To Netnews Homepage Previous Next Index Table of Contents
The Labors of Hercules - Labor VIII
Applications to Life (Condensation of lecture by Alice Bailey) Scorpio is the labor that from certain angles has engrossed us and will engross us for a long time because, unlike Hercules, we have not triumphed over the hydra. Most of us are occupied with the futile methods first employed by him in this test. This primarily is humanity's problem, but individually we are so profoundly concerned with our own evolution that we forget the larger view. If ever we are going to climb the mountain top in Capricorn we must lose sight of the personality and begin to function as souls. In my highest moments I know theoretically what my attitude and actions should be, but I go muddling along. Why? Because of a fundamental law that everything in nature evolves sequentially, step by step, line upon line, precept upon precept. It might be a devastating experience if I so quickly cleared up my personality that the whole force of my soul could pour in. I would be swept off my feet by the power and light, the omniscience and omnipotence of my soul. I would not know [151] what to do with what I had. That does not mean that all I have to do is sit back and let the law work, rest on my oars and evolution will carry me along until at some time I achieve. It does mean that at this time I am on the battlefield, Kurukshetra, and I am going to deal with this hydra in Scorpio, for it is this labor which is engrossing humanity today. The true Scorpio test never takes place until one is coordinated, until one's mind, emotional nature and physical nature are functioning as a unit. Then the man passes into Scorpio where his equilibrium is upset and desire seems rampant when he had thought he had got rid of it. He is fluidic, and he had thought he was balanced. The mind which he was quite sure was beginning to control his personality does not seem to function. As we study Hercules, we see ourselves. Remember that there are three things the disciple has to do in Scorpio. He has to demonstrate, not to the Hierarchy, not to the onlooker, but to himself, that he has overcome the great illusion; that matter, form, cannot hold him any longer. Hercules has to demonstrate to himself that form is simply a channel of expression whereby he contacts a great field of divine manifestation. From reading some books on religion one might come to the conclusion that form, emotion and mind are all evil, undesirable things, to be got rid of. To my mind, it is fundamental to grasp the thought that if I get rid of physical form I have no means of contacting one divine expression, because God is in my fellow man, in this physical, tangible world in which I live, and if I have no form, none of my five senses, I shut off from myself God in one form. The personality is not to be killed, not be stamped out; it is to be recognized as a triple channel of expression for three divine aspects. All depends upon whether we use that triple personality for selfish or divine ends. The great illusion is the utilization of that personality for selfish ends. To sum up the whole story, in the sign Scorpio, the Self is determined to kill the little self in order to teach it the meaning of resurrection. [152]
To Netnews Homepage Previous Next Index Table of Contents
Last updated Monday, March 2, 1998 © 1998 Netnews Association. All rights reserved.