PHASE
1 (ARIES 1°):
A WOMAN JUST RISEN FROM THE SEA. A SEAL IS EMBRACING HER.
KEYNOTE:
Emergence of new forms and of the potentiality of consciousness.
This is the first of the 360 phases of a universal and multilevel cyclic
process which aims at the actualization of a particular set of potentialities.
These potentialities, in the Sabian symbols, refer to the development of man's
individualized consciousness the consciousness of being an individual
person with a place and function (a "destiny") in the planetary
organism of the Earth, and in a particular type of human society and culture.
To
be individually conscious means to emerge out of the sea of generic and
collective consciousness which to the emerged mind appears to be
unconsciousness. Such an emergence is the primary event. It is the result of
some basic action: a leaving behind, an emerging from a womb or matrix, here
symbolized by the sea.
Such an action is not to be considered a powerful, positive statement of
individual being. In the beginning is the Act; but it is often an
imperceptible, insecure act. The small tender germ out of the seed does not
loudly proclaim its existence. It has to pierce through the crust of the soil
still covered with the remains of the past. It is all potentiality and a
minimum of actual presence.
In the symbol, therefore, the emergent entity is a
Woman; symbolically speaking, a form of existence still close to the
unconscious depths of generic biological nature, filled with the desire to be
rather than self-assertion. The woman is seen embraced by a seal because the
seal is a mammal which once had experienced a biological, evolutionary but
relatively unconscious emergence, yet which retraced its steps and
"returned to the womb" of the sea. The seal, therefore, represents a
regressive step. It embraces the Woman who has emerged, because every
emergent process at first is susceptible to failure. This process is indeed
surrounded by the memory, the ghosts of past failures during previous cycles.
The impulse upward is held back by regressive fear or insecurity; the issue of
the conflict depends on the relative strength of the future-ward and the
past-ward forces.
The possibility of success and that of failure is implied throughout the
entire process of actualization. Every release of potentiality contains this
two-fold possibility. It inevitably opens up two paths: one leads to
"perfection" in consciousness, the other to
"disintegration" - the return to the undifferentiated state
(the state of humus, manure, cosmic dust - i.e. to the symbolic "great
Waters of space," to chaos)
This symbol characterizes
the first of five stages which are repeated at three levels. This stage
represents the initial statement, or theme, of the five-fold series which
refers to the first level: IMPULSE TO BE.
PHASE
2 (ARIES 2°):
A COMEDIAN REVEALS HUMAN NATURE.
KEYNOTE:
The capacity to look objectively at oneself and at others.
While the first phase of the process of emergence is essentially in terms of
subjective impulse and the desire to act, the second phase represents the
attempt to evolve an objective awareness of existence. Through a sense of
contrast, consciousness is gradually being built. It is what Teilhard de
Chardin calls "reflective consciousness": the ability to see oneself
reflected as in a mirror, and eventually to laugh at the inadequacy of the
form one sees; thus "humor," the triumph of objective consciousness
over subjective feeling or moods, or involvement in self.
This symbol characterizes the second stage in the first five-fold sequence of
phases: the stage of OBJECTIVATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS. This second phase
complements and polarizes the first, which stresses the subjective desire to
become individually conscious.
PHASE
3 (ARIES 3°):
THE CAMEO PROFILE OF A MAN, SUGGESTING THE SHAPE OF HIS COUNTRY.
KEYNOTE:
The sustaining power of the Whole, as the individual identifies themselves
with Its life.
Having
become objectively aware of their nature and basic humanity, the
individualizing person finds power and inner security in realizing their
essential identity with the section of the universe in which they operate.
They and it seem to the consciousness united in a cosmic-planetary process -
in a "participation mystique." Metaphysically expressed, this is the
concept of the identity of Atman and Brahman. In another sense, through the
ability to identify themselves with the complex of life activities surrounding
them, the individual person can become truly, not only an image and
representation of the Whole of their natal environment (local, planetary and
perhaps eventually cosmic), but an agent through whom the Whole may
express itself in an act of creative resonance and outpouring. This is the
avatar ideal the ideal of a "transpersonal" life and
consciousness totally consecrated to and directed by a divine Power. This
Power can also be conceived as the archetypal Self, the Christ-principle as it
operates in and through an individual person and destiny who have become its
outward manifestation in order to meet a collective human need.
