Cardinal Cross

5. Scorpio                Test—Trial                Fixed Cross

6. Sagittarius                Direction                Mutable Cross

7. Aquarius                Service                        Fixed Cross

8. Pisces                Salvation                Mutable Cross

9. Virgo                        The Mother                Mutable Cross

All the four arms of the Mutable Cross are represented in this interrelation, indicating the completed activity of the Mutable Cross or of the preparatory stage of evolution which has successfully prepared the man for mounting the Fixed Cross. The personality is prepared to be the mother of the Christ.

If we consider the two solar systems (the past and the present) as a unity, it might be said that:

1. The Mutable Cross governed the first solar system. In that system and in this solar system, and to humanity en masse, this Cross rules or governs the path of probation (which in reality is the entire life experience, prior to treading the path of discipleship).

2. The Fixed Cross governs the present solar system and corresponds to the path of discipleship.

3. The Cardinal Cross will govern and rule the next solar system and in this system governs the path of initiation, which is trodden by the flower of the race.

The fact that all four energies of the Mutable Cross, three of the Fixed Cross and two of the Cardinal Cross pour into the sign Virgo in relative degrees and potencies indicates the fundamental importance of this "sign of reception" as it is called. All nine energies are required to bring a man to the point where the world and influence of the two solar systems have done their task in:

1. Preparing the vehicle of reception and protection, which is the personality, the form, the self- conscious man.
2. Bringing into manifestation thereby the hidden man of the heart, the Christ within, the soul, the group conscious man.

What will be the objective and the consummation of the activity of the Cardinal Cross during the next solar system is hidden in the revelation which comes to the man who has taken the third initiation. It is connected naturally with the Spirit or first aspect of divinity, or with the Monad and with the expression of the divine consciousness. Until a man has, however, taken this initiation, he profits not from anything that I could tell him in this connection. For its impartation also, words are useless and in fact do not exist.

As I have told you, Virgo is regarded by the esoteric teachers of the Hierarchy to be identified with the third aspect of divinity, with the mother principle and is believed to be the director of the energies, developed and recognised in the first solar system. It is for this reason in this solar system that Virgo is subjected predominantly to the influence of the second, fourth and sixth ray energies through Jupiter (second ray) the Moon and Mercury (fourth ray) and Neptune (sixth ray). The Moon and Mercury together indicate the activity of the higher and lower mind and are, therefore, related to the third Ray of Active Intelligence which controlled the first solar system. There is consequently only one planet, Vulcan, which is distinctly and purely first ray energy. These are points which advanced astrologers will later elaborate but which at the present time mean little.

There is another point in connection with the planetary influences which I would like to mention here because it emphasises again the synthetic position of Virgo and its contribution as a major focal point for the distribution of energy to the fourth Creative Hierarchy. In this sign, Virgo, the place and the mode of expression of the planets are of paramount interest, though most esoteric in implication and most difficult to understand. Jupiter rules four signs and each of them represents a different element out of the four which are expressing themselves in the three worlds of human evolution.

The following tabulation will make this somewhat clearer:

Virgo        Pisces                     Sagittarius                      Aquarius      

Earth                        Water                        Fire                         Air

Hidden Christ                 Hidden Saviour         Hidden Master        Hidden Server

Jupiter—ruler and the conveyor of expansion

Mercury is exalted in this sign because the mother is necessarily ruled by her son, the Son of Mind who is also the Son of God. Of this son, she is the protector and is responsible for his development and slowly acquired experience. Mercury, being the Messenger of the Gods and the Agent of Their applied control, is therefore the agent of the third aspect (active intelligence) from one point of view, and of the second aspect (love-wisdom) from another. He is regarded as embodying in himself both these aspects of the mental principle, the expression of the concrete and the abstract mind of God. The lower concrete mind was unfolded in the first solar system and the higher abstract intuitional mind, the pure reason, is unfolding in this system. Mercury is the synthesis of manas-buddhi, mind-wisdom which expresses itself through the human soul; Mercury rules the bridge or the antahkarana. In Virgo, Mercury reaches his full power, for Virgo is intelligence and the hidden Christ is wisdom or pure reason.

Venus, pure love-wisdom, falls into generation in this sign and occultly "descends to earth" and stands (as The Secret Doctrine has so carefully pointed out) for the gift of mind and of divinity, embodied in the Son of Mind and thus for the descent of the Christ principle into generation or into matter. Virgo and Venus are together two aspects of intelligence. The symbolism of the descent of Spirit into the womb of the virgin mother is preserved for us in the astrological fact that Venus falls in this sign; esoterically, she disappears from view and vanishes into the darkness. Neptune, the expression of the sixth Ray of Idealistic Devotion, is naturally rendered more impotent in this sign and simultaneously his "power is lessened," for the drive and urge of devotion and desire give place in this powerful sign to the natural processes of form production and to the silent activity which is going on within the womb of time and space.

Jupiter, in spite of its latent power, is also "lessened" in influence at this time because of the second principle or second aspect of divinity, the Son or the germ of the Christ Who will come, the Son of Mind, descends into the depths and is temporarily veiled or hidden. I would recommend to the astrologers of the future a careful investigation of the falls, exaltations and the diminution of power which take place within any zodiacal sign; the whole problem must be viewed in a large manner and not so specifically from the angle of personality horoscopes. When the planets are rightly related to the rays which they are expressing, then the wider theme of the soul's life will emerge; these condition the personality but not in the same sense as material circumstance (physical body and material environment) condition the mass of men. Ponder on this.

In connection with the decanates, I would point out that what I am in this treatise constantly emphasising is that the astrologer needs to study the horoscope of an individual from the angle of his place upon the wheel of the zodiac and to consider which way he is going. Is he progressing around the wheel as a personality or is he moving forward as a soul? The conflict to which all disciples are subjected can be traced to the fact that the form life of the disciple is influenced in one way by the wheel, and the consciousness aspect in another way or in the reverse direction. The disciple enters the sign under the influence of that decanate which is for him the first but which is the third for the ordinary man. This is interestingly and practically instanced by the constellation which we are now entering.

The three decanates of Aquarius, from the angle of the disciple, are Saturn, Mercury and Venus. It is in this sequence that they affect him and carry him forward on his desired way, thus giving opportunity through conflict, the illumination of the mind and eventually the achievement of brotherly love which is wisdom. Ordinarily speaking, the mass of men would pass through the sign via Venus, Mercury and Saturn, for the undeveloped man is influenced by those qualities which can be best described as instinctual mind or affection (Venus), which is brotherly love in embryo; by the slow unfoldment of the mind through the activity of Mercury; finally, as the result of this unfoldment, conflict supervenes and Saturn offers opportunity to suffer and, through suffering, to learn to choose rightly, to analyse correctly and to decide upon the higher values.

These points must be carefully considered by the astrologer. But at this time, we are at a point of crisis and the problem takes wider implications, for the reason that, for the first time in its history, humanity is beginning to mount the Fixed Cross of the disciple, thus reversing its progress upon the circle of the Zodiac. Humanity—as a whole and owing to the large proportion of aspirants and thinking idealists—is entering Aquarius, via the open door of Saturn. At the same time, a very large number of men are in the non-thinking instinctual stage and their consciousness is predominantly Atlantean. These enter via Venus and hence the conflict.

According to Sepharial, the three decanates into which Virgo is divided are governed by the Sun, Venus and Mercury, whilst Alan Leo gives us Mercury, Saturn and Venus. I would remind you here of a point which is oft forgotten by astrologers; this is that, in the case of the disciple, Mercury and the Sun are interchangeable terms. When the disciple becomes aware that he is himself Mercury, the Son of Mind, and therefore one with the universal Christ, the "Sun and yet the Son of God" (as it is esoterically called), he is then an initiate. Therefore, Leo's assignment of rulers is the truly esoteric one.

When the disciple knows Saturn as the God who offers opportunity and does not only feel him to be Deity who brings disaster, then he is on the path of discipleship in truth and in deed and not just theoretically. When Venus is the source of wisdom and the expression of the transmutation of the mind into intuition and of intellect into wisdom, then he is ready for initiation. He is rapidly achieving liberation. The weakness of the rulers of the decanates as given by Sepharial lies in the fact that as both Mercury and the Sun are one, the choice is therefore redundant; he omits Saturn and because of this omission, esoterically speaking, the "door is not open."

Again, the keynotes of this sign convey their meaning clearly and there is no need for me to elucidate. On the ordinary wheel, the command goes forth in the following words which institute the activity of Virgo: "And the Word said, Let Matter reign." Later, upon the wheel of the disciple, the voice emerges from the Virgin Herself and she says: "I am the mother and the child. I, God, I, matter am."

