(Rosendale World Service Meditation Group at Lifebridge Sanctuary)
These are notes written by Brad Berg for the talk at the Scorpio Full Moon Meditation meeting in Rosendale. Much of the astrological material is extracted from the book Esoteric Astrology, by Alice Bailey:
"The constellation of focus at the time of this full moon, Scorpio, is the sign of what is referred to as the reversing impulse - an impulse that propels us along the path of Return, the path back to the Great Source.
Scorpio, with its tests and trials, prepares us for two turning points:
1. The process of re-orientation
2. The path of initiation into higher levels of consciousness, which lead us to soul control and conscious contact with our true Self, or Monad.
Scorpio has as its function the providing of "points of crisis" and "moments of reorientation," and these lead us, finally, to the relinquishing of desire. And when personal desire is relinquished, we then become receptive to and expressive of, the aspiration of the soul.
Through the divine centre of intelligent activity which we call humanity, the fourth kingdom in nature will eventually act as the mediating principle to all the three lower kingdoms. Humanity is the divine Messenger to the world of form; it is essentially Mercury, the mediator, bringing light and life to other divine manifestations and of this all divine world Saviors are the eternal symbols.
Many people attending these full moon meetings have studied the books of Alice Bailey, who has provided us with the written Teachings of the Master DK. While it is always refreshing to hear our coworkers present the material in their own words, it is still inspiring at times to simply quote the material straight out of the books, from one who has mastered it. These words are found in the book Esoteric Astrology:
“My underlying motive is ever the same: to indicate the way of living process and to stimulate that divine curiosity and that sense of outgoing spiritual adventure and eager aspiration for progress which is latent in all disciples and which, when stimulated, will enable them to proceed more serenely and sanely upon the Path of Return.
I am exceedingly anxious that in these days wherein the influence of Scorpio and of the planet Mars is so strongly felt in world affairs that true insight may be cultivated, optimism and understanding developed and the nature of the tests to which the world disciple, humanity, is today being subjected may be estimated at their true value and thus light be shed upon the way of man. Only through understanding, will solution come and rectification of error be achieved.”
The tests of Scorpio concern the readiness of the threefold personality to reorient itself to the life of the soul and later to demonstrate sensitivity to the Plan, thus becoming the one-pointed disciple, in Sagittarius.
The three major tests are again divided into three stages, and upon the Path of Discipleship we may find ourselves passing into this sign for testing and experience nine times. Thus the three great tests in Scorpio are in reality nine tests and hence the nine-headed Hydra or Serpent which is ever associated with Scorpio and hence also the nature of the stupendous victory achieved by Hercules, the Sun-God, in this sign.
In Scorpio, Hercules became the triumphant disciple. These labors are described in the book Labors of Hercules, by Alice Bailey.
Scorpio provides the conditions and that energy which will test and perfect the three aspects of the personality, so that they are true reflections of the three divine aspects –
Will, Love and Creative Intelligence, or, stated in other words, Life, Quality and Appearance.
Scorpio carries the test right down into the physical plane life, and then, when it is faced and handled there, the life of the person is carried up into heaven, and the problem which the test involved is solved by the use of the reasoning mind.
The three tests in Scorpio also concern the three aspects of the human being as they fuse and blend upon the physical plane.
First of all, the test of appetite. This appetite is the natural predilections and tendencies which are inherent in the animal nature and these are mainly three:
- Sex, physical comfort, and money.
There are also tests involving desire and the astral plane, as well as those tests of the lower critical mind and the mental plane, but this evening, we will focus on the test of appetite involving money.
It is no surprise that the world financial crisis we are now experiencing comes at the time of the full moon of Scorpio, with its test related to the physical appetite of money. We can easily see how in the developed nations of the world, especially in the west, but most particularly in these United States of America, the appetite for money rages on unabated, in the never ending desire for the material things and comfort money can provide.
In fact, we seemed to have recently reached the apotheosis of the greedy and selfish use of money, gathering all the money possible for individual use in order to pursue the insatiable accumulation of material things and the imagined security that the accumulation of large sums of money can temporarily bring.
It is in the realm money that we can most readily see the working out of the powerful focus on the individual; my house, my car, my clothes, my wallet, my 401K. Is there another place in the Universe where beings drive around with bumper stickers that say “shop till you drop?” Is something amiss when people go shopping for clothes or jewelry or gadgets, not because they are needed, but simply because the acquisition of such items will make us feel good?
