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The New Aeon: A Consideration of the Astrological
Working title: The New Aeon: A Consideration of the Astrological Symbolism
by Benjamin Rowe
Copyright 1992 by Benjamin Rowe
Permission is granted to distribute this work in electronic form, with the these
conditions:
1) No fees may be charged for the distribution or transmission of this document,
other than standard charges for use of transmission lines or electronic media.
Distribution for commercial purposes or by commercial entities is specifically
prohibited.
2) All copies distributed must contain the complete, unedited text of the original
document and this copyright notice.
3) Persons acquiring the electronic version of this document may make one printed
copy for their personal use.
All other rights are retained by the author.
Preface
This paper is a work-in-progress that may never be finished. In the course of
writing it, I have found myself, time after time, in a situation that might be called
"awash in correspondences." The options, the possibilities for taking the subject in
different directions, have been too many to handle; narrowing them down enough to
finish it seems beyond my capability at present.
Nevertheless, even in its current (admittedly sketchy and unbalanced) form, I
feel it has many points that will be of interest to those interested in the broader
magickal context within which our personal inititatory work is taking place. While
the general approach of the work is astrological in tone, the content is intended for
magicians.
Those interested in commenting on the paper can reach me over PODnet
under my handle of "Josh Norton". Alternatively, I can be reached via Compuserve
EMail under I.D. number 75230,2163.
Introduction
In our Western culture and its ancestors in Europe, the Middle East, and
northern Africa, the precession of the equinoxes has consistently been accompanied
by shifts in the encompassing definition of humanity's relationship to the universe at
large, what we might call the world-view of the era. This definition has had a
profound impact on the direction of cultures within its influence. The development
of human thought becomes focused into particular lines; other lines of thought are
excluded from general acceptance. A corresponding change is seen in the activities
and social structures adopted by the affected cultures.
Astrologers and magicians have generally assumed that the sign of the vernal
equinox alone defines an era?s world-view. A closer examination shows this
assumption is inadequate; the other three signs in the same zodiacal cross must be
taken into consideration. Additionally, the planets "ruling" and "exalted" in the signs
have a significance equal to that of the signs themselves.
The four signs of an era's zodiacal cross take on, for the culture as a whole,
something of the same function that is served by the four "angles" or cardinal points
in an individual's horoscope. Figure 1 shows the overall correspondences between
the two groups.
At first this arrangement might appear counterintuitive. Astrologically, the
equinoctial axis and the horoscope's ascendant-descendant axis both divide the
sphere of the heavens into "light" and "dark" halves. It would be reasonable to think
that there would be an identity between them in any set of correspondences.
However, observations of historical and current-day events do not support the
assumption. Instead, the sign of the vernal equinox takes on the aspect of the
midheaven angle.
[insert figure 1 here]
For an individual, the midheaven is literally the point over their head at the
time of birth. It is the high point of an axis going from space to the center of the
earth directly through their body. The powers of the larger cosmos enter into them
along this axis. Their perception of their goals in life, their image of what they can
become in their perfection, and the way in which they can unite themselves with the
divine powers of the universe are all indelibly colored by the sign on their
midheaven. Similarly, the culture's perception of its long-term goals, its potential
evolution, and its relationship to the universe at large is colored by the vernal
equinox sign for its era. The perceptions are identical except for the scale on which
they appear. Therefor the vernal equinox sign is properly set in correspondence to
the midheaven, and the positions of the other three signs are adjusted accordingly.
The Immum Coeli or nadir is the point at the other end of the vertical axis in
the horoscope, the end at the core of the Earth. The Earth is the foundation or base
on which humans and all their creations stand, and it blocks a large portion of the
heavens from view at any position on its surface. Correspondingly, the individual's
perception of their fundamental nature, of what they are at the roots of their being, is
largely determined by this angle. It also acts as a filter coloring the conscious self's
perception of things welling up from the preconscious levels of being. A similar
perception and filtering occurs on the cultural level.
The midheaven and nadir are polar opposites in a state of tension; both in the
individual and in a culture they define the differences between heavenly and
mundane, between light and dark, between objective and subjective states, between
what is concealed and what is arrayed openly. The ascendant and descendant, on the
other hand, both represent modes of transition between the polar opposites, two main
paths through which the poles relate to each other.
In the individual horoscope, the ascendant or rising sign represents the way
in which the personal subjective consciousness faces the external objective world. It
is a window through which the self looks out into the world, and through which it
receives input from that world. It is in a sense the face or mask the person projects to
the world, the surface image behind which the internal workings of the subjective
self are hidden. At the same time it is a filter, a figurative set of colored glasses
through which the person sees the world.
The descendant angle represents the individual's perception of the "other",
conceived of as something separate from, but complementary to, the self. It defines
what the individual perceives as the correct way for two or more individual
subjective selves to interact and balance their respective needs and desires.
In the cultural "horoscope" the functions of the ascendant and descendant are
similar but more abstract. The intense personal nature of the ascendant and the
"otherness" of the descendant are weakened. Instead the two corresponding signs of
the cross are simply two complementary means by which the mundane and divine
poles are linked within the context of the society.
We can briefly illustrate this relationship between the signs of a zodiacal
cross and the horoscope angles by looking at the dominant cultural definitions
present in Western culture during the "Piscean" era. After that, we can consider some
of the ways in which the cross of the incoming "Aquarian" era are manifesting now.
A Look Back at Pisces and the Mutable Cross
[insert figure 2 here]
In the last era, the cultural perception of the divine was defined by the sign of
Pisces, its ruling planet Jupiter (now Neptune), and its exalted planet Venus. Pisces
is a sign of endings and beginnings, the link that closes the circle of the zodiac. Both
in the normal passage of the Sun during the year, and in the reversed passage of the
equinoxes, Pisces is considered to be the terminating sign of the cycle. As such it is
associated with the dissolution of old forms, and the absorbtion of the dissolved
material into a pool of substance from which the forms of the new cycle can be built.
As a sign of beginnings, Pisces represents the hidden activities that are necessary
before the first visible appearance of the new cycle. The visible appearance takes
place either in Aries or in Aquarius, depending on the direction of passage.
Pisces is the sign ruling religion, and we can see this manifested in the
dominance of the era by the global religions of Christianity , Islam , and Buddhism .
Pisces is also the sign of the World Saviors, a title applied both to Christ and
Buddha.
The dissolving and absorbing characteristics of the sign can be seen in all
three religions, in the way they created cultural entities that disregarded the
boundaries of local political and ethnic groupings. Christianity in particular worked
the dissolution of local religious practices by transforming the gods and goddesses of
those religions into saints of its own order, who retained the attributes of the old
gods but were now explicitly subordinate to the Christ and his God in the broader
culture of "Christendom." Islam tended more to eradication than to absorbtion, but
with essentially the same result, a broad pan-ethnic "Land Under God's Rule." In
Buddhism, the dissolution of old forms can be seen in its intent to free its
practitioners from the karmic burdens of the past and allow them to get off the
Wheel of Life. Due to its rejection of violence, Buddhism has never achieved the
forceful unification of cultures that Christianity and Islam have done, but its
philosophy and practices have nevertheless become equally widespread.
The idea of sacrifice, another Piscean characteristic, is also present in all
three religions. The Christian mythos has it that Christ was sacrificed to "save"
humanity from damnation. Christianity and Islam have always encouraged men to
sacrifice their lives to the benefit of their religion and god. Buddha sacrificed his
high status in society, and later sacrificed all that he was as an individual, to free
humanity from the Wheel. The motivation for his work was compassion for all
sentient beings, and compassion is also a Piscean quality. Even today he is revered
as the Compassionate One.
The ruling planet, Jupiter, represents the force that dominates within the
context of the era; Pisces being the religious sign, this force was perceived as being
God. Jupiter the All-Father is the child's image of the male parent, blown up to
cosmic proportions. He is the benevolent tyrant who gives blessings and punishment
by turns, the one who lays down and enforces the rules (without bothering to explain
them), the One Who Is To Be Obeyed.
This image of God is common to both Christianity and Islam. Buddhism
again manifests the Jupiterian influence in a more subtle form, because of its
outright rejection of the gods. It could not avoid the Piscean coloring of the era
entirely; despite the fact that the core of Buddhism is not religious in the Western
sense, that core has become swathed in a multitude of religious trappings, with the
Buddha himself (as the "Great One", i.e., Jupiter) taking the place of God.
The exalted planet, Venus, represents the power that can be brought to its
perfection in the era. Venus as Love was the core theme of the Christ's teaching, the
single principle that was to replace and free people from the laws of Moses. In the
West, this principle of exalted love reached its apotheosis in works of the romantic
troubadours, most notably the Tristam cycles of stories.
The sign of Virgo was on the nadir in the Piscean era, and therefore
represents the common image of humanity, the culture's perception of its people's
fundamental nature. Virgo is traditionally the sign of peasants, servants, armies (i.e.
peasant levies), and other people performing simple or repetitive tasks under the
direction of a superior. The virtues of the sign are obedience to authority,
conscientiousness and meticulousness in the performance of duty, and contentment
with one's place - precisely those "virtues" that the Christian Church encouraged in
the populace for most of two millennia, along with other virtues designed to ensure a
steady supply of replacement peasants. Using Christian terminology, the purpose of
the populace was to be sheep.
Islam did not go as far as Christianity in making obedience to rulers and
priests a virtue - at least until recently. But the Virgo character has always been
present in its principles of obedience and submission to the Will of God. Every man
in effect became king and priest of his own little kingdom under God, obedient and
submissive to God, but in turn having a "lower" order of beings - women and
children - who had to be obedient and submissive to him. The intermingling of the
Islamic and Christian cultures in southern Europe during the medieval period
eventually infected Christianity with this tendency.
Buddha, as usual, developed the sanest approach to dealing with these
energies. Instead of making the virtues of Virgo applicable to the society as a whole,
he incorporated the general nature of the sign into his methods of initiation. Buddhist
monks are required to spend the part of their day not used for meditation in
performing the many menial tasks necessary to maintaining their community. Such
tasks, while they exist in the general community of the culture, are not required of
non-monks by Buddha's prescriptions.
The remaining two signs - in this case Gemini and Sagittarius - represent
the mode of linkage between the divine and human poles of the midheaven-nadir
axis. The effect of the ascendant sign, Gemini, is clear with respect to the Piscean
era, the effect of the descendant sign, Sagittarius, is less obvious.
