At the Threshold
As we leave Saturn and prepare to meet Uranus, we find ourselves at a threshold.
Until the discovery of Uranus by William Herschel in 1871, for hundreds of years Saturn had represented the limit of our knowledge: the farthest boundary of the known Universe. Following the discovery of Uranus, we were required to release old ideas and begin to consider what lay beyond. Humanity had entered a new era.
In our exploration of the deeper meaning of the planets, we now also find ourselves at a threshold: a portal between the past and the future. Let's pause there for a moment, and explore this word 'threshold'. Originally a threshold was a wooden sill, at the bottom of the front door of a house. During the harvest, grain crops were traditionally 'threshed'. Threshing was a practice of separating the grain from the stalks by beating the cut and dried crop on the floor. The grain could then be used to make flour, while the stalks could be gathered up for cattle fodder and bedding. This process naturally generated a lot of dust that you wouldn't want inside your house. The "thresh hold" was there to hold back the waste material from entering your home during threshing time.
As we pause at this threshold, there is a sense that we are about to pass through a portal where we leave behind that which is not needed, that which is impure, and that which could hinder us in our future growth. We cross the threshold, pass through a portal, and in a clearer, purer, state of consciousness, we are ready for the next stage of our journey.
Planetary Spaceholders
Early in this series we discussed how the planets embody energy and as a result are therefore able to hold a certain vibrational tone:
"planets are formed from consciousness itself, and therefore must by nature contain the consciousness that they emerged from. Each planet is therefore a formation of energy that holds a unique field of consciousness.
Planets are embodied consciousness:
holding a specific vibration, frequency, or field of awareness."
The natural tendency for each planetary body to hold it's own vibrational 'tone' or frequency, is what allows it to make it's unique contribution to our Universal eco-system. Just as each plant, tree or bird has a unique 'tone' that contributes to the overall 'atmosphere' of the forest, so each planet emanates a unique tone that contributes to the conditions for our growth and development.
A planetary ruler is therefore not something or someone that has power over us, like a king, but rather something that contributes to the conditions that support us in our growth: much like a loving gardener who knows exactly what conditions are necessary not only for plants to survive but to thrive and reach their highest potential. In this sense the planetary 'ruler' is more like a guardian, or custodian. It is therefore more useful to think of planetary rulers as spaceholders, providing the necessary vital conditions for specific stages of our individual Soul’s growth and our collective evolutionary unfoldment.
So far in this series we have discussed the personal planets that are spaceholders for the development of instinct (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars). We have explored the social planets that are the spaceholders for the development of intellect (Jupiter and Saturn)
The next stage of our evolutionary journey is the development of intuition, and the planetary spaceholder for this stage is Uranus. But before we can fully embrace the energy of Uranus and understand his role in the evolution of human consciousness, we need to shift our perception.
Fields of Consciousness
It's important to be clear on what we mean by the term Planetary Spaceholders. As we study astrology and become increasingly familiar with astrological language, it can be tempting to think that Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are gods, sitting up in the heavens, dispensing good luck or misery upon humanity at their every whim. In Ancient Greece and Rome that is exactly what people believed. If you wanted benefits you prayed and made offerings to Venus or Jupiter. If you wanted relief from some misfortune that had befallen you, you prayed and made offerings to Mars, or Saturn.
At the instinct and intellect levels of our development, we tend to project ourselves outwardly. This results in the creation of gods that have similar qualities to ourselves: anger, lust, jealousy etc. Astrology is a language of
archetypes. An archetype is a blueprint of sorts, a 'type' or 'model' that we can use to quickly convey an image, or state of mind. Therefore, if we say someone is "Saturnian" for instance (and we know our astrological archetypes), this immediately conveys an image of someone who is strategic, serious, structure-oriented, and stays focused on the task at hand.
When we apply the astrological archetypes to the planets, we are not talking about actual physical gods as the ancient Greeks and Romans would have done. Rather we are referring to a field of consciousness. Ultimately there is only ONE field of consciousness, but within that are many different frequencies. Just you may only see one rainbow but it has many colors within it. This Universal Consciousness can express itself in a myriad of ways, resulting in myriad worlds.
