I build a lighted house and therein dwell is the keynote of Cancer. The house as a powerful symbol of the self is well documented in psychology. Freud interpreted the houses that appeared in his patients’ frequent dreams as the repository of the subconscious; Erik Erikson related the house to the human form as a whole; and Jung interpreted the symbol of the house as representative of buried, unrecognized aspects of the self awaiting revelation, recounting in his own dream his search through the various rooms of a house to uncover previously hidden aspects of his personality. The keynote of Cancer lifts this perspective to a higher level, viewing the lighted house as a fit abode for the soul while incarnate in form.

“Veiled and hidden by every form lies light”, Alice Bailey wrote. The object for which life takes form and the purpose of manifested being is the unfoldment of consciousness, or the revelation of the soul. Consciousness is the soul of all things, we’re told; it permeates all substance and underlies all forms, whether an atom, a man, a planet, or a solar system. Esoterically, the entire story of evolution is the story of consciousness—of “becoming aware”. Through manifestation in form, matter is “lifted up” by contact with spirit. Spirit, in turn, is enabled to enhance its vibration through experience in matter.

Each kingdom in nature carries the consciousness aspect forward towards perfection through greater sensitivity and responsiveness to its environment. Thus, the keynote for Cancer has implications for our planetary abode, the Earth. Science is increasingly able to document the range of consciousness expressed in “other worlds”, especially those manifested in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. When we come to the human kingdom, however, the subject of consciousness becomes more complex. The mass of human beings are like the millions of unused brain cells, the writings of Alice Bailey say, with many beginning to awaken and expressing a combination of mass or herd consciousness, along with a developing sense of self, of isolated individuality. We can see this in the present polarization so visible in many societies. However, those aspirants and disciples who are developing group consciousness, who recognize that they are part of a larger whole, represent the brain cells which are beginning to merge with the larger divine rhythm, and they represent the hope of humanity. “The more powerful their united vibration and the clearer the light which they reflect and transmit, the more rapidly will the present inert mass of human cells be brought into activity”, Alice Bailey wrote.

“Of form and consciousness”, she said, “the circle and point are the symbols…for an atom, man, the planet and the solar system”, until, ultimately, the ancient recognition, attributed variously to Hermes Trismegistus and St. Augustine, is reached that God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. This seems to confirm why esoteric teaching says that the planetary Logos—the god of our planet—“requires the entire planet through which to express all that he is. He animates the planet with his life.”

Evolution is a continual, never ending process of unfoldment, and at each stage beauty is as much of divinity as can be expressed through any one form, Alice Bailey wrote. Each of us, in our own little world, can contribute to the beautification of the Earth through the lighting of our little house, the field of our consciousness, by radiating the warmth of its light throughout our perceived environment.