The Eye is the lens
The full moon of Taurus is closely associated with the Buddha, whose birth, enlightenment and death occurred in Taurus. At the Taurus full moon each year, we’re told that he returns to the world, bringing the “touch from Shamballa”. Destruction inevitably accompanies the impact of descending spirit upon opposing matter, in order to release the synthesizing force which binds together that which was previously separated. This duality might illuminate the chaotic conditions of the present period when the breaking up of old values, customs and ideals is generating a profound sense of loss and fear among so many people. Yet esoterically, the Shamballa force in its work of destruction is an aspect of the will of the planetary Logos, Whom we call God. Its first effect has been to stimulate the will-to-power and the will-to-have, which are undeniably in expression today, but later this same force will evoke the will-to-good and to build.
Likewise, the symbol of Taurus, the Bull, is dual in effect, for it stimulates both the will-to-power in the unprepared and the implacable urge to enlightenment in the spiritually awakened. This one-pointed pursuit symbolized by the “eye of the Bull” is the eye of revelation. “There is nothing new under the sun”, the Book of Ecclesiastes says, because “Revelation is the revelation of that which is ever present”, as Alice Bailey wrote. Revelation is not an event but a gradual and steadily unfolding process. Like newborn kittens, human eyes open slowly to the realization that “All that is revealed upon the spiritual Path is forever there, but that which can perceive, reach out and include has developed with the ages”, in Alice Bailey’s words. The inpouring forces of Shamballa are revelatory and fundamentally invocative in nature, igniting the Perfection innate within matter itself, the subjective urge which propels all evolution. They reveal that Divinity is not only transcendent but present within the smallest atom, within the heart of every human being, and within the planet and the solar system, awaiting recognition.
These thoughts illumine the meaning of the keynote of Taurus—I see and when the Eye is opened, all is light. The eye of the Bull, when opened, is the third eye, which in the human being is the Monad, the One, the Absolute, pure Spirit. Esoterically, the Monad is to the planetary Logos what the third eye is to man. The Monad is the lens through which the light of the Logos, of Deity, can flow into the world. “In a most mysterious sense, the soul is the eye of the Monad”, Alice Bailey wrote, “enabling the Monad, which is pure Being, to contact, to know and to see.” In a deeply esoteric sense, this suggests that the human kingdom constitutes the eye of God on our planet, for the role of humanity is to serve as the macrocosm for the microcosm of the lower kingdoms.
It’s difficult to perceive the meaning underlying the present times because we are part of the human experience and therefore deeply immersed in the outer planes of life. There are no interpreters to explain the meaning of what’s happening in the world, no guides to help us navigate the colliding currents of this transitional age. We have only the Buddha’s command to transform the truths of spiritual doctrine, through meditation, into a living experience so that they are known with the “direct knowledge”—the intuition—which is immediate and infallible. And we have the living example of the Christ, the embodiment of all that humanity is destined to become.
At Wesak the task of the Buddha and the Christ is to channel and redirect the Shamballa force towards stimulation of the will-to-good in all responsive people of good will. A vast alignment is created from the highest levels of our planetary life to the planes of Earth; in this alignment all who seek to increase the receptivity of humanity to the new forces which are released at the Taurus full moon can play a part. We are assured that with self-forgetfulness, “no matter who we are or where we may be placed or what is the nature of our environment, no matter how isolated we may feel or apart from those who may share our spiritual vision, each of us can join in group formation, and function as a silent distributor of force.” With this assurance, let us participate with the worldwide group in meditation.