Aries These notes are based upon the teachings of Djwhal Khul presented in Alice Bailey’s Esoteric Astrology (Lucis Trust, 1951). It is the work of the zodiacal influences to evoke the emergence of the will aspect of the Heavenly Man and of all monads, souls and personalities who constitute the planetary body of expression.… The goal of evolution for humanity is to become consciously and livingly aware of the nature of these energies and begin to know them and to use them. ARIES NEW MOON 15 DEGREES ARIES, 4TH APRIL 2000 The first impulse is awakened in Aries, for Aries is the place where the initial idea to institute activity takes form. It is the birthplace of ideas, and a true idea is in reality a spiritual impulse taking form - subjective and objective. Aries is the primary agent of first ray energy to our planet. This is the ray of the Will to Power, sometimes called ‘the Destroyer’, which is expressed initially in Aries as the will to incarnate and enter the cycle of manifestation. The quality of energy coming through Aries is designed, therefore, to be energetic, dynamic and directed with a purposefulness that can appear as either courageous or hell-bent and disregarding of others. The will to incarnate in Aries leads to the emergence of mental entities which will later take physical form in the sign of Cancer. Thus Aries is associated with awakening and the emergence of the new, as the soul responds to Deity, issuing forth as an idea that will eventually, through the Will, be clothed in form, becoming material life. D.K. reminds us of a passage in The Secret Doctrine, which states that ‘matter is the vehicle for the manifestation of the soul on this plane of existence’. There are four keynotes given for the sign Aries; these can be considered as injunctions to the incarnating soul:- 1. Express the will to be and do. 2. Unfold the power to manifest. 3. Enter into battle for the Lord. 4. Arrive at unity through effort. According to the first injunction, notably, it is not sufficient simply ‘to be and do’; rather the will behind the being and doing must be expressed: this is the spiritual impulse taking form as idea, and idea taking form as activity. The second injunction tells us that the power to bring, in the case of the individual, the self into manifestation must be ‘unfolded’ - i.e. developed and driven on. These qualities are to be united, not behind personal aims and wishes, but in order to ‘enter into battle for the Lord’. The expression of will and powerful unfolding are to be directed towards endeavours that acknowledge the Lord, the originating creative spirit. Honouring that Spirit might be expressed by a mountaineer, through the prayer of the body to the Creation, as much as by the monastic or pioneer of reform. Some vision of the context of human existence is needed for the Aries person, who is furnished with a strong will and an urge to do battle, if that person is to avoid needless conflict with imagined threats, or the pursuit of power or selfish ends that are of no earthly use and serve merely to promote conflictual and separative consciousness. It is through the vision of context, perhaps, that ‘unity through effort’ can be attained. Keywords associated with the injunctions listed above are:- CREATIVITY - BEING - ACTIVITY - STRIFE - SYNTHESIS These words suggest that responding to energy coming through Aries involves creativity through being. Reading D.K. on Aries, one is reminded of the Nietzschean injunction du sollst der werden, der du bist: you must become who you are. It is the principle of activity that Nietzsche attributes to this process of ‘becoming’ that has such a striking Aries quality. In The Geneaology of Morals he writes, ‘There is no “being” behind doing, effecting, becoming; “the doer” is merely a fiction added to the deed - the deed is everything.’ For Nietzsche becoming who you are means actualising all the capacities and potentialities of the self through activity; herein is the synthesis: that the actuality comes into line with the possibility (as the personality can be drawn into alignment with the soul, and the egoic triad into communication with the spiritual triad). The five keywords are all reflected in the words of Nietzsche’s character, Zarathustra: ‘this is all my creating and striving, that I create and carry together into One what is fragment and riddle and dreadful accident.’ Aries is the purveyor of the quality of Electric Fire to the solar system, which has the effect of burning and destroying. Here is Arien strife! Aries forces the soul on to the burning ground to initiate a process of purification. The fire of the mind sets the ‘jungles of experience’ on fire, to leave the Path ‘clear and unobstructed’. Strife and struggle for self-actualisation (or actualisation of the possibility of ‘God’s idea’ at whatever level of existence) can be seen as a route to clarification, a burning-off of the dross, a necessary clearance which allows us to see exactly where we are on the Path. The orthodox ruler of Aries, Mars, oversees this fiery process of war and strife that leads to needed purification. The idealism, fanaticism and effort associated with Mars is intended to motivate God’s idea (initiated in Aries) towards becoming a concrete plan in Capricorn. The individual operating without a spiritual context is likely to experience conflict, frustration and anger. Mars has a blood and thunder quality of energy that has Aries individuals going to war at the drop of a hat. Evidently, this is energy that has to be channelled if it is not to be lost in senseless sparring, futile conflicts or the depression that arises out of thwarted aggression. Aries has to cultivate a mature and measured relation to the world whilst retaining its force and impulse. The evolution of the process initiated in Aries comes to the developed individual through the influence of Mercury, the esoteric ruler of Aries. It is through Mercury (and the fourth ray of Harmony through Conflict) that Aries is able to cultivate a measured relation to the world without losing its fighting spirit. Mercury’s illuminating principle releases the mind and directs the awareness to an understanding of the Plan underlying all the fire and strife. The energy of Mercury at this level mediates between the soul and the personality, as the planet fulfils its traditional function as messenger of the gods. The hierarchical ruler of Aries is Uranus. The activity of Uranus through Aries is analogous to the mediation of Mercury; the seventh ray (of Ceremonial Order), operating through Uranus, relates spirit and matter, resulting in the creative activity of manifestation: ‘Uranus leads the soul to the burning ground during the final stages of the Path, when the fire of Aries and fires engendered through the potency of Uranus produce the flaming heat of the final burning ground.’ D.K. refers to the curiously balanced ray energies that are expressed through Aries. We have mentioned the activity of the first and seventh rays. These, being the highest and the lowest require a balancing point, which is provided by Libra (the opposite sign to Aries and agent for the third ray). Libra presents to Aries regard for other, Venusian qualities of love and appreciation, and the ability to seek equilibrium. Mars and Mercury bring in the sixth and the fourth rays respectively (Idealism and Harmony through Conflict), which together bring to the balancing process the second ray (Love-Wisdom): ‘the major building ray which enables man to build anew and provide himself with a spiritual body of manifestation.’ When the ray energies pouring through Aries are balanced the purificatory destruction has a constructive purpose. It is not simply a slash and burn operation. It is intended to clear the way and then to build the new. The Sun is exalted in Aries. This fact is interesting considering that Mercury is Aries’ esoteric ruler, for ‘Mercury and the Sun are one, we are frequently told in occult literature. The Sun is the symbol of the Son of God, Who is the mediator between Father-Spirit and Mother-Matter.’ The Sun is exalted in Aries because here it stands for the life of the spirit, or of God, which was initially impulsed towards manifestation in this sign. Orthodox astrologers often maintain that Sun in Aries people experience a struggle with the father. As the Sun in the birth chart signifies the Father-as-leader it could be that, in its exalted position, the Sun as Father-figure overshadows the person to the extent that they are motivated towards rebellion, unambivalent self-searching and, thereby, the inauguration of the new. The new is the particular territory of Aries; Aries energy is the energy of spring and new beginnings and the urge towards solar consciousness (the Vernal Equinox is, of course, marked by the Sun entering 0 degree Aries). Aries energy inaugurates activity, utilising will-power and the combative energy of Mars, in order to bring ideas (spiritual impulses) into manifestation. This can occur at any level of development. D.K. quotes an ancient statement to the effect that Aries “awakens the will to reach the lowest and there control, to know the uttermost and thus to face all experience”. Not only does the first impulse towards physical form express itself in Aries, Aries also governs the Path of Discipleship: the will to return to the Source. In this sense Aries initiates beginnings, but also the beginning of the end - Alpha and Omega. We have seen that Aries is the sign of beginnings - the beginning of the creative process, the first step of the soul (the microcosm of the already initiated Macrocosm) towards incarnation, the beginning of recurring and constant cycles of experience, the beginning of the period wherein the soul changes its direction, its purpose and its method, and finally enters upon that definitely defined process which we call spiritual regeneration and initiation. ©2000- The D.K. Foundation. This article, including this copyright statement, may be freely distributed but not altered, expanded or abridged in any way. We thank you for respecting this request.