ARIES
Soul : . . I come forth and from the plane of mind, I rule.
Light : . . The Light of Life Itself.
This is the dim point of light found at the center of the cycle of manifestation, faint and flickering. It is the "searchlight of the Logos, seeking that which can be used" for divine expression.
Form : . . Let form again be sought.

TAURUS
Soul : . . I see and when the Eye is opened, all is illumined.
Light : . . The penetrating Light of the Path.
This is a beam of light, streaming forth from the point in Aries, and revealing the area of light control.
Form : . . Let struggle be undismayed.

GEMINI
Soul : . . I recognize my oher self and in the waning of that self I grow and glow.
Light : . . The Light of Interplay.
This is a line of light beams, revealing that which opposes, or the basic duality of manifestation, the relationship of spirit and of form. It is the conscious light of that relationship.
Form : . . Let instability do its work.

CANCER
Soul : . . I build a lighted house and therein dwell.
Light : . . The Light within the form.
This is the diffused light of substance itself, the "dark light" of matter, referred to in The Secret Doctrine. It is the light awaiting the stimulation coming from the soul light.
Form : . . Let isolation be the rule, and yet the crowd exists.

LEO
Soul : . . I am That and That am I.
Light : . . The Light of the Soul.
A reflected point of light logoic, or divine. The light diffused in Cancer focuses and reveals eventually a point.
Form : . . Let other forms exist, I am because I am.

VIRGO
Soul : . . I am the Mother and the Child. I, God, I, matter am.
Light : . . The Blended dual Light.
Two lights are seen -- bright and strong, the light of form; one faint and dim, the light of God. This light is distinguished by a waxing of one and the waning of the other. It differs from the light in Gemini.
Form : . . Let matter reign.

LIBRA
Soul : . . I choose the way which leads between the two great lines of force.
Light : . . The Light that moves to rest.
This is the light that oscillates until a point of balance is achieved. It is the light which is distinguished by a moving up and down.
Form : . . Let choice be made.

SCORPIO
Soul : . . Warrior I am and from the battle I emerge triumphant.
Light : . . The Light of Day.
This is the place where three lights meet -- the light of form, the light of soul, and the light of life. They meet; they blend; they rise.
Form : . . Let Maya flourish and let deception rule.

SAGITTARIUS
Soul : . . I see the goal. I reach that goal and then I see another.
Light : . . A beam of directed, focused Light.
In this the point of light becomes the beam, revealing a greater light ahead and illumining the way to the center of the light.
Form : . . Let food be sought.

CAPRICORN
Soul : . . Lost am I in light supernal, yet on that light I turn my back.
Light : . . The Light of Initiation.
This is the light which clears the way to the mountain top, and produces transfiguration, thus revealing the rising sign.
Form : . . Let ambition rule and let the door stand wide.

AQUARIUS
Soul : . . Water of Life am I, poured forth for thirsty men.
Light : . . The Light that shines on Earth, across the sea.
This is the light which ever shines within the dark and cleansing with its healing rays that which must be purified until the dark has gone.
Form : . . Let desire in form be the rule.

PISCES
Soul : . . I leave my Father's home and turning back, I save.
Light : . . The Light of the World.
This is the light, revealing the light of life itself. It ends for ever the darkness of matter.
Form : . . Go forth into matter.

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The 12 SIGNS on the TWO WHEELS

ORDINARY WHEEL
Ordinary humanity, focused almost entirely in the personality, evolve in their consciousness (not form aspect) by progressing backwards through the 12 zodiacal signs.
REVERSED WHEEL
Spiritual students, focused in the universal and group values of the soul, progress in consciousness by moving forward through the cycle of zodiacal signs.
Here is a rendition, to be understood symbolically.


ORDINARY WHEEL
Aries-Libra . . Unstable embryonic beginnings leading to the balancing of the lower psychic nature and its expression through form. Embryonic desire for expression consummates in the passion of satisfaction. Lower love controls.
REVERSED WHEEL
Libra-Aries . . The achieved equilibrium, at the point of rest, provides the mental impetus for soul control. Passion is transmuted into love and the initial desire of Aries becomes the full expression of love-wisdom. Desire to manifest becomes the aspiration to be.

ORDINARY WHEEL
Taurus-Scorpio . . Powerful focused lower desire leads to death and defeat. The triumph of the lower nature which eventuates in the awakening to satiety and death. The man is the prisoner of desire and at the moment of consummation knows his prison.
REVERSED WHEEL
Scorpio-Taurus . . The final victory of soul over form. Death and darkness demonstrate as life and light as the result of this energy relationship. The dark night of the soul becomes radiant sun.

