LESSON VII.
THE EARTHY TRIPLICITY.
♉ ♍ ♑
♑, OR ADVANCING.
When the Sun enters the sign of ♑, where lived the framers of the Zodiac, then the Goats advanced up the mountain sides, for the time of grazing was at hand. The fruits of labor were beginning to spring up and be realized by the laborer. So now advances the warrior into the region of winter, toward the point where shadows are congealed or hardened into the substances called matter and solids; where the indigo ray passes almost to black — the exact antipodes of soul and summer, the white light. Here the black of negation mixes with blue to form the indigo of righteousness.
But with his faithful compass (Cross) he advances, undismayed. His knees do not knock together through the weakness of fear; fear belongs to immature natures. The patient waiting acquired as a reconnoiterer has admitted him into the laboratory of Mother Earth, and he has there armed himself with the force which solves solids and transmutes matter into its correlatives of spirit — black to white, death to life.
The Rod and the Knee express the two extremes of Power and Submission. The monarch who sways the rod enforces the homage of the bended knee from his subjects. Never was there such a despot as fear, and the victim swayed by fear is the most craven and knock-kneed object in existence. The one who has not learned to wait is still the slave of fear, and is held bound in the bowels of Earth, and has yet to break the bars of iron and steel which hold him a prisoner of pomp, splendor, honor and dignity, and this also implies its exact opposite. Yet, the one whom the world delights to honor is not the one who advances, a conqueror, into the realm of realities. Ah, no! He is the one most overcome by fear and that grim, monster-shadow called Death. But the true warrior, “compass” in hand, even though despised and rejected by men advances undismayed, knowing before-hand the exact nature of that which he is to explore. He knows the grim monster-shadow, death, to be but Nature’s initiation into the great mysteries of existence, whose realms he, like Virgil and Dante and others before him, have invaded while yet embodied.
He will find it possible to go, and, returning, give a clever and entertaining account of adventures, hairbreadth escapes, etc., to a gaping crowd. He may bring back a lot of curios, to dispose of for money to the highest bidder, for curiosity mongers to “Oh!” and “Ah!” over.
Or he may transform his knowledge into a comfortable “Sale of Indulgences,” proclaim: “There is no such thing as Death; he is only a scarecrow; all is life; there is no such thing as Evil, all is good. Therefore gormandize, cheat and steal to your heart’s content. You are one with God, and your soul can never be lost!” But he strikes a note which grates on the purely trained ear, and he communicates a conclusion which does not accord with, nor follow, the premises. With the major premise of Taurus (humility) and the minor premise of Virgo (patience), sooner or later will he trip in the meshes of his false syllogism and be brought in abject terror before the awful Voice of the Mighty One, whose Ineffable Name he, himself, has attempted to assume, instead of, in true humility, saying ” Hallowed be Thy Name,” and, as a penitent reconnoiterer, he must add, ” Forgive us our trespasses,” and upon his knees confess, “For Thine is the Kingdom.”
But not thus with the warrior who has the first two premises correctly formed. His conclusion is incontrovertible. At the very outset of his advance he learns his immortality, his heritage; also discerns the conditions upon which they are won. He realizes the dignity, grandeur and meaning of life, and knows that he is saved, crowned and Deified in spite of himself; whether he will or no. Neither for the simple wishing on his part, but with the knowledge obtained in Dame Nature’s laboratory he has but to hold up the Mystic Cross, which combines in its significance polar opposites and contradictory opposites, and the most fixed becomes volatile. Baser metals are changed to gold, and gold transmuted to Sunlight, the Water of Soul to the Wine of Spirit, the mask to reality, shadows to substance, error to truth, hate to love, death to life.
He also knows that the direct ray is Truth Absolute, while the oblique ray is Truth Relative, and will be refracted and reflected indefinitely from one plane to another and soon bewilder him in a labyrinth of shadowy reflects unless he sternly adheres to his knowledge and boldly clings to his Cross.
And, while he knows that it is his duty to realize and actualize all that he possibly can of truth absolute, he also knows it is likewise his duty to recognize the different planes of expression, and remember that truths on different planes are relative to each other, but that each is absolute on its own plane, and that, in order to advance from one plane to another, or higher, like water he cannot rise above his level until he find the point of equilibrium of that plane upon which he is, by means of which, like water vaporized, he rises to the plane above him.
But, until he does actually rise to the plane above him, he is ruled by the laws of that plane, and he is its subject until he, by rising to the plane above, becomes ruler of the plane below.
Poison, calumny and malice are absolute monarchs on their own special plane, but to the warrior, armed with the force which solves and transmutes, they become relative, and finally obedient.
Neither do I become ruler by simply repeating, parrot-like, “There is no such thing as malaria; malaria does not rule me, I rule malaria,” etc., but I must have within me the force which, having divined the meanings of things, has made them a part of me, having neutralized (nothing-ized) it by counterbalancing it with its polar opposite.
Thus, from ♑ of the Earthy Triplicity, do I arrive at true Progress, Advancing. The Fiery trip showed the perfect syllogism — the righteous judgment of Sagittarius, deducted from the major premise of Aries and the minor premise of Leo.
The Earthy syllogism, analogous to the Fiery, is symbolized in terms of a chemical compound, in which the sharp and stinging acids of censure and uncharitableness, leading to humility (Taurus), fuse and blend with the alkalies of patience (Virgo) under afflictions, and from this fusing and blending arising to a higher plane, or Capricorn.
From this Earthy syllogism I have learned from Taurus: “Hark!” from Virgo: “Wait!” from Capricorn: “Be Strong!”
Listening in true Humility for Thy hallowed name, I have found that even sorrow and failure, if accepted in patience, although they may seem like the reconnoiterer’s path, too often go back instead of forward, are, after all, accomplished progress, and are but seeming bonds, from which my soul, “like a hind let loose” all the more swiftly advances up the mountain steeps when the time for grazing arrives. Then he has reached that point where he can utilize the power and knowledge gained while passing through the first syllogism, Fire, and the second, Earth.