What truly makes the focus on greed and materiality so disturbing, is that there is such a large portion of the world's population that not only owns next to nothing, but doesn't even have the means to acquire the material things we so easily take for granted in the developed west. And its not only a lack of money that keeps a billion or two people from being unable to purchase all the nice, pretty and fun things we like to get , its simply that there are none of these nice things to buy even if people did have the money. Their desire is not to go shopping at the mall for more clothes, the latest CD from their favorite musician, or a third computer for the house. Their desire is to find clean water to drink, food to eat, and shelter from the storm.
If we take an esoteric look at money, we see that it is said in the Teachings that money is concretized energy, that it is actually prana that is crystallized into form. Now we all want plenty of energy, to feel good and be able to do things. Why not have all the energy you need and want? Well, lets remember that ‘we live and move and have our being in a sea of energy', and that the energy we “have' flows through our etheric body and our chakras, constantly moving, never static, passing through us and through all living things. The energy that flowed through me moments ago may now be passing through you, and the energies of a small group of Tibetan Buddhists meditating in a monastery in the Himalayas an hour ago may be flowing through downtown Rosendale right now.
We live within the divine circulatory flow of energy, and I mean this in a very basic way, on a very basic level, as I am only talking about etheric energy, the energy known as prana, or Chi, or vitality - the energy of physicality, emanating from the Sun and giving life to form on earth. For the earth to be healthy, for humanity to be healthy, for all the kingdoms in nature and all living form to be healthy, this physical energy must have a moving and fluid flow, which is what we can call the divine circulatory flow.
However, here on earth, the divine circulatory flow has been greatly impeded. Billions of people in the developed nations have coagulated the flow by the greedy and selfish desire for money and comfort. In fact, the divine circulatory flow has become so coagulated and constipated, that there are millions and millions who are so out of the flow, that they don't even have enough money to buy food. In fact, 20,000 of them just died, today – they died of starvation. They died of starvation while Americans sit comfortably in their homes, watching situation comedies on television, reaching for another snack, putting their feet up, and feeling content.
We created a way of life and a financial system here over the last few decades which was designed to promote consumption and build wealth and allow ever more focus on selfish material things. And this powerful focus on greed and materiality, whether its of the individual, the corporation, or of the country, has allowed us to live in a dream state, where we can easily forget about our spiritual nature, and – even worse – forget about the pitiful plight of a couple of billion fellow souls who desire only to stay alive and feed their children.
The recent global financial crisis clearly indicated that the whole economic order is a house of cards, in danger of complete collapse at any time. In fact, it was the realization by the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, the congress and the so called Administration, that we were at the precipice of a financial Armageddon, that caused them to come up with all the bailouts so that we don't collectively fall off the cliff and into anarchy. Never mind that the bailouts may severely damage the economy in the long run. The governing and banking forces capitulated, and to avoid current pain, the tax payer's future was undermined.
Well, I've got news for you: there has been a financial crisis for a couple of billion people for a long, long time. But maybe not – these couple of billion people haven't had a financial system that could collapse. These people have had lives based on subsistence.
So, what we face now is a great opportunity. The opportunity to see the folly of our ways. The opportunity to re-evaluate what really matters. The opportunity to see how the misuse of money has almost done us in. The opportunity to recreate our financial system so that it allows for the free flow of goods and services to all. The opportunity to free up and be a healthy part of the divine circulatory flow. We have the opportunity to create a system and a way of life in which the use of money, and the vital living energy it represents, brings us all together in the recognition of the one humanity and the one life.
We have the opportunity to manifest true interdependence, and that is what our host, the Lifebridge Foundation, is here for, to help promote the interdependence of life on earth.
It's easy to paint this picture of the divine circulatory flow, but harder yet to see that people in this country are ready to think much beyond their individual greedy spheres. But I'd link to think that we all have a conviction that America is ready, that the time is now, that Barack Obama is right - that a change is coming, that these are not the end times, but that this is the time of a new beginning. A beginning in which the principle of sharing will be the theme of a local and global economy.
If we could but see the present moment through the lens of Scorpio, we could see that we are in the midst of the tests and trials that this constellation provides. Here, in America , we can consciously agree to take the painful test, to face the grueling struggle to let go of those things we want for ourselves, to reevaluate what money really is, and to reevaluate how we use money. And, like Hercules fighting the Hydra, we can emerge triumphant and create an economic order which represents not the zenith of our material nature, but one which manifests our true spiritual nature and allows for the divine circulatory flow so desperately needed by our fellow human beings and by all the kingdoms in nature.