When I say for instance, 'we need to go beyond the Saturn-bound' intellect, I am speaking metaphorically not literally. There is no god called Saturn that is holding you prisoner. Saturn is symbolic of the limitations of intellect. It is your own intellect that 'binds' you, through your conditioning, keeping you in the illusion that you are separate, and preventing you from directly perceiving reality. (read more about how we are conditioned to see illusion in chapter 1 of
Soul Astrology )
This imprisonment of our consciousness in our own intellect, and it's subsequent release, is perhaps what the Master DK is referring to when he said:
“Saturn’s power is completely ended and his work accomplished when man (the spiritual man) has freed himself from Karma and from the power of the two Crosses – the Common [Mutable] and the Fixed. Esoterically, Saturn cannot follow man on to the Cardinal Cross”
In our evolutionary journey to this point, we have created an important foundation, which we can now use as a springboard to spiritual awakening. Our journey is summed up in psychologist Abraham Maslow's "
Hierarchy of Human Need": First we had to establish ourselves in terms of survival and safety, so our time energy and attention isn't spent in foraging for food, and protecting ourselves to survive. Once we have our foundation we can turn our attention to self-exploration: the search for our own true nature.
The Dweller On The Threshold
In
Esoteric Astrology the Tibetan makes reference to "
the Dweller on the Threshold", but who is the dweller and what is the threshold?
"Saturn is one of the most potent of the four Lords of Karma and forces man to face up to the past, and in the present to prepare for the future. Such is the intention and purpose of karmic opportunity. From certain angles,Saturn can be regarded as the planetary Dweller on the Threshold, for humanity as a whole has to face that Dweller as well as the Angel of the Presence, and in so doing discover that both the Dweller and the Angel are that complex duality which is the human family."
In the above quote it is clear that the Tibetan is speaking of "The Dweller" both in terms of an association with Saturn, and as an aspect of human duality. We can therefore think of the Dweller on The Threshold as that aspect of ourselves that has reached the limitation of intellect and is now ready to go beyond. When we hear the call of Uranus it is time to go beyond the limitation of intellect, symbolised by Saturn, and to walk the path of intuition with the Angel of our own Presence.
Going Beyond
The concept of 'going beyond' is present in many spiritual traditions. The following mantra comes from a Buddhist scripture called The Heart Sutra:
“Gate Gate Paragate, Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha”
Roughly translated it means:
“Gone, gone, beyond. Gone altogether beyond. Oh what an awakening.”
We can see that spiritual teachers and yogis through the ages have pointed to a reality that lies beyond ordinary experience. Not only do they say that it is possible for us to 'awaken' to this reality, but they themselves are living examples of 'spiritual awakening', and they have given us the tools and methods they used to get there.
According to consciousness researcher Steve Taylor in his profoundly inspiring and groundbreaking book “Waking From Sleep”, our current everyday state of consciousness (where we think of being ‘awake’ as the opposite of being ‘asleep’) is in fact a kind of sleep. He compares this to higher states of consciousness and peak experiences where people have a kind of ‘spiritual awakening’ and experience a more vivid and expanded perception of reality, which they often describe as being more ‘real’. Often these higher states of consciousness, or awareness, last for a few days or possibly even months before the individual eventually returns to a more conventional (ordinary, everyday or worldly) level of consciousness. In rare cases it becomes a permanent state of being, in which case the individual is then said to be ‘awake’ or ‘enlightened’.
We can therefore think of going beyond the limitations of Saturn, as going beyond our everyday mind, so that we begin to directly perceive the true nature of reality that lies beyond.
The Angel of The Presence
"Upon the mental plane the Angel of the Presence
and the Dweller on the Threshold are brought face to face.
Their synthesis is brought about upon the Path of Initiation."
