Studies in Astrology
by
Elman Bacher
Volume V
Chapter II
Astro Philosophy Discusses Government
Government is the "functioning of the Universe in
accordance with Cosmic Principles." It is the One Directive which impels the
cause of, organizes and harmonizes the effect of, every creative and
epigenetic action in the Cosmos. Since it is the expression of the One Will,
cosmic government is archetypal Autocracy; it is the root-pattern by which
every Logos, microcosmically, orders the life of its manifestation and it is
that which, in human terms, we designate as mastery. Rulership, in any
octave, is an aspect of the Directive Power symbolized by the Sun; all
planetary powers are derivatives of this Unity.
The symbolic design we call the "square aspect"--a
square resting on its horizontal base--is the arch-symbol of compressed
congestion of potentials. It is made up of two expressions of the dynamic
vertical and two expressions of the receptive horizontal; it pictures the
juxtaposition of diametric opposites seemingly in contention with each other.
A congestion has the effect of gravitational down-pulling, inhibition,
suppression of expressive possibilities, slowing up of expressive and
responsive action. It pictures an intensification of the tendency-to-inertia
which, after a certain point, is death of the form as a vehicle of the Spirit.
This pictures the "reign of the Devil," the domination of expression by
suppression, the bondage of "on-and-up-going-ness" to "in-and-down-going-
ness." The Spirit, Solar Power in its biune expression of Love-Wisdom, seeks
always, in human consciousness, to overthrow and disintegrate this "rulership
by shadow."
The symbol for government as Cosmic or Archetypal
Ordering is the diagonal square. This is the symmetrically balanced
square standing on its lower angle. Each of its four lines is a symmetrical
diagonal, hence each composites verticality and horizontality. Herein is seen
the difference, as symbol of consciousness, between this square and the static
square. Therefore rhythmic sequence is pictured by travel around its
circumference. When the cross of horizontal and vertical diameters is added
within this square, each of the two lines bisects a pair of opposite angles
and the polarity of each angle-point is thereby objectified. By this four-fold
bisection of angles, the Masculine-Feminine of Male-Female of Immature-Mature
of microcosms of any archetype is outpictured. We are concerned with humans as
individualizations of the archetype "Humanity," so this diagonal square with
its structure cross, pictures macrocosmically the government of this archetype
and microcosmically the "government-consciousness," passive and active, of the
individual human.
We now transpose this symbol into the octave of
astrological symbolism; place the circular symbol of the Sun at the center
(the jointure of the two cross-lines) and the symbols for Aries, Capricorn,
Libra, and Cancer at the left, upper, right, and lower angle-points,
respectively. The result is the Great Mandala without its circumscribing
circle--the "skeleton" of Humanity as an evolving--not evolved--archetype and
that of the individual human as an epigenetically evolving microcosm. We will
discuss the "problems" of "Government of humans by humans" as they specialize
in the three basic types of "being governed."
Considering the dynamic essence of Aries-Mars as the
"personality" of the incarnated human archetype, we are sensitive to the
"controlling agencies" represented by the other three structure-points which
are all, generically speaking, more feminine than Aries. The feminine polarity
of the Cosmos is that which receives and shapes the dynamic essences. As
Aries, through Mars, "blasts forth his energies from the Ascendant-point,"
Capricorn-Saturn, Libra-Venus, and Cancer-Moon stand as organizers and co-
ordinators of the vital expressions. "That which Aries comes from"--as the
"thing incarnated" in this mandate--is parentage; by parentage is the
individualized form begotten, by parentage is the form sustained, protected,
and nurtured. Therefore, Cancer-Capricorn as archetypal parentage is the first
coordinator-governor of the individual's expression. The first of these,
however, is Cancer--the symbol of Matrix, and the arch-symbol of seed-source.
This, in group-terms, is government for the perpetuation and preservation of
forces; it is the most primitive form of group-government. The primitive human
was subjected entirely to the directive power of the elders of the tribe, and
his significance was not as an individual, for himself, but as a factor of the
tribal unity. His evaluation to the tribe was physical--his strength, prowess,
combative and generative ability were the ear-marks of his value to the life
of the tribe. His identity was tribal, his virtue was obedience to the
directives of the elders. In relationship to that narrow directive he was
"child" and child he remained until he, in time, began to realize an awareness
of himself as an individual. To accept external directive unquestioningly,
unthinkingly, is to be subject to the parental principle of government,
secular or religious. And this applies to people living now as well as those
who inhabited the jungles thousands of years ago.
