The quickening of the spiritual life
As the age of Pisces withdraws, the energies of Virgo, Pisces’ polar opposite, reveal their significance with increasing clarity. Humanity’s orientation to the world of higher values, which was the main objective of the Piscean age, must culminate in the fusion in consciousness of soul and body, the writings of Alice Bailey tell us, and this requires grounding in Virgo. The past two thousand years have developed in humanity an intense desire to measure up to a sensed ideal, but this goal cannot be achieved without anchorage in “the service of the immediately present”, she wrote. Esoterically, this desire is expressed in Virgo as the revelation of “the hidden light of God”. This deep-seated impulse underlies the keynote of Virgo: I am the mother and the child. I, God, I, matter am.
In Virgo, soul and body are blended; the mother protects the germ of the Christ life, just as matter guards, cherishes and nurtures the hidden soul. Since ancient times, the word Virgo has been associated with the mother principle because gestation is an essential aspect of its function: “The sustaining life of the Mother [matter], throughout the gestation period, nourishes and cares for the developing Christ child”, Alice Bailey wrote. The process of gestation applies on many levels and multiple stages, and esoteric teaching views the nine-month gestation of a human being as a threefold process: The first three and a half months “prior to the realization of life” (in Alice Bailey’s words), are followed by “the building work of the next three and a half months of the gestation period, called the ‘quickening’ when life makes itself felt, [leading to] the final process of concretion carried on through the remaining two months”, she explained. “The physical plane analogy is seen at the life stimulation which is felt between the third and fourth month during the prenatal period, when the heart of the child thrills with life and individual existence becomes a possibility.”
These stages apply to all aspects of the task of building, whether of a human being, an idea, or a creative project. Time is needed for the building process to develop so that the intended form can become viable. So much of modern life, however, is governed by a sense of urgency and a need to rush ahead in order to reach the next stage. The gift of time, which seemed to be accepted and even appreciated by the ancients, is overlooked in our modern world. On the spiritual level, excessive haste works against the need for groundedness and humility. Something about the spiritual path seems prone to fostering a sense of urgency, generating a rush to achievement which can foster grandiose aspirations beyond one’s present capacity. Knowledge brings responsibility, we’ve been told—the need to act upon what one actually knows. “Do you appreciate the fact that if you were making full use of each piece of information given in the course of the training, and making it a fact in your experience, and were living out in your daily life the teaching so steadily imparted, you would be standing ere now before the Portal of Initiation?”, Alice Bailey’s writings ask. “Do you realize that truth has to be wrought out in the texture of daily living before new truth can be safely imparted?” Time, careful building, and a sense of cycles are all needed.
Esoteric teaching suggests that in the transition from the Piscean age to the Aquarian, we are entering into the eighth month of gestation. A vivid comparison is found in likening the present age of violent turmoil to the breaking of the waters prior to birth, symbolic of the conflict of desire so pervasive in the world today, “and so potent that these waters are stirred to the very depths. But there is no cause for depression or anxiety”, we’re assured; “only ardent desire that the transition may be neither too rapid nor too prolonged….All new manifestations in all kingdoms in all ages must come slowly and safely to birthing. All new forms, if they are ultimately to carry weight and gather adequate momentum to carry them through their life cycle, must be built in silent subjectivity, in order that the building may be strong and sure….This is true of a universe, a kingdom in nature, or a thoughtform created by a human thinker”, Alice Bailey wrote.
So, as we seek to create forms suitable for the expression of new vitality, let us remember that “The service of the immediately present”, which Virgo teaches, affirms that no act of service is ever too small or too insignificant to overlook. The words of Christ—“in as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me”—are at once so familiar and yet contain fathomless depths of meaning. In pondering on them, we find the key to the opportunity of service in Virgo.
