"Aquarius expresses the activity of the mind which has been initiated into the purposes of the Universal Mind. It is the sign which brings the soul into active cooperation with the inner plan of God.
Leo, Sagittarius, Aquarius—are today exceedingly active
and working in close relation with each other.
They are the three signs whose energies are affecting
humanity as a whole—as a kingdom in nature.
Leo: the sign of the self-conscious individual is potent in its mass effect and today, through the stress of circumstance and the dire results of certain events, thousands of men and women are stepping out of the ranks of the mass-conscious herd and out of the deep sleep of irresponsibility and becoming aware of themselves
as detached, functioning entities.
Sagittarius is powerfully affecting the world aspirants and leading them towards those attitudes of mind which will produce
an unswerving allegiance to the spiritual values and an unalterable adherence to the good of humanity.
Aquarius is—with equal potency—affecting the world disciples and initiates, leading them to world service on a large scale,
producing group activity and that living usefulness
which is the hall-mark of the pledged disciple.
The influence of these three constellations is felt through their esoteric planets, and the mass movement in consciousness (for which Leo is responsible) can be noted as possible even by the novice when he realises that the ruling planets in Leo are, from all three angles
—exoteric, esoteric and hierarchical— the Sun.
The mass movement towards individual self-consciousness is today enormously intensified as is the paralleling
individual movement towards initiation."
- The Tibetan, Esoteric Astrology
As our Soul continues it's journey through the twelve Zodiac signs, the experience in Capricorn leads ultimately to the mountain-top of Aquarius. This is not a physical mountain on the physical plane, and so it may be difficult for us to conceive from the level of our ordinary mind. Our Soul exists as an energetic reality, beyond (yet including) the experience of our physical body.
Ascension is the journey of consciousness from physical awareness to spiritual awareness. This is the journey of light through form: in other words it is the journey of the formation of a body of light.
In earlier newsletters we spoke of three levels of experience as our Soul journeys through the signs, with the first four signs Aries, Taurus, Gemini and Cancer being signs of preparation, the middle four Leo, Virgo, Libra and Scorpio being signs of crisis or challenge, and the final four signs - Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces, being signs of service.
Many spiritual traditions speak of a body of light, which is considered to be a way that enlightened beings can be of service, interact with, and bring light to humanity. In Tibetan Buddhism this is known as the Rainbow Body and is realized through path of the Bodhisattva. In Esoteric Astrology the sign of Aquarius is very much associated with the Bodhisattva path.
"In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva refers to anyone who has generated bodhicitta, a spontaneous wish and compassionate mind to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings." - Wikipedia
A bodhisattva is said to be someone who vows to release all sentient beings from suffering and even defers their own enlightenment in order to dedicate themselves to this goal.
That said, the only way to achieve this lofty goal of releasing all sentient beings from suffering is to cultivate bodhicitta, which is the awakened heart. It is the pure energies of compassion: love, light, and life that naturally emanate from an awakened heart, that provide the source, inspiration and motivation, for all other sentient beings to awaken.
Bodhicitta, or the awakened heart, is our innate natural state, but it has become clouded over by lifetimes of conditioning. Because all sentient beings naturally have this, it can be awakened through contact with another who is already awake.
So in fact, even though the bodhisattva has vowed to put off their own enlightenment, it happens anyway as part of their role in awakening others.
In The Labours of Hercules: An Astrological Perspective, Hercules 11th labour in Aquarius was to clean the Augean Stables.
These stables had hundreds of years of accumulated filth (symbolic of the many lifetimes of cumulative conditioning that forms our everyday karmic mind) and were thought to be impossible to clean. Many had tried and failed.
The King challenged Hercules to clean them and promised him a tenth of his herd of cattle if he could clean them in one day. Hercules did so by thinking outside the box. There were two rivers nearby, which Hercules diverted using rocks to build a dam. The diverted rivers flowed through the stable and cleansed them, but the King thought it was a trick and so did not uphold his end of the bargain.
This story is symbolic of how the bodhisattva achieves their goal: by directing energy where it is needed, and also symbolic of the fact that this is done without any expectation of reward, because ordinary minds cannot see, perceive, or understand the flow of energy through an awakened heart (bodhicitta).
There are many levels on the bodhisattva path: from those who set the intention and vow to awaken for the benefit of others, yet are still only in the very early stages on their way to spiritual awakening, right up to magnificent holy beings, angels, and powerful buddhas who have realized fully enlightened mind and whose only purpose is to support humanity on the path to full spiritual awakening.
As we noted in last month's post on Capricorn, the mountain-top, the pinnacle of spiritual awakening, is not the end of the road. Once there, then we must then discover how best to use our wisdom to support others on their journey of awakening.
It is the purest energy of love and life (bodhicitta) that flows naturally from an awakened heart, that nourishes others and becomes a catalyst for their own awakening. We become like flames, igniting each other.
No matter what stage, all Bodhisattvas can relate to the Tibetan's keynote for Aquarius:
Poured Forth For Thirsty Humanity"
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