A Pause in Time

The Upanishads liken a human being to a city with ten gates--nine leading to the outside world, while the tenth gate leads within. This time of the solstice opportunity and the entry into a new year affords us the opportunity to pause and consider our next step. The tenth gate is linked with the tenth sign of Capricorn, the unicorn of God, the guardian of the straight and narrow gate of initiation. Entry to the inner worlds is always conferred by successful application to the outer field of service, just as in the astrological chart, the midheaven is esoterically understood as the dharma point. This vertical point of entry holds the key to the qualities and particular energies that we can appropriate as we precipitate that fragment of the divine Plan that is our particular responsibility to work out.

Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, is the most potent of the four Lords of Karma and forces us to “face up to the past, and in the present to prepare for the future.”(1) Past, present and future merge and blend as Father Time becomes understood as part of the great Illusion.  Saturn powerfully conditions us as well as we enter the portal of Aquarius in the world cycle as it rules the first decanate of the Aquarian age. Saturn presents us with difficulties but also is known as the Lord of Opportunity who leads to the illumination of consciousness. As we begin a new year and prepare for Pluto’s entry into Capricorn (along with Jupiter), humanity will surely pass through a period of reckoning as we face our accumulated karma. But the door of initiation always stands open, even though for aeons of time humanity has preferred the open door in Cancer.  Through long experience in the pursuit of that which is near at hand, the worthlessness of all earthly gratification becomes apparent and the opportunity to turn in a new direction is held out to us.  Pluto, the non-sacred planet will aid in this process as it embodies the destroyer aspect of the first ray and will surely present humanity, the world disciple, with those global challenges which will evoke the collective will.  Direction comes in Sagittarius, leading to the acceptance of the dharma in Capricorn, the vertical point of entry for the light supernal upon which the seeker must turn his back and “face the dark.” For the seeker “there remains now no goal but service.”

At this time when Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, many seekers also await the coming of the Great Lord to lead us into the light, bringing a new vision and a new approach to living.  An ancient scripture tells us that when this occurs:

That which has been a mystery shall no longer be so, and that which has been veiled will now be revealed; that which has been withdrawn will emerge into the light and will enhance that light and all men will see and together will rejoice.  The time will come when destruction will have wrought its beneficent work; then men, through suffering, will seek that which they have discarded. In vain pursuit, they sought that which was near at hand and easy of attainment. Possessed, they found that it proved an agency of death. Yet all the time, they sought for life, not death.(2)

It is the task of those who work with some understanding of the nature of cycles and the power of thought to come together in  an act of planetary redemption and healing. At the winter solstice we take our clue from the natural world and pause at the point of densest concretion and greatest darkness when the waxing energy of the night stations.  At this juncture we can reflect on our direction, under the watchful gaze of Father Time, leaving the past behind and pressing forward, as St. Paul enjoined us, “towards the prize of your high calling in Christ.”

1. Bailey, Alice A., Esoteric Astrology, p. 164
2. Bailey, Alice A., The Reappearance of the Christ, p. 124-25