"If the consciousness of 'hunger' is indicative of
deeply-felt need, then 'poverty' is a combination of that need with a
conviction that the need can not, will not, or must not be fulfilled. Poverty
is the opposite of affluence — it represents a 'cut off' condition of
consciousness that is represented outwardly by deficiency or relative lack of
essential or desired things. We do not feel 'poor' in not having
something to which we feel indifferent; to 'feel poor' is to feel
deprived of that for which we have a strong feeling of desire or
requirement."
The word "affluence" is derived from two Latin words:
"ad," meaning "to" or "toward," and "fluere" meaning "to flow." We usually use
it to refer to conditions that are characterized by abundance, bountifulness,
plentifulness of supply and wealth, but a consideration of the derivation of
the word gives us the clue to its esoteric meaning. It is basically not a
description of conditions but a quality of consciousness by which
abundance is realized and manifested. In other words, the human
consciousness — the "light by which a human perceives Light" — contains a
potential of functioning "affluently" so that, correspondingly, conditions of
abundance may flow toward and into human environments and affairs. As
the desire to realize health is one of humanity's many endeavors to
perceive Light, so is the desire to realize affluence; it is important
to consider how a human being can generate the kind of consciousness that
makes abundance evident in his life.
If the consciousness of "hunger" is indicative of
deeply-felt need, then "poverty" is a combination of that need with a
conviction that the need can not, will not, or must not be fulfilled. Poverty
is the opposite of affluence — it represents a "cut off" condition of
consciousness that is represented outwardly by deficiency or relative lack of
essential or desired things. We do not feel "poor" in not having
something to which we feel indifferent; to "feel poor" is to feel
deprived of that for which we have a strong feeling of desire or
requirement. The poverty-complex is a form of mind-pattern, of congested
quality, by which a human deprives himself of the realizations of affluence;
this deprivation is a conviction of lack which characterizes his living
generally or manifests in some specific factor or area of his life. The
poverty-complex is always a karmic return from abuses or misuses of means and
opportunities in past lives. It is essentially constructed on residual fear or
guilt brought over — as reaction in the subconscious — from past actions
characterized by wastefulness, destructiveness, dishonesty, or dishonor. By
wastefulness we undermine our consciousness of right use; by destructiveness
we set up a power of repulsion in the subconscious which "negates" our desire
to attract that which we now want or require; by dishonesty or dishonor we
deprive others of what is rightfully theirs and the subconscious residue, now
registering as the poverty-complex, is the enervating and "lifeless" essence
of fear and guilt. Whether of short or long duration, the "feeling of poverty"
is always an indication, delivered up to the conscious mind by reaction from
the subconscious, that a drastic revision of consciousness is required. That
revision must be established in the subconscious mind before the
improved conditions will appear in outer affairs. In other words, the person's
feeling about life and himself must be changed by a process of
"openingness" so that he, by expression of his consciousness, can "flow
more freely into life" and so that the manifestations of life's abundance can
"flow more freely into his affairs." Water is perhaps the most perfect symbol
of the principle of life's affluence; remember that it must be
released from its states of suspension as cloud, snow, and ice before
it can life-givingly flow forth as rivers. It is the power of warmth
that releases the water-potentials from their static state as ice and snow;
correspondingly, some form of spiritual warmth must be established in
the human's subconscious as a means of revitalizing his outlook on himself and
his conditions. How is this renewing establishment made? Let us
consider what the Great Astrological Mandala (the twelve-housed circle
surrounded by the zodiacal belt with Aries as Ascendant-sign) has to tell us:
Look first at the two signs which focalize the two
arms of the vertical diameter: Cancer, cardinal water, is at the lower end;
Capricorn, cardinal earth, is at the upper end; the total vertical line is the
line of generation or parentage. The Moon, ruler of Cancer, is the
archetypal mother-symbol; Saturn, ruler of Capricorn, is the archetypal
father-symbol. Esoterically, these two signs, and the line which they form as
"emanation" from the center of the wheel, refer to the attribute of a human
being to generate his own destiny by the way he exercises his consciousness,
from incarnation to incarnation. Man qualifies the evolutionary line of
his existence by what he establishes in his subconscious mind (Cancer) and by
the ways in which he outpictures these establishments (Capricorn). By his
participation in the creative power of thought, each human is the
mother and father of the quality of his own evolutionary line. By his
powers of reaction in feeling, he is made aware of what he has
established in his subconscious mind; by his powers of expression
(thought, word, and >deed), he gives embodiment to that which he has
established in his subconscious realms. The "conviction of poverty" is a
"darkness in the subconscious" — it means that the person, in the past, has
identified himself with deprivation by some kind of action representing
misuse and/or abuse of opportunities and means. In short, by his defaults