Ponder upon the beauty of this synthesis and teaching and know that you yourself have said the first word as the soul, descending into the womb of time and space in a far and distant past. The time has now come when you can, if you so choose, proclaim your identity with both divine aspects—matter and Spirit, the mother and the Christ.

LEO, THE LION

Passing as we are into the Aquarian Age in which the spirit of Aquarius will be exemplified in its universality and its sense of "general distribution," it is inevitable that a point of crisis should be reached. The true Leo type must react in a new and unique manner to the proffered opportunity, and when I say type, I refer to those people whose sun is in Leo or who have Leo rising. The reason for this is that Leo is the polar opposite of Aquarius, and the interplay of energies between these two is far more potent than at any previous time in racial history. This is a fact which you are not in a position to verify, but I make it as a statement of fact.

It is because of this fact that you have the appearance of the dictators in different countries at this time, and it is because of this fact also that in this present cycle (the ante-chamber of the New Age) you have the pronounced attitude of these dictators—an attitude which is so often ignored but which has real racial value. It is the attitude which leads to a synthesis of the national life, aims and intentions. A typical instance of this attitude is that of Hitler. No matter what may be our personal opinion of him, there is no question that he has unified, produced fusion and blended together the various elements in the German race. This activity is Aquarian in nature but in its lowest and most undesirable aspect. It is also of the nature of Leo, for the people who can produce these results have necessarily to be intensely self-aware. This is the major characteristic of the Leo person. What part Leo may play in the personal horoscope of Hitler I do not know, for I have not investigated it, but it plays a very prominent part in the horoscope of his soul.

I would suggest to modern astrologers that they cast the horoscopes of the dominant world figures at this time, with the planets which I have given you as the esoteric rulers; all advanced people and those of major importance are on or nearing the path of discipleship and the influence of the esoteric planets is becoming, therefore, increasingly powerful. It might prove most illuminating and teach them much. The tendency to fusion, blending, amalgamation, and the spiritual counterpart of this unity is stronger today than heretofore and the types which produce this exoterically must have Leo somewhere in a prominent position in their horoscopes or the Sun controlling in some important house. If the horoscopes do not prove this, it is because the exact hour, moment and day of birth has not been accurately ascertained.

This sign, Leo, is the fifth sign of the zodiac which indicates that it is part of the mysterious number, ten—the number of perfection, a relative perfection, prior to entering into a new cycle of progress. This links Leo consequently with Capricorn, the tenth sign of the zodiac, for it is the processes of initiation which make the self-conscious person the group conscious individual. I am choosing these words with care and forethought. Upon the reversed wheel, this is the eighth sign, the sign of the Christ and of the indwelling Reality; it therefore marks—in this manner—a new cycle. When self-consciousness is born (as at the moment of individualisation) a new cycle begins. This numerical significance links Leo with Scorpio (the eighth sign of the Zodiac) in an effective manner and you have, therefore, the triangle of Leo-Scorpio-Capricorn involving humanity and indicating the three important crisis points in man's career:

1. Self-consciousness or human awareness. Unity—Leo.
2. Consciousness of warring dualities. Discipleship—Scorpio.
3. Group consciousness as an initiate. Unity—Capricorn.

This sign is a fire sign, and it is the pre-eminent fire sign at this time. The Sons of Mind, the self-conscious Sons of God, are above everything else the Sons of Fire, for our "God is a consuming Fire." There is in them that peculiar quality which can burn and destroy and so eradicate all that hinders their essentially divine expression. I would have you bear in mind the purificatory nature of fire. There are two elements in nature which are connected in the public consciousness with the thought of purification—one is water and the other is fire. It is in this connection that the water signs, Cancer—Scorpio—Pisces, are interesting, and the fire signs, Aries—Leo—Sagittarius, warrant study. Fire always carries forward esoterically that which water has begun.

In Cancer, the purificatory waters of experience begin their beneficent work. This is begun upon the Cardinal Cross because that cross deals only with wholes and, therefore, with mass experience.

In Scorpio, the purificatory waters of testing and trials are applied. This takes place upon the Fixed Cross and their effect is drastic in the extreme.

In Pisces, the waters of purification are applied through daily life and the processes of incarnation; they apply to the "fish swimming in the waters of matter and finding there its sustenance." This is upon the Mutable Cross of ordinary material existence and experience. Thus the influence of the three crosses is brought to bear upon the incarnated Son of God upon the wheel of ordinary life and in the usual order. Upon the wheel reversed, the fire takes the place of water and burns away all dross. Purification of the entire nature is thus achieved gradually, and the man becomes sensitive to the influences which can be brought to bear upon him when the fiery triplicity plays its part and the influence of Aries-Leo-Sagittarius begins to re-orient him towards universality, self-consciousness and one-pointed attitudes. As we go on with our study, the significance of this statement will increasingly appear. I am hinting at matters of spiritual and esoteric importance because this sign, Leo, is of paramount control in the life of the aspirant. He has to know himself through true self-awareness before he can know that divine spirit which is his true Self and know also his fellowmen.

Leo is a part of the Sphinx, and upon this I need not enlarge as we have touched upon this elsewhere. This is a great mystery. Virgo and Leo together stand for the whole man, for the God-man as well as for spirit-matter. It is important to have this in mind, for when the nature of the world is revealed, then the mystery of the Sphinx will no longer exist.

The keynotes of this sign are exceedingly well known. They sound out the note of individuality and of true self-consciousness. Many people are convinced that they are self-conscious when they are only swayed by desire and are oriented towards the satisfaction of that desire or when they recognise themselves as the dramatic centre of their universe. Yet the only truly self-conscious person is the man who is aware of purpose, of a self-directed life and of a developed and definite life plan and programme. Where these are present, the inference is that there is mental perception and some measure of integration. To be motivated only by emotion and actuated by desire is no indication of true self-consciousness. In the undeveloped man, it is far more instinctual than is self-awareness. In the truly developed self-conscious man not only is direction, purpose and plan present, but also a consciousness of the active agent of the plan and action. Ponder on this.

There are two subsidiary yet potent keynotes of the Leo person upon which I should touch at this point if the nature of the influences wielded by Leo are to be clearly perceived. These are the will-to-illumine, which constitutes the driving urge towards self-knowledge, self-perception and intellectual positivity, and also the will-to-rule and to dominate, which is of such a controlling nature in this sign and such a subtle potency in the Leo type. It is this will-to-rule which leads a person born in this sign eventually to achieve self-mastery and the control of the personality (for either a good motive or a selfish one), and it is also the same tendency which leads him finally to the control by the personality, ruled by Leo, of groups and large or small bodies of people.

This—at an advanced stage—is an expression of the fusion of Leo energy and Aquarian potency. It is inevitable in the long run for men and races; for this all experience in Leo is preparatory. The will-to-illumine is that which drives all Leo people on to experiment and so to gain knowledge; it is this which links them with Taurus, which "carries the fair jewel which gives light upon its forehead."

In the relationship of Taurus-Leo-Aquarius, you have a significant and important zodiacal triangle as far as man is concerned and it is peculiarly significant to the fourth Creative Hierarchy, the human Hierarchy. You have, therefore:

1. Taurus: The incentive towards experience in order to gain knowledge.
2. Leo: The expression of experience in order to justify knowledge.
3. Aquarius: The use of experience in order to make the gained knowledge a factor in service.

This triangle expresses the life of humanity and it demonstrates finally the perfection or consummation of the human way. Another triangle is of a somewhat similar nature, Leo-Virgo-Pisces, but these three produce a still more subtle expression of consciousness.

1. Leo: The self-conscious man. Personality. Lower unity.
2. Virgo: The latent Christ life or principle. Duality.
3. Pisces: The group conscious soul. The world Saviour. Unity.

You will note how consistently the emphasis is laid upon consciousness and its progressive unfoldment, and not upon the form or the aggregate of forms which veil the conscious entity of whatever nature or grade of being. Just as A Treatise on Cosmic Fire endeavoured to give the psychological key to The Secret Doctrine and to interpret the underlying consciousness which the Beings (considered in The Secret Doctrine) express, so in A Treatise on the Seven Rays, I am carrying on the same idea and, at the same time, seeking to give the needed key to modern exoteric psychology and also some indications as to the astrological key to The Secret Doctrine to which H.P.B. refers. The Entities dealt with in her masterpiece of esoteric truth are here revealed as cosmic, solar and planetary influences evoking—in response to Their outpoured energy or vibratory activity—an awakening of consciousness in the form so that it becomes aligned to or closely related to Their Own. All revelations appear to emerge into the consciousness of the race in their lowest or most material form because the "ascent of knowledge towards wisdom" is always the key to progress, and, therefore, exoteric psychology and exoteric mundane astrology had to precede the revelation of their significance; the nature of the form had to be made apparent and man accustomed to it before the meaning behind the form could be revealed.