Gemini is ruled by the planet Mercury. Since no planet is exalted in this sign,
Mercury takes on additional power as its ruler. Gemini governs the lower or
"concrete" mind and those things that derive from it: speech, writing, books, and
communication in general. But since this is the concrete mind, the things being
communicated tend to be things that can be directly related to the material world.
Both of Christianity and Islam have maintained their continuity over the
centuries through the use of books. The rarity of books and the difficulty of making
them in pre-industrial cultures, and the appearance of magick that they present to the
non-literate have served to bolster the belief in the divine origin of the Bible and
Koran for many centuries. The rarity of other books, and the belief in their magickal
nature, is demonstrated that neither the Christian nor the Islamic priesthoods saw any
need to qualify their books with titles; both "Bible" and "Koran" mean simply "the
Book" - not "Christ's Book", not "Mohammed's Book".
The Book was the final authority on God's intent. Nothing else was ever
permitted to supersede it. And since most of the population could not read even their
native tongue, let alone the Latin or Greek of the Bible, no one could ever question
the selective readings the priests used to convince the masses of one point or another.
For those of us today, living surrounded by the printed word, it is almost impossible
to imagine the credibility given in earlier days to anything that had been written
down, no matter how nonsensical it was. The very fact that someone had taken the
tremendous trouble to create a book gave an automatic assumption that what it
contained was true and important. Skepticism about the written word was almost
nonexistent until Gutenberg and his partners made books an accepted and
unremarkable fact of daily life.
For much of the duration of Christianity, to be a monk, a seeker after god,
meant to be a preserver and copier of the Word of God. Thousands of monks spent
the greater portion of their lives copying pages of the Bible; this was literally one of
the holiest works one could perform. Writing and religious vocations were
inextricably linked in the public mind. Thus the term "cleric" or "clerk", originally
applicable only to priests or monks, came to be a generic term for anyone whose
occupation involved writing.
Buddhism managed an even more difficult trick, but one that is still within
the Gemini pattern. For nearly a thousand years, there were no written Buddhist texts
at all; the words of the Buddha were preserved in the memories of his monks.
Thousands of monks would carefully memorize specific sections of the lore word for
word, continually checking their memories against those of many others who had
memorized the same portions. Through this process of unending cross-checking,
they managed to carry a decent recording of the Enlightened One's words for a
remarkable length of time.
So for the mass of humanity in the Piscean Era, the primary link between the
divine and man was the Gemini magick of the Word. The link represented by
Sagittarius was less often used, since most manifestations of it required the ability to
read and think clearly before they could be used. In Christian lands the priesthood
also actively discouraged its use, since it was a threat to their authority as the arbiters
of the Word. But despite their resistance, it can be seen to have had a significant
effect in the religion's development.
The Gemini link was extremely concrete in its manifestations; the Bible is
almost entirely a compilation of events alleged to have occurred in the mundane
world, the Koran almost as much so. Few examples of genuine abstract thinking can
be found in either book. Sagittarius, on the other hand, represents the higher mind,
that part of the mind that works with qualitative abstractions, visions, symbolic
representations, and the creation of synthesizing linkages between discreet pieces of
information.
The sign's glyph, the upward-pointed arrow, confirms that its orientation is
away from the specific events of the mundane world and towards the perception of
larger patterns into which those events fit. Jupiter, the sign's ruler, again confirms
this. He appears here not in the role of the father-god, but in his more generalized
astrological role as the embodiment of the principles of expansion and inclusiveness.
Note that the action of Sagittarius does not necessarily connect with the idea
of science as we know it today, though great scientists often have the ability to think
in the Sagittarius mode. Its goal is not so much to attain knowledge of specific facts,
but rather to attain understanding or comprehension of the universe as a whole. The
Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus defines the essence of this mode; the many
sets of correspondences that are the basis for modern magickal work are the product
of such thinking, as is this paper you are reading.
Most of the Piscean-era men and women we now know as great magicians
shared a viewpoint that was essentially Sagittarian; they sought to include all of both
the natural world and the magickal world in an inclusive scheme, making no real
distinctions between what we now call science and what we call magick or religion.
It was all one world to them, to be comprehended as such. Knowledge of any area of
existence contributed to their comprehension of the whole. Naturally this attitude
was perceived as a threat by the religious authorities, who had a vested interest in
restricting knowledge to that which could be gained from their holy books.
An equally threatening aspect of Sagittarius is its tendency towards visionary
experiences. The multilevel symbolism of visions, and the way that the symbols tend
to jump across the carefully-restricted boundaries of words, was disturbing to the
clerics of both Christianity and Islam. The true visionaries were set on fire by what
they saw, and would never allow themselves to be guided by clerics in their
interpretations of their visions. As a consequence, the religious authorities frequently
found it necessary to set them on fire in a more literal sense, or to lock them up in
monastic communities. And yet, we often find that a generation or two later, the
Church would invest these same visionaries with sainthood, and adopt the principles
they espoused into the formal teachings of the Church. It seems that the Sagittarian
side of the equation was responsible for instigating many of the changes that the
Church was forced to adopt over the centuries.
On other levels, the Sagittarian aspect of the mutable cross manifested with
great strength. On the physical plane, the sign's characteristics of expansion and
inclusiveness show themselves as long-distance travel, and the entire Piscean era was
one in which contacts were being made between increasingly distant areas of the
globe. Exploration went from being the province of individuals to being a sanctioned
and organized activity of groups within the major societies. Local cultures started to
become aware of themselves as existing within a larger context, and trade with
distant cultures went from being a monopoly of certain groups to being something
generally practiced. By the waning days of the era, when the incoming Aquarian
powers brought improvements in the technology of travel, effectively the entire
world was known and interconnected in a web of transportation.
A corresponding and connected effect was seen in the political realm. The
long-distance links and increased knowledge of the world provided by the
Sagittarian tendency to travel combined with the sign's ability to enhance the
perception of abstract similarities between overtly dissimilar things. These combined
in turn with the power of Jupiter-as-ruler in the midheaven sign to produce the great
empires or overcultures of the Piscean Era. The Roman overculture was more or less
secular in nature, being rooted in the prior Aries era; but not surprisingly, the two
"pure" Piscean overcultures, Christendom and Islam, had a distinctly religious tone,
so that in the minds of the people being part of the overculture was identical with
being united with the divine.
What all three of these overcultures had in common was that through the use
of abstractions they provided a means for dissimilar local cultures to perceive
themselves as part of a larger whole. Rome provided ways that any person of good
worth could become a citizen, no matter his birthplace or previous cultural
connections. In Christianity and Islam membership in the overculture was a matter
of adopting the religion in question.
In each case there were rules of behavior and demeanor, sufficiently general
as to not conflict greatly in interactions with local cultures, the adoption of which
signaled that a person was a member of the overculture. These rules enabled people
from places widely separated in space to meet and be assured that they had at least a
minimum common basis for communication. Eventually the social abstractions of
the overcultures became ingrained in the local cultures, and were thought simply as
the "right" way to do things. They never completely eliminated conflicts between
local cultures and rulers, any more than the evolving American overculture has
eliminated regional quirks and biases. But they did greatly reduce the violence of
those conflicts on the personal level, and the frequency of violent conflicts on the
group level. And the awareness of culture as something separate from a specific
place or group paved the way for the global awareness that is a necessary part of the
Aquarian era.
In such a way the four signs of the mutable cross together combined to
determine the world-view and philosophical development of the Piscean era. This
summary presents the most general effects of the cross; the influence extended far
beyond the examples shown. Those with knowledge of the historical details of the
era should be able to apply this fourfold symbolism to many areas not considered
here.
The Signs of Our Times - Aquarius and the Fixed Cross
[insert figure 3 here]
As the equinoxes precess through the signs, there is no sharp cutoff between
one era and another. The eras intermix to an extent. One era reaches its apotheosis,
continues at its peak for a while, then gradually begins to fade, the next in turn
gradually coming into power at the same time. The Aquarian influence first appeared
shortly after the Black Death swept Europe in the thirteenth century. The severe
labor shortage resulting from the plague opened the door to the manifestation of that
influence, by creating a situation in which the common man's labor and skills
suddenly became a highly valuable commodity. This awareness of self-worth began
the destruction of the Piscean peasant-mentality, and produced the first conceptions
of the themes of individual worth and collective power that are the keynote of the
Aquarian era.
The influence faded for a century and reappeared with greater power in the
fifteenth. At that time, Gutenberg's printing press dealt a crippling blow to the power
of the sacred Word by making books cheap enough to be a marketable commodity.
When people could possess and read their own copies of the Bible, they were no
longer dependent on the church and could make their own interpretations. Greedy
churchmen aggravated the situation, taking advantage of the press to create and sell
dispensations, certificates, and other printed souvenirs to pilgrims. By doing so they
cheapened and undermined their own authority, and made independent interpretation
of the Bible more acceptable.
Since that time the Aquarian current has slowly increased in influence. It is
my belief that a turning point, a final swing of the balance between the Piscean and
Aquarian eras was achieved some time between 1940 and 1960, perhaps a decade
earlier or later. Some of the reasons for this belief will become clear as we examine
the current manifestations of the Aquarian power.
The Piscean era was an intensely religious one, with an unusual emphasis on
the divine as the controlling power in all events. The same cannot be said for the
Aquarian era. The four signs of the fixed cross - and Aquarius in particular - are
intensely human signs. So we can expect that the Aquarian era, while not to be
completely wrapped in bland secularism, will show in the long term a continued
lessening of the power of organized religion in human thought. Other modes, some
of which we probably cannot imagine as yet, will gradually appear to take its place.
Following the schema described at the beginning of this paper, the primary
polarity of the Aquarian era is along the Aquarius-Leo axis of the zodiac, with
Aquarius taking the midheaven position and Leo the position of the nadir or Immum
Coeli. Were the Piscean era a representative case, we could expect that in the new
era Aquarius would tend to dominate and overshadow its opposing sign. But this pair
of signs is unusually compatible; they blend their powers together much more easily
than most of the other pairs of zodiacal opposites. Each is perfectly capable of
joining the other in a seamless but seemingly paradoxical way.
The essence of this paradox can be expressed by saying that the universe is
composed of independent units, but these units - while remaining totally free to act
according to their own nature - interact with other units in such a way as to
produce larger groupings which themselves act as singular entities. The best way to
illustrate the principles involved is to consider the relationship between the cells in
the human body and the functional whole that is the body.
Looked at on their own level, the cells of our bodies act as independent units.
Each has its individual life cycle and its own intrinsic nature that it expresses in all
its activities. Were we able to enter into its level of awareness we would find that it
has some consciousness of itself as something distinct from its surroundings. Given a
minimally supportive environment, the cells are even capable of surviving alone,
entirely separate from the body of which they are normally a part.
