Virgo is one of the Mercurial signs. Mercury was the messenger of the gods, and it is therefore little wonder that Virgo is the House of Service. It is also Mercury's exaltation sign where his influence is most pronounced.
On the longest and darkest night of the year, at the winter solstice, the Celestial Virgin stands upon the eastern horizon at midnight. At that time the Sun commences its new circuit and begins to mount upwards towards the vernal equinox, giving its life for the purpose of saving humanity from the hunger, darkness, and cold that would inevitably ensue were it to stay in southern latitude all the time. The Sun is said to be born of the Celestial Virgin, and the sign Virgo stands as the most sublime symbol of service as well as of divine motherhood, for the greatest service that can be rendered to humanity is the giving of birth to a new Sun each year to be the savior of the world.
Mercury in Virgo or in the sixth house well aspected always shows one who is faithful unto the end. No matter what responsibility may be put upon him he will always acquit himself well. And even when Mercury is in the sixth house and unaspected, there is always a desire to serve, to help somebody.
You will remember that the Christ said, "He that would be the greatest among you, let him be the servant of all." Therefore Mercury in Virgo or the sixth house is really one of the most beneficial positions that anyone can have; not perhaps so far as earthly treasure is concerned, but for those who love to lay up treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt this is a splendid position. Jupiter and Venus in the sixth house or Virgo also have the benevolent tendency to serve others regardless of self. The Sun stimulates growth and it is fortunate for the growth of the character and the soul if he is in Virgo or the sixth house, always provided of course that he is well aspected, for in the final analysis there is no greater luck or better fortune that could happen to anyone in the world than to be a real servant. Compared with this privilege, riches or even comfort are dross.
Saturn is the planet of obstruction, and naturally he has the tendency in Virgo or the sixth house, as elsewhere, to obstruct in whatever line he works. Therefore when in these positions he suppresses all the energy that otherwise might be expressed in service; he makes the person selfish in the very highest degree. Mercury in his exaltation sign, Virgo, expresses service. This is the only place in the zodiac where an unaspected Mercury signifies something definite. The cold hand of Saturn by conjunction or square is the only power that can squelch it here. Saturn's influence is particularly pronounced of course if Mercury is otherwise evilly aspected.
The keyword of Mars is Dynamic Energy. Therefore when he is posited in Virgo or the sixth house he will naturally make the native do something. Virgo people are rather active in youth, but there comes with age a tendency to take things easy. This of course would be effectually counteracted by the presence of a well aspected Mars in Virgo or in the sixth house. The unaspected influence of Jupiter or Venus in Virgo or the sixth house might result in the native only dreaming about what he wanted to do to serve humanity if conditions were favorable, or what he intended to do at some later day. But Mars would always bring action: he never dreams; he does. If he is evilly aspected in these positions, of course it may not be service that will be rendered for the good of others, but it may result in evil agitation as demagoguery, visionary gossip, tale-bearing, or stirring up strife.
It is a well known fact that a machine wears out and gradually deteriorates by use and service. How soon it does this depends upon how well it was built in the first place, and how much service or abuse it has had during the time it has been in use. The body is like a machine, and naturally when it has been in service for a number of years or for a certain time, the defects in it show forth. Therefore the house of service, the sixth house, is also the house of health or ill health. And as the Sun of Life passes the meridian and begins to throw its shadows towards the east, we find in the Virgo people a tendency toward corpulence of body, particularly of that part ruled by Virgo, namely, the abdomen. They neglect to take exercise, and naturally on this account a sluggish condition of the intestines may set in which retains the poisons in the body, robs life of its joys, and makes them indifferent. In this fact lies the greatest danger to the Virgo people. Once they get into the rut of sickness they actually enjoy poor health; they love to talk over their symptoms with other people, and they resent any thought or suggestion given to them that they are not sick or that they can get well.
The presence of Saturn in Virgo or the sixth house accentuates this tendency in the very highest degree, and therefore it is an almost infallible sign that the native will have or be subject to illness, the nature of this disease being denoted by the aspect and the afflicting planets.
The Sun brings light and life wherever it is except in the sixth house and to some extent in the twelfth. The sixth house seems to rob the Sun of every ray of light and to make the native subject to disease with a resistlessness that is almost like the effect of Saturn, unless other configurations in the horoscope enable the native to shake off this influence. When this is the case, the Sun in Virgo or the sixth house gives great ability in chemistry and the preparation of health foods, and makes the person a capable nurse or healer.