Governments that encourage such attitudes in their
people as blind, unthinking adherence, in whatever form, to such a concept as
"Mother Church"; fanatic patriotism; dependency on group-opinion and group-
feeling for guidance; racial prejudice and hatred; or habitual addiction to
governmental bounty for material sustainment are those that are functioning as
external moldings of a very limited consciousness. They have their karmic and
evolutionary place, and AS SUCH THEY ARE GOOD. But no government of this kind
was, is, or can be a permanent pattern for any group because its essential
function is to coordinate and focus a collective primitivity. Evolution serves
to transcend primitivity on any octave. Cancer-Capricorn is archetypal
structure; it is the symbol of security to the subconscious of Humanity. It
symbolizes "that which was," and primitive (ignorant, fearful) people cling to
an established external (parents, home, church, nationality-concept, etc.) to
realize security. A government that congests on this function is one which
discourages individual effort and thought; and in that way lies the path to
dictatorship, which is "parental government" that has been allowed to become
the tool for an intensely focused negative power-consciousness (of an
individual or a group of allied individuals or nations). In primitive times,
people thrived and progressed under the protective administration of men
relatively wise, but the same basic type of government, in the hands of
unprincipled and heartless persons, turns the parental quality into tyranny--
by which the collective residues of hatreds, greeds and cruelties become
focused in the power-lusts of the ruler who personifies such a nation. This
type of government becomes DEGENERATE the moment the welfare of the people at
large is disregarded or when the attributes of individual initiative and
expression are weakened through over-giving. Too much protection and bounty
are as out of line with governmental principles as are cruel suppression and
disregard of human rights. No one evolves who copies, in his personal life,
the degenerate example of bad rulers; he simply adds negative power to the
"power-for-evil" of the ruler and to the collective, congested evil of his
fellows. To accept national or government bounty as a "timely assistance" and
use it for its purpose (to "get going again") is in keeping with the principle
of the type of government; to make a habit of accepting assistance from
"Father-Mother Government" is to traduce one's incentives for growth,
fulfillment, and maturity. (Parents--governors of your family circles--do you
encourage dependency in your children? Or do you encourage the exercise of
reason and ability so that your children may rhythmically develop the maturity
of self-reliance?) It is true that some adults are so conditioned that they
feel they have no reason for existing unless someone is leaning on them; they
would rather "feel strong by comparison" than try to encourage the individual
abilities of the weaker one. They are functioning, subconsciously, to try to
compensate for a guilt (unfulfilled responsibility) complex . They resent any
attempt of the "weaker person" to develop his own potentials and they are, in
this respect, not too unlike some politicians who promise to give everything
in return for a vote. Think about this in terms of present-day conditions. To
be prominent and highly placed, to be called wonderful, great, kind, generous,
etc., is the be-all and end-all of what they call happiness; and they are
conditioned--and willing--to give anything in payment for this kind of
approbation. A family formed by two such parents, a nation directed by such a
ruler, will achieve pretty much the same kind of results--a parasitic
undependable child on one hand, and a parasitic undependable, irresponsible
citizenry on the other.
The polarization of this governmental type is
Capricorn, the Saturn vibration, symbol of the aristocratic type of
government. Its keyword is Hierarchy--it is the first type extended into much
more diffusion of expression by many classes which, congested and
unregenerate, results in the infamy of caste. Cultivated, it provides the
manifestation of cultivation and refinement (externally at least), the
exercise of abundance through wealth for artistic and educational purposes.
The vice of this type of government is seen in the emphasis of
superficialities (ancestry, family background, money) as standards by which
the individual is valued. The policy or slogan: "As long as it looks all right
it's good" is typical of the surface-evaluation of this type. Ambition to
realize place in the hierarchy takes the place of aspiration to realize
self-improvement; adherence to crystallized formal standards of conduct,
thought and belief may designate the identity of a "member in good standing"
but it hardly can be taken as an identity of a person who is exercising his
individual values and capacities. Saturn, the condensation of matrix,
characterizes this type through the tendency to resist--stubbornly--needed
changes; maintenance of established forms becomes so fixated a purpose that
improvements which would benefit all are either ignored or disdained. The
practice, over long periods of time, of wealth being congested in specific
points of the hierarchy breeds corruption, because it discourages individual
exercise. The monetary "fluid"--the life-blood of practical exchange--is a
means by which humans can realize certain benefits by use of their individual
faculties and intelligence. When it is handed down through generations in a
relatively limited scope it becomes a karmic testing of individuals to
take it and use it without making effort for themselves and so weaken
themselves, or it makes possible a material compensation, of a karmic nature,
to those who are conditioned to use it wisely for the improvement, progress,
and well-being of themselves and others. However, a true aristocrat does not
need family-background, this-and-that of ancestry, so much inherited wealth,
and such-and-such a "position" to demonstrate the refinement of his nature and
inclinations. He graces and beautifies whatever "station God has seen fit to
place him"; his influence is one of refinement on all who know him. The
aristocratic government that uses the public, but which has forgotten that it
too has a pattern of service to fulfill to the public, traduces the best of
its qualities. To have the advantages of education and not use them for a more
extended good, to have access to large sums of money and congest on
triviality, to disdain one's fellowman because of difference of position is no
aristocracy--it is only a shadow of a mask of it. And the mask smiles--
cynically and unbeautifully. Aristocracy gives humanity the opportunity to
observe its collective consciousness of separativeness in action. The study of
aristocratic governments throughout various historical periods and in
different nations tells us what ultimately happens when, by an illusionary
concept, we seek to separate our common destiny-patterns from our fellows.