In relation to the Dweller on The Threshold, The Tibetan also mentions the Angel of the Presence. Both the "Dweller on The Threshold" and "The Angel of the Presence" are aspects of us. When we are solely personality centered, our attention and energy is continually projected outside of us trying to meet the needs of the personality. Once we begin to awaken, we might still be mainly personality-driven, but we also experience the stirrings of Soul awakening. Once we are ready to go beyond the intellect, in recognition that there is more to us than meets the eye, we are The Dweller on the Threshold. By keeping our attention fully in the moment, we realize a constant, aware, presence that has never left us. This is The Angel of the Presence, and it is us.
Contemporary spiritual teachers have also commented on the power of presence, or present-moment awareness. The most notable of these is probably Eckhart Tolle in his book
The Power of NOW. Whilst we can have an intellectual understanding of the power of presencing, we won't really know the deeper insights for ourselves, until we
have our own experience.
When we fully and sincerely practice present-moment awareness we undergo a powerful transformative process whereby we can access higher truth. We begin to widen our perceptive capacity and can recognize the inner gateways to the Universe through our own intuition. These inner doors, sometimes referred to by mystics as the ‘Bhagavat in the ten directions’, are our gateway to the Universe through inner space. We have access to ultimate truth because we are not separate from it. We can expand our capacity to reach the place where, as the Tibetan said, ‘The will of God is known’.
Once we go deeper with our experience of self-observation, we realize that there is much more than merely observing. There is what the mystics referred to as opening the “inner doors”. We experience some very deep realizations about the nature of reality, and who we are within it. Our capacity for directly perceiving energy increases. This opens and expands our intuitive capacity. We become more skilled at focusing our attention, or to be more precise, at bringing our awareness to something. We realize that the quality of awareness that we bring to something, can change it.
“Once your awareness becomes a flame,
it burns up the whole slavery that the mind has created.”
- OSHO
In his book “A Path With Heart” insight meditation teacher Jack Kornfield explains the healing power of awareness. He describes how we can heal ourselves by looking directly at our physical, emotional, and psychological pain and simply bringing our loving awareness to it. This isn’t a metaphor it is a very real, tangible, and powerful process. When we have cultivated our perception to this degree we realize how our own awareness has the power to transform energy, not through anything we are doing, but simply by
bringing loving awareness to it.
The Path of Intuition: Remembering
We don't just wake up one day, crystal clear, and fully present in the stage of intuition. Pure crystal, clear, awakened heart-mind is something that comes in a later stage of our journey. First we must get there, and to do that, we must walk the path of intuition.
At the beginning, when intuition is just starting to awaken, we begin remembering. We don't necessarily recognize this as memory in the way we usually experience memories. We might experience visions, sense perceptions, sounds, sensations, emotions, thoughts, and certainly personality traits, patterns and tendencies that are remnants from past lives. It's like when you finally put the light on in a room that has been dark for many years, and you get to see just how much dust has accumulated in the dark corners.
"From ancient recesses of the memory, from a deeply rooted past which is definitely recalled, and from the racial and the individual subconscious (or founded and established thought reservoirs and desires, inherited and inherent) there emerges from individual past lives and experience that which is the sum total of all instinctual tendencies, of all inherited glamours and of all phases of wrong mental attitudes; to these (as they constitute a blended whole) we give the name of the Dweller on the Threshold.
This Dweller is the sum total of all the personality characteristics which have remained unconquered and unsubdued and which must be finally overcome before initiation can be taken. Each life sees some progress made; some personality defects straightened out and some real advance effected. But the unconquered residue and the ancient liabilities are numerous and excessively potent and—when soul contact is adequately established—there eventuates a life wherein the highly developed and powerful personality becomes, in itself, the Dweller on the Threshold.
Then the Angel of the Presence and the Dweller stand face to face and something must then be done. Eventually, the light of the personal self fades out and wanes in the blaze of glory which emanates from the Angel."
In other words, as my mentor Anya Sophia Mann often explains: that which is not you comes up into the light for healing. Habitual, conditioned, reactive ways of living and being, rooted in fear and negative emotions,
cannot remain in the light of your awareness. The more you remain fully present to you, the more you will become aware of just how much of your behavior is the result of lifetimes of conditioning. Layer by layer you will let them all arise and release them.
