Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul - Esoteric Astrology - II

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Esoteric Astrology - The Nature of Esoteric Astrology - Spiritual Effects of the Zodiacal Constellations

The keynotes of this sign are, therefore, test, trial and triumph. They can also be called struggle, strength and Sagittarian attitudes. Another angle of the experience in Scorpio can be covered by two words: recapitulation and reorientation. In Scorpio, two most occult factors emerge from the past and begin to engross the attention of the disciple. One is memory and the other is, as a consequence of the memory, the Dweller on the Threshold. Memory in the sense here involved is not simply just [207] a faculty of the mind, as is so oft supposed, but it is essentially a creative power. It is basically an aspect of thought and - coupled with imagination - is a creative agent because thoughts are things, as well you know. From ancient recesses of the memory, from a deeply rooted past which is definitely recalled, and from the racial and the individual subconscious (or founded and established thought reservoirs and desires, inherited and inherent) there emerges from individual past lives and experience that which is the sumtotal of all instinctual tendencies, of all inherited glamors and of all phases of wrong mental attitudes; to these (as they constitute a blended whole) we give the name of the Dweller on the Threshold. This Dweller is the sumtotal of all the personality characteristics which have remained unconquered and unsubdued and which must be finally overcome before initiation can be taken. Each life sees some progress made; some personality defects straightened out and some real advance effected. But the unconquered residue and the ancient liabilities are numerous and excessively potent and - when soul contact is adequately established - there eventuates a life wherein the highly developed and powerful personality becomes, in itself, the Dweller on the Threshold. Then the Angel of the Presence and the Dweller stand face to face and something must then be done. Eventually, the light of the personal self fades out and wanes in the blaze of glory which emanates from the Angel. Then the greater glory obliterates the lesser. This is, however, only possible when the personality eagerly enters into this relation with the Angel, recognizes itself as the Dweller and - as a disciple - begins the battle between the pairs of opposites and enters into the tests of Scorpio. These tests and trials are ever self-initiated; the disciple puts himself into the positive or conditioning environment [208] wherein the trials and the discipline are unavoidable and inevitable. When the mind has reached a relatively high stage of development, the memory aspect is evoked in a new and conscious manner and then every latent predisposition, every racial and national instinct, every unconquered situation and every controlling fault rises to the surface of consciousness and then - the fight is on. The keynote of Scorpio is, however, Triumph. This is its major expression upon the physical plane. As a result of struggle and of victory, the whole divine man - not yet perfectly expressing himself, if I might word the situation thus - is anchored upon the physical plane with such accuracy and clarity that there is no escape from the environing conclusions of the disciple's family, friends and group that he is a disciple. From that angle he is meticulously watched; he learns the meaning of the word "example"; he is pilloried by those who are onlookers and the first conscious stages toward group awareness and group response, plus group service, are now taken. Such is the outcome and the reward of the experience in Scorpio.

It is in this sign that the prodigal son comes to himself, and having eaten of the husks of life and having exhausted the resources of worldly desire and ambition - he says: "I will arise and go to my Father." There are two such major crises in the life of the aspirant:

When the intelligent man of the world comes to himself and then reorients himself to the soul and its requirements. This leads to the tests in Scorpio.

When the initiate of the third degree - upon a higher turn of the spiral - reorients himself to the Monad and passes through most subtle tests to certain undefinable [209] and spiritual recognitions. Upon these we need not enlarge.

There is little for me to add here in connection with the fact that Scorpio is upon one of the four arms of the Fixed Cross. In the study of previous signs, much anent the Fixed Cross has already been covered and there is no need for me to repeat the information here. Desire in Taurus becomes spiritual aspiration in Scorpio. The darkness of the experience in Scorpio becomes illumination in Taurus, for it must never be forgotten that where the pairs of opposites are concerned they gain and profit from each other, for there is a direct line of force and of contact between the two. This is a fact which is seldom recognized.

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