INTRODUCTORY ESOTERIC ASTROLOGY

INTRODUCTORY ESOTERIC ASTROLOGY

ARIES 2011

Labor of Hercules
Capture of Man-eating Mares of Diomedes

Leaves brood-mares of instinct and lower mind in charge of his friend Abderis (the personality alone) who is then killed by them.

Motto: I come forth and from the plane of mind, I rule.
(Aries turns towards Capricorn)

Aries, the Font of Impulse
ARIES and Impulse

Aries rules all the lively, beautiful and wonderful Impulses exploding into the world from the spontaneous response of one’s Inner Life. This Inner Life may be belittled by the herd, but it still remains a central Mystery.

In Cancer a central psychological question is whether Cancer is a man or a woman (psychologically, distinct from social roles or conditioning). For Aries: “Is Aries a (hu)man or a mouse?” (We can safely leave discussions of gender politics to orthodox astrologers.) These are the male and Father aspect Mysteries which are seldom examined or discussed because they remain abstract and formless, unlike the appearance of the feminine Mother aspect Mysteries which are associated with Form. Who or What Formless impulse, energy or Entity brings living systems into Being and how? Deity is genderless, but what about the psychological human? (Aries-Mercury)

Then again, while the Mother autonomously creates the human body and form through the pure substance of her own Body, the Father provides a tiny genetic spark that initiates the attempt. This Spark derives its infinite detailed structure from the cave of the man as a Whole, just as systems of Suns are created by supernova Sparks colliding with clouds (or Shadows) in the Cave of the Universe (and its presently unknown subdivisions and structures outside a science based on observation of effects and mechanistically-recorded appearances). Reminds one of Plato. This is an illustration of the distinctions to be made among Parabrahm ineffable, the 1st Unmanifest Logos, and the 2nd Father-Mother Logos in HPB’s Proem to her Secret Doctrine. (More on this later in Esoteric Aries.)

What is an Impulse? It is not awareness, consciousness, or mind per se. It arises out of pure Being. It is spontaneous and unpredictable. Impulses can be suppressed, conditioned to some extent by the environment, and distorted by descending through a maze of psychological complexes. This shows the value of meditative training questions such as “What is the true or essential nature of the mind?” Theosophy and Buddhism have highly developed academic literature on this problematique, but it is the yogic path of the inner life that offers direct experience, or more accurately, direct awareness transcending consciousness as normally understood.

The next question is how can energetic Impulse create worlds, individuals and forms? While Mahat is a central factor for the planetary soul or Heavenly Man on His own cosmic plane, it is Fohat descending from those higher planes that enables the Heavenly Man to take physical (prakrtic) incarnation as the Lesser Heavenly Man in the system, focused on our systemic monadic plane. This is accomplished through ‘sheaves’ of “souls brought into incarnation” (EA 102) through Aries, deeply associated with the mental permanent atom (Libra governing the mental unit). The question of how human individuals can create worlds, individualities and forms is resolved through practice of the higher yogas.

On ground level, Aries types are liable to demonstrate the law of karma in action –the Arjuna nature– more than most signs for just this reason. It is ruled by Impulse and its application on all three levels — instinctive impulse (Mars), conscious, intelligent impulses, ideas and vision (Mercury), and spiritual impulse, visionary Plan and Purpose (Uranus). Impulse is by nature Spontaneous and unpredictable, though for very different reasons, depending on which planet rules the Aries in question — Pluto-Mars, Mercury, or Uranus.

Aries’ job is to herd and corral impulses coming from all layers of the psyche as well as from social and peer groups, and finally all those from forces to be found in the environing Not-Self. This is a responsibility not to be handed over to others, especially one’s best friends or allies – a great temptation for the instinctive codependent.

Aries the individual, in other words, is to herd, direct, and corral all impulses (the man-eating mare-horses) through solemnity/containment and goalfitness — the point of silent balance that precedes impeccable action in the world. Only intuition (Higher Mind, or pure Vision and Being) serves here to provide right direction (Sagittarius, Leo, Aries). Unguided Lower mind and instinct only serve to open countless Karma doors to sidetracks along the Path. What Aries wants is the poise of the Interludes (brought about by conscious and tireless fusion with Libra) to open countless Dharma doors to initiate compassionate salvage, reintegration and reconstruction.