This concept, diffused through the mechanism of organized religions, Christian
or otherwise, has resulted in some of the most terrible karmic causation
because, by its very nature it seeks to fight against the very thing that all
religion seeks to establish--the ever-clarified sense of (God's and Life's)
Unity in the human consciousness. The parent, separated in his consciousness
from his child as a fellow-human, says: "Do what I say. I am your parent."
There is nothing in such a statement to appeal to the reason or heart of the
child. It serves to intensify his feeling of inferiority-difference in
subservient relationship to his parent instead of increasing fellowship.
The "I AM"-ness of Aries as Ascendant of this mandala
pictures Humanity as a potential self-ruler because it is, by attribute, an
individualized expressor. For the most part, most of us do not have the power-
consciousness to rule ourselves, much less to rule others. But, because we are
expressors we influence (a microcosmic octave of rulership) others by
everything or anything that we think, feel, say, and do. There is only one
Ascendant, archetypally or concretely, and since rulership is the ordering of
the cosmos we can improve the quality of our influence on other people. It is
true, and this is an interesting point, that we cannot rule or influence
anyone who is indifferent to us or who is more perfectly organized than we
are--we are influenced by those people much more than we affect them.
Therefore we have to rule ourselves better if we are going to attract better
"rulership-influence" from others. Apply this to the relationship of a
nation's citizenry to its hereditary or elected rulers. Look at the story of
France's civilization under the reigns of Louis XIV, XV, and XVI. The
corruption and cynicism of the first two perfectly outpictured much that was
degenerate in the general life-concepts of the people. The ineffectuality of
Louis XVI made it possible for the disintegrative forces of revolt--he
couldn't even stand up for the class he represented--to decrystallize that
particular form of aristocratic government and pave the way for the more
democratic form.
If our life-purpose requires that we exercise power in
public offices, then we know that we have the opportunity to stand as symbols
of good influence or of bad influence; we will symbolize whatever we conceive
to be the principles of government. We can remain congested in our ignorances
of these principles and so reflect the ignorance of the people we represent or
we can be adjustable to learn and so symbolize an ever-improving quality of
power-vibration.
In consideration of the Great Mandala we see that the
Cancer-Capricorn diameter--as the "parentage-line"--exemplifies the pattern of
"government of people by people": the two types of government represented are
communal (Cancer) and aristocratic (Capricorn). Now to consider the
significance of Aries as individual ruler-ship-expression:
The "I AM" quality of this sign symbolizes the sense
of individualized beingness. Since it is that from which all expression, as
personal individualization, is made possible, it is also that by which all
octaves of human-rulership are made possible. A ruler--of whatever kind--
cannot at any time be any more than he is as an individual human--his
rulership expression is projected through his consciousness of himself as a
person. Keep in mind that rulership, in the political sense, is an extension
of parentage. The same keywords that apply to different types of rulers apply
also, in a more localized sense, to different types of parents. This is so
because the matrix-quality of the Cancer-Capricorn diameter designates our
citizenship in the family-group and the nation-group into which we incarnate
by karmic law and vibratory attraction.
The lowest vibratory octave of Mars is seen to be in
his office as releaser of Pluto-Scorpio compressions. This is the ruler as
autocratic dictator. His "I AM" is "I Am a personalized symbol of all the
congested ignorances, hates, and greeds of my subjects." The Russian czar,
Ivan the Terrible, was a perfect example of this type of ruler; his people
were a barbaric, ignorant, and brutish lot and their subservience to his
infamously despotic rule was the epitome of slavishness. The next octave--
synchronizing with the evolutionary needs of the Russian people--was
exemplified in Peter the Great. Every bit as despotic as was "the terrible
one," this man functioned on a higher octave of perception and purpose. His
will, enormously focused, served to co-ordinate his people, and he worked for
years to develop and expand the economic power of his nation and to bring to
it at least the vestiges of western European culture. In this type of ruler
the characteristics of insensitiveness, forceful brutality, egotism, and lack
of compassion arc strongly pronounced. Their egotism does serve, however, a
most important purpose--that of welding the nation into a coherent identity
and unity. The dormant "I Am" of the national group-vibration is ignited by
the personal "I Am" power of the autocratic ruler. The "I Am" of a degenerate
aristocratic ruler is exemplified in the character and personality of France's
King Louis XV. The vacuity and cynicism of this man, ruler-symbol of one of
the most degenerate and corrupt periods in the history of this nation,
perfectly out-pictured the crystallized negatives of this type of government--
that of hierarchy--the form that provides points of concentration of power
within the national edifice. A regenerate example of this type of government--
and a remarkable example she was--was the great Queen Elizabeth of England.
