Esoteric Astrology

by Alice A Bailey

  There are, therefore, great Triangles of energy which affect the mental response apparatus of humanity and to the above triangle which concerns the unfoldment of the mind, two others can be added:

  I. 1. Taurus . . . . Desire . . . . . . . . . . . the incentive to evolutionary unfoldment in the human kingdom.

  2. Scorpio . . . Aspiration . . . . . . . the key to the testing of the disciple.

  3. Capricorn . . Illumination . . . . . . the liberation of the initiate.

  II. 1. Sagittarius . Direction . . . . . . . . expression of the intuition.

  2. Cancer . . . . Incarnation . . . . . . . experience of realisation.

  3. Leo . . . . . . . Self-consciousness . mode of development.

  There are other major triangles which are called “triangles in consciousness” and, as you well know, the most important of these for mankind is the triangle of Cancer, Leo and Aquarius. They are important at this time because the influences pouring through these three are basically responsible for the growth of the human understanding and the unfoldment not only of man’s response apparatus, the [496] form nature, but also of his expanding perception of that which is contacted. This threefold process under these three constellations produces finally the identification with that which is perceived to be the divine essence, underlying form. This identification with that which is the subjective and real Self and the consequent withdrawing from that which is the not-Self is the keynote of the fourth initiation.

  From the mass awareness in Cancer, the man becomes an individual in Leo and the slow unintelligent sub-consciousness of the herd becomes the self-awareness of the developed man in Leo. Instinctual reaction gives place to conscious, intellectual activity. This dual activity in turn gives place to the group awareness which is the gift conferred by Aquarian activity; the super-conscious divine man then transcends his limited self-consciousness and the intuition supersedes the intellect.

  At this stage in the unfoldment of the human consciousness, there is little that I can say further anent the Science of Triangles. I have hinted at the entire structure of living, moving, focussing and transmitting light triangles which should underlie (and eventually will underlie) the manifested universe. I have pointed out certain relations between the various constellations, the esoteric planets and our Earth. I have shifted the approach of the astrological student away from the world of tangible happenings, precipitated events, and personal characteristics (which are distinctive of exoteric modern astrology) into the world of conditioning energies, controlling incentives, impulses and causes, and have thus laid down the basis of an inner esoteric astrology which must govern this ancient science in the future. I have emphasised in your consciousness, the web of light and energy which is the recipient of zodiacal and other extra-systemic forces and I have pointed to the first [497] dim outline of the astrology of the soul and of the unfolding consciousness of man. I have presented to you some esoteric facts which must for a while at least remain hypotheses and theories to the average astrologer and probably unwelcome ones at that; I have made statements which are of necessity revolutionary in nature and, therefore, disturbing, if not apparently untrue or based on premises which deny all that the modern astrologer has worked out and hitherto held dear. In this connection two of these ideas are basic where the astrology of the soul is concerned:

  1. The reversal of the life of the disciple upon the Wheel of Life, by means of which his progress becomes anti-clockwise.

  2. The influence of the rising sign which is held by the esoteric astrologer to indicate soul possibility and direction, versus the personality opportunity, offered by the nature of the vehicle of response.

  These two ideas are obviously revolutionary and when to them you add the new sets of planetary rulers which I have given you, it is not surprising if you feel the vastness of the astrological theme. This, however, was the first reaction which I hoped to get from you. Astrology must now argue from the universal to the particular because it must in the future deal with soul unfoldment and not with the personality horoscope as hitherto.

  At this point, I would remind you that nothing I have said negates the charting of the personality horoscope as at present done in the case of the average man who is proceeding clockwise around the Wheel of Life. I have but brought into your field of astrological research, the astrology [498] of the human consciousness, of the solar angel, of the son of mind, the spiritual man.

  In the latter part of this century, what I have given to you will be demonstrated to be true; this will happen where disciples, highly developed aspirants and initiates are concerned. The old exoteric astrology will still persist and prove its usefulness where the average man is in question, focussed in his personality life and oriented towards the material world.

  Much progress towards right understanding of astrology will come later when certain new meditations on the twelve signs of the zodiac are made available. When the world again settles down to calmer living and conditions are adjusted to a more stable rhythm, these new meditations can form a potent source of usefulness in “brightening the web of life” and in producing more effective spiritual living among men.

  The problem of all disciples remains the same. This is to live simultaneously the acutely sensitive inner life of the Pilgrim upon the path of life, of a human being in the world of human events; to live the group life of the pledged disciple and the mass life of humanity; to fulfil his own spiritual destiny, through the medium of a controlled personality and, at the same time, to participate fully in the life of humanity upon Earth—this is no easy task.

  We have completed what I felt possible to communicate anent the Science of Triangles—a science which concerns the entire subjective pattern of manifestation and the significance of which is closely inter-related with the Trinity of manifestation. Another name for this science is the Science of Etheric Structure or Substance. That being so, that science deals with life, quality and appearance in the three worlds of divine Purpose and Will and, for that [499] reason, all that I can do in this treatise is to convey to you certain “seed thoughts” which—at some future date—will blossom forth as the basic Science of Relations. This subjective relation will be both vertical and horizontal, particular and universal, specific and general. With the present mental equipment of humanity, all that is possible for man is to grasp certain facts and vaguely sense certain intuitive implications and ideas. Later, he will perceive intuitively the underlying structure of ideas and sense the basic synthesis which life itself contains. Therefore, beyond what I have given you, you cannot go today.

