INTRODUCTORY ESOTERIC ASTROLOGY

INTRODUCTORY ESOTERIC ASTROLOGY

VIRGO 2008

Labor of Hercules
Golden Girdle of Hippolyta

Told little by Eurystheus and Nereus. Hippolyta of the Moon/Mars cult offers Hercules Venus' girdle of unity. Hercules won't listen and kills her – failure in War of the Sexes.
Rescues Hesione from the throat of monster of the deep, the great Sea.

Motto: I am the Mother and the Child. I, God, I, matter am.

(Virgo hides the light which irradiates the world in Aquarius)

Virgo the Virgin is ruled by Mercury, which has a higher and lower aspect. The lower aspect related to the Moon works through the 5 senses, the nervous system and its sensibilities, and concrete concepts. The higher aspect of Mercury is purely abstract and formless, and functions through Insight and Intuition. The intuition is like the higher psychic nature, which functions through the heart. The intuition operates directly through the mind when it is full of spirit or soul. Intuitive wisdom thinks with the heart, and sees directly through the transformed mind. The Moon rules the brain through which the Mind has to function, for good or ill.

When you see the Moon, you see Form. Behind every form, like the Moon, are other levels and energies. The Moon (and Form) also reflect greater lights, like the Sun’s Being and Mercury’s higher Intuition. These are what interest the esoteric astrologer. Later along the Path, Mercury rules the rainbow bridge (antahkarana) between planetary and solar energy (etheric) levels. Solar energies refer to our solar system and its inner life. For instance, the 11/22 year cycle of sunspots is said by Theosophy to represent the beating of the solar heart. The Sun expresses itself through cycles much vaster than the seasonal cycles humans experience on the Earth planet.

While the standard rulers of the astrological signs work for the personality level, the spiritual student is more interested in probing under the surface. These inner levels and energies are revealed as one meditates on the Signs and Planets, their symbols and their meanings.

On inner levels, Virgo is said to be ruled by Vulcan. Who is Vulcan? The celestial blacksmith who lived in a volcano, hammering weapons, shields and tools from metal and fire. Vulcan works with fire, repeated hammering (vibration, mantra, song), and builds links between parts for the sake of the Whole. Each individual contains a spark of the divine nature within. Virgo, the Virgin, guards this spark until it is born and takes its full form. Virgo also rules the gestation process, or the labor pains one undergoes in giving birth to an idea, a creative work, or a human child. Vulcan represents the staying power and the endurance of the spiritual will during this painstaking time. In many ways, Virgo represents the shaman’s solitary vigil, purification and voluntary renunciation until it achieves fruition in a shamanic dream, vision, or realized project. But Virgo is shy and retiring while it shelters the growing life within the cave of the heart. And it is long suffering when attempting to share this life with the outer world at large. Patience and forbearance hold and guard the bigger picture, and both take real inner, authentic courage.

Orthodox Virgo is ruled by Mercury, which represents both lower and higher minds. They are coordinated in the middle by Venus, the Son of Mind (manasaputra), the solar angel or heart-wisdom. Later along the path, Mercury rules the antahkarana, or rainbow bridge between planetary and solar etheric levels, incidentally represented by the human mental unit on the 4th mental subplane and the manasic permanent atom on the 1st, or atomic subplane. This brings light to the fact that Brotherhood among Humanity represents the incarnation process of the planetary Logos — human units being cells in the greater Body. Without the principle of Brotherhood, there would be no planetary homeostasis or organismic coherence. Humanity is needed by all the higher and lower kingdoms in nature to bring Right Stewardship to the planetary organism. From the point of view of Hermes, or Mercury, all the signs tend to have a more esoteric cast. After all, Hermes rules the wisdom aspect of the second ray of Love-Wisdom, which rules our solar system and planet.

Esoteric Virgo is ruled by Vulcan veiled by the Moon, which is to say solar force veiled by form (Moon). Vulcan with Virgo here represents the very long gestation period of the divine nature within, and so Vulcan represents the endurance aspect of Will. Esoteric Virgo is related to 8 other signs through its orthodox and esoteric rulers, making nine signs associated with the Form aspect which is to be lifted into Heaven. These 9 signs are associated with form and the gestation process of humanity's inner divine nature, and endure the labor pains of bringing that nature to birth through the personality or lower nature (through initiations 1, 2 and 3). The 3 signs left out (Leo, Libra, Capricorn) regulate the process through repeated cycles of Crisis — individualization, balance, and initiation. This series relates to humanity's present state, where the bulk of its spiritual representatives are taking 1st and 2nd initiations (soul mastery of physical/personality expression, and soul mastery of emotional/personality expression).

The Solar Labor of Hercules lifting the 9-headed Hydra into the air to wipe out its destructive power is the initial symbol of this planetary purpose. The 9 tests of Scorpio associated with the Hydra of the 3-fold personality represent tests on the Probationary Path, before the 1st initiation (but tend to persist as a kind of perpetual practice). Spiritual students are said to be tested in Scorpio, while the bulk of Humanity is being tested in the Scales (fence-sitting in Libra, before making any real spiritual commitment). What this shows is the intimate relationship between Virgo and Scorpio, constantly cycling back and forth between each other, alternately analyzing and eliminating and analyzing and building during a long gestation process. Their efforts emerge on the Path of discipleship, ruled by Scorpio, Sagittarius and Capricorn, but that's another subject for examination.

Inspiration: Alice A. Bailey, Esoteric Astrology, and her 24 books on esoteric philosophy. NY: Lucis Publishing Company – website (http://www.lucistrust.org/en/publications_store).