The
concept of the formal-structural identity of the universal macrocosm and the
human microcosm is a very important one, as it manifests itself at many
levels. It provided an inner sense of security and harmonic strength to
archaic man. To the modern individual assailed by surface evidence of
meaninglessness and futility it gives a feeling of participation in the vast
tide of evolution. It is the answer to the tragic sense of alienation so
prevalent today.
This
symbol characterizes the third stage of the first five-fold sequence of
phases: the stage of PARTICIPATION IN A GREATER LIFE.
PHASE
4 (ARIES 4°):
TWO LOVERS STROLLING ON A SECLUDED WALK.
KEYNOTE:
The progressive polarization of energies needed for fulfilling one's life
function.
In
order to respond fully to the potentialities released by a sense of
identification with a greater Whole, the human being should be himself whole.
An interplay of bipolar energies is needed to provide a sustained and dynamic
"resonance" to any superior and encompassing form of life. This may
imply a temporary withdrawal from routine activity, i.e. a
"secluded" process. It is not, however, a closed process. The
positive and negative polarities do not meet in a closed circuit,
reconstituting a neutral state of potentiality. They operate in dynamic, open,
unresolved togetherness in contact with the surrounding energies of nature.
This
symbol characterizes the fourth stage of the first five-fold sequence of
phases: the stage of dynamic and unresolved POLARIZATION. It introduces the
basic means - one might say, the technique - to establish consciousness in the
world of duality.
PHASE
5 (ARIES 5°):
A TRIANGLE WITH WINGS.
KEYNOTE:
The capacity for self-transcending.
This
is the symbol of the desire to reach a higher level of existence, of pure
aspiration or devotion, of bhakti. What has emerged in the first phase of the
process of differentiation is becoming aware of the possibility of further up-reachings.
The principle of "levitation" is seen as one of the two essential
factors in evolution. The emergent being glorifies and deifies it, but it is
still only an ideal. At this stage, nevertheless, the whole being experiences
a childlike longing for its eventual realization.
At
this point the last and synthesizing stage of the first five-fold unit in the
cyclic process is reached. A NEW DIMENSION of being is envisioned mobilizing
creative endeavors.
SECOND
LEVEL: EMOTIONAL/CULTURAL
PHASE
6 (ARIES 6°):
A SQUARE, WITH ONE OF ITS SIDES BRIGHTLY ILLUMINED.
KEYNOTE:
The emotional desire for concrete and stabilized existence as a person.
This
desire for individualization operates at first as a one-pointed or one-sided
drive focusing itself upon an exclusive goal. All emotions are at first
possessive, and all cultural manifestations operate on the principle of
exclusion. All that does not belong to the tribal sphere (one blood, one land,
one folk) is the potential enemy. This is a necessary phase, for - as in the
case of "the woman emerging from the sea" - the first attempt at
building an inner realization of integral being may be defeated at any time by
the regressive pull toward undifferentiation and the prenatal state of non-individualization
within the vast womb
of
nature or within unformed cosmic space.
This first stage of
the second five-fold sequence of symbols presents the theme which will be
dialectically developed - a five-phase dialectical process: A ONE-SIDED URGE
FOR INNER STABILITY.
PHASE
7 (ARIES 7°):
A MAN SUCCEEDS IN EXPRESSING HIMSELF SIMULTANEOUSLY IN TWO REALMS.
KEYNOTE:
The first realization of the dual nature of man and of the possibilities it
implies.
