{"timeout":"7000","width":"990"}
  • Wisdom for practice
  • Wisdom is applied knowledge
  • Wisdom spreads itself

Wisdom for practice

Wisdom is for practice, not for continuous speaking. If we keep on speaking about the Masters, the Rays, and the Hierarchies, we are only missing our duties for the present.

Wisdom is applied knowledge

Knowledge, when applied becomes wisdom. We gain a lot of knowledge, but it has to be applied in daily life, then it transforms itself into wisdom. Through wisdom we will experience the existence.

Wisdom spreads itself

We need not be anxious to spread the wisdom without working it with ourselves. It is a wrong understanding if one thinks that he can spread wisdom. Wisdom knows how to spread itself. It only needs channels.

Pisces

Part 1

DIVISION OF THE CIRCLE

The circle of Eternal Presence knows no beginning and not end. When however it is divided at a point, time and periodicity emerge. If we divide the zodiac by different numbers, many secrets of time periods reveal themselves to us: The division by two makes the opposites and the polarities of signs. A threefold division leads to the three groups of signs relating to the four elements - fire, earth, air and water - and to their trine relations. Divided by four we find the squares and the three great crosses - the Cardinal, the Fixed and the Mutable Cross.

RECEPTIVE WATER

Pisces belongs to the Mutable Cross and is a watery sign, together with Cancer and Scorpio. Cancer represents the saltwater, the ebb and tide of emotions. Scorpio represents the smelling water of life polluted with matter and the sin of man. Finally Pisces represents the water in the clouds, life as ethereal waters that are filtered from the filth of the earth. In its most subtle form water is spiritual electricity, the electric fire of space. Earthly water is just a representation of the waters of space.

Water is receptive and assimilates vibrations. It can be magnetised by positive thoughts. Homoeopathic diluting transfers the etheric vibration of a remedy into the receptive substance of the water. Fresh, living water purifies inwardly and outwardly and even washes away subtle impurities.

The ancient wisdom calls the Pisces-principle the cause of the recording of impressions preserving the “photographs” of previous life cycles in the undercurrent of consciousness. Pisces represents the “tablet of the universe” on which an initiate can read the past, present and future of the whole creation.

Pisces-personalities are adaptable and receptive. They get strongly influenced by the presence of other people, for the better or for the worse. Like liquids they acquire the shape and nature of their environment. They are intuitive, subtle and sometimes mediumistic and mystical. They can sympathise with all, can understand the difficulties of all types of people and run the risk to be too indulgent. They want to help, to heal and to serve suffering humanity. Commitment to the wheal of others and willingness to sacrifice oneself is the path of the Piscean person which finally brings about transformation into the permeating consciousness of the Divine.

MEETING OF END AND BEGINNING

As per direction Pisces is the last as well as the first sign of the zodiac. The symbol of the fishes swimming into opposite directions indicates the endless beginnings and endings: Already in the beginning the end is concealed and in the ending the beginning. The watery signs mark the closing of a cycle, the fiery signs following them mark the point of a beginning. Thus in the watery signs smaller dissolutions take place, and with the fiery signs fresh life comes up. Each time a planet passes over from Pisces to Aries, a cycle ends and a new one begins. One door for certain possibilities is closed, and time opens another one, for new qualities.

Pisces leads to completion and fusion. It helps us to experience the awareness of the background. The background is the Father of creation, the first Logos, the divine aspect of Will. By identifying himself with the Father, the Son fuses with the divine Will: “I and the Father are one”, Christ said, “Not my, but Thy will be done.” Pisces is the sign of crucifixion and of the death of a world saviour who gives his life as a sacrifice for mankind, in order to demonstrate in Aries the resurrection from the grave of matter. Thus a seed thought of Pisces says: “I leave the Father's Home and turning back, I save.” On the way from the Father’s home, from unity into the diversity of creation, we lose the consciousness of the eternal presence and identify with the body. This is also called the death of the soul in the grave of matter. Therefore the twelfth house related to Pisces stands for isolation and ignorance, for restriction, struggle for survival and loss.

Pisces however also brings synthesis, and when we are aware of the one energy underlying diversity, the soul raises and its imprisonment in the circumscriptions of form come to an end. This is also called the attaining of immortality.