  But the aftermath of the war will change all this. Once there is a measure of nervous release from strain and once the swing of the world movement has again stabilised, humanity will transcend itself. The spiritual values will emerge more clearly, the fact of the inner world will be no longer questioned as man’s increased sensitivity enables him to respond to the higher impression and the inner inspiration; his ability to live the vertical life of the spirit and the horizontal life of relationship will grow with each decade.

  Then the relation of life to form, of spirit to body, of the soul to the personality will demonstrate in the realm of quality, and the quality of the immediate divine aspect, the Christ consciousness, will emerge in a manner undreamt of today by any of you—even the most advanced thinkers. Speculation on your part is useless. Time alone will serve to demonstrate the veracity of the picture I portray and the validity of the inner spiritual structure. This structure has always been present but it has been heavily overlaid by the material desires of mankind. A thick crust (if I may use such a word) of thoughtforms veils and hides the inner realm of beauty and of meaning, of quality and of spiritual consciousness. This crust is being blasted away by the present [500] catastrophic condition in the world. Men will feel at the close of this present war as if nothing had been left them and that they are destitute and denuded of all that made life worth living—so dependent have they become upon the so-called high scale
of living. But these attitudes will serve as stepping stones to a new life and a better and more simple way of living; new values will be released and comprehended among men and new goals will be revealed. And the day will come, in the experience of humanity, when men will look back at the pre-war centuries and wonder at their blindness and be shocked at their selfish and materialistic past. The future will shine with an added glory and, though difficulties and the problems incident to world adjustment and the new relationships between the spiritual man and his material environment will be found, the future will prove itself as the best yet unrolled. Difficulties will be found on all planes up until the last initiation but the destructiveness of the life process will never again be so potent. The reason for this is that humanity is most definitely emerging from the thralldom of matter and in such cases destruction parallels the impact of the descending spirit upon opposing matter. Ponder on this statement.

  CHAPTER IV - The Sacred and Non-Sacred Planets

  [503] There is, as you may imagine, little that I can say on this matter for it concerns one of the great and major mysteries of initiation. It deals with and is related to the spiritual status of the planetary Logoi, those great Beings in Whom all forms of life on all planets live and move and have their being. It is concerned with Their point in evolution, with Their goals and objectives upon the cosmic Path and with the initiation for which They—in Their incomparable and incomprehensible livingness—are preparing.

  Basically it might be said that a planet is regarded as "sacred" when its informing spiritual Life has taken five of the major cosmic initiations and that a "non-sacred" planet is one whose planetary Logos has not taken these initiations. This is an inadequate definition and is only in any way to be understood if you bear in mind that initiation is a process of developing inclusiveness.

  a. Man is becoming inclusive in the planetary sense; the five major initiations which he eventually takes give to him a range of awareness which is infinitely beyond anything of which he can conceive at present. These initiations endow him with the "freedom of the planet." He is then responsive to all states of consciousness within the planetary ring-pass-not, and is becoming sensitive to extra-planetary perception. [504]

  b. The Logos of a non-sacred planet is becoming inclusive in His consciousness to all that is found within the solar ring-pass-not. He is establishing an esoteric "understanding relation" with all that lives within the body of manifestation of a solar Logos and is likewise registering a sensitive response to the quality of the Life which informs the Sun, Sirius. He has taken three cosmic initiations.

  c. The Logos of a sacred planet transcends the knowledges, reactions and responses which are purely those of the solar system, is conscious of or vitally responsive to the life of Sirius and is beginning to respond consciously to the vibratory influences of the Pleiades. You need here to bear in mind in this connection that the Pleiades—though they are regarded as embodying the matter aspect in manifestation—are in reality and literally the expression of that Principle of Life which we call vitality, prana in its various stages or degrees, ether or substance.

  The Logos of a sacred planet has taken five cosmic initiations.

  d. The Logos of a solar system is esoterically called the "Sacred Triangle of all-inclusive Force" because this great Being includes within His focussed awareness the fields of expression of the Great Bear, the Pleiades and Sirius. They are to Him what the heart, the head and the throat centres are to the developed initiate on this planet. He has taken those initiations of which the highest initiate upon our Earth has no faintest conception. Forget not, that I have told you elsewhere that there are divine aspects and divine characteristics which are [505] as yet totally unrevealed even to the most advanced humanity. No human being of a lower degree to that of the third initiation can even faintly sense and dimly react to these underlying factors in the existent divine manifestation. Today, the significance of will and its distinction from determination, strength and fixed intention is only just beginning to be understood. Just as a discussion of the intuition or of the nature of the eternal revelation would be utterly meaningless to the savage in the darkest part of the undeveloped areas of the world, so would a discussion of these unknown divine attributes be equally meaningless to you. All that you can comprehend (and that with the utmost difficulty) is the three divine aspects—will, love and intelligence. There are others, for our Logos is a sevenfold Being and four remaining aspects are as yet unrevealed to humanity, though sensed by the Hierarchy. These are "objectives of esoteric spiritual attention" by the Logoi within the solar ring-pass-not.

