The keynote of Virgo again focuses on the declaration, “I am”. From Leo’s keynote – I am That and That am I – the focus shifts to the realization of Virgo, I am the Mother and the Child. I, God, I, matter am. The recognition achieved in Leo—that the human individual is essentially a spiritual being—illumines the significance of Virgo, the mother or matter aspect which is the counterpart of spirit. This dual recognition was expressed by the great teacher H.P. Blavatsky as, “Matter is spirit at its lowest point of manifestation and spirit is matter at its highest.”
The recognition that the personality, and forms in general, are intended to be a vessel for the energies of spirit runs throughout the world’s religions, manifesting in the concepts of God Transcendent and God Immanent. That this dual perspective does not create a conflict was expressed by Shri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita: “Having pervaded this whole universe with a fragment of Myself, I remain”—God, greater than the created whole, yet God present also in the part. For eons, however, the human focus seemed to be directed wholly towards God Transcendent, a power so immense that it could only be propitiated through prayer and protective rituals. Only gradually, with the growth of the human intellect, did the awareness of God within, the divinity that dwells within every human being, no matter how veiled or buried, become an equally recognized aspect of Divinity.
Understanding the concept of God immanent helps to illumine the lesson of Virgo, which stands for the cosmic Mother, the receptive agent to the Father aspect. The writings of Alice Bailey tell us that in Virgo, the purpose for which form life exists begins to be realized. The scholar of Indian philosophy, Heinrich Zimmer, put it in this way: “We cannot borrow God. We must effect His new incarnation from within ourselves. Divinity must descend, somehow, into the matter of our own existence and participate in this peculiar life process.” Zimmer’s profound realization was surely inspired by his study of Indian philosophy, of which the fundamental Hindu tenet is that Brahman, the cosmic principle which pervades and sustains the entire universe, is identical with atman, the self, which is anchored in the human heart. It is this which the mother Virgo shields, guards, and nurtures throughout the age-long cycle of gestation until it is ready for birth in Pisces, the polar opposite of Virgo. This achievement underlies the words of the apostle Paul—“Christ in you, the hope of glory”—which Alice Bailey’s writings say expresses the mission of Virgo most accurately.
Human beings have long used prayer to establish communication with God transcendent, but perhaps to supplement—not necessarily to replace—prayer, the growing interest in meditation may indicate an awareness, no matter how inchoate, of God immanent. Perhaps the realization is dawning that personality, the form nature, cannot be content to remain merely an empty vessel. It has to be sufficiently sensitized to receive and respond to spiritual energies. The fine arts and scientific understanding are vital contributors to the preparation of the form nature to serve as the mother aspect for purely spiritual energies, but it’s a lengthy process of refinement which requires patience, silence, and sacrifice. This helps us to understand why Alice Bailey describes the Virgo experience as “the womb of time”: It reveals its gifts through “a cycle of darkness, quiet and warmth; of slow, gentle yet powerful crises which take place in the dark and yet which lead to light”. In many ways this is also an apt description of the results of meditation. Let us work as a group to deepen this means of planetary service. I am the Mother and the Child. I, God, I, matter am.