Aries actualizes its executive and leadership potential by blending the streams or currents of wisdom flowing from the soul and higher planes with the ceaseless Flow which is the Present. Hence the perfected ability to make split-second decisions with accuracy determines the outcome in balance, stability, and ‘form’ — as it does in dance — the dance of adjusting to battle plans that never survive any battle. Greek culture uses a term derived from χορευω ("I dance") for this ability, the skill to maneuver around any obstacles that may arise without notice — socially, politically, or otherwise…

Aries on an evolved plane works like the evolved Aquarian, in a world of rays, energies and forces, once it has outgrown any delusional attachments to form and appearances. This more elevated ‘observation post’ offers deep insight into the worlds of psyche and phenomena and offers the concomitant opportunity to effect equally deep change (Mercury), transformation through crisis (Saturn), and synthetic solutions, resolutions and reconciliations (Jupiter) with others, with nations, and in the world. This latter impact is emphasized this year and next with the conjunction of Uranus and Jupiter in Aries. This process was initiated the beginning of last September (2010) with Mercury joining Saturn in Libra. This process should culminate in March through May of 2011 with Mercury in Aries, before Jupiter moves to Taurus solidification in June of 2011. The first half of October 2011 should clarify the earlier results (when Mercury returns to Libra).

ARIES as Self-Orientation, Self-Interest, Self-Improvement, Self-Cultivation, Self-Possession, Self-Mastery

The Aries meditation on Life, creation and identity automatically comes with a meditation on death and the true nature of Actuality (“reality”). These express differently depending on the active sign ruler:

Mars (/Pluto)
Rams butting heads in the instinctive Darwinian breeding ritual where self-reproduction can lead to self-extermination
Courage through Fear/Instinct and Selfishness / Self-interest
Method: TRAINING — for animal man, simple ambitious careerists, etc.

Mars-Mercury
Courage through their Ideals — Chains of Command
Purification through War and the Law of Conflict or through Vision and the Law of Harmony

Mercury
Courage through Contacts discovered through Service — Networks and Hierarchies
Self (highly individualized self-consciousness) lost in selfless state of awareness absorbed in Work
Method: EDUCATION — Knowledge and Social Interests, Vision

Mercury-Uranus
Courage through Warmth of Heart and seeing Choice and Sacrifice as two sides of the same Law
Method: MEDITATION — the lower mind is suspended without the use of suppression or force while the pure abstract mind constructs its forms (or should I say ‘systems’) through which higher principles express

Uranus
Courage ruling the rare types who have conquered instinct altogether
Uranus/Aquarius types must be reminded that the reward for great works of service is often targeting for delusional retaliation or by death threats from world and petty tyrants – “No good deed goes unpunished”
Method: INTUITION — Emptiness insights, Remote viewing, All-Knowledge, Right Timing, Speech as Mantra or a key to unlock hearts and minds (and physical systems) — the master creates his own opportunities...

As we are all used to the idea of Aspiration and Striving toward the higher more inclusive ideal and the spiritual battles to attain, there is (or needs be) a simultaneous reintegration and adjustment of one’s lower nature and faculties from this higher point of view or ‘attainment.’

ARIES as Identity

It is a primitive scientific or experimentalist idea (stage of soul development?) that human identity is constructed entirely by memory or ‘narrative’. What memory? Long-term or short-term or over lifetimes of reincarnation? This is the point of view of the lower mind, preserving our necessarily incomplete “memory” by means of the mental unit (Libra). It is not the same as true identity provisionally preserved by the mental permanent atom (Aries), the Chalice of the causal body, ‘Atma-Buddhi’, or by the mayavirupa of the monad/triad. Think quick! How refined are our present instinctive response mechanisms? Have they been entirely transcended by perfect spiritual will, poise, and right timing or do they need additional training?

Aries, ruling Impulse, demonstrates the results of Will and its Unknown Karmic consequences, and therefore vividly illustrates the sense of Identity as well as courage and consciousness of the Unknown, the Mystery, the Path, the Adventure. True Courage comes from warmth of Heart. Leo and Capricorn (R1 – Aries, Leo, Capricorn) help with this (Capricorn ruled by hierarchic Venus, or pure spiritual Love). It is a powerful collaboration of Fire.

Aries Free Will Choice (orientation) and its ‘shadow’ Sacrifice are deeply related to the
Leo state of vividly aware ‘Self’-consciousness and capacity for radiatory Being, and to
Capricorn, the will to choose the means of Action or No-Action, and the wisdom to know which is essential.

Identity as Self/Selflessness — as Identification with larger Wholes and Living Entities — Omnipresence
Identity as Identity with Ultimate Actuality, as Omniscience
Identity as Identification & Awareness of impersonal then direct Omnipotence

Aries in relation to Capricorn and Scorpio

In the long-range Evolutionary View the pure Spiritual Will found in Aries transcends the tests of Scorpio and Capricorn.

