Esoteric Astrology

by Alice A Bailey

  Fluidity, recognition of duality, soul control! These are the keynotes of this sign, and should be the keynote of your life, for whether you are in this sign in this life, it has at some time and many times conditioned your experience, and the results are marked in the life of the advanced disciple.

  TAURUS, THE BULL

  We now arrive at the last of the twelve signs which we have been considering and the last of those which affect humanity. It is also the second sign which—after the reorientation preceding discipleship—produces changes and opportunity for the disciple. We come also to the sign which is called “the sign of the major life incentive,” because Taurus is the symbol of desire in all its phases. Whether the subjective man is impelled by desire, or the disciple is driven forth upon the path of return by the urge of aspiration, [371] or whether the initiate is controlled by the will to cooperate with the Plan, he is, nevertheless, being responsive to the most potent manifestation of a little known and understood aspect of divinity, to which we give the inadequate name of the Will of God.

  Will, power, desire, aspiration, ambition, motive, purpose, impulse, incentive, plan—all these are words which attempt to express one of the major underlying attributes and fundamental causes (man scarcely knows which) of manifestation, of the evolutionary processes and of the will-to-be or the will-to-live. The great triplicity of desire—aspiration—direction (will) are only three words which endeavour to describe the progress and bias of man the personality, man the soul, and man the channel for spirit or life. All three point inadequately to the cause of the threefold expression which underlies all events, all progress and all happenings in time and space.

  It was the Buddha who clarified for man the nature of desire and its results, with the unhappy effects which desire produces when persistent and unenlightened. It was the Christ Who taught the transmutation of desire into aspiration which, from the expression given to it in The New Testament, was the effort of the human will (hitherto animated by, or expressed through, desire) to conform itself to the will of God—this without understanding but conformity, in perfect trust and with the inner assurance that the will of God must be all that is good, both in the individual and in the whole.

  Now, as the Shamballa force is beginning to pour into the world, man is seeking another interpretation of God's will which will not involve the hitherto blind acquiescence and unavoidable acceptance of the inscrutable dictates of a potent, inescapable Providence, but which will produce an [372] understanding cooperation with the divine Plan and an enlightened fusion of the individual will with the great, divine will and this for the greater good of the whole. For this desirable attitude there is worldwide preparation going forward in a simple and unobtrusive manner through the gradual fomentation of the will-to-good everywhere and the demand, so universally voiced, that human conditions may be more truly enlightened, more acutely polarised for the benefit of the whole and more definitely subordinated to the innate divine urge for beauty, synthesis and the free expression of the hidden mystery which is to be found at the heart of all forms. It is going forward also through the constant attempt to comprehend and interpret the Plan for humanity, as its broad outlines begin to become apparent to the developing intelligence of man.

  This all indicates a growing responsiveness on man's part to the incoming Shamballa influences and the consequent evocation of the will aspect of man's nature. This must produce undesirable as well as desirable results on account of man's present point of evolution and is, therefore, responsible for much that is taking place in the world today. The trembling response of humanity (through the medium of the most enlightened and sensitive people in each country) to this influence and the corresponding magnetic interplay between the great centre at Shamballa and the human centre is a steadily growing fact, registered and noted by the watching Hierarchy and making certain major changes inevitable and unavoidable. This augurs well for the future in spite of temporary misuse of the forces. Necessarily and simultaneously, this interplay evokes response from the unprepared and the unready and from the wrongly oriented and the selfishly polarised person. This stimulates the will-to-power in the individual and fosters personality integration [373] of the wrong kind and its enforced desires. Thus, through these personalities and their wrong emphasis and teachings, nations also are misled—again temporarily—and the Shamballa force is wrongly employed and directed. The result of this dual effect of the Shamballa force at the present time is the precipitation of that cleansing but terrible process which we call War. This war is the consummation of the conflict between the pairs of opposites and the basic duality of manifestation and is not motivated basically as have been all previous wars. When I refer to this conflict I would remind you that to us (the workers on the inner side) the 1914 conflict and this one are two phases of one condition.

  The war, when held in a steady focus by the Guides of the race and when not permitted to pursue too long and too terrible a course, can most definitely further the ends of evolution by creating situations which foster mental development under spiritual guidance, necessitating clear thought (a thing rare to find), the removal of undesirable conditions by their emergence into prominence and by the consequent removal of their originating sources and also by the definite effects produced upon the emotional body of humanity by corporate suffering and pain. This suffering, deprivation, anxiety and distress can lead to a reversal of human orientation upon the wheel of life, just as it does in the case of the individual aspirant. It can lead to the focussing of all the life tendencies upon a world of truer values and reality and thus inaugurate the new and better civilisation for which we all hope. Looking at the world today if you could but see it as we the teachers on the inner side can see it, you would become aware of such a re-focussing and re-orienting on all sides.