You may ask what is the reason for this mode of procedure? I can give you one among many which, with a little intuitive reflection, should be convincing to you. The understanding and the reasoning powers of the soul are complete and developed. But souls—oriented towards incarnation and the will-to-sacrifice—have not, as yet, the necessary forms in the three worlds which are adequate for the expression of the knowledge which the soul has on its own plane and level of awareness. If the inner meanings of the outer symbolic forms of existence were registered by an unprepared form (the response apparatus of the soul in the three worlds and, in the case of man, involving an unprepared and undeveloped nervous system, glandular system and brain) the destruction of the form by soul energy would naturally supervene and a shattering of the lower expression would take place. It is here that the significance and purpose of time can be noted and intelligently employed, but this involves a most definite development of the esoteric sense. There are other reasons, but this one will suffice.

In the evolutionary process there is, therefore, first the form, gradually prepared, adjusted, aligned and oriented during many aeons of time; behind this active form, as it steadily improves and becomes more responsive to environment and contact, stands the slowly awakening consciousness. This is the thinking, intuiting, loving soul, which tightens its hold over its response apparatus, avails itself upon every possible occasion of every advance made by the form, and employs every influence for the perfecting of the great work which it undertook under the Law of Sacrifice.

It is for this reason that I have not attempted in this Treatise to prove—scientifically and in the modern exoteric sense—the natural response to the inner psychological factors and to the esoteric astrological influences. These can be easily demonstrated and instantly made apparent once modern science accepts the occult premises, even if only in an experimental and hypothetical manner. I am confining myself entirely to the theme of the unfoldment of consciousness, of meaning and of significances and of the response of this conscious entity to the many influences and vibratory impacts to which it is subjected on account of its being an integral part of other and greater Lives.

I have sought to bring the preceding thoughts to your attention because the sign we are now studying is one in which the theme of self-consciousness lies open to the investigator. Mass consciousness in Cancer gives place to individual consciousness in Leo. Out of the mass or the herd emerges the self-sufficient unit which becomes increasingly aware of its oneness, its aloneness and its isolated attitude as the "one in the centre" of its small cosmos. This attitude continues to develop and to become emphatic and dynamic (I use these words with intent), leading to the pronounced ego-centric consciousness of the selfish, intelligent man and to the ambitious display of selfish power of the man who desires place and position. But eventually the time comes when the nature of the Fixed Cross begins to dawn upon the consciousness of the man and the influence of Aquarius (the polar opposite of Leo) begins to balance that of Leo. Then there comes the gradual shift of the focus of attention away from the "one who stands alone" to the environing group, and an equally important shift away from selfish interests to group requirements. This gives concisely the objective which is attained by the man upon the Fixed Cross; the effect of that Cross is to bring light and liberation.

This can be clearly seen if we contrast the energies of the four arms of the Cross as they are demonstrated by the man both before and after the long and drastic experience upon the Cross.

1. Taurus: The Bull of Desire. The light of aspiration and knowledge.
2. Leo: The Lion of Self-assertion. The Light of the Soul.
3. Scorpio: The Agent of Deception. The Light of Liberation.
4. Aquarius: The Chalice of Self-service. The Light of the world.

The Fixed Cross is the cross of light. And playing through this Cross all the time, and emanating from Leo, are the "fires of God"—cosmic, solar and planetary—producing purification, the intensification of the light and eventual revelation to the purified man who stands in light. From Aries comes cosmic fire; from Sagittarius comes planetary fire; and from Leo comes solar fire; and each of these fires "clears the way by burning" for the expression of the three divine aspects: spirit (Aries), soul (Leo) and body (Sagittarius). Such is the scientific basis for the yoga of fire, applied by the fully self-conscious man to the reflection of the three divine aspects in the three worlds; these are the three modes of divine expression in these three worlds. Such is the significance of the fact that it will be found that before the Door of Initiation lies the burning ground which all disciples and initiates must tread. The Leo subject treads this burning ground with will and self-effacement. When he has reached full self-consciousness and mental integration and when he has attained personality effectiveness, then he treads it—undeterred by pain.

A little thought will make it apparent to you why the Sun is the ruler of all the three conditions of Leo—exoteric, esoteric and hierarchical. It is a correct surmise that the purpose of this solar system is the unfoldment of consciousness, and if for the strictly human being self-consciousness is the goal, then the Sun must obviously rule, for it is the source of physical consciousness (exoteric and symbolic of the personality), of soul awareness (esoteric), and of spiritual life (hierarchical). I am reiterating the necessity to recognise the stimulation of consciousness as the objective of all the astrological influences because the outstanding theme of Leo is the activity of the self-conscious unit in relation to its environment or the development of sensitive response to surrounding impacts by the one who stands—as the Sun stands—at the centre of its little universe. The whole story and function of Leo and its influences can be summed up in the word "sensitivity," and this sensitivity can be studied in four stages:

1. Sensitivity to conditioning impacts from the environment, i.e., to the impacts of the world of human evolution, the three worlds or planes, through the medium of the three aspects of the response apparatus of the soul.

2. Sensitivity to the will, wishes and desires of the personality, the integrated self-conscious man, the lower self.

3. Sensitivity to the soul as the conditioning factor instead of sensitivity to the environing world as the conditioning factor.

4. The spiritual sensitivity of the God-Man (the soul and personality fused) to the environment. At this stage of unfoldment, the liberated man is not conditioned by his environment but begins the arduous task of conditioning it in relation to the divine plan and purpose and at the same time to cultivating sensitivity to the higher impacts of those worlds which lead to the final goal.

I want you to have this innate spiritual sensitivity and this outer material sensitivity most carefully in mind if you want truly to understand the influences of Leo upon human beings and especially upon the person born in this sign or who has this sign rising, as well as its influences upon the planet.

Throughout the universe, it is the soul which is the conscious, sensitive theme of the divine plan—the soul as the anima mundi, or the soul of the world, animating all forms of life below the animal kingdom; the soul as the animal soul and the extension of this to the bodies of all animals, including the human physical body; the soul as the human soul, which is a still further expansion of the same sensitive factor but augmented or stimulated by the principle of self-awareness or of focussed personal sensitivity to all sub-human soul expression, plus awareness (conscious or unconscious) of the immortal or divine soul; the soul as the ego or spiritual soul on its own plane—the source of consciousness as far as the three worlds of evolution are concerned, and the goal of all present evolutionary processes.

The three aspects of the Sun (as dealt with in The Secret Doctrine) are of importance at this point, because influences flowing through and from them bring the entire subjective and latent world consciousness to the fore and produce eventually (at the final revelation and liberation) the full expression of the consciousness of Deity. This can be called divine sensitivity, the universal mind or the divine plan or purpose. Words are inadequate to express that of which the highest initiate as yet knows but little. These three aspects of the Sun are the factors which bring consciousness to the birth and make the ultimate goal attainable; they make all forms of consciousness possible because these are rooted in the Sun (symbolically speaking) and are an inherent aspect of the greater whole.

1. The physical Sun—the anima mundi; the animal soul. Multiplicity.
2. The heart of the Sun—the human soul and the divine ego. Duality.
3. The central, spiritual Sun—the divine consciousness. The will of the whole. The awareness of God. Unity.

As you have been told, the Sun veils certain hidden planets, and in the case of Leo, the two planets through which the Sun focusses its energy or influences (like a lens) are Neptune and Uranus. The "heart of the Sun" employs Neptune as its agent, whilst the central, spiritual Sun pours its influences through Uranus. The activity of Uranus is, however, only registered at a very advanced stage of development upon the Path and is analogous to that point in the unfoldment of consciousness wherein, by an act of the will, the conscious and illumined man (focussed in the highest head centre) arouses the centre at the base of the spine and draws the kundalini fire upwards. Making a broad and consequently somewhat inaccurate generalisation, it might be said that this process is followed upon the three Crosses:

1. Upon the Mutable Cross, it is the physical Sun and its influences which affect the man, stimulate the bodily cells and sustain the form nature, affecting the centres below the diaphragm.

2. Upon the Fixed Cross, it is the "heart of the Sun" which is called into activity and which pours its energies through Neptune upon man. These stimulate and affect the heart, the throat and the ajna centres.

3. Upon the Cardinal Cross, it is the central, spiritual Sun which is called into play, and Uranus is then the distributing agency and the head centre becomes the centre in the initiate's body through which direction and control come.

In connection with the Mutable Cross, the rays of the Sun in a threefold form (combining the lowest energies of the threefold Sun) pour into and through the man, via Jupiter. Jupiter is the agent of the second ray which the Sun expresses—cosmically and systemically.

