Esoteric teaching tells us that the secret of Aries is the secret of beginnings, of cycles and emerging opportunity. In Aries a new cycle commences, marking the first step of the soul towards incarnation. In human terms, this movement outward is driven by the will to manifest, to create and to achieve experience. Why is manifestation in form needed? We’re told that in every form there is a central life or idea which seeks manifestation in substance. Through the meeting of spirit and matter experience is gained. Matter is thereby energized and spirit, in turn, is enabled to enhance its vibration, leading to the emergence of the soul—of consciousness. Spirit thus develops a sentiency and awareness, expanding its capacity to respond to contact in matter. Over the cycle of repeated manifestations, material substance is developing a more positive response to the soul and the life within the form is gaining in quality by means of experience.
These thoughts express the esoteric significance of Aries. On the level of human experience, we’re told that through the medium of every human life, God is working out an idea, a specific concept, through form. In other words, the human being is an embodied thought. What an astonishing insight that is: that through each individual life, God seeks to work an idea! Perhaps it’s easier to approach this from the standpoint of humanity as a whole. What is it that the divine Plan is working out through the experience of incarnation in human form? A clue is provided in the keynote for Aries: I come forth and from the plane of mind, I rule. Humanity’s role as the middle or mediating kingdom in the progression of life implies that humanity is intended to be the revealer of the Plan for the lower kingdoms: animal, vegetable and mineral. This responsibility begins with the recognition that the lower kingdoms have a part to play in the divine Plan; that they are not merely forms put on earth for human benefit, to serve human needs and desires. Gradually, but not without periodic setbacks, humanity is learning to honor the roles played by these kingdoms by ensuring that human choices do not impede their flourishing.
Aries, Alice Bailey wrote, is “the birthplace of ideas”, and a true idea is in reality a spiritual impulse taking form. The mind is the initiator, the creator, in world renewal. This poses the question, what ideas are now being impressed on human minds? The world is now so interconnected that it’s no longer possible to live as if one is a self-enclosed capsule. The interconnections achieved through technology, psychology, education, and travel now render every living inhabitant, not only in the human but in all kingdoms, vulnerable to the world’s struggles, triumphs and woes. There is no protection, no retreat possible, for the world’s striving, achievement and sorrows are shared by all, whether they realize it or not.
When we think of the world to come, we can’t wish for “the good old days” (which weren’t so good for some of us). “The New Age will not be ushered in and find true expression through the medium of old patched up forms”, Alice Bailey wrote. “It will come into being through entirely new forms and by means of intelligent discarding of old modes of religion, government and economic and social idealisms. The need for sensitive intermediaries who can sense the emerging realities and can take the needed constructive steps is great”, she wrote. “They must create the forms which these subjective ideas must utilize.”
To see the familiar in a new light, unconditioned by the past, is a great service and the energies that flow through Aries serve this purpose. The fiery quality of Aries enables it to function as the Destroyer. The work of the destroyer is as vital to the divine Plan as that of the builder, and we are living in a period when many of the forms which have served as pillars for the foundation of the world have become inadequate for future growth. The new age will require changes that can reflect the new ideas and the period we’re in now is one of preparation by clearing away the forms that have become limitations. As a beginning, we are challenged to think, to imagine, the ideas that will constitute the New Age, the “new house” in which humanity will live. Let us work in meditation to develop the expansive group mind.