The Immaculate Mother of all world religions is depicted in the skies by the constellation Virgo. This Eternal Feminine is Isis of Egypt, Ishtar of Babylon, Minerva of Greece, Maya of India and Mary of Bethlehem. The feminine leader of the Virgo Hierarchy is the Cosmic Mother of the planet. For man she is the embodiment of the exaltation of the divine feminine principle. The supreme feminine Masters who have come to earth as the Madonnas of the great world religions are brought to this exalted Being for instruction in the mystery of the Immaculate Conception.
The pictorial representation of Virgo is a maiden bearing in one hand a sheaf of wheat and holding in the other a glorious jewel, the beautiful blue-white star Spica, a star of the first magnitude. This star's spiritual radiations were recognized by many of the ancients. They built Temples dedicated to its heavenly light where they could receive its special benediction. When Spica is again contacted, this time by a more sensitive and spiritualized race, man will truly come under the deeper significance of its Immaculate Conception. As the Cosmic Mother, it is Virgo's office to guide humanity into ways of purity, and to quicken man's higher vehicles by means of etheric currents higher in potency than any yet generated in his body.
Spica means a sheaf of wheat, and so we find that both wheat and stars are emblems associated with Virgo and with the various Madonnas. These are not merely ornamental symbols but true insignia of powers possessed by those who have attained the spiritual status where the masculine and feminine creative potencies are united.
Bethlehem means the house of bread. One of the most beautiful stories relating to the mystic marriage is the biblical account of Ruth and Boaz. Ruth went to Bethlehem to glean wheat (the bread of life), and brought her offering to Boaz, placing it at his feet. It was by means of her gift that she was found worthy to receive instruction from Boaz, her spiritual teacher; and later, under his guidance, to take the exalted rite of the Mystic Marriage.
It is stated in esoteric lore that wheat was a gift to earth from Venus. It is a plant capable of reproducing itself without pollenization since it contains within itself the dual creative powers — a property like unto that of the Lord Christ who contains within Himself androgenous power. In this connection it is interesting to note that wheat and Christianity are closely connected, for where wheat will not grow Christianity will not flourish.
According to a beautiful Grecian legend, the gods and goddesses abandoned humanity one by one after its descent into materiality, until only Astrea, goddess of justice, was left. Conditions finally became such that she, too, had to leave for a time and was taken up into the heavens where she was changed into the constellation Virgo. From there, however, she has continued to guide and bless the world and mankind.
Virgo is the sixth sign, the numerical significance of six being entrance into a new life through service. Truly it has been said that "Secret Wisdom is hid in number. Number veileth the power of the Elohim." And Virgo is a mental sign. It is ruled by Mercury, planet of reason, which finds its place of exaltation in this sign. This gives the mental alertness that in its lower expression inclines toward criticism, but in its higher aspect becomes constructively analytical.
The first step in conservation of the life force is through self-control. The second step is transmutation. Conservation is accomplished by the masculine will power principle; transmutation is achieved through the elevation of the feminine love principle. This work is delineated in the ancient symbol of a maiden (Virgo) closing the mouth of a lion (Leo).
An illumined native of Virgo responds to the exaltation of Mercury in this sign, which changes knowledge into wisdom, for wisdom is soul knowledge. Virgo embodies the feminine principle, always associated with sacrifice. It voluntarily subjects itself, as the negative pole of divine energy, to a lower vibratory rate in order that the masculine principle, the positive pole, may obtain a form through which to manifest. It is this feminine principle that is sacrificed for the sake of the world, as in the divine descent of the Lord Christ that earth and its people might regain the lost light and attain to life more abundant.
Virgo is the sign of purity and service. Its purity includes that of food to nourish the body and of that to embellish life. "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." The biblical keynote of Virgo: "He that is greatest among you let him be the servant of all." Service, symbolized by the golden grain of wheat, fills the spiritual storehouse of a Virgo native, where thieves cannot break through and steal.
Virgo is also the sign of healing, a power that comes with pure and spiritual living. It is the sign of Mother Earth (Virgo is an earth sign) who protects and nourishes her children as did Diana of the Greeks. All baby animals live for the first few months under the benefic influence of the mother aspect of Virgo. In Christianity, however, Virgo is above all else the sign of the Immaculate Conception.
While the Sun is in Leo the Christ Spirit is refreshed and renewed by the glories of the Father's kingdom. As the Lord Christ's highest attribute is sacrificial in nature, when the Sun passes into Virgo, sign of service, a cosmic urge moves Him to leave the realm of the Father and descend again to Earth, which he contacts as the Sun passes into Libra.