This
symbol represents the antithesis of the thesis pictured ill Phase 6, yet in
such a five-fold sequence what we see is contrast rather than opposition. The
primordial one-sidedness of emotional and cultural manifestation actually
calls for the compensatory ability to operate at two levels. Thus the primary
dualism of Sky and Earth, of the divine and the human, of spirit and matter.
The vision and the emotions are focused within sharply defined boundaries, but
within these boundaries they express themselves at two levels. This is the
foundation of religion as well as of magic.
A
situation which has become characterized by this symbol can be successfully
faced if its spiritual and material implications are understood and
actualized.
At
this second stage of the second five-fold sequence of symbols we see at work
man's capacity for LIVING TWO SEPARATE LIVES - and finding fulfillment and
happiness in both. On this capacity are founded many of the complexities of
human nature.
PHASE
8 (ARIES 8°):
A LARGE WOMAN'S HAT WITH STREAMERS BLOWN BY AN EAST WIND.
KEYNOTE:
Protection and spiritual guidance in the development of consciousness.
This
somewhat strange image can be understood if every stated feature in it is
clearly analyzed without preconceptions. Here again we see a woman; but now
her head is covered with a large hat - a protection against the forces of
nature, i.e. cold and/or the penetrating rays of the sun. At this
emotional-cultural level (Phases 6 through 10) the mental processes are still
largely undeveloped) thus they need protection from the elemental forces of
life. A too great openness to the Sky-energies and the "spiritual"
level could lead to obsessions of one kind or another.
The
symbolic image implies a rather strong wind, thus the activity of some
more-than-material, and especially psychic, forces. These originated in the
East, traditionally the seat of spiritualizing and creative-transforming
influences. The woman's hat has streamers, which enable it not only to respond
to the wind but to indicate its source. In other words, the image symbolizes a
stage of development of consciousness in which the nascent powers of the mind
are both protected and influenced by energies of a spiritual origin. This
suggests a probationary stage in the process of individualization. Under
protective guidance a still most receptive person (a woman) is being
influenced by spiritual forces.
This
is a third stage symbol in which we see the first and second stages of this
second five-fold sequence producing results which require PROTECTIVE FORMS
(which is what a culture and ethical precepts provide) and SENSITIVITY to
spiritual energies.
PHASE
9 (ARIES 9°):
A CRYSTAL GAZER.
KEYNOTE:
The development of an inner realization of organic wholeness.
The crystal sphere
symbolizes wholeness. Within the sphere images take form. These images may
reveal future events, but more significantly they picture "the situation
as a whole" the situation which the clairvoyant is meant to
interpret. The nascent mental faculties operating through still dominant
emotions (or collective cultural incentives) act as a centralizing and
whole-making power. What the intelligence perceives in its concentration is
the function of every inner impulse and outer events in the open field of a
"personality" still unclouded by egoism.
At
this fourth stage of the five-fold sequence the new technique required for the
development of individualized consciousness is revealed: CONCENTRATED
ATTENTION.
PHASE
10 (ARIES 10°):
A TEACHER GIVES NEW SYMBOLIC FORMS TO TRADITIONAL IMAGES.
KEYNOTE:
Revision of attitude at the beginning of a new cycle of experience.
This
phase is the fifth of the second five-fold sequence, and in it we find
expressed the capacity to restate the problem inherent in the first phase,
i.e. the problem of focusing one's energies upon emotional drives and cultural
values which exclude far more than they include. The subsequent stages of
development taken together have added considerably to this attitude; as a
result, there arises in the consciousness a desire to reformulate at a new
level much that had been taken for granted because it indeed originally had
been an evolutionary necessity. The very concrete emotion-arousing images of
the past can now be reinterpreted as "symbols" with a wider scope of
meaning.
At
this fifth stage a new dimension of consciousness is discovered, revealing
higher possibilities of experience and mental development. This is a phase of
ABSTRACTION and of emotional allegiance.
THIRD
LEVEL: INDIVIDUAL/MENTAL
PHASE
II (ARIES 11°):
THE RULER OF A NATION.
KEYNOTE:
The power resulting from the format integration of the collective desire
for order.