Hence the triple relation of the Sun to Leo which is unique in our solar system, and hence the importance of the triangle which controls the man born under Leo—the Sun, Uranus and Neptune. The energy of Leo is focussed through the Sun, and is distributed to our planet via the Sun and the two planets which it veils.

Neptune, being the sign of the Deity of the waters, is related to the sixth ray which governs the astral or emotional plane of desire. When Neptune is thus active in the advanced Leo subject, then emotion-desire have been transmuted into love-aspiration and are dedicated to and oriented to the soul; the entire emotional or sensitive nature is responsive to energies coming from "the heart of the Sun," and when this is the case, it indicates that the disciple is now ready for the second initiation. This orientation is brought about by what is called "the sublimination of the influence of the Moon" which is, as you know, the mother, symbolically speaking, of the form nature and reflects the Sun, or the Father aspect.

The above statement is exceedingly occult in its significance. Esoterically speaking, you have the emergence of an interesting triangle of force which affects the Leo subject—the Sun, the Moon and Neptune; these are an expression of Rays 2.4.6 and, where these three are dominantly active, you have the establishing of that "inner alignment and attitude which forces open the Door into the Holy Place." I use these old phrases here because they express concisely what it would take many pages to elucidate and because they have that note of esoteric stimulation which awakens, in the disciple, the power of abstract thought.

In connection with the horoscope of the Leo subject and the theme of initiation, I would point out that when the Sun, the Moon (hiding a planet) and Saturn are all combined in a certain house in the horoscope you have what is called the "sign" of the man who is to take initiation. Leo, being the fifth sign of the zodiac, counting from Aries via Taurus, and also the eighth sign, counting from Aries via Pisces, is closely connected through numerical affinity with Mercury, who is esoterically called "the Messenger at the eighth gate"; Mercury was active at the time of individualisation when the "eighth gate" was opened and a major initiation of our planetary Logos took place, producing, in the human kingdom, the process of individualisation.

From another angle, as might be anticipated, Leo is related to Scorpio, whose numbers upon the zodiacal wheel are the same as those of Leo, being five and eight. You have, therefore, the formation of the triangle to which I earlier referred: Leo-Scorpio, leading to initiation in Capricorn.

As we are upon the subject, one other point might be touched upon here. August, which is ruled by Leo, is the month of the Dog-star, or of Sirius, which thus brings Sirius into close relation to Leo. Leo, in the cosmic sense (and apart from our solar system altogether) is ruled by Sirius. Sirius is the home of that greater Lodge to which our fifth initiation admits a man and to which it brings him, as a humble disciple. Later, when the new world religion is founded and is working, we shall find that the major, monthly festival in August, held at the time of the full moon, will be dedicated to the task of making contact, via the Hierarchy, with Sirian force. Each of the months of the year will later be dedicated (through accurate astrological and astronomical knowledge) to whichever constellation in the heavens governs a particular month, as Sirius governs Leo. This I shall later elaborate in the papers to be written anent the new "Approaches" to spiritual reality.

Mercury again comes, at this point, into our discussion, and you thus have the formation of an esoteric quaternary, affecting powerfully the major quaternary of man—spirit, soul, mind and brain. This energy brings about an inter-relation and an inner awakening which prepares the aspirant for initiation. This higher quaternary is Sirius-Leo-Mercury-Saturn. You have, therefore:

The above tabulation gives you the clue to the basic reality and necessity of meditation as practised by the disciple and the initiate. This may not be apparent to you at first sight and I may not further expand these suggestions, but the directed reflection of the illumined mind may bring insight to you in time.

The influence of Sirius is not consciously felt until after the third initiation when the true nature of the spirit aspect begins to dawn upon the liberated, intuitive perception of the initiate. For the advanced initiate in this sign, and after the third initiation, Sirius becomes a major life factor. He begins to respond to its vibration because he now rules the Sun and the Moon and is controlling those two planets, for that is what the Sun and the Moon have become to him—simply planets to be ruled. This is a great mystery and I simply state the fact. Sirius, Leo, the Sun, the Moon and Mercury are now the influences with which the initiate is concerned. The influences of Sirius, three in number, are focussed in Regulus, which is, as you know, a star of the first magnitude and which is frequently called "the heart of the Lion." There is more real occultism hidden in the names given to the various stars by astronomers down the ages than has yet been realised, and here you have a case in point.

It will be apparent to you (given a little thought) that the Sun, as it veils Neptune, produces a potent effect upon the personality, symbolised for us here by the astral body, whilst Uranus (which is also veiled by the Sun) symbolises the effect of the soul upon the personality. Hence the activity of the seventh ray, which is—from one angle—the lowest aspect of the first ray. Hence you have also the underlying idea of:

1. The awakening of the personality to soul control and contact, with a true expression eventually, in the three worlds, of soul-will, desire and intent.

2. The awakening of the seventh centre, the centre at the base of the spine, by the soul working through the first or highest head centre and producing (as a consequence) the surging upwards of the kundalini fire. This, in its turn, produces fusion with the higher forces. When this takes place the three major centres in the body are:

Several major triangles of force were active when individualisation took place and the "Lions, the divine and tawny orange Flames" came into being and thus humanity arrived upon the planet. I would touch here briefly upon one triangle: The Sun (second ray), Jupiter (second ray) and Venus (fifth ray). It will be apparent to you that we here have another sphere of influence of major importance, governed by Leo. It is a triangle to which H.P.B. refers in The Secret Doctrine, the influence of which she was endeavouring to elucidate. So potent was the influence of this triangle that its effect upon the Moon was to denude her of life by drawing out all the "seeds of life," thus destroying her influence, for it was undesirable where humanity was concerned.

Through Uranus, Leo is related to three other signs of the zodiac: Aries, Libra and Aquarius, and these three constellations, with Leo, form what has been called "the subjective quaternary of the reincarnating soul" because they are related to the permanent atoms which persist from life to life and which form—during the cycle of reincarnation—the repositories or the storing houses of the experiences undergone during life in the three worlds.

1. Aries—is connected with soul intention, the vibratory activity of which (under impulse from the Monad) initiates the successive involutionary periods which produce appearance upon the physical plane.

2. Libra—is related to the mental unit and, as we saw when studying the sign Libra, produces eventually a balance between the pairs of opposites. This is brought about upon the astral plane. It is the attainment of this balance which produces the reversal of the mode of passing around the zodiacal wheel and it takes place when integration has occurred, and the man is focussed upon the mental plane. He can, then, through right use of the mind, discriminate between the pairs of opposites and find the narrow razor-edged path which passes between them and keep his balance upon it.

3. Leo—is connected with the astral permanent atom, for the reason that desire or the power to go forth and occultly touch that which is desired is the basis of all sense of awareness or responsiveness and the underlying cause of progress or evolutionary movement forward; it is the keynote of the man who has achieved that true "self-centred" attitude which makes him an individual. Later, as responsiveness grows and the world of small affairs is converted into the world of ever larger values and reality, the desires change into aspiration and finally into spiritual will, purpose and intent.

4. Aquarius—is eventually connected with the physical permanent atom which is, as you know, upon the etheric level. It is this individual web which is the medium of relationship to the whole. The universal consciousness of Aquarius becomes expressive just in so far as the individual etheric body is in conscious relation with the etheric body of humanity, the solar system and—of course—the planet.

I would here point out that the term "permanent atom" is essentially symbolic and that what we call the permanent atom is in reality only a unit of energy within the sphere of influence of the soul ray which can at any time "pick it up". In these atoms the past memory of the personal self is stored; these are in the nature of "memory cells" and are the repositories of past experience, of gained quality, and of the particular note which the body of which it is the nucleus has achieved. They are material in nature, are connected only with the form aspect, and are imbued with as much of the quality of consciousness as the soul has succeeded in developing in the three worlds.

Aries begins the process and is the "initiator of the process which leads to progress" and—at the end of the age (as it is now at the final or seventh initiation)—the Initiator of the Mysteries will work under instructions and with energies which emanate from the Lord of the Constellation Aries. In the last analysis and esoterically speaking, fire is the great liberator and Aries is the leading fire sign which will eventually "fuse the beginning and the end, blend the opposites and dispel both time and space." At present, the Initiator of the Mysteries acts under inspiration and with energies emanating from Capricorn—an earth sign—because humanity is, as yet, earth-bound. The forces of initiation produce their major effects upon the physical plane, for it is there that the initiate has to demonstrate his liberation, his understanding and his divinity.