Mars in Virgo or the sixth house renders the person liable to operations where sharp instruments are used; also to fevers. As the Moon is an indicator of health for a woman, it is worse in a female nativity to have the Moon in the sixth house than the Sun. Conversely in a male nativity it is worse to have the Sun there than the Moon.
In order to deal successfully with Virgo people when they have once become subject to disease and to get them out of it at all, it is necessary to be firm almost to the verge of cruelty. But though one may seem cruel in enforcing upon them the regime that is necessary to bring them away from themselves this is really the greatest kindness that can be shown, for once these people are in the grip of sickness, they stubbornly refuse to let go; they will resort to the most cunning, even childish schemes to excite sympathy, particularly from strangers, and they will resent any effort to show them that they are not helpless invalids. At the very slightest suggestion of a hopeful nature they sometimes lose their temper in the most unwarranted manner. But when at last they are given the deaf ear by everybody, when people who are in their immediate environment can be persuaded to show them no sympathy, then they may come to themselves. They need a shock to bring them out and away from their condition; and until they get that they never can be cured.
Virgo people who have the mental balance to resist the tendency towards being sick and enjoying being sick make the most excellent nurses one can imagine. They are also splendid housekeepers, although they are rather peculiar in their tastes.
It is really wonderful how the symbology of the signs is brought out in the different kinds of people born under them. Take for instance the sign Leo: the people who are born under this sign always want to be noted; they are aggressive and want to attract attention everywhere they go. They aim to be leaders, never followers. Virgo, on the other hand, has the very opposite character; for while the lion is naturally bold and masterful, the virgin is naturally timid and shrinking. Similarly, the people who are born under Virgo are always afraid to be noticed; they shrink from the public eye; they are timid and afraid. But the lion is bloodthirsty and cruel, and there are no more cruel people than the Leos. On the other hand a maiden is tender and sympathetic. So are the people who are born under Virgo. That is why they make such splendid nurses, if they can keep from taking on the conditions of the patient. the Virgo people never can bear to see bloodshed or to touch dead things. They feel bodily injury to others more than harm done to themselves, and are in fact well described by the word "chicken-hearted."
Question:
(You are welcome to e-mail your answers and/or comments to us.
Please be sure to include the course name and Independent Study Module number in your e-mail to us. You will find the answers to the questions below in the next Astrology Independent Study Module.)
1. If the Moon and Neptune were in Virgo square to Mercury, what do you think would be the result?
How To Construct
a Chart for
South Latitude
To construct a chart for South latitude simply add 12 hours to the Sidereal Time at birth. First proceed according to instructions given in Simplified Scientific Astrology and Independent Study Modules 1 to 5 of the Astrology Course. Then to the calculated Sidereal Time add 12 hours; if the sum is more than 24 hours, subtract 24 hours and the remainder will be the Sidereal Time at birth, for a birth occurring in South latitude. At the bottom of the page in the Tables of Houses you will see the word Houses followed by 4-5-6-7-8-9; these are the houses you use, that is, you start with the 4th house instead of the 10th as usual. For example, if Cancer is on the 10th house, then in a chart for South latitude it will be on the 4th and Capricorn will be on the 10th house.
The reason for adding the twelve hours to the calculated sidereal time of a chart lies in the name of sidereal time itself. Sidereal time may be roughly regarded as the division of a year into a 24-hour "day" beginning near the vernal equinox. Since this equinoctial north of the equator is six months or twelve sidereal hours out of phase with the same event south of the equator, we must make this 12-hour correction for any chart for the south latitudes.
Uranus in Sagittarius would give an aspiring, original and active mind, with a vivid imagination expressed along individual and original lines. The square to the Moon in the 6th house would have a tendency to make the person overbearing and intolerant of others, and it would also indicate a clandestine attachment either on the part of the native or the marriage partner. The trine to the life-giving Sun in the 1st house would greatly offset this aspect by giving a cheerful and optimistic disposition, as well as great courage and energy. The native might become a leader along some original line of thought in the field of religion, education, esotericism, etc.