At
this stage of the cyclic process this symbol refers to the appearance of the
(personal) ego as the central manifestation of a type of "order"
which transcends and seeks to rule the emotional and instinctual drives of the
individual person. Actually the ruler at this social-political and mental
level of integration is often the one who is being ruled by collective
pressures. Nevertheless, a desire for a larger type of integration has now
emerged. It is no longer biological-impulsive (Aries 1°) or
emotional-personal (Aries 6°), but social-collective and institutional. At
this ego level, laws and the restrictive power of a police force are dominant
features. Psychologically speaking, this means that the integrative principle
is the limited, more or less narrow "I am" realization. It manifests
itself as the personal ego exerting its will to control the reactions of the
bio-psychic organism.
This
is the first stage of the third five-fold sequence of the cyclic process. It
indicates a CENTRALIZATION OF POWER at the level of a rigidly structured
consciousness.
PHASE
12 (ARIES 12°):
A TRIANGULARLY SHAPED FLIGHT OF WILD GEESE.
KEYNOTE:
An idealistic reliance upon a mental image of universal order.
The
wild goose is the mystical bird, hamsa, of Hindu tradition. This word,
which has recurred in various cultures (the Hansa League of Germanic
cities in the late Middle Ages, and El Hanza, the founder of the occult
Brotherhood of the Druzes in Lebanon, during the era of the Crusades), has
always had at least an undertone of integration at an expansionistic level,
spiritual or economic. The Hindu hamsa was the symbol of man's
transcendent soul. What previous interpretations of this Sabian symbol have
failed to grasp is that the flight of geese presents not only a remarkably
geometrical V-shape moving through the sky, but also that this flight is
seasonal and therefore attuned to planetary rhythms. Thus, it symbolizes cosmic
order, in contrast with the social-political order within a nation which
is represented by its ruler. It is order made visual on the background of the
clear sky. It is a "celestial" type of order, even though it is
earth-born birds which reveal it by their ability to keep their flight
structured. The symbol therefore refers to the Soul-consciousness as
visualized by the heaven-oriented mind. Yet this soul-consciousness can be
called transcendent because it has not yet become "incarnated."
Because
this is a second stage in the third five-fold sequence begun with Phase 11, we
have to consider what it pictures in contrast to the preceding symbol.
A basic dualism of consciousness is thus suggested. We see arising a potential
conflict between cosmic and social principles of order. The principle of
COSMIC ORDER polarizes the all-too-human reliance on the social concept of law
and order.
PHASE
13 (ARIES 13°):
AN UNEXPLODED BOMB REVEALS AN UNSUCCESSFUL SOCIAL PROTEST.
KEYNOTE:
An immature evaluation of the possibility of transforming suddenly the
status quo.
The symbol pictures the
result of a particular attempt to resolve the conflict between two
concept-feelings of order. Resolution by violence fails because the ego-power
at this stage of the process of individualization is far too strong. "The
State" thwarts attempts at popular revolution, because these are
premature expressions of a consciousness which is not free, but can only react
"wildly" to constraint and to a central ruling power. It is thus a
symbol of immature refusal to conform, in the name of an over-idealistic
desire for harmony and peace.
This
is the third stage of the third five-fold sequence. A negative attempt at
reconciling the spiritual ideal and the very earthly reality, denying the
validity of the latter. It suggests ADOLESCENT FRUSTRATION.
PHASE
14 (ARIES 14°):
A SERPENT COILING NEAR A MAN AND A WOMAN.
KEYNOTE:
Identification in bipolar relationship with the impersonal rhythm of
natural energy.
The
symbol for Phase 4 pictures a man and a woman in love walking together. At
this new and more mentally stimulated level of experience and consciousness, a
third factor appears: the serpent, whose coiling represents the spiral-like
process of evolution - not merely "sex" according to the maker of
cathartic symbols, Sigmund Freud. We can understand this
"triangular" image man, woman and the serpent if we relate
it to the preceding one in the series, the unexploded bomb of the anarchist or
activist. The urge to blow up some structure which somehow has become in the
activist's mind a symbol of the Establishment the ruling elite is
usually the protest of an alienated and often immature mind that refuses
relationship, because in the relationship he would occupy a subservient
position. In this symbol, the serpent represents the acceptance of
relationship by the two polarized human beings.
