[PAGE 1]                                            THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS






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                          AN ESOTERIC EXPOSITION OF
                         NATAL AND MEDICAL ASTROLOGY
                            EXPLAINING THE ARTS OF
                    READING THE HOROSCOPE AND DIAGNOSING
                                   DISEASE




[PAGE 2]                                            THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS




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[PAGE 3]                                    EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC


                                  CHAPTER I

                      EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC


   It  is a matter of common knowledge among mystics that  the  evolutionary
career  of mankind is indissolubly bound up with the divine hierarchies  who
rule  the planets and the signs of the Zodiac,  and that passage of the  Sun
and the planets through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, marks man's progress
in time and in space.   Therefore it is not to be wondered at,  that in  the
course  of their investigations into the spiritual development  of  mankind,
the  writers have also encountered much that deals with the Zodiac which  is
the  boundary of our evolutionary sphere at the present time.   So much  has
been  perceived in THE MEMORY OF NATURE that sheds light upon  obscure  pas-
sages of the Bible, that notes have been made from time to time of different
points,  but  how to collect and collage these dissociated writings  into  a
united whole, has been a great problem for a long time.  Even now, the writ-
ers  know  and feel that what they are bringing forth is only a  very,  very
weak attempt to set before the students that great body of facts which  have
come to them through the memory of nature.   They feel,  however,  that this
will give a new and  more  profound  meaning to the old symbols, and that by


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passing  on what has been found they put themselves in line to receive  more
light.

   Concerning   the   future   evolution   of   planets;   the   Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception teaches, on page 256, that "when the beings upon the planet
have  evolved to a sufficient degree,  the planet becomes a Sun,  the  fixed
center of the Solar System.   When the beings there have evolved to a  still
greater degree,  and consequently it has reached its maximum of  brilliancy,
it breaks up into a Zodiac and becomes, so to speak, the womb of a new Solar
System.   Thus the Great hosts of Divine beings who,  until then,  were con-
fined  upon  that Sun gain freedom of actions upon a great number  of  stars
whence they can affect,  in different ways, the system which grows up within
their  sphere of influence.   The planets or many-bearing worlds within  the
Zodiac are constantly being worked upon by these forces but in various  ways
according  to the stage they have reached in evolution.   Our Sun could  not
have  become a sun until it set out from itself all the beings who were  not
sufficiently evolved to endure the high rate of vibration and the great  lu-
minosity of the beings who were qualified for that evolution.   All the  be-
ings  upon the different planets would have been consumed had they  remained
in the Sun.   This visible Sun,  however, though it is a place of  evolution
for beings vastly above man, is not by any means,  the Father of other plan-
ets, as material science supposes.  On the contrary,  it is itself an emana-


[PAGE 5]                                    EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC

tion fron THE CENTRAL SUN,  which is the invisible source of all that IS  in
our solar system."

   "Our visible Sun is but the mirror in which are reflected the Rays of en-
ergy from the Spiritual Sun, the real Sun is as invisible as the REAL man."

    From  this teaching it is apparent that the great spiritual  hierarchies
which are now guiding our evolution,  have had their training for this  path
in previous schemes of manifestation, also that what THEY are now doing,  WE
shall  some  day do FOR OTHERS.   Already the foremost among  our  race  are
treading the path of initiation, and have thereby advanced into stages,  far
beyond the general status of our present humanity.  It has been learned that
those  who have gone through the Mercurial School of the  lesser  Mysteries,
and have graduated from the School of the Greater Mysteries are now  prepar-
ing  human evolution for the Jupiter Period.   They have entered the  planet
Jupiter, by way of one of the Moons, which serves as a stepping stone.  Oth-
ers there are,  unfortunately, who have gone the other way.   We read in the
Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, that even as the whole population of the earth
was at one time expelled from the present Sun because of their inability  to
keep up with the vibrations of the beings thereon,  thus hindering them  and
being hindered themselves,  so also it becomes necessary in the Lemurian Ep-
och, to expel a number of the stragglers from earth.  Thus the Moon was cast
out into space to revolve as a Satellite  around  our present planet.  Those


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unfortunates  are  gradually degenerating and the time will come  when  they
will all go to the planet Saturn,  which is the door to Chaos.   Thence they
will be expelled to inter-planetary space to await the time when,  in a  new
system, there will be a favorable condition for their further evolution.

                         THE GATE OF LIFE AND DEATH

   Thus  the Zodiac and the planets are as a book in which we may  read  the
history of Humanity during past ages, and they also give a key to the future
which is in store for us.   In the famous Zodiac in the Temple of  Denderah,
Cancer is not pictured as we have it in modern days.   There it is a beetle,
a scarab.  This was the emblem of the soul, and Cancer has always been known
in ancient times,  as well as among modern mystics,  to be the sphere of the
soul, THE GATE OF LIFE in the Zodiac whence the spirits coming into rebirth,
enter  our sub-lunary conditions.   It is therefore aptly ruled by the  Moon
which is the planet of fecundation, and it is noteworthy that we find Capri-
corn,  which is its opposite, ruled by Saturn the PLANET OF DEATH AND CHAOS,
who is mystically depicted as "the reaper with his scythe and hour glass  in
hand."   These two opposite signs are therefore turning points in the soul's
career.   Cancer and Capricorn respectively mark the highest ascent  of  the
Sun into the Northern Hemisphere, and its lowest descent into the South.  We
observe that during the summer when the Sun is in  the  sphere of Cancer and


[PAGE 7]                                    EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC

allied signs, fecundation and growth are the order of the day.  But when the
Sun is in the South, in Capricorn, we have winter, when nature is dead.  The
fruits of the summer are then consumed and assimilated by us.   As a  circle
dance  of the Sun among the twelve signs determines the seasons of the  year
WHEN DIRECT,  causing the germination of myriads of seeds cast in the earth,
also  the  mating of the fauna,  which then makes the world alive  with  the
sights and sounds of manifested life,  and at another time leaves the  world
dumb,  dull and drear in winter's gloom, under the sway of Saturn, so by the
slower backward movement,  known as the PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOX,  does  it
produce the great changes which we know as Evolution.  In fact, this preces-
sional  measure of the sun marks the birth and death of races,  nations  and
their  religions,  for the pictorial Zodiac is a symbolical presentation  of
our past, present and future development.

                                  CAPRICORN

   Capricorn,  the goat,  is not a goat at all as we know that  animal,  but
part fish and part goat.   Its Saturnine rulership, and the fact that it re-
ceives the Sun at the dawn of each New Year, naturally by analogy associates
it  with the beginning of precessional epochs.   It represents the stage  in
evolution  covering transition from fish, through amphibia to the  mammalian
form.  The belligerency of the goat is well known, and  an apt symbol of the


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struggle for existence,  in which the weak perish unless able to outdistance
their foes.   This phase of the matter is sometimes expressed in the symbol,
when drawn as part fish and part antelope.  Jacob,  in the forty-ninth chap-
ter of Genesis, pronounces blessings upon his children,  which symbolize the
twelve signs.   There he speaks of Naphtali as a "HIND"  let loose;  thus  a
very apt symbol of Capricorn,  for when the Sun is there at each winter sol-
stice,  it is starting a race through the circle of twelve signs,  which  it
must complete in a given time--a year.

                                 SAGITTARIUS

   When the Sun leaves Capricorn,  by precession,  it enters the sign Sagit-
tarius,  and  this is pictured in the symbolical Zodiac as a  Centaur,  part
horse  and part man.   Thus it shows aptly,  the fact that we  have  evolved
through the animal stage into the human.  The centaur is in the act of draw-
ing his bow, showing that there is something for which the human spirit,  on
its pilgrimage through matter, is seeking, that it aspires to something that
lies beyond it, as a lofty ideal, for the bow points upward to the stars.

                                   SCORPIO

   The next step in human unfoldment is not so much along the physical lines
as along the mental.   Its nature is shown by the Sun's passage through  the
sign Scorpio, which is pictorially represented  as  a  SERPENT  or SCORPION,


[PAGE 9]                                    EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC

emblems  of cunning and subtility.   It is plain from this symbol  that  the
faculty of the mind evolved by infant humanity was CUNNING, and we still see
that that is a characteristic trait among the lower races, the lower classes
and the lower natures even among our present-day humanity.

