Two are halves of one
At the moment of the full moon each month, when the Sun and the Earth stand in open, unimpeded alignment, powerful spiritual energies pour into our planet which can be directed through group meditation. From earliest times human beings have sensed that these energies and forces emanate from Sources which express an all-pervading unity, an underlying synthesis of interlocking relationships. Esoteric astrology, the astrology of the soul, interprets the signs of the zodiac as the life and expression of these energies and forces which play upon our planet and manifest their effects on the world of forms, according to Alice Bailey.
In the fulfillment of this objective Gemini plays a crucial role. As the two pillars of its symbol ♊︎ indicate, Gemini is the major sign of duality in the zodiac. Duality seems to be a creation of the lower, concrete mind, with its need to discern, discriminate and decipher. However, the resolution of the pairs of opposites does not demand that we choose one over the other; juxtapositions that the lower mind might view as contradictory can be resolved into their essential unity by the higher mind. As the poet Kabir, who was considered both a Sufi and Brahman saint and who drew from both Hindu and Islamic traditions, wrote, “Behold but One in all things; it is the second that leads you astray”. Or, as the poet e.e. cummings put it, “One’s not half two. it’s two are halves of one.” Unity does not mean an amorphous whole but, rather, a multifaceted synthesis which incorporates and resolves a multitude of attributes into one.
Nowhere does nature demonstrate a “multitude of attributes” more than in the human kingdom. Gemini confers the sense of being both human and divine, an awareness of which the Buddha and the Christ are the epitome. We can picture these great Avatars gazing, unblinkingly, into the depths of the human condition without recoiling, for they understood the full range of human experience. Perhaps that’s why the Christ embraced those who had been most battered by life. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”, he declared; “Blessed are the humble, for they shall inherit the Earth”. These are conditions which can shake the foundation on which the human being has stood and awaken a sense of duality between life as it is and life as it’s intended to be. The form through which that Life expresses itself, the personality, is of secondary importance, we’re told, yet it is the focus and for eons the center of identity. The sense of duality—of self and Self—arises paradoxically with integration, for the gradual merging of the two selves heightens their polarity. “The tragedy, the problem and the glory of man is that he can identify himself with both aspects—the form and the life”, creating a battleground, the writings of Alice Bailey say. In becoming aware of the pull of the opposites, the entire problem of pain and suffering is centered, she wrote. Perhaps there is no better expression of this conflict than the plaintive cry of the Apostle Paul, who declared, “For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Romans VII: 19)
“Beginning with the ordinary consciousness of everyday life, we are to grow, step by step, to a realization of ourselves as the very Divinity of the Supreme”, the Theosophist Charles Johnston wrote. “We do not become that; by progressive steps we come to realize that we already are that”. In other words, we awaken to what, in essence though not in ultimate form, we already are. “I have said that ye are gods”, Christ declared, echoing the Psalms. Esoteric teaching recognizes this as an effect of the awakening soul consciousness, a growing awareness expressed in the keynote of Gemini: I recognize my other self and in the waning of that self, I grow and glow.
Interestingly, the basis for this recognition is prepared by the “lesser keynote”, Let instability do its work. It is a fundamental human aspiration to crave stability, but sometimes the upheaval of one’s foundation can offer the greatest spiritual opportunity. In this transitional period, when it might seem that humanity is being shaken to its core, a positive aspect can be perceived in the disruption. The extreme polarization that is revealing existing cleavages can lead to two outcomes; it can force human beings to choose one polarity over the other, or it can impel a search for a resolution on a higher, unifying level not previously recognizable. The realization that “two are halves of one” is the path of emergence from polarization and the resolution of all conflict. This is the spiritual opportunity of the present times.