This section compiles a fearly complete information about Aries.
Sources and further recommended readings are given at the bottom of this page.
ARIES, THE RAM
{excerpts from "Esoteric Astrology" by Alice Bailey
(Pages 91,134)}
by J. Bosschart
ARIES FULL MOON - THE FESTIVAL OF EASTER
FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITUAL FESTIVALS
The following has been extracted and paraphrased by Brad Berg from Esoteric Astrology, by Alice Bailey .
This is the festival of the risen, living Christ. On this day, the spiritual Hierarchy is recognized and the nature of God's love is emphasized.
Ray 1 and Ray 7 are transmitted to this solar system through Aries.
Esoteric ruler: Mercury - 4th Ray
Exoteric ruler: Mars - 6th Ray
Aries is the expression of will as it expresses itself through the great creative process.
Aries initiates the cycle of manifestation. It is the place where the initial idea to institute activity takes place. It is the birthplace of ideas. Aries is the sign of beginnings.
The keynotes of this sign:
(Creation - Being - Activity - Strife - Synthesis)
1. Express the will to be and do.
2. Unfold the power to manifest.
3. Enter into battle for the Lord.
4. Arrive at unity through effort.
Later on the Path, Aries produces those higher creative activities which eventually lead to the manifestation of the spirit through the soul.
Aries is the purveyor to our solar system of Fire. Aries forces the soul on to the burning ground and subjects it to a purifying process during incarnation. The Sun is exalted in Aries.
God's idea in Aries becomes the concrete plan in Capricorn.
Mercury, through the medium of conflict, enables one to achieve harmony.
Mercury illumines the mind and mediates between the soul and the personality.
Illusion is dispelled through the illumination of the lower mind.
Mercury and the Sun are one. The Sun is the symbol of the Son of God, mediating between Father-Spirit and Mother-Matter.
Mars embodies 6th ray force and leads to idealism, struggle, strife, effort and evolution.
The higher motto of Aries: "I come forth and from the plane of mind, I rule."
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What follows is a mirror to SouledOut.org
Aries is called the Light of Life Itself. "It is the 'searchlight of the Logos, seeking that which can be used' for divine expression." (1) The secret of Aries is the secret of beginnings, of cycles and of emerging opportunity. It is a sign of commencement.
Symbolized by the Ram, Aries is the first sign of the zodiac and begins the cycle around the great wheel. This is the constellation used to stream the first ray of Will or Power to the planet. Aries expresses will or power through the creative process and "awakens the will to reach the lowest and there control, to know the uttermost and thus to face all experience." (2) This sign is connected to the vibratory activity of the soul under impulse from the monad, and as such, is the sign the initial idea to initiate activity takes form, initiating the cycle of manifestation. All souls enter into human incarnation for the first time in the sign of Cancer, having emerged as mental entities in Aries, as emotional-desire entities in Taurus and as vital entities in Gemini, taking a physical form in Cancer.
Aries represents the "birthplace of divine Ideas." (3) A powerful mental sign, Aries is a sign of beginnings ~ the beginning of the creative process, the first step of the soul towards incarnation, the beginning of cycles of experience, the beginning of the cycle when the soul enters upon spiritual regeneration and initiation. Aries is one of four signs in the zodiac which are signs of birth. It is also considered a sign of consummation and one of three death signs.
Aries is the first of the three great spiritual festivals each year. We celebrate Aries as the Festival of Easter. Ideas are born when the sun is in Aries and the moon is out of the way. A true idea is in reality a spiritual impulse as the soul responds to the highest aspect of God. Aries awakens the will to know and to face all experiences with courage.
“Aries initiates the cycle of manifestation.... Aries is the place where the initial idea to institute activity takes form. It is the birth place of ideas, and a true idea is in reality a spiritual impulse taking form--subjective and objective.” (Pg. 92)
“The potency of Aries, as it initiates those happenings which will set in motion the causes that will produce the New Age, can be seen today in the trend of all the new movements, in the formulation of the various world orders, in the discoveries of science and in the emergence of the new types in the different kingdoms in natures. This activity has only been felt since 1835....” (Pg. 486)
The Planets and Rays Ruling Aries
Aries is the primary agent of the first ray of Will or Power, the ray of the destroyer, under the guidance of the three ruling planets ~ Mars, Mercury and Uranus. Mars is the exoteric ruler of Aries and Mercury is the esoteric ruler. Uranus brings in seventh ray energies and so rules the occult Way as energy flows through Uranus to the Creative Hierarchies.
Mars rules and controls the physical vehicle. It embodies sixth ray force which leads to idealism, destructive fanaticism, struggle, strife, war, effort and evolution. Through these fiery processes, brought forward by the influence of its exoteric planetary ruler Mars, god of war, purification occurs in Aries. The same purification comes to the disciple through the activity of the esoteric ruler, Mercury, which illumines and releases the mind, enabling the disciple to become aware of the divine Plan which underlies all experience.