Because of its position upon the Fixed Cross, Leo comes under the influence, direct or indirect, of six planets: The Sun; Neptune; Uranus; Jupiter; Venus; Mars. All of these are potent in expression in this sign, achieving a determined point of revelation and producing, through their united activity and interplay, the six-pointed star of humanity. They condition the man's consciousness but not events, except in so far as his consciousness assumes control at a certain point in his evolution. Connected with the esoteric science of astrology are subsidiary sciences, such as the Science of Triangles, to which I have frequently referred; there is also the Science of Relationship, which concerns the relations between the many quaternaries which can be discovered in the planetary interrelation, the relation between four constellations, plus many human and divine quaternaries. There is again the Science of Stars of Energy, such as I have here noted when referring to the six-pointed star of humanity, and of this Science King Solomon's Seal is the well known symbol. These stars, triangles and squares are found in all horoscopes—human, planetary, systemic and cosmic—and constitute the life pattern of the particular Being under investigation; they determine the time of manifestation and the nature of the emanations and influences.

The squares or quaternaries relate to material appearance or form expression; the stars concern the states of consciousness, and the triangles are related to spirit and to synthesis. In the archives of the esoteric astrologers connected with the Hierarchy, charts are kept of those members of the human family who have achieved adeptship and upwards. They are composed of superimposed squares, stars and triangles, contained within the zodiacal wheel and mounted upon the symbol of the Cardinal Cross. The squares, having each of their four angles and points in one or other of four zodiacal constellations, are depicted in black; the five-pointed star is depicted yellow or golden colour and its five points are in contact with five of the constellations on the great wheel; the triangles are in blue and have, above each point of the triangle, an esoteric symbol, standing for the constellations of the Great Bear, Sirius and the Pleiades.

These symbols may not here be revealed but indicate the point of spiritual consciousness achieved and the responsiveness of the initiate to these major cosmic influences. A glance at these geometrical charts will indicate in a moment the status of the initiate, and also the point towards which he is striving. These charts are fourth dimensional in nature and not flat surfaces as are our charts. This is an interesting piece of information but of no value, except in so far that it indicates synthesis, the fusion of spirit, soul and body, and the point of development. It proves also the fact that "God geometrises" where the soul is concerned. These charts are most interesting.

The peculiar significance of Leo in the general evolution of consciousness, particularly in the human family, is determined by the control of those two mysterious planets, Uranus and Neptune; in the man who is ready for initiation you have, therefore, a dual control, i.e., the Sun itself and also the Sun as it veils the influences of these two planets, or rather, as it focusses and transmits them with intensity. This produces the following developments:

1. The Sun: Full self-consciousness. This—through the influence of the physical Sun and the "heart of the Sun"—produces awareness of the relation of the higher self and the lower self. Man becomes aware of his essential duality.

2. Uranus: Occult consciousness or that intelligent, fusing condition which produces the scientific at-one-ment of the two factors, higher and lower self, through the intelligent use of the mind.

3. Neptune: Mystical consciousness or that innate sensitivity which leads unerringly to the higher vision, to the recognition of the inter-relation involved in man's essential duality during the process of manifestation, plus the activity of the mediator.

You have, therefore, the conscious, integrated Self, functioning with full occult knowledge and also with mystical perception when the influences of Leo, focussed through the Sun, Uranus and Neptune, have been carried adequately forward in the life of the advanced disciple. This is one of the reasons why Leo is a sign of such paramount importance and why the intelligent Leo subject can usually attain his goal, once he accurately perceives that objective.

This sign has frequently been described as the "battlefield of the Forces of Materialism and the Forces of Light." It is occultly regarded as one of the most material signs, in-as-much as selfish desire for possession of material objectives can be peculiarly present and the display of the possessive spirit can violently control; yet, at the same time, the advanced Leo person can function as the "inspired spiritual Sacrifice." He is then sensitive to world conditions and freed from personal desires.

Before individual man can achieve initiation, he must be fully self-conscious, mystically oriented and occultly developed. He must be aware of himself as he essentially is—a soul involved in form which is itself developed and unfolded through soul activity; he must be a developed mystic, capable of pure vision, motivated by spiritual intent and able to perceive the uses of inherent sensitivity; he must also be a trained occultist, mentally polarised and profoundly aware of the realities, forces and energies of existence and, therefore, free from the ordinary glamours and illusions which colour the reactions and life of the average man. He is then governed by the physical Sun, motivated by the energies pouring from "the heart of the Sun" (via Neptune) and bringing about at-one-ment through the forces which are reaching him (via Uranus).

Beyond these two distant planets, lies another planet as yet undiscovered, though speculation is rife about it, owing to certain unexplained movements of the planet Neptune. It is through this planet that the Forces (as they are related to Leo and Aquarius) are focussed in one potent stream of force; these pour into our planetary life during the month of August, and distribute themselves, via Uranus and Neptune.

I would here call to your attention that, through these directing planets, the following rays are controlling factors in the chart of the Leo subject:

1. The Sun—2nd ray—love-wisdom.
2. Uranus—7th ray—organisation or directed manifestation.
3. Neptune—6th ray—idealistic one-pointedness. Devotion to an objective.

In the perfected Leo, the loving self-conscious soul (2nd ray) carries its power of expression straight through from its own plane to the plane of exterior manifestation, but preserves at the same time its interior control (Uranus) and from that point of achievement, proceeds to make its ideal objective (Neptune) a fact in consciousness, through sensitivity to the higher vibration and directed intelligent service of the Plan.  

When Uranus controls, the Leo person is significantly the true observer, detached from the material side of life, but utilising it as he pleases. His spiritual consciousness is capable of great expression and he can be (as has oft been pointed out by astrologers) both an electric, dynamic leader, a pioneer in new fields of endeavour and also a magnetic centre of a group whether the group is small, as in a home, or vast as in a nation. He is then polarised above the diaphragm, for the lower more material aspects of life have really no great appeal to him; he is then profoundly conscious of his own identity, and this makes him dwell definitely in a state of self-awareness, with its consequently abstracting powers. He is instantly aware, once he is spiritually awakened, of his motivating impulses, and this leads him to an imposed self-discipline—the thing the Leo subject sorely needs and which must always be self-imposed and self-applied for he brooks no disciplinary measures which others may seek to impose.

Discipline imposed by people upon the Leo person leads invariably to revolt and rebellion and the expression of that which the discipline is intended to eradicate. Discipline imposed by himself leads to the perfection of which he is notably capable. It is this innate ability to control which frequently gives the Leo subject an apparently negative attitude to life; he inevitably believes that his destiny is determined and that all that he has to do is simply to be; he refuses often then to change or to take action, and when this is carried too far it leads to an unexpectedly futile life.

The "lion must emerge from its lair," and this injunction is badly needed by Leo aspirants. It will, when followed, lead the self-centred Leo consciousness into the decentralised, selfless Aquarian awareness. It will alter the self-service of Leo into the group service of its polar opposite, Aquarius. It might appropriately be added here that the prayer or voiced aspiration of the true Leo person can be expressed in the words of Christ, so well known to all of us: "Father, not my will but thine be done."

I would also call your attention to another interesting fact in connection with this sign. No planet falls in Leo and no planet is exalted in this sign, whilst the power of both Uranus and Saturn is somewhat lessened, except in the case of the initiate who responds powerfully to the esoteric influence of Uranus. The same basic teaching is here conveyed as was taught by the Sun ruling exoterically, esoterically and hierarchically.

Leo in its consciousness is the dominant self-aware agent and has therefore the control and can—because of this—remain uninfluenced. This fact will be increasingly understood as the advanced Leo subject makes his appearance. He will be distinguished by his personal freedom from outside control. He knows innately that he is king of himself, the ruler of his own life and, therefore, no planet is exalted and likewise no planet falls. The power of the mind, as symbolised by Uranus, is lessened, for it is not the mind which in reality controls but the Self, or Soul, using and controlling the mind. The man is not then conditioned by his surroundings or life events but rules them with deliberation, bringing out of circumstances and environment that which he requires. Saturn, therefore, the Lord of Karma, has his power lessened in this sign. It is for this reason that Sepharial is incorrect when he gives Saturn as the ruler of the first decanate. The three decanates are given by him as being ruled by Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. Alan Leo is, however, nearer the truth when he gives us the Sun, Jupiter and Mars.

Self-rule through initial conflict, carried to a successful issue and blessed by the beneficence of Jupiter, is the true history of the advanced Leo aspirant, and this thought and the objective result of this realisation is summed up for us in the two word mottoes of this sign:

1. And the Word said: Let other forms exist. I rule because I am.

        I Am:  The Word of the self-conscious, selfish, individual Leo.

2. I am That and That am I.

I Am That:  The Word of the Leo subject who is rapidly gaining the higher consciousness and

        preparing for fresh and universal expression in Aquarius.