  Again, however, the time element comes in (that brain-conditioned sense of awareness) and the problem with which [374] the Hierarchy is now concerned is to see that the present conflict does not persist unduly long, to awaken all the nations, without exception, to a sense of the dramatic import of the present time and of their right share and their responsibility and thus to engineer a climax wherein the correct world lesson may be learnt; whereby the world may be purified by the elimination of the undesirable elements which hinder the new era and the upspringing of a more spiritual civilisation; and whereby the forces of hate, of cruelty, of materialism and of darkness may be driven back (wherever found) before the sweeping onslaught of the Forces of Light.

  It might be here pointed out that just as the Aquarian Age is coming into manifestation for our planet as a whole, bringing in its wake universal awareness and the new modes of expressing world synthesis, human interests and the world religion, so humanity, the world disciple, is beginning to come under the influence of Taurus. It is this influence which will bring about at this time the reversal of the wheel of life for those in the human family who are ready (and their numbers are now very great). This is happening and the results are inevitable and cannot be evaded. The great question is: Will this Taurian influence, increased as it is by the incoming Shamballa forces, produce the floodlight of illumination of which Taurus is the custodian, or will it simply foment desire, increase selfishness and bring humanity to the “fiery heights of self-interest” instead of to the mountain of vision and initiation?

  This is the situation which confronts the Knowers of the race in their various grades of knowledge and illumination at this time. Neither of these influences—the Taurian or the Aquarian—can be avoided. As you will see when we study the analysis of this sign and come to a consideration of its rulers, Taurus forges the instruments of constructive living

  [375] or of destruction; it forges the chains which bind or creates the key which unlocks the mystery of life; it is this forging process, with its consequent clamour, which is going on at this time in a most potent manner. Vulcan controls the anvil-like processes of time and strikes the blow which shapes the metal into that which is desired, an
d this is true today as never before.

  He it is who is forging the way for the coming Avatar Who will—at the right moment—come forth, embodying in Himself the Will of God which is the divine will-to-good, to peace through understanding, and to right relations between men and between nations.

  The Taurian influence must now be regarded as being of exceeding potency today, particularly from the angle of the subjective spiritual values; it is Taurus which is the ruler and the guiding influence of that which is occurring everywhere.

  I would like here to call your attention to the fact that this sign is a synthetic sign in the sense that it brings expression of an inner urge of some definite nature upon the physical plane. This it does, because its basic quality demonstrates as desire in the mass of men and as will or directed purpose in the disciple or the initiate. It manifests as stubbornness in the average man (and this is literally wilful adherence to personality aims) or as intelligently expressed will—actuated by the impulse of love—in the advanced man. This connotes adherence to soul purpose. People who are Taurians naturally and by natal inclination would do well to consider this statement and thus test all their major determining activities by the question: Is my present attitude, my work or intention actuated by personality desire or am I working and planning directly under soul urge and incentive? This should give the keynote of all Taurian [376] problems. The entire secret of divine purpose and planning is hidden in this sign, owing fundamentally to the relation of the Pleiades to the constellation, the Great Bear, and to our solar system. This constitutes one of the most important triangles in our entire cosmic series of relationships and this importance is also enhanced by the fact that the “eye of the Bull” is the eye of revelation. The underlying goal of the evolutionary process—“the onward rush of the Bull of God,” as it is esoterically called—reveals steadily and without cessation the stupendous and sublime plan of Deity. This is the subject which light reveals.

  There is at this time, owing to the influx of the Shamballa force, the establishing of a peculiar relation or alignment between the constellation, Taurus (with its own specific alignment with the Pleiades and Great Bear) the planet, Pluto, and our Earth. This produces much of the present world difficulty and one which the modern astrologer would do well to consider. It constitutes a major cosmic triangle at this time, conditioning much that is now happening.

  This Shamballa force is that which “fans or intensifies the light by the removal of obstructions and proceeds from far distant places, pouring through the eye of illumination into those spheres of influence upon the sorrowful planet, the Earth, impelling the Bull upon its onward rush.” So speaks the Old Commentary. The import of this is that the energy of will—newly released by Sanat Kumara upon our planet—emanates, via the head centre of the planetary Logos, from the Great Bear; it is stepped down in vibration via one of the Pleiades (hence its influence upon matter and hence also its pronounced Taurian effects upon humanity) and so enters into the solar system. It is there absorbed by that major centre of our planetary life to which we give the name, Shamballa. Its effect is necessarily twofold. It produces in [377] certain nations, races and individuals, a welling up of the self-will or of the will-to-power which is characteristic of the developed lower nature, the personality aspect of integrated selfhood. It produces—though less readily—a stimulation of the will-to-serve the plan as it is grasped by the world aspirants, the world disciples and initiates. Thus are the purposes of Deity materialised.