There
must be a polarization before there can be fulfillment. The tragedy of so many
contemporary lives is that, having become sharply individualized, the men and
women cannot find their truly matching polar-opposite. Because they are not
fulfilled at the root level of human emotions and vitalistic forces, they pass
their lives seeking the ideal complement, often glamorized as the "soul
mate." This search can find its expression at several levels. At the
mystical level we have the examples of the "spiritual marriage" of
Saint Francis of Assisi and Santa Clara, or recently of Sri Aurobindo and
Mother Mira.
The
Adam and Eve story (in Hebrew, Ish and Isha - much more
significant names!) refers to this principle of polarization, although the
story has been turned upside down by priestly intellects to serve their
purposes. Adam and Eve accepted the Presence, not of the Tempter, but of the
Individualizer, who sought to have them born out of the womb of unconscious
passivity to Nature's God. But the result of the experience frightened them.
They "hid"; they failed in the great test of individualization, and in
this sense the archetype of that failure is deeply imbedded in man's generic
unconscious. It is repeated time after time.
Modern "individuals" are confronted with another test, but they do
not understand its meaning. It is the test of polarized conscious
participation in the evolutionary process - a polarization that could dissolve
alienation, isolation and egocentricity. In a sense at least, this was the old
Tantric concept in India; but today many young people accept the concept only
superficially and miss its real essence. They cannot understand the meaning of
entering into the serpent, i.e. of developing eonic consciousness and
that transpersonal living which once was characterized by the words: Not I
live, but Christ lives me - Christ, whose symbolic number in Gnosticism is
888.
At
this fourth stage of the third five-fold sequence, we are confronted with an
image suggesting the transpersonal way to the "cosmification" of
desire and the conscious acceptance of polarization as the solution of the
problems generated by individualization. But this need not mean what is
currently meant by "sex" and the glorification of the orgasm. It
implies rather the RITUALIZATION OF RELATIONSHIP.
PHASE
15 (ARIES 15°):
AN INDIAN WEAVING A CEREMONIAL BLANKET.
KEYNOTE:
Projecting into everyday living the realization of wholeness and
fulfillment.
In
Christian tradition one hears of Jesus' "seamless robe." In Asia one
is told of the "spiritual vesture" of the Perfect Ones. The man who
has attained the spiritual state is figuratively robed in the universe and
more precisely, in the Milky Way, the Great White Robe of interwoven stars.
This is the ultimate kind of weaving. There was also Penelope's weaving and
unweaving, waiting for the return of her polarizing mate. The mind of the
American woman in which these symbols took concrete form could think only of
"Indian weavers." For the white man who is hungering for symbols of
a state of living in total harmony with the universe, the traditional Indian
can be glamorized as the answer to the inner emptiness of the city-dweller
surfeited with artificial values. At any rate, we may thus prefigure a
future state of fulfillment in conscious harmony and unpossessive love.
If this symbol comes to the consciousness of the inquirer after meaning,
deliberately or through an aleatory act of revelation (like the act of
throwing sticks to obtain an I Ching symbol), implied is the profound fact
that every individual has as his ultimate conscious task the weaving of his
"immortal body," his Gnostic Robe of Glory. It may sound very
mystical and "far out," but there is a moment in every cycle when,
in however small a degree, every individual may be confronted with the
potentiality of a fulfilling act of self-realization and may, ever so
relatively, find himself "clothed in light" for an instant.
This
fifth stage of the third five-fold sequence of symbols ends the first of the
twenty-four "scenes." We are told by it that the FULFILLMENT OF
DESIRE is a possibility, at whatever level and in however incomplete a manner
it may be experienced.