ORDINARY WHEEL
Gemini-Sagittarius . . Fluid interplay and instability leads to personality focus and determination. The man is one-pointedly devoted to personality achievement. The threefold lower nature, synthesized and directed, controls all activity.
REVERSED WHEEL
Sagittarius-Gemini . . The result of this related pair of opposites is that there is one-pointed soul effort, spiritually directed activity and a demonstrated readiness for initiation. There is the waning of the power of form and the waxing of the life of the soul.

ORDINARY WHEEL
Cancer-Capricorn . . The urge to incarnate leads to the densest incarnation and immersion in form. The pull of form life and the processes of concretization control. The man arrives after many incarnations at a point of crystallization. [On the common fear of reincarnation - "Karma is an executioner who guards his victims." --Supermundane II]
REVERSED WHEEL
Capricorn-Cancer . . The initiate now chooses to incarnate and passes freely and at will through both doors. The pull of matter is superseded by the free choice of the soul. Form life becomes a conscious method of expression for service.

ORDINARY WHEEL
Leo-Aquarius . . The individual seeks full expression and arrives finally at the point where he uses his environment for purely individual ends. He dominates his fellowmen for entirely personality objectives. The isolated individual becomes the group ruler or dictator.
REVERSED WHEEL
Aquarius-Leo . . Personality interests as an expression of the individual are submerged in the good of the whole. Selfish individual man becomes the world server. Heights of noted service are then reached in both signs.

ORDINARY WHEEL
Virgo-Pisces . . Virgin matter attracts the soul and the divine Mother becomes more important than the son. The life of the soul is hidden.
REVERSED WHEEL
Pisces-Virgo . . The form reveals and releases the indwelling soul. The Savior of the world appears and nurtures the hidden souls in Virgo.

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Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars
THE SUN — BEING

Filtered through the Personality (ego) or Expressing the Soul (Ego)

The Sun sign is said to represent 'constitution' rather than 'functioning' (the Moon). Yet, from the point of view of spiritual or ethical self-cultivation, it can be seen as a function. The Sun sign represents both Ego / ego and the function of 'ego-structure' to admit or filter out identifiable (or nameable) factors in our circumstances, both human and environmental. The Sun includes the entire threefold personality (ego) including physical, emotional and intelligible factors. The focus and stage of consciousness which the Sun represents allows us to perceive the factors of our circumstances only so far as our personality conditioning permits — that is, until we begin to live as souls (Ego).

For ethical and spiritual students, the Sun basically represents our problem in looking at life as souls — our susceptibility, or our intelligent resistence to unreflective and automatic personality responses to the conditions of daily life. For example, this is not to say that Leos (ruled by the Sun) or strong solar types are not generous or benevolent if they are not polarized as souls — only that their conditioning, stage of consciousness, and preoccupations can determine or limit the purpose or object of benevolence. This is true of all of us. We are all composed of both Ego (soul) and ego (personality), and often take many lifetimes of effort to distinguish between the two. The problem with the lower ego is that it cannot see what lies further along the Path of evolution of consciousness. Glimpses and insights of this future are determined by the placement of the Ascendant in its relation to the Sun.

Most astrologers associate the Sun with spiritual Being or human identity itself, rather than an ongoing process of identity formation and reconstruction (as a personality), or identity persistence (as a soul). This involves the academic philosophical question of just what constitutes human identity. This "identity" is usually seen through the filter of materialistic, unconscious, and reductionist assumptions. In other words, most significant human spiritual factors are left out of consideration.

On a standard psychological level, the Sun represents the mix of personality and soul-contact factors that work as a kind of prismatic filter, allowing us to perceive certain aspects of neutrally and naturally unfolding life and nature, and shutting other perceptions and observations out. In this way, the slowly developing and integrating personality "protects itself" from energetic and lived contacts that it does not yet have the capacity to handle.

On a strictly energetic level, the personality can be assessed in many ways by its response to (relatively) high spiritual contact — in a descending order of spiritual capacity:

• recognition, inspiration, self-resurrection, initiation,
• recognition and cooperation,
• stimulation and reflection,
• reaction and unthinking self-insulation,
• or brute reaction and unconscious instinctive defensiveness.

For students of AAB, this is one of the reasons the Third Department of Civilization is said to be ruled by masters of tact, so to speak.