But at the same time it acts out its independent existence, the cell - in its
normal environment - continually exchanges information with the other cells in the
body through many means, and each cell is continually adjusting its activity, within
the limits of its nature, on the basis of those signals. Its activity is always consistent
with its individual nature, but relates that nature to its surroundings.
The signals passing between the many cells of the body form larger patterns
of which the cells remain unaware. And in their responses to this complex, patterned
but ever-changing movement of information, the cells together produce something
incomprehensible to any one of them, something whose scope of action is expanded
many orders of magnitude beyond the cell's; something whose nature, in comparison
with the cell's, is miraculous and godlike: a human being. And this being, like the
cells of which it is composed, acts as an individualized and independent unit within
its environment.
This same pattern appears at nearly all the scales of existence of which we
are aware. Subatomic "particles" act according to their own Janus-faced natures, and
at the same time form atoms, entities possessing properties unknown to the
composing particles. Atoms form molecules, again producing new and more
complex properties. Many kinds of molecules combine to produce the cells. At each
level, the number of properties and qualities capable of being expressed expands
enormously. The pattern holds true in the macrocosm as well. All the living things
on the surface of our planet act as an integrated system. Planets and suns form solar
systems, solar systems form clusters, clusters form galaxies, and galaxies again form
clusters. Our perspective is inadequate to perceive all the properties being expressed
by these larger wholes; all we can see is that the pattern persists.
We can relate this pattern easily to the astrological characteristics of the
Aquarius-Leo axis. Leo is at the nadir of our cultural quasi-horoscope and thus
expresses, like Virgo in the Piscean era, what is perceived to be the fundamental
nature of the human race, and by extension, the rest of existence. Leo is the home
sign of the Sun, the most powerful of the astrological "planets." The nature of the
sign is almost entirely washed out by the influence of its ruler.
Sol, as we know, is the centralizing and unifying power. Its symbol is a point
in the center of a circle, indicating a divine spark (the point) defining a periphery
around itself (the circle). Whatever is within the periphery of the spark's area of
influence is absorbed into its activity so that, from outside the defined limit, what is
within appears to move and act as one thing.
This periphery is not a physical limit; it is not necessary to have a barrier
separating inside from outside. Rather the periphery is defined by the radiatory
power of the centralized units. For example, for the solar system as a whole, the
periphery is defined not by the orbits of the planets or the cometary halo, but by the
heliopause, the point along any radius from the sun at which the sun's
electromagnetic radiation and solar wind can no longer push back the interstellar
medium. The limit is a point of balance between opposing pressures.
Similarly, for human beings the limits of their self or ego are not defined by
their skin but instead by the limits of their aura (on the magickal levels) and by their
sense of "personal space" on the mundane levels. Even on the physical plane we
project ourselves beyond the limits of our skin. Every human body is constantly
releasing its own "solar wind", gaseous and electromagnetic radiation that express
the person's current physical, emotional and perceptual state.
So with Sol's sign in the nadir, we can expect that the Aquarian era, as it
comes fully into manifestation, will involve the cultural perception that, at its root,
humanity is composed of individuals, each with their own nature and sphere of
influence. The perception that the mass of men are slaves or servants, as in the
Piscean Age, must be swept aside. In Western countries this process is already well
advanced on the social level, less so politically; elsewhere, particularly in the Far
East, it is present in the minds of people as a possibility, but is almost nonexistent in
the political and social spheres. How well this perception expands its influence will
depend in part on the manifestation of the other end of the midheaven-nadir axis.
Jumping to a more inclusive level, Leo is producing a perception of the
human race as a single entity. The Maatian system presents the most coherent
description within a magickal context; readers should refer to issue 5 of The
Cincinnati Journal of Ceremonial Magick for an introduction to Maatian principles.
But the concept is not limited to Maatians, nor to a strictly magickal context; it
occurs in various forms in many "New Age" writings, some current-day Christian
apocalyptic works, and in less explicit form in many of the influential social theories
of the last century.
On a larger scale, the influence of Leo and Sol passing through the Earth is
producing a growing appreciation of the Earth itself as an individualized whole. The
perception of humankind as something apart from and superior to the other
kingdoms of nature is gradually being replaced with a perception of the true
interdependencies of the four kingdoms, and of the way in which they make up a
single biological entity. Accompanying this is a fundamental change in our
perception of the Earth's place in the universe. Where in prior eras it was believed to
be almost the whole of creation, or at least the primary focus of the attention of the
divine, we now know the Earth to be only one inconsequential sphere in a vast
universe of similar spheres - the planets and stars. This latter perception is
governed by the midheaven sign of our era, Aquarius.
Where Leo and Sol are centralizing forces, Aquarius is a decentralizing
force. Where the consciousness focused in Leo tends to see things in terms of
individualized wholes, the Aquarian consciousness tends to see them in terms of
their components and the patterns of information and energy exchange between
them.
Aquarius is ruled by the planet Uranus, and has Mercury as its exalted planet.
Uranus is traditionally associated with explosive destruction and the breaking up of
forms. Its function would more correctly be viewed as the power of freeing things
from imposed restrictions, loosening the bonds between the components of a
centralized object so that they can take on new patterns of interaction. This need not
result in the destruction of the object in question, particularly if the bonds being
loosened are social or mental rather than physical. Uranus also governs such things
as uniqueness, independence, individuality, and free expression. In the area of
natural phenomena it governs quantum phenomena, including electricity and
electromagnetic radiation, and vibratory motions in general.
Mercury being exalted in Aquarius, its activity here is on a higher level than
in the two signs it rules. In connection with Gemini we viewed Mercurial thought
and speech as being very much related to specific concrete events; here it is more
concerned with abstract thought, with ideas at several removes from the events on
which they are based, and with the communication of those thoughts.
Aquarius itself is related to the principle of patterned activity. Its glyph, two
parallel zigzag lines, suggests activities that are coordinated across different levels of
existence without being obviously connected to each other. Combining the powers of
the sign, its ruler, and its exalted planet, we have the situation described at the
beginning of this section: independent, individualized beings, freely communicating
their natures in an environment of similar beings, with patterned activity of a higher
order being the result.
As the number of entities involved increases and the intensity of the
communication between them becomes greater, the group as a whole begins to
generate an aura of radiatory power similar to that which marks the boundary of an
individualized entity. The level of communication eventually crosses a threshold
where the entities, while still expressing their individual natures, are adjusting to
each other so quickly and thoroughly that they appear to act as a unit with respect to
the environment outside their group. The internal structure of the group disappears
from view in the radiance of the group aura, and from the outside it appears that a
new entity of a higher level has been created.
Figure 4 shows the complete cycle of this process. Note that in this cycle we
begin with Leo, pass on to Aquarius, and eventually pass back to Leo on a more
inclusive level. Neither one truly dominates the process, unlike the definite
hierarchical dominance present in the Piscean midheaven-nadir polarity.
[insert figure 4 here]
Between the poles of singularity and decentralization, the two "horizon"
signs represent the activity of transition in this cycle of development. Scorpio, the
sign on the descendant, represents the transformation of a singular entity into a
multitude of entities with diverse natures, a process sometimes called death. Taurus,
the ascendant sign, represents the tendency of elements in diversified systems to
become increasingly interdependent and mutually supportive. Looked at another
way, they represent the two basic modes of interaction between entities: competition
and cooperation.
At each level of existence, these two apparently opposed tendencies appear.
The cells of a zygote in the process of growth show an increasing diversity of
functions and behavior; but at the same time those diverse cells order themselves
into organs, and all maintain a changing yet balanced relationship within the
growing organism. Similarly, species develop more diverse forms and functions as
we move "up" the evolutionary scale, but those forms retain structural similarities
and all species are dependent on others to maintain their continued existence within
the biosphere.
In the relations between the species in Earth's biosphere, the two
transformative signs often work together so closely as to almost merge. The waste
products of the animal kingdom, poisonous to their producers, are the nutrients of
the plant kingdom; the oxygenous waste of plants is the breath of life to the animals.
Predators benefit their prey species by killing individual members, preventing
expansion of population beyond their food resources. When the predators die,
scavenger organisms quickly recycle their bodies into nutrients to feed the plants that
feed their prey. Every death and dissolution of an individual form leads to the
nourishment and development of other forms. The food chain, superficially
hierarchical, is actually a food cycle with everything being eaten in turn to
continuously regenerate the biospheric entity, which remains itself throughout the
constant transformations of its components.
Less drastic forms of cooperation are also common. Plants commonly
provide insects, birds, and animals with specialized foods in exchange for their help
in reproduction. Small animals feed on the parasites of larger animals. Species with a
sharp eye for predators join with others skilled at finding food, enhancing the safety
and well-being of both.
Competition, cooperation, individual and group activity; the four arms of the
fixed cross are inextricably interwoven in biological processes. Every one of them,
and every combination of them, can be found in all the events that make up the
internal functioning of the planetary being.
These four urges are equally active and intermixed in the human kingdom as
in any of the others. On the lowest level, humanity competes with and cooperates
with species of the other kingdoms, with an effect far beyond what is normally
accomplished by such interactions. Species we cooperate with (such as grain-
producing plants, meat animals, and pets) find the competition of other species in
their kingdom effectively nullified, and flourish as a result. Those we compete with -
- deliberately or incidentally -- find their numbers significantly reduced, or disappear
all together.
The internal interactions of the human kingdom show the effects of these
four urges with even greater intensity. Every interaction, at every level from the
individual through the social and political to the global, is in some way an attempt to
find a balance between them for a particular set of participants and circumstances.
The two horizon signs are so potent in human affairs that some occult sources have
defined the kingdom's essential purpose in terms of their activity, calling it the
kingdom of "Harmony through Conflict".
Overlaying and permeating the basic interactions of humans in the biosphere,
the more important expression of cooperation and competition, of Harmony through
Conflict, takes place on subjective levels. In the subjective or magickal aspect of the
universe, the task of humanity is to create links between the divine and the material
poles of existence, harmonizing these apparent opposites and causing the material
world to reflect the current state of the continuing act of divine creation. For the
majority of humanity, this involves sensing an ideal or idea, interpreting it in
personal terms, and attempting to create an object, process or social activity in the
mundane world that matches their perception.
