Scorpio is the sign of the warrior, as its keynote confirms: Warrior I am and from the battle I emerge triumphant. In Libra Arjuna learned the value of entering into battle, and those lessons laid an important foundation for the spiritual seeker in Scorpio. The battle of the spiritual warrior is not against perceived enemies exterior to oneself, but with internal forces that, at a certain stage of the Path, present a barrier to further progress. The esoteric teaching given in Alice Bailey’s writings regards Scorpio as of paramount importance in the life of the evolving individual, for Scorpio governs the path of discipleship. It’s the constellation which initiates a turning point in the life, a reorientation, and when this stage is entered, a time of reckoning arises—a spiritual stock-taking, so to speak. To facilitate this, the consciousness undergoes an expansion in two directions: both upward, penetrating into higher spheres of the mind, and, under the Law of Action and Reaction, a reciprocal response of the expanding consciousness penetrates downward into the “nether regions” below the threshold of awareness, into the dim recesses of memory, bringing to the surface of consciousness all that had lain dormant but now demands recognition.

In Scorpio, two factors emerge from recollection of the past: memory, and as a consequence, the Dweller on the Threshold. Each life sees some progress, some personality defects straightened out, but when a certain degree of soul contact has become adequately established, we’re told, the highly developed personality itself becomes the Dweller. And then, in Alice Bailey’s words, “the fight is on”.

The Dweller on the Threshold is often associated with darkness and the undertow of hidden negative forces, but perhaps “Dweller” is too fearsome a word for a stage which indicates preparation for emerging illumination. The Dweller is the sum-total of all the personality characteristics that have remained unconquered and which must be overcome before initiation. These forces of which the seeker had been unconscious have lain submerged until the seeker begins to sense the other polarity of being: the Angel, the soul or higher Self. “Only when a human being becomes an integrated personality does the problem of the Dweller truly arise”, we’re told, and only when the mind is alert and the intelligence organized is it possible to sense the Angel standing in contrast with the Dweller. Only then does the entire question of hindrances embodied in the Dweller, the barrier which it poses to spiritual contact, take on enough clarity and potency to demand right action. This is when the Warrior must take over and see the task clearly.

This barrier presents tests that affect the most basic levels of the personal life: physical, emotional, and mental. All the personality’s characteristics which contribute to the barrier to a more expansive spiritual life must be recognized and redeemed. They arise when the seeker is prepared for them and, lest one takes this revelatory process too hard, it’s helpful to recall the priest Francois Fénelon’s advice: “It is mere self-love to be inconsolable at seeing one’s own imperfections.” It’s equally important to keep in mind that test, trial and triumph are the keynotes of the Scorpio warrior. Victory is assured if persistence is maintained and Hercules’ example in slaying the dragon is followed: Only by lifting the nine-headed hydra high overhead, into the light of the mind, did he vanquish it.

This is a spiritual stage which confronts every sincere seeker at some point, and humanity as well. “Only when there is adequate fusion within humanity as a whole does the great human Dweller on the Threshold appear as an integrated entity and make its appearance in a national or racial sense”, Alice Bailey wrote. As it spreads and vitalizes national, racial and planetary glamour, it fosters and feeds individual glamours which make the entire problem unmistakably apparent. Only then can the relation between the soul of humanity and the generated forces of its ancient and potent personality assume proportions which call for drastic activity and intelligent cooperation. Such a time has now come, she affirmed, and few among us would deny that the present times demand clarity of vision and the courage to face the Dweller in all its attributes, within ourselves, in our nations, and in humanity as a whole . The resources of the mind are now equal to the urgency of the demand, and the energies of Scorpio assure us that Warrior I am and from the battle I emerge triumphant.