in these matters, he "parented" the present condition or situation which he
"identities as poverty." Poverty is not a reality of life, it is
an individual interpretation of conditions based karmic reaction. Think
a moment: Is life "poverty-stricken?" Is our planet
"poverty-stricken"? Does every human have the same kind of
poverty-complex
as every other human? Does everyone have to suffer from the
poverty-complex eternally? The answer to all of these inquiries is no. Let
us now consider a very important and interesting esoteric astrological clue to
the means by which the poverty-complex may be decrystallized so that
the locked-up energies may be released affluently:
This clue is found in the planetary
exaltations — soulic powers of spiritual apperception distilled from
conscious regeneration in past lives — as they are pictured in the Great
Astrological Mandala: Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, exalted in Cancer; Moon,
ruler of Cancer, exalted in Taurus; Venus, the principle of
Equilibrium-through-exchange, rules Taurus and Libra; Saturn, ruler of Capricorn, exalted
in Libra; Mars, ruler of Aries, exalted in Capricorn. First, Jupiter exalted
in Cancer, as the apperception of the power of "givingness:"
If we desire to overcome a poverty-complex we have to
signify our sincerity on that point by doing something of an affluent
nature to manifest the desired condition in human experience. That form of
expression is what we call "giving." The statement "it is more blessed to give
than to receive" is much more than an "old saw." It contains a profound
metaphysical and esoteric directive: the act of giving is a blessing to the
subconscious mind of the one who gives. If you are convinced, in
your congested subconscious, that a desired or required state is "not for you"
but you do something to make possible another person's realization of
that thing, you take the first and most important step in
decrystallizing your own poverty-complex. If your poverty-complex were
"total," you would not even think of trying to make that particular thing
evident to another person. The fact that you do give of that thing
impresses the subconscious mind that you are aware of the thing's
availability. With that action, performed in sincere helpfulness of
motive, you begin to release the locked-up subconscious energies because
giving is affluence in action. You have thereby opened yourself to the
possibilities of realizing the desired or required thing in your own affairs
and environment. Consequently, the result is that you have established more
light in your subconscious mind and that establishment, from then on,
becomes a magnet to attract those things consistent with your desire or
requirement. With the en-lightened feeling, resulting from the "loosening"
provided by your out-giving action and more out-giving consciousness, the
exaltation of Mars in Capricorn makes you more aware of what you must
do, as personal discipline and development, to make that improved
establishment a "permanent fixture" of your soul-consciousness. In other words
the new opening-up leads you onto a new path of spiritualizing endeavor which
has as its goal the integrated establishment, for permanent use, of the
new spiritual realization. One act of sincere and helpful giving-ness
starts the affluent process; but exalted Mars — persistent
constructive effort — has to be applied so that the poverty-complex of many
years' standing may be completely dissolved and the energies pertaining to it
may be completely translated into consciousness of Light. That means that more
self-honesty may have to be realized; courage and self-confidence may
have to be developed; more consistent and thorough application may have to be
applied to current conditions and endeavors; all tendencies or inclinations to
hold others — mentally, emotionally, or physically — in any kind of undue
bondage may have to be relinquished. Remember, you want freedom from your
poverty-complex so you must give others the gift of freedom; in order to
do that you may have to let go of certain kinds of fear but fearlessness
is, itself, an attribute of affluence. How could water flow if it were
afraid of moving, or if ice and snow were afraid to melt? We have to be
willing to melt and dissolve the secret congestions if we are to
realize the consciousness — and evidences — of affluence. The powers of Truth,
Courage, Faith, Love, Joy, and Freedom are the "thermal qualities" by which
the Spirit melts the paralyzing constrictions established by the "personal
ego" in its expression of unregenerate interpretations.
If financial abundance is your desired and/or
required symbol of affluence, then the two points which are exalted in
Venus-signs give us some clues. The person who exercises disorganized and
chaotic stewardship of present materials — no matter how
much money he has — is operating away from affluence because this kind of functioning is
concrete evidence of weaknesses at work. The Moon's exaltation in
Taurus — the second house sign — might be said to convey the keyword: I
establish affluence by right stewardship — now. In the home, in business
establishments, in professional activities, or commercial matters, humans
cannot establish disorder in patterns of financial exchange and expect
to continue to register affluence. We impose burdens on others if we
perpetrate disorder in our affairs and, sooner or later, we have to rectify
the unbalance. The sign Taurus is polarized by the fixed water-sign Scorpio
which refers to consciousness of sex. It has become an established
fact, through psychological and metaphysical inquiry, that the
consciousness of money is counterparted by the consciousness of sex.