Where the other kingdoms are composed of physically diverse forms, the
diversity within the human kingdom lies primarily in the realm of the mind. Along
with a versatile body, each individual is given a unique set of mental predispositions:
a number of talents for particular activities, lack of talent in other areas, with unique
ways of putting those talents together. Equally diverse are the emotions, ideas,
perceptual frames, and self-images that determine where and how the individual
members of the kingdom are motivated to act. These differences ensure that the
many people who sense a particular ideal will each perceive different aspects of it,
and that their individual efforts to manifest what they perceive will call the energies
of the fixed cross into play.
The sensing of an ideal by an individual is predicated on there being an
energetic correspondence between the some part of the ideal and some part of the
individual's nature. Where such a correspondence exists, the individual is
subjectively stimulated and motivated to express what they sense. At the same time,
the stimulation produces a resonance or harmonic vibration which, through the
medium of the astral and intellectual planes, brings the person into contact with
others having similar perceptions.
Where there is sufficient similarity between two or more individual's sense of
the ideal, they tend to gather and come into closer communication with each other,
as in the first stage shown in figure 4 above. Coming together, they begin a process
by which the differences underneath the broad similarity of their perceptions are
revealed. If the similarity is strong enough, they are held together through a period
of shifting relationships and adjusting ideas wherein they arrive at a mode of
interaction that expresses a "purified" form of their sense of the ideal, one that
reconciles or eliminates the differences between them and strengthens those aspects
of the ideal they have in common. This group expression often takes on a life of its
own, separate from those who created it, and often survives beyond the period of the
original group's interaction. Individuals come and go, and the details change over
time, but the general expression of the ideal remains intact. Thus the four arms of the
fixed cross are shown in action, taking a group of individuals in communication with
each other, and leading them through stages of conflict and harmonization to the
point where a new individuality on a larger scale comes out of their interaction.
These group expressions come into contact with other groups in the world,
and must in their turn go through the process of conflict and harmonization on a
broader scale. The process becomes more difficult because unlike the individuals
that formed the group originally, the other group entities do not usually have a
common sense of the ideal as a basis for interaction. At the level at which most
humans can sense it, the divine is not a single ideal but a multitude, many of which
are in apparent conflict in one or another area; various groups will be attempting to
express all of these.
Additionally, the most powerful group expressions are institutionalizations of
ideals that are centuries old, outdated and unconnected to the current state of the
divine ideals, but continuing in existence on the power of their habitual acceptance
as part of the human milieu. In a sense they represent the karma of the human
kingdom, the consequences of past choices that must be dealt with in determining
the future path.
Every group entity produced by the human kingdom must compete and learn
to harmonize its goals with all these other groups, as well as the many divine ideals
that never become manifested organizationally, but exist only as ideas passed
between individuals within the network of society. Since new groups continually
form as outdated groups pass away or change their nature, the result -- particularly in
a era of intense communication like the present -- is a continual ferment.
These higher-level interactions quickly pass beyond the grasp of any
individual's perception. The best we can do is pick out general themes and trends
that appear consistently over time. These represent lines of development on which a
degree of harmonization has been achieved. In the following sections, we will look
at a few examples of such themes -- not necessarily representative of all those
currently active -- which establish that the "Age of Aquarius" is now in existence.
The Fixed Cross in Action
There is a great deal of evidence to show that the Aquarian era has in fact
come into being. It is still in its early stages, and we cannot project what the era will
be like at its peak; but we can examine some examples of how it is manifesting now,
and perhaps use these to make some very broad generalizations about the direction
of its development in the next few centuries.
Science as it is currently practiced is almost a pure Aquarian manifestation.
The basis of the scientific method is to break down a seemingly continuous natural
event into its component parts. The relationships between these smaller units are
systematically changed, and the resulting changes in their individual and group
manifestations are observed. Gathering sufficient observations allows the abstract
rules governing the interactions of the components to be formulated. When enough
of these rules are discovered, a model of the natural event can be created.
Translating this description into its astrological correspondence, science takes
a Leonian whole (the natural event) and uses the disruptive action of Mars and
Uranus in Scorpio to transform it into its Aquarian equivalent of smaller independent
units (Uranus) exchanging information between each other (Mercury). Uranus
governs change, and its action is systematically applied to the relationships between
the units. The resulting changes in the natural event (Leo) and the interactions of its
components (Aquarius) are recorded and organized into abstract rules (Mercury).
The abstract rules are eventually harmonized (through the gathering action of Venus
in Taurus) into a model or detailed image reflecting the natural event (Luna exalted
in Taurus). If the model is accurate enough, it is given recognition as a theory, a
Leonian whole corresponding to the original event but existing on an abstract level.
So the scientific method represents, astrologically, a continuous cycling between Leo
and Aquarius through the mediation of the horizon signs, as was the case in our
general description of this polarity.
Beyond this overall correspondence between science and the Aquarius-Leo
axis, there are specific areas of science that have an even closer connection with
these astrological powers because of their relationship to the ruler and exalted planet
of Aquarius. Uranus is strongly related to sub-atomic and atomic matter, and their
manifestations in the mineral kingdom. Since electrons and photons are subatomic
matter, Uranus also governs the use of electricity and electromagnetic radiation.
Speech, writing, and communication, which Mercury governs in its role as the ruler
of Gemini, are specialized manifestations of a more general category that Mercury
governs from its exaltation in Aquarius: "information," and the means by which it
can be represented, controlled, manipulated, and distributed. The speed with which
humanity has acquired knowledge of these areas is evidence that we have passed
from the Piscean era to the Aquarian. The ways in which this knowledge has been
used during the last half-century provides further evidence that the Aquarian
energies have become dominant.
It is an axiom of magickal work that creations manifest on the highest planes
of our system first, and gradually work their way downward. A creation can not be
said to have come into being until it appears in some form on the physical plane.
Following this initial manifestation it works its way upward again, becoming more
elaborate and inclusive, an increasingly accurate reflection of the original divine
intent.
The same holds true for the energies that appear and pass away in the
precession of the equinoxes. Awareness of these energies first comes to high
initiates, who work out their most abstract manifestations. Gradually the work of
these initiates is sensed by those of lower levels, who in turn work out the
appropriate manifestations on their own levels. The energies first appear on the
physical levels of our world as ideas, as intellectual formulations in some small
portion of the populace. As the ideas gain strength, a larger portion of the population
begins to see those ideas as representations of a desirable condition, bringing about a
manifestation on the emotional/astral levels. Eventually, if the emotional
manifestation is strong enough, the energies become manifest on the physical plane
in the form of some category of objects, or in the form of a change in or addition to
the ways in which human beings interact with each other. As the idea interacts with
other pre-existing forms on the physical plane, its manifestation becomes more
detailed, elaborate, and fitted to the conditions in which it exists.
In one case for the energies of the fixed cross, the manifestation was so
potent that in a single generation it went from being a vague realization in the minds
of a few thinkers to being commonplace but vital to every man. Its elaborations in
succeeding decades have produced more change in human civilization than any other
before it. This realization, a pure and abstract combination of Uranus and Mercury,
was that energy conveys information.
Gutenberg and his partners began the Aquarian transformation of human
society when they realized that discrete, identical units of type could be combined to
convey any meaning possible to human language. The wave-like, analog process of
handwriting was transformed into "quanta" of type. But they were still limited in
that, like their ancestors for millennia before, both the means and the product of their
work required the use of gross matter to store and transport the information they
wanted to convey. Moving information from place to place still required the
movement of a physical book between those places; thus while the scope of
communication was greatly increased through economies of scale, the speed of
communication was not increased greatly over what it had been before. Hundreds of
years later, communication was still essentially limited to the speed at which human
or animal muscles could move an object between locations. The development of
transportation that used substitutes for muscle power did not greatly increase this
speed of communication.
The realization that energy conveys information completed the
transformation into the Aquarian era. The glyph of Aquarius signifies an essential
aspect of the sign's nature, showing coordinated activities taking place on different
planes of existence. The transformation was completed when this realization made
possible a completely physical manifestation of conditions that have always existed
on the magickal planes of the universe.
On the magickal planes, distance has never been a factor in communication.
Space as we know it on the physical plane does not exist there, and even within the
magickal-plane equivalent of space it is the degree of similarity between beings that
determines the limits of communication, not the distance between them. With the
advent of the telegraph and telephone, ease of physical-plane communications
became divorced from distance for the first time in human history. The
improvements that have occurred over the last century have erased the distance
factor almost completely; the only distance that matters now is the distance between
the person you want to contact and their telephone. With further miniaturization of
portable telephones, and with satellite switching systems now being planned, within
another two decades the distance factor may disappear entirely. The only limiting
factor in communication will be the other person's interest in talking to you, which is
essentially the same condition that obtains on the magickal planes.
These improvements in communication have had other effects. The most
important has been in the mass dissemination of information. Gutenberg's books
made the mass communication of ideas practical. Radio and television, with their
vastly increased speed of dissemination, have gone a step further and made mass
experience of events possible. It was estimated that a quarter of the world's
population, almost a billion people, saw the first moon landing as it was happening.
A billion people, each with their own unique viewpoint, were able to experience the
same event and give it meaning within the context of their lives. How can we
calculate the effects of such mass experiences, completely unknown to any previous
human era? For surely they must have some large influence on the thought-life of
the race.
Another unification between the magickal and physical worlds began about
the same time as telephony and telegraphy, but did not reach its critical point until
the 1940's. This unification involved the development of physical means for
manipulating abstract information, that is, information separated from a physical
context.
Human beings manipulate abstract entities by directly manipulating the
substance of the planes whereon they exist. Up until this century, any such
manipulation always required the intervention of a human being as part of the
manipulatory process. But in this century means were developed by which many
types of abstract information could be arbitrarily encoded as packets of energy.
Machines were developed in the 1940's that, once given instructions, were able to
manipulate such encoded information entirely without the intervention of a human
being. Thus came into being entirely physical equivalents to processes that formerly
occurred only on the inner planes. These machines developed over the years into the
computers we know today.
Computers are machines whose sole purpose is to manipulate energy-
encoded information; they do not use energy to perform physical work. They may be
used to control other machines that perform physical tasks, but in those instances
they are merely substituting for human beings as information manipulators. They are
not possessed of "mind" in any way; they can not - and may never be able to -
manifest self-awareness, or perform many activities that human beings perform
without even being aware of it. In fact it is precisely because computers do not
possess self-awareness or the versatility of the human mind that they are so useful.
They perform tasks where our mind's need for versatility and variety is a handicap,
such as repetitive calculations, searching for small differences in huge amounts of
information, and duplicating information rapidly and accurately. They are extensions
of our minds that take over scut work, freeing our minds to do what they do best,
discovering and creating meaning out of the events of existence.
