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Esoteric Astrology - The Nature of Esoteric Astrology - Spiritual Effects of the Zodiacal Constellations
Neptune is as you know, the God of the waters, and the term "water" covers many angles of the esoteric wisdom, such as: The whole concept of matter - universal and itemized. The "waters of substance." The ocean of life. The world of astral glamor and reaction. The astral plane as a whole. The desire and the emotional nature. The world of focused incarnation for the masses. 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. These six signs: Cancer Leo Virgo Capricorn Aquarius Pisces 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 [276] 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, focused 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: [277] "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 [278] 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.
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