For both Aries and Scorpio (and in Sagittarius-Capricorn-Aquarius work), the two-year Pluto-Mars conjunction cycle pulse is an important benchmark and indicator of adept or inept use of one’s instinctive mechanism in group work. It also has the potential to identify, with study and reflection, the quality, nature, and need for improvement (Mercury-Uranus) of one’s impulses in question.

It is essential for the Esoteric Astrologer to keep a spiritual diary and timeline. Humanity’s proper study is humanity, and the closest case-study is oneself. It has the deepest relation to true understanding and gaining insight into the nature and impact of planetary cycles. Memory (a Scorpio test) is less reliable. A written record allows observation as well as reflection upon one’s past attitudes and approaches. It is useful in avoiding the ‘Rashomon Effect’ when dealing with one’s “sub-personalities” [lol] if one actually has such little ‘fidgets.’ It helps identify delusional thought processes and attitudes in oneself and helps recognize them in others. The point is not so much to maximize our personal potential as to see and recognize our successes and ‘failures’ in group work and service. Examining the individual response to astrological cycles through a written record makes this a more ‘objective’ exercise, and more clear. Most “esoteric astrology” in the field and marketplace today is simply a slightly improved orthodox astrology dressed up in esoteric language. This statement is not meant to disparage true effort. We have a long way to go! Orthodox exoteric astrology, because more widespread, seems to be making a greater number of advances.

Aries in relation to Capricorn enables one to recognize the ‘five strict grades’ of the Venus School in relation to that of Earth. This is basic for all students prior to the initiation of decision.

ARIES and Ray One

With Aries we are dealing with the primary sign that conducts Ray one into the solar and planetary systems. Aries is associated with the Ray One planets Pluto and Vulcan in the solar monadic life, to Pisces and Uranus in the planetary Hierarchy, and is related to solar Soul through Leo-Jupiter, Jupiter representing the beneficent and merciful process of incarnation which in the early stages erases the memory between incarnations for a fresh start and to avoid massive PTSD and ‘flashback’ effects on the reptilian brain and autonomic nervous system of the new organism.

Ray One focuses through three signs in particular (all Rays expressing via three aspects, creating 21 modes of Ray expression):

Aries — Will to Be, Will-to-Good
Leo — Love of God, Will-to-master
Capricorn — Goodwill through Effort, Knowledge and Education

ARIES and Leadership

The concept of Leadership starts with the Tests of Leadership and stage of executive capacity. Major tests here are broad vision, deep understanding, and harmlessness. Only brief reflection will shock us into recall of vicious self-interested corporate ‘leaders,’ ill-informed and self-referencing bosses who can’t organize their own personal psychological hygiene, or executives, government officials and appointees devoid of relevant training, education, or any informed background. Of course we are speaking here more of political pimping and prostitution — the oldest profession — than of any real leadership, public service, or governmental capacity

It is easy for an instinctive animal-man Aries type to make quick decisions and sacrifice all the principles and people under his command, to no positive or credible use. It is a very hard Path for a Leader (Aries) to distinguish among low and high Impulses coming from many directions. It is even harder to match the highest Impulse with Principle, and a deep sensitive fathomless Heart and Mind in a way that results in optimal Skill in Action. This should make clear the difference between true rulership, government, statesmanship, and mere political clowning. We live in interesting but unpleasant times.

Decisions involve complete information, accountability, ideas – execution – teamship, communication with the whole environment, making the most of least, transparency and interdependence. Besides this short list, a leader or forerunner requires the phenomenal perseverance and persistence that keeps a living system or group truly alive. In other words, the flexible will-to-persist is required as one’s battle plan, strategy, logistics, and tactics all fail in terms of their original form. Cancer may conquer by scrambling, but will wear itself out. Aries conquers through heart courage and a broad mind unified with a refined capacity to recognize and act on the best Impulse. As regards others, "To succeed in the world, it is much more necessary to possess the penetration to discern who is a fool, than to discover who is a clever man" as Talleyrand once observed.

Scorpio rules the 9 tests of the probationer, of control over the lunar or personality nature, which lead on to the 12 tests of the solar nature in action. It should be remembered here that in the Aries test, Hercules’ best friend Abderis dies, as he left him in charge of the man-eating mares of instinctive impulses and lower mind. Through this test the sense of self-possession is strengthened, and the test of responsibility for one’s own impulses is grasped, solidified, and organized into creative work. All signs must work or merge with their opposite. In the test of Libra, Hercules’ friend Chiron dies as a result of their indulging themselves with resources developed and preserved for the group and its work. Here the test of pleasure-seeking and idle rest are imposed, seeking an attitude of balance and strength of poise where group responsibility is no longer ignored. This maintenance of balance in action also involves management and discipline of one’s impulses. Let us not kill off our friends and allies — by lightmindedness or neglect.

