The universality of sharing:
Both astronomy and astrology acknowledge that Aquarius is the sign into which our Sun is rapidly moving. This underscores the importance of understanding the quality of the spiritual energies associated with Aquarius and their implications, not only for humanity but for all the kingdoms that share our planetary life. “The great principle of Sharing ever governs divine purpose”, Alice Bailey wrote, and sharing is a central theme of Aquarius. How startling, then, that we live in a time when the economic disparity between the “haves and have nots” and the inequality of distribution of resources are increasing throughout the world. Perhaps, however, this very exacerbation of present circumstances is serving to highlight the injustice and the urgency to address this problem. Are we reaching a point where the forces and energies dammed up by human selfishness are now demanding release? Energy cannot be constricted forever; the fulfillment of this law is expressed most benignly by the Aquarian server holding his water pot high overhead, releasing its abundance freely to all, as our keynote says: Water of life am I, poured forth for thirsty men [and women].
There is a more subjective aspect to sharing, as well, which has profound spiritual significance. It concerns the obligation of the spiritual seeker to participate in world karma, to experience the reality of the world as it presently is in the knowledge that we all have contributed to its present state. Rather than viewing the spiritual quest as a search for a haven, for retreat from the turmoil of earthly life, the Aquarian seeker understands that each individual, as part of humanity, can and must contribute to the evolution and thus the regeneration of life on our planet.
The capacity to share in the world’s sorrows is an effect of the soul’s growing presence which manifests in the recognition of relationship. The Jewish philosopher Martin Buber identified the nature of relationship as “I and Thou”: the essential reality that an individual’s experience is inevitably, unavoidably shared with all others, and thus that each of our fellow human beings must be recognized as “Thou”, equally both human and divine in origin and destiny. That this fact of relationship cannot remain just on subjective levels but must be achieved and fully expressed in earthly life was realized by the Indian poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote that “Relationship is the fundamental truth of this world of appearance.”
It seems, sometimes, that it takes a great tragedy to awaken us to our commonality. Acts of nature such as earthquakes and wildfires; the deprivations of poverty, famine, and contagious diseases; and cruelties of war—all can serve to break down the barricades of separated existence. Witnessing the deaths of millions—billions?—of animals in Australia’s wildfires is a reminder that all living beings share our one planet Earth. While we cannot enter into the consciousness of the lower kingdoms, we can perceive—particularly in the case of animals—their suffering, their will to live and to fulfill their species’ particular part in the plan. It is up to us, humanity, to enter into their world using our imaginations and our compassion. The writer Henry Beston saw them not as brethren or underlings, but as “other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth”.
Sharing in the Aquarian age will come as the result of humanity being subjected to energies and forces which will break down the barriers of separation between human beings and between kingdoms, Alice Bailey predicted. Dare we say that that time is now? Much indeed is being broken down, but this cycle of destruction can become an opportunity to create new relationships not based on dependency or domination, but on sharing, on the mutuality which reveals the underlying synthesis of life. The keynote of Aquarius expresses the method to meet this demand of the new age: Water of life am I, poured forth for thirsty men [and women]. Let us work in meditation to visualize this abundant act of sharing.
