Imagining the bridge to the higher worlds
The annual solar cycle reaches its culmination in Pisces, creating a moment of finality, of completion. Pisces is a sign of fusion and blending of soul and form, of the micro- and macrocosm. The keynote of Pisces – I leave the Father’s home and turning back, I save—touches upon the reversal that occurs when the soul, having descended into densest matter, seeks liberation through sacrificial service to the world of forms. In the fulfillment of this objective, the role of humanity ultimately is to serve as the planetary mediator by relating, spanning, the vast distance between the highest regions of the mental plane and the lowest levels of the material plane.
In esoteric teaching, Pisces is the sign of mediatorship, but it’s also a sign of mediumship, and the writings of Alice Bailey state that the “ordinary low-grade medium is the outstanding example of the worst aspects of Pisces”. The word “medium” connotes both a middle condition or degree, and a channel for communication. What can pass through this medium or channel depends upon the degree of sensitivity of the receiver. This can range all the way from susceptibility to impressions coming from the sea of low-grade astral forces that feed on ignorance and foster division and fear, to the highest impressions that come from levels beyond the reach of the human mind. The distinction between the fog and glamour of mediumship and the receptive intuition’s act of mediatorship with realms beyond the mental plane depends on the clarity of the human mind.
Albert Einstein could be said to be an example of the mediating capacity of Pisces, for Alice Bailey wrote that his realization that e = mc2 was as profoundly spiritual a recognition as any statement of theological doctrine. Yet, referring to the limits of the human mind as it strives to access levels even higher than the mental plane, Einstein said that “The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe.” “The important thing”, he said, “is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity”, Einstein said.
The human stage in the great Chain of Being, we’re told, is “par excellence, the medium of expression for the Universal Mind”—the Mind of God. Why are we bewildered, befuddled human beings tasked with this responsibility? Because humanity’s place in the divine Plan is to serve as the middle, mediating stage in the evolutionary flow of divine energy; to be receptive to energies radiating from higher planes than the human mind, and to provide a medium for those energies to stream through humanity into the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms. This is possible because esoteric teaching tells us that “All grades of matter meet in man, and all the states of consciousness are possible to him. Mankind can work in all directions and lift the subhuman kingdoms into heaven and bring heaven down to earth.”
As the culminating point in the Earth’s journey around the sun, Pisces’ keynote sums up the purpose of life in the manifested world of forms: to render an act of salvage. To fulfill this task, the role of the esoteric group is to relate the visible and experienced life of the outer world to the unseen, conditioning energies of the inner subjective planes. One way to cooperate with this objective is by applying the energies contacted in group meditation to the world’s needs. Particularly at this time when the agony of Ukraine is felt so acutely by people of goodwill throughout the world, this sense of shared suffering might now render humanity’s consciousness especially receptive to the impact and clarity of spiritual energies which can penetrate the darkness and cast light upon the way ahead. We all have something to contribute to this service when we remember, as Einstein noted, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