  You will see, therefore, that the section of our teaching upon which we are now entering will be necessarily brief, because we shall be dealing with factors which must remain incomprehensible. It is consequently a waste of your time and mine to do more than touch very briefly upon such matters.

  Some understanding of the distinction between a sacred and a non-sacred planet will come if you can realise that there is a paralleling correspondence between the consciousness of the initiate (up to and including the third initiation) and the consciousness of the Logos of a non-sacred planet. Soul and body, consciousness and form are blended and a [506] definite fusion is taking place. Two divine aspects are in process of intimate relation. The disciple brings about this relationship within his little system, and the planetary Logos on a far larger scale within His range of influence and control. In this process He carries with Him all the four kingdoms in nature. For both these lives—microcosmic and macrocosmic—this fusion produces Transfiguration, the third initiation. The Logos of a sacred planet has carried the divine work further along and is occupied with the task of synthesising into one unit of conscious response and activity, the higher divine aspect, that of the Monad, the will aspect. When this is accomplished, will, love and intelligence are blended and spirit, soul and body are at-one. Then the quality of the divine expression will be divine purpose, impulsed by will, motivated by love and carried forward with intelligence.

  Astrologers should here note that, in their work, they have not duly taken into consideration (when dealing with the twelve houses or mansions of the soul) whether the planet is sacred or not. The effect of the influences of a sacred planet or a non-sacred one are very different, for one will affect primarily the life in the three worlds whilst a sacred planet will aid in the processes of affecting the fusion of soul and body, of consciousness and form; it will also produce the quickening of the intuition (the spiritual soul) which is the lower aspect of the Monad. The sacred planets are, as you know, seven in number:

  1. Vulcan 4. Jupiter

  2. Mercury 5. Saturn

  3. Venus 6. Neptune

  7. Uranus

  [507] The non-sacred planets are only five:

  1. Mars 4. The Moon, veiling a hidden planet.

  2. The Earth 5. The Sun, veiling a planet.

  3. Pluto

  It is interesting here to note that the non-sacred planets rule the first, the fourth, the fifth and the eighth houses in the lesser zodiac. Our Earth is also a non-sacred planet. You have, therefore, four non-sacred planets, controlling or ruling a fifth non-sacred planet—a correspondence to the four aspects of the lower man. You have there, first the physical outer shell, the etheric or vital body, astral body and the mental body, plus a fusion with the fifth body, the personality. The task of our planetary Logos and of all advanced human beings is clearly to be seen. From a larger and more synthetic attitude, you have the four kingdoms in nature and the veiled fifth kingdom, the kingdom of God.

  From still another angle you have:

  Aries—ruled by Mars.

  Cancer—ruled by the Moon, veiling a sacred planet.

  Leo—ruled by the Sun, veiling a sacred planet.

  Scorpio—ruled by Pluto.

  You will note that Pluto and not Mars is here mentioned by me as a non-sacred Planet, ruling Scorpio. The reason for this is that there is a relation between Mars and Pluto analogous to
that between Venus and the Earth. Esoterically speaking, Mars is the alter ego of Pluto; the activity of Pluto at this time and in this lesser world cycle is very important on account of its esoteric approach to the Earth, impelled thereto by the vivification of its life by a display of Martian energy. The Earth, Mars and Pluto [508] form an interesting triangle with Venus behind the scene acting as the impelling soul acts towards a rapidly integrating personality. This triangle should not be forgotten when casting the horoscope, because it indicates a relation and a possibility which can be (though it often is not) a major determining factor, prior to passing on to the Probationary Path. The four houses, governed by the four non-sacred planets (not counting the Sun) are "houses of the personality, mundanely oriented" and the reason is not far to seek. The seven remaining houses, governed by the seven sacred planets are not so purely material nor are they so exoterically oriented, yet all the twelve indicate limitation or that which withholds the Dweller in the mansion from expanding his consciousness, if he permits himself to be imprisoned by them. On the other hand, they offer opportunity if he is oriented towards the higher life.

  I might again point out that Mars is the transmitter of sixth ray force and it is this which makes the first house of action in the physical body that of the devotee who fights for that which he desires or for that to which he aspires. The warrior, devoted to a cause, comes into being upon the field of action, the Earth, which is itself an expression of the third Ray of Intelligent Activity. Aries, the first house, and Mars and the Earth initiate conflict, focussed in a form.

  Again, the Moon is the ruler of Cancer and is related to the fourth ray, and rules the fourth house. Here you have the idea of form being the custodian of a living spiritual essence, of the home, whether the home is the fourth or lowest aspect of the personality or the fourth kingdom in nature, but all ruled by the fourth Ray of Harmony through Conflict—a harmony to be wrought out within the form on Earth.