Supplemental Student
Material:
White Light Astrology
The essence of spiritual service of any kind is
performed by the person who transmutes the negative areas of his own
subconscious, strengthens and disciplines his mental faculties, keeps his
heart consciousness alive with love power, and seeks always to be perceptive
of the best in others. The perception of the actual or potential good in
others is an ignition which sooner or later makes possible the expression of
that good. The essence of evolutionary progress is the ever-unfolding
awareness of Good; we as individuals make a contribution to the progress of
the race as a whole when, by regenerate consciousness, we are able to alert
others to a recognition of their higher potentials for the fulfillment of
talents and abilities, health, love, and success in any field of endeavor.
The term "white light" is a symbolized expression of
this consciousness. White is the composite of all color refractions; in its
purest form it stands as a symbol of the vibration of consciousness which is
centered in God. The refractions of white light may be referred to, or thought
of, as soul qualities, corresponding spiritually to the variations found in
the color spectrums. Each of these colors manifests the principle of diversity
as an expression of unity, in that each quality has its vibratory ranges from
the most primitive, unregenerate aspects to its most regenerate and highly
spiritualized aspects. The utmost degree of pure, luminous white composites
the best of all visual vibratory expressions as a symbol of consciousness
perfected.
The astrologer, in his study of horoscopes of human
beings, is actually studying, analyzing, synthesizing, and interpreting
vibratory patterns of soul qualities representing all possible ranges of
development and their reflection, in the world of forms, as experience
patterns. The artistic consciousness of the painter, for example, is reflected
by what is found on his canvases; that of the musician is manifested by that
which comes out of his instrument.
The astrologer, also an interpretative artist,
expresses his consciousness by the way he interprets the horoscopes of others;
the horoscopes are his instruments — corresponding to the brush, colors, and
canvas of the painter, and to the violin of the musician. The astrologer's
consciousness of good corresponds to the composite of the artistic perceptions
of the esthetic interpreter. Inspiration is the ignition of all
consciousnesses that are aligned to truth and beauty; for the astrologer, this
ignition is made possible when he charges his consciousness with the desire to
interpret a horoscope according to the best of all its potentials. This means
that he makes his ultimate interpretative goal that of alerting the client to
a recognition of the best and finest of the latter's soul colors and soul
tones.
The impersonality of the astrologer's service makes it
imperative that, when he is at his work, he lift his consciousness from down-
pulling patterns of personal feeling and emotion. We suggest, as a preparatory
technique for developing this faculty, meditation on the following mandala: a
circle, blank except for a round dot, or spot, in the exact center. This
mandala is the most perfectly impersonal representation of a horoscope that it
is possible to make. It conveys no experience pattern, emotion pattern, nor
friction, sorrow, or difficulty. The dot in the center can stand as the
purpose of the astrologer's task. It is one-pointed, condensed, and
undifferentiated. That purpose is to be a source of spiritual enlightenment to
the client and when meditation on that purpose is, itself, focused and
concentrated, personal down-pullings vanish from the consciousness of the
astrologer. In this way the astrologer "white lights" himself; his next step
is to "white light" the client. He does so by adding to the above mandala the
vertical and horizontal diameters; the result is the most abstract and
impersonal portrait of a human being that can be made. This mandala is a
composite picture of the spiritual consciousness — the central dot; the state
of physical incarnation is the cross formed by the straight lines; and the
enveloping of the perfect circle is divine power, divine love, and divine
wisdom The mandala pictures a human being who is conscious of his spiritual
origin and of the spirituality of incarnation. From meditation on this
portrait, the white light awareness of the astrologer toward the client is
unfolded.
The next step in developing white light awareness is
for the astrologer to add the other diameters to the above mandala, thus
completing the twelve-fold horoscopical wheel. The mandala now presents the
picture of the client as subject to the same general patterns of experience
and relationship that are common to all other human beings. These twelve
"houses" are the "rooms" of the house in which the entity, Humanity, lives
during incarnation. Each is as necessary as all the others, each has its
particularized significance in experience, and each is a work-shop for the
creation of greater good on all planes of human expression and realization.
The mandala, as it now stands, is the essential
pattern of all horoscopes. Meditation on it, as a picturing of human life, can
be made by all astrologers so that the realization of evolutionary purpose in
human life may become deeper and clearer each day. Every horoscope perceived
as a "variation-expression" of this mandala stands a much better chance of
being sensitively and intuitively interpreted; without this preparation of
"White Lighting" the basic pattern, the astrologer risks mental entanglement
among all the complex factors of a natal horoscope. Further — and this is
important — since horoscopes represent people, the astrologer develops the
response of "white lighting" people automatically when he contacts them in his
daily living. This is a natural development from his daily white light
meditation on the astrological mandala because he throws out to people an
awareness which is being more and more focused on perfections.