Cultured, enormously learned, devoted to her country's progress and welfare
with every fiber of her being, this brilliant and intrepid woman symbolized
the cultural and economic aspirations of her vigorous and enterprising people.
She was definitely a cut above many such rulers of class-conscious societies
in that her intense patriotic love made warfare and destruction abhorrent to
her; she has been considered to be the most humanly motivated and enlightened
ruler of her age and one of the outstanding rulers in human history. Her
unifying of her country as a world power, under a motivation of intense
national pride, emphasized the Capricorn quality of superiority that
characterizes this nation--an interesting example of national personality-
trait. Further degeneracies of hierarchical concept--and this in a most
crystallized form--are seen in the age-old, only recently decrystallized
concept of caste in India. This concept (derived from human imagining of
Cosmic Hierarchy) provided karmic bondage for millions of humans for many
ages.
There have been several remarkable examples of
Cancer-government. This is the type of government that is focused on the
perpetuity of welfare, material or spiritual. Corruption of this pattern is
seen in the giving of money, food, entertainment, etc., to the populace by
such individuals as the Roman rulers Nero and Caligula. An outer gesture of
concern for the public masked, in these cases, a hideous fear and greed. They
exemplified, in their policy of giving, the very worst aspects of this
governmental pattern. Regenerate, we see in the government of the humane
Quaker religion one of the finest examples of this type in modern times. Their
policy of universal pacifism is, of course, a spiritual motivation of
tremendous power for good in the world. Their contribution to human welfare
has been outstanding. The administration of the Salvation Army is another
example. The teaching and healing service performed by certain religious
orders represents a fine aspect of this concept of government. Even those who
function entirely in what is called "contemplative orders" make, if they are
sufficiently evolved, a remarkable redemptive contribution through their work
on the inner planes; this service is not perceived or observed by the outer
world--it is a vibratory nurture based on renunciation of personality-
consciousness. In fact, we may consider that the Jupiter vibration, as
significator of the abstract ninth house, is mixed with the Moon-Cancer
vibration to designate the essence of rulership by organization of religious
authority. You might enjoy a study of biographies of rulers--from the
illumined Pharaoh, Akhnaton, down through the ages--and come into a clearer
understanding of how rulers, as individual humans, personify the collective
unconscious, the collective ignorance and congestion, and the collective
evolutionary needs of the populace. It is a fascinating study and one to which
every occult and philosophical student should give some time and thought.
Now we will undertake to study the principles of
government as they are symbolically designated by the exaltation of planets.
These represent government by relative mastership--the expression, as
rulership, of solar power by highly evolved (kingly) humans which has, as its
purpose, the illumination of the consciousness of mankind. This approach to
rulership reveals the spiritual attributes inherent in each type as well as
the spiritual obligations attendant upon this form of service.
The first of these is the exaltation of the Sun
itself in the sign Aries. The identity is "I Am a Begotten Son, or Daughter,
of Father-Mother God." This is the identity of spiritual birth and the
consciousness of possessing divine attributes. The rulership implied by this
vibration is self-mastery which is the source from which all other spiritual
government is derived, and from which all expressions of transcendent love and
wisdom are emanated. The priest-kings of ancient Egypt, beautifully described
by Joan Grant in her lovely book, "The Winged Pharaoh," exemplify this type.