                                    LIBRA

   But,  when the Sun  enters the sign Libra,  'THE SCALES,'  by precession,
the balance of reason gives him a new start upon the evolutionary path.  Un-
der  the  care of divine instructors man had at that time  advanced  to  the
point where because of this new faculty, reason,  he could be made fully re-
sponsible to nature's laws,  and thus reap what he had sown,  that he  might
learn  the lesson of life by actual experience,  be able to reason  out  the
connection  between cause and effect and in time learn to govern himself  so
as to progress further upon the path.

                                    VIRGO

   Thus,  under the guidance of the spiritual hierarchies,  focused  through
the signs of CAPRICORN, SAGITTARIUS, SCORPIO, and LIBRA,  were his physical,
moral  and mental attributes acquired,  and he was equipped and  mental  at-
tributes acquired, and he was equipped to commence the spiritual side of his
evolution.  The germ of this progress is hidden in the celestial virgin, the
sign VIRGO, which is the vehicle of the immaculate conception,  the heavenly
mother of Christ;  not of one Christ only, but of many.   This is one of the
most  sublime  signs  of the Zodiac and one of the most mystical, so fraught


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with  hidden  meaning that its full import cannot be fully  understood  save
when viewed by the internal light of spiritual illumination.  Yearly, at the
winter solstice,  the immaculate Madonna is ascendant at midnight,  when the
new  born Sun commences to rise to the task of growing the grain and  grape,
to  save humanity from the cold and famine,  which would  inevitably  result
were he to remain in the southern declination.   The Sun is therefore an apt
symbol of the Savior, born to feed his flock on the spiritual bread of life.
But,  as  we  must have eyes attuned to light to see the sun,  so  must  the
Christ  be born within before we can perceive spiritual light.   As  Angelus
Silesius says:

         "Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born
          And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn.
          The Cross of Golgotha thou lookest to in vain
          Unless within thyself it be set up again."

   Therefore, by the precessional passage of the Sun through the sign Virgo,
the germinal impulse was given towards the birth of Christ within man.   The
MYSTIC MARRIAGE of the lower self to the higher,  the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION,
and the DIVINE MOTHERHOOD,  which nourishes deep in its bosom,  unseen by  a
scoffing world,  "THE NEW BORN CHRIST," are actual experiences of a  growing
number of people.   And without the celestial prototype,  fructified by  the
solar  precession,  this  would  be an impossibility; neither has this ideal


[PAGE 11]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC

been realized in such fullness during the past ages as today.  The reason of
this  will appear when we take up the joint consideration of opposite  signs
of the Zodiac.

                                     LEO

   A  great future is in store for this offspring of the  celestial  virgin.
Listen  to the wonderful prophecy of Isaiah:  "For unto us a child is  born,
unto us a Son is given,  and the government shall be upon his shoulders  and
his name shall be called WONDERFUL, COUNSELOR, the MIGHTY GOD, the EVERLAST-
ING FATHER, the PRICE OF PEACE.  Of the increase of His government and peace
there shall be no end."

   Humanity  is to rise to a wonderful spiritual height and this is  symbol-
ized by the Sun's precessional passage through the royal sign Leo,  pictori-
ally represented by the king of beasts, the lion.   this is an apt  allusion
to the King of Creation, who will then embody the three great virtues of the
Master Man, Strength, Wisdom and Beauty.

   It is wonderful to trace the various phases of the religions given to the
Great Aryo-Semitic Race from the time they were "called out"  in the  latter
third  of the Atlantean Epoch,  to the end of the Aquarian Age,  when a  new
race  will have been definitely born.   This aspect of the Zodiac will  form
the subject of the following pages.   It will shed light on many of the most
obscure passages of the Bible, as only study of this Cosmic Science can.


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   When we consider the Zodiac in its religious as well as its  evolutionary
aspects,  by means of the six pair of opposite signs into which  the  twelve
may be divided,  we also commence with Cancer and Capricorn,  for the reason
given in the previous article, namely:  that these are the solstitial points
where the Sun reaches its highest and lowest declination.

   Considered in this manner, we find that there are two sets of three pairs
of signs, the first being Cancer and Capricorn, Gemini and Sagittarius, Tau-
rus and Scorpio.   In these pairs of signs we may read the history of  human
evolution and religion, in the early, the middle and the latter third of the
Atlantean  Epoch.   This  is also divisible  into  three  distinct  periods,
namely:  THE ARYAN AGE, from Moses to Christ, which comes under Aries-Libra;
the  PISCEAN  AGE,  which  takes  in  the  last  two  thousand  years  under
Pisces-Virgo Catholicism;  and the two thousand years which are ahead of us,
called  the AQUARIAN AGE,  where the signs Aquarius and Leo will be  illumi-
nated and vivified by the solar precession, for the upliftment of the Son of
Man (Aquarius), by the Christ within, the Lion of Judah (Leo), to the estate
of Superman.

   It  must  not be thought, however, that the Atlantean Epoch  only  lasted
while  the  Sun  by  precession  went  through Cancer, Gemini, and Taurus, a


[PAGE 13]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC

period of only six thousand and a few hundred years; far from it;  but there
are spirals within spirals and recapitulation takes place in the epochs  and
races,  so  that we may know what is the general destiny by looking  at  the
Sun's passage through these signs and therewith taking this import and  sym-
bolism into consideration.   It may also be said that the further we advance
the smaller do the spirals become, the shorter the time in which a given im-
provement  is made,  because of the proficiency we attained in former  ages,
and  therefore it is extremely probable that this present is the  last  lap,
that the coming Aquarian Age is the final preparatory school day which  will
fit us for the new age,  the Sixth Epoch,  and that this will begin when the
Sun by precession enters Capricorn.

   This,  of course,  would mean that the Second Advent must take place just
before that time,  and though  it seems to us that so many signs point  that
way,  still  it is a mere surmise and may not have any truth in it  at  all.
Thousands of people have been misled during all the ages that we know of, to
think  that Christ would soon be here; it is,  however,  better that we  are
looking  forward to it than if we should say with some,  that it will  never
take  place.   In that case the Great Day would find us  unprepared  and  we
should find ourselves among the stragglers who are unfit to attend the  wed-
ding feast of the Higher Self to the lower because lacking the  "soul-body,"
the "wedding garment," necessary to enfold them.


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                              CANCER-CAPRICORN

   The Sun's passage by precession through the sphere of Cancer with its op-
posite sign Capricorn,  designates the early third of the Atlantean  period,
which  was  intensely  watery as the whole earth was  covered  by  a  dense,
drenching fog.   The Niebelung, or "Children of the Mist," lived then in the
basins of the Earth.   Cancer was not then represented by the same symbol as
today;  in ancient times it was pictorially figured as a beetle  or  scarab.
This was the signature of the soul, for then mankind was much less body than
soul.

   The sign Cancer is watery in its nature,  and the fish part of Capricorn,
the  opposite sign,  also helps to symbolize this state of life under  water
when the Sun went through the watery sign Cancer by precession.   The  Moon,
the planet of fecundation,  points mystically to this period of germination,
when  mankind first commenced to exercise the Creative function at the  dic-
tates of desire inculcated by the Lucifer Spirits.   Thus mankind opened the
Gate  of  physical Life through Cancer,  and strayed  into  the  terrestrial
sphere,  but opposite stood Saturn,  the ruler of Capricorn,  ready to  slay
them with his scythe, and usher them through the Gate of Death back into the
spiritual realms where they are at home.

   Capricorn  was the opposite of Cancer and embodied the ideal that as  the
goat climbs the mountains, so man must leave the basins of Atlantis and come
up from the mist.


[PAGE 15]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC

                             GEMINI-SAGITTARIUS

   Our  condition during the middle third of the Atlantean Epoch  is  illus-
trated in the Sun's passage through the sign Gemini, the twins,  which aptly
represent infant humanity.   During this age the division of soul from  soul
by the veil of flesh,  which we call the body,  became more noticeable,  for
the atmosphere had already cleared to a considerable extend,  and the facul-
ties of the spirit had become more focused in its physical instrument.  With
this delusion of the personal self, there came at once the idea of "me"  and
"thee," "mine" and "thine," our individual interests commenced to clash with
those  of others,  so that a tragedy such as that recorded between Cain  and
Abel became possible.   Nor was the shedding of blood confined to human  be-
ings,  for we learn from the Bible that "Nimrod was a might  hunter".   This
savage ideal was expressed in the Celestial Centaur,  Sagittarius,  with his
bow and arrow.

   But   both   of   these  pairs   of   opposites,   Cancer-Capricorn   and
Gemini-Sagittarius, may be considered pre-historic hieroglyphics of a devel-
opment accomplished in Sidereal years,  long past,  though none the less im-
portant on that account.  Our own times, with the development prescribed for
them,  are  symbolically represented in the two pairs of  signs  within  the
fixed cross, the Bull, the Lion, the Serpent and the Man.