Combining the ability of computers to store, handle, and duplicate
information with the near-instantaneous speed of modern communications has made
possible yet another physical manifestation of the Aquarian energies. Earlier in this
paper I described the way in which cells in the body, communicating freely with
each other, combined to make up something with abilities that none of the cells
possessed. I also described the way in which human beings, on the magickal planes
of the universe, communicate and interact with other aware beings to perform
functions within greater entities with qualities and characteristics completely
impossible to individual humans. On today's computer networks there is forming the
beginnings of a system by which the free and uncoerced communications of the
magickal universe can be duplicated entirely within the confines of the mundane
world, again bringing an important aspect of the Aquarian energies into
manifestation.
Most of the major computer networks have laid aside part of their capacity
for the public exchange of information between individuals. The public areas are
divided into smaller areas designated for the discussion of information on specific
topics. These smaller areas are called "Special Interest Groups" or SIGs. Most SIGs
are open to anyone possessing an interest in their subject, and participants are free to
read the messages left there, leave their own messages, and confer or argue with
other SIG members in real-time or delayed-time. Aside from a few rules to keep
discussions from degenerating into name-calling, there are no restrictions on the
types of opinions or ideas that can be expressed. Participation, as with the inner-
plane groups, is entirely voluntary, uncoerced, and dependent upon the interest and
individual natures of the people involved.
The SIGs act as a sort of community memory; ideas can be thrown into that
memory by any person, any "cell" in the larger group. Ideas that resonate with the
group's consciousness will be picked up by others, expanded upon, subjected to
counter-arguments, and generally evaluated by the group. Some ideas will reach a
plateau of development, disappear from sight for a while, and then appear again
when new information or perspectives emerge. Other ideas will continue to evolve
for months or years, often ending up in a form entirely different from that in which
they started.
The SIGs appear to duplicate very closely the sort of interaction that occurs
in inner-plane groups. They are somewhat restricted in comparison with those latter
groups, since they are limited to the kinds of communications that can be put into
words, while the occult groups communicate through every type of energy and state
of awareness available to the participants. Nevertheless the SIGs are a complete and
self-contained physical-plane manifestation of one of the basic characteristics of the
Aquarian energies.
The idea behind SIGs has passed beyond the computer world; many people
participate in special-interest "networks" operating through the slower medium of
the mail. These lack the speed and interactivity of the computer SIGs, but make up
for it in the detailed thought that the extra time allows the participants to give to
their communications.
In summary, this section has briefly shown that the scientific method
conforms to the activity pattern of the Aquarius-Leo zodiac axis. The abstract ideas
resulting from the use of that method relate to the exaltation of Mercury in Aquarius,
while the use of electricity and electromagnetic energy as a means of communication
combines the powers of the ruler and exalted planet of that sign. The conditions
resulting from the tremendous increase in the speed and capacity of communication
are themselves also Aquarian in nature. Further, the combination of the
communications media with information-manipulating machines has allowed the
creation of a physical model of the communications processes occurring on the inner
planes, thus producing a complete manifestation of the Aquarian energies.
The rapidity with which scientific and technologically-based changes have
taken place at the advent of this era can be attributed to two factors. First, the ruler
of Aquarius, Uranus, governs the activity of the subatomic and atomic realms; thus
there was a direct, immediately available path for the manifestation of the
increasingly powerful Uranian energies. Nearly all of the significant changes
resulting so far from the start of the Aquarian era have been closely related to
increases in our ability to understand and control events occurring in the subatomic
realms. In other areas of scientific study, where the general influence of the sign
applies but not the direct influence of Uranus, the rate of progress has been
significantly slower, except where those areas intersect with the study of atomic and
subatomic phenomena.
The second factor is that advances in these areas have been completely new,
completely outside the world-view of the preceding Piscean era. There were no
established prejudices to produce resistance to the advance, and the lack of
appropriate perceptual constructs for dealing with the new advances meant that the
Piscean powers could not react against them quickly enough to prevent their
establishment in a purely Aquarian form. In other areas of human existence, the
incoming Aquarian energies have encountered well-established and habitual thought-
patterns left over from the Piscean era, and the rate of advance has been much
slower. The resistance in the political realm has probably been the greatest.
Governance in the Aquarian Era
The pattern of political mythology for the Aquarian era is already well-
established, and it mirrors the symbolism of the Aquarius-Leo axis. With Leo, the
sign of kings, placed on the horoscope angle that relates to human beings perceived
as a mass, it follows that the basic theme of this mythology is that the people
themselves, the human family, are the rulers in this age. The various forms of
collectivism - Marxist and Maoist communism, fascism, socialism in its many
flavors, majoritarianism (e.g. American democracy) - are all variations on this
theme. All contain some version of the idea that the people rule themselves.
The midheaven generally determines the image taken on by the rulers in a
given age. As was mentioned earlier, in the Piscean age it was normal for the ruling
class to take on the image of Jupiterian superiority, of the God-given right to rule. In
the Aquarian era the image of the rulers is similarly being influenced by the powers
of the sign. Aquarius is traditionally the sign of voluntary service, as opposed to the
"karmic" or predestined service of Virgo. It represents the person who freely
relinquishes their individual pursuits in order to serve the community. In each of the
various political systems mentioned above, those who rule are careful to cultivate the
image that they are the servants of the people, that the actions they take are dictated
by the people and are in the people's best interests.
The reality, as opposed to the image, is often far different. Governance per se
comes under the sign of Capricorn, and Capricorn's theme - insofar as it relates to
governance - is power and control, not service. No matter what the outward form,
government attracts those who seek power; if they serve anyone, it is not the
community as a whole, but those who help them to maintain their power. And those
who gain power seek to hide it in places where their use of it can not be controlled,
and they can not be held accountable for the consequences of its use.
At the present time the Aquarian power is at best a light overlay on these
ages-old patterns of government; even the most "Aquarian" of the current forms of
government were invented at a time when the mutable cross and its Big Daddy
mentality were still in control; a great deal of conflict -- preferably verbal, not
physical -- is still necessary before a system harmonious with the era develops.
However, the situation is still changing rapidly, and there are factors growing in the
Western societies that may eventually serve to make government operate in
accordance with the pattern of the era. As with the world of computer networks, the
key to the change lies with the increasing speed of communication, and with the
voluntary associations that arise from it.
In prior eras, the fastest forms of communication were either under the
control of governments, or so expensive that only governments and a few wealthy
individuals could afford them. This enabled governments to keep a degree of control
over events, particularly in the area of international relations. The relatively long
period of time before distant events could have a local effect allowed the governors
to plan and prepare to control the effects to their best advantage.
With the elimination of the time factor in communications, many events
affecting global conditions are effectively out of the control of any government. For
instance, with the major portion of the world economy's money now in the form of
computer data, private concerns routinely "ship" money from one country to another
in instants, to make use of advantageous local conditions. The amount of capital
available in a country for investment can vary drastically in a short period of time, so
short that governments can not act in time to control it. And the governments can not
introduce delays into the process without also creating potentially fatal delays in the
delivery of vital goods and services. The economy is in fact global, and can not be
controlled by organizations limited by artificial territorial boundaries. The speed
with which transactions take place -- and their sheer volume -- makes it unlikely that
a hypothetical world government would do any better, given the rigidity of
hierarchical chains of command.
The movement of goods has also gone beyond control; if a product is desired
in a given area, it will get there regardless of the wishes of the supposed territorial
rulers. The arms and drug trades show this clearly. Efforts to interdict the flow or
enact extreme punitive measures against those who engage in it simply raises the
price without significantly reducing the quantity, and ensures that the most ruthless
types of human beings will become involved in the business. The borders needing to
be controlled are so large, and the means of transportation so efficient, that effective
interdiction is impossible.
So in the world of commerce, we are approaching a situation where the
world economic entity is becoming governed only by the natural interactions of its
own components, along the lines of the Aquarian symbolism. If the pattern
expressed in that symbolism holds true, then the economy will eventually become
better "regulated" by its natural tendencies than it has been through the intervention
of various governments.
In the American political context, "special interests" has become synonymous
with minorities who openly or secretly use monetary power to influence the
decisions of legislators and executives. While such groups are indeed special interest
groups, they are far from being the only such groups active today. Every group of
people who seek to influence government to what they perceive to be their own
benefit is a special interest group, regardless of their methods. Under this definition,
political SIGs are ubiquitous. Environmentalists, pro- and anti-abortionists, human-
rights, civil-rights, and animal-rights organizations, down to the people looking for a
new street light for their street; all are special interest groups.
Every level of government is being subjected to the pressures of these
groups, and many of them are successful in getting their points taken into
consideration in legislation. The problem is that the success is based on factors
having nothing to do with the merits and demerits of their causes, or of the number
of people who share a view. Success seems to be primarily a function of funding and
the amount of noise they can make. Small and relatively poor groups can not make
themselves heard by their supposed representatives. The free, unrestrained and
unforced participation present in the computer SIGs is not yet a part of the political
process.
In a sane individual many relatively uninfluential parts of the mind,
combining their influence, can together cause a veto of a course of action proposed
by a stronger portion. When a few parts of the mind do manage to take up an
excessive portion of the person's awareness, time, and resources, suppressing the
weaker (but still important) parts, we say that person has a mental illness. Even in
these instances, the uninfluential parts of the mind are not truly suppressed; they
simply begin to express themselves in ways that are not normal to them, often in
ways that have the effect of sabotaging the intent of the part of the mind that is
trying to suppress them.
The situation in western government today -- particularly American
government -- is a correspondence to this sort of unbalance in the individual. The
flaw expressed in all of the forms of government mentioned above lies in the
assumption that it is possible for individuals or groups within a social aggregation to
accurately determine the needs of the whole and regulate the interactions of other
individuals and groups to serve those needs. From our examination of the pattern of
the fixed cross it should be clear that this is not possible in reality; the development
of an inclusive whole out of the interaction of smaller individualities is always
accompanied by the development of abilities and functionality that the component
individuals are not capable of duplicating -- or even perceiving, in many instances.
The continual active participation of all the smaller individualities is necessary if the
larger entity is to remain stable.
The fallacy that responsive and perceptive government is possible opens the
way for individuals and relatively small groups to usurp the role that is properly the
place of a higher-order entity, and to force their own particular prejudices and
preferences on the population as a whole. The laws created by such governments
inevitably fail to reflect the conditions in their societies; they unduly restrict the
activities of certain portions of the society, and give undue emphasis to other
portions. The maintenance of such an unbalanced state through the government's
claimed right to use force delays the adjustments that would take place naturally if
the society had a truly organic structure. But the adjustments can not be delayed
forever; eventually the imbalance goes beyond the point where the use of
government coercion can maintain it, at which point the balancing takes place in a
catastrophic manner, as it does in the analogous example of the mentally ill
individual. The process of governance becomes a movement from crisis to crisis,
with sections of the population superficially benefiting from special attention in the
interim periods, and everyone suffering as the unavoidable adjustment takes place.
