Leo is the sign of majesty and power. It is the royal constellation of the heavens. Divinity and Humility are its spiritual keywords.

   The triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the city of love and the place of the heart, represents the Leo Labor in the life of Christ Jesus. The biblical keynote of this sign is summed up in the statement, "Love is the fulfilling of the Law." That Law which is fulfilled by the love of Leo is expressed by Aquarius, which is Leo's polar opposite and complementary sign, and the ideal of which is the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. This is the consummate ideal toward which these two signs point. Leo represents the heart (love) and Aquarius the head (mind). The forces of these two signs united produce the perfect type man of the New Age. Such an individual will be able to think with the heart and to love with the mind. From him will spring the Aquarian civilization in which every law will be motivated by love, when the former things (the present decadent age) shall have passed away.

Judges 14:5-6
Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath; and, behold, a young Zion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.

   The lion represents the universal or cosmic fire-force which is the active life principle of all creation. This divine creative fire is under the guidance of the Leo Hierarchy known in mystic Christianity as the Lords of Flame. In man it may manifest either as sensuality on the animal plane or when uplifted to the Spiritual plane as a protecting aura rendering one invulnerable to evil.

   Later Samson discovers honey in the carcass of the lion, with which he nourishes himself. Honey is a symbol of divine wisdom. It is produced from the essence of flowers (the spiritual body) and is a product of the bees (higher emotions). Virgil relates a similar incident wherein bees and honey are found in the carcass of a young bull.

   The Mysteries of Mithras contained a Lion's Degree with a honey ceremonial. In this Leonic Rite the hands of the participants were bathed in honey and they were admonished to keep them guiltless of inflicting pain and pure from all defilements.

   Timnath is a city of Judah (Leo). The vineyard of Timnath represents the processes whereby the fruitage of the heart life is garnered.

   The father and mother are the dual, or positive and negative, poles of spirit. That Samson rent the lion as if a kid, describes complete mastery over the powerful and subtle fire or life essence within himself. "Many speak of the lion," declares an ancient aphorism, "but few know him."

   When this creative fire is uplifted the result is an inner awakening, a spiritual Illumination, and Initiation into the deeper mysteries of life.

   As the glorious Archangel, the Christ, is now the Sacred Heart of our solar system, so is the awakened or Christed heart the central station of light and power in the body of man on Earth. For one so heart-awakened to meet the Planetary Christ face to face is the supreme ideal of human attainment. This is the highest meaning of the Sun in Leo.

   The earliest symbol of Virgo was that of a woman with wings, or the spirit of womanhood deified, also a harbinger of the New Age woman. In her left hand she bears a sheaf of wheat, which is marked by one of the most glorious stars of the first magnitude, the great blue-white Spica, one of the powerful spiritual centers of the heaven. Man early erected many temples to receive the emanations from this mighty star. According to occult record there was such a temple in Thebes as far back as 32,000 B.C.

   In Egypt this lovely star was called the Lute Bearer, in India, the Lamp, and in China it was known as the Pearl. For Chinese poet-astronomers, the Milky Way was the Yellow Road over which the goddess Virgo had scattered ripened corn.

   Virgo is the Divine Mother of the heavens. The most advanced feminine Initiates belonging to all great world religions have received direct tutelage from the exalted Beings of this constellation, who in esoteric Christian parlance are designated as Lords of Wisdom. It is for this reason that the early Church considered Virgo to be the sign belonging to the blessed Virgin and many of the divine mysteries connected with her life are related to it.

   In the religion of Babylon, in accordance with the Akkadian Calendar, the sixth month was represented by the "Descent of Ishtar," which had reference to the great cosmic Planetary Conception which occurs annually as the Sun enters Virgo.

   The keywords of Virgo are Healing, Service and Humility; the biblical keynote: "Let him that is greatest among you become the servant of all." Virgo is a mental sign, and it is only when the mind becomes Christed that it is able to rise to the consciousness of Mercury exalted in Virgo. Knowledge (mental concept) is then transformed into Wisdom (spiritual understanding).

Judges 16:4-5
And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
And the lords of Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her,
Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will give thee, every one of us, eleven hundred pieces of silver.

   The name Delilah means "delicate" or "feminine" and symbolizes the constellation Virgo. The Sun (Samson) reaches its greatest height and most powerful radiation in the heavens just before passing into Virgo, which, in the life of Samson is symbolized by the laying of his head in the lap of Delilah.

   The Philistines (astrologically, the lowering or descent of the Sun's power) seek to overcome Samson by shearing his hair (lessening of the Sun's rays with the approach of Autumn), and by putting out his eyes (the shorter days and longer nights of the months immediately following the Autumn Equinox).

   Eleven is the number of mastery or equilibrium; silver, a metal of feminine potency. The incident involving Delilah is another in the series of varying experiences depicting self-mastery achieved through experiences with the feminine pole of Spirit.

   There is a tremendous power unleashed throughout the universe as the Sun passes from Leo into Virgo. This force when used destructively causes blindness of the spiritual vision; i.e., its loss, or distortion as in hallucination. When used constructively it leads to the glory of the Assumption and the new Immaculate Conception as outlined in the path of the Christian Mysteries relative to the blessed Madonna and the Sign of Virgo.

Judges 16:21
But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought hint down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.

   The Philistines who figure so prominently in the life-story of Samson typify as in earlier stories the materially minded state of consciousness that prevails among the masses. They are descendants of Esau, the red or hairy one, who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage and aptly symbolizes present-day humanity.

   As previously Doted, both the biblical Samson and the Grecian Hercules represent man, and the experiences they encounter are the lessons of life engendered under cosmic Law. By means of these the soul is refined and made like unto the perfect image of its beginnings.

   The twelve Labors also mark the Sun's annual cycle through the zodiacal Path, foreshadowing the time now rapidly approaching when all men shall realize how intimately their lives are interpenetrated by the "sweet influences" of the celestial Hierarchies correlated to the twelve constellations. The Bible reveals this truth in many ways.

 — Corinne Heline