From the abstract design we now begin to apply the
white light technique to personal variations; we leave the universal pattern
to consider particular patterns.
The old admonition, "Charity begins at home," can be
restated here in this form: The development of white light technique begins
with the astrologer's meditation on his own chart. He, a human being, has the
same essential pattern as has any other human being. But his
particulars differ to a degree from those of anyone else.
His being an astrologer does not automatically exempt
him from patterns of personal feelings in the form of prejudice, resentment,
false pride, envy, etc. However, his being an astrologer imposes on him the
responsibility of transcending these negatives as soon, and as completely, as
possible. His negatives can congeal and crystallize just as anyone else's can;
so he, the astrologer, must turn his impersonal consciousness on
himself, the human being. This is a truth: to the degree that an
astrologer remains fixated in negative reaction patterns he limits his
interpretative abilities. In that state he transposes his own negatives into
similar patterns which he may find in another's chart. For example: a male
astrologer has become fixated on a pattern of aversion to a specific feminine
expression of human life. He has, toward that expression, a deep subconscious
feeling of dislike or animosity — the result of his reaction to a problem-
experience some time in his past. He has never released that frictional
feeling from his subconscious. How, we ask, can he adequately interpret and
psychologically or spiritually solve a similar condition which he finds in the
chart of another male? There are astrologers who, motivated by deep urges
toward self-defense and self-justification, fail to interpret correctly
certain patterns in their charts which others can see at a glance. A little
white light is urgently needed at that point.
We astrologers, as a general thing, find no
difficulty in "white lighting" the twelve houses of the chart. The houses
stand as picturings of basic experience patterns and, as such, convey a more
directly impersonal meaning. But some of us seem to have it in for certain
planets and/or planetary aspects. Why? Because the planets are the
focalizations of consciousness and some of the patterns they make in
relationship to each other picture the friction and testing of consciousness
patterns. We tend to regard as bad, evil, or unfortunate any experience
pattern which ignites our unregenerate consciousness levels, thus causing us
to experience reactions of pain. Those which ignite our regenerate levels of
consciousness we interpret as benefic, fortunate, and happy. The symbolic
composite we call black — evil, painful or bad — is to be worked on though the
alchemicalizations of regenerating experience and transmuted into that which
we call white. Why not, then, learn to perceive the whiteness inherent in all
planetary qualities and relationships? This comprises the interpretative phase
of white light astrology.
The whiteness of any planet is the life principle
which is symbolized by that planet. The diversity of expression of any planet
is just another way of saying: the diversity of expression of human
consciousness. According to your development you are aware of these
principles; according to your non-development you are unaware of their meaning
and significance. The purpose of white-lighting anything is to become more
aware of its spiritual meaning.
However clearly you, as an astrologer, may delineate
and understand the chart of another person, it is suggested that a plan be
adopted by which you may become more perceptive of your own whiteness. This
plan involves meditation on several mandalas abstracted from your own chart;
one mandala for each of your planets. These mandalas will not involve the use
of numbers in any form since number implies limitation, and whiteness is
unlimited. Do not permit a single negative, down-pulling keyword to be used in
these interpretations. Use only words which convey levels of spiritualized
consciousness.
The mandala for your Sun position will be a circle
with the twelve houses: the symbol for Leo on your Leo cusp; the symbol of the
Sun placed in the house and sign where you have it; the symbol for your Sun
sign is placed on its appropriate cusp. This is the concentrated picture of
your Sun seen with white light. Synthesize by spiritual keywords every factor
of this picture — it is the spiritualized essence of your Sun consciousness,
will-power and purpose, the radiation of creative love.
Your Venus mandala: a wheel like the above with the
symbols for Taurus and Libra on the cusps appropriate to your chart; the
symbol for Venus — the abstract symbol of the fulfilled feminine consciousness,
the refinements of the soul, the esthetic awareness, the capacity for
cooperation, etc. — to be placed in the house and sign where you have it, the
symbol of the sign containing Venus placed on the cusp appropriate to your
chart. And so on — one mandala for each of the other planets.
The impression that is conveyed by each of your
planetary mandalas is that of a pure color, a light blazing without hindrance.
There are no implied complications or limitations to the ability of the planet
to radiate at its fullest.