The biological and quasi-biological entities that make up most of the
universe rarely exhibit the crisis-symptomatology of human governments. In most
cases, adjustments occur automatically as they are necessary, and are thereby limited
in severity. When major crises do occur in a biological entity, they are normally
signs of death, of a complete breakdown of the interaction of its parts. Constant
minor adjustments or homeostasis, not crisis adjustment, is the norm in the universe.
Making governance follow a homeostatic pattern requires that we severely
limit the ability of governments to interfere in the activities of individuals, and the
way they interact to produce a society. In particular, absolute limits must be placed
on government's right to use force or coercion against its citizens; its ability to
control the distribution of wealth and the allocation of resources (which both are
based on the use of force) must also be curtailed.
If a nation is the sort of higher-order entity that grows out of the interactions
of individuals, then all of the individuals involved must be given the opportunity to
participate in the decisions of its government. Our so-called "representative"
democracy does not do this; in fact, every election acts to automatically exclude a
portion of the populace -- those who did not vote for the winner -- from participation
in the process of governance. In practice, other factors make the situation even
worse. The parties in power, having established a balance between themselves, have
set restrictions on the election process such that no third group can gain sufficient
power to upset their arrangement. Voters are prevented from having creative
alternatives to "business as usual"; a substantial portion of the population dislikes all
the candidates, and does not vote. There is not a single elected representative in the
federal government who was voted for by a majority of the adults -- note "adults",
not "registered voters" -- he allegedly represents. In some cases, the number is as
low as ten percent, or even less.
We might solve this problem by instituting "no-losers" elections for at least
one of the houses of congress. That is, anyone can run for a congressional seat, and
everyone who runs gets a congressional seat -- with one vote in congress for every
person who voted for them. A better alternative would be to allow any group of
people, regardless of their place of residence, to join together and appoint their own
representative to congress. The majority of people might continue to appoint
representatives based on local interests, but groups that are in the minority in any
particular geographic area would gain a representation they would not otherwise
have.
In order to ensure that laws are representative, this change in structure would
require a corresponding change in the quorum requirements of congress and in the
number of votes necessary to pass legislation. Congress could not be considered to
be in session unless representatives for a large portion of the population -- say,
eighty percent -- were in attendance. Passage of laws would require favorable votes
of equal a similar percentage of the total votes of those present. This would make it
much more difficult to pass laws, but would ensure that laws that did pass were
acceptable to the views of a large majority of the population -- something which is
not the case at present. Such a system would make the process of governance more
accurately reflect the homeostatic internal activities of naturally occurring entities.
Also, with the inevitable delays involved in passing laws acceptable to such large
majorities, the natural homeostasis of the national entity would have time to produce
appropriate adjustments to changes without inappropriate intervention.
Another aspect of the fixed cross pattern -- individualized "components"
interacting to create larger individualized wholes -- is the fact that despite their
participation in the group interactions, each "component" remains almost totally free
to act according to its own nature. This comes from the influence of Aquarius' ruler
Uranus. For a society to come into a truly Aquarian pattern of governance, it must
ensure that the individuals who make up that society retain the greatest possible
freedom to express their nature and goals.
This could be done by placing restrictions on the circumstances under which
laws could be applied. Each person must be acknowledged to have a complete right
to dispose of their self and their property as they see fit. No civil or criminal
penalties could be applied against an individual if the individual's acts did not in
themselves cause involuntary damage to another individual or that individual's
property, and did not interfere with the other person's equal right to act according to
their own nature.
Individual freedom should be balanced by individual responsibility. Acts
which cause damage to others must be paid for by the person performing the acts.
Avoidance of responsibility through claims of insanity, social deprivation, or other
special status should not be allowed. More important, the principle of sovereign
immunity must be firmly rejected; neither individuals nor groups can be allowed to
shield themselves behind the mask of government power, nor within the diffusive
cover of a bureaucracy or corporation.
A third necessary component is the elimination of secrecy, in line with the
exaltation of the planet Mercury in Aquarius. Earlier sections have shown that free
exchange of information is necessary to the existence of group-created entities, and
it is as necessary for healthy societies as for any other such entity.
The ability to restrict access to information about its activities enables
governments to prosecute policies that -- were they known -- would be judged to not
be in the interests of the populace, and to engage in acts which the government itself
would consider criminal if performed by a private individual. Past experience shows
that secrecy in the name of "national security" is often instead secrecy in the interests
of no one but the governors and those who support them. Elimination of secrecy
helps to prevent abuses of government power by subjecting them to public scrutiny.
The increasing use of computers in government may eventually help to
eliminate secrecy from government activities. The American government has grown
so huge that it would be impossible for it to accomplish its arrogated tasks without
using computers; the resources for doing the same tasks manually are beyond even a
government's ability to steal. They are simply not available. Computers are
essentially unsecure means of record-keeping; any form of computer security that a
human being can invent another human being can circumvent, much more easily
than with paper records of the same volume of information. Computers are meant to
make the job of managing information easier, and the degree of security necessary to
reliably protect the information they contain would destroy their utility. Today's
young "hackers", who break into computers for the fun of it, may one day find
themselves acting to more serious purpose by making public secrets pried from
government computers.
In order to save space, I will not go into the many other social and political
manifestations that demonstrate that the Aquarian era has established itself. Instead
we will go on and look at how this era's energies relate to the process of initiation
and participation in the Great Work.
An Aquarian View of Initiation
If an initiatory system is to be effective, it should be attuned to the greatest
extent possible with the general magickal conditions of the era and times in which it
exists. In its philosophy and methods it should provide elements that reflect the
nature and relationships of all four angles in the era's zodiacal cross, not just the
major sign of that cross. The more closely the system follows the symbolism of the
era's powers, the more power it can draw from the universe. Its contribution to the
continuing evolution of the divine creation will also be increased.
Within such an attunement almost infinite variations are possible, and such
variations are necessary to fit the needs and perspectives of the many different
individuals who chose to seek initiation. A system that would appeal to a person
primarily concerned with the family may not be appealing or useful to one whose
orientation is to building or governance. A system that appeals to an actor or
performer may not appeal to the person whose goal is to serve the community. And a
system people of one sex find appealing may not always be desirable - or even
comprehensible - to people of the other sex. We have many bad examples in
Christianity and Islam to show what happens when the need for diversity is not
recognized; we may hope that in the current era the nature of the powers manifesting
will prevent such rigidity of viewpoint from becoming as extreme as in the previous
era.
A generalized attunement with the Aquarian powers does seem to be taking
place in the magickal community today, evidenced in the wide variety of magickal
systems being explored. Almost every system ever recorded has its adherents and
experimenters, seeking to transform the viewpoints of past eras into something
suitable for today; and yet others have sought to abandon the past all together and
create entirely new systems. With a few exceptions, these groups have been mutually
tolerant and willing to admit the value and desirability of their diversity. Paralleling
this, communications networks have sprung up between groups and between
individuals, promoting the free and voluntary exchange of information; even
habitually secretive quasi-Masonic lodges have opened up and become willing to
exchange the broad outlines of their philosophy and symbolism with others.
In my view, this attunement has not yet spread generally into the magickal
systems themselves. The proponents of these systems seem to still be caught in the
primarily religious view of the magickal universe that was characteristic of the
Piscean era, and are thereby limited from expressing the powers of the fixed cross in
a balanced manner; one or another arm of that cross dominates the view of even the
newest systems. Of all the systems currently being given significant public
discussion, only the Maatian system received by the mage Nema comes close to
presenting the full symbolism of the Aquarian powers; and there those powers are
described in terms of a future "Aeon of Maat" more than as something existent and
useable today.
It is not my purpose to criticize any magickal system in detail; true seekers
after the divine will know when they have exhausted the potential of a given system
and must abandon it. Nor is it my intention to present a full alternative magickal
system; that lies in the future, and will come through the work of groups dedicated to
that purpose. Rather, I want to reflect on some aspects of the magickal universe that
will become important in the coming century, in a general and non-dogmatic form
that - one may hope - will serve as a structural basis for students of magick to
develop their connections with the Aquarian powers, through the use of their own
intuition and inner resources. It is through such connections that the true shape of
magick in this new era will eventually take form. Three areas will be of concern to
the person seeking such connection:
The process of individual spiritual development under the influence of the
fixed cross.
The relation between the incarnate individual and the groups of sentient
beings on the magickal planes with which he is connected.
The progressively more inclusive entities whose substance makes up the
magickal universe as it is experienced here on Earth.
Individual Initiation
As was mentioned earlier with respect to cultures as a whole, the method of
linkage between a lower entity and a higher entity is governed by the two signs that
lie on the horizon of an age's horoscope. The same principle applies to individual
initiation. If we look at the holy men and women of the Piscean era, we find that
their individual revelations came more often than not in the form of eidetic
perceptions (governed by Sagittarius) or aural perceptions (governed by Gemini).
Some saw mysterious, ineluctable visions, like those of the Book of Revelation;
others seemed to hear the divine speaking to them. In either case, these things were
usually accompanied by a sense of being overwhelmed by a tremendous, all-
encompassing power, which is the hallmark of Jupiter in his night house Pisces. To
borrow a phrase from Aleister Crowley, God was linked to man through the Vision
and the Voice. Those who trained in the philosophy and practice of theurgic magick
still consistently experienced the connection in these ways; their experiences were
more clear in meaning, more readily apprehended, but followed the same forms as
their more ignorant and excitable brethren.
Another thing to remember about the Piscean era was that the polarity of that
era was focused in the watery and earthy aspects of human nature; that is, in the
emotional and physical natures. The higher aspects of these two elements - the
briatic sphere for Water, for Earth the entire human Tree of Life (viewed in relation
to a larger, encompassing realm) - were entirely out of reach of most of humanity.
Thus the resonance between the higher and lower aspects did not assist much in the
processes of initiation during that age, and initiation became the privilege of a select
few.