   For  that reason the two pairs of opposites comprising the  fixed  signs,
Taurus-Scorpio  and  Leo-Aquarius,  are mentioned in the Bible, and we shall


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find  that our modern systems of religion are full of allusions to the three
pairs  of  opposites.   Aquarius-Leo and the two adjacent  pairs  of  signs,
Aries-Libra and Pisces-Virgo.   These three pairs of opposites are,  as  al-
ready stated,  emblematic of the development in the entire Aryan Epoch.   In
the EARLY third of this Epoch,  the Sun by precession went through the  sign
Aries,  the MIDDLE third of its find the Sun in Pisces,  by precession,  and
during the last third the Sun will go through the sign Aquarius.   Then  the
solstitial point Capricorn will see the inauguration of a new cycle or age.

   The  spiritual preparation for this development commenced about  thirteen
thousand B.C.,  when the Sun by precession, was in the sign Libra,  the Bal-
ance,  the  last time.   Different phases of this germinal  impregnation  of
people then living were carried on during the precessional travel of the Sun
through Virgo, Leo, and culminated in Cancer about eight thousand B.C.  when
the last of Atlantis was destroyed by water, substantially as related by the
Egyptian priests to Plato.   We shall see presently how the germinal ideals,
given to humanity  in those far.  by-gone days have grown and flowered  into
factors of human development and spiritual standards of the greatest  impor-
tance.

                               TAURUS-SCORPIO

   In the latter third of Atlantis,  egoism  had  developed to a far greater


[PAGE 17]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC

degree than before,  the spiritual sight had been lost by the large majority
of the people who then lived entirely on the material plane and gloried par-
ticularly in their material possessions.

   THE BULL was very properly worshiped by them, being an emblem of strength
necessary to conquer the material world.   It was,  on account of its prodi-
gious strength, an invaluable aid in all their work.  The proverb about "the
flesh pots of Egypt"  has remained illustrative to the present day,  to show
how abundantly that animal supplied their physical need of food, the milk of
the female being also an important article of diet.   The possession of many
cattle was therefore ardently desired by the ancient infant nations, and the
worship of the Bull was inaugurated under the solar precession through  Tau-
rus during earlier Great Sidereal Years,  and continued to the comparatively
modern times,  when the Sun by precession went through the sign of Celestial
Bull for the last time.

   At that point when the Sun entered the sign of the Lamb, Aries, the Aryan
religions  were inaugurated.   The religion of the Lamb is to hold sway  for
the next Great Sidereal Year,  while the Sun by precession passes around the
twelve signs of the Zodiac, as the religion of the Bull has held sway during
the previous celestial year from the time the Sun entered Taurus,  until  it
left the same sign on its next passage.

   New  religions,  however,  are  not  revealed  in  their  fullness at the


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beginning; they are started and go through a period of gestation long before
the  religion  which they are to succeed ends its  material  existence,  and
similarly,  and ancient religion about to be abrogated survives along  after
the religion which succeeds it has become the official source of  upliftment
for humanity.  The original Semites, chosen to inaugurate the worship of the
Lamb,  Aries,  during the Aryan Epoch, were taken from "Egypt,"  the home of
the Bull "Taurus."  Not our modern Egypt however.  The story of Pharaoh, who
endeavored  to prevent their emigration and was drowned,  has  reference  to
Atlantis which was submerged thousands of years before Moses is supposed  to
have made his escape with the Israelites through the "Red Sea."   The  facts
underlying the story are that a multitude of people left the land where  the
bull "Taurus" was worshiped, (Atlantis or Egypt) whose inhabitants were then
drowned,  to seek a :promised land"  beyond the water which had engulfed  an
"UNGODLY  NATION."   There they were dedicated to the worship of the  "Lamb"
Aries which had been slain in "Egypt"  (Atlantis);  through its blood  these
pioneers had been preserved from death, and it was thus "the Lamb slain from
the  foundation  of  the (present) World" which we  call  THE  ARYAN  EPOCH.
Noah's  escape presents another phase of the same occurrence  relating  that
the  mists which had enveloped Atlantis condensed to rain,  and flooded  the
basis of the earth, leaving a clear atmosphere in which the Rainbow was seen


[PAGE 19]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC

for the first time at the opening of the New Age,  the Aryan Epoch,  where a
new Covenant was made with the pioneers of the polity then ushered in.

   Atlantis was the home of the Bull, Taurus,  and when the Sun,  by preces-
sion,  was leaving that sign the last time,  the Religion of the Lamb  Aries
was definitely ushered in.   Thenceforth,  the worship of the Bull was abro-
gated  and  when  any of the pioneer race,  brought  out  from  the  ancient
Atlantean dispensation by the blood of the Lamb,  Aries,  backslid and  wor-
shiped  the Taurean "Calf,"  they acted contrary to the law of progress  and
were therefore "Idolaters," and an abomination to the divine hierarchs whose
task  it was to guide them during the ages preceding the advent  of  Christ.
On account of repeated transgressions many were "lost," and  they  are  the
Jews  of  today  who  still retain their Atlantean traits (see Cosmo-Concep-
tion).

   Apart  from the Astrological key,  the Bible is truly a closed book,  but
with this key,  the matter is different.   In the Old Testament reference is
made of two classes of animals:  Bulls, which were Taurean, Sheep and Goats,
which were Arian.   These alone were used as Sacrifices.  (Turtle doves were
permitted as a concession to poverty).  All the principal characters of  the
Old Dispensation were shepherds (ARIAN) and Christ also announces Himself as
the Great Shepherd.

   In the New  Testament  we  find another animal, the Fish, attaining great


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prominence,  and the apostles were called to be "Fishers of Men,"  for  then
the sun by precession was nearing the cusp of Pisces, the Fishes, and Christ
spoke  of  the  time when the Son of Man (Aquarius) shall  come.   Thus  our
evolutionary  journey is mapped out in the hidden astrological allusions  of
the Bible.

   The  student now has a line on the march of events,  which it is well  to
keep in mind.

   Jesus  taught the multitudes in parables but explained the  mysteries  of
the Kingdom to His disciples.   Paul gave spiritual meat to the strong,  but
the milk of doctrine to the multitude, for there has always been an esoteric
and  an esoteric side to every religion.   Taking Taurus,  the sign  of  the
Bull, to symbolize the worship of that animal as practiced in Egypt,  Persia
and other countries at that time, then we shall find that the opposite sign,
Scorpio,  symbolizes the esoteric doctrine if the priesthood,  who were  the
guardians of the ancient Atlantean Mysteries.

   In  this  connection we will note first that the sign Scorpio  is  repre-
sented in the pictorial Zodiac by a Scorpion or Serpent,  and we wish to im-
press particularly on the student's mind that the Scorpion has its STING  IN
THE TAIL,  while the Serpent has the VENOM IN ITS TEETH.   This is very sig-
nificant, as well shall see presently.

   On looking up the word "serpent"  in the Bible,  we shall find that there
are about seven words that have thus been translated; but one of them, which


[PAGE 21]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC

was borrowed from Egypt,  is NAJA.  This word is found on the old tablets in
the ancient temples of Egypt where Osiris, the Sun God, is hailed when aris-
ing  from the primordial deep.   He was then crowned with glory and has  the
Uraeus  Naja,  AN  EMBLEM  OF COSMIC WISDOM.  The Uraeus was  a  part  of  a
serpent's  body,  with its head depicted as protruding from a point  in  the
forehead  just  above the nose,  where the human spirit has  its  seat;  and
Christ  therefore referred to the ancient Serpent-Initiates,  when He  said:
"Be ye wise as serpents."

   In  ancient  Egypt  the King wore a crown adorned by  A  DOUBLE  SERPENT,
URAEUS  or NAJA,  which seemed to protrude from his forehead when the  crown
was placed upon his head.   This was to symbolize the fact that he held  the
double office of King and Priest by virtue of his sublime wisdom.  In India,
also,  the guardians of the Mystery Teachings were called Nagas or Serpents.
In the Icelandic "Eddas," the Northern Vedas,  Siegfried,  the truth seeker,
slays  the  serpent,  tastes of its blood and them becomes  wise.   Nor,  to
elaborate on the statement made above, is it necessary to go outside our own
religion for proof that the serpent is the symbol of wisdom,  for the Christ
Himself said:   "Be ye wise as serpents."  The serpent is certainly not suf-
ficiently sagacious to warrant a literal meaning of this saying; but when we
understand that when the creative fire is drawn upwards through the  serpen-
tine  spinal  cord  it  vibrates  the  pituitary  body and the pineal gland,


[PAGE 22]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC

connecting  the Ego with the invisible worlds by opening up a hidden  sense,
the allusion is perfectly clear.