The Path of Holiness, following the Christ Ray, also leaves the spiritual region of Earth while the Sun passes through Virgo. Love being the keynote of Leo and service through purity that of Virgo, one who walks that part of the Path which traverses the higher vibratory planes of this sphere must have evolved purity as a power within himself. The quality of such power is not generally recognized, yet the Christ declared that only the pure in heart shall see God. In this connection the lines of Tennyson in Sir Galahad are descriptive:
This is the attribute that rendered Parsifal immune to the attack upon him by the evil Klingsor. The spear of hate the black knight hurled at Parsifal was deflected from its course. In that same moment, and by virtue of this power, Parsifal made the sign of the cross and brought complete collapse to Klingsor's castle of evil.
While Virgo holds the secret of the Immaculate Conception, it is through its opposite sign, Pisces, that this gift was brought to earth and demonstrated by the supreme feminine Master, Mary of Bethlehem. It was under the Hierarchy of Sagittarius (Archangels) that Mary herself was immaculately conceived; and it was under the spiritual guardianship of the Hierarchy of Virgo that she was born into the physical world.
A candidate who is worthy to touch the supernal realm of Virgo finds himself before the mystery of the Immaculate Conception and learns that this divine gift was not bestowed upon one individual only, but that Mary and Jesus were type patterns which humanity as a whole is destined to emulate. In this celestial abode those who are spiritually enlightened hear Angels chanting of the day when, in a new heaven and a new earth, the Immaculate Conception will be the heritage of the entire race.
As previously stated, the Hierarchy of Taurus holds the cosmic pattern of form; the Hierarchy of Cancer, that of life; the Hierarchy of Virgo, the power by which life ensouls form. These three constellations, the Feminine Triangle of the heavens, minister to all kingdoms of life on earth.
It should be noted that one who follows the Path of Holiness through the six zodiacal signs above the equator has reached that high place of illumination where he is found worthy to stand before the sublime mysteries of the four Greater Initiations. The disciple who treads this Path as it is outlined in the six signs below the equator is being prepared to receive the work of the nine Lesser Mysteries.
There were ten virgins who carried their lamps as they went forth to meet the bridegroom; but when he tarried, they fell asleep. Then, at the hour of midnight, came the cry, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh." The virgins awakened and five of the ten discovered there was no oil in their lamps, so they sought to borrow some from their sisters. But the wise virgins said, "Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves." While the foolish virgins went to purchase oil the bridegroom came, and the five wise virgins "went in with him into the marriage; and the door was shut." When the foolish virgins came and asked for admittance, the bridegroom replied, "Verily I say unto you, I know you not."
The foolish virgins are those who squander their sacred life force (oil) in worldly and sensual pleasures, and so have no light within themselves to greet the Bridegroom when He comes; in other words, they have not made themselves worthy of the Christ life within.
Many of the most profound keys to biblical interpretation are hidden in the sacred meaning of numbers. Ten is the number of man and woman working together as they travel the Path of Discipleship. Five is the number of the five physical senses, and also the number of the activity by means of which inner lamps are kept alight. An ancient utterance, that long antedates biblical literature, is the admonition: "Learn to count aright that thou mayest have oil for thy lamp." So long as man is subject to the lure of the five physical senses he can never discover the true purpose and meaning of life. When he has overcome that lure he becomes the five-pointed star and understands the real import of the Master's words: "I am the light of the world."
The oil forfeited by the five foolish virgins was the divine creative essence within themselves. When that force passes up the spinal cord, the true path of discipleship, and reaches the head, it illumines two spiritual organs located therein, the pineal body and the pituitary gland, and they shine with rare radiance. This accomplished, the disciple then bears within himself his own lighted lamp and is ever ready to welcome the Bridegroom. He who is illumined by this light never fails to attract the attention of a teacher. As the saying is "When the student is ready the master appears."
The above diagram was called Ezekiel's Wheel by the ancients. It represents the karmic wheel of human evolution. In the vast incarnation cycles every ego stands many times and in many places to be weighed and proven in the scales of Libra, whether he will choose the high way of spirit as represented by Virgo, or the low way of the senses as typified by Scorpio.
The evolutionary processes are slow. The way by which a human soul becomes a Christed one is long and arduous. Only through choice may that way be shortened. Wrote the poet:
And in between, on the misty flats,
The rest drift to and fro.
But to every man there openeth
A High way and a Low,
And every man decideth
The Way his soul shall go.
— The Ways, by John Oxenham
— Corinne Heline