The Twelve Solar Tests are considered to be exceptionally strongly experience in both Pisces and Aries. In Pisces the choice is between obliteration and enslavement within a larger whole, to the self-immolation and self-resurrection that conquers that collective Beast, Leviathan or Behemoth. In Aries the test involves the emerging identity of oneself or One Self. Is it man or mouse? Aries represents the inevitable Burning Grounds that confront the disciple (‘disciplined one’) with a serious life direction and purpose. Here “the jungles of experience are set on fire” and the Path stands revealed by the work of Uranus, the Hierophant of the higher collectivity called Hierarchy. Of course, this is not to say Aries doesn’t also experience the burning ground on a Mars and Mercury ‘diurnal’ level as well. When a high focus is attained, it stirs the depths so the Three Fires can descend to reorganize and reintegrate. It is said Aries “awakens the will to reach the lowest and there control, to know the uttermost and thus to face all experience…” (EA 92). This has a resonance with Leo and Capricorn, but has it own unique quality in Aries.

ARIES – Mundane Commentary
From the Heights to the Depths — A Rant on the Wild Side

Reconstruction requirements are massive after the Vulcan Gumbys (2000-2008) ‘vulcanized’ their coup of the economy by crying “terrorism” in a crowded planet, siphoning massive amounts of wealth and resources offshore, and redirecting all remaining resources into a disorganized and dysfunctional totalitarian-style Coddling State maintained by a newly-cobbled and precarious ‘benefits’ regime (none dare call it ‘democratic human-welfare socialism’), and topped off by a revanchist self-entitled tiny elite tyrannizing over their newly created Plantation Democracy.

One positive result of this “Vulcan Gumby” period is that the head of the Bush League cannot leave the country without fear of interdiction. This is a positive development that illustrates a new fostering of international leadership behavioral ethics and standards — not the ‘moral’ standards of arrogant, self-willed and fanatic tired emotional self-interested types.

For instance, if this were Renaissance Florence, someone like Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly would be put in iron cages hung over the town square by town fathers and the judicial system, as an example of what kinds of power-mad ranting will not be tolerated in a Republic of Citizens (citizens — not slaves, consumers, or addicts) such as that of 16th century Florence, Italy. Of course this sounds silly but there is some considerable truth to it.

To explain this ‘black theater’ all we need reflect upon is the lack of true leadership qualities in the world and its social orders. What we see for the most part is an automated play-out of the psychological and social cybernetic playbooks written by academic theorists, supervised by politically appointed morons in a junior high school regime, relatively speaking, especially in the post-World War II United States. This is not just restricted to the state and local level, as many brainwashed consumer-citizens might opine.

We live in a society of adult children in a state of denial and fear of retaliation by the reactionary PC hysterics and well-funded totalitarian media-fabricated “majorities” encouraged by an entitled political kindergarten regime. The media has a key role to play in this planetary Reorientation if it can transcend its ideological delusions, its profoundly parochial “reporting” and a careerist time-serving mentality. This key role has to be actualized if media wants to be taken seriously as a “Fourth Estate.” Of course, the underlying problem is corporate conglomeration and financial-cabal cooptation.

How can anyone tolerate the incessant well-funded babble of economists and commentators regarding the U.S. economy, when we know that some multiple of the gross national deficit and debt is being held hostage as cash in offshore banks by corporations and other criminals — the siphoned-off profits of American hard work, ingenuity, and labor. This one fact explains the entire U.S. economic debacle. So please shut up, Fourth Estate, until you address this issue as inexorably as you do derivative commentarial rubbish. It should be obvious to any national citizen that national assets must be held in strictly regulated national mainland banks, and the criminally-minded corporate players responsible prosecuted for thieving on a national level, stalling through purchased proxies, and continuing to destroy the US economy. Multinational corporations should be made to declare their nationality and national base of operation, under which they choose to be regulated. Offshore banking should be firmly restricted, with national governmental accountability, sanctions and reprisals. After all, corporations are now persons, legally speaking, to be held accountable for their behaviors. If one actually still believes in capital punishment, then please forego the hypocrisy and make corporate persons take execution and dismemberment into their board deliberations. If the United Nations and European Community together would like to take charge of legislation along these lines, let them build their headquarters next to the singularly appropriate Place de la Concorde in Paris. In the United States, I suppose that location might be Appomatox VA.