For the spiritual student on the path of discipleship, this truth presents an interesting dilemma and creates a lived duality. The energies of the sidereal Constellations, which the tropical Signs veil, are beginning to have a stimulating and vivifying affect which can be somewhat associated with the stage of achieving freedom of movement and expression in the dual life of the soul in the five-fold aspect of both inner and outer worlds. That is, a transition of focus is taking place from life in the Three Worlds to that in the Five Worlds, which include triadal unfoldment and consciousness.

For the spiritual student the personality represents a definite problem in its capacity as a temporary construct (from the soul's point of view), interfacing with a planetary set of circumstances demonstrably conditioned by the "human world" and the planetary Dweller — its servers of a limited grade and, for the most part, unwitting cohorts. The world is not always run by wise idealists or by enlightened elites. This realization aggravates the sense of depression, alienation, existential angst, etc., that the probationer (2nd degree) already feels. This is one of the causes for the experience of fear and the glamour of failure, of which the probationer is vividly aware in experience, but semi-conscious as far as self-mastery, and which factors the disciple (3rd degree) is beginning to address consciously and to utilize constructively.

In this regard, I would encourage astrologers to examine the heliocentric positions of Mercury, Venus and Mars, which are the three planets whose placement in relation to the geocentric chart is most altered. These can provide, through examination of their tabulated aspects and correspondences, the basis for a cursory analysis of the lower aspects of soul expression. In other words, the relative strength of the three aspects of the human mind and personality represented by Mars, Venus, and Mercury — all veiled by the physical Sun — provides insight into both stage and focus of consciousness.

MARS Generally speaking, the solar plexus, ruled by Mars and associated with the concrete mind, represents and rules the distinctly human transmutation of animal instinct into intelligence. In other words it represents the animal brain, meant to act strictly as a light-bearer for Venus, the human soul.

This Mars can accomplish only through the processes of alignment and constant reorientation of the lower personality nature toward the purposes and insight of the soul, the flower of human nature and universal humanism. This is accomplished by aspiration, hence the term `aspirant.' This transmutation process is aided by science and logical imperative, which Mars rules. Spiritual science is ruled by Venus and Mercury.

Strictly on the level of personality, the concrete mind of Mars provides the `sense of commonality' through which all the human factors generally confused with human thought are actualized — such as role-playing, attitude expression, and the habit of waiting for a crisis or conflict to truly think. Mars also rules mobilization of the instinctual nature such as the drive to retain "popularity" at all costs, to fit in with the herd or mainstream or subculture, to pursue self-interest until the price of that self-interest is paid. It's basically "the sporting type" found among the professional classes and the masses at large.

VENUS represents the soul and its mechanism, the causal body. Venus rules science in its higher and benevolent aspects, which are demonstrated by a balance of mind and heart, of technological expertise wedded with humanitarian values. It has been characterized as heart-reason, to express its mentality. It represents the accumulation of human knowledge, as well as ethics-, knowledge- and wisdom-values. It also rules the spiritual science of the soul, and technical work with the causal bodies of humanity. Ethics is the highest form of intelligence, besides philosophy, and guards the gate to the courtyards of this spiritual science.
With regard to questions of "faith," Venus represents the difficult transition from faith in humanity to faith in God or the Universal Life within Whom we live, move and have our being. Indeed, this usually means that the problem switches from difficulties with faith in God, to more painful difficulties with faith in humanity — humanity now 'mystically' seen as the literal embodiment of this Universal Life.
Venus, in turn, serves as light-bearer to Mercury, the divine principle embedded in the human mind and constitution through the spiritual triad of atma-buddhi-manas. It is in this sense that the human soul is said to be the vehicle of the spiritual triad ruled by Mercury.

MERCURY rules buddhi or "pure reason," as well as the capacity for abstract thought and intelligent synthesis. It rules science in the sense of major breakthroughs achieved through pure mentation as, for example, through spiritual illumination, philosophical reflection or abstract mathematical reasoning. Mercury represents the mind which has the capacity to know the Mind of God — the triangle of Nous, Anima Mundi, and Demiurge of the Neoplatonic/gnostic philosophical systems.
Mercury is said to be a substitute for, or to be one with, the Sun. This may be understood in its capacity as the spiritual triad "engineering" the circumstances necessary for the Monad to manifest through worldy and human lived experience, as well as through the awareness (since consciousness normally understood is superceded) of the triad itself on its own three or five planes.

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The Three Lights

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