Your white light horoscope is the composite of all
your planetary mandalas: a wheel with your signs on the cusps, your planets
placed according to the houses and signs in which you have them. Utilizing the
most spiritual principles as key words, you now interpret your chart as a
picture of the highest and best that you are capable of experiencing and
realizing in this incarnation. Your chart, in this form, is an astrological
portrait of your ideal self.
The next step is to abstract a white light mandala,
in the same way as is described above, for each of your square and/or
opposition aspects; we will call these patterns aspect mandalas. Do
not place the planetary degrees in the aspect mandala but meditate with
spiritual key words on the two planets involved. Since each planet in an
aspect mandala blazes with the sane pure essential light that it does in its
own mandala, you are now exercising the faculty of synthesis to white-light a
two-fold pattern. Follow out the same plan in application to your compound
(involving three planets or more) aspects.
After the white light preparation has been made the
squares and oppositions in your natal chart will be clearly and truthfully
seen to be the process of experience and reactions to experience by which you
regenerate your life on all planes. In conclusion, this statement is offered
for your spiritual consideration: Regeneration of consciousness is not
for the purpose of making trines for the future, it is for the purpose of
unfolding God-consciousness through the expression of your planets according
to their spiritualized white light principles.
The Astrologer
Discusses Teaching
Jupiter, as the abstract ruler of the ninth house, is
the astrological symbol of the teacher. Since a consideration of abstract
subjects is assisted by meditation on a drawn symbol, or "outpicturing," it is
suggested that four astrological designs be utilized in the pursuance of this
material.
The first will be a wheel with the houses numbered;
the symbol of Sagittarius on the ninth cusp, the symbol of Jupiter in the
ninth house. In the consideration of this design we find our point of
concentration to be in the upper hemisphere of the horoscope; or, shall we
say, in the soul consciousness part of the life pattern. It is the
transcendent expression of its lower polarity, the third house. We could talk
about the ninth house and remain "up in the air" forever if we do not "root
ourselves" in consideration of the third house which is ruled abstractly by
Mercury through the sign Gemini.
To our original design we now add the sign Gemini on
the third cusp and in the third house we put the symbol for Mercury. We have
now established a "polarity design" by which a point in the lower half of the
wheel is directed into the upper half. This design signifies a "path of
evolution" by which an aspect of the "separative consciousness" evolves into
an aspect of the "impersonal" or "soul" consciousness.
The first house is "I am" — the recognition of
individual consciousness, of Being. The second house is "I have" — an
emotional identification with Life by the consciousness of "attachment
through possession." The third house is the "awareness of Life" through an
exercise of the unemotional faculty of intellect. As abstract rulers of
the first and second houses Mars and Venus are "emotional expressions;"
Mercury, as abstract ruler of the third, is, even in primitive levels, the
first awareness of unemotional impersonal consciousness.
Mercury, then, is our capacity for "unemotional
identification." By its exercise we give names to things, either concrete or
abstract. We also give identification to things in terms of measurement,
quality, and function. Mercury is not a means by which we identify ourselves
with Life; it is the means by which we relate the objectifications of Life to
ourselves for our utilizations and communications.
Seen from this standpoint, Mercury (as ruler of the
third house of the first or "ingathering" quadrant of the wheel) is the symbol
of all learning. It is the faculty by which facts are transmitted from one
person's mentality to another's mentality. It is, correspondingly, the
faculty by which facts are comprehended by the mentality receiving the
instruction or information. Mercury is language, expressed concretely
by the spoken word, gesture, or picture; abstractly, by the written word. It
is the symbol of universal relationship of people to each other in terms of
mental rapport. It is the symbol of all students, and, as such,
esoterically symbolizes the essence of all fraternal relationships. (We are
all, regardless of outer relationships, parallel with each
other — fraternally — because we are all learners from life experience.)
Further consideration of this design will show that
all teaching has its roots in learning, and that development of skill as a
teacher is dependent on the faculty of learning being kept alive. The polarity
currents (in consciousness) between the lower and upper hemispheres must be
kept stimulated if the upper half capacities are to flower. We are never
separate from any part of our horoscope; even though we may spend twenty hours
out of each day in the profession of teaching, the currents of "intake" must
not become depleted or neglected. Learning is an ignition of awareness of
facts and identifications; it may be likened to an inhalation of breath.
