Liberating the lives imprisoned in form
Pisces, the final stage of the Sun’s passage through the zodiac, is a point of summation and culmination as well as duality. Its symbol ♓︎ represents two fishes linked together, one standing for the soul and the other for the personality, bound together through the cycle of manifestation. “Such is the climaxing story of Pisces”, Alice Bailey wrote. “The soul renounces the life and light of the Monad, its source, and descends into the ocean of matter, we’re told, for purposes of redemption, “in order to redeem matter and raise the lives by which it is informed”.
Thus Pisces is often a sign of inhibition and hindrances, for esoteric teaching tells us that the Principle of Limitation governs the form-taking process of all incarnated lives. Another great spiritual law which governs the process of form-taking is the Law of Sacrifice, and it runs throughout all creation. All lives manifesting in form are called, in the writings of Alice Bailey, “prisoners of the planet”, ranging from the tiniest atomic lives to the ensouling deity of a planet. When the two aspects of spirit and matter are brought together, matter is energized by its contact with spirit, and spirit is enabled to enhance its vibration through experience in matter. This produces a third aspect called the soul, through which spirit develops sentiency and a capacity to respond. Thus worlds come into manifestation, pass through their destined cycles, and seemingly disappear through death, all in obedience to divine law.
“Some lives are prisoners and know it. Others are prisoners and know it not. The clue to suffering lies right here in the realm of mind”, Alice Bailey wrote. This is an experience unique to the human kingdom, but it also holds the key to a new understanding of death “by unfolding the significance, activity and beauty of death and the work of the destroyer”. At the close of an age and poised at the entrance into a new cycle, these insights have particular relevance to the nature of the present times. The work of the destroyer can be seen in a multitude of ways, and it can generate a profound sense of loss without the perspective which esoteric teaching gives regarding the purpose of human experience in form. Man, we’re told, constitutes a “midway point” in the consciousness of the Creator. Humanity is, essentially, the brain of the planetary Deity, the multitude of human beings in incarnation comprising the brain cells. Many cells are still dormant, but many others are awakening to the responsibilities and possibilities of the coming Age, and they can provide a vital service.
The role of humanity is to act as a bridge between the world of spirit and the world of material forms, for “All grades of matter meet in man, and all states of consciousness are possible to him”, a destiny made possible with the development of the intuition through meditation. Spiritual seekers—aspirants and disciples—represent those awakening brain cells which can be trained to develop the quiescence needed for receptivity to the divine Plan. Through meditation, focused attention and mental quiet are developed, leading first to a growing sense of one’s own soul purpose, and later to participation in the group task of registering the planetary purpose. A vast field of service becomes possible at this stage: to bring the revelation of reality to the questioning, bewildered members of humanity who yet remain without a vision of liberation from the prison house of form.
This role underlies the meaning of Pisces’ keynote, I leave the Father’s Home and turning back, I save. All human souls submit to the Principle of Limitation when entering incarnation, a voluntary choice of the soul but one which, for most, is not remembered while imprisoned in form. At every stage of consciousness, the field of awareness in its boundaries constitutes a prison, and the objective of all work of liberation, we’re told, is to release the consciousness and expand its field of contacts. Wherever there are boundaries to identification with the surrounding lives (“my people, my tribe, my class, my race, my species”, etc.), the radius of contact is limited. However, every human being who succeeds in breaking through such boundaries becomes a conscious center of life-giving force, and will be so without effort, Alice Bailey wrote. “He will stimulate, energize and vivify to fresh efforts all lives that he contacts, be they his fellow aspirants, or an animal, or a flower. He will act as a transmitter of light in the darkness, dispel the surrounding glamour, and let in the radiance of reality”. That capacity to serve is attainable to all who make the effort.