   There is, however, a lower phase of spiritual development,  symbolized in
ancient  times by placing the Uraeus or serpent at the naval,  to show  that
the   mediumistic  faculties  in  the  solar  plexus  had  been   developed.
Mediumship is a negative phase of spiritual sight or hearing possessed by  a
person who, under the control of an outside intelligence, prophesies.   This
undesirable phase of seership was represented in the Zodiac by the symbol of
the Scorpion, which has the sting in its tail.  In the Serpent, Initiate the
Creative  Cosmic  Fire  was  drawn upward through the head  to  serve  as  a
spiritual end;  in the Medium the creative energy is expressed for  selfish,
sensual ends through the procreative organ ruled by Scorpio.

   The point between the eyebrows,  whence the serpent of wisdom  protrudes,
is THE SEAT OF LIFE, whereas all that opens the womb is subject to THE STING
OF DEATH, contained in the Scorpion's tail.

   If we now turn with this information to our Bible,  we shall find that  a
great  many things,  previously obscure,  will become clear.   As said,  the
Egyptian word for this Uraeus or serpent is Naja and it was borrowed by  the
Israelites who expressed the negative faculty of mediumship by affixing  the
feminine  ending "oth,"  giving NAIOTH;  while those able to  function  con-
sciously in the spiritual worlds were given the positive, make plural ending


[PAGE 23]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC

"im,"  and  were called NAIM.   If we read the nineteenth chapter  of  first
Samuel with this understanding we shall readily see that the incident  there
narrated was of a mediumistic nature.   David had become afraid of Saul  and
he went with Samuel to "Naioth."   This is supposed by Bible translators  to
be a place, and maybe a village was so named.  But if that was the case,  it
was  because  the people who lived in that place were  Naoith,  or  mediums.
They  were called prophets in the chapter before us,  and it is  significant
that as soon as anyone came within their camp,  he commenced to prophesy  or
speak under control.   Even Saul, who came there,  anxious to get David away
that  he might slay him,  was seized by the spirits and prophesied,  to  the
amazement of all present.

   In the New Testament we are told that the Christ went to the city of Nain
and there raised THE SON OF A WIDOW.  In the Latin Testament,  this city was
not called Nain, but NAIM.  And it is very significant that all three, Naim,
Naioth and Endor, where the sorceress that assisted Saul is supposed to have
lived, are in the same locality by Mount Tabor.

   Every Freemason knows that the brethren of that Order are called "Sons of
the  Widow."   And it is stated in the Bible that Hiram  Abiff,  the  Master
Builder of Solomon's Temple,  was the Son of a Widow,  a cunning  craftsman.
We cannot in the present article  repeat  the Masonic Legend which tells the


[PAGE 24]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

reason  why.   This we have given the book on "Freemasonry and  Catholicism"
and also in our books on the Rosicrucian Philosophy.   But suffice it to say
that in the Bible story to which reference has been made, we have one of the
Naim,  a Widow's Son or initiate of the old Serpent School,  for the priests
of Egypt were "PHREE MESSEN," children of light.   Each had within,  the an-
cient Serpent Wisdom.  But a new religion was being inaugurated,  and it was
necessary to raise the ancient Initiates to the Mysteries of the Coming Age.
THEREFORE THE CHRIST,  THE LION OF JUDAH, LORD OF THE NEW KINGDOM,  WENT  TO
THE  WIDOW'S SON OF NAIM and raised him up by the strong grip of the  Lion's
paw.  And we may here emphasize that the first Initiate under the new system
was  Hiram Abiff,  the highest Initiate of the old system,  who by this  new
initiation given him by the Christ, became a CHRISTIAN,  pledged to bear the
ROSE and the CROSS,  which were the symbols of the New Mystery Teachings  of
the  Western  World  and he was then given the  symbolical  name,  Christian
Rosenkreuz.

   Thus from the time when the Sun entered the sign Aries by precession,  it
became a crime for the chosen people to worship the bull exoterically, or to
partake  of  the esoteric Serpent wisdom.   And for a similar reason  IT  IS
IDOLATRY  WHEN PEOPLE OF THE WEST TAKE UP THE EASTERN RELIGIONS.   HINDUISM,
BUDDHISM  AND  KINDRED  TEACHINGS.  For  in  the Aryan Epoch, only the Aryan


[PAGE 25]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC

Religions,  the religions of the Lamb,  have the proper effect on the  human
evolution.   All previous systems are detrimental to the Western people; and
in time those also who are now in the East, the orientals, will be forced to
embrace this religion, or be left far behind in evolution.

                               THE ARYAN EPOCH

                                 ARIES-LIBRA

   The Aryan Epoch may be divided into three eras;  but they are all  served
by  the religion of the Lamb.   The first division covers the time when  the
Sun,  by precession, went through the sign Aries, the Lamb.   Jesus was born
when  the  Vernal  equinox  was in about seven  degrees  of  Aries;  so  the
twenty-three degrees which lie on the other side belong to the Old Testament
period,  when the chosen people were in captivity and lost in the wilderness
of  the  world;  the new religion had not then found its  place.   Then  the
Christ  came and inaugurated this new teaching definitely.   He came not  to
destroy the old prophecies and the law, but to give us something higher when
they shall have been fulfilled.  The sign opposite Aries is Leo,  the scales
or  balance of Justice;  and therefore we are told in the new religion  that
there will come a day of judgment, when Christ shall appear to give to every
man according to the deeds done in the body.

                                PISCES-VIRGO

   Christ was the Great Shepherd, but He called His disciples to be "fishers


[PAGE 26]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

of men," for the Sun by precession was then leaving the sign of the Lamb and
entering Pisces, the sign of the fishes.  Therefore a new phase of the Aryan
religions  was  opening up.   The Bishop's mitre is also in the  form  of  a
fish's head.

   The New Testament, therefore, does not mention the Bull or the Lamb,  but
references  to the fishes are numerous.  We also found the  celestial virgin
prominent and the wheat ear of Virgo is the Bread of Life, to be gained only
through immaculate purity.   Thus Christ fed the multitude of fish  (Pisces)
and loaves (Virgo).

   Before  the time of Christ,  the new religion of the Lamb (Aries),  could
get no foothold.   Moses,  the erstwhile leader,  could not bring the chosen
people  to the "promised land."   That was reserved for Joshua,  the son  of
Nun.  Joshua is the Hebriac for "Jesus" and the Hebrew word for "Nun"  means
"fish"  (Pisces).   It was thus foretold that the religion of the Lamb would
attain  prominence  during the precessional passage of the Sun  through  the
sign Pisces, the fishes.

   This prophecy has been fulfilled, for during the two thousand years which
have elapsed since the birth of Jesus,  the Western religion has been taught
by a celibate priesthood, worshiping an immaculate virgin, symbolized by the
celestial sign Virgo, which is the opposite of Pisces.  This same priesthood
has  also  enjoined  the  eating  of  fish and forbidden the use of flesh on


[PAGE 27]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC

certain  days.   When the children of Israel left the flesh pots  of  Egypt,
where the Bull was slain, they left it by the blood of the Lamb.  But in the
Piscean  dispensation no shedding of blood is enjoined and flesh  eating  is
condemned  as a sin at certain times,  for man is now taught to forsake  the
lusts of the flesh and also lusting after the flesh.

   This ideal was tried under the Aryan dispensation, when the chosen people
were yet in the Wilderness,  so called, but without success;  they would not
have the heavenly manna.   Now,  however,  man is being weaned from the can-
nibalistic practice,  and in the seven hundred years which remain before the
Aquarian  age is definitely ushered in, we will,  in all  probability,  have
made  great strides,  both in overcoming the lust of the flesh and the  lust
after the flesh.   For Virgo, the immaculate celestial virgin,  and the ears
of wheat contained in the sign, show both these ideals as profitable to soul
growth at the present time.   Jupiter, the planet of benevolence and philan-
thropy,  which rules Pisces, has been a prominent factor in promoting altru-
ism during the past two milleniums.

