The Courage of the Burning Ground:
In the annual flow of spiritual energies, Aries initiates the cycle of manifestation. It’s a time of silence, stillness, and renewal. Coincidentally, much of the world is currently undergoing a period of imposed stillness due to the COVID pandemic, so perhaps the stay-at-home restrictions now being imposed in many parts of the world are an opportunity for more stillness, for reassessment and inner listening as we ponder on the ways in which we can direct our forces and respond to universal energies with greater skill and understanding.
“What is going on in the world today is the working out of ideas”, Alice Bailey wrote. Aries is called “the birthplace of ideas”, and a true idea, she said, is in reality a spiritual impulse taking form. All that is began as a thought. Our solar system is a thought-form, we’re told, having existence just as long as thought persists. Pondering on this should clarify why meditation, particularly in group form, is so important for world service and for the redemption of our planetary life. The keynote for meditation in Aries is I come forth and from the plane of mind, I rule.
Humanity’s destiny is to be the exponent of the mind of God, Bailey wrote, in order to implement divine Purpose. Some forty years ago, Peter Russell stated in his landmark book The Global Brain, that “The human kingdom is, par excellence, the medium of expression for the Universal Mind….The fully conscious sons of God constitute literally the brain of the planetary life”, he wrote. His belief was that when a sufficient number of human minds awaken to this reality, it will be possible for humanity to become a channel for the new and much anticipated energies to be registered and implemented by human minds.
One way to help prepare human minds for these energies is through Triangles, a meditation activity which works with the power of thought to transmit energies of light and goodwill throughout the world. Through groups of three individuals linking as a global network to create a triangular pattern of distribution, light and goodwill are daily circulating and renewing the channels through which divine energies can make impact on human minds and hearts.
The mind is the most creative tool that we have at our disposal, for the mind wields a particular type of fire. Aries conveys the element of fire in both its destructive and its cleansing applications. The energies transmitted through Aries force the soul on to the burning ground and subject it to a purifying process during incarnation. Through the fire of mind, an ancient writing says, “the jungles of experience are set on fire and dissolve in flames and then the Path stands clear and unobstructed vision is achieved”.
Remembering this in a time of anxiety and confusion is vitally important now, for a mind that is governed by fear cannot be receptive to higher energies. The fear, worry and irritation that accompany global epidemics are devitalizing, we’re told by Alice Bailey. Along with this, global intercommunication between peoples has increased the sensitivity of the human mechanism, enabling us to “tune in” on each other’s emotional and mental states with increasing ease. Ultimately, this development will have positive applications, but until we learn to manage this growing capacity with creativity and understanding, it also contributes to the widespread devitalisation on which epidemics feed, she wrote.
The fire of mind can set the “jungles of experience” on fire, revealing a clearer path forward. “Aries awakens the will to reach the lowest and there control, to know the uttermost and thus to face all experience”—so states another ancient writing. To do this takes courage, which Aries bequeaths in abundance. With that assurance let us work in meditation, guided by our keynote: I come forth and from the plane of mind, I rule.