To assist in the promoting this flow, we can regularly recite the following words, which are an excerpt from Reflective Meditation on Attracting Money for Hierarchical Purposes:
"O Thou in Whom we live and move and have our being, the Power that can make all things new, turn to spiritual purposes the money in the world; touch the hearts of men everywhere so that they may give to the work of the Hierarchy that which has hitherto been given to material satisfaction. The New Group of World Servers needs money in large quantities. I ask that the needed vast sums may be made available. May this potent energy of Thine be in the hands of the Forces of Light."
We can then visualize money as a great stream of flowing golden substance, passing out of the control of the Forces of Materialism into the control of the Forces of Light.
The keynotes of this sign are, therefore, test, trial and triumph. They can also be called struggle, strength and Sagittarian attitudes. Another angle of the experience in Scorpio can be covered by two words : re-capitulation and re-orientation.
The keynote of Scorpio is, however, Triumph . This is its major expression upon the physical plane. Such is the outcome and the reward of the experience in Scorpio.
It is in this sign that the prodigal son comes to himself, and having eaten of the husks of life and having exhausted the resources of worldly desire and ambition—he says: "I will arise and go to my Father."
In Scorpio, Mars is particularly active, owing to the fact that Mars is both the orthodox planet controlling the personality in Scorpio and also the esoteric planet conditioning the unfoldment of the disciple. Mars is the dominating factor in the tests and trials of the disciple, prior to the experience in Sagittarius and the initiation in Capricorn.
The effect of Mars is largely mass effect and group results, producing great struggles but leading finally to great revelation. In Scorpio, it is the revelation of the vision of liberation and service.
Mars is closely related to sex, which is an aspect of the pairs of opposites, and its effect is also definitely to vitalize the blood stream; it vitalizes, purifies and stimulates all aspects and organisms in the body, via the blood stream. We can see how the tests in Scorpio and the activity of Mars are potent to arouse the entire lower nature and bring about its final rebellion and the last stand, so to speak, of the personality against the soul. The whole person is then engaged and the "quarrel of the sexes" is resolved in its highest aspect through the battle between the highly developed personality or form nature, and the soul which seeks to be the ultimate controlling factor.
Hence also the necessity for the entire life of the human being (for the blood is the life) to be swung into the conflict, leaving no side of human nature uninvolved. Hence again the need for the disciple to carry his physical nature, his emotional or desire nature and his mental processes up into heaven. This takes place as a consequence of overcoming the "serpent of evil" (the form nature with its promptings and demands) by the means of the "serpent of wisdom," which is the esoteric name often given to the soul.
The sixth Ray of Devotion and Idealism, working through Mars, rules Christianity. It is a religion of devotion, fanaticism, of high courage, of the spiritual emphasis upon the individual, of conflict and of death. Throughout the teaching of Christian theology, the theme of blood runs ceaselessly and the source of salvation is laid upon the blood relationship and not upon the life aspect, which the blood veils and symbolizes. It is the creed of a crucified and dead Christ which colors Christianity and not that of the risen Master.
We can realize also the pressure under which the planetary spiritual Hierarchy at this time struggles now that energy of Mars is expressing itself upon the astral plane. Will the world Hercules lift this problem up into heaven and "elevate the Hydra" of passion and hate, of greed and aggression, and of selfishness and ambition, up into the region of the soul? Or will it carry the whole matter down on to the physical plane with the inevitable corollary of world economic and environmental disaster, world war and death? Such are the problems with which the guiding Hierarchy is faced.
The tests and difficulties and pains of this era are symptoms or indications of the "entering into manifestation" of the new civilization and culture. They portend the birth of the new era for which the entire world waits. This will happen if—speaking esoterically—the sixth ray energy of Mars is transmuted into the sixth ray energy of Neptune , for the one is "objective and full of blood" and the other is "subjective and full of life."
Extremes ever meet in the disciple who stands at this midway point, in Scorpio. The spiritual imagination, which is the factor of greatest service to humanity, begins to take the place of the ancient glamour by means of which we have fabricated the untrue world in which we appear to live and move and have our being. Self-indulgence gives way in Scorpio to the selfless attitude of the disciple; ambition gives place to the executive activity of the soul, while attachment to personality desires, likes and dislikes, is transmuted into the tenacity of soul purpose. The hidden powers of the soul nature are superseded by the mysteries of initiation and the practical understanding of the energies conferred upon the disciple. These are some of the great transformations which take place in the life of the disciple who submits intelligently to the tests and difficulties in Scorpio.
The soul's motto in Scorpio is” "Warrior I am and from the battle I emerge triumphant."
This possibility is before us all, and we can only be successful if we undertake the tests and trials together, as a worldwide group of disciples, and as part of the one human family.