                                AQUARIUS-LEO

   It is often said, and rightly so, that the boy is father of the man.  And
on  the  same  principle we may say that the Son of Man  is  the  Super-Man;
therefore,  when  the  Sun by precession enters the celestial sign Aquarius,


[PAGE 28]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

the  water-bearer  we shall have a new phase of the religion  of  the  Lamb,
exoterically; and the ideal to be striven for is shown in the opposite sign,
Leo.

   The Moon, which is the habitat of the autocratic Race Ruler and Lawgiver,
Jehovah, is exalted in Taurus, the sign of the Bull, and all Race religions,
even the Mosaic phase of the Aryan religion of the Lamb, demanded a sacrifi-
cial victim for every transgression of that law.   But the Sun is exalted in
Aries,  and when the great Sun spirit, Christ,  came as High Priest  of  the
Aryan religion, He abrogated sacrifice of OTHERS by offering up HIMSELF AS A
PERPETUAL SACRIFICE for sin.

   By looking to the mother ideal of Virgo during the Piscean Age,  and fol-
lowing the Christ's example of sacrificial service,  the immaculate  concep-
tion becomes an actual experience to each of us, and Christ, the Son of Man,
Aquarius,  is born within us.  Thus, gradually, the third phase of the Aryan
religion  will  be ushered in and a new ideal will be found in the  Lion  of
Judah,  Leo.   Courage of conviction, strength of character and kindred vir-
tues will then make man truly the King of Creation,  worthy of the trust and
the confidence of the lower orders of life as well as the love of the Divine
Hierarchs above.

   This, the mystic message of Man's evolution, is marked in flaming charac-
ters upon the field of Heave, where he who runs may read.  And when we study
the revealed purpose of God, we shall in turn learn to conform intelligently


[PAGE 29]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC

to that design,  thereby hastening the day of emancipation from our  present
cramped environment to the perfect liberty of free Spirits,  risen  superior
to the law of Sin and Death, through Christ, the Lord of Love and Life.

   It is for us to decipher this message,  and solve the Riddle of the  Uni-
verse.


[PAGE 30]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

                                 CHAPTER II

                   THE MEASURE OF AMENABILITY TO PLANETARY
                                 VIBRATIONS

   When judging a horoscope it is of prime importance that we take into con-
sideration the social and racial standing of the individual,  for configura-
tions which are of great significance in the horoscope of an educated Cauca-
sian,  may mean little or nothing in the figure of a Chinese coolie and vice
versa.   Neglect of this factor would inevitably lead to false  conclusions,
as we shall now explain.

   It is a mystic maxim that the lower in the scale of evolution a being  is
placed the more certainly it responds to the planetary rays,  and conversely
the  higher we ascend in the scale of attainment the more the  man  conquers
and rules his stars,  freeing himself from the leading strings of the Divine
Hierarchies  through the planetary aspects in such a manner that we  do  not
hurt ourselves beyond recovery in the experiences of life.


[PAGE 31]                                               PLANETARY VIBRATIONS

   But  coupled  with this guidance there is of course the measure  of  Free
Will,  which  grows as we evolve.   The child in our midst has  really  very
little free will,  being the subject not only to its parents but to the ser-
vants,  if such there be in the household,  and to everybody with whom it is
associated,  all exercising control over it for its own good.   As the child
grows, this measure of restraint is by degrees relaxed, and in the course of
years the child will learn to exercise its free will.   This method has been
followed by the Divine Hierarchies in the case of man.   Infant humanity was
absolutely  guided  by Divine rules without having any Will  at  all;  "Thus
shalt thou do, or not do," were injunctions laid upon them which must be im-
plicitly obeyed,  otherwise the Divine displeasure was at once shown by such
strenuous  manifestations  as appealed to infant  humanity's  mind,  namely,
lightning, thunder, earth-quakes and great visitations of plagues.  This was
for  their collective guidance,  for individual restraint there were  strict
laws,  commandments and ordinances.  Tribute must be paid continually to the
Divine Leader and offered up on the altar as sacrifices,  and for every  of-
fense  against the law a certain sacrifice of material goods must  be  made.
Fear  was the dominant keynote of that dispensation:   for "The fear of  the
Lord  is the beginning of righteousness."  This regime was carried on  under
the planetary conditions of Mars and the Moon.  Mars,  being the home of the
dominant  Lucifer  Spirits,  gave  to  mankind  the  energy  necessary  that


[PAGE 32]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

evolution may be accomplished;  this martial energy was of the very greatest
importance,  particularly of course in the earlier stages.  The Moon,  which
is the home of the Angels, under their Divine Leader Jehovah, gave to infant
humanity  that  child-like brain-mind which is amenable  to  rulership,  and
bends itself readily before authority.

   These with Saturn were the only planetary rays which affected mankind  as
a whole during the Lemurian Epoch,  and if a horoscope were erected for  any
of the people who lived then, it would be unnecessary to enter the places of
the other planets, because they could not respond to their rays.  Even today
a great part of mankind has not evolved very far beyond that point,  a large
class, particularly among those we speak of as the lower races, and even the
lower  classes  of our western world being dominated  principally  by  these
planetary rays.  Under their impulses they act with automatic certainty in a
specific manner, and it is possible to predict exactly what they will do un-
der a certain aspect of these planets,  because they live entirely in  their
emotions and are scarcely,  if at all, responsive to the intellectual vibra-
tions of Mercury.  Neither can they appreciate such emotions as signified by
Venus or its octave,  Uranus,; they respond solely to the lower nature,  the
animal passions.  They move under the impulses of Mars and the Moon respect-
ing sex and sustenance.   Their pleasures are of the lowest and most sensual
nature, they live like animals altogether in the physical,  and  their creed


[PAGE 33]                                               PLANETARY VIBRATIONS

is  "eat,  drink  and be merry."   Their desires run chiefly  to  "wine  and
women,"  for they have not as yet awakened to the charm of song; Neither has
beauty had a chance to enchant the savage heart at this stage of development
for that comes from the Venus rays which are beyond such people.   Woman  is
to the man of that stage only a beast of burden and a convenience.

   Meanwhile  "Father  Time"  represented by the planet  Saturn,  keeps  the
score,  and wields over them the whiplash of necessity to drive them forward
on this evolutionary path, meting out to each the fruits of his labor at the
harvest time between lives.   When the man has cultivated the savage virtues
of bravery, physical endurance, etc., he dreams in the post-mortem existence
of new field to conquer,  and sees where he was lacking and why his  desires
were frustrated because of lack of implements.   Gradually the  constructive
martial  ray  and the Saturn cunning fertilize the lunar brain which  he  is
building,  so that in time he learns to make the crude implements  necessary
for the attainment of his primitive ambitions.   Even today we see the  same
cunning traits of character,  the same crude crafts displayed in and by  the
lower  races  for the purpose of irrigating land,  mining  ores  or  milling
grain.   All those earliest implements were the result of the planetary rays
of Saturn,  Moon and Mars, impinging on the primitive brain of infant human-
ity.

   A little further along the path of evolution, in the Atlantean epoch, the


[PAGE 34]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

Lords of Venus and the Lords of Mercury came to the earth for the purpose of
giving  a further impulse to the mental and emotional development.   It  was
the task of Venus to combat the lower emotions and raise the brutish  animal
passion of Mars to the softer and more beautiful Venus-love.  She was to add
beauty to strength, and to attain that ideal the Lords of Venus fostered the
plastic arts, painting and sculpture.  These were not taught men of the gen-
eral public at that time; the ideals which are to be developed in a race are
always  first taught to the most advanced ones in a mystery temple,  and  at
that time initiation included no spiritual instruction,  but consisted of an
education  in the liberal arts. Sculpture  taught  how the beautiful may  be
incorporated in physical form. It called attention  to  the body and  ideal-
ized  the softly curved lines. The result is  now  incorporated in  our  own
race body,  for it should be thoroughly understood that in an mystery school
an ideal is not taught today simply to be forgotten tomorrow or in the  next
generation, but ideals are inculcated so that in time they may become a part
of the very life,  soul and body of the race.  Compare  the race body of the
modern civilized man with that of the Indian,  the Bushman,  the  Hottentot,
etc., and you will find that there is indeed beauty added to strength.

