Esoteric Astrology

by Alice A Bailey

  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 [91] 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 [92] 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.

  [93] 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.”—S.D. I. 80.

  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 [94] 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:

  I. 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 Common Cross.

  5. Life in the three worlds.

  6. The development of personality.

  II. 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.

  III. 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 [95] 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 as
trology, 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.” — Old Commentary

  Through the fiery processes of war and strife, brought to the individual through the influence of the planetary [96] 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 [97] “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 pre-determines 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, [98] 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, [99] 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 [100] 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, thou
gh 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.

  [101] 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.