In contrast, in the present era is focused in Air and Fire, with Air
predominating. The lower aspect of Air corresponds to the intellectual faculties in
humanity, while its higher aspect corresponds to the Ruach as a whole, which
includes the intellect as a small part of itself. The lower aspect of Fire is the
personality or self-image, what the Buddhists call the motivational nature, Netzach
in the Tree of Life. The higher aspect of Fire is normally the Atziluthic or archetypal
sphere, even further away from human awareness than the previous era's Briatic
correspondence. But in the current era, Fire is represented by Leo and its ruler Sol,
which are intimately connected with the human soul in Tiphereth. And in Frater
Achad's "re-formed" Tree of Life, Leo is also the path connecting Netzach and
Tiphereth, indicating that this connection will be particularly powerful during the
current era.
In neither instance is the Piscean era's huge gap between higher and lower
aspects present. In one case, the transformation is from a part to the whole in which
it resides; in the other instance, the transformation is from one level of existence to
the level immediately above it. Under such conditions, it can be expected that the
resonances between higher and lower will act in such a way as to actively encourage
the passage upwards through the planes. The fact that the fixed cross as a whole is
closely connected with human existence and evolution will also tend to increase the
effect.
Thus as the current era progresses, we can expect that the types of souls
choosing to incarnate will be such as to take advantage of this situation. Fewer of
those who are focused in the physical and emotional natures will incarnate, and those
who do will be more often those who are ready to transfer their focus upwards into
the intellectual sphere. Similarly, many more people will incarnate who are ready to
expand their horizons outwards to encompass the soul and the greater sphere of the
Ruach. A far larger portion of the population will be in some degree initiated;
initiation will not be the privilege of an elite, but rather the common expectation of
humankind.
Along with the increasing commonness of initiation, an increasing
demystification of the initiatory process can be expected . This is already taking
place; basic magickal techniques that were once closely-held secrets are now
commercially marketed, stripped of their religious and magickal trappings and
wrapped in a more comprehensible (and less emotionally loaded) psychological
jargon. After a couple of centuries of discredit, the basic modes of thought necessary
to magickal work - metaphorical or correspondential thinking - are being
recognized as an intrinsic part of human perception, consciously accessible by
practically anyone with a bit of training.
Demystification will eventually bring about among magicians a more
balanced view of the place of their work and favored perceptual modes within the
gamut of abilities exhibited by the human mind. An appreciation that their way of
working is not special but merely specialized will do much to alleviate the egotism
that is rampant among magicians today. With the loss of the sense of self-
importance, methods truly suited to the Aquarian era can begin to be developed.
It has been emphasized throughout this paper that (under the influence of the
fixed cross) the universe appears to be composed of units which, by interacting
intensely, produce the appearance of larger wholes that exhibit qualities impossible
to their components. If we look at any of these units, they too appear to be composed
of smaller units in intensive interaction. This carries down to the subatomic level,
which seems - at this point in time - to be a ground state. (The strange entities of
the subatomic realm combine the properties of Leo and Aquarius in a different way,
able to act both as particulate individualities and as nonlocalized wave-forms,
depending on how we choose to look at them.)
The parts-and-wholes pattern extends in the macrocosmic direction as well,
and in that direction there does not appear to be any limit to the size of the wholes
that can be formed. The gravitational bubble that encloses the physical universe
places a theoretical limit on the area we can know, as does the speed of light, but it
does not necessarily define the limits of existence per se, as several cosmological
physicists have demonstrated.
So throughout the physical universe, at any scale we choose to observe,
anything we look at is simultaneously a unified whole and a collection of discrete
parts in interaction. The same is true of the subjective universe of magick. The effect
is most visible on the astral plane where points of light in combination form larger
entities; and on the intellectual plane where memories of past experiences combine
to form ideas or words, and these in turn meld into more abstract ideas. But it is
equally true of the more "formless" levels as well.
The subjective experiencing entity that is a human being is also
simultaneously a whole and a myriad of parts. The human mind is composed of a
legion of sub-minds; all of them possess a basic matrix of interconnectedness but at
the same time are specialized for various purposes, as the cells and organs of the
body are specialized while having the same genetic endowment. These sub-minds
interact closely and in their interaction either create or provide a vehicle for that
which calls itself by the pronouns "I" and "me", the aware and self-aware individual.
Which human abilities are attributable entirely to sub-minds, and which are
characteristics of the individualized whole? This question can not be answered to
anyone's satisfaction, except to say that the conscious individuality is often less in
control of its behavior and thought than it normally believes itself to be. It has a
ability to call certain sub-minds into action to suit circumstances, but many of the
sub-minds are beyond its direct control, and can only be influenced by subtle,
indirect persuasion over a long period of time. It has a greater ability to veto actions
instigated by one or a group of sub-minds; but again it is not in complete control.
Beyond these general statements, any more specific answer is lost in the diversity of
talents that human beings exhibit.
Awareness that the self can be viewed as a product of group activity and
interaction is the key to developing Aquarian techniques of initiation. It is the
development of the ability to consciously release the self from its intense sense of "I-
ness", its urge to centralization of control, and to loosen - but not destroy - the
bonds between the sub-minds that will make such techniques practicable. It may
sound like I am advocating the cultivation of a schizophrenic state, but this is not the
case; the state in question is no more similar to schizophrenic dissociation than is the
creative wordplay of a skilled poet to a schizophrenic's flights of thought.
As was shown in figure 4, at one point in a developing interaction between
units, they begin as a group to throw off a light, a radiation into their surroundings.
Eventually this radiation becomes intensified and centralized, appearing to come
from a point within the group that is not necessarily occupied by one of its members.
The power generated is far beyond what is available from the group taken as
separate entities; much of it becomes bound up in the central point, but the amount
released is still greater than their apparent individual contributions. Accompanying
this radiation is a magnetic effect, drawing the group members closer together,
strengthening the bonds between them. The radiation permeates an area around the
group, making that area "theirs" in some sense. In the subjective composition of the
human being, the central point (not consistently congruent with any of the sub-
minds) is the individualized self.
The release the sense of I-ness is not a matter of loosening the bonds of the
group of sub-minds to the point where the central self disappears; that is exactly
what happens in schizophrenia. The goal is not to destroy the unity of the group of
sub-minds. Rather the goal is to temporarily redistribute the extra energy generated
by the group interaction, which is normally bound up in the central point that is the
individualized self, among the separate members of the group. Enough of the
centralizing power is retained to continue generating more power, but the rest is
given back to the group. Receiving the distributed energy, the sub-minds of the
group increase their own individual radiation, expanding the area (subjectively
speaking) that they define as their own territory. The radiation of each pushes
against the others, separating them, while at the same time the centralizing power
tends to hold them together still. The process stops when a balance point is reached,
and the amount of energy being distributed is equal to the amount being generated.
Some of the sub-minds may be stimulated to a degree that they reach a stable
state on a higher energy level, much in the way that an electron given the right
amount of extra energy will "jump" to a higher probability shell in an atom. When
the exercise is done and the individualized self ceases to distribute its energy and the
sub-minds fall back towards their normal state, these particular sub-minds will retain
their extra energy. The result is that the normal, tighter interaction between the sub-
minds will generate even more power than it did before. This energy will be
available when the exercise is next done, providing better opportunity for the
remaining sub-minds to jump to a higher, stable state.
From the standpoint of the subjective entity, the expanded state teaches the
difference between consciousness and I-ness, two things normally considered
identical. The sense of I-ness, the tendency towards centralized accumulation of the
mind's energy and centralized control of the mind's capabilities, is reduced to a
minimum; in some instances it may temporarily vanish. But consciousness is not
reduced at all; it is expanded.
Before the individual being can reliably achieve the expanded state, it has to
make a deliberate effort to reduce its egoic tendencies in order to release the energy
it has accumulated. Having released that energy and achieved the state described
here it gains confirmation that the state of I-ness is not nearly so important as it
thinks. The sub-minds and the consciousness can both operate perfectly well without
it. It becomes apparent to both that the "I", the individualized self or soul, is not the
highest achievement of the being, nor is it the most powerful state the being can take
on. Rather it is the ground state of the subjective being, the state of least activity, not
of greatest activity. It is the state the being falls into as a default.
When the sense of I-ness is reduced the consciousness remains, but it
becomes proportionately decentralized. It is still appears to itself to be a single
consciousness but at the same time it appears to act as a subtle mercurial fluid,
permeating all the sub-minds and participating in their individual activities as part of
them. Except for being aware, it does not have any identifiable characteristics of its
own; it takes on the characteristics of the sub-minds while still remaining itself. The
consciousness' lack of distinguishing characteristics becomes important in the next
stage of the Aquarian initiatory process.
Before describing that next stage, let us re-connect what has been described
here with the fixed cross of the zodiac, the powers governing activity in the current
era. As was the case with the Piscean era, this mode of the initiatory process relates
very closely to the astrological signs.
Leo and its ruler Sol are at the nadir of the Aquarian "horoscope". Since the
nadir sign is that in which the Earth stands in the horoscope, it colors and is colored
by the activity of the planet. Earth has the associations of being the foundation on
which we stand and of inertness or inertia, of minimum expenditure of energy. The
sign comes to represent the foundation of being, what is at its base. Thus in the
current age the ego (or at a higher stage, the soul) becomes the base state, the state of
normality out of which one progresses in the course of attaining an initiation, and the
state in which the resources of the being are conserved to the greatest extent.
The two horizon signs are the means of transition from the base state to the
active or initiated state. In the current era these are the signs of Scorpio and Taurus
with their planetary rulers and exalteds.
The process of transition begins with a redistribution of the energy
accumulated in the ego or soul, sending it outwards into the sub-minds of the being
and causing them to become more energized and to repel each other, loosening their
bonds and allowing them greater freedom of movement and individual activity. The
planet Mars, ruler of Scorpio, represents outwardly-directed force, repelling or
repulsing force, that is, force acting against an object. The exalted planet of Scorpio,
Uranus, represents decentralization and the loosening of bonds. In combination these
two planets govern the movement to the expanded state described previously.
The loosening of the bonds between the sub-minds does not continue
indefinitely; the outward-trending force of the Scorpian planets is counteracted by a
superficially weaker but more enduring inward-trending force. This force acts to
hold the sub-minds together and to maintain a state of homeostasis in their
interactions. At some point the forces balance and an excited but still stable state is
attained. The ruler of Taurus, Venus, is the inward-oriented, attractive force
countering Mars; Luna (representing stability in change) moderates the explosive
decentralization of Uranus, holding it within a matrix and re-cycling it so that the
power remains within the boundaries of the being.
Finally, this decentralized, excited-but-stable state results in a weakening of
the power of the ego or soul, releasing the consciousness from its sense of
identification with the personal "I". The consciousness loses its personal
characteristics and becomes indistinguishable (except in scope) from the universal
archetype of consciousness, reflecting whatever is around it while remaining itself.