   It  may be objected that we are degenerating compared with what is  shown
in  the  Hellenic  Arts, but that is positively not so; it is rather that we


[PAGE 35]                                               PLANETARY VIBRATIONS

have not yet attained to that highest ideal.   In ancient Greece the mystery
temples  occupied a much more prominent position than today;  the  beautiful
form was idolized to the detriment of the mind notwithstanding the fact that
Greece had a Plato and a Socrates.   The Lords of Mercury who had charge  of
the development of mind, at the time when the Lords of Venus exercised their
great  influence on the emotions,  had not then been able to make a  univer-
sally strong impression on the early humanity.  We are well aware even today
that  it  hurts to think,  but it is easy to follow the  emotions.   At  the
present time the middle class of the West is much further advanced than  the
ancient  Greeks because of the influence of these two planetary rays in  our
lives.  Woman naturally excels in the highly imaginative Venus faculty,  be-
cause  of her part in the creative function which aids in moulding the  body
of  the  race.   On that account her figure has the  graceful  curves  which
naturally express beauty,  while man has the worldly-wise intellect fostered
by the Lords of Mercury, and is the exponent of reason,  the creative agency
of physical progress in the world's work.

   We always long for, admire, and aspire to what we lack.   In days of sav-
agery when kicks and cuffs were her daily  fare  woman  longed  for a caress
from her lord.   The  Venus ray gave her beauty and made her an adept in the
feminine  arts  which  have  conquered  the masculine heart, so that now man


[PAGE 36]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

plays the role of protector on the plea that woman is not mentally competent
meanwhile he is becoming that which he admires in her; he is more gentle and
kind, Venus is conquering Mars, but the Mercury delusion of intellectual su-
periority  needs another influence to conquer it.   And this,  woman is  now
supplying  by her aspiration.   As she mastered martial brutality  by  Venus
beauty, so also, will she free herself from Mercurial bondage by Uranian in-
tuition.

   To  primitive man,  driven by the whip-lash of Saturnine necessity,  when
not  by the animal lust and passions of Mars and the Moon,  the world  looks
gloomy.   Fear is the key-note of his existence:   fear of animals;  fear of
other  men;  fear of the nature forces;  fear of everything around him.   He
must ever be watchful and on the alert,  vigilance is eternally the price of
safety.   But when evolution makes him amenable to the influences  of  Venus
and  Mercury;  they will soften his emotions and brighten the mentality;  he
begins to regard love and reason as factors in  life.   The Sun also  begins
to brighten his outlook upon life,  and sunshine in the nature of man during
this  phase of his evolution partly dispels the gloom of Saturn.   Thus,  by
degrees,  as man evolves and becomes responsive to the music of the spheres,
one string after another in the celestial harp strikes the kindred chord  in
the human soul and makes him amenable to its vibrations, so that as a tuning
fork which is struck, awakens the music  in other tuning forks of even pitch


[PAGE 37]                                               PLANETARY VIBRATIONS

within  reasonable  distance,  so the planets in our solar  system  have  in
evolutionary succession struck various chords that have found an echo in the
human heart.

   But  the strings on the celestial Lyre of Apollo are not all in  harmony,
some are in actual discord, and while man responds to some he must necessar-
ily remain, at least partially, unresponsive to others.  In fact,  before it
is  possible to respond perfectly to the rays of Venus it is  necessary  for
man to conquer Mars to a considerable degree, and bring him under control so
that  certain undesirable martial traits in his nature will be kept  in  the
background,  while others,  which may be valuable, are retained.   The Venus
love  which is willing to give all for the loved ones cannot dwell  side  by
side  in the heart with the Mars ray which demands all for self.   Therefore
the savage must learn to conquer himself in a certain measure ere he may be-
come the more civilized family man of modern times.   Under the unrestrained
passionate rays of Mars and the Moon,  parents bring children into the world
and leave them to take care of themselves almost as animals do, for they are
products of animal passion.   The females are brought and sold as a horse or
cow or else taken by force and carried away.   Even so late as the mediaeval
dark ages, the knight often carried away his bride by force of arms, practi-
cally in the same manner that the male animals battle for the possession  of
the female at mating time.

   Thus we see that the first step toward  civilization  requires that a man


[PAGE 38]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

conquer one or more of the planets to a certain degree at least.   Unbridled
passion such as generated by the primitive Mars rays is no more  permissible
under the regime of modern civilization, neither is the tenet that "might is
right" any longer admissible, save in wars when we return to barbarism.  The
Mars quality of physical prowess,  that at one time made it a virtue to  at-
tack others and take away property,  is no longer admired in the individual.
It is punished by various means,  according to law,  thought it is still ef-
fective as far as nations are concerned, who go to war under this  primitive
impulse for purposes of territorial aggrandizement.  However, as said,  Mars
has been conquered to a great degree in civil and social life in order  that
the Venus love might take the place of the Mars passion.

   As previously noted, the children of primitive man were left to their own
resources,  as soon as they had been taught to defend themselves in physical
warfare.   With  the advent of Mercury another method  is  observable.   The
battle  of life nowadays,  is no longer fought with physical weapons  alone.
Brain,  rather  than  brawn determines success.   Therefore  the  period  of
education has been lengthened as mankind advanced,  and it aims  principally
at mental accomplishments because of the Mercurial rays which accompany  the
Venus development of modern civilization.   Thus man sees nature from a more
sunny side when he has learned to respond to the Sun,  Venus, Mercury, Mars,


[PAGE 39]                                               PLANETARY VIBRATIONS

Moon and Saturn, even if only in a very slight measure.

   But although these various stages of evolution have gradually brought man
under the dominance of a number of planetary rays,  the development has been
one-sided,  for it has aimed to foster interest solely in things over  which
he  has  a proprietary right:   HIS business,  HIS house,  HIS  family,  HIS
cattle,  farm,  etc.,  are all vitally important, and must be taken care of.
HIS possessions must be increased,  if possible,  no matter what happens  to
the possessions,  family, etc., belonging to anyone else, that not being his
concern.   But before he can reach to a higher stage of evolution it is nec-
essary that this desire to appropriate the earth,  and retain it for himself
if possible,  must give way to a desire to benefit his fellowmen.   In other
words,  Egoism must give way to Altruism, and just as Saturn by yielding the
whip lash of necessity over him in his primitive days brought him up to  his
present point of civilization,  so also Jupiter, the planet of altruism,  is
destined  to raise him from the state of man to superman where he will  come
under the Uranian ray in respect to his emotional nature, where passion gen-
erated by Mars will be replaced by Compassion,  and where the childlike con-
sciousness of Lunar origin will be replaced by a Cosmic consciousness of the
Neptunian ray.  Therefore the advent into our lives of  the  Jupiterian  ray
marks a very distinct advance in the human development.   As taught  in  the


[PAGE 40]                                               MESSAGE OF THE STARS

Rosicrucian  Cosmo-Conception,  we  are  to  advance  from our present Earth
period  into  the  Jupiter  period,  and  therefore the Jupiterian ray marks
that  high  stage  of  altruism  which  will then be a prominent  factor  in
our relations, one with the other,  and  it  will be readily understood that
before  we  can really respond to the rays of Jupiter we must in  a  measure
cultivate altruism,  and conquer the egoism that comes through the Mercurial
reasoning power.   We have learned to conquer some of the phases of Mars and
the  Moon,  we may have also learned to conquer some of the lower phases  of
Mercury  and Venus;  the more we have overcome these the better we shall  be
able  to respond to the highest vibratory forces emanating from these  plan-
ets;  yes, if we strive earnestly we shall some day be able to overcome even
the  highest stage of the Venus love, that always attaches itself to an  ob-
ject which is owned by us.   We love our children because they are ours;  we
love  our  husbands  and wives because they belong to  us;  we  take  pride,
Venusian pride,  in their moral characteristics or Mercurial pride in  their
accomplishments;  but Christ set a higher standard:  "Unless a man leave his
father and mother he can not be my disciple."   The idea that we should  ne-
glect  our fathers and mothers or that we must hate them in order to  follow
Him was far from His mind, of course, but father and mother are only bodies;
the  soul that inhabits this body of the father and mother is to  be  loved,
not  the  mere  physical  garment.  Our  love should be the same whether the


[PAGE 41]                                               PLANETARY VIBRATIONS

person is old or young, ugly or beautiful.  We should look for the beauty of
the soul,  for the universal relationship of all souls and not mind so  much
the relationship of the bodies.   "Who are my mother and my brothers,"  said
the Christ,  and pointed to his disciples, those who were at one with Him in
His  great work.   They were closer to Him than any brother could be on  ac-
count  of mere physical relationship.  This attitude constitutes  an  upward
step from the Venus love which places the emphasis on the physical  garments
of  the love ones and leaves out of consideration the soul that  is  within.
The Jupiterian love on the other hand takes cognizance only of the soul, re-
gardless of the body it wears.   The Mercurial or reasoning phase of mental-
ity is also changed by response to the altruistic Jupiter.  Cold calculation
is out of the question.   One who feels the expansive ray of Jupiter is  big
hearted  where his emotions are concerned, his love;  big hearted where  all
things of the world are concerned.  "A jovial fellow," is an apt expression.
He  is  welcomed and love by everyone he meets because he radiates  not  the
common selfishness, but a desire to benefit others that breeds in us a feel-
ing  of trust,  diametrically opposed to the sense of distrust  we  instinc-
tively feel when we come in contact with a Saturn-Mercury man.