Anyone truly and strongly motivated to teach will keep this "third house
faculty" alive. In other words, he will neglect no opportunity to learn
further. To stop the "intaking" is to insure an eventual stoppage, of
crystallization, of the ability to teach. (Herein lies a lesson in sincerity
and humility: teachers take heed.)
If Mercury is the symbol of "mental intaking" then
Jupiter — vital, radiant, and dynamic — is the abstraction of "exhalation:"
transmission of knowledge or ignition of intellectual awareness amplified
and enriched by the maturity of spiritual understanding. Knowledge of
facts plus awareness of Principles. In this connection we must add
another factor to our design: the sign Virgo on the cusp of the sixth house,
creating a T-cross, two arms of which are in the lower hemisphere, ruled by
Mercury.
Here the abstract symbol of "fellow students" is
expressed in an extended form to represent the "fraternity of workers." Work,
spiritually considered, is more than physical labor — it is the service
that each person may render as a contribution to the betterment of Life for
all.
Virgo, as an earth sign, has a distinctly practical
connotation: "I work to make money to sustain my physical life and that of
those I love." As long as the attitude toward the service of teaching is "I
learn something so that I can teach something so that I can make some money,"
the square aspect of Gemini-Virgo threatens the unfoldment of the teacher's
capacities by keeping him identified in consciousness in frictional awareness
of "practical considerations." The redemption of this square pattern is found
in the fact that the sixth house is the last house of the lower hemisphere and
is the "modulation" into the upper hemisphere of emotional regeneration and
spiritual awareness. It succeeds the fifth house, which is that of Love-power;
when the consciousness of "money-making-labor" is charged with the creativity
of Love and expressed as Service for the betterment of Life it becomes an
expression of redemption. Through the experiences of Love-service we gain
understanding of our subject that makes mere book learning seem, in
comparison, a lifeless shell. This understanding is the thing that a true
teacher radiates to his students.
We now complete this design by adding the symbol for
Pisces on the cusp of the twelfth house and place the symbol of Neptune
therein: the cross of mutable signs. Through the first arm, Gemini, Mercury
symbolizes the "learner;" its "exhalation" is Jupiter as abstraction of the
ninth house. Mercury, through Virgo, is the "learner" from Service-experience;
its "exhalation" is Neptune as the abstraction of the twelfth. Of this, more
anon.
To consider the subject more concretely, let us
regard some of the problems that are, sooner or later, faced by those who
experience the urge to teach.
Since, in the first place, teaching is a dynamic
expression of wisdom, the motive must be one of illumination. Anyone who
responds to the urge to illuminate must accept a challenge from those patterns
of consciousness that represent darkness: mental crystallization, rigid
formalism of opinion and attitude, prejudice, the kind of ignorance that forms
a basis of indifference toward the impersonal or spiritual needs of students.
This experience pattern serves as a challenge to the integrity and courage of
the teacher.
The urge to fulfill an impersonal service is, sooner
or later, to he tested by the person's own consciousness of economic factors.
This testing is one of the most significant points in the evolution of anyone
who is spiritually aspiring in any work-pattern. Considering again the design
with the mutable signs we see that the opposition aspects are "rooted" by
Mercury through Gemini and Virgo. Unregenerate Mercury, in its alliance with
the first sector of the wheel, is "practicality," "expediency," "literalness,"
and "surface evaluation." These key words pertain to levels of consciousness
which have not, as yet, touched the impersonal. Persons who are motivated into
the teaching profession and who remain in this expression of Mercury are those
whose basic attitude is one of self-interest. "Which job pays the most?"
"Which job paves the way for the greatest academic prestige?," "earliest
retirement," "biggest pension," "pleasantest surroundings," and so on. These
considerations are held by everyone for a time in their evolutionary progress,
but the point that is being made here is that eventually the attitude
toward work must be regenerated into one of Love-service. Until that step is
taken the function of teachership cannot be truly fulfilled. Astrologically,
the above may be translated in this way: until self-interest is transcended,
the cycle starting with Mercury-Gemini cannot find its spiritualized
fulfillment in Neptune-Pisces, through Jupiter-Sagittarius.