CANCER, THE CRAB

This sign is not an easy one for the average student to understand for it is the polar opposite—psychologically speaking—of the state of group consciousness towards which humanity is, at this time, tending. It is difficult for the casual student to distinguish accurately between mass consciousness and group consciousness. Human beings stand today at a midway point, generally speaking, between these two states of mind, though perhaps it might be more correct to say that a fairly large minority are becoming group conscious, whilst the majority are emerging out of the mass conscious stage and becoming self-conscious individuals. This accounts for much of the present world difficulty and for the clash of idealisms. The two groups bring a different approach to the world problems as we now find them. We have, therefore, three signs which (from the angle of consciousness) are closely connected yet are widely separate and different in effect.

1. Cancer: mass consciousness—instinctual awareness.
2. Leo: self consciousness—intelligent awareness.
3. Aquarius: group consciousness—intuitional awareness.

This sign is, as you already know, one of the two gates of the zodiac because through it souls pass into outer manifestation and to the appropriation of form, and subsequent identification with it for many long cycles. It is "the gate which stands wide open, broad and easy to pass through and yet it leads unto the place of death and to that long imprisonment which precedes the final revolt." It is allied with material nature, and with the mother of forms, just as the other gate, Capricorn, is allied with spirit, the father of all that IS.

In this sign lies hid the whole problem of the Law of Rebirth. Reincarnation is implicit in the manifested universe and is a basic and fundamental theme underlying systemic pulsation. There are certain things which I would like to make clear in connection with reincarnation.

This sign, Cancer, being concerned primarily with the world of causes, has about its inner meaning much indefiniteness and an apparently vague subtlety which proves most elusive to the ordinary thinker. This also is true of all the signs which go to the forming of the Cardinal Cross of the Heavens. In the last analysis, it is only the initiated disciple who can fathom the true meaning of these zodiacal influences as they pulsate throughout the manifested universe, because they are primarily the expression of spirit or life more than of soul or body. Therefore, until after the third initiation—as you have oft been told—there is little to be known or said about that "mysterious essence which is divinity in motion."

When you, for instance, read that the keynotes of this sign can be expressed in the Biblical phrase "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" does it, in reality, mean anything specific to you? You might reply by saying that it means, God moved in substance and produced by moving the outer tangible forms. But does that truly convey to you an intelligible truth? In Cancer, God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. In these words, you have established the relation which exists in the mind of God between spirit (the breath of life) the soul (consciousness) and man (the form). However, does that statement convey an intelligible concept to your mind? I think not, because the synthesis of the final relation is beyond the average grasp and its `linking' or essential unity (lying as it does outside of consciousness and known reality) takes place first of all in this sign—one of the most ancient of the signs and one of the first to be recognised and established as an influencing factor by ancient humanity.

I state a basic truth—vaguely acknowledged by you—that in Aries the essential substance of manifestation awoke to renewed activity under the impact of divine desire, impelled by the divine Breath, by divine Life or Spirit.

In Cancer this living substance assumed a triple differentiated relationship to which we give the names of Life (Aries) of Consciousness (Taurus, the next sign to Aries) and manifested duality (Gemini, the sign preceding Cancer) and these three, blended together, came into outer manifestation in Cancer, thus completing an esoteric quaternary of great importance. Here the first major fusion, inchoate and unrealised, took place. In Libra, these reach a point of balance and of a somewhat static equilibrium (later to be disturbed in Scorpio), so that this essential triplicity appears clearly in relation to each other. In Capricorn, the sign of initiation, this basic triplicity begins to return to the earlier state of the "breath of spirit" but, this time, with full awareness and properly fulfilled organisation, so that form is a perfect expression of the soul and the soul is sensitive and responsive to the pulsations of the One Life, as that Life reveals, through its activity, the perfect will of the Logos.

The secret (so-called) of the Cardinal Cross is the secret of Life itself, just as that of the Fixed Cross is that of the soul or the mystery of self-conscious entity, whilst the Mutable Cross holds hid the mystery of form. In these words, you have the key to the secret of manifestation as a whole and to that mystery which was revealed to Christ at the final crucifixion and to which He testified His understanding reaction in the triumphant utterance recorded in The New Testament: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me." He then left the Fixed Cross and the Identity which has hitherto been His and identified Himself with that which was then revealed.

To these words, thus translated somewhat inaccurately in the Christian Bible, there are three meanings or true significances. The translation hinted at in The Secret Doctrine (S.D. II. 613), "The robe, the robe, the beautiful robe of my strength no longer serves" expresses the inner revelation of the Mutable Cross, as it was revealed to the Saviour, looking at life from the angle of the soul. In the words quoted above "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me," the mystery of the Fixed Cross was shown to Him and the secret of the Cardinal Cross was, for the first time, held before His eyes. The words, embodying that central mystery, have never yet been given out. One of the factors which distinguished the Christ from all preceding world Saviours was the fact that He was the first of our humanity Who, having achieved divinity (and this many have done), was permitted to see the "golden thread of light and of living life which links the light within the centre of all the manifested Crosses"; He was allowed to know the meaning of life as it expressed itself in the Cosmic Crucifixion, which is an episode of cosmic life and not of death, as is generally supposed.

Hercules comprehended the true meaning of the Mutable Cross and, with full knowledge, mounted the Fixed Cross, with all its attendant difficulties and labours. The Buddha comprehended, through complete illumination, the meaning of both the Mutable and the Fixed Crosses, for the secret of revelation in Taurus was His, just as the secret of directed energy in Scorpio was the source of the strength of Hercules. But the Christ, knowing both the above secrets, also understood with a living comprehension, the mystery of the Cardinal Cross, because the light of the Transfiguration (undergone in Capricorn) revealed to Him the glory and transcendent mystery.

There are two words also which convey the purpose and intent of expression upon the Cardinal Cross. They give the reason why the two "Doors of the Zodiac" open wide to the impulse and demand of the divine Spirit. One is the word "self-preservation" which leads to the impulse to incarnate in Cancer, which is the Door to the physical plane expression of spirit. This impulse (when the form is the prime object of the attention of the soul and that with which it primarily identifies itself) brings about the stage of static concretion in the earth sign Capricorn. The other word is "immortality" which is the divine aspect of self-preservation; it is the major conditioning factor in the creative process and leads to the whole revelation of evolution, to the recurrent appearance of life in form, and to the revelation of life in form. In Capricorn, at the third initiation, this life aspect assumes primary importance.

You will see, therefore, why the Cardinal Cross is so mysterious; also why both Cancer and Capricorn are so little understood by modern astrology and why, in the last analysis, only the initiated Sons of God can grasp the significance of the four signs which comprise the Cardinal Cross, or understand the relation which exists between the four major divine energies which—pouring through the four arms of this Cross—produce the vortex of force (a synthetic force) which constitutes that "pool of pure, fiery light" through which all those who take the higher initiations must eventually pass.

Those taking the first two initiations must tread the Path as it passes through the Burning Ground. Those taking the higher initiations have to plunge into the sea or pool of fire which is essentially the fire of God as it has been cleansed from every aspect of the material form through the complete purification of desire.

Cancer is one point of the watery triplicity, and the symbolism which underlies the three water signs is most interesting in one particular direction. You have, as you know, the Crab, the Scorpion and the Fish Goddesses of the sign Pisces. In ancient Lemuria, the symbol of Pisces was a woman with the tail of a fish, and of this symbol the legendary mermaid is the memory. It was only in late Atlantean times (when the conscious sense of duality was becoming present in the minds of the advanced humanity of the period) that the woman part of the symbol was dropped altogether and the two linked fishes took the place of the fish Goddesses.

You have, therefore, the Crab, the Scorpion with the sting in its tail and the Fish. The slow moving Crab, identified with its dwelling place and carrying its house upon its back, lives upon the land (physical plane life) and also in the sea (the life of the emotions); the Scorpion is rapid in movement, deadly in its effect upon men around it and is a creature of the land; it is also the symbol of the transformed Crab and the result of the evolutionary process, and indicates the dangerous nature of the man who is not transformed and is therefore harmful and hurtful to others; the Fishes indicate the man from whom the symbol of materiality has been taken by the removal of half of the original symbol, thus indicating freedom from matter. The three water signs give us, therefore, a brief and symbolic history of man's growth and true personality development. It is a picture of the law of cause and effect.

There is also a significant relationship between five signs which are deeply esoteric in their nature and their effects when swept into this particular interplay. They are only called into activity during the return half of the wheel of life or the "wheel of living action or of conscious undertaking" as it is called in the Old Commentary. This name is given to the wheel as it turns anti-clockwise from Aries to Pisces via Taurus. This fivefold relationship is only established upon the Path of Discipleship and is brought about by the esoteric linking of Cancer-Virgo-Scorpio-Capricorn-Pisces. In the future horoscopes of disciples, this significant interplay of forces will be recognised as dominating the chart at a particular and peculiar stage of discipleship. In this case, disciples will be born in one or other of these signs or with one of other of these signs rising.