   It is a matter of actual experience to astrologers endowed with spiritual
sight that every man's planetary rays produce certain colors in his aura, in


[PAGE 42]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

his aura,  in addition to the basic color which is the stamp of the race  to
which the man belongs.   The man with the thin, sickly blues of a commingled
Saturn and Mercury, is to be pitied rather than censured for the avarice and
gloom  which are his constant attitude of mind;  he sees everything  in  the
world through the auric mirror which he has created around himself; he feels
that the world is cold, hard and selfish, that therefore it is necessary for
him  to be more selfish and more cold in order that he may protect  himself.
On  the other hand,  when we see the divine blue ray of Jupiter tinted  with
perhaps the fine gold of the Uranian nature we realize how differently  such
an  exalted  individual must view the world from the other's sordid  way  of
seeing things.   Even those who have the faintest Jupiterian tinge are in  a
world filled with sunshine,  flowers blooming,  everything in nature gay and
glad.   Any  by looking at the world through such an  atmosphere  they  call
forth from other sources a similar response,  as the tuning fork  previously
mentioned generates a vibration in another of an even pitch.

   After what has been said it will not be difficult to understand that  the
Uranian characteristics,  where love becomes compassion, give wisdom that is
not  dependent  upon reasoning,  a love that is not fixed  upon  one  object
alone,  but  includes  all that lives and moves and  has  its  being'  being
similar to the characteristics that are to be evolved by humanity during the


[PAGE 43]                                               PLANETARY VIBRATIONS

Venus period when perfect love shall have cast out all fear,  when man shall
have conquered all the lower phases of his nature and love shall be as  pure
as it is universally inclusive.

   When  these  Uranian vibrations are felt by advance in  the  higher  life
through aspiration, there is great danger that we may throw away the fetters
of law and convention before we are really ready to govern ourselves by  the
law  of Love divine,  that we may disregard the laws that are in the  world,
that we may not render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, whether in obedi-
ence or coin, that we may not be careful of avoiding the appearance of evil,
that we may think that we have so far transcended the ordinary stage of  hu-
manity that we can live as super-humans, that the passion of Mars has in our
cases been changed to Uranian compassion, which is sexless.  Under such mis-
apprehensions, many people who endeavor to tread the path disregard the laws
of marriage and enter into relationships as soulmates and affinities.   They
feel the Uranian ray, but cannot quite respond to its sublime purity, there-
fore they experience a counterfeit Venusian sensation which usually ends  in
adultery and sex-perversion,  so that instead of the natural animal  passion
of Mars having been transmuted to the compassion of Uranus it has as a  mat-
ter of fact,  degenerated into something that is far worse than the  fullest
sex  expression of the martial rays committed in a frank and proper  manner.
This is a danger that cannot be too strictly guarded against and it behooves


[PAGE 44]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

every one who endeavors to live the higher life not to try to aspire to  the
Uranian rays until he at first becomes thoroughly imbued with the altruistic
vibrations  of Jupiter,  for more misery is brought into the world by  those
who have aspired too high and fallen low,  then by those who are not  suffi-
ciently aspiring.   "Pride goeth before a fall," is an ancient and very true
proverb,  which  it behooves every one of us to take to heart.   The  Christ
took part in the marriage at Cana.  Marriage is a regular Christian institu-
tion,  and must exist until abolished in the kingdom to come; there the bod-
ies  we have will not wear out and therefore there will be no need  of  mar-
riage to generate new ones.

   Let it also be understood that the minister who marries cannot truly mate
people, therefore the presence of the basic harmony for true marriage should
be determined before the marriage ceremony.

   As  we  have seen in the foregoing,  Mars,  Venus and Uranus  mark  three
stages  in the emotional development of man.   During the stage where he  is
only  amenable  to Mars,  animal passion reigns supreme and he  seeks  unre-
stricted gratification of all his lower desires in the intercourse with  his
fellowman but particularly with the opposite sex;  during the stage where he
becomes amenable to the rays of Venus, love softens the brutality of his de-
sires and the animal passions are somewhat held in leash, he is even,  under
the higher phases of this planet, ready to sacrifice himself and his desires


[PAGE 45]                                               PLANETARY VIBRATIONS

for the benefit and comfort of the loved ones.   When he has evolved to  the
point  where we can feel the rays of Uranus,  the passion of Mars  gradually
turns  to  compassion;  there the love of Venus which is only for  one  par-
ticular person,  becomes all inclusive so that it embraces all humankind re-
gardless of sex or any other distinction,  for it is the divine love of soul
for soul which is above all material considerations of whatever nature.

   The  mentality also evolves through three stages according to the  amena-
bility  of the person to the vibrations of the Moon,  Mercury  and  Neptune.
While man is only amenable to the lunar influence,  he is childlike and eas-
ily  guided  by the higher powers,  which have led him through  the  various
stages mentioned in our pervious chapters.  Under the stellar ray of Mercury
he gradually develops his intellectual powers and becomes a reasoning being.
As such,  he is placed under the law of cause and effect,  made  responsible
for his own actions,  so that he may reap what he has sown and learn thereby
the lessons that human life has to teach him under the present regime.   Be-
ing inexperienced,  he makes mistakes in whatever direction indicated by the
afflictions  to Mercury in his horoscope and consequently he suffers a  cor-
responding  penalty of sorrow and trouble.   It he has not the mentality  to
reason on the connection between this mistakes and the sad experiences grow-
ing from them, during his life times, the panorama of life, which unfolds in


[PAGE 46]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

the  post-mortem state,  makes this clear,and leaves with him an essence  of
"right feeling" which we know as "conscience."

   This conscience keeps him from repeating past mistakes,  when the feeling
generated  has  become sufficiently strong to overbalance  the  tendency  to
yield  to  the particular temptation which caused him  suffering.   Thus  he
gradually develops a spiritual consciousness which is above and beyond human
reason,  but which nevertheless is also connected with reason in such a man-
ner that when the result has been reached,  the man who has this Cosmic Con-
sciousness knows the reason why such and such a thing is and must be, or why
he ought to take a certain action.   This Cosmic Consciousness is  developed
under the ray of Neptune and differs from that intuitional right feeling de-
veloped  under the ray of Uranus in the very important fact that  while  the
person  who  has developed the Uranian quality of intuition arrives  at  the
truth  instantaneously without the necessity of thinking over the matter  or
reasoning,  he is unable to give anything but the result;  he cannot connect
the various steps of logical sequence whereby the final result was  reached.
The man or woman, however, who develops the Neptunian faculty,  also has the
answer  of any question immediately and is able to tell the reason why  that
answer is the proper and right one.

   The  faculty  of  intuition built up from the Martial  base  of  passion,
through  the  Venusian  stage  of  love, and the Uranian rays of compassion,


[PAGE 47]                                               PLANETARY VIBRATIONS

depends upon the ability of the person involved TO FEEL VERY INTENSELY.   By
love and devotion, the heart is attuned to every other heart in the universe
and  in  this way it knows and feels all that may be known and felt  by  any
other heart in the universe,  thus sharing the divine omniscience that binds
Our  Father in Heaven to His children and through the direct heart to  heart
touch with that omniscience the person obtains the answers to whatever prob-
lem is placed before him.

   The  noblest men of all ages, Christian saints of the  most  transcendent
spirituality,   have  attained  their  wonderful  development  through   the
spiritual rays of this planet because of the intense feeling of Oneness with
the divine and with all that lives and breathes in the universe.

   But  there are others who are not thus constituted and they are not  able
to walk that path.  These, through the Moon, Mercury and Neptune have devel-
oped their intellect and attained the same results plus the Neptunian  power
of idealization.

   This  is very important point and it is only brought out in  the  Western
Wisdom Teachings tell us that there is in addition a third factor in univer-
sal  advancement,  namely,  EPIGENESIS;  the faculty whereby the spirit  may
choose  a  course  that  is  altogether new and independent of what has gone


[PAGE 48]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

before.  We see the expression of this in all kingdoms relative to form, but
in the human kingdom, epigenesis expresses itself as genius,  a creative in-
stinct,  which makes man more akin to the divine than any other of  his  ac-
complishments.   This is developed under the Neptune ray when that planet is
well  placed in the horoscope.   There is of course also such a thing as  an
evil genius, a destructive faculty developed under an afflicted Neptune.