Uranus ruling Aquarius again represents the decentralized state of being. Mercury,
exalted in Aquarius, represents the universalized state of the consciousness.
The decentralized state is not of much use by itself. Eventually fatigue
intervenes and the consciousness falls back into its individualized, solar, base state at
much the same level as before. Another factor must be included, one that enables the
person to absorb energy to maintain the decentralized state longer, and to remain at a
higher level even in the base state. In the traditional jargon of magick, this factor is
the magickal link.
In the Aquarian mode of initiation, creation of the magickal link manifests
itself as a process of alignment between the energized, decentralized sub-minds and
their equivalents in one of the more inclusive groups of which the person is an
unknowing part. The sub-minds have a greater freedom to vary their relationships to
each other in this state, and by the very nature of the ever more inclusive groupings
that make up the magickal universe, their normal relationship must already be
similar in nature to some limited aspect of each larger wholes it is in. The mercurial
consciousness of the decentralized state seeks to sense the nature of a larger whole
and to direct the sub-minds into a pattern that is identical. When the pattern reaches
a critical degree of alignment force begins to flow from the larger whole to the
individual, and the magickal link is established.
The link flows in the other direction as well. The mercurial consciousness,
already essentially free of any separative characteristics, moves outward into the
larger whole as the whole's energy flows inward. Within the limits of its capacity, it
becomes able to participate in the consciousness of the group in which it is contained
and in the centralized consciousness that the group activity causes to manifest. For
the time in which the magickal link is active, it becomes wholly identified with the
consciousness of the group.
At first the consciousness may not be able to carry an accurate memory of
this experience when it reverts to the solar state; the expansion into the group
awareness always involves many elements of experience that do not have their exact
correspondences in the individual's makeup, and these are not retained. However
with repeated assumptions of the decentralized state and repeated exposures to the
force of the group the necessary equivalents become built into the person's nature
and the degree of retention increases dramatically.
A single "initiation" under the Aquarian mode is composed of many
repetitions of the cycle from individualized being to decentralized being and back
again. Each repetition gains the person a greater degree of alignment with the group
in question, and a greater degree of identification with the central awareness of the
group. Eventually the person reaches a state of saturation with respect to that
particular group's activity, a level of identification at which the connections to the
group begin to fall below the threshold of awareness.
A period of consolidation generally follows, in which the sub-minds absorb
the experiences and energies gained and settle into a new base state. The conscious
experience of the decentralized state tends to fall off for a while and the mind may
even find it impossible to attain that state for some time, the length of which varies
with the amount gained. The task of manifesting the gains within the context of
earthly existence, of redefining the person's relationship to the world, becomes
dominant in the person's mind.
As was the case with the upward movement, this transition downward is also
governed by the two horizon signs, Taurus and Scorpio. The upward movement was
dominated by Scorpio's urge towards the explosive loosening of bonds, with Taurus
having a secondary effect to prevent the loosening from going too far. Here, the
Taurean urge towards the making and solidification of bonds dominates as the
person seeks to establish themself in the new base state, and to establish a new
relation to the world based on that state. The Scorpio influence becomes secondary,
serving primarily to break up habitual mental activities that are no longer perceived
to be appropriate, and to encourage the abandonment of roles in the world that do
not fit the pattern of the person's new pattern of perception.
Eventually a new relationship to the world is established, and the potentials
gained have been fully incorporated into the person's normal individualized
awareness. At this point the person can be said to have been fully initiated into a
particular level of the magickal universe, and a new cycle around the fixed cross can
begin, involving alignment and identification with a yet more inclusive group and
central awareness.
When many of these cycles have been completed, a new condition of
awareness begins to appear. The person begins to experience both their
individualized state of consciousness and the consciousness of their group
simultaneously. There is still a qualitative and perceptual distinction between the
two states; but the magickal link becomes so strong and the flow in the link becomes
so free that the demarcation between the individual's consciousness and the group's
becomes indeterminate. The decentralized state of the sub-minds becomes so
accurately aligned with the group that the latter supersedes the former in the person's
awareness.
The person becomes, in effect, the physical manifestation of their group, and
acts in the world to fulfill the group's task or purpose under the divine will. The
person is no less an individual than before; the manifestation of that individuality
may not even change. But behind the individual expression, the group acts to select
those expressions that are most in accord with the group purpose, and to exclude
those that would be contrary or damaging to that purpose.
The sequence of events described here occurs in initiations of every level
from the lowest to the highest. What varies with the different levels is what is
perceived as being the self, and what is seen as the divine. For an apprentice or
aspirant, the ego is a point of fixation on the astral or intellectual levels, and the light
of their own soul and its group is seen as the divine. For the adept the soul is the self,
and in company with their group they seek contact with progressively more inclusive
entities, ending with that one whose body is the Earth in all its parts and levels. For
the mage the self is the world, which they seek to bring into alignment with the
purpose being manifested by the group entity that is the solar system. At all of these
levels, the aspects of centralization, loosening of bonds and expansion to a
decentralized state, identification with a higher level, and re-centralization are the
core of the initiatory process.
[note to myself -- finish this next section or cut it completely ]
The signs of the fixed cross are also at the root of the techniques used in the
process of initiation. In varying proportions, activities represented by these signs are
found in all initiatory systems; not only magickal systems but also in those
magicians categorize -- often with implied or express contempt -- as mystical or
religious practices. Careful examination reveals that there is no real difference in the
techniques of these three superficially disparate approaches to the divine; what
differences there are exist in the individual's conscious apprehension of the process
and its goals, which in all three approaches commonly bears little relation to what
actually happens until long after the event has passed.
The categories of activity represented by the signs can be condensed into four
words, the "four d's" of spiritual practice: dramatization, debauchery, devotion, and
detachment. These words should not be taken too seriously; their usefulness is
largely mnemonic. It will be shown that each category contains activities not
normally covered by the terms.
Dramatization comes within the compass of Leo, which sign traditionally
rules the efforts of actors, kings and rulers, and others whose personal task is to
project an image to the world. In relation to initiatory practices dramatization
encompasses undertaking to adjust the radiation from the periphery of the entity in
such a way that it expresses a specific ideal. The self projects its energy and attention
outward from the center of the being to control the form of its peripheral radiation,
and incidentally that energy is distributed among the parts of the self lying in
between, bringing them into alignment with the image being projected.
Successful dramatization brings about a link between the individual and the
divine by means of resonance, what is sometimes called sympathetic magick or the
doctrine of correspondences. That is, where there is a sufficient degree of similarity
between the energies projected by an individual and the energies of a higher level,
there will automatically be a flow of force between them.
Ritual magick, particularly the more formal and detailed type exemplified by
the Golden Dawn system, is almost entirely a dramatic process. The participants don
costumes symbolizing their roles and intent. They enact motions and gestures which
-- through extensive drill -- they have come to associate with the divine ideals and
forces to be invoked. They speak words that connect the ritual elements into a
unified whole. Simultaneously, on the subjective level the participants each adopt a
god-form relating to one of the divine forces being invoked, or project astral
symbols of the powers, thereby conditioning the radiation of their being in the way
described above.
If the participants are skilled then each of them will experience an inflow of
divine force during the ritual, which will expand their awareness into a link to the
group entity controlling that force within the Earth's sphere of activity. The force can
then be directed to the purposes of the ritual, or absorbed by the magicians
themselves to maintain the expanded state and eventually bring their sub-minds into
a new state of stability on a higher level.
Where there is more than one participant in the ritual, successful
dramatization by the individuals involved also results in the formation of a
temporary group entity whose central awareness can be partially shared by all, or can
manifest itself as an apparently separate being -- a "god", an "angel", a "demon", etc.
-- capable of action independent of its creators. Such an independent central
consciousness may actually become the vehicle of a divine power, in which it can
continue its existence separate from the input of its creators after their effort has
stopped. (Entities representing non-divine powers, or the involutionary equivalent of
a divine power (as is the case with the qliphoth) must continue to draw energy from
their creators. The trend of their development is entropic, always in the direction of
dispersal into random, purposeless, fragmentary motions; they can not draw directly
on the divine to continue their existence, because its nature is antithetical to theirs
and would result in their immediate destruction. Vampirism on the lower-level
energies of their creators are their only alternative.)
In the religious arena, dramatization among the ceremonially-oriented
churches is barely different from magickal practice. The one difference being that
the majority of the participants lend their energy to the work passively, without the
use of their wills, and allow that energy to be shaped by a few leaders. Except in rare
cases, religious practice seldom results in the creation of an independent entity;
however, shared awareness of the power generated is so common that it has become
the only expected result of group worship. The participants perceive themselves as
being bound together through worship of their god or gods, hence their tendency to
stubbornly hold on to the means by which they experience this binding, no matter
how absurd or illogical it may seem to an outsider.
Nor is dramatization to be found only in the explicitly ceremonial cults and
sects. A preacher rousing a crowd in a tent-revival is as much a dramatizer as is the
Pope saying Mass in a Vatican chapel. What matters is not the outward form, but the
fact that some participant is projecting an image outwards to shape the energy of the
group.
Some magickal dramatic practices have exact parallels in the religious
approach. For instance, one Catholic practice is to mentally re-enact the life of Jesus,
with the practitioner putting themself in the role of the savior. What is this but the
assumption of a god-form? Mystery plays in various forms are common to both
magickal, religious and mystical systems, with almost no differences except in
sectarian symbolism.
Debauchery is the mode of Scorpio. This is perhaps the least appropriate of
the "four d's" since, although the category contains nearly all of the activities related
to that word in our Western culture, the Scorpio mode encompasses a wide variety of
activities beyond those. It would be more precise to say that this mode relates to
practices that deliberately force the body and mind out of their normal homeostatic
balance, specifically to practices that change the mental state by inducing changes in
the physical organism.
Scorpian practices act to release the energy held by the centralized awareness
in one of three ways:
-- By weakening the awareness itself.
-- By forcing the central consciousness to concentrate its hoard of energy,
consequently releasing it when the consciousness relaxes its concentration.
-- By generating more energy of a particular type than the nervous system
can hold, causing a general leakage into the person's sphere.
[End of section to be cut or completed.]
Page: 3
Expand on how sacrifice fits into the three religions: Christianity adopting the forms of the
old King-sacrificing religions, Islam with its emphasis on gaining paradise by dying the the
religion's cause, and Buddhism with its different forms of sacrifice (i.e. "giving up" material
possessions, personal ego, etc. to attain a goal.)
Working title: The Fixed Cross
Author: Benjamin Rowe
Page: 1
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