You have two signs of water and earth (Cancer and Virgo) in the stage of sub-conscious emphasis wherein everything is latent and hidden. Human consciousness is only embryonic in Cancer, for it is the mass mind which dominates and not the individual mind. In Virgo, the Christ life or consciousness is hidden and the Christ Child is as yet embryonic in the womb of matter and of time, and during this stage, the emphasis is upon the form which veils and hides the reality. The human soul and the divine soul (the essential duality) are there but their presence is not easily detected. In Scorpio comes a point of transition, of change and of re-orientation. That which has been hitherto hidden appears and is brought to the surface by means of the experience, the tests, the trials and the "sting of life." In Capricorn—as a result of the effects of the influences of Cancer, Virgo and Scorpio—the disciple begins to demonstrate the capacity to express the life of two kingdoms, at least in some measure, and is a developed human being and also a citizen of the kingdom of God.

Therefore, for an initiate and for a period of three incarnations, the four signs of revelation (Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio and Capricorn) intensify their effect upon him, until in the fourth incarnation he begins to respond to the inner influence of Pisces. He thus demonstrates his ability to react to the Shamballa influence and, when this influence is established, he goes out to salvage and to save. He acts consciously as a world mediator.

Therefore, it might be stated that:

1. In Cancer, the influence of the human Hierarchy begins to make its presence felt and to include the dualism of man. This emerges clearly in Virgo. Soul and body are closely related and knit together in one form. Man is a conscious personality, and this is a result of the Cancer experience, consummated in Virgo. Such is the way of humanity. The human centre is active.

2. In Scorpio, the influence of the occult Hierarchy begins to set its seal on the human being, and his essential duality is put to the test. This is preparatory to a new and higher unity. He is at the miserable stage of being neither the soul nor the form—the stage of transition. Such is the way of the disciple. The hierarchical centre is affecting him powerfully.

3. In Pisces, the influence of Shamballa claims the initiate as its field of activity and the dualism of soul and spirit emerges instead of that of soul and body which has hitherto been of major importance. The power of the form to hold the soul in captivity has been negated and tests and trials of the initiate up to the third initiation are directed to this end. Such is the way of the initiate.

You will note the interesting fact that you have here nine signs which carry a man from the stage of imprisonment in form to the freedom of the kingdom of God, from the state of embryonic consciousness to the full flower of divine knowledge, from the condition of human awareness to the conscious wisdom of the initiated disciple. These nine signs are strictly expressive of human unfoldment—conscious and superconscious, though beginning with the mass awareness of Cancer.

There are three signs, preceding these, which provide the subtle or subjective realities of the will-to-be (Aries), the desire-to-know (Taurus) and the establishment of relationship (Gemini), and these constitute the triple incentive to the manifestation of man and of the human kingdom. They correspond cosmically to the logoic, the monadic and spiritual planes to which the higher initiate has access or when dealing with the entire concept on a lower turn of the spiral and in connection with ordinary man, they correspond to the mental, the astral and the etheric vehicles of man. They are, therefore, related to the highest and the lowest expression of human life. I have in the above ideas given you several hints of vital importance. One of the symbols of an initiate of a certain degree is that of the five-pointed star with a triangle in the centre; this is a reference to the energy of the watery triangle with which we have just been concerned and to the fivefold linking which has been established in the consciousness of the initiate.

We come now to a consideration of the rulers of this sign and to a study of the planets which act as focal points and as distributing agents for certain cosmic energies. Much has been earlier indicated along this line, and a true understanding of the nature of these impacting energies can only be grasped as we continue with our studies and investigate these signs in the relation which they assume as we study them in connection with other signs, claiming the same planetary rulers. There is one point which I would like to make clear and that is that in the two rulers of this sign—the Moon and Neptune—you have the symbols of a close relationship between the Mother of all Forms and the God of the Waters, that is between the two planets. In this esoteric marriage, you have pictured for humanity a major synthesis of form and of desire-sensitivity and, consequently, a true statement of the stage of consciousness which we call Atlantean. There is much of this today and of this stage, mass sensitivity and mass identification with form and with forms is the significant indication and the outstanding characteristic of Cancer and its subjects.

The Moon, however, relates Cancer to two other signs and these form a cosmic triangle. They are Cancer-Virgo-Aquarius. In this combination, you have the sign of mass-consciousness, the sign of the Christ-consciousness and the sign of universal consciousness very closely related to each other and all of them through the medium of the influence of Neptune, which the Moon veils.

Like Leo, which is ruled in all its three expressions (orthodox, esoteric and hierarchical) by the Sun, Cancer is the only other sign which is ruled by only one planet, though in orthodox astrology, the Moon is substituted for Neptune because it is the form nature which is dominant in the longest stage of human unfoldment, just as esoterically, it is the feeling-sensitive nature which dominates the average man; it is with this stable tendency that the disciple has to wrestle. In the mass mind (of which Cancer is the truest expression), it is fortunate that Neptune is veiled by the Moon and that the form fails to register or step down many of the impacts to which the true man is sensitive. Average humanity is not yet fully equipped to bear the full range of these impacts, to handle them constructively or to transmute them and interpret them accurately.

Upon the Path of Discipleship and along the line of esoteric development, one of the major difficulties and great problems of the disciple is his extreme sensitivity to impacts from every side and his rapid ability to respond to contacts coming from "all points of the compass, from every angle of the zodiacal wheel and from that which is within as well as from that which is without, from that which lies above, below, and upon every hand," as the Old Commentary expresses it. It is also as difficult and hard for the average student of modern times to grasp the mass-consciousness of Cancer as it is for him to grasp the group-awareness or the universal consciousness of Aquarius and to this final development, humanity is hierarchically related by the Moon, veiling Neptune. The average human being is just beginning to grasp the stage of the individual Christ consciousness of Virgo to which he is related by the same planet.

The unveiled Neptune relates Cancer to no other constellation or sign, and this fact is of very great importance, because it indicates the fact that when a man is an initiate, he does not react to ordinary feeling, sentiment or to personality relations as they express themselves in pleasure or pain. All these are surmounted and eventually the watery life of emotional reaction is superseded by the life of true and of inclusive love. Soul control esoterically "obliterates" the Moon and all traces of Neptunian life. The initiate is no longer ruled by the Mother of Forms or by the God of the Waters. When the "waters break and are carried away," the Mother gives birth to the Son and that individual spiritual entity then stands free. I would ask you to ponder upon this point.

These two—the Moon and Neptune—are, therefore, the direct influences which are brought to bear upon the Cancer subject and thus lead to the unfoldment of the form of life and of the emotional-astral body. The supreme usefulness of these aspects will be grasped if you will intelligently realise that without the form and without the ability to bear in mind the need to respond sensitively to the environing conditions and circumstance, the soul would never awaken to knowledge in the three worlds and, therefore, would never know God in manifestation.

Indirectly, and via the influences of the Cardinal Cross (of which Cancer is a part), the Cancerian subject is affected by or influenced by five other planets, which are Mars, Mercury, Uranus, Venus and Saturn. The Cancerian subject becomes responsive to the uses of conflict (Mars), to the functioning of the light of intuition (Mercury) and to the cosmic pull of Uranus, plus the intellect of Venus and the presentation of opportunity (Saturn).

These, however, play subjectively upon the dweller in the form and are not consciously registered as potencies by the individual for many aeons of time and not until the life of the form and the reaction to sensitive emotion-feeling has played an active and an educational part in the awakening of the mind. Once that awakening of desire and its transmutation into the higher aspiration has taken place, then the Virgo influence comes in and the responsive soul—developed by the five indirect influences of the Cardinal Cross—begins its active conscious participation in the drama of life. Thus the direct and the indirect influences of the seven planets play their varied parts in man's unfoldment, and students would find it of interest and of value to relate the effects of these seven planetary forces to the unfolding seven principles of man.

Let us now briefly consider for a few minutes the effect of the ray influences as they focus through the seven planets upon the man born in the sign Cancer. It is here that there will be found certain basic indications as to the nature and the processes of the Law of Rebirth. It would appear that as yet only two rules are posited in connection with the return of an ego to physical incarnation. The first is that if perfection has not been achieved then the soul must return and continue the perfecting process upon the Earth. The second is that the impulse predisposing the ego to such action is some form of unsatisfied desire. Both these statements are true in part and generic in effect but they are only partial truths and incident to larger truths which have not yet been sensed or noted accurately by esotericists; they are secondary in nature and are expressed in terms of the three worlds of human evolution, of personality intent, and of time-space concepts. Basically, it is not desire which prompts return but will and knowledge of the plan.

