Alignment
This is the text of a talk that was broadcast on the online Triangles meeting on August 21st when a total solar eclipse was occurring in parts of the USA.
Eclipses are a time of alignment. Alignment occurs when through a focusing of the mind we become able to bring about a merging within the subtle vehicles, a tautness, that enables us to become receptive to the soul and also to the spirit. It is through this alignment that we can participate more fully in the merging between the solar and lunar zodiacs that occurs at this time.
The Path is long, infinite surely, and each effort we make to place ourselves more fully in alignment within that path and the energies it can confer upon us, becomes a contribution not only to our own ability to release ourselves from some of the binding samskaras but also serves to aid us in releasing humanity and the planet as a whole from the churning of the oceans, the warring forces extent in the world at this time.
In the East, after the cleansing and purification process undertaken during eclipse periods, the people went out and dedicated themselves to charitable acts. This is our aim as well in our work in Triangles, aligning ourselves with our Triangles partners and then extending that alignment to include all others throughout the world who are also members of Triangles and standing within the planetary throat center of humanity we then lift and extend our alignment to include the planetary heart, the spiritual Hierarchy,. These three centers, Humanity, Hierarchy and Shamballa, form the major planetary triangle and our work together in Triangles serves to link these three centers and thus we contribute to the effort being undertaken at this time of the eclipse when the symbol in the heavens brings home to us this linking and merging, this moment when we can tap into a measure of the spiritual will.
Outer events ever coincide with and are a reflection of that which is taking place upon inner levels of reality, within the realm of causes. Opportunities such as this total solar eclipse are certainly not that unusual, but each one presents a certain signature and impacts a certain area of the planet that makes it unique. Each one, therefore, has to be understood in accordance with the signs and symbols associated with it.
Eclipses are juncture points, intersections points. As such they provide a portal or bridge between worlds. Within the life of the soul, these intersections present opportunities for growth. Things are not as they seem, light becomes dark, that which is normally hidden becomes seen and it’s said that mysteries can be revealed. It is a time for the influx of the spiritual will that is made available to counteract the possible impact of the lower or materialistic forces. It is a time when spiritual seekers can join together and collectively penetrate into realms of consciousness not otherwise available to us.
When we recite one of the most ancient prayers in our world , the Gayatri., we are invoking an energy that is normally hidden to us but which perhaps at this time, becomes available. The word Gayatri is the feminine word for song or hymn, a song or hymn to the creator or Grand Architect of the Universe. It is used by many people throughout the world at sunrise and also at sunset as a means of honoring, of giving reverence, to that great Deity Who embraces all things. The Gayatri and the whole secret behind the meaning of the sign of Leo and its teaching on the “triple sun,” being ruled in all three aspects by the sun, gives us pause to understand that this physical sun, and even the heart of the sun, the second or soul aspect, hide or reveal something greater, something august, something which is concerned with pure Being and which connects us with God Transcendent.
And particularly as this eclipse coincides with the heart of the Lion, the great and royal star Regulus, which star figures in the chain of descent of the energies from Sirius, we know that this is a powerful opportunity for an influx of manasic energy into our world. Manas or mind is the energy which we use in Triangles, for as the light pours into human consciousness through the network, we have the opportunity to stand as distribution points, pouring out that which the Hierarchy has garnered during this opportunity and distributing it to our awakening world in crisis.
So let us now together recite this ancient prayer:
O Thou Who givest sustenance to the universe,
From Whom all things proceed,
To Whom all things return,
Unveil to us the face of the true Spiritual Sun.
Hidden by a disk of golden Light
That we may know the Truth
And do our whole duty
As we journey to Thy sacred feet.
To ancient peoples at the time of solar eclipses it appeared as if the sun had been eaten by the moon. And in fact the word eclipse itself meant “to eat” and the people also believed the sun and moon were being eaten by demons and they often banged on pots and pans to scare them away. Hindu seers knew of the eclipse cycles and their importance thousands of years ago and hid their cycles within their ancient texts. It was thought that the great Lord Vishnu, the embodiment of cosmic Love, presides over these moments. He embodies the present moment, the sense of Being in the Now, seeking to curtail the tendency to be held and controlled by the past or, on the other hand, to project into the future. He ultimately presides over the warring forces of the past and of the future who were symbolized by a giant serpent. A serpent is a symbol of both the lower desire nature that if allowed sway blocks and veils us from the light of the soul but, from a higher turn of the spiral, this same serpent can be transformed into a vehicle of living light that opens the gateway into higher realms of consciousness. We, as Triangles workers, can also use our voices to create a wall of sound, using the Great Invocation, to facilitate the entry of light into the world, invoking the power of these “amazing words” as the Alice Bailey writings speak of them, to scare away the very real demons we witness in our world at this time. Through this means we play our part in countering the darkness and through the alignment that becomes possible we invoke the fiery energies from higher sources.
The symbols hidden within eclipses give us pause to seek and understand the direction of events. In an interesting passage in the teachings we read of the individual who finds himself upon the Probationary Path who is beginning to be subjected to the conflicting forces that throw the life into disarray. It is the stage when the first battle of the path itself confronts the individual, the battle between darkness and light, between the unreal and the Real, the struggle between spiritual aspiration and the material desires. That long process is described this way, “"He turns from right to left, and then again from left to right. He revolves in giddy fashion upon an axis of desire. He knows not where to go or what to do. The sky turns black." That which brings about the ability to control the warring forces and to conquer the personality, here symbolized by the sky turning black, is the planet Saturn, the reaper, the planet that is becoming so strong at this time as humanity prepares for entry into a particularly karmic period in our planetary life as Saturn enters that sign in December and then goes on to make some particularly powerful configurations in the upcoming years.
An eclipse is a mass event--one that grabs our attention and lets us know that something powerful is going on. And with the increasing interdependence of our world spiritual seekers can pause and seize and make this time one of heightened significance and opportunity. The Triangles network, working as it does with energies and forces, is highly responsive to the released currents.
In esoteric teachings the moon is known as a veil, a covering over the truth. The astral currents with which it is aligned are as figments of our imagination, but nonetheless something that appear very real until such time as we come to see things more clearly and that which held us back lessens in its hold over us and, eventually, loses its power. Then we become receptive to the energies of Neptune, emanating from the heart of the sun and eventually to the planet Uranus, symbolic of the central Spiritual Sun. Thus we gain a measure of freedom. Let us work together now with our Triangles meditation to play our part in aiding humanity as a whole to step forward into greater light.