Esoteric Astrology

by Alice A Bailey

  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 [113] 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 above 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, [114] 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.

  Two other points might here be touched upon, and for their understanding you will have to accept my statements as temporary hypotheses at least, for you are in no position to know them as truth for yourselves. 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

  [115] 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.

  [116] 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 [117] 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 [118] 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 [119] 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 [120] 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, therefore, 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 [121] 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 [122] 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 [123] 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.