Through Mercury, Aries is related to the fourth ray. The fourth ray energies propel the disciple around the wheel of life as it illumines the mind and through experiences of conflict, eventually produces unity and beauty. As a Messenger of the Gods, Mercury mediates between the soul and personality, producing opposition between spirit and matter and a long battle. Victory is finally won by illuminating the lower mind, thereby dispelling illusion.
The influence of Mercury, stepped down to the earth by Aries and Gemini, initiates a series of beginnings in order to produce certain planned and definite effects upon our planet, influencing the kingdoms in nature and individuals. A conflict is initiated that ultimately brings to balance.
Uranus represents the seventh ray which relates spirit and matter, and brings together electric fire and fire by friction, producing manifestation. Uranus leads the soul to the burning ground during the final stages of the Path. The fires ignited by Uranus's potency produce the flaming heat of the final burning ground.
Rays 1 and 7 express through Aries. Being the highest and the lowest, the combination demands a point of balance upon the wheel, which is provided in Libra. Rays 6 and 4, from Mars and Mercury, bring to this balancing process the energy of the second ray, the major building ray which allows disciples to build anew and provides a spiritual body of manifestation.
The Sun is exalted in Aries and represents the life of the spirit which comes to full expression as the result of the evolutionary process initiated in this sign. The life of God is "swung into activity" in this sign and eventually achieves consummation. Latency becomes potency and midnight merges into midday. God, the Father, rules.
The Three Initial Impulses in Aries
Three outstanding urges characterize Aries.
1. The urge to begin. This may be expressed as the urge to take form, or it may reverse the process and focus on the urge to achieve liberation from form, freeing the soul from the prison of form life.
2. This urge is followed by the desire to create. This may include the formation of worlds of expression for a Deity, resulting in the formation of a solar system, beginning a life cycle of the universe. Or it may be the urge of the soul to take a body, or of a human to create something uniquely theirs.
3. Thirdly, we find the urge to resurrection. Once the creative work has been initiated, the urge to achieve freedom from the form, to stand free arises. Physical commencement and spiritual commencement, physical creation and spiritual creation, physical emergence and spiritual liberation are the three initial impulses found in Aries.
What appears as spiritual energy in Aries enters into the soul stage in Cancer. This energy reaches a point of equilibrium in Libra, the polar opposite of Aries. Libra admits the soul into the world center which we call Shamballa, and demonstrates the perfect balance of spirit and matter that first came together in Aries. This balance and this relation of spirit and matter is symbolized by the personality balancing the pairs of opposites on the astral plane, and finding the "narrow razor-edged path" which leads into the kingdom of souls.
Aries is closely connected with one of the stars called the Pointers in the Great Bear that points to the Pole star, which is at this time is a major "star of direction." Direction, will, purpose and plan are all connected with the Solar Logos and with His evolutionary undertakings in connection with the many lives manifesting in the vehicle of expression which we call the solar system.
Eventually, in some mysterious way, there will be only 10 signs of the zodiac, once again. Aries and Pisces will form one sign, for "the end is as the beginning." This dual and blended sign is called in some of the ancient books the "sign of the Fish with the head of the Ram." Indeed, Aries is said to rule the head.
Aries also governs the path of evolution. As we study this path, there are four words of vital importance that represent the soul's progress, both as a personality and as a disciple, around the wheel heading towards final liberation. These words express the subjective impulses and motives and introduce four different cycles of progress upon the Path at various stages of individualization to initiation. We are told that these four words and their significance underlie all the Alice A. Bailey books have to impart about the dual experience upon the wheel of life. They are
1. Re-creation in which the influence of Cancer, combined with that of Aries, produces the pull into incarnation upon the physical plane.
2. Regeneration in which the growing influence of the Fixed Cross, playing upon the Mutable Cross, produces those interior changes which eventually lead to
3. Reorientation or the cycle of repolarization which takes place through the influence of Libra and the "swerving of the Bull in mid-career," as it is called in ancient texts. Reorientation leads to a passage around the wheel where the soul blossoms into full manifestation and the personality recedes.
4. The final stage is Renunciation. Renouncing all personal desire for the love of humanity and service, the disciple eventually achieves final liberation.
This liberation is 12-fold in nature owing to the fact that the disciple must experience liberation, victory and triumph in every sign, just as captivity, defeat and failure were experienced in all the signs of the zodiac.
Each sign of the zodiac is associated with three other constellations. The constellations connected with Aries are Cassiopeia, Cetus and Perseus. Cassiopeia, the Enthroned Queen, always is a symbol of matter. The second constellation is Cetus, the Sea Monster, the Enemy of Little Fishes, represents evil. Perseus is the third.