It is not the need for achieving an ultimate perfection which goads the ego on to experience in form, for the ego is already perfect. The main incentive is sacrifice and service to those lesser lives that are dependent upon the higher inspiration (which the spiritual soul can give) and the determination that they too may attain planetary status equivalent to that of the sacrificing soul. It is in order eventually to negate the space-time concept and to prove it an illusion that the door in Cancer opens to the sacrificing, serving soul. Bear this always in mind as you study the subject of rebirth. In themselves, rebirth and reincarnation are misleading terms and "cyclic impulsion," "intelligent purposeful repetition" and "conscious in-breathing and out-breathing" would describe more accurately this cosmic process. It is, however, difficult for you to grasp this idea, for it necessitates the ability to identify oneself with the One Who thus breathes—the planetary Logos—and the entire theme must therefore remain relatively obscure until initiation has been taken. Esoterically speaking, the point of greatest interest lies in the fact that it is group rebirth which is taking place all the time and that the incarnation of the individual is only incidental to this greater happening. This has been largely ignored or forgotten because of the intense and selfish interest in personal experience and living, evidenced in the speculative details anent individual return given in the current so-called occult books, most of which are largely inaccurate and certainly unimportant.

It will be found that rebirth is, in truth, a magical and magnetic interplay between the form side of life and life itself. This interplay is consciously undertaken by the soul which is the product of the two related factors. The above statement is, in itself, complex and difficult and far from easy to grasp; it however expresses a significant fact which the Old Commentary phrases as follows:

"Those who are demanding to be saved have cried aloud. Their voices penetrate into the formless world and there evoke response. Those who in distant aeons have pledged themselves to save and serve respond. Their cry too rings forth and, ringing, penetrates into the dark and distant places within the worlds of form. And thus a vortex is established and kept alive by that constant dual sound. And then a touch is made and for a space and during time, the two are one—the Saving Souls and the Units to be served. Slowly the vision of the Saving One becomes a light which guides the Crying Ones into the place of light."

I would suggest to investigators that the entire theme of "cyclic impulse" be approached from the angle of the group, forgetting, as this is done, the glamour of the personality impress. The sweep of known history will aid in this, indicating—as it does—the possibility of clarification and the usefulness of classifying and isolating group activity and character down the ages. When the major reincarnating groups are thus distinguished and their work for the fourth kingdom along many lines is more clearly seen then the whole subject will be better understood, evoking the play of the intuition. This demonstrates a second fact of importance, namely that, as yet, it will only be possible to trace the progress of advanced souls in incarnation and not trace, at this time, the cyclic appearing of the unevolved. They are the "material units" which have to be saved by the more advanced. The theme of service and sacrifice runs, unrecognised, through history.

The key to the understanding of these reincarnating, saving factors lies in a coming intuitive ability to recognise the reincarnating groups, as groups and not individuals, through their ray qualities, and it was for this purpose that I gave in Destiny of the Nations a statement as to the rays governing certain nations.

Groups are governed by the astrological signs and by the rays just as individuals are, and these rays affect them, via the ruling planets. I have here opened up to you a very wide field of research and I have indicated a most interesting new form of historical investigation and record. The history of the future will be the history of the evolving plans of God as they work out through the serving groups of egos who will come into physical incarnation under the influence of "divine duality" to carry forward the development of the lives which constitute the form through which divinity is seeking full expression.

The relation of the fourth ray to the fourth kingdom in nature (which is the fourth Creative Hierarchy) is a predetermining influence in all world conflict up to date and is the cause which has produced the history of war and conflict down the ages. The theme of that ray is "Harmony through Conflict" and it is the lower aspect of the ray energy, producing conflict which has hitherto controlled, and is climaxing now through the impetus of the new incoming Shamballa force. As it exhausts itself (and this is rapidly coming about) there will be a shift of direction and force to that major ray, the second Ray of Love-Wisdom, of which the fourth ray is an aspect. This second ray energy is very potently focussed through the constellation Gemini via the planet, Jupiter. We shall then have the inauguration of a long cycle of beneficent development in which the conflict essential to the interplay between the dualities will be stabilised upon the mental plane and—under the influence of the salvaging, serving egos of the fifth kingdom—entirely change world civilisation.

It is valuable also to remember that in the studying of the ray forces and their effects in Cancer, we must do so from the angle of the mass mind and the mass reaction and not from that of the individual. This is one of the signs of synthesis and of a relative fusion, but it is a fusion on the lower level of the spiral and connotes the fusion of the physical body and the soul but only in the embryonic stage and with the psychic stage still unindividualised. It is the stage of mass reaction to the incoming of the Sons of Light.

The entire theme of the zodiac can be approached from the angle of light and its unfolding and increasing radiance and of the gradual demonstration in what I have called elsewhere, "the glory of the One."

The mode of the development of this inner light and of its externalisation must remain—from the standpoint of its cosmic effects—one of the secrets of initiation and this for a long time to come. It will, however, not be out of place if I were to give symbolically certain phrases and sentences which will indicate (for each sign ) this "growth of light in light," as it is esoterically called, bearing in mind that we are attempting to express conditions connected with the soul whose essential nature is light.

This soul-light affects the form as evolution proceeds and produces sequentially the revelation of that form, and of the nature of space-time as well as of the goal.

1. Aries:  The Light of Life Itself. This is the dim point of light found at the centre of the cycle of manifestation, faint and flickering. It is the "searchlight of the Logos, seeking that which can be used" for divine expression.

2. Taurus:  The penetrating Light of the Path. This is a beam of light, streaming forth from the point in Aries, and revealing the area of light control.

3. Gemini:  The Light of Interplay. This is a line of light beams, revealing that which opposes or the basic duality of manifestation, the relationship of spirit and of form. It is the conscious light of that relationship.

4. Cancer:  The Light within the form. This is the diffused light of substance itself, the "dark light" of matter, referred to in The Secret Doctrine. It is the light awaiting the stimulation coming from the soul light.

5. Leo:  The Light of the Soul. A reflected point of light logoic, or divine. The light diffused in Cancer                         focusses and reveals eventually a point.

6. Virgo:  The blended dual Light. Two lights are seen—bright and strong, the light of form; one faint and dim, the light of God. This light is distinguished by a waxing of one and the waning of the other. It differs from the light in Gemini.

7. Libra:  The Light that moves to rest. This is the light that oscillates until a point of balance is achieved. It is the light which is distinguished by a moving up and down.

8. Scorpio:  The Light of Day. This is the place where three lights meet—the light of form, the light of soul, and the light of life. They meet; they blend; they rise.

9. Sagittarius:  A beam of directed, focussed Light. In this the point of light becomes the beam, revealing a greater light ahead and illumining the way to the centre of the light.

10. Capricorn:  The Light of Initiation. This is the light which clears the way to the mountain top, and produces transfiguration, thus revealing the rising sun.

11. Aquarius:  The Light that shines on Earth, across the sea. This is the light which ever shines within the dark and cleansing with its healing rays that which must be purified until the dark has gone.

12. Pisces:  The Light of the World. This is the light, revealing the light of life itself. It ends for ever the darkness of matter.

A study of the above thoughts will reveal the symbolic story of the irradiation of matter, of the growth of the light body within the macrocosm and the microcosm, and finally make clear the purpose of the Logos.

It is because—speaking in parables—the light of Cancer is only diffused, vague and inchoate that the influences of the first Ray of Focussed Intention and of purposeful Will and of the second Ray of Love-Wisdom (recognised duality and gained experience) are found to be missing. Their influences are not present, except in so far that love and purpose underlie all manifestation. But they are not focussed in this sign. Only five rays play through this constellation which even at a relatively high point of development and upon the returning wheel preserves ever the mass relationship for the benefit of the incarnating individual and in order to guarantee the ultimate salvation of substance itself.

Human beings, without initiated vision, are apt to interpret all the signs and their effects in terms of individual man, whereas the purpose of their coordinated influence is both planetary, solar and cosmic. The initiate who has taken the three lower initiations is occupied henceforth with the effects of the cosmic influences upon the planet and incidentally upon the fourth kingdom in nature and with the higher mental study of their effects as they produce basic and fundamental changes in the systemic life which, in its turn, affects our planet, its kingdoms in nature and incidentally human beings.

You can see from this, therefore, that as the evolutionary changes are brought about and as human, planetary and solar consciousness progressively develops, the influences pouring from the constellations, via their intermediaries, the planets, will produce very diverse changes and significant happenings to which man will consciously or unconsciously respond according to his point of development. The response of the individual Cancer subject to the incoming influences and to his environment will be different to those of the disciple or initiate and these again will differ in every sign, thus rounding out human development. Here again is a point which astrologers will have later to take into consideration. I would here like to give you a tabulation which will indicate somewhat the nature of the response of the man during the three stages of his development—undeveloped, advanced and upon the Path—to the various influences to which he is subjected when he enters into physical plane existence through the open door of Cancer, and proceeds then through all the signs.