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Esoteric Astrology - The Nature of Esoteric Astrology - Spiritual Effects of the Zodiacal Constellations
We come now to a consideration of the rulers of this sign and to a study of the planets which act as focal points [321] 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 [322] 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 [323] 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 realize 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 [324] 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.
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