These great rulers were spiritually tested for their qualifications to serve
as rulers of their people in what was one of the outstanding spiritual epochs
in human history. Since specializations are emanated from the One, this
exaltation-point of the Sun resources every other type of spiritual
government. The ruler of Aries, Mars, is exalted in Capricorn. In this study,
Capricorn is seen to symbolize the hierarchical concept of aristocratic
government; the specialization of "class" reflects (what should be) the
gradations of spiritual evolution. Originally the Brahmanic religion of India
was based on this concept; Plato spoke of "the rule by the philosophical
elect." The exaltation of Mars in Capricorn, in genetic terms, is the maturity
of the male principle in responsibility-fulfillment. Therein is seen the
spiritual qualification that designates true rulers in a hierarchical
government: the responsibility to keep the spiritual "I Am" alive so that the
offices of governing the less-evolved may be carried on with positiveness,
courage, and a sense of father-love as the protective love-motivation. To give
life is the attribute of parentage; to maintain principles of government that
contribute to the general welfare and progress (materially, intellectually,
and culturally) is that life which the true aristocratic ruler contributes to
his people. His Mars-attribute makes it possible for him to defend himself,
and consequently his people, from the crystallizations of prejudice, caste-
congestion, and superficial evaluations. It keeps alive in his consciousness--
because Mars is the arch-masculine vibration, as a derivative of the Sun--the
sense of valuing and appreciating himself as a worker in the world. The vigor,
virility, and positiveness of regenerate Mars is health-giving in its effect;
exercise of this attribute neutralizes the dangers of congestion on indolence,
luxury, and parasitism which seep into a society that is founded on the
principle of inherited money, place, and value. Mars in Capricorn is
vitalization of the sense of father-love; its exercise demands self-discipline
and work.
The Moon's exaltation in Taurus, second earth-sign,
raises the instinct to feed and protect the immature into the consciousness of
stewardship. The weak are to become strong. The immature are to become mature.
The negative of the Cancer-vibration is to over-protect and to over-nurture
those who are, at a given point, dependent. The stewardship of the development
of the weak and immature is the exalted octave of the Moon's power. To protect
the development is a contribution to evolutionary progress; to foster the
weakness is to contribute to retardation. England's great Elizabeth had Moon
in Taurus, fourth house, and certainly no ruler at any time has ever been more
respectfully alert and sensitive to the vigorous evolutionary potential of the
ruled nation. A most significant psychological factor is seen in this
position: Taurus is the Moon's eleventh house-sign; as such it relates to
Moon's Cancer as Aquarius-Uranus relates to Aries. This position of the Moon
(an eleventh house-sign relationship to its dignity) imposes on the
spiritually mature the necessity to decrystallize the sense of possessing the
immature or weak ones. To seek maternally (Moonishly) to possess another is to
identify Taurus as the polarization of Scorpio; the two together form the
diameter of desire-power. Any individual or any ruler who has the
responsibility to nurture through the Moon's position in Taurus is warned to
abstain from regarding the weaker, more immature person as a personal
possession. The nation and the wealth of the nation are not possessions of the
ruling agency. A ruler receives recompense for his work as any other worker
does; that recompense should be an expression of exchange from the nation's
people in return for his service as a coordinative guardian. The
"overshadowing influence" of Uranus to be found in this pattern is the
decrystallization of congestion-by-desire-and- possessiveness into stewardship
of growth and development by respect for the individual's potentials for
growth and fulfillment. Apply this instruction personally or nationally--the
pattern is archetypal. The evolutionary aspiration of the Solar Logos Itself
masses possible epigenetic action on the part of microcosms--thus the respect
of Father-Mother God for Its children is pictured. Solar power released
through the Moon principle says: "Let the begotten microcosm grow, develop,
express, and fulfill its potentials; help it, guide it, instruct it, feed it,
nurture it, protect it but let my power flow through it in ever-increasing
strength; do not over-protect it from access to my Creative Stimulus.
Encourage always the ever-extending radiation of love by the microcosm; set no
barriers to this expression by congestive possessiveness.
Saturn's exaltation in Venus' Libra is the spiritual
alchemical fusion of justice with mercy. It is the dissolving of over-
strictness and crystallization-of-concept by the exercise of humane impulses.
It is also (because Libra in this mandala symbolizes the democratic government
concept) the balancing of self-expression in government by the consciousness
of responsibility of citizens to each other through their fraternal identity
as co-nationalities. The exaltation of Saturn in this sign is the astrological
symbol of the concept of justice for all--a law applies to poor and rich,
learned and ignorant, and it means that true laws are those which counterpart
divine laws in the sense that no one is an exception to them. Laws which
protect one at the expense of another represent the degeneracies
characteristic of corrupted Saturn-aristocracy --the illusion of caste-
superiority and injustices by adherence to evaluations by wealth-possession.
In this sense, the administration of a certain world-wide religious government
is seen to be, at its best, a devotee of this law of justice for all. Its
doors are open to all, its corrective measures apply to all, regardless of
worldly placement or possession. At its worst, the Saturn in Libra symbol
balances wrongs by material payment. In societies where financial possession
is considered to be the standard of evaluation, a spiritual transgression
against an individual or a group or the nation itself is considered redeemed
if a certain financial transaction is made. This congestion-in-ignorance has
played an infamous part in human history--it is one of the most blasphemous
actions of which man is capable. It is a congestion in such darkness that
life-long karma of the ruler may be required to decrystallize and adjust the
unbalance. In human consciousness--that is, in the consciousness of
individuals who are rulers--this position of Saturn in the mandala displays
the White Light of Saturn when the ruler recognizes his fraternity--as a
fellow-citizen--with his subjects. This is the balanced justice and
equilibrium of the ruler-citizen relationship. Let no ruler forget this
principle; upon it depends the resource of spiritual value of governmental
service.
