The development of the self-conscious entity in Leo prepares the way for the birth of the Christ child in Virgo. Virgo concerns the whole goal of the evolutionary process, the writings of Alice Bailey say: to shield, nurture and reveal the hidden spiritual reality. The recognition of God immanent, divinity in form, is the keynote of Virgo: I am the mother and the child. I, God, I, matter am. A fundamental truth of esoteric teaching is that matter is spirit at its lowest point and spirit is matter at its highest. Or as the Franciscan Richard Rohr put it, “Matter is, and always has been, the hiding place for spirit.” The unifying factor for matter and spirit is the Christ principle or buddhi, which is another term for the soul, God immanent in nature and in man.

Esoteric teaching tells us that a principle is that which is being developed on each plane of the cosmos; it’s the germ or seed of a quality which embodies some aspect of divinity. The Christ principle is that which the mother—matter—guards and nourishes until it is ready to be born in the human heart and the first steps are taken on the path of spiritual evolution. An avatar is a living embodiment of a divine principle or quality, and the two greatest avatars are the Buddha, the avatar of Light, and the Christ, the embodiment of divine Love. By their lives on earth they anchored the divine principles of Light and Love in order to stimulate similarity of expression in the soul of human beings. More than two thousand years have passed since then, which isn’t a sign of failure but of the time factor, for a principle is “that which is being developed…the germ or seed of a quality”, which needs time and darkness to grow. Although esoteric teachings say that to the soul on its own highest level, there is no time, for living incarnated beings on earth time is a vitally important factor which enables the Christ principle, deeply hidden for a long period, to slowly mature. Thus it’s fitting that Virgo, the mother, stands for the “womb of time”, in Alice Bailey’s words—a place of slow, gentle crises which occur in the dark, but with pain, struggle and conflict, lead to light. This is the nurturing, mothering aspect which guards matter until it can offer a responsive form for the soul’s purposes. This nourishing role of Virgo was first described by the apostle Paul as “Christ in you, the hope of glory”, which the writings of Alice Bailey say embodies the truth as to the mission of Virgo most accurately. There is no clearer or more adequate definition of this sign than this, she wrote, and it defines a potential that exists within every human being. A deeply spiritual form of service is to search for Christ in you, the hope of glory— the “hidden light of God”—within every human being, deeply buried in some and emerging into the light in others, but present even in the most abject of God’s creatures.

Through a form God is working out an idea, esoteric teaching tells us. “A cosmos, a plane, a kingdom in nature, a race, a nation, a human being are all embodied thought forms”, according to the writings of Alice Bailey. It might be startling to realize that a human being is an embodied thought or idea expressing a particular quality, but so we’re told by esoteric teaching. Throughout history, “Individuals have ever emerged out of the rank and file and lifted themselves to the pinnacle of spiritual attainment”, Alice Bailey wrote, but today this becomes possible for the many as the Christ principle increasingly comes to birth in human hearts.

“Humanity’s ultimate destiny is to be the exponent of the mind of God”, the writings of Alice Bailey tell us, “thus expressing active intelligence, motivated by love and implemented by will. That time has not yet come”, she wrote, but humanity is at a pivotal moment in the gestation process “when, for the first time in human history this destiny can be publicly recognized”, we’re told. The effect of all that is now occurring on earth is to bring to the surface what has been hidden in the human heart, and to open our eyes to the new vision. “Today it would seem that we’re entering the eighth month of the gestation period of a new age, a new consciousness and a new civilization”, Alice Bailey wrote. Perhaps the present upheaval and polarization are indications that a sorting process is underway which is destroying old worn out forms and preparing new, more responsive forms appropriate for a completely new cycle. We don’t know what this new cycle will be because it will depend on humanity’s response to the inpouring energies of the new age, but we are assured that it will be wholly unlike the past. Knowing that the working out of an idea begins with meditation, and that group meditation can be particularly effective in determining its quality and direction, let us use this opportunity to bring into greater clarity the new and desired forms that are ready to emerge. I am the mother and the child. I, God, I, matter am.