The glyph of the sign (♓) suggests two fishes swimming in opposite directions, linked up by a horizontal line. The line symbolises the band between soul and personality as well as the bridge from the lower to the higher self. When man has built the bridge, he gains with the firm foothold in the soul the inner equipoise towards all ups and downs of life, corresponding in the course of the year to the equinox between Pisces and Aries. His awareness recedes into soul-consciousness. At this stage the glyph of Pisces and its meaning changes: The fishes come together, head to tail, to form a circle. The line now vertical doesn’t touch the surrounding circle. In the following stages the line becomes a point and finally disappears, when the awareness fuses with the background.

LIGHT OF ETERNAL PRESENCE

In the physical body Pisces represents the two feet and embodies the progress towards the goal. On the upward path the sign is localised in the pineal and pituitary gland, which help the man building the higher bridge to give rise to the light of the spiritual sun. Thus the colour of the sign corresponds to that of the pure sky in bright daylight and has two phases: it appears blue but is white as the brilliant magnesium flame. Magnesium is the metal related to the sign. Pisces is also called the “Light of the World”, revealing the Light of Life itself. In an initiate who has crossed the lower worlds, the end and the beginning meet, and there is nothing but the Eternal Presence.

Part 2

THE PLAY OF CREATION

When vapour becomes water and water becomes ice, the forms differ, the substance of the different states however remains the same: Water. Seeing an excellently designed cloth we are attracted to the design and colour. We are no longer aware of the cotton and its different details; at best we recognize the cloth. In creation there is pure existence at the basis of all forms. But who bothers about the substance, when he sees the great variety of forms?

The one existence appears in different states and planes. The wisdom teachings speak of seven planes and of the eighth, which is beyond creation and is called the Absolute Existence. In cyclical emanations the worlds come out of the pure existence, evolve and dissolve again only for a restart in a new beginning. Thus every conclusion has in it the seed of a new beginning and every beginning the germ of its end. He who stands in the synthesis of the background can experience creation as a grand ritual, as a most intricate drama, in which the One is playing the roles of the many. In this drama Pisces stands for the fall and the rise of the curtain between one act and another. The curtain falls only to rise for another act.

In creation there is a continuous double movement from the subtle to the gross and from the gross to the subtle. This is also called the wheel of creation and is represented in the zodiac as the ascending and the descending path. We can see the flux of things as a cyclical and spiralic flow of energies, out of which emerge all movements, also those of the stars and the sun. The sign Pisces marks the null-point or the point of poise, where the currents of water cross one another as is indicated by the two fishes swimming in opposite directions.

THE SYMBOLISM OF THE SWASTIKA

It is said that the waters of the sky have their vertical descent, then they make their horizontal movement, and reach the ocean which is called the nether regions. This is depicted in the symbol of the swastika. The swastika, abused in the Third Reich, is considered to be a sacred sign in the East, giving the message of the continuous change in creation and that in the permanent transformation we are the unchanging One. The word swastika means “The One, who builds self-existence” (swa: self; asti: existence; swasti: self-existence; the seed sound ka has the ability to build, to manifest). The swastika is the sublime symbol which leads us to build our own existence. It can help us to reverse the order of our lives and to give us a new direction through which we can find the truth of our existence. The anti-clockwise swastika is recommended for meditation for the individual who wants to return to the source of his original being and whose personality is quite stable. Visualised in the ajna-centre within a triangle and in blue colour it helps to burn the circumscribing thought patterns, to unite with the soul and to reach the truth. The sound RAM, the seed-sound of fire, supports this work. The initiate who has become a part of the Plan works with the clockwise direction to carry out the Plan on earth.

DISSOLUTION AND SALVATION

Like all watery signs Pisces is a sign of dissolution and of transition. It is only a seeming dissolution, for Pisces prepares the seed for the manifestation of a new cycle. When the works are well done, we can enter with Aries into the new cycle, into a higher winding of the spiral. In the life cycle Pisces corresponds to the time of the age of 77 to 84, the twelfth group of seven years. Here it is the duty of man to prepare for the transition.