Libra, as a significator of the democratic
governmental principle, is the fusion of the principles of marriage with the
principles of contributive self-government. In a democracy males and females
are privileged to express and this governmental concept is one which, probably
more than any other group-pattern, has most served to decrystallize the
illusion of superiority and inferiority of the sexes, relative to each other.
Marriage is a two-pointed citizenship of mutual exchange, mutual development,
and mutual fulfillment. Democracy is a multi-pointed citizenship of mutual
exchange, mutual development, and mutual fulfillment. One married couple is
microcosm of all males and females in a particular nation; the polarity of the
nation is the extension of the polarity of the couple. To incarnate in a
democratic government is to realize a result from many incarnations of
regenerative effort as an individual; as with the trine-aspect, such
realization imposes the responsibility (Saturn) to contribute for mutual good
and justice of all.
The exaltation of Venus in Pisces (as ruler of Libra)
is the consciousness of spiritual powers as the governing agencies of the
affairs of mankind. To perceive the truths that are behind the placement of
rulers, the experiences of nations, and the spiritual alchemy which is
continually at work to realize the ideal of Humanity makes possible the
realization of inter-fraternity between mankind and other earth-life.
The essential nature of Citizenship is "Fraternity
localized." As inhabitants of this solar system, our first citizenship-
identity is that of (what we will call) "solarians." This identity is derived
from the fact that all life-expressions on this planet and all life-
expressions on the other planets of this system are microcosms of a common
source--our Solar-Logos. If there were some way of identifying our system in
its relationship with the other solar systems of our galaxy, we could further
qualify our identity as "galactic citizens," then "arch-galactic citizens,"
then the final identity which we have with all other life-expressions as
"Universarians" or "Cosmosians." However, our immediate localization in the
Cosmos is by identity with our immediate Creative Source, the Manifestor and
Governor of this system. We could designate this Source by a personalized
name, for example, "Helios." This could specify the identity of our Source in
the interfraternity of other Solar-Logoi of our galaxy. Then our citizenship-
identity could be, as members of this system, "Heliosolarians" to
differentiate our citizenship-status from other "Solarians" of our galaxy. As
an American citizen of Spanish ancestry is a "Spanish American" (the
background--derivative--qualifies the localized identity), so we would be
designated as "Heliosolarian Earthians" to specify our immediate citizenship
on planet Earth of the solar system of "Helios." In our horoscopes the
circular traditional symbol for the Sun placed in the center of the wheel is
the astrological symbol of "Helios" as our Creative Source; the suggested
symbol of "semi-circle on horizontal line" (a symbol-picture of the rising
Sun) is our personalized consciousness of the existence and nature of
"Helios"; we designate this new symbol simply as "Sun" because it represents a
relative comprehension of the nature of "Helios."
The archetypal astrological symbol of democratic
citizenship (as the principle of fraternity manifesting in a governmental
form) is the sign Libra, seventh house-sign of the Great Mandala and cardinal
initiator of the air-trine from which all specifications of fraternity are
derived. Because the four cardinal signs indicate the basic specifications of
our polaric-generic Being, the mandala with Libra as Ascendant will now be
considered as the root of our democratic citizenship consciousness.
As "Cosmosians," the Libra mandala pictures our
attribute as "Reactors and Reflectors"--we react to the stimulus of other
people's expressions. The occult mystery of the positive aspect of the
vibratory power of Venus, as ruler of a cardinal sign, is seen in the fact
that the action that we express subsequent to a reaction to another person's
negative expression can be an expression of transmutative alchemy; we may
react with pain but we do not have to re-project according to the pain-
reaction; we can re-project in such a way that the friction, disharmony, or
negative condition in general is neutralized. Thus, in this mandala, Libra
(one of the signs which are focalized by Venus) is the expressor, but its
expression, because Libra is the reflective polarity of Aries, is that of
counter-active or transmutative alchemy. In this mandala, the
"transcendencies" of the signs Libra through Pisces focalize the elements of
soul-consciousness in those archetypal experience-chapters which usually
pertain to the consciousness of the "separative self." To react and express by
transmutative alchemy is to raise the consciousness of separative self into a
degree of the octave of the "inclusive self." To the degree that regenerate
action follows reaction will the combined vibratory forces of two, or many,
people magnetized in relationship be transmuted.