Since Jupiter, as symbol of the teacher, is found in
the upper hemisphere of the wheel, the testings of the truly motivated teacher
are much more "inner" than they are "outer." His most significant problems are
soul problems. Some of these testings arise from the necessity to regenerate
what might be called qualities of negative Jupiter, such as:
Intellectual pride, by which the teacher fixates
himself in egotistic levels due to the feeling of having superiority over
those he teaches. This tendency can be remedied by a "switch in consciousness"
by which the teacher intensifies his awareness that he is not nor never can
be, a repository for all the knowledge of his particular subject, but
is, in effect, an elder brother to those he teaches — and any one of them may
be, innately, his superior in essential wisdom. He recognizes that he is a
foreshadowing of the development of his pupils and that he serves as a
"modulating point" by which they move from levels of innocence to levels of
awareness of their own wisdom. He must never forget that he has, at
some time or other, traversed the same path of learning, and, in terms of his
own personal development, should still be a learner. In other words he should
keep his attitude toward his teaching work fluid and dynamic — expanding,
improving, and enlarging. Thus he utilizes regenerative key words of Jupiter
to prevent the crystallizations caused by pride.
Self-aggrandizement through desire for recognition
and praise is an expression of Jupiter as vanity and greed. In this level, the
teacher seeks continually to shine over his colleagues to compensate for his
envy of them. He desires the adulation of his students; he utilizes his work
to gain the good opinion of people. An urge to improve his skill and enlarge
his scope is motivated, basically, by his wish to be well thought of. This
"inturning" viewpoint carries the seeds of its own disintegration since it
automatically results in an experience which will serve to shatter the
fixated, limiting motivation.
The purpose of teaching is not self-aggrandizement
but the illumination of the consciousness of others. The teacher who
has an attitude based on his integrity as a worker possesses what might be
called a healthy humility — he respects the work he is doing; he cultivates his
skill in order that the work be improved; he is thankful for all suggestions
that are given him and he is willing to give them his consideration. His
attitude toward his colleagues is one of appreciation for their value to
the work, not one of competitiveness, since he recognizes that each
teacher has his own unique contribution to make. He assists each one
when he can and he is willing to learn from each of them when he can. In other
words, he utilizes the Jupiterian key word of "improvement" and keeps his
motivations spiritualized and regenerated.
The true teacher's attitude toward his pupils is
never one of "having power over them." It is true that he does have, since
they are susceptible to his words and influence, but his motivation is to
"alert" them to an awareness of their own powers and abilities and the ways
and means by which they may express their best potentials. Motivated by love
his attitude toward his pupils is one of benevolence; their progress is
his joy. He appreciates the significance of the emergence of his pupils from
one level of understanding to a higher one. His desire is to assist growth —
never to "keep in submission." His "output" as a teacher is backed up by
loving appreciation of his pupils — as students and persons — who, in their
turn, will be instrumental in the furthering of the work which is the object
of their mutual devotion — the altar on which he and they have lighted their
candles.
The symbol of the teacher's path in its most subtly
spiritualized expressions is found in the fourth quadrant of the mutable
cross: Jupiter in the ninth to Neptune in the twelfth. This is the experience-
pattern of the Elder Brother — the illuminator of Souls, the radiation of
Wisdom of Philosophies and Arts; universal in its scope of redemptive power.
In this sector of development intellectual knowledge has been encompassed and
transcended. The pupil is concerned with the Principles of Life and his
aspirations — not his desires or ambitions — are fired by contact with the
illumined Intelligence and spiritualized consciousness of the teacher.
One more design: Aries on the first cusp, Leo on the
fifth, and Sagittarius on the ninth; Mars in the first house, Sun in the
fifth, and Jupiter in the ninth. This is the trinity of the fire signs. Mars
says: "I am" a manifested expression of the One." The Sun says: "I am the
radiating power of Love." Jupiter says: "I am the radiation of wisdom."
This triangular design outpictures the dynamic
consciousness; Jupiter as teacher, here symbolizes spiritual parenthood: the
father who guides the development and illuminates the evolving awareness of
his "children," his "little brothers and sisters." In human terms, Jupiter is
here seen to symbolize the spiritual responsibilities of fatherhood — and the
responsibility of all parents to provide spiritual as well as physical
nurture to those who have incarnated through them.
On impersonal levels, it shows the inherent spiritual
parenthood of all teachers to their pupils, who, on mental levels, are
their children. Parents should be teachers; all true
teachers bring to their pupils a radiation of Love-power that makes for
completest fulfillment of their Teaching Service.
This web page has been edited and/or excerpted from reference material, has been modified from it's original version, and is in conformance with the web host's Members Terms & Conditions. This website is offered to the public by students of The Rosicrucian Teachings, and has no official affiliation with any organization.