Pisces is a sign of “photography”, it represents the “tablet of the universe”, on which are recorded all the stories and associations of the past cycles of lives. From the undercurrent of consciousness, called “Chetas” in the ancient wisdom, the initiate can read the experiences extending over many lives. Through our actions and their consequences we make experiences. He who offends against the Laws of Nature – which are not the social laws – through wrong thinking and acting, causes an imbalance of forces and gets bound to the consequences of his actions: As you sow, so shall you reap. The twelfth house governed by Pisces represents the limitations and self-conditionings caused by mistakes, resulting in disease, suffering and struggle for existence. In the present age man is strongly conditioned by a wrong dealing with food and sex out of a false understanding of freedom. You can consider wrong behaviour as a sin and condemn it. The wisdom teachings however don’t know sin, but only ignorance, and they show the consequences of right and wrong actions. They teach how we develop discrimination through right action and deeds of good will for the welfare of others and change our way of life – not with outer rules, but out of an inner impulse. Thus we refine our consciousness and dissolve old entanglements. The personality creates ties, it emphasizes what it does and always craves for recognition. Many therefore watch out for self-aggrandizement and do self-marketing, also in the name and with the thoughts of the wisdom teachings. Truth however doesn’t market and sell itself; it reveals itself only to those who seriously search for it. To others it remains concealed. Imitations of truth presented in an attractive way may outwardly seem to be successful, but time makes them fall as fast as they have come.

Yoga is the state of consciousness where all actions are done out of an inner equilibrium and with ease, without binding us to the consequences of the actions. Pisces stands for this universal consciousness which the soul attains when it effuses itself through selfless service. Therefore Pisces is the sign of the saviour. Wisdom however is not for saving the world, but for saving us from the world: Be within the world, but not from the world. Selfless service liberates, because we give without expecting something and thus do not enter into bonds.

THE WATER OF LIFE

While Pisces represents the two feet in the body, on the higher path the pineal and the pituitary gland in the head correspond to it. When in the Yogi the Bridge of Light is built, the “Light of the World”, the light of the Divine presence, lights up. Then man has completed the circle from Alpha to Omega, he is with the “Father in the Heaven” and one with Him. The month of Pisces as well as the time of the new moon are particularly suited to approach the energies of the First Logos, of the divine father aspect. He rules over ending and beginning. He is said to be completely surrounded by pure water, the water of life. It says that he likes water very much, it is an embodiment of pure energy, of the electric fire. When in the rituals of the First Logos pure water is offered, His presence can be experienced.

Part 3

Disappearing and Appearing

Just like the moon waxes and wanes, we too have times where we are active in the outside and times of withdrawal and of silence. Wisdom also gets concealed at certain times and at others it gets unveiled. The times in which it is hidden appear to us as dark eras of ignorance and of chaos. Man lives totally in the outer and the inner potential remains hidden. But after the law of alternation and of evolution he slowly turns again to the subtler planes with the time and starts searching for the inner man. Then the wisdom of life begins to disclose itself, and it seems to be newer than ever before. Appearing and disappearing are relative: Nothing disappears forever, all that IS exists eternally. Relatively speaking something may disappear, but not absolutely. Thus at certain times we exist potentially and at others we are outwardly visible. Before with birth we stepped into visibility we have already existed, and we continue to exist, when we have released ourselves from our body. The presence is eternal, it is the pure existence out of which the creation comes forth, develops and into which it dissolves again. The continuous formations, evolutions and dissolutions happen on the background of existence.

This is the message of the symbol of the sign of Pisces: ♓. One fish follows the other by the tail, the tail of the one fish is at the head of the other. Every end is a new beginning, every sunset is the promise for a new sunrise. While Pisces closes the annual cycle, it prepares at the same time the seed for the coming cycle. Like in Eastern wisdom Vaivasvata Manu or in the Old Testament Noah in the ark carries the seed of life through the great flood, the watery sign of Pisces carries the essence of experience of the closing cycle over to the one beginning anew with Aries.

Receptivity

Pisces is a sign of dissolution, but also of preservation of impressions. Therefore it is also called the sign of “photography”, of recording the impressions of past lives as seeds for coming cycles, stored in the undercurrent of consciousness. As a mutable watery sign Pisces is adaptable and receptive by nature. People born in this sign are considered to be mobile in thinking and psychologically impressionable, to lower as well as to higher influences: Of alcohol, drugs and bad company, of moods and one’s own ideas, but also of mysticism and impulses from higher planes.