In physical terms, this mandala portrays woman as
expressor, man as reactor; it portrays, in a more abstract sense, the
expressiveness of soul-consciousness, the reactiveness of self-consciousness.
Dynamic expressions of negative selfishness are the things which bombard the
receptivity of the Venus-vibration; the reactive expression of Venus is to
neutralize the destructive element and thereby establish a greater degree of
unified good. In the democratic fraternity of marriage, this Libra-Ascendant
pictures not only woman; it pictures the composite soul-conscious-ness of both
people; it symbolizes the beauties and perfections which each person sees in
the other; it symbolizes the beauties and perfections of each that are ignited
in consciousness by the dynamic essence of the other. This is the "raising in
love" (not "falling in love") by which two humans, citizens in the world of an
intensely focused relationship, are enabled to perceive their soul-elements
through mutual ignition of idealities. The transmutative alchemy that takes
place in a love-relationship (and all love-relationship is marriage in the
realms of consciousness) is Libra as initiator of new life-consciousness and
as epigenitor of a new world of experience. Husband and wife--twofold
manifestations of lover-beloved--are fraternal citizens in the "democratic
country of the union which they establish;" the epigenetic development of
each, through physical, mental, emotional, and vibratory inter-fusion, is the
purpose of the union; individualized expression of both, mutual respect of
individualities, and cooperative action in the love-service of child-begetting
and child-stewardship composite the democratic quality of true love-union.
Consequently we see that a government based on democratic principles is, of
all governments, the one most highly charged with the essence of love-
consciousness. Only people who had evolved a high degree of awareness of the
unity of love-power were qualified to promulgate democratic governmental
principles. They were people who had, to a degree, realized the ideal of
interfraternity of humans as Earthians and as citizens of a localized national
group. The respect for the individual rights of males and females and the
provision of opportunity for individual expression picture the spiritual love-
principles of marriage transposed into the extended octave of the
"togetherness" of males and females on this planet or in a specific racial
type or in a particular national form. The individual human, in the
localization of his or her personal family life, proves the type of his ruler-
ship-consciousness; as he is in his consciousness, so is he in his family and
so is he in his relationship with fellow-nationals.
Now to consider the "childhood of attainment." We
refer to the sign Gemini in the Great Mandala as the immaturity of the
citizenship-consciousness of Humanity. This is the third house-sign; as a
root-sign it is the twelfth house-sign of the matrix-sign Cancer--it is that
which "lies behind all parental expression." In this respect, Gemini's
relationship to Cancer (and its polarity, Capricorn) is that which impels
>parentage; it is the physical sons and daughters to a specific couple of
husband and wife; it is the karmic sons and daughters born to a specific
polarization of national ancestral background. Cancer-Capricorn, in
relationship to Aries-Libra, is "that from which Form (manifestation) is
derived." We do not inherit national traits; we are magnetized to parents of
specific ancestry by the quality of our consciousness. "National trait" is
just another way of saying "vibratory quality concentrated in a large number
of people." We have words like "Scandinavian," "Spanish," "Polish," etc., to
designate the citizenship of our physical birth or the national background of
our parents, but there are many people who are not similar in nationalistic
quality to their parentage; in fact they can be unsympathetic to the
traditions and nationalistic viewpoints of their parentage. These people prove
that, in consciousness, they are citizens of a different ideality--they find
their affinity with people whose interests, ideals, and aspirations parallel
their own. However, born in the localization known as "The United States of
America," all children, by karmic magnetization are brought in contact with
the ideals and aspirations expressed by the spiritually-minded founders of
this nation; the essence of democratic citizenship is the cornerstone of the
national edifice which they established. As Gemini, then, our children are
"young, immature, growing Americans."
It may safely be said at this point that incarnation
as "American citizen" means that every child (regardless of his karmic or
ancestral background) is timed to learn more of the spiritual ideal of
democratic living. There have been many great democratically-minded
individuals in human history. Democracy does not mean "political party"; it is
a state of spiritual consciousness. The immortal Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt
almost six thousand years ago, has been called the first democratic ruler in
human history; as sovereign of his people he sought to establish the
principles of religious freedom, legal equality of the sexes and spiritual
education as integral parts of the life of his subjects. He was, by the
transcendent quality of his mind, heart, and spirit, a true "Son of Helios":
his concepts of rulership included a sense of his basic fraternity with his
subjects and that of his subjects to each other. If modern education in this
country can teach, or vitalize, an awareness of fraternity in the minds of
today's children, it will have fulfilled its esoteric purpose. If modern
education can teach the Law of Cause and Effect it will have fulfilled its
principal exoteric purpose because understanding of this law is the root of
all education. The education of the factual intellect is important, of course,
but brilliantly-endowed intellects can, and some do, live in a world which
they interpret as chaotic, incoherent, confused, and unintelligible because
they themselves are chaotic, incoherent, confused, and unintelligible in their
relationship to themselves and to other people. They do not know that they
themselves cause the conditions which register as effects in their lives.