This lack of true leadership explains a great deal of social chaos we witness via the infotainment industry, especially in the “developed” nations of the world. Admittedly, establishing social and psychological balance, normalcy or full social consciousness is not just a walk in the park. It is difficult to generate and promote civil society when civics and social studies are banned in the public schools by politically invested morons and their appointees. The spectacle of vicious self-interested and political competition in all fields of human endeavor don’t help.

We are witnessing a great upheaval in the Islamic Ulama or Arab League nations. The U.S., still obsessed and preoccupied on the level of primitive relations between capital and labor, ignoring the Ethics of Life which promote human dignity, is next in line and has much to learn from planetary affairs outside its current parochial behaviors and concerns. The addiction society of America’s (Neptune-ruled) Cancer Sun must hit rock bottom before getting a clue about Twelve Step programs in rehabilitation or in compassion (see Karen Armstrong). This starts with our leaders and representatives. There is also the problem of removing parasitic corporate lobbyists by offering them more ‘influence’ under the Damocles Sword of rigorous regulation and enforcement. Otherwise America remains a pathetic sight to be scorned with embarrassment by nations who actually believe in cooperative planetary-wide sustainable development and maintenance of healthy homeostatic and systemic stability — not to mention public credibility. Just because the public at large is not calling for "revolution" or rioting in the streets does not mean it is not intent on driving miscreants into a ditch somewhere or more appropriately to interdiction and an international tribunal which will provide swift justice.

ARIES — A New Social Contract?

The past year 2010 was governed by Aquarius and the two Neptune-position conjunct Mars Heliocosms, in turn conjunct the two Aquarius Full Moons (Jan 2010 and Feb 2011) conditioning the transition from 3-yr Saturn Opp Uranus to the Jupiter Conj Uranus period.

The first 6 months of 2011 brings a Crisis of Reorientation.

This can be sustained by Saturn’s placement in Libra by choosing Balance over Polarization.

Will Humanity choose the Law of Harmony over the Conflict addiction of the junior-highschool regime of Elite adult children in a vicious polarized popularity contest, with attention deficits, obsessive-compulsive disorders, lack of education or training, and the fall-back of their self-interested MESS? The events in Egypt seem to say Yes.

The hope lies in the Aries drive to initiate, create and create yet again when things fall apart. It seems that millions of Aries-generated souls in the recent virtual and ‘electric’ society are fashioning a new Social Contract that makes higher qualitative demands, and honesty, of their leaders. What is most significant in world order and evolution is quite often small, unrecognized and invisible.

The hope of this period and this year lie in the incredible number of independent initiatives in rapid technology, in social regeneration initiatives such as the Power of the Poor and Micro Credit, appropriate technology, and in the general unfoldment of planetary social awareness of Human Responsibility if the planet is to survive. These factors unify the genius of innovators and progressives (Mercury-Uranus) with the purely pragmatic self-interested stock types (Mars) — the planetary pituitary gland with the thyroid/gonad axis. How could the political 'black theater' make this any more clear? Let us not speculate!

ARIES Conclusion — Back to the Abstract Mind & Intuition

The hands-on and take-charge habit of Aries leads to the spirit of Regeneration, and the continuity of social Reintegration. The results, when deeply recognized, spur society on to continuous Reorientation and Improvement toward the Better. Renunciation as the Shadow of Choice and Creative Will-to-Good is an inextricably indispensible part of evolutionary development. Karma is understood and mastered by spiritual will, the Love of the Whole (Deity), and Direct Knowledge (also known yogically as samyama or as the siddhi of omniscience). Karma is pure Action, pure Motion, a gyroscopic stabilizer of homeostasis and living systems.

There is a difference between being a Knower or a Master, though they are intimately and deeply related. For a man or father to see the essential nature, causative factor, and life aspect in full consciousness is almost impossible for those who do not dwell in dynamic states of Being transcending Consciousness. What he can see is Love.

The passive aspect of occult and esoteric living and its concomitant nature or organismic Electricity are all-pervasive and everywhere apparent. This invokes reflection upon the mysteries, differences and interactions between mystical and occult paths and approaches to the inner life and outer creative expression. The dynamic and organizing aspect of Uranian occult Electricity that transforms the Neptunian soup within the chrysalis remains virtually invisible and goes unnoticed, only revealing itself in the natural effect and result of the butterfly, beautiful as it is.

Aries is the Ray One densely organized electric spark that unfolds and enables individuals, groups and nations to experience the renaissance or rebirth disclosed and shown to us in a butterfly.

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).