Meditation: The Path of Self Knowing
“Know thyself. If thou canst learn the true nature of thine own self,
thou wilt know the reality of the Universe”
- Swami Abhedananda
Simply put, meditation is a path of self-knowing. Up to now, on our journey through the personal and social planets, we have gathered strength and resources from without - partner, friends, family and society: from here on we will depend upon our own inner resources.
In order to 'go beyond' Saturn we need an inner shift in perception. Our intellect is the foundation for the next stage, but we must not be attached to it. We need to apply our intellect, in order to go beyond it. And the way we do that is through a range of contemplative practices for observing and exploring our inner world. This range of techniques and practices (of which there are many) are grouped together under the general term of 'meditation'.
"Habit kills intuition,
because habit prevents
living experience,
direct perception."
- Lama Anagarika Govinda,
It is our conditioning: our repetitive thoughts, words and actions, that create karma and prevent us from accessing higher states of consciousness. Without meditation, or some kind of contemplative 'presencing' or mindfulness practice, astrology remains just an intellectual exercise and the deeper insights remain lost to us. Indeed this is where the danger of astrology lies: without the realisations that meditation brings through practice and experience, astrology could keep you stuck at the intellect stage of development. It is the contemplative component that sets Soul Astrology apart from other forms of astrology, and leads to deeper insights.
Meditation is the only valid tool for exploring the true nature of your Self. It cannot be done from the outside. The only way to discover your true nature, is to go within. Be still and, once all the noise subsides, notice the simple truth of who you are, underneath all the ideas and labels.
"when you are tied by ideas and the sense world, instead of stressing out,
stop your sense perception and silently watch your mind.
Try to be totally awake instead of obsessed with just one atom.
Feel totality instead of particulars."
(free to download)
Intellect separates and polarises: good-bad; light-dark etc. To arrive at our true nature it is necessary to go beyond the intellect, beyond ideas, thoughts, thinking, and cognitions, and simply rest in beingness. There you will find your Self.
"Far beyond ideas of wrong-doing,
and right-doing, there is a field.
I'll meet you there"
Silence and The Brain
"an answer from the silent mind is always better than too many words.
There are so many views and philosophies;
instead of helping, they sometimes cause more confusion."
Science is only just beginning to understand the importance of silence for our brain's health and development. Recent studies show that when our mind is quiet, our brains actually begin to repair and regenerate themselves.
Spending 20 to 40 minutes each day in silence is actually good for your brain health and, even more importantly, it is vitally important for releasing habitual conditioning and revealing your own true nature. It is in silence that you have deeper insights. It is in pure silence that you can recognise your own essence, without layers of conditioning and distorted ideas. It is in silence that The Dweller on The Threshold, meets the Angel of the Presence. In other words, it is in silence that you eventually meet your Self. Silence is vital to your process of spiritual awakening.
The Deepest Purpose of Meditation
“Meditation is not evasion;
it is a serene encounter with reality.”
People meditate for so many reasons these days: to reduce stress, feel calmer and have better health and so forth. These are all wonderful reasons to meditate, however, the real purpose of meditation, and the one which we are most interested in here, is self-exploration. This is important to remember when choosing which type of meditation to practice regularly.
Some contemporary guided visualisations can be relaxing, but will not support you in quieting the mind, or going to the deeper realisations beyond. An effective meditation method provides the opportunity for you to recognise yourself: that who you are, at the very core of your being IS consciousness; to give yourself time for the usual mental activity to subside - to quieten or slow enough so that you can recognize
the consciousness that IS you.
Briefly, meditation can be placed in two categories: vipassana (open) and shamatha (concentration). It is wise to combine the two for the best results. You can read more about these in my eBook "
Learn To Meditate"
Meditation in some form is essential for self-discovery: to recognise your true nature, and the true nature of reality. No one has ever had a true spiritual awakening without it.
“Know thyself. If thou canst learn the true nature of thine own self,
thou wilt know the reality of the Universe”
Go Beyond
From a new perspective, in present-moment awareness,
with a developed capacity for direct perception...
we are ready to meet Uranus,
and walk the path of intuition...