Gemini natives, then, as specific children born of specific parents in a
specific locality, are citizens in the world of learning, the world of home
and school. In a democratic governmental administration, the recognition is
given to the right of every child to learn, to organize and coordinate his
mental faculties, to extend his knowledge (brought over from past
incarnations) of the objective world, to unfold his talents and potentialities
for work-service and to become more spiritually informed. This recognition is
given by virtue of respect for the child's individualized existence on this
planet and respect for the good which he, potentially, may do as an adult. The
generic essence of Gemini, in such designation, is feminine; the boy-student
and girl-student function through the years of their learning-experience as
in-takers; they function as receptors of and reactors to educational stimuli
which are projected by the dynamic essence of Gemini's planetary polarity,
Jupiter (ruler of Sagittarius). The Jupiterian polarization of Mercury's
Gemini states that all true education is spiritual--knowledge of principles is
macrocosm to knowledge of effects; knowledge of cause-and-effect clears the
channelings for all other knowledge. The evolutionary instinct to spiritualize
the concept of life-service is shown by the Virgo-Pisces vertical diameter of
the Gemini mandala; the ideal of perfect personal and impersonal service is
that which "gestates" the aspiration to learn. Knowledge (or understanding)
that is not used for contributive improvement of human life is, relatively,
"dead material." Therefore, as members of family-groups and of school groups,
children are citizens in the state of mental maturing. The stewardship
principle of this identity is the Cancer-Capricorn diameter on the second and
eighth cusps--the "possession of group or national or family citizenship" is
to be transposed into the octave of stewardship of the human group by exercise
of that which is intellectually and spiritually learned. As long as we
incarnate in the human archetype, we have citizenship only as "Earthians"; to
congest on possession of American citizenship is to inhibit and constrict the
sense of identity as Earth-citizenship. The human archetype is our family, it
is the "society" to which we belong, it is the specification of our identity
in relationship to our solar logos, "Helios," of whose power we are the
highest epigenetic manifestation on this planet. Gemini is ninth house-sign of
the Libra mandala--the sense of fraternity distilled from past incarnations
represents the wisdom aspect of our focused complementary relationship-
consciousness in the present incarnation. Injustices of viewpoint regarding
the principles of polarity in human relationship serve to congest the
flowering of love-relationship, marital experience, and fraternal citizenship
with compatriots and fellow-students-in-life generally.
Aquarius, fixed air-sign, is eleventh house-sign of
the Great Mandala and fifth house-sign of the Libra mandala. As the latter, it
is the transcendent essence of love-power in human relationships. It is
"personal love that knows no barriers of external qualification," it is love
that perceives the inner value and the inner reality of human individuality.
It is the decrystallization of congested, egoistic aspects of personal Leo-
love; it is love as the "heart-aspect" of the Master-ship-consciousness.
The Aquarius mandala shows Capricorn at the twelfth
cusp; that which is to be redeemed is crystallization of concept of separative
human group-identity. Nations separate and different from each other,
competitive against each other in fear and insecurity, are to he, by the
Uranus vibration as ruler of Aquarius, re-identified as structure points in
the edifice of the total of human society. This mandala, and the placement of
Capricorn-Cancer, definitely pictures the influence of the Masters as those
who serve by recharging the crystallized concepts of "separate nation-
families" by the scope and power of their love-perceptions into a clearer
realization of the one nation and the one family. The national placement of a
Master--or of one who loves with a degree of Master-love--is the vibratory
form into which he incarnates to fulfill his spiritual service; Joan of Arc
for France, Queen Elizabeth for England, Kahlil Gibran for the people of
Syria, etc. In all of these cases a service of inspired regeneration was
performed for specified human groups but the entire race ultimately benefited
by that service. If for example, Gibran thought of himself, in a congested
way, only as a Syrian, the power of his poetry and painting would have been
correspondingly depleted. He was a Syrian only by localized national identity;
he was, and he knew it, in reality an Earthian and a "Solarian." The fraternal
citizenship symbolized by Aquarius is the most complete picture of democratic
principle in action because the scope of its power and influence includes all
humans, regardless of outer aspects, background,or parentage. Aquarius, as
ninth house-sign from Gemini, is fraternity universalized; as fifth house-sign
from Libra it is love-radiation impersonalized and love-exchange
spiritualized. All who learn are fellow-citizens and all who love are members
of the heart's democracy.