LESSON V.
THE EARTHY TRIPLICITY.
♉ ♍ ♑
THE EARTHY TRIPLICITY.
♉, OR LISTENING.
The signs of the Earthy Triplicity express the crisis, or fixed point, wherein the shadows seem to come to a crust and harden. They are illusions, reaching their ultimate. And this Earthy Triplicity follows the fiery, just as ashes follow fire, or, as geology tells us, our Earth has resulted from a ball of fire, and all the solids now visible from molten liquids. To the warrior, this Earthy Triplicity (triangle) is the battlefield, a field of three equal sides. Its first side he takes possession of and holds as soon as he comprehends the sounds proceeding from it. He must listen for its strains of martial music, its distant rumbling of artillery and the tramp, tramp of marching troops, its shouts of victory and courage, its groans of anguish, defeat and retreat.
Having learned to watch, he must now learn to listen. The ear must be trained as well as the eye. In order to have both sides of the contradictories we must know the results of things seen, hence must hear the effects through vibration, or motion. Thus listening is essential.
But Taurus ♉ is the sign of the neck and throat as well as the ear, and this is so because of the subtle connection between the ear, neck and throat. In a former analysis I saw the relation of ear to voice (of which the throat is but the instrument), and now, as I listen to the sounds from the battlefield, I discern the relation of ear to neck.
At the first sound of martial music the steed arches his neck, and none the less, as its strains inspire the warrior, does his neck respond to the sounds, drawing up the head and stiffening the entire vertebral column. He pants for prowess, renown, praise, promotion and unending fame and honors. But the true warrior, who from the sentry’s watch-tower discerned the shadows to be delusions, now listens for the bugle-call, the clear note which, cleaving the awful din and confusion of the battlefield, gives out the key-note according to which the discordant sounds are evolved into a majestic symphony. As long as the warrior fights for fame of self and to hear all men speak well of him, instead of striking the keynote he only strikes its exact contradictory.
Therefore, if I am to be a true warrior I must renounce praise and learn true humility. Not only must I renounce praise, but must even rejoice when all men speak evil of me. If I am cast down when I am reviled and persecuted, then I have not yet learned humility. To be cut to the quick by censure is as far from humility as to be stiff-necked with praise; for so long as blame crushes me, just so long will praise elate me. Therefore, in order to renounce praise I must also renounce blame.
The point of equilibrium between, or indifference to, either praise or blame is the only point I can strike which will give out the true vibration which enables me to detect the key-note.
This is a hard lesson, and one I can never learn until mine eyes have seen the unreality of the shadows, until I have sacrificed to the Divinity within and obtained its responses; or, in other words, if I have not fully and comprehensively encompassed the first syllogism, or triplicity, I cannot intelligently and courageously step upon the next rung of the ladder in my watch-tower. But if I have realized the war-cry of Liberty, Fraternity and Equality, then, in proportion as I realize humility, renouncing alike praise and blame, in just that proportion I shall now be able to see that my war-cry is also my key-note. I now have my key, which is two-sided, one from the first syllogism and the other from the second, Watching and Listening. This is a marvelous key, which unlocks both ways. Turned one way it reveals color symphonies; the other gives out sound harmonies, and as I become skillful in turning this key the visible will be the notes of a musical composition, which my soul at once reads into sound while the audible vibrations round out into forms and colors. But the visible and the audible united form the Orange Ray of my Seven-Point-Star, and the spiritual quality corresponding to orange is the understanding, and when I am armed with this ray-ment of true understanding, then the bow of prismatic colors and the octave of chromatic sounds will interpret to my soul that larger octave of the heavens called the Zodiac, or Wheel of Life. Upon the steps and half-steps of this Zodiacal octave the Sun, Moon and planets go on, giving out now strong major chords, now plaintive minor vibrations, both of which the rightly attuned soul translates into higher symphonies of the purposes and laws of the Infinite Mind, grand oratorios of “Creation” and “Messiah.”
When this spirit of understanding is mine, then these vibrations, struck by the swiftly revolving orbs on the Zodiacal octave, will as surely reach my external ear as they now do my external eye, and my soul will as surely recognize a primary chord from the larger octave as now from the smaller, for the intervals of one correspond exactly to the intervals of the other. All these intervals are expressed by numbers, but as long as numbers represent only dollars and cents, or the shadows exchangeable for money, the results or returns only looked for on the material plane, just so long will the “music of the spheres” remain an unmeaning myth to my soul.
We must ever remember that the effects must correspond to the plane of the cause. Esoteric wisdom cannot be utilized in exoteric gains (the law of contradictory opposites would soon take the place of affinity opposites) and rise in the scale of progress. Harmony is the law of progression. The contest of the ages is upon us.