Both are aspects of desire for maintenance and perpetuation. It has
been determined that congestions in the attitudes toward sex and/or money have
a retroactive effect on the opposite. In these days of "evolutionary speeding
up," humans are given the opportunities to resolve much karma from many past
lives and sex and money have been the desires which have
prompted much negative expression in our past experiences.
Consider this in the light of the programs of heavy
taxation we are now dealing with. Also, in the light of what is being revealed
in these times regarding the sexual aspects of human nature — the karmic
conditions of the generative consciousness which are being revealed in so many
complex forms. Therefore, a man's "poverty-laden consciousness of money" could
well be found to have its roots in psychogenetic conditions of a constrictive
kind and these conditions all require more charging by the consciousness of
love and/or good will toward other humans. Saturn, ruler of
Capricorn, is exalted in Libra, the seventh house-sign of the Great Mandala.
This is the insignia, in a simple astrological way, of the Golden Rule — the
perfect fulfillment of experience through harmonized consciousness of human
relationship and the consciousness of spiritual justice which that
form of realization includes. Affluence is the provide-ance of Life for
our sustainment. That "providence" is already established for our use but if
anything in our consciousness seeks to deprive another of what is his
rightful fulfillment, then we cut off our recognition of Life's affluence;
we limit our expression of affluence; and poverty sets in.
The traditional symbol of the Sun — the point
circumscribed by a circle — may well be taken, for this consideration, as the
symbol of all affluent potentials, the symbol of Life's entire
provide-ence. From what it represents, all things necessary for our
evolution are emanated — just as everything pictured in a horoscope is
"emanated" from the central point. The Sun, as ruler of the fire-sign Leo, may
then be taken as the symbol of the affluence of spiritual light — all
Love, all Wisdom, all Truth, all Beauty, all Ideation which humans can realize
and, as well, all material representations which we interpret from
spiritualized consciousness. Power in all possible degrees is represented by
the Sun and, thus, it represents every possible degree of power which a human
may realize. Power is — it is part of our "life-job" to unfold
recognition of it in ourselves.
Since poverty is an illusion created by the
relatively unevolved human consciousness, it is not strictly true, from a
philosophical standpoint, that "Saturn is the symbol of poverty." Such an
interpretation does Saturn an injustice. Saturn speaks to us, through our
fears and guilts, of the unfulfilled areas of our experience; when
these areas are fulfilled, security is established in consciousness and
consequently that form of inner ease which generates affluence is brought
about. Also, the square aspects in the individual chart represent areas of
inner tension and each of these can be interpreted as a "poverty-potential."
Alchemical regeneration by expressing the spiritual attributes of the
planetary points involved will "melt the ice" of the inner congestion. The
person who suffers from a sense of "poverty of education" must first heal his
subconscious mind by re-charging it with a strong desire to learn; the
desire to learn is the desire to experience affluence on the mental plane and
this form of affluence can only be experienced when the mind is allowed to
open. Tendencies to prejudice, dogmatism, opinionatedness, and mental
tyranny must be loosened and the humility of a true learner must be
established in the subconscious. If schooling, per se, is not available
then the true learner will open his mind to the awareness of other channels of
study and learning: libraries, bookstores, public lectures are abundantly
available for all in these times. If specific schooling is the desired thing,
then the person will have to indicate his sincere desire by being willing to
organize his life and affairs for the realization of the goal. People can
learn much by the inexpensive method of becoming more perceptive of the
world around them.
The poverty of love, friendship, and companionship
is, perhaps, the most tragic of all karmic congestive evidences. People who
suffer from these deprivations might well give attention to the fact that
love and friendship are states of consciousness —
establishing them in consciousness makes possible the affluent
expression of them and the affluent realization of them in
relationships. It is also important to recognize that many people who deeply
yearn for relationship-joys and companionship-fulfillments are not friendly
with themselves, however devoted they may possibly be to others. Respect
and appreciation for one's self, as an expression of Divine Life, and
one's potentials for revealing that which is good and beautiful, may
have to be established in place of self-contempts, inferiority-feelings, and
the like. Lack of harmony in such relationship-patterns as those with a parent
or fraternal relative may have to be transformed by expanding the
relationship consciousness in more universal ways. But, always, we should
remember that the will to truthful understanding of others may — and
can — unlock the tight areas of any human relationship. We must be
affluent
in our good will toward others if we would realize affluence in our
experience.
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