Capricorn is a sign of conclusion and of commencement, spanning the year as calculated by the Western calendar and symbolized by the summit of the mountain top as well as by new beginnings. Effort, strain, testing and struggle are all distinctive of experience in Capricorn. Its keynote—Lost am I in light supernal, yet on that light I turn my back—might suggest a turning away from the light, but more correctly it indicates a rotation in order to share the light. Esoterically, every atom of substance radiates light, and the goal of meditation is to be a conduit for light, as well as love and spiritual power. Revelation concerns the revelation of “that which is ever present” or as the Bible says, there is nothing new under the sun; but infinitudes remain unrecognized. Pondering on this thought can help us to understand events and attitudes in human history which, viewed by today’s standards, are obvious but which were not widely perceived in earlier eras. “Light or radiation is the effect of the interplay between life and the environment”, the writings of Alice Bailey tell us, which suggests that humans learn through experience and evolution, as spirit deepens its contact with substance.
Particularly in this transitional age, there is a tendency to look back over the past two thousand and more years and wonder how human beings could have ignored what, to modern minds, is obvious. Fundamental truths such as those outlined in the charter of the United Nations—that all people are endowed with rights as well as responsibilities and that freedom is a universal aspiration, to cite just two—were initially recognized by only a few of the most perceptive human minds and grew to be widely accepted only with the passage of time, experience and education. Now it’s useful to question what judgments future generations might pass on present conditions. One example is the widespread tolerance of inequality and of cleavages between peoples; another is the predominant assumption that material values are pre-eminent in giving meaning to life on earth. This particular assumption is closely associated with Capricorn, described by Alice Bailey as “the densest point of concrete manifestation of which the human soul is capable”. This might evoke a sense of futility in the spiritual aspirant, yet her writings also point out that the nature of energy is such that when crystallization has reached a certain degree of “hardness” it’s easily shattered and thus brings about its own destruction. Some might perceive that this point—this opportunity—is rapidly approaching, but only coming events will confirm or deny this possibility.
Capricorn is a bridging sign, spanning the end of one year and the beginning of another. The worldwide meditation group is another bridge, forming an alignment between the higher planes of consciousness known esoterically as the spiritual Hierarchy, and humanity, and termed “the bridge of souls and servers” in Alice Bailey’s writings. This bridge is not uniform, which is part of its usefulness, for wherever an individual meditator “stands” along this bridge, there is an opportunity for service within that meditator’s environment and field of contacts. In this way the light that pours into the world at the time of the full moon, when the Sun and Earth stand in open, unimpeded alignment, can radiate freely and expansively.
Esoterically, money itself is a bridge between the three lower kingdoms of nature and the higher spiritual kingdom, for we’re advised to “Remember that money is the consolidation of the loving, living energy of divinity” and “the medium of loving distribution”. When money is recognized as a medium for the sharing of light—as all substance is—the opportunity to lift and raise the quality of life in form becomes a joyous means for dispelling the world glamour surrounding money. Like the dissipation of all glamours, it must begin in the individual’s life before it can expand into a group service but this transitional era is one of enormous opportunity. “The ridding of the world…of the all-enveloping glamour which holds humanity in thrall is a definite world service”, Alice Bailey wrote. Learning to fuse soul light and material light begins by regarding oneself as a light bearer working with the substance of one’s own vehicles, gradually enables the individual to become part of a group bearer of light. When this capacity to use light, as presented in the keynote of Capricorn, is recognized, a deeply esoteric service can be rendered to the world. Let us work in meditation.