If our mind has become pure, calm and receptive, it can receive the Light from higher circles. It is only into a purified mind that the Light of the Divine can descend: The Lord is born into the Virgin Nature as the Son or the Soul. Therefore the sign of Virgo symbolizes the Mother of the World; the opposite Pisces are the sign of the Christ, the World Saviour. Through Pisces the grace of God can come down, this being called in the East the incarnation of the Avatar. We cannot demand of God that His grace should come to us, for it is His decision. But our efforts are needed, so that the grace can come to us. We can prepare ourselves by leading a pure life, by contemplating on Him and by serving Him through service to our fellow men.

The Descent of Grace

When the grace of Divine experience pours into us, it doesn’t have a form by itself, but permeates our form as a vehicle of flesh and blood. We are the light body or the temple, into whose inner sanctum the Lord enters to carry out the divine work in the world and to fill the surrounding life with energy. In order to serve, to inspire and to enlighten the people. A Son of God is the Father in form of the Son: “I and the Father are one”, Jesus said. When the Father descends into us and sees through our eyes, then it is He who sees and blesses others through His eyes and his voice. Then this isn’t the blessing of the body, but the blessing of the indwelling spirit. In the Bible this is symbolically called eating and drinking of the flesh and blood of Christ.

Neptune, the Lord of the Waters and the higher ruler of Pisces represents the Cosmic Christ. In man Pisces rules over the feet, to which the foot washing of Christ and His serving refer to. But in its higher counterpart Pisces rules over an immaterial tissue in the head which is called in the East the Light of the Gods or the realisation of Gayatri and which stimulates in us the neptunian principle. It is the higher bridge which leads from the ajna centre to the third eye. It reflects the rays of a mysterious cosmic force. It leads to a radiation, through which a man who has built the higher bridge can uplift other people through his look, inspire them and uplift them in their consciousness. They say that His eyes are like the two fishes or the eyes of the World Mother. The look conveys the reflection of rays of the higher plane and makes us transcend the pairs of opposites of the intellectual mercurial mind. Analysis is the quality of Virgo, Synthesis of Pisces. Pisces teaches us to see the One in the many and to stand in the synthesis of the background.

Knowledge, Wisdom, Service

In the West we have brought the analytical mind to the peak. Many also try in a mental-analytical way – for example through study of the books of Master D.K. – to acquire spiritual knowledge. Book reading however doesn’t help to get wisdom, however much we may read. Reading much only makes impractical. Wisdom comes by starting to work with the principles of the teachings in our own lives and to serve the society. To speak about cosmic contacts or world service remains only an imagination, if we don’t fulfil our duties with deep interest and try to help other people without personal motives. All knowledge culminates in service. The Masters of Wisdom give us a living example for this; in fact they are nothing but an objective embodiment of our own higher self. They help us to ascend to our own soul; they drive our thoughts to deeds of good will. They promote every work for the welfare of humanity, however not the personalities. When we think of them and invoke their presence, we receive power and help out of our own inner being, to carry out the work of good will in an impersonal manner. This leads to the sacrifice of the personality for love of humanity. Through this sacrifice we get back to the original, divine state of our existence. The transformation of the personality through sacrifice brings forth the light of the Eternal Presence, that expresses itself through the sign of Pisces as joy.

Part 4

The Great Flood

In many parts of the world there are stories reporting that long ago a progenitor of mankind gathered the seeds of life and took them like Noah into an ark. Then came a great flood washing away all life on earth, and only the beings in the ark were saved from extinction. After the end of the flood the new life germinated out of the preserved seed and gave a new impulse to the earth. In the Eastern wisdom teaching the first avatar, the first descent of the Divine on earth is called the Fish Avatar. With a thread he draws the ark drifting on the surface of the ocean. The thread symbolised the thread of consciousness connecting man with the all-embracing consciousness, and the ship is his vessel or vehicle being lead by the fish with the help of the thread of consciousness.