  Owing to the world glamour, the true purpose and ideal set before our planetary forces by the all-creating Will becomes distorted by many people. They are not polarised in the divine will but are as yet centred in their personalities and hence only the few appreciate the beauty of the intended group life, group purpose and group fusion. Group living tends to the fulfilment of free will in service and a free subordination of the lower will to the higher purpose in group formation. Through the glamour contacted, however, this group activity and life becomes twisted into the imposed will and the concept of the super-state. This produces the imprisonment of the mind and the curtailment of all freedom, all free thought and free will. The man becomes the captive of the man-made state. This gives a clue to much that is happening today and to the headstrong progress of the glamoured peoples, to the stiffening of individuals in their separative, wrong idealisms and to their acceptance of the imposition of a rule of life and an order of living which is imposed upon them by force and which is not the free expression of a free people.

  The same force, secondly, brings to other peoples and individuals a measure of illumination—an illumination which reveals the underlying synthesis, which indicates the dualism which must finally vanish and which indicates also the secret of right human relations. One reaction produces the onward rush of the materialistic systems of life, thought and desire, [378] dashing blindly forward in the force of their own momentum and producing a stage of powerful expression and active movement; the other demonstrates in a far vision of possibility and a steady movement forward in spite of the immediate dangers and difficulties.

  The Bull, therefore, in expression is dual. Today we see the wilful dash of the lower nature of humanity, embodied in the forces of aggression, and the purposeful progress of those people and peoples who seek, even if without full understanding, to work out the plans of God, proceeding in spite of each other. That is as far as the evolutionary processes have yet taken humanity and hence the critical situation now to be found. The question is: Will the Bull of desire or the Bull of divine illumined expression succeed?

  This sign is an earth sign and hence the working out of the Plan or the fulfilment of desire must be carried out upon the outer plane of living. This will or desire must express itself in the plane of outer living and in the environment whether it is the environment of an individual man, of a nation or of a group of nations.

  As you know, astrologers have long pointed out that this sign concerns the physical body among other factors, and the health or wholeness of the body is closely connected with the expression of past desire or of present idealism and this is a point to be borne in mind. Today, the cure or care of the physical body is of paramount importance to practically everybody and the thoughts of all peoples without exception, whether at war or not, are turned that way. The emphasis upon the wholeness of the individual physical life is symbolic of the outer body of humanity, viewing all human beings as a unit.

  Again, gold is the symbol which today governs man's desires whether national, economic or religious; it is connected [379] with this sign and this is one of the indications that today the conflict in the world economic situation is based upon the upwelling of desire. In an esoteric way, therefore—quoting from a very ancient book of prophecy:

  “The golden eye of Taurus points the way to those who likewise see. That which is gold will some day, too, respond, passing from East to West in that dire time when the urge to gather gold shall rule the lower half (i.e., the personality aspect of men and of nations—A.A.B.). The search for gold, the search for golden light divine, directs the Bull of Life, the Bull of Form. These two must meet; and meeting, clash. Thus vanishes the gold....”

  The earthly triplicity of Capricorn, Virgo and Taurus form a triangle of material expression which is of profound interest as one studies it either from the angle of the ordinary round of the zodiac, followed by average and undeveloped humanity, or from the angle of the disciple wherein the path of zodiacal progress is reversed.

  In the first case, Capricorn marks the point of greatest density and concrete expression and shows the life divine as deeply imbedded in substance. This is the true state of death as far as the life is concerned; it is captivity in form. In Virgo, however, that life makes its inner pressure felt and the movement—faint yet real—of the hidden life begins to pulsate within the concrete form, producing in Taurus that reaction to desire and that onward rush and powerful movement which distinguishes the evolutionary progress of the individual, wor
king under the impulse of desire. Forget not, that the first thrill or response of the Christ life is to the pull, urge or suggestion of the form nature wherein it finds [380] itself. Then later, when all the resources of the form nature (drawn out through desire), are exhausted and the Christ life is exceedingly strong and ready to reveal itself through the death of the Mother, the form, then and not till then is the progress of the wheel arrested and “revolution” takes place with the life aspect reversing itself upon the wheel. Then the disciple (an expression of the Christ life in its early manifested stages), having transmuted desire into aspiration, begins his career—objectively and in full consciousness—in the sign Taurus and “on the wings of aspiration” proceeds towards Virgo and “being both the Mother and the Child enters into the House of Labour.” From that house, the disciple in due time arrives at Capricorn where he finally subdues matter, form or concrete expression to divine uses and purposes, and thus demonstrates the triumph and the potency of the Christ life.

  The secret of the Triangles or triplicities in their fourfold expression is as yet an unexplored aspect of astrological research and one with which we will later concern ourselves.

  This sign Taurus is, therefore, the eleventh sign upon the ordinary wheel of exoteric emphasis and life, preceding each new cycle of incarnated expression. As the individual descends into incarnation and when he takes an astral shell, he definitely comes into a Taurian cycle, for it is desire which impels to rebirth and it takes the potency of Taurus to bring this about. As this subject concerns the astrology of the astral vehicle we will not deal with it further for that is a phase of research for which humanity is not yet ready.

  This sign is also the second subjective sign on the reversed wheel, preparatory to the conscious recognition of the right relation of the dualities in Gemini. Ponder on this. In this sign we have consequently the following qualities or aspects in juxtaposition: [381]