Life ~ Quality ~ Appearance
A fire sign, Aries is a constellation of the Cardinal Cross, the cross of God, the Father, and the incarnating monad. Aries provides our solar system with electric fire and the dynamic nature of God, whose qualities grant a fostering and nourishing heat, as well as a fire that burns and destroys. There are three death signs that demonstrate the first ray destroyer aspect: Aries, Scorpio and Pisces. These signs bring about "three needed and determined deaths" (5) in the human cycle. Energies pouring through them initiate a crystallizing process and the eventual destruction of some type of form. Each death sign is found in a different cross: Aries on the Cardinal Cross, Scorpio the Fixed Cross and Pisces is on the Mutable Cross.
At different junctures on the Path, Aries forces the soul on to the fiery burning ground to initiate a purification process. Scorpio eventually brings the death of the personality, symbolized by burial in the earth. Pisces brings forth death of all the influences of the form and represents death by water.
"The fire blazed forth and through that fire I died to life and so was born to death.
And then again I died to form." (Aries).
"The heat of earth, the fiery temper of the mother, destroyed the form,
released the soul and so the lesser self was killed." (Scorpio).
"The waters drowned the man. The fish was made to disappear.
It then appeared again only to die or else to die and bring salvation." (Pisces). (6)
Symbolically speaking we have death through fire, death through earth and death through water ~ burning, suffocation and drowning. The three deaths release the soul into the three great planetary centers of Humanity, the Hierarchy and Shamballa.
1. The death by drowning or by water releases a being into the center called Humanity, where experience is gained.
2. The death by suffocation in Scorpio releases one into the Hierarchy
3. The death by fire or burning in Aries releases the disciple into Shamballa.
Four keynotes of the sign Aries:
1. Express the will to be and do.
2. Unfold the power to manifest.
3. Enter into battle for the Lord.
4. Arrive at unity through effort.
It is said that another keynote of the sign Aries is hope.
As far as humanity is concerned, the first great cosmic initiation is initiation into incarnation. Aries initiates this process of the "most ancient initiation." (4) In its lowest manifestation, Aries is the creator of activities, conditions and processes leading to the manifestation of soul in form, and later in the life of the disciple, the higher creative undertakings which lead to spirit coming fully through the soul. These processes eventually demonstrate the true nature of the triplicity:
Full Moon Focus: Implementation of the Plan
Initial impulse, from the plane of mind, for a new cycle of soul expression in form.
Aries ~ A Sign of Duality
In Aries we have the duality which is attached to bringing together of spirit and matter in the creative activity of manifestation at the beginning of the evolutionary cycle. Seven of 12 signs of the zodiac are dual in nature:
1. The two horns of the Ram in Aries.
2. The two horns of the Bull in Taurus.
3. The figures of the Twins in Gemini (two vertical lines).
4. The two claws of the Crab in Cancer.
5. The two scales of the Balance in Libra.
6. The two parallel lines of Force in Aquarius.
7. The two Fishes in Pisces.
There are three constellations in the zodiac where the animals have horns: Aries, the down-turned horns of the Ram, representing the coming into manifestation, the involutionary cycle and the experience of the Cardinal Cross as it expresses the will-to-manifest of God. Taurus, the up-turned horns of the bull with the circle below, depicts the push of man, the Bull of God, towards the goal of illumination and the emergence of the soul from bondage with the two horns (duality) protecting the "eye of light" in the center of the Bull's forehead. Then in Capricorn, the Goat, closely related to Aries, is hiding the symbolism of the unicorn in which the two horns and the single eye are blended and shown as the long straight horn of the unicorn in the center of the forehead.
There is said to be an ancient astrological treatise which will be discovered some day that will explain the relation between the horned animals of the zodiac as being,
The Ram, the Scapegoat and the sacred Goat are Three in One and One in Three. The Ram becomes the second and the second is the third. The Ram that breeds and fertilizes all; the Scapegoat, in the wilderness, redeems that all; the sacred Goat that merges in the Unicorn and lifts impaled upon his golden horn the vanquished form ~ in these the mystery lies hid. (Esoteric Astrology, p. 155-6)
Three mysteries are hidden in the three horned signs:
1. The mystery of God the Father ~ Creation
2. The mystery of God the Son ~ Redemption
3. The mystery of God the Holy Spirit ~ Liberation
In both their higher and their lower aspects these signs are said to hold the secret of the "horns of strife and the horn of plenty subjected to and guarded by the horn of life." An ancient proverb explains: "The Ram ~ when it has become the Scapegoat, has sought illumination as the Bull of God and has climbed the mountain top in the semblance of the Goat ~ changes its shape into the Unicorn. Great is the hidden key." Carrying the symbolism a little further, it might be said that
The Ram leads us into the creative life of Earth and into the darkness of matter. This is the blue of midnight.... Eventually the Ram becomes the Scapegoat and the will of God in love and salvage is demonstrated. (Esoteric Astrology, p. 156–7)
(1) Esoteric Astrology, p. 329
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(2) Esoteric Astrology, p. 92
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(3) Esoteric Astrology, p. 102
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(4) Esoteric Astrology, p. 94
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(5) Esoteric Astrology, p. 97
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(6) Esoteric Astrology, p. 97
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by J. Wall
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