   Only  the most sensitive people in the world feel the rays of Uranus  and
Neptune  at the present time.   To feel these vibrations the connection  be-
tween  the dense physical body and the vital body,  which is made  of  ether
must be rather loose for where these two vehicles are firmly interlocked the
person is always of a materialistic turn,  and cannot respond to the  higher
and more subtle vibrations from the spiritual world.   But when the  stellar
rays  from  these  two planets impinge upon a person  whose  vital  body  is
loosely  connected with the physical,  we have what is called  a  sensitive.
The direction and quality of this faculty depends upon the placement and the
aspects of the two planets mentioned,  however.   Those who are particularly
under  the domination of an adverse aspect of the Uranian ray,  usually  de-
velop the more undesirable phases of clairvoyance and mediumship.  They eas-
ily become the prey of entities  from the invisible world who have no regard


[PAGE 49]                                               PLANETARY VIBRATIONS

for their victims'  desire,  even if in a weak manner these should  protest.
Such mediums are generally used in simple trance communications and in a few
cases known to the writer have lived very beautiful and happy lives  because
of implicit belief in the spirits that dominated them.   In these cases  the
spirit-controls were of a better class than usually met with.   But as  this
Uranian faculty is built up through Mars and Venus,  passion is prominent in
such  natures  and under the influence of obsessing spirits  many  of  these
people  are  driven  into gross  immorality.   Vampirism  and  kindred  dis-
reputable  practices are also engendered by the perverse use of the  Uranian
ray in mediums.

   Neptune  may be said to represent the invisible worlds in  more  positive
aspects and those who come under the evil rays of this planet are  therefore
brought  in  touch  with the most undesirable  occupants  of  the  invisible
worlds.  Actual obsession whereby the owner of a body is deprived of his ve-
hicle takes place under the ray of Neptune and no materializing seance could
ever  be held if it were not for this stellar vibration.   Magic,  white  or
black  can  never  be put to practical use save under and  because  of  this
Neptunian vibration.  Apart from this ray it will remain theory, speculation
and  book  learning.   Therefore  the Initiates  of  every  Mystery  School,
Spiritual; Seers who have full control of their faculty, and Astrologers are
amenable in varying degrees to  the  ray of Neptune.  The Black Magician and


[PAGE 50]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

the  Hypnotist,  who is a twin brother to him,  are also dependent upon  the
power of this stellar ray for use in their nefarious practices.

   The  highest  human  development at the present time,  namely,  the  soul
unfoldment which is undertaken in the mystery temples through initiation, is
directly the result of the Neptune ray,  for just as evil configurations lay
men liable to assault by invisible entities,  so the good configurations  of
Neptune  are particularly required to enable a man to unfold  by  initiation
his whole soul powers and become a conscience agent in the invisible worlds.
Let us remember,  however,  that good or evil configurations are not the re-
sult of chance or luck, but are the product of our own past acts;  the horo-
scope shows what we have earned by our past living and therefore what we are
entitled to in the present life.

   Moreover it should always be kept in mind that THE STARS IMPEL BUT DO NOT
COMPEL;  because  a  man or woman has an evil configuration  of  Neptune  or
Uranus it is not unavoidable that they should go into active evil Mediumship
and Black Magic and thereby makes life harder for themselves in the  future.
Their  opportunity  to do so and the temptation will come at  certain  times
when the heavenly time markers point to the right hour on the clock of  des-
tiny.   Then it is time to stand form for the good and for the right;  being
forewarned  through a knowledge of Astrology one is also forearmed  and  may
the easier overcome when such an aspect culminates.


[PAGE 51]                                               PLANETARY VIBRATIONS

   Thus  we have seen that man is amenable to the planetary rays in  an  in-
creasing  measure as he advances through evolution,  but the more highly  he
becomes developed spiritually the less he will allow the planets to dominate
him,  while the younger soul is driven unresistingly along the tide of  life
in whatever direction of the planetary vibrations impel him.  It is the mark
of  the advanced soul that he keeps the true course regardless of the  plan-
etary  vibrations.   Between  these two extremes  there  are  naturally  all
graduations, some amenable to the rays of one planet, some to another.   The
bark  of life of men and women is often driven upon the rocks of sorrow  and
suffering,  that they may learn to evolve within themselves the  will  power
that finally frees them from all domination by the ruling stars.  As Goethe,
the great mystic, said,

         "From every power that holds the world in chains,
         Man frees himself when self-control he gains."

   And  it may be asked,  have we run the gamut of vibrations when  we  have
learned to respond to all the seven planets which are mythically represented
as the seven strings on Apollo's Lyre?  In other words is Neptune the  high-
est vibration to which we shall yet respond?   The Western Wisdom  Teachings
tell us that there are two more planets in the universe which will be  known
in future ages and that these will have an influence in developing qualities
of  so  transcendent  a  nature  that  we  cannot  now understand them.  The


[PAGE 52]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

number of Adam,  man or humanity,  is  nine,  and  there are nine rungs upon
the stellar ladder by which he is ascending to God;  up to the present  time
he has climbed only five of these rungs; Mercury, Venus,  Mars,  Jupiter and
Saturn,  and  not even the vibration of these has he by any  means  learned;
Uranus  and Neptune are slowly coming into our lives;  they will not  become
active in the same manner and to the same degree that for instance, the Moon
and Mars are at the present time until many ages have passed.  But even when
we  have learned to respond to them there are two more which we  shall  know
something later on; it is the opinion of the writers that these are probably
not  felt  by any except those who have graduated from the  Greater  Mystery
School and by the Hierophants of that sublime institution.

   In conclusion to this article on the Amenability of Man to Planetary  Vi-
brations we quote from the Rosicrucian Mysteries the article on Light, Color
and Consciousness.

   "Truly,  GOD IS ONE AND UNDIVIDED.   He enfolds within His Being all that
is,  as the white light embraces all colors.   But He appears three-fold  in
manifestation,  as  the white light is refracted in  three  primary  colors,
Blue, Yellow and Red.  Wherever we see these colors they are emblematical of
the Father,  Son and Holy Spirit.   These three primary rays of Divine  Life
are diffused or radiated through the Sun and produce LIFE, CONSCIOUSNESS AND


[PAGE 53]                                               PLANETARY VIBRATIONS

FORM upon each of the seven light bearers, the planets, which are called the
'Seven Spirits before the Throne.'  Their names are, Mercury, Venus,  Earth,
Mars,  Jupiter,  Saturn and Uranus.  Bode's law proves that Neptune does not
yet  belong to our solar system and the reader is referred  to  'Simplified,
Scientific Astrology'  by the present writer, for mathematical demonstration
of this condition.

   "Each  of the seven planets receives the light of the Sun in a  different
measure,  according to its proximity to the central orb and the constitution
of its atmosphere,  and the beings on each,  according to their stage of de-
velopment have affinity for some of the solar rays.   The planets absorb the
color or colors congruous to them, and reflect the rest upon the other plan-
ets.   This reflected ray bears with it an impulse of the nature of the  be-
ings with which it has been in contact.

   "Thus  the  divine Light and Life comes to each planet,  either  directly
from the Sun,  or reflected from its six sister planets.  and as the  summer
breeze  which has been wafted over blooming fields carries upon its  silent,
invisible wings the blended fragrance of a multitude of flowers, so also the
subtle influences from THE GARDEN OF GOD bring to us the commingled impulses
of all the Planetary Spirits and in that vari-colored light we live and move
and have our being.

   "The  rays which come directly from the Sun are productive  of  spiritual
illumination;  the  reflected  rays  from  other planets make for added con-


[PAGE 54]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

sciousness  and moral development and the rays reflected by way of the  Moon
give physical growth.

   "But  as  each planet can only absorb a certain quantity of one  or  more
colors according to the general stage of evolution there, so each being upon
earth, mineral, plant, animal and man can only absorb and thrive upon a cer-
tain quantity of the various rays projected upon the earth.   The  remainder
do not affect it or produce sensation any more than the blind are conscience
of the light and color which exist everywhere around them.   Therefore  each
being  is differently affected by the stellar rays,  and the science of  As-
trology, a fundamental truth in nature is of enormous benefit in the attain-
ment of spiritual growth."


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