The stories of the reproduction of the seed of life over times of destruction refer to the periodical drama of the dissolution of the created beings. Imperfect forms disappear, in order to make room for a new formation: A seed breaks and a tree comes out, bears flowers and fruit and creates again new seeds. Continuously forms are being built, evolved, and dissolved only to bring forth again new and better forms. There is a cyclical movement of all forms of life. We human beings too sometimes exist in the seed form, in the subtle, and sometimes we take to a dense form in order to live in the outer world. When the dense form ceases to exist, we cannot say that we would cease to exist, because the change of states goes on. In the “Pledge of the New Group of World Servers” it therefore says: “We the humanity perceive the simultaneous double movement in synthesis.”

Pisces brings the annual cycle to a conclusion and represents a phase of seeming dissolution. All three watery signs stand for the end of things, and Pisces marks the end of a spiritual cycle leading to a begin of a better one. Pisces preserves the essence of experience from the previous cycle and prepares the seed for the future cycle, so that it can manifest at the right time.

The Seed of the Future

According to a spiritual understanding all events result from the corresponding preparations, there is no chance. Before any blossoming a seed has been sown. When today we see the blossoming of groups and of group-cooperation, someone has sown the seed for it. During decades the Masters of Wisdom have laid the foundations, working in the background. The seed sprouts in accordance with the time and the place and gives a new direction to life. How lasting a seed is and how effective depends on the strength of the life force in it.

When we aren’t content with what we experience today, this means that the related seeds have not been sown well in the past. No good fruit can result out of a sick seed. Just as we have created by our past the foundations for the presence, we lay in the presence the foundations for the future. We carry the seed in our attitudes and thoughts, consciously or unconsciously they enter into our speech and action. Pisces is a good time to prepare the seed for the new cycle beginning with Aries. If today we sow a good seed we have a better harvest in the future.

Detachment

Therefore the doctrine of discipleship proposes to practice good will in all thoughts and actions and to connect with people of good will in order to gain the necessary strength. In this it stresses the necessity to act without clinging to the results: “Leave the fruits of your deeds, you are a Yogi. You attain the peace of poise. You are out of Synthesis while doing your deeds for results. Then you are attached, then you are conditioned.” it says in the Mandra Geeta (VI/12). “Yoga is equipoise” says Lord Krishna. This equipoise represents the equinox, the point between Pisces and Aries.

If we try to draw something to us and to hold onto it, this draws us out of equipoise. Therefore we should take care of what we do, but not of the results. When we live in inner detachment, we do what has to be done, and life brings us always something new. We fulfil our duties towards our bodies, towards our family and the society, without expecting something as a fruit of our action. It is all right if fruits come through our action, but in detachment we don’t stick to them. We also are not disappointed and sad, if we don’t get fruits for what we have done. The results come according to the Law, Time produces the qualities; they are beyond our control. If however we carry out well our works, we can proceed at the right time to the next stage of ascent.

The Last and the First Sign

The watery sign of Pisces stands for the “spiritual waters” of the ascending path, which, purified and distilled, rise as the pure “waters of heaven”. The occult symbol of Pisces is the Mother of the World; the two fishes of this sign are described as “the two eyes of the Mother which do not wink”, from which the original light shines forth. It says that Pisces-people carry a special power in their eyes, by which they can influence others. The look of a Master awakens the consciousness as a point of light, and this point grows, when the aspirant works in accordance with the Law.

Pisces is the sign of the Saviour, the initiate who reverses the wheel of the zodiac in order to return to mankind and to carry out the Plan on earth. Thus Pisces is considered to be the last and the first sign of the zodiac, the alpha in omega and the omega within alpha. Through its ruler Neptune Pisces leads to the universal consciousness, however only when man doesn’t look up, to the Spiritual, but down to the world of men. If he is not a mystical dreamer but a practical worker who works in a profound and efficient way for the welfare of mankind and of the life on the planet. Here are the prospects and dangers for the Pisces-individual: He is flexible and easily impressed. As long as he is not firm on the path, he can easily be influenced by others. If however his mind is purified and stably oriented to the path, it receives the higher light and can inspire others with it. In this way the two fishes and the five loaves of bread the Bible speaks of are multiplied and the spiritual hunger of many satisfied.

**Sources used: K. P. Kumar: Hercules: The Man and the Symbol / seminar notes / E. Krishnamacharya: Spiritual Astrology / The Mandra Scripture. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India. - A. A. Bailey: Esoteric Astrology, Lucis-Trust, London. ( www.netnews.org / www.lucistrust.org ).